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30,694 |
<p>I'm in the last year of my MSc in computer engineering and I want to apply for a PhD in Germany. I have a reasonable resume and have a published paper and my master GPA is 16.5/20, but my bachelor GPA in not so good, it is 13.5/20.</p>
<p>Can you tell me how much is this important? Do I have any chance?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30698,
"author": "doomoor",
"author_id": 22592,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22592",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This totally depends on the university. There is <strong>no common rule</strong> for all German universities. Having good grades in field related courses may be the most important part, also the thesis being field related won't hurt either. Other than that it can depend on the university, the faculty, the chair, the potential supervisor and so on.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30699,
"author": "DCTLib",
"author_id": 7390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7390",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>As flo said, it totally depends on the university.</p>\n\n<p>In principle, you can become PhD student at any German university if you</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Have someone eligible (normally a professor in the department) who declares that she/he will supervise you, and</li>\n<li>You meet the requirements from the examination regulations for the PhD.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>In the majority of cases, the examination regulations can be found on the web. Many departments do not list a formal \"grade\" requirements, but some do. Typically, the grades are only given in German style, so there is room for interpretation when translating foreign grades. <strong>GPAs</strong> are pretty much unknown in Germany. Admission officers will look at the grades (e.g., A-F, where F means fail) and if the institution where the grade has been awarded is \"OK\". Summary grades are expressed in the same system as the individual grades. To make this part of the answer complete, as you are probably aware, it is normally a requirement to have a Masters degree before you can start with a PhD.</p>\n\n<p>Structured programs, such as graduate schools, typically have their own rules <em>on top</em> of these. Again, standard vary, and you should be able to find some information on the home page of the respective graduate school.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30702,
"author": "Robert Buchholz",
"author_id": 19905,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19905",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The exact requirements depend on the specific federal state (\"Bundesland\"), university, department and professor</p>\n\n<p>Each federal state of Germany has its own university law (\"Landeshochschulgesetz\"), and that may impose limitations on the admittance to a PhD program, Additionally, each university can impose additional rules, and so can the department (usually \"Fakultät\") where you want to apply for a PhD. Finally, you must be accepted as a PhD student by a professor and he, too, may have additional requirements for accepting you.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, you'll have to contact a department representative (usually the at the examination office/\"Prüfungsamt\") to check the formal requirements. Make sure you tell them your degree, GPA (and preferably also the interpretation of that GPA on the German grade 1-5 scale) and the country in which you graduated. This person should be able to check whether your are applicable to enter a PhD program, not only based on their department rules, but also based on university rules and state law. </p>\n\n<p>You'll also have to contact the professor that you want to act as your PhD supervisor, and apply for a PhD student position (this may be a teaching position, a research project position, or a simple unpaid agreement supervision).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30747,
"author": "mafu",
"author_id": 5640,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5640",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Adding a detail to the other answers given.</p>\n\n<p>According to what I have seen and heard at the (German) university I'm a student at, your <em>Bachelor's</em> degree is probably almost irrelevant as long as the Master's is okay.</p>\n\n<p>I think you won't need to stress out over a low score there. Personally, in the unlikely case you're asked about it, I would try to point out the improvement since then, and how you plan to continue that improvement.</p>\n\n<p>Also, at my university there is a grade translation table, which can be used to map between Germany and pretty much every other country. You should inquire if your targeted university has something like that, too.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30694",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23442/"
] |
30,713 |
<p>I want to apply to a postdoc position at a UK based University.</p>
<p>They want me to fill a "Equal Opportunities Data" form with questions about my marital status, sexual orientation, religion and race. Why do they need that? Will there be any consequences from not specifying these? </p>
<p>Will the employing professor have access to the data?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30714,
"author": "Qwerty",
"author_id": 22863,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22863",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<ul>\n<li>The employing professor will not have access to this data. </li>\n<li>You can omit anything in this form.</li>\n<li>The data from this form goes to HR and is aggregated there so they can prove to auditing bodies that the staff distribution is not skewed (i.e. that they are not discriminating on basis of whatever)</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30716,
"author": "DCTLib",
"author_id": 7390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7390",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>No, this information will not be made available to the hiring committee and not filling out this information will not have any negative consequences.</p>\n\n<p>The university uses the data to monitor discrimination - from time to time, it is checked whether the percentage of successful applicants from minorities is roughly the same as the percentage of the respective minorities among the applicants. If the ratio is very off and the number of hirings was sufficient to indicate a \"trend for discrimination\", the university will take measures to prevent this in the future. And for this, they need to collect the data.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30717,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The general idea behind \"equal opportunity\" employment is that if two candidates appear <em>equally suitable</em> for the job, the candidate with a more favourable \"minority status\" will be selected.</p>\n\n<p>You may always ask if it's compulsory to give that information. My personal stance is that none of that information is relevant to the job, so the employer has no need to know.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Edit:</strong> Contrary to the comments suggesting I am wrong, <em>this does happen</em>, though not in the UK. For example, see the <a href=\"http://www.desy.de/v2/e/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">DESY.de</a> jobs website.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"Comment on all job offers:\n Handicapped persons will be given preference to other equally qualified applicants. DESY supports the careers of women and therefore encourages especially women to apply.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://ast.noao.edu/opportunities\" rel=\"noreferrer\">NOAO</a> says:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Preference granted to qualified Native Americans living on or near the Tohono O’odham reservation.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don't know how widespread this sort of policy is. But if I can find one institute in Germany and another in the USA, surely I can find more.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30724,
"author": "nivag",
"author_id": 14115,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14115",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Under the equal opportunity act UK employers are not allowed to discriminate on the grounds of race, religion, sexual orientation, etc. </p>\n\n<p>These forms allow them to help check that this is not happening by comparing the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful candidates, as well as the general population.</p>\n\n<p>The data should be treated as confidential, although exact wording varies between forms.</p>\n\n<p>Completing such forms is generally not compulsory and most forms will have a prefer not to say option for most categories.</p>\n\n<p>My advice if you are still concerned would be to contact whowever is running the admissions process and ask them (politely) what the data will be used for. They should be able to tell you (or find out).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30730,
"author": "A E",
"author_id": 23260,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23260",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It would be illegal for them to take this type of information into account when making hiring decisions - it would be 'direct discrimination':</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>It is against the law to discriminate against anyone because of:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>age<br></li>\n<li>being or becoming a transsexual person<br></li>\n<li>being married or in a civil partnership<br></li>\n<li>being pregnant or having a child<br></li>\n<li>disability<br></li>\n<li>race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin<br></li>\n<li>religion, belief or lack of religion/belief<br></li>\n<li>sex<br></li>\n<li>sexual orientation<br></li>\n</ul>\n<p>These are called ‘protected characteristics’.</p>\n<p>You’re protected from discrimination in these situations:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>at work</li>\n<li>in education</li>\n<li>as a consumer</li>\n<li>when using public services</li>\n<li>when buying or renting property</li>\n<li>as a member or guest of a private club or association</li>\n</ul>\n</blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https://www.gov.uk/discrimination-your-rights/types-of-discrimination\" rel=\"noreferrer\">https://www.gov.uk/discrimination-your-rights/types-of-discrimination</a></p>\n<p>As other people have already said, many employers collect this information (while keeping it secret from the people making the hiring decision) in order to ensure that their recruitment process doesn't contain systemic 'indirect discrimination', which is:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>putting rules or arrangements in place that apply to everyone, but that put someone with a protected characteristic at an unfair disadvantage.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https://www.gov.uk/discrimination-your-rights/how-you-can-be-discriminated-against\" rel=\"noreferrer\">https://www.gov.uk/discrimination-your-rights/how-you-can-be-discriminated-against</a></p>\n<p>If you leave that section of the form blank then it should not count against you in your job application (often the form will say this on it somewhere).</p>\n<p>There is an exception in that '<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affirmative_action\" rel=\"noreferrer\">positive discrimination</a>' is (since a change in the law quite recently) allowed in certain, quite limited, circumstances:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>Employing people with protected characteristics</strong></p>\n<p>You can choose a job candidate who has a protected characteristic over one who doesn’t if they’re as suitable for the job and you think that people with that characteristic:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>are underrepresented in the workforce, profession or industry<br></li>\n<li>suffer a disadvantage connected to that characteristic (eg people from a certain ethnic group are not often given jobs in your sector)</li>\n</ul>\n<p>You can only do this if you’re trying to address the under-representation or disadvantage for that particular person. You must make decisions on a case by case basis and not because of a certain policy.</p>\n<p>You can’t choose a candidate who isn’t as suitable for the job just because they have a protected characteristic.</p>\n<p><strong>Disabled people</strong>\nWhen recruiting you can treat a disabled person more favourably than a non-disabled person because of their disability.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https://www.gov.uk/employer-preventing-discrimination/recruitment\" rel=\"noreferrer\">https://www.gov.uk/employer-preventing-discrimination/recruitment</a></p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/research/briefing-papers/SN06093/the-equality-act-2010-and-positive-action\" rel=\"noreferrer\">The Equality Act 2010 and positive action - Commons Library Standard Note</a></p>\n<p>If you find that an employer is breaking the law in respect of discrimination, then <a href=\"http://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/app/ask\" rel=\"noreferrer\">contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service</a> (free).</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Some examples of the types of issues we have advised on:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>An individual who was unhappy about the way that the younger clientele at work treated him and spoke to him because he was an older person.</li>\n<li>A Trans individual, who had transitioned from male to female, who worked for a security company and reapplied for a security pass only to discover that the process for renewing her pass had disclosed the fact she had undergone gender reassignment surgery.</li>\n</ul>\n</blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/app/about\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/app/about</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30737,
"author": "Jay Cobb",
"author_id": 23477,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23477",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a lecturer and department head, at least in the UK I can tell you this answer is far simpler than those above.</p>\n\n<p>Colleges and universities are able to sell the information gained from the equal opportunities segment of our application forms. There is no legal requirement to include it in the process, but it does generate extra income which every educational establishment is fighting for these days.</p>\n\n<p>You do not have to put anything, and I would actually advise you not to. It does not form any part of the administrative profiling for students, and the majority of the time teachers never even see these forms once you fill them in and any employers would certainly never have access to them.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30921,
"author": "zxq9",
"author_id": 13156,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13156",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>So they can prove that they aren't discriminating against non-majority race/sex/orientation individuals. The unfortunate bit is that this means they must prioritize anything in the non-majority r/s/o category (usually something rather specific, depending on the prevailing politics), which has the unfortunate effect of de-prioritizing folks who happen to fall into the category considered \"the majority\" (which is often a perceived majority and not an actual one, if a majority even exists).</p>\n\n<p>Your professors or whoever else don't have access to individual information of this sort, it is used as an aggregate for central planning authorities. Isn't politics lovely?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30992,
"author": "Dɑvïd",
"author_id": 17238,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17238",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some good responses to this question are already supplied (especially to OP's \"Why do they need that? Will there be any consequences from not specifying these? Will the employing professor have access to the data?\").</p>\n\n<p>What there seems still to be lacking in the answers is any specific data from the UK university sector. This is <a href=\"https://duckduckgo.com/?q=%22Equal+Opportunities+Data%22+site%3Aac.uk&t=canonical\" rel=\"nofollow\">not hard to find</a>, and here are a couple of representative examples:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://www.hr.admin.cam.ac.uk/hr-staff/hr-data/applicant-data\" rel=\"nofollow\">University of Cambridge</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>We understand that some applicants may not wish to provide sensitive personal information to us at this stage, which is why we have provided the option to answer each equal opportunities question with ‘Prefer not to say’.</p>\n</blockquote></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/jobs/howtoapply/application-tips.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">University of Nottingham</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It is not necessary for you to include personal information in the main body of your application form, e.g. sex, age, marital or civil partnership status, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, nationality, country of birth, religion.</p>\n</blockquote></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>A lot more information is found on even those two pages, and many universities put their policies online in PDF form, so not so convenient for linking here. This sort of search also demonstrates that such policies and procedures are found across the sector, and not restricted to a few odd-ball institutions.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30713",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14273/"
] |
30,719 |
<p>This question is similar to <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30646/how-to-build-a-list-of-top-authors-in-a-field">this one</a>, but focused on papers rather than on authors. Does anybody know of a systematic way to build a list of the most cited and/or influential papers in a discipline?</p>
<p>I've tried to use Google Scholar, but I was not able to search papers by label, as you can do in the case of authors (see the accepted answer <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30646/how-to-build-a-list-of-top-authors-in-a-field">here</a>).</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30725,
"author": "Aaron Hall",
"author_id": 9518,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9518",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I have undertaken to create such lists as an academic exercise myself, and quite a lot of effort is involved in doing this. There are a variety of approaches that I will suggest, and I would place more emphasis on the first approaches.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Literature review papers</strong>: Look for literature reviews on the subject of interest. Read the reviews' analysis and discussion of the state of research, there should usually be a discussion of <em>how</em> the state got where it is, and their citations should point you right at the seminal works.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Paper Cites</strong>: review known papers of interest for their citations. You'll want to recurse back to this strategy as more papers become known to you.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Textbook tables of citations</strong>: Review several respected textbooks that cover the subject, and inspect their citations for more works that you want to be aware of.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Reputation, reference</strong>: Ask professors and PhD students in the field what papers they think are important. Some professors may not be particularly helpful, but some may drop a comprehensive bibliographic database right in your lap.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Seminar Reading Lists</strong>: Ask for the reading list for PhD student seminars in the field. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Most Downloads/Read</strong>: This might not lead you to seminal works, per se, but seminal works will tend to be more read, and this provides another way of categorizing and prioritizing your review the literature. For example, if one paper has been downloaded at a rate 1000 times higher than another on the same topic, you might choose to examine the former first.</p>\n\n<p>Also, you'll need to keep track of your efforts. Expecting to solely rely on your memory is not only wrong, but likely to mean you've wasted much of your research time. I use <a href=\"https://zotero.org/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Zotero, a free bibliographic database</a> with integration in Firefox, to track the papers I've read. If I get papers or books in electronic form, Zotero can also store the electronic copy for me. It can also quickly create a table of references for you, and has some other nice features. It also has competitors that I'm not as familiar with, of note are Mendeley, a freemium model platform, and Endnote, a rather popular and mature commercial platform.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30831,
"author": "Shahryar",
"author_id": 10773,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10773",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some citation databases (such as Scopus and ISI Web of Science) give you the ability to see what are the references and citations for a specific paper. With this feature you may come with just one seminal paper and then see who cited this paper (forward) and who was referenced in the paper (backward) with the highest citations themselves. You can extend this chain in past and future or expand it by including lower citations or more papers in the initial set. </p>\n\n<p>This method is probably working in a more narrowed scope than \"field\" but probably just one line of research in a field. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 32919,
"author": "mhwombat",
"author_id": 10529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10529",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to the other suggestions, try searching for \"<em>your-field-name</em> bibliography\". You may find that someone has put a useful list of papers online, perhaps even in a format you can import into your reference manager. For example, I searched for \"artificial life bibliography\" and found many useful results, including this <a href=\"http://liinwww.ira.uka.de/bibliography/\" rel=\"nofollow\">collection of Computer Science Bibliographies</a>.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30719",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18305/"
] |
30,728 |
<p>Often, I’ll be in lectures and the lecturer will explain the point to me, and I make a comparison with something else that helps me understand the point, and it clicks. For example, in Syntax, the lecturer was talking about the difference between a noun and a determiner phrase; how the former describes a set of things, and the latter points to a specific thing. This reminds me of computing, so I think: ‘Oh, right. Nouns are classes, and DPs instantiate those classes.’</p>
<p>Is this type of rephrasing ever a useful thing to vocalise in lectures, for other students or the lecturer? I do sometimes vocalise these thoughts, usually in a smaller class setting though, not lectures. I usually try to keep quiet because I feel like either people won’t understand what I mean, or the teacher doesn’t consider it relevant or useful. So, my questions are: Is this kind of contribution in lectures valuable? Or do lecturers prefer that you ask questions instead of making statements?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30733,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, certainly it can be useful.</p>\n\n<p>However, it's more useful if your analogy is well thought through, and can be stated concisely in a way that you think can be understood by the other students. If it's sort of rambling, or misses important aspects, or requires background that most other students may not have, it may cause more confusion than it clears up. So in some cases you may prefer to make a note for yourself, think it through later, and discuss it with the lecturer privately (e.g. during office hours). The lecture may then mention it in a future lecture, or invite you to do so.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30734,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are in a small lecture that encourages participation, then it is definitely appropriate to participate, and understanding things in more than one way is often a great thing. I would recommend phrasing your thoughts as a question rather than a statement, however, e.g.:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Would I be right in understanding this like [comparison]?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>After all, you're only just learning the material and don't yet know if your comparison is actually right! If you can concerned that you might be talking too much then a) a very good lecturer may be able to let you know gently in the midst of class and b) you can ask the lecturer their opinion after class.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30750,
"author": "David Richerby",
"author_id": 10685,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10685",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To be honest, the specific example you give is unlikely to be helpful, since you're in something like a linguistics class and your analogy requires an understanding of a completely different field, object-oriented computer programming. Most of the other students probably won't have that background and the lecturer might not, too. And suppose the lecturer doesn't have that understanding. They'll likely be tempted to ask you to explain your analogy so they can evaluate whether you've understood or not. So now you have to spend a couple of minutes explaining OOP to the lecturer and all of that is time that would better have been spent on the actual subject at hand. The lecturer might also feel that you're trying to embarrass them by asking questions about something they don't understand.</p>\n\n<p>In general, I'd be wary of interjecting with analogies since, unless the analogy is perfectly accurate (which most aren't), it's likely to lead to a discussion of the accuracy of the analogy, rather than further clarification of the real point.</p>\n\n<p>Beyond that, I'd give the tautological advice that interjecting with alternative ways to understand is useful if it's useful. If the other students find it increases their understanding, go for it; if they seem not to appreciate it, don't do it. If the lecturer already explained it once and most people already understood it, there's no great value in you explaining it to everyone again. In particular, if your interjections become interruptions which break the lecturer's flow, you're hindering rather than helping.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30754,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Because these types of comments may or may not be welcome depending on the nature, topic and size of a course and the pedagogical approach of the instructor, <strong>you should ask your instructor if these kinds of interjections would be welcome.</strong> You can easily do this with a quick question after class or in an email. To make things concrete, it might be a good idea to come prepared with at least one concrete example of the kinds of clarification or reframing you might offer as a comment. As an instructor, I can see myself going way or another based on the class and the setting. That said, I would be always be happy to be asked ahead of time if this sort of thing would be welcome!</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30728",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14302/"
] |
30,729 |
<p>I have reason to believe that the editor assigned to a paper we have recently submitted might have also acted as referee.</p>
<p>I am of course not sure because reviewers for this journal are in principle anonymous (as is standard, at least in my field). So I want to make clear this is not an accusation or even a complaint - the report sounds very reasonable anyway.</p>
<p>However, this has made me wonder: would it be appropriate for an editor to referee a paper that he/she is in charge of?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30731,
"author": "Cape Code",
"author_id": 10643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Yes, it's appropriate.</strong> As far as I know, it's also rare.</p>\n\n<p>Editors usually rely on the reviewer's evaluations but nothing prevents them from giving their own review. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30732,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>That editors occasionally act as reviewers is not uncommon. This does not mean it should be the norm, quite the contrary. As an editor (in Chief), I have on occasion stepped in and performed a second review when I have felt that it has been needed to speed up the process for a paper, most often because of a lack of response from reviewers that have once agreed to review. In addition, I would only take on paper where I have the specific expertise.</p>\n\n<p>Stepping in do perform reviews as an editor requires attention to the roles of reviewers and editors and I feel it is important to let the authors know that I have stepped in to do the review and also why. Since, I as an editor have the final say in advising the authors on how they should revise their manuscript, for example by valuing the reviewers recommendations into a reject/major revision/minor revision/accept decision, adding own opinion to the mix is not as far reaching as might be thought. It is not unheard of that editors may look away from reject or accept recommendations based on information not observed by reviewers, but as rare as such instances are, should the intervention of an editor in the review process be. So in conclusion, yes, editors can add reviews but should do so with extreme caution and rarity.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 187030,
"author": "Fred Douglis",
"author_id": 4246,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4246",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I’ve served as associate editor and even editor in chief of several periodicals. Most explicitly disallow this but one explicitly requests that the AE provide one of the 3 reviews! I think the latter makes sense, since a full review has the AE familiarize themself much more thoroughly.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30729",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14695/"
] |
30,736 |
<p><strong>tl;dr:</strong> How not to come off as boasting, arrogant, attention seeking, etc. if you are one of the few students participating in class?</p>
<p><strong>Some background:</strong></p>
<p>I am currently attending a Master's level course where in-class participation of students is quite low. Typically, very few questions get asked by the students. When the lecturer asks a question to check if the class is following (or rather: at least not sleeping), the same 2-3 students provide the answers. </p>
<p>I try to participate actively: I'm not afraid of giving a wrong answer or of "looking stupid" by asking a question that can easily be answered. This however sometimes leads to me answering most of the lecturer's questions, which - I think - discourages other students to ask questions in the lecture (after all, who wants to announce that they didn't understand something when there is somebody else in the class who apparently did?) This in turn might lead the lecturer to falsely believe that everyone is following (not really my problem), but it might also lead to me being perceived as boasting, arrogant, attention seeking, disruptive (without ill intentions), etc., which I want to avoid. </p>
<p>I realized a while ago that I do like the attention and since then I try to evaluate whether a question/comment is really helpful before actually asking it. I also avoid answering the lecturer's questions immediately so that other students have a change to answer (or feel pressured to do so because of enduring silence ;)). On the other hand, I do not want to sell myself short and I do not want to be perceived as being arrogant because of not bothering to answer. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30738,
"author": "Myra",
"author_id": 23412,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23412",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I had the same problem in college. In many of the classes that I took I was apparently the only one who had the slightest interest in them. I did ask a lot of questions, and generally participated more than most students. It was not a problem. Just make sure that the teacher is comfortable with it by discussing it after class if he has the time and interest. Just don't come off like Eddie Haskell (i.e., a sycophant). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30739,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>One good heuristic that you might use is to discriminate between two types of questions:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Questions with a clear \"right answer\"</li>\n<li>Questions encouraging discussion</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Questions with a clear answer are typically more about polling for whether people are tracking, and answering deprives somebody else of a chance to answer. For a question encouraging discussion, however, your answer instead may break the ice and make it <em>easier</em> for other students to join in with answers of their own. Answering discussion questions also benefits you more, since they are where your answers can demonstrate deeper understanding, if you have acquired it.</p>\n\n<p>If you and your instructor both know you are doing well, then why not \"step back\" and leave most of the \"right answer\" questions for other students? Especially if you let the instructor know that you have realized you are talking a lot and want to give space for others, it should not reflect badly on you in any way.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30745,
"author": "mhwombat",
"author_id": 10529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10529",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Based on this...</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I realized a while ago that I do like the attention and since then I\n try to evaluate whether a question/comment is really helpful before\n actually asking it. I also avoid answering the lecturer's questions\n immediately so that other students have a change to answer (or feel\n pressured to do so because of enduring silence ;)). On the other hand,\n I do not want to sell myself short and I do not want to be perceived\n as being arrogant because of not bothering to answer.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>...I think you're already taking appropriate action to avoid the appearance of arrogance. Some additional suggestions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Be alert for any \"hints\" from the instructor that you might be monopolising the conversation. For example, if the instructor says \"let's hear from some other people\", that's a pretty strong hint.</li>\n<li>After you've answered one or two questions, you might want to stay silent. If no one else speaks up and the silence gets awkward, then briefly make eye contact with the instructor, as if to say \"I'm willing to answer this if no one else does\". The instructor can then call on you if he or she chooses.</li>\n<li>Try to focus on answering the questions when you're <em>not</em> sure of the answer. That way you'll get feedback when you need it.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30752,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are answering most of the questions, it sounds like you <em>are</em> speaking too much. If I were your instructor, I <em>would</em> think you were dominating discussion in a way that was disruptive. Because other students may want to think more before speaking, my advice is to <strong>sit back and don't be afraid to allow awkward silence as a way of encouraging others in class to speak.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Ultimately, it is the instructor's job to moderate discussion to maintain an effective participation balance. That said, doing so effectively often requires the cooperation of other students in stepping back — even if this means awkward silence in the room — as a way of ensuring participation balance. In my own classes, I encourage students to maintain balance using a <a href=\"http://mako.cc/teaching/assessment.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">rule of three and one</a> I have adopted from <a href=\"http://reagle.org/joseph/zwiki/Teaching/Best_Practices/Learning/Balance_in_Discussion.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Joseph Reagle at Northeastern University</a>: <strong>I encourage students to limit themselves to three good responses before everybody in the class had an opportunity to speak once.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Following this advice should give you ample opportunity to have your questions answered and to impress the instructor with your engagement and thoughtfulness. It will also mean that other more timid students speak up in ways that will raise questions you have not considered and will improve your learning in that process. My tendency is, like you, to dominate discussion. In my own experience in workshops and discussions, I've found that following this advice means that I learn much more from my fellow participants. The fact that I come off as less overbearing and arrogant is a nice bonus.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30756,
"author": "FooBar",
"author_id": 23498,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23498",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Given a set of questions, answer those for which you have answers but that you perceive as the hardest ones only. </p>\n\n<p>This way, you can cut down on your participation rate for the questions. Meanwhile, by giving answers to difficult questions, lecturers will know that by transitivity, you most likely also know the answers to the easier questions.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30757,
"author": "Jim Conant",
"author_id": 9464,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9464",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't think the question is whether you come across as boasting or arrogant, even though I agree it's good to be cognizant of that possibility. I think the real question is how do you balance your desire to participate with the needs of the rest of the class? In some sense, the lecturer is also responsible for this. In my own classes, it frequently happens that there is one student who is a lot readier to answer than others. If it seems like it is interfering with classroom dynamics, I will purposely solicit answers from other students too. </p>\n\n<p>Since this is a shared responsibility, I would talk with your instructor and mention your concerns. If they feel you are answering too many questions to the detriment of the other students, then perhaps you can scale back. On the other hand, if they think the classroom dynamic is fine, then maybe you don't have to worry.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30780,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>What you're describing is a disadvantage of your instructor's chosen teaching technique. When a teacher chooses chalk-and-talk, this is what happens: the technique does not invite or reward participation by students. You have no control over this, and no responsibility for the negative outcome. Your non-participating peers likewise have no control or responsibility. They have been deterred from participating, and are responding the way most people respond to that deterrent. Only one person has the power to change the classroom dynamic, and that person is not you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30796,
"author": "rollingBalls",
"author_id": 23541,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23541",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The answer is to <strong>test</strong>. Testing removes assumptions and you've been making many.</p>\n\n<p>Go silent for a week (or whatever period you deem sufficient). See how the class responsiveness changes. Everyone keeps scratching their heads as usual? Problem solved.</p>\n\n<p>One or two guys/gals start participating more? Give them occasionally some extra time before you respond to help them keep it up. You could also talk to them and say that you're not competing with them and \"very glad someone else is participating, keep it up guys!\"</p>\n\n<p>The whole class raves, hands constantly fly in the air and even the sun gets hidden in the process? Not going to happen, so no need to worry about that :)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30861,
"author": "KharoBangdo",
"author_id": 12064,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12064",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Strictly speaking, from personal experience, I actually like these kinds of people who are hyper-active & ask many questions. </p>\n\n<p>I shied away from actively participating in class at a later stage of high school mostly out of my introvert nature. </p>\n\n<p>During my Masters, I had a guy in the class who used to ask a lot of questions & was the first to answer & generally wanted the teacher to go into\nmore deeper concepts, out of scope for the current exam syllabus. Since the teacher, while answering these questions, address the whole class \nrather than the\none who asked the question, I also gain more or less equal information & knowledge from it. </p>\n\n<p>So its basically two choices for me, </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Feeling negativity towards you, jealousy & call you names & think\nabout your boastful nature & how I hate you & missing on teachers\nanswer & then going home & having to spend extra time on the same\nconcepts you asked about in class</li>\n<li>Feeling positive & actually thank you for improving my knowledge as\nwell, when all the effort to analyse the teachers concepts &\ndeducing a question from it was made by you while I was just happy\nfor you to do the work for me.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Also, to add another point, monotonous lectures from teachers are boring & I get distracted fast. Its only because of this hyper activity from\nyou that helps me regain focus on the lecture. </p>\n\n<p>So, I do not consider you as boastful & arrogant. You are a good person for me & another step on the ladder of my success.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30736",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13427/"
] |
30,758 |
<p>I know a lot of questions are asked about letters of recommendation, but I was unable to find anything on this site or the internet in general that spoke to the particular issue of how to build the sort of relationship with a professor that results in good letters of recommendation. I get that you should of course do pretty well in the class and participate and go to office hours and be generally easy to work with and stuff (and ideally do research with the professor), but apart from that, is there nothing more you can do?</p>
<p>I know some might be eager to answer that you shouldn't be so mercenary about it (i.e. you should just organically be interested in the material and the professor and the good letter of recommendation will follow), so allow me to provide an example where this did not work out. I got a letter of recommendation from my favorite professor in college, which for some reason I was able to see (it was about a decade ago, so I forget how; I had waived my right to see it). Even though I thought he liked me (I went to office hours multiple times; I had two classes with him, both of which I did well in; he encouraged me to go for a fellowship; he even went out of his way to see a play I was in), the letter was the most basic "this student was in my class" sort of letter you could possibly imagine. It was such an incredible slap in the face. </p>
<p>Maybe he was just a jerk and that's that. Maybe I should have asked for a "strong" letter of recommendation (which I didn't know at the time was what you were supposed to ask). But regardless, given the vagaries of human relationships on top of the limitations of your own abilities, how is it even possible to get a strong letter of recommendation?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30762,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Strong recommendation letters come from <em>professional</em> relationships, rather than <em>personal</em> relationships. Of course, the two are often related, but if a professor hasn't seen much more than getting an A in a class from a professional perspective, then they can't say that they have. A wise and helpful faculty member will warn you of this fact in advance, but faculty are human and many may not be wise enough or helpful enough to give an appropriate warning.</p>\n\n<p>The canonical answer, of course, for getting a good recommendation to grad school is to work with a professor on an actual research project. What you actually need, however, is for a professor to be able to speak to your <em>potential to become a good researcher</em>. Even working on a research project will not necessarily demonstrate that, if your role is as a cog in somebody's machine (a friend once worked on a research project as an undergraduate where her job was literally to grind rocks into powder with a mortar and pestle: the project was awesome, the job they wanted done was not).</p>\n\n<p>What does research potential really consist of? In my experience, research potential means:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Creativity in approaching difficult or ill-defined problems</li>\n<li>Initiative enough to accomplish hard work work independently</li>\n<li>Skill enough to solve complex problems effectively</li>\n<li>Intelligence and background enough to acquire new skills when needed</li>\n<li>Social skills enough to do all of these things as part of a team (semi-optional)</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>There is another excellent way besides actual research projects to demonstrate all of these as an undergraduate: project-centric classes. Many graduate or upper-level undergraduate classes have an large optional or required capstone project. When you take on such a project, it gives you a chance to do something really cool, above and beyond the base minimum. With a good project, you can demonstrate all of these qualities to your professor and provide both the evidence and the motivation to write a really good letter.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30838,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<ol>\n<li>Do well.</li>\n<li>Make sure they remember you.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>As for (1), take challenging courses with respected professors, and take on research opportunities with professors.</p>\n\n<p>As for (2), just remember to go to office hours at least once or twice. You generally have far greater risk of looking stupid for not asking help when you got less than an A, than for asking help for literally any topic coming from course material (and I'm sure there is a quite difficult thing the professor covered and would be surprised you took interest in at all).</p>\n\n<p><em>Anything else and you are overthinking it</em>.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30758",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12481/"
] |
30,759 |
<p>A common belief is that open book exams reduces cheating since all the information that a student would wish to look up is already with them. Open book exam therefore tests a person's knowledge and organization rather than memorization.</p>
<p>However, a textbook is not merely a set of references written by distinguished authors in size 12 fonts and high quality paper, it could also be used as a set of notes for students to scribe onto, whatever in his fancy. </p>
<p>This becomes highly problematic in courses where the material is often repeated year after year, such as computer science or computer hardware courses where students are not expected to remember say commands, or highly specialized mathematical formulas. In these cases, students will just jot down the solution to past term paper i.e. all the questions from 1997 - 2014, and do a compare and match when they receive their actual exam paper. After which, answers that belong to similar question will simply be jotted down. 100% accuracy with zero understanding.</p>
<p>This happens so frequently, I am completely confused by the very definition of an open book exam. Are students allowed to jot down notes (such as the solutions to past paper) in their textbooks in an open exam? What is considered cheating in an open text book exam?? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30760,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In my experience, I've seen three versions of open book exam:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>You can bring in a set of notes.</li>\n<li>You can use any textbooks and notes you want, but no electronic assistance.</li>\n<li>You can use any reference you want local or remote, except for asking other people to solve your problem for you.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>As personal electronics become smaller and more pervasive, these are all effectively converging together: if you allow students any open book, then you have to allow the whole internet, and impose an honor code that requires students to not outsource their problems.</p>\n\n<p>In this environment, my feeling is that the only way to run an open book exam is to be testing for mastery of material, rather than problem solving. In other words: open book works only when the answers cannot be readily extracted from the book (or other resources), but only from the synthesis of all of the knowledge within. There must be no single \"right answer\", but a range of possibilities requiring creativity. Thus, cheating can be detected in the same way that plagiarism can, because every student should be producing their own unique answer.</p>\n\n<p>The best and fiercest open book exam I have ever taken was in an algorithms class as an undergraduate. The exam was six questions, each asking us to develop the best possible algorithm that we could to solve some curious problem based on the principles we had learned in the class. We were handed the exam to take home and given 48 hours, in which we were allowed and encouraged to use any resource we wanted, except not to talk to anybody else about the problem. It was brutal, it was terrifyingly hard, and it was the most fun I've ever had on an exam. That, I think, is a standard to aspire to.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30782,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I routinely run open book exams. I allow students to bring: books about any topic they need or wish; notes of any kind, especially course notes; solutions of all the exercises solved during the lessons, those of past exams and those given as homework; programmable calculators (but no computers with connectivity).</p>\n\n<p>(Of course, I warn them that all of the above are useless if they haven't studied)</p>\n\n<p>So, for me, cheating means:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Trying to find a solution from external resources by means of cell phones, computers, radios or whatever.</li>\n<li>Copying a solution from a course mate.</li>\n<li>Asking for advice to a course mate.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49598,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Read your course syllabus. If you still have questions, ask your instructor.</strong></p>\n\n<p>There is no single standard set of rules for \"open book exam\", nor even any universal definition. Your instructor could have decided that some resources are allowed and others are not. You need to obey the rules determined for your particular course by your particular instructor. \"What is considered cheating\" is \"any violation of the rules announced by your instructor\".</p>\n\n<p>It's irrelevant what anybody else says \"open book exam\" means or what they might say you can or cannot use. If someone on Stack Exchange says \"it's fine to use resource X\", and your instructor says it's not, I assure you that using resource X can lead to you being charged with cheating, and saying \"some random person on Stack Exchange said it was fine\" will not be a good defense.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49628,
"author": "Memj",
"author_id": 36363,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36363",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my experiences in an open book exam you can use:</p>\n\n<p>Your text book\nWritten notes (not typed, copied, etc).\nClass assignments/homework (not quizzes or other exams)</p>\n\n<p>The notes and assignments/homework allowance varies on the instructor. </p>\n\n<p>Cheating would be using any resources that the instructor does not allow which can include but may not be limited to:</p>\n\n<p>Taking from another students exam</p>\n\n<p>Using another students notes/handouts</p>\n\n<p>Using your notes if not permitted</p>\n\n<p>Using a form of notes not allowed (photocopies or printed)</p>\n\n<p>Using a device such as a tablet or phone</p>\n\n<p>Using other exams or quizzes if not allowed (this happens a lot in large classes where other forms of notes are allowed)</p>\n\n<p>If you are unsure about what you can or cannot use it's best to talk with your instructor about it as the actual do's and don'ts all depend on your instructor and what the school will permit (My university did not allow instructors to allow students to use quizzes on open book exams). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 109901,
"author": "Ben",
"author_id": 87026,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/87026",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As other answers have pointed out, the exam should list the specific materials allowed. Individual universities often have a policy of what set of allowable materials constitutes an \"open book\" exam, and if the professor allows a wide scope of materials, it may fall into this category. However, if in the widest sense of the term, an \"open book\" exam usually means you can bring in any printed materials you like (but not electronic devices that can search for new material after seeing the questions, or electronic repositories of material). In such cases, any well-prepared students will bring in all available past-exam papers and their solutions. Unless there is a restriction to prevent this, it is not cheating.</p>\n\n<p>This really gets to the heart of the matter - if a professor sets an open-book exam, it is incumbent on the professor to set appropriate questions that cannot be answered without understanding the material. If the professor sets an open-book exam, but sets questions to be similar to an available past exam (such that you can just adapt a past answer), that is really a screw-up <em>by the professor</em>, not a problem with the student. Instead of worrying about whether they student has cheated, the proper question is why the professor is not meeting his responsibility to test the material in a manner that requires genuine understanding.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30759",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20070/"
] |
30,764 |
<p>There are a growing number of prominent universities in the world which are based in countries where the government exerts substantial control over its citizens in ways that are not typical in "Western" countries (Europe, US, Canada, etc.). Two examples:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Abdullah_University_of_Science_and_Technology">KAUST</a>, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia">Saudi Arabia</a>, where alcohol is illegal and there are extremely strict dress codes.</li>
<li><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsinghua_University">Tsinghua University</a>, in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China#Sociopolitical_issues.2C_human_rights_and_reform">China</a>, where citizens are not typically allowed to protest or congregate, and in general citizens are not entitled to, for example, free speech.</li>
</ol>
<p>For those who are/were faculty (or postdocs/researchers) at such institutions, and who were raised/trained in Western countries with less restrictive governments, what is life like at such a research institution? In particular:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Are you bound by the restrictive laws the govern most citizens (for example, dress codes or alcohol in Saudi Arabia, or speech in China)? (Of course it's assumed that you can't just do whatever you like - I'm mostly interested in the laws that have nothing comparable in Western countries)</p></li>
<li><p>Did you bring a family or significant other with you? What has their experience been like?</p></li>
<li><p>Do you expect to stay at this institution for your career, or will you eventually try to return to your home country/a Western country?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Importantly, I am NOT passing judgement/being critical of the government of these countries. I am really just interested in how the institutions/governments of these countries treat researchers who are not citizens (and who, from my experience, have often been recruited from another western institution).</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30777,
"author": "seteropere",
"author_id": 532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>This answer is Saudi Arabia specific</strong></p>\n<p>As a native of Saudi Arabia, I thought I should speak about the academic life in the country:</p>\n<p><strong>Life in General</strong></p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Are you bound by the restrictive laws the govern most citizens (for\nexample, dress codes or alcohol in Saudi Arabia, or speech in China)?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>The very first thing you need to be aware of: you can do (legally) whatever you want in private. That includes <em>everything</em>. I grew up blocks away from U.S. Military campound and I can assure you the life <em>within</em> the compound is just like any western lifestyle. However, in public, there are some rules you need to be aware of;</p>\n<p>So yes, you need to follow some generic rules in public. In private no one going to question your behaviour.</p>\n<p><strong>Life as an academic</strong></p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>how the institutions/governments of these countries treat researchers\nwho are not citizens</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>In Saudi Arabia, there are public and private universities. The public universities are regulated and funded by <a href=\"http://www.mohe.gov.sa/ar/default.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Ministry of Higher Education</a> (MOHE).\nMost of the universities rules differentiate between citizens and non-citizens (i.e. foreigners). For western academics, this has the advantage of being able to negotiate the salary and other benefits while for citizens its fixed in advanced (based on the qualifications). Unless you are trying to make a revolution in the country, the government has nothing to do with you/your research. All the decisions related to a faculty member take place within the department/college then get approved by the university president office.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Do you expect to stay at this institution for your career, or will you\neventually try to return to your home country/a western country?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>I have never seen a western professor stay for a long term (i.e. 10+ years). Most of the people I have seen at <a href=\"http://ksu.edu.sa\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">KSU</a>, leave after 5 to 10 years. I believe there are many reasons to this. Most importantly, the research environment, kids going to schools and I have good money by now.</p>\n<p><strong>KAUST</strong></p>\n<p><a href=\"http://www.kaust.edu.sa\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">KAUST</a> has a special consideration (I believe its not even regulated by MOHE) to the extent which makes all the above (about other universities) as incorrect. KAUST is a westernised place more than any other part of Saudi Arabia. KAUST staff, faculty members and students ,unlike most of the other universities in Saudi Arabia, are diverse and came from different cultures, countries and faiths.</p>\n<p>That being said, I am not a western academic and I believe @David Ketcheson has a word in this</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30781,
"author": "David Ketcheson",
