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11,037 | <p>I have two Bachelor degrees and an MMath, not looking for any more degrees at this time, but I might be interested in taking some Japanese and Chinese language courses.</p>
<p>I'm working as a research programmer for a university in the US (<a href="http://www.indiana.edu/~uhrs/benefits/tuition.html" rel="nofollow">IU</a>), and they offer the option of </p>
<blockquote>
<p>a subsidy toward the tuition costs, under Section 117 of the Internal Revenue Code.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What does this mean for me?</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Would such subsidy be included in my income, and would I have to cover for the taxes as if I have received all such subsidies as real money in income?</p></li>
<li><p>What happens to the in-state / out-of-state tuition differential? I've moved from a different state for this job mid-summer, and might start taking courses right away in autumn.</p></li>
</ul>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11044,
"author": "Willie Wong",
"author_id": 94,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/94",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>I am not a Lawyer or Accountant</strong>, and if you really worry, you should ask one of those or at the very least talk to human resources at your university. </p>\n\n<p>But, based on my reading of the <a href=\"http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/117\" rel=\"nofollow\">relevant law</a>, part (d) [usually referred to, I guess, as Section 117-4] specifically states that if you are an employee of a university, then tuition reduction for you to take classes <em>at said university</em> should not count toward your gross income when calculating taxes. </p>\n\n<p>The US code does not distinguish between in-state / out-of-state tuition. </p>\n\n<p><em>Caveat</em>: your local state laws may have different interpretation of \"gross income\". </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11050,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Again, <em>not a lawyer</em>, but from seminars I've taken and heard about from different people at different universities, the general rule is that things are taxable when you get a notification of a direct benefit from the university. In other words, if they send you a declaration that \"we have paid X dollars as a tuition benefit,\" that may very well be taxable income. On the other hand, if it's handled internally as a bookkeeping issue—you get charged less, and some internal \"fund\" covers the \"difference\"—then there's no actual taxable benefit to be received. </p>\n\n<p>However, it is not normally the case that tuition benefits are taxable. This is particularly important for graduate fellowships, because otherwise the fellows receiving the fellowship would be \"receiving\" tens of thousands of dollars in \"gross income\" and be responsible for taxes on that, even though they never actually get the money in the first place! </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/09 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11037",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6026/"
]
|
11,041 | <p>As a non-native speaker of english, I often struggle with always finding new, well-sounding, non-repetitive descriptions for the same thing and I also, to be honest, find it a waste of time of always having to do something different. For example:</p>
<p>Section 1 describes the X while section 2 is about the Y.
The Z is explained in section 3 and section 4 refers to A. The next section is about B...</p>
<p>Is it ok to just copy the formulation of someone else (of course my X,Y,Z,... are completely different) and always use the same thing?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11042,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is a fine line between copying and plagiarism. In general the answer would be no, copying would be plagiarism. However, with certain fomulations there may be limited ways to vary. If the text you copy has some intellectual value, the result of someones inventiveness more than just lining up words to form a sentence, then the formulation has intellectual value and should be referenced, not for th eEnglish but for its content. A trivial sentence is just language and it is not unlikely that one would formulate a sentence identically to someone else. We also learn language from looking at how others (who we believe are better than ourselves) may express themselves. This is not plagiarism.</p>\n\n<p>So for me the critical issue is if there is content other than linguistics that is being copied, if so then plagiarism is round the corner. So as a final statement, I would say: better safe than sorry; don't copy stuff, try to use the linguistic formulation but write the sentence with your word. Learn grammar and speling by checking what others do and emulate, not copy.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11045,
"author": "Jack Aidley",
"author_id": 5614,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5614",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If in doubt, just repeat yourself.</p>\n\n<p>One of the things that stands out about reading papers written by poor English speakers is the ugly contortions they go to in order to avoid repeating themselves. \"X is about Y. Z is about W. A is about B\" may be repetitive but it's perfectly understandable. I would suggest that you do this rather than attempting to copy the form of another writer, I'd also note that your assumption that you can simply lift the same form each time and have it look right may well be wrong anyway.</p>\n\n<p>I realise this doesn't answer the question you actually posed but I think it deals with the question you need answering.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11049,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Sentence patterns are <em>not</em> intellectual property; otherwise, every author who wrote \"To X or not to X\" would be plagiarizing Shakespeare. (They are \"riffing\" off of him, but <em>not</em> plagiarizing!)</p>\n\n<p>The example you are citing is perfectly innocuous, particularly since you are not doing anything more than summarizing the paper contents. The only thing that would make it wrong would be to copy those sentences directly from someone else's work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11052,
"author": "J..y B..y",
"author_id": 1318,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1318",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>No, your example is definitely not plagiarism.</p>\n\n<p>More generally, you can refer to the book \"Writing for Computer Science\" by Justin Zobel (Second edition, p.65, Section Quotations) to decide when to quote and when to merely copy: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"note that it is not essential to quote such a dull statement as\n (...); paraphrase, or even simply omitting the quote symbols, would be\n more appropriate. Omisission of quotation marks in this case is\n acceptable--that is, not plagiarism--because (this) statement is a\n natural way to express the concept.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/09 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11041",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7324/"
]
|
11,058 | <p>In the USA, if someone writes that they are "professor" with no other specification, does this mean full professor, or can it also mean associate professor? In other words, is associated professor a subset of professor, or is it a fully distinct category?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11059,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the US, Assistant and Associate Professors are also titled Prof. X when being referred to formally. This is unlike in Europe and parts of Asia, where \"Professor\" is a title that can be used only if they're a full professor. Others are simply referred to as Dr. X (or Mr. or Ms. X, if they don't hold a doctorate).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11064,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><em>I thought about making this a comment as it only refers to Australia, and your question is about the United States, but it got a bit long</em>.</p>\n\n<p>The <strong>Australian Context</strong>:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Professor is typically the top of the academic ranking hierarchy in the order: associate lecturer, lecturer, senior lecturer, associate professor, professor. Thus, professor means that someone is of the academic rank \"Professor\". </li>\n<li>Common general titles that cover all ranks include \"lecturer\", \"academic\", \"researcher\". </li>\n<li>In terms of titles, the basic rules are as follows (e.g., for Smith):\n<ul>\n<li>If of professor rank, \"Prof Smith\"</li>\n<li>If of associate professor rank, \"A/Prof Smith\"</li>\n<li>If of associate lecturer, lecturer, or senior lecturer rank and the person has a doctoral qualification, \"Dr Smith\"</li>\n<li>If of associate lecturer, lecturer, or senior lecturer rank, and the peson does not have a doctoral qualification, \"Mr Smith\" or \"Ms Smith\"</li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11065,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It should be pointed out that, at least in the US, \"associate professors\" are a partially overlapping set with the class of \"tenured professor,\" as many associate professors have tenure, but have not yet been promoted to a full professorship. So, there really is \"associate without tenure\" and \"associate with tenure.\"</p>\n\n<p>However, in the US, as user7691 points out, the correct form of address for any professor, regardless of type, is \"Professor X.\" I would even include adjunct and emeritus professors in this group. If you're looking at a faculty listing and see just \"Professor\" <em>after</em> a name (or in a separate field), however, it's likely that the individual in question holds a full professorship.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11076,
"author": "StasK",
"author_id": 739,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/739",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Short answer</strong>: if somebody from the US writes about themselves as a Professor, then it means a tenured full professor.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Longer answer</strong>: If you see the title \"Professor\" in the official university publication (e.g., department website), or in somebody's bio, self-description, or email signature, then it means a tenured full professor (the third, and the top, step in the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_rank_in_the_United_States\" rel=\"nofollow\">US academic hierarchy</a>... Instructors and lecturers can hardly be considered academics as they are treated as staff for hire and dismissal).</p>\n\n<p>If you see \"Professor\" in somebody else's email, especially students' emails, or in the university newsletter, or in some other source that was originated from a person that is not so familiar with the academic ranks, and the hoops one needs to jump through to get there, then it may mean a broader use of the term to indicate an instructor in a university. Essentially, all the adjectives (e.g., an Adjunct Assistant Professor... essentially nobody) are getting thrown out, with only the affiliation with academia remaining in this use of \"professor\" word. Such a liberty may qualify as an insult to a British/ANZ Professor where the meaning is way more specific. American academics are used to the confusions, though, and let the vague understanding of the title slip when used by un-initiated.</p>\n\n<p>I was getting emails addressed \"Professor\" when I was in grad school... I would roll my eyes -- can't the source figure out a difference between a Ph.D. student and a regular faculty? They come on very different pages on the department website... </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/09 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11058",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033/"
]
|
11,061 | <p>My university is starting a policy where graduate students need to pay for printing (10 cents per page) while It was free before. As a student coming from another university, I see it very weird policy. Actually, I am not aware of any university charges its PhD students for printing. I heard faculty members will be charged as well but at lower rate. </p>
<p>is freely printing a fundamental right for PhD students? If Yes, how to raise it? </p>
<p>is this common in other universities across the world (charging PhD students for printing)? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11062,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here in Asia my university does not support any kind of 'free printing.' If (any) student wants to print a dissertation, an assignment, etc. they usually either print at home or they go to a printing store where their work gets printed and bound properly (for a fee). </p>\n\n<p>Honestly, I'm a little surprised that some schools support students printing for free. First, it's not very eco-friendly. Second, it's wasteful. Everything should be left in its digital form. </p>\n\n<p>That said, my school does tend to print a lot and they require students to submit printed copies of their assignments. Still, we should be moving towards less printing, not more. One way to do this is to add a disincentive to printing (having people pay for it).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11063,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 6110,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6110",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I finished my Ph.D. at a large state university. We could print 250 pages a month, and after that it was five cents a page.</p>\n\n<p>I still remember being informed one month that I owed four dollars, and having to trek upstairs to find the right person to pay it to. It struck me as undignified and distasteful, and reflected a feeling among many of the grad students that the support staff were there to enforce rules, and were \"not on our side\".</p>\n\n<p>This issue becomes especially salient if students are expected to print out worksheets, solutions, and other materials for TA assignments. If I had to pay for this out of pocket, given poverty-level graduate student wages, I would be quite resentful.</p>\n\n<p>I believe that policies like this are relatively common, perhaps usually with some free monthly quota -- but I nevertheless urge you to oppose this policy at your university.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11066,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have been to graduate school (MS) in India (one of the better known schools) as well as graduate school in the US (PhD, also, one of the better known schools)</p>\n\n<p>I have never heard of printing charges. We have always had <strong>unlimited</strong> printing. And I have really tested these bounds. :) Sure, there are reminders not to print more than needed in order to save trees but there is and to my knowledge never has been any printing charges in any of the schools that I have been to.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11067,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>We had unlimited printing through our department (Computer Science). When I taught high school, we also had unlimited printing and copying but we also had a copy card that counted down the copies -- when the card reached zero, we had to get it refreshed. I assume this was to keep us apprised of just how many copies we were making, but I don't think it ever slowed anyone down.</p>\n\n<p>These days, I don't print much, but one of the best purchases I made was an inexpensive laser printer that cranked out lots and lots of pages with nary a whimper. The convenience outweighed the cost significantly. It's amazing what you can get these days, <a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/B00450DVDY\">e.g., duplex and wireless for $80</a>.</p>\n\n<p>If you can't get the policy changed, and are going to print more than a couple of hundred dollars worth of pages (2000 at $0.10/page in your case), I'd recommend a cheap laser printer (to print 2000 pages, it can cost as little as $80 for the printer, $15 for paper, and $45 for a high-yield toner refill).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11071,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am at a university in Australia, at my particular University, I am entitled to approximately 200 printouts/copies before I need to pay, but the cost is not huge (less than 10c for a black and white sheet). </p>\n\n<p>Just like what has been suggested here, this is a good way to eliminate waste. However, one could take this a bit further and suggest some limits may encourage students to be wiser in their research - only printing what is vital.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11072,
"author": "Konrad Rudolph",
"author_id": 348,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/348",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>is freely printing a fundamental right for PhD students?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>A fundamental <em>right</em>? No. But charging for printing borders on the ridiculous. – Printing is a <em>necessity</em>, not a right.</p>\n\n<p>Think of it in economic terms. A PhD is a job (there are a few peculiarities, and it’s also part of a student’s education, but nevertheless you ultimately are doing a job, which consists of doing research). If preventing you from printing makes your job harder, the institute has a financial interest in removing that obstacle.</p>\n\n<p>What company charges employees for office supplies? The concept is ludicrous. Why not charge them rent for their cubicles as well? Printing publications, drafts and reports for reading is simply a fundamental part of doing research – unless your institute sponsors ebook readers; and even then your PhD will probably involve filling out forms for HR etc.</p>\n\n<p>If your institute suspects that printing is predominantly used for non job related purposes then that may be a problem that needs addressing (and the same goes if the institute suspects that printing could be reduced without impacting performance – lots of companies have tried paper-free offices but so far I haven’t heard of any resounding success, at least not in science). But charging students for printing is still unacceptable since it obstructs them from doing their jobs.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11074,
"author": "dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten",
"author_id": 440,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/440",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Printing costs can add up to a <em>lot</em> of money in a hurry (recall that they include primer cartridge, maintenance on the machines, <em>and</em> people time to replace the cartridges and perform the maintenance). Various features such as color, duplex and transparencies cost more.</p>\n\n<p>Depending on the discipline and the work culture of your department this can take a real bite out of the budget. When that happens the cost have to be contained <em>somehow</em>.</p>\n\n<p>As other people have noted this generally involves tracking the number of print jobs and charging for some or all of them. Often students get a free allocation.</p>\n\n<p>My most recent department had IT under a separate budget, and they charged print jobs to the work unit (high-energy physics group; attosecond physics group; Physics education group; the department for TAs; etc) who then did what they saw fit to get their people to conserve on it.</p>\n\n<p>My work unit had a \"don't print if you don't need it\" culture and provided generous displays to help you get along without paper. We also tended to send <em>only the pages with figures</em> to the color print if we were printing journal articles (color cost ten times as much a B&W).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11211,
"author": "Joe",
"author_id": 7779,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7779",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In our department (in the USA) you have 50 free pages per semester, 5 cents per page after. I used to think this is ridiculous so I asked about it. Our department used to have problems with students (undergrad or grad) abusing free printing in order to print out entire books, etc. Indeed, I am aware of students who do this at other universities.</p>\n\n<p>Once a grad student joins a research group in our department, however, the research group usually has its own dedicated printer for its grad students to use.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, if you're a teaching assistant, you should certainly get free printing privileges for printing that is related to the job.</p>\n\n<p>I will also point out that there are often ways to get around the printing regulator, and indeed this is done often in our department -- so in the end mostly the honest lose out with such a system.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/10 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11061",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532/"
]
|
11,083 | <p>Occasionally, my university gives me outside work to design courses for other teachers or graduate students. This includes course books and other complete materials so that teachers using them have little to prepare.</p>
<p>How do schools typically arrange the payments for course designs?</p>
<ul>
<li>Are course designs typically only made in a one-time payment, with intellectual property transferred to the university?</li>
<li>Is it at all typical for course designers to ask to retain intellectual property rights and to receive continued fees for each semester that a course is used?</li>
</ul>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11084,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think the main dividing line in cases as you describe would be between if you had your own company producing courses and \"licensing\" them to the university and being contracted as a consultant for doing what you are doing. In the latter case you are being paid to produce something for the university and in doing so waive rights to the product. I do not want to get into the copyright regulations because you will need to find out what the university and your contract says (and that may not be very clear). If you licensed a course, things would be different since then your license would state under what conditions the product can be used and you could ask for a fee every time the course is given.</p>\n\n<p>The main unclear part of all of this is where the intellectual rights (<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property\" rel=\"nofollow\">immaterial property</a>) lie. I think you could produce a course under your current contract but retain copyright on materials in the course. Again you probably need the help of a lawyer to find out what is possible. Again you need t look at how the contract or university regulations stipulate such rights. If they do not then national or international laws apply. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11085,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Did you agree to design the courses before talking about payment? I don't know if you have any recourse at this point as there was never a contract in place. I would guess that had you inquired ahead of time, your superiors would probably have asked someone else to do it for free, as that is probably what they were expecting.</p>\n\n<p>If there is a system in place for paying you for the course design, I would assume it would be a one-time payment with no residual payments, and you should work that out before beginning design. If you can work something out where you do get royalties down the road, that also needs to be in a contract, and I would be very surprised if you were able to pull it off (but good luck!).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11148,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>As you changed the question to be more specific, I'll add a separate answer:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How do schools typically arrange the payments for course designs?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>At the universities I have been associated with, a course is designed by the professor that teaches it, or as a collaboration between multiple faculty that are teaching separate sections. Many times you will find that intro courses that are taught by multiple faculty are still independently created -- a Calculus I course can be drastically different when taught by two different professors even if they are teaching it during the same semester. I would not recommend this, but it is frequently done this way. Savvy students will try to take the section with the professor who has the best reviews. Depending on the school, this is one forcing function for better teaching, although not a particularly good one.</p>\n\n<p>To answer the question (Peter Shor's comment notwithstanding), course design is generally part of the duties associated with being a professor, and no extra payment or duty relief is garnered. I have never seen a case where payment is given for course design at the collegiate level. That is not to say that it isn't done, but I haven't seen it. I have, however, seen many cases where one professor will give all class notes, homework assignments, and tests to another professor in order to build his or her course from those materials, but this is done out of good will and not for payment.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Are course designs typically only made in a one-time payment, with intellectual property transferred to the university?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I have never heard of a royalty agreement for course design, and I would be very surprised if you could get such a deal. Universities do work out deals with textbook publishers for reduced rates on course materials if the book will be required for a class, but that is different from asking a particular professor/instructor to design a course.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it at all typical for course designers to ask to retain intellectual property rights and to receive continued fees for each semester that a course is used?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No. The bottom line is that courses are (read: should be) mutable entities that change with the times, and with the person teaching them. This is not to say that there shouldn't be a standard for a course, but I find it hard to believe that a college or university department would hand an instructor a set of materials and dictate that the course must be taught exactly in accordance with the set of lesson plans, with the same materials. I am all for providing helpful materials for instructors (as well as standards), but dictating them removes the creativity from the act of teaching, and limits the ability to prepare new material for the class.</p>\n\n<p>To get off my soapbox: if you can design a course that your department will buy lock, stock, and barrel, and then you can convince them to pay you each time the course is used, go for it. You'll have to convince them that the course will indeed be viable next year and the year after, etc., but they may be willing to buy your argument. My suggestion is to work out the best deal you can for a one time payment, and move on.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/11 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11083",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/600/"
]
|
11,091 | <p>So the title question is not real clear so let me try to elaborate. I am currently 30 and a senior in college. I will be graduating this spring with a BS in Computer Engineering. The way my school is set up the Comp-Sci and Computer Engineering departments are together and the Electrical Engineering department is separate. I expect to graduate with over a 3.5 gpa (not wonderful) but have no research or intern/on the job experiences. I am looking at continuing on at this same institution with their phd program. My gre scores verbal 165, Quantitative 158. Their cut off is 146 verbal and 156 quantitative. I still need to talk with them and see how they utilize the gre scores and see if I need to retake the gre and up my quantitative score. </p>
<p>So from that mediocre beginnings I come to the grand finale. When talking with professors and otherwise looking/learning in my field. How do you find those areas that are new and pushing into the frontier. When I write a letter of intent and they want me to tell them what I want to be doing. Where do I go read up on the new stuff for my major. What are some all around objectives and methods that people use and then specific to computer engineering what are people reading or procuring their resources from.</p>
<p>What other things could I do in this last year that may help my chances of being picked?</p>
<p>As an additional question, Letters of recommendation would be coming from professors from within the department that will be doing the selection. Some of these Professors would be the ones heading my thesis committee(i think that's right). Does anyone have any experience they can relate where they went to grad school at the same institution that they go their BS degree from. I will have one outside reference as a peer mentor for our freshman engineering program but otherwise most of the professors have seen me go over the top in my work for their classes. </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11092,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
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"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are a number of other things that could be included in an application, assuming of course you have done these:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Any and all publications, conference proceedings and seminars.</li>\n<li>Any tutoring you may have performed.</li>\n<li>Any other activities that demonstrate your work ethic and capacity to learn.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>This is not an exhaustive list, but may be a start. Having said all this, my undergraduate grades were ordinary and I had no problem getting into postgraduate courses.</p>\n\n<p>One thing that you need to do is speak with the admissions, professors etc of the institution you are intending to study postgraduate studies with.</p>\n\n<p>I hope this helps.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11093,
"author": "D.W.",
"author_id": 705,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/705",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><em>Why do you think you should be admitted?</em></p>\n\n<p>The admissions committee will ask themselves: if this applicant has mediocre qualifications, why should we admit them? Why should we believe they will be successful? So, you should be asking yourself that question, and thinking about what your answer would be.</p>\n\n<p>If you have a good answer to that question, that might tell you how to make yourself stand out: emphasize the parts that make you think you are well-qualified to succeed. Your application is a chance to tell your story and answer that question for the admissions committee.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11099,
"author": "BSteinhurst",
"author_id": 7561,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7561",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>About your last question about moving from the undergraduate to the graduate programs at the same university. I have known well three people who did this. The first two, in a math program, had had mediocre grades/test scores but had very strong relationships with faculty members and were admitted to the graduate programs because the admissions committee knew the students beyond their grades/test scores. The third was in an engineering program and he was accepted at multiple graduate programs and chose for personal and some academic reasons to stay put. </p>\n\n<p>Long story short, if the committee knows you personally and not just as an application folder that can make a huge difference in your chances. So take advantage of the fact that you know the faculty who are making this decision and talk to them. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 28566,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A 3.5 GPA is a good, but from your post, it sounds like you may need to focus on your letters of recommendation.</p>\n\n<p>I would focus on my letters of recommendation. Three good letters of recommendation will likely remedy a good (but not steller) GPA, and average GRE scores. Especially if you are applying to the university you are currently attending, I'd focus on forging relationships with profs that you like, and getting as involved as possible in your department.</p>\n\n<p>If you already are involved, kudos. Go to the profs that are your faculty contacts for the clubs/organizations you are involved in, and get 3 great letters of recommendation.</p>\n\n<p>If you are in the US, you should also consider applying for a masters degree if you feel your application will not be strong enough. This will give you extra years to build your PhD application, and will set the bar a little lower for acceptance.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/11 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11091",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7705/"
]
|
11,094 | <p>I am interested in a new fast moving field in which none of the professors at my university have an interest. I have even started to work on some areas that show promise in the current scenario.</p>
<p>As I am working independently, and this will be my first paper, do I have a reasonable chance of getting it published (assuming it turns out well)?</p>
<p>What mistakes should I absolutely avoid while working on this paper? (to maximize chances of publishing later on)</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11095,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your question contains three questions. Is it possible? yes. Do you have a reasonable chance? Probably less than any other researcher because you lack the training but not zero. What mistakes to avoid? Well, that is what research education partly is about.</p>\n\n<p>Writing a paper involves many aspects, providing the proper background, explaining the research, putting the research in perspective and reaching proper conclusions. There are many mistakes that can be made: you do not show you know the field, you do not describe the methods/theory/experiments well enough, your discussion does not hold and your conclusions are not well founded. All of this can come from poor understanding or from not writing well. So as long as you can tick the boxes from the subject specific to the methodological including writing skills then you would stand as reasonable a chance as any. In the end there is likely only one way to find out, try.</p>\n\n<p>You state that you work independently and that is all fine. But, in science we all benefit from having others read and comment on our work to improve it so your chances of success can increase dramatically if your writing can be read and commented on by peers (with at least a PhD would be recommended) to weed out problems and any lack of clarity.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11096,
"author": "posdef",
"author_id": 5674,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A small addition to Peter Jansson's great answer; your chances of publishing your work independently will most likely depend on your field and how you want to publish your results. </p>\n\n<p>I work in biomedical research and the only \"independent\" articles I have seen so far are written by senior academics that either portray their \"expert opinion\" on something, or a literature review of a particular subject. Yet again, they are not independent there either (at least in some meaning of the word), but rather utilize the resources of their affiliations and many years experience in the field.</p>\n\n<p>If you are into some sort of CS research, I suspect there will be more options in terms of publishing your results, and there you might have a better chance in getting published.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 191061,
"author": "Lodinn",
"author_id": 145124,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/145124",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Practically speaking, you may be sufficiently well equipped for performing the research and writing it up. But, as others have mentioned, you almost certainly lack experience and understanding of the field to explain <em>why</em> you did it and what impact your work has.</p>\n<p>And most experienced researchers are able to spot some common issues in the presentation, even in topics they do not know much about.</p>\n<p>Corollaries:</p>\n<ol>\n<li>You can publish, and I would absolutely encourage you to try. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.</li>\n<li>It is a lot easier for a student to publish a research paper solo rather than to publish a literature review, although the latter is also commonly done - as a part of a thesis project and under supervision.</li>\n<li>One potential issue might be presentation. You should enlist some help to review the article before sending it to a journal.</li>\n<li>Another could be a flawed experimental design (if it is experimental research we are concerned with). This is what training is for, and it is hard: very few can get it right, much less first try. Do not let that discourage you, however: this is where practice and feedback are especially helpful. More on that point later.</li>\n<li>Yet another issue does not have to do with research but with the submission process. From personal experience and communications, it could be an unexpectedly enormous roadblock. Suppose you read enough literature, and you also got an interesting result and wrote a paper about it, and this paper looks no worse than what you see out there... Now what? Teaching you the process of picking a journal, submitting a publication, and interacting with its editorial office and reviewers is yet another role typically assumed by an advisor. You may or may not find this problematic, but if you end up struggling, again, enlist help.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>Now, to expand on the experiment design... One piece of advice I could give you is this: before doing anything, pretend for a moment your experiments showed very favorable results, the best you could plausibly imagine. Try to describe them; do they make for a convincing case? If not, this is a bad, bad design; figure out what is missing. Do not underestimate this pitfall, it is far more common than you think.</p>\n<p>Then, consider what happens if the results were very weak, sitting firmly at the previously established baseline. No improvement at all. Could you extract any knowledge from that? If not, this is still fine, but consideration should be given, especially as the experiments get more and more laborious.</p>\n<p>Good luck!</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11094",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4227/"
]
|
11,097 | <p>What are the ethics of publishing (on the web, etc.) peer reviews received for a paper? Does your answer change if the paper was accepted or rejected?</p>
<p>I am specifically interested in the "one-shot" case typical of computing science conferences, without rebuttals, where there is no or limited dialogue between an author and the reviewers.</p>
<p>This is quite distinct from <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/647/can-i-publish-the-reviews-i-write">Can I publish the reviews I write?</a> as here I am talking about reviews I have received, not those I have written - the reviews' authors retain their anonymity, and presumably the paper would be included alongside those reviews.</p>
<p>Vijay's response below includes a summary of much of the other responses and my comments on those.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11098,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
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"text": "<p>In the journals where I have been invloved as editor, author or reviewer (except in ones where the review process is open on the web), the implicit understanding has been that the communication is closed between the author-editor-reviewer. I have not seen any explicit rules stated by these journals to control against any such public dissemination but I have not looked for it either. I think that, particularly in cases where it is not explicitly stated that reviews are public, posting reviews without consent from the reviewer would be similar to publisihing someone private letters wihout consent. It is not illegal but ethically very distasteful. I do not think it matters whether or not the review was anonymous. Whether the paper was accepted or not would not matter either. I would consider posting without consent just as bad under all circumstances.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11102,
"author": "just thinking",
"author_id": 7719,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7719",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This might be related to your question: <a href=\"http://www.peerageofscience.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.peerageofscience.org/</a></p>\n\n<p>The concept is that 1) you peer-review your paper <em>before</em> submitting it to a journal, 2) peer-reviews are peer-reviewed, 3) participating journals send you publication offers if they like your paper, 4) you may submit your peer-reviewed paper to any journal you like</p>\n\n<p>I'm not sure are the reviews public themselves, I did not use the site yet, but at least there are peer-review scores appearing on the main page</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11104,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As argued in the answer by Peter Jansson, it is ethically not acceptable to publish peer reviews that you receive for your paper, and I agree with that.</p>\n\n<p>But there is also a legal aspect to it. The review is an intellectual work and as such will typically be subject to copyright. And that holds even if you don't know the author. So publishing a review will be a copyright violation, unless you get permission from the person who wrote the review.</p>\n\n<p>If you want to highlight bad review practices, instead of just <em>publishing</em> the review consider <em>citing</em> from it. The actual difference may be marginal, but from both a legal and an ethical perspective, you should fare much better with this approach.</p>\n\n<p>And my answer doesn't change depending on whether the paper is accepted or not.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11124,
"author": "Rex Kerr",
"author_id": 669,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/669",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The ethics are the same as publishing any other communication that is assumed to be in confidence: if the content contains critical information about an illegal activity, you may (depending on the nature/severity) be morally obligated to turn it over as evidence to an appropriate party; if it is otherwise urgent or critical for others to be aware, you may be morally encouraged to find a venue to publicize it (as \"whistleblower\"), and in pretty much all other cases, you should keep in private.</p>\n\n<p>You can complain to editors and others responsible for the conference or journal; you can commiserate with colleagues and try to find out whether this is systematic or not. But trying to shame reviewers in public is very unlikely to accomplish any valuable goal. (It may provide a satisfying revenge at the cost of other of your goals; I encourage you to think very carefully before deciding that this is worth it.)</p>\n\n<p>There are all sorts of reasons you might have a bad review (covered in other answers); assuming one that makes you the most angry and/or feel most self-justified is a very natural reaction, but probably isn't the best way to a productive conclusion.</p>\n\n<p>Instead, when you find things like this, you are probably much better off applying to other conferences, publishing in other journals, and maybe quoting (anonymously) the worst parts of the review in a blog or somesuch explaining why you're no longer going to whichever conference or considering publishing in whatever journal. There are options in some fields for publishing with open reviews (the Frontiers life science journals, for instance).</p>\n\n<p>Publishing the full review and naming names is a good way to make people angry, make other reviewers not want to review your work, and to not get anything to change. Adding your voice (and papers!) to existing movements that seek to improve the peer-review process is much more productive, even if it's not as viscerally satisfying.</p>\n\n<p>To be completely clear about the ethical implications: you are breaching the trust of the editor(s)/organizer(s)/reviewer(s) that reviews are confidential information. Breaching trust makes people less likely to trust you in the future, and is (in most ethical frameworks, including intuitive ones) unethical unless perhaps there is a very compelling case why this must be done. In your situation you have not articulated such a compelling case, especially given that are a variety of other avenues to take if you're actually concerned with the quality of the reviews. If you are working in academia, presumably you know how to quote tiny sections of a full work to make your point--that's much more acceptable.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11127,
"author": "Vedran Šego",
"author_id": 7161,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7161",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If the question is \"Should the author publish the reviews he got for his paper(s)?\", then I'd say no (<strong>maybe</strong> with some exceptions, but this would have require a per-case discussion). I believe the other answers have more or less covered that.</p>\n\n<p>But, if the question is \"Should the journals publish the reviews?\", then I believe it would be both ethical and useful to publish the final positive reviews, and I have several reasons for this.</p>\n\n<p>First, giving a positive review is like giving a positive grade on an exam. The person doing so should stay behind his \"verdict\" with his professional reputation. The review is one of the results of the work that the researchers do, so publishing positive reviews doesn't seem to me much different from publishing the results of the research in papers.</p>\n\n<p>Second, and quite related to the first, I've read some really crappy papers, with nonsense, obvious errors, misquotes, etc. Reviewer cannot \"catch\" everything, but some of the papers get bad enough that it is obvious that the reviewer didn't do his job. If the reviewers knew their names would forever be publicly associated with such paper, I believe some of these might actually try to do their job.</p>\n\n<p>As for the negative reviews, I see no point in \"shaming\" the author if his paper was too bad (in whatever way) to be published. If this was not the case, but the reviewer is to be \"blamed\" (i.e., for misunderstanding the paper), the issue can be resolved with the editor, or the paper can be submitted elsewhere, again giving no reason to make the negative review public.</p>\n\n<p>One might argue that the negative review is also like <em>publishing the results of the research in papers</em>, but I see it more like a failed research, which is not something that one usually publishes.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11171,
"author": "Vijay D",
"author_id": 6807,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6807",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Let me add some data points to this discussion. Some items below are about discussing reviews and editors in a public forum and not about publishing reviews. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://people.inf.ethz.ch/jteubner/index.html\">Jens Teubner</a> makes available the reviews to his papers <a href=\"http://people.inf.ethz.ch/jteubner/publications.html\">online</a>. I do not know him but I have heard from someone who does that he said he has not received negative feedback about doing this. Maybe you can ask him for more information.</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/\">Doron Zeilberger</a> has published reviews in <a href=\"http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/Opinion87.html\">Opinion 87</a> and for his paper <a href=\"http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/RefTipesh.html\">Automatic CounTiling</a>.</li>\n<li>Doron Zeilberger's <a href=\"http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/Opinion61.html\">Opinion 61</a> is about rejections and accountability (it has a response from <a href=\"http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/fb61.html\">Luca Trevisan</a>) and his <a href=\"http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/Opinion81.html\">Opinion 81</a> is about rejection and snobbery. </li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/fb77.html\">Peter Clark's mail to Doron Zeilberger</a> about some material Zeilberger published online. This is only tangential to your question, but I think it's good to keep in mind that when you go down the road of open publication, you should be ready for others publishing material about you or your reviews. </li>\n<li><a href=\"http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/pubs.html\">The Writings of Leslie Lamport</a> chronicles in very direct terms the stories behind his papers including some notes about editors and reviewers (for example papers <a href=\"http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/pubs.html#clocks\">62</a>, <a href=\"http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/pubs.html#lamport-paxos\">122</a>,<a href=\"http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/pubs.html#lamport-types\">129</a>, ). </li>\n<li>In The Writings of Leslie Lamport <a href=\"http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/pubs.html#lamport-fairness\">Paper 132</a> he talks about having written an '<em>unkind review</em>'.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I have been meaning to publish my reviews for multiple reasons and I am glad to see that other people have been thinking the same and some have done it. I do not think the result or answer should depend on whether the paper is accepted or rejected. If reviews are published, I believe that one should also publish the version of the article that was used to make the reviews. Otherwise, the reviews are like quotations taken out of context. If there are coauthors, one should obtain their permission first, or at least include a disclaimer that you are publishing your reviews on your behalf only. As an example of a disclaimer, see <a href=\"http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/pubs.html\">Lamport's page</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Some of the stories read like complaints of unfair treatment by editors or referees. Such cases are bound to arise in any activity based on human judgment. On the whole, I have had little trouble getting my papers published. In fact, I have profited from the natural tendency of editors and referees to be less critical of the work of established scientists. But I think it's worth mentioning the cases where the system didn't work as it should. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The notification of acceptance is usually signed by the editor of the venue, even in the case of anonymous review, so one should ideally obtain their permission if you will reveal who the editor is. The same applies for reviewer permission in signed reviews. I cannot tell whether people in the links I give above obtained editor permission first so there may be precedent for not doing so. Publishing reviews intended for private circulation still takes them out of context. I would add a disclaimer that the reviews and notification letter were written as private communication and if published without permission of named entities, I would note that too. The latter is in case your intention is to protest the status quo by subverting standard conventions.</p>\n\n<p>I haven't answered your question because I don't have a clear answer. Publishing reviews is not conventional academic behaviour. Doing so can be construed as unprofessional depending on how you publish them and what additional commentary you add. Calling it \"unethical\" seems a rather heavy handed judgement to make. There are things an anonymous reviewer can do that are clearly unethical (steal research, suppress publication, circulate the manuscript) or questionable depending on context (force citations, comparisons, reject without reading, write ad hominem reviews etc.). There is very little an author can do to wrong a reviewer that is remotely comparable and publishing a review does not seem remotely on that scale to me. </p>\n\n<p>There are multiple reasons to publish reviews including accountability for all parties involved (including authors) and as a form of protest. I believe this intent is important to consider because forms of protest do subvert what may be considered acceptable behaviour. A useful thought exercise might be to put yourself in the reviewer seat and ask if you would be fine with similar treatment. I would not have an issue if the reviews I have written were made public (even if I knew that <a href=\"http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~dawnsong/papers/2012%20On%20the%20Feasibility%20of%20Internet-Scale%20Author%20Identification.pdf\">stylometric techniques</a> could be used to identify me). I do not think all reviewers feel that way.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, let me point again to <a href=\"http://people.inf.ethz.ch/jteubner/publications.html\">Jens Teubner's page</a>, which comes across to me as a model of how to publish reviews while retaining professionalism and dignity.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11278,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As said before, publishing reviews breaks convention but this, in itself, does not make it unethical. Publishing anonymous reviews does not really affect reviewers—reviewers could do much worse to authors than what authors could do to reviewers. (See Vijay's answer for examples.)</p>\n\n<p>In my opinion, the confidentiality of reviews is to protect the author: the fact that a paper got submitted remains confidential prior to publication. Thus, authors may considerably rework their paper after receiving peer reviews, resubmit to another conference or even completely abandon it.</p>\n\n<p>Reviewers are protected by their anonymity -- such that a young researcher can openly state his opinion about the paper of a renowned academic without fearing bad consequences. I'd assume even stylometric analysis cannot reveal a reviewer's identity without doubt.</p>\n\n<p>Despite all that, publishing reviews might still be regarded as unprofessional, depending on circumstances and context.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11097",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7717/"
]
|
11,100 | <p>I'm a senior college student and start to read papers for my final year project. I find phrases like " Chinn et all (1982)", "Garley et al(1978)" and "Chun and Seymour (1989)". When I type those phrase in Google Scholar, its results are not relate to graph theory at all.</p>
<p>I'd like to know how to find papers from this phrases accordingly: )</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11111,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
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"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The way that I perform searches like this in Google Scholar, is to not only type in the citation (such as your examples), but also the main topic in inverted commas.</p>\n\n<p>For example, if I take one of your examples:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"Chun and Seymour, 1989\" \"Graph theory\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>9 times out of 10, I find the article I am after (and more often than not, I find several more relevant papers).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11121,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Format <code>Chun and Seymour (1989)</code> means that there should be a full reference in the bibliography (at the and of the article, chapter or book; or sometimes in the footnote).</p>\n\n<p>In case if it is missing, you can use <a href=\"http://scholar.google.com/\">Google Scholar</a> with</p>\n\n<pre><code>author:Chun author:Seymour\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>then in the options set date range to <code>1988 -- 1990</code>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48352,
"author": "Flounderer",
"author_id": 5842,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5842",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't understand why people recommend searching Google Scholar or Mathscinet. Just try typing </p>\n\n<pre><code>Chun and Seymour (1989) \n</code></pre>\n\n<p>in Google. There are no obvious hits. But since it is supposed to be about graph theory, try typing this into Google:</p>\n\n<pre><code>Chun and Seymour (1989) graph theory\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>and the fourth hit is</p>\n\n<pre><code>Handbook of Graph Theory, Second Edition\nhttps://books.google.co.nz/books?isbn=1439880182\nJonathan L. Gross, Jay Yellen, Ping Zhang - 2013 - Mathematics\n[ChSe89] F. R. K. Chung and P. D. Seymour, Graphs with small bandwidth and cutwidth, Discrete Mathematics 75 (1989), 113G119. ... Chung and W. T Trotter, Jr., Triangle—free graphs with restricted bandwidth, Progress in Graph Theory, ...\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>so it looks like you should look for this:</p>\n\n<pre><code>F. R. K. Chung and P. D. Seymour, Graphs with small bandwidth and cutwidth, Discrete Mathematics 75 (1989)\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>googling which yields <a href=\"http://www.math.ucsd.edu/~fan/wp/smallband.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">this pdf</a> as the first result.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11100",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6962/"
]
|
11,103 | <p>If I have understood correctly, most people doing their PhDs do their best to avoid any teaching duties while in their programs. However, I think I might <em>want</em> to do some teaching too. Of course, I have a hidden agenda. I would hope that:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Usually, (good) skill to teach is required later on your career, when applying for tenured positions. I would receive good experience.</p></li>
<li><p>Giving lectures related to my research topic might get someone interested about it. I could delegate some minor (boring :-) part of my research topic for someone to do as his/her master thesis.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Am I hoping too much here? Any experiences?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11105,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Teaching (being a teaching assistant) happens to be a requirement of my PhD program, and there's an option to teach more than two semesters, with your PI's permission.</p>\n\n<p>If you're interested in teaching while doing your PhD, I'd recommend applying to programs where teaching is required (I did, for this reason). If this isn't common in your field, you could try applying at universities known for undergraduate teaching: they are more likely to allow you to teach as part of your PhD.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11106,
"author": "grauwulf",
"author_id": 5760,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5760",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Most doctorate programs have some amount of teaching/ta/facilitator/etc as a requirement of the program. Some people try to do more, some try to do less, but unless you're working in a research lab (with its own endowment :-) expect to do some teaching. </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Re 'good skill': if your goal is to find a tenure track position then yes this would be good experience. Assuming that you enjoy teaching, and who here doesn't <em>grin</em>, this would be a good opportunity to enhance and refine your teaching skills.</p></li>\n<li><p>Re 'lectures on research': be careful here. Odds are that any teaching roles you would be offered at this point in your academic career would be pretty low level undergraduate type stuff. Depending on your area of research you might also run into some problems 'presenting' un-vetted data. There are always exceptions to the rule but I wouldn't expect for you to be teaching anything so specific that your research would come into play. YMMV but that has been my experience (since you asked).</p></li>\n<li><p>Suggestion: Be careful with overloading your schedule. Teaching is one of those jobs that finds a way to embed itself in many aspects of your life that you didn't expect. For example: I expected to spend my middle years sitting on the porch reading books with my wife, not reading term papers. Oh well. While it is good to gain experience you don't want to spread yourself too thin and suffer an impact to your research (remember, the reason you're here in the first place :) or your personal life.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11108,
"author": "Brian Rushton",
"author_id": 4455,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4455",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Concerning your first point, teaching is a major component of most academic jobs, and in fact is the main part unless you're a superstar, so you should at least try it to see if you like it. I thought I'd hate it until I tried it my senior year, and it was incredible and changed my life. I love to research and have published several papers, but teaching is the reason I want to be a professor. So try it out!</p>\n\n<p>On another note, your PhD institution will probably be much more gentle and helpful if you have any difficulties, while a postdoc or other 'real job' will expect you to already know what you're doing. So you should try teaching now while you have a safety net.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 87002,
"author": "einpoklum",
"author_id": 7319,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7319",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>most people doing their PhDs do their best to avoid any teaching duties while in their programs.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Some people. I'm not even sure it's \"most\". At any rate, many many people do not try to avoid teaching duties, and a sizable fraction even make it a point to do quite a lot of teaching.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Am I hoping too much here?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No, you aren't. In fact, your hopes are in line with what I would consider basic ethics and norms we should be reinforcing in Academia. I suggest that you not also hold on to these expectations, but try to imbue the rest of the system with them: Your colleagues, the teachers in charge of courses, the students, and the administrators which you're in interaction with. Thus even if that's not the reality right now, you would be helping <em>making</em> it the reality.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Any experiences?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Well, not exactly referring to your points, but I'll say I found teaching to be a very psychologically-rewarding activity, and it's what I remember perhaps the most fondly from my Ph.D. days. Now I'm post-doc'ing and don't get to teach - and man, do I miss it!</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11103",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7719/"
]
|
11,109 | <p>I'm a PhD student at a reputable institute in my country. I joined the group of a supervisor who is good at experimental and not so good in analytical front. I also have a co-supervisor who's good at analytics and numerical stuff. Neither know my research problem well.</p>
<p>Initially I had lot of difficulties in understanding the problem. I was a little slow in understanding the analytics. They told me to do lots of stuff here and there. All of them failed. Now I'm in my third year, supervisors are asking me "Are you really interested in your problem, or do you want to leave the course?". </p>
<p>Leaving course mid-way does not make sense for me. But without getting much help from supervisors and working on my own is manageable. Sometimes I get mentally disturbed by their attitude. How do I cope with these supervisors who talk so crazily and seriously at this point of time?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11115,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would suggest you to write a preliminary research findings report to both of your supervisors.</p>\n\n<p>In the report, explain what you have done in the past two years. State the facts. Don’t point the fingers. You describe what you have tried and why they failed. Don’t make it too long. Refer the details to the notes and the data stored somewhere else. The final section of the report is your plan to tackle the problem further.</p>\n\n<p>The purpose of the report is to let them be aware of the efforts you have spent. It documents the lessons learned. With the report, your supervisors and you would have more understandings about the problem you have been working on for two years. Bear this in your mind, it is likely you would know more about the problem when you write the report.</p>\n\n<p>The report will answer their questions, <em>Are you really interested in your problem?</em> Yes. <em>you wanna leave the course?</em> No. But you need their help to finish it. If they tell you they can’t help you after they read the report, then it’s time to either change the research problem or find yourself another supervisor(s).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11123,
"author": "Kathy Smith",
"author_id": 7726,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7726",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It would be interesting to know what is the subject or area of your research project. After 3 years, there has had to have been a passion to carry out the goals. Follow your dreams. You could be on to something that will help humankind so really take a bit of a breather and handle any doubts of your own. Visualize the future for a moment by seeing a DONE goal that you would enjoy with the same passion moving forward and having a team with you to help out. Sometimes debugging a project can be like watching grass grow. Find things similar to your dream and make a list of successful actions and put those back in and knock off trying to cope. A new strategy and approach to the supervisors will help rekindle their enthusiasm for you as it was in the beginning. Take the project back to where you were doing well. What happened just after... that is all that needs an adjustment.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/12 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11109",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7720/"
]
|
11,116 | <p>My situation is the following: I have a very productive but not respected advisor. By productive I mean that he has published a lot, and with not respected that his work is not cited by anyone except himself (his top paper has 20 citations, 15 from himself).</p>
<p>I will get my master's degree in 6 months, so I need to decide where to do my PhD. To be honest I don't know is my advisor doing real science. Am I judging his career too hard? At least I would not hope to be in the same situation as he is after the next ten years. Also, he demands me to do things exactly as he wants, so I have been thinking this issue a lot.</p>
<p>If you think I should not continue with him, can you tell me what kind of publication record I should demand from my advisor?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11117,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One of the issues you need to consider is how far along the advisor is in his career. If he is a relatively junior faculty member, then a lack of citations is not necessarily so serious, if they're being published in high-quality journals respected in your field. However, if he's getting a lot of publications in low-tier journals, that could be a sign of a bigger problem. If the faculty member is more experienced (and has been working a long time), this is very much a red flag. </p>\n\n<p>I might recommend that you not continue with the same advisor, but this is only partially motivated by the quality issue. Another thing to take into account is that you should be preparing yourself to have a variety of educational experiences throughout your career, and that means working with multiple people, and on more than one project. If you have only one advisor, you will have only the experiences you've gained working with that one advisor, as well as only have learned the philosophical viewpoints associated with working with the one advisor. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11118,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The first question you should answer is: what do YOU want? Then: Where are your interests within your field? Are there opportunities ot develop elsewhere? Are there any reasons not to move?</p>\n\n<p>These are of course personal question than can only be answered by you yourself. As fo rthe advisor, well 20 citations does not sound like much at all, depending of course on how senior the advisor is. I do not think that the publication record is necessarily the best criteria for selecting a graduate school, the quality (reputation) of the department and university is probably more important. It may be wise to visit and talk to other students about the conditions as well, if that is at all possible.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11119,
"author": "Nicholas",
"author_id": 1424,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1424",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are reasons for setting aside the issue of your potential PhD supervisor's publication record for the purposes of deciding whether to carry on working with him - these reasons are set out in other answers. </p>\n\n<p><strong>You also need to think about whether your - or any - potential PhD supervisor's working habits is a good fit with yours.</strong> When considering whether to continue with specifically this supervisor, you comment as follows:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Also, he demands me to do things exactly as he wants, so I have been thinking this issue a lot.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>So - is this a good thing for you, or a bad thing? Was that working relationship a positive or not? You mention that you've been thinking about this a lot, and I urge you to be clear about the answer in your own mind before you commit to a PhD program. Perhaps working like this was okay for a MSc project; I suspect that it could well be a problem during a PhD.</p>\n\n<p>What were the experiences of other PhD students in this regard? Did they all have similar feelings regarding how he manages the research of his team?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11122,
"author": "Kathy Smith",
