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23,485 |
<p>Since I graduated as an undergrad three years ago, I've been planning to go back into graduate school, so I saved all my assignments and heavily kept up on studying and research. My transcript looks good and I've had a lot of time to focus on GREs. </p>
<p>The most uncertain and anxious part is getting letter of recommendations from my former professors. Due to my nature, I haven't maintained contact with the three professors I have in mind, especially given the job I have. I'm confident that they'll remember me if I send them a quick e-mail, but I'm hesitant about the timing. It seems a bit awkward to re-establish contact out of nowhere without letting them know my intention, but at the same time, I feel it's a bit too early to let them know I would like to start looking into graduate school. </p>
<p>I was thinking of sending them e-mails stating my intention to apply to graduate schools, be able to provide documents/statements so they have something to remember and write about me, and ask if they were interested on writing the recommendation. If so, I would follow up and provide them the application details several months ahead. </p>
<p>Is this better than asking them out of the blue when graduate application crunch time starts? </p>
<p>Also, for professors and those who wrote letter of recommendations, what are your experiences of writing recommendations for former students reaching back 3 - 4 years later? </p>
<p>Edit: Update on this below</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23633,
"author": "user30295",
"author_id": 15478,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15478",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>My recommendation is similar to those posted in comments. I worked for several years before applying to graduate school and did not stay in touch with my professors during that time. Approximately 4 months before I applied to graduate school, I sent each professor a brief (1 paragraph) email explaining my graduate education plans and career interests, and asking if they would be willing to write letters of recommendation, which would be due in November. I also indicated that if they were willing, I would send them my CV and a summary sheet of my college activities for their reference. I contacted them via email, as I lived in a different state than the college, and face-to-face meetings were impractical.</p>\n\n<p>When they agreed to write the letters I sent them:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>A summary sheet listing each program I was applying to. For each program I listed the address and contact person (so the letter could be properly addressed), 1 line about why the program interested me, the names of faculty I was interested in, the application deadline, and specific application letter forms or links to online applications, if relevant. </li>\n<li>My CV</li>\n<li>A summary sheet highlighting specific grades in major-related courses; research projects and activities I engaged in during college; a 1 paragraph narrative explaining what I had done since graduating and why I was interested in pursuing another degree; and a list of courses I took with that particular professor/letter writer, along with the grade for the course and any special projects completed in those courses. Try to keep this to 1 page.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Although this sounds like a lot of information, work to keep it as brief as possible, while ensuring the professor has the information they need to write a strong letter.</p>\n\n<p>You may choose to time this differently, but the four month window ensured that I had committed to applying and gave me time to identify alternative writers if they had declined. I'm not sure it would be useful to ask your professors a year in advance, as 1) your plans may change, and 2) they may not recall a commitment they make that far in advance. That said, I would make initial contact in the summer before you apply; if you wait until the school year kicks into full gear, your email might get lost in the shuffle. When I was applying I was advised by multiple people to provide all materials to my letter-writers a minimum of 2 months prior to the deadline. Many schools require letters to be written on specific forms, have surveys your letter writers are asked to complete, or even ask the letters be submitted online; it's unlikely the most recent application will be available more than a few months prior to the application deadline.</p>\n\n<p>A few final notes: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Be sure to ask if they feel they can write you a <em>strong</em> letter, not just a letter of recommendation. Most faculty will be honest about this. </li>\n<li>Send your letter writers an email two weeks prior to the application deadline to thank them and remind them of the approaching deadline. Many online applications will indicate when your letters of recommendation have been uploaded. </li>\n<li>Be sure to thank them, both when they agree to write the letter and when the letter is submitted. Consider writing and mailing a formal thank you note, once the application is submitted. Also, contact them once you're accepted and have decided on a school; they like to know how it's worked out!</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 65057,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>So it's been 4+ years since I graduated from undergrad and more than a year since I asked this. I should write an update since this one got a lot of visibility. To keep it short, I got accepted into graduate schools that required recommendations. </p>\n\n<p>My earliest application deadline was at the end of December, so I sent out e-mails to my past professors in August and September. One declined but two responded enthusiastically. Most applications requiring 3 recommendations, I had my boss's boss in my workplace write one for me as well. He could at least speak for my character, performance, and professionalism. </p>\n\n<p>I sent these writers my CV, unofficial transcripts, statement of purpose, and list of graduate schools that needed these recommendations. In that list, I included each school's application deadline, which specific program I was shooting for, and a short note why I chose each of them.</p>\n\n<p>The tone of the e-mail was akin to coming with \"hat in hand\", being honest with the fact they probably do not remember me, and offering to send the mentioned documents for them to decide if they would write a positive letter. I didn't outright ask them if they could write a recommendation, but if they would simply consider it given more information. </p>\n\n<p>I've read so much horror stories about writers not responding or sending their recommendations on time, but I experienced none of it. These writers were awesome and I'm extremely grateful for them. Every time I got an acknowledgement that a recommendation was received, I would send an e-mail out thanking them and attached an updated list of schools still needing recommendations. </p>\n\n<p>Thanks for all the help and comments in this thread as well. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 126078,
"author": "user105309",
"author_id": 105309,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/105309",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The above advice helped me so much. I needed at least 2 recommendations from professors who could attest to my quantitative skills. I reached out to two professors by email, asking for their office hours. Even though both showed some reluctance (one was on sabbatical and said that he could only write about how I did in his class and the other had some doubts and advised that I take additional courses), they ultimately wrote the letters. I asked them about a month before the earliest deadline but you should ask as early as possible (preferably over two months early because professors are busy). Definitely try to ask them in person and come prepared with anything that could help them write the letter (resume, transcripts, statement of purpose, info about each graduate program and their deadlines, and a few sentences about why you want to apply to each program). </p>\n\n<p>When I first emailed them, I didn't get a response back saying that they were going to write the letter...so I decided that I won't be able to apply and stopped studying for the GRE. A month went by and then I received notifications that they both submitted a letter to the program with the earliest deadline! I then had only a week to cram for the GRE and applied two weeks late to my first choice. But despite all of this, I was accepted to my first choice.</p>\n\n<p>What I learned is that even though I was afraid of asking, I should have emailed them again to confirm whether they would write the letter or not. I just assumed that no response meant they weren't going to write it. Also, I almost did not apply to my first choice because I knew my application would not be completed by their deadline. One of my transcripts, one of the recommendations, and my GRE scores were submitted late. However, if you believe you are a strong candidate (high GPA/GRE scores, excellent statement of purpose that clearly shows that your goals and interests align with the program, etc.) and it's a program that you are really interested in, the admissions office might be understanding and still consider your application even if it was completed late. Most of my application was submitted by their deadline, so if you are missing a few things, just try to get them submitted as soon as you can but no later than a week or two.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23485",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
23,487 |
<p>Many e-journals search tools contain much metadata in their database. For example, they have the "location" entry required for some citation formats, which at least shows the location of the journal, but the might also store the original authors' university name.</p>
<p>Is there any tool that can allow researchers to either (a) search a term and see a map of where the articles are coming from or (in some similar form or other) (b) see a world map showing where research in a particular area is geographically concentrated?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23520,
"author": "nivag",
"author_id": 14115,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14115",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The closest I've seen to this is for Elsevier journals most (all?) have a journal insights page which among other useful information such as impact factor and review speed has the geographic location (country) of primary authors of all their articles. For example here is the page for <a href=\"http://journalinsights.elsevier.com/journals/0263-2241\" rel=\"nofollow\">Measurement</a>. Its only on the country level and doesn't link author and location but it's a start.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 45120,
"author": "Laurent Jégou",
"author_id": 8142,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8142",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>this is an active aera of research in Geography of Science. We've been working with sociologists of science and bibliometricians to assemble a geocoded database of scientific publications, based on the Web of Science database.</p>\n\n<p>We've not (yet) produced a publicly available interactive search tool like the one you describe, but it's a possibility. Instead, we have published several papers and an interactive tool to geovisualize the collaborations between co-authors of papers : <a href=\"http://www.coscimo.net/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.coscimo.net/</a> (in french)</p>\n\n<p>If you're interested in this question, i can provide a bibliography.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>A conference paper :\n<a href=\"http://sticonference.org/Proceedings/vol1/Grossetti_Geographical_348.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://sticonference.org/Proceedings/vol1/Grossetti_Geographical_348.pdf</a></p></li>\n<li><p>A research paper :\n<a href=\"http://usj.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/11/20/0042098013506047.full.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://usj.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/11/20/0042098013506047.full.pdf</a></p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 45444,
"author": "Laurent Jégou",
"author_id": 8142,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8142",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I just found an interesting paper :</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.2793\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.2793</a></p>\n\n<p>Towards a Frontier of Spatial Scientometric Studies\nby Song Gao</p>\n\n<p>In this paper, the author cites several visualization tools :</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://linkeddata.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://linkeddata.org/</a></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://spatial.linkedscience.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://spatial.linkedscience.org/</a></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://semantic-web-journal.com/SWJPortal/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://semantic-web-journal.com/SWJPortal/</a></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://stko-work.geog.ucsb.edu:8080/map/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://stko-work.geog.ucsb.edu:8080/map/</a></p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23487",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/600/"
] |
23,496 |
<p>I recently read a paper, which posed some interesting questions in a section named further research. </p>
<p>They concluded the section by writing, "we leave all these questions for our future research". </p>
<p>I am really interested in one of the questions, is it considered inappropriate to write a paper handling one of those questions? The pronoun "our" indicates that the author wish to dig in to this question himself. However the paper was published in 2012, and by browsing the authors personal webpage I get no sign of a paper like that in progress.</p>
<p>In case I wish to write a paper on that particular topic, should I notify the author who posed the question? (Say, by asking, is question X still open?) </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23499,
"author": "ScieGrad",
"author_id": 17539,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17539",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Getting in touch with those authors might help you get to your answers quicker. They might have worked their questions without publishing. Estimated reason could be long term research is required to answer them. However, I am not aware of any rules that prevents you from addressing those questions (of your current interest) as long as the paper is published.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23501,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just because an author puts forth a question doesn't mean that she or he owns that area of science. You are free to pursue any question that was posed in or inspired by an article. Even if the authors are actively pursuing the question, your research on the question will likely take a different form. It is unlikely that you will have exactly the same methodology, so the results will be different. And, even if the studies are exactly the same, the contribution you are making is important -- i.e., replication is essential to the advancement of science. </p>\n\n<p>So, if you are inspired to pursue a given research question, full speed ahead!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23503,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The <em>reason</em> I put questions into my papers is to try to get other people to work on them. </p>\n\n<p>Once someone publishes a question, or even mentions it in a talk, it's fair game for other people to work on it. This has a flip side for authors: it's bad practice to publish questions that you could already address with the methods of the paper, with a modest amount of additional work. </p>\n\n<p>It's not a bad idea, if you are going to work on a question that was published a long time in the past, to ask the authors if it is still open. But, unless you are trying to collaborate with them, you should write the request in a fairly generic way. Don't tell them your ideas, or ask them if they have ideas, since that is how you would start a collaboration. Just ask whether they know of any progress since the paper was published.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23543,
"author": "Ellen Spertus",
"author_id": 269,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/269",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Go for it! As Brian P pointed out, nobody owns a question in science, and, as you observe, not everyone pursues the future research proposed in their papers. I usually include future research ideas in my papers, and I advise my students to also, but I can't think of a time the research has actually gotten done. I see it as a way of putting one's name on an idea without actually implementing it. (FWIW, my area is computer science.)</p>\n\n<p>As to whether to contact the authors, that's optional. If it's a narrow problem with a straightforward solution, you might want to contact them to make sure you're not duplicating work that they've already started and are likely to complete before you can. You can also use it as a networking opportunity. Assuming you're not in a highly competitive field, I see no harm in writing that you were inspired by their paper to do the work they proposed and (optionally) would like to know if they are interested in collaborating. If you're a student or post-doc, collaborating with someone at another institution might help your career even more than being a sole author. </p>\n\n<p>Your only responsibility is to cite the authors' paper(s) if you make use of their idea. Citations are the authors' reward. Send them a copy of your paper and a nice note (email). It will make them feel good, increases the chances of their citing your paper, and is good networking.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23496",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17261/"
] |
23,508 |
<p>When I cite papers online, especially in Wikipedia pages, it is very convenient to use their DOI. However, some papers which I would like to cite (like <a href="http://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/4892932" rel="noreferrer">this</a> and <a href="http://www.combinatorics.org/ojs/index.php/eljc/article/view/v15i1r11" rel="noreferrer">that</a>) have no DOI. Or at least, I haven't been able to find their DOI in the <a href="http://www.crossref.org/guestquery" rel="noreferrer">crossref search form</a>.</p>
<p>Why isn't a DOI assigned to all papers? Is there something I can do to change this?</p>
<p>EDIT: I now found out that in ResearchGate, I can upload my paper and it automatically receives a DOI. So practically, my problem is solved.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23511,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A DOI is registered by a so-called <em>Registration Agency</em> (see FAQ 1 and 2 at <a href=\"http://www.doi.org/faq.html\">DOI</a>). Since there is a cost associated with the service, it may not be feasible for all to add such identifiers. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23512,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A process exists for obtaining DOI's, including the submission of meta-data and fees. Thus, it is time and cost prohibitive for some authors / publishers to obtain DOI's for their published works. </p>\n\n<p>You can find information about DOI's here: <a href=\"http://www.doi.org/faq.html\">http://www.doi.org/faq.html</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 28542,
"author": "Joe",
"author_id": 21890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21890",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>DOIs are assigned by CrossRef on behalf of members. CrossRef is an association of scholarly publishers, so the members are therefore publishers rather than authors. </p>\n\n<p>DOIs were introduce because of \"link-rot\": citing a paper by URL and within 6 months the URL doesn't work. When a publisher joins CrossRef they make a commitment to keep the DOI link metadata updated, so the DOI always points to the paper if, for example, the publisher is bought out and all the URLs change. This agreement is an important part of the DOI system and explains why publishers are members rather than authors.</p>\n\n<p>Assigning a DOI is normally done during the process of publication, and will normally be done automatically. That's not to say that DOIs can't be assigned after publication: DOI <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1672.0051\">10.1098/rstl.1672.0051</a> is for a paper published in 1672. Publishers generally assign DOIs to new content but not to back files because new content is more likely to be cited. </p>\n\n<p>It's not free to register a DOI, off the top of my head, around a dollar per DOI. It's normal (and cheaper) for publishers to deposit back-files, i.e. for publications older than 2 years (again, off the top of my head).</p>\n\n<p>So, if you want to get a DOI assigned you can go to the publisher and request that they register a CrossRef DOI.</p>\n\n<p>STM (Science Technology and Medicine) is a very fast-moving field with lots of papers published and cited. Humanities publishing tends to move at a different pace and tends to have different priorities. Therefore you may find STM publishers more likely to assign (and to need to assign) DOIs than in other fields.</p>\n\n<p>The alternative is that you get a DOI from another organisation, for example <a href=\"http://figshare.com/\">FigShare</a>. There are examples of people registering FigShare DOIs for their publications. </p>\n\n<p>CrossRef was created to solve the problems of assigning persistent identifiers (DOIs) and linking between papers (one DOI cites another DOI). CrossRef also has lots of other infrastructure, such as bibliographic metadata, FundRef, CrossMark, metadata API etc so it's the best place to register scholarly publications. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Disclaimer: I work for CrossRef</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23508",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/787/"
] |
23,509 |
<p>I notice that in the physics field, there are sometimes co-first authors, both names being followed by a footnote saying "These two authors contribute equally."</p>
<p>Even though explicitly labeled as so, one name still comes before the other. Also, as far as I know, the one believed to contribute a little bit more goes first. Hence, these are actually not real co-first authors.</p>
<p>Imagine in some journal with an author-title header on every page. The name of FirstAuthorB, the co-first author who comes after FirstAuthorA, will not be shown, as in</p>
<blockquote>
<p>FirstAuthorA et al.: Paper Title</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So is there some other generally accepted ways to truly display two first authors as completely equal?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23511,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A DOI is registered by a so-called <em>Registration Agency</em> (see FAQ 1 and 2 at <a href=\"http://www.doi.org/faq.html\">DOI</a>). Since there is a cost associated with the service, it may not be feasible for all to add such identifiers. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23512,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A process exists for obtaining DOI's, including the submission of meta-data and fees. Thus, it is time and cost prohibitive for some authors / publishers to obtain DOI's for their published works. </p>\n\n<p>You can find information about DOI's here: <a href=\"http://www.doi.org/faq.html\">http://www.doi.org/faq.html</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 28542,
"author": "Joe",
"author_id": 21890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21890",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>DOIs are assigned by CrossRef on behalf of members. CrossRef is an association of scholarly publishers, so the members are therefore publishers rather than authors. </p>\n\n<p>DOIs were introduce because of \"link-rot\": citing a paper by URL and within 6 months the URL doesn't work. When a publisher joins CrossRef they make a commitment to keep the DOI link metadata updated, so the DOI always points to the paper if, for example, the publisher is bought out and all the URLs change. This agreement is an important part of the DOI system and explains why publishers are members rather than authors.</p>\n\n<p>Assigning a DOI is normally done during the process of publication, and will normally be done automatically. That's not to say that DOIs can't be assigned after publication: DOI <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstl.1672.0051\">10.1098/rstl.1672.0051</a> is for a paper published in 1672. Publishers generally assign DOIs to new content but not to back files because new content is more likely to be cited. </p>\n\n<p>It's not free to register a DOI, off the top of my head, around a dollar per DOI. It's normal (and cheaper) for publishers to deposit back-files, i.e. for publications older than 2 years (again, off the top of my head).</p>\n\n<p>So, if you want to get a DOI assigned you can go to the publisher and request that they register a CrossRef DOI.</p>\n\n<p>STM (Science Technology and Medicine) is a very fast-moving field with lots of papers published and cited. Humanities publishing tends to move at a different pace and tends to have different priorities. Therefore you may find STM publishers more likely to assign (and to need to assign) DOIs than in other fields.</p>\n\n<p>The alternative is that you get a DOI from another organisation, for example <a href=\"http://figshare.com/\">FigShare</a>. There are examples of people registering FigShare DOIs for their publications. </p>\n\n<p>CrossRef was created to solve the problems of assigning persistent identifiers (DOIs) and linking between papers (one DOI cites another DOI). CrossRef also has lots of other infrastructure, such as bibliographic metadata, FundRef, CrossMark, metadata API etc so it's the best place to register scholarly publications. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Disclaimer: I work for CrossRef</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23509",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8079/"
] |
23,516 |
<p>I took a class with a professor and really liked his teaching. Since then, we've had several conversations and I've gone to him for advice once. While I don't work with him and I don't know if he'd necessarily consider me a friend, I do feel like we've had a number of positive interactions.</p>
<p>He's going on sabbatical within the next few months, and I'm (crossed fingers) on track to graduate this next May, which means that there's a fairly high probability that I will be gone before he returns.</p>
<p>It feels premature to be saying goodbye to him now, around a year before I'm (possibly) leaving. If I graduate on time and he isn't back, do I just shoot him an e-mail which seems a little impersonal? Leave a handwritten note in his mailbox? Or is that really weird? </p>
<p>Is there a standard way of saying goodbye when I know there's a decent chance that I won't get to do it in-person a year from now? Or is it just normal that professors don't expect/aren't surprised when students they know are gone when they come back?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23523,
"author": "BSteinhurst",
"author_id": 7561,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7561",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>When a professor goes on sabbatical for a year they know full well that students will graduate in the meantime. They have seen this happen from both sides (they were students once and their professors took sabbaticals as well.) There is no standard way to say good-bye. A note, either electronic or physical, delivered before you leave is appropriate. So is asking the professor in question if they will be attending any of the graduation/end of year ceremonies that you will be having. Or you can simply say good-bye the last time you are going to see them before they leave since it may be the last time you see them. </p>\n\n<p>General advice for keeping it from being \"really weird\" is to keep whatever you do short. Rambling will make it get uncomfortable for both of you. You have three basic things you might want to say: thank you, good-bye, best wishes for your sabbatical. You don't need a lot of words to get through those ideas. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23562,
"author": "Ari Trachtenberg",
"author_id": 15885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15885",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Don't say goodbye until you graduate! Send a short note when you're done thanking the professor for the positive interactions ... that's usually more than enough.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23516",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4318/"
] |
23,521 |
<p>During the process of writing my PhD thesis, I was close to falling out with my adviser, the advice I received from other staff at the lab (including the director) was unhelpful at best.
I have since made up with my adviser and have successfully defended the thesis.
I now have to publish my thesis.</p>
<p>The department says that one <em>can</em> include acknowledgements. All of the theses I have seen in my lab and in my department feature acknowledgements.
Due to this special situation, I don't quite feel that acknowledgements are called for. Yes, my adviser helped during the first half of the project but then almost completely reverted his stance. In terms of contribution, it is my opinion that he comes out at 0%.</p>
<p>I do not want to address any of the issues in the acknowledgements. I do not think that this is the right place. Likewise, I do not feel like thanking any of the involved people.
Therefore, I would just leave out the acknowledgements completely.
In academia, is this considered worse than lukewarm acknowledgements?
Should I actually care about the acknowledgement, because others do?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23522,
"author": "Dave Clarke",
"author_id": 643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Not including acknowledgements when it is generally accepted to do so is likely to reflect badly only on you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23524,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 8,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A thesis is not a place to solve grudges. It is a professional document that is eternal. As such, it should be handled professionally and gracefully.</p>\n\n<p>Still, I am having trouble why you do not want to have an acknowledgement section. Do you really believe you have done the entire PHD entirely yourself? Even if your advisor did not help enough, you had some funding right? And someone provided that. Should not he be included in the acknowledgement section? Someone also proofread your thesis. You probably also had co-authors in your papers. As you see, there are multiple people that contributed to your success. </p>\n\n<p>But on a more informal tone. Don't you wish to thank your family or significant other for the support? Or your PHD co-students? The people that you share your office with? You have finished a PHD and especially since it probably was a rocky one this a very good reason to celebrate. Do not spoil the moment with petty grudges. Do what you are required to do, be professional and move-on to better things.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23533,
"author": "user168715",
"author_id": 5596,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5596",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As an addendum to the above, I have yet to meet <em>any</em> PhD student who defended without at some point coming \"close to falling out\" with their advisor. As PhD programs last longer than many marriages, this is perhaps unsurprising. Odds are, with the stress of the defense behind you, your relationship with your former advisor will dramatically improve. It never pays to permanently burn bridges, and striking your advisor from your thesis acknowledgements will certainly do just that.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23536,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You stated that you have \"made up\" with your adviser. To be frank, it sounds like you are still harboring some negative thoughts and experiences. You would be best served by putting these negative thoughts and experiences to the side and taking the high road. Acknowledgments won't cost you any money, so give them generously in your career. You have far more to risk by going against the culture of your department by not giving acknowledgments. And, you did state that this adviser was helpful during the first part of your dissertation process. Those efforts are worthy of acknowledgements, even if you had a bad experience later on. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23540,
"author": "L Platts",
"author_id": 9117,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9117",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Like the other posters, I would agree that it is important to write acknowledgements although it isn't easy to get them right. I read them to get a feel for what a researcher might be like and am probably not alone in doing this, especially now more and more PhD theses are available online. I thought the following advice, from: <a href=\"http://people.kmi.open.ac.uk/stefan/thesis-writing.pdf\">http://people.kmi.open.ac.uk/stefan/thesis-writing.pdf</a> was useful: </p>\n\n<p><em>Once written, try to read the acknowledgement with the eyes of yourself ten years down the line, with the eyes of an employer five years later and with the eyes of the examiners and colleagues now. Always check the acknowledgements for unintended messages: for example, a four-page acknowledgement section thanking everyone in the address book including the cats and dogs of the neighbour's nephew, while barely spending half a line acknowledging the role of one's advisors, may give an unintended message of a broken supervision structure.</em></p>\n\n<p>It isn't easy to write acknowledgements relating to somebody where there has been a conflict. Maybe mention your supervisor first, and then you can get away a little more with being less than effusive. And then keep your thanks to other people brief so it doesn't feel unbalanced. </p>\n\n<p>Perhaps read some acknowledgements written by others in your lab or elsewhere, find a few in a style you like and ruthlessly steal/adapt their phrasing to your case \"I am grateful to XX for their encouragement, wise commentaries...\". There must have been something they got right, at some point, so state that. (Leave the rest for when you warn away potential PhD students who get in touch with you because they are considering joining your former group....)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23561,
"author": "user17567",
"author_id": 17567,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17567",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You should write the acknowledgements.\nMany grants contractually require you to acknowledge the funding entity, you should check the specifics of your foundation.</p>\n\n<p>And yes, thank your supervisor. Consider this: Someone interested in working with/hiring/inviting for a lecture/etc. your supervisor is very unlikelly to read your thesis, so omitting thanks to him will have no impact on his career. On the other hand, someone interested in you will certainly read your thesis and may read the acknowledgements to get a feeling of your personality. Since you are expected to thank your supervisor, the omitted thanks may strike as arrogant, specially because it won't be justified, so it may be harmful to you. </p>\n\n<p>Of course, it shouldn't have a major impact, but still, it won't favour you.\nThis doesen't apply to omitting thanks to the staff, since an external reader will not know you worked with them, but may make it harder to work with them in the future. From my experience, many lab workers pay a lot of attention to this, and will feel offended by the omision.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23682,
"author": "SeN",
"author_id": 17662,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17662",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is a very interesting article, by Ken Hyland, titled \"Dissertation Acknowledgements: The Anatomy of a Cinderella Genre\" (2003), that sheds a lot of light on how dissertation acknowledgments operate. He analyzes 240 dissertations, from six different fields, to see what patterns emerge in their acknowledgments.</p>\n\n<p>It's worth a read (even just a skim). Hyland does a lot to show how acknowledgments are much more than just a list of \"thank yous\" - that it's actually very important as a place for writers to promote <em>themselves</em> as initiate academics. </p>\n\n<p>One of his concluding observations is that \"acknowledgments can play an important rhetorical role in promoting a competent, even rhetorically skilled, scholarly identity while signaling important professional connections and relationships as well as the valued disciplinary ideals of modesty, gratitude, and appropriate self-effacement\" (266).</p>\n\n<p>Here's <a href=\"http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ779599\">the Eric link to the article</a>. If you're not able to access the PDF through your school, I'd be happy to post a link to the PDF (if that's allowed)!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23683,
"author": "MMacD",
"author_id": 17664,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17664",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Life Rule Number One: Never burn your bridges for any reason except ethics and integrity. Your situation doesn't pass that test.</p>\n\n<p>From a purely selfish standpoint, you don't want to seem petty or ungrateful even if you feel that way. You can't know what the future will be like. Someone who might want to offer you a position based on your thesis could get puzzled by no acks, ask around, and feel that someone who can't even \"make nice\" in such a trivial way would be a poor fit.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23771,
"author": "user3713015",
"author_id": 17733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If I were you, I would pay close attention to the implications in the citation above regarding a study of acknowledgements. </p>\n\n<p>You mention \"lab\" so your field is clearly both \"hard\" and empirical. If you think that nobody helped you at all in your thesis, your recollections are most likely deluded and selective at best, or your hubris is at a dangerously high level. </p>\n\n<p>Moreover, acknowledgements in part have a character of dog whistles. When you go to publish papers out of your thesis, do you think that an acknowledgement along the lines of, say, \"thanks to the attendees at the Widgit Workshop at MIT for their insights and suggestions\" carries any signal in the anonymous peer review process?</p>\n\n<p>Summarily, I was young once, so I understand where you're coming from: it was a tough, crappy, job you got through with; it remains, in any field, a rite of passage with roots in the Medieval. </p>\n\n<p>But if you don't get beyond it, you'll just be shooting yourself in the foot. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23860,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I feel the need to record a dissenting opinion on this.</p>\n\n<p>It is my understanding that acknowledgments are <em>not</em> a required component of a PhD thesis. They are a tradition and a custom, and like most traditions and customs, people participate in them because they find them valuable and enjoy doing them, not because they are obligated to do so. One answer says that many grants \"contractually require you to acknowledge the funding entity\". Yes, but that's a different kind of acknowledgment: for instance, in many published papers that goes on a footnote appearing on the first page, whereas there may (or may not) be a paragraph in the introduction or at the end of the paper thanking various people. Moreover, a PhD advisor is not a \"funding entity\" in this sense, and I have never heard of anyone being contractually obligated to thank their advisor. Let us assume that the OP is not.</p>\n\n<p>After reading advice that amounts to \"Yes, you should absolutely write acknowledgments in a way that conveys a positive impression of your advisor. Since you in fact feel exactly the opposite way you will have to write them very carefully indeed\" a few times, I got a bit worried. I see a personal integrity issue here: really one should not record in a formal document sentiments which are diametrically opposed to those one actually holds. Moreover, all the comments about the career risk one might incur for not including acknowledgments -- well, I must agree that omitting acknowledgments is a suboptimal career move, but such comments make me even more worried. It seems to me that many people here are essentially viewing acknowledgments as a <strong>loyalty oath</strong> that one must make to one's thesis advisor. That can't be good. People stood on principle against loyalty oaths in the past, sometimes with cost to themselves. They were right and courageous to do so. I'm afraid I see a similar principle here.</p>\n\n<p>My point is this: no, actually the OP certainly does have the right not to put acknowledgments in his thesis. Is that the best career move? No, probably not, but it is his choice and he may have good reasons for doing it. Four final comments:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>No acknowledgments at all seems much better to me than acknowledgments which are sarcastic or show bitterness, and probably even better than acknowledgments which are carefully written to extract exactly the level of thanks that a dissatisfied person can muster. I do agree that it is less than plausible that the OP does not have warm feelings about <em>anyone</em> (e.g. his family and friends), but writing acknowledgments to your thesis and not mentioning your advisor is also worse than not writing them at all. If you really want to thank your friends and family then you don't need a page in your thesis to do so. (I looked back at my own thesis acknowledgments just now and was somewhat pleasantly surprised by the effusiveness with which I thanked my mother and a very supportive ex-girlfriend. But now I have a sinking feeling in my stomach: I'm not sure either of them ever read my thesis! A facebook message may be in order here...)</p></li>\n<li><p>In case people are wondering whether I personally identify with the OP's ingratitude to his advisor: hell no. My first reaction to the post was to roll my eyes at the sentiment that his advisor was helpful for half the time and then so unhelpful so as to make the total contribution 0%. I am struggling to imagine what someone could do to make a contribution so negative as to cancel out years of support. My first impression of the OP was that he is -- to put it mildly -- a peevish ingrate. My second thought? Gosh, this guy would make a much better impression simply by not talking about his advisor at all. Not recording for posterity your own sentiments when you know that they contain inappropriate and unseemly negativity is a sign of great professionalism, more so than just lying through your teeth.</p></li>\n<li><p>I recently read a PhD thesis from my own program without acknowledgments. I must admit that I did notice this: when I saw the question I thought \"Wait, didn't so-and-so not have acknowledgments in their thesis?\" so I looked back and confirmed that it was true. Without giving away personal details, let me say that I have every reason to believe that so-and-so had an unusually positive relationship with their thesis advisor, and that so-and-so has gone on to another academic job and, apparently, a promising career. Why did so-and-so not include acknowledgments? <strong>I simply don't know.</strong> It's not my business. </p></li>\n<li><p>In contrast to what some other people have said: other than in the context of my own graduate program, I rarely read people's PhD theses. When I do it is usually to get some exposition or technical detail that I wish they had put into their published work. In particular, I almost never read the theses of job candidates. Does this sound weird? I think it isn't: I read lots of other accounts of the material in candidates' theses: from their recommendation letters, from their cover letters and research statements and -- when I am really interested -- from the papers and preprints resulting from their thesis work. If other people here specifically read PhD theses in the context of academic hiring, I would be very interested to know. Also, as a hirer -- yes, times are tough and we can be very selective, but there are certain things that one does not want to take into account. If I was at a hiring meeting and someone brought up a lack of acknowledgments in a PhD thesis as a point against a candidate, I would say something like \"This person really must be great if you want to sink her and can't do any better than that.\"</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 27722,
"author": "Tarnveer Kaur",
"author_id": 21179,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21179",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You add an acknowledgement not only for your adviser but also for your family, friends, institution etc.</p>\n\n<p>As you yourself said he helped during first half – so do remember the starting is always the most difficult one. Moreover you should be thankful because I think you do not know how difficult it is to even get a PhD adviser in some places. </p>\n\n<p>Just sit back and think – didn’t his “0% contribution” ultimately help you to learn so many things on your own, which you would not have learnt otherwise?\nAnd the most important – your not adding the acknowledgement may show your un-thankful nature and in future (in your interviews etc) you may not always be able to defend against: “why you didn't added acknowledgement?”</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 35092,
"author": "user27250",
"author_id": 27250,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27250",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Whilst I can sort of understand why you don't want to offer gushing tributes to your supervisor, why not include a brief statement such as 'I would like to thank the following people for their support in completing this piece of work'.</p>\n\n<p>Then simply list everyone appropriate including your supervisor in alphabetical order.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 57226,
"author": "Section9543",
"author_id": 43519,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43519",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I stumbled on this thread as I am helping a friend edit his acknowledgments and trying to word something he feels represents how he feels without offending anyone. He is in a similar quandary about the acknowledgement section but instead of hating his advisor is so burnt out by the process and feels the thesis he is writing is so worthless he doesn't want to associate anyone with what he is committing to his thesis. I feel the same way about my dissertation and have planned on not writing an acknowledgements section myself. Only when we were trying to craft his to mask his disgust at his creation did I think about the social obligation of this practice and that it must contain some value for the people who it is written for... </p>\n\n<p>But even as I recognize the social obligation of this practice I am really surprised at all the answers here, and large amount of value that is placed by the respondents to this question on the importance of an acknowledgments section. I feel like everyone has given this issue too much thought and given it way too much value. </p>\n\n<p>Why does an acknowledgements section matter? </p>\n\n<p>If the OP is conflicted they should leave it out and shouldn't mention it, I would be really surprised if anyone (even the advisor notices), unless I am wrong and advisors are starved of praise and desperate for a note in paper that few if anyone will ever read? Many of the posts say it would a bad career move to not include the acknowledgments... are search committee noticing you left one out? That is a stretch... Academic hiring committees have better things to do, and thousands of other pages to read.\nI think it is better to leave it out and ignore the situation than it is to write a dishonest one. In the end, two months from now, no one is going to care that you didn't have an acknowledgment section. But if you write one that is really a backhanded compliment your advisor is going to notice and that will further test a weak relationship.... </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 58507,
"author": "John Doe",
"author_id": 44693,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/44693",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am in a similar situation, yet not writing the thesis but I am so tired of my advisor (or well... lack of it) that if I ever reach that day I will not write any acknowledgements at all and by reading the answers here I am even more convinced of doing so.</p>\n\n<p>The thing is that if you write them, they have to be somewhat positive because they may affect your career in a way. So if the consensus is to write something positive just for the sake of doing it, then we can assume that there are plenty of thesis out there with fake acknowledgements (I omit the ironic or sarcastic or double meanings in them anyways). And I think that even worst than no acknowledgements at all or even the real truth.</p>\n\n<p>But on the other side, academia is as fake as any other industry; and so you cannot fight the system, so you must go with it. Which means you have to write nice acknowledgements just because everyone else is doing it and you are expected to do it.</p>\n\n<p>So I think it is better to have no acknowledgements because that does not give any information extra. If acknowledgements are there, they can be positive or nice, but you will never know if they are true unless of course sarcasm, irony and other language tools are identified in them. For negative acknowledgements I think that those are not really needed to be written on your thesis because in the end time will show the truth and you don't want to be the one to point things out about someone (or some people) even if you are right.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 131183,
"author": "lordy",
"author_id": 105950,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/105950",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Short answer: You don't need acknowledgements at all if you don't want to. I have seen many theses without but this might also be a culture thing of the country you work in (my case is Central Europe).</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23521",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17548/"
] |
23,525 |
<p>I currently work for a well-known company that publishes study materials for a certain branch of mathematics. I have done quite a bit of work under them that has been published through their website (and is used to profit the company), however, no one's particular name is labeled on the materials (they just state the company's name). </p>
<p>Would I be able to include such work on a mathematics graduate school application CV other than mentioning it briefly in my work experience? If so, should I create a section "Publications" or with some other title? ("Publications" seems misleading to me, as it suggests a peer-reviewed journal or other scholarly text of some sort.)</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23526,
"author": "Anonymous Physicist",
"author_id": 13240,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you did it, you can take credit for it on your CV.</p>\n\n<p>To answer your second question, I think you should consider who will be reading the CV and what kind of employee they want. If it is a company that produces a similar product, I think \"Publications\" is okay. If you are applying for a faculty position, I might label it \"Teaching Experience\".</p>\n\n<p>Update: For applying to graduate school, I would label it \"Projects\". But there are many options.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23537,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>These are not academic publications that you can legitimately claim on your CV. At best, you might be able to describe this work experience in a different part of your CV, but keep your publication section clean. A publication is one that you claim authorship of the given product, whether it is a peer-reviewed article, book, book chapter, monograph, etc. Once you have a stock of publications, then you can create some logical categories. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23525",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17476/"
] |
23,528 |
<p>I contacted a professor about working on research with him. I met with him in person and he let me know he wanted to work with me, that he would be my research advisor, and if I applied to the department he would get funding for me. I applied to the university, got accepted into the program then filled out a TA application.</p>
<p>I was informed by my research advisor that I was selected as a TA and that I would receive my offer letter soon in the mail. It has been several months since I was told that and he checked on the delay and said that the TA offer letters were being held up in the provost's office for some reason. Classes start in August and I still haven't received my offer letter. Is this sort of thing common, or should I start to worry? My research advisor has guaranteed me I will be funded and I have nothing to worry about. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23526,
"author": "Anonymous Physicist",
"author_id": 13240,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you did it, you can take credit for it on your CV.</p>\n\n<p>To answer your second question, I think you should consider who will be reading the CV and what kind of employee they want. If it is a company that produces a similar product, I think \"Publications\" is okay. If you are applying for a faculty position, I might label it \"Teaching Experience\".</p>\n\n<p>Update: For applying to graduate school, I would label it \"Projects\". But there are many options.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23537,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>These are not academic publications that you can legitimately claim on your CV. At best, you might be able to describe this work experience in a different part of your CV, but keep your publication section clean. A publication is one that you claim authorship of the given product, whether it is a peer-reviewed article, book, book chapter, monograph, etc. Once you have a stock of publications, then you can create some logical categories. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23528",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12647/"
] |
23,530 |
<p>After finishing my PhD in mathematics not long ago, I decided to move away from academia and pursue a career in the commercial sector. I'm currently not affiliated with a university. In the long run, I might return to working at a university some day. </p>
<p>Recently, I recieved an invitation to become a reviewer for Mathematical Reviews. I'm flattered, but also hesitant as I can't fathom how much extra work this will be and if there's a benefit for me, besides learning more interesting things in my original academic field of expertise (which I've moved away from a bit).</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How much work is it to review 1 paper per months, roughly speaking?</p></li>
<li><p>Would you see being a reviewer as an interesting CV item outside of academia?</p></li>
<li><p>Doing the reviews is usually not paid, correct?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>This question is similar to <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/14355/should-i-agree-to-review-papers-as-a-postdoc">Should I agree to review papers as a postdoc?</a>, which didn't give me quite satisfactory answers since I'm not in academia anymore. It is also similar to <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/20888/personal-advantages-of-being-a-referee-once-you-quit-science">Personal advantages of being a referee once you quit science?</a> but that one is not about math reviews, which are different from refereeing a paper for a journal.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23534,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<ol>\n<li>One paper per month seems like a high load, but I'm not as connected\nto the journal reviewing scene as I once was. </li>\n<li>I don't think much of\nanyone outside of academia, national laboratories (NASA, Dept. of\nEnergy, etc), and some commerical R&D labs (Microsoft, IBM, etc.)\nwill care if you are a reviewer. </li>\n<li>And, yes, reviewing is typically\ndone for no pay. Though, I would say that at least for active academics, you \"pay\" for reviews on your own submissions by doing reviews on others.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 75860,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I'm a reviewer for Mathematical Reviews (now best known by its association with MathSciNet). My experience has been:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>I usually spend about 1-2 hours to read a paper and write the review. </p>\n\n<p>I don't necessarily look to completely digest all the details of the paper, but I at least try to understand what the results are, why they are interesting, how they relate to previous work, and a general idea of the proof techniques. </p>\n\n<p>Note that, unlike the pre-publication peer review process, you're not expected to check the correctness of the proof, nor to make a judgment on the paper's novelty or significance.</p></li>\n<li><p>They want you to submit your review within about 6 weeks of being invited. </p></li>\n<li><p>You can set your \"queue size\", i.e. the maximum number of papers you want to have at any one time, to whatever you want. When you submit a review, you can expect to receive another invitation within a few days.</p></li>\n<li><p>You can always decline a review invitation if you are temporarily too busy, or if the paper doesn't interest you or fit your expertise, and they will just send it to someone else.</p></li>\n<li><p>You can specify your areas of interest (by <a href=\"http://www.ams.org/msc/msc2010.html\">MSC code</a>) and they send you papers that appear to match your interests. If your interests shift, or if you start getting a lot of papers that mystify you, you can make changes.</p></li>\n<li><p>It's a very minor CV item even within academia, and probably even less outside. </p></li>\n<li><p>You do get a little bit of extra visibility, since reviews are posted with your name, and seen by anyone who looks up the paper on MathSciNet.</p></li>\n<li><p>You do get paid, sort of. You receive 12 AMS Points for each review you submit. Each AMS Point is worth $1 (USD) in credit toward purchases from the AMS (books, journal subscriptions, membership fees, etc). So it maybe adds up to a couple of free books per year.</p></li>\n<li><p>Also, if you review a book for them, you get to keep it.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23530",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17550/"
] |
23,531 |
<p>Taught courses typically do not reach research level, so there is a significant gap in knowledge that has to be bridged by a graduate student in order to make meaningful contributions to their field. What is the most efficient way to bridge this gap? I could come up with the following possibilities:</p>
<ol>
<li>Find advanced textbooks, prove all the theorems [if maths] and do all the exercises yourself.</li>
<li>Organize seminars with other graduate students with related interests</li>
<li>Go to conferences or talks given by staff about their research</li>
</ol>
<p>Is this list exhaustive or is there anything I missed? Which methods of learning are recommended in which situations?</p>
<p>For definiteness, by 'expert' I mean the level necessary to understand current research articles and (in principle) independently reproduce the calculations/proofs.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23535,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For most disciplines, advanced textbooks still provide, albeit necessary, foundations. Conferences allows you to hear what is new and is as such a good way to know where fields are going. I am not sure what you mean by seminars but discussing new papers and topics is always a good way to advance knowledge. But, the major point is to read up on published papers and to focus on the topic of your thesis. The point of research is to advance knowledge and this means you will, or at least have a chance to, be an expert on the field you are researching. So in my view none of the activities 1-3, or combinations, make you an expert, only your own sweat over publications and own work will do so.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23610,
"author": "Aaron",
"author_id": 1508,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1508",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The answer to this one is fairly easy. You read, read, and read. And when you're done, you read some more.</p>\n\n<p>My thesis was a study of two specific products/types of databases. Of course, the widely-known \"Brewer's CAP Theorem\" was a core focal point, so I read Dr. Brewer's paper \"Harvest, Yield, and Scalable Tolerant Systems.\" I then read the paper that analyzed his paper, which (of course) led me to another. And another.</p>\n\n<p>I went to Amazon.com and looked for books about the non-relational database I was focusing on, and found five. I bought (and read) all of them. I looked at the sources for those works, and read more and more.</p>\n\n<p>I went to a conference in Chicago put on by the software company which created my non-relational database of focus. I talked with the people who created it, as well as with others who used it. I took lots of notes, looked through many Powerpoint projects, and followed the sources listed in those as well.</p>\n\n<p>This went on for more than a year.</p>\n\n<p>Fast-forward to now, I (successfully) defended my thesis 11 months ago. Since then, I have taken a new job (that I was recruited for) as a lead engineer, driving big data projects. I don't really consider myself an expert, but it is apparent that I understand that material (and database theory in general) better than anyone else in our company.</p>\n\n<p>So again, read as much as you can find on your topic. Question it. If you have the means, run some of the experiments on your own. And after that, keep reading.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23688,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to other informative comments and answers, there is a point that appears to me widely overlooked, namely, that it is hard to rush \"maturity\" or \"experience\". Yes, one can speed up \"experience_s_\", but only to a point, since too much so reduces comprehension of them.</p>\n\n<p>In different words, in addition to accumulation, and assimilation, of many, many factoids and ideas, there are ... intangibles, \"intuition\", all those vague things.</p>\n\n<p>That is, apart from having seen and remembered many facts, genuine experts have so-well assimilated them, have so-well changed themselves to adapt to a subtler viewpoint, that they have \"sense\" about otherwise-vague situations.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, I am obviously noting that live mathematics is not formal. It is only that the contemporary writing style has various formal/logistic pretensions, not that the <em>practice</em> is that. </p>\n\n<p>As a corollary, I think it is simply not feasible to \"become an expert\" in grad school, or soon, or... although one must be <em>wanting</em> that to exert sufficient energy to move in the right <em>direction</em>.</p>\n\n<p>(And, as at other locales, I am not a fan of \"routine exercises\", unless one has nothing better to do. I think \"memorization of proofs\" is not nearly as good as \"trying to see why the proof _has_to_be_this_, but perhaps getting the thing into one's head by \"memorization\" is better than not having it in one's head at all.)</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23531",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15142/"
] |
23,538 |
<p>From <a href="http://thewallaceline.blogspot.com/2006/11/double-line-spacing-in-dissertations.html">http://thewallaceline.blogspot.com/2006/11/double-line-spacing-in-dissertations.html</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is standard practice to require dissertations to be double-spaced. In the age of word processors, one wonders why this practice persists. This must surely be a legacy from the days when dissertations were typewritten and students were allowed to make corrections in situ rather than re-print. Word processors have eliminated that problem. Double-spacing might also be suitable for drafts which require annotation for editing, but final copies of dissertations are not used in this way and modern techniques such as commenting do this job.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How did this tradition get started? The ability to make corrections on the printed thesis in the days of typewriters sounds like a pretty good guess.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23557,
"author": "avid",
"author_id": 15798,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15798",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My understanding was that this is for the convenience of examiners, who may wish to annotate a printed copy while reading the thesis, for reference during the defence. In the UK, at least, where candidates may be expected to make corrections to their thesis after the defence, this is quite common. Annotation is much easier if there is plenty of whitespace on the page.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 60858,
"author": "Franck Dernoncourt",
"author_id": 452,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/452",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Why are the final copies of thesis dissertations often required to be double spaced?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Inertia. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How did this tradition get started?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>From what I read, with <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leading\">typewriters</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Double spacing is an entrenched practice due to the era of typewriters [...]. Typewriters had a limited number of options for leading and double spacing was chosen as a default. </p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 60868,
"author": "vonbrand",
"author_id": 38135,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/38135",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As Frack Demoncourt's answer says, this comes from the typewriter era (I did my undergraduate thesis then). A change in a page meant retyping it completely, so having extra leeway to add/delete a line was critical. Less text on the page meant less retyping in case of an error, also important. I remember my advisor was extra careful to suggest changes that didn't spill over to following pages.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, the <em>good old days</em>. How do I miss them...</p>\n\n<p>By the way, the local standard still specifies double spacing, printed on one side only. In practice, the librarians here are thrilled when my students turn in single spaced, double sided printed theses (less precious shelf space!).</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23538",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17555/"
] |
23,542 |
<p>Sometimes, when I get the comments of the reviewers of a submitted paper (mine or some else paper), I feel like the reviewers just ignore the paper. More precisely, I feel that reviewers did not read the whole paper. Even more, I feel like they do not even complete reading the abstract (it is a conclusion from their comments of course).</p>
<p>Is it possible that reviewers ignore papers? Maybe because the authors are not known or maybe they did not write the paper well? </p>
<p>My only argument is that authors believe that their paper is a breakthrough paper and it has a very good contribution. Imagine reviewers start reading a paper in a high journal rank and they found (just examples, do not take them as serious ones): "This paper shows that 1+1=3" or "This paper demonstrates that if the determinant of a matrix is 0, the matrix still has an inverse." </p>
<p>Although, I do not think that in a high quality journals, reviewers can do some kind of ignorance. How can one be sure that their paper is well treated? How to write papers that make the reviewers do not throw the paper away. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23544,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I doubt that it is common for peers to disregard the content of a manuscript under review to that extent. However, it is quite usual for authors to understand more on their paper than the reviewers do. The following simple things may help: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>accurate title, that really absorbs the content of a paper</li>\n<li>very well written abstract, that says precisely what is done in a paper</li>\n<li><p>well written introduction</p></li>\n<li><p>a clear cover letter, explaining what is done and why this is important and new;</p></li>\n<li>recommendation of at least a couple of referees for your paper who <i>should</i> understand it.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23545,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Let me expand a bit on Thomas comment.</p>\n\n<p>By its very nature, peer review is a guaranteed item of discussion in all academic discussions. Every author has stories to tell about unfair reviews, reviewers that missed the entire point of the article, reviewers that rejected a paper only to publish something similar themselves, and so on. What is much rarer talked about is that <strong>the vast, vast majority of rejected papers are simply not good enough</strong>! Indeed, this surely also includes a large percentage of those papers that the authors are sure were handled unfairly.</p>\n\n<p>An important point is the following:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>My only argument is that authors believe that their paper is a breakthrough paper and it has a very good contribution. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Clearly, all (ethical) authors believe their paper has merit. <em>Otherwise, one would likely not submit it</em>. It has to be said that the author's own opinion is not a good indicator of the actual qualities of a paper. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it possible that reviewers ignore papers? Maybe because the authors are not known or maybe they did not write the paper well?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Somewhere on this site, I have previously listed reasons why a paper can get rejected, but to be honest I think <em>\"the authors are not well-known enough\"</em> is very low on this list. The second reason (<em>\"the paper is not well-written\"</em>) is more common, but it should be noted that rejecting a badly-written paper is <em>not</em> unfair. It is the responsibility of the authors to make sure that their paper is graspable. However, again, I suspect the majority of papers are well-understood by the reviewers, and just rejected because the reviewers were of the opinion that the contribution was not substantial enough.</p>\n\n<p>So why do papers sometimes get very short, high-level reviews, even if the reviewers read and understood the papers? One possible explanation is that many reviewers follow the golden rule <em>\"spend your time on manuscripts that deserve your attention\"</em>. In practice, a reviewer has finite time to invest into reviews. When receiving (say) 5 papers for review, two being borderline and three being clear-cut rejects, it is an understandable decision to spend more time scrutinising the papers that still have a chance, and only provide high-level feedback on the ones that the reviewer sees as clearly too weak.</p>\n\n<p>Now on to your questions:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How can one be sure that their paper is well treated?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The philosophy I try to communicate to my students is to <em>stop worrying about optimizing manuscripts for peer review and start doing the best research they can</em>. I am convinced that the best way to ensure that your papers are treated well is to write good research papers.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How to write papers that make the reviewers do not throw the paper away.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Make sure that your papers (1) have a clear contribution, which is evident from the abstract and the introduction, (2) are written as clearly as you can, (3) are correct in terms of grammar and spelling (try to have a native-speaker spell-check your manuscripts), and (4) <strong>have a compelling and relevant contribution</strong>. If Your paper is technically sound but boring as watching grass grow, you <em>are not entitled to complaining that the reviewers did not read the manuscript carefully</em>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23546,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your question is highlighting one of the major problems of the current peer-review process. Numerous studies have been conducted on various parts of peer review, and one of the most consistent findings across these studies is the absence of reliable reviews. That is, reviewers often disagree with each other, and editors often disagree with reviewers. At the same time, these findings are not at all surprising. </p>\n\n<p>I do believe that there are very conscientious reviewers, and those numbers will vary considerably over time and by discipline. I believe there are many persons who are simply unqualified to review for journals. And, I believe that some reviews are not completely objective. Some people may be particularly critical on a given day -- perhaps their grande mocha latte arrived with no-whip when in fact they wanted whip. Or, they just had one of their own papers rejected, which makes them think that the system of reviews is becoming increasingly tighter, so the subsequent reviews are made under a more critical lens.</p>\n\n<p>The bottom line is there are many places where there are faults in the peer review process, and this question certainly highlights one of them. Proposals for improving the system regularly enter the debate, but the current peer review system is not likely to change much over time. </p>\n\n<p>If the review is particularly egregious, you can certainly talk with the editor. But, as a submitting author, you will always have less power and influence relative to the reviewer. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23542",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17562/"
] |
23,548 |
<p>I am often amazed at how neat figures in old scientific publications are. How did authors prepare those plots and diagrams, when there were no computers around? Did they draw them by hand? Were there any special methods and tools involved? Did the authors prepare the figures themselves?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23551,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I believe many of them did the drawing themselves with ink pen, for example. Graphs can be drawn using pins and a metal ruler: you put pins (or small nails) in a measured points of a graph, and then bend a ruler to pass through all nails. The ruler will eventually form a curve, known as a <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-spline\">B-spline</a> interpolant of a given set of points.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23552,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Ink on vellum. Depending on the work place the author may have made their figures themselves or in some cases professionals were involved who would take a sketch and draw an ink original. the techniques were basically the same as for any technical drawing using templates for creating text. A lot of techniques went into making nice figures, sometimes including adhesive rasters to create shading effects etc. A asic technique was also to produce originals is a larger size than final so that when reduced in size, small imperfections would basically dissappear in print.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23558,
"author": "Patricia Shanahan",
"author_id": 10220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10220",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My grandfather wrote geography books. He had some sheets of plastic with wavy lines on them, used to fill in the seas in maps. The plastic was cut to shape and glued to the paper. I assume similar things existed for other regular fills.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23617,
"author": "Phil Perry",
"author_id": 13080,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13080",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A related subject: preparation of mathematical formulas and equations. These were things that simply couldn't be done (other than very crudely) on a Linotype or similar \"hot type\" machine. To do it anywhere near \"right\", skilled typesetters needed to build up the equations <em>by hand</em> from tiny pieces of type and lots of pieces of spacer lead and such. Needless to say, this was very slow and very expensive and prone to error. It went \"offshore\" to lower wage countries, but even then was still too expensive. Crude typesetting programs existed but produced such poor results that Donald Knuth was driven to produce something that would typeset math to his standards: TeX. TeX (and LaTeX and various permutations) are still the gold standard for setting text, equations, and even some graphs and other figures (such as chemical diagrams) generated on the fly.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23664,
"author": "greenfingers",
"author_id": 15184,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15184",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Gosh, I feel ancient :)</p>\n\n<p>I graduated just before the Windows became popular. We had 8-bit PCs with MS-DOS and some very basic text-processing software. All the official documents (including my master’s thesis and first research papers) were typed on mechanical (or if one was lucky – on electrical) typewriter. For corrections in the typed document we used a special white fluid (applied it with a little brush over the misspelled letters and once dry retyped the correct ones on top).</p>\n\n<p>All the formulas and figures had to be drawn by hand (using a special ink pen, a ruler, a compass, sometimes a special curved ruler). A piece of grid paper could be glued to the document if necessary, or if the grid was big enough to occupy a whole A4 page, we would buy a ready-made grid page from the university bookshop and insert it where it belonged.</p>\n\n<p>This was the required format for conference papers and all other materials we submitted to the print shop, where they used offset lithography and some other techniques to print conference proceedings, textbooks, etc.</p>\n\n<p>There wasn’t PowerPoint, so the “slides” for presentations were drawn on a big cardboard sheets (A1 or A0), which were then hang/stack/pined to the wall/blackboard. Or, if there was an overhead projector, we did the drawings on transparent plastic sheets.</p>\n\n<p>There was a technician in the department, whose job was to do technical drawings, but usually she was very busy, so I did most of the drawings myself. And, yes, I had studied technical drawing as a part of my engineering degree, it was a mandatory module.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23548",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10936/"