"author_id": 81,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p><strong>Disclaimer</strong>: What follows is a combination of openly-available facts and some personal opinions. The opinion parts are my own and I don't claim to speak for anyone else. I did not intend for this to be \"the answer\" to this question; it deals with only one country/university.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I was born and raised in the United States, and got all my degrees there. I have now been a professor at <a href=\"http://www.kaust.edu.sa\">KAUST</a> for 5 years. I certainly came here by choice; I had good competing offers at some top programs in my field in the US.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Are you bound by the restrictive laws that govern most citizens?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>To a significant degree, yes. For instance, alcohol, pork, and a number of other substances are not permitted anywhere in Saudi Arabia. On-campus housing for single students is in separate buildings for men and for women.</p>\n\n<p>However, KAUST is exempt from a number of the social customs that are in effect throughout the rest of the country. For example:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>KAUST is the only university in the country where males and females learn in the same classroom together.</li>\n<li>Women can drive on the KAUST campus (with a license).</li>\n<li>Women do not need to wear the abaya (burkha) at KAUST, or to cover their hair, etc. They dress as they please, within professional standards of modesty.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>KAUST is not completely unique in these respects; the Aramco \"compound\" (which is really a small city) in the Eastern Province has similar exceptions. The KAUST campus and the Aramco compound are also the only two places in the country with a movie theater.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, we frequently leave the campus to go to Jeddah. My wife can't drive there and wears an abaya. Also, the university culture at KAUST is more top-down than at most US universities, which I believe is a reflection of the local culture. But our current president is changing that to some degree.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Did you bring a family or significant other with you? What has their experience been like?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I brought a wife and two young children (my third was born here). They are happy here -- if not, we wouldn't have stayed! Frankly, KAUST is an ideal place to raise a family. My children have friends from almost every imaginable culture, religion, and race. They take lessons in things like piano, swimming, and ballet. The schools are excellent and the community is extremely safe (I don't even lock my bike). I'll often bike to my childrens' school and take them to the park for lunch; everything is within five minutes by bicycle here. I live 1 block from the beach and my morning commute is a short bicycle ride through beautiful surroundings.</p>\n\n<p>Life is pretty relaxed and hassle-free because the university essentially manages everything (and manages it well). My wife doesn't work outside the home. She participates in a number of community organizations and has time to devote to friendships, hobbies, and especially to our children.</p>\n\n<p>I'll add (since most westerners find it surprising) that there are many single western women who work here very happily.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Do you expect to stay at this institution for your career, or will you eventually try to return to your home country/a western country?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I came to KAUST because it was an adventure and chance to build something new and worthwhile. My initial plan was to spend perhaps 3-4 years at KAUST and then go back to the US. However, I have since realized that I have the ideal academic job (by my own criteria, at least):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Extremely generous funding</strong> with no need to write grant proposals (KAUST has one of the world's largest endowments and only about 120 faculty).</li>\n<li><strong>Light teaching load</strong> (1 MS level course and 1 PhD level course per year), which also has allowed me the time to be bit innovative and try things like inquiry-based learning.</li>\n<li>A relatively <strong>light administrative load</strong>, compared to what I hear from colleagues in the US. This is largely due to having excellent and plentiful support staff.</li>\n<li>Long-term job security with the freedom to do research along any direction I wish (university positions generally include this, but other careers I considered do not).</li>\n<li>Essentially unlimited access to a world-class supercomputer (200 Tflops, upgrading to 5 Pflops next spring). This is relevant to my particular field; other researchers here get similar benefits from other exceptional facilities.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Now I suppose the last bit of this post sounds like an advertisement, and I can't really help that. In light of all this, I don't plan to leave any time soon.</p>\n\n<p>I've been planning a series of retrospective posts on this topic for my blog. I will link to that here if I get around to writing it.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Some updates in response to comments</strong>:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>KAUST is committed to avoiding gender (and other types of) discrimination. There are very many women (married and single) who work at KAUST. There are many families in which both spouses work. I can add that the opportunities for women to work in Saudi Arabia (outside of KAUST) have increased dramatically in the last couple of years. As of 2016, KAUST's student body is 40% female and about 40% Saudi, so I'd guess around 16% are Saudi women. Hundreds of Saudi women work at KAUST. They are treated no differently from foreign (or male) students/employees.</li>\n<li>Because most of us have close ties to groups in the US and Europe, KAUST researchers travel a lot. We also have a large, steady stream of international visitors. For instance, the last three presidents of <a href=\"http://www.siam.org\">my professional society</a> have each given a seminar at KAUST.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30866,
"author": "Patric Hartmann",
"author_id": 20449,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20449",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's an interesting question and I can give you an answer from personal experience as I studied in China for two semesters at the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_University_of_Political_Science_%26_Law\">Southwest University of Political Science and Law</a>.</p>\n\n<p>I do not know if the rules at Tsinghua are that much stricter than there, but I didn't really experience any problems.</p>\n\n<p>They checked daily if all students were in their dorms at 10pm - at least for the Chinese who would be punished upon failing to comply with this regulation (it could mean to fail an entire year or be expelled if being missing too often!). However, missing Westerners were simply ignored. The monitors would sometimes send a message to make sure everything is fine and politely request to be back soon, but that was it. Generally speaking, as a foreigner you can ignore many rules and even some laws without getting in any trouble. It may seem unfair but that's just the reality there.</p>\n\n<p>Also considering other problems like privacy issues and internet censorship you are pretty free as a foreigner. The latter I circumvented by VPN and when I would hang my coat on the security camera in an internet café, nobody cared.</p>\n\n<p>I once didn't register properly (actually it was the police station's fault) and when I wanted to prolongate my visa, I simply had to write down the date and address of my arrival on a slip of paper and sign it - problem solved.</p>\n\n<p>I do not know what experiences others made but China was and still is easy-going in these aspects as long as you are a Westerner.</p>\n\n<p>// Corrigendum:\nI changed \"foreigner\" to \"Westerner\" in the last sentence as the Chinese are easy-going on white foreigners from the West. A total different story is the treatment of Indians and Africans who sadly face strong prejudices by many people (though this is changing at least in the better developed parts of the country).</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30764",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21704/"
] |
30,765 |
<p>I have seen a few conferences that state on the call for submissions that the conference will be "submitted for indexing in Thomson Reuters Conference Proceedings Citation Index (ISI Web of Science)." </p>
<p>Does submission mean they will 'apply' and could be rejected, or are all submissions accepted?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30777,
"author": "seteropere",
"author_id": 532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>This answer is Saudi Arabia specific</strong></p>\n<p>As a native of Saudi Arabia, I thought I should speak about the academic life in the country:</p>\n<p><strong>Life in General</strong></p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Are you bound by the restrictive laws the govern most citizens (for\nexample, dress codes or alcohol in Saudi Arabia, or speech in China)?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>The very first thing you need to be aware of: you can do (legally) whatever you want in private. That includes <em>everything</em>. I grew up blocks away from U.S. Military campound and I can assure you the life <em>within</em> the compound is just like any western lifestyle. However, in public, there are some rules you need to be aware of;</p>\n<p>So yes, you need to follow some generic rules in public. In private no one going to question your behaviour.</p>\n<p><strong>Life as an academic</strong></p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>how the institutions/governments of these countries treat researchers\nwho are not citizens</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>In Saudi Arabia, there are public and private universities. The public universities are regulated and funded by <a href=\"http://www.mohe.gov.sa/ar/default.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Ministry of Higher Education</a> (MOHE).\nMost of the universities rules differentiate between citizens and non-citizens (i.e. foreigners). For western academics, this has the advantage of being able to negotiate the salary and other benefits while for citizens its fixed in advanced (based on the qualifications). Unless you are trying to make a revolution in the country, the government has nothing to do with you/your research. All the decisions related to a faculty member take place within the department/college then get approved by the university president office.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Do you expect to stay at this institution for your career, or will you\neventually try to return to your home country/a western country?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>I have never seen a western professor stay for a long term (i.e. 10+ years). Most of the people I have seen at <a href=\"http://ksu.edu.sa\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">KSU</a>, leave after 5 to 10 years. I believe there are many reasons to this. Most importantly, the research environment, kids going to schools and I have good money by now.</p>\n<p><strong>KAUST</strong></p>\n<p><a href=\"http://www.kaust.edu.sa\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">KAUST</a> has a special consideration (I believe its not even regulated by MOHE) to the extent which makes all the above (about other universities) as incorrect. KAUST is a westernised place more than any other part of Saudi Arabia. KAUST staff, faculty members and students ,unlike most of the other universities in Saudi Arabia, are diverse and came from different cultures, countries and faiths.</p>\n<p>That being said, I am not a western academic and I believe @David Ketcheson has a word in this</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30781,
"author": "David Ketcheson",
"author_id": 81,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p><strong>Disclaimer</strong>: What follows is a combination of openly-available facts and some personal opinions. The opinion parts are my own and I don't claim to speak for anyone else. I did not intend for this to be \"the answer\" to this question; it deals with only one country/university.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I was born and raised in the United States, and got all my degrees there. I have now been a professor at <a href=\"http://www.kaust.edu.sa\">KAUST</a> for 5 years. I certainly came here by choice; I had good competing offers at some top programs in my field in the US.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Are you bound by the restrictive laws that govern most citizens?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>To a significant degree, yes. For instance, alcohol, pork, and a number of other substances are not permitted anywhere in Saudi Arabia. On-campus housing for single students is in separate buildings for men and for women.</p>\n\n<p>However, KAUST is exempt from a number of the social customs that are in effect throughout the rest of the country. For example:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>KAUST is the only university in the country where males and females learn in the same classroom together.</li>\n<li>Women can drive on the KAUST campus (with a license).</li>\n<li>Women do not need to wear the abaya (burkha) at KAUST, or to cover their hair, etc. They dress as they please, within professional standards of modesty.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>KAUST is not completely unique in these respects; the Aramco \"compound\" (which is really a small city) in the Eastern Province has similar exceptions. The KAUST campus and the Aramco compound are also the only two places in the country with a movie theater.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, we frequently leave the campus to go to Jeddah. My wife can't drive there and wears an abaya. Also, the university culture at KAUST is more top-down than at most US universities, which I believe is a reflection of the local culture. But our current president is changing that to some degree.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Did you bring a family or significant other with you? What has their experience been like?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I brought a wife and two young children (my third was born here). They are happy here -- if not, we wouldn't have stayed! Frankly, KAUST is an ideal place to raise a family. My children have friends from almost every imaginable culture, religion, and race. They take lessons in things like piano, swimming, and ballet. The schools are excellent and the community is extremely safe (I don't even lock my bike). I'll often bike to my childrens' school and take them to the park for lunch; everything is within five minutes by bicycle here. I live 1 block from the beach and my morning commute is a short bicycle ride through beautiful surroundings.</p>\n\n<p>Life is pretty relaxed and hassle-free because the university essentially manages everything (and manages it well). My wife doesn't work outside the home. She participates in a number of community organizations and has time to devote to friendships, hobbies, and especially to our children.</p>\n\n<p>I'll add (since most westerners find it surprising) that there are many single western women who work here very happily.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Do you expect to stay at this institution for your career, or will you eventually try to return to your home country/a western country?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I came to KAUST because it was an adventure and chance to build something new and worthwhile. My initial plan was to spend perhaps 3-4 years at KAUST and then go back to the US. However, I have since realized that I have the ideal academic job (by my own criteria, at least):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Extremely generous funding</strong> with no need to write grant proposals (KAUST has one of the world's largest endowments and only about 120 faculty).</li>\n<li><strong>Light teaching load</strong> (1 MS level course and 1 PhD level course per year), which also has allowed me the time to be bit innovative and try things like inquiry-based learning.</li>\n<li>A relatively <strong>light administrative load</strong>, compared to what I hear from colleagues in the US. This is largely due to having excellent and plentiful support staff.</li>\n<li>Long-term job security with the freedom to do research along any direction I wish (university positions generally include this, but other careers I considered do not).</li>\n<li>Essentially unlimited access to a world-class supercomputer (200 Tflops, upgrading to 5 Pflops next spring). This is relevant to my particular field; other researchers here get similar benefits from other exceptional facilities.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Now I suppose the last bit of this post sounds like an advertisement, and I can't really help that. In light of all this, I don't plan to leave any time soon.</p>\n\n<p>I've been planning a series of retrospective posts on this topic for my blog. I will link to that here if I get around to writing it.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Some updates in response to comments</strong>:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>KAUST is committed to avoiding gender (and other types of) discrimination. There are very many women (married and single) who work at KAUST. There are many families in which both spouses work. I can add that the opportunities for women to work in Saudi Arabia (outside of KAUST) have increased dramatically in the last couple of years. As of 2016, KAUST's student body is 40% female and about 40% Saudi, so I'd guess around 16% are Saudi women. Hundreds of Saudi women work at KAUST. They are treated no differently from foreign (or male) students/employees.</li>\n<li>Because most of us have close ties to groups in the US and Europe, KAUST researchers travel a lot. We also have a large, steady stream of international visitors. For instance, the last three presidents of <a href=\"http://www.siam.org\">my professional society</a> have each given a seminar at KAUST.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30866,
"author": "Patric Hartmann",
"author_id": 20449,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20449",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's an interesting question and I can give you an answer from personal experience as I studied in China for two semesters at the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_University_of_Political_Science_%26_Law\">Southwest University of Political Science and Law</a>.</p>\n\n<p>I do not know if the rules at Tsinghua are that much stricter than there, but I didn't really experience any problems.</p>\n\n<p>They checked daily if all students were in their dorms at 10pm - at least for the Chinese who would be punished upon failing to comply with this regulation (it could mean to fail an entire year or be expelled if being missing too often!). However, missing Westerners were simply ignored. The monitors would sometimes send a message to make sure everything is fine and politely request to be back soon, but that was it. Generally speaking, as a foreigner you can ignore many rules and even some laws without getting in any trouble. It may seem unfair but that's just the reality there.</p>\n\n<p>Also considering other problems like privacy issues and internet censorship you are pretty free as a foreigner. The latter I circumvented by VPN and when I would hang my coat on the security camera in an internet café, nobody cared.</p>\n\n<p>I once didn't register properly (actually it was the police station's fault) and when I wanted to prolongate my visa, I simply had to write down the date and address of my arrival on a slip of paper and sign it - problem solved.</p>\n\n<p>I do not know what experiences others made but China was and still is easy-going in these aspects as long as you are a Westerner.</p>\n\n<p>// Corrigendum:\nI changed \"foreigner\" to \"Westerner\" in the last sentence as the Chinese are easy-going on white foreigners from the West. A total different story is the treatment of Indians and Africans who sadly face strong prejudices by many people (though this is changing at least in the better developed parts of the country).</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30765",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12718/"
] |
30,766 |
<p>Why can courses at the same department have an apparent disproportionality between credits and hours?</p>
<p>For example at my French university my department offers a 12 credit course with 48 hours of lectures and 72 hours of practical work, a 9 credit course with 24 hours of lectures and 12 hours of practical work, a different 9 credit course with 24 hours of lectures and no practical work, a 6 credit course with 24 hours of lectures and 36 hours of practical work. There are also 0 credit courses with 1 hour of lecture, but these are not really courses and are just included in the course catalog as bonus content to make up a bit for courses not offered in the current year. All of the courses I refer to are Master's level.</p>
<p>How are the number of credits calculated? Intuitively, one would suppose that the number of credits should be somehow proportional to the number of hours, but it is clearly not simply: a x # of lecture hours + b x # of practical hours.</p>
<p><strong>Question:</strong> What is the relationship between credits and course hours?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30783,
"author": "user-2147482637",
"author_id": 12718,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12718",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Although only your school can tell you why that specific department has that system, I can give <em>one</em> answer. </p>\n\n<p>If credit is determined by amount of work needed, the larger work is equal to larger credit. It is independent of time spent in class. In your situation, it could mean that some classes do not need extra hours in class, but extra hours outside of class, which is then factored into credits.</p>\n\n<p>A good example of this is in Art/Design/Architecture schools (maybe music and dance as well). In Fine Arts/Architecture, there are usually classes called \"Studio\" in which they are nearly twice as long as other classes. So, an engineering class (history class or programming class in the same department of architecture) may have lecture 3 hours twice a week, for 3 credits, and a Studio class will have 6 hours twice a week for 3 credits. The perceived workload is thought to be equal as the Studio class naturally requires more time in a studio than at home reading.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30784,
"author": "Sumyrda - remember Monica",
"author_id": 13138,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13138",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In the European Credit Transfer System (<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Credit_Transfer_and_Accumulation_System\" rel=\"nofollow\">ECTS</a>) one credit point \nequals 25-30 hours of workload and you are supposed to do 30 credits \nper semester or 60 per year.</p>\n\n<p>The number of ECTS credits assigned to a particular class is not \ndirectly related to the hours in class but to the total workload for \nthe class.</p>\n\n<p>For example, the master thesis is worth 30 ECTS in most German \nuniversities, yet there is 0 class time for it. On the other hand, I \nonce took a chemistry lab course with 6 credits => 150-180 hours \nworkload of which 120 hours where time spent in the lab, which was ok \nbecause you can't really do much at home except finishing that day's writeup and taking a look at what is planned for the next day.</p>\n\n<p>In your examples, subtract the class time and you're left with around \n180-240 hours of self study (reviewing the material, doing homework \nassignments) for the first three classes and half that for the last one \n- so the 9 credit classes seem to involve more self study and less time \nin class.</p>\n\n<p>That's perfectly fine as long as the overall workload is between \n25*credits and 30*credits hours.</p>\n\n<p>Since your university is in France, I want to mention that France has \nspecified the workload for 1 ETCS credit point to be 29 hours.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30766",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21222/"
] |
30,771 |
<p>I was recently told that in many schools in the US (maybe other countries too), the minimum grade for a graduate course is B or B−. Meaning that B is considered as a passing score. I would like to know whether this is true. Why should it be the case? Does this mean that grading in graduate school is easier?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30773,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can tell you for a fact that people can get worse grades than B- in graduate courses. People can even fail in graduate courses. It happens pretty rarely, though, because the population of students in a graduate course are highly selected.</p>\n\n<p>If you read other questions on this site, you'll see that graduate school admission is a strong filter: most people need to be both excellent and a little bit lucky to get in, because there are so many excellent students who want to go to grad school. That means most grad students are smart, hard-working, and ambitious enough to put in the work to deserve the grade. As for undergraduates in graduate-level courses: if they weren't willing and able to put in the work, why wouldn't they choose one of the easier options? Moreover, most schools allow students to drop a course without penalty early in the semester, and the people doing poorly are the ones likely to drop.</p>\n\n<p>Now, grade inflation can certainly happen. But by the time you're dealing with graduate courses, usually the class is pretty much full of people who want to be there and are capable of making the grade.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30776,
"author": "BrenBarn",
"author_id": 9041,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9041",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In some sense grading may be \"easier\", but it's also just that the effective grading range is compressed, and that grades per se matter less than in undergraduate classes.</p>\n\n<p>In many graduate programs, getting a grade lower than B (or even A-) is considered a warning that you need to seriously knuckle down and start doing better. To take a random example, <a href=\"http://www.grad.illinois.edu/gradhandbook/chapteriii/section02#programGPAs\">UIUC</a> has a campuswide minimum GPA of 2.75 (B-), but most departments set higher minimums (as high as 3.25, or B+) Here's a relevant quote from <a href=\"http://girlscholar.blogspot.com/2011/04/grades-in-grad-school.html\">an old grad school blog post</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>My first semester in grad school, my M.A. advisor laid it out for to me: \"If you get a B in a grad school class, you should ask the professor whether you should consider dropping out of the program. If you get a C, don't bother asking.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>What this means is that the range of grades in grad school is effectively compressed, going from A to C instead of A to F. Getting a C in a grad school class is, in many cases, practically equivalent to getting an F in an undergraduate class. This grade inflation probably has historical roots in a sort of academic politeness in which it became considered more and more insulting or embarrassing to give someone low grades.</p>\n\n<p>However, it's not as significant as it may seem, because grades are typically much less important in grad school than in undergrad. In grad school (especially PhD programs) you are working much more closely with faculty and they monitor your progress at a much finer grain. It's not just about getting a good grade, but about conducting research, making progress on your degree milestones (e.g., writing an MA thesis or PhD dissertation), and so forth.</p>\n\n<p>In grad school, your class grades are meant to be not just an evaluation of your performance in that class, but a signal as to whether you are developing the skills necessary to succeed in the program as a whole. It would be unusual (probably unthinkable) for a grad program to suddenly give someone the boot simply because their GPA dropped too low; rather, a series of low grades will lead to increasing concern from the faculty, with meetings, emails, etc., gradually escalating from \"Is everything ok?\" to \"You need to start working harder\" to \"Get your act together or else\".</p>\n\n<p>I've known grad students who received multiple grades in the B range, and this is what happened to them; they were subjected to increasing pressure from the faculty, with increasingly more explicit suggestions that they could be kicked out of the program if they didn't improve their performance.</p>\n\n<p>That said, it is true that in some cases grading in grad school can be \"easier\" than in undergrad. My personal experience has been that in some cases faculty members are willing to be somewhat more flexible on grades as related to the actual course content, as long as they are satisfied that you got what you personally needed from the class. For instance, if you are specializing in Topic X and you take a requred class in Topic Y intended to broaden your background, the professor may give you an A even if your paper in the class is only adequate, if the professor understands that that is not your specialization and you don't need to fully master it in order to succeed. The flip side of this is that if you take a class in Topic X (your specialty), the professor may hold you to a far more exacting standard, knowing that you really must be on top of that material.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30779,
"author": "David Ketcheson",
"author_id": 81,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think the idea is simply that people who get into graduate programs must have gotten A's or B's in nearly all of their undergraduate courses. So if graduate courses are graded in the same way as undergraduate courses, it makes sense that most of the students in them should get A's or B's. Meanwhile, since a C in an undergraduate course would be a strong strike against you for admission to grad school, it is also a strike against your continued enrollment in a graduate program.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48565,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Part of the answer is in disputing some assumptions in the question, as remarked upon to some degree in the other answers. That is, for one thing, graduate admissions are most often selective enough so that every grad student is probably able to do the work at a level that would, indeed, perhaps be a \"B+\" in \"grading on a curve\", <em>if</em> the population in the course were far less selective than it ... in fact... is. This is in contrast to the common conduct of undergrad courses, especially lower-division ones, where there <em>is</em> often no pre-filtering at all. The students self-select, and their own judgement may be flawed.</p>\n\n<p>But then why might a \"B+\" be considered \"a problem\"? What is the \"problem\" if it's not \"failure\"? Well, it's not-at-all \"failure\" by undergrad standards, but that standard is far, far too weak for an apprentice professional. Unlike undergrad courses, where a \"C+\" may fulfill \"a requirement\", but absolutely not indicate competence, grad students need to be more-genuinely competent. A \"B+\" is an indication of some gaps in competence.</p>\n\n<p>So, yes, those undergrad \"C+\"s are not evidence of \"sufficient competence\", at all. Indeed, that's why people who get that minimal \"C+\" in calc I invariably have terrible trouble in calc II, etc. The primary reason such grades are tolerated at all is that, in fact, much of the function of lower-division undergrad math is <em>filtering</em>, so that content mastery is nearly irrelevant in many cases. </p>\n\n<p>Again, most often, grad students are not being filtered very much after admission, so the issue is genuine content mastery, not \"getting by\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 68196,
"author": "Jessica",
"author_id": 53643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53643",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It definitely depends on the program of study...I believe the grading system is harsher for people who study something career specific---AKA nursing, physical therapy, Occupational therapy, med school, law school, etc..These programs tend to have a lot more drop outs/people who are unable to maintain the 3.0 minimum...People who study something like a Phd in Sociology, philosophy, or an M.S in Biology usually get higher grades because these programs tend to put less emphasis on passing tests and put more emphasis on producing research... Which is very different from lets say law school, where there is a huge emphasis on grades and rankings...</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30771",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20608/"
] |
30,774 |
<p>I am applying to doctoral programs and I have a worry about the application.</p>
<p>Since I found that my TOEFL score does not meet the minimal requirement set by a school that I am applying to, I am wondering if it is likely for me to be screened out before my whole application is reviewed by the professors?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31100,
"author": "Kate",
"author_id": 23820,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23820",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think it is depends on the program. For instance I have applied to the program where my TOEFL score was below the required minimum, but I still got a interview with this university and I had a feeling that I probably would get in. I did not wait for an offer because a better graduate school admitted me the next day. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31102,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I do not know about US schools, but for my UK university the IELTS requirements are non-negotiable. Most of the time we see this right away. Sometimes we screw up and read and evaluate the entire application before noticing. In all cases the student is not offered a place. Other UK universities, especially ones that struggle to fill their spots, sometimes will argue with the administration that an exception should be made. From my understanding, they almost always lose.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31104,
"author": "Kristof Tak",
"author_id": 9401,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9401",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Depends on many factors. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Who is the decision Maker?</strong></p>\n\n<p>If the decision-maker is a Professor who at the same time is the head of the research group where you ought to work, then its up to him. And I see some space for tolerance there, given that all the other parameters are OK. </p>\n\n<p><strong>You fitting exactly to the needs</strong></p>\n\n<p>On top of that, if all the other parameters (minimal admission requirements) are already met, and you have even more than the Head of the Research Group expects, then he/she might be willing to take a risk and make a trade-off, especially if you fill completely to what he needs in the group.</p>\n\n<p><strong>University Administration :(</strong></p>\n\n<p>On the other hand if the admission is handled by an administrative office of the University, then they will not care much about your scientific background, and will most probably dismiss the application.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30774",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
30,785 |
<p>This question has been discussed <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/28013/what-salutation-to-use-for-someone-with-a-phd-who-is-a-lecturer-or-reader-in-the">several</a> <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1930/eu-ph-d-in-germany-calling-yourself-dr-or-ph-d">times</a> but there doesn't seem to be a clear answer for my particular situation.</p>
<p>I have a Dr.rer.nat from Germany but currently I am working for an institute in the United Kingdom. Is it legal or acceptable to continue to use the title Dr.rer.nat (First Name) (Last name) in the UK or do I need to change it to (First Name) (Last name), (Ph.D)?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30786,
"author": "nivag",
"author_id": 14115,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14115",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the UK the holder of a PhD (or other professional doctorate) will generally use the title Dr as opposed to Mr/Mrs/Miss that would normally be used.</p>\n\n<p>Unlike in Germany there is no addition to field of study.</p>\n\n<p>Therefore the correct title would be Dr (First Name)(Last Name).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30798,
"author": "Jack Aidley",
"author_id": 5614,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5614",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is certainly legal to refer to yourself by the title you would use in Germany - few titles are actually legally controlled in the UK - and I would say it is also acceptable. However, I would suggest that is <em>advisable</em> to use the normal UK convention so that your audience understands what your title means without you needing to explain.</p>\n\n<p>I would therefore use Dr user23530 rather than Dr.rer.nat user23530.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30785",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
30,789 |
<p>This happened two semesters ago, when I was teaching-assistant to a class of bachelor students. The lecturer had such marking weights, 30% for teaching assistant class including all the homework and his quizzes and 70% to the midterm and final exams.</p>
<p>At that semester, one of the students did not even attend one of my TA classes, did not solve any homework and also did not take any quizzes. I also gave some extra time to the students to give me their homework if they have missed some of them, but he did not give me any in that period of time.</p>
<p>He passed midterm and final exam with a passing mark and normally, I did not give him any mark for his TA part. His final mark was about 65%. I did not even know this guy personally.</p>
<p>After he was announced of his final mark, he called me by my mobile phone and started shouting and swearing to me over the line. I tried to calm him down and explain his wrong attitude towards the TA class but he did not pay attention. He continuously shouted and told me I will do this and I will do that to you! He never tried to make it clear why he was not working on homework or not attend the class. He expected that because he was good at final exam, I have to neglect his weak work in TA class.</p>
<p>I told him that if I give you extra mark for the homework you did not solve and the exams you did not sit, this will be unfair to other students who came to the class and worked on the course. I did not continue that conversation and turned my phone off. I really wanted to help him, but I found no way indeed.</p>
<p>After that, I did not even report him the the university police or the professor for his behaviour.</p>
<p>Was my attitude toward this lazy and angry student correct? How should teaching-assistants deal with such students who behave crazy? How should a TA calm his angry student down and talk to him logically and what should he do when they behave really bad to them?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30804,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>As a teaching assistant, <strong>you should not be abused.</strong> If a student becomes angry and abusive, <strong>you need to disengage and pass the problem upwards.</strong> While TAs participate in the grading of a course, the responsibility and authority for dealing with any significant grading dispute with a student lies with the professor, not with any TA. It's OK for TAs to deal with minor problems presented calmly (e.g., \"You added up the scores and got the wrong total\"), but <strong>major disputes and angry students are not things a TA can or should attempt to handle.</strong></p>\n\n<p>If you are confronted with an angry student, <strong>do not respond to the content of the dispute.</strong> If you do so, you may say something that can cause a major problem for yourself or the professor later. Instead, just keep repeating something along the lines of,</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"Please calm down. This is something that you need to talk to the professor about.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If the student persists to the point where you feel threatened, then you have both the right and the obligation to get campus authorities involved. <strong>A person who is extensively verbally abusive may become physically violent as well, and you need to protect yourself.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Once you have disengaged from the student, contact the professor immediately and explain the situation. At that point, it is the professor's responsibility to deal with the student, though they may need more information and input from you in deciding how to proceed.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30806,
"author": "Geoff Hutchison",
"author_id": 21869,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21869",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As mentioned in <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/30804/15723\">another answer</a>, this falls into the general realm of dealing with angry people, not specifically students.</p>\n\n<p>My suggestion in a situation like yours is to attempt to calmly disengage from the phone conversation <strong><em>as soon as possible</em></strong>. In many cases, you cannot make the student calm down.</p>\n\n<p>I would then respond <strong>by e-mail</strong> to the student and CC the professor and any other relevant authority figure.</p>\n\n<p>I've learned from personal experience that phone conversations or verbal interactions can be skewed later and mis-remembered by either or both parties. By responding by e-mail, you have increased the emotional distance from the student and provided a clear record in case of a later dispute. Moreover you have time to make sure your response is calm. I sometimes have trouble remaining calm when someone is yelling at me or verbally abusive.</p>\n\n<p>Calmly explain your position and the grading policy. Attach a copy of the grading scheme from the beginning of the semester and make it clear in the e-mail that you do not appreciate the student verbally attacking you.</p>\n\n<p>The student may dispute that they shouted or were verbally abusive, but because you CC the instructor, you have started a chain of evidence in case the student attempts to go over your head later.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47806,
"author": "ScienceGuy59",
"author_id": 36327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36327",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a doctoral student with prior TA experience, I would say the first step should be to talk with your direct supervisor. Universities have great professionals in place to handle these situations. If this angry student disrupts the classroom and/or impedes your ability to do your job, you should send this issue up your chain of command so to speak. There are certainly techniques you can learn in communicating with students in the case of isolated and acute occurrences. But, if this is an ongoing problem, it should be handled by the University. </p>\n\n<p>However, I should note, as we were instructed by our university police captain during TA training, the moment a student becomes belligerent and refuses to cooperate you should 1) dismiss the class and 2) call university police. Dismissing the class is a good move because many students who are acting up like having an audience and sending the class out may help to calm down this individual. You run into a lot of different people in the University setting and you never know what they are going through in their lives (e.g. substance-abuse, etc.). If you ever feel uncomfortable or unsafe don't hesitate to call the police. They are there for you. </p>\n\n<p>P.S. Don't ever give out your cell phone number to your students. If they need to reach you outside of class they should make an appointment or send you an email. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47807,
"author": "anomaly",
"author_id": 17411,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17411",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When a student is calling your personal phone to shout and swear at you, you're past the point when you should deal with the situation on your own. Contact the relevant university authorities, and let the professor know what's going on. (Don't ask the professor to handle it; let the university handle it, but keep the professor informed about the situation.) Don't try to calm down or reason with the student on your own; it's not going to be successful, and he's already crossed the line into the area where the university does need to be involved.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 75506,
"author": "guest",
"author_id": 60628,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/60628",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Credentialed (licensed) teachers are trained to know the school and state's established policy on such interactions. Make sure you know these or at least where they are so you can refer to them before taking action of any kind. I find this very helpful in reducing the burden of such decisions as dealing with angry and abusive students AND staff. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 166059,
"author": "xmp125a",
"author_id": 51476,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/51476",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your attitude was not correct - but in a way you probably did not expect. <strong>You did too much yourself.</strong> You should immediately refer him to the professor and let him deal with the situation. It is not your job and you are stressing too much over something that happened <strong>2 semesters ago</strong>! Professor/Lecturer sets the rules and he or she is in the best position to fend of such attacks. I tell all my TAs to refer any complaining students to me. It also works both ways - that way I also keep the tabs on the quality of TAs' work. "The bucket stops here" should be written on every university professor's door.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30789",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15723/"
] |
30,790 |
<p>Reading the question posted <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30785/what-salutation-to-use-for-someone-with-a-phd-from-germany-in-the-uk">here</a> left me with a more general question:</p>
<p>Given the professional title and name: Dr. (First Name)(Last Name), is there some way to differentiate between the holder of a philosophical doctorate and a medical doctor? Wouldn't it be more appropriate for a PhD holder to have the title (First Name)(Last Name), PhD?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30791,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can't. That's why there are numerous jokes in English-speaking culture about whether someone addressed as \"doctor\" is a \"real\" doctor or not. Medical doctors are supposed to be the \"real\" ones in the jokes.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30818,
"author": "DeveloperInDevelopment",
"author_id": 19402,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19402",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can't immediately tell from the title, but then titles are not typically used by an individual to broadcast their occupation - we don't have variants of \"Mr\" for plumbers, bank managers, or rock stars - despite their very different occupations. Rather, the title is to be used <em>by others</em> when addressing that individual, in order to signify a degree of respect, typically for a particular level of training, qualification and responsibility, or else for a particularly respected position in society. Even the term \"mister\" is a meaningful sign of respect that historically would not have been as widely applied as it is today - the ratchet of etiquette has gradually eliminated everything below it.</p>\n\n<p>The actual title \"Doctor\" means \"teacher\" (from Latin \"doceo\", \"I teach\"). This title is more often more relevant to PhDs than MDs, so you probably have your suggested solution backwards. That said, the solution is really neither necessary nor appropriate. Much like \"Master\" (from Latin \"magister\", in this case \"teacher\"), \"Doctor\" signifies that an individual has not only gained enough competency to practice in a particular field, but has developed enough expertise to instruct others. An individual who is sufficiently qualified to practice but not teach would historically have been known as a \"journeyman\", roughly equivalent to \"professional\".</p>\n\n<p>In short \"doctor\" refers not to a <em>field</em> of expertise, but rather to a <em>level</em> of expertise.</p>\n\n<p>Incidentally, most UK surgeons drop their title of \"Dr\" and revert to \"Mr\" after joining the Royal College of Surgeons. I've heard through a friend of at least one surgeon who reacted quite angrily at being addressed as a mere \"Dr\", which in such circles, due to a collision between traditional titles and modern medical training, could be unkindly translated as \"trainee\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30822,
"author": "dac2002",
"author_id": 23554,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23554",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A medical practitioner usually holds a MBBS or MD degree or similar and - at a reasonable level of proficiency - membership of a professional body such as the AMA ( American Medical Association) or the RCP ( Royal College of Physicians) or whatever applies in their part of the world. </p>\n\n<p>A holder of an academic doctorate ( PhD, DrPh, EngD etc) has researched a topic or problem within their specific subject in sufficient depth to have generated fresh insights or made a breakthrough or contributed significant new knowledge to the existing corpus.</p>\n\n<p>Both have earned the right to be addressed as 'Dr'.</p>\n\n<p>However, it would appear to me that one or two posters have been watching a few too many episodes of 'The Big Bang Theory' as I think the need to differentiate between the two very rarely applies except in a medical emergency. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30824,
"author": "Myra",
"author_id": 23412,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23412",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is no difference in spoken address ('Doctor'), but one is a Ph.D. and the other is an M.D.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30825,
"author": "enthu",
"author_id": 15723,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15723",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have seen the difference in the written form of their name;</p>\n\n<p>One is <code>Name Family, PhD.</code> and other one is <code>Name Family MD.</code></p>\n\n<p>The same applies to the people holding Engineering doctorates such as <code>Name Family, EngD.</code> or holding doctorate in business such as DBA. Also, in different countries there are usually different doctorate titles (<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_doctoral_degrees_awarded_by_country\" rel=\"nofollow\">link</a>) awarded.</p>\n\n<p>But all of these people are called <em>doctors</em>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30844,
"author": "Bob Brown",
"author_id": 16183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16183",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the United States, in spoken address, both are called \"doctor.\"</p>\n\n<p>For personal correspondence, both are addressed as \"Dr.\" as with an invitation addressed to \"Dr. and Mrs. Smith.\" (Or maybe \"Dr. and Mr. Smith.\" If they both hold doctorates, it is \"Drs. Smith.\" For a couple with different family names, use \"Dr. Smith and Mr. Brown.\")</p>\n\n<p>For professional correspondence, both are addressed by name and degree, as \"James Smith, M.D.\" or \"Bob Brown, Ph.D.\"</p>\n\n<p>Since the distinction is only relevant in professional interactions, there really isn't any ambiguity. </p>\n\n<p>If you are speaking to a medical doctor professionally, you will know it by the setting, and you still say \"doctor.\" If you ask for medical advice at a cocktail party because someone was introduced as \"doctor\" you deserve anything you get! I've been known to say, \"I'm a college teacher type doctor, not a take-off-your-clothes doctor.\" That usually sends the message and often gets a laugh.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30868,
"author": "Antonin Décimo",
"author_id": 23593,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23593",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In French (maybe other latin countries too), but I don't know about English, you can make a small difference by adding <em>ès</em> : Albert Einstein, Docteur ès Physique.</p>\n\n<p>Then twice in a row you have specified that he was a scientific doctor (not a medical one) and his field of research.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30920,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While both have the title of \"doctor,\" that is identifying the fact that they both have the same education level, a doctorate.</p>\n\n<p>The meaningful difference here is <em>occupation</em>: one might be a professor, the other a physician.</p>\n\n<p>To differentiate between the two you can use the actual doctorate type or the job title:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>My professor is Dr. Jones. (or) Dr. Jones teaches my class.</li>\n<li>My physician is Dr. Smith.</li>\n<li>Indiana Jones, Ph.D.</li>\n<li>Joe Smith, M.D.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Of course a physician could also be a professor (who teaches in medical school?), or an M.D. might be a researcher who does not treat patients as their primary means of income (i.e. they only deal with patients during the course of medical studies). I do not think you can do much about those cases.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30922,
"author": "geoff humphries",
"author_id": 23644,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23644",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's not an easy question to answer. Ph.D's who are professors are just called \"professor,\" and research assistants with a Ph.D are called \"doctor\" by secretaries and students. Titles are never mentioned in academic papers. </p>\n\n<p>It's different with doctors: Patients and nurses call them \"doctor;\" if they are also professors, which they often are, the are called \"professor\" since professors have a higher status than mere M.D.s, and when they write papers in medical journals they put M.D. after their names. When practitioners without an M.D. refer to themselves as \"doctor\" they are just called \"frauds.\"</p>\n\n<p>Things are much more interesting in Germany. I was treated there by a woman doctor in a University Hospital who was also a professor of medicine. Her title was Frau Dr. Med, Dr. Professor Mueller. Some Professors have three degrees, meaning that are called Herr (or Frau) Dr. Dr. Dr. Professor. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30930,
"author": "akid",
"author_id": 339,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/339",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In Germany, it is common to denote the subject area the doctor was obtained in, such as <em>Dr. med.</em> for medical doctors, <em>Dr.-Ing.</em> for engineers, or <em>Dr.-rer-nat.</em> (rerum naturalium) for sciences like chemistry. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 44178,
"author": "Jackie",
"author_id": 33623,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33623",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The confusing aspect is that doctor connotes medical treatment to most people, not a doctoral degree. Anyone smart enough to have a PhD knows the difference. I would not want a PhD doing my surgery, nor an MD teaching me philosophy. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 44184,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The usual practical solution is \"ask them.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 134487,
"author": "deags",
"author_id": 111713,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/111713",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Doctor means you have a doctorate. Simple as that, a medic can have a doctorate in medicine and thus be a doctor, but if you do not have the degree then you are not a doctor, you can be a surgeon or a licensee of medicine but you are just referred to as doctor out of colloquial use of the title based on historical rots and customs.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30790",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17366/"
] |
30,793 |
<p>When writing a paper it is important to discuss related work. I am working on a problem where two research fields meet. When I did a literature review I noticed that related papers often omit important information or write important information ambiguously. I can understand that this is a problem where two research field meet and that there are two sides of the problem. I believe that in most of these papers relevant information is only given for research field "A" but not "B". Nevertheless methods from research field "B" are used for which the information is not (clearly) given and thus I would never be able to reproduce the results. Therefore when writing my related literature section I was wondering if it is acceptable if I mention these problems for the papers I discuss ? </p>
<p>To be clear, this is not about confidential information, so the authors always choose to do it this way, or are not aware of what they are doing.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30795,
"author": "Peteris",
"author_id": 10730,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10730",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<h2>Think about relevance to your results</h2>\n\n<p>Is the particular criticism relevant to the point of <em>your paper</em> ?</p>\n\n<p>For example <em>\"The method described in paper X works only in dry conditions, so for researching dolphin behavior it's not useful and we used a different approach described in chapter 4\"</em> is a relevant criticism and should be included.</p>\n\n<p><em>\"Paper X is a very poor and ambiguous description of the method using obsolete terminology, I had to read it five times and refer to a Klingon-English dictionary before understanding how it works\"</em> is not relevant, as most likely none of your conclusions would be based on such a sentence. It would be relevant only if your paper is a meta-study on the readability of scientific articles, or if your paper is about historical changes in commonly used terminology in your subfield, where the faults of other papers is the topic of your research.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 107407,
"author": "jerlich",
"author_id": 62052,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62052",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is more strategic (for your career) to say what they did and then talk about how other work expanded on that, rather than focus on what they didn't or failed to do. You never know when someone from that field will end up reviewing your work.</p>\n\n<p>For example, you can say \"Decades of work from B has implicated the involvement of X in Y. Research from A further suggests that the influence of X on Y is mediated by Z. However, many questions about the underlying mechanisms remain unresolved.\"</p>\n\n<p>That way, you hint that although the work from B is extensive, it is not conclusive.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30793",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9236/"
] |
30,797 |
<p>I have published a few months ago a paper for an IEEE Conference, the paper got published and it is indexed in the IEEEXplore. I have received an email from a research coordinator at the university that I am currently working on, asking for the online printed version of it. In the affiliation of the article was written the name of this institution, but I wonder if they are going to put in to be available online for free at the university webpage. In that case, that would not cause a problem with the publishing rights of IEEE?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30801,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Whether your institution plans to put it online is a question you have to ask them.</p>\n\n<p>Whether they are allowed to put it online depends on the policies of the journal where it was published. You will need to read the copyright transfer agreement that you accepted when the paper was published.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30808,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><a href=\"http://www.ieee.org/documents/author_version_faq.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">IEEE policy</a> explicitly allows the author, their institution, or other pre-print repository such as arXiv to distribute the <em>final preprint version</em> of any document, but not the version from IEEE Xplore. Scientifically, there is no reason to differentiate between the two, so as long as you send the final preprint version, it accomplishes the task of spreading information and there is no conflict with IEEE policy.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31054,
"author": "David Ketcheson",
"author_id": 81,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Many universities now have an open-access policy that reserves a <strong>prior non-exclusive license</strong> to distribute any research done at their institution. It is likely that your university has such a policy, and that is the reason for the request. You should check with your university (or look at <a href=\"http://roarmap.eprints.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">this list</a>).</p>\n\n<p>If such a policy is involved, the natural legal question is then</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What happens if an author at such a university then signs an agreement transferring copyright to the publisher?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This has been considered in great detail by Eric Priest in <a href=\"http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1890467\" rel=\"nofollow\">a study published in the Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property, Vol. 10, p. 377, 2012</a>. This seems to be the most authoritative work available on the matter. His conclusion is that <strong>the non-exclusive license granted by Harvard-style open access policies will remain in effect in such cases, at least under US law</strong>. This is based on a careful analysis of <a href=\"http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/205\" rel=\"nofollow\">section 205(e) of the US Copyright Act</a>, which reads:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>(e) Priority Between Conflicting Transfer of Ownership and Nonexclusive License.— A nonexclusive license, whether recorded or not, prevails over a conflicting transfer of copyright ownership if the license is evidenced by a written instrument signed by the owner of the rights licensed or such owner’s duly authorized agent, and if—\n (1) the license was taken before execution of the transfer; or\n (2) the license was taken in good faith before recordation of the transfer and without notice of it.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30797",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6144/"
] |
30,803 |
<p>I have a table that compares the performance of different systems according to different error measures:</p>
<pre><code>System | Error 1 | change | Error 2 | ...