"author_id": 7726,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7726",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>\"Also, he demands me to do things exactly as he wants, so I have been thinking this issue a lot.\" I too had an issue with authoritarian education. </p>\n\n<p>A group can own a great deal so long as the individual members of that group, here and there through the group, do not have as their sole and only goal (pronoun, capital) <em>I</em> alone must have, <em>I</em> want the power of the group, <em>I</em> want this, <em>I</em> want that. You have to feel that way, you see, if you haven't go confidence in the rest of the group. If you can't have confidence in the competence of your fellow students, then you have the necessity of taking the job on your own back.</p>\n\n<p>A teacher can provide data or facts, but one worth their weight in gold, is one that has the student learn but is respected for thinking for themselves by guiding them to apply the data.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/13 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11116",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7724/"
]
|
11,125 | <p>Okay, I'm in a nasty situation. I'm about to receive my master's degree in two months. Also, I am a third author on my advisor's paper, and the paper is completely awful and full of mistakes. Contradicting results not reported etc., it has it all. The thing is, my advisor <em>will</em> take it personally if I give comments that would put him to a bad light in front of the other co-authors. Very probably, he would let his anger to be seen in the evaluation of my master's thesis. </p>
<p>Really, I have no idea what to do. Should I be quiet, hope the paper gets rejected, and then RUN FAST, or just write a long email about every error there is? Which one is less harmful? I really don't want my name on that paper, nor a biased evaluation of my master's thesis.</p>
<p>(For background, my previous advisor left the university about 6 months ago, and then I got this new one. So, I could probably get a letter of recommendation from the previous advisor.)</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11126,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would not say that this situation is totally hopeless, here are some suggestions as to how to approach this situation (remember, these are just suggestions):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>If you are not comfortable having your name on the paper, ask for it to be removed - is it a requirement for the completion of your Masters?</p></li>\n<li><p>Perhaps ask your previous advisor to co-author a paper with him? Certainly ask for a letter of recommendation as he would have had the most contact with you.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you see errors, then it is important for them to be corrected. I understand your concern with regards when it comes time to defend the thesis - if this concern is major, then perhaps speak confidentially, to the Dean about your concerns.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11131,
"author": "J.R.",
"author_id": 780,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/780",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your name is on the paper; you should be able to take a look at the draft, and suggest improvements.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The paper is completely awful and full of mistakes. The thing is, my advisor will take it personally if I give comments that would put him to a bad light in front of the other co-authors. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Okay, there are two ways to address this. You can pubically say, \"This paper is awful and full of mistakes,\" paint your advisor in a bad light, and face his ire.</p>\n\n<p>Or, you can take each of the mistakes, and tactfully offer an improvement. That is, you could privately say, \"I think the paper might have a better chance of acceptance if we made these changes.\"</p>\n\n<p>In other words, don't edit as a critic; rather, put some work into the paper as a co-author. </p>\n\n<p>There's a fine art to editing work in a way that isn't off-putting for the primary author. People tend to get defensive when their writing is critiqued – it's a very natural reaction. However, if each of your suggested changes is offered constructively, as an improvement to an initial draft, rather than an indictment of it, you stand a better chance of incurring thanks instead of wrath.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if the paper is so bad that it's not salvagable, then I'd suggest requesting that your name simply be removed from the author list.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11170,
"author": "JoeFromOzarks",
"author_id": 7751,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7751",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You wouldn’t be asking this question if, instead of errors on a document, your dilemma involved a source of personal injury, such as a hole outside the front entrance folks could fall in and never crawl out of! (Facetious I know, please accept my apology.)</p>\n\n<p>Aren’t you asking “At what point should I point out errors?\" Below that arbitrary point I find errors acceptable, above that point, prohibited. Unfortunately, our conscience doesn’t come with a warning lamp. :)</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/13 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11125",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7728/"
]
|
11,128 | <p>I have an idea for a website, which I'm afraid may land me in trouble. I want to create a website where students from the university I attend can submit exams that they took (with scores of 90% or above), and they will be publicly posted on the site for other university students to utilize and study from. However, would this cause any violation of academic dishonesty rules? Would the professors try to hunt me down and get me suspended from the institution?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11129,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This depends greatly on your university policies. It could result in some serious formal problems for you which could haunt you for a long time.</p>\n\n<p>Regardless of the policies, I think it is simply inappropriate to do this without the teachers' permission. While I do take extra care to never re-use questions on my exams, others do not and they could easily consider the exam their intellectual property. Whether or not there is any validity to their claim is not really the issue. The fact is that some will feel this way and because of those feelings they will be very unhappy with you.</p>\n\n<p>I think a better solution would be to offer a prep site where previous questions are analyzed and then new questions are proposed which are similar but not identical - that is they would depend on the same knowledge base and thinking skills. There should be no reason a teacher would complain about this (in fact, I would think the teachers would be quite happy about this as it would help students to better prepare for the exams).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11130,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Of course, we don't know what your university's academic dishonesty rules say. But in most cases they are pretty broad, and there is probably a clause that could be interpreted to include your website, if your university's authorities decide to do so. I think the odds are good that there will be at least one professor who is upset enough to push them to do something about it. They might just try to get you to take the site down, they might try something harsher. There's no way to know.</p>\n\n<p>In general, I think most professors are aware that students may be informally sharing their exams with one another. For that reason, they usually change exams from term to term, and if they reuse questions, do so only after several years. However, some may be startled to see it done as systematically as you propose, and try to stop it.</p>\n\n<p>I am not a lawyer, nor do I know your local laws, but posting an exam on your website would probably violate the copyright of the professor who wrote it (unless you have his or her permission). This would be another avenue someone could pursue if they wanted your website gone.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, professors could try to prevent their students from posting their exams on your website. For example, they might stop letting students keep their graded exams. Or, they could add a line to their syllabus that \"you may not share your graded exams with anyone\", on penalty of failing the course or academic dishonesty sanctions. This could not only deprive your website of material, but also make it so that students can't even share their exams informally anymore, which I assume is contrary to your goals.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/14 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11128",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7730/"
]
|
11,132 | <p>I know one can get a Bachelors degree online. Can one do the same with a PhD (I refer to fields which don't need specialized equipment like Math or CS, for example). </p>
<p>At first glance, it should be easier since your doing almost independent work (you don't really need tests).</p>
<p>Are there such programs?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11133,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Most PhD programs that I am aware of have \"residency requirements\"—that is, you must be registered at the university and in general physically present in the department for some period of time. However, most PhD advisors that I am aware of in disciplines in which people can \"work remotely\" do allow their students to \"telecommute\" if necessary. For instance, if a spouse gets a job far away from campus, and daily commutes are no longer a realistic option. </p>\n\n<p>That said, the idea of a purely online PhD strikes me as highly unlikely to work out—because the nature of a PhD is fundamentally different from a bachelor's, in that it is a research degree, not a coursework degree. You are learning to become an independent researcher, and I don't think the online format translates well to that goal. There's too little direct interaction with other researchers. You'd definitely be independent, but there's no guarantee that you'd learn how to do research.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11134,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The only way I can see anything remotely like this is if you are external - similar to the way I did my Masters - I was in Tokyo, and my university near Brisbane. However, I still had to present a seminar each year on campus.</p>\n\n<p>As aeismail states, there is often a residence requirement.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11145,
"author": "Javeer Baker",
"author_id": 4475,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4475",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I did my PhD as a part-time external student from a reputable university. </p>\n\n<p>I am unsure if this is any different from an online mode because I did not have to be physically present on the campus. Additionally, I mostly communicated with my supervisor via email. </p>\n\n<p>This arrangement worked well for me because I did not want to resign from my job and also the university was at least three hours drive from my place of work. (I did go there occasionally to get a 'feel' of being a PhD student!)</p>\n\n<p>There were however some requirements like two seminars that I had to present and a few face-to-face meetings with my supervisor. They could all be negotiated, depending on my circumstances as a full-time employee (e.g. video conferencing etc). </p>\n\n<p>The drawbacks were that it took double the time to complete the PhD (which is expected for a part-time external student) and there was no network of fellow students etc.</p>\n\n<p>So, if you want to do a PhD online, chose a university which has a solid reputation as a distance education provider. The university I chose was the leader in this field.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11157,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, you can get a PhD online from a reputable university. I think that most universities would waive nearly all \"residency\" type requirements when presented with a body of completed research that well surpasses the minimum requirements for a PhD and a sum of money. I would guess that proving the Riemann hypothesis and donating a building would get you a PhD from your choice of university.</p>\n\n<p>More realistically, the question then becomes how does one complete a body of research that well surpasses the minimum requirements for a PhD in the absence of ever attending the university. This actually happens quite frequently with industry based PhDs. Similarly, it is also possible, but difficult, to complete PhD level research without any supervision.</p>\n\n<p>Finding someone at a university who is willing to mentor you online while you do your research will be much harder. While a purely online student can provide all the tangible benefits mentors receive (publications and grant applications), the best mentors enjoy mentoring and they will receive very little of the intangible benefits.</p>\n\n<p>I would consider mentoring an online PhD student. I would even consider funding such a student. That student would have to demonstrate to me that they can provide me access to research that I would otherwise be unable to do. For example, access to unique and proprietary industry data or a rare subject population. They would also have to convince me that they can do the work purely online.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11182,
"author": "marsei",
"author_id": 7767,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7767",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>YES! If you google \"phd by published work\" or \"PhD by publications\", you will find many universities offering such a way of graduating. </p>\n\n<p>Basically, you do your research with no time pressure, with or without colleagues, with or without a mentor (it is better to have a mentor though and colleagues are fun!). You publish your work in scientific journals or books. When you are ready, i.e. an amount of published work equivalent to a regular PhD student, you submit an application to your university. A committee will decide wether or not the body of researches is sufficient or not. And that's it!</p>\n\n<p>A more complete answer can be find here\n<a href=\"http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/416988.article\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/416988.article</a>\nand here\n<a href=\"http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/resources/phd.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/resources/phd.html</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 67416,
"author": "Storyteller",
"author_id": 39342,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/39342",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h2>There are many schools that offer a PhD (or other Doctorate degree) online.</h2>\n\n<p><em>please note I am speaking only of US schools.</em></p>\n\n<p>While many are considered degree mills, others rise above this and offer quality education. Still further, many traditional universities have online PhD programs.</p>\n\n<p>The question one should be asking is 'will a PhD completed online be of value, or of as much value of a traditional on campus brick and mortar PhD?'</p>\n\n<p>The answer is highly situational. First, the 'quality education' part. This is determined by accreditation. </p>\n\n<p>Degree mills (where you just pay money and get a degree) are not respectable in the slightest. They are generally not accredited or accredited by a dubious agency. It is a vanity purchase and means nothing of value to anyone of discerning character. They should be avoided at all costs.</p>\n\n<p>Second up is Nationally Accredited. These are actual accredited schools and recognized by the US Dept of Education and are held to some standards. You will have to do the work. You will buy textbooks and it will take you several years to get done. These degrees are often sought by working professionals that do not have time or the ability to go to a campus and compete a residency requirement. In many cases, they are just as rigorous (hard) as a traditional PhD, and in others, much easier.</p>\n\n<p>Third is Regionally Accredited. These are usually state schools that are offering a PhD online. Many are very good schools, others are not. It will depend on the program itself. generally, most people regard regional accreditation a bit higher than national.</p>\n\n<p>Accreditation is the first thing you should look at and find out who the accrediting agency is and if they are legitimate.</p>\n\n<p>The other part of this question is residency. Can the degree be completed 100% online. Some schools will have no residency requirement at all. Every course may be completed online and any exams may be taken at a testing center near you (often a library or local school) with a proctor. Others may require a short residency of a few weeks or a single semester. In between them is a 'weekend residency' where you travel to the university for a few days, at one or more times through out the program. These often take the form of workshops or seminars.</p>\n\n<p>There are various combinations of these traits in hundreds of schools.</p>\n\n<p>To provide an example, the University of Missouri offers several Online Only PhD programs, here is one of them:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://online.missouri.edu/degreeprograms/architecturalstudies/phd.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://online.missouri.edu/degreeprograms/architecturalstudies/phd.aspx</a></p>\n\n<p>Many universities recognize that online education is an effective medium for learning and that not everyone can travel or dedicate time to living on campus. With some research, you are likely to find a PhD program available online that suits your needs. Pay careful attention to accreditation and any residency requirements and you may find a path forward that suits your needs in higher education.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/14 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11132",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7731/"
]
|
11,135 | <p>I think that many unpublished theses are available in libraries etc and reading relevant theses is a normal part of research and does not involve asking the author's permission. But suppose a humanities PhD student has seen a thesis title (2008, so presumably in electronic format), that is relevant to their PhD subject and they want to read the thesis but unlike most theses it is not available in the student's libraries or online etc, probably due to the author's geographical location. The author is now a lecturer with a page on the university website. Should the student just email the author and say "Hello I am a PhD student in your field, can I please see your thesis?" Is this a big deal? Are there any do's or don'ts in making this request? </p>
<p>Thank you...</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11138,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A PhD thesis is usually a published work, and is normally archived in a university's library. Almost all dissertations are available via reprints. So you could ask your own library how to order a copy of the thesis.</p>\n\n<p>Alternatively, as you suggest, you can contact the author directly. As Anonymous Mathematician suggests in his comment, you can ask for a copy of the thesis, but you should definitely explain <em>why</em> you're interested in the thesis. However, it may be possible—and even more so for a humanities thesis—that the author is currently preparing it for publication, and may therefore be reluctant to share it via electronic means. However, it is just as likely that they're willing to share it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11140,
"author": "BSteinhurst",
"author_id": 7561,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7561",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are worried about contacting the author directly, the <a href=\"http://www.proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detail/pqdt.shtml\" rel=\"noreferrer\">ProQuest Database</a> might be a place to start if the person whose dissertation you are looking for has already graduated and submitted to the final copy the their university, which appears to be the case in the scenario you mentioned. </p>\n\n<p>In most countries once the dissertation is submitted to the university it comes into the public sphere (still copyrighted but its existence and content can no longer be thought of as private) so there should be no problem with contacting either the author or the Library of his or her PhD institution and requesting a copy politely. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11155,
"author": "Jack Aidley",
"author_id": 5614,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5614",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't think it is a big deal, unless as discussed in other answers they have reasons not to respond, however \"Hello I am a PhD student in your field, can I please see your thesis?\" is maximising your chances of not getting a response. Remember you are asking for a favour from a busy stranger you need to give him a reason to treat you as worth responding to. Write a polite, well-subjected, but not too long e-mail, e.g.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Subject: Request for a copy of your PhD thesis</p>\n \n <p>Dear Dr. X,</p>\n \n <p>I am writing to you today to request an electronic copy of your thesis\n - \"Boring yet strangely intriguing title\".</p>\n \n <p>My name is Bill Bloggs, I am a PhD student at the university of stuff\n and things. I have seen your thesis referenced by XX and I was\n wondering whether you would be willing to send an electronic copy of\n your thesis to me so that I can read it as it seems relevant to my own\n work in blah and bimble.</p>\n \n <p>Thank you for your time,</p>\n \n <p>Yours sincerely,</p>\n \n <p>Bill Bloggs.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 16561,
"author": "socialsciencedoc",
"author_id": 11154,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11154",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my field in the social sciences, scholars are divided into \"article people\" and \"book people,\" depending on the nature of their projects (and of course, many people work on both, but there are differences in preferences and focus). </p>\n\n<p>Oversimplifying a bit, article people tend to write their dissertations on something like a 3-paper model, where they combine published or publishable articles, and add on a front and back end. The book people simply write, for their dissertations, something that looks like a book. </p>\n\n<p>The issue that the \"book people\" have, is that it generally takes longer to actually turn the dissertation into published book through a contract with a proper academic or university press. (and in my field, unlike what some of the previous posters said, a dissertation is NOT considered \"published,\" it is considered an \"unpublished dissertation manuscript\" and should be cited as such.).</p>\n\n<p>Because these book projects take much longer to complete (often will take a whole 4-5 years more), many PhDs working on books request a \"dissertation embargo\" with their school library so that their dissertations will not be made public immediately. </p>\n\n<p>If you are having a hard time, finding a recent dissertation, this embargo might be the reason. You can of course email and ask the author, but some are worried about getting \"poached\" and other issues regards to dissertations that are being developed into proper books. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/14 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11135",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7735/"
]
|
11,136 | <p>Actually I have been working like a Computer Science lecturer, part time, in a couple of universities in my country. Main problem is that those universities are only worried in finances, but not in academic productivity. So that is why almost all the lecturers, my case included, are assigned only lecturing hours, but with no time to make research.</p>
<p>The main problem that I got is that love to make research. Sometimes I come with an idea, and it happened 3 times already, that because of the time I cannot write a paper; so that somebody else has published (in other country, of course) my main idea. I think the phrase "publish or perish" is well suited for me at this moment.</p>
<p>I have started to feel frustrated about this. I still have other ideas for research papers in the field and even for making a couple of books in collaboration with other colleages abroad, but I don´t know where to start.</p>
<p>I seen a lot of Professors that publish like maniacs, and I would like to know if there is a way to increase my productivity in the academic field. How should I distribute my time?. It may sound silly, but I feel that 100% of my time is dedicated only to lecture pretty boring undergraduate stuff. Any advice? Mostly of people that are researchers and are in this field, so they have experience about this.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11144,
"author": "Dan C",
"author_id": 1069,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Would you be willing to <strong>move to another university?</strong> It would be challenging, but possible. My hunch is that if your school does not value research, and if that's really what excites you more than teaching, then long term <strong>it will probably be hard for you to be satisfied where you are now.</strong></p>\n\n<p>If you do want to move, then I suggest that you <strong>focus on establishing a reputation in some small area</strong>, and also that you try to <strong>make contacts</strong> with researchers at other universities who are working in the same area that you are. I must say that my <strong>collaborations have hugely impacted how much I've enjoyed doing research</strong>. I am at a school that values research, but even there I have not found many people to work with, so most of my collaboration is with people elsewhere. We work a lot by email. The email allows us to get some momentum, so that when I do have a chance to visit one of my collaborators, often we can be fairly productive in a limited time. </p>\n\n<p>Two things that I love about collaboration: (1) my coauthors often have great ideas, and our papers end up much better than if I had written them myself and (2) it's a lot more fun working with someone, and it's easier to stay encouraged. So that's what I recommend that you aim for. If you want to know how to squeeze more research time or productivity (just working by yourself) out of your current schedule, then I recommend that you follow the advice of aeismail and consult a Personal Productivity site.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11175,
"author": "adbar",
"author_id": 7760,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7760",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think these two posts by a Canadian scholar could give you a few answers: <a href=\"http://lemire.me/blog/archives/2012/08/24/to-improve-your-intellectual-productivity/\" rel=\"nofollow\">to improve your intellectual productivity</a> and the older one <a href=\"http://lemire.me/blog/archives/2008/08/19/the-secret-to-intellectual-productivity/\" rel=\"nofollow\">the secret to intellectual productivity</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Among the tips he gives:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>have luck,</li>\n<li>meet people who have truly compatible goals and interests,</li>\n<li>use a divide-and-conquer strategy (i.e. break down your task into small and easy chunks of work),</li>\n<li>focus on producing value,</li>\n<li>enumerate all possible solutions to a problem.</li>\n</ul>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/14 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11136",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6144/"
]
|
11,137 | <p>I've been working as a statistician in the marketing world for two years, and I have an M.S. in applied math. I want to change industries a bit (maybe epidemiology or engineering) and I also want to live overseas (ideally, a job where I'd live in one country for a few years and then move on to another).</p>
<p>So, my question is: to accomplish these life goals, does it make sense to get a PhD? Or, is there some other route that would be more beneficial?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11139,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A doctoral degree is a credential signifying largely that you are capable of doing independent research at the highest possible level. It is not, in an of itself, a ticket to working in a particular industry or in a particular location any more than a bachelor's or a master's degree. In fact, PhD holders may have substantially more challenges in those aspects, because the additional qualifications make them unattractive for many positions in conventional businesses and industries. (You are unlikely to find a PhD working in a sales division of a multinational conglomerate, for instance.) </p>\n\n<p>The reason to get a PhD is because you are interested in problem solving and doing original work. If this doesn't describe your motivation, I would recommend against pursuing a graduate degree, because it will be a very long few years of your life which are <em>not</em> guaranteed to achieve the objectives you've laid out.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11241,
"author": "Faheem Mitha",
"author_id": 285,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/285",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A PhD in statistics is more flexible and useful that PhDs in some other areas.\nThe usual issue with PhDs one hears about is that one becomes over-qualified for non-academic work once one has a PhD. Additionally, there is a lot of time spent getting it.</p>\n\n<p>However, statistics is intrinsically an applied science, and one that is in big demand across lots of areas, because it can be applied to lots of areas, unlike most academic disciplines. Specific anecdote: I was once told by a Statistics Professor that the head of a clinical trial is required to have a PhD in statistics (by the NHS, possibly). I don't know if this is true, but it sounds like something that is probably true. As he put it, this creates jobs for PhDs.</p>\n\n<p>With computers being used more and more, and lots of data being created that needs to be analysed, new methods need to be invented to handle all this data. This is the kind of quasi-research work which is quite well suited for someone with a PhD.</p>\n\n<p>Areas like data visualization and graphics are quite hot right now. Having a PhD in an area like that will probably not hurt you. See <a href=\"http://had.co.nz/thesis/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Hadley Wickham's thesis</a> for example.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, it is possible to get a PhD from a Statistics Department without learning any statistics, for example if you write a Probability (Mathematics) thesis. You probably don't want to do that.</p>\n\n<p>My personal experience (I have a Statistics PhD) is that to get an interesting work, even in industry, a PhD is helpful. Much of the work so-called statisticians do is to mindlessly apply standard algorithms from some software package to data using things like SAS, and then package up the (machine produced) results. If you have a functioning brain, you don't want to do that.</p>\n\n<p>BTW, it seems <a href=\"https://stats.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic\">such questions are not on topic at stats.sx</a>, but you could ask people on chat there - perhaps point to this question.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/14 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11137",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7736/"
]
|
11,149 | <p>This question follow's JeffE's comment <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11137/what-are-the-benefits-of-getting-a-phd-in-statistics#comment20522_11139">here</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In most industries, a PhD has negative value.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I am curious about what potential negatives there may be with having a PhD, particularly in industries. For example, my PhD has applications for image sensors, and the potential of working in that field is appealing—would having a PhD be a potential barrier? Would it be a case of how explicit the practicalities of the PhD can be made? Would this make any difference? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11150,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>An important issue associated with having a PhD is that many \"traditional\" routes into industry are effectively closed off. </p>\n\n<p>For instance, a chemical engineer with a bachelor's or master's degree could take a position in just about any corporate division of a major company—they could work in production, sales, research, or just about any other field, with corporate training providing the requisite skills needed to do the job. By contrast, someone who holds a PhD will simply not be considered for these positions, as they are too specialized, and too far above the requirements for such a position. Any hire into such a position would probably not offer a sufficient \"return on investment\" to be worthwhile.</p>\n\n<p>It would also be difficult to cross-train for \"standard\" management positions, as while a PhD does offer some supervisory experience, it's more useful for research-based organizations than industrial positions.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11154,
"author": "NimChimpsky",
"author_id": 245,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/245",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It has been a positive for my CV. It gets me interviews that I wouldn't normally have got in a variety of organisations and positions. I have a PhD in computer science - my CV/PhD has got me interviews at banks/biotechs/multinational retailers (I screwed up some of the interviews but that's another problem :-))</p>\n\n<p>I have never had a problem being overqualified - most employers would rather this than the opposite I imagine.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>PhD has applications for image sensors</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I think it will be viewed as a major positive by any private company working in this or related fields.\nA PhD shows you know a particular field very well and also have a number of transferable skills - self motivated, working independently and in a team, management, teaching/tutoring, communication (public speaking and journal articles).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11158,
"author": "morishuz",
"author_id": 7744,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7744",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From my personal experience of questions asked in interviews for non-academic jobs, presumably the assumption is that someone with a PhD did this as a cushy option rather than going out in the \"real world\" of competition, responsibility, long hours, tight deadlines, office politics etc. </p>\n\n<p>Academics are also seen as removed from financial considerations, with their head in the clouds, ignorant of real world issues, pondering on the philosophical rather than the practical (rightly or wrongly - this can be the perception).</p>\n\n<p>An actual I was once asked was, <em>\"Can you handle the pressure of a commercial job?\"</em></p>\n\n<p>Another obvious answer is that your PhD does not represent commercial experience. While you have some additional research experience, if your job is not to do research, then this is not seen as much of an asset. Rather you are viewed as behind in your age group by 3-4 years in experience but will probably want the same salary (if not higher). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11167,
"author": "Irwin",
"author_id": 5944,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5944",
"pm_score": 8,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Though a Ph.D is not necessarily a disadvantage, depending on the field and the nature of the Ph.D, it may also not be as competitive as the equivalent number of years in industry.</p>\n<p>Think from a perspective of a hiring dev team leader who needs a good systems engineer <em>yesterday</em> to help integrate some obscure API from a vendor into their product. You're choosing between a pile of resumes.</p>\n<p>On one, you have a candidate who has 3 years as a junior engineer in a company that worked on image sensors, 2 years of work as a systems developer II, and one year as a lead developer on a computer vision project. He's delivered seven projects in total and has worked in a highly cross-functional team of hardware and software engineers, salespeople, and on-site support staff. The products he worked on brought the company revenue of $86.3 million dollars over seven years.</p>\n<p>On another, you have a candidate who has done 6 years in a Ph.D and 1 year worth of internships in total. He's worked on a computer vision project and has contributed a novel algorithm to solving "Line tracing under low UV light conditions" (I made that up, I have no idea if that's a real problem in computer vision), and has written six publications. He also has taught a course on 3rd year systems programming and has TAed robotics three times.</p>\n<p>While they are both good candidates, chances are that unless you need someone who does "line tracing under UV light", the first candidate might be more attractive. Less training, less having to work with that person to integrate them into a product-based flow, proven record of delivering product and making sales, etc...</p>\n<p>I personally feel that the "disadvantage" of a Ph.D is more about opportunity cost than an actual disadvantage. In many cases, the culture of academia vs. industry are different enough that it's like switching fields even if the technologies are similar. Basically, someone with 7 years actual work experience has enough to basically go from a new grad hire to a project team lead, whereas someone with 7 years of Ph.D is proven to deliver in an academic setting but not in a for-profit product-based one. However, at the same time, there are many industries that want to have Ph.Ds on their staff as well because they are long-term, deep thinkers who are rigorous and detailed.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11208,
"author": "Brian Rushton",
"author_id": 4455,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4455",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have a PhD in pure mathematics, and the only employers that were interested in me were Epic Healthcare (desperate for anyone they can get a hold of with the affordable care act changes) and universities offering postdocs. Other positions, such as a Boy Scouts position I applied to, told me I was overqualified or misqualified. I programmed video games as a teenager; a lot of companies were willing to interview me based on that alone, but I would be forced to start from the bottom and work my way up, which isn't bad, but you're asking whether a PhD is worth it, and in such a situation, it would certainly not be worth it. </p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, my time studying for my PhD seriously improved my writing skills and analytical thinking skills, and I think that that would help me as a programmer to learn quickly and get promoted. But there's no point in a math PhD for any job besides teaching or a focused job at a national lab/NSA.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11210,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><em>What are the potential pitfalls of having a PhD?</em></p>\n\n<p>It depends. I believe <strong>the closer your PhD research is to applied research, the better your industry job opportunities would be</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>Those PhDs who have been doing basic (pure) research tend to have problem with industry job hunting because their skills/knowledge are not <strong>immediately usable</strong> in industry. It is simply not cost effective for industry companies to hire them. They need to be re-trained to get them to do real practical jobs. Don’t forget one thing, private companies are for profit.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, those who have been doing applied research <strong>could have readily available</strong> skills/knowledge for the employers to use. They naturally have industry jobs lined up for them.</p>\n\n<p>We can see two examples right here. User16371 has a PhD in pure math. He has trouble in finding private industry jobs. NimChimpsky probably has done applied research, he has many job interviews. Whether he will get a real industry job soon is another matter.</p>\n\n<p>As in your case, I think you’ll have a good shot if your research is more toward real application. I am absolutely no expert in image sensors. But, I can imagine that if CT scan manufacturers can use your skills/knowledge, you should be able to find a good job in matter of months. Here, a good job means high salary – a barometer to measure how good an industry job is.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11223,
"author": "posdef",
"author_id": 5674,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my field (bioinformatics, systems/computational biology) if you don't have a PhD you practically don't exist on the map, but yet it's a very research oriented field.</p>\n\n<p>I can imagine a couple of issues where a PhD might have a negative effect on the attractiveness of a candidate, while none of the below are prove-able facts, they are directly based on my experience (myself, people I know, etc.)</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><strong>Overspecialization:</strong> In many industries being overspecialized might hurt more than it helps. You might get stuck on obscure case scenarios, or obsess about rigor before anything else. Likewise doing research might have an effect on having a more abstract, rather than practical, way of thinking. Most of us don't really \"deliver\" a product. </p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Jadedness:</strong> Those 4-6 years spent doing research is likely to have caused some self-doubt, questioning yourself. In my experience most people that go corporate after uni live in a state of blissful ignorance, compared to their classmates who've gone on to pursue PhD studies. (yes, I might have exaggerated it a bit but the point is still valid I believe)</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Attitude:</strong> While this might not be the general truth, in my experience people in the academic world is much more laid-back than corporate world. While most of my old classmates are expected to be at their desk at 7 or 8 sharp, and expected to leave latest by 5 to avoid working overtime, I can practically show up and leave whenever I feel like. What my boss cares about is whether or not the project progresses as we have decided. A potential employer might be wary of such \"bad habits\".</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>As I said, not a factual answer but I hope it provides some insight, anyways.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 13657,
"author": "StasK",
"author_id": 739,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/739",
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"text": "<p>Ph.D. is a mismatched degree for industry. A typical industry employer wants to find smart, witty people with (1) sufficiently high level of specialized skills who would be (2) productive in the existing company environment, and (3) would be able to balance the initiative based on what they know vs. following instructions when a project needs to be pushed in a specific direction and completed by a given deadline.</p>\n\n<p>Out of these, the Ph.D. label only provides the evidence that you are smart, addressing (although still only partially) the requirement (1). Mid- and upper-level technical positions, especially in research departments, would require Ph.D., so there is a qualification issue of door-opening (or rather not opening if you do't have the degree). In many situations, though, the narrow specialization of the <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/11167/739\">\"Line tracing under low UV light conditions\"</a> is irrelevant for most practical purposes, and the employer would rather want to see a person who can tackle a wider range of light conditions and frequency spectra.</p>\n\n<p>The Ph.D., however, fails to deliver on all other counts. On the second aspect that I brought up, doctorate programs do not teach people and business skills, and most programs even won't touch say computer skills if you are a biologist or may be even a mathematician. It is up to you as a grad student to self-teach project management, version control and all other team-work, productivity-increasing stuff. On the third aspect, the overqualified Ph.D.s may have a tendency to roam towards their own interests, and provide beautiful solutions for narrow problems, as that's what they are used to be doing in academia. Sometimes, though, you just have to shut up and format the Excel report. A decent solution that is delivered on time is MUCH better than a perfect solution delivered two months too late. Academicians are not taught to make these judgement calls of timeliness vs. depth (although the pressure to submit this now before the competitors do is often present in many lines of research) or cost vs. what the client expects (and grad students usually have no idea regarding how to budget a study; most professors also take the zero time cost of their grad students for granted, but that's not how the real world operates).</p>\n"
},
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"answer_id": 15926,
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"text": "<p>A PhD degree tells that you can work independently on your own, that you are able to critically decide whether a particular method in a textbook is good or not. PhD holders are needed in industry though in small amount. Industry needs them as PhD holders have been trained to bring innovations and make a field advance. Whether the PhD research field was narrow or not, the skills that you developed while tackling your PhD work will help in many different fields. For example I hold a PhD in a field other than dealing with computer science and yet during my PhD studies I had to choose between a plethora of programming languages available and I learned Object-oriented programming and code re-use. The skills that I have thus mastered in software engineering can be applied to any field that I will work in the future where computer programming is involved.</p>\n\n<p>As one answer pointed out, during the PhD studies you have doubts about your own capabilities. It happens as you may be tackling a problem that has been here for a long time and your analyses over several months are revealing that you are nowhere close to make any new discovery. You may be the best of your batch in your Bachelor degree or be the best of your MSc batch but that is no guarantee that you will be successful in doing a PhD degree. I have seen many intelligent friends putting an end to their PhD studies as after a year or two they see that they cannot handle the stress of not being able to produce any tangible output. PhD studies are not about scoring good grades at exams. You do not have to know equations by heart; You are not sitting for a 3-hour written test to answer questions that are based on your textbooks. No, you are on your own with some support from your supervisor. Your supervisor is here to offer advice but it is up to you to decide what you want to do and convince the funders and other partners of your ideas. You are the one choosing the textbooks and other publications to read. Reading 200 books on the subject rather than say just two is never a guarantee that the PhD studies will be successful; What is required is to think beyond these textbook equations and come up with new ones, with new analysis techniques or with new algorithms that are universally applicable. When you are learning an equation, you are learning it very deeply and then you realise that how much you didn't know about that same equation when you were a Bachelor degree holder or an MSc degree holder. At lower levels, you are only taught what you need to know in order to solve some specific problems.</p>\n\n<p>Doing a PhD degree means that you are excellent at managing your time. You have advanced courses to read, you have some teaching and administrative work to do, and you have to handle your research work with confidence. So you find yourself waking up at night and start doing some analyses by hand or on the computer as you think that you are on the verge of finding some good results which have escaped you for months. You work the whole night and if in the morning you see that you are not getting anywhere, you still have the courage to wake up and go to your office at the University. It is only someone who has done a PhD degree who knows the hard work and patience that is required. So this is why PhD holders will always get the attention of a recruiter who himself/herself is one. </p>\n\n<p>Someone with an MSc degree is limited in his/her own thinking. Every PhD student who has taught MSc students knows this. While an MSc student can perhaps think of one or two methods of tackling a problem, a PhD student or a PhD holder knows many more methods and knows also which method may be the best depending on the situation at hand. This is why in industry, the top posts among researchers are filled by PhD holders. This is because people with the best brains, and who know a whole range of techniques and methods are needed to innovate. This is also why in some countries PhD students are required to read advanced courses since they have to know more than what MSc degree holders do. Among these courses, there may be pedagogy-related courses. But pedagogy courses are only here to improve communication skills and understanding of the audience. Isn't this true? So such a PhD holder with pedagogical skills has learned how to deal with people around him/her of various intellectual levels.</p>\n\n<p>There is the idea that PhD holders do not have business skills. Well, it depends on what you are doing at work. There are lots of successful smaller companies in engineering created by PhD holders. Even during the PhD studies, the PhD student is aware of the funding that he/she has and so he/she finds tools and equipment and software that the budget will allow. Similarly in industry, a PhD holder will use the least resources to get the job done as he/she is very much familiar with costs of equipment and software in his/her field. Would a company not want this PhD holder who already know how to manage the money? A PhD project normally lasts for five years or longer in some cases; This shows that the PhD holder can manage a project spanning over a long period of time.</p>\n\n<p>Business skills can also refer to interaction with other people regarding the scientific research. Many PhD students have to establish cooperation in academia or in industry either at the national level or at the international level. The supervisor may help in this but finally it is the PhD student who decides with whom to work. So the PhD student has to be aware of how much information to divulge to the new partners and how mutual benefit can be achieved. So this demands business skills. Would an employer not want such a person around him/her who knows how to collaborate and negotiate with others? Thus the PhD holder has gained business skills not through books but through real-life experience. </p>\n\n<p>A PhD holder is also someone who can defend his/her ideas successfully in writing or orally. Publishing in very good journals is tough and defending the PhD thesis at the viva can last for hours. Being successful at the viva shows that you are mentally very stable, and are able to withstand pressure and all kinds of irritable questions one after the other for a long time.</p>\n\n<p>A PhD holder after so many years of hard work has already built his/her own toolbox. Just as a carpenter who has to sharpen once in a while the tools that he/she uses daily, so does the PhD holder the same. A PhD holder cannot sit idle; He/she has faced lots of obstacles when for example deriving new equations during the PhD studies, and in his/her free time after getting the PhD degree, he/she will come back to these equations and think again about those obstacles in order to find ways not to meet them in his/her future career. This is what I am doing in parallel with my job. </p>\n\n<p>Yes indeed PhD holders always tend to look for the best solution(s) to a given problem. This is not an indication that he/she will take time to do the job in industry. No, the PhD holder has developed his/her own toolbox as I said before and will be very efficient at finding the best solution(s) in a reasonable amount of time since he/she knows which method works and which does not. It is true though that PhD holders will tend to be accurate and reluctant to use faster algorithms that are not robust. Whom do you trust: A PhD degree who will make the right calculations though perhaps taking a bit longer or the one without the PhD degree making the calculations really fast and present the results to you using fancy colours?</p>\n\n<p>When starting the PhD studies, a PhD student will have to sort of see everything around him/her with new eyes. Anyone who has read <em>The Loss of the Creature</em> from <em>The message in the Bottle: How Queer Man is, How Language is, and What One Has to Do with the Other</em> by <em>Percy Walker</em> will get the point. The PhD student at the beginning of the studies has to unscrew his/her brain and put it aside in order to get rid of any preconceived ideas and replace with an empty brain that is ready to let the PhD holder see beyond the tip of his/her nose so as to make independent progress in a field.</p>\n\n<p>Remember that a PhD holder is a systematic person who does not run from a difficult problem. If the research that he/she had been doing in the PhD studies was not difficult, then the PhD project would not have existed in the first place. Most PhD projects are open. This implies that the PhD student is given a field to work but outputs and outcomes of the work are yet to be known. It is up to the PhD student to think about the strategy to adopt and which path to follow after consultation with the supervisor. After a few years of hard work, the outcomes and results obtained may be very different from what were expected in the beginning of the project. When the research is taking a different direction, sources of funding may change. It is up to the PhD student and to the supervisor to motivate for the change so as to convince the funders of their new research direction that could bring better insights about the original problem. In contrast during a normal MSc thesis project of about six months duration, the project is well structured by the supervisor so that the MSc student is able to finish the work in a timely manner. The MSc holder is working along a well-structured path and is most of the times sure to succeed in the thesis work. But such is not the case for the PhD student. There is no guarantee of success in the PhD studies. So we see that a PhD holder is someone who is very mature and who can embrace failures and successes equally.</p>\n\n<p>A PhD holder is someone modest enough to know that the path of learning has just begun. To get a PhD degree is to have been able to reach the top of the mountain, and realise that there is still much to see and learn. It is thus obvious that persons with MSc degrees who haven't been at the top of the mountain do not recognise how much PhD holders know. So the best prospects of securing a job in industry is to make sure that your future boss also has a PhD degree. </p>\n\n<p>To answer the question about potential pitfalls of having a PhD, I would say none. A PhD holder knows where he/she stands in life and he/she knows what it takes to succeed. He/she is not afraid of failures and of setbacks as he/she has been used to them a lot during the PhD studies. The only mistake is to work in industry under a boss who is not a PhD degree holder; The boss will not recognise the strength and value as well as will not understand the mindset of the PhD holder. Where the boss can only see one or two problems in a given situation, a PhD holder will see many. Communication between the PhD holder and such a boss will hence suffer. </p>\n\n<p>Work experience cannot replace educational qualification. At a job interview with an interviewer holding a PhD degree, you will be asked if you know or do not know something. You will be asked about future changes that you consider might take place in your field of expertise. You will share valuable experiences and talk about limitations of existing tools, algorithms and software. It is only those interviewers with less educational qualifications who will lay emphasis on previous job experience. </p>\n\n<p>And always remember that today most PhD works are applied research; This means that PhD projects are created in order to solve problems that industry face. If industry would have had the necessary skills to solve all their problems, then PhD projects would only be started by Universities alone and the projects would all be dealing with fundamental research. But this is not the case. Doing a PhD degree these days means that the PhD student is gaining much industrial experience as he/she is acting like a bridge between academia and industry and he/she is reinforcing the link between the two. He/she is pinpointing out the obsolete methods that industry is clinging to and is helping industry adopting more reliable methods as a result of the PhD work. What is important is that the PhD work is original. This word \"original\" has changed meaning over time. Centuries ago, it meant to have a PhD work that builds upon some original concepts which are firmly rooted in place whereas nowadays \"original\" implies that your PhD work is not someone's else work.</p>\n\n<p>Doing a Ph.D. degree is not for the faint-hearted; You need nerves of steel and you really learn how to manage the vast amount of information that you gather in your research. The successful Ph.D. student is the one who can <em>recover</em> the knowledge already out there and make improvements for the betterment of the society. Doing a Ph.D. degree requires great sacrifice and commitment. This is why it is appropriate for a Ph.D. holder to work with people who also have earned one. But I agree that the level of Ph.D. degrees do vary around the world; A Ph.D. degree spanning over a five-year period with advanced courses to read and with teaching activities should be the norm.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 29208,
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"text": "<p><strong>IMHO I believe the answer to this question is “it depends.”</strong> In industry, the answer will always be around demonstrating what value you can bring to the table, and accordingly, why a customer should pay a premium for that. I would highly recommend talking to professionals in the field(s) that you want to eventually leverage your PhD into, and get their opinions on the value of their PhD’s to help you understand how you can flourish in your chosen specialty.</p>\n\n<p>Let me caveat this however by saying the following: I do not have a PhD, but I find the endeavour personally and, depending on how well you can translate your PhD into economic value, professionally, very worthwhile. </p>\n\n<p>Now, I am an Engineering and Project manager in the oil and gas industry, and have nearly 12 years’ experience in the production and management of engineering for projects greater than $US 1Bn. My largest project was over $US 40Bn, and I have worked with, and been served by, many engineers, scientists, and other technologists of many disciplines.</p>\n\n<p>I have encountered many people with PhD’s in that time, most of whom were good people to work with. Almost to an individual, no one ever cared to emphasise their PhD, and in many cases, most chose to suppress it in favour of demonstrating the value delivered on previous projects and engagements that mattered to my needs as a manager or client. Most of the professionals with PhDs who we were paying real money for were not actually delivering any services or products that was connected to their PhDs. However, they were specialists in their fields, and their PhDs were almost always related to their chosen specialty. So if you had studied a PhD in geology or civil engineering (very common), then it would make sense for you to leverage your PhD into a geotechnical engineering firm where you would often be marketed to your client as, eventually, a Principal Geotechnical engineer or similar. This is a specialised role, with a narrow scope (same applies for any discipline), and if you are actually good at your job, you will be high in demand around town. Clients, whilst not necessarily paying an above-market rate for you, will likely insist that they “want you” as part of the delivery team because you are known to be credible at what you do. The PhD itself will have very little to do with that, but you will be rewarded if you are able to translate what you learnt from the PhD into delivering a service your clients will pay real money for. I have had these kinds of people work for me before, and I would seek them out again, but they never emphasised their PhD to me. In fact, I’ve worked with people who were exceptional at what they did, very highly regarded not just in my country but in others around the world, who didn’t have a skerrick of post-graduate education. </p>\n\n<p>If you were to study a PhD (in Psychology say) and tried to leverage that into a non-related field (like management consulting), then the question of value will be even more poignant for you. In this instance, you would likely be relying on the “general” skills that a PhD would afford you (not that they are trivial by any means), and again, you would need to demonstrate to a buyer of your skills that your PhD provides greater value than someone else who may have more direct industry/ field related experience. Firms and industries where these generalised PhD-related skills might be valued (e.g. some investment banks, blue chip corporate strategy companies) are open to candidates with PhD’s but again, you would be required to demonstrate how your PhD translates into products and services your customers want to buy, and even pay a premium for.</p>\n\n<p>I can appreciate the dilemma of someone contemplating the study of a PhD as it is, indeed, difficult to truly understand what kind of value you can demonstrate to a buyer at the end of it. Brian Rushton’s narrative is a fine account of the individual kinds of skill that a PhD can develop, but in industry, I would treat such skills as a given. Moreover, Brian’s description over emphasises the individual skill component, and is notably silent on other critical individual, team, and other “corporate” attributes that are necessary for success in industry. Brian mentions time management: again, this is something that I would expect a graduate engineer to be well on top of by their first or second year in work, so why, as either your manager or your client, should I expect this to be a differentiator for you? Especially given that you’ve invested some three or more years of your life developing this skill! Likewise, Brian also mentions being able to see many possible solutions. Creativity is a valuable thing, but in my industry, this must be executed with discipline, and applied with the necessary soft (emotional intelligence) skills to translate ideas into solutions that can be implemented successfully within a corporate risk and financial framework. I have often come across so-called “experts”, some with PhDs, who waste a lot of peoples’ time and money with ideas that are insensitive to the corporate, political, project and commercial realities surrounding them, and this often harms their reputations. Understandably, their ideas are not implemented, and these kinds of insensitive people are not hired again. Finally, the other skills that Brian mentions (project and cost management, business skills) are fine but these are carried out on a small scale. My question is: clients will pay for demonstrable experience, so how are you going to convince your future employer or client that they should pay good money to entrust you with a project or business that may exceed your PhD undertakings by a factor of thousands, if not tens or hundreds of thousands, or millions? </p>\n\n<p>So my question is: why should I, either as your manager or your client, be prepared to pay a premium for your skills from a PhD when they can be honed by someone else working “at the coal face” in a demonstrable way over the same amount of time as your PhD? This question will vary depending on your industry. In my industry, real value comes not with the PhD, but your demonstrated experience in delivering valuable services and products, over a sustained time, to real customers. In other, very highly specialised industries, the PhD may serve as an entry point, after which your work performance will likely prevail.</p>\n\n<p>I’ve really emphasised the “economic” aspect of the PhD in my response, and I tender it not to discourage you, but to help you to think very deeply about why you wish to do one before you decide to take the plunge. If you do decide to do one, then I wish you to do so with your eyes open, and, most importantly, sincerely wish you the very best of success with it, both personally and professionally.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30701,
"author": "steveOw",
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"text": "<p>One of the potential pitfalls of having a PhD (or indeed any exceptional qualification) is that many managers, being insecure in their positions, will not hire someone whom they perceive may be capable of under-mining their authority and usurping their own position. For a well-managed post-PhD career, unless you are a star in your field and with wise, benevolent guides, it is important to understand about people and power in organisations. I strongly recommend reading a serious academic book on the subject such as, for example, <a href=\"http://www.amazon.co.uk/Organizational-Behaviour-Dr-Andrzej-Huczynski/dp/0273774816\" rel=\"nofollow\">Organisational Behavior by \"Huck and Buck\"</a>. Such a book will provide a more objective overview of social reality than a collection of personal anecdotal musings. That is not to say that the latter are without value as food for thought and context-specific indicators.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 56924,
"author": "SmallChess",
"author_id": 42080,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/42080",
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"text": "<p>PhDs, although highly educated, are not suitable for most of the commercial and non-research related jobs. Not because they can't do those jobs, but those jobs can also be done by someone else without a Phd.</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, if the management have no Phd themselves, they wouldn't believe in the importance of the Phd title.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 81083,
"author": "Reed -SE is a Fish on Dry Land",
"author_id": 23868,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23868",
"pm_score": 2,
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"text": "<p>From a non PhD perspective, in some fields PhDs are percieved as theorethical entities, far removed from the gross practicalities of thereal world, who sit in cushy ivory towers and try to answer essential and fundamental questions like the ubiquitous : \"How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 81092,
"author": "user3644640",
"author_id": 62908,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62908",
"pm_score": 2,
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"text": "<p>Irwin's answer is good, but there is also the pitfall:</p>\n\n<p>Getting Ph.D. is an education for research(/academia). Industry needs them as R&D specialists. Your Ph.D. is useless for any company not requiring that special knowledge you have. Ph.D. only shows devotion to that special knowledge. It signals for them that you may be unmotivated to do their monotonic day-to-day business.</p>\n\n<p>Thus it depends on the Ph.D. you have. If it is not business/operations research/industrial engineering/etc. generalistic, there is a high change that your Ph.D. is worth only for a few companies in R&D (but for those companies, your knowledge can be vital).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 81121,
"author": "user20586",
"author_id": 65916,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65916",
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"text": "<p>It's probably a unique problem and not related to the industries in which you're referring but:</p>\n\n<p>In my field (clinicians - PAs, NPs, their international equivalents), a master's degree is considered the terminal degree one needs. While a few PhD programs exist, graduates from them generally get the eye roll. This is one of the potential pitfalls of having a PhD. </p>\n\n<p>The title afforded by the degree (Dr.) puts the holder in a position at odds with the jargon of the industry. Using your title identifies you (in the minds of patients and other providers) as a physician (MD/DO), when in reality you are a clinician. This creates numerous issues of misrepresentation, litigation, etc.</p>\n\n<p>It is a similar problem created by clinicians who pursue doctorates in public health, health administration, etc. While they've rightly earned their title, it can create (sometimes deadly) consequences. </p>\n\n<p>It's a similar problem to that which arises with MD/PhD holders. The MD/PhD holder is generally more PhD than MD in terms of their capabilities as a healthcare provider. If you want to practice medicine, holding a PhD is not the way to do it. </p>\n\n<p>If you don't need the degree to do the job, then you don't need the degree for the job. That's the line of thinking. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 160858,
"author": "envphd20",
"author_id": 133575,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/133575",
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"text": "<p>From my own experience this is mostly true.</p>\n<p>I have a PhD in Environmental Engineering. I tried to find a job in the industry doing process design for water treatment coupled with R&D. Interviewed a few companies and nobody wanted me. I did my homework, worked with a career coach with interview preparation, and had an internship with a local utility to gain experience (after I finished school, $20/hr). They simply did not want me. One of the interviewers hinted "we want blank paper", at which point I knew this interview was fried. Similar jobs went to MS's of my friends, who got multiple offers from consulting companies as well. I also connected with a few veteran professionals in the field and they admitted this industry usually reject PhDs unless they have a remarkable connection / already did stuff with the hiring managers. At the end of the day I landed a government job which had a strict scoring system in their interview process and PhD happened to be a plus, not minus.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11149",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