] |
23,549 |
<p>Another problem I personally struggle with in peer-review publication process is the situation when review takes really, <i>really,</i> <b>really</b> long. The precise definition of "long" is probably very area-specific: for example a paper in Maths will probably took longer to review than one in Physics. Many well-established journals and major publishers, sadly, prefer not to specify the "rules of the game" precisely, particularly how long the review process should normally take. Fortunately, I quite often serve as a referee with the very same journals and know the amount of time I am given to write a review. Unfortunately, when I am an author, I do not observe these deadlines to be always met. For example, a notable U.S. publisher would ask a reviewer to send a review in 2 months; but in practice a first review of my paper once took as long as 8 months.</p>
<p>As a rule of thumb, I usually start writing to editors with questions about "the status of my paper" in X+1 months time, when X is a deadline time for a reviewer to submit a review. This strategy is not particularly successful — what I usually get is a recommendation to be more patient. Since there is no "official" deadline time announced, there is no formal ground for complaints here.</p>
<p>Of course, such delays lead to a whole bunch of funny situations, particularly if a preprint is put online (e.g., on arXiv) and the results are presented in some conferences. Follow-ups with no official paper to cite, grant applications in which you can not justify by a solid publication, good research but bad bibliometrics or CV, to name just a few. </p>
<p>Could you recommend an efficient way to deal with this problem?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23550,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are plenty of reasons why reviews take a long time. First you seem to forget that the time from you submitting your paper until receiving the reviews is not only taken up by the reviewers. The manuscript is probably first scrutinized by a chief editor to see if it is on topic. depending on the journal structure the manuscript might be assigned to another editor who will handle the review process. The handling editor will start to look for reviewers and it is not unheard of that one must ask quite a few in order to get two that accept. Then reviewers have their stipulated time. Once reviews are back the editor needs to look through the comments and make decision on what should happen (reject/some form of revisions/accept) and then provide the author with these comments. So if all this works smoothly it will take a bit of time. Often it is hard to find reviewers and some reviewers may take more time than they should and so the process is extended. Add to that that the editors usually have more than one paper to deal with.</p>\n\n<p>So what can be done? Well not much except try to be quick yourself and set an example. Of course if the time really drags on and there is no response, a well formulated request for status from the editor is in place but when that should be considered is a judgement call depending on the typical time for reviews to be completed in the journal. fortunately many electronic submission systems signal where the paper is in the process which can help judging the timing better.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23559,
"author": "Ari Trachtenberg",
"author_id": 15885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15885",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I have found that a polite, terse e-mail to the associate editor with a clear history line often works in getting some response. Occasionally, I have written the editor-in-chief if an associate editor is ignoring me. As Peter points out, there may be legitimate reasons for a delay, including:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The editor is having a hard time finding a competent reviewer (maybe the area is too narrow).</li>\n<li>Your paper is very hard to understand (sometimes, if it's badly written but seems to have some elements of novelty, a reviewer will try to plow through to understand what is going one).</li>\n<li>The editor needs an additional reviewer in order to break a strong difference of opinion between the original reviewers.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>When even the editor-in-chief does not answer in a timely manner (and I have had this only once in my career), your best recourse is to <em>never</em> submit future articles to that journal. You will be doing your community (and the next submitter) a service.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 71938,
"author": "dank",
"author_id": 57241,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/57241",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Sometimes a long wait is the result of conflicting reviews, because the editor has to restart the clock for a new reviewer who has been invited to break a tie. Other times, a particular reviewer is slow, but the editor prefers a slow review that is of high quality to a quick one that cannot be trusted.</p>\n\n<p>The deadlines given to reviewers don't mean very much. Remember that there's no credit for reviewing, so reviewers may be inclined to put a review aside when they need to concentrate on writing a paper or proposal, teaching a class, handling personal matters, etc.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, none of this addresses your question. The answer is that there is nothing you can do beyond what you have said you're doing. This is just a part of the academic life. It's frustrating, but not as frustrating as the silly deadlines given to authors at the galley stage (often 24 hours, in my field).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 71944,
"author": "Significance",
"author_id": 48584,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/48584",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One thing you can do is target journals that have efficient review processes. SciRev (<a href=\"https://scirev.sc/\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://scirev.sc/</a>) is one website that collates \"reviews of the review process\", or you could ask colleagues about their experiences. </p>\n\n<p>Other than that, I don't think there is anything you can do other than what you have been doing. As an author it is frustrating, and I can tell you that it's frustrating as an editor, too. When I receive queries of the sort you have described from authors, it does prompt me to check on the paper and either nag the tardy reviewers or invite new reviewers if I think the reviewers who originally agreed have become responsive (though rest assured that I do check on them regularly anyway). My journal asks for reviews to be returned within three weeks, but the average actual turn around is about 2 months. When I receive author queries less than 3 months after submission, I feel it is impatient on the part of the author and am slightly annoyed -- but I still check up on it. If a query comes after 4 months or more, I will chase it up more seriously and feel guilty.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23549",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418/"
] |
23,556 |
<p>I am doing an experiment assumed to be performed in ideal environment although it is not, e.g. resource is fully allocated from a resource pool shared between different organisations. As my experiment is affected by external factors (e.g. a shared pool may not fully allocate all requested resource) the result sometime is different from what I expect. However, since my model is proven to work in an ideal environment, I am sure that if I keep repeating the experiment, I will get a result which is consistent with my calculation, e.g. when a shared pool have enough resource to allocate to my request.</p>
<p>Notably, when I run an experiment, I do it few times to get the average result. Moreover, I'm aware that an environment is not ideal and planning to address it in my future research.</p>
<p>So, is it acceptable to keep repeating the experiment until I get the (average) result which is consistent with my calculation? Furthermore, should I mention in my paper how many times I perform my experiment to get the presented result or just mention briefly about the imperfect environment and a plan to handle it in future research?</p>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> my research aims to use shared or volunteer resources to perform computation. It is in the early state when I calculate the required resource for a job prior to its execution. In other words, during an execution, I assume that there are enough resources for me, which doesn't always happen. As I said, I'm planning to investigate dynamic calculation in the future.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23582,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>No, you shouldn't do the experiment until you get the desired result. This is poor science and borderline unethical. (I'm sure you had no ill intent and that you are trying to deal with real-world complications.)</p>\n\n<p>An experiment is flawed if it is run <em>n</em> times but only the results from <em>n</em> - 1 are used and reported. (Or anything less than <em>n</em>). See <a href=\"http://norvig.com/experiment-design.html\">Peter Norvig's page</a> under the section \"Warning Sign I2: Ignoring Publication Bias\".</p>\n\n<p>Beyond this, I believe that your experimental design is flawed. You shouldn't run an experiment assuming an ideal environment when in fact the experimental environment is not ideal. Only in theoretical models do you have the liberty to idealize your environment. In laboratory experiments, you control the environment so you can idealize as much as possible. What you have is an experiment with <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confounding\">confounding factors</a>, which is not uncommon in real-world settings.</p>\n\n<p>The best thing to do is to estimate the effects of the confounding factors through analysis of a theoretical model or a simulation. In your case, which sounds like a queuing theory problem, a statistical simulation should be relatively easy.</p>\n\n<p>With this estimate, you should be able to restate your hypotheses, essentially reducing the expected effects by the \"loss\" associated with \"the shared pool not fully allocating resources when requested\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23588,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>When you run an experiment that is expected to have some variability (because it is not in a perfectly controlled environment) then you <em>must</em> run it a large number of times. Not \"until you get the results that are consistent with what you expect\" but \"until you get results that are reasonably consistent <em>with one another</em>.\"</p>\n\n<p>Then, when you describe the results, you must say something about how they were distributed (not just give the average). For example:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>\"The average execution time of Protocol A was 4.72 ms, with a variance of 0.4 ms. The average execution time of Protocol B was 5.78 ms, with a variance of 0.3 ms.\"</li>\n<li>\"The measured results were clustered in two groups, with 75% of runs falling between 1.3-1.9 ms and 25% of runs falling between 10.5-13.3 ms. We speculate that this is because of X, but we cannot measure or correct for X at this stage.\"</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>You get the idea. The point is that you present not just a single numerical value, but also some measure of how consistent the values were.</p>\n\n<p>And yes, you must describe how many times you ran the experiment, whatever you know about the conditions under which the experiments ran, and how you calculated the summary statistics.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23592,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As I understood, you are developing a parallel algorithm (or a computation strategy) that is supposed to work on a highly non-uniform computing environment (both in time and \"space\" of a CPU network). At a current stage of research, you are not yet ready to address the non-uniformness, and have to make a (significant) assumption that your computational network is in fact homogeneous. </p>\n\n<p>What I would suggest - <b>do not repeat</b> the experiment many time, until the (non-uniform by nature) network will suddenly become homogeneous. It would not.</p>\n\n<p>Instead, you could go do the computations on a proper parallel (cluster) station available in your Uni or through a shared subscription. Make sure that during the computations all used CPU's are fully allocated to your problem only, i.e. your (significant) assumption holds. </p>\n\n<p>Do the experiment <b>once</b>, report your assumptions and results clearly, explain which adjustments for the algorithms are required to put it on a heterogeneous CPU network. Hopefully this would suffice.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23556",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12635/"
] |
23,564 |
<p>I have spend many years during my PhD developing a code base and decided to open-source the code when I finished. It's currently under GPL. The code is used by many different research group around the world, and that was my goal; to provide a useful tool for the research community.</p>
<p>Recently I have been contacted by a company that wants to use the software. My intention was always to charge a fee for industrial use of the code. On the website, it says something to the effect of "GPL for academic use", "please contact me for industrial licensing".</p>
<p>Firstly, do you think this is reasonable approach? Personally, I don't think that industry should get a free ride from my publicly funded research code.</p>
<p>Secondly, what are reasonable terms, pricing and software license for an "industrial license"?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23565,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Your license <em>is not</em> the GPL if you add additional restrictions, and your restrictions may turn out to be incompatible with the GPL in subtle ways. Consult an IP attorney.</p>\n\n<p>Fortunately for you, even if your code is GPL, many companies might not want to use it because they might worry about it infecting their product. So, you might be able to charge them for a proprietary licensed version. That being said, if your work came in under a US grant from the NSF or similar agency, its terms may require you to open source the work <em>period</em>. Additionally, your university is likely to have an Office of Technology Commercialization or similar body that is responsible for software licensing to industry. At mine, the Board of Regents retains the rights to all software and commercially licenses it with the \"inventor\" getting half and the university getting half, typically, unless it is open sourced. </p>\n\n<p>You should check with your university and the grant terms that funded your work. Corporations are typically tax payers in their local jurisdictions, so it's not necessarily wrong for them to benefit much as another researcher would from your work (i.e., for free). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23732,
"author": "h22",
"author_id": 10920,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10920",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you own the code, you can use dual licensing model, offering paid commercial version next to the GPL version. While not very respected by GPL enthusiasts, this dual licensing model is not uncommon. </p>\n\n<p>Most of companies really do not like GPL, even if the license terms would permit them to use the software as they plan to use it no problem (GPL is mostly about sharing the modified source code). This can be used to persuade them to buy a commercial license.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 67445,
"author": "elviejo79",
"author_id": 52864,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/52864",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The GPL does not restrict them to use your code in in their commercial product. What it means is that if they use it/modify it then when they distribute their software they must provide the source code of their application and yours.</p>\n\n<p>Because many companies don't want to share their code, they can ask you for another licence. Since you are the Copyright owner, you can use as many licenceses as you want.</p>\n\n<p>This dual licensing approach is the one that MySQL used and continues to use now that they were bought by Oracle.</p>\n\n<p>More information about: <a href=\"http://oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/duallicence2\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://oss-watch.ac.uk/resources/duallicence2</a></p>\n\n<p>Now there loophole if a company uses your GPL code but they don't distribute your software, ie as a SaaS, they are not required to make that code public. In order to fix that the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Affero_General_Public_License\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">AGPL</a> license was created.</p>\n\n<p>Finally if you really want to avoid anyone but you from making money of your product, you could consider the Creative Commons Non-Commercial license as mentioned in this <a href=\"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/a/218435/12987\">answer</a></p>\n\n<p>My recommendation is use Dual Licensing, and stick with the GPL or AGPL</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 118502,
"author": "Eelco Hoogendoorn",
"author_id": 11814,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11814",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As @elviejo79 mentions, in my particular field also, SaaS is rapidly making GPL moot as a means of earning money from your software; let alone as a means of furthering the goals of the FSF. </p>\n\n<p>AGPL seems to solve that, but it is a bit controversial; it is the most up to date and purist version of FSF's vision out there, but it is also very incompatible with a lot of licenses, including GPL. And that may discourage a lot of use cases you did not intend to discourage.</p>\n\n<p>Personally, I am more a fan of a license that explicitly states its intent (free for academic, not for commercial) than roundabout haggling as to what constitutes 'distribution' or 'linking'.</p>\n\n<p>This <a href=\"https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/a/209586/317799\">Academic Public License</a> seem to capture that intent pretty well. Note that offering a license like this is likely to get you rants from zealots how its not Real Open Source. But you can solve that by offering a dual AGPL license option. Hardly anyone might want to use that license in practice, but it will shut up these types, since it doesn't get more FSF-approved than that. </p>\n\n<p>And as a bonus, as mentioned by @Bill Barth above, it might also get your university IP Commissars off your back. Definitely try and stay under their radar if you can; in my experience the last thing you need in your life is a bunch of clueless lawyers taking a year or two blocking releases of your work while trying to figure out if they can make a buck off it.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23564",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9754/"
] |
23,573 |
<p>Few days back I communicated a paper in a journal and some silly mistakes are there. While citing some other author's paper in my paper, instead of reference number it is showing a sign of question mark. I know that's a mistake while running the LaTeX code. I didn't check in hurry. Shall I inform the editor about my mistake? If yes, then how should I write a letter to convey this?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23579,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Yes, you should inform the editor. Simply resend the corrected paper, and explain the error. There is no need to write an extensive letter or to make a grand apology. Something like this in an email will do fine:</p>\n\n<p>\"Dear Editor,</p>\n\n<p>I am sending you a corrected copy of the paper titled '...', submitted on XX. There were errors on pages A, B, and C in the citations. They appeared as \"?\" instead of the correct citation, due to incorrect processing in LaTex. This version has the correct citation and I have proof read it for other errors.</p>\n\n<p>Best regards,</p>\n\n<p>Monalisa\"</p>\n\n<p>Also - give the file a different name than the original and a different time stamp so there is no confusion between the corrected version and the original.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23601,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In mathematics (and I suspect in many other areas), the paper review process usually goes like this:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Submit your original paper.</li>\n<li>The referee's report comes back some time later, suggesting some changes</li>\n<li>You make some changes and resubmit an updated version</li>\n<li>items 2 and 3 repeat until the referee is satisfied</li>\n<li>Now is the time to put the paper into the format required by the journal (e.g. using the journal's style file). Also make any final changes required by the referee</li>\n<li>The journal will prepare the paper and send you page proofs showing the exact final version of the paper</li>\n<li>You verify the page proofs (usually there is a short deadline to do this)</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>As you can see, there are several opportunities in the process when you can fix small typographical problems in the paper. And I have found typographical issues in almost every paper I have refereed, so it is expected that you will need to fix some. </p>\n\n<p>One \"trick\" is not to put the paper into the style required by the journal (e.g. the journal's special LaTeX style) until the final revision. This guarantees that you have at least one shot to fix any typos, even if the referee miraculously does not recommend any changes.</p>\n\n<p>Note that <em>significant</em> changes are something else entirely, and you should avoid them if possible once the paper is submitted. This includes things like rewriting the proof of a theorem or adding new results. But fixing a misspelled word or replacing a \"??\" with a citation number are fine. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23573",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13294/"
] |
23,584 |
<p>I'm entering my senior year of college in the US and I'm starting to consider my options for graduate school next year. My field is kind of blurry, in that I have certain research areas that I'm interested in, but researchers in those areas often fall into many different fields (linguistics, cognitive psychology, neuroscience, psycholinguistics, etc.)</p>
<p>I have some faculty that I'm interested in working with, but I have a dilemma because some people (and schools) I'm interested in are in the US and some are in Europe.</p>
<p>I've been reading about how graduate school typically works in Europe, and it seems to be quite a different beast from the US. Many (practically all) Ph.D. programs in the US that I looked at are entered immediately after a Bachelor's degree, they're fully funded, and the two years of course work at the beginning is to earn the Master's degree. On the other hand, all of the European programs I looked at vary greatly on how their funded (I'm so confused), and require a Master's.</p>
<p>So this brings me to a lot of questions.</p>
<p>Are Master's degrees in Europe funded? And what would happen if I would decided to get a Master's degree in Europe but then come back to the United States for the Ph.D.? Is it possible to go straight into a European Ph.D. without a Master's at all? (I'll be graduating with 18 credits of graduate coursework and 27 credits of independent research).</p>
<p>Does anyone know of any good resources so I can figure out this situation?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23585,
"author": "eikooc",
"author_id": 17448,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17448",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can not speak for all of Europe but in Denmark the PhD programme is a job. You are hired by the university to conduct research so you will get paid. <a href=\"http://www.dtu.dk/english/Education/phd/Applicant/Pre_acceptance-1-\" rel=\"nofollow\">You need</a> a Master's degree to apply for a PhD position, and there are probably some grade point average you would need.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.dtu.dk/english/education/phd/rules/phdguide/english/-/media/DTUdk/Uddannelse/PhD-Udannelse/Dokumenter/engelsk-ph-d-bekendtgorelse.ashx?la=en\" rel=\"nofollow\">Here</a> is a link to a .pdf document with the danish legislative framework.</p>\n\n<p>You can apply for the PhD programme even though you have taken your Master's degree in USA. If you want to take your Master's in Denmark you need to apply for it through your own university if you want it to pay the stay. There is also a possibility of getting paid while in Denmark by the governments <a href=\"http://www.su.dk/english/\" rel=\"nofollow\">state education support</a>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23586,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'll start with the bad news:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Does anyone know of any good resources so I can figure out this situation?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Such a resource does likely not exist, as the answers to your questions will vary widely between different european countries and even different universities. Europe is historically a hotchpotch of different academic systems.</p>\n\n<p>I will try to give some answers that I think are true in most places. For all of the answers, you will likely find exceptions and differing systems if you look long enough:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Are Master's degrees in Europe funded?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Unfortunately very rarely.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, as aeismail points out, most european degree programs are either for free or (compared to US programmes) extremely cheap. That still leaves you with costs of living and opportunity costs, though.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>And what would happen if I would decided to get a Master's degree in Europe but then come back to the United States for the Ph.D.?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don't quite understand that question. You would have a master's degree, which would allow you to either find a job or do a PhD in the US (however, you could have done both with a bachelor's degree as well).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it possible to go straight into a European Ph.D. without a Master's at all? (I'll be graduating with 18 credits of graduate coursework and 27 credits of independent research).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Usually this is not possible. I have heard here on academia.SE that there are universities that make exceptions, but the places that I am aware of do generally not allow to start a PhD at all without a master. However, not all is necessarily lost. Some places (including my current university in Zurich) have established compromise solutions for incoming research students without master's degree. Here, for instance, a professor can apply that you do a research-based \"fast track\" master, which allows you to skim on the course work and do research with the professor instead of most of the regular master curriculum. This is quite comparable to the US system, but as far as I know it is node widely publicized (I don't think this possibility even appears anywhere on the web page).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23587,
"author": "Relaxed",
"author_id": 11596,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11596",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I am not even sure it makes sense to speak about “graduate schools” in Europe. In the countries I know, the big divide is between the master's degree and the PhD program, and <em>not</em> between bachelor and master programs. A master's degree is mostly another diploma with slightly higher requirements/more focused topic but otherwise not unlike a bachelor's degree in the way it's organized. There might be some exceptions here and there but it would be highly unusual to enroll in a PhD program without a master's degree.</p>\n\n<p>Since tuition fees are relatively low in many countries, funding is not an issue in the way it is in the US (you still need to pay for the costs of living obviously but that's already the case for a bachelor's program). In some countries (e.g. France), people coming from abroad to study are treated exactly the same (which means paying something like EUR 250 plus some money for health insurance and a few other things), in others (e.g. the Netherlands), they have to pay a much higher fee (EUR 13000 per year where I work). In Germany the situation seems to be very fluid, with the rules set at the provincial level and changing all the time but I think fees are at most EUR 1000 per year.</p>\n\n<p>Because local students don't have to pay that much and the fees don't differ much if at all from one program to the other, it's not surprising that you didn't find information about whether the master's program is “funded” or not, it's not a distinction that makes sense at this level. Furthermore, in many countries, support for students who face financial hardship is available from the government and not through the universities. Either you qualify and you can choose the university you want or you don't and you have to pay but you wouldn't specifically look for a “fully funded” program.</p>\n\n<p>After the master's degree, the status of PhD candidates also varies a lot from country to country. In Switzerland, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and increasingly Germany, you are an employee with a reasonable salary (people will tell you it's less than what professionals with similar qualifications get, which is true, but you can still live comfortably). Some form of funding (from the main university budget, a research grant, European grant, corporate sponsorship, foreign government grant, etc.) is therefore a prerequisite. In France or Italy, you are considered a student and working conditions are often poorer. In STEM fields, PhD positions are usually funded and you do get some money and resources for your research. In the humanities, it's not uncommon for PhD candidates to have no funding, sometimes not even a desk and to scrap a little money to get by through teaching or even another job.</p>\n\n<p>Here again, tuition is usually not the issue but living costs are (for at least three years, at a time where you might want to start a family, etc.) Even an unfunded humanities PhD candidate in France does not have to pay much to the university. Unlike bachelor's or master's degrees, I don't know any university where PhD candidates from abroad would have to pay more to be admitted or be categorically barred from some funding (but the situations are so diverse that it might exist somewhere I guess). The only hiring restriction of that kind I know are <a href=\"http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Careers_at_ESA/What_you_need_to_know_about_the_Research_Fellowship\">research fellowship from the European Space Agency</a>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23590,
"author": "nivag",
"author_id": 14115,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14115",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some useful information on studying in the UK may be found from the <a href=\"http://www.fulbright.org.uk/resources-for/students-coming-to-the-uk\" rel=\"nofollow\">Fullbright Commission</a>. They also provide scholarships for Americans to study in the UK. I don't think there is a more general reference for all Europe as each country has their own system.</p>\n\n<p>To answer your more specific questions:</p>\n\n<p>In Europe most PhDs are funded (at least in STEM subjects) but often this funding is limited to EU residents (due to the money being provided by the EU). For example <a href=\"http://www.findaphd.com/funding/guides/phd-funding-guide.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">UK research council studentships</a> are only available for UK citizens or residents. Other EU citizens are eligible for fees only (no stipend)</p>\n\n<p>The structure of the PhD varies by country, although you are correct that almost all start after Masters. In the UK the PhD is generally 3 years research with no assessed courses (although a few more specialist ones may have some courses).</p>\n\n<p>Here is another useful reference I just found <a href=\"http://www.findaphd.com/study-abroad/europe/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.findaphd.com/study-abroad/europe/</a> which gives an overview of the PhD structure for some European countries.</p>\n\n<p>As you mentioned most PhDs require a Masters. One other option in the UK is to do a PhD at a doctoral training centre (<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctoral_Training_Centre\" rel=\"nofollow\">DTC</a>) these offer four year PhDs for people with a bachelor's degree. I think the 1st year is mainly taught courses approximately equal to a Master's.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23604,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is it possible to go straight into a European Ph.D. without a Master's at all?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It very much depends with the country. In Spain, no. On the other hand, in Sweden (at least, Stockholm's University), you need three years worth of credits and at least a certain number of credits on project work. This said, this is the administrational requirement: it is very unlikely you would get hired with only three years; but it is all up to you to show the PI how awesome you are.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23631,
"author": "Nathaniel J. Smith",
"author_id": 17605,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17605",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Postgraduate programs are, as you've discovered, structured very very differently in the USA and Europe.</p>\n\n<p>First, the caveat: there is doubtless lots of variation across institutions and fields, and I'm basing the below on my limited experience (PhD from UC San Diego and now a postdoc at U. Edinburgh, so I know lots of current UK PhD students). Also, I'm in exactly the same murkily defined field that you're asking about.</p>\n\n<p>My impression is that the general rule is: in the US, PhD programs and research-oriented masters programs are treated together as being a single indivisible unit. This has obvious practical consequences -- for example (and in answer to one of your questions), in the US PhD programs I'm familiar with, if you show up with a masters in hand, this doesn't actually change your course requirements versus someone with only a BA/BS. You'll have to go through a second \"masters program\" (but probably won't officially be awarded a second masters degree). But it also affects the structure of the program itself. My program had required lab rotations and a structured \"2nd year project\" that were technically part of our masters coursework, but were explicitly designed to provide a gentle ramp into our PhD research. (Psych departments are usually even more aggressive about this, and will have you running subjects within the first 3 months, ideally in the lab you'll continue in through your PhD research.) You're working in the same environment, with the same cohort, and the same faculty throughout, and the expectation from the beginning is that you'll be going all the way through to the PhD, so there's training from the start on how to \"think like a researcher\" (which is the main thing taught in PhD programs), the programs can kind of blur into each other, and there's some flexibility about when exactly you start your PhD project proper. This potentially gives more room to try out things that don't work, etc., before you have to write your actual proposal and put your nose to the grindstone. OTOH, it's not uncommon for programs to stretch into 6 or 7 years.</p>\n\n<p>In the European system, by contrast, masters and PhD programs are treated as distinct programs. Sometimes people stay with the same supervisor for both, but it isn't the usual case, and the programs aren't structured with that in mind. The PhD programs as far as I can tell are much more tightly defined: you're expected to show up, start work on a project more-or-less immediately (possibly a specific one that your supervisor has picked out ahead of time and gotten funding for), and be done and dusted in 3 years.</p>\n\n<p>For me, the US system was definitely better, and that bias is probably reflected in the above; but, people are different, and I can imagine the European system working better for others. Also, every PhD is different -- by far the most important determinant of PhD success is the interaction between you and your supervisor. (Well, being funded is pretty important too.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 118479,
"author": "user99310",
"author_id": 99310,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/99310",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I got an MA in the U.K., it was a 12 month program and I applied to PhD programs in America right afterwards. I got accepted to a program but they required me to complete another MA degree. They transferred in 8 credits from my MA from the U.K..I’m now working on 24 (two full time semesters) of coursework before I can begin my PhD coursework. \nIn the end, I paid out of pocket for a one year MA degree in the U.K., and had to do a (funded) year of an MA when I returned home. So, really the only time I lost was the period in between when I was applying. I’d still do it again. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 118486,
"author": "Lest",
"author_id": 99278,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/99278",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you’re not from the EU or EEA it can be pretty difficult to get funding from a European university for your PhD (mainly in the UK), if there’s a funding body in your country then that could be your option when applying for a PhD in Europe. And in many universities you would need a master finished.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23584",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1316/"
] |
23,591 |
<p>Few months back I presented a paper in conference and sent the same for possible publication in the conference proceedings. I got no response for a long time and with the consent of my supervisor sent the same paper to a journal with some modifications in the paper. I want to know is it okay to send the same paper to both? As far as I feel, its not right, still I need opinions. Thanks in advance. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23593,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Apparently conference has different meanings in different disciplines. In the fields with which I am familiar, conference publications are either limited to abstracts or are published in proceedings which are just as official as a journal In the former case there is of course no problem but in the latter sending the same paper off to a conference (for proceedings publication) and to a journal would not be correct. Therefore, you need to figure out what norms apply in your field, particularly whether the conference proceedings is a real publication.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23594,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You could start from reading the journal publication agreement. It usually is very explicit on whether it is permitted or not to re-publish the results which appear in conference proceedings. In my discipline it is typically not permitted unless <b>significant</b> changes to the text and content have been introduced. Therefore, you should decide for yourself how significant were the modifications you made.</p>\n\n<p>If the new paper is \"much more\" than a conference one, you could keep both, but you should tell the journal editor that this work is based on a conference proceedings which are yet in review.</p>\n\n<p>If the new paper is not significantly different from the conference, you should withdraw one of them before the reviews arrive.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23705,
"author": "al_b",
"author_id": 5963,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5963",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In any field it is unacceptable to have a paper published twice. Therefore, you should look at </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Which kind of publication conference has. If it is a formal one, with a known (or even less known) publisher, ISBN, indexing - then it counts like a publication and you cannot publish it as it is in a journal. If those are abstracts proceedings, or sth printed just for distribution to the conference/workshop participants - it should be safe to submit it somewhere else. </p></li>\n<li><p>Journal/Conference requirements - in most cases it will be specified that they look for novel papers, not published and not under submission somewhere else.</p></li>\n<li><p>Most conference publishers (but it is more complicated in your case, as you publish proceedings of best papers in journal, not in proceedings book) would allow you to submit significantly revised/extended paper to a journal.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>In your case it is probably best to contact the conference organizers and check if any formal publication planned and if your paper is selected for this publication (if it is not clear from the conference website and reviews). And do not submit to a journal before you clarify all those things - as you can get your paper retracted as double submission, with your department being informed about this...</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23591",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13294/"
] |
23,598 |
<p>If a private company provides a grant for some research to be carried out but is hoping for a particular outcome from the research in order to take certain business decisions, should this be described as a conflict of interest?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23602,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't see this as a conflict of interest, but the issue itself is deserving of careful attention from both a contracts perspective and a scientific perspective. I would advise against any such funding source that puts restrictions on the publication of findings. In particular, you state that the business is \"hoping for a particular outcome.\" Are you still allowed to publish results that are contrary to their expectations -- or, does the contract specifically state they have authority over what can and cannot be published. You will want your grants management officers to carefully scrutinize the contract. </p>\n\n<p>Science is really about answering questions through an open, replicable and systematic process. It is not about providing evidence for an expected outcome. I think this type of funding will be more problematic than helpful for a scientific career.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23603,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The company should not impact your choice of research methodology, interpretation of results and the dissemination avenues. If the funding agreement is clear on that, then the \"hopes\" of a company are isolated from the research stream, and I do not see any evident conflict of interest. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23606,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A company exists to make money. They fund a research in the hope that the outcome will be beneficial for them (as a student works on a project in the hope that there will be good results out of it). There is nothing intrinsically bad there.</p>\n\n<p>The problem may be with the rest of the conditions. But it will be perfectly fine if: (a) They guarantee you are free to publish whatever you consider and (b) they don't force you to get \"good results\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23609,
"author": "Penguin_Knight",
"author_id": 6450,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6450",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yours and their interests do conflict but this is not how we usually use the work \"conflict of interest.\" Say if your company actually makes cat food, and then you later got recruited as a consultant on setting up a safe cat food policy, your decisions made in the policy task force can be potentially affected by your financial involvement with the company. In that case, you will need to declare to the policy task force that you have a conflict of interest. In most cases, conflict of interest requires more than two parties, or one of the parties having two or more roles.</p>\n\n<p>In your case it sounds more like a threatening to academic freedom and scientific integrity. Some preventive measures should be done now before things turn ugly. Here are some things that I have been doing in various projects, you may consider following any of them.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Set up a \"statement of understanding.\" It's a binding contract describing who should have the interpretive rights to the data, and how to safeguard everyone's interest. There isn't a template for that, you'll need to lay out items you cannot risk to lose (e.g. your reputation, your institute's reputation, etc.) and contrast with the company's intentions. Talk to your institute's PR or legal representatives for a consultation.</p></li>\n<li><p>Highlight your value as the neutral middle man. In that sense, express to them firmly that you would like to explore the quality of the product without any prejudice. And explain to them that if their product is substandard, it's better to know now than later when found out by consumer interest group.</p></li>\n<li><p>Agree upon ALL the protocols, big or small, prior to any analysis. The turmoil I got into mostly about reanalyzing data. Some people just don't give up... and if you look at the same thing for enough iterations, good findings can come out just due to chance. Follow the protocols strictly, and meet to agree again on any modification.</p></li>\n<li><p>Keep all documents, e-mails, lab books, etc. and keep copies of them.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23611,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, it is a clear <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conflict_of_interest\">conflict of interests</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>a situation occurring when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It does not disqualify your research (as long you make it with full scrutiny, etc; see other answers), but for the sake of scientific honesty you need to mention it (as it can <em>possibly</em> alter your motivation, e.g. to get further grants from the same company or to condition probability of publishing on the outcome).</p>\n\n<p>I saw such notes, e.g. that a given scientist works for a particular drug company.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23598",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17587/"
] |
23,613 |
<p>I think that in India research institutes will never take a faculty candidate who is over 35. Is it so all over the world? </p>
<p>I am asking this question from the point of view of if someone starts their PhD. at the age of 27 then its unlikely they will be faculty candidates till they are 40. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23632,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h2>Absolutely not.</h2>\n\n<p>Age discrimination is explicitly illegal in the US. (I believe the same is true in Canada and most European countries.) Even as the chair of my department's recruiting committee, I am forbidden to <em>ask</em> the age of any applicant.</p>\n\n<p>If you're worried, just don't put your date of birth on your CV. But this really is a non-issue.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23635,
"author": "Andrew Scott Evans",
"author_id": 17620,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17620",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>short answer, no. There are 40+ year old new professors who will get tenure after starting work at a new school in the US. There are 35 year old first time science majors landing jobs because of their passion and I recently met a 55 year old who just completed an EET degree who landed a position at a decent firm with a good wage although he has a math phd as well from 30 years ago. It is mainly cultures where age discrimination is the disgusting norm and Google. India may be the worst country on earth in terms of age discrimination and bribery. There are job postings I saw (just out of curiossity from an article on this very subject) explicitly asking for no one over 26 where in the US those positions would say 10+ years of experience or a phd (experience preferred). If immigration is a possibility then it may be the best route. Some other countries have age discrimination issues as well but, generally with the exception of India, countries that were part of the British empire with its legal system tend to be more lenient. You have options. Age discrimination hurts everyone. Experienced professionals tend to demand less, are less restless, and require less training. Maybe a cultural shift is in order?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23637,
"author": "Christian Clason",
"author_id": 13852,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13852",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>(This started out as a comment on JeffE's answer, but became too long, and I don't want to clutter his post.)</p>\n\n<p>This is a gross simplification, but what hiring committees care about is your future research potential. In the absence of a crystal ball, they have to extrapolate from your previous achievements: The more in less time, the better. For this, your actual age is irrelevant - it is only important how long you have been an active independent researcher, which usually starts after your PhD. (This also touches on the point @user11192 made.)</p>\n\n<p><strong>Tl;dr:</strong> It's not age, but age minus time of PhD, divided by number of publications (and grant money squared). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23646,
"author": "Bitwise",
"author_id": 6862,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6862",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In some countries academic studies will only start at an age of ~22 due to factors such as military/civil service etc. which may yield:</p>\n\n<p>22 + BSc (3 years) + MSc (2 years) + PhD (4-5 years) + (Postdoc 3-4 years) = 35 to 37</p>\n\n<p>In this case 35 would be considered a typical, or even relatively young age for a candidate.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 28704,
"author": "Mad Jack",
"author_id": 11192,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11192",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This answer stems from a few comments I made to a <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28610/am-i-likely-to-be-perceived-as-less-successful-if-i-start-as-an-assistant-profes\">related question</a>.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Are old (>35) faculty candidates discriminated against all over the world?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I can't speak to the worldwide aspect of the question. What follows will be specifically tailored based on my tenure-track job hunting experience in the U.S., although it may be applicable in other parts of the world.</p>\n\n<p>As pointed out in <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23613/are-old-35-faculty-candidates-discriminated-against-all-over-the-world/23632#23632\">another answer</a>, it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of age in the United States. </p>\n\n<p>However, I think the more interesting question to ask/answer is:\n<em>Even though it is illegal to discriminate against someone due to their age, does that mean that age plays no role whatsoever in tenure-track faculty hiring decisions?</em> </p>\n\n<p>Sorry to get your hopes up: I don't have so much a concrete answer to this question; however, I offer an example of something an \"older\" candidate may face when seeking a tenure-track faculty position.</p>\n\n<p>Being an \"older\" candidate myself, I noticed on my unsuccessful interviews earlier this year that I seemed to get along just fine with tenured faculty; however, there was clearly some tension between myself and the \"younger\" tenure-track faculty at several places that I interviewed. If age did indeed play a role in this perceived tension, one may easily see why younger candidates would have an advantage. Furthermore, since most tenure-track candidates are from the same age group, the fact that an \"older\" candidate doesn't gel with his peers of the same academic rank for \"some reason\" makes you stick out like a sore thumb.</p>\n\n<p>Ultimately, I think that if age does play a discriminatory role in faculty hiring decisions, it may be that it is an indirect discrimination. That is, in a direct sense, nobody cares about your age or have been trained to think that way. But if you don't have similar personality characteristics of those tenure-track faculty already in the institution's employ, then there is still some likelihood that you will be marked as a bad fit for the job. How high that likelihood is I cannot say.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 90128,
"author": "TheSigmoid",
"author_id": 74108,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/74108",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is the ratio of your accomplishments to age that matters. Generally accomplishments saturate with age and hence it appears that there is an age discrimination. I am sure a 50 year old Nobel Laurette will be hired directly as Professor at many Universities.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 90144,
"author": "Anonymous Physicist",
"author_id": 13240,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My university is planning to hire >100 senior faculty. Presumably none of those people will be young. The idea is to buy the university a world-class reputation. I think other universities that have money and a desire to increase their rankings use a similar strategy. Poorer universities hire younger faculty with an expectation they can be paid less.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23613",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6683/"
] |
23,621 |
<p>Some faculty members are required to perform service to the community. Providing free education that improve societal value is one of the many ways to deliver the service. However, we recently are faced with a difficult situation in this channel, and I hope faculty here who had experience in teaching outside the school or social science researchers working in underprivileged groups will be able to point us to the right direction.</p>
<p>We are a small group of software developers and teachers who give free computer lessons to pretty much anyone who is interested. So far we have taught 32 students and they are all working as programmers in various places. However the dropout rate has been 8 to 1 so far. But lately the big problem is finding new students. </p>
<p>We don't charge money, there are no contracts to sign and we even provide required software and books free of charge. Sometimes we even supply the computers. The classes are online last about a hour a day. Still, even with sharing success stories and having former students themselves talk to new students, we are finding it hard to find new students who would be interested in taking the classes. I personally know people who would rather complain about the unfairness of life than take a job working as a paid intern somewhere.</p>
<p>My question is: What can we do to make free learning more appealing to people who are not in a school environment?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23638,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You have a program that sounds almost too good to be true (e.g., free classes, free software, free books, no contract). And your biggest challenge is that you cannot find new students, right? Well, two things come to mind. First, there is a \"catch\" -- that is, when it is too good to be true, it probably isn't true. Are there any hidden costs or problems with the program that you have not shared or identified? Second, what is the extent of the mismatch between the objectives of this program and the needs, values, and interest of your target group? </p>\n\n<p>My recommendation would involve careful analysis of both questions. You are likely to find a lot of good information by following up with those who have dropped out. Ask them why they dropped out. Barriers to attendance? Then you need to figure out why more people aren't signing up. Consider surveying individuals who were provided the information but chose not to sign up. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23647,
"author": "Adrienne",
"author_id": 13729,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13729",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am a biology education researcher who has created and run free online preparation courses for students entering a college introductory biology course, so I've done a good bit of reading on this subject. </p>\n\n<p>In March 2014, the Public Policy Institute of California published a report on student learning in online courses in California community colleges.\n<a href=\"http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_514HJR.pdf\">http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/R_514HJR.pdf</a></p>\n\n<p>They found that students do significantly worse in online courses compared to their own performance in face-to-face courses. Students who showed the biggest negative effect of online courses were:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>younger</li>\n<li>African American or Latino</li>\n<li>male</li>\n<li>those with low intent to transfer to 4-year college</li>\n<li>those with low high school GPA</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If your target demographic is within this group, they will find an online course more difficult and unsupportive than a face-to-face course would be. As a researcher, I would like to see if a cohort of your students that meets together to watch videos and work on homework is more successful than a cohort that takes your online version.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23621",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17603/"
] |
23,627 |
<p>Is it possible to do research at the university without acceptance to the university? What I mean that if I have free time and desire to help with projects, can I join some reseach group.</p>
<p>The question is not a legal stuff (I suppose that's legal :) ), but what are the chances that some university lab accept me?</p>
<p>I do not want to search for work position as little afraid about strict timelines. At the end I hope to get few articles that will help me to get to grad school and nice spent time.</p>
<p>Desired field is robotics.</p>
<p>Thanks for ideas and opinions.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23629,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's not necessarily a problem that you're not enrolled in the university - it's possible for researchers to hire non-students in many cases.</p>\n\n<p>However, it would be difficult to get someone to take you on when you don't want to make any commitment (e.g. get an official job). From their point of view: why should they invest time and effort training you and working with you, when you have no formal connection to them and can disappear at any time?</p>\n\n<p>It may also be legally problematic (depending on the country) for them to allow you to work for free, when it's not part of an educational program for your benefit (like a formal internship program for students, or thesis research).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23630,
"author": "Kelly",
"author_id": 17612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17612",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I believe that this is usually up to the faculty member that is running the research project. A couple of my friends in grad school contributed to our research group prior to their actual grad-school application, so that the faculty would know them better when the application came around.</p>\n\n<p>(My area of research is compilers, different specialty, but still in the Computer Science/Computer Engineering department.)</p>\n\n<p>When/if you do contact faculty members, try to have some concrete ideas and thoughts (and mention that you are looking for experience only for future grad-school applications, not a paid position.) Professors get bombarded with emails about grad students wanting TA/grader/RA positions every day, so you won't get a second thought if you send something generic. If you're very new to robotics, then instead of a concrete research topic, you could say something concrete about your experience and send your resume.</p>\n\n<p>Contributing to a project, especially if it leads to a paper (but even if it doesn't) will definitely improve your grad-school application. It's a good strategy!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23634,
"author": "Tom Au",
"author_id": 755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One way to effect this is to enroll as a \"special student\" taking one or two courses.</p>\n\n<p>That way, you have not been \"accepted\" by the university for a degree. But it may allow you to \"qualify\" for an internship by being a student. Also, if you attend classes for even one or two courses, it makes it easier to make connections.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23627",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17607/"
] |
23,639 |
<p>Some postdoc positions are formally advertised. Arguably, even more exist on a "gray market" - they are not advertised, and a person seeking a postdoc is supposed to contact a professor directly. </p>
<p>One ethical concern that I see here is that in some situations even when the agreement between the professor and prospective candidate is made, the position still has to be advertised (e.g. this may be a legal obligation in some countries). The advertisement will attract a number of applications, none of which has a chance to succeed, since the deal about this position has already been made behind the curtains.</p>
<p>My second concern is a bit harder to formalise. Is it true that when a candidate approaches a professor with a request like this, some serious ethical restrictions arise? Is it more difficult to turn the offer down, if you were the one asking for it? Is it more difficult to terminate the postdoc contract earlier than expected (and move to permanent position, for example), if you were the one asking for it? </p>
<p>Should I keep trying to apply only for a officially advertised positions, or should I give up and approach senior professors directly?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23640,
"author": "BrenBarn",
"author_id": 9041,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9041",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I have no special experience in applying for or managing postdocs, but this is just my take on the ethics.</p>\n\n<p>As regards your first question, I would say it is the professor who is being unethical if he arranges backdoor deals for postdocs, while still openly soliciting applications which he has no intention of considering. I don't see anything unethical about approaching a faculty member to ask if they have or will have postdoc positions available. If they don't want to give you special treatment, they can easily and fairly say something like, \"Yes, we will be accepting applications in November, I'll forward you the job ad when it's ready.\" If they tell you you are a lock and then mislead other applicants, that is their issue, not yours. As an applicant, I can't see that you can be held ethically responsible for how other applicants are (or aren't) considered, since you have no real control over that process.</p>\n\n<p>As for your second question, I think those issues shade from an ethical level down to the level of personal courtesy. My impression is that everyone applying for every job tells the offerer that they are really interested in it, even if privately they view it as only a backup option. I agree this is somewhat distasteful in that it's not totally honest and straightforward, but I don't see any way around it and I think everyone expects it. Unless you were down on your knees begging for the postdoc, I don't think people would consider it a real ethical breach for you to reject it.</p>\n\n<p>Plus, it's easy to avoid getting in too deep by making your inquiry diplomatically: instead of saying \"Hey I really really want to do a postdoc with you have you got one?\" you can say \"I'm looking into postdoc opportunities and your work looks very interesting, will there be any postdoc opportunities in your department/lab soon?\" By mentioning opportunities, plural, you make it clear that this is only one of many options you're exploring, and you can avoid appearing to make a commitment at an early stage. There may come a later stage where they ask you for a handshake agreement that you will accept the offer when it is officially made, and if you reject it after such a handshake, that could be considered unethical, but at the early stage you're describing I don't think it would be an issue.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, I think the questions about rejecting the offer or leaving the position early come down to personal and professional courtesy and the desire to maintain good relationships with these people. As a nonacademic analogy, imagine you call up your friend and say, \"Do you want to go to the movies?\" and he says \"Yes\" and then you say \"Okay, you can go by yourself, I don't actually want to go, I was just asking.\" You may not be cited by any ethics board for that, but you will be perceived as a jerk. Likewise, if you string people along making them think you want a postdoc offer, and then cavalierly drop it, even if it's not an actionable ethical breach, you may gain a reputation as a sneaky and underhanded negotiator, which will not help your professional career.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23643,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think you are making a <em>much</em> bigger deal out of this than what it is. Ultimately, you seem to assume that this is something shady that should be avoided, as indicated by your word choices (\"gray market\", \"should I give up and approach senior guys directly\"). <strong>This is not the case.</strong> It is not more honorable to score a publicly announced job than to get one that has been offered to you personally and without lengthy official search.</p>\n\n<p>Hence, the ethical implications over other postdocs are minimal to non-existant.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>One ethical concern that I see here is that in some situations even when the agreement between the professor and prospective candidate is made, the position still has to be advertised (e.g. this may be a legal obligation in some countries). The advertisement will attract a number of applications, none of which has a chance to succeed, since the deal about this position has already been bade behind the curtains.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This may or may not be true, but it is certainly not <em>your</em> ethical issue. This is a problem that the professor has to deal with.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it true that when a candidate approaches a professor with a request like this, some serious ethical restrictions arise? Is it more difficult to turn the offer down, if you was the one who was asking for it? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don't see why this would be the case. A postdoc is a postdoc is a postdoc. You do not bind your soul to this professor for eternity because he has offered you a job directly. Generally, turning down offers may cause some -unwarranted- hard feelings (everybody involved is just a human, after all), but the same is also true for any other job search.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it more difficult to terminate the postdoc contract earlier than expected (and move to permanent position, for example).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No professor <em>should</em> fault you for terminating a postdoc early to move on to a faculty position. Of course some will, but, again, this has little to do with how you got the job in the first place.</p>\n\n<p><strong>So if you have a network: go ahead and use it!</strong></p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23639",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418/"
] |
23,644 |
<p>I am currently doing a post-doc in pure Math [teaching and research] in the US. The academic year 2014-2015 will be my last postdoc year and I am currently considering my next employment possibilities.</p>
<p>For several reasons, I am considering a job outside academia in Europe [I am an E.U. citizen], for my next employment. As I know about nothing else except for my research in Pure Math and teaching of Math, I could use as much advice as possible regarding this potential transition from academia to a non-academia job. I have read through the many related questions and answers. But I still could not find answers to the following questions.</p>
<p>(1) How early in advance do you have to apply for a job outside academia? Let me provide a bit more details: I really need employment as soon as my current one ends, b/c I need the money to support my living expenses. So I cannot really afford to spend more than one or two months without employment. I am asking this, b/c for academia jobs one typically applies one year ahead of time, things are standard and clear. But not so clear to me are applications outside academia.</p>
<p>(2) Given that I know nothing about programming right now, what would my chances of getting a programming job be? In other words, would I get some sort of PAID training in programming?</p>
<p>(3) Any sort of comments/advice regarding working for a publishing house? [such as: salary?]</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23640,
"author": "BrenBarn",
"author_id": 9041,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9041",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I have no special experience in applying for or managing postdocs, but this is just my take on the ethics.</p>\n\n<p>As regards your first question, I would say it is the professor who is being unethical if he arranges backdoor deals for postdocs, while still openly soliciting applications which he has no intention of considering. I don't see anything unethical about approaching a faculty member to ask if they have or will have postdoc positions available. If they don't want to give you special treatment, they can easily and fairly say something like, \"Yes, we will be accepting applications in November, I'll forward you the job ad when it's ready.\" If they tell you you are a lock and then mislead other applicants, that is their issue, not yours. As an applicant, I can't see that you can be held ethically responsible for how other applicants are (or aren't) considered, since you have no real control over that process.</p>\n\n<p>As for your second question, I think those issues shade from an ethical level down to the level of personal courtesy. My impression is that everyone applying for every job tells the offerer that they are really interested in it, even if privately they view it as only a backup option. I agree this is somewhat distasteful in that it's not totally honest and straightforward, but I don't see any way around it and I think everyone expects it. Unless you were down on your knees begging for the postdoc, I don't think people would consider it a real ethical breach for you to reject it.</p>\n\n<p>Plus, it's easy to avoid getting in too deep by making your inquiry diplomatically: instead of saying \"Hey I really really want to do a postdoc with you have you got one?\" you can say \"I'm looking into postdoc opportunities and your work looks very interesting, will there be any postdoc opportunities in your department/lab soon?\" By mentioning opportunities, plural, you make it clear that this is only one of many options you're exploring, and you can avoid appearing to make a commitment at an early stage. There may come a later stage where they ask you for a handshake agreement that you will accept the offer when it is officially made, and if you reject it after such a handshake, that could be considered unethical, but at the early stage you're describing I don't think it would be an issue.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, I think the questions about rejecting the offer or leaving the position early come down to personal and professional courtesy and the desire to maintain good relationships with these people. As a nonacademic analogy, imagine you call up your friend and say, \"Do you want to go to the movies?\" and he says \"Yes\" and then you say \"Okay, you can go by yourself, I don't actually want to go, I was just asking.\" You may not be cited by any ethics board for that, but you will be perceived as a jerk. Likewise, if you string people along making them think you want a postdoc offer, and then cavalierly drop it, even if it's not an actionable ethical breach, you may gain a reputation as a sneaky and underhanded negotiator, which will not help your professional career.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23643,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think you are making a <em>much</em> bigger deal out of this than what it is. Ultimately, you seem to assume that this is something shady that should be avoided, as indicated by your word choices (\"gray market\", \"should I give up and approach senior guys directly\"). <strong>This is not the case.</strong> It is not more honorable to score a publicly announced job than to get one that has been offered to you personally and without lengthy official search.</p>\n\n<p>Hence, the ethical implications over other postdocs are minimal to non-existant.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>One ethical concern that I see here is that in some situations even when the agreement between the professor and prospective candidate is made, the position still has to be advertised (e.g. this may be a legal obligation in some countries). The advertisement will attract a number of applications, none of which has a chance to succeed, since the deal about this position has already been bade behind the curtains.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This may or may not be true, but it is certainly not <em>your</em> ethical issue. This is a problem that the professor has to deal with.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it true that when a candidate approaches a professor with a request like this, some serious ethical restrictions arise? Is it more difficult to turn the offer down, if you was the one who was asking for it? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don't see why this would be the case. A postdoc is a postdoc is a postdoc. You do not bind your soul to this professor for eternity because he has offered you a job directly. Generally, turning down offers may cause some -unwarranted- hard feelings (everybody involved is just a human, after all), but the same is also true for any other job search.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it more difficult to terminate the postdoc contract earlier than expected (and move to permanent position, for example).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No professor <em>should</em> fault you for terminating a postdoc early to move on to a faculty position. Of course some will, but, again, this has little to do with how you got the job in the first place.</p>\n\n<p><strong>So if you have a network: go ahead and use it!</strong></p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23644",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1104/"
] |
23,648 |
<p>Are professors paid during sabbatical? I'm mainly concerned about schools in the US. Answers about other countries are also welcome.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23649,
"author": "Lev Reyzin",
"author_id": 10,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes. When you're not paid, it's normally called a \"leave of absence.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23650,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The short answer is: yes.</p>\n\n<p>Sabbatical is not a vacation but is rather a leave of teaching to focus on research and publication. At many schools it is not automatic but must be applied for and is granted at the provost's discretion.</p>\n\n<p>Some schools will only provide six months of funding, but will release a full year of teaching, making the faculty member responsible for getting grants for the remainder, or effectively working at half salary.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 55495,
"author": "Timothy Sanchez",
"author_id": 42081,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/42081",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In a perfect world, yes.</p>\n\n<p>I work in a 400 year old pontifical university in the Philippines. I was tenured in 2012 which is supposed to entitle me certain leave privileges (LOA without pay, sabbatical leave, study leave etc.) I was not only denied any of these entitlement, but was also fired when I applied.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 63775,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In most universities in <strong>Australia</strong>, you are paid a full salary when you go on sabbatical. You will also typically receive an allowance that hopefully covers most costs associated with travel and accommodation. You may also get an additional allowance if you are travelling with family. That said, such allowances often do not cover the full cost of travel. In such cases it helps if you have additional sources of academic funds (e.g., grants, consulting funds, etc.).</p>\n\n<p>From what I hear, academics in Australia tend to be eligible to apply for sabbatical more frequently than in other countries (often every three years). That said, obtaining sabbatical is not automatic. You would typically need head of department support presumably based on a strong rationale for the visit in combination with strong research or teaching performance in the preceding years.</p>\n\n<p>Here's a few examples of policies:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://about.unimelb.edu.au/careers/development/academic/sspl\" rel=\"nofollow\">University of Melbourne Special Studies Program (Long)</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/careers-at-deakin/staff-development/academic-study-program\" rel=\"nofollow\">Deakin University Academic Study Program</a></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23648",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13081/"