--------------------------------------| ...
Baseline | 0.6 | - | ...
A | 0.1 | -0.5 | ...
B | 0.3 | -0.3 | ...
C | 0.7 | 0.1 | ...
D | 0.6 | 0.0 | ...
</code></pre>
<p>I currently chose <code>-</code> to denote that the value does not make sense. Of course, I can subtract the error of the baseline system from itself and get 0. But I don't think that makes sense.</p>
<p>Should I put <code>-</code> in that cell? Or <code>--</code> or <code>---</code> (I write the document with LaTeX) or eventually something different like <code>N/A</code>? Or make the cell black?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30807,
"author": "Maarten Buis",
"author_id": 14471,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14471",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If it is self-evident (remember to look at your table from the perspective of a reader) I would just leave the cell empty. Less clutter is better. When not, I would tend towards <code>--</code>. More importantly I would add a footnote to the table explaining what <code>--</code> means. I think the footnote is in that case more important than the difference between <code>-</code>, <code>--</code>, and <code>---</code>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30809,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I cannot find any mention of what to do with missing data in the <a href=\"http://www.apastyle.org/\">APA style</a>, <a href=\"http://www.mla.org/style\">MLA style</a>, or <a href=\"http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html\">Chicago style</a>, but according to <a href=\"http://www.docstyles.com/amastat.htm#Sec23\">this website on AMA style</a> says:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Missing data and blank space in the table field (ie, and empty cell) may create ambiguity and should be avoided . . . . An ellipsis\n (. . .) may be used to indicate no data are available [or applicable]. (p87)</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30803",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4092/"
] |
30,810 |
<p>“All Web Science track papers will be published in the <strong>companion proceedings</strong> of the WWW conference." (<a href="http://www.www2015.it/call-for-web-science-track/" rel="nofollow">http://www.www2015.it/call-for-web-science-track/</a>)
What does " companion proceedings" mean？ What are the differences of it with the main proceedings?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30807,
"author": "Maarten Buis",
"author_id": 14471,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14471",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If it is self-evident (remember to look at your table from the perspective of a reader) I would just leave the cell empty. Less clutter is better. When not, I would tend towards <code>--</code>. More importantly I would add a footnote to the table explaining what <code>--</code> means. I think the footnote is in that case more important than the difference between <code>-</code>, <code>--</code>, and <code>---</code>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30809,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I cannot find any mention of what to do with missing data in the <a href=\"http://www.apastyle.org/\">APA style</a>, <a href=\"http://www.mla.org/style\">MLA style</a>, or <a href=\"http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html\">Chicago style</a>, but according to <a href=\"http://www.docstyles.com/amastat.htm#Sec23\">this website on AMA style</a> says:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Missing data and blank space in the table field (ie, and empty cell) may create ambiguity and should be avoided . . . . An ellipsis\n (. . .) may be used to indicate no data are available [or applicable]. (p87)</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30810",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1512/"
] |
30,812 |
<p>At a recent seminar talk, I was amazed to note that one of the two coauthors (not the presenter) was the <a href="https://president.uchicago.edu/page/about-president-zimmer">president of a large and well-known university</a>, since I had always assumed that taking on such a position would necessarily mean the end of a research career. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Are there m/any examples of people that continue to do substantial amounts of research when in a senior administrative position, such as dean, provost, president, etc.? </p></li>
<li><p>Do research faculty often become deans, presidents, etc.? Why do faculty usually do this? (I understand that there might be a pay increase, but does it usually indicate that they no longer want to do research as intensely?)</p></li>
</ul>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30815,
"author": "Myra",
"author_id": 23412,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23412",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some do, some don't. Naturally, administration is different kind of work from that of the scholar. There are only so many hours in the day. But administrators have to come from somewhere, don't they?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30817,
"author": "Dave Clarke",
"author_id": 643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In these positions, one gets to influence the direction of the whole university, rather than the direction of the research of 1 to <em>n</em> individuals. At such magnitude, one can effect more change. </p>\n\n<p>Often people get disgruntled with the way things are run at the level they are currently working. The only way to fix things is to move to more managerial positions. Don't like the way the Masters program is run? Become Coordinator of the Masters Programme. Don't like the way the faculty is being run? Become Dean.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30819,
"author": "jonescb",
"author_id": 22774,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22774",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can imagine that one reason a researcher might want to take on an administrative role is it allows them to become more of an advocate for scholarly research. Instead of doing research themselves, they can empower other researchers by ensuring adequate funding, facilities, equipment, and resources are available to perform research. </p>\n\n<p>Can they convince governments/donors to continue giving funds to the institution in the face of budget cuts? I think these sorts of considerations would be something a researcher would have an interest in the outcome of.</p>\n\n<p>Whether or not academics make for good administrators is another issue, and would depend on one's individual background.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30820,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Any professor with a large research group has effectively made the transition to administration already. The realities of managing more than a few people working for you on research projects means that a large chunk of one's time is already consumed by writing reports, pursuing funding, managing personnel, etc. The actual amount of time hands-on with research vs. directing and enabling research to be carried out by others typically rapidly decreases as the size of the group rises. From this perspective, the transition to higher-level administrative positions like center or department head, and from there to wider-scope positions like dean or provost may not be as large as it appears.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30859,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Related (in a way): <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/7556/why-do-academics-write-peer-reviews\">Why do academics write peer reviews?</a> At some point in a researcher's career, it comes down to giving back to the community, and part of what the community requires is not only exciting new research, but also the day-to-day administrativia. Bluntly said: someone needs to wash the dishes.</p>\n\n<p>And while there may be non-academic managerial people (chancellors etc.) to do the day-to-day administration, it should really be academics that set policy for an academic environment. So I'd argue that many academics that move into an administrative position do so out of a sense of duty to academia as a whole.</p>\n\n<p>(Of course, there are also the power-hungry types, or those who like the way an administrative position gets them into the limelight and the press more often.)</p>\n\n<p>Finally, at least in Germany, it is common for professors who take on administrative responsibilities to have their teaching load reduced, so the bite doesn't fully come out of research, but at least to a degree out of teaching. Usually, you will make sure to get relieved of giving the less interesting introductory lectures but keep the more advanced ones, so your pipeline of potential grad and Ph.D. students doesn't dry up.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30940,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In answer to the first half of your titular question, \"Why do research faculty pursue administrative positions, such as dean, provost, president, etc. ?\"</p>\n\n<p>This was the subject of a study several decades ago:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Robert A Snyder, Ann Howard, Tove Helland Hammer, Mid-career change in academia: The decision to become an administrator, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Volume 13, Issue 2, October 1978, Pages 229-241, ISSN 0001-8791, <a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(78)90048-9\">http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(78)90048-9</a>. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>To quote this study on the main reason professors chose to switch or not to switch to an administrative track:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>A predominant finding in this study was that the attraction of an administrative career for a professor was most attributable to its promise of increased power and authority. In contrast, the professorial career had greater appeal because of its relative autonomy and freedom from organizational demands.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Please read the paper for methodology, limitations, etc.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30812",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/948/"
] |
30,823 |
<p>I'm a USA grad student in computational biology. Starting 2 years ago, I tried to get paper X published, with very little feedback from my advisor, and after a year (!) in review paper X was rejected. Meanwhile, I was working on other projects, gaining experience, and drawing closer to graduation. My advisor then asked me to submit X to a kind of shady non-journal "proceedings" (he had some hook-up), and he didn't seem happy that I objected. Now, I hope to graduate in a few months, and with the benefit of my improved knowledge of science, I'm trying to get project X published again. My advisor only cares about getting things out the door, not about the projects, and he has a connection to this Chinese journal (jmcb.oxfordjournals.org) that I never heard of. He is impressed by their impact factor because that's how he is (I can tell they are gaming their IF.). He wants me to put it there, while I think a lower IF, less obscure journal would be way better. Additionally, it appears that very few institutions subscribe to this journal (my univ does not).</p>
<p>It's not a spam journal, but I never would want to submit there, and I feel that I should have some control over it as it's my work. But is it worth it to fight him on this, or should I just go along with it because he's the boss? I guess if it's easy to publish there, I should be grateful not to have to keep working on it after graduation? I do want to do a postdoc.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30826,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If the journal is junk, you should not publish there, period. So, the real question is: Is the journal as bad as you think it is or this journal is just not one of the top journals in your area but still a legit, reputable journal? So, confirm which of the two applies. How to distinguish journals has already been discussed several times in this forum. Check the editors, look their homepages if they mention their editorial work there, see who else publishes there and check some of the published articles.</p>\n\n<p>In case this is actually a legit, reputable journal but still not top of the line, you should really consider if your work is actually as good as you think it is. It already has got a rejection and perhaps your advisor suggests some medium (and not top) journal, since he may believe your work might actually have a chance there. So, be open about this and ask him. What does he actually think about your specific work? Is it not good enough for the top journals? If he believes it is not, perhaps you should reconsider your stance. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30828,
"author": "Danny W.",
"author_id": 21704,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21704",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Here is what I can say: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>There are some very respectable people on the editorial board, e.g., Rudolf Jaenisch, Eric Sontheimer, etc. That said, I haven't heard of most of the people who are editors, and editorial boards can be manipulated.</p></li>\n<li><p>Oxford University Journals are (quite) reputable - at least, Nucleic Acids Research (NAR) is looked upon very well in my part of the world. </p></li>\n<li><p>I'm not really sure what you mean by \"less obscure, lower impact\" journal. Like, PLOS one, or Molecular Biology of the Cell? If the latter, it might be worth fighting for, but I don't think a potential postdoc adviser is really going to split hairs between MBoC and the journal you suggest (neither is Cell, right?) I do not think PLOS One would be a better choice. </p></li>\n<li><p>Do you <em>know</em> the reputation of the journal your PI wants to submit to is how you perceive it, or is just your perception upon first glance? It may be that the journal is looked on perfectly fine by other researchers. It might be worth talking to a non-adviser mentor in your field about it. </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>tl;dr: You could fight it, but you probably have better things to do with your time (i.e., find a postdoc), and it's not an obviously bad journal, so I would say just move one. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30841,
"author": "William Gunn",
"author_id": 582,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/582",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If it's true that few libraries subscribe to it, then I would say that's serious enough grounds to choose something else, perhaps an Open Access option.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30823",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23553/"
] |
30,839 |
<p>I am doing a literature review in the medical field, which is as many other fields heavily impacted by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKmxL8VYy0M">publication bias</a>. Is there any standard way to account for it? </p>
<p>When am I e.g. allowed to say that treatment X successfully treat condition Y, despite the fact that a certain amount of studies may have been left unpublished as they did not show statistically significant "positive" results, i.e. that those unpublished studies did not successfully show that treatment X does treat condition Y?</p>
<p>Or shall I just ignore it?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30856,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a very good question. Unfortunately, I don't think that there is (or can be) a \"standard\" answer. Consider: if you found 10 papers finding a strong treatment effect of X on Y, you <em>a priori</em> have no way of knowing whether these 10 studies were <em>all</em> studies on the X-Y relationship... or whether there were 20 studies, 10 of which were published, while 10 others showed no relationship and ended up in a <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publication_bias#File_drawer_effect\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">file drawer</a>... or whether in fact there were 100 studies, 90 of which repose peacefully in file drawers all over the world.</p>\n\n<p>That said, there are a few standard ways of at least investigating the structure of <em>published</em> effects, among them the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funnel_plot\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">funnel plot</a>. However, the funnel plot and similar methods will usually only be good for <em>investigating</em> publication bias, not for <em>accounting for</em> it. And I would argue, as per the previous paragraph, that if you try to <em>account for</em> publication bias in any quantitative way, you need to be extremely careful not to overstate your certainty in this accounting, given the uncertainty about inputs into your accounting.</p>\n\n<p>Anyway, while a question like this is certainly on-topic here, you may actually get more answers at CrossValidated, although <a href=\"https://stats.stackexchange.com/search?q=publication%20bias\">a quick search</a> didn't turn up a lot. You may want to consider posting an analogous question there. Two potentially enlightening questions are <a href=\"https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/38403/what-causes-the-discontinuity-in-the-distribution-of-published-p-values-at-p\">here</a> and <a href=\"https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/43144/pros-and-cons-of-meta-analyses\">here</a>, the last of which has a very good <a href=\"https://stats.stackexchange.com/a/43272/1352\">answer</a> pointing to a book, from which I'll quote just one sentence: \"Good meta-analyses endeavour to obtain unpublished studies.\"</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: finally, you may want to check out and/or contact the <a href=\"http://bmg.cochrane.org/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Bias Methods Group of the Cochrane Collaboration</a>, especially <a href=\"http://bmg.cochrane.org/references-resources#Publication\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this list of references</a>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30860,
"author": "fileunderwater",
"author_id": 7223,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7223",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First, you should note the difference between checking for evidence of publication bias and correcting for it. To know that there are patterns in the data that indicates publication bias means that you will be able to temper the discussion of your results, and maybe suggest potential weaknessess in the study, even if it is not possible to correct for biases.</p>\n\n<p>There exists a number of methods that can be used to identify publication bias. A simple graphical <em>funnel plot</em> of effect size vs. sample size is maybe the easiest to apply. The idea here is that the scatter around the true effect size should be symmetric and with expanding variance at smaller sample sizes (\"trumpet-shaped\"). Publication bias can lead to underreporting of non-significant studies with smaller sample sizes, which would result in a skewed pattern in the funnel plot. Another method to test for publication bias is a regression between standardized effects and precision ('Egger's method') or rank-correlation methods. You can get an overview of these methods and others in e.g. <a href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sim.698/abstract;jsessionid=74754EA6447D7B6295590ED03EEBF256.f01t03\">Macaskill et al. (2001)</a> and <a href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10729693\">Thornton & Lee (2000)</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Accounting/correcting for publication bias is trickier, and I have no personal experiance in using these methods. However, I know that one method that is used in medical research is to only include pre-registred studies in the meta-analysis. If this is possible depends on your topic though. You can also use simulations and parametric methods to basically try to recreate the complete (unknown) dataset, and in this way account for the publication bias (one example of this is <a href=\"http://www.jstor.org/stable/2246205\">Givens et al. 1997</a>) </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30864,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In general, it may be a question in statistics rather than 'academia'. E.g. by looking at the distribution of p-values you may have an educated guess about acceptance distribution.</p>\n\n<p>See <a href=\"http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21588057-scientists-think-science-self-correcting-alarming-degree-it-not-trouble\" rel=\"nofollow\">this Economist article</a> for description of the problem and <a href=\"http://digest.bps.org.uk/2012/08/phew-made-it-how-uncanny-proportion-of.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">this post/paper</a> on the distribution of p-values in psychology (in short: too many just a bit below .05).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31589,
"author": "Erick Turner",
"author_id": 24183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24183",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As mentioned above, there are a number of statistical methods available. The funnel plot is probably the oldest, but it has its \"issues\" (Lau, J., et al (2006). BMJ (Clinical Research Ed), 333(7568), 597–600) </p>\n\n<p>An interesting, newer method is Ioannidis's test for excess significance (Ioannidis, J. P. A., & Trikalinos, T. A. (2007). Clinical Trials (London, England), 4(3), 245–253).</p>\n\n<p>However, all these techniques amount to \"statistical divining rods\", telling you whether the results seem too good to be true.</p>\n\n<p>If you really want to determine whether publication bias is present, you need to know (a) the results (not just the existence) of unpublished studies and (b) whether the results in the published literature have undergone \"statistical alchemy\" and, if so, what the true \"unspun\" results are.</p>\n\n<p>Since you say you're working in medicine, you have a unique opportunity, at least if you're working with drugs. You can use FDA drug approval packages, as I have in my own work. you may find these papers of interest:</p>\n\n<p>Turner, E. H., Matthews, A. M., Linardatos, E., Tell, R. A., & Rosenthal, R. (2008). Selective publication of antidepressant trials and its influence on apparent efficacy. The New England Journal of Medicine, 358(3), 252–260. doi:10.1056/NEJMsa065779</p>\n\n<p>Turner, E. H., Knoepflmacher, D., & Shapley, L. (2012). Publication Bias in Antipsychotic Trials: An Analysis of Efficacy Comparing the Published Literature to the US Food and Drug Administration Database. PLoS Medicine, 9(3), e1001189. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001189</p>\n\n<p>Turner, E. H. (2013a). How to access and process FDA drug approval packages for use in research. BMJ (Clinical Research Ed), 347(oct14 2), f5992–f5992. doi:10.1136/bmj.f5992</p>\n\n<p>Hope this helps. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30839",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/452/"
] |
30,843 |
<p>I have about 80% weighted average (years count 1, 3, 5), I am on my third BSc year and I would like to apply for a MSc afterwards in top university.</p>
<p>There are 2 4th year subjects that I really, really would like to take, but they are known to be the most difficult subjects in my university. The alternative is to take the easiest courses and keep the grades up.</p>
<p>I did a calculation that I should have about 64% this year to pass with a first.</p>
<p>Should I risk it? Will anyone really acknowledge this risk I am taking? Is it really worth it?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30849,
"author": "Bjørn Kjos-Hanssen",
"author_id": 11257,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11257",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Should I risk it?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That depends on the particulars: how useful are the easy courses, how hard are the hard courses, ...</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Will anyone really acknowledge this risk I am taking? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, the admissions committee will certainly consider what subjects you studied. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30948,
"author": "Roger Fan",
"author_id": 20375,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20375",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you really want to get into top programs, the (not) answer is to take the tough classes and excel in them. At top graduate schools, the average course difficulty will almost certainly be above the hardest undergraduate courses that are available to you. This might be a different story if the classes in question are graduate-level classes.</p>\n\n<p>In terms of graduate admissions, one of the most important factors is not your overall GPA, but your GPA in <strong>known-difficult</strong> courses (this is obviously more of a factor if you did your undergraduate at a well-known school). Avoiding difficult classes is a bad signal, but so it getting poor grades in them. Okay grades in the hardest classes will probably be neutral to positive depending on the situation and how well-known your undergraduate program is.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30843",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14111/"
] |
30,850 |
<p>I am in the process of applying for a PhD at the univerity where I am currently completing my undergraduate.</p>
<p>The application has a section for awards.
I don't have anything to show for my time as a undergraduate (my university doesn't really acknowledge achievements in coursework).</p>
<p>I have several awards from my tertairy entrance exams/subjects completed in highschool.
