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<issue_start>username_0: I just took the revised GRE general test. As a math major preparing to apply to math PhD programs, it was kind of surprising to see that my quantitative reasoning score was just 167, whereas my verbal reasoning score was 169. I attribute this to the fact that my anxiety about the exam prevented me from finishing all of the quantitative questions, which required a moderate amount of concentration; I finished the verbal portion quickly since it was just a matter of being able to read carefully and know fancy words. Should I retake the test and try to get a 169 or 170 in the quantitative portion? Or is my score good enough that it doesn't really matter?<issue_comment>username_1: At Texas A&M, we typically admit graduate student applicants with quantitative GRE scores down to somewhere between 160 and 165. So your 167 is totally fine, in fact I would say it's in the top 1/2 of those we accept. No need to worry.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I've been on the graduate admissions committee in my math department a few times, and we never pay much attention to the general GRE score. Even the math GRE score is not a big concern, unless it is egregious.
By the way, here are a couple of related questions:
[How does a low quantitative score on GRE general exam affect admissions to mathematics PhD programs?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/32514/19607)
[What is the median math GRE subject score for admission to a Group 2 or 3 PhD program in applied mathematics?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/13678/19607)
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I have completed a Ph.D. in India, which is my native country, and am applying for post doc positions in the UK. However, due to strict visa rules, I am not sure if my application would be shortlisted. In these types of situations, my CV and application file have already been approved by the PI.
However, do universities generally sponsor non-EU candidates like me or is it the responsibility of the PI to make the proper arrangements? How can I ensure that my job is not denied due to non-academic reasons like visa issues?<issue_comment>username_1: **tl;dr**: Read the job description.
**Details**: The job you're applying to is advertised publicly, and as a part of a job description it is normally explicitly stated whether or not the particular University is willing to sponsor the visa application for the non-EU candidates. If unsure, ask the contact person or/and their HR department.
If the university invites only those having a right to work in the UK to apply, there is nothing you can do about it — find another position to apply.
If the university is willing to sponsor the work visa for a candidate, there is nothing you (and your PI) need to worry about — the process will be handled by their HR department. Just make sure you meet Tier2 [visa requirements](https://www.gov.uk/tier-2-general/overview).
Note that there are certain conditions for the University to apply for a Tier2 visa. Normally, the position should be advertised for at least 1 month. Also, the University should be a Tier2 sponsor (check the [list](https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/432786/2015-06-05_Tier_25_Register_of_Sponsors.pdf)).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I just want to ask to Dmitry's answer:
* Beside Tier 2, Tier 5 is also an option for post doc (actually most post docs I know are in Tier 5). Compare to Tier 2, Tier 5 is much easier and faster to get, and it will cost the university less (if any). Moreover, only a limited number of Tier 2 visas will be issued per year. However, if you intend to apply for permernant residency, then the time in Tier 5 will not be counted, you need to stay 5 years under Tier 2.
* Most university will not require you to have a working visa (Tier 1, 2, 5) to do a post-doc. Even if you already have one, you still apply to a new visa when changing the sponsor.
* To know if the university will sponsor the visa, reading the job description is not enough. You need to ask the PI. My own experience: I once applied to a post doc which stated clearly in job description that applicants have to show proof of work permit in the UK on the interview day. I didn't have one, because I'm a Tier 4 student. But it turned out it was not necessary, and many applicants did interview via skype from their home country.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I believe that if the PI accepted your application, he/she knows they can accept international applicants. You should just make sure this is the case by emailing the PI directly about this.
Once you get the offer, it is still not certain that you get the visa. The UKVI (UK visa and immigration) authority and the university giving you the so-called COS (certificate of sponsorship, which is a requirement to get the UK visa (Tier-2)) are two totally independent entities. This means that the UK university cannot guarantee you'll get the visa.
For most cases you should get the visa, however because of many factors, most prominently inefficiency and mistakes made by UKVI, your visa might get delayed.
It is also quite rare that the university will pay you for issuing the visa as far as I know.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: In my field (theoretic CS) it is very common to list the authors names alphabetically on papers.
I have been working on a paper for quite a long time with three other researchers, which is almost complete, and in the last week or so we consulted another researcher who made a non-negligible contribution to the paper by pointing out (with a proof he thought of after considering the problem with us for a couple of days) some direction we were working on shouldn't work and suggesting considering a different direction - the final version of the paper will not include his ideas but we probably wouldn't finish it on time without realizing we are following a dead-end.
So, he deserves being listed as an author if he wishes, but the problem is that if we list the names alphabetically his name will be first - is it acceptable to put our three names (alphabetically ordered) before his, breaking the common alphabetical order? If not, what is the usual practice in such cases?
Thanks.<issue_comment>username_1: Since the other author's "non-negligible contribution" did not actually make it into your paper, I think an acknowledgement would be sufficient. Making him/her a co-author would imply that some of the work in the paper is not yours --- and that would be a misrepresentation.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In fields (like pure math and TCS) in which the convention is to list authors in alphabetical order, it makes a very jarring, striking statement to put authors non-alphabetically. The most common instance of this in my experience is when one author is *very* senior, enough to perform a power play on their very junior coauthor. Unless the reasons for the non-alphabetical order are carefully explained and seem logical to the readers, this could make a widely negative impression.
Non-alphabetical ordering is almost never used in pure math and TCS to signal importance of contribution: the convention, for better and for worse, is that the authorial contributions are not disclosed to the reader. As a result of this, unlike many other academic fields in which being a fifth author may be understood to mean very little contribution, in pure math and TCS there is a *cutoff phenomenon*: you have to decide what level of contribution merits coauthorship, and there will certainly be many cases in which a positive contribution does not result in an authorship. People who are not coauthors but made intellectual contributions to the work should be **acknowledged** for this. If you read acknowledgments on papers in this area, you will find that people are sometimes acknowledged for things that are clearly significant contributions: e.g. for providing the key idea of the project, or for providing correct proofs of key technical results needed by the authors.
The general conventions are to be **generous** and **modest**. Namely, the coauthors should err on the side of generously offering coauthorship to those whose contributions were positive, even if they were lesser in magnitude than the other coauthors. On the other hand, one should be modest in responding to coauthorship requests: if what you did feels like helping out a colleague rather than doing substantial, original work, then probably you do not want to be listed as a coauthor.
Of course in practice there is a lot of subjectivity here. In the case at hand, another answerer says that because your colleague's contributions "did not actually make it into your paper", then they are not sufficient for coauthorship. I don't completely agree. Telling people what not to do and setting them back on the right track can be an invaluable contribution.
Recently a junior colleague found a key mistake in a draft of a work of mine in which she was not an author. The coauthor and I withdrew the paper immediately and were able to fairly quickly recover the main result of the paper by arguing in a different way. The paper was then accepted. I think it is quite likely that if not for my colleague's contribution, the original, erroneous version of the paper would have been published. In principle we would have fixed it eventually, but in practice: yikes -- she deflected a bullet. I offered my colleague coauthorship...and she declined. In this case the offer was essentially mandatory, whereas both accepting and declining it seem reasonable.
If the OP feels that the contribution to the work was sufficient to make it plausible for the contributor to be listed as an author, I would recommend that the coauthorship offer be extended. If you know your colleague pretty well, I might follow the offer with an offer to discuss the situation: that's a good way
to make sure that you reach an outcome which you are both comfortable with. I don't think your colleague's last name has any role to play in this discussion.
**Added**: [Here](http://www.ams.org/profession/leaders/culture/CultureStatement04.pdf) is the American Mathematical Society's 2004 "culture statement" on coauthorship. It says that more than 75% of coauthored math papers with at least one American author use alphabetical order, and that this percentage is over 90% in pure mathematics. I think that for publications in more mainstream and prestigious journals, the percentage is even higher. For instance, I checked the last 100 multiply authored papers in the Journal of the American Mathematical Society and found that alphabetical order was preserved 99 out of 100 times.
The cultural statement also says: "Joint work in mathematics almost always involves a small number of researchers contributing equally to a research project." Unfortunately I do not completely agree with this statement. For one thing, the number of coauthors on papers has been rising so sharply that even a statement from 2004 seems a little out of date: I remember that 10 years ago, seeing a math paper with more than three or four authors was worth a raised eyebrow. That is really not true anymore: a substantial minority of papers has a long enough list of authors -- with such widely varying expertise -- that it is not plausible that all are contributing equally. Moreover, unlike alphabetical order, I don't know how one can gather statistics about whether authors contribute equally. To me this statement reads like an aspiration rather than a description of reality. In my experience, there is a cultural push for authors to contribute equally, but there are other cultural pushes as well. Listing authors alphabetically essentially always in confluence with the reality that sometimes the contributions are not equal seems to me to an underacknowledged problem of our profession.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Some disciplines *usually* use alphabetical order, but this is by no means mandatory. In fact, I would say that one of the rules of writing papers with others is that you should have a conversation between all co-authors to discuss precisely this point: who should be a author, why, and in which order. In some disciplines, such as pure math, this most often leads to alphabetical order, which is used to indicate that everyone contributed to the same degree (or, at least, nobody feels strongly enough to push for having their name listed first). But other disciplines do it differently, including for example applied mathematics where many papers are written to indicate one of two things:
* The first author really did more work than the others.
* The first author is junior and needs a first-author paper more than others. (For example, almost all of my more recent papers have my students and/or postdocs listed before me -- because I have tenure and don't need these papers more than I do -- even though oftentimes I would have a fairly good argument for being the first author, having done a very substantial amount of work.)
So, in your case, I would suggest talking this trough with your co-authors: who did how much, who are the possible authors, what order should they be listed in, and then come to a joint conclusion that does everyone justice. I certainly don't see a stigma in figuring this out, rather than just going with the default alphabetical order.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm new in the use of bibliometrics. I was wondering if you can help me out? Consider this situation, an author "x" of the country "c" , publishes a paper "p" with a(n) international collaborator(s). If I want to know how many citations does the paper "p" has received from the country "c", is that possible? Is that so, three situations can happen.
One is that "only" author(s) of "c" cited "p", in which I will count 1. The second case is that there is a mix between author(s) of the country "c" and international authors, in which I will count a fraction of the authors belonging to "c" divided by the total authors of the paper that is citing "p". The third case is that only papers with international authors are citing "p", that I will count 0.<issue_comment>username_1: WoS allows you to look at all the papers citing a given paper P, and there is a link to "Analyze Results", where country is one of the options. (It defaults to a minimum count of 2; you'll want to drop this to 1)
For a randomly selected paper from a recent search, here's an example:
There are 11 citing papers; of these, seven have at least one US author, two at least one Czech author, etc. This would give a value of 0.64 if your original author was American, or 0.18 if they were Czech.
The obvious downside is that you need to do this for each paper P; you can't do it automatically for a hundred at once. But it's a start...
---
**Edit**: you can do this through Scopus as well. Select the paper, find citing papers, "analyse search results", and you get this:
Here, there are a total of three papers citing P, two of which have German author(s), one Austrian, etc.
With Scopus, you *can* do the analysis for a large group of papers, but it won't help you very much. From your initial search result, select all items using the checkbox, and click "view cited by". Then analyse search results again, and you get the stats for all papers citing one or more of the original search results. However, this won't help answer your question as to %age of papers with overseas citations - they're all bundled together and not segregated by cited paper.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, this is possible with WOS. You can use the WOS API. Using python it is very simple to download the data and make specific queries. The data can be fetched with SOAP as an XML format document. You can then parse it with a few lines of code to extract the data you want by searching the address fields of the citations.
You can get started here: <http://ip-science.thomsonreuters.com/m/pdfs/wos_workbook_en.pdf>
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Are the any famous or well-known (today-living) researchers without academic degrees working as professors or permanent staff members?
There are two related questions:
* [PhD without previous academic degree: truth or myth?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17841/phd-without-previous-academic-degree-truth-or-myth)
* [Is it possible to obtain a Master's degree without Bachelor's degree?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/26786/is-it-possible-to-obtain-a-masters-degree-without-bachelors-degree)
However, I am curious about the no-degree (past upper secondary school, i.e. no BSc, MSc, PhD, etc) case.<issue_comment>username_1: <NAME> does not have a PhD.
<http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2014/04/01/freeman_dyson_on_the_phd_degree.php>
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: In regard to your question's topic, at least two relevant terms come to mind: [lay scholar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lay_scholar) and [autodidact](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodidacticism). Once we establish the right terminology, it is not too difficult to find information that you're looking for. In particular, [this Wikipedia list](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_autodidacts) and [this list](http://www.autodidactic.com/profiles/profiles.htm) seem to be rather comprehensive (you will have to filter the information to select the *modern-era* academics without degrees).
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: Some publishers, such as the APS, allow to submit papers from the ArXiv instead of from your computer. While this seemed somewhat reasonable to me at first glance, I noticed one problem with this that seems to render this feature pointless:
ArXiv submissions as well as replacements take some time, usually a few days, to be published. So, if you just submitted your files to the ArXiv, you would have to wait this time before you can submit to a journal. Instead of waiting, you could just take the files your just submitted to the ArXiv (or download your files via your ArXiv account) and submit them to the journal directly. This should take little additional time, as you do not need to prepare these files in any special way – if you would need to, submitting from ArXiv wouldn’t work anyway, as it would yield the same files.
Now, I can think of some exceptions where your files could already be published on the ArXiv. For example, you submitted a version to the ArXiv and to “internal” review at the same time and the internal review results in no changes whatsoever. Or you submitted a paper to the ArXiv and a journal at the same time and the latter desk-rejects your paper for being out of scope or similar; then you could submit to another journal from ArXiv. But these are exceptional cases: In most situations, you would decide that a paper is submit-worthy directly after you made some changes, which hence cannot already be published on the ArXiv.
Note that at least the APS does not seem to have a way to magically obtain the paper you just submitted to ArXiv as it requires an ArXiv number for submitting, which you only obtain after publication and hence after waiting.
As it would surprise me that time was wasted in implementing this feature if it really is as useless as I consider it to be, I am curious: **What am I missing here?** For example: Is there some common situation in which you would decide that a paper is ready for submission without any change? Or do you not have to wait for the ArXiv to publish your paper for some reason I am missing? **Please answer only if you can address the above concerns.**<issue_comment>username_1: I think you are not really missing anything at all, except that there is not compulsion to make the set-up as minimalist/efficient as you seem to argue it should be. That is, while you and others may not find this feature useful, it's probably harmless, no? And some programmer somewhere might've thought it would be interesting to implement this, and proposed it to whatever authority, it was approved, and so on.
But, yes, there are common situations for many people (in math, familiar to me) in which the submission to arXiv is essentially simultaneous with a submission to a journal, whether or not they make use of a literal submit-from-arXiv feature. So, yes, a paper might be considered ready without-change-from-the-version-submitted-to-arXiv. Why not? (Sure, one might realize things later, perhaps upon referee reports...)
As to whether one "has to wait until arXiv publishes..." Well, apparently, yes, since your paper won't have been processed. Perhaps someone who knows the inside workings of the software at arXiv (which surely could change from time to time) knows a trick to interact with the system prior to that, but I've never heard of anyone finding a need to do so, given the quick turnaround. But I can't help but wondering why a day-or-two delay would matter...
So I think you're right that it's a fairly useless feature, but it wouldn't be the first.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The submission and refereeing system used by the American Physical Society supports direct submission from the arXiv. However, I have found that the system does not work well enough for this feature actually to be useful. The APS system is not good enough at handling the metadata it extracts from the arXiv and from LaTeX source files to make submission from the arXiv worthwhile. (This has consistently been true of for my submissions, but perhaps other people using different style files and layout formats have had better results.) So when I want to submit a paper to an APS journal, I work directly from the source files on my own machine, not worrying about the arXiv submission feature.
In general, it takes about one business day from the submission of a paper to the arXiv to its becoming available for viewing. I have never worried about delays of a day or so in the submission process. Sometimes, I post papers on the arXiv first and don't submit to a journal for a while, because I want to see if I get any comments from other people in the field. A few times, this had led me to make changes to my manuscript before I sent a version to a journal. In other instances, I have submitted to the arXiv and a peer-reviewed journal at essentially the same time. However, even when I am anxious to get a paper into the reviewing queue quickly, I am not going to sweat about a one-day delay.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: If you want to optimize a technique used in a given publication, is it considered necessary to use the same programming language and data sets?<issue_comment>username_1: You don't need to use the same programming language, but it would be wise to use the same data sets (if available), to check that you get the same results and to compare performance. Of course, you may want to use additional data sets.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It depends on the goal of your work.
If you want to use the algorithm for something else and just as one piece of the puzzle, you are free to implement it however you want. Especially with popular algorithms you will find that mostly only the very basic idea survives. The algorithm itself changes a lot over time with different improvements of various researchers.
If the algorithm itself is the core of your research, you should definitely keep all the same language and data sets to make your results comparable. If you then for example want to try it out in a different language, you should compare it to the original implementation.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: It's not totally clear what is the meaning of the phrase "optimize a technique", thus, it is difficult to tell, especially since it is most likely *discipline-* and, even, *context-dependent*. However, regardless of the above, technique, by definition, is independent of programming language (at least, IMHO it should be), so my answer to that part is **No**.
In regard to data sets, the situation is also rather fuzzy, as that also depends on domain, context and, perhaps, other factors. Nevertheless, I would suggest considering using the same data set (so, my answer to that part is **Yes**), if possible, along with a rather standard approach of *splitting* it into two (*training* and *test*) or three (*training*, *validation* and *test* - so called "three-way data split") subsets (that is, of course, if you perform relevant data analysis).
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: I am going to assume that "optimize" means "improve upon" (otherwise the entire question is meaningless).
Then the question is, what do you want to prove? Is it that your algorithm is better? In this case you would be well advised to stick to the original programming language. If you do not, it will be hard to counter the criticism that your performance improvements are due not to your own hard work, but simply to different efficiencies of the programming languages and/or compilers.
Sometimes the goal of the experiments is, in fact, to show the superiority of one programming language over another, see, e.g., <http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/ijoc.2.2.152>. In this case, of course you would be free to use a different programming language.
That you should use the same data set in either case goes without saying.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Sometimes when doing course work for university, I'd like to write about it on my website, or publish it in its entirety, because I think that other people might be interested in it.
My goal is not to reach other students, but depending on the work, I think it's likely that they would easily find it when searching for it, and most courses reuse homework questions and paper topics over multiple years.
So my question is if it would be ethical for me to do so, and under which circumstances.
* Does it depend on the task? Eg I would assume that it's not ok if it's a very specific task that only other students would be interested in, but ok if it's a general problem?
* Does it depend on length? What about simple homework questions vs page-long papers vs presentation slides vs thesis paper vs code?
* Should I do something to conceal it? Eg change the paper title, remove any mention of the course and university name, not publish the homework question itself?
I'm mainly asking about the ethics of it, but if you know if it is generally legal or forbidden by universities, I would be interested in that as well.
In case it affects your answer: I'm studying computer science in Germany.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Sometimes when doing course work for university, I'd like to write
> about it on my website, or publish it in its entirety, because I think
> that other people might be interested in it.
>
>
>
This re-enforces your learning BUT will current students have access to it.
Once, a student from my University did this, and someone else copied from her. There was a big mess about this. Fortunately the student got a passing grade for the class.
>
> and most courses reuse homework questions and paper topics over
> multiple years.
>
>
>
and
>
> So my question is if it would be ethical for me to do so, and under
> which circumstances.
>
>
>
Instead of using exact question answer, can you create similar question and give solution. This way you are tutoring other people and making them think (and making yourself think), rather than giving the answers to students who just want to pass the class and forget what they "learned".
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: In the final year of my undergraduate computer science programme, we were all emailed by the department reminding us that publishing homework solutions is forbidden, due to the increasing number of people either deliberately or inadvertently making theirs available through public Github repositories.
There is the argument that lecturers shouldn't be reusing homework, but a strong counter argument is that in some courses there are only a few obvious tasks to set (eg, in a database internals course implementing a merge or sorting algorithm, or in a text retrieval course implementing Pagerank). So in many cases it will be forbidden by university or departmental rules to publish solutions. Furthermore, facilitating someone else's plagiarism, by allowing them to copy your solution, is often an academic offence itself.
Publishing solutions to specific questions clearly facilitates cheating (especially in the case of easily Googleable source code), and as such I think it is unethical.
From a legal perspective, if you give the question you may be infringing on the author's copyright, but I don't know of any countries where helping other people plagiarise your work is illegal.
A thesis is generally expected to be published, and so there is likely no problem here in putting it on the internet.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In brief, I claim that this should not be a question a student has to comtemplate... So, operationally, the answer is "no, it is not unethical, but it may be against the (unreasonable, indefensible) rules to an extent that will create fatal trouble for you..." So, no, it's not unethical, but probably often "seriously illegal", dangerously to you, though it should not be.
The points the other answers have made are "not unreasonable", but, I claim, essentially untenable. That is, if there are indeed very few tasks whose performance could be "tested", example executions will certainly exist "in the wild", whether or not a student in a specific class puts their own solution on-line. Although I'm thinking primarily about a mathematics environment, I'm well-enough acquainted with CS issues to not feel too out-of-it in thinking about such issues, as well. Indeed, the number of "stock" issues in both cases seems similar ... and small. That is, there is a greater underlying issue, that the number of reasonable, answerable questions (apart from trivial variations) is very small, and a conscientious person can merely *collect* "solutions", rather than think them through themself.
To my mind that is the "real issue", if it is an issue at all. That is, we might take the poverty-of-variation as a signal that pretending to keep some trivial idea secret so as to "test" on it is perverse!?!
There are two fundamentally conflicting issues: promoting understanding and scholarship, versus arranging convenient "testing" for various purposes. "Convenient testing" prefers as many secrets as possible, obviously. Promoting understanding would *exactly* want to explain to interested parties how to resolve issues raised... among other places ... in the "tests".
Some events that finally "got through to me" about this, some years ago, involved my colleagues firm admonishments that "approved solutions" for (graduate) Qualifying Exams should never be published, because otherwise the students would learn how to do those problems... uh... whah? :)
Ok, even if we "buy" that for a moment, one can observe that then *bad* "solutions" are the only ones available, so people study from bad material... ?!?!
The meta-comment is that many "educational" institutions have not-at-all figured out how to cope with the fluidity and availability of information, and, instead, try to prohibit all the obvious "new" avenues, simply to avoid change. While it is arguably true that the motivations of some students may not be the most honorable, I am absolutely not in favor of sting operations that declare them guilty of serious malfeasance by "using the internet" or "telling people what they know", and so on. That'd be perverse. Instead, things need to be reconstituted so that "keeping secrets" is not an essential part of appraising competence.
Summary: it's not at all unethical, but it may be so illegal that you must ask your local authorities. (Yet, again, while it's good to ask, it is terrible that there is an issue here...)
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: In my opinion there is nothing wrong with publishing solutions to (interesting)
questions/exercises on one's own page, given that there is no explicit policy
against doing so at your university.
I never heard of a policy forbidding publication of answers at my university
and the general approach in our group is that students may very well learn
something even from reproducing solutions of others. Specifically for physics (my
subject) there is a set of problems which come up in certain variations over
the years and by looking hard enough you'll find an answer (or at least an
outline of a solution) for almost any problem.
My personal position is that the students are old enough to get a grip on reality and
understand, that if they just copy solutions they are doing themselves a disservice
in the long run. At some point in time the missing methodology will come to bite them
in the a\*\*.
TL;DR students should be mature enough to understand that 1:1 copying is more harmful than
usefl. We (as TA's) are not their nannies.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I got my undergrad in Computer Science and no matter what the professor asked, it's a sure bet there's a solution already posted out there somewhere. So the way I see it is that it's a bit difficult to NOT expect your solution to be posted out there.
As far as posting answers, I can't see why it would be wrong especially if it is a trick question or a unique question that made you think. I remember in school we had to make a algorithm that figures out simply xor encryption and figuring out a key based on a known word. I felt my answer was unique and I asked the professor if I could post it online. He agreed and had no issue with me doing it.
If you want to discuss something perhaps ask the teacher of that course if you can post/discuss it on a personal blog.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Check your school's definition of plagiarism. My university defines the following as an act of plagiarism subject to sanctions:
>
> Remettre ou rendre disponible un travail, une partie de celui-ci, tel que décrit à l’alinéa précédent, à un autre étudiant qui l’utilise en tout ou en partie sous sa signature;
>
>
>
Translated it means more or less
>
> Submitting or making available any work, or part of such work, to another student who uses it or part of it as his own work.
>
>
>
If you commit an act of plagiarism at your university, I'd say it's unethical.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_7: I wait at least a week after the due date before posting my work online, so to ensure that the students handing in late do not access my work in a last minute rush to complete the work. In the event that somebody does copy your work, a long period between the due date and the online post will help to prevent confusion about who created the work. If there is a query by the university, you need to be able to prove that your work was handed in before the other person. Additionally, you may be able to prove that the work you posted online was your work, and that the other person copied it from your website.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: Just a quick observation: a good copyright lawyer might be able to argue that homework answers are a Derivative Work, which would put you at risk of being sued if you publish without permission from whoever owns the copyright on the assignment material. I doubt most schools would exercise that right under normal conditions, but that's up to them, not you, and they've already got lawyers on staff.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_9: From our recently updated Academic Honesty policy (or perhaps to be implemented int the near future:
>
> 6) Unauthorized Distribution or Publication of Course-‐-‐‐Related
> Materials The sharing of course materials on an individual level for
> educational purposes (e.g., working with groups or with a tutor) is
> permitted, provided that it has not been prohibited by the professor.
> Students may not publish, distribute, or sell-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐
> electronically or otherwise-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐any course materials that
> the instructor has developed in any course of instruction in the
> University (e.g., presentation slides, lecture aids, video or audio
> recordings of lectures, and exams) without the explicit permission of
> the instructor. The sharing or distribution of course materials for
> purposes of giving or gaining unfair advantage in a course is
> prohibited. Students must further respect the requirements of
> copyright protection for materials that are made available for
> instructional purposes.
>
>
>
Thus, such action would be an academic honestly violation at our institution, and can result in punishments from a warning all the way to separation.
Violation or not, at best you are publishing derivative work that you are not entitled to be publishing. It is unethical behavior.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_10: I would like to think that you are telling the truth when you say you want to blog your homework because you find it interesting and you're happy with your solution. Let's say you were assigned something in a programming course and told to use recursion to solve it. And further that as a result of this assignment you "get" recursion and think it's amazing.
In that case, blogging "I finally see what all the fuss is about for recursion" is entirely appropriate. You can include some code snippets from your recursive solution, perhaps contrasting them with some iterative version as well. You might include a diagram or other illustrative aid that helped you understand what was happening, or a screen shot from the debugger showing the call stack. All of this is a good blog post about recursion that happens to have 10-20 lines of code in it, code that at some point was included in something you handed in for marks.
In contrast, blogging "CS 123 Assignment 4 (XYZ University Prof ABC)" which consists of one or two sentences of your own, if that, followed by the text of the question, with a complete zipped solution attached to the blog post - well that's an entirely different thing. It's not interesting, it's not something anyone wants to read or will learn from. It's just a way to hand out solutions to future students for the least effort possible from them and from you. It is not ethical, professional, fair, or decent.
This isn't restricted to programming, of course. If you wrote an essay about something and learned some very interesting things as you did, then a blog post that includes some excerpts from the essay and links to resources is not the same as a blog post that pastes in the question and includes the essay as either the rest of the post or an attachment. If you designed a lovely room, building, wedding announcement, dinner, playground, or album cover, sharing that design along with the thoughts that went into it, the parts you like the most, and the reactions you have collected from others is not the same as "Here's the question, here's what I did for my solution." Right?
You know which you want to do, I'm sure.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: This is more of a political issue than an ethical one and is also related to Intellectual Property management. If your work is code related to open source software (such as GNU/LINUX) or to open source hardware, you should definitely post it. On the other hand, if you institution is a private corporation, it is generally not advisable to do so, even if it does not strictly infringe the organization's policy on IP. It is also a good idea to check against your teacher, advisor or managers whether they might have an issue with it or not. For instance: some teachers might object if their course's syllabi does not change often and they put a lot of effort in building it and keeping it private (f. i: for evaluation purposes), while other might encourage you to do so for the greater good of the classroom. I'd say that it depends mostly on the discipline and environment rather than on the length of your work. While the trend towards Open Access is more prevalent everyday at the dawn of the Internet Era, it is still not prevalent in some areas and institutions, and is definitily less encouraged in the private sector. One must also bear in mind that your work will be subject to public scrutiny and that it at times might be plagiarized by unscrupuled individuals. If you choose to do so, please always adequately mention and refer properly other people's work whose shoulders you are climbing onto. Not only because it is ethical and more useful to do so, but because showing adequate respect to others' work will make yours' less prone to eventual abuse.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/06/07
| 1,159
| 4,603
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<issue_start>username_0: Considering that sooner or later I will, hopefully, be able to teach formally at a university level, I'm curious about the following. While I do have pretty decent (some people, even, say, very good [*he is blushing*]) informal pedagogical skills, especially in terms of explanatory power :-), I'm thinking about how best to **improve** my ability to teach (I have *informal teaching experience* via high school students tutoring, corporate IT classes teaching as well as informal advising online and offline).
With that in mind, I wanted to ask people's recommendations on what are the optimal *strategy* and useful *approaches* in terms of acquiring some additional formal knowledge on pedagogy, instructional design, learning theories and similar disciplines and areas of study. While currently I'm preparing my research (have an agenda) and teaching statements, this question is not concerned about that, but rather about establishing a solid *foundation* for the long-term teaching success. In addition to strategy and approaches, some advice on relevant *resources*, including MOOCs and books on the topic will be greatly appreciated. (This question is inspired by reading [this](http://elearningindustry.com/situated-cognition-theory-and-cognitive-apprenticeship-model) and [this](http://elearningindustry.com/instructional-design-models-and-theories).)<issue_comment>username_1: Many universities now recognise that tertiary academic teaching can be taught as a scholarly subject. There is a growing body of research on the subject.
Similarly, tertiary institutions recognise that there has generally not been a requirement for academics (usually research-focused) to demonstrate any ability in teaching, nor are they exposed to any opportunities for training.
For this reason, many institutions (in the UK and Commonwealth, at least) offer a post-graduate diploma or certificate in Academic Practice. In such a course -- usually attended by research academics with a teaching component to their work -- students are exposed to current pedagogical theories.
My institution offers such a PGCert, and I am working my way through it now, with the support of my HoD. It's been pretty good, so far. See if your institution offers such a degree.
Bear in mind, I've seen this strategy -- institutions offering PGCerts in academic practice -- done very badly. Namely, staff are *required* to take the course, and pass. In the worst case, the quality of the teaching was poor.
I am pleased to say, that at my present institution, the teaching on the PGCert has been very good, the readings helpful, the exercises relevant. Your mileage may vary.
With respect to resources, I am generating an annotated bibliography of the readings (journal articles, books, etc) that we have been recommended for this course. If you are interested in this, I can share the link with you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: As username_1 said, you can get a certificate, diploma, or even a master degree in education (some focus on higher ed, some on primary and secondary teaching). However, for me, I've always found it quite helpful to read-plan-use-evalate and repeat as necessary.
For the reading, [Faculty Focus](http://facultyfocus.com) on the [Teaching Professor](http://www.magnapubs.com/newsletter/the-teaching-professor-2907-1.html) are wonderful. There are countless good quality texts. I'm continually surprised at the percentage of high-quality books (like [McKeachie's Teaching Tips](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1133936792)) on higher ed teaching. By far **most** of the higher ed teaching books I've read have been very helpful. Resources aimed at primary and secondary school teachers have not been very helpful to me in my university teaching.
[The Art of Teaching](http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/art-of-teaching-best-practices-from-a-master-educator.html) is also quite good as a video or audio book. I have not found MOOCs to be better than books and newsletters, at least not yet.
There is so much theory out there that it is difficult to read even a significant portion of it. However, I believe what is most important is to find what pedagogical styles best fit both you and your students (if you know much about them at this point). So, I return to my earlier point: read-plan-use-evaluate, then try something else to build up your toolbox. Granted, this is difficult to do without actually doing it.
Oh, it goes without saying that [Academia.SE](http://academia.stackexchange.com) is a great resource. :-)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2015/06/07
| 1,416
| 5,682
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<issue_start>username_0: tl;dr: **"Are there any professors in Humanities working in North America or Europe who have recieved their PhDs from a University in Asia (Japan in particular)?"** (I'm specifically interested in Asian Studies, but any Humanities would be of interest. Also, any permanent or semi-permanent teaching position would be of interest)
I'm currently a second year masters student from the U.S. in an Asian-studies related field at a University in Japan, and am considering whether I should continue on for a PhD there. Graduate students and professors from the U.S. have more or less told me that getting a degree from Japan would be more or less "career suicide" (my words not theirs) because degrees from even well known universities in Japan are not considered on the level of well known schools in North America or Europe.
Obviously there's a lot to consider when thinking about going for a PhD, but **I am specifically looking to contact people in the humanities, particularly Asian Studies, working in North America or Europe who got their PhD from a University in Asia.** I'm specifically interested in Japan, but degrees from S. Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China or even India or other parts of South or Southeast Asia would be welcome. Thank You.<issue_comment>username_1: **Update**
I found at least one. [<NAME>](http://ealac.columbia.edu/portfolio-items/hikari-hori/?portfolioID=750) currently teaches at Department of East Asian languages and Culture of Columbia University. She received her Ph. D. in gender studies and Japanese visual cultural studies from Gakushuin University, Tokyo, in 2004
**End of Update**
---
I am no expert in Asian studies. Please take my opinion as a grain of salt. However, being a native Chinese speaker and having read some academic papers about politics and economics in Asian Studies recently, I feel that I want to say something about your question.
>
> getting a degree from Japan would be more or less "career suicide"
>
>
>
This may have some truth in it if you study one of the STEM fields because many good schools in STEM fields are not in Asia. So, you have fewer choices if you pursue PhD in Asia.
But, you study in an **Asian-studies related field** and you go to North America or Europe to study it? This does not make sense to me. Let's say your topic is related to social economics in Japan. You don't want to study Japanese and live in Japan to observe its social economics by yourself? You go to US and read papers about Japanese social economics without seeing the recent developments in Japan and then write your own papers?
On the behalf of all Asians, I certainly welcome you to stay in Asia, speak Asian languages and then study Asia. We would all appreciate it! Thank you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Graduate students and professors from the U.S. have more or less told me that getting a degree from Japan would be more or less "career suicide" (my words not theirs) because degrees from even well known universities in Japan are not considered on the level of well known schools in North America or Europe.
>
>
>
Having done my post-graduate study in humanities at a National University in Japan, I can understand where they are coming from.
The approach is quite different. In an American/Western university, a Ph.D. program is very structured, with you taking classes in your first year, and exams, before your final dissertation and defence.
In Japanese universities, from my experience, you are pretty much left to your own devices. You may have to attend seminars, but these are student-run exercises, and you are essentially being a senpai (tutor) to the master-level students. To graduate, you need to publish at least one article in an academic journal (requirements differ according to your faculty), and the defence's I have seen were no where as rigorous as what is required in the West.
If you want to have your degree recognised, you need to go to one of the big-name universities, such as Tokyo University, Waseda, etc. They are more rigorous, and have a reputation to maintain, compared to other universities.
More than half of the faculty at the Japanese University I went to had done their post-graduate studies in America, before coming back to get tenured positions. In fact, the only Professors who had done their Ph.D. in Japan had gone to Tokyo Uni/Waseda.
So read what you will into that, but if you want to become an expert in Asia, you may want to get your Ph.D. from a Western Uni, and do exchange/post-doc/later study in Japan.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Unfortunately, there seem to be a lot of biases, which come from the way different cultures approach research. My understanding is that Westerners approach (Asian) history from a more ideological perspective, and are less concerned with examining lots of data. On the other hand, the way Japanese research Japanese history is very data driven, and they are less prone to make sweeping ideological statements because, well, it *is* complicated. Consequently, Westerners seem to think they are better historians than Japanese. I can imagine that there are similar issues in other aspects of Asian studies as well. I think the issue is that the type of research done in Japan is not appreciated well enough in the West, and this is what will cause a difficulty in getting a job in the West later. Asia is obviously the best place to study Asia.
Note: I am not in the humanities, but this is what I have gleaned from discussions with a friend who is a Japanese historian, and did get his PhD in Japan (and works in Asia but not Japan).
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/06/08
| 1,001
| 4,021
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<issue_start>username_0: I have about one free year before I go to grad school and I would like to go to work. I live with my family (I'm Asian by the way) and so gaining experience is my priority, not salary. What job will help me maximize the skills that I would need during my grad school? I have two options below, but I'm open for any advise.
Tutoring
========
You know, in [Sinosphere](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_cultural_sphere) countries, there is a pressure to get to university, so high school students need to study at night in "academies" beside the daytime they study at schools. I will help the teachers there help them solving homeworks. This center is founded by a famous mathematician in my country and seems to operate pretty well (but I suspect no foreigner know since he has switched to teaching a long time ago). I confident in my ability of explaining. Here are the advantages to choose this job:
* know how being a TA is like.
* have to spend only 6 to 10 hours a week so that I can have time to search for professors.
* I have an idea about running a science channel in YouTube, like Vsauce or Veritasium. This is because our country is lack of good material for study. Small part of this motive is for building my reputation. With teaching, I can prepare for some materials and have first audience to get their feedback. It may be unlikely to help me to get admission, but if I succeed, I can have some reputation in media. May I will need it in the future?
Data researcher
===============
The second one is being a data researcher in a technology company. I'm not sure about the working time but I think it will like any other company. I have sent them an email explaining that my major is not data (I study physics) and I'm not a PhD either, but then they reply that I need to send them my CV first (I haven't because I'm in a middle of medical treatment, but it will be over soon). Does this indicate that I'm suitable for them? Here are the advantages to choose this job:
* working in an English environment, in one of the world leading companies in its niche. Very good for my CV.
* Have a chance to expertise a programming language (Python). I'm not sure if Python is the second language beside English in academia or not, but I have seen a lot of science programs written in Python. I need to code in grad school anyway.
* Know what the outside world looks like.
I know that this question is lengthy, and I appreciate for your reading. Thank you in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: Personally I would choose the company position:
* Prior experience in the private sector (outside of teaching) is a big advantage if you decide to look for a non-academic job later.
* Python is a popular programming tool to use. Might as well learn now.
* Data analysis is a big part of doing a physics PhD.
* You will form better contacts (probably). Never underestimate the value of good connections.
* You will get plenty of opportunity to do teaching later if you wish; and I do not really see what it adds to your position now. However, I never really saw the appeal of teaching, so perhaps my view is coloured.
A CV is just a way to get yourself an interview. It doesn't get you a job. Definitely send your CV in.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: 1) Did you already get an admission to grad school? I get confused when you say "search for professors".
* If no, use your time to focus on getting admission first, e.g. improve GRE score, read papers etc etc. Getting an admission may not be as easy as you think.
* If yes, 30 hours per week to search for a professor is too much.
2) Since you haven't been accepted to the second job. It is too early to ask about which job to choose. I don't want to be rude, but if you are rejected, then you will not need to ask this question.
3) Running a Youtube channel and helping (lazy) students doing their homework are unlikely to help in getting an admission, or improving your chance to get a job.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/06/08
| 496
| 1,976
|
<issue_start>username_0: I want to include a philosopher's quote in an essay (APA). Is it okay to do so? If yes, how should this be formatted? Should the quote be in italics followed by an English translation in square brackets [ ] ?<issue_comment>username_1: If memory serves, then I have not read a quote yet which was not in the original language with a translation appended at the end.
If you want to include a quotation (even if it is just to make the text visually more appealing) then you should use the original formulation with a translation appended at the end.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Reasons why you might want to include the original:
1. There are issues related to the precise wording and terms used in the original, which you pick up and elaborate on.
2. There is no reliable translation available, i.e. no published article contains the quote you would like to refer to. In this case, I would translate the quote myself and add a footnote along the lines of `"original text" [source] (translated by this article's author)`.
3. Understanding the language the original is in is expected from the reader, e.g. in an article about the particular language. No need to include the translation in that case.
In any other case, I would stick to the translated version solely (and attribute it to its source as usual).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: In addition to my comment above, I want to mention that, if you will decide to go ahead and include both the original quote and translation, them, as far as I know, at least per [this APA Style blog post and comments](http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/08/apples-to-%D7%AA%D7%A4%D7%97%D7%99%D7%9D.html), you should not only, as you said, place English translation in square brackets after the original, but also present the original quote *italicized* (as you mentioned) and **transliterated** into the Latin alphabet, if the original language's alphabet is different from Latin.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/06/08
| 937
| 3,778
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<issue_start>username_0: I have some papers for which I want to somehow download an easily manipulated (CSV, Excel) list of references and list of papers which cited the given paper.
On Google Scholar, one can see a "Cited By" option, but there is no way to download this list in bulk. Also, there is no option to get the list of references that the paper made. Although one can look at the paper itself for this information, I'd want a way to get these as a CSV or Excel.
Is there any way to do this?<issue_comment>username_1: As far as I know, [RIS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIS_%28file_format%29) and [BibTeX](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BibTeX) are the two standard file formats for moving references around. I store my references [on Citeulike](http://www.citeulike.org/user/mrvaidya/), which allows me to download them in either format -- I usually use BibTeX since I write my papers in LaTeX, but I know [RIS is used to move references from Endnote to Zotero](https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/importing_records_from_endnote).
[ISI Web of Knowledge](https://images.webofknowledge.com/WOK50B6/help/WOK/hs_output_records.html#dsy426-TRS_other_software) and other citation trackers do allow you to export both the citations in a particular paper as well as the papers that cite it in RIS, BibTeX and tab-delimited formats (using RIS column names, oddly enough!), but I don't think Google Scholar has this functionality. You may have access to the Web of Knowledge through your institute's library.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, use Web of Science (Thomson Reuter's) database called Cited Reference Searching. You can download a list of citations, which can be exported as \*.csv. Here is a [link](http://hsl.lib.umn.edu/biomed/help/web-science-science-find-cited-references) showing some of the basic functionalities.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I am not aware of such functionality in existing online repositories at the present time. However, depending on your needs, skills and willingness to dedicate your time and efforts to such project, you can consider *writing custom software*, based on [natural language processing (NLP)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_language_processing) approaches, in particular *information extraction*, for parsing papers of interest - individually or in bulk - in order to *extract* their reference list information. I believe that it should be *relatively* easy to write such software, as the semantic complexity of reference list sections is relatively low. Having said that, I see some potential difficulties, related to the quality (consistency) of listed references in terms of content, formatting and publication style.
I think that using such software would be perfectly *legal* and *ethical*, as that part within each paper doesn't really represent an intellectual property or is copyrighted (please correct me, if I'm wrong).
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: Enjoy using [CitationChaser](https://estech.shinyapps.io/citationchaser/). Follow these steps to start chasing:
* In the "Article input" tab, paste a list of article identifiers (e.g. DOIs)
* Check the articles returned are the ones your interested in
* If you want to perform backward citation chasing (which articles did my articles reference?) then proceed to the "References" tab and click "Search for all referenced articles in Lens.org"
* If you want to perform forward citation chasing (which articles have cited my articles?) then proceed to the "Citations" tab and click "Search for all citing articles in Lens.org"
You can download a list in RIS format of your input articles, referenced articles, and citing articles for easy integration with your reference/review management workflow.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/06/08
| 911
| 4,010
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<issue_start>username_0: I see some papers that aim to present a **formalism** for something. First, what probably they are going to do? (for example in the field of computer science) Second, what is the methodology and main structure of such papers (which sections do they need)?<issue_comment>username_1: It seems to me that you are making a common mistake of classification. In your question, you speak of a formalism as the *goal* of a paper. Instead, I would recommend thinking of formalism as a *tool* toward achieving some goal.