] |
23,652 |
<p>I am careful about placing attribution to quotes in assignments. Occasionally, in assignments, I must use quote marks for purposes other than quoting, but my instructor misinterprets this as a "quote missing a citation".</p>
<p>In the Wikipedia article on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_marks" rel="nofollow">Quotation Marks</a>, one can find a list of examples of other uses of quotation marks. Suppose I need to use quotation marks to "signal unusual usage" ("Quotation Marks", 2014) or show some "distinction" in "usage" ("Quotation Marks", 2014) or even scare quotes. Is there any way in which I can indicate this, in APA style?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23657,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Normally referencing styles (APA, Harvard, etc.) address the issue of referencing the work of others. The \"example\" you have given is not an issue of using someone else's work and, therefore, I do not believe it would be addressed in any referencing system.</p>\n\n<p>Your instructor should certainly understand the idea that quotes are commonly used for many reasons, including indicating a turn of phrase which might not be obvious to some. For example, I would not badmouth my boss because I \"know which side my bread is buttered on.\" Clearly this is not a quote but rather a turn of phase, a saying, or an \"idiom.\"</p>\n\n<p>All that said, I do see a lot of student who forget to cite direct quotes and, as an instructor, it is very frustrating to me.</p>\n\n<p>If you are using idiomatic expressions, with which your instructor is unfamiliar, you might add a footnote explaining it to \"lend a helping hand.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23660,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>APA does not provide a distinction. It is assumed that all thinks enclosed in quotation makes are either quotes, and therefore attributed, or something \"special\". The hope is that your text clarifies the reason for the quotation mark. In most well written papers, the reason for the quotation marks is pretty obvious. Therefore APA style does not mandate a difference in usage.</p>\n\n<p>As to why your instructor is flagging them up, it is possible your instructor is using some sort of automated system to find the missing citations or that your usage of quotation marks is excessive or improper. It is probably best to talk to the instructor to figure out what is going on.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23652",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/600/"
] |
23,654 |
<p>This is just a general question regarding UK (and I suppose Western European) masters degrees vs. US masters degrees.</p>
<p>The reason for asking is that I have heard that US masters are considered at the same academic level as UK Bachelors with Honours degrees. This seems like pure hearsay but I'd like to understand if there is any thing concrete in this assertion.</p>
<p>And does equivalency tend to manifest itself in the same ways in commercial environments too?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23656,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I've seen (several) hundreds of students get UK bachelour with honours degrees in 3 years. A master degree in the UK takes another 1 year.</p>\n\n<p>Normally in the US a bachelor degree takes 4+ years and a masters takes another 2 - for a total of 6. </p>\n\n<p>How can 6 years of education in the US be considered equivalent to 3 in the UK? If anything, you could consider a UK master degree similar to a US bachelor degree.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23659,
"author": "Colin747",
"author_id": 17638,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17638",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>UK degrees tend to focus on the main degree subject from the beginning of the degree program and thus are more professionally oriented than the US liberal arts education, which requires each student to learn a broader curriculum.</p>\n\n<p>Interesting comparison here:\n<a href=\"http://colematson.com/2012/01/05/oxford-vs-us-an-undergrad-degree-comparison-chart-glossary/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://colematson.com/2012/01/05/oxford-vs-us-an-undergrad-degree-comparison-chart-glossary/</a></p>\n\n<p>As for \"If anything, you could consider a UK master degree similar to a US bachelor degree.\" It tends to be the other way around due to the UK degree being a more narrow focus towards the subject area opposed to the US degree having a more broad overview.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23698,
"author": "Ari Trachtenberg",
"author_id": 15885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15885",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The value of a US Masters degree is very dependent on the institution and its requirements.</p>\n\n<p>A number of US institutions mass-market their MS (or equivalent) degrees as a quick way to make money. These degrees (often marketed as 1-year degrees) are basically just a coursework requirement and can be equivalent to a bachelor's degree with some advanced courses.</p>\n\n<p>Other institutions require a serious thesis or project as part of a masters, often requiring publishable results in a significant academic venue. This is similar in style to the \"old-school\" Masters and is a significant step above a bachelor's degree because it requires self-motivated research and often takes two years to complete.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23707,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The UK and US have fairly substantial differences in their underlying educational philosophies. In my field, in the US Masters degree programs are generally one or two years long and include both course work and research in equal proportions. In the UK, Masters degree programs are a year long and have little to no research requirements. As for the level that the taught components of the programs are taught at, they are pretty similar across the two countries using similar textbooks and covering similar amounts of material in terms of both breadth and depth. The US and UK institutions I worked for accepted students from both countries and while international students often have more difficulties than home students, it is not obvious to me that going UK-US or US-UK is easier.</p>\n\n<p>As for the difference between a US and a UK Bachelors degree. Final year classes taught in both countries again use similar textbooks and cover similar amounts of material in terms of both breadth and depth. In my experience, there does not seem to be a substantial difference between students coming out of US and UK institutions in regards to their preparation for graduate school. That said, there are substantial differences in these students. The US system provides much more breadth of education (e.g., foreign language requirements and general education requirements) that are absent from UK universities. I have never heard an admissions committee member in the sciences argue that student X is is more likely to succeed than student Y because student X is competent in a foreign language.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23654",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17634/"
] |
23,655 |
<p>I had submitted my paper in an Elsevier journal one year back. Now, status update on the submission tracking says "Required reviews completed." However, for the last two weeks still there is no change in the status.</p>
<p>Should I ask the editor what is going on with my submission?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23663,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One year is a very long time for a paper to be under review, at least in the social sciences. Indeed, the change of status is promising, but I think following up with the editor on when the reviews will be complete is reasonable in this case. Indeed, as suggested in the comment (by Dirk), being polite is key. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23685,
"author": "Christian Clason",
"author_id": 13852,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13852",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>To expand on Dirk's comment: The status you see means that the reviewers have submitted their reports to the online system, and the handling editor has received an email about this. Now she has to read the comments (and likely look at your manuscript again to see if they comments are relevant), come to a decision, and write a corresponding letter to the author summarizing the comments and justifying the decision. This will in general not take more than an hour. </p>\n\n<p>But you should keep in mind that yours is not the only manuscript (nor, in all likelihood, the only journal) the editor has to deal with. In addition, this is both the end of semester <em>and</em> conference season in many parts of the world, so it is reasonable to assume that the editor is just very busy with more urgent deadlines, or isn't even in office. (Remember, editors are unpaid, so this work is on top of the regular duties of teaching, advising and doing their own research.)\nIn some cases, the final decision even involves two editors (associate/managing editor and editor-in-chief/communicating editor), which doubles the chance of other things getting in the way. </p>\n\n<p>In light of that, I would say two weeks is definitely too early to worry and start contacting the editor; give it at least a month. </p>\n\n<p>(Although I know how stressful the wait at this stage of the publication process is...)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31551,
"author": "John Smith",
"author_id": 24149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24149",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If the paper was in review for a long time (over a year as you mentioned), it is a very bad sign. Being polite is an obvious solution, but, I am afraid, it may not help. Most likely your paper will be rejected. One of the reasons, the reviewers, who are in the same area of research, are not interested in publication of your work. They will find \"convincing\" excuse not to publish it. Unfortunately, you've lost a lot of time. Still not late, however. Go to another journal, not necessarily to highly ranked one, and submit it ASAP. Another good option, go to arxiv or vixra and make submission right away. Be wise, something is better than nothing. This is the best what you can do now.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23655",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/897/"
] |
23,658 |
<p>I am a PhD student in computer science and have submitted a paper to a conference which details my proposed architecture. However in the month or so since this paper has been submitted my architecture has undergone changes (relatively major), how is this normally dealt with?</p>
<p>If the paper is accepted do I present the work as it was at the time of submission or do I openly state that changes have been made and present the updated version of the architecture?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23661,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I believe you should do what is better to the audience. </p>\n\n<p>In some disciplines/communities it is strongly assumed that conference participants read the abstracts/papers before the presentation, and expect the discussion to follow precisely the material that is published. In this case, of course, you could only comment briefly on the recent changes you've made.</p>\n\n<p>In other fields (such as mine), the abstracts are used only as a means to (roughly) describe the topic of the presentation. It is quite normal to extend the actual talk beyond the scope of the abstract, or reduce the role of some pieces of research advertised in the abstract. In this case, I'd advise you to make a talk that is simply interesting for you and the audience. It can probably include both the original design and your contribution to its recent development. Make sure people in the room understand <b>why</b> the changes were needed, <b>how</b> you have worked them out, and <b>what</b> is the benefits of your new architecture. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23704,
"author": "Johannes Bauer",
"author_id": 10633,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10633",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I agree with @dmitry-savostyanov in that you should do what's best for your audience.</p>\n\n<p>They've come to hear something interesting and if your work changed, then that seems to indicate that information on why and how it changed would be very relevant to their interests.</p>\n\n<p>In CS, conference papers have a different status from conference papers or abstracts in other fields: they're long, they are actually considered publications, they're usually not published before the event, and most people in the audience will not have read them.\nSo your audience probably won't be surprised to hear something that's not in the paper.\nOn the other hand, if you really pique their interest, they may read your paper and feel disoriented or disappointed.</p>\n\n<p>I would say report on the best results you have while being clear about what they'll find in the paper.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48174,
"author": "mdd",
"author_id": 14378,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14378",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In computer science, you have 2 options:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>In case your paper is accepted, you can update the paper for the final camera-ready version. If the changes are not too big, this can be a viable possibility and is actually no too uncommon.</p></li>\n<li><p>If the changes are too major, you can prepare an extended version of the conference paper for submission to a journal.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23658",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17638/"
] |
23,665 |
<p>I recently completed a PhD in a research university in U.S. and came back to my home country in South America. I have a position as a faculty member in a state college. However, the position focuses on teaching and academic administration duties. Without a lab and funding, it has been very difficult to continue the research or even to continue a reciprocal correspondence with my research collaborators. </p>
<p>I was wondering if I can ask for suggestions about how to continue pursuing my career path as scientist.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23666,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Jessica, you are certainly in a tough position, because your current incentive structure gives most weight to teaching and administration. Thus, it will be difficult to maintain a strong program of research. The evidence on productivity among faculty shows that smaller more frequent blocks of time leads to more output than binge- or marathon-writing sessions. Try to make collaborations a priority, as this will help minimize your isolation. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23675,
"author": "greenfingers",
"author_id": 15184,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15184",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Where do you expect the funding to come from? In my experience, in UK and other European countries, the research funding comes from successful proposals to the relevant funding bodies. There are research centres that were established and keep going only because the staff there constantly submits project proposals (somebody told me that the success rate is 1 out of 5 or maybe even lower).</p>\n\n<p>You are on your own, so your best bet is to find out what funding bodies can sponsor research in you location. Then you have to come with an idea about a project but keep in mind that most often than not the funding bodies have priorities, which change on regular basis, e.g. every year, and it is VITAL that your proposal fits their priorities. </p>\n\n<p>Whether you personally will have time for research is another matter. If your college is not very interested in research, you might have a heavy teaching workload and would be able to spend time on research during the breaks between the academic terms. You might have enough funding for one or more PhD students, who would do the majority of the work while you supervise them.</p>\n\n<p>There is another option, which might be not applicable in your research field as you mentioned you need a lab but maybe part of the research could be done this way – find undergrad students, who are enthusiastic about your research ideas and would be happy to do some work for free (or as a part of their assessment – coursework, final year project, etc.). That is how I started my research career many years ago (as a 2-nd year student) – one of our professors invited several bright students from the courses he was teaching to take part in a very innovative research. We had the first results after a couple of months, which allowed the professor to secure funding for several further projects. Then we could buy more equipment, attend conferences, there were several PhD grants as well.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23665",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17642/"
] |
23,667 |
<p>I had worked on my math PhD for 4 years before dropping out almost 2 years ago to lecture at a small college. I basically finished almost all of my research but am having trouble finishing my dissertation. This is in part due to the fact that my advisor turned out to be a terrible match for me and not very helpful at all. I want to move up in my career but almost all teaching jobs require at the very least recommendation letters and unfortunately, I have not done a good job at keeping in touch with my advisor. Does anyone have any advice for how I can try to re-establish a relationship with my advisor or maybe choose someone else to work with in order to finish? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23670,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Re-establishing a relationship with an adviser that you left is sort like asking your former boss for your old job. There is certainly nothing wrong with doing that. Just think about how you left things with the adviser, perhaps recognizing and owning where you got off track and offering a plan to move forward. Even if you believe that the problems were that of your adviser, it is best to avoid those issues. Show that you are interested in completing your dissertation and self-motivated -- that is, that you are really prepared to move forward and will be independent to the extent possible. </p>\n\n<p>If this doesn't work, then looking for a new adviser is certainly warranted. However, I think the path of least resistance is probably to patch the relationship with the adviser with whom you had worked. I guess you just want to communicate that you have the time and motivation to get it done, and that you will not be a burden on her or his time. Because you are in a teaching position with a presumably heavy teaching load, it would be good to really take stock of the amount of time and energy you have for completing the dissertation. You don't want to re-establish the relationship only to discover that it is way too much for you to complete. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 26115,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To move on in your career you need to (1) finish the dissertation; (2) publish lots of papers in prestigious places; (3) cultivate connections with senior people in the field by going to conferences, refereeing journal articles if asked, etc. </p>\n\n<p>Finish your dissertation, and get a couple good papers published, and probably your old advisor will be happy to write you a good letter.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23667",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17645/"
] |
23,673 |
<p>I made a conscious decision some time back to pursue a career in academia and I got back into graduate school this year, working in an 'applied computing' area--educational technology. While I thoroughly enjoy what I am currently working on, in the near future, I intend to conduct research in more mainstream computer science areas. My question is, how long would it theoretically take for one to radically switch research areas? I know there is probably NO fixed time frame for this, but I am especially interested in hearing from individuals that did this or attempted to do this early on in their careers. I would also appreciate additional advice on how I could start working towards this at an early stage. Incidentally, I came across an interesting CACM article [1] that ascribes a 10-year 'once-in-a-career' shift, mostly as a result of evolving technology.</p>
<p>[1] <a href="http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2013/10/168170-trends-in-computer-science-research" rel="noreferrer">http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2013/10/168170-trends-in-computer-science-research</a></p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23674,
"author": "410 gone",
"author_id": 96,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I've done it a couple of times in my career so far.</p>\n\n<p>I think the 10,000-hour rule isn't far off the mark.</p>\n\n<p>If you have no other commitments, and have the motivation, you can just about do that in three years, if you manage to avoid burning out. Most people will burn out attempting it: it's three years of work-eat-sleep.</p>\n\n<p>If you think you'll only be working 35-hour weeks, and taking holidays, then reckon on six years.</p>\n\n<p>If you're doing it part-time on top of a full-time job, then 12 years or more.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23695,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm not quite so sure the 10,000 hour rule applies very well here. There are a couple things that need to be considered -- i.e., substantive expertise and methodological expertise. Although I am not in the area of computer science, the transition from educational technology to mainstream computer science doesn't seem terribly far apart. It seems like you have the aptitude for computer science, so you should not have really significant problems acquiring the substantive expertise. I would be concerned if you were saying that the switch was from educational technology to psychiatry or aerospace. </p>\n\n<p>The other issue is the extent to which your methodological expertise generalizes to this new area. Have you acquired research skills that are relevant to your proposed switch? Do you have the core research skills for your new area? How familiar are you with the research in this new area. And what is the litmus test that you have achieved \"expertise\" in the new area?</p>\n\n<p>I guess the issue really comes down to how much your knowledge and skills in your current area of work generalizes to your new area. So, I'm not going to put a number on this issue -- I just don't think it is possible without more information. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23701,
"author": "Elizabeth Lagesse",
"author_id": 17676,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17676",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Hmm, it sounds like you are going to a relatively similar field... In any case, you can probably become proficient enough to be a grad student (or maybe post-doc) in your new field relatively quickly. </p>\n\n<p>I know someone who made the switch from theoretical physics to biology mid-grad-school. It added a year or so. I also am in the process of switching from chemistry (my undergrad degree) to biophysics (in which I'll be getting a PhD starting next week). I'm hoping to be caught up by the fall. Loads of people switch fields at the undergrad-grad, grad-post doc transitions. After that I think it can be harder, at least until you get tenure.</p>\n\n<p>Research (at least in the short term) involves being intimately familiar with a very narrow field of information. On the other hand, qualifying exams (in grad school) would require you to have broad based knowledge of the entire field. So it depends exactly what you will need to do and when. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23673",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6023/"
] |
23,676 |
<p>I have had the suspicion that it may be for a while and apparently not all is a product of my mind. Let me quote from <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/23675/7571">an answer</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In my experience, in UK and other European countries, the research
funding comes from successful proposals to the relevant funding
bodies. There are research centres that were established and keep
going only because the staff there constantly submits project
proposals (somebody told me that the success rate is 1 out of 5 or
maybe even lower).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>There are <strong>two questions</strong> here.</p>
<ol>
<li>Can a company feasibly focus on obtaining funds in publicly funded research (as a business model) successfully enough to "survive"?</li>
<li>Can such a company be started (nearly) from scratch?</li>
</ol>
<p>In short, the company would be exactly like a research institute (or institution) except that it would be private.</p>
<p><strong>Reasons why question 1</strong> may not be feasible:</p>
<ol>
<li>I don't see any company doing this kind of thing, i.e. there may be some, but there are not many, which means that it may be hard. It's a bad sign.</li>
<li>Public funds seem to be assigned to public entities, while companies can benefit from the collaboration and synergy, but they are expected to get their funding from their work as companies (searching for customers, etc.) In this case the customers would be the partners in the projects and the society itself, but again, this seems to be an "innovative" (maybe naïve, or even plain stupid) idea.</li>
<li>Research is a means for something, not an end on itself, that's why the business model should be on something else (point two) and that's why such a company would raise eyebrows on the mere idea of its existence. It may even be against some kind of tacit rule or even written laws.</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Reasons why question 2</strong> may not be feasible:</p>
<ol>
<li>No previous history of success of the company, or products or anything means zero (or negative) trustworthiness and no projects assigned to the company.</li>
<li>No partners would like to associate with the company in a project for the reasons in point 1.</li>
<li>The most similar case I can think of are spin-off companies that are created from successful research labs, not from scratch.</li>
<li>OMG so much communism! Go to kickstarter you hippie!</li>
</ol>
<p>As <strong>an example</strong>, a possible scenario that could be close to this: Someone writes a paper about a software system that does something not very novel in the state of the art but in a way that is very different from an architectural point of view, leading to good results in practical terms. In short: in theory nothing is new, in practice what was just a dream is now a reality. What is done remains the same in theory, but how it is done is completely different in practice (and now it works). Unfortunately only a proof of concept (PoC) can reasonably be implemented.</p>
<p>Would it be feasible to request funds to continue the development of this PoC (still very far from a commercial product) as a start-up or that simply doesn't make sense?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23679,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From the perspective of the US, there are many research institutes that operate as a private business entity. These research institutes can apply for some federal funding in the same capacity as a research at an educational institution. I see it being possible to start a private company without a lot of capital, although you will need to have a very strong skill set that is in demand. Whether this is a sustainable model really seems to depend on the specialized skills that the business would offer and the infrastructure that would allow it to efficiently prepare grants. Research-I educational institutions in the US have an incredible infrastructure to prepare and apply for grants that would be difficult to replicate in the private sector. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23680,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Existence proofs in the US: RTI, SRI, Battelle, Lincoln Labs. Also, there have been many smaller firms that were funded completely from a large number of SBIR grants ($150K to $1M), though the government has cracked down on these \"SBIR-mills\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23703,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In Europe, companies exist that primarily live from <a href=\"http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/home_en.html\">FP7</a> or, now, <a href=\"http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en\">H2020</a> funding. They rarely contribute much to projects in terms of research, but often handle tangential issues, such as project management, dissemination, marketing, or association with standardization bodies. Their model works because (1) they do things that none of the research partners actually wants to do, and (2) because they are often SMEs, which is generally politically helpful to get your funding proposals accepted. Further, as writing grant proposals is their core business, they usually also have grant writing experts that have the time to actually keep up with the various changes that the european commission is constantly applying to its programmes and rules (something that many researchers struggle to find the time for).</p>\n\n<p>Formally, these companies often camouflage as either consultancies or technology spinoffs. That is, you will not find it on their web page that their core business model is actually to milk grant programmes, as this is strictly against official funding rules (as a company, you can only apply for funding if you plan to commercialise the results, and you are not supposed to make a profit from the project itself). In practice, the project officers seem to tolerate these businesses - for now.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Can such a company be started (nearly) from scratch?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You will need a reasonable amount of seed money, as the H2020 rules require proof that an organization applying for grants has enough financial stability to likely survive over the typically 3-year project duration. I know from one startup that wanted to participate in a project (for actual technology reasons) which was in fact struggling to cross this hurdle. However, if you have the required seed funding, I see no reason why you would not be able to start such a business. Whether it is a smart business idea is a different question, given that you are basically living off of a loophole in the current funding practices, and you can never tell how long this loophole will stay open.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Edit:</strong></p>\n\n<p>I just saw that I missed this question:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Would it be feasible to request funds to continue the development of this PoC (still very far from a commercial product) as a start-up or that simply doesn't make sense?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, at least in Europe there are funding sources for exactly this kind of case. You should inform yourself about the concept of Technology Readiness Levels (<a href=\"http://ec.europa.eu/research/conferences/2013/energy_infoday/pdf/session_3_summary_of_the_calls_open_in_2014_-_philippe_schild.pdf\">TRLs</a>, slide 4), and the different kinds of funding available for each TRL. If you look at <a href=\"http://www.earto.eu/fileadmin/content/01_Seminars___Conferences/AC_2013/2013_PRESENTATIONS/6.SeanMcCarthy_Getting_Ready_for_Horizon_2020__Hyperion__EARTO_Conference.pdf\">this presentation</a> and go to slide 32, there is an overview over different funding instruments in H2020 depending on the maturity of the idea.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23731,
"author": "h22",
"author_id": 10920,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10920",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It may be important to understand that grants for universities are often given to support them as teaching institutions, even if the grant itself is only about research. This means, even if grant seems focused exclusively on research, it is targeted to the educational institution of the supporting country and would not be given to the commercial company, or educational institutions of another country, event if these would be capable of delivering the comparable scientific results. </p>\n\n<p>As a result, while it is not uncommon for a company to join a university on some shared grant, I have never seen a company that would make its major income on such grants. However there are many companies that make business on assisting in research (like sequencing DNA, building curated databases or the like). They major clients are other companies but some richer universities may also order such services.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23676",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7571/"
] |
23,681 |
<p>I'm an undergrad and I would like to publish in a research journal, specifically, ones about chemical pedagogy. </p>
<p>Is it hard to get an article published in a journal? </p>
<p>Are there any other venues which may be easier - i.e. do you know of any say magazines on chemical pedagogy or aimed toward chemistry educators? I'd imagine that the standards for publication in a magazine are lower than in a scientific journal. </p>
<p>Any advice for a beginner at writing and publishing? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23690,
"author": "David",
"author_id": 17671,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17671",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Depends on the journal. You might want to try publishing in your university's undergraduate journal if you don't have backing from a faculty member.</p>\n\n<p>[For an example of a university-specific undergraduate journal, <a href=\"http://thurj.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">click here</a>.]</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23867,
"author": "ashlinry",
"author_id": 17803,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17803",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would imagine that your best bet is to talk to a faculty member about it. Find a faculty member who is also interested in the topic. They can probably give you good advice on this and may even be interested in co-authoring the paper with you (which is probably more realistic as an undergrad), and honestly going this route wouldn't be too bad for you since your name would then be associated with an expert on the subject, giving you more credibility.</p>\n\n<p>One thing I've learned in college is that if you have an idea, talking to a faculty member about it can get you a <em>lot</em> of opportunities. And if you talk to someone and they can't help you, they can almost always refer you to someone else who can be of help.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23870,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you ask questions \"Is it hard to get an article published in a journal?\", about journals and in general \"Any advice for a beginner at writing and publishing?\", etc. then it is very unlikely you will publish something in a reputable journal, based only on a few lines of advice via Internet.</p>\n\n<p>However:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>try looking at student's conferences; very often there are great places to share undergraduate work, and learn how to present results (via posters, talks, sometimes - conference proceedings),</li>\n<li>ask someone from your university to look at your work, and guide you through the first publication (a lot of work, but worth it); but since it's chemistry you do it in someone's lab, right?</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 29491,
"author": "derelict",
"author_id": 14547,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14547",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, it is hard to publish in a peer reviewed journal. </p>\n\n<p>If it were easy anybody and everybody would do it. That should not prevent you from trying. </p>\n\n<p>Typically a magazine is easier to publish in. The real question you need to ask yourself is \"Who is my target audience?\" The general public? Or experts in the field? If the general public, a magazine might be the best choice. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23681",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17661/"
] |
23,686 |
<p>When applying for a second Masters, does one's undergrad score hold a lot of importance or does it get discounted in favor of better score in Master's?</p>
<p>Adding more information:</p>
<p>I have a BS in Mathematics from one of the good Indian university colleges. I spent a lot of time in my BS studying only my favorite subjects at the expense of others. I have a 66.67% in BS. Contrast this with the university topper who will be somewhere close to 90%.</p>
<p>I also have an MS in Economics from one of the good (in India) Economics grad schools. My MS score is decent (3.14 / 4.00). Though my batch topper scored 3.44, the typical top score from the school is close to 3.75.</p>
<p>I am considering applying for MS in Data Science (or CS with concentration in DS). I want to understand how much my bad score in BS will bring down my chances of getting a good school.</p>
<p>PS: I currently work as a Data Scientist for one of the leading analytics companies in India (will soon finish a year).</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23689,
"author": "David",
"author_id": 17671,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17671",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your question is difficult to answer confidently because you don't provide information about the program you're interested in or your prior studies. What did you study in the past? What do you want to study?</p>\n\n<p>Did you do well in your undergraduate classes relating to your prospective masters area? Is your most recent masters in an area closely related to that of your second masters? Did you perform well in your first masters program?</p>\n\n<p>To make things easier, you should perhaps call the admissions office of the program/department you're interested in joining. Be straightforward about your situation and they'll likely be helpful in guiding you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23929,
"author": "Tom Au",
"author_id": 755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In your situation, perhaps the most important thing that you have going for you is your work experience, since it is in the same field, data science, that you plan to study for. </p>\n\n<p>Your Ms grades are decidedly better than your BS grades, but may or may not be strong enough to get you into the second Master's program (even if your BS grades weren't an issue). What is beginning to set you apart from other candidates is your work experience. </p>\n\n<p>If you don't get in now, I'd apply again in TWO years, when you would be closing in on three years' work experience (the optimal amount). That's the time when you are most likely to be admitted.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23686",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17637/"
] |
23,691 |
<p>I found a list of "potential, possible, or probable predatory scholarly open-access publishers" <a href="http://scholarlyoa.com/publishers/">here</a>.</p>
<p>I am just wondering if there is a similar list of reputable open-access journals in the social sciences.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23696,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am not aware of a list of \"reputable\" open access journals in the social sciences. But, as a safe starting point, the most reputable open access journals in the social sciences have an ISI impact factor. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23716,
"author": "Mangara",
"author_id": 8185,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8185",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The <a href=\"http://doaj.org/\">Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)</a> is an attempt to create such a list for all fields, including the social sciences:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>DOAJ is an online directory that indexes and provides access to quality open access, peer-reviewed journals.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>They have a <a href=\"http://doaj.org/search\">search function</a> that lets you drill down to specific fields.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23717,
"author": "Thomas",
"author_id": 6984,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6984",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I would suggest going about this a slightly different way. The reputation of journals derives from views of scholars in a particular discipline. There are many closed access journals that are not very reputable and many open access journals that are reputable. You can figure out the ones that are reputable by looking at three things:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>What journals are being cited in other journals of known reputation? Journals that get citations in other journals are likely to be publishing decent research. This is not a guarantee, of course.</li>\n<li>Who is publishing in the journal? Reputable scholars tend to publish in reputable outlets. If a journal has prominent scholars publishing good work there, it's probably a decent journal. This is not a guarantee, of course.</li>\n<li>Who sponsors and publishes the journal? Reputable journals (especially in the social sciences) tend to be published by or endorsed by scholarly associations. This is not a guarantee, of course.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Thus, rather than trying to find a list of reputable journals, think about how you would evaluate any particular journal. If you find correct answers to any of the above questions, there is a good sign it is a reputable journal since the idea of \"reputation\" is a social construction that reflect precisely the above criteria.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 28664,
"author": "TH_",
"author_id": 21972,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21972",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>OnlineSchools.org produces a list of various <a href=\"http://www.onlineschools.org/open-access-journals/\" rel=\"nofollow\">open access journals</a>. While I can't say all are reputable, most look like they point to well established and credible organizations or educational institutions.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 131529,
"author": "Tony Box Anderson",
"author_id": 109564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/109564",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The real problem (and probably the reason for this predatory journal explosion) is that the classic journals have become abusive and predatory themselves. For example Springer/Nature journals will reject your paper without explanation and direct you to one of their fee-paying open access for guaranteed acceptance on resubmission.\nWorse, the old classic journals do not do peer review often, make decisions based on profitability of your paper and sometimes take months or even over a year to respond. Some do not ever respond. This includes Springer/Nature which did not respond at all to a submission and did not respond to the inquiry about why they did not respond. So, may be these predatory journals are just as predatory as the old corrupted ones. We may have to switch to the new era.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23691",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4475/"
] |
23,693 |
<p>I am a postdoc working on a research project, which is funded by a grant that runs for 3 years. </p>
<p>After my first year working on the project, I identified a problem which could potentially lead to a new research direction, but it is not directly related to my current project. I am required to work on the problems defined in my current project proposal.</p>
<p>What should I do in this case, given that I may need to wait for another 2 years before I can possibly work on the new problem?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23694,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You might consider starting a journal to record your ideas. I'm guessing that your new idea is pretty good, but you will certainly have many, many more good ideas over your career. This might be a situation when it is best to spend your time thinking, refining, and planning -- as opposed to acting. Having ideas is certainly very good, but you can't pursue all of them. Since you are just starting out your career, I would focus on being as productive as possible with your current project and enhance your skills. You will find that one idea leads to another, and you will eventually have way more ideas than time and money. This is certainly much more desirable than newly minted PhD's who are struggling to come up with a project. Good luck! </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23697,
"author": "Ari Trachtenberg",
"author_id": 15885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15885",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your research project doesn't own you ... it merely pays the bills. If you got an interesting idea related to your project, you have an ethical obligation to discuss this with your advisor. If your idea has nothing to do with your project, you have every right to spend your free time developing it, as long as you maintain appropriate time and effort on your project.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23708,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Now you are a postdoc and not a graduate student anymore. As such, you will have many research ideas, that you will not have the time to implement yourself. So, it is time for you to start delegating this work to \"less experienced\" workforce than you. That means undergraduate, master or PHD students. So, you should discuss it with your advisor that you have a new idea and that you are planning to propose a new undergraduate or MSc thesis. Perhaps he might even propose, working with a graduate student who is a bit stuck at his current stage of his / her PHD, so working in your new idea might be beneficial to both of you.</p>\n\n<p>In any of these cases, co-authorship issues should be discussed early and thorough. For undergraduate, MSc students usually the assumption is that they do most of the work (it is their thesis after all) but you write the paper and you get to be first author. For teaming with PHD students, things are a little bit trickier, so these issues should be discussed in detail, BEFORE the cooperation begins. Also, make sure that your PI is OK not to be included in the subsequent publication (since this is your idea after all). Of course, if you want to include your PI in your \"additional\" publication then by all means, go ahead (this will also help you bend his objections about the time you will spend on your new project). But if you do not, make sure you discuss it before doing it, so you will not get into hot water.</p>\n\n<p>In this scheme, not only you can multiply the number of your publications more easily and faster but also you help other people, who might be your future collaborators. So, you really have nothing to lose. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23693",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10936/"
] |
23,699 |
<p>I've got a project underway that involves human subjects, and I got IRB (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_review_board">Wikipedia Link</a>) approval. I'm thinking about my next project while working on this one. I'd like to collect some exploratory data for the next one, and potentially make use of it in any resultant publications. Nothing involves any real risks to respondents, so I feel that there are no ethical constraints binding me. </p>
<p>But as a practical matter, will anyone ever check that any findings were pre-approved by an IRB to be looked-for? What might the consequences of ignoring IRB be?</p>
<p>This is social science.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23702,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have never heard of a journal checking for IRB approval. However, as @xLeitix notes, your university may care very much, since doing studies on humans without IRB approval may get it into legal issues.</p>\n\n<p><em>And</em> I personally know of one case where departmental colleagues initiated a scientific audit of a professor, requiring her to dig up <em>all</em> documentation (filled-in questionnaiers, raw data, ... <em>and IRB approvals</em>) for some studies they were concerned about. Everything checked out all right, but if the IRB approvals had not been there, the PI would have been in very deep doo-doo.</p>\n\n<p>So: get your IRB approval, and make sure it's safe and sound, with scans and electronic backup. Keep it for the requisite number of years, even after the study has ended and been published. Inquire of your university how long that is. Given today's cost of storage, I would keep the scan around indefinitely.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23706,
"author": "Shion",
"author_id": 1429,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1429",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To add to Stephan's answer, most university IRB's have specific protocols for exploratory research which does not involve going through the full IRB panel. Such things are variously named (with various levels of fact-checking and paper work):</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Exemption from IRB.</li>\n<li>Expedited IRB.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Here is <a href=\"http://www.irb.cornell.edu/forms/\">one</a> relevant link to get your started. Moreover, you can always file for amendments or extensions to your existing approved IRB protocol which are usually granted pretty quickly.</p>\n\n<p>One of my advisers always told me to have your IRB bases covered. You never know when or if you could be scientifically audited.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23746,
"author": "Adrienne",
"author_id": 13729,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13729",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I submit to a biology education journal and they have just started requiring the IRB number or a letter from your IRB saying the project is exempt. </p>\n\n<p>It's possible to get a backwards exemption if your institution is the forgiving type and your protocol is sensible... Getting signed consent and so on. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23748,
"author": "cbeleites unhappy with SX",
"author_id": 725,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/725",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Nothing involves any real risks to respondents</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>While potential risks count against approval, no risk doesn't imply no need for approval.</p>\n\n<p>E.g., if I'd want to measure native blood cells (no treatment but immediately dilute with physiological NaCl, place under the microscope, measure, and destroy). As for the amount, a drop from the finger-tip is more than enough. </p>\n\n<p>For this*, the <em>safest</em> possible sample is my own: I cannot infect myself due to the contact with my own blood. Nevertheless, ethics approval does not distinguish <em>who</em> the human in question is, and I'm treated the same as any one else: I need approval.</p>\n\n<p>There are even ethical guidelines that just plain forbid this: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <blockquote>\n <p><a href=\"http://www.gre.ac.uk/research/rec/blood-collection-policy\" rel=\"nofollow\">1.5 No one should work with his or her own blood.</a></p>\n </blockquote>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Obviously, for all experiments on students & colleagues there is always the question how to ensure that there is no pressure for them to participate. As this pressure could come from superiors, it logically has to include oneself. IMHO this alone is sufficient to require ethical approval for such experiments.</p>\n\n<p>* things would be <em>completely</em> different if the sample were cultured or transformations were involved, etc.: there risks would <em>increase</em> if working with own samples.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23751,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I agree with all the posted answers that emphasize adherence to all IRB issues. I disagree with anything that suggests it is not that important for social science researchers. Indeed, there are some forms of social science research that is exempt (e.g., use of de-identified and publicly available data sets), but a lot of it must go through the review process. </p>\n\n<p>The part of your question that has not been answered is the <strong>consequences</strong> of ignoring IRB. Federal regulations exist with respect to IRB, so you can be sure that your institution will take it very seriously. </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.html</a></p>\n\n<p>At minimum, you can fully expect an IRB to shut down your program of research if you are in violation of IRB rules and regulations. This is a very serious issue, and you must adhere to all aspects of IRB throughout your research. Indeed, it can be very challenging, but the challenges will be far easier to manage than the consequences if you are in violation. </p>\n\n<p>If you are in doubt about any IRB issue with your research, talk to your IRB directly. Do not assume your research is exempt. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23699",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17673/"
] |
23,710 |
<p>My area is mathematics. I have just found another proof of the main theorem in my paper. It is slightly more elegant than the previous proof that I wrote, but the idea is very different. When submitting this paper, can I include two proof in the paper, or must I select only one? Personally, I don’t want to delete either of them, but I don’t know how the editor will deal with this situation. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23711,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I very much understand your personal satisfaction here - it is a pleasure for a mathematician to \"cross-proof\" a result by two different methods. But what is best for your readers? Are both of the proofs equally aesthetically pleasing and easy to comprehend? Are the ideas behind them really significantly different? </p>\n\n<p>I would recommend you to discuss your proofs with a supervisor or senior colleagues, probably on a local seminar in your group. Collect their opinions on which proof is better and why. Then think again and maybe it will be easier to see which one is preferable. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23712,
"author": "Andreas Blass",
"author_id": 14506,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14506",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If the two proofs are sufficiently different, then it's entirely reasonable to include both of them in your paper. You might, however, want to think first about whether the proofs might actually lead (easily) to different generalizations of your theorem. If they do, then you get two benefits: It's then clear that the two proofs are genuinely different. And you have some more general results.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23713,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As another strategy, I suggest that first explain one of the proofs which has more consistency with other contents of your paper and then briefly outline your other proof (maybe in a remark after your theorem). In this way, the reader easily reads one proof and has the option to consider another proof too. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23738,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are three alternatives here:</p>\n\n<p>1) Include the original proof only, perhaps with a remark that you later found a different proof.</p>\n\n<p>2) Include the more recent proof only, perhaps with a remark that you had earlier found a different proof.</p>\n\n<p>3) Include both proofs.</p>\n\n<p>All three of these are certainly acceptable, and depending upon the circumstances any one of them may be best. There is a lot to say here about the nuances of various situations: here is an incomplete discussion.</p>\n\n<p>When might 1) be best? Suppose you have already written the paper and that you have been planning to submit it at a certain near date (and perhaps you have received funding for this work). Suppose that both proofs are relatively long and that including both of them would make the paper close to twice as long. (In fact, the second proof uses material which is not yet present in the paper, including both could more than double the length of the paper.) Suppose that the second proof, although \"slightly more elegant\", does not have any other specific advantage to it, e.g. no further applications that you can see. Or suppose that it suggests to you a new possible approach or avenue, but you haven't developed it much and would like to spend more time on this than you can spare in delaying the submission of your paper.</p>\n\n<p>Then it is plausible to just submit your paper as is, possibly with the remark about the second proof. Math papers have a temporality to them. By that I mean that although it might be intellectually more satisfying to work out every aspect of a single problem before you submit a paper on it, in practice this is almost never possible, because (i) mathematicians, like other professionals, need to show evidence of work done and put out product in a reasonably regular manner, and (ii) mathematics is potentially infinite: there may well <em>never</em> be a natural stopping point. Andrew Wiles settled for a special case of the Taniyma-Shimura Conjecture when he must have suspected that a few more years of work could yield the whole thing. Pierre Deligne wrote a paper solving the Weil Conjectures and then another solving them in a better way (though the first was good enough!) six years later. What chance do the rest of us have?</p>\n\n<p>When might 2) be best? Suppose you've already written up the second proof and/or you know it would be acceptably easy and fast to do so. Suppose the second proof significantly shortens the length of the paper. Then, in confluence with the rest of the circumstances above, it is plausible to submit the paper with the second proof only (possibly with a remark...). </p>\n\n<p>In general, space in strong math journals is at quite a premium. Journals like papers which have \"no fat\", and they especially like short papers which get in, prove a strong result, and get out. My best publication is five pages long (for the non-mathematicians: this is really short for a contemporary math paper) and it was accepted as is with absolutely no revisions requested or critical comments made. They often don't like papers which have \"too much exposition\" or \"too little content for their length\". I hope you can hear my eyes rolling as I type out these sentiments, but I'm just telling it like I think it is. If you write a paper which is \"twice as long with the same content\", then you risk a journal liking it less.</p>\n\n<p>You can always try to publish the other proof later: one point in favor of withholding the better proof is that it will be easier to publish it later. It will be hard to publish a \"less elegant proof that I found earlier\" in a journal of the same stature as your original publication, but there are other venues for mathematical content. For instance you could put a longer version of the paper on your own website where you include both proofs -- or, if it seems preferable, a \"supplement\" to the paper containing the first proof. How important is this work to you and to the community? Maybe some day you will be teaching an advanced course and/or writing a book: that's a great place to include both proofs. Or maybe this work is just one stop for you on the road of mathematical research, and it happens that you were perceptive enough to find two proofs and don't feel the need to publicize both of them. (But please read the second bullet point.) There are quite a lot of \"less elegant proofs\" that the rest of us do not see.</p>\n\n<p>When might 3) be best? If both proofs are relatively short, easy and fast to write up, and do not add substantially to the length of the paper. Especially, if the proofs really do look different from each other and/or when it seems like each may have its own applications. Or if the difference between the two proofs is itself interesting or is something you'd like to receive feedback on.</p>\n\n<p>Let me end with two (relatively!) quick comments:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>I have recently been in a somewhat similar situation. About six weeks ago I submitted a paper -- relatively quickly after starting work in a certain subfield, for certain reasons that I needn't go into -- for publication. About three weeks ago I found a different proof of the main theorem, say A, of this paper, which all in all I like better: it leads relatively easily to a stronger result B. I am not completely decided on what to do -- certainly it depends on what happens with the submitted paper -- but I am leaning towards the first option. One reason for this is one I didn't mention above because it didn't seem to apply to the OP: there are coauthors involved, and that makes the prospect of slowing down / jeopardizing the acceptance of the paper less appealing. Another reason is that the second proof opens up the possibility of further improvements on Y: in fact, about two weeks ago, after doing some further reading suggested by one of my coauthors, I was able to get an improvement C. I am pretty confident that adding an extra ingredient (which I have not yet mastered) would lead to a further improvement D, and there are still <em>further</em> improvements E that I aspire to but do not yet know whether they are possible. Well, how many times should I rewrite one paper? I also freely admit that researchwise I do A and then B,C, probably D and possibly E, then I am thinking in terms of multiple publications rather than just one. And conversely: B and C are pretty good, but I would like to have the chance to see whether I can get to D and E before I publish B and C. These are not easy decisions: perhaps I'll change my mind.</p></li>\n<li><p>Publications aside, the experience of discovering a second proof of a theorem is a really important and positive one for a mathematician, more so than senior mathematicians seem to successfully communicate to our students and junior colleagues. I have been thinking recently about the \"bipartite structure of theorems and proofs\": roughly, proofs are viewed as being secondary objects to theorems, but I think that rather both are basic, and the incidence relation between them is a key one in the traversal of the mathematical landscape. If you two different proofs of a theorem, <em>try to figure out whether they are actually the same</em>. If they are, then you'll have made a new (to you, at least) connection between two things you already knew: again, this may not sound so sexy but I claim that it really is. Or if they aren't, then (well, it doesn't follow from graph theory, but I claim that's far more likely than not) you've actually proved at least one further theorem, which you should carefully write down and then look for alternate proofs of. And so forth! (Of course, now that you've heard my thoughts about this you know <em>how hard</em> my eyes roll when journals say that they are interested in new results, not \"merely\" new proofs.)</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23710",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17682/"
] |
23,719 |
<p>The open access publishing world has a number of predatory publishers. Many know about <a href="http://scholarlyoa.com/">Beall's list</a> which identifies publishers and journals that engage in questionable practices. The existence of these questionable publishers and journals makes choosing a quality open access journal difficult. Consortia like the <a href="http://oaspa.org/">Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association</a> and the <a href="http://doaj.org/">Directory of Open Access Journals</a> seem to promise a level of scrutiny. For example, <a href="http://oaspa.org/membership/members/">members of OASPA</a> include the <a href="http://royalsocietypublishing.org/institutional-membership">Royal Society</a> and <a href="http://www.plos.org/community/">PLoS</a> and while I cannot find a link confirming it, it seems like the <a href="http://oaspa.org/member/american-institute-of-physics/">AIP</a> is also a member. To me these are above the board legitimate and well respected publishers. There are also members, like <a href="http://oaspa.org/member/frontiers/">Frontiers</a>, that I am not sure how I feel about. I like that Frontiers is trying to push an innovative model of publishing, but I am not sure that I want them to have a large say in defining "good" open access publishing practices. Finally, there are members like <a href="http://oaspa.org/member/mdpi-ag/">MDPI</a> which Beall classifies as <a href="http://scholarlyoa.com/2014/02/18/chinese-publishner-mdpi-added-to-list-of-questionable-publishers/">predatory</a> and <a href="http://oaspa.org/member/hindawi-publishing-corporation/">Hindawi</a> which while it never made Beall's list, did make his <a href="http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~jbeall/Beall%27s%20List%20of%20Predatory,%20Open-Access%20Publishers%202012.pdf">"watch list"</a>.</p>
<p>I think I have two questions. First, why do these consortia affiliate themselves with questionable publishers? Second, how can the academic community pressure open access consortia to consider their members carefully?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 26643,
"author": "Cape Code",
"author_id": 10643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Why do these consortia affiliate themselves with questionable\n publishers?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Hindawi is a founding member of the OASPA and MDPI, whichever opinion we might have about the quality of its journals, is a major player in the OA business. The OASPA apparently conducted <a href=\"http://oaspa.org/conclusions-from-oaspa-membership-committee-investigation-into-mdpi/\">an internal investigation about MDPI</a> and seem to be happy about the results. The question might be more: is the OASPA questionable?</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>how can the academic community pressure open access consortia to\n consider their members carefully?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I would recommend not to consider open access consortia as relevant. Then, not submitting papers, not serving on the editorial board, and refusing reviewing tasks for sketchy journals.</p>\n\n<p>On a more general level, one thing we could do is <em>reduce the demand</em> for low-quality, pay-for-publish 'OA' journals by challenging the hiring policies based on publication volume in our local institutions. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 34910,
"author": "Aubrey",
"author_id": 26682,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26682",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>DOAJ, in the last 2 years, has been seriously trying to cope with the problem of fake and predatory publishers and journals. In 2013, the announced they were tightening the criteria for admission of journals. \nHere's the list of journals <a href=\"https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/183mRBRqs2jOyP0qZWXN8dUd02D4vL0Mov_kgYF8HORM/edit#gid=1650882189\" rel=\"nofollow\">added and removed in 2014</a>. \nThey even looked for a network for volunteer <a href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0fPCpIPjZlmWXliVC1nXzl5aFE/edit\" rel=\"nofollow\">Associate Editors</a> to evaluate journals. </p>\n\n<p>In <a href=\"https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dr3jnOygvuDlONSBv8lho4McQsEPFd0a5gtxjCmKd9k/edit\" rel=\"nofollow\">March 2014</a>, they again started receiving new applications, and gave old journals (already indexed) one year to fill in again the new form. In one way or another, there was a big delay, and it seems that just now they are actually <a href=\"https://doajournals.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/reapplications-are-your-journals-ready-are-you-ready/\" rel=\"nofollow\">ready for reapplications</a>.</p>\n\n<p>A <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/news/open-access-website-gets-tough-1.15674\" rel=\"nofollow\">Nature article</a> tells you the story.</p>\n\n<p>For what is worth, I've worked with University of Bologna from 2010 till June 2014, and I managed the OJS platform (basically, a publishing software for open access journals). In that period, I spoke many times to the DOAJ team regarding Unibo's journals, and my personal impression is that they had <em>too much success</em> to cope effectively with all the applications. \nThey need(ed) more resources, more time, more money.</p>\n\n<p>At the beginning the project was supported by the Lund University, but they probably had to find other ways to finance it. DOAJ asks for membership fees, and is now managed by a new committee, <a href=\"http://is4oa.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">IS4OA</a>. </p>\n\n<p>It's probably fair to wait for the new round of re-applications to evaluate the website again and see if the old issues are solved or not. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 115672,
"author": "rmounce",
"author_id": 651,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/651",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The academic publishing world has a number of problems with inadequate or completely absent peer review. These problems are present at both open access and subscription journals. The <a href=\"https://www.stm-assoc.org/2018_08_09_STM_statement_on_the_increase_of_unethical_and_deceptive_journal_practices.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer\">recent statement from the STM Association also reflects this position that the problems are not just confined to open access journals</a>. </p>\n\n<p>The members of OASPA include a heck of a lot of publishers, from very small, to very large, including SpringerNature and Wiley. Elsevier would probably like to be a member but it doesn't meet the stringent <a href=\"https://oaspa.org/membership/membership-criteria/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">membership criteria for OASPA</a> yet. </p>\n\n<p>Amongst publishers, OASPA membership is seen as a mark of quality. The <a href=\"https://thinkchecksubmit.org/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Think.Check.Submit</a> cross-industry initiative encourages researchers to check that if the journal is open access, if the journal is in DOAJ and if the publisher is an OASPA member -- marks of trust/quality. Both DOAJ and OASPA are selective organisations - they don't allow or list just any and every OA journal or publisher. </p>\n\n<p>As @Aubrey's answer notes, <a href=\"https://www.nature.com/news/open-access-website-gets-tough-1.15674\" rel=\"noreferrer\">DOAJ have done good work to weed-out questionable journals from DOAJ</a>.</p>\n\n<p>The same is also true of OASPA. After the <a href=\"http://science.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/60.full\" rel=\"noreferrer\">famous Bohannon sting published in <em>Science</em></a> <a href=\"https://oaspa.org/oaspas-second-statement-following-the-article-in-science-entitled-whos-afraid-of-peer-review/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">OASPA responded by investigating</a> all three of the then (2013) OASPA publisher members that accepted Bohannon's sting article. Those three publishers were <a href=\"http://www.m-hikari.com/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Hikari</a>, <a href=\"https://www.dovepress.com/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Dove Medical Press</a>, and <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAGE_Publications\" rel=\"noreferrer\">SAGE</a>. Incidentally, two Hindawi journals (<em>Chemotherapy Research and Practice</em> and <em>ISRN Oncology</em>) , one MDPI journal (<em>Cancers</em>) and one Frontiers journal (<em>Frontiers in Pharmacology: Pharmacology of Anti-Cancer Drugs</em>) tested in Bohannon's sting ALL rejected the sting article, 'passing' the test.</p>\n\n<p>After these OASPA investigations, OASPA <a href=\"https://oaspa.org/oaspas-second-statement-following-the-article-in-science-entitled-whos-afraid-of-peer-review/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">decided to terminate the OASPA memberships of Hikari and Dove Medical Press</a>. Neither publisher have since returned to OASPA membership.</p>\n\n<p>I do not think that DOAJ or OASPA affiliate themselves with questionable publishers, and whenever this has been pointed out to them, they have both taken appropriate, detailed investigations to weed-out questionable journals and publishers.</p>\n\n<p>I guess it all depends on whom one considers a 'questionable publisher or journal'. I certainly do not consider MDPI, Hindawi or Frontiers to be 'predatory publishers' but must admit I would not and have not chosen to publish with Frontiers or Elsevier because of distasteful business practices.</p>\n\n<p>Organisations like DOAJ and OASPA cannot simply bar new members from trying to join - it is not in their spirit (openness!). But they certainly do heavily vet new membership or listing applications. I don't know what else to say. I found the question to be a little leading tbh... </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 115704,
"author": "Allure",
"author_id": 84834,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/84834",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If I understand your question correctly, you're asking about why OASPA and DOAJ associate themselves with MDPI, Frontiers and Hindawi. Only OASPA and DOAJ will know for sure, but I'll venture this reason: MDPI, Frontiers and Hindawi aren't necessarily questionable.</p>\n\n<p>First, something to remember about Beall's list: this started as the work of one person. That means it's easily biased. OA spans from the clearly disreputable on the one end to a very gray area on the other. Beall undoubtedly had good intentions, but if the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who%27s_Afraid_of_Peer_Review%3F#DOAJ_versus_Beall's_list\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Who's Afraid of Peer Review?</a> sting meant anything, Beall was only 82% accurate. In the sciences, a theory that predicts the right result 82% of the time is good but not great; in particle physics we even need a 5 sigma result (p-value 1 in 3.5 million) to claim a detection. I'm not saying Beall was wrong about MDPI, Frontiers and Hindawi, but I will say that \"because Beall said so\" is not a sufficiently good reason to conclude ____ is predatory.</p>\n\n<p>Now about each publisher:</p>\n\n<p><strong>MDPI</strong>: See <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDPI#Inclusion_in_Beall's_list\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Wikipedia</a> for more information. You can see Beall's criticism of MDPI stems from several aspects, such as how MDPI's articles are lightly-reviewed, how MDPI uses email spam, and how MDPI listed Nobel laureate Mario Capecchi on an editorial board without his knowledge. However:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Many OA journals do indeed review lightly. For example I once attended a talk by a Springer spokesperson who talked about a journal which reviews for correctness, not novelty (can't find the journal now, but <a href=\"http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/journal-information\" rel=\"noreferrer\">PLOS ONE has the same policy</a>). Viewed one way this is laudatory - it makes peer review less random by eliminating one completely subjective facet! Viewed another way, this is terrible - it makes it seem as though the journal will publish old results known for hundreds of years as long as the author is willing to pay. Which is closer to the truth? You'll have to come to your own conclusions.</li>\n<li>Email spam. Although everyone finds them annoying, what constitutes email spam isn't universally agreed on. If you receive an email from someone you don't know with \"Dear Professor Strongbad, I saw your question on Academia.SE and find it interesting, would you like to write an editorial on predatory publishers for my journal\" - would you call that spam? Some people would, others would not. Also, what exactly isn't email spam anyway? If you never emailed people you didn't know personally, you would never be able to expand a journal large enough to be self-sufficient.</li>\n<li>Finally the Mario Capecchi case was later shown to be the result of inaccurate communication by Capecchi's assistant.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>Frontiers</strong>: again, see the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frontiers_Media#History\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Wikipedia article</a>. You'll note that, similar to MDPI, there were established academics who defended Frontiers. Although the volume of allegations against Frontiers in the article is both larger and harder to justify if true, it's also the case that a Frontiers journal rejected John Bohannon's sting paper. <a href=\"https://oaspa.org/frontiers-membership-of-oaspa/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">OASPA</a> and <a href=\"https://publicationethics.org/news/cope-statement-frontiers\" rel=\"noreferrer\">COPE</a> both investigated Frontiers, and both decided that Frontiers meets their membership criteria.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Hindawi</strong>: once again see the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindawi_Publishing_Corporation#History\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Wikipedia article</a>. I don't want to rehash everything I wrote about MDPI and Frontiers since a lot of it also applies to Hindawi, but I'll add a few specific things:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Hindawi was one of the pioneers of OA. In 2007, they converted all their journals to OA - this was both 1) before OA really took off and 2) pioneering, since even today most big publishers don't use a complete OA model.</li>\n<li>Hindawi is big. With over 400 journals and tens of thousands of published articles a year, Hindawi is a big fish in the OA pond.</li>\n<li>A Hindawi journal also rejected John Bohannon's sting paper.</li>\n<li>Some of Beall's criticism of Hindawi apparently focused on how high its profit margins are (apparently higher than Elsevier's). This not only has no relation to the quality of Hindawi's editorial process, it's also the case that Hindawi's article processing charges are lower than average, and they're based in Egypt, which as a developing country has much lower labour costs than the Netherlands-based Elsevier. One could say that Egyptians are bad at publishing relative to the Dutch, but that's borderline racism.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>tl; dr: it's not a given that any unbiased observer will conclude that these three publishers are disreputable. Accordingly, it shouldn't be surprising that some OA consortia are willing to count them as one of their members.</strong></p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23719",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929/"
