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8,766 | <p>I am currently travelling for faculty interviews. Some professors and other interviewers have asked me where else I have interviewed. Should I tell interviewers where else I've interviewed?</p>
<p>Intuitively I would like to give them less information, but I also don't want to appear guarded and defensive as a person, either.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8767,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I cannot speak for faculty interviews personally and this may be redundant information but I interviewed at multiple \"top ranked\" schools for PhD admissions and in everyone of them I was asked where else I was interviewing and I told them the truth.</p>\n\n<p>Having said this, nowadays, most job talk notifications are available on the website of the university or college or institution where you are interviewing and it is relatively easy to determine this from a google search of your name. For instance, this year our department is hiring for 2 different job lines and there are quite a few faculty candidates giving talks every week. We always Google their names to find out where else they are interviewing. In the case of one particular candidate it was very useful to find out that that that candidate had put up a list of other institutions where he/she was interviewing this particular season.</p>\n\n<p>I do not think personally that giving them information about where else you are interviewing will add or subtract from your overall job application materials and probabilities. </p>\n\n<p>Best of luck for getting a job !</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8769,
"author": "Zai",
"author_id": 4318,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4318",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It may depend on your discipline, but I've noticed that faculty candidates for Computer Science that interview at my university tend to list their job talks on their CVs as invited talks.</p>\n\n<p>Therefore, being cagey about where you're interviewing or trying to obfuscate it would be counter-intuitive. You're probably already leaving a pretty obvious trail from your job search, people in your field probably know others in your field and communicate with them, and it wouldn't be difficult information for anyone to find out, so it would seem like being up front and honest about it would be the best path?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8770,
"author": "StasK",
"author_id": 739,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/739",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you don't want to disclose that, you can simply say: \"I'd rather not discuss this\", and you can look straight into your interviewer eyes with that. I've seen candidates do that; it may have looked harsh, but there's no obligation on the candidate's side to tell anything beyond the contents of the job talk.</p>\n\n<p>You can also try to convert this into a joke like \"Enough to earn me a free roundtrip this year\". An American faculty should take that as a hint that you don't want to talk about it. An international faculty may need a more straight answer like the one I gave above. (I am talking about the US here as the largest academic market; in UK, as far as I understand, you won't have more than 30 minutes face time with the faculty of the hiring institution, and they probably have more important things to ask than the # of interviews you have.)</p>\n\n<p>Having said that, you need to weight in the benefits of telling vs. not. For one thing, you may not have all the invitations out yet on your first fly-out, so you really don't know yet what other interviews you might have. On the other hand, by the time you reach your sixth destination (if you are lucky to get that many), the first place may already have told you, \"Sorry, we made the offer to somebody else\". So nominally you may have interviewed there, but really you won't get an offer from them.</p>\n\n<p>As a bottom line, you need to do what others in your discipline do. You don't want to look like a fool in the environment where everybody keep their secrets by telling left and right about your choosing between Harvard and Stanford (and thus losing a chance to get a far more realistic offer from Alabama); and you don't want to look like a fool hinting at many undisclosed interviews when your adviser had told them that this is the only interview you have when they called him/her, or your other interviews were posted on a <a href=\"http://www.econjobrumors.com/\">job market rumor website</a>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8786,
"author": "Dirk",
"author_id": 529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/529",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't know about regulations here. Personally, I think that being open and honest is the best thing (and this is how I handled it). Telling that you have been interviewed for some other positions shows that other committees consider you as a possible candidate which is good for you, especially if you have been interviewed at places with higher prestige. One the other hand, I do not think that a committee will think \"Oh this guy has been interviewed there, so we should hire him...\", but probably I am wrong.</p>\n\n<p>Moreover, I agree that it does not harm to say that you do not want to disclose your other interviews.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8791,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Some professors and other interviewers have asked me where else I have interviewed. Should I tell interviewers where else I've interviewed?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, it is very likely in your best interests. If you have other interviews at comparable schools, then you will benefit from saying so. If you don't, then it's not so clear. However, departments will assume your job search is not going well if you are reluctant to address the issue and they haven't heard impressive rumors about your interviews, so avoiding discussing interviews won't really help. Instead of saying something awkward like \"I'd rather not talk about that\", it's better to be up front and optimistic. \"This is my first interview\" is better than \"This is my only interview so far\".</p>\n\n<p>Here are a few reasons why telling about other interviews can help your case:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>As a general rule, people want something more if they know other people also want it. Valuing a second opinion is rational behavior.</p></li>\n<li><p>Even when it doesn't change the outcome, competition can speed things up. If a search committee member is trying to make an offer and still needs some final committee or administrative approval, it's helpful to be able to say \"Let's move fast, since she is also interviewing at X, Y, and Z, and we'd like to make a good impression by coming up with the first offer.\" If it's too late for that, they can say \"She already has an offer from X, so we need to act before she decides.\"</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>In principle, you could hurt your chances if you list a lot of schools typically considered much more desirable (which could make the school you are currently interviewing at feel they would just be wasting their time trying to compete). However, in this case you are probably already in trouble, since the rumors of your busy interview schedule may already worry the search committee. Instead of trying to cover things up, it's better to acknowledge that you have these other interviews. If you are worried about this risk, you can address it by making your interest clear throughout the interview.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 36970,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>At least in Germany, interviews for academic positions are more like dating than like normal job interviews. If you are good, the department will worry about being rejected as much as you do. If they offer you the position and then you don't accept, they are losing time - they may not be able to fill the position in time -, and it's also bad for their reputation. Each time someone gets an offer from universities A and B and chooses to accept the offer from A, this contributes to the reputation of A and harms the reputation of B.</p>\n\n<p>Whether it's good for you if the committee at one university know where else you have applied and how you are doing there, depends very much on the relative reputations of these universities and how they are judging you. You want them to think that you are the perfect fit, not that you are overqualified and therefore likely to reject their offer (doing well with an application at a much better university) or underqualified and going to harm their reputation that way (as could happen if they make you an offer and at the same time you are rejected by a university with much lower reputation).</p>\n\n<p>PS: I think I should clarify that all of this applies primarily - perhaps exclusively - to professorships, especially to permanent ones.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/20 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8766",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5944/"
]
|
8,798 | <p>I want to pursue M.S. from USA.
I know that it is required to have a background of publishing technical papers for getting admit in a good University.
But I wanted to know whether is there anything else apart from publishing a paper that constitutes as "Research" by the Admission authorities?
Thank You.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8803,
"author": "eykanal",
"author_id": 73,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<ul>\n<li><p>A <strong>senior thesis</strong> (or, if you're engineering, your senior project, if you did one) would probably be a good thing to showcase, as it demonstrates both your ability to perform work in a group as well as your ability to write.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Internships</strong> are great. They show that you can work and it also can serve as a reference.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If you've done anything else particularly notable (e.g., won a <a href=\"http://www.societyforscience.org/isef/\" rel=\"nofollow\">nationally recognized science fair</a>), you can mention it, but the number of people who've done stuff like this is pretty miniscule.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8832,
"author": "Espanta",
"author_id": 6393,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6393",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From your question, it is not clear that what MS do you referring to and seeking advice for. If you plan for MS by course, the admission committee do not usually evaluate you based on publications, because they don't need you to do research and therefore, it is not needed. They are looking for the university from which you did your UG, your marks, and your final project TITLE and your work. </p>\n\n<p>If you are after MS by research, the story is slightly different, but still publication is not the only requirement. I guess, it is okay to have UGs without publications since UGs are busy with large number of subjects to take (depends on the universities they study) and CS is one of the majors that needs mini project for majority of subjects. Hence, you may not have enough time to be exposed to the research and publication, especially if your university does not approve research project as final project.</p>\n\n<p>For MS by research, the main piece of evidence to show you know research is to prepare a very impressive research proposal. If you can impress them, you have the position. Sometimes looking at recommendation letter also works. If you have a good rec letter with some research-based recommendations and the admission committee know the person issued the recommendation letter, it may change their idea and cover some of your weaknesses. \nAlso, doing vulonteer job is also important to demonstrate your ability to work in a new domain with different people in a team or as an individual.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/22 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8798",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
]
|
8,800 | <p>As a post-doctoral researcher, I am employed directly by a university. Due to the economic crisis, funds are not overabundant right now, and a lot of expenses have been scaled back or even cut out completely in the last few months (library access, public hall lighting, building opening hours, research consumables, etc.). Now, it's already a week late on my monthly pay check (or more precisely, wire transfer), and we received a collective email from the departmental head. Quoting part of it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Unfortunately it is not possible for us to pay as usual on today's date, the salaries because of liquidity in our bank account. I apologize for this inconvenience which we are trying to overcome as quickly as possible. Although we cannot precise the exact date when the issue is resolved we are hoping to make payments during the current month.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How do you analyse this email? My initial reaction is very, very negative: <strong>the first two duties of an employer, it seems to me, are to ensure workplace safety and pay salaries</strong>. So, when I read this email, my first instinct is to <strong><em>run away</em></strong> (I already hear JeffE saying “don't walk, run”).</p>
<p>However, it's a bad time to look for a new job, so: what are my options? Is this a breach of contract? Should I just wait, and how long? <strong>What do you read between the lines of this email, that perhaps I haven't?</strong></p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8801,
"author": "Ben Norris",
"author_id": 924,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/924",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Step 0</strong>: Document all your efforts to find a solution to this situation. Save a copy of that email from your chair. If you need to resort to Step 4: Hire a Lawyer, a paper trail is invaluable. Also, as @JeffE noted in the comments: <strong>stop working until you are paid.</strong> This is your most powerful negotiating tool. Don't worry about breach of contract; your employer did it first by failing to pay you.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Step 1</strong>: Meet with your immediate supervisor. As a postdoctoral researcher, some/most/all of your salary probably comes from grant accounts, and not the department's general payroll. If there is a financial problem in your department you should still get paid.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Unless</strong>, in order to pay you, money has to be transferred from the grant account to the payroll account. This is how it works at my institution. If the payroll account is wonky, then you cannot get paid, regardless of where the money comes from.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Step 2</strong>: Meet with your department chair, one-on-one. He/she may be more willing to be forthcoming with the details in a personal setting. There could a rational, if scary, explanation for what is going on. It may be outside of the chair's power. It could be that the department was expecting payments from grants that did not happen. It could be that an allocation from the institution or state or whatever has not arrived due to budgetary problems. If meeting with the department chair is not satisfactory, go on to step three.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Step 3</strong>: Contact your institution's central payroll or human resources office. Ask about the situation nicely and politely, but make it clear that you want to know what is going on and when you will be paid. As these folks are either 1) removed from the situation if it is department specific, or 2) closer to it if it is institution wide, you will likely get an answer. Indicate that you believe the department/institution to be in breach of your contract and that you are consulting legal counsel (even if you are not yet). Sometimes, that will grease the wheels.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Step 3.5</strong>: Sit tight for a little while and see if it does not go away. If your institution/department does not have a history of such shenanigans, this could be a one-time, but very annoying, blip. Also, look for another job. Be honest with your supervisor about why you are doing so - this financial snafu has you worried about the security of your contract.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Step 4</strong>: Hire a lawyer. By failing to pay you per an agreed upon schedule, your employer is in breach of your contract. I would only go this way if you are desperate. 1) The litigation route is likely to take away a large portion of your time that you should be spending doing research or looking for another job. 2) Depending on the ratio of legal fees to missed pay, you might lose money overall. 3) The heavy handed approach may alienate your department, robbing you of recommendations. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8816,
"author": "cbeleites unhappy with SX",
"author_id": 725,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/725",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In addition to what Ben suggests, you'll probably want to find out some things. Many such legal aspects are country specific, but I'll put in some points about Germany which could give you an idea what to look for:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Your post sounds as if the wages were usually paid mid of the month. Is that actually legally fixed? (In Germany, if nothing is specified in the contract, wages are due at the last day of the month.) </p></li>\n<li><p>Find out whether your social insurance fees were paid on time. </p></li>\n<li><p>Find out what general rights you have and equally important: what deadlines apply</p></li>\n<li><p>Find out whether your social insurance covers this case.<br>\nE.g. in Germany, the unemployment insurance would be the ones to talk to as they cover at least some cases where no wages are paid though a contract still exists (\"insolvency money\")<br>\nAnd make sure whatever actions you take that they do not cancel your rights there.</p></li>\n<li><p>Do you have the right to stop working (so you can use the time to look for a new job)?<br>\nIn Germany, if you stop working after the employer is too much back with the wages (> 2 months IIRC) you retain the right to receive wages (plus interest if the employer finally pays. If he goes into insolvency, this is still important as it affects the money you can get from the unemployment insurance). IIRC, you have to warn your employer in advance that you'll stop working if he doesn't pay.</p></li>\n<li><p>Do you have extraordinary rights to cancel the contract (so you can tell potential employers that you can start right away)? Again, find out if you need to warn your employer that you may use this right.</p></li>\n<li><p>Find out what is happening around you. How do other universities deal with payments? Is it the university or your funding agency who don't pay? </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Here in Germany universities often have an extremely bad reputation for delaying payments (and have had that for years): Years ago (i.e. before anyone started to speak of any kind of European crisis), I started working at a German university, and it took them 2 1/2 months to wire the first money. It was quite less than a full month's wage and they even had the nerve to call it an advance payment... I also remember that at a certain point later they deceided to shift paying wages from mid to end of the month - IIRC there wasn't anything that could have been done against that (there may have been an extraordinary right to cancel the contract). </p>\n\n<p>Now, you ask what we read between the lines. What I read between the lines is that this office is not nice to you staff. With \"not nice\" I do not mean that they are not wiring the money (assuming that it is not the accounting staff that defrauds you), but what they could tell you in this situation.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>The text is extremely vague about when/whether the payments will be forthcoming there is hope that they will pay, but I'd have appreciated in your situation if they were hoping to pay <em>full wages</em> by the end of the month. </p></li>\n<li><p>Of course they cannot write \"run and get yourself a new job\", but they could have explained whether you are insured in some way, what you need to do in order to get that insurance, what else you could do, etc.</p></li>\n<li><p>In short, I'm missing somethins that shows that this employer is still <em>trutworthy</em>.</p></li>\n<li><p>On the other hand, the accounting staff is probably under extreme stress already for a while, so this may explain why they don't manage to be nice.<br>\nWhen you talk to them, try to let them know that you understand this and know that right everyone is putting pressure at them, and they didn't get their wages, neither. In short: try to be nice to them - being nice doesn't cost any money, and having a good standing there may actually help. </p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8858,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the comments I suggested <strong>Walk, don't run</strong> as opposed to <strong>Run, don't walk</strong>. Obviously, at some point you will need to get a job that actually pays you, hence you need to be looking in case things go even further awry. If however, during the next pay period you get paid everything you are owed, I would just let the \"one time\" screw up slide. A university level screw up doesn't really tell you anything about what your advisor thinks about you. I would talk to your advisor to make sure he/she thinks everything will be fine going forward. If you continue to not get paid, or are forced to take a pay cut, you need to decide if what you have is better than what is out there. As a post doc I would have rather had a few months of unemployment, or unpaid research time, than taking the first available job. You want to make sure you land in a good job, so don't go running off.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/22 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8800",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/"
]
|
8,802 | <p>I am wondering how many research interest should be included in a statement of purpose. Is it better to include just one core interest or to include up to three as in my case?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8806,
"author": "eykanal",
"author_id": 73,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One big problem with writing research interests for graduate school is that you barely know what's being researched. How could you state definitively what your interests are when you aren't familiar with the field?</p>\n\n<p>With that in mind, if you're a member of the minority of undergrads who actually performed undergraduate research and knows what you want to research, feel free to list a single field of interest. If you can list specifics (e.g., \"Following up on both the research I did in last summer, as well as the research from the Smith lab in Princeton, I would like to examine...\") that would be even better, as it would demonstrate that you know what you're talking about. (Pro tip: make sure you know what you're talking about when writing it.)</p>\n\n<p>If you're like the rest, though, you don't know the field, and that's OK. It would probably be better to give a really vague statement than to list a few things. Compare the following:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I'm interested in furthering my knowledge of the biomedical engineering field.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>vs. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I'm interested in the fields of brain-computer interfaces, tissue engineering, and medical device design.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is subjective, but to me both statements say the same thing, with the first one being concise and the second one sounding like buzzword soup.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8815,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p><strong>Be as specific as possible. Do not bluff.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Remember that admissions committees are looking for strong evidence of research potential. One of the markers of that potential is a deep interest in your intended research area. For that reason, it's important to describe your potential research interests <em>in specific and credible detail</em>. Why are you interested in field X? What specific problems are you interested in working on? What projects have you done? What papers have you read (or written)?</p>\n\n<p>It doesn't matter all that much <em>what</em> you write about. We know that your interests will change over time. Nobody is going to limit you to the specific research topics you describe in your statement. Your statement is at least as much a demonstration of intellectual maturity as it is a description of research interests.</p>\n\n<p>Eykanal's observations are correct. Most graduate school applicants \"barely know what's being researched\". A list of buzzwords mined from faculty web pages is not <em>credible</em>. You can't effectively describe what your interests are when you aren't familiar with the field. But I disagree with his conclusion; just because it's hard doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. <strong>Don't be most applicants. Know what's being researched. Don't be vague, and don't just list buzzwords. Make yourself familiar with the field.</strong></p>\n\n<p>After you've done that, writing about your research interests is easy, because you actually <em>have</em> some.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/22 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8802",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6291/"
]
|
8,804 | <p>If I write a report and a whole paragraph is based on one source but not cited verbally it seems unnecessary to include the reference after every sentence:</p>
<p><em>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua <strong>(source 1)</strong>. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat <strong>(source 1)</strong>.</em></p>
<p>Now I found a Phd thesis that puts the reference after the last dot of the paragraph to indicate that it is based on this very source:</p>
<p><em>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. <strong>(source 1)</em></strong></p>
<p>Is this a common practice? Is it generally understood? What are other ways to add the reference for a whole paragraph?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8805,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Generally it is sufficient to cite each source only once in each place where you refer to material from this source. \"Place\" may be one sentence, one paragraph, one definition, etc.</p>\n\n<p>If you cite a paragraph verbatim from another source, put it in quotation marks or in a quotation block and add one reference to the source at the end.</p>\n\n<p>If you have a whole paragraph referring to one source but don't actually quote it, it gets a little bit more tricky. You have to make sure that a reader clearly understands that the whole paragraph is based on the source you are citing. A simple citation in parenthesis just added at the end of the last sentence may not be sufficient to make this clear. One way to cite in this case is to write something like \"The following argument is based on (source)\" at the beginning of the paragraph in question.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8807,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The clearest way to show that the entire paragraph is taken from someone else is to set that paragraph off in some way. The two most common ways are to indent the entire paragraph or set the entire paragraph in italics (or both).</p>\n\n<p>The writing should make it clear that the author is not claiming any part of the paragraph as his/her own work and the example in your question simply does NOT accomplish that. The sample could mean that the last sentence is cited and the rest is not, meaning the author is claiming the first sentence is actually his/her own.</p>\n\n<p>It is quite messy to cite each sentence individually and it does not help readability so, better to indent/italicize the entire paragraph.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8811,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This problem is one that I commonly come across. In some disciplines one puts a reference after the last sentence in the paragraph, after the final period. I personally do not like this way of doing it and it may not even be formally correct in most disciplines. Instead I would suggest that you start the paragraph (or paragraphs if appropriate) by simply stating where the material has been sourced in the first sentence of the pragraph(s). Exactly how you formulate this depends highly on the content and what you need to write. It can be something dry such as \"The following information is from XXX (1979)\" but you can probably see how you can weave in the reference in an introductory sentence or two so that it makes sense and clear that you extracted the information from there.</p>\n\n<p>The main point is of course to make it clear to the reader where the information comes from. Clarily will be more important than nice formulations in this case.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8822,
"author": "penelope",
"author_id": 4249,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4249",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This happens to me often. I have several tips that I use when writing:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>the placement: it should not be in a section / chapter explaining <em>your work, algorithm, method, findings</em>. Probably, it'll be in Discussion, Related works, Introduction or Conclusion</li>\n<li>if it deserves a whole paragraph, it deserves a sentence. Some examples:</li>\n</ul>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The proposed method can be compared to the work of [John Doe, 2006]. The work in [1] addresses the problem (...) while the method proposed here (...)</p>\n<p>In this chapter we introduce a related problem examined in [1].</p>\n<p>The first important step in this direction was made by Doe [1] and here we summarize the most important findings.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><p>in general, you are putting some reference in relation to your work. Be <strong>precise</strong> with expressions referring to each paper like <em>the work proposed here</em>, or <em>the previous results</em> and similar.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>if you have more than 1 reference to compare with, <em>introduce them one by one</em>, paragraphy by paragraph.. If you mix them, you'll have to cite every sentence or two to avoid the confusion</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>you don't have to cite at the end of each sentence, you can cite at the end of each <em>idea</em>. If you're making a logical conclusion and just add a cite with the concluding sentence, you're giving proper credit.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 110202,
"author": "Guest",
"author_id": 93161,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/93161",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The problem doesn't seem to me to be one of how to format a citation for a full paragraph. Instead, the problem is that you have a lengthy paragraph that draws upon one source for many assertions (claims or statements something is/is not so) or facts. This starts to approach a plagiaristic form of writing.</p>\n\n<p>Another problem is that you are basing your entire paragraph on a sole source, and trusting that it is right (or, maybe, the writer simply doesn't care - I see that a lot with the writing of students who just want to get an assignment cranked out). If you are writing a thesis or dissertation, the care and concern for veracity of the information should, I hope, be greater.</p>\n\n<p>Try including more of your own thoughts, reasoning, or explanatory writing. If the paragraph introduces explanatory statements or other work by you, then breaking up the flow with the appropriate in-text citation from the single source isn't an issue, as it is less frequent than once every sentence. Or, find other sources that support or amplify the material in the paragraph, add in the necessary associated verbiage, and cite them too.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 110762,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One common approach is to include the citation in the first sentence, and then use \"they\" and related words for every subsequent sentence so that the connection between statements and reference is clear.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Smith and Jones (2000) conducted a study on X and Y. They performed X analysis. They found that blah blah blah. They concluded that foo foo foo. Their studies highlight that blah blah blah.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/22 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8804",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6444/"
]
|
8,808 | <p>I recently had my first paper to review. Since it was the first one, I took great care to be as constructive as possible and to formulate correct and accurate questions / suggestions. At that time, I recommended two major changes for the paper and a couple of minor ones (figures, typos, ...).</p>
<p>I just received the revised version of the paper, with the response to reviewer. One of the major changes I recommended was not fully taken into account by the authors. They did provide a very short answer, but it did not convince me. I read the new version of the paper carefully, to see if the content was changed to fit my suggestion, but it was not. </p>
<p>I am wondering what I should do now? Should I resend the same suggestion, pointing out it was ignored by the authors? Or should I let it go and tell the editor all the other changes were done according to my review? How should I tell the author they did not take my suggestion into account without being rude?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8809,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>There are three possibilities: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>The authors think they have addressed your major comment: in this case, since you think they haven't, either they haven't understood your initial comment, or they believe that another change they have done is enough. It might be your fault (because you didn't explain your comment well enough) or theirs (because they didn't understand it). It's ok to point out that you believe your comment has not been addressed, and explain it in a different way, to avoid any possible confusion. </p></li>\n<li><p>The authors disagree with your major comment, and did not change the paper accordingly: in this case, they should have explained it in the response to reviewers. It's ok to mention that your comment is not addressed, and it's up to the editor to decide whether the authors should comply and change the paper accordingly. </p></li>\n<li><p>The authors did not see your major comment in the original review, or simply forgot to address it. It's ok to mention that your comment is not addressed, and if you believe that it could be addressed quickly (e.g., some references missing), then perhaps it can go as a minor change for the next version, to speed up the process. </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In any case, it's ok to mention that your comment has not been addressed. You might not know the exact reason why, so it's always better to assume that it's just a mistake. The responsibility to accept the paper as such is not yours, it's the editor's. You simply mention that you believe something is wrong with the current paper, you explain why you believe it's wrong, and whether you think it should published without changing it. </p>\n\n<p>A typical response in this case could be: \"The new version of the paper addresses most of my previous comments, with the exception of XXX. Indeed, it is not clear how the authors address the fact that YYY (another version of XXX) in the new version.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8810,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is necessary to keep in mind that your review is likely not the only one, there should at least be a second reviewer. On top of that, thee editor can make suggestions to the author on what must, should or could be changed. I completely agree with the points in the answer of Charles, I also find it strange that you apparently did not receive an explanation to why or how your suggestion was not changed from the authors. It is, however, common that reviewers and authors disagree but what is right and wrong is another question.</p>\n\n<p>What you should do is to reiterate what you think is necessary and if possible support your statement with more arguments. Since it still is up to the editor to make choices and there are also likely other reviewers to consider, you will never have the full picture yourself and you can only provide your view. It is possible the paper will go to publication without your points being met. </p>\n\n<p>In some cases (journals) it might be possible to write a \"Letter to the Editor\" where one brings up the remaining questions. Such letters will be published along with an open response from the authors. Since you are relatively new to these processes, you could discuss the paper (after it has been published(!), if it is) with colleagues and consider writing such a letter alone or with someone. It is, after all, an open scientific discussion with differences in opinion.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8823,
"author": "Ana",
"author_id": 322,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/322",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If I were in your situation, I'd talk to my supervisor before taking action. All of the advice you already got here is quite sound, but it is also a fact of life that people who are new to the review process tend to be more strict than average. I would thus ask someone else in the field whether your suggestion seems reasonable, and if it does, then I would write about it to the editor. </p>\n\n<p>I'm writing this from personal experience - I'm also new to the review process, and I tend to overestimate the importance of the points I'm raising. My own current solution is actually to go easy on the authors once the revised version is in, as a way of balancing this tendency of mine out.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/22 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8808",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/481/"
]
|
8,812 | <p>There is a <a href="http://www4.caes.hku.hk/acadgrammar/general/argue/citation/subtopics/sec7refsvsbibl.htm">small difference</a> between a bibliography and a reference: the former includes all works consulted and the latter only those that are cited in the paper. Should we maintain this technical distinction when writing a paper?</p>
<p>Some journal templates require the title of the last section to be 'References'. Does this mean all the references must necessarily be cited in the paper? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8814,
"author": "tomasz74",
"author_id": 5973,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5973",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>From a practical point of view, whenever you send your paper for a peer review, they check if you have all citations both in your text and in sources. It means that \"yes\" they must be cited. </p>\n\n<p>Saying so, there is normally clear advise from a journal how to cite and produce bibliography. You should do what it says.</p>\n\n<p>At last you can always solve the problem by adding one sentence in your text: \"Additional information about ... can be found in [your references].\" With this sentence everyone should be happy.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8818,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, all references must be cited. To skip the citation process is to engage in plagiarism. If you put a reference in your reference list but you do not cite it in your text, then you must ask yourself why is it in your references (since you actually do not reference them)?</p>\n\n<p>In my field (business) you would never add a publication to your reference list unless you actually cited (in the text) from that publication. To do so would be to produce a bibliography which I've never seen anyone outside of primary and secondary school require.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8825,
"author": "Aaron",
"author_id": 1508,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1508",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, they are different and should be marked as such. For my thesis, I am required to have <strong><em>both</em></strong> a list of works cited and an annotated bibliography. As mentioned, the list of works cited (reference list) should only contain references that match-up to citations in the text.</p>\n\n<p>Additionally, my thesis also has an annotated bibliography as an appendix. Essentially this is where I can place works which may have influenced my paper, but may not necessarily have been cited in the text. Each entry also has an annotation describing how it is relevant to the paper itself.</p>\n\n<p>An example of this, is that one of the books (which I read while doing research for my thesis) provided insight I used to prototype the testing framework for my project. I did not end up actually using anything from the book for the written portion. But, it did influence the project overall. Therefore I put it in my annotated bibliography, but not in my list of works cited.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 183697,
"author": "Kvothe",
"author_id": 84370,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/84370",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think this is just a misunderstanding about what a bibliography or reference is. If you insist on this difference perhaps you can cite a more reputable source on academic writing. In a paper, references on a subject that you think are useful to the reader, from which you are not citing specific results, also need to be introduced in the text (often footnotes are used for this). How else would a reader know what they are or why they should look at it. It is quite common to write for example: <em>"For a great introduction on the subject of ... we recommend [1]."</em></p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/22 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8812",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/411/"
]
|
8,824 | <p>I just had my first paper accepted for publication (hooray!), but I'm wondering how copyright works for the paper. I know that for this publication, the publishing house owns the copyright of the final version, but I'm wondering if that means that I still have rights to distribute earlier versions (e.g., on academia.edu).</p>
<p>If so, which version? I.e., how different does it have to be from the final version?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8826,
"author": "Jeremy",
"author_id": 69,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/69",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A little more googling would have served me well - another answer directed me to <a href=\"http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo\">http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo</a>, which looks a good resource for determining rights for each journal.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8828,
"author": "spbail",
"author_id": 6388,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6388",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I suppose you've just answered the question yourself, but I'd like to add that</p>\n\n<p>a) it seems very common to make a copy of the paper available on your own site (or something like academia.edu) so I would think most journals do allow this (at least in CS)</p>\n\n<p>b) it is good practice, too, since it makes it a lot easier for people who research your work to be able to download the paper straight away rather than having to go through institutional logins or have no access at all.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8833,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>After accepting the article, the journal will ask you to sign a copyright transfer. This document should describe in detail what rights the publisher gets, and what rights you retain. If it isn't acceptable to you, you can try to negotiate; your institution may have an intellectual property office that could help. If all else fails, you can withdraw the paper and submit it to a journal with different policies (perhaps even an open access journal).</p>\n\n<p>It is pretty common for the author to retain the right to distribute preprints. </p>\n\n<p>Congratulations on your paper!</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/23 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8824",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/69/"
]
|
8,829 | <p>My engineering university offers a relatively new option to do an article-based dissertation, where the primary research is submitted (and hopefully published) in several scientific journals (at my university it's 3). The dissertation is then shorter than a typical PhD, because it describes how the articles fit together to form the thesis, etc. </p>
<p>It's a relatively new idea (for engineering PhDs and for me), which I find interesting as an advisor because it engages PhD students more in the research experience (publishing). Also, it is theoretically more efficient for the advisor and student (as a co-author), since time and energy spent on revising could be more focused on getting publications, and not only on a big PhD dissertation that few people will ever read. </p>
<p>There are other advantages described <a href="http://www2.ul.ie/pdf/324176726.pdf" rel="nofollow">here</a> (not my university).</p>
<p>My question is not about whether it's good or bad, but how the role of an advisor on co-authored papers might change in such cases. </p>
<p>For example, when students write a traditional dissertation (masters or otherwise), they often struggle with communicating. Students grow and improve written communication and contents of the dissertation in an iterative and incremental process (draft revisions after feedback from the advisor). </p>
<p>In traditional grad-student co-authorship setting, I would take a more active role as an editor (as my advisor did when I was a PhD student) on a paper, mostly because of experience and to increase chances of getting an article published. Sometimes that role is minimal, if only a workshop or conference is targeted, since it might be easier to publish there.</p>
<p>But with an article-based PhD, it seems that the active approach in editing co-authored journal papers is essential, and in effect <em>writing a big part of the dissertation</em> for the student. I realize every case is different.</p>
<p>I'd be happy to know from experienced advisors in this setting to know if and how an advisor's role must change in article-based PhDs.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8830,
"author": "Per Alexandersson",
"author_id": 2794,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2794",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am about to finish a thesis composed of papers published in peer-reviewed journals. I am the only author to half of the papers, and the others are coauthored with my advisor. </p>\n\n<p>The process is as you describe, we do research together, discussing ideas, proofs (I am in mathematics), computer experiments, etc. and I usually write most if not all of the text, any my advisor makes suggestions on improvements.</p>\n\n<p>I really think this process is superior to writing a monograph, since you get experience in the submission/review process, and being published really counts for something. Also, being the single author on some articles is usually a requirement for getting the phd, so people will know that you did some research yourself (of course, you discuss the progress with your advisor).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8831,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The system of article-based theses has been the norm in my field and university for as long as we have been in existence, although monographs are also accepted. We therefore lack experience with monographs, although I wrote my thesis as a monograph in the US system once upon a time.</p>\n\n<p>The main differences, as I see it, between monograph and article writing is that with articles, you must reach a high level very early during your PhD study. With a monograph you can work on all of it until the very last moment. With an article-based thesis, articles must be planned and written up early on. I would say that it is both common and useful to have the first paper being mainly written by the advisor so that the student can learn from scratch in every part of the article write-up. Since the goal is to make independent researchers out of the PhD students it follows that the advisor involvement should gradually decrease over time. This is of course good in theory but difficult in practise. The point is, however, that it is important to get an early start with the writing and the structure of the work has to be such that it is clear that publishable results can emerge after the first or second year.</p>\n\n<p>Article-based these need to be thought through so that papers can be produced. We let the advisor and student write up a time plan for the PhD work which also outlines the basic research work and the resulting papers. The plan is filed by the subject responsible. This plan is followed up annually so that changes can be discussed between advisor, student and subject responsible. This is useful since everyone needs to think things through on a regular basis.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8854,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This topic is near and dear to my heart, as the number of days until I finish exactly such a thesis is measured in a single digit number.</p>\n\n<p>If you field is dominated by journal, rather than book, publications, I think its a vastly superior system, leaves you better prepared for what you'll actually have to do in the future, and leaves your CV in hopefully a stronger place.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>But with an article-based PhD, it seems that the active approach in\n editing co-authored journal papers is essential, and in effect writing\n a big part of the dissertation for the student. I realize every case\n is different.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This has not been my experience - even the most active members of my committee who are co-authors on papers can't really be said to have written a significant portion of my work. Generally speaking, I would send them a fully fleshed out draft paper for their comments (which is exactly what I tend to do as first-author on a non-thesis paper), and then we'd iterate through the draft several times as they tinkered with language, added their own pet sentences, asked for additional analysis, etc. But the paper, in its final form, is very much dominated by my work and my writing.</p>\n\n<p>One of the keys may be to not wait until the end of someone's graduate career to work on their writing. If someone needs you to fundamentally rewrite massive parts of their dissertation papers, in my mind they're <em>not ready to defend</em>. They should be at a stage of maturity where they can produce largely independent writing, in need of only the usual modifications a co-author would provide to a manuscript.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/23 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8829",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3859/"
]
|
8,834 | <p>My advisor sets the problem. I implement the solution for this particular problem and for the set of similar problems using a programming language.</p>
<p>My question is, can I put the code in the public domain, if I decide to do so. And can I run the code for other people in exchange of co-authorship for their papers?</p>
<p>Again, my advisor did not ask me to write the code, he asked me to solve the problem.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8838,
"author": "dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten",
"author_id": 440,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/440",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Most of the universities I've worked for have been quite explicit that they consider such material as \"work for hire\" meaning that they own the rights. In that case you need to find out what the university policy is.</p>\n\n<p>Often you are allowed to open-source the code, but you <em>have</em> to find out.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I'm in the United States.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8841,
"author": "Paul Hiemstra",
"author_id": 4091,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4091",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You really have to ask someone at your department, or take a look at the employment agreement you signed.</p>\n\n<p>My experience is that I often just discuss with my advisor what we are going to do with the code, release it or not, and if so, under which license. A lot of the more general code I wrote is released under a GPL2 license. The problem of ownership often only arises when money is involved. The institutes where I worked until now where very positive towards making any software available under a public license.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8844,
"author": "cbeleites unhappy with SX",
"author_id": 725,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/725",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Copyright differs a lot between countries. However, here I'd recommend to come to a mutual agreement without thinking about copyright fights in the first place.<br>\nThat is, try to convince instead of trying to win a copyright fight.</p>\n\n<p>In my experience, in academic context some strong arguments for FOSS licensing are</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Reproducibiliy is becoming more important. And this includes calculations. Questions about correctness can easiest be answered by \"look at the code\".</p></li>\n<li><p>The academic currency are citations. It may be much easier to convert a software into citations (by requiring users to cite you) than into money (this requires a whole lot of infrastructure)</p></li>\n<li><p>if it is a larger software: in academia people change institutions fairly often. FOSS licensing is a way to make it clear and legal that you have the right to maintain (and use) code even after you leave that university.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you stay in science, this makes a steady state of technology clear and legal: when you change institution, your new institute profits from the work you bring, and your old institution can profit from the fact that you can still look at this work. You profit by not re-writing wheels. </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>As for </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>can I run the code for other people in exchange of co-authorship for their papers?\" </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Only <em>running</em> code IMHO is something that would be acknowledged, but it isn't enough of a scientific contribution for becoming co-author. So: <strong>No</strong>.<br>\nHowever, what you can do: write a paper and require users to cite this paper. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>A few points about the <strong>German</strong> copyright in this situation: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Copyright for computer programs is <em>the one topic</em> where German copyright is similar to the UK/US copyright systems.</p></li>\n<li><p>Basically, if you write the program in order to do work related work, the right of use automatically belongs to your employer (i.e. they automatically get a license), and your wage is considered to include the appropriate license fee. </p></li>\n<li><p>In Germany, <a href=\"http://www.e-recht24.de/news/urheberrecht/312.html\">It doesn't matter where and when you do the programming (it can even be in your spare time at home), what matters is whether it is to \"fulfill the tasks and directives [of your employer]\"(rough translation from the court decision).</a> IMHO the employer doesn't need to specify that you should program this, it is enough that you decide to solve the task he assigned you by programming.<br>\nThis is different from UK/US I think, and of course it doesn't apply to programs that are not related to your work. </p></li>\n<li><p>However, things can be different in academia. Lots of German PhD students have working contracts that do <em>not</em> cover the scientific work (the work for hire is looking after lab practica, teaching seminars, etc.). In that case, IMHO the university doesn't hold the copyright automatically. </p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/23 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8834",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6346/"
]
|
8,835 | <p>I feel like the answer to this question should be obvious, but it doesn't seem to be.</p>
<p>Anyway, in my second year on the tenure track, I find myself more confined to my corner of the ivory tower than I intended to be, and would like to branch out and meet other faculty in other areas. </p>
<p>My research (in theoretical math) is very specialized, so I don't have collaborations in mind. Also I would rather not volunteer for university-wide committees, as these look rather boring and I don't find myself inspired by the administration's pet projects.</p>
<p>Rather, I have in mind something intellectual and <em>fun</em>, that recaptures some of the enjoyment of being an undergraduate and hopefully leading to making new friends. For example, semi-public lectures on chemistry, theology, art history, virtually anything intellectual, ideally followed by discussions and debates over beer... </p>
<p>Obviously, the first step is to do a better job of carefully looking for opportunities at my particular university. (These have been a bit hard to suss out, but I could stand to look harder). Nevertheless I would be interested to hear success stories. What have people done to make connections outside their own field of interest?</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8839,
"author": "RSFalcon7",
"author_id": 5755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5755",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think this problem is very common.</p>\n\n<p>I'm no expert in making new friends but I can tell you what work out for me in my internship at UT.</p>\n\n<p>Starting from the lab, we use to hang out for coffee and talking about everything, most of the time it was not about the lab work. This was awesome, especially for an better understanding of the culture, food, girls... stuff like that. Dinners are also very good for socializing.</p>\n\n<p>The housing service was also cool, they organized movie streaming sessions and social events, usually with free food (which means a lot a people and something to talk about).</p>\n\n<p>Finally, when I did more and much stronger friendships was at church (I'm Seventh Day Adventist), people received me really, really well. Not directly related with the academia, but there lots of students in church and we talked a lot about our field of expertise. </p>\n\n<p>Probably the most important thing here is find things you have in commom with other people so you have something to talk about and find more stuff, and so on. Sometimes is right in our faces and we don't see it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8840,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I organized a beer night for tenure-track profs in our department (and this was later expanded to related departments). the basic rules were: it's once a month, anyone is welcome, and it happens even if I'm the only one at the bar :). </p>\n\n<p>Do you have one person from a different department you can start this up with ? set up a mailing list and ask around to get maybe another 1-2 people involved. Start doing this regularly, and never lose a chance to mention this when talking to professors. </p>\n\n<p>Word will spread. Tenure-track profs need support groups. Our beer night is very popular :). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8966,
"author": "kmm",
"author_id": 75,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/75",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just start showing up to seminars in other departments. At my university, there are several different email lists that send out \"Events this week.\" Seek out some talks are interesting and go. Maybe start with closely allied departments (CS, Stats, Physics). Then talk to the speaker if it was interesting, even if it's just to say \"Hi, I'm [XYZ] from the department of [ZYX]. I really enjoyed your talk.\"If the speaker is internal then all the better, if from off-campus then there will certainly be other local people talking. I've had a blast doing this at talks completely outside of my field. </p>\n\n<p>One of the very best things about being an academic is the sheer number of different interesting things that are happening on a university at any time. Academics are driven by curiosity, and a university is a smorgasbord of things to learn. You say that your research won't lead to collaborations, but you never know.</p>\n\n<p>If you really want to stick your neck out, start an interdisciplinary seminar series. Seek out connections between disparate departments and fields.</p>\n\n<p>As a side note: junior faculty should avoid committees above the department level if at all possible. Your department should shield you from these responsibilities. Your job right now is getting tenure. Those committees are for those with tenure.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/23 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8835",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6110/"
]
|
8,837 | <p>I am asking this on behalf of a relative of mine. He has a PhD with a concentration in Policy Analysis and Environmental Science and is trying to get a position in either a university/public sector or the private sector (research/policy analysis). He has been searching for a while and has had little success and is getting pretty discouraged. I recently looked at his CV and it seems like it needs a lot of improvement.</p>
<p>There is the catch though: he is not able to look for a position in the US at the moment due to visa requirements. Therefore, he is limited to looking outside the US (anywhere really).</p>
<p><strong>Does anyone have any recommendations or advice as far as CVs go for academic positions outside of the US, particularly Canada or Europe (what should be avoided, what helps/hurts your chances, etc)?</strong> Any advice regarding online resources or CV editing services that cater specifically for someone with a PhD would also be appreciated.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8843,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In principle, there isn't <em>that</em> much of a difference in the structure of a CV for US-based positions versus positions in other countries. There are a few items related to HR-type issues that you would <em>never</em> put in an American CV (such as photo, citizenship status, date of birth, marital status, or number of children) that can appear in an international CV.</p>\n\n<p>However, there may be issues with respect to the kinds of positions that your relative is applying for. Are they appropriate with your relative's accomplishment level? (That is, you're not applying for a full professorship in Germany directly out of graduate school, or the like.) Plus, there is always the issue of demonstrating a match between the candidate and the position in general, as well as the quality of the work being performed.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8846,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While people often spend a lot of time tailoring the format of the CV, the two most important things are: do you have the experience the employer is looking for and can the employer easily find it. So while I agree that career services often suggest a cookie cutter CV one size fits all mentality, it really is a pretty god approach.</p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately what really helps you get a job is a strong track record and not how that track record is presented on the CV.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/23 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8837",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6455/"
]
|
8,847 | <p>Speculative applications, i.e. application without a job announcement being published, are common (well, at least normal) in non-academic jobs. But I am not sure the situation is the same in academia. Somebody has suggested me to send speculative applications to different departments for teaching or research jobs. I was thus considering the pros and cons of this type of applications.</p>
<p>The pros are almost evident (more exposure). However, I worry about potential downsides. In particular, how would potential employers look at such an application? Could it make me look bad? Is there any other downside I haven't thought of?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8848,
"author": "410 gone",
"author_id": 96,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have a specific email folder for speculative applications, whether it's for jobs of any grade, PhDs, or Masters courses. It's called <strong>Spam</strong>, and all the speculative job applications go in there.</p>\n\n<p>If I'm feeling exceptionally generous, I reply with a link to the University vacancies page.</p>\n\n<p>And that's because one of the defining elements of academia is <strong>rigour</strong>. That means, among other things, being able and willing to follow experiment protocols. If the first thing I learn about a potential colleague is that they can't be bothered to follow our recruitment protocols, even though they're well-documented and linked to from our recruitment pages, they've pretty much already disqualified themselves from being an interesting candidate, unless they're really exceptional. (And as we know from Dunning & Kruger, the ones who think they're really exceptional, typically aren't; and the ones who are, typically think they're not.). Those guidelines are derived from legal advice in the jurisdiction of England and Wales. Other employers in the same jurisdiction might interpret the law differently; other jurisdictions will have laws with different implications.</p>\n\n<p>So, as someone sending out speculative applications, at best you spend a lot of time (that could have been better spent researching, publishing, networking at conferences) customising your CV so that it's targeted uniquely at each recipient, taking account of their unique position, and eventually you find a place that has slacker rules, or you find someone willing to break them. At worst, you send the same application to dozens or hundreds of recipients, showing each of them laziness and contempt.</p>\n\n<p>If someone wanted to get on my radar in a positive way, they <strong>wouldn't</strong> send a speculative application. They'd send me some research they'd done that was likely to be of particular interest to me. They might ask for feedback on an article before submission, or flag it up to me after publication, in a short, concise, email with a link to the article. They might arrange to bump into me at a conference or seminar. They might invite me to work with them on a paper they have in development, that overlapped with some work I'm doing or have done.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8849,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This answer is based on mathematics in the U.S. (I have no idea about other scenarios).</p>\n\n<p>Before electronic job applications, submitting speculative applications was common. It never had a high success rate, and it would be foolish to waste time carefully customizing an application for a job that probably doesn't exist, but occasionally a job opens up unexpectedly. For example, a temporary replacement for someone going on leave. Last-minute openings generally aren't great jobs, but the job market is tough and it can be worth positioning yourself for whatever is available. Receiving speculative applications was only a small burden for the department, since there's no need even to read them unless they are needed.</p>\n\n<p>However, now that most departments have moved to electronic applications, often centralized through mathjobs.org, speculative applications seem to be much less common. One reason is that electronic applications often require the applicant to specify which positions they would like to be considered for. If there's no appropriate opening, then it may not be possible to apply at all. (Another option is to apply for an inappropriate position and indicate a willingness to be considered for any other openings that arise, but this is rude and counterproductive since it wastes the time of the search committee for the position that actually exists.) Most departments still accept paper applications, but they are much more painful for everyone involved, so I would not recommend sending out speculative paper applications. Another reason for the decline in speculative applications is that mathjobs.org makes it much easier to advertise a position on short notice in a location every job seeker is aware of, so speculative applications are simply less helpful than they were decades ago.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8850,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Here is my standard advice to PhD students applying for academic jobs:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>First, look for departments that are advertising for faculty in your subfield. <strong>Apply there.</strong></p></li>\n<li><p>Second, look for departments that are advertising for faculty, but not in your subfield. <strong>Apply there anyway.</strong> There is no way to tell <em>from the advertisement</em> whether the listed fields are requirements, preferences, or mere examples, or if they just recycled last year's ad without reading it first. (Yes, I have seen all these alternatives.)</p></li>\n<li><p>Third, look for interesting departments that are not advertising for faculty. <strong>Apply there anyway.</strong> There is no way to tell <em>from the lack of advertisement</em> whether they are really not hiring, or they just aren't advertising widely, or they just haven't posted their ad yet, or they <em>thought</em> they posted the ad but didn't. (Yes, I have seen all these alternatives.)</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Before anyone objects: Obviously, I'm not talking about <em>your</em> department. Everyone knows that <em>your</em> department's advertisements are precise, timely, and highly visible. I mean <em>other</em> departments.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, if you're thinking of applying to <em>any</em> department, whether they're advertising in you subfield or not, it's a good idea to contact someone you know in that department to find out what they're <em>really</em> looking for. If your contact says \"No, really, we aren't hiring X,\" you can save yourself the trouble. But if you (or your advisor) don't know anyone well enough to ask? Fire away.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8851,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As an employer, I'll give a feedback somewhat opposite to EnergyNumbers: if I receive what you call a speculative application<sup>[1]</sup>, I will not consider it spam <strong>as long as it is relevant</strong>, i.e. if I would really consider the candidate if I had an open position. I have a ready-made reply for such cases (I must receive one or two a month), and I add these people to the email list to which I send announcements of job openings.</p>\n\n<p>The best inquiry, though, is indirect: if you know someone in that department, ask <em>them</em> rather than the other professors.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>[1] which I call a “job inquiry” or “spontaneous application” (the later is the common term in French, but probably not used in English)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8896,
"author": "Noah Snyder",
"author_id": 25,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One thing you could do that's similar to a speculative application, but better in some ways, is to email people in your field to express your interest in their department and ask them to keep you in mind if there are any openings. This can be helpful if there's a late opening, a visiting position which is not widely advertised, or even just to keep people aware that you're interested in case they have an opening the next year. Furthermore, they may be aware of jobs at other schools that opened late or were otherwise poorly advertised. My impression is that this approach makes sense if you are willing to consider a temporary job and if it is relatively late in the hiring cycle. It also can be more effective for your advisor to make these inquiries on your behalf.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/24 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8847",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
]
|
8,855 | <p>I've recently started teaching undergraduate students using the case method (management subjects). However, I'm finding that most of the students simply don't do the reading at home. Even though I (so far) have used only short cases (just a few pages), they still just don't do the work.</p>
<p>For those unfamiliar with the case method, if the students do not do the reading before coming to class, there is little to discuss in class. In the end, I feel like the class time is wasted.</p>
<p>Because of the design of the course, I actually don't have the flexibility to have this affect their grade other than to simply fail them. I cannot, for example, reduce their grade by 10%.</p>
<p>If anyone uses the case method with undergraduate students, I'd love to know how you get students to actually do the reading / thinking work required before they get to class.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8856,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I have some experience with lab practice in physics and chemistry, where we routinely ask students to read up on the work planned and do some preliminary calculations <em>before</em> they can come to the lab, in order to maximize their use of actual lab equipment. It's sometimes hard to motivate students for things that should be done <em>in advance</em>, but there are ways you can improve their involvement:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Make sure that <strong>the amount of material is compatible with the time they have to study it</strong>, and the demands on their time by other courses. If you're going to require something of them, it should be within reasonable limits. Also, make sure you convey that point to them: I have, on a few occasions, had to reschedule things to give them more time, because the material was very heavy and taking more of their time than I had assumed, or because they just had many other things to do (e.g., a full week of exams).</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Be crystal clear</strong> that reading the material <em>before</em> classroom is actually one of the <em>requirements</em> of the class, and that it is entirely necessary to actually pass the class.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you want further motivation, <strong>introduce some sort of evaluation of their reading at the beginning of the lecture</strong>: get two or three students to come up, and argue the case (or whatever it is you do in those lectures) before the others. Then, give them a frank assessment of how they fared, including “you failed miserably because you didn't do your homework”. Even if that evaluation doesn't count for the final passing/failing grade, it will motivate them and might introduce some <strong>friendly competition</strong>.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>If some of them still don't do a thing, <em>fail them</em></strong>. After all, you had told them (and more than once) that reading the material is a requirement for passing.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8859,
