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[ { "answer_id": 3213, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>It will be a huge timesaver if you can <strong>get lecture notes from someone who has taught the class before</strong>. There's a big difference between <strong>understanding the material well enough to solve problems and answer questions</strong> and <strong>understanding it well enough to find the clearest, most succinct way to present it</strong>. If you get someone else's lecture notes, you will only have to attain the first level of mastery, rather than the second; this will save you a <em>lot</em> of time.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Before the class starts</strong>, you should sit down with the syllabus (presumably you can get one from someone who's taught it before; typically, the <em>first</em> time I teach a class, I don't change much unless I have a good reason to) and <strong>try to understand the structure (\"story arc\")</strong> of the class. What are the big ideas? For example, in Calculus I, some of these are: limits, derivatives, integrals, applications. That gives you a sense of where you're going and helps you to know what may be important. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Don't feel like you have to know every little detail perfectly.</strong> The stuff that will likely stump you will be the obscure corner cases. The stuff that most of your students will struggle with will be much more basic, like the limit definition of a derivative, and precalc and algebra. If a student asks you a question that you can't answer right away, learn to be comfortable saying \"that's a great question\"; it's a little outside of the scope of this lecture, but I'd be happy to talk with you about it after class. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Thinking on your feet in front of an audience (especially about unfamiliar material) can be really tough. Most of the time, you can avoid it.</strong> Usually the student will be happy to talk with you after class. The reduced pressure of not being in front of the other students will help you to think more clearly. If you still can't answer the question after a reasonable amount of time, say \"This is a good question. Let me think about it some more and get back to you in class next time.\" At that point, feel free to ask your colleagues. Often one of them will have encountered the question before, and will know the answer off the top of their head.</p>\n\n<p><strong>tl;dnr</strong> Get lots of help from colleagues who have taught the class before. Typically, it won't take much time from them, but it will save you a lot of time (later, when roles are reversed, be willing to do the same for someone else). <strong>You don't have to be perfect.</strong> If you have decent lecture notes, and you really engage with the students and answer their question, you'll be fine.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 9781, "author": "Chris Gregg", "author_id": 4461, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Dan C gave a tremendously good response to this question, but I thought I'd add one more idea:\nwith the preponderance of online classes, it is very much possible to follow a set of lectures online as you teach a class for the first time (especially for introductory classes), and many times you can find full semester classes for free on YouTube, or <a href=\"https://www.khanacademy.org/\">Khan Academy</a>, or <a href=\"http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm\">MIT OpenCourseWare</a>. I've done this for an Astronomy class that I taught, and I not only learned a lot from watching the class, but I was able to set up my own classes with a good idea of class-long topics. Furthermore, I've said it at least once on Academia.SE before: observing other teachers teach is one of the best professional development methods around; you learn the good and the bad, and you see what works and what doesn't work.</p>\n\n<p>The reality is that sometimes, staying one step ahead of the students is the best you can do, even if it isn't ideal from a pedagogical perspective. <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jPgljRvzQw\">As DR famously said, You \"go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want.\"</a>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 121485, "author": "Louic", "author_id": 64075, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/64075", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I know this answer might be controversial, but I think it is important to mention it. The solution is to <strong>not teach the class</strong>.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Teaching is a <em>huge</em> responsibility: you are responsible for the enthusiasm (and possibly the career) of a lot of students. If you do not feel ready <em>you are not ready</em>.</li>\n<li>Good teaching takes <em>a lot</em> of preparation. You indicate that you are concerned about the time it will take you. My conclusion: you do not have the time to prepare <em>properly</em>. This is a good reason not to teach the class. </li>\n<li>You are looking for <em>effective strategies</em>. There is no such thing; teaching is not some kind of \"trick\". The next two points explain why.</li>\n<li>You need to have good (if not excellent) knowledge of the field: \"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough\" can be reversed as well: if you do not understand the material well enough you will not be able to explain it simply. Reading a few course materials in the short time before the course will not be sufficient.</li>\n<li>Teaching takes planning. Planning takes time and experience (even if you are using existing course materials, you need to be <em>very</em> familiar with them and what they are meant to achieve).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Don't take the <strong>responsibility</strong> of teaching when you are not ready. But you can start preparing for next year, or ask to teach subjects you are more familiar with.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 121486, "author": "Buffy", "author_id": 75368, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/75368", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This question is ancient history for the site, but the following may be helpful to some. I assume that the scale of the class is relatively small, probably no more than 20 students, with about 10 being better. It won't work for large lecture sections. </p>\n\n<p>The main idea is to turn the class into a seminar, rather than a lecture. Admit to the students that this isn't your specialty and that you will all learn the material together. Some students will balk at this, but it can be made to work. The idea is that face time in the course is used for discussion and exploration, rather than lecture. You assign some work one day and let them work on it over night. Then you have small groups develop solutions together. You can also assign topics to students who will then, a few days later, give their best explanation of the ideas. </p>\n\n<p>I asked a <a href=\"https://cseducators.stackexchange.com/q/4379/1293\">very similar question at CSEducators</a> here. </p>\n\n<p>This technique probably works best with somewhat sophisticated students. It is, in fact, how a lot of learning at the research edge takes place. People discuss topics then work individually and together on the ideas. But the group work aspect of it can, perhaps, entice beginners into participating and developing better study habits along the way. </p>\n\n<p>Note that it doesn't depend on \"staying one day ahead of the students\" nor developing sophisticated teaching materials. But it does require some creativity in keeping discussions moving along. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3210", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/931/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3212, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I find it very helpful to write a <strong>grading rubric</strong>. It includes how many points I give for each part of each problem. I also include <strong>how many points of partial credit I give for various common errors</strong>. Typically, my key consists of a worked copy of the exam, and I make notes about each question on the actual exam. Generally, my <strong>rubric gets more detailed as I grade</strong>, since it's only then that I learn what are the common mistakes.</p>\n\n<p><strong>If I feel that I'm taking too long</strong> grading, I'll often <strong>start timing myself</strong>. Maybe I get at most 30 second per question (often less). This isn't a hard rule, but it helps me know what to aim for. (Recently I just graded a calculus exam, so most of the problems were pretty quick to grade.) Your mileage will vary from one subject to another.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3235, "author": "Federico Poloni", "author_id": 958, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/958", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I have experience in grading math Olympiad papers; one principle we adopted there is to <strong>always grade in pairs</strong>, with <strong>one pair grading a single problem</strong>, or more pairs sharing a long or tricky exercise. I recommend this strategy especially for grading more important papers such as final exams, where good accuracy is important.</p>\n\n<p>It may seem that this is a waste of resources; however there are several benefits:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Accuracy increases much. A subtle error has to slip through two people instead of one.</li>\n<li>You do not waste so much time as it seems at first sight. <strong>Grading often follows an 80-20 law</strong>: 80% of the papers takes you 20% of the time, while grading the remaining 20% consumes the remaining 80% of it. This may be due to particularly non-standard solutions, bad handwriting, or edge cases that evade your marking scheme (as suggested by Dan C, <strong>always have a marking scheme</strong>, especially if there are multiple pairs on the same problem, and discuss together the more complicated cases). So, while you waste some time by having two sets of eyeballs looking at the easier papers, it is often invaluable to have a ready help in the more complicated cases. Your colleague may be faster than you in spotting a definition that you missed, a hidden line of reasoning, or deciphering a strangely-looking hieroglyph. This saves a lot of time on the more complicated cases.</li>\n<li>You will feel a lot less tired and find that you can go on with a steady rhythm for hours. You can chat together every now and then, share comments on good solutions, or make fun of particularly bad ones; this helps relieving tiredness.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Often we see one person trying to explain the solution to the other, or the pair spontaneously evolving a <strong>good cop-bad cop behaviour</strong> (one looks for weak points in the solution, the other defends the student). This method also doubles as <strong>training for beginner graders</strong>, that can learn from working with a more experienced partner.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3211", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/218/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3233, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's a little tricky trying to expand someone's name, since you might inadvertently arrive at a form they never use (for example, some people have never been called by their first names, but have always used their middle names instead, and may prefer to be cited as \"F. Middle Last\" rather than \"First Last\", \"First M. Last\", or \"First Middle Last\"). Some people also prefer to use initials when publishing, for example out of fear of prejudice or bias.</p>\n\n<p>So if the published paper uses initials, then it is safest to retain them when citing it, unless you are really confident that your expanded version of the name won't confuse readers or offend the author.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if the published paper gives a first name, then you have your answer. Other databases may also give first names (for example, MathSciNet or the Mathematics Genealogy Project), but which databases are relevant depends on the field.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3236, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>How about citing them in the standard way, but in order to disambiguate use marks by the names, such as superscript *, or '. And on the first appearance of such, put the explanation of the markings, as well as reasons for doing this into a footnote.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3241, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I also prefer to cite people by their full professional name whenever possible. Unfortunately, the only reliable way to find that information is to look for papers that they've written under their full name (whether first, or middle, or second-of-four, or what have you), while being <em>very</em> careful not to confuse authors with the same initial and last name.</p>\n\n<p>In some fields, there are reasonably reliable review/citation databases like <em>Mathematical Reviews</em> or DBLP that disambiguate authors by full name, affiliation, and so on. (For example, DBLP successfully disambiguates me from another computer scientist that shares my first and last name.) A slightly less reliable method is to find the author's web page, or at least a web page at the author's department with their name on it, such as a faculty roster or a class syllabus.</p>\n\n<p>But always remember that someone's <em>full professional name</em> may not be the same as their <em>full legal name</em> or their <em>full given name</em>. As Anonymous Mathematician points out, some authors consistently and deliberately publish under their initials to protect against <a href=\"http://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/o.o.i.s?id=24890&amp;news_item=5900\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">sexism</a> and other biases. The full professional names of these authors do not contain first names, only initials. A smaller number of authors (and <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Bourbaki\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">groups</a> of <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/find/math/1/au:+Polymath_D/0/1/0/all/0/1\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">authors</a>) publish under <a href=\"https://mathoverflow.net/questions/45185/pseudonyms-of-famous-mathematicians\">pseudonyms</a>. Finally, authors from outside the US and Europe sometimes follow naming conventions that differ significantly from the modern European standard. (For example, <a href=\"http://www.cs.uiuc.edu/homes/madhu/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">one of my department colleagues</a> publishes under <a href=\"http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/indices/a-tree/m/Madhusudan:P=.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">what <em>appears</em> to be his last initial and first name</a>; the reality is <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_name#Initials\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">a bit more subtle</a>. He doesn't go by either of those names in person.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 18339, "author": "Nobody", "author_id": 546, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In addition to other excellent answers, I would like to make a suggestion for you,</p>\n\n<p>Find the author's e-mail address and then send an e-mail to ask the author's full name.</p>\n\n<p>If the author replies, you get the answer. If the author never replies in a reasonable time period, find the author's professional name as suggested by others or use the name that appears in the paper you are citing.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3232", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1579/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3243, "author": "DavideChicco.it", "author_id": 379, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/379", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you didn't have any <strong>scientific writing</strong> class before, I think you should start buying a <strong>book</strong> about it, and read it.\nThere are many titles avilable.</p>\n\n<p>If you get one, it can give you some <strong>good advice</strong> on how to write (good) scientific papers.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3244, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>There are two points in your question: writing a good paper and the fear of being rejected. For the first point, there is no miracle recipe, although there are some clear guidelines of what is expected to be in a paper. You can find many useful resources on the Internet on \"how to write an academic paper\", and you will have to select what suits you the best. In general, a good way is to understand what you like in your favorite papers, and reproduce the same scheme. </p>\n\n<p>As for the fear of rejection, well, it's a bit cliché, but you just have to get over it. People get papers rejected all the time, even the top professors, sometimes it is fair, sometimes it is not. If you plan to pursue in the academic world, you should expect to get papers rejected until you retire. It's normal not to like it, but somehow, you have to deal with it. </p>\n\n<p>Most of the time, when a piece of work reaches a good level of maturity, I build a quick \"submission tree\", that is, I look at which conferences I could submit the work, and the overlap between the notification dates and the submission dates. At the end, I have something like: I could submit to Conf1, and if it's rejected, I have one week to make it better and to submit to Conf2, and if it's rejected, ..., or I could submit to Conf3, and if it's rejected, I have two weeks to work more and submit to Conf4, etc. So, basically, the possibility of rejection is directly included in the submission strategy. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3245, "author": "Wiliam", "author_id": 481, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/481", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Here is a great book about scientific writing, that concentrate on the article structure and the writing process more than on the grammar per se:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/6529.htm\">\"Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words\" by David Lindsay</a> </p>\n\n<p>This book gives <strong>good advices on the writing</strong> <em>per se</em>, such as:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>What are the different section of a scientific article and what they should contain (e.g. how to choose a good title)</li>\n<li>Tips on how to improve the message you want to transmit in your article</li>\n<li>How to make a good poster/presentation</li>\n<li>...</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>It also provides great advices on <strong>how to build a good scientific question</strong>. It explains how a good question can facilitate not only the writing process but also the overall research. For me it is actually the kind of book any young researcher should read even <strong>before</strong> starting their research.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3252, "author": "Anthony Miller", "author_id": 2644, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2644", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Like anything else in life, perform the task with the goal to succeed, and the likely outcome of failure.</p>\n\n<p>Understand that rejection is all a part of the game. Very few people succeed more than they fail. As a matter of fact, upwards of 90% of all academic papers are rejected for one thing or another.</p>\n\n<p>The most important thing is to keep track of mistakes that you've made with past academic papers. Write them down as bullet-points on a separate sheet of paper. Keep that paper right in front of you as you work on other academic papers to remind you of what <strong>NOT</strong> to do.</p>\n\n<p>Practice makes perfect. If you're just starting out, it's likely that you're going to have many failures before you have a successful one.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3253, "author": "Supr", "author_id": 2648, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2648", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is not really a complete answer, but it's too long for a comment, so here goes... </p>\n\n<p>Remember that whatever you write now is not going be submitted. You don't need to overcome your fear quite yet because you're just putting words on the paper for your own sake. Just open your favorite text editor and write down everything you can think of. Forget about editing. You are just taking notes so that <em>you</em> can read it later and understand what you did and what you had on your mind. Don't filter yourself. You are just emptying your head to make room for new things. Write to forget.</p>\n\n<p>Then, when you run out of things to write, go back and clean it up <em>a little</em> -- until you think of something else to write. Rinse and repeat.</p>\n\n<p>As the content gradually becomes more complete, you will have more time and peace of mind to work on the quality of the writing and aligning it with all the best practices and advice and theory and rules of academic writing.</p>\n\n<p>But for now, what's the first thing you think of that you've been working on in your project? Now open your text editor and write that thought down.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3255, "author": "Kelly Tessena Keck", "author_id": 2650, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2650", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One thing that might help with the fear of rejection is to view your paper as though it was a blog post. Obviously, you won't submit something in blog style to an academic journal, but it might help to think about why you blog. You have ideas and thoughts you think are important and you want to share them with a wide audience, who might be interested in your ideas or use them as a jumping-off point for something they want to do. The purpose of an academic paper is the same (well, in addition to the career benefits of publishing). You want to share what you're doing with people who will be interested in the results, and who might find inspiration for their own work in what you've done.</p>\n\n<p>It might even help, as an exercise to get past writer's block, to write a blog post about your research. (You may not want or be able to actually publish it on your blog, but it might help your thought process either way.) What are you investigating, what are your methods, how is it going so far, etc.? You can then take some of that material, formalize the language, add the appropriate citations, and include it in the appropriate sections of your paper. But picturing your blog audience, rather than some journal committee, reading your first draft might take some of the pressure off.</p>\n\n<p>Another thing I find helps me with fear of failure is to accept that the first draft of anything I write will be crappy and focus on getting ideas down and revising later. I also found, at least as an undergrad English major, that it's easier to just write late at night. Something about being tired takes the edge off my self-criticism and gets the ideas flowing. I describe it as my internal editor going to sleep by ten o'clock. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4811, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Rejection can be hard to handle, but a good motivator is to look at people who's work was rejected initially widely, but ended up being immensely popular and profitable. Ghostbusters was rejected by three movie studios. Frank Herbert's manuscript for Dune was rejected by over 20 publishers. Lorenz's seminal paper on chaos was rejected several times if I remember correctly.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3242", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2643/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3258, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n<p>Is it hard to resume education after working in industry (assuming 'ideal' conditions such as work related to chosen field, good master project from good university etc.)?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>In short: <strong>NO</strong>.</p>\n<p>I did exactly that and I think that was a great thing. Being in computer science, this gave me solid experience in software engineering and pragmatics of &quot;real-world&quot; solutions. The benefits I feel till now (after completing my doctoral studies and working as a relatively senior post-doc (3+ years after thesis defence) are these: 1) good feeling for what &quot;societal&quot; problems are and how does my research translate to practice (at least hypothetically, but in a plausible way) and 2) allows me to be involved in applied projects in any role from low-level programmer, through technical lead to project manager. All this is vital in writing project proposals and project execution. In a nutshell: experience in industry, when used wisely, can give you an &quot;entrepreneurial&quot; attitude, which definitely is an advantage over students who plunge to doctoral studies right after completing their master's degree. The only slight downside is that you might end up as one of the oldest PhD students in the group. But I never perceived it as a problem.</p>\n<p>Finally, all the above applies to experience in European context (in particular: DE, NL, BE). I have no clue about the cultural issues regarding your question in other parts of the world.</p>\n<p><em>Later edit:</em>\nWhen it comes to the emotional and lifestyle part of the decision, of course there are issues to consider. Going from an industrial position to doctoral studies is almost always a financial downgrade. Perhaps more in countries where a PhD student has a <em>student</em> status (US, UK), than in places which treat PhD students as university (public) employees (DE, NL), salaries tend to be higher in the latter. My own attitude, however, was this: since at that point I did not have kids yet, I always thought that should the life demand more money, or when I won't like the academic life, with the sound experience from industry I shouldn't have a problem going back any time. This definitely took a huge amount of pressure from my shoulders while pursuing my PhD, since I did not worry about my future (in career, or financial terms) - unlike my &quot;purely academic&quot; peers. Even till now, I feel confident (perhaps I fool myself) that should the academic path not work out in the next few years, it's not going to be the end of the world for me (again unlike for some of my peers). To sum up: <em>with the confidence that I am fit for industrial career, I can pursue my passion in academia, rather being under pressure to</em> <strong>produce</strong>. So I would add this as yet another benefit.</p>\n<p>P.S.\nTo a more extreme note: I can point fingers to at least two people who after a long career in industry embarked on doctoral studies in their 50s and became successful researchers in their fields afterwards. Similarly, there are many people who after completing their PhD went to industry for awhile (5-10 years) and later came back to academia - though that feat seems to be harder to manage than the previous one. So everything is possible...</p>\n<hr />\n<p><em>Even later edit (8 years later):</em> I do no longer work in academia, at certain point 1) my family had enough of moving, 2) I ended up in a region with very competitive universities, 3) since I probably did not belong to the top notch, but let's say just slightly below, at certain point my funding dried out and I did not get a suitable professorship in that region. This led me to first seek job in industry again and later to start my own company/start-up trying to capitalize on all the scientific knowledge I collected. Retrospectively, my career as an engineer before joining academia turned out to be a great asset once again. I could claim very solid history in my CV and I was immediately hired to senior positions. Also, the academic training in research creativity turned out to be a very useful asset when I started my own company later on. All in all, I am happy about this career path. Maybe this later edit will inspire others too... Good luck!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3259, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>From an admissions standpoint getting into graduate school after a few years in industry is not much harder than going straight from undergraduate. Some undergraduate programs in the US offer 4+1 programs which make getting into a Masters program much easier, which in turn makes getting into a PhD program easier.</p>\n\n<p>Becoming a student again after working in industry can be a hard emotional and psychological shift. Your pay will be cut in around half (maybe even more). In the US you will likely be expected to complete some more coursework. For some it is hard to get back into the coursework mindset after a few years absence: Assuming a linear scale, it is the difficulties you face every fall as a returning student multiplied by 10 (or so). It might even be an exponential scale. It can be hard. Being a grad student is nothing like being an undergraduate student nor is it like working in industry. The job of a grad student definitely doesn't end at 5 pm and tends not to have 2+ weeks of vacation. There is also considerable uncertainty associated with long term job prospects that are absent in industry work.</p>\n\n<p>That said, those who love academics often find them selves out of sorts when working outside of academia and relish returning \"home\".</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 11651, "author": "Chris Gregg", "author_id": 4461, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One thing that hasn't been mentioned in the answers to this question pertain to <strong>recommendation letters,</strong> which are a key and important part of the application process. If you decide to leave academia for an extended period (more than a year or two), it would be wise to keep in touch with your advisor and some other professors so you don't surprise them with a \"could write me a letter of recommendation for a PhD program\" many years down the road. They need to be able to comment explicitly on your potential to do research, and (for U.S. universities) you'll need three solid letters to be competitive.</p>\n\n<p>I might suggest asking for letters of recommendation now, and plan on contacting your letter-writers later to ask them to look back over the letters, and update if necessary. This way they aren't scratching their heads trying to (1) remember you, and (2) write a quality letter a few years after they knew you and your research.</p>\n\n<p>By the way, I started a Master's/PhD program about 15 years after I got my Bachelor's (and another Master's in a different field), and finding appropriate and relevant letter-writers did prove a bit challenging. I ended up getting a letter from my then-boss (science department chair at the high school where I taught physics), a professor of education from my previous Master's degree, and a physics professor with whom I had been taking some \"physics pedagogy\" classes (and all for degree programs in computer engineering!). In the end, I successfully got accepted into many of the schools I applied to, but I'm sure my case would have been helped if I had letters that commented more specifically on my ability to research.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3256", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2651/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3267, "author": "dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten", "author_id": 440, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/440", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In particle physics (and we have some very long author lists) they are.</p>\n\n<p>Authorship rules are generally set out in the collaboration's Memorandum of Understanding (whatever it is called) and can sometimes call for odd things such as a paper being credited to someone who didn't even know it was being written but whose work calibrating some systematic effect of a minor subsystem a decade ago was used in the paper. That happened to me once, I checked inSPIRE and discovered I had a new paper out. Turned out to be a nice one, too.</p>\n\n<p>To avoid that many of these documents have a \"recent membership\" type of clause so that you have to have been an active member of the collaboration in the last (typically) year to be credited. \"Active\" is defined by things like sitting shifts, attending collaboration meetings, contributing institutional funds to the general pool or hardware to the experiment and so on.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3408, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I'll give my perspective, as an Epidemiologist:</p>\n\n<p>It depends. Helpful, I know.</p>\n\n<p>Often the reason there's a \"on behalf of the X group\" is that some small analysis has been pulled out of a larger study, and the named authors on the paper want to acknowledge that their results are the byproduct of a larger effort. A large clinical trial, or cohort trial for example, can spawn dozens of papers and secondary analysis done by doctoral students, small component research groups, etc.</p>\n\n<p>For example, this paper is (I think) the result of the \"Epi proColon\" clinical trial currently being conducted by the manufacturer. It's a head to head comparison with 'FIT' - fecal immunochemical testing - to detect colon cancer. The paper you linked is an ancillary analysis of that, noting a particular finding that, while of interest to the field and clearly enough for a short paper, wouldn't ever make the \"main\" paper cut when the results of the clinical trial are published.</p>\n\n<p>@Raphael has asserted that he thinks there should be a difference between \"I turned a skrew\" and \"I wrote the paper\". The problem for Epidemiology studies is that's often somewhat ambiguous. For example, many clinical sites are directed by people who don't really care about publications, being professional clinicians, but are still instrumental enough in the conducting of the study that they could arguably be included as authors. If you only had one of these, sure, toss it in as authorship. But what if you're running a multi-site clinical trial at ten sites? Do you include all ten? After all, they saw patients.</p>\n\n<p>The \"group\" authorship is a useful way to acknowledge that. They can cite those papers on grant applications, \"why should we continue to support your diagnostic lab\" progress reports, etc. It's a compromise position for trying to tighten up who is an author while at the same time supporting large, collaborative science.</p>\n\n<p>Those authorship acknowledgements also serve to make something \"the official position of X study group\". You often see that in vaccine trials and the like.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, unless I was a named author on the paper, I likely wouldn't include it on my CV if I was anything but a very new investigator. But part of the point of these papers is that who is a named author is a rotating list. The Epidemiologists write their epidemiology papers, the clinicians write clinical papers, the lab people write lab papers, the biostatisticians write...you get the idea. So everyone publishes <em>named</em> in their niche, but the group effort is acknowledged for the entire productive output of the study.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3582, "author": "boscovich", "author_id": 663, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/663", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I asked the guys at the library of my university about this issue and here is their reply. It looks like if I am member of the research group X, even if I am not among the names on the front page, it counts as a publication for me:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>According to the ICMJE guidelines on authorship and contributorship (http://www.icmje.org/ethical_1author.html) you count as an author and will have the same rights and responsibilities regardless of your place in the author list.</p>\n \n <p>Therefore, you also have the right to verify the publication as yours in the bibliometric system.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Again, we are talking about epidemiological research here.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Edit:</strong> To me, Anonymous Mathematician is right and the answer I got was meant to be read as: \"If you fulfil the 3 ICMJE conditions, it does not matter if your name is written only in the appendix and not on the front page. You're an author just the same\". </p>\n\n<p><strong>Edit 2:</strong> This is the answer from the library guys after I asked for clarifications</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The part of the recommendations that you quote[*] concern who should be considered to be the author on a paper when it's sent to the journal. All the persons in the author list, even the ones that are in a group listed in an appendix, should fulfill all three requirements. If they don't they should be listed in the acknowledgement instead of the author list.</p>\n \n <p>If this is not the case for your article, the responsible authors have not followed the guidelines. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>[*] This is what I quoted:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3260", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/663/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3268, "author": "userJT", "author_id": 1537, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1537", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think doing a directly a PhD after a Bc is a very smart move.</p>\n\n<p>Changing course depending on the current need is a valid decision and people should understand it. So I would not worry about how it will look.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3270, "author": "Stat-R", "author_id": 453, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/453", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>No, I do not think it would be a problem provided you work in a field close to your PhD area. If you get relevant experience, it helps to get into PhD. </p>\n\n<p>Many university (at least in US) allow direct PhD admission for qualified BS students. So, if you are able to do some good work in your job, it can help you in applying for a PhD.</p>\n\n<p>The reason I am emphasizing \"relevant experience\" since otherwise you <strong>may</strong> have to justify quitting the Masters program. The admission managers/professors may tend to suspect your staying for PhD.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3266", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2656/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3279, "author": "David Ketcheson", "author_id": 81, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>When I have a manuscript nearly ready to submit, I send it (by e-mail) to colleagues who I think would be interested in it. I politely ask them to read it and send me any comments they have. Sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't; it's understood that there is not an obligation. Of course, some of them send me their manuscripts too, and they're more likely to read mine if I have read and commented on theirs.</p>\n\n<p>The colleagues I send the paper to (usually about 2-4 in number) may include:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Senior people who have mentored me</li>\n<li>Past coauthors and collaborators</li>\n<li>People I don't know but whose work is essential to that in my manuscript</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>People in the first two categories are usually willing to assist based on our existing relationship; those in the last category are generally pleased to see their work being cited and built on.</p>\n\n<p>I don't usually need very specific feedback at this point in the process. If I was concerned, say, about the correctness of some part of the work, I would have worried about that long before I wrote the article. Occasionally I may have a specific question about, e.g., suitability of the manuscript for a particular journal. In that case, I would send the article to one of the editors of the journal or to a colleague who often publishes in that journal, and ask specifically.</p>\n\n<p>Any colleagues who provide substantial feedback will be acknowledged at the end of the paper. Providing this kind of feedback certainly wouldn't qualify one for co-authorship.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3284, "author": "ElCid", "author_id": 1520, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1520", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Apart from the excellent answer by David, I guess that any (experienced) academic knows that this job has a long memory and it's a non-zero-sum game, so the more you give to others the better you are perceived. So my answer would include also a pro-active behaviour in reviewing papers for others too. This way you'll learn more about writing styles, will be perceived as a contributor to someone else's research, and will be more likely to receive feedback from others</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 10115, "author": "mert", "author_id": 399, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/399", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Internet is there for us to help and collaborate. <a href=\"https://banyan.co\" rel=\"nofollow\">Banyan</a> recently launched a public beta version. It is for \"sharing, collaborating &amp; publishing research\".</p>\n\n<p>Personally I think this product, or a similar product that applies open source idea (which is working pretty good for software development) into research, can both help with getting feedback of an ongoing work and establishing a long-term co-authorship as well.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 143299, "author": "JoeG", "author_id": 118668, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118668", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Unfortunately, an academic researcher either exists in the echo chamber of his lab (specialists in their field), or among competitors, or among the lay public. None of these are ideal arenas to form \"publishing\" duos (buddies). One would always want the upper hand or to be placed in a more prominent spot in the author list. In this way, research is often observed to be siloed or split off into various factions. The academic publishing machine pairs you up with 3 often anonymous people you have little influence in choosing to critically review your manuscript but of course negative feedback that is not interactive nor a discussion but a letter in response to your letter as it existed so many years ago. If rejected, you can use the reviews to improve your paper, but of course you have burned the bridge of being able to submit that topic to that particular journal again. The concept of a publishing buddy would exist in the balance of a knowledgeable field specialist and generalist.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3271", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1537/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3273, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Maybe, but why? Different topics? </p>\n\n<p>In any case, you'd have to check the rules of both universities. </p>\n\n<p>As a supervisor/employer of PhD students, I would not want my student doing this. A PhD is a full-time job, requiring full-time commitment. Financing is scarce and I wouldn't want to waste it on someone who is not fully committed. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3275, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You should never, ever try anything like this without explicit written permission from the administrations of both universities, from at least the department chair level, if not the dean. I once knew someone who was enrolled in two Ph.D. programs, and it completely derailed his career when this was discovered, even though his advisor had told him it was OK.</p>\n\n<p>As Dave Clarke points out in his answer, funding is a big problem. It's much worse than it might appear from the outside: it's obviously questionable to accept payment from both universities for doing full-time work, but in fact this can be a serious problem even if one (or both!) of them is not paying you in any direct way. At least in the US, there are often payments being made behind the scenes within the university. This may sound like \"funny money\", since it just involves moving money between accounts within the same institution, but it really makes a difference in what departments are allowed to do, so they take it very seriously. (For example, at my university, the administration charges the department tens of thousands of dollars for every enrolled graduate student, to cover tuition. Sometimes this comes from grant funding, and sometimes from general departmental funds supplied by the administration. If a student accepts an offer of admission without actually putting in the expected time or energy because of other academic commitments, then that's tantamount to a serious budget decrease. That money comes from somewhere, either a grant or the department, and whoever spent it will be very unhappy. It's not as bad as stealing, but it will be treated somewhat similarly by the university.)</p>\n\n<p>Anyway, there are many different ways universities are run, so it's possible that you'll find a way to make this work. But don't try it without making sure you have written proof of official approval (keeping in mind that individual faculty members are in many cases not authorized to give approval).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 14911, "author": "Hedge Fund", "author_id": 10098, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10098", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It is possible. Many PhD programs don't require a masters, just an undergrad, so it is definitely possible, but as mentioned, why would you want to do that? Is it in complementary subjects that you plan to you later on? It would be awfully hard to do well in both programs. They are much more demanding than undergrad. I would suggest first doing the masters and then moving to the PhD, but it is your choice.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3272", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2656/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3318, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I won't tell you what are and aren't good reasons for getting a PhD. However, to get a PhD, <strong>you must stay remarkably determined for a minimum of 5 to 6 years</strong>. If you cannot, you will quit. Earning a PhD is hard. When I earned mine, it was <strong>easily the hardest thing I had ever done</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>During your PhD, you work <em>long hours</em>, for a <em>low salary</em>, with <em>little respect</em>, and <em>bleak job prospects</em>. Most PhD students are at least fairly smart and/or moderately hard workers. Nearly all of them could make more money with less effort elsewhere. </p>\n\n<p><strong>So, why get a PhD?</strong> You need to find <em>your own</em> compelling reason. I <strong>couldn't imagine <em>not</em> studying math</strong>. Undoubtedly, I would be studying it now, even if no one would pay me. I'd never cared too much about money (easier to say when you're in your 20s and single). I was far from balanced, so long hours didn't bother me. I really loved teaching (and still do), and after working with high school kids, I decided I'd much prefer college. So I decided I'd be a math professor. That was my vision, <strong>what I clung to in the midst of the storm</strong>. And it worked, <em>eventually</em>. Your story will be different. But it must be just as compelling <em>to you</em>, or you likely won't make it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3346, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>By far the most successful students will be those who are genuinely interested in the research they are performing. They will be the ones who will put in the effort to think of new research avenues, create and follow-through with collaborations, put in extra thought do their analysis techniques, and <em>do it all with good spirits</em>. Other students can (or more often, won't) do all this work, but they will definitely not do it with the same level of enthusiasm, which will over time make the work less and less enjoyable, and thus more likely to be abandoned.</p>\n\n<p>So, to answer the question, the motivation most conducive to finishing is the motivation to perform the research you are working on. If the student is motivated by anything other than the research itself, there will be a definite waning of enthusiasm—with all the collateral damage that entails—as the student comes to realize that doing PhD research involves a whole lot of <em>research</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding warnings, I offer the following: If you're starting a PhD for any reason other than \"whoa boy I LOVE doing this stuff\", the next few years will involve a lot of work that you will probably not enjoy at the outset, and progressively dislike more and more as the years tick on.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3285", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2660/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3287, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Most venues forbid simultaneous submissions, or overlapping submissions. For instance, in the call for papers of <a href=\"http://www.sigsac.org/ccs/CCS2012/cfp.shtml\">ACM CCS 2012</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Submitted papers must not substantially overlap papers that have been published or that are simultaneously submitted to a journal, conference or workshop. Simultaneous submission of the same work is not allowed. Note that submitted papers cannot be withdrawn from the process after the first phase reviews are received by authors. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>So, in order to answer your question, the main problem is determining the overlap between PA and PB. If it's substantial (only some elements of style change, minor comments), then it should be forbidden. </p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if the papers are different enough (for instance, PA presents a more theoretical approach and PB a more practical description, with a case study), then there is no problem. That being said, both papers must be self-contained, and cannot rely on the acceptance of the other, unless they are both also published as technical reports (or equivalent). </p>\n\n<p>To make things explicit, if I were a reviewer of a member of the PC, and if I were to think that the overlap between the two papers is substantial, I would recommend rejecting both. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3288, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You cannot submit to papers on the same data and that is what this sounds like. It doesn't sound like paper A is the data and paper B is a model.</p>\n\n<p>I would suggest Person B concede to the wishes of Person A and then never collaborate with Person A again. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3289, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You cannot submit both papers. As others have pointed out, most venues explicitly forbid simultaneous submission of substantially overlapping papers. The answer to your first three questions is the same: <strong>Immediate rejection</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>In fact, I would go further: <strong>Neither PA nor PB can be submitted alone.</strong> It is unethical to submit a paper without the explicit consent of all authors, because authorship implies endorsement of and responsibility for the content of the paper. On the other hand, it is unethical to revoke authorship from someone who has made a substantial intellectual contribution to the work. The two authors must work out their editorial differences, like grown-up professional adults, before they can submit anything.</p>\n\n<p>If they can't agree on what to submit, then tough noogies — no paper.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3290, "author": "gerrit", "author_id": 1033, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>By venue, do you mean a conference? Depending on the conference, you could certainly focus on different aspects of the same study, or different (but not contradictory) conclusions from the same data (some datasets generate dozens of papers!). There could be a bit of overlap, i.e. in the introduction, but not too much. I'd say the most important thing is to be clear and honest about what you want to present. But if you have together done a large project and are going to write a peer-reviewed paper about it, I don't see any problem in presenting different aspects of the study at the same conference.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, they should not be exactly the same.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3286", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1353/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3335, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>So if someone mentions those kind of course certificates in CV or application material for grad school, does it have a significant value for the applicant?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>They are better than nothing, but it's unlikely that they would have significant value. Courses are only a small part of what matters for graduate admissions, and elementary or low-level courses matter the least of all. Only a fraction of Coursera/Udacity courses are at a high enough level to matter, and even those courses aren't likely to make much of a difference.</p>\n\n<p>I would not recommend devoting any time to online courses for the purpose of graduate admissions. If they are teaching something you really want to understand and have no better opportunity to learn, then that's a good reason, but the learning will have to be its own reward.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Do you consider these kind of certificates at the same level with a grade on an academic transcript?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I'd look at a certificate of completion for an online course the same way I'd look at a traditional course taken pass/fail (i.e., without a grade). It's evidence that you have done something, which shows some level of motivation and energy, but it's not evidence that you actually learned much in the process.</p>\n\n<p>However, there's a bigger issue than grades here. Ultimately, good grades don't mean that much: standards vary dramatically, the ceiling is rarely high enough to distinguish between excellent students, and even if the ceiling is high enough it's not clear that this is a meaningful comparison. Letters of recommendation are crucial for supplying the information grades alone can't supply, and this is something MOOCs are currently unable to help with.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3347, "author": "Ben Norris", "author_id": 924, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/924", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I see these places offer a certificate upon succesful completion of course work. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I agree with Anonymous Mathematician. There is a difference between completion and mastery. Graduate schools need to know that you have <strong>mastered</strong> the prerequisite material. In the future, courses like these may count for something to graduate schools if they demonstrate and certify rigor and mastery.