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<issue_start>username_0: I was asked to review an article written by non-native English speakers. I had never seen this before, but the manuscript includes a link to a certificate from a website called Textcheck that says:
>
> We hereby certify that Textcheck has checked and corrected the English
> in the manuscript named above.
>
>
> A specialist editor with suitable professional knowledge (M.Sc. or
> Ph.D./M.D.) reviewed and corrected the English. An English language
> specialist subsequently checked the paper again. The first language of
> both editors is English.
>
>
>
Unfortunately within the first few pages I'm already encountering clauses that make it obvious that this was not done to any depth. The issues are so blatant that even a quick glance by a native English speaker would catch them.
Should I point out major grammatical errors such as these in my review? Should I comment to the authors that they essentially got ripped off by this service (in more polite terms, obviously)? Should I comment to the editorial office?
EDIT: I also see that I can email Textcheck about the article. Should I do that? If so, what should I say/ask?<issue_comment>username_1: You should not email Textcheck about the article. The journal review process should be confidential, and you should not take the liberty to violate it. You should put the quality of the writing in your review. If it's still bad even after review by this company, then those are the breaks. It sounds like it still needs some help.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: I agree with Bill's advice from the previous post. If you email Textcheck then they will come up with some argument proving that they did a correct job, and moreover it's not you who paid them, so it's better that the person who paid them should contact them if required.
You should just indicate that the English used in the manuscript is sub-standard and can not be accepted in the present format. Though, this does not necessarily mean that you reject the manuscript. If you find that the scientific content is good enough then maybe you should indicate accept with major revision.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: Just express your opinion, try and be objective and don't worry about what does not depend on you.
Upvotes: -1
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2015/06/19
| 1,526
| 6,597
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<issue_start>username_0: After two years of extreme hard work I managed to finish my first manuscript. In my department there is a trend that if a professor has some collaboration with other people in any project then their name would appear in the publication originating from that collaboration... to which I totally agree, but the second part of this unsaid rule is that if no publication originated from this collaborative effort, then in that scenario the name of the collaborator still ends up in the publication from any other project of the same Professor.
So the problem here is that my supervisor has a collaborator who has nothing to do with my project but since he is a collaborator of my supervisor and their collaborative project was not fruitful, hence to appreciate the effort of this collaborator my supervisor is forcing me to put his name in my manuscript. Though I don't agree with this policy, I don't know how to solve this issue as I do not want to fight with my supervisor either nor do I want the name of this person on my manuscript. Please suggest what I could do in this situation?<issue_comment>username_1: It's unethical to include the name of a collaborator who contributed nothing to a particular paper as a co-author. However, as you said, it can be difficult to confront your advisor about including someone else as a co-author.
If you are the person responsible for submitting the manuscript to the journal, one alternative you might have available is to ask your advisor is to have an explicit assignment of duties in the cover letter for your paper. ("Author A did activities Q, R, and S, while author B did T and U, etc.") The tasks of each author would be provided in such a manner—and in principle it would be hard to justify the inclusion of someone unqualified to be a co-author when you have to "certify" it to the journal, rather than just providing a generic statement of authorship.
If the advisor is unwilling to come up with such statements, then you could make the argument that since it's typically a requirement of journal submissions nowadays, that you're uncomfortable including an author whose contributions can't be clearly delineated.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Unfortunately this sort of resume padding seems to be getting more common, and as stated already, it is a form of academic fraud.
The question you should ask yourself is whether you really want to continue working with this supervisor. Even if you get this issue resolved amicably (and after the supervisor invents fake contributions for the third party involved, this does not look likely), there will be other problems down the road. Since you are clearly unable to work this out with your supervisor (in response to your objections, he upped the ante by inventing contributions for the third party), the next stop would be a higher authority, such as the Dean, the University ethics committee, ombudsman or similar, possibly the funding agency. But this is bound to get ugly.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: That this is presented as some sort of "tradition", does not make it less of a fraud -because it is fraud, pure and simple. In fact, since it appears that a whole Department practices it, it is *conspiracy* to commit fraud, with the criminal intent to share in the benefits from it.
Are such words unwarranted? Do they seem, even, insulting to the members of the Department? Well, reality can be insulting at times, if one chooses to make it so.
That assigning authorship when none exists is strongly discouraged (to now use less harsh words), can be found on numerous relevant guidelines all over the world and the web. For just one such example, [Yale University web page](http://provost.yale.edu/academic-integrity/authorship) states
>
> **Authorship Standards**. Authorship of a scientific or scholarly paper **should be limited to those individuals who have contributed in a
> meaningful and substantive way to its intellectual content**. All
> authors are responsible for fairly evaluating their roles in the
> project as well as the roles of their co-authors to ensure that
> authorship is attributed according to these standards in all
> publications for which they will be listed as an author.
>
>
> **Requirement for Attribution of Authorship** Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public
> responsibility for its content. All co-authors should have been
> directly involved in all three of the following:
>
>
> * planning and contribution to some component (conception, design, conduct, analysis, or interpretation) of the work which led to the paper or interpreting at least a portion of the results;
> * writing a draft of the article or revising it for intellectual content; and
> * final approval of the version to be published. All authors should review and approve the manuscript before it is submitted for
> publication, at least as it pertains to their roles in the project.
>
>
> Some diversity exists across academic disciplines regarding acceptable
> standards for substantive contributions that would lead to attribution
> of authorship. This guidance is intended to allow for such variation
> to disciplinary best practices **while ensuring authorship is not
> inappropriately assigned**.
>
>
>
"Did nothing" appears to be a weak argument in favor of assigning authorship to somebody.
You are not the first person to face such situations, and really, there is not a roundabout way to "solve" this: You will either
**A)** "respect the tradition", risking consequences whose burden only you can assess, or
**B)** attempt to stand up against it, again risking consequences whose burden only you can assess.
Obviously, there are consequences in both routes taken - the issue is which kind of consequences *you* are willing to bear.
---
Responding to @username_1 criticism (whom I also thank for the positive words), **"falsifying reality with intent to gain in collaboration with others, while disregarding the possible harm"**, is exactly what happens here. Crimes have "levels of seriousness" of course. Then, it is my impression that falsifying the scientific record, including researcher credentials, ends up killing innocent people, one way or the other, immediately or in twenty years time, directly or indirectly. I could, for the shake of accuracy, change "criminal conspiracy" to "criminal negligence for possible harm done to third parties while committing an unlawful act"... hmm, that's *two* charges, now that I think of it.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/06/19
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<issue_start>username_0: I am a ninth-grade student in Bangladesh. I am alone in this research who is doing a research in neurophotonics. I have a dream to get published in *Nature* or *Science*. Can my age hamper my chances to get published there, even if the quality of the work is groundbreaking?<issue_comment>username_1: Well, age is not a criteria for accepting or rejecting a publication in any peer review journal, it's the quality of the scientific content that matter. Being 80 years of age doesn't guarantee that you are an excellent researcher. So work on the scientific content of your publication, and if it is ground breaking the for sure everyone will recognise it. So stay focused and work enthusiastically with scientific ethics.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Leaving alone, for the moment, the ninth-grade thing, you are an independent researcher. While there is nothing wrong about being an independent researcher, all US and European journals demand compliance with very high standards associated with human and animal research, and these standards involve submitting protocols to review boards before any work is done.
So, if the work uses any human subjects or animals, an independent researcher must hire such a review board. For animals, it is unlikely that an individual without some major resources can meet the requirements for proper animal husbandry that a review board will demand, so animal research most likely will not be publishable unless you are working with a facility.
If you are not working with humans or animals, nothing would preclude submission to those journals. I the work isn't exciting and newsworthy to a very broad audience, and if it really isn't world class, your chances of publication in those journals will be very low.
My advice would be to keep careful records of your work, and keep working to develop your credentials.
Upvotes: 2
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2015/06/19
| 718
| 2,830
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<issue_start>username_0: Using Bio-sciences as an example, below seems to be the norm for admission prerequisites.
US grad school in Bio-sciences:
Have taken Bio 1 & 2, Chem 1 & 2, Physics 1 & 2 + some upper level Bio classes + GRE + a Bachelor's degree
European grad school in Bio-sciences:
Have a Bio or closely related Bachelor's degree.
So... Is this "directly or very closely related Bachelor's degree" thing pretty much a must for most European schools? When Europeans decide to switch careers between undergrad & grad, they have to do another complete Bachelor's? any other countries like that?<issue_comment>username_1: This depends entirely on the nature of the program: basically, some master's programs are "continuous," meaning they have a bachelor's degree in (essentially) the same field as a prerequisite. If you have a related (but not identical) bachelor's degree, it may be possible to get approval, so long as you make up the "shortfall" between what your degree required and the requirements of the bachelor's that is the prerequisite for the master's degree. There's also the requirement that the shortfall not be too large (usually there's a limit to the number of extra semesters you can take to finish the expanded requirements.
However, many master's programs—particularly in interdisciplinary areas—allow you to enter with a bachelor's in any relevant field. This is especially necessary when it's unlikely for there to be many (or any) bachelor's program in the same area.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: username_1 covers the most important aspects. However, I want to add something to:
>
> So... Is this "directly or very closely related Bachelor's degree" thing pretty much a must for most European schools? When Europeans decide to switch careers between undergrad & grad, they have to do another complete Bachelor's? Omg... :/ any other countries like that, too?
>
>
>
European universities do not operate like US schools. Historically, most undergrad / grad programmes, at least in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany, are basically a 5-year "Diplomstudium" split into a 3-year bachelor and a 2-year master. Bachelor and master are seen as one "package", and indeed most students do both (in the same institution). You are not supposed to do the master without doing the same, or at least a very similar, bachelor first.
As for *"switching careers between undergrad & grad"* - you are in fact indeed not supposed to do that. It's possible between related programmes (say, going from math to computer science), but the admission committee will force you to take an host of additional courses, amounting to (typically) 1-2 additional semesters. Unrelated bachelors (e.g., from humanities to computer science) indeed do not qualify you to inscribe to the master programme.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/06/19
| 1,083
| 4,635
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<issue_start>username_0: I am writing a paper that is co-authored by researchers at several national and international universities. The collaboration is also interdisciplinary, meaning that conventions for authorship vary a little regarding where to set the bar for inclusion/exclusion and how to order the names.
One of the co-authors would like to inflate the authorlist too much that I am comfortable with. There's several people I have never even met but who were involved in planning this big project some years ago.
I think we can discuss the situation just fine but I would like to find some material that I could use when arguing my views. What would be some good strategies here? Is there any guidelines for this kind of collaborations?<issue_comment>username_1: Lots of folks around here seem to prefer [these](http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html) guidelines which are known as the Vancouver Protocol (quoting directly, here):
* Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
* Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND
* Final approval of the version to be published; AND
* Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
These are among the strongest criteria, and I would suggest that many scientific publications fail to live up to them. [Gift authorship](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3162772/) and other sorts of additions to the author list are common. E.g., maybe you include the PI of a large grant as last author even if they only lightly supervised the work and did not read the final draft or write or revise any of the actual words.
At another extreme, the LHC project has a sort of [communal authorship](https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/Main/ATLASAuthorshipPolicy) process that led to to a recent paper with [more than 5000 authors](http://www.nature.com/news/physics-paper-sets-record-with-more-than-5-000-authors-1.17567). If you think this paper meets criteria 2 or 3 above, you are kidding yourself. Now, that whole community has agreed to this authorship mechanic, but it is substantially different from the Vancouver Protocol.
You need to ask yourself what the norms of your community are. Does your field have a professional society that has authorship guidelines or guidelines associated with its publications? If so, you can use those to bolster the arguments you want to make with your advisor. If not, you can look to other, similar areas and their approaches. In the end though, you may have to follow your advisor's lead until you are out on your own. This is not a hill for a grad student to die on, and postdocs and junior faculty may want to use caution.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: As username_1 mentions, there are guidelines available for determining who should and shouldn't be an author.
However, if you know where you intend to submit the paper you can potentially use that journal's own specific rules as a more firm approach. The logic there is that if you are against stubborn people, they may be more convinced by hard rules from a journal than by a set of guidelines produced by a committee (which, while useful, are not really binding in any way).
This might be especially useful given that you are talking about interdisciplinary research where multiple fields could be involved with each having a different way of doing things. In that case, you can use the journal guidelines as the one that must be followed without having to argue for one field's values to be more respected than another's (although I don't know if the criteria for inclusion varies as much between disciplines as the ordering of authors does?)
It might be worth checking if the journal has a clear set of guidelines for authorship on it's website. For example, [author instructions for eLife](http://submit.elifesciences.org/html/elife_author_instructions.html) links to the set of instructions mentioned by username_1.
The journal may also have their own guidelines for how author order should be decided (some fields go with alphabetical, while others take contribution and other things into account). However, from what I've seen, many guidelines here are unfortunately vague and tend to just say that all authors should agree on the order and should be able to explain how it was determined.
Upvotes: 3
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2015/06/19
| 1,178
| 5,029
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<issue_start>username_0: I've got a case where 90% of my academic publications are being claimed by a professor at another university with the same name on ResearchGate. I've sent several email requests both direct and through ResearchGate messaging to ask him to remove those publications from his profile. This has been over several months with no response.
At this point, I'm thinking of sending a registered letter to the professor and his department chair to correct what I see as academic theft through inaction. However, I realize that ResearchGate is mostly at fault here. There is no mechanism to dispute ownership once assigned.
Thought about doing a DMCA takedown notice of the offending pages.
What is the best way to resolve this?<issue_comment>username_1: I think most people have come to conclude that ResearchGate is sort of a nice idea but not very useful in actual practice. I don't know anyone who really thinks it's great.
In other words, use your energies for other things -- if you claim on your CV and website that a particular paper is yours, then people will believe you. The fact that some other dude is claiming your papers on ResearchGate may be a nuisance, but it's not going to help that person either because they are clearly not written by them.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: As quoted directly from research gate, here is the solution
>
> Our author match feature is designed to help you quickly confirm authorship of your publications on ResearchGate. The ease of this one-click process means mistakes can sometimes be made, so if another researcher has claimed your publication, it is usually the result of an honest mistake.
> To resolve this:
> Go to your publication’s ResearchGate page
> Click the Is this your publication? button on the right-hand side
> Tell us what’s happened in the box that appears and, if possible, include links to other places where your work is published.
> We take erroneous authorship claims very seriously and review each case manually, so please bear with us.
>
>
>
<https://explore.researchgate.net/display/support/Authorship>
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: I think the most important part of your question is the bit about "with the same name".
ResearchGate has very loose and rather questionable practices in how they manage their citation data, which tends to err on the side of inclusion. Moreover, their *terrible* user interface makes it very easy for somebody to do things like click "add all" and end up with a whole bunch of misattributed publications. In the little bit that I played with ResearchGate before giving it up as basically useless, it kept offering to give me authorship of papers by people with the same last name---not even the same first name. It will also automatically add papers to your profile in some circumstances.
What I'm driving at is that, given that you and this other researcher have the same name, it's plausible that they didn't even do this intentionally and have just written off the whole ResearchGate mess. The fact that they didn't respond to your direct email is more problematic, but again not necessarily damning---you may well be going into their "headache pile" or even their spam folder.
Given all of this, what I would suggest is a two step solution:
1. If you think you have standing to do so, send a DMCA takedown notice to ResearchGate: it's fast, easy, and might get the content taken down.
2. After that, just start ignoring the whole mess. It's not worth your time and energy.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: Reiterating essentially the same point made by other people: first, the person with the same name as you may have had no part whatsoever in giving the appearance that he/she is the author of your papers. Second, despite the disturbing popularity of such "metrics" (cf. @PeteLClark's comment), no sane person will trust such things... for more than one reason.
Again, at my own university, the local software akin to "ResearchGate" both ignores much of my work and "gives me credit" for random stuff that is not mine.
Just as one cannot spend one's life attempting to rebut false claims made on the internet... uh... you can't spend your life attempting to rebut false claims made on the internet. Specifically, the profit-motivated amoral people can generate crap far more efficiently than it can be cleaned up.
Yes, unfortunately, the future of academe may indeed be fatally corrupted into a "dystopia" by affection of "bosses/managers" for such "metrics". Too bad.
Bottom line: ignore it. It's a slightly-structured spam.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I'm pretty sure that the correct answer to any question involving ResearchGate is "just ignore it". As others have said, there is likely no malice in the other academic who has become associated with your work. There's a good chance that they're "ignoring" your email because anything about ResearchGate goes straight into the spam folder, where it (almost always) belongs.
Upvotes: 3
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2015/06/19
| 1,219
| 4,619
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<issue_start>username_0: Suppose I have a paper with the following text:
>
> Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you [3],[4].
>
>
>
As one can see, the author got the information from two other references.
If I want to add this information in my thesis, do I also have to reference [3] and [4] or can I just reference this particular paper, I got the information from?<issue_comment>username_1: If you need a reference that supports the factual information that roses are red etc., then you have to look up the original sources and cite those. If, however, you refer to a synthesis of the information that the author of your sample text has derived from the original sources (for example "flowers have different colors"), then you must cite the sample text.
Having said that, it is sometimes advisable to look up the references also in the latter case. First, because the information contained in them might be interpreted in different ways, and second, because you might learn something useful from them.
Only when you absolutely cannot access the original source, you may resort to a [secondary citation](http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/cite-another-source.aspx), such as `[3] as cited in [1]`.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Similar to @username_1's good answer, but emphasizing a way of thinking about such things: be forthright/honest. That is, you did literally learn of [3] and [4] from the secondary source, so it would be *helpful* to your readers (and factually accurate) to acknowledge this source, as secondary as it may be. That is, you help your readers by explaining the helpful sources you have found. Still, in terms of "primary facts", also [3] and [4] should be cited, for somewhat different reasons.
That is, I think the best (certainly the most *honest*) scholarship admits what sources were used, how one found things, and so on. To do the opposite, that is, to pretend that one only ever consults "primary sources", is fairly ridiculous, even if it is a popular style. In my field, mathematics, in some cases the original sources are quite inaccessible or anachronistic/archaic, in various senses. So I cannot trust myself to read them with understanding, even if I can acquire a copy. So I must trust others' rewriting, explication, paraphrase, etc. But/and I should acknowledge the historical antecedents even if I cannot directly benefit from them, and also acknowledge accessible/intelligible "secondary" (often with much "value added") sources also.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I think this depends on the area you are working in. In most sciences the wording of a result is of small importance, so you might say "Flora discovered that roses are red, ... (see [Gardener: A colour guide to flowers, chapter 4.6, ...])". The idea is to tell the reader who did it, and give an available and readable source, e.g. a monograph. This was fine in pre-bibliometrical time, however, today praising an author without citing her is unfair. If Flora's poem is hard to find, but Gardener' colour guide is on every desk, or Flora's original work is difficult to read, you can write
Flora[Flora: Poems, ...] discovered ... . We refer the reader to [Gardener] for more information.
Humanities are more subtle. Small changes in the wording or the context can completely alter a statement, so you should not only tell the reader about [3] and[4], but also about the treatment in the secondary paper, which can well have an independent intellectual value.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: The process you are describing is called [hearsay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearsay) which is noteably unreliable.I would always go to the original publication if possible. I have seen peer-reviewed review papers that got basic facts wrong. In fact one such paper is accessible here: [Applications of shape memory alloys in civil structures](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2005.12.010). in this paper the authors state without even citing:
>
> *In 1932, Chang and Read observed a reversible phase transformation in gold–cadmium (AuCd)...*
>
>
>
If you do some initial internet searching, you find nothing because the date and authors are wrong. Once correcting this you find that the 1932 paper was by [Ölander](https://doi.org/10.1021/ja01349a004) and the paper by [<NAME>](https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03398954) wasn't published until 1951. As far as truth, the statement blends elements of both papers, so not even that is correct. Therefore heed this as a warning against citing papers you have not read.
Upvotes: 2
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2015/06/20
| 2,771
| 11,340
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<issue_start>username_0: A person I know was in the process of publishing her first manuscript when her supervisor told her to add his newly acquired affiliation from a university in Saudi Arabia to his name. The Saudi Arabian university hired this Supervisor as guest faculty and were essentially paying him for adding them as one of the affiliated universities in all the forthcoming manuscripts.
This was of major ethical concern to my acquaintance. In recent years, Saudi universities have been accused in [multiple](http://blogs.nature.com/houseofwisdom/2012/01/are-saudi-universities-buying-their-way-into-top-charts.html) [different](https://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6061/1344?related-urls=yes&legid=sci;334/6061/1344) [prominent](https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/to-some-a-citation-is-worth-3-per-year/) [articles](http://www.dailycal.org/2014/12/05/citations-sale/) of "buying rankings" by paying prominent faculty to list them as an affiliation, even though the faculty have little real interaction with the university. To many, this looks like simple bribery or unethical sale of reputation, particularly give [the high sums of money involved](http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com/2014/12/some-notes-on-citations-for-sale-about.html).
My acquaintance was concerned that, if her advisor was listing this affiliation on her paper, then she would be aiding and abetting in this unethical behavior. Unfortunately, her confrontation with her advisor went badly, and although she was able to publish the paper without the questionable affiliation, the relationship was destroyed and she ended up resigning the laboratory under pressure.
Now my question is this: what should a junior researcher do when they feel they are being asked to be party to "affiliation fraud" of this sort? We would not ask a person to remain silent if they thought a co-author was being unethically added or removed. Should unethical addition or removal of an affiliation be treated the same way?<issue_comment>username_1: One unwritten rule of any scientific collaboration between co-authors is that each party should trust the other. If I collaborate on one paper with another scientist (who might be located in another part of the world) and he is affiliated with more than one institutions (e.g., a university and a research institute or a second university while on sabbatical) and tells me that he likes his affiliation on this specific paper to be "Institute A" or "Institute B" I trust that he is doing the right thing. When he wants me to add an acknowledgement about a specific grant, I put the acknowledgement he wants for HIS part and I put the acknowledgement for my grant that I want. I have never felt the need to question neither the grant acknowledgement or the affiliation of another collaborator. For me, it is always a matter of trust. **I do not collaborate with people I do not trust and I trust the people I collaborate with**.
On my CS domain, where conferences are the main publishing venue, sometimes the affiliation or the grant explicitly written on a paper, sometimes corresponds to who or how the trip expenses of the suggested paper will be covered. In those cases, the author may have prior discussed this with the administrative division of his institute and only follows the provided instructions. Again, I have never thought of any of this as a big deal, because it is more of a administrative technicality than a real issue.
As far as the OP original question, her advisor wanted to list both affiliations (not just the "shady" one). In my mind, this was really not a big thing. Instead the OP by escalating this issue, was basically forced to resign from her PhD. And all this for what? So that a small obscure university has one less citation? It makes no sense and there are much more important ethical fights that is worth fighting for within Academia.
It would be a whole different story though, if the OP was forced to put another affiliation for herself. In that case, she should have a saying on which is her preferred affiliation. But fighting for the listed affiliation on another co-author makes absolutely no sense to me.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: To my mind, this case is very similar to the question of whether somebody can essentially pay for co-authorship. We see many questions of this sort on this site, a particular apropos example of which is [this one](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19362/is-it-ethical-for-advisors-to-automatically-coauthor-papers), which asks in part:
>
> Suppose I'm a billionaire who knows nothing about science, but I take it into my head that I want to be (regarded as) a famous scientist.
>
>
>
The case of the Saudi Arabian affiliations looks to me very much like a parallel construct:
>
> Suppose I'm a billionaire institution which does little significant research, but I take it into my head that I want to be (regarded as) a famous institution.
>
>
>
I think that it is completely reasonable to find this problematic, and to object to a co-author adding this institution, just as one might object to a co-author adding the billionaire know-nothing as another author.
Now the question is what to do about it, and, as in these authorship questions, the advice tends to depend strongly on the power dynamics of the situation. On this site, we often advise students to leave bad situations rather than creating a confrontation, due to the power imbalance with faculty. For people in positions of power, however, like tenured faculty, **it is an effective endorsement of unethical behavior if you are aware of it and do not call it out.** It may not be a hill to die on, but either you care enough to make your voice heard or else you accept the behavior as legitimate.
In this particular case, the student may have acted unwisely with regards to safeguarding their own future, but it may also have been important enough to them to take that ethical stand. It's impossible for us to know how important it was to that person, and it's easy to engage in post-facto critique of their tactics, but I think the concern is legitimate and the actions taken are within the range of reasonable options, depending on how strongly the student felt about the ethics involved.
In short: some people choose not to take military money, not to work on espionage-related research, or not to publish in non-open journals. Choosing not to be party to what you perceive as bribery for prestige is just as legitimate an ethical choice to make.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Withdraw from the collaboration.
Certainly, she cannot insist that the other author breach his contractual arrangement or indeed disregard his own reasonable view on where he is affiliated merely because she is *unhappy* in how the affiliation arose.
If his view on where he was affiliated was essentially a fiction of his own invention, I think, it would be reasonable to take a robust position against perpetuating a fiction or a fraud. But that is not, from what I understand of the question, what has happened here. If he is paid by the university in some academic capacity related to the paper, for whatever reason and for whatever work is delivered, then I believe he is entitled to assert that he is "affiliated" with that university when publishing the paper. And the university may well require him to make that assertion. It is no less reasonable than a grant body asking to be acknowledged when work is produced from a grant.
If that is too much for her to tolerate, then the cost of having that kind of ethical standard is to withdraw from the collaboration and desist in publishing the paper: ethics would be worthless if they had no cost to their subscribers.
I have to add, when I read the title I thought the question would concern a proposed affiliation with an ISIS or Al-Qaedea subgroup, or at least with a supplier of arms technology to a capricious dictator.
Frankly, to get upset that a university in a developing country has to promote itself against the entrenched western universities by retaining (effectively) a consultant on their payroll, is bordering on the absurd. There are many problems in the world and many problems in academia. Saudi Arabia throwing some money at a small number of professors is not one of them.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I'm going to disagree with the other answers. In particular, I don't think it is similar to buying authorship at all.
Listing someone as a coauthor means their contribution was to do some of the work, so listing someone who merely paid you is unethical, because it misrepresents their contribution. But listing an institution as an affiliation normally means that you are paid by that institution.
So far as I can see, the only problem would be if the supervisor's German institution felt that they were paying for exclusive affiliation rights. But that would be a matter between them and him.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: A contrarian view: in my opinion, **every author is responsible for listing their own affiliations**. If they do something unethical, as here, or some other wrong thing, e.g., forgetting to list one of their current legitimate affiliations, then I fail to see why the *other authors* would somehow held accountable. Indeed, sometimes a researcher can very legitimately end up co-authoring a paper where they have never even physically met some of the people involved in the collaboration. How could they be expected to check that they are listing their affiliations properly? In practice, I always trust my co-authors to list their affiliations, and I'm not going to go and start questioning what they do.
To me this is very different from adding, e.g., a bogus author to a paper. It's reasonable to expect that every author of a paper would know what each author contributed, and so if someone wants to unethically add someone who didn't contribute to the paper, the other authors should complain. (Although to some extent even this isn't so clear: if I end up contributing to a paper where a PhD student I have never met has listed their advisor as an author of the paper, can I reasonably ascertain if the advisor meets reasonable criteria for authorship? Probably not...)
In the present situation, I think it's a bit less clear, because the student thought they knew that the affiliation was indeed fraudulent. But in general, why would they care? Simply assume your co-author knows what they're doing, I'd say. If it's unethical, they should be the ones to bear the blame.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: The main issue here could be with the university or institution which the co-author works for. It spends money not only for his or her salary, but also for the infrastructure and environment supporting the research; the expected return is, in part, in publications supporting its reputation. Depending on the country, it may be stated explicitly so in the work contract it issues.
Having a third partly spending considerably less money (and not alleviating at all the burden of the institution) to achieve the same effect is clearly a problem.
I would personally advise to raise the issue to the board (or equivalent) of the institution. They are the ones getting ripped off.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/06/20
| 708
| 3,160
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<issue_start>username_0: I am preparing material for the academic job market and I would like to receive feedback from peers on my cover letter.
Additionally to the traditional personal contacts, I have thought about online forums as a possible location, but have not been able to find any that seem good. I am also not interested in websites that offer consultation from professionals in return for money.
How would you advise I go about getting such feedback?
Unfortunately, not everybody works in big departments or in universities with staff of the human resource management trained for this purpose. Also, it is the end of June: in some countries (in my case Sweden) this means the vacation period is started and it is taken very seriously (vacation=no working activity of any type, besides for doctorate students).<issue_comment>username_1: The most German universities have career service departments for questions like this. If this is uncommon in Sweden, I agree with Kimballs comment: *show it to people you trust*.
In addition: the Internet is full of resources like [guides](https://www.looksharp.com/guides/cover-letter-example-and-template) and tips. Just be aware of possible cultural differences that may appear between countries. A guide targeting to US audience could suggest or advice elements that could count as "no gos" in other cultures. If you want to check your cover letter against some online guide I suggest you to search one in Swedish that considers the national or cultural specialties.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: A few years after my question and some experience more, I still have mixed feelings about this topic. I am convinced that, for those researchers who come from small research environments like myself, it is extremely hard to receive constructive feedback on career paths and strategies to reach your own goal. While in a large university you have career advisers and hr experts that help you in pursuing your goals (e.g. indeed, by providing you feedback on a cover letter for that amazing job opportunity you are applying to), smaller institute naturally fall behind with this respect.
As the world does not end there, and researchers are extremely competitive and dedicated people who seldom give up, there is a number of ways to go. Personally, now I take any chance I have to network; I construct a database of researchers that I can reasonably say to know personally--at least a bit--and whom I can contact in case of any need, may that be a possible collaboration or request of some feedback on research grants applications or cover letters. To expand at most my research network I go beyond conferences networking and current co-workers: I use research platforms (such as Researchgate or Linkedin) to contact new people, I contact researchers that cited my work (e.g. wishing to keep in touch), I invite people to present a study in my small research institute, etc...all of this "[bonding social capital](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital#Sub-types)" may help you to partially fill a number of gaps that small research institutes suffer, compared to greater institutes.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/06/20
| 809
| 3,266
|
<issue_start>username_0: When writing a (computer science) research paper, I have to describe my method in term in pseudocode. Because of readability and reusability, I want to break my method into smaller pieces. However, I don't know how to present them in my paper. As far as I know, there are two approaches:
* Top-down: first, present a main pseudocode which calls/invokes other smaller ones which will be explained later.
* Bottom-up: present and explain all the smaller pieces first, then combine them together into a bigger one.
For example, in my paper, I'm presenting a method to solve to a problem, this method is describe by a funtion, named `SOLVE_PROBLEM`, as follow:
```
SOLVE_PROBLEM(input) {
if CHECK(input) then:
FUNCTION_1(input)
else:
FUNCTION_2(input)
}
```
As you can see, `SOLVE_PROBLEM` uses other functions (`CHECK`, `FUNCTION_1` and `FUNCTION_2`) to find a solution. My question is to how to presents those functions in my paper. Should I present i) `SOLVE_PROBLEM` first (as it is the solution to the problem, which is the main point of the paper), or ii) other methods fisrt (as they are the building blocks to a solution)?<issue_comment>username_1: The answer depends on personal preferences, as well as on the algorithm itself. Consider the following two descriptions of `SOLVE_PROBLEM`:
**Top-down:** We want to solve problem A on `input`. Function `SOLVE_PROBLEM` solves the problem. There are two cases, depending on condition B, which we can check with function `CHECK`. If the condition holds, we solve the problem with `FUNCTION_1`. Otherwise we use `FUNCTION_2`.
**Bottom-up:** We want to solve problem A on `input`. In the general case, the problem can be solved with `FUNCTION_1`. The general solution assumes condition B, which we can check with function `CHECK`. If the condition does not hold, we can solve the special case with `FUNCTION_2`. This completes function `SOLVE_PROBLEM`.
I personally prefer the top-down approach, if the algorithm has multiple equally important parts. Bottom-up approach becomes preferable, if one part of the algorithm attacks the core of the problem, while the rest just deals with special cases and administrative stuff.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: In general, you should avoid telling a reader something without justifying why you say it (in terms the reader already gets), to avoid frustrating his motivation. At the same time, the paper should be readable at least linearly, so you can't say too much about stuff you haven't presented yet.
To follow this guideline, it is often (but not always) better to proceed top-down. When you start, you've explained why readers should care about your problem, hence why you need SOLVE\_PROBLEM. Then you present SOLVE\_PROBLEM and explain what the different steps achieve (not the how). Hopefully names give a hint, but often it's not enough. SOLVE\_PROBLEM in turn motivates the other procedures, so you can explain them in the same way.
With a bottom-up presentation, you risk presenting code without having justified why it's needed. Maybe your FuzzBahzz solver needs a BarBuzz solver which needs a BipBop solver, but readers who care about FuzzBahzz might not guess why BipBop is related.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/06/20
| 2,304
| 9,545
|
<issue_start>username_0: I got a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from a school which is among the top ranked of Europe. Nevertheless, this is a pure coincidence, I did it here because it was the closest to my home.
For purely personal reasons I am tired of living in a place where there is such high population density, and having to suffer city life, crowded trains, traffic (even though I do not drive, I suffer the noise and pollution *a lot*), and spending so much time every day in queues is very annoying. My dream would be to return living in the countryside in a small village where people know each other, like when I was a kid (the village where I grew up is now today part of a suburb and mostly lost its soul).
I'm considering applying for a PhD position in a very small university in a medium sized town, in order to relocate and live in a rural village near the town. That university would be quite small and barely large enough to offer PhD programs, and definitely does not have much international reputation or anything. The exact opposite to the university where I got a Master's, which is high ranked and has amazing international reputation.
What I'd be doing would be the exact opposite of the mainstream, where people are always more willing to live in cities despite the disadvantages, and also are wanting to have their PhD from a school that is prestigious. I am afraid to kill my academic career because of a caprice of mine ("live in the countryside") would have taken up all the other advantages over staying here in the same School for a PhD.<issue_comment>username_1: I totally get your dilemma, as I'm going through a similar thing (I'm not sure what I want to do *after* my PhD, in a university in a city of ~200,000 people).
Remember that a lack of overall reputation shouldn't greatly harm your chances of having further success in academia. *It's the quality of your individual work that counts.* Having a PhD is rarely necessary outside of academia, so your Master's degree from a great university should be adequately impressive.
Don't forget that there are *many* great universities in [smaller towns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_town), and some cities have small "satellite villages" where you can live outside of the city but still easily commute to work. I think that you're restricting yourself too much. In saying that, if you're motivated and convinced that you can do a great PhD at this particular university, you should still give a paid PhD offer some serious consideration.
Don't unnecessarily restrict yourself to Europe, either. Most towns and cities in the USA, Australia, and New Zealand are generally much more spread out and feel far less claustrophobic.
My advice would be to try to get the best PhD you can, as long as you're willing to put up with the lifestyle compromises. *Or else, why bother getting a PhD?* I can understand Paris, London, or New York being right out. But any campus that's an acceptably short cycle, bus, or train ride (commuting at off-peak times helps, if you can get away with it) from a smaller village shouldn't be ruled out automatically.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I *don't* really get your dilemma unless there are further geographical constraints you haven't mentioned. In the US at least, the quality of the university is not much correlated with the population size or density. The American university currently rated #1 (according to a famous ranking that should not be taken too seriously; but certainly it is and has been a very top university) is Princeton. Princeton is located in such a small town that I *did not* want to go there for graduate school. On the same list we find places like Dartmouth, Cornell...
I am not nearly as familiar with universities outside of the US, but for instance I was a visitor at Universite de Bordeaux I. It turns out that there is some mildly false advertising here: UNBI is *not* actually in Bordeaux (which I thought was a charming, beautiful small city, by the way), just very close to it in a tiny town called Talence.
Also many people -- probably most -- who like to live outside of cities nevertheless commute into them for their work. One hour's drive from a prestigious university puts you in almost any kind of living situation I can think of.
Are you really asking whether moving from one of the top ranked European universities to "a Phd position in a very small University in a medium sized Town, in order to relocate and live in a rural village near the town. That university would be quite small and barely large enough to offer Phd programs, and definitely do not have much international reputation or anything. The exact opposite to the university where I got a Master's, which is high ranked and has amazing international reputation" will cause your academic career to suffer? Okay, fair question but an easy one: **yes**.
>
> What I'd be doing would be the exact opposite of the mainstream, where people are always more willing to live in cities despite the disadvantages,
>
>
>
That is obviously false. Lots of people do not live in cities. In fact, lots of people who would prefer to live in large cities instead take jobs in small cities / college towns in order to keep their academic career alive. (I am one of them. I grew up in a city of two million people. I now live in a city of one hundred thousand people and have a really good academic job there.)
I suggest that you think more carefully about your long term goals. It seems to be implicit that you want to stay in a very small geographic space. That kind of priority is anathema to an academic career, and that's true in Europe as much as or more than in the United States. I know that because I know many excellent European mathematicians who have tried for years to find a job *in their home country*, to no avail. In many cases they need to leave Europe entirely in order to find a suitable academic job. Or maybe you don't really want an intense academic career following your PhD but would be content to have a mostly teaching position in a desirable geographic location (maybe even at a good high school?). In that case, simply getting your PhD anywhere *might* be enough. You should look into it. But considering a much worse PhD program wondering how much you're sacrificing by doing so is a very poor investment in your own future.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: I guess the first question is *What do you want to do with your PhD?*
If you want to stay in academia, you will have the same problem after graduating all over again (and, speaking from personal experience, as a young postdoc/faculty, one does not generally have the luxury of *choosing* where one goes next). Further, going to a (presumably) under-funded local university with weak research programme is going to severely reduce the probability of you doing world-class research. While Moriaty is correct in saying that *"It's the quality of your individual work that counts."*, said quality is definitely strongly correlated to the excellence of your advisors and fellow students and collaborators. Another problem may be funding (e.g., for going to conferences), which may not be plentiful in a small university.
What I am also wondering is whether you *actually* need to switch university, or should just live off-campus? I work in Zurich, and I have one student who used to live between Zurich and Bern (about a one-hour car drive away), in an area that was pretty much as rural as it gets. He just did a lot of home office, and took the train approximately 3 times a week. Maybe an arrangement like that helps you more than throwing out the baby with the bath water?
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_4: You should consider more cities that are smaller than the city you live in now, even if they are not as small as your ideal. For example, the difference between four million and one million people is vast, even if your ideal might be fifty thousand. Already this brings a good reduction in traffic flow, lines, and general rudeness. Beyond that, if you can find a place where you can do great research and make good connections, then you should go for a better environment. If you are quite adverse to large urban centers then that could also seriously negatively affect your work.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Your concern about sabotaging your career is real. Academic hiring for full professorships in even second or third tier universities is overwhelmingly from higher prestige institutions in many countries/programs. (Not terribly surprisingly - people usually fall back to prestige when asked to make high-stakes decisions among things that aren't really easily ranked.)
Now this may vary by country and/or program, so I would look at places that you would consider and take a close look at where the candidates got their PhD. That's the level of institution that you'll probably need to attend if you are serious about that sort of job.
(This doesn't mean don't choose a smaller institution - but it does mean being aware of how that reduces your chances of success in certain areas. Everything's a trade-off.)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: No.
I did it. From King's College world rank 15 to Queen Mary world rank 150. Your PhD wipes out everything. All my friends who continued their studies at King's had a better chance in finding jobs at good companies while I had to convince people over interviews why I made such a decision.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
|
2015/06/20
| 1,003
| 4,744
|
<issue_start>username_0: So, the title may be a little convoluted, but let me explain. My current interests are regenerative medicine and neuroscience. I'm an undergraduate working in a neuroimaging lab, and while I enjoy the research, I feel like I don't want to limit myself to a narrow research topic as is common in Academia. For example, I'm interested in working with other areas, such as stem cell research and nanomedicine. What kind of career should I be working towards if I want to maintain a broad influence in the field? I was considering something like an administrative position or an being part of some journal's board. Perhaps working in the industry would be good, but I like the whole intellectual/meeting researchers vibe in the academic world. Also, please let me know if I can clarify this post a bit.<issue_comment>username_1: As an undergraduate you can still easily move to another field by working in another lab in a different field to try things out and get more experience. As a graduate student, become really well-trained at a field you like even if it's a little narrow for now so you can get high-quality publications which will translate hopefully to a good position and lots of grant money. Then you'll have more freedom for collaboration with other fields. Researches frequently branch out or incorporate different fields after a few years of work.
While doing that you can keep talking to other people in different field and read whatever you like. That's assuming you actually want to do research yourself, which will probably take a good while to figure out.
As for administration, you should only decide that route when and if you decide you don't like research.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I think most researchers want to influence and possibly work in different areas, but we can't all be revolutionaries in several fields.
There are two opposing issues that one needs to balance at any stage of academia (or that pesky thing called life):
* Doing anything significant usually takes real time and effort
* Each individual has limited resources, such as time and effort
As research has progressed over the past centuries things have gotten more specialized and there indeed has been a necessary tendency for researchers to focus on more and more narrow aspects of science. However, the branches of science are highly interconnected, and fundamental work in one area often has ramifications in many areas (which the original research may or may not be involved with). Recently, there has been more emphasis on interdisciplinary research, which it sounds like the kind of thing you are interested in. So this opportunity is certainly available for researchers who are interested.
However, interdisciplinary research is easier with certain specialities than others. (If you run a lab with lots of specialized equipment, you will be limited by the capabilities of the equipment.) For instance, interdisciplinary work seems to be pretty common with people who do mathematical biology, or more generally applied math/statistics. They often collaborate with different specialists in different fields/subfields who want to apply mathematical techniques/models to their problems, and in the process learn something about that particular subfield. My suggestion, if you want to go this direction, is look for an advisor in graduate school who does (and if possible, whose students do) interdisciplinary research that you find exciting.
Another way to influence people in different areas is through teaching, giving lectures and writing textbooks. Yet another way is by working for a grant agency or as a policy advisor, to help decide what research gets funded. Working for a scientific publishing company, as you mention, is also a possiblity, but journal editors are professional researchers. Similarly, university administration is run by professors. Thus there are many options, but these typically require specialized knowledge, so the preparation is the same as becoming a researcher.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: As a researcher it is difficult to have an impact in a single field never mind impacts in multiple fields. Administrative positions are often very detached from research. One position, or set of positions, which might give you the broad exposure to multiple fields that you are looking for is a program administrator for the NIH. They gets to see, and often shape, grants from a huge range of health related fields. They often go to conferences to talk to researchers and talk to senior administrators about setting policies and broad research agendas. There are probably other positions which would give you similar breadth of exposure.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/06/20
| 1,004
| 4,203
|
<issue_start>username_0: Besides hard work, is there anything that one can try to be creative in research? On this site, is there a lot of people who can publish more than 5 or 10 papers per year? I would like ask them, if it is possible to train oneself to do that.
I have been a hardworking student. For four years, I have tried to publish one (first-author) paper per year, and I feel that this is my limit. This rate is enough for me to get a PhD, but it is never enough for survive in academia.
I'm going to start my postdoc in a couple of weeks, and I'm really worried, thinking about my career. I really love research, but I'm afraid I'm just a mediocre scientist, who will end up as a postdoc for 10 years (or forever).<issue_comment>username_1: I think you are conflating productivity and creativity. The amount of research you produce is not necessarily related to how creative it is. (Some people produce a huge number of papers, none of which are very novel.)
Different fields have different expectations for how many papers are expected. For getting a job, what's important is that you are well regarded as a researcher. But to answer your question about creativity, here are a few ideas:
* You need to have a solid background in your area. As a postdoc, I started working on some very technical problems, and didn't feel like I could be creative for a long time, because I was just following and learning the established techniques.