"author": "Cailin",
"author_id": 6462,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6462",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I teach courses that include lecture and discussion. If reading is not completed it is difficult to get the most out of the material. One thing to try is to begin with a 'low risk' reading assignment - something more fun and popular, or pepper your reading list with scholarly and more popular reading. There has been a lot of scholarship on the value of using graphic novels with college students. Decoding images and text at the same time is good for developing brains and can serve as 'bridging' literature to more complex readings. Fun reading can be a hook.\nI also have all my students on Twitter. This is new for me this semester. I have seen increasing participation from students if I ask them to post a discussion question, based on the readings, on Twitter. I was able to assess the depth of their knowledge of the materials based on the relative sophistication of the question. Most posted something, which I measure as engagement, what I am seeking.\nI allow the use of social media in class as well - Storify is a fun way to get students to summarize readings by harvesting multimedia from the Internet.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8864,
"author": "Blisterpeanuts",
"author_id": 6470,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6470",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I took a graduate course in immunology a couple of years back. The requirements to pass the course were simple: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>each student made 2-3 presentations in front of the class of basic research studies from a provided list. We had to create our own powerpoints, include the paper's graphics or provide our own, understand every line of the article, follow the footnotes, and possibly read related studies for perspective. Be prepared to answer questions from the class and the professor. Describe the research in our own words to prove we actually understood it.</p></li>\n<li><p>while others are presenting, we were expected to have already read the article being presented, and be prepared to ask intelligent questions.</p></li>\n<li><p>Write a paper based on other peer reviewed articles.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Each of these requirements was worth about 1/3 of the grade. You couldn't pass if you slacked off on any of them. Everyone had to show up for class prepared.</p>\n\n<p>Obviously, this is a graduate level of responsibility, but I feel strongly that undergraduates can be just as responsible when properly motivated. Presenting a case study in front of their peers and professor is a strong incentive, and it can even get a bit competitive in a healthy way; someone showed up with a $3 laser pointer they bought on ebay, and suddenly everyone was getting one. The powerpoints got fancier and fancier as the semester went on. People really got into it.</p>\n\n<p>For pass-fail I suppose you would simply make #1, #2, and #3 into requirements to pass the course. Why should someone pass if they didn't learn stuff? Anyway, this is just one data point and in a different field probably, but hopefully it might spark some ideas. </p>\n\n<p>And I love Cailin's use of Twitter. Best use for that thing that I've heard of to date!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8869,
"author": "Ana",
"author_id": 322,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/322",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Maybe this could work for you. I once took a course where every lesson started with a brief quiz. We would get a very simple, very general question from the reading material, and use 5 minutes to answer it in writing, signing our names on the top of the paper before handing it in. It was made clear that this was not part of the grade, i.e. that the only purpose was to ensure we read the material. It worked well though, because nobody felt comfortable handing in an empty paper. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8874,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think <strong>encourage and praise</strong> are important.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Encourage</strong> them to say things even if they have no idea what they are talking about. If they say something wrong, point out why it is wrong. And tell them this is exactly why they need to take this class - they are there to learn.</p>\n\n<p>If they say things right, <strong>praise</strong> them. Particularly, to those weak students. Everybody has his own weakness and strength. The weak students will get things right sometimes. Praise them when they did right.</p>\n\n<p>Initiate the discussion in the classroom is your job. Find some hot, interesting topic to start your class. The topic may seem to be unrelated to what you are going to discuss in the classroom in the first place. Lead them to discuss the issue you want them to discuss. Encourage the discussion. Praise them when they arrive at right conclusions.</p>\n\n<p>Once they are used to the discussions in the classroom, it will be <strong>natural</strong> for them to do their homework. This is because they are afraid of embarrassing themselves. They know they must prepare enough so that they can have something to say in the classroom and say the right things so that they would earn the praise instead of embarrassment.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, you need to tell them if they keep quiet throughout the whole semester, you'll have no choice but fail the ones who never say anything because you have no basis to pass them.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, I'd like to use this place to thank JeffE. I remember he said \"scaaahu's excellent advice\" in response to one of my first answers here. I was very much encouraged by this remark. I felt like my answer must not be a bad one. Otherwise, why did he say that? Thus, I continue to participate. You can see how important is <strong>encourage and praise</strong> to a mature adult. Not to mention undergraduates.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8903,
"author": "Ilmari Karonen",
"author_id": 496,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/496",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I know I'm basically just reiterating the earlier answers here, as most of these points have already been raised in one form or another (by <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/8856\">F'x</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/8874\">scaaahu</a> in particular), but I'd just like to add my summary of how I'd approach the problem.</p>\n\n<p>[<em>Note: Oh, wow, this answer turned out way longer than I thought it would. If you don't want to read all of it, I've <strong>highlighted</strong> the key parts so you can just skip the rest.</em>]</p>\n\n<p>For some background, I'm a graduate student in Helsinki, and I've grown up and studied in Finland. While Finns generally aren't quite as focused on \"face\" as people from some Asian cultures are said to be, we do tend to be rather shy and quiet, and sayings like \"<em>talk is silver, silence is gold</em>\" or \"<em>it is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt</em>\" definitely find resonance here. Thus, getting a lively classroom discussion going here can indeed be hard, something which I've heard several teachers from other parts of the world comment on.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>First, as you correctly note, you will need to make the students understand the importance of the assignments, and vague threats of \"I may have to fail you\" aren't going to do it. It's completely natural for students to try to minimize their workload, and if they think they can pass the course without doing the homework, most of them (except the few truly motivated ones) won't do it. And if enough of them think so, it's likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy, unless you're actually willing to fail the majority of your class.</p>\n\n<p>To address that, I'd suggest that you <strong>introduce a points system</strong> and make it clear to the students that:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><em>X</em> points total are required to pass the course,</li>\n<li>each exam / project (out of <em>m</em> during the course) is worth up to <em>Y</em> points,</li>\n<li>each discussion class (out of <em>n</em>) is worth an additional <em>Z</em> points, and</li>\n<li>getting any points for a discussion class requires <strong>active participation in the discussion</strong>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Having all this clearly set out in advance lets the students make their own informed decisions about how to prioritize their tasks. In particular, setting a definite pass/fail threshold means that they'll know exactly how much work they need to do to pass the course, and that if they don't meet that threshold, they <em>will</em> fail.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, some students will probably use this as an excuse to skip some fraction of the discussion classes, figuring that they'll still score enough points in the exams to pass — but those are the same students who otherwise probably wouldn't bother with the homework at all, figuring that you wouldn't fail them just for that as long as they did reasonably well in the exams.</p>\n\n<p>Choosing the point scores and thresholds is up to you, but a fairly common choice around here seems to be that the exams make up 50% of the possible points, and 50% of the total is also the minimum level needed to pass. Thus, in principle, one <em>can</em> pass the course without any classroom participation... as long as one is confident of getting an absolutely perfect exam score. (FWIW, as a personal anecdote, I did that once as an undergrad — I signed up for the final exam of a course with such a grading policy, mistakenly thinking it was a stand-alone exam, and managed to just barely pass. Got the lowest possible passing grade, though.)</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>So much for the stick; you'll also want a carrot to go with it. I'd suggest telling your students that the aim of the course is <em>not</em> to stress them out, and that you're willing to <strong>adjust the homework to fit their workload</strong>, within reason, as long as they'll tell you in advance when they expect to be busy and when they'll have more time. Depending on how varied your students' schedules are, this might even involve some personalized assignments for students who, for some reason, won't be able to attend as many classes as they want or need to.</p>\n\n<p>Such small kindnesses go a long way towards building goodwill and motivation, but there's a more subtle trick involved here as well: <em>asking for adjustments to the homework is itself a form of classroom participation</em>. Sure, it doesn't actually involve the <em>subject</em> of the course in any direct way, but as scaaahu notes, an important part of the process is to <strong>just get the students to speak up in class about <em>something</em></strong>, whatever it is.</p>\n\n<p>Another reason why discussing the appropriate amount of homework with the students can help is that, psychologically, <strong>being involved in making a rule makes people feel invested in it</strong>, and thus much more likely to follow it than if it were simply imposed on them by an external authority. I'm pretty sure there's actual psychological research on this, if I just knew the right keywords to find it, but it's definitely an effect I've noticed in practice. Effectively, by setting up a mutual agreement with your students about the appropriate level of homework, you're depriving them of the mental excuse that \"there's way too much stuff for me to do, I'll never have time for this.\"</p>\n\n<p>As I already wrote above, I also think scaaahu's suggestion of encouraging classroom discussion in <em>any</em> form, just to get the students used to it, is a good idea. In particular, while stressing that active participation is necessary to earn points for a discussion class, I'd also suggest explicitly noting that having read or understood the material is <em>not</em> required (albeit highly recommended), <strong>as long as one is willing to ask questions and discuss the topic</strong>. Of course, you can still make demonstrated familiarity with the material a requirement for getting the <em>full</em> points, if you want.</p>\n\n<p>One way in which that could help is that, just possibly, some of the students who say they haven't read the material (but can't say why not) actually <em>have</em> read it, but just don't feel that they've understood it well enough to discuss it without \"appearing stupid\" or \"losing face\". If you manage to convince those students that they'll <em>at least have to ask questions</em> about the material, they may even come to realize that their understanding of it is neither as poor nor as embarrassing as they thought.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Finally, since I mentioned my background in the beginning, let me include a couple of tips and traps I've noticed specifically regarding Finnish audiences. I can't say whether or not these might apply also to your students, but they may be at least worth considering. (There are also some implicit assumptions about classroom style in the way I've presented things below, but the general points should be adaptable to different teaching methodologies.)</p>\n\n<p>(Also, just to be clear, by \"Finns\" here I really mean \"me, and some other people I've observed in class\". Of course, as with any cultural or ethnic group, there's a huge amount of within-group variation, so nothing here should be construed as universal rules.)</p>\n\n<p>One is that Finns generally don't like to interrupt when someone else is talking; it's considered rude. By the same token, if they do feel the need to interrupt you, they're likely to just politely clear their throat (or, in a classroom setting, raise their hand) or say \"excuse me...\" and wait for you to stop. Thus, <em>one way to kill off any hope of an active classroom discussion is to just talk too much yourself.</em></p>\n\n<p>Going off on a long uninterruptible monologue whenever someone asks something remotely relevant is particularly bad — you may think you're rewarding the asker by seizing on the topic they brought up, but it's more likely that you're just teaching everyone in the class not to ask too many questions if they want to get on with the course. Engaging the asker in a back-and-forth discussion is a much better approach, both because it gives them a better chance to participate, but also just because it gives them a chance to tell you \"oh, I get it now, thanks!\" without having to interrupt you.</p>\n\n<p>Another trap is that Finnish students tend to be quite reluctant to answer questions which they consider trivial — there are several reasons for that, but I suspect it's partly a side effect of the early school system, where the teachers generally try to learn the progress level of each child and to direct questions of different levels to different students. While this is generally an excellent way of dealing with a heterogeneous group of students and making sure everyone gets to participate, it does have the side effect of teaching the more advanced students (who, of course, are the ones who mostly end up in academia later) not to even bother raising their hand for questions they feel are below their level, since they won't get to answer them anyway.</p>\n\n<p>The problem here is that, if you don't already know your students well, you can end up asking a question and getting no answers, and having no idea whether the question was way too easy or way too hard (or just possibly both). My suggestion for dealing with that situation would be to ask something like \"OK, so you all know this?\" and seeing who nods. If not all do, direct the question to someone who didn't.</p>\n\n<p>A third point, somewhat related to the first, is that Finns stereotypically don't like asking questions if they believe they can find the answer by just listening or reading more instead. (If you look at <a href=\"http://stackexchange.com/users/178805/ilmari-karonen\">my Stack Exchange profile</a>, you'll see that I'm a perfect example of the stereotype; I just counted that, excluding meta sites and code golf, I've posted well over a thousand answers and just <em>four</em> questions across the entire network. And most of those are self-answered.) If your students are like that too, they may be much more likely to speak up if they believe they have a reason to <em>disagree</em> with you than if they just don't <em>understand</em> something (even if they might actually phrase their argument as a question).</p>\n\n<p>One rather cheap, but potentially effective, trick to encourage student participation in situations like that could be to deliberately make trivial mistakes, like replacing a plus sign with a minus in a simple equation, and see if your students spot them. If they do, thank them and encourage them to keep an eye out for anything else that might seem funny. If they don't, you can always just \"notice\" the mistake yourself a little later and correct it. Either way, you end up looking a little less like an infallible authority.</p>\n\n<p>And, yeah, I realize that I've gone way off on a tangent at this point, so I'll just stop here. Sorry.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9054,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are already a lot of answers and I feel a little silly about adding yet another one, but I think my view is very different. I would classify all the other answers as taking a carrot/stick approach to provide an extrinsic motivator. I would push for trying to use an intrinsic motivator. You need to demonstrate to the students that class is better and that they will get a lot more out of it if they read before hand. I would devote some time at the beginning of the next few classes for the students to either read the material or be lectured. You could either use a show of hands or an electronic \"clicker\" type quiz to decide when to move on. This will allow you to get to the \"good\" stuff, but obviously isn't sustainably. Stress throughout this initial period that the later portions of class would be better if they spent time before hand doing the reading. Further point out that less material will be covered if they don't do the reading before hand, or that you might have to switch to a less desirable teaching method (e.g., lectures or presentations).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 21997,
"author": "Village",
"author_id": 600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/600",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I encountered a similar situation with some groups, but now only find the problem among the minority of students. When working with students who are not self-motivated, you must make them fear for their grade.</p>\n\n<p>First, assigned students a short reading task to fit each assigned reading. One potential task might be a <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KWL_table\" rel=\"nofollow\">KWL</a>. These are quite simple, but cannot really be completed if the students do not at least actually think about the topic.</p>\n\n<p>Then, set the deadline to shortly before the class (or the night before), asking students to submit their short answers via E-mail. This lets you verify that they read the passage.</p>\n\n<p>To deal with the pass-fail grading system, which I assume is for the total course grade and not for individual assignments, consider telling students that you will count how many times they miss these assignments, and if they miss 3, they have failed the course. Make sure the students see you keeping the record early on and let them see the tally for themselves.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/25 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8855",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692/"
]
|
8,870 | <p>How would names with 'van', written in the Dutch style - e.g. van Beukering, J., be ordered in a bibliography?</p>
<p>Do we count the 'van' element so that e.g. van Beukering, J. would be some point after Campbell, S. - or do ignore the 'van' element so that the first letter is and would therefore come before Campbell in a bibliography?</p>
<p>Does this depend on whether the author uses the Dutch 'van X' style or the American 'Van X'? Obviously concatenated forms such as Vancouver, C. would be counted as .</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8871,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are varying conventions, obviously. Pick one, <em>and</em> you might have biblio entries \"van B (see B... van)\" or vice-versa, especially if you have a large bibliography. That way you serve everyone. (I don't know whether automated biblio software can be immediately configured to do this automatically, but there are obviously work-arounds.) That is, functionality trumps everything else.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8872,
"author": "Pieter Naaijkens",
"author_id": 22,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>This depends on the specific style or country. In the Netherlands, surnames are sorted by the \"main\" part, so van Beukering would come before Campbell. On the other hand, in Belgium it is sorted by the first letter of the surname. There capitalization is also dependent on how the name is registered in the passport. In the Netherlands, one would write \"Van Beukering\" if the first name is omitted, and \"J. van Beukering\" if the initials or first name is there.</p>\n\n<p>In short, it may be difficult to tell if you are not a native speaker. It is probably best to just pick one of the alternatives and stick with that.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 46500,
"author": "zrnzvxxy",
"author_id": 35376,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35376",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The authoritative reference for this type of question (for librarians, at least) would be the publication \"Names of Persons\" by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, which is available for download here:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/cataloguing/pubs/names-of-persons_1996.pdf\">http://www.ifla.org/files/assets/cataloguing/pubs/names-of-persons_1996.pdf</a></p>\n\n<p>Here's what it says about 'van':</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>If the person is Dutch, \"van Beukering\" should be sorted under B</li>\n<li>If he or she is Belgian, sort it under V (but note the small print that says Belgian libraries aren't consistent across the country)</li>\n<li>If they're from the US, sort it under V</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The problem is that following these rules strictly is rather likely to confuse your readers, so I wouldn't actually recommend using different formats for people of different origin (though you will find this in library catalogues!). Instead, I suggest you pick one style and stick to it, as suggested by the other answers. Nonetheless, I think \"Names of Persons\" is worth consulting if you encounter name formats you're unfamiliar with.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/25 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8870",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4012/"
]
|
8,873 | <p>While reading the <strong>PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH</strong> section of some completed NSF award abstracts, I expected to find papers only within the limited scope of the goals of the proposal. To my surprise, I have found <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0914840" rel="nofollow noreferrer">some papers</a> in completely unrelated topics credited to the research grant that funded it. It doesn't even seem like a serendipitous finding or semi-related tangent either, but rather a complete deviation from the grant's intended purpose. </p>
<p>I'm sure that there are other justifications for attributing research grants for publications as stated in <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2685/acknowledging-funding">this post</a>, but it made me wonder...</p>
<p>How can one justify using grant money to fund research outside of your intended purpose of the grant? Is this a common practice? Are there any negative consequences to using your grant to fund extracurricular research activities? Under what circumstances is it valid to do so and when is it inappropriate to do so?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8875,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I've also been funded by NSF's Division of Mathematical Sciences, so I can respond personally. To first-order approximation, the only resources that research grants in mathematics (and similar fields, like theoretical computer science) provide is money to buy food to supply brain cells.</p>\n\n<p>If my brain cells (or my students' brain cells) produce research results during the active period of a grant, I <em>always</em> acknowledge the grant in the resulting paper and I <em>always</em> list that publication in my reports to NSF. It doesn't matter whether the work is directly <em>or even tangentially</em> related to the research outlined in the proposal.</p>\n\n<p>If that seems inappropriate, consider the alternatives: (1) Shut off any part of my brain that is not thinking <em>specifically</em> about the proposed work. (2) Allow myself to think about other stuff, but don't acknowledge the grant if I actually make progress. The first alternative requires irreversible surgery that I am unwilling to perform on myself, and the second is <em>completely</em> unethical.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8877,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A grant is not exactly the same as a contract. When you propose a set of research tasks, you're basically saying that you hope to make progress on a set of problems with plausible directions. Reviewers fund you AND the work. It's common to hear people say in a panel, \"This seems like a hard problem, but good things will come out of funding researcher X\". </p>\n\n<p>So at least with the NSF (and I don't have experience with other agencies), there's an understanding that you'll work on topics related to the grant, and that you'll work on other things as well - maybe even to fuel the next grant !</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/26 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8873",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/931/"
]
|
8,886 | <p>There are a handful of students in my course who came to class, did acceptably well on the midterm, and contributed to the (group) assignments, but did poorly on the final exam. The exam was a combination of multiple choice and long-answer "problem solving" questions. The class is heavily applied and has a strong emphasis on team project work but there was also a 50% exam component.</p>
<p>These students were surprised that they did so poorly in the course.</p>
<p>Is this an indication of a poor exam or poor instruction on my part? Is there something that I can do throughout my course to avoid this situation in the future?</p>
<p>Some articles (ex: <a href="http://chronicle.com/article/Stop-Telling-Students-to-Study/131622">http://chronicle.com/article/Stop-Telling-Students-to-Study/131622</a>) advocate moving away from summative evaluations altogether for example.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8887,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Apart from the natural response of blaming someone else for one's shortcomings (as students often do), it is difficult to see where the problem may lie. I have studied under a summative system and always found my grades were very clear and understandable to me, particularly if I understood why answers were graded as they were. Now I usually did not question someone's judgement unless I felt it was absolutely necessary.</p>\n\n<p>Now, many years later, I am teaching in a system where courses are set up with learning objectives. At first I found this quite strenuous since each objective must be underpinned by clear grading criteria for each of the grades A-E and F. Note that the major difference is that the learning objectives means you do not grade on a curve but in terms of how students fulfill the goals.</p>\n\n<p>Working with goal oriented criteria demands a lot from the teacher in first setting up the appropriate goals and then to make sensible criteria for how to judge fulfilling them. At first it seems tempting to describe the fulfillment as good, better, much better and outstandingly good or something of that sort but the point is to pinpoint what characterizes the standard for the specific grade. Since many criteria make up a final grade one must also explain the ways in which the different criteria are weighted together but that is a only a minor problem reminiscent of the summative system.</p>\n\n<p>What I have found in the end is that not only should the criteria give the students better ways to understand where they stand but they actually provide me with more fuel to explain why they got the result they did. I now have a thought-through list of arguments for a specific grade which is not relative to others but relating to a set of goals and how to fulfill them.</p>\n\n<p>If this is manageable everywhere is beyond my horizon to speculate on but I must say that after battling with the system (after it was imposed on us) I have found that it actually works in my favour—and hopefully also the students'). It makes the grading transparent. It is also possible to stake out issues that may reduce grades such as spelling errors in essays or missing labels in graphs or whatever details may matter.</p>\n\n<p>Now so far this concerned the setup of the course in terms of grading. It is of course necessary to also add structure to a class that forces students to work with the new knowledge during the course. This could of course be any activity that makes students read the literature and reflect on its content. As an undergraduate I was in a system where studying was mainly done during a few 24-hour days before the exam. Once it was passed most was forgotten. As a graduate student I was in a system with lots of homework and other activities and I found that I really did not have to study that hard for the exam. So activities may play a role to help students reflect on the material. Exactly what activities can and should be used depends on the subject but the main objective should be to have students digest and reflect on the material. </p>\n\n<p>A final issue concerns examination. Does the examination reflect the type of knowledge in the course? This is a big question and one which needs thought. There are many alternative ways of examining apart from written exams and since I hate correcting exams I try to test other ways. Again, what works depends on the type of course but look into other ways of examining the course to see if that will help.</p>\n\n<p>I do not know if this is helpful as an attempt to answer your question but the topic of learning outcomes is difficult and whereas the learning at university level really IS the student's responsibility, it is the learning activities and assessments we make that can help them reach results.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8889,
"author": "Irwin",
"author_id": 5944,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5944",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I was just speaking with another instructor and received this advice:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Grades are non-negotiable unless there's a clerical mistake.</li>\n<li>Transparency will help avoid issues at the end regarding mistakes. One way to easily post marks is to assign each student a unique number at the start of the course, which enables you to post marks as they come in.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I posted it as an answer to my own question because I believe it's helpful advice to know and something I wish I had considered more strongly at the beginning (especially regarding transparency).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8902,
"author": "Brendan Long",
"author_id": 2810,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2810",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you believe these students understood the material (based on other measures like projects), but they did badly on the exam, then it's a problem with the exam.</p>\n\n<p>While I was in college, problems like this came up a couple of times, and the professors handled it with one of the following solutions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Not having the exam, or removing the exam from final grades.</li>\n<li>Grading students with and without the exam and giving them the higher grade.</li>\n<li>Changing the grading scale for the exam (not necessarily on a curve).</li>\n<li>Offering a chance to re-take the exam.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Since your class already has projects, the first two seem like good options.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, this is all based on the assumption that you think they understand the material and just did badly on the exam. If they also did badly on the projects, then there's a good chance they're just trying to avoid responsibility.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/26 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8886",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5944/"
]
|
8,888 | <p>I am currently in the process of completing my dissertation.
I am a big fan of unit tests, so I would like to implement a procedure that corrects my writing ( or removes bugs so to speak.)</p>
<p>A few examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>check spelling of all text</li>
<li>do all figures have a description that is up to date with the picture</li>
<li>search for "like" and replace it with "as" or a better sounding word</li>
<li>has every head and subhead one or two sentences of introduction </li>
<li>are the figures at the right place in the pdf?</li>
</ul>
<p>I am looking for a lot more of these "Bugs" that I was unfortunate enough to introduce into a text and found them only at the last-minute check. What else are common bugs that need to be eliminated?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8890,
"author": "David Ketcheson",
"author_id": 81,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>This doesn't cover everything you want, by any means, but it is an attempt to automate similar things:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://matt.might.net/articles/shell-scripts-for-passive-voice-weasel-words-duplicates/\">http://matt.might.net/articles/shell-scripts-for-passive-voice-weasel-words-duplicates/</a></p>\n\n<p>You could probably accomplish some of what you want with similar scripts. Some of the checks you wish to do are easily scripted as long as your thesis file(s) are plain text. If you're using Word, automation will be more challenging.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8892,
"author": "Alex Sanders",
"author_id": 6482,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6482",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The python <code>unittest</code> framework is very good for this sort of thing: <a href=\"http://docs.python.org/2/library/unittest.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://docs.python.org/2/library/unittest.html</a>. You would need to extend it to include the particular set of features you are looking for; I am not aware of a library that has the specific ones you mention already built it.</p>\n\n<p>However, there are a lot of free dictionary lists for spelling (<a href=\"http://wordlist.sourceforge.net/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://wordlist.sourceforge.net/</a>) that would be fairly easy to incorporate.</p>\n\n<p>As for putting the figures in the right place, you would need some kind of specification to check against. I assume you are doing this in TeX? There are a lot of good packages available for that sort of thing. Check out this question (<a href=\"https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/553/what-packages-do-people-load-by-default-in-latex\">https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/553/what-packages-do-people-load-by-default-in-latex</a>) on the TeX stack exchange.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 56131,
"author": "Arsak",
"author_id": 42590,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/42590",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just to add the previous answers:</p>\n\n<p>To my experience, there usually is something wrong with the title page:\nWrong year, typo in the title or supervisors name <em>etc</em>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 56144,
"author": "luisluix",
"author_id": 31868,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31868",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A few that I can think of:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Check that font is consistent on captions for tables/images. Same for headers.</p></li>\n<li><p>Check that referenced items, are in fact in the references at the end. \nex: [2]item2, you have at least 2 items in your reference list.</p></li>\n<li><p>Check that you don't skip numbers for labeling tables/images</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Note: You can have a software doing this for you, just don't forget to refresh/update it.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/26 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8888",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1568/"
]
|
8,891 | <p>I'm new to the journal publishing world, and I can't but help wonder why the review process isn't completely blind? By blind, I mean the reviewers don't know who performed the research or (more importantly) what university the research came from. It seems that knowing the identity of the authors could influence the review such that the quality of the research no longer stands by itself. You should be able to read an article and, assuming that the experiment was conducted accurately and ethically, decide if it is a significant scientific advancement. Why are reviews not routinely double-blind?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8894,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The answer is at least partly that many research fields are small enough so that most people know what other researchers or research teams are doing. Anonymity is thus impossible because it does not take much to figure out who wrote the paper.</p>\n\n<p>Reviewers are (in my field) often anonymous. I personally do not like this because it is easier as author to judge the comments when you know who delivered them. When you get anonymous reviews you cannot easily judge the tone if it is just the way someone expresses themselves or if it is rude (positive reviews are usually not difficult to deal with for some reason).</p>\n\n<p>I have also seen in journals with open reviews how anonymous posts are full of abrasive (unprofessional) comments and hence not very constructive. I pesonally think anonymity brings out the worst in some people and openness forces one to focus on the constructive.</p>\n\n<p>So, double-blind reviews can be done but I do not really see the benfit, at least not in my and related fields where communities count a few thousand.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8898,
"author": "Noah Snyder",
"author_id": 25,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In fields with a vibrant pre-print culture (e.g. Physics or Math), most papers are already publicly posted on the internet with the authors name attached before the paper is submitted and reviewed. In that context, double-blind reviewing isn't even a sensible option.</p>\n\n<p>Even without pre-prints the same is true of talks in some fields. For many papers, many potential referees will have already seen a talk at a conference on the results in the paper. This may be especially true of math where the process of writing up a paper in full detail is especially onerous, so it's common for people to be giving talks on topics while the paper is in preparation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8899,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Theoretical computer science uses single-blind reviewing almost exclusively. Reviewers know the authors of the papers they review, but authors do not who reviews their papers. (As with many things, we copy this attitude from mathematics.)</p>\n<p>I think the main reasons we don't use double-blind reviewing are that (1) we never have, (2) we have a habit of posting preprints (although not to the same extent as math and physics), and (3) there's a general consensus that it's just not necessary.</p>\n<p>The standard argument that double-blind reviewing is <em>unnecessary</em> is that the decision to accept or reject a given paper is more objective than in other fields. There isn't an experiment to judge. Either the algorithm is faster or it isn't; either the theorem is true or it isn't; either the proof is actually a proof or it isn't. (I don't buy this argument, especially for page-limited conference submissions, but there it is.)</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>You should be able to read an article and, assuming that the experiment was conducted accurately and ethically, decide if it is a significant scientific advancement.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>These are not the only criteria by which scientific research is judged.</p>\n<hr />\n<p><strong>Update:</strong> As @a3nm points out in his comment, theoretical computer science is slowly transitioning toward a "lightweight double-blind reviewing" protocol that is already common in other computer science research areas. "Lightweight double-blind" requires the authors to submit their papers without identifying information, citing their own work in the third person, but it does <em>not</em> prevent either posting preprints to arXiv or presenting work at seminars and workshops.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://www.siam.org/conferences/cm/conference/alenex21\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">ALENEX</a>, <a href=\"http://www.disc-conference.org/wp/disc2020/call-for-papers/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">DiSC</a>, <a href=\"http://algo2020.di.unipi.it/ESA2020/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">ESA</a>, <a href=\"https://facctconference.org/2020/callforpapers.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">FAccT</a>, <a href=\"https://easychair.org/cfp/FODS-2020\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">FODS</a>, and <a href=\"https://lics.siglog.org/lics20/cfp.php\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">LICS</a> already follow this protocol, as do several conferences at the intersection of theoretical computer science and machine learning. Major conferences like SODA are at least seriously discussing the idea, but change is slow, and many (especially senior) researchers are strongly opposed to the idea.</p>\n<p>For more information, see <a href=\"http://blog.geomblog.org/2018/01/report-on-double-blind-reviewing-in.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this report on double-blind reviewing at ALENEX 2018</a> and <a href=\"https://popl18.sigplan.org/track/POPL-2018-papers#Submission-and-Reviewing-FAQ\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this FAQ from POPL 2018</a>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8907,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While <a href=\"http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/mckinley/notes/blind.html\">this article by Kathryn McKinley</a> is quite old now, it provides a much more nuanced view of the processes that would support a double blind review process. In brief, it's not as simple as \"make everything double blind\". There are stages where it's important, and there are stages in the review process where it's useful NOT to be double blind. </p>\n\n<p>Roughly speaking, you want double blind review when doing the initial evaluation, because people are more likely to jump to conclusions on a first look. But later on, it's helpful to know who's doing the work because even in mathematical work, there's an element of trust that goes into evaluating a paper (especially in theoretical CS for example, where papers are way too short (and deadlines too close) to do a rigorous evaluation of proofs). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8909,
"author": "adhalanay",
"author_id": 981,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/981",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the age of Internet is not very difficult to get the name of the author (at least with a high probability), especially in a field with few practitioners. For instance see this: <a href=\"http://www.newappsblog.com/2012/12/the-journal-reviewing-process-isnt-anonymous-did-you-really-think-it-was-think-again.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.newappsblog.com/2012/12/the-journal-reviewing-process-isnt-anonymous-did-you-really-think-it-was-think-again.html</a>.</p>\n\n<p>So in practice only the reviewer remains anonymous. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 26683,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In some fields that involve a high degree of \"practical development\" (recognizeable prototypes etc.) rather than \"just\" theoretical concepts, it is often impractical to attempt and conceal the identity of submission authors.</p>\n\n<p>A conference or journal may require submissions to be anonymized, which adds a certain extra burden on the authors: Anonymizing does <em>not</em> end with removing the authors list, certain sections such as an <em>Acknowledgments</em> section need to be removed, and parts of the text may need to be rewritten (when referencing earlier work by the same authors and would, in the final paper, write \"We have already ...\"). And as it is sometimes still obvious that the current submission is the direct successor of an earlier work, that reference needs to be replaced with something like <em>Removed for double-blind review</em>, thus naturally reducing the usefulness of the references.</p>\n\n<p>And yet, all of those factors may easily be in vain, as, for example, CS often involves prototypical applications that get repeatedly extended. The theoretical possibility exists that another researcher may have gotten their hands on someone else's prototype, but when the screenshots in the submission bear a striking resemblance to those in a previously published work (*), the most likely explanation is that the two works were written by the same author or at least team.</p>\n\n<p>So, as trying to reliably blind the submission is not feasible in many cases and just leads to extra work for the authors (including the discussions if the double-blind review is optional), various conferences/journals do not offer a double-blind review in the first place.</p>\n\n<p>(*) I am not saying that the same contribution is published twice. I am referring to \"unimportant\" aspects such as the general layout of a window, or its toolbar icons, here.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 26703,
"author": "avid",
"author_id": 15798,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15798",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's not clear to me that in a small field, double-blind necssarily helps promote more impartial reviews. You gain something in removing bias/prejudice based on knowledge of the author(s). However, it becomes much more difficult to control for conflicts of interest: plenty of non-obvious connections exist between researchers that an editor can't be expected to know about. With single-blind reviewing, there is at least the <em>opportunity</em> for the reviewer to decline if they know they've influenced the author's views in some way, or if they feel they have reviewed too high a fraction of that author's output. If everything is double-blind, it seems quite likely that small review circles could form, to the ultimate detriment of the field.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 56002,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As mentioned in the other responses, often double-blinding is a thin veil, anyway. Moreover, for some types of papers, <em>knowing the authors of a paper can help assess the level of contribution</em>. </p>\n\n<p>For example, <em>knowing that the authors of a reproducibility study are disjoint from the authors of an original paper often suggests that the original paper has truly been reproduced</em>. In the case of an experimental Computer Science paper, this often means the code was re-implemented. This in itself is a valuable contribution (the reproduction of results) that cannot be assessed reliably from a double-blind statement like \"we implement the algorithm from [7],\" which may very well mean the authors just re-used the same code base that they used in [7]. </p>\n\n<p>As another example, <em>knowing the authors of a study can expose their biases.</em> Drawing again from experimental Computer Science, authors often select a subset of methods in literature against which to compare, but there is an incentive to choose ones own techniques (lower development overhead) over ones that are wildly different. (Here I wish I could find that plot over time of state-of-the-art performance relative to performance of the best chosen competitor, but I recall neither the article name, venue, nor author.)</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/26 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8891",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5958/"
]
|
8,897 | <p>An academic usually is a member of a professional association. E.g., a professor in meteorology can be a member of American Association of Meteorology. Sometimes, the fee can be something like $300 per year. Is it always the case, that such membership fees are covered by the University (department) or a research institute? Are there exceptions?</p>
<p>The goal is to understand the prevailing norm (e.g., 40% (or 60? or 80?) of universities usually cover single association membership up to $500/year).</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8910,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As you've already seen from the comments, there is no single solution to this problem. The rules vary greatly from country to country, institution to institution, and even department to department. You will have to check with the specific rules for your funding agencies, department, and other \"revenue sources\" to determine precisely which sources of funding can be used to pay for these. </p>\n\n<p>(For instance, in Germany, a professor's \"discretionary budget\" could definitely be used to pay for such things; in the US, this may or may not be the case.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8921,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As others have noted, you are generally not allowed to use department funds for membership dues. However, some societies allow discounted membership for the remainder of the year (sometimes, even free) if you register for one of their flagship conferences (usually the spring/summer conference), especially if you're a student or an early career scientist. The registration charges can be easily paid via grants/department funding and you just need to fork up the rest yourself. </p>\n\n<p>I have done this successfully for a few years now (with the department's knowledge). I do not know what ramifications this might have as to the \"continuity of membership\". In other words, I'm not sure if they count the past six years as a single block from 2007–2013 (i.e. member for 6 yrs) or six blocks of memberships ranging from between 6–10 months each. At this point in my career, I do not care for length of membership (it really doesn't count for squat), but I can imagine that if you're a senior researcher, the length might matter if you're being reviewed for possible election to the Fellowship of the society.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 51420,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I am at an American private research university.</p>\n\n<p>There is no general university or department pool of money that I can use to pay for professional association or conference registration. </p>\n\n<p>However, I am given both an annual conference travel fund as well as individual research funds. I am free to use those as I see fit within reason for purposes that promote my research and scholarship. That would include association registration as well as annual meeting registration.</p>\n\n<p><sub>Fine print: There are some restrictions. For example, I am affiliated with some programs on campus that provide research funds but I am supposed to use those funds for those research categories. Thus, I could use the research funds given to me by the fictive Elbonian Studies Program for registration with the American Association of Elbonian Studies as well as for their annual meeting; I could use it for my general Anthropology association registration, but I shouldn't use it for a conference/association that has no connection to Elbonian Studies.</sub></p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/26 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8897",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1537/"
]
|
8,911 | <p>I'm looking to apply to a Ph.D program in mathematics. I was going to apply last year, but ended up getting cold feet because I wasn't sure how having a <em>learning</em> disability would affect (1) being admitted (application process), and (2) if I were to had been so fortunate, whether faculty would treat me any differently (be less willing to take me on as one of their students, for example). I especially worry about (2) because I have experienced a few awkward situations with professors as an undergrad (at the university I attended, it was quite uncommon to find a student with a learning disability studying maths).</p>
<p>For the sake of simplifying the issue, let's assume that my understanding of mathematics is roughly equivalent to those who I would be "competing" against in the application process.</p>
<ol>
<li>Should I explain my situation in my application and can it affect my chances of getting in? (I do not mean to ask if it is legal or not).</li>
<li>How are graduate students with disabilities seen from a professor's point of view? </li>
<li>What would happen if I were to need a year or two more than other students needed to finish their doctorate? Would they consider this matter in the admission process? What about funding?</li>
</ol>
<p>I apologize if I don't provide a clearer picture, but I'm not very comfortable providing too much information. I would really appreciate hearing from those in academia (though others are obviously more than welcome to provide responses) who have either personally been through a similar situation or dealt with a student with a learning disability. Lastly, please don't worry about "softening" any responses, I'd like responses to be as honest as possible.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Update:</strong>
I am looking into programs both in Europe and in the United States (there are programs in both countries I would very much like to attend). I've noticed some programs in the United States state on their website they would like students to finish in 4 years (perhaps this is due to economic constraints in recent years). </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8912,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><em>Edit</em>: For some reason I mis-read the question as \"physical\" disability, rather than \"learning disability.\" I've amended the answer appropriately, although I suppose it still has a slant towards physical disability.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Should I explain my situation in my application and can it affect my chances of getting in? (I do not mean to ask if it is legal or not).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is up to you. If you approach it as \"how I've overcome my disability to do well in Mathematics,\" then it could positively affect your acceptance. If you do put it into a statement of purpose, make sure you have someone else read it over and criticize whether or not it sounds like you're forcing the issue (you don't want to do that).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How are graduate students with disabilities seen from a professor's point of view?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>As a high school teacher, I had many students with varying disabilities, and I approached each student's situation differently, always with the goals to (1) make the student feel comfortable, (2) to make the other students feel comfortable, and (3) to minimize any effects on the classroom because of the student's disability (e.g., one student had a pace maker and it affected the types of electrical experiments and demonstrations we could do during physics class, so I had to plan around it to minimize the issue). As a college instructor, I've had students with hearing disabilities, and I wore a microphone during lectures that the student could tune in to with a radio. I've also had students with eyesight disabilities, and we made sure that front-row seats were available, and that they had access to any slides before class (a good idea for any student, actually!).</p>\n\n<p>For students with learning disabilities, I've always encouraged them to use the resources available through the school. As long as a student has a documented disability, they get the benefits of that diagnosis (e.g., extra time on tests -- although I almost always give everyone extra time if they need it).</p>\n\n<p>I never felt any ill-will towards disabled students (physical or learning), and we worked around the challenges mutually. I'm sure you've already handled this individually with many of your previous teachers and professors, so I would continue to do that when you get to grad school.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What would happen if I were to need 5 to 6 years to finish my doctorate?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://math.stanford.edu/graduate/admissions.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">You'd be the average!</a></p>\n\n<p><em>Edit:</em></p>\n\n<p>In my first response, I didn't really focus on what might be different in grad school (vice undergrad).</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>You'll have many more one-on-one interactions with your advisor and other professors -- if your disability might somehow affect these interactions, consider that carefully when you decide on your advisor. For example, if your disability involves poor memory skills and you need to read notes before answering your advisor's questions, don't pick an advisor that gets upset when you don't immediately have answers.</p></li>\n<li><p>You will most likely have to give presentations in class and at conferences and workshops, which you may have gotten away with not doing in undergraduate school (and certainly if you have to defend your thesis before your committee). If your disability will prevent you from doing that effectively, you need to think about how to mitigate it.</p></li>\n<li><p>You'll spend long hours at school, in an office or lab, or the library. Consider this if your disability will be affected by it.</p></li>\n<li><p>You'll read a lot. A LOT. If you thought you read a lot in undergraduate school, stand by. Again, if your disability limits the amount of time you can read or the ability for you to read, you will have to figure out how to mitigate it.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8913,
"author": "tomasz74",
"author_id": 5973,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5973",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>EDIT: My answer is about research based PhD in UK from real experience, not from a leaflet.</p>\n\n<p>First of all it depends where do you want to study. I can tell you my experience from my UK perspective (I do PhD at the moment in Engineering, I finished undergrad Math with Stat). </p>\n\n<p>The PhD is completely different than Undergrad. You do not have to much contacts with Professors even with your supervisor quite rare. At least it is completely different than an undergrad level. You do your own study. They expect you to write some forms every three months. After about a year you should have written Literature Review (about 20-30 pages), after that start to produce some results.</p>\n\n<p>The aim of PhD is to make an input into knowledge. You need to find something new and nobody will do it for you. Do not expect that you will go to someone and ask how to do that because nobody will know. After your first year you should be the best expert in your small piece of the field and nobody will know better than you. </p>\n\n<p>Remember PhD is about writing. You have to write articles and only this can give you strong diploma. </p>\n\n<p>All your skills counts and there is no perfect candidate. You can have something what other don't have and this can be your strong point. I think nobody really cares about learning difficulties, because you do not have exams, do not have coursework, but your job is to write articles, if you can do that in your time and space, you fine. </p>\n\n<p>You will get funding usually for three years. After that you have a year to write your thesis but you do not have money. After that they push you to finish, so you need to pay the fee by yourself. Nobody will give you more money because of your difficulties. It is your choice. You can do your PhD part time and have founding for six years or you can try to find some sponsorship. </p>\n\n<p>To finish I would like to tell you what one of the professors told me about his recruitment strategy. I asked him what is the most important factor if he have to chose his postdoc.\nHe told me that he does interview and ask himself if he would like to spent 15 hours fly to a conference with the guy who is interviewed. \nThere are all different reasons why one person is selected and another not.</p>\n\n<p>Keep applying, keep in mind you will not get your first, probably not second or even third position, smile and don't give up.</p>\n\n<p>Good luck.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 13115,
"author": "gradstudent",
"author_id": 8817,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8817",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>WARNING: Stay at your home institution, even if it means that you\nmight not get your ideal pick of subject area. Once you leave\nyour home undergrad institution, you won't be able to get back\nyour accomodations so easily. I was accepted and into a Math PhD\nprogram this year with full funding. I moved across the country\nto work with a certain professor at this new school.</p>\n\n<p>The math department is awesome, but the disability services is\nhorrible. I was told that I am the only graduate student that has\never asked for accomodations...ever! The director of the center\nsomehow thinks that I am being insincere despite the multiple\nlevels of documentation that I have sent. The higher your level\nof education is, the more likely it is that you are supposed to\nbe a failure if you are an LD student. Since you'll be going into\nmath, they simply won't believe that you have any problems.</p>\n\n<p>Do not disclose that you require accomodations to anyone until\nafter you have been accepted with funding. Get these issues\nsettled before you start classes. It might even be a good idea to\ndefer your studies until you get these issues resolved with the\ndisability services.</p>\n\n<p>If you have poor grades due to a learning disability and want to\nget into a grad school, then you must compensate with published\nresearch with your professors. When it comes to graduate\nacceptance, they are only looking for research potential. They\nwill overlook your GRE scores or grades if they are above the\n50th percentile and you have a strong research background. The\nGRE isn't predictive of anything for math students because it is\na timed exam full of highschool math problems that you can do in\nyour sleep. With a learning disability, you will get a low score\nbecause you will only finish fewer than half of the problems, but\nsince you are a math major, you will get all of them\nright. Again, they are highschool math problems.</p>\n\n<p>The only grades that really count are are your proof-heavy math\ncourses. You should try to get As in most of these. Especially\nAbstract Algebra and Analysis. The grad school will ignore any\npast failures in the pre-calc through calculus sequence of\ncourses if you have done well in the proof heavy\ncourses (abstract algebra, analysis, topology, number theory,\ncombinatorics, graph theory).</p>\n\n<p>Go to all of the mathematics conferences and colloquiums. Hang\nout with the professors. Get to know a few of them very\nwell. Learn about their research. They will give you toy problems\nto take home for fun. If you do enough of these, then they will\neventually give you some real problems to work on. Then all of a\nsudden, you will be presenting at conferences and publishing\npapers with them. They will write you awesome letters for grad\nschool.</p>\n\n<p>Once in grad school, you will have to deal with another hurdle --\nthe qualifier exam (quals). These are typically timed exams. You\nwill have to make a really good impression on all of the\ndepartment's professors for several years if you want them to\nargue for giving you more time on the quals. Giving someone\nwithout a learning disability more time on the quals will not\nchange the outcome of the exam, so they will allow more time in\nthe case of an LD student.</p>\n\n<p>In grad school, you will work with your professors very\nclosely. Work on their problems for a while. Eventually you will\nrun into something that they haven't thought of. This will be\nyour PhD thesis. Every question that you can answer in math\ngenerates new questions.</p>\n\n<p>Your mathematics ability is judged by creativity, not on\nspeed.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 58176,
"author": "Jessica B",
"author_id": 20036,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20036",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Since I can't see it mentioned yet, I feel the need to point out that not making accommodations is illegal in some juristictions at least. Of course that is not the same as prevailing attitudes, but those change best when someone fights. Whether you are willing to be the person that fights is another question. However, what your experience would be will vary between institutions - some will be better at dealing with disabilities than others, so I would suggest getting in contact with current students to find out what things are really like.</p>\n\n<p>Another big factor is exactly what the nature of your difficulties is. If they are fundamental to your ability to do maths then you probably won't get anywhere, as you don't have a right to be excellent at something. If they are more about how you learn mathematics then you might be OK. Doctoral study is much more individual than undergraduate study, so you should be able to adapt working patterns to suit you better. On the other hand, some aspects of certain disabilities are so prevalent within mathematics that you won't get any sympathy from some people.</p>\n\n<p>I think that a key thing to consider is that the nature of accommodation would very likely change. Doing a PhD requires high level performance. You will not get credit for writing poor quality papers because it's hard for you. What you should get is help to build up your coping strategies so that you can produce high quality work despite your difficulties. The research community at large will not make any allowances for you, so you must learn how you can keep up.</p>\n\n<p>Personally I would think that taking an extra 2 years sounds like a lot. Universities and supervisors are likely to get hassled about a student taking that long. There should be systems in place to deal with people who have unexpected problems while studying and so need time out or just longer, but going in expecting to take that much longer doesn't sound like much of a good idea.</p>\n\n<p>I think you should discuss your needs with the disability office as part of your application process. Also, as I said before, talk to current students to find out what the local culture is like in practice. But also be prepared to take responsibility for yourself.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 60558,
"author": "ReJoyce",
"author_id": 46440,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/46440",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <ol>\n <li>Should I explain my situation in my application and can it affect my chances of getting in? (I do not mean to ask if it is legal or not).</li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Don't disclose until you get in. Research the schools and see what kinds of support are available for students with learning disabilities. From my experience, it is more important to have the support of an office backing you, than to have the acceptance of professors. My Chair and dissertation committee were all supportive and worked with me to finish in the timeframe that I needed.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol start=\"2\">\n <li>How are graduate students with disabilities seen from a professor's point of view? </li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Stigma is real. Most professors that I have dealt with as a PhD student did not understand or help me (not because they didn't want to, they just didn't understand), but I got the support I needed from the disability resource center at my university and I received the necessary accommodations. Professors had to adhere to the law, so they worked with the disability office on campus to make sure that I had what I needed. You are your biggest advocate though, and it is your responsibility to follow through on everything. When you do that and you have an office backing you, you will be able to succeed.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol start=\"3\">\n <li>What would happen if I were to need a year or two more than other students needed to finish their doctorate? Would they consider this matter in the admission process? What about funding?</li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I got 2 extensions and took a total of 10 years to complete my PhD. The average time to complete a PhD at my university is 7.5 years, so 2.5 years longer was no big deal. As long as I was making progress towards completion and submitting my APR (Annual Progress Report), I was granted the time. Like I said though, I had total support from my committee, the university grad studies office, and the disability resource center, but I had to facilitate this process and that was difficult.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 60560,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Echoing some of the other good answers: in the U.S., \"reasonable accommodations\" must be made. A modicum of formal documentation, and interview with <em>our</em> \"Accommodations Office\" will easily get accommodations such as more time on timed exams, for grad students or undergrads.</p>\n\n<p>Beyond contests and quiz-bowls, \"time\" is usually not a key issue in the practice of mathematics. For that matter, some people who've done very well in contests find genuine mathematics not to their taste.</p>\n\n<p>So, in the vein that \"slow and steady wins the race\", indeed, reasonably-talented (and interested!) people who can stay more-or-less-focused for weeks, months, or years will tend to produce good work, while quiz-kids who can only work for an hour or a day will not.</p>\n\n<p>This does leave up in the air the issue of appraisal of mathematical talent (which is not a scalar... it comes in varying forms) in the face of some sort of learning disability. The fundamental issue would be to convince the admissions committee that you have the talent, perhaps despite problems with standard filtering devices such as GRE... Hopefully, you have faculty mentors who can attest to your talent in much subtler ways than grades and such. If not, things become tricky.</p>\n\n<p>I've been on grad admissions committees for decades, and the bottom-line question is really about capacity and interest in finishing the degree. Achieving a good outcome a little more slowly is not <em>desirable</em>, but that aspect is secondary to the quality. Years later, a year or two now won't matter too much.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/27 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8911",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
]
|
8,915 | <p>I'm a very early stage researcher and my first two conference papers could have been better, but that doesn't stop new journals spamming me with offers to publish my work. This morning I received two emails from:</p>
<ol>
<li>Journal of Communication and Computer (<a href="http://www.davidpublishing.com/">http://www.davidpublishing.com/</a>)</li>
<li>International Journal of Advanced Computer Science (<a href="http://ijpg.org/index.php/IJACSci">http://ijpg.org/index.php/IJACSci</a>)</li>
</ol>
<p>Now this is clearly spam, they know nothing about my research area or they wouldn't be asking me, and my first reaction is to not waste my time reformatting work that I've already done. But am I missing something here?</p>
<p>Personally I feel that publishing in these general purpose repositories dilutes the (our!) publishing model and makes it harder to find related research. </p>
<p>So what is, if anything, being done about this?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8919,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>So what is, if anything, being done about this?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>Ignore them.</strong></p>\n\n<p>No, you are not missing anything. These journals are scams, not serious scientific literature. </p>\n\n<p>If you plan to publish a longer version of your conference paper, send it to one of the journals that your paper cites, or at least to a journal where you recognize a significant fraction of the editorial board.</p>\n\n<p>Sadly, trying to \"doing something about\" these scammers is as futile as \"doing something about\" fake email quota warnings, diploma mills, exiled Nigerian princes, international email lotteries, and three-card monte. Set up your mail program to blacklist their emails if you can, but then move on with your life.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 14537,
"author": "itrharrison",
"author_id": 9818,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9818",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you don't regard these journals as worth publishing in, then chances are no-one else will either. If you think you have unpublished work that people would be interested in reading, but isn't worth submitting for whatever reason, <a href=\"http://arxiv.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">arXiv</a> seems a good place to put it. There are lots of conference proceedings on there.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/27 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8915",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6492/"
]
|
8,923 | <p>En route to academia, are professional society memberships useful? So far, I feel like I have been paying ~$100/year for a few societies (with student discounts), just to receive copies of their monthly magazines that I only end up skimming over once. I get tons of emails that are vaguely aimed towards keeping people up to date with current research, but one can do that by reading papers anyways. So I don't really see a point to being a member.</p>