</p>\n\n<p>Currently, these courses are targeting the Professional Development market. Many industries required or encourage their employees to further their education. For professional development, usually <strong>completion</strong> of the course/webinar/workshop/whatever is all that is tracked. A future employer may care that you have taken 2 or 3 MOOCs in accounting, but an MBA program would probably disregard them. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5072, "author": "Naresh", "author_id": 3983, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3983", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You do realize that MOOC's provide the full syllabus of their courses, and generally give a percentile ranking of the students in comparison to students from all over the world. </p>\n\n<p>I'd be more skeptical about a degree/transcript from a university I have heard little about than a MOOC who's syllabus I can consider and depth which I can evaluate, in addition to the obvious motivation for learning FACT.</p>\n\n<p>In addition most MOOC's clearly mention about the amount of grades they require from the students to get a Certificate of Completion. </p>\n\n<p>70 % was the standard for Most Coursera courses that I completed/audited.</p>\n\n<p>In addition, if Coursera is asked, they can provide (in the future) to employers information about how a student develops his code and how frequently he changes his code before committing, etc.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3312", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2661/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3328, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>You'll very quickly learn that being an academic involves more than just writing research papers. Your time as a postdoc is when you can start learning about these other aspects, while building your own profile.</p>\n\n<p>A postdoc needs to do the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Build a publication record</strong>. This will involve both what you are paid to do and your own line of research.</li>\n<li><strong>Get involved with supervising students</strong>. Help with the PhDs in the lab, and get involved in supervising masters students.</li>\n<li><strong>Get involved with obtaining funding</strong>. This can either be by helping your employer or (ideally) obtaining your own funding. </li>\n<li><strong>Build an international reputation</strong>.</li>\n<li><strong>Start collaborating with external parties</strong>.</li>\n<li><strong>Gain some teaching experience</strong>. <em>This is absolutely crucial if you want a faculty position.</em></li>\n<li><strong>Learn how to manage projects and a lab</strong>. This includes overseeing the progress of projects, allocating your time (and others), presenting results at meetings and writing deliverables. If you are in a lab setting, you will need to learn how to fix/calibrate/maintain critical equipment and software so that you can start your own lab some day, and you will need to become proficient in teaching more junior members on how to use that equipment.</li>\n<li><strong>Start to devise a strategic research plan</strong>. While it is fun to do opportunistic research, solving a problem that comes along or investigating any idea that pops into your head, a better long term strategy is to formulate an interesting long term research plan and follow it, building result upon result.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Be as proactive as humanly possible, without being annoying. Talk to everyone in the department, especially people whose research interests are close to your. Go to conferences and sit down and work with interesting people (not necessarily the superstars).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3331, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 6, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Let me add one item that Dave Clarke omitted, which I think is actually the most important:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Separate your research reputation from your advisor's.</strong> Congratulations! You have enough of an independent research record to land a postdoctoral position. Unfortunately, that reputation is almost certainly deeply entangled with your PhD advisor's; deep down, many people in your research community still wonder if (or simply assume that) you've just been riding your advisor's coattails. Your primary job is to convince them otherwise. Do not work with your advisor, and do not work in the same subsubsubfield as your PhD thesis. Make a name for yourself as a truly independent researcher and scholar.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>And a secondary corollary:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Do not just ride your supervisor's coattails.</strong></li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3327", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/453/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3358, "author": "Stat-R", "author_id": 453, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/453", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I assume you are creating your <code>CV</code> for some <code>application</code> (job or graduate studies). I understand that having three to four good referees is good enough. You need not provide more than that. I am particularly speaking about the academia in US and I believe it would be different elsewhere (e.g. UK). </p>\n\n<p>Of course you may put different referees according to the requirement. I mean you may need to create different <code>CVs</code> for different occasions. Some referees would be better able to acknowledge your work for a given situation. For example you may need to take a <code>recommendation letter</code> from a (for example) Mathematics teacher when applying for <code>graduate studies</code> in Math.</p>\n\n<p>In fact I have also seen that many people do not put the references. In an application process, they are required to separately provide the names and contacts of the referees.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3360, "author": "dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten", "author_id": 440, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/440", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>For entry level professorships I have had requests for between 2 (second tier school with no established research groups) and 5 (first class research group at a R1 in a desirable climate), with 3 being by far the most common. Adds requesting high numbers are often seeking stars and will often state that they will consider tenured placement for qualified applicants. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3357", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/52/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3392, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>MIT OCW doesn't offer \"courses\". It offers \"courseware\" — basically textbooks with videos.</p>\n\n<p>Real MIT courses have live instructional staff who answer questions, run recitation sections, and offer feedback (in particular, grades) on your solutions to the homework and exam problems. Real MIT courses have deadlines that force (well, encourage) you to actually work on the course material regularly. Real MIT courses also have a community of other students, all following the same lock-step schedule, that can work together to develop ideas, internal feedback, social outlets, and later professional contacts. Real MIT courses give you an official record from MIT of your performance in the class.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 68480, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In counterpoint to JeffE's answer, let me also indicate that the materials used in OpenCourseWare have actually been used in the indicated courses. The assignments and exams do correspond to actual materials used at MIT. So OCW courses can give you a sense of the difficulty and workload of MIT courses, but, as JeffE indicates, the experience overall cannot be the same. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 68482, "author": "paul garrett", "author_id": 980, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As an addendum to other useful information in answers and comments: it's not that MIT or other elite places have some sort of monopoly on <em>information</em>, even if one means bleeding-edge stuff. It may be true that the high-end instructors at elite places are in personal possession of bleeding-edge information, so can put other things in that context. And, indeed, those seemingly subtle aspects can matter enormously.</p>\n\n<p>The genuine action-point is that, by merely \"looking at\" or having a \"participant certificate\" in regard to any discussion, one does <em>not</em> certify that one is quasi-effective in use of the ideas... and so on. That is, having paid admission to watch any sort of professional sport, and managing to understand the scoring, one has really no certification that one oneself can <em>play</em> that sport at a professional level.</p>\n\n<p>Sure, if one hasn't ever <em>seen</em> experts play the sport, one is bereft. But, still, just having seen the Kentucky Derby many times doesn't mean that one can run a 3-minute mile.</p>\n\n<p>The <em>positive</em> recommendation from me is that one probably does want significant contact with people who have made/done significant, genuine mathematics. Otherwise, if one is hoping to make research contributions, unless one is The Chosen One, one is stuck in a position exactly analogous to trying to make money on the stock market with just the same info that everyone else has (i.e., no insider info, unlike members of Congress are allowed to use...).</p>\n\n<p>That is, it's not that MIT has better info about entry-level things, it's that the faculty there have access to, and are creators of, high-end, bleeding-edge stuff. As are certain people around the world. </p>\n\n<p>Perhaps surprisingly, then, the point is not the \"program\", but the <em>people</em>. Their notes can certainly be useful, perhaps incredibly so, but it's still not the <em>live</em> thing. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3378", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2679/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3401, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The main downside is that it takes a significant amount of effort to gain enough specialization in a given topic to be proficient enough to perform useful experimentation. Given that a a graduate student you're spending almost all your time familiarizing yourself with the topic you're actually performing research on, it would be very difficult to become an expert in an area unrelated to your work.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, many research topics are very conducive to multi-disciplinary research. To use myself as an example, I usually tell people that I'm a cross between a neuroscientist, behavioral psychologist, signal processing engineer, and statistician. A colleague of mine started his research examining how to use the lungs as a power source for an implantable device, and ended up publishing a significant paper in the field of organic chemistry, fairly unrelated to his intended research. Becoming an expert in your own field enables you to research some pretty interesting and diverse topics.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3405, "author": "mac389", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The main downside is the opportunity cost of time spent being \"unfocused\". </p>\n\n<p>Accordingly, I think the relative merit of pursuing ancillary research topics hinges on how much time you want to spend on your PhD. The road to tenure is long and so there are strong arguments for starting on it early. A PhD is <strong>just the beginning</strong>. However, later on, I do not think one can drop a side-project with as few consequences as during graduate school.</p>\n\n<p>You should also distinguish between the same research that goes by different labels. Different fields call the same thing different names, which can make it seem as if someone has more varied interests than they do. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3406, "author": "Kevin Audleman", "author_id": 2689, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2689", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I can see pros and cons to this. The pros are obvious and are just like you state: you will be gaining specific expertise, you'll be doing truly independent research , you'll be pioneering.</p>\n\n<p>I would point out one major con though: if you do work that none of your professors are \"in charge\" of there is a good chance they will act like little babies and discredit, ignore, or openly assault your work! It happened to me.</p>\n\n<p>I had my master's thesis in Scientific Visualization, which was an already funded idea hosted by my advisor. Unfortunately it wasn't a very popular idea so a) it wasn't that interesting, and b) I couldn't get much attention from my advisor. But then my friend, who was doing research in Computational Biology came up with a really great idea for a collaborative visualization project and I started working on that in parallel. It turned out to be really cool, I got a poster accepted to a major conference, and my friend actually benefitted from the output.</p>\n\n<p>My advisor, however, was just pissed off. He didn't give a shit that I was doing my own creative work. He just saw that I wasn't playing his game. I actually got in trouble for this. I tried to appeal to my team of 3 professors who were my secondary advisors but they reamed me too. One of them said \"well none of us know if your work is actually quality. Anyone can get a poster published.\" Mind you out of the entire group of 12 students who submitted work to the conference only 3 posters were chosen and two of them were mine.</p>\n\n<p>So the short of it is: academics are like little boys tied to their mother's apron strings. Don't expect them to support you in being truly creative. If you follow this path then make sure you either convince a professor that it was his</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 64783, "author": "neuron_chick", "author_id": 50406, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/50406", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I did several unrelated projects during my PhD. Here are my thoughts:\nYou need to publish in order to graduate and find good postdoc opportunities. So if you have three unrelated projects/collaborations, but all close to publication stage, then just plan your time wisely and go for it.</p>\n\n<p>Otherwise, if you have several unrelated projects, that are super cool, but you have different PIs guiding it, and it's all in the troubleshooting/design stage, you have set yourself for a 7+ PhD gig. You will need to report to each PI, show good progress, all while switching rapidly between projects. All doable and rewarding, but in the end, you will need to publish them, and its gonna be hard.</p>\n\n<p>Another detail to consider is if your committee will require your dissertation chapters to form one cohesive story. Some departments require it, in which case you can end up with a lot of data you cannot use in your thesis.</p>\n\n<p>So in retrospect, I wish my \"eyes were not bigger than my stomach\", but I did have fun doing the other projects, and I found what I want to do for my postdoc through trying different things. I am finishing in my 5th year with 3 publications, but so burned out :(.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 96326, "author": "mathreadler", "author_id": 42750, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/42750", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>TLDR:</strong> You will probably become a better problem solver if you do it, but there is a chance that it won't count into the formal requirements for graduation!</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>In general I would say it is <strong>not</strong> a good idea to research multiple independent topics when you are a PhD candidate, especially if your PhD is supposed to be really narrow. The risk is that you will become distracted from the main focus of your project. Your main focus will then suffer and even if you actually do find results in the topics too far away from the project you are part of those are likely to be judged to not fit the project. Those results may impress other people for example in various industries and maybe academics too, but maybe they will not help you pass the formal requirements for graduation!</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>( Everything I've written is assuming you value graduation above all else, of course. )</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3400", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/927/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3409, "author": "paul garrett", "author_id": 980, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>\"All of the above\"... but maybe not wanting a book that started from a primer on Linear Algebra. (Probably the latter remark in the question is a result of a misunderstanding of some sort.) In short, all possible sources are used. I have little interest in connections to textbooks (which typically feel an obligation to include busywork exercises, etc. and express reverence to the founders of the subject by recapitulating \"troubles of the old times\" (which have been solved, often).)</p>\n\n<p>The operational point is that one <em>skims</em> all these resources, looking for key points, rather than reading ploddingly, slavishly. I look to be <em>persuaded</em>... or, equally interestingly, to be persuaded that the people doing the thing don't adequately understand it so as to be able to explain it simply. Quasi-ironically, the latter affords more possibilities for making genuine progress. :)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3411, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The answer can best be understood in terms of the intended goal of the researcher making the switch. When moving to a new field, one is typically doing so because something they had heard/read/seen about that field was professionally interesting to them—i.e., they heard of an interesting research field or specific research problem—and they are considering trying to work on that problem themselves.</p>\n\n<p>Given that framework, our researcher will learn everything they can about the research question that they can, using whatever tools make the most sense in a given field of research. In neuroscience, I'd start with recent review articles and gradually move towards more and more specific journal papers. If the field is entirely new to me, I'd probably try to find a good overview online somewhere before reading the review papers. I might try books, but they take too long to read, and will likely contain far too much information that I <em>don't</em> care about and too little that I <em>do</em>. If I had a colleague in the field I might ask them to point me to some good resources, and maybe discuss the field with me over coffee.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, you want to be versed in the field enough to (1) understand the problem that interested you and (2) be able to formulate your own related problem for you to work on. Any resources that can help you achieve that goal can and should be consulted.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 11584, "author": "JohnS", "author_id": 7992, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7992", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've actually done this 2 times. First going from pure theory to 50/50 theory/experiment, and then switching departments. I'm a physicist but I think the following observations may hold generally:</p>\n\n<p>1) don't quit your \"day job\". I.e., work gradually into the new field. I wouldn't take on any grad students in the new field until you were really sure. </p>\n\n<p>2) start going to meetings in the new field. talk to the experts, get to know them.</p>\n\n<p>3) if you have a sabbatical coming up, try to do it at a place that is a real focus of your new field. In my case I did a sabbatical at a place that allowed me to do theory and experiment.</p>\n\n<p>4) some people switch fields to go after funding. I don't recommend this. If you have a real passion for something, find some way to fund it. who knows what the fashion will be in 10 years.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, an observation. I found that colleagues tend to put you in a box and 20 years from now they'll think your doing the same old thing. I know very few academics who have worked in the same area their whole careers. No one expects this and it would be pretty boring if you ask me. Switching departments is harder, but switching fields I think is pretty easy if you're motivated.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3407", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3423, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>If you know that the relevant literature is mostly in one community, then the approach you've described works fairly well. It may be \"inefficient\" if there are lots of related papers, but (to use computer science jargon), it's efficient in the size of the output :)</p>\n\n<p>I have found that finding a <strong>recent</strong> survey helps a lot, because it taxonomizes the literature and provides many backward pointers (as well as forward pointers via papers that cite it). </p>\n\n<p>But ultimately, the best test is if you start coming across the same papers in references over and over again. At that point you can feel a little more confident that you're converging. </p>\n\n<p>Some specific tips:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Look carefully at <strong>how</strong> papers are cited. That provides clues on how to prioritize your searching. </li>\n<li>Learn how to skim a paper really quickly to see its main contribution, which will indicate whether it merits further interest. </li>\n<li>If certain researchers keep popping up, go to their websites to see if other papers might be relevant (or if they have a review article that Google search didn't reveal)</li>\n<li>Look at venues where papers are typically getting published, and look at recent issues of those journals/conferences to see if you've missed something.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Apart from that, going across communities is trickier, and often requires some luck, or the right keywords. Again, some knowledge of the researchers in the area helps: odds are that if the topic spans disciplines, at least some of the researchers involved also span disciplines and can point (via their work) to new paths to explore (see the above note about conferences)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3452, "author": "User 17670", "author_id": 1572, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1572", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>More of a tip than a full answer but worth adding non-the-less: try starting off by reading 'review articles' rather than 'papers of original research'. \nThe advantages of doing this are</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>They provide an historical overview in most cases, useful for getting context</li>\n<li>They are more accessible (in terms of readability)</li>\n<li>They are longer, containing more information, with more thorough explanations</li>\n<li>They tend to be less biased </li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3420", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2698/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3425, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>There is often a substantial delay between when the author finishes a paper and when the paper is actually published. The author may not be totally aware of the publishing date. This is why the authors do not include the date. </p>\n\n<p>The date is generally found in/on the book/proceedings that the paper is published in. This is the date that should be used for referencing a paper.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3429, "author": "Federico Poloni", "author_id": 958, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/958", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Re completion date: because updating it manually every time you modify a draft is time-consuming and error-prone, and TeX does not really offer an easy out-of-the-box automated solution (mainly because of its inherent limitations as a programming language).</p>\n\n<p>If you use a preprint repository such as arXiv, you have a submission date there, and that is good enough for most purposes.</p>\n\n<p>Some journals list submission, acceptance and publication date, but that is a decision of the publisher, not of the author.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 110328, "author": "Flyto", "author_id": 8394, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8394", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Typically the date information is added by the journal.</p>\n\n<p>In my experience most of the published work that is out there without dates comes from conference proceedings, where this information is given on the front cover but not on individual papers. I agree that it is a problem.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3424", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1556/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3427, "author": "Luke Mathieson", "author_id": 1370, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1370", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I would imagine most institutions would consider it discriminatory to judge on age, and in some places it would just be illegal. The real consideration is always whether the prospective candidate has a reasonable chance of success. Having appropriate education, or a reasonable substitute is of course the main criterion, though demonstrating research-level ability always helps (research publications etc.).</p>\n\n<p>Personally I have seen PhD candidates of all ages. There's some skew to the distribution across disciplines (business and history for example often have higher proportions of older doctoral candidates than, say, mathematics), but this seems to be more a socio-cultural thing than any institutional influence.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3443, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>At the university where I work, there are no limitations or guidelines on appropriate age ranges for a Ph.D., and I'm sure this is true throught the US since age discrmination would be illegal. In practice, we see the opposite problem regarding age: the application rate in mathematics is very low after the mid-20's, although we would be happy to consider older candidates. It may be that they just aren't interested in applying (if you have a family or are used to earning a high salary, then going back to school may be difficult or unappealing; furthermore, everyone is exposed to enough math in childhood that perhaps relatively few people first discover a fascination with it at an older age). However, I fear that there are people who would really like to go back and get a Ph.D., but who do not apply, because they believe they are too old to do mathematics research or because they do not believe they will be admitted. That would be sad, since I've known several extremely successful mathematicians who entered grad school well beyond the typical age.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3535, "author": "notstarman", "author_id": 2750, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2750", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It really depends on which institute you are attending. I did my undergrad at UC Irvine where it was very rare to see older grad students. Most grad students at UCI were accepted directly from their undergraduate programs but at the University of Nevada School of Medicine (UNSOM) where I am doing my PhD, most students have a few years of experience and so are a few years older ~30+. It never hurts to call the program head directly.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 43045, "author": "GEdgar", "author_id": 4484, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4484", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I recall one case at Ohio State where someone who had retired from the US Army at age 55, then entered graduate school in mathematics. </p>\n\n<p>Ohio State also had a program where tuition is waived for anyone over age 65 (or was it 60?). I recall a few such people taking a graduate course in math, but none working on a Ph.D.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 56896, "author": "electrique", "author_id": 42952, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/42952", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I know this is an older question but recently similar questions have popped up. So, I'll give my input as a recently graduated PhD.</p>\n\n<p><strong>My answer</strong>: It's never late to do a PhD, but you need to be well informed what you are signing up for. I explain. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Long hours</strong>. During my PhD I needed to work crazy hours. It's a creative process that can consume all your time. I was thinking about my work day and night. It's easy to say that I'll work 8-5 on my PhD, but I don't know any PhD student that managed to do that. You can count for lost weekends, lost vacations, sleepless nights before the big conference deadline, etc. Are you ready to pull all-nighters and push yourself to the limit (mentally and physically)? Is your family ready to accept this state of living? Will your wife/children (if any) show understanding?</p>\n\n<p><strong>Not well paid</strong>. Then, it's the financial part. Some PhD positions are well-paid, some positions (e.g. in most UK unies) you just survive, and other are unpaid. At the age of XX, you are probably used to some specific quality of life. Are you willing to sacrifice this for doing a PhD? If the position is paid, then does the salary cover your current expenses? If it's unpaid, do you have the financial resources to support yourself and your family for 4-5 years?</p>\n\n<p><strong>Background knowledge</strong>. How up-to-date are you with the current developments in your field? Many people start their PhD right after the master studies, thus they are in the studying mood and usually are up to date. You might be required to take some of those graduate level courses. These assume some background knowledge. Do you have / remember that? Especially in technical fields, you need to keep updating all the time...</p>\n\n<p><strong>After the PhD</strong>. Then it's the reason. Why do you want to do a PhD? Is it for the knowledge? After the PhD, what do you dream to do? If you plan for an academic career, you should know that you'll have to start from a lower position (postdoc, lecturer, etc.) and work your way through the ranks. Early-stage academic positions demand a huge amount of time. If you want to go for industry positions with PhD requirements, they usually have an experience requirement, so be prepared to start low.</p>\n\n<p><strong>My experiences</strong>. I believe age by itself is not a problem. I've had a colleague in his 40s doing a PhD and he did an excellent job. On the other hand another student in his 50s that gave up after 6 months. His computer skills were very bad and it was clear that he lacked (or had forgotten) key knowledge in the field (electrical engineering). Although we all tried to help him out, the pressure was too high and at the end of the day, you have to carry your own weight.</p>\n\n<p>Good luck in whatever you decide!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 57094, "author": "Patricia Shanahan", "author_id": 10220, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10220", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is a slightly different view of some issues raised in a <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/56896/10220\">recent answer</a>.</p>\n\n<p>That answer stated some of the disadvantages of being a mature PhD student, but missed several major advantages that mature students can have, especially if they have worked in their field of study.</p>\n\n<p>I worked in the computer industry from 1970 to 2002, when I left to become a CS graduate student, completing my PhD in 2009.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Long hours.</strong> The article asked \"Are you ready to pull all-nighters and push yourself to the limit (mentally and physically)?\". I was definitely not ready to pull all-nighters, and never needed to. I had spent decades on projects far more complicated than one student's studies, and knew better than to leave a hard-deadline task until just before the deadline.</p>\n\n<p>Over-long working hours lead to mistakes and reduced productivity. It is much more efficient to mix work with plenty of sleep and a reasonable amount of exercise and relaxation. Mature students have had more time to get work-life balance under control than recent graduates.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Not well paid.</strong> The article seemed to assume financial dependence on the PhD program. That is true for most recent graduates. Mature students, especially after successful careers in a technical field, may have other financial resources. I supported myself and paid my tuition out of my investment income while living in a house I owned.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Background knowledge.</strong> This is the area where a mature student may have the biggest advantage. There is an immense difference between passing an undergraduate course in a topic and spending several years of one's working life living and breathing it.</p>\n\n<p>Staying employable in the computer industry for decades requires continuous study. I had already read some of the assigned papers for seminar courses, and earlier editions of a couple of course textbooks. Studying was easier in college because I could get advice on what to read, saving me the effort of working out what I was going to need to know next year.</p>\n\n<p><strong>After the PhD.</strong> In my case I took a year off to celebrate after the PhD, and enjoyed it so much I retired. I can still use my skills answering questions on StackOverflow, helping a college robotics team, and participating in open source software development. That is an option I would not have had thirty years earlier.</p>\n\n<p>If I had looked for paid work, I would not have considered jobs as a postdoc or similar. That would ignore almost all of my resume. I was more likely to return to industry, because I prefer a pure technical path that the academic world does not seem to offer.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 97333, "author": "user81294", "author_id": 81294, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81294", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I received my PhD at the age of 65. I have a job working in my humanities profession as an adjunct and getting the expected pay for it. I have been hired for the maximum amount of hours permitted. My department chair seems to like me. My position is not a lucrative one but a retirement job. It is a job where I can research and write at my leisure without worrying about having to publish.So, jobs are out there and if being in your 30s, 40s, 50s plus is stopping you, think about what you really want from academia -- careers in teaching colleges are increasingly going on-line. The old-time professor has retreated to the nursing home. Academia is now more about corporate structure and business modeling. All academics should have updated computer skills and ready to learn anything new placed upon the desk. Publish on line. Team up with younger co-workers. Be passionate about the job at hand. In some ways, I am lucky. I do not need a tenured position. In surveying the field, I'm not sure I would want one.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 98139, "author": "Hamed Jabarian", "author_id": 82158, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/82158", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If we agree that PhD holder at any level in academic position primary duty is to stimulating young scholars to correct path then expertise is vital. Consider a professor with years of experience in industry can profoundly support youth to learn meaningful objects than naïve one. the most shortage in developing countries academic education clearly is that scholars really don't know what is expecting them after graduation. skillful professor equipped with advanced theory and IT capability has profound affect positively rather very young tyro who still needs help. the best age in my opinion for PhD is in range of 35-45.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 131481, "author": "user109515", "author_id": 109515, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/109515", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am 73 and in my second year of a PhD program. It will be my second doctorate - the first in law and this one in sociology. I also have an MBA which I earned after I became 70 years of age. </p>\n\n<p>I really never think about my age; I just do it because it's what I want to do.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 162286, "author": "pasaba por aqui", "author_id": 68415, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/68415", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It always amazes me that there are so many questions about what the maximum age for a PhD is and none about what the minimum &quot;age&quot; (experience) should be.</p>\n<p>In my opinion, no one should be awarded a Ph.D. without a minimum of 20 years of professional experience. With the sole exception of doctorates &quot;honoris causa&quot; that could be awarded at any age, to recognize the merits of the true geniuses that so rarely appear.</p>\n<p>Therefore, every educational institution should not only allow, but prioritize, the return of professionals who can contribute knowledge and experience in their work areas and want to share his/her knowledge in the form of a thesis.</p>\n<p>At least in my country every year there are thousands of new doctors under 30, whose PhD thesis do not deserve the wood of the tree in which they have been printed.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 185912, "author": "Deipatrous", "author_id": 119911, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/119911", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>No age is too old, but your prospects for what happens after - what you might be able to <em>do</em> with your degree - do change.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3426", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3433, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I suspect to some extent it has to do with the wide range of available titles and honorifics out there. Moreover, this can lead to rather strange credits, such as the German system, where a title such as \"Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr.rer.nat. Dr.(h.c.) Dr.(h.c.) Dr.(h.c.)\" is not as uncommon as it should be. </p>\n\n<p>Keeping to names makes things more egalitarian. If needed, you can always look up a person's credentials. (It also helps to keep things consistent, and easier to track authors and cite papers, if you don't have to deal with titles as well!)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3434, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My experience is that professional fields (e.g., engineering and medicine) title are used more frequently in everyday life and are included in publications (e.g., New England Journal of Medicine and IEEE) while in non-professional fields (e.g., math and biology) titles are used less frequently and not included in publications (e.g., Ann Math and Cell).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3442, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't see this as a specific issue about titles, but rather a broader issue about how much information to provide about authors. In principle, there's an enormous amount one could say: for example, one could append complete CVs to the end of each published paper. Clearly, it's important to draw the line somewhere. The journals I'm familiar with typically do this by focusing on two issues: identifying authors unambiguously (people sometimes share the same name, but almost never the same name and department), and providing contact information. Titles and credentials bring up the question of status, and that's tricky because there are many different signs of status. Journals occasionally designate status awarded by the publisher (e.g., IEEE fellows or members of the US National Academy of Sciences), but it can be tricky to go much broader than that, since you need a good explanation of why you are publicly recognizing one person's particular type of status and not another's.</p>\n\n<p>One option I've occasionally seen is to include a brief bio (typically one paragraph) of each author at the end of the paper. This is a convenient way to learn more about the authors, and it lets them each highlight whatever information they think is appropriate.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3428", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1580/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3441, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>There's a wide range of people called adjunct faculty. For example, it may include working professionals in the field who serve as part-time faculty (this is common in law and architecture, and I've seen it with industrial researchers in computer science). Depending on the circumstances, this sort of adjunct may be treated much like the other faculty in the department, except for being part time. However, I assume you are talking about the most common use of the term \"adjunct\", at least in the US, namely low-paid, low-status faculty typically teaching part time on temporary contracts. (They may be working full time overall, but only part time at any given institution, so the universities can avoid paying benefits.)</p>\n\n<p>For this sort of adjunct, it really depends on the details of the contract, and it may vary between universities, as well as depending on issues such as whether any of the courses are online. A typical arrangement will include some amount of course design (at least at the level of creating a syllabus), lecturing, grading, and office hours. Typically there is no committee work or other service and no research duties.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4929, "author": "Abe", "author_id": 344, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/344", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Being an adjunct faculty may provide the following benefits (and responsibilities):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Be a PI grants that require faculty status</li>\n<li>Advise / mentor students and postdocs</li>\n<li>Vote in departmental meetings</li>\n<li>Participate in committees</li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3430", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1580/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3440, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>If you have access to it, you can very easily do that with Thomson Reuters’ <a href=\"http://www.webofknowledge.com/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Web of Science</a> portal. Run any query you want, probably starting with the simplest one: <code>Topic=XXXX</code>. Then, select “Analyze results” at the <strike>top-right</strike> bottom-left of the results list, and sort them by year of publication:</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/dXUO4.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3444, "author": "Pieter Naaijkens", "author_id": 22, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You can have a look at the arXiv cultoromics website at <a href=\"http://arxiv.culturomics.org\">http://arxiv.culturomics.org</a>, which however searches in articles on the arXiv. Depending on your field of interest, this may or may not be good enough.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3581, "author": "user2768", "author_id": 2768, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2768", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Web of Science is a great resource for a historical review or a trend analysis of a keyword or subject. Another resource is Scopus. To use Scopus to search for a review of a phrase, word, or keyword from a controlled vocabulary keyword such as MeSH or EMTREE, enter the phrase, word or keyword in the search box and select the appropriate search filter to the right of the search box. You can search by title, abstract, keyword, or any combination of the three. Results can be filtered by a number of options and also can be exported for further analysis. The caveat to databases such as Web of Science or Scopus is to check the date range of the materials indexed. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 20619, "author": "derelict", "author_id": 14547, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14547", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Edit: I though I would update this answer with a tool I recently discovered--<a href=\"http://trends.google.com\" rel=\"noreferrer\">trends.google.com</a></p>\n\n<p>It's not specific to peer-reviewed publications, but allows one to search keywords by country, category (e.g., science), and web/image/news/. </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/25llk.png\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/25llk.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a> </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://books.google.com/ngrams\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Google's Ngram viewer</a> is also useful. It's quick and easy for seeing trends as far back as the 1800's. </p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/4o72Z.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 63511, "author": "Pold", "author_id": 49308, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49308", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've written a small Python tool for this purpose. It scrapes Google scholar for each year in a given time span, extracts the occurrences and saves them to a CSV file. The tool is located at: <a href=\"https://github.com/Pold87/academic-keyword-occurrence\" rel=\"noreferrer\">https://github.com/Pold87/academic-keyword-occurrence</a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 94303, "author": "very", "author_id": 70347, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/70347", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Scholar Plotr doesn't work anymore due to rate limiting by Google. An alternative easy to use and free tool for anyone without academic licences is Dimensions AI:</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://app.dimensions.ai/discover/publication\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">app.dimensions.ai</a></p>\n<p>It works with it's own publications database and shows a lot of statistics e.g. publications per year, citations per year.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3439", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/212/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3447, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Here's what I would suggest:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>First, alert the authors to the issues. Wait to see how they respond, or do not respond. But in all cases, they should be the first you write to.</li>\n<li>If the issues do not severely impact the correctness of the work or its utility, stop there. It's probably not worth making a fuss about something most readers will either not use, or can easily correct themselves. </li>\n<li>If you publish something on the topic yourself, especially if you build on the authors' equations or otherwise use them, you should make a note of the issue in your article.</li>\n<li>Finally, if you believe the issue is important and/or the equations are widely used, you should contact the journal's editor and ask for guidance.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Errata are “authored” by the original authors. Publisher's corrections also exist, when the responsibility for the issue (typo in equation, misprint in figures, etc.) is that of the publisher.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3449, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To answer your last question, an errata is always (almost always?) written by the authors of the article, whereas a \"Comments on...\" article can be written by anyone. However, to write a \"Comments on...\" article, which in my experience are rare, you must have a substantial new idea. It's not enough to say \"I found typos in the original paper\".</p>\n\n<p>If the <strong>original paper contains a proof that is incorrect</strong>, and <strong>you have a proof that is correct</strong>, that could be enough for a paper. In this case you probably also need to provide counterexamples to the original proof. Similarly, if you can explain why the original data analysis was seriously flawed, and you have correct data analysis, that might be a paper.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3445", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1580/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3448, "author": "Sylvain Peyronnet", "author_id": 43, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A department is paying something? If YES then the name is on the paper, it's that simple. I think that, one day, I will have to put the name of the coffee shop close to my home since it participated a lot in enhancing the quality of my research.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3451, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The general criterion is that you must list your primary affiliation or any institution that is providing essential funding/resources, and you may list any institution that has given you a relevant appointment (which could be called many things if it's not a real job: affiliate faculty, courtesy appointment, visiting position, consulting faculty, etc.).</p>\n\n<p>In practice, the way it works is that some people collect enormous numbers of affiliations through great popularity: every department wants these people to come and interact, so they all offer appointments. (When this happens, it's hard for the popular people to turn down the invitations, out of fear of causing offense, so they end up with a lot of affiliations.) Other people deliberately try to accumulate as many appointments as possible, to show off how popular or interdisciplinary they are, and they achieve this by going around asking for appointments. (And they often get them, since even if you aren't excited about someone, it's easier to give them a meaningless affiliation than to turn down their request.)</p>\n\n<p>The net result is that there's no way of knowing what it means in any given case, without more information.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3446", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3457, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In general, I would say <strong>no</strong>. Poster sessions and talks are the main way of sharing your research. You can try contacting the authors of any widely-known blogs in your field, and you can try sharing your research with any collaborators from other projects (i.e., ones who don't already know about it), but anything beyond that and you're venturing in the realm of being annoying.</p>\n\n<p>There's one major exception that I can think of, and that's in the case where you're publishing a research analysis technique. In that situation, you can publish a toolkit that uses your method, and that may help speed up adoption of the technique. For example, in neuroscience, the <a href=\"http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/\">SPM</a> fMRI data analysis toolbox is very widely used. The group behind the toolbox came out a few years ago with a new set of techniques—DCM—for mapping brain activity, and incorporated those techniques into the toolbox. Because of this, many researchers now use this analysis tool. (Of course, this also means that you'll have many researchers using the tool incorrectly, and you may have to publish <a href=\"http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/~rmoran/Journals/TenRules_NeuroImage_49_3099_2010.pdf\">instructions on when and when not to apply the technique</a>.)</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>JeffE pointed out another exception; if you're building on the results of another research group, it is definitely acceptable to contact the researchers in that group to let them know if your work. They're the most likely people to be interested in your work, and (arguably) they are in a position to give you the most useful feedback.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3459, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Eykanal is basically right, but there's a fine line between networking and being annoying. There are plenty of circumstances where sending email to more famous/senior colleagues is perfectly fine.</p>\n\n<p>If you already have a professional relationship with someone, it's perfectly fine to write a quick email saying something like \"Thanks for the great lunch conversation we had at [conference] last month. You might be interested in this paper I just wrote.\" Yes, a recent lunch conversation counts as a professional relationship.</p>\n\n<p>If you <em>don't</em> already have a professional relationship, then you should probably limit emails to a few key people who have a <em>direct</em> connection to your paper -- either you build on one of their results (which your paper cites), or improve one of their results (which your paper cites), or they've written papers on closely related topics (which your paper cites) . But within those constraints, emailing your paper is perfectly fine; everyone likes to hear that <em>their</em> work is useful and interesting.</p>\n\n<p>If you do send your paper out, be sure to welcome comments, but don't <em>expect</em> a response from anyone. That silence from Famous Person On The Internet doesn't <em>necessarily</em> mean that they aren't reading your paper; they're probably just really busy.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3524, "author": "Daniel Gottesman", "author_id": 2746, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2746", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Don't forget about old-fashioned face-to-face conversation. If you go to a conference, it is likely you will meet new people or re-connect with friends or acquaintances from other institutions. A common first question in such conversations is \"What do you do?\" or \"What are you working on now?\" This is a natural lead-in to tell this person about your latest work. Try to keep it short and tailor it to the known interests of the person you are talking to. If they are intrigued, they can ask more questions and keep the conversation going. The same principle applies if you meet someone on a research or seminar visit somewhere (whether you are visiting them or they are visiting you). Face-to-face conversation is less efficient than a talk or poster, since you are only getting to people one or two at a time, but it is also usually more compelling.</p>\n\n<p>It's worthwhile doing this even if you are also giving a talk or poster at the conference, since it can serve as advertising to convince them to come to your talk or visit your poster. Alternatively, you can give a talk on one topic and advertise a different topic (say your previous paper) in conversations. Again, it's worthwhile to tailor your choice of which result to advertise in conversation to the interests of the person you are talking to.