Since formalism is a tool, and not a goal, it can be presented in a number of different ways, as best serves its position within a larger framework. To better illustrate this, Let me give a few examples of the use of formalism in a larger narrative from recent papers that I have published:
* Formalization used to extract and clarify the "important bits" of a complex model
* Formalization used to develop a new set of theoretical guarantees
* Formalization user to analyze the tradeoffs between a set of competing approaches
* Formalization used to create a predictive model for an experimental system
For each case, the way in which the formalism is best presented varies greatly (although in all cases I like to use certain presentation aids, such as creating a table of symbols).
I would thus recommend starting by asking the following questions:
1. What is the value of creating this formalism?
2. What evidence can be presented to demonstrate the value of the formalism?
When you have answered these questions, the arrangement of the formalism within the larger narrative of the paper can follow.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: "Formalism" is the practice of using strict and complete methods to define and analyze a model, usually an abstract, idealized model. Every term is given precise a definition. Every variable, parameter, and factor is given a precise name and definition. All assumptions are made explicit and are defined precisely. Qualifiers (e.g. "there exists...", "there does NOT exist...") and quantifiers (e.g. "for any...", "for all...") are made explicit in relational and logical statements. In formalisms based in logic and mathematics, there are often a set of existential and relational rules called "axioms" that are "given" (assumed to be true), and these axioms are used to prove other existential and relational statements or rules (theorems and lemmas).
It's common and convenient to use symbols and symbol statements rather than words -- i.e. single letters for variables, single shapes for operations, etc. Depending on the formalism, these could be mathematical and/or logical symbols.
To qualify as a "formalism", the definitions, statements, and rules described above need to be a *complete* definition of the model and it's mechanisms, ideally with no redundancy or gaps. Furthermore, a formalism should enable other researchers to reproduce the analysis that leads to the results *by following the formalism* ***literally***, and without recourse to any other context or information. While intuition is useful to interpret a formalism and see the value of it in a given context, intuition is never called into the formalism itself.
Finally, a formalism is a *world unto itself*, in that it's meaning and interpretation do not depend on any connection or any context in the "real world". Whether or not a formalism has any relevance to real world phenomena is a separate (and important) question.
---
Regarding paper structure using formalism, the following sections are common after the Introduction:
* General description, goals, and scope
* Definitions
* Assumptions
* Axioms
* Theorems and proofs
* Results
* Discussion (i.e. research implications relative to the goals of the model)
In addition, some papers have worked examples to illustrate the model and it's results in particular cases. I find these very helpful to understand and visualize the model and it's significance.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2015/06/08
| 591
| 2,630
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<issue_start>username_0: Soon I will give a presentation in college for a few professors. In this presentation I research a somewhat complex concept, though the focus is how said concept can be used in company X.
So I'd rather not spend too much time elaborating on the concept and spend more time on the actual findings of my research. How can I do this though?
Currently I have a slide with a rather long quote on top, 5 key points in the middle and a 'summary' or a 'simplified' version below. I'm not entirely happy with this though, as in my opinion a simplified sentence implies the stuff above is less important or even too complex for my audience.<issue_comment>username_1: I recommend short simple words no matter how complex the audience is. Just highlight main points of what is being said per slide. I don't recommend quotes on a slide though especially if it requires inhaling to read.
If you need hard data shown, I recommend bringing a printout and handing it out.
Be sure to include your name/contact info at the last slide.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Figure out which part of the concept is **absolutely** essential to the rest of your presentation. This should be *less* than the five key points: if you can distill it to one or two sentences, that'd be perfect. Make this part of your presentation overlap with the next part: instead of explaining the concept completely by itself and then moving on to your results, provide a one-slide, high-level introduction to why the concept is applicable (in one or two points!), and then -- just as your audience starts to wonder why this is relevant -- tell them how your findings show it applies to/is valuable for company X. Move everything else to extra slides at the end of your talk as suggested by Ben in the comments: that way, you can give a mini five-minute presentation on just this concept alone after your main talk, if necessary.
The most important part of polishing any presentation is practice talks: give the talk to a few of your friends or some of the professors who you will eventually present to, and see if they stumble or get confused at the slides you're worried about. Having seen the rest of your presentation, they'll have a better idea about where exactly you're stumbling and how to make your presentation flow better.
Also: I **hate** quotes in presentations, because you can only either read them off verbatim to your audience (which is boring), give the audience a few minutes to read them (which is also boring, but useful if you need a break to drink water), or ignore them entirely, which is a big no-no.
Upvotes: 1
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2015/06/08
| 659
| 2,762
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm submitting to a journal and they require me to suggest several reviewers. Do they mean that I should select from among members of the editorial board, or do they mean that I should recommend from among all experts in the field? It doesn't say anywhere.
I'm thinking they must mean to select among members of the editorial board, because I assume they're not going to bother some random member of the community who has no connection with the journal and ask him/her to work for them. So, I'm guessing they must want me to select from among members of the editorial board.
On the other hand, selecting from among members of the editorial board is a miserable process. [Other stuff I've read on the web](http://imechanica.org/node/14942) suggests I need to make sure the people I'm suggesting have some connection to the subject of my manuscript. However, I find it hard to tell what each board member's interests and expertise is. Often it's hard to find their web page (e.g., because I only have their last name and initial of their first name); many of them don't have web pages; and even if they don't have a web page, it might not be updated or might not be in English. If they really mean I should select from among members of the editorial board, this sounds like a really bad system, which makes me doubt my guess.
So, which is it? Who do they want me to select from?
---
Yes, I've seen [this thread](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/10474/how-to-suggest-reviewers-for-a-journal), but I don't really think it answers the question (at least the ones I have) well.<issue_comment>username_1: No, the editorial board serves a different purpose from the reviewers. Typically, your paper will be assigned to one member of the editorial board, who will be responsible for managing the review process, and making a decision based on the reviewers' recommendations. However, the reviewers may be anyone with sufficient knowledge to understand and assess your paper.
So, feel free to list reviewers from the wide world! Note that there is typically no obligation for the editor to use the names you suggest; often they will make their own selection, based on their knowledge of the field.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As a minor extension to [avid's answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/46864/17534), I'll point out that depending on the specific subject area of your manuscript, it may occasionally happen that a person among the editorial board may find himself/herself to be in a position to be able to examine the manuscript. This, while being a tiny subset among all possibilities, is generally a happy situation from the point of view of saving manuscript review time.
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<issue_start>username_0: I'll be presenting at my first conference in 2 days, and I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to be doing, to be blunt. I was the second author in a paper that recently got published. So I more or less have an idea of what I need to discuss. I'm limited to at most 15 slides but what I'm dreading the most is the question and answer section. Can anyone tell me how these presentations are usually done and/or give hints? (I'm a grad student in math, by the way)<issue_comment>username_1: I'm not sure I really understand what you want to know. Have you never seen a conference talk? (If you haven't, you can watch some [here](https://www.msri.org/web/msri/online-videos).) Perhaps you're going to different conferences from me. The question and answer part is usually 2 minutes at the end of the talk; occasionally no one has a question, but often to be polite people will ask for a clarification of some point or ask about a connection to something they free-associated about during your talk. You should do your best to answer, but people will understand if you say "Gee, I hadn't thought about it that way" or "Let's discuss that during the break." Generally people are eager to get to lunch/coffee break and won't draw it out too long.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Ask your advisor for a chance to practice by giving your talk in front of your own research group. Or arrange to give it in front of other grad students, possibly through your local student chapter of SIAM. Make sure your "practice" audience knows that you expect them to ask questions.
The length limit is given in terms of time, not slides. Practice your talk and make sure to finish on time. And follow the advice given here: <http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/advice.html>.
When the questions come, relax. You can't go wrong as long as you don't try to talk about things you don't know. It's perfectly acceptable to say you don't know. If there are no questions, it usually means nobody understood anything useful from your talk.
Giving good talks is a vital career skill - yes, even in math! At the conference, pay attention to talks that you enjoy and how they are delivered. Improving your presentation skills will be a lifelong, valuable effort.
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<issue_start>username_0: One of my friends is in a very curious position. He has been researching on a number theoretic problem for months but couldn’t solve it until recently after he has seen a pre-print in arXiv which attempts to prove the problem. But though he has taken ideas from the pre-print, his own article differs considerably from that of the pre-print. According to him, following are the chief points of difference,
1. My friend actually proved a stronger version of the problem.
2. He gave an outline to the proof of a conjecture that the author of the pre-print stated in the concluding section of his/her paper.
My friend has decided to mention precisely how much he had been benefited from the paper in the **Acknowledgements** section. Will there be any problem if he sends his article to a journal for publication?<issue_comment>username_1: He should just cite what he used or learned from the ArXiv paper and send it in. There's no real need to add an acknowledgement.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: @BillBarth has the correct approach, but his phrasing "just cite", and "no real need for an acknowledgement" I find rather misleading, because it seems that the attribution is being somehow reduced.
The reality is that this preprint should be referenced and cited **in the main body of the paper, where its contribution is used**, and not merely mentioned in the acknowledgements where few readers will actually note it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: As mentioned in other answers, it's completely fine to use / extend ideas from a preprint that's been posted on arXiv or otherwise made public. This is essentially the exact reason why the author made the preprint public in the first place. You will cite the preprint as you would a paper published in a journal, conference proceedings, etc, except that of course you will list an arXiv ID instead of a journal title, volume number, etc. Your journal's style guide should explain how to cite preprints (if using BiBTeX, consider `@preprint`).
You may convey additional thanks in your Acknowledgements section if you are moved to do so, but this should not take the place of proper citation.
Of course, as is the case whenever you are extending someone else's work, your paper should accurately describe the work done by the preprint's author, and carefully distinguish it from what you have added. You should be careful that you do not inadvertently misrepresent the preprint author's work as your own.
There are a few extra considerations when extending work from a preprint:
* Keep in mind that the preprint has not undergone peer review. Of course, peer review is no guarantee of correctness, and if you are writing a paper that depends heavily on a previous paper, you will want to check it carefully enough to be sure that your work rests on solid foundations, regardless of where/if the previous paper was published. But for an unreviewed preprint, you should check it even more carefully.
* Before starting work on your own paper, you might want to consider contacting the preprint author with your idea and suggesting a collaboration. In addition to sharing expertise, this also helps mitigate the risk that the preprint author has already had an idea similar to yours, and is currently writing it up in a paper that will be published before yours would be. (This is also possible when extending work from a traditionally published paper, but is perhaps somewhat more likely in the preprint case because of the shorter timeline; if the work is very recent, it's more likely that the author is still actively working on related topics.)
* There's a good chance that the preprint is currently being reviewed for traditional publication. Before submitting your paper, you should check to see whether the preprint has been accepted / published in a journal / proceedings / etc, and update your citation if necessary. (If it has been accepted but not yet published, you can list it as "To appear" with the journal's title.) Check one more time when you correct the galley proofs of your paper.
* Check periodically to see if the preprint has been revised or updated, as the changes may involve something that materially affects your paper. Note that arXiv only includes the first 5 updates in their daily emails, so just checking the emails may not suffice. It is even possible for an arXiv preprint to be withdrawn by the author (this might happen if they find a fundamental error); it remains available for download, but in this case it's probably not a good idea to try to use it. (Of course, published papers can also have corrigenda or retractions, but they are more common for preprints.)
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: No,there is nothing unethical to take ideas from a pre-print to write your own research paper,especially if the author of the pre-print is already acknowledged in your paper,
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<issue_start>username_0: I hesitated to ask this question since it may not relevant to this website, but I saw a question of same category [here](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/71874/can-i-use-my-powers-for-good) but still couldn't find an answer ...
Since childhood, I've had a sharp enthusiasm for Maths, studying books from an elementary level to ones suited for the level of a Masters of Science student at Melbourne University. I am currently 15, but the formal classroom setting feels like a waste of my time. Because of my passion for Maths, going through the formal procedure of education is making me severely depressed...
Here is my question:
**What careers which do not require an academic degree (all research positions require a PhD) might be open (in Australia) to a self-learner who wants to do research on Pure Mathematics?**
Salaries for a postdoc position are ~80k in Australia, but I am looking for a research career even of a ~15k salary *because* that would be enough money to survive while doing research. I have yet to published any paper to impress some institution to believe in me, if it helps at all.
**EDIT** - Thank you all very much for your very informative answers. To be more precise, I would like to write my main reasons of the 'horror' of university:
1. Solving exercises or studying the texts in self-study themselves can (although difficult) be stopped for the duration of university affairs (classes, ...) but I believe that research can't be frequently stopped by other irrelevant things even with university affairs [university classes will be Math, but not be the research that I want to engross in, at least for first few years], since being creative requires to be much more engrossed (to put it simpler: 1 2-day is more efficient than 2 1-day **for research**).
2. Even with prestigious universities it involves a lot of bureaucracy, which they may find necessary to obtain a degree but are irrelevant to Mathematics.
3. Being very deep concentrated and having manic passion causes a lot sensitivity, that's why we have some recluse people (in Arts and Science) and most of them are suffering from Bipolar Disorder caused by their manic-enthusiasm. While there are many people with great achievements living in society with high-degrees UNFORTUNATELY I don't think it's impossible for me.
3a. An example of negativity in university education is the focus on institutional ranking. Combined with job-seaerching being the main purpose of study for some, it could impact someone who just seeks the beauty of Mathematics faith in seeking a degree.
4. University costs a lot for a Bachelors of Science, much more than it would to be a mathematician in solitude.
**EDIT 2** - In my question, I have asked that from where I can get financial support for basic life expenditure, however many answers include enrollment in universities which costs A LOT for just BSc (supposing that I can survive with my mentioned conditions in first EDIT).
Thank you, everyone. I highly appreciate the brilliant advise in many of your answers, however my main question remains *how would I pursue research in Mathematics without a degree?* I know the path that is recommended for pursuing a research career, but the cost of university and not having peace of mind are too great of an expense for me.<issue_comment>username_1: Research is demanding (well, at least good research is), and a career in research requires discipline, among other things. I understand being bored in classes, but if you don't have the discipline to go through a standard academic program, it doesn't bode well for a research career.
One option is: if the courses really are too easy for you, you may be able to arrange to take more advanced courses instead ([AP](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Placement), [IB](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Baccalaureate), possibly at a university), or [go to university early](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_entrance_to_college).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: The question you seem to be asking is "Can I be paid to do research, without any formal education, if I am very good?" The likely answer is no. I know many serious researchers across countless fields, and the only ones I am aware of who can make a living without any formal training are inventors who got quite lucky in terms of their ideas and their marketability. Many great artists, mathematicians, and scientists did other things to survive while doing the work they were truly passionate for, and we romanticise many very inspirational people. Research is probably much more a function of diligence and persistence, even when things are depressingly boring, than it is of intelligence or genius. I would suggest reading some of the good bits of advice many modern prodigies have given on the subject. Terence Tao in particular has several good pieces on [accelerated education](https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/advice-on-gifted-education/), [working hard](https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/work-hard/), and [being a genius](https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/does-one-have-to-be-a-genius-to-do-maths/).
Yes, school can be terribly dull if you are quick. But being able to succeed in that environment is an invaluable human skill, which will prove useful in a research career when looking for funding, or when setting up research groups and similar things, as well as really showing that you have a sense of humility. We can complain about how slow and tedious bureaucracy can be, but if you really are quite good, it is worth your time to learn and understand how to survive in it. Mathematics is not simply something devoid of social interaction or human involvement. Pure and applied mathematics stem from human ideas and are inherently connected to social and cultural concepts, and these connections are often a part of what traditional formal education gives us. I would absolutely advise you to go further than what you see in a classroom, do independent and guided research as early as possible, and test out of whatever classes you can. But skipping the process entirely will handicap your ability to contribute meaningfully to mathematical research.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Can you do research without formal education? Sure. Will it be of any relevance? Perhaps not so much.
There are a few advantages that a formal education gives you. First, it sort of forces you to sit through a series of topics that you may find boring, uninteresting, or irrelevant at the moment; but at some point they may turn out to be useful. Conversely, it also gives you easy access to other branches that may be quite difficult to get on on your own, but may prove useful later. For example, in a course on Theoretical Physics tailored for Mathematicians you may discover a certain trick to solve a particular problem that may pop up outside of Physics.
These extra courses also provide a broader view and understanding. Mathematics are useless unless they serve some sort of purpose, even if it is inside Mathematics. Knowing a bit of everything can help you find applications and identify potentially interesting problems. If you are unlucky, you may find yourself working for years in a theory that may be correct, but essentially useless for anybody else.
Related to the previous point is that it is easier to get expert supervision. At the beginning of your career, you work with a professor, that is the one giving you the broader understanding of the field, useful references, contacts, etc. that only years of experience can teach you.
You said you read a MSc level book, but have you fully understood it? How can you be sure of that? As an undergrad I thought I had master partial differential equations, and I totally aced the exam, only to find that my understanding was flawed, and all the answers were wrong. If I had not had an external evaluation, I would have taken me a long time to realise, and the fall would have been big.
And lastly, you have a lot to learn to do research. When I finished my master's project, I thought I had done quite a few clever things; but also realised, with hindsight, that I had done a few pretty dumb things that I hope won't do again in the future (nothing bad, just a few weeks of wasted effort). A few months into my PhD project I look back and see other mistakes. Learning how to do research takes time, no matter how smart you are. Your undergrad will provide a low risk environment to make some of these beginner mistakes that will teach you a lot. I, for example, would be wary of paying someone that has not had this basic experience, because I will have to fund their mistakes.
All of these things you can, of course, circumvent without an undergrad; but I don't think it is a wise strategy to reject it up front. You don't know how a BSc is, and you don't even fully know yourself. My advise is that you take it easy, learn as much as possible, and see where it leads. You don't have to give up research, as you can always continue it while studying; and if you are truly natural at Maths, most of the coursework won't take long (and if it doesn't, maybe you were not so good on your own).
Lastly, a word of caution: I have seen some people who had done some research in High School drop off university because they wanted to do the "real stuff", and it turn out that the path there is rougher than it seems. They discovered the hard way that there are easy things you can do in the flashy parts of research; but you need much more to actually be able to fully do it on your own. Don't become one of them.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: There certainly exist math classes that would not bore you; they might simply be more advanced classes than the ones you're in right now. It is difficult to answer precisely without knowing more about your situation (notably which country you live in, how far you are in your studies right know), but I don't think your goal should be to avoid PhD: doing a PhD is both the gatekeeper to research positions **and** really about doing research, so if you are dedicated to math **your goal should be to do a great PhD, not to avoid it.** Without a PhD, as mentioned you can still do math by yourself while working on a side job, but this has several drawbacks. You cannot expect to get a paid research position, even with very low salary (by the way there exist low-salary research positions that require a PhD). Also, note that even if you are very bright, **actually advancing the knowledge of humanity takes a great deal of work and effort**. Be prepared for the path to be long, the tests to be tough, and be prepared to fail more often than you succeed.
Let me give an example of possible path in a specific case. I assume you are indeed great at math and knowledgeable (beware that some people are delusional about this, but let this point apart).
If you where a French high-school student (or European with fluent French), I would then suggest you take a look at math (and physics) tests for entering Écoles Normales Supérieures. If you are able to do great at them, then you might be able to enter these schools younger than most students, and there you will find a very favorable environment which would be very different from what you know. There is hardly any chance you would get bored for long. If the tests are too difficult for you, then work toward them and see whether you can move forward one class, and aim to enter a good "classe prepa" to prepare for these tests as soon as you reasonably can (though for this you will need support from your teachers).
If you are willing to move or already in the right place, the same kind of advice can work, to look at what it takes to enter elite universities around the world, which are used to accomodate young brilliant student (I heard that <NAME> could not do its undergraduate study at Cambridge because he was 12 or 13 at the time and they had a policy of not taking undergrad before 16, but that then he settled for MIT and came back to Cambridge for graduate studies, at the age of 15).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_5: Be *very* wary of doing mathematical research on your own. Even if you read all the books there are, you will most likely go off on a tangent and reinvent a theory that has been known in math for decades or centuries - simply because you never heard about it and did not know the commonly accepted names of the structures you have been working with. Or, as others point out, you might work on something that may be true but is of zero interest to anyone else.
If all you are looking for is the joy of doing mathematics, that may well be fine (although even then I'd say using up-to-date tools and theory would probably be more satisfying, just as I'd prefer to code on a modern machine and not an antique, even if it does run a compiler). However, if you want to make a difference in the mathematical world, possibly publish your findings, then you will need to interact with other mathematicians.
And this is where a formal education will help. A math degree will show other mathematicians that you at least have learned the fundamentals. When you contact a mathematician, you will need to differentiate yourself from a random crank. There are far too many home-educated random cranks in mathematics, and you are lucky if they self-identify by claiming that they can [solve the general quintic equation by radicals](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galois_theory). Having a degree in math will make it easier for you to get other mathematicians to talk to you. In addition, your advisor will have decades more experience than you and will be able to steer you in fruitful directions.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_6: The degree isn't a big issue as you think it is. Just continue studying math on your own. When you've mastered most of the math curriculum, you just contact some university and ask if you can do fast track exams for most subjects. If you show some exceptional talent in some subject, then you'll likely catch the attention of some professor, who will put severe pressure on you to become his/her Ph.D student. You'll produce a lot of work together, you'll travel all around the World, visiting many conferences where you present your work.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: Yes, you can do mathematic research on your own and without a formal education. There is a term for people who do such things. They're called autodidacts. Many great contributions can be attributed to such people. I could name many notable autodidacts but in relevancy to your question, <NAME>, <NAME>, and <NAME> may provide inspiration.
My experience with self-learning began with aviation. Out of high school I wanted to learn to fly, but I couldn’t afford to go to a "pilot mill". I read the books and found a mentor. I would study at night and we would fly in the day. Eventually I made it to my commercial license, but decided airline piloting wasn't the career for me.
Then I decided to go to University for physics and engineering. I left after two years because of my frustrations with the system. I contacted companies like Dassault systems and Adobe and asked for student versions of their software. I acquired "less than authentic" versions of Comsol multi physics and Matlab. I read books and watched videos on YouTube and learned to use the software. Eventually I was proficient enough to get a mechanical/systems engineering job. I was able to get the job without a degree because I proved that I could do the job of several people. Progressively, I took on the roles of researcher, designer, engineer, and programmer. Now I both design and build the robotics for the purpose of manufacturing specialty custom products, and I love doing it.
Next, I began studying chemistry in my spare time. Again, I read the material and watched YouTube. I invested money and bought the equipment to build a laboratory. (This is the part when you’re usually told “don’t try this at home”… but all I will say is that curiosity can be as useful as it is precarious).
I'm 26 years old and I will be applying for my first patent in 2 days (self-drafted) and forming my own company all thanks to self-taught knowledge.
However, you should know that this path is not easy. It requires enormous dedication. Most nights I come home and teach myself what is required to succeed the next day. Add in family, friends, a significant other and life in general, and the pressure can build quite quickly.
You have to stay positive. There are many times I've questioned taking the path less traveled as they say. There will likely be many zetetic influences, especially in the beginning of your endeavor. Social skeptics seem to be a universal constant.
One more thing worth noting - Always be open minded and on the lookout for mentors. I've had several mentors whom I learned a great deal from, and many of them entered my life unexpectedly.
So in conclusion, if you have the aptitude and the ambition then go for it, and give it your all. What's the worst that could happen? You may lose money? You may have to go back to school? But no matter what, you'll acquire new perspectives in life. You'll still net knowledge and neither of those can be can be considered a zero gain.
P.s.
Some relevant quotes:
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education." ~ <NAME>
"I loved education, which is why I spent as little time as possible in school." ~ <NAME>
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." ~ <NAME>
“I have not trodden through the conventional regular course which is followed in a University course, but I am striking out a new path for myself. I have made a special investigation of divergent series in general and the results I get are termed by the local mathematicians as startling." ~ <NAME>
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_8: I would advise trying to complete qualifications like those in the UK. You can take A-levels without going to classes and with only minimal coursework. You could just take them without preparation to get a good high school level qualification. The next thing in the UK would be to get into a place like Oxford or Cambridge, you could do well in the STEP paper and get admitted. Then completing a maths degree at Oxbridge would be doable. The Oxford /Cambridge maths programs have very little in the way of compulsory course work. You could take the exams and work with world class researchers for the majority of the time.
In short, University courses with minimal compulsory class hours and course work do exist and you may be able to successfully complete these quickly and relatively painlessly.
Importantly taking some form of higher ed qualification will help you to gain respect and credibility when trying to publish or work with other mathematicians.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: First, I agree with many of the other answers that advocate for formal study to help you. And I would like to caution you against thinking that classrooms are entirely a waste of time. Far too often I've come up with novel solutions to problems *specifically* because I took an unrelated concept and applied it to the problem at hand. All education is beneficial.
All that said, there are a few careers I can think of that would value heavy math research (although not "pure" in the strictest sense):
1. **Finance** - there is piles of research being done in finance to help produce better predictive analytics. It might be difficult to get your foot in the door there, but that sort of industry rewards success, and has a clear measurable way of evaluating it. If you can make people money, they won't care about your degree.
2. **Games** - the gaming industry has a long track record of discounting degrees. There's also a good amount of work being done on algorithms here to better handle problems in rendering, network prediction, AI, etc.
Both of these options require application to some degree, even if the research itself is purer than most. For your situation, it is a benefit since your employers will care about results, not your educational background.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_10: I want to answer this question from a different angle, by addressing two things you say in your original question that I think are untrue and kind of show why you need a broader education.
For one, you say that universities require you to take a lot of irrelevant classes to earn a degree (or at least that's what I think you are trying to say - part of my point). A lot of those classes you think are "irrelevant," though, are necessary to broaden your thinking and will make you into a more well-rounded professional researcher. At the most basic level, the way that mathematicians communicate with one another is through scientific journal articles. In order to do that, you need to know how to write well in English, and your university English and composition classes will assist you with that. Moreover, mathematics is often developed in hopes of applications to other fields - the sciences for sure, but also the social sciences - and an understanding of the conventions and needs of those fields will enrich your understanding of how mathematics ties the world together, even if you are interested in the purest of math. I didn't get a true appreciation of mathematics until I studied my own chosen field (psychology) more deeply.
Secondly, you espouse the idea that research can't be "frequently stopped by other irrelevant things." But the way research works in the modern world...it usually IS stopped by other irrelevant things - and relevant things too. Modern scientists spend a lot of time teaching classes, advising students, writing grants, and serving on committees in their field and at their university. No one is going to hire you to to purely be a mathematician and sit around and think 8-12 hours a day - you'll also have other tasks to complete. One of the values of formal education is that you learn how to balance all of these commitments and still think deeply and do great research. Creativity does require engrossment for some period of time, but most scholars have to stay productive over long periods of time while handling other responsibilities.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_11: You need a Bachelors degree. Having worked in government labs (USA) there are many researchers that have a BS in math, physics, or engineering, and nothing beyond that. (It doesn't work like that for chemistry or biology, generally.)
You shouldn't focus so much on the education... the true purposes are 1) clear the minimum hurdle of the bureaucracy in order to apply for the job you want 2) prove to the employeer that you're valuable. The BS in Math can do both of those things. It's essentially impossible to do that without some kind of certification.
>
> ...enrollment in universities which costs A LOT for just BSc...
>
>
>
That's what loans are for. Again referencing those government labs: I may be green with envy, but some of those people were hideously overpaid. You'll have no problem paying off the loan, even if you don't receive a scholarship.
If you really want to avoid school, there are 1) accelerated programs 2) internship programs for credit while you're doing your degree 3) if you become well-liked by a professor, there are normally directed research credits you can take (so you can avoid class). I did all of these.
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<issue_start>username_0: I am 15 now. If I quit high school now and start a BSc around age 35 and finish my PhD around age 45, is it possible to find a job in some university after being out of academia for so long?<issue_comment>username_1: In modern dynamic society it is next to impossible to predict what happens with education systems, universities, and job market in 20 years time. Also, the success in finding an academic job depends highly on the skill of a candidate, and we do not know what your skills are now, and will be after 20 years. It is unlikely that you find the precise answer to your question here.
However, it is very likely that a proper education, and a "badge" which confirms it, will be still of *some* value. Therefore, quitting the high school may really be not the wisest choice.
Of course, there are stories of prominent success of people without any degree, and it is tempting to revolt the system and prove yourself a hero. Just bear in mind that a great amount of people without any degree achieve nothing and remain unknown to most. A real genius may (and hopefully will) rise no matter what, but in the long run and on average people with the structured education and degrees are more successful in getting themselves high-skilled jobs.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I entered a computer science PhD program over 25 years after my last formal education. Although I retired after completing the PhD at age 60, I did get contacts from recruiters suggesting I would have been able to find research work in industry. The gap is not in itself a killer problem.
However, there were two differences from your scheme:
1. The 25 year education gap started when I received my master's degree.
2. I was working in an intellectually demanding job that produced both patents and references suggesting I was capable of research.
I know some young people who are trying to earn enough to support themselves, at a minimal level, after only just scraping through high school and with little or no college. It takes a lot of time and energy, because of the low wage rates and physical demands of the jobs, when they get a job. It tends to be a very high stress lifestyle, because the jobs are temporary or part time, low benefit, and drastically varying hours.
I can't imagine living that way and being able to concentrate, when not working or looking for work, on mathematics research.
In [another question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/46890/10220) you wrote: "Solving exercises or studying the texts in self-study themselves can (although difficult) be stopped for the duration of university affairs (classes, ...) but I believe that research can't be frequently stopped by other irrelevant things ..., as to be creative requires to be much more engrossed (to put it simpler: 1 2-day is more efficient than 2 1-day for research)."
Given that, you may have trouble getting much research done mixed with the practical demands of supporting yourself with no qualifications. You may need to work early morning rush Monday through Friday at a coffee shop and late afternoons Thursday through Monday at a supermarket. If you can get the work.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I got a B.S. in Math several years ago. I'm applying for CS MS this fall, but I still need some coursework before admission. I spent the past year at College X as a non-degree student. I did well last fall (all As), but was caught cheating on an elective CS class this spring (googled some answers on one homework assignment). The result is a B- in the class (instead of a B). I realize I'm fortunate for a pretty minimal penalty -- I just got a 0 on the assignment, and a one-semester probation (which doesn't affect me since I was only a non-degree student here and I'm not continuing here anyway). I don't have an excuse for this, and I don't know why I decided to do this. This is the only time I've cheated. For whatever it's worth, it's not indicated on my transcript, only in some confidential file the university has somewhere. My questions are:
1. How badly does this affect my chances for admission? I was planning on applying to just one top 20 school that I doubt I'd get into anyway, but most of the schools on my list are still ranked in the top 50.
2. More importantly, is there anything I can do to repair the situation? I don't have years of time before application season to be able to say it happened a long time ago. That said, I'm taking two classes this summer at College Y, and another class in the fall at either College Z or Z'. The advice given in a similar thread here was to do very well in classes from here on out, but would people reading my application even believe the rest of my work is honest after committing academic dishonesty?
If I go to College Z this fall, I could also retake the same class from this spring. It wouldn't do anything to help my GPA at College X, but my GPA there is > 3.6 anyway. I believe I could do well, at least an A-. The class also covers an extra couple chapters, one of which is related to my CS interests. Would it be worth "retaking?" It's basically the same class, so it feels like it might be a waste of time, especially since one B- isn't that bad. If I go to College Z' this fall, I could probably take an advanced class related to the class I took this spring. This advanced (joint undergrad/grad) class seems to cover a lot of material specifically related to my CS interests.
My overall application is pretty strong (3.7 GPA, GRE 170Q, 158V, 4.5A, 2-3 strong LORs, 75%ile Math Subject GRE). Hopefully it helps that three schools I'm considering are Colleges Y, Z, and Z', so maybe having a little bit of coursework done at two of them could help.
Thanks for any advice.<issue_comment>username_1: Based on what you stated, it doesn't really sound like this will follow you anywhere. You were caught, they gave you a token punishment, and everyone moved on. It's not as though you have to state your dishonesty on your resume or whatnot. I would recommend treating it as a lesson learned, and unless someone specifically asks you about it, don't bring it up.
To directly answer your questions... no, you really can't do anything to fix it. It's part of your history now. However, it may not affect your application, as they receiving university will probably never find out about it.
Note that all of this is based on the assumption that your dishonesty does not go on your official transcript, based on your having stated that in the question text. If it *is* on the official transcript—the one that one university will send to another when asked—then your situation is a good deal worse.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: The bigger concern in this matter is not what impact this incident has had on your grades, but on **letters of recommendation**. Who is going to be writing them for you, and how will they see this?
The professor who taught the class in question is presumably a bad pick, both because they caught you cheating, and because they gave you your worst grade in that program.
Other professors in that program, and likely anywhere, will potentially ask to see your transcripts, to get a general sense of your capabilities, and will ask about that outlier grade. You'd better hope they're willing to excuse that indiscretion.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: If someone would have obtained two MSc degrees, how do you put that on a business card?
I myself have two MSc degrees from a Dutch university. The degrees are Computer Science which gives me the Dutch title *ir*, and Science Communication which gives the Dutch title *drs*. Both degrees are internationally an MSc (as indicated on my diplomas). I know that in Holland I can use the following:
* drs. ir. <NAME>
Since the Dutch titles are confusing in international use (especially the *drs* part), I would like to use the international format on my business card. For **one** MSc I know that it is written internationally like this:
* <NAME>, MSc
However, how is the international format for two MSc degrees?<issue_comment>username_1: Unless you are doing business with countries where the number of titles is important (e.g., Germany), I would suggest to write only a single MSc on your business cards (and in your email signature).
You can highlight the two titles in your CV.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: How about
>
> <NAME>, MSc (Comp. Sci.), MSc (Sci. Comm.)
>
>
>
? (Then again, this *could* look pretentious. Proceed with caution.)
Unfortunately, the relevant [Wikipedia article](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-nominal_letters#Etiquette_for_deciding_which_higher_educational_qualifications_may_be_listed_post-nominally) is not highly informative, and anyway it is flagged as "citations required" and specific to the UK:
>
> Where two different postgraduate qualifications with the same name
> have been obtained (for example two different postgraduate MAs from
> King's College London and University of Sussex), this can be indicated
> by using one degree postnominal, and the abbreviations of the two
> awarding bodies in parentheses, sometimes joined by the Latin "et" (or
> with an ampersand), e.g. "<NAME> MA (KCL et Sussex)", and not
> "<NAME> MA MA". However, when qualifications with the same name
> have been gained through different routes (for example an MA from
> Oxford University converted from a Bachelor of Arts, and a studied and
> examined postgraduate degree from King's College London these are
> listed separately with the institution only listed after the
> non-examined qualification (e.g. "<NAME> MA(Oxf) MA", and not
> "<NAME> MA (Oxf et KCL)").
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: How can a student get a academic mentor to help during publications and research.<issue_comment>username_1: Two ideas:
* Ask around for a student assistant job that can yield a first glimpse inside the world of research.
* Write your thesis about one of the topics that you alluded to in your question. This can be a first step towards a paper and it is an opportunity to discuss your topic with a professor.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Mentors and advisors serve two different purposes.
An *advisor* is someone who acts in academic or research capacity as a supervisor for teaching or training purposes. A *mentor* acts like a counselor, providing advice about how to conduct one's studies and one's career.
The biggest difference between an advisor and a mentor is the notion of "received benefit"; an advisor has a vested interest in your success (perhaps she will write papers with you if you succeed), while a mentor should have a more altruistic attitude, and should not expect any such benefits from helping you. (They're helping you because they want to see you succeed.)
Someone can be both an advisor and a mentor at the same time, but this is a relatively rare combination (usually it's someone who has already been quite successful, and so further "benefits" from helping you don't make a large dent in his or her career).
As for finding a mentor, this can be a bit tricky; often they start out (temporarily) as an advisor, and then migrate into a mentor role. Sometimes they can be friends or family, or you can be introduced through a mutual colleague. There are also some programs available that help to find mentors for young students. But there's no magic wand that produces mentors out of thin air. You'll have to work at finding one—and keeping one! (And ultimately, *more* than one.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I suggest that you join several of the professional communities associated with information security. (I assume you mean "information security" when you say "security".) Get to know people in the community, find people with similar interests, ask questions, and ask for advice and support. The people who respond positively might be candidates for mentors.
Some communities are formal and some are informal. Some are centered on a geography and some are not. Some are focused on physical interaction and others are on-line/virtual. Depending on where you are located, you may or may not have easy access to some of these options. The good news is that, in the year 2015, it is easier than ever to connect with professional communities nearly anywhere in the world.
Look for your local chapter of ACM and IEEE. Look for Meetups and hackathons in your area. Look for conferences and workshops to attend. Look for on-line mailing lists on topics that interest you, and then join them. Join Twitter and start following information security professionals and academics there.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: This may depend on the institution where s/he studies, for example:
For schools, these young students can select a teacher who has a postgraduate degree in their subject of interest as their mentor, just as in colleges & universities, the person who supervises a young student during his/her thesis, which is generally written for a postgraduate degree, becomes his/her mentor.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: Academic papers in engineering sometimes propose a new model to tackle prior difficulties. These proposed models are not usually patented. For example in experimental papers and many power electronic papers, the models are fully available.
I have a published work that proposes a new model, but it is pure computer simulation and math.
So, my questions:
1. Can I patent my own published paper?
2. Can I use others' paper and patent their idea? (specifically
experimental for papers)
3. If the answer of 1 or 2 is not, how many modifications do I need to
apply in my model be able to patent it?
4. If I have an original idea to propose a new model, what should I do then: A patent or good rank ISI paper?<issue_comment>username_1: You don't patent papers. You patent ideas.
You can't patent other people's published work because their published papers are clear evidence of prior art.
Why do you want to patent a computer model in the first place? Why do you want to restrict people's use of it? How lucrative will it be?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Im Not A Lawyer. Heres what I have found in my own experience.
First, this is very country specific. Both in terms of what is 'good' for reputation and what is allowed by the patent law.
In many countries, you can publish a paper and then patent the (or some of) idea within a certain time period, usually under 1 year, of course, it must be your paper.
As for modifications, that will be up to the evaluator. There are rules, novelty, innovative step, etc. You need to read your specific countries rules for what qualifies an idea to pass.
In some countries and research areas, patents are well regarded. For example, in parts of Asia, I have seen patents very admired as it helps research institutes make money that can be used outside of the normal grant allowances.
This all depends on your target audience. If you want to join the lab of someone who is very open-source minded, having a patent might be a turn off for them. If you join a lab that has many grants from industry, it is possible they like to have someone with experience in patents, which could lead to a better chance of getting industry funded projects if the company wants to work with people that can get patents from research funding (which can be shared IP or not, depending on location).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> If I have an original idea to propose a new model, what should I do then: A patent or good rank ISI paper?
>
>
>
It depends on your objectives.
1. If you want to **make money** from your model: Get a patent.
2. If you want to **earn academic reputation**: Publish a paper.
In many cases, it's actually possible to do both - assuming your "model" can be patented at all. However, note that patent fees can be quite expensive, and it is usually only worth paying if you really aim to make money from it. The academic reputation gain from a patent is mostly marginal.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Adding to the other fine answers:
* It costs a considerable amount of money to file a patent.
* Patents are written using very specific idiom and formulations. There are commercial bureaus that rewrite your idea into a proper patent proposal, but that also costs a serious amount of money.
* You can find most patents through the world intellectual property organisation (WIPO): <https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/search.jsf>
. Have a look there and read some patents in your target domain, if you want to proceed.
Upvotes: 3
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2015/06/09
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<issue_start>username_0: In my department, there are 2 styles for a supervisor to supervise student.
In the first one, a supervisor understands his PhD student's research deep enough to provide technical advices such as which algorithms to try, possible solutions for a problem, or even to be able to read and comment on the source code.
In the second one, a supervisor understands his PhD student's research just enough to comment about the feasibility and novelty of the research and its contribution, but does not understand exactly how the research is carried out.
In my opinion, the second style is easier for a supervisor to not only supervise his students but also looks for new ones, as his candidate pool is larger. It also helps a supervisor to have more diversitized research group.
On the other hand, it is harder a supervisor who has deep knowledge about the research of his students to find a new one, as he can only look for those whose research is close to his. But this makes the research of his group more focused.
So, I wonder which one is a common practice, and if a supervisor should have deep understanding, e.g. technical level, about the research of his student.
My field is computer science but answers from other fields are also welcome.<issue_comment>username_1: There is no "requirement", per se. However, the principle investigator is 100% responsible for work published from his laboratory. In general, (in my opinion) an academic advisor/supervisor should be knowledgeable in all aspects of the research conducted in his laboratory. If the advisor/mentor does not understand everything, how can he be a source of mentorship or supervision? If anyone is unfamiliar with technical aspects of the research, it should be the student. This is a primary reason for going to graduate school in the first place - to learn! That being said, nobody can expect a PI to know every miniscule detail of all experimental protocols in his/her lab. There are other exceptions as well. For example, I know a chemistry professor who hired a molecular biologist to work in his lab. I wouldn't think that the professor is an expert in the technical aspects of the research conducted by this molecular biologist, but he most certainly understand the science.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Both types of mentors can be good. A *good* mentor of the second type will make sure that there is expertise somewhere that a student can go to for advice and help if called for.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: To directly answer the question of what the common practice is: there is *no* common practice, as the level of expertise depends on the topics at hand and the same advisor may supervise more than one student at a time, each one of them being involved in their own different projects. In my opinion the question is whether it is best for the students to have supervisors who are technically skilled in the area the project is dealing with.
I have got a PhD in mathematical physics and had a supervisor who was by all means deeply expert on the mathematical technicalities of my topic: since a PhD in this area is basically about proving theorems and doing analytical calculations, I found his technical help always very precious, although, on the other hand, sometimes he had the tendency to get bogged down too much on those technicalities. However, do not forget that the purpose of a PhD is also (albeit not only) to eventually produce and publish material: in this respect having a supervisor who is technically skilled does help a lot because it reduces the dead end paths.
I have also had the opportunity to teach exercise classes for graduate students in mathematics and I have always helped them especially in the technicalities, because it is the only way to fully understand what you are doing. Of course nothing is *required*, but helping on the actual work is always best to have.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: In my opinion, the supervisor has no duty to provide technical advice or to control the general direction in which the research is going tightly but it is his duty to verify the results (either himself or by finding an expert who is capable of going into the nitty-gritty of the project). The common understanding is that the PhD student is normally just crossing the line between being a "schoolboy" for whom the ultimate criterion of truth are the grades given by his teachers and being an "independent craftsman" who is solely responsible for the quality of his work. So, if you use style 2, you should be aware that you may have some trouble at the end if the student's maturity and intelligence levels are short of perfect.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a mathematics graduate who recently dropped out of a PhD for personal reasons. I also have Asperger's Syndrome which I was diagnosed with in 1996. Since dropping out, I have been thinking long and hard about why it did not work out, and something that's just occurred to me is that being on the autistic spectrum has presented greater challenges in trying to succeed in academia than I originally anticipated. It is something that I have tried to overcome and repress in very recent years but it has still played a major part in how I learn and interpret things compared to other people.