<p>Does anybody else feel this way? Are there actual benefits to being a member for societies like these?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8924,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my area, (computing and information science) there are 2 primary professional organizations that one is a member of. The first is <a href=\"http://www.acm.org/\">ACM</a> and the second is <a href=\"https://www.ieee.org/index.html\">IEEE</a>.</p>\n\n<p>In my own context as a graduate student, there are 2 major reasons why someone is a member of ACM or IEEE or both as follows:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>It gives me access anytime, anywhere to the <a href=\"https://www.ieee.org/index.html\">ACM Digital Library</a> and the <a href=\"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/guesthome.jsp\">IEEE Digital Library</a>. This is important because it allows me 365 x 7 x 24 access to papers and citations and references in my own area of work that are very relevant and important for me.</p></li>\n<li><p>It reduces the cost of attending conferences (sometimes by 15-25%) whether one is presenting a paper or poster or not (even though the culture in our area is that the adviser pays for conference attending funds but its good to reduce his/her financial burden).</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>A third, ancillary reason is that you can create your own Author webpages on these websites which is a good supporting place for listing your publications since they appear automatically in your author webpage once you publish and also tracks citations and references to your work.</p>\n\n<p>In my opinion, there are no other practical reasons for being a member of these two organizations. Of course, this may and probably will differ from discipline to discipline but I just wanted to point out the reasons for being a member of professional organizations in my research field.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8925,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to the individual benefits they offer (subscriptions, electronic journal access, discounts, the possibility of distinguished or honorary grades of membership, etc.), professional organizations also contribute to the research community more broadly:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>They organize conferences, publish journals, and support other activities, for example in employment, education, outreach, and public awareness. The academic community would be very different without these services, many of which need financial support.</p></li>\n<li><p>They represent their field to the outside world, such as government funding agencies, and make the case for its importance.</p></li>\n<li><p>They intervene in crises. For example, when the University of Rochester abruptly decided to cancel its graduate program in mathematics in 1995, the American Mathematical Society helped coordinate a very effective response, which led to the program's reinstatement.</p></li>\n<li><p>They monitor the health of the field and help members address any concerns (for example, by investigating ethical complaints).</p></li>\n<li><p>They help shape how the field is viewed within academia, through publicity, prizes, leadership positions, invited lectures, etc.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Membership dues help pay for these activities, which are also more effective when the organization represents a large fraction of the field.</p>\n\n<p>Nobody has an obligation to belong to any particular organization, but it's a simple and valuable way to support the field as a whole. I'd recommend that every grad student join a couple of professional societies.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8928,
"author": "quantme",
"author_id": 6498,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6498",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Give for receive.</p>\n\n<p>If you are a member of a professional society you can contribute, create projects, connect/meet people, improve skills, etc. In the other hand you can get/receive benefits:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>academic</strong>\n<ul>\n<li>professional prestige</li>\n<li>international spot</li>\n<li>professional collaboration</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><strong>economic (commissions)</strong>\n<ul>\n<li>training/organizing for events/congresses</li>\n<li>society funding projects (graduate courses, infrastructure improvement)</li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The usefulness of a professional society membership depends on your personal interests, society capabilities and is harvested with time.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8934,
"author": "posdef",
"author_id": 5674,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This might sound controversial to some but my understanding of it all is that the whole society concept is a bit outdated. I have a feeling that most of those organizations or societies have older roots and try to live on the reputation of what it once was. In my own field I don't know a single person who's a member of the national/regional/global organization. I know some who used to be, though... </p>\n\n<p>The only benefits I have figured out so far are discounts on journals, conferences and in some specific cases travel grants for younger scientists. The \"problem\" here is that the first two never really mattered much, in my experience. I don't know how it is at other institutes but we normally get access to a wide variety of journals via the university library network (in other words, I never had any reason to subscribe to journals) and likewise we are required to apply to travel grants in order to go to conferences, so having some percent discount does not make a huge difference (we either get the money to go to the conference, or we don't). </p>\n\n<p>To refer to some of the points mentioned: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>as I mentioned in a comment to Shion's answer, providing access to relevant literature should be a responsibility of the department/university/research institute. It is such a fundamental part of the work so that not having access to literature would be a service-professional not getting a hammer/screwdriver from his employer. Access to literature is as much of a vital tool for us as a chisel might be for a carpenter..</p></li>\n<li><p>some of the other benefits, such as representation towards policy makers, could be extremely region-dependent. For instance; as a European resident, I see absolutely no reason to be a member of ACS, which is one of the biggest societies relevant to my line of work.</p></li>\n<li><p>organizations/societies do organize conferences but you still have to pay to attend, plus I have yet to come across a society-exclusive conference so far. Note that I do not dismiss the possibility, but rather stress how uncommon it is. </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>All that said, I do not advocate that societies are useless. I only suggest that given the meager salaries we get as grad students, I think you can come up with better use of the money that would have been spent on the membership fee. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/27 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8923",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5613/"
]
|
8,930 | <p>My problem is the following: I teach an honors course in an engineering discipline at a small university. (It is not exactly that, but "teaching an honors course" is a good approximation to what I do). Large US companies sometimes ask me to recommend the best students for an interview, and they are often hired. The policy of the University in general is that it doesn't discriminate on political opinions or religious beliefs or anything of that sort. </p>
<p>Now, I have a student who is a very nice person and has a great academic record but he supports an ideology that many would find abhorrent. (Again, this doesn't mean he is a bad person. For example, the famous mathematician and Fields Medalist Stephen Smale supported Stalinist communism in his youth, in reaction to unjust practices in the US:
<a href="http://www.ams.org/notices/200011/rev-kirby.pdf">http://www.ams.org/notices/200011/rev-kirby.pdf</a> ). </p>
<p>Now, if I recommend him, I think there's a reasonable chance he gets hired because he's pretty good in technical matters. But then I think he might really get into problems there because he supports his "bad" ideology in a rather ostentatious manner, and I'm afraid that this will reflect badly on me and on my ability to recommend other students. I'm pretty sure the overwhelming majority of employees would be hostile to his ideology.</p>
<p>Mind you, I wouldn't have hesitated for a second to give him a recommendation for graduate study, people are usually much more understanding of that sort of stuff in academia, and the only person he really would have to please in that case is his advisor, and if the student's research is good, the advisor would probably forget about all the rest. But working in the industry necessitates interaction with a lot of people, and I think his ideological views may cause problems.</p>
<p>What do you think I should do ? Recommend him or not ? If I don't, I feel it would be a kind of betrayal; especially since he wouldn't even know why he's not getting the interview some people less qualified than him are getting. I also have the impression I'm not the only one to have this issue with him, as he has been already "overlooked" for several positions where less qualified people succeeded.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8931,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Recommendations are an inherently subjective practice: people are free to support whomever they choose (or not to support, as the case may be).</p>\n\n<p>If you do not feel that you can give someone a positive recommendation for any reason, then you are better off not doing so. If you believe that giving a positive recommendation to a candidate will damage your credibility, that of itself, I believe, is sufficient reason not to recommend someone.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if a company asks you simply to list, for instance, the top <em>X</em> students in your course, then you should not omit someone from that list for personal reasons; then the onus is on the company to decide who they want. Your job is to provide the objective information the company asked for. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8932,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I find your question very intriguing. I have never had a problem of this magnitude but are frequently asked to write letters of recommendation and sometimes for people who I do not think are very capable and so the conundrum is there, what do you do? </p>\n\n<p>If you are asked to rate people for a job where their academic merits are what counts then I think it is pretty clear that you cannot omit this person. After all, what if you recommend someone who has similar ideas but that you do not know about? The question becomes somewhat philosophical in the sense that it becomes: who's responsibility is it? Yours or the company's that hire the person? And add to that, where do you draw the line between what is acceptable and what is not? Other's may set different limits.</p>\n\n<p>If the job involves tasks were the ideology might be key to the company the situation is of course worse and then it may become necessary to state the facts. But again, it is loose grounds on which we move and tactfulness is paramount.</p>\n\n<p>If you are asked to write a letter of recommendation, you can of course deny based on whatever grounds (you can come up with). It is also possible to make subtle points through what you do not say in a letter. Whether such points are picked up on th eother side is difficult to say of course. But it would be possible to stress that \"<em>academically</em> the person is very good\" and other points along the same lines, circumventing the parts that are not something you endorse.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8935,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Although aeismail's answer is excellent, I will add my opinion that if the student's ideology would cause problems in the work (as implied) that is also a good reason NOT to recommend the student as it means the student would contribute negatively and would harm the company (harm team spirit or other group dynamics).</p>\n\n<p>If you recommend someone who you could foresee having a negative impact on the company, then your reputation would naturally suffer (rightfully so).</p>\n\n<p>It takes more than just good technical understanding to work well in a team.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8936,
"author": "anon",
"author_id": 6501,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6501",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As an adherent of Objectivism (an ideology I'm sure many many academics would consider \"bad\"), I never had a problem with this kind of issue because I am not ostentatious about my beliefs, or the kind of person David Brin would call a \"lapel grabber.\" It sounds like this student either is not aware or does not care that his manner of touting his beliefs makes others feel uncomfortable and alienated from him.</p>\n\n<p>Here's the hard part: whether you write the recommendation or not, for the student's own sake, I suggest that you bring up this issue to him. He may decide to throw it back in your face (a pretty likely outcome if he's really in the grips of a true believer phase), but he can only benefit from hearing that his methods of pushing his beliefs are holding him back professionally and socially.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8937,
"author": "anon",
"author_id": 6502,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6502",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As stated in the other answers, no-one can coerce you to provide a recommendation, you are free to not recommend a student for any reason you choose, or no reason at all - if you are not comfortable recommending this student, then don't.</p>\n\n<p>However, from your description, I would suggest that it's not the ideology at issue, but the student's interpersonal skills. I guarantee you that I have opinions that you would find absolutely abhorrent, and you have opinions that I would likewise. The point is that in a professional context we usually have the good sense to keep these things to ourselves. </p>\n\n<p>It's not clear what your opinion of the student, and their suitability for the role, actually is. If you think that the way he expresses his ideology interferes with his ability do the job well, or his ideological standing is in some way relevant to the job at hand, then there is no conflict here. (For example, a raving misogynist would be completely inappropriate in a supervisory position.)</p>\n\n<p>If you think that he nevertheless really would be an asset to the company, then you can either (i) informally suggest to your contact: \"Here is a brilliant student who will produce technically excellent work, but be careful; he has a bit of a problem with appropriate boundaries at work.\" and/or (ii) write a letter that expresses his technical skills and omits any mention of personality or social skills. The omission will be loud and clear. In the end, it is up to the company to decide if the tradeoff is worth it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8938,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are different levels of ideologist people. When I was a graduate student, I had friends from other religions and I had very close friendships with them, and on the other extreme, I had a classmate from the same religion as I had at the time, but I did not feel safe around him and I usually avoided any discussions with him. So I think an individual should not be judged only based on his political or religious point of view. Here the important issue is what that person is capable or willing to do because of his ideology. Is he an extremist? Is he an activist who is connected with questionable organizations? Does he have a criminal record? Is he bothering people with comments or discussions coming from his ideology? Is his actions (and his productivity) in the workplace is affected by his ideology? If I have seen one of these issues (or similar issues), I'll think twice about writing recommendation letter for him. Otherwise, I simply ignore his ideology. After all, the company is going to interview him and it is interviewers job to find out if he is a good fit for their organization.</p>\n\n<p>I have to respectfully disagree with you about one thing you mentioned in your question: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>people are usually much more understanding of that sort of stuff in academia...</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don't know what your experience is in academia, but I have several very bad experiences about being judged in academia because of my point of view, my nationality, my religion, my personality, even because of my very personal issues like being single. On the contrary, I have worked and had several interviews with non-academic organizations and I have never seen such prejudices in these organizations. The reason is very simple. In business people are trying to make money and as long as you (as an employee) can help the organization to make money you are accepted and nobody cares what your ideology (race, religion, etc) is. But, in academia, money or advancement is not the first priority, and certain people can impose their will against <strong>\"officially accepted\" academic goals</strong>. Therefore it is easy to be judged in academia just because you think differently. Ironically, the fact that you have recognized this student as a person with a bad ideology shows that in academia people notice and judge people based on their ideology.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8940,
"author": "Willis",
"author_id": 6505,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6505",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think for an appropriate answer I'd need to know exactly what the 'bad' ideology is. If it is something that could potentially be illegal or criminal, then the answer is clearly: don't recommend this person. However, if the ideology is something that is political, religious, or otherwise legal, you really can't bar this person simply because you don't agree with their allegedly 'bad' ideology.\nI'd even go so far as to say, if you don't recommend this person on the basis that they 'hate gays' or support socialism, you might be legally considered to be discriminating against this person.\nUltimately, be subjective about this students work and objective about their qualifications.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8942,
"author": "oks",
"author_id": 6508,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6508",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you can't recommend him whole-heartedly, don't recommend him. A lukewarm recommendation will be damaging for him and raise questions about you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8943,
"author": "posdef",
"author_id": 5674,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think you should try and figure out what your <strong>primary</strong> concern is; to protect your (former?) student from a potentially hostile work environment OR to protect your reputation towards companies that you have been in contact with.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>if you are primarily concerned about how the student would feel going into an environment that might turn out to be hostile towards him/her, just try to explain that his way of thinking, his belief... might not be appreciated and indeed might create tension in the future.</p></li>\n<li><p>If it's the latter, in other words if you are concerned about whether or not your reputation would be effected negatively; then I think you should not recommend a person that will likely not be appreciated by peers and employers. </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Yet again another perspective to this is whether or not you can distance yourself from the candidate in question. I mean if company A comes to you and asks whether or not you have any talented student, you can recommend whoever, given that their academic/intellectual merits are top-notch. In that case I don't think you would be liable for any personality traits and such. </p>\n\n<p>If the student wants a recommendation towards a specific company, then by giving that recommendation you essentially vouch for that person. If you don't think the student is a good fit for the company/institute, you should not recommend him/her obviously. </p>\n\n<p>I apologize if my answer is a bit too vague, I feel I used too many \"if\"s there, but in my defense the question is pretty vague as well. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8944,
"author": "Aname",
"author_id": 6511,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6511",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As soon as you will send the recommendation letter directly to the companies, can't you simply warn about this concern in your letter? \nThen it is their responsibility to talk about it with your student, during the interview; and to decide if his positions and attitude is acceptable to them...</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8945,
"author": "Jashan",
"author_id": 6512,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6512",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my opinion recommend him. Whatever his ideology, for you he is a best student and as per the university norms and your academical valuation he is eligible. So let him live his own life. by not recommending you cant help him to escape from \"same situations\" in future. May be he will change when he get into the work environment. The college life and professional life is different in my perspective. may be he will adapt with the situation. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8946,
"author": "Ilmari Karonen",
"author_id": 496,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/496",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In your question, you write:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"Large US companies sometimes ask me to recommend the best students for an interview, and they are often hired.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I'd like to underline the words \"<em>for an interview</em>\" here. It doesn't look like the companies you're recommending these students for are just blindly hiring them based on your recommendation alone, <em>and that's a very good thing.</em></p>\n\n<p>It really is the interviewers' job to filter out candidates with unsuitable attitudes or insufficient interpersonal skills — that's the point of having an in-person job interview, rather than just hiring the candidate based on their CV and maybe an e-mail quiz.</p>\n\n<p>Sure, it's possible that the student you're concerned about may try to be on their best behavior during the interview and downplay any problematic aspects of their personality — most people do, after all. But that's something any reasonably experience interviewer will know to account for.\nAlso, if the student has enough self-awareness to know that they may want to downplay their ideology during the interview, they'll hopefully also be smart enough not to flaunt it excessively in the workplace either.</p>\n\n<p>And conversely, this also comes down to <em>their</em> personal preferences regarding their work environment as well — if they don't feel they can be comfortable at a job where they cannot openly profess their ideology, to the extent they feel they need to, then it's unlikely that they would <em>completely</em> suppress any mention of it at the interview, either.</p>\n\n<p>And if not, well, I would hope that the company also has a trial period for new hires. Most do, precisely because there are some workplace issues which may not always be caught at the interview stage.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Coming at the question from another direction, it looks like your main <em>personal</em> concern here is that:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"I'm afraid that this will reflect badly on me and on my ability to recommend other students.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I very much doubt that will be the case, unless you're actually being asked to personally vouch for the suitability of each recommended student to the job — a rather heavy and unusual responsibility for someone not actually working for the company.</p>\n\n<p>Just make sure that you don't say anything untrue in your recommendations: if a student is lazy, don't call them hardworking, and if they are abrasive and prone to conflicts with others, don't say they're a great team player.</p>\n\n<p>Personally, I'd suggest just writing up a fair recommendation of this student, focusing on their technical skills and any other aspect where they actually excel, and leaving those areas where they do not unmentioned. In particular, if you're not <em>sure</em> the student's personality would be a good fit for the company, you can just explicitly recommend the student <em>for an interview</em> at the company based on their technical skills, with an implied \"just talk to this guy and see if you want him or not.\" Who knows, the company might be just fine with his attitude, or at least might have a slot for him where he can exercise his technical skills without it interfering too much.</p>\n\n<p>(Of course, it's different if you're just being asked to send a list of names. But in that case, the company is definitely accepting the full responsibility for evaluating the candidates anyway.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8947,
"author": "peterretief",
"author_id": 4162,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4162",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Possibly there should be a means to describe emotional intelligence in people and elements like violent or hateful ideologies should be part of that profile.\nAs to your immediate dilemma, I think you should make it open information in a draft format and give the student a chance to respond.\nI think its very important to make this sort of information available </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8949,
"author": "anaheim",
"author_id": 6518,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6518",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If your only worry is a possible negative reflection on your judgement, I suggest a recommendation mentioning the students Ideology and his eagerness to share it. I'm sure the recipient will be thankful, because he won't miss out on a qualified candidate and can decide to assume him and handle the situation according to his best knowledge and/or the companies possibilities. Nowadays more companies than one would think have professional coaching services for their employees!\nHope you will recommend him.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8951,
"author": "WK Cook",
"author_id": 6524,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6524",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The fact that you have to ask yourself this question says to me that you should not recommend him...At this time. Being a teacher of any sorts has many responsibilities beyond the conveying of the subject matter of your class.</p>\n\n<p>If you think this person has potential, I believe you have a responsibility to approach him on this matter. Try to keep your own feelings on his \"belief system\" out of it and focus on the issues with his interpersonal skills. Perhaps recommend a course or book that would help him improve in this area. This world needs good minds now more than ever.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8952,
"author": "seteropere",
"author_id": 532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The main question here: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>is he doing something against the law?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If NOT then judge him <strong>based on the field merit</strong> nothing more nothing less. </p>\n\n<p>I really hate it when academics judge students based on their ideology/race/religion..etc.\nAcademia is diverse; you will see different students from different cultures, now If you feel uncomfortable with one culture/ideology, then do not let that affect your fairness to the students. If I were you, I can't let my believe in an ideology affects supporting my brilliant student. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8953,
"author": "estani",
"author_id": 6525,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6525",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you think he/she deserves being recommended, then do it. And don't be afraid of putting into your recommendation any peculiarities this person might have that you think are of interest to whom the recommendation is addressed.</p>\n\n<p>As an example, I'd rather \"warn\" people at a slaughterhouse that the candidate is a vegan activist than either send a blind letter of recommendation or not sending it at all. Of course assuming the person fits the job and is recommendable <em>and</em> you think that kind of warning might avoid future problems.</p>\n\n<p>If you treasure that person, then you want a good <em>lasting</em> position for her/him. Sending a recommendation that you think it will be misleading, will not have any benefit for your referee. If anything try to express why this peculiarity will not be a problem or even beneficial. \nIf you don't think it will... then don't recommend him/her at all.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8962,
"author": "Kaz",
"author_id": 3900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3900",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Supporting an ideology <em>in an ostentatious manner</em> (rather than privately or discreetly) is a <em>personality</em> problem.</p>\n\n<p>Discrimination based on personality issues is fair game. Personality is relevant to employment and employability.</p>\n\n<p>Someone who preaches ideology in the workplace clearly has no idea that ideological fanaticism has no place in the workplace. But that could just be because he is a student without much exposure to that world, if any.</p>\n\n<p>Since this person is a student and you're the mentor, you can perhaps \"fix\" this person. Have a meeting and say, </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"Look, I want to recommend you for some potential employment. You have a great academic record and are qualified. But as your professor, it is my duty to you to also prepare you and all your young colleagues for the so-called \"real world\", in whatever little way I can. Now please stop me if I'm telling you anything you already know. What I'm concerned about that your, shall we say, exuberant enthusiasm in supporting Ideology X will create difficulties for you, if you carry it into corporate environment, which is not as tolerant as the academic environment. Modern workplaces have certain rules of conduct in place which rule out promotion of ideologies (including religions) as a form of harassment. Those rules are not intended to suppress the ideologies themselves, mind you, but only certain <em>behaviors</em> which lead to an uncomfortable workplace. So if I send some letters of recommendation and those people are interested in working with you, can you keep in mind what I just said? What you ultimately do is up to you, but I'd like to see you, and all of my students, succeed, and therefore I want to warn you of any potential stumbling blocks in your future such as this, okay?\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In other words, this can be seen as an opportunity to step into the role of educator/mentor and help the student. You and your institution helped to prepare the student so that he is recommendable for these jobs on technical grounds. (Five years ago, you could not have recommended that student yet, right?) So help the boy with something non-technical for once.</p>\n\n<p>Anyway, the student's fanaticism could just be a phase of youth. A few years down the line, he may well have forgotten all about it. People can experience major ideological shifts in their life. When he owns a big property and a sizeable portfolio of equities, he will perhaps think differently.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/28 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8930",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6480/"
]
|
8,939 | <p>I am thinking of getting my M.S. in Computer Science. I chose C.S. because I enjoy programming and because its a solid choice, career wise. Low unemployment, good pay, all that jazz.</p>
<p>But my real passions has always been math and lately I have been thinking about swapping and going for my graduate degree in Math. If I went the math route I would probably go full PhD (since I don't think there is much you can do with just a Masters in math).</p>
<p>But as much as I love math, I can't see myself being a math teacher. I would want to work in research or industry, applying math to solve real world problems. </p>
<p>What kind of non-academic jobs are there for someone with a PhD in math (or what is the best resource to see what jobs are out there)?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8941,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Certain branches of applied mathematics look very promising regarding the job market. For example financial mathematics. However there are also companies which are interested in hiring pure mathematicians to work on real world problems. As an instance, I suggest you look at the web site of <a href=\"http://thinktankmaths.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">ThinkTank Maths</a>. Their webpage for <a href=\"https://thinktankmaths.com/join/mathematicians/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Mathematician - Mathematical Researcher</a> says</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>We are particularly interested in applicants with highly abstract or pure mathematical backgrounds.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8954,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It really depends on the kind of mathematics you do. For example, if your work involved probability/statistics, or even certain kinds of topology, you could get a job at pretty much any tech company doing machine learning. If you were doing stochastics, then Wall street will beckon. </p>\n\n<p>If your Ph.D has a computational side to it (say in numerical methods for example) the national labs in the US are interested in your expertise. </p>\n\n<p>And so on and so forth. The fact that you're doing an MS in Computer science makes your profile look even stronger. </p>\n\n<p>While this might be viewed as a strongly biased suggestion, you might consider a Ph.D in Computer Science: there are many parts of computer science that are all mathematics, and you'd get to do what you love, as well as getting the CS branding that will make getting an industry job way easier. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 26332,
"author": "Daniel Watkins",
"author_id": 9397,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9397",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can look into national lab jobs - see my answer <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/17253/what-post-phd-path-alternatives-are-there/17264#17264\">here</a>. Especially with your computer science background. Many mathematicians at the labs work on large-scale modeling problems that require high performance computing. Some examples: <a href=\"http://oceans11.lanl.gov/drupal/Home\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Sea ice</a> models at LANL, building <a href=\"http://trilinos.sandia.gov/packages/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">software tools</a> for linear algebra at Sandia (Trillinos), <a href=\"http://www.pnnl.gov/computing/cm4/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">computational chemistry</a> at PNNL, developing <a href=\"http://networkx.github.io/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">graph theory tools</a> at LANL (NetworkX).</p>\n\n<p>These are just the US options that I've come across personally, there are national labs in many countries where mathematicians can work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 26333,
"author": "David Ketcheson",
"author_id": 81,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>It is not accurate to equate every academic job in mathematics with \"being a math teacher\"</strong>. I am a professor of (applied) mathematics, and I spend <strong>less than a quarter of my working hours</strong> on what is formally called teaching (including preparation, class time, grading, etc). Probably much less. Applied mathematics professors at research institutions primarily devote their time to \"applying math to solve real world problems.\"</p>\n\n<p>It's true that if you take a position at a SLAC, for instance, you may spend most of your time teaching. And in a broad sense, part of your job will be to teach mathematics, even if you are in industry (the setting is just less formal).</p>\n\n<p>SIAM has a host of great resources on non-academic careers in (applied) mathematics:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.siam.org/careers/sinews.php\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Careers in the Math Sciences</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.siam.org/careers/thinking.php\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Thinking of a Career in Applied Mathematics?</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://client.blueskybroadcast.com/siam08/hyman/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Mac Hyman talk (video)</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.whydomath.org/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://www.whydomath.org/</a></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 26336,
"author": "Cape Code",
"author_id": 10643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I listed a few possible options in a comment to a thread that was deleted, so here they are again. These are examples of actual jobs that people I know took as math graduates (most with a Master, some with a PhD), with the exclusion of the ones already mentioned in the other answers.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>network analyst for a railroad company (in a country with a modern, very dense and complex network).</li>\n<li>statistician/analyst for an online gambling/betting platform (I'm guessing casinos and slot machines manufacturers are hiring mathematicians as well).</li>\n<li>grant evaluator, scientific advisor in a national science funding agency (especially for mathematicians with a PhD).</li>\n<li>statistician in an insurance company</li>\n<li>scientific advisor for a law enforcement agency</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 157815,
"author": "Jordan S.",
"author_id": 130746,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/130746",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Do not do pure math: the job prospects in academia are horrible. Then, once you leave academia you'll figure out that a math degree while highly impressive is completely useless to employers. Yes, it's a fundamental discipline which undergirds every engineering field, but by itself it is abstract and totally and completely useless. You need to couple it with a degree in something that makes sense employment wise. I suppose it's a good field to minor, double major, or do a second master's in. What it is not is a basket to put all your eggs into. I'm not going to speak at length about industry jobs, suffice it to say that positions in industry where a pure mathematician is needed are even more scant than academic jobs.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/28 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8939",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4234/"
]
|
8,948 | <p>This question is closely related to <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8098/how-to-cite-a-website-url">How should I cite a website URL?</a> but more concrete.</p>
<p>I'm currently writing my master thesis. In the section "related work" I give an overview which also includes concrete products (normally software). Usually there is no academic paper published about this work and often there is only a product homepage, a git hub repository or a manual available. </p>
<p>How, if at all, should I cite this "products"? I thought about adding the URL just after the name of the product, adding it as a footnote, cite it as usual with a MISC BibTeX entry or not mentioning a URL at all (usually they are easy to find with Google). I'm a bit worried too blow up my bibliography to much.</p>
<p>I give a few examples to stay concrete, my thesis is about a pattern matching algorithm (well, very simplified) so I want to show tools that help programmers with writing regex:</p>
<ul>
<li>The software RegexBuddy (<a href="http://www.regexbuddy.com" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.regexbuddy.com</a>)</li>
<li>The online tool RegExr (<a href="http://gskinner.com/RegExr/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://gskinner.com/RegExr/</a>)</li>
<li>The Statically Checked Regex (a software artifact) in the Git Hub repository <a href="https://github.com/retronym/macrocosm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://github.com/retronym/macrocosm</a></li>
<li>The function ctRegex in std.regex (<a href="http://dlang.org/phobos/std_regex.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://dlang.org/phobos/std_regex.html</a>)</li>
</ul>
<p>Could you please also please also answer if it's OK to include a lot of citations (around 20) to mention this products although the text is only around one page, respective one sub chapter (in a work that is expected to have something around 100 pages).</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8955,
"author": "eykanal",
"author_id": 73,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>According to the <a href=\"http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">APA</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Do not cite standard office software (e.g. Word, Excel) or programming\n languages. Provide references only for specialized software.</p>\n \n <blockquote>\n <p>Ludwig, T. (2002). PsychInquiry [computer software]. New York: Worth.`</p>\n </blockquote>\n \n <p>Software that is downloaded from a Web site should provide the\n software’s version and year when available.</p>\n \n <blockquote>\n <p>Hayes, B., Tesar, B., & Zuraw, K. (2003). OTSoft: Optimality Theory\n Software (Version 2.1) [Software]. Available from\n <a href=\"http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/hayes/otsoft/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/hayes/otsoft/</a></p>\n </blockquote>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The IEEE style is <a href=\"http://www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/cite/ieee/ieee_swarea.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">almost identical</a>. (I'd reproduce it here, but it's in a stupid flash file which doesn't support copy/paste.)</p>\n\n<p>That being said, I notice that you cited software for parsing and understanding regular expressions. While there is no official rule that I know of for acknowledging software, it is typically only used for software crucial to the development efforts (i.e., an analysis tool). To bring a somewhat extreme example, while everyone uses some form of operating system (Windows, Mac OS, Linux), no one cites their operating system. Recall the purpose of citations; to enable others to understand your frame of reference and replicate your work. You should only cite tools that are specialized to your research that others would need to continue your research.</p>\n\n<p>Additionally, I've seen many neuroscience papers where some software is listed but not cited (e.g., <a href=\"http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.1001267#article1.body1.sec4.sec6.p1\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">the Matlab reference here</a>). This is typically done for tools developed outside of an academic environment. Here, Matlab is a non-academic commercial, but both SPM and Fieldtrip were developed using grant money, and both specify exactly how they should be cited in publications (e.g., <a href=\"http://fieldtrip.fcdonders.nl/literature\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Fieldtrip</a>; I can't find SPM's now).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8965,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Just give as much information as you can to uniquely identify and date the product. To quote one of my own recent papers:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Nuclear Monkey Software. <em>Narbacular Drop.</em> Video game, 2005.</p></li>\n<li><p>Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski. <em>Matrix Revolutions.</em> Warner Bros., 2003. Motion picture.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8974,
"author": "Ben Norris",
"author_id": 924,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/924",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The software manufacturer may be willing to provide a few more details, like the lead developer's name(s) and so on for academic purposes. Software written for academics may already have a citation ready.</p>\n\n<p>See, for example, the <a href=\"http://www.gaussian.com/g_tech/g_ur/m_citation.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\">citation for Gaussian 09</a>. Note that they already have a bibtex starting point also.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Gaussian 09, Revision A.1, Frisch, M. J.; Trucks, G. W.; Schlegel, H. B.; Scuseria, G. E.; Robb, M. A.; Cheeseman, J. R.; Scalmani, G.; Barone, V.; Mennucci, B.; Petersson, G. A.; Nakatsuji, H.; Caricato, M.; Li, X.; Hratchian, H. P.; Izmaylov, A. F.; Bloino, J.; Zheng, G.; Sonnenberg, J. L.; Hada, M.; Ehara, M.; Toyota, K.; Fukuda, R.; Hasegawa, J.; Ishida, M.; Nakajima, T.; Honda, Y.; Kitao, O.; Nakai, H.; Vreven, T.; Montgomery, Jr., J. A.; Peralta, J. E.; Ogliaro, F.; Bearpark, M.; Heyd, J. J.; Brothers, E.; Kudin, K. N.; Staroverov, V. N.; Kobayashi, R.; Normand, J.; Raghavachari, K.; Rendell, A.; Burant, J. C.; Iyengar, S. S.; Tomasi, J.; Cossi, M.; Rega, N.; Millam, J. M.; Klene, M.; Knox, J. E.; Cross, J. B.; Bakken, V.; Adamo, C.; Jaramillo, J.; Gomperts, R.; Stratmann, R. E.; Yazyev, O.; Austin, A. J.; Cammi, R.; Pomelli, C.; Ochterski, J. W.; Martin, R. L.; Morokuma, K.; Zakrzewski, V. G.; Voth, G. A.; Salvador, P.; Dannenberg, J. J.; Dapprich, S.; Daniels, A. D.; Farkas, Ö.; Foresman, J. B.; Ortiz, J. V.; Cioslowski, J.; Fox, D. J. Gaussian, Inc., Wallingford CT, 2009.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 83508,
"author": "user67928",
"author_id": 67928,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/67928",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There isn’t really a ‘set’ method to cite products, but rather a paradigm: Give enough information so a veteran can identify the product – novices do not need to be able to do so.</p>\n\n<p>For example, if I use an enzyme from Sigma Aldrich in a biology experiment, I write something like:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>25 ng of amylase (Sigma Aldrich; Missouri, USA; P228) was added to the mix</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Notice how I didn’t use a stock concentration. That’s because the information is already there. I simply quote the provider, their origin, and the product code. If a veteran now goes to the website, they can see the exact product I used. I do not write <em>P228-1g</em> or <em>P228-5m,</em> because those are volumes or masses, and that’s all irrelevant. Sometimes I’ll add a date if I think it’s relevant.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/28 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8948",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6514/"
]
|
8,957 | <p>The referencing style I am using for online newspaper articles is thus:</p>
<p>Karlsen, T.-K. (2013) For scouts, the South American youth tournament is hard slog, not high life. Guardian [Online] 28 January. Available at: <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/mar/28/scout-south-american-youth-championship-football" rel="noreferrer">http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/mar/28/scout-south-american-youth-championship-football</a> [Accessed on 28/03/2013]</p>
<p>But how do I reference an article with no obvious author? For example, this is posted on the news website Balkan Insight, but has no author. So far I've been including Balkan Insight where the author name is, but also where the publication name is - i.e. where 'Karlsen' and 'Guardian' are in the previous example. And putting the in-text reference as Balkan Insight (2013).</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8958,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>There are probably several answers depending on the situation and on the standards in your field.</p>\n\n<p>First there are papers published in journals with no authors that are referenced as:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Anonymous, yyyy. Paper title ...</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In some cases an organization can be the author. this is true for, for example, governmental organizations, NGO's etc. In these cases the publications are offically published. References would be listed under the organization (often abbreviated) such as:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>WMO (World Meteorological Organization), yyyy. Publication title ...</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>To reference online material is always a bit more complicated but I guess the anonymous author can be used and the source organization listed as the \"Publisher\" such as the <em>The Guardian</em> in your example. The point is that the source is known but not the author. If you have a lot of these sources there will of course be many \"anomymous\" floating around in th etext and reference list which may be awkward. In such a case you may consider using the organization as author.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8963,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Citing online articles without a clear author depends on the citation format. The format you use should have clear guidelines.</p>\n\n<p>For example, in Harvard Referencing (the most common in my field) if there is a publisher but no clear author then the publisher is considered the author. In your case, Balkin Insight would be the author. Following this, you are doing it properly (according to Harvard Referencing).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 102733,
"author": "Hexal",
"author_id": 85610,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/85610",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I concur with the opinion of the others that Balkan Insight should be the author based on the information you gave us.</p>\n\n<p>In general, for practical purposes, there is <em>almost always</em> a responsible person or an organisation unless they give their very best to stay anonymous. Usually, I try to find the most applicable one in the following order:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>The author(s) as on the paper or the website if they were printed.</p></li>\n<li><p>The author(s) of the collection of works if the work belongs to a collection such as a book.</p></li>\n<li><p>The meta information of the document, e.g., from the meta tags of the HTML Web-page or from the PDF meta data.</p></li>\n<li><p>The organisation or person responsible for the Web site containing the document.</p></li>\n<li><p>The organisation or person responsible for the IP address assuming it is static.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If all of the above fails, you have to resort to \"Anonymous\". However, then you might be doing research on anonymity in the Internet, and you should find a difference representation of your sources than the <em>Bibliography</em>, which would be a bad match for your purposes in this case.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/28 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8957",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4012/"
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|
8,959 | <p>I'm a graduate student with, so far, one published article in a peer-reviewed journal. Since the article came out, I've been receiving increasing amounts of "academic e-mail spam" from people wanting me to attend their conferences, publish in their (usually pay-to-publish) journals or order research supplies from them. <sub><sup>(The latter kind tend to be the easiest to filter out — even though my field is <i>bio</i>mathematics, it doesn't mean I have any use for frozen mouse embryos whatsoever.)</sup></sub></p>
<p>Some time ago, an e-mail turned up asking me to review a manuscript, conveniently attached to the message, for a pay-to-publish open access journal in a somewhat related field. Googling for the name of the publisher, I found them described as e.g. "a borderline vanity press".</p>
<p>At the time, I wasn't really sure how to react. On one hand, I could think of several reasons to just go ahead and review the manuscript:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The main complaint about the publisher seems to be that their peer review is insufficient — a claim supported by the fact that they seem to be picking random grad students as reviewers. Still, given that they're at least making <em>some</em> effort at peer review, surely I should encourage them in that? After all, if nobody agreed to review manuscripts for them, how could they ever improve their review process?</p></li>
<li><p>Declining to review the manuscript might deprive the authors — who, if the journal is indeed a "scam", are presumably the victims here — of useful feedback. Surely they at least deserve that much return for their time, efforts and money?</p></li>
<li><p>Also, if the manuscript did get published in a scientific journal, no matter how dubious or marginal, it would enter the body of scientific knowledge, and might be used as a reference by others. Given that, surely it is my duty as a scientist to try, given the opportunity, to do what I can to ensure that it is at least correct?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Still, despite these arguments, I initially found the idea of willingly <em>responding to spam</em> to be deeply unsettling at a fundamental, almost visceral level. Also, I felt concerned that, by doing volunteer work for a possibly unethical publisher, I'd be supporting their business model and perhaps lending them an undeserved appearance of legitimacy.
In particular, given that the subject of the manuscript wasn't <em>that</em> close to my own field, I worried that it might have errors that I would not be capable of spotting, and that, even if I made this clear in my review, the publisher might still use the review to support the publication of a possibly flawed article.</p>
<p>(Edit: Just to be clear, I wasn't worried that they'd reveal the names of reviewers, just that, even if I was the <em>only</em> one who sent back a review, they might still use it to claim that "yes, the paper was peer reviewed.")</p>
<p>In the end, the decision was actually rather easy: after a cursory glance at the manuscript, it became clear that there was <em>no way</em> I could support its publication as written, especially given that large fragments of it were clearly plagiarized, and I wrote back to the journal stating as much.</p>
<p>However, if I ever receive a similar request again (and I assume I probably will, sooner or later), what do you think I should do with it?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8960,
"author": "Dave Clarke",
"author_id": 643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>No!</strong></p>\n\n<p>Simply say \"No, I'm too busy at the present time.\"</p>\n\n<p>No one will be hurt or offended, and it is not like you'll be lying.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8961,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You have no obligation to accept reviews from any journals. </p>\n\n<p>In the long term, you should of course accept review tasks, since the review system is built on everyone doing their part in return for the reviews you get on your own papers. But if you think the journal is not serious, there is no need to waste your time on a review.</p>\n\n<p>The problem will lie in identifying what is real and what is not. Apart from researching the journal yourself, as you have done, you should also ask more senior scientists of their opinion.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strong>Edit:</strong> Following up on the request for additional input on whether reviewing for dubious journals could be harmful in some way:</p>\n\n<p>I think the greatest risk is that you may provide legitimacy to a journal that is not legitimate. It may be harmful to you if the journal in some way represents, let's say, creationism, in that you may become associated with something you really do not support. </p>\n\n<p>I do not see any clear problem for the authors whose paper you review. Their greatest problem, assuming they are common scientists, should be that they submitted it there in the first place. </p>\n\n<p>Personally, I delete all e-mails with requests from journals I do not know of. I know the journals in my field, and the new serious journals that have sprung up have a firm basis in the community, so they are also \"known\". I do check on some of these unknown journals occasionally, out of curiosity, and I particularly check the sort of papers they publish and the editors of the journal. That usually tells me if the journal is of interest.</p>\n\n<p>Some of these journals may be legitimate, but they end up being extremely narrow regionally in terms of the origin of their authors and editors, and thus probably also their readership. A new journal is a difficult thing to get accepted unless you start with a wide base in the community, so some of these journals may be very legitimate but still have to prove themselves somehow. The problem is how to distinguish good from bad, and that is truly not easy in many cases.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 26280,
"author": "Cape Code",
"author_id": 10643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I might actually be doing more harm than good (to myself, to the\n authors, and/or to scientific publishing in general) by agreeing to\n review a manuscript sent to me by a sufficiently scammy journal.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, exactly. Don't encourage predatory publishing. Don't encourage the authors, who almost certainly have no interest in your feedback and just want an additional publication, hoping it will help them get that cosy government job/tenure in a university that doesn't care about quality. All of this is a simulacrum of science. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>if nobody agreed to review manuscripts for them, how could they ever\n improve their review process</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>True, but you shouldn't worry about it. Because <strong>we don't need more journals</strong>, especially not pay-for-publish, low-quality journals.</p>\n\n<p>You probably know very well which are the good journals in your field, and if you publish (or even submit) to these, chances are they will ask you to review eventually. And this is what the scientific community expects you to do, not to give credit to a publisher that has no interest in science whatsoever and just wants to collect as many 'article processing charges' as it can, quickly. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 122905,
"author": "Rebecca J. Stones",
"author_id": 8469,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8469",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I attempted to review for some of these \"predatory\" journals, thinking: <em>if the papers are genuinely peer reviewed, how bad could it be?</em> I now consider it a poor decision on my part.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>My impression from the outset was that the editor intended for the paper to be published as soon as possible (from when I first saw it to when it was published online took about 3-4 weeks). I felt like it was going to be published, one way or another. (Although, I felt the authors took my feedback seriously.)</p></li>\n<li><p>There was <strong>a lot of badgering</strong>; I was hounded by emails about deadlines and reviews. For one paper, the initial review had a deadline of 10 days, and a revision had a deadline of 3 days (I'm not joking). Prior to even agreeing to review the revision, I started getting hounded about the 3-day deadline passing. They just expected me to drop everything to immediately review this paper.</p></li>\n<li><p>Prior to finishing reviewing one paper, the same journal sent me a request for another paper, with another 10-day deadline. (At this point, I snapped, and sent a fairly rude email back---they still haven't stopped emailing me.)</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>All in all, it wasn't a good experience, one I would avoid in future.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 122919,
"author": "guest",
"author_id": 102739,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/102739",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You should decline. In addition to the detriment of encouraging predatory publishing, you make yourself look bad or at least, like you think value of your time/input is low. </p>\n\n<p>If you want to review, reach out to some editors of good journals (at the subspecialty level) and ask for reviews. Include what topics you are most capable of reviewing. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 137267,
"author": "Allure",
"author_id": 84834,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/84834",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This thorny question has no easy answer, and a lot is going to come down to your personal values. I'll emphasize just one thing: <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/124807/has-a-journal-ever-switched-between-being-a-predatory-journal-and-a-reputable-on/124824#124824\">there is no universally acknowledged definition of \"predatory publisher\"</a> (see also <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23719/why-do-open-access-consortia-affiliate-themselves-with-questionable-publishers/115704#115704\">this answer</a>). The least controversial characteristic (but even then it's not absolute, see the first link) is that the journal does not conduct peer review, but by approaching you they're clearly conducting peer review, i.e. if this is your definition then the journal is not predatory.</p>\n\n<p>Therefore my first reaction to your question is: what makes you say the journal is dubious? You mention several points; let's examine them one by one:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>It is pay-to-publish. More technically this model is called \"open access\".[*] If you dislike this publishing model you wouldn't be alone (Jeffrey Beall does too), but it would be extremely awkward for you, because an increasingly large number of funders are mandating the papers they fund be <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-access_mandate\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">published open access</a>.</li>\n<li>It is described by someone, presumably Jeffrey Beall, as a \"borderline vanity press\". See the second link above for analysis of this. There are reasonable people who disagree with Beall. Trusting his judgment saves you from having to do the analysis yourself of course, which is very convenient (same reason why university rankings are so popular), but not necessarily correct.</li>\n<li>They spam you. The line between spam and not spam is not obvious (see second link above). They've already reached you when you work in a related field, which is a sign they're doing selection instead of simply mass mailing everyone. Also, I suspect if you call reviewer invitations \"spam\" you are on the extreme side. Not necessarily wrong (because what's spam and what's not spam is not obvious), but relatively extreme.</li>\n<li>You end up doing voluntary work. Isn't that the case for <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/20930/are-there-any-journals-that-pay-reviewers\">almost all journals & publishers</a>?</li>\n<li>You may not spot errors in a flawed paper, which allows the publisher to claim the paper was peer-reviewed. This wouldn't be unique to this publisher or journal. There are countless published papers that were wrong and the reviewer didn't spot the errors. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bogdanov_affair#Reflections_upon_the_peer-review_system\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Example</a>. Obviously the publishers of the two journals in question (<em>Annals of Physics</em> and <em>Classical and Quantum Gravity</em>, published by Elsevier and IOP Publishing respectively) are going to say the paper was peer-reviewed, which is also strictly speaking true. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In other words, <em>it is not clear that the review request you received is from a dubious journal</em>. You may think it is, but not every reasonable person will agree with you. If the journal is not dubious, the question you ask becomes really hard to answer. </p>\n\n<p>Given all this, should you review anyway? It's up to you. You're under no obligation to review no matter who is inviting. You could plausibly say you don't have time for this (especially since papers submitted to not-well-known journals are unlikely to be very exciting). You could say you'll review anyway because of the reasons you gave in the three bullet points. It's something only you can decide about.</p>\n\n<p>[*] Even more technically, open access refers only to the article being free to read somehow. It comes in many different flavors, some of which <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access#Diamond/platinum_OA\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">might not require an author to pay to publish</a>. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/28 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8959",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/496/"
]
|
8,967 | <p>I'm writing a proposal to acquire funding for a competition to be hosted at my university. The competitors are restricted to graduate students who are engaged in <em>research</em> under the auspicies of a faculty advisor from my university. In the process of making my proposal more clear and precise, I find myself struggling with the problem of defining what exactly is (and more importantly, what <em>isn't</em>) research. </p>
<p>At first, I equated <em>research</em> with <em>publishable</em> in a peer reviewed journal, but I soon realized that the terms <em>publishable</em> and <em>peer reviewed</em> would have to be defined... And even if I do that, then I would have to define the words that I used to define those words, et cetera ad nauseam.</p>
<p>I want to approach it the same way I would approach mathematical set theory: it's either research or it's not, and there should be no room for ambiguity. But I suspect that any attempt to define <em>research</em> this way will certainly either circumscribe or inscribe the set of all things we call research. </p>
<p>I don't think this is necessarily the best way to approach defining what is research, especially for my purposes. Is there another way I can approach clarifying what constitutes <em>research</em> as opposed to other publishable works in the context of academia? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8971,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>How about trying to define research would it help to spcify \"Scientific Research\". Since research is a search for new knowledge it is thus a wide term. Since <code>Science</code> is defined as \"the body of reliable knowledge itself, of the type that can be logically and rationally explained\" (<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science\" rel=\"nofollow\">shamelessly stolen from the wiki page for Science</a>) the word scientific would exclude everything not included in the definition. Or, is there any academic research that does not qualify as science?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8972,
"author": "Ben Norris",
"author_id": 924,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/924",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For purposes like this, I would define <em>research</em> as <strong>loosely, broadly, and generically</strong> as possible. If your definition is too strict, then you exclude valid efforts, and you will likely be bound by the language in your proposal. </p>\n\n<p>For example, if you define research to be \"scientific investigation,\" then you exclude the humanities. If you define research as \"investigative work leading to a peer-reviewed publication or conference presentation,\" then you may inadvertently exclude unpublishable and unpublished results. </p>\n\n<p>If the requirements of the agency do not specify the need for a definition of research, then do not supply one. If you are writing to an agency that regularly supports research proposals, then there is no need to define research - they know what it is. If you are writing to an atypical funding source, like a business, local government, or charity, then they would probably rather you be inclusive (and thus generic) unless you have specific instructions otherwise. Leave the job of deciding whether an entry is qualified research to the judges of the composition. </p>\n\n<p>If you feel that you absolutely need a definition, then \"investigative work\" is probably generic enough. Your institution's Office of the Provost may also have an \"official\" definition of research for your institution. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8976,
"author": "eykanal",
"author_id": 73,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Have you verified that the definition isn't provided by the competition itself? Typically, there are pretty well-defined guidelines as to who is and is not eligible to apply for a given contest (i.e., \"only full-time students\", or \"only students currently funded under a research grant\"). I would definitely either contact the competition sponsor or check their website to ensure that they haven't already defined what does and does not count as research.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9007,
"author": "Ilmari Karonen",
"author_id": 496,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/496",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I suspect that, for your question to be properly answerable, you'd first need to define what you <em>want</em> to mean by \"research\". In particular, from what you write:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"The competitors are restricted to graduate students who are engaged in <em>research</em> under the auspicies of a faculty advisor from my university.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I gather that your university also has some graduate students who <em>don't</em> do anything you would call research, or you wouldn't feel the need to be so specific.</p>\n\n<p>So, what is it that these students, which you want to exclude from the competition, do instead? Just coursework? If so, why not just write <strong>\"research (not merely coursework)\"</strong> or something like that?</p>\n\n<p>(If you <em>do</em> want a fancy definition of \"research\", I'd go with something like \"original work intended to contribute to the body of academic knowledge\". But you'd probably be better served by just explicitly stating what kinds of student activities you want to include or exclude from your admission criteria.)</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/29 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8967",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/931/"
]
|
8,968 | <p>Are there any standards in higher education (any country) on when lecturers (any level, any field) have a private office or a shared office?</p>
<p>I know it's a good idea to provide 'consultation time' for students as one-on-one teaching helps the student in so many ways. However, in a shared office it seems that some of the benefits of one-on-one teaching disappear. For example, the student is less likely to be concerned about how they look in front of others if it's in a private office but if there are other teachers (perhaps with other students) then your student will have those issues again.</p>
<p>So, are there any standards about private vs shared offices for university lecturers?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8969,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You're going to find answers all over the map for this one (i.e., there probably aren't \"standards\"). I personally like having a private office so I can get the most work done, but I'm generally comfortable with a shared space if it doesn't get too loud. I have found that it is rare for students to worry about how they perform if they are just trying to get help figuring out the material. If there are conference rooms or open classrooms available, that's sometimes a good place to tutor students, too.</p>\n\n<p>For what it's worth, I never have closed door meetings with students because that has the potential to lead to allegations of improper relationships, etc. If a student does have something private to discuss, I'll ask them to take a walk around campus where we are visible but can't be heard, or to go into a conference room that has windows into the hallway. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8982,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't think there are likely to be any standards that address this issue specifically.</p>\n\n<p>For example, the <a href=\"http://www.nwccu.org/index.htm\">Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities</a>, one of the recognized <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regional_accreditation\">regional accrediting agencies</a> in the US, has published <a href=\"http://www.nwccu.org/Standards%20and%20Policies/Accreditation%20Standards/Accreditation%20Standards.htm\">its standards</a>. The closest they come to discussing office space is Standard 2.G.1:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Consistent with its mission, core themes, and characteristics, the institution creates and maintains physical facilities that are accessible, safe, secure, and sufficient in quantity and quality to ensure healthful learning and working environments that support the institution’s mission, programs, and services. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Obviously this leaves a lot of leeway. If an institution were to assign 17 professors to a broom closet, an accrediting agency might take note, but private offices versus shared isn't likely to be addressed.</p>\n\n<p>In the US, I have seen places where everyone from graduate instructors on up gets private offices, and I have seen places where even full professors share.</p>\n\n<p>If you're looking for arguments to convince your dean that your department needs more office space, I doubt that standards are the way to go about it. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11259,
"author": "odufuwa tosin victor",
"author_id": 7808,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7808",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Everybody needs privacy; to really discuss this issue some ambiguities must be removed.\nImagine a chemistry lecturer sharing an office with a political science lecturer? This will only lead to total confusion. Though it might help both lecturers to diversify their ideas, but will not help academically.</p>\n\n<p>I would suggest one senior lecturer with an assistant lecturer from the same field sharing an office. This will help the junior lecturer, and one hopes that the senior academic may learn from his/her younger colleague as well.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 17163,
"author": "yo'",
"author_id": 1471,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1471",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can give two views:</p>\n\n<p>In France, quite often you share office with other people from the same department. However, offices are in general a no-meeting space as long as your office mates are there and are not part of the meeting. You have black/white-boards on the corridors, several small meeting rooms etc. Of course, coming into an office and chatting for 1 or 2 minutes is usually fine. On the other hand, people even go to the corridor to answer their cell phone, so that they don't disturb others.</p>\n\n<p>In the Czech Republic, it depends mostly on the space available. However, in general at the universities, silence in an office is less a standard than in France.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/29 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8968",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692/"
]
|
8,970 | <p>I have completed Bachelor in IT from a third world country in 2008. I have achieved 49% marks.
I am 30 and working in a bank.
Now I want to study MSc in CS in the USA and eventually PhD.