Such as:</p>
<ul>
<li>Award from my current univerity for being the highest ranking disabled applicant for undergraduate.</li>
<li>Award for being one of the highest scoring in my state for a particular tertiary entrance subjects</li>
<li>Several awards from my highschool for topping the school in particular tertiary entrances subjects</li>
</ul>
<p>Are achievements/awards gained as a result of actions I undertook in highschool relevant to my application now?</p>
<p>I'm not talking about things like merit certificates in lower years of highschool (Its not impressive to piles of those), just things relating to my tertiary entrance exams/subjects, particularly the first two which are awarded by the university and the state, for achievement in final year of highschool.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30902,
"author": "cas",
"author_id": 23630,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23630",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I wouldn't include high school awards because it's really not the same playing field as undergraduate and graduate level study. Were you awarded any scholarships while in school? These can go under awards as well. </p>\n\n<p>Applying to the same institution will likely help your application. If you have no awards, focus on your personal statement which can set you apart. You likely have familiarity with the profs and research happening at your school. Familiarity with those would be impressive in your essay.</p>\n\n<p>Best of luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30913,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>High school awards are unlikely to help much but they probably won't hurt you either. I think it's fine to include them on a short \"early-career\" CV but move them to the very end to signal that you understand that these are not important measures of your current qualifications.</p>\n\n<p>Who knows, if they are really awesome, they might might even help. I saw a graduate student CV once that listed being ranked first on a province-level college admissions exam that included many tens of thousands of students. Sure, it was a long time ago, but I was still impressed enough that I remember this now. I think I kept my high school awards on my CV until I started thinking about going on the faculty job market as a PhD student. At point, they just seemed completely irrelevant.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30934,
"author": "Benedikt Bauer",
"author_id": 10039,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10039",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In general I would head into the same direction as <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/30913/10039\">Benjamin Mako Hill's answer</a>: They might not help you in the application but they shouldn't do any harm. However, I would restrict that to awards that have at least <em>some</em> relevance to your application. This can be either awards for some achievements in the field of your PhD or awards that are about your general skills.</p>\n\n<p>As an example for the first type, if you apply for a position in biology, you might add an award for being among the top 5% of the state in your high school final exams in biology. I maybe wouldn't include the same biology award if I'd apply for a position in economics. By this you can show that you're already interested in that topic for some time.</p>\n\n<p>For the second type, imagine you received some award for some type of ongoing social engagement beyond the \"normal\" activities during your high school time. By this you could show that you are not just pulling your duties but also are willing to engage in things that are beyond your obligations.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30850",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8513/"
] |
30,851 |
<p>I am thinking about what should I bring to the conference.</p>
<p>Normally, will people dress up (like full suit) for the dinner?</p>
<p>p.s. I am in CS domain.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30852,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>No. You do not need to wear a suit for presenting at a conference. Most of the times, CS conferences have the typical t-shirt (or shirt), jeans combination of computer / tech guys. </p>\n\n<p>For the dinner, you can dress a little more formally (if you want) but still a suit is not required. In fact, if you are young (<30) , wearing a suit and a tie would probably seem a little weird. </p>\n\n<p>Bottom line: Wear what you usually wear when you go to work for the presentation and a little more formal (nicer) wear for dinner.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30867,
"author": "malarres",
"author_id": 9924,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9924",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If it's not the first iteration of the conference, chances are that you could see past editions of the conference, including some pictures of the dinner, so you can just do what you see.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30882,
"author": "penelope",
"author_id": 4249,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4249",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Basically, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/30852/4249\">what @Alexandros said</a>. Just wanted to add a specific example: a (CS, European) conference I attended last summer got this fancy place for the gala dinner, and they asked the attendees if they could dress in formal wear.</p>\n\n<p>This wasn't quite well received: most people didn't pack a suit (a lot of them traveled with only hand luggage). The collective decisions was to either <em>do the best they could</em> (in the situation) or <em>not really care</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, the dinner was a mixture of some suits and dresses (but mostly on older people, I would guess 30+ or even 40+), most people in pants and shirt combination or half-serious summer dresses (instead of standard T-shirt) plus an odd few wearing crazy print T-shirts and jeans. I've seen a few people come in with a tie, look around and then discreetly take it off and tuck it in their pockets :)</p>\n\n<p>So bottom line is: overall, people at the gala dinner will be slightly less casually dressed than your typical day in the office (in European labs, at least) or conference presentations. Also, it's not uncommon to end up in a bar after the gala, and you probably don't want to overdress and look out-of-place if that happens.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30896,
"author": "Rob",
"author_id": 21446,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21446",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can only tell you my experience at conferences - biomedical in the U.S. - the bio conferences tend to be pretty dressy with most conference goes in sports coats (for guys) and formal pant suits for women. </p>\n\n<p>I would bring a nice shirt/slacks and sports coat, at least you can quickly mold to the situation. I didn't know the conference was that dressy and felt out of place in a polo shirt and slacks (this was again my experience). But every industry is different, it depends on where the conference is (hawaii or chicago), how many people are there, who you want to impress, etc.). Nobody will remember if you overdressed but everyone will remember if you were that guy who showed up to a gala in shorts/t-shirt.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30851",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23579/"
] |
30,869 |
<p>It's very important for a research professional (such as a Statistician) who needs to work on multidisciplinary fields to attend international conferences and see what's going around in the field of research. However, sometimes information contained in the websites about the upcoming conferences are too subject specific (e.g. there's so many related to computer science). </p>
<p>Is there any website that 'gathers information' (rather than just providing information from the user submitted ones) on all conferences irrespective of particular subject areas?</p>
<p>If there is any website about conferences that is related to Statistics and the fields which has its use, it'll do for me as well. Thank you for your reading.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30852,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>No. You do not need to wear a suit for presenting at a conference. Most of the times, CS conferences have the typical t-shirt (or shirt), jeans combination of computer / tech guys. </p>\n\n<p>For the dinner, you can dress a little more formally (if you want) but still a suit is not required. In fact, if you are young (<30) , wearing a suit and a tie would probably seem a little weird. </p>\n\n<p>Bottom line: Wear what you usually wear when you go to work for the presentation and a little more formal (nicer) wear for dinner.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30867,
"author": "malarres",
"author_id": 9924,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9924",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If it's not the first iteration of the conference, chances are that you could see past editions of the conference, including some pictures of the dinner, so you can just do what you see.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30882,
"author": "penelope",
"author_id": 4249,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4249",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Basically, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/30852/4249\">what @Alexandros said</a>. Just wanted to add a specific example: a (CS, European) conference I attended last summer got this fancy place for the gala dinner, and they asked the attendees if they could dress in formal wear.</p>\n\n<p>This wasn't quite well received: most people didn't pack a suit (a lot of them traveled with only hand luggage). The collective decisions was to either <em>do the best they could</em> (in the situation) or <em>not really care</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, the dinner was a mixture of some suits and dresses (but mostly on older people, I would guess 30+ or even 40+), most people in pants and shirt combination or half-serious summer dresses (instead of standard T-shirt) plus an odd few wearing crazy print T-shirts and jeans. I've seen a few people come in with a tie, look around and then discreetly take it off and tuck it in their pockets :)</p>\n\n<p>So bottom line is: overall, people at the gala dinner will be slightly less casually dressed than your typical day in the office (in European labs, at least) or conference presentations. Also, it's not uncommon to end up in a bar after the gala, and you probably don't want to overdress and look out-of-place if that happens.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30896,
"author": "Rob",
"author_id": 21446,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21446",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can only tell you my experience at conferences - biomedical in the U.S. - the bio conferences tend to be pretty dressy with most conference goes in sports coats (for guys) and formal pant suits for women. </p>\n\n<p>I would bring a nice shirt/slacks and sports coat, at least you can quickly mold to the situation. I didn't know the conference was that dressy and felt out of place in a polo shirt and slacks (this was again my experience). But every industry is different, it depends on where the conference is (hawaii or chicago), how many people are there, who you want to impress, etc.). Nobody will remember if you overdressed but everyone will remember if you were that guy who showed up to a gala in shorts/t-shirt.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30869",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23414/"
] |
30,871 |
<p>If your undergraduate degree transcript shows that you failed one subject, and in the other you barely passed but still you have a good WAM (say 85) or GPA (say 6.5 out of 7), would those two subjects in your transcript destroy your chances of being admitted?</p>
<p>To be more specific, I graduated last year with a combined degree (Electrical engineering and Mathematics). I got 40 in Digital Fundamentals and 61 in physics. These two subjects were first year, first semester subjects of my undergraduate. All my other grades were greater than 85. My current GPA is 6.8 (out of 7) and my WAM (weighted average mark) is 86 (out of 100). The second time that I did digital fundamentals, I got 96.</p>
<p>I am planning to do a phd in electrical engineering.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30875,
"author": "Bob Brown",
"author_id": 16183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16183",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You're not going to like this, but the answer is, \"it depends.\"</p>\n\n<p>If you flunked computer science, it'll be hard to find a CS program that will take you. If you flunked underwater basket weaving and want admission to a CS program, well, that might work. If \"failed one subject\" means \"failed one course,\" that might not be too bad. If it means \"never passed even one history course, \" not so much.</p>\n\n<p>It also depends on how long it's been since you were an undergraduate. Admissions committees understand that people mature and that a poor showing in the distant past doesn't necessarily mean you'll be a poor scholar today.</p>\n\n<p>To be blunt, it also depends on the school to which you apply. Harvard probably won't take you, but there could be schools that might. Pick a couple, visit them in person with a copy of your transcript, and ask. You'll need an appointment for that personal visit; if you just show up, no telling who will talk to you. You're visiting in person to show them you're serious.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30927,
"author": "user59419",
"author_id": 20608,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20608",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I should say it depends to what school you are applying. GPA is considered as an important factor but I should tell you something. GPA is considered as a negative factor meaning that most of graduate schools have a threshold GPA and if your GPA is below that then you are not considered as a competitive and if your GPA is higher than that then they will consider other factors in your application.\n You see that every graduate school requires you to upload your transcript because transcript shows whether you have have failed the course, have received late drop,have received an incomplete grade and many other things. They also look what course you have taken and what grades you have received in your transcript. Now the answer to your question varies based on your interest.If you want to study electrical Engineering then your Electrical engineering courses are more important for admission and specifically within Electrical Engineering courses those that stress more on your research and your pathway caries more weight. For example, if you are studying communication or control theory physic might not be that big of deal but if you are planning to study solid state or photonics low grade in physic might be a matter of concern. \nImportant point you should consider is that most of graduate schools ask you to upload additional documents such as your personal statement or something similar to that. This lets you explain why you receive a bad grade in your physic and Digital fundamental course and how you improve your grades. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30871",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23394/"
] |
30,872 |
<p>In a couple of either books or articles that I have read as part of my research there have been some minor errors (when taken in context of the whole work) when they relate to the area I am researching. My general research area is History. </p>
<p>For example one is, Area A operated as a B. Wherein fact it should have said Area A operated as a C.</p>
<p>The reasoning I was thinking of referring to them is to highlight while there is good literature on the topic I'm researching, sometimes errors can occur in more general histories which (hopefully) my thesis can address. </p>
<p>Is it appropriate to refer to such errors in that context?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30873,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If such errors in published literature are relevant to the question of your thesis, then yes, it is not only appropriate, but even necessary that you address them.</p>\n\n<p>Otherwise, if the question of your thesis is not affected by these errors, and they are not major problems, I don't think they are important enough to mention in the literature review.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30877,
"author": "paxRoman",
"author_id": 14887,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14887",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think as a rule of thumb: you have to consider what those errors mean. </p>\n\n<p>If they are minor errors (maybe a wrong year for the death of a person or some spelling errors) then let it be. If there are errors that point to something else (especially in your field: History), you have to point to the cause. Are they really errors or is it a movement / conspiracy / something else that causes those errors? It often happens that new political regimes in a country rewrite the history (sometimes by deleting things, sometimes by adding errors or rumors so that the interpretation of various historical events is not clear enough - so that those events will be simply not important enough to be considered for future history books, and so and so forth...). </p>\n\n<p>Or perhaps the historians who wrote those books you want to point to were simply not good enough at doing their job and just copy pasted things here and there, thus helping the wrong information to spread.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30872",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12454/"
] |
30,878 |
<p>I have been reviewing a paper where the authors apply a computational method from an earlier paper they published to a specific system of general relevance. The paper seemed ok, and I recommended major revision in the review.</p>
<p>After submitting the review, I've been working with this computational method myself and discovered that the way the authors applied the method is seriously flawed, so that it makes in general no sense to interpret the result in any way without further tests. If I had noted this problem earlier, I would probably have recommended rejection in my review.</p>
<p>What's the recommended course of action in this situation? Should I notify the editor of this additional discovery, so that the authors can directly take care of it in their (presumably ongoing) revision, or is it better to just wait for a request to review the revised version?</p>
<p>I haven't heard any decision from the journal so far, but I don't think that the paper will be accepted without revisions.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30879,
"author": "DCTLib",
"author_id": 7390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7390",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is certainly advisable to notify the editor, so that she/he can pass on the information to the authors. The editor may or may not take this information into account for the decision. </p>\n\n<p>When sending the information, you may want to offer to write a revised version of the review.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30884,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>What's the recommended course of action in this situation? Should I notify the editor of this additional discovery, so that the authors can directly take care of it in their (presumably ongoing) revision,</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, I think so. This seems to be in the best interest of all involved: you, the authors and the journal. It may be tempting to feel \"embarrassed\" about this or feel loathe to hold up the stately train of the editorial process, but you should resist these temptations: part of being a professional academic is being completely willing to change and adjust to new information and/or new insight you've acquired.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>or is it better to just wait for a request to review the revised version?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No, I don't think so. Put yourself in the authors' shoes: wouldn't you like to have this information as soon as possible? Revising a paper without knowing about a serious -- potentially fatal -- error sounds like it could be a waste of their valuable time. Moreover, the longer they think that the paper will be accepted with revisions, the more disappointed they will be when they learn about the true situation.</p>\n\n<p>I would write up carefully your description of the error as though it were part of the original referee report. In effect this does become a new referee report, but you don't necessarily need to edit this into the old referee report: having already submitted that, the matter of it is to convey the new information. Of course, the final decision about in what manner to inform the authors lies with the editor.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30886,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You should definitely contact the editor as soon as possible. It is not certain that the editor has provided your review to the authors yet and even if the editor has done so, receiving the additional information allows the editor to make additional decisions concerning additional revisions or even rejecting the paper altogether.</p>\n\n<p>So it is vital that you send your additional information as soon as possible.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30888,
"author": "ddiez",
"author_id": 21435,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21435",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to all other excellent recommendations I would just highlight that reporting a flaw in the paper is in your own best interest. Imagine the paper is accepted. Then others will try to reproduce the results or scrutinize the computational methods. If other researchers find flaws in the paper that may force a retraction. Depending on the popularity of the paper that may lead to wonder how it could have been accepted on the first place. In that case the blame usually goes to journals and referees. Although referees are frequently anonymous this hypothetical situation may damage your reputation as a referee in that journal. If referees are not anonymous then your reputation can be even more affected.</p>\n\n<p>On the other side of the coin, if you report a potential flaw and it turns out the flaw does not exists, then probably means the authors needed to give extended explanations- your report will give them the opportunity to do so. That would not affect your reputation- referees' job is to question what its in the manuscript- even when sometimes we may be wrong.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30878",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890/"
] |
30,880 |
<p>I wrote a paper to a journal, which is still under review. Now I need to cite it in another paper that is double-blinded. Is this a problem?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30881,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When it comes to double-blind review, it's up to everyone in the process to respect the blinding. Internet searches and unblind an article very quickly, so everyone who reviews blinded articles knows their not supposed to do it. As long as you follow the blinding instructions, it should be OK.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30883,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Typically, there are two ways to cite yourself in a double-blind paper:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Cite the paper as though it were written by somebody else</li>\n<li>Blank the information in the citation (e.g., \"Blinded paper currently in review\")</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>You should use the first whenever possible, since it is more informative and allows the reviewer to consult the reference. The second case is used when it cannot apply and maintain blinding, like citing the conference version of a paper in an extended version for a journal. Your case is another good example: the paper is under review and so cannot be read by the reviewers in any case, so blanking the citation is fine. The article formatting guidelines may even give you a specific preferred method for doing so.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30880",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23605/"
] |
30,887 |
<p>I notice that some schools, e.g., MIT EECS, has these two non-faculty appointments, Principal Research Scientist and Senior Research Scientist.</p>
<p>At least true for MIT EECS:</p>
<p>Both of them, just as Faculty members, are PI's and can run their own research groups. One difference I know is that Principal Research Scientist's appointment is reviewed every 4 years, whereas Senior Research Scientist's is evaluated every 5 years (as per MIT's website). Yet, this doesn't tell much.</p>
<p>In addition, Principal Research Scientist falls under "Sponsored Research Staff Appointments" category, whereas Senior Research Scientist falls under "Academic Research Staff Appointments". Does this tell something?</p>
<p>What is the exact difference between them and the Faculty members (i.e., professors)?</p>
<p>Why aren't they just called professors?</p>
<p>What are the differences between these two?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30892,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In many U.S. institutions, MIT EECS being one example, there are parallel Professor and Research Scientist career tracks. Typically, they compare as follows:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Professors are required to teach, supervise students, are always primary investigators, can gain tenure, and have 9-month salary paid by the department, with summer pay dependent on external funding. </li>\n<li>Research Scientists are not required to teach (though they often do, particularly graduate seminars), sometimes supervise students, are sometimes primary investigators, cannot gain tenure, and all of their pay is dependent on external funding.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Both tracks have rank denoted by adjective (e.g., \"Assistant, Associate, [], XXX Chair\" for a professor). Typically 'Principal' is higher than 'Senior'---the numbers on the <a href=\"http://www.csail.mit.edu/biographies/PI/biolist.php\" rel=\"nofollow\">MIT EECS pages</a> look to imply the opposite of that, but I am not certain.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30893,
"author": "Joe",
"author_id": 12346,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12346",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>According to the MIT EECS pages, there are two tracks:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Academic Research Staff. These are mostly shorter term (such as a Postdoctoral Fellow), and are funded externally (by grants and similar).</li>\n<li>Sponsored Research Staff. These are longer term appointments which are funded by the department.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Senior Research Scientist is an Academic Research Staff position, because while it is long-term, it is also a position for which the researcher is expected to procure their own funding. </p>\n\n<p>From <a href=\"http://web.mit.edu/policies/5/5.3.html#sub3\" rel=\"nofollow\">5.3</a>, the SRS's funding:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Appointees to this rank generally are expected to raise funds to\n conduct research and cover their own salaries.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Principal Research Scientist is a Sponsored Research Staff position, and is funded by the department (though I'm sure they can get their own funding also, their salary is paid by the department).</p>\n\n<p>From <a href=\"http://web.mit.edu/policies/5/5.2.html#sub1\" rel=\"nofollow\">5.2</a>, the PRS's funding:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Funding responsibility resides with the department, laboratory, or center that is the locus of the appointment. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>From <a href=\"http://web.mit.edu/policies/5/5.1.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">5.1</a> on the difference:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Two types of research appointments are described in the following\n sections: long-term appointments, which are classified as sponsored\n research staff appointments, with the exception of the Senior Research\n Scientist/Associate/ Engineer position; and short-term appointments,\n which are, in general, classified as academic research appointments.</p>\n \n <p>The purpose of the campus research appointment structure is to create\n professional sponsored research staff categories with employee\n benefits and privileges in order to encourage long-term research\n careers at MIT. The concept of long-term professional careers,\n independent of classroom teaching and supported entirely from research\n grants, is not a new one for the American research university. This\n mode of research, with professionals working in departments,\n laboratories, and centers, is an important mechanism for universities\n to maintain research viability, enter new fields, and bring\n researchers to the campus.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It seems evident that Senior RS is basically the same position as PRS, but not funded by the department. In some cases, the PRS could earn more, because (for example) a NIH-funded SRS would be limited by NIH regulations, while a PRS who is funded by the department is only limited by whatever MIT chooses to pay them. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 73149,
"author": "mostlyWright",
"author_id": 58417,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/58417",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For scientists,there are \"Research Scientist\", \"Principal\" and \"Senior\". The latter two can be PIs. The later two also have short term tenure meaning the university will cover their pay for a short term should their funding lapse. I believe for Senior it is one year. Senior are equivalent of full professors in rank and help set the research direction of the whole lab or group. Principals can seek and run their own grants and may or may not have some departmental funding if the dept has large support grants. </p>\n\n<p>Senior is definitely a bigger deal than Principal. There is a big salary step to senior. At MIT Senior is limited to 10% of faculty and principal to 15%. Scientists don't have to teach or have grad students and have no \"tenure clock\". you will typically find them at larger research groups and labs that have dozens if not over a hundred staff and students. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30887",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8079/"
] |
30,897 |
<p>Is it OK to prevent students from using their cellphones during the lecture by stating that in the syllabus?</p>
<p>and how to deal with students who insist on using their cellphones during the lecture?</p>
<p>(Most of what they do is either to text message or to browse the internet. Often I see those who are used to use the cellphones during the lecture smiling or showing something on the phone to the person next to them which might start a side chat. Is that OK to ignore?)</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30901,
"author": "Nicholas",
"author_id": 1424,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1424",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>By stating that you forbid students from using their cellphones in a lecture in a formal manner, you are making a rod for your own back. Some (many? most?) students will continue to use their cellphones during your lecture. Unless you draw attention to this when it happens, students may feel that the rules you have specified in your syllabus are, instead, suggestions, and some of the other rules may similarly be broken.</p>\n\n<p>If your goal is to increase attention, there are other techniques. For instance, make it a habit to engage with the class by asking (easy) questions. Direct one of these at a habitual cellphone user. Even if the user is fiddling with his/her phone at the time, wait until the silence in the class becomes more engaging than facebook/twitter/email. He/she looks up. You have an enquiring face. What's the answer? Don't know. Oh. Anyone else? Point made. Move on.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30911,
"author": "The Almighty Bob",
"author_id": 16086,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16086",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>What is the best policy to deal with students using their cellphones\n inside the class?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In my opinion: Just ignore them. As long as they are not disturbing the class I don't see a point in doing anything.</p>\n\n<p>There are many different reasons for using a mobile phone during class, maybe they have to check something you said in the course material, maybe they just want to check their time or maybe their learning speed is faster than your teaching speed.</p>\n\n<p>What you are trying to fight here seem to be two things:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>The students are distracted by their phones.</li>\n<li>The students are distracting someone else by talking to them.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The first thing is, in my opinion, not your problem. They are old enough to decide for themselves if they want to pay attention or not. You are providing them with the opportunity to learn something and if they take advantage of it is up to them.</p>\n\n<p>The second point is (again, only my opinion) a valid point. However, I think you have the wrong approach here. You can't possibly know if banning mobile phones achieves that goal. The reason for using mobile phones is, most of the time, boredom (for whatever reason) and if not allowed to distract them with their phone they might try to distract them by talking with their neighbor. Therefore, a ban of mobile phones <strong>might</strong> be the cause for more side chats. If you want to reduce these chats maybe you should try it more directly.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it OK to prevent students from using their cellphones during the\n lecture by stating that in the syllabus?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The question should be: Is it OK to try to prevent students from using their cellphones. Here you have (as already said by @Nicholas) a problem of enforceability. Students are still going to use mobile phones (most of them (including me ;-)) don't even have a watch anymore) and then you have the problem that it will be hard to enforce your rule.</p>\n\n<p>Again, I think you are trying to fight two things with your mobile ban: Distraction for themselves (which is, in my opinion) non of your business (and most students would just switch to something else to distract them) and distraction of others by talking to their neighbors. </p>\n\n<p>If you want to fight the second point you should, in my opinion, try to enforce this directly, e.g. by asking them if they have a question (or, if it happened more often, to tell them to shut up or, in the worst case, just kicking them out) or, as @Nicholas suggested, ask them an easy question.\nPersonally, I think it is impossible to distinguish if they are discussing something relevant to the course (which, in my opinion, is great and should not be banned) and irrelevant chats which are a (minor) distraction and should be banned, therefore I tend to ask if there is a question.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30914,
"author": "user3765080",
"author_id": 23632,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23632",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One of my high school math teachers used to make us leave backpacks, phones, even calculators in the front of the classroom during his lecture. This allowed us to spend less time on lectures, but with more dialogue, and gave all of us a feel for how to help each other. Sure, some of us were smarter than others, but when smart students got bored they could raise their hands and ask tougher questions, and when students fell behind, other students who were closer to the same level could offer their own explanations. That wouldn't have been possible if we'd had access to cell phones or even search engines, and it allowed him to more effectively pace his lecture according to class needs.</p>\n\n<p>I don't think there's a universal answer to this question - it's like asking for a 'best' chess opening . . . but a few things to keep in mind:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Cell phones don't just hurt attention span, they hurt class feedback, causing not only a clueless student, but a professor who is largely clueless about 'why' the student is clueless.</li>\n<li>People with phones don't have any idea how distracted they are. Not remotely. Even people who know will repeatedly underestimate the problem.</li>\n<li>The same students who complain about your anti-phone rules during the first week of class will blame you for their lack of understanding during the last week of class.</li>\n<li>Students who are smart enough to get bored of the lecture are often capable of identifying the needs of other students and helping to move the class forward - unless preoccupied by cell phones.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>And on the flip side, a student who is <em>determined</em> to use a cell phone but isn't <em>allowed</em> to use it will invest extra focus in hiding the activity. At that level of determination though, I'd have to agree with Almighty Bob's assessment that the student really does deserve to fall behind. </p>\n\n<p>Good luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47980,
"author": "Allen Seay",
"author_id": 36482,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36482",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Regarding the use of cellphones in class-if I were an instructor, I would make it clear on the first day of class that they don't need to be on cell phones during the class. It can distract others, plus it shows disrespect for the learning environment and the teacher. Stating the issue of cell phones during the lecture by stating that in the syllabus is an excellent approach and needs to be enforced! </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 51724,
"author": "Marie",
"author_id": 38752,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/38752",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One of my colleagues says that any student found using a phone during class will have their final course graded lowered by two letter grades. While that seems draconian to me, one of my students says NO ONE has a phone out during his classes. Don't know if he has ever had to enforce it, but the threat seems to work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 87971,
"author": "NZKshatriya",
"author_id": 63231,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/63231",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>(am not a professor, but am well versed in common sense) My approach would be along these lines: </p>\n\n<p>As long as such activities are not impeding the ability of other students to learn, I would ignore students who are focused on their phones. It is completely within their rights to choose to ignore a lecture, or material that may help them pass a course.</p>\n\n<p>If, however, said phone activity is causing disruption I would ask the student to either put the phone away, or finish the activity elsewhere.</p>\n\n<p>You cannot save everyone, best to focus on those who clearly want to be there.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30897",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9547/"
] |
30,898 |
<p>For a class project in machine learning, I am considering building a set of predictors where the feature set includes information about the topic, keywords in the title, the authors, the date, etc., and the outputs are probability of getting published, expected citation impact, etc. </p>
<p>I would like to choose a single journal such as <em>Nature</em> for example. Will it be possible to collect the necessary data to accomplish this? Anyone have tips on where I can find statistical data about particular research journals?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30901,
"author": "Nicholas",
"author_id": 1424,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1424",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>By stating that you forbid students from using their cellphones in a lecture in a formal manner, you are making a rod for your own back. Some (many? most?) students will continue to use their cellphones during your lecture. Unless you draw attention to this when it happens, students may feel that the rules you have specified in your syllabus are, instead, suggestions, and some of the other rules may similarly be broken.</p>\n\n<p>If your goal is to increase attention, there are other techniques. For instance, make it a habit to engage with the class by asking (easy) questions. Direct one of these at a habitual cellphone user. Even if the user is fiddling with his/her phone at the time, wait until the silence in the class becomes more engaging than facebook/twitter/email. He/she looks up. You have an enquiring face. What's the answer? Don't know. Oh. Anyone else? Point made. Move on.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30911,
"author": "The Almighty Bob",
"author_id": 16086,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16086",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>What is the best policy to deal with students using their cellphones\n inside the class?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In my opinion: Just ignore them. As long as they are not disturbing the class I don't see a point in doing anything.</p>\n\n<p>There are many different reasons for using a mobile phone during class, maybe they have to check something you said in the course material, maybe they just want to check their time or maybe their learning speed is faster than your teaching speed.</p>\n\n<p>What you are trying to fight here seem to be two things:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>The students are distracted by their phones.</li>\n<li>The students are distracting someone else by talking to them.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The first thing is, in my opinion, not your problem. They are old enough to decide for themselves if they want to pay attention or not. You are providing them with the opportunity to learn something and if they take advantage of it is up to them.</p>\n\n<p>The second point is (again, only my opinion) a valid point. However, I think you have the wrong approach here. You can't possibly know if banning mobile phones achieves that goal. The reason for using mobile phones is, most of the time, boredom (for whatever reason) and if not allowed to distract them with their phone they might try to distract them by talking with their neighbor. Therefore, a ban of mobile phones <strong>might</strong> be the cause for more side chats. If you want to reduce these chats maybe you should try it more directly.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it OK to prevent students from using their cellphones during the\n lecture by stating that in the syllabus?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The question should be: Is it OK to try to prevent students from using their cellphones. Here you have (as already said by @Nicholas) a problem of enforceability. Students are still going to use mobile phones (most of them (including me ;-)) don't even have a watch anymore) and then you have the problem that it will be hard to enforce your rule.</p>\n\n<p>Again, I think you are trying to fight two things with your mobile ban: Distraction for themselves (which is, in my opinion) non of your business (and most students would just switch to something else to distract them) and distraction of others by talking to their neighbors. </p>\n\n<p>If you want to fight the second point you should, in my opinion, try to enforce this directly, e.g. by asking them if they have a question (or, if it happened more often, to tell them to shut up or, in the worst case, just kicking them out) or, as @Nicholas suggested, ask them an easy question.\nPersonally, I think it is impossible to distinguish if they are discussing something relevant to the course (which, in my opinion, is great and should not be banned) and irrelevant chats which are a (minor) distraction and should be banned, therefore I tend to ask if there is a question.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30914,
"author": "user3765080",
"author_id": 23632,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23632",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One of my high school math teachers used to make us leave backpacks, phones, even calculators in the front of the classroom during his lecture. This allowed us to spend less time on lectures, but with more dialogue, and gave all of us a feel for how to help each other. Sure, some of us were smarter than others, but when smart students got bored they could raise their hands and ask tougher questions, and when students fell behind, other students who were closer to the same level could offer their own explanations. That wouldn't have been possible if we'd had access to cell phones or even search engines, and it allowed him to more effectively pace his lecture according to class needs.</p>\n\n<p>I don't think there's a universal answer to this question - it's like asking for a 'best' chess opening . . . but a few things to keep in mind:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Cell phones don't just hurt attention span, they hurt class feedback, causing not only a clueless student, but a professor who is largely clueless about 'why' the student is clueless.</li>\n<li>People with phones don't have any idea how distracted they are. Not remotely. Even people who know will repeatedly underestimate the problem.</li>\n<li>The same students who complain about your anti-phone rules during the first week of class will blame you for their lack of understanding during the last week of class.</li>\n<li>Students who are smart enough to get bored of the lecture are often capable of identifying the needs of other students and helping to move the class forward - unless preoccupied by cell phones.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>And on the flip side, a student who is <em>determined</em> to use a cell phone but isn't <em>allowed</em> to use it will invest extra focus in hiding the activity. At that level of determination though, I'd have to agree with Almighty Bob's assessment that the student really does deserve to fall behind. </p>\n\n<p>Good luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47980,
"author": "Allen Seay",
"author_id": 36482,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36482",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Regarding the use of cellphones in class-if I were an instructor, I would make it clear on the first day of class that they don't need to be on cell phones during the class. It can distract others, plus it shows disrespect for the learning environment and the teacher. Stating the issue of cell phones during the lecture by stating that in the syllabus is an excellent approach and needs to be enforced! </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 51724,
"author": "Marie",
"author_id": 38752,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/38752",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One of my colleagues says that any student found using a phone during class will have their final course graded lowered by two letter grades. While that seems draconian to me, one of my students says NO ONE has a phone out during his classes. Don't know if he has ever had to enforce it, but the threat seems to work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 87971,
"author": "NZKshatriya",
"author_id": 63231,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/63231",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>(am not a professor, but am well versed in common sense) My approach would be along these lines: </p>\n\n<p>As long as such activities are not impeding the ability of other students to learn, I would ignore students who are focused on their phones. It is completely within their rights to choose to ignore a lecture, or material that may help them pass a course.</p>\n\n<p>If, however, said phone activity is causing disruption I would ask the student to either put the phone away, or finish the activity elsewhere.</p>\n\n<p>You cannot save everyone, best to focus on those who clearly want to be there.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30898",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
30,900 |
<p>I'm applying to Stanford, which requires 2 letters of recommendation from teachers, due in 2 days.</p>
<p>Both teachers have known about this since mid-September, but one of them hasn't submitted his letter. I've asked him, and he tells me that he has one prepared, but he hasn't submitted it yet.</p>
<p>I can't add a third letter that would qualify because of the way that the common application works.</p>
<p>Should I wait for the deadline to pass, hoping that he turns his letter in at the last minute?</p>
<p>Or should I ask someone else to write a letter in his place?</p>
<p>I'm mainly considering the first option, because I have no reason not to trust him, <s>but I'm not sure what will happen if he doesn't pull through.</s></p>
<p>Turns out that they <em>do</em> accept letters of recommendation after the deadline, so long as the application is in on time.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30912,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Politely and very gently remind the professor that the letter of recommendation is due. That's really all you can do. If your professors says they will submit it on time, try to believe them.</p>\n\n<p>As you have found out after posting the question, to the extent that it doesn't hold up other parts of their process, people on admissions committees understand that your flakey letter writers don't mean that <em>you</em> are flakey and will usually do what they can to accept or consider late letters. Often, departments will remind students or letter writers that their letters are missing, at, or even after, a deadline.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30952,
"author": "Franck Dernoncourt",
"author_id": 452,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/452",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Prior to the application deadline I would send an email along these lines (taken from <a href=\"https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-etiquette-for-sending-reminder-emails-to-professors-writing-recommendations-for-you/answer/Cindy-Au-1\" rel=\"nofollow\">Cindy Au on Quora</a>):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Dear Professor [Professor's name], </p>\n \n <p>The deadline for submitting letter of recommendation for [name of\n graduate program/ fellowship] is quickly approaching. I would like to\n inquire if there is still any document I can supply to make your\n writing easier. </p>\n \n <p>I understand that this is a very hectic time in the school year and\n thus can't thank you enough for your time and support. </p>\n \n <p>Respectfully yours,</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You can also \"accidentally\" try to run across the teacher around his/her lab or class location, or simply drop by his/her office, but it really depends on teacher's style as some might be a bit annoyed. For most the email should be enough. Academics are used to deadlines (and last-minute submissions).</p>\n\n<p>When I was applying for grad schools I applied for a fellowship whose deadline was 15 days before grad schools' deadlines, so that gave me two weeks of safety (I didn't care about the fellowship as it was conditioned on me returning to my home country after the PhD), but anyway if you trust a professor enough to write a recommendation letter for you, you can also trust that he will submit on time. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 186220,
"author": "Sherri Lynn Conklin",
"author_id": 157654,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/157654",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There's sort of an unspoken rule that writers will not always get letters in on time and letters are frequently accepted late. But late acceptance usually depends on how prestigious the thing you're applying to is. Your case is iffy. The general rule is to write early and often: Two months, one month, two weeks, one week, two days, day of, and shameful "you're late email" and a follow up with the program about whether they're still accept your letter. The place you're applying to will also, often, send reminder emails to the writer.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30900",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23629/"
] |
30,904 |
<p>I am looking at graduate schools and one of the things I would like to know about the schools I'm looking at is where recent graduates are now. I realize that contacting the colleges individually would certainly work. However, there are a lot of colleges out there, and it is untenable to ask them all individually. Is there a place where this kind of thing is available online? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30906,
"author": "seteropere",
"author_id": 532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is there a place where this kind of thing is available online?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No. Not to my knowledge.</p>\n\n<p>Some departments list where (some) of their graduates go after finishing their PhD. Your best source of information is your potential advisor webpage. Some professors mention where his/her PhD students go after finishing their degree while others mention only the names. </p>\n\n<p>In the latter case, one simple way is to Google their names; you may get an idea where are they now. Another is to look for your potential advisor recent publications that are co-authored by his/her graduated students. You may know where are they now by their affiliation. </p>\n\n<p>If you still do not have a potential advisor, a random sample over the faculty members in your department may be sufficient. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30907,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If your looking at PhD's who presumably wanted to go on to academic careers, and if you can get a list of the graduates from a particular year, then you can generally track those people down by searching for them using Google. Most people who've remained in academia have at least some presence on the web. Folks who go to work in industry often become invisible. </p>\n\n<p>The hard part is getting a list of graduates from a particular year. This can sometimes be done using commencement programs. I have done this using the mathematics genealogy project at:</p>\n\n<pre><code>[http://genealogy.math.ndsu.nodak.edu/][1]\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Despite the name, this database has records for computer science, mathematics, and statistics graduates from many institutions. You can search by institution name and year of PhD (e.g. I'm Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1992.) </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30909,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you're looking for graduates who went to private companies, you may try LinkedIn. In theory, the private companies' keep their list of employees private. With the heavy use of LinkedIn, it's easier to search for people who went to certain schools and work/worked at certain companies. The problem is that the information is not readily available to people who don't have any connections to the schools and the companies. </p>\n\n<p>Of course, there are always people who are so private that they don't sign up for LinkedIn.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30904",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7701/"
] |
30,916 |
<p>Is there any extensive research/study/survey that looked at what percentage of people who left academia were happy with their decision after X years?</p>
<p>I mostly interested in the computer science field (machine learning) in the US, but curious about other fields and locations as well.</p>
<p>People leaving academia can be PhD students or after (tenure-track, tenured, soft-money research positions, national lab researchers, etc.).</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30931,
"author": "Xxxo",
"author_id": 20121,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20121",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well, I cannot think a reason that such a study should be either thought of doing or published... It lacks in many aspects (strictly speaking of study) and has really many dependencies (e.g. economical, political, cultural, scientific discipline, field in the discipline and others). </p>\n\n<p>What I think that you actually seeking is some sort of justification for preferring one after the other. Since I can only speak of my self, I will try to present my point of view. </p>\n\n<p>Professional and academic \"worlds\" are interconnected. Neither is better, \"scientificier\", more correct or anything than the other. Actually, (I believe that) it is supposed that academia is the more risky research department of a society, where by \"risky\" I mean research that mostly not results in a commercial ready product. But academia involves also teaching, where by teaching means that you have to pass to others what you know. </p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, professional world is not only sales. It has development, implementations and other really interesting parts (at least to me). Of course, without sales there would not be any actual \"sales\"... but that's something that I cannot discuss because I think my self as a little biased on that subject. Professional world has also patents, applied knowledge, problem solving on implementation (and not in simulation) and actually making things that work all the time.. not only in the lab or at the presentation. I think that you can image what would happened if your car, your kitchen, your laptop and all the other facilities worked as most things in academia presentations, applications etc.. Armageddon!</p>\n\n<p>Finally, a PhD is not only a way for an academic career. It is also a good way for creating a start-up company! Or obtaining patents! Especially of you get paid during your PhD. </p>\n\n<p>So, what someone should choose must not be based on \"how most people felt\" but on which enviroment feels better and what goals this person have, i.e. wants to create things that actually work? things that are used as they are by many? Or teach and conduct research for unsolved problems or in order to optimize existing implementations?</p>\n\n<p>And a final tip, if you are thinking on starting a PhD for pursuing an academic career then you choose it for the wrong reason (at least on my perspective). A PhD should be started for satisfying the inner need of research and not because taken as a career solving degree. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 50084,
"author": "y0gapants",
"author_id": 27927,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27927",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I believe some of the national longitudinal surveys would cover this for the US. </p>\n\n<p>For instance, the <a href=\"http://www.bls.gov/nls/nlspressreleases.htm#anchy79\" rel=\"nofollow\">National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort</a> started tracking \"middle school\" age students in 1979 and is still tracking them. They have hundreds to thousands of attributes including education and many measures of health and happiness (though not all are updated every year). </p>\n\n<p>Another example is the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30916",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/452/"
] |
30,924 |
<p>For some of my more difficult and early morning tests, I will buy coffee and bring it with me into the exam. My hope is that the caffeine will help me be fully alert, think more clearly, and write answers more quickly.</p>
<p>However, I know that drinking caffeine puts me in a slightly different state of mind physiologically than my classmates. Is it fair for me to drink caffeinated beverages at tests? If it isn't, is it merely something rude that would be nice for me to stop, or a form of mild cheating that I would be wise to admit to and discuss with my professors?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30925,
"author": "doomoor",
"author_id": 22592,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22592",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Working in computer science and looking at the consume of caffeinated beverages in the department I'm wondering: Is it possible to work without? Seriously, you are legally allowed to buy this stuff and as long as it is not forbidden by any rule of your university it is totally fine to do so (<strong>edit:</strong> As long as you fit 'social norms'). Some people will eat dextrose/glucose or do other things they think will help them. Everybody has his/her own ritual I guess. </p>\n\n<p>Taking other drugs to be able to learn better is a whole different story but here I don't see any problem as long as your university allows it. So it is neither rude nor any form of cheating.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30926,
"author": "Jan",
"author_id": 23651,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23651",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>That would be totally acceptable. Remember, you are also in a totally different state if you went to the toilet right before the exam. If you drank a litre of water in the morning. If you ate something for breakfast that happens to contain lots of short-chained carbohydrates, providing lots of energy for your brain.</p>\n\n<p>You have to draw the line somewere and coffee is definitely acceptable, if not expected.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Edit:</strong>\nAs several comments suggest, your other question about rudeness because of smelling beverages: that's different from course to course, and you will probably have to employ some degree of common sense there. People are usually not bothered by coffee smell as opposed to french fries or the sounds of eating potato crisps. If in doubt, just ask your TA or fellow students <em>before</em> going to the exam.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30929,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You might find that your university policy prohibits any beverages except water during exams. Coffee has a strong aroma that can be distracting, especially to the less-awake students who might then crave coffee.</p>\n\n<p>Even if coffee had no aroma, it would still be distracting. A cup of tea or coffee is usually pretty identifiable by sight. If someone walks into my office with a mug of green tea, I usually want a mug of tea myself long before I can smell it. <em>\"That guy 20m away is drinking some unidentified hot beverage. Now I want coffee!\"</em></p>\n\n<p>Sure, the consumption of coffee <em>beforehand</em> should be fair and allowed in any country where it's a legal and commonly consumed drug - chances are many classmates drink it too. You still have to have learned the material in order for the coffee to help you remember it. It's just not fair to be distracting to others during a test.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30932,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my classes, students bring coffee to my exams all the time. When I have to give early morning exams, <em>I</em> often bring a jug of coffee and paper cups, and offer cups of coffee to the students for free, as a way to help their scores. </p>\n\n<p>There are deep philosophical questions about whether it's even possible to \"cheat\" using drugs. It comes down to whether one views \"cheating\" as defined by the rules of the institution, or as an ethical violation that goes beyond the written rules. </p>\n\n<p>Most actual cheating policies ban sharing or receiving information during the exam, but make no mention of performance-enhancing drugs (e.g. Adderall). Some universities do have policies about misusing prescription drugs, e.g. <a href=\"http://studentaffairs.duke.edu/conduct/z-policies/academic-dishonesty\">the policy at Duke University</a>. But the policies at my university make no mention of performance-enhancing drugs. Although possessing prescription drugs without a prescription may be somewhat illegal, it would not be a violation of any academic \"cheating\" rules at my school.</p>\n\n<p>I doubt any school has rules against caffeine, however. Note that the Duke statement only refers to <em>prescription</em> drugs -- that is surely intentional. In the U.S., apart from a few religious groups, drinking coffee is perfectly acceptable as a way to improve concentration. </p>\n\n<p>Your school is probably more likely to worry about the mess it would make if you spill your coffee than about the benefit you receive by drinking it. So, unless someone asks you to stop, you shouldn't worry about it. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30937,
"author": "DMCoding",
"author_id": 23663,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23663",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One of my students admitted to me that he took a harmless and side-effect free sugar pill before a stressful exam in order to benefit from the placebo effect, which placed him in a different state of mind to his cohort, unfairly enhancing his cognitive capabilities. Needless to say, he was summarily dismissed.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30938,
"author": "Ivo Beckers",
"author_id": 23665,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23665",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>At the university I went there where plastic cups available at the entrance and if you wanted coffee or tea you could take a cup and put it on your desk if you wanted coffee and upside down on your desk if you wanted tea. Then when the test started a coffee lady would walk by and fill your cup if you had one. This leads me to think that it is acceptable (if not commonplace) to have coffee in the exam.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30950,
"author": "Superbest",