Here are some ways in which I am affected by my Asperger's Syndrome:
* I can be more easily overwhelmed by dealing with unfamiliar people and environments than most other people, which may present challenges in moving departments.
* I often find independent and open-ended learning tasks overwhelming; even if the work is relatively straightforward.
* I have difficulty picking up on the social cues of supervisors and implicit ways of communicating to me that something needs to be improved. By the time it is made much more explicit, it is often too late.
* I find learning unfamiliar content a challenge, and although I can learn things fairly well if they engage me well enough, I find the whole process daunting, particularly when I don't know what I am working towards or if I don't have an underlying sense of what is "correct". This is especially challenging in experimental and research environments, where this preconcieved knowledge is not present.
* I can get sidetracked from a task if I am overwhelmed by it, which leads to me going off at tangents and being afraid to approach the task at hand.
* I am very prone to forgetting things and mixing things up unless they are written down or stated very explicitly.
* I find it difficult to manage my time, and based on previous experience, I find I cannot simply say "I am going to learn chapter X in Y hours".
* I can often find it hard to articulate my emotions and separate personal matters from professional matters.
* I often have major difficulty interpreting criticism. If it is presented in a diplomatic and ecplicit manner then I can correct what was wrong, but sometimes my mind struggles to know how to process it and how to move forward. In some instances people have expressed their disappointment about my apparent inability to complete a task which may seem somewhat basic to them, and things like this can send me on a downward spiral which makes me feel depressed and demotivated, thus making me feel much less like improving my work and finding a way forward. (This is what happened during my dissertation and the PhD that I started and dropped out of, but this is a problem that I didn't really acknowledge at the time.)
I have always been a consistently high achiever at school and university (gaining several awards along the way) but this has not come without its difficulties. Although learning new things can be challenging for a lot of people, people on the autistic spectrum, myself included, often have fewer tools in being able to deal with the associated stress and anxiety than most other people. I have worked with academic faculty before and they have been completely oblivious to this aspect of my life, even though there has been documentation provided by the universities' support units which has been freely accessible by the faculty involved. As a result, they simply think of me as a highly capable student as most of my exam marks have been 1sts, and then they become surprised or disappointed when my progress is slow due to finding the tasks psychologically challenging to process and make progress with. I tried to mention my specific needs to my supervisors but their response was that the expectations they have are those of anyone they work with, and even when they have been disappointed with my progress for one reason or other, they have been unwilling to adapt their supervision techniques or people skills to make me feel more comfortable and more able to progress. I have had some rotten luck with supervisors before, who seemed ill-equipped to deal with people like me, which is probably a reflection of their people skills and the extent to which they were worth me working for in the first place.
I really want to become an academic mathematician in the long run and make a return to it in the forthcoming years, although I'm very aware that the challenges I face may make this very difficult to cope with if I'm doing a PhD or a post-doc or so forth, especially as the whole point of research is to delve deeper into some unknown aspect of a subject that hasn't been uncovered before. However, this would make successfully completing a PhD incredibly rewarding for me as it will have helped me to convince myself that I can overcome such obstacles, thus providing personal gain as well as building my academic career. I have had numerous attempts at research projects, although both supervisors expressed their disappointment at how slow my performance has been, despite this being more to do with the personal challenges I've already mentioned as opposed to being lazy and not putting the work in (which incidentally is what my supervisors thought I was). I am not giving up with academia though. I am not letting these bad experiences make me think I’m simply not cut out for academia, as people with Asperger’s Syndrome and autism can accomplish a great deal of success if the right type of support is in place for them. I want to return to doing a PhD in the future although I am taking a pause from academia to broaden my horizons and regain my motivation.
Does anyone have any advice on how to overcome these issues in the fullness of time, or more realistically, alleviate them? Also, how would I mention this to a potential future supervisor without making them potentially think I may not be capable of doctoral level work?
*(Also, I am not looking for any comments on my suitability as a PhD student. I know that given my predicament, doing a PhD or other academic jobs will be difficult, but advice telling me that I am not good enough, I should just give up or settle for something else is not what I am looking for.)*<issue_comment>username_1: While I don't have a direct relevant experience, let me offer you some advice. First of all, I would like to express that I am quite impressed with your achievements as well as your *attitude* and *spirit* toward achieving your dream. Now, the promised advice.
My first point is that you are presumably is still relatively young and, thus, it is possible for you not to worry too much about the *speed* of your return to academia. So, my first advice is to take *one step* (in the right direction) *at a time*. The second advice is, when doing professional networking (via online, offline or various hybrid modes), try to find and connect with people in academia, who are less focused on *immediate results* and more on the human factor. In other words, people, who see *potential* in other people. It it not easy to find such people, I know, but you have to be persistent and, at the same time, patient, as it might take time (which you, hopefully, have, as I assumed).
Finally, it is IMHO very important, when being in a Ph.D. program, to *periodically self-assess* your motivation with the selected topic or area of research. If you will find that your motivation has a downward trend (not when it has already reached dangerously low level), try to *improve* your motivation by looking at the topic or field of study at different angles, in other words, from different perspectives. If that approach won't infuse an additional portion of motivation into you, consider changing the topic or area of research, based on, perhaps, your new interests or shared interests of you and the above-mentioned people in academia. While this last advice of mine seems like a common sense, sometimes we forget about simple solutions to our problems and lose precious time in unnecessary struggles. Hope this helps. Good luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I also have autism, although discovered this quite lately, and I am doing a PhD in theoretical computer science (which is very mathematical, way more than most other branches of cs).
Let me share my experiences with you. I can relate to some of your points very well, but regarding my supervisor I am really lucky, as far as I know he did not know that I am on the autistic spectrum. We get along really good up to now (1 year), he is a kind person, gives me lots of freedom, encourages me and so on. So I really enjoy being here.
But in the first year up to now I have not accomplished anything scientifically important, I do not even have a topic for my thesis fixed; and over the course of the last months this comes up more and more, and yes builds up tension on myself, but I try to stay focused and built a plan for the next months.
Where I really have problems is in my social life, I have difficulty bonding with people, to understand why they act like they do. I am also more or less a "closed" person in that I cannot talk well about feelings or "everyday stuff", or sometimes act inappropriate in social situation, feel inhibited, which makes me act disorganized or planless, and so on; I guess the mix of all of them makes it difficult for people to relate to me too, alienates them from me or they just think I am chaotic/stupid whatever. Let me mention that this gave (and still) gives me a really hard time here in my new place as I had to move the city to start my PhD, where in my hometown the people I know there accepted me as I am.
But despite from that, maybe I can tell you something about "inappropriate advisors". I have also studied mathematics (after computer science), therein I specialised in an area of algebra and the experiences I collected there with my advisor where totally different; and hypothetically if she where my PhD advisor I can imagine things would run very different for me, in the bad direction. I still remember one of the first meetings with her, where in some sense she was putting me down, as how difficult her field is, how much work you have to put in and that this is not for everyone, and even questioned my ability as a person. Later I heard that she did this with other students too (but before drawing a wrong picture, there are also student which come along with her really well).
Anyway, as I was genuinely interested in the field I specialised in it. During the course of me working in this field I had some difficulty with her.
One time she totally put me down on one approach, it was quite an basic issue, but anyway still after 3 years I cannot say what I have done wrong.
Later I read (peer-reviewed journal-) papers from her, even discovered many (substanciel) errors (maybe due to the fact that I was quite new to the field I suspect that I questioned many "standard" arguments more closely). And suprisingly to this criticism from me she was very kind, accepted them, and even sincerely thanked me for them.
Eventually I started my PhD, and moved to another city for it. I meet her at a conference later (as I said, I still have an interest and the conference was in my past home town and I was anyway around at that time, so I visited it despite not being in the field anymore). And there suprisingly she was very kind to me, I still remember I was standing away from the crowd outside smoking and she came to me, quite enthusiastic, smiling and asking me a lot of questions of what I am doing now and so on.
If you would see me you would not think that I am autistic, guess I have learned some strategies to cope with it in the long term, so people might get a different impression from me at first. As written above I often make the impression (and indeed I am much to often) desorganized/inappropriate/chaotic. But on the other side, on an intellectuel level: I started programming quite early, participated in contests in my teenage years, and even got it to the finals of a national wide programming contest two times, as a student I won prices, often had the best marks, was among the best in the university of the students I started with (thats why I got recommended for student grants), my thesis got published and I also won a price for that.
Also I am very formal in my thinking, on an intellectuell level in math and cs, I always question things, and I also critize others quickly for it, expecially for bad notation or sloppy reasoning, this I already started in school - quite contrary to that I am a very shy person in social aspects.
Let me add, I already worked for one and a half year before starting my PhD as a programmer. I had great freedom therein and I was the only programmer, in this context I got along with my colleagues very well, but as I know myself this was partly because of this independence I had there (and also which I had here in my PhD again).
Upvotes: 2
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2015/06/10
| 1,359
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<issue_start>username_0: After I submitted my thesis recently, I discovered that I made a very silly mistake in typing the title of my thesis; I missed one letter. Instead of implementation I typed "implemenation". The thesis is now printed and submitted.
I was very cautious but still, this typo slipped my attention, probably due to some technical issues that I had with my LaTeX editor and using separate files for title and body. Now the typos is there and I want to fix it. I found similar questions ([here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/25804/what-to-do-when-you-discover-a-mistake-in-the-archived-copy-of-your-phd-thesis) and [there](http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/43210-making-changes-to-thesis-after-the-fact/)) but it looks like my problem is different. Do you have any suggestions? For example, can I submit an erratum?<issue_comment>username_1: Regardless of whether your thesis is published in print form or electronic one, I think that you can and should contact the publisher and your university and/or school (usually, either one and/or both maintain university- and/or school-wide *electronic repositories* of defended dissertations and theses, which are considered as *unpublished* artifacts in a traditional, peer-reviewed outlet, sense) with request to make the appropriate **correction** or publish an **errata**.
In addition to that, if your thesis has been submitted to nationwide or global *e-repositories*, such as *ProQuest* (AFAIK, it's pretty much a standard, at least for US academia, for maintaining and distributing Ph.D. dissertations, not so sure about other geographical destinations and Master's theses), you can and should contact them as well with the same request as one, mentioned above.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't think you need to worry: "implemenation" is similar enough to "implementation" that I don't think anybody will have any problem understanding what you intended (which is probably why nobody noticed the error earlier!), so I would leave it as is. If the typo is only on your front page, you can correct it by hand if you don't have too many copies to fix.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: You should contact your thesis advisor and state briefly and clearly your mistake. They are the only person who can authoritatively tell you how to proceed and whether this could affect your grading at all.
Most likely, they will tell you to do nothing and regard the typo as a silly but minor mishap that could have occurred to anyone. As long as the rest of your thesis is flawless, don't fret.
If you worry about your thesis being published on a repository or university archive etc. with the flawed title page, your advisor can tell you whether it is possible to correct the "proof" before publication.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: First and foremost, I would strongly advise you to not worry too much about the printed copies. Printed copies of any literature, not just your thesis, are largely vestigial these days: it is the electronic copy that people looking for literature will be able to discover, and it is the electronic copy that they will be generally capable of accessing. In my experience, the current purposes of the printed copy are:
1. Fulfilling depository requirements of libraries, where paper is still the best known method for long-term archival storage (even plain text files rot quickly---ever heard of [EBCDIC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBCDIC)?). In all likelihood, nobody will ever access these paper copies.
2. Giving "trophy" copies to people that you personally know, like your advisor, your family, or other mentors who have helped you.
Neither of these really needs correction: the library depository copies are likely write-only artifacts, and the trophy copies are going to people who already know you and are likely to laugh and sympathize with you over your typo rather than hold it against you.
What I think *is* worth getting corrected is any electronic version. For that, you need to talk to whoever is in charge of maintaining the electronic depository at your institution. Often, this is the librarians, and they will generally have a procedure for fixing errors---your error will by no means be the first or the most severe that they have dealt with.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: I just thought it appropriate to reflect on what was done in this situation before we had word processors and text editing tools. At that time a University regulation/procedure for correcting an error in a thesis specified **cut and paste**. *Real* cut and paste. You typed up the word for the correction, cut it out of the paper with scissors or a craft knife and pasted it into the thesis over the offending error. Book binders even had a method of correcting typos made in the gold embossing used on the spine or cover.
The university library, and other parts of the university responsible for a thesis, I am sure, will be pleased to take an errata which can be pasted inside the thesis, but may also permit you to actually do cut and paste on the paper copy. They would want the copy preserved for all time to be correct.
However, like the other answerers, I would not be too concerned about this fault. It is very minor. I recently had the experience of OCR text recovery of my own thesis which was done before the days of word processing. I was shocked at the number of small typos that the OCR discovered that had been missed by the examiners, proof readers and myself. I have to live with the knowledge that all the typos are then in the paper copy in the library vaults for all time.....
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I am submitting my first paper ever in a couple of months and I was wondering about my family name. The paper is in English and the conference is an international conference.
Assume my name is {Alan} {võ<NAME>ann} {Chúrch}, so {first name} {family name father} and {family name mother} where {**family name father has two words**}. Note also the special characters (õ and ú) I added there on purpose (as I do have them in my real name).
If I had the choice, I would go with {Alan} {võn Neumann} {Chúrch}, but I don't want to be cited as Chúrch or Võn. A proper citation would be võn Neumann Chúrch, but võn Neumann would be fine as well.
How can I ensure that I would be properly cited?
Also, should I keep the special characters? I really would rather keep them.
Best,
Not Alan von Neumann Church ;)<issue_comment>username_1: +1 for thinking about this *before* your first publication. Have you read through the other questions tagged [personal-name](/questions/tagged/personal-name "show questions tagged 'personal-name'")? They may be helpful.
In your case, I’d go with *Alan võn Neumann,* or *võn Neumann, Alan* if your target journal uses this format.
If you include *Chúrch,* then I’ll *guarantee* that you will start being referenced as “Chúrch (2015)” - maybe not on this publication, but later. (You *do* plan on using a consistent name throughout your sciencific career, right?) Bibliographic databases may be smart enough to pick this up, but they will need to rely on journal editors including your correct name in their journal databases, and this is where noise will creep in.
Conversely, I wouldn’t worry too much about the diacritical characters, as long as their mapping to basic characters is straightforward. Search engines understand this, so it won’t make a difference whether your name is listed as *võn Neumann* or *von Neumann.* One exception would be [German *ß*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%9F), where it is not obvious that this should be transcribed *ss.* IIRC, people have legally changed their names over this.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Here's my opinion on the topic. Firstly, a proper citation for a paper is more of a function of a particular *publishing style* (APA, Chicago, etc.) than your naming preferences. Secondly, while I can totally understand your desire to keep the original alphabet's letters with [diacritical marks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diacritic), I see a potential problem with that. What I mean is that citations, including such letters, for some people (audience), might be difficult to *reproduce (cite)*, *search for* and (for authors) get proper *attribution*.
Therefore, I guess, this problem requires making a trade-off between desiring to present information most *accurately* in terms of *naming* and more pragmatic aspects (*convenience* for authors and their audience as well as better accuracy in terms of *attribution*).
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Another option is to write your pen name with a dash: võn Neumann-Chúrch. This could be a reasonable compromise: On the one hand, you can keep both of your actual surnames. On the other hand, the risk of being misquoted is slightly greater than if you drop the second surname (but it is smaller than if you keep both and write them without a dash).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Despite Stephan's comments on diacritical characters, I would still worry somehow about them. I do not know what the state of the art is today, but I saw in horror once an article of mine being from **Mylast*error*ame** instead of **Mylastname**, with **n** being a diacritical character.
And yes, Google still finds the wrong version.
I do not care about that anymore (having left the academics world) but, should I have known, I would have dropped anything which is not ASCII in my name immediately.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: As I'm currently pursuing an academic job search (in parallel to the industry one), which includes potential postdoctoral positions, I would appreciate some clarifications on the following aspects.
**Positions (terminology).** I have seen various titles for postdoctoral positions, i.e., postdoctoral scholar (or researcher), research assistant, research associate and similar. **Question:** Are there any essential differences, implied by these titles, or they are just terminology variations (perhaps, geographically- or university-dependent) for essentially the same type of position?
**Note:** My field is *Information Systems*, a discipline, which can be considered as a sub-domain of *Management Science*, which, in turn, is a *social sciences* discipline.<issue_comment>username_1: It is all just terminology. Within a single university/department there might, but not necessarily, be consistency on what the titles mean, but across universities all bets are off. Some postdocs have teaching requirements while others do not and sometimes departments try and use different title. Same goes for using title to highlight differences in how the position is funded. Sometimes the title is specified by the funding agency.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Contrary to username_1, I would say there are important non-terminological differences. While both are junior positions that a recent PhD grad may hold, at my university, a postdoc or Postdoctoral Researcher is intended to be a temporary position for 2-ish years. On the other hand, the Research Associate title is the first in a sequence of *permanent* full-time research staff positions that goes Research Associate, Research Scientist, and then Senior Research Scientist. While there is no tenure for these positions, the levels are intended to parallel the professor levels here (Assistant, Associate, (full) Professor), and the requirements for promotion are similar (minus teaching).
These permanent positions are expected to continue as long as there is funding to cover them, whereas postdocs are expected to move on after a few years. Given the commitment, most professors, especially the junior ones, will not have Research Associate positions to offer. These are more often affiliated with large labs, centers, or institutes that are large enough and diverse enough to be able to offer long-term funding stability.
There are other differences as well. Postdocs at my university require a special exception to be allowed PI their own grants while Research Associates may PI them from the start without special permission. RAs usually not involved in teaching, where postdoc positions seem to be more flexible in this regard. Also, given the permanence, RAs come with considerably higher status than postdocs, though the respect doesn't really kick in until Research Scientist is reached. Postdocs are a further training position intended to allow a recent grad to finish publishing things from their thesis, branch out into some new areas, and get ready for a faculty position.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: As I'm currently pursuing an academic job search (in parallel to the industry one), which includes potential postdoctoral positions, I would appreciate some clarifications on the following aspect.
**Freedom.** I assume that there are two major options for postdoctoral positions in regard to academic (research) freedom: 1) postdoctoral researcher joins a group, lab or project and contributes to one or more of *their* research projects under PI's guidance; 2) postdoctoral researcher joins a group, lab or department and contributes to one of those entities' research portfolio by conceptualizing and performing *her/his own* research (still under PI's guidance), based on previously negotiated agenda, which fits and supports larger groups' research themes.
**Question:** are my my assumptions correct; does a postdoctoral title reflect the type of freedom (or lack of) of the position?
**Note:** My field is *Information Systems*, a discipline, which can be considered as a sub-domain of *Management Science*, which, in turn, is a *social sciences* discipline.<issue_comment>username_1: The answer is a resounding *Yes*.
That is, it's not "either-or", but "both". On the one hand, as a postdoc, you will be expected to start coming up with your own research ideas and projects and take an active role in pitching your ideas to funding bodies, possibly even become PI on smaller grants yourself. Your supervisor will of course still play a major role.
On the other hand, your research should still tie in to your supervisor's area of expertise. Otherwise, why do you work with him and not someone else? And how should he help you with advice and contacts?
In the end, there will be a mixture between the two options you describe. When you join a group, you may respond to a job opening for a specific project, but even then, you will need to develop your own ideas in relation to this project and pursue your own interesting questions related to the project. Or you may have your own idea, possibly even your own funding, and more-or-less cold-call a potential supervisor, but even then, for the supervisor to accept you as a postdoc, you will need to explain to him how your idea ties in with his own work.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Follow the money!
At the end of a grant, the PI usually has to demonstrate to the funding agency that it was used for more or less the same research as was set out in the original proposal. If a postdoc is funded through such a grant, there will not usually be too much flexibility - *someone* has to do the work the PI has proposed, and it will probably be you. In large research projects, other people may be dependent on your piece of work being completed in a timely fashion. While many PIs will encourage you to develop your own ideas in parallel, the 'main' project must come first.
On the other hand, if the supervisor is not financially accountable to anyone for the funding (e.g. the postdoc is supported through the supervisor's startup grant), there may be more scope to pursue your own ideas. Whether the supervisor is happy with this depends on (a) the quality of your ideas, and (b) the supervisor's character.
At the most extreme end of the scale, you might be able to get a postdoctoral fellowship. These typically allow you to work entirely independently, on research of your own choosing. As such, you will not have a supervisor (but often one or more 'advisors' will be involved.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: As I'm currently pursuing an academic job search (in parallel to the industry one), which includes potential postdoctoral positions, I would appreciate some clarifications on the following aspect.
**Mixed applications.** At some institutions/departments (usually, large), I see multiple positions that I think I would fit well. Perhaps, one is the best, but, considering the tight competition, I consider it as a luxury to apply to a single position per institution. Important: unlike [that question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/14646/is-it-acceptable-to-apply-for-two-different-postdoc-positions-in-the-same-instit), this particular one is concerned with a situation, where multiple positions, which I consider, constitute a *mixture* of postdoctoral and staff [with some teaching- and/or research-related support component] positions.
**Question:** 1) assuming that the other positions are also quite interesting (and they are), is it a good idea to apply to all of them or apply to several in groups (of one or more) of decreasing excitement or stick to the most interesting or valuable? 2) do applications for teaching- or research-related staff positions jeopardize the ones for postdoctoral positions (or junior faculty ones, for that matter)?
**Note:** My field is *Information Systems*, a discipline, which can be considered as a sub-domain of *Management Science*, which, in turn, is a *social sciences* discipline.
**UPDATE (clarification).** This question is not an exact duplicate of the suggested question, even though they are very close. The question you're referring to, covers only a subset of my question's scenarios. For example, it doesn't cover one of my real cases, where there are several postdoc positions within the same department (lab) - no junior faculty positions there.<issue_comment>username_1: I imagine your application is composed by a cover letter as well.
I think it is appropriate that you explain in 1-2 lines that you are applying to another position within the same institute and explain the reason, as you have done in your question. It seems neither strange nor inappropriate to me.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I rarely find people applying to one job and moving on. Doing so involves a lot of risks. In applying to the one job you believe is best, and getting rejected, you keep delaying the hire date of the job you may get. In waiting for a response from your perfect job,the alternative positions may be filled or closed due to lack of appropriate candidates. Point is, the norm is for people to apply to multiple positions, across universities or departments, or even within the same department or doctoral college.
One person in their search applied for two positions within the same department, both of which he was well suited for; both positions will from here on out be referred to as positions A & B, respectively. The person preferred job A, but for reasons like the ones mentioned above, he applied to both. He was contacted for both positions and was deemed fit for both positions. The supervisors then realized that they had the same candidate; enter inter-departmental politics. Eventually, the supervisor of position A yielded and the person was assigned to position B. The point here being, there exists a possibility that it is no longer your choice which position you take once you apply to multiple positions in the same department/university, less so within the same field.
Also, if you receive an offer for a position less preferred and you accept, do not renege if you receive one for a position you prefer more. Aside from the ethical and moral issues, the person you just harmed will be your colleague in your field for many years to come; i.e. this may also harm you professionally.
As for the last part of your question, you'll find plenty of examples of people that occupy any number of roles as a PhD, lecturer, researcher or post-doc. People also tend to move fluidly between these positions. It's also worth mentioning that it is irregular for a post-doc or researcher to not lecture. This is as the post-doc/researcher requires students to fulfill certain portions of their research. To do so, the post-doc holds a lecture, at least, the moment they begin their work in order to attract students that are interested in his/her work while ensuring that they would research their part of the work while having the necessary foundation in place. This covers a post-doc that wants to lecture.
In the case of a lecturer that wants to apply for a post-doc position, you're directly in contact with the supervisors and have an insider's insight into their work. If anything, you could create your own post-doc position by attaining approval for supervision from a professor, and then securing your own funding from a funding institution (DARPA, etc.). In short, as far as I've seen, no, it doesn't harm your chances, but rather improves them.
Sorry for the long post. Hope it helps.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: Should a criminal lawyer, for example, have a solid background in biological sciences and ballistics? Or is it enough that he or she understands criminal law?<issue_comment>username_1: No one can be an expert in everything. Try and you'll likely end up mediocre at many things.
Like a general practicioner in medicine, lawyers need to know their field, have a working knowledge of the germane aspects of other fields, and to know when to call in an expert. It is my understanding that criminal lawyers routinely call in expert (subject) witnesses, both to inform the court and to provide a more objective opinion than the counsel of either side could.
Understanding criminal law is no mean feat, especially if we use understanding in the sense of "have it in my mind and can readily apply the relevant statutes to this case".
Tellingly, there is no prerequisite coursework for law school. If a layer had to master a body of knowledge outside the law to practice, then that other body of knowledge would be required for admission to law school or taught during law school. The exception which demonstrates this heuristic is patent law.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: This question can, in some ways, be extended to anyone who is at the intersection of several disciplines - be that lawyers, some types of researchers, etc.
So I'm going to give my answer in more general terms.
"Do you have to be an expert in everything that touches your field?" - **No**.
That's why we have experts. Doctors call in experts for consultations. Lawyers have expert witnesses. In my own work, I commonly find myself collaborating with experts in particular fields while working toward a more general problem. What *is* important is that you, the non-expert integrating their expertise, needs to be familiar enough with the ideas that you can critically evaluate what the expert said, ask questions, and not view their field as a black box for which answers come out that you just have to trust.
What, and how much, expertise is required for a particular field of law will vary very much by the type of law. For example, patent law likely requires a fairly extensive array of expertise (and indeed, I've seen it suggested that a degree in a technical field is a bonus for getting into patent law), financial law requires at least a passing understanding of accounting, but a small town sole practitioner is likely better served by knowing the name of the county clerk's children, and how the local sports team is doing.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: In academia in the US, the dominant name format is [firstName lastName]. And in APA citation format you typically cite by referring to the last name. So e.g. if <NAME> wrote a paper in 2014, you might cite it as *Doe (2014).*
More generally you'd cite by referring to the family name. So e.g. if the Chinese basketball player <NAME> wrote a paper in 2014, you would cite it as *Yao (2014),* since *Yao* is his family name and *Ming* is his given name. But there is typically no confusion anyway, because when East Asians publish in Western academia, they simply give in to Western convention and reverse the order of their names. So Yao Ming would typically simply have his name printed as Ming Yao. And so we're back to the [firstName lastName] format and there is no confusion.
My question is: What about patronymics? E.g. if <NAME> writes a paper in 2014, should he be cited as *Osama (2014)* or *bin Laden (2014)?* It seems that unlike with East Asians, people with patronymic names have been less inclined to give in to Western convention and reverse the order of their names. So his name would still appear as Osama bin Laden on the title page.
Suppose I notice that everyone simply cites his paper as *bin Laden (2014).* (Indeed, in the real world, this is how Western media outlets often refer to this historical figure, even though this makes as much sense as referring to George W. Bush as simply George.) If I want to cite this paper, should I simply follow what is now the convention and cite it as *bin Laden (2014),* even though this is mistaken? Or should I cite it as *Osama (2014),* at the risk of my peers having no idea which paper I am talking about? What is or should be the proper convention?
Note that this 'problem' is not limited to Muslim names. Even in Europe there are e.g. [Icelandic names](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_name). There are also some cultures where people go by a single given name (i.e. no last name/family name/surname) but which may sometimes be composed of more than one word (e.g. sometimes in Mongolia, Burma, South India, Indonesia).<issue_comment>username_1: Interesting question. The best thing would certainly be to consult the journal's style manual or, if this does not yield an answer (as is likely), to ask the editor. Their response is conclusive. Having said that, the issue seems to be very complex. There are no hard and fast rules. I quote from the "[Referencing Manual For IAIS students](https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10036/11244/Referencing%20Manual.pdf?sequence=3)" (Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exter):
>
> Some names are made up of fifteen or even twenty words, and it can be
> baffling at first glance to determine how to put the various elements
> in the right order. […] Any one of these elements can become the 'urf'
> (customary name).
>
>
> […]
>
>
> Once you have established the ‘urf, it is customary to follow this by
> the author’s given name (ism) and the name of his father (nasab)
> joined by the word ibn (son of – also written bin) or bint (daughter
> of) in the case of a woman.
>
>
> […]
>
>
> Surnames are a relatively recent phenomenon across the Islamic world
> and modern Arabic names only came into existence towards the end of
> the 19th century. It is now accepted practice, particularly in the
> West, to treat the final element of a person’s name as a surname and
> the first as a forename, so it is now correct to cite Taha Ḥusayn as
> Ḥusayn, Taha, although you will find Taha Husayn in older books and
> catalogues. The Western obsession with the surname can lead to some
> strange coinages, for example <NAME>’s full name is Ṣaddām
> ibn Ḥusayn al-Tikrītī, yet it is now standard to cite him by his
> father’s given name (Ḥusayn) as a surname. (Most second forenames
> indicate the father’s name, which is why names such as Aḥmad can be
> found as the second element in women’s forenames). Similarly, the form
> of given name `Abd (slave/servant of), followed by one of the
> ninety-nine names of God, should never be split from the element which
> follows it, although most Westerners still cite Jamāl ‘Abd al-Nāṣir
> (wrongly) as Nasser.
>
>
>
The referencing manual suggests to use the following established bibliographic resources to find the 'urf (customary name):
* the bibliography of a scholarly book (however, different sources will quote the same Arabic name in different ways)
* the Exeter University Library catalogue, which uses the best-known name in the Library of Congress transliteration
* the Encyclopaedia of Islam
* the Library of Congress Authority List
In all of these cases, problems with transliteration may render it difficult to look up the proper name.
The [University of Malaya's APA Formatting and Style Guide](http://www.umlib.um.edu.my/publications/APA-Guide.pdf) is another useful resource.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: **Use the patronymic. It is the part that looks like a surname, has the function of a surname, and is less likely to cause confusion**.
It seems clear enough to me. One of the two is a personal name, supposedly unique or almost unique among their relatives, which is used to address the author among his/her family. The other one serves to identify the author's lineage and distinguish among other people with the same name. By convention, we cite using the second.
One could argue that a surname is a form of patronymic, too.
This is, incidentally, the solution that causes less practical trouble. If someone is called <NAME>, it is difficult to assess if the latter is a surname or a patronymic without asking the author personally.
I know it is [not always](http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/) that easy with names, but it seems like there is a simple way out if the problem is limited to this issue of patronymic vs surname.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Some friends of mine [wrote a letter to *Nature* about this question](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v452/n7187/full/452530d.html), in which they argue that where family names don't exist, **first names alone** should be used instead of the father's name:
>
> Indians from the south traditionally do not have surnames. It is only when forced to comply with Western naming standards that they use their father's given name as a substitute. As a consequence, journal rules require them to publish research under the fathers' given names (with which we — Nalini, Jeevananthinee and Sujatha — also sign this Correspondence letter). Obviously, as young south Indian scientists making a contribution to science, we would prefer to be identified with our first names and not by our fathers' given names. [...] We believe that now is the time to introduce a consistent publication system that accommodates Indian names. The universal author-identification that uses contributor IDs, as discussed in your News Feature, is a good start. Such a system could be designed along the lines of the digital object identifier (doi) system used for journal articles.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: In my experience, the Korean case is not *clear.* This is because some Koreans change their name order, while others do not. What's more, some will change the order in some situations (academic publishing, for example) but not in others (academic social context in Korea mixing with Westerners). Thus, it can be unclear which of two or three syllables is the family name and which the given name. The political family Park is an example of Koreans not changing the name order -- and the U.S. media also retaining the original order (at least in this century).
Spanish names can also be a problem, since some have given, middle and last but others have given, last and mother's last.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I intend to apply to PhD programs in computer science, and I have been advised to reach out to professors I'm interested in working with by sending them my CV. My GPA is 3.6, which is not bad, but it's not great either. I think the rest of my CV/profile is quite positive, but I am not inclined to list my GPA for this 'reaching out CV', since it may create a bad first impression, even before I apply. So the question is whether I should leave my GPA on.<issue_comment>username_1: Conspicuously missing a CV makes a worse impression. The most important thing, in my view, is to take some time to properly understand what the professor is doing, and how you could help his/her research efforts. A thoughtful contact of this type is much more valuable than crafting the correct CV/profile.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: While people may not care very, very much about undergrad GPA, if you send a CV *without* it people may notice (even if not caring deeply), and wonder about it, ... which is not what you want them to be thinking.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I am now drafting a complaint letter to the editor-in-chief of a technical journal, against an act of plagiarism committed by a famous researcher in my field. This researcher is apparently aware of my original work, written three years prior to his/her work. I've been having trouble with two of my own submissions to the same journal. I suspect this researcher may have intentionally sabotaged my review process by either offering unfair comments or delay the review process, while his/her own submission got revised, accepted and published in a whirlwind. Ironically, this researcher did actually cite my only published work, a conference paper, and at the same time pretended that he/she didn't know that I did it, and helped him/herself to do it all over again.
I am somehow confident about the objectiveness of the editor-in-chief, although it might be that the AE is also involved in this misconduct. But in case my complaint is unfortunately ignored, what can I do to defend myself?
Can I directly contact the superior of this researcher's institution to bring up the complaint again, hoping to have a different result?
---
**Added later:** for those who is unclear about what I mean and downvoted my question, please compare the difference between:
Reference [xxx] already did it. The result shown here can be found in [xxx].
and
Reference [xxx] mentioned it. But it is really me that first give the result.
---
**Added much later:** someone suggests that this might be an insufficient attribution. If you were in my place, what will you do then?
Suppose I am this famous researcher and I found out a nobody is not giving me sufficient attribution, will the situation be completely different?
---
**Added much much later:** Many thanks for all the comments and replies. I have drafted my letter of inquiry very carefully after taking the many suggestions given to me. Nevertheless I am prepared to eat the shxt...fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice...
Now I think it is not true that the "game" is rigged for me just because I am a Chinese...if I received my education in one of the top universities in Europe or in the states, I would have a much lower chance of knowing people like this researcher in the first place...now it sounds like it is still because I am a Chinese...damn this life played with hard mode...<issue_comment>username_1: Given your addendum, what you are talking about is **not plagiarism**. It *might* be a case of insufficient attribution, but without seeing the papers and knowing the field it is impossible to tell.
You are guaranteed to fail in your efforts, and to make yourself look bad in the process, if you accuse this famous researcher of the wrong transgression simply because you don't know the difference between plagiarism and insufficient attribution.
As an aside, the fact that you don't know this difference makes me question whether you are able to objectively judge whether or not the researcher in question has violated the norms of your field. I'd strongly advise seeking advice from a trusted senior mentor before doing *anything*.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: First, take a deep breath. There are many unknowns here and your may be correct and at it may not. Yes, cases like you describe have happened. Usually persons acting this way will be fairly known for doing so. So try to assess if this person falls into this category. If it is a known trouble maker, you have a tough decision to make. Such personalities are not easy to handle and others may be reluctant do do so as well. If the person does not carry such a reputation, then you may have to question your judgement a little harder. In any case, assess the circumstances and try to gain some understanding of the players.
So what can be done. First of all, you should definitely feel free to approach the editor. But, you should not do it with a preconceived idea of where the problem looms. Instead, try to describe your issue without casting judgement and ask the editor for advise. Remember, the editor, in this case, is very likely completely oblivious to what may or may not have happened and has most likely acted in good faith. You need to have this perspective in mind in your approach since that sets the proper tone in your request(s) or questions.
The information in your question is of course to scarce to make a deeper analysis. What you can do is to visit the [COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics)](http://publicationethics.org/) web site and see if there are any cases described that carry similar contexts. This may give you an idea of how editors may act and likely outcomes of their actions.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: As the title says, I am a math postdoc. I am working on a project, which I expect will result in a long paper (60-100+ pages, I am not really sure yet). As I work along the way, I am getting results, which are probably interesting on their own.
I wonder if it would look bad on my resume if I will have many short papers (say, of less then 10-15 pages)? or having many papers at this stage of the career is good for me?
Should I balance between these two approaches? What are you thoughts on this, assuming I am interested in getting a tenure track position at a research university?<issue_comment>username_1: This really depends on the situation, and I suggest you consult with some colleagues/mentors/your advisor for your specific case. Here are a few points to keep in mind.
* If these results are completely separate, then it makes absolute sense to break things up into separate parts, then assemble the various needed results for the endgame of your project.
* If you're just continually improving results, it may not be worth while to publish every little improvement, particularly if they will not go into good journals, but you might want to look for natural breaks.
* One great paper is better than many mediocre papers, but at this stage you should equate a few good papers with one great paper.
* There's no general rule for how much you should publish, but a good rule of thumb is to aim to have at least decent 1 paper/year since you graduate. Keep in mind, that papers always take longer than expected, and the refereeing time is generally long in math (particularly more so for longer papers), so the sooner you can submit, the better.
So you should take into account the rest of your publication record, a conservative estimate of how long the project will take, and what quality of journals you can publish in if you break things up in to parts versus keeping it as a whole. If you can break things up and still publish in good journals, then I would say this is the safer way to make you a good candidate for tenure-track/second postdoc positions.
**Edit:** I just realized I didn't directly address the OP's second paragraph. It's not bad to have many papers at this stage if those are good papers (though it can initially look suspicuous if you have many more papers than your peers, and most don't appear in good journals). In some fields, it is normal to mostly write many short papers (and for certain subjects, all papers under 15 pages would be strange). What's most important is that people think you are doing good research, which will come primarily from letters of recommendations and secondarily your list of publications. So while you should think carefully and seek advice from colleagues on how to publish your papers, but one long paper versus a few short-medium papers will probably not affect your application too much if they're accepted by the time you apply.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: The answer depends on several questions:
Is there a natural way to split the paper? If chapter 1 uses algebra to show that the number of plimps equals the number of glops, chapter 2 uses complex analysis to count glops, and chapter 3 uses this to construct an improved database design, splitting seems possiblee. If you develop one idea over a long time and the reader builds up a general understanding of the topic, splitting looks bad.
Would different parts of the paper address different audiences? If your work is in area A, but has implications to area B, people from B might simply ignore a long paper dealing with stuff they don't understand and don't care about. In this case splitting would be good.
Have you other publications? A 60+ page paper in a serious journal makes a pretty good impression. People will take your smaller papers more seriously. If you have no smaller papers, the benefit of a big one is somewhat diminished. However, if people get the impression that you split papers to increase their numbers, your reputation is lost.
Where do you live? There are countries where the number of publications is seen as an objective measure of quality, there are countries where quality is determined in a formalized way, and there are countries where personal impression and reputation count.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: One consideration that hasn't come up yet is the issue of the amount of time it takes to get published in mathematics. In my experience, it is not uncommon for papers to be in the review stage for up to a year or more, and the longer the paper, the longer the review period.
Since you are a postdoc, you are going to be coming back onto the job market fairly soon and you'll want to have publications to put on your resume. Writing a 60-100 page treatise is going to have a diminished impact if it has not been accepted to a good journal yet. Assuming a 3 year postdoc and taking into account a 1 year review process, a rule of thumb would be to have at least one paper submitted by the fall of your second year and probably you should have more.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a recent Masters graduate in nanotechnology and I have applied for a reputed phd position. I will have an interview very shortly. Unfortunately my Masters grades are very bad and I believe that this will most likely come up as a question in the interview. I would like to know how I can explain those very low grades?<issue_comment>username_1: *Can* you explain your low grades? If so, give whichever explanation makes you look least bad *and is truthful*. There is no point in beating around the bush here. The grades are on your record and that is that.
The committee must have a reason why they invited you in spite of low grades. Ask yourself: How did I manage to impress the committee and get invited? Rather than come up with a justification for any deficits, I suggest you focus on these strengths. Try to shift the topic of the conversation toward what's positive in your application. You want to be remembered as the one with the awesome project, not as the one with the subpar grades.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: From your other question, have you studied in Italy and applying there? If so, I will try to answer with my own take from the country. Remember though:
**We cannot know why you have bad grades. We can only speculate.**
I am going to exclude any serious issues in your life, such as sickness or death in the family or economical hardships that got you to stop caring about grades; if this happened, I am sorry to hear it and I think it is great that you were able to finish your Master's nonetheless; on the other hand, that would be your reason: just tell them you have been through a rough time, so it was a challenge to simply graduate, let alone graduate well.
I bet the most likely reason why you have "bad" (how bad?) grades in Italy is that you accepted your grades no matter what, even when they were low, when you had a chance to refuse them and take the exams again.
* Maybe you did this because you wanted to graduate as quickly as possible and get a headstart in the field as a young graduate.
* maybe you took very difficult classes with strict professors and you did learn the material, but without much luck in the exams.
* Maybe you could not afford to stay in school for too long, so you finished quickly in order to move on with your life.
* Maybe you were just unlucky in a few, "heavy" exams, and the other grades could not raise your GPA back up. This happened to me in my B.Sc. and I was recently asked about it in an interview; in my first year, not wanting to disappoint my family, to drag on my studies, to repeat some exams I did not like, I accepted some bad grades that affected my GPA throughout my B.Sc.
I can only repeat what other people have told you: first of all *be truthful* about it and remember that if your grades had been really THAT bad, you would not have been contacted for an interview. Try to understand why they liked your application enough and play those strengths.
Upvotes: 0
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| 1,128
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<issue_start>username_0: I am working on a machine learning project for which I need proper computational power. Assuming that my local university can't provide a server to run the code, I am looking for an online website which sells virtual servers for limited time — as in a month or less.
I heard that some companies provide free servers for students if they prove their status as students — but I failed to find anything with a search on Google. Is there anywhere which provides virtual high performance servers suitable for academic use?
---
One of the reasons I ask this question on Academia Stack Exchange is that most of the VPSs you can find on the net are more focused on the quality of bandwidth and connectivity, but I am just focused on CPU and Memory setting (I just need to run a Matlab or Octave program).
P.S.: This question is related to the subject matter at Server Fault and Super User, but those sites are almost completely focused on servers suitable for web-based applications. Also, they don't know about the opportunities provided for students for free or at low cost.<issue_comment>username_1: In most countries, there exist high performance computers that researchers can apply for access to. For example, in Sweden there is the [National Supercomputer Centre](https://www.nsc.liu.se/), and other countries have similar projects. When you get access, you get a limited number of core-hours (for example, if you have 5000 core hours, you can run 50 cores for 100 hours or 500 cores for 10 hours) to be used over a specific period of time (for example, one year).
To apply for access, you may have to go through someone who is employed at a university, if you aren't. If you are a student, you hopefully have a supervisor who can apply for your project. Or they might have special services for students!
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: **Amazon** provides cloud computing resources (in particular *EC2* virtual machines) for free for the first year and, most likely, offers discounts for educational institutions and/or faculty/students.
In addition to Amazon's offerings, **Microsoft** provides attractive programs, based on their *Azure* platform and focused on educational sector. Some of the programs are free of charge (require application). You can get more detailed information on the relevant [Azure for Education](http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/community/education) webpage.
P.S. Converted my Amazon comment to this answer due to addition of information on Azure.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: The [Github Education Pack](https://education.github.com/pack) comes with 100$ free credit on [DigitalOcean](http://www.digitalocean.com), which hosts virtual machines on the cloud.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: If you're doing machine learning, I assume most of your compute time is coming from floating point calculations.