* Ask yourself basic questions, and try to get a deep understanding of the things involved in your area. This leads to more questions, and lots of ideas. (Warning: this is not a way to maximize your number of publications.) Teaching helps force you do this, or maybe running a technical blog.
* Talk to people, and discuss ideas with them.
* Go to seminars and learn new things.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I would like to suggest that you read the speech ["You and Your Research" by <NAME>](http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html) on how to do *great* research. It's one that I revisit every once in a while when my own scientific motivations are becoming unclear and need to be refreshed.
In reading it, it's important to keep in mind that the speech is thirty years old, and it is addressing things that happened even decades before that, so there are some jarring cultural gaps both with regards to science and with regards to the rest of society. Nevertheless, I find the central ideas to be still very relevant and valuable today.
Importantly, Hamming distinguishes between things that you need to do in order to not fail and things that you need to do in order to have a real impact. These are very different, and it is important to distinguish between them. Important research is not the same as any of the "productivity metrics," and the correlation is often a trailing indicator, not a leading indicator.
For example: you say you are concerned that you are publishing only one paper per year. Step back and ask: why am I concerned about this? You can publish lots of papers without ever doing anything really creative or important. You can have a full, tenured, and comfortable career that way. And honestly, that's an OK choice to make. Some people go too far the other way, and strike out so deep into their own creative world that they can never publish their ideas, and they also fail to have an impact (indeed, the most extreme of them we label cranks).
In between is the dangerous and subversive world that Hamming describes, where you teeter back and forth on the balance between compliant conformity to metrics and egotistical creative rebellion. It doesn't guarantee greatness, but it may be a fascinating ride, and it just might get you somewhere really worth going.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I will have to differ from the above answers as I don't think creativity is well defined or quantitively measurable concept. 'Originality' is, and is made sure by the journals. If someone publishes 5 or 10 papers a year in respected journals, then that at least would mean that they develope conclude more original ideas more efficiently than many others.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/06/21
| 1,868
| 7,988
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm very new to being a peer reviewer. I agreed to anonymously review a paper for publication, and while reading it for the first time, I was a little annoyed by the writing style. It sort of reminded me of the feeling I get when reading a paper from a student in an undergraduate Liberal Arts Math course. When I began to read it again, I was very uneasy about the writing, especially in the introduction. There were inconsistencies in style. Some short, dry sentences followed by longer passages using flowery language. I looked at the references and noticed a few secondary sources. One was a NY Times article. I looked up the article online and in the first paragraph found a passage that was almost identical to one in the introduction section of the paper I'm supposed to review. I was shocked. And then I found more.
So far, all of the plagiarism that I've found is in the introduction. I haven't read the rest of the paper carefully yet because I'm fairly disgusted.
My question is this: should I even bother writing a review? If this were an undergraduate paper, the student would get an F on the assignment and get reported to the Dean. I want to write to the journal editor and just tell him that the paper doesn't deserve to be reviewed.
Has anyone seen this before, and what did you do? If you decided to review a paper like this, how would you phrase your feedback?<issue_comment>username_1: I think you've pretty much done your review. You found a whole bunch of plagiarism up front, and that's enough to recommend rejection of the article. Document your findings and report to the editor. Even if the rest of the article turned out to be brilliant and original, there is no way it can be anything other than rejected and possibly even formal proceedings against the authors.
Upvotes: 7 <issue_comment>username_2: I understand there is a moral and potentially punishable issue.
However, as the reviewer appears to have understood, the writer is inexperienced.
What an author knows about plagiarizing practices depends largely on the country/university where s/he grew up in academic terms. In the Anglo-Saxon world I know this practice is severely punished already at undergraduate level, since from early stages of the studentship, students are required to participate more actively to the learning process and write papers for their classes, which allow them to learn about plagiarizing rules. In other countries this is not the case. The approach to the educational process is more passive in this sense, you are never required to write papers: if you do not write, you do not learn about it.
Another reason that might lead inexperienced authors to plagiarize (and write bad papers) is their bad level of English: you do not know how to formulate and write down your thinking in English language, you are more prone to copying text passages instead of rephrasing. I sense that this is the most probable reason for plagiarizing in this case. In fact, you have also noted (to my understanding) that although some sentences are copied, they are referenced to the original source; ergo, the author must have problems rephrasing the original sentences (quoting exists, but it is used for very specific passages, not for banal sentences).
Bear in mind, I am not justifying this practice, I am trying to explain that these behaviors may well exist even in absence of any true malicious intention. Therefore, each case should be very well pondered, before to decide how to act.
I would do the following:
* warn the editor about plagiarizing passages in the paper
* suggest a rejection of the paper
* not recommend formal proceedings
* explain that this behavior does not seem (at least at first sight) to be led by malicious intentions but rather by inexperience/bad English
I guess though that recommendations on formal proceedings are rather a subjective matter. I am sure many people won't agree with my do-gooding approach.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: No, it should be rejected on spot as plagiarism should not be supported in any form and any level. If you found the a plagiarised passage is used in the beginning only then it is highly possible that the whole body of manuscript would be full of it and if you would go through and check the whole text then it will be a massive waste of time for you.
Moreover if the author did not even know that plagiarism is a sin in science then he should not be in academia on the first place.
Hence my recommendation is rejection on spot as well as to communicate this to the editor as well so that appropriate action could be taken against the authors.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Journals have their policies against plagiarism, but it's the editor's duty (or the editorial board's) to enforce them. The reviewer has the duty to read the *whole* paper and assess its quality.
You should surely report the plagiarism to both the editor and the authors, but first you should complete your duty as reviewer. The editor will then make a decision on the basis of yours and others reviews, and on the journal policy.
If you think that you would not be able to complete the review in an unbiased way because of the introduction, ask the editor to find another reviewer.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: See the Council of Science Editors white paper on publication ethics at:
<http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/white-paper-on-publication-ethics/>
and the Committee on Publication Ethics flow charts at
<http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts>
Many journals follow these recommendations or similar ones in handling ethical issues.
As a reviewer, your job is to report this to the editor. The editor should take it from there.
I'm actually somewhat surprised that this paper even made it to the review stage- most publishers now routinely check all submitted papers for obvious plagiarism using tools that check against large databases of published papers and other material. Normally, this would have caught the kind of plagiarism you've described.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_6: I can't believe that some of the answers and comments here are even discussing the possibility that a paper with plagiarized introduction may still be publishable *if only it was otherwise brilliant and original*. It's not like we assign 50% of the grade during review for brilliance, 30% for writing style, and 20% for not plagiarizing. It doesn't work that way: if you dope in the long-jump event, you're not getting a 30cm penalty for every jump -- you're kicked out of the event (and, in fact, banned for the next couple of years).
Plagiarism is not an offense that has to be balanced with the rest of the evidence. It leads to immediate rejection of the paper. In fact, I would suggest that the proper path is not even to just suggest to the editor to reject the paper (which is the same penalty as for the regular poor paper) but indeed to use an "exceptional exit path" (too much programming with throw-catch languages :-) in which the paper is rejected simply for plagiarism or unprofessional conduct.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: I think it is important here to differentiate between plagiarism and self-plagiarism. It is not an automatic rejection for self-plagiarism in the introduction. If an author has several papers coming out of one study, the introduction usually contains a description of that study that might contain a certain amount of self-plagiarism simply because the author has found a clear way to describe the context. This is generally okay even though it is technically a breach.
In the case you found, the plagiarism cannot possibly be self-plagiarism since the original is a news item etc. Such plagiarism is always a breach and, as others have said, should be reported to the editor and then let the editor decide whether you should complete the review.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/06/21
| 764
| 3,270
|
<issue_start>username_0: I'm a PhD student and I just had my half-time examination. My supervisor thinks my data is "crap", my report "wasn't good", and my presentation was "a disaster". Maybe he is right. However, he doesn't seem to know how to provide feedback constructively.
At other times, his feedback is either vague ("these slides could use a little more oomph") and only helpful half of the times ("the standard way to analyze this is to...").
I am not sure how to cope with with this type of feedback, mentioned in the first paragraph. Any ideas?<issue_comment>username_1: You may want to separate two types of issues here:
* the presentational issues of your work
* the scientific issues with your work
The first of these types spans presentation style, style of writing, and the structure of your written deliverables. The second one spans all scientific aspects of your work.
You should definitely be able to get some feedback on the scientific issues. If your advisor says that the data leaves room for improvement, (s)he should be able to give reasons for that. Also, if you ask how (s)he thinks how the data could be improved, you should get a usable answer, as this is part of the role of an advisor.
As far as the presentational issues of your work are concerned, you *may* be well-advised to ask ofther people for help (e.g., your fellow PhD students). Scientists often learned how to do that well by "learning by doing". This doesn't imply that they are also be able to explain how to do it in the right way. The quotation *"these slides could use a little more oomph"* suggest that this may be the case. But actually without knowing your advisor, it is impossible to tell.
It may also be that that your advisor is expecting you to engage more in discussions with him/her. For example, if (s)he said "the standard way to analyze this is to...", then (s)he may expect that you provide a rationale for the choice of your approach. This discussion can then lead to a better understanding of your work, both for your advisor and you.
Again, because of the limited knowledge of your situation, it is difficult to tell whether this is really the case in your situation.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Next to the very fine other answer, I would like to point out that different personalities have different guiding needs (students) and guiding styles (supervisors).
Whereas some students appreciate very detailed feedback, others prefer more generic remarks that leave more room for their own personal touch.
It seems to me that your preferred style and the one of your supervisor do not match. This does not mean that his style is not right for anybody, nor that you are necessarily demanding unreasonable guidance. You might be better of with another supervisor, without anybody being at fault.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: My solution was to ask another professor who was also present during the presentation for feedback. This gave me a balanced view on 1) my performance and 2) my supervisor's opinion.
Signing off, opinions are not highly valued in academia, especially not in the scientific community, which always strives for objectivity. This is what surprises me about this type of feedback. It lacks style.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/06/21
| 577
| 2,708
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am working on a paper about a web data extractor (an application, I developed based on a unique approach). In the introduction I had a short review on the history of such applications (from hard-code to graphical user interface) and said my application belong to this latest group. However, I didn't say much about the approach I adopted in the application. I left it to be discussed in the motivation section.
In motivation section I counted the features of existing approaches and described the features of the approach I followed.
Now I think maybe I should merge these two sections into one section, as I read the introduction I can't get what is the difference of my application with existing. Should such information be put in the introduction?
In general, what is the scope of 'Introduction' and 'Motivation' sections?<issue_comment>username_1: Introduction: WHAT
==================
The introduction of a scientific publication is where you explain the background of your research. What are you building on? What does the reader need to know to properly understand your presented work? What is your hypothesis (if this sort of thing is relevant to your field)?
Motivation: WHY
===============
The motivation section explains the importance behind your research. Why should the reader care? Why is your research the most groundbreaking piece of scientific knowledge since sliced bread (or CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing)?
Some people do combine the introduction and the motivation, it really depends on the research and the researcher. There is generally a fair amount of overlap between introducing related work, and then saying that your work goes above and beyond this previous research. Remember that these are just two of the big questions you need to answer with your paper. Others include:
### Methods: HOW
### Results: WHAT HAPPENED
### Discussion: SO?
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: They are whatever you want them to be. Neither of them are required by any journal that I know of. These kinds of sections are just conventional. You want to tell a story leading your readers from where you started to what you learned. That's basically it. The sections like Introduction, Motivation, Literature Review, Prior Work, Methodology, Approach, Results, Discussion, Future Work, and Conclusions are sign posts to help your readers know what you're about to tell them about. Readers can use them to skip around if they are skimming your article.
If you want to combine your Introduction and Motivation into one introductory section, that's up to you. Just tell a good, coherent story that leads your reader through your material.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/06/21
| 477
| 1,936
|
<issue_start>username_0: I need a picture from the Internet of micro bacterium which I want to use on my Thesis cover. Now just coping the picture and using it will be like stealing someone else's property. Hence I want to know if there is any proper and legal method by which I can get the picture. [This is the picture](http://www.bioquell.asia/interface/assets/images/content/Mycobacterium_tuberculosis_14313982.jpg) that I need, I wrote them a mail too but no reply yet.<issue_comment>username_1: You can ask the author of the image, or the owner of the exclusive licence if that is a different person, for permission to use the image. He may or may not grant it.
If he grants you permission for free then it is courtesy to write an acknowledgement to that effect somewhere in the thesis.
If the image is in the public domain then of course you are free to do with it as you will. (By "public domain", I mean, free of copyright restrictions by the explicit choice of the author or because the image is so old it can no longer be subject to copyright. I do not mean, simply the image was found in public.)
However many institutions have precise binding requirements for theses which would not allow you to place artwork on the cover (even if you already had licence to do so from the author). You should confirm with your institution whether this would be allowed.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You could just go to a commercial site like shutterstock.com, find an image you like and license it. It's not free, but in the UK the cheapest purchase is five images for £32. The license seems to allow your usage; if you intend to print 100,000 copies of your thesis you better check it carefully. And yes, they have a few images of a tuberculosis bacterium available.
That's the copyright side of things, obviously you need to check if there are any requirements from an academic point of view.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/06/21
| 2,873
| 12,395
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am responsible for the exercises for a graduate course (which happens to contain only international students). The students submit their solutions via email and all of them send a normal email: greeting me and telling that the solutions file is attached then (most of them) wishing me a good weekend as the due dates are Fridays.
One group sends me an empty email: just an attachment without any word!
I believe that this behaviour is odd, should I take an action or it is not my business?
**Edit:** Some have asked why I find this behavior "odd." If these students were submitting their assignments in person, I would find it strange if they just put the assignment on my desk without acknowledging me. Sending the e-mail attachment without any body text seems similarly strange to me.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't really think this is odd: they have been asked to send the assignment by email and they did. There isn't really a need to say anything further and they didn't. Maybe it would be slightly more courteous if they were to add a couple of words of greeting, but your job is not to be [Emily Post](http://www.biography.com/people/emily-post-9445093).
If the assignments were submitted on paper, and they left their assignment in your mailbox, would you insist that they include a note wishing you a nice day? No, that would be silly.
There isn't anything you need to do about this.
Upvotes: 9 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: When teaching large classes or multiple classes, it can be very helpful if the email, or even better the subject line, contains the key information about the class, section, group and assignment (and possibly TA). It should be the responsibility of the instructor to tell the students what is expected, if anything, in the syllabus and on the assignment itself. Those instructions should make penalties, if any, clear. In the absence of instructions, it is not worth saying anything.
I would be hesitant about imposing penalties mid term, but asking students to include additional information seems reasonable. Just make what you want clear.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: You may want to be more forthcoming as to your expectations - if you want text, ask for it. Have a sub section on the homework policy in the syllabus explain that each e-mail should contain the students full name, the class that they are e-mailing you about, the section, etc. such that you can search for the assignments when you grade them, and that any e-mails missing/lacking the information won't be graded and thus the students will receive a zero on the assignment.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Wishing you a good weekend, while perhaps courteous, is also superfluous. However I can see why there might be legitimate reasons for wanting something meaningful in the email body and subject, in addition to the attachment. It would help with sorting and filing emails for example, and empty emails are also more likely to be flagged by spam filters.
I would suggest you make it clear to the students that you require some basic information in the email subject, and body, including student number, course and assignment title etc. Greetings and salutations shouldn't be necessary though.
If an attachment was corrupted in transit for example, or was in an unusable document type, having the basic relevant data in the email body would help to resolve this.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Unnecessary courtesies (like greetings) and stating the obvious (like saying that attachment is attached) only waste YOUR time and increase YOUR workload. This might not be obvious at the first sight, but if they all did same that would save YOU considerable time in total. In some company environments this is standard practice, and adding meaningless greetings is what's frowned upon (between close coworkers, like you and your students).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: Our world is a "behavioral thing" We are all becoming the reasons of some behavior. We can't say for sure, which behavior or which events have led to such situation with your students- and it could be the result of previous matters, which even don't depend on you. Anyway, you've got it and you want to change it. Very simple solution: You can tell to your students that your email internet filters dont allow you to receive empty emails, as well as emails with rudy content. After that- you can start checking only those which are not empty and those which don't have rude content. Belive me- their behavior will change very quickly. Cheerz
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: It should be added that automated processing is not unusual now a days. If I am asked to send a specific file, with a specific format, and specific name, to a specific email, it is not far fetched for me to believe that there is a script on the other end which 'processes' the attachment, but ignores the body of the message (uploading it somewhere or sorting it into a folder to view later). Even something as simple as having email rules setup could cause the body to go ignored until a human has to read/grade them. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for students to forgo formal letter formats in a world where a lot of things are automated anyways.
Furthermore, even if there was no automation, some teachers may be trained to see emails with attachments as 'the homework' and ignore it, until they actually grade it. As a result if students included comments or questions, they would go largely unanswered/ignored, and they subsequently would be trained to make it clear when they have questions/comments, and not include those in the 'homework attachment' email, as those dont get adequate responses.
That said, in this case its likely most students probably think the file name is adequate enough to indicate the contents. I.e. if the title says "Homework\_Assignment\_4 -- Michael\_Jones" no other explanation is necessary.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Definitely this group has more common sense and familiarity with the use of email than most of your students.
First of all, if you have a preference for a given format, information included in subject line or in the text, you should say so. Students are coming from different places, they cannot just figure out of your expectations or preferences.
Second, emails are not letters. The common way of professional emails is similar how the said group used it: brief, contains only necessary information. Most text on professional writing clearly discourage all kind of "Dear XY", "Best regards" and similar. Wishing you good weekend of rehearsing that the attachment is an attachment, and indeed it is what you think is rather unnecessary.
Off course you can have a personal taste different, and you can ask your students to accommodate, but don't expect that your rules are universal or known automatically by everyone.
To answer comments:
Indeed, empty mails are a little extreme. However the closes format to an assignment submission is a memo, and memos does not contain salutation, greetings, or any superfluous "best regards", "is your dog happy?" etc or signature. In other words, memos does not contain anything that OP is explicitly missing.
If one has other preferences, she/he is free to write a guideline or communicate that. For example a page like this: <http://faculty.mccombs.utexas.edu/kristie.loescher/assignments/memotips.htm>
Comment along the line with Nate's answer, and using his example:
Just for the sake, imagine a similar homework assignment on paper. Do you expect a printed letter like "If it would be a homework assignment, no one would expect an extended intro with "Dear Sir, How was your weekend? I hope you are in good health and enjoy the chirping birds of the Spring. Let me introduce you my solution for the first problem you kingly asked us to solve:" with a big "Should there be any question feel free to contact me. Sincerely, (huge, hand written signature)" at the end? Would you frown upon students who are listing only the answers, no greetings, no salutation as unprofessional and rude behavior because they do not follow standard letter formats (or what you think standard)?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: I disagree with the other answers. "Hello" and "thank you" are banned from SE sites for reasons of efficiency, but it is far from the norm on Internet. Look at newcomers' first questions for example.
If the assignment had to be submitted in my office, I would be upset if the students were opening the door, dropping the paper on my desk and leaving without a word.
Why emails should be different? Email between students and professors is a formal way of communication (how many questions about ethics and protocol for emails to professors do we have on this site?) and (non superfluous) politeness never hurt.
As for what to answer to students, it is up to you:
1. You could ignore it
2. You could tell them you *personally* found it was a lack of politeness and respect to you.
3. You could tell them that, although they didn't mean to be impolite and just tried to save time, it may hurt them in later communications. Not spending two minutes to be polite and clearly identify their work (the name of their file may not be as clear as they think - I regularly receive assignments named "Math Homework" by "<EMAIL>") may be interpreted as a lack of involvement in the project/class.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_10: If there is some information you need in the email to properly identify it or otherwise to help you sort through your emails, you should tell the students what this is. Like it would be reasonable to say that the subject line or the body of the email should specify the title of the class, the name of the student, and an identification of the assignment, perhaps something like "Chapter 4 questions". I can certainly see saying that you want this in some specified, standard format, so that you can quickly sort through emails and figure out what's what.
But to complain that they didn't wish you a happy weekend ... I suppose it's nice if teacher and students are on friendly terms and exchange such greetings, but if they don't, so what? Are your feelings deeply hurt because a student didn't say "have a nice weekend, Mr M" as he walked out the door? If so, I think you really just need to get over it.
It would be grossly unfair to penalize students for failing to live up to an expectation that you never stated.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_11: There's an old system administrators' maxim, "**Be conservative in what you generate and liberal in what you accept.**"
It might be thoughtful to add a few polite notes, but just sending the requested homework should be tolerated, too.
I'm working on a technical book now, and my publisher has established certain expectations regarding email, including that email subjects will be rather formulaic (with an identifying string for my specific title, a chapter number, a revision number if appropriate, and "WIP" if I have to submit a work in progress). And both they and I try to add a few words of politeness, but this is not a formal expectation.
I think it's nice that students wish you a happy weekend, but if your biggest problem with your class is that one student is emailing you assignments without niceties, you're doing well.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_12: The behavior is absolutely OK. The attachment is what it matters, especially if the student has already been introduced to you. If you cannot identify the student, simply ask them to provide their "Student ID" together with their homework. If I would be the student, and somebody would ask me to properly formulate the email, it would look like this:
Dear Mr. MM, highly esteemed Grader,
Today, year 2018 B.C., month of January, day 11, I'm attaching you the homework. It is a ZIP file. The content of the zip, consists of one single file (not to be confused with the zip file itself) called homework.java. Open this file in your favorite editor. This file, although stored as UTF-8, has been carefully typed so that it only contains Latin letters and ASCII symbols. The file has been also scanned for viruses.
Please review my homework at your earliest convenience. Any feedback is welcome.
Yours truly,
Me, The Student
Upvotes: -1
|
2015/06/21
| 2,784
| 11,905
|
<issue_start>username_0: In the research I'm doing for my master thesis I use the [ACM Computing Classification System](https://www.acm.org/about/class/2012) (2012 edition).
I mean I literally use the data they provide as an RDF graph. How should I cite this classification system? Ideally I'm looking for a bibtex snippet.<issue_comment>username_1: I don't really think this is odd: they have been asked to send the assignment by email and they did. There isn't really a need to say anything further and they didn't. Maybe it would be slightly more courteous if they were to add a couple of words of greeting, but your job is not to be [Emily Post](http://www.biography.com/people/emily-post-9445093).
If the assignments were submitted on paper, and they left their assignment in your mailbox, would you insist that they include a note wishing you a nice day? No, that would be silly.
There isn't anything you need to do about this.
Upvotes: 9 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: When teaching large classes or multiple classes, it can be very helpful if the email, or even better the subject line, contains the key information about the class, section, group and assignment (and possibly TA). It should be the responsibility of the instructor to tell the students what is expected, if anything, in the syllabus and on the assignment itself. Those instructions should make penalties, if any, clear. In the absence of instructions, it is not worth saying anything.
I would be hesitant about imposing penalties mid term, but asking students to include additional information seems reasonable. Just make what you want clear.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: You may want to be more forthcoming as to your expectations - if you want text, ask for it. Have a sub section on the homework policy in the syllabus explain that each e-mail should contain the students full name, the class that they are e-mailing you about, the section, etc. such that you can search for the assignments when you grade them, and that any e-mails missing/lacking the information won't be graded and thus the students will receive a zero on the assignment.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Wishing you a good weekend, while perhaps courteous, is also superfluous. However I can see why there might be legitimate reasons for wanting something meaningful in the email body and subject, in addition to the attachment. It would help with sorting and filing emails for example, and empty emails are also more likely to be flagged by spam filters.
I would suggest you make it clear to the students that you require some basic information in the email subject, and body, including student number, course and assignment title etc. Greetings and salutations shouldn't be necessary though.
If an attachment was corrupted in transit for example, or was in an unusable document type, having the basic relevant data in the email body would help to resolve this.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Unnecessary courtesies (like greetings) and stating the obvious (like saying that attachment is attached) only waste YOUR time and increase YOUR workload. This might not be obvious at the first sight, but if they all did same that would save YOU considerable time in total. In some company environments this is standard practice, and adding meaningless greetings is what's frowned upon (between close coworkers, like you and your students).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: Our world is a "behavioral thing" We are all becoming the reasons of some behavior. We can't say for sure, which behavior or which events have led to such situation with your students- and it could be the result of previous matters, which even don't depend on you. Anyway, you've got it and you want to change it. Very simple solution: You can tell to your students that your email internet filters dont allow you to receive empty emails, as well as emails with rudy content. After that- you can start checking only those which are not empty and those which don't have rude content. Belive me- their behavior will change very quickly. Cheerz
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: It should be added that automated processing is not unusual now a days. If I am asked to send a specific file, with a specific format, and specific name, to a specific email, it is not far fetched for me to believe that there is a script on the other end which 'processes' the attachment, but ignores the body of the message (uploading it somewhere or sorting it into a folder to view later). Even something as simple as having email rules setup could cause the body to go ignored until a human has to read/grade them. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for students to forgo formal letter formats in a world where a lot of things are automated anyways.
Furthermore, even if there was no automation, some teachers may be trained to see emails with attachments as 'the homework' and ignore it, until they actually grade it. As a result if students included comments or questions, they would go largely unanswered/ignored, and they subsequently would be trained to make it clear when they have questions/comments, and not include those in the 'homework attachment' email, as those dont get adequate responses.
That said, in this case its likely most students probably think the file name is adequate enough to indicate the contents. I.e. if the title says "Homework\_Assignment\_4 -- Michael\_Jones" no other explanation is necessary.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Definitely this group has more common sense and familiarity with the use of email than most of your students.
First of all, if you have a preference for a given format, information included in subject line or in the text, you should say so. Students are coming from different places, they cannot just figure out of your expectations or preferences.
Second, emails are not letters. The common way of professional emails is similar how the said group used it: brief, contains only necessary information. Most text on professional writing clearly discourage all kind of "Dear XY", "Best regards" and similar. Wishing you good weekend of rehearsing that the attachment is an attachment, and indeed it is what you think is rather unnecessary.
Off course you can have a personal taste different, and you can ask your students to accommodate, but don't expect that your rules are universal or known automatically by everyone.
To answer comments:
Indeed, empty mails are a little extreme. However the closes format to an assignment submission is a memo, and memos does not contain salutation, greetings, or any superfluous "best regards", "is your dog happy?" etc or signature. In other words, memos does not contain anything that OP is explicitly missing.
If one has other preferences, she/he is free to write a guideline or communicate that. For example a page like this: <http://faculty.mccombs.utexas.edu/kristie.loescher/assignments/memotips.htm>
Comment along the line with Nate's answer, and using his example:
Just for the sake, imagine a similar homework assignment on paper. Do you expect a printed letter like "If it would be a homework assignment, no one would expect an extended intro with "Dear Sir, How was your weekend? I hope you are in good health and enjoy the chirping birds of the Spring. Let me introduce you my solution for the first problem you kingly asked us to solve:" with a big "Should there be any question feel free to contact me. Sincerely, (huge, hand written signature)" at the end? Would you frown upon students who are listing only the answers, no greetings, no salutation as unprofessional and rude behavior because they do not follow standard letter formats (or what you think standard)?
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_9: I disagree with the other answers. "Hello" and "thank you" are banned from SE sites for reasons of efficiency, but it is far from the norm on Internet. Look at newcomers' first questions for example.
If the assignment had to be submitted in my office, I would be upset if the students were opening the door, dropping the paper on my desk and leaving without a word.
Why emails should be different? Email between students and professors is a formal way of communication (how many questions about ethics and protocol for emails to professors do we have on this site?) and (non superfluous) politeness never hurt.
As for what to answer to students, it is up to you:
1. You could ignore it
2. You could tell them you *personally* found it was a lack of politeness and respect to you.
3. You could tell them that, although they didn't mean to be impolite and just tried to save time, it may hurt them in later communications. Not spending two minutes to be polite and clearly identify their work (the name of their file may not be as clear as they think - I regularly receive assignments named "Math Homework" by "<EMAIL>") may be interpreted as a lack of involvement in the project/class.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_10: If there is some information you need in the email to properly identify it or otherwise to help you sort through your emails, you should tell the students what this is. Like it would be reasonable to say that the subject line or the body of the email should specify the title of the class, the name of the student, and an identification of the assignment, perhaps something like "Chapter 4 questions". I can certainly see saying that you want this in some specified, standard format, so that you can quickly sort through emails and figure out what's what.
But to complain that they didn't wish you a happy weekend ... I suppose it's nice if teacher and students are on friendly terms and exchange such greetings, but if they don't, so what? Are your feelings deeply hurt because a student didn't say "have a nice weekend, Mr M" as he walked out the door? If so, I think you really just need to get over it.
It would be grossly unfair to penalize students for failing to live up to an expectation that you never stated.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_11: There's an old system administrators' maxim, "**Be conservative in what you generate and liberal in what you accept.**"
It might be thoughtful to add a few polite notes, but just sending the requested homework should be tolerated, too.
I'm working on a technical book now, and my publisher has established certain expectations regarding email, including that email subjects will be rather formulaic (with an identifying string for my specific title, a chapter number, a revision number if appropriate, and "WIP" if I have to submit a work in progress). And both they and I try to add a few words of politeness, but this is not a formal expectation.
I think it's nice that students wish you a happy weekend, but if your biggest problem with your class is that one student is emailing you assignments without niceties, you're doing well.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_12: The behavior is absolutely OK. The attachment is what it matters, especially if the student has already been introduced to you. If you cannot identify the student, simply ask them to provide their "Student ID" together with their homework. If I would be the student, and somebody would ask me to properly formulate the email, it would look like this:
Dear Mr. MM, highly esteemed Grader,
Today, year 2018 B.C., month of January, day 11, I'm attaching you the homework. It is a ZIP file. The content of the zip, consists of one single file (not to be confused with the zip file itself) called homework.java. Open this file in your favorite editor. This file, although stored as UTF-8, has been carefully typed so that it only contains Latin letters and ASCII symbols. The file has been also scanned for viruses.
Please review my homework at your earliest convenience. Any feedback is welcome.
Yours truly,
Me, The Student
Upvotes: -1
|
2015/06/21
| 1,908
| 7,412
|
<issue_start>username_0: With respect to some cultures, in particular Asian ones, one often hears statements such as the following:
>
> In this country, copying is regarded as flattery and thus people do not know the evils of plagiarism.
>
>
>
or (taken from [here](http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/library-instruction/plagiarism/cultural-perspectives)):
>
> In some traditional cultures in Asia and the Middle East, for example, college students are expected to quote or paraphrase the best known political or religious authorities without attribution because readers, especially professors, are expected to know what texts are being circulated. Indeed, it might be a serious insult to the teacher if the student writer formally cites the text being borrowed.
>
>
>
Such statements may nourish prejudices or lead to it being considered an extenuating circumstance that a plagiarist comes from a such a country (see, e.g., [this answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/47554/7734) or [this case](http://www.mareonline.nl/archive/2013/03/20/is-there-such-a-thing-as-asian-plagiarism)).
I wonder whether this phenomenon really has the extents that would justify the latter, more specifically: **Is it conceivable that somebody makes it to the point where they author a paper or a PhD thesis without *knowing* that they must not plagiarise?** Or: Can authors really commit plagiarism out of inexperience on this level?
Note:
* I am primarily interested in anything going beyond personal experience (there are individual statements in [this article](http://www.mareonline.nl/archive/2013/03/20/is-there-such-a-thing-as-asian-plagiarism)). A scientific study would be ideal, but is probably not the only possible way to fulfill this criterion.
* This is not directly about how the respective academic cultures nourish plagiarism and what aspect of the culture is behind this.
As all the answers so far have ignored this: **I am not asking whether cultures differ in their attitude towards plagiarism – they clearly do. I am asking whether these differences reach a certain level.**<issue_comment>username_1: I am not here to create or perpetuate stereotypes. I just want to make an attempt to explain it.
Yes, in my personal experience, in Asian countries, scholars fail to understand the basic concept of plagiarism. Let me give a background of myself, I finished my undergraduate in India and currently a graduate student in USA.
In almost every American University, there are clear rules imposed on assignments and laboratories. There are certain honor codes and honor committees which oversee the description and prevention of plagiarism. Plagiarism check software are utilized too.
However, in India, howsoever unbelievable it is, there is no concept of weekly assignments in **most** (just a qualifier) of the Indian universities. At most, students are required to complete one (or two) assignment in a semester. The assignments also happens to be most boring ones. For example, "write report on recent trends in "Biomedical Instrumentation"". Unfortunately, even in those assignments, the grading patterns are **usually** (again, just a qualifier) binary, i.e. you get full credit if you submit the assignment and zero credits if you fail to do so. Thus, there is no mechanism to evaluate the thought process, the research skills and plagiarism related issues.
However, the concern is, when even most of the professors fail to adhere to plagiarism rules. The reason being the professor evaluation schemes utilized in **most** (you know, it is a qualifier) of the universities. You are supposed to come up with these many conference papers and these many journal papers for doing fairly well in yearly evaluation. No emphasis on the quality of publications is established. To take advantages of such a sad situation, several conferences pop up from nowhere giving professors opportunity to meet the evaluation requirements. Some of these conferences are pathetic. How pathetic? You can submit a single page paper, for starter; You can submit paper as late as just a week before the conference. And what else is incredible, the conferences bear tags like "IEEE International Conference on \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ and \_\_\_\_\_\_". Really? Yes, I know it's sad, but it's true.
These are what I believe the main reasons of why Indian scholars are so much at risk of plagiarism.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Some people have low standards. No culture forces you to copy-and-paste.
And although the stereotype is of a Chinese student copying full pages into his essay, the most horrifying cases of concrete plagiarism that I known are from Germany, where several high-profile cases of literally copy-and-paste (not only paraphrasing a source) were found in doctoral theses works.
Most of these German academics defended their actions when they were caught. I don't know of any single case of someone admitting his wrong-doing. Somehow a scientific work for them was a patch work of other's works. The fact that they didn't cite the original work were for them a minor issue.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Your question sounds very western-centric. As if plagiarism was an obvious bad thing worldwide. No it isn't.
Is it obvious for you that you mustn't hand people anything with only one hand? It's known to be very rude, one need to always hand things with both hands. I learned this was important for Japanese people. I didn't know it. Other cultures don't know US or western Europe attitude as well.
For example in Poland one is not frowned upon when they plagiarize [or cheat or something], but only when they get caught [you can't even cheat? What kind of a student you are?]. We have special words for different kinds of cheating and you don't even have a word for cheating at school [to differ it from cheating on your spouse or something]. So yes, cultural thing.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: I don't know of systematic published studies of the problem, but I do know from having had students write essays on the topic that even American students have significant problems in correctly identify instances of plagiarism. So while they all understand that you should not plagiarize, they often do not understand what that entails. They best understand the requirement to set off verbatim copying in quotes and to pair the quote with a reference, and worst understand the requirement to not represent as your own something that you did not create. My opinion is that universities have made the situation worse by plagiarizing statements and policies about plagiarism (implying that no attribution is necessary in advancing an idea about what constitutes plagiarism, or how to avoid plagiarism). For example, dozens of people have committed plagiarism in talking about plagiarism, as this [google search](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22All%20knowledge%20is%20built%20from%20previous%20knowledge.%20As%20we%20read%2C%20study%2C%20perform%20experiments%2C%20and%20gather%20perspectives%2C%20we%20are%20drawing%20on%20other%20people%E2%80%99s%20ideas.%20%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8) reveals. I have actually encountered foreign students who did not understand the word "plagiarism", everybody at the PhD level in the west almost certainly knows the word and knows that it is bad, but there is still a problem with not knowing what it actually is.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I've looked at the resumes of the type of candidates that get into computer science PhD programs at the top few universities (e.g. Stanford, MIT etc.) and a lot of them seem to have multiple publications (2-4) done during their undergraduate years. Is this representative of the entire pool? Or is this just a self-selected group that puts their resumes online.
I currently have one first-author workshop paper (5 pages), and I wonder how this might affect my chances at entry into these top universities.<issue_comment>username_1: You don't need any publications to get into a good Ph.D. program. Publications are often slow, and it's an unexpected bonus for an undergraduate to have publications, not a necessity.
What *is* a necessity is to have strong reference letters attesting to your potential for research, and one of the best ways to get those is to get involved in research. Being involved in research, in turn, will also tend to lead to publications. Thus, you see the correlation. Research and research-related activities that help a person into graduate school also tend to help cause that person to end up with publications.
In short: publications aren't the key, they are simply dependent on the same root cause.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Concur with username_1: no publications are required. I entered the Chemical Engineering PhD program at MIT without a single citation to my name, albeit with a semester of undergraduate research experience. That said, having publication(s) on one's CV almost certainly won't *hurt* one's prospects.
One of the nominal purposes of graduate school *is to teach people how to do research*; and, also, how to then publish it. An educational system where applicants were expected to possess the full skill set taught therein would be rather ... poorly conceived.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: It really depends on a lot of factors, such as field and nation where the PhD program takes place. In the US publications are an added bonus but not fundamental. In Europe it is very helpful to have a publication, especially when you apply to a fellowship. In Australia/New Zealand PhD position are often tied to a scholarship application, and it is very unlikely that you will get such scholarship without at least one publication, so you might get admission to the phd program but without any funding.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently reviewing a paper and feel suspicious about their numerical results. I feel their results have been slightly modified to exhibit their superiority compare to other comparative methods.
I cannot give an exact mathematical reason why I think their numerical results have been manipulated, but it is so odd that in all 15 scenarios they have been better. Actually, I am pretty sure that their method is better than his benchmarks but not always. Maybe they modified some scenarios.
As I don't have a mathematical reason why I think some of their numbers are altered, should I ask for their computer code and run them myself?<issue_comment>username_1: You say that you don't have a mathematical reason to be suspicious. But have *some* reason. You should formulate this as a reason in your report as well as you can.
Moreover, I think that it is totally reasonable to ask for code and data to reproduce the results. Probably the journal has some policy about reproducible research and you could refer to that.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: If there are any "standard" or widely-used benchmark problems for this application, it would be reasonable to suggest they are used (and give a reference to the problem definitions, and other papers reporting the results, in your comments). Selective benchmarking is hardly new as a sales and marketing technique, though one might hope that an academic paper would present a balanced view.
Even if you can afford the time and effort to get the code and reproduce the results, you might end up with a "my test problems are harder than your test problems" debate, which may be irrelevant unless the paper claims its method is *always* better - and that would be a brave claim to make in any non-trivial situation. A method that is better "only" in some circumstances may well be worth publishing.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Complementing the other answers, either in addition to, or apart from, asking for the codes and running them yourself, I don't think it is a bad idea to explicitly ask the authors, something like this:
>
> The standard algorithms for executing (*bla bla bla*), e.g. as followed in the works of Refs. [1-3] (*feed these in*), are suggestive of a standard accuracy in typical algorithms. The current work appears to have bettered the same, which is a strong point in favor of publication. However, the authors should include a comment in the manuscript, mentioning what changes have they implemented to the typical algorithms so highly prevalent, which leads to this enhanced accuracy.
>
>
>
*My jargon may have to be twisted a bit here, but I think I convey the point.*
This being a query in the referee report, the authors shall be obligated to feed in the details, and if there is some manipulation involved, it may end up being exposed.
Hope that helps :)
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: I think that it's mandatory for science to have open source code and opendata. It's not science otherwise. Using results of a computation without seein the code it's like trusting a theorem without asking for the proof. So absolutely ask the code.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: You state that you don't have a mathematical reason to believe their numbers are altered, but in most cases, that shouldn't stop you from considering an application of
[Benford's Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Benford%27s_law "Benford's Law") to evaluate the digits of the results (bear in mind there are a few cases where it doesn't fit).
Edit: There is a quick free checker at <http://benford.jplusplus.org/> just type in your numbers
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: Whole point of publication is to provide information for reproducing the research work. Therefore the report needs to be written to make the work clear enough to justify the improvements. (I wish it was to exactly share it with public)
You could refer to that and ask for more information to help your review process done faster, it can be a way to make the code or generate/collect data. Anything that is needed to reproducing it. obviously sharing it is much easier, but then it should be attached to the paper or hosted publicly for readers as well. reviewer and readers should be on a same ground.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: There is always a bibliography in a research article, for each quoted paper there is plenty of information (title, authors, year, journal, etc..) and this is very convenient for the reader.
But in the article itself, those articles are always named using the author(s) name(s) rather than their title. An example with this randomly chosen paper :
This is very common, at least in computer science and math. I think it's not a good practice because it's **what has been found** which is important and **not who has found**. It would be better use articles titles, if someone needs the authors names he can look at the bibliography.
I assume that titles are well chosen and give a good first idea of the contents, but anyway it can not be more meaningless than authors names.
Someone can argues that name is often shorter than title. I think it's not a good point because sometimes there are three or four names and because we could just use the bibliography reference number in order to be as short as possible, but it's not the aim of an article.
The same occurs with theorems and algorithms names. It's quite difficult to memorize what Kosaraju algorithm is, it would be much more easier to memorize what double traversal algorithm is.
Furthermore, science is timeless and this intrusion of a temporal thing is very unaesthetic.
On the other hand, don't be mentioned by other scientists could be less stimulating for authors. In addition, it could be difficult to find meaningful and short title for each article.
So, is using author name in order to refer to an other research article a good practice ? The idea is to complete my pros and cons lists and then possibly to conclude.<issue_comment>username_1: Which in-text citation handles are used depends on the style manual of the journal in which the article is published. Some use footnotes, some are numerical, and many are variants of the author-year style, for example [APA](http://www.apastyle.org/learn/quick-guide-on-references.aspx#In-Text) and [MLA](https://www.library.cornell.edu/research/citation/mla). I have never seen a citation style that uses full titles as in-text citation handles, certainly because they are much too long to be read conveniently. Some styles use keywords from the title, though.
Multiple author names are usually abbreviated "et al." and reference numbers convey even less information than the author name (which often already is a good short-hand if you are familiar with the field).
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: To expand upon username_1s answer there is (I think) a rationale behind the use of abbreviations and/or numerical references. The number of pages in a journal generally falls into a certain range and even with abbreviations some authors struggle to convey all the important information.
Then there is the point of readability. A general title will - most probably - be longer than the (leading) author's name which will just clutter the page. Whilst an informative title of a paper should be the norm not everybody thinks this way. Including the title of the reference into the body of the article will certainly make it harder to read or skim over to asses the importance/correctness of the paper because one will have to filter more text.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: >
> I think it's not a good practice because it's what has been found which is important and not who has found.
>
>
>
That is not the perspective that many mathematicians take. If you read the American Mathematical Society [Ethical Guidelines](http://www.ams.org/about-us/governance/policy-statements/sec-ethics), they state:
>
> The correct attribution of mathematical results is essential, both because it encourages creativity, by benefiting the creator whose career may depend on the recognition of the work and because it informs the community of when, where, and sometimes how original ideas entered into the chain of mathematical thought.
>
>
>
As you can see, there is a strong focus there on the ''who'' and ''when'' of a result. The focus on remembering who proved each result is a deeply ingrained aspect of mathematical culture.
---
On a separate note, the question states
>
> It's quite difficult to memorize what Kosaraju algorithm is, it would be much more easier to memorize what double traversal algorithm is.
>
>
>
That may be true, but I think it is easier to remember what Djikstra's algorithm is than to remember what the "spanning tree algorithm" is, because there are many spanning tree algorithms. The same would hold for the "prime factorization algorithm" -- which one is that?
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> I think it's not a good practice because it's what has been found which is important and not who has found.
>
>
>
Basically, I agree with this assessment. This does *not* mean that it does not matter who discovered or developed something, but it does indeed seem unreasonable to *memorize* metadata such as author name or publication year.