"author_id": 244,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/244",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I think the salient point in your question can be more explicitly stated as:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What determines which advantages are fair and which are unfair to have during an exam?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Going to the extreme for fair advantages: Is not being sick on the exam day cheating? Is not being hungry cheating? Is not staying up the night before cheating? Is attending every lecture and study session fair? Is studying for the exam fair? Is being more intelligent than your classmates fair? Is always marking the correct answer fair? Is lucking out and having exam question be on something you happen to be very experienced with (database question for a seasoned database programmer) fair?</p>\n\n<p>All of these are obviously fine. Yet consider the other extreme:</p>\n\n<p>Is smoking during the exam fair? Is taking Adderall fair? Is doing cocaine before the exam fair? Is hacking the instructor's computer to get answers fair? Is manipulating the TA to trick them into revealing answers to you fair? Is bringing a cheatsheet or phone with you fair? Is making someone else take the test with you fair?</p>\n\n<p>These aren't qualitatively different from the previous group. Sure, some are distinguished by being illegal (hacking) but many are accepted ways of improving performance in all but exam contexts (having reference materials at hand, looking up things you don't know online, collaborating with peers).</p>\n\n<p>I posit to resolve this as follows: Exams are not a meritocracy. The point isn't to enforce some sort of egalitarian principle or to \"let the best man win\". The exam is part of the course, and the aim of the course is to make students proficient with the course material. The exam exists as a target for the students to aim for as they are independently studying and preparing.</p>\n\n<p>If you agree to this point, then the question of what is fair becomes trivial: The instructor allows as \"fair\" any behavior that they deem conducive to learning.</p>\n\n<p>For example, studying for days on end may be unfair to students who don't have as much time to study, but encouraging students to study benefits learning, so instructors deem it fair and sanction it.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, stealing exam questions beforehand is an extremely effective way to do \"well\" on the exam, but not only do you learn nothing this way, if you get caught and punished there may be severe consequences for your future career. Theft of questions is a mechanism by which the exam is enabled to act as a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive\" rel=\"noreferrer\">perverse incentive</a>. The instructor, therefore, tries to remedy this by specifically banning this mechanism. That such banned mechanism are called \"unfair\" (as if to imply some egalitarian or justicial purpose) is, I think, an artifact of language.</p>\n\n<p>Coming back to your question:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it fair for me to drink caffeine during tests?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Let's accept the premise that drinking coffee increases your performance (I am skeptical of this).</p>\n\n<p>Is this conducive to the learning process? There is a tiny positive effect - your brain performing better during the exam means you will be more likely to experience those moments of really grasping a concept when you are forced to use it during the exam.</p>\n\n<p>Does it facilitate a perverse incentive? Dubious. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>If the caffeine helps mental performance that much, students will probably start drinking it during courses or when they study, which means their learning will be <em>enhanced</em>.</li>\n<li>If they drink only during the exam, their score will be slightly inflated compared to other students. But the effect is tiny and self-damping: The more effective coffee proves to be, the more students will start drinking it, and everyone will end up on equal footing anyway.</li>\n<li>The smell of coffee may slightly disadvantage other students, which has a very small positive effect on your grade if the exam is graded on a curve. However, the effect is tiny, and if any student feels otherwise, they can always complain and ask you to remove the offending beverage.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Taken together, it seems like there's a few positive and a few negative effects, but all are very small. The only thing being meaningfully incentivized is the business of the coffee shop - but this does not detract from the learning process.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, some people enjoy drinking coffee, it makes them feel more comfortable in the exam, and if it lets them believe they have control over their performance and have \"stacked the deck\" in their own favor, the psychological motivation may contribute to a more positive attitude towards the course in general. Altogether, when you are trying to teach someone something, it probably works better if they are physically comfortable rather than not. So I don't think it should be considered unfair or banned, unless students are very clumsy and constantly spill the coffee, litter by leaving empty cups around, or otherwise go about it in an unacceptable manner.</p>\n\n<p>As an addendum, with more \"hardcore\" performance enhancing drugs, this may not be the case. For example, instructors would most likely be against taking drugs like Adderall (although this is very difficult to enforce) because it would incentivize the abuse of these drugs. Adderall abuse has serious harmful consequences, unlike caffeine abuse which is not commonly thought to be harmful.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30954,
"author": "Always Asking",
"author_id": 23610,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23610",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My short answer is <strong>Yes</strong>. You can drink as much coffee as you want.</p>\n\n<p>I've studied in 4 universities and had many exams in my academic life. I've systematically experimented different ways to boost my performance in exams. I've experimented with sugar-rich snacks, coffee, prayers, meditation, and a few more. I know my experiments would not stand scientific scrutiny and you should take them with a grain of salt but they gave me an insight into what actually matters.</p>\n\n<p>The difference coffee made in my exams was insignificant. I can assert the same thing about effects of chocolate, sugary drinks, meditation, and prayer. The only thing that seemed to be directly correlated to my performance was amount of practice before exam. Whenever I locked myself in the library and studied the course material hard, I did well in the exams regardless of anything else. I also did poorly in easy exams when I didn't prepare.</p>\n\n<p>So drink coffee with no guilt because you are not manipulating your performance.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30964,
"author": "user15896",
"author_id": 23688,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23688",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>EDIT:</p>\n\n<p>Just openly bring your coffee mug and you'll see on the faces of the staff and students if it's a good idea or not. Simple as that.</p>\n\n<p>*It's not unfair because (1) anyone can do it and (2) it's not a competition.</p>\n\n<p>*It's not cheating if it's allowed, and the effects are surely minimal anyway.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Why would fairness enter the equation at all? You will be graded according to <em>your</em> performance, not relative to others. It's not a competition, it's an individual appraisal. Besides, anyone is free to drink coffee if they want to.</p>\n\n<p>In any case, I don't think coffee or any other drug taken during the exam would have much of an effect. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30970,
"author": "jNaylor",
"author_id": 23691,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23691",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When there are thousands of ways to be proficient at any given subject, hundreds of ways to learn and execute the skills required to be successful at any given subject, and a million ways to fail... Is it fair to measure a student's proficiency with only a narrow sliver of a window into said student's ability provided by a paper test in the first place?</p>\n\n<p>I say absolutely not; And limiting the student's scope of success to what one person (or few people) think is the 'correct' application of a concept is setting education back hundreds of years, and is entirely unfair to the students and society at large.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, do what you have to do to get out of that trap so you can move on to the real world where you're going to be applying those skills and concepts as a matter of survival-- where you're free to drink as much coffee as you want, and use as many calculators and references as you need to get the job done. Don't ignore the lessons! Just get through the tests without worrying about fairness- the world isn't a fair place anyway, and you're the only one responsible for being good at what you do; Not the education system; So who cares if it's fair that you drink coffee? As long as you pass your tests and enter the professional world as a reliable quality producer of goods and services.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30976,
"author": "emory",
"author_id": 3849,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3849",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am a caffeine abstainer. I don't drink coffee because I can't stand it. The caffeine in the coffee might give you an advantage over me, but it would be the same advantage in the workplace (where I also don't drink coffee). So I think it is fair.</p>\n\n<p>The day I took a standardized test that helped determine my academic career, the weather was really hot. Everyone showed up to the test center wearing summer clothing. I was the only one to bring a jacket in my bag. The test center cranked up the A/C and I put my jacket on. Was my comfort cheating?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31027,
"author": "Petr",
"author_id": 1531,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1531",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This would only be unethical if you'd be gaining an advantage that is unavailable to other students. For example, if coffee would be prohibited, but you'd use it despite of that, or if it were too expensive for others to obtain. But as long as caffeine is socially acceptable, readily available for everybody and allowed at the exams, it's a fair choice for every body to use it or not.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30924",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6030/"
] |
30,933 |
<p>Suppose you have a diagram in a bachelor's thesis (which is written in English) with one axis</p>
<p>"mean stroke count"</p>
<p>and the other</p>
<p>"standard deviation"</p>
<p>Should the first letter of "mean" and "standard" be uppercase?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30936,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There's no fixed rule that applies here. You should check if the style guide the publisher to whom you are submitting the paper has a guideline. If not, feel free to use whichever convention you'd like, but be consistent throughout a given paper. Don't change from one to the other haphazardly. </p>\n\n<p>In the case of a school document (thesis, etc.), your university probably has a recommended style guide; follow those guidelines instead.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30941,
"author": "Penguin_Knight",
"author_id": 6450,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6450",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>From a general survey of style books, <strong><em>yes</em></strong>, at least the first alphabet should be capitalized:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>American Medical Association Manual of Style: Title format (e.g. Average Consumption Index, %)</li>\n<li>Chicago Manual of Style: Sentence format (e.g. Average consumption index, %)</li>\n<li>Scientific Style and Format (Cambridge): Sentence format</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>An easy way to see this: axis labels are akin to the row and column titles in a table. If those titles are generally capitalized (which is the norm), then the axis title should also follow. So, I'd recommend at least follow the sentence style capitalization rule. This is not to say lower case titles are absolutely wrong, but I am sure they will raise more eyebrows in a bad way.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30933",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4092/"
] |
30,943 |
<p>I am teaching at a relatively large, public institution in the United States. I have assigned my students a research paper related to the thermodynamics of human biology. I have asked the students for a project summary including several anticipated citations, and one student has included a paper from the journal <a href="https://www.creationresearch.org/index.php/extensions/crs-quarterly">"Creation Research Society Quarterly"</a> as an anticipated citation.</p>
<p>As far as I can tell, this is a reputable journal in the sense that it is not predatory. However, I'm concerned that the perspective of the journal, including <a href="https://www.creationresearch.org/index.php/extensions/crs-quarterly">"Fresh perspectives on science and society as impacted by origins"</a> will not be compatible with accepted scientific theories (and here I use theory in the rigorous, scientific sense that means established according to all scientific evidence, rather than in the colloquial sense that means hypotheses). Moreover, the <a href="https://www.creationresearch.org/index.php/about-crs/statement-of-belief">"Statement of Belief"</a> published by the Creation Research Society explicitly states the religious motivations of the organization, whose viewpoints are generally considered incompatible with accepted scientific theory.</p>
<p>I have not read the article that the student intends to cite, so I do not know the information contained within that article and its perspective on the subject required for the assignment. Nevertheless, my general questions are: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Should I encourage this student to seek out alternate sources for this assignment? Before doing this in my specific case, I should obviously read the paper the student will cite, but consider the case that I have read the paper and I am concerned about the scientific validity of the article.</p></li>
<li><p>If so, how can I do that without encroaching on his freedom of religious expression?</p></li>
<li><p>Finally, how can I fairly grade the scientific content of an assignment that presents a viewpoint opposed to established theories, such as the Theory of Evolution?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>(It is not my intention here to begin a discussion on the merits of various hypotheses/theories related to religion and science, and I would note that this question could very easily be posed from the other direction. This is obviously a very complicated and fraught area, and I hope I have not caused offense in my presentation.)</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30944,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A good way to think about this is to de-charge the religious aspect of the question by considering a parallel situation involving an equally dubious published paper with no religious aspects, <a href=\"http://retractionwatch.com/2013/02/22/way-out-there-paper-claiming-to-merge-physics-and-biology-retracted/\">such as this one</a>. What would you do if a student wanted to cite such a piece of nonsense as support for their claims in a paper?</p>\n\n<p>Rather than simply prohibiting the citation, you can treat this as a teaching opportunity to talk about how to determine the credibility of a scientific paper. It is, of course, certain that the paper that the student wishes to cite will fail any reasonable test, given the notoriety of the journal involved and its complete disconnect from the rest of the scientific literature. This is also an excellent opportunity to talk about how in science publication is not the end, but the start of the real conversation.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps rather than immediately talking to the individual student, you can take a few minutes in class to talk about how to evaluate a paper and its place within the scientific community. Compare a nice strong peer-reviewed paper to a lunatic one like that linked above, both of which are completely secular in nature. Then explain that part of what students will be graded on in their assignment is their ability to evaluate references. This gives you good grounds to warn the student that their citation is a problem without even having to bring religion into the picture, as well as teaching the whole class some valuable information.</p>\n\n<p>Let the creationist citation fail on its scientific (lack of) merits, rather than making this an argument about authority and belief. The beauty of science is that, in the long run, authority and belief are simply irrelevant. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_yet_it_moves\"><em>Eppur si muove</em></a>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 38993,
"author": "Oedhel Setren",
"author_id": 29481,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29481",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My feeling on this is it's their paper. This is college, not high school. If you want to cite a religious journal in a biology paper, it better be a damn good citation or come with follow up citations from other journals. </p>\n\n<p>To be honest, I wouldn't address it at all based on the principal that all academic papers should be thoroughly researched. If you want to start giving heads up on what journals not to use, be prepared to never move on from that topic. Some people just lack the proper level of judgement for these things and no amount of teaching will get them to understand. </p>\n\n<p>I would say grade all the papers fairly on content. Anyone who used sketchy information, without further citations to help support their view, should be docked points simply for failing to write a proper paper. </p>\n\n<p>Hand holding is over-this is college, there are REAL academic aspirations out there that need your guidance and spending time explaining that creationism doesn't belong in thermal dynamic biology is only taking away from people who can improve.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30943",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7346/"
] |
30,947 |
<p>During a one year of postdoc of mine in pure mathematics, I didn't publish anything. I definitely did a research report and wrote down the main questions (in the form of conjectures) we were after and some ideas on how they could be solved. I'm now doing a new postdoc in an applied area as my next postdoc, and I was wondering whether it's okay/encouraged/discouraged/harmful to mention that research report in my list of publications/pre-prints. Clearly, it's just an expository report without proving any new results, which will never be published or even put on arXiv, but it does reflect the fact that I was not idle during my postdoc. </p>
<p>What do you think?
Thanks!</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30944,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A good way to think about this is to de-charge the religious aspect of the question by considering a parallel situation involving an equally dubious published paper with no religious aspects, <a href=\"http://retractionwatch.com/2013/02/22/way-out-there-paper-claiming-to-merge-physics-and-biology-retracted/\">such as this one</a>. What would you do if a student wanted to cite such a piece of nonsense as support for their claims in a paper?</p>\n\n<p>Rather than simply prohibiting the citation, you can treat this as a teaching opportunity to talk about how to determine the credibility of a scientific paper. It is, of course, certain that the paper that the student wishes to cite will fail any reasonable test, given the notoriety of the journal involved and its complete disconnect from the rest of the scientific literature. This is also an excellent opportunity to talk about how in science publication is not the end, but the start of the real conversation.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps rather than immediately talking to the individual student, you can take a few minutes in class to talk about how to evaluate a paper and its place within the scientific community. Compare a nice strong peer-reviewed paper to a lunatic one like that linked above, both of which are completely secular in nature. Then explain that part of what students will be graded on in their assignment is their ability to evaluate references. This gives you good grounds to warn the student that their citation is a problem without even having to bring religion into the picture, as well as teaching the whole class some valuable information.</p>\n\n<p>Let the creationist citation fail on its scientific (lack of) merits, rather than making this an argument about authority and belief. The beauty of science is that, in the long run, authority and belief are simply irrelevant. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_yet_it_moves\"><em>Eppur si muove</em></a>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 38993,
"author": "Oedhel Setren",
"author_id": 29481,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29481",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My feeling on this is it's their paper. This is college, not high school. If you want to cite a religious journal in a biology paper, it better be a damn good citation or come with follow up citations from other journals. </p>\n\n<p>To be honest, I wouldn't address it at all based on the principal that all academic papers should be thoroughly researched. If you want to start giving heads up on what journals not to use, be prepared to never move on from that topic. Some people just lack the proper level of judgement for these things and no amount of teaching will get them to understand. </p>\n\n<p>I would say grade all the papers fairly on content. Anyone who used sketchy information, without further citations to help support their view, should be docked points simply for failing to write a proper paper. </p>\n\n<p>Hand holding is over-this is college, there are REAL academic aspirations out there that need your guidance and spending time explaining that creationism doesn't belong in thermal dynamic biology is only taking away from people who can improve.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30947",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6259/"
] |
30,955 |
<p>I am co-teaching a relatively large class with two other colleagues in a big university. Each semester, most students are amazing, trustworthy, and well-behaved and it is a pleasure to work with my students. But there is a very small group of students each semester who cheat and I don't know how to deal with them. </p>
<p>The university has a detailed, strict, and elaborate policy for dealing with cheating. We send students suspected of cheating to a special committee where they decide if the student actually did anything wrong. The committee demands a copious amount of evidence before it convicts any student, yet at the same time, the university policy is so restrictive that we cannot collect evidence. For example, we are not allowed to do anything that indicates or suggest a student may have cheated. We are not allowed to mark their papers, move them during exams, or even talk to them. This means that most students get away with cheating if they are sent to the committee. Students who have copied identical answers from a neighbor over and over in quizzes got away with it in the committee. This process is so pointless that the course coordinator does not report most of the cases to the committee anymore.</p>
<p>I don't mind that a few students get away with cheating but the universities' restrictive policy shuts all the doors to any further discussion with the students. <strong>I am not looking for ways to punish my students. I want them to understand why cheating is unfair to other students and, hence, unacceptable.</strong> I want them to understand integrity and honesty are far more valuable traits than getting good grades in college.</p>
<p>Any suggestion on how I can communicate these ideas and their importance to my students?</p>
<hr>
<p>Edit:</p>
<p>I am sorry for not being clear. My question is not about how to prevent cheating. It is bout how to have a conversation with cheaters.</p>
<p>We do what we can to prevent cheating. We randomly seat students, make two copies of the exams, assign a good portion the final grade to labs, and use various other techniques. This question is about reaching to the cheaters and having a discussion with them.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30958,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Since you speak of \"a small group who cheat,\" it sounds like most of the students do understand the policies and importance of honesty. That remaining small group who cheats? Nothing that you do or say is going to convince them not to cheat.</p>\n\n<p>Likewise, university policies often make it hard to actually punish cheaters, because they begin with the presumption of innocence, which is generally a good idea.</p>\n\n<p>A better way to approach the problem is to adopt a \"layered defense\" strategy of a number of small actions that reduce the cost/benefit ratio available from cheating. Some of the sorts of strategies that I have seen include:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Increasing the separation between desks</li>\n<li>Randomized assigned seating, which is likely to break up cheating conspiracies</li>\n<li>Printing less questions per page, with lots of white-space for working the problems, so that an answer will not be visible for as long a period of time</li>\n<li>Problems that are based on \"showing your work\" rather than obtaining the right answer.</li>\n<li>Problems with many possible solutions, that convert copying into plagiarism.</li>\n<li>Putting more credit into projects and labs, rather than exams.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>None of these alone will solve the problem, but the more of them you can enact, the harder it is for cheaters to prosper. Some of them may even help the non-cheating students, by forcing them to engage more deeply with the material. The balance, of course, is that it all takes time and effort from the instructors and TAs, so you need to make your own cost/benefit analysis as well.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30960,
"author": "Bob Brown",
"author_id": 16183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16183",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your question was how to \"communicate these ideas and their importance\" to your students.</p>\n\n<p>Sadly, you cannot. These students will cheat as long as it works for them, as you have already observed.</p>\n\n<p>You can cut down on cheating by using jakebeal's suggestions in his answer.</p>\n\n<p>I teach in the field of computing. The idea (of Jake's) that works best is supervised practical labs. Give the students homework, but make them come to the lab and produce a program. If they've cheated on the homework, they won't be able to do it. When they fail the lab, which should be a significant part of the grade, perhaps they will learn why they should not cheat. (My experience is that even that doesn't work. It <em>does</em> help cheaters pave their path to the exit.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30962,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Randomize the questions on the quiz so that they can't cheat off their neighbors. You're approaching the problem administratively, when I think you can deal with it pedagogically. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30967,
"author": "jb.",
"author_id": 117,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/117",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are worried about whether students copy each other answers on exam just split them into groups, with each group having different (but similary difficult) questions, then arrange seating in such way that neighbours will be in different groups. This will make cheating much harder. </p>\n\n<p>This arrangement is quite popular in Poland. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30968,
"author": "user3765080",
"author_id": 23632,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23632",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<ul>\n<li>Don't present it as a plagiarism/honesty problem so much as an originality/understanding problem. Problems need victims. The victim of my plagiarism problem might be a willing or eager one. Or maybe I paid him. Or maybe I don't care. The victim of my originality problem is myself, and my future, and my career. </li>\n<li>Have them peer-review each other. Most students care about a professor's opinion, but they're stuck with each other for the rest of their lives, particularly if they're all going into the same profession to get published by the same journals or build the same industries. They can convince each other that tests are silly, temporary metrics and that cheating is no harm, no foul . . . but concepts of character and dignity will hit much closer to home for students who have to produce comments about each other's originality.</li>\n<li>Have them produce questions about each other's codes, proofs, theorems, or whatever the subject matter is. If it's a technical class in which many answers are likely to look identical whether they are produced honestly or not, commenting on each other's work might be redundant. But producing questions requires creativity in <em>every</em> field, and answering those questions for each other requires basic conceptual understanding.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30978,
"author": "Ornello",
"author_id": 23374,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23374",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you print the tests with the questions distributed randomly, so that question #7 on one test is question number 17 on another, and the correct answer to each question is also randomized, that seems to me a good solution to students looking at one another's answers.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30997,
"author": "Kate Gregory",
"author_id": 12693,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12693",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Serious question: why is cheating unfair to the other students? Do you bell your grades? If a handful of students get 90 who should have got 70, will all the rest of the students see their marks drop 1 or 2% to compensate? If you don't officially bell, do you do so mentally (class average on that midterm was 82; I had better make the second one a little harder) ?</p>\n\n<p>If not, then how is it unfair to the other students that some cheat? It is unfair to <strong>themselves</strong> since they will have the mark but not the knowledge to go with it. They will probably blow a job interview or two. They may struggle in next year's courses that assume they know this year's material. They are hurting themselves compared to genuinely learning the material. They cheat for one of two reasons:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>they don't care if they learn the material or not; it is of no value to them and they only want the mark</li>\n<li>they are unable to learn the material in the time they can allot to doing so</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If you want to change their behaviour, you'll need to change one of these two things. Either show them how what they are learning will be of value to them, or find a way to help them learn it better.</p>\n\n<p>Examples of the first:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Today we will learn to normalize a database. This is a common technique when [whatever] and CSC 203, DSC 307 and most grad courses here all assume you're thoroughly capable at this technique</li>\n<li>The next few lectures cover this history and motivations of the X technique. I've heard that students who know this material well do very well in job interviews for Y positions, because the interviewers are always asking about this topic</li>\n<li>By the end of this term you will know how to ABC. This is the most common task assigned to new hires who've just graduated from our DEF program, which is why this course is required for all of you. While I hope you all get high marks in this course, what's really important is that you master the technique: there's about an 80% chance that you'll spend your first working year doing this, for an employer who won't help you if you find it difficult. The TAs and I are here to make sure you're comfortable with it by the time you leave us</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Sure, this is work. As an adjunct myself, I don't always know what things I teach actually matter in what other courses the university offers - I don't have the curriculum memorized. I do have a little more insight into the job picture than some other profs. Still, you can figure this stuff out - ask the TA if you have one, for example.</p>\n\n<p>Now the second part. Some cheaters are privileged self entitled brats who can't be bothered to put in the work. (My father taught someone who brought a servant to labs to do the actual physical work of the lab and couldn't understand why anyone would object.) Ignore them: whoever should have reached them at age 4 did not, and you probably won't now. But some are scared: if their average drops they'll lose their scholarship. They're finding it hard to keep up because they have a job as well as studying. Their parent or significant other is ill. They are hanging on to their position rather precariously and they do rash and wrong things because they think they have no choice. You can gain some insight into that mindset in another question: <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30539/i-was-caught-cheating-on-an-exam-how-can-i-minimize-the-damage\">I was caught cheating on an exam, how can I minimize the damage?</a> especially some of the earlier revisions where the OP explains why they decided to cheat.</p>\n\n<p>So if you think someone has cheated and you don't want to use the official system, simply hand them a note that says \"See Me\" and a time and place such as \"30 minutes before class, in our classroom\" or \"5pm today, in my office.\" When you have them alone say something like this:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I think you were really struggling in that exam. I have learned to spot facial expressions over the years and you did not have the material for this course cold, nowhere near. You may manage to pull off a decent mark, whether by guessing or some other approach, but I don't think you know everything you need to know. Don't think I'm calling you in to get you in trouble. I want to help you. What do you need to learn this material thoroughly? Would you like a one on one session to go over the test questions and be sure you understand how to solve them? I have some resources that provide the same material we cover in class but from a different perspective, would you like those? (Perhaps some prefer videos, some diagrams, some hands on practices etc.) Have you talked to the student resource centre about test anxiety, test taking techniques, studying techniques etc? Did you know that if you have demonstrable issues with, for example, multiple choice questions I can work with the student resource centre to construct an exam that's a more accurate measure of what you personally know?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The entitled ones probably won't even come to the meeting, but if they do, they will decline all your offers and get out of there as fast as they can. The desperate ones? <strong>You just might reach them.</strong> </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31009,
"author": "J.R.",
"author_id": 780,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/780",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p><em>I want them to understand why cheating is unfair to other students and, hence, unacceptable</em>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If I wanted to reason with a handful of cheating students, I wouldn't start by trying to convince them that cheating is unfair to <em>others</em>. I'd try to convince them that cheating is unfair to themselves. </p>\n\n<p>Too many students have gotten into a mindset that they attend college primarily to obtain a degree. Instead, they should be there to attain an education. (There's a difference – and this difference often affects student attitudes and behavior.) </p>\n\n<p>Students who aim to get a degree without caring about their education don't worry about how much they learn – they only care about what goes on their transcript. These students have no problem missing class, so long as they feel like they can get their hands on any \"testable\" material after the lecture. If they miss class for some reason, they will often ask, \"Did I miss anything important?\" (Translated, this means, \"Did I miss anything I will need to know for the exam?\" Sadly, it never seems to mean, \"Did I miss anything that might come in handy for my first job?\")</p>\n\n<p>These students also have less qualms about cheating on an exam. It's all about getting a good grade on the test, which leads to getting a good grade on the transcript, which will lead to a good job down the road. </p>\n\n<p>You might try reminding these slackers that they'll eventually be competing with students who did the work right and learned the hard way – and that some employers like to ask some tough questions during hiring interviews. Students who took their <em>education</em> seriously will probably have better success during those job interviews. </p>\n\n<p>And even if they are lucky enough to bamboozle the HR interviewer and get a job offer somewhere, these students aren't necessarily out of the woods yet. Challenge them to gaze into the crystal ball, and imagine what will happen <em>after</em> that: when the company who hired them gets disappointed with their new employee, and more senior coworkers start to marvel at how that kid who had all those As and Bs on his transcript doesn't seem to know jack about anything, and can't write a decent memo to save his life. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31494,
"author": "padawan",
"author_id": 15949,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15949",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think, the real problem here is not the cheaters but the helpers.</p>\n\n<p>You stress out that the cheaters do not understand that cheating is not fair.\nWell, it does not have to be!\nBecause life itself is not fair and this is exactly the point of view of a cheater.</p>\n\n<p>A student who lost his dad 4 days ago, a student who is sick and a student who is fully-fit taking the same quiz is not fair.\nWhat I mean is, cheater could have his/her own reasons for cheating.</p>\n\n<p>Hence, the problem becomes telling the helper that cheating is unfair. </p>\n\n<p>But <em>which part of cheating is unfair?</em> Now let's say cheater C, helper H and a non-cheater N is taking the quiz.\nIt is unfair because a N either studied hard and took the same grade with C or did not study and got nothing even though C got a high grade. Well, in this case, H does not care what happens because he/she is <em>helping</em> a friend.</p>\n\n<p>What I would do (actually did several times) is:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Ask questions that can be answered in so many ways and distribute the full points of each question equally between the same answers. e.g. if question is worth 10 points and 5 students have the same answer, each get 2. This also encourage students to improve their creativity. That will prevent helper to continue helping and cheater to take minimum benefit.</li>\n<li>Give extra points to cheaters! When the results are announced, the helper will surely want to check his/her paper. But will not be able to find anything wrong and cannot ask to check the cheater's paper as well. Now, the hepler either will admit that he/she helped or will say <em>no</em> to further help requests.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In the long run, however, I decided not to care so much because university does not care as much as I do.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31496,
"author": "NeoN",
"author_id": 10297,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10297",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I simply disagree with those who believe that there is nothing you can do and these students will continue cheating.</p>\n\n<p>There can be many reasons behind this behavior:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>some may fail to understand the importance of the course/topic</p></li>\n<li><p>some may be desperate to get high marks because they are not in a good academic standing</p></li>\n<li>some may have other issues, including family issues, etc.</li>\n<li>some may be taking too many courses that they cannot allocate enough time for each</li>\n<li>some may simply find it culturally acceptable.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I guess your best bet is to first identify the reason behind this behavior. Communicate with your students in a constructive way. Put yourself in their shoes and see what is the actual source. Only then you'll be able to effectively address these issues.</p>\n\n<p>Clearly, finding the reasons is time consuming and requires a lot of effort from your side. But based on your question, I am assuming that you care about your students and are willing to take the necessary steps.</p>\n\n<p>There are various ways to deal with each of the above situations. I'll be more than happy to briefly go over some of them if you are interested.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31580,
"author": "sr3u",
"author_id": 6448,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6448",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my own teaching, I do not distinguish between \"cheaters\" and \"helpers\" in the way that you seem to suggest. The helper and the helped are both cheaters.</p>\n\n<p>That said, the helpers are likely to be better students (since they can help), and thus are likely to have further ambitions (graduate study, well-paying jobs) for which they can use your goodwill later. My own attitude (and that of some like-minded colleagues) is that formal grades are always given as a matter of course when someone completes the work defined for a certain course, but my further mentoring, letters of recommendation for graduate school, support for local awards, etc., are optional at my sole discretion, and must be separately earned by demonstrated scholastic ability as well as appropriate conduct. </p>\n\n<p>I thus do nothing with regard to grading when I know that a student has cheated (either as the helper or the helped) but have no proof, but that student will not later get a letter of recommendation, or a friendly tip about an exciting job opportunity at a great company, etc., from me. My colleagues and I who serve on local committees for awards during graduation, etc., also vote down any student whose ethics are suspect. This is not published policy as such, but good students know that this is how things work, and it keeps them in check.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 93191,
"author": "Jon",
"author_id": 76148,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/76148",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It sounds to me that part of the problem is your university's policies, such as on collecting evidence and departments not reporting incidents. You may be able to collect evidence in a more roundabout manner (Can you make copies which you then mark up for evidence? Can you require that all graded materials be returned to you?). If you're still finding no way to effectively dissuade cheating and are getting no support form the university, you may need to consider looking for a different place to teach that actually cares.</p>\n\n<p>One component of preventing cheating is making exams or projects where cheating is going to be very difficult. Having exams where students have to apply knowledge instead of just reciting memorized facts generally cuts down on students even being able to cheat (possibly with a fact sheet provided). Or, do like one of my art teachers did and actually assign a short portion of the exam period for collaboration. It'll honestly be a bit more like the \"real world\" if the end goal is application of facts instead of memorization.</p>\n\n<p>As far as communicating good values to these students, I've had very little success at doing so myself. One statistic I've seen is that about 75% of undergraduates (and 25% of grad students) in one study self-reported cheating in college courses. For many students, the ends justify the means (consider tuition costs!). Ethics definitely would have to be presented to the class so they actually affect students' internal cost-benefit analysis. What will you be looking for that could get flagged as cheating? How would a future boss respond to fudged numbers or trying to submit someone else's work? How can applying yourself actually make tuition be worth it (or at least be less of a grievance)? How is this field applicable in the real world outside of the classroom?</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30955",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23610/"
] |
30,963 |
<p>Assume that someone is an excellent researcher (many awards and at least 7-8 publications a year) and a very good teacher but he is not "liked" by some of the tenured faculty in the department (due to differences in opinions on how things should go or how decisions should be taken regarding different matters in the department).</p>
<p>Shouldn't being an excellent researcher and a very good teacher outweigh any social issues?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30966,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a really contentious issue (typically referred to as \"collegiality\" in the context of tenure decisions), and there's no clear standard for what to do. There have been a lot of opinions, such as <a href=\"http://www.aaup.org/report/collegiality-criterion-faculty-evaluation\">this one</a> from the American Association of University Professors, but there is no universal rule.</p>\n\n<p>On the one hand, it's outrageous to deny someone tenure just because you personally dislike or disagree with them. That's an abuse of the tenure process. The goal is to end up with a good colleague, not a friend or sycophant, and other considerations are not relevant. Furthermore, there's a danger of discrimination if the current faculty prefer to be around people like them, which just compounds the individual unfairness.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, how someone acts can be a fine reason to deny tenure, regardless of how good their research and teaching are. For example, it would be a mistake to tenure an abusive jerk. Being a good colleague involves treating people decently and participating successfully in committees or other administrative tasks. If you behave poorly enough that you can't do that, then you shouldn't be a member of the department.</p>\n\n<p>Of course the difficulty lies in distinguishing between these possibilities. What one person sees as courageously standing up for their beliefs in the face of opposition, others can see as being rude and disruptive. It can be difficult to tell whether someone is behaving in a genuinely objectionable way or you just don't like them.</p>\n\n<p>I'd recommend extreme caution in these sorts of cases, since there's great potential for unfairness and poor decisions. (When these issues come up, it's a good time to think about implicit bias. Maybe this behavior wouldn't have bothered you if it had come from someone else?) At the same time I can't endorse a policy that says it doesn't matter how you treat your colleagues, so the best I can say is \"it depends.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30974,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Should't being an excellent researcher and being a very good teacher outweigh any social issues? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No. Being a senior professor is to a large extend a management and leadership position in the faculty. Being good at the \"technical\" parts of your job is not sufficient if you are terrible at the management and role model part. Further, I really cannot think of a good reason why somebody who is actively disruptive to the running of the faculty (such as the one annoying faculty that everybody seems to have, the one that takes a stand on <em>everything</em>) needs to be kept in the faculty despite better knowledge.</p>\n\n<p>At the end of the day, tenure is not an individual teaching or research award. It is the department telling an academic \"you are really valuable to us - we want to keep you around\". Clearly, there will always be cases where somebody is ok at teaching and research, but other (more inter-personal) factors keep them from being \"somebody you want to keep around\". You may think this is sad, but really it is not much different to the cases where a really likeable person does not get tenure because her/his research isn't great - in both cases, it is just that one integral part of the job that is missing.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31012,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>At my university (a large private, research-oriented institution in the United States), tenure has several stages.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>The senior faculty votes on whether to try to pursue tenure for a junior faculty in their tenure year.</li>\n<li>Outside letters are solicited and the tenure portfolio is put together.</li>\n<li>On the basis of the portfolio and letters, the senior faculty votes to recommend tenure or not.</li>\n<li>If the department vote is positive, it goes to the Provost's office. The divisional committee responsible for promotions examines the portfolio (including external letters) and the department chair makes a presentations of the materials. This is the most difficult hurdle to clear.</li>\n<li>If the divisional committee approves, it then goes to full senior faculty and then to the Board of Trustees. The full senior faculty and BoT rarely decline to offer tenure at this point (c.f. Steven Salaita).</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Personality only really plays a role in stages #1 and #3 and only weakly at my R1 institution. And almost everyone receives a positive vote from their own senior faculty -- even though it is not always unanimous.</p>\n\n<p>The real hurdle for tenure is the divisional committee and there it is the scholar's portfolio (which consists entirely of their research output) and the outside letters that matter. In a sense, the evaluation is entirely blind to the personality or character (or amount of service and teaching) the individual made.</p>\n\n<p>I also don't want to downplay the role of the outside letters. These are extremely important. You want to be known as a major player in your field by the time you come up for tenure. In a sense, having an outgoing personality will help tremendously here but only to a limited amount. After all, the external tenure reviewers are also reading your entire portfolio and judging you based on that, rather than on the really great drinking games you played at the last conference. </p>\n\n<p>I like to think that the system is relatively fair. An Evil Chair® can deliberately sabotage a junior scholar in many way before coming up for tenure and in their tenure bid, but absent such malfeasance it's not inherently a bad system.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/10/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30963",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9547/"
] |
30,977 |
<p>If a professor is an editor of a journal, then should he ask his graduate students (PhD) to review articles? What do you think, good or bad on what points? </p>
<p>Different from "<a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/5662/is-it-common-to-review-papers-assigned-to-your-supervisor">Is it common to review papers assigned to your supervisor?</a>", where the professor is a reviewer and not the editor.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30979,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think that there is a significant difference between a professor reviewer asking a student to be a sub-reviewer (as in the linked question) and an editor directly asking their students to be reviewers.</p>\n\n<p>An important goal of peer review is for the editor / program chair to obtain additional independent perspectives on a manuscript. If the editor requests a review from a student in their lab, whose review they will need to oversee and mentor, then they are losing the independent perspective and significantly compromising the peer review process. Thus, I think that it is inappropriate.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30987,
"author": "Maarten Buis",
"author_id": 14471,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14471",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It may serve an educational purpose, i.e. teach the student how the review process works. In that case it would be worth thinking about asking an extra reviewer in case the review is sub-standard. </p>\n\n<p>In many cases I know (I am from sociology) PhD students develop before finishing their dissertation into full (albeit junior) collegues with an own perspective and specialization different from the advisor. If the paper that needs reviewing fits the specialization of the PhD student, then I see no problem asking them for a review.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30988,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think jakebeal's answer is too restrictive. When I was a senior graduate student, and my PhD supervisor was a journal editor, he would occasionally ask me to do a review for his journal where it was clearly related to my work. It was clear that by this time in my graduate program that he considered me an independent researcher and thus eligible to review for his journal. His ethics and judgement on such matters were beyond question.</p>\n\n<p>Just as she does when she accepts an article for publication, an editor has to make a judgement call when soliciting reviewers. Some graduate students are clearly capable of making independent evaluations of the work of others and can do so without compromising the peer review process. We wouldn't give PhDs to students if they weren't ready for that responsibility (among other things), and most graduate students are ready for it well before they actually finish writing and do their defense. All such students are eligible in my mind to do peer review.</p>\n\n<p>Edited to add: It's been awhile, but I'm pretty sure I was asked to do my first journal article peer review not by my PhD supervisor, but by the first journal I submitted an article to as first author (while I was a student). I don't think my full credentials were known to the editor of that journal, but even if they were, the editor clearly thought the first author of an article was a sufficient peer to ask me to do reviewing for their journal. It's very common in my experience to be immediately asked to do a review by a journal editor upon submission of an article.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30994,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is nothing wrong with asking your peers, including graduate students, to do a review for a journal, as long as it is done along the same guidelines as any other review for the journal. It would, for example, be poor if an advisor asked a graduate student to review a paper and providing hints of the expected outcome, \"here's a joke of a paper for you to review\". Then, of course, the editor would not be fit to be an editor.</p>\n\n<p>Doing reviews is a job that must be learned by experience and since graduate school is preparing students to become independent researchers, having experience to review is a good thing. I do not think it is god to ask first year graduate students to do reviews but late-stage students should be able to manage. An advisor, relative to any unrelated editor, can of course best judge where the student expertise lies and hence provide papers that falls within the core expertise of the student. In the case of graduate student-advisor relationships, it will be key that the roles of advisor-student and editor-reviewer are kept separate. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31062,
"author": "nathanielng",
"author_id": 23382,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23382",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Generally, I don't think this is appropriate. Here are a few reasons:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Ability to provide a completely independent perspective may be compromised</strong>: how does one ensure that one's research group is not vulnerable to <em>groupthink</em>? Even if one feels they are free from such biases, others outside the group may not be convinced--what would happen if they find out?</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Possible conflict of interest</strong>: while an editor may choose not to 'hint' to the student on what an 'acceptable outcome' should be, it may be difficult to convince others that this is not the case. As another example, how about a scenario whereby a student wants to put in some objection to the article, but does not do so because of the editor? What if the editor deliberately chose the student because the editor knows that the student holds a certain set of viewpoints on that area of research?</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Possible consequences if this becomes a widespread practice</strong>: supposing you just have one editor who thinks its perfectly fine to provide such 'hints' to his students? It may just take one person to break the system and undermine the reputation of a journal (that took a long time to build up).</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Note: on the other hand, if the editor has already sent out the article to the reviewer(s), as per the journal policy, and you are providing an independent point of reference, then perhaps that is more acceptable.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 122502,
"author": "guest",
"author_id": 102646,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/102646",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have one additional negative to nathaniel's list: student may feel compelled to perform a service (spend his valuable time) because of the control advisor has over student's Ph.D. Student may feel it hard to say no. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30977",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23699/"
] |
30,981 |
<p>I need some advice on how to catch up on my online courses. I have gotten really far behind on my work and lack the motivation to keep going. This my second year taking online courses and it seems harder than the first. What should I do to move forward? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30989,
"author": "Ein2012",
"author_id": 23718,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23718",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<ul>\n<li><p>First of all it boils down to how far you are curios and passionate about the subject area of the course you are talking</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>From question it seems that you were interested to learn but some what distracted with other reasons</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>Remember</strong> <strong>One Thing</strong></p>\n<p>The state/situation/position you are in are the action of your past thoughts and that's this truth will apply for your future too</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>Have a Plane Of Action</strong></p>\n</li>\n<li><p>First prioritize your activities i.e do first things first</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>Remember your goals</strong></p>\n</li>\n<li><p>That doesn't mean that you should have a life time goal but it points that a person with out a goal is as good as kite with out a thread</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Learning something without any purpose doesn't at all interests you</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>First of all learn the purpose of what you are learning and history around it and it's evolution and talk about it with you friends who shows interest towards some discussion that gives you little boost of encouragement and interest towards the course</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>If He can then you can</strong></p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Please don't get carried away by peoples judgement about you because they to are humans and it's self implies that humans vulnerable to mistakes work hard and prove them wrong ....I know that's what you will do from now</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>Have a RoleModel</strong></p>\n</li>\n<li><p>We all tend to have role models based on our interests ,having and remembering them from the work they have done will always keep you motivated and forwarded</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>Please Don't get carried away by immaterial ,fragile ,immortal temporary pleasures ,all these can entertain you for a short period of time but they will fade away soon</strong></p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>Every Expert was once a beginner</strong></p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Don't give up at the first attempt that's not the nature of winners</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>i.e When you are trying to catch a rabbit out of a folk and you could not get it don't change the rabbit but change the tactics</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p><strong>-----------Wish you all the Success in you life---------</strong></p>\n<p><strong>Einstein,Newton,Euler,Madam curie,Martin Luther King ,Columbus,Alexander,....</strong></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30990,
"author": "Bob Brown",
"author_id": 16183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16183",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First, you have to assess how much time is left in the semester and how much work you have left, then do some triage. If you've missed assignment deadlines or exams in one or more courses, those may not be salvageable.</p>\n\n<p>The result of your assessment should be a list of those course(s) in which you still stand a chance of earning a satisfactory grade. Work like the devil on those courses.</p>\n\n<p>Communicate with <em>all</em> of your professors. For those you're trying to salvage, apologize to the professors for getting behind, tell them you're trying to pull it our, and <em>ask for help.</em> Most professors will work with you if you're working with them.</p>\n\n<p>I'm less sure what you say to the professors of the courses you've decided to write off, and maybe someone will comment on that. I think something like, \"I realize I've gotten so far behind in your course that I cannot pass. I apologize. I hope you won't hold this against me too much when I repeat the course.\" I <em>am</em> sure that silence in the write-off courses is not the right answer. Do not just disappear.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30991,
"author": "Phlume",
"author_id": 10414,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10414",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As Yoda says... \"Do or Do not... there is no 'try'\" </p>\n\n<p>As both an educator, and a student in online learning I can feel for you on both sides of the coin. Allow me to inject some of my personal tricks... tools to help you.</p>\n\n<p>First off... <strong>contact your teacher/instructor/professor.</strong> This is critical point one and both appropriate, and professional. This reach-out opportunity is your chance to tackle a few serious steps toward getting back on track:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>it allows you to admit that you have lost motivation and that you\nknow you are behind.</li>\n<li>shows you to be accountable for your lost\nplacement and willingness to get back on track.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Next, a mentioned before, start \"triage\"... an emergency assessment & prioritize a list of what must be completed first. Some projects could be banged out in an hour, but worth only a few % points. Others may take 2 days but have serious weight on final grades. Refer to your syllabus and see what is most important for the final grade. After you have assessed their importance and created a complete list of everything due, estimate their completion times (2 hours, 6 hours, 2 days etc etc)</p>\n\n<p>Once you have a prioritized list of what weighs heaviest, and their estimated times... create a time line with the total number of days/hours/weeks remaining in the class. I use excel as it is easy to navigate and layout the time frame. Pen and paper works just as good though. Hopefully you have weeks and you have enough time to right the ship... but if it is days, you need may need to sequester yourself and focus intently on finishing.</p>\n\n<p>Now that you have a list, and a timeline, inject the items to be done into the time line (create a gantt chart) and you have your plan of action ready to go.</p>\n\n<p>...NOW... All of this is the plan. Only you can physically make the commitment to turn off the tv, step away from the video game, opt to not go out drinking, to the movies, or dinner... and settle in and FOCUS.</p>\n\n<p>I find that I often pull up a neflix/amazon selection and put on a movie or something I have seen a dozen times already so I know what is happening without actually \"watching\" it. This seems to help to with eliminating that deathly silence in my den. </p>\n\n<p>Only you can find your own motivation, and make the hard decission to actually buckle down and focus. It is hard (and I have done it) to find that once you have lost a few weeks. Perhaps pick a few smaller exercisses or tasks form your plan and finish them first to get that sense of accomplishment to fire off a few points in your direction. That may be just the sense of completion you need to find the next level of commitment.</p>\n\n<p>Last point, and perhaps the most important... DO NOT GIVE UP!</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30981",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23707/"
] |
30,984 |
<p>According to this <a href="http://web.mit.edu/msrp/myMSRP/docs/Statement%20of%20purpose%20guidelines.pdf" rel="nofollow">MIT statement of purpose guideline</a>, the statement of purpose seems to be an important part of a PhD application.