If this is the case, You could gain quite an increase in performance by using a GPGPU library like [CUDA](https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-zone) or [Theano](http://deeplearning.net/software/theano/).
Amazon has [GPU focused instances](https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/#gpu) that you can use for GPGPU work
Amazon also has [virtual HPC](https://aws.amazon.com/hpc/) systems that probably fit your current use case.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: [R-Systems](http://www.rsystemsinc.net/) will rent you time on their bare-metal HPC utility cluster for quite low prices. They charge by usage, rather than on a subscription basis.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_6: This may turn out to be more work than you are willing to commit, but perhaps it is worth mentioning [BOINC](https://boinc.berkeley.edu/).
You can set up your computation task appropriately and have it run on computer time donated by volunteers who participate.
Ensuring that your code is compatible with this distributed model, and enticing volunteers to run your project, is of course a separate problem.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: At this time of year (Summer) many universities have large undergraduate computer labs that are mainly empty and idle. If your project is recognised by your university then you may be able to get access to those computer labs officially sanctioned.
I did this at my institution one year and gained agreement to install a small program at boot time on every campus machine in a teaching lab and was able to gain access to an huge computing resource for free and generate results that surpassed even what those using a dedicated HPC had achieved.
It does take skill at negotiation and a demonstration of your competence to convince those who have control at campus level, but the results might be worth it.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently reviewed a paper for a math journals. I recommended to reject the paper but my decision was overridden because of two other positive reviews. Is it a common practice to ask to see the other reviews ?
I am curious about what the other reviewers thought of the paper. I am not going to fight about the paper acceptance or anything, I am just being curious.<issue_comment>username_1: Some journals have a policy to make all reviews available to all parties involved (Referees and Authors), so the *practice* is not uncommon.
Some journals have a policy to *not* make the reviews available to all Referees. In this case I think to *request* it of a curiosity is quite unorthodox. The decision to accept / reject the paper is made by the Editor, who consults the Referees for their expertise in a particular area. As a Referee, I would expect my opinion to be heard by the Editor, but other than that, I do not assume the Editor to be obliged to make a decision I recommend and/or to explain the decision to me.
Some (smaller) journals do not have a policy re this question. In this case you could try to *very politely* ask about it. Politeness is a key.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I'm writing this in my role as an editor: if I had assigned a younger colleague as a reviewer, and said colleague asked me for the other reviews because they want to learn what others see in a paper, I would usually be happy to forward them to her. Everyone wins if we help younger researchers find their bearings what is or is not expected in a review.
That said, there must be an understanding that the other reviews I forward will remain confidential and will not be distributed further. I imagine if you write to the editor who had assigned the paper to you, ask for the other reviews and explain why you'd like to see them, and promise confidentiality, then you may be able to get them.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: In the final exam of a course, a student has solved some problems in a really ingenious way.
He gets perfect score anyway.
What is the appropriate way to inform him about my appreciation of his solutions?
(Also what if I don't have the occasion to meet him again?)<issue_comment>username_1: Just write the student an email and express your appreciation. Don't overthink this. Then again, don't go over the top ("you are the best student I *ever* had") - you never know how he will take this.
Depending on how well you know the student and on whether you would actually be willing to do so, inform him that you would be happy to write a glowing recommendation for him if he ever needs one, e.g., for admission to grad school.
And as [Compass comments](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47021/how-to-inform-a-student-about-my-appreciation-of-his-her-original-solutions#comment108127_47021), think about how you can help the student develop even further. Do you have any follow-up courses, maybe even advanced ones that the student would usually not take but that you think he would be able to follow? Tell him. Can you give him a research project? Take him on as an Research or Teaching Assistant?
---
At some point, this turns from "helping the student grow" to "nurturing your own future grad student", and that's OK. This is a mutually beneficial thing, after all. And it's never too early to snap up the promising students. If you don't do it, others will.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Well, as a student, I will be glad if my work gets appreciated. Recognition like these act as confidence booster. But, don't overdo it, as it may make student think too high of himself.
Assuming that the final exam sheets are returned to the students, you can attach a (very) short note appreciating his ingenuity. Trust me, I get excited even on a simple "Good Job!" on my exam sheet (my professor does it rarely though). Other option could be to write him a short email. You may invite him to have a discussion on what further he can do with the ideas he demonstrated in the answer sheet. Depending on how high you think of his subject knowledge, you can offer him a TA job, as pointed by <NAME>.
But, most importantly, you should make sure that the student does something big with his talent, by referring him a book, an online course, or any other course in your or other department.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: You already did: you gave him a perfect score.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: I know a professor who writes a special note to top 5 students in his class. Something along the line of :
>
> "congratulations on a great job in my class ABD255 ... specially I appreciate the way you handled assignment 5.".
>
>
>
He also offers any recommendation letters that the student might need in the future and an open invitation to do master thesis with him. These are some good ways of showing your appreciation as they will likely count towards the student's career.
Upvotes: 3
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| 2,055
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a year ahead of my physics curriculum, but I plan to stay as an undergrad for the 4th year to increase my chances at top graduate schools in physics. In this 4th year, I will take all the graduate courses in physics a typical 1st/2nd year PhD student would take: two semesters of quantum mechanics and a semester each of statistical physics and electrodynamics.
My question is: is it worth it taking all of these graduate courses as an undergrad? From what I know, most universities don't accept transfers in graduate courses and I would have to take them again.
I would still like to take them because I am eager to learn them, and also achieving good grades in them would help me demonstrate my readiness for graduate school.
Other option would be taking courses in other disciplines that would benefit me, such as math or electrical engineering.<issue_comment>username_1: Research experience is almost always better than additional classes, even graduate classes. Either graduating early so that you can work/volunteer full time in a research lab or taking the minimum number of credits to maintain your status as a student and work/volunteer part time in a research lab is likely going to increase your chances of admissions to a top graduate school much more than taking a full load of classes.
If you go with taking classes, classes that fulfil general graduate requirements are going to be less valuable than classes that will help prepare you for your research.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: In the US system, it's important to distinguish between transfering academic credits from one university to another versus simply having required courses waived on the basis of work that you did at another university.
Most graduate programs significantly limit transfer of credits from other institutions. A common rule is that you can't transfer more than 12 credit hours from another institution. Furthermore, you typically can't transfer credits that you used to earn a previous degree. If these courses that you'll be taking next year appear on your undergraduate transcript, then its unlikely that they would be transferable. The more common situation in which graduate credits would be transferred is when a student switches from one graduate program to a graduate program at another university.
However, it is also possible that the graduate program that you go to might be willing to recognize that you had previously taken these graduate courses by waiving the requirement that you take the courses again, and instead let you take other more advanced or elective courses instead of repeating the same material. You can always ask for this consideration, but I wouldn't count on getting it.
In my experience, it's quite common for students to end up retaking graduate courses that they took as advanced undergraduate students at another university. In other cases, the student may have taken a very good undergraduate course that basically covers the same material as the graduate course. Some students find this very boring, while other students find that it makes for an easy first couple of semesters of graduate school.
I don't think that there's anything wrong with taking these graduate courses, but you should be aware that there's a good chance that you'll end up having to retake the same courses in your graduate program. If your math background isn't very strong, then taking some additional math courses (particularly mathematical physics, PDE's, and analysis courses) could help and likely wouldn't overlap with required course work in your graduate program.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Taking the graduate classes will indeed help prepare you for graduate school, and consequently will also help you get into a top graduate program, particularly if you are not coming from a top undergrad school.
At least in math, it's not uncommon to test out of standard graduate classes when you start a grad program. And if you go to a grad program that is considerably better than your current school, the grad classes will probably be at a more advanced level, so it will probably not be a waste to take (at least some of) them over. At the least, if you retake these courses, they will be easier next time and you will have extra time then that you can use to learn things more deeply.
I don't think it makes sense to take classes in other areas just because you are worried about retaking the material in graduate school, but if you want to take a class in a related area because you're interested or you want to shore up some deficiency, that's a different story. But you should be studying at least some physics next year, if that's your passion.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: (Making @username_3's points perhaps even more forcefully...) If you are interested in experimental physics, I have no real advice, but if you are interested in theoretical physics, I will assume for the sake of discussion that the situation resembles that of mathematics. In that case, in fact the question as posed involves implicit hypotheses that (I think) far over-shadow the literal question asked. That is, to get to the best grad program one can, letters of recommendation (from people in the field, who've had contact with you at the highest level *you* can manage) are critical. So making an excellent impression in graduate-level courses would be a great thing, apart from "taking the class" per se.
For that matter, witnessing how (presumably) seasoned experts talk about more-sophisticated (grad-level rather than undergrad, anyway) material ought to be educational and inspirational in itself, beyond the literal content (which should be accessible in written sources).
For that matter, I think it misses the mark to think of a "program" as essentially following a schedule of classes and perhaps *only* doing what is commanded by the coursework, homework, exams. It is permitted to read other books, papers, and to think about math (or physics...) as much as one wants. A reason to "take classes" is for easy *documentation* (and meeting faculty). Private study is hard to document.
Finally, the psychological element of *familiarity*/comfort matters hugely, in my observation. That is, the longer one has been aware of a thing, the more comfortable one is (even without "mastery"), and often the comfort/discomfort issue is a large cognitive load feature. New/scary things are harder to think about. So looking around and being exposed to things as far in advance as possible is a very good thing.
Finally, at least for "theoretical" subjects such as parts of mathematics and physics, the popular attempted distinction between "study" and "research" is crazily misleading, in my opinion. True, if "study" means some stultifying on-command busywork, that's not so good, but "research" might also mean blundering about in a fog of ignorance, so that could be bad too. The good versions of both, that is, spending one's time thinking about math/whatever, are fundamentally indistinguishable from each other.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: I was in your same position myself as an undergrad rushing to grad school. My interests evolved as I found out more about other fields. I had *thought* physics might get me what I wanted, and followed it through as fast as I could, only to learn that what I really wanted to do matched up better with other fields.
I would recommend taking the opportunity to plug some gaps in your knowledge that can come in handy in graduate school.
If you're interested in theory, make sure you brush up in mathematics. Typically you only need to take the basic calculus sequence in physics, so maybe take a higher-level analysis class to supplement your understanding. Linear algebra is indispensable, take an upper level version if you can.
If you think you might be doing a lot of computational work, take some computer science as well: take software engineering and learn a language well (I suggest python). If you can program pretty well already, then I'd suggest taking an algorithms class. You're never taught to program well, and yet, you need to! I learned this first-hand when my computational code for research would get stuck forever and never return an answer. With the correct understanding and algorithms, that code can be written to give an answer in 5 seconds.
If you're interested in a more experimental route, take some chemistry and electrical engineering courses. Chemistry will get you some hands-on experience with some equipment that you will often touch as a graduate student when testing your samples, as well as different perspective on the theory. You may need to fabricate your own devices to gather data (or repair them...) so it can't hurt to be familiar with circuits, so take a good EE class. Signal processing (typically also an EE class) will really come in handy.
There's many options, so just take what seems interesting and useful and go with the flow. It's certainly not a bad idea to get a preview of grad school and take more physics, but I would definitely take your time and explore other areas too before you go to grad school, it will absolutely pay off.
Upvotes: 1
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| 715
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<issue_start>username_0: I am applying for an F31 Diversity Grant for Predoctoral studies to support my 3-5 year of PhD studies. There is no mention of needing to submit transcript of grade with the application. Is this true? Does the NIH not require transcripts for F31 applications? Are applications solely graded on the merit of the proposal or do student grades also considered?<issue_comment>username_1: Each NIH grant comes with extensive guidance. For the [<NAME> National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research](http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-14-148.html) the guidance says
>
> Note that scores for standardized exams (e.g., MCAT, GRE) as well as a listing of the applicant’s courses and grades must be included in the Fellowship Applicant Biographical Sketch, and NOT in this attachment.
>
>
>
The guidance also says
>
> Follow the instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Individual Fellowship Application Guide to ensure you complete all appropriate “optional” forms.
>
>
>
[SF424 (R&R)](http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/SF424_RR_Guide_Fellowship_VerC.pdf) refers you back to PA-14-148.
In general, it is advisable to talk to the Program Officer at the NIH whenever you are considering applying for a grant/fellowship. They are more than happy to help navigate you through the submission process and generally can provide you with invaluable insight about how to improve your application. Each institute at the NIH and each funding mechanism has a different Program Officer, but they are generally pretty easy to find online.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The Program Announcement (I believe the current one) for this Program is probably <http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-14-148.html#_Section_IV._Application>
These announcements tell you (or point you to) *ALL* the info you need to apply. This one states:
>
> Note that scores for standardized exams (e.g., MCAT, GRE) as well as a listing of the applicant’s courses and grades must be included in the Fellowship Applicant Biographical Sketch, and NOT in this attachment.
>
>
>
So yes, if this is the announcement, you need to provide this info, and it needs to go into your BioSketch. Whether you need to use the (ugh) new biosketch format or not, I can't tell you.
The best advice is to ask the office at your school that coordinates sponsored research, as well as have a chat with the program officer involved with this PA at the institute you would be applying to.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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| 733
| 3,491
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a newly appointed editor to a top journal. I have received my first manuscript assignment. I see in the journal system that the authors have provided preferences for reviewers for their paper.
I was wondering what is the norm like with respect to this. Do editors normally go by author's preference or do they ignore it? What factors should I take into account before considering author preference of reviewers?
On one hand this makes my task of searching appropriate reviewers easy but I suspect this might also give an unfair edge to the authors if the reviewers have some/any kind of bias.<issue_comment>username_1: The way the preferred reviewers are used varies. Some go by these suggestions whole-heartedly while others do not. I lean towards the latter since my experience with some preferred names is less than favourable.
In my experience names listed can be good. I usually double check to see if persons seem affiliated in some way and if they do I avoid appointing them. As a rule, however, I try to find persons independently and based on my own experience. I tend to use the preferred names as back-ups unless my preference and the authors coincide.
The reason for my slight aversion towards the preferred is that some authors tend to list friends and other persons who are obviously close to the authors. I have seen many low quality reviews come out from such reviewers an clearly at a rate very different from independently chosen reviewers. Judging what is too close is not easy and sometimes it may be justified if, for example, the topic is such that local knowledge comes into play. For the reason of uncertainty I therefore try to at least mix them up so that one is chosen by me independently and the other is selected from the authors suggestions.
So, try to assess the quality of the preferred reviewers and at least try to find some to complement a preferred reviewer will be my advice.
It is also common that authors list non-preferred reviewers. I always stay clear of such reviewers since I do not know what lies beneath the sentiment.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I assume you're one new member of an established editorial board, with an Editor in Chief and other members of the board fully involved. Why not ask them what the convention is for this particular journal?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Be extra careful when following authors' suggestions for suitable peer reviewers. There has been a recent case of authors suggesting fabricated contacts as "reviewers", as described on <http://publicationethics.org/news/cope-statement-inappropriate-manipulation-peer-review-processes>. That case led some publishers to stop asking for reviewer suggestions explicitly within their submission processes.
Measures of caution that I find useful include:
* Only choose an author-suggested reviewer if you can verify independently that this person is suited as reviewer, ideally from your own prior knowledge.
* Don't use the contact address provided by the authors, but use a contact address that you can obtain independently, for example from the reviewer's university web page.
* Verify very carefully that there's no conflict of interests for that reviewer, for example joint publications, same affiliations also in the recent past, or similar.
* Don't make a decision if you only have reviews from author-suggested reviewers, but have at least one independently chosen reviewer.
Upvotes: 3
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| 1,312
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<issue_start>username_0: Is there any research/study that looked at the extent to which the prospect of a guaranteed-for-life job (tenure) motivate researchers to stay in academia?
I am most interested in the United States and the field of computer science.<issue_comment>username_1: I'll respond based on anecdotal evidence, but over 30+ years, worrying about my several PhD students, and partly in a role as director of grad studies in math, giving career advice, etc. My experience is in math, not comp sci, though.
In any case, even 25 years ago, it was clear (both anecdotally and documentably by the AMS at the time, although not so accessibly, due to lack of internet...) that the "golden days" of academic math (at least) were waning, because of growth of PhD production that surpassed growth of academic positions. There had indeed been a boom of branch campuses, but that had roughly stabilized c. 1990. Some very good people (including some of my own students) got tenure at a branch campus in rural areas, but/and decided that the heavy teaching load and isolation was not what they'd signed on for.
By the mid-90s, the job market was consistently tight enough so that new PhDs with partners very often opted for non-academic trajectories, but so they'd not have to commute crazy distances, and so they could have a family with both parents participating. Hard to argue with that. The former "monastic" model of academe, or of infinitely-accommodating spouse, etc., is not acceptable these days. (I've tried long-distance stuff myself, too, and, sad-to-report, it really only works well when one is secretly glad to be apart... uh,...)
In the last several years, some of the most able and motivated grad students have had the sense to realize that, in particular, their chances to make a big-enough contribution to get a permanent job at an R1 place were pretty slim... and they didn't want to stay in academe "at all costs", so shifted their energies to avenues where being smart, motivated, and hard working had a better chance to pay off (these days). (See @DavidZ's comment.)
I've followed up with some of the people who *did* stay in academe and settled in relatively remote areas at small branch campuses, and, while they're "ok", they have "confessed" that it wasn't at all what they'd hoped for. Some speculation (obviously plausible) that without forced retirement, there's a lot of "waiting around" for better positions to open. (Not unlike situations in Europe, as I gather from friends there, where saturation had occurred much earlier, apart from mandatory retirement issues.)
The palpable corporatization and commodification (or at least the greater visibility of it) of higher education does also seem to have a consistently disenchanting effect on undergrads' choices about what to do after their B.S. in math (e.g., going to work for an insurance company... is (even?) more attractive now than it may have been in the past, and for some people seems vastly more viable than "grad school"...)
Although I suppose one should always be wary that possibly one's own cumulative disenchantment interferes with perceptions of others' opinions, I do have a rough idea of our local "stats" about academic versus non-academic positions for PhD'd people: once upon a time, everybody went into academe, but nowadays perhaps as many as 1/3 of each year's PhD's do not.
Even disregarding the mandatory retirement issue, it's simply not a time of expansion for higher ed... but/and the element of Ponzi-scheme of academe has no mechanism built in to reduce PhD production without finding someone else (adjunct faculty!?!) to exploit... or else (in the case of math) teaching loads would skyrocket, etc.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: (This answer is about tenure in the United States.)
One convincing economic interpretation of tenure is that it is a form of non-monetary compensation. Of course, not every field is ripe with high-paying industry jobs. But academia is generally full of bright and motivated people who could do other things if they chose to leave academia, and salaries in academia are often lower than jobs in industry. This is particularly true in computer science at the moment, because of the booming tech sector. Tenure helps universities keep at least some faculty who might otherwise leave.
Sure, someone might be able to raise their salary by leaving academia, but they would also gain more employment risk. Small businesses (e.g. startup companies) often fail, and even larger businesses often lay off workers by the hundreds. By comparison, universities may seem quite stable, and with tenure someone has a much higher expectation of not needing to look for alternate employment. So the security of tenure may help to compensate (through lower risk) for the lower salary.
There are changing circumstances in higher education, and the analysis just presented may not be as compelling as it was 20 year ago. Not all universities seem very stable nowadays. And there are challenges with the tenure system that evolved in the 20th century. But perhaps the bigger question is whether academia, by promoting security over salary, might over-attract people who are simply risk-averse, rather than those would would be the best professors.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I completed my postgraduate studies in France where, unless I am mistaken, librarians that work in an academic library do more or less the same work as, say, librarians that work in a public library.
When I started to seek information about faculty jobs in Canada, I was struck by the fact that librarians seem to be pretty much considered as faculty.
Is that a fact? Is it the same in the United States? Is in the same in different types of institutions, i.e. more or less research/teaching-oriented?
I have looked at a few faculty collective agreements, and it seems like they usually include librarians. They seem to have pretty much the same working conditions, e.g. in terms of salary, sabbaticals and workload. The last agreement I read specified that librarians have a maximum of 12 hours of "schedules student contacts", in the same article that specifies that professors teach a maximum of 12 credits per year.
I would like to know what exactly is the job of an academic librarian, besides acting as "regular" reference librarians. I suppose they must keep up with the progress in their field and be able to assess the relevance of journal subscriptions and book purchases, but that probably doesn't account for the missing 23–28 hours a week.
Do librarians actually perform and publish research? If so, would that be mostly in their respective field, or in library and library science? Do they have tenure, and is the process similar to the one applied to professors?
Also, how does one become an academic librarian? Do you need an MLIS like a "regular" librarian? Do you need a PhD, and if so, must it be a PhD in library and information science, or in a field related to the position?<issue_comment>username_1: At many (but by no means all) universities in the US and Canada, professional librarians (usually with a terminal Master's of Library Science degree or perhaps a PhD in some academic discipline) are treated as members of the faculty, including eligibility for tenure, participation in shared governance, etc.
In many other universities, librarians are staff members and not considered part of the faculty. In a few places, there is a mixture with some librarians on the tenure track and other librarians who might have an MLS degree who are strictly staff members. Most libraries also have lots of support staff and student employees who aren't professional librarians.
In places where librarians are considered faculty, they are usually expected to be involved in some kind of scholarly (research) activity and in teaching students. For example, a librarian who specializes in archival collections might produce a catalog of a special archive and publish it. Librarians often teach courses in how to use the library to do research and might be involved in teaching courses in library science to future librarians.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Librarians are awarded tenure at the City University of New York. The educational requirements are an MLS and a subject Master's degree or an MLS and/or Ph.D. Like tenured professorships, librarians must publish. I suppose there are a few exceptions, but most follow these requirements.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I received an associates degree in computer science from a junior college and then transfered to an university to pursue my bachelors degree. I am almost finished with that and I plan on continuing towards a masters degree. A lot of classmates tell me that you should get your masters degree from a different school then the one your received your bachelors from. Is this true? Why? Should you get your PhD from the same school your got your masters?
EDIT:
Thank you all! This helps me a lot!<issue_comment>username_1: It is commonly accepted that it is generally better for a student who is going on to an academic career to get their PhD at a different institution from where they got their MS. For an academic, the place where you got your PhD is generally more important than where you got your bachelor's degree and that it is important to have a PhD from the very best program that you can get into. Studies have shown that PhDs from the top programs are much more successful than PhDs from lower ranked programs.
There are lots of middle tier universities with good undergraduate programs that adequately prepare students for graduate study but that don't have very strong graduate programs. If you're at one of those institutions, then you'd be well advised to "move up" to a better institution for your PhD.
You've asked this question specifically about your MS degree, where this is much less of an issue. If you're getting a terminal masters and planning to work in industry, then it probably won't hurt to get your BS and MS at the same institution. If you're planning to get your BS and MS at the same institution and then go somewhere else for a PhD then having gotten your BS and MS at the same institution won't be a problem either.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As for your question regarding Why?
As far as I understand this is to be able to get more academic exposure to different ideas. One could imagine that someone who trained for around 8-10 years in the same place might leave with some bias from working with the same people and being exposed to the same ideas for that period of time.
I completed my BS and MS at the same university and then traded institutions for my PhD. This wasn't as much for academic exposure as finding the best program for me. However, having made the switch I have appreciated the different environment and meeting new people. I have only positive things to say about going to a different institution for more advanced degrees.
This advice is most relevant when considering institutions for a PhD. Someone who is pursuing a terminal masters degree probably doesn't need to worry much about going to a different institution.
Of course you will find many people who agree and disagree with this rule. I know several people who got all their degrees from the same institution and are doing just fine and others who decided to go to a different institution. The bottom line is you need to find the program that is going to fit you best.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: It is not necessary to get your masters degree from a different school then the one your received your bachelors from. The choice is entirely yours. Although there are a few things to consider while making your choice;
1) the job prospects in the area: what are the chances of you getting accepted by your potential employers.
2) your choice of subject and area: Computer Science is one of the STEM subjects which has favorable job prospects all across the US. But it would be easier for you if you were to earn a degree New York then job hunt in New York rather than in Alaska.
3) research and compare the reputations of Unis and tuition fees: it would do any good if you found out that your undergraduate uni has greater reputation than your new uni. The reputation of a Uni matters to quite an extent when you are getting a job after all your studies.
Upvotes: 1
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2015/06/12
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<issue_start>username_0: I find myself constantly being told I should not intentionally jot down example problems but understand the core logic of a topic. But some of my high level math classes tend to have very few examples and mainly definitions, i.e. words. Is it sound to keep a notebook of example problems related to the topic so you have a more practical understanding of the subject?<issue_comment>username_1: To answer your question: Yes you should.
As has been noted already by fuesika you should think about the problems, but ultimately you become better at something by practicing it. Being a physics student I found it very helpful for the understanding of some of the graduate courses in math to have a set of problems/examples. A set of exmples or practical problems (here: real-world problems) allowed me to see the core use of the mathematical statements. Sometimes math is an art stating something easily understandable in a way such that only those initiated in math are able to understand it.
Knowing all the definitions might not hurt you, but it is not a necessary condition for the understanding of a topic. You can learn the definitions etc. in all their beauty after you understand the structure of the subject/course/problem and to this end I think that having a set of problems is indispensable.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> I find myself constantly being told I should not intentionally jog down example problems but to understand the core logic of a topic.
>
>
>
You're offering a false dichotomy. If you can't generate concrete working examples, you don't really understand the definitions; conversely, if you can't prove things from the definitions, you don't really understand the examples. You should **both** work through examples **and** understand the definitions; the two approaches strongly reinforce each other. In particular:
* If you are given only examples, you should figure out appropriate formal definitions and core logic yourself. Aim for both simplicity and generality. Look for weird corner cases. Work out new examples that stress-test your definitions.
* If you are given only formal definitions and few or no examples, you should work out several new examples yourself. Aim for examples that both illustrate and stress-test the definitions. Together your examples should exercise *every* case, *every* word, and *every* symbol in the definitions. Failure to cover the definitions completely may mean that the definitions can be simplified; success may mean that the definitions can be generalized.
Write everything down. Fail, revise, repeat.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Yes, I believe it's a good idea.
>
> I find myself constantly being told I should not intentionally jog
> down example problems but to understand the core logic of a topic.
>
>
>
It depends on how it's done. If the speaker or instructor puts an example up that you can later retrieve and he/she is focusing on telling you about the underlying logic, then lay down the pen and listen actively first. Most of the times this kind of comments were given when instructors want to give a fuller picture but everyone is just scribbling madly.
>
> Is it sound to keep a notebook of example problems related to the
> topic so you have a more practical understanding of the subject?
>
>
>
Yes, but be flexible about the linkage between question and the underlying theory. Do not silo a certain question into a theory or vice versa. Instead, frequently revisit them and evaluate how different questions and theories can be interchanged, compared, combined, contrasted, etc. Some software function like hyperlinks and tags on EverNote would be an ideal tool to do that.
An added advantage is that if you later become a TA or a faculty you would have a good collection of applications. So, do yourself a favor and note the source of your examples as well so that you don't have to frantically look for them later.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: I think it's important to know questions and how they might be asked so you won't be blown away during tests. I normally find myself better prepared if I know HOW questions are going to be asked since each test and teacher/professor might ask it in a different way.
But if you are recording the question to memorize the answer, then yes that would fall into the pattern of not understanding the fundamentals.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: My dentist is Dr. Wang and my physician is Dr. O'Connor but I also refer to my professor as Dr.
Are these the same titles? Did they all achieve what it took to get a Dr. title?<issue_comment>username_1: These "doctors" typically all took at least eight years of college work (four undergraduate, four graduate) to get their degrees. In the case of medical doctors, there was usually a long internship involved, although PhDs often take internships or teaching positions alongside their degree work.
Most doctors are PhD's, (doctors of philosophy) with a lot of academic knowledge, while medical doctors (M.D.s or D.O.s) have loads of "work experience" in addition to their academic credentials.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: While all those titles share the same [linguistic roots](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_%28title%29), obviously, the meaning is somewhat different. When referring to a Ph.D., term *doctor* is used in the context of *general knowledge* acquisition. That is why the full title is [doctor of philosophy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy), where philosophy implies "love of wisdom". On the other hand, a medical doctor (M.D.) or Doctor of Osteopathic medicine (D.O.) title or one of [dental doctor titles](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_degree) refers to a specialist in one or more areas of medicine. A relatively popular alternative term for medical doctor is [physician](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician), which some people might confuse with with physicist. The origins of the word "physician" and its relation to the word "doctor" are discusses in [this interesting article](http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/01/28/2011/science-diction-the-origin-of-physician.html) in *Science Friday*.
The original meaning of the word "doctor" as "license to teach" has likely been transferred to the medicine knowledge domain IMHO due to the important role of one of the cornerstones of science that medicine played at that particular time period and place (medieval Europe). You may also find additional interesting information in [this related discussion](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/57387/which-was-the-first-doctor-m-d-or-ph-d) on *StackExchange*.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm currently applying for lecturing jobs at a couple of universities (in the US), and one of these is a place that had accepted me in its Ph.D. program a few years back, an offer which I ended up turning down to go somewhere else (this was done in a very courteous way and I do not believe I left a bad impression).
1. Do you think my history with the school could have an adverse effect on my current application?
2. If not, is there any reason to mention somehow that I applied to their graduate program (I'm worried that if I avoid the "elephant in the room" they might become suspicious)?<issue_comment>username_1: There are many reasons why people choose to go to one program over the other. While there might be some thin-skinned people, I don't think that should lead you to rule out applying. Since applying to a job at a school is minimal cost to you, you should go ahead and do it.
Much more likely is that the only person who remembers is the person who would have been your POI. I wouldn't bring it up unless someone asks.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: This is not bad. I did this exact thing. Hopefully they remember the application and the good things they thought about you!
I had personally met with someone that I wanted to be my advisor for my PhD and then ended up going somewhere else for my PhD. Five years later, I explicitly asked the person I turned down to be my PhD advisor to be my Postdoc sponsor for a grant I was applying for. I am now his postdoc. He had remembered me, and now we have a great working relationship.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: As others have said, basically go for it!
I just wanted to add the following responses.
1. No, they gave you an offer and you weren't rude so it will only be positive if they do remember it.
2. Don't bring it up but if they do, use the opportunity to say that you applied previously because you believe it is a good school and still do!
There are lots of opportunities to twist any awkward questions around this into a big positive, discussing how you have developed since your PhD, what you have gained/can bring to the school, what you liked about it then and now etc.
The worst question would be why did you turn down our PhD offer X years ago, it would be **very** weird for them to ask this as its irrelevant really. If they did, just make sure you could say something suggesting the school is the best option for you **now** and at this stage of your career.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: It is quite likely the people considering your lectureship candidacy are not aware you were accepted as a Ph.D. candidate and declined eventually. Probable, even, unless it's a very small department.
So my answers are: "Naah" and "Dude, no. Don't. Seriously."
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a student from Greece, studying Rural and Surveying Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) which is a 5-year minimum diploma involving 61 courses and a thesis (300 ECTS).
My goal is to get admitted to a master's degree program on Civil Eng and I am looking at the Colorado state universities because I have a relative there that can provide a place to stay.
So the question arises:
* Do I have any chance of admission since I do NOT have a bachelor's in civil engineering?
* And if I do get admitted and finish the master's, will I then have the full rights of a civil engineer?
In Greece, you only receive full rights via the bachelor's degree and not the master's degree.<issue_comment>username_1: There are many reasons why people choose to go to one program over the other. While there might be some thin-skinned people, I don't think that should lead you to rule out applying. Since applying to a job at a school is minimal cost to you, you should go ahead and do it.
Much more likely is that the only person who remembers is the person who would have been your POI. I wouldn't bring it up unless someone asks.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: This is not bad. I did this exact thing. Hopefully they remember the application and the good things they thought about you!
I had personally met with someone that I wanted to be my advisor for my PhD and then ended up going somewhere else for my PhD. Five years later, I explicitly asked the person I turned down to be my PhD advisor to be my Postdoc sponsor for a grant I was applying for. I am now his postdoc. He had remembered me, and now we have a great working relationship.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: As others have said, basically go for it!
I just wanted to add the following responses.
1. No, they gave you an offer and you weren't rude so it will only be positive if they do remember it.
2. Don't bring it up but if they do, use the opportunity to say that you applied previously because you believe it is a good school and still do!
There are lots of opportunities to twist any awkward questions around this into a big positive, discussing how you have developed since your PhD, what you have gained/can bring to the school, what you liked about it then and now etc.
The worst question would be why did you turn down our PhD offer X years ago, it would be **very** weird for them to ask this as its irrelevant really. If they did, just make sure you could say something suggesting the school is the best option for you **now** and at this stage of your career.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: It is quite likely the people considering your lectureship candidacy are not aware you were accepted as a Ph.D. candidate and declined eventually. Probable, even, unless it's a very small department.
So my answers are: "Naah" and "Dude, no. Don't. Seriously."
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I was thinking about getting my masters in November 2015 or May 2016 (An 18 month masters) but I was wondering if its possible to start my PhD research from now, I have an idea of what my research would be and I think it will save me time when I actually apply for PhD, I understand that a lot of changes will come once i finish my masters and enroll for PhD, but the question is; is the research that ill start now would be acceptable and valid for my PhD?<issue_comment>username_1: I actually did what you are proposing, skipped my MS and went straight for a PhD in genetics instead. Also, based on my experience I had a bunch of concerns for you but I can't post much - the program insists I have untoward motives because I don't know your income situation, not that I want to know at all! Great. Last time I'll post here.
There are positives and negatives to this decision and in the end, you may not think going straight for a PhD is worth it. First and foremost, will you be paid a stipend while obtaining a Masters? If so, will it be the same amount as you would make while working on PhD, and are he conditions the same, i.e. will you be a teaching assistant the entire time for both degrees or will the PhD allow you to focus mainly on your research with little other responsibilities for the stipend?
What they did to me was blatant "carrot" manipulation. I was offered a lot more to enroll in a PhD program and skip the MS. And hey, they had already accepted me as an MS candidate, they just targeted me as good slave labor :) I think I should have stuck to my guns and gotten the MS first. The classes in my case would have been identical and wouldn't have been repeated moving onto the PhD if I had stayed at the same institution - find out about that as well - what is the curriculum like between the two degrees? Will any classes have to be repeated, especially if you change institutions? If you have a good idea where you want to be as well as what you want to be doing (and you are stating that you do know what you want to study), ask the second institution (or the first one if you plan to stay) about repetitious classes.
As far as continuing on the same or similar track of inquiry, make certain if you plan on staying in one place they are good with that plan. But honestly, if you are getting two degrees, take advantage of the switch. Use your Masters to gain extra skills (by classes or experience) that you may not have planned on picking up if going straight for the PhD. The broader your education, no matter what the field, the better you will see the big picture and its underlying minutiae simultaneously. A broader knowledge base can only aid you in designing strategies to solve problems and make testable connections between superficially disparate subjects. If you switch institutions, you might find it even easier to stay inline with your original goal.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: There are advantages and disadvantages to each. I did the MSc first, researching a topic that I had been interested in for years. I never thought my topic would have any commercial appeal... but after my MSc I got hired by a company based on my research. So now I'm doing a PhD, continuing my research (much of it on company time, since it has applications for them), and am getting a nice salary (much better than a PhD stipend).
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I had the impression that in general, PhD programs are the only really "free" ones in higher education in those typically high cost English-speaking countries that they charge no tuition, pay you to do research, teach, do scut work etc., give stipend, maybe free housing. On the other hand, masters degree program would charge big tuition, less assistantship opportunities, likely no stipend? Even in Science. Is that right?<issue_comment>username_1: In the US, PhD students typically have their tuition paid by the federal grant that also pays them a salary or waived by their universities. It is not exactly free, but it may be paid on your behalf.
My understanding is that also typically *any* student paid on a grant as a graduate research assistant has their tuition paid. This covers master's and PhD students. I don't recall if this is my institution's policy or NSF's, but it is pretty common.
These are both common situations, but neither is guaranteed. The vast majority PhD students in STEM have their tuition covered somehow and also get work as GRAs or TAs or have some sort of fellowship or stipend. There are lots of models. Universities don't want to take on a long-term (4-6+ years) commitment to get a PhD student through to their dissertation while running the risk they might have to leave or work an unrelated job to cover costs. Master's students are less commitment (2ish years), but there are opportunities for them, too.
The vast majority of GRA seekers that cold email me looking for positions are master's students without a job looking to get their tuition covered and make a half-time salary. PhD students mostly don't have to do this because they get some sort of package when they are admitted.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In the UK, competitive scholarships and bursaries are sometimes available. Unlike PhD funding, masters bursaries do not typically cover living costs.
UK: <http://www.findamasters.com/funding/guides/masters-funding-guide.aspx>
France: <http://www.findamasters.com/funding/guides/masters-funding-france.aspx>
USA: <http://www.findamasters.com/funding/guides/masters-funding-usa.aspx>
This site is useful for those looking for masters degrees and the links are useful for information on general funding.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I am an open-minded Indian student and I will be going to Germany to join the University of Bonn for my masters in Computer Science. I have planned **a monthly budget of € 830** including studentenwerk fees, which the university noted me will be no more than € 350. Old students say that it averages to € 250 or something leaving me with € 580. Will that be sufficient for me to eat for a month at a Mensa (I plan to cook in the evenings though) or say maybe watch one movie a month or maybe take a weekend trip to Köln?<issue_comment>username_1: I am an international master's student in Berlin. According to [this](http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Germany&city1=Berlin&country2=Germany&city2=Bonn), Bonn is a tiny bit cheaper than Berlin on average. I live pretty comfortably on €900 per month all inclusive, and I am pretty sure I could get by with less. The big question is rent, which costs me something like €260 pm. So I would say you'll be fine.
I'll add that I have to pay compulsory membership fees for the student union every term. I have to pay mine in a lump at the beginning of the term, something like €360 for the semester. Check with your university as this was a little bit of an unpleasant surprise.
I originally answered the second, slightly off-topic part of the question. I agree it is not on-topic for academia.se. I have edited it out.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Less than a decade ago, I lived in Bonn as a student for less than 500 € per month, doing pretty much what you describe. I do not know the exact numbers as I had more money available (I simply did not spend it). As inflation was not that bad, what you try to do should be possible.
However, here are some points to consider:
* In the last years the German equivalent of high school has been reduced by one year in many states of Germany which lead to twice as many people finishing high-school in recent years. As a considerable number of these people study afterwards, this has lead to a temporal increase of the number of students and thus to a housing shortage specifically for students. After what I heard, Bonn is affected particularly strongly by this. This may increase the rent you have to expect.
* The easiest way to obtain a cheap accomodation is from the Studentenwerk. It may help to apply as early as possible and look for out-of-schedule offers from them regularly. In particular, they may have a contingent of appartment that they only rent to foreign students and are thus not affected by the previous point. Another advantage is that you do not have to hassle with organising electricity, heating, Internet access yourself as you often have to with privately rent appartments.
* I do not know how health insurance works for foreign students in Germany. As I am German, it was free for me. This may cause some additional costs for you.
* The above assumes that you only consume what is necessary for life (and maybe not the cheapest food). E.g., if you consume relevant quantities of alcohol, coffee, cigarettes or other drugs, you have to take this into account.
* Assuming that this is what you are referring to with *Studentenwerk fees,* there are fees of about 250 € that you have to pay once per semester. While you must pay them, they grant you free access to public transport in all of [North Rhine-Westphalia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Rhine-Westphalia) (with the exception of high-speed trains) and reduced prices at the student canteen (mensa) amongst others. So, travelling to Köln is free. Something similar holds for most if not all German universities.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I've been living in Bonn for about two years now and have a monthly budget that is lower than yours (750€), but I find that this is more than enough for a relatively normal life. You should be fine as long as you live in a Studentenwerk dorm; I myself live in such a dorm and have to pay about 300€ monthly (a fee that includes both rent and utilities).
You also have to pay semester fees to your university, but that's just once a semester and it's not such a big deal (~250€ in general).
By the way, I am a scholarship holder, so I didn't mention health insurance as part of my costs; the DAAD is paying this for me. You should count on about 80€ for that as well.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: I have done my undergrad in electronics from India and want to do a masters in computer science. My initial goal was to do it from a good university but I got rejected from all the ones that I applied to, even though I have very good GRE scores but an average GPA (68% approx = 3.1) with no industry experience. I got acceptance from a university in TX that has no rank published on usnews rankings.
Should I accept going to low/no rank university now or should I try again next year?
Secondly, is it okay to request the university to defer the admission for a year so that I can apply for better universities next year? I think it's highly unlikely that the university will hold the spot for me for an year but still asking to get some advice.
Thanks in advance for helping me on this.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> (1) Should I accept going to low/no rank university now or should I try again next year?
>
>
>
You must go to USA first. The world is changing every now and then. You never know what will happen next year. You can have the Visa, go there, and, you will always have the opportunity to change your university.
>
> (2) is it okay to request the university to defer the admission for a year so that I can apply for better universities next year?
>
>
>
If the university has a provision to do so, they will. For example, I got acceptance from UCD, Dublin, Ireland. They have a provision to do so. So, I paid the registration fee and they reserved my acceptance for the next year. But, It is highly unlikely that I would go there.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: At the end of the day your knowledge matters, not what is written on paper.
Of course getting Degree from Indian Institute of Technology (for example, since you are probably from India) is only a guide for how competent you are.
In my life I have seen
* people from IIT who are doing excellent, such as founder of Sun Microsystems, Executive staff of Cisco
* CEO of Microsoft got education from ok school but he proved his competence with results
* people from IIT are in so-so jobs because their parents pressured them to attend but weren't interested, etc (this is common in Indian culture)
* people like Mittals and Ambanis who were nowhere near an IIT but look at them, they are top self-made billionaires from a India, a country where it is more difficult to achieve such status than say, USA
Although getting into a prestigious school is quite impressive at the end of the day you show the employer (and most importantly yourself)
how knowledgeable
how competent
how enthusiastic
you are about the subject.
I say go to this ordinary University for now and get an appreciation for what is being taught.
If you feel the courses are too slow, you can always transfer to more prestigious University.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: There are couple of things to be considered:
Firstly, unlike India, where companies visit colleges and most of the recruitment takes place in campus; in the USA, recruitments are mostly off campus. So, if yoy are good enough to be in Google (say), you can get there irrespective of the rank of your grad school.
On the other side, grad schools give you great connections. You are most likely to have people with great future in your connections if you end up at MIT or other high tier universities. And, trust me, that's an important thing.
I believe a lot of universities allow deferring the admit for an year. You can give it a shot.
But again, I also want you to be realistic on what you think of yourself. If you think you can make to a much better school, it would be worth waiting.
Decision lies in your hands!!!
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Please don't rely only on a ranking to figure out if a particular university is the right place for you. Here is what you can look at instead:
* course offerings at the candidate university
* schedule of classes for next fall and spring -- this is important, because some institutions list mouth-watering courses which are almost never offered in practice
* faculty profiles
* faculty publications
* opportunities for student research projects and collaboration with industry
* the institution's commitment to assisting students with their job search
* their calendar of events to see what sort of seminar talks and cultural events take place there
* their list of student clubs, to see if you will find like-minded souls there
Upvotes: 1 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a student who has to do public speaking in front of other students at my university.
What would be the most effective way to start the presentation so that my audience doesn't get bored within the first few seconds?
Starting with "Hi, I am Bob. I study Chemistry and I will talk about squirrels today" sounds extremely boring.