Like many conventions and customs, what is done in publications nowadays is inherited from earlier times and other disciplines. Some of these conventions might indeed not be suitable forever or for all disciplines, but it takes a lot of time to change commonly applied customs.
Two concrete examples, as you mention the field CS:
* Many subfields of CS order authors by degree of concrete contribution. In many cases, the first authors are young researchers who conducted implementation and studies of few or a single project themselves (as opposed to more seasoned researchers, who are rather involved with several projects on a higher level of abstraction, thus rather bringing them towards the end of the aithors list). With large numbers of doctorates awarded each year (providing an impression of the numbers of young and still fairly unknown researchers around), it is questionable whether pointing to a publication in the form "*first author* et al." is likely to be more helpful than a totally nondescript numerical reference.
* Presumeably, CS is slightly special compared to many other fields in that it lends itself to creating concepts that start a life of their own. For instance, concepts presented in papers frequently get fancy names, and reference implementations may be directly built upon by people who have never met or communicated with the original authors. In quite some cases, these concept names may become much more recognizeable than any of the many people who worked on the concept.
Thus, while there are various ways to meaningfully refer to such papers without relying on the author names and by rather relying on the content of the paper, it is difficult to *standardize* them:
* Not every concept gets a name. Some authors prefer not to name their concepts.
* Likewise, not every paper title is descriptive. Some titles explain what the paper does, some explain what problem is tackled, some just grab the readers' attention.
The author name, on the other hand, is always around for articles, which is why many authors might rely on using thosr rather than deciding on a by-case basis what is the most recognizeable pointer for a given work.
Upvotes: 1 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_5: >
> Furthermore, science is timeless and this intrusion of a temporal thing is very unaesthetic.
>
>
>
Name and year citations give a lot of information to a reader: knowing when and by whom something was proven often tells you a great deal about what techniques were likely used to prove it and the broader context the result fits in. Knowing the title tells you basically nothing, other than how to look up the paper (and you can look in the references for that).
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: In general, mathematics papers have [no first author](http://www.ams.org/profession/leaders/culture/CultureStatement04.pdf); instead, authors are listed alphabetically. Therefore, citing “Smith et al.” is at best misleading (it implies that Smith did all the work) and at worst insulting (Zelmanov never does any work!). Basically, all the authors are considered equal but citing “Smith et al.” messes this balance up.
The “et al.” style is made slightly more complex because it means that the “big shot” may come further down the list. For example, Zelmanov is the big name but the paper is Smith, Smythe and Zelmanov, cited as Smith et al. So you don’t realise that it’s a Zelmanov paper.
My question is:
>
> What should be done if a journal changes your citation of *Smith, Smythe and Zelmanov [10]* to *Smith et al. [10]*, especially when Zelmanov is the big name?
>
>
>
Is the answer simply to ask them to change it back to Smith, Smythe and Zelmanov? I think that changing the citation to “Zelmanov et al.” undermines the equality ethos even more — it is a slap in the face to Smith and Smythe, and anyway how do I not know that Smith won’t win a Fields medal himself one day?
I should say that before today I have never seen this in a maths paper.
---
Added 2018: This was resolved nicely. I send the copyediting team an email asking if every instance of "et al." could be changed back "especially on line 244 because "et al." here is just a single person!", and if not can I edit the certain bits to remove the names. So they removed each et al. and it appeared online a week later. No hassle (but lots of worry!).<issue_comment>username_1: While mathematics is not my area of specialization, I think that in your question you are making a general and IMHO *wrong assumption* about the importance of the name, appearing in the "et al." construction. Essentially, this construction is used only for the purposes of convenience (brevity for readability) and **not** for implying the *amount* or *importance* of work, performed by any of authors.
When people see the "et al." citation, I am pretty sure that decent scientists immediately refer to the *full citation* in a reference list in order to obtain **full** information on **all** authors of a paper in question. Therefore, I believe that the "problem" that you have described in your question is really an *artificial* one, which exists only in your imagination (due to the incorrect assumption, mentioned above).
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Regarding your specific question, the answer is **leave it be** and don't argue.
1. Most journals follow some house style guide that has been set in stone for who knows how long. This is not a useful fight to have since you will invariably lose.
2. Many style guides offer something similar to what [the APA guide says](http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/02/et-al-when-and-how.html), which is that for papers of N or fewer authors (for APA, N = 5), at the *first* instance of mentioning the paper the full author listing must be included; in the subsequent ones *et al.* is used. In pure mathematics papers with more than 4 or 5 authors are quite rare (enough that [people come up with team names](http://wiki.math.toronto.edu/DispersiveWiki/index.php/I-team) when that happens). So credit usually is given properly (at least at the beginning of the paper).
*N.B.* since the OP [mentioned Springer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47618/using-et-al-in-maths-papers/47623#comment109724_47618), I should note that the Springer MathPhys style which applies to most (all?) mathematics journals in the Springer catalog does *not* follow the same schema as the APA style guide. Experience suggests (since I cannot find it written down somewhere) that for 1 and 2 authors they always show all names, and for 3 and more authors they always abbreviate. My experience also shows however that if you write "the Smith-Smythe-Zeldanov construction [13]" they will not call you on it.
3. Whether Zelmanov is a big name should have absolutely nothing to do with it; for all you know a lot of the technical insights could have come from Smythe.
4. If you must show all three names, rewrite the sentence/paragraph so that the appearance of all three names is logical.
>
> In 1989 Smythe [12] showed that all gadgets are widgets. This result was later generalized in his 1993 paper [11], written together with Smith and Zeldanov, which showed that in fact all weak-gadgets (hereon "wadgets") are also widgets.
>
>
>
Of course this formulation puts the emphasis on Smythe, but if "credit" is so important to you you should have a good idea how to phrase things correctly.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Disagreeing with the other answers here, I advocate that you **argue with the publishers** and ask them to revert the citation style to what you originally wrote. I have personally succeeded in doing so in exactly the situation you describe.
Of course you should be polite, and only "argue" if the publishers refuse to accommodate an initial non-argumentative request. But do remember that the role of publishers is to take our golden eggs without payment and then sell them back to us at extortionate rates. As such, I think it is perfectly appropriate to put your preferences above those of the publishers. The publishers might refuse in the end, in which case you should just relent, but I don't think you lose anything by pushing an argument to such a refusal.
Typically, I have found journal copyediting staff to be accommodating and helpful when I have requested that they undo changes like this.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_4: The term "et alii" (abbreviated "et al.") means "and coworkers" or "and collaborators". It implies no preference who did what. So go with the style as suggested -- it does not imply that you elevate one of the authors over the others, it just abbreviates the list of names.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: One purpose of the way to shorten author lists is to allow finding the cited work when it is listed in a library catalog, which happens (primarily/only) by first author. Hence knowing the first author is essential in order to find the text - no matter how important whose contribution to the work in question is (a subjective question anyway). Granted, this kind of restriction comes from the time of cardboard catalogs, but the implied citing tradition still stands ...
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_6: How the paper is cited will have nothing to do with the author's impact factor, or any citation tracking number in existence -- only the fact that the paper was cited at all has meaning. Tenure committees will not care whether you said et al. or listed the authors' names. Authors will not care, because it really makes no difference.
It is a decision made by the style sheet of the journal you're publishing in. If you don't care for the style, submit only to journals that reference by superscripted numbers in the text.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: While formally the author order is unimportant, our psychology does not obey such formal rules. In the situation described, after the passage of time we are likely to remember either "paper by Smith et al." or "paper by Zelmanov and someone else".
Existence of publisher's style is mostly irrelevant (at least in my part of mathematics). Practically all the new papers are on arXiv, and so few read the journal version. So, authors' decisions matter.
In my opinion, the real choice is between the following options:
* Inclusive, "<NAME> [25] showed"
* Simple, "in [25] it is shown".
* Verbose, "<NAME> [25], building on the previous work of Smythe [26], showed".
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_8: Sorry to contradict, but I have published Maths papers with a true, ordered (by contribution) authors list. This may not always be the case, but this counterexample proves that the assumption that the authors list is always ordered by name only is wrong.
As for the `et al.` - this is just an abbrevation, not for selecting important authors. As a general rule for citing (used in many journals), if there are more than 2 authors, you do not list all, just the first and then write `et al.` *in italics*. Sometimes you would use this short citation style in the text, and list the complete author list in the references, like
```
This has been proven by Smith et al. back in 1975 [8].
[8] <NAME>, <NAME>, <NAME> and <NAME>, Why Squirrels cannot Fly, Nature 4(5), September 1975.
```
As someone who cites, please respect the order given (for whatever reason), do not change it! This would just confuse people.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: I make extensive notes on the material I encounter all over the Internet (video courses, textbooks, blogs etc). I want to make my hard earned notes available free over the Internet. But if I do that, then it won't be fair as everybody will want to read the notes and won't buy textbooks.
Is it copyright violation if I share my notes over my blog?<issue_comment>username_1: If your notes are entirely your own writing, you're probably fine. I.e. if you summarize, paraphrase, and the like, then you shouldn't have much to worry about. The fact that your notes might substitute for book itself is just the facts of life in the marketplace of intellectual ideas.
All that being said, if you copy literally from the book, you might find yourself having to deal with legal threats, DMCA takedown requests, or an actual lawsuit. None of us can (or should) tell you how that might go. You should consult an attorney before you post anything if you intend to copy liberally from the original sources. You may have a number of defenses if legal process should commence, but that doesn't help you save on attorney's fees and other costs. So be careful that all your words are your own.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Needless to say, this is not legal advice about your specific situation, and if you're really concerned about this, you should consult a lawyer.
However, here are the general rules. (Law professor here.)
1. Copyright protects expression, not content. So if I read a textbook in order to learn something, and then summarize it in my own words to share that knowledge with the world, I own the copyright to the summary, the textbook author does not.
2. Not all text is copyrightable. In particular, text that just represents information that can only be expressed one way isn't copyrightable. The classic example of this is a telephone book (see [Feist v. Rural Telephone Services](https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/499/340/case.html)). But there are academic examples that would fall in the same category. Off the top of my head, an obvious example would something like the information in a table of mathematical results (although if the table is in a novel structure, the information as laid out in that structure might be copyrightable).
3. Not all information that is copyrightable is in copyright. For example, the formulas in a math textbook for a subject that's been around for a while may not be in copyright because whoever first wrote them in that form did so a very long time ago, and copyright is time-limited.
4. Finally, there's fair use. That's a super-complicated subject, but broadly speaking, noncommercial uses of small amounts of copyrighted work tend to be ok for purposes like teaching and critique. But for that, it's best to do lots more reading and tread carefully. [More information](http://fairuse.stanford.edu/).
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: I am in 4th year postdoc working in applied math areas in which 1-3 papers a year is considered a good publication rate. I have been publishing 10-13 papers a year for the last 4-5 years (have never gone for a 'low-quality' journal as considered in my respective areas). I would think that my hardwork would be looked upon in a good way by my colleagues. But I gradually realized that some of my peers have been seeing this publication rate in negative spirit. I keep on having to explain them how I could publish so many papers - that I work hard is not a good answer for them. I feel strange that hardwork is being judged, e.g., the quality of my work, or that my coauthors may have worked harder than me, or that I might have found some low-hanging fruits, etc. I don't know how to deal with such a reverse peer-pressure.
Moreover, sometimes, merely answering that 'I work hard' may be taken offensively by the other person.
Is there any better ways to explain 'overproductivity' to peers, in a non-offending way, how I publish more (and good quality) papers than the average in my field?
This question may be related to [Productive but not respected advisor - Should I continue with him?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11116/productive-but-not-respected-advisor-should-i-continue-with-him) , though the OP also states that his advisor's citation count was 'too low' which I think is not the case here.
This question is definitely not meant to self-praising nor to demean my colleagues who are generally very nice people. I feel that this issue could come up when searching for permanent job-search and the search committees may also see the record in a wrong way adversely affecting my chances. Hence, the question.<issue_comment>username_1: To deal with your colleagues: You already tried the nice way, when asked, just smile/laugh and change the subject. Based on your description, it doesn't seem like they'll be convinced of any answer you give. Rather, it seems like you're in a toxic working environment and relationship-atrophy is already setting in. Just remain cordial, and let it go. Thankfully, it doesn't seem like you'll be sticking around for too long since you're bringing up the topic of a job-search.
The only other way I've ever dealt with a negative opinion due to over-achieving is to work very closely with those that criticize. This requires that they be non-malicious individuals; otherwise, you're in for a very unpleasant set period of time. Basically, proof through action rather than words.
Concerning 'choosing your words carefully': It seems like you already picked up on how you may be misinterpreted (i.e. I work hard = you're not), you should also avoid the 'why don't you do so and so', I've been told very recently that the malicious individual behaves in a passive-aggressive way towards you because they believe that they cannot, so your statement serves to enrage rather than win them over; true or not, better play it safe and avoid this one as well.
To deal with your interviews/job-search: Add a column to your publications list showing the ranking of the conference/journal you submitted the paper to. If they're all high tier then, if anything, your rate should help you land a pretty solid job. You may also want to add a line below the publication outlining exactly what your part was in the research that led to the publication to avoid the co-authors argument.
Best of luck with all your endeavors.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: When I hear people use terms like overproductiveness and hardwork, I essentially tune out. In general, I find individuals who describe themselves as hard workers to be some of the worst colleagues. While potentially unintentional, these terms are insulting in that they suggest that the person you are talking to is not productive and not a hard worker. Your publication rate is not solely because of your hardwork.
When needing to describe a publication rate that is 5 to 10 times higher than "good" colleagues, and you will have to do that often, you need a better reason. For example, do you have lots of collaborators, less teaching, is writing just easy/fast for you? It is unlikely that you work 5 to 10 times longer (or more efficiently) than good colleagues. Maybe ideas come 5 to 10 times quicker to you than good colleagues. The key is to understand and be able to explain why you are publishing more.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm not surprised that hard work isn't considered a convincing answer. It's not plausible that you are putting in four times as many hours as your peers. Hardly anyone actually works a hundred hours per week, and even that would achieve a fourfold increase only if your peers are putting in just twenty-five hours. Instead, it's possible that you are working far more efficiently than your peers, but that's a tricky answer to give. You'll offend people if it comes across as "I'm probably just smarter than you are" or "you sure must be wasting a lot of time", and you won't look good if it comes across as "I cut corners to try to rush my work into print as quickly as I can".
One common attitude in mathematics is that publishing a lot of papers is a waste of your potential: if you have the time and energy to do that, then you should be spending it trying to write better papers, not more papers. How strongly this is felt depends on the subfield, so I don't know whether it applies to your area. To the extent it does, there may be no compelling explanation you can give for publishing a lot of good papers but no fantastic papers. (If you are publishing some fantastic papers, then you don't need to worry about this.)
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> Is there any better ways to explain 'overproductivity' to peers, in a non-offending way, how I publish more (and good quality) papers than the average in my field?
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Probably not. Your peers might simply be envious, in which case they already feel bad about the productivity difference and there's probably nothing you can say to make them feel better about it. (They might need to vent to a friend about how frustrated they are or talk with a mentor about how to improve, but they probably aren't looking for an earnest conversation with you about how you manage to accomplish so much more than they do.) Or your peers might have legitimate concerns about your approach, in which case no boilerplate explanation will address the concerns and you'd be better off discussing this issue with a trusted mentor instead. Either way, I don't think you should interpret their questions as genuine requests for information, but rather as complaints. There's probably no simple answer that will change their minds.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: >
> Is there any better ways to explain 'overproductivity' to peers, in a non-offending way, how I publish more (and good quality) papers than the average in my field?
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First, put some thought into where their reactions are coming from. Is it genuine curiosity? Is it envy? Is it a form of cultural sanction, e.g. to let you know that you "are making waves" in the culture? As intellectually smart as academic people are, many are not very emotionally intelligent, and thus lack self-awareness and self-control when they feel negative reactions.
Second, I suggest that you put together a set of answers that follow this statement: ***"I am fully aware that this is much higher than normal. There are trade-offs involved, for sure, but this strategy fits my goals and capabilities. I have made specific choices to make this possible."*** Then go on to explain the choices you have made if it makes serves your needs with that questioner. Maybe you start every project with the plan of publishing multiple papers in multiple venues. Maybe you "modularize" your work so it can be packaged in multiple ways. Maybe you have many collaborations going at the same time. Maybe you work longer hours in a typical week, or you work when other people are typically taking vacation or doing other things. Maybe you are particularly efficient at the paper writing process. Maybe you chose publication venues that have a quick acceptance cycle, without long revise-and-resubmit cycles. Maybe you have a supervisor who is particularly productive and guides you (inspires you, directs you) to do likewise. Maybe you are careful to choose problems and topics that are well suited to "minimum publishable unit" approaches. And so on.
This type of answer may or may not meet the real needs or motivations of the questioner, but at least you have answered clearly and directly.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: If you publish many papers, there are several possibilities. One is that you are good. Another one is that you are higly specialized and solve problems hardly anyone else is interested in. Another one is that you can communicate well and work efficiently together with other people. Still another one is that you abuse your social skills to make your coauthors do most of the work.
So "How do you publish 10 papers a year?" is an honest question, and "I work hard" is an evasive answer, which might lead to a negative reaction. However, having been in several hiring committees I am pretty sure that envy hardly ever plays a role here. I want the best possible colleagues, unless they are so good that working with me is not a serious option for them. And that is probably not really correlated to quality, but rather to selfishness and social incompetence.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_6: I would suggest that you may find it very informative to step back and take some perspective. I recommend consideration of [Joy's Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy's_Law_(management)):
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> "No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else."
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The fact is, that the world is very large and full of a lot of very intelligent and very hard working people. Some of them are very scientifically productive by some metrics, some of them are not very productive by those metrics but are productive by other metrics, some are taking long gambles or running into "normal problems" that make them not look particularly productive at all even if they are doing all of the right things. Others have made choices that mean they are not actually being particularly scientifically productive---they may be productive in other areas (e.g., teaching, parenting, StackExchange) or they may not be for any number of reasons.
If you are one of those very smart and very hard working people, that great!
When somebody else asks you about your productivity, however, I think that it is a good idea to begin with the assumption that they are also a very intelligent and hard-working person who simply has a different mixture of skills, preferences, opportunities, and choices than yourself. Something is causing a difference between your circumstances, and it's probably not just hard work.
The fact is, if you are producing a lot of good papers, that's going to be due to a whole bunch of factors lining up nicely. Please understand that I am not trying to undervalue your accomplishments in many ways: it's simply that there are so *many* ways that circumstances can run counter to rapid scientific publication.
I would thus recommend reflecting on what circumstances *beyond* hard work that are enabling your current productivity. You may find it interesting and informative for its own sake (and your future maintenance of productivity when you are inevitably faced with challenges), and it will give you a more palatable answer for your peers. And if you don't know what it is that's making things work well for you right now, you can just say something like:
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> "I'm not really sure. Things are just really going really well right now!"
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Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_7: As mentioned in other answers, simple hard work does not explain the large number of publications. I think that the main factors that explain wide variation in number of papers in general are
1. The type of problems worked on. If you need to build a theory or develop techniques to solve a problem versus apply known theories/techniques, the amount of time required varies greatly.
2. The type of papers written. This is highly connected with the first point, but generally 4 page papers take less time than 150 page manuscripts. Also, many computational projects take less time than more theoretical ones.
From only seeing your number of papers (and maybe what journals they appear in), some people will be really impressed, and some people will be suspicious at first that you're not doing anything important/deep. Of course, there are many mathematicians who publish a lot who are very well regarded (e.g., <NAME>, <NAME>).
Applied math is a huge, disparate area, and there is a lot of variation for what is a "normal" publication rate. Is 1-3/year really what is normal for your collaborators and/or strong researchers who do similar kinds of things you do? This is **what you should be comparing yourself to**, rather than all of applied math. If you can say something like: *In my subfield of XXX, 5-15 papers a year is pretty typical*, then most people won't think it so strange. It's even better if you can back it up with reasons related to 1. and 2., such as *because we have a few techniques that we can apply to a lot of problems in different areas*.
When it comes to the **job search**, people from other areas/subfields looking at your application often won't have a good sense of what's normal versus spectacular versus below average in terms of publication records, because, as I said before, things vary wildly. Here what is really important is your **letters of recommendation**. They will clarify whether you are great, good or mediocre at what you do.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_8: The important thing to recognise here is that they're comparing you to the norm (i.e. themselves). Asking "why do you do so much, relatively?" is equivalent to asking "why do you do so much more *than me*", and to "why do I do so little, relatively?". Consider your answers in this light.
You may have felt that saying "I work hard" is a modest answer to the question, but it really isn't. Almost anyone can "work hard", it's perceived almost as a moral choice. Perhaps it shouldn't be, but hard work is a *virtue* and you're saying you possess much more of it than they do. The janitor *works hard*, and it doesn't seem to have done his publication record any good, so your answer lacks insight. Which is not unexpected in a three-word answer ;-)
Imagine if someone asked <NAME> "how come you've published so much, achieved so highly, and won the Fields medal?", and he said "the only reason is that I work harder than you do". No, it's not only because of that, it's also (indeed as a prerequisite) because he's way better than me at what he does. That was true before he put in the hours and the effort. There are people who've put in just as much hard work as he has and achieved less (albeit, I'm not one of them). So for him to claim that the *only* difference between himself and me is that I work less hard would be an insult. I can accept that he works harder, but I cannot accept that the only reason I'm not a Fields medallist is lack of effort on my part, and it's rude to tell me that it is. If he's going to pick one reason then I would far rather he picked "because I find mathematics much, much easier than you do". But, for what it's worth, here's [what Terence Tao actually says instead of saying "I work hard"](https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/work-hard/).
Now, your colleagues might not be ready to admit that you're smarter than them (indeed, you might not be, there might be some other reasons), so you're right to be cautious about claims to your own ability. But avoiding a claim to your own ability by making a claim to your own virtue isn't helping matters.
If your colleagues genuinely want an answer to their question, because they're half-wondering whether you have some silver bullet that they could benefit from, then you need to look more closely at yourself and find more detailed answers. As others have said, it's just not plausible that you do 4-13 times as many hours a week of work than any of them does (although, with different teaching commitments and working hours and focus levels it's certainly plausible that you do 4+ times as many hours a week of *proper research work* than some of them). Find what else.
This isn't necessarily easy, because you don't know why they only produce 1-3 papers a year, but try to figure that out. These people will be open to the possibility that you're better than they are, but they can't believe it's just that you do 4+ times as much work, and if there's anything else you do that they could in theory do too then they want to know about it. For example, if you've found some way to avoid "overheads" that cut into everyone else's research time, then perhaps you think to yourself, "I'm just concentrating more on my work then them, i.e. working harder". But you can do better than that, you can help them remove some of the barriers to them working harder on their research in the hours available.
If, after a full investigation, you literally cannot find any reason other than hard work, then you might just have to say, "I've thought seriously about this, the typical postdoc in this department after all overheads and distractions and everything, only actually manages to sit down to about 20 hours of concentrated work on their research a week. I'm incredibly unusual, I seem to have more stamina than most and more ways of avoiding the rest of the world, and I manage to sit down to 80 hours of uninterrupted research work a week. That's why I do 4 times as much research as the average". That's a much more satisfactory answer, for them, than "I work harder".
If your colleagues are just looking to diminish your achievements due to their own insecurities, then as you've identified they want to come away with some conclusion like, "his papers aren't high quality", "his co-authors do all the work", "he's struck a rich, easy vein of work and is rattling through it spinning off a paper for every result". You have no obligation to pander to this nonsense, but for your own sake don't compound it by implying that they could do the same as you just by working harder. You could perhaps prepare some *genuinely* modest answer, in the hope of achieving the best case outcome, which is that they come away thinking, "well, he's a nice chap, and he made me feel good about myself, lucky for him he's getting so many papers out of his work". I can't give you one, though, because it has to relate to your actual work processes as compared with theirs, and it has to convince them that they aren't doing anything wrong, so that they can feel secure in their work. It could perhaps start from, "what can I say, editors seem to really like what I'm doing, I think perhaps it's because X, and I can polish off the papers really quickly because Y". When mollifying the insecure, make yourself sound blessed, don't make yourself sound like you somehow earned and deserve 4-13 times the public recognition they're getting.
Hiring panels want you to be excellent and work for them, so your approach to those can be completely different. It's not a necessary politeness to be modest at interview. If they ask a question like this then their fear is that you've produced 10-13 mediocre papers per year but nothing great, in which case they wouldn't want to hire you. They want you to allay this fear. You need to justify to them the value of your work, so that they're confident that you've produced the 1-3 solid papers they expect, *and more*. You need to justify it in more detail than "well, a top tier journal accepted it", or "I have a high citation count", which means talking qualitatively about your impact on your field and on the work of others. You also may need to convince them that you somewhat understand your own process and success, because they're running a department of interacting individuals, not a paper-factory. If they're going to hire you for tenure-track then they want to know that you'll benefit the department, as well as generating research. They won't turn you down for producing too much high-quality work, but they might turn you down if they think the good work you're doing would be more than cancelled out by the negative effect on department morale of you going around telling everyone the secret to success is to put the effort in.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_9: While I think that username_8 above has already fully answered this question, there is one thing that he just barely skimmed over that I think is worth highlighting: [Tall Poppy Syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome).
In an ideal world this wouldn't be an issue, but unfortunately even in academia, humans are humans, and some people will always feel the need to cut down others to make themselves look higher.
Remember that the better you are doing and the more papers you publish, the worse your colleagues look by comparison - and this doesn't just apply to people looking at themselves. Others in your field may also be facing questions, such as "why do you publish so little?" or "if he can do it, why can't you?" I don't know what your exact circumstances are, but if others are being pressured to step up their output to match yours, they may be feeling frustrated, and blaming you for their additional workload.
As annoying as it may be to have your peers asking you "how do you do so well", I assure you it is ten times as bad when your boss asks you "why are you doing so badly".
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_10: I have run into a similar situation when working at labs that are a few years old (being new) or just not attracting researchers from 'good' schools. To me, this is relevant for two reasons, much of the productiveness (at least early in the career) is based on training of how to be productive. Second, established schools and labs have usually worked through many of the typical hurtles in documentation and practices, having experience in this can help someone in a new/upcoming lab more quickly adapt and become productive.
I mention this to make a point, as others have, there are many reasons why you can be more productive than others, unrelated to harder work than others. I would consider it more about productive work than hard work, as the latter seems to instigate issues (as the answers have pointed out). Hard work also narrows you into the comparison many have pointed out, whereas productive can lead to many things, which you should identify for yourself.
Now, my experience has been, even if you think people are jealous (may or not be true), skeptical, etc., using some humor can alleviate tension. My default explanation is with a chuckle, saying:
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> Yea I've just been getting a lot done these days, which is easy since I
> have no friends and don't go out.
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In my own life, this has worked out well, since people asking are not likely to be friends that I hang out with, and personally, I do not go out much and like to work, so when people meet my SO, it naturally comes out in conversation that I am always working and how it strains the relationship.
In essence, I would say pointing out, similar to how JakeBeal describes it, you may be productive in one aspect, but not in others, and using humor about your own life is a good way to calm tension.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_11: I suggest you offer a self-deprecatory answer. Your answer of "I work hard" suggests that you feel you work harder than your peers. That might even be the case. If so, you probably spend far less of your day on non-work related activities. If you just want a way to answer without inciting envy or sounding like you're too full of yourself, try:
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> - How do you publish so many papers a year?
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> - Easy, I have no life.
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This has the benefit of i) being self-deprecatory instead of tooting your own horn; ii) being a light and jokular answer; iii) suggesting that there's a trade-off, you loose something for what you gain in output.
I don't care if you're <NAME>, stating that you work harder/better than your peers will never be well received, even if it's true. In fact, the truer it is, the likelier that people will take offense at it. So, instead of answering along the lines of "I'm better than you", give an answer that highlights that you're losing out on something.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_12: You say that "1-3 papers a year is considered a good publication rate". This seems to imply that any researcher who manages such a publication rate is considered to be hard-working. In any case, most people consider themselves to be hard-working. It is therefore not surprising that your colleagues aren't satisified with "I work hard" as an explanation for your unusually high publication rate, or that they might interpret this statement as actually implying "I work much harder than the average".
Unless you actually do consider yourself smarter than your colleagues, and that that is the main reason for your superior productivity, I don't think it's impossible to give a simultaneously honest and non-controversial answer to why you have an above-average productivity. But first you need to really understand the reason yourself: Are your papers generally shorter than average? Is your particular research area more "fertile" than average? Do you put in a lot of overtime? Are you more efficient than average during the hours that you work? (Of course, this is the potentially controversial option.) If so, why?
When thinking about what to answer, don't sacrifice honesty for humility. Anyone who expects you to do that shouldn't have asked a question for which they couldn't deal with the answer. (But if the only conclusion you can think of is that you simply must be a smarter researcher, it is perhaps best to lay low.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_13: Assuming that the papers are really strong and the best you can give (i.e. your high productivity does not trade off against the potential even higher quality research): having had the luck to meet quite some fantastically brilliant people in my career, it is clear to me that hard work may be a necessary, but is far from a sufficient condition for high-quality productivity in a difficult field.
If you belong to this class of people that pick **just the right** approach, **just the right** question, **just the right** set of methods and have a knack for actually **finding** the low-hanging fruits (if indeed they are), good on you!
However, this means that "hard work" is simply not the appropriate response, other people may be working very hard, too. So this statement sends the message that you refuse to tell them your secret of success. This is perfectly in your right, and they are actually quite shamelessly "invading your territory" by asking you how you do it. Nevertheless, it may be advisable to apply some diplomacy to alleviate this; lower your profile, statements such as "I got lucky" or "I had a good run", or, as mentioned earlier, humour, for instance, to create a screen to seemingly decouple the success from you. Obviously, you shouldn't say that when you interview for a position or report to your boss, but such a strategy may take the sting of the interaction with your equal-status colleagues.
Frankly, your colleagues can find themselves lucky to have such a brilliant co-scientist. This reflects on the whole department. However, unfortunately, it may also endanger the career of some of them in very competitive environments and so you may be a realistic existential danger to them - but don't take it personally. This is not your fault and you should not be tempted to reduce your productivity/quality just to be likeable! Just don't rub your success (and certainly not "hard work") under their noses.
And make sure to demonstrate in your CV that the quality of your output is not trading off against output quantity.
Finally, concerning your worry about hiring committees: I have heard about cases of first-rate people being rejected in interviews because of the reason that they were effectively too good (this is a real case, I am intentionally not using the original phrasing here). You probably don't want to be hired by these departments, anyway. Always remember: first-rate department heads hire first-rate people, second-rate department heads hire third-rate people.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_14: There are many reasons why one person could, even with "hard work" and talent held constant, be more or less productive. When someone asks you, "how are you so productive," and your answer is only "hard work," it shows you have either not thought deeply about these issues, or you are intentionally being insulting.
Many of those issues have already been mentioned, but here's some more:
- Typical turnaround times of journals
- Degree of experimental/other outside data input required
- Amount of advisor pickiness. [Some submit on the first draft, others more the 25th].
- Subfield standards for advancement of the field - does your subfield publish papers that are more "Here's the same statistical model, but applied to a different dataset?" or "Here's a model, and an argument for comparison of different models, and detailed convergence analysis, and proof of accuracy in case X, and ...
- Fraction of work done for authorship on a project. Sometimes 2nd author = "sat in meetings," sometimes 2nd author = "Wrote half of the code and paper."
This is not just sour grapes or the Tall Poppy syndrome. I am on the high end of productivity in my field, but I am aware that I have many of these features on my side. I know many people who are hard workers and just as talented as I am, who do not publish as much, because they have made different choices about what is most important in their papers or have rate-limiting steps that do not apply to me. It is unlikely that you are not also benefiting from similar factors. This isn't necessarily bad! But the more self-awareness you develop about how you benefit from this sort of variance, the easier it will be to talk with people about your productivity.
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<issue_start>username_0: I submitted a paper to a journal, and the decision was "accept with minor revisions." As I was addressing the reviewer questions to submit a final copy, I realized that I may have misrepresented the data.
Specifically, I may have over-reached with a statistical model. The model involved repeated measures of individuals who were initially one group (let's call it condition A), but were later split into two groups (B and C). The model gives me differences between conditions. My mistake was to calculate the actual values at each condition based on these differences, which was wrong because by dumb luck the 2 groups had a systematic offset at A before they were split (even though the members of each group were chosen randomly). Hopefully that explanation makes some sense. I presented the data in terms of "actual" values rather than differences because I thought this would be more informative for the reader. So, basically, all the numbers are wrong. It's a stupid mistake in hindsight, since I could find this information in the raw data.
The conclusions of the paper and the statistically significant relationships would still be the same in the corrected version, because I believe the model to be the correct one. However, almost all of the numbers, tables, and figures would need modification. And of course the strange systematic offset between randomized groups will raise eyebrows.
I'm certainly going to notify the editor and attempt to submit a corrected version of the paper. I'm wondering what I should expect to happen, though. Are journals understanding of this type of error, or does it represent something so egregious that the paper would be rejected and my credibility would be damaged? Or would it simply be reviewed again? I understand that it's largely up to the editor to decide, but I'm wondering if anyone with similar experience might give me an idea of what I'm dealing with. Thanks!<issue_comment>username_1: Though I don't have any prior experience with this, I agree that you should notify the editor and should explain to them how and why this mess happened. Also let then know that it was a mistake and as soon as you realized it, you let them know. Also let them know that you are ready if they want to have the paper reviewed again. I believe that they would understand the mistake and would not make a scene out of it. But yes, you have to choose your words carefully and should politely explain them the point and admit your mistake.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: It sounds like you screwed up the statistics. I would not want a publication with statistics that I know are wonky. I would withdraw the paper and appologize to the editor. I would ask the editor about resubmitting once the analysis issues are sorted. I would then bring in a statistical consultant to make sure your analysis is correct.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: 1. Put in the new statistics.
2. Check whether the results are the same or deviate.
3. If they deviate even slightly, the paper is a no go. Withdraw it. Don't try to make the new data reach the old results.
4. If the results do not deviate, notify the editor of the error and changes, and ensure that you highlight that results do not change.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I have experienced a somewhat similar situation. In our case, it was the reviewer (who had given accept with minor changes), who wanted some clarification of a figure. When we started to clarify, we found out that a mistake made that figure, another figure and some numbers wrong.
What we did was to contact the editor and explained the situation, we cleared up the mess, and resubmitted with a letter to the reviewer explaining what had happened, and if the person would please look over the figures again. Both editor and reviewer were very understanding, and the article was accepted with the changes.
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<issue_start>username_0: In a lot of research you have to site sources from a "reputable" journal. I've seen journals that have opened simply to post that bigfoot exists and won't take anything other than more or less garbage papers. Not to mention the problem with people "fixing" data to make their paper look legitimate when it's not.
How can I tell if the journal (and subsequent articles) I'm looking at is reputable?<issue_comment>username_1: If you know your field, it is easy to know how reputable some journal is. You find papers in it by the best people in your field publishing the most important results there you are already familiar with.
On the other hand if you do not know your field yet, I would advise you to get to know it at the glance at least first. Familiarise yourself with the most important and fundamental results and findings and the most influential authors. You should identify these authors quickly by seeing them in many various papers cited again and again by different researchers. Then look where these authors published the papers to find out what journals are likely to be more reliable than others.
Moreover, if you know your field, you should be able to discern a value and validity of a paper quickly from the abstract.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: You might find useful to check if the journal you're looking at is not part of Beall's List of Predatory Publishers: <http://scholarlyoa.com/2015/01/02/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2015/>
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<issue_start>username_0: I am presenting a paper in a conference with a 20% acceptance rate. However the conference is just 3 years old and does not figure in the tiered rating system for conferences in my field Computer Science (that some universities use) . Recently I found out that another reputed international conference (that figures in the conference rankings) has almost double the acceptance rate. Did I make the right choice. How should I evaluate conferences in the future??<issue_comment>username_1: Low acceptance rate does not necessarily imply quality, but it is correlated. Crappy conferences often have high acceptance rates because they don't care. Broad-community high quality conferences often have low acceptance rates because lots of people are trying to get their material into the same conference.
These are just correlations, however, and not causal in nature. For example, some very good conference have high acceptance rates because they serve a highly specific community; thus they tend to draw high-quality submissions from within that community and few submissions from outside.
Complementarily, I know of at least one conference that games its acceptance rate by artificially regulating the number of papers accepted. They decide in advance how selective the conference will be, and set the cutoff not in terms of quality but in terms of their judgement of "good conference" acceptance rate.
Finally, having too high a selectivity may be bad for a conference. A colleague of mine who is an insider at one of the extremely selective CS conference told me that they were worried that their acceptance rate was too low, and that therefore they weren't getting very interesting work any more: a single dubious reviewer was enough to sink a paper, so only conservative and incremental work was making it in.
Thus, acceptance rate is not a very good metric. It's much better to look at who the people are who go to the conference, what they've been publishing there, and whether you want to be associated with those people and that type of work.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Here is my two cents:
1. I judge the conferences based on the chair members and people
who would attend it and I would like to meet and talk or see their
state of art. Conferences are first and foremost a place to know
other researchers in your field, share thoughts off the record and
outside of the boundaries of email and web and learn and network
with others who share interests. **Possible collaboration and sharing
resources or experiences and collecting feedback on your work should
be the number one outcome of your conference experience.**
2. Ranks are 80% meaning, 20% noise. If a lower rank conference of a
sub-field is in winter in a horrible place, but I know for sure the
top researchers of my subfield although small group of people would go to,
I should rank it higher for myself than the generally higher rank and
biggest conference that everyone would stop by for a day and there are too
many people there to be able to establish a meaningful event.
3. Publishing the acceptance rate is a good sign, 20% also shows they are
as selective as possible. however, you should consider for the selection
bias among other people who submit their papers there.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: To add, single track conferences, e.g., ACM SIGCOMM, tend to have very low acceptance rates. On other hand, big conferences such as IEEE ICC, have around 40% acceptance rate, but for some community, that's their top conference!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Absolutely not.
---------------
In my field (theoretical computer science), the acceptance rate in top-tier conferences is around 30%, the acceptance rate in second-tier conferences is around 30%, the acceptance rate in third-tier conferences is around 30%, and the acceptance rate in bottom-tier conferences is around 30%.
>
> How should I evaluate conferences in the future??
>
>
>
By reading the proceedings, of course.
Upvotes: 3
|
2015/06/22
| 1,880
| 8,035
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am an undergraduate student working under a PI in a research laboratory. My PI pushed out a paper very recently, and I was not mentioned as an author. My PI did not even notify me that he was going to publish this paper. I can comfortably say, without inflating, that I did roughly 1/6 - 1/5 of the work. 3 out of the 8 figures (quantitative figures, not just bar charts slapped in Excel) in the paper were created by me for past posters at conferences, including code I have written to do some analysis that was used as a tertiary argument/talking point in the discussions section. My PI is not very quantitative, and being a qualitative field of study, I felt like a gem asset as someone who is heavy into maths and code.
When I approached my PI, he said he felt like my work was minimal (!!!) and he would put me on the next paper, seemingly brushing me off in the process....
I understand as an undergraduate I should be appreciative of this opportunity to be in a lab in the first place, but I think it's more than fair to get credit for substance that went directly into a paper.
What can I do?
I will be applying to graduate school soon and I don't want to jump labs as looking inconsistent. This is a topic I'm interested in. I feel like I'm stuck, though.<issue_comment>username_1: Forget about the first paper, it is already done.
Be clear up front that you want your name on the second paper, and that you are willing to take on any additional work necessary to be given authorship.
Having good references is more important than a couple of papers, so don't jeopardise your relationship with your supervisors going after authorship.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: It's not clear from what you have written whether "created the figures" means that you generated the data, or just that you made graphs of data that the PI handed you. If you actually generated the data, then you definitely should be an author; otherwise, authorship is questionable but you should at least be mentioned in an acknowledgement.
From you you have written, it appears that your name is not on the paper in any way. This is definitely improper. Moreover, even if somehow the PI thought there was a reason that your name should not be on the paper, they should at least have come to you before publishing to talk with you about this fact.
The fact that this has not happened means this person does not have your best interests at heart, and that you are likely to be exploited in a research relationship with them. I would thus recommend:
1. Leave the research project.
2. If there is another PI who you have a trusted relationship with, inform that PI of what has happened so that somebody else will know and so that a record of this behavior can be established. Don't do it in an accusatory manner, just explain that the PI published a paper that included your work without acknowledging it in any way. Say that feel this is inappropriate scientific behavior, and are therefore seeking to work with a new advisor.
3. Find somebody new, and clearly establish conditions for authorship before you begin work with them.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: You have been treated unfair and if you ask me you should look for a different opportunity instead of getting stuck in the same work group for grad school. Switching fields or the work group doesnt necessarily looks inconsistent but can also be considered as a broader array of interests or competences.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_4: I'll follow up on my comment, as none of the answers go in this direction, and I don't think you're getting the greatest advice.
>
> While I have no way of knowing whether this applies to you or not,
> making figures and such might not reach the intellectual contribution
> necessary to be counted as an author. This is why Acknowledgement
> sections exist. Before deciding on how to respond, think about what
> your scientific contribution was.
>
>
>
You may or may not have made a contribution that merits inclusion as an author. Some labs/PI's are very generous about this, and some are not, but if your work was purely "technical", my own inclination would be to offer Acknowledgement and not authorship.
Generating figures: scientific illustrators do this every day as a living (less so these days, but they're still around) and don't get authorship. Photographers too.
Writing code: this is a little less clear, and probably depends on direct contribution to algorithms. If you are, for example, writing code that takes the mean and standard deviation and spits them out in a readable format, that's technical. If you HAD TO UNDERSTAND THE SCIENCE in the paper to write the code, that would push me toward authorship. If I could hire a contractor who knew nothing of the research to do it, I'd lean toward acknowledgement.
There's a disconnect here between the your perception of the contribution you're making and your PI's perception. Just because he feels that your scientific contribution was "minimal", that does not mean he doesn't believe your work is valuable.
You might sit down with him and ask if there's any way you can make deeper contributions to his body of work, or if there's a small project you can really make your own. Another option would be to use the experience you've gained there to apply for summer research opportunities (depending on what year you're in).
Of course, there are curmudgeons who just won't believe that an undergrad can make author-level contributions regardless of the contribution made, and that's unacceptable. As I said before, from your description I have no way of telling whether you're dealing with someone in this category, or whether your contributions were of a basic technical level that arguably don't merit authorship.
I can say that many moons ago, as an undergrad, I was doing single-unit neural recordings in spinal cords (running electrodes up and down, listening for neural activity), and building electronic lab apparatus that helped with the experiments, and doing histology. Some of the rasters I generated were used directly in publications. I didn't consider that authorship level work then, and I still don't, as any technician could have done it, but it was certainly a valuable experience that helped launch my career. Now, almost 30 years later, I'm still in touch with the PI of the lab (I was working for his postdoc), and he's been a wonderful advocate of mine throughout my career.
Your PI's recommendation, at this point, should be treated as a valuable commodity, and if you negotiate this disconnect with maturity, that letter will be even better. Also, the experience you gain now will give you something real to talk about during interviews, which is also incredibly valuable.
Directly relevent: [What are the minimum contributions required for co-authorship](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12030/what-are-the-minimum-contributions-required-for-co-authorship)
<http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html>
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: This is several years late but I have to reply because the replies have irked me here.
You said you suggested a quantitative means of analysis, and you said you produced posters, which I assume you were an author on.