However, I have also heard that, in the case of <a href="http://web.mit.edu/" rel="nofollow">MIT</a>, the statement of purpose is only reviewed after the application has been tacitly accepted. </p>
<p>So, how crucial is this part of the application, and what part does it play in the process of graduate admissions at top schools in the US? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30993,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You have to specify which discipline, but for the social sciences the statement of purpose is the most important item in your portfolio.</p>\n\n<p>We also look at grades, GREs, and letters but we scrutinize the statement the most. A good statement can resuscitate a candidate with middling grades, a bad statement can condemn an otherwise good student.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 30999,
"author": "Geoff Hutchison",
"author_id": 21869,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21869",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is an extremely general question, since it doesn't refer to the discipline. Since <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/30993/21869\">another answer</a> comments on the social sciences, I'll speak up for physical sciences. (I'm in chemistry.)</p>\n\n<p>We look at every facet of the portfolio. To do otherwise is to ignore useful information on the applicant. Let's be honest, we don't have much data. We get grades, GRE general scores, GRE subject scores, and recommendation letters. Plus the statement.</p>\n\n<p>I mentioned in <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30923/can-low-score-in-gre-hurt-the-application-with-good-gpa-for-top-graduate-school/30945#30945\">my answer to another question</a> that GRE scores will sometimes serve as a first screen, to cut the pile down to a level we can really analyze. But that's not a \"tacit acceptance\". (I don't even know what that might mean.)</p>\n\n<p><strong>Yes. After a first cut, we look at the statement of purpose 100% of the time.</strong></p>\n\n<p>And yes, if someone writes a lousy statement with an otherwise good package, it's a bad sign. It tells us that the student just doesn't care to do a good job. Is that someone I want as a grad student? Probably not. </p>\n\n<p>Even if a student has stellar grades, GRE, and a paper in <em>Science</em> but the statement is poorly written, I'm going to think twice compared to a student who might be a bit behind, but seems to have a vision and sells themselves well in the statement.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31002,
"author": "Ryan Williams",
"author_id": 1375,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1375",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I serve occasionally on the PhD admissions committee in the computer science department at Stanford. To me, your grades and test scores are less important than your statement of purpose and your recommendation letters. To clarify: the statement of purpose is <strong>very, very important.</strong> I want to see how you articulate your future plans, how you think about and approach research. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31014,
"author": "webelo",
"author_id": 23737,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23737",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h3>Original Answer</h3>\n<p>I would add an exception to @RoboKaren's answer. Economics programs tend to place very little weight on statements of purpose. Econ is perhaps a bit different from other disciplines because the first year is all coursework.</p>\n<p>In a statement of purpose <em>for an econ program</em> one should highlight relevant previous courses/skills (especially math/stats) and indicate a few areas of interest (e.g. "Macro labor" not a dissertation proposal). Minimize the fluff.</p>\n<p>Several economists (including <a href=\"https://faculty-gsb.stanford.edu/athey/gradadvising.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Susan Athey</a> [Stanford] and <a href=\"http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Eeconjeff/Courses/Advice%20on%20Graduate%20School%20in%20Economics%200911.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Jeffrey Smith</a> [Michigan]) have composed helpful guides on grad school admission. I'd bet others have done the same in other disciplines.</p>\n<h3>Edit In Reply to Comments</h3>\n<p>The general point that I hoped to make with this post (which was implicit but which I will now make explicit) is that <em>the importance of the personal statement (and the nature of the application in general) is particular to a given discipline</em>.</p>\n<p>Why don't economists care about personal statements? First, it is costless for applicants to overstate/misrepresent their interests, talents, background, enthusiasm, etc. Second, given the other materials available to the adcom (see below), even a truthful statement is more or less superfluous. Third, deemphasizing the personal statement reduces the advantage enjoyed by native English speakers in admissions.</p>\n<p>What do economists care about, then? By far the most important component is faculty recommendation letters. It means something if a faculty member is willing to say that someone is "the best student they've had in eleventy years in the profession". Suppose a faculty member misstates the qualifications of the applicant and the applicant is admitted (and perhaps offered a stipend). If the applicant fails out, then (1) the adcom will be disinclined from believing the recommender the next time around and (2) there may in certain cases be some informal social/professional consequences (i.e. "Hey remember that time you recommended that one kid and we wasted a spot and 25k on him just so that he could drop out in April of the first year?").</p>\n<p>I don't think that this is a perfect system (or that admissions are perfectable) but that's just the way it works and has worked in pretty much any econ department for quite some time. Depending on your view of economics, it either more-or-less works OR goes towards explaining why econ is so messed up(!).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 40510,
"author": "M.Dax",
"author_id": 28944,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28944",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have to agree with what one of the CS guys wrote above, that in CS we consider the SOP to be extremely important. Also, you should know that MIT does not usually 'tacitly' accept anyone based on only their grades and numbers. Usually, a tacit acceptance comes about because you have a funding source lined up; perhaps you've secured a fellowship or you've established very close contact with a faculty member in MIT or the college you're applying to, and that member has agreed to accept you into the group INCUMBENT on your getting through the general grad school admissions process. At that point, your SOP might not seem as important because it's obvious you've found your focus, and in most cases, the SOP is merely an avenue for you to articulate your focus ('purpose') in a convincing, objective fashion.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30984",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
30,995 |
<p>How shall a masters student deal with the complete failure to meet the expected results when working on a master's thesis?</p>
<p>For example, in the field of machine learning a masters student might spend 4-5 months developing a method that turns out not be useful, not even being comparable to benchmark datasets.</p>
<p>Should the student quit it?
Should you at least take a break from academia to avoid harming your career ?
Or should you work on a different idea and risk another few months which is also not guaranteed? Given the fact that the advisor is simply asking you to try new things</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 30996,
"author": "mhwombat",
"author_id": 10529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10529",
"pm_score": 8,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Step 1: Don't panic</p>\n\n<p>I was in a similar situation halfway through my MSc. I was in a panic, sure that my academic career was in ruins. My supervisor calmed me down, reminded that a negative result was still a result, and and told me that a for a master's degree, it was not strictly required that I make a scientific contribution or have a publication. In the worst case, in my thesis I would present my negative results, explain why this technique didn't work, and suggest what could be done differently by future researchers. (Once I was relaxed enough to think clearly, I came up with new things to try, and everything worked out grand.)</p>\n\n<p>I suggest you discuss the \"worst case scenario\" with your supervisor; you'll probably find out it's not as bad as you think. Remember that this is research: positive results are not guaranteed.</p>\n\n<p>Step 2: Think about why this technique isn't working.</p>\n\n<p>I'm sure you've learned something about why your technique isn't working. That should give you some ideas for what to try next. If you're out of ideas, sit a friend down and explain everything to them. The friend doesn't need to know anything about machine learning; they're just a sounding board. The naive questions they ask may give you ideas. Maybe you need a week off to recharge your batteries.</p>\n\n<p>Step 3: Try something new.</p>\n\n<p>Take those new ideas you got in step 2, and apply them. But now that you're more experienced, think about how you could find out more quickly if the idea is feasible, so you can change tack again if needed.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31005,
"author": "BrenBarn",
"author_id": 9041,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9041",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just a general answer, more to the overall issue than to your specific case: \"Failure\" to get the expected results isn't necessarily \"failure\" in the sense of not producing a good thesis. Although in the specific case you mentioned (machine learning) there is often a desire to produce something usable, in many cases a thesis topic is motivated by prior research. A negative finding can still be significant if it adds to the overall knowledge total in the area (for instance, by showing that predictions from earlier research are not confirmed by yours).</p>\n\n<p>For my PhD, I spent over a year conducting a series of experiments to test a certain hypothesis derived from earlier research. I found no evidence in support of the hypothesis. Nonetheless, I wrote it up as a negative result, and framed it as placing limits on the theoretical proposals that motivated the project (i.e., \"people suggested things might work like this, but I checked and apparently it's not so\"). My committee thought it was a useful contribution and I got the PhD.</p>\n\n<p>A lot depends on your field and your committee. It is easier to do what I described in a field where there is a lot of speculative theorizing relative to the amount of hard data. I can imagine it'd be a lot harder to do that in machine learning. Also, the bias against negative results (the so-called \"file-drawer problem\") can create pressure to produce a positive finding. In the broadest sense, though, if you had a good reason to go looking for something, not finding it can be as informative as finding it, and that's part of science.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31068,
"author": "flounder",
"author_id": 23793,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23793",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I concur with the above answers. I spent a year working on a topic for a PhD dissertation, before I decided that I lacked the qualifications to do it. So I went to my advisor, and said, \"What now?\" Two weeks later I was starting the work that got me my PhD. Leaving academia will probably be a mistake; you may find that you never have the right time to go back. As pointed out, negative results can have value. I think of Gödel and the Completeness Theorem, wherein the concept of unsolvable problems was formalized. Instead of proving that first-order predicate calculus was complete, just the opposite was proven: it is possible to create theorems that can never be proven (see also Alan Turing, Church, Post, and for that matter, Heisenberg).</p>\n\n<p>So take a look at your work. Proving that some idea cannot work is a contribution. And if not, try another topic. That's what advisors are for. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31082,
"author": "Ethan Bolker",
"author_id": 7018,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7018",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Years ago <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marguerite_Lehr\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Marguerite Lehr</a>, a colleague of mine at Bryn Mawr College, told me of a conversation she'd had years before that with Oscar Zariski, a brilliant algebraic geometer then at Johns Hopkins. She told him about a failed attempt to solve a particular problem. He said "you must publish this." She asked why, since it had failed. He replied that it was a natural way to attack the problem and people should know that it wouldn't work.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30995",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12059/"
] |
31,000 |
<p>I am currently getting my M.A.T. in secondary mathematics. As a part of my degree, I take graduate level math courses. I am currently in a PhD level math class, and the instructor of this course has told me that if I want to get a PhD in mathematics he would want to work with me because he believes I have a "future" in his subject area.</p>
<p>My question is, what is the value of his offer? Is his kind of offer easy or hard to come by? </p>
<p>The mathematics department at this school is not renowned, but I respect this professor's work. Is his offer something I should definitely take advantage of, or should I shop around for different universities/offers?</p>
<p>I hope my query isn't too specific. I am feeling quite conflicted and would appreciate any and all input. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31011,
"author": "Anonymous Physicist",
"author_id": 13240,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Whenever you get an offer, always shop around. That is not academia-specific.</p>\n\n<p>Generally professors who work in Ph.D. granting programs want to have Ph.D. students. It may even be necessary for them to get some Ph.D. students in order to keep their jobs. Therefore it can be easy to find a faculty member who will encourage potential Ph.D. students. I would not put much value on this sort of offer unless it includes and offer of RA or fellowship funding.</p>\n\n<p>Never get a Ph.D. to please a professor; do it only for your own benefit.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31015,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The easiest way to get into a Ph.D. program is to have a professor who knows who you are and wants to have you as a student. In many other questions on this site, people talk about the difficulty of standing out from the crowd amongst the large number of applicants to any decent Ph.D. program. With this professor, at least, you have stood out, and that's quite significant... if you want to do a Ph.D. with them.</p>\n\n<p>First a <em>sine qua non</em>: don't even consider it if the program doesn't guarantee some degree of funding. Every respectable university should be offering support for its STEM Ph.D. students through some mix of research and teaching assistantships. It should be the department and not the professor that guarantees funding (though if the\nprofessor has funding, they may be able to give you more time as a research assistant rather than a TA, if that is what you both want).</p>\n\n<p>Beyond that, key things to ask yourself:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Do you actually want a Ph.D.? Getting a Ph.D. is a terrible, soul-wrenching process and it renders you unfit for most employment. If you are truly drawn to research, however, it is the best and only course to take.</li>\n<li>Are you OK with not being at a famous institution? There are only a few famous institutions in any field, and getting into them is a gamble. Often, however, there are a great many solidly respectable institutions that can launch you on a totally reasonable career, especially since it is often possible to \"upgrade\" institutions through postdocs.</li>\n<li>Do you really want to work with this professor? You don't know what working with this professor will actually be like. One advantage of the high-profile institutions is that if you find things aren't working with your advisor, there are often many opportunities to switch to others. In a smaller and less renowned department, you will likely have less alternatives should things go wrong.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Ideally, if you answer yes to all of these questions, you should start doing some work together now, so that you can get a sense of whether there's a good working relationship. If so, embrace it and be grateful that you found a good match.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 164499,
"author": "mikemtnbikes",
"author_id": 136694,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/136694",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I agree with the other posts, but to directly answer your question about the value of the offer. Unless you want to get a Ph.D. in math, the value of the offer is zero.</p>\n<p>If you are interested in doing that you should definitely explore other options. At a minimum, it will help you better understand the plus and minuses of the program at that institution and working with this particular professor. If he's worth working with he should be encouraging you to do this as well, IMHO. Note that most competitive Ph.D. programs not only provide funding, but also invite top candidates to interview and visit. It's usually an eye opening experience.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31000",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23727/"
] |
31,003 |
<p>I used three images from Wikipedia to compose them to a new image. All other images (not that many) are created by myself.</p>
<p>How should I cite them?</p>
<p>The images are:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Computer-aj_aj_ashton_01.svg" rel="nofollow">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Computer-aj_aj_ashton_01.svg</a></li>
<li><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Server-multiple.svg" rel="nofollow">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Server-multiple.svg</a></li>
<li><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Server_by_mimooh.svg" rel="nofollow">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Server_by_mimooh.svg</a></li>
</ul>
<p>I currently use the following text below the description (within the caption):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The image of a desktop computer on the top left is from
\url{<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Computer-aj_aj_ashton_01.svg" rel="nofollow">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Computer-aj_aj_ashton_01.svg</a>}
and was created by an unknown artist,
the server image on the top right is from
\url{<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Server-multiple.svg" rel="nofollow">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Server-multiple.svg</a>} and
was created by RRZEicons and
the images that was used three times for classification workers is from
\url{<a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Server_by_mimooh.svg" rel="nofollow">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Server_by_mimooh.svg</a>} and
was created by Mimooh.</p>
</blockquote>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31006,
"author": "BrenBarn",
"author_id": 9041,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9041",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For small, relatively generic images like this, it is not typically necessary to cite the full sources directly in the image caption. Rather, you could include a note in the references section of your paper, saying \"Figure 1 makes use of these images from Wikimedia Commons...\" and then list the URLs and whatever other attribution info is needed. If you wanted, you could also include a brief note in the image caption saying \"See references section for image credits\". Giving due credit to the creators of these images is the stand-up thing to do, but in practice, it is extremely unlikely that anyone will ever know or care whether you properly cited them in a case like this.</p>\n\n<p>(Of course, I'm not a lawyer and my opinion counts for nothing legally. This is just my impression of common practice among academics who make use of internet images in their own diagrams, slide presentations, etc.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31013,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The first image is sourced to <a href=\"http://openclipart.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">OpenClipArt.org</a>, which releases images into the public domain specifically to simplify your life in cases like this. OpenClipArt specifically releases under the <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Creative Commons Zero license</a> to enable this. For such images, as well as anything else in the public domain (e.g., <a href=\"http://www.usa.gov/copyright.shtml\" rel=\"nofollow\">most images published by the US Government</a>), there is no requirement for specific attribution. </p>\n\n<p>It is courteous to add a discrete note on the sourcing, and it would be dishonest for you to claim to be the artist, but the a major part of the reason that people build public domain image repositories is to let people build them into diagrams and other images without dealing with the attribution problem that you face. Since there are lots of these sorts of server diagram images on OpenClipArt.org, I would strongly suggest that you see if you can replace your current images with public domain images.</p>\n\n<p>If you don't do this, then for the attribution-required images the figure caption should include the website references, just as you would reference a paper that you reproduced an image from. For example, you may phrase it: \"Server images adapted from [cite1,cite2]\" where the citations give the appropriate online document citation, just as you would if you were citing any other webpage. This is kind of a pain, and easy to lose track of if you reuse the images in other contexts, which is why I strongly recommend using non-attribution licensed images whenever possible.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31003",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4092/"
] |
31,018 |
<p>I submitted a paper to a top tier conference and it did not get accepted. The paper contains an original idea, and I am afraid that the paper could get plagiarized between the time I send it to another conference after incorporating reviewer's suggestions and making some modifications. Such things have happened in the past to a few students in my department.</p>
<p>I had considered posting the paper on arxiv as a means of timestamping before sending it to the aforementioned conference, but didn't, as this would have violated the double-blind review requirements of the conference. (The conference chair replied to my query as follows:)</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The submission of a paper in the arxhiv.org system is not strictly
speaking a double-submission, but rather a violation of a double-blind
submission required in this conference, as the reviewers will be able to
find your name (and those of the coauthors) if they do a simple search
in Google. Thus, I am quite certain it will be rejected, and I do not
consider it an acceptable practice in this conference's submission to be
fair with all the submissions in order to handle them equally during the
review process by the reviewers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Hence I had not posted it on arxiv. Now this paper has been rejected and I would like to timestamp this paper now, while still being able to send a modified version to some conferences in the future (including those that follow a double-blind review). </p>
<p><strong>Is there a mechanism by which I can timestamp my paper that does not violate the blind review requirements?</strong> </p>
<p>Edit: The paper was in computer science, if that matters.
A related question "<a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/23367/how-can-i-time-stamp-my-data-without-publishing-it">How can I time-stamp my data without publishing it?</a>" asks about ways to timestamp while keeping the information in the paper private or hidden to avoid plagiarism. However my question is about ways to timestamp such that it is still possible to publish the information while not violating blind review. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31023,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The most typical way to time-stamp a piece of work is to place it in a public repository: arXiv is a good example when it applies; many institutions also have a technical memo or technical report system in place. Although this may technically violate certain interpretations of double-blind submissions, as noted in the comments blinding of authorship is pretty iffy in many cases. Moreover, in practice this will only be violated if the reviewers actively go looking, particularly if you put it in an institutional repository rather than a global one like arXiv. I would thus advise that if you are worried about date-stamping, just do it and let the double-blind nitpickers complain if they even notice.</p>\n\n<p>One other consideration: certain publications (particularly certain journals) do have a policy against accepting material that is already available online. While this is in my view an insane policy, if you find yourself dealing with such, one way to handle with it is to put up a shortened version of the work, i.e., extended abstract, as the date-stamped pre-print.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31918,
"author": "gaborous",
"author_id": 3971,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3971",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A partial workaround that was often used in the previous lab where I worked was to tamper a bit the article you put on arXiv by changing the title and the abstract, or even publishing an incomplete or old version of the article to also tamper the full-text.</p>\n\n<p>This is surely not foolproof as reviewers can still find the article if they really want to do so, but at least you honestly tried to avoid violating the double blind process while still retaining guarantees of authorship.</p>\n\n<p>And personally, I'm inclined to say that if reviewers still find the article with these precautions, then they are to blame for violating the double-blind process, not you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31969,
"author": "David Richerby",
"author_id": 10685,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10685",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Are you really afraid that it will be <em>plagiarized</em>? The only people who have seen your work are the programme committee and any reviewers who saw the paper when you first submitted it. It would be very surprising if the programme committee or reviewers of what you describe as a \"top-tier conference\" rejected a paper and then plagiarized it.</p>\n\n<p>Or are you worried that you'll be <em>scooped</em>, i.e., that somebody else have similar but independent work accepted by another conference or journal before you manage to get your paper published? If so, the fact that you already submitted it to a conference should be enough to demonstrate your priority. It's not just you and your co-authors who are claiming that your paper already existed in October 2014 but also the programme committee of the conference can confirm this.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42372,
"author": "Marianne",
"author_id": 32258,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32258",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can make a copy of your paper, seal it in a brown envelope and go to the post office, have the envelope hand stamped and mailed back to you. Do NOT open your the envelope but keep it in a safe place. Then if you ever need it, you can bring the sealed envelope that has been postmarked with the earlier date which is your proof the original material was yours.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 43385,
"author": "cbeleites unhappy with SX",
"author_id": 725,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/725",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here's a version that focuses on</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>making the proof watertight for legal matters</li>\n<li>not publicly revealing the content<br>\n(which follows from the double-blind requirement)</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The legally provable way of time-stamping something (and also to legally prove the state it was in at that time) is to have a <strong>notary attest it</strong>, and/or <strong>give a copy to the notary for keeping</strong> (which allows to prove that the content was not tampered with afterwards). This kind of service is the main business and duty of a notary. </p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/42372/725\">\"poor man's version\" of a sealed and unopened post-stamped envelope</a> is much cheaper, but unlike the notary attest there is no legally binding guarantee that a court would accept this. </p>\n\n<p>As has been pointed out, making the content public, preferrably with a time stamp (aka publishing (!)) is the yet cheaper alternative - however IMHO it is not compatible with the double-blind requirement of the question: It is not possible to have the content + your identity + a timestamp publicly (which are the 3 pieces of information you want to connect) available to everyone but the blinded reviewers. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>As for cryptographic methods, at the moment I'd consider them at a similar level to the post-stamped envelope. The legal weight of this is quite unclear to me -- if you're really concerned I'd say an encrypted email exchange with someone who states \"I got this email at this and that date\" is at the same level as having someone testify that they saw or got the content from you at the stated date. </p>\n\n<p>I'd imagine that a notary could do the encrypted signing, but AFAIK this is a techonolgy that yet has to fully emerge: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>There has been a project called \"Datennotar\" (data notary) at the <a href=\"https://www.fokus.fraunhofer.de/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Fraunhofer FOKUS</a> and the <a href=\"http://www.lvstein.uni-kiel.de/t3/index.php?id=94\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">University Kiel</a> - final reports in German are available at <a href=\"http://www.isprat.net/projekte/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">ISPRAT (funder)</a>.<br>\nAFAIK there are no data notaries so far in Germany. </li>\n<li><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENotary\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Wikipedia</a> says such services exist in the US. A quick search brought up some companies, but the first two web pages I tried at least to me looked incomplete in some important details: one has a contact page without any kind of address, the second has email and phone only. Over here in the EU this wouldn't be legal for any kind of business ...</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 116701,
"author": "Thomas Weller",
"author_id": 97841,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/97841",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The informatics way to do that would either be a <strong>digital signature</strong> with a timestamp. Such a thing exists e.g. for PDF files, but there are some disadvantages:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>you need to obtain a digital certificate, which is expensive</li>\n<li>you need to know how to digitally sign the document</li>\n<li>you need to understand how timestamping works and enable it</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>A simpler approach is a cryptographically <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Hash_Algorithms\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><strong>secure hash</strong></a> of your paper. If you don't exactly know, which one to choose, simple choose all of them. There are free tools to calculate the hashes. On Windows, try <a href=\"https://github.com/gurnec/HashCheck\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">HashCheck</a>. </p>\n\n<p>In the next step you publish those hashes on a website. Twitter is quite common, <a href=\"https://pastebin.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Pastebin</a> should work as well, maybe also a website of your university. After that, you archive that website, e.g. on <a href=\"https://archive.org/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Archive.org</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Whenever someone wants to verify whether you wrote the article first, you can proof by letting him recalculate the hash on (a copy of) your file and compare to the hash you published earlier. </p>\n\n<p>Make sure you never modify that version of the paper. Not a single byte.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 151866,
"author": "Peter Wilde",
"author_id": 126482,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/126482",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Check out this paper:</p>\n<p>B. Gipp, C. Breitinger, N. Meuschke, and J. Beel, “CryptSubmit: Introducing Securely Timestamped Manuscript Submission and Peer Review Feedback using the Blockchain,” in Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE-CS Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL), Toronto, Canada, 2017.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://www.gipp.com/wp-content/papercite-data/pdf/gipp2017b.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://www.gipp.com/wp-content/papercite-data/pdf/gipp2017b.pdf</a></p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31018",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20216/"
] |
31,019 |
<p>When writing a referee's report for an editor of a journal, does one always aim and try to be as brief as possible, saying yes or no to the publication (giving a couple of sentences in support of one's decision regarding the reasons for recommending/rejecting the paper)? Is it ever appropriate for the referee to write about finer details of the work they are reporting on, in their report to the editor?</p>
<p>After doing a fair bit of research to figure out whether to recommend a paper for publication or not, it can still be a hard decision to make. Is it then appropriate to share the finer details with the editor or does one have to make the decision and write only in support of that decision?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31020,
"author": "ddiez",
"author_id": 21435,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21435",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When I write a report I try to be as detailed as possible in my response to the authors. This is important as they will need my comments to improve the manuscript, and if the comments are vague they will fail to do so. However, many of the journals I have experience with in my field (life sciences and bioinformatics) ask referees to avoid including comments regarding the suitability for publication in the letter to the authors. For that purpose they provide the score sheet that needs to be filled when submitting the report (at least for journals using electronic systems).</p>\n\n<p>However, those score sheets cannot convey all the information about the impressions of the referee after reading the paper. Therefore, there is always a section with comments to the editors. In this section you should add any relevant information that is not clearly represented in the score sheet. Personally, I always try to add specific comments to the editors. For example, I may have complained in my report about the poor description of the statistical methods. Then I will let know the editor that that is, in my opinion, a mandatory change for the suitability of the manuscript for publication. Finally, when writing my comments to the editor, I try to be as brief as possible (but never just 'yes' or 'no'), so that I do not overwhelm the editor's likely busy inbox with unnecessary comments.</p>\n\n<p>In summary, the comments to the editor should include any information that is not properly represented in the score sheet, cannot go into the response to the authors, and may be relevant for the editor in order to make an appropriate decision on the manuscript.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31021,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>does one always aim and try to be as brief as possible, saying yes or no to the publication?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Each reviewer has his or her own style. Some deliver a very brief report, others provide rather long lists of questions and suggestions.</p>\n\n<p>In general, you might not want to spend too much time writing a response if the paper is generally bad with evident blunders. If, instead, the paper is good but needs a number of amendments, you might be willing to write a detailed response giving advice on how to improve the paper.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31022,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Reviewing is a \"Golden Rule\" situation: \"Treat others as you would like to be treated.\" The authors have (probably) invested a lot of time and effort in the paper, and being accepted or dismissed with a terse couple of sentences is neither helpful nor particularly respectful. Even if the paper is terrible, the authors deserve a thorough explanation of why you think that it is terrible, so that they can understand the fairness of the decision---remember, many papers that you encounter will come from young authors or authors from institutions without a very strong scientific research culture, and your feedback is critical to helping them improve. </p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, as a referee, your job is not to make the final judgement (even if you have a form that says \"reject\" or \"accept\"), but to provide the editor or program chair evidence in support of their decision. I thus find the following template useful for organizing my reviews, to make sure that I convey the right information:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Start with a few sentences summarizing what you think the main idea and impact of the paper is. </li>\n<li>Give a general feeling about whether you think the paper is ready for publication or not.</li>\n<li>If not, explain what are the biggest general problems that have to be dealt with.</li>\n<li>Major issues list: all significant scientific issues that have to be addressed before publication</li>\n<li>Minor issues list: all the scientific side-issues, nitpicks, typos, nice-to-haves, etc.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The distinction between 3, 4, and 5 is one of triage and communication, and should be made very clear in a review. #3 is the main reason for your judgement. #4 is for all of the rest of the problems that impact the scientific content of the paper. #5 is for all the little stuff: I always appreciate it when a reviewer reads carefully enough to provide nitpicks and notice typos, but it's also important that it be clear (to the editor, as well as the authors) that such minor problems are, in fact, not the basis of judgement.</p>\n\n<p>A place that this distinction is particularly critical is regarding requests for additional experiments. Many reviewers seem to feel that it is their job to assign \"homework\" for the authors, and this is seriously problematic. You should only request new experiments if the work as presented will not stand scientifically without it. If you have suggestions for experiments that you think would be cool or would strengthen the point, put them in \"minor issues\" and clearly label them as suggestions not required for publication. It doesn't matter if you would have done it differently or if you think the new experiment wouldn't be too much work: your job is to evaluate whether the paper is scientifically sound, not to pretend that you are the authors' Ph.D. advisor.</p>\n\n<p>Another important point, with regards to structure and grammar: remember that many papers you read will not be written in the authors' native language. Difficult as it may be, it is critical to try to separate language and presentation problems from scientific problems. I always remind myself that I would be writing much worse prose in the authors' native language. Thus, my section #5 may often contain a comment like, \"The paper has many problems with English grammar and needs attention from a proof-reader,\" but unless the problems are so bad that they impair my ability to understand the scientific meat, it stays as a \"minor issue.\"</p>\n\n<p>In addition to the textual feedback, there are often numerical or qualitative ratings to select. I view the textual feedback as the meat, and always prepare it first, especially since writing up the textual feedback often changes my opinions of what the numbers should be. Moreover, numbers are not very informative, because different people interpret them differently: the text is the only opportunity you have to clearly communicate your reasons for liking or disliking a paper.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, there is one case where all of this goes out the window: if I find that I am dealing with a plagiarized or multiply submitted paper, then the authors are wasting everybody's time and I have no problem giving a short and harsh rejection, e.g., \"I didn't like this paper the last time we rejected it, and the authors haven't changed anything since then.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31029,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A review is supposed to provide the view of a peer on the manuscript submitted for publication. An editor needs to take one or several, usually two, reviews to form the basis on deciding on the fate of the submitted manuscript and to form the basis for revisions by the authors. There are very few instances, I have yet to see one, where a paper is publishable as is. There is, however, no clear correlation between usefulness and length of a review. </p>\n\n<p>The key is to provide feedback for improvements to ensure the manuscript becomes as good a contribution as possible. Some reviewers spend much time correcting language or other formal aspects of manuscripts. These sorts of comments are always welcome but the core issues are focussing on the science itself and the clarity with which it is disseminated. </p>\n\n<p>So a shorter form of report contains the core scientific and clarity issues encountered and perhaps general comments on other shortcomings, a longer report details also the detailed issues. The size of the reports obviously depend on the quality of the manuscript but also on your expertise. Some times editors appoint reviewers to cover a narrower but vital aspect of the manuscript. The good review should be critical, fair and objective and provide both the editor and authors with suggestions for improvement. By necessity this will be more than just a few paragraphs of comments</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31019",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22642/"
] |
31,030 |
<p>I know that they are "just as human as we are", but I feel somewhat uncomfortable to talk nonchalantly with the top-notch math researchers and professors in my department because of their social position, their extremely superior knowledge and talent, and also because of their age. </p>
<p>Still, I feel that it is like a waste to have such interesting mind-expanding people around and not to interact properly and talk about maths when I meet them in the department (outside the lecture hall). </p>
<p>So my question is: according to your experience, what is the best (where best means: most polite, appropriate, acceptable, but also profitable) way to interact and make the most of the presence of such awesome professors? Can I discuss "lower" [mathematical and non-mathematical] subjects with them even though their actual (research) interests lie in much more abstruse topics?</p>
<p>Any suggestion (even in the form of a comment) is really appreciated.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31039,
"author": "DTK",
"author_id": 23300,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23300",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Find out their other interests (often on book-jackets they authored or on their profile page on the department webpage), engage them in those. </p>\n\n<p>Be respectful of their time. Ask \"I heard you are active in <em>topic</em>. Do you have a few minutes to discuss?\". If they say no, drop it. If they offer another time, follow their lead. </p>\n\n<p>Do not be obsequious or servile; speak respectfully, but as an adult to an adult. Do not act as a peer, until invited to do so. </p>\n\n<p>Respect the individual and the rank. Keep the values and priorities of the professor in mind. If invited to address the professor by name, do so. If not, address the professor as \"Doctor <em>such-and-so</em>\" or \"Professor <em>such-and-so</em>\". </p>\n\n<p>Lastly, always be polite, be kind and listen. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31042,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>From a student's point of view, here is how I tackle the situation. You can break it down by the circumstances in which you meet, and thus guesstimate how much time the professor has for you.</p>\n\n<p>Asking \"may I talk to / email you later about...?\" can be useful if it's not the right time and place for a useful discussion.</p>\n\n<p>DTK's answer has good points about how you should approach a conversation.</p>\n\n<p>Of course there will be some variations depending on the culture and environment of your department, and how well you know the prof you're talking to.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Hallway / elevator encounters</strong></p>\n\n<p>If they look busy or rushed, perhaps best save it till later. Otherwise, keep questions very brief, concisely answerable, and related to something you know they're interested in (i.e. their own research field).</p>\n\n<p><strong>Discussions at semi-social occasions, such as at a gathering after a seminar, or breaks at a conference</strong></p>\n\n<p>Here, the professor probably has no immediate obligations or things urgently pressing on his or her mind (or else they'd have disappeared by now). This is a better opportunity to ask broader or more complicated questions, or if they work in a related field you could ask for an opinion on a problem you've been thinking about.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Social occasions such as at lunchtime, conference dinner, etc.</strong></p>\n\n<p>As above, but they may even prefer to talk about something <em>other</em> than their own field of expertise -- sports, politics, an interesting paper from a completely unrelated discipline that you read whilst procrastinating, etc. If you don't know the professor very well, you might want to wait for him or her to initiate steering the conversation in that direction.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31055,
"author": "kipzzzz",
"author_id": 23778,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23778",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I took a class with a Nobel Prize-winning economist. He was pretty laid back. Usually the older these people are, the more open they are to talking. </p>\n\n<p>My tips.</p>\n\n<p>Be prepared for lectures - do the required reading and assigned work.</p>\n\n<p>Ask them about things that they'd have an interest in talking about. For instance, the economist who taught my class was married to a woman from a country I had lived in for a while. I asked him how he liked that country. We talked for 30 minutes, and he gave me his personal e-mail. </p>\n\n<p>Think of interesting things you have done and talk to them about those things. Travel, how you applied coursework to another subject, your career plans - pretty much anything interesting. Catch them in office hours - they're usually more laid back. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31057,
"author": "Maurice",
"author_id": 23780,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23780",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would say treat them as a fellow human being. Just that they are famous in there fields doesn't mean that they are 'handled with care, and need special procedures to communicate with them'.</p>\n\n<p>Try not assume too much, and just be yourself. Be genuine about it, because <em>any</em> human being knows when it's all fake and pre-constructed.. :)</p>\n\n<p>That would be my advice in a nutshell. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31078,
"author": "Kate Gregory",
"author_id": 12693,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12693",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While I am not a \"famous professor\" I am famous in my field, enough that people routinely want their picture taken with me at conferences. At the same time I get a little starstruck by folks more famous than I am (for example having dinner with the single person who invented the language I'm now considered an expert in, or having him plop himself down next to me while I'm watching a session at a conference.) So I can see both sides of this particular dynamic.</p>\n\n<p>My suggestion to you is this: you have an access to this person that outsiders do not. If you have a Nobel-winner in the same building as you, who lines up for coffee with you or is sitting next to you at a meeting, you can talk about <strong>anything nontechnical at all.</strong> You can admire an item of clothing (what a cool tie! I love that ring!) or similar accessory (oh, you got the new phone/band/watch - is it good?) or comment on the weather, or how much you're looking forward to the presentation by the visitor, or just about anything other than the professor's research. I can't do that. How incredibly creepy would it be for me to email a Nobel-winner complimenting them on a tie or ring or watch worn in a press release picture?</p>\n\n<p>They are indeed \"just as human as we are\" and because of that, your first interactions with them should be on that basis. Talk to them about the same things you would talk to anyone about. Don't burst out with a technical question you've been dying to ask. Just relax and be someone who while not a peer, has that inside access. Interacting properly with these people will include technical stuff - I can't so much as go to lunch without talking about technical stuff - but it will also include normal human stuff like \"did you watch that game last night\" or \"were you stuck in that giant traffic jam yesterday\" and the like. </p>\n\n<p>I don't mind when people I've never met want to start conversations with me by asking my technical opinion, or sharing theirs. I love what I do. But if you want to form a true connection with your famous colleague, do it by emphasizing the colleague part first and letting the technical conversations arise a little more naturally. While I was thrilled to have Stroustrup tell me I should definitely write the \"C++ as a first language\" course for Pluralsight (I hesitated, because it's hard, but he encouraged me to do it and he was right, it's a great course in the end) it was actually slightly more fun to discuss the importance of caffeine to programmers and the sadly-neglected role of chocolate in that :-).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31081,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To enhance on some of the other answers here: I, like many other scientists, used to have a very limited tolerance or appreciation for small-talk. My feeling was essentially: why waste time talking about boring things like weather or sports when we could be talking about <em>SCIENCE!</em></p>\n\n<p>Something that helped me overcome this, however, was realizing small-talk actually has a high indirect value as a signaling strategy. Small-talk allows you to actively signal to another person that you have recognized them as a human being, rather than as a resource to be exploited. It also gives a number of opportunities for the other person to signal to you whether they are currently interested in a serious conversation or whether they are feeling too busy / burned out / cranky, etc to have one. Small-talk thus lets you discretely negotiate reasonable bounds for an interaction.</p>\n\n<p>Not starting by engaging in small-talk, however, is a good way to set off many people's crazy-filters, since many highly problematic people are not capable of engaging in small-talk.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31108,