Is there any general structure that should be used, so it can be used in any presentation topic?
Is there even any need to introduce yourself? As I've been heard the audience doesn't care about what your name is or what your job is, just what you will be talking about.<issue_comment>username_1: It depends on where you're presenting and who you're presenting to. If this seminar/conference/class has a moderator who introduces you, then you don't need to introduce yourself. Typically, this will be the case, instead of them just sending you on stage without an introduction.
Either way, begin your presentation with a motivating example, which might also explain why you're qualified to talk about the subject to your audience. "You might not think chemistry has a lot to do with squirrels, but it was recently discovered that squirrels' pineal glands secrete a unique chemical that..."
Since you're speaking to other students, be sure to keep the talk at a level that they can understand without a particular background in your field. And once you've started well, do the rest of the presentation well too.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would still briefly introduce myself - it is IMHO simply disrespectful to an audience not to do that.
As for the very first minutes of presentation, I suggest starting with some fascinating and/or little-known *facts* (or *mysteries*) about your topic (i.e., *"did you know squirrels can do (have) ..."*). That should grab your audience's attention. Now, to keep it that way, you have to smoothly transition to your main content, unfolding the story line and painting a big picture by presenting material in a larger context. The **flow** of the story is one of the most important aspects of a good presentation. Easier said than done, but you should strive for it.
Another (additional) approach to keep your audience's attention is to periodically **interact** with people during presentation, time permitting. A dialog should be designed in such way that you initiate it at specific, appropriate places during your presentation. It doesn't mean that you should stop interaction, if it happens elsewhere, but you have to plan your breakpoints, nevertheless.
Finally, depending on a venue, audience and topic, an appropriate use of **audio-visual tools** might be a very good idea. For example, you can start your presentation by showing a *slideshow* with fascinating images or a brief *video*, illustrating problem and/or solutions that you will be presenting afterwards. Try to apply some creativity to your presentation and you won't have to worry about being boring and trying to catch your audience's attention. Hope this helps. Good luck!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: It's best to give a brief introduction as others mentioned, but I don't think there is a right or wrong structure.
I have been to conferences where high ranking officers (we're talking one and two-stars in the US military) would use lot of humor and interesting graphics in their presentations. They were knowledgeable AND were at ease with the audience, as if they are friends.
No need to be stuffy if the audience is more professional .... honestly a presentation where it sounds like you are presenting to your best friend is the most entertaining, because it's real.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: Take into account that your first couple of sentences will mainly be useful as a way for people to get attuned to your voice.
Start with a slide with your topic, your name, your affiliation, and any acknowledgments you might have.
Next you might want to have something that functions as an outline of what's to come, in very broad terms.
A lot depends on how formal or informal this talk is supposed to be. If it's okay to be informal, you can talk at some point about how you became interested in the topic. If you have any cartoons that are relevant to your material, that is a good way of keeping people awake.
Do give a friend your talk beforehand as a rehearsal.
Do not stare at the screen during your delivery.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: There are often theories published by scientists in both the hard sciences and social sciences based on new understanding of fundamental science and better data collecting mechanisms that runs in opposite to the prevailing theories of the day (or it is not politically correct).
I am reminded of the case of Darwin and Galileo and many modern cases that presents alternative theory to a side of an argument that has long been thought of as quack science of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.
Science is all about objectivity, if we were to find that "gun ownership decrease gun deaths" or "sexual orientation can be changed later in life" or "our universe is 11 dimensions and made up of little vibrating strings" or "vaccination causes serious and incurable side effects" then scientifically speaking we should accept these results despite that they run counter to our intuition and are not exactly the most politically correct thing to say in our time. In fact, even mentioning this decreases my credibility in some circles.
Unfortunately, in some of these cases, when research is done it so happens that in the next few decades it captures little attention (again Galileo) or due to lack of interest or funding, so that there are literally only one or two person on one side of an argument.
When presenting these theories to friends or colleagues, I sometimes face scrutiny that this explanation has support from only one or two theorists (especially if those theorists are prominent i.e. Freud, <NAME>, Zizek, Pew Research, Gallup) so it is not credible. People keep on telling me I should find more and more people to support my argument because "anyone can find quack scientists" or "anyone can find hollow earth supporters". When I find another study that supports a theory, people then tell me I should find even more people because only then "a hypothesis can become an evidence".
So how many scientists does it really take to establish a theory? What does it mean to establish a theory? i.e. the theory of gravitation, the theory of evolution.
Note: I am asking here because people are significantly more well read and objective than some other forums.<issue_comment>username_1: Although superficially the question need not concern "academia" per se, in fact, perhaps, a saner reformulation (and tentative answer) can be given if the question is put into a "more academic" context, rather than "coffee shop" or "sports bar" context.
That is, deconstructing (?) the situation is helpful.
Unsurprisingly, the premise of the question is misguided, in the sense that one would suspect that your "critics" are not proposing *rational* critiques of whatever you're talking about, but are merely "stonewalling", that is, finding ways to object no matter what you say. The good news is that probably those peoples' worldviews ought not deeply concern you... oops, except that maybe they're your friends.
But, as in other comments, the question is not "how many people endorse it", although it may appear to be so. Indeed, disturbingly, some ridiculous things (essentially provably nonsensical) are believed by huge numbers of people, due to the *appeal* those beliefs have ... for other reasons. Not because of "evidence".
The underlying difficulty, to my perception, is something like this: we *must* assimilate some basic functions (walking across a room without falling or crashing into things, getting through the doorway...) to a very subliminal degree, or our minds would be too busy worrying about such stuff ("breath in, breath out") that we couldn't do anything else. However, this tendency seeps over into *everything*, so that "we" (human animals) try to make everything as automated/subliminal as possible. Ergo, desiring the simplest, most uniform notion of ... every idea. Pity that this is not quite feasible?
Especially young-ish people who've been a bit sheltered (good for them, in many regards! Experiencing hardship may be educational, but it's not a moral virtue!) "wish" that things would not be so messy as they (evidently, especially if one reads books, etc.) are.
There does seem to be a special anti-intellectual trend in the U.S., which is a bit complicated to account for. But, yes, in the U.S. ignorance is less an embarrassment than elsewhere, and this gets many idiotic discussions started...
If you could get your antagonists to be a bit honest, and consider the criterion of "explanation", as in @Johanna's comment, and disavow "number of 'likes' as evidence of correctness", you could have a discussion. The reality is that if those people are inclined to make the sort of objections they did, it's not on grounds that you had exercised shoddy intellectual methods, but that they simply didn't like the conclusions, for irrational reasons, and would find ways to make pseudo-legitimate, pseudo-intellectual objections ... no matter what you said.
The rhetorical devices, especially evasions, that people sometimes consciously use (cf. politics), and sometimes instinctively use, are endless...
The real answer is that people who want to believe something-or-other will not be persuaded otherwise by anything at all. So if you can speculate that that's the case, there's no point in having any discussion, either. Too bad.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: A theory is "established" when it makes reliable predictions, has withstood all tests thrown at it, and for those reasons has been accepted as a practical working model of the system in question.
Note that a statement which can not be tested in a statistically valid manner is not science; at best it's philosophy.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: This question is already asked [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/41897/what-type-of-gift-could-i-give-to-my-phd-advisor). But I found the answers unhelpful, so I would like to ask again, and narrow to the case the advisor is Italian (but has lived in the UK for 20 years).
I would like to buy a gift, so suggestions such as in the accepted answer "*be someone who is easy to advise*" is not helpful. I already finish my PhD anyway.
I am thinking of possible options:
* Chocolate (sound informal)
* Shirt (I don't know his size)
* My PhD thesis with beautiful hard-bound cover (I doubt that he will ever read it again)
* ...
Please give me some suggestions. I'm an Asian, and do not know much about European traditions. At first, I intended to invite him (and all people in the group) for a drink on my viva date, but it turned out he insisted to pay for all :(<issue_comment>username_1: I'm not sure whether the fact that he is Italian makes any difference in the choice of a gift, but anyway here are my suggestions. Maybe they won't help you, but hopefully some students of mine will read this (ha ha!).
Avoid the shirt and your PhD thesis (don't take it personally, but PhD theses don't make a nice night reading...).
* A good book, if you know his reading tastes, or a gift card to be spent in a bookshop (if you're in London there are wonderful bookshops). If you buy a book you can think of writing inside it a short dedication (so long and thanks for all the fish...)
* A bottle of wine or two. However, as far as I know, it might not be easy to find a good bottle of wine at a reasonable price in UK.
* Chocolate, yes: a chunk or a bar of good dark chocolate is typically welcome.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: From your last sentence, he seems to be a welcoming and generous person: you say he insisted in paying for all. I don't think that happens often (I'm Italian, and I haven't seen many professors offer to the same).
This lead me to think that you should not go for cheap, cheesy gifts.
If he likes to drink, you could:
* buy him a bottle of Scotch (it's a bit expensive, but it's nice and "formal")
* find where in Italy he comes from and buy him a bottle of wine from his place. It maybe be difficult to find, but also cheaper than Scotch, and he would probably like the fact that you did a bit of research. It's a *warmer* gift, I think.
Both of these gifts would be *convivial* (Italians, as many others, tend to drink together), and that is part of the gift. I would not choose something for him to be consumed alone, and something that is not personal. He seems to like conviviality, so buy something with that in mind.
A good book that you really liked and you think he could like too is also a nice idea.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Instead of something related to Italy, how about something related to your own home? I (in the US) had a student from China; she gave me a tapestry depicting the Great Wall. I still have it hanging here many years later.
>
> Important note: you have finished the Ph.D. Giving gifts **before** that may be seen as an attempt to bribe him. It seems to be the custom in China and Korea to give gifts to the professor, but **not** in the US (probably also not in the UK). Wait until after you are finished, so it won't be seen as an attempt to unfairly influence the professor.
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: This question is strongly linked to a previous question of mine:
[Tenured position to be started very soon…what to do with the old affiliation](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/45674/tenured-position-to-be-started-very-soon-what-to-do-with-the-old-affiliation)
Roughly speaking, my situation is the following: I am a non-tenured track researcher who had applied for permanent positions abroad and now I am waiting for notifications (to be known mid-July the latest).
In my present institution we are assumed to make lot of organization duties, and now the head of my research group is pushing me to organize a *big* conference in July 2016 (big for me means more than 300 people). This means that we should start preparing applications for grants as soon as possible, webdesign, and things like this that take a lot of time.
The organization of this conference is possibly one of the main examples to my current situation: it seems to me that the only talks we have with my boss are concerning the teaching and organizing things during 2016-2017 (which is definitely very far away of my expectations to be in my present institution).
I know, due to the really good advices in the previous post I linked, that I should keep prudent saying things about my application abroad (namely, do not say a word until something is clearer), but now every day he is coming with this type of questions, and this starts being mentally tiring.
How should I manage this?
A more general question (that would contribute in more general sense to the forum) is the following: while having a non-tenured position (3-5 years), which is the horizon that one may have in order to compromise himself/herself with certain duties (organization, applying for research projects that cannot be moved from a country to another, student advising, teaching duties,...)?
Thank you in advances for the suggestions<issue_comment>username_1: It's not so uncommon for a "local" conference organizer to have moved to another institution by the time of the conference, but it's good if there are some actual local conference organizers. Since you are part of a research group, it seems reasonable that you will not need to be a sole organizer (this wasn't 100% clear from your question). If you are being asked to be the "primary" organizer, you can still do that remotely, but it also makes sense to ask to instead co-organize it with other people.
So I think the main thing you should consider is: *how much do you want to be involved with such a conference, regardless of where you'll be?*
Note organizing duties usually count as "professional service" rather than "university service," and organizing conferences can have positive benefits for your career. If you are doing this as "professional service" rather than as part of your job duties (and it sounds like this is the case since you are getting asked to do it, rather than told to do it), once you make a committment, you should typically follow through. However, if you do move, then co-organizers are generally pretty understanding that certain aspects are harder for you to do remotely.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I would tell the head of the research group that you are honored that he has selected you to play an important role in the organizing of the conference, and that you would be happy to accept this role, and will do your very best to perform to the best of your abilities in this role, but that you cannot take sole responsibility for this role, in other words, you can only fulfill this duty if you can share the responsibility with a co-organizer. If necessary, make a vague, hand-waving excuse having to do with whatever reason you think might go over best (elder care, new baby, health problems, dealing with several deadlines, New Year's resolution to find a better work-life balance, etc.).
If you have one or two names to suggest for sharing the "honor", so much the better.
Basically, your approach to the organizing role needs to be to document, document, document, to make it easier for someone else to step in if you leave.
Yes, it is emotionally tiring to have to lead a double life, but that is the price you have to pay to make your desired move. I admire your courage.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I read that "One difficulty with research problems is that it is hard/impossible to know if the problem is easy or not" or when it can be solved. So how a graduate-research student (i.e., PhD or MRe) knows what to pick as his/her work, and/or how can his/her professor 'predict' it? Because if one knows if it is possible or easy to solve then he/she likely knows also how to solve the problem, hence it is no longer an open question.
If professors can't decide the period of time a project to be finished, how they risk tuition paid by students or scholarships granted?
EDIT - My intention is mostly on Pure Mathematics.<issue_comment>username_1: Professors/senior researchers typically do an educated guess regarding the time needed to solve a problem, based on earlier experiences with similar problems.
Of course, it is still a guess, and they can be wrong.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The interaction between student and professor should not be a one-shot set-a-problem. Instead, they should be talking frequently, often once a week, and adjusting the nature and direction of the project based on what is being learned during it.
The project starts with some idea, from either the professor or the student, that the professor thinks likely to lead to an appropriate outcome within the available time.
As time goes on, the student should come to learn more about the project than the professor, and be reporting progress or lack of progress. The professor should be continuously evaluating whether the current line will lead to a good result, and encouraging redirection if not.
I am sure my doctoral dissertation was not at all what my advisor would have expected when I started on the project - it was a result of things I learned during it.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: As alluded to in other comments and answers, I think part of the confusion here (and often in similar inquiries) is due to the notion that there is a well-defined "problem" that is either "solved" or not. Sure, there are "long-standing unresolved" very-specific questions that may admit yes-or-no answers, but, even then, in real life one makes *partial* progress on things. It's not all-or-nothing.
For that matter, often a very meaningful project can amount to "try to understand X better"... where X is a thing worth understanding better. Very amorphous, really. Such situations are exactly where an experienced person can have good hunches about incremental progress, and also be able to appraise the significance of various incremental advances.
This is why most theses, and most research projects viewed "in the small", do not have an easily-describable, easily-motivated goal. Indeed, in some cases the acquisition of sufficient technical savvy to understand the short-term goal is a project in itself, and it is often the case that "understanding the question" is sufficient to nearly have an answer.
From another angle: it can happen that a project is very plausibly feasible, but the *execution* of it would require considerable exertion. That is, the thing does not magically do itself. And one never knows with certainty what unexpected intermediate tasks may arise.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: A good problem given to a Ph.D. student should split into a series of almost certain, quite certain, difficult, hard, and almost unachievable results. A question of the form "Problem XYZ might be solved using the following new approach. Try it!" is not a good problem, because after a lot of work you will quite likely get "No, this approach cannot work because ...". Such problems are better left for late postdocs or tenured researchers, who can afford to take risks. A good problem is more like "For all finite groups we expect the following. For abelian groups I can immediately sketch a proof, although filling in the details will take a few pages. For nilpotent groups you can probably proceed by induction. For solvable groups I still expect induction to work, although there are some problems with ... . In general you have to understand ... ." Furthermore both the student and the advisor have to be flexible to deviate from the original plan of work whenever there is a reasonable chance that something can be found in the neighbourhood.
However, although the advisor has the duty to minimize the risks involved with doing a Ph.D., he cannot eliminate them. I can only be certain that something works, if someone has done it, and then doing it is not a Ph.D. project anymore.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: As a professor, I act as a scout for every project my students are working on. I also help students separate the 'wheat from the chaff'. This ensures students do not bark up the wrong tree, go on a wild goose chase, and more importantly, telling me something is impossible because they lack knowledge or are lazy explorers. In addition, this allows me to have back-up plans should a direction fails to pan out. In general, similar to what another reader said, we know what SHOULD work, but the details are left to the student to sort out.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: During the course of my post-graduation, a friend and I worked on a personal project in pattern recognition. I honestly am not hesitant to admit that although the technique has a decent result on a publicly available dataset, it is not publication worthy in any journal or conference of note (or so I feel), nor do I (my friend is unavailable now) have enough time or background knowledge in the field to keep working on it till it is.
Can it be published as some kind of academic report or something on a site like arxiv or academia.edu or something? I'm interested predominantly because I'm wondering if this online availability would lend more credence to it being mentioned in my cv - as opposed to merely mentioning it and not having any transcript available.
PS: The method was something we came up with. It was not implemented from somewhere else.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't think you can publish it in a way that you can derive credit from. But if you want it to be public so someone else can take the ball and run with it, then publish it on the web (with your collaborator's permission).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Are you affiliated academically or with some research organization? If so, one possible option is to investigate whether you would like to issue your results as a [technical report](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_report). (See also [this discussion on this very site](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1275/when-and-why-a-scientific-technical-report-is-written) on why technical reports exist.)
Some examples:
* The US government [issues regularly scientific and technical reports](http://www.ntis.gov/)
* Universities/departments frequently do too: [ETHZ](http://www.inf.ethz.ch/research/technical-reports.html), [Cambridge](http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/), [MIT](http://libguides.mit.edu/c.php?g=176306&p=1159542).
* So do private companies with R&D budgets: [HP](http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/), [Google](http://research.google.com/).
If permitted by your sponsors, such reports can also be posted to [arXiv together with the internal technical report number](http://arxiv.org/help/jref).
---
Though to be honest, with online publication as easy as it is, there is no real need to go through the above except if you want it to "look more official" somehow.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: If it involves a lot of code, you can put it as a repository in GitHub or Bitbucket. It won't count as a publication, but it will be available for others to see and possibly re-use or work upon. In some fields, bioinformatics for example, it is perfectly ok to list one's github repositories in the CV, serving to showcase your skills to future employers.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: There are two different questions in here, one about personal projects and another about whether it's worth publishing a non-peer-review tech report.
For the first: there is no need for "official" blessing on any scientific work; I've published personal side projects just as happily as projects in my "proper" line of work. These can end up being quite significant: one of my bits of side-dabbling, published in a minor workshop, kicked off my entire current line of synthetic biology research.
That surprising consequence also leads us toward the answer to the second: significance is where people find it. If you've put work into something, and written it up in a non-embarrassing way, there's no reason not to put it up online in an archival format, whether arXiv, tech report, or some other low-impact format. Symposia and workshops can be a lot of fun too, since they often accept things that are interesting but not expected to necessarily be high impact.
If a piece of work is non-embarrassing, what's the worst that can happen if you put it online? Nobody cites it. But you never know... your coauthor might end up building something more significant out of it later (happened to one of my side-publications), or it might get noticed by people who happen to be dealing with a similar problem (happened to another of mine), and collect a few citations or even unexpectedly many.
In short: there is never a reason to throw good work in the trash. Put it online, and let the universe decide whether it's neutral or positive.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I am trying to find a professor to do my first research under his/her supervision. I am a high school student. However I have already self-studied all the BSc and MSc (Pure Mathematics) books [based on Melbourne Uni]. But I haven't done any research and I need to have some professor to help me to choose a topic, access to non-free-papers, publishing, etc. Most probably I won't need for the learning part, i.e. to ask professor
on more understanding the texts (i.e., tutoring). Although not asking for teaching Mathematics to me may result in much less taking professor's time compared to professor's student, but professor
prefers to not spend on someone off the street asked him/her to do research with.
I already have asked two professors to do research under their supervisions and in reply I have been rejected, saying "I would prefer to supervise my students" or similar, (one was just yesterday).
I am interested in doing research on Real Analysis and I know there might be some other professors to be interested in guiding me even a lot but they are not specialized on Real Analysis.
I should also add here what I am saying when approaching:
1. As I quickly rejected in the first try by emailing, I decided to go to a professor's office in person with no previous meeting time; the result was a bit better in the beginning but no success.
2. I speak: "As I found Mathematics the most supreme beauty, a true Paradise, I started and committed to Mathematics. I had a consecutive study plan and I have studied ... [name of books]. As I was keen to have a big impact on Mathematics, so I decided to analyze books (like what a critic does with a paper to publish) rather than studying. I know that I need a lot to learn before doing research (which I don't know what to study next) and afterwards I don't know how to proceed in research. It would be a great honor if you please help me in my journey..."
My questions are: **What's wrong with my actions and speaking? and, what should I say or do in order to 'win' a professor's heart?**
PS - I took your kind and helpful advises [in the other question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/46890/what-careers-not-requiring-an-academic-degree-might-be-open-to-a-self-learner-wh), and I decided not to be isolated from 'the system'. However, it's not that easy to find my way on my own. By the way, I truly appreciate for all your guidance.<issue_comment>username_1: It does not sound as though you are supplying any evidence of your ability beyond your own claims. You need to fix that.
I suggest working on your relationship with the teachers, especially the mathematics and science teachers, at your high school. A letter from one of them saying they have a brilliant student who needs more challenge then they can give might work better.
What grades are you getting? If not straight A, what can you do to change that? The most efficient use of the time in high school is to first learn the material it is supposed to teach, so you already have that before going to university.
If straight A, try asking your mathematics teacher for more difficult assignments. Would one of your teachers be able and willing to grade exercises from the textbooks you have been reading? That would give the best cross-check that you really are understanding the material, as well as giving them objective evidence of your ability that they could use in a letter of recommendation.
A letter from a teacher saying "MKR has correctly completed exercises from each chapter of books X, Y, and Z. Here is a sample of MKR's mathematical proof writing." would be far more impressive than your claim to have read books X, Y, and Z.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> What's wrong with my actions and speaking?
>
>
>
Nothing's wrong with your actions, although they are not likely to lead to success. As for your speaking, the paragraph you quote is not ideal, but I don't think that's why you are getting turned down. Instead, the problem is that the system is just not set up to provide research mentors for high school students. I regularly turn down requests for high school research supervision, for several reasons:
1. Like many faculty at research universities, I have more local students who would like to work with me than I have time to supervise. This is particularly true for undergraduate research, and I end up turning away many undergraduates because of a lack of time. The ones I end up working with typically have very strong backgrounds, and I'd be reluctant to turn more of them away to free up time to supervise high school students.
2. It's much easier to vet local students. If they have never taken any of my classes, I can ask my colleagues about them. By contrast, it's much harder to evaluate high school students. It's already difficult to quickly gauge mathematical talent and background, and that's not even enough: I'd also want to know how hard working someone is, how overcommitted they are with other activities, etc.
3. I don't think high school research is particularly important, and I question whether it's even worthwhile. For the vast majority of high school students (even ones who are exceptionally talented), spending a few more years studying the mathematics that's already known is at least as worthwhile as doing research. The number of people who have genuinely reached the stage where they should be doing research, but who are not yet prepared to go to college, is minuscule. By contrast, there are lots of people whose main motivation seems to be that doing research at a young age looks impressive, and I'm not eager to encourage this.
Of course not everyone will share these reasons, but I think they are reasonably widespread. To maximize your chances of success, you should keep these issues in mind.
The most straightforward one to address is how to evaluate your background and talents. You need external evidence, such as a letter of recommendation from a faculty member, ideally combined with some feedback and advice. You could try taking an advanced course at a local university, or attending a summer math program for high school students. Another possibility is strong performance on a math contest. (That's less meaningful, since it measures only a limited form of talent and doesn't come with feedback/advice, but participating in a contest is less expensive than taking a course.)
It's worth applying to research programs specifically aimed at high school students, such as [RSI](http://www.cee.org/research-science-institute). There aren't very many of them, and they don't admit many people, so you may not have any luck with this. If you target individual faculty members, you may have better luck if you choose people who have supervised high school students in the past, since you know they are in principle open to the possibility. (You can sometimes tell this from their web sites or CVs.) Faculty members at schools that don't have particularly strong undergraduates may be more excited by the idea of working with a great high school student, while faculty at Princeton have plenty of top undergraduates to work with.
If your search for a research supervisor works out, that's great. But if it doesn't, you shouldn't worry that it's a negative judgment of you. You're trying to do something the world basically isn't set up to facilitate.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> As I found Mathematics the most supreme beauty, a true Paradise, I started and committed to Mathematics. [...] As I was keen to have a big impact on Mathematics, [...]
>
>
>
This is quite off-putting. What you say here is essentially that you want to be a great mathematician. Since there is no *a priori* reason to assume that you are better than many other students the professor you address has, such a statement is a little presumptuous.
>
> I had a consecutive study plan and I have studied ... [name of books].
>
>
>
This is good. You give a more or less objective description of your abilities and show that you actually have done serious work.
What's missing is a description of your actual interests. If you say you are interested in mathematics or real analysis, you essentially say that you have not found something that really intrigues you. As research is largely internally motivated, this is not a good sign. Note that I do not say that you have no special interests, but that what you write in your question and what you state as your approach to a professor says so.
So a letter which should attract the attention of a professional mathematician could be the following:
>
> I am (description + why you have no direct contact person).
>
>
> I have read the following books.
>
>
> I am fascinated by (special topic), because (honest reason). In particular, I would like to understand (something you are really interested in).
>
>
> Can you recommend me further directions for my studies, e.g. textbooks dealing with (whatever)?
>
>
>
If you get a reaction like "read XYZ", and after half a year you pose a question which shows that you have worked through this book, you will probably be taken seriously.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: Here are a few ideas to get you unstuck.
1. Start by identifying a university in your area with the right sort of department. Study the professors' web pages to identify people who seem nice, and whose research fields intrigue you. Take a look at some of their papers. Find out if they have regular office hours. You might need to phone the department for this last step. Then take one of your favorite books with you, and go to the person's office to have a chat!
2. Attend some seminars either in your desired topic or in a nearby topic, and sit in on some university lectures. Approach the speaker, or someone else in the audience, afterwards, and talk about what you found intriguing, and ask a question. If the conversation goes well, lay the groundwork to continue contact with the person -- ask if you may follow up with an email for some advising.
3. Make an appointment to speak with an advisor.
Note, in all of the above, just be yourself. You need not blow a bugle announcing your age or your current educational level. You can share all of that later, once you have established a human connection with someone.
Comment to some of the others who have participated in this question: a bit of social awkwardness is not as much of a hindrance in mathematics as it might be in some fields. Also, please take into account that English has lots of variants in different parts of the world. So please don't be so critical of the OP.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: As a math professor, I also find your intro a bit off putting.
You need to sound more serious - if you are.
I would start with: "Hi. I'm a high school student. I read ... and ... and got interested in ... I tend to be attracted by combinatorics/geometry/algebra... especially ....
Could you suggest something I could read and study, and maybe some interesting problems I should look at?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: There's two colleges near me I do not attend. I've just walked right up to professors, talked to them for a few hours fine. I've even been engaged in research projects, while both not their student, and not attend the college. In many ways, this question is a lot like asking how you get anyones attention; productive talking is effective.
There are things to keep in mind of course:
* Talking to random professors or about random subjects is not going to go over particularly well. One personal example I have is I deliberately sought out a professor of mathematics, to discuss something mathematical; keep it relevant.
* Trying to get their attention at bad times is not going to work; learn their schedule and find a time that works. Even better if you can set up an appointment (emails works, in-person has a nice touch).
* Don't demand. You have no idea how often I've seen this, even from students. It doesn't go over well. Ever!
Good luck!
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: In my MSc thesis implementation section, I have used two tools: Matlab and Python scripting. How should I introduce and mention them in my implementation chapter?
Thank you,<issue_comment>username_1: It somewhat depends of the publication style that you use for your thesis. For example, *APA (6th edition)* does not recommend to cite standard office software and programming languages.
Therefore, if you would follow the *APA* guidelines, you'd just mention Python everywhere you need without citing any sources, however, you'd have to cite the MATLAB software. See the *"Computer Software/Downloaded Software"* section in [APA Style Guide on electronic sources](https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10) for an example of how to format software references. Applying this style, I came up with the following citation (note it's a hybrid of the two approaches, due to my attempt to accommodate the company's geography):
>
> MATLAB. (2012). MATLAB (Version 8.0) and Statistics Toolbox (Version
> 8.1) [Software]. Natick, MA: The MathWorks, Inc. Available from <http://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab>
>
>
>
Please note that citing MATLAB, following some other publication styles, such as *Chicago*, is discussed in [this blog post](http://www.walkingrandomly.com/?p=4767). If you use LaTeX to create your thesis, [this blog post](http://talmai-oliveira.blogspot.pt/2011/06/how-to-cite-matlab-bibtex-latex.html) can help.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: As opposed to many papers, Bachelor, Master, and PhD theses usually give you a lot of leeway on how much space to use and how much extra material and possibly interesting meta-information to include. Likewise, there is no fixed rule, but rather a minimum and maximum of information that could or should be included. (Even with that in mind, the personal preferences of the advisor, or of whoever grades the thesis, or the specific customs at the university in question, may well override the boundaries described here.)
* **At least,** you should mention the most important technologies you used by name (and, as pointed out by [Davidmh](https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587/davidmh), their version numbers) to point out for which parts of your work you used them.
* **At most,** you should describe in detail *why* and *how* you used the respective technologies in each particular case. This can well include a somewhat detailed description of specific features of the technology, if that helps readers to get a better idea of your motivation to choose that particular technology, of possible difficulties that did arise due to using the technology, or in general, to what extent your current implementation based on a technology might be extensible. It should probably *not* include an extensive description of facts about the technology that are entirely irrelevant to your work, such as (in most cases that I can think of) who originally published the first concept for a technology, or in what year and country the company driving the technology's development was founded.
When choosing what exactly to describe and where to add details, also make sure to consider the target audience you are writing for:
* Will people of different fields likely read the thesis? If so, you may rather lean towards describing more of the involved technologies, as none of them might be universally known.
* Is the thesis directed to one particular field? If so, *if* you want to reduce the amount of text to write for some reason, start with skipping the details on technologies that are definitely known in the field and concentrate on technologies that are possibly unknown or require further justification.
* Are future thesis writers possibly going to read your thesis? In universities I am acquainted with, this is typically the case, which is one of the reasons why I always suggest to my students that they do not forget to add some meta-information (e.g. some information about the technologies and particular tools used for creating the very thesis document, if there was anything remarkable about them).
Lastly, in my opinion, pointing to some further information about the technology (e.g. the official website) at its first mention is always the best choice, even though not strictly necessary. There is no point in hiding possibly helpful information from the readers if it does not even lead to bloating the text (such a pointer can be inserted as a reference or a footnote).
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: My discipline is educational technology and I have been invited to submit a book chapter about integrating technology in my region. I published many articles in top refereed journals, but not sure whether the focus, style of writing and structure of articles are appropriate for book chapters.
Anyone can highlight the main differences?<issue_comment>username_1: You would want your chapter to fit into the whole project, whereas a journal article can usually stand alone.
Your chapter should not duplicate material in other chapters, although you may refer to material in another chapter.
You will want your chapter to be generally accessible. For the specialized journal article, that doesn't matter so much.
The editor (could be more than one) may want to be rather more involved in choosing the content, organization, presentation, etc.,for a book project than for an isolated article.
To get a feel for the style desired, you could ask the editor(s) for one or more examples of the desired style.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Also, importantly that book chapter does not have citation within the text, however, this is crucial in the review paper. In general, the audience of the book are interested but relatively new in the field, where the review paper audience are more specialised usually with previous knowledge and experience, so the writing style should take care of this.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: What is the actual meaning of being a research assistant? I have only heard of masters in science and PhD.<issue_comment>username_1: A graduate research assistant—regardless of field–is someone who is carrying out research, normally as part of studies that will ultimately lead to either a master's or a PhD (or degree of some other kind). In general, a "graduate research assistant" (or other similar terms) are administrative in origin—it's the name for the "job" that graduate students have while they progress toward their degrees.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Adding to what @username_1 wrote: all PhD students have to do original research in order to graduate. Many get free tuition plus a stipend in exchange for carrying out 20 hours per week of assorted teaching duties, such as grading homework for a professor. They are called "teaching assistants." However, some of them get the free tuition and the stipend, but with no teaching-related work duties, and they are called "research assistants." Some research assistantships do not involve any work duties at all. Some do, but not more than 20 hour per week. Some examples of research assistant duties: help less experienced students in the group; keep the lab well organized and tidy; perform certain computations as requested by the professor; create and/or maintain a website for the professor; assist with a research project (other than the student's own topic).
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am doing a research of the processing times of papers published in journals in my field. I have noticed that the metrics that the journals advertise (e.g. the Elsevier journal insights) do not correspond to my experience, nor to the recently published papers, so I wanted to make my own survey. (My guess is that they take into account papers which are immediately rejected by the editor without being sent to a review, so the average looks quite favourable. I am more interested in the average time of the papers which are actually accepted.)
I plan to cover all recently (last 12 months) published papers in 10-20 journals of different publishers (e.g. Elsevier, T&F, Wiley), which will result in hundreds of papers. Basically, I will take the date when the paper was submitted, accepted, and published online, and calculate the average per journal.
Is there a way to automatically extract this information?<issue_comment>username_1: Have you checked this data is actually made available for your preferred journals? IME not all make their accepted/submitted/first-online dates very easily accessible, though it has improved a bit recently.
If it's there, your best bet is probably to screenscrape the HTML. Some journals provide nice clean XML to play with, but this is usually new online-only titles rather than legacy ones from traditional publishers.
[Elsevier](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379115002243) use a simple HTML tag (class="articleDates") which contains the core dates -
`Received 23 March 2015, Revised 15 May 2015, Accepted 18 May 2015, Available online 9 June 2015`
[Taylor & Francis](http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07924259.2014.978028) have similar information to Elsevier: the element you'd need is again "articleDates", but it unfortunately has a lot of linebreaks in it for no good reason!
Finally, [Wiley](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jbi.12534/full) don't seem to expose submitted/accepted dates (at least not for all journals); "publicationHistoryDetails" just gives first-online, which isn't much help.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: This is an interesting question (+1). And I like @Andrew's answer (+1). However, I would like to suggest an approach, somewhat **alternative** to Web scraping. I mean using *meta-repositories* and *their APIs*. For example, you can consider using *CrossRef*, which offers, along with other services, [CrossRef Metadata Services](http://www.crossref.org/cms/index.html). There is a free of charge subset of this offering, which can be used via what is referred to as [End-User Lookup Affiliate](http://www.crossref.org/04intermediaries/index.html#end_user) (other metadata services seem to be paid).
With that *repositories/APIs* approach in mind, if you use `R` programming environment, there is an interesting initiative [rOpenSci](http://ropensci.org), which is comprised of an open science-focused set of projects, developing `R` packages for interacting with [various repositories, including meta-repositories](https://ropensci.org/packages/#literature). In particular, `rmetadata` package seems like the project that is the most relevant on the topic (note that it is not a mature project yet). A more mature, but still relevant project is `rcrossref` package. Hopefully, some other *rOpenSci* packages also might be of your present and future interests.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Here is a program I wrote to webscrape from a Springer journal. It uses the "Download CSV" link that appears next to the RSS feed icon when listing all articles in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, URL: <https://www.springer.com/journal/10661>
To obtain the URL to search on:
* Click on the link to the journal, scroll down past the recent articles, and click on the [ View all articles > ] button.
* To narrow the search, use the Date Published link in the header above the article list.
* There is an RSS feed icon there which is easy to find. However, do not use that icon, but instead use the down arrow icon next to it, which is Download CSV. But **don't click on it.** Instead, ***right click*** on it and select "Copy link address."
* In the code below, in the line which contains `os.system`, delete the URL after `curl` and paste the URL just copied above.
* **Run the program.** You'll end up with an `allpapers.csv` file containing all the Received, Accepted, and Published dates for all articles matching the publication date range selected.
```
import os,sys
from dateutil.parser import parse
import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup
import pandas as pd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
os.system("curl 'https://link.springer.com/search/csv?date-facet-mode=between&search-within=Journal&facet-start-year=2021&previous-start-year=1981&previous-end-year=2021&facet-journal-id=10661&facet-end-year=2021&query=' > searchresults.csv")
sresults = pd.read_csv("searchresults.csv")
timedicts = []
for URL in sresults['URL']:
print(f"===== {URL} =====")
page = requests.get(URL)
soup = BeautifulSoup(page.content, 'html.parser')
times = soup.find_all('time')
timedict = {'URL':URL}
for time in times:
label=str(time.find_parent().find_parent().contents[0])
datetime = str(time.attrs['datetime'])
if label[0] != '<':
print(f"{label} : {datetime}")
timedict[label]=datetime
timedicts.append(timedict)
allpapers = pd.DataFrame(timedicts)
allpapers.to_csv("allpapers.csv")
```
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I will be soon joining a Top-50 school for a PhD in High Energy Theory. They have some very good professors who have published top quality journal articles in their area of expertise (even with some Nobel Laureates as co-authors). They are not as famous as <NAME>, <NAME>, etc. though. I would like to know, given the job scenario in academia (especially in high energy theory), is it worth transferring to a top school like Harvard or Princeton after performing very well at my current school ? I mean, is their any huge advantage in the academic job market to be at a Top-10 school compared to a Top-50 school ?
I do not really care about going to a brand name school as far as my studies are concerned. I just want to make sure that if I work hard and succeed, I do not face problems in getting an academic job just because I did not attend Harvard or Princeton. Academically, my current school is very good too but it doesn't have that IVY kind of brand. My concern is only about the people in the hiring committees otherwise I am happy going to my current school.
Also, I have earlier worked with Professors who graduated from such top schools and they say that famous advisors are like "King-Makers" who get their students well placed in academia after PhD since they have influence in the field. Personally, I have no issues being at my current school if I get good people to work with. Also, is it ethically good to change schools like this ?<issue_comment>username_1: It would be far worse to get a lukewarm letter of recommendation from a relatively bigger name than for the letter to be written by a not-so-big name.
Try to choose an institution that is strong in research in your field and has a real commitment to good undergraduate pedagogy; then get some experience teaching. That will help your job applications down the road.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Well, better is better, in academia just as anywhere else. Certainly if you *got admitted to* a Top 10 program and a Top 50 program then all other things being equal you should enroll in the Top 10 program. (In fact, even things being only mildly unequal, you should enroll in the Top 10 program. You should seriously consider the Top 50 program only for serious personal considerations -- e.g. if because you are caring for a family member, you cannot leave your hometown -- or because you have a preternaturally good fit with a particular faculty member.)
But that's not what you're asking; you're asking about transferring later to a top program, which presumably means that you have not yet been admitted to one. That is not a good plan. The competition to get into the *very top* PhD programs is of a roughly similar level of difficulty as the competition to get a post-PhD academic job. The main difference is that the former competition is more cut-and-dried whereas the latter competition has great amounts of uncertainty and randomness. In other words, it's actually pretty easy to make most admissions decisions at top ten places: there are certain agreed upon metrics that most or all graduate programs take into account, and the top programs pick from the top applicants according to these metrics.
This has the following important implication: if you applied to the top programs in year N and didn't get into any, it is very difficult to transfer into them in year N + 1, N+2,...The idea of "transferring from one graduate program to another" is already not very standard, and when it is done it is often done to deal with a problem rather than by virtue of exceptional success. The one exception is that it is common for one to transfer from a master's program to a PhD program. However, in many STEM fields in the US, the best students just enroll into a PhD program straightaway: their undergraduate preparation is just as good -- or more often, better -- than what American students graduating with master's degrees get. (In other parts of the world, a separate master's program may in fact be mandatory, so things are a bit different.) Most American STEM master's programs that I know of are "PhD lite": they are for students are either not as strong, not as prepared, not as committed, or some combination thereof as the PhD students, so getting a master's degree is -- relative to the desired goal of transferring to a top place -- no great distinction.
To be able to transfer from a top 50 HEP program to a top 10 one, you would have to do some truly excellent research at the beginning of your career. Transferring out of a program in which you've had such sterling success is worth some second thoughts, but if you did this work largely or entirely on your own and the continuation of it would be aided by transferring to a top program: OK, do it. However, this is very rare, and if you do something that great, then you're on your way to success independently of your transfer plans.
I think that if you spend the first few years in your PhD program with the express goal of transferring out as soon as you can, there is a substantial risk of that showing through as a lack of commitment to your current program, which could really work against you.
>
> I mean, is [there] any huge advantage in the academic job market to be at a Top-10 school compared to a Top-50 school ?
>
>
>
It is an advantage, yes. The advantage can be overcome by your own work, and if you want a very distinguished post-PhD academic job, then getting a PhD at an absolutely top program with a world-famous advisor **is not a golden ticket**. (I know this as well as anyone: feel free to look up my academic past.) If you go to a top program and do "about average" there, then you will probably not get a top academic job because you will not be getting the top drawer recommendation letter from your famous advisor. However, that same advisor could help you out getting placed at a lesser institution, or the pedigree of the institution could help (a lot, in some cases) if you wanted to get a non-academic job. Better is better.
>
> I have earlier worked with Professors who graduated from such top schools and they say that famous advisors are like "King-Makers" who get their students well placed in academia after PhD since they have influence in the field.
>
>
>
The people that the King-Makers make kings were doing pretty well on their own. A truly eminent advisor can probably place *some* of their students in very good positions. But not all of them. The important thing to remember is that the quality of your own research -- as perceived by the academic community -- is what will get you or not get you an elite academic job. If your work is superior, it is superior no matter where you are, and the community will recognize that. If your work isn't *that* good but is still strong by the standards of the top institution, then having an eminent advisor really comes in handy. If your work is not as good as many other students of that advisor, then you are not going to get a big career boost. In some situations, having an advisor who is still well known and recognized by the community champion you as they have never championed a student before, could work out better.
>
> Also, is it ethically good to change schools like this ?
>
>
>
I see no ethical problem with changing schools in this way (although as ever there are more and less gracious ways to proceed); leaving a program for a much better one is easy to understand and I think few people will hold it against you. But as I said above, effecting this kind of change is just very unlikely;
the real concern is what will happen to you while you are angling for it. If you are just working that much harder to do your best work: great, and great whether you transfer or not. But don't make plans or behave in a way which will only payoff if you transfer. E.g. you might reason that merely doing well in the coursework and qualifying exams is not going to be nearly enough to allow you to transfer to a top program (**correct**) so that instead you should blow off your coursework while you try to solve the hardest problems in the field (**disaster**). **Learn to grow where you're planted.**
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: First, I want to emphasize that I overwhelmingly agree with [what Pete wrote](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/47211/94). That said, ***[it has been observed that the "top" universities produce the majority of our corps of professors](http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2015/02/university_hiring_if_you_didn_t_get_your_ph_d_at_an_elite_university_good.html)*** (when it comes to the justification though I admit a big chunk of that Slate article rests on anecdotes, and we know that the plural of "anecdote" is not "data"). However, you should not read into this necessarily a causal relationship (as opposed to a mere correlation).
There is not (and can never be) an experiment showing that the same individual would receive a necessarily a better education at a top 10 school; similarly, no one can prove conclusively that students admitted to a top 10 program are necessarily "better" (aside from "on the metrics used to determine admission"). Certainly while one can observe the hiring disparities, no one can really explain "why" (at the very least, it is not possible to tell how much it is down to the quality of the program and how much it is down to the quality of the individual students). With academic hiring the nebulous process it is, there's no way we can just tell you whether moving from your current institution to a different one is, in general, a good idea or not, because statistics, in this case, is a lot less useful an indicator than knowing your personal circumstances. Yes, all else being equal it is probably a good idea to choose a Top 10 school over a Top 50 one; but all else is never equal, except on Econ 101 final exams.