So yes, you should have been a co-author in my humble opinion. Maybe not a main author though.
Research fields and journals are different. There are research fields that are relatively small and lesser impact journals where it’s typical to see only a few authors in total. Then there are nature papers with many more authors and collaborators. In the latter, people get added as authors for acquiring patient samples or sadly, even political reasons.
So yes, it’s okay to feel disappointed here. In my humble opinion, if you contribute a figure or bespoke code that positively impacted the paper, you should be a co-author.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/06/23
| 756
| 3,213
|
<issue_start>username_0: This past spring was the second semester of my PhD program. A professor of a core course refused to grade my final assignment because it was late after deadline had been extended. The professor had read and provided feedback on various drafts of the manuscript throughout the semester.
However, I only missed the deadline because of an emergency. A couple of days before the deadline I had to drop everything I was doing to tend to urgent institutional review board (IRB) issues. On the day the manuscript was due, my old thesis advisor emailed me demanding to withdraw a presentation from a national conference immediately until IRB exemption was granted. This was more urgent than submitting the paper because there were serious legal implications attached.
Thank goodness the Chair of my Doctoral Committee was made aware of the issue. I spoke to the Chair, who suggested I explained to the professor I had an emergency and even told me to drop their name. I did just that, but the professor still refused to accept the paper and gave me a C+ (38.9/50) without counting my final. I also explained the emergency situation, to no avail.
I don't want to push too hard on this matter, but I am very worried that a C+ will prevent me from receiving fellowships and getting a good postdoc position in the future. For those of you out there with first-hand knowledge of the impact PhD-level course grades have on one's career, **will a C+ diminish my chances of getting a fellowship and being strongly considered for competitive postdoc positions?**<issue_comment>username_1: In my field (math), nobody looks at your grades, so this will not make any difference.
A personal anecdote: I had a first-year grad course with a tough grader who gave me a B- in a core subject. This did not affect my trajectory in the least; I still passed my quals ahead of time, I wrote a thesis and graduated on time, and I'll be starting my post-doc in the fall.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Grades don't matter. What does matter is good time management and interpersonal relationships and it looks likes you are struggling with both.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: The best way to defuse the poor grade is to understand why it happened and have a plan for preventing it from happening again. This is one plan for preventing late work in the face of firedrills. It is applicable to paper deadlines, preparing a talk etc. as well as turning in coursework.
Pick a date well ahead of the official deadline.
Do the work to whatever standard you can by that date. During this phase, concentrate on essentials. Aim to get the work to a point where submitting it would be better than not submitting it.
Save a copy of the work in submittable form. If you are going to file physical paper, that means having a printout in your backpack. For electronic submissions, it means having a copy on e.g. a thumb drive you keep with you.
Continue to refine and improve the work, periodically replacing the ready-to-submit copy with a better one.
If faced with a drop-everything priority shortly before the actual deadline, first spend a minute submitting the current ready-to-submit copy.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/06/23
| 1,205
| 5,220
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have been considering returning to university to continue my education and further my knowledge. I have a strong interest in finance, but before I dive in to a second degree/diploma at this stage in life, I want to take one or two courses to see if I can get back in to real coursework.
Having been out of university for many years, my initial thought was to take one or more courses through continuing education as a place to start. I remembered that you can audit courses (typically at half the cost of registering in a course directly). I was reading through the *Audit Regulations* and I was surprised to see that participation in classroom discussion is not allowed.
>
> The auditing student shall not participate in class discussions, assignments, examinations or in laboratory or like parts of the course.
>
>
>
I understand that that as you are not registered in the course, you would not be able to participate in exams for credit and/or receive graded assignment etc... however the inability to participate in class discussion was a little disappointing.
Based on the Business classes I took while in university, the classroom discussions are the core of most courses. What is the rationale for not allowing auditing students to participate in class discussions?<issue_comment>username_1: **Note: This answer is mainly for institutions where auditors only pay a nominal fee.**
From the institution's perspective, auditors are freeloaders. The nominal payment (if they pay anything at all) is trivial compared to the tuition income from paying students. They would like to make their internal cost of hosting auditors as low as possible.
If auditors were (as part of university policy) required to hand in assignments or participate in discussion, then professors could argue that they need more resources.
>
> *For example, if a professor gets an additional teaching assistant (TA) for each additional 20 students, and there was a class with 155
> paying and 10 auditors, they could put in a request for 9 TAs rather
> than 8. The department class enrollment would also increase by 10
> which might mean more resources to the department, depending on the
> university allocation policy.*
>
>
>
So the usual university policy is that auditors are ghosts or non-persons -- they do not count for teaching enrollments or resources. In order to argue this, the administration has to make clear that auditors receive no services.
That being said, many faculty such as ff524 and myself do not like "dead bodies" in the classroom and require our auditors to do the coursework and participate in discussion. This is our own prerogative and because we are going against university policy, we could not then turn around and ask for more TAs or claim hardship. We do this in the spirit of providing the best classroom experience for all.
---
From the perspective of paying students, auditors who are participating in the class also seem like freeloaders and can create resentment. This is usually ameliorated by the restriction that auditors do not receive transcripts or grades for their participation in courses. That said, the other business students are keenly aware that "discussion" is the core benefit of the classes and may resent your over-active participation. You'll need to work it out with the faculty member (and perhaps your peers in the class) if you want an exception to the policy.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Just to give the alternate perspective from institutions that charge the same amount for auditing...
When I have students that audit my class, they get a grade on their transcript if they show up for x% of classes. If they don't, it doesn't show up at all. Alternatively, there may be two designators, one for having shown up and one for not; one grade regardless of attendance; or there may be no record provided, transcript or otherwise.
I'm expected to treat my audit students exactly the same as any other student: I grade their work, they have access to the online portions of the course, and they participate in class and group work as any other student. In practice, some of them have skipped exams because ultimately it doesn't really matter for them.
And it's this "it doesn't really matter for them" bit that has a (low) potential for causing problems. If you have a class with lots of group-based work, and one student has no repercussions for not doing their work, you're setting the stage for possible trouble. Likewise, students who audit (in my own experience, YMMV) tend to be the ones most interested in the material and ask a lot more questions. Unfortunately, their questions sometimes aren't necessarily the same ones that a student who is going to be assessed on the material would be asking. Entertaining too many of their questions may potentially hurt the learning experience of other students.
I use wiggle words in the above because it's all very much in the hypothetical as (a) every instutition I've been at charges full tuition for auditing and doesn't forbid participation and (b) good classroom management could easily work around anything that might pop up anyways.
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/06/23
| 764
| 3,288
|
<issue_start>username_0: I will be applying to philosophy phd programs after completing my BA in philosophy and while completing a one year masters program (immediately after college) in philosophy. I impressed a certain professor in my third year of college during which I took two classes with her. If I want a recommendation from her is it important that I take another class during my senior year of college so that her opinion of me will be current? My last class with her was in spring of my third year, and I will apply at the end of Fall of my masters program (equivalent to 5th year of college). If I don't take another class with her, there will be applying after three consecutive semesters of not having her.
I understand that the fact that I will have learned more material means that a letter based on later coursework might be stronger. But I'm mainly curious if admissions committees would partially discount a letter because they thought it to be based on 'outdated' (in my case, by a year or two) information.
thanks<issue_comment>username_1: I don't have experience with philosophy, but I can't imagine this part of admissions is too different. It's pretty common for students to have one or more letters from faculty they haven't had classes with in the past year, so no that's not a problem. (In fact, sometimes it happens with all the letters, if the student takes time off--e.g., see: [If you want to do a PhD in mathematics, how important is it to start immediately after finishing undergraduate studies?](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/34450/19607) ) What's important is that each letter writer should have something meaningful to say about your preparation, talent, attitude, performance, work ethic, etc. Also, depending on the circumstances, it may be very natural for you to continue to have plenty of interactions with this professor over the next year or so whether or not you take another class with her.
That said, you should get letters from some people you've taken in your 4th-5th year (particularly master's classes if possible). The main reason for this is you want recommendations which can discuss your performance in more advanced classes, which is presumably what you'll be taking.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Two further things to think about in terms of who you get to write your letters in philosophy.
First, there's something to be said for having recommendations from the most current institution. I have a PhD in philosophy and an MA from a different institution in philosophy. When I asked one of the faculty from MA school, he was fine with writing a letter but suggested that it looks bad if you're fishing back beneath your highest institution. Surely, this is not as significant when applying to PhD programs after a 1 year MA.
Second, the key is to have strong recommendations. So make sure you're asking her because you think she will write a really strong letter. And the "strength" of a letter is a function both of her stellar view of your ability to do philosophy and also a measure of how well known she is to the institutions where you are applying.
In general, people willing to write recommendations are motivated to get you accepted to the next level, so keep that in mind.
Upvotes: 0
|
2015/06/23
| 1,665
| 7,340
|
<issue_start>username_0: I am an MSc graduate and work as an independent researcher. I spent 10 months on a paper. I wrote many scripts in Matlab to implement four other comparative methods as well as a new method that my MSc professor had proposed. Each of these methods was so difficult to implement.
Unfortunately, the method that I was going to propose does not work well compared to the comparative methods, which were introduced already 3-4 years ago.
What should I do now?<issue_comment>username_1: I recommend that you [record your failures](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/732/64) and not just your successes. In your case, I suggest you write a [technical report](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_report) giving all the details (the implementation, the comparison, the conclusion). It may not be considered as a publication worthy of your resumé, but at least it serves to document your efforts and may prove to be useful in the future (in case other people are thinking of using your proposed method).
Also note that your method may appear worse when compared to others using a certain metric (say, time complexity) but may appear better when compared to others using a different metric (say, space complexity). You might want to look at your method again.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_2: In the past ten months, you achieved the following:
1. Validate existing results and implement them in Matlab.
2. Show the quality of an alternate method.
To me it seems clear that the only way to prevent this time from being a waste is to publish your work or conclusions. First of all, others who work with Matlab may be able to take your implementations and use them for further research. Secondly, if you don’t share your findings on the alternate method, someone else may decide to spend ten months on it before coming to the same conclusion.
That should be sufficient motivation, but of course your negative result can be considered positive in an unexpected way. Either right now by you, or later by someone else.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: Many sub-areas of computer science not only value novel algorithms, but also case studies. While the top conferences and journals tend to favor algorithmic contributions, your can still go for the not-excellect-but-good conferences with a good case study.
So if you can extend your experimental results to a good case study, this is still a good contribution. Often, this mean crafting the benchmarks in a much more careful way than you would do it for showing that your novel technique is good, as you need to convince the reader that the cases that you consider resemble the practice well. So you may need to invest some more time.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: Next time, perhaps implement only one of the already existing methods and then the newly proposed idea. If the litmus test is that your new idea outperforms all of the baselines, you can test that already early on.
In general, incrementality is key: if you're looking at a task that is going to take you 10 month to realize you need to be aware of the risk you're taking. Be prepared that the results may not end up being what you hope for, or, if you cannot take that risk, find an alternative way of moving forward. Good planning is a valuable skill to have.
For now, would it be possible to analyse in depth why the new method fell short? Is there perhaps a certain sub-problem that it does very well on, in which case you could still extract a (somewhat weaker but) positive result?
Minimally, I'm sure you gained some new insights, and perhaps are even in a position now where you can correct some misconceptions you might have had about your problem: the outcome of your experiment is that something inherent in your problem is not like you thought it was, or else your method would have worked. So you may ask yourself what is it that's different?
If an unexpected obstacle drops on your path, don't just stop. Look for a way around it, or a new direction altogether.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_5: Publishing the results of research allows others to assess these results and build upon them. If the results are negative, it is still worthy for science to publish them because this will prevent others to spend precious time by trying to do the same and failing, without knowing that somebody else has already done it. Negative results may be published without review on repositories such as [Arxiv](http://arxiv.org/) or [Zenodo](https://zenodo.org/) (the later gives a DOI that may improve citability) or, with review, in journals such as [PeerJ](https://peerj.com/) or [F1000 Research](http://f1000research.com/) (the later even had once a promotion for negative results).
Some may frown upon publishing in relatively low-ranked venues (where negative results would typically find their place), and a reason may be the opportunity cost of spending time to publish the result. I would argue that the time spent for publishing the result is minimal relative to the time spent doing the actual research that led to the negative result. If the time spent for publishing the result would prevent somebody else to spend an order of magnitude more time trying independently the same thing and failing, then publishing would bring an overall positive value to science, and therefore is worth doing.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: As a researcher all results are Great results, especially when the outcomes are unexpected or under expectations. It is these moments of 'failure' that the greatest discoveries of our times have come from, it is the exception to the 'rule' that have resulted in whole new disciplines and industries. there are no poor results, only poor analysis of the results. Case in point the Michelson-Morley experiment that had completely unexpected results that led to the Special theory of Relativity, and Pauli's discovery of the neutrino because of a mass loss.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_7: These aren't poor results. Assuming your methods are good, they are good results - they answer a question. They may not be the results you want, but they're still good.
If you don't publish somewhere findable then someone else is going to waste their time unknowingly repeating work you've already done.
Publish
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_8: The first step is to see if your research is salvageable.
Does your method offer any advantages? Does it work better in certain scenarios? Does it require less/different inputs, and so will be useful where only those inputs are available?
Can you imagine any scenario where it WOULD be better to use your method over the state of the art?
While it can be difficult to publish null findings (i.e. my method wasn't better), it is generally possible to publish findings which include some form of positive results (i.e. my method wasn't better overall, but was better when x).
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_9: Well research is all about finding new things and not getting the desired results.
Since you planned to achieve something and working on that in the course of your tasks you must have found some undesired results. Its better to focus on what you got and what caused that instead of focusing on what you wanted to get. Hopefully you will reach your goal.
Upvotes: 1
|
2015/06/23
| 427
| 1,756
|
<issue_start>username_0: I have an offer for a full time job with a contract for 3 years in which I would be a PhD candidate in Germany at a reputed firm. I would have a supervisor at a technical university besides a supervisor at the company. The area of specialization is wireless communications. My plan is to go back to India in a couple of years and start working as an Assistant Professor in an IIT or some reputed institution in India.
Will this PhD have the same importance as compared to a PhD done at a university when looking for such Professorship in India?<issue_comment>username_1: Only a university may *award* a doctorate, so your study would be done in cooperation with one or more supervisors from one of the German universities and you will be enrolled at this university.
Perhaps you won't have any mandatory teaching duties when doing an industry-sponsored PhD, but it will be very worthwhile to do some teaching anyway. It's a valuable skill you should not miss out on.
One is not necessarily any better or worse than the other.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: As to address the second part of your question, almost all IIT's have a strict requirement that after your PhD (Which can be from Germany) you need to be a post doctoral fellow for a minimum of three years (assuming you took 3 years to do your PhD, bringing your total experience to 6 years). It is also mandated that this must be outside your home country.
Hope that helps.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: I think you are going very much in a good trajectory. As for getting an Assistant Professor job in India, do not worry. Doors would certainly be open here. Keep doing the good work that you are doing and you will certainly be rewarded.
Upvotes: -1
|
2015/06/23
| 948
| 3,929
|
<issue_start>username_0: When writing a paper with a collaborator, they didn't like that I used the word "exciting" in the abstract since they said that they don't like when people use personal personal qualifiers in writing papers. In particular my sentence was
```
"With these exciting results in mind, we study..."
```
(where the 'results' I am referring to are from a few recent experimental papers which I had nothing to do with). I initially wrote it in this way to emphasize that the recent results are interesting. Is this truly something that should be avoided?
Note: If it makes any difference I work in physics.<issue_comment>username_1: An established rule on proper writing demands to "[show, don't tell](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show,_don%27t_tell)". This does not mean that your results can be left to "speak for themselves", but it suggests that rather than simply claiming that your results are exciting, you should demonstrate and argue why they are. The onus is on your interpretation.
Moreover, the attribute "exciting", just as "interesting", is particularly trite because it is over-used and terribly vague. It begs the question as to what it is that is so exciting.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: The word "exciting" is a bit too dramatic for my taste. How about: important, remarkable, noteworthy, worthwhile, beneficial?
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Describing your own work as "exciting" is crass and inappropriate. People do not appreciate being told how to feel and the reader will decide for themselves whether your work is exciting. If they think it's exciting, they didn't need you to tell them; if they don't, you look like an idiot for hyping it so much. Looking like an idiot hurts your credibility.
It may be appropriate to describe somebody else's work as "exciting": that comes across more as a very enthusiastic recommendation, rather than as telling the reader what to think. But it should be used sparingly: again, you lose credibility if you describe anything but the very best in such glowing terms.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: In mathematics, it is not uncommon to attach emotionally charged adjectives to theorems. For example, nobody would raise an eyebrow at phrases such as "beautiful theorem". It goes without saying that such praise is only appropriate when truthful: it would be bad form to call a result "exciting" simply because you happend to be proving it's generalisation. Also, modesty requires that you should never say such things about your own work.
I personally find such language quite helpful. It is useful to know if a given result is something to get excited about or not. Sometimes, results speak for themselves, but this is not always the case (and there isn't always space to explain the reasons properly, especially if you just mention a result to provide context).
I'm not sure to what extent these rules extend to other fields.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: Absolutely not. Exciting, intriguing, etc. These are great terms that, when used in moderation, can add some enthusiasm to your writing. To give you a fake example, you could say in an abstract for a Review article something like this:
"This article summarizes some of the recent and exciting developments in the field of cardiovascular medicine, with a particular emphasis on animal models of coronary artery disease."
OR if you are forming your rational within the introduction of a research article, it could look something like this:
"While the latter findings from Jackson et al. are exciting in the context of biopharmaceutical research, there is still a significant gap in our understanding of X.....Y.....Z....etc. Therefore, this study sought to examine...."
In any case, I wouldn't worry too much about these minor details.
Writing is important, but at the end of the day, the science (your data) should speak for itself.
Upvotes: 0
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2015/06/23
| 525
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<issue_start>username_0: I recently got my paper accepted by a "look-descent" conference (indexed by ACM, a leading association in CS). Now, I am considering to withdraw the paper for some considerations, yet, need to know first if that would be fair?
The problem is that i didn't got individual reviews but only a summary from the PC. The review summary looks general and doesn't make me feel
my paper had been seriously reviewed by a peer.
When I asked for review details, which should be available on the submission platform, the PC said they would be available after the registration. What
is weird also is that the registration is due after one week of acceptance notification only, and the paper will automatically be rejected if not registered by the deadline. The registration fee is expensive (more than twice) compared to what is usual in my home country (the conference is in the same country).
NB: I made sure the conference CFP is not fake!
Is it fair to withdraw the paper and what should I write to
notify the PC?
Since conferences websites doesn't tell that,
it would be beneficial to know in which cases one can
withdraw an accepted paper?<issue_comment>username_1: The registration fee being too expensive is not an extreme excuse. You could just inform the chair that you are not able to pay such fee.
Since you did not sign any documents, you have no legal responsibilities.
However, not informing them would make them get into a scrape. I don't think it is ethical.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I have never heard of the practice of withholding reviews until registration. The reviewers work for free, I do not see why the conference should be entitled to keep their contribution from you.
On the other hand, about the registration fees, if that's something you knew beforehand, I do not think it's an appropriate argument to make that they are too high.
Bottom line: assuming you were aware of the fees beforehand, that's not a good point to make for withdrawing. However, withdrawing as reaction to the practice of withholding the reviews until registration, is. However, ensure that, if that's what you decide do, this is not a conference you are likely to ever return to.
Whatever you decide, it is the right thing to inform the organisers about the decision.
Upvotes: 2
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2015/06/23
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<issue_start>username_0: Back in the Fall of 2013, I attended a masters program straight out of college. Turned out to be extremely overwhelming relocating to NYC, living on my own and starting grad school. I knew I was in the right field but my anxiety got the best of me and I struggled speaking up in class which of course negatively impacted my grades. By the second semester I already knew I needed to leave and recuperate before I could return just to work on my anxiety problem. The problem was that it was too late for me to withdraw and I ended up trying my best to complete the semester even though a huge part of me did not want to be there anymore, especially since my teachers felt I was not ready for the program given my lack of contribution in the class discussions. By the end of the semester I decided that I did not want to return to the school (was not thrilled with the program there or the faculty) but later on found out I had been academically dismissed since my GPA fell below 3.0 to 2.96.
Since last Fall (2014), I have been just focusing on work and working on my anxiety with a therapist but have been thinking about applying to the same field (mental health counseling) at another school for the fall of 2016. Would I have a fair shot at being admitted into another school in the same field given that I was dismissed from my previous program? Just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation.
Thank you in advance for your feedback.<issue_comment>username_1: *For the poster, I recommend you take this very carefully, and perhaps read it a few times. I hate telling people that their dream may not be achievable, because I was in those shoes at one point, too. However, I can't advocate blindly trudging forward and not giving up because that wastes both your money and your time if you don't objectively evaluate whether or not your goal is still achievable.*
A while ago, I was in a Master's Program in Biological Sciences, with the ultimate goal of eventually going to medical school. I struggled as much as I could, but in the end, failed to meet academic standards and was told that I was no longer in the program. BAM! Just like that, my dream of going to medical school was over. What seemed achievable, in a year, became a flight of fancy, and a disappointment that I took deeply for a while.
Needless to say, when you fail out of one program, the chances of you continuing in the same field drop dramatically, even if you can explain it as a medical issue, because the onus of proof points to the fact that you were unable to complete your original program.
I gave up my dream of applying to medical school and started working on a Master's in Computer Science. I had some experience, and I knew I could do it. It wasn't brain surgery, but it was something I was good at. I've been done with the Master's for a few years, and have been VERY happy with what I am currently doing. If you had told me right after I failed my first Master's that I would find something better to enjoy doing, I would probably have just flopped over like a fish and not cared.
I now call this event my "early-life crisis." A lot earlier than the mid-life crises that people feel regarding their work, because we reach the point where our dream not being attainable actually becomes a plausible or even likely scenario.
I hate to say it, some of us aren't really prepared or capable of achieving our "dream" jobs. I say "dream" because dreams can change, and they certainly should, given how your life plays out. Lots of people want to become the next Lebron James, but very few can. You can take 24/7 basketball courses and weight training, but sometimes, we just don't have the traits we need to reach that level. We make do, and we should course-correct if we know that making do is not sufficient for us.
You state that you were uncomfortable participating in group discussions regarding the subject of your Master's, mental health counseling. I'm somewhat familiar with this by prior trade, but communication is a big part of that field, and unless you get around the issues preventing you from participating, the same failure is likely to happen. Given what you've said, I would like to put to question whether or not you feel that you are a good fit for the program you're enrolled in.
Instead of jumping immediately in and trying again, you definitely evaluate your short-term and long-term career goals with your therapist. You should seriously consider additional programs and subject fields as well.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: While username_1's answer does make some valid points, I wanted to add my two cents on the assumption that the original poster is sure that renewing grad school efforts is the right next step.
If you "failed out" of a program already, you are going to have a hard time getting accepted back (or elsewhere) without really demonstrating a change in your work habits, maturity, academic ability, and other areas. A doctor's note saying "so and so has been treated for anxiety and is now fit for readmission" probably won't mean a thing to admissions committees, regardless of its veracity. However, demonstrating that you've done good work in a job related to your field is something that could be of note to an admission committee.
I'm sure the mental health field has plenty of opportunities that only require bachelor degrees. Working in this capacity for a while can both demonstrate an improvement on your part and also connect you to great resources who could ultimately recommend you for readmission. My understanding is that recommendations from people in your desired field can lead people to overlook past mistakes.
It is likely to be much more difficult the second time around, but demonstrating your growth with concrete achievements--rather than by saying "I'm ready now"--will be your best shot at restoring the admission folks' faith in your preparedness for grad school.
Upvotes: 2
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2015/06/23
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<issue_start>username_0: Is there any research/study that looked at the impact of the quality of a presentation in a conference on the number of citations the corresponding article receives? (quality in terms of form, not the content itself)
I am most interested in the United States and the field of computer science.<issue_comment>username_1: In my view, impact of the quality of a presentation in a conference, is relative. There are many factors that model "perception" of "quality". It draws down to the researcher or presenter. If we assume the audience understand the topic under discussion. Generally, the presenter models the impacts that a presentation will have, meaning the concept "impact of the quality of presentation" is socially constructed domain and therefore has many dimensions of causality
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: [This survey](http://library.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/file/616/increasing_citations_literature_review_april_2014) by Dalton (2014) reviews literature that correlates citation rates with dissemination strategies. Research into a correlation between presentation quality at conferences and subsequent citation rates is notably absent, suggesting that there likely is not much research on this question. That said, a few things can be inferred:
>
> <NAME> al. (2010) carried out a study on collaboration in scientific research and found that international collaborations tend to receive more citations than national or regional level collaborations.
>
>
>
Intuitively, a principal reason for attending conferences and workshops is to expand one's network and meet potential new collaborators. A good presentation is more likely to serve this purpose than a poor one, because it can set a first professional impression of you.
>
> A considerable amount of work has been published on the positive effects of open access on citation rates. Lawrence (2001) carried out an investigation on the impact of free online availability of papers on citation rates in computer science. The results showed a clear correlation between the number of times an article is cited and the probability that the article is freely available online. The more highly cited articles were significantly more likely to be available online.
>
>
>
If you publish your presentation online *after* the conference, then you are increasing the open access material related to the paper. Especially if you are publishing the research manuscript behind a paywall, the presentation may open the research to a broader audience. Whether the presentation is well done, intuitively, is likely to affect whether you are willing to post it online and the amount of time that readers are likely to interact with it. If you present it well, you are probably more likely to post a public video of the presentation online.
>
> Thelwall et al. (2013) [...] found that there were statistically significant associations between higher citations for articles and the use of various social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and forums. Similarly a study carried out by Shuai et al. (2012) showed there was a statistically significant correlation between social media mentions and download and citation counts.
>
>
>
Further to the previous point, if you publish your open-access presentation online after the conference, it creates an opportunity to create a social media buzz around it.
**Summary** *There might not be much research on whether a direct correlation exists between presentation quality and citation rate, but a good presentation can amplify factors that have been shown in literature to increase citation rates.*
**References**
<NAME> (2014). "Increasing citations: key evidence." Retrieved from: <http://library.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/file/616/increasing_citations_literature_review_april_2014> on 15 October 2015.
<NAME> al. (2010). "The citation impact of research collaboration in science‐based industries: A spatial‐institutional analysis." *Papers in Regional Science*: 89(2), 251-265.
<NAME> et al. (2001). "Free online availability substantially increases a paper's impact." *Nature*: 411(6837), 521-521.
<NAME> et al. (2012). "How the scientific community reacts to newly submitted preprints: Article downloads, twitter mentions, and citations." *PloS one*: 7(11).
<NAME> et al. (2013). "Do altmetrics work? Twitter and ten other social web services." *PloS one*: 8(5).
Upvotes: 1
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2015/06/23
| 1,248
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<issue_start>username_0: I was recently expelled from doctoral program in English for plagiarism in qualifying exam. Although it was for the lack of a citation, I attended a major research university with a zero tolerance policy. What are the chances I can reapply to another doctoral program? Specifically, I am in creative writing/poetry and I was in an English PhD program...what if I apply to a PhD in creative writing program? How do I go about addressing the plagiarism of the qualifying exam in past program, but highlight I have had numerous national publications since then in poetry and won a major book award, not publication?<issue_comment>username_1: My experience is in mathematics, rather than creative writing, but I imagine both fields approach this issue similarly. Issues of academic honesty have come up when I've served on admissions committees, and they're a huge obstacle to admission. A previous expulsion for plagiarism could turn an otherwise strong case into a quick rejection. In order to have any chance, you need to do several things:
1. You have to give a convincing explanation of what happened and why nobody needs to worry about future dishonesty. This is not easy, and most people fail to write anything convincing. For example, if you write "I didn't realize this counted as plagiarism, but now that I know, I certainly won't ever do it again", people will wonder what other ethical principles you might be unclear on (and how you made it to the qualifying exam in a doctoral program in English without knowing what's considered plagiarism). If you write "I was sloppy, but I've learned from the experience and will be much more careful from now on", people will worry that being careful is easier said than done, and that this is too facile an excuse. And it only gets worse from there: if you knew it was wrong and did it on purpose, then you really have a lot of explaining to do.
2. You need letters of recommendation from people who know what happened and are nevertheless willing to vouch for you. A letter that doesn't mention the plagiarism will probably be ignored, since the committee won't know whether the recommender even knows about it or how their opinion might change if they found out. (And it's a sensitive enough subject that nobody's going to call up the recommender and ask, out of fear that you would complain that the committee was leaking confidential information.)
I'd recommend starting by trying to recruit letter writers. If you can convince enough people to write strong letters for you, then you can take the explanation you used to convince them and incorporate it into your personal statement. If you can't secure enough letters or aren't confident in their strength, then it's not worth applying now.
>
> I was recently expelled from doctoral program in English for plagiarism in qualifying exam. Although it was for the lack of a citation, I attended a major research university with a zero tolerance policy.
>
>
>
I should warn you that this sounds like a terrible basis for an explanation. It comes across like you are saying omitting citations is not so bad and your expulsion was due to an overly strict policy. Maybe that's not what you meant, but this is a delicate issue and it's important to keep from being misunderstood.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I did philosophy (and have no history of plagiarism), but I think your odds of admission into a PhD program are going to be extremely low with a record of plagiarism hanging on you.
First off, you're going to need to give a much better explanation than "I didn't know" and it was only a citation miss. Both of these are things that any undergraduate student should know from their first humanities class. It does not take a graduate program to learn these things.
Second, creative works don't compensate for instances of plagiarism. Instead, they generally would compound the severity of the problem. The reason is that plagiarism is about the ability of others to trust that work you submit is your own. Regardless of any factual merit, if I learned that person X lied about what was their work in area A, then I would at a minimum doubt that the work they did in area B was their work. In other words, it raises the spectre that you've been doing this for quite some time (warranted or unwarranted).
Thus, what you need is a *very convincing explanation* for the university you want to go to should not view what happened at the university where you were at as plagiarism. I could imagine the following as convincing:
1. A letter from the dean of arts and sciences (assuming you are not related) explaining that they were forced to expel you on a technicality but they believe you did nothing wrong and that the department erred.
2. A letter from the members of your committee (assuming you are not related) explaining that they passed your exam and don't believe you've committed an academic integrity violation, but that on a technicality they were forced to file a plagiarism charge against you.
That's about it. Otherwise, there's not much you can do that will make you a plausible candidate. Maybe a letter from a psychologist explaining that you were on test pharmaceuticals that temporarily changed your personality during the time in question.
Upvotes: 3
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2015/06/24
| 299
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<issue_start>username_0: I have a BSc and an MSc degree on Computer Science. My BSc CGPA was too low. I somehow got accepted to an MSc degree(two years) and got 4.00 CGPA. I think I am good at my field.
Now I want to apply for a PhD degree, but all universities I checked requires transcripts received from all higher education attended so far.
I don't want to submit my BSc transcript. Is there a way for me to get accepted to a PhD programme without submitting BSc degree? Is there any chance that my MSc transcript override my previous(BSc) degree?<issue_comment>username_1: Go ahead and submit your undergraduate transcript. The admissions committee will be expecting to see one and your application might be screened out before consideration simply because this transcript is missing.
The fact that you've had good grades in your master's program may help you to overcome the bad impression left by your poor undergraduate GPA. Having good letters of recommendation and one or more publications (of high quality) will help a lot more.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: Application components should be clearly stated for the institution you are applying. If they ask for a transcript and you do not provide one, you likely will not be accepted.
Upvotes: 0
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2015/06/24
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<issue_start>username_0: I am preparing for my Ph.D. oral defense in mathematics and am reading tips from various resources. It seems that the usage of slides is usually assumed, though it is generally not required. For me, I am more used to the more traditional way; that is, using whiteboard and markers. I have almost never used slides in my past part-time teachings.
My questions:
1. Is it a bad idea to use whiteboard and markers instead of slides in my Ph.D. oral defense?
2. If I use whiteboard, what if the committee have questions about the contents that I have already erased in my presentation?<issue_comment>username_1: The answer to your first question is hidden in your second question. Usually the questions are asked after the presentation and hence you might be asked to go to previous slide when the opponent might have a question or doubt. Also if people will ask you questions in between the presentation which is considered as rude behaviour on their part, might destroy your concentration and flow during presentation.
Being a defence related to mathematics you might need a chalk and board anyhow as you can say everything on the ppt presentation, so you might need it to explain something not present in your slides.
Overall my recommendation is to use ppt slides for the main presentation and also keeping chalk and board handy for odd questions not covered in the slides.
Good luck with your defence!!!
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I have seen plenty of thesis defenses that use blackboards (the boards in our department are black- rather than white-, but I don't see that it makes a difference) and also plenty that have used slides. You should ask around -- or remember from previous thesis defenses you have attended; these are almost always open to all interested parties -- to see whether there is any local preference between slides and writing on the board. Ask your advisor too.
I suspect that you will find that it is up to you. In that case: do what makes you feel comfortable.
>
> Is it a bad idea to use whiteboard and markers instead of slides in my Ph.D. oral defense?
>
>
>
No, if you know it will make you more comfortable and more able to present well, it's a good idea.
>
> If I use whiteboard, what if the committee have questions about the contents that I have already erased in my presentation?
>
>
>
I don't see any fundamental difference between a thesis defense and any other math presentation. In general people can ask questions at any time; if the speaker indicates that she would rather address them later, then they get addressed later, in which case it's up to both the speaker and the questioner to remember the question (e.g. someone could write it down). A question which is specifically pertinent to something complicated you wrote on the board is probably better addressed then rather than later. If you get a later question about something that's not on the board anymore, your options are to answer the question verbally, to rewrite something on the board, or to pass out some other written materials which address it.
I will mention in passing that mathematical culture seems to prefer "chalk talks" more than general academic culture at this point. I have absolutely never used slides / powerpoint / whatever in any class I've taught. I do it only at large conferences where I can't be confident in advance that the board will be available and easily visible to all and/or that I've been given such a short amount of time that I feel that I have to whip through slides at top speed in order to "cover" what I want to. Writing mathematics on the board takes time. But so does understanding mathematics, and it feels a bit dishonest to need to present material faster than you can write it on the board. Moreover, if you're writing then you can adapt your presentation to the audience on the fly (which for a thesis can be important, so that e.g. having a thesis defense in a room with nothing to write on at all would seem weird to me).
Good luck.
**Further Thoughts**: Many thesis defenses have two very distinct parts, and the first part really is a lot like a conference talk in that you have a set amount of material to "cover" and the general expectation that you will get through that "coverage" with little distraction. So doing slides for that part of the defense makes perfectly good sense to me: a thesis defense is not a lecture, and the goal of that part of the defense is *not* to impart the maximal possible understanding to everyone in the room. You want to get through that first part with little fuss, and you don't want it to drag out. So for instance if you are the type of person that prepares much more to write on the board than turns out to be realistic (as I often am), then preparing slides could be a good strategy to stay on track. Still, if *you want* to write on the board during this part of the defense: go for it.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: There is another option, that gives the best of both worlds: use transparencies on an overhead projector! Your department will probably have one buried in the dungeons somewhere.
Some projectors have a continuous roll of film that you scroll up and down over the surface you write on, with others you'll need to use individual A4 transparency sheets. If you use a clear numbering system, it's easy for the audience to ask you to go back to a specific spot.
You can even draw complicated diagrams by hand in advance, or print some sections onto transparency paper. But you still have that possibility to write directly onto what you're projecting that you can only do with a computer presentation if you have a "smart" whiteboard or a digitizer tablet.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Well to give a better understanding visualization is needed. During defense you main aim is to make people understand what you were doing and how good it is. If you feel you can make them understand without the slides go for it.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_5: Let me answer question 2 first, since it is easier.
* You can highly encourage your examiners/audience members to interrupt you at anytime with questions. (This prevents the problem from happening.)
* Additionally prepare some written notes and when giving your presentation use clear and consistent numberings/namings of equations and theorems. (This makes it easier for the audience to scribble down the context of their question, and for you to recall the statements later.)
---
Question 1 on the other hand depends on a lot of factors.
1. ***Is your oral defense "serious" or "pro forma"?*** In the first case it is often better to use whichever you are more comfortable with (but read on for the points below). In the second case you should just use slides (it saves every one some time and gets you out of the room to enjoy the champagne that much quicker). Since in the second case you don't really care about giving a good talk, we will assume you are in the first case for the following points.
2. ***Slides doesn't mean faster.*** While it is possible to abuse slides and give talks at a higher pace than you would otherwise (and hence should), it is considered bad practice by many to use slides for the sake of "covering material". Your job in giving an academic presentation is not to simply show off how much stuff you know, but to convey a sense of narrative to the project and to impress on the audience the actual knowledge you have discovered.
* If you are covering the slide from top to bottom with words, you are doing it wrong.
* If you have more slides than minutes for the presentation, you are probably doing it wrong.
* If you presentation can be presented without you (namely that the audience can just read the slide from beginning to end without you being involved), you are doing it wrong.The keyword in *visual aid* is "aid". Most people find it difficult to process two different streams of verbal information at the same time. If you use slides you should use keywords and phrases to anchor the attention of the audience, but not full sentences (which would be an invitation to stop listening to what you are saying).
3. ***Board doesn't mean slower.*** You don't have to write down every word that comes out of your mouth. Mathematics excels in having symbolic notation. And while it is good to state your theorems in a reasonably complete way, for technical hypotheses you don't necessarily have to write it down (unless that hypothesis is sort of the point of the presentation): you can simply *give names* to your hypotheses and express and explain each of them orally.
4. ***Is your penmanship good?*** This is obviously a concern for the decision between board versus slide. If your board writing is perfectly illegible, you really should use slides. Even if all your peers use the board.
5. ***Some further comparisons*** (in no particular order)
* Slides force you to adopt a fixed linear narrative, and it is harder to jump out of it on the fly. Board allows you to be more free-form. On the flip side, if you are very nervous about your presentation, the regimental nature of slides may help you settle into a groove more easily.
* Slides do allow you to race through material. If you are the type that when excited will start talking faster and faster, maybe the action of writing on the board can help prevent you from blitzing through your talk at an incomprehensible speed.
* If your talk has a time-limit, one benefit from a board-talk is that you can adjust your presentation on the fly to accommodate the limit. It doesn't look good if you give a slide talk and either finish 10 minutes early or end up with 15 slides that you never got to. (You can do adjustments for slide talks too, but it is harder to hide it from the audience.)
* If your talk uses a lot of pictures, I would recommend slides. Very few people are talented enough to draw great illustrations on the fly on the board. The same applies to any material that will take significantly longer to reproduce on the board than the time it will stay up on the board.
* On the other hand, if your illustrations are "dynamic", it can sometimes be done better on the board. (Example: reproducing a straight-edge and compass construction, or illustrating Reidemeister moves in knot theory.)
6. In mathematics at least, ***both are common enough*** that you really shouldn't feel the need to conform to using one or the other. Ultimately your decision should be determined by "how can I give the best presentation?" while factoring various things like nerves (you will be nervous at your oral defense, regardless of how many talks you have given before; the same is true of your first tenure-track job talk, your first talk at a large conference, etc.) Of course you should spend time to prepare the content of your talk. But you should also spend time to discover the common pitfalls of public presentation (I listed some above, but the list is by no means complete) and make the effort to take preventative actions. One way to do the latter, as has been suggested elsewhere on this page, is to go to other students' presentations. Wisdom is in large part learning from other people's mistakes.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: I recommend the blackboard. Shows your process of thought better. Plus more old school. Unless you have complex graphics, skip the slide show.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_7: You should not compare presentations (at a defense, at a conference, etc) and teaching. A presentation does not necessarily explain the material, and its main purpose it to advertise your work in the presence of time constraints and stress. All blackboard presentations that I saw, put the presenters at a disadvantage. They would waste time copying from their notes to the board, fixing mistakes, then searching what's the next thing to copy. If you need to make a presentation, don't do it on blackboard.
Upvotes: 0
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2015/06/24
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<issue_start>username_0: I was rather shocked when hearing in a conversation that journals sometimes have explicit limits on the number of references that can be included in one article. I understand that there are space concerns for print publications, and that word/page limits, as well as limits on the numbers of figures and tables are common. But placing limits on the number of references strike me as rather close to impinging on the integrity of the articles themselves (would anyone support a motion to limit the number of authors?).
>
> **Question**: What are some reasons that have led journals to limit the number of references?
>
>
>
*Clarification*: I am not asking whether this is a good idea in general. (I think it is silly, but that's just my opinion.) I am not asking whether this can have some *potentially good effect* on the quality of scientific writing. I am specifically asking whether there was an official explanation ever issued on the part of the publishers explaining this rule, or whether there was some event (say, an abuse in the form of many gratuitous references or an observed trend for the average number of references to keep growing if not otherwise checked) or some strong personality (famous editor-in-chief X) that led to these kinds of policies being formulated.
For example, [*Applied Physics Letters*](http://publishing.aip.org/authors/journal-guidelines) has limits on number of words (with some conversion factor applied also to figures and tables), but (in my opinion, rightly) excludes the title, the author list, and the list of references from the limit.
For examples of journals (from various publishers) that have limits on number of references:
* [*Nature*](http://www.nature.com/nature/authors/gta/#a5.4) "strictly enforces" a limit of 50 for articles and 30 for letters. ([*Science*](http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/contribinfo/prep/gen_info.xhtml), I note, does not for research articles. For review articles the limit is 100.)
* [*Earth and Planetary Science Letters*](http://www.elsevier.com/journals/earth-and-planetary-science-letters/0012-821x/guide-for-authors#68000) limits to 50.
* [*Blood*](http://www.bloodjournal.org/page/authors/author-guide/article-types?sso-checked=true) "recommends" a limit of 100 references, though I don't know if this is a hard limit or not.
* [*Journal of Clinical Ontology*](http://jco.ascopubs.org/site/ifc/prepguide.xhtml#Reference_Instructions) limits to 10 for "correspondences" and a "suggested limit" of 150 for "research articles".
* [*Journal of Genetics*](http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/journal/12041) (more reasonably, in my opinion), have different limits for different types of articles. But notably for research and review articles there are no limit to references: the reference number limit applies to shorter submissions such as correspondence, commentary, or "research notes".
---
*Some additional information*:
(**TL;DR**: *Nature* put in their current policy sometime between the years 1986 and 1988, with no reference limits prior. Did something happen in the 80s?)
I went down to the library and looked at the old issues of *Nature* (not because I want to single them out, but because the library happen to have all the issues since the 20s available on the stacks). After some binary search I've found that in December 1986 the instructions to the authors look like this (with no mention of limit to references)
and in October 1988 it became almost the same as present day (apologies for the flash... the lighting in the stacks wasn't good).
(I don't have the exact date of the switch, since only some of the issues in the library came from the original magazines; others came from bound reprints ordered from the publisher which stripped out pages like these. So in particular I found no "Guides to Authors" in the 1987 issues I had access to.)
Back in the 20s and 30s most of the items in *Nature* had no references whatsoever. By the 50s and 60s we start seeing articles more in the form of what we expect today, but the number of references are generally not too many. Even in the 70s and the 80s (before the change of rules) the majority of the articles do abide by the modern rules, with [occasional exceptions](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v282/n5734/abs/282105a0.html).<issue_comment>username_1: Journals aim to publish an organized set of articles of some approximate length in an attractive format.
**Journals set limits on the number of references to shape the form, format, and quality of the submitted articles.**
This organization is a good thing, in terms of disseminating scientific information. Given the limited space of one article, there is definitely some appropriate range for the number of *essential* and *useful* references that relate to the presented work.