</p>\n\n<p>Other suggestions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Encourage your co-authors to give talks on the paper as well. This can be a mixed blessing, because people tend to associate a result with either the person they hear it from or the most famous person on the paper, but it definitely helps to spread knowledge about the paper.</li>\n<li>If you have your own travel money, you can write to someone and suggest you visit them and give a seminar. You can also write to someone asking for a visit if you don't have money, but that is rather pushy, and is best reserved for cases where you have a strong existing relationship with the person, such as a past supervisor or recurring collaborator.</li>\n<li>Again, if you have money, you can invite someone to give a seminar at your home institution. This is an opportunity to learn about their latest work and also to chat with them and tell them about yours, as above. Even if you don't have money, there may well be a local seminar series that has some, and perhaps you can make a speaker suggestion.</li>\n<li>This one is less under your control, but one of the main ways people hear about new results is indirectly, when someone else mentions them or cites them. What this means is that if you can get the information about your paper to just one person who can directly use it to advance their own work, you have doubled your advertising power.</li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3456", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3460, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There is no truly \"universal\" system—that's why packages like <a href=\"http://www.endnote.com\">EndNote</a> and <a href=\"http://www.bibtex.org\">BibTex</a> both come with hundreds or even thousands of different bibliography styles.</p>\n\n<p>That said, there are some common approaches—the <a href=\"http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/mla/index.shtml\">Modern Language Association</a> and <a href=\"http://www.sac.sa.edu.au/Library/Library/Bibliography/bibliography.htm\">Harvard</a> formats are quite common in the humanities. The sciences have more widely spread systems, but I think the most common I've seen is the \"abbreviated style,\" containing authors, journal, volume and page info and year. (There are some variations within that style based on different publishers, and some publishers, like ACS, are now starting to take advantage of electronic distribution by including full titles.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7953, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As aeismail said, there are no truly universal rules and the bibliographic reference styles differ across scientific disciplines, and even within these there is often large variation. So normally, you need to consider the journal/conference/... the publication you are writing is aimed at and consult their rules. Most of the time, you will find quite strict requirements articulated in the venue's \"submission guidelines\", or \"author's corner\" sections - usually on their website. If still not sure, contact the responsible editors/PC chairs to advise you.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7961, "author": "mako", "author_id": 5962, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>The answer is no.</strong> Within fields, there are often a single style which makes some approaches and components more common or even that makes a single style dominant.</p>\n\n<p>Get yourself some software like <a href=\"http://www.bibtex.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">BibTex</a>, <a href=\"http://www.endnote.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">EndNote</a>, <a href=\"http://zotero.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">Zotero</a> (my personal favorite), or similar so that you can simply rely on someone else to automate importing the data into a database and outputting according to whatever rules a particular journal or venue requires.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 34727, "author": "Welly314", "author_id": 26960, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26960", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As everyone says, there are no universal systems, although there are a few very popular systems. Of course you should use reference software, but if you are asking which style you should use for general purpose citations outside of publishing, I would just pick one of the most popular, depending on your discipline. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Chicago style</a> seems flexible and perhaps the least field specific. </li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.apastyle.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">APA style</a> is popular in the life sciences and psychology, of course. But, I don't know if it is so popular in the humanities.</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.mla.org/style\" rel=\"nofollow\">MLA style</a> seems to be the most popular in the humanities.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If you are not instructed to use a specific one, all of them give the necessary information in a bibliography/reference list format (that is, the full title, authors, dates). I think the issue that might be field specific is in-text citations, but that is not your question. If you pick one and use it consistently in any given document, I am certain it will be internationally understood. </p>\n\n<p>Keep in mind you do not need to learn all the details- just select the option in the software and make sure any imported references (from old PDF's, etc.) are correct. I like <a href=\"http://www.mendeley.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Mendeley</a>. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3458", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2706/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3463, "author": "Francis Reyes", "author_id": 2709, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2709", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Usually the journals (at least with my very recent publication with Nature Publishing Group) ask for a potential journal cover upon notification of your manuscript's acceptance. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3465, "author": "mankoff", "author_id": 185, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/185", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I emailed the editor and suggested I had a beautiful and relevant graphic for a special issue. That worked. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Edit:</strong> Image attached. Also, note that I did go about it incorrectly, but it worked anyway. I emailed the editors when I submitted my paper. I should have waited until it was accepted.</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/FbetZ.jpg\" alt=\"Cover Image\"></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3495, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Pay the color charges. A lot of journal covers come directly from figures in an article. If you go out of your way to avoid paying color charges, you will never have a cover worthy figure. You will, however, have a lot more grant money. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3462", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3468, "author": "Noble P. Abraham", "author_id": 1580, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1580", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Most common practise, I think, is to add them as co-authors in the write-up for proceedings, while in the presentation, mention them in the acknowledgements slide at the end of presentation. The title slide may include your name alone and mentioning your group's name is a better practise. Some also highlight PI's name in the title slide of the presentation.</p>\n\n<p>The proceedings write-up, probably will get expanded later and takes the form of a journal article. So giving credits to all those worked in the problem should be properly attributed. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3469, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The practice I'm most familiar with is that a coauthor is a coauthor is a coauthor. Anyone listed as a coauthor on the title page of the paper should be listed on the title slide of any talk about the paper, and explicitly acknowledged (\"This is joint work with...\") when the talk <em>begins</em>. Whether any of your coauthors helped you prepare your slides or the proceedings abstract is none of the audience's business.</p>\n\n<p>But this attitude is clearly specific to my field, where papers only rarely have more than three authors. It might not scale so well in fields (like particle physics?) where a \"small\" group may have 100 members.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3470, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think the key distinction is whether the conference presentation and writeup are viewed as a presentation of new results or as an exposition of work published elsewhere.</p>\n\n<p>When you are publishing a research paper, the criterion for coauthorship is making an important intellectual contribution to the research. Everyone in this category must be listed, regardless of their role in the actual writing, unless they specifically decline coauthorship.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, there is no need to include these coauthors on further expositions: if you go on to write a survey or review article on this topic, then the authorship should reflect who actually worked on the article, rather than who did the original research. (The same way if you wrote an exposition of some of Einstein's work, that wouldn't make him a posthumous coauthor.) Of course, the exposition needs to give clear credit for the original research.</p>\n\n<p>The border between these cases can get a little blurry. If something could be viewed as a research announcement (where experts would be learning of the work for the first time), then I'd say that puts it in the research category, rather than exposition, even if the primary publication appears elsewhere. The basic issue is whether you could cause confusion. If your writeup may be cited as a research contribution, then you should list your coauthors.</p>\n\n<p>If you are in a field like CS, where conferences are a primary venue for announcing research results, then you definitely need to list your collaborators as coauthors on the presentation and writeup. In math, things are a little different: some conferences publish refereed research papers in their proceedings, but there are also other possibilities. Some places, like Oberwolfach, ask speakers to write up an account of their talk, but this is not considered a research publication at all. In a case like that, there's probably no need to have formal coauthors, as long as the text itself is perfectly clear about referring to the research publication and author list. (When collaborators of mine have written things like this, I've been happy not to be listed as a coauthor on the resulting document, since that way I don't have to worry about the writing.)</p>\n\n<p>However, the most important rule is not to offend your collaborators. Leaving out someone who feels they should be included is worse than including someone you don't think is necessary, so it's always best to ask.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3466", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/236/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3484, "author": "Sylvain Peyronnet", "author_id": 43, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Address senior research staff and faculty members in the same way that they do with you. You're \"Robert Doe\" and full profs are calling you \"Bob\"? Then you can do the same.</p>\n\n<p>And if you are the senior, you are supposed to tell explicitly what is the tradition, in order to avoid embarrassment for juniors.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3486, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>When I was a grad student, I got into the habit of always referring to everyone as \"Professor\" or \"Doctor\". The theory was that no one would be insulted by your referring to them as \"Professor\", whereas some folks would be insulted if you called them by their first name. This worked very well; the few people who wanted to be on a first-name basis always told me so at our first meeting (\"Oh, please, call me Bob\").</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3487, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>When I was a grad student, my initial preference was to call faculty \"Doctor\" or \"Professor\". At some point (about halfway through, I think) one professor said to me: <strong>\"If you want them to see you as a peer, you should call the professors the same way that they call each other.\"</strong> At my university, all the professors called each other by their first names (it didn't matter if they were assistant, associate, or full). Since I planned to make a career in academia, I <em>really did want to be viewed as a peer</em>. So I started calling them by their first name (and no one ever told me to do otherwise).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3493, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As a grad student I was lucky and faculty in my program tended to be clear about what they wanted to be called. Since everyone but the medics wanted to be called by first name, I came to the conclusion that faculty should expect to be called by the first name unless they say otherwise.</p>\n\n<p>There was one awkward Professor in my grad program who never made it clear what he wanted to be called. Soon after deciding to call him by his first name (Lou) I heard my advisor, who has known Lou for 40 years, called him Louis. At that point I decided if my advisor calls him Louis I better stick with Professor. About two weeks later another colleague was talking to me about how he and Louie used to play football together. At my next interaction with Lou I related the stories and asked him what he wanted to be called. He thought Lou would be fine.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3536, "author": "paul garrett", "author_id": 980, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>What is likely true is that first/given-name form of address expresses a peer-relationship attitude. In some contexts, there is a nearly-mandatory pose that \"we are all peers\", etc. While, ideally, this is true at a moral or civil level, it is equally obviously false in terms of sheer experience, and, usually commensurately, expertise.</p>\n\n<p>(There is an auxiliary-but-related question simply about <em>age</em>... Given the extreme disparity between my own kids and myself, I don't expect them to address me by my first name... nor as \"Professor Garrett\" ... but hopefully by some affectionate honorific that does acknowledge (the complexity of) our relationship. Similarly, I pointedly adopt a stylized form of address for my kids. We are all acquainted with the trope that when the mom addresses the kid by the kid's full name, they're in trouble. I myself, especially at the point that I'm older than many postdocs' parents, have a similar feeling about <em>that</em> relationship. Opinions differ, of course.)</p>\n\n<p>Use of an honorific, even if informal-honorific, form of address does express respect. Use of given name expresses familiarity, etc. At worst, given-name address implies a sort of \"good ol' buddy\" relationship that verges on the demeaning.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps the genuine issue isn't the words uttered, per se, but the tone-of-voice and body language. But, if we agree with <em>this</em>, then the original question becomes enlarged to the question of whether one should express deference or respect for ... ok, the real question is about how one fills in the blank about the object of this sentence! If it's \"one's boss\", well, one does what is necessary. If it's \"one's mentor/teacher\", then perhaps a systematic tone of respect is appropriate. If it's simply \"the old person\", then who knows? What <em>is</em> your attitude toward your mentor/advisor/teacher?</p>\n\n<p>Operationally, as in some of the other answers, unless there's a pervasive conformity pressure to do \"given name address\", surely it's better to err on the side of slightly-excessive expression-of-respect, rather than the other way. Wait till some says \"Please, just call me ...\", rather than the awkward opposite. </p>\n\n<p>(In French and some other languages perhaps-inappropriate first-name address <em>used</em> to have its own name: \"tutoyer\", meaning to address toooo many people with the familiar \"tu\", rather than formal-er \"vous\", but I gather that times have changed...) </p>\n\n<p>In terms of quips, I might suggest that, ... in contrast to the suggestion that if your thesis advisor or postdoc mentor <em>doesn't</em> want you to call them by their first name,then get another, ... if you don't have a mentor you respect enough ... for good reason, that their expertise and insights are nearly-unimaginably superior to yours at this point in your career... to throw a little honorific their way, <em>then</em> you should get a new advisor/mentor. </p>\n\n<p>People won't be offended by your being too polite and respectful, but may be by the opposite. Pretty straightforward, I think.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3473", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/453/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3476, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Without knowing anything about the specific area, I'd say that you've set up a false dichotomy. I don't know if anyone ever consciously does one or the other exclusively. Sometimes you work bottom up (i.e path 2 -> path 1), and sometimes you work top down (path 1 -> path 2). Both these \"paths\" should be dimensions of your research. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3477, "author": "Noble P. Abraham", "author_id": 1580, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1580", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am reading the paths 1 and 2 as follows</p>\n\n<p>Path 1 : The culmination of working on one problem (either success or failure) leads to another which leads to yet another and it goes on and on.</p>\n\n<p>Path 2 : Number of problems on a field that are not related to each other and are stand alone; do not depend on or influence the other.</p>\n\n<p>As @Suresh has already pointed out the answer might heavily depend on the field. But trying to answer in general, it is better to follow the Path 1, as it is mentioned in the question itself, it is focussed on a long term goal and elevated vision. Academia always long for broader vision and greater commitments. An employer would love to hire some one who has a concrete long term goal and enthusiasm.</p>\n\n<p>While Path 2 is not a way that <code>does not involve commitment</code>, it is more focussed on short term goals and narrowed vision, such as getting a degree, finishing a project etc. This also involve commitment, but not on a large scale.</p>\n\n<p>Thus brings up the question, \"Why we want to learn or explore?\" Irrespective of the field, this seems to be the essence of the question.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3478, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Areas are not well-defined, they change over time and even if a dean know when the boarder between some fields, Nature does not (as they are mostly communities emerging from common scientific interests). </p>\n\n<p>Moreover, confining oneself to a given area may end up into working in a exhausted subfield that people no longer care about (and missing new opportunities). </p>\n\n<p>However, when it comes to your visibility and prestige, other researchers will care only about your skills and achievements in a given field. But again, there is also a question of how much the disciplines overlap, both in terms of communities and methodology.</p>\n\n<p>So here there is a trade-off between being recognized (and prepared) well in one field vs less but in more.</p>\n\n<p>When it comes \"is it better to focus on solving particular problems or learning general stuff\", the question is a bit different from your career-related one. Opinions may vary (and it may be a matter of one's personal philosophy), but for research_ output (not e.g. <em>teaching</em> skills) the first one is the only the one that counts. And if someone is skilled and committed, the later comes anyway (and the converse is not true).</p>\n\n<p>(Anyway, it's the reason why during PhD it is (arguably) advisable to focus on solving problems (and learning stuff needed to solve them), not on spending hours on general courses.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3513, "author": "elomage", "author_id": 2736, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2736", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A classic interview question (paraphrased) comes to mind:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>What do you think is the most important problem in your area?</li>\n<li>What have you done to solve this problem?</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Perhaps, these questions might be worth thinking about when choosing a career path.</p>\n\n<p>Although this might look more like a comment than an answer, what I mean is you need to think about your question from several perspectives: what do you think is essential for your field and how you can contribute there, and what are your personal talents or virtues, such as working on technical problems in depth, or administrative skills in managing resources for problem solving in a broad sense, or something else. These are your assets. List them and do analysis on how would they be better applied, what combination of them would yield bigger impact or bigger rewards, depending on what you favor.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3475", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1417/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3480, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It sounds unprofessional and unscientific. Imagine also your readers in 30 years, what will they think? They may not even take the paper seriously. Indeed, current potential readers may not take the paper seriously. </p>\n\n<p>What would you think if you read an old paper that describes a black hole simulation as \"groovy\"?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3482, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>In addition to Dave's answer, I'd say that in general, subjectivity is not very professional when writing academic papers. The point is to convince the reader by presenting only objective argument. Somehow, if I read a paper with something like \"it's cool, it's amazing, that's the best, etc\", then I might think that the author just ran out of objective arguments. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3479", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1572/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3483, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>A list of figures allows one to find the figures contained in a book. This could be useful, for example, when you want to quickly find one of the figures you recall seeing in the book, but you can't remember which page it is on. You could also use the list of figures when buying the book to see whether it has lots of figures or only a few.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3525, "author": "crsh", "author_id": 927, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/927", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To add to Dave Clarke's answer, especially in large publications, like the ones you mention, having a list of figures can be very helpful. E.g., a researcher cites a particular finding from a doctoral dissertation, which has some 100 pages and 20 figures. In such a case, researchers usually mention the figure's number. To the reader of the researchers article a list of figures in the dissertation would make locating the referenced figure much easier.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3481", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1572/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3489, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>If you want to refer to his work (i.e. his results, discussion or conclusions), you should cite it.</p>\n\n<p>If you want a reference to the particular piece of information he cited (the sentences describing plasma etching before his call to ref. 4), then you should find a direct source: either a textbook or review on the topic. This would be much better than a research article (or thesis), especially one badly sourced.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3494, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In general I do not like citing non-peer reviewed sources. Further, it sounds like you ware using it as a secondary source, which I like citing even less.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3488", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2727/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3516, "author": "elomage", "author_id": 2736, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2736", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Generally, a researcher is current in the field, (s)he knows the top conferences and key research groups as well as what they have achieved. Often there is no space to list every paper on a certain subject anyway, so one must choose the key papers related to the topic at hand. </p>\n\n<p>However, there are quite a few services that index papers by keywords or topics and authors. <a href=\"http://www.scopus.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">Scopus</a>, <a href=\"http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/science_products/a-z/web_of_science/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Web of Science</a>, <a href=\"http://ieeexplore.ieee.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">IEEE Xplore</a>, <a href=\"http://dl.acm.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">ACM digital library</a> to name a few.</p>\n\n<p>Search engines do a good job indexing the papers, <a href=\"http://scholar.google.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">Google Scholar</a> and <a href=\"http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/\" rel=\"nofollow\">DBLP</a> come to mind.</p>\n\n<p>And finally, the social networks such as <a href=\"http://www.mendeley.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Mendeley</a>, <a href=\"http://www.linkedin.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">Linked In</a> and <a href=\"http://www.researchgate.net\" rel=\"nofollow\">Research Gate</a> encourage the authors to list their research publications and provide search functionality.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3517, "author": "Nicholas", "author_id": 1424, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1424", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Here is a subject map of science:</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/rM8NB.jpg\" alt=\"Subject map, Borner, K., et al, Plos One\"></p>\n\n<p>It is taken from the following paper, freely available from Plos One:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0039464?imageURI=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0039464.g001\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0039464?imageURI=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0039464.g001</a></p>\n\n<p>I think that this is the sort of thing that you are interested in. </p>\n\n<p>N.B. I am not a co-author, nor have I read the paper, so I make no judgment on its quality. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3520, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There is an interactive map on <a href=\"http://www.eigenfactor.org/\">Eigenfactor</a> (a much better (arguably) way for assessing impact that mere citation counting):</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.eigenfactor.org/map/index.php\">eigenfactor.org - mapping science</a> (currently, only for medicine related)</p>\n\n<p>You can explore disciplines by graph of citations (i.e. which discipline cites which; it need not to be symmetric).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3490", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3502, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The answer is really the obvious one: it is to alert the reader to the structure of the paper. In addition to this part in the introduction, the paper should also, every now and again, tell the reader where they are in the overall story of the paper. This makes it easier for the reader to read the paper, by giving them the global picture and pointing out from time to time where they are in the global picture.</p>\n\n<p>A table of contents would be overkill (and it would take up too much space).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3507, "author": "Henry", "author_id": 8, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I find these paragraphs very useful (and often include them myself), precisely because it's a short version of a table of contents: often readers don't want to read the whole paper, but want to find one particular part of it. A summary of what's in each section makes this much easier.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3529, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Unlike Dave and Henry, I am going to argue <em>against</em> the style <code>The paper is structured as follows...</code>, though not against inclusion of content serving the same purpose.</p>\n<p>Quite some time ago, I took to heart advice by <a href=\"https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/academic-program/give-great-research-talk/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Simon Peyton Jones</a> on this, which can be found <a href=\"https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/How-to-give-a-great-research-talk.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer\">here</a> (slide 19), also echoed by <a href=\"http://www.win.tue.nl/%7Esetalle/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Sandro Etale</a> in his <a href=\"http://www.win.tue.nl/%7Esetalle/introduction.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">advice on writing introductions</a>. In essence it boils down to this:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Don't write <em>The rest of this paper is structured as follows. Section 2 introduces the problem. Section 3 ... Finally, Section 8 concludes</em>. That is most of the time only a waste of paper.</p>\n<p><strong>Instead, use forward references from the narrative in the introduction.</strong> The introduction (including the contributions) should survey the whole paper, and therefore forward reference every important part.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>In a consequence, the position I take on this part of writing introduction is that while it is important to inform the reader about the structure of the paper so that he/she can take the path of few surprises and easily follow the discourse, it should be however done with style. Doing it in such a poor manner as &quot;The paper is structured as follows ...&quot; is simply <strong>bad literature</strong>. I would argue, that it is better to firstly, clearly state the contribution of the paper and then write up the paper's plot summary leading from the introduction to the culmination of the paper in supporting the claimed contributions and discussion. I mention the references to the individual sections, and sometimes even deeper structural parts, only in passing, or include them in parentheses.</p>\n<p>On a similar note, regarding <code>Conclusion</code> section, I took to heart the advice of <a href=\"http://cr.yp.to/djb.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">D. J. Bernstein</a> on <a href=\"http://cr.yp.to/writing/devil-conclusions.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">writing conclusions</a>. Citing other authors, he suggest to simply drop the conclusions part from papers and put all the important conclusions into the introductory section. Well, unless there really is something <em>important</em> to say there. Since then, I conclude my papers either directly by a loose paragraph at the end of the <code>Discussion</code> section (renamed usually <code>Discussion and final remarks</code>), or if I feel like there is something important to say, by a standalone short section <code>Final remarks</code>. However, never re-iterating what was done in the paper. The reader is anyway free to &quot;rewind/relist&quot; in the paper (see the very last point by <a href=\"http://cr.yp.to/writing/devil-conclusions.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">DJB</a>).</p>\n<p>P.S.\nThe links to homepages of the two guys include many more good tutorials on aspects of writing/research in computer science.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3501", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/958/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3504, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The duration between US and Europe are not usually the same, mostly because in the US, you only need to have a Bachelor degree to enrol for a PhD (and you can get a Master during the PhD), while in Europe, it's usually required to have a Master degree before enrolling for a PhD. Since it can take two years to get a Master, you also need about 5 years after your Bachelor to get your PhD. </p>\n\n<p>I don't know if you always get your PhD after a number of years, no matter what, but the point in Europe is that a PhD is not necessarily an advantage on the market, with respect to a Master (at least, that's true in France), and is mostly required for working in Academia. In Academia, nobody cares that you have a PhD (because, well, almost everybody got one), so your publications, references, contacts, your CV in general will make a difference, not your degree. Hence, it might be possible that you can get the degree after a while, knowing that it's useless anyway if you haven't done any original research (although in many places, it's now required to have a given number of publications before being able to submit a PhD thesis). \nBut I wouldn't claim in any way that it's a common practice, and I know several persons who have dropped (or been suggested to drop ...) their PhD program. </p>\n\n<p>As for your main question, I don't know if one can tell whether it's easier to get a PhD in Europe than in the US, because it's hard to define what is \"easier\". If your question is whether you can come to Europe, enrol to any PhD, just wait 4 years and get your PhD, the answer is no. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3505, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Short answer: No.\nLong answer: Determining the minimum bar for which a PhD can be awarded is a bad exercise. If you are merely working towards the minimum you will not successfully complete a PhD.</p>\n\n<p>One thing to note is that PhDs in the US tend to be open ended (to the extent you can continue to get funding) while in Europe they tend to have fixed durations. This means in Europe the bar comes whether you are ready or not while in the US you get to chose when you defend. Neither is easier, just different.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3511, "author": "elomage", "author_id": 2736, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2736", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are tough (read respectable) and relatively easy (read weaker) schools and PhD programs in both sides. You could find a comparatively easy US university v.s. top school in Europe, and vice versa.</p>\n\n<p>I suggest to set your goals a bit higher than you think you can reach rather than wasting time (read life) shooting for an \"easy\" PhD track.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3512, "author": "csgillespie", "author_id": 611, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/611", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<ol>\n<li><p>Remember that Europe is a big place, comprised of lots of different countries. It doesn't make sense to talk about a European &quot;PhD&quot;. The mechanism and typical PhD lengths between countries can be completely different.</p>\n<p>The next few comments relate to the UK PhD system.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>You don't get a PhD automatically after 4 years. I can introduce you to a few people who will testify to this!</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>In the UK, a PhD doesn't involve a &quot;taught&quot; aspect. I believe that in the US, the first two(?) years typically involve examinations.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>In most Universities I'm familiar with, PhD students do not have a heavy teaching load. In my department, PhD students are allowed to take some tutorials/marking for additional money, <strong>but</strong> this is on top of there usual PhD working week. The number of hours a PhD student can work is closely monitored. In particular, it's incredibly rare for a PhD student to take undergraduate lectures.</p>\n<p>I believe it is common in the US for PhD student to run a lecture course.</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 27461, "author": "preston", "author_id": 20929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I have had the pleasure of both systems, US and European. The simple fact is that the average PhD takes less time in Europe than in the US. This does not directly correlate to quality (Although I have a somewhat informed opinion about that which I'll offer later), merely time to completion. Most of this has to due with the differences in Bachelor degrees from the 2 regions, commonly only 3 years in Europe, 4 in the US. Masters are also treated differently in both locations.</p>\n\n<p>The real issue in my opinion is the lack of options for EU students. Both the US and Europe are experiencing a \"watering-down\" of the PhD, since they are all but required in so many places where they add no value other than haughty title. This is markedly worse in Europe, but the US is doing everything it can to \"catch-up.\" In the US, the better job market allows multiple paths to success if you'd like to forego the PhD, while avoiding an advanced degree in Europe condemns one to worse underemployment than is already seen there (read that a Masters(Europe) is a Bachelors(US)).</p>\n\n<p>Frankly, people want to believe their PhDs were exceptional and that by extension they endow their holders with exceptionality, but this is not true. A prerequisite PhD is a symptom of a sluggish, un-dynamic labor market, that sentences you to underpay for 3-5 years. If you really think you need one, the best advice is to find an advisor you can work with (a lot of them are amoral tyrants) finish it as quickly as possible, and move on. Contrary to statements above, what you get out is not linked exclusively to what you put in, and there are some very easy ones available. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 38345, "author": "Turpentine", "author_id": 28976, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28976", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Which country in the EU is that one supposed to be? In Portugal to enter a PhD program you either need to have a Masters or an exceptional Bachelors with high marks and letters of recommendation from senior researchers (only accepted in cases where applicants already have a publication record). A PhD usually takes around 5 years to complete. Exceptional people may do it in 4 years and quite a lot of students take 6 years or more to get one.</p>\n\n<p>You do not get a PhD without a solid publication record. The requirements vary by institution and may include the number of publications and the impact factor of the publications.</p>\n\n<p>If you are not motivated to spend a considerable amount of time studying that subject you should not bother getting the PhD. Also like others have said the career prospects and financial gains are not worth it either during the PhD or for the first 5 years after the PhD. Even then your position is not ensured. A leading academic researcher with that kind of income will be someone who is good at bringing research funding. Those kinds of people would manage just as well or better financially in the private sector.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3503", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3519, "author": "Luke Mathieson", "author_id": 1370, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1370", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>In order, yes, and no.</p>\n\n<p>A thesis is a public document and thus helps establish \"prior art\" in terms of research. Of course sometimes researchers come up with the same ideas simultaneously, or certain work is just not known as widely as it should be, so sometimes work gets innocently repeated (as compared to plagiarised, which can also happen, but reasonably rarely).</p>\n\n<p>As for publication, a thesis is an entirely different kind of publication to a paper, in every discipline I am familiar with, publishing papers drawn from work in a thesis is expected, sometimes even required. The only (?) way you could interfere with further publication would be if you published your thesis as a monograph.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3526, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The second question appears to be more involved than the existing answer indicates.</p>\n\n<p>It is possible that your school may own the copyright (at least) to your work.</p>\n\n<p>See <a href=\"http://web.mit.edu/policies/13/13.1.html#sub3\">MIT Policies and Procedures | 13.1 Ownership of Intellectual Property</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Copyright ownership of theses generated by research that is performed\n in whole or in part by the student with financial support in the form\n of wages, salaries, stipend, or grant from funds administered by the\n Institute shall be determined in accordance with the terms of the\n support agreement, or in the absence of such terms, shall become the\n property of the Institute.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It is further possible that your funding source may have a larger stake in your intellectual property.</p>\n\n<p>See <a href=\"http://copyright.columbia.edu/copyright/2011/04/14/copyright-qa-do-i-own-my-dissertation/\">Do I Own My Dissertation? — Columbia Copyright Advisory Office</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>For instance, an employer supporting the student’s studies or an\n outside funding source may lay claim to whatever intellectual property\n is created.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Although the above source notes that this is not the usual case, a graduate student acquaintance of mine was not even allowed to continue work toward his thesis project after sale of his research by the university to an outside corporation. He had to choose a new project and begin again from scratch.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3518", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2745/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3528, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As someone living in Germany right now, I can attest that there really is very little difference between PhD's from countries like the US, the UK, France, and Australia, and doctoral degrees from inside Germany. In many cases, German universities are looking for people with international experience when hiring, and thus the external experience with having a degree that <em>isn't</em> a \"Dr.rer.nat.\" or a \"Dr.-Ing.\" can be helpful.</p>\n\n<p>However, as mentioned in the above link, it now <em>is</em> acceptable for people with PhD's to call themselves \"Dr.\" inside of Germany. It may not be allowed for someone with a PhD degree from inside Germany to call themselves \"Dr.\"; however, the inherent advantage is relatively small, I believe.</p>\n\n<p>Moreover, if you are outside of Germany, the possession of a doctoral degree is probably more important than the actual title of the degree: in the US, I don't think you will be treated differently holding a \"Dr.rer.nat.\" than the PhD. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3530, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'll add a bit of a legal perspective into the game. Disclaimer: I hold a Dr. rer. nat. from Germany, though lived and worked in several other countries in the EU.</p>\n\n<p>Firstly, personally I think, that \"choosing a title\" and seeing it as an important issue, is largely a German/Austrian/(Central European?) specialty. After all, why should your title matter outside academia, where the difference is anyway largely understood around the world? </p>\n\n<p>Secondly, even when you hold some title from country X, you <strong>are not</strong> automatically eligible to use it across the border, even given there exists an equivalent one in the other country. Rather, there are legal procedures which lead to a formal recognition and proper translation of your title. So for me, being a \"Dr.\" with a title from Germany, to be able to use either \"Dr.\", or \"PhD\" in other EU countries, especially those east of Germany, I would have to either undergo a formal procedure called <a href=\"http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nostrification\">nostrification</a>, or, in selected cases, if the university is granting an equivalent degree in my specialization, they could forgo the nostrification hassle and they could recognize it right away (rather and exception to the rule). Either way, you need to obtain a formal certificate from the state, or at least the university, stating exactly how your title translates to an equivalent title in the other country. Only then you can use the title freely. To top it up, the whole matter is regulated by bi-lateral international treaties between countries exactly stating which title holders are eligible to use which titles in the other country and how. See for example <a href=\"http://www.kmk.org/fileadmin/pdf/ZAB/Aequivalenzabkommen/Tschechien.pdf\">the treaty on grades recognition between Czech Republic and Germany</a>. There even is a <a href=\"http://anabin.kmk.org/\">full website</a> in Germany on all this (mostly for foreign title holders wanting to use them in Germany).</p>\n\n<p>To sum it up, there is a whole lot to simply using an academic title in a country different from the one you obtained it in. This can be straightforward in countries where the culture doesn't care too much (in my experience e.g., Netherlands), but in countries where the title can be legally a part of your name (not sure whether it still is the case), such as almost whole Austrian-Hungarian empire heritage countries, this can be a big deal.</p>\n\n<p>My point is the following: <strong>It's probably irrelevant which title you choose. If you want to be precise, legally speaking, somebody probably already translated your title to another one (which you can't choose) which you should adopt in other countries.</strong> </p>\n\n<p>Apart from all that above, I regularly see people approaching me in e-mails, or letters by both \"Dr. XYZ\", as well, as \"XYZ, PhD\" - not speaking of those not checking the background and virtually promoting me to levels I do not belong to (yet). Again, the precise title doesn't matter that much after all.</p>\n\n<p><hr/>\nLater edit, on a more anecdotal note:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>the precise title doesn't matter that much after all</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Well, except when you want to use the title for things like skipping a queue when visiting a doctor and being treated very respectfully by all the nurses (Germany), or when encountering police, getting away with only with a warning and avoiding a fine for speeding, or other minor trespassing (countries eastwards of Germany). I have first-hand knowledge of such incidents, so my advice here would be to 1) go for the fanciest possible title, yet it should be widely recognized by general public, and 2) if your country of residence allows it, include the title on your ID card, passport, social security ID, whatever else, so that you can wave it when necessary :-D.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3522", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/927/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3532, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 6, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my field (chemistry), the practice is: for those journals that make a clear distinction between minor and major revision requests, <strong>“major revision” means that the paper will have to undergo further review after revision</strong>, usually by the same referees, while “minor revision” means that while changes should be made, no further reviewing is needed.</p>\n\n<p>Not all journals make this distinction, however: for some, the need for further reviewing will be decided by the editor upon reading your response to the reviewers’ comments.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>For example, here are screenshots of the web interface facing the reviewer of ACS and RSC journals when he has to fill in his review. You can see that the categories are different for different journals.</p>\n\n<p>Example 1:</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/Sn1Zq.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>Example 2:</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/VWwm1.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3533, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As F'x said, a major revision will lead to another round of review, where your answer to the first review will be taken into account. It doesn't guarantee you that your paper will be accepted, but if you address correctly the remarks (and not only in your answer, but also in the paper), you might stand fair chances. In other words, it's worth working on the paper to improve it!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 32477, "author": "Dr. Rashed Noor", "author_id": 24932, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24932", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To my experience, major revision in general leads to the acceptance of a manuscript reviewed and re-reviewed for several rounds. Minor revision may undergo referee evaluation; however, in most cases, the editor accepts the paper without sending the revised manuscript to the reviewer. In fine, a careful revision, whether it's for major or minor, brings your paper accepted by the editor. Let us keep in mind that satisfying the queries of reviewers is always difficult especially for those journals indexed in PubMed. Therefore, if the paper is initially nominated for the major revision, it means that the work has sufficient novelty to be published.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 40906, "author": "user31191", "author_id": 31191, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31191", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>dont forget that some papers propose a reject and resubmit as a standard...that way, they artificially decrease the time between submitted paper and published paper, which is a simple trick.</p>\n\n<p>So reject and resubmit does often NOT mean that they did not like it...</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 187761, "author": "Deipatrous", "author_id": 119911, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/119911", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If the reviewers have done their job right, and we must assume they have, then the actual to-do list will in and of itself be an accurate gauge of the workload.</p>\n<p>So if your policy is honesty: to try and do as much as you possibly can, never pretend you addressed issues when in fact you haven't, and only baulk at suggestions that are unreasonable and or mistaken... then you are in the clear, regardless of which term the editor used to qualify the revision.</p>\n<p>However, if your policy is to do as little as possible, try to fix fundamental problems by means of reshuffling material, blow smoke in your rebuttal by discrediting the reviewers and sundry tricks of that nature, then understand that <strong>major</strong> means <strong>You really need to address and redress what the refs are concerned about here.</strong></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3531", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3538, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>This does not fully answer your question, but it is certainly one consideration.</p>\n\n<p>Multidisciplinary theses are often examined by multidisciplinary committees.\nExamining such theses is difficult, especially if the committee has no experience examining multidisciplinary theses.\n A consequence is that you will often be forced to conform to the conventions of different communities. In addition, the chemistry committee member may not see the thesis as a chemistry thesis and the sociology committee member may not see the thesis as a sociology thesis, because it lies somewhere in between the two fields and cannot be a complete thesis in both fields.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3544, "author": "Paul", "author_id": 931, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/931", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am a PhD student in Computational Science, which is an interdisciplinary major spanning mathematics, computer science, and engineerning. We are often pegged with the label \"jack of all trades, but master of none\" because we are a relatively new major with out well-established guidelines or rules judging the merit of work. Often, we are required to accept a \"home department\" whose quality judgment rules dominate. I'm not sure if this is the case for all interdisciplinary programs, but it helps alleviate the grey area and ensures that the work is evaluated according to a well-established criterion.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3537", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1580/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3541, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>On the one hand, it shows that you are engaged in this necessary part\n of scientific research that is peer-review.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That's one of the major reasons why people list it. If your CV is being viewed as part of a performance review or hiring decision, or even for awards, this constitutes \"service to the community\" and indicates that you're a good citizen.</p>\n\n<p>It's a noisy signal for the reasons you indicate, and so it doesn't carry a whole lot of weight compared to things like technical committee memberships and leadership roles, but it's part of the larger picture. Moreover, for more junior researchers who haven't yet had the chance to take on leadership roles, this is a good signal of service. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3542, "author": "Nicholas", "author_id": 1424, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1424", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would say that being asked by a journal to review an article is an indicator of esteem and for that reason, suitable and useful for inclusion in your CV. </p>\n\n<p>With regard to confirming - or otherwise - whether or not you did indeed act as a referee for a journal, I would expect that anyone who wanted to verify this could ask the journal in question. Which specific articles that you reviewed could, properly, remain confidential. However, disclosing the information that you acted as a referee for the journal would not, as far as I can see, break any confidentiality policy.