---
One remark, however: if you are just starting your PhD program and you are already concerned about the academic job prospect because "the situation in High Energy Theory seems particularly bleak because of very little funding and super-intense competition", I must ask "are you sure you want to enter into high energy theory?"
(I confess when I started graduate school the notion of "job prospect" is quite far from being on my radar. And while I am quite happy where I am in my academic career now, and quite happy with how everything turned out so far, I am not 100% certain that, had I known 10 years ago what I know now about the academic hiring process, I would have set a career in academia as my goal.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I recommend you beware of the theoretical HEP job market. You may want to read <http://www.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/271apx/a_view_from_an_exstring_theorist/>
and
<http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-plight-of-postdocs-academia-and.html>
I really don't want to discourage you learning these stuff. But there are reasons why people keep warning beginning grads to stay away from theoretical HEP these days...
Upvotes: 0
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2015/06/14
| 3,024
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently came across several papers in the area of Information Extraction and Data Mining which seem to have passed the review process even if they (1) use some new terminology without describing it, (2) replicate some old and popular technique and just describe it in a new way, (3) use new datasets without releasing them publicly or describing them in detail, (4) confusing language that doesn't seem to describe the methods... and much more.
Why challenge them? Such papers give these people a kind of leverage in situations where number of publications count rather than quality of genuine work. They also encourage, let's say, 'pseudoscience' within the scientific community - or fraud, as those more experienced among you say.
I've faced situations like:-
* Someone hired me from a freelance site to implement a previously published paper. The paper doesn't adequately describe the novel methods they claim. I spend a week on it but don't get paid.
* Similar situation but the implementation's accuracy doesn't match the claim.
* In a semi-academic gathering (tea time in a summer school), a discussion turned into a debate. Though I wasn't involved in it, one of the others said something which I pointed out as being logically wrong. It turned personal and one of them claimed that they knew better because of having twice the number of papers than me. Later when I read their papers I found that they didn't contain any ideas that would count as a genuine research.
I guess some of you might have been in similar situations before. Yes it doesn't matter in the longer term; but it is hard to avoid some situations like this and I think it might be hampering the research community as a whole.
Here are the exact points of my question:
1. Should we confront such publications? Would we get anything out of it?
2. Is it even feasible?
3. How can I do so? What actions are possible in such cases? What is the best course of action?
*p.s. Yes citations matter more than just throwing papers - but such publications also get citations from other equally content-less papers published in similar conferences.*
*pps. Most of these papers are from less-than-tier-3 level conferences but still published by top publishers like IEEE and Springer.*<issue_comment>username_1: A somewhat "indirect" challenge is to is to publish your comments on a website such as [PubPeer](https://pubpeer.com).
It has been historically used to comment mostly on papers in the area of medical research, but it also hosts discussions regarding papers in computer science.
A [full list of the journals that have comments](https://pubpeer.com/journals) regarding specific papers is available on that site as well.
In case these discussions point to substantial flaws in a paper, they can be forwarded to the journal editor/publisher.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I think you have to further examine your motivation for wanting to “challenge” these substandard papers. All of the following are reasons which are suggested in your question.
1. You feel that contentless or decisively problematic publications bring down the quality of the academic community as a whole.
2. You feel that the people who are publishing these works get too much credit.
3. In particular, they are holding themselves up as superior to you.
4. Specific people – e.g. you – suffer when you try to rely on publications which do not do what they promise.
This is a lot to answer, but I’ll take a stab at it:
1. This is a disturbing trend in the world of academic publication. I now get more “journal spam” emails than all other spam put together (well, counting only what makes it into my inbox). One can no longer assume that an academic publication is reputable, legitimate, or sincere *in any way* without having prior specific knowledge of the people and institutions involved. I think this is a terrible problem, but it's well beyond my pay grade. I do not have a solution in mind.
2. **The best revenge is living well.** In line with point 1, there is an increasing segment of the worldwide academic community in which people, in order to maintain their very low-paying academic jobs, simply must meet a certain quota of authorship. No one cares about the content or quality; in many cases there is no infrastructure there for them to evaluate the content if they did care. This is very sad. At an individual level, what seems best to me is just to get out of this part of the academic community. In many cases this is best accomplished by relocating to a different part of the world where the academic infrastructure exists. You are not going to get a job at a research university in the United States by having 50 bullshit papers: that's just not the way things work here. However, if you are a scholar in India, you *can* get offered a job in the United States (or Europe or Japan or...) on the basis of your work: it just has to *actually* be very good.
3. The person who tells you that he’s right and you’re wrong because he has twice as many papers as you is on the one hand an asshole. On the other hand, he’s splashing around in a pond that you want to get out of: I can assure you that there are many academic environments in which who's right is not decided by counting publications. You sound like a serious person: get yourself into one of these environments.
4. This seems to open up another can of worms, but relative to point 1 above: you simply cannot uncritically take publications at face value. To be honest about it, you can do this to a greater or lesser degree according to the level of trust and esteem you place in the author, the journal, the institution...but doing this at all is a compromise we make only because we are finite beings living in an imperfect world. Learn to develop a “nose” for what is correct and what is problematic. Definitely do not accept a work-for-pay situation which is predicated on the assumption that an unvetted academic work does everything that it promises!
In general, I would say that point 4 is a good reason to challenge papers: if you sstumbled by relying on a paper or can imagine another serious, reputable person doing the same, then you owe it to the community to try to get the word out about the defects of the work. But as above you should also understand that part of being a good academic is knowing what looks good and what looks bad. There is an ever-expanding sewage sea of worse-than-useless academic papers. You can't take responsibility for getting rid of all of them. But you can teach yourself to avoid the unpleasant experience of being submerged in this sewage sea, and you can teach your colleagues – and, as you get older, your mentees – how to do the same.
Good luck.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: To answer the question from a more technical point of view: Some journals allow you to publish comments on papers (though I learnt from the comments that the prevalence of this practice varies strongly depending on the field). They usually are like regular publications, having citations, figures, tables and whatever you need and being subject to peer review. Depending on the size and relevance of the criticised paper, such a publication might also be a regular paper.
In your example where a method’s accuracy didn’t match the claim, you can probably publish a comment on this, substantiating your opposing claim with data or similar. Something similar goes for methods that are identical or very similar to existing ones without crediting them¹. However, I consider it unlikely that a journal will publish a comment on the inadequateness of a method’s description. In all cases, it might be sending an outline of your comment to the journal and ask if they would publish it.
Now, given the huge amount of bad papers out there, you could spend all your life writing comments exposing fundamental flaws in papers in your field. Unfortunately, there is no financial and little academic credit for doing this, so it is rarely done. However, if you already spent some time on trying to make use of a paper, you may already have most of what you need to publish such a comment and you may consider it worth your time.
Some modern journals (e.g., Plos One) also have online interfaces for instant comments that allow for criticising a paper with much less effort.
---
¹ Consider the possibility of an independent discovery though.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I will add my different perspective on the OP's question. @PeteL.Clark answer pretty much covers completely the one side of the story: The OP has discovered some legitimate inconsistencies / mistakes on published papers and wants to make thing rights for the community.
But as we know there is always a second version to each story. Let's discuss some of those aspects as well.
>
> Someone hired me from a freelance site to implement a previously
> published paper. The paper doesn't adequately describe the novel
> methods they claim. I spend a week on it but don't get paid.
>
>
>
This does not prove that the paper does something wrong. The assumption that one programmer can implement a method described on one paper that may build on several other papers within a week, is unrealistic / naive. CS scientists may spend 3-12 months working on a paper that may build on previous works that required several other months to implement. A CS paper is not a standalone piece of engineering that needs to describe everything. If it is based on previous works, it only needs to say what it does **in addition** to previous works. Therefore, in order to fully implement a method described in a paper, you also need to implement all previous methods this paper builds upon. And this takes months to years for newcomers to the suggested area, even if they are good programmers. In other words: **Being a good programmer does not guarantee that you can implement every CS scientific paper there is**.
>
> Similar situation but the implementation's accuracy doesn't match the
> claim.
>
>
>
Again that does not guarantee that the paper has done something wrong. Perhaps the OP has done a wrong implementation of the created method. I find very strange the fact that the OP, assumes first that everyone else is wrong and has total confidence in his work, abilities and implementation, even if they contradict published work by many other authors. Assuming everyone else is wrong and my code / implementation is always correct, is not only a characteristic of cranks but contradicts the basic principle of software engineering: All codebases have bugs and first you should look for bugs in your codebase and then look for bugs elsewhere.
>
> ...which I pointed out as being logically wrong. The guy turned
> personal and claimed that he knew better because he had twice the
> number of papers than me. And later when I read his papers I found
> that the papers din't contain any ideas that would count as a genuine
> research.
>
>
>
What does logically wrong means? Did you manage to do experiments and prove things over a tea table? Good for you. And what is this? "The papers didn't contain any ideas that would count as a genuine research". What is genuine research? Is this another version of the [No true Scotsman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman) argument? If I do not like someone else's research, I can belittle it by saying that it is no genuine research?
>
> Use new datasets without releasing them publicly or describing them in
> detail
>
>
>
Again, this is the standard argument of newcomers. "Freely release your code and your datasets so I can use them but I will keep my code by myself so nobody steals it". The main argument is "You have already published your work and I have not, so you must help me". Again, this line of argumentation is wrong. An author has the exclusive right to share or not share his code or datasets. And has the OP asked the authors to give him access to their code or datasets? The fact that someone does not release the code publicly does not mean that if contacted, he will not share.
Conclusively, in most CS PHD students meetings I have encountered, there is always the "purist" guy who insists that he is only interested in A\* conference publications, he only wants to do top publications, he is working 2 or more years in his "seminal" paper, most works of his peers is mediocre (as the OP described "not genuine research") and he will never work on incremental papers, since publishing something less than perfect is not suited for him. Unless this guy is exceptionally talented (which is easy to tell by his previous publications) this is also the guy that needs 7 years to get his PHD (if he actually gets one) and has an average h-index of 2, when finishing. Please, do not be that guy (unless you are that talented). Focus on publishing your original work, instead of trying to find errors on everyone else.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: What do you think about an idea of getting a PhD in an "better then average institution" to get tons of experience to get a second PhD (in the same field) from top institution?
I'm now getting a MSc degree in applied math from one of the top Russia institutions, but I still feel like I don't have enough experience, and publications, and general "coolness" for applying to places like MIT or Stanford or other top universities - but I would really want to work with people there! Moreover the problem I've came up with for my thesis is somewhat "non-mainstream" (that's why I don't really have a thesis adviser and I'm guiding myself through it, so it turned out to be slower process than I expected).
I've been thinking of getting a first PhD in some good place in Europe, getting few publications, gaining more experience there and only after that applying into top institutions. From your own experience, does that seem to be a good idea? (I mean, having a completed PhD in some other institution seems like a great advantage from the lab's perspective - right?)<issue_comment>username_1: Terrible idea, at least as far as a life goal is concerned. You will spend 5 years of your life doing something you consider only preparatory, without any guarantee that you will actually be admitted by the MITs and Stanfords of your aspiration. In fact, if we had someone applying to our graduate program who already has a PhD, we'd seriously be asking ourselves why this person wants to get *another* PhD? So it may not actually be any easier to get into the good institutions if you already have a PhD. Finally, even if you do, you will be 5 years older than everyone else when you graduate, and this will count against you (statistically speaking) when you look for jobs beyond that.
The thing you have come to realize is that *everyone* wants to go to MIT and Stanford, but only few actually manage to. Make your peace with this -- shoot for the best place you can to get a PhD and then make your career from there. You'll find that with a PhD from a good place in Europe, you will have sufficiently many options.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Apply for three institutions, chosen primarily by affinity of interests. In your set of three, let one be ambitious, a just-for-the-heck-of-it application, one that you would be very happy to attend, and that you consider yourself very likely to be accepted in, and one "safety" school. The safety school is the one you would attend if you had extraordinarily bad luck and did not get accepted in #2.
Make sure that all three are carefully chosen, and that you are confident you would have a satisfying experience with.
After your PhD, you can do post-docs and build up your publication list.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: So here's a funny thing: I have 3 Fs and 1 D on my transcript, but my GPA is ~3.8, which is "high" because I double majored in math and computer science. The reason for those 4 bad grades is that I had 2 bad semesters where I suffered from depression; I didn't drop the classes before the deadline so I ended up failing the classes. However I retook the classes and got As in them (hence my GPA), and in fact got A/A-s in all subsequent classes (quite an improvement). I plan to apply to a master's for computer science, and eventually a phd. However I know the admission officers eyes will bleed when they see my transcript, despite my GPA, because my school keeps ALL grades on transcripts, even if the grades were replaced by retaking classes. Do I still have a chance at top-10 graduate school for computer science even with these grades (which were retaken and then aced)?<issue_comment>username_1: Just write a short letter explaining the three anomalous grades. You don't have to get into the details of the depression, though.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In my (rather extensive) experience with graduate admissions, admissions committees understand that people have semesters in which life interferes with school. If you've retaken the classes and received high marks in them, this very clearly signals that something was interfering with your performance during those two semesters and that the bad grades have nothing to do with your underlying ability. Those grades won't go unnoticed -- but nor will they hurt you the way they would had you not repeated and aced those courses.
It would help further if you have a trusted mentor who could mention and--to the degree that you comfortable, explain--this issue in his or her letter of recommendation.
Don't count on cruising through the application process, but also don't lower your ambitions based on these grades.
Upvotes: 7 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: It also depends on the academic reputation of your undergraduate school. Is it a widely appraised school? You should be fine as long as you have a 3.5 or higher, and decent GRE scores (generally 1100 and higher). Top 10 is very ambitious! They will look over your transcript, and degree of difficulty of your classes you've taken. Also they will take into account how well you did in the last few semesters. If you have gotten A's in the last few semesters, it's good indication that you'll do well in grad school, in their opinions.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: I knew someone had a similar situation and he's in MIT as a PhD student now. So just clarify what happened in your application materials.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: My experience was very similar to yours. I had four F's an a D (or two) from when I abruptly dropped out years before. My GPA was ultimately 3.5, with a 3.95 in CS at a middling school. That, along with enthusiastic (but not particularly high quality) references got me into a few good schools -- I ended up going to one in the top five. You should note though that there are two types of masters programs: project-based and research-based. Project-based, which is what I did, are much easier to get in to. They are for students who want to get a masters and get out. Generally they will not be funded. A research-based masters is for students who intend to go on to get a PhD. They are generally much more difficult to get into and often are funded. If you find you are having trouble getting into a PhD or masters->PhD program, you might want to look into a project-based program with a good school. You might be able to work on something with a prof you like and get into the PhD program on their recommendation. I've seen it happen several times.
ETA: Remember, the main thing admissions people are interested in is the last thing you did. So if you find you can't get into the best PhD program, go to whatever place best fits your interests (that you can get into, of course) and put together some quality research. No one will care what you did in undergrad.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: I'm on the graduate admissions committee of a top 10 computer science program. If you very briefly explained the circumstances and pointed out that you re-took the classes and got As and have gotten high grades ever since, I doubt these particular marks would be held against you.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_7: As a former member of a graduate program committee who has reviewed hundreds of applications I can give my opinion. Address the F's directly and briefly in your application letter, say you had a problem, point out the retakes, and tell them you learned from the experience.
I personally have three advanced degrees and a few F's on my undergraduate transcript.
>
> "Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the
> lesson afterward." - <NAME>
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: When applying for non-research related work in the commercial sector, how should confusion be avoided over the term "Research Assistant" being used in a CV?
Are human resources staff at companies, and recruiters, at risk of assuming "research" means market research, as opposed to scientific research, especially if they're skimming through the CV?<issue_comment>username_1: Generally speaking, I don't think this is something you should worry about, and I don't think anywhere you'd want to work would be likely to have an HR department that would confuse (graduate or undergraduate) research assistants with market researchers.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: I know I'm resurrecting a dead thread, but considering I'm going through a similar process right now I figured I would leave my 2 cents.
I would caution against the advice of individuals who say "don't worry about it, let your resume explain your position", at least in reference to *non-academic* positions in the *US*. You should have two resumes/CVs, one for academia and one for everything else. In academia the recruiter or PI should understand what "Research Assistant" or "Graduate Research Assistant" means. However, in industry some large companies hire 3rd parties to do their recruiting. In the US the average time for a recruiter like this to read a resume is *5-7 seconds*. While this [website](http://4.%20Level.%20If%20I%E2%80%99m%20doing%20a%20VP%20level%20search%20and%20your%20title%20is%20%E2%80%9Cmanager%E2%80%9D%20and%20you%20have%20never%20been%20a%20VP%20%E2%80%93%20goodbye.%20There%20are%20exceptions%20to%20this,%20but%20again%20it%20is%20the%2080/20%20rule.%20Again,%20clients%20pay%20me%20to%20find%20them%20the%20perfect%20fit.%20It%20is%20generally%20way%20too%20big%20of%20a%20jump%20from%20manager%20level%20to%20VP%20level,%20all%20other%20things%20being%20equal.%20It%20works%20the%20other%20way%20too.%20If%20%20I%E2%80%99m%20looking%20for%20a%20manager%20and%20you%20are%20a%20VP%20%E2%80%93%20goodbye.%20I%20know%20you%20are%20qualified%20to%20do%20a%20manager%20level%20role,%20but%20it%20is%20clear%20you%20have%20grown%20past.%20Most%20clients%20and%20recruiters%20aren%E2%80%99t%20willing%20to%20take%20the%20chance%20that%20when%20a%20VP%20level%20position%20comes%20along%20that%20you%20won%E2%80%99t%20be%20gone.%20Less%20than%205%20seconds%20to%20figure%20out.) might not be representative of all recruiters, it does emphasis the importance of your position title. Here is an excerpt, emphasis is mine:
>
> 4. Level. If I’m doing a VP level search and your title is “manager” and you have never been a VP – goodbye. There are exceptions to this, but again it is the 80/20 rule. Again, clients pay me to find them the perfect fit. It is generally way too big of a jump from manager level to VP level, all other things being equal. It works the other way too. If I’m looking for a manager and you are a VP – goodbye. I know you are qualified to do a manager level role, but it is clear you have grown past. Most clients and recruiters aren’t willing to take the chance that when a VP level position comes along that you won’t be gone. *Less than 5 seconds to figure out.*
>
>
>
Accordingly, I think it is completely feasible that even if you have your PhD and multiple publications the recruiter could see an "Assistant" Research applying for the "Senior" Research position and immediately reject you simply because of your position title.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Over the course or the past year, I've become very familiar with a specific topic through a careful and systematic review of the background and state-of-the-art.
I think this could make for a nice publication, providing readers in similar fields with a handy resource and increasing my academic profile to boot.
However, I want to make sure that the lit review I performed is scientifically sound - so it must be transparent and replicable.
Do you know of any guidelines, best practices, or great examples to guide me as I get working?<issue_comment>username_1: I would suggest you to perform a limited search for **dedicated** *literature review (survey) papers*, either in your field (not sure, whether this should be preferred, as it IMHO might push you too far outside of your own "big picture" *view* of the field), or in any other field that you can digest.
In addition to the above, please check my recent and **relevant answer** to a similar question here on this site - along with some general advice, it contains some useful references on the topic: <https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/45290/12391>.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: While it is not specifically for general literature reviews, but more aimed at systematic reviews and meta-analysis, the [PRISMA Statement](http://www.prisma-statement.org/index.htm) is widely used in the biomedical literature, and even comes with checklists to make sure a manuscript has a few key elements, such as:
"Present full electronic search strategy for at least one database, including any limits used, such that it could be repeated."
Which is something that's pretty necessary for repeatability - you will often find for systematic reviews that an appendix is included with the actual queries used, what dates, etc. In a more general sense, that's what I'd look toward: "Does my review follow most of the guidelines for presenting a meta-analysis, even if it doesn't bother with summary estimates?" If you do that, you're likely on pretty solid ground.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I just finished crafting an application's cover letter for a particular lab (if it matters, area of research can be broadly classified as *computational social sciences*). The situation is that they have several postdoctoral positions and I feel that I am a pretty good fit for either one of them (how modest ;-).
However, I think that it makes absolutely **no sense** to send three *separate* cover letters for each of the positions, as 1) they are affiliated with the same lab (and, even, one of co-PIs is the same for all of them); 2) the positions share a lot of subject domain areas (I, actually, expressed this point directly in my cover letter - I hope it will not be considered offensive or otherwise inappropriate).
Therefore, my two related **questions** are:
* Would it be appropriate to submit a single application with a single cover letter to those positions, based on my points above, even though they are advertised separately?
* Is it acceptable that my cover letter (that single one) is almost two pages long (including all appropriate vertical spacing and 12pt font size - trying to be gentle with the readers' vision)?<issue_comment>username_1: At my university, you would have to apply separately to each position as listed in our job application system. That's just how the site works. I think it would be fine to use the same cover letter text and CV for all the positions as long as you spell out in the letter that you have applied for all of them and why you think you are qualified for each of them, which it sounds like you have done. I think the extra length is probably also fine given the circumstances, but some people are more sensitive to convention on this. There's a tradeoff between offending people's eyes with smaller fonts and narrower margins and offending their sensibilities that cover letters must be one page and one page only. If you can edit it down a bit, you might be better off, but I wouldn't sweat it too much.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't think you can assume that one application is okay. I can certainly imagine situations where the lab would want a separate application for each position. Maybe they are going to be reviewed by different people or committees. Maybe they have complicated HR procedures that you don't know about. Maybe when reviewing applications for position X, they want to see an application that specifically addresses your qualifications for that particular position, and doesn't mention other things that are only relevant to position Y.
So the safest course of action would simply be to ask.
>
> Dear Professor MMM,
>
>
> My name is NNN, and I am a graduate student at UUU, working with professor SSS. I see that your lab has some postdoc positions open; I believe that I could be a good fit for any of the positions XXX, YYY, ZZZ. (Briefly explain why.) Would you prefer that I send a separate application for each position, or a single application addressing my qualifications for all three?
>
>
>
This could also get you other useful information, such as "I think you would be a better candidate for XXX; for the YYY postdoc we are specifically looking for someone with expertise in BBB."
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a masters student at a top-rated US university in electrical engineering. I have been working under a professor who joined the department last semester. He is quite happy with my progress, but can't offer me a PhD as he doesn't have enough money. He has agreed, though, to help me get a PhD by recommending me to other professors.
The task of finding a professor, however, is on me. The issue arises here, as in my department professors don't actively search for students. It works mostly like a referral system, where the professors take up recommended students. Thus most of the openings get filled up before they make a public announcement. One way to solve this is to write mails to several professors to ask for openings. What I am looking for is this: is there a better strategy?<issue_comment>username_1: Rather than emailing lots of faculty asking for openings, I would recommend emailing a few faculty who seem most interesting to you asking for a discussion about the possibilities of joining their department. The reason is that rather than just polling for openings, you want to get connected to the referral network (which your current professor appears unwilling or unable to do for you). I would thus recommend approaching the discussion not as:
>
> Hi, can you hire me?
>
>
>
but instead as:
>
> Hi, I'd like to figure out whether my research interests and personality are a good match with you or others in the department. If they are, can you hire me or else can you point me to somebody else who is likely to be interested in doing so?
>
>
>
This way, instead of asking a simple yes/no question, you are engaging the person in a way that may also lead you to good connections that you wouldn't have even thought of asking about. By following the leads from such conversations, I think you are significantly more likely to find a good match than just by sending out polling emails.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Well-known professors get too many emails from potential Ph.D. students from all over the world and they simply do not have time to respond to all of them. They cherry-pick only the most *serious* applications based on:
* **Quality of the application**. Your resume, references, and may be a short statement of purpose in the body of the email.
* **Background match**. The applicant did work in his masters on relevant topics. Ideally, the applicant did spend some time to skim through some of the professor's publications and discusses those.
* **Enrollment overhead**. Applicants already enrolled in the same university have the lowest overhead since they do not need to relocate and can be interviewed face-to-face. On the other hand, overseas applicants have the highest overhead.
That being said, sending a simple email asking for a potential opening is not the best strategy. Choose specific professors and spend some time to send them *concrete* and *serious* applications.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I currently have two months before I have to submit my master's thesis (its a one-year program in the UK) and just finished data collection. Analysing the data is a time consuming process and I'm starting to worry that I don't have too much time to write my dissertation. Will it be better to prioritize the analysis (and actually get some reportable results) or to get cracking on the writing once and for all (since our final grade would ultimately be based on that)? I feel like an even split between the two would be best but its hard trying to find the right balance. Both require very different mindsets. When writing I need to be in a quiet place where I can slowly churn out words and read (or skim) papers I come across. Analysing data happens in a noisy lab where distractions are everywhere but ultimately work gets done at the end of the day.
At this stage, should I just focus on getting the analysis done with (which could take weeks since its highly exploratory in nature) or should I try to somehow come up with a strategy to accomplish both?<issue_comment>username_1: Yes, you have to do both. You might be able to write some parts of the thesis in advance, but the analysis must precede writing about your results.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: If you are doing your analysis with R, you can kind of do both at the same time using [knitr](http://yihui.name/knitr/). This package allows to mix code, the code output, and normal text in the same file. There is also great control in what is show. For instance, in the final thesis all the code could be hidden. In effect, you would be doing the exploratory analysis whilst writing down how it was done and the description of the results. Since it is plain text documents, you can complement it with version control and a free online hosting (github or bitbucket), and have backups of the analysis. Even though I don't use it on a regular basis, [RStudio](http://www.rstudio.com/) would also be of great help here.
Knitr offers markdown and LaTeX. The former is very easy to use and it will take you a about a hour to learn. LaTeX which is more rich in functionality, but takes way longer to learn. Using pandoc, the final document could also be converted to .doc.
But even if you are not using R, write down what (how) you are doing, and summaries of results. This will save time when doing the write-up.
Now to answer your original question:
>
> At this stage, should I just focus on getting the analysis done with (which could take weeks since its highly exploratory in nature) or should I try to somehow come up with a strategy to accomplish both?
>
>
>
Write down what are questions you are trying to answer, and which steps are needed to answer them. Then access which would be the minimum required for a Thesis - your supervisor could also help you with this. This will allow you to focus on small chunks of your thesis (more manageable and preferably independent), and the end of each access how much time you have left for the writing of conclusions/introduction or whether you can or should tackle another one. It is also ok, to leave out results from the final thesis if there is not time to explain those in-depth.
Personally, I would err on the side of less analysis, but well done rather than a hodgepodge of half-baked attempts. Keep in mind that the goal here is to show that you have done research and acquired new knowledge.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Do everything you can to reduce the exploratory nature of the data analysis.
Plan exactly what results you are going to need for your manuscript, what the tables will be, what the figures will be, how they will be formatted. Then when you get to the data analysis, you can be extremely focused, concentrating only on what's essential for your work.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I write as I go. I begin the introduction and methods as I begin working on a new project, I write results as (or even before) I make plots. Through the process of collecting data, I get new ideas that I want to capture in a rough draft of the discussion. Writing up even rough results makes me think more clearly and helps me determine what data I need to gather and plot next. Through this process, I throw away about as much text as I end up with. Writing a good draft requires writing a bad draft.
If I did all the analysis, then wrote the bad draft, then wrote the good draft, the bad draft would only help with the writing. By writing every bit of the bad draft as soon as possible, the bad draft can help myself and my collaborators think more clearly about how to improve the analysis. Writing as I go lets me use the bad draft not just to help with the writing, but with the thinking.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: The ideal way to perform research is to begin with a set of questions. If new questions are generated based on the data, that's all well and good, but unless the findings actually invalidate the questions themselves—which occasionally happens—you'll be helping yourself by solidifying your questions before you start.
To try to bring that to your specific question, given that you have such a limited timeframe, focus all your analysis time on answering the question you were posing at the outset. Once that's done, write until you've completely written up that analysis. If, at that point, you have other interesting analyses you want to perform, you can do the analysis and write it up.
The only exception I would list here is the case where you entire analysis failed, but something else very interesting (i.e., publishable) came up that is more exciting than your first question. I only mention this because this happened to a colleague of mine; his project failed, but he found something else fascinating, and the main focus of his thesis was the second thing. That case aside, though, definitely focus on your main question at hand.
Upvotes: 0
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2015/06/15
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<issue_start>username_0: I was wondering why some good European universities in the field of Computer Science and related careers, I mean:
* Computer Science
* Information Systems
* Software Engineering
Their faculties do not really put information about if they are accredited by some entity like ABET for example. I know that these faculties rely more on research outcomes, quality of their staff and also to have a very dynamic curricular scheme that is not so fixed from time to time.
So is it that for these universities the accreditation is not important? and if one faculty has to choose an accreditation entity which one would be the best for the aforementioned careers?
I ask this because I found, for example, that some faculties are accredited by ACISCS or other entities, but according to what I found on the web there were a lot of rants against these accreditation types.<issue_comment>username_1: I have not found much value in accreditation; it may serve to identify poor-quality schools, but most decently ranked departments sail through accreditation without any of their real deficiencies being exposed. The process is thus little more than a bureaucratic checkbox for government or company sponsors of students.
If you want to gauge the quality of a department ... look at where its
graduates go. What companies hire them, what universities accept them for graduate school/academic positions, what are their successful graduates doing 10-15 years after graduation?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: European employers don't care, so students don't care, so universities don't care. A quick search on a leading UK IT job site finds about 100 mentions of BCS (the main British accreditation body), compared to "1000+" for mentions of specific *skills* (e.g. SQL, Java). The vast majority of the BCS mentions are actually about non-graduate technician registration, so the actual number of jobs that require degree accreditation is noise. Employers assess ability directly through skills tests, put a lot of value on student placements (the "year-long interview"), and/or rely on some shonky 20-year-out-of-date idea about which universities are the "top ones".
Furthermore, most European countries have a substantial (some would say excessive) quality assurance regimen coming from national or sub-national governments. To be allowed to award degrees at all, or call your organisation a university, requires vast amounts of checks and inspections. So, the role that accreditation plays in some parts of the world—distinguishing the substantive universities from the two-bit college in some rooms above a shop—just doesn't obtain.
Upvotes: 2
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2015/06/15
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a first-year PhD student and I have two accepted publications as a first author since the start of my program.
The thing is I thought I would be the one to travel to the conferences and present my work but my advisor is making the presentation, as he made me aware of it today. The conference is in Europe. He gives me an excuse that the reason he will be going is because he will be on the committee of reviewers for the same conference next year and this will be a good opportunity for him to know what is going on.
The first conference is somewhere on the west coast and his co-PI also will be making that presentation.
I feel a little frustrated that all my hard-work is being presented by people who had little or nothing to do with the hundreds of hours of work that led to these results.
I feel this might be a trend that will continue throughout my PhD. My question: do you think I should challenge these folks or quietly accept their excuses for wanting to go, though unhappy about it as it is, and hope for a better deal in the future.<issue_comment>username_1: There may be good reasons why your advisors aren't encouraging you to go to these meetings. For example, they may feel the costs of sending you are out of proportion to the benefits you would get from the experience, particularly given that you are at a very early stage in your PhD. Without knowing more about your specific circumstances, it is difficult to judge.
I suggest you have a friendly, non-confrontational discussion with them about which conferences they think you should aim to attend over the next few years. That way, everyone will know what the goals are, and (hopefully) no confusion will arise in future.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> My question: do you think I should challenge these folks or quietly accept their excuses for wanting to go
>
>
>
Well, you've already asked about going, and the answer was "no." Nothing wrong with asking again, though.
However, I want to point out that the way your question reads, it sounds like your previous conversation was more about your PIs attending, not you. So, you should make it clear that *you* are interested in going. If you were to ask again, I would suggest asking something along the lines of "are there any funds available for **me** to attend the conference(s)?"
If this conversation does not change the outcome, you could always check with your institution to see if there are funds available for students to travel to and attend conferences. Some schools have these, some schools don't. You may be able to receive some partial funds and be required to cover the rest of the cost out of your own pocket if you really wanted to go and were willing/able to pay your way. In any case, it's a good idea to see if these funds are available to you.
>
> though unhappy about it as it is, and hope for a better deal in the future.
>
>
>
No, *hoping* for a better deal in the future is not a good strategy. You need to have a chat with your advisor(s), and express your desire to attend the conferences where your work is presented. Again, as above, ask specifically about whether or not there are/will be any funds for you to attend conferences.
Depending on the answer, you may be satisfied that you will be taken care of the next time around. Or, you may find that at your school/department, students are more or less on their own in obtaining funds for attending conferences (at my PhD-granting institution/department, it was common for the PI to secure the funds for their students to attend conferences where their work was presented — your field/institution may be different).
In the end, if you are not able to come to an agreement about how your travel to conferences will be covered, it will be up to you to decide if your advisor's inability (or unwillingness, etc.) to help you cover these costs is a deal breaker or not.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Money is a finite resource. Your adviser may have very good reasons to attend (his "excuse" certainly doesn't sound "flimsy" to me but very reasonable from the perspective of a PI) and there may simply not be enough money to pay for both of your trips. There may in fact be no money at all to pay for your travel and he may be paying for his travel from some grant that allows him to go to the committee meeting (because the committee is related to the topic of the grant), but that wouldn't allow you to go the conference (because your area of work is not related to the topic of your grant). Since your adviser pays for it (and is legally responsible for the appropriate use of his funds), you need to understand that *he* gets to make the decision.
As other have pointed out, that does not imply that he doesn't want *you* to go either. He may wish that he had enough money to send both of you, but doesn't. He may wish that some other (student travel?) money could be found to send you and may in fact be quite happy to write you the necessary letters of recommendation. We could speculate about this all day long, but at the end of the day, you can only elucidate whether this is the case or not by having a conversation.
Upvotes: 3
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2015/06/15
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a PhD student in mathematical economics and had an interesting idea last month. I modelled my idea and wrote it down. For the moment, it is a preliminary draft but I think my idea is pretty interesting.
I would like to discuss my idea with some people in the field (researchers, professors, other PhD students etc.) with showing them the model in order to take their advices but I am afraid if some people can pick my idea. (I have already heard about this kind of unethical attitude in academia from my friends.)
As it is not a working paper yet, if somebody pick the idea and make a working paper before than me, I think I could do nothing than accepting the situation.
How to deal with this kind of issues ? The best way is to keep this preliminary model for me until the time that I put it as a working paper ?<issue_comment>username_1: Per <NAME>'s comment:
When you feel like you've developed the idea enough to present it to anyone else, show it to your advisor and see what they say. One of the main things that advisors can help you with is to tell you which other people to contact to get help and information.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Unfortunate to there that there is such misconducts in your field.
In general it is a very good idea to share your paper with someone else. Usually that only makes any research better. At times, PhD student may not receive the best advices from their advisor, because sometimes they may not see "the forest from the trees". In my own experience sharing research ideas and drafts with someone who is not directly into that topic usually leads to fresh ideas, comments and helps myself to think outside the box.
I think every researcher regardless of the level should aim to connect and network with different people in different disciplines in order to have reliably people around you and thus be able to easily discuss with research papers and ideas.
As said in the comments it is important to listen and take advices from your advisor, but I also recommend discussing with other people to get a different view.
Maybe you could leave some critical information out from your paper and then discuss of it in more theoretical level? Without all the critical information the risk of misconduct would be definitely smaller. Do you have contact outside your own discipline but still close to your topic? I see it very unlikely that they would copy your idea, since they do not have all the expertise in your topic. I also recommend discussing with your fellow PhD students. Again I see hardly any risk they would copy your idea. I am an optimist and yet would like to believe in collegiality. Most importantly, you would very unlikely lose anything else than just a short period of your personal time if your share ideas with your peers, even if they have anything relevant ideas.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
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2015/06/16
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<issue_start>username_0: I thought about posting this in English.SE, but since it occurs in a university setting, I decided to post here - hopefully it's on-topic.
I have been working on a project that is being transitioned to another group member so she could take over the project. The project involves the design, development, and application of "Model X". I have done some useful work on it, but some work still needs to be done to complete it. I'm putting together a documentation package to describe what I've done so far, the design of "Model X", and how to use the code I've written thus far.
This report is internal to the group (whether this will be part of something that is published in the future, I do not know). I hesitate to title the report "Model X" because it's not, and might not be close to, being the final model. How should I title the transition report?
Some options I have thought of:
"Current status of Model X" - but this seems like an email subject
"Incomplete Model X: Design and Usage" - this sounds a bit degrading
What would you suggest? And are there in fact accepted titles for this kind of report?<issue_comment>username_1: How about calling it a [Working Paper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_paper) or a [Technical Report](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_report)? (These are considered forms of [grey literature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_literature).)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I suggest using term *"intermediate"*, as it IMHO most accurately reflects the incomplete status of the project. Therefore, the title of the corresponding report might be formulated like the following:
>
> "[Topic of the report]: Intermediate technical report by [group name].
> Version x.y.z from [date]"
>
>
>
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: I have typically seen the word "Draft" used, as in:
>
> Draft Model of X (Date)
>
>
>
If you want to track multiple drafts over time, then you can give a version number as well:
>
> Draft Model of X (Version N, Date)
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: The term "interim report" seems appropriate here
>
> Interim report on the development of Model X
>
>
>
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2015/06/16
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<issue_start>username_0: My institution currently tracks its members' publications by sending them an email every six months and then manually compiling publication lists from the replies. I am looking into updating the organisation's web site, and I would like to implement a system where users can maintain their own publication list on their academic web page. This data should go into a central database, so that we can (for example) easily pull up the last six months' worth of new publications for reporting purposes.
My question is whether there is a standard solution to this problem: is there any free or commercially available software that will allow us to set up a user-editable publication list system with a database backend?
If it's relevant, we're looking at using Wordpress as the backend for the whole site, with one of the many "user profile" plugins being used to create the individual personal pages. (This is all being done on a shoe string budget.)<issue_comment>username_1: This sounds like a job for an [institutional repository](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_repository) (though you don't have to publicise its existence as such...)
The two most commonly used open-source packages for repositories are [ePrints](http://www.eprints.org/) and [D-Space](http://www.dspace.org/), though there's a few others. Anecdotally, D-Space is somewhat more complex to set up than ePrints, though I've only got experience of the latter.
Both have comparable levels of functionality, including metadata feeds/export, and it should be easy enough to export material into a Wordpress site - I've certainly seen it done, for example in [this](http://joss.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2010/02/02/feeding-wordpress-with-eprints-a-social-repo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20blogs%2Flincoln%2Fjoss%20(Expedient%20Means)) rough proof-of-concept. I'll see if I can find a more polished example.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: A commercial service designed to solve this problem is [Epistemio Outcomes](http://epistemio.com/outcomes). Users can maintain their publication list, in most cases, by just confirming results of an automatic search. The publications of scientists within an institution are aggregated into the institutional list of publications, with automatic deduplication. Aggregation is automated, therefore no more emailing and manual compilation of lists from the replies will be needed. Scientists may embed their own list of publications on their personal pages, while the institution may also embed the aggregated list on its page. The lists of publications can be exported at any time, in a variety of formats, for reporting purposes.
Disclaimer: I am affiliated with Epistemio.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Nobody in academia is really a fan of Elsevier, but they have a product called [Pure](http://www.elsevier.com/solutions/pure) that provides a fairly comprehensive solution for tracking research activities, including publications but also conference attendance, grants, collaborations, etc. I've used it as a faculty member at my current institution (it is used by all Danish universities) and my experience has been positive from that perspective.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: If you are not opposed to using Elsevier / Mendeley, there is a very nice [Mendeley Plugin for WordPress](https://wordpress.org/plugins/mendeleyplugin/).
You can maintain your publication list in Mendeley and can easily build publication lists by using WordPress shortcodes, such as
```
[mendeley type="groups" id="XXXXX" filter="author=XXXX" sortby="year" sortorder="desc" groupby="year"]
```
Through the `filter` attribute, you can build different lists from the same Mendeley group, e.g. based on the author, year, tags, to name a few.
An example for a publication list built with the plugin can be found [here (archive.org link)](https://web.archive.org/web/20190329103956/http://www.teco.edu/publications/).
Upvotes: 1
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2015/06/16
| 2,662
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a undergrad student, and I am currently conducting summer research under a professor.
During our last meeting, I have revealed that I wish to go to school A for my graduate study. But my prof rather wanted me to stay at my current school for master/phd; i.e., stay and work for him.
Well, I have already spent 3 years in my current undergrad school and I know it too well it is not where I want to go.
The problem is that, this prof is the only person who can comment on my research experience/potential. (Because I have been working 2 years with him; this year is the second year).
Right now, I can sense something not right in the relationship between my prof and I. At the end, if I go ahead and ask him to write me a recommendation letter, I am sure he would write one. But the question is, there **can** be a chance that he writes negatively, such that I would get rejected everywhere, and have nowhere to go except staying at my current school and do graduate study with him.
What should I do?
---
More detail info:
There used to be a PhD student who published quality paper and taking care of things in the lab. The Prof is almost always away so he definely need someone to do this kind of lab managing job. As far as I know, none of his graduate students publish paper for 3 years in a row except for that Phd student. Currently, that PhD student is graduated this year so I guess he was looking for a candidate as a replacement.<issue_comment>username_1: This seems a tricky situation. What you could do is try to write your motivation letter in a way that the people reading it alongside the recommendation would
1. find it a classical (good) motivation letter if the recommendation of your professor is sincere and positive and
2. understand that the recommendation letter is not sincere if you prof does write a bad letter for the sake of keeping you at you current place.
This is not easy, but you could explain that you prof asked you to stay and state why you think the place you apply to would be a better fit for you (but do not despise you current place openly, it would reflect bad on you).
This answer is not completely satisfactory to me, but I do not see anything best right now.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Do you have some other reason to want to move? eg, proximity to family, climate, wanting a change of scene? Even if your professor is scheming in the way you are suggesting, there would be no incentive for him to write a negative letter if he knows you will be leaving your current university regardless.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Having only worked with one research supervisor, if he/she wants to screw you over you are basically screwed and there is not much you can do. If your CV lists research experience and you do not have a letter of recommendation from the supervisor, that is essentially the same as, and possibly worse than, having a negative letter.
I find it hard to believe that a supervisor would hold an undergraduate student "hostage" since there is no upside to the supervisor. A supervisor might stop investing time in an undergraduate student that he/she knows is leaving, but that does not mean the supervisor will write a bad letter. I would suggest talking to him/her and try and figure out what is going on.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Writing bad letters of recommendation because of personal disappointment about a student leaving is so disproportionately unethical that I cannot believe that it happens with any significant frequency. It is not what I would be worried about.
In the end, most professors take pride in their students growing up, going out into the world, and being successful. Students are a bit our kids too -- sure, it would be nice if the kids stayed in the neighborhood, could continue to mow the lawn, and come over for dinner twice a week; but if they move out and are successful, we're proud nonetheless and hope they stay in contact. And if there's something we can help for them to be successful (like writing letters of recommendation), then that's what we do!
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_5: *Preamble*: If you are in the US there is something that is legal and built into the system that you can use as a last recourse. [It is generally frowned upon](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1152/how-ethical-is-it-to-view-recommendation-letters) and you should certainly try the other avenues first (cf. the other answers). I'm including the option here not to advocate it, but to make sure you are fully informed of your options.