This is less restrictive that it might sound, as these rules set by the journal are seldom hard limits. If you have good reason to include a couple of extra references, you can usually work with the editor to get them included.
Another reason to include limits is to try to encourage authors to examine references more closely, and to be more selective in their choices of what to include. Just as many journals have rules against gratuitous figures and tables (e.g. all figs must be referenced in the text), these limits are meant to discourage gratuitous inclusion of references that are not directly related to the discussion in the manuscript.
---
**In response to the expanded question:** "What happened in the 80's?" ...
The Science Citation Index was launched in 1964. With its growth and success, and the addition of other field-specific indices, it became possible to compute statistical journal and author comparisons (e.g. [Impact Factor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor)). This concerted effort to index citations made being cited in the work of others more important, and the use of numerous citations became much more common. The benefits of these author and journal metrics were much lauded during the 70's and 80's, but people were also increasingly aware that this arrangement was *vulnerable to abuse*, i.e. gaming the system by inflating citations. SCI grew to become Web of Knowledge, then Web of Science and along the way (1992) it was acquired by a large media company and today it's run by [Thomson-Reuters](http://thomsonreuters.com/en/about-us/company-history.html).
The question posed invites speculation; we can't know exactly what the owners and editors of the various scientific journals were thinking when they started implementing citation limits. However, I would hazard a guess that they realized gratuitous citations might be an issue, probably had a few bad apples, and decided that limits were a good idea to keep the quality of the submissions high.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In the dim past (40+ years ago?), people had no idea how often one was cited... so there was scant motivation to generate gratuitous citations of oneself by trading gratuitous citations of others. There was no "citation index", etc.
From even longer past, there has not been too much tradition of careful acknowledgement of prior art, especially not of competing art, and not of historical antecedents, whether well-known or obscure. That is, "scholarship" has rarely been relevant to publishability or enhanced status. So, no *need* to have substantial bibliographies, since as much would be ignored as possible.
Maybe time to air out the quotation from a very well-known mathematician, to the effect (and I think it was not a joke) that if one didn't read other peoples' papers, one would not have to ever cite them...
So, in mathematics, the current style has "evolved" to only citing things "logically necessary". Rather unhelpful even to fairly-expert readers, but helping the readers is not the main goal... >:-(
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<issue_start>username_0: [*Question originally found here*](https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/47691/36222)
---
In the past few months, I have been diagnosed for depression, anxiety, and ADHD. While learning this has been helpful, treatment made my already poor performance worse. Jumping around medications as well as the mental and emotional exhaustion that can come from counseling sessions made my academic pursuits almost impossible.
After medication and therapy, it seems that the only advice I can find to treat my conditions is more self-discipline. I don't disagree and find that it can be extremely helpful, but in this (for lack of a better term) recovery process, self-discipline is made harder. Does anyone who have had similar problems throughout their academic career have experience with "coping" mechanisms that go beyond "make a to-do list"? My goal is to one day enter a graduate program, but most steps I have found in researching both ADHD and depression/anxiety have been more suited for those entering non-academic careers or the parents of high school and grade school students.<issue_comment>username_1: My best advice: work hard, but leave time for hobbies, friends, and family. I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder in 9th grade. I am now a 3rd year PhD student with multiple fellowships and publications. Getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water (not beer), and going to the gym are things I value most. If you're ever in lab and feel like you're going crazy, stop what you're doing and go for a walk around campus. I do it all the time.
Hang in there and best of luck!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: **First, please know that you are not alone** and that it *is* possible to pursue a graduate education even with mental health issues. Several studies have actually indicated very high rates (as much as 40-60%) of anxiety and depression among graduate students *(Arnold, 2014; Bernstein, 2015; Wyatt & Oswalt, 2013)*. So, there are students who have mental health issues who are still pursuing a higher degree. That said, just because it is common doesn't mean it is accepted. Stigma is common in academia, as it is in the rest of society *(Pescosolido, 2013)*, and students may fear being stigmatized if they discuss or reveal their condition. Also, mental health issues, like any physical illness, bring additional challenges that must be managed. **Fortunately, there are several things you can do to identify the self-management approaches that may help you succeed.**
*(As personal context, I have a neurological condition and have experienced periods of depression. I am successfully engaged in a doctoral program).*
**Take care of yourself**
You rightly noted that some of your cognitive difficulties may be due to your mental health symptoms. Depression, anxiety, and ADHD have all been shown to compromise executive function, such as attention, concentration, memory, and problem solving *(Biederman et al., 2006; Castaneda, Tuulio-Henriksson, Marttunen, Suvisaari, & Lönnqvist, 2008)*. As you continue with treatment, you may find that some of these difficulties begin to resolve. Whether you pursue graduate school or work, prioritizing your own health and wellness is key *(Myers, 2012)*. Some graduate programs are notorious for suggesting students engage in “self-care” but have such grueling schedules that this is difficult. Guard your well-being ruthlessly. If your physical and mental well-being suffer, so will your performance in other areas of life. Specific suggestions:
* Be open with your mental health providers about your academic and
career intentions. Discuss treatment options in the context of being
able to effectively function in a graduate school environment. If you
find certain medications are causing side effects that impact your
academic functioning, bring it up and address it. Determine whether
there is a risk of developing a tolerance to your medications so that
they would become ineffective. If that’s the case, work to identify
two different medication regimens, so when you develop a tolerance to
one in the middle of the school year, you can seamlessly switch to
the other. I have found many professionals are sympathetic to
students who express interest in higher education and was able to
effectively partner with my providers.
* Identify a routine that contributes to your well-being and stick to
it. For example, if you know that an irregular sleep schedule
contributes to your anxiety, make your sleep schedule a priority. If
you know your depression worsens when you don’t get enough light, and
realize you’ll be working in a dark, interior office, ask your
provider about light-box options.
* Consider tracking your schedule (sleep/waking times, eating times and
amounts, etc) and symptoms on an ongoing basis, or in periods when
your symptoms seem to worsen. This can help pinpoint instances where
your routine has become disrupted.
**Operationalize your academic challenges, then identify possible solutions**
First write down a detailed, specific list of the ways in which you are struggling academically. I posted several follow-up comments to your initial question, because it wasn't clear to me how your studies were being impacted by your symptoms. Determine if there are specific activities or tasks that seem to have become harder in recent months. Once you have list of specific examples, it will be easier to identify specific solutions. Some examples include:
* *Problem:* Low energy/motivation. *Possible Solution:* Create a concrete schedule, identifying when you will complete brief, manageable assignments. Unlike a to-do list that is open ended, this involves scheduling writing your methods section for your biology paper at 6pm on Tuesday. Rather than dread completing a task at some point, you’ll know exactly when you need to knock that out.
* *Problem:* Poor concentration makes it hard to focus on long assignments. *Possible Solution:* Break tasks into smaller components (e.g., breaking a paper into individual sections), and take breaks in between. Remove other distractions (cell phone, email, TV) from the area where you are working. If you can’t resist temptation, go to the library and leave your phone at home.
* *Problem:* Poor attention makes it hard to take notes during lecture. *Possible Solution:* Audio-record lectures so you can listen to them later at your own speed. Join a study group where you can compare your notes and understanding with other students.
* *Problem:* Difficulties with memory impact school work. *Possible Solution:* Identify new ways to study, such as taking more extensive notes, re-writing your notes (this is more effective than re-reading them), or using mnemonic devices.
Your therapist should be able to help you think through many of these issues. Additionally, your school may have resources for adapting to learning difficulties.
**Identify external supports**
In addition to the internal coping skills you are developing personally and academically, it is important to identify external supports. Social support is crucial to successfully managing ongoing mental and physical health conditions *(Gallant, 2003; Kolbe, 2002)*. You’ve mentioned some feelings of embarrassment and worry about how you will be perceived due to your diagnosis. Disclosure of a mental health diagnosis is a delicate subject, primarily because there is still a great deal of stigma towards mental illness. Your decision to disclose will likely depend on whether you trust that the person you are speaking with will be accepting and that the disclosure will not result in negative consequences. In some cases, you might decide if feels safer not to disclose; this is your choice.
Possible sources of social support include:
* Family and friends
* Your therapist and/or medication prescriber
* Professors, colleagues, classmates – You may find you are comfortable
discussing issues with trusted classmates, but not with your
supervisors. Also, keep in mind that schools and employers cannot
legally ask about mental health conditions in interviews and you are
not required to mention it. However, once you are hired, you can
request certain accommodations (*see next point*).
* ADA officer – If you live in the United States, mental health
conditions are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act,
meaning that employers and schools must make “reasonable
accommodations” to allow you to function within that environment
*(Leibert, 2003)*. Examples of accommodations include longer testing
periods or moving through the program at a slower pace. Most schools
have an ADA officer or office that oversees students who want to
receive accommodations. Even if you choose not to disclose your
condition to your program, you can use the school’s ADA officer as a
source of support *(Willyard, 2012)*.
* Some academics and graduate students have been open about their own
mental health conditions and the impact it has had on their careers
*(Keely, 2013; Kelsky, 2013a and 2013b; Shine, 2013)*. These blogs can
provide additional examples of managing mental health conditions in
academia.
There are two brief caveats. First, if you choose to disclose you might need to educate people on your conditions. They may not initially understand how it impacts you. You can choose how detailed you want to be; sometimes a general explanation is sufficient. Second, when illnesses are “invisible,” and the symptoms are not immediately apparent to those around us, even people who know you have a certain condition can “forget” about the impact it has on your life on a daily basis. You may need to remind them from time to time, and you may also need to remind yourself! This leads to my last point…
**Remember to give yourself credit for managing both academic and personal challenges.**
Managing a long-term health condition requires a constant amount of mental and physical energy (e.g., ensuring you get enough sleep, remembering to take medication each day, coping with ongoing side effects). Keep this in mind when you are tempted to compare your own performance, achievements, and routines to other students. Other students may not be facing the same difficulties, and may approach their academic endeavors differently. **I’m not suggesting your illness will be an excuse to perform less well than others; rather, remember that in some ways you might be starting at a disadvantage, which makes your accomplishments all the more hard-earned.**
**References**
* <NAME>. (2014, February 4). Paying graduate school's mental
toll. [Web log post]. Retrieved from: <http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2014_02_04/caredit.a1400031>
* <NAME>. (2015, May 13). Depression afflicts almost half of STEM
students at UC Berkeley. [Web log post]. Retrieved from: <http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2015_05_13/caredit.a1500125>
* <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>.,
<NAME>., & <NAME>. (2006). Impact of psychometrically
defined deficits of executive functioning in adults with attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder.*The American Journal of Psychiatry,
163*(10), 1730-1738.
* <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2008). A review on cognitive impairments in
depressive and anxiety disorders with a focus on young adults.
*Journal of Affective Disorders, 106*(1), 1-27.
* <NAME>. (2003). The influence of social support on chronic
illness self-management: A review and directions for research. *Health
Education & Behavior, 30*(2), 170–195.
* Keely. (2013, February 11). How to keep moving forward, even when
your brain hates you. [Web log post}. Retrieved from:
<http://www.littledose.keelium.com/2013/02/11/how-to-keep-moving-forward-even-when-your-brain-hates-you/>
* <NAME>. (2013a, February 13). Academia and Mental Illness: A
Preliminary List of Resources. [Web log post]. Retrieved from:
<http://theprofessorisin.com/2013/02/13/academia-and-mental-illness-a-list-of-resources/>
* <NAME>. (2013b, March 13). Managing Mental Illness in
Graduate School: Some Recommendations (A Guest Post). [Web log post].
Retrieved from: <http://theprofessorisin.com/2013/03/13/3546/>
* <NAME>. (2002). The influence of socioeconomic and psychological
factors on patient adherence to self-management strategies. *Disease
Management & Health Outcomes, 10*(9), 551–570.
* <NAME>. (2003). The mentally ill and access to higher
education: a review of trends, implications, and future possibilities
for the americans with disabilities act and he rehabilitation act.
*International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 7*.
* <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., <NAME>., &
<NAME>. (2012). Self-care practices and perceived stress levels
among psychology graduate students. *Training and Education in
Professional Psychology, 6*(1), 55.
* Pescosolido, <NAME>. (2013). "The public stigma of mental illness
* What do we think; What do we know; What can we prove?." *Journal of Health and Social Behavior 54*(1), 1-21.
* <NAME>. (2013, December 18). On Depression, and the Toll
Academia Exacts. [Web log post]. Retrieved from:
<https://chroniclevitae.com/news/228-on-depression-and-the-toll-academia-exacts>
* <NAME>. (2012). Need to heal thyself? gradPsych, January. Retrieved from: <https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2012/01/heal.aspx>
* <NAME>., & <NAME>. (2013). Comparing mental health issues
among undergraduate and graduate students. American Journal of Health
Education, 44(2), 96-107.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: You may find "An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness" by <NAME>, inspirational or at least indirectly helpful. Jamison had Bipolar disorder and got her PhD in psychology, with a focus on mood disorders.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: As someone with Asperger's Syndrome/Bipolar disorder, who unfortunately did not get an accurate diagnosis until late in high school, I shall give a little advice I wish I had been given earlier in life....and that I wish I had heeded even when I had been given it.
Do not be afraid to seek out support groups. Whether these are just groups of people with similar diagnoses, or actual psychotherapy groups they can help tremendously. Afraid is actually the wrong term, but I cannot find the right one at present.
If you feel the medications you are on are not working, or are noticing side effects that make studies or peer interaction difficult, notify your physician/psychiatrist immediately.
Time management is key. Most already know this, but for someone with ADHD, heck everyone could use this reminder. Have a white board, or something you can write your daily activities on and stick to them. It only takes a few missteps to fall off the wagon, so to speak.
Take time to relax, socialize, but not to the detriment of your studies. Seems like common sense, but since when has sense been common.
Also, there is one thought path to avoid at all costs. The whole I am a(n) *insert diagnosis here* therefore I *insert action here* mentality.
All in all, you have ADHD/depression/anxiety and will be dealing with these issues, but they do not have to be a brick wall that stops you from achieving your goals.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: Don't self-diagnose or self-medicate. It maybe tempting (especially if you are in a life-sciences or even more-so in neuroscience) to do so, but you want an objective evaluation.
Having said that, find out if your doctor thinks the condition is manageable and follow their advice. If you think your brain disorder contributes (at least on some level) to you academic success, be honest in discussing it with the doctor. They will, more than likely, accommodate your wishes as long as they are not dangerous to you.
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm working on a project report which we plan to publish as a research paper later after some more work. In my report I have used some images from the [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) and Wikipedia. They all are either in the public domain or licensed under the Creative Commons license.
I would like to provide attribution to the media source in the report and the paper. I have googled it but could not find a source which explains it with an example.
* Is there a standard way of providing attribution in a report/paper?
* Can I provide attribution in the bibliography along with the cited papers?
* I'm using *bibtex* for references. Is it possible to handle the media attribution using bibtex?
* Does anyone know of a published paper which provides attribution to the media sources so that I can have a look?
**EDIT:**
Does anyone know of a proper way to provide attribution in captions because I think attribution in captions will reduce readability.
<issue_comment>username_1: Why don't you provide a list of media sources in the appendix similar to the obligatory literature list.
You number the images anyway inside the paper, so you can easily reference them in an appendix. Depending on your textprocessing tool you also can generate backlinks to the images for hypertext reading.
This could look like this:
---
Apendix C...
============
sources of media used in this paper
-----------------------------------
For detailed Information on Licences see [Link... creative commons, gnu, whatever...]
* Figure 1 (p. 42) Apples, Takeaway (Own work) via Wikimedia, Licence CC-BY-SA 4.0
* Figure 2 (p. 69) Oranges, Finsh, Ellen Levy (own work) via Wikimedia, Licence CC-BY-SA 3.0
* Figure 2 (p. 104) Tree, Gimmel, Benjamin (own work) via Wikimedia, Licence CC-BY-SA 3.0
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: First, if you take public domain or CC-0 images you're not *forced* to provide attribution.
But to answer your question: you can trim most of the string that Wikimedia Commons suggests, it's just a concatenation of all the data we have to be safe. In particular:
* "own work", "[Public domain]" and "via Wikimedia Commons" are always fine to remove;
* there is no need to link the license if you refer to it with a unique code like "CC-BY-SA-3.0-US" ([case law in USA](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Creative_Commons_license&oldid=811572496#Drauglis_v._Kappa_Map_Group.2C_LLC));
* you can usually trim the title or link for the file by using the permalink, for instance today's featured picture <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhenium_single_crystal_bar_and_1cm3_cube.jpg> becomes <https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=11594094> .
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently a summer student working on a project suggested by my supervisor. While the project will not directly result in any publication, it will open up avenues for further research for the group. I have completed the main objective for the project ahead of schedule.
When I originally started working with my supervisor, I expressed that two of my goals for the summer were to (1) contribute to the group in a meaningful way and (2) the possibility of publication. I feel that (1) will be satisfied by my current work, but (2) will not. I have one more month left on my research term.
I originally agreed to my supervisor's project suggestion on faith; I didn't understand the scope or scale of the other possibilities and I trusted that it would satisfy both of our goals.
Would it be too forward of me to ask to contribute to something that will result in publication (considering that I am an undergraduate and given that there is only one month left)? I would like to work on a publishable result, but I also don't want to mooch off of the hard work of my group members.<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Is it acceptable for an undergraduate researcher to ask to work on a project that will yield publishable results?
>
>
>
Yes, of course! There is nothing wrong with expressing your goals for the research project to your supervisor, and I think any reasonable research supervisor would appreciate that sort of honesty from their mentees.
>
> When I originally started working with my supervisor, I expressed that two of my goals for the summer were to (1) contribute to the group in a meaningful way and (2) the possibility of publication.
>
>
>
Sounds like a reasonable list of goals to me. But, for your 2nd goal, the possibility of a publication coming out of your work is only that: a "possibility." As you may be relatively new to research, it is probably a good idea for you to keep in mind that not all research projects result in publishable results (as [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/732/why-dont-people-publish-failures) highlights).
>
> Would it be too forward of me to ask to contribute to something that will result in publication (considering that I am an undergraduate and given that there is only one month left)?
>
>
>
This is where it gets a bit trickier. You only have one month left on the project, and it may be difficult for your supervisor to find something meaningful, and publishable, to work on in that relatively short amount of time.
On top of that, there may be other factors working "against" you. For example, suppose that there is a gap your group is looking to fill, but you do not have the background necessary to make a meaningful contribution. What are they to do in this case? Drop everything they are doing to get you up to speed? I think you can see that this may be an unreasonable request.
For all I know, you are an extremely bright student who is more than capable of making a breakthrough on a tight deadline. But, if there are gaps in your knowledge, and it would take someone a nontrivial amount of effort to get you up to speed, then that could be problematic. There are other researchers in the group, and depending on the group dynamics, it may be difficult (or easy) for them to make accommodations for you on such short notice.
In the end, I think you should definitely have a chat with your supervisor, give them the lowdown on what you'd like to accomplish in your last month. Then, listen.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Nothing wrong with asking. If your data is OK, it is conceivable that the data could be included in a published work. Gaining authorship on this paper is another story that I wouldn't count on given you are only around for another month.
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a brand-new (read: started 3 weeks ago) Ph.D. student in Computer Engineering at an R1 institution in the U.S. I was offered a position in a particular lab due to some prior experience I had on a topic of interest; my funding isn't tied to this particular lab though. The faculty member heading the lab offered me the chance to start early and get a head start on research this summer, which I gladly accepted.
As I said, I'm about 3 weeks in now, and I'm starting to get worried about the feasibility of the task they've assigned to me. Part of me wants to just chalk it up to my own inexperience and tell myself that it's nothing, but I had an unsettling experience with one of the other graduate students recently. Specifically, he told me that he had been originally assigned to work on the same task, and after some research he had concluded that it was infeasible at best (due to the sheer complexity of it) and a waste of time at worst (since even if it was completed, its performance would be terrible compared to existing applications). This grad student is getting ready to graduate with his M.S., so he's not brand-new like I am.
So my questions are: (1) do my concerns about the feasibility of the task have any substance (given my inexperience with large research projects) and (2) if they do, how do I approach my adviser/faculty member with them?<issue_comment>username_1: Ultimately you are the judge but by the looks of it, I would consider 3 weeks as too early to decide if a task is feasible or not. I am assuming that you know the colleague who graduated just for 3 weeks. That is a short time to know someone and calibrate their opinions with your own understanding and capabilities.
If the supervisor has given you the task despite the other colleague did not doing much on it there might be some weight in the task. I would suggest you do your own thorough investigation and give at least 3-4 more weeks trying to understand all aspects of the task at hand. Prepare a document and clearly mention what are the risks and opportunities in front of you, what are the related works surrounding the task.
At the same time, try to best gauge the intentions of involved folks, may be ask questions to other people around the lab, find experts online and write mails.
With this strategy, I think, at best you will lead to some groundbreaking ideas or findings and at worst you will learn a lesson in how to systemically conduct research, gauge opinions of others and strengthen the collaboration channels.
Hope this helps.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Moreover I agree with Ketan, I just want to add a few things though
1. Talk to the grad student and try to understand why he feels that the task would not work or even if it did then it won't be better than the existing one. Try to get his logic behind this conclusion. Also ask if he could let you check his calculations and documentation of the task when he did it.
After doing so, if you also come to the same conclusion that the task will not work out then I would suggest that you make a step by step report with proper references and present it to your supervisor one on one and show your concern. Do remember that you will have to defend you point so be ready for it.
And the most important thing of all, be very very polite in doing so and try to give him a feeling that you encountered a confusion and you seek his help!!!
Good luck
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_3: Great question! You research the topic, build your knowledge base on all angles, and then challenge the feasibility of the project with an offer to tilt the project toward what you think is feasible.
If the topic is complex , that does not make it non feasible. If the topic is complex and it leads to a discovery, than you either rise to the challenge or leave it to someone else. Either case - do a complete literature review before you talk to your advisor.
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<issue_start>username_0: How to write a proper reference for an image I'm going to use for my thesis?
This image is a screenshot of a software installed on my own PC and I am the one who took it myself. It's not from another website.<issue_comment>username_1: You don't need a citation if it's your own creation like the rest of the thesis.
However, per your comment, it sounds like you included an image but then never referred to it in the text (no e.g. "As shown in Figure 1,"), and the reviewer might want you to fix that. The image must be relevant to some part of the text. Otherwise, you either have an irrelevant image or the text is missing something important.
You might also want to be sure you describe what the image is, what the name of the software shown in that screenshot is (and if appropriate, any citation to the software).
Did you use the figure in a publication (e.g. conference paper)? If so, you do need to include a citation to that paper.
If none of those things are what the reviewer is referring to, it may be the reviewer thinks you're using somebody else's image and you can just respond to say it's a screenshot you took. This might prompt an alternative explanation of what they're looking for.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I would include the name, version number and citation to the software you've taken a screenshot of, e.g.:
>
> Results of a photon analysis in Glomer 2.4 (Tur et al., 2014) are shown in figure 1.
>
>
>
That way, your reader can replicate your screenshot easily -- if they read your thesis years later, Glomer 4.0's interface might be very different, but they should be able to hunt down a copy of Glomer 2.4 and use that instead. The citation might be a publication describing the software or the citation of a website describing it.
Of course, if Glomer is something you've produced as part of your thesis, this is unnecessary (e.g. "I created Glomer 1.0, a software application to ... Figure 1 displays its main menu, where ...").
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: When referencing a screenshot, just write below or above it like;
Fig. 1: Adopted from (Source)
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<issue_start>username_0: I'd like to find a suitable research topic (specifically, in mathematics) to work on, where 'suitable' means that it's publishable and amenable to being completed in, say, 6-12 months. While there are plenty of topics I'm interested in and plenty of questions I'd like to answer, I'm not sure how to gauge the difficulty of a topic. I suppose this is normally part of learning to become a researcher in grad school; but while I have a (useless) PhD, my advisor handed me explicit problems to solve and summarily refused to allow me to change them when I'd asked. I'm also in industry now rather than academia (and not even in a real industry-research job), which means that I have little time--- certainly far less than a real researcher--- for useful work. Nevertheless, I'd still like to do whatever I can given my situation, and I can attend a few conferences, retain access to journals, etc.; I just don't have the time or resources that someone in academia would. So, how I can find a specific research topic?<issue_comment>username_1: "I'd like to find a suitable research topic (specifically, in mathematics) to work on, where 'suitable' means that it's publishable and amenable to being completed in, say, 6-12 months."
Sorry to disappoint you, but that is not how mathematics works. If you are a professional, the possibility to produce a steady flow of results comes not from your ability to estimate the time needed for each particular project but from the general approach which is a combination of some pieces of folk wisdom like "cut the tree that matches your strength" and "don't put all your eggs into one basket". If you are an amateur, it comes from the sheer enthusiasm and the fresh point of view on things (also available to and important for a professional, BTW, but playing secondary role to a methodical approach there).
In both cases, the first question you asked is just meaningless (for that simple reason that no random person on the web can even approximately estimate your strength or tell which topics will carry you away and which won't, if you do not want to invoke higher level considerations). Either learn to live in the ever-shifting treacherous alternative reality based on the crazy concoction of high and low speeds, short euphoric moments and long depressive periods, persistent pressure and all-out spurts, rational calculations and pure luck, or consider another career path taking some "safe" job where the result is directly proportional to the product of the time and the effort spent.
As to your second question: "How to find a topic to research?", you don't find the topic; rather it finds you. Just go around and read papers you can understand and talk to mathematicians you know about what they are doing. Everybody is stuck with some "little thing" that does not require too much time to explain and if you can help someone to get unstuck in their project, you may easily get three things at once: a reputation, a joint paper, and a friend.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: While I am in a completely different field, what I would recommend you is participating local conferences, seminars in your area. Universities also regularly invite famous speakers, go learn, ask questions, talk to them.
This is a good way to see what kind of research topics other people do, and good way to find possible mentors or at least useful comments on possible research topics.
On the other parts I agree with username_1: there is no magic wand that tells you how long a project will be, especially if you are new at the field. These are not home-work assignments where people know beforehand the answer, the difficult and possible pitfalls. If it is a project that you can finish and publish in 6 month in spite you have no time to research, maybe it is not a particularly difficult project. But can lead you better ones on the long run, and lead to other projects.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: While I agree to some extent with username_1, I think it is possible to actively choose problems that you can finish in a relatively short time frame. Here are general and specific suggestions.
1. **Choose your problems carefully.** You can only make gauge how long a problem will roughly take you to make progress if (a) you understand what has already been done and (b) you have a fairly clear plan of how to make progress. This means you may spend weeks or months going through potential ideas for problems before you come across one you like that you have a plan for solving. Such plans could come from being something similar you've done before or following the strategy of a previous paper.
2. **Ask other mathematicians.** This could be another professor you had or a maybe fellow grad student. It's possible they have more problems than time to work on (I know I do), and some of them may be rather clear cut.
3. **Read the** (Amer. Math.) **Monthly.** If you're not too focused on a certain area, the Monthly is a good source of ideas for problems which don't require too much background to understand. I sometimes look at the there for ideas for problems for undergrads or high school students. While a lot of articles in the Monthly aren't so "deep" (some are), many of them are very interesting, and can suggest similar projects (which can be publishable in normal journals). Since you're not "in academia" anymore, I'm guessing you're wanting to do this for your own enjoyment, and you can do fun research that isn't necessarily deep.
4. **Check out questions on MathOverflow and Math.SE.** (I'm just mentioning this since we're on SE now, but I think the Monthly is a better approach.) People ask interesting questions many of which are unanswered, and I've gotten ideas for little projects from these sites(none of which I've done, of course--but other people have). (Unanswered doesn't mean the answer's not in the literature, but for a few questions it's pretty clear it's not.) Of course, you will often need to do a serious literature search, because the right references may not be given to you as they are likely to with Monthly articles.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: After failing the first year of the PhD program at a top university, I know that my poor performance resulted from dealing with a tremendously debilitating psychological condition, but it all was exacerbated by a serious lack of time management skills and poor organization. This academic year, I constantly underestimated the time it would takes me to complete every assignment. Consequently, I found myself asking for extensions and even then, I was incapable of making the extension. I can't use the excuse that I simply am unfamiliar with the subject matter, as I have earned a master degree in this field with honors from another prestigious university and worked for several years prior to starting the program. I also can't blame my failure on procrastination, as I generally start weekly assignments 3-5 days prior to the deadline, and work on term projects for at least a month prior to their deadline. To say the least, my professors are irritated with me. Their frustration in part comes from their knowledge of my abilities. Every single one has set me aside and provided candid feedback and in their words...once I manage to complete an assignment and submit it on time, "the content and quality is pretty good". Now that my health has improved, their feedback confirms my self-assessment and I am 1,000% certain that my failure to thrive is due to serious time management and organization shortcomings.
For those of you out there that have encountered a similar situation and been able to overcome it, what did you do? What strategies did you use for completing assignments on time (specifically writing assignments or a critical and technical nature)? Can you recommend any resources that have helped you tackle these problems?<issue_comment>username_1: For me, time management comes down to putting in the time in an organized manner. What I have learned most about being a graduate student is to track how much time I'm putting in by using a spreadsheet. I track the task, time-in, time-out, details, and also keep a ToDo list. This helps me make certain I am putting in enough time and managing my tasks. I set a goal for how many hours this is going to take and meet or exceed that.
As an example, I failed one of my comprehensive exams and had to retake it. I outlined all the material, set a weekly schedule where I worked 30 hours per week for a month straight, which was when the next test was, and stuck to it. I specified each day/week the tasks that needed to be complete and knew that if I put in the hours I would be able to complete the task on time.
There are fancy apps to do this with, but I haven't had much luck with them. I find a simple spreadsheet as I outlined above is perfect, and lets me see my progress as I go. I've usually been pretty good with being on time for projects, but noticed in grad school the task list piles up quite a bit and unexpectedly.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: In my time as a PhD student over the past few years, I have really benefited from the simple old-fashioned technique of just making lists on a small notepad. Whether in lab or at home, if I feel disorganized or anxious, I just write down the things I know I need to do. As well, I can check the list of things I have already written down earlier in the day. Putting things on paper by hand is really a simple and effective way to get things "out" so to speak. Has worked great for me in my first 3 years of my PhD. If I am on the go and can't write something down Siri (on my IPhone) is awesome for reminders. Don't stress too much either. Work hard, stay organized, but make sure you still have time for sleep, hobbies, friends, and family. Otherwise you will drive yourself crazy. I ensure this for myself by not working on Saturday's or Sunday's. Believe me, in the long-term, a rested and clear-minded scientist working Monday-Friday will outcompete a mentally exhausted scientist working 7 days a week. I learned these things while an undergraduate student from one of my favorite professors. Not only was he an awesome teacher, scientist, and Department Chair, he was a Army Colonel working in military intelligence several weeks out out the year. I figured this guy must know a thing or two about life. I put it into practice and come to find, he was right!
Best of luck to you!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: Adding to username_2's answer (the advise he got was given almost verbatim to me by a revered mentor in my undergraduate days), keep up with your classes. Set aside a half hour or so for each class to go over the material covered, soon after (ideally after class, at least the same day). Make sure you understand the material, if not, go over other texts (there are tons of excellent lecture notes on the 'net), discuss it with classmates, or the assistant or lecturer. Graduate courses cover lots of material, very fast. Get lost, and it is next to impossible to get back on track.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I have been out of school for 5 years. My previous writing experience was nearly 10 years ago as I completed a BA in 18th century literature of a foreign language, and a BA in cultural anthropology. I've changed field for my masters degree and I am currently working on a PhD in a biomedical/population health science. This year I have struggled through most of the program because of the writing. One issue I've had is that qualities I once considered as strengths are bringing on my demise. The eloquent communication, pungent analysis and metaphorical language are no longer strengths and succinctness is not part of my style ( I actually don't know how to be brief). My mother tongue is a romance language, which may to some degree speak to my style of communication (but this is only an excuse). An honest self-assessment has shown me that when making a point I always resort to using an allegory to build suspense or just provide clear contextual knowledge to my audience.
My issues is this, in scientific writing manuscripts are often limited to 3500 words and providing long thought-provoking expository narratives translates into a ramble or in the worse case, it appears that I am just spilling out information to it's legitimize myself in the eyes of the audience.
Short of taking a technical writing course, I am trying to work on these issues on my own over the summer. My plan so far is to write a 500-words weekly blog post (NYTimes editorial style) on an issue in my field and to conduct as many critical appraisals of articles I review in preparation of a literature review I am working on as a way to familiarize myself with technical writing style for scientific publications.
I don't know if this is the best route, and would like to hear your suggestions on how to proceed. What type of activities and deliverables do you think would help me work on honing technical writing skills, aside from working on a manuscript? What reference books/websites have you used in the past to help you improve technical scientific writing for academia?<issue_comment>username_1: In my own experience, I have found the best way to improve my writing is by reading papers from groups who publish high-quality work. I know with my first, first-author paper, I went through writing probably 50 different versions. It's just something that takes time to work on and develop. I know I will continue trying to improve as well. Best of luck!
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: First, don't be too hard on yourself. There are many scientists who struggle to write clearly and concisely. Additionally, some of your writing skills may be hidden strengths. For instance, being able to communicate complex scientific ideas to your readers through allegories can be very valuable.
Still, there are certain activities and resources that can be helpful. The following are standard texts in my graduate program for improving writing skills:
* <NAME>. (2004). *The sense of structure: writing from the
reader's perspective.* Longman.
* <NAME>. (2004). *Expectations: Teaching writing from a reader's
perspective.* <NAME>.
* <NAME>., & <NAME>. (1990). The science of scientific
writing. *American Scientist,78*(6), 550-558.
* <NAME>. (2007). *How to write a lot: A practical guide to
productive academic writing.* American Psychological Association.
* <NAME>. (2000). *Essentials of writing biomedical research papers* -
2nd Edition. McGraw-Hill.
I attended one of Gopen's writing seminars on my campus several years ago and found it to be very helpful. It made me radically re-think how I organize my writing and has helped me streamline my papers. His "The sense of structure" is an excellent starting text, while "Expectations" provides more supplemental information. Gopen & Swan (1990) will give you a nice overview of his technique. Silvia's book is given to all students when they enter the program. It's short, well-written, and covers not only writing well, but writing efficiently. Zeiger's book, like Gopen's, is more about the mechanics of writing and will help you clarify and shorten your writing.
In addition to these texts, I've found three techniques that have improved my writing.
**"Kill your darlings"**
Start by writing your initial draft of a paper in whatever style seems most fluid for you. Don't worry about reducing your length or verbosity at this point; that will probably hinder your flow of thought and slow the writing process. Once you've written the first draft you can worry about cutting for length and clarity. Next, take that first, raw, overly-expository draft of your paper and cut it by 20% of its length. I prefer to do this by word count, but you can do it by page length. Let it sit for a day or two, then cut the second draft by 20% of its current length. You can continue this exercise until you hit a roadblock and feel you can cut no more, but I usually go through at least three cycles. At this point, if you are able, give the paper to a close friend or classmate and ask them to cut 20%. Often, they aren't as married to certain phrasings and they are able to do this readily! Granted, 20% is an arbitrary number, but the point is to learn how to reduce the volume of your writing gradually. Overtime you'll be surprised how much more natural this will become. A quick google search can provide you with examples of common words and phrases that are generally unnecessary in writing, providing you with a starting point for this task.
**Keep a "Look Book" of well-written articles**
I have a folder on my computer where I keep articles or pieces of writing that are particularly well-written. These are often instances where complex ideas were explained clearly and succinctly. I especially earmark any examples that pertain directly to my area of study. When I feel stuck writing a particular section or paragraph, I look back at these examples for inspiration.
**Write using active voice**
This suggestion is a bit contentious. Traditionally, scientific students have been encouraged to write in the passive voice, and some faculty and journals still require this convention. In recent years, the scientific community has begun to acknowledge the benefits of writing in an active voice (Hudson, 2013). Active voice is generally clearer and is often more concise. If your program will allow it, this can be an effective way to reduce the complexity of your writing while maintaining your meaning.
**Additional Citations**
* <NAME>. (2013). The Struggle with Voice in Scientific Writing.
*Journal of Chemical Education, 90*(12), 1580-1580.
* <NAME>. (2013). Who really said you should "kill your
darlings"? Retrieved from:
<http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/10/18/_kill_your_darlings_writing_advice_what_writer_really_said_to_murder_your.html>
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I have found David Lindsay's books very invaluable in my journey of scientific writing and I would therefore recommend them in addition to those listed above.
1. A guide to scientific writing by <NAME>. This is a very concise book which gives you an overview of scientific writing.
2. "Scientific writing = thinking in words"-<NAME>indsay. It's available online at this [link](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scientific-Writing-Thinking-Words-Lindsay/dp/0643100466).
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: We all know how important proper attribution of ideas is. At the same time, certain things have become basic enough that citing the paper where they were first discussed is overkill: to give an extreme example, if you need to do some differentiation in your math/physics paper, you don't need to go and cite Newton and Leibniz. Now, on occasion students ask me how one can determine if a piece of knowledge is common enough that they can forgo a citation. The rule of thumb I give them is:
>
> If it is something that is explained in a standard first-year undergrad textbook, then anybody who is going to read your papers knows about it and you don't need to provide a citation.
>
>
>
[Here I want to emphasize that I give this to them as a rule of thumb, and I always tell them to ignore it and provide the relevant citation if they think it is necessary to do so in a specific case]
Are there better or alternative ways of drawing the line?<issue_comment>username_1: I find Latour and Woolgar's spectrum of "facticity" a useful tool for thinking about these questions ([a nice summary can be found at this link](http://www.uk.sagepub.com/gobo/Chapter-05a.pdf)). It breaks scientific statements into five rough categories by level of certainty in the assertion:
1. Speculations - don't have to be backed by anything
2. Descriptions - not established, so need to be directly backed by evidence
3. Tentatively established - need to be backed by citations
4. Well accepted - should be stated, but don't need evidence or citations
5. Tacit - should not even be stated
Where exactly a fact lies on this spectrum depends on the community and state in discussion. In general, the broader the audience, the less well accepted facts should be assumed to be. I think the notion "Should everybody reading this have been taught in a class?" is a good one, though undergraduate is not necessarily the stopping point. For a machine learning audience, for example, you should assume everybody has had graduate level machine learning courses, while for a biology audience you should not assume they have even had undergraduate computer science.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Let me quote <NAME> and <NAME> (2009, pp. 26–27) with a good overview on this topic:
"You need to reference when you:
* use facts, figures or specific details you pick from somewhere to support a point you’re making – you report
* use a framework or model another author has devised. Let’s say you ‘acknowledge’
* use the exact words of your source – you quote
* restate in your own words a specific point, finding or argument an author has made – you paraphrase
* sum up in a phrase or a few sentences a whole article or chapter, a key finding/conclusion, or a section – you summarise.
You don’t need to reference if you:
* believe that what you are writing is widely known and accepted by all as ‘fact’. This is usually called ‘common knowledge’
* can honestly say, ‘I didn’t have to research anything to know that!’.
But
If finding it out did take effort, show the reader the research you did by referencing it."
---
<NAME>. & <NAME>. (2009). Referencing & Understanding Plagiarism. Basingstoke:Palgrave Macmillian.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am teaching English for an Employment course; the entire course usually takes 2 months.
This semester I have a student who is **talking too much** in the class and for anything that I teach he has something to say—sometimes related to the course and sometimes not. However, he performs well enough in my class activities and homework and he doesn't seem to be deliberately rude.
He is not a chatterbox—he's not talking continuously for a long time, but for many and many times, but each time he speaks for a short time. Sometimes he is also a bit aggressive, saying things like "non-human employers" or "psychologists talking empty for money". I think he is suffering from [aspergers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome) since he also usually brings some maths stuff to read in class.
How can I deal with such an unpleasant situation?
BTW, I am a woman teacher and the student is a man; does this makes him more rude?<issue_comment>username_1: In the first place, I would take him aside for a quiet chat. Nothing aggressive - just explain how you see the situation he is creating. If he has some interesting points to make, do listen. But also make it clear you are teaching *all* the students in class, not just one. This, hopefully, should be sufficient.
The second stage -if needed- is a serious warning in class, in front of everyone. Other students need to see you are taking things in hand. He has been forewarned.
The third level is OUT, plus whatever disciplinary measures are current in your institution.
Unfortunately, just ignoring him will not help him see his errors.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: Introduction
============
I have responsibility for students with alternate needs in my academic department (of a UK University). I also have responsibility for quality in teaching and learning. There are two issues that you raise here which are different, and being aware that they are different is necessary to understand routes to a solution.
There are different kinds of *talking in class*. There is the situation where two (or many) students are talking to each other whilst the teacher/lecturer continues with teaching. We teach in very large theatres (in hundreds) and this sometimes happens that the noise level at the back prevents students hearing the lecture, but the lecturer is unaware of the chatting until there is a complaint; or on some occasions the lecturer *is* aware of it and continue regardless!
There is the situation where the talking is from one student alone, either to themselves or chatting to you, interrupting you or asking questions of you with great regularity.
Tourette's
==========
You have implied it is the one individual situation in your question, so I will constrain my answer to that situation specifically. One individual may be talking a lot for several reasons, some of which may be due to a specific condition. For example, a student with [Tourette's](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourette_syndrome) may call out, involuntarily, and sometimes convert the interruption into a question to cover the situation. This is unlikely to be the position you have but I wanted to highlight it for others. This situation needs handling with some diplomacy and tact to avoid overly embarrassing yourself or the student in question. A student with Tourette's may appear overly aggressive or even acting improperly with respect to your gender. If this is the case you should seek advice from your special needs advisors.
Autistic Spectrum
=================
A student on the [Autistic Spectrum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_spectrum), which may include Asperger's, will relate to you differently an needs handling differently. For a student on the Autistic Spectrum they have more difficulty accepting that other people are present and see the class as a one-to-one conversation with you and treat it as such. They would respond to as if no one else was present. If you asked a rhetorical question, such as "What do we think of this?" - they will answer immediately! If you ask "Do we all understand" they will very likely say no (another aspect of Asperger's). One of my students used to answer his phone in class (quite loudly) because he had overlooked the fact that he was not alone.
Several things that a teacher can do with one (or more) student on the Autistic Spectrum in their class at University. We need to make it clear when question can be asked and when not. *"I will explain how ..... and save any question until later. You can ask me questions after the end of class."* is a simple statement that can make the protocol clearer. Avoid saying "Ask me any questions". They will take it literally, including asking non-related questions. If you want a Q&A session you again have to be clear: *"I will take a small number of clarifying questions from different students."* - this makes it clear that you cannot answer all the questions from one person and that the time is finite.
Once the protocol is clearly established such students are happy to work within such a regime. It is likely that it has never been explained to them how it works. Their condition makes it difficult to work it out for themselves how this aspect of human interaction operates. It has to be spelled out for them, even as adults and even at very high levels of knowledge. If you're not sure, watch a bit more of [The Big Bang Theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory)!
Psychosis
=========
A final note, that we also teach students with [Psychosis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosis) which can manifest itself in various forms. This can include paranoia, delusional behaviour, threatening behaviour and so on. It can cause them to talk aloud in class (answering the voices they are hearing). Again, there may be gender related issues with this category of student and one should seek advice of the support professionals.
Summary
=======
So, when in context, you can see that talking to the student in a quiet chat is a good place to start as you may learn the reason for their behaviour, but not all categories of *"chatters"* are necessarily self-aware. We have to remember that in many cases we are the responsible adult in the relationship (to use a legal term). The responsibility of doing the **right** thing is ours.