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3543, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I did this in the earlier stages of my career, when every little bit of CV weight helped. But as the number grew, and as I did other more significant things, I removed all traces of reviewing.</p>\n\n<p>You need to show that you are involved in the community when you are young and starting out. Later other aspects will be more important.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3556, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I will essentially repeat the answer I gave <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2944/inclusion-of-irrelevant-background-on-cv-after-career-change/2949#2949\">here</a>. The context for what the CV is going to be used for is key. I have a single CV that includes \"everything\" since I started grad school and selected things from before then. Having a long CV makes it easier for me to create short CVs because it means I need to delete things instead of remember things.</p>\n\n<p>When I would include this information depends on the purpose of the CV and your previous experience. If you are giving a talk and someone asks you for a CV, then I would leave it off. If you are applying for a job and it is your only evidence of service, I would leave it in.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 11490, "author": "Peter Jansson", "author_id": 4394, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It is accepted, common and, yes, recommended. Being asked to review means your knowledge in a field is acknowledged and sought by others. The details you provide is up to you. I list the journals I have reviewed for in impact factor order, but it can be any order. I do not provide the number of reviews for each but the total for all. There is no reason to provide more than number of reviews and names of journals.</p>\n\n<p>You have a point in that this information is unverifiable in many circumstances. In my field it is, however, common to be known as a reviewer (you have a choice). How the information is used is up to those who read the CV but I think most people will assume you have not falsified your CV (and that assumption goes for the remainder of your CV as well).</p>\n\n<p>In the end, the art of writing your CV is to add anything that can reflect positively on your (in this case) scientific merits and reviewing is such a task. I also include reviews I have done for large funding organisations (e.g. NERC, UK, and NSF, US) as well as evaluations for promotions etc.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 163843, "author": "Dylan_Gomes", "author_id": 134392, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/134392", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I know I am late to this, but I want to add that &quot;<em>actually an unverifiable information</em>&quot; is no longer <em>necessarily</em> true. You can verify peer-review work via publons and apparently ORCID (<a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/126707/134392\">https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/126707/134392</a>).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3540", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3546, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Co-supervisors play different roles, which may vary from individual to individual. Sometimes they are there as a backup, either in case things go wrong with the main supervisor, or if the student needs someone else to talk to. They can read the papers (and eventual thesis) of the student and may even participate in the research, adding a different perspective. In some cases, they can be more active than the supervisor (this is often the case if the co-supervisor is a post doc). Often they will be a part of the committee assessing the thesis in the end.</p>\n\n<p>What does the co-supervisor get out of it? Well, a tick on his/her CV. Publications. Experience dealing with students. Contacts. Ideas. And work. In any case, it is part of what an academic is paid to do.</p>\n\n<p>The real question should be: what do I, as a PhD student, get out of having a co-supervisor?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3551, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Dave's remark on switching to the student's shoes and contemplating what you can get out of a co-supervisor is, in my opinion, a very useful one and should be of primary concern to students.</p>\n\n<p>Let me put some personal perspective on this. I, as a senior post-doc, act as a co-supervisor of two PhD students (with some international twist to it within the EU context) and have colleagues who do the same, hence my observations below. Of course my view is one of a junior researcher, so take it with a grain of salt.</p>\n\n<p>My benefits from being a co-supervisor are the following, in the order of subjective importance:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>new horizons</strong>: the students act as <em>drivers</em> and <em>catalysts</em> of research topics I do not necessarily care for in a very personal and deep manner. It means that I can broaden my horizons and get somebody pushing me towards learning something new. That is a good thing for me as a curious person, as well as for my career.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>publication record</strong>: given the first point, obviously, if the students work well and our collaboration works well too, since I get as much influence on their work as they allow me, or ask me to, we get together some useful stuff done and get papers published. I would stress the word \"together\", where I rather take the passenger's seat and try to help wherever necessary, but the crucial decisions are student's. The finished and delivered projects, as well as papers are obviously a good thing for both of us, too.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>project leadership experience</strong>: often the collaboration is in a context of a project, where, as the more senior guy,I would take the role of a project manager, or a team leader. Of course this gives me plus points to the CV as well, not speaking about learning how to do this kind of work. Another good thing for my career.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>soft skills</strong>: by doing the above and by that closely collaborating with people with whom my bond is tighter than just a joint interest (as it would be with a member of my community from a different institution), in a way, we are supposed to work out our ways along each other. At least for me, that is a good training too and good for my life and career, whatever twist should it take in the future.</p></li>\n<li><p>should the collaborating partner become a friend of mine during the process, I would add it as a benefit too. But obviously this one is not everybody's piece of cake.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>All in all, the points above boil down to a single one: <strong><em>being a co-supervisor means for me to become and act as a senior buddy to the student and prepares me for running my own lab/group, should it become reality one day.</em></strong> </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3545", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2755/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3555, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>An inability to confidently answer the questions in a text book in general is an indication of not having mastered the material.* If you are not 100% confident that you are solving the problems correctly, go back and read the material again. You will not be able to use the skills in research unless you know the material without an answer key.</p>\n\n<p>*For a graduate class I used to teach there was a problem in the textbook that I could not solve. No matter how I thought about the problem, some information was always missing. I am friends with the author so emailed him for a solution set. I was too embarrassed to admit I couldn't solve the problem and figured the answer key would be helpful anyways. The answer for the problem in question was \"Not possible with supplied information.\"</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3568, "author": "Eminem", "author_id": 1556, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1556", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>What is the best way to deal with this?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The best way to deal with the uncertainty is to go through other works (textbooks, videos, examples etc) that contains the subject area for which problem you are trying to solve. Make certain that these works does have answer sets that you can compare your work to. Then, once you have gained the confidence and more experience in solving the problem set, go to the original textbook and do the questions again. In theory you should be more confident that your answers are correct/incorrect. </p>\n\n<p>As an example. Lets say you are working through math textbook1, the algebra chapter. You do all the algebra questions, however textbook1 does not contain the answers for the algebra chapter hence you are not as confident that you have the correct answers. What you should do is to find math textbook2 that contains a chapter on algebra with questions that contains answers. Work through the examples in textbook2 and confirm that your answers and methods you followed to obtain the answers are correct. Once you are confident you have a proper understanding of the work, doing the questions in textbook1 should be easier and you will be in a better position to know if your answers are correct.</p>\n\n<p>Another alternative would be to use software to confirm that your answers are correct. E.g. math problem? use SAGE to confirm the answer. Bear in mind that the software may only provide an answer and not the method on how to get to the answer. But this can be used to your advantage in the scenario that your answer is incorrect, hence you could deduce that the you are not following the prescribed solution method correctly.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 96689, "author": "Eric Gumba", "author_id": 63685, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/63685", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Find examples on the internet that do contain detailed solutions for the concept you're trying to understand. </p>\n\n<p>This can be from pdf files of solutions posted online for a homework, other textbooks, forum posts or even youtube videos.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 96692, "author": "AJK", "author_id": 9892, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9892", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Some grad students/advanced undergrads tutor for spare money. I imagine it wouldn't cost too much to convince someone to grade your \"homework\" for you and provide suggestions. It would even be cheaper if you can find someone already TAing a relevant class. [This works better if you are physically near a university, but could potentially be done online. Just make sure to look for someone who is advertising - academics occasionally get \"I want you to tutor my child\" emails that are scams.]</p>\n\n<p>This would add up over time, but at $10/hr or so, it might be cheaper than buying a more popular book with well-known solutions, and it would serve as an external reference point.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 96700, "author": "Patrick Sanan", "author_id": 8796, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8796", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Pick some problems that you're most interested in and attempt to write up full solutions.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps you will feel 100% confident in your answer. If so, great, and move on.</p>\n\n<p>Otherwise, you will get stuck. Either you won't know how to solve the problem, or you won't know how to verify that your solution is correct.</p>\n\n<p>Try to answer these: meta-questions yourself: <em>why</em> can't you solve the problem? <em>why</em> can't you verify that the answer is correct yourself?. This process will probably involve re-reading the material that was supposed to prepare you to answer the question. It will often involve convincing yourself that you understand terms fully. If you are still stuck, ask for help in a constructive way. A great way to know if you are asking for help in a good way is if you can write a good question on a StackExchange site. If there is no one around to ask, you can literally ask on a StackExchange site.</p>\n\n<p>This takes a while and you'll answer less questions, but it means that you will know something more important than whether or not you are right: you will know why you're right.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 123280, "author": "Lukali", "author_id": 91285, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/91285", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I abandon and don't pick the book up if it does not have the answers, whether explicitly or implicitly earlier on in the text, unless the answers can be achieved through an internet search. Why? Because an important part of becoming an expert in something is having the confidence in the answers you give, and that can't be achieved if no one ever confirms your answers. </p>\n\n<p>I also think that it makes learning less fun. You can get stuck and lose the drive to learn since you never understood those few questions in that book. It also wastes quite a lot of time which could be spent more wisely, or you may not even realise your mistake.</p>\n\n<p>People often fail an exam due to stress which maybe partly is due to lack of confidence, rather than lack of knowledge. There is many books which would support a self-learner better than one intended for teachers who already have that confidence - at times wrongly held.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3554", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1281/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3561, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As stated in the comment above, the only way is to stay involved. I would suggest reading as much as you can, particularly in the subfields in which you hope to specialize one day. If possible, try to stay in touch with professors you know from undergrad, and attend their journal clubs to stay in the research field.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3567, "author": "JoshRagem", "author_id": 2765, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2765", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am in this same situation. Here are some thoughts I have: </p>\n\n<p>In order to retain the skills we learned as undergraduates, we have to practice them much like we had to 'practice' problem sets for assignments. I think that the MIT open courseware is an excellent tool for reminding and practicing.</p>\n\n<p>Physicists don't write papers about stuff other physicists know. Most (or all) of what's in a paper could be new and unfamiliar to the majority. A BS does not bring you up to speed with the physics community (my degree barely got me into the 20th century) so there is still a good deal of study before you could pick a paper and read it with ease. Continuing with your own studies by advancing your knowledge of physics will do a lot to help you understand what is in these papers. Reading the titles of recent Arxiv papers is a fun pass time; you can sit down and read any that perk your interest.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3560", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2764/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3564, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Consider the point of the talk; you want to convey to the audience what it is you did and what your results were. Similar to a paper, you'll want just enough background to bring those who aren't familiar with your subfield up to speed, and barely any conclusions as the audience will draw their own conclusions.</p>\n\n<p>With that in mind, you'll want something similar to the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>1-2 min — background</li>\n<li>5-6 min — methods</li>\n<li>3-4 min — results</li>\n<li>1 min — conclusions, thanks, etc</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Note that you'll probably want to leave some time for questions, so you should err on the side of shorter rather than longer.</p>\n\n<p>From my experiences, you will want to <em>really</em> prepare for this. As discussed in more detail in <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/757/73\">this answer</a>, this is really the main forum for you to sell your work. You'll want to make sure you put forward your best possible face. All the usual points related to public speaking apply here as well: talk slower (yes, slower... slower than that, even), be concise, be clear, make good use of slides, etc.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3565, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>How can I balance the details of research without losing the audience on key points?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>From my perspective, the key to giving a 15 minute talk is to omit all of the details. Many audience members don't care, the few who do can read your paper, and in any case it's impossible to convey any serious details clearly and correctly in such a short time. If you try, then much of the audience will stop paying attention; you'll end up wasting their time and missing a great opportunity to present your work. Instead, your goal should be to ensure that everyone leaves with some understanding of what you've done, and that some of them are inspired to learn more.</p>\n\n<p>This means you should focus on the big picture. What did you do, how and why did you do it, and what have we learned from it? In mathematics, I'd focus on context, motivation, definitions, theorem statements, examples, and intuition. It's OK to give a brief proof outline or sketch, but nothing detailed or complicated. If you can't summarize it in a few sentences, it's too complicated.</p>\n\n<p>There are various ways short talks can go wrong. For example, some of them try to compress 30 minutes of content into 15 minutes by talking fast and barely explaining anything, while others simply omit the background and context needed to understand the presentation. However, there's a common difficulty behind many bad talks: they focus on the speaker's desires and goals rather than the audience's. Ultimately, you need to design your presentation to fit the background and interests of the audience and the time available, rather than what you wish you could tell them.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3566, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>While 15 minutes is on the longer side for what I'm about to suggest, I think it's still useful. </p>\n\n<p>In a 15 minute presentation you don't have time to think of things to say on the fly. It's important that you have a story nailed down fairly tight. While you don't need a full script for what you're going to say, you should have a fairly detailed plan of what you're going to say (even upto key sentences and transitions). </p>\n\n<p>As others have pointed out, you'll have to eliminate most details. <strong>THIS IS OK !</strong> The audience will only (at best) get a high level idea of what your work is about and only the briefest glimmer of a technique or tool. So in order to decide what to say, you should ask yourself the following: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Why should I (the listener) care about your work ?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Answering this question will help you decide what to keep and what to throw. </p>\n\n<p>As for your last question, a great talk is a strange mix of details, high level concepts, and inspiration. If it were easy to describe it, all talks would be great :). But if you shoot for a talk that people will remember, that is both more attainable, and easier to construct. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3569, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>(edited to extract the key points from the main reference)</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://larc.unt.edu/ian/pubs/speaker.pdf\">Ian Parberry's guidelines</a> were always essential for me. Firstly I will give a personal replies to your answers and subsequently I will extract the main points of the Ian's guidelines which are the basis for my answer.</p>\n\n<h1>Personal perspective</h1>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What is an effective ratio of introduction / methods / results / conclusion slides?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>My own rule of thumb is to allocate 2-3 minutes per slide, which gives max. 6-8 slides <em>including</em> the envelope (the \"title\" and the \"end+questions?\" ones). That is, we have about 5 real content slides of which for introduction I allocate 1 for motivation&amp;context, and 1 to problem definition.</p>\n\n<p>The body gets whatever it needs, but shouldn't exceed 4 slides, with at least a single one dedicated to a sketch of a <em>worked example</em>. The audience doesn't need to know how exactly I am doing the magic, I must however make them trust me and see what I am doing as <em>plausible</em>.</p>\n\n<p>The summary/conclusion/future work gets 1 slide.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How can I balance the details of research without loosing the audience on key points?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><em>Stress the motivation, the relevance of the problem and only sketch your solution so that an example which you provide will be plausible enough.</em></p>\n\n<p>Your talk is an advertisement for your paper. You are doing your best to assure that people learn something and you <em>imprint</em> some key points in their heads (the problem description and a sketch of the main idea solving it). You don't need to explain the details, just sketch the main principles. You want to compel the audience to either read your paper that day in the evening and base their own work on it (hence citations!), or ensure that sometime in the future when they will face a problem, they'll remember that there was this guy speaking about something along the same lines, so let's check it (hence possible citations!).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What makes a \"great\" talk?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>For me, it's <strong>grounding in reality</strong>. Show me what impact your stuff has on me. Speak about an application I might care for, even if it will be only a hypothetical one. If the result cannot be framed as a machine, or software, such as a lot of (non-computational) game-theory, then speak about implications to the society. Strike whatever chord, which makes your results <strong>tangible</strong>. It all boils down to answering a single question for every single person in the audience: <strong>Why should I care?!</strong></p>\n\n<p>But even if you do the all the positive advice right, there's a more important point, namely what you shouldn't do. For example I tend to speak a lot (see my posts at this site :-) ). My main drill during preparation of a talk is to throw away everything non-essential. Moreover, I am often writing down notes about <em>what <strong>not</strong> to say</em>. Many otherwise great talks are ruined by the presenter <strong>speaking too much* and **showing off</strong>. I don't want to be impressed by your smartness, or charisma per se, I want you to simply <strong>educate me</strong>!</p>\n\n<p><hr/>\nAnd finally the key points from the <a href=\"http://larc.unt.edu/ian/pubs/speaker.pdf\">Ian Parberry's guidelines</a> for giving a good talk, emphasis mine.</p>\n\n<h1>General advice</h1>\n\n<ol>\n<li><em>Communicate the Key Ideas</em>: select 1-2 main high-level ideas and present them in a <strong>crisp and crystal clear</strong> way.</li>\n<li><em>Don’t get Bogged Down in Details</em>: do not even attempt to discuss the details, unless you you have brisk answers to possible questions you open that way.</li>\n<li><em>Structure Your Talk</em> &amp; <em>Use a Top-down Approach</em>: go the least-surprise path, i.e, the audience needs a story a wants to be able to follow it. The structure should stay crisp: 1) solid motivation/intro, 2) main points/body, 3) technicalities, if really necessary, 4) conclusion.</li>\n<li><em>Know Your Audience</em>: allows you to skip some common-knowledge in the audience, as well as select what is important to them and what do they care for.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<h1>Structure of the talk</h1>\n\n<p>I added the emphasis to the points which I consider crucial.</p>\n\n<h2>The Introduction</h2>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Define the Problem</strong></li>\n<li><strong>Motivate the Audience</strong></li>\n<li>Introduce Terminology</li>\n<li>Discuss Earlier Work</li>\n<li><strong>Emphasize the Contributions of your Paper</strong></li>\n<li>Provide a Road-map</li>\n</ol>\n\n<h2>The Body</h2>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Abstract</strong> the Major Results</li>\n<li>Explain the <strong>Significance</strong> of the Results</li>\n<li><strong>Sketch</strong> a Proof of the Crucial Results</li>\n</ol>\n\n<h2>Technicalities</h2>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Present a Key Lemma</li>\n<li>Present it Carefully</li>\n</ol>\n\n<h2>The Conclusion</h2>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Hindsight is Clearer than Foresight</li>\n<li>Give Open Problems</li>\n<li>Indicate that your Talk is Over</li>\n</ol>\n\n<hr/>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3570, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think the other answers state it quite clearly: eliminate most details! Some key points I've found across different sources and observed at talks I've enjoyed: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>You don't want to <em>explain</em> your paper, you want the audience to want to read your paper. </p></li>\n<li><p>You need to be comfortable with your talk. I've attended great short highly technical talks, and great short high-level talks. What made the talks great was not the technical content, but the capability of the speaker to convey his/her enthusiasm for the content. </p></li>\n<li><p>I particularly like AnonynousMathematician's \"[bad talks] focus on the speaker's desires and goals rather than the audience's\". At a conference, the audience is not here to judge you, or to evaluate your work, but to attend an hopefully interesting talk. The point is not to show how good you are. </p></li>\n<li><p>It might depend on the technical field, but a good way to interest an audience is to present them with a problem, usually illustrated with a simple example, and then to give the guidelines of how you solved that problem. </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Finally, read many advices you can find on this topic. For instance, I'd suggest you the page of <a href=\"http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/papers/giving-a-talk/giving-a-talk.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Simon Peyton-Jones</a>, recently pointed out by <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/3529/102\">walkmanyi</a>. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3577, "author": "JRN", "author_id": 64, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/64", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A nice discussion on this can be found here: <a href=\"http://presentations.catalysis.nl/presentations/presentation.php\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://presentations.catalysis.nl/presentations/presentation.php</a>.</p>\n\n<p>If your talk is in mathematics, you might also want to look at <a href=\"https://mathoverflow.net/questions/29866/presenting-a-paper-dos-and-donts\">https://mathoverflow.net/questions/29866/presenting-a-paper-dos-and-donts</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Some other tips I've heard:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Use one slide per minute. For a 15-minute talk, use only 15 slides.</li>\n<li>The first part of your talk should be understandable by any adult (if your target audience consists of adults). The next part should be understandable by your peers (same field as yours, e.g., mathematics, but not necessarily the same subfield, e.g., number theory). The next part should be understandable by your peers working in the same subfield. The last part should be understandable by you. (Although some believe this last part is too much).</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3580, "author": "Jukka Suomela", "author_id": 351, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/351", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think in <em>any</em> conference presentation (whether it is 10 minutes or 60 minutes), there are only two parts that are absolutely necessary:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><strong>What is the problem that you studied.</strong> Explain it as carefully as possible, in the simplest possible form; make it as easy to understand as possible. Do not assume that some parts of the setting are obvious to the audience; make everything explicit.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>What is the new result that you obtained.</strong> Again, explain it as carefully as possible, in the simplest possible form. Proceed slowly; even if you could state the result in 5 seconds, spend much more time on it. Make sure the audience has enough time to digest what was your new main contribution.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If these parts necessarily take 15 minutes, it is OK. I do not think anything else is absolutely necessary.</p>\n\n<p>Of course there are lots of things that would be nice to have, time permitting: background, motivation, related work, a very rough overview of some methods that you used to obtain the results, conclusions, etc. But none of these parts are as important as explaining what was the research question and what was the new result.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>By the way, if it appears that this approach results in a boring talk, most likely <em>your own idea of what is your research question is wrong</em>. Think big, go one level up.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Example:</strong> You have studied thingy X (something technical and complicated) and your work shows that X has property Y (something easy to understand), and this is cool, as it is the first example of a thingy with property Y.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Bad:</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><em>Problem:</em> We study the properties of thingy X. (But explaining X takes forever. It is complicated, technical and boring. And why would you want to study it anyway.)</p></li>\n<li><p><em>Result:</em> We show X has property Y. (But now you would still have to explain what is Y. You are already running out of time, and you have already lost your audience.)</p></li>\n<li><p>You feel like you would have wanted to talk about motivation, related work, and methods, but you are already overtime, and nobody is following anymore.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>Good:</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><em>Problem:</em> Is there a thingy with property Y? (Now this was much easier to explain. You have got plenty of time to also mention that this is a famous open question posed by Professor Bigname in 1950s.)</p></li>\n<li><p><em>Result:</em> Yes, we give the first example of such a thingy! (That was easy. And now to make sure that everyone gets the big news, you can spends some time explaining that in prior work others have come close, but nobody has been quite there.)</p></li>\n<li><p>And now you still have lots of time left, so you can tell something about the particular thingy X that you put together. All of this is extra. You can be sketchy, just give some highlights of the main ideas. Everyone in the audience already knows where you are aiming at and what is the big picture; they can fill in the details or look it up in your paper if it matters.</p></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3595, "author": "Francisco Morales", "author_id": 2775, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2775", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>An interesting comment about presentations can be found <a href=\"http://matt.might.net/articles/academic-presentation-tips/\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a>. The author is professor of Computer Science, thus some things may not apply in all cases. Moreover, I think that the advice is very extreme, which actually makes it interesting.</p>\n\n<p>In the case of the area of management, <a href=\"http://www.unc.edu/~healdric/Workpapers/Exciting_meetings.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">this resource</a> may be helpful.\nThese notes were the result of a session at one of the Academy of Management meetings.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3614, "author": "Ben Norris", "author_id": 924, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/924", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are many good answers. I especially like the second half of the answer from @walkmanyi, especially as concerns the structure of a short talk. I disagree with most the time amounts given. I have found great success with:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>7 minutes of background</li>\n<li>5 minutes combined methods, results, conclusions</li>\n<li>3 minutes of questions </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If a separate time is given to questions, then 9 to 6 in favor of background.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 21085, "author": "Andreas Blass", "author_id": 14506, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14506", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Some things to think about (from the point of view of a mathematician, but I hope some of this might be relevant in other fields too): Does your main result have a special case or two that would be easier for your audience to understand than the general result (without being trivial)? If so, you might just present that (or those) special case(s), and add at the end one sentence to the effect that your full result is more general.</p>\n\n<p>Does your result require terminology that people might not know? If so, does it really <em>require</em> that terminology, or could you perhaps get by without it? If you <em>really</em> need the terminology, budget enough time to explain it and, if possible, relate it to something your audience already knows.</p>\n\n<p>The background information (previous results, open questions) that motivate your work is likely to be too much to present in full in the limited time available. Select just enough of that information to be understandable and to provide <em>some</em> (not necessarily all) motivation for your work. Having presented some motivation, you can add one sentence saying that there is additional motivation, which you don't have time to explain in the talk.</p>\n\n<p>In two places, I've suggested adding a single sentence saying \"there's more\"; you should indicate your willingness (or even eagerness) to discuss the \"more\" later with anyone who is interested.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 29061, "author": "mt3", "author_id": 1079, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1079", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My goal when giving a talk is to convey information in a way none have presented or expressed before. The constraints being:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>easy to understand for complete novices</li>\n<li>interesting for experts</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>My mindset is also to aim for 10-12 minutes when allocated 15 minutes. It is always better to finish early than it is to go over your time. It <strong>ALWAYS</strong> leaves a bad taste in my mouth when a speaker exceeds their allotted time. It's disrespectful and inconsiderate of other people's time.</p>\n\n<p>I also subscribe to the <em>1 slide per 1 minute MAX</em> philosophy. In terms of time per section (borrowing from @eykanal's reply), but whichever section has your contribution then the time spent there should be doubled (e.g., I assume in the Methods section):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>2 min <strong>Background</strong></li>\n<li>4 min <strong>Methods</strong></li>\n<li>2 min <strong>Evaluation</strong></li>\n<li>2 min <strong>Results</strong></li>\n<li>2 min <strong>Conclusions</strong></li>\n<li>1 min <strong>Future Work</strong></li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3563", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/344/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3573, "author": "gerrit", "author_id": 1033, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You could ask the other student to be part of the study. If he/she does some substantial thinking about methods, content, writing etc., you can offer him/her to be co-author.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3576, "author": "JRN", "author_id": 64, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/64", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Sign and date a copy of your work, seal it in an envelope (using tamper-evident seals) and have it received by your teacher (that is, give it to your teacher then have your teacher sign a note that he/she received the envelope). This will serve as evidence in case another student claims your work is his/hers.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3578, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This seems like a reasonable request by the instructor. Without understanding why you are feeling vulnerable, it is not possible to provide an answer. It is worth talking to someone (possibly the instructor or maybe your advisor or a therapist) about why you are feeling vulnerable.</p>\n\n<p>As for protecting yourself, emailing the document to/from your university email account is probably sufficient as documentation. The next level up would be to email the student the document with the instructor cc'd. This way you are proving you shared your paper (and gaining documentation). Anything more and you will likely be revealing your insecurities, which might lead to more insecurities.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3579, "author": "Magpie", "author_id": 1248, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1248", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Email the work to someone (or yourself) well before you hand it over. </p>\n\n<p>Also, try to relax. It is not likely someone will try to pass your work off as theirs because they would be aware that you were going to hand the same piece of writing in and that would lead to trouble for both of you.</p>\n\n<p>I think the reason he is getting you to do it is to get you used to how things work in a research environment. So it is not such a bad thing, maybe.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3572", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/600/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3667, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>A good place to start to fill gaps due to lack of teacher training is with a general book or two on the topic. I was surprised when I read these at how different current attitudes and approaches are compared to when I was a student. Consider:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>John Biggs and Catherine Tangs' <a href=\"https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/0335242758\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><em>Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student does</em></a></li>\n<li>Paul Ramsden's <a href=\"https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/0415303451\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><em>Learning to Teach in Higher Education</em></a>.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>One of the key issues these books talk about regarding assessment is the notion of <strong>constructive alignment</strong>, which is ensuring that the assessment aligns appropriately with the learning outcomes of the course. In these books (and others) plenty of advice is given to help you better align your assessment.</p>\n<p>Another important issue is that assessment guides the approach to learning. If students know that they only need to learn a whole bunch of facts, perhaps based on their examination of past exams, then they will adopt a shallow approach to learning and not really understand the material. Trying to encourage students to adopt a deep approach to learning is extremely important and is strongly influenced by the approach taken to assessment. These books also focus on this issue.</p>\n<p>After reading those,\nI recommend the following books, which both focus on assessment. They have given me plenty of ideas:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/033520242X\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><em>Assessment Matters in Higher Education: Choosing and Using Diverse Approaches</em></a> edited by Sally Brown and Angela Glasner, Open University Press, 1999.</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/0335221076\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><em>Developing Assessment in Higher Education: A Practical Guide</em></a>\nSue Bloxham (Author), Pete Boyd, Open University Press, 2007.</li>\n</ul>\n<p>They both written in the context of British universities, but I'm sure the ideas are fairly universally applicable.</p>\n<p>There are also plenty of journals of higher education, if you want to get access to cutting edge research in higher education. Some are devoted to assessment, and others are more general:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.tandfonline.com/journals/caeh20\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Assessment &amp; Evaluation in Higher Education</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.springer.com/journal/11092\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://scholarworks.umass.edu/pare/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Practical Assessment, Research &amp; Evaluation</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/90\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">The Journal of Higher Education</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/172\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">The Review of Higher Education</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/89\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">The Journal of General Education</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://celt.muohio.edu/ject/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">The Journal of Excellence in College Teaching</a></li>\n</ul>\n<p>I'm pretty sure that this only scrapes the surface.</p>\n<p>Finally, the Google returned some resources, which lead to more detailed resources:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.aacu.org/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://www.aacu.org/</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://assessmentcommons.org/view-all-resources/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://assessmentcommons.org/view-all-resources/</a></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3685, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Depending on country, your university may provide training. In the UK all teaching staff must obtain a Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education. While I still do not fully understand the process, it seems that this is nearly a Masters in Education. I would check with your office of professional development to see what courses they offer. You may also want to look at auditing a course in the Department of Education. Although in my experience Departments of Education are often rated as having poor teaching (this may obviously be due to student bias).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3575", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3584, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Indeed, there are tools that create maps of journals in a given area. Most of them are based on citation data, i.e. they consider that citations between articles of journal A and journal B are a good indicator of proximity of the two journals (and it seems like a good definition of “proximity”). If you are interested in the topic of how such maps are created, and how they can be analyzed, you can read on the topic. For example, see <a href=\"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.22631/abstract\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">“Seed journal citation network maps: A method based on network theory”</a> and related papers.</p>\n<p>Now, regarding online tools available, a search lead me to <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20141210145510/http://www.vosviewer.com:80/maps/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">VOSViewer</a> (<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">paper</a>), which looks like it contains exactly what you want:</p>\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/plgB8.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\" /></p>\n<hr />\n<p>A final note: while such journal maps can be useful in discovering new journals in a field you don't know well, I will add that each journal is unique, and you have to learn about the journals in your field in order to increase your chances of success at publishing articles. It may, for example, tell you that two journals are very close in scope when they actually have very different editorial policies. <em>Read the editorial guidelines for the journals of your field</em> and, at least as importantly, <em>read papers of each journal</em> to get a feeling of what the actual policy in place are.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3661, "author": "Ann K", "author_id": 2799, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2799", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If your institution has access to Journal Citation Reports, there is a feature called <em>Related Journals</em> that will provide a list of titles similar to your selected title, based on citing and cited relationships. <a href=\"http://thomsonreuters.com/products_services/science/science_products/a-z/journal_citation_reports/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Journal Citation Reports</a> is a subscription database provided by Thomson Reuters </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3583", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2770/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3594, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I looked up the policy of journals in the fields of physics and chemistry, and their policy regarding reviewers does not directly address your question. Most ethical guidelines say the same thing: <strong>manuscripts sent for review are confidential</strong>. For example, quoting from the <a href=\"http://www.aps.org/policy/statements/02_2.cfm\">APS Guidelines for Professional Conduct</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Privileged information or ideas that are obtained through peer review must be kept confidential and not used for competitive gain.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>From the more loquacious <a href=\"http://pubs.acs.org/page/policy/ethics/index.html\">ACS Ethical Guidelines</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>A reviewer should treat a manuscript sent for review as a confidential document. It should neither be shown to nor discussed with others except, in special cases, to persons from whom specific advice may be sought; in that event, the identities of those consulted should be disclosed to the editor.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This clearly covers the case of revealing the part (or any part of it) before it was published, as well as nonpublished parts of the paper (i.e., the published version is of course public, but anything else is still confidential).</p>\n\n<p>However it seems to me that, narrowly read, there is material that this rule does not cover. For example, the text written by the reviewer is not indicated to be confidential (except insofar as it reveals part of the authors’ confidential material), and it seems clear that you retain the right to publish it. (Whether it's a good thing to actually do is another matter. Except in extreme situations, I would advise against it.)</p>\n\n<p><strong>So, once a paper is published, are you allowed to reveal that you were a referee? I think so.</strong> Is it a good thing? I don’t think it hurts anyone.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>PS: I interpreted your “after the decision has been made” as meaning “after the paper is published”. In the interval of time between editorial decision and publication, it <em>is</em> clear that this information is confidential.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3598, "author": "Jukka Suomela", "author_id": 351, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/351", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p><strong>Don't do that.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Everything related to reviewing is confidential.</p>\n\n<p>You will certainly upset some <strong>editors</strong> if you reveal your identity to the authors without the editor's permission. (Remember that the authors usually know who was the editor. Perhaps the editors did not want the authors to know that they asked you to review the paper?)</p>\n\n<p>More generally, there is nothing to gain by doing this, and everything (= your reputation) to lose. You do not want to do anything that someone might interpret as a violation of the confidentiality of the peer-review process. (Even if you had both the authors' and the editor's permission to publish this information, others might not know that.)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3591", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2774/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3593, "author": "Legendre", "author_id": 1190, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1190", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>It depends on the department. I have been looking at various applied mathematics departments in the USA and all of them want PhD students to go through the coursework and obtain an MS, even if they already did a masters degree before.</p>\n\n<p>I think in general, there is no chance to skip coursework. This is probably because different universities have different standards and syllabuses for the same course. And they want to ensure everyone is up to the same standard and have taken the same syllabus.</p>\n\n<p>But do check with the department, there are always exceptions.</p>\n\n<p>P.S.</p>\n\n<p>However, it doesn't have to be a \"waste\" of two years. The level of the course might be higher and you are probably able to choose different courses to get broader experiences. If all else fails and you are able to ace all the courses with no problem, you can always spend the extra time looking for a thesis adviser or find research collaborators.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3596, "author": "Ran G.", "author_id": 324, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/324", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The answer greatly varies. I was in the same situation, and in my school, a Phd student with a previous MSC gets exemption from 3 courses out of the required 12. </p>\n\n<p>In other schools (I think it was Stanford, but I might be wrong), the required amount of (real) classes for a Phd student, is 4. </p>\n\n<p>As @Legendre said, the best way is to check with the school itself. The Graduate Students Office (GSO) should be able to give you the details or refer you to the right website (yet, many times the website is not 100% accurate..)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3599, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Even at schools that have course requirements, you may be able to satisfy some requirements by taking a proficiency exam instead of an entire course. Check with the department!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 13567, "author": "ramgorur", "author_id": 7537, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7537", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Many US schools generally offer a partial/full \"course waiver\" depending on the course load and syllabus of the previous MS degree.</p>\n\n<p>However, there are some problems with MSc (by research) programs from the UK (i.e. anglo-saxon system), as such program does not require any course work. </p>\n\n<p>I know one person in our lab who did MSc (by research) from the UK and had to complete a full course load during his PhD, it took almost 3 years to finish the course work (only, and getting a second MS), even being one of the most competent/experienced members in our lab.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3592", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3604, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>From my experience, there do exist occasional Masters and PhD projects which are funded through industry grants; I personally interviewed for (but did not accept) a postdoctoral position based in a hospital funded by a medical device company. However, the position was not advertised as such, and the medical device company did not list this grant publicly. I suspect that any other similar positions (i.e., funded by industry) would not include this information in the advertisements.</p>\n\n<p>I would suggest that you try a different tack. A number of companies will sponsor and pay for a masters degree once you've been working with them long enough. You may want to try talking to people in industry and finding whether you can take a job and then work towards your degree at a later point in time.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3606, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Where can I find proposals from companies to work with them? Are there lists of such proposals available somewhere?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I am not aware of any such, but around me, several mid- and large-scale projects are done in a very close cooperation with industrial companies, also on machine learning. Even I am employed as a post-doc on such a project, from a large part financed by a company who is also the supposed user of the results. At least in the western EU, this is a frequent model in computer science and related technical disciplines.</p>\n\n<p>One way, or another, to complete a master thesis you will need a supervisor from your university. In the case there are industrial cooperation projects in the area of your interest at your university, you should speak to the local project consortium member, basically one of the professors, or senior researchers at the relevant department. To find out whether such projects do exist at your university is again something to speak about with your local professors/faculty/research staff. After all, at least in places I am familiar with, working out a master topic without a tight connection to a project/theme at the department of your university is not the way to go, most probably even almost impossible. After all, you need a supervisor and the person needs to have an interest in the work. But of course, maybe in other parts of the world than I am active, things tick differently...