] |
23,720 |
<p>I am in the process of writing a paper that I think introduces a novel concept. There are some related factors (perhaps even foundational factors) that should be worked out in order to perfect my idea. I plan on putting these ideas in a 'Future Work' section of the paper. However, I have no interest in actually doing anything I put there. After this paper, I want to move on to another topic.</p>
<p>Should I include those ideas in 'Future Work'? Should I state that I have no plan to work on them myself, so as not to leave anyone interested in the work 'hanging'?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23722,
"author": "gerrit",
"author_id": 1033,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It depends how you phrase it. Do not write <em>This will be shown in a subsequent paper</em>. Do write <em>This and this still needs to be done</em>.</p>\n\n<p>I think it is very informative to inform the audience of the next steps that need to be taken in this research. For example, shows you are aware of shortcomings of work done so far, and it can be useful to refer to in funding applications. However, there can be <em>many</em> reasons why next steps are not actually carried out. It might be your personal interest, but more often than not, project-specific funding runs out, PhD students or postdocs finish and move to new institutes, etcetera.</p>\n\n<p>This is particularly true for PhD theses. The final chapter may be full of future work, which, in many cases, is never carried out.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23736,
"author": "adipro",
"author_id": 10936,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10936",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Instead of having a 'Future work' section, you could, under the 'Conclusion' section, discuss briefly in what ways you believe the current work can be improved. You do not have to state that you have no plan to work on the ideas yourself. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23720",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17694/"
] |
23,721 |
<p>How you as professors would prefer to be informed in this case? That is, how to turn down a Postdoc fellowship offer that you have already signed a contract.</p>
<p>The reason in my case is I get an even better offer at another fellowship foundation. But the fact that I contacted the professor, we applied for the fellowship together, I got it and accepted it, make me feel quite awkward... </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23723,
"author": "Ben Webster",
"author_id": 13,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think the main thing is \"as quickly as possible.\" You can either call or email, but don't wait any significant amount of time. It will be awkward, but too bad. </p>\n\n<p><strong>EDIT:</strong> I'll note that when I wrote this answer, I think the question didn't specify that an actual contract had been signed, so I assumed that the OP just meant an informal acceptance. Obviously, once the contract is signed, you're bound to follow its terms, and as Pete and xLeitix say, there are certainly ethical considerations beyond that. I would probably state things in somewhat less absolute terms; while I think Steven Jessop is missing some aspects of academic culture, I think the question of precisely where this obligation ends is a good one. Does signing the contract create a moral obligation to do the full term of the fellowship no matter what the contract says? I don't think that would be most people's position. xLeitix says it's OK to quit after a year but not immediately, (which I think is mostly a convention based on the fact that in the US jobs go on an annual cycle, so a year later an employer can position themselves better). What about after six months? The very fact that there isn't a precise answer shows that it is a judgement call, but you do need to exercise judgement in a way the OP seems not to be. You are, when considering a change like this, obligated to assess what kind of damage doing this switch would cause (for example, to the research of your prospective sponsor) and judge whether the benefit to you really outweighs this. It certainly hasn't yet sounded to me like it would. <strong>END EDIT</strong></p>\n\n<p>Rather than just bluntly specifying that you're backing out, you may want to lay out the situation with the first professor, and ask if there is a way to reconcile things (maybe you can spend some time in professor 1's lab with funding from the second fellowship?). I think it will \"save face\" if you can think of it as some kind of hybrid of the two positions rather than you simply dropping the first professor. </p>\n\n<p>I would also think carefully about just how much better the other fellowship is. I'm not an absolutist about changing your mind after accepting a job, but it is a pretty major step and one only to be taken if the other possibility is <strong>much</strong> better. You run the risk of seriously burning bridges, especially if you don't have a compelling reason (say, strong personal considerations, or a permanent job vs. a temporary one). You don't indicate what the difference is, but if it's just a bit more money or slightly better location, then you should probably just suck it up and stick with your original commitment. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23726,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><em>How to turn down a Postdoc scholarship offer that you already signed the contract for</em>?</p>\n\n<p><strong>You don't.</strong></p>\n\n<p>I am all but a hardliner when it comes to such topics, but signing a contract and then not taking the offer is a major breach of trust. This is not \"close\" to burning bridges. Unless the other side is the most understanding person in the world, this is going to go down <strong>really badly</strong> with the other side, and mark you forever as an utterly unreliable person, whose word cannot be trusted even after the paperwork is already filed. Frankly, if it is just about location and salary, I would strongly advise against changing your mind. The only time when this <em>could</em> be acceptable is when you get offered a faculty position instead of a postdoc.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Some Edits:</strong></p>\n\n<p>After some more discussion, reading Pete's answer, and a good night's sleep, here are some additional clarifications to my answer:</p>\n\n<p>Steve Jossup: <em>\"I wonder whether they're working on the assumption that in a typical contract the questioner has already contracted to work for the full duration of the scholarship without notice period\"</em></p>\n\n<p>No, that's not my assumption at all. I think it is perfectly ok to quit a two-year scholarship after one year, because something better has come up. However, to me there is a world of a difference between quitting after a year and effectively handing in your notice before your job even started. I do remember that there is a question here somewhere about what the shortest acceptable timeframe for quitting a postdoc is, but I can't find it currently. </p>\n\n<p>Also, the comparison between postdocs and professional contractors is in this context quite helpful. I have been an software engineering contractor for a short time, and I would have <strong>never</strong> signed all the legalese paperwork for a customer and then immediately backed out because a better-paying customer came around. As a contractor, like a postdoc, you are living off of reputation, and this kind of thing is <em>not</em> good for it.</p>\n\n<p><em>\"Isn't there a chance that the other person would be ok with the OP cancelling the deal?\"</em></p>\n\n<p>Of course there is. Maybe the OP's original postdoc advisor does not care so much about this position anyway. Maybe the original postdoc advisor is really just that happy for the OP that he found a better post. However, in all the discussion so far, the OP has to the best of my knowledge never indicated that he plans on <em>discussing</em> with the other person. This question is all about <em>telling</em> the other person that he has changed his mind. There's an important difference.</p>\n\n<p>Stephan Tarasov: <em>\"Why should it \"could be acceptable is when you get offered a faculty position\"?\"</em></p>\n\n<p>This is really just an amendment of the previous point. Even if you get offered a faculty position, you should not just <em>tell</em> the other person that you're out after all. You explain your situation to them carefully, and maybe they will understand and you will be able to renege without burning any bridges. The probability of the other person being understanding is much higher if the other post is objectively much better than the original one, which would be the case if comparing a tenure-track position and a postdoc position. A better-paying postdoc does not qualify.</p>\n\n<p>Stephan Tarasov: <em>\"this should not hurt anyone!\"</em></p>\n\n<p>I am not sure why you would say that. The other person thought she is going to have an additional postdoc for a specified time frame, and now she isn't. How is that not very bad for her?</p>\n\n<p>Stephan Tarasov: <em>\"Are you saying you keeping all of your promises all the time?\"</em></p>\n\n<p>I would say I try to. Anyway, a <strong>signed contract</strong> is certainly more than just a promise.</p>\n\n<p>Anyway, I feel like I have said all there is to say on this matter. Still, I have created <a href=\"http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/15245/getting-out-of-a-signed-contract\">a chat room</a> for this question, and should the OP or anybody else want to discuss this issue further, I invite you to discuss it in the chat room. As the commenting escalated a bit last night (surely my fault as well), I will not be answering any comments here directly anymore.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23745,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I upvoted both of the other answers, but in my heart I agree with xLeitix: academics live and die by their honor in a much more extreme way than is the norm in the contemporary Western world. I should admit that my views on this are more absolute than those of <em>some</em> of my colleagues (with whom I have had occasion to discuss issues of reneging on signed contracts). When I hear people say that it is okay to behave absolutely unethically -- even illegally, but counting on the fact that your former employer is not going to hunt you down and pursue a surely thankless legal action -- because they have to look out for themselves first, it really worries me. Such a person is baldly stating that ethics can be thrown out the window when the consequences are important...which is of course the time when ethical considerations matter most.</p>\n\n<p>What stops a person who has reneged on a job from reneging on a future job? What stops them from engaging in unethical academic behavior in any of a hundred different ways? Beyond the student level, academia is almost entirely self-policing. In my field, if someone releases a preprint, and I respond by saying that I have independently proved the result but hadn't released it publicly yet, there will be some followup questions and discussion, but unless I give them an excellent reason not to, <em>people will believe me</em>. In science, every time you write a paper describing an experiment you did, you don't submit a videotape of yourself doing the experiment, you submit a written description of the experiment...<em>and people believe you unless they have an excellent reason not to</em>. Whenever you submit a paper, it gets sent to a referee, whom you trust not to try to steal the work. And so forth: only a small amount of \"justified unethical behavior\" brings this crashing down. </p>\n\n<p>Once upon a time I was myself in the position of having accepted -- via an email correspondence, not via filling out a contract -- a postdoctoral position. Just a few days later I got offered another postdoctoral position. The first position was a great one, but it involved moving to Canada. The second position was probably even better: it was at a top 10 math department in the US. (Financially the second position was significantly better.) But the first position was one that I hadn't even applied for originally; rather, my thesis advisor had made some phone calls and the offer came quickly: people had taken some trouble on my behalf. What did I do? I told the people offering me the second job that I was grateful for their offer but had to turn it down because I had already committed to another. In retrospect, I still feel like the second offer might have been even better for me. But a tremendously eminent mathematician went on the line and offered me a job when -- for a few days -- no one else would. Anyone who knows me knows who this person is. I can be a prickly person at times -- I certainly felt like the \"loud American\" during my 2.5 years in Canada -- and I imagine that this guy and most of his colleagues know me as slightly eccentric but <em>professionally reliable</em>. Having people know you as professionally reliable is really priceless if you plan on staying in the profession: for instance, we later arranged for someone to transfer part of his NSF postdoc from this Canadian department to my own department. </p>\n\n<p>What should you do in academia if you want to back out of an agreement? It's simple: you <em>immediately contact</em> the party you've made the agreement with, you explain why you want to back out of the agreement, and you see what they have to say about it. They're not going to be thrilled, but they can convey to you how much hardship they will actually incur by your backing out of the agreement. If it is only a moderate amount, they will probably give you their blessing and the agreement can be mutually dissolved. If however backing out of the agreement would turn out to really be a significant, tangible, medium or long-term loss for them, then you should honor it. The OP has done something in the comments which he surely does not realize sounds absolutely obnoxious to more senior personnel: he's made all kinds of assumptions that his reneging will not be so bad for his employer. And he's making them in the face of evidence that this employer actually did go to trouble: applying for a fellowship is certainly trouble! If this is an externally funded position then it cannot easily be filled with someone else, and the faculty supervisor may well already have made plans and committed resources for the OP's arrival. Or maybe not, of course. <strong>Ask!</strong></p>\n\n<p>Finally, the OP doesn't seem to understand why getting a tenure-track job offer might make a difference. The difference is that every postdoc wants to get a permanent job eventually, and every postdoctoral supervisor and institution wants that out of their postdocs. Therefore, if you <strong>ask</strong> to renege on a postdoctoral job because you'd like to take a tenure track job instead, it is much more likely that the response will be: \"Bummer for us, but congratulations for you!\" <em>or</em> \"Well, can you come work here even for a very short time? That will inconvenience us minimally, you'll get some further training and experience, <em>and</em> we'll be able to say that we placed our postdoc in a tenure-track job. It's a win-win!\" It is however still possible that reneging on a postdoc for a tenure-track job may be unacceptable to the employer. If they tell you that, then you go back to the tenure-track job and say \"Look, I <em>really</em> want this job, but I have some prior commitments. I am the type of person who honors my prior commitments even when it conflicts with my short-term best interests. Surely we can work something out?\" It is likely that the position can be held open for an extra semester or year. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23721",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17695/"
] |
23,725 |
<p>I, personally, have never see any authors in IEEE transactions listed as "co-first" authors, as such</p>
<pre><code>John Smith†, Bill Lee†, and Boss James
...
† These two authors contribute equally to the work.
</code></pre>
<p>Is this allowed in IEEE transactions?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23740,
"author": "Ari Trachtenberg",
"author_id": 15885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15885",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have never seen co-first authors either ... you can use alphabetic ordering to indicate more-or-less equal contributions, or you can use partial alphabetic ordering (the first group is alphabetically ordered and the last group is not), or non-alphabetic to indicate that the first author contributed the most.</p>\n\n<p>Ultimately, the system only works when co-authors are honest to the public about their contribution. If you're worried that co-authors will cheat you out of credit, you probably should not be working with them.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23747,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Yes, it is allowed. Google scholar is your friend in such cases.</p>\n\n<p>I employed <a href=\"http://scholar.google.com/scholar?as_q=&as_epq=contributed+equally+to+this&as_oq=study+paper+work+article&as_eq=&as_occt=any&as_sauthors=&as_publication=IEEE+Transactions&as_ylo=&as_yhi=&btnG=&hl=it&as_sdt=0%2C5\">this query</a>, which looks for publications with \"IEEE Transactions\" in them, the text \"contributed equally to\", and one in (text | paper | work | article).</p>\n\n<p>The results show several papers published in IEEE Transactions, which specify multiple equal co-authorship. <em>The way this is specified seems to be non standardized</em>.</p>\n\n<p>For example, <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TNB.2006.875054\">http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TNB.2006.875054</a> specifies that \"The first two authors contributed equally to this work.\" in the space reserved for details such as when the manuscript was received and revised.</p>\n\n<p>In <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TED.2009.2034804\">http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TED.2009.2034804</a>, the equal contribution is specified in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT section of the paper.</p>\n\n<p>Both ways look good to me. The first case is likely achieved by communicating the authors' contribution in the cover letter / space for staff communication. The second case is achieved by simply writing the contribution in the text body.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23749,
"author": "Has QUIT--Anony-Mousse",
"author_id": 17690,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17690",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some people use alphabetic sorting of authors.</p>\n\n<p>Assuming that the first author contributed \"most\" is a very fragile and questionable approach.</p>\n\n<p>This is <em>not even</em> consistent within a field.<br /> It's largely the personal preference of the supervisor, usually.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23725",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8079/"
] |
23,727 |
<p>Inspired by <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23725/do-ieee-transactions-allow-for-any-co-first-authors">this question</a> and <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5867/practical-implications-of-noting-equally-contributing-authors?rq=1">this question</a>, I continue my ongoing quest of understanding the concept of <strong>co first-authorship</strong>.</p>
<p>My question are:</p>
<ul>
<li>In which fields does this notion even exist?</li>
<li>If the notion exists in your field, do recruiting committees (e.g., faculty search committees) actually care about this?</li>
</ul>
<p>The background of the second part of this question is that it seems to me that a little footnote in a paper should be easy to miss for a committee, and even if a committee becomes aware of the claimed dual first-authorship, I find it hard to believe that the paper will actually be counted as another "first-authored" paper.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23741,
"author": "Ari Trachtenberg",
"author_id": 15885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15885",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have not seen co first-authorship in engineering or computer science papers. That said:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Any committee can find reasons to accept or reject a candidate. Ultimately, if you have an advocate, it will be his/her job to find out and explain your contribution to the work. It is much more important to develop a local advocate than it is to have high numbers.</li>\n<li>Authorship deals only with what happens <em>before</em> the paper is published. However, what you do after publication (e.g. give talks, produce extensions) is no less important in cementing your ultimate contribution to the field.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23752,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In theoretical computer science and mathematics, authors are (almost) always listed alphabetically. There is simply no such thing as a \"first author\", except lexicographically. Equivalently, <em>all</em> authors are co-first authors.</p>\n\n<p>In my experience, recruiting committees generally understand and respect this practice, but (at least in computer science, where order by contribution is more common) they do occasionally have to be reminded, especially for candidates whose last names start late in the alphabet. One sentence in the CV and/or in a recommendation letter usually suffices.</p>\n\n<p>For non-theoretical CS, I have seen CVs that indicated equal contribution of co-authors. Again, one sentence in the CV (\"Stars indicate co-authors who contributed equally\") made the notation clear, and the recruiting committee understood and respected it.</p>\n\n<p>As Ari and gefei say, having a local advocate is <strong>much</strong> more important that having another (co-)first-author paper. If nobody on the faculty is willing to pound on the table and <em>demand</em> that you get an interview, you won't.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23756,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I have seen co-first authors in the social sciences, but it is not very common. It is usually indicated in a very small footnote that the \"authors contributed equally\" or something to that extent. Given that this practice is the exception than the rule, it is hard to imagine that committees (in the social sciences) will give much attention to this in whatever decision that is being made. Thus, I am in complete agreement with you that a 'co first-author' paper will actually be counted as a 'first author' paper. </p>\n\n<p>For me, co-first authorship doesn't really mean much to me (in the social sciences). It is hard for me to believe that the contributions of the co-first authors were equal. Did they really quantify the actual intellectual contribution? Did they really work equally as hard? Did they really write equally as much? It would be impossible to balance every aspect of the work, so every co-first authorship paper in the social sciences is based on different divisions of labor, so the title co-first authorship really doesn't mean much. </p>\n\n<p>(BTW, I would be very interested in seeing a 'highly cited' paper in the social sciences that is co first-authored.) </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23764,
"author": "Benoît Kloeckner",
"author_id": 946,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/946",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As already said, the notion of fist author barely makes sense in mathematics. It is a common and important notion in (at least some part) of biology, with the additional and complicated provisio that I have heard of second-named-co-first-authors which where really not-as-first-author-than-the-first-author-but-more-than-the-third, even when the names are marked as a balanced co-first-authorship.</p>\n\n<p>With respect to the second question, you should keep in mind that it is one's job to write one's CV in a way that stresses the important points. So, in addition to underlining one's name in the list of authors for each publication in one's CV (which seems common in the fields where author order matters), I would advise to make it very clear, at one glance, which papers in your publication record are first-authored or co-first-authored (so that they are shown on the same level).</p>\n\n<p>Below are two easy ways to do that (to be adapted if you need to also highlight last-authored papers). </p>\n\n<p>First, you can split your publication list in two, with in the top part all first-author and co-first-author papers, and in the bottom part all other papers. If you number publications, you can use a common numbering, e.g. first-authored papers are numbered 1, 2, 3 and the other papers are numbered 4, 5, 6, etc.</p>\n\n<p>This makes it easy for a committee to count the number of first-authored papers and the total number of papers you have.</p>\n\n<p>A second solution is to mark all first-authored and co-first-authored papers by a clear sign (e.g. bold star), with an explicit footnote explaining the meaning of the sign.</p>\n\n<p>But you certainly should not expect committees to actually open your published papers to see if by any chance a little star somewhere credits you for co-first-authorship. They can do it if they want to check your claims, but you have to claim it clearly.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23765,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I work in a Psychology and order of authorship matters and co-first author papers are not unheard of. As for how search committee treat them, I think you might be missing how search committee work. There is no formula in terms of how papers are weighted in terms of authorship. We want to make sure a candidate has a strong publication record. Order of authorship doesn't really matter for this as much as being associated with strong papers. In some ways we don't care how hard you worked for the publication. The second thing we look for is wether you could continue to carry out the type of research in the papers. Co-first author papers raise more questions about this then single first author papers. Generally the rest of the publication history, CV, and research statement can clarify this. I would suggest making sure your research statement makes it clear what type of research you can do on your own.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23727",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094/"
] |
23,728 |
<p>There have been many questions in the past about choosing an affiliation to write on your papers. This one has a nuance that is a bit different from having two jobs.</p>
<p>I am currently between two jobs (PhD student and postdoc) and currently not academically affiliated to either. I am currently writing a paper and I am trying to figure out if I put my PhD affiliation or my postdoc affiliation.</p>
<p>The reason for the PhD affiliation is because a lot of the work was done there.</p>
<p>The reason for the postdoc affiliation is because then anyone could contact me for correspondence with respect to the paper. </p>
<p>I feel there must be a hard and fast rule to this, so I was hoping someone could enlighten me. </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23729,
"author": "just-learning",
"author_id": 10483,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10483",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I suggest using the postdoc affiliation (precisely for the reason you mention and also because you will probably still be there while the paper will be reviewed) and thanking for support the university where you did your Ph.D. in the acknowledgments.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23737,
"author": "adipro",
"author_id": 10936,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10936",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would say that the affiliation should be the place where you did most of the work that leads to the paper. When I read a paper, I immediately assume that the work presented in the paper was carried out when the author was affiliated with the affiliation listed there. In your case, it would be your PhD affiliation. If you put your postdoc affiliation, it would give the wrong impression that the paper is a product of your postdoc, and your postdoc affiliation, rather than your PhD affiliation, wrongly gets the credit.</p>\n\n<p>Getting a paper published takes time. By the time it gets accepted, you might have started your postdoc. Then you should also include your postdoc affiliation for correspondence purposes. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>See, for example, this <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/ncomms/authors/submit.html#Submission-policies\">guide to authors</a> from <em>Nature Communications</em>, where it says,</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The primary affiliation for each author should be the institution where the majority of their work was done. If an author has subsequently moved, the current address may also be stated.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Also see this <a href=\"http://www.elsevier.com/journals/applied-energy/0306-2619/guide-for-authors#38000\">guide for authors</a> from an <em>Elsevier</em> journal, which seems to be the standard across <em>Elsevier</em> journals, where it says,</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If an author has moved since the work described in the article was done, or was visiting at the time, a 'Present address' (or 'Permanent address') may be indicated as a footnote to that author's name. The address at which the author actually did the work must be retained as the main, affiliation address.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23739,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It should be possible to list both affiliations. While I have not worried about this myself, I do remember going to a seminar at UPenn in the summer between my PhD and my postdoc. My introduction included both affiliations. I was a little surprised (and pleased) by that and kept an ear out for it afterwards: it is a reasonably common thing to do.</p>\n\n<p>Why do you list affiliations at all? Here are some reasons.</p>\n\n<p>1) It gives readers a chance to contact you.<br>\n2) Some employers require or request that you mention them. If they are providing you with financial support, this seems reasonable. (Especially if you signed a contract saying you will!)<br>\n3) You give yourself a veneer of legitimacy/prestige that can (unfortunately) help your submission get taken more seriously. Often by doing this you telegraph to insiders who your famous thesis advisor is, which could (unfortunately) get you more alacrity and respect in the processing of your paper.</p>\n\n<p>To address these: I think 1) is almost obsolete. If you are an untenured academic, you should have a webpage. Then anyone who reads one of your papers types \"T....K.... math\" into google, and presto, they can contact you. By the way, if you are transitioning from one temporary job to another, then neither affiliation is going to be very useful in the long term. I have papers which tell readers that they can reach me at \"Montreal\" and \"MSRI\": the latter might have been true for a month or two, but no longer. </p>\n\n<p>2) is serious of course, but if you are between affiliations you are probably not being financially supported by either one. It may be though that you are just putting the finishing touches on work that you did at the first institution. That's a good reason to list the first institution. The fact that it doesn't make much sense to list an institution that you are no longer affiliated with <em>instead of</em> an institution that you are currently affiliated with is then a good reason to try to list the second institution as well.</p>\n\n<p>3) Well, what's more prestigious than any one academic institution? The answer seems obvious...</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Let me briefly respond to something written by @adipro:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If you put your postdoc affiliation, it would give the wrong impression that the paper is a product of your postdoc, and your postdoc affiliation, rather than your PhD affiliation, wrongly gets the credit.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The OP is a mathematician, and math papers are not products of their institutions. Listing an institutional affiliation means exactly that: you have (or had, during part of the period when the work was done or the paper was written) an affiliation with that institution. (It doesn't even <em>necessarily</em> mean that you had financial support from them, although that is usually the case.) None of the institutions at which I was a postdoc can or do claim any ownership or credit for any of the papers I wrote while I was there. They get to record for all time that they had the good judgment to hire someone who went on to a tenure-track job, <a href=\"http://www.dms.umontreal.ca/~andrew/QVNTS/Former%20Postdocs%202011.html\">which one of them does</a>.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23728",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12656/"
] |
23,743 |
<p>I am a first year grad student with an expunged felony in the state of Arkansas. I am looking for advice on if and how I should communicate this with my adviser. The felony is due to a drug crime and took place ~decade ago. I ask this because through out my academic career I may need to go to conferences in other countries and this may affect my ability to get through customs and enter those countries hosting the conference. </p>
<p>I am looking for other students who were in the same boat, professors who have dealt with similar situations, and in general opinions from advisers on how they would like to be approached in situations such as this. </p>
<p>Thanks for the communities knowledge in advance.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23744,
"author": "D.W.",
"author_id": 705,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/705",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You don't need to explain the details. Here is the most I would do. If the situation comes up (e.g., your advisor suggests you attend a conference that would require international travel you are not comfortable with), tell your advisor how this will affect your professional work: e.g., you would prefer to publish in domestic conferences, you are not comfortable travelling internationally, or whatever the implication is. Your advisor doesn't need to know the details of why (e.g., that you had a felony).</p>\n\n<p>Of course, you can always explain these details if you feel comfortable doing so. That will depend upon the nature of your relationship with your advisor. But you shouldn't feel like it is mandatory to explain this aspect of your personal history. This is a professional relationship, and in professional relationships, you only need to provide enough information to allow you to meet your professional obligations and goals.</p>\n\n<p>Basically, think of it this way. Why does your advisor need to know? What will the implications be, in terms of how it will affect his advice to you? Then think about how to convey the implications without the unnecessary details, and whether there is even any need or value in conveying any information at all. That might help guide you figure out what to explain. You might find you never need to explain anything related to this to your advisor.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23812,
"author": "Aaron Hall",
"author_id": 9518,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9518",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Three points:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Don't tell them.</strong> Whatever the reason you're thinking of telling them now, their primary interest in you is academic, and yours should be the same. The last thing you want to do is distract them into thinking about you in any other context than your field of study. As much as they're on your side, you would much prefer them to think about you doing research than drugs.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Talk to a lawyer.</strong> Just to be safe, because you're venturing into legal territory, and we're not a bunch of lawyers, for the most part.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Your motivation is probably not valid</strong> I think the impetus for even suggesting this is unnecessary. I don't know your field, but the likelihood of you <em>needing</em> to travel outside the US is probably not there. Unless your advisor has said something like: <em>\"We always go to this convention in Zurich, and you'll be expected to go next year...\"</em> in which case, see the prior advice point.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23823,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The downside of making it known is you open yourself up to potential discrimination. I think there are 4 categories of people. Those who could care less, those who are going to discriminate no matter what, those who won't spend the time to get to know you because of the issue, but if they already knew you would be fine, and hose who would be fine from the outset, but would be upset because you tried to hide it. I don't really believe you can hide the expunged felony from everyone without hurting personal relationships with your colleagues. Therefore you need to weigh the people who will not give you a chance against those who will be upset by the apparent deceit. To me it is a no brainer. Telling people know will mean a few missed opportunities, but probably not a big deal. If your PhD supervisor or post doc supervisor finds out later and becomes so against you they stop writing letters of reference, then that is a disaster.</p>\n\n<p>I would suggest mentioning it in passing to your supervisor. Then follow it up a few days later more formally asking if he/she thinks it is going to be a problem.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23743",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17713/"
] |
23,757 |
<p>I have finished three years of work in a Ph.D. program. I've published one conference paper as sole author, and have recently sent out another paper to a prestigious conference. </p>
<p>I started a project last October with a professor who does not have anything to do with my dissertation. He asked me early on to do a lot of work so I asked him who is the first author, and he said he would be. I've already written the full literature review for this journal paper, and came up with the framework by myself. He has only advised me on it.</p>
<p>Now, I have a clear idea about my dissertation, and I have to write my proposal and defend it this fall. So, the work with this professor is rather burdensome to me right now. So far, he has not worked on it at all. I've written six or seven out of the 15 pages of the journal paper. The main thing left is data analysis. He wants me to do the data analysis and write it up as well, and recently he also asked me to write introduction of the paper. At this point, I thought, he wants me to write the whole paper, which he can edit at the last moment and become first author.</p>
<p>Since this paper does not have anything to do with my dissertation, I do not want to work with this paper anymore. I told him I am busy with my own research, it seems like that he will wait until I finish writing the paper.</p>
<p>What should I do? I do not want to cut the relationship but he is asking too much which I think is unethical. Any strategic advice will be appreciated. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>UPDATE:</strong><br>
I talked to the professor and said there must have been misunderstanding about the responsibilities as a second author in my part and as a first author in his part. I said that I understood that writing literature review will meet the responsibility as a second author. </p>
<p>His brief comment on the e-mail was that he wrote a conference paper already, and this journal paper (that I'm working on) is a developed version of the conference paper. So, he did the major work already for the conference paper that is why he is the first author. And he stated that I am supposed to write a literature review and to do the data analysis for this journal paper. </p>
<p>OK. He has integrity in his position. I remember that he said something like this when we started this paper 10 months ago. But the problem was that his position was not re-enforced again, and the lit review I've done took off to a different terain. That means, I did a lot of creative interpretation of the framework. (Sorry, to technical folks. This is social science study using business management theories. The upfront literature review is very significant. My dissertation uses machine learning and NLP stuff. yes, this paper is unrelated with my dissertation). </p>
<p>Anyway, the reason I'm writing this update is to provide the professor's perspective that I've got to learn recently. So the major lesson I've learn through this experience is to keep reinforcing (in emails) about my understanding of my and his responsibilities on this project. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23758,
"author": "Arno",
"author_id": 12047,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12047",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>First of all: Good call to talk about authorship issues at the beginning, rather than only once troubles started! Now authorship issues do occasionally have to be re-negotiated depending on the course the project takes.</p>\n\n<p>There do seem to be potentially two separate aspects in your question:</p>\n\n<p>A. What to do if I have contributed as much as I am willing as a secondary author, yet the first author keeps asking for more?\n- Point out that you have done X, Y and Z, and that you are only willing to do significantly more if you are the first author (fundamental reading + commenting remain unaffected of course).</p>\n\n<p>B. I started a side-project, and I no longer want to work on this AT ALL.\n- Make clear to your co-author that you have no intention to work on this project anymore, and that this pertains to the future, too. Either give them free rein to continue the project without you (either with you on the author list or not, depending on your preferences); OR make sure you are still available for basic reading/commenting, but simply nothing more extensive.</p>\n\n<p>In both cases, if the coauthor shows a significantly stronger reaction than \"medium annoyance\", then maintaining a positive relationship to them is futile anyway. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23772,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The professor is putting it off until you present your dissertation. What happens then? Are you still employed by your institution?</p>\n\n<p>If you have an position somewhere else, congratulations! Just tell him that you have other obligations, and that you will be available for comments and discussion, but your new employer would want you to work on their projects.</p>\n\n<p>If you are going to remain at your institution, and don't have anything else that will pay your bills, you could use this project to improve your CV. I don't know in your field, but only two conference publications sounds on the weaker end (in technical fields in Sweden people usually finish with four first author journal papers after four years). If you don't have anything else (yet), you can ask him to hire you. If funding is not available, you may decide to work with him anyway, but letting him know that your main priority is finding a new job, and you will leave as soon as someone offers to pay you. You may also decide not to work for free, and you could tell him that.</p>\n\n<p>In the case that you decide to actually continue with the project, you should discuss authorship again. You have done most of the job so far, and you have the work he wants you to do as a leverage. You could appeal to his humanity (<s>as if professors had any!</s>) and say that you are in a critical point in your career and need to strengthen your CV.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23793,
"author": "ctokelly",
"author_id": 12045,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12045",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Since I suppose bad language is not allowed here, I'll be restrained. Suffice to say, as an academic I think that is a basic professional principle is lacking here: if you, with existing career, wage and pedagogical duties, are writing with a student, they should be first author. Always. Every time. No matter what. </p>\n\n<p>Two reasons: first, you already have all the power and privileges. Students are not there to be consumed. Second, you don't want to be seen to be exploiting someone who is vulnerable to your power over them. </p>\n\n<p>Short answer: this person sounds like a dick. Put them off, finish your PhD, get a job, then tell anyone following on after you to avoid writing with them. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 27725,
"author": "Tarnveer Kaur",
"author_id": 21179,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21179",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In all this mess you are suffering, I am trying to put myself at your position as I am also a researcher. As you said you don't want to cut the relationship so we will have to be polite as well as have to refuse his work also. Unfortunately I have to ask this - how much will it take to end up all his work? (Sorry to ask but what if, just be strong and complete it and end up with all mess). Next, can't you show you cannot do it efficiently now because you busy in your work. (You can do this by asking some questions about data analysis related to his work again and again and again and again.) </p>\n\n<p>And if we can't do anything with him, do you have any friend/colleague who can help you with his work or what you can do is say your professor to provide you a helping source as you have your work also (say politely) and assign most of the work to source provided by guiding him/her.</p>\n\n<p>If nothing actually working - than just do your work! Only your work will make your profile strong, once you done with the degree from there - nobody can do anything. If you had decided to be in this research field - you will occasionally come across these type of problems or worse. Don't worry! Just take it as a lesson for your future. </p>\n\n<p>And the most important thing - when you are a professor never ever let anything like this happen to your student. I know it's not your problem's solution but this will help any other student in same trap.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 27747,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Practical question: How important is it to you that this paper be published?</p>\n\n<p>If you don't do it, will it be?</p>\n\n<p>If the answer to the first is \"very\" and the answer to the second is 'no\", you're sorta stuck. What's right, and what will achieve the desired outcome, are different things.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 27758,
"author": "sr3u",
"author_id": 6448,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6448",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I suppose this will have been dealt with in other threads, but the meanings of \"first\" and \"second\" authors do vary with discipline. For instance, in theoretical CS it is most common for authors to be listed in strict alphabetical order by last name, regardless of level or type of contribution. In the sciences it is more common for the \"senior author\" (who is primarily a mentor and may have conceived of the problem and the solution framework, but probably hasn't done as much hands-on work or writing) to be named last. In engineering it can be a bit arbitrary, reflecting the authors' perceived order of importance or some other understanding. (Though I work in engineering and applied CS, I personally follow the sciences' style, so I am almost always the last-named author in my papers, with my students or other junior co-author(s) being named first even if I have done a lot of hand-holding.)</p>\n\n<p>On the main issue, I find it quite surprising that your professor wrote a conference paper which he now says has been extended, but you knew nothing about it. How could you not have known? In most cases the conference paper would be the first point of departure while extending for a journal, and I'm sure this is true across disciplines.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23757",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17723/"
] |
23,759 |
<p>Currently I am working towards Master in Computer Science degree, hoping to be done by the end of the year.
Last month a new professor moved to our University and now there are open Phd positions in his research group. I decided to work on a Master thesis provided by this group, however before starting to work on the master thesis I want to finish my exams. Additionally, I am interested for the Phd positions as I like the area of research, but I believe that it is highly unlikely that the Phd positions will remain open until I am done with the thesis. Having in mind that I have the exams to finish first, it will be ca. 6-7 months from now until I am completely done. And I believe the positions will be filled by then.</p>
<p>I don't know how to proceed now. I think the best asset I have in hand at the moment is the fact that I am going to work my master thesis in the group of this new professor. But other than that, there are some downsides because he does not know me as a student as he just moved to our university. Also, I don't have any publications to impress him, and my grades got slightly worse lately. </p>
<p>What is the best thing to do now? There are multiple options:</p>
<p>1) Leave the exams aside; Start working on the thesis, after starting to work on the thesis express interest in the Phd position. Ensure that the work of the thesis is high quality so the Professor is impressed.</p>
<p>2) Express interest in the Phd position from now. Finish the exams, and then start working on the thesis. During the process improve the grades to impress the Professor.</p>
<p>The dilemma here is, if I wait long to finish everything, by then the places might be gone. On the other side, if I act as soon as possible, I think as if I don't have much in hand to impress the professor.</p>
<p>Please consider this question having in my the context of my exact situation and then from a general view point evaluate on what could happen in the typical case.</p>
<p>I am sure, here we have more experienced Professors and Graduate student that could provide insightful information and suggestions.</p>
<p>EDIT 1: Additionally, what is the typical time frame needed for a Phd position to be filled, I believe 6 months is more than enough, or?</p>
<p>EDIT 2: What if there is an application deadline? And the deadline is at least 6 months away before you get the Master degree? Is it worth applying? I believe no Professor would wait for a student to get his degree for 6 months and then give him a position? My basic instinct says "go for it" there is nothing you would loose at least you are not going to regret that you didn't do it, however when thinking rationally all the odds seem against</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23760,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If you are currently working on a master's thesis in the group of the professor with whom you'd like to a do a PhD, the best thing to do is <strong>set up an appointment and talk to him.</strong></p>\n\n<p>As an advisor, I don't need to have a published paper to see whether someone in my own group is a competent researcher or not. I can see this by interacting with the person, through reading their project updates and emails, and by talking with other the more senior members of the research group (who sometimes will work with the students more closely than I can). </p>\n\n<p>Given that the goal of an advisor is to select people they believe will become excellent researchers rather than simply the \"top students,\" someone who is an \"internal\" candidate is often a better option than taking a chance on someone whose work the faculty member hasn't been able to observe directly.</p>\n\n<p>[That said, however, I think there is also something to be said for considering going somewhere else for a PhD than the place where you did your bachelor's and master's degrees, when it makes sense to do so.]</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23761,
"author": "Tom Au",
"author_id": 755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Talk to the new professor ASAP, since he will be the one to make the decision about admitting you.</p>\n\n<p>When someone moves to a new school/job, they are \"unsure\" about how they will be accepted at the new place. The best thing you can do is to give him a \"welcoming gift\" in the form of a student who will do what it takes to get into his group. Assuming that your qualifications are halfway decent, being among the first to welcome him may be all it takes to get it. </p>\n\n<p>The professor may well have preferences as to whether you should do your thesis or your exams first. If he expresses a preference, follow that preference in order to \"qualify.\"</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, he may say, I'll hold a spot for you until you complete both your thesis and exams. Getting a commitment at this early stage is way different from waiting until you are ready, and applying then.</p>\n\n<p>It's like the airlines; they have a bunch of \"cheap seats\" for people who buy tickets \"early.\" If you wait until the day of the flight, you will have to pay \"full price.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23763,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think the answer depends strongly on where the money comes from. I third the advice to talk to the professor in question immediately. </p>\n\n<p>In the US, for example, the answer will partially hinge on whether the money needs to be spent on a project that starts now or soon, say National Science Foundation grant money, or is coming from the professor's startup package and has a much longer or unlimited time horizon. If it's the latter, then they may not be too worried about when you might start, and therefore might be willing to make a commitment on you now for a position in a year. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23773,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>People need to eat, so they need jobs. One does not need to wait until a time limited job is finished before searching for a new one.</p>\n\n<p>There is nothing wrong with politely showing interest in doing a PhD in his research group. The fact that you are at the same institution means he can just go to your Master's advisor and informally ask if you are good for the position, and probably trust it more than a recommendation letter.</p>\n\n<p>If he wants you on board, comes the starting date that the funding requires; but this is something only he can know, and will tell you upfront if he needs to fill the position before you finish. Even in this case, showing interest may put you on his list in case he gets another grant, or could forward you offers from other groups. If he <em>really</em> wants you, sometimes there are ways to get you in; for example, if the university does not require you to have a master to enrol on a PhD.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding the timings, announced positions usually quote a deadline. You may want to wait to be closer to it so you have more time to build up your thesis, but on the other hand, the longer you wait, the bigger the chances your application will just join a big pile for review. In this case, probably the sooner the better, because it is unlikely your thesis will radically improve in a few of weeks (you will get progress, of course, but not a breakthrough that is not visible already).</p>\n\n<p>Lastly, as aeismail said, I think is very important for a researcher to move around institutions, and when possible and makes sense, even countries. I did my undergraduate in Spain and a Master's in Sweden, and I can see they are very different systems; so they sort of complement each other's deficiencies. On the other hand, I know brilliant people that studied all the way to the PhD in the same university, and plan to become lecturers there some day. As such, they don't get \"new input\"; they have the same weak points and deficiencies as the people who taught them, and they will just perpetuate it.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23759",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9401/"
] |
23,769 |
<p>On a publication (thesis, paper, other), when should I write an equation <em>inline</em> and when should it be separated and numbered from the text?</p>
<p>I've seen publications containing both styles, but I don't know if there is a rule to choose among them. My field is applied computer science.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23770,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A numbered equation always takes a separate line, so there is no question here — if you need to refer to some equation later in the text, it deserves a separate line and it needs a number.</p>\n\n<p>If your equation is as long as a line, or even longer, then again — it should always be placed out-of-text.</p>\n\n<p>To answer the rest of your question, we should think a little how we (e.g. your readers) read inline equations, and how we read equations on separate lines. First of all, inline equations merge into the text, and provide some smoothness (it is just like you speak and draw on a whiteboard at the same time). In contrast, equations of a separate line break the text (just like you write a long equation on a whiteboard and take a big pause to let your audience reflect on it). </p>\n\n<p>If there are no pauses in the text, it is hard to comprehend. Too many pauses raise similar problems, because it becomes difficult to focus on the most important pieces then. My advice is to think about the role of each equation and put only the most important equations in a spotlight of a separate line. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23801,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's matter of style. But always think about the reader - what is the most convenient for her/him.</p>\n\n<p>I agree with most of points raised by <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/23770/49\">Dmitry</a>.\nHowever, when reading publications I often see too many inline equations, which make it harder to comprehend. It often happens due to space restrictions.</p>\n\n<p>My personal stance is that only very short and simple things should be put as inline equations (like $x \\in {1,2,3}$ or $y=Ax$). That is, ones that at the same time are too technical to deserve a separate line and short and easy, so they can be read with the sentence without any pause.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23769",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17577/"
] |
23,774 |
<p>Are Masters degrees from German universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen) eligible for PhD?</p>
<p>If I do a Masters in any of the German universities of applied sciences (Fachhochschulen), would I be able to apply for a PhD in any other Universities/research institutes in Germany? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 24368,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The basic answer is <strong>\"Yes, but. . . .\"</strong></p>\n\n<p>A master's degree is usually the minimum prerequisite for admission to PhD programs in Germany. However, many faculties within various German universities have established \"qualification\" procedures for degrees they do not believe to be \"equivalent\" to their own. This usually includes some combination of coursework (with the associated exams), plus evaluation of the master's thesis to show equivalency to the expected degree. </p>\n\n<p>These criteria are often applied not only to international students, but to students from German <em>Fachhochschule</em> as well. However, these policies vary widely between universities, and between different departments at the same universities, so you should contact the specific programs you're interested for more details.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 173279,
"author": "Sursula",
"author_id": 133549,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/133549",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Since you have asked this question, the situation has changed. It is now becomming more common that people with a master degree from a university of applied sciences (or Fachhochschule, FH) are doing PhDs. The barriers that @aeismail mentioned still exist, but the willingness of university professors to supervise FH-students has increased. Often FH PhDs are done collaboratively between a FH (were most of the reserach is done) and a "regular" university (were the main supervisor is located, although the FH profoessors co-supervise as well).</p>\n<p>There is even the possibility to do the PhD not at a "regular" university, but at a FH itself - withouth a univerity based supervising professor. This is so far only possible in 6 of the 16 Bundesländer (federal states) of Germany, though.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23774",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
23,777 |
<p>My situation is somewhat similar to <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5997/what-to-do-with-an-accepted-phd-thesis-that-extensively-presents-quotes-as-parap?">this question</a>, but I'm the plagiarizer.</p>
<p>Six years ago I did my Master's degree by coursework at university X, and wrote the Master's thesis under supervision of well-known Prof. A. For many reasons that I don't want to list here, I plagiarized. The first part of my thesis was background, and the second part was the original contribution. </p>
<p>In the background part, I copied an entire chapter from textbook T about algorithm S. Algorithm S was invented more than 50 years ago, and is described in several books, including the very well-known T. I didn't paraphrase at all, I started by citing T, and then copied the whole chapter word by word.</p>
<p>The contribution part is actually contribution. One year after I left the school, Prof. A found another student to extend it and published the extension with me as the second author. (The paper included the algorithm and experiment in my thesis, but I didn't write a single word of the paper.)</p>
<p>I have moved to university Y to do a PhD. I have published several papers in top conferences and have very good relationship with several well-known researchers. I want to advance in academia.</p>
<p>Will the Master's thesis destroy any possibility of a future academic career? If someone read my Master's thesis, it is very easy to recognize, since the part from the textbook is in perfect English, and the rest is in <strong>extremely</strong> poor English.</p>
<p>Can I contact the university to submit a revised Master's thesis which re-describes the algorithm S? This is the last thing I want to do.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23780,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Plagiarism is plagiarism and your existing thesis is the one which got you your degree. Since you have received your degree, the possibility is to confess to the plagiarism resulting in, possibly retraction of the thesis and removal of the degree. There have been a few highly publicized cases of plagiarism of PhD theses by people who have come to hold high positions in society (Example <a href=\"http://www.ithenticate.com/plagiarism-detection-blog/bid/97166/Another-Month-Another-German-Plagiarism-Scandal#.U6Z6aECmW78\">one</a> and <a href=\"http://www.dw.de/german-ex-education-minister-schavan-loses-plagiarism-appeal/a-17511623\">two</a>). The exposure of these cases have led to them losing both their position and their degree. Having plagiarized your way to the degree could easily backfire at any time if, as you say, someone finds out. Now, we all make mistakes in life so I would think the best way to act responsibly is to contact a lawyer or the legal department of the university to discuss the matter and a way forward.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding your publication, it seems as if it would not be affected by the story since it is your original work that has been published and I doubt that the authors copied the plagiarized chapter into the paper.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23804,
"author": "rumtscho",
"author_id": 103,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/103",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I cannot tell you what the university will do if you confess; I am not employed in a position which would be involved in such a decision, and besides, I think that this will depend on cultural and legal factors, plus the personality of the decision makers in your case. </p>\n\n<p>But I still think that it is better if you confess. There are several reasons for it: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Your own inner peace. By contemplating confession and posting here you show that you have matured and have higher integrity and a better understanding of academic rules and the seriousness of plagiarism than back when you submitted your thesis. If you don't confess, you will have to live with both 1)the guilt of not only having made the mistake once, but still actively deceiving people, \nand 2) the anxiety of being discovered someday. I have been on both sides of a \"hidden guilt\" situation (although when it was on academic matters, it concerned milder cases), and I can tell you from experience that it is a bad situation, especially for the person who feels guilty and dreads discovery. It burdens you with a stress which can permeate to many unrelated areas of your life and make you miserable. </p></li>\n<li><p>Your risk of discovery rises with time. Nowadays, universities start to routinely employ plagiarism software. Who knows what funky electronic agent will snuffle in your old thesis ten years from now? Twenty? What if such software becomes so ubiquitous and cheap that employers start running it on your old theses when you apply for a job? </p></li>\n<li><p>If you confess, you will suffer negative consequences - but not nearly as bad as if you are discovered by a third party. Confession, especially if you are repentant, shows that you are capable of feeling remorse, have high integrity, also courage, and are willing to take responsibility. Being caught makes people see you as a cold-blooded fraud not deterred by social emotions like guilt and remorse. This makes you dangerous to them and reduces their empathy for you. They are much more likely to be lenient if you confess than if you are caught by others. </p></li>\n<li><p>The later it comes out, the worse for you. If you are either caught, or confess yourself much later (e.g. because you notice the negative effects of guilt and anxiety - and yes, this happens, I have witnessed such late confessions), it will have negative effects on your career. But right now, you are at its beginning. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>You have relatively little to lose yet. If you wait until later, you will have much more to restore after such a reputation blow. </li>\n<li>The younger you are when it happens, the more time you have to build a solid career without having to start anew. At times when you advance into more leading positions, it would be better that this story is a thing of the past, forgotten by most, than that it hits you out of nowhere. </li>\n<li>The sooner you confess after the mistake, the less reputation you lose. The less time you carry the problem hidden around, the less callous you appear, and also people feel less deceived. </li>\n<li>Once it comes out, everybody who has relied on your thesis being correct will be miffed. The more your life progresses, the more this number of people grows. If you confess early, you limit this number. </li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>Your university is not interested in a public scandal. The dean doesn't want to open the morning paper and see a \"university duped by brazen plagiarist\" title. They will be unpleasantly surprised by a private confession too, but they will not feel that the situation is out of their control, or that the worst that can happen has already happened. They will have some incentive to cooperate with you, as long as you confess. If you are caught, their best strategy becomes to distance themselves from you and denounce you. </p></li>\n<li><p>Time has shown that redemption is more beneficial to society than punishment-as-deterrent. This has been repeatedly shown in many situations: religious context (most of the New Testament is based on it, even though many Christian churches have historically been on the side of harsh punishment), law enforcement (prisons which are pleasant for the prisoners show better reformation rates) and parenting. So many people who have advanced to leadership positions have the wisdom not to mete out severe punishment for misconduct. Especially if you indicate that you are unlikely to repeat the mistake (and a confession is a very important part of it), they can be lenient. There is no guarantee that the leaders of your university will share this belief, but it is not exceptionally rare either. </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>They will still have to enforce some consequences. It would be both unfair to the students who played by the rules to get their degree, and damaging to the university's reputation to just let you have your degree when you did not follow all requirements for it. But they will not be vengeful, seeking to end your career. This is something which certainly happens when academic misconduct is caught much later by a third party after the fact, see the German examples Peter Jansson cites (and notice that in some cases for the German politicians, their plagiarism was limited to a few sentences), but also cases like <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Hauser\">this one</a> in which a renowned professor's academic career came to an end after academic misconduct (although not plagiarism) was proven.</p>\n\n<p>You may want to find support before you go straight to the people who have the most to lose from the news. The behavior of your current employer is also hard to predict (they might be legally required to terminate you if a Master's degree was required for your acceptance into the Ph.D. program), but if you think they will be on your side, you might want to talk to them first so, when you come to the university, you have somebody who can testify that your current level of work is as good as one of a person who obtained a Master's degree regularly. Especially if you have coauthored with somebody with a good standing in your community, they may be interested in helping you rather than having a publication in coauthorship with somebody whose reputation was destroyed (but gauge them as a person too, some people will prefer to just drop you and forget you). </p>\n\n<p>I hope everything turns out to the best for you. As Nikana Reklawyks said, we are all human and make mistakes. If you are willing to repair the damage yours caused, this makes you a better, not a worse, human being. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23819,
"author": "ctokelly",
"author_id": 12045,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12045",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Edited completely, given correct comments below stating that I seemed to be advocating non-confession. </p>\n\n<p>I think the comment above both understates the case re punishment - you likely would lose your degree and your place on the PhD programme and admiration for your confession won't count for much - and overstates your likelihood of being caught. Universities archive dissertations for x years then pulp them. </p>\n\n<p>What is strong is this: you lied, the weight of that won't make for a comfortable career and you deserve a consequence, at least on the facts as presented. </p>\n\n<p>In short, should you confess, be prepared for another career.</p>\n\n<p>Apologies for coming across like I don't take the ethical issues seriously. My intent, very badly put, was rather to prepare you for the worst if you come clean. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 27102,
"author": "beth",
"author_id": 20638,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20638",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I realize that I may be late in seeing this and answering this, but I believe confessing is the way to go. I am a university administrator who has handled cases of plagiarism. In some cases, the plagiarism was discovered years after the student had received the degree. On discovery of plagiarism, the matter generally goes to a disciplinary committee. For academic misconduct, disciplinary committees look for remorse on the part of the student in considering penalties. In instances where sufficient remorse is shown, students are given the chance to revise their thesis instead of depriving them of their degree. In your situation, the revision is not difficult because it is in the \"review of literature\" part rather than the \"innovation\" part. There is no issue of whether the revised work will be degree-worthy, which makes it easier on the examiners who will have to review and approve the revised thesis.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23777",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
23,778 |
<p>I am considering a post doc in the Netherlands. I am a bit spoiled -- currently doing a post doc in the US with a salary of about $75000. I found a PI in the Netherlands whose project sounds very interesting and it seems like I may be able to have a bit of freedom in forming collaborations. But the PI had quoted a salary of 2000 euros (he didn't actually know, but just took a guess when I asked him to estimate). Though I currently have no better offers, this sounds like too big a step backwards that I am wondering if I should spend more effort searching for other jobs.</p>
<p>I would like to negotiate a better salary when I interview with the PI. Is 2000 Euros reasonable? I saw a post with a <a href="http://www.vsnu.nl/files/documenten/CAO/Salarisschalen_2013IenII.pdf" rel="nofollow">salary table</a>. But I'm not sure where on the scale I fall. Should I be a E10-1 because this will be my first year on this particular job? Or can I hope for a E10-4 because this will be my fourth year as a post-doc? Is there any way I can supplement my salary by applying for external grants? (I guess there are few of those for non-EU citizens...) I have a husband and school-age children, and since I am not sure whether my husband will be able to have income, I want to be able cover our necessary living expenses with my salary/benefits so I can concentrate on working.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23779,
"author": "avid",
"author_id": 15798,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15798",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can expect rather more than that.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>10/0 corresponds to a second year PhD student (functieschaal P). A postdoc typically goes on somewhere around 10-5, plus a point per year. So you might hope to be somewhere around 10-8.</p></li>\n<li><p>To get your annual salary, multiply these numbers by 14: 12 months plus two bonus payments. Don't ask me why.</p></li>\n<li><p>Coming from abroad you are probably eligible to be paid under the \"30% rule\", where you get the first 30% of your salary tax free.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Thus, <em>after</em> tax you can expect to get something in the region of €35-40k ($48-55k). Be aware that living costs may be higher than you're used to in the US.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, you shouldn't rely on this information: talk to the HR department. But the situation isn't as bad as you fear!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23797,
"author": "userx",
"author_id": 17755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17755",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There's isn't that much room for negotiation in general, since all these university-related things are fixed by law. You've already found the CAO tables which determine salary. Depending on how badly they want you over there, a PI might be able to get you entered in a higher 'trede' (10-x), or even a higher 'schaal' (x-1). I would say it's nearly impossible that they would put you on 10-1, but don't hold me to it. What you have going for you is your high previous salary, because new employers sometimes do take this into account as far as possible, and your being from outside the country which can have its own benefits. A few things to keep in mind:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>the 2000 the PI mentioned would be after tax, and in my estimation quite the lower limit in terms of net monthly income</li>\n<li>the PI has only limited influence on salary, you really need to talk (or have the PI talk) to HR to know exactly what you're in for before you make your decision.</li>\n<li>quite a lot of benefits are included and already deducted, which makes a comparison of raw numbers between the Dutch and US salaries a bit tricky. There may moreover be quite a few differences in terms of vacation time (a <em>lot</em> of holidays, really), benefits such as bicycle plans, whatever...</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>So I would advise you to get an overview of </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>your exact current benefits, health care costs, pension plan, plus your current pre- and after-tax salary,</li>\n<li>your potential future benefits, health care costs, pension plan, plus your new pre- and post-tax salary (especially if being from abroad has extra tax benefits as mentioned by someone above, I don't know about that), depending on </li>\n<li>the 'trede' and 'schaal' they would put you in to start with. The one thing to ask your PI is to find out which trede and schaal HR could (would) give you, then contact HR to find the answers to your other questions because - from my experience - there's a good chance the PI won't know all these details. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>75.000 dollars sounds like quite a good salary to me, but without knowing what that got you, what's included, and so on, it's hard for me to say how much (or if any) of a step backwards you'll be taking. </p>\n\n<p>The last thing to note: living expenses (mainly housing) can differ quite a lot across the NL, so what you effectively save each month also depends on where the institution is. World of difference between e.g. Amsterdam or the provinces outside the 'randstad'.</p>\n\n<p>Good luck on the decision and potentially the position.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 28394,
"author": "user17743",
"author_id": 17743,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17743",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Found the answer now: pay scale 10, step 8, 3381 euros monthly before taxes and other deductions. Thanks for all the answers!</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23778",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17743/"
] |
23,781 |
<p>Can I use full word plus its abbreviation in parenthesis in a chapter title?