I believe that this world is not all out for me. </p>
<ul>
<li>How can I prepare myself so that I can improve my chance of admission in post graduate level?</li>
<li>Money/GRE/TOEFL/IELTS/Vendor Certification....what should I need?</li>
<li>how can I show that I have potential research capability?</li>
</ul>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8973,
"author": "marsrover",
"author_id": 6587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6587",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Good question, \nTOEFL is a must, GRE would be helpful most of the time, in the US universities, different departments really have a huge variation of admission requirements. \nFor instance, some departments in MIT admit students without bothering the GRE scores - as long as they want you.</p>\n\n<p>For graduate studies, you need to show your mathematical skills - the fundamental for logical reasoning and calculation. \nThe skill for programming - needless to say it is fundamental and essential. \nThe skill for doing research - state any related experience, including academic contest, publication, Bachelor thesis, etc...\nSome skill for engineering - highlight some of them, but keep in mind that research comes first when considering the ability for potential academic successes.\nSo fill your personal statement( or statement of purposes depending on the university ) with mathematical skills, research experiences while leaving a few place for your best engineering experience. </p>\n\n<p>And standard test score really varies from time to time and from department to department.</p>\n\n<p>The best way to find out the requirement is to visit your dream school's website an call them directly.\nGood luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9693,
"author": "arvaro",
"author_id": 6947,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6947",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Since you intend to do it on CS I want to point out that the GRE Subject Test on CS (the one usually asked) will not be administrated anymore.</p>\n\n<p>According to the ETS website:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The last administration of the GRE Computer Science Test will be in\n April 2013. The test will be discontinued after the April 2013\n administration. Scores will continue to be reportable for five years.\n (<a href=\"https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/about?WT.ac=grehome_gresubject_121017\">https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/about?WT.ac=grehome_gresubject_121017</a>)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I wanted to say this in a comment (since it's not exactly an answer, but I think it's an important information to you), but I can't since I don't have enough reputation on this website to do it :( \nTherefore, even though I think you wanted more a opinion from people already in academia, I feel obligated to put some more thought on my answer:</p>\n\n<p>I'm a student, currently undergrad (will graduate at the end of this year) and I'm \"kinda on the same boat\" (from a third world country, wanna do a Ph.D. on in US in CS and I've being somewhat lost regarding what to do).\nHere is a compilation about what I have found so far that may be helpful to you:</p>\n\n<p>The notions of PhD and MSc in the US may be somewhat different from what you are used to. Quoting from something I've read in a university website (can't remember which one right now) \"Masters is about breadth, PhD is about depth\".\nAt least in my country (and I'm guessing it may be the same for yours), both are pretty depth-oriented. <strong>-> Keep in mind that, some MSc are breadth oriented, these may not be the droids you are looking for.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Also, the programs vary a lot from place to place... (And if you are used to the fact that you have to do a MSc prior to the PhD, this is not true for a lot of PhD programs in the US, you can join then directly if you have a bachelor's degree).\nExample: At CMU, the masters degree is \"breadth-oriented\", meaning that you take a lot of advanced courses in various topics, and the PhD is totally research-oriented (average 6 years, in contrast to the average 2-year MSc + 4-year PhD in my country). But in MIT, as far as I've understood, you apply for grad school, if you are accept and you don't have a MSc, you are put on a MSc program, if you already do, you are put on the PhD program (so, seems to be a lot research oriented on both programs). <strong>-> Make sure you read thoroughly how the programs in the universities you intend to apply are, cause there's no \"standard\".</strong></p>\n\n<p>About the \"money\" part of your question, as far as I've seen, it goes something like this:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>MSc: You have to pay for tuition, you may get a paid TA-ship\n(Teaching Assitant paid position), you may get an RA-ship (Research\nAssistant paid position), but nothing is guaranteed.</li>\n<li><p>PhD: Top universities usually pay you monthly and if the professor that is orientating your research doesn't have funding, you need to get an RA or TA job. On other universities,you may need to narrow your options to professors that have funding.</p>\n\n<p><strong>-> Keep in mind that, PhD is a better option money-wise, but harder to get in.</strong></p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>As pointed on the comments, research capability is a must (for the \"depth\" programs at least) and matters even more than grades. Quoting from a CMU professor on the \"Grad School Talk\" available at their website:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It does not help you, in my opinion, to be closer to 4.0 [GPA] as\n opposed to 3.5. It’s a much better idea to spend your time on research\n than on optimizing your GPA.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>- Keep in mind that proving your research capability matters a lot.</strong>\nBut another important quote from this same pdf regarding grades is:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Your grades may be somewhat low – under 3.0 – because you were having\n a good time in college and you may therefore be having trouble getting\n into a Ph.D. program. In this case, you may want to do an MS and use\n the time to boost your grades and reapply after the MS.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Another important thing to note: The things that each program prioritize when looking at your application seem to vary a lot, even among programs at the same university/department. <strong>-> Try to figure out what the programs you are aplying prioritize.</strong> (eg: by reading their websites well).</p>\n\n<p>About <strong>TOEFL</strong>: It matters a lot, but as far as I understand, it <strong>matters in a sense that it prevents you from getting in a program if you don't have the minimum score needed.</strong> *<em>Each university asks for a different TOEFL score.</em>* \nThe top universities (regarding CS programs) usually ask for 100 on the IBT (internet based test, out of 120), an exception being Stanford, that asks for 110.\nRegarding IELTS: All universities seem to accept TOEFL, a lot of them seem to accept IELTS, but you need only one of them, so I suggest you go for the TOELF (for US universities).</p>\n\n<p>As a <strong>plan of action</strong>, I suggest this one (which is kinda what I'm doing myself).</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Boost your ability to prove \"research capability\":</strong> It's VERY important that you have some prior research experience. Have you ever done research as an undergrad? Do you have professors that can write a recommendation letter for you? If you don't, you are (probably) gonna need to pursuit this kind of stuff. My suggestions if this is the case: Pick a professor that does research in a area that you are interested (better if it's a professor that may remember you from university) and try to contact then to see if they can let you assist on any research projects (even if voluntarily), or take some time to read his recent published papers and understand then, then go talk to him about this. Also, try to see if getting a job at any private research company is an option (in case they exist in your country, in mine \"private research\" is pretty much nonexistent :( ). </li>\n<li><strong>Figure out what your \"level\" is:</strong> What universities/programs that you want to get into that you can realistically hope to get in. This can be done by reading the programs/universities' websites, search for some information about the qualifications of people that got in, etc.</li>\n<li><strong>Make a list about the programs you are interested in:</strong> After figuring out your \"level\", what universities from this set have programs that you are interested to?</li>\n<li><strong>Read everything you can about this programs and pick the ones you want to apply:</strong> Learn what these programs prioritize on applications, what options do you have regarding money, etcs. Finally decide which ones you are going to apply and see what each of then require.</li>\n<li><strong>Get ready for the aplications:</strong> Taking the GREs (or whatever they are gonna use, now that the CS subject test is gone), TOEFLs and bla bla bla takes a lot of time. Prepare for the stuff you need to take, search for example tests on the internet, study for them, etc... and take they as soon as you are ready.\nFYI: As far as I've seen, the deadlines for applying for grad programs are usually in December, for pretty much all universities (they gotta have something in common, after all).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>Some useful stuff to read:</strong>\n - </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>CMU's \"Grad School Talk\" www.cs.cmu.edu/~harchol/gradschooltalk.pdf -\nThe one I quoted a lot in this answer.</li>\n<li>Demystifying the American Graduate Admissions Process: nlp.stanford.edu/~rkarthik/DAGAP.pdf - I found this paper extremely<br>\nhelpful, it's written by a guy that worked on Stanford's admissions<br>\ncommittee, he also has a blog where he talks about this stuff (link at the end of the paper).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Additional Notes:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>In case you are unfamiliar with how the GPA works in the US, here is\nsome explanation:\n<a href=\"http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4619318_a-gpa-work.html\">http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4619318_a-gpa-work.html</a></li>\n<li>If your grades are low, it may be hard to enter the top universities (although I don't see it as impossible) but keep this in mind: A) A lot of \"not the top, but good ones\" are very good, and may even be very strong in research at an area you are interested in. B) I believe that any recommendation letter saying something like \"This guy showed up out of nowhere wanting to assist in my research (even though he was out of academia for some years and was working on a regular job) and helped a lot\" shows a lot of \"research capability\", a lot of self-motivation and can be VERY strong.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Good luck. :)</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/29 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8970",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
]
|
8,978 | <p>I don't know if this is the case at other institutions but at my university dissertations are published as A5-size books/booklets. There are some regulations on how the formatting is supposed to be but it's pretty relaxed otherwise. Common practice is that the PhD candidate designs the cover themselves. </p>
<p>Typically these covers feature an image relating to the work the person has done in the lab; a molecule, a graph, a microscopy shot etc. Recently a colleague of mine put a painting of herself on the cover. Just for the sake of clarity, not a painting she's done, but rather a painting of her made by someone else. This has raised some discussion among the younger students, such as myself. Thus I wonder, how much of a personal touch is OK really? Would something like I described above be seen as an ego-thing by a potential employer? I am of the opinion that it might be seen as a lack of modesty or "self-distance" (quotes are there as I am not sure if this expression exists in english).</p>
<p>Am I being too critical? As it's a multi-cultural international group of academics here, I wonder if there is a consensus regarding such "customization" of the dissertation.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8979,
"author": "eykanal",
"author_id": 73,
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"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Typically, you want as few \"personal touches\" on your dissertation as possible, as each one will increase time between your submitting it and the university accepting it. There are many places to assert your individuality within the research community (your speaking style, your writing style in your publications, the types of research problems you tackle, your mentoring style), but this is not one of them.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8981,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>This probably depends a lot on how things work at your university. In the cases I'm familiar with (U.S. math departments), there are only four types of people who have an opinion about your dissertation:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>You.</p></li>\n<li><p>Your thesis commitee, particularly your advisor.</p></li>\n<li><p>The bureaucrat who measures the margins and decides whether your paper is fancy enough.</p></li>\n<li><p>Family members and friends who will want to take a look at the nicely bound volume and make polite comments.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Nobody else will pay any attention to your dissertation, unless you do an inadequate job of publishing its contents (in which case someone might be forced to look it up), you become very famous (in which case it will be an interesting historical document), or you do something so weird in it that people pass around copies for the amusement or shock value.</p>\n\n<p>The painting on the cover might fall into the last category if it looks pompous or strange enough. However, most personal touches are not a problem if the four groups mentioned above don't care. Furthermore, the bureaucrat won't care unless you violate a known rule or do something so awful that they feel the need to dig up an obscure rule, and your family doesn't get a vote (you'll just be embarrassed if they think you've done something silly).</p>\n\n<p>So the short answer is \"ask your advisor\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8990,
"author": "Ilmari Karonen",
"author_id": 496,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/496",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>We have a very similar practice here, although I think our booklets are usually a little bigger (B5-sized instead of A5). Looking at the <a href=\"http://www.yliopistopaino.fi/fi/vaittelijan_palvelusivut/ulkoasuohjeet\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">local university press guidelines for dissertation writers</a> (in Finnish, sorry; there's an English version, but I couldn't find anything similar there), they say (translation mine):</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>"The cover should describe the content of the thesis and invite one to read it. The cover may either be purely textual, or it may include pictorial elements. For textual covers, it is worth paying attention to typography and text layout.</p>\n<p>If you want a picture on the cover, it can be either a picture from your thesis, a picture chosen by yourself or an illustration selected by our graphic designers. [...]</p>\n<p>If the thesis is published as part of a series, however, the cover must follow the graphical guidelines of the series."</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Putting a picture of yourself on the cover of your thesis seems a little unusual, because the cover is normally supposed to illustrate the <em>thesis</em>, and the person presumably didn't write her thesis about herself. However, as long as there's nothing clearly inappropriate about the cover (I <em>assume</em> it was a picture of her <em>face</em>...), it seems to be her choice to make.</p>\n<p>Does that mean you should follow her example? Probably not, at least unless you believe there's something for you to gain by doing that.</p>\n<p>Does it mean you should try to come up with a nice, elegant and unique design, illustrative of your chosen topic, for your thesis cover? Certainly, if you can! (Having friends or relatives who happen to be artists or graphic designers can help here.) At least, it won't hurt, and it just might increase the chances of someone picking it up and reading it.</p>\n<p>Does it mean you should stress about it? Certainly not — "a molecule, a graph, a microscopy shot etc." are all perfectly good choices for a thesis cover, and a text-only cover is a perfectly fine choice too.</p>\n"
}
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| 2013/03/29 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8978",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674/"
]
|
8,983 | <p>My name is Jorge Fernández de Cossío Díaz. In my country, we have two last names: the first (Fernández de Cossío) comes from the father side, and the second (Díaz) comes from the mother side.</p>
<p>I have been suggested various signatures:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>"J. Fernandez-de-Cossio Diaz", without the accents, since I've been
told that this helps search engines locate my paper. The hyphens supposedly help the search engines to not mistake Fernandez-de-Cossio with two or three last names.</p></li>
<li><p>"J. Fernández-de-Cossío Díaz" (with the accents, since that's how my
is actually name spelled)</p></li>
<li><p>"J. Fernández de Cossío Díaz"</p></li>
<li><p>"Jorge Fernández de Cossío Díaz"</p></li>
</ul>
<p>You can suggest new ones. I want to make sure that the search engines and citation indexes, etc, do not get confused. Also, if in my CV I write my name as "Jorge Fernández de Cossío Díaz", will it be ok if the papers are signed as "J. Fernandez-de-Cossio Diaz"?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8989,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
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"text": "<p>In principle, you can use any professional name you like to sign your papers. I have a few colleagues whose <em>nom de plume</em> (or perhaps <em>nom de LaTeX</em>?) is not the same as their legal name.</p>\n\n<p>But by default, I would recommend signing your papers <em>precisely</em> as you sign anything else, including spaces and accents:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Jorge Fernández de Cossío Díaz</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It would be helpful for people citing your papers to state, somewhere in your CV and on your professional web page, that your last name contains three spaces. And you'll have to correct copy-editors who incessantly abbreviate it as \"J. F. C. Díaz\", but you'd have to do that with the other suggested variants anyway. Modern search engines have no trouble with accents.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8992,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While this decision should really be up to you, and all that you need to ensure is that you're consistent in using the same name, I'll share an anecdote, which might give you a different perspective on long names. </p>\n\n<p>There was a researcher who, presumably from a similar culture/country as you, had a long name, which for the sake of anonymity, I'll call <em>L. Ipsum Dolór de Sit Amét</em>. In many journals, the rule for truncating multiple authors to <em>et al.</em> is (if using author names in citations, instead of numbers):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>2 authors — explicitly name both</li>\n<li>3 authors or more — explicitly name first and truncate the rest</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>(Some publishers name all authors if up to 3 total and name 2 and truncate the rest if 4 or more, etc., but the general idea remains the same)</p>\n\n<p>Now someone I knew, had to cite a few papers of Dr. Ipsum Dolór de Sit Amét. Although the primary papers were by \"J. SingleLongName and L. Ipsum Dolór de Sit Amét\" and \"L. Ipsum Dolór de Sit Amét and P. SomeoneElse\", there was a closely related followup/auxiliary paper written by \"P. SomeoneElse, L. Ipsum Dolór de Sit Amét and J. SingleLongName\" which also briefly touches upon (as a background) the material in the other two and cite them.</p>\n\n<p>Now this person was in a dilemma. Referring to the first two explicitly where ever they needed to, took up about three-four lines in a two column journal paper, leading to repeated breaks in the flow of reading. On the other hand, \"SomeoneElse et al.\" was short, memorable and saved space and also contained the relevant idea being referenced to. So in the end, the person chose to cite all three once in the introduction, and use \"SomeoneElse et al.\" everywhere else in the article (effectively making it seem more important than it is). You'd be surprised, but this is not an uncommon occurrence at all. </p>\n\n<p>Now there are different ways to look at it — some might say it was unethical (extreme) or unfair to not cite the canonical article just because of the length of their name. Some might say that while they probably wouldn't do it, there is no <em>real harm</em>™ done, because regardless of the number of times it is mentioned in the body, it appears only once in the list of references and the web spiders will pick it up correctly. Few more might say that it doesn't matter since it's the same set of authors and if you drill down, it is obvious which is the canonical reference. Well, I'm not here to argue for or against any of that. But I will point out that a big impact of someone doing this is that <strong>your name loses visibility</strong> (not an issue in journals that use numbers for references) and people will only remember it as \"SomeoneElse\" and a bunch of others. Perhaps you're a special cookie that remembers all 5 authors of every paper, but I don't and many others I know don't. </p>\n\n<p>So if this is a concern, you can use it in full, but abbreviate it to a short one. For instance, use Jorge Fernández de Cossío Díaz in the author list under the title, but in the \"cite as\" section, use <strong>J. F. C. Díaz</strong> or <strong>J. F-C. Díaz</strong>.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/29 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8983",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6593/"
]
|
8,984 | <p>So far, what I have is</p>
<pre><code>First and Last Name
Title
Group/Lab Name
School Name
Address and Phone
</code></pre>
<p>I'm especially confused about the "title". I'm not sure if it should say "Graduate Student", "Research Assistant", or "PhD Candidate".. What do you think is more appropriate?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8985,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Keeping it short, simple and provide only useful information:</p>\n\n<pre><code>John Doe\nPhD Candidate / Teaching assistant\nSquaring the Circle Research Group\nUniversity of North Vermont\nhttp://unv.edu/circle - 1-761-861-1324\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Four lines is already a lot, don't exceed it. You may not want the phone number (people from inside your university probably have access to a corporate directory, and people from outside would not usually call you except if you set up a call meeting).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8986,
"author": "Ilmari Karonen",
"author_id": 496,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/496",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Mine looks like this:</p>\n\n<pre><code>-- \nIlmari Karonen, M.Sc.\nBiomathematics Group, Department of Mathematics and Statistics\nP.O. Box 68 (Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2b), FI-00014 Univ. of Helsinki\nTel.: +358-41-456 3263, E-mail: <[email protected]> \n</code></pre>\n\n<p>That's basically all the relevant information, packed into the traditional 4 lines / 80 characters and preceded by the correct <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_block#E-mail_and_Usenet\">dash-dash-space-newline</a> sequence. (Yes, I know that academic signatures often break that old rule these days, but I'm kind of a traditionalist about that. Besides, not having a foot-and-a-half-long e-mail signature is just plain common courtesy. The dashes help many e-mail readers <a href=\"http://www.sussex.ac.uk/its/help/faq?faqid=1552\">recognize the signature</a> and render it differently, and also omit it when quoting the message.)</p>\n\n<p>I haven't actually included any mention of my position in the group, although there would be room to append \"<code>doctoral student</code>\" or \"<code>graduate student</code>\" after \"<code>M.Sc.</code>\" if I wanted to. It's not really as relevant as noting that my current highest degree is Master of Science, though, which already implies that I'm probably a grad student and not e.g. a postdoc or a faculty member. Anyone who wants to confirm that can just look me up on our group's website, anyway.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I also have a shorter signature, which just says:</p>\n\n<pre><code>-- \nIlmari Karonen <[email protected]>\nUniversity of Helsinki, Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>I use that mainly for informal correspondence with people I already know, who don't really need to be reminded of all the extra details in the full signature.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8987,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Keep it simple.</p>\n\n<pre><code>-- Name\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>For <em>initial</em>, <em>formal</em> communication with people who don't already know you, adding a bit more identifying information is reasonable, but keep it short:</p>\n\n<pre><code>-- Full Name\n http://website.university.edu/~userid\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>If you don't think that's enough, introduce yourself in the body of the email. If somebody wants your physical address, they'll ask you (or Google).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 8993,
"author": "Brendan Long",
"author_id": 2810,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2810",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm not in academia, but my email signature looks like this:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If someone wants to know my name, it's sent in email headers and shows up at the top of the messages. If someone wants to know where I work, they can look at the part of my email after the @ sign.</p>\n\n<p>And of course, if I'm contacting someone for the first time, I'll tell them who I am and why I'm contacting them in the body of the message, so there's no need to repeat it at the end of the message.</p>\n\n<p>Here's <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20140917123332/http://daniellang.net/please-stop-using-email-signatures/\">an article</a> similar to the one that convinced me to stop doing this. Basically, by including a signature, you make it harder to read an email. This is normally just annoying, but it becomes extremely frustrating in long email chains or mailing lists, since no one bothers removing signature when they quote people. So, save everyone the trouble and don't send it in the first place.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9000,
"author": "user6611",
"author_id": 6611,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6611",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Personally I hate signatures, I see it as trying to make a superficial impression based on a title. Better to have a personal friendly connection with the people you work with both clients and colleagues, they will know you and the quality of your work. </p>\n\n<p>But on my last work place my boss demanded that I add a signature, because it creates superiority in his words ( i believe he is a jerk but that's beside the point), which looked like this:</p>\n\n<pre><code>FirstName LastName | Title | Company\nemail | mobile phone: work phone | Blog Address\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>So you need to ask yourself what is the purpose of your signature based on who is your target audience.</p>\n\n<p>If it's for applying for work, you have all your information in your cover letter and CV. If I were you I would drop the signature, but if you insist on having one than the \"Research Assistant\" is your best option.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9008,
"author": "geeklizzard",
"author_id": 6619,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6619",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A link to a profile page that makes it clear you're a grad student should be enough. Putting your phone number and address in every email seems unnecessary. </p>\n\n<p>I'd stick with:</p>\n\n<pre>\nName\nEmail address\nGroup/Lab Name, University\nLink to web page\n</pre>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 10144,
"author": "Jonathan E. Landrum",
"author_id": 7134,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7134",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Mine looks like this:</p>\n\n<pre><code>-- \n\\\\//_ Live long and prosper.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>I prefer to keep email a bit more casual. Granted, most of the people I email are folks with whom I am already acquainted, so there is no need for introductions. But I typically leave the signature even when contacting someone for the first time, if for no other reason than to convey a bit of my personality.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 44539,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Mine (and that of about everyone in my department - professors, postdocs, and PhD candidates alike - who bothered to find the respective option in their e-mail client, as it is roughly the format suggested by the recommendations for all employees at my university) looks like this (here with placeholders):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>-- <br/>\n name and degree<br/>\n affiliation (in my case: department and university)<br/>\n address<br/>\n room number of my office<br/>\n phone number<br/>\n e-mail\n work website</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is optimized to cover basic identification and all generally applicable ways to contact me:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>name and degree:</strong> Who am I? (when writing to someone who doesn't know me, and who would like to know whether I'm a student, a research assistant, a professor, ..., a biologist, an engineer, ...)</li>\n<li><strong>affiliation:</strong> On behalf of what (kind of an) organization am I writing?</li>\n<li><strong>address:</strong> In case the recipient wants to contact me by physical mail, or travel to meet me.</li>\n<li><strong>room number of my office:</strong> In case the recipient actually wants to meet me (and, in the case of students who want to be supervised, probably the most important part of the address information).</li>\n<li><strong>phone number:</strong> In case the recipient wants to call me.</li>\n<li><strong>e-mail:</strong> In case the recipient wants to send an e-mail after printing out the contents of the e-mail (and thus not having any access to header data).</li>\n<li><strong>work website:</strong> Contains all of the above information, but requires an extra step, an internet connection at the time when the recipient wants to look at the information, and is not directly included in print-outs of the e-mail, so it's unsuitable for totally replacing the other information.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, other forms of communication are not standardized enough to warrant inclusion there. There is a dozen of wide-spread instant messenging networks, and another dozen of widely used social networks with a communication feature, so there is no reasonable way to pick one that the recipient is likely to use (if they have any such account at all).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47464,
"author": "henning",
"author_id": 31917,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31917",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A signature is the equivalent of a letterhead. It makes it easier to contact the sender on other channels without the need to inquire for details (and thus saves a mail and a reply). <a href=\"https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1855\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">RFC 1855</a> defines a maximum of four lines, with 80 characters each. Originally, this was due to bandwidth constraints.</p>\n<p>Today, this restraint just makes an email easier to read (less noise), as <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/8993/31917\">Brendan cautioned</a>. The <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/8985/31917\">answer by F'x</a> almost hits the sweet spot between too much and not enough information. <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/8986/31917\">Ilmari's answer</a> also follows the convention laid down in <a href=\"https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3676#section-4.3\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">RFC 3676</a> to divide the body and signature block by <code>-- \\n</code> (hyphen-hyphen-space-newline). So far everyone failed to mention PGP, which recently has become <a href=\"https://freedom.press/encryption-works\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">more important than ever</a>.</p>\n<p>The following example combines all criteria:</p>\n<pre><code>-- \nDr. Joana Doe | Smalltown University, Department of\nRocket Science | Main Street 10 | 12345 Smallville\nphone: 0123 543 210 01 | web: rocket.smalluni.edu/~doe\npgp: 5DB3 3ADF 806B BD79 A18F D649 AC09 BDC9 9821 A79C\n</code></pre>\n<p>One more thing: Please, never use an image or other attachment as a signature. I never know whether the attachment is a substantial part of the mail or just a fancy signature.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47561,
"author": "dsfgsho",
"author_id": 17804,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17804",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My signature includes my name, current job title, affiliation and website. It is short, fits on one line and gives the recipient a short summary of me and a link to more information such as publications, projects and teaching material. I don't like long signatures or signatures with images.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <hr>\n \n <p><strong>John Doe</strong>, Assistant Professor @ RandomUniversity | Web: <a href=\"http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive/phd041612s.gif\" rel=\"nofollow\">ru.edu/doe</a></p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 105084,
"author": "Clément",
"author_id": 19627,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19627",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some universities have \"branding strategy\", and therefore ask every employee to use the same template. If this is the case in your university, you should definitely use it.</p>\n\n<p>Here are examples from <a href=\"https://brand.augusta.edu/signature/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Augusta University</a>, <a href=\"https://www.washington.edu/brand/templates/email-signature-template/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">University of Washington</a>, <a href=\"http://identity.ufl.edu/resources/email-signature-templates/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">University of Florida</a>, <a href=\"http://www.northwestern.edu/brand/brand-assets/signature.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Northwestern University</a>, <a href=\"https://www.seattleu.edu/marcom/brand/templates/email-signature/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Seattle University</a>, etc.</p>\n\n<p>As for your title, I would chose \"Graduate Student\", to me that's the most accurate description of your status.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/29 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8984",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5613/"
]
|
8,988 | <p>I am writing my dissertation (word-limit 10,000 words) and am wondering if I should include a separate <em>List of Figures</em> and <em>List of Tables</em> Section after my Table of Contents? The university guidelines do not specify whether they're required or not.</p>
<p>I will have about 3 figures and 4 tables when I'm finished. </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8991,
"author": "Ilmari Karonen",
"author_id": 496,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/496",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To be honest, with a short dissertation with only a few figures and tables, it probably doesn't really matter one way or the other.</p>\n\n<p>If your institution's dissertation guidelines say anything about it, follow them. If not, I'd say just include the lists, unless you feel you have some good reason not to. In which case, don't. Your advisor should let you know if they believe such lists should be added or removed, anyway.</p>\n\n<p>Or you could just ask your advisor about it to begin with.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9002,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You should definitely ask your advisor but normally you only need a list of tables or a list of figures if there will be more than 5 items in the list. For three or four items, I would not include a list.</p>\n\n<p>However, in the schools I am familiar with, there are clear dissertation guidelines so it is understood what is expected. If it is unspecified then I would go with what I said above.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/29 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8988",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4012/"
]
|
8,995 | <p>I'm publishing my first paper soon with three collaborators. We made a conjecture towards the end of the paper and intended to publish with the question still open. Another mathematician heard of the problem and found a solution to the conjecture. Now we have two options: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>publish our current paper on our own, with the conjecture open, after which our friend would publish their solution as a separate paper, or</p></li>
<li><p>include their work at the end of our paper and make them a co-author.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Though our paper is pretty good already, the new work is strong and would make a nice addition, so the first option seems nice. On the other hand, I'm an undergraduate senior (entering graduate school this Fall) and so are two of the other collaborators. Thus it seems like adding another professor as a co-author may make my contributions (which I have worked very hard on) appear less substantial. Also in favor of option 2: if the other professor publishes separately, the citation may make our paper look good.</p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 8996,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I think it is not important which option makes your paper look good, but the best question here is \"what is the right thing to do?\"\nIf you are such a talented and hardworking undergraduate student who can write a publishable paper, you will certainly have a very bright future in grad school and later as a researcher. So, don't worry how your first paper is going to be evaluated or cited. Hopefully you will write better papers and you can prove yourself in the future. Regarding publishing research papers, the right thing to do is that you publish your paper as perfect as it is possible for you at the moment, which means it is better you add the solution (and one more co-author) to your paper.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9154,
"author": "Leonid Petrov",
"author_id": 6688,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6688",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can add that the timing issue is also important, especially to that established would-be coauthor. Sometimes someone decides to write a paper, and it never comes to life. \nHowever, it is also important how adding the proof to the existing paper would slow down the process of getting it out.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/29 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8995",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5735/"
]
|
9,003 | <p>My wife has publications under both her maiden name and her married name. How should she indicate that this is the case on her CV, if she wants to mention publications from both time periods?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9004,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I know 2 female professors personally who clarify this fact very similarly. What they do is this:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>They cite the relevant publications as they were with her maiden name and her new last name.</p></li>\n<li><p>They add a * at the beginning of the \"<strong>Publications</strong>\" section in their CV which refers to a footnote to that page which then says something like this \"* Last name changed to Smith from Doe in 1988\"</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>That seems to work very well so far.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9006,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A short answer, I think one can write </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"full present name\", born \"maiden name\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>or</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"full present name\", formerly \"maiden name\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>and put this in the top of the CV where you have personal details and/or also as a subheading for the publications list. </p>\n\n<p>I also bold face my name in all publications, This way it should not pass anyone where I am in the publications list.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 18838,
"author": "StacyKonkiel",
"author_id": 13715,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13715",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Unique ID services for authors like ORCID (<a href=\"http://orcid.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://orcid.org/</a>; non-profit) and ResearcherID (<a href=\"http://www.researcherid.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.researcherid.com/</a>; associated with Web of Knowledge) are the way to go. You can list all your previous names on your ORCID profile, as well as alternate spellings. Many publishers (including Nature, PLOS, etc) and funders (both in the US and elsewhere) are starting to use ORCID to help manage authors' identities. ORCID suggests placing your ID prominently on your website, CV, and anywhere else folks might encounter your professional identity, to help with name disambiguation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 27662,
"author": "Hnoname",
"author_id": 21122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21122",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am in this situation, too. I site my publications as they appear on PubMed, keeping the outdated last name where it is seen on the original aricles. I then underline my full name in each publication, whether it is the current or former last name, i.e. \"Jane M. Doe\" and \"Jane M. Smith\" would be underlined in the Publications section. I also have my full, current name at the top of my CV/Resume (i.e. Jane M. Smith) so it is clear that the underlined person (whether Doe or Smith) is me. I have had job coaches indicate they like this strategy.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/30 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9003",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/701/"
]
|
9,011 | <p>I am a master's student currently deciding between two different Ph. D. programs in mathematics. The two programs have very different teaching opportunities as a grad student. One of the two programs I'm applying to allows (and encourages) students to teach a first-year calculus course, and the other one does not. However, I would be able to teach a college algebra or precalculus course at the other school. Would it reflect badly on me as a job applicant if I have no experience teaching calculus?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9012,
"author": "Federico Poloni",
"author_id": 958,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/958",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Part of the answer depends on your prospective area of expertise. Usually math professors teach the undergraduate courses that are closer to their research area. So, if you work in analysis, you will likely be assigned a calculus course; if you study algebraic geometry, you will probably get an introductory abstract algebra course; if you do research in Riemannian geometry, linear algebra.</p>\n\n<p>That said, I would not worry much about which course you teach at this point. \n<strong>This distinction should not be your primary concern</strong> in deciding between two PhD programs. Any teaching experience will do for now, and you will have many opportunities to compensate in future. Moreover, most hiring committees will focus more on your research activity than on your teaching in any case.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9013,
"author": "Noah Snyder",
"author_id": 25,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I would be truly shocked if any hiring committee cared at all about whether you taught calculus versus pre-calculus. Doing well at either would show that you can adequately handle teaching service classes.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/30 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9011",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6623/"
]
|
9,014 | <p>An annoying aspect of working with a "strict" grading system (e.g., 90%+ = A, 85% = A-, 80% = B+, etc.) is what I call the "grade grubbing" phenomenon: the people who feel compelled to raise complaints about the grading because they didn't get the final score they want—but have no real argument in support of a higher grade. This is not about legitimate requests to reconsider because of a mistake but instead students searching for any reason why they deserve the X points they need to get a better grade. It’s exemplified by the kind of argument that begins “I know it’s wrong but . . . .”</p>
<p>I do not have the power to change the grading structure—that is imposed from higher up. </p>
<p>Are there any satisfactory methods of discouraging such behavior? I don't want to stop people with legitimate issues from asking for regrades (mistakes happen!), but I would like to avoid having to deal with the student who tries every which way to get the few points they need to move up a level. </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9015,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have three primary methods for dealing with this behavior:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>On the first day of class, I mention that I won't tolerate grade-grubbing. I say that I am firm and will treat everyone equally. What I don't say is that students are much more likely to see leniency if they showed a good effort in class, and are nice about asking me to review a grade.</p></li>\n<li><p>I admit that I make grading mistakes (and so do the TAs), and we'll fix the problem if they occur.</p></li>\n<li><p>I have a policy that if you ask for a re-grade, I'll look at the whole assignment and if the end grade is actually lower, that's what you'll get (I don't think I've ever lowered a grade this way).</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I would like to avoid having to deal with the student who tries every which way to get the few points they need to move up a level.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You'll always have to deal with a couple. If you set the ground rules on the first day, you'll see fewer on average.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9016,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I consider all requests for re-marking. As said many times here, mistakes do happen and I'm only human. However, when I find a student who is being unreasonable, I tend to be even stricter in my interpretations than I was the first time around.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, the difference between 85% and 86% is not normally significant (either in the quality of the work or the overall impact on a student's total grade for the module) but for those who think they can push for a 1% 'bump up' in grade may well find themselves with a 1%-2% 'bump down' (85% to 84%).</p>\n\n<p>Teacher reputations spread quite quickly between students and I believe the students will act more appropriately once they realize they are not in a 'no lose' situation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9018,
"author": "emory",
"author_id": 3849,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3849",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>you have a strict grading policy; and</li>\n<li>90%+ = A, 85% = A-, 80% = B+.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Then let epsilon be a margin of error such that you would be surprised if a regrade changed things by more than epsilon points. For this example, let epsilon be 1 point.</p>\n\n<p>Now apply this algorithm</p>\n\n<pre><code>while (cutpoint-grade<epsilon)\n regrade\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Perhaps your initial grading will generate grades like\n84.99</p>\n\n<p>Then after applying the algorithm it might change to\n85.01; or 83.99</p>\n\n<p>From the grade grubbers point of view:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>84.99: asking for a regrade is a no-brainer. If the regrade results in just a slight improvement, the grubber moves from B+ to A-. Even if the regrade results in a lower grade, the grubber will still most likely receive a B+.</li>\n<li>85.01: not asking for a regrade is a no-brainer. It is unlikely the regrade will result in the 5 additional points necessary to move from A- to A, but there is a good chance the regrade will move the student to a B+.</li>\n<li>83.99: not a no-brainer, but hopefully inertia will lead the grubber to inaction. Regrading will change the grade to somewhere in 82.99 - 84.99, -- solid B+ territory.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9019,
"author": "Ana",
"author_id": 322,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/322",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I know a prof who solved the problem by giving a free point to all the people who are just one point below the next grade. That way there are no students whose grade is on the boundary (e.g. nobody has 89%), so it is more difficult to get sufficient additional points for the grade above via grubbing. In effect this means the grading criterion is lowered, but since this depends on other factors as well (say, how difficult the test is), it hasn't led to administrative problems. The students are also happy with this sort of arrangement. </p>\n\n<p>It also depends on how you give points. If you stick to multiple choice questions on a test, it's much harder to bargain for points.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9022,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 8,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I usually say that my rule for regrades is like the NFL's rule for replay challenges: there must be \"indisputable visual evidence\" that the original grade was incorrect. For instance, scores were added incorrectly, or a correct answer was marked wrong.</p>\n\n<p>If the score was a \"judgment call\" (for example, I deducted two points for some error and the student thinks it only deserved one point deducted), I won't change the grade, unless I did something really egregious.</p>\n\n<p>I've seen the policy \"We regrade the entire assignment and your grade could go up or down\" but it makes me a little uncomfortable. It suggests an element of randomness or caprice in the grading, which I don't want to promote, especially for younger or weaker students who may already feel like their grade is random. I don't think students should feel like they have to roll the dice to get a genuine error corrected. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9024,
"author": "DQdlM",
"author_id": 248,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/248",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think the best approach to these types of situations is honesty. I would never refuse a request to explain why how I arrived at a student's grade but if I feel that a student is going about the process in a non-constructive way then I tell them. </p>\n\n<p>If the student's approach appears unprofessional to me then it likely does to others, so this is an opportunity for professional development. Focusing on the positive I would explain how education is about much more than grades and in addition to the other good reasons to strive to become an educated person, an over emphasis on grades damages their image to the faculty who will have to provide references etc...</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9025,
"author": "Kaz",
"author_id": 3900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3900",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I had a clever teacher in high school who responded to grade grubbing (with respect to a particular exam or assignment) in an effective way. He presented the student with a wager:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"I will be glad to mark that exam over again. However, you may end up with a lower grade. I will mark the entire exam, very carefully and strictly. You do not get to cherry pick which answers are reconsidered. Therefore, you may lose marks in places where I had been generous which may more than offset any gains. It is like a bet! Do you want to take the bet and have me check the exam?\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don't know whether the students always declined the wager, but they did in every instance that I witnessed. Those students were <em>not</em> in fact confident that they deserved more marks, only that they deserved more marks in some particular question or area. More importantly, they knew very well that, overall, the teacher marked fairly, with a slant toward generosity.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9029,
"author": "Dirk",
"author_id": 529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/529",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I never had issues like that but I've heard the following solution by a colleague: The students inspect their works in the presence of the professor of TA. If they have any complaints they have to <em>write them down and hand them in</em>. There is never any discussion going on, but only written complaints are accepted. All written complaint are treated carefully and there may be a next date for inspection and even a next round but this can <em>only</em> consider the thing which have been addressed in the first round. I.e. you can't \"grub for a point at exercise 1\" in the first round and then try to \"grub for another point at exercise 2\" in the second round. All complaints have to be submitted in the first round.</p>\n\n<p>What I've heard is, that this dramatically reduces grade grubbing and especially makes \"grade grubbers\" think hard about their mistakes (which can be considered as a good side effect). As a matter of fact, it's much harder to articulate why you think that you deserve another point for some exercise if there is no clear \"misgrading\" if you have to do this in written form.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Edit some years later:</strong> Now I have some personal experience with this system. I did this at least six times and it works awesome. Were I am we have an official \"grade grubbing date\" called \"Klausureinsicht\" i.e. there is one date at which all students can have a look at their exams. I usually have 10 students in one room who can have a look at their exams at the same time. I answer all questions related to the content of the exam, but as soon as the grading is in question I hand out a paper and a pen and ask the student to write down their complaint. I even encourage writing complaints down. It further helps to cut off the discussion if I add that \"I can't answer questions on the grading as I would have to look up how our general grading for this kind of solution/error is\" (I actually have one but do not bring it to the Klausureinsicht). I collect all replies, keep them with the exams, check them and reply to the students via email on the spot or the next day. Answering the complaints is usually pretty easy. Most of the time I just write \"The grading/deduction of points corresponds to our grading system.\" or \"What you have written down does not show what you are complaining about/what you may intended to write and we can only grade what you have written.\" Only one time (out of several dozens) I had a student trying to continue grubbing.</p>\n\n<p>Also, the fact that you can not change the grading system at your place is <em>a big plus</em> in my eyes, at least when it comes to grade grubbing. (One the other hand, you have to be more careful and work harder when producing the exam so that you can be pretty sure that the difficulty of the exam is ok.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9038,
"author": "Bill Nace",
"author_id": 5762,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5762",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are some good answers here, especially Nate's, which most closely matches my own grading policies. One item that I want to highlight that hasn't been included in other answers is the <em>time factor.</em> You must put a strict time limit on regrade requests. My course policies are that I will accept regrade requests up to one week after the exam/homework/lab/etc was handed back to the students. </p>\n\n<p>The main reason for the time limit is to keep a student from grubbing too much at the end of the semester. When someone discovers that they have a B in the class, they often try hard to find a few extra points in the hopes of getting over that cutoff into A-grade land. I want to put most of the graded events of the semester out of bounds for such searches. If those 2 points weren't important enough for a student to request the regrade back in September, then they aren't important enough in December, now that final grades are being calculated.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9059,
"author": "Ben Norris",
"author_id": 924,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/924",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Instead of discouraging grade grubbing the traditional way (by making it harder), you could also choose to discourage it by making it less necessary. Students are much less likely to fight you over a few points if one or both of the following are true. </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Have so many course points available that it would take an an entire\nassignment's worth of grade grubbing to move up a letter grade in\nthe course. For example, if there are 1,000 points, and each exam is\n100 points, then it would take on average about 10 exam points to\nincrease your overall grade by 1%. To move up from a course grade of\n87% to 90%, the student would need to find 30 points, equivalent to\nincrease from a 70% to a 100% on an exam. All but the most ardent\ngrade grubber will have trouble finding that many.</li>\n<li>Drop the lowest assignment(s) in certain (or all) categories. If you drop one out of 5 exams, two out of 10 quizzes, 5 out of 25 homework assignments, and so on, grade grubbers are less likely to come and try to make a deal over one low grade. They will focus more on doing better on a later assignment so that they can drop the bad assignment.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Each of these options lowers the marginal benefit of each additional point on an exam or assignment. At a point where the effort outweighs the benefit, most students will stop grubbing and only come complain when it is serious.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Alternatively, all of your assignments could be multiple choice with one correct answer and no partial credit. </p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9064,
"author": "StasK",
"author_id": 739,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/739",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>See these resources:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://brownmath.com/stfa/raise.htm\" rel=\"noreferrer\">https://brownmath.com/stfa/raise.htm</a></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20130705093554/http://www.rochester.edu/College/phl/gradechange.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer\">https://web.archive.org/web/20130705093554/http://www.rochester.edu/College/phl/gradechange.pdf</a></p>\n\n<p>I posted the latter form on my door, and referred students to it when they came grumbling. They were furious the first couple of times, but then learned that it was a moot point to argue with me. (Although there was a case when I screwed up the final grade computation, and had to submit a few dozen grade change slips).</p>\n\n<p>On a more serious side, I stopped doing the 60-70-80-90-100 cutoffs in the latest courses at all. Think about this: you are spending 70% of the test material and volume to test for a C, and then another 10% for a B, and then another 10% for an A. A much better use of your test problems is to have 1/3 of the problems address the grade of C, then another 1/3 of more complex problems to address the grade of B, and finally the most difficult 1/3 of problems address the grade of A. So in my exams, I would state something like:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>There are 12 problems on this test marked at level C; you need to get 10 of them right to get the grade of C. There are 10 problems on this test marked at level B; you need to get at least 8 problems at level B or higher, and at least 15 problems total, to get the grade of B. There are 8 problems on this test marked at level A; you need to get at least 6 problems at level A, and at least 20 problems overall, to get a grade of A.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That is, out of 12+10+8 = 30 problems, you need to do two thirds, pick and choose, to get a full A, and only a third to get a C. You got 4 A problems, 4 B problems, and 8 C problems? That's a B+ in my books; you are a far shot for the required 20 problems for A, but you fulfilled the B requirements, and slightly exceeded them by having completed a bunch of A problems. The problems would be clustered, on most occasions: a given \"big\" problem would start with two-three C points, progress to one or two B points, and then culminate in an A point. Some A problems would be stand alone ones. So there would be 8 to 10 \"big\" problems and items within it. The smartest students would work on 6 problems, get everything right, and leave early. Not so bright students would attempt everything and fail at everything, and walk away with a C. I've seen all of the different ways that students approached it, which showed their learning styles and testing strategies -- pretty interesting per se.</p>\n\n<p>While initially confusing (I train students to it by giving like three quizzes based on this system in the first three weeks), this system works very well in the end. Before each test, I also give students rubrics stating what they need to know at C/B/A level (C level: know the formula; B: determine which formula to use in a given simple context; A level: know where the formula breaks down, and how), so there was very little arguing about grades: either you've done the problem to my liking, or you haven't; and then you just count the completes up.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9121,
"author": "Long Thai",
"author_id": 6064,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6064",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When I was doing my bachelor degree, my department had a policy which made students more serious about asking for re-marking: when a student submit a formal request, he has to pay a small fee which will be refunded if his grade changes after being re-marked, otherwise the department will keep that money. Although I doubt that this solution can be applied everywhere, but it actually makes students to think carefully instead of blindly asking for re-mark all the time.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 15353,
"author": "James",
"author_id": 10487,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10487",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am now 38yrs old and came across this site doing research for a graduate program. During high school I was not a \"good\" student. My grades were as bad as you could imagine and I paid strict attention to the grading methods that each teacher used. I did as little home-work as I could. Often home-work counted heavily in grading so I would need to max tests and especially semester finals (finals were usually 20% weighted in final averages). My typical finals week would require me to achieve 6-7 high \"A\" grades to achieve a D and pass the courses. My GPA at graduation was 1.82, I loved to listen to lectures and to read texts but I never wanted to do the mundane work of reinforcement. When I went to college I found a grading style that I was very comfortable with namely tests, essays, exams I finished my B.S. with a 3.83 GPA and did it in five semesters. Very little about my approach changed from high school to college except that I more than doubled my course load.</p>\n\n<p>I had one high-school teacher that gave us a choice about how we would be graded. He was a geometry teacher and he gave you the choice of Option A: 100% based on tests or Option B: 50% tests, 30% homework, 20% quizzes. You had to choose on the first day of class and sign a contract. I chose test option, and felt a vested interest making my choice the right one for me. He had one extra credit question on every test that was related to the topic but much more difficult I finished his class with 104% grade and likely the lone A of my high school career. I never did any home work but I hung on his every word in class and spent time while I was running working through geometric proofs in my head. I would have likely done that anyway but he is still an inspiration to me now and he is among the influences that have lead me to want to teach after I retire.</p>\n\n<p>If a kid can present a compelling logical and supportable premise that supports regarding you should thank them for helping to improve your curriculum or your communication process; find a way to benefit from their observations. It may be an opportunity to apply some constructivist principles or you might have to expose them to a harsh truth that they are wrong.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 46740,
"author": "effazin",
"author_id": 35536,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35536",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My experience is from a senior high school perspective. In the English department, it was usually essays or essay-format questions on tests that students wanted remarks because they thought they deserved a higher mark. If a student approached with this sort of request, and I as a teacher felt they were just fishing for extra marks, we would make a clean copy of the assignment, so that my comments/corrections/marks were not on the paper, and pass the paper over to the department head for re-marking, with the warning that his decision would be final and would replace the mark I had assigned--no matter if it was higher or lower. Of course our department head had the reputation of being the toughest marker in the department, and his re-marking often (but not inevitably) resulted in lower marks. Once the news got around that this was the way re-mark requests were being handled, the number of students who were just whining in case they could coax a few extra marks out of the teacher, dropped. They didn't want to take the chance that a re-mark would leave them worse off than before. The students who had a legitimate complaint still had a way to have it addressed, and of course addition errors were handled on the spot with no attempt made to discourage them.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 46883,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One class I took had a policy where if you submitted a regrade request, and it was denied, they took five points off your grade. They only did this for people who had already gotten at least one regrade request denied, so that students who had legitimate basis for regrades weren't discouraged.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 85039,
"author": "einpoklum",
"author_id": 7319,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7319",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h3>TL;DR: Don't assume they're \"grade-grubbers\"; treat them fairly and respectfully, and consider their appeals on the merits.</h3>\n\n<p>You're pre-judging them - assuming that their appeals are invalid because they \"didn't get the final score they want\". Maybe what they want is the grade they deserve, based on their answers? Or maybe even it's the grade they deserve based on their command of the subject material, which may be poorly reflected in the grades? You've dismissed this possibility from the get-go, and en masse.</p>\n\n<p>You've even adopted a derogatory nickname for them. Ha ha, very droll... not. Don't use it.</p>\n\n<p>Have an orderly procedure for submitting and handling appeals (perhaps insist on appeals in writing with a guideline document for writing appeals). Don't try to penalize people or threaten penalties or negative repercussions when submitting appeals. Consider the appeals on the merits when you get them - whether it's an appeal about 10% of the grade or 1% of the grade. You do not have to be lenient in grading - but you need to be fair, consistent, and willingly consider the appellants' arguments.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, if you get a <em>lot</em> of appeals, that's usually a sign there's something wrong either with the grading in general, or with the teaching-staff-students interaction, or with the choice of grading scheme, or all of the above.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/31 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9014",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53/"
]
|
9,017 | <p>I'm an Undergrad student from one of the Indian Institutes of Technology and I still have a year left to complete my Dual-degree course in Computer Science(offers me M.Tech & B.Tech by the end of June 2014). I've a not-so-proud-of gpa of 7.5/10 which is around 3.0/4.0 which I assume is pretty low when compared to my seniors' gpa who've taken up a PhD. But, what I've experienced from a last summer's industry internship and the previous summer working under a professor doing research is that I really can't work in the industry for a longer time writing Software as making money is the least of my concerns. The research work yielded in a rejected publication though I was way more satisfied than the internship</p>
<p>I worked under another professor the next winter, published an article in a highly reputed journal in the field of Complex networks and working on another publication this fall. I'll be working along with IBM in a research internship this summer and hoping to do well. A bit of a late realization haunts me day-to-day. Needless to say, my transcripts suck. So, to dodge all the obstacles that I created myself, I'm planning to do research work extensively for the rest of my Undergrad time. Also, I'm thinking of joining the industry after my graduation for about a year or two before PhD for two reasons. One being, my work experience can be of help and can make up for my poor transcript and second being that I can reinforce the industry-is-not-so-interesting belief. The second being not so important.</p>
<p>So, is pursuing PhD from a reputed university still in my scope? What suggestions can you offer for increasing my chances that I can do during my last year? Reading a lot of questions in this forum site, I believed this might be a good place to vent my rant. Thanks a lot in advance.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9020,
"author": "NPcompleteUser",
"author_id": 6346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6346",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My cents:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Academia is broken ([1] and other articles).</li>\n<li>However, you need to show your future employer that you are not just a Adderall user [2].</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Thus, I would get a Master's degree in ECE. Now, why ECE and not CS. I consider CS (as well as physics, chemistry, etc) to be a fundamental science. Industry usually is looking for more applied field, which in the case of CS is ECE (IMHO).</p>\n\n<p>Now, in US, is possible to get Master's degree in ECE for free. Apply for PhD school, then drop out with Master's, preferable with thesis option. This way you will show your future employer that you can do: independent research; describe and present your results.</p>\n\n<p>[1] <a href=\"https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5429651\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5429651</a><br>\n[2] <a href=\"http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/01/health/drugs-adderall-concentration\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/01/health/drugs-adderall-concentration</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9051,
"author": "John B",
"author_id": 3857,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3857",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A 3.5+ is generally preferred but a 3.0 and some solid test scores (GMAT/GRE) can really bump you up in the admissions line. Keep working on your publications and when it comes time to write your personal essay talk about how you have published already but really want to develop those skills so you can be a prolific researcher.</p>\n\n<p>If you love research, and the creation of knowledge, then go for the PhD it will give you the best training and opportunity to advance your research.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/31 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9017",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6631/"
]
|
9,026 | <p>Recently I created a project report for the project that me and my classmate are working on. The project report goes to the external examiner to whom later we have to give a demo on our project.</p>
<p>Me being inclined to designing (web designing, graphic design, etc) I decided to make the project report look really good. A nice clean report with good choice of paper. And care taken while choosing font etc.</p>
<p>It turned out to be much much better than anyone else's report. BUT! The first thing I heard from other classmates was. <strong><em>"Making project report look good is of NO USE. Your project (Application) should be good enough and it's all that matters"</em></strong></p>
<p>Is it true? from a general perspective of people. Does "making it look good" matter at all?</p>
<p>I couldn't find any other section more relevant enough to discuss this question. Please let me know if there is any.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9028,
"author": "Abraham",
"author_id": 6310,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6310",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If your content is as good as the cover you used, it is ok. But if you are trying to create a good looking report about a badly implemented project, it is just a waste of time and shows that you concentrate on the trivial things rather than on important ones. </p>\n\n<p>Those who judge your work won't judge it by its cover, I hope. That said, if the report is about a project aptly implemented, it shows that you are a perfectionist and is a good thing. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9030,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The answer by Abraham is spot on. I would just like to add the following: Good design will not kill anyone but bad design can. By design I am primarily thinking typography and illustrations. I am not so concerned about reports made during your studies but rather when you are in the work place. A report, no matter how well conceived can become overlooked if it is hard to read and if illustrations are not clear enough. There is of course a risk of over-doing the design and a somber tidy look is usually the best. So if your work is good and your design of the report also allows people to grasp the content with ease, you are doing very well!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9033,
"author": "J.R.",
"author_id": 780,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/780",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A good-looking report will put me in the mindset that you took the assignment seriously, and aimed to turn in quality work. I think that counts for something, not nothing. </p>\n\n<p>That said, if a report is just that – good looking, with little substance behind it – I will see through the façade very quickly, and all those superficial niceties might even count against you. </p>\n\n<p>Assuming that's not the case, though, if two people turn in equally good work, yet one is formatted much more professionally than the other, that <em>might</em> earn an extra point or two – assuming I'm grading with some level of subjectivity, and not merely following a strict rubric. Shame on me, though, if I let mere appearance carry much more weight than that. </p>\n\n<p>That all said, your classmates seem to be very shortsighted. Okay, maybe your extra effort will get you a 94 instead of a 93. Or maybe you'll just get a 93, with nothing more than a mental note that I thought your report looked really good. However, what you do in my classroom might – and perhaps should – extend far beyond my class. Presumably, you're in my class for an education, not merely for 3 or 4 credits. Get in the habit of turning in good work, and that might turn into something that translates into a valuable life skill. </p>\n\n<p>One more thought: what's going to happen after you graduate, when all those folks from human resources ask you to include the names of three professors on your job applications? One of them might well call me, and ask, “What do you remember about this guy?” </p>\n\n<p>Perhaps I'll answer, “Oh, I remember him. He always turned in exceptional work.” </p>\n\n<p>Those two sentences might prove to be worth far more than an extra point or two on an assignment.</p>\n\n<p>Incidentally, I had one student bring her term project into a job interview. They hired her, largely based on what they saw in that class project. Just a couple weeks ago, another student asked if my name could be listed as a reference.</p>\n\n<p>“I hope they call me,” I replied in my email. “I distinctly remember how your work always seemed to go above and beyond what everyone else was turning in.” Imagine how that will sound in the ear of a corporate recruiter who is sifting through a pile of job applications.</p>\n\n<p>It's your call. It's also your future.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9036,
"author": "Niall",
"author_id": 6637,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6637",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my honest opinion,it's impossible to separate content from presentation. They may be two separate aspects of one thing but they are not two separate things. Taking your classmates' view to extremes would have us turning in work without bothering to check for spelling or grammar.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9042,
"author": "Kaz",
"author_id": 3900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3900",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You heard <em>from your classmates</em> that the look of the report is of no use.</p>\n\n<p>But your report was better. I.e. they turned in work inferior to yours.</p>\n\n<p>In life, you can generally disregard the worthless advice and nay-saying of your inferiors, and just do it your way.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 10336,
"author": "Vic",
"author_id": 6928,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6928",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are two key elements in a report: content and structure. These can boost each other. A better content will make a judge (referee, reviewer, etc.) feel that the person has something to say, and thus the judge can overlook small mistakes in structure, and only ask for corrections. On the other hand, when a moderate content is prepared really good, the judge will give credit to the work and instead of rejecting it, (s)he would ask for betterment of the content. Usually those who prepare a very good-looking project, pay sufficient or professional attention to other aspects (the content) of the work too. At least they show they are fond of this work, no matter how their content is moderate or even not so good.</p>\n\n<p>So I suggest you keep up the good work and always make your (important) reports super good-looking. That works most of the time. It has worked for me all the time.</p>\n\n<p>Besides, it is normal for people to try to underestimate people who are very superior to them. :) So don't take them seriously.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/31 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9026",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6635/"
]
|
9,031 | <p>If you're citing a personal correspondence, e.g.:</p>
<p>"Cats are vicious" (Bill Bobson, personal correspondence, March 12, 2012) </p>
<p>and you continue to use this personal correspondence with a cat expert, do you refer to them simply as Bobson, or Bill Bobson?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9032,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Continuously referring to personal correspondence sounds like a bad idea… if many parts of the discussion come from unpublished comments from your correspondent, he should probably be a co-author rather than simply cited. Otherwise, you can quote the personal correspondence once and explain its context at first point of use. Something like:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Many of ideas developed in this paragraph were inspired by a series of discussion with cat expert Bill Bobson, over the spring of 2002. In particular, he drew our attention to the viciousness of cats and their unwillingness to comply to their master's will.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9035,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to @F'x' good points, depending on the nature of the communication, if it is \"preservable\" (an email, a PDF, or a conversation for which you have a transcript) it may merit a bibliographic entry [Bobson~2012] or Bobson (2012) depending on your style. Certainly do give a date or dates, and the disposition of the records, such as they may be. That is, as in other situations, being honest and helpful to the reader is a good guide.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9056,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think every style is going to be different. <a href=\"http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/03/\" rel=\"nofollow\">APA</a> doesn't add it to the references at the end. It also only uses initials and not the full name in text. Additional reference to the same communication would still include the initials.</p>\n\n<p>The key thing to remember is to be consistent and let the copy editor enfore the style rule. Nobody is going to reject your work because of slight stylistic deviations,</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/31 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9031",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4012/"
]
|
9,039 | <p>Though I did my bachelor's at a top-notch college, because of low GPA I had to settle down for PhD at a low ranked university. Now I see that there is lack of intellectual atmosphere and very few people to discuss academic stuff in and around my area of research. I discuss with faculty, but it would have been nice if there was a good graduate student atmosphere which is lacking. Now I get frustrated often with the fact that it was my low GPA which led to all this. Also in general the graduate student atmosphere is very discouraging. </p>