---
Are you based in the United States and applying to graduate schools based in the United States? The [Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act](http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html) stipulates the applicants have the right to inspect the letters of recommendation written on their behalf, unless said right was explicitly waived by the student. During the application process you will almost always encounter a question "Do you waive your right to review the letters of reference?" while entering the list of your referees. **If you feel you have a real cause for concern, you can leave that box un-ticked**. If someone actually wrote you a negative letter for the reason you described, it would be highly unethical; if you have the evidence (not just the letter written, but also proof of intent behind the letter) you can get him or her in big trouble.
---
Typically when a writer is asked to submit reference letters for applicants to graduate programs which fall under such a disclosure/waiver rule, the writer is informed at the time of submission whether the applicant has or has not waived the the right to view the letter. Hence not waiving your rights can have the desired effect as a deterrent.
On the other hand, some people view not waiving your right as indicating your own lack of trust in the letter writer (which in your case will be true) and will hence believe that the letter writers may not have been as candid in their evaluation as they otherwise would have. So this may, in some situations, adversely affect the perception of your application.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: In my opinion, so far in here there is no satisfied answer for this situation. As username_3 says, "if he/she wants to screw you over you are basically screwed and there is not much you can do". I think if you really want to actively do something, so that you can have the feeling of controlling the situation, you will need a plan...
People tend to react with an event with the emotion they are carrying. For example, if a person just have a meeting and you can't ask them directly because it's confidential, you can offer them a cup of coffee right after they has a meet. If they answers **in a positive way**, you can conclude that the meeting has positive results. If they answers **in a negative way**, the results might be negative.
**>** Make a good plan before applying this in your situation. I propose this: try to know the time he is free, and the drink he likes. After he finishes writing your LOR, meet him **in person**, invite him to have a drink in his free time. Or you can bring the drink to him directly as thank. Don't focus on the word he answers, focus on **how comfortable** he is when answering you.
There are higher techniques to figure out what others are hiding. If you want to know more, I recommend you the book [You Can Read Anyone](https://books.google.com.vn/books/about/You_Can_Read_Anyone.html?id=7jcAh5KZBlAC&source=kp_cover&hl=en), but you can also google them easily. Note that when you trying to figure out what his altitude is, your plan is also what you hide to him. If he has some experience in psychology, be careful but at the same time be natural.
---
But, don't get me wrong. I really try to avoid using these techniques as best as I can. If he doesn't know the plan, good for you, but if he finds something unnatural in your action, the least bad thing is now he sees you as a problem, to the worst thing that you have a cold war to your advisor. Learning martial arts isn't for using, but for avoiding to be hurt.
While there's life, there's hope. Try to reconcile to your advisor if you can. Try to ask, with honestly (and with some techniques if you need), why he needs you to stay with him. Propose other candidate that can meet his expectation. This will be the best for both world.
As others have said, the best for you is the best for him. So the best for him, is the best for you.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: My advice: 'run....'. A professor who only cares about him/herself is a bad sign. If I know a student of mine can get into a top school, I'll do all my best to help him/her get in. Then before he/she leaves, I'll say, do remember me when you're famous!
Hopefully in a few years time he/she will give me his/her first born :)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: Just bring things out into the open. Here's an example of how to do this.
Over coffee, tell the prof something about your motivation to spread your wings and seek a challenge at another university (it should be something true, but it could be exaggerated -- for example, I want to go to New Orleans because it's the birthplace of jazz, or I want to go to the U of Mich because that's where my parents met, or I want to go to Cornell because I love waterfalls).
Next, say that you have really appreciated the opportunity he has given you to get involved in research; you realize that not all undergrads get an opportunity like what you had.
Let him sing your praises at this point, if he is so inclined.
Interrupt when he's mostly done and say that you realize that when a professor spends a lot of time mentoring a student, it's generally an investment in the future, and you feel bad about leaving him high and dry.
Let him talk about his regrets about you leaving if he wants to.
Remind him about the waterfalls or the jazz or whatever from step one.
See if he shows some understanding and support. If not, confess your fear that he will want you to stay so badly that his feelings might color his letter of recommendation.
Then listen.
(By the way, I would leave alcohol out of it.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: Since it sounds like you have at least a year left at your current institution, I would suggest building a few relationships with other professors who can write for you -- diversification is almost always a good strategy.
The other thing to remember is that although recommendations help, graduate schools are most interested in your ability to add value to their program through tuition and/or your skills as a researcher/scholar.
So, if you are in interested in g-school, I would think about your overall CV and demonstrating you can add value to a given program. One way to get a head start is to contact programs and professors you are interested in working with and ask about their plans and how you can help push their research agenda forward.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: If you are going for a humanities grad degree, either scientific or humanities undergrad could get in as long as they get good GRE score (I think.)
Not the case for scientific graduate studies, as the applicant would most likely need to be experienced in lab work and have solid scientific understanding, proven by their undergrad coursework.
Would graduate programs in scientific fields consider a person with no scientific background for even a conditional admission?<issue_comment>username_1: I don't know of any universities in the UK which would allow this. The reason is simple: in order to complete even basic tasks in science involves knowing the langauge of science (often with a lot of maths).
However, there are 'access courses' in the UK which are 1 year, and have much lower entry requirements. I'm not sure where you are (probably the US?) but I imagine there will be similar things around.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Speaking for the US and as someone with undergrad degrees in the humanities who is now doing a PhD in the sciences, it is hard, but not impossible to make the transition.
First of all, your best bet is Masters programs. Unless you're somehow exceptional (or maybe just very well connected), you'd be hard pressed to find a PhD program to take you when you're completely unproven in an area. However, to start out, there are transitional programs out there (Boston University's [LEAP program](http://www.bu.edu/eng/academics/special-programs/leap/overview/) for engineering is one) to help students move into a science field. Ask around and search online; I'm sure there are at least a few others.
You can also take non-degree courses at local universities to build up coursework in your desired field. For those, most schools don't much care about your background as long as you're paying them. Once you've built up enough background/understanding in your field, you may have some luck applying to Masters programs. I've seen other questions on this site where folks have posted schools that accept students to Masters programs in the sciences despite non-science backgrounds. I'll edit this answer if I can find some examples.
Additionally, once you've built some classroom credentials, you may have some luck trying to work with a professor in his/her lab. Even if you're not a matriculated student, I know of at least 2 faculty who have taken on lab assistants from outside the university. It's not common, but it is possible.
In summary, it's possible, but it will take time, probably some money, and some dedication to make the change. You'd probably have trouble getting in anywhere with zero background, but with some patience you can build that background and get your foot in the door. Once you have that, it just depends on how far you want to go with it.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: It very much depends on your background - it is possible, for example, to end up with a humanities degree, but having taken a fair bit of math and science as part of an interest, or a liberal arts education.
Fields that *don't* have a strong undergraduate presence may very well accept you - for example, there are *very few* students coming in with an undergraduate background in Epidemiology, which means that graduate programs are pretty much expecting to train you from the ground up anyway.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Yes. You have to be realistic, though. Making such a transition takes time, as you're starting from square one. It also can be financially challenging, as you progress through the education. You may not find a lot of choices at first, but with effort, you can begin to expand your horizons after building your academic reputation.
I suppose my answer is from personal experience.
Two years ago, I began to pursue a full, rich career in physics. My undergraduate degrees, though, were in business and psychology. I had virtually no experience outside of introductory collegiate physics and some calculus I had taken as an undergrad. My work experience did not exactly apply.
Not unexpectedly, the choices for a program were limited. I found a good State university nearby that accepted me conditionally to its Master's program. There are some other students at this school who have had other backgrounds as well - another I know well was an English major. Some of us started from scratch. As conditional students, we had to more-or-less complete the entire BS curriculum prior starting grad classes. That took about two years. Where I am now, it'll take about two more years for the Master's.
My partner is in the same boat, but with mathematics. She held a liberal arts degree. She was rejected for conditional admission, and so began to take classes to bolster her foundations. After a year of study, she reapplied and was accepted. Again, she is working towards her graduate degree after several semesters of fulfilling undergraduate level material.
I have observed others in the same situation successfully enter industry and PhD programs at all levels of prestige and interest. Regardless, those who excelled only did so through a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.
So, yes. It's a long road, but it can be traveled.
Upvotes: 2
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2015/06/16
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<issue_start>username_0: I am writing a report for my master's research. One entire section of my report has been expertly written in someone else's PhD thesis, which happens to mostly take the form of a monograph on the subject.
I am not writing a research article, and they don't expect original research from me (or at least not much), but to be self-sufficient, my report needs to include some kind of quick overview of the subject. The problem is that now that I have read this thesis, I seem to not be able to more than heavily take inspiration from it.
Said thesis is available under the BSD3 license and I of course cite everything but I don't know how to approach what is basically copying a large amount of work.
My options seem to be:
* Rewrite everything "my way" while citing the thesis. Considering it still would not be original work and would amount to just cleverly changing the original work wording and structure it feels intellectually dishonest.
* Just clearly say "The following work is from X" and translate X exactly. This seems academically dishonest.
* Forget about this section. Leave it alone for two months and hope that I forgot the thesis so that I can write with a clear mind and conscience.<issue_comment>username_1: I assume that someone's PhD thesis is a larger piece of work than a section of your report. Therefore, I don't see how you can avoid summarizing the thesis to fit your work. And while you are at it, you get the chance to deepen your understanding of the subject, because you will basically be writing a review of this someone's thesis in light of you report. That is a prospect you shouldn't miss, as in academia as well as in industry, you will be expected at some point of your career to "digest" some work and produce some implication of it.
Citing the thesis is a must, if it is used as a reference, there is no debating it. I would recommend writing your section "your way", but not just changing some details to mask your copy-paste trail. Put the material in the context of your report. You don't need a clear mind and conscience to use something you learned from a source. If it "looks like" the said thesis, that is not a problem, as long as it fits and you have gained significant understanding from it.
PS: If you did a simply copy-paste, you would likely find that the text still needs some polishing to fit your report. That can amount to a significant amount of work.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You are almost certainly using the information in a different context than it was originally presented in. If nothing else, the material needs to be modified to fit its new context, as well as being cited of course. Even the most hard-core mathematical description typically has a lot of text as well, explaining the mathematics, which will need to be adjusted and paraphrased (and if it doesn't have such text, you should add that). I typically find that by the time I have finished adapting a piece of material to its new environment, I have quite thoroughly rewritten things in my own style; combine such with appropriate attribution, and the question of plagiarism is moot.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: For what it's worth, I've found that it's fairly common in math papers (especially longer expository works) to say something like the following:
>
> We will now discuss [insert topic] and prove [insert theorems] in
> order to [insert reason you care about this thing]. The treatment here
> largely follows that of [cite reference]; see there for more details.
>
>
>
and then to present the material from the reference. The wording and exposition should be your own (obviously, you can't just copy/paste the work), and you should try to repeatedly summarize and re-organize the work to fit your own context, but it's fine to re-use notation and proofs and such. Unless you're doing original research in math, you're always presenting somebody else's proof, and often there's only trivial ways to vary how you say it. For a personal example, in the course of writing a term paper for a math class, I found *three* different expository sets of notes all explaining a topic in parallel ways, all of which followed the outline and major proofs of a single source, which was itself and expository work putting some very old results in modern terminology.
Especially if it's just one piece in a larger work, I wouldn't be too concerned. It's much more dishonest to "forget" the reference and pretend you never read it than to admit that you're heavily borrowing from it.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I am going to apply for grad school starting this December. I have heard that an LOR is pretty essential in the process. I have a few professors I can approach. But my question is: how do you present an LOR? By that I mean, should it be sealed in an envelope, giving the impression that I have not peeped into it, before submitting it for grad school?
What if my professor mails me an LOR instead of writing it? Do I take a printout and do the above?
Also is there a particular format I should be aware of? And what else should be there on the letter, apart form the content itself, college stamp/seals or anything of the sought?
Are there any other formalities that I should be concerned about?<issue_comment>username_1: As far as I know, each school you apply to will have their own system for letters of recommendation. Most will have you put the recommenders' contact info into a form, and the school will contact the recommender to request the letter. It is always possible that some may have different methods (particularly outside the US which I something I'm not acquainted with).
For now, just start thinking about who you want to recommend you, and perhaps even begin a conversation with them to understand what they need from you to write a stellar recommendation. The administrative stuff will be more clear once the applications are made available to you in the fall.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: The rules vary greatly by country and program. You should follow the rules as specified by each individual program.
For instance, in the US, the applicant should **never** see a letter of recommendation at *any* stage of the admissions process. Nowadays, this is circumvented by having the letter-writer submit the reference directly, with the applicant only "supervising" the process to see if a letter has been submitted. In the rare cases where everything is to be submitted together, it is usually required that the letter writer sign across the seal of the envelope, to ensure no tampering has occurred.
As for the format, it should again follow local customs—for example, in the US, being submitted on official letterhead is sufficient; a mailed letter *in Germany* would be considered suspect without a stamp mark. (An emailed letter would be an exception to this, but would still be expected to have an electronic or digital signature of some sort.)
Upvotes: 2
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2015/06/16
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently looking for postdoctoral positions, and am considering applying overseas (in US right now). My advisor has expressed his opinion that I can not be successful in an overseas position because my wife won't want to move there and will cause trouble. She doesn't like to move, but has realized that it's necessary, even if it's to a foreign country.
To help in my job search, my advisor has arranged for mock interviews with other faculty members in the department. He has provided a list of questions to prepare for, including "How will your wife like living in INSERT CITY HERE?"
I'm not a lawyer, so I don't precisely what section of the law bans questions about marital status, but I know it's outlawed. Even in an academic environment, a professor hiring a postdoc sure seems to fit into the definition of an employer or supervisor, given that he has the authority to hire, fire, or otherwise direct job responsibilities.
I don't think it's appropriate for him to criticize my personal life, and I have done my best to keep it from interfering with my work. I am mad that he might use my marital issues to sabotage potential job offers. What is the best way to respond to his behavior, and how should I prepare for any potential problems it might cause?
By sabotage, I think he might give negative recommendations. He has told me that if someone asks him for a letter of recommendation about me that he might have to tell them that my personal issues will interfere with my ability to function in the lab. Because this statement happened in the middle of a discussion about how he doesn't think my wife can adjust, the only way I can interpret "personal issues" is "marriage".<issue_comment>username_1: By suggesting that you prepare for questions about how your wife will like living in a new place, it seems to me that this advisor is actually trying to *help* you in your job search, not sabotage you. Even if you only interview in countries where this question is illegal, people who interview you may ask the question anyway (perhaps out of ignorance of the law), in which case it's usually best to answer. And even if they don't ask that particular question, the issue may come up as a result of other questions. I could be wrong (you know him better than I do), but if your advisor wanted to sabotage you, he wouldn't be going to the trouble of arranging mock interviews and confronting this issue head-on.
The letter of recommendation seems to me to be the more critical issue here. I think it depends on how your advisor became aware of your family issues. If these family issues have affected your work, then your advisor may feel he should mention it in the LOR.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: I feel really sad for you professor. From what I read, it looks like a person really tries to help you and in return you accuses him on sabotaging you.
He went way more than a nice professor would do to help you to find a position:
* has arranged for mock interviews with other faculty members in the department
* provided a list of questions to prepare for
Don't you think it takes his time and time of many other people to do this? Don't you think that if someone would like to actually sabotage you, he would not need to do all this (just ignore you and give you bad references).
Also expressing opinion is not sabotaging, it is just an opinion of a person with better experience (which might be wrong). A lot of students would be happy to hear opinion of their professor about their abilities, and should be prepared that sometimes it is different from what they would like to hear.
Regarding a recommendation letter. When someones write a recommendation letter, he puts his word that what he wrote is true. If he will write you an excellent recommendation letter and later you will appear a really bad student, people would not trust him anymore. For this reason, if he believes that there is a problem, he should write about it (it is not called a sabotage). So either find a way to persuade him that his belief is not true/outdated or find another person who would write you a recommendation.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: <http://www.learnvest.com/2013/07/4-inappropriate-interview-questions-and-how-to-answer/3/>
In this link, for the question "What does your significant other do?" it is recommended "to answer honestly while deflecting with humor ('He’s a lawyer. I hope you won’t hold that against me.'), and then simply turn the conversation around: 'By the way, what does your spouse do?' The key is to keep it light."
Applying this to your advisor's mock interview question, how about the following: "My spouse is looking forward to joining me in my international adventure. Are there language classes for new employees and spouses?"
>
> He has told me that if someone asks him for a letter of recommendation about me that he might have to tell them that my personal issues will interfere with my ability to function in the lab.
>
>
>
Ask him what he was referring to when he said that your personal issues will interfere with your ability to function in the lab. First, you need to know what was going through his head.
---
Edited to add:
"This statement happened in the middle of a discussion about how he doesn't think my wife can adjust." I don't think what he said, or is contemplating doing, is illegal. But your family life isn't any of his business. He's your thesis advisor, not your life advisor.
In the worst case, you could do one short postdoc in the US, and then, with a good recommendation garnered from the postdoc, you could then head overseas for a second postdoc.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: First, it would be unusual to arrange mock interviews solely for the purpose of sabotaging someone. It would be more customary, at least in the US, simply to slack off on helping you find another position. On occasion, it might be a ham-handed attempt to convince you of something. I wonder if it is possible that your advisor has a genuine, if unwelcome concern? I understand that, in your opinion, your advisor is violating one of your boundaries by advising you on this issue. Given that his boundaries are different and that your future performance affects his reputation, I'd suggest addressing the issue directly.
On one hand, he may have valid concerns. I have had experience with people with spouses with mental health and personality/flexibility issues. Those issues typically significantly intensify in unfamiliar environments with limited support networks. If such issues have affected your performance in the past, your advisor is doing the right, and courageous thing (if somewhat passively), by bringing these issues to your attention. If your spouse is one of those individuals, or if you are, moving overseas is likely to set you up for failure and your advisor for a loss of reputation. These problems can get really bad. In this case, the best approach might be to seriously consider your advisor's advice and then see if you can find positions that mitigate those concerns. For example, places with a good support network, or places where your spouse is likely to start working immediately. If not, you might consider looking for work more locally, even if outside of academia. In some cases, you may need to consider whether or not your spouse is a good fit with your life plans and make some tradeoffs. Given that it seems something has concerned your advisor enough to make significant efforts, that should be a real warning signal for you.
Alternately, it is possible that your advisor has an unwarranted concern. This can happen - sometimes from cultural grounds, sometimes just from different life experiences. In this case, it makes sense just to clear the air and talk about and address your advisor's worries. You may also find that some of those worries come from real experience. A few of my colleague's wives were perfectly healthy, but ended up leaving them after being unable to adapt to a foreign country. Divorce is always tricky.
Now, in countries where such questions are illegal, they still aren't surprising. The reality is that whether or not your family is okay with moving is often the most predictive variable in whether or not you're likely to stay in a position you accept. Or, to put it another way, I've answered questions about my family's comfort level with a move in essentially every single interview. The ones where I didn't either were clearly not good fits or were really close to my current residence. My approach has been to indicate that I've done my homework - located reasonable places to live and confirmed with my significant other that place X looks like a good place to live. If I haven't done my homework, I tend to indicate that my significant other is open to the move, but that we'll need to visit the place together to make a decision.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Bringing your wife with you to another country has immigration consequences. Depending on where emigrating from, where you're immigrating to, and what visa / work permit rules that country has around Post Docs, your wife may or may not be able to immigrate there with you, she may or may not be able to work there once she gets there, she may require special, separate permission to enter the country, etc. I would expect any interview for bringing someone in from a foreign country to at least touch on what arrangements might need to be made or what limitations might be involved with bringing the candidate's spouse to the country.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: The best way to respond to his behaviour is to recognize that he is right.
The key element in failing postings is spousal problems. If your wife is going to miss her family and perhaps not even getting a job, statistically one of two things is going to happen:
1) You break up and she moves back.
2) You give up and you both move back.
I suggest you talk to him about your wife's change in attitude, and you think about what she is going to do once you get to Europe.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_7: I would not be so concerned about this point. I am Italian and married to an American. We live in Sweden: zero bureaucracy for her. Someone raised this point as being a potential issue, it is not if you move in a EU country at least (as far as I know).
I agree with whom says that this question might come up. It is illegal in the US, but it might not be illegal in single EU countries (as a matter of fact, I do not think "marital status" is protected even by special EU laws).
But do not get discouraged. As someone suggested, try to come up with positive answers that put you in good light.
Your prof is helping you with mock interview, this is huge. If you are worried that s/he would sabotage you (by writing his/her concerns about your marital status in her/his reference letter), just try to come up with sensitive positive answers about this topic during the mock interview; it would tranquilize him/her about it.
In any case, remember a thing. If he/she really mention your marital status in your ref let, this could play against his/her reputation! Imagine what a female reader in the university where you apply to would think about your professor reading such a comment...
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: As a PhD researcher in computer science, my scientific results often take the form of algorithms, which in turn come with implementations. I am convinced that releasing these implementations under an open-source model has various benefits especially for scientific codes, one of which is reproducibility of results. I also believe that "Release Often, Release Early" applies to science, as it opens up the possibility of feedback that ultimately leads to better software and better research.
However, my advisor is concerned with the danger of plagiarism in case the code is released before the respective paper is published, and therefore disagrees with that philosophy. To me it seems like a very theoretical threat since I have never heard of a comparable case of plagiarism. However, we just got a paper rejected in which one major criticism of the reviewer was that it was impossible to reproduce results since the code was not available. My advisor thinks that this is unfair criticism because the conference has not explicitly asked for a release of the source code.
What do you think? Is it sensible to keep implementations secret until the paper is through, or is open-source actually a requirement for reproducible computer science?<issue_comment>username_1: Computer science is a particularly friendly environment for releasing material in advance of publication. In fact, there are a number of methods for doing so that provide a clear archival time-stamp on your work, including university technical reports, arXiv, and big repository sites like github and bitbucket. Moreover, unlike many other disciplines, such pre-release almost never impairs your ability to build conference and journal publications on top of your released material. In fact, you can typically release not just your code, but also your draft paper through the same mechanisms.
If you do such pre-release, you are essentially immune to plagiarism, because anybody who pirates your results will look like a fool with date-stamps marking their guilt for all to see. It may not stop bottom-feeders from trying, but it will mean that nobody you care about (including reviewers) should take such an attempt seriously.
The only likely problem that you can run into is double-blind reviewing, [as discussed in this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31018/how-can-i-timestamp-my-paper-without-violating-double-blind-review). If that's not a major concern for you, or if you can use one of the mechanisms suggested in that question, then I see no likely downside in computer science publication.
On a side note, however: just because the code is available doesn't mean it's reproducible, as anybody who's spent significant time having a dependency-fight with poorly-document open source projects can attest.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I wish that more papers were rejected for such reasons, that more grant funding agencies required release, and that more publishing venues did so as well. That this is not the case, is a reality we have to live in.
A paper should be, at the very least, good enough that an intrepid reviewer could follow the description through to an implementation of their own that works and can reproduce its results. I have certainly seen this done for one of my own papers where our code was not ever published and another author compared their later algorithm to ours by reimplementing our method. In fact, I asked them to do this as part of the review process using their code for their problem since our two approaches were so similar. It made for a much better paper.
I don't believe that in most cases simply rerunning someone's code on the same inputs tells us much more than the paper does. If you don't believe that someone's implementation does what they says it does, you are essentially accusing them of fabricating their results. If this is your concern as a reviewer, then you should say so. E.g., "The results of this paper are unbelievably good! I have worked through the implications of their algorithm and cannot see how an implementation on a real computer could achieve this level of performance. The authors should provide (at least to this reviewer through the editor) code, inputs, and instructions sufficient to reproduce the results in Table 10." Now, they may tell you and the editor to go pound sand, but the peer review process is where this can be addressed now.
Additionally, there are other reasons to keep the code secret. The authors may in some stage of patenting their software. I think that software patents are wrong-headed, but the fact of the matter is that US law allows federal grant awardees to pursue patents for things they invent under federal grants (with a non-exclusive license for use back to the government). In some circumstances, the authors may wish to pursue a patent on the implementation while describing the methodology and mathematics in the open literature. This can be tricky.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Having made a career in open source software, I have two comments:
* I've never had a case where someone "scooped" me. My code has often been available in some form or other (on open software repositories) months or years before the paper was finally ready, but nobody ever scooped me on it. On the other hand, a fair share of my collaborators thought that the code I produced was good, do not have the requisite knowledge to work with it themselves, and asked to collaborate with me. All very positive.
* I've probably written 10-15 papers for which the source code is available (as open source, well documented, production-ready code). In almost all of these cases, paper reviewers thought that very positive and it helped the paper getting accepted.
Upvotes: 3
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2015/06/17
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<issue_start>username_0: I have yet to see this, but was wondering if others have or if it makes sense to list acknowledgments in published papers on a CV.
In some questions on this SE, it seems significant contributions to a paper can occur, yet for some reason (maybe not contributing to writing of the paper), the person is listed in acknowledgments and not co-author. This seems like something that is of relevance/importance.
In the other case, acknowledgments can be 'thanks for the discussion' in which it may have been a brief conversation with one important realization through the talk. This seems more like daily life.
Some people seem to list their contributions tot he academic community, such as being a reviewer for a journal.
What would you think if you saw acknowledgments on a CV, or, would it make more sense to categorize acknowledgments into other topics, such as, 'Non-co-authored project participation'.<issue_comment>username_1: I've never seen "mentioned in acknowledgements" on a CV, and wouldn't know how to evaluate them if I did see them on somebody's CV. Acknowledgements are often pretty random and arbitrary in their threshold, and can often indicate a very small involvement indeed (e.g., "Mary was eating lunch with us one day when the project was being discussed, and happened to say something useful"). This is different than something like service (e.g., reviewing), which typically has fairly well-defined investment in time, and is a known burden that needs to be shouldered by volunteers across the community.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: When it comes to a CV, as with most things in academia, it's best to stick to form. Education, awards, publications, conference papers given, invited talks, departmental service, teaching experience, and possibly references and professional affiliations are just about all you should need. Anything superfluous will likely be misconstrued, ignored, or be perceived as padding. If you're applying for an academic position, keep it simple with only your most significant achievements, as people who look at CVs generally have to look at tons of them, and you won't do yourself any favors by being obscure. They also aren't professional recruiters and don't tend to love poring over CVs, so a standard form helps the evaluators get through this work more efficiently.
If you find you don't have enough things to put on your CV, I think it might just barely be okay to include a kind of "other projects" section in which you briefly discuss your involvement in this other work. But you are largely going to be evaluated on the basis of your own work, so it's hard to say what difference it will make. The CV is part of a nexus of relationships, references, and affiliations and won't stand entirely on its own. So it depends. If you worked on some important projects, perhaps you could ask one of your recommendation writers to mention the degree and quality of your involvement. These sorts of things can at least indicate collegiality, which is important.
As I'm sure you've done, you should look at other people's CVs for guidance and also visit with someone trained to help academics translate their experience into an effective document. My own CV had all the right components, but a counselor on staff at my university suggested I change the order of the sections and reformat it according to a different principle of emphasis and priority. That helped me a lot.
Upvotes: 2
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2015/06/17
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<issue_start>username_0: I have been accepted to a fairly competitive online computer science-related [graduate program](http://datascience.berkeley.edu/) (in the US). It is a part-time program geared toward working professionals. During the application process, I was assigned an admissions counselor that worked with me during the application and answered questions, etc. The counselor did mention at one point that I could defer admission by one trimester, should I be accepted.
Well, long story short, I have a situation with my employer (who would be funding my graduate studies), that is now making me strongly prefer to exercise the deferral option.
I have reached out to my admission counselor seeking guidance on how to do this. I expected this to be a fairly routine, straightforward process. Instead, I am getting aggressive pushback, with the counselor trying to talk me out of it.
After several emails and phone calls with the counselor, I still do not have any instructions on how to actually accept the admission but defer by one trimester. My admission offer is still pending. I would really like to simply accept the offer (and pay the deposits), but with deferral.
All I have are appointments to talk with a current student and a scheduled one-on-one demo of the "courseware" with the counselor. I cannot help but notice the counselor is seemingly dancing around my question on how to defer.
Since this deferral option was mentioned up front when I was still just an applicant, why would I be encountering this kind of resistance? I am truly baffled. Why can't I just do "what is best for me"?
The program has three admission cycles throughout the year: fall, spring, and summer. I applied for fall 2015 and was accepted. I'd like to exercise the option to defer, essentially as if I applied for spring 2016.
I am starting to wonder: Does my request for a deferral reflect badly on someone? On me? On the counselor? Might the school have some aggressive revenue forecast that was expecting my tuition payment, and now this deferral request throws a wrench in it? Does the admission committee and/or counselor have some quota for accepted offers they need to meet? Might they simply be trying to balance class/cohort sizes? I am trying to understand this from the school and counselor's perspective: Why might they do this, and why do so in this aggressive manner?
Furtheremore, does anyone have any advice on how to proceed from this point? Should I just be frank and ask the counselor why the aggressive pushback?<issue_comment>username_1: I think there is no point in our speculating about the motivation behind the "aggressive pushback". In that we don't even know which program you're talking about, we have less information than you. Moreover, speaking as an academic at an "analogue" university, I have no experience whatsoever with online programs. Maybe someone here will have expertise in this area, but I can't think of any frequent contributor with that background.
>
> The counselor did mention at one point that I could defer admission by one trimester, should I be accepted.
>
>
>
Did you get that in writing (presumably email)? If so, I would send a copy of this offer back to your "admissions counselor" and then have one more telephone conversation with him in which you do not ask for advice at all but simply say "I would like to exercise the deferral option that you previously offered." If they try to argue, don't. Just say, "I'm sorry if I wasn't making myself clear: I am not interested in further discussion on this point. I would like to take you up on your previous offer. Who should I talk to about doing that?"
If you didn't get the offer in writing: well, the bottom line is that I don't see how you can hold them to it. You should decide whether you are interested in enrolling in the program without the deferral. It's not my decision, for what it's worth: this kind of behavior on the part of their organization makes a poor impression on me. It is not a good foundation for future work. Unless you feel like this is a unique opportunity (and, well it sounds snooty but nevertheless: I don't know of *any* online graduate programs that are unique opportunities), I would not take them up on their modified offer. If you decide that a deferral is not okay, you have a version of the previous conversation where instead of sending the documentation you indicate that you were extended the offer before. The option is now theirs: they can enroll you after one trimester or not at all.
I am very conscious that the above is more like how I would deal with my credit card company than with a university. Again, I would think twice about enrolling in a graduate program that reminds anyone of a credit card company: yikes.
Good luck.
**Added**: The OP has since provided two further significant pieces of information. First, the institution is one of the leading ones in the US; I was worried that it was an *online only* institution. Second, there are three application cycles per year, so really it is hard for me (a tenured faculty member at a nationally ranked state research university) to understand what the big deal is to start in the following cycle.
Here is my updated advice: as above, I still recommend that you have one more telephone conversation in which you make a good faith effort to get what you want out of the person who's been assigned to deal with you. From your description of the previous conversations, it doesn't sound like you've been as direct as you possibly could be. Counseling is over. Either this person will arrange your deferral or he won't: find out which it is. If the conversation with him does not result in your successful deferral, you should contact a faculty member in the program and tell them that you want to start in the next trimester, and that [insert Mr. Counselor's name here] orally gave you the option of doing that. If there is a good reason not to do this, you'll hear it much more directly from the people who are actually running the program than an "admissions counselor" (again, I don't really know what that is...). I looked up the program you linked to, and three minutes of internet searching did not fully explicitly tell me which faculty member to contact about questions like this, but there is one faculty member who appears most prominently on the page, namely the dean of the school you've applied to. I recommend that you write to her.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Like username_1, I don't have a lot of experience with online programs, but I can extrapolate some guesses from what I know about traditional "face-to-face" graduate programs.
In many traditional programs, it would be quite unusual to offer a student the option to defer for less than a full year. The courses required for the degree often are not offered every term, and may have to be taken in a particular sequence, so the department will schedule courses so that students who start at the beginning of an academic year can take everything they need in sequence and be done as quickly as possible. For a student who defers and starts mid-year, there is a problem. Either the student has to wait to take some of their courses (complicating their schedule or even delaying their graduation), or they have to take courses out of sequence (problematic if one course develops material that is prerequisite for the next), or the department has to offer a special extra course (expensive) or arrange for something like independent study (awkward and time-consuming).
An online program might be able to mitigate this issue, if some of the courses can be taken "asynchronously" (so that you don't have to be "taking" the course at the same time as a professor is "teaching" it). But this is not always the case; sometimes online course are quite synchronous and resemble traditional courses in structure, except that lectures and assignments are delivered electronically.
So that's at least one reason why they might not want you to defer, and why they might not be able to "just let you do what is best for you".
So why were you offered this option in the first place? Another note: traditional graduate programs are usually run "in-house" by a department and its professors, with administrative assistance from department staff. Admissions is usually handled that way as well (in contrast to undergraduate programs, for which there is a dedicated university-wide admissions office). It would be unusual for there to be dedicated admissions counselors for a graduate program; usually the point of contact for prospective students would be a professor from the department, or a staff member with a direct line to a professor. The fact that all your dealings have been with a person whose sole job appears to be admissions suggests that this person is somewhat removed from the day-to-day running of the graduate program. So they may have mistakenly offered you this option without checking with the department, whose responsibility it would be to actually make it work. It's conceivable that the department actually doesn't want to have this option available (perhaps for the scheduling reasons described above), and told the admissions counselor so, and now he/she is trying to backtrack.
As such, here are some things I might suggest:
* Try to get in touch with someone who is actually involved in running the program. The academic department which offers the program (say, computer science) should have a professor listed on their web site as "graduate chair" or some such title. That would be the ideal person. See if you can find out from them what would actually be involved (for you and for them) if you were to defer. This may at least give you a better understanding of what's going on, and you can have a sensible discussion with someone, instead of a credit card company-style ultimatum.
* Based on your work situation, would it be convenient for you to defer for an entire year? My guess is that the university would be much better able to accommodate that. It does cause some issues with "balancing cohort size" and revenue. (More specifically, they probably have a fixed maximum number of students that can enroll in each year. If you defer, they will be (further) below that number for this year, which represents lost tuition revenue that can't necessarily be made up by increasing enrollment next year.) But that is likely a much smaller logistical problem than a student starting mid-year.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: The [MIDS program at Berkeley](http://datascience.berkeley.edu/) is an unusual special case among graduate programs. One clue is the use of admissions counselors, which are almost unheard of in typical graduate programs but are [widely used in for-profit education](http://tressiemc.com/2013/03/08/how-admissions-works-differently-at-for-profit-colleges-sorting-and-signaling/). (This doesn't mean there's anything intrinsically problematic about relying on admissions counselors. They are used because they are an effective recruiting technique and can genuinely help everything work more smoothly for applicants. However, it's a cultural difference in how recruiting is done.)
In fact, the MIDS program is run by the I School at Berkeley in partnership with a [for-profit company called 2U](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2U_(company)). See [here](http://datascience.berkeley.edu/about/2u-program-partner/) for a description of how 2U and Berkeley are collaborating on this. In particular, the key sentence is "2U's marketing and recruiting team supports the I School's goal of finding students who are most likely to succeed in the rigorous Master of Information and Data Science program." The admissions counselor you've worked with is presumably a 2U employee from the marketing and recruitment team, whose job performance is based on getting people to enroll. Deferring at least means you won't be enrolling now, and you might change your mind about enrolling at all in the meantime, so it would not be considered a good outcome by 2U.
So why is Berkeley working with 2U if it could lead to awkward situations like this? One reason is 2U's educational technology platform, but frankly I think it's primarily the prospect of making money. The I School is descended from Berkeley's library school, and this has never been a lucrative field. I'm sure the idea of running a professional master's program (in which people's employers pay a lot of money) is very attractive to the I School, especially if 2U takes care of recruiting students and managing the online program itself. This seems to be a common pattern in 2U's partnerships with universities.
This situation actually gives you a little more leverage than you might normally have:
1. Feel free to be firm (but polite, of course) with the admissions counselor. This is someone who is trying to sell you something, and you don't need to worry that they have some wise but inscrutable motivation for trying to get you to enroll now.
2. The I School really doesn't want 2U to embarrass them. If you have a bad experience with 2U, I'm confident that the I School would like to know and will try to keep 2U in line.
3. In the worst case scenario, you could try complaining to the Berkeley administration (outside of the I School), or even doing something like bringing problems to the attention of someone at the [Daily Californian](http://www.dailycal.org/). I'm sure many people at Berkeley dislike the idea of partnering with a for-profit company, and this gives the I School and 2U a strong incentive to address complaints effectively.
It sounds to me like you have a legitimate complaint. Either the admissions counselor is trying to keep you from exercising a legitimate option, or they misled you about what your options would be. It doesn't sound like a simple miscommunication, since the counselor could have easily addressed that by providing the correct information or context. It's not clear how things will play out, but you shouldn't give up just because the admissions counselor is uncooperative.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]
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2015/06/17
| 888
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<issue_start>username_0: I have written a thesis for my bachelor degree and next week I have to defend it. The problem is that I found some small mistakes (not spelling mistakes, but small mistakes in equations, a wrong number in the abstract and so on) and one or two more significant problems.
Now I want to write an erratum on my thesis that handles six different of these mistakes. Is this too much? I don't want the jury to think that I was sloppy with writing the thesis or that I didn't check it before I handed it in (I did check it numerous of times).
So, is it normal that an erratum contains so much mistakes?<issue_comment>username_1: A thesis is generally a pretty big document, and it would not be surprising to have a number of mistakes even after several passes of editing. If I were on your committee, I would be *happy* to see you submit such an erratum, because it would indicate that you are continuing to engage with the material and actually concerned about its quality, not just trying to graduate and leave.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I've seen a number of students come in to their viva with such a document in hand. It is commonly seen by academics as a bit cutesy-naive; it suggests that you have a conception of the examination process that any minor failing is going to lead to an automatic fail, and that examiners are incapable of grasping the "big picture" of your achievement. As such, it conveys a certain kind of perfectionism, precision, detail-orientation and small-picture viewpoint, which can be good in some situations, bad in others.
That said, I've never seen a *bad* student bring in such a document; it is always a sign of a good student. It demonstrates a certain confidence and analytical ability to find errors such as this; a weaker, less confident student wouldn't have the guts to come along and assert that they are confident in the mistakes that they have found. It therefore also communicates a kind of *command* of the material that suggests a high-functioning individual in the subject.
On balance, I think it is a good idea to bring it.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Whether or not there is any opportunity to submit the errata will depend largely on the rules of your institution. At some universities, there is a fixed time limit to hand in a thesis (such as 6 months after starting). In such a case, examiners may not be *allowed* to take into account any erratum submitted after the time limit (or else, any student who doesn't make it withon the time limit could just get around that by submitting the missing parts later as amendments). In such a case, I also wouldn't expect there to be any defined process for what the office where you hand in your thesis should do with an erratum.
Even if it is not ignored, I am not convinced preparing an erratum right after submission comes across as an invariably positive sign. In a way, it shows that you failed to finish on time and to decide at some point that some version, perfect or not, is the final one.
That notwithstanding, preparing an errata document for your Bachelor thesis might be beneficial for *later* steps where previous works you created during your studies might be taken into account, e.g. for Master study admissions.
In all, the *number* of mistakes you found is probably pretty normal. If you decide to hand in these errata in the first place, you do not need to worry that you will "reveal" how errouneous your thesis is; the degree of correctness will already have influenced your grade, while at the same time, a typical amount of minor mistakes for Bachelor theses has probably been expected and appropriately considered while grading, anyway.
Upvotes: 0
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2015/06/17
| 1,505
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<issue_start>username_0: I won't go into much detail, but I work at a young private university at a non-managerial position.
The uni has a strong need for better teachers and more adequate students. **In my opinion**, a viable strategy for quickly increasing the education quality level would be to focus on only 1 faculty/ department/ specialty first, because:
1. It would be cheaper to focus on one department (i.e. program creation, teachers acquisition and salary, advertizing to students).
2. Even if a lot of students drop out due to suddenly intensifying the program, students from other departments would continue to financially support the university.
3. Being great at one thing while temporarily neglecting others is better than being below mediocre at everything.
Focusing on one department would mean:
1. Intensifying the program.
2. Attracting good teachers.
3. Attracting better students (more willing to learn, with better background) (with the help of 1. and 2.).
I believe intensifying the program and attracting good teachers for one department (probably for CS) before attracting better students is the way to go.
I have a CS background and can help with creating the program (classes).
If I manage to convince the people in charge, **how should we go about attracting good teachers (probably from other universities)?** Adequate salaries would probably not be enough.
**Thanks** for the answers!<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Adequate salaries would probably not be enough
>
>
>
That's true.
Superior salaries
-----------------
Superior salaries are needed to attract superior staff. There are many examples of companies that pay (significantly) above-average salaries so they can attract the best. This is true in retail (The Container Store), tech (Google), and other industries. I see no reason why it would be different in academia. While salary is not the **only** thing that matters it does matter a great deal. Countless research on motivation (Herzberg, Ariely, Pink) shows that what is important is to pay enough that people stop thinking about money. If people are just "getting by" then they will be thinking about money rather than thinking about how to be the best in their field.
Freedom
-------
Once you get the money right, you need to give freedom (as written in the comment by Sverre). Hire the best and get out of their way. Yes, support them but do not "tie their hands" and make them do things because "it has always been that way." This is one point which it should be both easy for your university to do as well as to convince candidates that it is true. Your school is young and so has not been doing things the same way for 50 years. Let the candidates know they will have freedom to do as they see fit.
Support
-------
Giving freedom does not mean abandoning them. If your teachers want start producing videos, acquire the tools they will need. If they want to experiment and they need help, help them. If they are not from the area, help them transition. Be open and supportive.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In addition to username_1's answer and Sverre's comment, here is an approach that has worked in my field (math): **Hire 1 outstanding person, and give them the reins.** (Either to their own group/unit or the whole department.) Many talented people will be excited by the opportunity to hire the people they want, and run the department their way, while being handsomely rewarded. Moreover, once one great person is there, it will help attract more good people, faculty and students.
Here are some examples I know from math, where this sort of thing has happened: IISER - Pune (India) hired a well-respected person to run and design the department from the bottom up when they started up a few years ago, Emory University hired <NAME> a few years ago from Wisconsin (I think he was allowed to choose people to hire in his area) which brought up their profile quite a bit (at least in number theory), University of Hawaii over half a century ago brought on <NAME> as the chair (I heard that he brought in good people, and made the department much stronger than it was before).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: The Best Strategy would be to first approach famous Professor in the field and get them associated with the department as external advisors. The second step would be to organise guest lectures for those Professors and If possible then convincing a few of them to join the department as emiritus Professors or suggest someone who could and would be interested in doing so. As soon as a renound person joins the department, hand over to him the charge of the department and his name and fame will attract quality faculty to the department.
Though the main issue could be how to attract the first Professor, well for that stratagies like high pay and high position could be a solution.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> how should we go about attracting good teachers
>
>
>
To attract good researchers you need to offer a high salary, a good location, lots of research funding and resources, and limited admin and teaching. If you provide funding so the researcher does not need to take on PhD students and can instead afford post docs and RAs, the reputation is less important. This is especially true if you can hire a couple of PIs at the same time.