here is my case:</p>
<p>Chapter 2
Human Immune System (HIS)</p>
<p>is it correct? Is there any differences if the the full word have appeared before in the previous chapter content.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23782,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can not say this is incorrect, but it is probably unorthodox. If there are no strong reason to put an abbreviation in the title, you may wish to introduce it in the first sentences of the chapter itself.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23786,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In general, the only abbreviations that should be used in \"headlines\" and titles are \"standard\" ones that are normally (or at least very frequently) written in their abbreviated form. So, something like <em>Escherichia coli</em> could obviously be written as <em>E. coli</em> in a title without problems. (Similarly, in my field, we have an algorithm entitled \"particle–particle particle–mesh\" which can be written as \"PPPM\" or \"P3M\" without detriment.)</p>\n\n<p>However, any abbreviation that <em>you</em> have introduced in the course of writing should probably be avoided <em>unless</em> the alternative is too unwieldy. Moreover, you should not normally use both abbreviations and the expanded text unless you're using the title to define the abbreviation: for instance,</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><em>SAUCE</em>: Simplified Abbreviations for Unwieldy Complex Expressions</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23781",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17744/"
] |
23,784 |
<p>This is a fork of my question <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23750/homework-testing-method-for-schools-how-to-encourage-good-practices-and-design">homework-testing-method-for-schools</a> but i'm taking it in another direction. </p>
<p>I was asking about a homework testing method that'll encourage students to write better code and reduce the TA's proofreading task to a minimum.</p>
<p>I was thinking of using unit testing, (or anything else you can think of), in order to turn students in the right direction (design wise), and hopefully giving them good thinking and coding habits (we're talking first programming course in collage).</p>
<p>so my new question is:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If you think there's something wrong and not educational about unit testing students code please explain why do you think so..</p></li>
<li><p>If you think this is a good (or just an o.k) idea please tell me if you have any ideas of how to design the tests.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>thank you for your answers.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23785,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A lot of what I said as an answer to <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/20578/use-of-automated-assessment-of-programming-assignments/20823#20823\">this question</a> is probably also applicable here, so I will not repeat it.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If you think there's something wrong and not educational about unit testing students code please explain why do you think so..</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don't think there is anything particularly wrong about unit testing student code, but it will likely not do away with manual grading or direct lab sessions entirely. All things considered, the way how TAs traditionally check programming assignments (build, run, check behavior against assignment description) is pretty close to what a unit testing framework does anyway.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If you think this is a good (or just an o.k) idea please tell me if you have any ideas of how to design the tests.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The major challenge I see is that you want your tests not only to serve as a framework to check whether students implemented the right functionality, but also to check whether they did it in the right way. I think unit tests and generally automated grading will <em>not</em> be able to help you here, aside from limited hard-coded rule checking.</p>\n\n<p>A lot of the problem is already encoded in your use of terminology. You say you want \"unit tests that do white box testing\". This isn't really feasible, IMHO. Unit tests test interfaces. So, to cut it short, I do not think that unit tests will help you in this regard.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23879,
"author": "Eduard Sukharev",
"author_id": 17825,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17825",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a tester I would suggest giving a couple lessons on testing itself, its techniques and TEST DESIGN. The latter is useful to write proper set of tests. Anyway, teaching them good habits of writing tests for their code is a huge plus.\nAs an advanced task for one of the latest your lessons I would suggest you to switch the roles with your students: tell them you are going to write a class with given interface and defined behaviour, and their task then would be to write unit tests that would 1. cover the described behavior and 2. find some bugs (probably, left in the code by your intention). That would teach them writing test based on the desired behavior, not the implementation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 29910,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have been involved with two classes that used automated testing in different ways, and in both cases is was an excellent idea that was generally well received by students.</p>\n\n<p>One was a class on compilers, which naturally encouraged the use of regression-testing because most assignments were to write a piece of software with specific functionality. In this class, every assignment had two sets of detailed regression tests: one was provided with the assignment to be used during development. The other was kept secret and revealed only when the assignment was returned. Grades were a mixture of the two sets of results: the first batch was \"easy points\" that everybody was expected to get, the second set was the real differentiator demonstrating that a student's solution was sufficiently general and deep.</p>\n\n<p>The other class was a large (300+ student) artificial intelligence class, where automated testing of homework was introduced in order to lighten the grading load and allow the TAs to spend time on small-group tutorials instead. In this class, all of the homework was done through the automated system, including both coding and non-coding questions (e.g., numerical calculations, multiple choice), and students could submit their answers, check if they were correct, and resubmit again and again until their got it correct. As such, homework was viewed as \"required practice\" and everybody was expected to eventually get all of the questions correct, though we didn't care when. The grades for the class then came almost entirely from quizzes, exams, and projects, with the homework percentage used as a <em>multiplier</em> on the total (well, technically it was multiplication of a complex formula that essentially amounted to: \"If you blatantly ignore the homework, we'll drop you a letter grade\").</p>\n\n<p>So in sum: automated testing can be an excellent solution and I think more classes should adopt it. It requires a bit more up-front investment, but can pay off both in terms of time and in terms of pedagogical value. How exactly you design it and integrate it depends on the goals, as illustrated by these two examples, and I'm sure there are many more.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23784",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17720/"
] |
23,796 |
<p>It seems to me that it is impossible to prevent cheating (as in: communicating and getting help from outside) if one allows students to use the restroom during written classroom tests.</p>
<p>Excluding creative solutions involving full-body searches, Faraday cages or invigilators in the stalls, the most practical way to prevent it seems to completely forbid the students to leave the room.</p>
<p>Of course, this seems overly penalizing to students with small health problems or personal emergencies, since they would have to retake the test.</p>
<p><strong>How is this problem dealt with in practice in universities? What is the best solution?</strong></p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23799,
"author": "Saaru Lindestøkke",
"author_id": 5625,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5625",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<h1>How do other uni's deal with this?</h1>\n<p>I've attended courses in two universities and have been an exam supervisor in another academical institution.\nIn all those cases only one student could go to the bathroom at a time.\nA supervisor would accompany the student up to the bathroom door and wait until the student would return.</p>\n<p>Sure, the student could hide a book, laptop, anything in the toilet stall.\nIf it's a good exam these methods are not going to get the student anywhere as a good academical test requires that the student can use his brain, not just reproduce knowledge from a book.\nTherefore I think making a big deal of cheat prevention is not necessary.</p>\n<h1>What's the best solution?</h1>\n<p>Not allowing students to take bathroom breaks is inhumane. I think the solution I experienced and described above is the best you'll get without exaggerating.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23800,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Interesting question. We had similar discussions recently in our lab as well. Our conclusions after discussion were that, practically, you can either (1) let students go to the rest rooms and live with some potential for abuse, or (2) not let students go to the rest rooms (barring medical reasons, of course).</p>\n\n<p>We could not come up with a solution to let students go to the rest rooms <em>and</em> prevent them from cheating, if the students are prepared and reasonably cunning. For instance, in our university some large exams have the policy that students that want to use the rest rooms are escorted by one of the TAs to the door of the rest rooms. While this prevents some avenues for cheating, it does not help if the student stashed the lecture material in the rest rooms or just calls his pal when inside. Another approach was at some point that mobile phones had been collected, but clearly there is no guarantee that every student has exactly <em>one</em> mobile phone. Essentially, we decided that collecting mobile phones is a futile effort (as also discussed <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23099/preventing-leaking-exam-papers-cheating-using-phone-cameras\">here</a>).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How is this problem dealt with in practice in universities? What is the best solution?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In my current university, the status quo is \"let students go to the rest room, and live with the avenue for cheating\". In my previous university, the rule was \"there are no rest room breaks\" for every exam taking less than 2 hours. For 2 hours or more exams, see above.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23805,
"author": "mikeserv",
"author_id": 17764,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17764",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Forbidding use of restroom facilities is extreme and more than a little ridiculous. If a student is resourceful enough to defeat your exam's purpose <em>(which should be to measure a student's capability in a particular subject)</em> without your certain discovery given only the use of a few minutes and a toilet, then probably your exam needs some work and/or that student deserves whatever grade he/she is awarded.</p>\n<p>What's more, forbidding the use of facilities comes with some liability. From Brian Freeman, Esq.'s <a href=\"http://www.brianwfreeman.com/bathroom-rights/\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><em>Bathroom Rights</em></a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>...The same court said, in an earlier case, <em>“However primitive and ordinary, the right to defecate and to urinate without awaiting the permission of government…are rights close to the core of the liberty guaranteed by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. When government undertakes to eliminate or to impair either or both of these rights, it should be required to make a strong showing of necessity for the restrictive measure.”</em> Indeed, we all have the “basic liberty of access to the bathroom when needed.”</p>\n<p>People who believe they have the authority to deny access to a bathroom, especially teachers and educators throughout the country, need to be aware that denial of a pupil’s right to use the toilet could carry significant liabilities. Under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a state actor can be held liable for both compensatory and punitive damages, including paying for the winner’s attorney’s fees.</p>\n<p>In addition to liability under § 1983, a defendant could also be held liable for intentional infliction of emotional distress. Depending on the facts of the case, other potential liabilities could arise from prohibiting a person from their bona fide need for access to a toilet. For these reasons, all people, especially young students, ought to be able to use the restroom whenever needed, without be required to first obtain permission.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23806,
"author": "J. Zimmerman",
"author_id": 7921,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7921",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In almost all exams which I have taken, leaving the room while taking an exam was not forbidden. <em>BUT returning to complete the exam</em> was expressly forbidden. The penalty for taking a break was confiscation of the exam material, with no possibility of resuming the exam. (Note that these exams were almost all less than two hours long.) Students were strongly encouraged to take a bathroom break immediately before beginning the exam.</p>\n\n<p>This avoids the problem of actually forbidding the student to use the bathroom, but does impose a significant penalty. If you have not completed the exam before your bathroom break, you must hand in the incomplete exam and are not permitted to finish if/when you return. </p>\n\n<p>Presumably, students who can document a medical necessity for more frequent bathroom breaks are entitled to special accommodations, most likely including taking the exam separately, as a proctored exam in the academic testing center. This is not a perfect solution to the problem (what about students who are briefly ill or suffer from test-anxiety that causes them to need frequent bathroom breaks?), but the solution has worked well in my experience. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23808,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The basic solution to the problem of bathroom breaks and the possibility of cheating is to design the test in a manner that best negates the benefit of cheating.</p>\n\n<p>For instance, avoiding multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank type questions is an obvious step. Similarly, including questions that require multiple logical steps to successfully complete makes the likelihood of useful cheating much lower. Similarly, having multiple copies of the exam with slightly different variants of the problems (for instance, using slightly different data or assumptions) will also make it harder to cheat in a meaningful matter—students may have to spend many minutes getting the answers they would need, for relatively little benefit.</p>\n\n<p>Also, allowing students to have some access to course materials during an exam cuts off one obvious reason for cheating—to access materials that they wouldn't otherwise have.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23810,
"author": "Floris",
"author_id": 15062,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15062",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Although this is not often how things are done, here is a suggestion for improving exams, whilst addressing your problem:</p>\n\n<p>An exam is meant to test the ability of the student to apply what was taught in the course. If this knowledge is to mean anything \"after the course\", then the conditions in which the course is administered need to mirror the real world closely. This, in turn, should mean that the <em>understanding</em> needed to do well in the exam should not hinge on the ability to <em>memorize</em> (I am a big fan of \"open book\" exams — bring in the reference material, it cuts down on cheating), but rather the ability to <em>synthesize</em> and <em>apply</em> — two things that are very hard to get help with during a bathroom break.</p>\n\n<p>The other solution is to divide the exam into a series of shorter exams — say 1 hour exams followed by a 15 minute break, followed by another hour, etc. The intermediate results are handed in before each break, so there is no point in obtaining help during the breaks. Regular short breaks will refresh the exam takers, and give them a chance to go to the bathroom if they need to.</p>\n\n<p>In line with this suggestion, the idea that \"people cannot concentrate on a task for more than 45 minutes\" seems to be widely believed — <a href=\"https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/8560/how-long-is-it-possible-to-maintain-concentration\">see this for example</a>. If that is indeed true, the above makes even more sense.</p>\n\n<p>And if the exam is such a coherent whole that it is not possible to break it up (for example, it requires three hours of solid writing of a single essay) then good luck to the person who attempts to get help during a bathroom break …</p>\n\n<p>In summary:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>allow the students to have reference material</li>\n<li>break the exam into shorter pieces</li>\n<li>test understanding and synthesis, not memorization</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23815,
"author": "Jirajha",
"author_id": 17771,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17771",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Not an example from a university, but from my school's finals (A level, wich will grant you access to take a class at university) which I find is neither inhumane nor impracticable:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Bathrooms are checked before the tests are starting. Out-of-class\naccess is restricted during that time for the specific bathrooms. Not following that restriction will lead to a penalty.</li>\n<li>Every test has 2 supervisors, one of each gender.</li>\n<li>Only one student at a time is allowed to use the bathroom at the same time from all courses participating in a test.</li>\n<li>Time of leaving / re-entering the room will be noted on the test paper.</li>\n<li>A supervisor of the matching gender will escort the student to the bathroom and <strong>can</strong> check it before/afterwards.</li>\n<li>While the student is in the bathroom the escorting supervisor is advised to only enter the bathroom if the average time is exceeded massively (usually 2~3 min for men, 3~4 min for women) for privacy reasons.</li>\n<li>Time is noted in a separate file with a sign of the respective supervisor outside of the room (also to doublecheck if students from different courses are outside of the room the same time for potential comparison of the tests from those students).</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 45110,
"author": "user34276",
"author_id": 34276,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34276",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just witnessed around 20 to 25 people cheating on \"bathroom trips\" today after taking my last college engineering exam. It was a really fundamental/fair exam so I(and many others) finished around 50 minutes early and was waiting in the hall for a friend. I noticed the amount of people going to the bathroom during the 2.5 hour exam just seemed odd considering people rarely get up like this during lectures. Later I had to use the bathroom and when I entered the restroom there was a guy from class on his phone scrolling through lectures figuring out how to solve the problems on the exam. He found the solutions and went back in the room. Well folks, I guess that's how you get A's in college these days.</p>\n\n<p>The issue: Cheating is now taking place \"outside\" the classroom.\nSolution: Assign faculty (TA, grad students, etc.) to monitor outside activity.\nIssue: Some TA's are cheaters themselves and have friendships with undergrads\nSolution: Professor will monitor outside activity and TA's will watch the class for cheaters. If unethical TA's are giving answers to their friends, others in class will let the professor know about it anyway and the TA will be in some trouble.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 45112,
"author": "user",
"author_id": 31973,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31973",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In India (at least in my university) a problem like this is pretty common. My university follows the following procedure:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>A supervisor/external checks the bathrooms before the commencing of examination.</li>\n<li>A security guard/volunteer is given duty to sit in front of the bathroom throughout the span of the examination. This duty could be given to whomsoever is free and ready to volunteer including the staff and the faculty. Every bathroom is assigned a volunteer.</li>\n<li>The invigilator makes sure that only one student is allowed to use the restroom at a time.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>This particular method leaves little room for students to cheat during the written examination. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 45128,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First as a student, and then over 28 years as a teacher (first at high school and then at university) I've witnessed all sort of cheating strategies: appointments at the restrooms, radios (when cellphones didn't exist), programmable pocket calculators stored with a wealth of information (and with the reset procedure duly intercepted in case the professor used to pass to reset all the calculators), girls with pieces of paper attached to the legs under the skirt, etc.</p>\n\n<p>So, my point is: if students want to cheat, they will.</p>\n\n<p>Strict vigilance might give students a hard time cheating, but do we really want to spend our time and TAs' time watching students and escorting them to the restrooms? During a 2-4 hours exam I can do a bit of useful work: research, preparing the next exam, grading other exam papers, reading a paper... and if I really want to spend some time doing nothing, I'd rather read a novel than staring at one hundred faces. </p>\n\n<p>Therefore, my suggested strategy against cheating, any kind of cheating, is: design the exam as to make cheating as ineffective as possible, and as detectable as possible during the grading phase (multiple choice questions? no, thanks).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 57004,
"author": "Todd Booth",
"author_id": 26573,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26573",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The solution is to give students one question at a time. When the students turn in one answer, they get the next question. Students can take a break anytime they want. However, it is now more reasonable to have the students lose credit for just one question, if they have received that question but not turned in that answer. If there are 10 questions in 100 minutes, students only need to wait a maximum average of 10 minutes to take another break (which is much more reasonable than waiting an hour).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 97608,
"author": "Nicole Hamilton",
"author_id": 9553,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9553",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Ask your students to copy and sign their name to an honor statement, e.g., \"On my honor, I will neither accept nor give unauthorized aid\" and then leave them alone to take the test unproctored. You can do this even if your campus is not an honor code campus.</p>\n\n<p>My experience is that when you make your students responsible and aware that it's their job, not someone else's, to ensure they're honest, that that goes a long way toward getting honest behavior. You won't eliminate the problem, but you will reduce it significantly. And I'm not alone in that experience: In the 2015 documentary, \"(Dis)Honesty: The Truth About Lies\", Dan Ariely, a Duke Professor of Psychology and Behavior Economics, describes various experiments to find out what conditions make people more or less likely to be honest. What he found (among other things): Honor codes work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 97756,
"author": "Arnab Datta",
"author_id": 11701,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11701",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Maybe you're approaching the wrong problem. Instead of trying to avoid students that cheat, why not eliminate potential gains from cheating? </p>\n\n<p>Example: Instead of asking students whether or not a piece of code will compile (easily compiled and checked online), ask them to discuss whether a piece of code is a good idea for a given problem. Nobody can effectively google the answer to </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is this implementation of List good when creating an application for\n doing X? Outline how you would improve.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 141464,
"author": "GrayLiterature",
"author_id": 108615,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/108615",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If somebody asks to go to the washroom, ask them to leave their phone on their desk so that they cannot take it into the washroom. Apart from that, it is hard to micromanage cheating because you can't predict that a student will hide a textbook here or some notes there. Simply put into the syllabus that phone policy and you'll have covered a large portion of what the student intends to do. If I was going to cheat on a test, looking at my phone would be the first thing that I did. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23796",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/958/"
] |
23,798 |
<p>I have just finished my master degree (TU Vienna) and I am working 20 hours per week. I have talked to several professors in my field of interest and they said that the earliest position for a PhD would be in December, because of funding.</p>
<p>However, I think I could take the route as external researcher and do my PhD by working 20 hours per week and devoting the other 20 hours to my research.</p>
<p>By browsing some posts here I have read that a lot of you consider an external PhD as inefficient (it takes a <em>long</em> time, etc.). Why? What are the reasons for that? Can't such a PhD be done within 3 years?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>UPDATE</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>PS.:</strong> What are mostly the reason that it takes so long?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23802,
"author": "Ran G.",
"author_id": 324,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/324",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Being a PhD student is a <strong>full-time job</strong>. </p>\n\n<p>True, \"officially\" you may be assigned to 20 hours of \"study\" and 20 hours of \"work\" by the university, but this is just a way to determine your salary, and does NOT reflect the amount of time you actually spend on research studies.</p>\n\n<p>In the U.S., the nominal time for PhD is about five to six years average. This assumes the student is a full time student. While some people finish their PhD in three years or less, this is truly exceptional. The average is six. (This was the case at least in the school I attended, in the Computer Science department. Length may vary in other departments.) It also depends on what you aim for in your PhD: is graduating after publishing just one paper good enough for you? </p>\n\n<p>Now let's do the math. If it takes about six years to finish a degree, assuming full time, then how much time would it take for a part-time student? Take into consideration also 20%-30% extension of time due to context-switching, but also reduce 15%-25% of the time due to being more efficient (it's easier to waste time when working full-time, in my opinion).</p>\n\n<p>You arrive at 10+ years. </p>\n\n<p>Then again, I know people that worked part-time and studied part-time, and were able to complete their PhD studies in four to six years. I also know people that took five to six years to finish their MSc degree (which nominally takes two years), due to having another full-time job.. It depends mostly on your abilities and aims from PHD (but also quite a bit on your luck).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23807,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>And to add to what Ran G said, if you work at half the speed, it will take you longer to produce scientific results, duplicating the chances that you get scooped.</p>\n\n<p>This said, it is common for medical doctors and some nurses with a full time job to do a PhD, but that is a whole different beast (and does take many years).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23809,
"author": "paxRoman",
"author_id": 14887,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14887",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>This advice is based on Computer Science mostly, and it may or may not apply directly to you. As far as I understand your area is only marginally related to Computer Science through the fact that you're interested in Algorithmic Trading.</p>\n\n<p>Everything depends on two factors: <b>your goals</b> and <b>the speed with which you are able to learn and create the things that you need to do in order to achieve your goals</b>. If your goal is to be a professor at TU Vienna, then you will obviously at some point need to submit a PhD thesis and later a Habilitation thesis. The PhD thesis can have 3 to 6 papers in good conferences and one - two papers in some journals, and your habilitation thesis will consist of a minimum of 5 articles in good journals (A-level journals). You will also have to submit some grant proposals and after you manage to get those grants to finish them successfully (typically the requirement is to have EU grants or ERC grants). So you will have to produce at least 15 conference articles, 8-10 journal articles, 2 thesis, and 2 grants in order to get to an Assistant Professor or Professor in Vienna. If you manage to get every paper accepted first time when you submit it (something unheard of), you will still need 6 - 15 years to get to Assistant Professorship or Professorships (counting from the first year of your PhD). Keep in mind that at TU, Assistant or Junior Professorships appear only once at two years or so (and just one position). Most of the people I know from Vienna (TU Vienna, WU, IST Austria, etc) were able to finish PhD thesis in 4-5 years (full time) or 7-8 years (part-time), so there is no reason to consider that it might take a decade. </p>\n\n<p>The system also makes you quit really fast (after 1-2 years) if you do not want (or you are not able for some reason) to put in the effort that is required in order to create at least a decent thesis. The professor will stop talking to you if you don't make any progress for a number of months, for example, or if your papers are not accepted at top conferences. What you need to understand is that your supervisor is your guide, but you will eventually make the journey alone. The supervisor will just help you polish your articles or thesis.</p>\n\n<p>These being said, before applying for a PhD, I would check the CVs, thesis and articles written by TU Professors (Thomas Eiter, Georg Gottlob, Radu Grosu, Silvia Micksh, Stefan Woltran, etc). It helps a lot, as their expectations are that you will produce some work that is at least partially connected to their last articles (so that your work will also fit into their various research projects). Also try to talk with some of their students (you can easily detect them by looking through their CVs - they might have a PhD students entry - or through DBLP or Scholar by looking at their latest publications and identifying collaborators that only published few papers in the last 2-3 years). Try to understand what a PhD means, what are the expectations, and what is the amount of work you need to put in order to get to good results.</p>\n\n<p>I would also recommend you to check these interesting slides from one of the professors I just mentioned: <a href=\"http://www.ifs.tuwien.ac.at/~silvia/research-tips/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://www.ifs.tuwien.ac.at/~silvia/research-tips/</a>.</p>\n\n<p>The idea is to <b>try to estimate the expectations, the amount of work needed and the time you think you will need in order to fulfill this work</b>. The actual number of papers depends a lot on the domain in which you are working, but also on the quality of the outlets where you will publish (you might end up with a smaller number of papers if all of them are only in the top outlets for your field). Good luck!</p>\n\n<p>Disclaimer: I do not directly work with any of the persons already mentioned, but I do work at a university from Vienna.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23798",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17751/"
] |
23,803 |
<p>I have a master's in mechanical engineering from a pretty decent college in my country with a GPA of 7.9/10. I'd like to know what constitutes a good application to a Master's program in CS (ML, to be precise) and how I must choose my Universities that are safe and in those I have a chance. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23994,
"author": "Tom Au",
"author_id": 755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One thing that stands out in your question is your mechanical engineering background. That suggest a leaning toward more \"theoretical,\" and less \"applied\" areas of computer science.</p>\n\n<p>Computer science programs come in many varieties, and in your shoes, I would give the most weight to the ones \"heavily oriented toward theory and simulations.\" Those are probably the \"safest\" and \"best chances\" for you. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Note</strong>: I have amended my original response based on comments below. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24460,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Overall, your MS in ME will be viewed positively when you apply for MS in CS with Machine Learning specialization. What will matter most are how many computer science courses you have taken (and grades you received) and how many relevant math classes you have taken -- calculus, probability & statistics, linear algebra, numerical methods, optimization. The project work you have done in simulations could be very relevant and helpful, too, if the software you wrote was something more than procedural programming or deterministic simulation.</p>\n\n<p>In your Statement of Purpose, it would be to your advantage to make a strong link between your ME education and work experience and your goals in CS-ML. Are there applications or problems that arise in ME that you want to address with ML methods? Are there particular methods of optimization or classification that you've encountered in ME that you want to explore further in other settings?</p>\n\n<p>Regarding what schools to which you might apply: I would suggest that you aim at CS departments that are part of an institution with a strong \"engineering\" culture or focus. In the US there are many colleges, universities, and institutes that have an engineering focus, including the Polytechnics, Case Western Reserve, Harvey Mudd, Carnegie-Mellon, and many others. In contrast, the CS departments at Yale, Harvard, etc. have less orientation toward engineering.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23803",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17760/"
] |
23,817 |
<p>I just had a job interview for a tenure-track position where I interviewed with several people from the department. As far as I know, I'm supposed to send a thank you note after the interview. Should I send one to each person I've interviewed with or would this be perceived as excessive? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23818,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you feel that you want to thank members of the panel for their time and consideration, go on and send them a brief note. In my experience, it is usually impossible to exclude one or two people from the list without irritating someone, so I would say — write to all of them or none. It is natural to feel that a communication like this is \"meaningless\", \"time-stealing\" and \"unnecessary\" — long story short, <b>it is not</b>. A senior academic receives a ton of spam and unrelated correspondence, which they delete with a grunt. Make your message short and positive, and they will delete it with a smile.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23821,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are planning on sending the notes because you think that it will improve your chances of being hired, don't waste your time. If two candidates were equally good in terms of their CVs, and equally collegial during the interviews, which they never are, then maybe, and only maybe, would the thank you not matter. As soon as one candidate is even a hair better than another, then the thank you note is not going to matter.</p>\n\n<p>If you want to send thank you notes because you appreciate the time they took out of their schedule and you enjoyed talking about their research, and would like to potentially collaborate with them, ask them for feedback in the future, etc, then send them a thank you note. Job interviews, even if you do not get the job, are a great opportunity to network. A thank you note is a way to continue the conversations that were started during the interview. They are not an effective way of increasing your chances of being hired.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 38024,
"author": "Ari Trachtenberg",
"author_id": 15885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15885",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A thank-you note can be useful if you're trying to gauge the department's excitement about your interview. An effusive and excited response <em>might</em> indicate a sincere interest in the candidate, whereas a terse, closely-guarded response could indicate a tighter competition for the position (or a lack of interest ... or an antisocial professor ... or a bad hair day).</p>\n\n<p>I'd chasten against reading too much into the response - it's easier to ask directly from someone in the department with whom you have made some contact. In fact, this is much better than a \"thank you\" note, as it does not suggest an unduly attempt to influence a decision.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 38037,
"author": "Trevor Wilson",
"author_id": 8937,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8937",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think the only way it would be excessive would be if you thanked people whom you had no reason to thank.</p>\n\n<p>Considering the phrase \"thank you for ___\":\nIf you can fill in the blank with something reasonable like \"inviting me for an interview\" (to the person who actually sent the invitation,) \"taking the time to meet with me,\" or \"showing me around the campus,\" then it would be nice to send a brief note to the person saying as much. These days I think e-mail would be perfectly appropriate.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if all you have to thank someone for is considering your application, then there would probably not be much of a point in sending a thank-you note to that person.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23817",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17779/"
] |
23,820 |
<p>In 2006, when I was still in grad school, I wrote a paper that went through the usual motions: I discussed it with my advisor, I presented it at a peer-reviewed conference, and then published it as a refereed chapter in an edited volume. Right before the volume came out, I was explaining the paper to a friend from another university and he went: "oh, I think Professor Bigshot said something similar in his semi-obscure 1970 dissertation!". I checked the dissertation in question and, indeed, what I wrote is essentially what Professor Bigshot wrote in 1970, give or take some minor variations in the formalism.</p>
<p>Something to keep in mind here is that <strong>this is not plagiarism</strong>. I came up with the idea totally on my own, and I didn't reference Professor Bigshot's dissertation because nobody (not my supervisor, not the conference audience, not the chapter referees) told me about it in time. What worries me is that other people might think I took the relevant dissertation passage and plagiarized it. So far, nobody has happened, but I'm want to preempt plagiarism claims in the future. Obviously, nothing can be done about the published chapter, so I have modified the downloadable preprints in both my website and the go-to repository of my field, adding a note that explains the situation and giving proper credit to Professor Bigshot.</p>
<p>Is this enough, or is there anything else I can do?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23831,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is hard, if not impossible, to pre-empt accusations of plagiarism. The key is to be prepared to defend yourself. People rediscover stuff all the time. I would make sure that you keep all of your notes, drafts and any literature searches you may have done. I think keeping them privately would be fine, but if you really wanted to, you could make them publicly available in an archival manner to demonstrate that it is really your work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23835,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One of things to do is to start publicly acknowledge the previous work, mentioning that your own contribution has been merely a re-discovery of a lesser known result, or maybe a result from the other research field than yours. Such things happen from time to time, and are not necessarily considered as plagiarism, unless an author continue to act in a way that justifies such a characterisation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23846,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You will not be able to pre-empt every possible accusation in academia. If you were not aware of this earlier work when you wrote the paper, then don't worry about it -- at all. It simply isn't plagiarism. I would cite this earlier work in future papers, if it is relevant. But, dissertations are really not the best sources to be citing (at least in the social sciences) -- and the best dissertations are spun off into articles. </p>\n\n<p>Also, what is the purpose of \"giving credit to Professor Bigshot?\" If the article was based on that person's work, then you give credit by citing that work accordingly. However, if you didn't even see that work when you wrote the paper, then it isn't necessary. Your steps to highlight this issue on your website is commendable, but I don't think it is warranted. I suggest that you don't worry about this issue anymore. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 134270,
"author": "user111554",
"author_id": 111554,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/111554",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is absolutely no doubt that your publication constitutes plagiarism, but - importantly - of the unintentional rather than the intentional kind. It is still plagiarism however. The only proper course of action is indeed the one you have already taken; if the professor is still active, it might be a good idea to let him know directly. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23820",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12314/"
] |
23,827 |
<p>The instructions of the engineering journal I submitted to (IEEE transactions on wireless communications) says this regarding the final submission of figures and tables</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Please upload the Originals (masters) of the tables and figures (in separate files, one
figure per file). All graphics material submitted for publication must
be original drawn figures in .eps format, with each figure submitted
as a separate file. Figures exported from other formats (e.g., PDF,
PowerPoint) will not reproduce well in print. Appropriate fonts
include: Symbol, Helvetica, Arial, Times New Roman.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What do they mean by "originals (masters) of the tables"? Does it mean that I should submit each table also as a separate file? If so, in which format?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23828,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my opinion, the guideline regarding tables is outdated, and one can safely ignore it. If you submit your manuscript in LaTeX, put your tables in the main text. This is a current mainstream in (STEM-related) journals, and it is good to delicately push IEEE towards it. In case if they insist on doing this the other way (which I seriously doubt), you can address the questions to their production team.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23923,
"author": "Sverre",
"author_id": 11053,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11053",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The guidelines aren't very precise, but this is what it means:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Submit your tables in separate files, one table per file, but only if the tables are <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floating_block\" rel=\"nofollow\">floats</a> (which virtually all tables should be anyway). The placement of these tables will depend on the journal's typesetting of the text in your document. They are very unlikely to end up where you put them in your text anyway, so it makes sense for the typesetters to insist they don't appear in the text in the first place. It's typically enough to put all tables at the end of the document, with one table per page. You can do this with the <a href=\"http://www.ctan.org/pkg/endfloat\" rel=\"nofollow\">endfloat</a> package in LaTeX. If the journal really insists that tables should be submitted in separate files, you can use the <a href=\"http://www.ctan.org/pkg/standalone\" rel=\"nofollow\">standalone</a> package. I sincerely doubt that tables need to be submitted as <code>.eps</code> files. Tables are text, not graphics, and your guidelines only say that \"graphics material\" need to be submitted as <code>.eps</code>. Submitting them as <code>.pdf</code> should suffice. The typesetters will create your tables from scratch anyway.</li>\n<li>Figures are another matter. The typesetters will not alter them at all, they will simply insert them into the document in the place deemed most appropriate. You need to create your figures as <code>.eps</code> files and submit them as separate files. If the software you made the figures in doesn't include <code>.eps</code> as a native format, use tools such as <a href=\"http://www.ipv6.tm.uka.de/~bless/ps2eps\" rel=\"nofollow\">ps2eps</a> (if your software includes <code>.ps</code> as a format) or <a href=\"http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/download.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">pdftops</a> (if your software includes <code>.pdf</code> as a format) to convert your figures to <code>.eps</code>.</li>\n</ol>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23827",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13193/"
] |
23,829 |
<p>I'm working on a specific subject, and I thought that sharing my <strong>bibliographical and synthesis work from peer-reviewed journals</strong> on Wikipedia could be a good idea. Moreover, there is no Wikipedia entry on that subject.</p>
<p>But as I will use that work for my PhD thesis, is this problematic because someone might think that I have plagiarised the material from Wikipedia?</p>
<p>Note that this question could apply to any similar collaborative encyclopedia, not just to Wikipedia, and that the article I'm writing is subject to collaborative change.</p>
<hr>
<p>Edit : by synthesis work I <strong>do not</strong> mean :</p>
<blockquote>
<p>combine material from multiple sources to reach or imply a conclusion
not explicitly stated by any of the sources</p>
</blockquote>
<p>but</p>
<blockquote>
<p>reduce the information in lengthy sources to an encyclopedic length</p>
</blockquote>
<p>More information on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia%3aWhat_SYNTH_is_not">Wikipedias SYNTH policies</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia%3aSYNTH#Synthesis_of_published_material">here</a></p>
<p>Also the question is related to sharing my bibliographical work on a collaborative platform, regardless to the platform policy (assuming I can), and potential problems re-using it afterwards, in a PhD thesis. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23840,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>No, but make sure you cite it <em>and</em> mention it, to avoid being accused of copying and pasting from Wikipedia.</p>\n\n<p>In any case, it is <em>great</em> that you have contributed to Wikipedia and I wish more people considered using pieces of their introductory chapters for Wikipedia. Just make sure that people know that you copied to, not from, Wikipedia. (I mean, the order is irrelevant, i.e. whether you first wrote text for Wikipedia or your thesis, but the authorship is.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23841,
"author": "410 gone",
"author_id": 96,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, it's problematic. Quoting wikipedia is, to some people, always dodgy, whatever the context. Just don't do it in an academic work.</p>\n\n<p>And you can't reuse your own words, having broadcast them once in wikipedia, without explicitly stating that you're quoting wikipedia - that would be self-plagiarism, just as when if you'd quoted a previous paper you'd written, without explicitly identifying that it was a quote.</p>\n\n<p>So don't do it.</p>\n\n<p>If you've written your best stuff for wikipedia, and left yourself with a dead end for your academic work, then count it as a lesson learnt. But it's more likely that you've just put on wikipedia one first attempt at formulation. So now do a better one, completely rephrased, and use that in your thesis. Then you don't need to mention wikipedia in your thesis at all, except in the acknowledgements section if you wish.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23843,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think you can do this safely, but you will want to take some precautions like Piotr mentioned. However, from a practical standpoint, I don't recommend anything that might create problems with your dissertation work. You haven't finished your PhD thesis, and your efforts on that project are far more important than writing a Wikipedia entry for a topic that isn't covered. Even if you cover all your bases, you still have a risk of somebody raising the issue of plagiarism. I suggest minimizing such distractions and side projects and focus exclusively on your thesis. You can then devote your time to these projects after it is defended. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23859,
"author": "bsg",
"author_id": 12222,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12222",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The other answers address the question of \"once I post this on Wikipedia, can I include it in my thesis?\" I would like to address another angle - I am not sure that you should be posting this on Wikipedia at all. </p>\n\n<p>Wikipedia has a policy banning the inclusion of original research. This means \"research that is not exclusively based on a summary, review or synthesis of earlier publications on the subject of research.\" (See English Wikipedia's policy on original research <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_research#Original_research\">here</a>)That is, basically anything that would be publishable as a thesis. This is because Wikipedia is an encyclopedia - that is, a tertiary source that aggregates information from secondary (and sometimes primary) sources - it cannot accept primary-source material like original research.</p>\n\n<p>You say that you want to share your \"bibliographical and synthesis work\" on your subject. Bibliographical work may be useful for Wikipedia, but any synthesis you did to add your own ideas and/or discuss them may well be considered original research and be prohibited. The fact that no article exists on the topic leads me to think that it may be a theory or idea of your own and may be considered original research if posted.</p>\n\n<p>That said, as Piotr Migdal said, it's great that you are thinking of contributing to Wikipedia. Wikipedia definitely needs more academics and people who are experts in various areas to contribute their knowledge - it just has to be knowledge that's already accepted in the field, rather than original, non-yet-peer-reviewed research. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23865,
"author": "Josué Tonelli-Cueto",
"author_id": 7160,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7160",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>And why not the other way around? First, obtain your PhD and finish your dissertation. Once this has been done, cite among the other bibliographical items in Wikipedia your dissertation.</p>\n\n<p>In this way, there will be no problem. Since it will be the Wikipedia article based on your thesis and not the other way around.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23829",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17784/"
] |
23,832 |
<p>When writing a paper which applies some known method to a new problem, for completeness we may need to summarize that method, probably as a section on its own. </p>
<p>In the paper where it was first proposed, the method was described in a set of equations. In my case, I need to include some of these equations, because I need to refer to them in the subsequent part of my paper. </p>
<p>Currently I write something like the following:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We apply the X method [citation], which we shall summarize below, to describe ...</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and then comes the equations, interspersed with some texts, which are paraphrased from the originals. </p>
<p>How do we give the proper attribution to the paper in which the method was first described, without giving the impression that some of the equations are our own? Is the above sufficient? Including [citation] before every equation seems awkward, since all of these equations are from a single paper. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23833,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It is generally sufficient to say explicitly that \"in this section we will recall the method X from [citation]\", and then simply do it. However, you may find it preferable not to quote equations and text from the original paper, but to adopt it according to the style, notation and message of your own manuscript.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23844,
"author": "Robin Ekman",
"author_id": 14053,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14053",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If the equations in your source are numbered, you can use the source's numbering, perhaps with a prefix. For example, if you quote equation (2.15) in the source, you could number it as (X.2.15). Then this prefix will serve to distinguish the quoted equations from your own. If you only quote a few equations, you could also follow them with something like \"these equations appear as (2.15) and (2.19) in [citation]\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23852,
"author": "CuriousCat",
"author_id": 17548,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17548",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would suggest making it clear, that you also quote the equations, e.g. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>We apply the X method [citation], to describe ... The derivations and equations below are cited and summarized from [citation]: </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>And I would also include the major equations in your paper. Not every reader may have access to your sources, and if the equations are necessary to understand your data/approach they should be provided in your text. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>By <em>major equations</em> I mean final expressions but not the steps how they are derived. As author, ask yourself which equations are necessary to understand the methodology and not common lore in your field. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23832",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10936/"
] |
23,836 |
<p>I have seen couple of questions related to rejection of submissions to conferences (CS). Coming to my case, this is my third rejection, I agree that first two were fair decisions as the paper was not clear and needed more thorough experiments. However in this third submission I have put in all possible effort to make it the best considering feedback from prior submissions. </p>
<p>I received initial comments from 4 reviewers with no scores and based on their comments it was on borderline. Since there was a rebuttal phase, I have sent a response clarifying issues raised by them. I received my final notification today and it was a 'reject' decision. The final reviews had comments from an additional reviewer. His comments are atrocious and unfair. He pointed out that he is rejecting the paper as some issue X was <em>not addressed at all</em>. However we have addressed X with a thorough evaluation in a subsection and results put up in a graph. I'm sure that this reviewer has not read it <em>properly</em>. If he raised his issue may be on the way we solved X, it would have been more appropriate. </p>
<p>I know that appealing to the PC chairs would be a futile effort but at the same time I do not want an unfair review. This feeling of rejection based on unfair review is depressing me. How do I go about it. I feel the only way out is to resubmit it for another conference in near future.</p>
<p>Please advise.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23837,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The possibility to have unfair reviews is one of the reasons why you receive multiple reviews. I have received multiple reviews where the reviewers clearly didn't review the paper carefully, and it's indeed quite frustrating. </p>\n\n<p>That being said, when I looked back at the papers, I realised that they were not rejected because of one unfair review, but because I didn't manage to convince the fair reviewers: if you get four accept, then it does not matter if you have an unfair reject. Besides, it could also be the case that you've received an unfair accept review (i.e., someone who accepted the paper without really reading), so, in the end, it might balance things out. </p>\n\n<p>Dealing with rejection is a huge step of the academic process, and as it has been said here in the past, if you never get papers rejected, you are probably not aiming high enough. As long as you have only one unfair review, ignore it, and move on to the next conference (and if you only receive unfair reviews, well, you are probably submitting at the wrong venue). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23838,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I feel the only way out is to resubmit it for another conference in near future.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That about sums it up. Negative reviews and rejections are hard to swallow. They are common in academia and you cannot let them get to you. The best thing to do is step away from the manuscript. If you need to cry, cry. If you need to scream, scream. After a while, generally for me a week or so, try and look at the reviews again. If they still piss you off, step away from them again. Once you can read the reviews objectively, start to tackle them. This might mean agreeing with the reviewer, or seeing where the reviewer got lost, or that the reviewer is simply a fool. Once you have taken everything from the reviews that will improve the manuscript, file it away and if necessary cry and scream again. Then resubmit the manuscript to the next conference.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23839,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As you said, the paper was on the borderline after 4 (fair) reviews. I would advise first to discuss the paper and the results with your supervisor / colleagues, and if you are still determined to continue, rework it significantly, taking in account the criticism of four referees, that you consider as fair. Make sure the result moves far from the borderline (and in the right direction). Then re-think the remarks of the last (\"unfair\") referee and decide what you want to do with them. Probably, you should not trash them away completely — try to find a motivated comments and suggestions apart from the \"unfair\" ones.</p>\n\n<p>When a new version of a paper is ready, you may wish to show it to your supervisor and send to several colleagues outside your group asking them for some pre-submission comments — this may save you a lot of time.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23845,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Are we talking about the same paper that is rejected a total 3 times? If so, you should seriously consider if this paper (however you improve it) will ever be good enough. Perhaps the problem you solve is not interesting enough or your solution does not promote the state-of-the-art significantly enough. In that case, maybe aiming too high is your problem. Also, note that in prestigious CS conferences (I assume this is your case, due to a rebuttal phase), borderline papers never make it. At the end, there are enough papers who pass with flying colors and the rest fail.</p>\n\n<p>You should start considering submitting to a lower ranked CS conference or perhaps a workshop. You have already wasted a full year or more (that is what probably the time required for getting those 3 rejections)and wasting another 3-6 months for the next conference, might not be feasible. You should seriously start discussing this possibility with your supervisor.</p>\n\n<p>I understand that rejection hurts but many of us had works that were rejected, kept improving it and got rejected again. At some time, it is time to cut your losses and move-on. I think it was @JeffE that said \"The universe has spoken. Move on\" and he is right. Submit to a lower conference / workshop to at-least patent those results and lower your sense of rejection, but without wasting too much time further improving those results. Instead focus on more interesting variations and move-on. But most-of-all discuss all these possibilities with your advisor</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23861,
"author": "Count Iblis",
"author_id": 17479,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17479",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think that the real problem that may however be hard to address, is that there is a schedule to visit certain conferences well in advance and that you are supposed to come up with research results that will be good enough for those conferences. This is not what I am used to doing, but then my field is not CS. If you could simply work on your research program until you get outstanding results, then getting those results published in a decent journal won't usually be a problem. There will still be cases of bad refereeing but then you won't mind if the referee wants things that are already explained to be clarified if the report starts with the statement that the paper is excellent and should be published.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 75377,
"author": "einpoklum",
"author_id": 7319,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7319",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In Hebrew there's a saying:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>צרת רבים - חצי נחמה</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>which means</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The trouble of many is half a consolation</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Unfair reviews seem to be very common. I just got a set of reviews a few months ago with one reviewer saying (roughly) "section X was great but section Y was weak" and another reviewer saying "I really liked section Y; unfortunately, section X was sub-par" and they made conflicting suggestions regarding what to expand on and what to mention in passing. And then there are people who seem to just not be close enough to your field of research who review the paper in a way that makes that fact abundantly clear. etc.</p>\n<p>So while this answer isn't any sort of practical advice, at least know that you're not alone with this experience.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23836",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6816/"
] |
23,847 |
<p>I'm curious as to whether or not any departments ever attempt to evaluate their own admissions decisions. It seems quite plausible to do for any college or graduate program, but I've never heard of it done. I have in mind some kind of data analysis comparing student success in the program or beyond with variables from the application. </p>
<p>I understand some might not like the idea, but as noisy as admissions are, I was wondering if schools ever reflect on their own decisions and attempt to identify strengths and weaknesses?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23848,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>This practice is not frequent, and it is rarely systematic and rigorous. However, from a decision-making perspective, this has been given attention by Robyn Dawes, who was a very well-known psychologist at Carnegia Mellon. Here is one of his papers on the topic, which has been cited about 500 times (per Google Scholar). Some recent evaluations have been published, but relative to the total number of admissions committees that exist across all graduate schools, I can confidently say it is not many. </p>\n\n<p>Dawes, R. M. (1971). A case study of graduate admissions: Application of three principles of human decision making. American Psychologist, 26(2), 180.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23850,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To me the best evaluation of an admissions process would be the success of students once through the system. I am not sure what would otherwise be evaluated? Perhaps that can be expanded upon in the question? In any case, I am sure many departments run tabs on where alumni go and I can only share the statistics from two departments my Alma Mater and my current workplace.</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/pM3RA.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>Figure 1. Statistics on post-graduate careers of students from the Geology department of University of Minnesota</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/bEEqJ.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>Figure 2. Statistics on post-graduate careers of PhD students from the Physical Geography and Quaternary Geology department at Stockholm University</p>\n\n<p>So from this perspective the admissions system is evaluated from the perspective of employability within the field. </p>\n\n<p>To study the process itself one would need to set up some additional criteria against which to evaluate the process but I am not sure what those criteria would necessarily be. Some aspects such as gender and ethnicity bias are of course identified but it is unclear if there is a need to try to actively change the interest of applicants other than strive to reach under-represented groups. Such outreach activities are, however, not part of the admission process.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23847",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17789/"
] |
23,849 |
<p>About a year ago, I was studying at a university. I had a subject with a tutor; since my family moved to a different city, I also moved to a different university and discontinued my studies at my former university.</p>
<p>I do not use my real name at Facebook for obvious reasons that we all know. In a public group in Facebook about ancient Iran, I posted an article and the tutor I had at my former university commented that my real name is something else: he also mentioned that I discontinued my studies at the former university: he also mentioned that I did not attend his classes.</p>
<p>Is not this abusing my privacy? He could sent me a private message if he wanted. To be honest, I am offended and want to make an official complaint to my former university. So I want to know if his act is indeed abusing my privacy and what is the best thing to do?</p>
<p>I also should mention that I sent him a private message on Facebook and asked him that one should respect indivisul's privacy in the hope that he will delete his comment but he did not.</p>
<p>His Exact comments were:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sorry for interrupting mate. I just visited your profile which shows
you reside in somecountry. Just would like to know if your real
surname is somename. If so, I reckon you were my student in tutorial
sessions in Engineering Mechanics in UTS ayear ago; However, you
stopped attending the sessions after the first few ones.</p>
</blockquote>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23856,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am not a lawyer, and I am not giving you legal advice. If you are in the US, you can view this matter from the Family Education Rights and Policy Act (FERPA): </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html</a></p>\n\n<p>Here are the key issues that should be considered: </p>\n\n<p>1) FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. Students to whom the rights have transferred are \"eligible students.\"</p>\n\n<p>2) Generally, schools must have written permission from the parent or eligible student in order to release any information from a student's education record. </p>\n\n<p>If this person published your name AND gave details of your educational record, then I think you have a legitimate complaint, provided that the tutoring was a service of the university. If you hired this person privately or joined a group that was not formally affiliated with the university, then the university will not pay attention to this complaint. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 78665,
"author": "darrenchaker",
"author_id": 63676,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/63676",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would only mirror some of the answers already provided - one of them asking if the tutor is an employee of the univiersity. If so, there may be a violation, however if you disclosed elsewhere online you are/were a student at the university, then there may not be - even if the tutor was an employee. The fact you discontinued studies from a non-employee would not be a violation of privacy as well. Typically, as long as its something private you made public, then the expectation of privacy is waived.</p>\n\n<p>I assure you, the internet is not a pretty place. Watch what you disclose online. Wish you the best in any event and since this implicates a legal issue, no answer than an answer by an attorney is an attorney you'd want to trust.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23849",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17791/"
] |
23,851 |
<p>I'm working on my Master's thesis in Computer Science. Shortly, I am "drawing" a diagram, which is then serialized and from the serialization I generate some source code. So, my question is not about the code of my application, but about the code generated by it. I think we can call it the result of my app. </p>
<p>I want to include an example of what output (source code, although I will also include the intermediary serialization) has my app for a certain input (a diagram). I mention that this would mean many pages, maybe a total of 7-10. Should I include this in the part related to the results or maybe in an appendix? Or is there a more suitable place? Or should I not include anything at all?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23853,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I assume you are publishing the code that you wrote by hand. Then, the interested reader can just run it and get the output.</p>\n\n<p>Generated code is usually unreadable, so there is little point in going through tens of papers of near-garbage. What could be a good idea is to show some excerpts, no more than a paragraph. One option is perhaps some particularly clever parts, like the handling of a particular corner case; another would be a fairly general simple case, to see how readable it would be.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23854,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Short answer: <b>put your code in public repo, and cite the repo in your paper.</b></p>\n\n<p><b>Long answer:</b> Any academic document you produce is supposed to be readable and useful to your readers. Try to put yourself in a reader's shoes and imagine how you feel reading through a 7-page long autogenerated code? Is is a pleasant or useful experience that you would like to repeat one day?</p>\n\n<p>The modern technology allows us to use much more than just a text on the paper to present our research outputs. Although a short pieces of code may be extremely useful and appropriate in textbooks or some articles, the long code and auto-generated code really does not belong to the paper. It should be kept in a public repository, where it really belong, and used as a working example, which people can download, modify and execute, not just enjoy it aesthetically in a pdf file. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23851",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15987/"
] |
23,864 |
<p>I initially thought this was off-topic but StrongBad told me this is not, so thank you.</p>
<p>A friend of mine has been a victim of fraud by someone at an university. This was investigated by the police and will almost certainly lead to a conviction and probably a prison sentence. My question is do universities (automatically?) expel people for committing criminal offenses whilst a student?</p>