]
|
11,151 | <p>I am moving from one job to another (postdoc to tenure track) this summer and I have papers in several stages of being written, these go from handwritten notes with all the necessary arguments to under revision at a journal. All the papers will have my new contact information put on them but where is the line for changing affiliation? It seems obvious to me that the one that is still in the handwritten notes stage will get the new affiliation and that the ones under revision won't. So somewhere in between is a line. </p>
<p>Where is it?</p>
<p>There are some similar questions so far (see <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9731/academic-affiliation-which-to-choose">here</a> and <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1078/is-it-acceptable-to-publish-a-paper-using-an-affiliation-with-a-former-employer">here</a> but they do not seem to be quite the same situation since I am not changing fields and the appointments are not concurrent.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11152,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is not necessarily clear cut. As a principle I would say that the affiliation should be where you have done most of your work. It is, however, also possible to use two affiliations and set your new location as \"present address:\" (or affilaition). After all, the affiliation serves two purposes. For a university (department) it means something becomes associated to them. For you, though, it means people can find you if they have, for example, questions. So, using the double affiliation, if it is possible, might be a good idea in the grey zone. Otherwise, I would stick with \"where you did most of the work\", however you wish to define it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11153,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I would argue that it's a question of resources—if you have used resources (equipment, personnel, computers, financial) of both institutions in executing the paper <em>before its initial submission</em>, then you should list both institutes as supporting the work.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if the core of the work—both research and writing—were done at the old institution, then the new institution should only be listed as a \"present affiliation,\" rather than as a \"co-sponsor\" of the work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 77248,
"author": "user2768",
"author_id": 22768,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22768",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your name and affiliation are listed on publications to identify you and to facilitate contact. Thus, I believe your new institution should be listed, rather than your old. Your old institution can be credited in the acknowledgements. Given that any affiliation listed might become outdated, you can also list your personal email address and your personal website URL. (A personal domain name and web hosting are very cheap.)</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11151",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
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|
11,159 | <p>Do US universities offer Graduate Paid Internship programs in CS/CSE?</p>
<p>That is, studying MS in CSE while working as a paid intern in a company, which is arranged by the university itself? </p>
<p>If yes, do they have any age limit?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11160,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 0,
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"text": "<ol>\n<li><p>Yes.</p></li>\n<li><p>Yes.</p></li>\n<li><p>I don't know but I don't think so.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Remember though that such \"internships\" are also known as \"research assistantships\" or \"summer research assistantships\" and will generally not be advertised outside the university or department because there are usually more than enough ready and available folks.</p>\n\n<p>I have done something similar in the past but only because I know the professor personally and he offered me the position after a few conversations with him.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11179,
"author": "Virgo",
"author_id": 7764,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7764",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, US Universities do offer Graduate paid internship programs in CS/CSE.\nIt is called Curricular Practical Training/Optional Practical Training.\nBut each university is different in accepting your CPT/OPT.\nYou need to have a job offer in hand, check with the DSO of the university for the dates within which you need to apply for your CPT/OPT.\nYou need to be atleast 18 years i guess.</p>\n\n<p>For more information you can look this up : <a href=\"http://www.ice.gov/sevis/practical-training/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.ice.gov/sevis/practical-training/</a></p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11159",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
]
|
11,161 | <p>A simple question: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>What qualifies as a research publication?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Two criteria spring to mind:</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>Peer-reviewed:</strong> The article has gone through some form of formal peer-review process.</li>
<li><strong>Dead-tree proceedings:</strong> The article has been published in a bound collection of thin sheets of dead tree.</li>
</ol>
<p>In terms of exceptions to 1., many book chapters do not rely on a formal peer-review process but are generally considered as research publications and listed in author bibliographies. Similarly, some may consider arXiv, etc., as publications and counting towards h-index counts.</p>
<p>In terms of exceptions to 2., various workshops (esp. in CS) publish on-line through systems like CEUR or informal web-site proceedings, are peer-reviewed and contain in-depth technical material. As online publishing becomes more commonplace, criterion 2 will grow weaker and weaker.</p>
<p>Is there something else I'm missing?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11172,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Your criteria are close, but (at least for computer science) not quite right.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Research:</strong> the paper must describe a novel contribution to some field of inquiry. Whether a paper makes a novel (and correct and interesting) contribution is often determined through formal peer review, but not always. Peer review is almost always a formal requirement for a paper to \"count\" for purposes of formal evaluation for promotion and tenure, but not necessarily for building one's reputation as a researcher. (It's quite common for breakthrough results in theoretical compute science to be announced and discussed in blogs <em>months</em> before they undergo formal peer review.)</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Publication</strong>: The paper must be, at least in principle, accessible to the public. Two reasonable prerequisites are that the paper has a DOI, and that it is published either in a serial with an ISSN or in a book with an ISBN, but one could make a reasonable case that PDfs on researchers' personal web pages, blog and newsgroup posts, and even StackExchange answers are \"publications\". (Certainly there are fields, like chemistry, in which journals will not publish anything that has previously appeared on the web, on the grounds that it is \"already published\".) There is absolutely no requirement that the paper be printed on dead trees to be considered \"real\".</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>In particular, I would classify most ArXiv preprints as \"research publications\", despite the lack of peer review and the absence of dead trees.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 12848,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The Committee on Publication Ethics (<a href=\"http://publicationethics.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">COPE</a>) has summarized a standard for responsible publishing for authors (<a href=\"http://publicationethics.org/files/International%20standards_authors_for%20website_11_Nov_2011.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">pdf</a>). Although this document does not define scientific publication explicitly, the requirements are implicitly understood by reading about the demands set on an author of such a publication.</p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"http://www.councilscienceeditors.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">Council of Science Editors (CSE)</a> (quoted by Day & Gastel, 2012, p 19) provides the following definition</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>An acceptable primary scientific publication must be the first disclosure containing sufficient information to enable peers (1) to assess observations, (2) to repeat experiments, and (3) to evaluate intellectual processes; moreover it must be susceptible to sensory perception, essentially permanent, available to the scientific community without restriction, and available for regular screening by one or more of the major recognized secondary service.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This means that, for example, abstracts, corporate reports do not count as scientific publications. It should be added that review papers of course count although the wording of the definition may not make that clear at first. </p>\n\n<p>Day, R.A. & Gastel, B., 2012 How to write and publish a scientific paper. Seventh Edition. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 183936,
"author": "Anonymous Physicist",
"author_id": 13240,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is borderline opinion-based, but I would use this definition:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>A research publication is any readily available artifact which has passed peer review.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>I would exclude non-reviewed book chapters and arXiv etc. preprint submission.</p>\n<p>Unlike JeffE, I would include peer-reviewed work which is not novel. In my experience (and according to some bibliometrics), review articles are among the most influential research publications, and they are not novel.</p>\n<p>Unlike JeffE, I would not require that the artifact be "descriptive," have a DOI, ISSN, or ISBN. For example, an abstract sculpture that was peer reviewed and displayed to the public could be credited to an art professor in a similar way to a journal article. Peer-reviewed source code and database entries should also be counted.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11161",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7746/"
]
|
11,162 | <p>A friend of mine is pursuing a Masters course containing a research dissertation as part of the curriculum. He has done a lot of work on his topic (both studying of existing literature as well as tried out some new methods) but none of them have given interesting results. So, what should his thesis describe? Or does he need to succeed in order to pass?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11163,
"author": "badroit",
"author_id": 7746,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7746",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A criticism I have heard of European entrepreneurship (vs. US) <a href=\"http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-1354_en.htm\">is that bankruptcy for start-ups is too heavily stigmatised</a>. People are less willing to take risks and start-ups are rather more conservative in their outlook than their American counterparts. Thus American start-ups tend to fail more often but, subjectively speaking, foster better innovation.</p>\n\n<p>It's a compelling argument.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, in research, publishing or otherwise achieving degrees through negative results is important:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>It fosters an innovative environment where people are willing to try new things</li>\n<li>Publishing non-trivial negative results ...\n<ul>\n<li>... informs people from making the same mistake;</li>\n<li>... could be extended or fixed by third-parties towards a better solution;</li>\n<li>... <strong>stops people from the hype that it so common-place now where even if their results are negative, they feel the need to add an artificial positive spin to get published.</strong></li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>So in summary, I would say that even if the results are negative, if they are non-obvious or if there's some experience to be gained from them, that should be still be fine.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>but none of them have given interesting results.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>But what do you mean by \"interesting\" results? Do you mean positive results? Negative results are often interesting too.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11164,
"author": "eykanal",
"author_id": 73,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This depends on the program, the committee, the advisor, and the student. To give some anecdotes in both directions:</p>\n\n<p>I have a friend who was a graduate student for a young professor who was just setting up his lab. My friend never performed any novel research, published few peer-reviewed articles, and for the most part did much more work setting up the lab environment than should have happened. Towards the end of his 5th year, he took his publications, white papers, and other documents, stapeled them together, and called it a thesis. He graduated no problem.</p>\n\n<p>A different friend of mine was diligentily working on a single research problem for a few years and didn't find any results. Push came to shove, his committee wanted to see progress on one particular area, and six months later, when he didn't produce, he left with a masters.</p>\n\n<p>Two separate stories, two separate universities, two very different programs. Long story short, if you think you're heading towards a situation like this, talk to your advisor and committee members and see what you can do. Do note that in these situations you can often take a minor finding which does not directly address your central theme and present it as your major contribution to the field, as this can serve to demonstrate your proficiency in research.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11169,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm currently in the middle of planning a master's project that is \"high-risk,\" in the sense of the idea that we're going to try out is a relatively novel idea, and we have no idea if it will actually work or not.</p>\n\n<p>As a \"hedge\" against this, however, we need to do some methodological work that will support this idea. This work, even if the main idea doesn't pan out, still has relevance within the field, and therefore in and of itself would represent a sizable enough \"core\" of work that the thesis would be considered successful, even if the \"hypothesis\" doesn't hold.</p>\n\n<p>In addition, I believe a master's thesis doesn't need to reach the same standards of \"advancing the state of knowledge\" as a PhD thesis. It should show the results of a project, but it need not be nearly as comprehensive or represent as great an advance as a PhD thesis—in part because of the relative amount of time involved.</p>\n\n<p>What would perhaps be especially helpful here is if the student is able to analyze <em>why</em> the various efforts tried haven't panned out. That could make for a significant finding in and of itself, at least as far as the thesis is concerned.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11162",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7004/"
]
|
11,165 | <p>I have recently come across a paper that copy-pasted entire paragraphs of one of my papers which is already published in an international journal. This paper appeared in a journal which is not very popular, and I did not get a courtesy citation.</p>
<p>How should I proceed with this? I was thinking of reporting the issue to the editor of the journal where the paper appeared but then I thought that it may not even worth the effort. On the other hand, I still have this in my mind since this is clearly unethical behaviour.</p>
<p>What would you suggest?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11166,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I would definitely contact the chief editor of the journal and place the evidence before him/her/them. Plagiarism should not be taken lightly. There is a tendency to be lenient when it comes to self-plagiarism of non-critical parts of the text, for example, parts of methods sections (in experimental work). Regardless where one draws the line, copying sections of text verbatim from others is a clear breach to me. </p>\n\n<p>Anyway, it will be the editor's job to pursue the matter after you made the point. If the journal belongs to a publishing house they may receive legal help to deal with the author. If the editor does not react and there is a clear publisher behind the journal it may be relevant to bring it up a level. If you have someone in your university working on copyright issues, perhaps at the library, then you could also talk to them. They may be able to provide further assistance and help evaluate the case.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11168,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't think you should let it slide.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Contact the editor-in-chief of the journal where the offending paper appeared, and explain the situation (with the citation of your paper). If they do not respond, or do not adequately address the matter, \"name and shame\": spread the word that this is not a journal to be taken seriously. You could also contact the publisher, as Peter Jansson suggests.</p></li>\n<li><p>Contact the editor-in-chief of the journal where <em>your</em> paper appeared. They have an interest in protecting the work of their author, and may have more leverage in dealing with the offending journal. If, as is common, you transferred your copyright to them upon publication, they may have a legal interest as well.</p></li>\n<li><p>Consider contacting the author of the offending paper, and/or their department chair or dean.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11173,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have experienced this first hand as well (twice) - not a very nice feeling at all.</p>\n\n<p>Asides from contacting the editors, as has been mentioned. I would also inform those in your research network as to what has happened, for 2 reasons:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>so they are aware of what has happened, just in case they wonder why your research has gone elsewhere.</p></li>\n<li><p>so they are aware of the unethical behaviour of not only the offending author, but of the journal that allowed the plagiarised article to be published.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Members of my own research network let me know of both instances when I had been plagiarised (the second time was just within 48 hours of this answer). As with many academics, we have a zero tolerance for plagiarism, so we inform all in our research group for the reasons above - essentially, looking out for eachother in an academic sense.</p>\n\n<p>The last point may seem harsh, but (for what very little my opinion is worth), I find that plagiarism is a deliberate and wilful act of intellectual theft - laziness and even ignorance are not valid excuses. Both the offending author and the journal that let it pass are just as guilty.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11178,
"author": "Layla",
"author_id": 6144,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6144",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think that you should send an email to the following persons:</p>\n\n<p>1) To the person in charge or program committee of the journal in which your work has been plagiarized. Be prepared that you can stump upon some frisky person who would like to deny any responsibility about this actions, but at least you state your point that what is that person doing is completely wrong.</p>\n\n<p>2) To the author who make the plagiarism action</p>\n\n<p>You mentioned that the journal in which they plagiarized your work is not well known. Well that is one strong reason why you should communicate with them. For the following reasons:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Sometimes those small conferences and journals want to start to build a reputation, so consider that you will be helping them in that task.</li>\n<li>Also they can get a grasp about the quality of reviewers that they actually have in their staff. In some occasions the reviewers only pass thru the article very quickly, but actually do not check if there has been some plagiarize on it. Do not get me wrong, but a lot of reviewers do that, and most of the discovered cases of plagiarism in journals or conferences has been discovered by external persons to that environment; like in this case.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>So in both cases, you will end up teaching some research ethics to both: the cheaty researcher and the careless journal.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/15 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11165",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7748/"
]
|
11,183 | <p>I've published a paper in <a href="http://vixra.org" rel="noreferrer">viXra</a> and I would like to know if someone else cited it anywhere, but I don't know how. Is there a kind of global index for citations? Does it include “alternative archives” such as viXra?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11184,
"author": "Vijay D",
"author_id": 6807,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6807",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Try using <a href=\"http://scholar.google.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">Google Scholar</a>. There may be field-specific indexes too.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11185,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Most established academic journals are indexed in what are logically called “journal indexes”. These indexes commonly record all publication metadata, and usually also include a record of all citations. Such indexes are thus called <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citation_index\"><strong>citation indexes</strong></a>.</p>\n\n<p>Now, the problem with viXra is inherent to its “alternative” nature: it is most definitely not indexed by conventional players (Web of Science, CrossRef, PubMed, CAS, etc.). You thus have two ways of looking for citations to your paper:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://scholar.google.com/\">Google Scholar</a> includes content from viXra in its results (see <a href=\"http://scholar.google.fr/scholar?q=The+Lady+in+Baghdad&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5\">this search</a>’s first hit, for example). It probably also records citations of such articles, but the quality of citation matching is limited by Google's heuristic algorithms. They're good, but not as good as DOI-based mechanism that commercial databases nowadays employ.</li>\n<li><p>A regular web search with you name, or the title of your paper. This is not as automated, but it may give good results as to who is citing your work, especially if this is one of your first papers and you don't yet have a large web presence.</p>\n\n<p><em>(Obvious caveat: if your name is John Smith or Li Wang, web search will not help much.)</em> </p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 134934,
"author": "Shibamouli Lahiri",
"author_id": 112065,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/112065",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Vixra is indexed in Microsoft Academic Search, as of Aug 20, 2019. While potentially not as useful as Google Scholar, it does provide a similar portal; of course, Google itself also indexes Vixra papers (but not Google Scholar, which only apparently indexes the citations.)</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/17 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11183",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/819/"
]
|
11,187 | <p>I will finish my 4 year bachelors program next year, in a total of 5 years.</p>
<p>I had failed many many courses in 2nd year and my cgpa was around 2.4</p>
<p>Then I had that enlightenment and decided to become an academic. Since then, I have increased my cgpa to over 3.5 and turned all F's to A's. For last 3 semesters I get averagely 3.9 gpa each semester</p>
<p>I still have some C's in few courses from 2nd year and instead of graduating this year, I will graduate next year.</p>
<p>I have managed to boost my cgpa amazingly after such things but I want to know if this extra year will cause me any trouble during Ph.D. applications. </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11194,
"author": "eykanal",
"author_id": 73,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>This sort of thing should be explained in the cover letter. This trend is pretty common; freshmen enter college ready to party, realize halfway through that their grades are actually important, and then buckle down and do good work for the rest. You simply need to state that, despite your initial behavior, you are fully committed to your education. Given a 3.5 GPA at the end, I don't imagine you would have too much trouble.</p>\n\n<p>Do note that this will vary as a function of the universities to which you apply; some may take a harsher view than others. Still, you have a good explanation for the one bad year, so it shouldn't post too much of a problem for you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 26080,
"author": "user1798812",
"author_id": 19476,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19476",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>PhD programs do not just look at your GPA(well they do look at it, though!). They want to know that you will be a successful candidate. They put more weightage on your research experience and its novelty. They would look at your research interests that you have mentioned. They want to know that you can bear the stress of the PhD life. They want to see what is your career orientation, what do you intend to do with a PhD degree in hand. They want to see how you and your research would help in the progress of their program and institute as whole. They want to make sure they aren't wasting their resources in a bad investment(you) which is avoidable. </p>\n\n<p>Show them that you are worth it. If you can prove that you will be successful in your PhD, you will get it. People have good and bad times. Good times are good, no one questions them. The question is how did you and how well did you handle the bad times.</p>\n\n<p>You brought your your GPA up again, which is a good sign. Make sure it doesn't gets neglected. Mention the bad times and its challenges that you overcame, in your cover letter/personal statement/essay.</p>\n\n<p>If you really want it, you will get it. Good Luck! :)</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/17 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11187",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7773/"
]
|
11,193 | <p>Many academic journals have copyright policies which forbid authors (possibly for a finite embargo time) to make their papers (either preprints, accepted manuscripts, or camera-ready versions) freely available (either on their personal websites or on repositories such as the arXiv). <strong>How tightly enforced are these policies? Are there known cases of publishers pursuing legal action against an author for posting copyrighted academic papers?</strong> Or would such cases normally be dealt with private requests to cease-and-desist? </p>
<p><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/9968/820">This answer</a> seems to indicate such cases are rare, but there could be privately-dealt with cases that are not visible. Or is there a large body of public-repository-published papers that possibly / probably / demonstrably have been publicly posted in breach of a copyright policy?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11197,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Fully agreeing with <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11193/how-tightly-enforced-are-open-access-embargoes#comment20639_11193\">eykanal's comment</a>, I can provide the following thought on reasons: as with all copyrighted materials originating from commercial sources, it becomes a business decision on when and how to hunt down those who break the rules. If some authors put their manuscripts out on their own web sites it is probably not worth the expenses to prevent it. If everyone did it systematically, I am sure things would look different. If publishers see a decline in subscription rates from libraries due to the fact that authors make stuff available, then I think we will see something akin to what happened with downloadable music. For a publisher, an author is also what makes the business go around, so hunting authors may not be a good business practice. But, with more and more published work being made available in formally illegal ways, I am sure it is only a matter of time before clamps are tightened. So it is a bit like teasing a sleeping bear, fine until it wakes up (and I do not mean \"fine\" as in agreeing with posting material illegally).</p>\n\n<p>In addition to putting the published paper online, it might be worth noting that in many if not most cases, it is perfectly legal to post the original manuscript (before review and typesetting) on the web since this is not the copyrighted material that is in the publications. Unless you have signed off on immaterial rights you still have the rights to that original work.</p>\n\n<p>The bottom line is it is illegal and many probably do not really understand what they have signed when they published their papers.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11206,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 6110,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6110",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One data point:</p>\n\n<p>I am a mathematician, and I have never heard of this happening to anyone.</p>\n\n<p>Many mathematicians post preprints on their website and to the arXiv, and it is somewhat common for mathematicians to also post scanned copies of the published journal versions of their older papers.</p>\n\n<p>Ethical judgements may vary, but I am unaware of any authors who have suffered negative practical consequences for this, or even who have been asked to remove their papers.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11226,
"author": "cbeleites unhappy with SX",
"author_id": 725,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/725",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Update: Here's the new text of the German <a href=\"http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/urhg/__38.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">UrhG §38 Abs (4)</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Der Urheber eines wissenschaftlichen Beitrags, der im Rahmen einer mindestens zur Hälfte mit öffentlichen Mitteln geförderten Forschungstätigkeit entstanden und in einer periodisch mindestens zweimal jährlich erscheinenden Sammlung erschienen ist, hat auch dann, wenn er dem Verleger oder Herausgeber ein ausschließliches Nutzungsrecht eingeräumt hat, das Recht, den Beitrag nach Ablauf von zwölf Monaten seit der Erstveröffentlichung in der akzeptierten Manuskriptversion öffentlich zugänglich zu machen, soweit dies keinem gewerblichen Zweck dient. Die Quelle der Erstveröffentlichung ist anzugeben. Eine zum Nachteil des Urhebers abweichende Vereinbarung ist unwirksam.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>rough translation: </p>\n\n<p>The author of a scientific work </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>which was produced during scientific reseach that funded at least half by public money and </li>\n<li>which was published in a periodical that is issued at least twice per year </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>retains the right to make the <em>accpted manuscript</em> publicly available </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>after an embargo period of 12 months from the date of the first publication</li>\n<li>as long as this is not for commercial purposes.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The source of the first publication must be given.<br>\nThis right is retained also in case of a complete copyright transfer to the publisher of editor.<br>\nAgreements on this topic to the disadvantage of the author are void.</p>\n\n<p>I guess the non-commercial clause will raise some questions and difficulties.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>old answer:</p>\n\n<p>Here in Germany, the parliament (Bundestag) actually <a href=\"http://dipbt.bundestag.de/extrakt/ba/WP17/524/52444.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">voted to change §38 UrhG</a><br>\nto (among other changes): </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Einführung eines unabdingbaren Zweitverwertungsrechtes für Autoren von mit überwiegend aus öffentlichen Mitteln geförderten Beiträgen in Periodika 12 Monate nach Erstveröffentlichung;</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>rough translation: <em>introduction of an unalienable right of secondary use* for authors of contributions to journals which are mainly supported mainly by public grants 12 months after the primary publication</em>.</p>\n\n<p>* I'm not quite sure how to translate \"Zweitverwertungsrecht\" - it is the right for secondary use/exploitation(?) of a work. Meaning that agreements that the publisher get the exclusive rights to the work will be valid in Germany only for 12 months, thereafter the authors have the right to make these papers publicly available. </p>\n\n<p>The new text does not yet show up (the voting took place only 2 weeks ago) in the law texts in internet, it will become <a href=\"http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/urhg/__38.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">§38 (4) UrhG</a>.</p>\n\n<p>While this still means that only papers with public funding are covered, and the embargo period may be annoying, I see this as an important step into the right direction. And it definitively means that there won't be any possibility for publishers to enforce anything after a year if a German author made the work publicly available.</p>\n\n<p>In any case, our version of the \"fair use\" rights mean that I'm always allowed to send single copies of scientific papers which are needed for collaboration to my colleagues. So within the first year after publication, you'll still have to email me for the paper, but thereafter, you can blame me for not making the manuscript available e.g. via arXiv.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 12821,
"author": "E.P.",
"author_id": 820,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/820",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here is one event that can qualify as such. In 2011, <a href=\"http://r6.ca/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Russell O'Connor</a> submitted a paper to the ACM Workshop for Generic Programming 2011 after having submitted it to the arXiv under a Public Domain licence. At press time, the printer asked O'Connor for a letter of permission from the ACM <em>in lieu</em> of an exclusive copyright transfer which he could not grant. Although he had informed the conference chairs of the arXiv upload when he submitted, and they were OK with it, ACM legal refused to publish the paper as it was \"already published.\" The paper is only mentioned briefly in the proceedings in a note:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>We note that one of the papers presented in the workshop is not included in the proceedings. This paper, ‘Functor is to Lens as Applicative is to Biplate: Introducing Multiplate’ by Russell O’Connor, is accessible as <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.2841v2\" rel=\"noreferrer\">arXiv:1103.2841v2</a> [cs.PL].</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is explained in more detail in O'Connor's blog post <a href=\"http://r6.ca/blog/20110930T012533Z.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">The ACM and Me</a>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 15859,
"author": "E.P.",
"author_id": 820,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/820",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This seems to be changing. A recent article in the <em>Washington Post</em>, <a href=\"http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2013/12/19/how-one-publisher-is-stopping-academics-from-sharing-their-research/\">How one publisher is stopping academics from sharing their research</a> (2013-12-19), describes a recent 'spree' of takedown notices sent by Elsevier to Academia.edu, the University of Calgary, the University of California-Irvine, and Harvard University. This seems to be a new development:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The letter to Harvard identified 23 articles that it requested be taken down from University-hosted pages in mid November. \"We had not received takedown notices for scholarly articles before this, as far as we know,\" says Peter Suber, the Director of the Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication and the Harvard Open Access Project.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Academia.edu, which is a for-profit company, and also a competitor of Elsevier-owned Mendeley, got about 2,800 requests.</p>\n\n<p>This story is also covered by <a href=\"http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-12/17/elsevier-versus-open-access\">Wired</a> and <a href=\"http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/posting-your-latest-article-you-might-have-to-take-it-down/48865\">The Chronicle of Higher Education</a>.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/17 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11193",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/820/"
]
|
11,195 | <p>I was thinking about submitting one of my papers in <a href="http://arxiv.org/" rel="noreferrer">arXiv</a> or <a href="http://www.optimization-online.org/" rel="noreferrer">www.optimization-online.org</a> and hence I was just wondering if mentioning the same in my CV would be appropriate. Is it done usually? If yes, how should I actually mention something like this in my CV? Kindly guide me (I have no previous experience in publishing papers and I'm an undergraduate student). </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11198,
"author": "Ben Webster",
"author_id": 13,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This only pertains to mathematics since that's the only field I can speak for, but there it's normal for people to list preprints on the arXiv in their publication list or CV <strong>making it clear</strong> that it is listed as a preprint. I think people understand perfectly well that there are long lead times one getting things published.</p>\n\n<p>That said, I would say that you should think carefully and get advice from more experienced people in your field before submitting to a preprint archive. At least in the case of the arXiv, once something is posted, it can never be taken down.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11199,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Putting non-peer reviewed publications on your CV is perfectly fine, but you should be aware that for research-oriented jobs and admission to academic programs you will be primarily judged by your peer reviewed publications. I have seen CVs that separately list peer-reviewed works and non-peer reviewed works, and sometimes the non-peer reviewed works are simply listed as \"technical reports.\"</p>\n\n<p>If you believe that the papers you write are worthy of being mentioned on your CV, then list them. But don't think that by putting a bunch of low-quality non-peer reviewed works will do you any favors when looking for work or when applying for academic positions (whether graduate school or employment). Obviously, you should avoid putting them on your CV if you are doing so simply to demonstrate that you can write a paper.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11227,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Depends on your field. If in it arXiv is not popular, make a separate list named \"Preprints\".</p>\n\n<p>If it is popular (i.e. people are expected to post on arXiv along with sending to the journal), then it is common to have a single list (where, naturally, papers from last months or a year are only on arXiv, other - both have the journal reference and arXiv ID). If older papers are peer-reviewed then it is somehow implied that the new ones are likely to get into journals/conferences as well.</p>\n\n<p>However, if you have only arXiv preprints (e.g. as you are only starting your career) it is not implied that they will get accepted. Anyway, listing them is way better than listing nothing - just make a list of \"Preprints\".</p>\n\n<p>In any case putting preprints may give you an edge - especially if your preprints are related to research they are interested in (for me, quite a few times, they were a starting point of a specialistic discussion).</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/17 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11195",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7775/"
]
|
11,200 | <p>I have searched the literature and I'm now have all the papers I need. </p>
<p>I'm reading the papers at the moment in order to write a lit review. I would like to know some strategies to read them, should I read them from first page to last page? or should I read specific sections only?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11203,
"author": "Layla",
"author_id": 6144,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6144",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I really recommend that you start reading the Abstract, by that way you can get rid of some papers that would not be so valuable for your work. After that try to get a quick glimpse at the theoretical background, just to catch if there is some background that you are actually missing and you will need for understanding the article fully. Take your time to read the experimentation part and feel free to jump to the conclusions.</p>\n\n<p>Remember that you do not need to read some articles from the first page to the last page, except in some ocassions. There will be some sections that you can clearly jump e.g. the theoretical part, if you have the enough background.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11207,
"author": "katychuang",
"author_id": 1238,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1238",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The objective of reading/review academic papers is to critically analyze research studies. </p>\n\n<p>Critical reading is basically a process where you ask yourself questions as you're reading, such as:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><em>What was the objective of the research study?</em></li>\n<li><em>Did the researchers accomplish this?</em></li>\n<li><em>Why or why not?</em></li>\n<li><em>Why is the study important?</em></li>\n<li><em>What are the implications of the findings?</em></li>\n<li><em>How does this paper contribute knowledge to society?</em></li>\n<li><em>Do I want to borrow an idea from this paper?</em></li>\n<li><em>Do I believe something can be improved?</em></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Answering those questions will help you figure out what you've read and why it was relevant to you and the research study you'll end up designing. It can also help you as you target each section, it's not always clear cut the order in which you'll read the paper critically.</p>\n\n<p>Now that you know what to look for, how you organize those notes is up to your individual preference. There are many options available: hand written notes, digital notes, laptop, ipad, etc. I personally like to use a matrix format with different fields, such as objective, method, findings, theoretical model, etc. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/17 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11200",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7382/"
]
|
11,201 | <p>I'm weighing all my options before the fall application and I wanted to know if it is possible to take out loans in the US as an international master's degree student.</p>
<p>Any tips where to look?
Best I've seen are private loans with an American cosignatory. Is it really the extent of loan options for an international? Do universities extend loans to their students or help in getting private loans?</p>
<p>Cheers</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11202,
"author": "Virgo",
"author_id": 7764,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7764",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes check with your universities Student Services Department. Most of the universities also give you scholarships provided you have some good scores in GRE/TOEFL or whatever they require. Banks also give Student loans to International students provided you have a credit-worthy US-Citizen as a Co-signer.\nBut most of the international students are eligible for scholarships.\nGood luck.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.edupass.org/finaid/loans.phtml\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.edupass.org/finaid/loans.phtml</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11205,
"author": "Geena",
"author_id": 7776,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7776",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Try to check (email) with the offices for international students and scholar that in some universities also handle financial issues for foreign students. They will give you the best options. If you're willing to do research or teaching work, I'd suggest you to personally contact Faculties or graduate program secretaries that may have such options for you. In some universities, most national and international grad students are under teaching or research assistantships, have tuition waived and monthly stipend, and this also build up their cv. This may not apply to specific degrees such as MBA, but if you're in science, technology, education or engineer, it is likely that you can find assistantship to support you.<br>\nIt may be too late to find an assistantship for the fall semester, you can consider to start next spring as well.\ngood luck!</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/17 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11201",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1618/"
]
|
11,213 | <p>I had submitted this paper of mine to a reputed springer journal some time back. There are reasons for me to believe it is a good journal although it has an impact factor of only 0.941 since most of the original work on the problem ( I will describe that in detail below) I'm working on was published in that journal. A few days back I received a decision from them which said that they wouldn't be considering it for publication and this was the reviewer's comment - "<em>I am afraid i do not see a contribution by this paper valuable enough for publication in the Journal. Neither regarding the problem setting nor regarding the solution method any new insights are provided</em>". </p>
<p>Now, I do admit that my work isn't something path breaking or completely novel (I shall give a detailed description in the end). What I have essentially done is that I have used existing algorithms and techniques and have applied the same on the specific problem I was working on and have got significant results (please see the complete detail of the problem in the end).</p>
<p>So post rejection I have actually been in a complete dilemma on whether I should actually try publishing my work again with some other journals and I have also begun to wonder if journals actually accept such work. The problem is that I have no prior experience of publishing papers and I'm an undergraduate student. So it would be really nice if someone could help me with this.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>More on the Problem:</strong></p>
<p>The problem I have been working on is the Traveling Tournament Problem. So what I have done here is that I have taken existing techniques and algorithms for this problem and I have applied it to a very popular sports league in order to schedule it. And doing so has actually given me some "significant"(?) results like reduction in the travel distance in this league.
I am also pretty sure no one has actually worked on this particular league before, so this would be the first instance of the same. </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11214,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In publishing there is a phenomena called \"me too\" publications (see for example Day & Gastel: How to write and Publish A Scientific Paper) where one takes existing methods and apply them to a new area, data set, whatever context is applicable. Although not wrong, these types of studies usually do not contribute much new knowledge except resulting in the understandng that the method(s) work in (yet) another circumstance.</p>\n\n<p>What can then be done? As I alluded to initially, there is nothing really wrong with such studies. What is necessary is to convince the editors and reviewers that by applying the method(s) to the new area, you have actually achieved something new (in the sense of scientific discovery). For example, applying a formula to a new set of numbers is not a discovery unless the new numbers themselves contain something that can be set apart from what has been done before. So it boils down to what might sloppily be called \"packaging\"; you need to package your study so that it is evident what new discovery is achieved. It is not sufficient to just say that it is a new data set but you need to convince that applying the method(s) to the new data set shows results that expand our horizon beyond the obvious and also be explicit why one, for example, would not expect the result you obtained (or equivalent).</p>\n\n<p>I have deliberately kept this answer as general as I can because the issue you bring up applies to many if not all fields. I would give the manuscript a hard work over and really think about what truly scientifically (intelectually) new aspects you bring forth. It may be that your writing has not been clear enough to bring the message through. It may be that you are too involved to see the bigger picture that needs to be explained to others. Or, in the worst case, it may be that your study is too trivial. Avoid falling into the \"me too\" trap, it easily happens and the remedy is usually to make sure the perspectives of the study are re-written carefully to highlight the core research problem to be solved.</p>\n\n<p>So to answer, yes you should try again unless you find you are stuck in \"me too\" land.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11215,
"author": "gerrit",
"author_id": 1033,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Peter Janssons answer is good. I would like to add something specifically on the venue.</p>\n\n<p>If you develop or apply a new method, submit to a journal that focus on methods.</p>\n\n<p>If you apply an existing method to a field where it hasn't before, submit to a journal that focuses on the application. This can be very enriching, perhaps nobody in this field thought of using this method before, maybe they didn't know it existed. Such a paper can be rather short and won't be prize-winning, but can certainly be publishable.</p>\n\n<p>So, perhaps all you need to do is sit with your advisor and reconsider the venue where you're publishing, in addition to some <em>packaging</em> as Peter Jansson describes.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/18 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11213",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7775/"
]
|
11,228 | <p>I notice that coming up for tenure/getting tenure is often an opportunity to move to another institution (even if tenure is granted). How does this work in practice? Is it common for assistant professors to formally go on the job market the year that they are up for tenure? Do they do it only informally, by asking around? Do schools just make offers to up-for-tenure APs without prompting? </p>
<p>I'm curious how this works, because it seems that often times these moves are worked out shortly after tenure decisions are made, so it seems like they must have been in the works before hand. </p>
<p>I'm most interested in highly ranked US based research universities. </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11231,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a manifestation of game-playing, and is completely understandable once one starts thinking in such terms.</p>\n\n<p>For example, if a person is in an excellent situation to get tenure at their current institution, they are probably in an equally good position to get other jobs, perhaps with tenure.</p>\n\n<p>Another feature: if a person has done good-enough work that they've got outside offers, this can set in motion the getting-tenure process at their current institution.</p>\n\n<p>(Shallowly enough, the \"best\" certification of one's academic virtue is outside offers.)</p>\n\n<p>At the same time, I think most up-for-tenure assistant profs in the U.S. are not really looking for outside offers as they come up for tenure, so even if they could generate them, they'd not try. For that matter, despite the \"rewards\", many people find this game-playing obnoxious so don't do it.</p>\n\n<p>To answer another part of your question: yes, most formal job offers only arise after informal inquiries and back-and-forth, because... as with high-school dating... getting turned down is embarrassing. :)</p>\n\n<p>The people who are interested in gaming the system continue to do so after tenure, typically...</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11239,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I cannot think of any assistant profs in the US who did not actively go on the job market when they were coming up for tenure. This seems to me to be reasonable behaviour even if you have no desire to move because</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Getting tenure at your current institution is a bit of a crap shoot.\nIt is obviously influenced by how good your past work is, but there\nare a lot of other factors at play. The success rate is not\nparticularly high.</li>\n<li>I also believe, although have no data to back it up, that having a\ntenured offer from one university increases your chances of a tenured\noffer from another university. This of course could be correlation\nand not causation, but I am not convinced.</li>\n<li>Being up for tenure is not a black mark on your CV, being turned down\nfor tenure and then going on the job market opens up a big question\nmark.</li>\n</ul>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/18 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11228",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7792/"
]
|
11,229 | <p>I'm in the very beginning of my scientific career, so I don't yet know the standards for (systematic) reviews very well. I feel I don't have so much experience that I could publish my own research in good journals (I have now just two conference papers), so I'm considering to pay close attention for 6-12 months in other peoples' works.</p>
<p>I have a clear research question, but given the massive amount of related papers it's difficult to choose which ones to pick. Of course, I will select papers related to my research question as the first criteria. However, could I narrow the range of included papers more by</p>
<ul>
<li>publication date (e.g. only take papers published during the past five years),</li>
<li>impact factor or citation count,</li>
<li>type of publication (conference, journal),</li>
<li>sample size (e.g. number of subjects)?</li>
</ul>
<p>Or, if not these, what criteria are commonly used? I guess the answer is different for reviews and systematic reviews, so please cover both if possible. thank you!</p>
<p>EDIT: I'm considering this so that it would be possible to try publish my results.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11230,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I do not find any of these points very relevant. The publication date couldbe useful if your topic is such that older references are indeeed obsolete.</p>\n\n<p>To write a review you want to collect papers that describe your topic as well as possible. A review is usually a good point for others to see the depth and breadth of a subject so being complete is usually a sign of quality.</p>\n\n<p>Given that you have a topic, you need to consider how you should organize your information. Is there any new that can come out of the way you organize your review? A review is not just a collection of older results, you need to provide a synthesis. Often the outcome is to made limitations in older work visible or to identify gaps in knowledge or point at directions for new development. Depending on what the purpose will be you may end up chosing papers differently. However, often you do not know the structure until you have read enough and come to realize how the knowledge in th earea is distributed.</p>\n\n<p>So for me there is no real difference between review and systematic review. A review is simply a way to orgnaize and sort older information in a new way so that new patterns emerge and hint at directions for further research or other forms of new ideas.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11234,
"author": "Dan C",
"author_id": 1069,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The point of a review of a field or subfield (IMHO) is to <strong>tell the story</strong> of the development of the field, leading up to explaining <strong>what are the major open questions?</strong> and <strong>why are they important?</strong> Often (though not always), you should focus on <strong>big ideas</strong> and which developments they have lead to.\nIf there was a sequence of 10 papers that repeatedly applied roughly the same ideas to larger data sets, because they got bigger and faster computers, that is probably not very interesting, and something you will likely gloss over (or completely omit) from your review. So you need a way to determine which are the <em>most important papers</em> and start with those.</p>\n\n<p><strong>It's hard to write a review before you know the field.</strong> Here are a few possible ways to get that knowledge quickly:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Read an old review in the same area. See which papers it claims are foundational, then check to see which more recent papers cite the foundational ones. Iterate.</p></li>\n<li><p>Go to lots of seminar talks and see which results always get mentioned in the introduction. Start by reading those papers.</p></li>\n<li><p>Ask a more senior student or faculty member where to start.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11236,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In health related fields there is a huge difference between a review and a systematic review. The point of a standard review is to summarise an area of research possibly identifying areas of future research, but not necessarily. A standard review is often conducted in conjunction with a meta analysis or leads to a meta analysis to determine if a particular Patient population is helped by an Intervention more than a Comparison intervention on a set of Outcomes. This leads to the PICO search strategy. There are a number of different frameworks by which systematic reviews can be conducted. A Cochrane review is one such system. There is a whole field of literature associated with conducting systematic reviews.</p>\n\n<p>The goal of a systematic review, and a review in general, is to find all the relevant papers. If you want less papers you need to narrow your question. PICO can help with this.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/18 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11229",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7793/"
]
|
11,232 | <p>I'm designing a leadership development program for a graduate college at a research university. As part of the project, I've designed a summary sheet which each participant will receive. The summary is designed to give them an impression of their overall leadership development. It includes an "overall leadership score," which is currently shown as a number on a 1-10 scale. </p>
<p>My intent is for all students to begin the program at a baseline level of 5. Students who demonstrate multiple positive leadership traits will raise their score above a 5. Students who show a lack of these traits will lower that score.</p>
<p>However, I'd like to replace the 1-10 scale since it will be difficult to keep the baseline or average score of 5 from being equated with a 50, an F, etc. For the same reason, I've avoided the use of a letter scale.</p>
<p>Does anyone have suggestions on an alternative grading system that is well suited to this type of grading task? I'm also trying to find something that won't be too discouraging for students whose leadership scores are below average (seeing a 0 or an F would not get the right message across).</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11230,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I do not find any of these points very relevant. The publication date couldbe useful if your topic is such that older references are indeeed obsolete.</p>\n\n<p>To write a review you want to collect papers that describe your topic as well as possible. A review is usually a good point for others to see the depth and breadth of a subject so being complete is usually a sign of quality.</p>\n\n<p>Given that you have a topic, you need to consider how you should organize your information. Is there any new that can come out of the way you organize your review? A review is not just a collection of older results, you need to provide a synthesis. Often the outcome is to made limitations in older work visible or to identify gaps in knowledge or point at directions for new development. Depending on what the purpose will be you may end up chosing papers differently. However, often you do not know the structure until you have read enough and come to realize how the knowledge in th earea is distributed.</p>\n\n<p>So for me there is no real difference between review and systematic review. A review is simply a way to orgnaize and sort older information in a new way so that new patterns emerge and hint at directions for further research or other forms of new ideas.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11234,
"author": "Dan C",
"author_id": 1069,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The point of a review of a field or subfield (IMHO) is to <strong>tell the story</strong> of the development of the field, leading up to explaining <strong>what are the major open questions?</strong> and <strong>why are they important?</strong> Often (though not always), you should focus on <strong>big ideas</strong> and which developments they have lead to.\nIf there was a sequence of 10 papers that repeatedly applied roughly the same ideas to larger data sets, because they got bigger and faster computers, that is probably not very interesting, and something you will likely gloss over (or completely omit) from your review. So you need a way to determine which are the <em>most important papers</em> and start with those.</p>\n\n<p><strong>It's hard to write a review before you know the field.</strong> Here are a few possible ways to get that knowledge quickly:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Read an old review in the same area. See which papers it claims are foundational, then check to see which more recent papers cite the foundational ones. Iterate.</p></li>\n<li><p>Go to lots of seminar talks and see which results always get mentioned in the introduction. Start by reading those papers.</p></li>\n<li><p>Ask a more senior student or faculty member where to start.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11236,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In health related fields there is a huge difference between a review and a systematic review. The point of a standard review is to summarise an area of research possibly identifying areas of future research, but not necessarily. A standard review is often conducted in conjunction with a meta analysis or leads to a meta analysis to determine if a particular Patient population is helped by an Intervention more than a Comparison intervention on a set of Outcomes. This leads to the PICO search strategy. There are a number of different frameworks by which systematic reviews can be conducted. A Cochrane review is one such system. There is a whole field of literature associated with conducting systematic reviews.</p>\n\n<p>The goal of a systematic review, and a review in general, is to find all the relevant papers. If you want less papers you need to narrow your question. PICO can help with this.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/19 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11232",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7795/"
]
|
11,240 | <p>I'm a junior looking for insights on intro to academia. My GPA is considered low (~3.2), but I believe I have a reasonable understanding and experience in the field I'd like to study and would like to try to submit a paper to a conference to aim for top-10 CS grad schools and see if I really have research interest and potential.</p>
<p>I'm not sure what I should expect and how to plan for the next 1~2 years. Grad school applications are usually due before the spring semester, so I have roughly ~1.5 years to prepare, right? I noticed that the first deadlines for a lot of conferences in the field are between April~June. Will I have enough time to write one? How long does it usually take to publish a first research paper?</p>
<p>I'm planning on asking professors if I can join a project when the semester starts (or ask for a review when I write one? I'm not sure what the options are). I wasn't planning on going to grad school until recently, so I'm not very familiar with this process, and I'd like to hear what you think.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11242,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First things first -- generally, you do research with the intent to learn something and/or to solve an open problem, not with the intent to publish a paper so you can get into graduate school. This relates directly to your question:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Will I have enough time to write [a paper]?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Without knowing what you're planning on researching, or how it will turn out, this is unanswerable. Writing a research paper for publication isn't as simple as saying you're going to do it -- you have to have a legitimate problem to work on, the tools and ability to produce a novel contribution regarding that problem, and the drive to make it happen. Then, of course, you have to actually write and edit the paper, put together any graphs or other figures that demonstrate your contribution, find a suitable conference (or journal or workshop, etc.) to publish the paper in, and then actually submit it by the deadline.</p>\n\n<p>All of that said, your idea to ask professors about joining their research groups is a good one. With this plan, you have the potential to:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Find out if you enjoy and have the temperament for research.</li>\n<li>Get mentorship from a professor, grad students, or other more experienced undergraduates.</li>\n<li>Find out what problems are interesting and worth pursuing.</li>\n<li>Practice the steps of going from idea to published results.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Once you find a professor to work with (and again, I suggest phrasing your request in terms of why you are interested in computer science research, and not on the means to getting into graduate school), you will start getting answers to the other questions, like what specific conferences you might want to shoot for. Obviously, it behooves you to plan ahead in order to meet conference deadlines, but until you start the research, you won't be able to determine whether you will eventually have enough good results to put together a paper.</p>\n\n<p>As a general guideline, it would not surprise me if you can find a good problem to work on and submit it to a workshop or conference within a year and a half. You might also be able to work on an ongoing project and end up as an author on a paper or two that come from this work. Good luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11249,
"author": "J.R.",
"author_id": 780,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/780",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p><em>How long does it usually take to publish a first research paper?</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That question depends on a lot of factors. Here are a few of them:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>What is the significance of your research?</li>\n<li>How much of your research is unique, novel, and relevant?</li>\n<li>Will other computer scientists be interested in your findings?</li>\n<li>How well can you write? How well can you organize your paper?</li>\n<li>Where do you intend to publish?</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Some conferences and publications are more competitive than others. (Put another way, some have a lower acceptance rate than others.) Much of that depends on who sponsors the conference or publication.</p>\n\n<p>First, you have to do the research (this is not trivial). Significant findings need to come from that research (this doesn't always happen). You have to write that in a way that will appeal to the community (the community can be rather fickle sometimes). Lastly, you have to find some venue where the work can be presented (it's not always easy to find a good match).</p>\n\n<p>If a paper gets rejected, it could be because:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The research doesn't report anything new or significant</li>\n<li>The research doesn't report anything of interest to the community</li>\n<li>The paper is poorly written</li>\n<li>The paper doesn't cite other related research, leading to a credibility problem</li>\n<li>There simply wasn't room for your paper in the publication, or it wasn't a good match for that venue</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Getting back to your original question, you might be able to publish in a year, if everything goes very smoothly. However, that's a huge \"IF.\" Even established researchers can spend years getting ready for a publication, only to see it be rejected by a committee. </p>\n\n<p>Publication can be a long and arduous process, with plenty of opportunities for obstacles, setbacks, and dead ends. It can be very hard to estimate a timetable, particularly for a first-timer going from start to finish.</p>\n\n<p>Your best bet might be to see what's going on at your university, and see if you can get involved with an established, ohgoing research effort. Before you do that, it might be worth doing a self-evaluation first, so that you're prepared to tell a faculty member what you can offer the research team. For example, perhaps you're a crack programmer, and a research project at your institution needs some software written, in order to complete an experiment or simulation. That might be a more realistic way to get started as a researcher.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/19 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11240",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7799/"