Your question, though, is almost exclusively focused on teachers and students and never mentions research. People who are "academically famous", are almost exclusively famous for their research. Hiring good teachers will be extremely tough. The first problem is identifying good teachers. Publications will not tell you if a teacher is good. You could scrape ratemyprofessor.com for student views, but I would not advise making hiring decisions based on that information. The second issue is you need to offer them something. Salary and location will help, but hiring a good teacher and then telling them they do not have to teach (or only teach a little) seems counter productive.
Instead of hiring a few excellent teachers, I would suggest hiring lots of average teachers. I think the average teaching quality increases when the teaching load and class sizes are reduced.
Upvotes: 1
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2015/06/17
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a senior postdoc and have recently published a bioinformatics algorithm in an academic journal. For that publication, I was listed as the first author of the manuscript, and my principal investigator (PI)/supervisor as the senior author. Both of us were listed as corresponding authors.
As a follow-up we decided to submit an application note pertaining to that algorithm. Once again, the same authorship (and corresponding authors) was maintained. Additionally, the algorithm had been developed into a webserver that was placed on the PI's lab website.
The PI asked me to put the algorithm on [Github](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub). Accordingly, I created a repository on my personal account and later added the PI as a collaborator. I am a Github novice user but my understanding is that this would be sufficient to push/pull the repository and generally make modifications to it.
However I was very surprised that my PI specifically requested a **Transfer of Ownership of the repository from my account to his account**. The other solution is to fork the repository onto his account, but the PI doesn't like this solution on the basis that it makes it harder for him/her to maintain a copy in their lab.
So the questions:
* Is the request to transfer ownership a fair request? My rationale is that since I created the code, the repository should be on my personal account! And since the algorithm is broadcasted on the lab website and the PI is the senior author, then he/she has been properly acknowledged and their ownership of the algorithm is also properly represented!
* How will transfer of ownership affect my future career prospects and search for Assistant Professor jobs, especially as my field (bioinformatics) is heavily dependent on coding and algorithm development?
* What other GitHub alternatives are there (besides forking and transfer
of ownership), which would still allow me to keep ownership of the
repository and have any changes directly synchronised to a copy on the lab account?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> The PI asked me to put the algorithm on Github. Accordingly, I created a repository on my personal account and later added the PI as a collaborator. I am a Github novice user but my understanding is that this would be sufficient to push/pull the repository and generally make modifications to it.
>
>
>
It is. The problem is that a personal account is, well, personal, and not overly suited for professional activities, such as research projects. To this end, GitHub uses the notion of "organizations", which can also own repositories. AFAIK there is very little practical difference between having a repo owned by a personal account and an organization, only that having it under your personal account gives the impression that this is a project of *yours* (as opposed to a project of your lab).
>
> However I was very surprised that my PI specifically requested a Transfer of Ownership of the repository from my account to his account.
>
>
>
From your personal account to his would be a little weird. From your account to an organization with the name of your lab sounds like entirely fair game to me if for no other reason than to maintain the "corporate identity" of your lab.
>
> The other solution is to fork the repository onto his account, but the PI doesn't like this solution on the basis that it makes it harder for him/her to maintain a copy in their lab.
>
>
>
Well, if you end up having to maintain both forks your PI is correct. Forking is easy, but keeping two forks up-to-date is unnecessarily cumbersome.
>
> Is the request to Transfer Ownership a fair request? My rationale is that since I created the code, it the repository should be on my personal account!
>
>
>
... and since you likely created it on grant money of the lab, having it under the account of the lab is at least equally fair.
>
> How will transfer of ownership affect my future career prospects and search for Assistant Professor jobs, especially as my field (bioinformatics) is heavily dependent on coding and algorithm development?
>
>
>
If bioinformatics isn't completely unlike any other computer science field, then very little people in a hiring committee will care about code in the first place, and *nobody* will care about whether the repo that contains the code is yours, or the one of your lab, or even the one of your PI where you committed a lot to.
>
> What other Github alternatives are there (besides forking and transfer of ownership), which would still allow me to keep ownership of the repository and have any changes directly synced to a copy on the lab account?
>
>
>
You can set up a Git repo with two origins, and you always push each change to both origins. However, that seems somewhat cumbersome for rather questionable gains.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: From the perspective of a PI, I think the request to transfer ownership is fair. Your university (through a fellowship, or through a direct position) paid for the software's creation and assigning "ownership" to a github organization that corresponds to your lab seems like a reasonable approach to ensure that others in the lab will continue to be able to use and develop the software. As a PI who's in it for the long haul, one often worries what happens if the student or postdoc decides to quit the project or quit academia altogether (which is what most of them eventually do, statistically speaking) and what that will do to the continued usability of their codes; moving them into a central location that is controlled by the PI is one way to at least eliminate the possibility that the code might simply disappear at one point. That's not a judgment on the student or author, it's just being realistic and pragmatic.
As for the impact on your future employment: it makes no difference. First, git records who wrote the code, and it will continue to show *you* and not your adviser as the author of the code. Second, if you state in your CV/your website/your application documents that you wrote the code available at github.com/X/Y, everyone will simply believe this unless they have evidence to the contrary (in which case they can look up there who really wrote it -- and find that it really was you), so your word that you're the author typically counts for much more than where it is actually hosted. Third, in all likelihood you're still the one who knows the code best. If anyone wants to use it but doesn't have the technical skill to do so, they will still come back to you and ask whether you're interested in collaborating -- whether the repository is under your name or that of your former lab -- given that nobody in the lab likely knows as much about it as you do. In other words, you will still reap the benefits.
In summary, I think the request is fair. I also think that you're not losing anything by it.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: A very broad answer but: whether the PI's request is completely reasonable or not, it's a request that does you no conceivable harm. Whenever you work with other people (in the presence of a power/seniority differential or not) you have to make certain compromises and do things in a way which is not exactly what you would do if you were alone.
It sounds like you have a fruitful collaboration. I don't think this issue is worth jeopardizing it.
I say "very broad" because I fear I am missing some nuances of your situation. For instance you say you are a "senior postdoc" but I don't know what the "senior" means. I have never experienced any hierarchy within postdoctoral positions, and if anything, being long in the tooth is a *bad* thing for a postdoc: as the position is an inherent junior/temporary one, stretching it out too long creates the impression that you couldn't move on to a more permanent position. Nor do I know what the "senior author" is, given that you have separated it from both the first author and the corresponding authors. Such things do not exist in my field, so I wonder what it means in your case...
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Firstly, if the code is GPLv3 this sounds like an non-issue. Anyone can legally fork the repository and work from there. If your PI wants his own copy he can just create it. If the repository gets transferred then anyone, including you, can create their own fork from that.
A fork will retain the commit history, showing you as the author. But the same is true for a transfer, the transferred repository will still show you've done the commits. So whether you fork or do nothing the net result will be roughly the same. It's just the first impression when someone finds the repository through Google. During interviews you can still show it's your work.
Practically, this is why GitHub organisations exist. I'd create an organisation for the lab and transfer the repository to that organisation. That way the location of the repository doesn't create an assumption about the person who wrote the code, but it is clear the code belongs to the organisation.
That organization could also contain any future projects of the lab.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: One of the topics that has been hinted at in the other answers but not so directly expressed is the notion that your PI may have **committed** himself to providing such a GitHub repository as part of the application for the funds used to support the code's creation. Many grants now require data stewardship and code maintenance to be explicitly addressed as part of the application itself. Consequently, such a request from your PI may be an attempt to satisfy these requirements. (If I were him, personally I would have mentioned this at the time, but it's possible he may have thought such a notion was obvious.)
Upvotes: 2
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2015/06/17
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm wanting to increase my academic network, particularly people who know me and my research. This is probably the goal of all researchers. Specifically I'm looking for ideas to do so through email.
I realize that face-to-face interactions are probably the best way to meet and network with other researchers. But conferences and symposiums are few and far between. I also realize that there are other ways, such as twitter, blogs, etc., but I've found for my field the academics tend to be on the conservative side on technology and email is the norm for communication.
A common technique is to email others when you publish, but I've found that receiving cold emails or emails on research not directly to my own to be like receiving academic spam. There must be simple ways to make introductions through email and connect on the research front without being intrusive.
Ideas?<issue_comment>username_1: First, I would suggest recognizing that a network is not a goal, but instead both
1. a means to achieving your scientific goals and
2. hopefully including a subset who you just plain enjoy interacting with
The second part can only really emerge organically, so let's focus on the first part, which is where the sort of "cold call" emails you are talking about come in. I think that you have correctly identified that "cold calls" are pretty much always ineffectual, because most people worth talking to already have an input buffer overflowing with worthless and impersonal cold calls.
If you approach the interaction from the point of view of "how can I get this person to notice me" then you're pretty much consigning yourself to the same bin. Instead, you need to have some context in which you have a *legitimate* reason for contacting the person that is *not* to be noticed. The networking and knowledge is then a natural and beneficial side effect, rather than the purpose of the interaction.
Some examples of non-in-person contexts in which such interactions commonly occur:
* Volunteering in the organization of a workshop, conference, or other academic or educational event. Even for students, there are useful roles to play, which will also end up with you encountering a bunch of researchers.
* Hosting an invited speaker: ["If the mountain won't come to Muhammad then Muhammad must go to the mountain."](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_the_mountain_won't_come_to_Muhammad)
* Actually doing research that interacts with the other researcher's work, and either asking for their advice, or contacting them to let them know you've built off their work in a way you think they may find interesting.
I'm sure I've just scratched the surface, and there are lots of other things that can help build your network.
Finally, any of these can further be mixed with getting an introduction from a mutual acquaintance, which can help get you past the "crap-filter." If you do this, however, be aware that you are putting not just your own reputation but that of your acquaintance on the line as well.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Great answer from @username_1. An additional idea: pick some departments within a reasonable radius of where you live, and write to someone in a department you find intriguing, to say you are planning a trip to that city, and would it be convenient for you to visit the department and meet some people interested in . Say that you would be happy to give a talk about during your stay. Attach the abstract.
Make sure you've got a pocket full of cards to hand out when you go. Leave plenty of time to go around to people's offices, labs and the coffee room, for people to tell you about what they're doing.
If possible, preview the research going on at that department that has the most affinity to your interests before you go.
Upvotes: 1
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2015/06/18
| 1,524
| 6,463
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<issue_start>username_0: I am in the social sciences (political science) doing research largely based on fieldwork. Accordingly, my dissertation project has changed quite a bit in the four months since getting my prospectus approved and beginning fieldwork. My department is fairly open, with helpful faculty, and I want to reach out to many different professors to get feedback. I check in with my advisors every few weeks with a just brief email, which is sufficient for them because they understand the broader project.
How can I present ongoing evolving research to new people, especially faculty members? For instance, I could write a brief two-page memo summarizing my dissertation project and revise it on a monthly basis. The only drawback here is that this might require writing a new two-pager every month. From writing fellowship proposals, I know this actually takes a lot of work.
What techniques did you find effective for getting for advice from people outside your dissertation committee during your dissertation work?<issue_comment>username_1: People have a lot to read in academia as is. Sending out a document and asking for feedback is a strenuous exercise for all involved parties. You may want to take into consideration that some of your colleagues will also simply not want to willingly participate with their opinion.
Instead, a useful compromise is the use of a presentation. Prepare one whenever you see fit and advertise to your faculty by email what it is you're presenting, why you're presenting, and explain that you're specifically looking for feedback on 'X'; 'X' being the methodology applied, noticeable gaps in literature, etc.
In this manner, you practice your presentation skills, you take only 10 minutes or so of your colleagues' time, you strengthen relationships amongst your peers, and you're immediately available for questions. The benefits of this approach are many, and I think you'll be able to find even more than the ones I've just listed.
I hope that this was helpful to you.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Profs are busy and it is unlikely that they will give you one-on-one advice if they don't have any stakes in your project.
Therefore, you must offer something in return. I have not tried this myself, but it supposedly works (Gray 2010, p. 60-61): **Volunteer to read and comment on a paper**, now or in the future, **from the person whose advice you are soliciting**. Even very senior researchers need feedback, even from juniors. Why? Because problems of clarity and organization in a late draft are more obvious to non-experts, and because non-experts can more easily find overriding (but hidden) themes in an early draft. In your inquiry, address the following:
* How their work has informed yours. Ask specific questions aimed at the intersections of their work and yours
* Which sections and issues you need feedback on
* Whether you want hints to additional reading and citations
* Explain that you want just a "quick" read (not an editorial read)
* Ask when you might expect to hear back from them
* Promise acknowledgements
Moreover, to solicit comments on my PhD project from people besides my advisors I mostly relied on **conferences and smaller workshops**:
1. I applied for workshops and conferences outside my institution. Many workshops and conferences in political science, such as [this one](http://www.ecpr.eu/Events/EventTypeDetails.aspx?EventTypeID=1), cater specifically to PhD students.
2. We had a weekly colloquium at my PhD institution where I presented mostly every six months. This was a great opportunity to discuss halfway finished work like draft chapters.
3. Students from my PhD institutions invited external speakers to participate in a lecture series. Often the speakers were willing to hold a small workshop the following day (before flying home) where a handful of PhD students could discuss their work and ask for advice. If a lecture series with externals exists at your institutions, maybe you can suggest to add a workshop.
4. You might also be able to propose a thematic workshop (on particular methods or theories), depending on the demand at your institution and the available funding (if external guests are needed). It is best to determine the demand first, i.e. to ask around who would attend such a workshop, before proposing this to your superiors.
5. At my workplace, the younger researchers established a workshop with a particular "discussant" format. In each session (bi-weekly), someone presented and discussed the paper of another participant. It was expected that the papers *not* be too polished and *do* still have many loose ends so there could be a lively discussion how to proceed from the work. The informal atmosphere (coffee and rolls!) and the discussant model made this highly productive, although mostly junior faculty participated. Again, this is something that you could try to establish at your institution.
Admittedly, all these proposals rely on written contributions of probably more than a two-page memo. However, also your thesis needs to be more than two pages at some point. So why not [start to write a draft chapter right away?](http://ihawkes.academicblogs.co.uk/2015/01/28/a-good-thesis-is-a-finished-thesis/) **If you want useful feedback, you have to provide tangible input.** Depending on the venue, the contribution can be anywhere from tentative "think-piece" (5.) to almost final draft (1.). You mention that you are doing field-work right now. Why not polish your field-notes and elaborate how your preliminary findings form the field can inform your theory/research question and which new challenges you have encountered?
BTW: I would be interested in hearing form senior faculty if they have ever encountered an inquiry for advice from external PhD students and if they would respond positively if offered a reading in return.
\_\_
<NAME> 2010: Publish and Flourish, Ashland: BookMasters.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: One method that I've seen works fairly successfully is to use a session of a journal club to do a brief presentation. It's not one-on-one, but it can really help to get a group engaged. A time when journal clubs often work like this is right before a big meeting where people use the session to hone their presentations.
Some larger research groups may do this entirely internally, and have periodic brief presentations to each other.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: *Question:* where can I find (legal/pragmatic) information about having latex source files for scientific articles publicly available on github?
Or, how would you deal with it?
*Problem description:*
I like using git for collaborative tex'ing. So why not use it for scientific articles as well? Put up a github repo, collaborate, submit to arxiv while tagging the corresponding commit, incorporating reviewers suggestions, etc. Also, it comes at the additional benefit that not only a compiled preprint on arxiv is available but also your latex sourcefiles. This I think is desirable in terms of transparency and also others can easily reuse/extend complex latex bits you have in your articles.
Most publishers don't have a problem with arxiv preprints. But what about github repos? They don't contain the pdf, but in general, everyone would be able to compile the stuff from the source files on github. Would the source code on github then considered the same as the compiled preprint on arxiv?
I feel like the authors I know, that are using github, they might even just use github without thinking about the potential legal consequences (yes because it seems rather unlikely someone searches through the github repo). Also, if one knows upfront where the article might be submitted to, one can check the legal situation for that particular conference/journal. But sometimes one doesn't know beforehand, so one could end up having the latex source files publicly on the web, for a publication where this is not allowed?
I am looking for a pragmatic answer to this problem, as I think using github for scientific writing is just very efficient and good. Having the sourcefiles in addition to the compiled preprint available seems also desirable to me.<issue_comment>username_1: It is a *very* common practice for authors to include the LaTeX source files within an arXiv submission. I don't understand why a publisher who is okay with a preprint being published would not be okay with the LaTeX source being published with the rest on arXiv.
Most information in a PDF file can be easily plagiarized (though things like extracting the actual data points in a plot may be tricky). Postscript files are even easier to plagiarize. The advantage of keeping the source code is that the document will remain editable and compilable forever. If a publisher places a blanket ban on publishing paper source code because of concerns such as plagiarism, well... *they're doing it wrong*.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If you upload your papers to arXiv, then your Latex source is already publicly available there (click "other formats" and then "download source"). So the only difference is that the source would also be available on Github.
There is no legal issue with this unless you sign an agreement that forbids it. In that case, the publisher could ask you to remove the manuscript from Github.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Let's separate out three distinct proposals that are somewhat blended together in your original question. Presented in order of increasing specificity, these are:
1. Using git (or another similar source control system) for collaborative LaTeX paper-writing
2. Hosting these on a pseudo-archival external repository host, such as Github
3. Hosting them on Github in particular
For #1, I think that anybody doing collaborative work in LaTeX benefits greatly by adopting a good source control system, since LaTeX fits the model of source code so well. Depending on your preferences and the nature of your document, you might find SVN, Mercurial, Git, or even some other mechanism most effective.
For #2, it's important to ask what the goal is. Remember, repository services like Github and Bitbucket are *NOT* archival, despite their age in internet-years. We have no idea whether they will actually be able to survive for a couple more decades (let alone for multiple centuries, [like some journals](http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/1/1-22.toc)). So if you want long-term archival storage, arXiv is currently the way to go, not a repository service. An external repository, however, means a project is generally more reliable than one's own servers, and makes it easy to manage a project jointly. Some make it easy to host private repositories (Bitbucket, for example, lets you host an unlimited number for free if you are affiliated with a university), others make it harder (with Github, you have to pay a fee to have private repositories). Still, it's hard to see much down-side to using a private externally hosted repository instead of a locally hosted repository, as long as the information is merely confidential and not legally restricted (e.g., by IP or export control considerations).
For #3, then, if you want to use Github in particular, right now you've got to either pay money or be comfortable with a fully publicly observable project. Sometimes that's a good thing (I use it this way for standards development, where we want the whole history to be hanging out in public), and sometimes that's a bad thing (do you really want your LaTeX comments cursing Reviewer #3 to be recorded for all to see?).
In short: use source control for LaTeX, hosting externally can be great, but Github's sometimes a poor choice of external host service.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: In this [answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/47414/929) it is suggested that arXiv, as its name would suggest, is archival. One of Beall's criteria is that a publisher is potentially predatory if it
>
> Has no policies or practices for digital preservation, meaning that if the
> journal ceases operations, all of the content disappears from the
> internet.
>
>
>
The only thing I can find about digital preservation on the [arXiv website](http://arxiv.org/help/primer) is
>
> arXiv submissions are meant to be available in perpetuity. Thus, arXiv has high technical standards for the files that are submitted.
>
>
>
While it is good that the articles are in a format which will allow access in perpetuity, the primer says nothing about what happens if arXiv ceases operations. What is the arXiv policy in regards to digital preservation?<issue_comment>username_1: This is answered in the FAQ for the [arXiv Membership Program](http://arxiv.org/help/support/faq#7D):
>
> CUL [Cornell University Library] has an archival repository to support preservation of critical content from institutional resources, including arXiv. We anticipate storing all arXiv documents, both in source and processed form, in this repository. There will be ongoing incremental ingest of new material. We expect that CUL will bear the preservation costs for arXiv, leveraging the archival infrastructure developed for the library system.
>
>
>
The same FAQ also tells you about the current funding model (up until some years ago arXiv was entirely funded and ran by the Cornell University Library; now funding comes from also the Simons Foundation as well as other participating university libraries).
In terms of Cornell's digital preservation policies, I cannot find a full description online (probably just due to my weak google-fu today); but [this would be person to contact and ask](https://www.library.cornell.edu/about/inside/departments/dsps).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: From [their FAQ](http://arxiv.org/help/support/faq#7D):
>
> **What are CUL's preservation strategies?**
>
>
> Digital preservation refers to a range of managed activities to
> support the long-term maintenance of bitstreams. These activities
> ensure that digital objects are usable (intact and readable),
> retaining all quantities of authenticity, accuracy, and functionality
> deemed to be essential when articles (and other associated materials)
> were ingested. Formats accepted by arXiv have been selected based on
> their archival value (TeX/LaTeX, PDF, HTML) and the ability to process
> all source files is actively monitored. The underlying bits are
> protected by standard backup procedures at the Cornell campus.
> Off-site backup facilities in New York City provide geographic
> redundancy. The complete content is replicated at arXiv's mirror sites
> around the world, and additional managed tape backups are taken at Los
> Alamos National Laboratory. CUL has an archival repository to support
> preservation of critical content from institutional resources,
> including arXiv. We anticipate storing all arXiv documents, both in
> source and processed form, in this repository. There will be ongoing
> incremental ingest of new material. We expect that CUL will bear the
> preservation costs for arXiv, leveraging the archival infrastructure
> developed for the library system.
>
>
>
It looks like they're relying on a) multiple offsite mirrors; b) periodic stored backups at LANL; and c) deposit in the institutional repository at Cornell.
It's a little unclear if that deposit is actually happening yet or is still part of a long-term plan, but it's worth noting that the arXiv program director is also the librarian responsible for Cornell's digital preservation work, so it's unlikely to have been forgotten about!
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I submitted a paper to a journal about two months ago and now the article has been under review for a month. It is my first article out for publication ever, so I am not the best at judging my chances of being accepted. However, I presented the paper on a conference and they offer the chance of entering it as a book chapter in a publication resulting from the conference. I now wonder if it would be ok to ask the editor of the journal if they can tell me some more on my chances of being accepted. Maybe they already got one review back and they can tell me what the verdict was there? Is this appropriate, and if so, should I explain truthfully why I ask this question to the editor?
PS: I would prefer the publication in the journal rather than the book chapter, but if I go for that option and it's not accepted I also can't be in the book because they need an answer now.<issue_comment>username_1: You can always contact an editor to ask about your manuscript. The time frame you mention seems to me to be just about the time required to get something through review but the editor will also have to collate reviews and provide recommendations. Since what is reasonable varies between fields and journals within fields, you need to figure out what is normal and by how much the time frame can vary.
In your case, you mention a book but it is not clear to me if the book has a deadline (but I will assume it does). Making a decision to take a manuscript from a journal while under review means withdrawing it. This is not necessarily a popular action because both editors and reviewers have taken time and effort with your manuscript. You are of course still entitled to do so. So since you have the manuscript in review, I do not think you can do much other than wait for the result. Writing to the editor and asking about time is fine but what will you do if the time estimate is after the book deadline? Well, you can always ask the book editor for an extension I guess.
My suggestion for you is to just sit tight and wait it out. If you have not heard from the journal in a time frame you think is normal for that journal then contact them. Trying to push things through is rarely a good path and if the material is good well written you should be able to get it published. So your first publication angst and impatience is something you share with many and not unique.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I doubt that you will be able to get any answer about the likelihood of acceptance from a good editor until all of the reviews are in. As a editor, there are just too many ways that the last review might majorly change the view of a paper (e.g., negatively by pointing out that it is a cleverly disguised piece of plagiarism; positively by pointing out a value that all of the other reviewers have missed). An editor who is acting professionally will thus never pre-judge the result before it is in hand.
You can always feel free to reach out and ask how *long* it's likely to be before you get an answer, but that's not something that can readily be relied upon either, given the frequent vagaries of reviewers.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: For some background: I'm very new to graduate school, in fact I just started unofficially doing research a few months ago, my official PhD program starts in the Fall (I moved out there early). Currently, I'm at a big R01 institution, coming from a pretty low ranking obscure undergraduate school, and there is an intimidation factor when I'm surrounded by accomplished postdocs (they pushed out more papers than my professors with tenure in my undergraduate). It's slightly amplified when I consider that, so far, I effectively only have a Bachelor's degree.
Anyway, I was given some code to modify for a specific device. I'm not really pestered or swarmed for deadlines, and I'm trying to figure it out. I honestly think there is an error in the syntax that prevents me from being able to carry out a colleague's request. I have prior coding experience. I'm a traditional "I want the challenge of figuring it out so I can develop and learn" kind of guy, but where do you draw the line between the latter mentality and requesting help? I don't want to come off as stupid or needy, and I want my lab to be able to depend on me. So far I have been pretty reliable (and that's saying a lot considering I'm a big critic of myself), and I don't want to kill the momentum.<issue_comment>username_1: Can you ask your colleague (or whoever wrote the code) a quick question to ascertain whether it's a simple error in the code, or some more complex hurdle that you need to work around?
Don't be afraid to ask for help! You'll be a lot more productive if you ask for help when you really are stuck, rather than [waiting too long](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1686/if-you-get-stuck-in-research-at-what-point-in-time-should-you-ask-for-help?rq=1).
A more experienced mind can usually tell quite quickly whether it's an easy or difficult problem to solve. There's no use banging your head against a brick wall for days if your supervisor has a sledgehammer hidden in his cupboard!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: You are a RESOURCE in your group, and you need to be managed appropriately. Let's say you can do this request, but it will take you three days full time to do it. If you ask for the help of somebody who is experienced with the system, maybe it will take you one day, and it might take two hours of that person's time to help you. There are also the issues of who is waiting for the job to be done, and what is being held up because it's not done yet, and if there are any important deadlines looming.
These are questions only your group manager can really answer, but we can offer some tips.
Personally, I'd recommend putting a bit of time into defining where you're stuck as accurately as you can, and drafting a short memo describing the problem, just to help you wrap your brain around it a bit differently. After staring at that doc for an hour or so, if you're still drawing blanks, I'd send that description to the boss man, asking him who the best person to approach for help would be, and if its OK to do so.
This way you show that you've given it a thorough try, that you're trying not to waste your own time, and that you don't want to waste anyone else's time on it either.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: This is purely opinion, but in the lab setting I see *delivery* as more important than *determination*. Put another way, your colleagues will respect you if you consistently deliver your project components effectively, and on-time.
As a postdoc and PI I would vastly prefer a student asking questions when stuck, rather than having them spin their gears. And keep context in mind - if you really are troubleshooting a syntax error, no one wants you spending days on this. Situation might be different if you were radically improving the efficiency of an algorithm, etc.
I don't think there is a fine line between asking questions and asking too many questions. The students who can't hack it in the lab are pretty obvious - so if you find yourself consistently flummoxed there might be a question of fit. That said, it doesn't sound like the case here.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I would like to know if PhD advisors allow students to collaborate with professors from other institutions in a major way. The context for me here is that I will be joining a Top-50 institution for a PhD in Physics. Considering the job prospects in academia, I think it would be worth collaborating with the topmost people in the field directly (who generally reside at topmost universities like Stanford, MIT, Princeton, etc.) to get solid recommendations from them along with my advisor's recommendation (assuming I produce good quality research with them). I would like to know how such an arrangement can be made possible without making my advisor feel bad. Are such arrangements common?
Of course, my current institution has brilliant professors as well and I would like to do my best to produce good research with them too. This is why ***the consent of my advisor in whatever I do is very important to me***. I just want to make things as productive as possible in my current PhD program and have the best people in the field write recommendations for me so that I could continue working in academia.<issue_comment>username_1: Interesting thought. I will try to offer some factors to consider related to the approach you are suggesting.
1. There's a risk of spreading yourself too thin. All things held constant, I would expect it to be more difficult on average to build relationships with faculty at institutions other than your PhD "home base." The time and effort spent building these relationships would thus be re-routed from what should be your main thrust, i.e. developing a reputation as an excellent student in a place that actually voted to have you and invested resources in you.
2. Faculty at top institutions are extremely busy and inundated with queries from all sorts of places and people who want their time and attention on collaborations of various types. Successful faculty are very strategic about where they invest their energies (especially in Physics? sorry, bad pun). This partly explains the uphill battle presumed in point #1. They usually have plenty of students and postdocs of their own who want to "collaborate." The returns from such one-off partnerships with this or that individual who met them at this or that conference are dubious, and typically high-flying faculty end up collaborating on high-visibility/payoff projects. Unless your work will fall in that category, I think productive sustained collaboration with quality attention and care invested in the relationship on both sides is highly unlikely.
3. The only relatively common, accepted form of collaboration with faculty from other institutions that I am aware of is IF those individuals are members of your dissertation committee. Colleges (at least in the U.S.) often require that at least one committee member be from another department at the home institution. Along the same lines, it is typically viewed as OK if there is another, additional committee member from another institution, as long as their being on the committee is well justified, e.g. by filling a gap in expertise or being in a unique position to contribute something given their specific context/resources. In contrast, collaboration on side projects can cause some minor (which could become major if left unchecked) issues involving your Advisor wondering what the heck is taking up your time that you could be spending in his lab and writing his papers...
This being said, it is possible that in some disciplines such collaborations are more frequent and more accepted than in others, and may pay off in some ways. However, the though I would like to leave you with is to carefully reflect whether such collaboration will in fact help your career plans, over and above similar collaborations with faculty at your home institution. If you find yourself in a situation/project where the answer is a clear YES, well, you can at least give it a shot and see what happens.
However, if by looking over the fence (where the grass typically looks greener) you might end up missing some gems on your own lawn, I would say stick to the familiar environment and try to make the most of the opportunities under your nose.
Lastly, collaboration can take many forms. It may not be necessary to go it alone and try to carve out an independent project with someone from another university/lab. Being on a research team (as a Research Assistant) that has some external partnerships with teams at other institutions can be enough to develop some contacts and build some name recognition in those places. Being considered a valuable member of the research team at home, and being valued by your own Advisor can speak louder than trying to convince someone on the outside that you are wonderful and totally worth their attention. When you will be close to graduating, if your Advisor believes in your potential, s/he will go a long way to help you network with various other labs/teams that s/he has relationships with. I personally would recommend this more "organic" route.
The academe is a big boat that doesn't like to be rocked, and stability is generally considered an asset. Having a reputation for dedication to one or two large-scale, complex, team projects is probably going to help you more than having 10 separate fledgling solo projects/partnerships. (Note: If you were an undergrad with a major in Business/Entrepreneurship, this advice would be the opposite. But a PhD in Physics seems more aligned with the solid/long-term academic paradigm.) Whichever way you choose to play your cards, good luck!
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: If two faculty members are interested in collaborating with one another, an excellent way to bootstrap such a collaboration is with a strong student who is interested in being working with both. This is often much easier than the faculty members trying to work directly with one another, since they are often each quite busy. It also often ends up resulting in a co-advising arrangement, either formally or just de facto. With the right student and project, this can be a really good, productive, and career-positive experience for everybody involved (it certainly has been for me as the external co-advisor), and many faculty members that I know tend to welcome such opportunities.
If you want to build an independent collaboration that does *not* involve your advisor, on the other hand, you should not be surprised if you run into resistance, particularly if your advisor is funding your position.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: As a supplement to the other good answers, one might be a bit careful, since one model of "PhD advising" is for the advisor to give a student a sort of "insider information" (much like the notion of "insider trading" on the stock market, which is illegal... unless you're a member of Congress, but nevermind...), which the advisor might want to *keep* "inside". And the student should, hopefully, benefit from having this sort of head-start, as opposed to competing against more experienced people in real time.
Especially if the advisor has more than one student, keeping information (temporarily) non-public benefits *all* of them, so any one of them "blabbing" dis-serves the others, which is a bad thing. Vaguely reminiscent of the game-theoretic aspects of "prisoners' dilemma".
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Yes. I recommend it and endorse the strategy.
I was a PhD student in the UK, but I think in total I spent more time working in Japan, France and California than I did at my institution in the United Kingdom.
At the beginning, all trips were at my advisor's suggestion (he was very well connected in numerous collaborations himself) but as time went on I built up my own "network", and eventually it became normal that I would be "invited" to join in directly.
As you can imagine I left my PhD with a lot of air miles, and more importantly I knew a lot of people on whom I could count for a good reference.
However it was never a "co-advising" situation as some have described. I always felt that I was visiting as my advisor's representative, and I always tried to keep it that way. As with any job it is important to manage your relationships with people carefully; if it seems like you are suggesting making your advisor redundant she is probably not going to be happy about the idea. Therefore I would always be sure to talk regularly with my advisor when I was in town and to keep him in the loop by email or phone if I was away.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I came across one of the edited books where authors contribute chapters that was published once in 2010 and the again in 2014. The two different books have identical (or almost identical) titles but different ISBNs and different DOIs. This means that a chapter that was included in both (same title, abstract and content, unfortunately I do not have access to one of the full texts) is counted as two publications. As far as I can tell, most of the content between the two books is the same.
Is this common practice generally or to certain fields? Is it ethical? How are these cases generally treated?<issue_comment>username_1: Different editions of books are different books and have different ISBNs. In many cases, chapters don't change that much, if at all. This is the way it's done - no ethical problems.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As a non-answer, but perhaps worthwhile, we could note that literal publication, revised publication, and so on, literally serves scholarly purposes. The potential objection is that this might score status or impact points unfairly. The error here is thinking in terms of status or impact points, especially as a back-forming regulator of permissible behavior.
That is, the *real* goal is not status/jobs/tenure – although those are serious things – but advancement of human understanding. In particular, rules of the game of status/jobs/tenure are not at all necessarily connected to issues about advancement of human understanding.
In particular, there’s nothing to treat. If some for-profit publisher’s self-promoting “impact factor” somehow counts this twice, this is no serious human being’s problem. The possibility that a corporation’s software misunderstands a new edition is in no conceivable way an ethical failure of people who write parts of something useful enough to be republished in a new edition.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Some of my papers have appeared twice, first as "columns" in the Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science, and later in books that are essentially collections of these columns. Sometimes the book version includes some revisions. Even then, I'd consider these two appearances to be a single publication, and I'd list them as one item in my CV. I am aware, though, that some people have entirely different policies about such things, and I wouldn't call them unethical.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: What are the benefits and harm of taking a leave of absence after the first year of PhD?
......My situation is as follows.... I just completed the first year of PhD in Epidemiology at one of the top 5 programs in the nation and failed all my classes both semesters. All year long I'd battled with PSTD, Separation Anxiety, and Depression brought on by psychological and physical abuse experienced after moving back in with my parents for a few months while I applied to PhD program. This was exacerbated by the subsequent 3 months stint of homelessness I experienced in order to flee the real risk of physical harm. Unfortunately, this all occurred immediately before the start of classes in September. When the academic year started, I moved into academic housing and dissimulated my problems but could not hide it very long as my performance was less than optimal. My depression was so severe that I forgot how to speak, I experienced memory loss, could not write comprehensive essays, and even forgot how to spell simple words on tests.
When my professors became worried that I was not cut out for the program, my chair and academic advisor were made aware of the situation. Since then, they have worked with me to link me up to services on campus, meet with me regularly to check in and advise me on how to manage several situations.
The issue now is that although I am getting better and my grades have improved, they are not competitive to keep me in the program. Luckily, I have been given a temporary academic disability status to allow the university to make accommodations for my situation. Provided that my improvement is a work in progress, my chair is recommending a year's leave of absence to help me get back in good health before resuming studies. This is a swell idea for if I was younger than 30, was financial stable to be able to afford the luxury of moving out of student housing or had a family to rely on, had a job waiting for me. I am having a hard time seeing any benefit to taking a year off, even if it means starting fresh.
If anyone has had a similar experience, please offer some advise or anecdote to how you handled the situation.<issue_comment>username_1: A friend of mine suffered through similar situation though she was in Netherlands. She went through nervous breakdown and hence she had to take a year drop. In Netherlands such cases are dealt with special care which is also evident in your case. But usually the funding agency does not pay for these case during this year drop. But universities have provision for such situations where either the university pays for that year or the period of the PhD program is reduced by a year.
To my opinion if you continue to do this PhD with taking the year gap then there might be a chance that the process of your better soon might slow down due to the workload and pressure associated with the PhD work but if you take this break then you have the opportunity to have a more enthusiastic start in the second innings.
I suggest you to talk to your supervisor about this and explain them your financial situation and seek their advise. Probably they would be able to help and suggest you better. Good Luck!
In the end I wish you good health and speedy recovery.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Universities have procedures for that. Moreoever, universities are run by people who have lives, families, friends in such situations and who can understand and sympathize. It sounds very much as if the people in your department fall into this category and are supportive of you.
What matters is that you get your footing back and get healthy again. If that means taking a leave of absence, then that is what you should do. If there ever comes a need to explain what you did for the semester or year that you took off, you can always say "for health reasons" -- which is true, and which everyone will understand is an important and legitimate reason to take time off, and which nobody is going to count against you.
Of course, the reasons you cite against it are all very good as well. I don't think anyone here can suggest useful strategies other than finding some low-stress job that helps you pay the bills, get you back on your feet, and allow you to come back to the program in better shape and with better prospects. The alternative, however, is not all that appealing either: as you state in your post, if you keep doing what you're doing, you may fail out of the program and then you're in no better situation either. In fact, the situation may be worse since it's easier to come back after taking a year of absence than come back from being kicked out of the program.
Ultimately, what matters is that you get healthy again. Everything else should be a secondary consideration.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2015/06/19
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<issue_start>username_0: The question is not about plagiarism, it is about its aftermath. I am presenting the whole situstion.
Three years back, in my undergraduate years (summer after sophomore, to be precise), I did my first major project with a professor in India. The project came out well and we had two publications next year.
Obviously happy with my work, the professor offered me another project, next year, which was entirely different and of higher level of difficulty (he had his graduate student working on it). He asked me to do simple simulations and mostly literature survey so that he could later use it. He also proposed some survey papers (all by same author, call him **X**) to start with. I wrote the survey section based on the papers mentioned in the citations by **X**, and added reviews of another dozens of paper. I cited all survey papers by **X** and cited others too. I also did certain simulations.
Meanwhile, he provided me references to land into a Masters program at one of the top 5 electrical engineering programs in the USA, and I will be forever indebted to him. After I came to USA, he had his graduate student worked upon the project and submitted a paper (I was surprised to be listed as co-author) including the survey section and simulations I did an year ago.
One of the reviewers pointed that the survey section has been almost a replica of **X**'s works. The reviewer added that, although **X**'s works has been cited, word plagiarism is still relevant. I got disappointed and wrote my mentor and email apologizing for letting him down. He didn't reply.
Now, it's been six months since the review came, and I really wish to reconcile with him. What can I do ?
**few clarifications**
The plagiarism was using 3-4 sentences from various papers without double quotes but properly cited. Also, half of my citations were same as X's works. It happened because, my survey was about major techniques in a field while X's surveys were about techniques in a subfield of the field.
I emailed the professor only once. He didn't reply and I never emailed him again.
I never knew how my section was going to be used because the project-work was incomplete. When his graduate student finished the work, he immediately submitted the paper and informed me after the submission. I should have got time to review something I did an year back.<issue_comment>username_1: If you are in the US and you professor is in India, I don't think a viable option is to visit him (at least for now). That leaves you with email and phone. If your professor doesn't answer emails, you could try to call him. However, that might be really awkward, given that he doesn't even send you an angry/disappointed/indifferent email. I don't know how many times you tried to email him, but I would try at about 2-3 times. If you get no response, leave it be, you won't get any benefits from spamming him.
If you get the chance, visit him and try to work it out eye-to-eye. Ultimately, though, I wouldn't go out of my way to reconcile with him at all costs. Some people just don't forget/forgive some slight, regardless if it was intended or not. In my opinion, if you already reached out and explained your "unintentional mistake", that's as far as I would go. Now it is your professor's turn to reply. If he doesn't want to, you can't force him, nor let that fact run your life.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: It is hard to know for sure how 'bad' your plagiarism was without personally reviewing it, but from what you explain, I do not think your situation is that bad.
As others have mentioned, professors are busy, and as you emailed once, it could be that he does not have time to reply, is working on something before replying, or just forgot.
If you would like to follow-up, I would suggest apologizing while giving your explanation you gave here. As long as it's honest, and how it sounds to me, you can apologize not for plagarizing only, but more about misunderstanding the situation and the work you left behind.
Explaining it as you have here, something along the lines of (but in your way, I'm not the best at writing these letters, nor understand the cultural nuances you will have to include):
>
> Dear Professor,
>
>
> I am sorry to find out I have caused problems for you with the
> literature review I had done. At the time, I had not felt it was
> completed as there were outstanding issues such as the lack of
> originality and the heavy reliance on past reviews. I was surprised
> to find I was being included as a co-author on the submitted
> manuscript, and realize I should have mentioned the problems with my
> review at that time. I hope you do not feel I had done this
> intentionally. If you would like me to redo the review properly in
> order for it to be submitted again please let me know.
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> GKS
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Nobody is going to mention that the OP's old mentor put undergraduate work directly into a publication (i) without checking that it met professional-level standards of academic honesty and (ii) without informing the undergraduate that this was being done or that he was being added as a coauthor? In my view, these transgressions are equally bad or a bit worse than including a few sentences without quotation marks from sources that have been cited in a survey paper.
In my opinion there is a good chance that the mentor is embarrassed that these lapses of *his own* have been exposed, which complicates the OP's situation. I am surprised that other answers seem determined to pin this all on the OP. @Scott Seidman suggests that the OP contact the editor:
>
> I think an email to the editor involved, cc'ed to your mentor, taking responsibility (without qualifiers) and stating that none of the other authors were in a position to recognize or correct this prior submission,
>
>
>
In my view the mentor was in *the* position to recognize and correct academic cultural errors made by his undergraduate mentee, and since the OP was not involved in the preparation or submission of the manuscript *in any way*, the *responsibility* for this clearly lies at least partially (and I would argue, primarily) with the mentor. Sending such an email to the editor could just call attention to his poor mentorship and supervision: i.e., it could actually make it worse. (Pro tip: don't contact an editor about something unless you're sure all your coauthors are on board. If there is any real doubt, clear it with them explicitly. If someone is not returning your emails, you can't do this.)
The OP is not blameless in the situation: he made a mistake, and a mistake involving what sounds like a borderline instance of academic dishonesty. He should apologize to his old mentor -- **which he has done** -- and move on. I would recommend that the OP continue to treat his mentor like an old mentor: i.e., send him occasional emails keeping him up to date on his current academic life. I would certainly not assume that someone never wants to hear from me again based on a single unanswered email. But ultimately the mentor should know that he made mistakes as well, from a position of far more experience and responsibility. It does not fall on the OP to take any kind of heroic or (especially) self-abnegating measures to remedy the situation. One hopes that eventually these two people can move past one negative interaction amid many other good ones.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: I am afraid that the reviewer was right. Be aware that direct quotes (which, yes, must have the quotation marks or the indented separate paragraph) of more than a dozen words are rarely if ever necessary. You should have paraphrased.
Now as for your old mentor. S/He may be upset, but since you were just an undergrad, s/he should have caught the plagiarism and correct it. It was not your fault (although you did something wrong). H/She may be angry with themselves, or with the editor, whatever. But they have no call to be angry with you (at least not over this!).
Try to email them a few more times, with intervals of a couple of weeks. There could be lots of reasons why you have not had a reply, including innocuous ones.
Upvotes: 0
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