<p>The specific University in question here is Cambridge.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23866,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I am aware of no University that automatically does anything. That said, most Universities, have policies in place to protect their reputation. At Cambridge, both <a href=\"http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/current-students/section-14-anti-social-behaviour-and-disciplinary-procedures\">Christ's College</a> and <a href=\"http://www.girton.cam.ac.uk/anti-social-behaviour-a-disciplinary-procedures\">Griton College</a> have almost identical policies which makes me think there is an underlying university policy that I cannot easily find. To quote Griton's policy:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Additionally, the University has a number of sanctions for behaviour impinging on the image of the University, while the most serious breaches, including all criminal behaviour, will be referred to the local police.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Basically, Universities should be reporting any criminal activity to the local authorities. They also have the right to follow their own policies, of which expulsion is a possibility. Universities like to protect their images (e.g., the recent sex offence scandals in the US). So what the University will do may depend on if the victim of the crime was another student and how vocal the sides are.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23896,
"author": "nivag",
"author_id": 14115,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14115",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Short answer they definitely can expel you. Although they will generally have a process to follow. I suspect for most offences resulting in a jail sentence expulsion is highly likely.</p>\n\n<p>Here are the rules for Imperial College <a href=\"http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/secretariat/collegegovernance/provisions/ordinances/e2\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/secretariat/collegegovernance/provisions/ordinances/e2</a> (I suspect most institutions have similar rules written somewhere).</p>\n\n<p>Important points are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>6e: Misconduct of a nature which is likely to affect the good name and standing of the College is an offence. This likely covers any criminal activity.</p></li>\n<li><p>10c: Summary punishment is available for minor offences for serious offences there are various boards/committees to deal with punishment. College Discipline Committee covers offences under 6e.</p></li>\n<li><p>16-24: There are various proceducures covering how the committee must hear evidence and operate.</p></li>\n<li><p>30f: Expulsion or suspension from college is a permitted punishment.</p></li>\n<li><p>33: The committee shall take note of any external prosecutions. </p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23864",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10156/"
] |
23,873 |
<p>I'm an individual interested in multiple academic disciplines such as neuroscience, biological engineering, computer science, history, anthropology, psychology, political theory ... to name just a few. Currently, I have a normal (40 hours/week) engineering job that leaves me enough free time to follow these topics to a moderately satisfying degree. </p>
<p>However, primarily due to intellectual curiosity, I'm considering doing a PhD (in Europe) and would ideally want to move to research later (discipline: something along the lines of genetic engineering, computational biology or cognitive neuroscience - not sure yet, but my background is in computer science). Given the highly specialized nature of modern scientific research that seems to demand intense working hours, one concern that I have is the <strong>fear of becoming highly one dimensional</strong>: completely failing to follow progress in other fields and in society as a whole, with publish or perish environment creating an inescapable feedback loop, where one cannot afford to read articles and books on topics not related to work, or follow public debates; yet alone write a blog about e.g. social issues.</p>
<p>I realize there are academics out there who seem to be prolific across multiple disciplines (e.g. Chomsky, Pinker ...), but the question still stands: <strong>in a modern research environment, can one satisfy multiple intellectual interests that transcend immediate work requirements</strong>, or has the game become too competitive and focused for that? What are the main variables?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23876,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can do it, but you might not be a professor. I have a PhD in Aerospace Engineering, and I work in CFD, HPC clusters, and BigData/analytics when I do research. My primary job is running the HPC department at a large-ish computing center. If I were a professor, I doubt I could pull this off. My research output is much smaller that professors my age, but I still have a pretty satisfying career. </p>\n\n<p>You best chance for doing lots of different kinds of research is to find a center who appreciates you for your broad interests and to help it grow its mission while pursuing your more esoteric interests when you can.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23877,
"author": "Brighten",
"author_id": 17820,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17820",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The answer may vary across field and institution and continent. But based on my experience, in short, I would say: Yes, a modern research environment permits and even benefits from broad intellectual interests.</p>\n\n<p>But first let's draw a distinction between what I'll call your \"output\" and your \"input\". For most researchers, research output is highly specialized. It can take an intense focus to make progress on the hardest, most impactful problems (<a href=\"http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/\">http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/</a>). Not only that, your progress is generally a super-linear function of the time you put into a project. You invest in learning past work, concepts tools, developing ideas often over a period of multiple years -- and then connections happen faster, ideas mature, you know the software tools, and overall you produce much more quickly. Good interdisciplinary work is possible and does allow you to use expertise in multiple areas or fields; but, in my experience, this work can be just as specialized.</p>\n\n<p>Your \"input\", however, is an inspiration for what research to tackle. I find that my creativity in producing good research ideas is substantially better when I explicitly take time to step back and think, interact with new people, and explore new concepts. And the best researchers have a good understanding of society and gut feeling about what will be really impactful in the next few years. If you completely fail to follow progress in your field, in other fields, and in society as a whole, you might produce more papers in the short run but probably have less impactful research in the long run.</p>\n\n<p>As <a href=\"http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html\">Hamming said</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Another trait, it took me a while to notice. I noticed the following facts about people who work with the door open or the door closed. I notice that if you have\n the door to your office closed, you get more work done today and tomorrow, and you are more productive than most. But 10 years later somehow you don't know quite know what problems are worth working on; all the hard work you do is sort of tangential in importance. He who works with the door open gets all kinds of interruptions, but he also occasionally gets clues as to what the world is and what might be important. Now I cannot prove the cause and effect sequence because you might say, \"The closed door is symbolic of a closed mind.\" I don't know. But I can say there is a pretty good correlation between those who work with the doors open and those who ultimately do important things, although people who work with doors closed often work harder. Somehow they seem to work on slightly the wrong thing - not much, but enough that they miss fame.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Finally, as a professor, you have a great deal of freedom to steer your own research agenda; more than in most professions. While it's hard to make progress in wildly divergent fields concurrently, over longer timescales (5-10 years) many researchers do change their focus area quite successfully.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 118079,
"author": "Patrick B.",
"author_id": 68649,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/68649",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I know this question was asked a long time ago, but for future reference: I think the answer is \"kind of.\"</p>\n\n<p>The best way that I know to do this professionally is to become a \"method development\" person. In other words, if your job is to develop new statistical or computational tools, or to develop new instrumentation to measure things that weren't previously possible to measure, <em>and</em> if you are very good at striking up collaborations across different disciplines, then I think it's totally possible to remain somewhat agnostic about what exact questions you want to pursue using your new methods.</p>\n\n<p>(This is adapted from something a previous advisor said to me, which is that you can be a \"methods\" or a \"problem\" person. At the \"problem\" end of the spectrum, to contrast with the above, you would be motivated by a really specific question, would understand it better than anyone else, and would be more willing to use a wide variety of methods to study it. It can be a good exercise to look at people's careers and try to see where they fall on this spectrum.)</p>\n\n<p>The caveat is that in order to do this successfully, you're still going to need to go \"narrow and deep\" at the PhD level in something like applied math, statistics, algorithms, etc.; otherwise it's going to be very hard to do work that is cutting-edge enough to genuinely matter across a variety of applications. Doctoral work is all about making a unique contribution; if your knowledge doesn't take you \"right up to the edge\" of any field, that's going to be really difficult. You will also likely have to cede a little control in terms of choosing questions, because you won't always be able to shoehorn an existing interest around your analytic specialty. But if you want a lot of variety in a tenure-track academic career, I think this is your best bet.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23873",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17810/"
] |
23,874 |
<p>Academic job applications usually require the submission of a research statement, which describes not only the applicant's research experience, but also future direction of their work. As such, it may contain some novel ideas. </p>
<p>Considering that a research statement is not a publication, and therefore, can't be cited, how does a selection committee ensure that nothing in an applicant's research statement (especially those of unsuccessful applicants) will be stolen by anyone in the selection committee who reads it?</p>
<p>I mean, since the applicant's submitted documents are probably only known to the selection committee and the applicant him/herself, isn't it easy for anyone in the committee to copy those ideas without being found out? </p>
<p>A related question, if a member in the committee identifies an interesting and promising idea of an unsuccessful applicant, and is keen to pursue the idea, what should the committee member do? How do you give credit to the unsuccessful applicant when the research statement is the only document where the idea is described?</p>
<p>To be clear, my concern is more on the committee, not how I can prevent the committee from stealing my idea. One day I might be sitting as a selection committee member myself, and I'd like to know what I should do in this situation.</p>
<p>This question is related to <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5727/">Research statement ideas got used by interviewing committee</a>, but looking from the perspective of the committee.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23889,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Academics are presented with confidential material all the time. We review manuscripts and grants and we are expected to not steal those ideas. A research statement is very similar to a grant proposal. When we are given applications to review we are reminded that they are confidential and should not be circulated. This is the same as when reviewing a grant. While many funding agencies and publishers have clear statements that reviewers must agree to, departments generally do not produce such guidelines. That said, a department would likely come down very hard on an individual who did not respect the confidentiality of an applicant.</p>\n\n<p>With that out of the way, it is often that a reviewer has similar ideas as an applicant. On the face of it, it may appear that the reviewer has stolen the idea from a proposal, when in fact it was an independent idea that the reviewer had already had. One question is should reviewers decline to review based on a conflict of interest when the proposed work is similar to their current/future work. In my opinion, they should not since they are in the best position to review the work and the similarity is likely the reason they have been asked to review. This then does leave the burden on the reviewers to be able to document that the research agenda is in fact their own and not stolen from the confidential proposal.</p>\n\n<p>The final issue is to document anything that is unique to your proposal. Saying you want to study topic X does not make it yours. Saying you want to study topic X with method Y, isn't much better. If the proposal says I want to study topic X with novel method Y because of reason Z, then the linking of X, Y, and Z might be important. If you document this, then at least if someone studies X with Y, you can get the credit for coming up with the brilliant idea of using method Y on problem X. In some ways realising that problem X can be solved with method Y is more important than actually solving the problem.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23892,
"author": "Trylks",
"author_id": 7571,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7571",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Best way to prevent ideas from being stolen (IMHO): write them up and make them public. You don't need to publish them in a top journal or conference, simply write them up (as the research statement is probably already written) and put them on arxiv, figshare or whatever suits you (I think we need a list for these services). Short and simple.</p>\n\n<p>I was told once that one difference between science and engineering is exactly that. The engineer will have an idea and protect it by not telling anybody and <em>patenting</em> it. The scientist will protect the idea (the authorship of the idea) by <em>publishing</em> it and telling everybody. I don't fully agree due to the characteristics of software engineering, open source and copyright, but I think it serves to illustrate the point.</p>\n\n<p>Sure publishing on a journal or conference requires telling some people before that (the reviewers) and not all ideas are suitable to be published in such places (any reputed venue will reject most of the submissions, there are usually associated costs, etc.) There is the risk of reviewers stealing some ideas (not in a completely straightforward way, to abide the rules) and I think the main reason why there is arxiv is exactly that.</p>\n\n<p>Publishing online is free and immediate. It won't give you much impact and it won't count for some metrics, but it will provide testimony that you had that idea at that time (even if more people could have had the same idea in an independent way, as @StrongBad pointed). Then you should find a venue that accepts what you already published in this manner, not all venues will do so and depending on your area most venues may reject such papers, but the fact that most people do something doesn't mean that thing is right.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, the problem (IMHO) is that we are giving great value to something as intangible as ideas, because they are important and have great impact on the progress of society and the career of those who are responsible for those ideas. However, as a society, we are not really prepared to handle intangible things properly, there are attempts to improve that, but all of them are still falling short in some aspects.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23874",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10936/"
] |
23,881 |
<p>I developed a system, and wrote a paper about it. It includes formulas and pseudo-code. During the course of development I used Roman letters in the formulas. I eventually ran out of meaningful letters (letters that I could associate to some extent with what they represented), and started using Greek letters. The development went on until somehow I ended up having about 8 Greek letters and 2 Roman letters used in the final formulas and pseudo-code.</p>
<p>Now that the paper is written, I wonder if having all of these Greek letters is unusual. Would it be better to replace them with Roman letters? Would it be better to use Roman letters with subscripts, such as <em>t</em> for time, and <em>t_scaled</em> for scaled time, instead of using Greek letters for that?</p>
<p>EDIT: To clear things up a little, my general question is: is it preferable to use Roman letters or Greek letters in a technical (engineering) publication, and is it acceptable or even preferable to use letters with word subscripts instead of entirely new symbols to label related variables or constants?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23882,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The writing style is really something very individual, and may vary a lot. There is nothing wrong with Greek letters <i>per se</i>, but it is slightly concerning that you use them because you ran out of meaningful Roman letters. That could indicate that you are using really a lot of notation in your paper, and from a point of reader it might be difficult to keep in mind what do these letters mean.</p>\n\n<p>The use of semantics, i.e. notation like n_cars or t_scaled, may really help to reduce the number of \"independent\" symbols and improve readability. You may also wish to structure the use of variables, e.g. use Greeks as integers and Roman as everything else. It is very good idea to stick to some classical notation worked out in textbooks and major articles in your area of research. Ultimately, you may wish to present a table of all your letters with their meaning after the first section of your paper.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23883,
"author": "David Z",
"author_id": 236,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/236",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>This depends entirely on your field, and specifically, what the norm is in your field. In mathematical fields like statistics, economics, physics, and math itself, and to a slightly lesser extent in chemistry and computer science, using Greek letters as variables is <em>exceedingly</em> common - in fact, it's unusual to see a paper that <em>doesn't</em> use a few, and there are many quantities for which the well-established standard notation involves a Greek letter. In other fields, perhaps that's not the case.</p>\n\n<p>If you're still not sure after examining the norms in your field, I'd just go ahead and do it. Given that mathematicians use Greek letters all the time, it stands to reason that when you are doing math in another field, you should be able to do so as well.</p>\n\n<p>However, I would caution you about one thing: try to make your variable names <em>descriptive</em>. That is, it should be easy for the reader to make the association between the variable name and what it represents. So when there is a standard notation for some quantity, use that; when there isn't, subscripted symbols like \"t_scaled\" are one good way to do it. They do take up more space on the page, though, and can make formulas look unwieldy, so you have to strike a balance between aesthetics and clarity of meaning.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23886,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>it preferable to use Roman letters of Greek letters in a technical (engineering) publication, and is it acceptable or even preferable to use letters with word subscripts instead of entirely new symbols to label related variable or constants?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In addition to the excellent answers that have already been given, I would like to stress the fact that your original question cannot be answered in the generality that you are apparently looking for. By and large, Greek letters are OK, as are Roman letters, as are either of those with sub- or superscripts. What is <em>preferable</em> depends entirely on context, the established conventions and notation in your field, and personal preferences.</p>\n\n<p>When it comes to notation, the 3 golden rules are:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Make it intuitive. Don't use epsilon to mean <em>\"a really large value\"</em>. Don't use pi to refer to a constant value of 8.5. If you, for example, have instances and timestamps, don't use \"t\" to refer to the instances and \"i\" to refer to timestamps (real-life example I recently reviewed).</li>\n<li>Make it consistent. Use the same notation in the entire paper. Use the same notation patterns throughout the paper (if you use capital Roman letters for a constant, use capital Roman letters for <em>all</em> constants, etc.).</li>\n<li>Make it minimal. Never introduce notation that you are not actually using.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23893,
"author": "nivag",
"author_id": 14115,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14115",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Greek letters are generally fine. In fact, some things are conventionally reffered to by greek letters e.g standard deviation is sigma.</p>\n\n<p>xLetix's rules are excellent advice. I would just add to please put explainations of your variables close to where you use them. There are two things people do that annoy me in this respect.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Putting a glossary at the beginning of the text and then don't explain there symbols. A glossary itself is fine but please put explainations in text as well as I don't want to have to flick back to the start to know what every symbol means. </p></li>\n<li><p>Similarly, people often put an explaination when they first use the symbol (often in the introduction) and then use it again several pages later with no explaination. This is fine if you have a few obvious symbols but when many with unclear names are used it is difficult to keep track of them. Just writing the name in words generally suffices.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23881",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17694/"
] |
23,884 |
<p>Is it ethical to accept small gifts from students? In past years I have one or two students have given me small gifts, generally a box of chocolates. I judge the size of gifts on my international beer scale, where things that cost less than 4 beers, (maybe 10 USD) are small token gifts. These have always fallen into the small token gift category. I have typically either left these in my office and shared with people or in bountiful years brought them into the lab or school office. This year I have received over a dozen boxes of chocolates from undergraduate students. Individually each box is still small, but in total the gifts are no longer small. All but two of the gifts were from graduating students. I realised I don't have a well defined personal policy about accepting gifts and I am not sure the university has a policy either.</p>
<p>What should you do when students offer you gifts?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23888,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Fortunately for everyone involved, I am not a professor. I would be <em>very</em> uncomfortable even with \"small\" gifts (what's small for a professor with a salary could make quite a dent in some students' budgets).</p>\n\n<p>There is a slippery slope involved here, and I personally would rather <a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0143122231\">avoid even having to think about this by laying down extremely simple rules</a>. For instance, I kind of like <a href=\"http://www.eclectecon.net/2013/07/open-letter-to-my-students-8th-revised-edition-august-2013.html\">this</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If I see you out on the town or at a sports bar, and you want to buy\n me a drink, you cannot currently be in my classes or ever take any of\n my classes again. Then probably you can buy me a drink.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I'd probably suggest that if anyone does want to express their appreciation of something I did, an email would be quite enough and would of course be very welcome. If someone <em>does</em> feel the compulsion to spend money, they could always donate to their favorite charity.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23908,
"author": "Koldito",
"author_id": 12314,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12314",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In the general case, professors/lecturers/TAs should not accept gifts from students, as these things can lend themselves very easily to accusations of conflict of interest. This falls in the same general category as dating one of your students, or grading your kid's exam.</p>\n\n<p>That said, I can think of three situation where gifts are acceptable.</p>\n\n<p>(1) a graduating student gets you something nice <em>after</em> graduation (e.g., in the department where I did my PhD, it is normal for students and advisors to exchange gifts after a successful doctoral defense).</p>\n\n<p>(2) a current student makes a \"collective gift\", e.g., a student brings a cake to class to celebrate his/her birthday and offers you a slice.</p>\n\n<p>(3) you go through some major life event and students pitch in to get you something, e.g., when I came back to work after having to get major surgery, the grad students in my department got me a nice coffee machine to celebrate that I hadn't died.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23937,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have students bringing me gifts quite often. Like Stephan Kolassa, I am quite uncomfortable with it. I am made even more uncomfortable by the fact that in the local culture (not my native culture) it is common for subordinates to bring gifts to their boss, which seems to me like a continued corruption to keep ones job.</p>\n\n<p>As should be obvious to anyone in a position in power, people subject to that power think it is great to be able to buy preferential treatment. Some of my students get chauffered to school in very expensive cars (>$100,000) so I am sure they have the money to give as expensive of a gift as they feel.</p>\n\n<p>However, as the one in power, I must keep this tendency in check. I, therefore, simply do not accept gifts from individual students. Period. <strong>I do, however, accept gifts if they are from the entire class</strong> and presented by the \"leader of the class\" which all classes here have.</p>\n\n<p>There are limits on what I would accept from the class but that has never been in question. The biggest gift I've received would set each student back $1. And to be clear, I would never accept cash or something very similar to cash.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23954,
"author": "Behacad",
"author_id": 15261,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15261",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I will disagree slightly with some of the previous answers. I come from a health-care perspective. A great deal of papers discuss the ethical/moral ramifications of accepting gifts from patients and subordinates and students/trainees. I will say up-front that I believe accepting valuable gifts from students is a problem and should be avoided in the vast majority of circumstances. In contrast, I do not ALWAYS see a problem with accepting small gifts from students/patients. Offering a gift is typically a way to express some appreciation and accepting the gift is a way to express your appreciation of the appreciation. Rejecting the gift can be slightly insulting and harm student-teacher rapport. Coming off in a stand-offish way to one student can have long-lasting implications.</p>\n\n<p>I had two experiences where a student offered me a small basket of cookies and another offered a decoration with a value of 10$. I kindly told them no thank you, but they insisted. I insisted no thank you again, and they re-insisted. I know if I said no once again, she would have been insulted. It alienates the student and puts me in an awkward position of being an authoritarian person who cannot participate in typical activities (i.e., doing/accepting small favours). A teacher is not a friend, and that should be clear, but a teacher can still be warm, and approachable.</p>\n\n<p>In essence, the benefits of accepting a gift (e.g., increasing approachability, seeming nice/human) can often outweigh the potential costs (which are often negligible if the gift is of nominal value). This is, of course, on a case by case basis. It might be appropriate in some contexts (e.g., very small class, clinical supervision) but not others (e.g., very large class). As is often the case, judgment is needed. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23957,
"author": "Ari Trachtenberg",
"author_id": 15885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15885",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think it's ethical, but I work hard <em>never</em> to accept gifts from students, past or present.</p>\n\n<h2>Present students</h2>\n\n<p>The reason not to accept gifts from present students is multifaceted:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>It sets up the possibility of a conflict of interest. I want to be as objective as possible in evaluating students and structuring my courses.</li>\n<li>It might signal to other students that they should consider giving gifts as well.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<h2>Past students</h2>\n\n<p>I don't accept gifts from past students as well because even past students still have professional connections with faculty:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>I get often recommendation/reference requests about past students. I have had at least one case where a weak student gave a gift in my name and then asked me for a recommendation letter for a job.</li>\n<li>There are reasonable and more appropriate ways for students to demonstrate support for their alma maters (e.g. making a donation to the school/college/department).</li>\n<li>It might set up the expectation among students that they should give me gifts.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23959,
"author": "Benoît Kloeckner",
"author_id": 946,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/946",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One of the circumstances when I see no problem in accepting a gift is when the gift has no monetary value. </p>\n\n<p>I was offered once a polystyrene toroidal earth at the end of a geometry class, whose cost was only a little time and effort. I accepted it as a token of gratitude and see no problem with that. I was sort of a TA, and I was not grading the students (not that it would have affected my grading, but still an important note). It sits in my office from then, and reminds me that teaching well can be well-appreciated.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23965,
"author": "dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten",
"author_id": 440,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/440",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I occasionally give small gifts or presents<sup>1</sup> to the students in my upper division classes---things like the specialized pads that are common in my field but the students are not familiar with (they cost a few dollars each and the students are unlikely to buy the without having tried them).</p>\n\n<p>So rather than the beer scale, I use my donations to the class as a measure: if I could not afford to give something of similar value to <em>every student in the presenter's class</em> then it represents a problem.</p>\n\n<p>None-the-less I am still a little uncomfortable with anything coming from a single student or small group of students. What is true for Ceasar's wife is still more true for Ceasar.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><sup>1</sup> Here I make a distinction between \"gift\" and \"present\" that I read somewhere. A gift is something you give because you think the recipient will get enjoyment out of it but would not buy it for themselves. A present is something you give them because you think they should have it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 38469,
"author": "cbeleites unhappy with SX",
"author_id": 725,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/725",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm surprised that so far noone mentioned that the acceptable ethics are possibly spelled out as legally binding rules. </p>\n\n<p>Giving something to a university teacher is totally unusual here (Germany). It is less unusul that a school class (or the parents) gives something to a teacher they had for years when the teacher will not teach the class any longer. But this is actually a situation where the <a href=\"http://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/geldstrafe-fuer-lehrerin-aus-berlin-wegen-schuelergeschenk-13376014-p2.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><em>legal rules can be more strict than what many people would intuitively consider OK</em></a>\n(see also <a href=\"http://www.spiegel.de/forum/votes/vote-11187.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">this poll</a>.)<br>\nWhich is why I mention this here. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>E.g. I live in Thuringia, Germany. Rules for employees of the state of Thuringia are in general are that anything above 25 EUR always needs explicit permission. And anything that is close to money is always inacceptable (including e.g. entrance tickets, gift cards/vouchers). \n Rules can be more strict for certain types of employees, e.g. <a href=\"http://www.tlv.de/fileadmin/bfroehlich/Dateiliste_2/Lehrerdienstordnung.pdf\" rel=\"noreferrer\">School teachers in Thuringia need to obtain permission for anything with the exception of gifts that are of idealistic (?) value only</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Anti-corruption rules are something that every employee has to sign. Also, the TVL trade agreement I signed with my work contract states as \"default value\" that I'm not allowed to accept anything that is related to my work without permission. However, \"automatic permissions\" can be granted for small things. (e.g. the 25 € in the paragraph above).</p>\n\n<p>Some universities (in other states) have spelled out lists of what they consider so small that the permission is granted automatically such as: \"collective\" flowers from your colleagues for birthday, or the evaluation copy of a book that you review, pen with an advertisement on it. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23884",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929/"
] |
23,885 |
<p>I am BSc student. When I was in the fourth semester (end of the second year), I did my course project and submitted it to my professor. His efforts in order to publish it really shocked me. It was just a course project and I already had a conference paper out of it. I know the article was so foolish and basic but he is insisting on publishing it. After two rejections he is submitting it to another journal.
<strong>Does this journal count this rejections as negative points for the authors?</strong> If I am going to submit any paper to this journal in the future do they count this rejections?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23890,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have never heard of a journal holding rejected manuscripts against the authors. Editors likely keep track informally of problem authors such that if an author is consistently submitting low quality work they may be more likely to desk reject the work than bother reviewers with it. That said, one or two low quality submissions would not be problematic.</p>\n\n<p>The UK research councils have started to implement a waiting period for low quality grant submissions. Basically, if you submit two low quality grant applications in a row on sequential deadlines, you will be barred from submitting another application on the next deadline. Once the waiting period is over, the issue is forgotten. The penalty is pretty small since it is pretty hard, if not impossible, to rapidly come up with three good funding proposals. Having a mandated few month break is probably a good thing. This is relatively new and some day publishers may follow suit, but as of now, no publisher imposes such a model.</p>\n\n<p>To summarise, if the PI thinks there is a reasonable chance of publication, then a few rejections (less than a dozen) will not hurt your reputation or future chance of publishing other material.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23891,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Rejections are not necessarily a negative when submitting to a new journal. Of course, it means a careful editor will take an extra careful look at the manuscript before accepting it for review. They key point is, however, that when submitting a previously rejected manuscript it is necessary to, first, be upfront with the rejection and the reasons for it, and, second, to provide clear details on how the previous reviews have been used to improve the manuscript for the current submission. So, clearly, of one simply submit the same manuscript over and over again, yes, there is a chance someone may accept it in the end, but it is very poor work ethics to do so. A manuscript that has been rejected and significantly improved from comments received and additional work done, will have a pretty good chance of being published. As an editor you can then see indications of what may be key issues with the paper. This does not mean, as some seem to think, that submitting half-baked manuscripts and have reviewers beat them into order is the way to write good papers so there are fine lines of good conduct which have to be followed.</p>\n\n<p>As for holding a rejection against you: No, not unless there are repeated sloppy submissions. But even then, every manuscript receives an independent check to see if it is of sufficient quality. A bad reputation just means you will raise flags with editors whenever you submit. And, <em>once</em> will not create a reputation.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23885",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17830/"
] |
23,895 |
<p>I'll be at a conference next month to present my paper.
I have a Master's degree in Computer Science and now I'm looking for a PhD with scholarship.
Well, is it right, with a common sense and in a polite way, to ask a professor at conference about a PhD position?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23899,
"author": "iliasfl",
"author_id": 10710,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10710",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is definitely OK. You should be more like @JeffE suggests \"How do I apply?\" rather than \"Would you accept me for a PhD?\". </p>\n\n<p>Conference is a great opportunity to meet and discuss with your potential supervisor. You should try to judge, as much as possible, how easy would it be to work with that person for quite a few years. On the other hand, note that high profile academics are used to get approached by random people and you shouldn't be discouraged to formally apply even if they seem way too busy to have a long chat with you. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24141,
"author": "enthu",
"author_id": 15723,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15723",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I think it is OK but, before you attend that conference; try to identify the professors who come to the discussion panels and sessions. Their names are normally written in the conferences' websites. Then search their university homepage on the net and read some of their publications. This way you find two or three professors that their research interest is almost near yours. At the day of the conference, go to the sessions in which they present and politely after a short introduction about yourself; ask whether they accept any PhD student or plan to accept one or not.<br>\nI have seen that some MSc students go to the conferences and ask any professor they see without any previous search about their academic background. This behavior is so impolite.<br>\nSometimes, in the professors' website, they have notifications about not accepting new PhD students. In this case, asking them for a PhD position is not acceptable and means that the person has never visited his website and probably he is not a good student at all. This way, they may not even listen what you are talking to about.<br>\nIf in some cases, there are some positions available and notified on their website, then go to that professor, show them your curriculum vitae and ask them for a position; or talk to them about opportunities available for a PhD student.<br>\nIf you are interested in working with a professor but there are not any positions available; then talk about doing some volunteer research under their supervision. However, it all depends on your research background and how much they find you suitable for working on a research topic. For instance, if you have a good programming background and they need a programmer in their research group, they may accept you to work on some parts of their research project; and after a few months, if any PhD position become available, you will have a higher chance to compete for that position, because the professor knows you better as you have previously worked with him.<br>\nConferences are so valuable for the research students to become familiar with ongoing research projects and publications. In these conferences, you may talk to other researchers or PhD students and start a research project which is interesting for both of you. So, do not miss the chance to discuss and talk to the other people at the conference; and not just focus on the professors. Besides to these, some companies may need a person like you who has done a research in the field of your interest. So talk to them. There may be some funding or grants available which you can apply for.<br>\nI think that if you have your paper printed with your resume attached to it may help the professor to remember you and if any positions be available in future, he may contact you. Remember that not all the people have good memory to remember the others with detailed information about their resume and paper. People easily forget details about the past. If your resume be interesting for them and they forget you because they have no printed information about you, then you may miss a research position.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23895",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17839/"
] |
23,900 |
<p>In Masters in Management (MSc Mgmt/MIM) admissions, how much weight is generally given by the Adcom to the applicant's undergrad performance, especially if it's an unrelated one like engineering?</p>
<p>Does it have any bearing if the applicant's undergrad performance is poor but his other credentials are excellent?</p>
<p>What kind of credentials should such an applicant aim to acquire before applying (Other than the GMAT, TOEFL, etc)?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23928,
"author": "Tom Au",
"author_id": 755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'll speak from my own experience.</p>\n\n<p>I had only a 2.9 GPA in my major, Economics. But I had a 3.5 overall.</p>\n\n<p>What may have helped me was my GMAT score (over 750). In any event, I got into several top level MBA programs, including the one of my choice.</p>\n\n<p>It helps to work a year or two before applying to an MBA program. A \"gap year\" (or more) is probably more valuable for this degree than for other graduate degrees.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 123334,
"author": "Ziyad",
"author_id": 103247,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/103247",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your undergraduate GPA is important for MIM because it is one of criteria where the admission team can evaluate your profile.\nHowever the damages done by a low GPA can balanced by a high GMAT score, internships and a strong SOP.\nI've also come to understand that it helps if your country of origin is not highly represented in the college of your choice (disadvantage to Indians).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 123341,
"author": "guest",
"author_id": 103191,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/103191",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The engineering major is good in a way since they know you can handle MBA math. But they won't really cut you much slack for poor performance or say it is irrelevant. What is relevant is that you had a chance to get good grades and didn't. They are looking for people who excel in whatever they do (engineering, economics, literature, etc.) </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23900",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17841/"
] |
23,901 |
<p>Some conferences are established by IEEE and ACM, others by only one of them.</p>
<p>I thought at first that such organizations somehow maintain a certain degree of high quality in the affiliated conferences. But I've seen beginner conferences saying they they are sponsored by IEEE, some say "technically sponsored", while they accept poor quality papers. </p>
<p>So what should "having the ACM or IEEE logo on a conference's website" mean to me?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23902,
"author": "iliasfl",
"author_id": 10710,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10710",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In practice, it means that they publish the conference proceedings and you may get a registration discount if you are a member. Nothing more than that.</p>\n\n<p>\"Sponsored by\" statements do not reflect <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/news/publishers-withdraw-more-than-120-gibberish-papers-1.14763\" rel=\"nofollow\">quality</a> at all. Some quick Google search using keywords like \"scam\" or even better \"random paper generator\" will convince you. </p>\n\n<p>N.B. That doesn't mean that all conferences of those organisations are bad, quite the opposite. The best conferences of many fields are endorsed by those orgs.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23903,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In part it means that the conference organizers have access to the conference administration tools and resources that IEEE, ACM, or the like provide. Having been around some IEEE-sponsored conferences, that can mean things like payment processing and credit card handling; access to a journal special issue for proceedings; conference organization website for registration, submissions, and reviewing; and registration discounts for members of the society. </p>\n\n<p>Access to these features doesn't come for free. The professional societies charge for their use and stand to make money on them. As such, while you have to propose the conference and get it approved, after that the oversight is less. The quality of a conference comes down to the Organizing Committee and it's technical/content/papers committee. If you've never heard of any of the members of these committees, or many of them appear to have low-quality papers, there's a good chance that the conference isn't all that great. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23901",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/703/"
] |
23,904 |
<p>As an editorial board member for a low impact journal, I've been approached to provide comments on whether I think a proposal for a special issue is acceptable or not. I'm quite inexperienced in this role, and it seems rather different from reviewing a paper or grant proposal. I have been provided a list of guest editors as well as a justification statement, however, the special issue is not directly in my field so I can only assume credibility from prior publications (if I can find them). </p>
<p>Have any others been in this situation, and if so, by what criteria did they make a decision on acceptability?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23905,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have been receiving a lot of invitations lately to review proposals for special editions -- mostly open access. These proposals have been way outside of my area of study (and sometimes discipline). My guess is they scrape the web for potential reviewers and use a shotgun approach -- but that is just a guess. </p>\n\n<p>I <em>ALWAYS</em> decline serving as a reviewer if I am not sufficiently expert on the substantive or methodological issues. I also try to highlight in my review where my expertise may fall short so the editor knows where to fill the gaps. </p>\n\n<p>I suggest you decline any invitation if you are not qualified to review the topic.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23912,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is difficult to say what would be the best way to deal with this since the way journals set up editorial boards and then use them differ. As a member of a board I would expect you have been chosen to provide expertise within your field. I assume the proposal you received was sent to you from an Chief Editor or equivalent? If you feel you do not have the insights then the simple reply is that you do not have the insights to properly evaluate the proposal. </p>\n\n<p>If, on the other hand, the proposal came from the outside, the appropriate thing to do would be to pass it onto the Chief Editor for further consideration. Again, I am working under the assumption that there is one or a couple of persons in charge of the journal and that they have an editorial board associated with the journal to help the journal in different ways. </p>\n\n<p>So contact the person(s) in charge and explain your standpoint.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23904",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15896/"
] |
23,909 |
<p>From reading the many questions on here that relate to CVs it seems that some items are necessary on a CV and others are more appropriate at the persons difference stages within academia. As someone at the very early stage, masters student with no publications, is conference volunteering a plus or minus on a CV?</p>
<p>In my own situation I helped out at a 2 day conference that my department held. I assisted presenters with setting up their presentations and video recorded the conference for the university. As a smaller conference I was the only grad student that assisted.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23913,
"author": "Koldito",
"author_id": 12314,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12314",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In general, it's a bad idea to put things in your CV that look like they are there exclusively to make it look longer. It gives the impression that you haven't done enough \"real\" stuff (teaching, publications, etc) and you are just digging for menial things to pad your CV up. The problem is that, as you pointed out, what counts as \"menial\" vs. \"significant\" depends to a certain extent on your career stage. If you are a grad student and your professor asks you to give a guest lecture in one of his/her undergrad classes, it's ok to include that in your CV, but if you are in a tenure-track job, you might want to only include courses for which you have full responsibility.</p>\n\n<p>In the case at hand, I would say that it's ok to say that you helped at this particular conference, but keeping in mind that this line will have to disappear from your CV at some point in the future.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23914,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>As a general rule: anything which is clearly academically related <em>can go on your CV</em>. As you say, there are certain things that are required or nearly required on your CV, but even these vary by discipline and sometimes people in the same discipline have divergent ideas. (For instance, every once in a while I find a CV which doesn't list the candidate's undergraduate institution, or lists it without indicating the years that they spent there. I would have thought that was strictly required. I guess I was wrong.)</p>\n\n<p>What to fight in adding \"academically related\" information to your CV is clear: if you put in <em>too much</em> routine stuff, you'll get a bloated mess of a CV that few people will actually read. Drawbacks of a lengthy CV can be mitigated by very careful and clear organization. Nevertheless, you can compare CVs of two absolutely cognate people -- e.g. who attended undergrad and grad at exactly the same time and arrived at their current institution at the same time and with the same seniority -- and you'll find significant variations, including up to at least 1/3 in the total length. It's really your choice how much detail to put on your CV, and I would be skeptical of anyone who tells you too stridently what you must and must not do.</p>\n\n<p>Having said that: yes, very early career academics (especially students) really struggle to have a CV that doesn't look unhelpfully skimpy. Conference work sounds like a great thing to put on a junior person's CV -- and in fact, even on a senior person's, although a more senior person might be more selective about the kind of conference work that goes on your CV.</p>\n\n<p>One tip: \"conference volunteering\" might be an undersell. Most conference organizing is unpaid, hence is volunteer work. \"Conference assistant\" sounds like your work was really on the level of secretarial work / technical support. If that is an accurate description of what you did, great. If you do such things more than once or twice, you should think about asking to be let in on some of the more content-related aspects of the work. For instance, if you had a say -- however small -- in choosing or recruiting the speakers or attendees, then I would go for something like \"co-organizer\" rather than \"assistant\". </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23909",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12454/"
] |
23,917 |
<p>I've recently finished grad school. I've written two papers since that time, and I think that I have more good ideas. However, I find it difficult to write now for two reasons. First of all, I don't have access to the ACM / IEEE literature databases anymore (they were gratis from my university.) Second, I have no one to review or even proof-read my papers.</p>
<p>So, how do people who are not active in the academic community write papers? Is it possible?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23922,
"author": "Not Quite An Outsider",
"author_id": 10390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10390",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It is possible. After years away from graduate school, I am working on several papers, covering both old and new topics. However, it is very hard to do it completely alone.</p>\n\n<p>I have the benefit of some contacts acquired through one of the forums on StackExchange. They are willing to spend a limited amount of time (say half an hour a month, to within two orders of magnitude) in email correspondence with me, to receive drafts from me (but not necessarily referee: just skim for a few minutes and find more egregious aspects which they kindly point out), and most importantly, endorse me for posting on ArXiv. Before the endorsement, I spent some time convincing them I wouldn't be a drain, that I could help them out, and that I might hope for a favor regarding endorsement, literature search, and so on. Realize that from their perspective, I could be a potential crank or downside on their career, as I have given them almost no verifiable information on what little credentials I have. I consider their involvement as a gift, and treat it with care.</p>\n\n<p>With their minimum involvement, I now can post results on the ArXiv, and use that as a stepping stone to loftier research goals. Since your express purpose is to produce research for others to read, you need three things: the research, the others, and a means to get the research to the others. Getting to know one or two of the \"others\" is key. Getting them by being helpful on this and other fora is one of the easiest routes I know for this step, but there are other methods. There may be other repositories besides the ArXiv which may help you more, but I don't know of them; ask the \"others\" for advice, and respect their time. The research part, that's your problem, again with which \"others\" might be able to help.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23980,
"author": "greenfingers",
"author_id": 15184,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15184",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't see a problem with either of your concerns if you have a good professional relationship with your former supervisor. Just contact them and ask if they would be interested to coauthor a research paper. Send them a draft paper or a description of your idea and a list of the ACM/IEEE publications you need for the research.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23989,
"author": "Flyto",
"author_id": 8394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't know where you are, but in some countries public libraries have access to academic literature. You may have to deal with a large regional or a national library for this - for example, people in the UK can access almost anything through the British Library in London, but some journals are also available through the libraries in other cities.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23917",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17694/"
] |
23,921 |
<p>So i am really interested in psychology, law, film studies, and writing. (very different topics) Could i double major in psychology and say political science and minor in film studies and something like English, and then go on to get a Phd in either law or psychology? By the time i get to college i am sure my interests will change and i could go into quantum physics or something else, but i am starting college applications and for some colleges it is smart to have a good answer on your desired major instead of putting down "undecided." I am just very interested to see what graduates think of doubling majors and minors and if it is even a smart decision to do so. thanks</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23924,
"author": "Neo",
"author_id": 6898,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6898",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Savannah-Jane,</p>\n\n<p>The future is always exciting, especially for someone who has promise. But I would caution you into looking too far ahead and \"smell the roses\". </p>\n\n<p>You have probably one of the most important decisions you will make in your life right before you; where you will go to college as an undergraduate. That is the decision I would focus on. The questions you are asking now are important to consider when choosing a school; no one with graduate school aspirations wants to attend a college that sends very few people to the types of schools you might want to attend. But, conversely, it would be unwise to make a decision about where you study just because you want to go somewhere else afterword: make sure that you go to a place you love for your 4-5 years. If a school doesn't provide enough undergraduate research opportunities, you can always do a masters degree before your PhD. If your classes are too hard senior year and you can't study for the LSAT, you can find a way to take a year off and apply next cycle. These things are important, but they aren't the most important.</p>\n\n<p>When looking for a college, look for a place you can see yourself living. And studying. And getting drunk Friday nights if you are into that sorta thing. A place where you might fall in love. A place where you can make friends you can trust. Look for that professor that takes a special interest in his students, and work with him or her. When the time comes, bring up graduate school, what you are interested in, and these things will work out. There is always a way to study what you want if you work hard and are curious. There are certainly kids who would do better at a small liberal arts college than a large state school, but the converse is also true. Figure out the differences between those types of experiences.</p>\n\n<p>My very good friend ended up studying computer science in college, but is now getting his PhD in political science. English majors go to medical school. Physicists go to law school. There will be some \"general\" decisions you will have to make in the beginning, like if you are more science or humanities inclined. It would be very hard for an English major to go into a Physics PhD program, but that's all you really need to know. There is no rush in picking a particular major. Don't try to design your whole life. Leave some things up for chance. Curious minds always remain curious. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23936,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I graduated with a Bachelors of Science, double major in Management and Electrical Engineering. I did them sequentially, first graduating with a BS in Management in 3 years (I took courses in summers) and then back to the same school for EE (in 18 months, again via summer courses).</p>\n\n<p>The best argument in favor of double majors is that you can develop competency and strength in two fields. I personally think it's best if the two fields are related, so that your double major creates a hybrid mix.</p>\n\n<p>This combination was an advantage for me in the job market (industry), mostly because it opened more possibilities (companies, and jobs within companies).</p>\n\n<p>I'm a PhD student now (several decades after my BS) in Computational Social Science, which is in the neighborhood of my original degrees. This gave me a big advantage over other students who had either no background in computer science or none in social sciences.</p>\n\n<p>As for your college applications, it may be fine to list your current ideas for a major, even if it's a double major. But much more than just listing them, I think it would be <em>vital</em> to explain in your essay <em>why</em> these two majors seem right for you, and therefore <em>what this tells them about you as a person</em>. Are you especially good at \"creative synthesis\" across diverse fields? Have you demonstrated this in the past? Are you intensely curious and thus you want to start with these majors as an entry point for a path of intellectual/personal discovery? And what does the preference for these two majors say about your choice of colleges?</p>\n\n<p>It would also be good to avoid giving the impression that you want to go in all directions at the same time like an espresso-crazed humming bird. (If you are, in fact, an espresso-crazed humming bird, then you might want to get some help and support with that prior to entering college :-) )</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23939,
"author": "Purple Squirrel Blogger",
"author_id": 17868,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17868",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In high school and the first couple years of college you are allowed to explore different fields and it is easy to change your major. Sometime around the beginning of your junior year you will need to settle on one or two specific fields and enroll in the specific courses needed to obtain a degree in that major. Sometimes it is possible to complete a double major with an extra year of school work. As you get closer to graduation it gets harder to change majors because you already have a significant investment of time and money in the courses you have already completed. </p>\n\n<p>While it is good to be a Renaissance person with many different interests, in today's world you will probably need to be a specialist in one or two narrow fields if you wish to obtain employment in that occupation.</p>\n\n<p>There are some exceptions, the famous astronomer Edwin Hubble completed a law school degree before chucking it all and starting over in astronomy, but that is not usually an option for people who graduate with a mound of student loan debt and a desire to get on with life. </p>\n\n<p>It is not unlike dating, in high school you should be meeting a lot of different people, as you grow older you will probably want to develop a more serious relationship with only one person, but you need to try out a few (or a lot of) different people while you are young before you can decide on \"Mr or Ms Right\" when you are older. </p>\n\n<p>Obtaining a PhD will require you to choose one extremely narrow field of study and to publish a thesis that represents a piece of original research in which you invent or discover something that nobody else has ever known before. One joke that is frequently heard in academia is that a PhD is \"a person who knows everything about nothing\", which refers to the fact that you will be a world class expert in a subject that is infinitely narrow. It is not uncommon for different faculty members in a university department to be working and publishing papers in fields that are mostly incomprehensible even to the professor who works across the hall from them. </p>\n\n<p>A PhD is typically preparation for an academic career, which is nice work if you can get it, but academic positions are highly competitive and difficult to obtain. It is also the \"license\" that you need that will allow you to apply for grant money from government agencies or private foundations to fund the conduct of your research program. Notice that I said \"allows you to apply for\", not \"assures that you will receive\" such grants. Unfortunately there are many excellent grant proposals that never receive funding. Your proven ability to obtain money from external funding agencies is the primary thing that universities will evaluate when you apply for a faculty position. </p>\n\n<p>As a result, there are many PhD's working in jobs outside of academia that they could have obtained with a bachelor's degree and a few years of on-the-job experience. There is a serious overproduction of PhD's which has led some academics to talk about the need for \"academic birth control\" to avoid producing excessive numbers of PhD's. Of course they usually mean that other universities should practice such restraint, not their own institution. </p>\n\n<p>Employers outside of academia may be wary of hiring PhD's for jobs that don't require such a degree out of fear that you are planning to work for them for just a short time until you find the academic research position that you really want. Thus, you may find that a PhD actually limits your job options and the possibility of earning a middle class income in the future. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 38163,
"author": "O.M.Y.",
"author_id": 28864,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28864",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here is <strong><em>MY</em></strong> personal suggestion for a specific approach to planning your education when you have so many different areas you want to study. I assume you will attend college in the U.S. as a full time student (12+ units per semester) so please adjust if that is incorrect. </p>\n\n<p>In your first semester take the following 4 courses if you can: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>(1) a class on managing life as a college student (typically these are categorized as Human Development courses but check with your college counselor). These classes are survival skills training for college. Alternatively you could independently study the following textbook while you are still in high-school: \n<a href=\"http://www.cengage.com/search/productOverview.do;jsessionid=9E07A778E50461E03F9FFD00B17D790C?N=14&Ntk=P_EPI&Ntt=22116435118174932681451926148562150258&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallpartial\" rel=\"nofollow\">\"<strong>Becoming A Master Student</strong>\", Dave Ellis, Cengage Publishing, ISBN 978-1-285-19389-2</a> (I recommend this specific book because it helped me immensely a long time ago. I am not connected with the publisher or author in any way).</p></li>\n<li><p>(2) a class in \"how to tutor\" which oddly enough will teach you about excellent techniques and habits for studying. It will also prepare you to be able to get a campus job as a part-time tutor if you decide you want to do that later on.</p></li>\n<li><p>(3A) if you need to, now is the time to take \"English 101\" (it may be called something else Like \"English 1\" or \"Writing 1\" but it teaches <em>standard college-level writing</em>). English 101 is typically a pre-requisite for many other classes. Also take any <strong>workshops</strong> your college offers on writing research papers. Depending on the subject of the class you will need to learn about using MLA, APA, <strong>and</strong> CMS citation styles. Purdue University's OWL website can be helpful with that.</p></li>\n<li><p>(3B) if you do not need to take English 101 (ask your college counselor) then take a course that is required for your \"general education requirements\". These are those fundamental classes every student has to complete in order to graduate, regardless of their major.</p></li>\n<li><p>(4) take ONE course for <em>sheer fun!</em> This is for helping you deal with the \"pressure\" of college. Find an introductory course in some creative hobby you have always wanted to try. Enjoy it (because learning should be fun sometimes) and don't stress about the final grade. But do give it your best effort nonetheless.</p></li>\n<li><p>(5) if by this point you are enrolled in less than 12 units fill in the rest with more \"general education\" classes (item 3B above). </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>For your subsequent semesters during years 1 and 2 be sure that 75% of your classes are \"general education\" classes so you can knock those out of the way. Work with your college counselor to use the other 25% of your classes as a means to explore beginning/introductory courses in the majors you are thinking about. Sometimes an introductory course can reveal information about a subject that can help you decide if that is really what you want to focus your education on.</p>\n\n<p><strong>One Warning:</strong> Do not take <em>too many</em> \"excess\" classes because this will affect your financial aid in the long run. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23921",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17855/"
] |
23,927 |
<p>I am writing a paper on a topic closely related to previous literature (but in a different study population). As such, the statistical analysis is very similar to a previous publication and I really like the way the previous authors (which I have cited in the literature review) have structured a particular table. </p>
<p>Would essentially copying this structure, but putting in my own results, be a form of plagiarism? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23931,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I doubt anyone would consider a table format as plagiarized when used to show new data. It would be akin to saying use of Tukey's box-and-whisker type plots would be plagiarism. The question is understandable, however, since someone could arguably claim some such structure as intellectual property. I think the key here lies in what is being copied. You are copying the structure but not the content. To protect the form would be quite pointless since no-one would buy the rights and it would be simple to make sufficient variations to argue it is not the same form. I am sure this could be discussed at length by lawyers.</p>\n\n<p>Although, not within the scope of your question, most author's will be happy to see something they produce becoming reused and maybe even a standard. I had a figure in a paper that was picked up by IPCC and used to show something different than my original but still unequivocally based on my design.</p>\n\n<p>So in the end, as suggested in comments to your question. you can pay homage to the original by acknowledging the idea of the table in your acknowledgement or by citing the paper and stating the table is based on their table. Which makes most sense, will depend on circumstances in your paper.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23945,
"author": "ctokelly",
"author_id": 12045,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12045",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think that we - myself included - tend to think of citations primarily as a defence against accusations of plagiarism, but don't they also provide the reader with an account of how the thinking behind the paper emerged? In which case citing here seems like an opportunity for a possibly quite valuable aside.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23927",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13252/"
] |
23,935 |
<p>I’m a mechanical engineering student and I am about to apply for a PhD. I am certain about my desire to pursue advanced studies. However, I have serious doubts in what I want to pursue my studies on. </p>
<p>I have done research on structural health monitoring and power electronics. At some point I thought that I had interest in electrical engineering and after some research I got interested in mathematical physics and then in applied mathematics. </p>
<p>I started doing undergraduate research when I was a sophomore in the area of structural health monitoring. However my job was to write an algorithm to implement the methodology. I realize now that what interested me was not structural health monitoring, but to study the origin and derivation of the theoretical equations. I saw the profiles of various faculty in applied mathematics and I found some of their research interesting.