</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 123012, "author": "Thanikachalam Vedhathiri", "author_id": 102992, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/102992", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>We have got many pressing topics for dissertations from various companies. They need solutions. We took the broad problems and created reach proposal and got approval from the companies. The graduate students in the Human Resource development are able to improve their problem-solving skills through the dissertation works. About 100 students completed the research. The company also provided the service of a manager. This is a win-win situation.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3597", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2779/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3602, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Well, as you said, there is no rule that explicitly says that the information mentioned in a “invitation to review” is confidential. Yet, as with the related questions, there is a big grey area around the process of peer-review. Many people would expect this information to be kept confidential… and it does make sense: after all, the reason you gained access to what is (at that stage) privileged information is for the purpose that you may review it. It is part of the review process.</p>\n\n<p>Let's see it another way: this situation is not so different from the case where you would accept a review, then drop it (write to the editor to pull out) upon learning that you won't have time to do it. Morally, those two situations are close to one another.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3603, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I checked the peer review policy of Nature and Science, I guess that should is the best we can get. The policy can be found <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/authors/policies/peer_review.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">here</a>, <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/authors/gta.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer\">here</a> (both Nature) and <a href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/contribinfo/review.xhtml\" rel=\"noreferrer\">here</a> (Science).</p>\n<p>A bunch of relevant quotes from the Nature policies:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>As a condition of agreeing to assess the manuscript, all reviewers undertake to keep submitted manuscripts and associated data confidential...</p>\n<p>Nature journals keep confidential all details about a submitted manuscript and do not comment to any outside organization ...</p>\n<p>Referees of manuscripts submitted to Nature journals undertake <strong>in advance</strong> to maintain confidentiality of manuscripts and any associated supplementary data.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>And some from the Science review policy:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Reviewers <strong>are contacted before being sent a paper</strong> and are asked to return comments within 1 to 2 weeks for most papers.</p>\n<p>The submitted manuscript is a privileged communication and must be treated as a confidential document.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>I would read it conservatively. That is, consider an abstract to be <code>a part of the manuscript</code>, hence the same rules governing general <code>manuscript</code> should apply. Apart from that, both journals state that <strong>in advance</strong> to being sent the manuscript, the (I guess still <em>potential</em>) reviewers agree to keep the matter confident.</p>\n<p>I think an answer may also lie in the exact process handling review. First, a potential reviewer is invited and sees a title and possibly paper's authors. Then he/she has to log-in into a review system, but I guess, somewhere in the process accepts general terms and conditions which established the contract. And only then the reviewer sees the manuscript. I am not sure if all journals do it this way, but those I reviewed for did so. Well, besides some special issues handled outside the journal submission/review system, where the case would be unclear.</p>\n<hr/>\n<p>I just checked the reviewer invitations I received from journals in my field and I found that the only disclosed thing in the invitation e-mails was the submission's title. I must accept/decline to review and only afterwards I saw the manuscript, or its abstract.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3607, "author": "paul garrett", "author_id": 980, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>To complement other answers and comments: indeed, as far as I can tell, from a quasi-legalistic viewpoint \"consent\" cannot be pushed on me by sending me something in email, e.g., an abstract and asking whether I'd review the article. Nevertheless, it is my firm impression that, there is a strong <em>expectation</em> that any such information is kept confidential in perpetuity, whether or not one agrees to referee/review.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, I agree, there is something a touch unfair or burdensome about this, since one can imagine that a malicious editor could wreak havoc with one's work by sending a steady stream of one's competitors' as-yet-unpublished work... thus seemingly obliging one to disrupt one's own work... ?</p>\n\n<p>And, yes, something like this does sometimes happen when one served as NSF reviewer (in the older system), especially, where work-in-progress is sometimes portrayed.</p>\n\n<p>Despite the potential for abuse in having others put obligations upon us, it seems that the potential for abuse, in the line of \"conflict of interest\", is substantially greater if confidentiality is not essentially promised implicitly, and in perpetuity.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3600", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3609, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The rules of thumb are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Established facts are reported in the present tense (“<em>The path of light follows Fermat's principle of least time</em>”). However, you should use the past tense when you refer to previous work in the field (“<em>Maxwell et al. demonstrated clearly in a laser cavity experiment that no mirror is perfect</em>”).</li>\n<li>The experiments, simulations or calculations you performed are narrated in the past tense (“<em>We dissolved the remaining solid in a 5:1 solution of acetone and benzonitrile, and heated to 200°C for three hours.</em>”)</li>\n<li>Discussion of the data presented in the paper uses the present tense (“<em>The results obtained, shown in Fig. 3, clearly emphasize that the cell colonies grew faster on pink toothbrushes than green ones. We attribute this to the color-sensitivity, or kawai factor.</em>”)</li>\n<li>Mathematical proofs are written using the present tense, because going through the proof occurs at the time of reading (“<em>From Eqn. 1, we derive the following system of inequalities</em>”).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Overall, the choice of tenses is actually pretty logical.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 96178, "author": "Tripartio", "author_id": 20418, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20418", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are two distinct general cases that bring up the question of, \"Which tense should I use?\", each of which follows different principles. </p>\n\n<p>First, <strong>are you describing research itself and ideas from research?</strong> (This is what you are doing probably 99% of the time.) In this case, the principle that I follow is simple, regardless of whether I am describing what other people have done or describing my own work:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Historical occurrences should be in past tense.</strong> \"Historical\" means anything that actually happened in the past, whether a procedure, an article publication, a statement made by anyone, or anything else that has actually happened.</li>\n<li><strong>Enduring truths should be in present tense.</strong> \"Enduring truth\" in this context only means that the authors present such statements as ongoing facts in the past, present and future; it doesn't mean anything more than that. (In particular, even if you disagree with what some authors consider to be true, it is still an \"enduring truth\" in their minds, and so should be presented in present tense.)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The second case where tense is involved is trickier: <strong>are you describing your own writing process as you are writing the article?</strong> (Although you only do this 1% or less of the time, it leads to perhaps 80% of the confusion of the question as to which tense to use, so it is important to understand this.) The basic idea here is to anticipate your reader's expected or intended path of reading, which is what makes it so tricky. Here is the principle I follow here:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>When describing anything you write in the current paragraph or any paragraph below, use present tense.</strong> Future tense could also be correctly used for most things in paragraphs below, but not always. In particular, when referring to elements outside the main body of the text (such as appendices, references, footnotes, acknowledgements, etc.), you should always use present tense, since the reader should refer to such ancilliary sections simultaneously with reading the text. I find this a bit confusing, so it is simpler for me to only use present tense and never use future tense, which is perfectly acceptable.</li>\n<li><strong>When describing any thing you write in preceding paragraphs, use past tense.</strong> The only exception is that when writing in appendices, you should refer to the main body of the text in present tense. (Technically, you should probably also use present tense if referring to the main body in other ancillary sections [references, footnotes, acknowledgements, etc.], but I never need to refer to the main body of the text in such sections.)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I now follow with several annotated examples to illustrate these points. Some of them are straightforward applications of the principles I have summarized above, though some could be argued as either present or past tense.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>Literature review</strong></p>\n \n <p>AuthorA and AuthorB (Year) <strong>studied</strong> an interesting topic. They\n <strong>applied</strong> a cool methodology and <strong>found</strong> that certain surprising outcomes <strong>are</strong> what actually happen.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Comments:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>\"AuthorA and AuthorB (Year) <strong>studied</strong> an interesting topic\": The study occurred in the past, and so is in past tense.</li>\n<li>\"They <strong>applied</strong> a cool methodology\": The authors actually did some analysis in the past, and so it is in past tense.</li>\n<li>\"and <strong>found</strong> that\": The authors arrived at their results at a certain point in time in the past, when they made their conclusions; this is thus in past tense.</li>\n<li>\"certain surprising outcomes <strong>are</strong> what actually happen\": The authors concluded that their findings not only applied to their study, but indicate some general truths that would continue to apply in the future. Thus, as a description of ongoing reality, it is in present tense.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>Methodology Section of My Own Article</strong></p>\n \n <p>We <strong>gathered and analyzed</strong> certain pertinent data in various stages. First, we <strong>conducted</strong> an extensive survey. The respondents of the survey <strong>reported</strong> that they <strong>only partially agreed</strong> with most of the statements in the survey instrument. Second, we <strong>interviewed</strong> other relevant respondents. The interviewees <strong>enlightened</strong> us as to some of the responses on the prior survey. Third, we <strong>collected</strong> biometric data from the brain electrodes attached to the interviewees during the interviews, which <strong>was generally consistent</strong> with what they <strong>were actually saying</strong> (except for some notable discrepancies, which we <strong>discuss</strong> in more detail below). Finally, we <strong>applied</strong> some cutting-edge combined quantitative-qualitative analyses to bring everything together and make sense of it all.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Comments:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>\"We <strong>gathered and analyzed</strong>\", \"we <strong>conducted</strong>\", \"we <strong>interviewed</strong>\", \"we <strong>collected</strong>\", \"we <strong>applied</strong>\": Statements of research methods or procedures that we actually did are past events; hence, they are in past tense.</li>\n<li>\"The respondents of the survey <strong>reported</strong>\", \"The interviewees <strong>enlightened</strong> us\", \"biometric data ... <strong>was generally consistent</strong> with\": Responses and results (whether by people, animals, plants, or inanimate objects) are reports of historical facts: they actually happened in the past. Thus, they should be in past tense.</li>\n<li>\"The respondents of the survey ... <strong>only partially agreed</strong> with most of the statements in the survey instrument\", \"what they <strong>were actually saying</strong>\": These are tricky. But even when you are reporting what people said to be enduringly true about themselves, their saying such things is a past historical statement. That is, if you were to ask them again today, they might have changed their minds. You can only report what they said as a statement made in the past. This is probably the trickiest point, and might be argued to rather be in present tense, though I personally don't think so.</li>\n<li>\"notable discrepancies, which we <strong>discuss</strong> in more detail below\": Here you are describing what you have written in the present article, that is, part of your own writing process. This should be in present tense.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>Discussion Section of My Own Article</strong></p>\n \n <p>The respondents of our surveys and interviews <strong>gave</strong> us valuable responses that generally <strong>confirmed</strong> our hypotheses. We <strong>conclude</strong> from our analyses that the kind of people in our study generally <strong>act</strong> in the way that our hypotheses <strong>claim</strong>. However, the brain electrode readings <strong>give</strong> us a more nuanced understanding of our findings. They <strong>indicate</strong> that people <strong>act</strong> in that way only in certain circumstances. The appendix of this article <strong>provides</strong> more details on all this.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Here it gets quite tricky, with cases that might be argued either way. Comments:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>\"respondents of our surveys and interviews <strong>gave</strong> us valuable responses\": The respondents responded in the past.</li>\n<li>\"generally <strong>confirmed</strong> our hypotheses\": we conducted the tests of our hypotheses in the past. However, it could be argued to be \"generally <strong>confirm</strong> our hypotheses\", since the hypotheses remain confirmed eventoday and in the future by those historical tests.</li>\n<li>\"We <strong>conclude</strong> from our analyses\": Not only in the past, but now and in the future, each time we reassess our analyses, we continue to arrive at the same conclusions.</li>\n<li>\"our hypotheses <strong>claim</strong>\": Our hypotheses have not changed; they continue to make the same claims.</li>\n<li>\"people in our study generally <strong>act</strong> in the way\", \"people <strong>act</strong> in that way\": We extrapolate our findings not only to the people who responded in our study, but as a general finding concerning how that type of person continues to act.</li>\n<li>\"the brain electrode readings <strong>give</strong> us a more nuanced understanding of our findings\", \"They <strong>indicate</strong> that\": We are referring here not to the past fact of taking the readings, but to the ongoing fact of our interpretation of those readings.</li>\n<li>\"The appendix of this article <strong>provides</strong> more details\": This refers to a supplementary section of my own writing.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>Appendix of My Own Article</strong></p>\n \n <p>In this appendix we <strong>provide</strong> more details about the analyses from the study. We <strong>conducted</strong> even fancier and more experimental analyses to better understand the results. Our supplementary analyses <strong>revealed</strong> some cases where the general trend <strong>did not</strong> apply. We <strong>explain</strong> our interpretation of these supplementary findings in the Discussion section of the article.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Comments:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>\"In this appendix we <strong>provide</strong> more details\": This is the writing process of the current section of the article.</li>\n<li>\"We <strong>conducted</strong> even fancier and more experimental analyses\", \"Our supplementary analyses <strong>revealed</strong> some cases\": These are procedures conducted in the past.</li>\n<li>\"the general trend <strong>did not</strong> apply: This is a past finding from a past analyses. It might be argued to be an interpretation, in which case it should be in present tense.</li>\n<li>\"We <strong>explain</strong> our interpretation of these supplementary findings in the Discussion section\": This reference to the main body of the article should always be in present tense, since it is written in an appendix.</li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3608", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1572/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3615, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Of course, you’ll get there by engaging in a lot of activities where you will meet new people and work with people who will learn to know you. I recommend choosing them according to a few criteria:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Activities of a seemingly technical (or practical) nature</strong>. As a PhD student, you probably don't want to be on boring committees, board-style meetings, interdepartmental seminars. You will meet people, but not in a way that fosters collaboration. (However, you may want to attend these events for other purposes. Meeting key people involved in hiring decisions at a given institution is one such purpose that comes to mind.)</li>\n<li><strong>Informal settings</strong>. This favors meeting new people and getting to know them much better. Favor small meetings over big ones. Aim for a few persons you want to meet. Identify people you would like to approach (at a big event), then check what events they attend.</li>\n<li><strong>Manage to invite people for talks at your institution</strong>. Okay, this one might be a bit difficult for a PhD student in some places, but if you can manage to get someone invited for a day or two, get him to give a talk and discuss your research and his, it will be worth it.</li>\n<li><strong>Do not shy away from “learning” events</strong>: tutorials, “hands-on with XXX library” type of things.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>All in all, I think the kind of events you want to engage in are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Open source projects: you listed that one already</li>\n<li>Workshops close to your research topic: these typically involve few people and long discussions. Many of my strongest collaborations (and a few friendships) grew out of workshops.</li>\n<li>Tutorials organized on topics related, but not too close, to your research: you will learn stuff, meet people in a relaxed setting. Don't be shy of going to workshops where you already know some of the stuff, if only to put it in practice and discuss with the best experts. Also, be ready to present your own work and identify convergences with lecturers and other participants.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3616, "author": "LiteratureGeek", "author_id": 2791, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2791", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You might consider engaging with scholars whose interests overlap yours via <strong>digital arenas</strong> as well. Although the degree to which people in a given field varies by specialty, I'd be surprised if there aren't at least a few people in your niche of information and CS who use informal digital spaces to share work in progress, ask each other questions, and communicate about opportunities such as conferences and grants. For example, you might explore:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Blogging and commenting on others' blogs</strong>: Start writing short, regular posts about academic questions on your mind or scholarly endeavors on which you've been working. Do short reviews of interesting books and articles you've been reading, or use the space to be thoughtful about what it means to be a Ph.D. student in your field. Leave meaningful comments and questions on the blogs of others in your field, or respond to these posts with a blog post of your own (linking to the other person's post both as a matter of etiquette and because many bloggers automatically get trackback notifications of ho's been linking to their posts).</li>\n<li><strong>Using Twitter as a Scholar</strong>: Twitter isn't just for sharing photos of what you ate for lunch! Ryan Cordell provides <a href=\"https://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/how-to-start-tweeting-and-why-you-might-want-to/26065\">some excellent advice</a> on getting started using Twitter professionally and effectively. Use Twitter to share the links to those blog posts you've been writing (see previous bullet), cite intriguing articles you've been reading on the web, or ask questions of scholars whose work you admire. If your department doesn't have anyone already using Twitter for academic ends, you might try searching Twitter with some applicable hashtags (e.g. #computers? #infosci? some more specific terms?), following anyone who tweets about these topics and seems to be saying interesting things, and also check out who those people are themselves following. Many people use the Twitter setting that automatically notifies them when they have a new follower, so be sure to fill out your Twitter bio to create the professional impression you desire (e.g. what school are you at? what topics do you study?). Finally, consider asking interesting questions via Twitter and curating the responses via a service like Storify.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8905, "author": "Thomas", "author_id": 6485, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6485", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am a biochem post-doc and just tried <a href=\"http://www.projectnudge.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">projectnudge.com</a> for this exact situation. The site appears to be beta testing social science collaborations. I was told my posting will appear on the site soon when they start releasing the science collaboration proposals.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8950, "author": "James Clawson", "author_id": 6523, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6523", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In the humanities, at least, websites like <a href=\"http://www.academia.edu\" rel=\"nofollow\">academia.edu</a> are useful for following research trends and for connecting (and \"following\") the work of others. I've found it especially useful both for meeting folks with similar interests, and, when I've presented in or organized panels at conferences, for putting a face to someone's name while also seeing what else they get into.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3613", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2789/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3629, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>First, I'll remark that (at least in fields close to me: physics and chemistry), the process for submitting review articles is typically handled in a different way than other articles (which I'll call “research articles”). Review articles take a lot of effort to write, and that their publication may depend not only on intrinsic quality and scientific criteria, but also on editorial policy: if the journal has already hosted a review on a given topic, it is unlikely to publish another soon afterwards. So, the common practice is to come to an agreement with the editor before writing the full article. Either the editor contacts a scientist to offer him to write a review on a given topic, either an author sends an abstract to the editor asking if the journal would welcome such a review (with no guarantee as to the results of the peer-review process, of course).</p>\n\n<p>This has an important consequence for your question: you can actually <strong>ask the editor</strong> of the journal of your dreams if a review by you and your co-authors would be welcome. Practices may differ between fields, journals and editors, but asking exactly the person who is going to make the decision is the right course.</p>\n\n<p>Then, we come to what I would call the “customs”. It is indeed typical to gain some authority in your field before writing review articles. This usually means <strong>working for a few years in a given field</strong>, publishing some articles of your own, in short: getting noticed by your community. As such, it is not a typical thing to do for a graduate student. Maybe at the end of your PhD, jointly with your adviser. Most probably, later in your career: either as an experienced post-doc, or after having gained a faculty position.</p>\n\n<p>With more than a few years of experience, my personal experience is that you perfectly write reviews (and the editors will accept if the work is good). However, <strong>it gets easier with seniority</strong>, as you will (i) more easily have your work accepted in more prestigious journals, and especially (ii) more easily get invitations to write reviews.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3652, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are a number of different types of \"review articles.\"</p>\n\n<p>There are book and \"show\" reviews, but I don't think this is what you mean. These can be written by anyone, but are often written by junior people who are willing to stick their necks out a little.</p>\n\n<p>There are also systematic reviews in which the literature is search systematically and the quality of each piece of literature is assessed against a predetermined set of criteria. Systemic reviews often only focus on a handful of studies. If there are more studies a meta-analysis may be conducted. These again are written by people at all stages.</p>\n\n<p>\"Tutorial\" reviews which attempts to summarize a large swath of research. A literature review in a thesis is a good example of this type of review. These types of reviews often are published as book chapters. Many are solicited by an editor, but some are submitted. Again people of all stages can publish these.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 22018, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Obviously a graduate student in the beginning stages cannot/may not\n write one.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is news to me, given my second paper was a review that appeared in a top ranked journal in my field. At the time, I was an <em>undergraduate</em> student.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>But how experienced does one need to be before attempting to write\n reviews? Does authoring a number of papers in the relevant field\n equips one for that?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Authoring a number of papers can help you develop a reputation, but <em>reading</em> a number of papers is how you understand the field as a whole. The process for the literature review chapter of a dissertation and the process for writing a review are very, very similar. </p>\n\n<p>Similarly, there is no reason why a graduate student could not write a meta-analysis or systematic review. Indeed, in my graduate program, this was a common first or second paper.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Can a graduate student publish a review article? Do acceptance of\n review article (for publication) depends on the reputation of the\n author or co-authors?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Often, review papers have to be invited, and this can depend on the reputation of a co-author, or an advisor that makes sure it makes its way to an editor's desk.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3628", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1580/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3629, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>First, I'll remark that (at least in fields close to me: physics and chemistry), the process for submitting review articles is typically handled in a different way than other articles (which I'll call “research articles”). Review articles take a lot of effort to write, and that their publication may depend not only on intrinsic quality and scientific criteria, but also on editorial policy: if the journal has already hosted a review on a given topic, it is unlikely to publish another soon afterwards. So, the common practice is to come to an agreement with the editor before writing the full article. Either the editor contacts a scientist to offer him to write a review on a given topic, either an author sends an abstract to the editor asking if the journal would welcome such a review (with no guarantee as to the results of the peer-review process, of course).</p>\n\n<p>This has an important consequence for your question: you can actually <strong>ask the editor</strong> of the journal of your dreams if a review by you and your co-authors would be welcome. Practices may differ between fields, journals and editors, but asking exactly the person who is going to make the decision is the right course.</p>\n\n<p>Then, we come to what I would call the “customs”. It is indeed typical to gain some authority in your field before writing review articles. This usually means <strong>working for a few years in a given field</strong>, publishing some articles of your own, in short: getting noticed by your community. As such, it is not a typical thing to do for a graduate student. Maybe at the end of your PhD, jointly with your adviser. Most probably, later in your career: either as an experienced post-doc, or after having gained a faculty position.</p>\n\n<p>With more than a few years of experience, my personal experience is that you perfectly write reviews (and the editors will accept if the work is good). However, <strong>it gets easier with seniority</strong>, as you will (i) more easily have your work accepted in more prestigious journals, and especially (ii) more easily get invitations to write reviews.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3652, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are a number of different types of \"review articles.\"</p>\n\n<p>There are book and \"show\" reviews, but I don't think this is what you mean. These can be written by anyone, but are often written by junior people who are willing to stick their necks out a little.</p>\n\n<p>There are also systematic reviews in which the literature is search systematically and the quality of each piece of literature is assessed against a predetermined set of criteria. Systemic reviews often only focus on a handful of studies. If there are more studies a meta-analysis may be conducted. These again are written by people at all stages.</p>\n\n<p>\"Tutorial\" reviews which attempts to summarize a large swath of research. A literature review in a thesis is a good example of this type of review. These types of reviews often are published as book chapters. Many are solicited by an editor, but some are submitted. Again people of all stages can publish these.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 22018, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Obviously a graduate student in the beginning stages cannot/may not\n write one.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is news to me, given my second paper was a review that appeared in a top ranked journal in my field. At the time, I was an <em>undergraduate</em> student.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>But how experienced does one need to be before attempting to write\n reviews? Does authoring a number of papers in the relevant field\n equips one for that?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Authoring a number of papers can help you develop a reputation, but <em>reading</em> a number of papers is how you understand the field as a whole. The process for the literature review chapter of a dissertation and the process for writing a review are very, very similar. </p>\n\n<p>Similarly, there is no reason why a graduate student could not write a meta-analysis or systematic review. Indeed, in my graduate program, this was a common first or second paper.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Can a graduate student publish a review article? Do acceptance of\n review article (for publication) depends on the reputation of the\n author or co-authors?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Often, review papers have to be invited, and this can depend on the reputation of a co-author, or an advisor that makes sure it makes its way to an editor's desk.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3630", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1580/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3644, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Although it's true that citations are always helpful, there are obviously limits. If the <em>majority</em> of your citations are self-citations, that's usually considered a \"red flag.\" If your paper that came out two years ago has 10 citations, and two or three are from within your group, nobody's really going to have a problem with that. But if your paper gets cited 45 times, and 40 of them are you citing yourself, that's not so good.</p>\n\n<p>Citation counts not being \"in sync\" with the journals they're published in are also problematic. Publishing in no-name, third-tier journal X, your paper is probably unlikely to generate many citations. It looks suspicious when such papers get many citations.</p>\n\n<p>But again, much of this can be sorted out by a judicious use of search tools like <a href=\"http://www.isiknowledge.com\">Web of Science</a> or <a href=\"http://www.scopus.com\">Scopus</a>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3645, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The ethical rule has to be: cite your work if it's relevant, and don't give it preferential treatment over the work of others. In short: <strong>use the same criteria for previous references to your work as you would use for citing others</strong>. No excessive citation, no self-censorship.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3653, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Citing your previous work can be both good and bad. The biggest benefit is it might make people more aware of your work and how it fits in with a bigger topic. The risk is that people do not understand the relevance and think you are self-promoting and therefore take a negative view of you.</p>\n\n<p>The worst case of this is when a reviewer tells you to cite some piece of work. If it is a big laundry list of articles all by the same author, you tend to get a little angry and think the reviewer is trying to promote that author. If it is a single article that is obviously related and the reviewer clearly states that he/she is an author, I tend to be happy to cite it.</p>\n\n<p>The question you need to ask is: are you citing the previous work to promote it or to help the reader.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 11561, "author": "Peter Jansson", "author_id": 4394, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As with all referencing, the referenced works must be pertinent to what is being described in the paper referencing them. If one writes about a specific topic where much of the work has been done by the same researcher or research group then self-citing will be quite common. There is of course a fine line between that and \"self-promoting\" self-citing. It is impossible to try to draw the line based on number or references or percentages of the total number of references. However, it is not common that most science in a field has been made by the same person so referencing own publications where they are only vaguely related is obviously not a good way.</p>\n\n<p>Having many self-citations is clearly not a sign of widely spread science, either because it is not that interesting or because the field is very isolated (or very new). Citing ones own work will definitely become obvious when looking at the citations as you have done. The normal citation index or h-index obviously does not capture this although it is possible to calculate such indecees without self-citations. But as stated above a certain quantity of self-citation is inevitable since it is likely that one publication follows on many others from the same person or group. So self-citation is acceptable to a point. It becomes less and less acceptable when the reason for the citation is pogressievly less obvious and where other papers would be equally good (or better).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 11571, "author": "Ren", "author_id": 7998, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7998", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think self-citation is not a bad practice in general, specially if you consider how most scientific branches work (\"standing on the shoulders of giants\", although you can also stand on the shoulders of normal-sized people, including yourself). However, there are two scenarios where self-citation or the lack of it can be seen as a bad practice:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Superfluous self-citation</strong>. (already discussed in previous answers). It refers to citing minutiae contained in your previous papers. For instance: \"we consider the change of variable $y=x^2$ as in myself (1974,1975,1977,...,2012)\"</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Not using self-citation in order to inflate your results</strong>. Sometimes not citing your previous papers can produce a beneficial result. I have seen some researchers publishing a good/decent result, followed by a sequence of clones and mutant papers that do not cite the big one. This, of course, has a good effect on the child papers since it makes them look more original.</p></li>\n</ol>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3643", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/675/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3644, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Although it's true that citations are always helpful, there are obviously limits. If the <em>majority</em> of your citations are self-citations, that's usually considered a \"red flag.\" If your paper that came out two years ago has 10 citations, and two or three are from within your group, nobody's really going to have a problem with that. But if your paper gets cited 45 times, and 40 of them are you citing yourself, that's not so good.</p>\n\n<p>Citation counts not being \"in sync\" with the journals they're published in are also problematic. Publishing in no-name, third-tier journal X, your paper is probably unlikely to generate many citations. It looks suspicious when such papers get many citations.</p>\n\n<p>But again, much of this can be sorted out by a judicious use of search tools like <a href=\"http://www.isiknowledge.com\">Web of Science</a> or <a href=\"http://www.scopus.com\">Scopus</a>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3645, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The ethical rule has to be: cite your work if it's relevant, and don't give it preferential treatment over the work of others. In short: <strong>use the same criteria for previous references to your work as you would use for citing others</strong>. No excessive citation, no self-censorship.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3653, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Citing your previous work can be both good and bad. The biggest benefit is it might make people more aware of your work and how it fits in with a bigger topic. The risk is that people do not understand the relevance and think you are self-promoting and therefore take a negative view of you.</p>\n\n<p>The worst case of this is when a reviewer tells you to cite some piece of work. If it is a big laundry list of articles all by the same author, you tend to get a little angry and think the reviewer is trying to promote that author. If it is a single article that is obviously related and the reviewer clearly states that he/she is an author, I tend to be happy to cite it.</p>\n\n<p>The question you need to ask is: are you citing the previous work to promote it or to help the reader.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 11561, "author": "Peter Jansson", "author_id": 4394, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As with all referencing, the referenced works must be pertinent to what is being described in the paper referencing them. If one writes about a specific topic where much of the work has been done by the same researcher or research group then self-citing will be quite common. There is of course a fine line between that and \"self-promoting\" self-citing. It is impossible to try to draw the line based on number or references or percentages of the total number of references. However, it is not common that most science in a field has been made by the same person so referencing own publications where they are only vaguely related is obviously not a good way.</p>\n\n<p>Having many self-citations is clearly not a sign of widely spread science, either because it is not that interesting or because the field is very isolated (or very new). Citing ones own work will definitely become obvious when looking at the citations as you have done. The normal citation index or h-index obviously does not capture this although it is possible to calculate such indecees without self-citations. But as stated above a certain quantity of self-citation is inevitable since it is likely that one publication follows on many others from the same person or group. So self-citation is acceptable to a point. It becomes less and less acceptable when the reason for the citation is pogressievly less obvious and where other papers would be equally good (or better).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 11571, "author": "Ren", "author_id": 7998, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7998", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think self-citation is not a bad practice in general, specially if you consider how most scientific branches work (\"standing on the shoulders of giants\", although you can also stand on the shoulders of normal-sized people, including yourself). However, there are two scenarios where self-citation or the lack of it can be seen as a bad practice:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Superfluous self-citation</strong>. (already discussed in previous answers). It refers to citing minutiae contained in your previous papers. For instance: \"we consider the change of variable $y=x^2$ as in myself (1974,1975,1977,...,2012)\"</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Not using self-citation in order to inflate your results</strong>. Sometimes not citing your previous papers can produce a beneficial result. I have seen some researchers publishing a good/decent result, followed by a sequence of clones and mutant papers that do not cite the big one. This, of course, has a good effect on the child papers since it makes them look more original.</p></li>\n</ol>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3655", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/675/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3659, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Yes, skipping the sessions is not only alright, but is in fact advisable. Will it be viewed adversely during grading, you bet yeah. The key thing to remember is that in grad school grades don't matter. If skipping the session means you can put an extra hour into your research, then that is better time spent.</p>\n\n<p>The way it will affect you in grading is you might lose some participation points and the benefit of the doubt for borderline grades. The instructor may be less inclined to write you a letter of recommendation, but ideally your letter writers will be talking about your research.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3662, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><em>“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.”</em></p>\n\n<p>Yes, you should do your best to maximize your gain from grad school, including skipping sessions/lectures which are not profitable, unless it is explicitly against the rules (in some institutions, there are mandatory lectures). If that means you skip some lectures, do it. If asked, be polite but direct about it. Some people will take it badly, most probably won't.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I'll reinforce my (and Daniel’s) answer with an anecdote: as a student, the department head welcomed us at the beginning of my first year. He said his institution was a place of science, not of conventions, and independence of great minds mattered above all. “Some people learn best in books, in chats with researchers… not by sleeping in lecture rooms. That's okay.” — Two months later, I went to him a morning because I needed his signature on an application. He gave me hell because I dared skip <em>his own</em> coursework session, which was happening at the same time with a TA from his group.</p>\n\n<p>So, you can skip lectures, you don't have to try to hide it, but don't rub it in either :)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3658", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3665, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Here is an alternative way of thinking about the issue.</p>\n\n<p>Some argue that punishing students for late assessment is counter-productive to the learning goals of a course. For instance, this <a href=\"http://tomschimmer.com/2011/02/21/enough-with-the-late-penalties/\">blog post</a> presents a good argument for this case. The author argues </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Students should be graded on the quality of their work (their ability to meet the desired learning targets) rather than how punctual the assignment is. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I've also read this elsewhere in books such as Biggs' <em>Teaching for Quality Learning at University: What the Student does</em> or Ramsden's <em>Learning to Teach in Higher Education</em>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3666, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Here are some ideas of how I try to handle this sort of things. Maybe they will help, maybe you already are aware of these points.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>As students, they aspire to become professionals, and you want them to. So, to a reasonable extent, <strong>treat them as professionals</strong>. In real life, finishing a project late triggers penalties, which can range from small to catastrophic (<em>“the missed deadline? come back next year”</em>). The rules are usually <strong>announced in advance</strong>, so they know how important each task is, and can weigh their own priorities.</p>\n\n<p>It is not common, but for long projects, I have once used the rule of “late projects will simply receive the failing grade of <em>incomplete</em>”. Needless to say, noöne was late.</p></li>\n<li><p>Also, as in any professional setting, <strong>there is always room for negotiation</strong> (as you did). If they realize they will be late, they should come and make an well-argumented pitch, and asking for a specific extension.</p></li>\n<li><p>Not reporting on your progress is the worse possible action. I mean, simply skipping the deadline and coming two days later asking for clemency will <em>not</em> fly. In fact, I wouldn't consider listening to anyone who has not at least come forward on the deadline to indicate they are late, and try to work out a solution.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Of course, there always are special cases: hospital, tornado, the usual… :)</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I'll highlight another method for evaluating student projects, which I find very interesting but have not had time to put in practice yet (but my wife did). In that approach, you set the project deadline so as to leave the students ample time, and <strong>you allow them to hand you their reports at any time before the deadline, for you to review</strong>. And you state that after the deadline, they will fail (if they have not given you anything yet), or be graded on the last version of their project you saw.</p>\n\n<p>Then, obviously, grade fairly strictly… because their work will usually be very good, since you already reviewed it once or twice (for most groups). This has been found (don't have the reference right now, I will ask) to improve acquisition of knowledge over the usual method.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3669, "author": "Ben Norris", "author_id": 924, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/924", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>For a course in which the final project is the only (or the majority of the) grade, one letter grade (or a 10% penalty) per day is not too severe. Compare to the final exam. If a student needed to make up a final exam due to legitimate extenuating circumstances, how many days would you give that student to make up the exam? Not many.</p>\n\n<p>I would also encourage setting a date after which you will not accept the project. At my institution, and likely at most, final grades are due by a specific date. If the project is not submitted by that date, I would assign a zero grade for the course. </p>\n\n<p>Regardless of severity, most students would respect a policy that:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>is communicated upfront, preferably in the syllabus.</li>\n<li>is enforced uniformly.</li>\n<li>has some small amount of wiggle room for true emergencies.</li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 9241, "author": "livresque", "author_id": 6734, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6734", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>At my high school in the US, every English and Social Studies class (two courses certain to have term papers) required both students and parents to sign a document at the beginning of the year acknowledging a <strong>ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY</strong> for missed deadlines on projects and papers as well as the late policies for homework. These deadlines were established at the beginning of the term in the syllabi, much like university policy.</p>\n\n<p>Students could turn in any paper ahead of time without gain or penalty, but without <strong>documented family/medical/extenuating circumstances,</strong> no work was ever accepted past the deadline. Zero tolerance = 0%. This was the perfect timing for a wake up call on making excuses for <em>high school students.</em></p>\n\n<p>Later in university in Québec, there were even more explicit reasons defining extenuating circumstances, which could take months of arbitration, i.e. your name in a mass-media, published obituary being the burden of proof necessary to miss a deadline as a result of the death of a family member.</p>\n\n<p>Most recently, as a middle school teacher, I hit the middle ground of the -10% per school day (not per class period) for homework assignments. Otherwise, I need a note from a parent or guardian excusing the tardiness by the due date or upon the day of the student's return to school from an excused absence. I'd like to require a doctor's note in some notorious cases, but we all have to conform to the school handbook, don't we?</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3664", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3686, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>First, I think you are worrying too much. Second, I think it is bad form on the part of the authors. If the material on the website is critical for the paper, it needs to be provided in an archival form that the journal can keep track of. I would evaluate it based on what you have been given.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3689, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>On the technical side, you can use <a href=\"https://www.torproject.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Tor</a>. That's what I do as a reviewer for accessing on-line supplements to blind reviewed conference submissions. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3683", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3687, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Unattributed work in academia is generally considered unethical. In my own experience, however, I believe that I've come across very few instances of actual ghostwriting where the real author was unnamed. Normally, at least some acknowledgment is called for, either in an editor's note or introduction. </p>\n\n<p>Now, to answer Mankoff's comeent below, by \"unattributed work,\" it can be okay for authors to <em>choose</em> to remain anonymous, if they feel it is in their best interests to do so. However, to take <em>someone else's</em> work and to pass it off as their own is clearly unethical behavior. However, from an ethics standpoint, even if the ghost author is asked about attribution and declines, the \"named\" author should not attempt to claim sole credit for the work. Instead, the author should make some sort of reference to those who assisted in the preparation of the manuscript. Otherwise, they're passing off someone else's work as their own.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3688, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In general, I would say that ghost writing does not constitute plagiarism and using one is not an academically dishonest. A scientific writer who is not an expert in a particular field can convert research notes into a manuscript. These words are not the contribution to the field, but rather the research they encompass. While converting the notes to prose could be viewed as worthy of authorship, I think it is also reasonable to say that it is not. If the writer and the researcher agree that the writers assistance is not worthy of authorship, then there is no problem.</p>\n\n<p>While I do not use a ghost writer, I see this as no different then employing a programmer to write code to control my experiment, an RA to collect the data from the experiment, a graphic designer to create the figures, and a statistician to run the statistics, all of which I do do to varying degrees. To me the contribution is the design of the experiment and the analysis and interpretation of the results. I acknowledge these individuals to varying degrees in the manuscripts, but rarely give authorship.</p>\n\n<p>The ICMJE <a href=\"http://www.icmje.org/ethical_1author.html\">guidelines</a> for authorship are</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Authorship credit should be based on 1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; 2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and 3) final approval of the version to be published. Authors should meet conditions 1, 2, and 3. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>A ghost writer does not meet conditions 1 or 3.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3684", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2745/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3704, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>First, it may depend on your field, but at least in mine (physics and chemistry), it is rare for papers to generate comments or replies, and really extraordinary for a paper to be followed by multiple comments. (The editor usually lets the original authors reply to the comment, however.)</p>\n\n<p>Some publishers provide links to the comments and replies on the webpage for the original paper. Otherwise, you can locate those comments using the following criteria:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>they are published in the same journal, or in a preprint server (like <a href=\"http://arxiv.org\">arxiv</a>)</li>\n<li>their title includes “comment on” or “reply to” (or other such publisher-dependent prefix that you need to identify)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Finally, you should get the list of all newer papers citing the original paper, and check them out. If you're investigating a paper in depth, you’ll do that anyway :)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3721, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In pure math, a good paper may be cited only 10 to 20 times. An excellent paper may be cited only a 100 times or fewer. As a result, it's <strong>fairly quick to skim the titles and abstracts of all newer papers that cite a given paper</strong>. This is easy using <a href=\"http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">MathSciNet</a>. I think Web of Science provides similar functionality for other fields.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3695", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/600/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3698, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Conferences in <em>theoretical</em> computer science like the ones you mention typically don't have general chairs. They have a local arrangements team for organizing the event, and program chairs to manage the review process. </p>\n\n<p>Many conferences in CS outside theory have a general chair because they have many more activities. The general chair might be in charge of selecting</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The workshop program chair</li>\n<li>The posters chair</li>\n<li>The tutorials chair</li>\n<li>Publicity (and social media) chairs</li>\n<li>Treasurer </li>\n<li>Local arrangements </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>And so on. The general chair can be viewed as being in charge of everything except the technical program and then delegates. </p>\n\n<p>But this may vary even within iterations of an individual conference. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3724, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The answer varies with the size and scope of the conference. You might have many more \"chair\" roles, such as e.g., <a href=\"http://aamas2013.cs.umn.edu/node/26\" rel=\"nofollow\">AAMAS</a>, or <a href=\"http://ijcai13.org/committees/conference_comittee\" rel=\"nofollow\">IJCAI</a>. All depends on the activities the conference runs. In the simple settings when the conference is relatively small, local organizers and program chairs might be just enough. All to do is to organize the venue, catering, registration, finances, etc. (local chairs) and then the technical program (program chairs &amp; program committee).</p>\n\n<p>Normally, program chairs are responsible for selecting, approaching and managing the program committee, deal with the basic publicity (calls for papers and participation - that can also go to local chairs, or even publicity chairs) and then, most importantly run the whole submission, peer-review and proceedings publishing process, normally except for the printing part. Similar would hold for all the other \"lower-level\" chairs, such as tutorial, workshop, etc. chairs. </p>\n\n<p>Now if the conference runs many activities, you need to manage the whole process and there you go with your general chairs. But again, all would depend on the conference type, size, activities it runs and the traditions in the community.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3696", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/993/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3703, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<ul>\n<li>I treat <strong>computational results as <em>in silico</em> experiments</strong>. They have been published in a peer-reviewed journal, so I trust them by default, unless I have a reason not to. I cite them without a need to recompute them.</li>\n<li>Sometimes, I have a reason to doubt them: they don't match my intuition, or they don't match my own results in a related case; they seem incoherent; they don't match experimental data; etc. Then, I redo them, possibly in more than one way (different software, try checking the effect of some of the assumptions, etc.). If I learn something from it, I consider publishing this study.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3716, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My most-cited work arose because we couldn't reproduce an earlier published paper in the field. We did a much more extensive study, and demonstrated conclusively why the previous results were unreliable. </p>\n\n<p>So, while you don't need to reproduce every single result that has previously been published, it can serve a useful purpose to try to reproduce at least <em>some</em> of those results—because then you can be sure that your model is working the way you would expect it to (provided the previous data can be trusted; as my case showed, this isn't always the case!). </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3725, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is it reasonable just to cite another paper's results at face value?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In my opinion, there are only few limited cases where this would be acceptable. For example, when comparing industrial-scale systems, or comparison of qualitative features of the works. Also in the case there exist an established set of benchmarks and your algorithm can solve some of those the other can't, you do not really need to reimplement. Possibly also when testing the algorithm cannot be done in a reproducible manner (industrial-scale field tests). When it comes to experimental efficiency, however, I think you usually do not have much choice and should reproduce the others results - if possible at all.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What suggestions would you give to this conundrum?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Depends on what you need the cited work for. In the case you developed an algorithm which is supposed to be more efficient than the cited one, to prove your point you need a controlled experiment when both methods are run under same conditions (e.g., implemented in the same programming language, and run on the same system etc.) and with the same set of benchmarks. In such a case, if you want to demonstrate your point properly, your best is to reimplement (or ask the authors for their implementation and adapt it to your conditions) and run head-to-head. Otherwise your performance curves are going to be incomparable. For good examples of how to do this, see for example comparisons/evaluations of experimental performance of planning algorithms, or SAT solvers.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3697", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2806/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4747, "author": "mac389", "author_id": 28, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>For things that you won't publish, you can adhere to a standard you choose, for example writing in the Korean script using LaTeX.</p>\n\n<p>It's difficult to talk more specifically than that because journals have their own requirements, which can have more to do with their typesetting systems than academic rigor. </p>\n\n<p>If a journal publishes your work with ambiguous transliteration, you may be able to keep an alternate copy on ArXiV. (N.B. I'm not sure it's kosher to do this but I suspect it's fine as long as the alternate version is designated carefully.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4749, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think it's not as hard as it used to be to publish non-Latin characters in journals, especially with the advent of electronic publishing, which reduces the need for \"physical\" stock required to produce those characters. </p>\n\n<p>In fact, I am now starting to see in some journals that people whose names are normally rendered in non-Latin alphabets (such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), now have both the Romanization as well as the \"original\" versions in the authors' credits.</p>\n\n<p>That said, there is the question of <em>why</em> you want to use those non-Latin alphabets. For something that is already in \"common\" use and is widely accepted in the language in which you are writing, the use of the original will be unnecessary. It's also optional to cite the name of an author whose work you're citing, if it was published using a Romanization. (Otherwise, it will make it very difficult to find the citation using search engines.) If, however, you are citing something original, and the use of the Romanization will cause confusion, then use of the original language text is fully appropriate.</p>\n\n<p>As mac389 indicates, you should probably talk to the individual journal you're interested in submitting to. They will likely have guidelines for what is or is not permitted, as you've alluded to in your original question. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 101708, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The so-called <em>standard</em> rules are publisher-dependent. Sorry about that. Still, we can cite the rule of one of the Alpha-1 godfathers of computer science:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I want henceforth to give authentic spellings of people's names in their ``mother tongue,'' as well as the latinized form that is conventionally used in Western books and journals [...]</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>(D. Knuth, <a href=\"http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/help.html#exotic\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/help.html#exotic</a>) Knuth also maintains a list of Asian names there.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3699", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2716/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3702, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Some thoughts on this issue:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>First, the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use\">fair use doctrine</a> is tricky. Assuming you're not ready to hire a lawyer, <strong>play it safe</strong>. If you're not sure, ask for permission. If you're asked to remove something, do it.</li>\n<li>There has been some noise a few years back on the topic of blogging and reuse of scientific figures. See <a href=\"http://kriswager.blogspot.fr/2007/04/fair-use-and-science-blogging.html\">here</a>, <a href=\"http://copyfight.corante.com/archives/2007/05/01/fair_use_and_scientific_illustration.php\">there</a> and <a href=\"http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2007/04/26/is-reprinting-a-figure-fair-us/\">there</a> for some links to that affair. The conclusion I would draw is, again: <strong>play it safe</strong>.</li>\n<li>In at least some jurisdictions (France is one), having ads on your web will mean your blog is considered a commercial publication. Asserting fair use for commercial works is typically harder, though this distinction tends to diminish (<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#Purpose_and_character\">here</a>).</li>\n<li>Attribute figures (source + link). Always. It's just good manners.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I'll finish by a general observation related to copyright law in academia, as I see it (at least around me): people tend to just do stuff, and then play dumb if they get caught (which rarely happens). Lots of researchers knowingly put up (without authorization) PDF files of their papers on their website, and say “I'll just remove them if I am asked too”.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3706, "author": "Leon palafox", "author_id": 2806, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2806", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I also write a blog, and sometimes I also tend to pull images from papers or bookstores.</p>\n\n<p>I do not monetize in my blog, so I'm safe there, and as far as I remember, the current state of the law is that you receive a cease and desist before anything else can happen, so the worst that can happen is that you get a slap in the hand, for the case of the USA.</p>\n\n<p>Now, other countries like Japan just passed really strict laws, where you are not allowed to host anything that is not copyrighted or you face 10 years in prison (no Cease and Desist).</p>\n\n<p>So be sure to see where your blog is hosted, and whether you are hosting anything at all. </p>\n\n<p>One suggestion I tend to follow is to publish things from Arxiv and Wikipedia, which are both for free use. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3700", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3705, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>So when is it appropriate to use \\part? Any specific document length in pages or number of chapters?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It is appropriate when you feel it appropriate! Seriously though, assuming that there isn't any guideline from your university (otherwise, you probably wouldn't be asking the question), it's really a personal choice, the same than about the splitting chapter/section/subsection/subsubsection/paragraph. The structure of a document is there to help the reader, in particular for long documents. A part could be something that can be read separately (i.e., with no references to the other parts), or could be something containing some huge chapters; tt could reflect a chronological order (before, during, after), or a conceptual separation (theoretical, applied), etc. </p>\n\n<p>In case of doubt, talk with your advisor!</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>When you use \\part then a page is cleared after the text. Is this a style that is used in American PhD thesis documents? Why is this done?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>As @Daniel pointed out, this is a rather technical question, that is more likely to be answered on <a href=\"https://tex.stackexchange.com/\">tex.SE</a>. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3715, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>When you use \\part then a page is cleared after the text. Is this a style that is used in American PhD thesis documents? Why is this done?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Actually, the primary reason for this, I believe, is related to traditions in bookbinding. In the \"old\" days, it was accepted practice to begin each major new section with a right-hand page. Even now, some books are published in such a way that every chapter will start on a right-hand page, whether or not the previous chapter ended on a left-hand page. </p>\n\n<p>Given that, the assumption would be that you'd want to have a blank page after the \"part\" page, and that the \"part\" page, as well as the first page of the ensuing chapter would both be \"right-handed\" when the thesis is printed in two-sided format. If you have to submit it in one-sided form, this becomes a bit of a nuisance, but I suspect this is an option that can be turned off in LaTeX.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3728, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Apart from my advice in comments above to ask at writers.sx, I think you might want to consult manuals of style. E.g., <a href=\"http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Chicago Manual of Style</a>, speaks about division of a work in <a href=\"http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/16/ch01/ch01_toc.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">chapter 1</a>, subsection 1.47 on division of a text into parts. I do not have the book besides me, so try to take a look at your library. Also <a href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/66592034/The-Oxford-Guide-to-Style\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Oxford Guide to Style</a> in subsection 1.3.2 speaks about this and says the following: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><em>Arranging a work into parts is useful when a lengthy text falls easily and sensibly into logical divisions of similar length.</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>My personal opinion is, that for a work of 80-100 pages, division into parts is a waste of paper and imposes a too high cognitive load on the reader. Such a text is not <em>lengthy</em> enough to be eligible for such a crude division into multi-chapter parts. Do you have something like 3 times (parts) of at least 3 chapters each in your thesis? If so, and your thesis is about 80-100 pages, then IMHO, something is wrong with your structure to start with. Parts would make sense for a dissertation, or a similar manuscript if you would for example attack a problem from several aspects, each of a size and structure of several chapters. </p>\n\n<p>My personal advice: <strong>Keep it simple! This is a master thesis, not a memoir.</strong></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3701", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2822/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3713, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>At the very least, you should have your name, contact information, and a bio of what you do. That's the minimal advertising necessary to serve as a useful &quot;see my site for more details on what I do&quot;.</p>\n<p>Given that almost everyone who visits your site will either be looking for someone's name or a paper you've previously published, the next most useful information to include would be:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lab members contact info &amp; bios</li>\n<li>Publications with downloadable links</li>\n</ul>\n<p>I would definitely recommend putting pictures up as well, so people will recognize your face when they see you at conferences. Same for lab members.</p>\n<p>Links to other affiliations is nice, but almost certainly not important. Practically no one will follow them. Whether to list your CV is up to you; people who need it will often ask you, but it won't hurt to have it live. Depending on your research, you can have a &quot;recent news&quot; section where you advertise any particularly notable publication or mention in the popular press.</p>\n<p>Finally, if you teach, I recommend putting links to the course website (which may or may not be part of your academic website), as many students will find your page by googling and will be looking for course info.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3726, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Just to extend upon eykanal's reply, I'll add a public relations spin to this topic. </p>\n\n<p>IMHO, all depends on the mode in which you operate. If you are an established professor, your website is going to look differently from somebody who is striving to climb the ladder. This also depends slightly on the community you operate in, I'll speak for CS/AI, specifically more applied streams. </p>\n\n<p>As an established member of the community, you rule your time and do not need yourself to be \"discovered\". Hence you do not need much bragging on your site and can stick to practical info. In the case you are climbing the ladder, your website is your shop-window. You need to have it up for your potential future employers, potential future collaborators, etc. It's can be used as a personal PR shop window. In that case you might want to break down your CV into pieces and include projects you work(ed) on and their descriptions, possibly even attach publications to these entries to document the rate/quality of the deliverables. Many people list <em>Activities</em> section, where they keep a list of academic services they perform, i.e., program/organizing/steering/... committee memberships, refereeing for journals and announcements of edited books, etc. As eykanal pointed out, expanding on teaching activities is important. Now, first and foremost, you want to serve your students, but remember also the (future) hiring committees. They want to see indications of those activities as well.</p>\n\n<p>All in all, anything what can help you in the future, but still won't look as too much bragging about your achievements can be useful, but think about balancing it with practical stuff as well. For example, to add a \"human\" touch to their academic personas, many people also include \"family\" section with a handful of links and pictures of their family, pets, hobbies, etc.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4734, "author": "Dirk", "author_id": 529, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/529", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My two cents: Put the things on your homepage that you like to see on the homepages of people like you.</p>\n\n<p>Well, this is probably not the full story since not only people like you will be interested in your homepage. Maybe you also think about hiring committees, potential referee or the like to have a look at you homepage. However, you are probably to look at the homepages of people like you through the eyes of a hiring committee member, reviewer, student (or whatever) and then have a look at you homepage again. This should give you an impression whether you homepage is cool enough or not.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4751, "author": "Per Alexandersson", "author_id": 2794, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2794", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'd love to see conjectures and open problems.</p>\n\n<p>This is a good way to advertise for your field, and maybe someone knows a solution/related problem.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3709", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/927/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3712, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>This will likely vary from journal to journal, but the information should be available in the \"authors\" section on a journal's webpage. For example, Science provides the document \"<a href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/contribinfo/prep/lic_info.pdf\">License to Publish—Information for Authors</a>\" document, which clearly states:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Once the Work has been published in Science and provided the Work's first appearance in Science is properly cited, authors may:</p>\n \n <p>...</p>\n \n <ul>\n <li>Distribute photocopies of the Work to colleagues for non-commercial purposes only (providing that recipients are informed that they may not further distribute or copy the Work). Authors may distribute photocopies or download and email the Science PDF to their colleagues for their colleagues' personal use provided the recipients understand that the copy may not be further distributed or reproduced without the approval of AAAS.</li>\n </ul>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This license would allow what you described, as it's non-commercial.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3714, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>With respect to the specific question of writing such a statement, there is no implication of an agreement that sending you an email will automatically lead to receiving a copy of the publication. If there are specific restraints on your distribution of preprints, then you can explain those limitations when a preprint is not available. </p>\n\n<p>Alternatively, you could indicate which papers are \"embargoed,\" and include a statement that says: \"Except where noted, preprints are available by contacting the author,\" or something to that effect.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3727, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Short answer:</strong>\nSo far, I did not see a copyright transfer agreement, which did forbid an author to distribute pre-prints for his/her personal use by e-mail, or in a printed form.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Long answer:</strong>\nThe answer always depends on the particular publication. Whenever you submit your camera-ready copy, you usually also submit a signed copyright transfer agreement, or a document similar to it. Therein, you always have listed which rights to the work in question you are transfering to the publisher and which remain with you. Usually, in my field (CS/AI), there is a section on \"Returned rights\" where is explicitly stated what (publishing a preprint, distribution to colleagues, figure re-use, etc.) and how the author can, or cannot do it (obligation to include a copyright statement, etc.). Since your question is of a legal nature, I suggest contacting the publisher of the work in question and simply ask whether what you want to do is in line with copyright agreement you, or some of your co-authors signed, or whether you need to handle it differently. But before that, take a look on that publisher's website, all the major ones have these policies quite explicitly, and often including FAQs and other guidelines, listed on their websites.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3711", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/927/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3720, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>First, <strong>ask your adviser</strong>. He/she likely knows more about most of your department faculty than you do. You don't have to do exactly as you're told. But if you don't, this should be an intentional choice on your part, and you should have a good reason for that choice. Beyond that, I see at least 3 broad areas to consider. You want committee members who will</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>strengthen your professional network</strong>: introduce you to potential collaborators, and possibly help with your search for a postdoc or tenure track position; and/or write a letter of recommendation for you</li>\n<li><strong>give valuable feedback on your work</strong>: you think they'll actually read your thesis (you might be surprised how uncommon this is), and might have something constructive to say </li>\n<li>be <strong>easy to work with</strong> in the defense process: likely to be flexible on the date of your defense, and likely to sign off on your dissertation without demanding lots of changes (fitting into 4 schedules besides your own can be a nightmare; it's nice to have a few committee members who are easy to work with on this)</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Which of these contributions you value most will depend on what you're hoping to do after your PhD. If you're looking to move into industry, many of your professors' contacts may be less valuable to you than if you hope to stay in academia. Do you plan to stay research active? In the field of your dissertation? Practically, you may have limited options. At the very least, you should weigh 1, 2, and 3, and estimate how you think each candidate will contribute in each area.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4733, "author": "dearN", "author_id": 21, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is certainly a very important question. Here is the make up of my committee and its pitfalls. \nThis isn't the best committee but has its advantages.\nYou could easily extrapolate from my experience:</p>\n\n<h3>Adviser/Committee member 1:</h3>\n\n<ol>\n<li>I have a fantastic adviser who always stands by me and supports my work. He essentially fights for me if things go awry.</li>\n<li>He is also the PI of the project I am working on so my successful graduation and publications do interest him.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<h3>Co-adviser/Collaborator/Committee member 2/Extradepartmental committee member:</h3>\n\n<ol>\n<li>He champions the the ideas behind my research and has done so for the last 20+ years. So there is no problem that I'll get support from him</li>\n</ol>\n\n<h3>Committee member 3:</h3>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Doesn't have anything invested in my research but since it is generally related to his work, he is on board. </li>\n<li>He is sitting on the fence as far as criticism goes.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<h3>Committee member 4:</h3>\n\n<ol>\n<li>He doesn't like my work since his adviser didn't like this work and its implications.</li>\n<li>However, since I have a generally pro-me committee, I should be alright but not without breaking a sweat.</li>\n<li>If I convince him of the merit of my work, I'll have no problem in the future convincing any other detractors <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3719/how-to-select-a-dissertation-committee-member-wisely#comment7010_3720\">See comment by JeffE</a>.</li>\n</ol>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3719", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/931/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3733, "author": "paul garrett", "author_id": 980, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my experience, teaching \"quality control\" in larger-scale projects is part of the enterprise, since (in mathematics, for example) standard coursework provides no inkling of this. That is, it is <em>not</em> typically the case that sloppy or flawed homework or exams are returned with detailed comments, for iterated corrections, to be repeated until the thing is acceptable. Rather, as we know, schoolwork is presented to students as a high-volume stream of disconnected small tasks, most of which truly do not merit \"perfecting\", but, rather, treating as a bulk-processing problem.</p>\n\n<p>So the methodology and style of iterative improvement and \"perfecting\" a larger, months-or-years-long project is arguably a novelty to the student. The \"solution\" seems to be to just keep iterating the corrections, perhaps making the auxiliary point of the inefficiency of your making the same point several times.</p>\n\n<p>I've had the opposite problem a few times, as well, namely, exaggerated attention to over-perfecting an initial fragment, effectively avoiding addressing the sequel and larger project.</p>\n\n<p>Thus, I think that imparting a functional sense of editing and quality control is part of the task of the mentor/advisor/supervisor, although, yes, energy allocated to this takes away from the more literal scientific/intellectual tasks. Advisor's firm repetition of the standards is essentially the only constructive response, I think, since, for example, it seems infeasible to hope that novices can sufficiently critique each other, as they usually share the same inexperience.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3735, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I recently heard a nice angle on this problem. Computer Scientist Olivier Danvy, adapting Buddhist philosophy, stated in a recent presentation that <strong>you need to inhale before you can exhale</strong>. What he meant was that in order for grad students to produce quality work, they need to see, read, ingest and understand quality work. Perhaps you can show them the difference between the high quality work and low quality papers you've also come across. Try to get the student to gauge where his/her work fits in relation to these other papers.</p>\n\n<p>You'll also need to explain that even though poor quality work can actually be published, that this is not a good thing. Not good for science. And not good for building a career.</p>\n\n<p>Many iterations of corrections is important. It takes time. But for every comment that is ignored, you need to find out why it is ignored, and make the student aware that it takes your time and is annoying if you need to make the same comment over and over again. Maybe the student does not understand the comment. Maybe the student is overwhelmed by the vast amount of comments. Maybe that just missed it accidentally. Maybe they just disagree.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4775, "author": "Leon palafox", "author_id": 2806, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2806", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would cite one of the maxims in industry. Your people is only as good as your structure. A good structure designed to give incentives to current students and guidance to new ones can do wonders for any organization.</p>\n\n<p>You can streamline a lot if you have a whole system in place where you have older students mentoring fresh students (one to one basis) and a more structured way of presenting the job. This way the students (and the adviser) won't be running to catch deadlines and will be way more efficient. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3729", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 3731, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Copy the pattern that is used most common in your target journal.</p>\n\n<p>Look through a couple of dozen articles. What's the median word-count in titles? Do a majority have colons, or not?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4737, "author": "Wiliam", "author_id": 481, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/481", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>When I wrote my first paper, I read this book about scientific writing: <a href=\"http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/6529.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\">\"Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words\" by David Lindsay</a>. </p>\n\n<p>The author of the book highlighted that <strong>article title should be as explicit on the content of the article as possible</strong>, as it is the first element any potential reader will read. As today the amount of available articles is growing faster, the skimming step in the article research is becoming more and more important and a good, self-explanatory title is therefore a key element in article \"success\".</p>\n\n<p>As an example, the author strongly discourage the use of non-explicit title such as:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>XXX as an effect on YYY</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>and advice to use something more like:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Increase in XXX induce a decrease in YYY</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>which directly tells the reader what is the article about and the what is its main finding.</p>\n\n<p>In conclusion, do not be afraid of wordy title.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3730", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2826/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4739, "author": "Noble P. Abraham", "author_id": 1580, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1580", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Instead of thinking increasing my own social value (reputation), I think the other way round. The society is supporting me in carrying out the research (in theoretical field), in innumerable dimensions; from the public transport systems to research grants. I think of the ways that I can, at least in part, repay the tax-payers of my nation.</p>\n\n<p>Some of the activities that I do, that I think, will be useful to the society include, </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>helping fellow research scholars in other fields or disciplines in areas where I have expertise. It can vary from a simple installation of a software or help in filling a grant application to active discussion in improving their research or interpreting their results (that helps me too, indirectly).</li>\n<li>popularize the field among school/college students and common people, so that better ignited minds take up the field for their career. </li>\n<li>actively participate in various professional and amateur associations/societies/forums related to my field or where I can make some contributions. </li>\n<li>provide support to enthusiastic people who wish to take up a career in the field or a related field, by helping them in a project or connecting them with a better experienced person. As a researcher, sometimes I have better contacts.</li>\n<li>provide administrative assistance to the needy persons in my institution where I have better exposure/access, like filing an application form or submitting various fees etc.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In short, the various activities that I involve myself in, improves my social value, as far as I have experienced. The more I try to give, the more I get in return.</p>\n\n<p>If you are active in the society and if they feel you are really worth, the society reaches you for help or assistance and they value your suggestions.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4740, "author": "Nicholas", "author_id": 1424, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1424", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Have you considered contributing to political life? I refer not to upholding one political view or another, but rather to ensuring that there is informed scientific input on major issues when they are being debated in political circles. </p>\n\n<p>I do not know in which country you live, but I am aware that there are far too many \"first-world\" countries in which the policy and decision makers are poorly informed at best, willfully ignorant - seemingly - at worst.</p>\n\n<p>One of the best descriptions of a university that I have come across is that it should - must - act as the \"critic and conscience of society\". In my view this would include taking part in ensuring those that lead us are well informed. </p>\n\n<p>One way this could be done is by taking an interest in the advisory process used in how policy is formed in your country. See if you can offer your specialist views via your professional association. </p>\n\n<p>A related activity is to take part in advising courts when they are considering issues based on scientific topics. This would include contributing to amicus curiae briefs, for instance. This goes beyond acting as an expert witness in court. An amicus curiae brief presents a reasoned argument using a balanced analysis of facts, reaching a conclusion. A court expert, in contrast, offers answers on specific questions from the court. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4741, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>On a different note from some of the other answers, try to take to heart that <strong>basic research is directly useful to society</strong>. Almost all modern pharmacology is based on decades of fundamental biochemistry and biology research. Materials science is based on years of basic chemistry and physics research. Basic math research fuels advances in all types of engineering, from signal processing to computational work to structural engineering. There are many other examples for other fields of research; please edit this answer or put them in the comments. </p>\n\n<p>In short, don't underestimate your current value to society.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4742, "author": "Francisco Morales", "author_id": 2775, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2775", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Although communicating science to a broader audience is important, using scientific principles to solve the basic problems of the community may be even more important and rewarding. A <a href=\"http://www.caic.cl/start.html\">chilean innovation center</a> designed and built a water sanitation system. This system has been installed in poor neighborhoods where the access to purified water did not exist. <a href=\"http://vimeo.com/32465233\">Here</a> you can see a video with english subtitles.</p>\n\n<p>Obviously, the extent to which you can undertake a similar initiative depends on your specialties. Even though being a <em>researcher</em> you may be overqualified, a more attainable initiative would be to teach high school teachers or the community. For instance, a <a href=\"http://www.accionemprendedora.cl/\">chilean NGO</a> teach classes for micro-entrepreneurs. The instructors are usually university students that volunteer in the organization. The students are owners of small business (e.g., local grocery). The courses include a wide range of topics, such as concepts related to taxation and some ideas about economics and marketing.</p>\n\n<p>You can have even a greater impact if you distribute contents designed by you on the internet. Similar to what you suggest, you can design an e-learning course and post it on the web.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4778, "author": "Intersection", "author_id": 3841, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3841", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Great question. I agree with the earlier post that basic research is important but one also has to come to an understanding of what level of feedback you need for the impact of your actions. For some, totally unapplied, ethereal math modelling might be their best way to contribute to the world, others need to feel like they are doing something every day that has a direct impact.</p>\n\n<p>I studied complexity theory for my PhD (modelling army ant swarming) and this directly informs my thinking in how I understand the world. But as I finished my degree I felt like I needed my daily work to have a more immediate and direct impact on the world and so I completely switched fields. Now I build gigapixel timelapse cameras for capturing long term environmental change. I chose this because people process information visually and so we should show them environmental change in compelling ways. Army ants and complexity theory are <a href=\"http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/13/science/13traff.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0\" rel=\"nofollow\">cool</a> but I could spend my whole academic career modeling ants and in 30 years there would be no rainforests left for ants to live in. But sometimes even now I feel like I'm tilting at windmills. As an ecologist I think we are at a tipping point in human history because if humans don't transition to sustainability in the next few decades the lives of a lot of the population will be a whole lot worse than they might be otherwise. I often wonder if I should drop everything and become a full time activist... When do things become so dire you drop what you are doing and run to put out the fire instead of making beautiful movies of people who are on fire? But then again you have to go with what you are good at and so on.</p>\n\n<p>Overall though I agree the best thing to do is to educate the public and find ways to make your skills useful to others. At this point, at least in America bringing thoughtful science understanding of any sort to the wider public is an immeasurable and essential contribution given the <a href=\"http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/hold-creationist-view-human-origins.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">sorry state</a> of the American understanding of reality. </p>\n\n<p>But we all should be asking ourselves fairly regularly if there is more we could do. Things don't change until enough people are pushing in the same direction that we can overcome the inertia of existing power structures (I learned that studying complexity theory ;).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4738", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4746, "author": "csgillespie", "author_id": 611, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/611", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you are perfectly honest with all parties involved, then it shouldn't be a problem. Everyone involved knows where they stand. </p>\n\n<p>One small point. In the UK, post-doc positions are funded by grant income. It would be strange if a post-doc had enough \"free time\" for other duties.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4748, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>It depends totally on your status, and what exactly this collaboration entails. You say “working as a staff under one professor”. If you're on a short-term contract (say, post-doc), then it's probably <strong>not okay</strong> to do independent research on something completely different. You were hired on a project and it's unlikely that you have any significant time left for something else. On the other hand, if this new collaboration is related to your project <em>and you involve your professor in it</em>, it is okay (and he will welcome this initiative from which everyone involved benefits).</p>\n\n<p>To the above, there are a few exceptions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>People who just arrived usually have some unfinished business with their previous institution, and they are given a bit more leeway in finishing it: revisions to make to papers on track for publication, conference attendance, etc.</li>\n<li>People who are leaving due to their contract ending have to get involved with other projects to get a new job. They have to go fishing around, and this sometime requires a bit of extra work.</li>\n<li>Finally, if your activity on the side is quite unrelated to your main job, and you manage to do it on your own time without prejudice to your employer, you may do so. Some people write books, some get involved in open source software unrelated to their employment, etc.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>If you're working as an longer-term staff researcher in someone's group, then it is expected that they respect your academic freedom. To a reasonable extent, you are free to engage in new collaborations with other people, and not necessarily involve your group leader.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4762, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In contrast to F'x's opinion, I think collaboration with people outside your group is not just wise, but actually <strong>necessary</strong>, at least if you are working toward an academic career. You <em>must</em> develop both a wide professional network and broad independent research experience. As long as everything is out in the open, with everyone's knowledge and agreement, there is absolutely no ethical conflict.</p>\n\n<p>This does not mean that you should shirk your paid job; any outside projects must be on your own time and must not interfere with your official duties. Similarly, you can't use your supervisor's resources without their explicit advance permission. And your supervisor may be happier if there's some chance of involving them in your outside projects. But ultimately, how you use your own time is your own business. (Any supervisor who tells you otherwise, or insists that you don't <em>have</em> \"your own time\", is simply abusing you. Run.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 18852, "author": "Mark Peletier", "author_id": 13689, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13689", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Let me give an answer from my own viewpoint - that of someone who hires and 'supervises' postdocs on a regular basis (in my field, mathematics).</p>\n\n<p>I consider that a postdoc coming to my group comes for two reasons: (a) to bring new knowledge to our group, and (b) to learn things from our group. Both are good for the postdoc and good for the group - everybody profits from this arrangement. Learning things from our group is best done in close collaboration with the supervisor (me), while contributing to the group often benefits from a much wider scope.</p>\n\n<p>So I tell my postdocs that I expect them to work half of their time on the project they are formally appointed for, and the other half on something of their own choosing - and I suggest that for this part they might also look for other connections within our group or department.</p>\n\n<p>What this means for the OP is (as has already been said): discuss it with your supervisor, and ask yourself the question whether the 'outside' collaboration might also have benefits for your supervisor. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4745", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/453/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4753, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is a great idea, and it does happen. For years, <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner\">Martin Gardner</a> wrote a column in Scientific American called \"Mathematical Games\". He took interesting mathematical ideas and made them accessible to a wide audience. Another example is <a href=\"http://www.stanford.edu/~kdevlin/\">Keith Devlin</a>, who is known as the Math Guy on NPR (National Public Radio) in the U.S. A third example is <a href=\"http://freespace.virgin.net/ianstewart.joat/index.htm\">Ian Stewart</a>. His book <a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0465082327\">\"Letters to a Young Mathematician\"</a> explains a typical mathematical career arc to a general audience in a fun and engaging way. Along the way, he touches on many important mathematical ideas.</p>\n\n<p>So <strong>why don't we see more</strong> of this? The short answer is because <strong>it's really hard</strong> to do well. You have to really understand the math, and you have to be very good at explaining to people who think very differently from the way you've spent the last 15 years or more being trained to think.\nFurthermore, much of the general public doesn't really want to know more about math. Another reason is that this type of writing is typically not well-rewarded at research schools. The culture of research mathematics tends to say that exposition is fine, but it's not really hard, like research. So it shouldn't be rewarded at the same level.</p>\n\n<p>I agree with you, that the world would be better off if more people understood what we (research mathematicians) <em>do</em>. The problem is, I don't know how to make it happen.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4754, "author": "Artem Kaznatcheev", "author_id": 66, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I would recommend blogging. This seems like the standard procedure for explaining your papers both to the lay audience and to other mathematicians (potentially ones that don't work on your specific problem). The blog format is preferable over arXiv or journal publications for reaching the lay audience because it is more accessible. Links to blogs are easier to share and faster to read than journals (which might be behind paywall!) or pdfs from arXiv. A blog setting also allows you to interact with your audience through the comments, this is the best way to help guide them through any confusion.</p>\n\n<p>A blog setting can also be used to provide casual tours through proofs for experts and graduate students. This has recently <a href=\"https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/8869/1037\">started in TCS</a>. Since this is aimed at the slightly technical audience, it is more appropriate to put on the ArXiv, although I would still advocate blogs.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4757, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Would it be considered strange to explain research for non-mathematicians either in a separate abstract in a paper, or also writing a shorter non-math version?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It would come across as strange to include a separate abstract for non-mathematicians in a math research paper, partly because it's unconventional and partly because it might be interpreted as an assertion that this paper was likely to be of unusual interest for the general public. That's not to say it's a bad idea, but I'd recommend that grad students not try it, since you don't want readers to focus on this instead of your research contributions.</p>\n\n<p>Writing a companion piece aimed at a general audience is less likely to attract any negative attention, especially if it's in the form of a blog post (as Artem suggests) rather than a formal paper. If you spend too much time on this, you risk having it look like a distraction from your research, but that's not likely to come up except in fairly extreme cases.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Also, will professors think it is a waste of time?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Some will, but others won't. I'd recommend not focusing just on your own papers: if you advertise other people's work as well to a general audience, they may or may not think it is worthwhile, but they are likely to feel flattered, and it will avoid the risk that this could come across as self-promotion on your part. Once again, you don't want to let this overshadow your scholarly accomplishments, but it can be a nice counterpoint to them.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It would be nice if news from the world of mathematics appeared more often in the news, (local news for smaller achievements, explanations etc).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Certainly. If you are a decent writer, it may not be too difficult to get your local newspaper to publish periodically about math news (this would require going well beyond your own work, of course). That would be a service for the community and an interesting line on your CV.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4809, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You could make Youtube videos as well, e.g. start a video blog. Perhaps not like Khan Academy, which is mainly for instruction, but perhaps just to discuss new and cool ideas.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4750", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2794/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4755, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>In most places I know (Europe mostly, France and UK in particular), a Master's degree is nothing more than a tiny blip on your CV by the time you have a successful PhD (diploma, publication, good recommendations, involved in your community, …). <strong>Your lack of a Master’s degree will not hurt one bit</strong> (but it probably will come up in an interview, so you want to have something decent or funny to say about it). I suspect the same will be true in most places: by the time you are a post-doc, Master's degree is not a good predictor of your future success.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding age, it's a very good question, and should probably be separate. As a post-doc, it shouldn't hurt your chances (I defended my PhD at the same age you are, so I have given it some thought!). For a staff position, things are very different.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4756, "author": "Aaron", "author_id": 1228, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1228", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In the US, nobody would even notice. It is common to enter a PhD program without a masters. A masters degree can be granted along the way to a PhD, but this is not universal, and it is not worth anything if you finish the PhD. In general, people look at your most advanced degree: if you have a good PhD, it would typically not matter if you did not have a Bachelors degree either. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4764, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If the admission was \"in error,\" then you should get some documentation of this fact from your department stating such a fact, just in case anyone asks. </p>\n\n<p>Unlike what <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/4755/53\">F'x says</a>, there could potentially be an issue in some EU countries if you have a PhD degree but don't hold a master's—provided your bachelor's education was also done in an EU country. In Germany, the lack of a master's degree for a PhD holder can raise a red flag. It did in my case, even though all of my schooling was in the US, where it is not at all uncommon to do a bachelor's followed by a PhD without a master's in between.</p>\n\n<p>This may or may not be a problem for you elsewhere, depending upon where exactly you want to be. But it could also be a disqualifying issue (in other words, cause for termination) if you try to hide what happened and it gets uncovered later.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4774, "author": "Leon palafox", "author_id": 2806, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2806", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Just pitching in with my opinion from Japan.</p>\n\n<p>In Japan everything is very structured, and everyone assumes that you either have a masters or spent a very long time in your PhD (if you studied in America).</p>\n\n<p>The average age for a PhD grad is 28 years with a razor thin variance (unless you are a foreigner).</p>\n\n<p>If you apply for a postdoc here you will be getting a lot of questions on why you got a PhD without the masters, since here the requirement to get into a PhD is to have a Masters beforehand. It may not hurt you if you have a good explanation though.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 101374, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I see no need for you to mention the lack of a masters unless asked. </p>\n\n<p>I would definitely <strong>not</strong> say your acceptance into the PhD program was a error by the Department. This makes your university look incompetent, and you, at best, as uncertain and insecure about your accomplishments. You could also be perceived as dishonest by accepting admission if you knew it was a mistake, but I don't know the full details of what actually happened and why you believe this to be true. </p>\n\n<p>You applied, you were accepted, you completed the degree, you are published. Full stop. </p>\n\n<p>You seem to feel compelled to explain something that doesn't matter anymore, if it ever did. If asked, just say you were lucky and got accepted straight out of undergrad. If anything, it makes you look like a wunderkind.</p>\n\n<p>An important caveat: All of the above is predicated on my understanding of the situation through the lens of a person with a PhD from the US.</p>\n\n<p>As others have said, a masters is not always required for acceptance into a PhD program in the US, especially in the hard sciences (I know much less about liberal arts), but one is bestowed on the way to the PhD. So you get your masters after you are in the PhD program.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4752", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2794/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4759, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Masters projects generally do not aim to produce top-quality original research, rather they give masters students an introduction in the art of doing research. So the fact that two people at two different institutes are doing more-or-less the same thing does not matter. It would only become a problem if </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>One student plagiarized the work of the other.</li>\n<li>The two students collude, reducing their workload to produce one thesis that will be submitted twice.</li>\n<li>Both students tried to publish their work – whoever gets in first will receive the credit and the other will possibly not get published.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Even in the last case, it is not unheard of that parallel submissions of the same results by different parties occurs. Sometimes it is worth publishing both, especially if they approach the problem differently. I have heard of one case where the editors asked the two parties to produce a single combined paper.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4761, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Obviously, you should collaborate!</strong></p>\n\n<p>In your thesis itself, you need be careful to distinguish <em>your</em> contributions from your colleague's. But your thesis is a relatively unimportant administrative hurdle. Your short-term goal should be to work together on a common result that is stronger than what either of you could produce alone. Your long-term goal is to develop a network of collaborators. In the long run, that network will be worth <em>far</em> more than \"winning\" the \"race\".</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4782, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>From a practical standpoint, you are a year into your masters, so you are likely close to being done. You need to decide if you need the publication. If you do buckle down, start writing, and find a journal with a fast turn around time. If not, it is no big deal, you can still submit your thesis.</p>\n\n<p>Before moving forward on an academic career, and maybe any other career, I would suggest stepping back and considering your communication and networking strategies. Getting scooped (or even racing to publish) is a communication and networking failure. Basically, you need to understand why you and your advisor did not know this other research was going on.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5284, "author": "akuhn", "author_id": 4076, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4076", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You never did <em>exactly</em> the same work. Never.</p>\n\n<p>The scenario you describe has happened to my Master's thesis as well as to many times later in my career. Typically you just feel as if they have done the same work but at closer inspection find differences in their approach as well as the research questions that they are addressing. The best thing to do in these cases is to revisit the narrative of your paper and emphasize the parts that make it unique. At masters level a good adviser will help you with that. If not, find some mentor elsewhere. Personally I find it helpful to show both pieces of work to a friend as they are much more likely to see these difference that I ever could. All this is actually simple psychology. After a year of working on your solution, everything looks like your solution to you. Which is also known as \"if you have a hammer everything looks like a nail.\" </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4758", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1556/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4765, "author": "TCSGrad", "author_id": 79, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Ideally, research publications give a strong indication of not just how much knowledge a person has acquired, but how much has he been able to <em>contribute</em> to the existing body of knowledge. That, coupled with the fact that there aren't very reliable metrics to gauge a person's knowledge (grades are a very poor metric in that regard IMO), makes it obvious that you would be best served by focusing on churning out as many high-quality papers as you can!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4766, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The main thing that graduate school admissions committees are looking for are good researchers. Publishing papers demonstrates such ability; publishing papers in well-known journals is even better. However, it's difficult, as an undergraduate, to publish papers as first author (which is the most important position when one is applying as a student). Typically, they will be working in consultation with a more experienced student, who will be the lead author. In that case, while the credits are of themselves useful, they need to be <em>coupled</em> to strong letters of recommendation from the co-authors, testifying to the student's original efforts in executing the work.</p>\n\n<p>At the same time, one should not totally sacrifice depth in a single area for breadth; grad schools want to see <em>some</em> evidence of concentration, but complete devotion to one area is also too much of an extreme. Try to balance the two somewhat, so that you've explored <em>a few</em> areas, and worked at least <em>one or two</em> areas in depth. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5024, "author": "Hamed", "author_id": 3943, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3943", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You should try to think just like a professor. Just think that you are allowed to have some students to work under your supervision. So, do you prefer to have a student who is able to conduct research and publish paper or some one who does not know how to do research but have good grades? Graduate school is all about doing research and showing that you are able to do that will surely help you to get accepted by grad schools. They want to know if you are able to cope with such life as a scientist or not. It is possible if you devote yourself to research your grades become low, but it is normal and no one is able to publish great papers and at the same time obtains good grades. All in all, publishing papers surely helps you. A little advice, make a team with your friends and divide the works to be able to make a balance between both sides.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5026, "author": "paul garrett", "author_id": 980, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To add to other answers... thinking of mathematics: It is difficult to somehow-deliberately acquire intellectual maturity. Attempting to \"force it\" or \"fake it\" will produce outcomes worse than doing nothing. A more honest and productive attitude is \"engagement\", which may or may not produce papers. Even a very capable novice should not focus on \"papers\" because this has a corruptive effect on the clarity of one's thinking, and tends to create possibilities to look silly, if not worse. </p>\n\n<p>Awareness of current events, engagement with them, are the most important. No, the GRE Math Subject Test is essentially completely disconnected from this, but does test for a certain facile cleverness and quickness. Grades and standard coursework are relevant only to the extent that they <em>prepare</em> one for more serious, <em>live</em> things. Getting a perfect score on a drivers license exam does not mean much about one's capacity to drive in Formula One races, or NASCAR, either.</p>\n\n<p>As an advisor and mentor to quite a few PhD students over the years, I've found that the worst liability is believing too firmly that one has already \"arrived\". True, it can be debilitating to doubt oneself too much, but that is closer to sense than believing that no one knows anything, so that one's trivial observations represent publishable progress that should \"impress\" people. If anything, one should manage to communicate that one is aware that other people have done many things.</p>\n\n<p>Probably the most essential element in applications is letters of recommendation from experienced research people who know you well, who (hopefully) can attest your <em>potential</em>. Being \"best in a class\" is good, is nice, no downside, but is somewhat tangential to \"research potential\". Writing childish papers as an undergrad does not certify anything at all about one's potential for serious professional work, and one should be careful about misunderstanding this! </p>\n\n<p>Admission to an elite grad program in math (in the U.S.) is difficult without excellent GRE score (=filter), maybe a good Putnam score to show you're clever, undergrad degree from a \"Research I\" school with many graduate courses on one's transcript (since undergrad courses at best don't quite get anyone up to the starting line of awareness or knowledge), and <em>glittering</em> letters from people who are established research people, who've made a contribution themselves. (Otherwise how in the world would they know what they're talking about when they say you have the potential to do serious things?)</p>\n\n<p>Having said all that... I guess an indirect point is that one ought not <em>expect</em> to have any meaningful publications. Sure, one can probably arrange <em>meaningless</em> publications, but, if anything, real mathematicians are not moved by that. (Such things are handy for impressing university-wide panels on this-and-that, but that's a different story.) So far as my (limited, but not exclusively anecdotal) experience indicates, a tiny minority of applicants to the best grad programs in math have any <em>real</em> publications at all.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4763", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4770, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>From what I've seen, the only situation in which you would use a single citation following multiple sentences is if it's obvious that you're quoting that source verbatim AND the quote is uninterrupted. If you're using your own terminology OR the quote is interrupted, you should cite each sentence separately.</p>\n\n<p>This becomes obvious when considering the purpose of a citation. Citations are there to answer the question, \"who said this?\" If you're quoting someone verbatim, and it's obvious you're doing so, then you only need a single citation, as the reader will infer that it applies to the entire preceding quote.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if you have multiple claims throughout a paragraph, after each claim the reader will wonder, \"what's his source for this?\" In most cases, you will be using multiple sources, and you will have a mixture of references. However, even if you have a single source for lots of claims, the reader will still wonder <em>after each claim</em> what the source is. You should tell them the source of each and every claim separately.</p>\n\n<p>The exception I've seen—and that my advisor requested I use in my writing—is in the instance of a single logical thought pattern being followed throughout a paragraph or set of paragraphs. If you're describing someone else's work, it can be justifiable to state, \"the following is an overview of Bob (2007)\", or something to that effect. From my experience, though, that usually only happens in review articles.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4776, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you really have only one reference which you take one paragraph to sum up, I'd really advise eykanal’s last item (the “exception”):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Tying one’s shoelaces with only one hand is notoriously difficult [1]. Although it seemed like an unsurmountable issue a few years back, the recent breakthrough of Smith et al. [2] relied on a few topological considerations which have been clearly delineated by Brown [3], and are summarized in the rest of this paragraph. <em>[Here your description, with claims from Brown, without repeating the reference number]</em></p>\n \n <p>However, little is known about the influence of the number of fingers used [4] in the tying process. Here, we present a research on tying shoelaces with even-fingered hands.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is better than having a lot of claims [3] with the same reference [3] written all over one paragraph [3]. However, <strong>you need to make it crystal-clear what part is covered by the reference</strong>: using the paragraph boundary (and explicitly stating this) is a good way of doing that.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4783, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>While not really an answer, this is often an indication of a lack of understanding. The original question used of language like paraphrasing, another indication of a lack of understanding. You should probably show a draft to a colleague asking for specific help.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4769", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3839/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4777, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>How early should I start writing a paper for a conference?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Well, there are different approaches. Some people think \"there is this conference coming, I need to write something for it\", others think \"I have this nice idea of research, let's see where I could present it\". In the first case, you might need to start <em>very</em> early, since you need to do all the research, while in the second case, you might just need to start early...\nSeriously though, it depends a lot of the content of the paper, the mechanical action of writing it (i.e., typing and formatting the text on a computer) is not what takes long. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it reasonable to write and do experiments at the same time?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Sure. Even if you can't finish your experiments by the deadline, it's very likely you can reuse a good part of what you've already written for another conference. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How many references should you check? one professor told me: check 200 use 30.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You don't check references because you should, but because they are relevant to your research problem. You should cite what you've read and what you think is important with respect to you work. You should cite the approaches that laid the basis for your own approaches, and explain how you build on them, which assumptions you are challenging. You should also cite the approaches that are similar to yours, and explain why yours is better. </p>\n\n<p>There is no magic number: there are excellent papers with only 10 citations, and bad ones with 50 references. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4779, "author": "Bravo", "author_id": 411, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/411", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Generally areas like CS have plenty of good conferences all round the year, so missing a particular deadline is unlikely to hurt you much. But in case you are targeting a specific conference whose deadline is say, September 1st, then you need to have solid results which you think might fit in well as a paper at least a month before.</p>\n\n<p>It could take several rounds of copy-editing before a draft can become a neat paper. By experiments, I guess you mean simulations that validate the results in your paper. You could plan to use one section of your paper to present all your simulation results.</p>\n\n<p>The task essentially involves planning your presentation, loads of typing and copy-editing and some coding for simulations. Earlier is better, and all these procedures could be totally different for a different field.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4808, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I can't directly comment on computer science, but for chemical engineering, I had to write a conference paper for AICHE. Writing a paper can benefit somewhat from a \"forward-backward\" approach. Start perhaps with your data, writing out the data section fully, explaining everything. Then move to the introduction, motivating your research, and explaining why your results are new. The conclusion really just summarizes the basic result of your work. Then, the abstract condense the whole paper down - write that last.</p>\n\n<p>It takes practice, but its not too bad once you get the hang of it.</p>\n\n<p>Several rounds of editing are strongly recommended. When you have a first draft ready, let the paper sit for two or three days. Then, print it out double-spaced with wide margins, and read your paper. Look for ways to cut words - e.g. say the same thing with less. Can you understand what you have written? Make changes until you converge upon a tight package.</p>\n\n<p>For reference, get a copy of How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper by Robert A. Day.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4772", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2806/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4848, "author": "histelheim", "author_id": 1465, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1465", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I would say that the classic in experimental social science methodology is <a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0395615569\" rel=\"nofollow\">Shadish &amp; Cook's \"Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference\"</a>.</p>\n\n<p>It covers various forms of experimental research design and also go into considerable detail in explaining the logic and practical steps of each.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4851, "author": "DavideChicco.it", "author_id": 379, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/379", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The best book about experimental studies you can read is surely <strong><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidereus_Nuncius\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>Sidereus Nuncius</em></a></strong> by <strong><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei\" rel=\"nofollow\">Galileo Galilei</a></strong>, the father of modern science.</p>\n\n<p>That book was published first in 1610, but it's still very current. It explains to you how Galileo Galilei built his technologies (the telescope) and how he run up his experiments to discover new stars and planets.</p>\n\n<p>Definetely, a <strong>must-read</strong> book for every scientist.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4784", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4786, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>In the acknowledgements sections, the authors could write:\n\"The authors would like to thank F'x for providing us with Figure X\".</p>\n\n<p>Alternatively, in the caption of the figure they could write \"Figure courtesy of F'x.\"</p>\n\n<p>Both are acceptable, as long as you are happy. I don't think they are obliged to thank you in the paper at all. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4788, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Many graduate textbooks contain a list of references, either at the end of each chapter or at the end of a book broken down by chapter. I would imagine the citation would be there.</p>\n\n<p>To the best of my (admittedly terrible) memory, I have never seen a textbook include an inline reference for a specific publication.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4785", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4789, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>For figures from your own papers, it would depend on the copyright transfer agreement you (or the corresponding author) signed upon publication. However, <strong>all copyright agreements I know explicitly authorize reuse of content for academic theses</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>As an example: the American Chemical Society, which does not leave the authors too many rights, <a href=\"http://pubs.acs.org/paragonplus/copyright/jpa_form_a.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer\">includes this wording</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Authors may reuse all or part of the Submitted, Accepted or Published Work in a thesis or dissertation that the Author writes and is required to submit to satisfy the criteria of degree-granting institutions. Such reuse is permitted subject to the ACS’ “Ethical Guidelines to Publication of Chemical Research\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>For figures from others’ papers, a thesis is not very different from any other publication (see the related <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/3700/2700\">question about blogging</a>). Unless your institution has a specific agreement with publishers (as MIT seems to have), you have to either:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>ask for permission; these days, it's all done online and once you have located the appropriate form for a publisher, you can make your requests and get all the answers the next day</li>\n<li>rely on <strong>fair use</strong> in the US, or similar law in other countries; around me, most people actually do that, either knowingly or just out of ignorance :)</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 15036, "author": "L Platts", "author_id": 9117, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9117", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Copyright laws vary by country, so this answer may be UK specific. </p>\n\n<p>To be safe rather than sorry, it probably is a good idea to copyright clear third party works, especially if your dissertation will eventually be uploaded to an online depository, which is becoming more common. <a href=\"http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/library/subjectsandsupport/spiral/etheses/clearingcopyright\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Imperial College London</a>, as an example, specify that proof of permission to include third party works needs to be included in the electronic copy of the thesis and this may be a policy at other universities too. In addition, the source needs to be carefully referenced in a note to the figure. Not doing this can cause unwanted delays in depositing the thesis in the archive.</p>\n\n<p>In my case, I found it rapid and free to include single figures from published journal articles in the thesis. Just as <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/fx\">F'x</a> says, requesting permissions can be done in a day, although it's probably best not to leave it to the last minute. I was sent through to Copyright Clearance Center's Rightslink from the published journal articles each time I requested permission and the process was straightforward.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 45242, "author": "Shashank Sawant", "author_id": 906, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/906", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I created an account on <a href=\"https://www.copyright.com/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">copyright.com</a> and using the same I was able to get permissions for more than half of the figures for which I needed to do so. This way is particularly useful for students in the United States as there's now one place where most of the requesting and granting can take place. The experience is like shopping from an online website (they literally have a shopping cart) and in general the process was more convenient than I had thought what it would be.</p>\n\n<p>For a subset of the remaining papers, where the publisher was the copyright holder, I emailed the publisher and I was able to get a response in less than a couple of working days. This was true for a few papers from Europe and the UK. For the papers where the holder was the author, I emailed the author. For all figures for which I didn't get a reply or I got a reply which quoted a significant cost for reusing the figures, I simply removed the figures from my literature review.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4787", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/906/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4792, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<ol>\n<li><p>Well, search for publications of a John Smith (no middle name), or a Lee Wang, or any common name, and you'll have a hard time identifying them because of the many homonyms… Publishers and database owners are trying hard to help users, by trying to guess who is who (Web of Science calls this “Unique author set”), but their algorithms don't do very well.</p>\n\n<p>As an example, I have a colleague who has a paper completely outside her main field. None of these algorithms pick it up.</p>\n\n<p>Thus, because a researcher’s name is not unique, many people argue that there is need of a unique ID scheme. (Others disagree: “I’m not a number!”). As a researcher, the benefits are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>easier for others to identify your articles in databases</li>\n<li>easier to keep track of your citations, especially for items other than conventional journal articles</li>\n<li>possibilities for cool web hyperlinks, like DOI has brought</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>The Orcid registry was <a href=\"http://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/2012/10/16/UK201210163120\">launched yesterday</a>, so noöne uses it so far…</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>My own concern about it is that I don't know in detail on the ORCID consortium will use the data they will be able to mine. In particular, this worries me:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I consent to the privacy policy and terms and conditions of use, including <strong>allowing those who access the database to make commercial uses of the public data</strong>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4796, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are several purposes for proper and trustworthy tracking of individual's publications. Whether we as researchers like it or not, we are gradually more and more evaluated on the basis of our publications output. That is, our grant applications/proposals and other means of funds acquisition are rated, at least partly, against our publications track and a future projection thereof. If you want to convince the hiring, or grant committees and other fund holders, you show your list of publications. The more trustworthy, the better. Hence a reason for a centralized trustworthy publication tracking service. Also, people change names (e.g., by marriage), affiliations, sometimes fields. Proper attribution by automatic algorithms, such as those at work at WoS, Scopus, Google Scholar, or Microsoft Academic Search is therefore unreliable. Having a real-world and trusted tag which I could use e.g., on my papers to identify myself among the hundreds of John Smiths is useful.</p>\n\n<p>Therefore:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>1) What are the interest of using an unique digital identifier as a researcher?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>trustworthy disambiguation</strong></li>\n<li><strong>central trustworthy register</strong></li>\n<li><strong>semi-automatic tracking of publications, which however should be customisable by the ID owner to fix all the mistakes/misattributions</strong></li>\n<li><strong>citation attribution</strong> - often e.g., WoS, attributes citations mistakenly to wrong people, because people make mistakes in references/bibliographies, etc. A central register can help with that.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>2) Is it commonly used in the scientific community (by publishers, databases, commitees)?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If your name is unique, it's easy for the committees to check your track by simply googling you, then these guys don't care much. If you are John Smith of this world, than they are not able to do that and would ask you to prove your track record. And that can be painstaking. Even with just few dozen papers published, I myself am not able to get my WoS record correct. So to set the answer straight: <em>currently, not many people use it for other than personal purposes, but many (including myself) hope, ORCID will succeed and the academic community will start to use the scheme and life will get a little bit easier.</em></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5380, "author": "bobthejoe", "author_id": 319, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/319", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The biology equivalent is eRa commons. As that system is strongly linked with NIH funding, it provides a robust system to tie a paper with a particular author that is independent of the author's name and the multiple versions that may be associated with the author.</p>\n\n<p>Where it falls short is that eRa commons isn't associated with anything outside of pubmed and NIH.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4791", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/481/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4795, "author": "gerrit", "author_id": 1033, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Some things I can think of (I'm a PhD student in my final year):</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>An advisor may be famous in their field, which in turn affects your abilities to make academic contacts.</li>\n<li>An advisor may be known to be good at advising, to prioritise advising PhD students, make time when needed, etc. Having PhD students is good for an advisor, not least because PhD students produce papers.</li>\n<li>An advisor may be a pleasant person to work with.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>It may be hard to find someone meeting all three. I know of cases where (1) is met, but where the advisor is so busy that they hardly have time for their PhD student(s) (<em>now I need to write a proposal, please come back in three months</em>) so that other seniors in the same group do most of the supervision in practice. </p>\n\n<p>There are probably other factors that I'm not thinking of right now.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4797, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Many don't speak about this too often, but with an advisor you are not only choosing a field of interest, but you are choosing a <em>mentor</em>. By all means, you want to \"tick well\" with him/her. There is not much good for a PhD student having a star researcher advisor whom they see once in a quarter and who is a sociopath on a personal level (this is a bit too extreme, but think about it as a continuum between extremes). Choose somebody with whom you will be able to work, whose example it is worth to follow, from whom you want to learn, not only the scientific stuff, but also workstyle, level of quality he/she strives for, etc. These soft reasons are often more important than anything else. For highlighting of all the examples of stuff you don't want to fall into (but will anyway :-) ), go and look at the <a href=\"http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php\">PhD Comics</a>.</p>\n\n<p>P.S.\nI am speaking with a European-centric attitude, where you choose your advisor, since he/she will be your boss, rather than being assigned to one as it seems to happen in the US system. Still, the point is worth to consider. Germans have a good term for this, your PhD supervisor is your \"Doktorvater\", i.e., \"doctor father\". That very much speaks how the relationship should end up in an ideal case.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4810, "author": "user2643", "author_id": 3847, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3847", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Pick someone who is good at what you want to be good at. If you want to go into academia, look for someone who has published regularly, recently, and in quality journals. If you lean toward working in industry, find someone who has connections with industry. If you want to become a teacher, find someone who teaches regularly and has good reviews.</p>\n\n<p>Having said that, I think they are just wanting to make sure you are a good fit for their department. They don't want to accept someone into their program if they're not interested in the type of research that is being done there.</p>\n\n<p>Having said that, you can usually change advisors during the first year. So you probably shouldn't sweat this too much.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4819, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My guess is that this is not a binding selection, especially since you say you're asked to list <em>at least one,</em> rather than just one. This strikes me as being a \"have you done your homework about our department\" question. </p>\n\n<p>That said, picking an advisor involves making sure that they are a fit both with respect to your research interests, but also your working style. That also means talking to their research groups: are they the kind of people you can see yourself fitting in with for the next few years? Do you see yourself \"meshing\" well with your advisor? </p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, those are issues you can only determine after you've been admitted. But making sure you've identified a few people that you can work with will make sure that: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>You're not setting yourself up for disappointment, because you want to work for popular professor X, who can only take two of the ten people who want to work with her, but nobody else. </li>\n<li>The department can try to match applicant interests with available projects—in part, again to avoid everybody trying to go into the same subfield, and so that the distribution reflects the distribution of available projects.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4835, "author": "Fuhrmanator", "author_id": 3859, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3859", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>None of the answers addressed the funding dimension of an adviser, so I'll add it here. My PhD adviser was well funded, which allowed me to:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Incur no student-loan or other debt during the 5 years of my PhD (I went from bachelors to PhD, by the way).</li>\n<li>Travel easily when I published papers at conferences.</li>\n<li>Understand how research proposals are written, as the professor worked on a lot of them and we were involved in that process. Useful for when you'll have to write proposals IF you become a professor.</li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4793", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1001/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4800, "author": "Pieter Naaijkens", "author_id": 22, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my field (mathematical physics), it is certainly true that most research is published in English, although there certainly is a non-trivial amount published in French, for example. Although being able to read French might not be required in many institutions, it still is very useful. I expect that for the other sciences the picture is similar (for the humanities on the other hand, I expect it may be very different).</p>\n\n<p>Another issue however that becomes more important when looking for tenure(d) (track) positions are the teaching requirements. In many countries almost all teaching is done in the native language, at least at the undergraduate level. So it is important that you will be able to teach in this language, or at least be willing to learn the language in the near future.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4802, "author": "Leon palafox", "author_id": 2806, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2806", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm going to cherry pick a bit.</p>\n\n<p>In the area of robotics, the Japanese have one of the best journals and conferences (their journals were about 10%-20% acceptance rate about 3 years ago).\nYet, many of those journals are written in Japanese. Here in Japan, students in robotics do not need to present their work at international conferences or journals, since they consider theirs good enough. </p>\n\n<p>Many of the best robotics work in things like ICRA and IROS (from the Japanese) was presented in some form about 1-2 years ago.</p>\n\n<p>That said, I do not think knowing Japanese is necessary for a successful tenure in robotics, but it certainly can help to have some competitive advantage.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4805, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I do research in chemical engineering. The journals one submits to depend on field. For the most part, work related to systems, simulation, optimization, etc., are published in English. I am pretty sure its that same way with health/biomedical/medicine type research, since a lot of that is funded by NSF and/or NIH.</p>\n\n<p>The only foreign journal I've heard of anyone submitting to was <em>Angewandte Chemie</em> (I think that's German for Applied Chemistry). But, I do not think they submitted in German. Those people did research in the field of self-assembly and nano-scale systems.</p>\n\n<p>I am pretty sure English is fine for publishing — but hey, a second language is always helpful to know, if you've got the time and commitment it takes to get fluent.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4814, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Are there some fields where speaking a language other than English is necessary to perform research at an international level?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It depends on what you mean by \"speaking\" and \"necessary\". In mathematics, there is no need to speak any language but English and the language of the country you are working in, but there's a real benefit to being able to read other languages. It's not strictly necessary, and its importance varies between fields. In my case, I don't use other languages on a daily or even weekly basis, but probably read French on a monthly basis and German a little less frequently.</p>\n\n<p>In my view, the reason for language exams isn't that these languages are required to be a researcher, but rather that they are helpful. The best argument I've heard for requiring language exams is as follows. Learning how to read mathematics in French or German is not very difficult, but it's still a burden if you just want to read one paper. Usually you can get around it by finding another exposition, finding someone to explain the paper to you, or just deciding the paper is not relevant enough to bother with. However, even though this is a rational solution to a one-time dilemma, it's a bad idea if you are going to be faced with these dilemmas repeatedly. At that point, you'll gain a lot in flexibility and convenience if you can read the papers you want to read. The purpose of language exams is to keep people from repeatedly making short-sighted choices.</p>\n\n<p>I'd guess that language skills are more important in mathematics than in most scientific fields, because the mathematics literature has an enormously longer half-life. In my work, I frequently use and refer to papers that are 50 years old, and sometimes quite a bit more. These results have not always made it into textbooks, and even when they have the original papers sometimes contain valuable insights.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4867, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Let's exclude fields related to literature and linguistics.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I would say that in most Academic Departments you can find a research topics that can be done exclusively in English, but that in many departments you could also find topics that cannot be done exclusively with English. Even with Computer Science (e.g., speech recognition in a non-English language) and Biology (genetic mutation common in a foreign country where you need to collect samples) there are projects where a foreign languages is required. I would venture to say there are more departments where a foreign language could be critical than ones where it couldn't. I am hard pressed to think of a Chemistry or Pyshics research question that would require a foreign language.</p>\n\n<p>Choosing the <a href=\"http://www.upenn.edu/programs/academics-degrees-and-programs.php?level=&amp;schoolID=artsci\" rel=\"noreferrer\">College of Arts and Sciences at UPenn</a> as a random sample of research fields the following broad categories become apparent. There are language studies (e.g., French, Spanish, German), which to me do not fall into the literature category, where there is an obvious need for a foreign language. There are cultural studies (e.g., Asian Studies and Latin American Studies, but also things like Anthropology, Archeology, Art History) where you are likely required to live in a non-English speaking country for at least a while. I would expect language studies and cultural studies to have language requirements. Then there are research areas in which you may be studying a non-English speaking culture (e.g., Criminology, Economics, Environmental Studies), for which languages are essential for some individuals, but unlikely to be required for all. There are also art topics (e.g., Fine Arts, Cinema studies, Music) where your research topics may not be in English and foreign language skills may be required. There are \"old\" topics (e.g., History, Classics, and Folklore) where sources are unlikely to be in English so programs often have language exams.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 28660, "author": "Patric Hartmann", "author_id": 20449, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20449", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Let's approach this question from another direction: When is it ever a disadvantage to know more languages?</p>\n\n<p>Every translation is already an interpretation and beyond mathematics I don't see any field where interpretation would not matter. In other words: You are always closer to the original meaning when reading a paper in its original language than when reading a translation of it.</p>\n\n<p>I'm in philosophy and theology right now and it is for either a must to know English, German, French, Italian, Latin and Ancient Greek. The works of Plato, Nietzsche, Luther, Macchiavelli, Sueton, etc. are simply not the same anymore once you translate them.</p>\n\n<p>As an academic you should never wonder why you should put any effort into learning something new - learning new things is your daily job! That's what you chose to do. Therefore the need to learn a new language should be seen as a chance. Expand your horizon!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 85431, "author": "Ilmari Karonen", "author_id": 496, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/496", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It depends on the field.</p>\n\n<p>My ongoing PhD work is in applied mathematics, where English is pretty much all you need. Sure, knowing some Russian, French and German can be useful, if you want to read various older seminal papers in their original form, but the actual results from those papers have usually been widely reproduced (often in a more modern and readable form) in textbooks written in English. For more modern research in my field, English is pretty much the universal choice of language, perhaps the only halfway significant contender being Chinese.</p>\n\n<p>(In pure mathematics, the situation is somewhat different, partly due to the \"longer half-life\" of pure math papers noted by Anonymous Mathematician in their answer. Indeed, typically the non-English papers one occasionally encounters in applied math tend to be on the theoretical side.)</p>\n\n<p>I'm also an amateur cryptographer, and within that field the dominance of English in academic writing is even more complete. This is partly due to historical reasons: the modern academic study of cryptography, as opposed to clandestine military research and occasional hobbyist dabbling, is a relatively new field, and emerged from applied mathematics and computer science at a time when especially the latter field was strongly dominated by the U.S. and other English-speaking countries. Basically, within crypto, the <em>only</em> thing you may need languages other than English for is historical (meta)research.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, in the last few years I've also dabbled in the humanities, specifically in assyriology. Within that field, at least rudimentary knowledge of French and German is all but essential (some of the central reference works and dictionaries are written in those languages), and Latin isn't completely useless either. And of course, you also need to learn the ancient languages that you're studying (for me, that's Akkadian, some Sumerian and a bit of Hittite so far), and familiarity with their neighbors and (ancient or modern) relatives can be pretty useful, too.</p>\n\n<p>So, yes, that's at least one field where knowing only English would be a significant impediment. I'm not saying it would completely <em>prevent</em> you from studying the field, but it does deprive you of access to some fairly useful sources and references. And besides, the general attitude in assyriology seems to be that a researcher <em>should</em> be polyglot as a matter of course. For example, the <em>Reallexikon der Assyriologie</em> (an important encyclopedia of the field) happily mixes together entries written in German, English and French, depending on each contributor's preferred language, and expects the reader to be able to make sense of any of them.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4798", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4801, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I must say that I would have a hard time listing the pros of the first approach (separate <em>results</em> and <em>discussion</em> sections), because I don't like it and it doesn't fit my style of writing. My advice would be: if you can, <strong>write in the style that you like best, because that's how your writing will be most natural/readable/convincing</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>However, the choice is not Manichaean as you make it sound. There exist a continuum between those two, because it mainly depends on what you call “results” and “discussion”. When I write for a journal that requires a strict “results then discussion” format, what I usually do is that I put most of my text in the <em>results</em> part, and leave some general overall discussion for the <em>discussion</em> part. Typically, it would given something like:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>Results</strong></p>\n \n <ul>\n <li>First result. Discuss its implications.</li>\n <li>Second result. How it confirms result #1. Consistent with previous observations [ref].</li>\n <li>Third result. Again, some discussion of it.</li>\n </ul>\n \n <p><strong>Discussion</strong></p>\n \n <p>Altogether, what is the insight given by these results. It changes our view of this phenomenon somewhat. It is in line with work by X et al., but highlights some contradictions of Y’s model.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That's a bit “cheating”, but I've never been asked to reörganize any paper written in that way.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4803, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My post doc advisor has submitted a number of papers with the \"Discussion\" section renamed \"Speculation\". While the editor/reviewers have always required the section be renamed \"Discussion\", her approach rubbed off on me. By treating the Discussion section as if everything is speculation, it becomes clear what goes into the Discussion and what goes inot the results.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4799", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2806/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4813, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think the first thing you need to ask is do you want a raise. While it may seem obvious that more money is better, I would argue that this is not the case since the raise comes with other \"costs\". In the simplest case, would you rather a raise of x, or an increased startup package of 10x? While not directly linked, your total \"cost\" (including space) is a factor.</p>\n\n<p>There are two problems with seeking a raise. First, they are hard to justify. Universities want you to do good research. The effect of a raise on research output is hard to see, while the effect of an extra RA for a year is easy to see. Further, a small increase in salary now projects to large future costs for the university. The university will keep that number in their head during negotiation. A raise means you might top out on the pay scale earlier, so your pay may stagnate (meaning the university over estimated the cost of the initial raise). This means that overall the raise is not good value for money.</p>\n\n<p>You might argue that a raise is the only way increase the money in your pocket. In the short run this is true, but in the long run, better research might lead to more money.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4816, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To a first approximation, you have two ways of negotiating for a higher salary, namely fairness and leverage from other offers.</p>\n\n<p>If your offer is not in line with what other people have received under similar circumstances at the same institution, then you can ask them to address this. If you make a convincing case, they may improve the offer, either out of a desire to do the right thing or out of fear of embarrassment if the details became known (for example, if it suggests discrimination). However, it's rare for there to be enough information to make an objective case for unfairness. Unless the offer is really outrageous, you aren't likely to have much success with this sort of argument: probably, the administration will just explain why they think it's fair.</p>\n\n<p>By far the most successful way to negotiate is based on other offers. This gives you concrete proof that another university values you more than this one seems to, and you can make a credible threat of going there instead. You can't necessarily expect to get other offers matched exactly, since the comparison always involves a complicated mix of benefits, cost of living analysis, departmental quality, etc. However, it at least gives you a powerful way to start the conversation, and you'll have a lot of leverage if you might plausibly accept the other offer instead.</p>\n\n<p>Incidentally, the worst mistake naive job candidates make is to accept a job offer and then try to negotiate. During the period when you have offers but haven't accepted yet, you are in a better negotiating position than you ever will be later. As soon as you accept, almost all your power disappears.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4817, "author": "Pieter Naaijkens", "author_id": 22, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In some cases (for example in Germany), most academic positions are paid according to collectively negotiated labour agreements. The universities have little room to deviate from this (at the professor level things are different, though). The wages are paid according to scales corresponding to different \"function levels\", and each scale consists of a certain number of steps. The number of steps you get for free is based on your previous experience. It might be possible to negiotate an extra step, but this is usually difficult. In principle you can be placed in a higher scale, but this depends on the specific tasks you will be responsible for. For example, a postdoc leading his/her own group can be in a higher scale than a postdoc without such responsibilities.</p>\n\n<p>In short, negotiating salary may be difficult in such a system, since the universities are bound to the collective labour agreements. In the Netherlands the situation is similar.