"author": "gdeck",
"author_id": 23829,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23829",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I used to be an Academic Advisor at a university. The others here are correct in both these are people just like you and me, and, they are busy people, so you don't want to \"waste\" their time.</p>\n\n<p>However, professors LOVE, and I do mean LOVE (at least the good ones) students who are interested in the coursework. One of the primary complaints I heard from the ones I knew was that students didn't respond/interact enough during class, nor did they show any genuine interest in the material. If you're a particular professor's current student.</p>\n\n<p>As a college student, this is the one time in your life when you'll have seemingly unlimited access to such minds. I was always, and still am as a graduate student, blown away at the knowledge and skill some professors have. Take advantage of this now. You never know where it may lead you in the future.</p>\n\n<p>These professors were also undergraduate students at some point in their life. They too may have struggled with some concepts you are struggling with, if you're seeking assistance. While working as an Advisor, I was their peer. I was on a first name basis with them, and had great conversations. I remember one professor tell me that he struggled with a particular concept as an undergraduate. Rather than give up, he worked hard to not only gain an understanding of that concept, but went on to master that concept. If you ask questions about math lower than their PhD level expertise, you may strike a cord with them. If they see that you're interested in something, whether struggling or not, they may offer insight into how better to understand or learn the topic. Or, since they may have a deeper understanding of the topic, they can offer an understanding that you didn't know possible.</p>\n\n<p>Again, don't be shy. You may even ask a particular professor if they have office hours during which to discuss a particular topic. If the professor has student or graduate assistants helping them, ask an assistant how best to meet with the professor.</p>\n\n<p>Again, take advantage of these opportunities while they exist.</p>\n\n<p>Good luck!!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31138,
"author": "Zak",
"author_id": 23857,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23857",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Most aspects have been alredy dealt with, I'll just add this one:\nTake care to watch for signs that tell you whether the Professor does not mind talking to you or whether he just answers in order to be polite.</p>\n\n<p>Most famous (in their field) academics I have talked to are extremely social animals, some aren't, and some would like to be but never find the time. So most know how to terminate an unwanted (or untimely) conversation, although few will want to look arrogant, so it's good to exercise a little more care than usual to gauge how your dialogue partner likes the conversation; not necessarily because missing the queue might make someone important angry but because it helps them to not feel bad for telling an interested student off.</p>\n\n<p>I.e.: Don't feel guilty if you miss a clue -- they're used to students only understanding half of what they say :)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31152,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As some of the answers suggested, those profs are humans, too. How they react to some lowly academics, such as students, differs. All really depends on his personality. Don't be offended if he ignores you. In all cases, don't be pushy. Let me share my two stories.</p>\n\n<p><em>Story #1</em>:\nA famous prof shows up for the conference at my school. He knows a lot of faculty members reasonably well. He's highly respected in his field and has strong, controversial opinions. My advisor asked me not to approach this famous prof during the conference under any circumstances. Surprisingly, he approached me during lunch and started to engage some small talks. His wife is in the same ethnic background as I do and he's interested in a second opinion on the food from that area of the world. At the same time, I felt the uncomfortable gaze from my advisor...</p>\n\n<p><em>Story #2</em>:\nA person (let's call him \"A\") would like to visit my advisor during his business trip. My advisor refused to meet \"A\", but \"A\" insisted to drop by. I don't know the relationship between \"A\" and my advisor. My advisor stayed home on that day. To make \"A\" satisfied, my advisor asked his students to engage in useless small talks if he drops by. \"A\" did drop by and I turned him away to my best abilities. My advisor called my lab extension later in the afternoon making sure that \"A\" was gone before he drove to campus.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31030",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
31,032 |
<p>I submitted a paper to a [science] journal and received some particularly constructive feedback from the referees. I am inclined to add something to the effect of</p>
<p><em>We are grateful to the referees for their constructive input.</em></p>
<p>to the acknowledgements, as I have seen in other papers before. But is this considered appropriate?</p>
<p>On the one hand, it seems polite. But on the other, it's part of the job of a referee to make suggestions. Moreover, since they are anonymous and I am not going to specify their contributions, the only information provided in this remark is that 'someone suggested something' which seems a bit pointless.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31033,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Referees typically use significant time and effort to provide their expert views on manuscripts in the review process. It is therefore never a bad idea to thank them. That said, there are a few things to keep in mind.</p>\n\n<p>First, keep in mind that your revisions, based on their comments and the editor's handling is what the reader's see. It would not be fair to make it seem as if the resulting article is all due to the reviewers comments. In fact, they may end up disagreeing with some points of your final article.</p>\n\n<p>Second, a bad type of behaviour is to acknowledge reviewers in a way that does not reflect their statement. I know of a case where an well respected peer was mentioned as having provided \"valuable input on an earlier version of the manuscript\" where the review was a \"reject\" of a really poor manuscript. In this case it was made to look as if the current manuscript was endorsed by the peer, which really was not the case. [to add a further explanation: one can promote ones own work by implying that someone who is a major name has provided input earlier and by doing so have provided input to the state of the manuscript under review]</p>\n\n<p>So, thanking reviewers is a good way to provide acknowledgement to persons who support the process but remember to phrase it so as not to put aspects of the final paper in their mouth that they do not support.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31037,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I usually try to add a line to the acknowledgements to thank anonymous referees and I try to make it honest and clear. Reviewers' time and effort invariably improves my papers and I think it's only polite to thank anybody who contributed for their time, effort, and engagement to making a manuscript better.</p>\n\n<p>Will anybody care if it's missing? Will anybody even <em>notice</em> if it's missing? Probably not. That said, although it may be the \"job\" of the reviewers to give suggestions, refereeing is something that academics do as volunteers. Reviewing papers is perhaps the most thankless part of an academic job. Acknowledgement of the positive impact that referees have seems like the least an author can do.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 120654,
"author": "Carlos Barrera",
"author_id": 101164,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/101164",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Please do not forget that the academic system for publishing original articles owes a lot to reviewers and referees, so I am sure some journal editors will suggest the autor(s) to include the acknowledgemente to them.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31032",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19470/"
] |
31,034 |
<p>I am instructed by my university to offer 1 academic reference and 1 work reference for industry work (I am doing a year-long placement). However, all attempts to actually get suggestions on who to use from the university have been useless as they appear to be dodging my questions by not responding.</p>
<p>As my course is quite large, I seriously doubt any lecturer or demonstrator will even know my name, let alone me as a person and therefore cannot give a personal reference. But, as we have to give somebody, who should it therefore be?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31038,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Your academic reference should be a teacher you have taken a class from or worked with in another academic capacity like a research assistantship, an academic internship, etc.</p>\n\n<p>For students very early in their careers who have only taken large lecture classes, this can be challenging. Some teachers of large lecture classes have concrete guidelines for when they will recommend students in these classes (e.g., I might have a policy of recommending any student who achieves more than a 3.7/4.0). You might look at your professors websites or ask them. The professor will likely review your work in the class before writing a letter so you will be wise to pick a professor of a class you did extremely well in.</p>\n\n<p>Alternatively, you might be able to ask a post-doc or graduate teaching assistant that you worked with more closely with who is familiar with your academic work. I wrote these letters for undergraduates when I was a graduate student. Graduate student letters would be inappropriate for applying to a graduate program but should be just fine for intra-University programs and placements.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31534,
"author": "A.S",
"author_id": 22447,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22447",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Real world employers mostly want to confirm that you have ability to work independently as well as on a team, which is evidence of self-discipline and good communication skills. </p>\n\n<p>For this reason I would suggest, if possible, to ask a lecturer/professor in a class where you did some type of project which required working over a period of time to produce something tangible like a presentation or a paper or a design. Preferably in a team, and ideally where you had some leadership role or were responsible for a good chunk of the work. </p>\n\n<p>Ideally this lecturer would have acknowledged your project as of especially high quality and well done. When you meet to ask them, bring some evidence that will help them remember your work (they deal with hundreds of students and it may be challenging to recall any one individual's accomplishments). </p>\n\n<p>Anecdotal evidence is always great in this case because it gives them something specific to talk about. You can also bring a hard-copy sheet with a bullet list of your accomplishments (grades, projects, extracurricular work) that will give the lecturer some raw material for the reference. </p>\n\n<p>Help them out, and they will help you. Good luck!</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31034",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23761/"
] |
31,035 |
<p>I am currently writing my bachelor's thesis. I made a lot of experiments and I describe them as well as their result in the text. Currently, I have most tables with the results of the experiments within the main part. However, I am thinking about putting at least the bigger tables in the appendix as they make the text hard to read.</p>
<p>What should I put in the appendix and what should be in the main part?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31036,
"author": "enthu",
"author_id": 15723,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15723",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Put the more important data in the main part of your thesis and less important tables which should be reported in your report in the appendix.</p>\n\n<p>As an instance, if you have 10 tests in your thesis, you may put results of 5 more important tests in the main part and 5 less important tests in the appendix of your thesis.</p>\n\n<p>Don't put extra information and tables in your thesis as they make the reader of your thesis a little bored.</p>\n\n<p>If you can, turn some of your tables in to plots and graphs, as seeing repeated tables in a text makes it boring and having some plots in your text makes it easier for reader to understand what you are talking about.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31040,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a rule, the appendixes should be ignorable. That is, if you rip them off, the thesis is still valid and understandable.</p>\n\n<p>Appendixes are good for side discussions or extra supporting materials.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31053,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I like to think of appendices (or supporting information, which is the same thing for a journal paper) in terms of the narrative structure of a text. The main text should contain everything that makes up the \"story\" of the work. In it, a reader who basically trusts that your methods are sound should find everything that they need to understand the work.</p>\n\n<p>There are often, however, places where it is important to show your work, but that are not particularly interesting. If they are lengthy enough that they start feeling like a major detour in the flow of the narrative, then they are a good candidate for moving to an appendix. </p>\n\n<p>Some examples from my own recent papers:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Theorem and proof sketch in main text, boring exhaustive proof with lots of slightly different cases in appendix.</li>\n<li>Graph summarizing results plus an example of result detail in main text, all the rest of the results in appendix.</li>\n<li>Data from method presented in main text, data showing that plausible alternatives didn't work in appendix.</li>\n<li>Intuitive description of method and key mathematical concepts in main text, exhaustive mathematical details in appendix.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Exactly where to draw the line is somewhat subjective, but fortunately doesn't matter all that much unless you are dealing with format or length restrictions.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31035",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4092/"
] |
31,044 |
<p>As a second year graduate student, it's become increasingly difficult for me to figure out what journals are the most prestigious. My research is very interdisciplinary, and so journals from many different fields would be suitable for my work.</p>
<p>Initially, I took Impact Factor as a good proxy for journal ranking. However, I've come to learn that IF doesn't necessarily reflect the whole story. It seems that number of citations (for an individual publication), regardless of journal, appears to be the most important metric.</p>
<p>However, barring that, I assume most people (in the interest of career success), would still like to publish in the best journal they can get in.</p>
<p>Consider a journal like Physical Review Letters. It has an impact factor of 7.7. However, a relatively new journal like Advanced Energy Materials has an impact factor of 14.3, almost double that of PRL. However, I've always heard that PRL is one of the best physics journals that you can publish in (heck, Einstein's EPR experiment was published there). So if I had an article that would be appropriate for submission to both, which would be the better one to get in?</p>
<p>Then there's something like Nature Physics, with its 20.6 Impact Factor, which suggests getting in here would be a more significant achievement that either of the other two. But by how much? Surely not by three times?</p>
<p>(Part of the problem is that Research Gate gives you a total IF score for all your publications, which I think biases that number more than it should be.)</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31051,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a particularly difficult question for interdisciplinary research, because different fields have radically different citation customs and publication time-tables, which leads to the same impact factor meaning very different things. Impact factor also has <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor#Criticisms\">numerous other problems</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Moreover, absolute ranking of a journal is in many cases less important than reaching the audience that you want to talk to, particularly in interdisciplinary research and especially if you want to reach an application community.</p>\n\n<p>Rather than focusing on impact factor, I would recommend using the following method to determine how to rank journals as possible publication targets: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Pick half a dozen researchers who you highly respect and want to be the audience for this paper.</li>\n<li>Look at the journals that they publish in. The more frequently a journal appears, the better it is as a target for this audience.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>This can also help you distinguish between targets for broad and narrow papers. For example, you might have a methodology paper that speaks to a very particular sub-discipline. A journal specifically for that sub-discipline may have a much lower impact factor, but may be a much better place to place the paper and it may actually end up having much higher impact and citations than if it is in a \"better\" venue where it is mostly read by people for whom it is irrelevant.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31059,
"author": "WetlabStudent",
"author_id": 8101,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8101",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are interdisciplinary in the sense that you would call yourself a \"Theoretical __________\", \"Quantitative ________\", \"Computational __________\", or an \"Applied Mathematician\", then if you rank journals by impact factor you will artificially be biased against very good theoretical journals.</p>\n\n<p>As a general rule of thumb (with several exceptions of course) the more theoretical the journal the lower the impact factor. The reason for this is because theoretical work is often more self contained. You cite a book or a few papers for the mathematical techniques or theorems you use, and not much else. Discussions and intros are short, the derivations are the crux of the paper, and the culture is that it is up to the reader to evaluate the importance of the results. It is not uncommon for a math paper to have less than 10 references. </p>\n\n<p>For experimental papers you have to cite a lot of papers just to argue that your results are important. In addition, there are often many similar data sets that your result might shine light on or that contradict or confirm your result. In such cases you'd have to cite them all. Intros and discussions are often long and in many cases are viewed as the most important parts of the paper. It is not uncommon for an experimental biology paper to have 50-100 references.</p>\n\n<p>In my field a good theory journal would have an impact factor above 2 and good applications journal would have an impact factor above 5. You have different audiences reading each. The reason I bring this up is that you mention as your example a general physics journal that accepts a lot of theory papers (i.e. papers with proofs) and one that seems to be more experimentally driven (and as an aside in a very hot field right now). The point is impact factors can be useful in comparing papers within a subfield but are not so good at comparing papers across fields.</p>\n\n<p>If my result is of the form:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Here is this theoretical result and it explains data from experiments or what we observe in the real world... </li>\n<li>Here is this theoretical result and it shows that all these experiments people are doing are missing the point. We should be doing these experiments instead...</li>\n<li>Here is this theoretical result and it means this for how we should be building ...</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Then I want to publish in the applications or general science journal to reach a wider non-theoretical audience because the whole point of the result is its implications</p>\n\n<p>If my result is of the form:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>We built this mathematical model which can be used to describe real world system; it has some really interesting behavior, but its unclear if this behavior is relevant to the system the model can be used to study</li>\n<li>We studied a mathematical model and proved X Y and Z. People have been using this model for a while and numerically have showed that it does a \"good job\" at ... we prove it actually does do a good job at ....</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Then I would publish in a theory journal because the people you want to reach is other theorists who are comfortable with math. You want to get down into the gritty details.</p>\n\n<p>Your philosophy may be different, but the point is that it is about reaching your target audience not the impact factor. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31060,
"author": "nathanielng",
"author_id": 23382,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23382",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my experience / research field, impact factor somewhat correlates with the prestige of the journal, but there can be exceptions (most notably when comparing across disciplines). Keep in mind that 'impact factor' is not the only metric, and may not even be the best metric. One may even get conflicting answers based on one's choice of metric. Here's an example to illustrate this point.</p>\n\n<p>Based on impact factor:</p>\n\n<pre><code>Nature > Nature Materials > Physical Review Letters > Physical Review B.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Based on <a href=\"http://www.eigenfactor.org/rankings.php?bsearch=2011&searchby=year&orderby=eigenfactor\" rel=\"noreferrer\">2011 eigenfactor</a>:</p>\n\n<pre><code>Nature > Physical Review Letters > Physical Review B > Nature Materials.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Based on <a href=\"http://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=top_venues&hl=en\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Google Scholar's h5-index rankings</a>:</p>\n\n<pre><code>Nature > Physical Review Letters > Nature Materials > Physical Review B.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>So which metric is closer to the truth? It likely depends on who you ask, and it depends on which field they are in. Consider asking people from the research community you are in (and especially those who are in the places where you intend to apply for a job in future). Keep in mind that journal impact factor is not the only criteria. Other criteria that could be just as important (or even more important) include: referrals, who you worked with, what was your contribution to the paper, how well you are able to defend your work, whether your skills fit in with the rest of the organization, how established are you in the field.</p>\n\n<p>Note: when talking to people, one should also consider that impact factor tends to be more controversial when comparing across fields (the eigenfactor system tries to correct for this). Some fields may have higher citation counts than others because: they tend to cite each other more often, there are more researchers, they publish more or often, or some combination of all 3. What happens when a particular department has people specialising in multiple fields (where some fields have significantly higher citation averages and journal impact factors than others)? Trying to equalise the playing field across multiple disciplines is not a straightforward task (and what happens if the department does not really try to equalise the playing field?).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31063,
"author": "fileunderwater",
"author_id": 7223,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7223",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I generally agree with the arguments made by @jakebeal and @MHH, and just want to make another point which the other answers don't state clearly. Within a field such as physics, some topics are more <em>hot</em> and receive more attention both within the field but also from other areas of science, which will translate into more citations. It is therefore common for some narrower journals that focus on <em>hot</em> topics to have higher impact factors than good, prestigious generalist journals that span the entire field. This is because generalist journals publish good science (hopefully) in both <em>hot</em> topics and all other subtopics, including subtopics that have lower citation rates (and e.g. theoretical work generally have lower citation rates, see also the answer from @MHH). </p>\n\n<p>I don't know the journal ecosystem in physics, but can imagine that <em>Physical Review Letters</em> publish in all fields of Physics, while <em>Advanced Energy Materials</em> only publish in a narrower subfield, and this can be the reason for the difference in impact factor (which might not then correlate to the overall \"prestige\" in physics). A similar situation is found in the field of Ecology, where some journals related to Global change have higher impact factors than more traditional ecology journals with a broader scope, which arguably doesn't relate to a difference in journal prestige.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 139601,
"author": "Product Nick",
"author_id": 70997,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/70997",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Metrics to consider are (some already mentioned): </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Eigenfactor</li>\n<li>Article Influence</li>\n<li>Impact Factor</li>\n<li>5 year impact factor</li>\n<li>Source-Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP)</li>\n<li>SCImago Journal Rank (SJR)</li>\n<li>CiteScore</li>\n<li>H5 Index</li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31044",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5958/"
] |
31,045 |
<p>What exactly is an "invited review article"? I have the opportunity to be an author on one of these, but I have no clue how this looks in comparison to research articles. (I am referring to invited review articles for reputable journals well-known in the field only.)</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31047,
"author": "seteropere",
"author_id": 532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/532",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>What exactly is an \"invited review article\"?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It is an article that appears in one issue of a journal. The article goal is to review the recent development of a specific topic (sometimes it goes with a special journal issue in that topic). </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>how this looks in comparison to research articles.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Research articles contain original ideas and contributions to the field done by the authors. In contrast, a review article usually has no absolute <em>originality</em> in a sense that the authors are not coming up with something totally new. They are nicely summarizing what is happening in the field and identifying possible challenges. </p>\n\n<p>The benefits you get out of publishing a review article in your field (specially when you are at an early stage of your research career and with a reputable journal) are numerous </p>\n\n<p><strong>1. You get to know your topic.</strong> </p>\n\n<p>This has the advantage of organizing your thoughts and identifying possible contributions into the field. </p>\n\n<p><strong>2. A Good Critical Review = High Citations.</strong> </p>\n\n<p>Good review articles tend to have many many citations. This means many people going to know your name (and possibly look for your other publications). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31071,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Journals accept different types of articles apart from regular articles such as for example, short communications, letter to the Editor, Correspondence etc. The definition of these vary. Journals publishing regular research articles may have guidelines that state that they do not accept review articles. There are also journals that focus on review articles. The reason for not accepting review articles probably vary substantially between journals but clearly review articles are usually very extensive and require much more work from reviewers and editors and so may be disrupting the regular flow of articles.</p>\n\n<p>So, in the cases, I know of, including \"my own\" journal, Invited reviews is a way for a journal that focuses on publishing regular research articles to put strict limits on what is submitted as a review article. The \"Invited\" meaning that there is no point in submitting in a review article to the journal in the hope of getting it published. Instead the journal will in some way invite the reviews they will accept for review. By \"invite\" the journal can consider receiving suggestions for a review by an author or by having editors identify and suggest authors to write a review, I am sure the processes vary. In this way, the review becomes a more exclusive entry in the journal focussing on a topic that is considered of key interest to the journal and its audience. The main difference from reviews in a review article journal is thus the selection method of the manuscripts.</p>\n\n<p>So, for what it is worth, an invited review, given the points provided above, will be slightly more prestigious than an ordinary review article in a review journal. In the end, however, it will be the usefulness of the article that provides the real value of the publication.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31045",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5958/"
] |
31,046 |
<p>How does getting into non-submission based magazines appear? For instance, if R&D magazine took an article about my work (NOT an actual research paper) and published it in their magazine, would this be something I would want to mention on my CV/résumé or would I even bother listing it at all?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31070,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>An article about your research in a broad, application-oriented journal certainly highlights the application potential of your research, and this would be something that you want to show in most applications also for academic positions. </p>\n\n<p>However, I'm not sure how this could be integrated well within an academic CV. Usually you also have a research statement that describes your research activities, and I think it might fit better there. You could generally discuss the (potential) practical impact of your research, and then cite such an article to support your statement.</p>\n\n<p>If such an article would refer to a specific research paper you published, it may also be an option to mention it in your publication list as \"<em>featured by ...</em>\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31073,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I saw some researcher having \"media coverage\" or \"general impact\" columns in their CVs, see e.g. <a href=\"http://complex.ffn.ub.es/~mbogunya/cv.php#media\" rel=\"nofollow\">this example</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Other way to go (which I do) is to append to the respective publications \"featured by [The Economist/Technology Review/2014 Highlights of [this journal]/John Smith's blog]\".</p>\n\n<p>IMHO as long you are not overdoing it, it should be a plus. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31076,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think the key lies in what you mean by \"your CV\". I personally have a master file for my CV which includes all kinds of information I consider is useful to highlight my person and my work in a wide sense. I then pick and chose from this file to tailor for the specific use and limitations that come up.</p>\n\n<p>So my answer to you will be: <em>it depends</em>. You need to consider what may be useful for each time you are required to provide a CV. In many cases, publications in a popular science context can be considered quite valuable whereas they may not be in other cases. I therefore recommend you to consider keeping a master file where you add the sort of publications you refer to under some appropriate heading. You can then decide if you want to add these in the particular case. If you end up with lots of low impact reports etc. you can consider shortening a list to a sentence stating, for example, that you have written X articles in popular science for the following journals: Journal , Journal Y etc.</p>\n\n<p>So, make sure you save all kinds of positive outcomes you have from your work and carefully select what you submit in the end. A single popular science article may not excite many (depending on publishing venue) but if you aggregate a more substantial list over time, it shows your interest to share science with the general public which is sought after with, particularly, (public) funding agencies.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31046",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5958/"
] |
31,049 |
<p>I was a PhD student and working on a paper. My adviser told me that he could not support me anymore so I left him. Now I am wondering if I could publish that paper on my own. There were 3 other coauthors on that paper but I was the first author and main idea was from me. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31050,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your paper had other authors. Generally, if you want to publish it, you have to communicate with the other co-authors (whether they were your supervisor or not).</p>\n\n<p>Regardless of who the <em>first</em> author on a paper is, if other individuals made authorship-worthy contributions to the work, you can't publish it without communicating with them first.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31095,
"author": "dac2002",
"author_id": 23554,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23554",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When an academic paper is produced, the copyright generally belongs primarily to the institution at which the work was done and secondarily to the author(s) of the work.</p>\n\n<p>Therefore you must seek and obtain the permission of the institution at which you were enrolled before disseminating the work in any form, whether electronic or otherwise or presenting it at a meeting or conference. Failure to do this would represent a breach of academic ethics and could leave you open to legal proceedings from the institution in question. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31049",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23774/"
] |
31,065 |
<p>I organized my students to take their exams in the school’s computer labs. Some students finished well before others. In each section, I tried different policies for what students should do in this situation, but none worked very well.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I let one section of students leave when they finished, but make much noise while moving their chairs and gathering their things. Furthermore, I am concerned that students will find ways to cheat, e.g. leave and access the Web-based testing system from their iPod.</p></li>
<li><p>I let one section do as they like on the computers when they finished, but this made it difficult to determine who was finished and who was using resources to cheat on the exams.</p></li>
<li><p>I gave one section some extra credit work to do if they finished early, but many students did other homework instead, which led to similar difficulty in determining who was finished or cheating.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>What is a good policy that does not cause interruption to other students but also does not hinder proctoring efforts?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31066,
"author": "Jack Aidley",
"author_id": 5614,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5614",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Why were the students leaving early disruptive? Under the rules of every institution that I've been at you are under exam conditions until you leave the room. They should be utterly silent and respectful to other students or face the usual penalties for breaking the rules of exam conditions.</p>\n\n<p>If you're not happy with them leaving early I'm not sure why you would do anything to occupy them. Make them sit in silence and wait for the the exam to finish. Boredom never killed anyone.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31072,
"author": "Adam",
"author_id": 23794,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23794",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I had one teacher, that put crossword or sudoku at the end of each test sheet. I think it is much better to give students something to do in the spare time. You should choose something that you can easily differentiate from cheating.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31074,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I do see the general concerns of allowing students to leave early; after all, they might meet up with whoever leaves for the bathroom while still taking the exam and provide them with information specific to the exam.</p>\n\n<p>Now, of course that could happen as long as no-one has left, too. Someone could hide information in the bathrooms, or someone could meet up with someone not taking part in the exam at all, or that latter person could hide some information in the bathrooms after the exam has started. These issues could be mitigated in the following cases:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Only students taking part in the exam can enter the bathrooms.</strong> This depends a lot on the architecture; unless the lecture hall is extremely large (> 500 seats maybe, from what I could observe so far in universities?), the average number of required toilets at any moment during lectures generally does not warrant an extra set of bathrooms reserved for a single lecture hall. And even then, those bathrooms seem to be more often than not accessible in a way that one does <em>not</em> have to cross the lecture hall (and thus can enter and leave the bathrooms without anyone in the lecture hall noticing), for the very purpose of allowing outside people to use the bathrooms without disturbing whatever is going on in the lecture hall.</li>\n<li><strong>Students need to be accompanied to the bathroom door.</strong> Depending on how many proctors were assigned, and the size of the room/number of students, this may or may not be feasible. And even then, it would not totally prevent the exchange of information to take place <em>in</em> the bathrooms themselves.</li>\n<li><strong>The inside of the bathrooms needs to be checked whenever a student is brought there.</strong> This would require to have at least one male and one female proctor around. Highly unlikely to happen in gender-unequal disciplines such as computer science.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Those cases of cheating would be somewhat undirected, anyway. It may depend on the exams, but we generally try to not ask for any knowledge that needs to be memorized (in some cases, notes are even allowed during the exam). Our exams are usually designed in a way to test whether some knowledge can be applied in scenarios that are described on the exam sheets. Hence, <strong>the major concern is not cheating by accessing the course material or other references; the major concern is having someone else specifically solve one's particular tasks from the exam at hand</strong>. Therefore, what needs to be prevented is the contact between someone who is still taking the exam with someone <em>who also knows the exam tasks</em>. The straightforward solution to this is asking students to wait until everyone has finished.</p>\n\n<p>Another point is that no matter how quiet students <em>try</em> to be, when they get up, they will make at least some noise:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Walking around creates some noises on non-carpeted floor, so that should generally be minimized. Leaving for the bathroom is allowed as there are medical reasons for that, but there are usually no such reasons that would warrant the impatience of having to leave right away.</li>\n<li>Students who leave need to pack their stuff (writing utensils, drinks/food, other objects they needed to have around such as watches and their student IDs), which again will create some (more than just from writing) sounds.</li>\n<li>In case of \"lecture hall\" type rooms, that do not have single chairs, but folding seats mounted to the next row of tables, students who do not sit right next to an aisle can only leave by making everyone else between themselves and the aisle get up. It is annoying when that happens in a cinema, and it is downright antisocial to disrupt someone's concentration like that who is taking an exam.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Some students may complain that they are wasting time, and - from an egoistical point of view - they may be right. However, unless we can provide a single room and a single proctor for every single student, that is not how exams realistically work:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>They do not have to stay for an unexpected amount of time.</strong> If the exam was scheduled to take place between 2 PM and 4:30 PM, they can expect to leave by 4:30 PM. The time was known beforehand, and they will have arranged their schedule accordingly.</li>\n<li><strong>They are not the only ones taking the exam.</strong> Indeed, they (think they) have finished their own exam. But that doesn't mean they can stop caring about their environment at that moment, as the world still isn't centered around them; once they have stopped writing, it is their obligation to allow the other students to finish the exam without any further disruptions. I do not believe in punishing students who take longer by giving them an even harder time. Proctors need to guarantee avoidable disruptions are avoided, and giving in to someone's impatience is definitely avoidable.</li>\n<li><strong>The time is only wasted if they decide to waste it.</strong> There are plenty of things to do while waiting in a silent environment; from thinking - to get one's thoughts away from the exam topic - to sleeping. All of those are much less counterproductive with respect to the other students than insisting on creating more noise by leaving immediately.</li>\n<li><strong>Some overhead is to be expected.</strong> Reading out the exam rules and checking attendance in the beginning takes quite some time (in large exams, often more than 20 minutes). That is expected when taking an exam, and likewise, students should expect that there will be some time after they have finished writing that they still need to spend in the exam room.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Therefore, my general preference is to simply ask them to wait till the time is over. They can use some of that time to make sure they completed everything correctly (when do you ever get the chance/time to check what you wrote in an exam? You should use that opportunity!), and other than that, <strong>they are adults</strong>. They should be able to show a little patience on a few occasions.</p>\n\n<p><em>EDITED to further address some more specific points that were brought up in various of the comments in this thread.</em></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31080,
"author": "Jon Story",
"author_id": 23277,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23277",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would suggest perhaps letting them leave in a more constructive way - when finished, the student raises their hand and waits for a tutor to come to them. They state they've finished and are escorted, quietly, from the room. Add a minimum time at the start and end during which they can't leave, to avoid disruption at the important settling in and final rush times, but during the bulk of the exam, people will barely notice.</p>\n\n<p>Alternately if they aren't allowed to leave by the faculty, I'd arrange something whereby the student has a marker (eg a red cone of paper) on their monitor during the exam. When they finish, they raise their hand again and you come to remove the cone, at which point they're allowed to browse and do homework etc. that way you can differentiate between those finished and those attempting to cheat.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31091,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Based on your question, it sounds like several students may be asked to sit quietly for 30+ minutes. I don't know the specific policies of your university, but here are a few suggestions.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>If you have an empty back row, allow any student who has turned in his exam to take a seat behind currently working students and use phone, laptop etc.</p></li>\n<li><p>Have a TA offer student escorts outside the building every 10-15 minutes. This will be the way students can leave before the exam is up.</p></li>\n<li><p>Double check policies. Universities in America (and likely Europe) generally count the exam done when the student gets up from the chair. The students are not generally disruptive as they leave the building, and the no in and out policy prevents students from colluding in the bathroom.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31092,
"author": "WernerCD",
"author_id": 983,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/983",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm going to agree with Jack on a couple points (why is students stepping out disruptive?) - with few exceptions and on major difference I think:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Test is over, class is not over</strong></p>\n\n<p>The main difference I'd like to point out is that in my limited experience (as a student) the test being over doesn't mean the class is over - normally that means you start lecture on the next chapter/section/subject... After a test students are free too:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>sit at their computer - visible to staff and clearly not involved in test taking activities</li>\n<li>run to the store (nearby, in building, snack shack) </li>\n<li>just meander outside in the hallways until everyone is done - being respectful of our class AND neighboring classes.</li>\n<li>etc</li>\n<li>be back in your seat at X-time for further lecture</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Either at a predetermined time (Test is 45 minutes) or as soon as all students are done taking the test, a 15 minute break commences that is then followed by further class time.</p>\n\n<p><code>Test starts at 11 in the computer lab. You have until 12:15 to be finished (60 minutes for test, 15 minutes for break) and seated in the normal class room. Be respectful of those taking test, and those in nearby class rooms</code> is more than reasonable if you are doing it outside of the normal classroom (computer lab).</p>\n\n<p><strong>What do you consider disruptive?</strong></p>\n\n<p>I think all of these suggestions to \"Raise your hand to get permission\" reeks of grade school and isn't something you do with responsible adults. I would find THAT more disruptive than <em>Be quiet, respect others and wait or step outside until the test+break is over</em></p>\n\n<p>But I think a major unanswered part is what are YOU calling disruptive? Students weaving through packed seats? Students saying \"I'm done\"? Students simply moving? Doing cartwheels through the isles due to the joy of finishing a test?</p>\n\n<p>If you need to put up a guide, and treat it like every other disclaimer -</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Don't eat the Chiclets included with your hard drive.</li>\n<li>don't use hair dryer while in the shower.</li>\n<li>Don't do cartwheels after the test.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>... because SOME idiot had to eat the Chiclets or use a hair dryer in the shower, then do so. But I think those kinds of situations are probably covered in the generic \"Don't do that\" information you get when you start college.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31093,
"author": "Matthew Leingang",
"author_id": 5701,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5701",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I simply make an announcement with, say, 30 minutes to go requesting that, to respect the concentration of the students still working, students finishing early remain quietly seated until time is up.</p>\n\n<p>This usually has the intended effect. The worst thing that's happened is that some students get up and try to leave immediately after that announcement. I meet them in the aisle and quietly repeat my request.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31094,
"author": "flounder",