Doubts about applying:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Although I have a GPA above 3.60 some programs require certain number of courses in mathematics. I only have the mathematics included in the mechanical engineering program and one course of elementary statistics. I have taken 5 courses in mathematics. However I don’t show strength because out of the 5 courses, in 2 of them I got B when I was a freshman. I think that the taking the elementary statistic course last semester was not a good idea. I should have taken a more advanced course.</p></li>
<li><p>I have not taking any advanced course in mathematics.</p></li>
<li>The application to the program requires the GRE, TOEFL and subject test in math. Some graduate programs say that the GRE math are not mandatory but not taking it puts you in disadvantage. I am not sure I will have time to prepare for it and as a result I don't know if I will do well.</li>
<li>I have research experience, but it is not in this area. In addition, the reference letters will be made by engineering professors and not math professors.</li>
<li>Since I am about to finish next semester, I don’t have much time to take more courses or do research in the area.</li>
</ul>
<p>I looked at a few topics that I found interesting in applied mathematics but I haven’t done research in them. As a result I don’t know if I will get tired or if I will change my mind once I start on the program. If I were to apply for this program and I change my mind would it be easier to change even if it means going to other department?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23940,
"author": "denten",
"author_id": 5692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5692",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Much depends on the specific university and department arrangement. </p>\n\n<p>However, moving departments at the PhD level is <em>usually</em> quite difficult because it involves changes in your financial package. Transferring from physics to mathematics, for example, would mean your funding is coming from a different source. It also means that physics is losing a student, which can be bad for the department. Things are even more complicated if your funding is tied to a lab or an individual faculty member.</p>\n\n<p>Many places consider transfers alongside new applicants (meaning, you are, in effect, applying to graduate school for the second time). You would have a slight advantage of knowing your professors, and perhaps of having an advocate for your candidacy, but you still have to write essays and get recommendations along with everyone else. I would not count on a transfer as a plan. You could just as well not get in, losing support from your home department in the meantime. </p>\n\n<p>For these reasons, I often recommend students take some time between graduation and graduate school. Get a job at a lab or with a firm, take some courses, travel. Graduate school is like marriage--a long-term commitment. It is not a good place to explore or experiment with careers. There is no rush to make the decision, but once you do, make sure you are committed to your department and to your chosen discipline.</p>\n\n<p>Master's programs are a different ballgame, since they do not normally fund students. It is probably easier to switch out of a Master's program. But once again, you would probably have to apply anew.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23941,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Unfortunately, no, it's not so easy to change PhD programs.</p>\n\n<p>It isn't like changing your undergrad major, where you just have to fill out some forms and get your advisors to sign off. At the graduate level, each department does its own admissions. So if you are in a mechanical engineering program and want to switch to applied math, you have to submit an application to the applied math program just like anyone else. You'll be competing for a seat against every other applicant from around the world, most of whom will have completed a full undergrad mathematics major.</p>\n\n<p>You might be able to improve your odds by getting to know faculty in the math program before you apply, perhaps discussing (or working on) research projects with someone there. However, keep in mind that you will also need to stay in good standing in the engineering program, and you won't have a lot of spare time to explore math opportunities.</p>\n\n<p>Also, from your description, your math background sounds much too light for entry into a math grad program. Applied math can be more flexible than pure math, but having no advanced courses at all doesn't sound too good. In fact, I'd be concerned that without advanced coursework, you may not even have enough of a sense of the field to know that it's really what you want to do. Mathematics courses have a sharp change in flavor and difficulty as you transition from lower-level computational courses (calculus, differential equations, etc) to upper-level theory courses (real analysis, abstract algebra, topology). Entering a PhD program having only the former kind of courses would be roughly analogous to being a go-kart enthusiast racing in the Indianapolis 500. And it won't be easy to pick up extra math courses while in an engineering program; grad program requirements rarely allow for free electives.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps something that might better fit your situation is a post-baccalaureate (\"post-bac\") program. These are one-year programs designed for students who have completed a bachelors and want to attend grad school in math, but need further preparation. Such programs are offered by relatively few institutions, but I believe some of them are quite well-known in the community and have very good placement rates.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23942,
"author": "David Richerby",
"author_id": 10685,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10685",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A PhD is not like an undergraduate degree where you can do a bit of this, a bit of that, add up your scores and get your final grade. It's about doing research in a fairly narrow area, leading to writing a focused thesis on a particular topic. Spending, say, a year doing electrical engineering would normally give you almost nothing that would be useful towards a PhD in mathematics, and vice-versa. As such, transfering from one department to another is, essentially, starting a new PhD and would likely be treated as such.</p>\n\n<p>It sounds like you don't know much about what a PhD involves and you should definitely find out before committing several years of your life doing one! I'm also a little confused by your statement that you're certain you want to commit several years of your life to studying a fairly narrow topic but you're not even sure what broad area that topic will come from. It seems that you're much more excited by the idea of doing a PhD than about any of the areas that you might research, yet doing the PhD requires being in one of those areas that you seem to find less exciting than the PhD itself.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23943,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My advice is the same as Nate Eldredge's, but let me make a few points.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I am certain about my desire to pursue advanced studies. However, I have serious doubts in what I want to pursue my studies on. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>To be very honest, for me the second sentence largely nullifies the first. Wanting to pursue a PhD in the abstract is a poor idea. In order to get any satisfaction out of a PhD program, you need to be pursuing a PhD in X because your love for X is so strong that you want to have a career doing X. If you think it might be X,Y or Z, I worry that you don't have a deep enough commitment to any of the three to make it worth the time, effort and career uncertainty of today's very harsh job market.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps by expressing \"serious doubts\" you are really explaining your desire to transition from your undergraduate field to mathematical physics / applied mathematics (henceforth I'll just say \"math\": that's where you would apply). I agree with Nate Eldredge that your coursework in mathematics is so minimal that you probably haven't been exposed to the flavor of graduate level mathematics....or at least, you haven't demonstrated that exposure in a way that would be convincing to an admissions committee. Further honesty: your self-described profile would make you a very likely decline from the math PhD program at UGA (about the 50th best in the country), except perhaps if you took the math subject GRE and did well on it. It would be a little surprising if you did well on that exam given your description of coursework...but of course it's possible, especially if you are very mathematically talented. It could be useful information for you to know how you might do on this exam, but unfortunately this exam is notorious for having had the same crappy study materials for the last 20 years (or more?). I don't know of any reliable way to gauge your score.</p>\n\n<p>There are a lot more than 50 math PhD programs in the US, and I can't speak to your admit-worthiness for all of them, but honestly I would think twice about scraping the bottom of this particular barrel. The job market is so tight right now that degree pedigree is something to keep your eye on.</p>\n\n<p>In conclusion, I come back to agreeing with Nate Eldredge: you are not currently a good PhD candidate in math, and math faculty like us would worry about your lack of exposure. Of course this does not mean that you are locked out of further study of mathematics: that never happens to anyone. But if you think you are interested, find out by taking more math courses, in a non-degree program if need be. I should say though that your stated background of five math courses required by an engineering degree -- at least two taken as a freshman -- is less than halfway to a graduate-preparatory math major. In your case, after enrolling in a non-degree program for a semester or a year, if you really discover that this is what you want to do, you might actually want to explore a second bachelor's program. Either that or really work hard to develop a relationship with a department so that you can essentially do this over the course of 2-3 years with a lot of faculty contact.</p>\n\n<p>Good luck.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 81965,
"author": "Joe",
"author_id": 66681,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66681",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Rick, you are not alone is feeling that the application process for PhD programs is enigmatic. It requires you to take knowledge that you have acquired and show evidence that you are committed to applying this already-obtained knowledge to a long-term research endeavor. Of course, you will learn a lot along the way, but depending on the institution, you will have very limited time to play catch-up. So, if you are absolutely set on your goals to pursuing a PhD program, either find a school that will be impressed with your credentials and allow you 1-2 years to settle into a research group, or you can work toward a more competitive school while maybe pursuing a master's degree in your chosen field of study. </p>\n\n<p>Everything has its risk. Applying only to overly-competitive institutions can leave you stranded with no place to go. I recommend having a job or 10 lined up as a backup. Likewise, applying to only master's degree programs will mean spending more money. Sometimes, an employer will fund a master's program. I've been to career fairs where the recruiters brought that up without me asking about it - so it's quite common. If you want to pursue a prestigious PhD program safely, I recommend in the meantime finding an employer who hires engineers for math-oriented tasks (Two Sigma is a great example). Then see if they will fund your master's. </p>\n\n<p>It may take you a few years, but there is plenty of time (assuming you are of traditional undergraduate age). I am 28 and will be finishing up my second bachelor's degree. I might not be that much more sure of myself in terms of research goals, and sometimes it feels like I'm faking it until I make it. But when the time comes to write your statement of purpose, show the department that you are competent in both research and your acquired knowledge at an appropriate level (we're talking at least two semesters of 400-level coursework in your target discipline).</p>\n\n<p>Nate, Pete, and David give some very harsh but honest advice. Don't let that discourage you from pursuing advanced studies or ultimately a PhD program. If it takes you 7 years to finally get there, just remember, you're not alone. Just always have a backup plan.</p>\n\n<p>Never forget: being intuitively skilled at math requires not only practice, but also an ability to recognize patterns and sameness among many things. In the words of Henri Poincare, an often-declared polymath, \"Mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things.\"</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23935",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17866/"
] |
23,948 |
<p>There's a lot of text here, I do apologize. Many thanks to those who read it all and provide commentary.</p>
<p>Background: I have worked with my adviser for ~7 years now carrying out research with him in the field for many seasons, receiving my BS under his guidance, and TAing for him for several years until I decided to begin my MS with him. Early on, he had been having family issues and at a point near the beginning of my MS, he informed me he would be focusing less on work and more on his family due to his focus having destroyed his family. I took this as a passing phase as he had done before, but he has proven me wrong.</p>
<p>Overall Situation: My adviser currently has negative intentions to his students, the department, and the school. He does the bare minimum in courses- teaching ~1 class per quarter, showing up late, leaving early, is never in his office (I'm not exaggerating, he does not use his office. He arrives to campus, teaches, and leaves); has a very negative attitude with the department and school with never submitting forms or reports on time as well as not attending some department meetings (or commencement); and constantly sends emails to faculty and students informing them of how he is being screwed by the school (receiving reimbursements months later and having to deal with overdue bills and credit card charges). No students respect him within the department and his classes are the lowest rated to the point of being a joke. His reputation is so bad that when his next grad class is offered this coming winter, I feel it will be canceled because absolutely none of the students intend to enroll in it. Research-wise, he has been collecting data on a large project for ~15 years and has not published anything during that time. Currently the data and work sits and we are again in the middle of a summer when he intends to write something (this has been stated for each of the last 4 summers straight and it never happens).</p>
<p>My Situation: My thesis has gone no where. Meetings are constantly cancelled and put off by him, he has provided little to no literature (even then only broad background papers that he had me read for my BS), has shown no advancing interest in exploring ArcGIS with me to understand how to manipulate data. Some lunch meetings have taken place, over the past two years, but they end up being social and minor mentioning of work is as far as the conversation gets. The last two meetings I had with him were group meetings with 2 other students working with him (the other third already left for another project) and the meetings solely revolved around their projects and how I could help/guide them. Being roughly 6 months prior to graduation, I am currently assembling text and running analysis on data entirely on my own. Emails to meet and go over the process this week have gone unanswered.</p>
<p>Currently: Recent statements from other faculty and students are that in recent meetings my adviser has been using me as an example to state students need to submit 'final' drafts 6 months before defense. The department has a deadline of one month before defense for a completed 'first' draft. I am under the impression, given the past actions of my adviser, that he may be setting me up to make a point to the other faculty that 6 months beforehand is needed because he did not have proper time to read and review it. All of this would be fabricated from his own lack of meeting and involvement in my thesis writing. I am absolutely appalled at how he claim such expectations when he himself has put zero effort into the project whatsoever.</p>
<p>SO, with all that background, I sit here with ~20 pages of some spotty text and images and am very close to deciding, enough is enough, I would be better off dropping this project and ceasing work with him, and in turn picking up a project with another faculty member. I would rather spend a bit more time investing in a new project and doing that than finishing this and continuing to have to put up with his actions.</p>
<p>My question is, with what I have informed you of here, how do I do it? Also, along those lines, if I do decide to do this, would it be entirely unprofessional to inform the other grad student who just started up her project to drop it and go to another adviser? (She has already commented I have been more of an adviser to her providing background readings, information, and 100s of Mbs worth of unprocessed data for her project...)</p>
<p>Cheers</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23951,
"author": "The Almighty Bob",
"author_id": 16086,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16086",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am agreeing with @scaaahu on both parts of your question:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How to inform an adviser I am ceasing work with him?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>With what you are writing it sounds like your adviser already gave you an out (\"he informed me he would be focusing less on work and more on his family due to his focus having destroyed his family\"). In addition to that, he seems to care about nothing at the university any more. Therefore, I think it actually doesn't matter at all how you tell him, just that you tell him as soon as possible and more importantly: start looking for a new adviser right now. You do not want to waste any more time on the project.</p>\n\n<p>I would just tell him that the project is not going as you wished, that you need more guidance, that you think he will not be able to give you that and that you are looking for a new adviser and project. If you can honestly say you are thankful for his guidance (maybe in your BS?) say so, otherwise just say nothing.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Would it be entirely unprofessional to inform the other grad student\n who just started up her project to drop it and go to another adviser?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, I think it would be unprofessional. Tell her that you are leaving and, if you know her well enough or if she asks, why you are leaving , tell her in the most objective way you can. Then she can decide for herself.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23960,
"author": "Dan",
"author_id": 17895,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17895",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am a faculty member and have seen similar situations in the past, both in my university and in others. In fact, a few years ago the son of a friend told me about a similar situation in his university (though less severe than yours). I have advised him to quit and switch to another adviser; he did that and he is just now finishing his Ph.D. and is doing extremely well. Similarly, I will advise you to switch adviser. And you should tell the younger student in the lab why you are leaving. Students should count on their peers for honest opinions.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23948",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17877/"
] |
23,955 |
<p>My friend wrote a fantastic paper in their scientific field. I believe it is truly ground-breaking but it calls a lot of existing theory into question. If he's correct it will force many accepted articles to have to be rewritten. </p>
<p>Perhaps because this paper is controversial, then, my friend has faced a very uphill battle to get it published. It deals with quite some difficult-to-grasp mathematical models and concepts. It's in a field of science and an area of that field where experiments to prove things are simply not feasible, and instead, hypotheses rely on models to explain observations of large-scale real-world processes. </p>
<p>I'm deliberately avoiding mentioning what area of science this paper is in because I do not want them to know it's about them, in case they see this. Because while I feel that while their paper is great, on the other hand the writing needs some love. If the writing is improved, this paper could make this person's career. I'm a published writer and I have been paid to edit many things, but not scientific writing. I want to help them.</p>
<p>I would like to know what the best approach is for preparing myself to be able to edit papers for submission to any given scientific journal in any given field. I would think one great approach would be to read lots of articles in such journals. Do you know of any good guides? Are there any online sites where people can publish papers prior to submitting them to journals in order to get public comments and feedback to hone their work? What are some novel steps that could be taken? I just want to help.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23956,
"author": "Penguin_Knight",
"author_id": 6450,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6450",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You've already talked about reading up journal articles in the field, so I'll skip that. On top of that, there are a few ways.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Follow the journal's format guide</strong></p>\n\n<p>Ask your friend which journal is the next target. Go to visit the journal website and look for the \"instruction to authors.\" You can find format-related instruction there. A format compliant article is less likely to trigger an instant rejection/return.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Read about scientific writing</strong></p>\n\n<p>There are a few guides that I consider pretty useful:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0387947663\">The Craft of Scientific Writing</a> by Alley is perhaps a classic for engineer-type of writing. It also provide a good collection of tips and gems for different sections.</p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0071345442\">Essentials of Writing Biomedical Research Paper</a> by Zeiger is a wonderful desktop reference for biochemical type of writing. It also provides a lot of good vs. bad examples.</p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0199760241\">Writing Science: How to Write Papers That Get Cited and Proposals That Get Funded</a> by Schimel is a bit of a black sheep. It does not teach you how to write, but it gives an excellent account on how to chain up or arrange ideas for maximal impact, done in the levels of the whole paper, to section, paragraph, sentence, and syntax. It also draws heavily from techniques used in fiction writing, which is quite intuitive.</p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0226065669\">The Craft of Research</a> by Booth et. al. does not purely focus on writing, but also discusses how to set up arguments, present concepts. It may be a bit more hands on for you, probably more suitable for your friend who is doing the writing.</p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0226816389\">A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Eighth Edition: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing)</a> by Turabian is an overall very useful desktop reference. It complements the Craft of Research.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><strong>Talk to the specialists</strong></p>\n\n<p>If the paper is really that controversial, I think you should talk to some people who have a good command in that particular field and get a gist of how to present or package the ideas with maximal chance of being considered.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Hire a professional editor</strong></p>\n\n<p>It's also prudent to know your limit. If you feel this is too much, then you should ask your friend to get help from the institute's English language support or hire a professional scientific editor. Editors can come with different specialties, some are experienced in medical writing, some are in science. Check their portfolio and try to match the article type as best as you can.</p>\n\n<p>I said this because there is a problem in your question, if you feel that you're not capable of editing a scientific paper, how come you feel confident to evaluate his work with certainly such as: \"<em>My friend wrote a <strong>fantastic</strong> paper in their scientific field. I <strong>believe it is truly ground-breaking</strong> but it calls a lot of existing theory into question. If he's correct it will force many accepted articles to have to be rewritten</em>?\"</p>\n\n<p>I don't mean to be insulting, just wish to point out that professional works sometimes are best left to professionals, especially when we don't have time to become one.</p>\n\n<p>Best of luck, and I wish your friend a successful publishing process.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strong>Disclaimer for everyone:</strong></p>\n\n<p>When reading/evaluating my answer, please be mindful that in no way I am agreeing that the paper is ground-breaking or fantastic. I merely provide resources to the questioner to improve his/her ability to comprehend and edit a scientific paper.</p>\n\n<p>Whether someone with limited experience or capability can do ground-breaking work is not in the scope of this answer, and I have no comment either way. I just want to point out that I have not read the paper so I can't comment.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23958,
"author": "Not Quite An Outsider",
"author_id": 10390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10390",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would like to offer a little bit of writing advice that should be pertinent to the situation, even though it does not answer the post directly.</p>\n\n<p>I think it is important to keep the attitude of \"how great this is! the world really needs this!\" in writing: it helps you maintain the energy to carry out the effort. However, the attitude itself should be muted or very carefully treated in scientific writing. If anyone is going to read it, they are going to be excited by a careful summary that reveals the basic ideas and then more so by something that explains the ideas in an accessible fashion. (I have made it a policy to ignore any Internet links advising to help me by using a \"weird tip\"; I discourage using similar promotional language which might appeal to people who, erm, \"think less\", or maybe \"think differently\", than science, engineering, and other professionals.) Here is an example from Jorge Cham on Cosmic Inflation <a href=\"http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1691\">http://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1691</a> that manages to convey the excitement and ideas without sounding cheesy. You may find it useful as well as inspiring.</p>\n\n<p>I don't have any guides, but a suggestion for meta-guides: find examples of awards for good science and engineering writing and look at those. In combination with the guides mentioned in another answer, you as writer should be able to deconstruct the examples to find which characteristics you want to use in helping your friend.</p>\n\n<p>Good luck.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23955",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17890/"
] |
23,961 |
<p>I am writing a paper that continues and extends my previous paper (the usual situation), and I plan to submit it to a journal that conducts a double-blind review. It is a research that started recently, so I have only one paper published.</p>
<p>The published paper represents a strong foundation of the research, which means that I would have to refer to it in the new paper at least a few times (basically the new paper extends it). While the peer-review is double-blind, the reviewers would then easily realize who is the author.</p>
<p>Therefore, I can't just cite it as it's someone else's research because it's obvious that I am talking about a paper of mine.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>How can I refer to my previous paper completely anonymously so that
the reviewers cannot realize who is the author of the new paper?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I am insisting on this because I don't believe that there is such a thing as a completely unbiased peer-review process, even when double-blind. I am new in the field, and I can imagine that this is where a reviewer could have prejudices. Stupid reason, but I already have an unpleasant experience with this.</p>
<p>I cannot cite the paper by removing the author and retaining the title, as it would take 5 seconds for a computer-literate person to find the full record.</p>
<p>On the bright side, while the previous paper is easily accessible, the reviewers probably would not be aware of it because it is from a conference that is not really in that field. But still, they would manage to find it with some effort.</p>
<p>Would it be acceptable that I mention that this paper extends my previous research that cannot be cited in order to accomplish the anonymity of a double-blind peer-review, and that the citation will be added later?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23962,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p><strong>Disclaimer: I work in a field in which double-blind reviewing is either completely absent or so rare that I have never encountered it.</strong></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Would it be acceptable that I mention that this paper extends my previous research that cannot be cited in order to accomplish the anonymity of a double-blind peer-review, and that the citation will be added later?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No, I don't see how that's possible. The principle that you must cite work that you use or build on -- no less so if it's yours -- seems much more basic than your desire to get genuinely double-blind refereeing. Moreover, if a paper continues previous work, can anyone sensibly evaluate its <em>added value</em> without having access to that previous work? I can't see how.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I am a new guy in the field, and I can imagine that this is where a reviewer could have prejudices. Stupid reason, but I already have an unpleasant experience with this.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>When you self-identify your reasoning as \"stupid\", there's a clear opportunity to think it through again. The process of journal submission and publication has a non-negligible random component: it would be unwarranted to assume that an experience that you had once or twice will necessarily recur. Your desire to circumvent an unfair refereeing process seems premature. If you feel like you're being treated unfairly as a new researcher, there are more productive ways to react to this: make it more clear why your work is competitive with or superior to the work done by more established researchers. I don't know of any academic field in which journals systematically don't want to publish work by new researchers that <em>they believe is better than prior work</em> just because those researchers are new. It is also true, unfortunately, that new researchers can overestimate (and also underestimate!) the value of their work. It is hard to hear that the thing you slaved over for months and years is not good enough for a second-rate journal in your field. But it may be true nevertheless.</p>\n\n<p>Let me say finally that I see a little irony in your approach: you lament your treatment as an unestablished researcher, but you are in fact more established than most people: you have published a paper that your present work builds on. My experience is that it is much easier to publish a second paper on the same topic in a reasonable journal than a first paper, just as it is easier for an artist to sell their second painting for a reasonable price than their first. In publishing the first paper, the journal has conferred on your work the important imprimatur of <em>publishable value</em>. Insisting on throwing that away will probably increase your chance of receiving \"anti-newbie bias\" in the evaluation of your followup work! </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 75710,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The standard practice in my field (i.e., psychology) where blind review is required is as follows:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Just cite your own previous work as if you were citing any other study that was not yours</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>For example, if your name was Bob Smith and you published a study in 2015, and you are now writing a paper that builds on that study, you could write something like:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Smith (2015) recently extended research on X. The present study builds on the models proposed by Smith (2015) to ....</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In a few other contexts, it can also be appropriate to black out some text with a note saying \"hidden for purposes of blind review\". I would not use this for references. But I have used it, for example, when I needed to state the specific university ethics board that reviewed a study.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23961",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15163/"
] |
23,963 |
<p>After applying for a number of PhD positions I ended up with a surprisingly high rejection rate, and as little as 3 acceptances. Waiting for a positive answer from other labs (which I liked a lot better), I ended up inadvertently losing these 3 offers as well.</p>
<p>This seems to have been very unwise in hindsight, but at the time I did not believe I would get so many subsequent rejections (I still find it hard to believe...).</p>
<p>In any case, I have to apply to more labs now, and one of my referees refuses to provide further references for me because he already did it for quite a few of my applications, and is also - in his own words - "more than irritated" that I took the liberty to turn down any offers at all. I can't say I entirely disagree with him, since I actually did feel a bit guilty in the first place for asking him to be my referee for so many applications.</p>
<p>So, here I am, and I would be very curious whether you have any ideas:</p>
<ul>
<li>If there is anything I could say to maybe change his mind (currently not responding to my emails).</li>
<li>If there is any way to make people whose labs I apply to understand why I can only provide one reference without completely ruining my chances. </li>
</ul>
<p>Sadly, I am applying for a field a bit different from what I nominally studied (cognitive neuroscience as opposed to molecular neuroscience), and there are no other referees I can choose from with whom I have worked on cognitive topics. Also, the referee in question was my MSc. supervisor, so I would immagine people will like to hear from him anyway. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 24202,
"author": "Francisco Nunes",
"author_id": 18067,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18067",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The letters of reference show in some way that you can be trusted for your work. They are good to have in your application, but there are other ways to show that you are knowledgeable and competent.</p>\n\n<p>If I was in your position I would try to know the interesting groups and get in touch with the professors from there. If it is physically feasible, you can visit the groups and meet the people there. Maybe even a small internship? You will understand whether you fit the groups and at the same time they will know that there is someone interested working with them, in case they have an extra position or receive funding for another project. You can also try to attend a workshop or a conference (as a student volunteer) and network with the people there in search of a position. This way you will discuss your ideas be known by those that will ultimately make a decision on your cv and recommendations. The more information you provide to them on your abilities, interest, and motivation, the easier would be for them to choose you in the end.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24215,
"author": "padawan",
"author_id": 15949,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15949",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The answers to your questions relatively:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>No. He is currently very angry with you. Because probably he lost a lot of reputation. A letter of recommendation does not only mean \"Take this guy, he's great.\", but also means \"I entirely trust this guy and I guarantee that he will not leave you in the lurch.\" By getting acceptance and not taking the offer is usually interpreted as hesitancy. Thus, people from the labs you've turned down will consider your advisor as someone who easily recommends a student. They will think that a student does this even at the beginning will easily give up on tough research duties.</li>\n<li>Conspiracy theory: the subsequent rejections may be the result of <em>grapevine</em>. In my country, top universities' professors are usually classmates or former colleagues. If a student applies with a good background and strong recommendations, they call each other and ask about that student. You know, if that they ever heard about that guy, who is considerable. And guess what if one or two of them told: \"I accepted him and he ended up not even starting.\" </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I think, for a short period of time, you should lower your standards. Try applying a lab in your field.</p>\n\n<p>Don't send consecutive mails to your advisor. Talk to him face-to-face. Ask him if you can do something to make it up. At that point, you should be prepared to take <em>no</em> for an answer.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23963",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13008/"
] |
23,964 |
<p>I am a junior college student that goes to a top 6 CS school. I will be graduating a year early and am starting to think about whether or not I want to get my Master's degree. </p>
<p>However I have an egregious academic integrity violation from my first university from which I was expelled (which was a top 4 CS school, during my first semester). I have since learned from the incident and transferred to my current college, where I have been studying for 3 years. </p>
<p>If I do decide to get a masters degree, I would either plan on pursuing it at my current school (where I believe I will be accepted, due to my academic performance/relationships with professors/ the fact that my department head knows about my past) or at another top-6 cs school. </p>
<p>Would a school of such caliber be willing to look past my academic integrity violation, or should I not even bother applying for a Master's degree?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 24205,
"author": "ashlinry",
"author_id": 17803,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17803",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Although it is perhaps possible that a school has a policy where they will not accept people with past issues involving academic integrity, I feel like this will mostly depend on the person or committee reviewing the applications. If you did well overall, I would think they would overlook something that happened years ago.</p>\n\n<p>However, if it were my decision, I would apply to the school you're currently attending (since you said you know a lot of the faculty and it sounds like you're fairly confident that you would be accepted there; this would be your backup plan) and whatever other school you are thinking about applying to. Is there really any harm in applying to see if you will get in?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24217,
"author": "padawan",
"author_id": 15949,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15949",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The very basic principle of Economics: <strong>Every choice is give up.</strong><br>\nHence, if you give up on something, you are choosing another thing.<br>\nTherefore, if you have nothing to give up, then those are not choices.</p>\n\n<p>What will you lose by applying a master's degree anywhere on earth? Why not <em>bother</em>? I don't think it is a question of <em>bothering</em> if you're really planning to do master's degree. This is an academic decision.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, what will master's degree give to you? Are you planning to do a PhD as well? Or do the companies you'll apply seek master's level as a requirement?</p>\n\n<p>As ashlinry stated, it highly depends on the person who will evaluate your application. Moreover, you get to write a cover letter for your application. Great chance to clear it up! Write your excuses, write what you've gone through, etc.</p>\n\n<p>By the way, did you talk to your professors about this situation?</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23964",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17901/"
] |
23,969 |
<p>I am making a final dissertation for my graduation. I want it to have a better design than the boring traditional. When I read <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/9026/making-it-look-good-is-it-always-important">this</a> and <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7948/is-use-of-unconventional-design-elements-or-layout-something-frowned-upon-in-aca">this</a>, I think that the downside is because it makes the thesis more clearer, any good or bad thing will be crystal clear. However, a default Word 2013 theme is easily to get and takes you not much effort. I don't want my thesis to be colorful so much, but I also don't want it to be monochrome. Elegance isn't necessary to be black and white. </p>
<p>My university requires me to have the format in form, but I think it's boring. Should I take a risk to make my thesis have better design? If not, why? I need a reason.</p>
<p>Do I really want to graduate? Of course I do, if not, I will happily take that risk immediate. I know that's a risk, and you may have to pay for that. My inspiration is coming from <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/john_bohannon_dance_vs_powerpoint_a_modest_proposal#t-32504" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Dance your PhD</a>. Of course I won't dance on my defense day, I just want to say that bad representation is wasting time. You can say, "it's all your choice". I just want to make my choice to be right.</p>
<p>What if I losing point from this? I hope that people will think again when they do a thesis. If they do, then I'm willing to lose my point.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/VS6Mq.png" alt="Why does the font need to be Times New Roman, not Calibri?"></p>
<p>Why does the font need to be Times New Roman, not Calibri?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23971,
"author": "Tim",
"author_id": 17907,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17907",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Are you interested in receiving your degree? Then submit a thesis meeting all of the university's requirements. If you think the formatting is so terrible, feel free to post a differently-formatted version on your website or whatever.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23983,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Most of the restrictions for thesis formats came from the years when theses were transferred to <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microform\">microfiche storage</a>. Standardizing the format made sure that the reproductions would be as legible as possible. </p>\n\n<p>Similar issues are still in effect, except with respect to electronic scans and the like. Choosing consistent designs and formats makes life easier for everyone. Even though it may not be your personal preference, you should follow the guidelines. The university can choose not to accept your thesis if its format strays too far from the official guidelines, which will force you to spend valuable time (and possibly money) preparing a revised version. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23984,
"author": "penelope",
"author_id": 4249,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4249",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If you want to improve your Universities recommended/required thesis formatting, you should go ahead. But, <strong>submitting a differently formatted thesis, just to spite them is not the right way to go</strong>. And it will not accomplish anything.</p>\n\n<p><em>All scientific publications have a required format.</em> You submitted to a conference that prescribes double column, but your paper is single column? Automatic rejection without reading the paper. You don't like the formatting of the journal best suited for your work? Tough luck. You submit a 10-page paper to a conference with 8-page limit? Reject.</p>\n\n<p>It is simply how scientific publishing works. If you want to publish your <em>original</em> content, you have to follow the <em>well-established guidelines</em>.</p>\n\n<p>If you really think that <strong>changing your Universities required formatting is a worthy goal</strong>, and want to do it for non-selfish reasons, for all the generations to come, you should do it in a proper way. Try to use proper channels, and do it like a responsible adult with an idea, not like a child doing things out of spite because they don't like the way the world turns.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><em>Some things you might try:</em>\nMake examples of a sensible new format. If there is any current templates, make some for your own formatting. If you can find some proof that your formatting is better, that's good (e.g. it is proven that some fonts are more readable and better than some others). Find the right person, in charge of that. Try meeting with them, and leading a sensible, non-heated discussion. Argument you opinion and proposition. Explain why you think the current design is outdated and why and how you think the new one will be an improvement. Offer your help in implementing the new system and offering new guides and materials. Finally, if you succeed in changing something, you can feel content you did something good for future generations. If you don't, at least you know you gave it your best try, and you tried to do it in the way with best chances of success.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23986,
"author": "J. Zimmerman",
"author_id": 7921,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7921",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Regarding serif and sans serif font, the conventional wisdom is that serif fonts are easier to read (especially on paper). This argument is often used to justify the requirements. Of course, another related factor is just the desire to have all theses be in a uniform style--it looks neater! There seems to be <a href=\"http://upstatement.com/blog/2013/02/which-is-easier-to-read-serif-or-sans-serif-type/\" rel=\"nofollow\">no conclusive evidence</a> that serif fonts are actully easier to read, but I must admit that I strongly prefer a serif font--Times New Roman or Cambria being among my favorites. In a similar situation, I recently had to submit a paper in Calibri, which was a strong insult to my aesthetic sense. My personal post of the paper is in Times New Roman!--but I submitted per the guidelines.</p>\n\n<p>Others claim that sans serif fonts are better for reading on a screen (note that this site is entirely in sans serif!). However, there is apparently <em>no empirically valid data</em> to support either claim. Alex Poole does a <a href=\"http://alexpoole.info/blog/which-are-more-legible-serif-or-sans-serif-typefaces/#part2\" rel=\"nofollow\">nice job</a> of reviewing the convoluted history of this dispute. </p>\n\n<p>So although there seems to be no clear evidence that either type of font is actually better, you are bucking conventional wisdom, tradition, and university policy by advocating for sans serif font in your thesis. I'd say use the serif font for the official version, and then, as JeffE and Tim suggested, post a 'prettier' version everywhere else. If you are determined to try to change the status quo, follow penelope's excellent advice.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 34713,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>What is good or bad is not easy for anyone to judge. Typesetting a document, including selecting fonts, is in essence a profession which through technology has been put in our hands. This has resulted in significant downgrading in quality although some enlightenment has also occurred. The problem is that it is easy for someone to chose a type face and set it as you see fit without actually knowing how it appears to the reader. This is why it is common to come across thesis and reports that are quite awful in type-setting and therefore unnecessarily difficult to read.</p>\n\n<p>Times-Roman, is a type face developed to be space saving. This means it may not be the prettiest but it is easy to read and you can fit more text per page. There are other similar fonts that are less condensed and more easily read such as the popular Garamond. Sans serifs are relatively commonly seen in texts, despite the fact that they were not designed for such use. The are generally no well suited for large volumes of text. There are hybrids such as Optima that works a little better but using Sans Serifs in the text body is not a good idea, typographically speaking. You can pick up any book on type-setting and type faces to learn more. A good example is perhaps Robert Bringhursts <em>The Elements of Typographic Style</em>. Hartley & Marks Publ.</p>\n\n<p>When it comes to colour in a thesis, it can easily be stated that colour improves readability of diagrams and illustrations. The downside is that the colour is poorly reproduced in a B/W copier or when printed on a B/W laser printer. There is thus still incentive to be selective when using colour. unfortunately all plotting software (from things like Excel to R and Matlab) provides colour as default and so turning multicoloured plots into B/W involves extra work. Part of being professional is, however, to make such decisions and simplify. I think this can be seen as part of your professional development through graduate school and shown in your thesis. What must be colour should be colour, nothing else.</p>\n\n<p>So trying to provide some direct feedback. To redesign what you see as boring may sound simple, you comment on choosing some built in Word does not sound very thought through. I believe you should approach the layout of your thesis as professionally as you do your science. You therefore need to get yourself familiar with a little bit of typography and graphics design. The latter can be done by looking at the books by Edward Tufte, particularly his <a href=\"http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/books_vdqi\" rel=\"nofollow\">The visual Display of Quantitative Information</a>. If you just put your thesis in the hands of software designers, you have no control over what you actually get. You need to assess what is better or worse in typography and graphic design. The alternative is to be <em>boring</em> and stick with the standard thesis format and I would actually suggest that if you want to save time. In addition, you of course need to figure out what the university allows, there should be some guidelines available.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23969",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14341/"
] |
23,973 |
<p>Is it possible to add a new co-author when requested for a second revision?</p>
<p>Another co-author would help improve the quality of the manuscript, but I am not sure if this is possible.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23974,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A revision to a manuscript is a chance to correct any issues raised in the original review. If you and your co-authors feel that adding a co-author would make the manuscript better, then it is of course acceptable to do so, absent <strong>explicit</strong> instructions to the contrary from the journal (although I am unaware of any journals with such rules).</p>\n\n<p>However, you will also need to <strong>clearly</strong> explain in your cover letter to the editor why you added the co-author, and exactly what her contributions to the paper were. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23975,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is quite common. Authors take in an additional author to help sort out a specific problem and add that author to the paper. It is of course customary to provide a detailed account of this change as well as any other revisions made for the review.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23973",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/636/"
] |
23,977 |
<p>I just finished my master in Geophysics with <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23231/is-it-appropriate-to-acknowledge-stackexchange-in-my-msc-thesis">some help from here</a> ;). Now I applied for several PhD positions in Natural Sciences and just got an invitation for a personal interview for one of them. </p>
<p>The topic of the position is described in the call but over all it seems very general to me (I really have no experience if that is common for PhD positions).<br>
During the interview I’m supposed to give a 10-15 min oral talk about "specific research questions and methodologies" I suggest to focus on and about "results of a first paper". </p>
<p>I have some experience in one of the methods mentioned in the call and could probably come up with a quite elaborated idea for a paper (though I would have no idea if everything or anything would work the way I propose it, never having worked on a paper) </p>
<p>My understanding is hat even older scientists need time and work in a topic to figure out what exactly there paper will be about. So probably I should just kind of suggest a focus topic within the broad framework of the topics covered in the call?</p>
<p>I guess my main question is: How specific should I really be?