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4818, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>It's important to remember that you're negotiating a package, not a salary. In other words, there is a set of things you're negotiating for, and you can play games in that space to get most of what you need. Limiting yourself to salary negotiation is tricky because salaries are often the most constrained part of the package (especially in public universities in the US), and the one the chair/dean has the least power to change. </p>\n\n<p>So remember that your success at the job depends on your ability to recruit students, procure resources and bootstrap your research program. Which means you need startup money to pay students, lab space and equipment money as needed, teaching relief if that helps you focus on research, and so on. Throw these all into the mix when you negotiate, so that if you give up something along one dimension, you can try to parlay that into a gain along a different dimension. </p>\n\n<p>Also understand who you're really negotiating with, and what powers they really have to offer you things. This can be found out by talking with your supporters at the department (you must have some, otherwise you wouldn't have an offer) and also folks at other institutions. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4807", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4821, "author": "mert", "author_id": 399, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/399", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Anytime I get a chance, I try to use the productivity applications. These may be associated with time management or structuring ideas etc. I found out that there is no best way to do this. Every application has some heuristics behind, and these are mostly decided by the developers. Sometimes an app may seem to solve your problem, but later you may realize that it is not what you want or need. In my opinion, <strong>you need to come up with your own way to do it</strong>. However, let me list some ways/advices I encounter:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Open a google document. Write down your ideas as a list. If you need\nto structure them, nest the list items. Go over the document\nperiodically.</li>\n<li>Take a look at <a href=\"http://www.6wunderkinder.com/wunderlist\">wunderlist</a>. They have done a good\njob task/note management. <a href=\"http://www.6wunderkinder.com/wunderlist\">wunderlist 2</a> has just released with new features.</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://trello.com\">Trello</a> is another example. It may seem\nto be an project management tool, but you can use for managing your\nideas on a whiteboard-style.</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://springpad.com\">Springpad</a> is another way to save/organize things online.</li>\n<li>Your example <a href=\"http://evernote.com\">Evernote</a>, and others like <a href=\"https://do.com\">do.com</a>,\n<a href=\"http://todoist.com\">todoist</a> can be listed also. If you really need to find the\nright application you need to search hard. Take a look at <a href=\"http://alternativeto.net/software/evernote/\">here</a> as well.</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.mindmup.com/\">Mindmup</a> is a online mind mapping tool.</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.hiroapp.com\">Hiro</a> is another newly released tool. Try it <a href=\"https://alpha.hiroapp.com\">here</a>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>For me, the best way is to keep a small notebook and write down what I have done in terms of research day by day. I also note the ideas for my thesis. After some point, when you go back and check your progress, you would be amazed how much things changed and become more mature. But the most important thing is that I realized what is best for me is to grep a pen and write down it on a paper rather than some website.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4822, "author": "Hauser", "author_id": 213, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/213", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://www.aibase-cs.com/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><em>Aibase</em></a> has the option to put formulas, mind-maps, bullet points lists, diagrams, sketches, to-do list in ONE document, basically a hybrid software (Evernote + MindMapping) for creative project managment. Best software I ever bought for knowledge and project management</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/JZmcd.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>I explained the software <a href=\"https://productivity.stackexchange.com/a/1600/560\">here</a> more in detail</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5899, "author": "Kodiologist", "author_id": 4412, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4412", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>May I recommend Org mode? It's free software, and it was created by Carsten Dominik, an academic himself. Its focus is to help you maintain hierarchical notes and to-do lists, but it has <a href=\"http://orgmode.org/features.html\">a lot of other features</a> that are useful for juggling large amounts of information, such as tags, links, many kinds of summary reports, and capture (a way to quickly add a note in the right place before you forget it), as well as many features useful for scientists in particular, like tables, spreadsheets, mathematical notation, export (as papers, slideshows, or websites), and <a href=\"http://www.jstatsoft.org/v46/i03\">support for source code and reproducible research</a>. Perhaps best of all, Org documents are text files, so you can munge them with standard Unix tools at whim. I've moved more and more of my workflow to Org since I started using it in 2010, and I regret nothing.</p>\n\n<p>Org has a steep learning curve, which gets steeper if you aren't already a disciple of the Church of Emacs. But as I see it, getting used to Emacs is worth it even without Org mode, especially if you do a lot of programming. I was an Emacs zealot for years before I took up Org.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5927, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<h2>Whiteboards &amp; (electronic) notebooks.</h2>\n\n<p>My notes start in one of two places:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>On a whiteboard</li>\n<li>Being jotted down to my to-do list to be thought of more in depth later, usually because I'm away from work. These will then later be thought through on the whiteboard.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The primary benefit of the whiteboard is the freeform mapping. There are many mind-mapping software packages out there; I don't think any are as good as an actual whiteboard. On a physical board, you can write easily, sketch ideas, connect concepts, erase stupid stuff, and leave it there while you type easily. You can do this with a program, but you need to use a mouse and keyboard, which I find overly constrictive.</p>\n\n<p>I typically sketch the idea out there, and then just write it down either to paper or to an electronic notes program. I use <a href=\"http://simplenoteapp.com/\">Simplenotes</a>, but there are many very similar programs... <a href=\"http://evernote.com/\">Evernote</a> is very popular. Unless you're very savvy with the command line, I recommend against just using text files, as there's a huge benefit to having the features that come with these programs: quick searching, tagging, and attachments.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 11893, "author": "silvado", "author_id": 3890, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I like to use <a href=\"http://www.devontechnologies.com/products/devonthink/overview.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">DevonThink</a> for managing developing research projects. It's a Mac-based software which offers a data and knowledge management system. The relevant steps in my workflow for refining research ideas to concepts and then projects are as follows:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Collect literature on a relevant topic and put it into a dedicated DevonThink group.</li>\n<li>When I see important points for the project in a particular paper, I create an annotation text document in the same group to write down these points.</li>\n<li>I import email related to the project (for example discussions with colleagues) into the database, so that I can link to them when making use of ideas obtained from there.</li>\n<li>When starting to synthesize ideas, I do it in a text document where I can insert links to or even image snapshots from the source documents in the DevonThink database.</li>\n<li>When working on a project, I create journal files in the DevonThink database, writing down what I did, what results I got, and maybe pasting screenshots or relevant result diagrams into the journal file.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 48472, "author": "alex", "author_id": 36931, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36931", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://www.onenote.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Microsoft OneNote</a> was a great research helper for me for a long time, as it can save snippets of the pages with the link to the original site. But, after capturing several hundred notes, I could no longer find the needed one in a reasonable time.</p>\n\n<p>Some people start structuring their bookmarks into a deep tree of categories, but I was too lazy for that, so I found this <a href=\"http://flamory.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">Flamory tool.</a> It does not offer any categorization at all, but instead it groups the snippets into topics automatically. </p>\n\n<p>I usually find recent bookmarks by looking through small screenshots that it shows, and for older one's I use the search. It can find words in the whole page or PDF that I bookmarked, not just the title. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 48499, "author": "Moritz", "author_id": 22893, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22893", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my opinion these tools do restrict you too much. I prefer plain sheets of paper (A0 or bigger) pinned on the wall. Post-Its are wounderful for organising and structuring ideas. Probably parts of the books (there are many more) \"Presentation Zen\" and \"Businessmodel, you\" helped me with developing my own way of doing it.</p>\n\n<p>Essentially, I do write every idea on a Post-It and put them unordered onto a white paper (e.g 2 m long 1 m high). Afterwards I start to order them. This is an iterative process and I do it at least three times. These Post-Its serve as heading for my thoughts. I do write them underneath with edding.</p>\n\n<p>These posters stay at my wall as long as I need them and slowly, over time I add or reorder something. Highly recommended. Furthermore it helps, to walk around, move your arms, go back and forth etc.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4820", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1512/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4826, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A gift to show your gratitude will always be appreciated. People like to know that their efforts in hosting you are not taken for granted, and the token will strengthen the relationship.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4827, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I'll tackle the easiest side of the question first: <strong>bringing nothing should not create trouble</strong>. If you are clearly expressing your thanks for the invitation, both in written before you arrive, and in person when you meet the guy, noöne should take offense.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, <strong>bringing a gift is fine too</strong>, but:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>It should be tasteful and suitable for any taste: no <em>sake</em>, no unusual (by US standards) food… unless you know him well enough.</li>\n<li>It should not be terribly expensive: people like the attention, but they don't actually care so much about the gift itself. Keep it simple, that way it cannot be understood as a bribe.</li>\n<li>Not academia-related, but still useful to remember: make sure it passes customs (I had my French gift confiscated from me once).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I usually bring stuff to colleagues who host me when I travel to other places, if only because it gives a starting topic for smalltalk (something which I'm not very good at) in a future occasion.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4828, "author": "Ana", "author_id": 322, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/322", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It is all right to give a small gift as a token of your appreciation, but in my experience, it's customary to give it at the <strong>end</strong> of your internship. If I understand your question correctly, you are asking about giving something at the beginning. I think that might be a bit unusual. Normally, these gifts show that you appreciate the time that someone spent working with you.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4829, "author": "Christian Elsner", "author_id": 3855, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3855", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I have seen people bring local sweets, everyone likes sweets, they are cheap, so you stay away from the \"bribe\" thing and they can easily be shared if there are more people around. They also provide some kind of smalltalk topic.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4832, "author": "John B", "author_id": 3857, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3857", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Depending on state law the professor can accept it. I think that usually the threshold is somewhere around the $100 mark. I know that in Illinois if we accept a gift that is worth more than 100 dollars we have the following 3 options:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Respectfully refuse the gift</li>\n<li>Accept the gift and donate it to a charitable organization</li>\n<li>Accept the gift and then make a charitable donation equal to the value of the gift</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I do agree with the other responses that it should be given at the end of the visit. The gift is a \"thank you for your time and help gesture\" and is a more appropriate form of saying goodbye.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4847, "author": "JOpuckman", "author_id": 3865, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3865", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Like others said, a small gift to show your appreciation would be completely acceptable. If you have trouble deciding on what to get, try giving something that your area of Japan is known for (as long as it is in good taste). It would add a nice personal touch.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4825", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2806/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4833, "author": "Fuhrmanator", "author_id": 3859, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3859", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Here are the obvious things:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Pro: the work in another group will build contacts, possibly improving your opportunities for future academic positions (PhD, postdoc, assistant professor position). </li>\n<li>Pro: funding opportunities, if you're in need of extra money.</li>\n<li>Con: the work done in another group will take up time and energy, and if not related to your current work, won't advance your research (experimenting, publishing, etc.). That should probably be your priority (this is related to the comment on the question about it being strange to get 12-week breaks...)</li>\n<li>Con: if you don't coordinate it with your supervisor, this could affect the trust in the relationship (depending on the style of the supervisor).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If you wish to pursue an academic career, in some universities respectable journal articles published are worth more than contacts when competing for a job. So don't overestimate the first \"pro\" I mention above. At the master's level, this is less important.</p>\n\n<p>The best strategy is to coordinate the \"outside\" work with your supervisor for maximum benefit. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4834, "author": "gerrit", "author_id": 1033, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p><strong>NOTE: The answer below assumes you have approval from your university and/or employer!</strong></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If your university is closed for 12 weeks, I would argue it's almost <strong>entirely positive</strong> to go somewhere else and work, because:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>If you work more, you get more results. Sounds obvious, but it's the scientific output that counts. You can't afford lingering around for 12 weeks if you want to get a scientific career. The work you do elsewhere might or might not help you directly towards your PhD, but if it results in publications, it certainly will enhance your academic career, even if the publications are unrelated to your PhD work.</li>\n<li>You will enhance your international experience, which will enhance your chances of finding positions later on.</li>\n<li>You will improve your academic contacts, which also enhances your chances.</li>\n<li>If you acquire your own funding, you will gain experience in finding sources of money, which should also be greatly beneficial for your career.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>All in all, I can't think of any reason <strong>not</strong> to do it, if the alternative is idling.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4836, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you are currently \"employed full-time\" by a research group (you are a student, or a scientific worker, whose funding is from a given research group), then any extended outside work for another research group needs to be discussed and approved by your current advisor <strong>in advance</strong>. Failure to do so, as Fuhrmanator suggests, will lead to <em>major</em> conflicts, as you are potentially committing a major breach of etiquette, and possibly violating your departmental regulations or your work contract if you don't secure the permissions in advance.</p>\n\n<p>But that said, the best use of spending time in another research group is to develop new skills and techniques that you couldn't learn (or at least couldn't learn as well) by staying in your \"home\" group. In such cases, I suspect most advisors would support such a move, so long as it doesn't conflict with your current progress timeline and any requirements of your department (or your funding).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4831", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/399/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4839, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The only problem of presenting results that are not published is if someone else <em>steals</em> the results and writes their own paper about them. (Though this probably more likely only happens with ideas that are shared too prematurely.) </p>\n\n<p>It is generally considered a good thing to promote one’s own work, and one way of doing this is by giving presentations at other universities. </p>\n\n<p>Even if this work is under review at a different conference, I don’t think it is problematic. When presenting a paper at a conference, you are not necessarily obliged to talk about precisely the contents of the paper. You are advertising the paper, and more generally, your own work, so that people will read it and cite it. If you have bigger and better results, then these will help with your promotion of your own work. </p>\n\n<p>Of course it would be weird, though probably not wrong, to talk entirely about a different paper when presenting at a conference.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4840, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There is <strong>nothing unethical</strong> in doing so (including results from a paper <em>of your own</em> under review). It is not fundamentally different from presenting any other unpublished work of yours. If anything, you are taking a risk because people might jump on the idea, do the research at full speed (knowing what to look for), and publish it before your paper is finally out…</p>\n\n<p>It depends strongly on the field of research, and the pressure from the competition. In my field (physical chemistry), it has evolved as follows in the last 10 or 15 years: people used to happily report on their not-yet-published results. Then, some colleagues from the US started to stop doing it, especially at the big conferences, citing fear of being “scooped”. Now, in most conferences, you don't hear anything that has not at least been accepted for publication. There are exceptions, usually local conferences, but also for example the prestigious <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Research_Conferences\">Gordon conferences</a>, which are held under a confidentiality agreement and where unpublished work is favored.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4843, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There is one circumstance where presenting results under review elsewhere would be a violation of code. This is when the conference where review is ongoing requires double blind submissions. </p>\n\n<p>In such cases, there's usually a clause that asks the authors not do anything overt to violate double blind review, and presenting at a different venue (where reviewers might be in attendance) would be an overt violation. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4870, "author": "David Ketcheson", "author_id": 81, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I see no reason to be concerned about this. Most of my conference presentations are about work I haven't even submitted yet. And the whole point is to persuade people that the ideas I'm presenting are useful. All of my papers go on arxiv.org and on my website as soon as they're submitted.</p>\n\n<p>Why on earth would it be wrong to influence reviewers (except in case of double-blind review)?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4921, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<h1>In favour of unrestricted dissemination</h1>\n\n<p>After thinking about the answers provided so far and the discussion in comments, it seems to me that the point of view favouring dissemination of research results unrestricted by the double-blind peer-review process needs a stronger case. I believe that the answer can be derived from higher-level, rather philosophical, principles.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>... Or is it only \"good practice\" not to do so [to present results under review]?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><em><strong>What is the purpose of developing and disseminating research results?</em></strong></p>\n\n<p>I am an idealist in these things and argue, that it is first and foremost the <em>advancement of human knowledge</em> and ultimately <em>improvement of the conditions of the human society, as well as the world around us</em> -- regardless of what exactly \"improvement\" means, I have in mind something like a wider social consensus that the change has a positive vector. </p>\n\n<p>Given this stance, unless there are other considerations in the game, there is no reason which could obstruct our <em>advancement of human knowledge</em>, which ultimately rests on dissemination of quality results to the wider public. Of course, we should be careful and act in a good faith so as to be cautious about <em>validity</em>, <em>significance</em> and <em>originality</em> of our results. Peer-review process is only an <em>auxiliary mechanism</em> helping us to filter out ideas/results in violation of these principles, i.e., helps us to recognize and fix our own misjudgements and mistakes, as well as (in the worse case) dissemination of results not advancing knowledge of humankind, but produced for other primary purposes. After all, the ultimate metrics for the results of scientific research is not the outcome of the peer-review process, but rather the long-term impact on the society and the world around us. That is, whether other people will learn something from the results and whether it eventually helps them to build something beneficial to the society.</p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, thanks to the recent proliferation of the publish-or-perish attitude and its intertwining with the need to advance human knowledge, as well as interactions of these two conflicting forces, gradually peer-review becomes primarily a mechanism to filter bad-faith products - think plagiarism, results falsification and all sorts of other scientific misconduct. Yet, I maintain, <em>the process of filtering should not gain a higher importance than the objective of our pursuit itself</em>. To conclude, <strong>if executed with caution, restrictions imposed by double-blind review process <em>should not</em> restrict our ability to disseminate our results.</strong></p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4837", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1520/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4850, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It is fine in most formats to finish your introduction by stating your goals. I tend not to over-emphasize the list of innovations in the paper <em>right in the introduction</em>, usually because <strong>it is already made clear in two places: abstract and conclusion</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>Also: if by “specifically list the merits” you mean use a bullet-point list, I'd suggest to avoid it. It's not the same as an oral presentation, where you might want to focus on nice simple messages for an audience whose attention is never to be take for granted. When someone has read your introduction ’til the end, they <em>are</em> interested in your work, you don’t need to resort to oversimplifying your message.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4852, "author": "Jan-Willem", "author_id": 3869, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3869", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In the end, the strength of your paper is in a large part defined by its contributions. Therefore, I believe it is absolutely vital to clearly state them. A bullet pointed list is an excellent way to do so. Remember: papers are almost never read from start to end. Therefore, it is important to make your paper visually pleasing, by, for example, making the most important parts (like the contributions) easy to find. Bullet-points serve that purpose.</p>\n\n<p>Excellent slides by SP Jones on how to write a great research paper (which also covers this question) can be found <a href=\"http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/simonpj/papers/giving-a-talk/giving-a-talk.htm\"> here</a>.</p>\n\n<p>The link also contains much advice on academic research, for instance on giving talks.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4853, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Somehow it is common to start an introduction with <em>a general blah-blah</em>, basically saying that a field is important and repeating some popular facts. </p>\n\n<p>However, in my opinion, the most important thing of the introduction is to say </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>what is there,</li>\n<li>what is the actual contribution</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>and said in a precise way, so reader will know if the content is useful for her. And in such a way as <em>\"we prove X1 and X2, under the assumption of Y, and conjecture Z\"</em> instead of <em>\"we investigate X1, X2 and Z\"</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, giving the general context is extremely important, but not more that saying what's there.</p>\n\n<p>Personally, I wasted a lot of time reading papers whose abstract or introduction left me believing that they solve a general problem, when in fact it was only <em>n=2,3,4</em> case, or just something tangentially related to my research interests.</p>\n\n<p>There is an incentive to write introduction in a <em>big talk / general blah-blah</em> style (because it sounds serious, because it may bait uninterested readers, etc), but (IMHO) it is very counterproductive, sometimes verging on the edge of scientific dishonesty (i.e. an implicit overclaim).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4849", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2806/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4858, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Whatever style guide your use, <strong>citations should be cited exactly in the original spelling</strong>. Doing otherwise would defeat the whole purpose of citation: uniquely identifying an existing publication.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I could find no direct quote from APA to justify this (except that, well, they don't indicate that you have the liberty to edit the title of cited works!). However, multiple secondary sources make it clear, as <a href=\"http://www.files.ithuta.net/OpenJournals/SAJIP/Authors/APA%20reference%20style%20guide.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer\">for example</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Notes: Please \"copy\" the title of a book/an article/whatever (as far as the spelling of words such as \"behavior\"/\"behavioral\" are concerned) […] <strong>exactly as in the original</strong>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Citation style guides tend to be more explicit for foreign language works, where most of them <a href=\"http://www.library.uq.edu.au/training/citation/apa_6.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer\">explicitly state</a> (in some wording or another):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Give the original title, and, in brackets, the English translation</p>\n</blockquote>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4860, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>For references, F'x is correct: citations should be given in the spelling used in the original publication.</p>\n\n<p>Beyond that, however, when writing the main text of your article for submission to a journal (or for any other work submitted to a professional publisher), you should follow the style guidelines they set out. Pretty much every journal should have a statement about which set of spellings they prefer (usually based on its country of origin). </p>\n\n<p>For instance, the textbook I am using to teach a course this semester is written by Americans but published by Oxford, a UK publishing company. The word \"center\" is spelled \"centre,\" and so on.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4862, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I typically <strong>don't worry about this question as a writer</strong>. For what it's worth, I'm based in the United States, so I default to <em>American</em> English. I always spell check my papers, but in the more than 25 papers that I've submitted, I've never gotten any feedback about using American spelling rather than British spelling; this question is very relevant for me since many of my papers are on <em>graph colo(u)ring</em>. It may be useful to note that in the journals that I submit to and read, I've seen both American and British spelling. (I think many editors typically let the authors choose which they prefer.) </p>\n\n<p>So my suggestion is this: <strong>choose either American or British</strong> spelling and <strong>stay consistent</strong> throughout your paper. <strong>Don't lose any sleep</strong> over this. It <strong>will not be the deciding factor in whether your paper is accepted</strong>.</p>\n\n<p><em>However</em>, for doing a literature review, I feel your pain...</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4868, "author": "Fuhrmanator", "author_id": 3859, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3859", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think this is really a non-issue. Any decent search engine will return hits for your paper, even if one searches for <em>harmonisation</em> (the spelling more common in Britain) rather than <em>harmonization</em> (the spelling used in the USA, and also valid, though less common, in Britain) as long as a literal search isn't used.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=harmonisation%20murchan&amp;btnG=&amp;hl=en&amp;as_sdt=0,5\" rel=\"nofollow\">Example search</a>.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I'm amending my answer to address the part of your question about whether specific journals require certain spellings. A <a href=\"https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&amp;ie=UTF-8&amp;ion=1#bpcl=35466521&amp;hl=en&amp;q=site%3aedu+%22author+guidelines%22++british+spelling&amp;safe=active\" rel=\"nofollow\">Google search limited to the .edu domains</a> finds lots of author guidelines that address this issue to various degrees, but nothing shows me that there's a single way to go. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4872, "author": "Skelly1983", "author_id": 3877, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3877", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One key factor would be who you main audience will be.</p>\n\n<p>If I was writing an article to be released in Spain i would not write it in French.</p>\n\n<p>If you are writing for mainly Americans then use American English, and the same goes for if it will mainly be for British then go for English.</p>\n\n<p>If this is for all people who speak English then the correct one to use would be British English (which is known as just English, not British English), this is due to the fact that American English is simply at the most basic level a dialect of British English.</p>\n\n<p>Also English comes from England not \"Britain\".</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4874, "author": "anon", "author_id": 3879, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3879", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The best thing is to pick and choose the sensible spellings from both dialects. I'm Canadian, but I refuse to write <em>neighbour</em>, a synthetic spelling which has a superfluous letter. On the other hand, the American spelling <em>center</em> (rather than <em>centre</em>) holds no advantage of brevity, and betrays only ignorance of the Latin root <em>centrum</em> in which <em>tr</em> aren't separated.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding <em>-sation</em> endings versus <em>-zation</em>, these are a favored in a handful of languages like French, Dutch, German. However, not in others like Italian, Spanish, Romanian, Croatian, or Czech.</p>\n\n<p><em>-sation</em> is bad etymology. For instance the Online Etymology Dictionary gives us this for the word <em>organization</em>: </p>\n\n<p><em>mid-15c., \"act of organizing,\" from M.Fr. organisation and directly from M.L. organizationem (nom. organizatio), noun of action from pp. stem of organizare, from L. organum \"instrument, organ\" (see organ). Meaning \"system, establishment\" is from 1873. Organization man is from title of 1956 book by American sociologist William H. Whyte (1917-1999). Related: Organizational.</em></p>\n\n<p>As you can see, the original Latin has a <em>z</em>. Since we don't gain any brevity, again, we should go with the spelling which respects etymology. In this case, it is the American one.</p>\n\n<p>Forget borders: respect etymology and favor brevity, but do stop short of writing <em>night</em> and <em>light</em> as <em>nite</em> and <em>lite</em>.</p>\n\n<p>I would hang a footnote on the occurrence of a word with a contentious spelling, explaining my position on spelling and that is that. Academics do not have to be tied to other people's conventions based on national borders.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4896, "author": "TRiG", "author_id": 898, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/898", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If your question were about the <em>-our/-or</em> distinction, or the <em>-re/-er</em> distinction, it would be a real question, but with <em>-ise/-ize</em> there's no contest: go with the Z form, as it's <a href=\"https://english.stackexchange.com/a/4063/1696\">accepted on both sides of the Atlantic</a>.</p>\n\n<p>The International Organization for Standardization favours British spellings, and uses the <em>-ize</em> form. (This is known as <a href=\"https://english.stackexchange.com/a/77246/1696\">Oxford Spelling</a>.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 95581, "author": "bea autherus", "author_id": 79486, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79486", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If the intent of the writer is clear and the content is clear, who cares? As long as the message is clear, the writer has performed his duty. I know this is a short putt, but, bottom line, communication rules. If you can't be understood, why bother to try to be understood?</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4857", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2716/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4864, "author": "Fuhrmanator", "author_id": 3859, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3859", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Exercises fall at various levels in <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_Taxonomy\" rel=\"nofollow\">Bloom's Taxonomy</a>. Exercises at the higher end of the taxonomy are harder to do, but verify more objectives, since they rely on understanding and applying knowledge from the lower levels.</p>\n\n<p>To try and answer your question, I'll generalize a bit and say that academics are by nature quick learners for the lower-level objectives (knowledge, comprehension). Exercises at this level are probably less useful than Upper-level exercises (application, analysis, evaluation, creation). </p>\n\n<p>However, whenever I haven't taught material in a while, re-doing some of the knowledge exercises is a great way to freshen up and be sharp for class. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4865, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Learning is a life long activity. Graduating with a PhD is not a license to stop learning, it's a license to (eventually) get paid to do research and learn more :)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4871, "author": "PLL", "author_id": 1277, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1277", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Keep doing it as long as it’s useful to you.</strong></p>\n\n<p>I’m a couple years into post-doc’ing, and find exercises just as useful as I did in grad school; and I know professors at multiple stages of their career who appear (from conversation) to still frequently do exercises. On the other hand, I know at least one person who claims to have never particularly found exercises helpful.</p>\n\n<p>So it certainly varies from person to person whether exercises are/remain useful; for a given individual, though, I have no idea how it typically changes over time. For my part, the main change over the last few years is in how selective I can be about exercises: I can now generally look quickly over a page of exercises and gauge pretty consistently which ones will be essentially routine, and which will require some real thought. Both kinds can still be of interest (at least to me), but for different purposes.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4897, "author": "paul garrett", "author_id": 980, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To reiterate and \"second\" other answers... but to try to re-frame the sense of the question, also, ... I'd agree that one should engage with ideas, but not necessarily on the terms dictated by textbooks. As alluded to in other answers, one of the benefits of experience is knowing which exercises might be worth doing... as opposed to being unable to tell, or merely being <em>compelled</em> to do a high volume of exercises toward a grade.</p>\n\n<p>Memories fade with time, even for the best memories, and unused ideas fade out of one's mind. On one hand, this can be an indicator that a highly-touted thing has no genuine utility, at least in one's own professional life. On another hand, sometimes the pay-off occurs so much later than one's introduction to an idea, perhaps decades earlier, that the relevant connections are very dim. To guard against \"fatal dim-ness\", occasional \"refreshing\" of memories is necessary. No, this is <em>not</em> quite the same as \"doing exercises\", in the important sense that, at this sort of \"later\" point in one's life, it often happens that reviewing <em>larger</em> points is sufficient to revivify specific memories about <em>relevant</em> (as opposed to traditional-pedantic) details.</p>\n\n<p>One not-entirely-realistic attitude, but quite useful as an ideal of sorts, is to consider the notion that one changes oneself sufficiently so that the ideas of a subject seem entirely reasonable, simplest-thing-in-the-world... rather than unintuitive and unanticipate-able. That is, the meta-exercise is to change oneself so that no further exercises are necessary (apart from perhaps the \"refreshing\" of memories).</p>\n\n<p>These comments have ignored the hugely significant psychological point that one should as-soon-as-possible recover from the burden of thinking in terms of approval of some authority figure. To say the least, this is not an intellectually honest or psychologically healthy criterion to apply to one's activities. Pity that \"school\" engenders this so powerfully. That is, don't embark upon a regimen for the approval of others, but to achieve your own objectives. Oop, yes, that entails trying to understand what your own objectives might be. Yes, if you are an undergrad or grad student, or even a postdoc or junior person, this is complicated. But, I recommend, do recognize that issue: one should be trying to think for oneself, but with incomplete information, or bad information, and lack of experience... ?</p>\n\n<p>Last, \"of course\", one should not use \"doing exercises\" as an avoidance mechanism to allow avoiding facing more amorphous, real issues. \"Doing exercises\" is not the stairway to heaven, any more than a stringent exercise program guarantees professional athletic success, etc.</p>\n\n<p>The relevant summary might be to start thinking in other terms than \"exercises\". After all, there are no \"exercises\" that qualify you to buy lunch, or mail a letter... The fixity of novice mathematicians on \"school\" and its ... mixed... credentialling system is in many ways very noisy and non-informative. Even if one needs to fit into that, one should not think too much in those terms.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4859", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4886, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>There's no single right answer here. You should provide the information that you think is most salient in the given situation. In your case, you probably want to say something like \"tenured research scientist\" or \"staff scientist,\" as those terms normally give the idea of permanence in a way that \"research scientist\" or \"research associate\" might not.</p>\n\n<p>If you are writing a CV in English, on the other hand, you could write \"Junior research staff (permanent position),\" as that gets your title more accurately. In this circumstance, it's probably better to go with a literal translation (or as Federico Poloni suggests in a comment below, the job title in the original language) plus explanation, rather than try to find the \"closest equivalent.\" </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4913, "author": "StrongBad", "author_id": 929, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are two times that titles are used. One is when referring to yourself, which seems to be the case the question is focused on, and the other is when referring to someone else.</p>\n\n<p>I suggest that you do not use titles when referring to yourself. If you are in a situation where you need to use titles (e.g., on a CV), then go with the correct, but possibly less informative foreign language.</p>\n\n<p>When referring to someone else it is perfectly acceptable (and in my opinion good fun) to butcher the title and then give a general vague translation of it. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 15498, "author": "Pharap", "author_id": 10582, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10582", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Personally I would translate the title as literally as possible or derive some half-translation i.e. chargé de recherche would become something like 'research manager' (one who is in charge of research) and directeur de recherche would becomre 'research director'.</p>\n\n<p>This is more of an educated opinion though, as I believe that people benefit from learning small bits of other languages when applicable, and it helps to aid cultural understanding. </p>\n\n<p>That's also often how borrowed words come about. Take the word 'halal' for example, it translates into English as 'lawful' or 'permissible', but it has been adopted by the English language because of its specific context when describing food. Titles are the same, they describe what people do, so they should remain as close to the original context as possible.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 124975, "author": "Pere", "author_id": 58537, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/58537", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Literal translation may be very misleading. For example, part time lecturers in Spain are called \"professor associat\" in Catalan or \"profesor asociado\" in Spanish. Literal translation of that title as \"associate professor\" would be very uninformative, since associate professors in other countries are full time senior faculty. To make things worse, protocol rules in the University of Barcelona used to state that in formal events the title \"professor\" should be used for teaching staff members who are not doctors, just making \"professor\" a lower title than \"doctor\", which is just the opposite of the usage in English speaking countries.</p>\n\n<p>Therefore, I would not use literal translations. If I would need to be very precise about my role (for example, in a CV) I would give my official title name in its original language and a short explanation of what it means, for example with the rough equivalent in the destination language. However, in most situations we don't need to bother the audience with such details. If we are going to give a talk on any subject, the audience is supposed to be interested on what we can tell them about the subject, not about what kind of position we have, and saying which institution or department are we affiliated with may be enough.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4866", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4878, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>From one perspective, adding these niceties to the software increases the likelihood that the software will be used and thereby increases the impact of your research. So although these niceties are not research per se, they help achieve the goals of doing research (at least from a funding agency's perspective), namely making an impact. Such tasks are often a necessary part of the research process (and someone has to do them).</p>\n\n<p>Whether or not it is ethical to ask for additional money to hire people to do this very much depends on the rules of the funding agency and how well your advisor is at selling and justifying the idea to the agency. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4879, "author": "Leon palafox", "author_id": 2806, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2806", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm pitching in my own experience in similar issues.</p>\n\n<p>I've been in 2 research labs as a grad student, and in both of them, aside from my own research I did other tasks like server administration (we had our own local network), a bit of outsourcing, and the ocasional side project.</p>\n\n<p>Now, in the first lab, all of these tasks were done pro-bono, meaning, I did not receive a cent for it, even though the server in place was really old and prone to failure, which took considerable amounts of time from my research time. The Professor, not even once considered paying me for the task.</p>\n\n<p>In my second and current lab, the professor pays you for everything that should derange you from your research, I did a couple of projects for a company (on behalf of our lab) and I got paid. I also gave some tours in the lab as well as some demos, and I also got paid.</p>\n\n<p>The moral is, it is usually up to the professor whether he pays you or not, if he is not paying you, is most likely because he either thinks is within your range of activities or simply he does not have the money.</p>\n\n<p>Personally, I would not ask for money unless I had the precedent that other person did it before, other way it could set a bad relationship between you two.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4882, "author": "Fuhrmanator", "author_id": 3859, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3859", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>It's not unethical to ask your professor. However, as <em>Leon</em> pointed out, it could be annoying if not done properly. A couple of perspectives:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Set your goals.</strong> If you have enough funding for your research moving ahead comfortably and your goal is to finish your degree and get some solid publications, then focus on that (and be happy the maintenance is outsourced). On the other hand, if you're not funded well enough, and think you can accomplish both the research and get paid to do the maintenance coding, propose it to your professor in a way that is positive. But beware of the risk. I have had a student who, once he got scholarships, stopped doing the teaching assistantships we offered him. The extra money wasn't worth the headache or distraction to him. </li>\n<li><strong>Funded research work is never 100% research.</strong> I have always had, at various points of my research career, tasks that were distracting and fell out of the area of what was \"research\". The goal is to keep it reasonable and minimal. Complaining about \"not getting extra money for advising consultants\" is probably not a reasonable attitude to take with your professor. Negotiate with your professor how many hours/week you can reasonably spend (without taking you away too much from your research) is surely a better approach. </li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4935, "author": "D.W.", "author_id": 705, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/705", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Beware that some universities have ethics rules that make it harder for a professor to pay his/her students -- or if the rules don't bar it outright, the prevailing culture might frown on it. These rules are often written to protect students, e.g., from a faculty advisor who pressures his/her students to spend time working on his/her startup company.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 31691, "author": "Graph Theory", "author_id": 24285, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24285", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Our lab is also licensing the software we write to outside companies for their own in-house use.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Are those companies paying you? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like you have a product. Instead of asking for funding to implement the features that these companies want, why don't you ask the companies themselves for money? I don't claim to know the hoops about using a research facility to work on parts of software that aren't research related, so if you decide to go this route you should definitely clear it with the lab.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4873", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3878/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 4877, "author": "JRN", "author_id": 64, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/64", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think that the form</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Smith, Jones, and Roberts (2012) write that bla bla bla bla. Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla (Smith, Jones &amp; Roberts, 2012).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><em>does not</em> follow the recommended APA style. That is, I think the correct way to write it is</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Smith, Jones, and Roberts (2012) write that bla bla bla bla. Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla (Smith et al., 2012).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>where the first citation is the first citation \"in text\" and the second citation is the first citation of this work \"in a parenthetical format.\"</p>\n\n<p>Look at page 43 (figure 2.1) of the 6th edition of the APA manual. Lines 2 and 3 of page 6 of the sample paper has the first citation of \"Hahn, Carlson, Singer, &amp; Gronlund, 2006\" in parenthetical form</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>(consistent with Hahn, Carlson, Singer, &amp; Gronlund, 2006; Mather &amp; Knight, 2006)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>and on lines 17 and 18, a citation of the same work in text is given as Hahn, et al. (2006)</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Similarly, Hahn et al. (2006) also found no age differences [...]</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Now, it is not certain that the latter citation is the <em>first citation in text</em> of this work (because some text in the sample paper is obscured). But looking at other papers in journals that follow the APA format seems to confirm my answer.</p>\n\n<p>For example, a paper in the <em>Journal for Research in Mathematics Education</em> (vol. 43, no. 2, p. 133) (which explicitly states that manuscripts submitted to it \"should conform to the <em>Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association</em> (6th ed.)\") has a first citation in text</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>In their article in <em>Mathematics Teacher</em>, Cirillo, Drake, and Herbel-Eisenmann (2009) situated their work on curriculum vision as described below.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Then a block quotation from this work ends in the first citation in parenthetical form</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>(Cirillo et al., 2009, p. 71)</p>\n</blockquote>\n" }, { "answer_id": 4917, "author": "Gabe", "author_id": 3881, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3881", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I asked apastyle.org and received the following response from an Editorial Supervisor</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Your interpretation is correct, and your interlocutor is wrong. Table 6.1 simply gives examples of citations in different circumstances. The rules of APA Style are stated pretty clearly in the APA Publication Manual; there is no need to deduce additional unstated rules. If something in a table or figure appears to contradict the text, follow the text.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Therefore my interpretation (and Joel Reyes Noche's interpretation) of et al. is correct. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 145662, "author": "RJo", "author_id": 33058, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33058", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is mostly a nonissue for APA 7th edition because three or more authors are now cited as \"et al.\" from the first mention, whether parenthetical or not, except where it would create ambiguity.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4875", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3881/" ]