]
|
11,247 | <p>I made a really stupid mistake. Me and some other graduate students were playing Dungeons and Dragons in my lab after hours (9 pm) this summer and we each opened up a beer and the cleaners called the cops on us. I think I'm going to get an academic censure because of it, which means I think that it will go on my transcripts. This is the only case of my misconduct, and I feel really stupid that I did it. My question is will this greatly affect my ability to go into a PhD program? I joined this masters program as a stepping stone, and have done very well academically and with my thesis in this program. I'm worried that all the progress I have made will go away because of one lapse of judgement.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11248,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I would do everything I can to prevent this going on my transcript. The first thing I would do is write a letter of apology to the cleaning crew for my misbehaviour. Do not approach the cleaners directly, but rather through their boss. Then I would contact the head of the MS program to explain what happened. While waiting for that meeting I would schedule a meeting with an alcohol counsellor so I could demonstrate I do not have a problem drinking. You may also want to enrol in a workplace sensitivity training course.</p>\n\n<p>I cannot recall seeing an application with anything like this before. I don't think people would really hold it against you and you could explain it in your cover letter. That said graduate school admission is competitive.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11270,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't think you need to worry unless there's something more to the context. Drinking a single beer in a computer lab seems pretty harmless; the university might legitimately object to the risk of spilling your beer, but this should not be a career-ending mistake. On the other hand, drinking in a chemistry lab could be a very serious safety violation, especially if you were tending to an experiment during the game.</p>\n\n<p>Assuming the only problem is a technical violation of the \"public consumption\" rule and that you retain the full support of your letter of recommendation writers, I doubt it will do you any harm even if it does end up on your transcript. You should look at your transcript before applying to see exactly what it says. You can then include a few sentences somewhere in your Ph.D. application addressing this issue and explaining that the \"academic censure\" was only because you had a single beer in a campus location not specifically permitted. This is very important, because to me the term \"academic censure\" sounds more like cheating or plagiarism.</p>\n\n<p>Assuming you aren't applying to Brigham Young University or KAUST, I can't see why anyone would care about this sort of technicality. It would lower my opinion of the university, rather than the applicant. (On the other hand, if there's more to the story, such as safety violations, then you'll have to work harder to sort it out.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11279,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Daniel’s and Anonymous’ answers are great, and I want to emphasize that they are not mutually exclusive. I’ll also add some tidbits:</p>\n<ol>\n<li><p>Fight as much as you can to avoid it getting on your academic record. It may not matter much for admissions later on, or it may, you can never know for sure. It sure is easier if there is nothing to explain. You can tell the admission committee that “it was just a single beer”, but that's still just your word: all the official information they have is less informative and, probably, scarier than that. Also, being known from the start as “the guy with the beer-drinking record”, even if you get the position, may not be so good.</p>\n<p>However: fight nice! Don't create stronger hostility than you already have…</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>If it does get on your record, be upfront and address it straight on in your cover letters. Doing so, people may not care so much. If you aren't upfront with it, they will definitely not take the risk.</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/19 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11247",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6898/"
]
|
11,250 | <p>Is it advisable to have a professor from a university look at your paper before you submit it to a journal, since they might want partial credit? and would it take the journal a longer time to referee your research paper if you have no affiliation? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11251,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The question is a bit vague since you have not provided your own level of education or within what framework you do research.</p>\n\n<p>Since it is generally possible for anyone to publish a paper, you will not need to go through an academic. It may, however, be a very good step to take since essentially no-one can write a fault-free paper and if you do not have the experience or research eucation, you will find it almost necessary to stand a chance with a journal. Such a \"review\" will most certanly weed out any major problems with your paper. A problem here may of course be that your inexperience may make the task to improve the paper very time consuming (again, not knowing your own background makes it difficult to assess what help you may need) and hence make persons less likely to take on the job.</p>\n\n<p>The journal will as I can see ot spend more or less time your manuscript than they would any other of similar quality. If the journal accepts it for review (general quality check) it will be sent out to reviewers for more careful scrutiny (scientific quality check) after which the paper is recommended for either revisions or is rejected. none of this would be different in your case unless one taes into consideration that you may not be as fluent in scientific writing (which means rejection is more liekly than otherwse).</p>\n\n<p>So a good plan is to try to contact persons at an academic institution, present your work and see if they would consider helping you. It is not certain you will be helped because your manscript will be extra work done in addition to everything else. If you cannot get help then you can hopefully try to submit the manuscript anyway, but I strongly recommend you to spend time looking at how papers in the field are written and also pick up a good reference book on scientific writing to make sure you avoid basic mistakes.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11261,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I'll try to answer you two specific questions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><em>“Is it advisable to have a professor from a university look at your paper before you submit it?”</em> — <strong>Yes, if you have no previous experience of publishing papers</strong> (as a principal author). Academic publication is a game with a set of written rules and some non-written expectations. You can find the rules indicated on the publisher's webpage (guidelines to authors, editorial policy, etc.). If you have read a good number of papers, including many papers from the specific journal (or conference, or …) you are submitting to, then you may have inferred some of the non-written expectations. But otherwise, having someone to help you with the more formal part of academic writing will enhance your paper's chances.</p></li>\n<li><p><em>“Is it advisable to have a professor from a university look at your paper before you submit it?”</em> — <strong>Yes again, if you do not have a very good understanding of the field, its advances and its directions.</strong> To be somewhat brutally honest (and in line with paul’s comment): from experience, newcomers to research, or to a specific field, have a natural tendency to reïnvent the wheel or overestimate the impact and novelty of their work. It's okay, judging these correctly involves a very good grasp of the overall field, both in-breadth and in-depth.</p></li>\n<li><p><em>“Would it take the journal a longer time to referee your research paper if you have no affiliation?”</em> — <strong>No</strong>. For two articles of the same quality, with an unknown author, I don't think the presence of an affiliation would impact review time.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><em>Edit to answer question in comment: “Would a professor who reviews the paper want credit?”</em> — <strong>It depends</strong> on the amount of work required and the ethics of the person you ask. If reviewing the paper requires significant amount of time, especially because there are many faults with the paper that need to be fixed, you could see that there must be incentive for the professor to invest in it. In all cases, <strong><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/authorship\">discuss this issue upfront!</a></strong></p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/19 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11250",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7802/"
]
|
11,254 | <p>I am attending a university with a mediocre mathematics department. The courses at my school cover fewer topics and are less challenging than the same courses at top universities.</p>
<ul>
<li>How can I avoid becoming behind in coursework compared to students at top universities?</li>
<li>How can I ensure that I am competitive when applying to mathematics graduate school?</li>
</ul>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11255,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Read as many mathematics books, lecture-notes, and published articles as possible. Not just \"textbooks\". Not just \"undergraduate textbooks\" as these contain very little substantive mathematics.</p>\n\n<p>Even if your faculty people are not stellar mathematicians, they surely know some advanced mathematics and can give you guidance about what to read. Uninformed self-study can be a huge time-waster so you will want some direction to be productive and your mathematics faculty will be the best & most available people to provide you with productive guidance.</p>\n\n<p>Definitely talk to faculty to get guidance! This can be done officially through a \"reading course\" or \"directed study.\" It can also be done informally through frequent check-ins with interesting questions. Either way this will enable those faculty members to write excellent letters of recommendation about your <em>interest</em> and <em>motivation</em> based on your capacity to appreciate the things you will have read and your perceptive questions.</p>\n\n<p>It's not so much whether <em>you</em> (as a novice) can handle random questions, which novices rarely can, but whether your sensibilities are heading in the right direction, which would be manifest in your <em>reaction to</em> substantial mathematics.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11256,
"author": "JRN",
"author_id": 64,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/64",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>How can I ensure that I am competitive when applying to mathematics graduate school?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Be a student member of a professional mathematics organization, such as the <a href=\"http://www.maa.org/\">Mathematical Association of America</a>, the <a href=\"http://www.ams.org/\">American Mathematical Society</a>, or the <a href=\"http://siam.org/\">Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics</a> (even if you are not based in the USA). This will help you be up to date with recent developments.</p>\n\n<p>Try submitting some answers to problems posed in publications like <a href=\"http://www.maa.org/publications/periodicals/college-mathematics-journal/the-college-mathematics-journal\">The College Mathematics Journal</a> and <a href=\"http://cms.math.ca/crux/\">Crux Mathematicorum</a>. Publication of your name in the solutions section might help you in your application to graduate school.</p>\n\n<p>If possible, attend at least one conference in mathematics. This will let you interact with students and researchers in other schools.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11257,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Have you heard about Yitang Zhang's story? If not, I would suggest you to Google for it.</p>\n\n<p>Had you asked about other disciplines, my answer would be different. However, your major is math, I think top university or not does not matter much.</p>\n\n<p>All you have to do is to study hard. That's it. We are Internet age now. You have all kinds of resources available online. Our sister sites, Mathematics Stack Exchange and MathOverflow, can be very helpful to you. I myself am a retiree. I learn quite a lot from them.</p>\n\n<p>Bottom line, study. Good luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11258,
"author": "Student",
"author_id": 2662,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2662",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a student who just graduated from a school whose math department is outside the top 50 and going to graduate school in applied math, I offer the following advice:</p>\n\n<p>Definitely get to know your professors well so they can write recommendation letters for you. One way to do that, as paul garrett mentions, is to take reading courses with professors. </p>\n\n<p>It is important which classes you take: For pure math want to have at least taken classes in algebra, real/complex analysis, and topology. Note that if you plan to go to graduate school in applied math, you would want to take classes in programming, real/complex analysis, numerical linear algebra, ODEs/PDEs, and numerical analysis. Also ask your professors for advice on which classes you should take. The classes I have listed are just the bare <strong>minimum</strong>. By junior/senior year, you should be taking graduate level math courses if you plan to apply to the very best graduate schools.</p>\n\n<p>Research: Although I cannot speak for pure mathematics, if you are planning to go to graduate school in applied math, try to do research with a professor at your school or a summer REU.</p>\n\n<p>GRE: Most Ph.D programs in pure/applied math will require that you take the Math Subject GRE (which is not the same as the general math GRE). Although recommendations will have the most weight on your application, the subject test should not be taken lightly. In order to prepare for it, re-do problems from your calculus and linear algebra textbooks. For the other 25% of the topics on the subject GRE, look for problems in textbooks. Also try the practice tests online. </p>\n\n<p>Something I really wish I had done as an undergraduate would have been to study material ahead. For example, if you were going to take real analysis in the fall semester, I would find a real analysis book in the summer and try to work my way through it by doing as many problems as I can. Doing this will make classes easier and you learn the material much better.</p>\n\n<p>And if you didn't know already, <a href=\"https://math.stackexchange.com/\">https://math.stackexchange.com/</a> is an <strong>amazing</strong> resource for students learning math.</p>\n\n<p>Good Luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49930,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One thing that makes the top schools \"top\" is that they only admit the students who would get a great education anywhere, even if they had to go outside channels to find additional resources -- get involved in research, take the most serious classes you can, do additional personal projects that stretch your skills, take advantage of cheap student memberships in professional organizations, take advantage of the library including any journal subscriptions they're getting, read some of the past Masters' theses if your school keeps 'em available and well indexed...</p>\n\n<p>As Tom Lehrer misquoted, \"Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.\"</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/20 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11254",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7805/"
]
|
11,260 | <p>I'm a rising senior at a Chinese university. I'm really interested in pursuing a master degree (as a stepping-stone to a PhD) in the US.</p>
<p>I do not know what "Minimum Requirements" for admission really mean. <a href="http://www.amsc.umd.edu/join_us/">For example</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Applicants should have at least a B average (3.0 on a 4.0 scale) in an undergraduate curriculum which includes a strong emphasis on mathematics.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My undergraduate school applies a mixture of the British and Chinese grading systems. While 4.0 represents a perfect average, less than 5% of students have an average above 3.5, and only about 25% of students achieve a 3.0 (I do not know exact number).</p>
<p>Do minimum requirements like the one above mean "if you get grade lower than 3.0 in any grade system, do not waste your money on applying," or something else?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11263,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Essentially, this means that they would prefer applicants to have a B-grade (3.0 out of 4.0) minimum as an average of their final results. However, having said that, if you get less (by not too much), I would still apply.</p>\n\n<p>I would also advise to include details of other relevant activities (research activities and initiatives you may have done), any and all publications and any professional memberships.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11265,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In general, yes. If your grade is well under 3.0, you may be wasting your money for the application fee. Your application may be filtered out by some secretary.</p>\n\n<p>However, I would strongly recommend you to use other criteria to determine which schools you want to apply. You want to consider the programs and the faculty the schools have. If they have the program you are interested in and the professors you would like to go with, then go ahead to apply no matter what. You never know.</p>\n\n<p>Another factor is the school you'll graduate from. Many admission commitees are aware of the different standards that different schools use. They understand that 2.9 from school X may be actually better than 3.5 from school Y. If you can afford to the application fee and you really like that school, go ahead try.</p>\n\n<p>Other factors such as TOEFL and GRE scores, recommendation letters and research potentials are sometimes even more important than your GPA.</p>\n\n<p>Good Luck !</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11266,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>No direct conversion of grades is possible between various systems. So, you will have to argue your way into their program, by presenting your results in the best light possible and making a convincing case that you would fulfill their requirements if you were in their system. <em>Because in the end, your application will be judged by people, not computer</em>. At least if you make it clear that your system is quite different.</p>\n\n<p>One of the ways to do it is, as you started to do, by comparing percentiles: figure out what their grade requirement equals to in terms of quantile, and start from there. “I am in the top 25% of my school, which is equivalent to a grade of XX (based on these official statistics)”. That sort of reasoning.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 101004,
"author": "Faydey",
"author_id": 62885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62885",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This belongs more as a comment than an answer, but I lack sufficient reputation to comment.</p>\n\n<p>In my experience (based on programs I applied to in my field), the listed minimum requirements are well below the de-facto requirements of the program. This is definitely field specific, though.</p>\n\n<p>The above comment was based on applying to American universities, coming from an American undergraduate and graduate background. In your case, you should be able to convince them on the application essays of why the listed gpa doesn't tell the whole story.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/20 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11260",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6962/"
]
|
11,264 | <p>If I wanted to check how competitive it is to get into a school's PhD (or MS/PhD track) program, what should I look at? For undergraduate, I usually search for the incoming SAT/ACT scores and the acceptance rate, and I found that pretty reliable. Is there something like that for grad schools?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11271,
"author": "HJM",
"author_id": 5658,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5658",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Although not entirely accurate, due to the high variability of individual applicants and admissions committees, UT El Paso created an \"Acceptance Estimator\" for Computer Science applicants. The Estimator provides an ordered list of schools the applicant is likely to be accepted to.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.cs.utep.edu/admissions/\" rel=\"nofollow\">UTEP CS Acceptance Estimator</a></p>\n\n<p>My gripe is that it largely ignores the most important component of one's application: Research Experience.</p>\n\n<p>This Estimator is designed to help you find schools that match up to your skills, and by no means is 100% correct.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11272,
"author": "seteropere",
"author_id": 532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I am not aware of any absolute measure for this. However, you can have a general idea by: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Some schools provide last year(s) statistics about their programs\n(usually in the prospective student section). For example, program A\nhas attracted X number of applications and Y applications were\naccepted.</li>\n<li><p>Also, some programs have a fix limit (i.e. due to number of equipments available) for number of applications to be accepted. </p></li>\n<li><p>Sometimes online admission results like the one in <a href=\"http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php\" rel=\"nofollow\">Grad Cafe</a>\ngive you a sense on how strict the school is.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/20 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11264",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7799/"
]
|
11,267 | <p>I always read phrases such as "empirical data" and "empirical study." What does it mean when a study is empirical?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11268,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A good definition from <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empirical_research\" rel=\"nofollow\">Wikipedia</a> is</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Empirical research is a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience. Empirical evidence (the record of one's direct observations or experiences) can be analyzed quantitatively or qualitatively. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Another good resource is <a href=\"http://www.ericdigests.org/2003-4/empirical-research.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">EricDigests.com</a> is a further resource that goes through in detail the steps to empirical research, the 7 that are defined from that link are:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Randomisation</li>\n<li>Control</li>\n<li>Reliability</li>\n<li>Validity</li>\n<li>Implementation of Treatment Variable</li>\n<li>Analysis Issues</li>\n<li>Implementation issues</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>(The full details are on the 2nd link - too much to fit here)</p>\n\n<p>Hope this helps answer your question.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11399,
"author": "David Harris",
"author_id": 7558,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7558",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In computer science, this terminology is often used to indicate that an algorithm has been run on real (or simulated) data sets, and observations are made as to how it behaves (how fast does it run, does it solve the problem correctly, and so forth). The experimental procedures are usually not so much of an issue here, because the testing environment can be so well-controlled (i.e. you can generate infinite amounts of random test data).</p>\n\n<p>This is to be contrasted with analyses which are based on mathematical proof, i.e. proving that your algorithm has certain behaviors (e.g. proving it is always correct). </p>\n\n<p>Some times you will see papers in between these two poles. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/20 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11267",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7382/"
]
|
11,273 | <p>I'm a westerner doing my PhD in an Asian country. While writing this I've just finished my first year, but I'm getting so fed up with my academical environment that I decided to move my PhD.</p>
<p>One of the reasons why I went to Asia is that I'm in a technological field. Now a days with all these Asian countries up-and-coming, developing innovative products, it felt like a good moment to ride along on their train.</p>
<p>In the last year I'm experiencing major difficulties with my advisor and I'm not sure whether it's because of cultural differences or just me. Let me highlight some of the major issues:</p>
<ul>
<li>When I did my masters, my advisors were actually people who gave me advice. My current professor is somebody who gives orders instead of advice. The big problem with that is that there's usually no room for persuading him with counter arguments. As stubborn as I'm, it usually ends up in me ignoring what he says.</li>
<li>There seems to be a big difference in how I approach weekly meetings. I make a selection of what I investigated during the week and decide myself which direction I go into and thus what I eventually present to him. It seems that he wants every direction thoroughly investigated and presented to him so that he can make a decision about the direction eventually. </li>
</ul>
<p>These and other reasons, I don't think it makes people better. It won't let people think for themselves when they are just following. I got the comment last week that he thinks that my output is too low, but in fact I'm making the most progress, I'm just not presenting as much as everybody else because I make my own decisions upfront. I noticed that I intentionally not share everything with him anymore, because he always manage to turn everything upside down in one hour per week and ends with "just do it." Like he always creates the strangest and most complicated experimental designs (e.g., 3x3x3) with factors that I don't think are related. I just want to perform a simple 2x2 design and deepening it more and more based on the results. It just feels very odd that somebody who only gets involved into a project an hour per week gives orders about the direction. </p>
<p>Well the thing is that I seems to be the only one who thinks this is not normal. Since I always hear those stories that doing a PhD is always tough and sometimes makes you hate your advisor, I'd like to know where the problem is. I don't mind toughness, but it needs to serve a goal. Before I'm accepted to a different PhD in another country, I'd like to know if I'm getting in the same situation. If so, I don't think a PhD is the right thing for me then. </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11274,
"author": "Dan C",
"author_id": 1069,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>The quality of your relationship with your PhD adviser is one of the biggest factors in determining your quality of life during grad school.</strong> I strongly encourage anyone in your position to consider switching advisers (which it sounds like you're doing).\nI don't know what field you're in, so I can't authoritatively speak to \"the way it goes\" in that field. However, speaking as a mathematician, there are a wide range of management styles. Often, even the same PhD adviser will manage different students differently, depending on their abilities and desires. </p>\n\n<p>Some schedule a weekly hour meeting without fail; others say \"come see me when you have something\". Some coauthor most of their students' papers, some rarely do. Some students, like you, feel micro-managed. Others wish their adviser gave them more attention and cared more about their research.\n My adviser essentially let me pick all of my own research problems, which was what I wanted. It took me longer to start publishing than some other students, but I also felt well-prepared for life on my own after grad school.</p>\n\n<p>So in short, stubborn micro-management is not \"just the way it goes\"; rather it's just the way it goes when you're working for a power hungry egomaniac. Run, don't walk, to find another adviser!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11275,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Since you are a westerner in Asia, I'll add my thoughts.</p>\n\n<p>There are all types of advisers in Asia but there are a greater percentage who expect you to shut up and do as you are told, and just say 'yes Teacher' and get the job done as instructed. In the west, this is not as common. This issue is part of the Asian culture. Of course, you can find exceptions everywhere and if you dig, I suspect you will be able to find an adviser in Asia whose style matches yours.</p>\n\n<p>My advice would be to be careful before choosing an adviser and try to find someone who you can 'sync' with well. As Dan C said, that relationship is a very important one for you. If you cannot find an adviser with a suitable style in Asia, then you should consider returning to the west where you will not have the underlying cultural conflict.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11286,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to other good points made, and seconding the idea that one's relationship with one's advisor is very important, and agreeing that one must learn to think independently ... :</p>\n\n<p>It is also important to have an advisor in whom one has confidence, and who is not merely a sounding-board or yes-man for your own ideas. Of course, some people are jerks, but hopefully when a senior person disagrees with a beginner, the beginner can see good reason to take this as profoundly good advice in itself.</p>\n\n<p>That is, for example, good advice from a more experienced person can help a beginner avoid pitfalls, avoid re-inventing the wheel, ... even better, avoid well-known failures-to-invent-the-wheel. Good advice can save a lot of time and energy.</p>\n\n<p>True, in some regards it's best to experience various failures, to relive them, first-hand, as a process to better understand what <em>does</em> succeed. But there is a cost, which can be high, including professional embarrassment. Ideally, a good advisor helps avoid this.</p>\n\n<p>In my own direct experience, I have had a few PhD students who were convinced (or hoped?) that I was seeing or making things more complicated than necessary in their projects, ignored my cautionary advice, and publicly-professionally embarrassed themselves considerably. I would say this was unfortunate and completely un-necessary, and certainly represents a big waste of time and opportunity. (To have the opportunity to give a presentation and inadvertently use it to embarrass oneself is a sad irony.)</p>\n\n<p>So, ideally, one's advisor is not merely \"older\", but also \"wiser\" about not only specific technical details, but perhaps methodology, and about folklore, especially dangers and traps. </p>\n\n<p>Also, sometimes, if one fails to convince someone else, one should consider the possibility that one's argument is in fact unpersuasive, rather than that the audience is stupid. :)</p>\n\n<p>No, I don't think \"obedience\" or \"compliance\" are high virtues, and I do not recommend obedience for its own sake. Rather, a subtler relationship with \"advisor\", that may superficially resemble \"obedience\", but in reality is more reason-based, is seeing/believing that the advisor's experience gives them wisdom which will help <em>you</em>. If you can't see that in an advisor, then they won't be able to help you, either in \"objective reality\", or else in your perception, and it hardly matters which.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11328,
"author": "adbar",
"author_id": 7760,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7760",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is better if an advisor can give you useful advice and guide you towards both interesting and promising research topics. Ideally, your advisor would understand how to make you release all your work potential, but you cannot expect that from him/her. There are a lot of different situations, nonetheless there are a few universals that do not vary a lot:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>First, you can be sure that your advisor will be somewhere between 'simply not there' and overactive. There are students who cope well with an advisor who is completely absent, because it gives them absolute freedom. They are probably a minority. Indeed, others feel good when their advisor greets them each morning with a few kind words. <strong>In order to find a good match, you need to determine how much time you want your advisor to spend on your case. So you need to find out how busy he/she actually is.</strong></li>\n<li>Then, <strong>one can generally expect from an advisor to be firm and polite at the same time</strong>. You might change your mind about your work, about your discipline, and even about him/her, so that steadiness is required as he/she is your reference point. For that reason, you may (temporarily) hate your advisor and/or overreact to comments and criticism made to your thesis.</li>\n<li>I would say that <strong>another factor is about your feelings and your instinct, as your advisor will more or less be your mental punching bag</strong> because the major part of what you think about the work you do together and will/should be left unsaid. Most students forget that their advisor is just a person who is exterior to nearly everything they do, because one cannot generally help building an interior (mental) representation of this person as time goes by. So <strong>you have to ask yourself if you can imagine live with this person in your head during 3+ years.</strong></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 46238,
"author": "Adam Kapelner",
"author_id": 35157,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35157",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>After finishing my PhD and getting a tenure track job, in my opinion, the following are necessary criteria for selecting an advisor as you transition from your masters into your research phase:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>They are invested in your success and \"care\" about you. This is numero uno.</p></li>\n<li><p>They have time and are willing to spend it with you and to do <em>some</em> of the real work. It is your job to do <em>most</em> of the real work.</p></li>\n<li><p>They are generally available for you to \"pop in\" to their office to resolve a small or large roadblock.</p></li>\n<li><p>They are still publishing papers in / close to the field you are doing your thesis / 3-papers in.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you care about getting an academic job, they have placements under their belt and know some people in the community who are hiring new assistant professors. Placements demonstrate they understand the game. Knowing people means the hiring committees will listen to your advisor's letters and phone calls.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/21 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11273",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7817/"
]
|
11,287 | <p>I'm beginner in research and I'm doing my PhD. I would like to know why when I read a paper I worry as if I have exam tomorrow and I have to prepare for it. How can I ignore that feeling and increase my productivity?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11289,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>We cannot tell you <em>why</em> you are worrying: the best person to understand the <em>why</em> is you. But we can tell you that there is no need to worry. Reading a paper is one of the everyday tasks of research, and while it is an important part of the job, you will have plenty of time to learn the ropes. If you're a beginner, just read through the paper, takes notes of the main points you understand, and the points you don't understand that seem important. You can then research those, or ask to your advisor or colleagues.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, reading papers is a statistics game: there are very few papers that are so crucial to your own research that you positively have to understand every single last idea and word in them (I would say, less than 10 during a PhD). Most of the time, some ideas are usefuls, some are not, plus there is a lot of redundancy between papers… I used to be quite scared that I would have missed some important paper in the bibliographic search, but quite frankly it's rare for an important idea to exist in a single place and never have been reüsed or quoted.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11290,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Perhaps one little \"therapy\" often relevant is to try to remind yourself that <em>you</em> are the authority in reading papers critically, and the goals are about <em>progress</em>, not evaluation of <em>you</em> by some third party.</p>\n\n<p>It is understandable that \"school\" has left one with an excessively paranoid concern about being attacked, being \"checked-on\", being examined, being doubted, and so on. Indeed, \"school\" often includes exaggerated measures that express very clearly an antagonistic, adversarial attitude of \"teachers\" toward \"students\". Naturally, many negligent students are able to ignore this pressure, while students who were already doing the right thing are the ones who feel that somehow they're not doing enough. A similar dynamic exists in many human enterprises.</p>\n\n<p>So, again, the thing to repeat to yourself over and over is that now <em>you</em> are to function as an authority, <em>you</em> are to assess these papers. The point is <em>not</em> so much any more someone <em>else's</em> assessment of <em>your</em> \"performance\" (often on meaningless, contrived, artificial tasks).</p>\n\n<p>In particular, the common \"teaching-examining\" devices of \"trick questions\" should be forgotten. When encountering a new idea, don't immediately be worrying how someone could use the idea to trip you up, but, instead, what <em>constructive</em> use <em>you</em> could make of it. In particular, if it does not (at least for the moment) seem useful to you, then don't spend a lot of time on it just for the sake of self-defense against trick questions! Nevertheless, one should often keep a \"pointer\" to seemingly useless ideas, because their utility may be discovered only later.</p>\n\n<p>But don't study things whose utility seems null. Move on, just keeping a \"bookmark\", so if/when something percolates into your head later, you can go back and look a second time. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/21 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11287",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7382/"
]
|
11,288 | <p>I just thought that I would put this question out here because I am currently working on a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meta-analysis">meta analysis</a> of a particular research question in my field (HCI/information science). Moreover, this question is new and has not been answered in very detail so far.</p>
<p>I have done most of the usual ways described in other resources as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I have done a comprehensive review of the relevant literature pertaining to this particular research question. This is a new area and the number of <strong>directly relevant</strong> papers are ~<50. I have also compiled an exhaustive bibliography of the <strong>indirectly relevant</strong> papers in this area. That number is ~<150.</p></li>
<li><p>Out of this set of <strong>directly relevant</strong> literature, I have identified 23 quantitative empirical studies, 14 qualitative empirical studies and the rest are theoretical pieces/position pieces/framework papers.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The challenge I am currently facing is how to meta-analyze the data. In HCI, it is not common to freely distribute empirical datasets (although signs of change are imminent in the atmosphere. :)) and I have sent out polite emails to the relevant researchers inquiring if I could have some manner of access to these datasets. The rate of response is ~50% so far in responding to my email but only about ~5% want to actively share their datasets.</p>
<p>Therefore, the only other option (that I can see right now) is to compile, summarize and make sense of data and results already reported in the qualitative and quantitative papers.</p>
<p>I was wondering if any of you experienced (<em>and also not-so-experienced</em> :)) academicians/researchers had any insights into how to actually go about doing a meta analysis from the bottom up.</p>
<p>The main online resources which I have been using so far to tackle this problem is given</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.statistical-solutions-software.com/what-is-meta-analysis/">www.statistical-solutions-software.com/what-is-meta-analysis</a>, </li>
<li><a href="http://www.wilderdom.com/research/meta-analysis.html">www.wilderdom.com/research/meta-analysis.html</a>, </li>
<li><a href="http://www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Meta-analysis">www.psychwiki.com/wiki/Meta-analysis</a> and </li>
<li><a href="http://echo.edres.org:8080/meta/">echo.edres.org:8080/meta/</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>Please do note that I am not expecting any detailed step-by-step "<em>spoonfeeding</em>" response. Pointing me to some helpful resources is fine. In addition, personal anecdotes or valuable experiences will be really appreciated.</p>
<p>Thank you for taking the time to read this question.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11345,
"author": "ThomasH",
"author_id": 4125,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4125",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Good luck to you. I'm trying to do something similar and found that few HCI papers publish enough summary statistics to conduct a proper meta-analysis. Indeed, a lot of the time, their stats seem quite sloppy. </p>\n\n<p>I've styled my analysis similar to two review papers I found. One from the HCI area as well (Dehn & Van Mulken, 2000) and one from a bit more outfield (Jones & Gosling, 2005).</p>\n\n<p>Neither is a true meta-analysis, but they get as close to formal as I think it's reasonable to get when an actual meta-analysis is simply not an option.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Dehn & Van Mulken (2000) <a href=\"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1071581999903257\">The impact of animated interface agents: a review of empirical research</a></li>\n<li>Jones & Gosling (2005) <a href=\"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159105000997\">Temperament and personality in dogs (<em>Canis familiaris</em>): A review and evaluation of past research</a></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11543,
"author": "Tom Carchrae",
"author_id": 4355,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4355",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One take on this, regardless of field, is to create a framework to place the existing research in. Perhaps you have two dimensions, colour (red, green, yellow) and smell (sweet, sour) - and you review all the prior literatures and place it into your framework 'buckets'.</p>\n\n<p>What this is really doing, and why you want this in your dissertation, is setting up your contribution. By classifying all the prior research, you will have (hopefully!) identified a hole, which your work is going to fill. So... choose your buckets carefully!</p>\n\n<p>ps, I realize this is not a statistical answer - but I hope this is of use, or perhaps sheds some light that will help you see a useful way forward.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 54005,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One note, besides the very helpful ones you have already gotten. While you have embarked on a \"meta-analysis\", which often has the very specific goal of producing a single (or small number) of summary estimates for an entire field, you should not view having to fall back on writing \"just\" a systematic review as a failure.</p>\n\n<p>Instead, \"the literature in this field is incapable of being statistically summarized in its present state\" should be viewed as a finding in and of itself.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 66091,
"author": "metathor",
"author_id": 51633,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/51633",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I really second the use of the Cochrane Collaboration website for meta-analysis and systematic review. </p>\n\n<p>Another good resource is the <a href=\"http://www.prisma-statement.org/Default.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">PRISMA checklist</a> which is often used for journals and reviewers in health fields when evaluating papers. PRISMA also has good guidelines for how to format/present your included papers and create a flow diagram of your review process (again, often required in health-related journals). Good luck!</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/21 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11288",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429/"
]
|
11,291 | <p>I recently got rejected from quite a few grad schools. Will this make it harder for the faculty at these schools to take me seriously if I interact with them?</p>
<p>In particular, I'm interested in having a particular professor at the school I will be attending as my advisor. However, until a few month ago, he was a professor at a school I got rejected from. I'm afraid that he will refuse to work with me, knowing that I wasn't qualified for the graduate program he was recently at.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11292,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 6110,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6110",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I got hired as a postdoc at a university which had rejected my graduate application.</p>\n\n<p>And not just that. When I started, I realized that they had made the right decision. The background level of the first-years was uniformly and substantially higher than what mine had been when I started. I would have gotten creamed.</p>\n\n<p>You will have the opportunity to prove yourself in your first year. Do a good job, and any weaknesses in your application will be quickly forgotten.</p>\n\n<p>Good luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11293,
"author": "Ben Norris",
"author_id": 924,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/924",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I find it hard for this answer to not be:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It depends on the professor.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>However, do not listen to the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imposter_syndrome\">imposter syndrome</a>.</strong> Focus on your accomplishments, not on perceived failures. So you did not get into program A. The reasons you did not get into program A could be anyone of a long list of unknown and unknowable factors that have nothing to do with you. The number of applicants to program A may be so large that you were not excluded because you were not up to snuff but because you were one of a large number of very qualified applicants. Maybe the chair or members of the admissions committee are lazy, negligent, or perhaps just overwhelmed - and thus your application was not even examined. Perhaps your application was lost by the bureaucrats before it ever got from the dean's office to program A. Think no more about program A.</p>\n\n<p>You did get in to program B. Focus on success at program B. The professor you wanted to work with moved from program A to program B, so there must be something better about program B. Consider the fact that you were accepted at program B and that the professor you want to work moved from program A to program B to be indicators of a good chance of success at program B.</p>\n\n<p>The only way that working with this professor will not happen is if you don't pursue it. If you worry yourself out of trying, you guarantee your failure.</p>\n\n<p>Unless that professor was on the admissions committee, there is a fair chance that professor may not have even be aware of your application to the other program. Even if that professor was on the committee, he or she may not even remember you. Depending on the school and/or discipline, there may be hundreds of applicants. Even if that professor knew about your previous application, he or she should be professional enough to ignore it. If not, then maybe you don't want to work for that person.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 72118,
"author": "Tom Au",
"author_id": 755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It could work in your favor. You and the professor have a \"common enemy.\"</p>\n\n<p>The professor left Program A, and certainly for a reason. Maybe Program A was \"narrow-minded\" about the professor, and about you.</p>\n\n<p>The professor landed at Program B, which had the \"good sense\" to also select you. The latter probably works more in your favor than the rejection from Program A is likely to hurt.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/22 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11291",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7828/"
]
|
11,294 | <p>Please forgive the rambling intro...</p>
<p>Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are all the rage when people write about teaching. So many articles have been written about MOOCs killing universities while others complain about the attention. Some have even discussed some community colleges using MOOCs with the classroom teacher filling more of a tutorial role using MOOCs for the bulk of their material.</p>
<p>As I reflect on my own classroom experience (as a lecturer) I find that a lot of my time is spent covering the basics while it would be much more interesting to focus on higher-level concepts. However, in the end, I have only a certain number of hours in the class with my students. If I have 60 hours and it takes 50 hours to cover the basics, there is little time remaining to cover much in the way of higher-level ideas. </p>
<p>So, I've been considering assigning MOOC videos as homework and using class time as discussion time, much the way one would using the case method. While <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8855/undergraduate-not-doing-homework-case-method">my experience with the case method</a> has not been fantastic, I'm not ready to give up on it yet. </p>
<p><strong>My question is:</strong> What is the best way to integrate MOOC videos or other videos as part of the curriculum? Are there any major pitfalls that I should consider before completing my plan for the coming semester?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11292,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 6110,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6110",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I got hired as a postdoc at a university which had rejected my graduate application.</p>\n\n<p>And not just that. When I started, I realized that they had made the right decision. The background level of the first-years was uniformly and substantially higher than what mine had been when I started. I would have gotten creamed.</p>\n\n<p>You will have the opportunity to prove yourself in your first year. Do a good job, and any weaknesses in your application will be quickly forgotten.</p>\n\n<p>Good luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11293,
"author": "Ben Norris",
"author_id": 924,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/924",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I find it hard for this answer to not be:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It depends on the professor.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>However, do not listen to the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imposter_syndrome\">imposter syndrome</a>.</strong> Focus on your accomplishments, not on perceived failures. So you did not get into program A. The reasons you did not get into program A could be anyone of a long list of unknown and unknowable factors that have nothing to do with you. The number of applicants to program A may be so large that you were not excluded because you were not up to snuff but because you were one of a large number of very qualified applicants. Maybe the chair or members of the admissions committee are lazy, negligent, or perhaps just overwhelmed - and thus your application was not even examined. Perhaps your application was lost by the bureaucrats before it ever got from the dean's office to program A. Think no more about program A.</p>\n\n<p>You did get in to program B. Focus on success at program B. The professor you wanted to work with moved from program A to program B, so there must be something better about program B. Consider the fact that you were accepted at program B and that the professor you want to work moved from program A to program B to be indicators of a good chance of success at program B.</p>\n\n<p>The only way that working with this professor will not happen is if you don't pursue it. If you worry yourself out of trying, you guarantee your failure.</p>\n\n<p>Unless that professor was on the admissions committee, there is a fair chance that professor may not have even be aware of your application to the other program. Even if that professor was on the committee, he or she may not even remember you. Depending on the school and/or discipline, there may be hundreds of applicants. Even if that professor knew about your previous application, he or she should be professional enough to ignore it. If not, then maybe you don't want to work for that person.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 72118,
"author": "Tom Au",
"author_id": 755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It could work in your favor. You and the professor have a \"common enemy.\"</p>\n\n<p>The professor left Program A, and certainly for a reason. Maybe Program A was \"narrow-minded\" about the professor, and about you.</p>\n\n<p>The professor landed at Program B, which had the \"good sense\" to also select you. The latter probably works more in your favor than the rejection from Program A is likely to hurt.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/22 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11294",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692/"
]
|
11,295 | <p><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11294/mooc-video-integration-into-classroom-schedule">This other question</a> is about assigning videos as homework and <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8855/undergraduate-not-doing-homework-case-method">this one</a> is about what to do when students do not do their homework. However, there is another question to ask which is similar, but I think different, from these two.</p>
<p>If you have a class of 70 students and you assign some homework on which you will base the following class, and 40% of the students do not do the homework, that subsequent class becomes quite unmanageable. If you proceed as scheduled, the 40% will be lost, they cannot contribute, and eventually become distracting for the rest of the class.</p>
<p>If you do not run the class as scheduled, the students who did the homework the first time will see there is little benefit of doing the home and little cost of not doing it. For this reason, in the past, I have been quite strict. Students who did not do the homework get kicked out and marked absent (too many absences and they automatically fail the module). The problem with this approach is that kicking 40% out leaves me with a very high failure rate and in the end I just end up taking time which would otherwise be free for me to do as I wish and I must dedicate that time to these students who failed (for whatever reason).</p>
<p>So, I find myself in a difficult situation. Kicking students out hurts them but hurts me too. The problem is that I value my time much more than they value theirs so it ends up hurting me more than them. If I don't kick them out, my schedule gets destroyed.</p>
<p>How can one find balance in the classroom when a large percentage of students do not do the homework? Is there a way other than simply removing large chunks and failing them? Is thee a more enlightened way?</p>
<p><strong>Important Note:</strong> In my modules grades are pass/fail - I do not have the option to simply lower their grade.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11296,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well, you've stumbled upon a key and age-old pedagogical issue, and one that doesn't have an easy answer. I would urge you to find an \"80%\" solution (meaning, don't try to solve the problem completely), and then work to within the parameters of that solution. Kicking out 40% of the class isn't tenable for your long-term job security, I assure you. Assuming your question is in regard to a collegiate class, then you do have the option to fall back onto </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>this is your education that you're paying for, so it's up to you to take it seriously, which means doing the work.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>As a first-order solution, you can make sure that not doing the homework will affect their grades significantly so that they do fail, and then let them know this on the syllabus, on the first day of class, and regularly. Students who do not do the work will feel the pain when they receive their final grade. You also have proof (no completed work) when parents and administrators come with questions.</p>\n\n<p>What this solution doesn't solve is the group that</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>eventually become distracting for the rest of the class.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is possibly the hardest part of the puzzle. I have four suggestions:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Re-organize your class so that those students cannot be distracting. If large-class participation is the issue, then start forming smaller groups, and give the participating members the ability to police the disruptions (e.g., have each group grade individual members' participation).</p></li>\n<li><p>If possible, find a way to weed out those students <em>before they arrive in your class</em>--you may be able to do this via a more strict prerequisite requirement (e.g., certain classes, or certain grades within previous classes).</p></li>\n<li><p>Make the homework more manageable. On the one hand, this seems to be giving in to the problem, but if they're not doing the work and have a reason other than \"I don't want to,\" then there may be a way to give different assignments that they will attempt.</p></li>\n<li><p>Find out what classes they've had previous to yours, and ask the instructors of those classes whether they had the same issues. You can get a lot of good information about certain groups of students by talking these sorts of issues over with other faculty. If you do find a faculty member who successfully dealt with those students, ask for suggestions, or, even better, ask if you can observe a couple of classes to get a feel for the types of strategies that teacher uses.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11319,
"author": "Rex Kerr",
"author_id": 669,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/669",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If 40% of the students aren't doing their homework, and you rely upon students doing homework for your pedagogy style to work, then something is seriously wrong.</p>\n\n<p>You have two options:</p>\n\n<p>(1) Make homework dramatically more appealing.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Put much more effort into the homework--make it fun! E.g. calculate strain on an iPhone screen instead of a aluminum sheet; don't have someone read a novel but rather ask key questions about it such as to list all the times some character/historical figure expressed defiance against the state.</li>\n<li>Institute quizzes that are drawn directly from the homework. Do them practically every day. Staring at a blank sheet of paper and not knowing what to do is a lot more uncomfortable than hearing you babble about something incomprehensible.</li>\n<li>Change the grading scheme so homework is most of the grade (if you're allowed).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>(2) Make homework dramatically less necessary. (Note: usually not an option for mathematics.)</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Do the key problems on the board in class instead of assigning them as homework. (Assign a similar problem as homework, possibly after you've done it in class.) Not possible for literature review, of course.</li>\n<li>Rely upon in-class participation instead (if you have the personality to make it work, and the homework is of the right type).</li>\n<li>Don't make the learning environment one which requires the students to do the homework in order to understand most of the next lecture. Lecture on the important points, review at the end of one lecture and the beginning of the next, and go on. They might not develop their skills at doing problems, but at least they'll have some hope of following for a while. Probably won't work with literature, but almost everything else can be quite successful.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11324,
"author": "J.R.",
"author_id": 780,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/780",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here's one idea you could try: Have the students go to the front of the entire class, and either solve a problem on the board, or else explain something from the homework assignment. </p>\n\n<p>Your goal would be to create an activity where anyone who completed the homework should have no problem completing the task, but those who did not do the homework stand a good chance of struggling mightily. </p>\n\n<p>Make it an in-class game of sorts by pulling names out of a hat. </p>\n\n<p>If students come unprepared, at least they will be more nervous and less casual about it. Perhaps that might increase your participation rate.</p>\n\n<p>You might also do something like this: any student who doesn't turn in an assignment gets their name written down on five more index cards, which are subsequently added to the hat, thereby sharply increasing the likelihood that they will get picked in future classes. Make sure the students are well aware of that practice.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11326,
"author": "Nicholas",
"author_id": 1424,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1424",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your approach of kicking out the students who didn't do the home work is rather draconian, and while seductive as a zero-tolerance policy, is likely to cause more harm to you than good.</p>\n\n<p>Is there a (strong) positive correlation between student completion of homework and final grade for the overall module/unit/paper? If so, I suggest that you appeal to the students' self-interest by showing a plot of this correlation to your students at the beginning of your course, and throughout the course.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding what to do during class, I would make frequent reference to the homework along the lines of, e.g.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>\"<strong>If you attempted the homework exercise</strong>, you would know why this line of the derivation follows from the previous line so I'm not going to go into it here. This sort of thing often comes up in exams.\",</li>\n<li>\"<strong>The homework exercise was</strong> the first part of a past exam question relating to this topic. We're going to explore the topic in more detail now\",</li>\n<li>\"<strong>The homework exercise asked you</strong> to think about why this next piece of argument might be flawed.\"</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>What I am advocating is a policy where you strongly advise students to complete the homework, so that they are in a better position to understand the material and which appeals to the student's desire to pass the exam/test. </p>\n\n<p>Completing the homework is not a necessary prerequisite to understanding the material of the present lecture, but would be very very useful to the students indeed when it comes time to revise for the course.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 97700,
"author": "Jennifer",
"author_id": 70345,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/70345",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I doubt that many will agree with me, but this is what I would do if I could:</p>\n\n<p>(1) If someone can't participate in a class because they haven't done the homework, just ignore them and continue the lesson. If they get lost, just tell them that would have been learned if you had done the homework, and move on.</p>\n\n<p>(2) Don't kick people out of class if they haven't done their homework. (But do kick them out, of course, if they become disruptive because they keep asking about things they should know already.)</p>\n\n<p>(3) Calculate their grade however you will. But allow an \"alternate grading\" that emphasizes midterms, finals, and other tests; on the grounds that if they get a good grade there they obviously know the material; even if they hardly show up and/or never do homework. Those who choose this alternative should also face a short oral exam to ensure they really understand the subject matter and haven't just memorized the details without being able to show how they got there.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 108250,
"author": "Ben",
"author_id": 87026,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/87026",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>I sympathise with your predicament, but disagree with your methods.</strong> One thing that strikes me as strange about this question is that you appear to be sufficiently in control of the class to be able to remove 40% of this cohort from the classroom, but you worry that you are insufficiently in control to prevent these same people from disturbing the class if they are present. I would have thought that if you are sufficiently authoritative to do the former, then it should be possible to allow people to stay, but prevent them from disturbing others. In fact, I would have thought that this would be substantially <em>less effort</em> than going to the trouble of physically removing almost half of the class.</p>\n\n<p>The reason to raise this incongruity is that (at a tertiary academic level) it is generally a good idea to present the students with resources to learn, and let them decide whether or not they benefit from these resources. It is best to grade students on merit rather than effort, and a student who is able to master the material should not fail the course simply because they have declined to learn it in the manner you have specified. University students are adults, and they should be expected to make use of the provided resources in whatever way that allows them to learn the subject, with knowledge being the final test.</p>\n\n<p>Removing students from the class means that they are denied one of the resources for learning the material, on the basis of having eschewed another resource (the homework). Moreover, the fact that a student can fail the course via these \"absences\" means that a student who is able to learn the material through self-study --without doing the homework-- will nonetheless fail, even if they have mastered the subject matter. With the greatest of sympathy, this strikes me as a case where the instructor is testing compliance rather than knowledge.</p>\n\n<p>It might be worth exploring whether there are ways that you can allow students to remain in your class without letting them disturb the class for others. This might mean imposing a moratorium on <em>asking questions</em> if you haven't done the homework, but even then, that is less of a loss than being required to leave (and then marked absent and possibly failing). This approach would have the benefit of allowing students to learn from the resources that they determine to be worthwhile to them, and to be directly exposed to how difficult it is to follow your class when they have not done the homework.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/22 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11295",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692/"
]
|
11,297 | <p>We are at the moment designing a document which we can hand out to Bachelor and Master students to give them a general idea on how to efficiently write a thesis. We also do this to make correcting easier for us. We are working in the field of cell biology. A thesis in our field is usually structured like this:</p>
<ol>
<li>Abstract</li>
<li>Introduction</li>
<li>Materals and Methods</li>
<li>Results</li>
<li>Discussion</li>
<li>Acknowledgements</li>
</ol>
<p>What we've come up so far is the following list of best practices. This is based on our experiences with previous students and our own theses.</p>
<ol>
<li>You can already start writing your materials and methods (M&M) section during your regular lab schedule. This will save you time later on.</li>
<li>You will have discussions with your supervisors on your results, in which you will decide on what to include in your thesis.</li>
<li>Start by making the figures for your results and a corresponding caption.
Lay out bullet points of your results. Afterwards, start writing the text around these bullet points. After finishing, send this part to your supervisor for proofreading.</li>
<li>Proceed with the discussion. Again, lay out bullet points, but this time, before writing, clarify each point with your supervisor. This will prevent you from having to rewrite large parts.</li>
<li>Continue with the introduction and, if you haven’t written it yet, M&M.