---
Some resources:
* [Teaching Students with Asperger's at College](http://www.autism.org.uk/working-with/education/education-professionals-in-fe-and-he/guidelines-for-teaching-students-with-asperger-syndrome-in-further-education-colleges.aspx)
* [Teaching Students with Asperger's at University](http://www.autism.org.uk/working-with/education/education-professionals-in-fe-and-he/college-and-university-supporting-students-with-asperger-syndrome.aspx)
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: Having a paper accepted at an IEEE conference I would like to upload it to ArXiv. From the [FAQ](http://www.ieee.org/documents/author_faq.pdf):
>
> Can an author post his manuscript on a preprint server such as ArXiv?
> Yes. The IEEE recognizes that many authors share their unpublished
> manuscripts on public sites. Once manuscripts have been accepted for
> publication by IEEE, an author is required to post an IEEE copyright
> notice on his preprint. Upon publication, the author must replace the
> preprint with either 1) the full citation to the IEEE work with
> Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) or a link to the paper’s abstract in
> IEEE Xplore, or 2) the accepted version only (not the IEEEpublished
> version), including the IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with
> a link to the final, published paper in IEEE Xplore.
>
>
>
I am not quite sure what this exactly means. I have the latex source for the document I submitted to the conference. What modifications do I have to make in detail?
Do I have to add an extra page with "IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with a link to the final, published paper in IEEE Xplore". Where can I find the IEEE copyright notice?
I suppose I am not allowed to change any of the content, but what about the template? Do I have to use the format I submitted to the conference?<issue_comment>username_1: Once accepted, you will get proofs (and later the final version) of the paper that contain these copyright notices etc. This is what you will need to upload. Just wait, and you will see :-)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You just need to add appropriate header/footer information about the copyright. If you have used the IEEEtran LaTeX package to prepare your paper, then [there is a standard means of doing so detailed in this TeX.SE answer](https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/154503/72771).
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: According to [IEEE FAQ](https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/pubs/author_version_faq.pdf):
>
> Once articles have been accepted for publication by IEEE, authors are required to post an IEEE copyright notice on their preprints. Upon publication, authors must replace the preprints with either 1) the full citation to the IEEE works with Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) or 2) the accepted versions only (not the IEEE-published versions) with the DOI
>
>
>
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: Once or twice I had encountered papers which used quite convenient citation styles, which combined numbered and parenthetical references. The list of references at the end of the paper is sorted alphabetically, as in Harvard referencing, but also all references are numbered, so it looks like this:
[1] AuthorA (2015) ...
[2] AuthorB (2000) ...
[3] AuthorC (2010) ...
In the text, one might use numbers to save space ("as shown in [2],..."), or parenthetical reference: "as shown by AuthorB (2000),...". And it's really convenient, since depending on the situation you might choose how to cite. I failed to find the name of such citation style - is it at all standardized, or is it just the invention of those papers that I had encountered (as far as I remember, they were preprints from arXiv)?<issue_comment>username_1: There are so many styles - my advice is always to choose a style (preferably the one that the journal specifies) and stick to it. Mixing styles makes for uncomfortable reading.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: Speaking about major citation styles that I've seen, I think that it could be the *IEEE Citation Style*, as your example matches the [IEEE Style for electronic references](http://library.queensu.ca/book/export/html/5846) (for non-electronic references, the in-text citation is the same, with the only difference, being related to reference list, is that the year is located at the end of the reference entry).
Alternatively, if it is not the IEEE Style, it might be either a *publication-specific style*, adopted by a particular journal or other publication outlet, or a *hybrid style*, manually developed by some authors.
Naturally, speaking about using LaTeX for biblographies, there are a couple of aspects that I'd like to mention. Firstly, according to Mori (2009), the citation style that you are curious about resembles the *default* reference formatting style for LaTeX. Secondly, if you use (or plan to use) LaTeX for producing your publications, the following sources, in addition to the paper by Mori, might be quite helpful for *customizing* bibliographic features to required or desired style: [this guide](http://gking.harvard.edu/files/natbib2.pdf) by <NAME> (note that it describes a quite old version of `natbib` package - try to find a more up-to-date version or a similar detailed guide), [this brief guide](http://www-hep.colorado.edu/~jcumalat/4610_fall_10/bibtex_guide.pdf) by <NAME> and [this excellent answer](https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/25702/48376) by <NAME>.
**References**
<NAME>. (2009). Managing bibliographies with LaTeX. *TUGboat, 30*(1). Retrieved from <https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb30-1/tb94mori.pdf>
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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<issue_start>username_0: My supervisor is going to leave to work at another university before I finish my thesis. I'm not sure how this process works. Will this cause problems with me graduating?<issue_comment>username_1: This is a fairly common situation, but there are lots of ways in which it can be handled. A lot depends on the specifics of your situation and how well your advisor and your current department are getting along.
One important issue is the source of your funding. If you're currently funded by your advsior's research grant, and that grant is moving with your advisor to the new institution, then it is may not be possible for you to continue being funded through that grant as a research assistant at your current university but it might be possible to continue with that funding at your advisor's new institution.
On the other hand, if you're currently funded by institutional or departmental sources such as a departmental teaching assistantship, you might be able to keep that funding where you are but it would not be possible to take it to your advisor's new institution. However, it might be possible for you to obtain some kind of institutional or departmental funding at your advisor's new institution.
There are three common ways in which this handled:
1. The student continues at the advisor's old institution and the old institution allows the advisor to continue to supervise the student as an adjunct faculty member of the old institution. The student ultimately completes the degree at the old institution. This works best if the student is close to completion and has funding that is independent of the advisor's grants.
2. The student transfers to the advisor's new university and completes the degree at the new university. This typically works well if the student is supported by the advisor's research grant and if the student is not very far along in the graduate program. The new university would have to agree to accept the student into their graduate program. The new university may have different course requirements and the student might have to repeat prelim exams or a candidacy exam. Foreign students would have to get a new student visa.
3. The student remains where they are and switches to a new advisor. This works best for students who have departmental or institutional funding and aren't very far along in the graduate program.
You should talk to your advisor about how he or she wants to handle this, and you should also talk to your department chair or the head of the graduate program to get the department's position. You'll also have to think about what you want- what's best for you may not be what your advisor or department wants.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Will this cause problems with me graduating?
>
>
>
First, I recommend to discuss with your supervisor how their departure might affect you.
Things to bring up:
* Whether s/he can (and is willing to) continue supervising you after transferring to another institution.
* The process for identifying replacement supervisor: Whose responsibility is this, and will your supervisor assist in some way? Can they recommend one or two colleagues they think would be a good fit for you and interested in your thesis topic or research area?
* Potential difficulties you or the supervisor anticipate that could increase your time to graduation, and steps you could take to prevent such issues.
The answer to your question also depends on some of the following:
* How far along you are in the program and into your thesis, and whether the new supervisor is receptive to the work you have done already
Note: This assumes current supervisor is unable to continue playing this role from another institution. This may not be the case, but some programs require that the committee chair/supervisor be a member of the same department.
* Whether the new supervisor will be receptive to your thesis ideas, methods you have or plan to use (work done so far), or if they have some concerns that would involve re-work.
* Personality fit with new supervisor: This is an important factor. Think about people with whom you had or can easily imagine having some conflict or communication difficulties, and try to avoid getting them assigned as your new supervisor.
Instead, think of who you see yourself working well with in terms of their work ethics/supervisor style, e.g. would they micromanage you or expect perfection, will that benefit or impede your progress, etc.
Lastly, I encourage you to think beyond graduation itself. The supervisor can be a key resource for furthering your career upon graduation. If you are in Master's program, their connections can decide your fate in terms of where you end up for your PhD, should you choose to go for doctoral study. If you are already in PhD program, their connections and your relationship with them could play an important role in securing a job after graduation (perhaps even one of your top choices). So I encourage you to think a little longer-term and consider how that person can contribute to your professional development not just to the extent of graduating but becoming a potential mentor for years to come. Good luck!
Upvotes: 2
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2015/06/25
| 659
| 2,494
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<issue_start>username_0: (This question is about US work authorization for foreign students.)
The [list of STEM fields](http://www.ice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Document/2014/stem-list.pdf) which will permit one to get a 17 month OPT extension include only two fields that containing the word "economics".
* 45.0603 Econometrics and Quantitative Economics
* 51.2007 Pharmacoeconomics/Pharmaceutical Economics
The latter is definitely not applicable to me, so I am interested only in the former.
According to [this page](https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/cipdetail.aspx?y=55&cip=45.0603), "45.0603 Econometrics and Quantitative Economics" is defined to be
>
> A program that focuses on the systematic study of mathematical and statistical analysis of economic phenomena and problems. Includes instruction in economic statistics, optimization theory, cost/benefit analysis, price theory, economic modeling, and economic forecasting and evaluation.
>
>
>
My question is: If my diploma says simply that I have a degree in economics (as is often the case with degrees in economics), would I automatically qualify for the 17 month OPT extension? If not, is there any way I could go about proving that I satisfy the above definition? (It seems to me that any decent degree in economics would arguably satisfy the above definition.)<issue_comment>username_1: The foreign student's office at your university is responsible for your OPT application and the accompanying paperwork.
They are the best place to ask not only because they're doing the paperwork and would know of previous successful applications, but also because they have the discretion to make the application based on their knowledge of your university's economics program and your particular course of study.
Note that even if your university agrees with your argument and puts it forward, the USCIS also has the discretion to disagree and reject it, falling back to the standard OPT.
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_2: CIP codes in economics include:
45.0601) Economics, General.
45.0602) Applied Economics.
45.0603) Econometrics and Quantitative Economics.
45.0604) Development Economics and International Development.
45.0605) International Economics.
45.0699) Economics, Other.
Your registrar's office should be able to tell you what the CIP code is for the degree program that you're in. I would expect the list that you have referenced to include other codes if they were approved for OPT.
Upvotes: 1
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2015/06/25
| 584
| 2,584
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<issue_start>username_0: I am not sure if this is the right fourm for this question or if it counts as opinion based/subjective (if its not moderators feel free to remove or delete it, I should know better by now), but **are their any "objectively better" ways for studying for biology tests/material than simply reading?**
I usually try to read some of my texts before I sleep, but nothing seems to stick. And before a test I always try and rewrite my notes and the professors lecture notes with rewritten diagrams as well. And I have been getting average marks, I would like to improve on that though. I know this is "story-based" evidence, but pedagogy is not my strong suit.<issue_comment>username_1: I always found the best way to study was to rewrite all my notes. This makes you go over all of your material again. By writing it, you are also going over the material much more slowly. In addition to rewriting my notes from class, I would supplement that material with the textbook to make even more comprehensive notes. Once that is done you have a nice set of notes to read over and over again leading up to the exam. I did this because my biology professor was old-school and all tests were fill the blank, short answer, and essays. Thus, I needed to practice writing the material. I would often make myself practice exams and test myself beforehand to make sure I was absorbing information. Flashcards are also helpful. I usually try to spend the night before exams just reading. At that point you should be just reviewing. Hope this helps! It got me through my biology degree and I used these techniques through all my PhD coursework as well. Everyone is not the same though when it comes to learning material so you just have to find what works best for you.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Don't go to your textbooks if it's not working. I struggle with science classes myself and all the textbooks ever did was confuse me and class lectures didn't help either.
What I did was my own research in relations to the class. For example, in my BIO we started with cells through the entire human body. I couldn't get my head around how it all worked with different bonds and fluids and such so I just did some basic googling and I found a site for middle schoolers which explained it simpler than my textbook but still had all of the information I needed. Throughout the entire course I looked up everything I needed online through other sources that simplified it by mostly using analogies.
This helped me, try things until it works.
Upvotes: -1
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2015/06/26
| 2,210
| 8,833
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<issue_start>username_0: When I started at university I could perform with a fresh mind all of the time -- doing a problem set all weekend without reduced performance.
A couple of other students and myself seemed to be several times faster and have larger working memories than others. I made quick work of my studies.
Now that I have gotten to the ripe old age of 22, I seem to be in perpetual brain fog, and even coffee does not bring me back to my original abilities.
This disturbs me because I want to go to graduate school.
What do you professors do (especially those who do mostly research) to keep your brain able to function near peak for 40+ hours a week? Are you simply stupider than you were at 18 but abuse coffee and persist in your research anyway?<issue_comment>username_1: It's usually a matter of stress and interest. In courses that I had no interest in it was harder for me to learn anything. Even if I had read a paragraph and was asked a simple question about that 1 paragraph I couldn't answer it.
Stress can also slow your learning curve. While you do lose memory capacity and learning ability as you grow older, the effects don't really set in until about 45(ish)
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: A very important thing that took me most of graduate school to understand is that my self-perception of "getting dumber" was not caused by actually degrading abilities, but by a qualitative change in the type of work that I was trying to do. I discovered this through a passage of despair, when I felt so brain-fogged and useless that I decided that I was going to simply ignore my thesis for a few days and work on a meaningless side project instead---which I blazed right through at the rate I remembered from undergraduate days, because it was all much simpler and more well-defined than doing research.
In undergraduate education, one may be working very hard indeed, but the type of work is also extremely specialized in an unusual way. In particular, almost all of the work that you are called on to do in your courses (undergraduate or graduate) is:
* Designed to be accomplishable within a fixed number of hours
* Tightly dependent on the most recent things that you have learned
This puts a huge (and hidden) amount of constraint on the search space for answers: in essence, if you have learned good "student meta-skills," you are likely to be very good at picking the right place to go searching for your answers. When you stop taking undergraduate classes, this skill becomes largely irrelevant, and you can start feeling like you are much "dumber" simply because you're thinking that progress on poorly defined and unbounded problems should come at the same rate as progress on pre-digested course work.
I would thus say that the first and most important thing to do is to come to this understanding, that the types of skills you now need are qualitatively different than the ones you most exercised as an undergraduate. Digesting that may cure your concern right there.
Beyond that, my basic recommendations are simple:
* Do things that you are interested in.
* Let yourself read, but also make sure you write and do technical work.
* Keep a record of all of your accomplishments, so that you can look at external evidence of non-failure when you're having an [imposter syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome) day.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: Don't neglect or minimize the basics:
* Good sleep, esp. regular hours (avoid alcohol in evenings, no caffeine after noon)
* Exercise
* Steady, healthy diet
* Time for fun and social engagement
* Stimulating/challenging conversations and debates with people you respect
Bonus:
* Meditation
* Yoga
* Brain games
P.S. I am a 57 year old PhD student. "22" is neither ripe nor old. :-)
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_4: As an IT professional at age 32, I have struggled with similar issues. I disagree with other commenters that it is simply perception bias. I have found myself unable to complete tasks that I was previously able to complete with ease, unable to remember or retain information, and exercising incredibly poor judgment (on par with being intoxicated).
For me, at least, it was a combination of issues.
1. **Fatigue.** I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea that had been causing me to near-awaken several times per minute all night long due to a involuntary choking reaction that flooded my system with adrenaline and raised my heart rate. This left be drained and exhausted in the morning, and definitely interfered with my brain function. Fatigue is a [major cause of human error](http://www.croner-i.croner.co.uk/croner-i/gateway.dll/Health%20and%20Safety%20Expert/hsab-resources/hsab-features/hsab-features-content/hsab-gold-features-wkid-201301041206060447-65424291?f=templates$fn=hsab-frameset.htm$3.0) and can definitely produce "brain fog". Even [sleep debt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_debt) caused by missing a few hours of sleep each night over a period of time can cause severe fatigue.
2. **Information Overload.** As we get older, our scope of responsibilities increase. When we're young and in school, usually school itself is the single biggest (or only) major responsibility. Our decision-making power is finite, and when it runs out, our judgment will start to lapse (see [decision fatigue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_fatigue)). For me, at least, an overload of information and decisions can swirl around in my head, making it difficult to focus, and shortening my attention span.
3. **Relationships.** As we get older the number and depth of our relationships increases. Managing social interactions has been shown to stimulate more of the brain than almost anything else -- in short, it's mentally exhausting.
For me, here is what helped the most.
1. **Sleep.** Get 7-9 hours of sleep every night no matter what. One thing that helps is to wake up at the same time every day (even the weekends) and then go to bed as soon as you feel tired. If you feel the quality of your sleep is lower than it should be, or if you're tired and feel un-refreshed when you wake up, consult a doctor and/or sleep specialist. If you are male, overweight, or your collar size is equal to or greater than 17 inches (43 cm) you are at risk for sleep apnea and should be checked.
2. **Recreate, especially outdoors.** Make sure you are getting adequate downtime/decompression time. Playing video games is not adequate recreation as it requires constant decision-making. Try an outdoor activity with limited stimulus such as hiking, biking, or even just walking.
3. **Meditate.** Even 15 minutes of meditation every day has shown to physically change the structure of your brain, increasing folding. It may also help stave off age-related brain degeneration, even Alzheimers disease. It is simple to learn basic meditation techniques, and it certainly helps me control the "swirly thoughts" problem from information overload.
4. **Get some alone time.** Don't isolate yourself, but make sure you get 30-60 minutes of time alone every day. This can help you clear your mind, and also depressurize from relationship-induced stress.
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_5: Let's not make any bones about it. There's plenty of scientific evidence to show that your intellectual skills will diminish as you age. The question is when this becomes noticeable. Again, I think it's pretty common for people to notice this by their 30s (only anecdotal advice for this).
I think 22 is far too young to notice any degradation; I would get a brain examination if you are truly concerned. Probably you are just imagining this. If you can't do specific tasks you could do before, eg solve endgame problems 1-50 in such and such book, then you know for sure. Unfortunately that's how I and friends have noticed (much slower at doing very specifically defined intellectual tasks that we could do effortlessly before).
Enjoy your 20s. You ain't old yet.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_6: You can compare your brain to your computer. Your computer must be hooked on a power supply for it to work properly, you brain is connected to the rest of your body which provides it with energy. But if your body isn't physically fit, your brain will have less energy available.
To optimize your energy levels, make sure you get plenty of exercise: at least half an hour of running about 4 to 5 times per week for someone your age. If you are not fit enough to run, you should gradually build up your fitness so that you can exercise at this level in the future. This will improve sleep, you'll be eating a lot more without gaining weight, so you'll take in a lot more vitamins and minerals. This will all help you to have a lot more energy, which will benefit your brain a lot.
Upvotes: 0
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2015/06/26
| 1,426
| 6,304
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<issue_start>username_0: What would be the practical difference in terms of quality, experience, and future prospect if a student studies at a 4-year undergraduate degree in a world famous university like Harvard compared to a top university in a developing country, like, for example, in an [Indian IIT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Institutes_of_Technology)?
Suppose the syllabus contents are the same and and the major is highly technical like Electrical Engineering. My question is not limited to Electrical Engineering, any technical subject will do.
Future prospect means: researcher (academic/industry), entrepreneur, professional, anything that gives him money or/and fame.
The aim of this question is not to understand the career prospect of a student who graduates from a world famous university. The goal is to understand the academic atmosphere or academic culture and academic productivity of the university. My question talks about Undergraduate for a reason. Graduate and PhD degrees are mostly related to research. So, it is natural that a world famous university will offer more scholarships, source more funding for research and deal with more advanced technologies than that of a university in the developing world.
To my understanding the teaching methods, psychology of people, and goal of higher education play big roles there. For example, in the developing world a degree doesn't always mean that you learned something useful nor does a degree doesn't secure one's career because of various socioeconomic realities.
Given that the syllabus is the same, instructors may need restrict themselves into theoretical discussions only or conduct lesser labs because of the lack of sufficient instruments because of budgetary constraints. Moreover, in developed world teaching methods and syllabuses are also subject to continuous research and improvement which is not always true in the developing world.
Salary of professors and their living condition is also a factor in the developing world. Above all, the feeling of not being a part of developed world plays a big role in their motivation.<issue_comment>username_1: Well, even though the syllabi of both the institutions are the same, there are two main differences that always occur:
1. The teaching method that is followed at each institution. For example, at one place the same material is taught very extensively with a lot of assignments, group works, presentations as well as DIY type of learning which might not be the case at the other place.
2. Studying at a world famous university may give your career a kick start as you become a brand after completing your degree from there. Of course, studying from other institutes will also make you eligible for masters degree or other jobs but what might be lacking is the brand name.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I think the broadness and vagueness of the question severely limits its value. The specifics are dependent on which country you ask about (both the university, and career), if you are an academics or else etc.
Remark 1:
When I speak about good or less good universities I am not referring to one or another pointing system or international list. I am talking about what qualities I believe can make a university good or one may consider when choosing a university.
Remark 2:
University is not high school. It is not about sitting in a room and learning a book from page 1 to page x and you win if your x is bigger than others.
* So along remark2, syllabus doesn't matter much. I am pretty sure that the syllabus of many mediocre university for Calculus 101 is pretty much the same as in Harvard or MIT. The difference is not that they teach 3 theorems more in MIT.
* Universities with international reputation makes an impression on your resume/CV. If you go for a career where it counts then it counts. Again, effect may vary by career, major, continent/country and industry.
* Better university attracts better students and better faculty. Better students mean better peers, healthier social environment for study, also potentially better and more influential alumni network. Better faculty may mean better teachers or better researchers. An internationally famous researcher may be a mediocre teacher for low level undergrad classes, but can be an invaluable mentor or recommended. Again, effect may vary by career, industry etc etc
* Better universities are often leading research universities, which means students has better access to cutting edge technology, better equipped labs and wider research networks. Also, higher probability of exchange programs for grad or undergrad students for short research visits or attend conferences. Universities are also regularly invite leading scientists to give talks - again, internationally reputed places has better selection to pick from.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: Even if you could learn exactly the same thing in both places (you can't), another difference is your peers. If you are surrounded by people who are smarter and more driven you'll be more likely to raise your own standards. The best project in the class at Leading University will be different from the best project at Third Tier U.
Also, if you attend school with people who are likely to get great jobs, you'll have contacts with people who have great jobs, increasing your own opportunities.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: I had listened to a talk from a 'top' school in the US while in asia. One student asked that question. The answer the speaker gave was that the most notable (although not only) difference was resources. In the mechanical or aerospace department, it's the difference between having a car engine testing unit and a full wind tunnel, in architecture it's the difference between computer simulation software or laser cutters and industrial 7 axis robots with water jet cutters, etc. Most of which are open to students in many departments.
This stems from both research funding, tuition, and a culture of large donations from alumni.
When students have access to these resources in an open way, they gain knowledge in leading methods in both academics and industry. This makes them highly capable of immediately integrating or impacting a research team or company.
Upvotes: 3
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2015/06/26
| 769
| 2,705
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<issue_start>username_0: In writing a phd thesis, if a sentence is copied as it is and given proper references, then will it be considered as plagiarism?<issue_comment>username_1: Verbatim cited text is preferably put between quotation marks. E.g., Smith et al. (Smith 2008) state: "literally copied text goes here."
If you use quotation marks to indicate the verbatim copied text, it is not considered plagiarism.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: This can reach levels of silliness.
If Hunter and Garcia did a study on aadvark toenails, and wrote in 2008 that
"We sampled 200 aardvarks and we conclude that all aardvarks have long toenails."
I would be satisfied with:
>
> Hunter concluded that all aadvarks have long toenails (Hunter and Garcia, 2008).
>
>
>
I would also be fine with:
>
> All aardvarks have long toenails (Hunter and Garcia, 2008).
>
>
>
I have had TAs report cases of both types to me as plagiaristic. I simply don't agree. There is no reason to change a simple sentence that has a limited number of ways it can be phrased to
>
> All aadvarks have toenails of great length (Hunter and Garcia, 2008)
>
>
>
to avoid charges of plagiarism.
Sometimes, because there are limited ways to write out a phrase, an attempt to paraphrase results in sentences that have parts that come out the same. So long as citation is proper, I don't believe quotes are necessary.
Though this has little to do with plagiarism, on undergrad papers in the hard sciences, I often see students going to great lengths to include quotes, because they believe it to be stylistically required for some reason, but in the hard sciences, paraphrasing is the norm, and overquoting just looks silly. Our writing folks tell me its not this way across all disciplines.
Going back to plagiarism, and all may not agree, I try to determine if the author is trying to represent someone else's work as their own. For the examples I cite, clearly not, and thus they're not examples of plagiarism.
Where do I draw my line? Probably at full sentences or large phrases, where it's appropriate to use quotation marks. In the hard sciences, paraphrasing is usually more appropriate anyway.
Where does one use quotes in the hard sciences, then?? When the phrasing is important or has significance.
>
> Einstein said "In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity"
>
>
>
is a different passage than
>
> In Einstein's opinion, one may often find opportunities when difficulties are apparent.
>
>
>
To wrap up, if you are copying a sentence, it is most likely appropriate to use quotes, but in many fields the accepted style is such that it is not appropriate to copy a sentence.
Upvotes: 3
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2015/06/26
| 884
| 3,853
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<issue_start>username_0: Many journals allow to submit an extended version of a conference paper as, for example, Springer:
>
> Expanded versions of papers which have previously appeared in
> conference proceedings will be considered and this request must be
> made at the time of submission; the authors must clearly state the
> conference publication and provide a statement of revisions/updates
> that have been made to the journal paper.
>
>
>
When writing such an extended version how do you reference the conference paper? I can imaging several possibilities:
1. Treat it like every other paper in related work
2. Ignore the conference paper completely and present all results as if for the first time.
3. Clearly indicate that you wrote the conference paper as "... in [1] we showed that and shortly review the approach ..."
What is correct way to write an extended journal (in CS)?<issue_comment>username_1: In CS particularly, there is usually a step during the paper submission process in which you are required to disclose whether a part of your paper has been published elsewhere (or some similar phrasing). There you list the paper(s) your current paper expands.
Further, you state in the cover letter the circumstances in which your new paper was created (e.g. "in the conference proceedings, we show that [...], this approach is improved in this paper by [...], yielding [...] results. for better comparison, a new experimental setup was used, so the results of the conference paper are rerun in the new environment, which affected the conclusions [...]" - you get the idea). In other words, you state in a few paragraphs (keep it short though, 1-2 paragraphs should be enough) what's new in you paper compared with the previously published one and how is that significant.
As for your paper, you use your conference paper as any other reference (including the related work review), but a clear emphasis on the relation between the papers should be made (e.g. in the related work section). The style depends, you can be personal or not, it doesn't really matter. I stick to the same style I use for other references, i.e. I don't explicitly state that the cited paper is written by me.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You write the journal version so that it is entirely self-contained, as if all results were new (regardless of whether they were already present in the conference version).
Then, in appropriate places, you refer to the conference version and explain how the current version is different. For example, you could have a footnote on the first page or an acknowledgement in the end of the paper, along these lines:
>
> This is an extended and revised version of a preliminary conference report that was presented in FOO 2015 [1].
>
>
>
Here [1] is a reference to the conference version, and you include it in the list of references as usual. There is no need to cite it elsewhere.
If it makes sense, you can also discuss the difference between this version and the conference version in more detail e.g. in the "Related work" section. This might be a good idea especially if the journal version is not just an extension but some results are fundamentally different. However, in straightforward cases this is not usually necessary.
---
(Please note that this answer is specific to computer science, which has its own peculiar approach to conference publishing. All other fields are different.)
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I cannot say about the CS field specifically, but, in general, I would just provide a note (either at the beginning, or at the end of the paper), saying something along these lines:
>
> "The present paper is an extended version of our paper, presented at
> ... conference [1]. This paper significantly expands ... and ...".
>
>
>
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/06/26
| 222
| 874
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<issue_start>username_0: I had applied for PhD Scholarship. Today i received a email from that foundation. They told me
**"As soon as you are ready with your PhD Study Proposal, please send it to Prof X"**
How to Acknowledge this mail in formal way that i am going to send my PhD Proposal to Prof X as soon as it is ready?<issue_comment>username_1: It is safe to assume that the receipt of an e-mail that has been sent to a group of people and that does not explicitly ask otherwise does not have to be acknowledged. They can be treated as an FYI.
If the sender does need a confirmation, they will get back to you.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_2: I'd probably go with "thank you for this opportunity for support. I anticipate that I will be sending this document by xx/xx/xxxx" This way, if they need it sooner, they might let you know.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]
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2015/06/26
| 526
| 1,892
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<issue_start>username_0: I want to cite a senior project of a student in my thesis. However, I don't really have much information about the student.
I know, the *title* of his work, his *name*, his *university* and the *link* to the pdf file. I know that it is a senior project, because the link is something like
university.edu/.../SeniorProject\_NameSurname.pdf
What should the BibTeX code be for this situation?
Thanks in advance.<issue_comment>username_1: ### First step
When I'm not sure about citation format, I usually use [Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.cz/) to create it for me.
---
**BibTeX code** will look similar to this:
```
@misc{abbreviation,
author = {<NAME>},
title = {Title},
institution = {University},
url = {URL}
}
```
If your style does not have the 'url' parameter, then 'note' is usually used for this purpose.
```
note = "[Online; accessed 19-July-2008]"
```
And as username_2 pointed out, it's good to look in [the list of possible BibTeX entries](http://www.andy-roberts.net/res/writing/latex/bibentries.pdf) and choose the right format (phdthesis, article, book etc.).
---
### Editors
Otherwise, for creating and editing larger citation "databases" I use [JabRef](http://jabref.sourceforge.net/). And lately I've found a [simple online program](http://truben.no/latex/bibtex/) for creating BibTeX citations too.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: While a BibTeX code per se, obviously, is limited to including fields for only known parameters of the reference, the exact code for citation formatting would significantly depend on the required (or desired) *publication style*, which you haven't mentioned. For some help with the customizing your bibliography's look for your needs, please see links and references in [my related answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/47889/12391).
Upvotes: 2
|
2015/06/27
| 2,461
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<issue_start>username_0: I am 23, I have a Russian diploma in Computer Science and I am interested in getting into PhD in Computer Science in the US. But after reading [this](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38237/how-does-the-admissions-process-work-for-us-ph-d-programs-particularly-for-wea) post and some google search I realized that I have some major problems in my application.
1. I don't have any research experience and results to show:
when I was 17 I moved in (big Russian city) to attend university there and I had to work really hard (40-60 hours per week) in night shifts to pay for myself (rent, food, books, etc). So I have got major health problems and haven't got any time (and other resources) for high-quality study. Now, a year after graduation, I still don't have enough time for this kind of project because I have to work hard towards exams. I also have to work hard to earn money for application because of the difference between dollar and ruble.
2. Recommendation letters from my university professors probably will not have any weight outside my country:
my university hasn't any famous projects or labs or publications even according to the standards of my own country. Of course, I remember that the most important thing about recommendation letter is that what does it tell about my professional and personal abilities. But will it make any sense since it's written by someone totally unknown for admission committee?
Also, I figured out some good points for my application:
1. I am very motivated and I already know what it's like to be alone in big city by myself. I already know what it's like to work hard and live on very limited amount of money. I know the difference between what I'm capable of and what I'm not.
2. I am good at doing an independent work. I did my diploma in digital sound processing and learned all the maths I needed during 3 months without guidance and without any background in this field (when I started I didn't even know what is a bitrate). Then I worked as a research C++ developer in one karaoke project, again in DSP field. There I learned how to work with angry bosses, how to summarise any completed work to present results to managers, how to deploy mathematical models in real project and how to do it fast and so on. This project had some business problems so I quit and started to freelance. For this purpose I had to develop a system for organizing myself and skills to set goals and to meet my own deadlines.
3. I have a lot of practical knowledge. I worked as a linux system administrator in a big hosting company for about a year, I can write on C++, python, php, Objective C and Java. I know how to work in team and how to communicate with different people.
4. For last two years I did great amount of work with myself. I quit smoking and drinking alcohol. I totally stopped to take caffeine in any doses, I lost more than 15 kilo (results of my health problems), I gained a lot of muscles and started to do some yoga. During all this time I learned a lot about neurophysiology, cognitive sciences and the basics of biology. I've got really inspired by all this knowledge and now I'm looking forward to work with neuroscience.
5. I have already took the TOEFL iBT test and have score of 104.
6. I have a GPA 4.98 from 5.0.
**So my question is:** how can I make my good points to overweight my problems?<issue_comment>username_1: This is a pretty specific question but I'm going to try and answer it broadly.
Generally speaking, applicants with no research experience are not appealing or competitive candidates to professors for graduate school. When professors want to admit a student to work with them, they want someone who is going to be able to hit the ground running somewhat - who knows the basics of how research works, who has some ideas about what interests them, and who knows how to do some basic research tasks. Furthermore, they're looking for students who aren't going to realize halfway through their first year that they hate research and decide to drop out. (Which makes me turn the question back on you: Why do you want to get a PhD, if you have no research experience?)
That said, if you have no research experience and you still want to apply for a PhD program (which I don't recommend), you'll have to demonstrate that you have acquired the knowledge and skills to succeed in a PhD program in another way. Being able to live alone isn't the way - they expect that as a basic part of being an adult.
-Recommendation letters will go a long way. Your professors don't have to be famous or personally known by your graduate program committees. They just need to know you very well, and be able to comment on your ability and potential to do research and succeed in the field.
-If you had to do research-like tasks for any classes - like a final project or capstone - you can discuss that, and what you learned and how you will translate that to research in the program. The research C++ developer position is a good example. You did research; use that experience as a basis for further explanation.
-Motivation is good, but you can't just say that you are motivated - you need to demonstrate it in an academic sense. What academic things have you done to show that you are motivated?
However, you will probably need to apply to an MS program first and get some research experience that way.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: You can ask that the application fee be waived due to financial hardship.
Then try to take the attitude, there's nothing lost by applying -- and what the heck, you might get in!
Try to choose the departments you want to apply for based on the research interests of the faculty, and the courses that are regularly offered. (It is not enough to go by just the catalog, since some institutions have mouth-watering courses listed in their catalogs but they somehow never actually get offered. So look at both spring and fall schedules of classes.)
The Comp Sci department at U of Wisconsin - Madison used to, and probably still does, encourage people to apply for their graduate program who have worked in the field, as you have. That might be a good one to apply for if you find several professors whose research interests appeal strongly to you.
Computer Science is a field that generally needs to employ a large number of teaching assistants (TAs). The better your English (in practice, not just in a test result), the more effective you will be as a TA. A TA typically grades homework and exams, and offers office hours, where students can come in and ask questions and get help with their homework (both paper and pencil and writing and debugging programs). TA work takes, on average, 20 hours per week, or possibly a little less -- but don't count on it! If you get a TAship, your tuition will be covered (i.e. you won't have to pay a cent) and you will get a stipend to live on. You might want to continue your freelance work in the summers, to bring some more income in -- otherwise you might have trouble paying for an occasional plane ticket to visit friends and family back home, or elsewhere.
As the other answer said, the points from your outline that you will want to emphasize in your application are:
- motivation
- your initiative in doing independent academic and paid work (this is often called being a "self starter")
- the list of computer languages you have worked in
- your experience with DSP
- your company experience working in a high-paced development team using mathematical models (put that in your CV, please -- note "high-paced" means rushing to meed deadlines; "team" is code for impatient jerk bosses)
- your interest in multidisciplinary research related to neuroscience -- you can use this as a topic for your application essay, but please don't list the types of things you learned; instead, describe, à la science fiction, if you have to, some dream of what you'd like to do with your present and future computer science knowledge and skills to further the field of neuroscience
- your GPA
- some well-written recommendation letters.
If your department could come up with some sort of prize or honor to give you, that would be helpful. There doesn't have to be any money associated with it.
I have no idea how to interpret your TOEFL score, sorry.
In my experience, research experience as an undergrad is icing on the cake for an applicant in computer science. If you don't have it, I don't think that will count against you. However, the truth is that if we look at you, the whole person, we would have to say that you do have research experience. Research is being given a problem, or finding a problem yourself, and figuring out how to solve it, and then explaining it to someone else.
My personal opinion is that your weak suit is your English, and that it wouldn't be a bad thing for you to take some time off the formal studies to get immersed in functioning in spoken English, either through travel or by spending a lot of time with tourists or exchange students.
The reason I say this is what I mentioned about computer science departments needing people who can do office hours for students with questions.
I know there are people active in Academia SE who may disagree with me, and say that it is detrimental to take a year off one's studies.
Your best chance of getting a TAship (i.e. funding for your studies) will be to start the program in late August (13 months from now), so you'll want to get your applications in by about February 2016, and you'll need to spend some time working on your essay, and taking the GRE. So if I were you I would work enough to pay your bills and build up a little bit of savings for a rainy day, but mainly concentrate on improving your conversational English. Around November you could start working on your essay, and please find a local mentor to help you edit it after you've written your draft.
Try to choose three schools to apply for, and make sure that one of them is not too hard to get into. But make sure that all of them feel like a reasonable match for you, in terms of weather and research interests.
You will apply for a doctoral program, but they will probably want you to get a masters degree before you start the PhD. That's okay, they're generally pretty organically connected.
Upvotes: 2 [selected_answer]
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2015/06/27
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<issue_start>username_0: I have two closely-related questions:
First:
>
> What are the possible pitfalls of a university employee (faculty or staff) and a student at the same university being roommates?
>
>
>
And, in the event that I need to take on a roommate as a faculty or staff member at a university:
>
> Is it best to avoid living with a student and ask, for example, another university employee to share my living space?
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: No. That leads in to favoritism and special exceptions with students plus a whole lot of other liability issues.
They should live with colleagues that they are not the boss of and do not manage or are managed by.
Upvotes: -1 <issue_comment>username_2: Yes, it's basically allowed everywhere I know of, but there are plenty of situations where it might get weird. On the non-weird end of the spectrum, I was a researcher and manager at my university when my live-in fiancee decided to go to grad school there in a different department. We even got married the summer between the two years of her master's program. There were no problems and no rules that prevented this. We didn't even need to tell anyone about it.
Now, if she had worked for me or enrolled in a class that I taught, there would have been some people we would have needed to tell to make sure that there was no favoritism for her and that everything was fair for other students or employees. She probably would have had to have a different manager appointed for work if I would have otherwise been her boss, etc. Our living situation wasn't the determining factor, but rather our romantic involvement.
If the staff member isn't romantically involved with the student who is also their roommate, then there's generally no issue. However, if the nature of the relationship changes from roommates to partners, then depending on local rules and the proximity of the staff member's job to the student, someone probably has to be notified at the very least and a management plan created in some cases to deal with it. If the student and the staff member aren't in the same department, then there's usually no need for notification at my university.
E.g. if a psychology student wants to room with an admin in the Geology department, it's fine. If a student wants to rent a room from his English professor, then maybe some departments want to know that. If a Physics student wants to date/marry a Sociology prof they will never take a class from, it's very likely that the university needs to know, and they may try to forbid it. And if a student wants to become involved with their PhD supervisor, the university will *definitely* get to have a say.
As best I can tell, the rules tend to be about who is romantically involved with whom, not where students choose to find their accommodations.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: It would be very strange for a faculty member to live with student roommates (setting aside relatives or romantic partners, which are separate issues). It would be considered socially unacceptable in the university contexts I'm familiar with, and it would create at least the appearance of conflicts of interest if there was any overlap between the fields. Even if the students were in a totally different field, it could still be awkward if they socialized a lot with students in the professor's field. This doesn't mean it would be impossible, but I'd strongly recommend against trying it. Even in the best case scenario, people would wonder why living with these students was important enough to be worth the negative attention.
As for staff, it depends. I don't think it would be unusual or problematic for, say, a university IT staff member to share an apartment with some similar-aged grad students. Postdocs are a gray area: it would of course be inappropriate to live with students they might teach or supervise, but otherwise it's much easier for a postdoc to get away with living with students than a faculty member.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]
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2015/06/28
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it unethical to work for two professors (two seperate research lab in two non-related fields) at the same time? I am an undergrad student currently working for professor A in a full-time research assistant co-op job. On the other hand, I volunteer using my spare time working for another research lab in an almost unrelated field. Professor A doesn’t know about this.
So my question is, is it unehtical for me to do this?
I ask because my friends warned me not to do this. On the other hand, I don’t think it is too much of issue since I am not stealling data or anything from anyone and, more importantly, they are in two different unrelated fields.
Similiar question is asked [here](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18702/is-it-a-bad-idea-to-do-research-with-multiple-different-professors-at-the-same-t), but I am asking from an ethical perspective.<issue_comment>username_1: Several of my undergraduate students have done this. There's nothing *unethical* about it, as long as they are honest and upfront about their obligations. It can be a very good way to figure out what kind of work you like doing--which, of course, is a big part of the of the point of undergraduate research.
On the other hand, the students who have done this are not the students who tend to get first author papers -- let alone first author papers in top tier journals -- as undergraduates. The students who do that are focused and highly invested in what they are doing in my lab. There simply aren't enough hours in the day for an undergraduate to take a full course load and perform graduate level in multiple labs.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> So my question is, is it unehtical for me to do this?
>
>
>
Unethical - no. Smart? Probably also no.
Firstly, as username_1 correctly states, it seems *very* unlikely that you can perform well in both roles *and* do your undergrad studies in parallel (and I am not even talking about going outside and doing people stuff occasionally, which you should also not forget about).
Secondly, you should not forget that professors are human. Even though you are not doing anything "wrong" by any stretch of imagination, it is not difficult to imagine scenarios where either of the professors (or both!) don't take it well, and I am assuming you want letters from these guys down the road. The professor that you work for, for instance, may assume that you find his research very unfulfilling if you feel you need to invest your spare free time into a completely unrelated area instead of hanging out with friends etc. (S)he may assume you are really doing it only for the money / letter. The other professor may be disappointed at some point when an important deadline should be met that you can't commit more time to her/his project, because of your other duties.
Finally:
>
> Professor A doesn’t know about this.
>
>
>
That's **never** great, and you should change this ASAP. Even if the professor basically does not care about the issue at hand, (s)he may get mad simply because you didn't tell (I certainly would). And I think you are aware that the chance of you keeping this a secret forever are slim to non-existent?
Upvotes: 4
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2015/06/28
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm applying to my first postdoc position, and I've been asked to attend an interview that will start with a 5 minute presentation on how I meet the job criteria. The work that I'm going to talk about is all from my PhD at University A. The postdoc is at a different institution (University B). What is typical practice for the design of slides in this situation? A conference talk would usually:
1) Utilise University A's branding/identity through the use of logos etc.
2) Include a thank you slide that shows which other people were involved in the work.
At an interview, do I drop the branding to make it clear that I'm representing myself, not a different university? Or do I continue to "credit" them by displaying the branding?
And what about the "contributors" slide - do I use some of the 5 minutes to show that I had been working in a team? Or not mention other people to make it clear that it's (mostly) my work? I am also wary of wasting any of the short presentation time allotted.
Thanks for any help.<issue_comment>username_1: Typically, in the departments and universities I'm familiar with, as a student you're also an employee of your current institution, benefiting from their space at the very least and participating in the local research culture. As such, it's appropriate to keep the branding on your job talk slides since it's not just some obligation to the university to credit them, but it grounds you in a context of the research at that university.
Additionally, it's appropriate to keep your acknowledgement slides if there are people to acknowledge. Many PhDs are done as part of a team, and so you shouldn't drop this credit from your slides. That being said, in a job talk, even a short, introductory one, you should concentrate on the parts that you did. You probably shouldn't spend the time reading off all the names and roles of the people who contributed.
Now, given that this talk is short and intended to only be about how you fit the role, it's not even clear to me that you should be treating this as a traditional job talk about your research. I would focus down on the posted criteria and carefully and thoughtfully address how *you* satisfy them. Presumably you're being given the opportunity later in the interview day to give a traditional academic job talk (i.e. an hour-long seminar), and that's the place where you can dive into your research, credit your team members, funding agency, etc.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I have to disagree with username_1's answer.