<p>What should I do to make my life better? Some people tell me to mind my own business and not worry about the environment. But to me no peer level discussion leads to feelings of loneliness.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9040,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 6110,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6110",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are indeed substantially better than your cohort, prove it by far exceeding your professors' expectations, and then ask them to support transfer applications to more prestigious universities next year.</p>\n\n<p>In the meantime, make the best of the situation you're in.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9041,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Stop whining and start kicking ass.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Work hard with faculty (and undergrads!) that you respect, do some awesome research, and then (if you are very lucky) move to a better department, either as a PhD student, a postdoc, or even a faculty member.</p>\n\n<p>Meanwhile, own your past mistakes, but forgive yourself for them. You put yourself in this situation, but holding onto your frustration and loneliness, instead of doing the best with what you have now, is only going to keep you frustrated and lonely.</p>\n\n<p>(My undergrad GPA was 2.4/4.0.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9043,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A PhD is often, a very lonely beast. I go to a \"top\" school but often, I feel that there is no one to discuss my work with at a high level other than my adviser. Often, I feel that everyone around me is much smarter than me and can contribute so much to my general academic knowledge just by having a high level discussion over coffee.</p>\n\n<p>This has nothing to do with my school or my department but everything to do with me. If I cannot make other people, especially my peers understand what work I am doing and have a broad level discussion with them, my science communication skills need to be improved.</p>\n\n<p>As others have already pointed out, if you are indeed better, prove it by being the very best at where you are and you will soon magically see that there are plenty of people to discuss your work with no matter where your university or department is ranked.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9060,
"author": "bobobobo",
"author_id": 2745,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2745",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Ok 1st of all I think you're delusional about what you \"think\" you're missing out on.</p>\n\n<p>Everywhere you go, academia is a very independent vocation. That is, even at a top notch school, <em>your peers probably wouldn't want to chit chat with you about physics much</em>. They'd want to go do their own research. Life at a top notch institution isn't some all-day sitcom with witty exchanges about subatomic particles.</p>\n\n<p>Friendships and conversations can be had with people in other disciplines.</p>\n\n<p>One thing I think you don't understand is\n<strong>nobody cares about your research problem</strong>, not even your peers and equivalents <strong>because they are too busy with their own problem</strong>. The intellectual load of academia is such that if you don't narrow your focus, you'll never succeed. Simply because there is too much to know, and if you start exploring too many fields, all your time will be lost.\nIf they are researching the exact same thing as you, <em>then they are in competition with you</em>.</p>\n\n<p>You may also have a superiority complex that you need to overcome. You very obviously think you're smarter than everyone around you, and you look down on your peers. You have to stop doing that, and instead work independently, chat with peers on break times on common grounds.</p>\n\n<p>Use the Internet for peer discussion.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9128,
"author": "user6678",
"author_id": 6678,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6678",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>nobody cares about your university, the only important thing at least in Europe is your CV. If you can publish paper in good journals then nobody will think about your university. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/01 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9039",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6418/"
]
|
9,044 | <p>I was recently doing some research on <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed">PubMed</a> and I noticed that, in my field of research (plant science), some articles are referenced and others are not, even for two articles in the same journal...</p>
<p>Does everyone know what is (are) the condition(s) for a paper to be listed in PubMed?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9049,
"author": "Stylize",
"author_id": 3966,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3966",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>from <a href=\"http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/j_sel_faq.html\">here</a></p>\n\n<p>The National Library of Medicine uses an NIH-chartered committee, the Literature Selection Technical Review Committee (LSTRC), to review all new biomedical and health journal titles and recommend those to be indexed for MEDLINE®. The NLM Fact Sheet titled \"MEDLINE Journal Selection\" provides information on the role of the LSTRC and critical factors considered in making the decision to recommend a journal title for indexing. It is intended only as a guide since there is no one set of characteristics that will guarantee selection. The LSTRC considers the quality of the scientific content, including originality, and the importance of the content for the MEDLINE audience throughout the world.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9052,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Because PubMed is about biomedical literature and life science journals. Things are blurry, however, because of two factors:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Obviously, there is no strict definition of what is (or is not) <em>biomedicine</em>.</li>\n<li>PubMed does not select “article by article”, but has a list of indexed journals, from which all papers are indexed. Yet, a single journal's scope can be very varied.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Combine the two, and you get the idea that there is a lot of variability in whether an article on a given topic is published. For example, my own research field is materials chemistry, and about two-thirds of my papers appear to be indexed in PubMed: probably because those were published in generic chemistry journals, which also happen to publish some papers of relevant to life science.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 27132,
"author": "andreas",
"author_id": 20529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20529",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Often there are journals that clearly have bio-medical content, and are not found in PubMed. That's because registering a journal in PubMed is a non-trivial task. \nEven for big players like Cell Press it took almost a year to put \"Cell Reports\"\nin there.</p>\n\n<p>The publisher can apply to be included in PubMed, but that usually takes some time. The meeting where it is discussed if a journal is included is only held twice per year. One requirement is that the journal is also available in print. That's why many journals start with a print issue and then after inclusion in PubMed drop it again.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 134097,
"author": "Gunther Eysenbach",
"author_id": 111304,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/111304",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Let me start by saying that some of the other answers are misleading because Medline is not the same as Pubmed. You'll find Medline-indexed journals which are selected by LSTRC in Pubmed, but Pubmed also contains other articles from non-Medline indexed journals - hence the answer about LSTRC selecting Medline journals isn't wrong but does not answer the question at hand.\nIf a journal is in Pubmed (e.g. because the publisher submits to PubMed Central, or because it is selected for Medline) then usually ALL articles from that journal are in PubMed.\nThe answer to the mystery why some articles from a journal may be in Pubmed and others are not may have to do with the fact that authors can submit their accepted manuscript to PubMed Central (PMC, which hosts full-text articles) and then they also show up in PubMed. If authors are funded by NIH or other funding agencies they even have a mandate to make their manuscript openly accessible. If the journal is not open access they have to submit it to PMC using the author manuscript submission pathway. The paper will then show up in PubMed, even though the full journal is not Medline indexed.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/01 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9044",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/481/"
]
|
9,053 | <p>I got an offer for a PhD position which, due to my financial status, I can only accept if I am awarded a scholarship, which is currently in consideration. Recently, I receive a job offer which have to be answered before the scholarship announcement date. I cannot delay on that because there are few other potential candidates for that position. Although I find it interesting but it's OK if I turn an offer down as I currently have one already. Moreover, the PhD is much more important to me. So my question is whether asking the university to speed up in their consideration affects the chance to get the scholarship. If it's possible, can someone let me know how university deals with this situation?</p>
<p>Update: I cannot quit a new job early as it has a fixed-term, more like minimum term, contract because I will receive 3 months oversea training at the beginning so they don't want me to leave too soon.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9055,
"author": "Paul Hiemstra",
"author_id": 4091,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4091",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You could accept the job offer, and quit your job if the PhD position works out. Especially during your trial period at that company it is surely ethical to quit, this period is meant for you to see if you like the company and vice-versa. If you find something more to your liking, switching jobs is normal. After your trial period you probably have some kind of period you need to stay after resigning, say a month. The PhD will probably not require you to start the second you get the scholarship, so you have ample time to deal with the last bits at the company, and start at your PhD position a month later.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9057,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Asking to speed up the process will not hurt your chances. They may not be able to speed anything up, but if they do/don't, they will not hold it against you. Likely what they will do is take a look at where you stand and then be able to judge if they can definitely fund you. If so they will tell you. If not, they will tell you they don't know yet. They also might tell you it is unlikely. Something like you are currently ranked 25 and we have funding for 8. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/02 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9053",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4481/"
]
|
9,058 | <p>I'm trying to figure out the equivalence between grade schemes in different countries.</p>
<p>According to some Google results:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you are a U.S. citizen, you need a GPA of 3.2+ (it varies, some say 3.2 and some others say 3.6, etc) to apply for a position in the UK (job or university) where the prerequisite is to have a minimum grade of 2:1.</p></li>
<li><p>In UK 2:1 is earned if you have a 60-69% of the points. I've read that 2:1 is the same as 67%.</p></li>
<li><p>In Spain we use a grading scheme of 10 points. So according to (2), for have a UK 2:1 you need to have 6-6.9 points.</p></li>
<li><p>If you are Spanish and have 6.7, when converting it to GPA the result is 1.5.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>However, if you take the above points and treat them as a math equation, the final result will be GPA 1.5 = GPA 3.2, which doesn't make any sense.</p>
<pre><code>GPA 3.2 = UK 2:1
UK 2:1 = Spain 6.7
Spain 6.7 = GPA 1.5
</code></pre>
<p>Replacing now...</p>
<pre><code>UK 2:1 = GPA 1.5
GPA 3.2 = GPA 1.5
</code></pre>
<p>My question is if someone has a better explanation on converting grades obtained in different countries.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9061,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is no clear answer for conversion between grading schemes in different countries. Sure, you could numerically try to convert using ratios and proportions as you are currently tying to do but they don't really mean anything because of the following two salient reasons:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Grade Inflation and Deflation:</strong> Grades mean differently in different institutions across different disciplines and in different courses. For instance, certain highly ranked universities in the USA are very well known for grade inflation. A 3.5 overall GPA is what almost everyone gets. On the other hand, certain other highly ranked universities suffer from grade inflation where getting a 3.0 GPA in certain courses and in certain majors is very different. Hence, merely using some base metric to convert between grading schemes of different countries is not a very good idea.</li>\n<li><strong>Differential grading within the same country:</strong> Not every country has a standardized grading system. For instance, India has at least 5 different grading schemes that I am aware of including but not limited to absolute CGPA's on a 4.0 scale, a percentage system on 100 and a relative CGPA system on a 10.0 scale.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><strong>tl;dr</strong></p>\n\n<p>Don't convert between different grading schemes unless it is explicitly mentioned what minimum grades you need for your own country. Just apply and hope for the best.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9062,
"author": "posdef",
"author_id": 5674,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I realize that you mainly mention translating grades between Spain-UK-USA but the final statement of your question is about converting grades in general, so that's what I will refer to. </p>\n\n<p>Most countries have their own system which doesn't really make sense as you try to \"translate\" them to some other system. </p>\n\n<p>For example in Sweden two grading systems exist at university level:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>U/G/VG which stands for fail/pass/pass with distinction</li>\n<li>U/3/4/5 which stands for fail/pass with grade 3/4/5 (5 being the best possible grade) used primarily in technical (such as engineering) universities/faculties</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Our neighbouring Denmark however seems to have a 7-grade system with a scale from -3 to 12. In Germany, however, the best grade you can get is a 1, thus you would want a \"GPA\" as low as possible. So much so that if you apply to an institute with 4+ GPA from a Swedish engineering school, they don't even bother to reply (personal experience). </p>\n\n<p>To add to this grading madness, consider the effect of the curve bell; in some countries university exams are graded based on a bell curve, so a certain percentage of students get the best grade no matter how many points they get. In other words if you are in a class of overambitious students, well, your 80% in the exam might be barely enough for a pass. </p>\n\n<p>Note that a standardised grading system was attempted in the EU (with some extra countries) in connection with the Bologna Process, with the ultimate goal of facilitating internationalization amongst European countries. But it died out due to the resistance from many different institutes. When the standardised grading system introduced with the Bologna Process was trashed later on (at least in Sweden), the solution was to supply a diploma supplement, for instance upon enrolment in exchange program, where statistics (how many students were enrolled, how many passed with what grade etc) for each course the student has taken is denoted. </p>\n\n<p>To sum it up, what the grades are supposed to reflect typically gets lost in translation. Trying to convert them back and forth does not make any sense, and even if it did, there is no guarantee that <strong><em>country A</em></strong> and <strong><em>country B</em></strong> will value a certain grade <strong><em>G</em></strong> from a <strong><em>country C</em></strong> the same way. In clearer terms your 6.7 Spanish GPA might not weigh equal when judged by the American and the British authorities/companies.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 15462,
"author": "juandesant",
"author_id": 10233,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10233",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In Spain, examinations are graded in 0-10 (with 0 being failing everything, and 10 a perfect score), but then the actual marks for each subject <em>at universities</em> is in a 4 degrees scale: 0-fail, 1-pass, 2-remarkable, 3-outstanding, 4-outstanding with honors. Marks are weighted by the number of credits (equivalent 10-hour blocks of study, including class attendance, labs, and estimated self-study) of each subject.</p>\n\n<p>People with non-Spanish degrees have to convert their marks to this 4 point system, with the help of the following algorithm (in pseudo-code; you can find how to use it, for instance, <a href=\"https://sede.csic.gob.es/servicios/formacion-y-empleo/bolsa-de-trabajo/modelo-declaracion-notas-medias\" rel=\"nofollow\">in this form from the Spanish Council of Scientific Research</a>):</p>\n\n<pre><code>Ti = 0;\nMi = 50+50*(SMi-Nmin)/(Nmax-Nmin)\nif Mi >= 50 and Mi < 69.9 then Ti = 1\nelse if Mi >= 70 and Mi < 89.9 then Ti = 2\nelse if Mi >= 80 and Mi < 99.9 then Ti = 3\nelse if Mi > 99.9 then Ti = 4\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>and the final average is the total sum of the weighted average (Ci times Ti) divided by the total sum of credits (ΣCi), where:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Nmax = maximum note in the source system</li>\n<li>Mmin = minimum note that gives a pass in the source system</li>\n<li>Ci = number of of credits for subject <em>i</em></li>\n<li>SMi = source mark for subject <em>i</em></li>\n<li>Mi = intermediate 0-100 mark (with 50 being the first note that gives a pass)</li>\n<li>Ti = final mark in the Spanish system</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>You can use that kind of intermediate step to go from any mark system to any other. The only thing you have to change is:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Nmin and Nmax; it even works for system such as the German, where Nmax = 1,0 and Nmin = 4,0</li>\n<li>the brackets and marks for converting from the 100-point system to the target system.</li>\n</ul>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/02 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9058",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
]
|
9,065 | <p>I'd like to learn about the state of the art in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_science" rel="noreferrer">network science</a> and which problems researchers are actively working on. In particular, I'm interested in the applications, but the theory is also interesting.</p>
<p>I've found papers on scholar.google.com, and if I'm not mistaken most of the papers are published in application-specific conferences. For example, if network science is used to understand something related to cancer then the results are published in a medical journal. This is making it hard for me to get a consistent view and it's hard for me to get access to such a broad section of the literature (I'm not at a university so I keep hitting paywalls).</p>
<p><strong>tl;dr:</strong> Where can I find conferences and journals that focus on network science?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9066,
"author": "seteropere",
"author_id": 532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would say you are approaching it in the wrong way. Since network science (as Wikipedia defined it) is multidisciplinary concept, then I really doubt finding a consistent venue (conferences/ journals) for it. This is specially true if you are interested in the <em>application</em> side. If you are interested in the theory behind it, I see Graph Theory is the way to go. </p>\n\n<p>I have worked in different applications of what so called <em>network science</em> including bioinformatics, social networks. I only knew graph theory (I had no clue what genes really are). <strong>So this largely depends on the application domain.</strong> </p>\n\n<p>So simple steps to go: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Pick an area/interesting problem related to your expertise/background. </li>\n<li>Read its literature.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>If you saw a good paper related to your work, then keep an eye on the authors. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9087,
"author": "Matthew Orlinski",
"author_id": 6492,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6492",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I agree with Seteropere completely, \"Network Science\" is a very broad subject. I work with the theory of \"dynamic networks\" which involves a lot of graph theory, complex networks, and time series analysis, but also in protocol design for Delay Tolerant Networks which is another application you might like.</p>\n\n<p>Take a look at this website, <a href=\"http://www.network-science.org/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.network-science.org/</a> it has plenty of links that I rate very highly. Including links to Alain Barrat's work (check out <a href=\"http://www.sociopatterns.org/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.sociopatterns.org/</a> it has some wonderful illustrations of dynamic networks). There is also a conference devoted specifically to Temporal and Dynamic Networks <a href=\"http://tdn2013.wix.com/tdn2013#!contributions/cmc\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://tdn2013.wix.com/tdn2013#!contributions/cmc</a></p>\n\n<p>Here are some of the tips I sent to a recent new student in our department, most are free in that there are no paywalls:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Look at the references on the most recent papers you are reading, and also look at the conferences and journals that the authors are involved in by visiting their personal websites. This will tell you where people are currently submitting to.</li>\n<li>There are some websites devoted to finding conferences too, but don't rely on them. Some examples:\n<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_computer_science_conferences\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_computer_science_conferences</a>\n<a href=\"http://www.wikicfp.com/cfp/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.wikicfp.com/cfp/</a></li>\n<li>Find a conference you like the look of, look at their <strong>calls for papers</strong>, and <strong>past proceedings</strong> to see what they are asking for.</li>\n<li>Mailing lists! Sign up to (but don't spam) well known mailing lists. Again this will be dependent on the area you are interested in. In computer networking the biggest mailing list for calls for papers is probably the IEEE TCCC mailing list, <a href=\"http://committees.comsoc.org/tccc/mailing_list/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://committees.comsoc.org/tccc/mailing_list/</a>.</li>\n<li>Social networks. Sign up to Twitter/Facebook/Linkedin/etc. A lot of Phd Students, PostDocs, lecturers, research groups, and conferences are on Twitter. When you find someone or something you like, look for it on social networking sites, look who is following, what they are talking about, and get involved.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Good luck.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 94372,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To echo both of the other answerers, \"Network Science\" is really, really broad as a field, which means that conferences, journal venues and the like can often be quite hard to find, as many people are interested in network science <em>as it applies to their field</em>.</p>\n\n<p>One productive way forward is simply to <em>ask</em> people doing network science in your field where they present and publish, or do a bit of Google Scholar stalking.</p>\n\n<p>For example, building off a colleague of mine's recent work:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Both Netsci '18 and the SIAM Network Science conference are likely good general conferences</li>\n<li>But so is the Ecological Society of America for network science applications of biological systems, and Epidemics for...well...Epidemics.</li>\n</ul>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9065",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6655/"
]
|
9,068 | <p>The "research portion" of my paper is mostly done, but I'm having trouble putting together my research. (Keep in mind this is at the undergraduate level). It's not so much that I don't know how to organize my thoughts; in fact, I've written a very detailed outline. I seem to have a two questions I'm wrestling with (I apologize if this is a tad long-winded)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The monotonous proof-theorem-proof-theorem style that essentially consists of a list of facts with no exposition seems to be most accepted. But will this really make my paper stand out? When I think about texts with proof-theorem-proof-theorem, I think of the color gray. If I try to be clever and witty, it could certainly backfire on me, but such papers are the most memorable papers I've ever read! </p>
<blockquote>
<p>So what should the tone/style of my paper be? </p>
</blockquote></li>
<li><p>I'm struggling <em>very much</em> with how detailed my paper should be. By no means am I writing a textbook, but I need to show the audience (namely admission committees) that I <em>know</em> what I'm talking about. On the other hand, I have a deadline! There's always this looming thought in the back of my head that says "But you can't leave that out!" when I debate if I should skip something just to speed up the process -- it's as if I have a hoarder living in my head. I have this same issue with considering how much background/prerequisite math I should include for the reader -- it is <strong>confusing</strong>, to say the least, writing to an audience that is more knowledgeable than the author. This is certainly very difficult for me to figure out. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>So how detailed should my paper be? </p>
</blockquote></li>
</ol>
<p>I'd really like to hear feedback from professors and/or admission committees members. But, of course, feedback from anyone with research experience is appreciated!</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9069,
"author": "posdef",
"author_id": 5674,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My current field is not mathematics, but I am certainly not a real stranger to the field as I did my diploma (undergrad + masters) education on applied mathematics. Anyways here's my two cents:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>The regular structure and tone of research articles is pretty much the same; unless there is a good reason you stick to IMRaD (Intro, Mat&Met, Results and Discussion). Unless there is a good reason, you avoid passive tone, and changes in tense etc. This structure has the benefit of being familiar and intuitive to practically anyone out there. The \"RaD\" part is typically what's most important. </p>\n\n<p>What's different in <strong>your</strong> case is due to the fact that research om mathematics is more <em>inductive</em> than <em>deductive</em>. What that means is that you have to make sure your introduction is watertight, all your assumptions are valid. Since the value of your results depend on what you have built them on, the introduction becomes much more important than a \"normal\" introduction. </p>\n\n<p>Regarding the tone or style; the reason why some people can write witty is most likely because the same person has written many more articles, perhaps even book chapters. The experience really shines through in academic writing. Besides an established/respected professor isn't likely to be judged for humor in writing, the same way a junior scientist would be. </p>\n\n<p>Alternatively the person in question might be \"witty\" in his/her personality, and that wittiness passes on to the writing. As a young, aspiring academic you should be more worried about getting it <strong><em>right</em></strong> than getting it pretty/witty. </p></li>\n<li><p>It's usually hard to decide on that sort of stuff without having any more information. How much did you write? How much work are you presenting in that paper? It's usually a good idea to stick to the upper limit for the paper. Any journal (in my experience) will give you an upper limit on number of words/characters/pages for manuscript submission. I can only imagine admission committees would do the same. If there really isn't a defined limit, ask a more experienced colleague/friend perhaps, or a professor? </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Hope it works out fine.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9084,
"author": "anon",
"author_id": 6660,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6660",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Apologies for stealing scaaahu's comment into this answer, but I wanted to stress that it is really the only possible answer to this question: ask your advisor! </p>\n\n<p>Getting a hang for the appropriate level of detail is a very tricky thing, and only comes with experience. Also with being clever and witty; if you can pull it off, great, but if you can't, then it distracts from the content of your article. There are no general rules for this, you need advice from a more experienced mentor.</p>\n\n<p>If I were you, I would write up a quick draft without stressing <em>too</em> much over these issues, and go over it carefully with your advisor; they would be able to tell you whether your humour is working, or where you need more or less detail.</p>\n\n<p>That said, a few general tips:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Look at the papers you cite; if they all treat some theory as standard or well-known (\"By class field theory....\") then you probably can too. Same goes for tone.</p></li>\n<li><p>Often you can save space and omit details by rephrasing your results in a way that suggests how the proof should go. For example, let's say I have a lemma about a linear operator that gets proven by choosing a basis and then something straightforward; I might then state the lemma in terms of the matrix, so it would be more obvious to the reader how to complete the proof. </p></li>\n<li><p>(and the most important, imo) Engaging papers are not engaging because of witty one-liners, they are typically engaging because a great deal of effort went into organizing them well. The key is to ensure the reader always knows where they are, where they are going, and how they're getting there. This is not at all easy to do, but if you practice writing with this in mind early on, it will serve dividends later.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9068",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6489/"
]
|
9,071 | <p>What effect does a good research paper have on a university's worldwide rankings?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9075,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p><strong>None.</strong> One good paper makes its author(s) look good, but does not make the university more or less remarkable (either in term of perception by the research community or rankings). It takes a lot of good output (papers, conferences, etc.) for people to start saying “hey, that university has great research done in so many research groups, it looks like a great place”, and for whatever rankings to be affected.</p>\n\n<p>Unless by “good” you mean “outstanding”, not in the academic sense <em>“quite okay but I’m writing in hyperbolic style”</em> but in the meaning of <em>“exceptionally good; clearly noticeable”</em>. One groundbreaking (Nobel level, if you wish) discovery made at a single institution will help it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9092,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A single good research paper typically has a <strong>very small impact</strong> on the university's ranking and prestige. However, universities are very large organisations. Any one university may be producing thousands of publications each year. Thus, the presence or absence of one publication is unlikely to change the ranking of a university on some prestige or publication based league table. </p>\n\n<p>That said, each publication (and especially the \"good\" ones) does play its role in the overall evaluation of prestige. Thus, if a single good publication contributed .01% or .1% of the total citations (or other prestige generating effects) that a university received in a given period, then that is still important. I remember hearing that a study that received a lot of publicity was supposed to have generated $200,000 in free advertising exposure for the university. Presumably similar quantifications could be applied to university prestige. While the contribution of one publication relative to the prestige of an entire university is small, the absolute value may still be substantial.</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore the influence of one good publication on prestige naturally amplifies as you go to smaller groupings from nation to university to faculty to department to research group to individual researcher.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9071",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6273/"
]
|
9,076 | <p>I gave an application for a funded project to a student as reference material for his Masters thesis. He wants to put a reference to this text into his bibliography. What is the necessary "bibliographic" information to include in this case, and what would be the recommended way to format such a reference?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9078,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The rule with citation of “unusual” references is always something like that:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Make sure you really want to cite it. <em>(In your case, it sounds okay, but most cases of students trying to cite “unusual” stuff end up with me telling them not to cite it)</em></li>\n<li>Include just enough information that the <strong>cited item is uniquely identifiable</strong>.</li>\n<li>If the item is not publicly available, include additional information that hints at its content (such as the title).</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>For example:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>John Aristotle (341 BC). <em>Exploring the impact of introducing a fifth element in Empedocles’s classification of principles</em> [Grant X1FH25 proposal to the Macedonian Science Fundation, Agency for Philosophical Research].</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9179,
"author": "mnemonic",
"author_id": 6696,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6696",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>i know that we are not on the LaTeX / TeX site, but when thinking about BibTeX your headache will gone away and it should be rather clear.</p>\n\n<p>@format: That will be made when choosing a bibliograhystyle within your tex file.</p>\n\n<p>@required information: Various bibliography items are demanding different fields. </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BibTeX\" rel=\"nofollow\">BibTeX overview</a></p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9076",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890/"
]
|
9,079 | <p>Are people doing research for Microsoft, Apple, Intel experienced researchers/scientists or just experienced programmers using other people's research? Do they hire full time researchers for their research or do they take experienced/skilled professionals who are familiar working with java, C++ and other commercial technologies?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9093,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Microsoft has a prominent research arm, <a href=\"http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/\">Microsoft Research</a>. Intel has <a href=\"http://www.intel.com/intel-labs/.htm\">Intel Labs</a>. Both organizations hire research-focused PhDs from both industry and academia, and both employ researchers that have joint appointments on research university faculty. Employees at both organizations also routinely publish fundamental research at peer-reviewed conferences and workshops, and in journals.</p>\n\n<p>Apple is a tougher nut to crack -- they spend truckloads of money on R&D, but rarely publish in peer-reviewed venues. However, they do hire plenty of PhDs who do focused research on products that sometimes turn into the next iPhone.</p>\n\n<p>All three companies file many patents, as well.</p>\n\n<p>Many other big companies also have research labs, and openly hire researches specifically working on fundamental research. However, as with any company, research tends to be focused in the direction that could eventually produce profitable products -- if you are considering a research job at a company, you should take this into consideration. For what it's worth, Microsoft Research seems to be closer to the \"research for the sake of science\" than some other labs, although there are others (notably, labs such as (formerly) <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PARC_%28company%29\">Xerox PARC</a> and <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Labs\">Bell Labs</a> are famous for groundbreaking fundamental research).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9095,
"author": "StasK",
"author_id": 739,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/739",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a discipline-specific question. Computer science may have Google, Microsoft, Bell labs -- what do other disciplines have?</p>\n\n<p>I work in survey statistics, and while there are about four or five Ph.D. programs in the world producing survey statisticians and methodologists (Univ of Maryland, Univ of Michigan and Univ of Nebraska, Lincoln in the US; Southampton in UK; Iowa State has a statistics program that is traditionally strong on the survey side; other Ph.Ds come from scattered academic survey statisticians, about another 10 or so people in North America), the papers published in academic journals in the discipline split about evenly between government, industry, and academia-proper. I've heard from friends in chemistry that <em>most</em> of good chemistry research is being done in industry these days, rather than in academia. Don't quote me on this though. National Institutes of Health (US) have a tenure-like system for their researchers, as they are expected to produce top-quality research.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9079",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6273/"
]
|
9,082 | <p>In my CV, I include my dissertation topic within my education part like this:</p>
<pre><code>From start-time to end-time
Master of something, University at somewhere
Dissertation title: something
</code></pre>
<p>However, I also see some people include their dissertation in publication part even though it's not published publicly. So, I wonder if doing that is acceptable and advisable.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9086,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some people publish their theses as part of a monograph series. In that case, it could appear under \"books,\" but should still be identified as the PhD thesis.</p>\n\n<p>In other circumstances, I would not include it under \"Publications,\" but instead list it more or less as you suggest. (Under \"Dissertation Topic\" as part of \"Education.\")</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9088,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I think it is best to put your dissertation under its own heading \"Dissertation\". Even though this wastes a little space it makes the thesis easily identifiable. The value of a dissertation will diminish with time after the PhD so you can change its location later you want to conserve space. But, particularly in your early career many want to be able to clearly see what you wrote up for your thesis work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9097,
"author": "Noah Snyder",
"author_id": 25,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think your method (thesis title in the education section) is the standard one. Though I notice your example doesn't have the advisor's name, which should be there too. If the thesis was published separately as a monograph, or several articles, I would still list the thesis title in the education section as well as the papers/monographs in the publication section.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9099,
"author": "walkmanyi",
"author_id": 1265,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>I argue for including the dissertation explicitly as a publication item</strong>, preferably in a separate section \"Theses\", or \"Theses, technical reports and pre-prints\" (including other theses, such as master thesis, if publicly available). Of course the solution also marginally depends on the habits and regulations of the country where you completed the thesis. In countries like Germany, a dissertation thesis is required to be submitted to the university library, subsequently it is catalogued by the <a href=\"http://www.dnb.de/\">German National Library</a> (<a href=\"http://www.dnb.de/DE/Wir/Kooperation/dissonline/dissonline_node.html\">Dissonline section</a>) and receives an ISBN, hence it can be treated as a proper publication. As far as I know, also in the Netherlands, dissertations are published as books with proper ISBN assigned, hence proper archival publications too. In the past (not sure about current situation) some other countries, such as Slovakia, even master theses were required to be archived and made publicly available on request by the university libraries.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9167,
"author": "mnemonic",
"author_id": 6696,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6696",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>yes, you can include it & you should include it because many persons would be eager to see an information regarding your dissertation. \nbtw If you are using LaTeX to write your cv, BibTeX provides an entry regarding dissertations - phdthesis. \nwhen having an ISBN, then you can use the (BibTeX) book entry and your publication part. \nwithout an ISBN, use (BibTeX) phdthesis entry within the education area of your cv which was proposed in another prior answer.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9082",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6064/"
]
|
9,085 | <p>After lecturing for 3-4 hours my throat is often quite sore. Some days, I must lecturer for 6 hours (in past semesters, I've had some days which require lecturing for 8 hours). The problem is that for my later classes I have difficulty speaking comfortably. </p>
<p>I drink a lot of water, don't smoke, and use lozenges from time to time (when I'm in pain).</p>
<p>Are there any other known (scientific or folklore) solutions to this problem of getting a sore throat after lecturing for 3-4 hours?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9089,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A very often overlooked piece of advice: maintain <em>correct posture</em> while you lecture. </p>\n\n<p>If you are, for instance, looking down at your lecture notes while talking, this places additional pressure on your throat and vocal cords, making you more tired as you go through the day. It also helps in the sound production itself—the sound will carry better when it's being projected outward instead of downward, which means you don't have to speak nearly as loud to be heard. (This will again help you over the course of a long day of lecturing.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9090,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First, it sounds terrible to do so many hours straight, it is not really a good situation. I otherwise think voice coaching could be part of a solution. Many professional singers (particularly classical ones) need to go through rigorous training to be able to cope with a concert day after day (my partner is a singer so I get good tips from her). But, no training can prepare you for sustaining so many hours in the long-term. I am in the fortunate position of setting my hours myself and I never do more than 2 hours straight and then max 2 before and 2 after lunch.</p>\n\n<p>So advice: talk to a voice coach or singing coach to see what they suggest.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9091,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<ol>\n<li><p>Make sure you can <strong>lecture without having to raise your voice</strong>, ever. When I did lecture a lot, I sometimes used a microphone even if the group was rather small, if only to be sure that I wouldn't raise my voice more than the minimal.</p></li>\n<li><p>Drinking is good: I find that <strong>hot beverages heavily loaded with sugar</strong> are the best. I usually drink some light-flavoured tea (green tea, jasmine tea, …) with lots of sugar or honey. If the weather is hot, lemon-based drinks make you salivate more and help preventing dry sore throat.</p></li>\n<li><p>Deal with your boss to avoid those horrible teaching conditions in the first place. He might not care that it's not in your best interest, but explain to him that <strong>it's not in the students' best interest</strong> either! (Sore throat aside, I don't know anyone who can teach with as much passion on the 8th hour as on the first.)</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9094,
"author": "bobobobo",
"author_id": 2745,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2745",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<ol>\n<li><p>Make sure you're <strong>well hydrated</strong> at all times just before, and during, the lecture. Lecturing while thirsty means bad lubrication for your vocal chords.</p></li>\n<li><p>Make sure you're lecturing in not-too-much-louder-than a normal speaking voice. This means using a microphone if the room is large.</p></li>\n<li><p>You also have to learn to <em>talk from the diaphragm</em>. It's the same thing good singers do. Google searches will help you with this concept.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9100,
"author": "Bravo",
"author_id": 411,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/411",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While other answers are largely prophylactic, here are some thoughts on the cure.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Remedy</strong>: For any throat infections, <strong>gargling</strong> is <em>the</em> way to go. There are many ingredients one could add to gargling water: common salt, pepper, turmeric, cumin, ginger, etc. <strong>Cayenne pepper</strong>, for example, supposedly contains <a href=\"http://folkpotions.wordpress.com/2010/09/15/cayenne-pepper-for-sore-throats/\">capsaicin</a> that could alleviate pain receptors and diminish the pain. <a href=\"http://www.livestrong.com/article/265676-ginger-honey-for-a-sore-throat/\">Ginger</a> is another antibacterial and antifungal analgesic that could work wonders on your throat. Given <a href=\"http://jellybelly-shanavi.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/inji-kashayam-home-remedy-for-stubborn.html\">here</a> and <a href=\"http://worldofsujana.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/kashayam-herbal-remedy-for-cold-flu.html\">here</a> are the recipes for a common Indian potion for sore throats made using ginger.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.wikihow.com/Treat-a-Sore-Throat-or-Laryngitis\">This Wikihow</a> article has comprehensive list of treatments.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Rest</strong>: Nothing is more efficient than a few days of rest: if not physical absence from the school, you could at least <a href=\"http://www.wikihow.com/Remain-Silent-for-a-Whole-Day\">rest your vocal chords</a> - they deserve it!</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9085",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692/"
]
|
9,101 | <p>A researcher in my field has written to ask me high resolution files for 5 figures from 3 different papers of mine. He states:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Currently I am revising one review article where I have used several figures from some of your excellent papers. Due to the editor and the reviewer ask me to provide them with high qualities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I see no problem in sending him the figures in high resolution. One thing is worrying me slightly: if you write a review with 5 figures from someone else, it's either a very long review, or you may simply not be the right person to write it, it seems to me. Should I be worried about plagiarism?</p>
<p>So, when I write him back, and presumably send him the request files, what should I be mindful of? I see the following (nonexclusive) options:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ask to know a little more about this review.</li>
<li>Give him links to my few very recent articles related to this topic, trying to make sure he's not forgetting anything relevant (some papers are only a few weeks old, so it is understandable that they may not have appeared on his radar yet).</li>
<li><em>insert here others options I haven't thought of</em></li>
</ul>
<p>What I will definitely do anyway:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ask him to send me the review once it's published.</li>
<li>Remind him that he needs copyright permission from my papers' publishers, in addition to my files.</li>
</ul>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9102,
"author": "Matthew Orlinski",
"author_id": 6492,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6492",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This sounds very fishy to me. If an editor has asked them to provide them with high quality figures then presumably there is a copy of this paper that you can read to make sure you're not being copied.</p>\n\n<p>I'd ask whoever this is for a copy of the paper before sending them anything.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9103,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I agree that five figures sounds excessive (no offense!). In addition, I ask myself if you alone have the copyright or if the journal (or whatever publications) in which the figures are published holds a copyright (usually the publisher). It is of course possible that the author has asked about copyright directly with a publisher. It does, however, seem odd that the person has already used the figures for a reviewed version of the manuscript. I think it would be pertinent to ask where the paper is to be published and depending on the situation regarding the copyright, ask why you have not been approached before. I would also contact the editor of the journal where the paper is to be published if there are remaining uncertainties after contacting the author.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9114,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>if you write a review with 5 figures from someone else, it's either a very long review, or you may simply not be the right person to write it, it seems to me.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Or you just think that person has amazing figures. :-)</p>\n\n<p>If the author's university and the journal publishing the review are both reputable, then I doubt you have much to worry about. If they aren't, then it is more worrisome. If the author hasn't already specified where the review article has been submitted, then that's strange in itself, although it could be awkwardness rather than dishonesty.</p>\n\n<p>There seem to be two issues here:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Will it be a mediocre review article? There's not much you can do about this: you presumably can't stop the article from being published, so the only question is whether the world would be better off if it didn't include your figures. (That outcome would be worse for you, and I can't see why it would be better for the rest of the world, so I'd be inclined to give them the figures.)</p></li>\n<li><p>Is there no actual review article, and this is just a setup to get copies of your files for use in plagiarism? It would seem crazy to draw your attention if there's plagiarism involved, but sometimes people are crazy (or it could be someone using a fake address or hacked account). I wouldn't worry about this too much: the chances of plagiarism are not so high, and the chances the plagiarizer will actually get away with it are even lower. Besides, you might end up with an amusing story about the time a plagiarizer asked you for copies of your figures.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Remind him that he needs copyright permission from my papers' publishers, in addition to my files.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Definitely, and you could even cc the permissions e-mail addresses for your publishers, to help speed the process along and make sure the author doesn't forget or lie about it.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9101",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/"
]
|
9,104 | <p>I see a <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/search?q=beer">number of answers</a> in this site where building contacts over a glass of beer is encouraged. Moreover the cream of academia belongs to the Western world, where beer culture is common. Unfortunately though, I am a rigid teetotaler and I do not know about the ins-and-outs of the preferences of drinking friends of mine. I confess I'd make a terrible company at a public house. But I hasten to add that in general, I am amiable and move around quite well with people within my limitations.</p>
<p>Does my being a teetotaler put me at a grave disadvantage when it comes to establishing intelligent academic contacts? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9106,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>No. What really helps in building academic contacts is not beer, wine or any other alcohol, but the ability to generate informal discussions in relaxed settings. Fortunately, there are many ways to achieve that goal that do not require the intake of alcohol!</p>\n\n<p>Even without going very far from drinking, sharing a nice lunch or dinner in an appropriate setting is one good way to establish contacts.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9108,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I had suggested the beer night idea, and you're right that this would be uncomfortable for teetotallers. As it turns out, we do have people in our group who don't drink: they usually order juice or something else, and no one really notices. </p>\n\n<p>I have heard of gatherings (typically in more business settings) where there's some posturing about the kinds of whisky/beer/wine one drinks: that's not at all what I had in mind. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9109,
"author": "Javeer Baker",
"author_id": 4475,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4475",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Based on my experience, I will say that unfortunately the answer is yes. i.e. it puts you at a subtle disadvantage because you are different from the rest. Note I am saying 'subtle' because no one will readily admit treating you differently. </p>\n\n<p>Alcohol serves a social purpose and is often used to create instant connection between two people. Its part of the cultural landscape. It is easy and acceptable.</p>\n\n<p>Just let your ideas speak for themselves and then it will not matter if you drink or not drink alcohol for those who are serious about working with you. </p>\n\n<p>In my case, I try to socialise in the morning because coffee is the only option then! </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9111,
"author": "StasK",
"author_id": 739,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/739",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The only academic teetotaller that I know of is <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raj_Koothrappali\" rel=\"nofollow\">Raj Koothrappali</a> (which probably tells something about my circles). Have you ever tried non-alcoholic beer? You can find quite good, actually (my wife is pregnant now, so we have the fridge stuffed with it), although an average bar may not carry it.</p>\n\n<p>Generally, I believe you are way overthinking the drinking culture. Do your socialization in the morning over coffee, or around the lunch time; excuse yourself at night by saying that you are a strictly morning person.</p>\n\n<p>Also, by being/converting to a morning person, you can hit a very good stratum of physically active academicians who jog in the morning. I generally hate running, but whenever I go to conferences, I know that I will generally be overeating throughout the day, oversitting the calories at the talks, so I just have to run. Find other people who do run, too, and socialize with them.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9120,
"author": "J..y B..y",
"author_id": 1318,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1318",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am not drinking alcohol and it does <em>not</em> prohibit social interactions in academia: just order an orange juice and nobody will think bad of you.</p>\n\n<p>That said, socializing requires to find a common base for discussion. Being different in common aspects (e.g. drinking alcohol and commenting on how good or bad the beer is, speaking English with a strong accent, etc...) generally does not matter if you are prolific in other aspects shared with others (e.g. international politics, latest results in your field, latest gossip in the field, etc...). Once established a base of common interest, differences even make a good discussion topic, as researchers are generally open minded people interested in learning new topics.</p>\n\n<p>At the last conference I attended, the social event was at a pub and the conference dinner at a restaurant with an open bar. I had orange juice and self-assigned the mission to take pictures of the event, which in itself helped to start various discussions.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11647,
"author": "J. Zimmerman",
"author_id": 7921,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7921",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Perhaps. But only if you are uncomfortable about meeting in a bar/pub and ordering juice while others are ordering alcoholic drinks. Few people will notice (or care enough to ask why) you aren't drinking alcohol. A simple \"No thanks, I prefer juice\", or something similar, is usually well accepted.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, if you were also uncomfortable with being in a bar, that might limit your net-working with academic contacts, if only slightly. It depends on the individuals and the culture in your situation.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9104",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6665/"
]
|
9,122 | <p>As I have heard it is not possible to get a second PhD in Europe if you have obtained first PhD in Europe. Is it true? My 1st PhD is in Theoretical Physics which I won't find a fair job related to that. so I am trying to apply for second PhD in Mechanical engineering or applied Physics.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9131,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am most familiar with the situation in Germany. There it is in fact possible to get more than one PhD degree. Different departments award different types of PhD degrees, depending on the academic field. In physics, you will typically earn a \"Dr. rer. nat.\" (PhD in science), while in engineering you will get a \"Dr.-Ing.\" (PhD in engineering). While most dissertation regulations will explicitly exclude the possibility that the same degree can be awarded twice, it is of course possible to earn a \"Dr.-Ing.\" degree even if you already have a \"Dr. rer. nat.\" or vice versa. Then you would have two PhD degrees.</p>\n\n<p>In addition, there are honorary PhDs, which are awarded independently of and in addition to real PhD degrees. But I assume that your question wasn't aimed at those.</p>\n\n<p>However, that it is possible to get two PhD degrees does not mean that it is a wise thing to do. To others, it may just be a sign that you didn't take the next steps in an academic career after getting your PhD, but didn't leave academia either.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 12739,
"author": "Mohamed Khamis",
"author_id": 703,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/703",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I encountered multiple people who refer to \"Habilitation\" as a \"second PhD\". It is very typical that you go for a \"Habilitation\" after your PhD in many countries in Europe and Central Asia. It is not a PhD though, earning a Habilitation degree will change your title to Dr. habil. XXXX YYYY</p>\n\n<p>Unlike a PhD thesis, a Habilitation thesis covers a topic in breadth rather than in depth. Typically it is in the same field but covers a different topic than the one covered in your PhD.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/04 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9122",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6678/"
]
|
9,123 | <p>My daughter has a strong interest in theoretical computer science, and she has just been admitted to several different universities as a freshman. She is just a bright student, not a genius, with a bit of research experience in cryptography and randomness stuff, and a semifinalist in a couple of national competitions. She intends to continue graduate study in theoretical CS, or a closely related subfield, after finishing her undergraduate degree.</p>
<p>Given her strong interest in eventual graduate study, what criteria should we take into account in choosing where to enroll as an undergraduate? How can we tell which undergrad programs best prepare their students for graduate school?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9124,
"author": "vzn",
"author_id": 12098,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12098",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>here are some standard rankings/surveys that might be helpful. for very elite schools, they are all highly rigorous, and maybe unique nonacademic features particularly appealing to your daughter (eg \"culture/atmosphere\", which is difficult to objectively characterize) might shift the balance. </p>\n\n<p>the last 2 links are based on Shanghai Jiao Tong University's graduate school of education which recently ranked the world's best universities in computer science, based according to their academic or research performance in each subject field. it ranks 9 of the top 10 in the US. good luck!</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://www.usnews.com/education/worlds-best-universities-rankings/best-universities-computer-science\" rel=\"nofollow\">Worlds best universities in computer science, USNews</a></p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-science-schools/computer-science-rankings\" rel=\"nofollow\">best grad schools / computer science, USNews</a></p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/15/computer-science-colleges-2012_n_2694930.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Computer Science Colleges' Best Programs, As Ranked By 'Academic Ranking Of World Universities</a></p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/09/best-university-computer-science_n_2439697.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Best Universities: Computer Science</a></p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9125,
"author": "Uday Reddy",
"author_id": 9746,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9746",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Best researchers go to Universities where they get the best students to teach, and the best students go to Universities where they get good education and enough attention from the faculty. So, things balance out. Departmental reputation and standard University ranking tables are perfectly fine to use as a guide to decide where to go. Pretty much all the top departments will have good strength in Theoretical Computer Science. You will need to look closely only if you are looking at lower-ranking Universities, which might have strength in some areas but not others.</p>\n\n<p>There is also no conflict between good undergraduate education and good grad school, because the grad students do contribute to teaching. They run tutorials/discussions and help students with questions and exercises. So, a department that is good at grad school is also likely to be good in undergraduate teaching.</p>\n\n<p>There can be a bit of difference between private Universities and State Universities. Because private Universities are more dependent on the tuition fees and alumni donations, they are likely to spend more effort on undergraduate teaching. State Universities also tend to have larger class sizes, something to consider if you are looking for \"personalized attention\". You can't ask for too much personalized attention because, if that is what the faculty are engaged in, they are not going to have much time for research and, as a result, the quality of the department would go down in the long run. </p>\n\n<p>If you are really after personalized attention, then you might consider Liberal Arts Colleges rather than Universities. Undergraduate teaching is their No. 1 focus. They don't normally have a grad school. While the faculty would engage in some research, research is not considered the top priority. Teaching is.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9126,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Selecting a school is a very challenging thing to do. Just because a school has top-quality research faculty doesn't necessarily mean they have top-quality teaching faculty (brilliant researchers are not always the best communicators, unfortunately). The best way to get one-on-one time with a professor is usually to corner them during their office hours and keep asking questions until they insist they need to leave.</p>\n\n<p>Wherever your daughters ends up, encourage her to start making a connection with individual faculty members as early as possible. Faculty are almost always happy to bring new students into their labs, and there is funding available for undergraduates who are interested in research. Many universities offer REUs (research experience for undergraduates). The primary issue I've come across is that these programs have difficulty finding undergraduates to give money to. </p>\n\n<p>As far as grad school goes: tell her to make good grades and get involved with a lab. Everything else will fall into place (and that's a long way off, anyways).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9129,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is commonly said that the only university that counts is the one you've graduated from last. If your daughter wants to eventually earn a PhD, the graduate school she attends will most likely figure more importantly to her future employability than her undergraduate school.</p>\n\n<p>With that in mind, it is also true that many undergraduate schools with some of the top <em>graduate</em> schools in CS also produce excellent candidates for graduate school, primarily because the number of undergraduate research opportunities are greater, and also because it can be assumed that there is a good deal of correlation between the quality of the graduate program and the quality of the undergraduate program.</p>\n\n<p><em>However,</em> it would be wise to also consider the strength of the undergraduate program from the standpoint of all the normal factors that go into choosing an undergraduate school, e.g., (1) the kind of student your daughter is, and (2) whether the undergraduate program will give her what she needs as a student holistically. For example, some phenomenal CS programs are at schools where class sizes can be in the hundreds (e.g., UC Berkeley), but if your daughter thinks she would get swallowed up in a giant class, that probably isn't the place for her. A smaller school with smaller classes might be more appropriate, even if the CS program is weaker as a whole.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, the top two (in my opinion) factors that will affect your daughter's success in getting into graduate school are:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Her grades (<a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9039/how-to-deal-with-the-frustration-of-doing-phd-at-a-low-ranked-university/9041#9041\">despite what some prominent and highly successful members of this community have achieved</a>). Getting a 4.0 from any decent school in a particular major is better than a 2.5 from the best school in the country.</p></li>\n<li><p>Undergraduate research, with published results. Just doing research is important, but having published results will help her case significantly.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Bottom line: I suggest choosing a school where your daughter feels comfortable, and with enough of a research program that she could get involved with research as an undergraduate.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9132,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Although I'm sure you already realize this, you shouldn't let a laser focus on your daughter's professional development control her choice of which school to attend. (Influence, sure, but not control. And yes: <strong>HER</strong> choice.) Given your daughter's background and experience, she will likely be very successful no matter where she enrolls. I've seen <em>very</em> successful theoretical computer scientists come from a huge variety of undergraduate programs, not all of which were associated with strong graduate CS programs. It is at least as important for her to find a place where she feels (and not just <em>is</em>) supported and challenged, both by her faculty and her peers. Otherwise, no matter how strong the department is <em>on average</em>, it won't be a good fit for her personally.</p>\n\n<p>There is absolutely no substitute for a personal visit to each campus, if you can manage it. Let her drop into the comptuer science department, get a feel for the community vibe, sit in on a class, talk to a professor or two if she can, hang out in the dorms. Meanwhile, you go somewhere else. Go'way. Shoo.</p>\n\n<p>But if you really want hard data, I recommend that you—or better yet, <strong>your daughter</strong>—directly contact the computer science departments at the schools where she's been admitted, describe her experience and her goals (which should make them <em>very</em> eager to attract her), and then ask questions like the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>How many students graduated from your program in the last five years?</li>\n<li>How many / what fraction of those students are currently enrolled in strong computer science PhD programs?</li>\n<li>How many / what fraction of your current undergraduates are involved in research with your faculty?</li>\n<li>How many of your faculty do research in theoretical computer science?</li>\n<li>[The Hail Mary:] Would you mind asking one of them to contact me? I'd like to ask some more questions.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Beware the answer \"I don't know\", or qualitative waffle like like \"quite a lot\" that really mean \"I don't know\". Ask for numbers. Ask for examples. Channel your inner Cuba Gooding Jr: <strong>Show me the data!</strong></p>\n\n<p>Your first contact will almost certainly be answered by someone on the administrative staff, who may not have the data you want at hand. Be prepared make an appointment to speak over the phone (or Skype or whatever) with the director of undergraduate programs or another faculty member. If you do speak over the phone, try to keep your conversation short and to the point; these people are <em>very very</em> busy.</p>\n\n<p>Don't bother asking admissions officers these questions; Chances are very high that they just don't know. You really need to contact the departments directly.</p>\n\n<p>Another good place to look is the list of <a href=\"http://cra.org/awards/undergrad-current/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">current</a> and <a href=\"http://cra.org/awards/undergrad-archive/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">past</a> winners and runners-up for the <a href=\"http://www.cra.org/awards/undergrad/\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><strong>Computing Research Association's Outstanding Undergraduate</strong></a> award, which specifically recognizes undergraduate research. A significant fraction of winners did their undergraduate research in theoretical computer science. Also, a significant fraction of winners were <strong>not</strong> enrolled in departments with a top-10 graduate program. </p>\n\n<p>But as Anonymous Mathematician notes in a comment, you shouldn't take the CRA list <em>too</em> seriously; some departments are more interested in awards like this and push hard for their students to be selected. The fact that some prominent departments have few or no students on this list may reflect a disinterest in this particular <em>award</em>, not in undergraduate research in general.</p>\n\n<p>[I'm a theoretical computer scientist at a top-10 CS department; I serve on my department's graduate admissions committee.]</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9209,
"author": "StasK",
"author_id": 739,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/739",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Have her go to the school where she would be least distracted. Princeton is better than NYU, as it is farther from Broadway (1 hr vs. half-hour). Yale is even better (3 hours). Urbana-Champaign is impossible to beat in that regard -- cornfields for hours to drive (and you can still deny her of a car), she would have nothing else to do but study.</p>\n\n<p>I guess I would also want to make sure that the university's regular math program is good. If she can get a credit for non-math AP courses, that's great, as it will clear some time to do real work in college; math and CS will have to be retaken, or taken at a higher level of expectations, and/or in the honors college. Some good quantitative bridge courses like biology or psychology may be something else to pique her interest to do something CS-related that is funded by another substantive field (many of the great discoveries are being made at the disciplinary boundaries). Knowing what you are going to do for the rest of your life at 18 is <strong>incredibly boring</strong> -- sounds more like a lawyer than an academician!</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/03/29 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9123",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
]
|
9,127 | <p>I have been working as a entry-level web developer for approximately a year now. I am looking to go back to school to get a Master's Degree in hopes that I will be able to teach programming/development at the community college level (which requires a Master's Degree). I'm not interested in a PhD because I have to work full-time to support my family and I'm not interested in doing research. I have narrowed down my options to 2 programs:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Brandeis University has a Master's in Software Engineering, which teaches a lot of very specific, high-level courses (primarily Java programming and development).</p></li>
<li><p>Boston University Master's in Computer Science - Web Development, teaches a more holistic approach that spans several domains, but doesn't go into as much detail.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Do you find that a particular academic background makes one more marketable for teaching at the community college level? I feel that having a deep mastery of a specific technology is great, but community college courses generally do not get that deep into the material. I'm also a little nervous that if I take a more general curriculum that introduces me to many topics, my transcripts may not show that I have a deep enough understanding of a specific subject to teach at the college level.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any recommendations/insights or experiences with this type of career transition?</p>
<p>Thank you and have a great day.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9130,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>...in hopes that I will be able to teach programming/development at the community college level (which requires a Master's Degree)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>While this is technically true for many community colleges, it is also true that with a Master's degree vice a PhD, you will be less competitive for positions, as many PhDs also apply to community colleges. A friend of mine from graduate school worked successfully as a programmer at Microsoft for 20 years, and when he started looking for teaching positions (with his Master's already) at community colleges, he was told that he would not be competitive for available positions. </p>\n\n<p>A further caveat: because community colleges generally do not have research requirements for instructors, they tend to rely on teaching experience as much as a particular degree when hiring instructors. I would suggest that you consider trying to get some computer science teaching experience as well (if you don't have any). You might want to see if either of the two schools you mentioned will allow you to TA classes -- you may not be able to get paid, but you could do it for free for the experience.</p>\n\n<p>You might also want to consider approaching the graduate school of education at BU (if you attend there) to see about education courses -- they have a number of teaching classes, and taking one of those would also bolster your resume. You could also see about trying to get adjunct teaching positions at various community colleges -- teaching a one-off class may be possible, and you'd be able to leverage the experience.</p>\n\n<p>Bottom line: unfortunately, there probably isn't a short path to being competitive for teaching positions at community colleges. If you are going to go down the MS route, your best bet is to do as well as you can in a program, and to try to get some teaching experience under your belt.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9250,
"author": "zzzzz",
"author_id": 6273,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6273",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would suggest that you go for a Masters degree,if you wish to teach in a community college. Where I live ,Industry experience is also a big plus for teaching.Lets say if two candidates applied for teaching a java course and one of them has industry experience as well as a Masters degree then he would be the preferred candidate for the job.</p>\n\n<p>Ofcourse , phd candidates are still preferred over the Masters.But where I live ,phd candidates are considered more suitable for the theoretical courses like Automata,Operating Systems etc.Guys with industry experience are considered more suitable for teaching programming languages.</p>\n\n<p>Again, a Masters degree is very important for teaching positions.So I suggest that if you wish to go for teaching then go for Masters.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/04 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9127",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6659/"
]
|
9,133 | <p>My university (in France) is having a debate about the relevance of taking rules for preventing too many of its PhDs to be recruited here, or asking them to have some postdoc outside the region before. The same rules are also debated about the promotion to full professor (from what is called maître de conférence and is a tenured associate professorship).</p>
<p>Many people have strong opinion on these issues (me included), and I would like to gather a comprehensive list of arguments (in both directions) on this matter, if only to clear my ideas.</p>
<p>Some arguments may apply only under particular circumstances or in specific fields, please say so when it applies.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9134,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my mind:</p>\n\n<p>Pros:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>A policy of hiring your own graduates is probably a good indication that you \"take care of your own\", making sure your graduates get jobs, etc.</li>\n<li>PhDs from a university likely already have mentorship and support networks set up, there will be less time adjusting to a new place, etc.</li>\n<li>Assuming they found an advisor to work with to get their PhD, their own research goals likely align with those of the institution - there are likely grants they could be made Co-PIs on, etc.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Cons:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>You lose the opportunity to hire outside talent.</li>\n<li>Hiring exclusively from your own PhD pool creates an echo chamber - it's hard to get novel, outside perspectives, or take things in interesting new directions if everyone does what's already there.</li>\n<li>It may lock junior faculty into something kind of like a \"postdoc+\" status - sure they're faculty, but there's no big transition to make them take the leap into doing their own research, establishing an independent lab, etc. Instead, they kind of soldier along as some status above student but decidedly below the other faculty in the department, at least for awhile.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9135,
"author": "posdef",
"author_id": 5674,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have not come far in my career but I have a family of academics, this question certainly came up a number of times over the years. </p>\n\n<p>I guess the main point of having a formal requirement of foreign exchange/post-doc period is two-folds: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>to avoid the drawbacks of <em>academic inbreeding</em>. Academia is partially built on a strong tutor-pupil, or rather mentor-protégé, relationship. While this is a great way to pass on the experience and good skills, it can also be the cause of conservatism in the form of sticking to what you know only. Likewise it's truly important for young academics to experience different cultures, and I don't mean it like a charter trip to a warm place, only to hang out with friends/family. To learn, adapt and eventually appreciate a foreign culture is beneficial for any person, let alone for those who are supposed to keep an open mind to the unknown.</p></li>\n<li><p>going to a new lab somewhere else is also a fantastic way to improve on your professional skills. It's another reason why young academics are often expected to go somewhere else, learn something new and overall improve intellectually. In the corporate world this is encouraged in terms of changing jobs, those prodigies who are groomed for high level executive positions usually end up switching jobs every 3-5 years, often taking on a new but not completely unfamiliar role. </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I should also note that our department has a similar issue, in the form of internal recruiting. A significant portion of the PhDs are recruited from those who have taken the course our department gives for undergrads in a particular program. What that leads to then is that the department becomes more or less an alumni hangout. While it may be nice for those new recruits to feel more \"at home\", for anyone else who does not have the same background it creates a BIG barrier to overcome in order to get familiar with the people in the department.</p>\n\n<p>That was my two cents, I hope it helps.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9155,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In addition to the other answers, there is a perverse effect to local hiring: a professor can promise to her PhD students/postdocs a permanent position later on, which in turn tends to \"tie\" the student/postdoc to her professor, perhaps preventing her to develop her own research agenda, and doing more administrative/teaching/supervision tasks than normally required (to basically look good in the eyes of the advisor). This then builds a stack of postdocs, waiting for the next permanent position, which would be awarded not to the best candidate, but to the one who has waited long enough. </p>\n\n<p>Of course, I'm on purpose exaggerating the description, and this is no way can be generalised: many, if not most professors will actually recruit the best possible candidate, local or not. But I have observed this behaviour several times, in different countries, and although forbidding local recruitment wouldn't solve every problem, it would perhaps solve that one. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9170,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One con that hasn't been mentioned yet is <em>confirmation bias</em>. Ideally, departments want to hire the best people and provide the best opportunities for their graduates. Hiring from within skews the calibration of both of these goals.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How do we know we're doing a good job hiring? Well, just look at all these great people we hired! How do we know they're good? They came from a great department! And if they weren't good, we wouldn't have given them PhDs. And how do we know our PhD standards are high? Just look at how many of our PhD students get jobs in good departments! Well, sure, none of them get jobs in <em>other</em> good departments, but so what?</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/04 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9133",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/946/"
]
|
9,136 | <p>I see sad students who meet may be once in a month and they complaint of not having enough progress. I have seen systems where the prof meets almost every few hours on weekdays and the prof is basically continuously working with the students. I see students who meet every 2-3 days or every week. </p>
<p>So what is the "right" frequency if at all?