The introduction should contain everything the reader has to know in order to understand why you did what you did and what the results mean. Be brief and clear.</li>
<li>Finalize by writing an abstract (“Zusammenfassung”). This has to be written and edited very carefully because it will be the part most people read. Your thesis also needs to include an english abstract which is an exact translation of the german one. </li>
<li>Don’t forget the acknowledgements (“Danksagung”). This is the second part everyone will read, and it’s extremely unpolite if you don’t have one. It doesn’t have to be formal and can be personal.</li>
</ol>
<p>My question: Is there something important missing and would you recommend things differently? Maybe you could elaborate how you handle this in your lab.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11298,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is impressive, very impressive.</p>\n\n<p>The only thing I can suggest adding is a point for students to continuously update their bibliography as they proceed with their research. Alongside this, they ought to continuously include the subsequent in-text references on each part they paraphrase.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps, and this is a bit of an 'out there' suggestion, but maybe suggest that the students upload drafts to a plagiarism checking program such as Turnitin.com on a regular basis.</p>\n\n<p>Hope this helps.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11299,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think your list looks great, but I would suggest adding a couple of \"soft\" recommendations; e.g., </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If you are struggling with a certain topic, idea, or way forward, ask for assistance as early as possible after you have exhausted your ideas. Do try to solve problems on your own, but don't let that take too much time that you fall behind.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don't know much about the cell biology field, but do your papers normally have \"Related Work\" sections? I assume they must also have a References (or Bibliography) section?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11301,
"author": "others",
"author_id": 7831,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7831",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For me, the difficulty was that the research part was too interesting, so I ended up writing papers, trying new techniques etc., but neglected the thesis writing. If you have students like me, <em>make</em> them to write some parts of their theses before they are <em>allowed</em> to do more research in the lab.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11304,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is a very good set of advice. There are two very practical areas that seem unaddressed and that are, in my experience, somewhat… <em>problematic</em> with some students:</p>\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Proof-reading</strong>. Find someone, other than yourself, who will do a final proofreading of the thesis for language and clarity. Not necessarily someone from your field, but checking typos, missing figures, acronyms that are never defined, that sort of stuff… That person should not be you, because when you've spent so much time writing the thesis, you won't even see these details any more when you read it.</p>\n<p>Also, check with your supervisor what are his expectations regarding proofreading/corrections. It depends on your university and the supervisor himself, but in many cases they will want to read it themselves, and possibly offer some remarks and corrections.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>Scheduling</strong>. You are aware of the submission deadline, but mind that the final stuff takes time. In particular, if your supervisor has to read it, make sure to give him enough time to do so. So, start with a clear set of intermediate deadlines, and if you start to miss them, take action! Nothing's as bad as procrastinating ’til the last day thinking <em>“I can still write that in 24 hours if I get to it”</em>.</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/22 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11297",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3885/"
]
|
11,311 | <p>I have submitted a paper to a journal 2 and a half months ago. Its status remains "With editor". From your experience, is this normal? If not, how should I deal with that?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11314,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The turnaround time for a paper submitted to a journal is dependent on the journal and the time it takes to have for the editor to receive the feedback from the reviewers and for them to review the reviews. I have had to wait 5 months for feedback, some have to wait far longer.</p>\n\n<p>Have you read what the turnaround time should be? This information is usually available on the journal's author information website.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11315,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The time frame you mention sounds long to me. But having said that, there can be several reasons why this is the case. I assume that the journal you have submitted to uses an electronic submission system?</p>\n\n<p>Reasons can be: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The journal is crowded with papers</li>\n<li>The editor(s) has/ve difficulties finding reviewers for the paper</li>\n<li>The time frame is \"normal\" for the journal, \"with editor\" includes review time.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I suggest you try to figure out how long the time from submission to accept/reject (turnaround time) is for the particular journal you submitted to. If it is possible to see more details that would be good but knowing the average turnaround time allows you to assess if 2.5 months is long even for this journal. </p>\n\n<p>Since I edit a journal I can mention our time frames as an example: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Choice of editor 10 days</li>\n<li>Choice of associate editor 10 days</li>\n<li>Chose reviewers 3 weeks</li>\n<li>Reviews 3 weeks</li>\n<li>Editor decision 3 weeks</li>\n<li>Revision 3-6 weeks</li>\n<li>Editor evaluation 3 weeks. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>This puts the theoretical turnaround at 18-21 weeks (around 5 moths). What usually makes significant delays are reviewers not returning reviews on time and authors not providing revisions on time. But the bottom line is that for me 2.5 months is long and if you suspect your paper is held up too long you should contact the editor.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11316,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Expectation of review time and time taken for the editorial decision vary widely depending on the field.</p>\n\n<p>In my own field, chemistry, 2.5 months is about the time when people would start to send an email to the editor and ask about the status of the manuscript. A <a href=\"http://www.lutz-bornmann.de/icons/TimePeerReview5.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">review of the reviewing process for Angewandte Chemie</a>, one of the field’s flagship journals, shows a median “submission to editorial decision” time of 5 weeks, with an average of 6.8 weeks. I recommend this paper, because it's full of statistics, and contains many links to data and reviews for other journals in various fields:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How Long is the Peer Review Process for Journal Manuscripts?\n A Case Study on <em>Angewandte Chemie International Edition</em><br>\n Lutz Bornmann and Hans-Dieter Daniel<br>\n Chimia <strong>2010</strong>, <em>64</em>, 72–77</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You can find plenty of similar statistics for journals in various fields, by a simple web search: <a href=\"http://sharmanedit.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/submission-to-first-decision-time/\" rel=\"nofollow\">biomedicine</a>, <a href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14602513\" rel=\"nofollow\">medicine</a>, <a href=\"http://www.biometrics.tibs.org/carroll.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">statistics</a>, <a href=\"http://www.andrewcullison.com/2009/09/journal-review-time-comparisons/\" rel=\"nofollow\">philosophy</a>… This confirms my initial point that <strong>review times</strong> (and thus author expectations) <strong>vary widely on your field and the specific journal</strong>: the average review time in the <em>Journal of Philosophy</em> is 12.6… <strong>months</strong>!</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><em>Edit:</em> oh, and I have to disagree with your comment below Peter’s answer… <strong><em>“with editor”</em> most often includes the time spent in review</strong>. I would say <em>always</em>, because it has never been any different in my experience. Many web submission interfaces actually don't allow you to know the internal changes of status between the editor and the reviewers (apart from the American Physical Society system, where you can track every correspondence the editor and reviewers have exchange)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11318,
"author": "Rex Kerr",
"author_id": 669,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/669",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One of my papers took well over two <em>years</em> to get published, thanks mostly to two review periods lasting around 10 months (IIRC). So 2 1/2 months is not that outlandish.</p>\n\n<p>But it does not hurt to ask politely about the status of your paper! It may be well down on someone's list of things to do, and a polite reminder that you are interested in its fate may be all that's needed to bump it up near the top. Presumably, if you ask, the editor will give some indication as to approximately when reviews might be ready, and then you'll know when to send another polite reminder if nothing has happened.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/22 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11311",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7837/"
]
|
11,320 | <p>I am an undergraduate mathematics major, entering my fourth year. I plan on applying to graduate school, but I have not yet taken the GRE exams, and there a few key courses (Topology and Algebra in particular) that I have not taken yet, so I am hesitant to take the Advanced Math GRE too soon. (If you're wondering why I haven't taken Topology and Algebra yet, it's because I was trying to secure a CS degree, which sidetracked my mathematical studies last year. It was a healthy branching out experience, and one that helped me realize my true academic passion.)</p>
<p>My main question: <em>what is the perception of students who take a gap year between their graduation and starting graduate school?</em></p>
<p>I think I will take the GRE tests this fall, a) for practice and b) if I score high, then I might as well apply sooner rather than later. However, I ask this question to gauge how much energy I should put into preparing for the tests this fall. If I hear, "You should really do your best to avoid any gap in your education," then I will work my butt off in preparation for the tests. But if I hear, "It's totally okay take a gap year before going into graduate school," then I would give myself more freedom in terms of my non-standardized-exam studies, extracurriculars, and in general social activities. I figure the answer to this question won't be as cut-and-dry as I hope, but any advice would be appreciated!</p>
<p>Just to clarify, my gap year would not consist of me sitting at my desk taking practice GRE exams all day... That would be a pitiful use of my time. I definitely plan working either as an intern or a research assistant at a successful organization. It seems like the general consensus is that taking time off is okay, and potentially beneficial, assuming you actually do something in that gap.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11322,
"author": "BSteinhurst",
"author_id": 7561,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7561",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When I was looking into this for a former student of mine I spoke with the head of the graduate program at the US Top 20 program I was working in at the time. He actually viewed a gap year as a good thing. His rationale was that students who had held jobs and managed to live for the gap year were more likely to have the work habits useful in graduate school. </p>\n\n<p>When it comes time to write your applications you just have to remember to explain how that year has made you a better candidate for their program. It might not be more math that you've learned by it may be maturity and a renewed sense of purpose. If you chose to take a year off do something worthwhile and don't just study for exams. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11331,
"author": "Past",
"author_id": 7847,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7847",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is entirely fine to take a year off before starting grad school. Many graduate students do this (I include myself among those who did it and were accepted in top university in the UK (no arrogance intended)).</p>\n\n<p>Professors or Admission committees do not focus too much on the gap between the time when you finished your undergraduate studies and when you applied to a graduate program. However, some care must be taken as I explain in the following list:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>It also depends on the combination of gap-years and what-you-did on those years. For example, it is fine if you take a year off to explore the Amazon rainforest and learn T'ai chi ch'uan. However, if you rest for many years and you did nothing to improve your CV during this time, that may look suspicious to an Admission committee. This is because many people apply to a graduate program in order to get funding while they find \"something else\".</p></li>\n<li><p>If you take more than 2 \"sabbatical\" years but you did something to improve your CV, that may even be appealing. For example: working for the private sector, teaching, attending some special courses, doing (provable) research on the area of interest ...\nI have come across 60+ y.o. graduate students.</p></li>\n<li><p>TOEFL and GRE tests are typically valid for 2--3 years, then you can take them as soon as you feel capable of getting the required score. This would also put some pressure on you in order to avoid the common procrastination.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In conclusion, it is fine if you take a year in order to clarify your ideas, gather all the requirements, and improve your CV. An advice from my personal experience: be careful with these \"gap-years\", they are a double-edged sword. They could either increase or decrease your chances of getting accepted in a graduate program, depending on what you do during these years.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11348,
"author": "StasK",
"author_id": 739,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/739",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I had a gap of 1.5 years between finishing my (second) Master's and applying for a Ph.D. in statistics... a total gap of two years between my latest graduation and starting the Ph.D. In these two years I was working as an economist (my second degree) in a government think-tank, so it wasn't a totally irrelevant experience. If you sustain an income through say tutoring math (which appears to have an infinite demand, although may be poorly paid), and take advanced classes in the mean time, this only showcases you as a person dedicated to the selected field who wants to do it despite the real life challenges. +1 brownie point!</p>\n\n<p>I did not have a chance to evaluate an application with such gaps when I was a prof, but I can tell from my teaching experience that the older the student is, the more responsible they are. So if anything, I would view \"out of the box\" students jumping straight from BSc to PhD as less qualified than somebody who's been out there for a little longer, and knows what they want from their lives. But that's just my personal take.</p>\n\n<p>When I was applying around (1999-2000), there was no point in pushing it at all unless you'd get the perfect GRE math score, which was not that difficult to get (probably 50% or so of applicants did). I heard though that the test was made more demanding and better discriminating.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11350,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>On the one hand it might be beneficial for your application if you take your time to study for a this test in terms of a better score.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if I would be the person reviewing the application, I would rank your score subjectively lower if you have this gap, since I would assume that you stayed at home and studied for the test. And Grad School applications are not that much high-throughput like undergrad application, so there might be a chance that the person, who will end up reviewing your appl., will think so too.</p>\n\n<p>I find these GRE tests stupid anyway. They really depend on how much time you spend on preparation. In my opinion, the tests are easy enough to just pass them if you passed your undergrad, but on the other hand you are competing against other applicants for the higher score.</p>\n\n<p>For me, but I am not the person who decides, a good internship or other other topic-related projects (e.g., founding a website like reddit if you are a computer science applicant) would count 1000x more than this stupid test score.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/22 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11320",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7840/"
]
|
11,323 | <p>I have read and heard conflicting opinions on this topic, and would like to see what some of you have to say, particularly related to CS.</p>
<p>Does earning two bachelor's degrees as an undergrad, considering all other things equal, provide any advantage over another applicant? That is, saying that this person earning two degrees is still able to participate in quality research throughout their undergraduate degree and is not slave to the curriculum.</p>
<p>Would, say, a MechE/CS student maintain a leg up applying to a CS program related to robotics? A Math/CS applying to theory-based CS? Does it vary between fields?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11325,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A double degree/major (or even a minor) makes it easier to see what areas a candidate is interested in. Understanding this, along with the relevant classes taken, can be useful in assessing the research potential of a student (which is really what PhD admissions committees are trying to do). Apart from making my job a little easier, the way I look at it is if I have two identical candidates, which you never do, apart from a single class and this class leads means candidate A is a double major and candidate B is a single major, but I think the class candidate B took is more valuable then I will go with B. That said, there is no formula for admissions so things like this come down to the individuals on the committee. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11329,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Would, say, a MechE/CS student maintain a leg up applying to a CS program related to robotics? A Math/CS applying to theory-based CS? Does it vary between fields?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>All else being equal, <strong>YES</strong>. Speaking specifically for theoretical computer science, I am much more likely to recommend a PhD applicant for admission if they have a strong mathematics background. A second major is not the more important thing, though; majors are just administrative hurdles. I look for <em>which</em> advanced math classes the applicant has taken, how the recommendation letters describe their mathematical ability/maturity, and how fluently they use mathematics in their research statement.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, the effect varies significantly between fields. For example, my robotics colleagues are much more likely to recommend applicants with strong <strong>mathematics</strong> backgrounds, and my software engineering colleagues are much more likely to recommend applicants with software industry experience.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, as Daniel points out, <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceteris_paribus\">ceteris</a> is never <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceteris_paribus\">paribus</a>.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/23 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11323",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5658/"
]
|
11,336 | <p>What is the typical amount of vacation time, per year, during a PhD program in the United States. I am particularly interested in 1. PhD programs in the physical sciences, and 2. PhD programs at competitive, research-focused universities.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11339,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm not aware of explicit policies regarding vacation time during a Ph.D in the US. This is likely because in the US, the Ph.D is viewed as educational, and not as a job. </p>\n\n<p>As a student, and now as a professor, vacation time was always an informal discussion between advisor and student. This is of course ripe for abuse. A job in the US usually grants 15 days of vacation (not counting weekends) per year, but in my experience that's MUCH less than what you might effectively get as a Ph.D student (in computer science) but might be comparable to what you get as a Ph.D student in the physical sciences. </p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, I don't have personal experience with physical science programs, but via my wife and other friends I've seen that physical science programs are fairly rough on vacation. This is partly because you need to be around to tend to long-running experiments (\"the flies died!\") and partly because of the nature of lab work and the much more intense style of lab-based science. </p>\n\n<p>My recommendation would be, once you have some options, to ask students in the programs you're applying to, working with advisors you're interested in targeting.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11340,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well, this is dependent on a lot of factors:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Your advisor. He/she controls a good part of your life (and probably pays you out of a grant), so vacation time goes through him/her. I've seen advisors who begrudgingly let students take a couple of weeks off in the summer, to those who don't keep track and their students seem to be on vacation all the time. I've also seen advisors who mandate some vacation time to avoid burnout. (and all of the rest of the answers should be caveated with \"and if your advisor allows\")</p></li>\n<li><p>Your workload and motivation. Get your work done (e.g., paper submitted, TA duties done, dissertation chapter written), and you can safely take a week or two off.</p></li>\n<li><p>School schedule. While graduate students don't really stick by a strict semester/trimester/quarter/summer/etc. schedule, it more or less dictates when you can take vacation. I never took more than a day or two off during Spring Break, and my summers were strictly time to get more work done (or to teach a summer class).</p></li>\n<li><p>School / department policy. Departments sometimes regulate time off, but I'd say that is rare, as vacation is, again, left up to the advisor.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Despite the low pay, you are an employee, and you need to abide by the rules set by your employer (either the school, your advisor, or, possibly, your fellowship rules). Sometimes students don't get paid during the summer, and it is easier to take vacation.</p>\n\n<p>The bottom line is that if you are taking too much vacation, you are delaying getting your research done, and that can have ramifications on when you graduate, how your research progresses (and if you get scooped!), and what your advisor thinks of your work ethic. Should you take time off? Yes. Should you be greedy and think it will be like undergraduate school where you get three or four months off a year? <strong>No.</strong> </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11341,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To add some personal experience from two different systems to the other answers (Chris Gregg and Suresh; which I fully agree with). </p>\n\n<p>The way this is handled clearly depends on where you are (I realize you are asking about US). In Sweden PhD students have a certain number of days (weeks). This is regulated by laws. However, a problem with trying to regulate vacation is that not all students or projects are alike and in the end you, as a PhD student, is responsible to complete your work in time (advisors obviously also have a role to facilitatet this). So in \"my\" system the stipulated vacation may be a blessing in disguise if taken very literally. The important point is that one must plan ones own time and that includes taking time off to reload batteries and rest. A difficulty is to balance these issues. </p>\n\n<p>My own experience when I was a forreign graduate student in the US was that I really got a lot of work done during holidays and spring breaks when most people were away. I do not remember having any major vacation time but I always had days off for doing anything that could take my mind off graduate school (not that I was bored, I just felt rejuvenated by it). So managing time is more imprtant than having a long vacation. As I saw it grad school was my chance to get somewhere so it was worth working for.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11342,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>They are two ways to answer/interpret the question.</p>\n\n<p><strong>The first is: how much time are you \"legally\" entitled/required to take</strong></p>\n\n<p>The answer to this question will vary across country, university, and even how you are \"employed\" within a university. Even if this could be answered in general or for you specific situation, I am not sure it is helpful given the second interpretation.</p>\n\n<p><strong>The second is: how much time do PhD students actually take</strong> </p>\n\n<p>This seems to me a more relevant question and is similar, if not identical, to: <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8542/how-hard-do-early-career-academics-in-the-united-states-work-really\">How hard do early-career academics in the United States work, really?</a>. I believe that N-of-1 type answers are meaningless since I know people who takes zero vacation days and I know people who take in excess of 60 vacation days. The Sigma Xi society surveyed post docs and found that they take 12 vacation days a year on average. I provided details about this study in this <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/8543/929\">answer of mine</a>. I am not sure to the extent to which the vacation habits of post docs and PhD students are similar, but this is the only population study I am aware of.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11344,
"author": "user5724",
"author_id": 5724,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5724",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm working at a very competitive research university in physical sciences this summer as an undergraduate research intern. I asked a few of the PhD students i'm working with, and they told me that they get a maximum of two weeks off per year, not including one week that everyone gets off for Christmas. Thus a lot of them take their two weeks in addition to Christmas (a lot of internationals here don't care about Christmas much) to get an effective 3 week vacation.</p>\n\n<p>Like others have said, it will depend entirely on your advisor. The PhD students I've talked to have told horror stories about one advisor in particular who wouldn't grant a PhD student an extra two days off to get married, because it would have put him over two weeks for the year. Others generally don't care as much as long as you get your work done.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11346,
"author": "Thomas",
"author_id": 6984,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6984",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Having done a PhD in the United States and then come to Denmark to do a post-doc, I can say that this is going to depend on a huge number of factors. In the US, during my PhD, many of my colleagues seemed to be on vacation all of the time (many of them did not finish). But, my advisor never took vacation and I, accordingly, worked on his schedule. I never took vacation and was always \"on email,\" etc. when I was away for whatever reason. We had no guarantee of vacation other, I guess, than national and university holidays, but most people work from home (or in the lab) during those times any way.</p>\n\n<p>In Denmark, however, this is completely different. Everyone in Denmark is guaranteed five weeks of paid vacation every year and even in academia, people use it seriously. Because it is July, all faculty and graduate students in my department are gone. Literally all of them and they are not on email and claim to not work, most for a three week holiday abroad.</p>\n\n<p>So, in short, this is going to depend on a lot on country, department norms, and your advisor's style/expectations.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11347,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Disclaimer:</strong> *<em>n=1</em>* at a research university</p>\n\n<p>I can give you a reasonable estimate of the vacation hours as I am a current PhD student in the US, not in the physical sciences but in the computing sciences. At my institution (<em>Cornell University</em>), I can <strong>officially</strong> take <strong>14</strong> days off in the year when I am fully funded. This is what is <strong>typed</strong> on my funding letter which I receive at the beginning of every semester.</p>\n\n<p>In practice, this depends upon your adviser. I have been fortunate enough to work with wonderful people who do not care how many days I take off as long as the work has been done according to their expectations. For instance, I took 2 months off in Dec-Jan last year but then I had finished my personal involvement in all the current projects and had submitted relevant papers for publication.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11349,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a Ph.D. you really have to rely on the 'mood' of your PI, or other circumstances: For example, I know a person who had to go back to China for a month to get his visa renewal.</p>\n\n<p>But I think at least 1 week off for traveling during the summer is something that you could expect if you don't have an extremely strict PI. </p>\n\n<p>Besides that, there is the Xmas week where the university is officially closed and you don't have to show up.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11352,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to the other informative answers, I can't help but comment that (truly) one might ask oneself how/why this becomes a question at all. Of course it is a reasonable question, but it potentially hints at some aversion to one's \"work\".</p>\n\n<p>I know others might disagree strenuously, but my own quite sincere and considered opinion is that academe is not a good career choice if the \"job\" is substantially oppressive or in any way \"something to get away from\". The reason is that quite a few people, your competitors, really love spending time at \"the thing\", and although of course \"more hours\" does not mean \"more production\", that kind of sustained engagement... and <em>affection</em>... does seem to enhance productivity and efficiency hugely.</p>\n\n<p>That is, an academic job should be the kind of thing that one _does_not_need_ a vacation from, any more than one needs a vacation from eating or sleeping. Of course this is just one \"ideal\", but it is certainly the ground for my own life as a mathematician. That is (at the other end of one's career) when people ask me when I'll retire, regardless of exactly what I say, my thoughts are that it would be silly to stop accepting good pay for what I'd be doing anyway. :) :) (And, I add, for probably 12+ hours a day 6/7 days a week, and at least several hours every day of the year. I feel ill if I can't find a way to think about mathematics at least a few hours every day. If necessary, it seems that insomnia provides an opportunity...)</p>\n\n<p>One may view this as a silly ideal, and my own experience as a bit of a caricature, but I think it is worthwhile for a potential academic to juxtapose such ranting with their own inclinations. E.g., if one can't feel an irrational affection for one's projects... it's time to consider other options.</p>\n\n<p>So: vacation? I don't <em>like</em> the conventional notion of \"vacation\" (where you stop doing what you do ordinarily), any more than I'd like a vacation from eating or sleeping. Seriously. Yes, this creates some degree of conflict with family. </p>\n\n<p>The worse conflict would be if one really does want to get away from one's (academic?) work. If so, then all the people who aren't necessarily as able as you, but who love it, will be zooming past you while you are on vacation. This is probably not just a \"scare story\", considering my personal observations over 40+ years.</p>\n\n<p>Thus, conceivably, if you really think in terms of \"vacation\" from tasks that are not ... enchanting... then the real conclusion is that you should think about other possibilities.</p>\n\n<p>(I thought that this ... arguably idealistic/extreme... viewpoint needed some representation.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11358,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Short answer: around 4 weeks (20 days)</strong>.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>Okay, given the number of anecdotal answers given, let's try to do something different and find some hard data… It is rather easy, because most institutions have explicit vacation policies posted online.</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>Princeton graduate school (which I think fits your stated criteria) has <a href=\"http://www.princeton.edu/gradschool/academics/policies/student_vacation_time/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Guidelines on Student Vacation Time</a>, which say:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>graduate student degree candidates may take up to (but no more than) <strong>four weeks of vacation</strong>, including any days taken during regular University holidays and scheduled recesses</p>\n</blockquote>\n</li>\n<li><p>Caltech Graduate Studies Office <a href=\"http://www.gradoffice.caltech.edu/current/vacation\" rel=\"noreferrer\">states</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The Institute policy is that graduate students are "entitled to two weeks' annual vacation (in addition to Institute holidays)." […] There are 11 Institute holidays this calendar year […] In total, graduate students are entitled to <strong>21 vacation days per calendar year</strong>. These days do not accrue from year to year.</p>\n</blockquote>\n</li>\n<li><p>MIT's policy for <a href=\"http://web.mit.edu/policies/8/8.3.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Graduate Students</a> is the following:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>[…] observe normal Institute holidays and are entitled to <strong>two weeks of vacation with pay</strong> if their appointments are for the full calendar year. Their vacation schedule must be approved by their supervisors</p>\n</blockquote>\n</li>\n<li><p>GeorgiaTech's <a href=\"http://www.mse.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/Graduate_Handbook%20_MSEpre-2011v2.2.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer\">policy</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>Two weeks vacation</strong> and all official Georgia Tech holidays are allowed during each calendar year. Advisors must be notified of all vacation time and absences. Mid-term and intermission breaks are not vacation days unless scheduled as such.</p>\n</blockquote>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>In summary, vacation/holiday time ranges from 4 to 5 weeks at the institutions listed. It should be noted that the above are the actual vacation policies, so real-life situation might be different: less strict, if your advisor is understanding and it doesn't impede your work; more strict, if there is a <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/5005/2700\">negative culture in your workplace</a>.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/23 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11336",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7854/"
]
|
11,353 | <p>I am new to teaching. Recently I was given the opportunity to teach at my own university (I am currently doing an MPhil from my university).
If a teacher fails to control his students once, he wouldn't be able to control them until the end of semester.</p>
<p>This is my first time in teaching and I am afraid that my students would get out of my control. They wouldn't listen to me, would misbehave and wouldn't let me give my lecture without interruption. </p>
<p>Please advise me the best way to keep my cool and prevent my students from getting out of control.</p>
<p><strong>EDIT:</strong> I have not started teaching yet. I'll be starting my classes from next week.</p>
<p><strong>EDIT2:</strong> The students are Bachelors students. I don't actually want to control them. I just want to maintain discipline in my class. I want to prevent misbehavior in my class. I have seen students not listening to new teachers and just pass the whole lecture passing comments.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11354,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well, as a high school teacher, I have a few tips that may be of help (and I will clarify that having taught undergraduates before, I found from experience that a lot of these still apply on a regular basis):</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Set the groundrules from the first lesson, calmly lay out your expectations for effort, behaviour, homework etc, be sure these are consistent with the rules of the institution and most of all - stick to them.</p></li>\n<li><p>Don't shout, it will turn into a shouting-contest that the teacher can not win and places too much 'power' (via attention) in the hands of any unruly students.</p></li>\n<li>Be consistent in all that you do.</li>\n<li>Remember - you are the professional, I have found that displaying knowledge that extends the curriculum gets the students engaged.</li>\n<li>Be helpful, firm and fair - be friendly, but not a 'friend'.</li>\n<li>Don't be afraid or ashamed of asking colleagues for help, or for them to sit in and critique a lesson. I am 14 years into teaching and I still do this.</li>\n<li>Be aware that external issues may affect in class behaviour, this would be a reason not an excuse for any misbehaviour.</li>\n<li>Enjoy the class, be enthusiastic in the subject, the class and the profession.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>These are the ones that come to mind.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11355,
"author": "Khadim Ali",
"author_id": 7868,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7868",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>They will certainly not remain disciplined if you will give the impression of fear and confusion. Your revealed weakness (of mind) may give them negative impression that might make them courageous for misbehave etc.</p>\n\n<p>So, first and above all, don't be fearful and increase your confidence level.</p>\n\n<p>You should also check what possible disciplinary actions your university may allow to take against miscreant students. But definitely, it should be the last tool you may use.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11357,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First, realize that the main reason they might misbehave is the same as every one else, whether they are 4, 14, 24 or 94 years old: <strong>they will be distracted if they are not interested</strong>, bored. Conjectural factors surely also play a role (if it's nap time, for example), but if you get them interested you increase dramatically your chances of having a well-behaved audience.</p>\n\n<p>Now, with regards to exercising your authority on a crow, the principles are again pretty much the same for 4 years old and 20 years old:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Immediately assume a position of authority.</strong> You have to be convinced that you naturally assume this authority before you go to the class. It derives from two factors:</p>\n\n<p> a. By naming you a lecturer, your university gave you authority over the lecture room. Be ready, but not overly eager, to exercise it.</p>\n\n<p> b. This authority also derives from your skills and knowledge: you are an authority on the topic you are lecturing. To maintain this, you have to be prepared to teach your topic.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Be consistent.</strong> Lay out a set of rules, explain them, and enforce them. They have to appear justified and reasonable to the students, so that you can enforce them if need be. <strong>Always put things back in perspective</strong>: why are we here, and how this justifies what I do.</p>\n\n<p>To give an example: I always start by explaining that “I will not shout, because my voice doesn't allow me to go through the whole lecture shouting. Thus, if the noise level meets the point where I would need to shout, I will simply stop lecturing.” Standing there, silent, is a very effective way to lead the group to self-discipline (“hey, guys, shush!”). If necessary, I will remind them that even if I cover less material, the exam still covers the whole planned curriculum…</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Be pragmatic.</strong> If things are going bad for some external circumstances, be prepared to make a justified exception to the rules, for the benefit of everyone. For example, if it's Friday afternoon and all students are exhausted from a week of exams, giving them 10 minutes off in the middle of a two-hour lecture might lead to overall improved productivity.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>But most importantly, realize that <strong>while first impression is important, it is not <em>“do or die”</em></strong>. Even as an experienced teacher, sometime you will underperform a given day (because you're tired, because you're not committed enough to this specific topic, because …), but there is nothing you cannot correct later.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11361,
"author": "Nicholas",
"author_id": 1424,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1424",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For university students, you could point out the obvious - that they are no longer at school, and things are done a little differently here. Classroom discipline is essentially an implicit pre-requisite, which should have been learned at school. </p>\n\n<p>Primarily, they will be expected to behave as adults. This means showing <strong>both</strong> their lecturers <strong>and</strong> their fellow students the respect they deserve and pay silent attention to the lecturer.</p>\n\n<p>In conjunction with expressing this view, I have seen the application of the policy that, if there is prolonged disruptive behaviour from any student or group of students, following N warnings, the lecturer will simply walk out of the class, return to his/her office and wait for a/the class representative to apologise on behalf of the class. </p>\n\n<p>Getting the approval of your line manager of this policy is recommended before you follow it. Telling the students up front that this is how you will deal professionally with class disruption will give you the confidence to actually execute the policy, if needed. You will know that you have a plan in place, the students know that plan, you know you can follow through with your plan as required. </p>\n\n<p>Peer pressure is your ally, here.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11364,
"author": "JRN",
"author_id": 64,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/64",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When I first began to teach, nothing I <em>said</em> would make the students behave. It was only when I <em>acted</em> did students start to behave. For your first semester of teaching, I recommend that you <em>strictly follow all the rules</em> your university has on disciplining students. This includes sending them to the office of student affairs, filing disciplinary cases, giving failing grades for an activity or for the whole course, and so on. It is important that your response be quick and consistent. Again, <em>you do not have to say anything,</em> you don't even have to warn them or remind them of the rules. Just implement the disciplinary measures quickly and consistently. Act as if it's no big deal to you, as if you've been doing it your entire life so many times that it has become second nature to you.</p>\n\n<p>If you do this, trust me, you will have <em>absolutely no problems</em> with discipline during the next semester.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11371,
"author": "Ilmari Karonen",
"author_id": 496,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/496",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just to point out one thing the other answerers (especially <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/11357\">F'x</a>, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/11354\">Damien</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/11361\">Nicholas</a>) haven't mentioned, do <strong>encourage and reward any <em>contructive</em> interruptions</strong>, like asking questions about the subject you're covering or, even better, answering questions asked by other students, pointing out any mistakes you may have made or letting you know if the material you're presenting has already been covered in another class.</p>\n\n<p>One of the best things that could possibly happen, as far as engaging your students to learn is concerned, is having a spontaneous on-topic discussion between students emerge in your class. If there's any chance of that happening, you definitely should encourage it, even if it's cutting into time you'd planned to spend talking about something else. You can always make up for the lost time later.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, the size of the class matters here. In a class of 10 people, you can just let the discussion unfold naturally; in a class of 200, you're going to have to hand out turns for speaking and make sure you don't let a discussion between a small group of students drag out so long that others get bored. Just try to do it without sounding dismissive.</p>\n\n<p>How is all this relevant to maintaining discipline in class? Well, the thing is that <strong>the #1 cause of classroom misbehavior is boredom.</strong> (The #2 cause is probably the mistaken belief that you <em>have</em> to misbehave in class to be \"cool\".)</p>\n\n<p>On one hand, the more your students get to engage in the teaching process and to guide it towards things <em>they're</em> interested in, the less bored they will be. On the other, if your students <em>are</em> getting bored, <strong>you'll want to know about it and find out <em>why</em> it's happening</strong>: Are you going too slow or too fast? Do they find the material you're presenting irrelevant? Or are they just too tired and unable to concentrate? The best (if not the only) way to know that is to encourage your students to provide you with honest feedback whenever they have trouble following your lecture or find it uninteresting.</p>\n\n<p>Another trick that may help is to tell your students up front that <strong>attending classes is voluntary</strong>, as long as they understand that anything they miss will still be on the exam. If they don't want to stay in the classroom, it's better that they leave than get bored and distract others. That way, you'll get rid of the students who are bored because they already know the subject, as well as, hopefully, some of those who just feel like they <em>have to</em> misbehave. (The latter group may flunk the exam, but that will at least hopefully teach them a lesson for the next time.)</p>\n\n<p>(If you do this, it's a good idea to post a detailed lesson plan in advance, and maybe make your lecture notes / slides available, so that students who choose not to attend can check if they'll miss, or have missed, anything they didn't know already.)</p>\n\n<p>You should also encourage your students to <strong>come ask you after class if they feel like they're not keeping up</strong> or if there's something they just don't get. Not only does that give you a chance to help them over their stumbling block and to keep up with the class, but it also provides you with useful feedback on your teaching. If you find a lot of students getting stuck on a specific critical issue, you may even want to announce a change in your lesson plan and use the next lecture to focus on that point until you're pretty sure everybody gets it. Just make sure to keep asking for feedback as you do it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11381,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are so many great answers here already but I do feel there is one important point which is not covered which needs to be. Before I get to my point, I will just say that being a good teacher requires you to get it all right, not just get most of it right. If you let one thing slip (like classroom management) your teaching can end up being extremely ineffective which will be reflected in the final grades of your students.</p>\n\n<p>The point I want to add to all of the others already mentioned by others is to engage the students. I don't mean just making it interesting (that is also extremely important) but you should actually make the students do as much of the work as you can (read up on Active Learning). The more you can get the students actively working on the subject of the class, the less chance there will be, even for those who are quite advanced, to become bored (thus turning to their friends or their phone).</p>\n\n<p>Group work is extremely helpful (perhaps the most helpful) but there are plenty of plenty of other ways to consider. The key point is to keep them actively focused on the class at hand so they will not focus on something else.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 29920,
"author": "curious",
"author_id": 11673,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11673",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Lots of great answers already but there are a few things I haven't seent that I think are important. </p>\n\n<p>Establish <strong>eye contact</strong> with your students to engage them and show them that you are paying attention to them (and check if they're paying attention to you). </p>\n\n<p><strong>Walk the room</strong>, use the whole space. If you stay in front all the time, people think that can get away by sitting in the back and spending their time texting. You don't have to warn most of the time, just using the space helps to establish your authority.</p>\n\n<p>If you think a student is starting to get bored and distracted from what you are saying, find a question pertaining to the topic and <strong>call on them</strong> to answer it.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Use humor</strong>. If I'm trying to start a class and some students won't stop talking to each other, I'll either just get into their conversation in front of the whole group and link it back to class somehow.</p>\n\n<p>The only times I've had to do more serious discipline, it was mostly because someone had a real behavior problem (problems managing their anger, etc.) In those cases, most students will be glad that you will put the other in their place because they're likely to be disturbing the whole class.</p>\n\n<p>Most schools I've taught at have new teacher workshops and there is always one about class management. I would look into it, it can't hurt!</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/24 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11353",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6273/"
]
|
11,362 | <p>I have recently received a response for a paper submission. The paper expanded on a conference presentation, and it was submitted to the journal special issue related to that conference.</p>
<p>All three reviewers recommended acceptance (one "definite accept", two with "minor changes") but the editors chose to reject the paper "in light of the reviews" without any additional reason.</p>
<p>Why might the editors have chosen to do this? Is it OK to ask them for an explanation of their reasoning, or even to ask them to reconsider?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11366,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>First, a note: <strong>the editor</strong> (or editors, or editorial committee) <strong>is solely responsible for the decision to publish or reject</strong> a submitted manuscript. Reviewers are often (not always) called in and their reports provide help to the editor in evaluating the manuscript. But, at the end of the day, it is the editor who makes the call, so the situation you describe is possible and not necessarily unethical.</p>\n\n<p>It is, however, <strong>very unusual</strong>, both for the editor not to follow the unanimous recommendation of the reviewers, and even more so not to explain their rejection any further. You can definitely (and, in my opinion, <em>should</em>) <strong>contact the editor</strong> to:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>express your surprise at the rejection, given the contents of the reviews;</li>\n<li>ask whether it may have been an administrative error (with the nice streamlined web-based editor interface, a simple misplaced click might have lead to the current situation);</li>\n<li>if the decision is deliberate, ask the editor if he may expand on the reason behind the rejection.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Of course, be professional and polite.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>If after contacting the editor you are not satisfied with the answer, the only way forward is to appeal the decision to the editor-in-chief or the full editorial board. Details on how to do so should be found on the journal's website. This should not be done lightly, but if you do not get a decent reply from the editor, it seems warranted by the facts of your case. You may, however, want to consider sending the manuscript to another journal, as it will take much less effort than the appeal…</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11367,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I fully agree <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/11366\">with F'x</a> but would like to add the following. As stated editors are free to make the judgement they see fit with the journal reputation in mind etc. However, an editor should also wed out manuscripts that do not fit the journal's scope etc. already before the review stage. It therefore seems even more strange that a manuscript reeives such a drastic result from a seemingly good response from reviewers.</p>\n\n<p>Another issue is that reviewers provide comments directly to the editor. It is thus possible that the review seems good but the reviewer may voice some concern that he/she feels the editor must act upon and which they therefore cannot voice in the open review. The editor can react to this. I would still expect the editor to then provide more open concerns so as to provide you with feedback.</p>\n\n<p>All in all F'x's suggestion to contact the editor is the way to go. Describe that you do not understand the resulting \"verdict\" and that you would like to get more feedback so as to possibly improve a seemingly already good manuscript or possibly be given the opportunity to revise for a new final decision.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11369,
"author": "Nick S",
"author_id": 7624,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7624",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I should also point out that one issue could be related to being submitted to \" journal special issue related to that conference\".</p>\n\n<p>While that is the perfect place for the paper, keep in mind that in a regular issue, an accepted paper appears in the first issue which has space. For the special issue, all papers must appear in that issue. If the editors ended up with 5000 pages of accepted articles, they had to trim them down and reject some despite the good reviews.</p>\n\n<p>As your paper had good reviews, it should probably be easy to publish it in some journal, maybe the regular issues of the same one?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11370,
"author": "Bitwise",
"author_id": 6862,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6862",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Remember that the editor can have more information than the reviewers and is concerned not only with the scientific quality of the paper. For example, impact and interest is a major factor for some journals.</p>\n\n<p>For example, it is possible that a similar paper on this subject was submitted at the the same time, and the editor decided to send both the papers to review. Upon receiving the reviews, the editor decided to go with the other paper.</p>\n\n<p>Another scenario would be that the editor learned about a different paper (even in a different journal) which will be published in the near future and lowers the impact of your results.</p>\n\n<p>These things can happen in high profile journals, and it does not necessarily mean the editor is doing something unethical or is acting on personal likes/dislikes.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 13901,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have a few potential scenarios in mind beyond just \"They don't like you\":</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>As Peter Jansson said, reviewers usually get a space to address just the editor, rather than the author, and in those comments there might have been a reason to reject your paper. Perhaps the reviewers suggested it's really not a good fit for the journal or something along those lines - the paper itself might not be flawed, but its submission to this journal might be. Yes, that sort of thing should show up in the review itself, but reviewers are imperfect people just like the rest of us.</li>\n<li>The editor might have made a \"Is this a priority?\" judgement call and rejected the paper - \"in light of...\" phrasing might just be journal boilerplate. Don't underestimate the capacity of boilerplate language to generate confusion.</li>\n<li>The journal's publishing schedule might just be full for a very long time, and so they may be rejecting anything below \"My god, this <em>must</em> go in our journal\".</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 55541,
"author": "iayork",
"author_id": 26671,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26671",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One possibility is that the editors felt the paper was marginally relevant for their journal. In that case, they might want to publish the paper if and only if it was exceptionally strong, which would allow it to overcome the relevance concern. Three mildly positive reviews wouldn't be enough in that case; but if the editor had seen three highly positive reviews, they would have accepted.</p>\n\n<p>From the author's position, this is annoying, but it makes sense from the editor's viewpoint. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/24 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11362",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7880/"
]
|
11,363 | <p>Who can apply for research grants in Europe? Are there some degree requirements? Can students (undergraduate/graduate) apply for research grants? I know that the answer surely depends on the institution giving the grant, but I assume there are some general requirements, formal or informal. If you know (or even better, are) a student who has received a research grant, please tell how difficult it was. To clarify, I'm not asking about funding to do some degree, but funding to establish new research projects.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11368,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Rules will very strongly depend on the funding institution you're applying to, and even on the details of the grant program. Eligibility criteria are listed in each funding program, so go check up those programs that are of interest to you. Even restricting to “in Europe” doesn't help much, because Europe is a large continent with very heterogeneous research (and funding) institutions.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding students (undergraduate or graduate), the only types of grants I can think of are:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>grants to fund your degree; for example, getting a fellowship that would fund you during your PhD</li>\n<li>grants that encourage international collaboration and exchange; e.g., the <a href=\"http://www.france-science.org/chateaubriand.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Chateaubriand fellowship</a> to spend some months in a French lab, or <a href=\"http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">JSPS fellowship</a> for short stays in Japan.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>A student is expected to devote his efforts to the project for which he is employed, not to bid for new research projects on their own. Thus, I don't think you can get funding for a new research project of your own, until you are an independent researcher.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 135795,
"author": "Peteris",
"author_id": 10730,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10730",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h2>Institutions</h2>\n\n<p>Most grant programs target <em>institutions</em> - while a grant proposal will generally be prepared by a particular principal investigator (and possibly their team) according to their individual research experience and research goals, and the grant evaluation might place a large importance on their CV and individual publication history, in these programs the grant application has to be submitted by a qualified institution, and the grant will be awarded to that institution, not to an individual.</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, many grant programs require <em>multiple</em> institutions to apply - e.g. Horizon 2020 calls tend to require consortiums representing multiple EU countries; various grants for applied research require a participation of both a research institution and an industry partner, etc.</p>\n\n<h2>Individual researchers</h2>\n\n<p>There are some types of grants that are targeted at individual researchers, e.g. <a href=\"https://erc.europa.eu/funding/starting-grants\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">European Research Council</a> or some post-doc programs. However, the general assumption is that the doctor's degree is the basic qualification showing that someone is qualified to do independent unsupervised research. The grants tend to be quite competitive, so a PhD degree by itself is nowhere near sufficient, but it's a basic 'table stakes' requirement that's mandatory in almost all (or all?) research grant programs.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/24 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11363",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7881/"
]
|
11,374 | <p>This question is prompted mostly due to a <code>Numerical Methods and Computer Programming In MATLAB</code> course I took this summer (<a href="http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0470565152">textbook</a>). To summarize the course it's basically methods for solving linear, nonlinear, and differential equations and systems of those equations, and learning how to program the respective algorithms in MATLAB. </p>
<p>I'm a fast learner for most topics. I already have programming experience, so that half of the class was no challenge. The mathematical concepts I grasped quickly, and as a result most of the lectures were too slow for me. This isn't anything new for me, I often have this issue. </p>
<p>The bulk of the homework problems given were standard book problems and had no real significance or relation to the application of these methods. There were one or two problems that were applied and those were great, but to be honest I have a problem doing homework and have had it for around 20 years now (since grade school). I understand the importance of it, it's rarely (if ever) difficult for me, but it bores me and I have no motivation to do it. It doesn't help that now I work full time with a wife and 1.5 children, so there is a small window in which I even have to fit this homework.</p>
<p>A couple of weeks into the course I thought perhaps if the homework was more interesting somehow (puzzle-like, application problems (aka story problems), etc) then that would be better for me, but I didn't know how to approach the professor about this. Long story short the bulk of the grading is homework and I'm not doing as well as I could be. It's likely too late for this class, but how would I approach this in the future? It'd be torture to have to continue down this road.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11375,
"author": "Kukanani",
"author_id": 7891,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7891",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can try to make the homework interesting on your own. This is a roundabout way around the problem, but it's worked for me in the past.</p>\n\n<p>I had a Space Propulsion class that resulted in a lot of rather tedious homework, even when I wrote the solutions in MATLAB. By the end of the class I was writing programs that allowed you to 1. vary the parameters of the problem, and 2. Show a graphical visualization. If you're writing Diff EQs, try adding the ability to vary the constant parameters, add a vector field graph, and put it all in a nice GUI.</p>\n\n<p>If the teacher/TA spends any amount of time grading the homework (some classes I've taken, they simply make sure you attempted the problem), then they will probably appreciate the time and effort. I got extra credit for a number of my homework submissions that I did in this way.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11376,
"author": "Amory",
"author_id": 7886,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7886",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Why not just ask? Maybe this seems naive but if you approach the professor and say, honestly, you don't feel you are doing as well as you could or even should be, they would be willing to discuss that; a student taking an interest in their learning is a valuable thing. You can state your desire for creative questions, and ask if the professor has any recommendations for outside material, or has some of their own. I can't imagine any professor being anything but delighted at the prospect of a student being self-aware of their performance hurdles and seeking more advanced knowledge in the professor's field.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11404,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Not challenging enough homework problems is not a good excuse to not do them. The homework is necessary when taking programming/math courses. You need to do them so that you know how to crawl before you learn how to run.</p>\n\n<p>You must finish the homework to prove to yourself and your professor that you already know the basics and you're ready to learn the advanced materials. You take the finished homework to your professor and tell him that they are too easy for you and you want more so that he can give you more interesting problems to work on. Professors would really like the students like you because they know they have good and eager to learn students in the class.</p>\n\n<p>I suspect you're in the wrong class. It probably is offered to the students who do not have strong math background as you do. (This is not unusual. I had personal experience that students in my programming class did not know what logarithm is.) In the future, check with the department to make sure the course contents fit into your level of knowledge before you take them so you won't waste your time and money.</p>\n\n<p>Best wishes!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 184317,
"author": "Deipatrous",
"author_id": 119911,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/119911",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Instructors have to strike a balance for the group as a whole, which will always leave some students over-challenged and other under-challenged. Having a chat with the instructor about what else you might be doing is not a bad idea, but in general, students that are ready for more are usually also able to find good challenges for themselves. Certainly in this age of the internet!</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/24 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11374",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5836/"
]
|
11,377 | <p>I'm a postdoc and a guy who used to be a part of our group dropped by today and said repeatedly that he wanted to collaborate with me and that he's too busy with other commitments to do any work. I suggested a project where he could write up some of his recent experiences in the area (I know of a publication that did something similar to this that we could use as a framework and am working with another man in our group on this), and he had no interest in that saying instead he was more interested in the data analysis I'm doing. </p>
<p>The message I got was "I don't have time to do anything, but I want to be a co-author".