(because I should obviously try to avoid boring my interviewer by only repeating part oft he call)</p>
<p>I should probably also mention that I have only three days to prepare.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23978,
"author": "nivag",
"author_id": 14115,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14115",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The way I interpret the topic you were asked to present on is that they want you to present on some work you have complete such as your first paper (or possibly a masters thesis if you have not published anything).</p>\n\n<p>The idea of this is probably to get an idea of how you think/do research and provide a nice introduction into finding out what your interested in.</p>\n\n<p>From your question it sounds like you think they are asking for something else. Now I could be entirely misunderstanding what is asked for (I just have your question), but if you are unsure I would suggest you send a polite email to clarify what the talk should cover.</p>\n\n<p>For what you should say in the talk I would try and answer these questions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>What was the motivation for the research (why is it interesting)?</p></li>\n<li><p>What did you do?</p></li>\n<li><p>What are your results/what do they show?</p></li>\n<li><p>Why are the results significant/interesting?</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23979,
"author": "BPND",
"author_id": 17639,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17639",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Although it suprises me that you are asked to give a presentation covering the project you apply for without having access to a grant proposal or other detailed project description, in comparable situations I experienced (as a third party) the presenter started broad and went into detail on very specific and single points (or directions), leaving aside other possible directions (but state that you saw them!).</p>\n\n<p>By that, you show that you are able to immerse yourself into an unknown problem and on your own design a possible route to tackle a specific problem.\nStaying unspecific and broad throughout the whole talk would probably bore them more -because they often already heard of it quite some times- than going into detail.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23977",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11487/"
] |
23,981 |
<p>As a recently graduated researcher in the field of physics, I am in the early stages of establishing my scientific career, which involves being hired by senior researchers and professors. Much of the likelihood of being hired in a reputable group relies on my publication record and, for good or for bad, on my citation count.</p>
<p>I have always played a significant role in all the papers I have written or coauthored, which justified my inclusion in the list of authors. Thus I feel that I have earned the many or few citations to my papers.</p>
<p>In the context of a competitive mindset in which your quality is often (perhaps unfairly) measured by the number of citations your work has attracted, it has always bothered me how endless author lists from large collaborations boost the citation counts of those people. It is just a matter of common sense to assume that not all of them have <em>significantly</em> contributed to a paper. I am thinking especially about particle-physics collaborations, such as LHC at CERN. As an example, take <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037026931200857X" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this highly cited paper</a> with a couple of hundred authors sharing authorship. The same or very similar author lists appear in several other highly cited articles. I am sure most of these are highly capable and competent researchers, some of which are leaders in their field. But did they all <em>really</em> contributed enough to be credited as authors? Another question: how much is enough?</p>
<p>How can one trust the citation count model (whether it’s fair or not) when there are these collaboration-enhanced players in the game?</p>
<p>How much do professors and PIs rely on citation counts in order to make a decision on hiring a researcher?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23987,
"author": "Bitwise",
"author_id": 6862,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6862",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In biology these papers have become extremely common. These papers are often results of high-throughput data generation projects (e.g. genome sequencing projects). Since they generate a lot of data, their data is often used thus generating many citations (this is why journals like these papers - they are impact factor boosters).</p>\n\n<p>However, I think this is not such a big problem.</p>\n\n<p>In many cases where it is important for people to understand your contribution, there tend to be means of doing this. For example, some funding agencies may ask you to specify verbally or numerically what your contribution to each paper was. If these are the only papers you have, the relevant people will want to know what your exact role in the project was. You will almost always be able to explain or emphasize your role in a cover letter.</p>\n\n<p>When it is less important for people to understand your exact contribution, I find that people will usually give a very low weight to such papers. I guess this comes from an underlying assumption that without prior knowledge we can assume that the amount of contribution is the inverse of the number of authors (maximum entropy?). That said, in biology the first and last authors have special status and I think this is also the case in these papers.</p>\n\n<p>So the main problem, I think, is not getting more recognition then you deserve but actually less if you are some author in the middle of the list. However, as I mentioned, you will usually have some other venue to explain your exact contribution. The only way I could see these papers being very useful for a CV is as an indicator that you can get collaborations and funding (these projects are typically well-funded).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23988,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Where I work at a academic computing center, when hiring at the postdoc and research associate (junior researcher) level, I never look at citation counts. We are <em>very</em> different from an academic department, and citation counts aren't all that useful to us. We are looking for a certain skill set which includes good publications, but it also includes lots of other things.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23996,
"author": "E.P.",
"author_id": 820,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/820",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A general rule of bibliometrics is that they <em>shouldn't</em> be used to compare people (or projects, or papers, or research projects) across different fields, because publication culture can vary wildly even within disciplines and between closely allied fields. To begin with, the size of the field - the number of papers published per year, for example - has a direct impact on how many citations each paper gets.</p>\n\n<p>Your quandary is an example of this. In certain fields such as high-energy physics, astronomy, or parts of biology, a lot of the science is concentrated in very large collaborations, which produce papers with many citations and many authors. It is indeed unfair to use citation counts to compare such a CV with, say, a mathematician's, since papers there tend to have few authors and, in many specialized fields, be read by very few people indeed, even for high-quality papers.</p>\n\n<p>Whether such bibliometrics are used in practice by hiring committees - well, that obviously depends on the field, the institution, and the specific people involved. If all the applicants are from similar fields then this may not be a huge problem, but the numbers need to be treated with some distance to avoid the problem you point out. If a hiring or review process places a large emphasis on citation counts (or other bibliometrics) for applicants from different fields, then that is indeed a problem.</p>\n\n<p>One final thing you should keep in mind is that applicants with a high-citation-count, large-collaboration paper in their CV are likely to get asked at interview questions like</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>So, what was your role in this collaboration?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>in any case, as part of the interview process.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23981",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14695/"
] |
23,991 |
<p>I'm wondering if there's a more efficient method of booking an academic supervision appointment. The method I experienced was a schedule on the professor's door, first-come-first-serve. </p>
<p>How do we employ technology that is the most efficient (reduces scheduling time, permitting all students to view sign ups)?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 23992,
"author": "eykanal",
"author_id": 73,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Not sure what you need beyond standard calendaring software, such as Outlook or Google Calendar or whatever. Simply set up a recurring meeting and meet at that time.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 23999,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I use Doodle a lot. It is possible to tie Doodle in with Google calendar (which also means I see it in my calendar on my Android smartphone). You can set up available time slots in Doodle that can only be filled by one person. Once it is filled it becomes unavailable to others. There may be similar tools but I have only used Doodle and find it extremely efficient. The only drawback are those who insist on having access at some other time but there will always be a few of those, and, it is easier to accommodate a few exceptions this way. I use the method for the 50 grad students in our department, with who I need to meet once a year. I schedule hours at the beginning of the term and ask them to book as soon as they can.</p>\n\n<p>So using Doodle with Google calendar or some similar combination is a useful tool.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23991",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17920/"
] |
24,000 |
<p>Depending on the project, many researchers have to rewrite code and reproduce datasets from previous works in order to perform experimental evaluations. Although some dataset are understood to contain private data, and thus cannot be shared, it would be very nice to have access to the source code and results produced along with the papers.</p>
<p>Most of the big data works present results from experiments run with very large databases, and the code developed, which is usually non-trivial to rewrite, is rarely available to the public. I even heard once that some conferences would start to request the source code of the project to be submitted along with the paper.</p>
<p>My question is: is there any <em>global regulation</em> that states what a conference must request while accepting a paper? And, if so, are there any proposals at all to make source code sharing a must?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 24001,
"author": "Stanpol",
"author_id": 818,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/818",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't know any global regulations, but scientific community understand the problem that you described and that is why github recently made it possible to get a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier\">Digital Object Identifier</a> (DOI) for any GitHub repository archive (<a href=\"https://github.com/blog/1840-improving-github-for-science\">blog post</a>) making the code citable.</p>\n\n<p>As far as I remember any DOI should be maintained for at least 10 years.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24002,
"author": "jespestana",
"author_id": 97737,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/97737",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is a Coursera course of the Data Science Specialization track which talks about this topic. The course is:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Reproducible Research</li>\n<li>website: <a href=\"https://www.coursera.org/course/repdata\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://www.coursera.org/course/repdata</a></li>\n<li>Institution: Johns Hopkins University</li>\n<li>Instructors: Roger D. Peng, Jeff Leek, Brian Caffo</li>\n<li>Note: the course can be done for free.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Some of the topics of the course are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Explanation of what is the replication a research work</li>\n<li>Explanation of what makes a research reproducible (from your question, you are basically asking whether reproducible research is a standard in the scientific world)</li>\n<li>Description, tutorials and exercise on how to use Rmarkdown which is a package of the R language developed to create code that can be both: converted to a human readable format (Sweave the code) and executed to perform a data analysis of some sort (Tangle the code).</li>\n<li>The last lectures are quite interesting, because they talk about real examples that have occurred in the past where reproducible research has been useful, and cases where the lack of reproducibility has been a problem.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>My question is: is there any global regulation that states what a conference must request while accepting a paper? And, if so, are there any proposals at all to make source code sharing a must?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don't think so. My personal hope is that reproducible research will tend to have more citations and that it will be more valued by peers.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24024,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This problem has been recognized, but there is only slow progress on the sort of institutional innovation necessary to address it. Many technological components of the solution are in place, but their are socio-cultural forces of resistance in nearly all academic disciplines and academic journals. NSF and other funding agencies are looking for ways to overcome the resistance.</p>\n\n<p>For a thorough analysis and prognosis, you could listen to this talk: <a href=\"http://www.ischool.berkeley.edu/newsandevents/events/deanslectures/20120201\" rel=\"nofollow\">THE CREDIBILITY CRISIS IN COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE: AN INFORMATION ISSUE</a> (includes slides).</p>\n\n<p><strong>EDIT</strong>: Here's a recent blog post about this in the field of bio-medicine: <a href=\"http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcblog/2014/06/26/can-you-show-us-that-again-please/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Can you show us that again please?</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24173,
"author": "Peteris",
"author_id": 10730,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10730",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<h2>The academic 'process' is an unregulated mess of random, contradictory habits</h2>\n\n<p>To directly answer your question, <strong><em>NO</em></strong>, there aren't any global regulations on what conferences or publishers should require or how they should do anything else.</p>\n\n<p>It's a key point of academic independence - anybody is free to run their academic conferences or publications as they like. There is an unwritten consensus on what constitutes good practice, but it's not regulated, it's not mandatory, it varies across academic fields, and it varies across countries.</p>\n\n<h2>Change happens by convincing lots and lots of unrelated people and organizations</h2>\n\n<p>Any proposals to change something (say, make source code sharing a must) only become real when lots of separate organizers (most of them who never ever hear about each other) in different fields agree that it's a good idea; that it benefits <em>them</em> without making it too hard for <em>them</em>; and take the initiative to implement it. It helps if some academic subfield implements the practice and it's widely seen as working well.</p>\n\n<h2>The only force is funding</h2>\n\n<p>Large funding agencies have the only practical power, as if they make funding conditional on X, then people will try to get X - or at least something that on paper looks similar to X. Note that if they don't think that X benefits them, then it will be the latter option; doing the very minimum possible to tick a checkbox \"yes we do have X\". And it's by definition not a global regulation, but a country-specific one.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24214,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is no particular \"universal\" regulation, and attempts to do so, even for things like the <a href=\"http://blogs.plos.org/everyone/2014/02/24/plos-new-data-policy-public-access-data-2/\" rel=\"nofollow\">PLoS data sharing policy</a> go somewhat pear-shaped. This is because, as @Peteris mentions, academia and research is a rather unregulated bunch. There's no guiding force, and there isn't really the backing for there to be one.</p>\n\n<p>Even things that <em>are</em> firmly enforced, like the protection of human subjects, have standards that vary from place to place.</p>\n\n<p>Personally, I also think that those advancing these policies often forget that different fields have different problems. For some fields, \"Make your data open\" is committing them to a rather intensive hosting and software support problem with very little money to back it. For others, \"make your data open\" may be exceeding the informed consent their patients gave.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/24000",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17935/"
] |
24,005 |
<p>Is it common to discuss the fact that one didn't have time to do more reading, or didn't have time to elaborate certain sections, in the "limitations" section of a thesis?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 24007,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>\"No\", for several reasons. First, even if literally true due to external constraints, it sounds too much like one really didn't care enough, or had other, more important things to do. Second, if it's a sort of excuse for not having a better paper, that's both unprofessional and will only make people mistrust you all the more. Third, although scientific and other scholarly literature has manifest limitations, to apparently concede huge limitations at the outset is pathetic. </p>\n\n<p>Even if such remarks are a (misguided) attempt at some sort of modesty, don't do it. Your thesis is not \"about you\", but about its subject. Personal remarks should be limited to thank-yous and such in the acknowledgements.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24008,
"author": "J. Zimmerman",
"author_id": 7921,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7921",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p><strong>No</strong>. It not common, nor should you do it! As paul garrett pointed out, this type of excuse makes it seem as though you didn't care or couldn't be bothered to do a better job. </p>\n\n<p>I would add also that no matter how much time and effort you have put into developing an idea and writing your paper, it is almost inevitable that there will be something that you missed or could have done better had you had/taken more time. Even the magnum opus on which you have spent your entire lifetime will be superseded by better or more complete thoughts; this is an inevitable reality of academic writing, and not one you should apologize for. </p>\n\n<p>Perhaps especially as a student, one struggles to find the balance that represents maximum output for minimum time spent. Knowing when to 'let go' is a function of maturity and experience. When you've made that decision (or have had it made for you, due to time constraints outside your control), accept that this might be better, but don't apologize for the inevitable.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/24005",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13102/"
] |
24,009 |
<p>I have a grant proposal that I'm ready to submit, and I would like to re-use a significant amount of the text (on the order of 5-8 pages) in a paper that I intend to submit to a journal for publication. Is this considered self-plagiarism?</p>
<p>As I suggested in the title, I am also interested in the reverse direction of this. Is it okay to take significant amounts of text from (e.g.) my own unpublished doctoral dissertation and use it in a grant proposal?</p>
<p>If this were an issue of paper-to-paper copying I know both of these would be clearly off-limits. The key issue that I am wrestling with is whether the rules are different for unpublished works like dissertations and grant proposals.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 24010,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Copying proposals to papers:</strong> I am sure many have not thought about this but many have copied material to and from proposals. Copying from a proposal to a paper should not be a problem since a proposal is normally not a publication and I have never come across a funding agency that claims copyright on proposal texts sent to them. If anyone knows of exceptions, it would be very interesting to know how they handle proposals. Taking the idea to the (silly) extreme one could argue that copying what you write in a notebook to a computer-written manuscript is self-plagiarism. The key lies in what sources are considered published and which are not. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Copying papers to proposals</strong>: Copying from a journal paper to a proposal should normally not be a problem either since the proposal is not a publication and not something that should be distributed. But, the journal text may be subject to copyright so it makes sense to see to what extent one might infringe on those rights by copying text to a proposal. I doubt any journal would care much (or indeed find out) as long as the proposals are not made public. Since most application processes are very strict and reviewers are not allowed to disclose materials (some actually ask you to physically destroy any printouts) I doubt there is a problem but strictly speaking this may indeed be a grey zone.</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: I will add a definition for self-plagiarism: <em>Copying material you have previously produced and passing it off as a new production</em> from the site <a href=\"http://www.plagiarism.org/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">plagiarism.org</a>. From this perspective the question becomes, is one trying to pass of the copied material as a new product?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24016,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As in your comment on PeterJansson's answer: there are two different issues, namely, the literal copyright business, and then also \"ethics\". The copyright aspect is quasi-objectively decideable.</p>\n\n<p>So, suppose there's no copyright conflict. The \"ethics\" issue still needs clarification. First, there's the idea of accidentally or intentionally double-dipping in terms of getting two status-credit-points for just one thing. That's the main external objection to \"self-plagiarism\", as opposed to plagiarizing from others. A grant proposal scores no status points in my world, so that element of ethical problems seems not present.</p>\n\n<p>It's true that an over-the-top notion of self-plagiarism would seem to dictate that one is never allowed to re-use anything one has written, no matter what. I can't agree with this, even at the level of work done for courses, where I have very mixed feelings about declaring students cheaters because they re-use their own work to varying degrees. One objection I have is that this only really makes sense if either the university or instructor declares that it \"owns\" all the work done by students, <em>or</em>, worse, that the only point of the enterprise is in-the-moment... no accumulated expertise is re-usable? Odd.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, it seems to me that too often our thinking about self-plagiarism in professional settings is exaggerated, due to thinking of things as mostly pointless except for status/money-scoring aspects.</p>\n\n<p>Srsly, we're not allowed to ever re-use bits of things \"of our own\" that have been polished a bit, etc? Start over every time? A very artificial constraint. For that matter, isn't most progress fairly <em>incremental</em>? Obviously... so it is perverse to require that everything be retyped every time, etc. And be sure to use different words... even if one took considerable pains with the earlier wording? Old effort must be discarded? :)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24033,
"author": "David Z",
"author_id": 236,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/236",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well, the operative question is not really whether this is called \"plagiarism\" - it definitely is - but whether that's a bad thing. After all, the intended audience of any given document you prepare might be okay with copying large sections of another work; if that's the case, go ahead and plagiarize all you want, nobody will care. But if the people who will be reading a document do not want to see plagiarized material, you'd better not do it, regardless of whether the document will count as a \"publication.\"</p>\n\n<p>From what I've heard, grant review boards generally fall in the latter category. There are probably some exceptions out there, but I've been told in no uncertain terms that plagiarism in a grant application will result in instant rejection, and perhaps even punitive measures such as a temporary or permanent ban on submitting any further grant applications to that funding agency. I've seen examples of proposals which were rejected because they copied as little as one paragraph, or one figure, from decade-old papers, despite the proposals having excellent scientific merit. The copying need not even be exact, so tweaking a few words per sentence from your existing writing doesn't make it okay (as is the case for plagiarism in general).</p>\n\n<p>Bottom line: everything in your grant application should be written exclusively for that application, not repurposed from elsewhere, just as you would do with a published paper. Grant reviewers treat plagiarism much the same as journal editors do.</p>\n\n<p>(And also: though this answer treats plagiarism in general, as far as I'm aware the same rules apply to self-plagiarism.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24071,
"author": "Mark Peletier",
"author_id": 13689,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13689",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The 'right' answer seems to be field-dependent. In my field, mathematics, it is customary for phd students to convert any unpublished parts of their thesis into papers after graduation. This is not only accepted, it is even expected. </p>\n\n<p>I myself would have no difficulty reusing any amount of a submitted grant in a paper; I don't believe this constitutes any form of Questionable Research Practice, and I believe that that would be the opinion of my peers too. (The Dutch Royal Academy recently wrote a <a href=\"https://www.knaw.nl/en/news/publications/correct-citation-practice?set_language=en\" rel=\"nofollow\">letter</a> on reuse, which doesn't explicitly mention grant proposals, but gives guidelines for published sources that support this point if view; it takes 'false impressions' and 'harm to others' as central criteria, which exonerates reuse of material from your own grant proposal). </p>\n\n<p>The best advice I can give you is: talk to the people around you, find out what they think. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 74954,
"author": "Alex Quinn",
"author_id": 60180,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/60180",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Summary:</strong> Yes, you can reuse text from your own grant proposals because you\ndid not assign the copyright to the NSF. The NSF states that proposals are the\nproperty of the proposers. A publisher could, in theory prohibit this, but that is unimaginable.</p>\n\n<p>Going the other way—using material from a paper in a proposal—is less clear, but should also be fine. See below.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>The issue is not what constitutes a \"publication\". That matters only for conferences and journals that refer to it in their policies. For anything else—such as grant proposals—the important issues are (a) \"copyright infringement\" and (b) \"self-plagiarism\". (I'll throw in regular plagiarism below, for context.)</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><strong>Copyright infringement.</strong> If you assigned copyright to your\n(or someone else's) published paper to the publisher,\nthen you no longer own the copyright. Therefore, if you use it in\nyour proposal, you may be guilty of copyright infringement. However,\nsuch use would probably qualify as \"fair use\" since it is\nnon-commercial and does not diminish the financial value to the copyright\nowner (publisher to whom you assigned your copyright).</p>\n\n<p>Yes, you could be guilty of copyright infringment, for using something that\nyou created yourself. For example, imagine if a programmer at Microsoft (or\nwherever) was paid $200K to write some code, and then took it and sold it on\nthe side. Since they were paid to do it, it would be copyright\ninfringement. If you have assigned your copyright to a publisher, the\nsituation is actually similar.</p>\n\n<p>Takeaway: It is best not to use work that was published as \"archival\" with\nthe copyright owned by a publisher, but even that would probably be excused\nas \"fair use\". This only deals with copyright (lawsuits), not allegations of\nplagiarism (below).</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Plagiarism.</strong> The National Science Foundation (NSF) defines “plagiarism”\nas “the appropriateion of another person's ideas, processes, results or words\nwithout giving appropriate credit.” (<a href=\"http://www.nsf.gov/oig/_pdf/cfr/45-CFR-689.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">45 CFR § 689</a>)</p>\n\n<p>This is separate from the issue of copyright. Even if someone gives you\nwritten permission, it is still plagiarism if you don't give them credit.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Self-plagiarism.</strong> If you submit your previously used text in a setting\nthat requires only original (i.e., first-time use) text, and you have not\nattributed the original source clearly and dilineated the quoted text,\nthen you are guilty of self-plagiarism. This depends entirely on the policy\nof wherever you are submitting to. For example, many conferences state that\npreviously used text can be used, if it was from a \"non-archival\"\npublication. Then, they (hopefully) define what \"non-archival\" means to\nthem.</p>\n\n<p>The laws that govern the NSF's rules on research misconduct do not mention\nself-plagiarism. (<a href=\"http://www.nsf.gov/oig/_pdf/cfr/45-CFR-689.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">45 CFR § 689</a>)</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>More information on the NSF's position and enforcement actions regarding plagiarism\nis contained in this <a href=\"http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/oigseptember2002/pdfversions/investigations.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">detailed report by the NSF to Congress</a> (pp. 40-42). Also, searching for \n<a href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=unattributed+text+site%3Ansf.gov\" rel=\"nofollow\">searching for <code>unattributed text</code> within the NSF site</a>\nreveals many examples of prior investigations by the NSF Inspector General.\nFor example, a professor was accused of copy-pasting text from a former student's dissertation.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/24009",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17928/"
] |
24,017 |
<p><strong>Background information:</strong></p>
<p>I have just finished refreshing my high school courses in order to enter into university for engineering. Because I have a strong desire to become an engineer I have not moved past any material unless I fully understood it. That being said, the courses I took have had many mistakes in the material (online material as this is through online correspondence). I have had to fight tooth and nail to correct some of the material, even though I was a student, because I believe the material should be correct so that future students do not suffer the same frustration nor are taught improper concepts. </p>
<p><strong>An example to convey the level of quality of the course material:</strong></p>
<p>One example was in the Physics course, the concept of work being taught was equal to force times the distance the object traveled. This is fundamentally wrong; the real concept of work is force times the distance the force was applied over. I wrote to many people and eventually the business owner before my concerns were heard. The only reason I knew this was wrong was because it defied the law of conservation of energy. Though the fact that I, a student, was the only person who realized the mistake and sought to have it fixed reflects very poorly on the quality of the institution. </p>
<p><strong>Strictly relevant to my question:</strong></p>
<p>I have gotten into the habit of contesting test questions which are incorrect, and since every question on the final exam is worth 0.66% of my final grade, I take the time to make sure each mistake was mine. After contesting 2 questions on my last Chemistry final exam I have found that the head of the science department (whom I correspond with) does not understand a specific concept regarding a question. Now, I realize that it is only 1 question and my grade will go from a 97 to a 97.6, but I strongly dislike the idea of losing a mark for a concept which I deserve the acknowledgment of understanding (the grade). In order to explain why my answer was correct, I don't know how to do it in a way that is not condescending towards her (the head of the science department); no matter how you look at it, it will be a student explaining a concept to a teacher.</p>
<p><strong>I am asking for criticism here.</strong> Please criticize me and tell me if I am being too much of a perfectionist. Is it appropriate to always contest questions during an academic career or will it have a negative effect on my success in the long run? Also, is it really worth it? What are the pros and cons? </p>
<p><strong>EDIT:</strong> I can see my comment about the Physics concept of work is being met with a lot of skepticism; so I am including the link to the <a href="https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/70928/is-my-textbook-teaching-an-incorrect-concept-of-work">Physics.SE question I made</a> in order to verify without a doubt that the lesson was indeed incorrect. When I saw that this was a mistake I took every measure that I could to ensure it was in fact a mistake before I proceeded to contact the head of the science department and then the business owner (when my concerns were not being heard). In no way did I take this lightly and assume I was correct, I did the necessary research before raising concerns.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 24018,
"author": "user17936",
"author_id": 17936,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17936",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Professors are not allowed to retaliate for students asking questions/contesting test items so you have no need to fear. That being said, human beings are human beings and there is natural variation to how people respond. Most academics I know love having students who are as committed to their education as we are and we view questions (including contesting questions) a sign of commitment. Given professors are human beings, we will make mistakes and it is important to be aware that your texts are also filled with errors! So I would encourage you to continue asking questions and contesting items throughout your education. But I caution that you do so in a respectful way. Particularly for internet classes, it is easy to lose sight that the person with whom you are communicating is highly qualified in a specialized area and is due respect. They owe you an equal amount of respect, of course. But when communicating via email, discussion boards, class-related blogs, or any other means that does not involve being face-to-face, two errors emerge entirely too often. People are sometimes disrespectful because they do not realize how difficult it is to show respect via these technologies. People may also be disrespectful because the anonymity makes it easier to be rude/condescending or to lose ones temper. Make no mistake, asking a question is not disrespectful, it is the way questions that are sometimes conveyed disrespectfully. Avoid these errors and you should experience no problems.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24019,
"author": "J. Zimmerman",
"author_id": 7921,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7921",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is it appropriate to always contest questions during an academic career or will it have a negative effect on my success in the long run? Also, is it really worth it? What are the pros and cons?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No ,it is <strong>not always appropriate</strong> to contest questions during an academic career! Let me hasten to add that most of the time, under most circumstance and with the right attitude, it <em>is</em> probably appropriate. The key is your attitude, which seems to be appropriately focused on learning rather than on showing up the professor. However, the second part is how successful you are at conveying that attitude, particularly in an online format, which, as others have mentioned, lends itself to miscommunication. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Approach this with an attitude of learning from the masters</strong>, as in \"Can you show/tell me why this answer is not what I thought it should be?\" rather than, \"This question is wrong and I want you to fix it!\" Professors are human too, and most of us have hard time responding kindly to a smarty-pants student who is intent on showing that s/he knows more than we do!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24021,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Though the fact that I, a student, was the only person who realized the mistake and sought to have it fixed reflects very poorly on the quality of the institution. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, it does. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I believe the material should be correct so that future students do not suffer the same frustration nor are taught improper concepts. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Of course it should. But ultimately, the correctness of the course material is the responsibility of the instructor, not your responsibility. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I have had to fight tooth and nail to correct some of the material.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That strikes me as quixotic.</p>\n\n<p>It's certainly reasonable, and helpful to future students, to report errors that you find in the course material. The instructor should then either fix it, or discuss with you why the course material is actually correct.</p>\n\n<p>But if the instructor does not seem interested in doing so, then it's probably a waste of your time to \"fight tooth and nail\". Unfortunately, crappy courses and instructors exist, and it's not your job to fix them all. Simply quit giving them your money and attention: look elsewhere for better courses. If you like, leave negative reviews. Future students would be helped by having the errors fixed, but if the courses are as poorly managed as you describe, they would be even better off not taking them at all.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24022,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm writing as someone who has questioned/challenged exam questions, and even the entire teaching approach to a graduate-level course. (I'm a PhD student). I do this rarely. I don't do this because my answer was marked wrong or because my exam grade might be improved. In other words, when I challenged the professor I had no intent to have him change my grade. My goal was 100% focused on improving \"the system\" that gave rise to that exam and exam question in the first place.</p>\n\n<p>Look at this as a social system. All systems improve their performance in response to feedback, a.k.a. error signals. Your teachers and professors operate in social systems that include their training, their experience, their discipline norms and culture, their peer influences, their incentives, their resources, and so on. Any given exam question exists within this larger \"field\" of testing, grading systems, degree programs, academic accreditation, and so on.</p>\n\n<p>Consider how this is similar to customer complaints in commercial settings, complaints by line workers in a manufacturing process, or whistle-blower complaints in a government department. Regardless of the merit of any individual complaint, these are all <em>vital</em> and <em>essential</em> signals for each of these organizations and institutions. Enlightened and mature managers (and professors) will understand this and will do their best to solicit such corrective signals, and will act on them systematically.</p>\n\n<p>Alas, many (or most) managers and professors are not enlightened. They won't learn and they will suppress the feedback, and maybe react negatively to the person or people who raise such feedback.</p>\n\n<p>With this perspective, the best that you can do is provide feedback in a way that people can learn from it, and so they can change the system to benefit future students (or customers, or line workers, or citizens).</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Using your example:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>[In a] Physics course, the concept of work being taught was equal to force times the distance the object traveled. This is fundamentally wrong; the real concept of work is force times the distance the force was applied over. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You describe this as \"fundamentally wrong\". Really? It may be erroneous at a conceptual level (i.e. how \"resultant distance\" is different than \"applied distance\") but \"fundamentally wrong\" to me would be \"Work = Force X Velocity\" or \"Work = Force ^2\" or \"Work = Distance X Mass\".</p>\n\n<p>Most important: how would you modify the education material related to \"work\" and how would you modify the exam question associate with \"work\"? And what modifications are required to the System that this exam questions lives in? </p>\n\n<p>Is the professor not using the latest research? Is the professor taking short-cuts, where a more complete treatment is necessary? Is \"teaching the formula\" taking precedence over \"teaching the concepts\" or \"teaching the theory\"?</p>\n\n<p>In my opinion and experience, it's these latter questions that you should address in your feedback in this particular case.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24030,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You are being too much of a perfectionist. Rather, you are being a perfectionist when it really doesn't matter. There is no point in fighting the inaccuracies you find in the lower education system because quite often (as you pointed out) the teachers don't have a good understanding of the material. Whether or not the errors are fixed will not matter because everyone who does not go into physics or chemistry programs in college won't care, and those who do will quickly learn the correct thing in their first semester.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, professors are sometimes wrong, and yes, those errors should be fixed. But it's important to remember that the vast majority of teaching faculty you interact with have PhD's in their field and have devoted their lives to the subject. Professors (especially in intro courses) are very rarely wrong, and when you correct them, they are more likely to say \"oh yeah, that's what I meant\" instead of giving you a hard time. If you believe you should have received credit on a test question, (A) go to your professor's office hours and ask a question, (B) write up a formal proof of why you are correct, and (C) talk to the professor or grader who is in charge of your grade.</p>\n\n<p>And - congratulations on asking questions. The more you ask the better you will understand the material in question.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24056,
"author": "Ben Voigt",
"author_id": 8705,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8705",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The problem is that you're accusing your elders of understanding the concept wrongly. Possibly they are, but most likely they apply it perfectly, and the breakdown is in communication.</p>\n\n<p>You should try to express yourself like this:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I believe I've found a clearer way to express this law. \"Work equals Force times the Distance the force was applied over.\" Is it correct?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Assuming the others are not in fact incompetent, they will agree this is correct. Probably they will even agree it is a clearer statement than the original.</p>\n\n<p>If you just protest the original wording though, \"Can't you see this is wrong?\", then no, you won't find agreement.</p>\n\n<p>All human communication is built on a foundation of assumptions and shared experience. For them, that it is \"the distance traveled while the force is acting on the object\" not \"the distance traveled ever\" or even \"the distance traveled as a result of the impulse transmitted by the force\" is second-nature, and they never think to express it explicitly.</p>\n\n<p>And that's also why no one else sought to have it \"fixed\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24110,
"author": "padawan",
"author_id": 15949,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15949",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p><strong>I am asking for criticism here.</strong> Please criticize me and tell me if I\n am being too much of a perfectionist.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I think, what you do is not perfectionism. You're very close to being ignored by your instructors.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I strongly dislike the idea of losing a mark for a concept which I\n deserve the acknowledgment of understanding (the grade).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Going after what you deserve is a very natural and legitimate behavior. But there is one question: <em>Does %0.66 grade change anything?</em><br>\nIf your grade were to go from A to A+, or it is a matter of passing and failing the class, not a single person will be inconsiderate. However, if you're doing this for only numbers on a piece of paper, then you're not usually welcome.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>no matter how you look at it, it will be a student explaining a\n concept to a teacher.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Human beings learn. All the time. Assistant Professor, Professor, Dean are only titles. In my opinion, if someone chose to be an academician, they chose to be a student for all their life. So, in this case, a student explaining something to another <strong>more experienced</strong> student.</p>\n\n<p>Besides being a student, an academician also has a duty, which is to teach courses. This is a different aspect. This requires a skill to keep a group of different people up and awake for a period of time. Therefore, even though an instructor can make a mistake and have actually something to learn, <strong>time and place matters</strong> to teach him/her where (s)he is mistaken.<br>\nActually, this is a question of respect. I'm sure that you don't want a professor calling your idea <em>nonsense</em> or calling you <em>moron</em>. If you raise your hand and tell him \"you don't know this subject, let me teach you\", two cases are equivalent.</p>\n\n<p><strong>The more you learn, the more you forget</strong><br>\nAt least, this applies for me. In my country, we take a test to enter a university. The test is so hard, only the math section covers all the topics those are taught in the university, in 4 semesters. I once could solve really hard trigonometry questions by hand. Now, I'm dealing with computational geometry, but am astonished when I encounter a simple question about complex numbers. Similarly, your physics instructor, or the author of the book <em>might have</em> missed some basic points. That does not mean <em>they are wrong</em>, that means <em>they should be corrected</em> (you can also correct something even it is right).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 44866,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In answer to your question \"Am I being too much of a perfectionist?\" - it depends. If you are creating security software, no: please be as nit-picky as possible! In other situations, perhaps. Sometimes the correct answer matters less than we think. In others (mars rover?) it does matter. If you can let the bone go when it is not important, then you are not \"too much of\" a perfectionist. But you must hang on to it when it does matter.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/24017",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17480/"
] |
24,023 |
<p>During my masters, I used to ask a lot of questions in class and during the lecture. Whenever I had a doubt I used to ask questions. It was my habit which my undergraduate teachers inculcated in me and inspired us to do so. However, here, in my masters, I got the impression that this is probably a bad habit as professors tend to think that I am asking my questions to test them. Ultimately, it was proven to reflect badly on me. </p>
<p>I am about to go to another institution going for my PHD. Since then, I have changed my habit and I haven't asked a single question in the last several lectures. Instead, I wrote my questions down in my notebook and later read books or Googled them to search for answers. </p>
<p>Is this really the right way?</p>
<p>How can I ask a question such that the professors shall not think that I am somehow mocking them?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 24026,
"author": "robert bristow-johnson",
"author_id": 13651,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13651",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>if your question imply that maybe you hadn't learned the prerequisite classes well enough, then they could be taken as annoying to both professor and some other students. the prof wants to make sure he/she gets through a sufficiently prescribed amount of material (indicated on the syllabus) and spending a lot of time on remedial instruction might cost too much time to move ahead at the needed rate.</p>\n\n<p>but, if it's relevant and at the correct level (like the level of the class learning this stuff), thoughtful questions <strong>should</strong> be appreciated by all.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24027,
"author": "Bhavin Doshi",
"author_id": 6946,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6946",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You should not always resort to Google. If the professor feels bad if you ask in front of the class, note down the question and either ask at the end of the class on one-on-one basis, or ask in a separate meeting during their office hours. Consider asking TAs too.</p>\n\n<p>This is not the ideal solution though, as asking in the class provides others the opportunity to ponder on the question.</p>\n\n<p>One litmus test that you might want to do before asking the question is, whats the point of the question, and whats the point of the current lecture. Are you asking a question that goes deep down some unnecessary details, or does it ask for a piece of information thats relevant and important?</p>\n\n<p>Another way to test your questions is, what would I lose (or what would I be not able to do) if I don't know the answer to that question.</p>\n\n<p>One more way can be that before asking the question, you verbally clarify what you understood, and then ask which bit you didnt understand. Similarly, verbally clarify what details you know, and then for which scenario, you need the additional information. That would not only justify it as a legitimate doubt, but also clear the context of question A LOT in your own mind.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24029,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Asking questions is a good thing, but you need to make sure that the questions you ask are appropriate. The best thing to do is judge for yourself whether or not a majority of the audience might be interested in your question.</p>\n\n<p>An example might be that the lecturer has made a mistake, or has forgotten to define something in a mathematical derivation. In such cases, perhaps you could whisper to the person next to you for a quick second opinion.</p>\n\n<p>If a concept has been neglected or poorly explained, then you should ask for expansion or clarification if you think that most of the class will be in the same boat.</p>\n\n<p>These aren't always easy judgements to make. If you're uneasy, save the question for after class. You can also simply ask the lecturer if he or she minds you asking questions, or your classmates if they thought your question was a good one. <em>Good</em> questions enhance the learning experience for everyone.</p>\n\n<p>The bottom line is that most good professors like to have some interaction with the class. Many students audience don't like to say anything, so it's often up to just a few students to ask any relevant questions. But more than one question every ten minutes or so can start to get tiresome for the lecturer, so unless it's a tutorial class you shouldn't turn it into a Q&A session.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24040,
"author": "Miguel",
"author_id": 14695,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14695",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From my experience in college as a student who <em>asks</em> questions (as opposed to those who stay silent even if they do not understand what they're listening to) you can divide the process into the student's part (asking) and the lecture's part (answering). The student's part is the one you have control over, and so there are at least two possibilities:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The question is pertinent: it adds to the discussion, is useful to the general audience and it does not disrupt the lecture.</li>\n<li>The question is not pertinent: it is too deep (save it for later when you can meet the lecturer in a one-to-one basis), it is too shallow (you were not paying attention, or lack previous knowledge needed for the present course, etc.), or it is irrelevant (you're trying to correct or point out some insignificant mistake or make an appreciation that does not help anyone except your ego).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If your question is <em>not</em> pertinent then do a favor to everyone (including yourself) and don't ask it.</p>\n\n<p>Now, if the question <em>is</em> pertinent it is up to your appreciation and experience in that class to figure out whether that particular lecturer will welcome it or not. Some lecturers will be happy to answer anything they think adds up to the discussion and to be corrected whenever they are wrong. Others will feel that their students are being intrusive towards their work and even get defensive if they're pointing out a mistake.</p>\n\n<p>Examples:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>I once pointed out a mistake a lecturer had made on the board and he dismissed me implying I was clearly wrong without even giving a thought about what I was saying. Right after class I talked to him privately and he was happy to acknowledge I was right.</p></li>\n<li><p>I did the same with another lecturer and he immediately admitted his mistake and thanked me for pointing it out. Asking a tricky question to this same lecturer he admitted he didn't know the answer but came the next day with two sheets of paper where he had worked out the answer after class during his own time.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>To sum up:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It is your responsibility before asking to make sure yours is a <em>good</em>\n question. But it is also up to your judgement to decide whether asking\n that particular lecturer that particular question benefits you or not.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24047,
"author": "1995user6971",
"author_id": 17963,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17963",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Asking Question is a good thing but ask in a right way is cumpulsory and you can not find your answer as you need to know on google so asking your teacher is a good thing but is to be done in a right way. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24052,
"author": "Kathy",
"author_id": 15364,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15364",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Several answers have touched on asking the right type of questions. While this is important, <em>how</em> you ask a question can matter as well. (FWIW, these come from a US perspective.)</p>\n\n<p>I find questions prefaced with \"I know you covered x earlier, but I'm still not clear on...\" get good results. It acknowledges that you were paying attention, that the professor covered some part of the topic, but it's asking for increased understanding. The same for questions like \"You just said x, but the text seems to say y. Could you talk about the difference?\"</p>\n\n<p>Another factor is <em>who</em> asks the question. I'm usually the top student in the class, and the professors know it. So if I ask a question that starts with \"I didn't understand how you went from step A to step B\", they know it's because something was truly unclear -- I've already done the reading, and I've been following the lecture closely, so the professor is less likely to take offense. I often volunteer to ask this type of question for my classmates, because I know the professor will be more patient with the question if it comes from me. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24057,
"author": "h22",
"author_id": 10920,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10920",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A good talk from the auditory that professor likes (or, even if one does not, sees as \"ok\") is the one that <strong>contributes to the lecture</strong>, increasing its quality for all students, for instance:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>An answer to the question that the lecturer has just asked for the auditory, aiming to attract attention to important topic.</li>\n<li>Asking to comment on unmentioned yet widespread or very obviously looking alternative hypothesis, point of view or simply common misunderstanding, if still in the scope of the lecture.</li>\n<li>Asking to clarify something that was really covered too fast, leaving half of the auditory confused (a knowingly good student should ask).</li>\n<li>A typo in a formula on the blackboard that 50 students just wrote down (but double check first as false alerts are not welcome).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>It is very difficult to ask such questions as they may require more knowledge from the student than it would be presented in the lecture. Indeed, one of the possible replies from the professor is \"a good question, now please answer it for us\" that may not already be difficult. If you managed to ask one such question per semester, this is already great and enough. If you keep trying but the questions are not so good, you may get one or another hint to interfere less.</p>\n\n<p>If a question does not add much to the lecture, professor may see it as a waste of the precious time that could be used more efficiently. The amount of personal attention professor is capable of giving to each student is limited even after the lecture, and during the lecture you are also using time of many other students.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24102,
"author": "user46345",
"author_id": 18004,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18004",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are many ways to ask questions in seemingly appropriate ways and yet completely ruin the flow of class and earn some negative points with the lecturer/teacher. Here are some examples:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Asking a question about something that was just explained in great detail (but during which the student who is asking the question was busy texting or browsing on their phone or was simply not focuses). This type of question adds nothing of value, but suggests that explanation was not good enough. I even see other students roll their eyes and some just laugh out loud at one such student who seems to have that special talent for asking really bad questions. For instance, right after stating a fact such as \"The sky is blue\" they would ask \"Excuse me, I am just not sure - is the sky blue?\"</p></li>\n<li><p>Asking a question that on the surface seems relevant, but in reality is about material which was not covered yet. For instance \"Today we learn that at noon, the sky is mostly blue\" and the student asks \"What about the sky on Mars - is it also blue?\". Students who do that do it for few reasons: they want to show that they are advanced (they usually use terminology that was not even explained yet almost like \"name dropping\"), and they like the attention they are getting. This is counter-productive and I just ask them to wait until we reach that point later. But the worst ones will keep asking such questions: \"So, I just wanted to ask, if it is middle of the night, would the sky still be blue?\"... and earn a bad grade as a result (since they are focusing on stuff that is not covered yet, they are not focusing on matters at hand, and that shows in their work).</p></li>\n<li><p>Asking trivial questions, to which they could simply find answers themselves if only they remembered what was covered in the past or even just tried before asking (I teach practical stuff that is done on computers, so they have their tools right in front of them). For instance \"What would happen if I...?\" to which I would say \"try it, see what happens, and get back to us!\". Or at other times \"How do I (do something simple)?\" - again just asking for attention. First it tells me they don't care to remember important details and cannot learn more advanced concepts which rely on previous knowledge, but more importantly, they show their laziness and disinterestedness as such simple tasks can be figured out within seconds. The question would be along lines of \"How do I switch my mouse to left handed?\" - they have not even tried to open options and see what is in there, and to make it all worse - both how to change options and how to \"switch to left handed\" was explained more than once. (and - no I don't teach such simple stuff, it is just an illustration)</p></li>\n<li><p>Even if questions are relatively OK, they can be asked in such a manner as to interrupt the flow of a good class. I expect my students to raise their hand when asking a question, but some of them will do so every few minutes. Some will ask a question by raising their hand, only to switch to not raising their hand when it matters the most - like when an important \"A-HA\" moment is about to happen in students' mind. Some complex concepts and ideas need a bit of a build-up to be understood, and that moment of understanding can be ruined by a question, asked aggressively. Or some others will raise their hand at the most inappropriate moment and try and get my attention with no regard for the explanation that is taking place. All they need to do is wait about 30 seconds and they can ask all they want then, but they are too eager to ruin the flow of lecture. </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Basically, those who do this in a class are psychotic individuals who cannot live without being the center of attention for more than a few minutes. Unfortunately, they are also very skilled at ruining a class without doing much of what is clearly prohibited so they are hard to deal with (you can't tell them \"Don't ask questions\"). I just fail them or give them a really bad grade; usually their homework is not that great either, so failing them is easy.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/24023",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8569/"
] |
24,028 |
<p>Background: I was a senior at a very prestigious, high-ranking university in the US. At the time my GPA was around a 3.9 and had never had any issues with professors (and actually socialized with a few outside of class). </p>
<p>Fall semester I ended up getting pinned taking two classes from a female professor that had a reputation for being an extreme feminist. I only mention the "feminist" part because this reputation preceded her around campus. My adviser who was female, basically said "sorry about this" but I have to put you in her classes. I also mention it because the department head (later in story) is very quick to pull me from her class with little discussion. I am not anti-feminist nor did I care. If anything it made me act more cautious around her.</p>
<p>Both of the classes were very basic so I figured, whatever. Well I get my first few papers back and there is little feedback other than very minor sentence rewording. "C"s. No notes. </p>
<p>I ask her about her office hours (after class) so I can talk about the issues on the papers. She simply told me she finds me intimidating and that she would rather talk to me in class with other people around. <strong>This was my first direct interaction with her, and I was standing beside a few friends.</strong> </p>
<p>So I ask her what I need to do to not get a "C". She says that she doesn't feel comfortable talking to me because she feels threatened—again I have two or three female friends standing a few feet from me. That's it. She wouldn't talk to me because I was a big male. (At the time I was boxing professionally but I really doubt she knew this. As a 6'3" 200-pound white male, she just would not talk to me based on how I looked.)</p>
<p>Next step was going to the department chair. Basically he looked at a few of my papers and we went around in circles over the grades. But that didn't matter. The professor basically told him exactly what she told me. And she told him that it was the first time I had ever talked to her.</p>
<p>He offered to grade the rest of my papers and give me grades for the classes. I opted out of that because basically I would have started off with a 70% in each class (he could not change my grades, I was told). So he offered pass/fail. I took that option. Didn't go to class. Turned in a bunch of papers and passed both classes.</p>
<p>My question is did I handle this correctly? Should I have paid for those two classes? What would be the norm in this situation from a student's perspective?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 24054,
"author": "robert bristow-johnson",
"author_id": 13651,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13651",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>We (and the department) need to ignore <strong>any</strong> and <strong>all</strong> issues of appearance and ostensible political leanings. the OP (no matter how he looks), if he pays tuition (which partially pays the professor's salary) has a right to <em>some</em> explanation of the grade. If the professor made no notes on the paper about <strong>content</strong> (not just style or usage, which if not flagrantly bad, should affect the grade only a little), then the student has a right to hear from the professor <strong>what</strong>, in the content, she was looking for and was missing in the paper. Alternatively, the professor should convey what was included in the paper that was \"wrong\" in some sense, either factually incorrect or irrelevant.</p>\n\n<p>This professor should have office hours. If they all conflict with other classes or academic commitments, the student has a right to request some time by appointment. If the professor agrees, make the appointment. You should not need to bring \"witnesses\". The professor should just do her job.</p>\n\n<p>If the professor continues to stonewall (using her fear of you as an excuse), try getting either your adviser or the department head to stand with you as you ask her again for time to substantively discuss what she is expecting in the work from each student in your class, and <strong>specifically</strong> where your work came short in her professional opinion. Come prepared about the facts and content in the work that she's grading so poorly.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps your poor grade is appropriate and you can learn something. Perhaps it was not appropriate and <em>she</em> can learn something. Either way, you have a right to specific information for how your paper falls short, and what she expects of you for a better grade. You might not like the information, but she has no right (since she is partially paid by the tuition you pay) to deny her services, as a professor and teacher, to you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24226,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My opinion is that you handled this difficult situation appropriately, assuming what you have described is accurate and forthcoming. The only suggestion I could make is this: When she said that \"she wouldn't talk to you because you were a big male\", you might have suggested that she send you an email with the explanation. She may or may not have done it, but at least you'd be giving her a path of communication that didn't involve you being present with her.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, the \"pass\" result was probably as good as you could expect.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24248,
"author": "BrianH",
"author_id": 6787,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6787",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Generally speaking, humans - even professors with a bad reputation - behave the way they do in a way that is sensible in at least some context, even if that context is only in their own mind. Without knowing the situation, this behavior could be anywhere from an indefensible prejudice to a \"reasonable person\" response that one simply fails to understand or have sufficient information to interpret.</p>\n\n<p>So, let's walk through a couple of reasonable interpretations.</p>\n\n<h2>Honest Interpretation</h2>\n\n<p>In the first interpretation, the professor responded honestly - she felt fear or discomfort in meeting with you privately. \"Why\" she felt that way cannot be determined from a simple reading of the narrative presented. She could have a disability (panic/anxiety disorder, post traumatic stress), she could have been threatened in the past, she could have believed you were affiliated with people who had threatened her or wished her ill, or she could have interpreted your tone or body language as being angry or...well, intimidating, and surely other reasons I cannot so easily imagine.</p>\n\n<p>People have a right to feel safe, and to insist they not be put in a position where they are made to be in perceived or real danger. When one can un-self-consciously walk down a dark street alone without fear because of one's skin color, size, gender, or physical training, it is easy to be unaware of the fear that others who are not so fortunate must live in continually - often for all too real reasons. As I have two daughters, I can attest that this is a rather disgusting realization to have to come to - but it is an important one in understanding our place in the world and our relationships to others.</p>\n\n<p>Legally and ethically, the University is almost universally required to provide reasonable accommodations to this end for both students and faculty - both you and your professor.</p>\n\n<p>In all this, this does not require that you did anything wrong, nor that you should receive adverse treatment. If the professor was hard of hearing she could require all advisement to be by email, and this would be a reasonable accommodation. To request an appointment with a chaperon might feel silly when you don't see the need, but it can be a reasonable accommodation none the less.</p>\n\n<h2>Unfair Treatment Interpretation</h2>\n\n<p>Interpretation Two: you were singled out for unfair treatment. In this interpretation, you were treated explicitly unfairly and the professors attitude and actions culminated in adverse, unwarranted treatment. </p>\n\n<p>As a student and \"paying customer\", you have the right to receive services you paid for, comparably valued substitute services, or a refund. The University makes certain guarantees of service, and they are obligated to make good on their contract.</p>\n\n<p>The University, along with applicable law, usually provides for how complaints should be handled. Generally, the head/chair of the department is involved, and at times special departments (like an Ombudsman or Student Services) can also seek to find a reasonable resolution.</p>\n\n<p>There is not, however, always a guarantee that a class will be offered by a professor who likes you, or whom you like, or who is even in any way helpful or beyond vaguely useful. It's hard to bar passive-aggressive behavior that's shielded by unethical but hard to disprove veils of personal boundaries or safety. </p>\n\n<p>From your writing, it seems a member of administration offered a number of remedies. You likely had the right to complain to administration, be given an administrative (no cost/fault) withdrawal from the class with potential return of related fees, receive 3rd party grading to remove questions of improper marks, a pass/fail opportunity for credit, etc. While none of these are ideal resolutions, there are often no perfect fixes for problems like this. </p>\n\n<p>Part of this is often what is really sought in remedy is not possible or not stated. If you felt insulted and discriminated against, you might have wanted the professor penalized or to apologize to you - which might have been objectively inappropriate or just impossible. You might have wanted your paper regraded as stated, but there may have been insufficient grounds for this is as it is simply an extraordinary request. If a 3rd party can look at your paper and say \"it is not beyond reason that a professor, even if they would be very harsh, would have given this paper a C\" then it's just a no go there, too.</p>\n\n<p>So, administration has a duty to find a way to make the best of a bad situation. From the sounds of it, they offered pretty much all the recourse they had to offer to you. You could take it or leave it, but by staying in the class and taking the pass/fail offer and receiving credit (and choosing not to attend lecture - which was certainly understandable but not strictly demanded by the situation) the University upheld their end of the bargain - albeit in a not very satisfying way.</p>\n\n<h2>A Word on Feminism</h2>\n\n<p>One note of issue: the problem with how this is stated in the post is that feminism isn't actually related. If someone is known to have a militant or unkind attitude, behave in a way that discriminates against certain genders or types of people, or just has a reputation for being a terrible teacher or nasty person, say so.</p>\n\n<p>The problem is when words are used as code words for something else entirely. If the administration was unwilling to give a refund it would be appropriate to say they were playing hard ball or being stingy or greedy - not to say they were known to be of a certain ethnicity renowned for thrift (to be time-insensitive, I am presently aware of three entirely different sets of people who have this notion assigned to them). </p>\n\n<p>So, if a professor has a reputation of being nasty or terrible or discriminatory, please just say so outright. To say \"feminist\" or \"extreme feminist\" to imply being a man-hating shrew does a dis-service to yourself, your question, to feminists, to man-hating shrews, and to society as a whole. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24256,
"author": "Aaron Hall",
"author_id": 9518,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9518",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I once had a comparative politics professor that was a short, older Latina. She included attendance and tardiness in the course grade. I recall once a rather big fellow once tried to get her to not mark him tardy by physically intimidating her.</p>\n\n<p>She didn't back down and she told him to have a seat - and he did.</p>\n\n<p>However, I could see someone else having a very different response, and I was watching carefully to intervene if he became belligerent.</p>\n\n<p>What's going on in her mind may or may not reflect an objective view of reality, but being a boxer, it strikes me that your gauge of your aggressiveness when you confronted her about your grade could be off.</p>\n\n<p>I'd like to present you with a specific principle that might help in future situations:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Assume Positive Intent</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No one shows up at work telling themselves they're going to be evil today. (Except maybe Dr. Evil.) </p>\n\n<p>In this case, you might have been careful to cooperate with her, and credit her with innocent (if misguided) fearfulness, which would have allowed you to further test your hypothesis, and you would have either won her over (possible, but unlikely, given most professors' fondness for acknowledging a misgrade) or had more evidence for the department chair.</p>\n\n<p>Nevertheless, you ask:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Did I handle this correctly?\" </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You did the best you knew how, and a \"Pass\" beats a C (for an A student) any day.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 29427,
"author": "RoLaAus",
"author_id": 22555,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22555",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Whether this female teacher actually had a bad experience with an intimidating student or it was just all in her head, is an irrelevant point. If your interactions with her were just as you stated (and no subtle context was left out, like you standing with your \"guns\" across your chest, or worse), then you were blatantly discriminated against. The reason that I say her past experience is irrelevant is because had she had a bad experience with a school athlete or body builder, she is still basing her opinion of you on that experience, which is prejudicial, also known as discrimination.</p>\n\n<p>I think that if a professor told me they would rather talk in class, my response would be that you do not discuss other peoples academic status in front of others, so, either 1, you allow me to bring a friend in to the meeting whom I feel comfortable with, or 2 you have another professor or a student aid present, or 3 you call campus security and have them present at the meeting ...</p>\n\n<p>And, actually, this is the best possible scenario, especially if she already has preconceived notions, because it would protect you from false accusations, and other lies, like when she claimed you never approached her before. I dont know how or why she was able to get away with this lie, when you stated you were with friends at the time you approached her about your grade.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 45088,
"author": "Guillermo Schwarz",
"author_id": 34253,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34253",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Most universities have a academic coordinator, or something like that, who you can address with issues like these.</p>\n\n<p>If that fails, I've heard of people who have successfully sued the professor, because if the do something unfair and produce a damage in the finances of people, they can get compensation. That is what laws are for.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 45098,
"author": "awsoci",
"author_id": 28324,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28324",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This hasn't been said yet so I'd like to draw your attention to a couple of situations with students that I've experienced. But first....</p>\n\n<p><strong>Coded Body Language/Image</strong></p>\n\n<p>First, you mentioned that you are a white, 200+ pound male training to be a boxer. Western culture has coded muscular bodies in two ways, the first, as 'healthy' (a completely different discussion) and the second, as 'powerful' 'aggressive' and 'hostile'. So while you may not have meant to appear threatening, she may have read your body language and attitude as threatening just by the way you look. Is this discrimination? Yes BUT bear with me.</p>\n\n<p>After all, if we constantly receive messages through various mediums that men with muscular bodies are meant to be aggressive and violent (sports, action movies, body building etc) than it is not all that surprising that she reads you as threatening even if this was not your intention. There are also socio-cultural and historical contexts here at play. As a white male you do have access to levels of privilege (depending on other factors, such as class, ability etc) and combining this with a hard body, it is very well that she may have perceived you as a threat despite what your intentions may have been. </p>\n\n<p>As a female, she has also been taught that men are threatening. Through various forms of mediums, women are constantly told that men are threatening, that they can't behave themselves, that women risk provoking men, women are victims of men and often deserve it and so on. So again, the socio-historical-context here is that she has been taught to perceive men as a threat. </p>\n\n<p>This isn't to excuse her behaviour, it's just a more nuanced explanation. Combining the historical context of what women are told, and the coded messages around a hard, male muscular body you may have come across as threatening. </p>\n\n<p>You also mentioned that her face had a look of 'disgust' but just as YOU felt you weren't in a body position of hostility/aggression, perhaps her look was not disgust but actually fear. How you receive a message is not necessarily how people give them. To be honest, as a young female with a severe knee injury, if I <em>perceived</em> you as highly threatening, I might also be wary of meeting with you privately...</p>\n\n<p><strong>Options She Should Have Offered</strong></p>\n\n<p>If she felt threatened, a more appropriate response from her would have been to arrange a meeting in which a neutral third (and perhaps fourth party) could be involved to mediate the discussion. She does have the right to turn you away from a private one-on-one discussion if she genuinely feels threatened. However, offering an option in which perhaps a faculty member, and a student rep like an adviser to sit in on the discussion would have been a more tactful way of handling the situation, giving you a fair chance to discuss where you went wrong (if you did go wrong). </p>\n\n<p>This should have been offered for you, especially as this was a first time request for office hours. It does not sound as though you had repeatedly harassed her in any way. This is what I would have offered. I'm aware that this may come across as insulting or offensive, but this would not be my intention. It would be to protect myself and offer you a fair chance for discussion. </p>\n\n<p>I know there's that hashtag #notallmen; however, I would say that enough men engage in violence and threatening behaviour to warrant some caution around those we do not know. Which is very unfortunate, I disagree living in a world where I have to constantly be cautious as the result of my gender, but this is where we are at. </p>\n\n<p><strong>My Experience as a Female Lecturer</strong></p>\n\n<p>I have been threatened and been in hostile situations with students on a few occasions. Surprisingly though, I have never had a situation with a male student, only female. However, a number of my colleagues have been in situations where their male students have harassed them, threatened them, have been physically violent with them and so on. So it is unfortunately, not an uncommon experience. </p>\n\n<p>My worst experience was last year, where a student was taking my class but couldn't handle the controversial content of the material, or the setting of the classroom. They wanted me to change my entire curriculum and change how I was lecturing completely (including changing rooms, changing light settings, not using slides and so on). During and after class they would berate me about how I was not being accommodating despite trying to work with them and their disability case worker. On numerous occasions it was suggested that if they couldn't handle the content they should drop the class, but they refused. It got to the point that all interactions with this student had to be mediated with another member from my department, a member from safer communities unit and their disability caseworker. That's 5 people including myself for ONE student.</p>\n\n<p>To be fair, this student was really struggling mentally, and trying to get into a psychiatric ward for fear for themselves but the medical system was screwing them around. So while I was being harassed and threatened, I also know that this was not so much the student hating me, but rather, venting all of their frustrations and current mental illness onto me. I became a target. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Did You Handle This Correctly?</strong></p>\n\n<p>I think you did the best you could considering the circumstances. I'm surprised a third party option was not offered for you and as others have suggested, perhaps a pass is better than a C. Maybe in future if a professor indicates they feel threatened, you could offer some alternatives to help them feel secure. While they may be in positions of authority, this does not mean they are flawless, or do not have their own concerns and fears. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/24028",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11420/"
] |
24,031 |
<p>I’ve red that some universities in Japan offer a non-degree program called <em>research student.</em> I want to know:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Why do students usually apply as a research student?</p></li>
<li><p>Do research students work on things that haven’t been done before? Or do they work on anything that interests them (of course) but that is not necessarily new?</p></li>
<li><p>How does a research student differ from a master student? What does a research student presents in his/her last year?</p></li>
</ol>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 24032,
"author": "fkraiem",
"author_id": 12864,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12864",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I've only encountered the term \"research student\" in Japan (研究生), most (all ?) graduate schools in Japan offer it (see for example the <a href=\"http://is.tohoku.ac.jp/_eng/entrance/guide.html\">Graduate School of Information Sciences of Tohoku University</a>). As I understand it</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>A student will apply as a research student if they wish to conduct research at the university under the supervision of a faculty member, but are not interested in taking classes or obtaining a degree. You could want to do this for example as a \"gap year\" between undergrad and Master's (or Master's and Ph.D.), this could be a way to get some research experience under your belt, and perhaps improve your application for Masters or Ph.D.</p></li>\n<li><p>Anything goes, as long as it is agreed between the student and supervisor.</p></li>\n<li><p>You are not required to present anything. Since there is no degree to be obtained, there are no requirements to be fulfilled.</p></li>\n<li><p>is subjective.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 24034,
"author": "enthu",
"author_id": 15723,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15723",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Usually, students who go through a research program, aim for a research project or a project the output of which may be a research report or a scientific publication. As far as this program is only offered in a few number of universities or research centers; I just want to add some comment to the questions you asked.<br>\nIn some universities, non-degree programs are offered as some students want to attend to the university not going through the official class-attending programs. I mean, in a non-degree program, the student may not have to attend all the courses offered in a degree leading program. The student has the opportunity to choose the courses he likes and the ones mostly near the field of research he likes to do. It may be noted that in a degree program, the student may have to pass a few number of courses which may be chosen by the group or department; but in a non-degree program, he has the opportunity to choose from a wide range of different courses which he likes more. I insist that that because these programs may not lead to a degree, each university may have its own regulations and the student may or may not have the opportunity to choose as many different courses as he wants. It is better to check the universities' websites.<br>\nThe answer the your question about <em>why students apply for such programs</em> varies. Some students prefer to enjoy the freedom of the program, choosing a number of courses and pass them,while they do some research activity in the research institute. Some researchers prefer to apply for this programs as they have passed some courses before and they are coming with a good research background; so they apply for a non-degree program just to expand their researches and do some publications at the end of the research period. Some other students are the ones who work in industry and do not have enough time to attend a complete degree leading program and have a research topic in mind; so they apply for such program and do research in the field of their desire.<br>\n<em>When we are talking about research</em>, It means that we are looking for something new. When something is done before and the researchers looks for it; it is called research but the output may be a Review Paper not a Research Paper.<br>\nA non-degree program may differ as a matter of time. The research period may be three months, six month, one year or more. But as the research non-degree program student does research under supervision of a professor at the university; the output should be something like a publish paper, conference paper or a research report or book. If the person applies for a non-degree program and does not have any publication at the end of the research period, why does he attend the university?<br>\nThe research student may <em>take most of the research period</em>, by talking to the other researchers and students at the university. Go to some courses and read as much as papers and reports as he can. Develop new ideas for his future projects and gain ideas to make his work better.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/06/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/24031",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17944/"
] |
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