What is the good frequency? </p>
<p>Once the weekly(instant) gratification of getting full scores on the course homework is removed it is quite a challenge to keep a gauge of whether one has made any progress during the week. How does one measure progress during the week during one's PhD? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9138,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The \"right\" frequency is probably \"enough\". Whereas this may seem like a joke, it is not. The frequency with which you need to meet your advisor will primarily depend on you, your advisor and your project (work conditions). If someone complains about not meeting enough, it can be because of two things, either they do indeed not meet enough or maybe the student is not independent enough. It is important to be self-critical on both sides. The problem is, in other words, that each student-advisor relationship is different and enough may not be what either the student or the professor thinks is enough. A minimum should from my perspective include meetings to iron out the really difficult points in the work and to provide feedback on thesis revisions, prepare for lab or field work or the equivalent and to simply touch base on a regular basis (perhaps monthly). If there is a social environment where you meet, that is fine but not necessary.</p>\n\n<p>I personally had a weekly \"show-and-tell\" with the research group my advisor ran. These meetings were awful and more stressful than anything else. I could have done better without them. I probably met and discussed my thesis once per month on average, certainly more when writing up. I doubt my story is neither unique nor typical.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9139,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To expand on Peter's great answer, I'd also like to throw out the idea that the \"ideal\" frequency varies not only case-by-case, but also may change <em>during the course of one's graduate education</em>. </p>\n\n<p>A beginning graduate student will very likely need much more supervision than a student in the middle of her program. Similarly, the student who is finishing up may need more frequent contact, but only because changes are probably happening at a very rapid pace, and it's important to make sure deadlines are completed on time.</p>\n\n<p>From my own experience, I started out meeting weekly with my advisors; after about a year or so, the meetings became every two weeks, but then toward the end became weekly again (for the last two or so months before the defense).</p>\n\n<p>Within my current group, I use a similar scheme: new students have weekly meetings, while older students (and the postdocs) meet every other week, or as needed. (Some of my students get along quite fine meeting with me only once every three to four weeks, and I'm fine with that, because they are independent enough not to need more \"face-to-face\" time.)</p>\n\n<p>The important thing, I think, is that the PhD student should know that the time is <em>available</em>, if she needs it. However, it's also been my belief that it's when the student <em>doesn't</em> want to meet that it's actually most important to do so. This usually means that something's not quite right—and that's when intervention can make the most difference!</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/04 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9136",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6683/"
]
|
9,140 | <p>In the somehow recent past, teaching evaluations have become obligatory in many universities/departments in Germany. I've also heard that sometimes these evaluations are used in formal ways to decide about salary raises or even hiring. For me it is pretty clear that a purely formal use of teaching evaluations is not a good idea, but my questions goes in a different direction. From time to time I read in newspapers and other kind of media that a side effect of these teaching evaluations is that</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"the solicitous professor who aims at good teaching evaluations usually lowers the level in class and gives good grades in general."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Myself I never did it like that and I have the feeling that giving an "easy" course where everyone is able to score good grades but does not learn very much will not be appreciated by the students.</p>
<p>My questions is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Do you know of any evidence for the claim that teaching evaluations encourage professors to lower standards and give better grades?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Note that I am not trying to deduce that the use of teaching evaluations in a formal way to decide about hiring or salary is a good thing; I am just not sure that "lowering standards and pampering students" is a major side effect of teaching evaluations. </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9141,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Jacob and Levitt have an article in the quarterly journal of economics that looks at teachers cheating in public schools due to compensation based on their class performance. They find that teachers will do things to help their students get higher grades if it affects their compensation.</p>\n<p>Rotten Apples: An Investigation of the Prevalence and Predictors of Teacher Cheating. Quarterly Journal of Economics. 2003</p>\n<p>An article by Nelson and Lynch look at the relationship between grade inflation and teaching evaluations suggesting professors buy better teacher evaluations with grades.</p>\n<p>Grade Inflation, Real Income, Simultaneity, and Teaching Evaluations. The Journal of Economic Education. 1984.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9160,
"author": "Ana",
"author_id": 322,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/322",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It depends on what they are evaluating, and how. </p>\n\n<p>I studied at a university in a mess of a country that was recovering from a period of war. The educational system was not just depressingly dated, it was also falling apart at the seams. Enthusiasts were trying to reform the system, and one of the bigger pushes in the right direction was achieved through course evaluations. This evaluation had questions such as these:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>How often does the lecturer show up for class? </li>\n<li>Does each lesson have a clear topic?</li>\n<li>Is it clear which parts of the printed course materials are covered in which lecture? </li>\n<li>Were all the exam questions linked to some printed course material?</li>\n<li>Does the lecturer answer students' questions?</li>\n<li>Is the lecturer available to students at any point outside the lectures? </li>\n<li>Does the lecturer use e-mail to correspond with students?</li>\n<li>Do you feel that the lecturer treated you unfairly at some point? How so?</li>\n<li>Do you feel that the lecturer engages in any problematic behaviors during class? Please describe. </li>\n<li>Did the lecturer ask you for any favors in return for a higher grade?</li>\n<li>What are, in your opinion, the good aspects of this course?</li>\n<li>What are the bad aspects?</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>...etc. </p>\n\n<p>There were more questions - many were about lecturing style for example; these are just off the top of my head. Now, this evaluation made lecturers begin to come to class, made them finally pick textbooks, forced them to pick a topic for every lesson (rather than just rambling on), forced them to tell students which part of the book corresponds to which lecture so that students could read the materials in parallel. It also rapidly cut down on truly problematic behaviors such as smoking in class. Furthermore, it helped lecturers improve their performance through providing feedback on the strong and weak points of the course, at least as students saw them. Here, I think the evaluations very clearly helped improve standards in class, especially in truly problematic departments. The reason they helped was twofold: (1) there was a lot of room for improvement, and (2) the questions were well thought out, i.e. each question was linked to a particular goal in the educational reform. </p>\n\n<p>I've also studied at a wonderful, well organized university where most of these questions would be completely ridiculous. There, the evaluations had questions such as:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>How many hours per week did you study for this course?</li>\n<li>How important would you say this course is for your overall academic development?</li>\n<li>Would you say this course was easy, just right, or difficult in terms of content?</li>\n<li>Do you think the lecturers evaluate students' knowledge fairly?</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>...etc. </p>\n\n<p>I honestly have no clue what is gained by such an evaluation, and I hope nobody's salary depends on it. With the right (i.e. wrong) questions, I'm sure you could lower teaching standards by giving financial incentive to score well. The question, then, boils down to what the evaluation sheets look like. To the best of my knowledge, these are not standardized across universities, so the results may vary a lot. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9399,
"author": "StasK",
"author_id": 739,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/739",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Grade inflation has been an issue in the US since mid 1970s, so welcome to the club. See <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20130404085346/http://www.endgradeinflation.org/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">endgradeinflation.org</a>. None of the attempts to curb it have been successful so far; the practice of student evaluations is deep-rooted in US colleges, and cannot be easily modified.</p>\n<p>The uphill battle against grade inflation has been spearheaded by University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, one of top 5 large public US universities. They put a rather extensive research effort into figuring out the patterns of grade inflation. The cause, as you observed, is what economists call market failure, when the self-motivated actions of the players lead to outcomes that are worse for everybody. The employers of the graduates, and the grad programs they apply for, suffer the most, as they cannot distinguish good students from bad students. Organizations and student societies that rely solely on GPA (grade point average) discover great differences between disciplines: the humanities end of the spectrum have been hit the hardest by grade inflation, while engineering and sciences that have more specific assessment and evaluation criteria tend to produce lower grades. The opening page of <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20130605071305/http://www.unc.edu/faculty/faccoun/reports/1999-00/R2000EPCGrdInfl.PDF\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this 2000 report</a> provides a specific figure to answer your question: <strong>about 15% increase in student evaluations associated with 1 standard deviation increase in the course average grade</strong>. This standard deviation was 0.4 on the American scale that goes from 0 to 4; at the time of writing the report, the average GPA at UNC was 3.18.</p>\n<p>In mid 2000s, UNC came up with an idea of an effective grade, called <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20130605233104/http://www.unc.edu/%7Epcg/grading/AIPrimer.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">achievement index</a>. In very simplistic terms, it essentially normalizes each class to have the same GPA. Each student is mapped onto a percentile implied by his grade in a given class, relative to the distribution of grades in this class; percentiles across all classes that a student took would be aggregated; and the ultimate student's achievement GPA would be reported based on the normative judgement of what the university wants to see as the average GPA and the range of grades. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1214/ss/1030037959\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">This idea</a> is based on <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Item_response_theory\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">item-response theory</a>, or can alternatively be explained using Bayesian methods (a maximum a posteriori estimate of student ability). As you can imagine, this literally caused a student unrest that UNC has not seen since the civil rights movement of the 1960s (o tempora o mores... how petty motives are these days), so the faculty chickened out and <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20130604010517/http://www.unc.edu/faculty/faccoun/minutes/2006-07/M07FC04.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">ruled</a> against it.</p>\n<p>Still, UNC has found a way to put the grades into the context by <a href=\"https://www.chronicle.com/article/to-give-clearer-picture-of-achievement-university-adds-more-data-to-student-transcripts/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">augmenting the transcript</a> with the average GPA of other students who took this particular class, student's percentile in a given class, and the "schedule point average" = average GPA of all the students in the classes that a student took. The above link shows a clear picture of somebody who had a nominal GPA of 3.6, way up from the average GPA of classmates of 3.0, consistently performing above the median (7 grades above the median, 5 at the median, 0 below), vs. somebody who has only be able to achieve GPA of 2.5 in easier classes with average GPA of 3.2 (1 grade above the median, 3 at the median, 9 below).</p>\n<p>The dramatic timeline (if you know how to read between the lines... I grew up in Soviet Union and have this unfortunate skill) of UNC attempts to deal with grade inflation is available <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20130604041722/http://www.unc.edu/faculty/faccoun/reports/2009-10/specrepts/20091002GradingTrendsTimeline.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">here</a>. Some other institutions are likely to use these or similar ideas, including another high-profile public school, <a href=\"https://www.dailycal.org/2013/03/11/uc-berkeley-may-combat-grade-inflation-through-new-grading-system/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Berkeley</a>. (The administrator's claim that the university's computer system cannot handle the additional evaluation method is ridiculous; I could do these numbers on my laptop.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23145,
"author": "Chris Leary",
"author_id": 11905,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11905",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can offer only personal experience on this topic. However, I can say that I read the literature on course evaluations rather extensively in preparation for a past application for promotion. What I found was that there are passionate people on both sides of this debate. Some think course evaluations are the best thing since ice cream, while others believe they are responsible for grade inflation and overall lowering of standards. Based on my own experience, I tend to side with the latter group. I have been at the same institution for almost thirty years, and early in my career enjoyed very good course evaluations. After about ten to fifteen years, I notice that my evaluation scores began to erode. So, I started making things a bit easier for the students to get good grades, but nothing I felt uncomfortable with. My evaluation scores shot up noticably.</p>\n\n<p>In recent years, the quality of our incoming students has slipped, and so have my evaluation scores once again. But this time, I do not feel I can make any more concessions to the students, at least if I want to retain the integrity of my course (and myself). At least at this point I have a good deal of job security, so I can hold my ground, even though students and administrators probably wish I wouldn't. Someone in a less secure position could face a serious moral or ethical dilemna in this situation. It is easy to see how grade inflation can happen.</p>\n\n<p>In the U.S., we face the same problem with standardized testing. So much is at stake with these tests for high school students and teachers, that the whole process has devolved into teaching to the test as opposed to teaching for understanding. In my opinion, it will take a vocal effort by major public institution, and even private ones, to make any headway against teacher evaluations at the college level. That is not to say that professors and teachers are not to be held accountable for the conduct of their courses. Evaluation is necessary. The devil is in the details of finding the best way to do the evaluation. I don't think the current way is the right way. </p>\n\n<p>According to some writers, peer evaluations are an even worse tool than student evaluations. StasK has written a great answer. Pay particular attention to the remark that administrators don't believe the univeersity computing system could handle the load. Administrators are quick to cite some technical limitation as to why they cannot do something. They seem to forget that they are talking to an audience that contains experts who know that their arguments don't hold water.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/04 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9140",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/529/"
]
|
9,142 | <p>I am a post-doc and I get regular requests to referee papers, largely because of a review paper I published as a grad student.</p>
<p>I am yet to turn down a review request--It is rewarding, an opportunity to immerse oneself in another topic, and it feels good to give back to the community.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I am peri-employed, and the rational decision maker with non-infinite time resources is regrettably obliged to consider her CV.</p>
<p>At what point will listing another journal (or another instance of refereeing for a given journal) on your CV generate negligible returns for an early-career researcher? </p>
<p>At what point does the rational actor say no?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9144,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>One simple criterion is that if you have refereed more papers than the number of referee reports you have received for your papers, perhaps even divided by the number of coauthors you have for each paper, then you are ahead of the game and shouldn't feel guilty about turning requests down. Ultimately, if your career goes really well you should expect to do substantially more than your share of reviewing, but you aren't obligated to do this while still a postdoc.</p>\n\n<p>Even if you haven't reached this point, it's reasonable to put your career development first for now. Strategically, you should referee a paper if reading it will be valuable for your research, if you can impress an influential editor, or if it's for a particularly prestigious journal (so it will stand out on your CV in the list of journals you have reviewed for). Beyond that, you can do what you reasonably have time for, but you should feel free to decline review requests when you are busy with other things. If you feel guilty about this, you can make up for it by reviewing more papers than you would otherwise like someday when you have a stable job.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>At what point will listing another journal (or another instance of refereeing for a given journal) on your CV generate negligible returns for an early-career researcher? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I'd say the returns become negligible pretty quickly. Adding a really fancy journal can look impressive, but even doubling the number of run of the mill journals will make only a small difference. (People want to see that your reputation leads to review requests, but don't care much beyond that.)</p>\n\n<p>To the extent refereeing helps your career, it's more likely to be because you impressed the editor than because a hiring committee liked the line on your CV. However, writing papers and giving talks will reach a much broader audience than refereeing can, so extra refereeing is not an efficient career boost.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9145,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my field (mathematics) it is not usual for CVs to mention referee assignments, and I don't believe they are considered at all in hiring decisions, so the direct returns are negligible at any level (not counting the indirect benefit that you may learn something from reading the paper carefully). </p>\n\n<p>Keep in mind that every referee is busy and has other things to do that would be more directly rewarding, but they do it anyway. However, if your situation means it would be a drastically larger burden for you than for an average researcher, then by all means decline with a clear conscience.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9147,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Apart from the plus minus statistics of \"you do for other what they do for you\" I think there are two points yu could ask yourself:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Reviewing keeps you in touch with the field. Do you think it helps you stay in touch with developments until you find a position (assuming that is what you want?</p></li>\n<li><p>Reviewing keeps you on the radar within the field. By reviewing you will \"advertise\" your expertise which may not hurt in the future. So do you wish to be seen as an active player aiming for a position?</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Clearly none of these are make-or-break for the future but it involves assessing your own interests for the future. If you clearly think you will look for employment outside of academia and association with research, then you simply pick and chose your reviews based on interest.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9152,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Assuming unemployed means you are looking for an academic job and not moving to a new field, the answer is <strong>NEVER</strong>. Since you are unemployed, your chances to network are greatly reduced. I would suggest taking every review possible and consider adding my name to reviews.</p>\n\n<p>I would actually suggest contacting editors to request that they consider you to review articles in the future.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/05 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9142",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6670/"
]
|
9,148 | <p>Unfortunately, there are circumstances when not everything goes right in a student's PhD career, or there can be personal circumstances that require doctoral candidates to withdraw from a PhD program before they have completed the requirements.</p>
<p>However, what is not clear to me is how to handle this situation from the <em>advisor's</em> perspective. What should an advisor do to:</p>
<ul>
<li>Help the candidate, should she wish to apply elsewhere?</li>
<li>Discuss the situation with the group, to maintain morale?</li>
<li>Handle the "transition" process (during which the student is still officially on the payroll)?</li>
</ul>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9149,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Without additional details, it will be impossible to provide very detailed answers so from a general point, each case has its own solutions. The first question I would ask is, what is my part in this and how can I best help out (best may be = nothing). In general I would try to help out as much as I can unless the problem lies in the realm of a conflict or personal problems. Then there is not much you can do except suggest professional help. If the candidate is a good student then I would certainly support with any letter of recommendation I could. Since you mention morale issues in the group, it suggests some form of non-trivial problem. In some cases too much help makes people fall into a false sense of security so to be shaken can be useful as long as the reasons are very clear. </p>\n\n<p>So without trying to read too much into what is between the lines, I think the degree of help depends on to what extent help can or should be given (seen from an objective point).</p>\n\n<p>Probably not the most satisfactory answer but being responsible for the research education at my dept., I have seen how difficult these matters can be. In our case, I would also be a resource to help out, if nothing else just to discuss the matter. (This does not mean I run a research group completely without problems myself!)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9158,
"author": "eykanal",
"author_id": 73,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From my experience, most advisors seem to simply shake hands and part ways; I've seen a number of students leave, and in no case did the advisor do anything for the student. I view this as appropriate. Consider a work relationship, where an employee decides to leave because they (got married/got sick/won the lottery/will likely be fired for poor performance/dislike their job/dislike their boss/etc.). It's almost unheard of for the employer to assist the quitting employee to find new employment. (Note I'm not talking about firing someone, where local laws may require some sort of employment help.)</p>\n\n<p>It's a similar situation here. You have a student who decides to leave for whatever reason. At that point, your work relationship is simply terminated. You can continue to interact as professionals, but you are under no obligation to assist in future endeavors.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, I don't think any grad student would turn you down if you offer to help. It would definitely be a nice professional gesture. Just realize that you are under no obligation to offer such help.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9162,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 6110,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6110",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It depends on the circumstances, but I certainly help the student if I'm able. We had one student who wanted to transfer to a Ph.D. program closer to home, and another who wanted to take a crack at programs better than ours. I was happy to support them both, including writing rec letters. I put a third student in touch with some people who worked at a software company.</p>\n\n<p>Some students blow us off, in which case general well wishes and respectful silence seem to be what is called for.</p>\n\n<p>A Ph.D. is 5+ years of backbreaking work, during which you make poverty-level wages, with uncertain job prospects at the other end. I can hardly blame a student for leaving, if his/her heart is not in it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9180,
"author": "mnemonic",
"author_id": 6696,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6696",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Handle the \"transition\" process (during which the student is still officially on the payroll)?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Support would be great.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand:\nIf you are talking about a PhD student who was employed at an institute, then maybe the advisor should think what he/she has made wrong concerning advising. \nFrom my point of view, a retrospective would be worth for both - student and advisor. For instance, can you remember the first time when an expectation and an actual state of the student's work was rather different. Talked the advisor with the student regarding publications and interesting conferences? Which intervals were scheduled for meetings? Did their meetings worked out? If not, why not? (agenda, interruptions during the meeting). Which method was used by the student to assess his/her progress? Were these \"story points\" observed a little bit by the advisor? </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Discuss the situation with the group, to maintain morale?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, but firstly the advisor needs to know the actual reason concerning the end of the student's work. Talking in front of a group about a reason which was not the actual reason could be not the best when having persons in the group who are friends of the student who ends his study and work. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Help the candidate, should she wish to apply elsewhere?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If she has achieved a certain level within her scientific field, why not?</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/05 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9148",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53/"
]
|
9,150 | <p>I have seen some graduate (PhD and Masters) students in Turkey, Nigeria, Malaysia etc that can not work in the university they study. In fact I am one of them as I am about to finish Msc mathematics and computer science in Turkey and planning to start PhD in USA. My question is, is it a policy of most universities in the world that post graduate students can not work in the institution they are studying and earn their living? Even to work as graduate assistant perhaps.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9151,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Degree programs need to produce a whole lot more graduates than instructors in order for the programs to be economically viable. Student to staff numbers of around 15-1 are not uncommon. If the average staff member works for 30 years, this then becomes 450-1. In other words, for every 450 students that graduate one position becomes available. Even in the \"best\" situation of a 5-1 student to graduate assistant ratio and a 2 year average \"career\", you are talking about 10%.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9153,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h2>No.</h2>\n\n<p>In North America, at least in science and engineering, PhD students are generally <em>expected</em> to work for their host universities as either teaching assistants or research assistants, except for the relative few who win full-ride fellowships. This expectation is strong enough that it is considered foolish to accept an offer of admission to any PhD program <strong>without</strong> a simultaneous offer of a fellowship or assistantship. Sometimes these assistantships are also available to Master's students.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/05 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9150",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
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]
|
9,165 | <p>I independently wrote a number of math articles, and published some of them in refereed journals. I wrote the draft of the thesis, and contacted a Prof., and started a PhD program under his supervision. After being accepted, the supervisor</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Asked me to change all notations and terminology. I hesitate, because I used the terminology in use in the domain, I kept at minimum new terms, and I already used these terms in the published papers.</p></li>
<li><p>Asked me to make him coauthor of some of the papers I haven't yet published, and which I wrote previously, without any suggestion or discussion with him. He motivated his request by saying that my articles need to be polished (ie terminology changed with an invented one), and that even when they will be ready, nobody will accept them with my name only (although I already published some articles as single author).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>He is very assertive with these requests, and I feel like he is putting pressure on me. Normally, I would like to have him as coauthor, and maybe it will be good for my career. But I am affraid that he will make my results unrecognizable, and incompatible with the other papers in domain, including my owns. And, frankly, his only contribution is that he suggested to change the terminology.</p>
<p>What should I do?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9168,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
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"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From a purely objective point of view, I would say that co-authorship should be granted only if someone has a scientific input to the paper (such as significant reworking, polishing (whatever that is) is not enough) or if the prospective co-author is the originator of the ideas in the paper (also a scientific contribution).</p>\n\n<p>In your specific case I can see that the professor could be part of a paper if he puts enough work into it. I think it is very unattractive to force oneself onto a paper the way it sounds in your case. On the other hand, you could consider whether having a \"big name\" on your paper could benefit you in the long-term? I know co-authorships are viewed differently in different fields so I dare not say what would be appropriate in your case.</p>\n\n<p>The nasty part of the story is of course what might happen if you do not put the Professor on your papers. That is something which only you can assess. But, you could possibly get some insights by talking to others who knows the situation in your department/research group.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9169,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>We cannot tell you what the best decision is, but I get the feeling from your post that you already have some course of action in mind: <strong>politely decline, with your arguments, and if he insists too much, find another advisor.</strong> I would agree with that being the best solution for you, but only <strong><em>assuming that your assessment of the situation is correct</em></strong>.</p>\n\n<p>Don't take it badly, but I have seen it happen before. An established researcher gives advice to a newcomer (or more junior researcher), who disagrees and concludes that such bad advice can only be motivated by self interest. That sure is one possible explanation, but another might be that the advice is (partly or fully) correct, but the student doesn't recognize it (yet). Take a second look at his advice... There can be good reasons to suggest nonstandard notation: trying to make the paper more appealing to the community of another field, by using their notations. Or making the case that existing notation doesn't properly cover the cases considered. Or maybe what you consider standard notation actually isn't, and you are currently using a notation used by a prolific research group (bias in your reading list).</p>\n\n<p>I am not saying that it is your case. I'm only saying that you should seriously consider it before taking any action.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/06 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9165",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6695/"
]
|
9,173 | <p>In this site, I quite often see answers containing this <em>"Publish or perish"</em> sentence. </p>
<p>What does it really mean? Is it limited to a particular academic system (i.e. U.S.) or it is the general case all over the world? </p>
<p>Lastly, is it possible to be a researcher without concerning about "Publish or perish"? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9174,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For graduate students, it means \"Publish or you won't get an academic job.\" In many parts of academia, not getting an academic job is considered equivalent to death.</p>\n\n<p>For assistant professors, if means \"Publish or you won't get tenure.\" In many parts of academia, not getting tenure is considered equivalent to death.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Lastly, is it possible to be a researcher without concerning about \"Publish or perish\"?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Sure, of course.</p>\n\n<p>If you're publishing.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9175,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I will add to JeffE's answer by stating:</p>\n\n<p>For researchers, it means \"publish or you will not get more funding\". Funding is evaluated based on the strength of a proposal but if you are not showing a strong regular publicationr record, the interpretation might be that \"you use money but do not produce\", hence a risk not worth taking.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Lastly, to answer JeffE's question (thereby emphasizing his implicit statement): No!</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9176,
"author": "mnemonic",
"author_id": 6696,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6696",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to prior answers, the <a href=\"http://www.harzing.com/pop.htm\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Publish or Perish application</a> can be mentioned, which is a software program that retrieves and analyzes academic citations. It uses Google Scholar to obtain the raw citations, then analyzes these and presents the following statistics:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Total number of papers</p></li>\n<li><p>Total number of citations</p></li>\n<li><p>Average number of citations per paper</p></li>\n<li><p>Average number of citations per author</p></li>\n<li><p>Average number of papers per author</p></li>\n<li><p>Average number of citations per year</p></li>\n<li><p>Hirsch's h-index and related parameters</p></li>\n<li><p>Egghe's g-index</p></li>\n<li><p>The contemporary h-index</p></li>\n<li><p>The age-weighted citation rate</p></li>\n<li><p>Two variations of individual h-indices</p></li>\n<li><p>An analysis of the number of authors per paper.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The results are available on-screen and can also be copied to the Windows clipboard (for pasting into other applications) or saved to a variety of output formats (for future reference or further analysis). Publish or Perish includes a detailed help file with search tips and additional information about the citation metrics. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9177,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is possible to be a researcher without worrying about PoP only if you're not being paid to be a researcher. If you are being paid to do research, then publication is the most basic way of measuring whether you're doing anything. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9178,
"author": "walkmanyi",
"author_id": 1265,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>First a disclaimer: I personally do not agree with some \"ways of life\" I am going to describe and already upvoted other answers :-).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>is it possible to be a researcher without concerning about \"Publish or perish\"?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>YES</strong>, albeit probably only in atypical settings.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>firstly, at this site, we tend to forget that academia is not only the first league of the few top-notch research universities, but includes a MASS of smaller universities and research institutes in all sorts of small, hidden corners of the world which tend either not to produce academic output in terms of journal articles, books, conference papers, etc., but at which they live and breath by e.g., primarily education, local politics, etc. Yet, on paper they claim to do research, so working there, you would be officially a researcher. I am speaking for instance about universities in countries, where rigorous science and high education, for whatever reasons, does not have a very strong tradition. At such places, doing research would resemble a kind of a <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult\">cargo cult</a>. Most often, at least at some stage in the career, you still need to publish something. E.g. a dissertation would probably suffice. But often an interview with such a researcher in a local newspaper would count at the place more than a first-class academic journal. Being coined an expert on X by the local media a single time would allow you to survive at such a university for a decade (at any level from a PhD student to a Full Professor) without being concerned with perishing. If there is a desperate lack of teaching staff, then you do not have to care even for being any good teacher either and you wouldn't perish. I know personally people who are are doing some research (or at least everybody around says so) for decades without moving from a place and without publishing even a technical report and do not perish.</li>\n<li>to a more optimistic note, though being pedantic now, you can easily be a researcher and not publish in the industry. Many industrial researchers do not primarily work for the benefit of the humankind (as you could see said in academia), but for the benefit of a company.</li>\n<li>finally, I speculate there could be some special professorship positions where you do not have to worry about publishing anymore, because you are not about to perish anymore.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9182,
"author": "JRN",
"author_id": 64,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/64",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publish_or_perish\" rel=\"nofollow\">Wikipedia</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"Publish or perish\" is a phrase coined to describe the pressure in academia to rapidly and continuously publish academic work to sustain or further one's career.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 143298,
"author": "JoeG",
"author_id": 118668,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118668",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You have two choices or paths ahead of you as an academic researcher: Publish or Perish. By Publish it is meant in relatively high impact factor journals. This builds a reputation in the field and hopefully citations in subsequent publications by other labs. Next, you apply for grants in which the reviewer gauges your investigator value in the field. The more grant funding you get, the more freedom you have to explore and expand your lab. If you don't publish, no one can cite your work except in a cumbersome not generally accepted way (i.e. personal communication). Therefore not publishing in academia is similar to not existing at all and doing nothing to advance science, thus the Perish.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 143304,
"author": "AppliedAcademic",
"author_id": 90681,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/90681",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'd like to add just one point to the fantastic answers already posted. Publish or perish often tends to favour quantity over quality, so a researcher who publishes 5 papers per year in mediocre journals may be seen, on paper, as being more productive than a researcher who produces an actual groundbreaking work once in two years.</p>\n\n<p>This is common in places where the assessment of performance is done centrally, such that the assessors are not necessarily experts in one's field, and may not know the value/quality of different journals. In such a case, the number of publications becomes an easy metric to use. Over time, this incentivises low quality, high quantity work.</p>\n\n<p>The perish could mean denial/delay of tenure, promotions or salary hike.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/06 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9173",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532/"
]
|
9,181 | <p>As an undergraduate student, I have worked on some projects for my own interest, and recently a professor said that one of these works can be published (in a Elsevier journal with impact factor of about 2). I personally think that this work is not <em>strong</em> enough to be published and included in my resume. (I don't have any prior experience in publishing and related stuff.) </p>
<p>Can a weak research article published in a journal affect my application for graduate school in a negative way?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9183,
"author": "antmw1361",
"author_id": 5644,
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"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think your supervisor may want to extend the research with more experiments, data, etc. This will lead to an much stronger paper.</p>\n\n<p>Good journals often reject weak papers, or ask authors to make major changes to their manuscript. So it is hard to publish a weak paper in a good journal. But always remember that <strong>Many weak papers are improved to strong papers in the review process.</strong> </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9187,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>There are very few circumstances under which I think it's a bad idea for undergraduates to write research papers. These primarily have to do with the quality of the journal: so long as it is a <em>reputable</em>, <em>peer-reviewed</em> journal, I wouldn't be too concerned with the \"strength\" of the work.</p>\n\n<p>The reason is that publishing while an undergraduate—particularly as a primary author—demonstrates that you have already started to learn the basics of how to do research in your field. This means that you're less of an \"unknown\" quantity, and therefore less of a risk for a department reviewing your application. If you don't publish the research, then there's no tangible proof, and then you need to rely on your research supervisor to make that point in a letter of recommendation. (But then the question becomes: \"if she could have written a paper, why didn't she?\")</p>\n\n<p>As for the exceptions above, so long as you don't publish in \"vanity\" journals (those which will publish basically anything, so long as people pay the appropriate publication \"fees\"), you should be fine. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9190,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I fully concur with the reply from aeismail but will add the following:</p>\n\n<p>Publishing means your paper will go through peer-review. With a journal with impact=2 (reasonably respectable) you are likely to get a good set of revieweers. This will either lead to rejection or to suggestions for improvements. If publsihed the paper will likely be better than when it arrived at the journal. So remember that publishing includes more work than just sending something to be printed.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 15939,
"author": "h22",
"author_id": 10920,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10920",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is of course always much better to have publications in high impact journals, but this also depends on who is publishing. For a professor or post doc, the impact factor of the journal is very important. </p>\n\n<p>However PhD student or undergraduate is usually understood as somebody who still cannot deserve a very high significance of they research work just by they competence and hard work. It is often looked just like a success and matters less. As a result, publications in low impact ( > 0 ! ) journals in this stage are also good enough.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/06 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9181",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6618/"
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|
9,185 | <p>I am in an MS program at a big university in the US, where I pay my own tuition. </p>
<p>I am not happy with the quality of education I am getting at this university.</p>
<p>I am thinking that after this quarter is complete, that I want to officially withdraw from the program and go somewhere else. I think I can get much better education and for much less cost as well. </p>
<p>My question is: Will this affect me in any way for future admission to other schools? I am an A student, and I'll be withdrawing after the quarter is over, not in the middle.</p>
<p>Will the transcript contain some negative marker in it because I did not complete the MS program? Has anyone been through this and found any negative effect when not completing a program?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9188,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
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"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your transcript will very likely have a notation that shows you withdrew from the program; to claim that you are still enrolled when you are not would be dishonest (if <em>either</em> you <em>or</em> the university said so!).</p>\n\n<p>And yes, this will be something that you will need to explain to schools to which you apply in the future. Just saying \"it's not good enough for me\" is a <em>bad</em> reason to withdraw from the program, because it suggests a \"diva-like\" attitude that is not particularly desirable (in just about any circumstances). If you're responsible for paying your tuition, and found you could no longer afford it, that would be a more tolerable reason.</p>\n\n<p>But you <em>will</em> need to explain this, and it can definitely have an impact on the decision of future admissions committees. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9189,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If it is possible, you may want to consider applying to a new program while you are still in your current program. In some sense it will be like a transfer, which may come across as a better move than to withdraw and re-apply to other schools later.</p>\n\n<p>Bear in mind that you will need recommendation letters again, and you should be cultivating relationships with professors now with the hope of getting good recommendations. While you can ask the people who wrote your last recommendation letters again, you would need to explain why you didn't get recommendations (at least one) from a professor from your current school.</p>\n\n<p>If you are in the midst of fruitful research, I would also advise you to try to finish up and put together a paper for publication -- if published, this will also help in future applications, and you don't want to waste the effort if you can help it.</p>\n\n<p>One further caveat: graduate schools sometimes have a cap on how many courses you can transfer from a previous school, and you may find that you have to re-take a number of courses you've already passed (and paid for). The financial benefit from withdrawing now may not be as good as you hope.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/07 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9185",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6705/"
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|
9,192 | <p>Marriage is a recurrent topic in the lives of most PhDs. The meagre pay and the burden of responsibility could make marriage in the middle of PhD look like a terrible idea. But on the positive side, marriage gives one an intimate companion in a long and bleak journey. The pay hurdle could also be overcome if the partner finds a job.</p>
<p>While eventually it is a personal decision for the couple based on their commitment and readiness, what are the points to remember when one thinks of getting married in the middle of a PhD? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9193,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
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"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For the actual question (<em>“ what are the points to remember when one thinks of getting married in the middle of a PhD?”</em>):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>If you are a woman, and live in a country where you are expected to take the surname of your husband, make sure that doesn't interfere with other people's ability to keep track of your publications. (Some women I know, though they use their husband's name for daily life, use their maiden name for academic purposes. That or using both surnames.)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Honestly, that's about the only academia-specific or PhD-specific real advice I could think of. Everything else is just, well, the usual stuff:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Planning a wedding can become really time consuming. Organize efficiently, or delegate, or simply choose to do something simple. (Elope?)</li>\n<li>The honeymoon may be tricky to arrange, especially if your spouse has high expectations (some people would expect the happy couple to take a 3-week vacation starting the day after the wedding, which might be hard to schedule).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>And obvious reference:</p>\n\n<p> <a href=\"http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?f=1296\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/8jX45.gif\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>For the rest of the question, the only thing I have to say is: <em>oh man, you've got to get your priorities straight!</em></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9195,
"author": "Tara B",
"author_id": 5955,
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"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Having gotten married more or less exactly in the middle of my PhD, I would say emphatically no, it is not a bad idea at all! (I expect you just meant 'during' by 'in the middle of' though. =] )</p>\n\n<p>Regarding the 'meagre pay': at the time my PhD scholarship was about twice as much money as I had ever had in my life before, so I felt comparatively wealthy. We were not interested in having a lavish wedding anyway, but we did manage to afford a very nice wedding with 80 guests, paid for out of money saved from our PhD scholarships.<br>\nOf course PhD students might not be similarly well-paid in many countries (we were in the UK).</p>\n\n<p>As for the 'burden of responsibility', I'm not quite sure what you mean by this, so I'll ask a question in a comment and wait until you reply.</p>\n\n<p>Points to consider:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>You will potentially need to lower your expectations about what kind of wedding you can afford, but if the point is to achieve the state of <em>being married</em>, I don't think that's a big problem. You can always throw a big anniversary party at some point later when you have more money.</p></li>\n<li><p>Potential name change (as mentioned by F'x): If a name change is going to be involved, it can be very convenient to have this happen before one has any publications, which is a lot more likely to be the case during the PhD than afterwards. (I did change my surname, and had no publications yet at that point, so there is no problem with using my new surname for academic purposes.)</p></li>\n<li><p>Honeymoon: There's a lot more chance of getting enough time off for a proper honeymoon during a PhD than once you have a job, although this is going to depend completely on your supervisor, of course. [Added because of F'x thinking the honeymoon could be a problem: My supervisor allowed me a month after my wedding.]</p></li>\n<li><p>Companionship, as you mentioned: This is obviously especially relevant if you are from a culture/religion where living together before marriage is not usual. Definitely having 'an intimate companion' during the PhD journey (not that mine was that long or bleak - but my husband's was more so) can be a huge help, and I don't see any reason for a couple to wait until after a PhD to get married if they are ready now. </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I may add more later if I think of anything else. There is more I would say if I wasn't trying not to stray too far into 'discussion' or 'off-topic'ness.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9196,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
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"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Love is nice and all, but you want to make sure your career decisions do not result in resentment for either you or your partner. There are two big issues with marriage/relationships that I think are unique to academics and especially relevant for PhD students since they are just starting down the academic road. It is critical that your partner (whether he/she is an academic or not) understands that as an academic we often chose to make substantially less money to take a high stress level, time-consuming job. Many people find that a difficult decision to understand and it can lead to stress/resentment. The second is that until tenure, academics often have a series of one or two year jobs with periods of unemployment in between and cross country/international moves. Rarely do we get to decide where we get to work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9199,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If you've found the right person to marry in graduate school, what's the alternative? Getting married as a postdoc or tenure-track faculty member is also difficult, since you still have a lot of career pressure and uncertainty. It won't go over well to say \"I love you, but let's wait until I have tenure to get married,\" since that's way too far in the future, and I don't see any real advantage to saying \"let's wait until I'm a postdoc.\"</p>\n\n<p>Before marrying a non-academic, it's important to make sure they understand some of the basic parameters of academia:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>The job market is incredibly competitive. Harvard probably won't hire you even if everyone agrees you're really smart, and getting a job at a less prestigious university is not a form of career failure. Indeed, just the opposite is true: any career progress in academia is a success that should be celebrated.</p></li>\n<li><p>There is a national, and even international, job market with universities in many locations, but that doesn't mean you can choose where you want to live. Instead, it means you need to apply everywhere and take what you can get. Unless you are really lucky, having an academic career may require living somewhere you do not consider desirable, and you won't even be able to predict in advance where that might be.</p></li>\n<li><p>Having a successful research career requires a lot of work, but it's a little different from many demanding jobs because the work is mostly self-imposed. You need to do it, but nobody is specifying what, when, or how. This can lead to resentment since everything you spend time on seems like a choice, rather than an externally imposed requirement. So you need a partner who is not inclined towards jealousy over time commitments.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>If these issues are not an obstacle, then it's reasonable to get married whenever seems appropriate.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9208,
"author": "Mark Adler",
"author_id": 4342,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4342",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Marriage is only a momentary distraction of what one might presume to be a state of cohabitation both before and after. There may be some ancillary health coverage and/or tax benefits as a result. Other factors would dominate the decision.</p>\n\n<p>A baby or babies on the other hand would likely either significantly slow down the completion of the Ph.D., or put a big strain on the relationship. That perhaps would make for a more interesting question.</p>\n\n<p>Cohabitation could and should be a benefit while pursuing a Ph.D. with lower living costs and reduced time spent on mundane things through the sharing of chores (cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, etc.). But you don't need to be married for that. Of course, the significant other would need to be tolerant of the time not spent with them.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9210,
"author": "walkmanyi",
"author_id": 1265,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First of all, I do think, this is a <a href=\"https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/14470/what-is-the-boat-programming-meme-about\">boat question</a>. Aren't those concerns about career and pay valid for all early-career knowledge workers (i.e., people in non-manual occupations)?</p>\n\n<p>But to answer your question, as somebody who married in the middle of PhD, I think I have evidence, a sample set of size 1, which allows me to conclude that doing so is a <strong>good thing</strong>. </p>\n\n<p>Many young people nowadays ask questions (as you do) <em>What are the reasons to marry/have kids/etc. in my situation? When is a good time to start a family?</em> There is never the right time and there almost never is a good reason to change your life in whichever way. You should ask differently. <em>What are the reasons <strong>not to</strong> marry/start a family now? Why not to start family right now?</em> Things will never be better than right now. You think that being a post-doc you will have more time and less stress in the career? Or when you will be assistant professor? Or associate? Or full? Yeah, you can wait till the time when the waters calm down. Good luck starting family when you are 80 (if you will be lucky).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9220,
"author": "MarmiK",
"author_id": 6723,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6723",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Better ask your to be wife/husband, if he/she agrees with your thoughts?</p>\n\n<p>No matter how well we justify, if your partner does not agree to a thought! no one on the earth make him/her agree to the same(with some exceptions).</p>\n\n<p>Take his/her consent in detail with all possible conditions after marriage with PhD.</p>\n\n<p>If he/she approves than follow the same as receive approval(I believe it will have some conditions)</p>\n\n<p>Neither PhD is easy nor marriage, both requires good amount of efforts for success.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/07 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9192",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/411/"
]
|
9,194 | <p>I want to quote the following passage (actually, the original passage as somewhat longer but let's consider this a minimal working example)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Awareness of others, can address affective needs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>but the misplaced comma bothers me.</p>
<p>The common <em>sic</em> is not only often perceived to be impolite due to its overuse as a way ridicule the original author of a text, it also seems overkill in this case and – worst of all – it might not be clear that it relates to the tiny comma that comes right before but might be understood to refer to "awareness of others" instead:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Awareness of others, [<em>sic</em>] can address affective needs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A missing comma could just be put in square brackets itself as a way to more or less silently add it to the quotation without misquoting but the least distracting way to remove a comma that I could come up with is</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[Awareness of others] can address affective needs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of course silently dropping the comma would be even less distracting but it might also constitute a misquotation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Awareness of others can address affective needs.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What is your opinion on this? Is there a standard or otherwise widely accepted way to do this?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9198,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Any emendations you make to a quoted text should be made in square brackets. These emendations should be limited to corrections necessary for grammatical do not include skipping over parts of the text, which should be done with ellipses (and then only sparingly, and not in any way which will change the meaning of the text. </p>\n\n<p>In principle, then, I might write the passage as:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Author X's assertion that \"[a]wareness of others [] can address effective needs\" is motivated by . . .</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Note that the first \"a\" in awareness has changed capitalization, and therefore should also be placed in brackets.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9207,
"author": "Jeff",
"author_id": 1171,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1171",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just delete the offending comma. No one will accuse you of misquoting; if they track down the original quote and notice that you've made a minor grammatical edit, they will not dwell on it long.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9212,
"author": "walkmanyi",
"author_id": 1265,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>[Let's make an answer out of my comment to Jeff's answer with which I agree]</p>\n\n<p>Alternative solution could be:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>to use the corrected quote without any indication of what changed</li>\n<li>to the end of the quote append a footnotemark</li>\n<li>in the footnote explain that punctuation was slightly changed in the quote with respect to the original phrase, but without changing the original meaning of the sentence.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9230,
"author": "ThatOneGuy",
"author_id": 6730,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6730",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Honestly, i would just drop the comma, it's a minor correction and i doubt anyone will accuse you of misquoting. Dwelling on this minor grammatical error will obfuscate the meaning of your text and could confuse readers. </p>\n\n<p>Full disclosure is good, but in this case it does not add any new information for your readers. It might even do the opposite.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9238,
"author": "Irwin",
"author_id": 5944,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5944",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Phrase it in such a way that you don't need the direct quotation, and just cite instead.</p>\n\n<pre><code>In related work, Doe claimed that awareness of others addresses affective needs, and that (other stuff here) [1].\n\n[1] Doe, John. \"How to address affective needs.\" Doe Publishing: London, 1989\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>The comma doesn't introduce ambiguity, so I don't see a need to point out its prior existence. Phrasing it as above also avoids you having to [sic] or footnote it or whatever.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9247,
"author": "chryss",
"author_id": 6738,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6738",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The answer to the question may vary depending on whether you are dealing with a simple punctuation error -- as you surmise -- or with a punctuation variant that, in the time or cultural context it was written, would have been considered acceptable. In your example, setting off a subject from the rest of the clause with commas, or setting off prepositional phrases from their head nouns, used to be unremarkable in written American English of a few hundred years ago. (Cf. Amendment 9 to the US Constitution: \"The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.\")</p>\n\n<p>If it's indeed a simple error, I would second walkmanyi's suggestion to just correct and add a footnote about having made minor changes to punctuation without relevance to meaning. If it's a historical variant or a text from a different cultural context - say, Indian colonial - I would hesitate to make changes as they would necessarily introduce inauthenticity. You could then leave the text as-is and add a footnote \"punctuation as in original\": less intrusive and smug than \"[sic]\", but fulfils the same purpose.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9249,
"author": "Christian",
"author_id": 4184,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4184",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I just wanted to add this screen shot of what I ended up doing. It's essentially walkmanyi's suggestion but instead of using a footnote I wrote the remark directly underneath the block quotation in a smaller font.</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/xIXPW.png\" alt=\"example\"></p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/07 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9194",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4184/"
]
|
9,200 | <p>I work on research, trying to get grants and publish papers and the like, I really like my job, could not think about doing anything else. When the weekend comes, or just free time I have the problem that I can not stop thinking on research, it does not matter what. Sometimes it is that I feel so relaxed during the weekend that new ideas come to my mind and then I can not avoid to write them down or think a bit more about them. My wife obviously does not like this, but I try my best. </p>
<p>Do you experience the same and do you know how to avoid this?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9201,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I believe it comes with the territory. Since being involved in research means exercising your imagination and intellect, it is hard to stop the stimulation. I personally have no problems relaxing from my research when I do other stimulating activities such as hobbies. I personally do not find thinking about my research much of a problem but I have noticed that I have a tendency to start thinking more about my science when I am in the company of what I might consider dull people. That will probably make me seem dull too!</p>\n\n<p>I try to look at it, and explain it, by comparing with an elite athlete, you need to keep at it constantly to be on top. Many can see and appreciate the (intellectual) similarities.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9202,
"author": "Paul",
"author_id": 931,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/931",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I agree with @PeterJanson's answer, but I'd like to add my 2 cents on it:</p>\n\n<p>Often, I find myself \"constantly\" thinking about a problem when I'm stuck or I'm not sure how to approach it. Often, it's because I've got <em>tunnel vision</em> on the problem. That is, I'm only thinking about it from a limited number of perspectives and can't think of other possible approaches to the problem. I used to spend long hours thinking about a problem (even outside of normal work hours) without ever really getting anywhere on it.</p>\n\n<p>When that happens, I find it's good to pursue other activities that stimulate my brain to think outside of the box. That could be anything from reading semi-related research papers to playing video games to engaging in stand up comedy! When I challenge my brain to approach other problems from new perspectives, I find those same skills help loosen my brain to engage in research in new ways as well. </p>\n\n<p>While I never really stop thinking about research, I find these other activities help me engage in research with fresh eyes and renewed energy. And ultimately, that has lead me to better research results and liberates me from \"overthinking\" the problem during my leisure time.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9203,
"author": "Paul Hiemstra",
"author_id": 4091,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4091",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This kind of thinking about your work is typical if a) you like your job, and b) you do work that involves a lot of creativity. Going with the flow of your mood can help greatly in getting work done as doing creative work when you feel inspired goes much much faster. Ofcourse, a big danger is that the lines between personal life and work become vague, and you turn into a work-a-holic (if this is a bad thing entirely depends on you).</p>\n\n<p>It seems that you yourself do not have a problem with this, and that it is mainly the people around you that experience it as a problem. This is imo best dealt with by communication. Setting some ground rules together with your spouse about when you act on your creativity may lessen the irritation she experiences from it. </p>\n\n<p>For example, you could organise it like this: when you feel 'the urge' you can propose to your spouse that you take some time to work out a problem. She than has an opportunity to say no (\"we have to go to the store/beach/parents\", or \"you haven't spent a lot of time with the kids today\"). Of course, in a healthy balance she will also sometimes allow you to follow your urges.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9204,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A large part of the motivation to be a scientist, or a researcher, is to exercise your curiosity and let it drive you. I find that I very often thing about “research” in daily life, but not necessarily of “my day-job research”. To some extent, it is a way of thinking and approaching daily life. So, there are many non-academic research projects that can occupy one's mind, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. Trying to find symmetry patterns in wallpaper or train departure times, doing a side experiment with your curry to see what is the maximal concentration of peppers one can reasonably ingest, whatever.</p>\n\n<p><em>(A comment more than an answer, but a rather long one. Sorry!)</em></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9231,
"author": "Irwin",
"author_id": 5944,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5944",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You don't ever <em>stop thinking</em>, much in the way that you shouldn't tell someone to <em>stop feeling</em> sad/angry/upset/whatever. But, if there are actions you're doing that interrupt your relationships with others, you can take steps to try to reduce the effect of these actions.</p>\n\n<p>Instead of trying to <em>not think</em> about research, I would try to curb activities that you may act upon as a result of thinking about research.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Keep a notebook on you that you can <em>quickly</em> write your thoughts down in. Dump your brain in about a minute and then move on with whatever you're supposed to be doing. The key word here is quickly - you don't want this to turn into a five minute exercise.</p></li>\n<li><p>Concentrate heavily on what you're currently doing and focus. Easier said than done, but the key is not to let yourself get distracted with your thoughts. Even if you're not fully focused, try your best to appear focused.</p></li>\n<li><p>Limit your discussions about research with others if they're not interested in them.</p></li>\n<li><p>Excuse yourself if you want to think or write more in a way that might appear rude or inappropriate to others. Thus, rather than trying to write things down extensively while in the middle of a nice dinner, excuse yourself, go to the washroom, and write things down there. If you're out walking and get a great idea that you want to think about, ask to stop for a break and think then.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I think the key point here is to differentiate the things that you can control (your actions) compared to things that are much more difficult to control (your thoughts) and to ensure that your behaviors are not disturbing others. Take time for yourself too!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 54671,
"author": "Ooker",
"author_id": 14341,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14341",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You will never escape this, and </p>\n\n<h2>for the sake of your research, don't.</h2>\n\n<p>We need to look at the core of the problem: your brain function. Cindi May, Professor of Psychology at the College of Charleston, wrote an article about this in Scientific American:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If your task requires strong focus and careful concentration - like balancing spreadsheets or reading a textbook - you are better off scheduling that task for your peak time of day. However, <strong>if you need to open your mind to alternative approaches and consider diverse options</strong>, it may be wise to do so when your filter is not so functional.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In short, the best time for your brain to think about the research is your free time!</p>\n\n<p>Remember Archimedes? He solved his problem when he was relaxing during the bath. It's the same as us today. You got the idea when you eat, when you take a shower, when you about to sleep, when you hanging out with your boy/girlfriend. Sure, the Eureka moment only comes when you have arduously been working, but it's <strong>not</strong> likely to come when you are working.</p>\n\n<p><sub> If you have an Eureka when you are taking a bath, try to calm down a little bit :D</sub></p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, a research requires both two things at different time: strong focus and careful concentration, and alternative approaches and consider diverse options. So it means you will likely to be a workaholic.</p>\n\n<p><strong>But the Eureka only comes when it's truly your free time</strong>, when your, erm, brain is truly relaxed. It is very frustrating for us to halt the power flood of idea that coming to our brains. But it is also hard for us to stop the current activity to rush into the lab. I will call this the Researcher's dilemma.</p>\n\n<h2>So, how to solve the dilemma?</h2>\n\n<p>I honestly don't have any efficient solution. It just up to you and up to the situation to solve this. But I think taking note is the most efficient one. You see, once you finally have a <strong>new approach</strong>, you can wait for your next morning to have your peak time of day to have strong focus and careful concentration.</p>\n\n<p><br>\n<sub>Source: <a href=\"http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/your-best-creative-time-not-when-you-think/\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Inspiration Paradox: Your Best Creative Time Is Not When You Think </a>. Also, to find your peak time of the day, you can take the <a href=\"http://www.cet-hosting.com/limesurvey/?sid=61524\" rel=\"nofollow\">Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire</a>. Note that the research about this is pretty old (1976).</sub></p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/07 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9200",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/284/"