He was "generous" enough to say he "doesn't need to be the first or second author".</p>
<p>How would you handle that?</p>
<p>During my PhD I had one of my supervisor's former students do this to me. He got 3 publications out of me, which he didn't understand well enough to present at a conference (he insisted that I create slides for him and write a word-for-word script for him to deliver - the conference was in his area of the world). I eventually put my foot down and refused to have him as a co-author again (my supervisor was pushing to put his name on a 4th publication, I think she wanted to help him get tenure and / or was repaying some debt to him with my work).</p>
<p>I don't want to spend time trying to defend my work from people who didn't contribute putting their names on it, but I'm not sure the best way to get rid of him. My PI thinks quite highly of him.</p>
<p>I'm going out with my PI casually for dinner tomorrow and am planning to bring this up and ask him to be explicit about his authorship policy (my PI reserves the right to determine authorship of work from our lab). I don't want to seem whiny, but also don't want to spend time / energy worrying about this.</p>
<p>Am I overly anxious about this? Maybe it doesn't really matter as long as I'm the first author? If that's the case, I'm tempted to just put everyone I know on it (I don't want to reward this guy for being obnoxious).</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11378,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Your situation sounds messy. I think most will agree that the basic prerequisite for co-authorship is intellectual contribution to the manuscript . To add authors for thanks is common but really not a practice to endorse. If someone comes to me and asks to be a co-author, the obvious response would be: \"What will be your contribution?\" If there is no clear contribution other than, say, \"Read the manuscript and provide input\" then the answer should be \"No, thanks\". In your case, it sounds as if there is no major point in even having a discussion.</p>\n\n<p>In fact, your case reminds me of a colleague of mine who ends up in all sorts of strange situations. His problem is that he is too nice and does not know the word \"no\". I realize it may be hard to set up strict rules for these things if your immediate surroundings do not subscribe to them, but I think you should know that you have solid grounds for being more strict about adding unnecessary co-authors or letting people into a project without a clear picture of why.</p>\n\n<p>If you are first author on a paper, it seems to me you will also be the person deciding how the work should materialize. I think you need to make your own mind up where you want to draw the line. you will benefit of making a decision on how you want things run. If you want to deviate from this later on, then it is still your decision and no-one else's. I think this is what you (and most of us) really want - to be in the driver's seat. So follow your instincts, they seem sound to me.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11379,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am not a postdoc but a current PhD student. Strangely, I have had a couple of similar instances in the recent past.</p>\n\n<p>Just say a firm <strong>NO !</strong></p>\n\n<p>If he is a former member of your group and has nothing to intellectually contribute to the current project, then he does not deserve authorship.</p>\n\n<p>I would definitely bring it up casually with your PI and make it clear to him that you do not support a person being a co-author if he does not or has not contributed to the project significantly over its life cycle.</p>\n\n<p>Saying a clear \"<strong>No!</strong>\" usually works. :) </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11386,
"author": "kalou",
"author_id": 7900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7900",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Sometimes, a firm \"NO\" is not the best option.</p>\n\n<p>I believe it would work to say NO but your PI wants to \"drive the car\" and you don't want this to generate a conflict. </p>\n\n<p>If her wanting to \"drive the car\" was not legitimate, I think a firm NO would be the best solution. </p>\n\n<p>Otherwise, I think the best choice is to bend. BUT, there is a big BUT: THEY are in demand and you should turn this into your own advantage:</p>\n\n<p>Think of a compensation, a leverage that could be useful to you... And try yourself at a polite negociation exercice...</p>\n\n<p>Or maybe... Mention something like \"expedient co-author\" in your publication...</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11392,
"author": "Benoît Kloeckner",
"author_id": 946,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/946",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As others, I would say that you should say \"no\". However, I have something to add: this is not merely about the request of being freely a co-author being annoying. It is about ethics. Not letting someone that contributed significantly to a paper be an author is universally seen as unethical; \nit might be less clear that letting someone not having contributed significantly to a paper be an author is equally unethical, but it is.\nNotably, it gives her or him an advantage in evaluation, promotion, tenure and more importantly recruitment that his or her competitors will not have.</p>\n\n<p>In conclusion; not saying \"no\" is unethical... to many people you probably do not even know, but unethical nonetheless.</p>\n\n<p>I have to add another point there : this is a delicate situation as you are not completely in charge, and as a postdoc you have to handle things gently to have good recommendation from your PI. Being to rigorous about something that people may think costs you nothing can lead you to an impossible situation, so be careful, think ahead the point up to which you are ready to be flexible, do not act offensively, do not corner your PI but let her ways out. For example, you should definitely explain how wrong this would seem to you, but you should not blame her right from the start for asking you this.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11395,
"author": "cbeleites unhappy with SX",
"author_id": 725,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/725",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to the excellent answers that you already got, I'd like to point out two things.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>There are criteria lists for authorship, see e.g. <a href=\"http://www.icmje.org/ethical_1author.html\">http://www.icmje.org/ethical_1author.html</a>.<br>\nYou may want to look up a specific guideline for your field. </p></li>\n<li><p>While I agree with the \"say a firm no\" side, this may not be possible in - due to the local \"power structure\", or also because real life things are usually not as clear as one sentence in a stackexchange question suggests (in that case even possibly not advisable).<br>\nI've found a \"Contributions\" section in the text where for each author is listed what exactly they contributed very helpful in situations where people were unclear about coauthorship and position in the author list.<br>\nIf there's really just \"A. Uthor did not contribute anything\" that should a) be embarrassing enough for A. Uthor, or b) the supervisor or, as a last resort c) reviewers/editors to insist on having neither the name in the author list nor the sentence in the contributions. For the less clear cases it allows readers will to judge for themselves, and in any case I found that explicitly writing down the contributions can do much for the clarification and thus also make decisions about authorship much easier. </p></li>\n<li><p>Last but not least, what about approaching the problem from the opposide side at the dinner: telling your PI that you're afraid the guy's not going to do his share in the work. That you had similar experiences previously, so your alarm at that is quite shrill. What your PI recommends what should be that coauthor's exact part of the work and what the PI recommends to ensure that the guy is actually doing his share?</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/24 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11377",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7894/"
]
|
11,382 | <p>I have been advised that I should include the peer reviews in my CV, particularly when I am applying for academic/research positions. I am not too sure how to go about this, thus my questions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Is it ethical to include the full details? I would imagine that as reviews are anonymous, this would be a no-no.</p></li>
<li><p>Should I just say something along the lines "Reviewer: Journal name"?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Also, what section of the CV should this information be included under?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11383,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As I see it the reviews are, unless explicitly stated otherwise, a communication between you and the editor and authors. If you make the reviews public you probably need to ask the other parties for permission, if nothing else so for politeness. I therefore suggest anonymous listing. </p>\n\n<p>I personally have an entry in my CV which tells how many reviews I have made since (in my case) 1995 and then lists the journals for which I have made such reviews. As a side-point, I do the same for reviews of proposals I make for large granting organisations such as NERC (UK) and NSF (US). I do not see any point in, say, providing details on suggestions for reject/revisoions/accept. In the end the number of reviews (also per year) is what shows your experience and provides credit.</p>\n\n<p>You should also look at the question <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/647/4394\">Can I publish the reviews I write?</a> and <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/11097/4394\">Ethics of publishing received peer reviews [duplicate]</a> for different views on making public reviews in different ways.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11384,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I believe you may get some tips from the answers to a question of mine on this very site: <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/3540/2700\">“Do you list journals you have reviewed for on your CV?”</a></p>\n\n<p>As for myself, I list the peer-reviews I have done in a <strong>“Administrative and collective duties”</strong> or <strong>“Community involvement”</strong>. Or, in a short CV which doesn't have such divisions, I put it with the broader <strong>“Other skills and activities”</strong> section (i.e. not teaching, not research projects).</p>\n\n<p>What I include is:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>list of <strong>journals</strong> for which I act as reviewer (<em>“Regular reviewer for many chemistry journals, including …”</em>)</li>\n<li><strong>funding bodies</strong> (NSF, private trusts, etc.) for which I act as expert (including, e.g., NSF division, but not the exact programs)</li>\n<li><strong>evaluation committees</strong> on which I sit</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>It feels obvious, but it's always worth repeating: <strong>do not include any confidential information</strong>, such as titles or author lists for reviewer papers or projects. I think it's safe to list the number of reviews performed for each outlet if you want (but I don't do it).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 113844,
"author": "CVMaster",
"author_id": 96111,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96111",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are compiling a CV for a job at a University you should make sure to include whether or not your journal entry was refereed. This adds weight to the entry. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/25 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11382",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
]
|
11,405 | <p><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11398/starting-a-mooc">This question</a> prompted me to wonder what compensation comes with teaching a MOOC. Most of these seem to be sponsored by universities, but my university doesn't offer them and neither did my PhD institution so I have no first-hand experience on the instructor-side.</p>
<p>Obviously, most participants do not pay for them (some do, I guess, but I have no idea how many and they're obviously paying much less than university tuition). So, it seems unlikely that teaching such courses pays for the instructors time.</p>
<p>Thus, I ask: does teaching these come with compensation of any kind? Salary/bonus? Teaching load reduction? Release from service? Teaching assistants for the courses? I'm interested in compensation either from one's university or from the MOOC provider (Coursera, Udacity, edX, etc.).</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 12979,
"author": "J. Zimmerman",
"author_id": 7921,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7921",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As @JeffE said, every department is different. There is remarkably little information available on the compensation offered to the instructors teaching the courses. A quick search revealed <a href=\"http://science-and-food.blogspot.com/2013/06/on-super-professors-and-mooc-pushback.html\">this article</a> which states that <a href=\"https://plus.google.com/103171251377160188790/posts\">this professor</a> at Duke University doesn't receive any compensation for teaching MOOCs, including no reduction in teaching load, or any teaching assistants. See also <a href=\"https://plus.google.com/103171251377160188790/posts\">this scathing article</a> which states that professors teaching MOOCs are grossly underpaid--no hard numbers anywhere though.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 12980,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's a matter of contract (or agreement) between the teacher and her employer. Options include:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>no compensation, no appreciation for the job you do</li>\n<li>encouragement in the form of teaching load reduction, or financial compensation</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>It could also happen that the online course provider would directly pay the teacher for her time, but that odds not happen (as far as I know) in the current model of MOOC, where the course provider deals directly with institutions rather than individual teachers.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/26 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11405",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6984/"
]
|
11,416 | <p>Here is my situation, I'm about to graduate with a Ph.D. within the next few months. My dissertation is done, so I can dedicate quite a bit of time to the issue I'm describing. </p>
<p>At the moment, I have never taught a college level course. For the entire length of my program I've been on the research side. I'm very frustrated by this, as "teaching" was always my personal number 2 choice after graduation (number 1 is not in academia, a long shot and not relevant to this conversation). (And just to remove those suggesting that I should have asked to teach, I have -- for years -- but that's water under the bridge as they say)</p>
<p>Due to this lack of teaching, I've done everything I could think of: I've taught mini classes to staff and my cohort on specific topics (e.g. LaTeX), and when available, I've taught at university programs for high schoolers. And, I've recently, applied to every community college in a two hour radius (our university is in the sticks, so that isn't actually very many), to try to get an adjunct job. </p>
<p>But my fear is that the community colleges won't care about my research or other experience -- they will just note that I don't have teaching experience, so I won't get those positions either -- which means I'll graduate without ever <em>really</em> teaching. </p>
<p>So, here is my question: Is there something I <em>should</em> be doing that I'm not already? What have others done in similar situations? I'm starting to get very concerned about the long term implications of this hole in my CV -- especially given I could really see myself at a lib arts university.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11417,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>First of all, put down all of that experience on your CV, and when you apply for jobs, make sure you write a great teaching statement on some of these experiences. Make sure to talk about any courses you designed (the LaTeX one, perhaps?), and don't disregard the high school teaching at all. I was a high school teacher for seven years before I went to get my PhD, and when applying for college teaching positions, I played up the fact that teaching high school is (in some ways) more challenging and that it made me a better teacher.</p>\n\n<p>I believe that with your current experience, you have a good chance at one of those community college adjunct positions (depending on your field), so don't sell yourself short yet.</p>\n\n<p>One other option that might not sound so great but could at least get you into the classroom is to apply to adjunct positions with for-profit colleges (U. of Phoenix, etc.). If you can disregard any problems you might have with that \"type\" of education and dedicate yourself to doing the best you can for the students, it would give you experience. The problem may be that you're in the sticks.</p>\n\n<p>Speaking of living in the sticks, are you able to move for a semester? If you're flexible enough, you will be able to find that adjunct position (Alaska? Kansas? Puerto Rico?).</p>\n\n<p>Let's say you can't find a teaching position. What's stopping you from developing a full-up course, even if you won't teach it now (or ever)? Be creative, and design the course you've always wanted to teach! You can then put down, \"designed xx undergraduate course, which included a unique assessment plan and a flipped classroom approach, blah, blah, blah.\" A bit hokey, maybe, but it's something.</p>\n\n<p>Depending on your field, you could branch out and apply for positions or volunteer to teach classes that aren't directly in your field.</p>\n\n<p>The bottom line is (and you seem to already know this): you have to be as flexible as you can if your goal is simply to get college teaching experience. But try to think if there are other ways you can be even more flexible, and something is likely to come your way.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11422,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Chris Gregg's answer is truly excellent. I would just add one more thought.</p>\n\n<p>You might consider teaching for free. There are countless opportunities to educate if you do not require compensation. At my university, they are always eager to help the students...especially if they can do so without spending any money. I am sure they would offer me the facilities (room, etc.) if I were willing to 'donate' my time to teach an extra course. </p>\n\n<p>Of course, this requires you to design a course which is desired by students as well as acceptable by the school which is not already offered.</p>\n\n<p>There are plenty of other opportunities - if you have facilities or can afford to rent them. Put an ad in the paper and start teaching. Disadvantaged youths, high school, university students hoping to understand how to get better grades...there should be lots of choices.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/26 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11416",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7848/"
]
|
11,421 | <p>My wife and I just found out that we're having our first child. While this is a wonderful thing, it also concerns us a bit. Particularly because we're on limited funds (TA & RA combined salary) and we're still 1.5-2 years away from graduating together. Also, since our academic careers are so demanding, we're also concerned about balancing time taking care of our newborn. </p>
<p>I read the responses in <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9769/can-one-excel-in-graduate-post-graduate-school-with-a-demanding-family-life">this post</a>, but I'd like to ask for more specific advice for new parents in graduate school. What strategies have you used to enable you to handle having a newborn while both parents are finishing their PhD? Both in terms of time management and making ends meet, financially.</p>
<p>Any personal anecdotes, experience, advice, and tips are welcome! :)</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11425,
"author": "Bitwise",
"author_id": 6862,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6862",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Congratulations! First of all, you are in for a wonderful and life-changing experience.</p>\n\n<p>However, your life is going to change quite drastically - so try to be prepared.</p>\n\n<p>Some things that come to mind in no specific order (some of these are not specific to academia):</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>On the personal side, you must first realize that you will have much less time to work. Get used to the idea. The way to deal with this is to organize your time and stick to your schedules. No more random web browsing during work hours - use your time with your child as time for brain rest. As a scientist you may know that it is not always easy to be creative/focused on cue, but you will learn to get used to it with practice. </li>\n<li>As JeffE commented, if your advisors don't know yet, notify them. A supportive advisor can make a huge difference in terms of flexible-work time, working from home, and even moral support. I would also try to gently ask if they increase your salary or offer some other kind of financial benefits. Also, your graduation will most likely get delayed, hopefully not too much - try to see that your supervisors are ok with that.</li>\n<li>If possible, have your family help as much as possible.</li>\n<li>The first year with a child is a huge change and can be quite difficult, especially in your situation. Help each other and be understanding towards each other.</li>\n<li>Your school's HR can give you information about benefits you could get for children (healthcare, day care).</li>\n<li>You can find tons of used baby/child stuff (toys, clothes) for free or very cheap, because they are often useful only for a short time.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11431,
"author": "seteropere",
"author_id": 532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The first 3 (or even 6) months, it's your fun time. There is not much to worry about. </p>\n\n<p>If there is something I want to recommend is to find a spot for your infant at your university day care ASAP. Most of them give students/faculty members priority. Unfortunately they are always full and have +years of waiting list (specially for infants <2 years old). Register your infant ASAP. Of course, after making sure its a good place to put your child in. Then, you will enjoy visiting the baby during the day hours (12-1pm is a nice time to get your lunch nearby your kid). I went through a nightmare when my kid was at day care far away from my university. This becomes worse in Winter because of the weather conditions. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/26 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11421",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/931/"
]
|
11,428 | <p>If no author of an accepted paper registers for the conference, the paper is simply dumped from the conference.</p>
<p>If, however, the authors duly register but fail to present it at the conference, what is the fate of the paper? I have an accepted paper at a European conference (IEEE), but due to lack of travel funds, our team has decided that we will not be travelling to present the work (I am not based at Europe). </p>
<p>I wrote to the General Chair of the conference, and he writes to me that if the paper is not presented, it will not be indexed in the IEEE Xplore library. </p>
<p>What I wish to know is, will the paper still be published in the 'Conference Proceedings' booklet or CD? My guess is Yes, since these must be printed before authors arrive for the conference. The General Chair has not responded with an answer on this. </p>
<p>Question two, which happens to be my real inquiry- does such a thing count as a valid 'publication' for me? Will my work get indexed somewhere (wherever it might be) or not, would it be searchable via the Internet or not? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11429,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>This has actually happened to me a couple of times in the past. This really depends on the policy of the organizing professional group (ACM/IEEE) and even within sub-groups of that body (SIGWEB/SIGCHI within ACM)</p>\n\n<p>Generally, I have found that if your paper is accepted in a conference and you or any of your co-authors <strong>register</strong> for that conference, then the paper will still be published in the conference proceedings and indexed in the relevant digital library. e.g. IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library etc.</p>\n\n<p>If you or a co-author do not register for the conference, then your paper, in general, will not be indexed. </p>\n\n<p>If an accepted paper is not published in the conference proceedings (and by extension not indexed in the appropriate digital library), then it generally does not \"count\" as a valid publication. You are better off, in that case, by withdrawing your paper and submitting it at a more acceptable conference venue (or a journal where there is not travelling involved) </p>\n\n<p><strong>PS:</strong> You can always link to such a paper on your personal website or put it on <a href=\"https://www.arxiv.org\">arxiv</a> for comments. Google Scholar will obviously index it but such indexing has limited practical value.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11430,
"author": "seteropere",
"author_id": 532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From what I know in CS field, most conferences care only about <strong>Registration</strong>. That means if one author registered before the deadline then the paper will be included in the conference proceedings. This mostly due to the fact that many conferences send their papers to the publisher <strong>before</strong> the conference take place. It happens all the time where during the conference sessions some papers have no presenter. </p>\n\n<p>Now some conferences make it explicit that you need to to come and present your paper in order to include it in the final proceedings. Such conditions are usually available in the conference website or after-acceptance emails. </p>\n\n<p>For the second question, it is really a good and rationale question since your paper passed the peer review process but at the same time you do not have hard evidence for that. Personally I can't comment on that since I am new to conference organisation and academia. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11437,
"author": "Arash Sarshar",
"author_id": 7929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It very much depends on the conference regulations. As an example I know that <a href=\"http://eucap2013.org\">Eucap</a> indexes the paper in IEEExplore if one of the authors registers and the final paper passes the checks in IEEE PDF Express. </p>\n\n<p>Some conference management systems like <a href=\"http://edas.info\">Edas.info</a> have a special page called \"Explain no-show\". It's a common issue for authors who are unable to obtain their Visas to enter the country where the conference is held. </p>\n\n<p>Also, it's a good idea to consider submitting to arXiv</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 41035,
"author": "gdp",
"author_id": 31290,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31290",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Whether or not a paper appears in IEEE Xplore is very dependent upon the sponsoring society and conference's own policies. In general though:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>If none of the authors have registered for the conference, this should be spotted by the organizers. In this case, it is unlikely your paper would be in the proceedings, as often the deadline for paper submission coincides with the deadline for author registration (for this reason).</li>\n<li>If one of the authors of the paper has registered, the paper would appear in the proceedings handed out at the conference (the USB stick or similar). This is on account of the fact that, until registration is completed, the organizers are not aware you have not attended.</li>\n<li>If an author is registered for the conference, but does not present, this depends upon the policies of the conference. I can say with 100% certainty at the conference I am involved with, that failing to present will lead to the paper not being indexed on Xplore - we have a team of volunteer session chairs who submit a report for each session. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The ComSoc policy [1] on no-shows is quite clear, and is one that many conferences are modeled around. While some people may be lucky and get their paper on Xplore, that's incredibly unusual in my experience, given the role of session chairs and room monitors.</p>\n\n<p>[1] <a href=\"http://cms.comsoc.org/eprise/main/SiteGen/Confs_P_P/Content/Home/No_Shows.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://cms.comsoc.org/eprise/main/SiteGen/Confs_P_P/Content/Home/No_Shows.html</a></p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/27 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11428",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5851/"
]
|
11,441 | <p>I just received the galley proofs for an article which has been accepted to a well-regarded math journal.</p>
<p>The copyediting is, quite frankly, terrible. The copyeditor has introduced dozens of mathematical, typographical, and bibliographic mistakes. The proofs were accompanied by a list of changes and questions, and some of the newly introduced mistakes were described in this list, but not all. </p>
<p>A few representative examples:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>The editor has, in many places, replaced the mathematical notation << with "is much less than". It is universal within my subfield of mathematics that << means something very different from "is much less than".</p></li>
<li><p>The editor has typeset fractions in different ways, so that what was formerly in the denominator is now in the numerator.</p></li>
<li><p>The editor has monkeyed unacceptably with the bibliography. I used a software package, for which I looked up on their FAQ how to cite it. The editor replaced my correct bibliography entry with something different.</p></li>
<li><p>The tables now appear in wrong places. A cursory reading of the edited text reveals that it now makes no sense, and this would be obvious even to someone without specialized knowledge of my field.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I could go on and on, but I don't want to just rant. Instead I have two closely related questions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>First of all, is this typical? I find it difficult to imagine that a publisher who did this kind of shoddy work on a regular basis could stay in business. I wonder if I just had the bad luck to get the new employee this time around.</p></li>
<li><p>More importantly, is a strong response warranted? I am inclined to write to the journal staff, tell them that their work is unacceptably sloppy, explain in detail why, and ask them to start over from scratch, and to furnish a list of all changes made, no matter how minor.</p>
<p>This is not just because I want to pick an argument. I have gone through my paper line-by-line several times in the past, making very sure that everything I said was correct. With this level of copyediting work, I am back to square one and I suspect I might accidentally miss several errors introduced by the copyeditors.</p>
<p>Would such an e-mail be likely to produce the kind of results I'm looking for?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Thank you very much.</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> Thanks to everyone who replied. I wrote a strong, but I hope polite, e-mail to my contact at the journal, listing several of the mistakes, and asking them to start over and to send me a complete list of changes. His first reply was a little bit ambiguous, appearing to perhaps misunderstand what I was asking for -- but he has since apologized and agreed to my requests.</p>
<p>One point of departure from Anonymous Mathematician's advice: I haven't said anything to the editorial board and the publisher, or discussed this issue (other than here, anonymously) with anyone but my coauthor and my contact at the journal -- happily, it looks like there won't be any reason to.</p>
<p><strong>Update 2:</strong> As I requested, my contact at the journal started again from scratch, did a much more conservative job of copyediting, and provided me a copy of my file which was marked up in red and blue with every change they made. Needless to say this made my job quite easy and I thanked them for their good work.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11442,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If a copy-editor (CE) changes the meaning of your manuscript you obviously need to recorrect it. The CE should have received a set of \"house rules\" for how thing should be formatted but it is not likely the CE is an expert in evey field. In your case it sounds as if the CE has been \"trigger happy\". In any case, you should makethe necessary corrections and return the proof to the editor detailing what you find wrong with the CE edits. You should clearly state why the edits are unacceptable.</p>\n\n<p>Concerning your point about location of tables, I am not sure what exactly you mean by \"wrong place\" but the journal will obviosuly place tables and figures where they make type-setting sense but should of course be located after where they are first referenced in the text.</p>\n\n<p>So in some cases journals (CE) may change things to adhere to \"house rules\". These changes must be accepted but of course not when they change the meaning of the paper or introduce errors. I have experienced similar (but not as severe) edits to my own papers, I have also been in the position to enforce house rules in the journal I edit, but never to the point of changing the meaning. If in doubt I would have contacted the author or passed along a query about the particular issue.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11445,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>That does sound terrible. I haven't run into anything so bad myself, but I know people who have. It seems to vary a lot by publisher. My impression is that it happens occasionally when they try to save money on copyediting by outsourcing to a new, cheap copyediting company. If the results are terrible, then the publisher will switch to the next-cheapest company, and this will continue until the publisher finds an acceptable level of quality. Unfortunately, it leads to bad results for authors who get caught in the middle of this process. Hopefully the publisher will learn from this incident and the problem won't continue.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>More importantly, is a strong response warranted?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, certainly. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>ask them to start over from scratch, and to furnish a list of all changes made, no matter how minor</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I'd guess that getting them to start over from scratch will be difficult, but you should certainly insist on seeing a second set of proofs.</p>\n\n<p>Asking for a list of all changes made could be useful, but it's not clear whether you can trust that they will compile a complete list (they may be sloppy about that too). Many copyeditors mark up a paper copy before changing the file, so you may have some luck in getting a photocopy/scan of the marked up copy.</p>\n\n<p>I'd also recommend letting the editorial board know, and perhaps the publisher too. If you just resolve the issue directly with the copyeditors, it's possible that nobody else will find out what happened.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11452,
"author": "Jukka Suomela",
"author_id": 351,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/351",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is perfectly normal. Copyediting is often of poor quality, even with reputable publishers.</p>\n\n<p>In my experience, the following approach seems to work fairly well:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Be polite. Thank for the proofs. Do not accuse anyone, do not vent. Imagine how you would respond if you had found just one tiny typo, and follow the same pattern even if there are dozens of mistakes.</p></li>\n<li><p>List every copyediting error, and explain carefully what is wrong in each instance. Try to be as thorough as possible. Most likely this is your last chance; do not assume that you will get another opportunity to review the proofs before the paper is printed.</p></li>\n<li><p>Email your response ASAP, preferably before the deadline. Remember that copyeditors have their own deadlines to meet.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>This way you can maximise the chances that the copyeditors will do their best to fix all mistakes in your paper — they will know what to fix and how, and they will also have time and motivation to do it.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Summary:</strong> Do not try to fix the whole world, just try to <em>cooperate</em> with the copyeditors to fix <em>your paper</em>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11846,
"author": "fedja",
"author_id": 6118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6118",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Tell them to revert everything to the original version, period. If they introduced 100 mistakes, it is not your job to find them all (besides, I doubt you'll find more than 70 anyway). Be polite but firm. Don't accuse anybody of anything but stand the ground even if you'll have to withdraw the paper. Your primary duty, as a writer, is to readers, not to publishers. Good luck!</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/27 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11441",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6110/"
]
|
11,448 | <p>This is one question that probably has an archaic answer. I recently reviewed a paper for a journal that stuck all the figures at the end (with placeholders in-text). Where I publish, we typically provide camera-ready manuscripts or at least give reviewers a version with the figures embedded so that they can see what the heck is going on. Occasionally, you embed the figures plus they are attached separately at the end (due to how the system generates the PDF). However, I recognize that dumping the figures at the end of a journal submission for review is quite common in some fields.</p>
<p>My simple question: Why?</p>
<p>I assume that at some point, there was a purpose to putting figures at the end rather than where they belong. I am also aware that it is quite common for journals to shuffle around your figure positions. But why would journals possibly want their copy to have all the figures dumped at the end? Obviously it is not for the reviewers' benefit, as it makes certain papers nigh-unreadable ("As you can see in Figure 1" - <em>opens up second copy of the PDF so I can see Fig 1 at the same time as the text</em>). Anyone know the reasoning behind this?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11450,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>There is a long tradition of submitting text and figures separated. this stems back to when manuscripts were typewritten and figures were drawn by ink. Many journals have kept this format and now the reason to keep figures separate is to facilitate the typesetting/layout. In addition, many electronic submission systems assemble manuscripts by merging text files with graphics files. The reason for having separate graphics files is that the typesetting processing inserts figures during the process. Not all journals take camera-ready manuscripts (in fact none in my field).</p>\n<p>As a reviewer, and if you review from a printout, it may also be advantageous to have figures separately since it is easier to look at them in parallel with reading the text. If you review on screen, it will of course not be an advantage.</p>\n<p>There is actually no need to format a manuscript this way as long as figures and text are delivered separately in the end if that is what the journal requires for their typesetting. Always follow any instructions provided by the journal!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11451,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You are correct that this has to do with pre-online publishing practices. In \"the old days,\" most images had to be made \"camera-ready,\" and were to be shrunk down to the required size. Consequently, the figures should be on a separate page at the end of the paper, so that different images didn't \"stray\" into the area that was to be photographed for another figure. </p>\n\n<p>In spite of this, there has been no real need for the journals to change this practice, and thus it persists to the present day in a number of journals.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/27 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11448",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7930/"
]
|
11,453 | <p>I recognize my advisor is busier than I am. But, nonetheless, I feel the need to tell her sometimes that I am overloaded with too many tasks and I need to push a deadline back or pass on some request.</p>
<p>How do other people handle this tactfully?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11454,
"author": "academia_is_weird",
"author_id": 7935,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7935",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't look up my advisor or other faculty members. I always behave like they were my peers. This way, there's never any kind of social problems, since the relationships are completely professional right from the start (and, if someone is not okay with this, one gets to know who to avoid). Usually, about after a month, people in higher positions than me stop introducing me as a student for other people, and start talking about their new collaborator/workmate instead.</p>\n\n<p>Really, I just don't get this kind of questions, most people doing their PhDs are 20-30 years old, and find it difficult to say what they think, want to do, not want to do, or tell if they are angry, happy, sad, etc.</p>\n\n<p>You are in no need to explain yourself. Just be professional. Either it works out, or doesn't. Get rid of unhealthy social relationships.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11455,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I have had this discussion with my supervisors/advisors many times, all with positive outcomes. This is what I do:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Be direct and to the point, it sounds like neither of you have time to dance around the issue.</li>\n<li>Offer alternative ideas/timelines/strategies, I found that coming up with a solution is appreciated as in the long term, it is going to save time.</li>\n<li>Be honest and truthful, state that you are overloaded - show how this is so, and either defer or decline the request.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Remember, your time and well being is just as valuable, and any good advisor already recognises that fact.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11459,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 6110,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6110",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>\"I'm not sure I have time to do X in addition to Y and Z. If I take X on, it might push me back three or four weeks in finishing Y. Is it that important?\"</p>\n\n<p>There is, of course, the off-chance that X is more important than you realize and your advisor might say yes.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11461,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Improve your work efficiency first.</p>\n\n<p>For example, prioritize your assignments. What should be done first? what next? What can wait? If you're not sure about the priorities, ask your advisor. She is the one who advises you. Use her. </p>\n\n<p>Then, work hard. Do your best. Manage your time wisely.</p>\n\n<p>If you still cannot handle them, then tell her that you need to push a deadline back or pass on some request, etc.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11531,
"author": "Michael",
"author_id": 4064,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4064",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think that the first thing to do is to organize ourselves and to see what we can do on our own. Then, the next thing is to inform our supervisors of any “deadline issues” or “work overload issues” and to fix them. Our work is important. Our health is even more important.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, it is really important to keep our supervisors informed of our obstacles; especially the research (and deadlines) related ones. He/she can help us to anticipate research pitfalls such as hard problems (to avoid or to dig in by priority), or exception cases (to exploit as shortcuts). It’s also better to inform our supervisor that there is an obstacle on the way than to miss a deadline. Still, we need to be prepared to work harder and to propose solutions of our own. </p>\n\n<p>In the end, there is no single best answer to “how to tell our supervisor that we’re overloaded tactfully”: It depends upon our relationship with our supervisor.</p>\n\n<p>I would prepare myself from the start. This may mean to refuse some tasks or to propose alternative deadlines instead of simply “missing the boat”, but it also means to know my priorities. Regarding work overload, I usually prioritize things by deadlines. When I’m overwhelmed, I do a list to see if something can be postponed, then I focus on my academic or research-related work. Strong deadlines, like call for papers, are sometimes hard to meet, but they’re worth the time! As soon as I see a problem coming I identify it. I try to find a solution. Before it overwhelms me I inform my supervisor. The answer is often as simple as “Have you tried this instead of that?”, or simply “Leave it for later.” </p>\n\n<p>Once, I attended a talk titled “how to manage your supervisor” (with humor) [1]. I think that these slides are valuable material. They may provide some answers to the question of “how to tell our supervisor that we’re overloaded tactfully”. </p>\n\n<p>[1] <a href=\"http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~tw/manage.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~tw/manage.pdf</a></p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/27 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11453",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7934/"
]
|
11,460 | <p>This is a question about my advisor (supervisor, professor) in a lab, where I am a graduate research assistant, and had done research together with a PhD student, as a part of his dissertation. The student happened to be one of my close friends. The professor wanted to write a journal paper based on the results of his dissertation with that candidate. This was kind of near the end of his PhD program (three weeks before final defense). At that time he said that he was already stressed out about defense and will write the paper after the event as it won't take him more than a week.</p>
<p>After he graduated, he had asked the professor about the journal paper but the professor kind of brushed it under the carpet saying he is looking for CFPs (call for papers) where they can write and never got back to him, despite his constant inquiries.</p>
<p>For his research on human-computer interaction, I had developed applications which formed the core of his project. So my advisor asked me if I was interested in writing the paper and she convinced me that since I developed the applications (that formed basis of the research) it was fair enough that I write it. But after a week, she ignored me and wrote the paper herself and submitted it to the journal.</p>
<p>I came to know last week that my advisor wrote the paper herself and got it published. This professor is an assistant professor trying to get tenure. I am trying to understand the motivation behind this behavior. </p>
<p>My questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>The journal paper was published by my professor as sole author. Won't the paper count towards her tenure if she wrote it with a graduate student or will it count towards higher credit if she is the sole author? </li>
<li>Is it ethical to publish the paper based on my friend's dissertation? (I mean it is legal, because she will be referencing his PhD dissertation, but is it ethical or common in academia to sidestep the original author?)</li>
<li>Should I be listed as co-author for all papers coming out of this research because I developed the applications that formed basis for this research? I mean the concept for them was not mine, but I did program them.</li>
</ol>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11462,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm not really qualified to assess how other departments would treat single- versus co-authored papers. As for the other points:</p>\n\n<p>[2] It is <em>completely unethical</em> for the advisor to submit a journal article based on work done by a student as solely her own, even if she were entirely responsible for writing the paper. Being a single author implies that the author is responsible for the entire content of the work described, referring to both research and preparation of the manuscript. </p>\n\n<p>[3] Your rights to being credited for this work depend on the nature and scope of the work that you individually did. If you simply built the apps once, and then did no subsequent work on the project, then you are entitled to a paper credit for a work describing the tools and how they were used (in part or in whole). However, unless you have been doing <em>ongoing</em> development on these tools, you would not be entitled to receive authorship credit whenever the work is used. (You would, however, be entitled to a citation on the use of your work in future publications!)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11463,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Before anything else: <strong>Don't walk. Run.</strong></p>\n\n<p>There are almost certainly details of this story that you have omitted, or that you have unintentionally embellished, or that you are unaware of, and <strong>clarifying those details here would be inappropriate</strong>. What is clear is that your relationship with your advisor is completely broken. Get help, and get out.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Q1) Wont the paper count towards her tenure if she wrote it with a graduated student or will it count towards higher credit if she is the sole author?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>All publications count toward tenure, whether solo, with colleagues, with current students, with former students, or with strangers from Zanzibar.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Q2) Is it ethical to publish the paper based on my friend's dissertation? (i mean it is legal, because she will be referencing his phd dissertation but is it ethical to sideshaft the original author)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There are a few different possibilities here:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Your advisor's submission does not report your friend's thesis work as her own, but rather builds on your friend's work in a novel direction. In this case, your advisor's submission is <em>ethical</em>, but perhaps a bit unfriendly. After all, the success of her students is a significant component of her upcoming tenure case.</p></li>\n<li><p>The results in your friend's dissertation are the main topic of your advisor's submission, but your friend did not make a significant and novel contribution, and therefore does not deserve coauthorship. But in this case, your friend <strong>also</strong> does not deserve a PhD, and your advisor's signing his thesis was unethical. This possibility seems highly unlikely; passing a thesis defense generally requires the unanimous approval of the entire thesis committee.</p></li>\n<li><p>Your friend made a significant and novel contribution, which is the main topic of your advisor's paper. <strong>In this case, your advisor is being grossly unethical.</strong> Fortunately, since your friend's dissertation is easily accessible online (<strong>Isn't it?</strong>), any competent referee or editor should quickly spot the intellectual theft. That would just be <em>stupid</em>.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I came to know last week that my advisor wrote the paper herself and got it published.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If you believe that your advisor has stolen credit for another person's work—your friend, her former student, or a stranger from Zanzibar—it would be appropriate for you (or better yet, your friend) to speak <em>discreetly</em> to your department head or another trusted senior faculty member, with both the original dissertation and your advisor's publication in hand, asking them to clarify the ethical boundaries. Do not <em>accuse</em>; such accusations are <em>very</em> serious, and your advisor's colleagues may react defensively on her behalf. Instead, explain the delicacy of the situation and ask for guidance. And then listen.</p>\n\n<p>They may react badly anyway, but then you have your answer.</p>\n\n<p>If they agree that your advisor has acted unethically, <strong>get out of the way</strong>. This is not your fight.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it common in academia to do this?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><strong>No.</strong> I won't claim they <em>never</em> happen, obviously, but serious breaches of ethical behavior, at the level you are accusing, are extremely rare.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Q3 One more question i have is should i be listed as co-author for all papers coming out of this research because i developed the apps that formed basis for this research. I mean the concept for them was not mine but i did program them.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That is a more subtle question. As a general rule, I would say <strong>no</strong>. Of course you deserve credit for your contributions, but only once for each contribution. If your contribution is a key piece of software, then the <strong>first</strong> paper that uses that software should describe that software in detail and include you as a coauthor. If you walk away after that first paper, later work that relies on your software—by your advisor or anyone else—need not list you as a coauthor; you already got credit. With good reason, Stephen Wolfram is not a coauthor on every paper that uses Mathematica. You should of course be <em>cited</em> in any paper that uses, builds on, or improves your work, but that's a separate issue from coauthorship.</p>\n\n<p>But reality is rarely so cut and dried. Is moving the software to a new platform a sufficient contribution? Optimizing the underlying algorithms? Adding a new, easy-to-implement feature suggested by your advisor? Adding a new, <strong>hard</strong>-to-implement feature suggested by your advisor? Adding support for a new input device? I have no idea. <strong>You and your advisor should have agreed <em>in advance</em> on the contribution required for you to be a coauthor.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Normally, if you had not had this conversation already, I would recommend having it <strong>now</strong>, but it sounds like it may be too late for that. You may be better off simply walking away and finding a new advisor that you can trust.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/28 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11460",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7937/"
]
|
11,464 | <p>I've seen some universities encouraging students to contact with the faculty before making applications. For example, <a href="http://www.cse.psu.edu/prospective/graduate/gradgrad">this one</a>. On the other hand I've heard some people saying that they are waste of times because professors receive several such e-mails every year and they don't even have time to look at them.</p>
<p>So, is it good idea to make contanct professors before making the application? Can it increase my chances of acceptance? Can it ever backfire me? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11465,
"author": "Thomas",
"author_id": 6984,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6984",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This really only works as a strategy if you have something truly meaningful to say. If you have to force yourself to do it and struggle to come up with something to say in your email, you're not helping yourself. Faculty get tons of email all the time and every year - as you say - get emails from prospective students, many of whom will not be admitted and in whom they invest no effort. So, if you genuinely think you're a good fit for a program/lab and have solid questions in mind to ask the faculty/PI of that lab that will communicate your quality and fit, this may be viable. But, I would definitely not recommend it as a general strategy.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11467,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From the link you provided,</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>To increase your chances of admission to our program, you are strongly encouraged to discuss your research interests with one or more faculty from our department prior to your application.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It sounds an invitation for you to contact the faculty members. In cases like this, I would recommend you to contact them. Find the faculty memebers whose research interests are close to yours and write e-mails to tell them that you are interested in what they are doing. I believe those e-mails won't hurt your chance to get admitted because they ask you to do so in the first place. How much it will help you remains to be seen. As the web page says, it increases your chances of admission.</p>\n\n<p>However, if you do not see such invitation on their web pages then I agree with Thomas that don't contact them unless you do have <em>truly meaningful things</em> to say.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11468,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Australian context:</strong> If by graduate school, you are referring to doing a PhD, then in Australia the standard first step is to find an academic willing to supervise you. The university will typically have additional requirements, such as regarding grades and prior academic experience. In particular, if you want a scholarship for your PhD, grades will be very important. Even if your grades a little lower, there is sometimes the option to commence a masters by research and convert to a PhD thesis at a later stage. Furthermore, if an academic is keen to supervise your project, then they are likely to do what they can to facilitate your application. So in summary, contacting academics to enquire about PhD supervision is essential.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 17212,
"author": "GEdgar",
"author_id": 4484,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4484",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If there is a particular professor in mind, it may be a good idea to contact him. After I retired, I received a few such inquiries, and wrote back telling them I was retired an no longer taking students. This is another reason (different from \"improve your chances\").</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23288,
"author": "P. O.",
"author_id": 15837,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15837",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Canadian context: I applied for four Master degrees in three different universities (Concordia, UdeM, UQAM) in Montreal. </p>\n\n<p>I've contacted beforehand teachers or head of departments. I was welcomed by everybody I talked to. </p>\n\n<p>Three out of four applications were succesful. I even found two people offering to be my thesis co-director months before the start of the first term. In this latter case I met three different professors before my official application was processed. The head of department encouraged me to do so. </p>\n\n<p>The only university I did not contact beforehand –I was an undergraduate at this one– refused my application. (I did not bother talking about my application, because the people processing it knew me already, apparently they felt neglected that I did not try to suck up to them during the last term.)</p>\n\n<p>So, from my experience I would advise to do so, but, and it's a big big but, I had very good reasons to contact them. I had a three page proposal for the subject of an eventual thesis.</p>\n\n<p>I was asking them for advice, I wanted to know if my proposal was something I could do at their university or not. I wasn't wasting their time or trying to look good, I was talking only about what we could do together,about their expertise, asking to use their brain for something they were familiar with. Basically, asking to do the job they are paid for.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, I advised my wife to do the same two year ago, when she wasn't sure of her academic orientation. She did it with 3 different programs at two universities, contacting professors or department officials. </p>\n\n<p>She was constantly brushed off or refered back to their website. </p>\n\n<p>They felt she was wasting their time, because she had only hard \"technical\" questions (fees, hours, amenities, agenda...)that could be answered perusing through documentation or questions so \"soft\" (what's the atmosphere like\" \"I wonder if that program is for me\") that they could not be answered. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23331,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, it is a good idea. And, yes, it can backfire. I regularly receive inquiries from individuals interested in \"joining my lab,\" laying fairly bold claims to be moved by my research. They can be both annoying and humorous because I am very active in research but my area of study does not have any type of \"lab model.\" In most cases, these types of inquiries are generic messages that are essentially copied to a very large number of professors, with hopes of getting a reply. It is very easy to see through this snowball approach, and the outcome is invariably a deleted message. The most qualified individuals do their homework and tailor the messages to demonstrate knowledge and genuine interest in the topic area. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 171095,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you'd only go to a given school if you get into the lab of a very short list of profs, you might contact them, explaining your situation, to see if they'll be accepting students. One can certainly argue about whether this is a good approach, but if that's really the situation, it's a big time and money saver.</p>\n<p>Now, aside from the above, can this improve your chances? If the admissions committee is trying to align recruiting with the needs of faculty, I think "mabye" (at least for a fairly typical student recruitment in the US)</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/28 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11464",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/86/"
]
|
11,471 | <p>I'm about one year from receiving my master's degree. I have published a few papers, so I'm confident that I want to do research. I have been offered two different PhD positions at my current university, but I might not want to stay here. The reason for not taking the first position is that I don't like the advisor too much, and for the second position that they lack funding/other resources.</p>
<p>I recognize the early(?) offers are due to my hard work. If I would like to apply to somewhere else, when should I start contacting potential supervisors?</p>
<p>Also I need some strategy to get out nicely... it will be difficult to stay under the radar</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11472,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is never too early to look around for PhD positions. Start out by looking at what is advertised to see what is available and where. If you already know of places to go then get in touch with the department/research group to present yourself. Having a few papers under your belt will be a plus so provide a CV and the papers in your first contact and add a statement of what you want to do and why you are interested in that place.</p>\n\n<p>Being focussed and showing you have a strong urge to continue is likely to impress. </p>\n\n<p>I can understand it is difficult to say no to two offers and move away but remember that you are free to move. Saying no to a position without funding should not weigh you down. The other position is a little more sensitive of course. But, people move for many reasons, personal and professional. I do not think you need to explain your motives. A change in location is enough. Moving is a positive so there is nothing remarkable about doing so. There is, furthermore, no reason to bring up any negatives about your present location. If your move stirs bad feelings then it is a sign things are not right anyway.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11477,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are two factors:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>looking for a university and a research group,</li>\n<li>having time for the formal admission process.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I will start for the later, as it is simpler. It depends on place, but some typical estimates of effective time you need are (at least, for applicants from aboard):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>in US ~1.5 year,\n\n<ul>\n<li>applications for Oct in Dec-Jan plus SATs that need to be taken before,</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>in UK ~1 year,\n\n<ul>\n<li>applications for Oct in Dec-Jan,</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>in continental Europe ~3 months,\n\n<ul>\n<li>some applications May-Jun, some - on rolling basis.</li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>However, it depends to some degree on particular university or institute (so always check that; and also check prerequisites, e.g. language tests, documents to be collected - some of them need time).\nMoreover, it depends also or your national/visa status.</p>\n\n<p>When it comes to searching for a group, it varies. You may find an advisor of your dreams on the first conference you attend (or via a talk at your university, or recommendation of a local professor), or you may spend a year and be far from that. (See also: <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5300/methods-for-finding-graduate-programs-for-specific-areas-of-research\">Methods for finding graduate programs for specific areas of research</a>.) The time you need depends on:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>popularity of your target field,</li>\n<li>how well are you networked in the target field,</li>\n<li>how popular is your current universities for that field (are professors well networked? are there many talks of invited guests?),</li>\n<li>how many conferences/schools/workshops you attend and how good are you at networking. </li>\n</ul>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/28 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11471",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7945/"
]
|
11,486 | <p>I finished my bachelor project and my supervisor suggested to work with me on publishing a paper about my work which is an encryption algorithm, Now my supervisor helped me with some remarks along my bachelor project and helped me with the paper (like grammar mistakes and such) but I am the one who made encryption algorithm and I am the one who wrote the paper:</p>
<p>Now should I include my supervisor as a 2nd author <strong>as he wants</strong>? (I can refuse, and then publish the paper on my own) He is a senior IEEE member and has published papers (where he was also 2nd author taking credit for others' work). Should I mention him just for the sake to get my paper accepted or protect it from getting stolen?</p>
<p>From my point of view, what he deserves is to be mentioned in acknowledgments but not as a second author.</p>
<p>And will the ownership of the paper will be 50% to me, while 50% to him ?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11487,
"author": "seteropere",
"author_id": 532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Since he's your advisor and you consulted him through out the project, then you definitely need to put his name as a co-author (unless he refused to be a co-author). </p>\n\n<p>Taking into account that this is your first paper and he's a senior IEEE member (I don't know what this really mean but IEEE love its members), I believe it is a plus for your paper to be co-authored by him. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11491,
"author": "Peter K.",
"author_id": 3965,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3965",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In engineering, it is common (accepted) for students to put their advisor's names as authors. This does not detract from the student's efforts; in some respects it can enhance the reception of the paper because the wider community will probably know the supervisor more than the student.</p>\n\n<p>Be aware that if you try to publish it without your advisor's name, then the reviewers or editors may contact them and ask what is wrong (and also decline to publish the paper). </p>\n\n<p>My advisor told me that the work I was doing was worthless, and not worth publication. I moved universities (and advisors), completed the work and submitted it without my original advisor's name as author. The IEEE editor rejected the paper until my original advisor was added as author.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11492,
"author": "Henry",
"author_id": 8,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The rules for what co-authorship mean vary by field: in math it would be unusual for an advisor to be listed as a co-author under the circumstances, while in engineering, as others have notes, an advisor is normally included.</p>\n\n<p>One of the reasons is that fields like engineering list authors in an order conveying information about the contributions: you'd be listed as first author, and your advisor as last author. Readers understand that this means you had the main intellectual contribution and your advisor acted as a supervisor.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11494,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You have many questions as about authorship, and I am afraid some of your questions/comments indicate a certain level of confusion about authorship. You could <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/authorship\">browse the</a> <a href=\"/questions/tagged/authorship\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged 'authorship'\" rel=\"tag\">authorship</a> <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/authorship\">questions</a> on this site, and it may Enlighten you to some extent.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding your specific questions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><strong>Should I include my supervisor as a 2nd author as he wants?</strong></p>\n\n<p>First, you should check the policy on authorship directly from the publisher. <a href=\"http://winet.ece.ufl.edu/tvt/authors/Policy%20Statements.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">IEEE Publication Policies</a> states that:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Authorship and co-authorship should be based on a substantial intellectual contribution. It is assumed that all authors have had a significant role in the creation of a manuscript that bears their names.</p>\n \n <p>Therefore, the list of authors on an article serves multiple purposes; it indicates who is responsible for the work and to whom questions regarding the work should be addressed. Moreover, the credit implied by authorship is often used as a measure of the contributors’ productivity when they are evaluated for employment, promotions, grants, and prizes.</p>\n \n <ol>\n <li>The IEEE affirms that authorship credit must be reserved for individuals who have met each of the following conditions:<br>\n a. Made a significant intellectual contribution to the theoretical development, system or experimental design, prototype development, and/or the analysis and interpretation of data associated with the work contained in the article;<br>\n b. Contributed to drafting the article or reviewing and/or revising it for intellectual content; and<br>\n c. Approved the final version of the article as accepted for publication, including references.</li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Unless you performed research entirely without any input from your advisor, it seems unlikely that he did not make a “significant intellectual contribution”. Possible types of contribution include proposal of research subject/project, any guidance in the choice of method to pursue the project or on intermediate results, guidance on how best to interpret results and present them, etc.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Will the ownership of the paper will be 50% to me, while 50% to him?</strong></p>\n\n<p>No, co-authorship does not necessarily mean equal contribution (and is not understood as such by the readers). To go even further, some journals offer the option of writing an explicit statement quantifying (to some extent) the respective contributions of the coauthors.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Won't people think he contributed in making the cipher?</strong></p>\n\n<p>Not necessarily, as above. They will think he contributed <em>to some extent</em> to the research project, but will understand that he may not have been the one who came up with the idea.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I'll end by adding that you should be really wary not to dismiss your advisor's role too much. Even if you had the breakthrough idea and implemented it yourself, surely the guidance offered by your teachers and supervisors are to be credited, maybe more than you realize right now. Also, that he gave you the opportunity to pursue a worthwhile research project, and then helped you transform that into a publishable (quality) paper, are important contributions.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11501,
"author": "Rex Kerr",
"author_id": 669,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/669",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If he wants to be an author, add him, and use that as leverage to improve your paper.</p>\n\n<p>Being first author is <em>plenty</em> of credit for you; in fact, in your situation being sole author could be an indication that you are unable to work with others, which is a <em>negative</em> in most cases. People are highly accustomed to crediting the student with all of the value of the work (because they did the work), and the professor with all of the value of the work (because they enabled the work in various ways), and the credit can count twice because the student and professor almost never are competing for the same things. I'm assuming that the professor actually <em>did</em> do something enabling.</p>\n\n<p>In any case, before you publish the paper you should get someone to read it carefully, and if they say things like \"this passage is unclear\" or \"this needs more background\" then your professor ought to be able to give advice and/or help fix it. There's nothing like having a highly experienced co-author to make short work of a request to place this work in the context of the field! If your professor cannot help improve the paper in this kind of situation (and help write a good cover letter, etc.), <em>and</em> they didn't actually enable any of the work, then even if it would help you, it is probably not ethical to include him as an author. Otherwise, there are only positives for all involved.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11507,
"author": "Demian",
"author_id": 7963,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7963",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It appears to me that you are looking for validation for not including your supervisor. A supervisor is not supposed a person whose brain emanates marvelous and groundbreaking ideas which are later developed by a horde of pawns. Research does not work like that. It is about collaboration at different levels.</p>\n\n<p>If you cannot admit he has contributed to some extent, that's fine. My point of view regarding this sort of ego-fights is: is it worth creating a whole circus and fighting for being first/solo author of a paper that is not going to change the world? Time will pass and you will understand ... Hopefully. </p>\n\n<p>Good luck.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11530,
"author": "J.R.",
"author_id": 780,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/780",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>As I read through your question and some of your comments, I get the impression that this faculty member has already done some work on your paper, presumably believing that he would be a co-author. </p>\n\n<p>If so, I think it would be wrong to submit a solo paper with his improvements incorporated into the work. If you want to be sole author, then you should do ALL the work, including the proofreading, etc. – or at least have let the professor know up front that he would only be listed under the acknowledgements, so he could make an informed decision about whether or not it would be worth his time and effort to make those improvements. Proofreading and correcting is not a trivial feat.</p>\n\n<p>More importantly, though, your question reminds me of a similar situation I experienced during graduate school. During a computer graphics course, my lab partner and I did a lot of work on an algorithm, and we ended up getting a paper published. Our instructor was also listed as a third author.</p>\n\n<p>My partner and I developed and tested the algorithm, and our instructor did little but give us the problem. Did I feel slighted? No, and in hindsight, I now better understand his vital role in our work. These problems don't just pop up like dandelions, or infiltrate our email like spam – they are usually the result of extensive study, along with collaborative research with industry. In other words, without us students, he wouldn't have had an answer, but, without our instructor, we would not have had a problem of any meaningful significance. </p>\n\n<p>If I see an IEEE paper with two authors, instead of presuming that the work was split evenly between those two, I'd probably assume that one author's principle role was to <em>identify the problem</em>, while the other <em>worked the solution</em>. That's so common that it's almost a given – such symbiotic relationships are ubiquitous in academia. </p>\n\n<p>In other words, I think you misunderstand the nature of coauthorship in research. Your instructor thought the work you did was good enough for the two of you to get something published together. You ought to be appreciative of his guidance, happily put his name alongside yours, and get off to a good start in the realm of academic research.</p>\n"
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| 2013/07/29 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11486",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
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|
11,493 | <p>For university-level researchers and professors, is the salary higher in the medical fields than in other fields? I suppose attracting physicians to teach may be harder, because they can usually get high payments working as physicians. Where can I find data about this in Europe, Australia, Canada and US?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11495,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For the US, I would have thought the data would be in the <a href=\"http://www.aaup.org/report/heres-news-annual-report-economic-status-profession-2012-13\" rel=\"nofollow\">AAUP report</a>, but I cannot find any data that breaks salaries down by field.</p>\n\n<p>There is also <a href=\"http://www.cupahr.org/surveys/index.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">CUPA-HR</a>. The <a href=\"http://www.cupahr.org/surveys/fhe4-tenure-surveydata-2013.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">free data set</a> has a break down by field with \"HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS\" as a field. I would assume that this includes medical doctors, but also nurses. There is also some <a href=\"http://www.cupahr.org/surveys/fhe4-nontenure-surveydata-2013.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">free data</a> about non-tenure track salaries including \"Medicine, Medical Clinical Sciences, Graduate Medical Studies\". </p>\n\n<p>In summary, I think defining the \"medicine area\" and equating job duties and responsibilities is tough. There appears to be a large variation in salaries.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11544,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>So the problem with this question is going to be one of comparing like with like. I have seen some grants that implicitly assume an MDs salary is higher than a PhD's salary when in the same R01-type grant application, but this usually also involves a comparison of senior vs. junior faculty, which is always tricky. Even comparing \"tenured faculty\" is hard, because tenure at many medical schools is a much, much more rare thing to have.</p>\n\n<p>I'd say the following generalizations are probably defensible, assuming we are talking about academic medicine vs. \"nearby\" fields, or PhDs in academic medicine.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Hard money positions in research hospitals for <em>doing research</em> are vanishingly rare.</li>\n<li>MDs do have the option of making up for some \"gaps\" in funding with taking on more clinical duties whereas a PhD might have to take a salary hit, or cut back in other areas.</li>\n<li>Opportunities for clinical consulting, to pharma, device manufacturers, etc. are probably more available to clinicians.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11545,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You could mine some of the Collegiate Times public university salaries data, e.g.,</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.collegiatetimes.com/databases/salaries/university-of-virginia-2010?dept=medicine\" rel=\"nofollow\">UVA Medicine salaries</a></p>\n\n<p>vs.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.collegiatetimes.com/databases/salaries/university-of-virginia-2010?dept=english\" rel=\"nofollow\">UVA English salaries</a></p>\n\n<p>vs. </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.collegiatetimes.com/databases/salaries/university-of-virginia-2010?dept=chemistry\" rel=\"nofollow\">UVA Chemistry salaries</a></p>\n\n<p>Obviously, you have to make apples-to-apples comparisons (full professor -vs- full professor, asst. professor -vs- assistant professor, etc.), and also realize that the State provides as little information as they have to by law, and there may be other hidden data that sway the results one way or another (for instance, you'll see full professors making $45000, but these might be half-year appointments, sabbatical years, etc.).</p>\n"
}
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| 2013/07/29 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11493",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7957/"
]
|
11,497 | <p>I'm writing a literature review at the moment. I have many many papers to read and I don't have that much time (just one month). </p>
<p>What I do is reading the abstract and then the conclusion and from the conclusion I see what were the key findings and then look them up in the paper and see some details. </p>
<p>Is that good way or should I read them cover to cover? </p>
| [
{
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"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For the US, I would have thought the data would be in the <a href=\"http://www.aaup.org/report/heres-news-annual-report-economic-status-profession-2012-13\" rel=\"nofollow\">AAUP report</a>, but I cannot find any data that breaks salaries down by field.</p>\n\n<p>There is also <a href=\"http://www.cupahr.org/surveys/index.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">CUPA-HR</a>. The <a href=\"http://www.cupahr.org/surveys/fhe4-tenure-surveydata-2013.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">free data set</a> has a break down by field with \"HEALTH PROFESSIONS AND RELATED PROGRAMS\" as a field. I would assume that this includes medical doctors, but also nurses. There is also some <a href=\"http://www.cupahr.org/surveys/fhe4-nontenure-surveydata-2013.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">free data</a> about non-tenure track salaries including \"Medicine, Medical Clinical Sciences, Graduate Medical Studies\". </p>\n\n<p>In summary, I think defining the \"medicine area\" and equating job duties and responsibilities is tough. There appears to be a large variation in salaries.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11544,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>So the problem with this question is going to be one of comparing like with like. I have seen some grants that implicitly assume an MDs salary is higher than a PhD's salary when in the same R01-type grant application, but this usually also involves a comparison of senior vs. junior faculty, which is always tricky. Even comparing \"tenured faculty\" is hard, because tenure at many medical schools is a much, much more rare thing to have.</p>\n\n<p>I'd say the following generalizations are probably defensible, assuming we are talking about academic medicine vs. \"nearby\" fields, or PhDs in academic medicine.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Hard money positions in research hospitals for <em>doing research</em> are vanishingly rare.</li>\n<li>MDs do have the option of making up for some \"gaps\" in funding with taking on more clinical duties whereas a PhD might have to take a salary hit, or cut back in other areas.</li>\n<li>Opportunities for clinical consulting, to pharma, device manufacturers, etc. are probably more available to clinicians.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11545,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4461",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You could mine some of the Collegiate Times public university salaries data, e.g.,</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.collegiatetimes.com/databases/salaries/university-of-virginia-2010?dept=medicine\" rel=\"nofollow\">UVA Medicine salaries</a></p>\n\n<p>vs.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.collegiatetimes.com/databases/salaries/university-of-virginia-2010?dept=english\" rel=\"nofollow\">UVA English salaries</a></p>\n\n<p>vs. </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.collegiatetimes.com/databases/salaries/university-of-virginia-2010?dept=chemistry\" rel=\"nofollow\">UVA Chemistry salaries</a></p>\n\n<p>Obviously, you have to make apples-to-apples comparisons (full professor -vs- full professor, asst. professor -vs- assistant professor, etc.), and also realize that the State provides as little information as they have to by law, and there may be other hidden data that sway the results one way or another (for instance, you'll see full professors making $45000, but these might be half-year appointments, sabbatical years, etc.).</p>\n"
}
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11,499 | <p>I'm currently finishing a B.Sc. Honours in Canada, and I'm applying to Edinburgh (among other places) to do a Masters. They have two <a href="http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/informatics/postgraduate/research-degrees">research-based degrees</a>, and I was wondering if people with experience in academics and CS could help me distinguish between the two. I'm not overly familiar with the British Education system.</p>
<p>The M.Sc. is a one-year degree of independent research, with very little to no classes. The MPhil is a two-year degree, where classes are taken in addition to independent research.</p>
<p>In particular, I'm wondering:</p>
<ul>
<li>Which is considered "more academic" or "more prestigious?"</li>
<li>Which would be better for getting into a PhD program?</li>
<li>Since there aren't classes in the MSc, are you expected to have a higher level of knowledge coming in?</li>
</ul>
| [
{
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"text": "<p>Looking at the courses there appears to be a one-year <a href=\"http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/informatics/postgraduate/msc/msc-informatics\">taught MSc</a> and a one-year <a href=\"http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/informatics/postgraduate/research-degrees/mres\">MSc by research</a>. The two-year <a href=\"http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/informatics/postgraduate/research-degrees/mphil\">MPhil</a> while described as a research degree, has a one-year taught component. It seems to me that the MPhil is just the two MSc courses combined. The programme description says:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The first year of MPhil studies is probationary.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>suggesting to me that if you do not do well enough on the taught component that you cannot progress to the research part.</p>\n\n<p>I would say that taking classes is less \"academic\" than doing research and therefore the MPhil is less \"academic\". I would also think that the MSc by research has the highest admission standards and therefore is more prestigious</p>\n\n<p>For getting into a PhD program you need to prove you can do research. Graduate level course work often helps in doing research. If you already have the fundamental skills that you would be learning in the taught components, there is no big benefit to taking more courses. Similar with research experience. If you are lacking both the MPhil might be the way to, but if you are lacking only one chose the appropriate MSc.</p>\n\n<p>As for entry requirements, it is probably best to contact the department and ask them. As I said above, my guess would be that the MSc by research has the highest entry requirements.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 16705,
"author": "rachaelbe",
"author_id": 11304,
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"text": "<p>In the UK it's relatively unusual to apply for an MPhil - MSc and MRes are much more common. MPhils really exist to cover failed PhD candidates. When you apply to study for a PhD in the UK, for the first 12-18 months you are placed on \"probation\" (even if you alread hold an MSc/MRes). After this time, a review (and mini-viva) of both your progress and quality of research is conducted and you are either \"confirmed\" as being a PhD candidate or are relegated to MPhil.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 96497,
"author": "J Linares",
"author_id": 80327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/80327",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Generally in the UK, the MPhil is seen as a senior level research qualification just above the MRes and below the PhD - at least in computer science. I do not agree that an MPhil is necessarily a failed PhD as there can be many reasons why a candidate cannot produce a full PhD thesis ranging from company support, time and funding to personal circumstances. A PhD fail to me is someone who has done a PhD thesis and failed the PhD viva and failed to get at least major corrections or a recommendation for resubmission in 12 months.</p>\n\n<p>This was true in my case that I was transferred from PhD to MPhil, albeit my situation was rather difficult; I was in a PhD route for 3.5 years full time at Lancaster University and the sponsor company (a major water utility company) stopped communicating with me and my supervisor. As a result, my prototype was left untested in a real world scenario which was necessary for my PhD work as there is a requirement in producing innovative and original work. After a year of starting my PhD, I had a supervisor change resulting in a research area change resulting in a late panel 2 years down the line which didn't help either. The panel is a useful tool to know if you are being guided in the correct path and to know if you are getting along well with your supervisor as well as to see if you are producing work that is up to PhD/MPhil standard. If your work is not up to MPhil standard, they can altogether cancel your registration and you are out.\nI can't stress this enough; you should have your panel early in your PhD and never late. In my case, it was given late due to a supervisor change and that \"I fell through the cracks of the system\" and nothing could be done other than to make a formal complaint which I have already.</p>\n\n<p>The panel concluded that I had enough work to do a PhD and decided to change my route from PhD to MPhil on the premise that I was running out of time and no funding available for me (I only had 6 months left of funding, but due to other circumstances, this went well beyond my defence and upto summer 2017 surviving on a TA salary which was less than £5000 pa). This was compounded with fears that I might leave with nothing. They did say that if got the MPhil, then perhaps I could use this as a stepping stone to a PhD and upgrade my work.</p>\n\n<p>It took me 5 years to complete my \"over bloated\" MPhil and I decided not to pursue the PhD in my area due to difficulties with my current supervision - it is another long story. I feel I do have enough research skills to carry out research in other areas which are of interest to me.</p>\n\n<p>To clarify whether the MPhil has any classes: no, it doesn't. It is purely research unless you are doing a professional Doctorate which have taught components with research. The MPhil is research work done at the same quality and academic rigour of a PhD, albeit shorter in length - hence why the MPhil is seen as a higher degree than an MSc by Research. The MPhil used to be the gold standard during the 60's and 70's for lectureships until requirements increased to have a PhD under your belt.</p>\n\n<p>Which is considered \"more academic\" or \"more prestigious?\"</p>\n\n<p>From the Masters degrees, the MPhil as it is the highest Masters qualification that you can get before embarking on a PhD. I know people in my area who haven't got a PhD but have an MEng and produced academic output equivalent to that of a Professor with a PhD. Having research output and published by top ranking publishers is more prestigious in my opinion.</p>\n\n<p>\"Which one is better for a PhD?\" </p>\n\n<p>It depends on which subject you are studying; in computer science, you only need a BSc honours with a first class honours to enter the PhD route directly without requiring an MSc. Having an MRes or even better, an MPhil in a related area, would considerably boost your chances in succeeding. Other subjects like psychology would require an MRes to enter the PhD route depending on research areas.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 97823,
"author": "Mohammed Saba",
"author_id": 81880,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81880",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Mphil is an interphase between MSc and PhD. I.e above MSc but below PhD. Masters program pose more importance to thesis. Mphil is usaully research based and that case higher than MSc.</p>\n"
}
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| 2013/07/29 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11499",
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|
11,500 | <p>How should one engage uninterested students in a fast-paced, densely fact-packed science course such as chemistry or microbiology? I find that the only students who truly understand and engage with the material are those who already have a strong background in the material being covered, while the rest of the class is usually ranging from bored to panicking, depending on how much they care about grades. (For most of the students in these classes, the science courses are required for their major, so they are taking them because they have to, not because they are intrinsically interested in the sciences.) </p>
<p>So how could I engage the interest of these students without dumbing down the course material or slowing down the pace of the class? Neither seems a viable option given department wide standards at this institution.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11503,
"author": "Chris Gregg",
"author_id": 4461,
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"selected": true,
"text": "<p>From a pedagogical standpoint, you always want to teach with a couple of things in mind:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>You have to have a standard for the class.</li>\n<li>The standard you set should be influenced by the level your students start at.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>These two criteria frequently are at odds with each other, which is a shame: you want to teach the most engrossing, intellectual class so that each student can obtain a mastery of the important details of the subject, yet sometimes your students don't have the background and are not prepared to learn at that level, or are unmotivated for other reasons.</p>\n\n<p>A third issue, and the one that you brought up, is the question of what to do when you have a heterogeneous set of students where some are unprepared (or unmotivated) and others are well prepared. If you are at an institution where the standard is very high, one option (and probably the right one) is to teach the material with the expectation that everyone will try their best and that it will be challenging for everyone, and let the cards fall as they may. Do your best to point the struggling students who want to learn the material to avenues for help -- office hours, tutoring, key reading material, etc. Don't worry particularly much about the ones who don't care -- if you're teaching an engaging class and they are bored because they don't really want to be there, that isn't your problem. If you find that you do have too many panicked students, you probably need to re-evaluate your teaching style or assessment plan, and slow things down. This is just the reality of the situation: too many of your students aren't prepared for the class as you envision it.</p>\n\n<p>From your comment:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>This is a community college so many of the students are working parents who juggle multiple demands on their time. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I believe in this case you may end up in the situation I just mentioned more than you'd like. I would venture a guess that many of your students have academic priorities that are less about getting every bit of learning out of your course, and more about doing well enough to graduate and be prepared for whatever the next step in their career is. I urge you to try to put yourself in their shoes (this is always a good idea) and try to see from their perspective what the course means to them. I have taught a college physical science course to non-science majors at the community college level where I was happy to give them the <em>exposure</em> to the material -- most of them had never taken a physics or chemistry class in their life (high school or otherwise), and I knew that it would not have been a good idea to try to force a lot of math-heavy science down their throats.</p>\n\n<p>So I haven't really answered your specific question about how to \"engage the interest of these students without dumbing down the course material or slowing the pace of the class.\" My suggestions are (1) to re-evaluate why you think you're already engaging (and tweak it to meet your students' level), and (2) to make sure you are providing concrete assessments for them to study for (or work on in lab). If your students know what they have to do to get a \"B\" versus an \"A\", this might lower the level of panic if they see that shooting for that \"B\" will be obtainable while still giving them time to keep the other priorities in their life straight.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11517,
"author": "Community",
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"text": "<p>If I may contribute something more from Chris Gregg's excellent answer, from my experience as a high school science teacher for over a decade, in a range of environments. All having students with a mix of abilities and motivation.</p>\n\n<p>Make the scientific concepts relevant, link the concepts to current discoveries - show them where the science is headed. Show them how the science affects their lives and how it would continue to affect them.</p>\n\n<p>This is not always easy time-wise and logistically as it is not always easy to find how it links to their lives. But I found that the question:</p>\n\n<p>\"Have you seen/heard about [everyday life concept related to the science taught]?\"</p>\n\n<p>and go from there.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 14056,
"author": "Community",
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"text": "<p>As a student, even if I was deeply enthusiastic about the course, I would be completely unengaged in any class session that consisted of powerpoint lectures. There are many alternatives, such as flipping, peer instruction (Mazur, Peer Instruction: A User's Manual), and various other forms of active engagement (Hake, \"Interactive Engagement Versus Traditional Methods: a Six-Thousand Student Survey of Mechanics Test Data for Introductory Physics Courses, Am. J. of Phys, 66 (1997) 64).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How should one engage uninterested students in a fast-paced, densely fact-packed science course such as chemistry or microbiology? [...] For most of the students in these classes, the science courses are required for their major, so they are taking them because they have to, not because they are intrinsically interested in the sciences.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Are these actual examples? Do you actually teach both chem and microbiology? (That would be unusual.) I would think that microbiology would be the easiest thing in the world to sell to students. E.g., if they're premed, they ought to easily be able to appreciate the relevance of learning about viruses and bacteria.</p>\n\n<p>In any case, your subject has intrinsic worth, interest, and beauty. Presumably that's why you got a graduate degree in it. Approach it from this point of view and without apology, and you have every right to expect that at least some of your students will respond. You can't expect <em>every</em> community college student to respond. Look at the parking lot on the first day of the semester. Look at the same parking lot in the last week of instruction. Many, many community college students simply shouldn't be in college.</p>\n\n<p>Re \"densely fact-packed\" -- you could ask yourself whether your subject could be presented with less emphasis on memorization and more emphasis on concepts. Do you give open-notes tests? If not, why not?</p>\n"
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11,514 | <p>A little while back I had sent one of my works to an ACM conference -just a National level conference. I knew my work was not one of the best they were going to receive, but given the quality of the papers published in the conference in the previous years, I was almost sure of an "Accept", and sure enough, an "Accept" did arrive around a week ago. But reviewer practically tore my work to pieces, saying that the claim is not novel, the data sets are biased, etc. And I do agree with him on most of the points. </p>
<p>Since the reviewer had given a detailed review, I had been working all week long to improve the quality of the paper and address all the points mentioned by him. </p>
<p>But to my great surprise, today I receive a mail from the PC chairs stating -</p>
<blockquote>
<p>we had inadvertently sent an ACCEPT for your paper. After discussion with reviewers we have decided to not accept this paper. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is, to say the least, <strike>unethical</strike> unprofessional. And my entire week of hard work in improving the paper just went down the drain I guess.</p>
<p>My questions here-</p>
<ol>
<li>Should I put any endeavor in contacting the PC Chairs and ask them to explain this strange stand? Should I explain my stand that the work has been drastically changed and improved from what it was when submitted?</li>
<li>Does such a behavior make them accountable for any legal action from my side? And, is it worth for me to take such an action?</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong><br>
Thank you all for your comments and answers. Posting this here just to make the story complete. My guide insisted that we should write to the PC chair, requesting an opportunity to resubmit since some of the previous review comments were not really justified and too harsh on us, and anyways our paper stands improved from what it was before.</p>
<p>So we did re-submit. And our improved paper was accepted as well! Rather having an unsatisfactory publication, I have a better paper at hand now!</p>
<p>So happy ending after all :)</p>
| [
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"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Should I put any endeavor in contacting the PC Chairs and ask them to explain this strange stand? Should I explain my stand that the work has been drastically changed and improved from what it was when submitted?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I think an email to the PC would be appropriate. Don't expect the answer to change, however, and it may very well have been an administrative oversight. Even as a mistake, it is a relatively minor one that you don't have much control over.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Does such a behavior make them accountable for any legal action from my side? And, is it worth for me to take such an action?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No. Their decisions aren't bound by any laws (that I know of) that could force them to honor their original email. If you make a big deal of it, you're likely to make a bad name for yourself, regardless of the mistake being on their end.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, you've now got a better paper that probably shouldn't have been published anyway. Your changes are now in place, and you admit to having improved it. Submit it to another conference, and move on.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11516,
"author": "Paul Hiemstra",
"author_id": 4091,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4091",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can always try to send an email to the PC explaining that you used the comment of the reviewer to greatly improve the paper, and that you hope that the paper could be reconsidered in this improved form. I don't think your chances of acceptance are big, but you can always try.</p>\n\n<p>In regard to the legal action, I doubt that you have anything based on which you can sue them. In addition, what do you hope to gain. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11518,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Without knowing what happened at the other end it is early to place judgement such as \"unethical\" on this circumstance. It is of course very unfortunate and also clearly something that all editors do not want should happen. Clearly the accept was prematurely sent away; that was the mistake. I would interpret the \"discussion with reviewers\" as the editor(s) trying to see if the paper could pass despite the reviews but such an action could seemingly not be supported.</p>\n\n<p>Now the course of events have happened. You can certainly contact the editors to get more feedback, I am sure they would help you with more (scientific) information if they can. Under most circumstances (do not know how this applies to your manuscript), I would recommend you to take the comments you were given and work up your manuscript (which you have also done). The manuscript should now be better than before and it might be suitable to publish somewhere else. This is also something you can ask in your letter to the editors unless you and your immediate surroundings do not already have a clear picture of where it might fit for possible publication.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding the legal bits, journals have no obligation to publish anything and can even reject a paper without telling why. I cannot imagine anyone wanting to do this since it would reflect very badly on the journal and the publisher but the decision lies with the editor(s) and it is final. As an editor, one must think of the reputation of ones journal (because a well run journal attracts good papers) which usually means trying to be as fair and open as possible.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/30 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11514",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5851/"
]
|
11,532 | <p>I have a table of studies and formula per study in the appendix, so sth like</p>
<pre><code>study A E = mc²
study B v = ma
</code></pre>
<p>etc. For each study I need to cite a source. Now normally the citation list for the main part of document appears before the appendix. How do I handle this? Do I create a new citation list after the table?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11533,
"author": "Thomas",
"author_id": 6984,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6984",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Depends on where your appendix falls in your document (or whether it will appear in the document at all). If appendix precedes references, just include citations in the regular reference list. If it follows, have a separate set of appendix-specific references. If it is separate, do the same as the latter case (a separate reference list).</p>\n\n<p>This will depend on your style manual and publication outlet.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11535,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>For a PhD thesis (as indicated in the tags of your question), check your university's reference style guide. I suspect, however, that it doesn't go into that much detail. So: \n<strong>do what you like best</strong>, as long as it's <strong>clear</strong> and <strong>coherent</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>If you have many citations in the appendix, and you suspect that people will want to read the appendix and main document separately, just maintain two separate lists of citations. It makes each of them shorter, and thus easier to read.</p>\n\n<p>If you have very few citations in the appendix, you can also consider citing them in a different style, such as footnotes. It keeps them separated from the main references, for clarity, but doesn't necessitate to have a full “appendix list of references” if it's very short.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/30 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11532",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7975/"
]
|
11,536 | <p>I would like to find journals that:</p>
<ul>
<li>are ranked with JCR (no matter how low) <em>and</em></li>
<li>have open access (anyone can access the papers for free) <em>and</em></li>
<li>are free to publish (authors are not required to pay)</li>
</ul>
<p>Maybe I am asking for a unicorn, but I think this should be feasible.