You are giving a job talk. A job talk is about **your** research accomplishments and vision, and how **you** fit the qualifications of the position. You are **not** giving a talk on behalf of your old university, but on your own behalf, as an individual researcher. You are seeking individual employment; you are not seeking a position for your current employer.
As such, I think it is entirely inappropriate for most of your presentation slides to carry the "livery" of your current institution. There are a few exceptions, where livery would be acceptable, but still not required.
* On the title slide, where you give your current affiliation.
* On the acknowledgment slide, where you thank your colleagues, advisors, funding sources, etc.
* Any slides that specifically refer to your overall research project or team. But these should be rare.
(I'm the faculty search chair for a top-5 American CS department. In my experience, it is rare for CS talks in *any* context other than presentations to deans, funding agencies, and potential donors to carry institutional livery. For an interview talk, it would be extremely weird.)
Upvotes: 3
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2015/06/28
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm a PhD student, and I'll soon be presenting some of my work at a conference. In the program, my presentation is labeled "invited" while others have "oral" and others "Keynote". I am a bit confused, as I was never invited (maybe one of my professors was) and would like to know the difference between these kind of presentations.<issue_comment>username_1: A keynote speech or presentation is a high-profile talk intended to be of interest to everyone at the conference, and is one of the selling points of the conference. Invited speakers are those who have been invited to give a talk by the organisers of the conference. My assumption is that 'oral' is just every other talk, i.e. speakers who applied to the conference and were selected to deliver their presentation.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Having an invited talk and not having been invited is unusual, indeed. Maybe your professor was invited and passed the ball to you; the best thing to do is asking him/her.
"Oral" also is unusual for me (but maybe not in other fields). As noted in the other answer, typically the hierarchy is, from most to least prestigious:
* **keynote/plenary**: people who were invited to participate by the organizers, who may also be paying their expenses. Unlike the rest of the talks, they are not in parallel sessions or have a reduced level of parallelism. Sometimes, when there are no parallel sections, "keynote talks" are simply longer.
* **invited**: talks given by speakers that were explicitly invited by the organizers. Typically (but not always), the travel and registration expenses of these speakers are paid by the organizers.
* **contributed**: people who applied themselves for participation (and were accepted) and are going to give a talk, usually in parallel.
* **poster**: people who are going to present a poster instead of giving an oral talk. Sometimes people are given the option to present either a contributed talk or a poster.
I assume that "oral" means "contributed" here.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]
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2015/06/28
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<issue_start>username_0: For an application, I have to fill in the contact information of somebody who wrote me a recommendation letter. The person owns three e-mail accounts: permanent (on Gmail), my university’s e-mail service and another university’s e-mail service (where he is the chairman).
So, I feel a little bit confused which e-mail address would be best to give? Does it matter at all?<issue_comment>username_1: I know some universities that prefer email addresses that demonstrate the university affiliations of your referees, so that they know the letters will actually come from the listed referees rather than the student pretending to be the referees with a free gmail account. If the referee has multiple university affiliations, then I would recommend the one associated with the university in which you and the referee became acquainted with each other. For example, if you did an internship with a professor at university B, even though the professor holds a tenure position at university A as well, it is better to use the email address of university B in such a situation.
Of course, some professors do not use the mail account provided by the universities, and thus you should consult with your referee first to make sure that you give the email address that the referee actually checks.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Ask them which address they want these to arrive on.
Upvotes: 3
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2015/06/28
| 316
| 1,392
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<issue_start>username_0: Does taking a year off, to work as a junior research fellow or as a research intern, immediately after one's undergrad help with admission to a better MS (research track, not professional) /PhD program?
If it helps, the field in question is computer science, specifically at the intersection of computer vision and machine learning.<issue_comment>username_1: I know some universities that prefer email addresses that demonstrate the university affiliations of your referees, so that they know the letters will actually come from the listed referees rather than the student pretending to be the referees with a free gmail account. If the referee has multiple university affiliations, then I would recommend the one associated with the university in which you and the referee became acquainted with each other. For example, if you did an internship with a professor at university B, even though the professor holds a tenure position at university A as well, it is better to use the email address of university B in such a situation.
Of course, some professors do not use the mail account provided by the universities, and thus you should consult with your referee first to make sure that you give the email address that the referee actually checks.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: Ask them which address they want these to arrive on.
Upvotes: 3
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2015/06/29
| 904
| 4,184
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<issue_start>username_0: Before asking, it's probably better that I give some background first. I do research on thin films for solar energy applications. A part of that job is to search for new materials that may be suitable for these applications. Basically, I'm somewhat of a glorified (unglorified maybe?) treasure hunter at times.
So, let's say I found a novel material for this application. Let's even assume that I've found a method to synthesize it and turn it into a device. The question is, when do you know to stop and tell the research community about this work? In this particular example, one can set a target efficiency and keep going until they reach it. Suppose that's never achieved though. Does one decide to try a different method until they reach the target or explore the subset of variables deemed important with the current method? If the latter, which variables and how many of them? I don't expect answers to these questions specifically, but rather ask the general question of how one defines a scope when doing such exploratory work.<issue_comment>username_1: A good bit of my own research falls into something like your "exploratory" category, and I think my own approach to it would best be described as "publish early and often."
My basic feeling is as follows: if you're doing good work, why hide that work from your community while saving up for the "big paper"? Every time you hit an interesting and significant milestone, it's worth considering whether to put it into a paper---that way you can get feedback, others in your community who are interested can learn about what's working and what's not working in that direction of investigation, they can start getting interested in your work and start collaborating and citing you, and you also never have to worry about being scooped.
In computer science, where I work, such a strategy is well-supported by the range of peer-reviewed publication opportunities. Small and preliminary results go into workshops, larger ones to conferences, longer-term "archival" work to journals. It's also nice that the workshops and conferences turn up on a regular basis with fixed deadlines, so I can look at the state of my work and ask: "Do I currently have chunk of new work of appropriate size for this publication opportunity?" Journal special issues are great for this purpose as well---just submitting generically to a journal is far to easy to let slip back one month at a time while you wait for "just this one more thing." I don't know if your field also has meaningful peer reviewed conferences, but I have noticed that in those fields without such, there is a generally some equivalent in journals, ranging from more narrow-community journals that may be receptive to smaller steps to high-impact "big hit" journals.
Now, if you're in a field that worships the impact factor or if you're trying to get patents or build a company, then you may want to save up your big hits instead. I have been fortunate enough to be in fields / sub-fields that appreciate publications evidencing a research program, and I find that to be a useful and collegial way to behave.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: In addition to points made by @username_1, I would say that the scope of exploratory research, to a significant degree, is defined by constraints that researchers or their organizations face. Theoretically, under ideal imaginary conditions, one could perform exploratory research "forever" (given that their research interest in the topic is still there). However, practically, in real life, researchers and research entities face all kinds of constraints: from time and money limits to predefined scope for grants and practical physical limits of methods, experiments, equipment or people. After hitting one or more of such constraints, sooner or later it makes sense to consider some action, such as getting an advice, sharing preliminary results through publication or, even, a complete pivot. Therefore, in my opinion, the scope of exploratory research is mostly defined by the **balance** between intensity of *research interests* and *constraints* of researchers & research itself.
Upvotes: 1
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2015/06/29
| 515
| 2,146
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<issue_start>username_0: We performed some bioinformatic work during thesis. Output of these analysis are more than 10 tables with 2000 rows each. We cannot add these in the printed version of the thesis, so we thought about:
* link to the online version, since paper containing this data was published.
* give a CD-ROM with the thesis, but for me this physical format is obsolete.
Maybe you have a better alternative or agree with the first one like me.<issue_comment>username_1: While publishing data sets on *arXiv* might be a decent option, I suggest you to consider posting your research results and artifacts to [figshare](http://figshare.com) or [Zenodo](http://zenodo.org). Both services allow artifacts to be not only *citable*, but also *discoverable* (via DOI assignment). *Version control* is supported as well, but the advantage of Zenodo in this regard in comparison with figshare is Git and GitHub integration.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: >
> Output of these analysis are more than 10 tables with 2000 rows each. We cannot add these in the printed version of the thesis ...
>
>
>
Even if you could (say for instance you hate trees and you don't pay for your thesis), do you think anybody would want to have that kind of data in physical format?
Both alternatives are valid, but as you said optical media is becoming more and more obsolete. If you ***really*** want to provide the data in a physical form, you can distribute it as a usb-stick. As the capacity of sticks increase, smaller drives become dirt cheap. You should be able to get 1GB, 2GB or even 4GB for relatively small price in hundreds.
The other option, online availability, is the better alternative in general. However the maintenance of data is important as others have mentioned. Both in terms of availability and proper cataloging try to use well known and established repositories.
What I don't understand however, is why you feel the need to "republish" findings, if you have already deposited this data together with a prior publication. Just refer to the data as *"Table/Supplementary Info X from Paper Y"*
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]
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2015/06/29
| 2,410
| 10,479
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<issue_start>username_0: With tenured hard-money positions being increasingly competitive, some researchers spend their entire career on [soft money](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30621/what-is-a-soft-money-research-position) untenured positions. To me, it would seem quite bad to never know more than one or two years in advance whether one will still have a job (see also [this question](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30622/how-commonly-do-researchers-spend-a-long-time-10-years-on-soft-money)). But a senior soft money colleague (who has been on soft money since starting a post-doc 25+ years ago) pointed out it's really no worse than working for a private company, where you also never know the same. That made me wonder.
In practice, how does the job security of soft money career scientists compare to scientists working for private companies? Is there any data which one is at a higher risk of being laid off from a position that has been held for a long (10+ years) time¹? And if people are then laid off, how quickly they find a similar position, if at all?
For the sake of this question, consider STEM companies that are relatively close to research, such as consultancy companies developing scientific products (such as software) or performing scientific services (such as running simulations) in close cooperation with university and/or government research labs.
---
¹There may be a special case where researchers work for different government contractors during their career, but for the same client and even in physically the same office. Despite the problems that entails, here I mean laid off without being almost immediately rehired to do the same job as before.<issue_comment>username_1: I can only partly answer your question, because I don't have sector-wide data.
First, let's clarify terms. Someone in a soft-money research post is also called a research associate, and they are funded by defined pots of money (typically from research contracts) that will be exhausted: such posts are usually funded for a period of time that's set from the beginning. These sound similar to posts that are also called post-docs, although a research associate doesn't need a doctorate: they just need to demonstrate that they can do deep, novel, rigorous research. This is in contrast to tenured faculty who are funded by open-ended sources such as university core funding (though I gather at some universities there are some professors on 95% soft money: at UCL, such posts are called "Professorial Research Associate", rather than "Professor"; both carry the honorific title Professor").
In England, I see job security as depending very much on a department's culture and management philosophy. I know of people in soft-money posts in energy departments at some other universities who have much *less* job security than most industry jobs that are similar. Whereas at in the energy department at my university, with mostly the same sources of funding and very similar projects, most soft-money posts here have *more* job security than similar industry: there is a departmental commitment to the researchers themselves, and if one source of funding dries up, we try to find other funded projects for those researchers, and use a platform grant to fill any gaps.
It's also the case that in industry you'll find some employers who will choose to keep some of their funds available in highly liquid form (such as cash at bank), in order to allow them to retain staff even at times when the company's turnover doesn't merit it; other employers will have staff coming and going all the time, as the company's income waxes and wanes.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I work at a company with a lot of similarity to soft-money academia: research is PI-driven and mostly funded by external contracts and grants. In the US, there are actually a lot of companies that either wholly or in part operate this way.
In this type of research organization, in some ways there is more security than an academic organization and in other ways less. Here are the key points as I see it:
* **More individual job security:** In most academic soft-money posts, you are tied primarily to your grants or the grants of the PI that you work for. There is very little organizational commitment to you as an investigator. Thus, if your money dries up, there is little or no bridge funding to keep you going as you try to get more money; you just stop getting paid. In a permanent corporate post, there is a fallback to being assigned as a performer on other people's projects, even perhaps in other departments, and the company is motivated to find such connections because you are still being paid.
* **Less institutional job security:** On the flip side, universities are extremely durable as organizations, and tend to change much more slowly and less dramatically than companies. A company might be suddenly acquired or change leadership and suddenly all of its policies change radically. So despite having a position, you might find yourself not wanting it under a new regime---or research itself might be jettisoned, and you along with it.
The lack of institutional job security, however, is actually less bad than it appears, for anybody with either a healthy research program or who is well-known as a talented contributor. In practice, what bad institutional change tends to mean is that you end up with a diaspora, in which good people move en masse, either joining other nearby companies with better research cultures or founding their own. This might happen even if the new "parent company" doesn't have an office in the area---I know of more than one regional branch office that was opened because a group of researchers left Company A and their colleagues at Company B invited them to join, figuring that geography could be worked out one way or another.
In short: from what I see, externally funded research at companies is significantly more stable than soft-money academia, despite the fact that company identity may change over time in various ways.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_3: In addition to these other good answers, you'll also find that many public institutions have rules that require long notification periods for people who may be laid off if their funding runs out. This does not happen at my university, but others that I know at several different US universities must receive a notification *one year* in advance of a layoff due to lack of funding for their position.
This means that there's plenty of time for them to try to write and win grant proposals or to find another job in the ways described here by others. It also means that there's no sudden drop at the end where people are surprised to not have a job. This is usually not the case in industry research positions.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_4: Really more of a comment than an answer - but this might invite some general discussion with regards to the two major points this hinges on:
(Hence the community wiki)
* I suspect there is a huge "it depends" with this - mainly due to personal preferences. Some people prefer to move, so having 2-3 years of security only is not bad to them in their eyes.
If in contrast you seek security, a public sector job with something called "Beamtenstatus" is ideal (you can't be discharged without any serious cause), but even then companies such as BASF or other large companies offer permanent positions, which is possibly as close as one can get to security/safety.
* Once you have sorted out the personal choice between "wants change" vs. "wants security", the next question is, "are you good at getting money".
IF you have a lot of industry contacts and are extremely successful at obtaining research grants, not having a permanent position isn't a problem - a university would not like to see you go because of your contacts and the money you bring in, so you have arranged your own job security without a tenured position.
One potential advantage of such an arrangement is that you do not teach and at most supervise some PhD students, so aside from the (nowadays horrendous) paperwork, you actually get to do research.
Also, at least in one UK university, after 6 years, if there were no grant money, the university would have to find money to employ you otherwise - however this may be specific to that university.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_5: There are many good answers here, but let me point out some other factors. (Off course, details are depend on on which county, profession, sector etc. we talk about):
* Industrial jobs are generally (much) better paid than academic jobs and the hiring process is also much faster. This means that even if you have same chance for getting laid off, you generally fall much safely in industry, with significantly bigger pillows under you. To get soft money through grants to get yourself hired may require a year or longer, even if your first shots are successful. Getting a job in industry can happen in weeks.
* Job prospects and overspecialization. Again, there can be huge variations but being a forever post-doc, even with a good salary is seriously limiting your future job prospects. I know many academics who consider such people failed researchers, and consider such a career a stigma, and can look very bad on your CV. It is also hard to switch to tenured academic positions, when you are 40-50. With industrial jobs there is no such stigma, and an industrial researcher has much more options to switch to academia, find job in industry or go to management. This setback may change as soft money positions became more common, though.
* Do we compare apples with oranges? Significant part of post doctoral researchers are stuck in this position for years, then some of them leave to industry, so go to tenure track and some remains on soft money. My experience is that people who are willing and able to survive on soft money for long are people who have a special combination of skills (they must be good to survive) and motivation to stay in academic research. Also, they often have a specific motivation to not go to industry (want to be independent) or to go tenure track. On the other hand, in industry there are a lot of different kind of people, in terms of motivation, skill-set, interest etc. I think there is a strong selection bias if you directly want to compare these to groups of people and their job security.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I contacted a professor by email in order to introduce myself to him and ask for a research position in his group at some point in the future. He expressed interest in me, but, when we finished our email discussions, he said "keep in touch."
I'm confused about what this means. Specifically, I mean, what should I talk to him about prior to me getting any kind of offer, etc.? How often should I contact him? Basically, I would like to know:
>
> How do I "keep in touch" with a potential advisor prior to getting any kind of research offer?
>
>
><issue_comment>username_1: When a member of academic staff says "Keep in touch" to a leaving student or researcher it often means "Keep me informed with major events in your career or family". Yes, it probably has the expectation of an email, but not too regularly.
They are probably interested in where you might be working when you have left and want to be informed of how to contact you when your contact details change. I sometimes get an email from students who have left 5, 10, 15, 20 years in the past. They tell me "I now work for XYZ corp as VP of ABC, how are things back at the University?", or "My child is applying to study with you, is Prof. PQR still there?". It is all good to know.
There are other times† I might used the phrase in an email with someone. If I was telling them that I was the wrong person to contact about an issue, or that this is the wrong time to discuss an issue; in other words, if I was refusing an answer, I might add *"Let's stay in touch"* to indicate I was not refusing all contact for all time. Sometimes students mistake a refusal to answer with an end to all communication. For example, at this precise moment in time I know all graduates results but could not answer any questions about progression to a Phd programme as that might imply what the grades may be‡. In that case it would mean, "At the appropriate time you will have the information you need.." or similar.
---
†This paragraph added based on further details in the comments.
‡Result discussions are currently embargoed till transcripts are officially released.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: As a professor, I am always happy to know when my students are successful, and this is a great time to "keep in touch".
If you are start graduate school or a good job, I definitely recommend e-mailing professors who wrote you recommendation letters or who were otherwise especially helpful. You don't have to, but it will be appreciated. This goes especially if you would be willing to talk to younger, current students with an interest in following your footsteps!
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I'm not in academia, but if I received this kind of request, I would ask if there is a social media outlet they subscribe to. If the relationship was purely professional, I would probably lean toward LinkedIn. If there was more friendship in the relationship, I would lean toward Facebook (or both).
Upvotes: 0 <issue_comment>username_4: In which country is this? What kind of research position are you talking about? How far in your studies are you?
For example, in the USA it is common practice that you are not directly involved with your advisor in the first few years of your PhD study, isn't it? In that case "keep in touch" could mean something like "let me know if you have been accepted for the PhD study at my university, and if so, come early in your first year to discuss how you could best get involved with my research group and to get advice about the subjects you should take in addition to the compulsory ones".
On the other hand, in my country, people apply to do a PhD with a specific advisor. "Keep in touch" could mean "come back with a draft of a thesis proposal (and do not submit your thesis proposal without consulting it with me first)". Or it could mean "let me know if your interest is serious (it's OK if you have been just asking)". Or if you still have a year or more of your Masters to go, then "keep in touch" could mean something like "feel free to turn to me for advice on the kind of experience that you should gather before entering my research group; finish your Masters as quickly as you can and turn back to me when you are ready to discuss the actual thesis proposal". (For example, if you are unsure whether you should rather take subject A or subject B in the final year of your Masters, you could send an e-mail asking which would be more relevant to the kind of work you would be doing with your future advisor.)
If you are already doing research, maybe you could send some interesting bits of your research before it gets published. And reading the papers of your chosen advisor and asking good questions about them (you will have to do this anyway if you are about to start working in their research group, so why not show some initiative?)
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Is it ethical to a professor to accept a manuscript for review, and then have a graduate student referee it? What about assisting as a referee?
I understand that graduate students can be involved in the review process- this isn't my question. As far as the journal/editors are aware, the professor is the referee, but in actuality, the student is performing the review.
If an assigned referee would like a student to participate, how could this be done properly?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Is it ethical to a professor to accept a manuscript for review, and then have a graduate student referee it?
>
>
>
Though commonplace in some fields (or among some professors), the practice of passing the review to a student, without the agreement of the editor, is utterly unethical for at least two reasons:
1. The editor expects a review from that specific expert s/he required, not from a ghost one.
2. The work of the student would not be credited.
Moreover, in some cases, publishers ask to treat the manuscript as confidential, and in that case passing it to someone else can be considered as a breach of confidentiality.
The proper way to handle this passage is the following: the professor should write to the editor refusing the review and *suggesting* the student (or any other person) as a possible substitute, possibly outlining the credentials of this person to serve as reviewer. Then, the editor will decide what to do with this piece of information: either pass the review to the suggested reviewer or choose another reviewer.
Upvotes: 5 <issue_comment>username_2: While I agree that unacknowledged reviewing is unethical, I would like to offer a counter-point on how I have often seen review "subcontracting" done ethically.
In communities that acknowledge and support the practice of involving students / postdocs / etc. in reviewing, there is often actually an official means of an invited reviewer designating the person they "subcontract" the review to as a *sub-reviewer*. This puts both the original and the secondary reviewer officially into the process and is fully transparent to the editor.
EasyChair is an example of a platform that supports this, and when I am acting as Program Chair of an EasyChair conference, I appreciate this feature greatly. It means that I *know* which reviews have been done by a junior rather than the original PI, which also most definitely affects how I weight the judgement thereby expressed.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: I disagree with the other voices here. Although it would seem unethical to suggest that a professor has reviewed a document which has only had a student overview, there are two points to make:
1. Peer review is about guarantees of quality, not about processes achieved
2. The graduate's review may not be the final review submitted by the professor
In any review-based system, no one can guarantee that any review is perfect; only the aggregate effect of many such reviews creating a resource of high quality. Thus the review process for a highly respected journal is much more stringent than that of an 'easier' one.
On the side of the reviewer, this is a responsibility-based role, not a procedural one; what is important is that the professor is willing to stake a measure of their reputation on the review; if the graduate knows more detail of the field and the professor trusts their judgement, it could be a more thorough review than the professor could provide. As long as the professor judges the reviewer to be competent, that is their responsibility.
Finally, having a student review a paper may well be only part of the process; give it to a couple of students, see if they come up with anything. If they don't understand it, or they discover flaws, then the professor can review the paper herself in that light. Just because the graduate student has reviewed a paper doesn't mean that the professor will just pass the review on without comment.
The key, though, is that the journal is only asking that the professor provides responsible and competent feedback, and signs off on the review. How the professor reaches that goal is up to them, and peers that provide poor reviews should be excluded from the review pool (and associated privileges) by the journal. There is no magic to a professor reading a paper, and their judged competence to do so is only based on the university's assignment of professorship and the academic's history of research. Everything builds on expectations and responsibilities, not on some procedure having been carried out; the procedure is only there to make those responsibilities explicit.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: I have seen the following situation. Professor X is assigned to review a paper, which is also publicly available on the arXiv. Professor X assigns a student to read and present the paper in a seminar, and during the course of discussion between the student and Professor X, an error is found. Professor X then summarizes the error in his or her referee report and recommends rejection. This seems pretty kosher. The only negative I see is that X did not acknowledge the student's contribution in his or her letter. But since this would only be seen by one other person, the managing editor, I'm not sure how important this is.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: When writing a scientific paper, one of the important sections to fill in are the possible *conflicts of interest*. Typically, I get to write
>
> The authors declare no competing financial interests.
>
>
>
Now, however, one of my co-authors has moved to a for-profit company before the study has been published. I am arguing whether it constitutes a conflict of interest.
What is a conflict of interest, by minimum?<issue_comment>username_1: Such a section usually isn't required for papers in my field, but you should probably put something like "<NAME> moved from The University of Bobtown to ACME, Inc. during the preparation of this manuscript."
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: A publication that is examining the effects of a drug (let's say, Drug A) on inflammation that is funded by a private company trying to sell Drug A. This would be an example of a conflict of interest to be disclosed. This, of course, doesn't necessarily mean that there is misconduct occurring.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I don't care much for being rich. I don't mind a modest life if I can just do research in the field I love.
Thus I am curious to know if it is possible to make a living just by studying. (Suppose I could hypothetically get funding for every Master or PhD program). Is there an age limit or a limit to the number of PhD degrees that I could get? Are there any other reasons that prevent this?<issue_comment>username_1: >
> Is there a limit of age in studing? Is there a limit of numbers of PhD that I could get?
>
>
>
No, but realistically there is a limit for how many years / PhDs you will find funding agencies and advisors who put up with you. Funding agencies / universities do not give out stipends just for fun - once it becomes obvious that you are really just studying everything without ever taking the next career step, nobody will be particularly thrilled to invest time, energy, and money into teaching you something that you actually don't plan to ever put to use.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: Why would you want to get multiple PhD degrees when the first one is all you need to do research for life? Much of the point of the degree is a certification of your ability to do independent research. After you've done that, you can get a job where you do research all day long! Many people get a professor's job where there are other duties, but plenty of people get jobs doing just research at government labs or non-teaching academic departments (like me!).
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: Another point is that many PhD programs (in the U.S., for sure) will not admit people who already have a PhD, no matter that it was/is in a different topic, etc., with or without funding.
And, these days, in the U.S., funding for graduate study in many subjects is shrinking, for many reasons. While it is illegal to discriminate based on age in the U.S., I think most PhD programs gauge their own success significantly by how well their graduates do in the academic (or other) professional spheres, and effectively promising to not participate would most likely kill chances of funding... Certainly does not help.
That is, in general consonance with the other answers, getting a PhD is just an initial step toward being an independent scholar (if not necessarily a commodified "researcher" in the grant-getting sense, etc). These programs are aimed at people who are intellectually/technically slightly immature (whatever their chronological age), and who do some sort of apprenticeship. If you think about it that way, an itinerant endless-apprentice is not what people want, because they want to have apprentices become "journeymen", in the archaic but useful sense.
Upvotes: 4
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<issue_start>username_0: I do research in math. A lot of times, I get stuck. I wonder if it's considered ethical to post questions on which I get stuck on internet sites, for example Math Overflow or Math Stackexchange.
If the question is just a small step or something already well-known, it is probably a waste of time to reinvent the wheel myself (and I don't get credit for doing so.) On the other hand, if it turns out to be a crucial step, then I could potentially be dishonest if someone on the internet solves it and I claim it's my own work. Sometimes it's not easy to tell beforehand which case the question will fall into.<issue_comment>username_1: Posting questions is ethical, the issue is with appropriate credit and potential collaboration. I would say that most answers will be directions to published work that covers your question, if the question is about problems already solved. In this case, you just have to reference the books or papers that you used.
If it turns out to be an open question, it probably won't be answered in a simple post on internet sites. In this case, in the best scenario, you could find people that will collaborate with you in a more permanent way, till you both solve the issue and, eventually, publish a paper.
Upvotes: 3 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: If the question you post to [math.stackexchange](https://math.stackexchange.com/) involves your *personal education*, and specifically you are seeking help to overcome an error you are encountering applying a specific method to a specific problem, then there is no need to acknowledge or give attribution.
If, instead, you post questions that are directly related to your research question and essential to your research progress, then you have an ethical obligation to provide notice and attribution in the body of your published research. This could be done in footnotes/endnotes associated with those specific steps, or in an **Acknowledgements** section. For example, in a footnote you might say:
>
> "This solution [formulation/approximation/step...] comes from 'ysk', a member of the *math.stackexchange* online community, in response to my posted question (<https://math.stackexchange.com/myquestion/answered>). I am grateful for his/her assistance."
>
>
>
EDIT: added URL to footnote. However, since some communities are not publicly available and those that are may not have permanent URLs for posts, this may or may not be appropriate for published academic articles.
While some people might consider this to be ethical "overkill", I believe that it is better to err in the direction of giving more credit to others rather than less. *Anything* that appears in our paper that is not yours originally deserves to be credited to the original author. Mostly this is done through citations, but there are times when other methods are needed.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm the executive editor of a PubMed-indexed journal. Last year The journal published a paper with four authors in the byline. Today I received an e-mail from the first author admitting that she translated large parts of a research paper published in a local language and used it in the paper's introduction and discussion without referring to the author. She claimed that she did not realize at the time that this was unethical. The other authors, when they discovered the problem, asked her to send us an e-mail containing these details and also sent an e-mail asking us to withdraw the paper.
I could not access the paper written in the local language because it was published in a local journal. Accordingly I'm not sure how much of the text was used.
We use a plagiarism detection software but for this paper it did not yield any results that warranted attention.
Is withdrawal the solution? If so, how can I contact PubMed to do it?
Are there any further steps to be taken concerning the authors?<issue_comment>username_1: Plagiarism is tricky when it comes to using works that have not yet gone through cross-language publication, especially if said works are not widely known. Common decency would dictate a "cite or do not use" mindset, but since it's already been submitted this complicates things.
As far as contacting Pubmed goes you could use their [Help Desk](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/ehelp?&Ncbi_App=entrez&Db=pubmed&Page=home&Snapshot=/projects/entrez/pubmed/PubMedGroup@1.68&Time=2015-06-30T01:52:38-04:00&Host=portal208&Data=+NCBI_Phid:+3970A3EA5922E5D100000000004A6FA9;+PageURL:+http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed;)
to see if you could retract and edit where appropriate, then resubmit.
If a decision is made to keep the material but cite properly, you can refer to [this question with answers that tackle that.](https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/43484/how-to-cite-sources-written-in-a-different-language-than-englis.)
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Retract the article.
--------------------
That's what editors of reputable journals do when an author *spontaneously asks for it* for reasons of plagiarism.
What other options were you considering? Adding a note saying "The authors admitted to have plagiarized large portions of this article but since our system did not detect it, we publish it anyway."?
It's the duty of the editorial board to execute the retraction, possibly with the support of the publisher. But *surely* your journal has a standard procedure to handle retraction...
It certainly would help to notify PubMed that will publish [the retraction notice](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19103775/) in lieu of the article. I suspect this is part of the information that your journal is providing to PubMed by default...
Upvotes: 5
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<issue_start>username_0: I received a journal paper for a review. The paper suggests a solution to an important problem, but the solution is very complicated and has mediocre performance. While reading the paper, I thought of a different solution, which is much simpler and has better performance (to give some scale: their solution is 1 page to write and 5 pages to prove; my solution is 5 lines to write and half a page to prove).
What should I do now?
A. Write my solution in the review, hoping the authors will remember to "thank the anonymous reviewer"?
B. Recommend that the paper published as is, then write a paper of my own with my improved solution?
C. Something else?
EDIT: Before I found the superior solution, I thought of recommending "resubmit with major revision", with the reasons that I mentioned above: your solution is too complicated and its performance is too weak.
However, now I am not sure it is the good course of action. A major revision may take a long time. The authors might even decide to delay or stop working on the paper without telling the editor (or me). Meanwhile, I will have to postpone the publishing of the superior solution for an indefinite amount of time. What do you think?<issue_comment>username_1: Ethically speaking, both, A and B, are perfectly valid options in my opinion. If the paper itself provides a significant contribution to the state of the art, I would recommend to publish the paper. Although your solution might be superior (which, please correct me if I am wrong, you have not yet proven) the proposed method might cover different aspects or might be of relevance in a different way. Depending on your motivation to publish a paper with your novel method yourself, this would be the logical next step. Why give your ideas to the current authors "for free" (meaning without real credit)?
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I didn't get a clear impression of your opinion of the authors' work. "Solving an important problem" ought to make for an excellent paper, but the rest of your description seems to partially negate that. (In particular, I don't quite know what a "nonstandard input parameter" is, but it sounds a bit like they are cheating or that the legitimacy of their solution could be a matter of debate.)
Either way, it seems to follow from what you say that you feel that **you** have solved an important problem, indeed in a better way than the authors. Unless you are such a known superstar in your field that this is a commonplace occurrence for you, I would think that you deserve to get more out of this than an anonymous thanks. To me the options seem to be:
1) If the authors' paper is strong enough to be published, say so. You should not hide your opinions about their shortcomings, but you don't have to include your new ideas in your referee report. Then:
1a) If just by responding to your criticism (if they care to) the authors replicate your better solution, then it seems that you did not add critical value, and I would just recommend accepting their modified version and letting the matter end there.
But
1b) If your conscientious refereeing produces a version that is worth publishing but does not replicate your superior solution, then you should prepare your solution for publication. The timing of this is something that you should ask for other opinions about. It would be ideal if the authors had circulated their results in preprint form. If not, you may need to delay submission until their paper actually appears.
2) If you think the paper is not publishable in its current form in the journal to which it was submitted but that it inspired you to solve the problem in a better way, this may be a case for you to ask permission to contact the authors and add your work to theirs.
3) If the work is really not valuable and your solution has little or nothing to do with theirs, then you could just recommend the paper for rejection and then submit your own solution elsewhere. Examine your conscience carefully before doing this though: imagine that the authors found out exactly what you did. Would they see it your way?
Upvotes: 6 <issue_comment>username_3: Option C is to contact the authors, aiming to become coauthor of a better paper. This should be done via the editor of the journal/proceeding you work for, to avoid the impression that you try to exploit your position to get free publications. The editor writes a letter to the authors stating that the anonymous referee has found a better solution, and ask whether they want to write a joint paper. If they refuse, you can still choose option B.
This option is only viable, if the result you improve is a significant part of the paper, and the authors have every right to differ in their judgement from you, so a refusal does not mean that they are mean/not cooperative/envious/whatever.
At a later stage in your carreer, i.e. once you have a good position, you should opt for A. This is not only common interest, but also helping yourself. It does not make a difference whether you have 76 or 82 publications, but editors read your reports and notice, and usually editors are influential people.
As a sideremark I would recommend you to take a little more care about the "anonymous referee" stuff. If the authors read this post, they will know whom to blame.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_4: Option B strikes me as the best solution here, as it seems the original paper gave you the basis from which to create a better solution. Their paper could also help other researchers finding other solutions.
So unless you feel that their contribution is not enough of a step forward, or their proof is missing pieces or incorrect, then it would seem to merit publication.
They get their publication credit for the paper, and you have the beginnings of a new paper.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I have some analytical articles published in reputed national newspapers,local magazines relevant to my subjects. Do those count as publications?
I have to fill a form (graduate school) and bit confused about it (bit worried how it would be perceived).
Some of articles were quite long and extensive (based on local surveys) so rather than leaving “publication” section of form blank, I thought may be I can put those to show some publication experience (all as summary – not one by one in detail). After all, many say something is better than nothing.<issue_comment>username_1: **Whether newspaper articles count as a publication depends on the context.**
**In the general academic context, newspaper articles don't count as an academic publication.**
Generally, the main works that count as academic publications are:
1. peer reviewed academic journal articles
2. academic books and book chapters, and
3. full-text peer reviewed academic conference articles.
**Academic context - newspaper articles are not academic publications:** So in general, if you are asked how many publications you have in an academic context, it will generally just be the above that gets counted. In other cases, you might only be being asked about a count of peer reviewed journal articles.
This kind of context often applies to job applications, grant applications, promotions and so on.
**Showing how newspaper articles contribute to track-record:** That said, in most academic contexts where your track-record is being judged, there is scope to communicate external engagement. Publishing in newspapers is one of many possible examples of external engagement. And in some cases there may be merit in listing the specific instances of external engagement (e.g., particular newspaper articles and so on).
Furthermore, the value assigned to writing newspaper articles varies substantially between fields, universities, and departments. For example, I briefly worked in a business school and they placed a lot of value on academics engaging with the media, and particularly the popular business press. I imagine this was related to the branding benefits associated with their academics being read by the business people who complete their courses. In contrast, in more pure-science disciplines, engagement with the media was really an optional extra.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The terms are very specific, and important. An 'Academic Publication' may be different than a 'Publication', but it also depends on the field.
If the source is looking for 'peer reviewed academic publications', it would be referring to what @JeromyAnglim has pointed out.
The one exception field specific would be in the humanities or arts, in which a 'Publication' may refer to an article that others have written about your work, such as working on a Fashion Dress, which is 'published' in Vogue. If your field is similar to this, it may be appropriate to include, but you should ask someone with knowledge in both your field and the application.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: Sorry if the question is weird but I have not seen this terminology before. Who is the president of a university?
In my country, *a rector* is the leader of a university. A *dean* might run a faculty, possibly containing several departments. A *department head* is in charge of a single department.<issue_comment>username_1: This is just a different word for the most senior executive of a university. There are many names for this position. In the UK alone they may be called (most commonly) the vice-chancellor, the principal or the president. Broadly speaking, countries where universities are operated by the state have more consistent names for positions in the hierarchy, whereas countries where they are independent organisations have more of a diversity of names.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: The term "president" may not be applicable to every country, and can differ in one County by different federal laws or historic use. Another point is that translations are difficult.
In (former) East Germany you usually have two main roles in the leadership of universities:
* (der) Kanzler m. / (die) Kanzlerin f.: usually the head of the management staff, has the householder's rights and is responsible for the financial decisions. (in engl: chancellor)
* (der) Rektor m. / (die) Rektorin f.: usually has a representative function, traveling around, speaks in public about the institution and in some cases is also responsible for the academic profile of an university. It's mostly translated to English as the dean, but vice versa the english word dean often is also translated to Dekan (which is not the same as Rektor)
* (der) Dekan m. / (die) Dekanin f.: usually the leader of a "faculty" (department) or institute. With mixed responsibilities compared to the roles described before on overall university level.
Moreover, as Wrzlprmft pointed out, in the (German) western federal states, the Kanzler is often called the Präsident of an university. Also the meaning of the other terms can differ between federal states.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: FWIW, in the U.S., "president" is typically the highest executive officer of a single campus. Some universities, particularly in the big state systems, have executive officers over the whole system, who can be called a variety of things, often "chancellor." In state schools, the president will usually be overseen by a board of private officials, often called a "board of regents" or something like that; in private schools there's something similar, often equivalent to the board of directors of a nonprofit corporation (at Harvard, for example, they're called the "board of overseers").
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: In the United States, the title and rank of President and Chancellor varies by system and state. Some universities have Chancellors and other have Presidents and the ranking of the two positions can be switched.
For example, the University of Wisconsin System has multiple independent campuses that are their own, independent Universities (e.g., have their own accreditation, administration, etc.). UW-Madison has a [chancellor](https://chancellor.wisc.edu/) as do other UW schools (e.g., UW-La Crosse has a [chancellor](https://www.uwlax.edu/chancellor/)). The UW System shares a [Board of Regents](https://www.wisconsin.edu/regents/) who oversee the System and the UW System's [President](https://www.wisconsin.edu/president/).
As a counter example, the [Texas Tech System](https://www.texastech.edu/) shares a [Board of Regents](https://www.texastech.edu/board-of-regents/) and a [Chancellor](https://www.texastech.edu/chancellor/). The individual universities in the system such as [Texas Tech University](https://www.ttu.edu/administration/president/) or [Angelo State University](https://www.angelo.edu/president_welcome/contactinfo.php) have their own presidents.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: The president of an American university is the chief fund-raiser. The president is responsible for seeking major donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations, and for lobbying governments for appropriations. The president also creates strategic partnerships with other organizations, which often include in-kind donations.
The president is also the chief executive, but at wealthier institutions this is a secondary role.
To quote <NAME>:
>
> It’s a standing joke that at private four-year schools, the president reports to the development office. It isn’t literally true, but in some places, it’s close.
>
>
>
The development office is the fundraising office.
Upvotes: 0
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<issue_start>username_0: I know, the question of how to cite source code has been asked before, but I did not found anything helpful for my specific situation.
I am currently writing my master's thesis. My university does not dictate any particular citation style so I just use biblatex's default settings. My work is quite OS-specific, so I have to cite Linux source code on several places throughout.
I found the [Linux cross reference](http://lxr.free-electrons.com/), which allows me to reference specific code lines for specific Linux versions. I intent to use this for my purpose, so I will cite URLs in the form of `http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/?v=#L`. However, I do not know how to exactly do this.
I know biblatex provides the `online` type which should be generally applicable, since I am citing URLs. I have two problems with this, though:
1. What do I fill in as the author/editor? Linux is written by hundreds of people and surely there would be no benefit in mentioning them all. Should I drop the editor/author and instead fill in the organization? But then, do I refer to the ~~Free Software Foundation holding the copyright to Linux~~ Linux Foundation or rather to the maintainers of the Linux cross reference?
2. I feel like a larger amount of such source code references would clutter the bibliography. Hence, I would rather have an extra section (like a secondary bibliography) listing only those source code references. Is there a solution for this use case? Or should I save the effort and accept the cluttering?<issue_comment>username_1: In my mind, I see the Linux source code as a single bibliography entry (possibly with its official kernel.org repository as the source URL). You can refer to the different files in the text as `\cite[Version~4.1, \texttt{drivers/android/binder.c}, Line~18]{Linux}`.
EDIT: suggested kernel.org instead of github, as pointed out by bdsl, sebleblanc and Bruno.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In *APA* style (6th ed., section 7.08), the reference should look something along the lines of
>
> <NAME> (2015). Linux (4.1-rc8) [Operating system]. Retrieved from `https://github.com/torvalds/linux/releases/tag/v4.1-rc8`
>
>
>
Notes
1. <NAME>' role is something like the editor or publisher of Linux.
2. You should have just the one entry in the reference list to the source code as a whole; individual places where you cite particular lines of code should be cited where you refer to them, either in the text or as a footnote.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: Next week I am going on a summer school meeting where the organizers encourage us to bring a poster. I would like to make a poster on a topic that I have covered in an article that is currently under review. Is that fine?
The rules of the conference to which the article is submitted state that I cannot submit any paper that covers the same material to any journal, conference or workshop. Does a poster count as a paper in this context?<issue_comment>username_1: Typically this would be okay, because the poster is not published.
If in doubt, contact the PC chair of the conference to make sure.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I am also writing a paper in CS domain BT I can use the same name somewhere else. So you can use a poster related to your paper. Just check the rules ones. Mine doesn't say anything like that.
Upvotes: 1
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2015/06/30
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<issue_start>username_0: I would appreciate clarification on the following aspect of joining academia as a *junior faculty* member. I have seen a number of advertised positions for junior faculty, which often involve a teaching component. However, a particular *timing* aspect is not clear enough to me: if, for example, a position advertisement mentions "vacancy, starting August 2015", does it imply:
**A)** that a candidate by that time is expected to have a portfolio of developed courses, expected to be taught in that position, or, at least, similar courses that could be easily customized; **OR**
**B)** that August 2015 is just a position's start time, but a candidate will be given adequate time to develop corresponding required courses, including necessary materials, after the start date?<issue_comment>username_1: I think this is a false dichotomy. In the US, you are generally expected to be able to teach a course your first semester. You shouldn't need to have the course fully prepared in order to start teaching it, though. You can prepare as you go.
Also, many departments in STEM fields back off on their standard teaching load for junior faculty during the first year to give you some time to prepare your first courses, so you might get a 1-1 your first year instead of the usual 2-1 (or whatever). This kind of thing varies quite a lot from department to department, but there is usually some sort of consideration given to let you ramp up some classes.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: A position starting in August almost certainly expects you to immediately teach courses for the academic Fall Term. As a junior/first-year instructor, the courses *and their general expected learning outcomes* will typically be dictated to you, and you will likely be expected to use whatever textbook and resources were indicated while students registered for classes during the Spring and Summer.\*
In order to make this expectation reasonable, a few concessions are made. Normally instructors are expected to handle academic advising for a certain number of the students in their subject area, but it's common to waive this requirement for first year instructors. This allows new instructors to devote more office time to preparing lesson plans and the like, and helps avoid advising mistakes from instructors who are not yet familiar with the degree plans in their area. You may also have one course fewer on your load than is normally expected, or you may be granted an extension on when your full syllabi must be posted. Finally, you may be given access to materials from prior or concurrent sections of the same course as taught by other instructors.