]
|
9,211 | <p>There is a student who attended a seminar where they were supposed to study an assigned research paper and deliver a presentation to the class. Their presentation was very low quality. Four (!) seminar tutors, from post-doc to associate professor level, all agreed to assign a low grade. I am confident that all reasonable measures to ensure fairness were taken. The student received a careful explanation of the grade based on a clear (and beforehand known) list of partially evaluated rubrics.</p>
<p>The evaluation turned out to be a big blow to the student's ego and even after several weeks, the person can't digest the failure, despite very careful explanation on the spot, as well as several interactions and (failed) attempts to "better the grade by performing some extra work". The student keeps coming back with requests for additional explanation of particularities of the failure.</p>
<p><strong>What is/are the right pedagogical technique(s) to handle such a situation?</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>clearly, the student has a high self-esteem and opinion about him/herself</li>
<li>probably did not face a situation of a miserable failure before in the past</li>
<li>the student does not seem to see/accept the relative difference in his/her performance and the rest of the peer group</li>
</ul>
<p>My question is only about the student's unwillingness to accept the grade, not about the student's performance or the grade's fairness.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9213,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>My first question to you would be</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Did you lay out the assignment expectations and how the grade would be determined when you gave the assignment?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If the answer is \"yes\" (and I expect that it is), I would use that as a starting point for explaining to the student why he/she did poorly.</p>\n\n<p>That aside, it seems that either (1) the student didn't understand what was expected (regardless of the question above), and/or (2) the student isn't prepared for the type of work required, and/or (3) the student had a bad day.</p>\n\n<p>It sounds to me like the answer is firmly #2, as repeated attempts to improve the grade hasn't worked. Given that you've already spent a good deal of time with the student, it might be time to have a heart-to-heart discussion and say that <strong>it is time to stop thinking about that grade and to move on</strong>. Obviously, you need to do this diplomatically, but (as they say), to make an omelet you need to break some eggs, and sometimes a firm and diplomatic \"get over it\" is appropriate. I would pose the following questions to the student:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Do you have a clear set of goals that you are working on for the class? </li>\n<li>Do you know what other grades are going to be part of the final grade for the class, and do you have a plan for making sure you are ready for each assignment / talk?</li>\n<li>Do you conduct practice talks with other students in order to get constructive feedback? (if not, you should!)</li>\n<li>(If the problem is English language skills) Have you sought out on-campus help with your writing or speaking skills? (this is available at many larger universities in the States)</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Depending on how much time you are willing to devote to helping the student improve, you could also offer to sit in on any future practice talks to give pointers and feedback. Likewise for written work -- you could offer to pre-read assignments. This is a slippery slope, so tread carefully. You want to avoid having the student see you as an always-available tutor, but there are times when providing such support is just part of the job.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, I would stress to the student that one bad grade does not make or break a student, and it is better to make mistakes while in school than later when they might mean more in the bigger picture. School is about learning, and you learn from mistakes. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9214,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>An all too familiar situation. I will focus not so much on what to do about this particular student but what can be done for the future. </p>\n\n<p>In my university system we use grading criteria, which I think can also be referred to as \"rubrics\". The main point here is that you set up careful critiera for what should be met for each grade. You can then tick off what is fulfilled as a basis for grading. You also need some weighing system to add the different criteria into a single grade. This is also important and can be done in different ways. In some systems aritthmetically, in others by stating rules for what is a specific grade (such as to get a B you need nothing lower than a B on all criteria). Room for experimentation and discussion!</p>\n\n<p>The students should know (be carefully informaed about) the grading criteria and how they are weighted to the final grade by the time they start the course. When the grade is set it becomes very easy to explain why the grade became what it became and it will be up to the student to argue why they have met a higher criteria than what they have been given.</p>\n\n<p>Now, the caveat, this will not work better than how carefully you have done the ground work with putting together the criteria. So while rubriics involves quite a lot of pre-course thinking to begin with, rewards for all concerned are large at the end.</p>\n\n<p>A final remark: I find that the grades I provide are more or less exactly what I would have given by just reading it and setting the grade based on my impression. The criteria provides an explicit basis for that judgement. I have interpreted this as \"we know what we are doing but we may not have expressed it explicitly to ourselves.\"</p>\n\n<p>A quick search on some combination of \"rubrics\", \"grading criteria\", \"essay writing\" etc. should give plenty of ideas. I do not have a good starting resource to provide at this stage.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9215,
"author": "Dirk",
"author_id": 529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/529",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This can be tricky.</p>\n\n<p>To answer properly, it is important to know if the student is asking about <em>explanations</em> for his grade or just <em>demanding/requesting</em> a better grade.</p>\n\n<p>The second case seems \"easier\" to me because then one can just ask for a specific reason why the student thinks, that a higher grade would be appropriate (or just reply that there is no negotiation about grades).</p>\n\n<p>In the first case, when the student asks for explanations, one has to distinguish again: Is the student interested in <em>explanations, to learn from failure and to improve</em>, or <em>to prove that the grading was not appropriate</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Here the first case is easy as soon as you can make sure that the student understands your points. In the second case one could, in principle fall back to the case above: Ask for specific points and don't negotiate about grades. I think that most difficult part is to ensure that you do not have to repeat yourself too often. You could work with written notes for you and/or the student on which you can build for a next discussion. If you see (from the notes) that the discussion is not evolving you can communicate this to the student. If you have the notes of the last session available, and the student raises a point which you have discussed, you can point to the notes and ask what is still remaining about this point. If he repeats the same issue from the last session, answer that there is no negotiation about grades.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding self-esteem and experience of failure, it is important to communicate that science and also learning science if a lot about failure. There is this famous quote from Samuel Beckett:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Also, failure in a learning task shall not be related to self-esteem in any way (sometimes hard to accept for students). You can help the student by talking exclusively about his performance in relation to the task he had to do.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9240,
"author": "livresque",
"author_id": 6734,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6734",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Although <a href=\"http://rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screen=ShowRubric&rubric_id=1925241&\" rel=\"nofollow\">this rubric from Rubistar</a> is certainly not tailored to the university level, it is an good example and a useful tool in regards to the rising need for teachers to \"prove\" a grade (in any sense, not simply \"good\" vs.\"bad\"). </p>\n\n<p>This is on the rampage, and rubrics seem to be the safest way to show students (and parents...and administrators...) what is going on in our heads as educators evaluating based our own (formerly self-evident) assignment criteria. </p>\n\n<p>Giving students, their classmates, and TA's similar rubrics, rewording with \"I showed\" or \"SWBAT\" can prove, if you will, how delusional any party may be.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30680,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Say something like</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I cannot go over this assignment again with you. There are several\n other students who need my attention, and we have already discussed\n this issue multiple times. The grade you made is final, but you can improve your overall grade on the next assignment.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It is your job to give out the grade you feel is appropriate. You did that. I would also instruct the TAs not to go over this assignment with him either. Right now all you can do is explain that the grade is final, and their is nothing he can do about it.</p>\n\n<p>When students enter college they are immature, part of your job as a prof is to treat them like adults, and help turn them into mature, professional people.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30718,
"author": "Myra",
"author_id": 23412,
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"text": "<p>It depends very much on what kind of class this is, and what kind of evaluation tools are used. It is possible that the 'experts' are simply looking at things differently. It is not unusual for brilliant students to see things quite differently, and be right. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 59519,
"author": "Andrew Lazarus",
"author_id": 24134,
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"pm_score": 4,
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"text": "<p>I was marking computer programs by hand, which dates this story. I awarded the single worst program 1 point out of 10, which I believe was promised for getting one's name in the correct place. Over half of the lines had elementary syntax errors, which was remarkable because he composed it at a Mac (512!); only the grading was from paper. He thought with only half of the lines clearly, totally wrong he deserved 5/10.</p>\n\n<p>Finally I told him that if I cut off half his body he would be totally dead. This wasn't very nice, but it did stop the complaints.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 60162,
"author": "Captain Emacs",
"author_id": 45857,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/45857",
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"text": "<p>Fixing the problem after the fact is hard. I am aware the advice comes late now, but the rules of engagement are easy to set at the beginning, not the end.</p>\n\n<p>Therefore, I often map out such problems ahead of time. If it's a one-on-one (e.g. in a project or individual coursework), and I notice students that I believe have much higher expectations of themselves than I estimate is warranted, then I set my expectations very explicit and clear and even higher than normal to leave a quality buffer to what you think would be a good solution. </p>\n\n<p>Good students will usually accept the challenge without argument (one way to distinguish them, BTW!), but weaker, but ambitious students then realise that there is a lot more to do than they thought was needed and may sometimes complain or become argumentative. These are used to getting away well with comparatively little in the past. Stick to your guns, and you may be surprised as to what you can get out of them in the end. It also gives them a good learning experience in that, in the end of the process, they understand the nature of excellence and develop a newfound level of pride in their own achievement.</p>\n\n<p>If you suspect you have such people in class, the idea is similar, but, of course, undirected. Make clear it is a hard class upfront. Don't give them the impression they can \"wing it\". It is much easier to start out tough and to decide to go for milder approach later on if you think that is appropriate than the other way round. Some care needs to be taken, though, to not increase the anxiety of already insecure students - so, tough requirements can be balanced by offers of support. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/08 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9211",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265/"
]
|
9,221 | <p>MIT's OpenCourseWare has many <a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-courses/">video courses</a>. They are very helpful, but compared to the majority of MIT curriculum they're only a small part. So, how much effort does it take to record video courses?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9224,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
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"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I'm in the middle of recording lectures for a class now, and I'm doing all the work (recording/processing/uploading) myself. Luckily, I like doing the technical part of it, because it is rather time intensive. I've also taught a course that had dedicated software to take care of the entire process (<a href=\"https://www.blackboard.com/platforms/collaborate/overview.aspx\">BB Collaborate</a>). I'd walk into class, log into the system, push \"Record\" and lo-and-behold the videos (with everything I had on my computer desktop at the time) were uploaded to the site a few hours after class (and were available live to the students who wanted to watch and participate remotely). So, the effort varies depending on what situation you are in at your school.</p>\n\n<p>If you have no supporting system (like BB Collaborate), plan on at least an hour or so per class of your time (not to mention render and upload time, which can take many hours depending on the length of your class and your Internet bandwidth), and this is once you get everything figured out. Oh, and that doesn't include editing bells and whistles; I basically put raw class footage online and take as little time as I can for post-processing and editing.</p>\n\n<p>For a self-built system, you'll need a number of things:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/B006UMMP2I\">A decent Camcorder</a> ($200-300 will get you one)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/B003VNKNF0\">Flash based media</a> ($25 for a 32GB card)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/B000V7AF8E\">A tripod</a> ($25)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/B00006JPD5\">A remote microphone</a> ($150 for a decent one)</li>\n<li>Video editing software (I started with <a href=\"http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/\">iMovie</a> on my Mac ($15) and have since graduated to <a href=\"http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/\">Final Cut Pro X</a> ($300) and <a href=\"http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/compressor/\">Compressor</a> ($50). I assume you already have a computer, but you'll need that, too ($500-1500).)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/B005ELBSWO\">External hard drive with a fast connection</a> (Firewire or USB 3, $100 for 1TB). This isn't strictly necessary, but you'll find that you may run out of disk space quickly without one.</li>\n<li>A YouTube account (free), with a relatively fast internet connection (I'm currently faced with a molasses-slow upload speed in Djibouti, Africa, so that hasn't been fun). Make sure you verify your YouTube account so you can upload videos longer than 15 minutes.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Once you get the equipment (total cost ~$1000 without the computer), you'll need to learn how to use everything. You have to remember to record all your lectures, and plan on spending five minutes or so setting everything up before class, unless you have your own classroom. I simply focus the camcorder on the board and me, with a bit of room on the sides for me to move around. If you want panning and zooming, you'll have to rely on someone else to do it.</p>\n\n<p>Getting up to speed with the editing software can take time, especially if you haven't done it before. You could spend months editing a 1-hour class, but as I say, if you keep it bare-bones you can get the editing down to an hour or so of your time, including setting up all the steps to upload to YouTube. I record all my videos at 1080p, but I upload to YouTube at 480p because of my slow connection (and my students have the same slow connection). I find that the board is difficult to read, even though the camera is only 10 feet away -- I also upload my slideshows and try to write big!</p>\n\n<p>Bottom line: either convince your school to invest in a professional system so you don't have to do much work yourself, or plan on spending a good bit of time (and money, if your school won't pay for it--I bought everything out of my own pocket, but as I say, I'm enjoying it) to learn the setup and edit/upload videos.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 10489,
"author": "J..y B..y",
"author_id": 1318,
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"pm_score": 1,
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"text": "<p>You might be interested in Erik Demaine's set up for video classes, which seems to require less work: <a href=\"http://erikdemaine.org/classes/recording/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://erikdemaine.org/classes/recording/</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 46047,
"author": "B Chin",
"author_id": 35010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35010",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Vincent Racaniello made a useful youtube video about how he records his lectures:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5v_uSQ-JXg\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5v_uSQ-JXg</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 46148,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>By far the biggest cost consideration is time.</p>\n<p>CGP Grey said in a 2013 Q&A (<a href=\"https://youtu.be/GOiIxqcbzyM?t=39\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">YouTube video</a>, <a href=\"http://www.cgpgrey.com/blog/qa-with-grey\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">transcript</a>):</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I've tracked my time to get an accurate answer and every minute of final video you see takes me between 10 and 20 hours of writing and animating to make. So a typical 5 minute video is 50 to 100 hours of work.</p>\n<p>While that's a lot, it doesn't include the research phase which is difficult to quantify -- some of the videos I've made I'd been collecting notes on for more than a year before starting.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Note though that CGP Grey is a one-person production studio. Moreover, he seems to be a perfectionist and his videos are IMHO very good.</p>\n<p>Many other video courses I've seen put in much less work. It seems to me that some (e.g. Salman Khan) do an impromptu, one-take recording. One tradeoff is quantity vs quality - CGP Grey has 88 YouTube videos in total, while Khan has thousands.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/08 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9221",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6179/"
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|
9,222 | <p>I have previously been involved in a course, where we (the students) were supposed to use a specific style, when presenting our graphical data. By <code>style</code> I mean the size/color of legends, thickness of datapoints, layout of the figure, etc....</p>
<p>Does similar guidelines exist when publishing data in a peer-reviewed journal? Or is it entirely up to me to decide, how it should look?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9223,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
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"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The purpose of any style when presenting graphics should aim at making the information as easy to read and comprehend as possible. I do not think any journals would provide specific style recommendaions except provide information on, for example, the thinnest posible lines, smallest possible font sizes to be reproduced in printing, color models etc.</p>\n\n<p>I think it is important to think about how you present data in any scientific or professional communication. It will be largely up to you to make decisions on the material you visualize. My recommendation is to look at the book <a href=\"http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Visual Display Of Quantitative Information by Edward Tufte</a> and then to learn by example. This book, in my opinion, like no other, provides a good basis for understanding graphic display of data. Look at what others do and critically evaluate how successful those attempts are.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9233,
"author": "che_kid",
"author_id": 6093,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6093",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There may be journal-specific guidelines, but none of the journals I dabble in have specified such. I tell students that journal articles require \"professional\" looking graphs. This usually translates into simple graphs. If you take something like the Excel defaults you will see the opposite of professional looking. Excel puts lots of colors, too small fonts, lines everywhere, titles, unlabeled axes, etc. Simple black and white plots work just fine for most plots. Your job is to present the data for easy access to the reader. If you want to understand this, just grab some recent journal articles in top journals and look at their graphs. You'll see what good graphs should look like. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 10033,
"author": "Faheem Mitha",
"author_id": 285,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/285",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'd suggest just using a good graphics program and using its defaults. This would normally look good enough, I imagine most journals would not be too fussy about such things. You probably also want to use a scripting language for reproducibility and efficiency. The following packages are reasonable choices, produce high quality graphics without much work, have reasonable defaults which can be tweaked if necessary, and export into the common image file formats like PDF, PNG etc. <code>ggplot2</code> in particular is designed to be very high level and flexible, and is based somewhat on the <a href=\"http://www.cs.uic.edu/~wilkinson/TheGrammarOfGraphics/GOG.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Grammar of Graphics book by Wilkinson</a>, which describes a high level approach to data visualization. Specifically, high level implies ignoring the small details of your graphic and letting the program taking care of it for you.</p>\n\n<p>The R package <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ggplot2\" rel=\"nofollow\"><code>ggplot2</code></a> already mentioned is quite popular. You could also try <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGF/TikZ\" rel=\"nofollow\"><code>PGF/TikZ</code></a> and the plot package that uses it, <a href=\"http://pgfplots.sourceforge.net/\" rel=\"nofollow\"><code>pgfplots</code></a>. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matplotlib\" rel=\"nofollow\"><code>matplotlib</code></a> is another possibility, though I have not used it much. Also note that both <code>R</code> and <code>matplotlib</code> have <code>PGF/TikZ</code>backends. For <code>R</code> see <a href=\"https://github.com/Sharpie/RTikZDevice\" rel=\"nofollow\"><code>TikZDevice</code></a> though it does not seem to be actively developed. For <code>matplotlib</code>, see <a href=\"http://matplotlib.org/users/pgf.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">matplotlib: Typesetting With XeLaTeX/LuaLaTeX</a>.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/08 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9222",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6049/"
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|
9,225 | <p>Take de Broglie </p>
<blockquote>
<p>De Broglie had intended a career in humanities, and received his first degree in history. Afterwards, though, he turned his attention toward mathematics and physics and received a degree in physics</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And Edward Witten,a very famous theoretical physicist</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Witten attended the Park School of Baltimore (class of '68), and received his Bachelor of Arts with a major in history and minor in linguistics from Brandeis University in 1971. He published articles in The New Republic and The Nation. In 1968 Witten published an article in The Nation arguing that the New Left had no strategy.[citation needed] He worked briefly for George McGovern's presidential campaign. McGovern lost the 1972 election in a landslide to Richard Nixon.<br>
Witten attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison for one semester as an economics graduate student before dropping out.[citation needed] He returned to academia, enrolling in applied mathematics at Princeton University[citation needed] then shifting departments and receiving a Ph.D. in physics in 1976 under David Gross, the 2004 Nobel laureate in Physics. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In china,student major in history or literature won't study mathematics <em>at all</em>,and almost everyone think it's impossible for someone receive BA then turn to science,so how did someone receive BA and then become a scientist?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9226,
"author": "Tara B",
"author_id": 5955,
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"text": "<p>This was supposed to be a comment, but it got just a little long.</p>\n\n<p>Well, in both of your examples, the person did a second undergraduate degree. There's no indication that they necessarily studied any mathematics or science in their first degree. So I don't see that there's anything very surprising going on there. </p>\n\n<p>However, in some countries (such as the US and New Zealand), undergraduate degrees can be fairly broad, so a person who is mainly studying humanities might very well take some science courses as well (in fact, they might even be required to). [My first degree was a BA - however one of my majors ended up being mathematics. I only took two maths courses in my first two years, though, before deciding to change from music to maths.]</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9227,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It's not impossible if you try hard (and a little bit of luck). I did my undergraduate in urban planning (had math), masters in bio-physics and will be getting a doctorate in CS and finally joining a lab modeling and studying arctic ice melts for my post-doc. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Was it hard? Yes, absolutely.</li>\n<li>Did I have to learn (and struggle with) certain concepts much later than those that did their undergrad, masters, doctorate, all in X? Yes</li>\n<li>Do some people not give my resume a second look because they think I'm a drifter? Yes</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In reality, while it is a weird path on paper, I never took something up because it sounded fancy. In all the cases, I was genuinely motivated by something unsolved in the new field. While it was easier to switch fields as a grad student, it's a lot tougher now, as a post-doc and early career scientist, because one needs to cozy up to the funding managers and build a rapport etc., which is not possible if I'm changing, so I probably won't (I'm happy where I am now).</p>\n\n<p>We all have things and topics that interest us in other fields (that we aren't working in), but are constrained by various factors such as funding, inability to relocate, etc. I just happened to get lucky with a couple of internships (where the PI said he chose me because I went to a top school), which gave me the necessary boost to get to the next stage. That, and I performed exceedingly well at them, to get glowing recommendations which then got me the next one, etc.</p>\n\n<p>I must also note that I don't think any of this would've been possible if this were in Europe or Asia (where I did my UG). I have observed that in general, in North America (as far as grad school goes), people are more willing to consider your potential rather than what you've done so far (if you've already done something impressive thus far, then it counts more). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9266,
"author": "Zai",
"author_id": 4318,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4318",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The thing to remember is that an individual is more than their degree classification.</p>\n\n<p>Every person has their own interests, hobbies, skills, and personal projects. While a BA in one field may be an indicator of a person's interests, it does not mean that the person in question knows nothing outside of what was required for that degree.</p>\n\n<p>For example, it is very possible that a person receiving a BA in philosophy may:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>enjoy a STEM discipline, leading them to take classes in it for their own enjoyment</li>\n<li>enjoy a STEM discipline or topic and choose to learn about it on their own</li>\n<li>end up in a job that requires that they learn skills that are applicable to a different discipline</li>\n<li>apply to graduate school for a STEM discipline and be willing and able to invest the time to catching up on the material</li>\n<li>be naturally gifted at whatever the STEM discipline is</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Most likely, in cases where people change disciplines, it's a combination of several of the above.</p>\n\n<p>Anecdotally, I got a BFA, but continued taking calculus as a free elective in my undergraduate degree. I had to learn programming for work after graduating and ended up in graduate school for Computer Science. I entered graduate school with the knowledge that I would need to work at least twice as hard to catch up on the material and just went ahead and worked at it.</p>\n\n<p>It may be completely different in other countries, but even in those countries, I can't imagine that anyone is completely limited to only knowing things that are required for their degree. There are a lot of situations that can force you to learn new skills, and that's without taking into account that some people have hobbies that are cross-discipline.</p>\n\n<p>Another way of looking at it is: would you be surprised if a famous physicist played the violin well enough to perform? There's no logical reason why someone who plays the violin shouldn't be able to do the same the other way around. Both require a progressive learning of skills and a large time investment, unless you're naturally gifted.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 60755,
"author": "user46031",
"author_id": 46031,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/46031",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Witten's father was a theoretical physicist. I wouldn't be shocked if you dug his biography and found out that he learned all the basic undergraduate physics and mathematics under guidance from his father even before he enrolled in graduate school. This, after all, is a speculation, but the fact that his father is a theoretical cosmologist is very suggestive. ;-</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/08 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9225",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6179/"
]
|
9,228 | <p>For a PhD in computer science or informatics, are there good reasons <strong>not</strong> to choose an area of research in which very few (3 or 4) known (small- to middle-sized) research groups work in the world?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9232,
"author": "walkmanyi",
"author_id": 1265,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>are there good reasons not to choose an area of research in which very few people work worldwide?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There might be.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>a research clique might be at work</strong>: sometimes, often unintentionally, you can observe a bunch of researchers starting to push some topic and ending up absorbed in their own little world proposing extensions of extensions of extensions and not noticing that they became irrelevant. Usually because something is wrong with the problem they work on. But sometimes such a niche might be actually very healthy, except the topic did not caught up more popularity in the relevant mainstream community.</li>\n<li><strong>something might be wrong with the problem they tackle</strong>: sometimes a group of absorbed (as above) researchers looses connection with reality and pushes towards solving a problem which does not exist anymore because somebody else solved it just by the way along a route to some other problem and everybody else recognized.</li>\n<li><strong>something might be wrong with the method the small group applies to the problem they tackle</strong>: sometimes the problem is <em>good</em> (see below), but the bunch tries to hopelessly push a method which simply does not yield anything. Often this is accompanied with use of a highly specialized terminology so that it is difficult to see that the method they use and the problem they tackle is in fact very much related to something else what yields more healthy research in the relevant mainstream community.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>More generally, don't worry about the size of the field. What matters is whether the problem at the core of the niche is real and sound. Real means that solving it can have an impact on the society at large. You need to believe in your cause. For the sake of this blob, let sound mean that you see a solid way to articulate it and get a grip on it, most preferably including a method to measure progress. If you have the two, you are set even if the community tackling the problem is relatively small. All the rest is up to your capabilities and the difficulty level of the problem.</p>\n\n<p><em>Trust your judgement.</em></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9248,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One key thing is that there might be no open position for your to continue your line of research, if you wish to.</p>\n\n<p>But here it is an important question, whether there are growing, or are in decline. And, more importantly, if you like and believe in this field.</p>\n\n<p>Otherwise importance of the problem they are solving lies on a different axis than number of groups. Not every important topic is popular (and vice versa).</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/08 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9228",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4018/"
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|
9,239 | <p>Is there a way to search all openly published theses online?</p>
<p>Maybe there is a way for Google Scholar to ignore other types of articles?</p>
<p>I am aware of SCOPUS and Web of Knowledge, but unfortunately I do not have access to these services.</p>
<p><strong>Edit:</strong> I talked to my librarian and we found a service called <a href="http://ethos.bl.uk/Home.do" rel="nofollow">EThOS</a> and additionally a service called <a href="http://openthesis.org" rel="nofollow">openthesis</a>. Openthesis requires people to upload submissions, which would cover nowhere near as many as Google has indexed. EthOS is for the UK only.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9242,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The only thing I can think of given the lack of other details is <a href=\"http://www.proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detail/pqdt.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow\">this</a> They claim to be \"the world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses.\" While that is not \"ALL\", it certainly is \"MOST\"?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 117511,
"author": "Samuel A. Eyitayo",
"author_id": 98542,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/98542",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Check to see the list of sites that are comprehensive: <a href=\"https://www.netvibes.com/ircnigeria#FREE_Virtual_Libraries\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://www.netvibes.com/ircnigeria#FREE_Virtual_Libraries</a></p>\n\n<p>One of them, Global ETD Search <a href=\"http://search.ndltd.org/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://search.ndltd.org/</a> as at today has 5,382,984 electronic theses and dissertations contained in the NDLTD archive</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/09 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9239",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6733/"
]
|
9,244 | <p>In STEM (In USA), the coursework duration of the PhD typically lasts about 1-2 years beyond that, students take 0 (or in certain cases, very few) courses in their subsequent PhD years. I work in applied math with a lot of applications in every field imaginable : Finance, Economics, Energy, Healthcare, Services etc. </p>
<p>During my coursework phase (owing to the breadth requirement), I was made to take courses in different departments and each time I attended a course in a new department I would think "Wow, this field could really benefit from extensions of my research". I would chalk out a few ideas and read up a few papers, find out that it's already done but be glad that I generated a new idea nonetheless. </p>
<p>Now, I am nearing the end of my coursework phase and I am wondering : How do I keep my ability to "see" applications in fields other than mine alive?</p>
<p><strong>Global Question : After a student's coursework phase, how does he stay aware of applications of his research field besides the ones discussed in papers?</strong></p>
<p>My advisor encourages me to attend as many seminar talks as possible (in all allied fields) which I do but it's not the same level of enjoyment.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9245,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First of all, unless there is a policy against it, you should feel free to enroll in subsequent courses even though you are done with your requirements. The caveat is that this will take time, and <strong>your primary responsibility after finishing those requirements is to do research in your specific area to make progress on your PhD</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>To a first approximation, a PhD program is designed to have you focus on one particular problem until you are the only person in the world that completely understands that problem. That is not to say that you won't find research inspiration from those other seminars, and in fact you might find that you will tailor your research based on one (probably not more) of those other fields. But, if you continue an academic career after you get your PhD, you'll have more flexibility to collaborate outside your particular field, and that is probably a better time to do it than right now.</p>\n\n<p>To answer your specific question: you're on the right track by going to seminars, and if you can justify the time, taking subsequent classes is not out of the ordinary. You could also get on mailing lists for other fields that interest you, and nothing is stopping you from becoming a member of professional organizations outside your immediate field (and, they're cheap when you're a student!). You could also consider collaborating with folks from other departments on projects, bearing in mind that you'll need to be able to differentiate your contributions if you want to use that work in your dissertation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9246,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I will add and expand on Chris Gregg's good answer. I think the key to your question is \"keeping up to date\". What I mean is that by keeping up with what is going on in a field wil also show you the trends, needs, open key questions etc. Now, taking a course, to me, does not sound like getting to the forefront of a subject, typically courses (unless at very advanced levels) will cover core material in a field. I think this is why you find that the ideas you got already may have been solved. So, in my mind course work is not the way to research ideas, it may form a good and perhaps necessary basis for understanding research papers etc. </p>\n\n<p>Today, even specialists have a hard time keeping up in their own field, I therefore think that it will be hard for you to keep up with several. Your notion that your own research could help others in other fields is most likely spot-on! But, you probably need to get to know people in some fields who have the solid basis and can jointly with you identify the research questions where your knowledge can be of use. So if you can spare the time, try to go to research seminars in other departments and even if you may not know the details, try to pick up what is going on, ask questions. Obviosuly I am not suggesting you should go to seminars at random but you can probably identify fields where you have some interests. Browse through some higher ranked journals from those fields as well to see what the research is about.</p>\n\n<p>Then finally, you should not worry about getting all this done as a PhD student. I am sre opportunities will come after your PhD to broaden and find colaborations. I will say that finding colaborators in other fields is usually hard and if your knowledge is in demand you will probably get sucked in to many interesting projects if you make yourself and your expertise known. and that I do not think happens with course work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 55387,
"author": "Marxos",
"author_id": 19703,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19703",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Use StackExchange for the relevant field.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/09 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9244",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
]
|
9,251 | <p>This might be off-topic but I thought I would try here since I know we have people who will know the answer.</p>
<p>I have received two documents from a prospective teacher. They seem to be German diplomas but I do not understand clearly what they really mean. The names of the diplomas are:</p>
<ol>
<li>Diplomurkunde, and</li>
<li>Diplom (Diplomlehrer)</li>
</ol>
<p>(1) translates (via Google) as Diploma Certificate. This is a bit confusing because I normally think of certificates as something and a diploma as something else (which requires more studying).</p>
<p>(2) translates as Graduate Teacher. This seems to be quite different from what I'm used to as a graduate teacher is something you are (or something you do) rather than something you've achieved.</p>
<p>Is there a more detailed explanation which would tie back to the UK or US educational system?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9254,
"author": "David MR",
"author_id": 6013,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6013",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>'Diplom' is the standard academic degree in Germany (slowly being replaced by a bachelor/master system). In the German system, it is roughly equivalent to a master degree. It usually takes about 5 years to complete. \nTeachers-to-be in Germany usually take a combination of two subjects. Their studies include courses on teaching/education as well.</p>\n\n<p>Since schools are subject to special federal law, teachers usually end their studies with a state-controlled exam (\"Staatsexamen\").</p>\n\n<p>Regarding the word \"Diplomurkunde\": The word simply denotes the piece of paper confirming that the person holds the respective degree. It is the one you want to see.\nI'm not so sure about the other one, but from my own experience, I would guess that the \"Diplomurkunde\" simply has the applicants name, place of birth and a date one it, while the other document has a bit more information but basically grants the same degree.</p>\n\n<p>Cf the article on Wikipedia: <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplom\">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplom</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9255,
"author": "Willie Wong",
"author_id": 94,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/94",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Pre-Bologna process, a German <em>Diplom</em> (which <strike>is no longer being awarded, and</strike> [see cbeleites's comment below] is mostly replaced now by a Master's degree) was generally the rough equivalent of a US Master's degree, attaining it is one of the requirements to start Doctorate studies. </p>\n\n<p>Your applicant sent you two documents:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>The <em>Diplomurkunde</em> is roughly the Master's diploma in the US. It is called a \"certificate\" (Urkunde) to distinguish it from the <em>Diplomzeugnisse</em> which also includes the transcript of grades. It is the one that one may consider framing and putting on the wall. </li>\n<li>The <em>Diplomlehrer</em> tells you what subject the applicant received his \"masters\" in. In particular, he received it in <em>Lehrer</em>, which translates directly to <strike>Lecturer</strike> Teacher. Or, as we may say, it tells you that he received something like a Master's in education. </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>To clear up any doubts, though, you could just ask your applicant to ask the <em>Akademisches Auslandsamt</em> of the place where he received the degree to send a letter attesting to the equivalency of the degree. (That shouldn't be too hard, since now they should've converted to a Bachlor/Master system anyway.) </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9274,
"author": "cbeleites unhappy with SX",
"author_id": 725,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/725",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>(answering the comment)</p>\n\n<p>4 years separation would be enough to do the teaching program after the \"normal\" subject. And it would definitively not be the parts of one Diplom (Zeugnis + Urkunde), they have the same date.<br>\nAnd, by the way, till now I was always required to show/hand in both Urkunde and Zeugnis of my Diplom. As I understand it, the Urkunde certifies that I have the \"title\" of Diplom-chemist, the Zeugnis certifies the grades of the final exams, and possibly other legally relevant additional exams (the examn that allows me to handle chemicals according to the German laws).</p>\n\n<p>I'm wondering a bit about the teaching Diplom - usually the teaching studies end with \"Staatsexamen\" (state exams, also includes one or two theses). But this can differ a lot depending on the state, and I don't know that much about the teaching studies. AFAIK, if you have a master/Diplom in some subject and then do the teaching studies for this subject, you can get the master/Diplom recognized as the first state exam. Otherwise, what you write sounds like 2 separate Diplome.</p>\n\n<p>I guess it boils down to asking and getting the Diploma Supplements - AFAIK they explain what the Diplom is about. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/09 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9251",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692/"
]
|
9,252 | <p>In order to encourage and motivate students to work harder and study more, it seems the teacher can use various competitions in class or after class. But on the other hand, competitions could cause jealousy and other destructive emotions among students and therefore affect the performance of some students adversely. Due to my doubts and my lack of experience, I haven't used competitions in my classes as a means of motivating students yet. But I would like to know if there is an experienced and useful method to do that. So my questions are:</p>
<p><strong>Have you ever used competitions in your classes? What are the pros and cons of students compete in the class for higher grades? Which points should I consider before encouraging students to compete with each other?</strong></p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9253,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One key thing to consider is whether you are encouraging your students to do better for themselves or if you are encouraging them to harm other students to look <em>relatively</em> better. Clearly, you must decide how to structure the class to achieve what you want.</p>\n\n<p>I've seen many teachers take the stance: I will give 10% A's, 50% B's, 20% C's, 10% D's, and 10% F's. Their rationale is that this is the way the real world works: There are only a certain number of management positions and if they want it, they must work harder and step on others to get it. However, I've found this is not great for the classroom and it is not the way the real world works either. It is clearly possible to grow a company so that there are <em>more</em> management positions available (indeed, growth is the goal).</p>\n\n<p>Personally, I have come to the point where each student should be judged on his/her own merits so I never run the kinds of competitions discussed above. That said, I have been known to offer prizes in class which are clearly limited. Prizes might include money (I don't generally offer a lot but students do seem excited about even small things, perhaps because they simply like something to represent them winning) but could easily be something else. What I offer comes out of my own pocket (though I don't tell the students this...and I'm not sure they would care either way).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9257,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A competition is almost by definition a zero-sum game, and thus has the destructive aspects described above. But if you want to reward overachievement you can provide extra credit work. </p>\n\n<p>The trick here is to use the extra credit only to improve the grade. Practically what that means is that you assign grades based on your system, and then add in the extra credit and see if that moves people. In other words, allow the extra credit to change your position in the curve, but not the curve itself. </p>\n\n<p>In this way, doing extra credit will benefit the overachievers, but not doing it won't hurt the others. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Update</strong>: I want to reiterate one point, because I think it's important. As you state in your question, the goal of the competition is to <strong>motivate students to work harder and study more</strong>. Students are motivated by many things, but the goal of the competition has to be \"to work harder and study more\". If the way to \"win\" the competition is by being better than others, then you're not achieving the goal you set out to achieve, and you're vitiating the class atmosphere. Artificially placing constraints on who can win doesn't make sense, because there's no reason that ALL students can't work harder and study more and <em>get a reward for doing so</em>, and in fact that's a great outcome. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9264,
"author": "bill s",
"author_id": 6308,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6308",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I often have competitions in class. I try to use them primarily for motivation, not assessment. </p>\n\n<p>Let me give an example: I was teaching an image processing class and we had some images of x-rays of \"old master\" canvas paintings. The goal was to create an algorithm that could count the density of the thread weave patterns. The quality of the answers could be assessed by comparing the algorithmic answers to manual counts, and I had about 200 locations where I knew the answer. I gave them 100 to train the algorithms. After about two weeks, there were 25 different algorithms submitted (most people worked in pairs) and then I ran the submitted codes on the 100 \"unknown\" locations.</p>\n\n<p>I called it the \"2010 Thread Counting Olympics\" and made a big deal about giving out \"medals\". I created several different ways of measuring the quality of the algorithms: closest in least squares error, number of answers within +/-1 mm per thread, number within +/-2 mm per thread, closest in absolute value of error, closest on the canvases by Van Gogh and closest on the canvases by Vermeer. Then there were bronze, silver, gold, and titanium medals in each category. As I presented the results to the class, I described the various approaches and pitfalls of each of the algorithms, and often asked for clarifications and comments by the authors of the algorithms. By the end of the competition, well over half of the students had won \"prizes\"... plus they had the recognition of their peers. </p>\n\n<p>The amount of effort that the students put into this project and into the class were amazing, and I think the \"competition\" aspect was a prime motivating factor.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/09 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9252",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
]
|
9,256 | <p>(Not sure if this is the right SX site, but math.sx seemed to have no questions concerning DOIs.)</p>
<p>Everything I cite in my thesis has a DOI or URL (I think that's important), but I'm citing an article that was the first to mention a kind of problem,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Arkadi Nemirovski. Nonparametric estimation of smooth regression
functions. In: Tekhnicheskaya Kibernetika 3 (1985)</p>
</blockquote>
<p>which seems to be quite obscure, it's not even listed on <a href="http://www2.isye.gatech.edu/~nemirovs/" rel="nofollow">the author's website</a>. It's not in our library (or any catalog I searched), but just a handed-down copy of unknown origin.</p>
<p>The journal doesn't seem to exist any more (or it doesn't have a website), and <a href="http://www.crossref.org/guestquery/" rel="nofollow">crossref.org</a> yields nothing. The article is translated, there are some inconsistencies with transliteration, i.e. the author's last name is sometimes written <em>Nemirovskiĭ</em>, the journal is sometimes written as <em>Techničeskaja</em>, the title might be completely different, etc.</p>
<p>Any pointers where I could find some canonical information?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9260,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Short answer: The full name is <em>Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Tekhnicheskaya Kibernetika</em>. As you inferred, it looks like it was terminated, doesn't have a web site, and all that was before the advent of Digital Object Identifiers. So, what are you asking for exactly?</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Obviously, there is a longer answer to that question. As you said, it is unfortunate this content doesn't have a canonical URL, or even a Digital Object Identifier. The good news is that you can actually fix that problem!</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Create and incorporate your own company: <em>Lost and Inaccessible Academic Content, Inc.</em> (actual title may vary). Depending on local legislation, this might not be so hard as it sounds.</li>\n<li>Contact a <a href=\"http://www.doi.org/doi_handbook/8_Registration_Agencies.html\">DOI Registration Agency</a> to register a <a href=\"http://www.doi.org/doi_handbook/9_OperatingProcedures.html#9.1.1\">DOI prefix</a>.</li>\n<li>Register the <a href=\"http://www.doi.org/doi_handbook/9_OperatingProcedures.html#9.1.4\">DOI name</a> and associated metadata.</li>\n<li>Write down that DOI name in your thesis bibliography.</li>\n<li>Bathe in the joy of the world now being a (slightly) more organized (and thus better) place.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9262,
"author": "Marcus",
"author_id": 6743,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6743",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>As others have said, not every (old) article has a DOI or a URL. However, in mathematics every article since 1940 has an MR number which uniquely identifies it. So go to <a href=\"http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/\">mathscinet</a> and look up this article. I just did, it has MR number MR0844292. The bibliographical information on mathscinet (like the transliteration of the author's name) would also be considered the \"canonical information\".</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/09 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9256",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6739/"
]
|
9,259 | <p>I am currently in my junior year of undergraduate work at Creighton University and have found out that my employer may possibly pay for me to work towards a Master's degree. I don't know all the specifics yet, but I have been browsing schools that offer Graduate programs in software engineering (or computer science with a focus in software engineering). It appears that the only school near me is the University of Nebraska-Omaha, so I have been checking out online programs as well, since I would have to stay in the Omaha area. It looks like USC has an excellent program in computer science, and I have also looked at Penn State and Drexel. So my questions are:</p>
<p>How difficult are these programs to get into?</p>
<p>Is it worth it to work towards a Master's Degree right after undergraduate?</p>
<p>What other programs should I be looking at?</p>
<p>I currently have a 4.0 GPA in my Computer Science Major, but I still have 4 classes left to take. I am also minoring in Business Administration and Interactive Web Development(basically Graphic Design classes).</p>
<p>Thanks ahead of time!</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9263,
"author": "Java Jeff",
"author_id": 6659,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6659",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Kgvnova,</p>\n\n<p>Congratulations on all of your success so far and your decision to consider furthering your education. I'm in a very similar position as you and I'm currently considering distance education for a Master's degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering. I'll do my best to answer your questions the best that I can.</p>\n\n<p>1) The difficulty of getting into programs varies, but I would say it's probably easier to be admitted into an online program than the live/in-person program. I was accepted into all programs that I applied to. (I graduated with a science degree at the top of my class, have good test scores and work experience, so I'd say I'm a strong candidate for most programs.) Just be careful about some \"diploma mills\". Some schools are \"for profit\" and let everyone in. Just try to find an established school that has a distance education component and you should be in good shape.</p>\n\n<p>2) Whether you go straight to a Master's degree or not depends on you and your life situation. You can consider your situation from a few angles.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Job Opportunities/ Return on Investment</strong>: I think that most computer related careers are available to people with a technically-oriented bachelor's degree so the return on your investment might be neglible since you already have a bachelor's. You mentioned that your employer may pay for it, so your investment might just be your time and energy. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Timing and Other Life Events:</strong> If you are willing and able to invest 20-40 hours per week for the next 2 years or so, then getting a Master's could be a good idea. If you're planning on having a family in the next few years, maybe it's a good time to get this done. If you're just starting a family or have other commitments, then maybe you should wait. Graduate schools aren't going anywhere.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Certainty:</strong> How certain are you that this is the career/industry for you? Do you have significant experience working in software engineering? I just ask because you may find that this is not what you actually want to do, especially if you've never done it before. I've changed my mind a lot in the past. Since I've graduated a few years ago, I've worked in sales, health services, teaching, insurance, and web development. I always thought I was going to enjoy those fields until I actually worked in them. Once I started doing web development and LOVING it, I decided it's worth pursuing an education to take me a step further.</p>\n\n<p>3) There are a lot of programs to consider. I started by looking at US News to see a list of highly-regarded schools. I then visited their websites to see if they had distance programs in Computer Science. Another few schools that I've considered are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Brandeis University - Master's in Software Engineering</li>\n<li>University of Bridgeport (CT) - Master's in CS with Software Engineering Concentration (ranked in top 10 online CS programs nationally)</li>\n<li>Harvard Univerisity - they have an Extension School where you can get a Master's in Liberal Arts with a concentration in Software Engineering</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>You should also consider the finances and \"pacing\" of programs. Some programs are really expensive. Also, some degrees are accelerated and take 18 months, while some programs take 3-4 years to complete.</p>\n\n<p>Sorry for the long response. I just wanted to give you the information I've been researching this for several months. I wish you the best of luck with everything.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9277,
"author": "Aaron",
"author_id": 1508,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1508",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>How difficult are these programs to get into?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It is going to be different with every school. Some will require you to take the GRE or GMAT, while some will admit you as long as you had a halfway-decent GPA in your undergraduate program. Some won't admit you unless you have a few years of experience working in the field.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it worth it to work towards a Master's Degree right after\n undergraduate?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Again, it depends. Is it going to advance your career? Perhaps. Having a Master's Degree as a software developer (assuming that is what you are aspiring to be) does open some doors that might otherwise be closed to you. Will you get a raise or better pay increases because of it? Probably not. And I don't know if I agree with going to graduate school immediately after finishing your bachelor's degree, but that is a decision you need to make for yourself.</p>\n\n<p>For me, I needed 13 years before I was ready to go to school again...and it paid off. I found that I had an easier time with my classes, because I had already worked with most of the technologies that I studied in grad school. Not just because of familiarity either, but because I had worked with them enough that I already understood <em>why</em> they worked the way that they do.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What other programs should I be looking at?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Not all computer science/software engineering/IT-based graduate programs are created equally. Many are geared more towards IT management, and go little into the technical side. If a technical deep-dive is what you want, you need to look really hard to find it.</p>\n\n<p>Also, many programs will be either practicum or thesis-based (or give you an option to choose). A thesis-based master's program may sound daunting, but again, it opens doors for you. If you are considering an academic career path at some point, you will want a program that requires a thesis.</p>\n\n<p>Another thing to consider, is to work at least a year before going back to school, just to get used to your workload. You will probably find that your employer will want 45-50 hours per week out of you (maybe more). Going home on a Friday night to work on a paper is a lot tougher to do after you've already been writing code for 10 hours.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9308,
"author": "Dylan R",
"author_id": 6762,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6762",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You may want to check out Virginia Tech Online. They have Master's degrees in Computer Engineering and Information Technology (in which you can specialize in Software Development) and it doesn't look like their admissions process is too hellish. I actually spoke with the Director of Admissions for their IT program and he's a really cool guy. Spent time going over the whole admissions process with me and answered all of my questions.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://vto.vt.edu/programs.php?prog_type=9,12,11\" rel=\"nofollow\">Virginia Tech Online Master's Degrees</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 27082,
"author": "Biiru Beefu",
"author_id": 20620,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20620",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm completing an online Masters in Software Engineering from Penn State. I have 17 years professional experience and started the program when I had 15 years experience. </p>\n\n<p>Having the benefit of past experiences I would recommend spending a few years (<5) doing hard core software development and moving up the technical ranks to Senior Engineer before pursuing a masters. </p>\n\n<p>The main reason why is you'll have the practical real-world knowledge that will help anchor the theory they will thrust at you in the Master's program. If you decide to pursue your Master's right after your undergrade, be forwarned that much of what they teach you in academia is theory which means it won't make much sense to you until you start to use it. Even then, you'll have a conflict since the real-world != academia and it's the real-world that is the truth and academia is just a nice cozy padded room.</p>\n\n<p>One con to waiting to take on your Master's is the double workload you'll be carrying. It was extremely difficult for me to handle both a full work load (50-60hours a week since no engineer worth their salt only works 40hours a week.) and be full time student. Another con is the fact that companies typically advertise educational benefits, but they can be very hard to obtain. It took me three companies before I finally landed at one that would pony up the cash. The other three companies said they would, but never did so after a few years I told them to suck it and moved on.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, looking down the long road and if I had it all to do over again, I'd of pusued my Master's ~5 years after completing my undergrad. After 15 years (17 when I finished my Masters) of experience, much of what I learned earning my Masters was nothing new. I think you'll get the best mental and career boost if you follow the timeline I mentioned.</p>\n\n<p>That all being said, I am happy I pursued my Masters and obtained it. The company paid for all of it (minus books) which was just south of $36k.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/09 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9259",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6742/"
]
|
9,267 | <p>I know that there are often summer courses through TAing, but those are much rarer. Many departments don't even offer summer courses.</p>
<p>In that case, are graduate students over summer always supported by RAships? And does an adviser <em>have</em> to have funding in order to support these students (in US)?</p>
<p>Do these standards also vary between professors at public schools and those at private schools? Especially schools that have guaranteed five-year funding?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9268,
"author": "Noah Snyder",
"author_id": 25,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my experience in math in the US it is not expected that the school or the advisor provide summer funding. Many people do make money in the summer in a variety of ways, but it's much less formalized than during the year. Personally, I was funded by the NSF half the summers I was in grad school and worked at a summer math program for the other half.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9272,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As Noah mentioned, I don't think there is a binding contract to provide funding. </p>\n\n<p>A few points (US Specific)</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Within my school itself, there are variable policies across departments. Certain departments provide 9 month guarantees and if you want to hang around in summer, either convince your advisor to find money for you or find your own. Certain departments guarantee funding for all 12 months, if you take an internship or decide to take a break or whatever, you don't get paid.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you are an international student, AFAIK, You have two (realistic) options : Convince advisor, get an internship. Finding your own summer funding can be quite tough for international students in the US.</p></li>\n<li><p>Usually, (at least in my experience), if you are doing good work and your advisor doesn't want to lose momentum, he will get you funding. In my field, it's not hard to get internships even for international students but most advisors will try to get funding so as to not break flow of things. But again, this is experience, not fact.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9273,
"author": "Eric Marsh",
"author_id": 5631,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5631",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In an engineering discipline, it is not hard to be funded for most/all of grad school. I was a research assistant almost my entire time (at 2 different universities), minus one semester as a TA. Most of the time this was working for grants that my professors had already secured. While TAs may not have as much work in the summer, RAs can work whenever as long as the advisor has money. This works best if you have an advisor who is well-connected and has a large group with several grants from which he can shuffle money around. Newer professors may simply not have available funds for all of their students.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/10 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9267",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/"
]
|
9,269 | <p>Or is it usually not possible?</p>
<p>Does this also depend from department to department? I'm in a geoscience department, and I was recently advised that due to a limited number of positions, students can only expect to be TAs for 1/4 of their time here. Geoscience does tend to have significantly fewer courses than most other fields though, so I wonder if it varies from field to field?</p>
<p>Does it also vary depending on whether the school is public or private?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9270,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The ability of a department to fund TAs depends on the courses being taught, the number of students in a class, and the overall budget. Often, a department will use this number in combination with the amount of funding faculty are pulling in as well as other sources to decide how many students to admit and how much TA funding support to provide. </p>\n\n<p>Independently, a department might make a determination of how long any one student might be guaranteed a TA position (this is often detailed on the admissions letter), with the expectation that students will look to be supported by research funding, or are expected to support themselves. Again, this depends from department to department and from university to university.</p>\n\n<p>I don't think there's any area-wide standard. In computer science, I see all kinds of models, ranging from full support through the entire program to no funding at all (although this latter model is rare). </p>\n\n<p>So to answer your question: maybe, it depends. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9271,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This does vary from school to school and field to field, and it would be difficult to classify public or private schools as being in one camp or another. I have known people who never TA'd and I've known people who have TA'd for their whole graduate career. Here are some plusses and minuses (and certainly my own opinion):</p>\n\n<p>Plusses to only TA'ing:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>You spend more time teaching, although some TAs spend all their time grading, which can be tedious and not particularly beneficial to you.</p></li>\n<li><p>If your advisor isn't paying you from his/her grants, you could have more leeway for a more self-directed PhD. Obviously, your advisor still has a large roll to play, but ultimately less control if you want to push the issue. This is generally more true if your funding comes from an external fellowship.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you're in a field where grant money is limited, this is a good way to get funding for your degree.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Minuses:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>TA'ing takes up time that could be spent on your own research. The point of Research Assistant fellowships is explicitly for you to do research.</p></li>\n<li><p>As a corollary to #2 above, your advisor might not feel as much ownership of you, and you might find that he/she isn't as willing to spend the time to help you with your research.</p></li>\n<li><p>Other students might wonder why you can't find research funding.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I know students who love being TAs, and they actively try to find new TA positions because of that and not because of the money.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9275,
"author": "Ben Norris",
"author_id": 924,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/924",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is it possible for a student to TA their entire way through graduate school?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>Yes, it is possible</strong>. </p>\n\n<p>I did it. I'm betting most academics can list someone they know who did it for whatever the reason might be. I did it partly because I enjoyed it and partly because the grant money was tight. I was able to do it because there were not enough first year graduate students to fill every open TA position. I suspect that the situations the lead to someone teaching their way through grad school have some features in common with my situation.</p>\n\n<p>You don't say so, but the tone of your question implies that you might want to do this. If so, ask the appropriate person who controls such things - the chair, assistant chair, undergraduate coordinator, or even the professor of the class you want to TA for. If you are good at it they might let you <strong>with your thesis adviser's support.</strong> </p>\n\n<p>The extra teaching experience will be beneficial if you intend a career at a 4-year liberal arts school.</p>\n\n<p>However, if there are a limited number of TA positions, those will go to the first year graduate students because those students 1) are not likely to be supported by grants or fellowships, and 2) probably have a TA requirement to complete the program.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/10 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9269",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/"
]
|
9,278 | <p>Given a (rather large) list of authors, what is the best way to find the number of publications by each author? The big problem here is author ambiguity (which John Smith, etc.) - the author list we have doesn't even include middle initials! What we do have is the full name of a FDA Committee on which they have sat, which has some useful key terms (e.g., arthritis).</p>
<p>Ideally, some sort of API/automated search could be used given the large number of authors! I've heard about some databases (eRA Commons, for example) but these don't seem to have a visible search page. </p>
<p>What is the best way to figure out publication number given these constraints?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9437,
"author": "walkmanyi",