If I'm not mistaken, <a href="http://arxiv.org/">arxiv.org</a> only fails in the first point. If someone could provide (a link to) a list of such a kind of journals that would be awesome. If such a list does not exist, how would I go about creating a list.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11537,
"author": "Trylks",
"author_id": 7571,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7571",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Please feel free to edit anything.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Computer Science</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Artificial Intelligence\n<ul>\n<li>Machine Learning\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://jmlr.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Journal of Machine Learning Research</a></li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>General\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.jucs.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Journal of Universal Computer Science</a></li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>Mathematics</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Combinatorics\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.combinatorics.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics</a></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li>Statistics \n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.jstatsoft.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Journal of Statistical Software</a></li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11539,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are many journals that satisfy your criteria… here's how to find them!</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Use <a href=\"http://admin-apps.webofknowledge.com/JCR/JCR?RQ=HOME\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Journal Citation Reports</a></p></li>\n<li><p>Search journals by publisher:\n<img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/88DK3.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p></li>\n<li><p>Choose an open access publisher, such as “Public Library of Science”\n<img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/Z8pWR.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p></li>\n<li><p>Enjoy!\n<img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/UeVZL.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strong>Edit:</strong> as JeffE wisely noted, this does not address the criterion of “no publishing charge”. You'll have to check the various journals, but some have no publishing charges, including some published by <a href=\"http://www.hindawi.com/apc/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Hindawi Publishing Corporation</a> for example. To find out which, <strong>cross-reference the JCR data with <a href=\"http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/scholarlycommunication/oa_fees.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this list</a> maintained by Berkeley</strong>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 26733,
"author": "just-learning",
"author_id": 10483,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10483",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is perhaps not exactly what you look for but, as a partial answer, the <a href=\"http://doaj.org/search\" rel=\"nofollow\">Advanced Search</a> feature of the directory of open access journals (DOAJ) lets you filter the open access journals by subject AND by publication fee. Unfortunately, you cannot infer from the DOAJ data whether these journals are on JCR.</p>\n\n<p>In particular, the DOAJ search results for open access journals in Computer Science with zero publication charges are at <a href=\"http://doaj.org/search?source=%7B%22query%22:%7B%22filtered%22:%7B%22query%22:%7B%22match_all%22:%7B%7D%7D,%22filter%22:%7B%22bool%22:%7B%22must%22:[%7B%22term%22:%7B%22_type%22:%22journal%22%7D%7D,%7B%22term%22:%7B%22index.classification.exact%22:%22Science%22%7D%7D,%7B%22term%22:%7B%22index.classification.exact%22:%22Electronic%20computers.%20Computer%20science%22%7D%7D,%7B%22term%22:%7B%22bibjson.author_pays.exact%22:%22N%22%7D%7D]%7D%7D%7D%7D%7D\" rel=\"nofollow\">this URL</a>. </p>\n\n<p>In principle, as a next step one could compare (by hand or perhaps using some software) the list resulting from the DOAJ search with the list from JCR for (a given branch of) computer science or search in JCR (e.g. in <a href=\"http://admin-apps.webofknowledge.com/JCR/JCR?RQ=TITLES_FULL\" rel=\"nofollow\">the list of full journal titles</a>) for specific journal names. </p>\n\n<p>Also, the DOAJ listing includes links to home pages of journals and often data about the journal impact factor (if any) or JCR listing are available at these home pages.</p>\n\n<p>To give a specific example resulting from a quick attempt to compare the lists, the <a href=\"http://www.jair.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research</a> is open access with zero publication charges and has a 2013 IF of 0.904. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 29025,
"author": "cheesemeister",
"author_id": 21678,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21678",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Sherpa Romeo, <a href=\"http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/</a>, might be helpful to you, as well. I think you'd still have to do your cross-check against the JCR, though.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/30 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11536",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7571/"
]
|
11,540 | <p>I am currently writing 2 conference papers. One is highly quantitative in nature and the other is absolutely qualitative in nature. I am submitting both papers to conferences having deadlines in the next couple of months.</p>
<p>The papers present results on 3 <strong>different</strong> research questions on the same topic and are highly related with each other. You could argue that paper A + paper B together present a holistic view of the answer to these research questions. Individually, paper A and paper B show a different side to the problem since you generally get alternate points of view from quantitative and qualitative works. </p>
<p>Since the papers and their results are highly interrelated, there exists a compelling reason for me to ensure that they cite each other. I have seen <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8443/cite-paper-in-the-same-upcoming-conference">this</a> question and <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/4837/can-i-present-the-results-of-a-paper-that-is-currently-under-review">this</a> question which are also highly related to my question. However, my question is different enough, in my opinion to warrant a separate question. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>How should I cite these papers? (one paper is going to be in APA style and the other will be in ACM style)</p></li>
<li><p>Does it make good sense to contact the Associate Chairs of these conferences for further clarification?</p></li>
<li><p>The <strong>most</strong> important question for me is, is this ethical? Does it not break the double blind review system? I am ready to not cite these papers if that is the case.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I am having conversations with my adviser about this but just want some broader perspective from different disciplines if I am somehow missing something.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11541,
"author": "thinking",
"author_id": 7980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7980",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think this boils down to the question</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Should I cite a paper that has not (yet) been accepted?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In my opinion, citing an unaccepted paper is risky, since for a reason or another it might be rejected, and submitted somewhere else later on. Then, your paper would be citing the wrong proceedings or journal. Once a paper is accepted (achieves the <em>in press</em> status), I think citing is OK.</p>\n\n<p>And hey, you can just write in the conclusions that your future work will be concentrating on the same problem from another point of view. Interested readers will go google your name.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11542,
"author": "gerrit",
"author_id": 1033,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Normally, you can update citations until the proofreading stage. I've done that at more than one occasion. When submitting the article, I cite Myself et al. (submitted 20xx). Then the manuscript goes through peer review, revisions, subsequently typesetting, etc. By the time the final proofs come out, I probably know whether Myself et al. is rejected or not, and can probably provide an updated citation. In the worst case, I can replace it by a short text that this will be considered in a future publication.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11548,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Normally, unpublished materials are just that, unpublished, and should be treated as such. It is, however, always possible to reference your other work as \"in prep.\" until it becomes published. You need to look carefully at any instruction for authors on how such references should be made and if they are acceptable.</p>\n\n<p>If you add such a reference to a paper it is always possible to remove the reference if one of the works becomes rejected or if it is unlear if it will be published. What should be avoided is to have references to work as \"in prep.\" remaining if the work is unlikely to ever getting published. After all, the purpose of referencing is to provide published sources that others can access.</p>\n\n<p>Including an \"in prep.\" reference will also provide problems for reviewers and adding or removing such a reference during the review process means that something that can not be checked is added or removed in the manuscript. So my suggestion is to avoid having to rely on such a reference for any key points in the manuscript.</p>\n\n<p>You are, in other words, in a grey zone when it comes to referencing. The best solution would be one where you do not rely on unpublished references but if you think you must then use your discretion and make sure your inclusion is made in a way that it is not key to your conclusions or that it might not affect the reviews in a signficant way. You, furthermore, should be as confident as you can that they both will be accepted in the end.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11553,
"author": "debray",
"author_id": 7974,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7974",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You could create Technical Reports for each paper and cite the Tech Reports in your conference submissions. </p>\n\n<p>If you decide to do this (and especially if you put the TRs on your web page), you may want to be careful about self-plagiarism. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 50165,
"author": "ToJo",
"author_id": 11892,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11892",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n<p>Editor A wrote to editor B, indicating that one of the reviewers of a paper submitted to Journal A contained material that had been submitted at about the same time to Journal B. Editor A requested a copy of the paper submitted to Journal B. Editor B responded, confirming that the paper in question had been submitted to Journal B (submission date two weeks earlier than the paper submitted to Journal A), but had been rejected eight weeks later after external peer review. Editor B sent a copy of the rejected paper to editor A. Editor A examined the two papers and confirmed that there was “some degree of overlap” between the two and also felt that there was a degree of “salami slicing.</p>\n<p>What should the editors do now?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>The answer can be found <a href=\"http://publicationethics.org/case/dual-submission-salami-slicing-redundant-publication-or-all-three\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">here</a>.</p>\n<p>In order to avoid such an unpleasant affair why not boil the question down to</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>[One] could argue that paper A + paper B together present a holistic view of the answer to these research questions.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>and submit only one paper?</p>\n<p>I don't want to accuse you of scientific misconduct but your statement is at least suspicious in this regard. Therefore, a single paper would provide the following two benefits:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>No need to cite your second, unpublished paper.</li>\n<li>Absolutely ethical scientific conduct (in contrast to a strategy of "<a href=\"http://www.karger.com/Article/Pdf/74559\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">salami slicing</a>" or building on the "<a href=\"http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/The-Publishing-Game-Getting-More-for-Less.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Least Publishable Unit</a>").</li>\n</ul>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/30 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11540",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429/"
]
|
11,549 | <p>I'm a senior in college and working for my final year project. I am required to read more than 8 papers. However, 2 of them cannot be found online or in the library (Summon system). The library delivery service is inaccessible now, and I believe my advisor have that papers.</p>
<p>Can I ask professor to send me a copy of the papers? Is it impolite to ask such favor or illegal?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11550,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Yes, you can, and you should. It is not impolite (unless you actually have access), and it is not unethical. I don't think it is illegal, if you do not distribute it further, and it is certainly not uncommon.</p>\n\n<p>First, make sure you really don't have access (otherwise, you risk looking a bit like a fool), then ask him. Don't make a big deal of it, just explain that you lack access and you believe he may have them, if so could he please send them.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11563,
"author": "JohnS",
"author_id": 7992,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7992",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One trick is to google the complete name of the paper in quotes. This will very often pull up a pdf copy stashed somewhere; perhaps on the profs own web page. Sometimes you can get essentially the same paper from arxiv. But I totally agree with the previous answer that you should make sure you don't otherwise have access to the paper before emailing. If you can't get an email response, your library can almost certainly get you a free electronic copy by inter-library loan.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/31 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11549",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6962/"
]
|
11,551 | <p>My field is cardiovascular epidemiology, and my current research question relates to some risk factor which is supposed to strongly elevate cardiovascular risk in a defined subgroup. However, my data do not indicate any such association, and power analysis shows that I have about 0.85 power to detect an effect of the size previously published. I see my findings as evidence for the null hypothesis.</p>
<p>Most of the available work on this risk factor in this subgroup comes from papers that all share one author. He is the leader regarding this question. He also holds a patent for assessment of this risk factor and possesses shares of a company that develops and plans to sell diagnostic tests to assess this risk factor.</p>
<p>I would like to make a statement in my paper that politely mentions these facts. This other author has published virtually everything there is that reports this positive association, and would profit enormously if it were true. However, I'm only a PhD student and they are top tier.</p>
<p>So how would I best go about this in my paper?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11552,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>First off the fact that one group is dominating will be implicitly understood if you provide a paragraph or two summarizing their work and cite their publications. In such a paragraph you could add words like \"ground-breaking\" or phrases that describe the dominance of the group on the field. </p>\n\n<p>You could for example start the paragraph by saying: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"The work concerning risk assessment of [...] has largely been carried out by [the research group] (example citations).\" </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>(I hope you see the main idea of my attempt) Then you follow up on what they have done and cite their work.</p>\n\n<p>It is just important to keep the tone as neutral as possible and let the citeable work speak for itself. Spending one or more paragraphs describing the work should be enough to make everyone understand the message.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11554,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<ol>\n<li>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>Most of the available work on this risk factor in this subgroup comes from papers that all share one author. He is the leader regarding this question</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This you can freely express in your paper: it is a statement of fact, and if you provide evidence to back it up (papers, reviews, book chapters, etc.), there is no reason for it to be interpreted as a hostile statement. It is actually quite interesting.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>He also holds a patent for assessment of this risk factor. […] This guy has published virtually everything there is that reports this positive association</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Again, it's a statement of fact, not a problem. You can cite a patent if you want, and stating that in a neutral light is easy.</p>\n</li>\n<li>\n<blockquote>\n<p><em>and possesses shares of a company that develops and plans to sell diagnostic tests to assess this risk factor. […] and he would profit enormously if it were true.</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This, on the other hand, I would be <strong>very wary</strong> of writing that in a review. First, because it is not a scientific statement, so its place in a scientific paper is not clearly defined. Secondly, because it could (and probably will) be interpreted as having a strongly negative implication, possibly to the extent of suggesting very serious ethical issues.</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/31 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11551",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1281/"
]
|
11,555 | <p>I am in a "transition period" shortly after having finished my MSc, and shortly before beginning my PhD. In the summer period the academic life doesn't cease, though, and sometimes an affiliation is asked for at scientific events. I am going to a conference soon, and indeed the organisers need an affiliation.</p>
<p>Is there some rule saying what affiliation I should mention in a situation like that: the past one, the future one, both, or neither?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11556,
"author": "Amory",
"author_id": 7886,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7886",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Maybe I'm a little too practical, but I would go with whichever email address will you be using most consistently in the future. Presumably that's the PhD one, assuming you have access to that email address. If anyone wants to contact you in six months that will be the more correct affiliation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11557,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Be pragmatic. If you need to provide affiliation for, for example, presenting work you have already done, then use the old affiliation. It would be odd to provide your coming affiliation in such cases. Even later when you are at your new place you may want to use the older affiliation along with your new one to show where you did the work and where you are now. If you need to provide contact information not related to work you have done then the new affiliation migt be good. That said, however, it would be wrong to use the new affiliation until you become officially affiliated by a contract (equivalent). From this perspective your old affiliation can be used until the new one is official (find out by asking your new location when can be applied). There is of course not wrong to clearly state that you <em>will be</em> at your new affiliation starting such-and-such time.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/31 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11555",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7328/"
]
|
11,559 | <p>I am a beginner researcher in a relatively new area. I published two papers in a conference directly related to the general field of my research (the general field is Artificial Intelligence or AI). Still there is no major conference for the new area; only one workshop and several special editions in top journals. As I am progressing in my PhD thesis, I see I am becoming a self-citation researcher.</p>
<p>Although the new area is attracting more people within AI and other disciplines, I am worried about my research. My advisor is happy and enthusiastic about my work. The big names in my research are well recognized in the AI field in general. My question is how to get their attention to read and therefore cite my work? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11562,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 6110,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6110",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It's generally acceptable to e-mail senior scientists a copy of your paper. Say who you are and who your advisor is, describe your paper very briefly, and tell them that if they have any comments you'd be grateful to hear them.</p>\n\n<p>Most will ignore you, don't take it personally -- it's not something that will \"count against you\", unless you do it too often, or to people who's research has nothing to do with your paper. Usually this just means they're too busy or have nothing in particular to say. But you might get a couple of interesting and/or supportive replies. I did, when I was a grad student.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11566,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Get face-to-face time with them.</strong> Email is a “least effort” solution if you have no other possible way, but the way to sell your research is by informal discussions. There are many ways to get one-on-one time with big names, some of which you can pursue alone, some of which your advisor can help with:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Introduce yourself during a conference, preferably in a rather informal setting. If the conference has a poster session, engage the discussion if they pass in front of your poster. Otherwise, it is perfectly acceptable to spot them in the crowd, introduce yourself, and say <em>“I have a poster over there and I would like to discuss one of my conclusions with you”</em>. Just be polite, and courteous if you see they want to opt out.</li>\n<li>In a smaller conference or workshop, just ask the guy a question after his talk, in a way that relates their work to yours. Possibly follow up with some discussion during a coffee break.</li>\n<li>Get your advisor to invite Prof. Big Name to give a talk in your department, and among the activities scheduled during their visit, arrange for a discussion with him.</li>\n<li>Invite (or get your advisor to invite) Prof. Big Name to be on your thesis committee!</li>\n</ul>\n"
}
]
| 2013/07/31 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11559",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532/"
]
|
11,570 | <p>I am lucky (or potentially unlucky) enough that a grant applications that I am working on does not have any formatting specifications and instead just has a limit of 5000 words. There are some suggested sections, that will be be variable in terms of length (some will have 200 words and others over 1000), and it is likely that everyone will need to add additional sections. I am used to grant applications using poorly created MS Word forms with predefined sections that allow no formatting and are a single column with narrow margins/long line widths and single spacing.</p>
<p>I am looking for a style guide (or recommendations) about how to format the grant and the pros/cons of different formatting styles. I am both interested in the physical layout on the page, use of figures and tables, as well as advice on sectioning and the order of sections. I use LaTeX if that matters, but am happy for MS word advice also.</p>
<p>For example, do I go single column or double column and wide or narrow margins? The suggested sections do not include an obvious place for aim. Is it worth starting with an an overview that defines the problem and the outlines the proposed research or is 5000 words short enough that you do not need it? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11573,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I envy you the fact that it is only a word count that counts. I am in a system where everything has to fit a certain number of pages with 12pt Times-Roman and 2.5 cm margins. </p>\n\n<p>With the word limit as your main limitation you have the possibility to illustrate your application more freely. If suitable, I strongly suggest you try to come up with conceptual graphics to strengthen the text and make difficult concepts easier to grasp. This can be a huge advantage. Since your are not limited to pages you can afford complex and larger illustrations than otherwise possible.</p>\n\n<p>As for typesetting, you use LaTeX (as do I) which produces excellent text. Trust the LaTeX settings for text width, line-spacing etc. to get a readable text. Too long or too short lines makes the text difficult to read. See the <a href=\"http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/geometry\" rel=\"nofollow\">geometry</a> package for details if you are not already using it. EDIT: I do not think two-column format is good for proposals. It is a way to put as much text into a small area and also involves using smalller type sizes, typically around 9 in order to get enough characters into a line to make it readable. Since the number of pages is not a limit, I would aim for something which is as easily read as possible, typically 11-12 pt single columns. the margin widths can be determined so as to get reasonable line lengths. I do not think wide or narrow margins make a difference but wider margins make the page more attractive than narrow (basically a typographical design issue).</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: With one-column format you can add figures at full width and with the no-page-limit do not have to worry about the size of the graphics (in the sense of having to make it as small as possible so to not use up space. I think a straight-forward simple formatting is best. There is no need to be overly creative. What conveys the message without resistance is the best.</p>\n\n<p>One of the more useful concepts in grant writing I have come across is given in the book <a href=\"http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300119398\" rel=\"nofollow\">Writing Successful Science Proposals</a> by Andrew J. Friedland and Carol L. Folt which outlines a two-paragraph summary, akin to an abstract whith which you introduce your proposal. The point of this is to quickly and concisely convey the key points of the proposal to the reader. This involves starting from the big picture metion key gaps in knowledge, how to tackle them (methods), preliminary results (if existent) and expected results. I obviously cannot copy the book content here but the point is to make the reader of the proposal completely clear over what to expect in the proposal and so all details given is just putting substance to the known structure. I believe this is what you aim for in what you call an overview section.</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: After having started your text with a brief introduction, you simply follow up by the usual type of structure: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><em>background</em> (to focus on the gap of knowledge to be targeted)</li>\n<li><em>objectives</em></li>\n<li><em>project outline</em> </li>\n<li><em>time table (milestones; can be a <a href=\"http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/graphics/pgf/contrib/pgfgantt\" rel=\"nofollow\">gantt plot</a>)</em></li>\n<li>if applicable: <em>research group/resources</em></li>\n<li><em>references</em>\nFor references I would go for footnote type references since the harvard-style citations uses up many characters. It is also possible to abbreviate the reference list by omitting the paper title, similar to what is done in <em>Nature</em> and <em>Science</em>.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11575,
"author": "debray",
"author_id": 7974,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7974",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>By submitting a grant proposal you're asking the funding agency to give you some resources (funding) to investigate some problem. Very early in the proposal you should make the case, clearly and succinctly, why you --- and not someone else --- should be given those resources:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><em>The problem</em>:\n<ul>\n<li>what is the issue you propose to investigate?</li>\n<li>why is it worth investigating?</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><em>The current state of knowledge</em>:\n<ul>\n<li>what are the shortcomings or gaps in the current state of the art? </li>\n<li>why are those gaps or shortcomings important and worth addressing?</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><em>The proposed research</em>:\n<ul>\n<li>how do you propose to approach these gaps or shortcomings?</li>\n<li>what specific research questions will you address in the course of your investigations?</li>\n<li>what will be the impact if your investigation is successful?</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><em>Likelihood of success</em>:\n<ul>\n<li>what makes you qualified to do this research?</li>\n<li>what preliminary evidence do you have that suggests that your proposed approach is likely to succeed? </li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I would suggest addressing these points in an \"Executive Summary\" or \"Background\" section, of at most one or 1 1/2 pages, at the very beginning of the proposal. This will give the reviewer a high-level view of what you're planning to do and help set the context for the more detailed discussion in the rest of the proposal.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/01 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11570",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929/"
]
|
11,577 | <p>I just found out that my undergraduate institution made a tiny error on my transcript of records. I moved to another country and am currently in my masters and I'm wondering if I should make the effort to get that little mistake corrected.</p>
<p>So how often will I need that transcript of records from my bachelors in the future?</p>
<p>I assume that after I have the masters degree I am probably expected to just send in the bachelors and masters certificate (+letters of recommendation etc.) for applications in academia or industry, because adding both transcripts of record would bloat my application significantly.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11578,
"author": "seteropere",
"author_id": 532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I guess this largely depends on <em>where</em> you apply. Industry usually interested in what recent projects/ education you have. However, academia usually want to see the complete history of the candidate. Regardless where you apply, doing good on the most recent degree is a good sign of productivity. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11589,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, you should get the error corrected. Do it now, before you need it. Although not all employers will want to see it, there's a chance that some may, and if they do, they will probably need it quickly.</p>\n\n<p>Generally you should not include a transcript or other official documents with your application unless they are specifically requested. Your resume or CV will have the basic information about your degree. As you say, it adds several pages; if an employer wants it (and some will!) they should say so.</p>\n\n<p>This may vary by country, but when applying to faculty jobs in the US, perhaps 10% of employers required a copy of my undergraduate transcript; enough that I couldn't afford to ignore it.</p>\n\n<p>I'm not sure what you mean by a \"certificate\"; the US may not have a direct equivalent. Here you do get a diploma, but this is just a fancy piece of paper that you frame and hang on your wall; it lists only the degree and the date, with no further details. Nobody has ever asked to see my diploma. For us, the transcript is the only real official document; it is sent directly from the institution so that it can't be tampered with. (However, many employers will be satisfied with a simple photocopy for a preliminary application, and only request an official copy in the final stages.)</p>\n\n<p>As there have been some high-profile cases lately of people claiming degrees that they didn't have, I'd expect that in the future, more employers will want to see transcripts.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11591,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In addition to field making a difference, there are strong differences between countries. For instance, for my jobs in the US, I never needed to show any of my diplomas; however, I had to supply my transcripts for undergraduate and graduate programs. By contrast, in Germany, job applicants are normally expected to show their <em>entire</em> pedigrees—which means at a minimum the diploma certificates at both the university <strong>and</strong> high school levels! (I was also expected to produce the transcripts, of course.)</p>\n\n<p>So, the best advice I can give is to follow the expectations of the industry in the region where you are applying. If you have any doubts about what is required, ask the contacts for the position or program.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/01 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11577",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6690/"
]
|
11,579 | <p>Just like my other research-related activities, I keep a complete record of the reviews I perform: both the original papers and the reviews I have written, as well as the revised manuscript I receive one, and the final published manuscript if it is published (but sometimes in a different journal!)</p>
<p>I don't think I ever read anything in reviewer guidelines that forbid this, but I recently met someöne who argued that confidential material should be deleted after review. It's true that keeping it on my hard drive exposes it slightly to a risk of breach of confidentiality, but no more than the rest of confidential material that I handle every day…</p>
<p>So, what are policies on this matter and what are the existing practices?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11580,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is no legal reason to hold on to old reviews, it would be the responsibility of the journal in that case. I have kept a record of my reviews just as you describe you have done, mostly because I like to save my work. I sometimes curse this because I can see reviews I would like to share with students but cannot since I perceive them as confidential unless agreed otherwise with the author(s), and the reasons I would like to share them usually does not reflect well on the paper. </p>\n\n<p>Unless the reviews are made under a contract of some sort, I would argue that they fall under immaterial rights; it is your intellectual work which is provided to (1) the author and (2) the journal. I do not think anyone else can claim rights to a review.</p>\n\n<p>The review work is generally made under the assumption that it is a communication between reviewer and author, albeit filtered through an editor. I have not seen any instance where someone has argued ownership of a review in my field, either in general or in the case of the journal where I am an editor. As a reviewer one must always consider the fact that all help that is provided is practically given away and should of course be seen in the greater perspecite of both giving and receiving in some form of balance.</p>\n\n<p>Instances where reviews may be contracted are common when reviewing reports for government agencies or commercial enterprises. I have not seen, but cannot discount the possibility, that a journal or publisher could have such agreements. But I cannot imagine such an agreement would be hidden, it would be communicated very clearly.</p>\n\n<p>As for keeping your reviews safe from being spread, I would say that the journals electronic manuscript systems are far more likely to be hacked into than that of an individual researcher. To some extent I would compare having a review on a hard drive to having it in a ring-binder. It IS possible to get hold of it but I doubt more security than that is required (i.e. ordinary computer \"security\" measures, e.g. provided by a university).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11582,
"author": "Thomas",
"author_id": 6984,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6984",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I do the same (i.e., save all versions of a manuscript I receive and all of my and the other reviewers' comments that I receive through the review process). I save them in a single directory according to their manuscript number, which tends to keep things fairly organized and easy to find later.</p>\n\n<p>Why might I want to find them later? First, when I receive a revision, I find it is a lot easier to go back and look at the files I have stored locally to see what I recommended change (in case it has been months since I first saw the manuscript), whether the author(s) did, in fact, change anything, and whether the changes were actually in-line with my and the other reviewers' suggestions. This came up recently when I received a revision that claimed to make changes but I found they had actually not made changes in the manuscript (the original and revision were strikingly similar) and I suggested a rejection.</p>\n\n<p>The second instance where this can come up is receiving the same manuscript from a different journal (e.g., because it was rejected by the journal you reviewed for first). Having your previous comments and the previous version allows you to see how the manuscript has developed and either provide original feedback or reiterate points that still need improvement that you highlighted in your previous review. Or, decline to review because youf ind it difficult to present an unbiased opinion.</p>\n\n<p>A third, and final, reason that I find it useful to save these things is pedagogical. In graduate school, several professors sent us versions of their reviews for manuscripts so that we could see how to write a peer review. Having manuscripts and your reviews available makes passing down that future pedagogical activity much easier. (Note that sharing manuscripts may be more controversial than sharing one's review, but if the paper was previously available as a working paper or conference paper and was subsequently published, I see little ethical concern with sharing the manuscript with future students.)</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/01 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11579",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700/"
]
|
11,590 | <p>A high citation rate is desirable in academia. Citing other work doesn't cost much, so citations are cheap to give but desirable to get. That brings me to the question:</p>
<p>If a previous article addresses a topic similar to the one I'm writing, is that a sufficient reason to cite it? Or should the prior article meet a minimum quality to "deserve" a citation? To put it bluntly: if I'm aware of a prior crappy article, should I ignore it, or cite it and write why it's crap (of course in a more diplomatic way)?</p>
<p>In my field, some articles questioning anthropogenic climate change get quite a lot of citations from colleagues pointing out flaws in their reasoning or statistics...</p>
<p>Note that I'm exclusively talking about peer-reviewed publications.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11592,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>There's a certain amount of judgment that needs to be exercised here. One of my more frequently cited publications is an attempt to correct methodological errors in a previous work (which was also highly cited). While it got the point across, it has also led to my work <em>not</em> being cited by the other authors, even though they've adopted the methodological points laid out in my paper.</p>\n\n<p>Now, part of the reason why we discussed the work in detail was because there were major problems that led us to being unable to reproduce their results when we used their techniques with the \"advantages\" of modern technology. Since it in fact \"inspired\" our work, we felt the extended discussion was appropriate. However, if the same paper were to present results that were simply wrong, and didn't have the same \"primacy\" within the research literature, we would have probably ignored it.</p>\n\n<p>Literature citations in standard journal papers (as opposed to review articles) are not meant to be ecumenical or exhaustive. Your job, as an author, is to exercise judgment as to which articles provide an accurate overview of the state of work in the field, and provide the best support for the arguments you wish to make.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11593,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Negative citations</strong> is what you describe. It is something of a fallacy of the system that a paper may get many citations and therefore seems important when it is clearly sub-par and is referenced in a negative connotation.</p>\n\n<p>Seen objectively, one should give credit where it is due. If someone was first to realize something then that is the origin of the idea (in official terms), how good or bad the paper is, is irrelevant. In some cases first discoveries may just be gut feelings and not well-founded. </p>\n\n<p>I sometimes have to bite my lip when I reference some papers because I really do not think they deserve it (because I know the background) but realize there are no two ways about it. You can of course chose not to reference it, as you have the freedom to chose what we cite, but you may end up getting reviews asking you to add it (if it is something key).</p>\n\n<p>In some cases it is possible to provide objective criticism of a paper. The problem is that the shortcomings will have to be clear.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11595,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It depends what is your goal. If you are doing a thorough review of literature, you <em>will</em> have to cite prior work, even if your opinion of it is low (and you can briefly state why). If you are doing a comment, follow-up or other work where criticism of the prior work is key to your argumentation, then of course you have to cite it. But, if the field is otherwise plentiful and there are other more successful prior works which you can cite, you don't need to be exhaustive, and you can thus omit those works which you consider subpar (or of low originality, or derivate works).</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/01 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11590",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033/"
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|
11,602 | <p>I work for a large company, I am also a student at a big school. My employer is supportive in terms of funding required for my studies. Although the research paper has more to do with my academic studies. What is a reasonable way to put both affiliations in the research paper? My primary affiliation is my employer and second affiliation is my school. Is it ok to put in the Author section both affiliations? And give a footnote with the details?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11603,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You should be able to put both affiliations on. I assume you are permanently employed, in which case that is more permanent than the academic address. However, if your published work is done as part of your schooling you should put that affiliation first, perhaps listing your job affiliation/address as \"permanent\" or something describing your employment. </p>\n\n<p>The reason for putting your academic affiliation first is that it is within that you have done the work and probably received intellectual coaching and support (if you receive similar input also from work then that affiliation might be equally valid as first). Listing two affiliations is common and the reason is typically when people move between institutes and it is important to keep readers aware of one whereabouts in such circumstances. In your case you will likely be found at your company in the future (my assumption) and it therefore makes sense to list also that.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11604,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If both institutions contributed to the work you are reporting in your article, you should <strong>list them both as affiliations</strong>. It is not unusual at all, and in most (all?) journals there is no concept of “primary” or “secondary” affiliation: <strong>whichever order you list them in is fine</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>For example, see the penultimate author in the list below:</p>\n\n<p> <img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/DJFZ5.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>or <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/3446/2700\">this other example</a> (which I consider over-the-top):</p>\n\n<p> <img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/g445e.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/02 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11602",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7054/"
]
|
11,607 | <p>This has not happened to me, but to a friend in the final stages of her PhD, she and the rest of the research group are understandably devastated, as the advisor was not only (in my friend's words), brilliant, but very kind and approachable. </p>
<p>My friend and all the research students are also worried about their research projects, as the advisor was one of the top researchers in that field and apparently, the only researcher in that university. The associate advisors have indeed stepped up, but as good as they are, they do not have the insight that the late advisor had.</p>
<p>What is a bit of advice that people may have for this situation?</p>
<p>One suggestion is that the research group (students, co-authors etc) band together to help each other out, with the guidance of the associate advisors.</p>
<p>I have looked over <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/3172/what-are-some-options-for-a-graduate-student-abandoned-by-ph-d-advisor">this question and the posted answers</a>, but I feel that this situation is considerably different as there is the ever-present aspect of the feelings of loss, that are present and should not be ignored.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11609,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>We had a similar situation at my university when a professor running a large group with millions of research dollars passed away. There are a few issues that have to be dealt with, and usually the department chair and/or the dean play a major role in this</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>research funding: often this can be transferred (in consultation with program managers) to faculty in related areas who (depending on the degree of involvement in the research) either merely manage the money for the students involved, or might play a more active role in spending it. </p></li>\n<li><p>students: students need committees and replacement advisors. Again, the department chair, in consultation with the students and related faculty, might be able to assign faculty as caretakers for the students. </p></li>\n<li><p>teaching/committees: while there are likely significant teaching/committee disruptions, these don't affect the former students of the researcher, so I'll ignore this component.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>My view is that students that are close to graduating need someone who can sign off on their thesis work (hopefully without too much modification). They hopefully already have a few other people who can write letters for them for jobs, and can mention the advisor's demise in their letters to explain the absence. </p>\n\n<p>Students earlier in the Ph.D program (say just post-qualifying) are in the biggest bind: they've spent enough time in their research area to have committed to a topic, but now they have no one to guide them. They are the ones who probably need the most help from senior students, other faculty and the department. </p>\n\n<p>Students early in the program have the option of switching advisors, or even schools if there's no one else in the department who can advise them/fund them/works in their areas of interest. Again, the department is usually sympathetic and might be able to provide such students with short term funding via TAships if that's an issue. </p>\n\n<p>None of this of course addresses the feelings of grief and loss</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11610,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is without doubt a tragic situation. However, it is not an insurmountable problem. </p>\n\n<p>As you suggested, the important thing is to allow both the grieving process and the research to continue at their appropriate paces. Without the room to understand and deal with what's happened, the research can't really go as it's supposed to, and the work is needed to provide a focus so that grief doesn't completely bring the group to a standstill.</p>\n\n<p>From an emotional perspective, I'd certainly recommend that the department make a counselor available to the group members, and to encourage them to talk about things, rather than to shove them aside.</p>\n\n<p>With respect to the research, there really isn't a completely satisfactory solution. It really does need to be a group-wide effort, as you've suggested, with collaborators and co-advisors stepping up to take a senior role. Another idea might be to reach out to former group members who are still active in academia to help with mentoring the group members. Note that this is not the same thing as being a full-fledged advisor; this is more of having an extra person to talk to when needed. </p>\n\n<p>(This is also why good short-, mid- and long-range planning is essential for everybody, and why thesis committees and planning meetings with the advisor are so important for graduate students. If appropriate plans-to-finish and related strategies are in place, then it should be largely a matter of executing those plans, rather than trying to devise something new without the advisor's help.)</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/02 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11607",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
]
|
11,608 | <p>I'll be starting a Masters of Science program soon and wanted to make plans for my professional/educational future. I've been looking at different doctorate level degree programs and I'm having a bit of trouble in understanding the difference between a Doctor of Computer Science program and a Ph.D. in Computer Science program. I've seen it listed both ways which leads me to believe that they're two separate programs.</p>
<p>Could someone explain what the differences between the two are and identify which is more appropriate for someone with a development and software engineering background?</p>
<p>Here are two programs that show the difference in titles. These are not necessarily the programs I have in mind but they're the first ones I could find that show the title difference.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.coloradotech.edu/Degree-Programs/Doctor-Of-Computer-Science">Colorado Technical University - Doctor of Computer Science</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.scis.nova.edu/doctoral/cisd.html">Nova Southeastern University - Ph.D. in Computer Science</a></p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11611,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>This is the first I've heard of a \"Doctor of Computer Science\" degree. Not having a dissertation requirement is a clear sign that this is different from a \"standard\" Ph.D program. A Ph.D (in any discipline) requires you to produce an original piece of research that you defend to a committee of experts. In addition, most Ph.D programs will have course requirements, residency requirements and so on. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Update</strong>: Some googling led me to the Wikipedia entry on '<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_doctorate#Professional\">professional doctorates</a>', which most closely match the nature of the degree the OP describes. As Austin Henley points out, this is close in spirit to an MD (USA) and JD. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11612,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are interested in a career in research, I would strongly recommend avoiding \"executive-format\" programs such as the one you've linked to. A program like that is <em>not</em> a standard PhD program, in that you are not required to produce a piece of original research, and therefore cannot claim to have met the standard of being an independent researcher (and problem-solver) at the end of your program. </p>\n\n<p>If your long-term interests, however, run more toward being in management and other non-technical careers, then perhaps this would be an option—but I would only recommend it if you were already working in industry. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 14050,
"author": "user9417",
"author_id": 9417,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9417",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The Doctor of Computer Science program at Colorado Technical University has a dissertation requirement. At one point there was an optional four paper option but it is really a dissertation broken out into three papers that are the dissertation chapters broken out separately. The fourth paper is a publishable journal article. Thus you are doing much more work if you elect not to do the dissertation. The current program has removed the four paper option and is now dissertation only.</p>\n\n<p>I am an alumni of the program and currently in a tenure track role at a state university while also holding an honorary position at a Tier 1 (top 100) institution. When I was in the program we had three residencies per year and now they have two. Remember that not all institutions are allowed to have a PhD but may have another terminal (doctoral) program. My Research Gate profile is below however you may contact me on LinkedIn to ask any questions. Additionally, I can point you towards other alumni who are professors West Point Military Academy, George Fox, Alabama A&M University, The Oklahoma State University, and other institutions.</p>\n\n<p>Research Gate Profile <a href=\"https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maurice_Dawson2\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maurice_Dawson2</a></p>\n\n<p>LinkedIn Profile\n<a href=\"http://www.linkedin.com/in/mauricedawson\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://www.linkedin.com/in/mauricedawson</a></p>\n\n<p>Both programs are great but you have to look at publishing peer reviewed research immediately to bring value to your terminal degree. Again feel free to reach out to me.</p>\n\n<p>-Mo</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 15183,
"author": "user10351",
"author_id": 10351,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10351",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Sorry for late response but was busy with grades and research activities. Colorado Technical University has always had the dissertation option however they had the four paper option as well. The four paper option has been phased out completely. The dissertations can be found on the IEEE Digital Library and through the institution's library. Also the 12 research and writing courses are the dissertation courses for the three year period. If you view the catalog and do a search on dissertation the word comes up a 144 times. See <a href=\"http://catalog.careered.com/~/media/Catalogs/ctu_6/course_catalog.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://catalog.careered.com/~/media/Catalogs/ctu_6/course_catalog.pdf</a> On pg 36 where you will see the following for the Doctor of Computer Science degree plan and description.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>Graduation Requirements</strong> In addition to the successful completion of\n the above 96 credits with an acceptable GPA, students must also\n satisfactorily complete and defend their research proposal and final\n dissertation.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Since the program and degree is relatively small it is easy to come to conclusions. It should be noted that the college has the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) accreditation and is a National Security Agency (NSA) & Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Centers of Academic Excellence in Information Assurance Education Program (CAE/IAE). Additionally, the most similar degree would be the Doctor of Science (D.Sc. or Sc.D.) which very few institutions have. I hope this assist and thanks for checking as well.</p>\n\n<p>See ABET accreditation at <a href=\"http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=192\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://main.abet.org/aps/AccreditedProgramsDetails.aspx?OrganizationID=192</a></p>\n\n<p>-Mo</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11608",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6641/"
]
|
11,613 | <p>I spotted that some universities do not have a comprehensive exam for their PhD students while it is standard at most universities (specifically for computer science). For what reasons do some universities drop the requirement of comprehensive exam? What is the impression towards someone who has graduated from no-comprehensive department? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11614,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My department does not have a comprehensive exam. The most frequent reason I have heard is that we don't <strong>need</strong> it. On the other hand, some other departments in our university have comprehensive exams and I have heard that they are primarily used to <strong>weed out</strong> students after the first year.</p>\n\n<p>I will venture to say that there is absolutely no impression towards graduating from a no-comprehensive program. Research job committees look at publications, letters of recommendation and research experience. Graduates from my program have found jobs wherever graduates from similar programs find jobs.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11630,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The primary reasons for having a comprehensive or qualifying examination are as a measure of quality control, and as a means of \"population control.\"</p>\n\n<p>The first ensures that students meet minimal criteria for promotion to PhD candidacy. This allows, in part, PhD programs to take a few candidates who they feel could be successful, but are not 100% confident thereof. </p>\n\n<p>The second is used if departments admit more incoming students than they have funding to support as PhD candidates. Then the exam is used to \"cull the herd,\" and keep the candidates the faculty wants to continue to fund. </p>\n\n<p>My field used to be the kind of program where everybody had to do a qualifying examination. But, in recent years, this trend has started to swing away from comprehensive exams to research prospectuses. There is no stigma associated with either approach, though; both are considered acceptable. </p>\n\n<p>Practically, departments choose not to have a comprehensive exam for a variety of reasons:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>They may feel that they need neither quality nor population control.</li>\n<li>They may not want to spend the time required to prepare, administer, and grade such exams (particularly if there are large numbers of students as well as time-intensive components, such as oral sessions).</li>\n<li>They may feel other means of assessing performance are superior (for instance, a research dossier and oral proposal).</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 41303,
"author": "JustAnotherProfessor",
"author_id": 31459,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31459",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I got my PhD many many years ago in CS, and in my case the department had a 4 part/4 day written + a 2-3 hour oral a year or so later. The written was the same for everyone, 1 part CS theory (computability, formal languages etc), 1 part math (formal logic, combinatorics etc.), 1 part software (compilers, OS), 1 part hardware (mostly the content of the Hennessy and Patterson book, 1st edition at that point). All at the graduate level (they subsequently dumbed-down the exam because the pass rate was too low and some faculty were loosing favored students who could not pass)</p>\n\n<p>I spent a good 6 months with my head in books and in study groups studying for that exam, and though I was happy to be done with it, I didn't see the great value at the time.</p>\n\n<p>I do now. Even now, with my \"background information\" 20 years out of date (not really), I find that I'm often using some piece of what I learned in that half-year to explain something to my students or to conceive of how I might implement some research or project idea--not all of it, mind you, but I have used all 4 parts. Students ask my questions expecting to get answers that draw from various parts of the discipline, and I'm grateful that I have that knowledge. </p>\n\n<p>In a recent committee meeting to vet faculty candidates, I was discussing courses we'd want then to teach and one member of a committee [a dean, not a CS faculty member] asked me about the common knowledge that all PhDs in CS would have, and I was lamenting the fact that many schools do not have rigorous comps, and so we can't make assumptions about what background knowledge they have. That said, I usually don't bother looking at the comps page on candidate's universities, rather we ask a bunch of technical questions in the phone interviews</p>\n\n<p>As a side note about \"admissions committees\" and why they might do a good job and still need comps, many CS departments take a large number of people with degrees in related disciplines (Math, EE etc), and while I think they make great computer scientists, they lack something if they don't have the opportunity to study the foundations of CS</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 41312,
"author": "WetlabStudent",
"author_id": 8101,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8101",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Of course there are many advantages to having a comprehensive exam as are outlined in many of the other answers here, but there are also many reasons why departments don't have them.</p>\n\n<p>A comprehensive exam creates more work for professors (they have to grade it, write it, and often even hold study courses for it) and potentially, if the program only admits good students, or if weaker students drop out due to poor performance in coursework, or unsatisfactory progress towards research, some professors consider the exam to not be worth the extra work (i.e. an unnecessary piece of bureaucracy). </p>\n\n<p>In addition for some fields, research topics are very diverse, and course requirements are effectively all electives. In such cases, it would be unclear what course work a comprehensive exam would pull from. </p>\n\n<p>Even if this is not the case, not all professors will agree with the definition of what a \"core subject\" in the field is. This is a bigger problem than you might think. Say as a professor I am really excited that I finally got a great student in my subfield and we are doing great research. Now say he fails the qualifying exam in some other topic that is viewed as a \"core\" topic, when my subfield is not considered as important. You can bet I will be bitter about that. If the professors can't settle on what topics are core (a political not just academic process), then sometimes the only solution that can gain enough approval from most of the professors is to not have a qualifying exam at all.</p>\n\n<p>At some programs that do not have comprehensive exams, the advancement to candidacy exam can act as one, by including questions about topics from coursework that are only loosely related to the proposed research (in addition to questions more directly related to your thesis proposal or research presentation). These advancement to candidacy exams can require just as much studying as one would typically do for a qualifying/comprehensive exam. There are advantages and disadvantages to this approach. One advantage is that having the comprehensive exam material in the advancement to candidacy exam makes you go back through your course work and think critically about how each topic relates to your area of research. Your research allows you to review the material from a new, perspective that allows you to draw new interesting pieces of understanding. </p>\n\n<p>In other fields, a comprehensive exam is viewed as a waste of time because the final exam in a set of core courses effectively act as a comprehensive exam. Usually, some students do not make the required grade and drop or retake the class (similar to a comprehensive exam). The big advantage here is that the professor who taught the material writes the exam, this saves time on the professor's end and also prevents needlessly failing students who might get hung up on inconsistencies between two different exam writers.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48488,