But, when it comes down to it, that first year you'll likely still find yourself writing lesson plans the week and day before delivering them. In the current climate, be grateful for a tenure-track position at all :/
---
\*Note that this isn't a matter of infringing your academic freedom; it's just that there won't be time for you to start from scratch, and you should still expect full academic freedom as you get your legs under you in the new position.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: When you apply to most positions (except at the very highest tier), you are asked to provide a teaching portfolio. This could include courses that you've taught, syllabuses, teaching evaluations, a statement of your teaching philosophy, etc.
When you give a job talk, you may also be asked to give a guest lecture in a class or before undergraduates as a means of assessing your capacity as a teacher.
The assumption here is that you've already been teaching or been a teacher's assistant -- and can jump immediately into full-time teaching from Day 1.
The university might do some things to make it easier -- a course release or perhaps allow you teach a course where the syllabus is fixed. Or perhaps a high-level seminar where they only expect 3-4 seniors or grad students. But they don't have to and many PhDs have been thrown into 3:3:2 teaching loads with none of that.
Now, everyone knows that the first several years of teaching are difficult. So don't worry if your courses aren't as fully baked as they should be or if you have some negative reviews. Tenure and promotion committees are interested in positive and upward trajectories -- so at least you'll have the ability to show this!
Upvotes: 3
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2015/06/30
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<issue_start>username_0: I am in the process of submitting my PhD thesis, and have been offered a 1yr post-doc role at my current institution. If it matters, I am in UK and work in applied mathematics at a well-known faculty.
My question relates to "traditional" career paths after the initial post-doc, or more specifically what are good reasons (or the only reason) for embarking on post-doc research? The reason I am asking this question is because I switched from industry (after 5 years experience) to research in order to carry out my PhD, which happens to be on a topic relevant to both industry and academia. So I have come to research and academia in a bit of a backwards way.
Like many other researchers, I found thesis work hard-going and throughout much of my PhD assumed I would simply slip back into industry after completion. But as my thesis began to reach the closing stages, and I reflect upon my work, I realised that there are numerous aspects of research that I genuinely enjoy, and value. But I do not know if this is a good enough reason to continue with post-doc research.
Thinking beyond my current offer, during my investigations for post-doc roles I have been struck by how transient, or temporary, many roles are (at least in my area). So my question is what are the traditional "end goal(s)" of a series of temporary post-doc positions? Am I correct in thinking that I should only be doing this if I *fully* intend on seeking a full-time salaried academic position? How long does this take, and what is the "success rate" of post-doc to full-time academic?
The thought of job-hunting every year, or few years, for the next X years seems quite...daunting. And I worry that if there is a high chance I will return to industry in X years time (for whatever reason) - then I probably need to factor that in to my decision making now.<issue_comment>username_1: The reason to do a postdoc is because you want to continue to do academic research. This might be a short-term goal, or a long-term goal, or exploratory (you're not sure what you want to do long-term). The latter two are the usual reasons.
Lots of people go into industry after doing postdocs (either because they decided they prefer that or couldn't find an academic job they wanted), so that's no issue. Keep in mind that it's generally easier to go from academia to industry than industry back to academia.
How long it takes to transition from post-doc to a permanent faculty position depends on the field and type of job you want. In math, 3-4 years (1-2 postdocs) is normal before getting a permanent research job and 0-3 is common for moving into primarily teaching jobs.
As for "success" rates from postdoc to permanent faculty, I think they're reasonably good, say over 50%. I quoted some relevant data from the AMS [in this answer](https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/44187/19607), though I don't think the right data is there to give you a precise number. If you take into account that a large fraction of these people want to leave academia, the success rate should look quite good.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In the fields with which I intersect, I have seen several main reasons for doing a postdoc. Some of the main ones are:
* Staying in a brief holding pattern while you figure out what to do
* Improving your credentials in order to try to gain a high-prestige job (faculty or other), by some combination of moving to a more prestigious institution, expanding your network, and publishing more high-impact articles
* Shifting your research area---postdocs offer a good opportunity for "additional training" and re-skilling
* A "test run" in an organization (many industry or research lab postdocs are this way, offering a relatively straightforward path to permanent hire)
* A safe fallback when you can't get the job you actually wanted or have external factors that need to be managed (e.g., maintaining visa status, synchronizing with a spouse's career, dealing with family illness)
Professionally, one can potentially move in any direction from a postdoc---faculty, industry, startup, government, NGO, drop out of research altogether, etc.
To get a sense of the diversity, consider [this chart showing the current flow of PhD biologists](http://ascb.org/where-will-a-biology-phd-take-you/).
Upvotes: 2
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| 537
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<issue_start>username_0: I often see people abbreviate faculty teaching loads ("course loads") as 2:2 or 3:2:3 or 2:1.
Sometimes a note such as "3:3 with 2 preps" is added.
What do these abbreviations mean?<issue_comment>username_1: They refer to the number of classes you teach in each semester. ie 2:1 would mean two classes one semester and one the other.
Three numbers (like 3:2:3) refer to the number of classes in each quarter for schools on the quarter system (i.e., three terms per academic year). [Thanks to <NAME>es]
Not all courses are the same size, although I suspect that the vast majority are the standard "3 credit hour" size. A minority but reasonable number of courses, though, are 4 credit hours (particularly in my area, math). A few courses are even 5 credit hours at some institutions. It depends on the field to a great extent. Nevertheless, the number of courses is still very important. Teaching a four-hour and a five-hour course for a 2-course load is less work, usually, than teaching three different 3-hour courses. [Thanks to <NAME>]
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: To answer the part of the question about preps: It's easier to teach two sections of the same course than it is to teach two entirely different courses. A 3:3 load with two preps means that you teach 3 sections per semester but two sections are of the same course. For example, you might teach two sections of Calculus I and one section of ordinary differential equations for a 3 course load with two preps.
In the US, most academic courses are 3 credit hours, nominally meeting for 3 hours per week (often 3 sessions of 50 minutes each on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, or two sessions of 75 minutes each on Tuesday and Thursday.) However, you'll find some courses that are two credit hours or four credit hours (or even five credit hours in some science courses with labs.) In assigning teaching load it's common to just count all of these as one course even though four credit hour courses take more time than 3 credit hour courses.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: In Germany there is a wiki-like webpage that investigates PhD theses for plagiarism: <http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/>
On this webpage PhD theses that are suspected of plagiarism are investigated by an online community. Anybody can contribute in an anonymous way. For the thesis manuscripts that are investigated there is an indication of plagiarized text for each page.
My question is: are there any such initiatives in other countries?
And would that make sense?<issue_comment>username_1: I only know the German initiatives of private persons actively searching for mistakes in citation. There are several tools for finding or measuring the grade of plagiarism. At my university the master and doctoral thesis are checked against [Turnitin](http://turnitin.com/).
I can't rate the value of academic degrees in other countries than Germany. In Germany the doctoral degree can lead to a high reputation in public view, especially in the eyes of the elderly. One could hold a doctorate in "collecting stamps" and gain a prestige like one could be asked every question about our complex world.
Especially in the case of unpopular politicians (e.g. zu Guttenberg) their relatives (e.g. Veronica "Vroni" Saß) or economists (e.g Margarita Mathiopoulos), private initiatives work hard to find mistakes or unethical behavior in connection to their thesis, to undermine their public reputation.
I can imagine that in countries where personal attributes and charsima play a bigger role than overrated degrees, initiatives like Vroniplag are of less public interest.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_2: I am not aware of initiatives in other countries. However, while VroniPlag started out with examinations of German doctoral theses, it is no longer limited to those. [Today, it investigates suspected plagiarism in PhD theses written in Spain, Ireland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Italy.](http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/VroniPlag_Wiki:Karte) To the extent that this is a continuing trend, VroniPlag already is an international project.
So the answer to the question in your title (which differs from that in the body), whether online community investigations of PhD thesis plagiarism outside Germany exist, is **yes**.
Upvotes: 5 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: There is an analogous project in Russia called Dissernet (<http://www.dissernet.org/>). They mostly investigate theses and books "written" by Russian politicians.
Upvotes: 3
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<issue_start>username_0: I have graduated three times from UK universities. First was a bachelors' degree, then a Masters' degree, then a PhD. The graduation robes associated with my PhD graduation are absolutely horrible. I am now a lecturer in a UK university and if I attend graduation ceremonies at this University (or others, I suppose), I am supposed to wear the academic robes from my highest degree, i.e. the horrible PhD ones.
So my question is this, is it considered acceptable to wear the robes from my 'lower' degrees at such occasions, or even the equivalent PhD robes from the university I now work at (much nicer!)?
Basically, can I get away with wearing the wrong robes to graduation ceremonies?<issue_comment>username_1: In the United States, there are typically two acceptable pieces of regalia to wear: either your university-specific regalia or a "generic Ph.D." regalia that is just simple black robes plus your doctoral hood. It would seem rather gauche to me to wear non-Ph.D. regalia or to wear the regalia of a school that is not your alma mater, even if that is where your post is. I don't know if "generic Ph.D." regalia is also accepted in the UK, where many universities have a much longer and more formal set of traditions than in the US, but I would recommend that you look into that as a possibility.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: Who will ever know? No one really knows what degrees you have, save the panel that hired you and the people at HR who maintain the staff records!
Spotting a degree and university by eye from a robe is a real skill that I suspect few possess. Its even rarer than bird spotting. (Never heard of robe twitchers)....
Wear what looks the best in the photos or the official video, because you will appear in many hundreds of parent photographs.
Myself, I put on the most colourful ties and waistcoats under my robe. Colour, pomp and show is what the entire ceremony is about.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: Yes, you can totally get away with it. The situation in the UK is much more formal than in the US, where I have seen a graduation ceremony that looked [exactly like the Comanche attack scene from *Blood Meridian*](http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/328033-a-legion-of-horribles-hundreds-in-number-half-naked-or), but I have never seen anybody called out for wearing the wrong robes, except for once in Cambridge where I was gently chided for letting some ribbons hang out which were supposed to be tucked under the armpits.
Wear whatever you feel comfortable with. As long as it's academic dress, nobody will know and it doesn't really matter. (But if you did happen to get a PhD from Leeds, you are wrong about those robes! They are awesome!)
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: This is a matter for whichever official at your university is in charge of ceremonies; in a British university there is almost certainly someone who knows the official rules, even if the university as a whole is very relaxed about academic dress. At some universities (Oxford and Cambridge are the main examples) the rules about wearing 'local' versus 'foreign' academic dress are very strict, and still taken fairly seriously (there are only specific occasions when academic dress from other universities may be worn, and for other purposes fellows are 'incorporated' into the university so they are entitled to wear MA robes).
* If your question is 'can I get away with it', the answer is almost certainly '**yes**', assuming your institution is one of the majority that are quite relaxed about academic dress.
* If your question is 'should I wear the less gaudy robes', I would suggest the answer is '**no**'; part of your role at a graduation is to make the event as meaningful as possible for your students graduating, and wearing more impressive robes supports that.
I recommend the ['Academical Dress' Facebook group](https://www.facebook.com/groups/991333104293186/) as a source of academic dress advice and knowledge, often from the people (at the Burgon Society) who wrote the book on the topic.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_5: I can't comment on whether you'd get away with it, as that depends on your institution and colleagues, but wearing the wrong robes is certainly **both bad form and *rude***.
It's bad form to disrespect the rules of the ceremony, and it's rude to everyone who is graduating to do so. Moreover, it's rude to everyone who has ever got a PhD from Heriot-Watt to treat a Masters from another university as more valuable to display than your doctorate from Heriot-Watt.
You may not like it, but you neither get to choose the design of your institutes's robes not what the robes you wear *mean* and wearing the wrong gown communicates to anyone who understands that you place your masters in higher esteem to your PhD.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently enrolled at a Japanese university in the doctoral program of Mathematical and Life sciences, and have already been a student for last 4 years. I am waiting for the acceptance of research paper, and based on it, will submit the thesis for defense soon.
But I came to know that Japanese universities have a system where one can actually quit the university, but if the paper has been accepted, one can apply within one year for a thesis defense. A PhD degree will be awarded in the case of successful defense.
My question is, has anybody here been such a situation, and is aware of a possible difference between the technicalities of the difference in PhD degree, while remaining a university student, and after quitting the university? I know the concerned university or department should be the best place to answer it, but just in case anybody here can clarify that, I would be grateful for it.
At the minimum, will the degree obtained after quitting the university, would it be considered equivalent to the degree obtained while as a student or not? I guess other country universities don't have such a system in place. Thank you very much.<issue_comment>username_1: Disclaimer: my Japanese is quite good, but I'm not a native speaker, so please keep that in mind.
Based on the degree statutes of your university (広島大学学位規則), you need not be enrolled in the graduate program to submit a thesis and apply for a defense (Article 2 Section 3). However, non-matriculated students must pay a fee of 57,000 JPY for the defense. This fee can be waived if the applicant is not currently enrolled, but has completed the program and left the university without defending within the past year (Article 4 Section 3). If you wait longer than one year you can technically still submit and apply to defend, but you would have to pay the fee.
I spent 10 years at a Japanese university, although not the same as yours. I can recall one person who got their degree in the non-traditional way, so it is possible but uncommon.
I assume you don't have Japanese citizenship, so have you considered what will happen to your residency status? I can't recall the procedures, but you could run into trouble unless you have a job lined up and can change your status easily. I would discuss this with your adviser, but I can almost guarantee things will go more smoothly if you just wait for the paper to be accepted. You may need to revise the paper based on reviewer comments as well. In the meantime, maybe you can apply for positions or spend time making your CV and dissertation look amazing.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: I don't personally have experience with this, but let me point out a potential issue. Generally it's not a good idea in academia to do something non-standard that may make you look strange. Moreover, Japanese academia seems a bit more rigid to me in many ways than Western academia, and it is rather tightly knit. If you quit, people from other universities will know this (plus it will likely be clear from your CV), and this will color their perception of you, not to mention how your advisor might feel. This may make it harder for you to get an academic job in the future, especially in Japan.
I don't know what your reason for quitting would be, or how your advisor would take it, but even having such a conversation with your advisor has potential risks, particularly if you do not have a very good reason. I suggest you think it over carefully privately first. If you want to quit, then it might not be bad to try to talk to someone you that you trust and very familiar with Japanese academia (and preferably your advisor/group) before broaching the subject with your advisor.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_3: You see this right: it is a question your adviser / university can answer best. If you advisor do not recommend it, do not do it.
Regular Japanese PhD programs in Science/Tech fields are 3 years. However a great number of students do not finish by that time, and defend latter. Some of them even get promoted in academia, and do the defense at a later point. So it is a tricky, but not impossible situation. If it is an option for you highly dependent on your professor, department etc support. Discuss it with them.
The good news is that once the defend is successful, everyone consider it more or less the same degree.
Upvotes: 1 <issue_comment>username_4: Thank you everybody who replied and gave valuable suggestions. I have obtained a reply from the university, and posting the relevant parts here, which pertain to the differences in the wording in Degree certificate in two cases I have mentioned. First comes the degree without quitting the university. 
Next, the degree after quitting the university.
The difference seems to be about affiliation to a particular department of the university. I hope that should be fine for most of the cases.
Thank you very much once again.
Upvotes: 1
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<issue_start>username_0: I often find in many conference papers submitted by US research groups that paper writers would thank their "shepherd" in the acknowledgment section. What is the exact contribution of a "shepherd" to a paper submission?
I'm speaking about my domain which is computer science and I'm not sure about the situation in other domains.<issue_comment>username_1: CS conferences often ask a member of the Program Committee who reviewed a paper which is accepted but has some problems to help the authors fix it up for publication. This person is usually called a "shepherd" for the paper with the overt connotation to people who mind sheep in a field. The problems with such a paper can include English language problems, other kinds of bad formatting, the need for a few additional results or cases, or the elaboration of some component of the work that was insufficiently described. This is all done in order to increase the quality of the presentation of otherwise excellent work.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In computer science, "shepherding" is often essentially a means of adapting the journal Major Revision decision for conference publications. Because conferences normally have only one round of review, it is generally the case that the only two decisions available are "Minor Revision" (i.e., the authors are trusted to fix their paper without need for further review) or "Reject."
Shepherds allow a conference to accept papers that need more serious revision without endangering the quality standards of the conference. Rather than simply accept the paper, the conference gives it a conditional acceptance and appoints somebody from the program committee to work with the authors to ensure that the paper ends up acceptable (or to ultimately reject it if the authors cannot reach acceptable quality).
As such, thanking shepherds in acknowledgements often makes a lot of sense, since this is a person who has given volunteer time to work directly with the authors to ensure their paper is significantly improved from its original form.
Upvotes: 5
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2015/07/01
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<issue_start>username_0: I am doing my Ph.D. in mathematics and did not have my thesis carefully proofread before submission (which is definitely a mistake that I wish to correct). My thesis was approved after submission and I am now preparing for the oral defense.
Now as I reread my thesis in detail, I found that there are too many typos (probably more than five per page). Some are negligible, but some are essential. For example, I wrote "<" instead of "less than or equal to") in the conclusion of a proposition. Another example is that I quoted a wrong theorem number in a proof. I even wrote a same lemma with the same proof twice. One referee complains about the misprints in his/her report, but s/he still considers the thesis tolerable as a whole. But now I feel all those careless typos very annoying and they make the thesis much less readable.
Now I am seeking suggestions on what I should do. Should I correct all known typos and give each committee member a copy of the revised thesis on my defense? Is there any other thing that I can do right now?<issue_comment>username_1: Talk to your advisor.
When I defended, my committee came back with a number of such corrections to be made. I made them and they signed off. Then the thesis editing office took the document and came back with even more corrections. I made those, and eventually they signed off. Trust me, you aren't the first to deal with this problem, and likely not the first that your advisor has seen.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: My institution is clear that they will not make corrections after the final submission :( If it is before your defense, then go ahead and make the corrections and resend to the committee members!
Upvotes: -1
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2015/07/01
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<issue_start>username_0: I am currently on the job market. One of the positions uses the online application system where I am able to open the letters of recommendation and read them. I found out that there are "errors" in my advisor's letter.
* First, she put the name of University A in the letter that goes out to University B.
* Second, she wrote that I have successfully defended this month when her letter was dated June, which I worry is going to give the search committees the impression that I defended my dissertation in June when in fact I had defended in May.
I conveyed this to her; she offered to fix the name of the university. But what if the same error is repeated in her second letter, or worse, she adds more errors in her second letter?
So my questions are:
* Will these errors raise any red flags in the eyes of the search committees?
* Will these errors give me enough reason to not to use my advisor's letter?
I am contemplating not to list my advisor as one of my references. I have read the responses to a question similar to mine in this forum, so I understand that I am taking a risk and I will have to explain it if I choose not to list my advisor as one of my references.<issue_comment>username_1: The wrong university might result in someone in the hiring committee smiling for a second. It is a copy and paste error, which would only become a problem if applying to University A would be an error in itself, e.g. if A is the school of astrology in Hoople, Southern North Dakota, and B is MIT.
The wrong date will not be noticed by anybody. If you have to look at 60 applications, you do not read every letter line by line, but just skim over it to see whether it contains some real information, like "was very engaged in teaching/student union/environmental issues/...".
A large part of the meaning of a letter of reference is independent of the content of the letter. If I believe that X is good and honest, and X writes a letter for Y, then I guess that Y cannot be too bad.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: If I were your advisor, I would fix these typos before sending out any more letters (i.e., to other schools). If there is an online system where I can instantly and unobtrusively replace a letter with a fresh copy, then I would do it. Otherwise I would let it go.
These are not serious enough for you to worry about. The impression that this will make on the reader is that your advisor is a human being, perhaps a human being who is rather busy. Ideally your advisor will be someone whose reputation is known to the readers, so cannot be spoiled by a few careless typos.
>
> One of the positions uses the online application system where I am able to open the letters of recommendation and read them.
>
>
>
*This* concerns me...but you didn't ask about it.
**Added**: I missed at first this part of your question:
>
> [W]ill these errors give me enough reason to not to use my advisor's letter? I am contemplating not to list my advisor as one of my references, and I have read the responses to a question similar to mine in this forum, so I understand I am taking a risk and I will have to explain it if I choose not to list my advisor as one of my references.
>
>
>
Heck no. Not getting a letter from your advisor upon graduation is a **very bad idea** in almost all cases.
Upvotes: 4
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2015/07/01
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<issue_start>username_0: I've previously asked a question on this forum about leaving grad school and moving to a new field. I'm a chemistry PhD student in my (now) second year. I've decided to leave my PhD program because my heart is not in my work, nor am I very passionate about my field (word to the wise - don't go to graduate school because you don't know what else to do). The toll of grad school has resulted in some serious damage to my mental health to the tune of depression and anxiety.
I don't have a fantastic relationship with my advisor, but it's not terrible either. There's a significant language and cultural barrier that creates a sort of disconnect between us. As far as I know, my advisor does not know that I plan on leaving, although if my lack of motivation and focus hasn't tipped him off that there's something wrong, I don't know what will. The emotional and physical toll of lying and not telling my advisor the truth is becoming debilitating. I can't focus on work, I spend most of my time feeling hopeless and scheming on how to get away as quickly as possible and I suffer from constant headaches. I never was so apathetic until about 3 months into grad school.
My main concern is that I still have two classes I need to complete in the upcoming Fall semester in order to leave with my terminal master's degree, and I'm worried that if I tell my professor now he will become extremely angry, cut my funding (even thought I'll be teaching in the fall) and make me leave the lab. I do not want to leave without having something to show for my work here. However, I think I would feel better if I just told him now and put myself out of my misery. That way he would understand where I'm coming from and why I'm acting in this way. He's paying me for the summer and the guilt I have for wanting to leave is getting out of hand.
I'm also in sort of an awkward situation where the project I'm assisting in will eventually be mine when my co-worker graduates in May and there would not be another student to take over when I leave as well. I feel like I'm just leaving my advisor out to dry.
So my primary question is, when is the best time to tell an advisor about leaving? As soon as possible? Or continue to let it sit until the fall semester starts? Is there even a "good" time to do this?<issue_comment>username_1: It seems to me that @Mad Jack's comment, though perhaps practical, is unethical. Funding in a PhD program is conditional on one's intention to complete the program. If you accept funding under the expectation that you will take a certain long term action, then if you clearly realize that you no longer have the intention to complete that action then you are behaving deceptively, hence unethically, by hiding that information. In an academic job by contrast, you sign a yearly contract. Unless/until you have tenure, you could be dismissed at the end of any academic year. Even when you have tenure you are rarely receiving university resources which would be wasted if you did not have a multi-year commitment, and if you do find yourself in a position of receiving those resources with the intention of leaving, then you are behaving unethically.
(Example: most universities which offer **sabbaticals** view them as investments for the future of the faculty member's academic career *and* their career at that university. Many universities have a policy that one has to return to "active duty" for at least one year after a sabbatical. Violating this policy would be unethical in a similar way, although it is also more explicitly against the rules. A yet closer unethical faculty behavior would be to receive a multi-year grant to do **X**, to realize after the first year that you have no intention of continuing to do research on anything at all related to X but continuing to take salary from the grant in subsequent years.)
Moreover the suggested unethical behavior is in response to *hypothetical* undesirable behavior by someone else. The OP does not know that behaving unethically is necessary in order to receive the outcome which is in her personal best interest. In fact she does not definitely know that she wants to leave the program: rather, she has some good reasons to leave (lack of interest and enthusiasm for a future academic career) and other good reasons to stay for a while (a desire to get a degree). The right thing to do is to talk to her advisor, be candid about her doubts, and get on a track that would allow her to gracefully complete a master's degree if she so chooses.
Someone who cuts your funding for *expressing doubts* about the future is not behaving ethically. In all programs that I'm familiar with, funding is guaranteed conditional on satisfactory progress, and having a frank conversation does not make satisfactory progress unsatisfactory. *If* the OP's advisor behaves so badly as to cut her funding following that conversation, then the OP can seek recourse from the director of graduate studies or the department head and has an excellent case. The fact that she's scheduled to teach in the fall strengthens the case: if the funding is cut and she leaves because of it, who teaches the class?
The fact that not informing the advisor is setting him up for a crisis later on is also a significant consideration. To accept mentorship and funding from someone while planning all the while to leave them in the lurch later is quite indefensible. I'm not surprised that the OP is having feelings of guilt about it. As she is learning, we know deep down at a visceral level when we are doing something that we think is wrong. Doing the right thing has intrinsic rewards -- call it karma or neuropsychology, it's true nevertheless. I think she will sleep far better at night knowing that she did the right thing and suffered financial hardship for no fault of her own than if she did what she knew was wrong for purely selfish reasons. I know I would.
Finally, having a master's degree from a program and advisor who will only say negative things about you when asked is far from ideal. Being able to play well with others is valued even more in "the real world" than in academia, so burning bridges in this way is not a smart move.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: The best time to tell your advisor is when you are comfortable, and when you have an exit plan that works for you.
There's no ethical conundrum involved with waiting until it's convenient for you. PhD programs have attrition rates approaching 50% on average, and any advisor or graduate director who has been doing this for a length of time knows that some students are going to leave. They prepare for these contingencies.
However, first I think you need to assess how likely it is your advisor will react the way you predict. I told my advisor in graduate school that I was quitting and although he was disappointed, he didn't threaten to cut my funding before I found something. (I changed my mind and stayed.) I recently told my postdoctoral advisor I was leaving academia for a job in the private sector, and although I thought she'd be upset, she was very supportive and happy for me. Are you sure that your advisor will threaten to cut your funding? Is there a chance that he'll be supportive of your decision to leave and will help you finish the terminal master's? Only you know your advisor, so only you can decide.
If you think he would, then you have to decide whether your mental health and your professional goals would be better served by telling your advisor now/soon, or by waiting until closer to the end of the semester. I understand your feelings of guilt and stress about not liking academia and wanting to leave, and feeling like you are living a lie. But the truth is **people leave jobs and careers all the time**. They job search while they are working in a specific job; they tell their employers they have a dentist appointment when really it's an interview; they stay employed when they really want to go to graduate school in 6 months because they want to eat food and live inside. People want to act like academia and PhD programs are different, but at their core, they're not - you're leaving a job/career. Wanting to leave does not mean that you need to sacrifice eating and sleeping inside for the sake of your advisor.
So if you think he'll cut you off, then wait until towards the end of the semester. Give him about a month's notice, maybe a little more, so you can finish up handing off projects. If you get so bogged down you simply can't wait anymore, then tell him earlier.
You have guilt about wanting to leave because that's normal, to because there's anything wrong with you. Everyone I've talked to who has ever left academia (including myself) has felt some amount of guilt about it. The reasons are too complex to get into here, but if you do an Internet search about it you'll find lots of stories from former academics who feel super guilty about leaving. It eventually goes away. In fact, reading about other people's experiences may help it go away. Your advisor will eventually take on another student to finish that project. They may get a couple undergrads to help in the mean time. There may be a student from another department that switches over. They may drop it for a couple months. PIs adjust. He'll be fine. More importantly, you don't want to soak in misery for years on end because you want to help him finish.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_3: RE the funding issue:
(I'm presuming by "support" you mean paid lab work)
In regards to feeling bad about the funding. This is something that drives me a bit crazy about academia. In my lab I'm paid 19K for 9 months of work to work on all of my advisor's projects first. That's fine. But can we all be honest about the system and just be real about what PIs get out of having RAs work on their projects? Cheap and highly qualified labor to move the grant along. In the event where the student wants to go into academia we can argue about the merits of all the experience this low-paying work adds to the CV in terms of conferences and paper submissions; but in the end we are cheap labor.
I've also seen other labs where the PI financially supports a student in the student's own research. In quite a few instances the PI has not been that involved in the student's project(s) outside of the financial support, but attaches his/her name to everything the student does. This arrangement seems common if the primary data is the PI's, or if as part of of PI's support the student collects new data. However, I've also seen the students in this kind of arrangement use publicly available data for projects. This is all fine too. In many ways this is similar to working at a high-level in R&D in industry. Your name might go on a patent, but the company owns all intellectual rights. In the case of academia, where publications are everything, the PI benefits from this arrangement greatly.
If your situation is similar to one of the previous two examples then you don't owe it to anyone to tell them before you've got your Master's and a job offer in hand. The PI will still benefit from your work. Would they benefit more knowing a student was committed to project over the course of the next several years? Sure, but the PI still makes out pretty good. Now, you say you've been pretty bummed by your situation too. If you are being paid and just at home watching Netflix all day then that's a big problem.
Now in a third situation the advisor is paying you to work on what you want to pursue, totally orthogonal to their projects, and giving you full credit of everything (i.e., not attaching their name to everything you do as a point of lab policy). If this is the case then yes... let your advisor know now and let him/her do something different with his/her funding.
I do believe your hunch is correct: Leave without a terminal Master's and you've wasted 2-3 years of your life for nothing. You've added no income potential to your future without that degree on your resume, and (depending on your field) if you're going into industry you'll likely find that selling 2-3 years of work in an academic lab is a bit more difficult than you think, so best to get yourself in the best position possible for your next phase.
Upvotes: 2
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2015/07/01
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<issue_start>username_0: I just started my PhD in computer science (first year) and I enjoy reading the high-rated journals related to my field. It is true that I find them, sometimes, complicated (in some sense) and I cannot continue the reading. The reason why I like reading such journals is that (1) there are many beautiful ideas, (2) solid works and (3) I would like to submit to these journals in the future.
I think, however, that this strategy is not quite good as a junior (student). May be I should read other conference papers and journals.
Can you please suggest some useful advice.<issue_comment>username_1: The gold standard is indeed these kind of journals. I always tell my students: you are what you read :) This is because we learn by osmosis. You need to learn what is 'solid work', how to do technical writing, the vocab, and the most important ideas in your field. The latter is critical. If a reviewer finds that you missed a seminal work, your paper will be rejected.
In CS there are top conferences too, so do read them as well. If you are in networking then SIGCOMM and MOBICOM have very nicely written papers and usually nice ideas.
It is important not to discount lower tier venues. They may contain interesting ideas that may spark a wild fire. In other words, read them for ideas and conduct your research as per the gold standard.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_2: I've never been one to sit down and read a journal edition cover to cover. I think you're better off skimming titles and abstracts for articles that pique your interest. You should do this for conference proceedings too. You can't attend every talk at a conference, nor should you really expect yourself to read every article.
At some point you will need to narrow your interest to something pretty specific in order to develop a dissertation. You will also need to develop depth and historical perspective on your chosen topic. You should probably spend as much, if not more, time reading interesting individual articles and all their important references (and so on!) as you should trying to read whole journal editions or entire conference proceedings. There's value in a depth-oriented approach to reading articles.
I find that there's a pruning strategy of sorts that keeps you out of stuff that's not interesting. Sometimes randomly selected articles can be worthwhile, but there's lots of stuff out there that will be boring to you. Using a good article as a guide and reading some of its references can be much more productive.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I found/find that reading 'high rated' journals is a good place to start when investigating a research topic. Not only do they provide a solid grounding in contemporary 'advancements' in your field but they also have the potential to provide a huge resource by way of the reference section. Perusing reference material to which the author/s refer and upon which they preface their research can [over a number of journals] provide a listing of relevant and seminal works that minimises possibly of missing something important.
I also agree with the above comments re: scanning abstracts/titles etc. but would also urge you to seek out journals by particular (reputable) authors/researchers who are in your field and who will more than likely have written journals that could provide some insight into how their research evolved.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: To be honest there are some serious issues with the really "high-level" journals (namely nature and science). It is seemingly the case that the editors of said journals have a designated "hot topic" which they find to be of interest. A symptom of this drive is that the reproducibility of the experiments described in such articles suffers, (as evinced by e.g. that guy from Bell Labs a few years ago who was doing some seemingly phenomenal stuff with magnets). With this said, the acceptance of a topic in such a journal is usually indicative of the problem being of great interest. Depending on your intended field I would narrow down your search to journals which are more myopic as due to the breadth covered by such high-level journals searches in smaller journals I find tend to be more fruitful (as in I have to parse fewer abstracts/titles for something of interest).
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_5: The value of reading high-ranking journals in your field is that it will give you a somewhat broad view of what leading researchers in your field consider to be "good" and "important" research.
However, this "breadth-first" approach will not help you very much in your own research, including getting your own papers published.
Instead, I suggest you pursue a "depth-first" approach where you find "seminal" papers in the sub-fields that interest you the most, and then read all the important papers that cite those seminal papers, especially papers that argue against the seminal/foundational papers. In this way, you learn about the scientific *discourse* involved in any particular line of research.
You can find seminal papers several ways. Sometimes, they are highly cited. Other times, they are the focus of special issues of journals or special conferences. Sometimes, they aren't highly cited (i.e. do not have a high number of citations themselves), but they are cited or used in a few critical papers which in turn led to a significant line of research.
With this sort of analysis, you will learn the skill of evaluating papers not in isolation but in the context of a whole line of research, including research by detractors.
---
I advocate the "depth-first" approach to support your own research because in your dissertation you will need to take a position through your thesis statement(s) on a few research question(s). For this purpose, it is of little value to know *all* the latest research in the best journals. Instead, you need to know all (or most) of the research in *one or a couple of lines of research*, and especially the gaps in that research which you intend to fill with your dissertation.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_6: Reading and educating yourself as a new PhD student is required to improve your skills to, eventually, write something similar to what you are reading now. If you feel that the level of the papers you read is too high and you cannot follow it, then it is a good starting point to define the areas where you need to improve (given that you are reading in THE related work to your topic). After defining these areas, it is your task now to start working on it by attending lectures offered by your university, MOOCs, reading books, etc.
You can also participate in cs.stackexchange or similar platforms that are related to your research, start reading the related questions, asking questions, and even answering questions.
You can test this with two or three papers that you like most, but you are not able to follow, then you can come back again to these papers and test how you improve.
Starting PhD is always not easy in CS, do not lose your enthusiasm and try always to improve your self.
Upvotes: 2
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<issue_start>username_0: I received an anonymous review from a journal. This journal does not hide the identities of authors from reviewers. Should I quote the reviewer's remark that the work is "impressive" on my CV?
Does the answer change if the manuscript is not accepted?<issue_comment>username_1: Unless the article won a prize (Best Paper, Best Student Paper, <NAME>, etc), I wouldn't mention anything special about it at all, and even if it did win a prize, I wouldn't mention the reviewer's comment. The anonymous reviewer is unaccountable to the reader of your CV and therefore untrustworthy. If the manuscript wasn't accepted, the the question is irrelevant since it should not appear on your CV at all.
Upvotes: 3 <issue_comment>username_2: No, and no. You should not try to hype up yourself with subjective comments in your CV or elsewhere in job applications, say. Other people don't do this, and if you do you will seem strange and possibly desparate. Your CV should be a list of objective information. It is the job of your references to compare your work to other people's and say how impressive it is.
About the most you can do is keep the review in a personal "feel good" folder and look back at it when you need self-encouragement.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_3: I would suggest looking at some CVs of successful PhD students (if you are still in graduate school) or scholars' CVs and use them as templates. I have some suggestions if you want one. I'm in the business/economics field.
Upvotes: -1
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<issue_start>username_0: It is time for me to apply for graduate studies.
I am wondering, if I have a paper accepted at a journal or conference, is it OK for me to show this accepted paper to others (such as potential advisor for my graduate study) even if the journal or conference has not yet formally published (or made public) this paper?<issue_comment>username_1: In general, I would think so, but I suppose this depends somewhat upon the culture of the field that you are in. To be on the safe side, simply check with your co-authors and get their permission beforehand.
Upvotes: 4 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: In CS, I think this is pretty normal - in fact I think this can be considered normal in any field.
I mean an accepted paper is going to be published at some point of time in the respective conference or journal. So the effect of sharing such a paper should theoretically have the same impact as sharing a paper that has been published.
Upvotes: 2
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2015/07/02
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<issue_start>username_0: Some universities that offer a DSc as the doctoral degree, while most of them also offer a PHD degree in science. What are the differences these degrees in terms of academic standing? What are the pros and cons?<issue_comment>username_1: It depends on the university and the country.
In England, a PhD is typically awarded for a thesis and oral examination of the thesis, usually followed by implementation of corrections to the thesis, the requirements for which are specified during or just after the oral exam. It's often done soon after a Masters, which is done soon after a Bachelors, so a fairly large proportion of PhDs are awarded at the start of one's academic career. Whereas a DSc is awarded for a portfolio of work, (in some cases submitted together with an over-arching critique of that portfolio), and thus is more likely to be awarded later in an academic's career.
Nominally, a PhD is a doctorate in philosophy, but is typically awarded for pretty much any subject. There are some who argue that philosophy of knowledge always form part of these studies, regardless of the subject. I occasionally use this line to try to inspire students, myself. A DSc is a doctorate in science, and is not awarded for literature, law, divinity, or music, each of which has its own dedicated higher doctorate.
The DSc is a higher doctorate than a PhD, in England. In some other countries, they're equivalent.
Both get the honorific title doctor.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: A good summary of the differences between Ph.D. and the "Doctor of Science" family of degrees (D.Sc./Sc.D./etc.) [can be found in Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Science).
In essence, different countries have different views due to their historical development, which generally fall into two clusters:
1. Doctor of Science is equivalent to Ph.D.
2. Doctor of Science is a sort of [super-Ph.D.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctorate#Higher)
In general, much of the world seems to be slowly standardizing around Ph.D. as a universal term, though given national pride and the traditions of academia, it might never congeal completely around a single interpretation of the terms.
Upvotes: 4 <issue_comment>username_3: The Doctor of Science Degree is purely a research degree that extends well beyond what is formally required for a Doctor of Philosophy Degree. Extensive publication of research is a prime prerequisite for the D.Sc. Degree, not merely the completion of a dissertation. A dissertation plus an extensive port folio of research publications add-up to qualify a candidate for the Doctor of Science Degree. Usually the D.Sc. Degree is inter-disciplinary, such as a combination of research in history, economics, and political science or government, which gears the candidate for inter-disciplinary publication.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_4: In the United States, the Doctor of Science is identical to the Doctor of Philosophy except that it's awarded only in the natural sciences, and only by a few universities. Massachusetts Institute of Technology awards both degrees, for instance, and the curriculum is identical. (MIT doctoral graduates in the physical sciences and engineering can choose either degree title once all the requirements have been met. Those in the social sciences and biology don't have the option of choosing the Doctor of Science, however; they all get the PhD.)
In the United Kingdom and some other countries, the Doctor of Science is a "higher doctorate" awarded after submission of a portfolio of published work -- typically around 80-120 journal articles. It signifies a much higher level of accomplishment than the PhD, and it's usually awarded to researchers relatively late in their careers. There are equivalent higher doctorates in other fields of study: Doctor of Letters, Doctor of Laws, Doctor of Divinity, etc.
Upvotes: 3
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2015/07/02
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<issue_start>username_0: I'm an undergraduate student (20f). I have 2 academic advisors - one in the Honors College & one in my department. I met with the Honors advisor recently to discuss study abroad and we somehow got on the topic of me not ever taking breaks. My GPA had fallen the past semester, and she warned me that if I don't start taking care of myself, I could burn out before getting my PhD (which is my goal).
I've suffered from anxiety/depression for years and recently begun to see a psychiatrist and counselor when I stopped eating, starting passing out, and developed repeated thoughts of suicide. All of that happened this past semester when I took an independent study with my Dept advisor, and I don't think he noticed. I want to be able to continue my research, so I'm trying to take care of myself. Unfortunately, that means I need to diminish my work load some.
I've been working with my Dept advisor closely for 2 years. He's helped me go to undergrad research conferences, get published, get grants etc. Always there for me academically, but the relationship's still very professional. We're officially starting my thesis work in the fall, but I told him I would start the readings this summer (halfway through the list). However, if I'm going to slow down the pace, I feel like I ought to give him reasons so he doesn't just think I'm slacking off. At the same time, I don't want to make it overly personal and make things awkward between us. He always asks how I am and it's a joke between us that I always say "tired" and he says "me too." I know that he pushes himself incredibly hard and never gives himself a break.
I would really appreciate examples of how I could word the email. I was thinking of asking him to meet some time (we're both in town over summer) to discuss and then tell him. Would it be better to do it over email? How do I tell him that I can't handle my current workload and still expect him to respect me as an academic?<issue_comment>username_1: Good for you for recognizing your illness and for getting professional help.
My answer has two parts.
Regarding how to tell your adviser, I suggest that you can write a *short*, *factual*, but *non-personal* email that contains *all* the information you want him to know. Something like this:
>
> Dear Professor X,
>
>
> I need to tell you about a health condition that I have struggled with
> for some time. I have a psychological condition involving anxiety and depression, and I am receiving professional medical treatment for it. We have a course of treatment that is appropriate but it will take some time to be effective.
>
>
> One consequence is that I will need to be more careful about the
> amount of stress I am experiencing, including avoiding a stressful
> work load. I have decided that my past work load (including X, Y, and Z) is too much and not healthy for me.
>
>
> Considering the alternatives, I have decided to focus my effort on X and Y, and to discontinue (or cut back on) Z. I remain committed to academic excellence and my career goals, and I believe this new work plan will be more likely to be successful than my previous work patterns.
>
>
> I will be happy to meet with you to discuss this decision and alternative suggestions you might have. However, there are aspects that I hold private and will not be open to discussing. Thank you for understanding.
>
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Student
>
>
>
You only need to meet in person if the Department adviser requests a meeting.
The second part of my answer comes to me intuitively based on the way you have written your question and the background.
I sense that you might have a belief in perfectionism -- that the only acceptable level of effort is 110% and the only acceptable level of results is perfection. You might have a very negative association with being perceived as "lazy" or "slacker" if you take *any* vacations or breaks. You might also believe that any error or misstep is a sure sign of unrecoverable failure.
If these resonate with you, then they need to be addressed to avoid recurring patterns of overwork, exhaustion, and eventually burnout.
Since you are seeing a professional psychologist and counselor, I suggest that you raise these questions and your responses with him/her. No need to respond here (in public).
---
EDIT:
Anticipating some objections, I know that making explicit mention of "psychological condition" and "anxiety and depression" may be risky and may go against cultural norms. As a matter of ethics and morality, I believe it is important and necessary for all of us, individually, to act against those cultural norms that are harmful and counter productive. In this case, it is prejudice against mental illness, but I hold the same views regarding racism, sexism, and other cultural dysfunctions.
Of course, each individual needs to weigh the potential consequences of going against cultural norms. If you can't bear the potential consequences, then don't do it. You'll have to leave it to others to push for changes to cultural norms.
Upvotes: 6 [selected_answer]<issue_comment>username_2: I believe that the letter suggested by username_1 is fine. I just want to add a remark which might help you overcoming the burden of writing such a letter. Chances are that your advisor already knows about part of your problems, and is actually pondering about how to formulate the question "How do I tell my student to slow down and get professional help?" on academia.se. Academics might not be the most observant of all people, but they do talk to each other, and most would honestly try to help. However, approaching someone who has problems is quite delicate and even the best intentions may do more harm then good. So in writing such a letter you may well do a favour to your advisor and save him worries about how to go beyond the tired-joke.
Upvotes: 2 <issue_comment>username_3: This has happened also to me, and only you know how hard this is.You have to be really,really strong but very careful also.
It is highly possible that if you are too honest he might not be so open-minded.
Something like
*"Currently, some health problems I am dealing with are making me slower in my research"*
would be a good approach through e mail.
It is a good way to mention that you have some issues but not necessarily mental.
See how he responses to this and then you can talk face to face and explain (if he asks) the details.
What you really need to do is explain yourself in such a way that you will be honest and straight.This will act against anxiety since you will have earned some time to breathe.
Next, focus on doing research just for a small amount of time every day in order not to feel "out" of academics but not to feel sick again.
Good luck!!! Remember,all you have to do is breathe in and out,and life goes on.
Upvotes: 2
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