"author_id": 1265,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a little bit shaky, but let's give it a try. Apart from a programmatic solution where you would have to write your own <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_scraping\" rel=\"nofollow\">web-scraping</a> scripts which would construct appropriate URLs for each authors and extract their publication statistics, there might be another, though still quite tedious and technically involved approach.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.harzing.com/pop.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\">Harzing's Publish or Perish</a> program (PoP) has a feature called \"Multi-query center\". It allows you to create a set of queries and then generate publication/citation statistics for each of them in bulk. It is meant to periodically re-generate the citation statistics for a set of queries so that you do not have to laboriously write the queries again and again. Now the technical steps towards your solutions would be the following:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>produce a set of queries corresponding to the list of authors you are interested in;</li>\n<li>update all these queries at once by a single button click;</li>\n<li>save the statistics for all the queries e.g., into a CSV file; and</li>\n<li>extract the numbers you are interested in in your favorite spreadsheet program.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The most technically involved step is to produce a set of queries corresponding to the list of authors you have. If the list is not too long (e.g., up to 50), the easiest method would be to enter the queries manually. In the case you have a very long list of authors (several hundreds), then I would try to generate the set of queries programatically. The PoP program stores the queries you enter in it in a file <code>Queries3.xml</code> in the corresponding <code>Program Files</code> folder. The queries are organised into folders, the XML is easy to read. Producing a correct XML file with the queries is a little bit try-error process, but you can easily succeed when you create an empty query with an authors and then using a small script (or you favourite text editor/spreadsheet) copy the query entry and only change the Author attribute of the <code>PoPQuery</code> element.</p>\n\n<p><em>Good Luck!</em></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9470,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My answer is a supplement to walkmanyl's answer.</p>\n\n<p>Can I suggest you to go through <a href=\"https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1998076.1998122\" rel=\"nofollow\">this</a> paper? It is a very nice paper which gives you an algorithm to disambiguate author names and can be used in conjunction with the method described above.</p>\n\n<p>Anecdotally, I know that it has been used in a number of scientometric/bibliometric studies already. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/10 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9278",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/555/"
]
|
9,279 | <p>This is related to <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7316/is-it-advisable-to-mention-the-dollar-amount-for-grants-on-a-cv">this question</a>, but I don't believe a duplicate since the dollar amount there was impressive, whereas mine are not.</p>
<p>I have been awarded several intra-University small grants ($2-4k each), about one a year, during my Ph.D. These were funds to cover research expenses, rather than to cover my stipend, and I believe I've used them productively.</p>
<p>Should I list the dollar amounts of these on my C.V.? On the one hand, listing them shows they're not just honorary amounts. On the other, the amounts are not enormous either, and there are all the usual disadvantages of listing (setting the wrong tone, etc.). Plus it just makes me a little uneasy.</p>
<p>Background here is: headed into a soft money position eventually, and my stipend is fully covered without conditions, so I've had no need to apply for any of the big extramural grants.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9280,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I would say yes. I have done so from when I received my first grant/stipend. I ceased listing once I received a permanent position (or thereabouts) and started getting multiyer grants from national sources. </p>\n\n<p>As long as you think adding it shows that you are active and competitive (well merited) in terms of receiving the trust to receive money it will be a good thing. You need to constantly evaluate the possible pros and cons of adding informaton to your cv, including funding. I would imagine that being in a soft money situation, listing funding will only be a positive. But, be aware that gaps in your funding stream may become question marks unless they are explicitly explained.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9282,
"author": "bill s",
"author_id": 6308,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6308",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'd say it depends on who the CV is going to. In most cases, I would think that listing dollar amounts leaves the wrong impression: first, that your primary thought is of money, and second that you're not very good at it. It is probably more impressive sounding, in general, if you list the award, the donor, the purpose. For example, the \"Susan B. Lovemoney award for student creativity\" is more impressive sounding than \"$1K departmental stipend.\" Let the reader imagine that you might have received some large amount of money, and if they ask, say that it was a modest amount, enough to enable you to accomplish your research goals. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/10 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9279",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/775/"
]
|
9,283 | <p>Why do we use F for failing on an otherwise arbitrary alphabetic grading scale? Isn't E just as meaningful for failing as A is for excellent?</p>
<p>I'm more interested in a response on the history of how the current scale came to be.</p>
<p>(Edit: prompted from the comments below, I am asking about this situation within the context of the American grading system.)</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9434,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think, and this is really only conjecture since I don't know the history, is the potential conflict with the ESNU system where E stands for excellent. The ESNU was (and potentially still is) used in US based elementary education.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9637,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Since it seems we have trouble finding a true history of the A-F my guess would be the following. Many scales rely oon an odd number scale because then something can be in the middle. It is also then possible to think of C as the center of a normal distribution, if that is how grades should be distributed. We used to have a grading system from 1-5 with no intermdiate steps in schools in Sweden where 3 was considered an ok grade and 1 and 2 were poor. There was also a fail whioch was a dash instead of a number. </p>\n\n<p>By accident or by construction, F became Fail. It is possible that a five grade scale was chosen to make F Fail but my guess is that it was more a fotunate coincidence rather than deliberate choice.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9692,
"author": "Andrew Maurer",
"author_id": 4469,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4469",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My US high school had a grading scheme where A-D were all passing grades, and E and F were both failing grades (E is between 50 and 60, F is less than 50). I believe the difference was that an E class could be retaken, whereas an F could not.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/10 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9283",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6756/"
]
|
9,285 | <p>I found a major flaw in reasoning in a psychological experiment, but I am not even related to psychology, I just attended to that course at my university in my spare time. The flaw I found is strictly logical, and also quite tricky, so I think it is feasible that no one noticed it yet. </p>
<p>This mistake (if it turns out to be an actual flaw) has huge consequences since a few studies validated the results (by repeatedly committing this mistake) and many psychological sub-fields referenced the study.</p>
<p>I want someone to validate my concerns about that study, and then if possible I want to discover the consequences of that error, and make humble suggestion on how to deal with the situation. If my notice would be published anywhere, I want to make sure my name will be seen in that article. (It would be awesome)</p>
<p>What would be the way to go in my situation if such things can be published at all?</p>
<p><strong>Little Edit:</strong>
The error is highly controversial but my point of view should be true. It is similar to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Hall_problem">Monty Hall problem</a>.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9286,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In order for this to happen, you need two things:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>You need to communicate with specialists and convince them that you have identified a logical flaw. You might worry that they will take your idea without giving you credit, but you shouldn't worry too much about that: the more worrisome scenario is that neither of you will be able to convince the other and it will end with a stalemate. Without expert advice, it's unlikely that you can present your idea in a way that would be publishable, so talking with experts should be the first step. (Of course unlikely is different from impossible, but it's best to plan on getting advice.)</p></li>\n<li><p>Once they understand you, the experts need to care. Many experiments have loopholes and caveats that are well known to experts but not described in popular accounts or even introductory college courses. You may end up hearing \"Yes, that's logically possible, but it's not a possibility we think is important.\" Or \"Yes, Jones and Smith pointed that out in a paper last year, but I still think the conclusions are true and the experiment is illuminating.\" Using an argument that is not 100% logically air-tight is not in itself a problem outside of pure mathematics.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I'd suggest starting by talking with someone from the course you took (the professor or a teaching assistant). If all goes well, either you'll convince them that this is new and serious, or they'll convince you that it isn't.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9300,
"author": "Douglas S. Stones",
"author_id": 879,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/879",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think there is no way for you to publish this without understanding the psychology:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>You won't know the significance of your work.</p></li>\n<li><p>You will receive rebuttals that require you to have domain-specific knowledge. (It might even be that your argument does not hold due to some domain-specific reason.)</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>You can discuss it with experts, but <em>you</em> need to know what it is <em>you</em> are actually claiming.</p>\n\n<p>As a personal example, I spent the last 2+ years, along with my co-author, writing a paper where we discredit the typical statistical analysis used in network motifs. Writing this paper changed me as a person.</p>\n\n<p>I feel there would have been no way to write this paper without understanding the biological side (my research was in pure mathematics and computer science). Time and time again, I would be asked questions that required knowledge from biology, and <em>I don't know</em> or <em>I don't understand the question</em> are not appropriate responses.</p>\n\n<p>Nowadays, I would say biology (or, at least, computational biology) <em>is</em> a field I study.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/10 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9285",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6758/"
]
|
9,290 | <p>In any tutorial class some students seem to get frustrated with little tougher questions. While tackling them is important to learn the subject. How to motivate the students to attempt tougher questions without getting discouraged ?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9291,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Hints</strong> and <strong>extra credits</strong>.</p>\n<p>You mention <em>some students seem to get frustrated with little tougher questions</em>. They are students. They don't have enough knowledge/skill/experience to crack tough problems. Hints will get them the starting/entry points.</p>\n<p>If a student spend hours or days to solve tough problems and get nothing afterwards, he would lose interests quickly. If he knows he would get some extra credits after solving those problems, he would be more inclined to finish them.</p>\n<p>Once they get used to those happy (accomplished) feelings after solving tough problems, some will automatically jump to those tough problems without your hints/extra credits. They become <strong>self motivated</strong>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9292,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Tough questions look scary and student get hopeless when they don't even know how to start thinking about the solution. That's why they get frustrated. My suggestion to prepare students for tough questions is as follows:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Teach them various ways of approaching questions. </p></li>\n<li><p>Teach them to review (or rewrite) the data and assumptions of the question to understand what has been given and what has been asked to show (prove, compute, etc).</p></li>\n<li><p>Solving tough questions usually require a combination of different techniques, formulas and applying them in several steps. Make sure you give a hint about these techniques and steps or teach them to guess these steps. It is also useful if you teach them to break down long and complicated questions to several smaller and easier questions (of course if it is possible). </p></li>\n<li><p>Solve some examples of tough questions and explain them how you start thinking about the solution and how you proceed. </p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9293,
"author": "walkmanyi",
"author_id": 1265,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I just would like to amend Vahid's answer, which I think goes in right direction.</p>\n\n<p>Part of the problem is not that students wouldn't have the required skills, often they do not see a way forward. This is more about being \"brave\" enough to wage the war on the problem. To help with that, I think the following is essential:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>guide them through examples of the problem to show them that the problems of that kind are indeed approachable and solvable,</li>\n<li>more importantly, help them help themselves. Consider a discussion in which the class, or groups, or individuals would solve the problem themselves, but the teacher guides them through it. I.e., when they get stuck, asks the right questions, answers to which will put them back on track, or point out a mistake in their reasoning to fix a mistake they made. </li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9294,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a tough question and one that teachers have struggled with throughout the history of pedagogy. Sometimes, students need to find within themselves the curiosity and drive to plow forward despite the frustration. So, don't be discouraged when you see frustrated students, as every teacher has to deal with this. Philosophy aside, here are some tips I've found helpful over the years:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Scaffolding is immensely important.</strong> Build up to the harder problems, and give students the time they need to process how typical problems are solved. E.g., If you're studying friction, have the students do plenty of problems that involve friction on a flat surface, then move to friction on a ramp, then work on friction on a vertical wall (by a sideways force), then move to centripetal friction that keeps a turning car from sliding off a road, then move to cars on banked hills.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Don't try to cover too much material in one sitting.</strong> Students can only process so much at once, and many really do need time to process.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Positive feedback goes a long way.</strong> When a student makes progression on a problem, acknowledge it.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Be available for help, but not <em>always</em> available.</strong> Some students like the easy way out, which is to ask you how to do the problem! Don't be afraid to turn a student away until they've given it a decent try. That said, judicious pointers in the right direction can help.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Encourage them to work in groups.</strong> This does run into the \"easy way out\" for some students, but more often it can lead to good ideas being generated, and students can learn from the collaboration.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Give them lots and lots of examples.</strong> The more they see problem-solving techniques, the better they will become.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, given the time constraints of college teaching, it isn't always possible to use all of these strategies--I found that it was easier to find the time when I taught high school. That said, students in college should be willing to work harder on their own, anyway (but we all know that isn't always the case!).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9295,
"author": "Dirk",
"author_id": 529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/529",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the beginning of class I announce the handling of exercises. Where I am we pose weekly homework exercises and collect and grade them. The student have to collect enough points on the exercises to be allowed to take the oral exam (or, obtain a \"attended\" certificate. However, the threshold for \"enough points\" is set be each instructor. I usually set 50%. However, I communicate that there will always be tough questions and easier questions and that I do not suppose that any student has to solve all questions. If they want to work for 50% and make it, that is enough. If they want to be ambitious, they can go for 100%. I also communicate that there will be tough (and very tough) questions because <strong>I want that also very bright student can learn something</strong>. This often serves as a motivation to work on tougher questions. Of course, there are a lot of students who are comfortable with less. However, I set the 50% hurdle and have to make sure that everybody who passes it \"has learned enough\". On the upper end, the very tough questions ensure that the very good ones also learn something interesting.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/11 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9290",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6418/"
]
|
9,297 | <p>A couple of simple questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Books are not peer reviewed in general. Are book reviews that appear in academic journals peer-reviewed? Since they represent personal opinions, I would think they cannot be peer reviewed.</p></li>
<li><p>What about news articles? For example, journal Nature has various short news focus and research highlights that discuss other peer-reviewed research articles in a broader perspective. Are those peer-reviewed? Due to time pressure, I would think it would be difficult to peer review these in time.</p></li>
</ol>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9298,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Book reviews, opinion pieces, and news articles are generally not peer reviewed. That's not to say there's no review at all: editors read and approve these contributions, and they may request changes before publication if they feel it is necessary. It's even possible that an editor would ask for an opinion from a third party. However, peer review (by an external expert) is not a standard practice for these sorts of articles.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Books are not peer reviewed in general.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Books can be an intermediate case. Acquisitions editors often solicit external reviews of book proposals or manuscripts, to decide which ones to accept and how they should be revised. However, you are right that the level of review is generally not as comprehensive or detailed as it is for journal articles.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9370,
"author": "Samuel Russell",
"author_id": 4429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4429",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It depends entirely on what you mean by peer review. Using <a href=\"http://www.innovation.gov.au/Research/ResearchBlockGrants/Documents/2012HERDCSpecifications.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">Australia's Higher Education Research Data Collection (HERDC) criteria</a> for the collection of publication information, peer review amounts to substantial review by appropriate experts. Books are either reviewed by proxy by commercial publication in this research data collection scheme, reliant on the habit of scholarly monographs being sent out for readers and scholarly collections being edited by the book's editors, or they have to be explicitly peer reviewed if published in an electronic only format. The quality of review of monographs varies considerably from field to field and from publishing house to publishing house. It matters quite a great deal for my discipline as my discipline is monograph driven.</p>\n\n<p>Book reviews are sometimes peer reviewed. Book reviews of more than one work which advance original scholarly arguments are regularly peer reviewed in my domain (<a href=\"http://www.chass.org.au/\" rel=\"nofollow\">HASS: Humanities, Arts, Social Sciences</a>; the converse of STEM). These reviews contribute either a critical reflection on current practice, or they contribute a substantive account of the field (literature review / review article / field review). HERDC recognises this to the extent that reviews of more than one work which otherwise meet the criteria of a journal article (contribution to scholarly knowledge, peer review) are accepted as full journal articles.</p>\n\n<p>Some news articles in journals formally meet the standard for peer review of HERDC, but fail other criteria, such as an original contribution to scholarly knowledge.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/11 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9297",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/386/"
]
|
9,299 | <p>I'm currently in the process of applying to business schools and I notice that nearly all of them have general MBA degrees and MBA degrees with different areas of concentration or specialization. I currently work in the IT industry doing some project management and customer support, though I'm on the fence about whether the IT industry is where I'd like to stay.</p>
<p>I'm going back and forth between the general MBA and something like an MBA in IT Management, but I'm having trouble deciding. What are some things I can consider during this process so that I can make a good decision and not get a degree that's either too general to be useful or too specific to give me options?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9310,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Because you already have real world experience in IT but are unsure it is where you want to stay, a general MBA should be fine. </p>\n\n<p>If you want to stay in IT, what most companies care about is actual experience - and it seems you have that. Having an MBA and experience in IT is a great combination and having experience in IT is far more useful than having a specialist MBA in IT.</p>\n\n<p>Another issue is that IT management is usually not a challenging place to get to if you are interested. I've worked with quite a few people in IT and it was the rare one who wanted to be in management. Most wanted to keep their hands in the technology. For this reason, IT management is different from many other fields in business.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 10131,
"author": "msmkhan",
"author_id": 7149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7149",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You are saying that you have working experience in project management and customer support in the IT sector, in that case you can choose MBA specialization, that means MBA in IT. This specialization will give more fruit.</p>\n\n<p>But for non working person I want to suggest to all go for general MBA</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31164,
"author": "Reed -SE is a Fish on Dry Land",
"author_id": 23868,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23868",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think a general MBA is much better. </p>\n\n<p>The course load is about the same; to qualify for a specialist MBA you often only need a few specialized classes. </p>\n\n<p>The MBA general or specific is still a very broad based super-generalist degree. Uninformed employers may believe that a specialized MBA makes you a specialist and not someone for the management track. </p>\n\n<p>A general MBA will allow you to progress through many changes of industry and jobs. Yesterday a banker, today a quality control supervisor, tomorrow a head of strategic management, that is an MBA. Specializing is for undergrad and msc. </p>\n\n<p>When I did my BBA in finance, my main professor allowed me to sit in his finance MBA classes, they knew less than undergrads. It is quite understandable a BBA needs nearly 2 years of finance courses, an MBA like 3-4 courses. So when I did my MBA I chose General but elected to do a thesis in finance.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/11 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9299",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6762/"
]
|
9,301 | <p>The above question is self explanatory, still I would like to break it into two parts.</p>
<p><strong>Q1.</strong> What is the difference between abstract and summary/conclusion?</p>
<p><strong>Q2.</strong> What is the difference between summary and conclusion ?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9302,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>A1</strong>: In the context of a journal article, thesis etc., the abstract should provide a brief summary of each of the main parts of the article: Introduction, Methods, Results and Discussion. In the words of Houghton (1975), \"An abstract can be defined as a summary of the information in a document\". The Conclusions (in some cases also called a <em>Summary</em>) chapter is a summary of the main ideas that come out from the discussion (e.g., Katz, 2009) and hence only a subset of the abstract. Usually, the Conclusions sum up the discussion whereas the abstract only reiterates the most important of the conclusions.</p>\n\n<p><strong>A2</strong>: The difference between a summary and the conclusions is less clear. First, it is not clear if the summary is to be compared with the Abstract or the Conclusions. A summary may also be more appropriate as Conclusions when writing an overview where the conclusions may not be easy to identify. As stated above some journals use the word <em>Summary</em> instead of <em>Conclusions</em>. Sometimes this can also be labelled <em>Synthesis</em> and cap off a lengthy discussion.</p>\n\n<p>References:</p>\n\n<p>Houghton, B., 1975. Scientific periodicals: their historical development, characteristics and control. Hamden CT, Shoe String Press. </p>\n\n<p>Katz, M.J., 2009. From research to manuscript. A guide to scientific writing. Second edition. Berlin, Springer.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9303,
"author": "edtechdev",
"author_id": 152,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/152",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A conclusion section might for example include speculations about some patterns in the data, or proposals for future research. It basically is really the only place to put your opinions. A summary I expect would not include any opinions and just re-iterate the findings and weaknesses in the study. </p>\n\n<p>As the other answer mentioned, the abstract should include all the main aspects of the paper in an abbreviated form - the topic, the hypotheses, the participants and study design, and the results.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9307,
"author": "Dirk",
"author_id": 529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/529",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The <strong>abstract</strong> is written for the potentially interested reader. While writing it, keep in mind that most readers read the abstract before they read the paper (sounds obvious, but many abstracts read like the authors did not consider this). The abstract should give an impression of what the paper will be about. Do not use jargon or <em>any</em> abbreviations here. It should be understandable for non-specialists and even for people from fields somehow far away.</p>\n\n<p>The <strong>conclusion</strong> should conclude the paper and is written for the reader who already has read the paper. In other words: most readers have read the paper when they read the conclusion. Again, this sounds obvious but, again, a lot of conclusions do not read like this. It does not make sense to write a conclusion like \"we have shown this and that by using this and that method\". Well, this is what the reader has just read (and what he may know since he has read the abstract). A proper conclusion should tell the reader what she can or he could do with the newly acquired knowledge. Answer the question \"So what?\".</p>\n\n<p>A <strong>summary</strong> sums up the paper. I am not sure if a paper needs a summary.</p>\n\n<p>I've written some tips for abstracts some time ago:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Avoid jargon.</strong> Although this sounds obvious, most abstracts contain jargon in one way or the other. Of course one can not avoid the use of specific terminology and technical terms but even then there is an easy check if a technical term is appropriate: Try to find a definition on the internet (if the term has a fairly stable wikipedia page, there it is not jargon) – if you do not succeed within a few minutes you should find a different word.</li>\n<li><strong>Use buzzwords.</strong> This may sound to contradict the previous point and in part it does. But note that you can use a buzzword together with its explanation. Again, the example from the previous point works: “Funk metric” may be a buzzword and the explanation using the name “Finsler” is supposed to ring a bell (as I learned, it is related to Hilbert’s 23rd problem). This helps the readers to find related work and to remember what was the field you were working in.</li>\n<li><strong>General to specific.</strong> In general, it’s good advice to work from general to specific. Start with a sentence which points in the direction of the field you are working in. So your potential audience will know from the beginning in which field your work is situated.</li>\n<li><strong>Answer questions.</strong> If you think that your work answers questions, why not pose the questions in the abstract? This may motivate the readers to think by themselves and draw their interest to the topic.</li>\n<li><strong>Don’t be afraid of layman’s terms.</strong> Although layman’s terms usually do not give exact description and sometimes even are ridiculously oversimplified, they still help to form a mental picture. </li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23395,
"author": "Osama Arafa",
"author_id": 17437,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17437",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Abstract:</strong>\nAuthor short story about what is in it (no matter good or bad, valuable or scrap)\n<strong>Conclusion:</strong>\nAuthors statement about the findings justified by the detailed content (findings/achievement/affirmation of a doubtful fact/negation of an established belief...etc) for a reader who has a guided-travel across by the author.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24122,
"author": "Aaron Combs",
"author_id": 18011,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18011",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One basic difference: An abstract is always at the beginning of a academic paper. A conclusion is always at the end. A summary could be anywhere, even separate from the paper itself, so it's a bit more slippery. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 59766,
"author": "jehanzeb",
"author_id": 45822,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/45822",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<ul>\n<li>The abstract is like a movie trailer.</li>\n<li>The summary is an arrangement of actions/events of movie in a short way.</li>\n<li>The conclusion is the objective of the movie in light of the evidence and arguments given in the movie.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The conclusion of one person can vary from that of another.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 61064,
"author": "sara nabeel",
"author_id": 46918,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/46918",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>abstract = what is to be done by researcher in the given paper.</p>\n\n<p>summary = what is accomplished in the paper under consideration.</p>\n\n<p>conclusion = what are the limitations of study, what needs to be done by upcoming researchers.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 73512,
"author": "Abel Godspower",
"author_id": 58759,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/58759",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Summary: Its a brief note that gives us an overview, ideas and insight about major topics in a paper.</p>\n\n<p>Abstract: Its a short note that express the contents of the work.</p>\n\n<p>Conclusion: Its a statement/decision reached by the researcher based on findings in the research.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/11 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9301",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6763/"
]
|
9,304 | <p>I'm currently a senior who wants to get a PhD in physics. However, I may only have the chance to go to a school which has a strong professor in a certain area, but the school itself is not highly ranked. </p>
<p>My other option is, one of the professors I'm working with at my current institution is favorably disposed towards me, and could support me for another year while I do more research. If I did this, I will push out publications (including at least one first author) before I apply.</p>
<p>Another professor I know has told me that he thinks I should not waste my time, and get started on the PhD, especially since I might be able to hit the ground running there. However, I am aware that getting a degree from a non-top 10 school will hurt my prospects for future positions. I'm also keeping in mind that I could also head to this school next year as well if everything goes sour again. </p>
<p>What do the members of the community think? I would really appreciate more viewpoints on this matter. Thanks for your time!</p>
<p>Edit: I understand that questions asked here should be of a general nature, and not just apply to an individual's unique situation. However, I don't think this situation is all too uncommon, and this question may be useful to those who are looking for information in the future.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9305,
"author": "Paul",
"author_id": 931,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/931",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Doing outstanding research is what ultimately matters, not the rank of the university. High quality research is not exclusive to top tier universities alone. If you find an advisor with whom you can publish top quality research in your topic of interest, then go for it. The rank of the university is less important than your advisor's ability to help you carry out and publish good quality research. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9309,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I was in almost the exact same situation you describe. My scenario was choosing between a top 20 (but not top 10 school) vs. delaying a year and doing research and then re-applying. Like you, I would've been able to raise my pGRE score and put out a couple of first-author publications.</p>\n\n<p>I decided instead to just go to the PhD program at the slightly lower ranked institution (but this school had two world-famous professors working in an area that I was interested in). Why? Well, it's because people only care about your advisor, not the quality of the school (usually; there are always exceptions). Generally, the statement</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>However, I am aware that getting a degree from a non-top 10 school will hurt my prospects for future positions.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>is false. There are of course exceptions, but I've received much more recognition at conferences for being Prof. X's student rather than being a student at Y institution. In the end, I realized it was more important that I learn from a good and well respected advisor than worrying about attending a top 10 school. I'm just a grad student finishing up his final year (received some very nice postdoc offers), but just my 2 cents.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9313,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I don't entirely disagree with the two previous answers: taking the offer you have now may be a fine choice. However, I'd give serious consideration to strengthening your application and trying again.</p>\n\n<p>One of the biggest differences between departments is the strength of the peer group. You will ultimately spend <strong>much</strong> more time talking and working with your fellow students than with faculty, and being part of an amazing cohort is incredibly beneficial. You'll spend countless hours in detailed discussions, going into far more depth than any faculty member is likely to have time for, and you'll organize student seminars and study groups. Depending on your field, you may write papers with your fellow students with no faculty involvement. In the end, you'll learn far more from them than from courses or meetings with faculty, and these relationships will last for the rest of your career.</p>\n\n<p>If you don't have this opportunity, you can certainly still become an excellent researcher, but you are less likely to reach your full potential, and even if you do it will be harder. To maximize the benefit, you need to be surrounded by lots of wonderful students, many of whom are just as talented, hard working, and ambitious as you are, and some of whom are destined for even greater things.</p>\n\n<p>As a rule of thumb, as you move down the prestige scale the average level of the students drops off much faster than the level of the faculty, because there are many more students than faculty. There can be exceptions, such as a department that attracts much stronger students in one subfield than overall, but you shouldn't count on it without concrete evidence.</p>\n\n<p>Here are a few ways you can gauge the students in a department:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>When you visit, do you have really interesting discussions with current students, which leave you feeling excited about further interactions? (Don't take this too seriously, since if you're shy it may be difficult to connect quickly, but it's worth thinking about.)</p></li>\n<li><p>Does the department regularly produce graduates whose careers you would be happy with? (Take this one very seriously. If you are aiming for a job at a major research university but few people from your Ph.D. program get such jobs, then either your goals are unrealistic or you'll really stand out compared with your peers.)</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>If the answer to both questions is yes, then that's a good sign, but otherwise you should be cautious.</p>\n\n<p>Returning to the original question, this might help you judge the offer you have already. For the option of spending another year where you are, I'd ask three questions:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>How likely are you to get better offers next year? Of course there's no way to be sure, but perhaps a mentor could help you make an informed guess.</p></li>\n<li><p>Will you enjoy the next year? It's not worth doing if you're going to be stressed out and miserable. Besides, unhappy people rarely do their best work.</p></li>\n<li><p>Will you look back on it as a valuable intellectual experience, regardless of its effects on your grad school applications?</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/11 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9304",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6764/"
]
|
9,314 | <p>I am told that one of the best ways in which to disseminate information/knowledge/findings from doctoral research is to put your dissertation on-line. By default, many universities make the dissertations of their students available on their websites.</p>
<p>I am wondering what are the merits of putting your dissertation on Facebook. I am unsure whether this is possible or there is just an ability to create a link on Facebook that goes to the university's website.</p>
<p>The above is particularly appealing for anyone who does not want to create their own websites.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9316,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Why Facebook, in particular? I know you didn't want to do it, but I do suggest setting up a minimal website with your pertinent information (CV, Bio), and then hosting the dissertation there, with a link. I would be very surprised if you can't get a free website through your university, and setting up a small site is relatively painless. If you're going to link anything on other sites (e.g., Facebook), I would link your homepage. I do not think you will get extra traction by simply hosting your dissertation on a particular website, social or otherwise.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9317,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The suggestion made regarding setting up web sites as a tool to reach out with your research by others is very good so I just want to expand a little on the social media side. </p>\n\n<p>If you want to use social media as a vehicle fryour career I would suggest you join something intended for professionals (in the sense of work oriented) such as <a href=\"http://www.linkedin.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">LinkedIn</a>. There you will be able to get in contact with people who may be interested in your field and your publications (incl. thesis) more efficiently than with Facebook. Since it is geared towards the work part of your life, it is also taken more seriously than facebook. You would however still need some repository for pdfs etc. but that can be done using for example dropBox or some other free storage service. Using these kind sof services means that nothing can be considered permanent but on the other hand contenst should be updated and refreshed.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9363,
"author": "al_b",
"author_id": 5963,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5963",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would support a suggestion regarding setting up a small website AKA your academic homepage, you can also do it via your university or various free hosting services (googlesites, etc).</p>\n\n<p>And once your dissertation is online, and you have a link to PDF (either on your homepage or in your institutional repository) do use ANY social media to spread the word. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, ResearchGate - they will help you to reach various people (and I do agree that Facebook is probably the least professional out of those).</p>\n\n<p>If your dissertation is superb, you can consider publishing it with a reputable publisher (people and especially evaluation committees do see value in such publications w.r.t. just putting sth online)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9449,
"author": "Theresa Liao",
"author_id": 5988,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5988",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I think the best option is to set up your personal page and have your file hosted there. It is better to have your own independent site (independent from your university) in case you are to move to another university (post-doc, faculty position, etc) and cannot host your file there anymore. Once you have the dissertation hosted somewhere, you can share it through social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.</p>\n\n<p>If that is not a possibility for you, another option would be to share it online in an open access database like Figshare (<a href=\"http://figshare.com/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://figshare.com/</a>). Note that you should double check guidelines from your university to ensure it is okay, and consider if you plan to publish your dissertation in a journal in the future (some journals do not like it if the pre-prints are available elsewhere publicly).</p>\n\n<p>Here is an online post about why one decides to have dissertations hosted there.\n<a href=\"http://sites.tdl.org/fuse/?p=347\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://sites.tdl.org/fuse/?p=347</a></p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9314",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4475/"
]
|
9,318 | <p>I'm doing a PhD related to my supervisor's research area. Sometimes, I think about problems that I do not immediately know the answer to. Naturally, I come to Stack Exchange and other forums and ask :) But on some occasions, the question is rather specific so I email my supervisor instead.</p>
<p>How often do you generally email a supervisor about research questions? I know he has other PhD students plus his own research to do. I have a weekly 45 min meeting with him, so I try to save questions for that and give a report to him about what I did in the previous week. On very rare occasions, he comes down to the lab and we talk in person. I usually email him when there is some administrative stuff we need to talk about, but I'm asking about research questions here or about giving updates about the progress of my research.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9320,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When you email him, at your current rate, how often do you get responses? Has he indicated that it bothers him? (either directly or by showing signs that it annoys him) If not, why are you worried about it?</p>\n\n<p>I'll add that the right question to ask is probably not <em>“<strong>how often</strong> can I email him?”</em>, but rather <em>“am I emailing him with the <strong>right questions</strong>?”</em>. What will definitely annoy your advisor, and pretty much any other person, is if you ask them series of questions to which you could have found the answer yourself, or questions whom they are not the right person to ask.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9321,
"author": "Sylvain Peyronnet",
"author_id": 43,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You mention a weekly meeting with him. At the very least this means that when you have a research question you will have to wait 6 days before having an answer. My 2 cents is that you can wait, you cannot ask for help with only a few days of work on a research question.</p>\n\n<p>If what you call a research question is not really a research question (for instance how to make a specific experiment), you may consider asking to other students and postdocs.</p>\n\n<p>edit : and as for the updates, if your supervisor decided on a weekly meeting, don't send him email about updates, except if you have a revolutionary breakthrough.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 15769,
"author": "Jeffiekins",
"author_id": 10805,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10805",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The simple answer is:</p>\n\n<h2>Not more than he wants.</h2>\n\n<p>You must be very sensitive to when you annoy him, and <strong>don't annoy him</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>Even if he wants his interactions with and about you not to be flavored by his (occasional) annoyance, which is rare, he's still human, and they will be.</p>\n\n<p>Any other answer will be defective, not knowing how much will annoy him. Many don't mind, or even enjoy, responding to one email per day, and some will find that obnoxious. You might even try asking him something like \"if I have questions between our meetings, and want to email you, is that OK?\" You can probably judge from his response a good starting point.</p>\n\n<p>Also, realize that <strong>NOT ALL EMAILS ARE THE SAME</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>A 2-sentence email that is clear, concise, to the point, and asks a single question with a definite answer that he already knows and can give you a 2-word answer \"counts\" much less than a long, rambling mini-essay that asks him to analyze, or worse, research something and give a multi-part reply. </p>\n\n<p>Personally, I try to make sure each email asks a single question, and can be read and answered in 2 minutes or less (preferably 30 seconds). I also find I get a lot more (and more useful) answers to such emails than when I let them get longer. Also, I find that as long as I keep to that format, even 2 or 3 emails in a day is not too many for most people. OTOH, even one rambling email per week is too many for most.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9318",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/477/"
]
|
9,322 | <p>What is the usual expectation of a student by an alma mater? Usually students quit after becoming a part of the alumni association. The contacts are by and large severed a few months after leaving a school. </p>
<p>What are some ways in which one can give something back to alma mater? Is monetary support the best way? One can also be a point of contact to current students. Are there other ways of giving back to our teachers and institutions?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9323,
"author": "bobobobo",
"author_id": 2745,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2745",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Why are you concerned about <em>expectations</em>? After you get your parchment, your school no longer has anything to give to you.</p>\n\n<p>What you give is purely <em>from your own generosity</em> -- because <em>you</em> feel by giving back to the school, others will benefit. You give because you feel it is the right thing to do. You give because you want the school to purchase that lab upgrade. You give because you want to fund this research because you think it's important.</p>\n\n<p>\"Expectations\" from an alma mater are not only irrelevant, but it is wrong to think that you <em>owe</em> them something. You paid tuition, they gave you your parchment. That deal is orthogonal to \"donations\" and post-grad support of alma mater.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9324,
"author": "TCSGrad",
"author_id": 79,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Aside from the more obvious choice of making donations of money (for which there is practically no upper bound, and the entire expenditure may not be as transparent as you'd like it to be), there can be an equally valuable way of helping your alma mater: <strong>Your time</strong>. </p>\n\n<p>It may be as simple as giving a graduation speech (for the more famous/successful alums who have good oratory skills), or as sustained as acting as mentors for a group of freshmen who'd share your career interests. With regard to the latter, you can make a visible, personal impact in multiple careers, which might be more satisfying and help create a stronger alumni network in the long run.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9333,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The customs about alumni associations <strong>depend very strongly on the country</strong>: alumni donations in US institutions (for example) contributes in part to their funding, while in France it ranges from nonexistant (for small institutions) to negligible.</p>\n\n<p>However, one role of alumni associations which has not been detailed in the other answers is the role it can play in <strong>network building</strong>. By participating in the alumni association, you may get good networking opportunities, and also help the younger/less connected members of the association. I'll also point out that <strong>participation does not need to take the form of checks or wire transfer</strong>: you can play an active role in other important ways, such as organizing and hosting events, helping maintain a newsletter or website, act as a representative in your field/industry/community, etc.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 59376,
"author": "Nav",
"author_id": 28042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28042",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some ways in which our Alumni association \"gives back\". </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Donating money to create and sustain a fund for kids who join our school but don't have the finances to pay the fees easily. </li>\n<li>Many alumni paid to get our school a new school bus. </li>\n<li>We set up a fund to give the teachers health insurance (which the school earlier didn't provide) </li>\n<li>Long service awards to teachers. </li>\n<li>Rolling trophies for exceptional students. </li>\n<li>Creating an association to mentor students when they have queries about the future career path they could choose. </li>\n<li>Spreading word via social networking websites and helping out if any teacher/student needs urgent help of any kind. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Other activities:<br>\n* Road-races, basketball tournaments and other sports to remain in touch with each other and with the existing school students.<br>\n* Organizing for reunions both in our country and abroad, for alumni who ended up abroad. </p>\n\n<p>Update: In general, there are no expectations. But if you do want to help the school for having given you knowledge, then it's necessary to stay in touch to know what problems they face and how you and the alumni can help solve it. If staying in touch is difficult, a regular monetary donation always helps.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9322",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6770/"
]
|
9,325 | <p>While technical papers are generally considered to be "non-archival" and journal papers "archival", I couldn't find a clear statement about papers that appear in conference proceedings. Does it matter in which for the proceedings are published, e.g. only online, on CD/USB drive, or printed with/without ISBN?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9328,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Unfortunately, the reason you can't find a clear statement on this issue is because there isn't one. The answer depends heavily on the field and the particular conference, and there isn't necessarily an absolute answer even in a specific case. It may depend on why you care:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>You may care yourself, because you want your paper to be carefully archived and made available in perpetuity. In that case, it depends on whether a long-lasting, trustworthy organization has committed to providing access forever (and whether they have archiving contingency plans in case they go out of business).</p></li>\n<li><p>You may need to make this distinction to assist in evaluating your CV. In that case, the evaluators probably care primarily whether the papers are carefully refereed and in their final form, but the only way to know for sure is to ask them what their criteria are.</p></li>\n<li><p>You may be wondering whether you can publish an updated version of your conference paper in a journal. This depends on the customs in your field, and it requires agreement from both the conference and the journal. The publishing agreement for the conference should specify what sorts of further publication are allowable (if it does not, then you should be sure to ask, since saying nothing suggests they do not expect any further publication at all), and the submission instructions for the journal may also address this issue. If your submission is a revision of a conference paper, you should always specify this fact clearly and give a precise reference somewhere on the first page and in the cover letter, to make sure nobody could accuse you of hiding the previous publication.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The answers to these questions can vary. For example, major theoretical CS conferences are archival in sense 1 (permanent archiving and availability) but not 2 or 3 (papers are not necessarily intended to be in their final form and definitive versions may be published elsewhere).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9342,
"author": "walkmanyi",
"author_id": 1265,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The editor of <a href=\"http://www.computer.org/portal/web/tse/about\" rel=\"nofollow\">IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING</a> asked the same question in editorial to <a href=\"http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=05739157\" rel=\"nofollow\">VOL. 37, NO. 2, MARCH/APRIL 2011</a>. He did not provide an answer, but it might be interesting to consult your university library and check the issues right after this one, I am sure there was a discussion in the journal. The archive does not seem to hold other than regular paper contributions.</p>\n\n<p>My personal take on this (informed by the research field culture and research community I live in) is that <strong>a publication is archival whenever it comes with an assigned <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Book_Number\" rel=\"nofollow\">ISBN</a>/<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Standard_Serial_Number\" rel=\"nofollow\">ISSN</a></strong>. That makes the publication, be it a book, journal, or proceedings uniquely identifiable and thus it makes its source identifiable too. Whether that will make the publication physically, or digitally available on request is another story (publisher going bankrupt, etc.). I would consider this the minimal requirement.</p>\n\n<p>Now to your concrete question regarding archival nature of conference proceedings, note, many conference proceedings come with an ISBN, or ISSN number. Even many technical report series at some universities do. In my field (CompSci/AI et al.) all the relevant top-tier conference proceedings have an ISBN. The lower tier conferences and more prominent workshop series tend to publish their proceedings and post-proceedings as Springer LNCS/LNAI series and thus get an ISBN too. I personally treat all such publication as archival and of course refrain from resubmitting such results elsewhere. This is however not the case for really small workshops (usually one-of), which only print their proceedings and bind them. In all conferences/journals I care for, these are treated as mere non-archival technical reports and thus can be further disseminated, or resubmitted to a better venue, such as a good conference. <em>But again, your mileage might vary. In different fields, there are different habits regarding such results dissemination strategy.</em></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9364,
"author": "al_b",
"author_id": 5963,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5963",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One more thing to consider - are you requested to sign copyright transfer form (or sth similar, like consent to publish). If you are - then the publication is most likely archival and you can read on the copyright form if and under which conditions you can reuse the material. E.g., in the above mentioned LNCS-LNAI copyright form it is explicitly mentioned that you can re-publish it only with apprx 30% of new material (more or less standard condition in Computer Science)</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9325",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1084/"
]
|
9,331 | <p>I finally realized that there is a term for the situation I am in,"<strong>burned out</strong>". <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7668/what-can-i-do-to-recover-from-a-short-term-burnout/7692#7692">What can I do to recover from a short term burnout?</a> </p>
<p>I am at the the last four months of my MSc program and I haven't started my thesis yet. The reason was complicated, the MSc program was quite different from the one I had in mind. So, from the start I felt I was wasting my time by continuing at the program. The only reason I didn't quit is because the scholarship is sponsored by the company I used to work. I am still their employee and I am expected to join them once I finished.</p>
<p>If I quit, I wouldn't get promotion not to mention the "he wasn't able to graduate" rumor. Besides, I am supposed to serve three years as a pay back for the scholarship they gave me.</p>
<p>Despite my adviser's genuine effort to help, I am not able to pull myself and do something. I continually failed to see my adviser despite having an appointment with him. The only thing that crossed my mind for months as a solution is SUICIDE. I am deeply stressed and have presumably stress initiated headache that lasts for weeks. </p>
<p><strong>What would you do if you were in my position?</strong></p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9334,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<ol>\n<li><strong>Talk to people.</strong> Here, elsewhere on the internet, but most importantly in real life, whether it's with people from your program (if you feel like opening to them) or at a local discussion group or whatever. Don't isolate yourself.</li>\n<li>Recognize what you are experiencing: describe its symptoms, put a name (or names) on it, identify it. Recognize that it is quite common, and that there are solutions.</li>\n<li>Make some time, even if it's not much, to do something else (vacation, volunteer work, some time with family, …) to put things in perspective. This should help you evaluate your overall goals, and decide what you are willing to do to achieve them.</li>\n<li>Talk to key people involved (advisor, your boss at the company), and let them know in a professional way that you have hit a bump in the road.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>From you post, it sounds to me that you've made a great deal of progress on that path already! You'll get through that hard time, believe us.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I'll maybe add something more personal, regarding the “if I quit, I wouldn't get promotion” part: advancement in your work is not the ultimate goal, it is only worth pursuing if it makes you (and the people around you) happier, directly or by achieving other goals. If it makes you miserable, you have to realize (and accept) that <strong>failing <em>is</em> an option</strong>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9335,
"author": "Tara B",
"author_id": 5955,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5955",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To me it sounds as if you might have depression. I'm no expert though, I just have a few friends with depression and so have read a little about it (most effectively by playing a game called Depression Quest, actually!). It might be worth seeing a doctor about it if you think that could at all be a possibility.</p>\n\n<p>I'm hesitant to give any further advice because of this. A lot of advice that ordinarily might be helpful just for burn-out might turn out to be unhelpful if you are actually depressed. (Although all the advice given by F'x looks fine as far as I can tell, except potentially you would have to be quite careful with what you chose to do for 3, as some options might make things worse.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9339,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First of all, suicidal thoughts are very serious. Many universities have counselling centres that are free for students. Walk in and tell them you've been contemplating suicide and they will get you immediate help. The <a href=\"http://suicideprevention.wikia.com/wiki/International_Suicide_Prevention_Directory\">International Suicide Prevention Wiki</a> might also help you find resources in your area. If nothing else works, go to the emergency room. Suicide qualifies as an emergency!</p>\n\n<p>Next, be honest with your adviser about what's going on. If you've been avoiding meetings, it's possible that he thinks the worst: you aren't interested in the work, or you're lazy, or whatever. If you tell him that you're depressed and struggling, he will be much more sympathetic and will try to help. (You mentioned that he's already trying to help, but if he doesn't know the real problem, his help might have been ineffectual.) If you don't think you can say it in person, send an email.</p>\n\n<p>Third: curing burnout. One common suggestion is to take a vacation, but I don't recommend this. If you're already stressed out about the work you aren't doing, sitting on the beach thinking about it will probably make it worse. I would instead suggest diving into something totally new, and preferably not related to your thesis at all. Learn how to make a perfect omelette, or read a photography book and go out and practice (even if your only camera is your cell phone), or learn how to change the oil in your car. The specific thing you learn doesn't matter that much as long as it's new to you. Universities often have clubs for people interested in rock climbing, chess, learning languages, you name it, so you might see what your university offers. This can also help you make friends -- isolation is a big problem for grad students and can contribute to stress and depression. Do your new activity for a week or two and you'll probably find yourself getting interested in your thesis problem again.</p>\n\n<p>Try to exercise and eat reasonably well. When you're depressed, exercise is the last thing on your mind, but even a walk around the block can be helpful. Eating nothing but ramen is depressing in itself, so although you might not have a lot of spending money (I don't know exactly what your scholarship is paying for), buy ingredients for some healthy meals if you can. Fruit, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, etc. If you don't know how to cook, make that your project.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, to echo F'x, remember that the worst case scenario is manageable. If you are truly miserable, dropping out <em>is</em> an option. The completion rate for most grad programs is low, often in the neighbourhood of 50%, so many other smart, hardworking people decided it wasn't for them. There's no shame in that.</p>\n\n<p>I hope some of this advice helps you. Good luck. You aren't alone!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9340,
"author": "Legendre",
"author_id": 1190,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1190",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I continually failed to see my adviser despite having an appointment\n with him. The only thing that crossed my mind for months as a solution\n is SUICIDE. I am deeply stressed and have presumably stress initiated\n headache that lasts for weeks.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Based on this, I would strongly recommend seeing your university's psychologist or counselor immediately.</p>\n\n<p>Do not rely on advise over the internet. Probably, no one here is qualified to help you. Even if there is a qualified mental health professional here, he/she will not be able to assist you without talking to you in person.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9350,
"author": "luispedro",
"author_id": 166,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/166",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While others have commented on the number one concern you should have right now (get professional help, be it in the counseling centre at school, a clinical psychologist, or whomever), I will make one comment with respect to the academics:</p>\n\n<p>You probably have more time to finish than the \"four months\" you mention. Even if you miss that deadline, you will probably be allowed to turn in your thesis later (especially because this is a health related delay).</p>\n\n<p>Talk to your advisor. He will probably appreciate you coming clean with him. Many students finish later. It's not a race.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/13 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9331",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6310/"
]
|
9,332 | <p>I am a software engineer with 2 years of experience. I am very passionate about software and technology. I code the whole day, creating applications that my friends and I can use. </p>
<p>Now I have left my job because I was not finding it challenging enough (intellectually) and wanted to do something of my own. I feel that I need to study and gain more knowledge in a more systematic way. Thus only option which I feel has the maximum return to investment ratio for me are the MS programs in USA.</p>
<p>So this year I am taking the GRE General Test in May (2013). The problem is that I am not good at words plus I am not very passionate about learning them also. I also feel that they should not really matter considering I want to do research work in the field of Computers.</p>
<p>My question is -
Can I still get into a university?
If yes then what should be the right approach?
I am really scared about what I should be doing right now as the dates for my exams are getting closer. Please Help.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong>
I saw this video on <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/patricia_ryan_ideas_in_all_languages_not_just_english.html" rel="nofollow">TED</a> trying to explain why being good in english is not required (Im being even more liberal by saying what is the point of learning so many words?)</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9336,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are a number of different exams that comprise the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE). There is also the <a href=\"http://www.ets.org/toefl\" rel=\"nofollow\">TOEFL</a> exam, which may be required if English is not your first language.</p>\n\n<p>Each university has its own set of requirements, and you will have to look on the websites for individual programs to find out this information. Here are the exams you may have to take:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>The <a href=\"https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/about?WT.ac=grehome_about_b_121009\" rel=\"nofollow\">GRE General Test</a>, comprised of three sections:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Verbal Reasoning (i.e., English reading and analysis skills)</p></li>\n<li><p>Quantitative Reasoning (i.e., math skills)</p></li>\n<li><p>Analytical Writing (i.e., English writing skills)</p></li>\n</ol></li>\n<li><p>The <a href=\"https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/about?WT.ac=grehome_gresubject_121017\" rel=\"nofollow\">GRE Subject Test</a>, which (in your case) would be the Computer Science, but it looks like <a href=\"https://www.ets.org/gre/subject/about/content/computer_science\" rel=\"nofollow\">the computer science exam is being discontinued as of this month</a>.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The bigger question is not necessarily which exams you have to take, but <strong>which exams will make a difference</strong>. In computer science, your verbal and analytic writing score will count for much less than the quantitative score (which in some case is a shame, because analytical writing skills are very important for reading and writing papers...).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What should be the right approach?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Study for the exams. There are <a href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=gre%20practice&aq=f&oq=gre%20practice&aqs=chrome.0.57j61j60l3j0.2196&sugexp=chrome,mod=17&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8\" rel=\"nofollow\">many online study guides and practice exams</a>, and <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=gre%20prep\" rel=\"nofollow\">books to purchase</a>.</p></li>\n<li><p>Take it as many times as you can before applications are due. This can get expensive.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The problem is that I am not good at words</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You'll need to work on that, and it is very possible to improve your skills and ability with hard work.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>...plus I am not very passionate about learning them also.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You'll have to change this attitude if you want to be successful.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I also feel that they should not really matter considering I want to do research work in the field of Computers.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>As I said above, the quantitative exam will matter the most (and the CS exam will matter more if you take it). The verbal and writing exams will matter, but you can afford to do worse on them than on the other exams. Unfortunately, your personal feelings on the matter won't get you accepted, and you have to work within the system and do the best you can.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9359,
"author": "TCSGrad",
"author_id": 79,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>There are a couple of ways to look at this issue. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>I agree with the commentators who point out that any grad program worth its salt requires good communication skills (involving reading and expressing non-trivial ideas), but I suspect thats not what you are objecting to - its the word-list aspect of the General GRE that you find pointless. In that context:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Feel thankful that you would be taking the <em>Revised</em> General GRE, which as wikipedia <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graduate_Record_Examinations#Verbal_section\" rel=\"nofollow\">notes</a>, has a much more reduced emphasis to rote memorization of uncommon words, than the older version (which I had to take, unfortunately)! </li>\n<li>Also, I've read on blogs/heard from seniors that top CS programs don't look <em>too closely</em> at your verbal scores: a good score would not get you too far ahead, nor would an abysmal score totally gut your chances (this does not apply for quantitative scores - I'd been consistently advised by seniors that scores below 780-750, out of 800 in the old scale, would definitely get your application rejected!)</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>There are some schools in US where the applicants are encouraged, but not required to submit, General GRE scores. If you feel that other aspects of your application are strong enough, you can opt for those schools only - but IMHO, its not recommended, as almost every other applicant would submit GRE scores, and the absence of one on your profile may seem suspicious and may do more damage than a mediocre score.</p></li>\n<li><p>Also, the Verbal section and the AWA sections are radically different - whereas the former may have limited utility in a grad program, the latter is much more relevant, as it tests your ability to reason and express the same within a short time-frame. Preparing for the AWA does not involve any rote memorization, so you shouldn't be complaining about it!</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/13 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9332",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6542/"
]
|
9,337 | <p>I think about starting studies towards Master Degree in Computer Science abroad, I finished my bachelor studies few years ago, but I didn't stop studying, during these years I finished few courses of master degree in the domestic university, as result I have transcripts for all of them in English.</p>
<p>The question is what is is the common practice is there any chance that abroad university will consider credit on the courses I already finished, the point is if it's possible I want to lower the pressure to get credit on courses and mostly investing my time in research.</p>
<p>I checked this issue with few another universities in my country, all of them taking into account the credit I already have with promise to give exemption from studying theses courses if there are requirement of the master degree and to give a credit for all of them.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9338,
"author": "Ben Norris",
"author_id": 924,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/924",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The best answer to this question is Chris Gregg's comment.</p>\n\n<p><strong>You need to check with each individual school or even each individual program.</strong> </p>\n\n<p>The schools you already checked with will allow it. Chris's program allowed a maximum of two courses. My graduate program accepted transfer credits infrequently. Some programs may not accept any.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 9369,
"author": "J.R.",
"author_id": 780,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/780",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Another factor to consider is how long ago you took those other courses. Some schools are more likely to accept recently-taken courses, but might balk on courses taken, say, over a decade ago. </p>\n\n<p>Also, some schools will want to see an official course description before accepting the transfer credits (or, before letting you use those credits in place of requisite courses in their programs). </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/04/13 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9337",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/312/"
]
|
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