"author": "user36947",
"author_id": 36947,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36947",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I simply would not have done a PhD if I had to take comps. To me it was extremely important to finish as quickly as possible. With starting salaries in Engineering at a pretty high level, every year I was in school I felt was like leaving money on the table. I suspect that many universities also find that students in high demand areas feel the same and there is a scarcity of grad students, particularly local students.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11613",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532/"
]
|
11,617 | <p>Are students with masters degree allowed to enter a masters program in the same area at a good university?</p>
<p>Is second masters a good option for a better research experience and improving your CV before applying to a PhD in top programs? I am specifically interested in US universities and computer science.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11629,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You are certainly allowed to apply, but your chances of getting accepted for a second master's in the same field is approximately zero--with one exception. </p>\n\n<p>If you already have the master's degree you're seeking, most graduate schools will assume that you are really applying for a doctoral program, if the degrees are awarded separately. If you make if clear you are applying for a second master's degree, they'll probably just throw out your application. </p>\n\n<p>The exception to this are programs where you can only be admitted as a doctoral candidate, but can earn a master's along the way. Then the normal procedures will likely still apply. Otherwise, you're out of luck. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 17689,
"author": "Wilfred",
"author_id": 12608,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12608",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm doing a 2nd Master's right now in Philosophy when my first was Philosophy of Religion (same classes basically). Both schools are American. There are some schools that are often recommended for people trying to get a 2nd MA in Philosophy. You most certainly CAN do it, at least in the humanities, although there are some cons to going about things this way. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 17692,
"author": "Jim Conant",
"author_id": 9464,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9464",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Getting a second masters degree in the same field may be allowed, but it's extremely rare and I don't think it's a good use of time. I don't think it will help you get admitted to a PhD program. It would just look like an anomaly to the admissions committee. I think it would make more sense to apply directly to PhD programs. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 28287,
"author": "enthu",
"author_id": 15723,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15723",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Besides to very good advices posted in other answers to this question; I want to mention a few words.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Can a masters student apply for a second masters in the same field at\n another university?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I think, you are asking about applying and then <em>studying</em> for a second same masters degree. Because a student may be free to apply for a degree, but the admissions office will reject his profile as he is currently student else where.</p>\n\n<p>Answer to your question depends on the educational system of the country and universities policies too.</p>\n\n<p>In some countries, studying simultaneously in two universities and majors is prohibited and graduate students are only allowed to study in their own university. Also, I have seen many universities asking students whether they are currently students or not, because they seek full time students not part time ones.</p>\n\n<p>However, I have seen that some students with outstanding grades and educational background can apply a minor very close to their field in their own university but it was for bachelors level only.</p>\n\n<p>Also, you may find a university which accepts students seeking for double major; but the university in which you are currently studying may not agree to you to study a second major when you are their students.</p>\n\n<p>As a general advice, <em>double</em> check the regulations of both universities and the countries in which you want to study simultaneously.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 177317,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, it is possible. I have had a master's degree in CS from my home country and then applied for a second master's degree (in an interdisciplinary program but my research was still focused on CS) in order to be able to eventually immigrate and settle in the US. Your best bet is to first secure a professor who is willing to be your supervisor as it will make the whole process easier.</p>\n<p>As with your second question, I think it is a better use of time to find a research assistant (staff) position rather than applying for a second master's. the pay will be higher, there will be fewer speed limits (courses, qualifying seminars, mandatory workshops, etc.), and you can focus on your research with less stress about the outcome.\nI saw a lot of professors at top US universities with two master's degrees though (usually immigrants with their first master's from their home country) and I don't think it is THAT unusual to do so.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11617",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/86/"
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|
11,618 | <p>I'm going to my first conference in about a month, where I will be presenting a poster.</p>
<p>How do people usually dress for conferences? Do I need to dress more smartly than usual? Is formal dress (e.g. a suit) normal? Or does no-one really care?</p>
<p>I'm a PhD student, if that makes any difference, and both my university and the conference are in the UK. It's a biology conference.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11619,
"author": "Paul Hiemstra",
"author_id": 4091,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4091",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my experience the dress code at academic conferences is really casual. I would just wear what you would normally wear to work, possibly avoiding shorts when giving a presentation (although I have seen plenty of people presenting in shorts). You could also wear a suit, although I think you would be one of the few that does. If you do want to make your clothes a bit more formal for your presentation, I would wear only the jacket of the suit combined with nice shoes, with for example jeans and no tie.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11620,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In academia, the dress code is much more relaxed than in business settings, but there are exceptions in certain fields. But overall, people care less about what you wear, and more about what you have to say. (And I must, I quite like it.)</p>\n\n<p>The dress code in most academic events (conferences included) is often called <strong>“academic casual”</strong>, and is not very strict. If you want to be sure to avoid any gaffe, just stay away from the short pants and T-shirts (overly casual), as well as full suits and ties (overdressed). So, long pants (may want to avoid blue jeans), a shirt (or other top with collar), possibly a decent sweater.</p>\n\n<p> <a href=\"http://mcnair.wsu.edu/Documents/pdf/dress%20code%20guide%20for%20web.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/qs2TS.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n\n<p>Regarding women's attire, in addition to the choices above, pantsuits are fine, dresses and skirts (not short enough as to be provocative!) are also okay, but again do not overdress.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Regarding various fields: I have noticed that researchers at physics conferences are usually more casual than chemists and chemical engineers. Others will surely comment about their own field(s)…</p>\n\n<p>One exception I am aware of: law conferences usually follow a more business dress code, rather than casual.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11622,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The important thing is to wear something you are comfortable with. If a suit/tie/dress really makes you uncomfortable or self conscious, don't wear it regardless of what other people are wearing. If you are comfortable wearing anything, I would error on the side of too formal. It tends to be easier to make an outfit less formal than more formal and while I have never heard comments about how someone dresses at a conference, I have heard negative comments about how a candidate dresses at a job interview (always that the dress was too informal). I find that a good starting point is to look at what people wear when they are teaching.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11623,
"author": "Ilmari Karonen",
"author_id": 496,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/496",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It depends a lot on the event (some gatherings are more formal than others) and on your status (win a Nobel prize, and you can wear anything you damn well want), but in general, you're not really expected to wear anything fancier to an academic conference than you would for a normal day at work or in class.</p>\n\n<p>In practice, most people <em>do</em> tend to dress up a little bit, just to look their best, but still, even if you just wear your normal clean everyday clothes, you're not going to embarrass yourself (any more than you usually do, at least). As the other answers note, \"smart casual\" is the usual style here.</p>\n\n<p>Nothing says you can't wear a suit if you want to; I see people do that all the time in conferences. Then again, some of those people also wear a suit to work every day, so...</p>\n\n<p>Still, if you're in doubt, why not <strong>ask your advisor</strong> (or someone else in your group who's been to similar events before)? That's part of their job: to teach you the basics of academic work, which certainly includes presenting your work at a conference.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11624,
"author": "bobobobo",
"author_id": 2745,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2745",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It depends on who you are, who your audience is, and what you're presenting.</p>\n\n<p>If your talk is very, very academic, then your best going with <em>business casual</em>. I have never seen a speaker wear a suit and tie.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysXzbPP8rSM\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Christian Renaud</a>'s dress at this Siggraph 2009 seems exemplary:</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/onWRe.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>He's got:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>A light colored shirt with a collar</li>\n<li>Likely dark colored pants</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If you're a woman, women's business casual is usually very similar.</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/7tASf.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>This is <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPdn_dG6XiI\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Mimi Harris</a> at Siggraph 2009, talking about Web3D.</p>\n\n<p>Sometimes you will see people wearing T-Shirts at academic conferences. This seems to be ok for <strong>developers</strong> who spend all their time developing software, and are showcasing what they have recently developed.</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/uZXyC.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>This is <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1A_SQX-Mk\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Johannes Behr</a> talking at Siggraph 2008. I kind of believe developers dress this way to kind of implicitly give the impression that \"Hey, I was just developing and I popped in to give you this talk. After, I'm going straight back to my desk.\" A T-Shirt says \"this is a casual talk. Relax. I'm showing you some cool stuff.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 25736,
"author": "Bethany Dickens",
"author_id": 19463,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19463",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For women and men, I would err on the conservative side for conferences - but this does not mean you should throw out your own, personal style. My first conference, I felt awkward and uncomfortable because I had decided to wear pants and a blazer instead of one of my usual dresses. I though the pants made me look more professional - but they fit poorly and made me feel insecure.</p>\n\n<p>Here are some tips from my department: <a href=\"http://ucfhistory.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/what-to-wear-to-your-first-conference-10-tips-for-grad-students/\">http://ucfhistory.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/what-to-wear-to-your-first-conference-10-tips-for-grad-students/</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 59098,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is <em>profoundly</em> field dependent, and even within what could be considered the same field, may vary based on individuals and the slant of the conference. For example, in conferences I regularly attend:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>At a computational conference, half the attendees were wearing the conference t-shirt. I felt perfectly comfortable presenting in jeans and an untucked button-up shirt.</li>\n<li>At a public health conference, \"someone wearing a navy blazer\" is almost 100% predictive of that person being a clinician. Wearing a sport coat with no tie is \"dressed up\".</li>\n<li>At medical conferences on the other hand, the same attire is \"dressing down\" a bit, and visually separating myself as \"not a clinician\".</li>\n<li>At homeland security conferences, nearly <em>everyone</em> is in a shirt and tie with a blue or black blazer, besides the academics.</li>\n<li>At all of these, the military types are in whatever uniform they're mandated to wear by their service.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I could credibly be giving the same talk at each of these. There's also differences by rank ('Big names' in my field are often dressed <em>considerably</em> down - at one point pink parachute pants) and other aspects like gender (women are, in my experience, more harshly judged for 'missing the mark' in either direction).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 59113,
"author": "Melanie Shebel",
"author_id": 6473,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6473",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Note: I'm female.</p>\n\n<p>The conferences I've gone to weren't overly dressy. I've gone to a few chemistry conferences, a multi-disciplinary conference, and one for writing. I wore black slacks a nice top and I fit in pretty well.</p>\n\n<p>However: I wanted to make a great impression and wore really nice shoes. They weren't crazy shoes, but there was a LOT of walking (and thus a lot of blisters.) Make sure your shoes are comfortable not just for standing in, but for walking.</p>\n\n<p>Next time, I'll still dress nice, but I'll wear much more comfortable shoes.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 173666,
"author": "Ambicion",
"author_id": 6222,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6222",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I googled this topic because I was in a similar situation. Generally speaking, my solution to the problem is:</p>\n<p>Find pictures of previous conferences and see what people are wearing.</p>\n<p>Maybe it is an annual conference or summer school, or maybe you know a similar conference, chances are that someone was walking around with a camera, taking photos for posterity.</p>\n<p>Apart from that, things hugely vary by field. In my field, for example, the old folks show up in dress pants or jeans and with a dress shirt, long or short sleeve. The younger ones have relaxed expectations. Sadly, we don't have Nobel prize winners who don't care about their appearance.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11618",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5614/"
]
|
11,621 | <p>I am looking for different national repositories (US, Canada, Australia, UK, etc.) of funded research projects, similar to what <strong><a href="http://www.cordis.europa.eu/projects/home_en.html">Cordis</a></strong> does in EU. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>I am after any repository that list funded research and some of the projects details, whether it is public, private or partnership...</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11631,
"author": "Ben Norris",
"author_id": 924,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/924",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p><strong>In the US,</strong> the government funded agencies usually publish lists of funded projects. For example, you can search the <a href=\"http://www.nsf.gov\">National Science Foundation</a> database for all of the funded projects relating to <a href=\"http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/simpleSearchResult?queryText=beer&ActiveAwards=true\">\"beer\"</a>. Each of these entries lists the name of the project, the NSF program that funded it, the PI's names and contact information, the amount awarded, the date awarded, and an abstract, among other information.</p>\n\n<p>Here are the databases from other US government funding agencies:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.nea.gov/grants/recent/index.html\">National Endowment for the Arts</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://securegrants.neh.gov/publicquery/main.aspx\">National Endowment for the Humanities</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://yosemite.epa.gov/oarm/igms_egf.nsf/HomePage?ReadForm\">Environmental Protection Agency</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://science.energy.gov/funding-opportunities/award-search/\">Department of Energy</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://report.nih.gov/\">National Institutes of Health</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>There are other agencies probably, but all you need to do is go to their main site and search for \"funded projects\" or \"Search awards\" or \"recent awards\" or something like that.</p>\n\n<p>One agency that may be hard to search would be DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which is the scientific research arm of US military.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11634,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In Australia, one of the main funding sources is <a href=\"http://www.arc.gov.au/ncgp/dp/dp_outcomes.htm\">Discovery Projects</a> from the <a href=\"http://www.arc.gov.au/default.htm\">Australian Research Council</a>. Another are <a href=\"https://www.crc.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx\">Cooperative Research Centres</a> - the website has several links attached to it.</p>\n\n<p>Also, 'block grants' are allocated by the <a href=\"http://www.innovation.gov.au/research/researchblockgrants/Pages/default.aspx\">Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education</a> (yes, that is the department's real name).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11700,
"author": "non-numeric_argument",
"author_id": 8067,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8067",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are a couple of databases about funded research projects in the <strong>Benelux</strong> countries:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.narcis.nl/?Language=en\" rel=\"nofollow\">NARCIS - National Academic Research and Collaborations Information System</a> (<strong>NL</strong>)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.fnr.lu/en/Searchable-Project-Database/Research-Domain\" rel=\"nofollow\">Fonds National de la Recherche</a> (<strong>LU</strong>)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.belspo.be/belspo/research/data_en.stm\" rel=\"nofollow\">Databases INVENT and FEDRA by the Belgian Science Policy</a> (<strong>BE</strong>)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.researchportal.be/en/projects/search.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Flanders Research Information Space</a> (<strong>BE</strong>)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www2.fnrs.be/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique</a> (<strong>BE</strong>, only in French)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In the <strong>German speaking countries</strong>, there are informative databases about funded reseach projects as well:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.base.elfi.info/elfi-2.0/\" rel=\"nofollow\">ELFI database for the German-speaking area</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://p3.snf.ch/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Swiss National Science Foundation</a> (<strong>CH</strong>)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.fwf.ac.at/en/projects/projekt_suche.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">FWF Austrian Science Fund</a> (<strong>AT</strong>)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/OCTOPUS\" rel=\"nofollow\">DFG German Research Foundation</a> (<strong>DE</strong>)</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11719,
"author": "Arun",
"author_id": 8081,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8081",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In India it is <a href=\"http://shodhgangotri.inflibnet.ac.in/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Shodh Gangotri</a>.</p>\n<p>From the website...</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The word “Shodh” originates from Sanskrit and stands for “research and discovery”. “Gangotri” is one of the largest glacier in the Himalayas and source of origination of Ganges, the holiest, longest and largest of rivers in India. The Ganges is the symbol of age-long culture, civilization, ever-aging, ever-flowing, ever-loving and loved by its people.</p>\n<p>... research scholars / research supervisors in universities are requested to deposit electronic version of approved synopsis... The repository... would reveal the trends and directions of research being conducted in Indian universities [and] would avoid duplication of research. ...once the full-text thesis is submitted for a synopsis, a link to the full-text theses would be provided from ShodhGangotri to "ShodhGanga".</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11829,
"author": "Laurent Jégou",
"author_id": 8142,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8142",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In France we have the <a href=\"http://www.agence-nationale-recherche.fr/\">Agence Nationale de la Recherche</a> (ANR, National Agency for Research). The \"régions\", local administrative divisions, have also a capacity to finance research.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11621",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4467/"
]
|
11,625 | <p>I'm working for a university as a <strong>research programmer</strong> (prof staff, exempt) on an external grant ("soft money"), and there is a clear understanding between me and my immediate supervisor/PI, and at least one other PI, that I can use a certain non-trivial amount of my time each week to work on my own projects (the so-called <strong>"20% time"</strong>).</p>
<p>I've tried investigating what the university would officially think of any such endeavour, and I found the IP policy (<a href="http://policies.iu.edu/policies/categories/administration-operations/intellectual-property/intellectual-property.shtml">IU</a>) that seems to suggest that patentable inventions unconditionally belong to the university, whereas general copyrightable work does belong to its authors (unless they perform such work specifically for university use, e.g. course materials).</p>
<p>Apparently, the policy even says that it covers even non-paid individuals, part-time individuals and students (which are not even just "non-paid" for their activities, but are actually required to support the university by paying tuition and various other fees).</p>
<p>Supposedly, it basically applies to everyone who uses <strong>University resources</strong>, however, the term <em>University resources</em> itself is not defined amongst all the other terms that are, in fact, defined very specifically for this exact IP policy directly within the policy.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Does a public university in the US really have such powers to implement a policy like that, and to claim patent rights to inventions which are not performed in the official line of duty and even oftentimes outside of the work clock?</p></li>
<li><p>Have such policies ever been reaffirmed through courts? Especially when applied to non-compensated employees, or the various slave labour?</p></li>
<li><p>What do I do to avoid being covered by such policy?</p>
<ul>
<li>Must I never perform any parts of my own research on any equipment purchased through university, even on grant money?</li>
<li>Cannot use the monitors owned by the university together with my personally-owned laptop?</li>
<li>Cannot use university's internet connection to connect to my externally hosted personal servers, where the use of university's internet connection is merely coincidental to my own research on my own computing resources, and could easily be replaced by an off-the-shelf 30$/mo service from elsewhere without any significant side effects? (I'm just using ssh, basically.)</li>
<li>Cannot use my non-trivial work time that was allowed for my own research by my supervisors to do my own research? Do I have to request to be re-classified from being a full-time employee (1.00) to being a part-time employee (e.g. 0.80) to have my 20% time unencumbered?</li>
<li>Cannot sit in my office space doing my own search?</li>
<li>Cannot sit in a university building whilst doing any such research of my own?</li>
<li>Cannot be anywhere on campus doing any of my own research?</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11627,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Note that a detailed response to your question, as well as any answer tailored to your specific case, will need to be given to you by a lawyer. And, if you think of doing anything that could even remotely be considered borderline or controversial… <strong>just ask a lawyer</strong>. And even if you don't do anything borderline, <strong>better safe than sorry!</strong></p>\n<p>Now, I want to explain some of the background of that answer: I have acquired some experience of my own, though not in the US, on dealing with being employed as a full-time researcher and professor, yet maintaining a certain level of activity outside of my employer. I actually produce intellectual property on my leisure time (both copyrightable materials and patent rights), and have consulted with law professionals on how to effectively keep control of my own IP (as opposed to that which I create for my employer).</p>\n<p>The main conclusion is: <strong>you actually have to be very careful to be able to fend off any potential claim of your employer on the IP created</strong>. Of course, it's a risk of the “if it comes to that” variety. If your university is not interested in pursuing any claim to such IP, you may never have a problem, even if you did not clearly separate your own IP from that created for your employer. But… you never know what may happen in the future (e.g., your current understanding with the dean may not hold in a few years), so you should take maximal precautions.</p>\n<p>In short, you should assume the following:</p>\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Everything you do on company time is owned by the company</strong>. I'm pretty sure that this includes your “20% time”: if it's 20% of the time the company pays you, it may mean that they leave you free to do research in a direction you choose for yourself, but it is still research you performed as their employee.</p>\n<p>You certainly can't expect to be paid 40 hours a week, work 32 hours for your employer and then spend the remaining 8 hours for someone else, can you?! (in this case, the “someone else” is yourself as a freelancer)</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>Don't use resources from your university</strong>. This is also very typical of contracts and, at least the few European countries I know, the legal <em>status quo</em>: use of company resources means the company has rights on your production. This includes <em>every resource</em> you list, even smaller things you may not think of, like email account, FTP/web/ssh hosting, internet connection, …</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>Everything you create while inside the company</strong> is not yours. Walls, internet connection, desktop, electricity… are company resources. While courts in some jurisdictions have recognized that certain limited activities done inside the company, such as reading email during lunch break, may fall within the personal sphere (and not the professional sphere), it is not likely to be the case for any larger activity.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Finally, if you think of doing on your spare time anything that is thematically closed to your day job, take care: it becomes hard to claim that your own activities are not linked to your university position and resources, and do not in any way interfere with it, if you are a computer science researcher by day and patent new sorting algorithms by night :)</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n<p>And, did I mention? Get help from a professional, aka lawyer.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 18639,
"author": "user13578",
"author_id": 13578,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13578",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some people are paid to be innovators. How much they pay you for your billion dollar work can be as low as peanuts. If an employer wants to employ you in such a fashion it should clearly be stated in your employment contract. Some people would refuse such positions or not bother with working hard when away from work and instead spend the time relaxing.\nGenerally if your employer asks you to work on something then that should belong to them. Higher level mangers are employed to innovate in their respective sectors whilst certain conglomerates work in all sectors. It’s the University researchers such as your self that are paid peanuts and expected to hand over all billion dollar inventions.\nIn short, if an employer wants outside work inventions then it should be clearly stated in the contract! Some people are smart enough to create enterprises for themselves!</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11625",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6026/"
]
|
11,626 | <p>I am filling in an application form for a PhD program and I am supposed to answer the following question:</p>
<p><strong>"How do you intend to fund your studies for the entire duration of your stay in ...?"</strong></p>
<p>Actually, I cannot afford any part of the living costs and university fees but I don't know how to mention it in a academic, polite and well-structured fashion.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11628,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I see two possible ways to interpret your question, so I'll give two answers:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>If you currently don't know how you will fund your studies, but you honestly think you will figure it out: just write down your best educated guess (“I will sell shoes by night”)</p></li>\n<li><p>If you think the cost of life is too high and you probably will not manage it: please reconsider your arrangements. The happiness in life that might results from a successful PhD experience requires to have the mind free enough for science, which cannot be achieved if you worry day after day about how to eat. It is a very bad idea to make that gamble.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11632,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Maybe I'm missing something. But if this is a US Ph.D program, this question is really \"Do you want us to fund you\" and the answer is always yes. As JeffE says, you should not consider entering a Ph.D program unless you're being funded. Apart from the financial constraints this puts on you, the funding creates a commitment (by the department or advisor) to look after you. If the funding is from a research project, then you're even more sure that your work will be linked to something fruitful. </p>\n\n<p>While there are many caveats to what I just said (and they're ringing in my head right now), they're not relevant at the time of applying to grad school. </p>\n\n<p>So please always answer \"I expect you to fund me\". </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/03 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11626",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4293/"
]
|
11,633 | <p>It is my understanding that patents can be invalidated if there is prior art to the technique at hand; DJB has a piece that would suggest that this way authors can inadvertently invalidate their own patents, if not being careful with information disclosure.</p>
<p><a href="http://cr.yp.to/patents/us/4200770.html" rel="nofollow">http://cr.yp.to/patents/us/4200770.html</a></p>
<blockquote>
<p>Diffie disclosed the idea of public-key cryptography at a conference
in June 1976. Diffie and Hellman also distributed preprints of their
``New Directions in Cryptography'' paper, which disclosed the
Diffie-Hellman system, at that conference and by mail. For example,
Mike Matyas received a copy in August 1976. The patent was filed in
September 1977.</p>
<p>Under United States case law, a document has been published if it
``has been disseminated or otherwise made available to the extent that
persons interested and ordinarily skilled in the subject matter or
art, exercising reasonable diligence, can locate it.'' A patent is
automatically invalid if the patented invention was published more
than a year before the patent's filing date.</p>
<p>It appears, therefore, that the Diffie-Hellman-Merkle patent was
invalid. In the subsequent court case MIT v. Fortia, another patent
was invalidated for the same reason: the inventor handed out six
copies of a preprint at a conference fourteen months before applying
for the patent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How does this work in the general case? Is it important that in both examples a whole year has passed between the publishing and the patent application?</p>
<p>Is it necessary for a significant amount of time to pass between the publishing of a paper, and the patent application, for the patent to be subsequently declared invalid?</p>
<p>Specifically, if one's university explicitly claims that it has no interest in one's copyrighted work (whether books, articles or software), and no interest in any part of any revenue from such copyrights, but that patent revenue sharing and disclosure to the university of the patentable ideas is mandatory (<a href="http://policies.iu.edu/policies/categories/administration-operations/intellectual-property/intellectual-property.shtml" rel="nofollow">IU</a>), <strong>can one get around of any future claims for patents by simply releasing everything open-source and publishing all pre-prints before the university's patent office can get their hand on any of the research?</strong></p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11641,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, in most cases, dissemination of a patentable invention by academic publication (papers, talks, code) constitutes prior art and will result in a later patent application being rejected. That is why people and institutions who intend to patent their discoveries are very careful about what they publish, and when. (Basically, publish after the patent application is field.)</p>\n\n<p>Regarding your patent evasion scheme, it would probably work in practice, but could lead to severe retaliation from your institution. You said yourself that the policy is to report all patentable inventions. By not doing so, and publishing without first enquiring whether your employer wants to patent the invention, you violate the policy... And, given your question, you would be doing so willingly and in bad faith. This sort of thing could get you fired. And, the could get the papers retracted (look at some of the examples of this on Retraction Watch).</p>\n\n<p>Finally, on piece of advice: if you're so afraid that your employer owns the IP you create, enough to look for strategies to remove from them some of the IP they pay you to create, <strong>you should consider quitting</strong>. It doesn't look like you have a healthy relationship with your employer.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 29141,
"author": "Llaves",
"author_id": 22350,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22350",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In response to your specific questions, yes, it is significant that the disclosure occurred more than a year before the patent was filed. In the U.S., there is a one-year \"bar-date\" after public disclosure of the invention covered by a patent. Most of the rest of the world does not allow any period between disclosure and patenting; once you've disclosed, the invention is no longer patentable in those countries (though it may still be patented in the U.S. for up to a year.) </p>\n\n<p>As noted by F'x, sabotaging your employer's patent claims is a sure way to make a lot of trouble for yourself. </p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/04 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11633",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6026/"
]
|
11,635 | <p>I want to know whether is it normal to publish an article in the journal in which one is associate editor. For example, one of the co-author article in <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927539813000261">this</a> article in <a href="http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-empirical-finance/editorial-board/">this</a> journal. </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11636,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It is not normal, but it <em>can</em> happen. Usually under such circumstances the article is handled by a different editor, and the submitting editor is treated as would any other person submitting to the journal. </p>\n\n<p>Also note that a paper can be submitted to a journal like <em>Physical Review Letters,</em> and them get transferred to another journal where the conflict could be created. (This happened to a colleague.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11638,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my field (Epidemiology) it is <em>quite</em> common to publish in a journal where you are an associate editor. It's a fairly regular thing to see articles with authors who are also on the editorial board appear in an issue of the journal, and no particular fuss is made about it.</p>\n\n<p>If nothing else, the Associate Editors for the <em>American Journal of Epidemiology</em> is both quite large (well over 70 people), and in some cases make up a large chunk of the senior faculty of a given department. With how prevalent collaboration and large co-authorship papers are in the field, not submitting would lock huge swaths of the field out of a particular journal.</p>\n\n<p>AJE also has one of the most robust paper anonymization systems I've encountered for review, which I think makes the threat of any particular conflict of interest fairly small.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11640,
"author": "F'x",
"author_id": 2700,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I do not think the situation you describe necessarily creates a conflict of interest, and thus I believe there is nothing inherently unethical about publishing from time to time in a journal where you are an associate editor.</p>\n\n<p>The question, as Anonymous Mathematician nicely phrased it, is more \"what measures does the journal take in this case?\" At a minimum, it must be a different editor who handles the paper, maybe the editor in chief. And the system must be designed so that the anonymity of the reviews cannot be breached by the author/editor.</p>\n\n<p>If this is enforced, then I don't see any major ethical issue. The one risk I see is that the author/editor might get a slightly more \"deferential\" treatment, but this is also a risk for some other authors, e.g. big names in the field. One case which might become worrying is if an editor were to submit the large majority of his papers to the journal he works for... Even if everything is ethically above board, it may look like collusion, and should probably be avoided.</p>\n\n<p>Now, I want to highlight some reasons why it is desirable that editors are allowed to publish in the journal they work for.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>If they are editor for a major flagship journal in their field, it is not fair to ask them, their students and coworkers to avoid it entirely. It could make a large negative impact on, e.g., graduate students' careers. (Imagine a chemist who could not publish their major work to JACS, or a physicist to PRL.)</p></li>\n<li><p>If they want their journal to succeed, they want to attract the best papers. If they rightfully believe that their own work is good, publishing it in the journal will sustain its quality. I am not an editor, but I do that myself sometimes: publishing in a journal because you think it's a nice venue for the community, and you want to help it grow. I imagine an editor, who wants the journal to succeed, might feel the same.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11642,
"author": "Observer",
"author_id": 8030,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8030",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is entirely normal, with some uncommon exceptions. For instance, check out how many publications <a href=\"http://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=v1MTZmIAAAAJ&hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow\">Prof. Tony Cai</a> (former Editor in Chief) has in The Annals of Statistics.</p>\n\n<p>In this case, the papers have to go through the usual peer review process, handled by another editor/AE.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11644,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is nothing wrong with an editor publishing in the journal with which they are asociated. Put it differently, why should ones right to try to publish somewhere be limited?</p>\n\n<p>All editors, at least should, be aware that publishing this way has some possible repercussuins. If an editor starts pouring out works in \"their\" journal, it will soon reflect negatively on both the editor and the editor. Hence, such behaviour is \"self-regulating\" in the longer term. </p>\n\n<p>It is of course possible that a research field is very narrow and so the journal may be the only major outlet for papers in the field. In such a case there may be no escape but I would then also argue that the science community concerned may know each other quite well, peer presure should then be a major factor keeping things on course.</p>\n\n<p>I am personally Editor-in-Chief (EiC; one of two, with 12 associate editors) for a journal. My fellow EiC has published one paper, I have not (there are enough journalsin my field so that it does not affect me too much). We make sure, in fact our electronic submission system ensures, any editor submitting a paper cannot see or affect it in the system. We also take care of papers from each others departments to avoid any suspicion.</p>\n\n<p>So, the \"problem\" is quite common and unavoidable to some extent. It is only a problem if it is abused but that will likely soon back-fire on both the journal and the editor.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/04 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11635",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8024/"
]
|
11,637 | <p>I have a question regarding how schools decide on who to give scholarship to.</p>
<p>Is it appropriate for me to ask my graduate school department on their guidelines in giving out scholarships?</p>
<p>I feel like I have been cheated from scholarship because I have found out people who have worse undergrad GPA/GRE got scholarship and I didn't. I am an architecture major and will study in USC this coming Fall. I submitted my application 2 weeks before the deadline, but they emailed me that I was missing my community college transcript so they couldn't forward to the architecture department they finally forwarded my application early March. I responded to their email the next day with the transcript, but they just took their time to file it. Could that be a factor? If scholarships are given out based on performance then I really think I deserve it after, again, knowing that people who performed worse than me in undergrad received it.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11639,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your best bet would be to make contact with the scholarship people and ask (nicely) for feedback as to why you did not get a scholarship. This way, you'll know for certain as to why they did not award you a scholarship. </p>\n\n<p>Often, scholarships are not just based on GPA/GRE scores or any other academic performance, there are often a myriad of other criteria they use to assess an applicant's scholarship suitability. Did you have to fill out a form with some details or supply a personal statement?</p>\n\n<p>How do you know that they </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>just took their time to file it.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If they did (which I doubt), then yes, it could be a factor, but I doubt a malicious one considering the amount of information that they would have to file, collate from the many applicants. More likely, they filed your additional transcripts as soon as they received it (or very soon after).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11643,
"author": "Scooter",
"author_id": 8032,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8032",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It sounds like you don't really understand how grad school funding works.</p>\n\n<p>Generally, GPA and GRE are not even close to the only things that are considered for scholarships. A lot of people can explain away reasons for bad grades, perhaps there was some reason they had lower grades like illness. They might have amazing letters of recommendation. They may have done research, which in my opinion comes way above GRE/GPA in the grad schools eyes. They may have some kind of interesting background, minority or first generation student or something. They may come from a much better school than you, which means the GPA holds a lot more meaning than yours. Their statement of purpose may have been right on target with what the school was looking for.</p>\n\n<p>Additionally, seeing as your application was not complete at the time, probably did not hurt you that much, but it definitely did not help.</p>\n\n<p>If you are going to contact them, do it in a really professional way. DON'T mention that someone with a lower GRE/GPA got a scholarship when you didn't. They'll just tell you they factor a lot of things into it.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/04 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11637",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8026/"
]
|
11,645 | <p>I am a postdoc in Physics areas and trying to get myself ready for applying for tenure track positions. However, the US academic salary system seems still mysterious to me.
In several salary surveys, a reasonably close figure for starting salaries of starting assistant professor positions emerge as $75-80K per year. The point is that, as far as I understand it, the salary is based on the calender year basis. However, the contracts for the assistant professors are usually academic year basis (except that probably in the first couple of years they may get this full salary in their start up package).
This means that practically they get $55-60K for 8-9 months. The rest of the salary, called the summer salary, needs to be obtained via applying to the respective funding agencies.</p>
<p>However, funding is obviously not guaranteed every year. So it is obviously out of question that people should be based on the full year salary amounts shown above. Truthfully, their salaries are $55-60k per calender year and if they are able to get some funding, they can get some bonus over the summer.</p>
<p>Now, the first question is: isn't it way too low of a starting salary for a PhD in STEM areas?! Especially, people are normally already in their mid 30s when they get a tenure track position so they usually have a family to support. Sure, there are many people survive with much lower salaries and also the stereotypical argument that you don't enter academia if you want to earn money is also around. But I am talking about skills, experience and qualification. Anyway, it just seems too low salary to me and I would really want to know if there is something crucial I am missing here.</p>
<p>Secondly, what do faculty members do if they don't get the summer salaries, what other options are there for them to compensate the money.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11648,
"author": "debray",
"author_id": 7974,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7974",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the US, salaries for tenure-track positions are usually for the academic year; one might get the summer salary thrown in as part of the startup package for the first year or two. So your academic-year (9-month) salary of $70K would translate to a full-year salary of $70*12/9 = around $93K. The expectation would be that you would use those first two years to establish a research program, write grant proposals, etc., so as to be able to fend for yourself after that.</p>\n\n<p>While it's true that grants are getting harder to get, remember that single-investigator grants are not your only option: you can also participate in larger multi-PI and collaborative proposals. For example, you may be able to put together a collaborative proposal with your dissertation advisor while at the same time striking out on your own -- his greater seniority and track record may make it easier to land such a grant.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, I would counsel against spending a lot of time teaching during the summer --- IMHO you'd be better off spending the time moving your research forward (remember why your initial summer salary was included in your startup package). One reason (not the only one) is that having a solid record of peer-reviewed external funding greatly strengthens your case when you go up for tenure.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11650,
"author": "Suresh",
"author_id": 346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A couple of points on both the question, and comments by the OP above. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>As others have indicated, \"too low\" is sadly not a relevant comment where salaries are concerned. Faculty salaries, like any other salaries, are driven by the marketplace. In a field like CS, where there are many good industrial options, starting salaries might be a tad higher, and in the humanities (as others have indicated), even 55-60k would be considered higher than average. This has nothing to do with the time it takes you to get a tenure-track job, the amount of effort you put in, and so on. It's just about supply and demand. </p></li>\n<li><p>In most universities, your 9 month salary can be spread out over 12. This doesn't change the amount you get, but it helps monthly income management: you get the same amount each month of the year and can calculate your expenses accordingly.</p></li>\n<li><p>On the issue of being unemployed for 1 month a year: this is true with the NSF, but not necessarily with other funding agencies. The NSF will not fund you for 3 summer months, but you might (for example) get 2 months of support from multiple grants with the NSF, and potentially (given your area) some money from NASA, or ONR, or...</p></li>\n<li><p>As Yury mentioned, consulting is another possibility. Again, I wouldn't worry about this right now if you're starting, but theoretical physicists are often hired full-time by financial firms, and so I imagine consulting agreements might be possible with them as well. </p></li>\n<li><p>on the issue of an \"honest conversation\", I think you're having one right now. Also, why not ask your advisor/postdoc mentor ? I've explained this to my students a few times already, and not just the \"average salaries\", but in particular how my salary works (my actual salary is a matter of public record in any case). </p></li>\n<li><p>in my area (CS), it is common for new faculty to get summer support baked into their startup package (say 2 months for 2 years). this gives you time to get a research program rolling and get some grant money. Find out what's common in your area, and what junior faculty typically do to get summer support. </p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 105003,
"author": "Kendra",
"author_id": 88510,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/88510",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>All quoted academic salaries are for the \"academic year\" i.e. 9 months, unless otherwise specifically stated. Sp your 70k would be for 9 months (perhaps paid over 12 months), but you would be free to do any other work (consulting, paid summer grant research, etc) over summer with no work expectations for the university. So why is it called a 9 month salary - because you do not have to show up over summer -vacation in Tahiti, or work in 711 for extra income, or consult for a million dollars if you like. My first AP job paid 70k, 9 months (paid over 12 months), and I taught 2 extra classes over summer for which I got paid 5K apiece.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/04 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11645",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
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|
11,649 | <p>I am a PhD student, and have just finished the last part of my course requirement. My last assignment is to review several other student's term projects from a seminar course.</p>
<p>One of the projects I have been asked to review is rife with plagiarism. More than 75% of the paper is plagiarized, from over two dozen different sources, including academic papers, stackoverflow.com, and wikipedia. I have reported all of this to my professor, along with a detailed summary of which parts are taken from where.</p>
<p>However, some of the paper appears to be plagiarized from the student's <em>own</em> earlier assignments, in a different course. It's fairly obvious that this is the case because they first plagiarized the assignment description to summarize the problem they wanted to study, and then provide an answer to said problem, including answering discussion questions that are on the assignment, but somewhat unrelated to their main topic.</p>
<p>I know the professor who taught the earlier course well. Should I contact him directly? Should I suggest to my current instructor that the earlier professor be notified as well? Which course of action is more appropriate?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11652,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If you've spotted plagiarism, you have a duty to report it to a responsible authority. Just because the student is a fellow graduate student in your department does not absolve you of the duty. However, the politics of the situation can make things much more complicated, because it may lead to intra-departmental conflict, which is most certainly <em>not</em> a good thing.</p>\n\n<p>I would believe the correct initial approach is to notify the professor of the current course of the current and past plagiarism. If you feel that no appropriate action has been taken, then you can consider notifying the instructor of the past course; however, the actions that can probably be taken are somewhat more limited than for a class where the final grades have not yet been assigned or have only recently posted.</p>\n\n<p>How far you want to pursue this matter, on the other hand, depends on how serious you believe the transgression is. If the plagiarism is serious enough that it calls into doubt the student's ability to be an independent researcher, then further escalation—perhaps (in order of approach) to the graduate \"officer\" for the department, the chair of the department, or the dean for graduate students—may be necessary, if your initial efforts don't lead anywhere. This is, admittedly, a rather severe course of action, and one which may cause problems for you later down the road. So I would also recommend talking to your advisor as well, and solicit feedback as to what are the consequences of pursuing this. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11653,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is very serious, just noting the extent of plagiarism in your question:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>One of the projects I have been asked to review is rife with plagiarism. More than 75% of the paper is plagiarized, from over two dozen different sources, including academic papers, stackoverflow.com, and wikipedia.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>and from the student's own work. To my way of thinking, this is wilful and blatant plagiarism, possibly due to laziness, and maybe desperation.</p>\n\n<p>Just to add to what aeismail suggested, I would seek the faculty/university's rules and procedures for dealing with plagiarism and follow them to the letter - there must be a documented protocol to follow in situations such as this.</p>\n\n<p>It may get awkward within the department, but putting the seriousness of plagiarism aside, they have put you in an uncomfortable position, something I am sure you don't need at this stage of your studies. Also, remember that they chose to plagiarise (at 75%, it is very likely a choice), so they have, in a way, chosen to bear the brunt of the consequences.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 12091,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The other answers make it sound like it is <em>your</em> bounden duty to hound the plagiarist, yea, even unto the ends of the earth. My feeling is different in this case.</p>\n\n<p>As I understand your question, the project was assigned for a course, and you are assisting the instructor of that course (call him or her Prof. Smith) by reading and evaluating the papers, in a role similar to that of a teaching assistant. You should certainly report your findings to Prof. Smith, and be willing to answer any further questions they may have, but <strong>your responsibility ends there</strong>. It is up to Smith to decide how to handle the matter and whether to pursue further sanctions, consistent with the institution's policies.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding the student's self-plagiarism of past assignments (say, from Prof. Jones's course), again, report your findings to Smith. If appropriate, Smith can discuss it with Jones directly. It's not clear that the student has committed misconduct with respect to Jones's course, only Smith's.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/05 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11649",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1125/"
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|
11,654 | <p>I know it is slightly controversial, but I am supervising a student who started with the right attitude, but is now less and less engaged with the research. We are at a point where there's no end in sight, and the student still wants to finish within unmanageable time limits.</p>
<p>The <em>context</em> is peculiar (but I would like to keep it detached from the generality of the question): he's a part-time student, he's paying his own fees (as opposed to a PhD funded by a project), and he's after the PhD "title" more than the research that he has to put in for the title itself.</p>
<p>All these factors make it more difficult to dissuade him from his PhD choice: the endless excuses of putting more work when there will be time (he's a part time student); and the fact that I am proactively chasing him to arrange meetings are all things that are taking their toll.</p>
<p>My (general) question is therefore: how do I dissuade a PhD student from wasting his time and money, when it's clear that she is not PhD-material? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11657,
"author": "Nicholas",
"author_id": 1424,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1424",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Do you want to dissuade the student from continuing because</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>You think the student is not capable because of a lack of ability,</li>\n<li>You think the student might be capable, but just isn't engaging in the work,</li>\n<li>You don't see the student is worth investing your time in,</li>\n<li>You think the student is wasting his/her money?</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>If (1), then a frank discussion might be the best way. I have seen other PhD supervisors directly let their PhD students know that they think a research career is not for them. </p>\n\n<p>If (2), you ought to move from dissuasion to a frank discussion in which you try and figure out the reason for the downturn in engagement. Is all well at home? Is it just the usual mid (?) thesis malaise? Has the student lost the big picture and therefore the drive to do the research? Why did the student start the research in the first place? Has the situation changed - e.g. has the life goals been redefined/changed?</p>\n\n<p>If (3) and/or (4), if the student is paying for themselves, then it's their money they are potentially wasting so I wouldn't concern yourself on how other people spend their money. However, the money is presumably paying your salary in part so your obligations to the student remain in that regard. In return however, you can set reasonable expectations on your student. If you make it clear that you expect your student to achieve reasonable goal A by reasonable deadline Z, and the student doesn't, then that opens up another opportunity for a frank discussion along the lines of the need for effective prioritisation of research work and for-money work.</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: To bring this answer into line with the edited question, I would set out an agreed plan of work - and behaviour (esp. showing up to meetings) - with deadlines for the next 2/6/12 months. <strong>You might want to work with your Head of Department/School on this to ensure that your requirements are reasonable.</strong> It appears that you have already said to the student that in your opinion the student isn't PhD material. In setting out your agreed workplan, you are giving - formally - the opportunity for the student to show that he or she is capable of working to an agreed standard. If, as you say, the student isn't capable, then the student will fail and you can reasonably excuse yourself as his PhD supervisor. </p>\n\n<p>I am suggesting this cautious approach, as I am sure your Faculty will want to know why things went this way, and that you offered the best opportunity for your student (or fee-paying client) to succeed, before you ceased to be his supervisor.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 11667,
"author": "anon",
"author_id": 8048,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8048",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is a lot of context missing from this question, so I'll provide some leading questions.</p>\n\n<p>First, is the student working independently, or are you/ your group counting on their results for some other project? If it's the latter, then you should have a conversation setting out clear and realistic time frames for the work that needs to be done.</p>\n\n<p>If the student is basically operating independently, then how you respond depends on what their goals are. Maybe the student just wants a Ph. D for their own personal satisfaction, and isn't worried about how long it takes. Maybe they want an academic job afterwards, in which case your concerns are valid. You should first aim to understand the student's goals, and then you can suggest whether the way things are going are reasonable to achieve those goals. </p>\n\n<p>If the student didn't have their own funding, there is the additional question of whether it is worth spending <em>your</em> resources to support them, but this doesn't apply here - your student is an adult and can decide if the costs in time and money are worth it for themselves.</p>\n\n<p>Summary: ask your student what <em>they</em> want, and then advise accordingly.</p>\n"
}
]
| 2013/08/05 | [
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11654",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1520/"
]
|
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