"author_id": 23793,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23793",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You did not specify what grade level these students are at. I tutor third-graders, and if they are let go early, they are definitely disruptive. But if this is college level, you are nominally dealing with legal adults. Forcing them to stay in the room until class is over sounds like unlawful restraint. I didn't even require that my students show up, except for the major exams. But they would lose all possible points for class participation, and hand-in assignments were always due. But, I explained, their chances of passing one of the exams were very close to zero unless they managed good study habits. A couple students tried this each term. Some got A+ and some got F. I finished one of my 3-hour PhD exams in 20 minutes, handed it in, and walked out of the room. It never occurred to me to ask permission, and if I had, the exam proctor would have thought it bizarre. (I passed with a perfect score).</p>\n\n<p>If you have college students who are \"disruptive\" if they are not in class, your school has deeper problems than whether or not students can leave exams early, and they are not your problem. Even as an undergrad, we were treated as responsible adults, and such grade-school silliness as I've been reading here would never have happened.</p>\n\n<p>I'm amazed that college-age students even tolerate such treatment. Or need it.</p>\n\n<p>Note: if the students are disruptive, one way to control them is have them line up, buddy-to-buddy, and hold hands while walking in the halls. Like I did in pre-K.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31109,
"author": "arp",
"author_id": 23831,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23831",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It depends a lot on the class and on the age of the students, which the original poster did not share. University students are expected to behave like adults, secondary school students may need a bit more supervision, especially if the school is not set up to accommodate students with no particular assigned place to be. </p>\n\n<p>If a lot of students are going to be finishing early it may not be possible to give them a place where they can sit separately and use materials that contain possible exam help (even their class textbook may be inappropriate to read within view of students who are still working on the exam); in this case it may be best to provide reading material on the exam computer that will allow them to get an early start on future work, such as a reading assignment from a later chapter of the coursework. </p>\n\n<p>Extra credit questions on the exam may also provide a way to keep all students occupied for the full exam time.</p>\n\n<p>(As an illustrative example, I finished my final exam in a university economics class in 20 minutes, checked my work three times, and still walked out in less than a third of the allotted time. Telling students to spend the extra time to check their work may not be helpful.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31110,
"author": "einpoklum",
"author_id": 7319,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7319",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Among the three policies you suggested, only <strong>Policy 1 - Let them leave when they're done</strong> is good - or rather, it's the only morally acceptable one.</p>\n\n<p>The reason is that you have <em>no right</em> to keep people in their seats doing nothing when they're done with their exam. That would be treating them like <em>prisoners</em>. You can and should make an effort to arrange things so that their leaving will be less disruptive (e.g. chairs which don't make a scratching noise when pulled...) - but nothing beyond that.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31147,
"author": "gdeck",
"author_id": 23829,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23829",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is from personal experience as a student and proctor.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>A student's \"stuff\" -- \nThe best rule to have is that students are not permitted to bring anything to the testing site. If this is just not possible, you can ask students to put what they bring along a wall or up front, on the floor, near the teacher's desk. This rule alone can result in students bringing less stuff to the exam.</p></li>\n<li><p>Phones and electronic devices -- \nAsk all students to pull their phones out before the exam starts and ask them to either put them on silent or simply turn them off. At this time, tell them to put them away and inform them that if a cell phone or other electronic device is seen in the open before the student leaves the exam room, they receive a zero on their exam. They can wait until they are in the hallway before looking at their missed calls/messages.</p></li>\n<li><p>Computer monitor -- \nTell students that after they have completed their computer-based exam to turn their monitor off. This can be optional based upon circumstances. You could also ask the students to close all open programs and return to the desktop.</p></li>\n<li><p>Permit students to leave upon finishing their exam -- \nTell students that they are in \"exam mode\" until they leave the room. Any spoken words that are not directed at a proctor or the instructor will result in a zero on their exam. They can retrieve their belongings from along the wall or from the area near the teacher's desk. You can even go so far as escorting students to the door and opening and closing it behind them.</p></li>\n<li><p>DO NOT assume that students who finish last are weak students -- \nI am a graduate student and am usually one of the last to complete an exam. I am also one of the highest grades in the class. Some students have text anxiety or concentration problems that cause them to take longer on their exam. You can even offer to allow students who know that they take longer on an exam or have concentration issues to sit in desks that are furthest from the door or locations that are prone to disruption from students leaving.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I hope you find this useful.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31065",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/600/"
] |
31,069 |
<p>My department has gone paperless and uses Moodle to provide all information to students in an electronic format. With a paper based syllabus the expectations were cast in stone (okay ink on paper). Now that we are on Moodle, we can change the syllabus whenever we want. Today, we had a staff member change the word count on an essay, that is due in two days, from a 1500 word maximum with a 10% allowance, whatever that means, to a strict 1500 word maximum. The students are confused and screaming about it. What type of departmental policy should be in place to prevent changes.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31075,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Fundamentally, I don't think this problem has to do with the shift to a paperless format. Even with a syllabus on paper, my experience has been that a professor may well change it, often for good reason (e.g., shifting to make room for an excellent guest speaker, extending a deadline on a lab that many people are having problems with). </p>\n\n<p>I think that the real problem here is that the faculty member has made a last-minute change that makes life harder for the students. Student who thought they were done with the assignment have just discovered that they have more work to do, it may be interfering with their other plans, class or non-class, and it just plain doesn't feel fair. Perhaps a good policy for that would be that no assignment can be made more restrictive once it has \"started\"?</p>\n\n<p>There is also a place where the electronic aspect can enflame or mitigate the issue, and that may also address your original question. Online documents offer the potential for making a \"sneaky\" change that is not announced directly to the students. That seems to me to be something that should definitely be prohibited, and might be handled automatically by having the system send an announcement to all of the students whenever a course document changes. I don't know Moodle, so I don't know how hard or easy it would be to set up automatic notification; even without automation, however, you could certainly regulate that all non-trivial changes must have a notification sent to students.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31103,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I agree with jakebeal that \"online resources\" is a red herring. The issue is simply that the instructor has made a last-minute change to the expectations for an assignment.</p>\n\n<p>I think it's a pretty basic principle of teaching that expectations for assignments need to be provided to students in plenty of time for them to create the assignment. If expectations are to be changed after they are communicated to students:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>There should be a compelling reason for the change. (I can't imagine a compelling reason for 1650 words to suddenly be unacceptable.)</p></li>\n<li><p>Students should have a reasonable amount of time to take the changes into account.</p></li>\n<li><p>Changes that may invalidate work that students are likely to have already done should be avoided if at all possible.</p></li>\n<li><p>Students should be notified by some \"push\" method (email, announcement in class, etc).</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>However, I <em>don't</em> think that you need to turn this into a departmental policy. It sounds to me like you have one person who needs to be counseled about their teaching practices - take the matter up with that person. Imposing a department-wide policy for something that should be common sense is passive-agressive, wastes the time of those developing the policy, and places an unnecessary burden on everyone else who now has to check whether they are complying.</p>\n\n<p>(I made the same point <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/9567/1010\">here</a>.)</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31069",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929/"
] |
31,079 |
<p>Firstly, I know that there are plenty of questions here like this one but hopefully this is not a duplicate.</p>
<p>I was born and grown up in Iran and belong to a religious minority (Bahai faith). As you know Bahais are not allowed to attend universities in Iran because of their faith. I was no exception and so could not study at university because of my religious beliefs. Between the age of 18 (when I finished my highschool in Iran) and 24, I worked as a construction laborer. At the age of 24, I together with my family (my parents and sister) travelled to Turkey and became refugees in UNHCR and two years later UNHCR sent us to Australia. I studied English for two years and after that I repeated year 11 and 12 because Australian universities did not accept my Iranian qualifications. At age 30, I started my undergraduate studies in Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and I will graduate very soon. I am now 35 years of age and would like to apply to be a PhD student in the first 5 or 10 top engineering schools in the world. I have maintained a GPA of 6.9, a WAM of 93 and was on Dean's merit list every year except the first year of my undergraduate studies. There is a possibility that I also get university medal but that is not certain yet.</p>
<p>Should I explain these details to the graduate admission committee explaining why I started my undergraduate studies very late at the age of 30? and what I was doing before that?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31083,
"author": "Maarten Buis",
"author_id": 14471,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14471",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Such information would be relevant. The real trick would be to keep such a paragraph short and to the point. As such the question would be a good draft of such a section. I have two comments:</p>\n\n<p>I would not start the second sentence with \"as you know\". If a committee member did not know, you make her or him feel ignorant. It is good to avoid invoking negative emotions in such a letter. Especially since leaving that part out does not change the meaning of the sentence.</p>\n\n<p>It was not clear from the text whether it was the Bahai faith that prohibited it's members from going to university or whether it was the Iranian government that prohibited people with the Bahai religion to enter university.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31084,
"author": "Bob Brown",
"author_id": 16183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16183",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I wish scaaahu had put that comment in an answer so that I could up-vote it.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps it will help you to know that I started the Ph.D. at age 56. It wasn't in a top ten university, but neither am I ashamed of my <em>alma mater</em>. Admissions committees are interested in potential for research and teaching. Show those and, with your background, you will get offers.</p>\n\n<p>Do include a very brief explanation in either your cover letter or statement of purpose as scaaahu has suggested. It need not be as extensive as what you posted here. Just address the committee member who is thinking, \"I wonder why...?\" Something as simple as, \"People of my faith are not allowed to study in university in my native Iran, so I got a late start.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31097,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I recommend that you put the information you gave us in your statement of purpose for a PhD application. At least for a US-style statement of purpose (which is usually about two pages) I <em>would not suggest</em> abridging the story you told us. Rather I agree with @scaaahu that your story is extremely compelling, much more so than what one normally reads in these kinds of statements.</p>\n\n<p>If you can craft this as a narrative of the triumph of your intellectual interest and academic success over the adversities you've faced over a period of many years: look, that's awesome. If I saw that in a PhD application to my program (mathematics, UGA) then I would be passing your statement around for the entire admissions committee to read. If the other parts of your application were reasonably competitive, I would be well on my way to pushing strongly for your admission.</p>\n\n<p>Let me end my saying that I was personally touched by your story. You have a lot to be proud of and will certainly serve as an inspiration to many others. Academia needs people like you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31112,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>DEFINITELY include information on what you describe. More importantly, though, you are a more mature student, and at your age you should show a very solid understanding of why you need a PhD to pursue your career goals.</p>\n\n<p>\"Atypical\" students can be great additions for departments, but if I were the one doing the choosing, I would be looking for more than your history, academic or otherwise -- I'd be looking to see whether you understand why you want the degree, and what you intend to do with it. Give your admissions committee your whole picture. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31162,
"author": "Tom Au",
"author_id": 755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are some people that probably should \"dodge\" this issue. You are NOT one of them. So an explanation will help you, with very little risk.</p>\n\n<p>You come from what most Western institutions would consider a \"disadvantaged\" background. You have succeeded in spite of that fact. You got a later start in university life because you got a lot of life experience in what we Americans would call \"the school of hard knocks.\" That's very much to your credit. Most western universities would give a positive weight to \"maturity\" and sense of purpose in evaluating an application. You have both.</p>\n\n<p>The kind of person who might have something to fear regarding age is someone from a (probably) rich family who had a \"wasted\" (or misspent) youth. You are not that person.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31079",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/48863/"
] |
31,086 |
<p>I am applying to doctoral programs in the US.</p>
<p>Since I am not an English native speaker, I am wondering if it is okay to have native speakers help make my English perfect in my statement of purpose? </p>
<p>I ask so because I am concerned with that, since the committee definitely knows that I am not a native speaker in English, my perfect English in statement of purpose could lead them to suspect. By "suspect" I mean the argument: If this person's writing is this good, then this person's TOEFL scores must be almost perfect. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31087,
"author": "Dave Clarke",
"author_id": 643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Of course this is a good idea. Plenty of non-natives write excellent English, and getting your work proofread by a native English speaker is always a good idea, if possible.</p>\n\n<p>It's not as if you are asking the native English speaker to write the text for you?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31089,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think about English grammar and prose like personal grooming. If you are going to a big event where you need to make a good impression, it's fine to ask people to help make sure your clothing is well-chosen and being worn perfectly. Likewise, it's fine to ask people to help make sure your words are well chosen and don't have any distracting errors. A committee should not think any worse of you for asking for help making sure that your words are clean and clear. Rather, they should think better of you for caring enough to make sure you are presenting yourself well.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31090,
"author": "Franck Dernoncourt",
"author_id": 452,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/452",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It's definitely a good idea (in fact anyone in your situation should do so), I have seen plenty of people around me in my graduate school who had done so. There even exist professional services specialized for this task (it's a pretty big business in some countries).</p>\n\n<p>Regarding your concern that the jury might think that you have been \"cheating\", forget about it:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>by providing a flawless statement of purpose despite being non-native, you are showing the jury a lot of motivation;</li>\n<li>if the statement of purpose was used to assess your true level of English, they wouldn't ask for TOEFL/IELTS;</li>\n<li>when writing research articles later on, you will still often have a native speaker around to answer questions.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31128,
"author": "David Z",
"author_id": 236,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/236",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Whether you're writing a statement of purpose, an application essay, a novel, a grant application, or even a research paper for publication, I think it's a pretty widely accepted \"rule\" that the <em>ideas</em> involved should be yours, but the exact way in which they are expressed does not have to be. After all, the goal of all these forms of communication is to convey your ideas to the reader. So it makes sense to take your ideas and express them in the best way possible. If you are not particularly good at expressing ideas (in a manner suitable for the readers) yourself, that means getting someone else to help you out.</p>\n\n<p>People will not assume the writing style in a statement of purpose is necessarily representative of how you would write. If they want to know about your own writing abilities, they will ask about that specifically, for example by asking for a writing sample or by using something like the <a href=\"http://www.ets.org/toefl\" rel=\"nofollow\">TOEFL</a>. Now, there is some limit to this; for example, if you could not write or understand English at all, I think it would be misleading to have a friend completely <em>translate</em> your statement into English. But just having someone proofread your writing to improve the quality of the English is fine, and in fact is something even native speakers do all the time.</p>\n\n<p>I would also note that the English doesn't have to be literally <em>perfect</em>. There are many small errors in English that very few native speakers can identify, and even fewer actually care about.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31145,
"author": "rumtscho",
"author_id": 103,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/103",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Do have somebody to look at the language/grammar you are using. But be aware of letting them write too much. </p>\n\n<p>I have seen applications (for academic programs, but also for jobs) being tossed because of looking \"too perfect\", especially for non-native speakers. It is not a matter of the grammar being very good, it was a matter of the content \"fitting too well\", using all the expected buzzwords, and displaying a cultural sensitivity for the German job market/academic milieu a person with this biography could not have. This looks like it has been written by a ghostwriter, or copied from a \"how to submit applications\" book. </p>\n\n<p>I guess that a person sending such an application still has the chance to get invited for an interview, if the running is not close. But when a prof is paring down a list, a person with this kind of application can get thrown out early, because the information he provides is disregarded as \"he is telling me what he thinks I want to hear, and it might or might not be really true\". </p>\n\n<p>So, there is indeed a case of an application being too perfect to be regarded as real. And if you are a non native speaker, you are more likely to hit such a barrier than a native speaker, because the professor expects a bit less proficiency from you. </p>\n\n<p>But this barrier comes long after the case which you are describing here. We are talking about the kind of application that can be written by somebody with knowledge not only of the language, but with the whole selection process and the country's and organisation type culture. If you express what you want to say in your best English, and somebody corrects your grammar and a few word choices, the chances that you come close to being regarded as \"so perfect he must be fake\" are astronomically small. So do let somebody edit your writing, it has advantages (described in the other answers) and it won't become good enough to disqualify you. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31086",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
31,096 |
<p>I am disabled and have to live with my family. I don't want to go into detail about my condition.My experience in the public education system here was less than happy, including being used as a pawn to fill roles in programs that needed funding. My education history is confusing, but essentially has left me with no chance to qualify for scholarships.</p>
<p>I've applied for financial aid at a local university. In response, they offer only loans, telling me that I do not qualify for anything else due to being claimed as a dependent. However, a loan would be financial suicide for me. Their disability counselors just shrug their shoulders or basically tell me to go die somewhere.</p>
<p>I've been finishing prerequisites here and there, though most of my learning has been done independently. I can easily test out of these classes (and most of their "graduate" curriculum as well, in fact), but they don't offer credit for doing this.</p>
<p>My parents make a comfortable income, but are not very intelligent with money and getting on in age. They will not be able to support me when they retire. They have to keep claiming me, otherwise I would no longer be classified as disabled and would lose my only pathetic source of income (disability pay requires that I am dependent, or so the SSA tells me).</p>
<p><strong>I want to transfer my credits <em>somewhere</em> and get the hell out, but I'll basically need to be funded entirely by financial aid. What can I do?</strong></p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31105,
"author": "Anonymous Physicist",
"author_id": 13240,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your problem is that you did not get enough financial aid from your local university. I think the solution is to apply to some other institutions. Many institutions think it is important to help students with disabilities. If you look around, you can find one that 1. Cares. 2. Has money to do something. 3. Has time to consider special cases. I suggest applying to smaller higher educational institutions because they are better able to adjust to special cases.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31119,
"author": "J. Zimmerman",
"author_id": 7921,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7921",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><em>This response is US-centric</em>. </p>\n\n<p>It is most unfortunate that the local university was unwilling to provide any kind of financial aid except for loans. However, this need not spell the end of your academic journey. Here are several avenues you should explore before giving up. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Begin your higher education journey at a community college. They offer lower tuition rates than almost any other institution is able to do. </p></li>\n<li><p>Apply for federal financial aid using the free <a href=\"http://fafsa.gov/\" rel=\"nofollow\">FAFSA</a> application. </p></li>\n<li><p>Investigate other financial assistance and scholarship opportunities. As a disabled person, you should be eligible for various scholarships. There are various free scholarship websites which will permit you to find scholarships suited to your specific situation and interests. <a href=\"https://www.scholarships.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Scholarships.com</a> and <a href=\"https://www.scholarshipexperts.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Scholarship Experts</a> are among my favorites, but there are many other free services available, including <a href=\"http://www.phoenix.edu/tuition_and_financial_options/scholarships/external-scholarships.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">this comprehensive list of external scholarships</a> provided gratis by the University of Phoenix. </p></li>\n<li><p>Make friends of the folks in the financial aid office. They are usually more than happy to walk you through the process of applying for federal, state, and local financial aid and may help you find other sources you hadn't considered or were unaware of. </p></li>\n<li><p>Find out where the community college Foundation Office (or similar office) is located and make a special effort to meet these people. Their job is to match students with sponsors and the rewards for your efforts can be substantial. (For example, they once put in my application for a scholarship I didn't know existed, and gave me half-a-semester's worth of tuition without any effort on my part!) </p></li>\n<li><p>Finally, contact a counsellor or other mental health professional. Depression is a serious illness. Get help! </p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31096",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23808/"
] |
31,116 |
<p>I was just wondering about this specific scenario.</p>
<p>Say someone was researching nature vs. nurture, but his experiments involved keeping babies in a controlled environment for the first 10 years of their life. His research is secret and he has ways to smuggle children for his research (don't ask how).</p>
<p>After 15 years, he publishes a paper and confirms that there is a set amount of characteristics that can be transferred via genes. </p>
<p>What would become of the researcher and his research? Will the researcher be jailed, but the research results recognized?</p>
<hr>
<p>This question is about unethical research in general, not just ones involving human subjects.</p>
<p>P.S. No babies were harmed in the making of this post</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31122,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Unfortunately, history has already forced this question upon us, and the answers are not entirely clear. The Nazis inflicted widespread and breathtakingly <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_human_experimentation\">horrifying human medical experiments</a> on their victims during the Holocaust. These yielded quite a bit of medical data, that some want to unearth and apply today.</p>\n\n<p>This has ignited quite a bit of debate on the ethics of using this most obviously and supremely unethical research. The science may be dubious as well, given the circumstances under which it was performed. An excellent discussion of the dilemma may be found in the article <a href=\"http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/NaziMedEx.html\">\"The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments\"</a> by Baruch Cohen. In essence, Cohen argues that in certain extreme cases it may be possible to use the data, but only when accompanied by strong condemnation of the methods and only when it concerns information that is both otherwise impossible to obtain and of life-saving importance.</p>\n\n<p>Nazi medicine is an extreme case, but <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentation_in_the_United_States\">unfortunately by no means isolated</a>, and the judgement of history and science on these studies contains less uniform condemnation than we might like. The modern consensus, however, seems to be that except in very unusual circumstances, unethical studies should not be rewarded in any way by recognition.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31130,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Supplementing <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/31122/49\">jakebeal's great answer</a> on current research (not - digging old).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>...but the research results recognized?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It seems \"unlikely\", perhaps unless the result is so evident, one cannot ignore it.</p>\n\n<p>First, most journals have statements disallowing publishing unethical research. And without journal publication it is hard to get academic credit.</p>\n\n<p>Second, if you managed to publish it somewhere, I bet that the reaction to its ethics will influence the evaluation of its scientific value. (Look at the reaction to any research results related to emotionally-charged topics. In this case it would be harder, because the reaction would be almost all-negative.)</p>\n\n<p>Third, many people can think that if you are OK with one breach of ethics, you may be OK with breach of scientific procedures, or any other fraud (to support one's view of world, for fame, etc...).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>After 15 years, he publishes a paper and confirms that there is a set amount of characteristics that can be transferred via genes.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I bet:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>if you show that some traits are genetic, it won't be recognized (claiming that you are a racist),</li>\n<li>if you show that certain genes are responsible for certain traits, this result may be recognized (as it is easy to test it, and in more ethical way).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>My personal stance is that all data should be used. (All in all, we use historical data from wars and atrocities, rather than forgetting the history; we can't change the past, but we can change the future.) However, creating lack of incentives to pursue highly unethical research might be worth it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31155,
"author": "Lesto",
"author_id": 15439,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15439",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The problem here is that ethics change with time, location, education and religion.</p>\n\n<p>Piotr Migdal in his answer points out that unethical research would never be validated; then I would rebut \"What about animal dissection?\"\nIt has been banned as unethical by many countries, but many papers still use findings from it.</p>\n\n<p>The same is for much research by Nazis; they are highly unethical NOW, but at the time, for a large number of scientist it was ethical; the well-known <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayer\">Bayer</a> at the time \"engaged in human experimentation on Auschwitz prisoners, often with fatal results.\"\nSome researchers at \"IG Farben\" even got a (still valid) Nobel prize \"for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil\" and many more.</p>\n\n<p>So I would say that actually ethical studies may be based easily on unethical papers, if those papers are valid.\nAnd new unethical papers will need more time to be recognized (and probably the author will be imprisoned) but this is because it will be harder to fact-check the experiment in an ethical way.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31167,
"author": "Cape Code",
"author_id": 10643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is a situation in which the exact situation described in the title regularly happened and (most likely) still happens: <strong>military research</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>There are multiple example of knowledge acquired by the military of several nations and regimes during secret and ethically problematic (euphemism intended) investigations and experiments.</p>\n\n<p>Some of the results from these are a part of our everyday life: aviation (and transportation in general), nuclear fission, some aspects of medicine and surgery, telecommunication, geolocalization, etc.</p>\n\n<p>It seems like the results of these experiments are not disregarded, although contradictory to the example you mentioned, most can <em>also</em> be investigated and validated with ethical approaches. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31206,
"author": "gnasher729",
"author_id": 11873,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11873",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To get some perspective, what if this doesn't happen in academia but in \"real life\"? If the person \"conducting unethical research\" is a police officer searching your home without a warrant, and the \"positive result\" is that he or she finds conclusive evidence that you committed a crime?</p>\n\n<p>In that case, the rule is that this \"positive result\" cannot be used in any way whatsoever. Not only can the conclusive evidence not be used in court, it cannot even be used as a reason to investigate you further. </p>\n\n<p>That seems to be the correct way to handle the situation in academia as well: The results of unethical research should be completely ignored, so there is no motivation to conduct unethical research at all. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31214,
"author": "user2813274",
"author_id": 19914,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19914",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think Jacob Krall's comment is worthy of an answer:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>here's also the question of reproducibility: where on earth will you\n find a second evil scientist who also happens to share research\n interests with the first?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Setting aside any legal consequences that may happen to the researcher, any study that doesn't have reproducible results is not going to alter the opinions of many. If the results are interesting enough, perhaps someone will find a way of testing it legally (perhaps with non-human subjects?), and so an and so forth, just like any other study.</p>\n\n<p>There have been quite a few \"studies\" performed that would be illegal under today's law, yet the results from them have not been discarded. I see no difference in this case (with regards to the research). </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/04
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31116",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23835/"
] |
31,117 |
<p>There is a professor at our school whose textbook I was using in class A (not taught by the professor). I've studied the textbook from cover to cover and have spotted about twenty typos (many of which are quite serious, e.g. make an exercise unsolvable). I wanted to TeX them into a list and send it to the professor yet the following two aspects concern me:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I'm currently enrolled in his class B (not the book's subject). It's a rather small class and he knows me by name. Wouldn't it look as if I'm trying to improve my standing in his class by submitting the list?</p></li>
<li><p>It's known to me that the professor is aware about some typos (since he commented on a couple of them while teaching from the book two years ago). Yet for some puzzling reason there is no errata list on his website. It gives me an impression that he might be somewhat unhappy to see the extended list of typos. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>The professor is working in the field I'm interested in, so I'd definitely like to make a good impression (and more importantly not to make a bad one). So is there a way that sending the list could harm me?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31121,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Unless the professor is a total jerk, I don't see any way this could hurt. My experience has been that academics in general are quite happy to hear from people who are interested enough in their work to offer corrections. (This has been the case even with authors who, for whatever reason, don't post errata.)</p>\n\n<p>I wouldn't worry about being seen as kissing up. But if you are concerned you could always wait to send it until after the end of the term.</p>\n\n<p>Before sending it, you may want to casually mention: \"I've been reading your book which I really like. I did notice a few typos though. Is there an errata list posted somewhere? If not, I could make a list of the ones I found and send them to you.\"</p>\n\n<p>If there is any chance that a given typo is not really an error, but something you have misunderstood, you can be more delicate by phrasing it as a question. Instead of \"On page 34 you forgot to require that X is compact\" you could say \"Are you sure the argument on page 34 works without assuming that X is compact? Isn't the punctured plane a counterexample?\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31123,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my experience, most textbook authors are happy to receive errata reports. I've sent many off over the years, and as a textbook author I'm happy to receive them. However, many of the reports of errata that I receive as an author are actually cases where the reader has a fundamental misunderstanding of the material. </p>\n\n<p>So, when you submit your corrections to the author, please be polite and friendly about it, and be prepared to find out in some cases that the book is right and that you've misunderstood something. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31124,
"author": "Micah Walter",
"author_id": 17557,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17557",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, if your professor is a decent human being and good at his/her job, you should definitely do so – though it's nicest to ask “Would you like me to send you any corrections I find?” first, rather than baldly pointing out the mistake. It's also much easier for the professor if you accumulate them yourself and give a <strong>detailed, consolidated list</strong> rather than mention them at random times during the class. Unless the typo might hinder the class's understanding at a particular point in the class, it's also probably best to mention it <strong>privately</strong> (and let the teacher mention it as he/she feels appropriate).</p>\n\n<p>I had one professor in particular who would give a tiny amount of extra credit to those who spotted typos – enough to add up if one was quite helpful! Another professor gave me a printed copy of the new edition of lecture notes after I had gone through it and pointed out a substantial number of potential improvements.</p>\n\n<p>Academicians, perhaps more so than others, have an interest in making sure that their printed materials are as good as they can be. As long as you are friendly and non-confrontational in pointing out typos, they should appreciate the opportunity of making these materials better while saving time.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/04
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31117",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7594/"
] |
31,129 |
<p>Is it better to wait a couple of years and publish in order to get to a prefered program or go to any program that would accept me?
Sorry in advance for the length of this document. It is in part about writing down and refining my ideas, and inner turmoil, in writing. Thanks for your patience.</p>
<p>So, publish now and go to a top tier school later or go now to a lower tier school and build a reputation afterward?</p>
<p>I have no illusions that I could get into a good program now. I graduated top of my class at the BBA and MBA level but that was 10 years ago at a regional ranked college. I have only been self employed, doing stock-trading, so no real reference there, nor great job experience. I wrote an MBA thesis but didn’t publish it. Moreover my 2 years MBA program is apparently perceived not to be in any way precursor to PhDs and some unis I looked up even require MBA holders to re-do a “proper master” prior to applying to PhDs. </p>
<p>I long to attend to a top PhD program. I know it should matter less than a good fit, but I have reasons for wanting that. Since my school is virtually unknown I desire the recognition that a top ranked diploma gives. Also, if I go the academic route, I believe, maybe mistakenly, that famous names do matter. I also think that their PhD programs are much more rigorous than at lower tier schools, which would result in a better preparation to publish at leading journals. An equally important reason is that I would be seeking a full fellowship as a foreign student, and top programs tend to have the most available and accessible financial aid funds.</p>
<p>So I was thinking that I should try to publish several papers at solid journals. My understanding is that it would very greatly help to ensure an admission at top universities, even if it would delay my application by a year or two.
If I applied now, I do not think that I am likely to get into a decent program or even to get financial help. I also find the whole application process a burocratic nightmare and an expensive one at that. Plus i would rather bother my former professors, for reference letters, only once and for a good enough school.</p>
<p>In order to do some research and write papers now, I will virtually need to design my own PhD program, which will be I believe similar to a lower rank school formal PhD. I have to read widely in adjacent fields, review research in my field, polish or learn new quantitative data analysis methods, learn and develop a variety of new skills. </p>
<p>My belief is that if I do all that properly, I would not only be accepted at a prestigious university, but my PhD years should be a breeze. This in turn would allow me to focus on producing and publishing higher quality papers during my PhD. The net result should be that I graduated from a top program with almost as many quality publications as someone who went for academia directly without a 10 year gap. This number, and quality of publications plus the degree for a top uni should fast-track me to a tenure at a top school or a least a prestigious post-doc, or research grant, or position.</p>
<p>Please comment and tell me what you think. I am making a lot of assumptions and I have beliefs that are grounded in my present understanding of the academic world. I would greatly appreciate to know if I am wrong or making partially faulty assumptions or totally erroneous suppositions.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Update 2014.11.4:</strong> Thank you all for your honesty. I did say that these were assumptions I was not sure that they where true. I am still rather unfamiliar with the academic world. I realize now that my post was much more naïve than it should have been. From my thesis I know that I do like research. I like the feeling of an organized world after stumbling into the dark. I like the almost physical stretching of my mind as a grapple with complex ideas. I like the sense of achievement of having written a monumental piece and being one of the world’s experts in my field. I believe that I got a similar experience with my MBA thesis which was 250 pages long though much lighter in original findings than PhD’s, I am told. For the multiple papers I thought of cannibalizing my old thesis and other old projects, but I guess that may not be realistic as they are rather outdated and maybe not that original. I hope that these answers also help others who may have had a similar strategy in mind.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31140,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Although @Niko and @xLeitix are spot-on that your plan is not feasible, I will try to elaborate more, so to clarify some details. Note, do not take any of this personally, since I do not know you personally nor your abilities but I need to warn you of some misconceptions you may have.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>So I was thinking that I should try to publish several papers at solid\n journals. My understanding is that it would very greatly help to\n ensure an admission at top universities, even if it would delay my\n application by a year or two.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is simply not feasible to borderline delusional. A good journal needs 3-12 months to review a paper AFTER submission. How will you be able to submit several papers and get them accepted in a year? </p>\n\n<p>Papers are not just ideas. In practical sciences like finance, you need data, a theory and experiments to prove them they have any worth. Do you have any data to work with or you simply think that your ideas are so revolutionary that they deserve publication? If you believe so, you should seriously reconsider.</p>\n\n<p>Another reason that your plan is not feasible is that a typical PHD student needs at least 6-12 months for literature review <strong>if he knows more-or-less what he is going to research about</strong>. That is what usually advisors can help you with. They have identified a subject / gap on a specific area and point the student (who has some common interests) and then the student has to exhaustively search for any work on this specific, tiny area of research to see what has already been done and what can be done. This process does not happen overnight, as you presume it is. Note that during the months of doing this literature review, if this is an active area, several new papers might appear which make your initial idea obsolete. And then you have to start over. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>In order to do some research and write papers now, I will virtually\n need to design my own PhD program, which will be I believe similar to\n a lower rank school formal PhD. I have to read widely in adjacent\n fields, review research in my field, polish or learn new quantitative\n data analysis methods, learn and develop a variety of new skills.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>So you believe that a lower-tier PHD = doing research on your own. That makes all advisors on any school (except the top-ones) obsolete. If everybody could do research on his own there would not be a need for PHD programs. And without wanting to sound mean or harsh, why do you believe you can do it on your own? You have not published anything, you do not have real industry experience or worked anywhere to remotely touch research. Also, believing that one can do research on his own is one of the characteristics of <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crank_%28person%29\">cranks</a>. I am not suggesting that you fall into this category but keep this in mind too.</p>\n\n<p>Another thing to watch is that you presume you really like research, before actually doing it. Research is not always <strong>fun</strong> as many posts on this SE site emphasize. So, make sure you like it before actually proceeding.</p>\n\n<p>So, perhaps you should tone down your idea about \"top-schools or nothing\". You should always aim as high as possible, but within your reach. In your shoes, I would apply to as many good (but not necessarily top) places as possible and depending on their answers I would re-evaluate my plan. During this period, I would also do a literature review on the subject that really interests me, find the active people on this area and monitor their work. This will give you a headstart when / if you start a PHD and also test you if you really want to do the PHD, during this necessary, yet tedious part (literature review) for any PHD.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31146,
"author": "Ben Webster",
"author_id": 13,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To complement Alexandros's answer, let me put this to you: if you are smart and talented enough to write a couple of papers in a year with no supervision or training and publish them in strong journals (which as he says, is fantastically unlikely; I have never in 15 years in academia encountered anyone capable of that, I would say), then you're certainly smart enough to enter an undistinguished masters or Ph.D. program, blow away all the professors there, and get letters of recommendation that will allow you to get into a top program. That's not easy, but I have seen it happen. That's a much more plausible road to success than what you've suggested.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 63224,
"author": "Mostafa Nasr",
"author_id": 49065,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49065",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Although I think you should be more realistic, but I am in favor of your ambitiousness!</p>\n\n<p>It frequently happens that the weak environment has bad effects on your path in your life which can not be compensated forever! Weak people try their best to convince you that you are like them while they are wrong, not only about you, but also about themselves!Unfortunately the decision is too dynamic and complex and you have to base your decision on \"expectations\" of what is going to happen. It is also possible that you enter a low-level university but the people there are encouraging and you can flourish, and vice versa.\nYou should consider some facts:</p>\n\n<p>1- Ambitiousness is always good but with open eyes about what the reality is.</p>\n\n<p>2- Your performance in the future is very similar to your performance in the past unless under some special changes(don't expect any revolution but some occasional improvements).</p>\n\n<p>3- Put away your fears. As far as I understand, you are obsessed with somethings and they prevent you to think in a proper way. For example you are afraid of asking your professors to write for you reference letters! Ask them in an appropriate situation-time and place- and they will help you every time.</p>\n\n<p>4-In reality you can not have all things together in the way you imagine. To have one thing you have to forget about the other things. The one who wants to have a peacock must deal with the hassles of going to India(Persian proverb which means: the best fish swim near the bottom)!</p>\n\n<p>5-For some one like you, I suggest engaging in the process of try and error! I feel that you think more than to act! Start PhD at a university which is not top and get feedback from your environment and see if it is possible to reach what you want or not? If yes, what should be your approach in the path towards your goal(what level of concentration and hard work is needed?, should you change your environment?, etc.). Get feedback every now and then to prevent big mistakes.</p>\n\n<p>6-As a last general(but useful) point: Accept that you don't have lots of things at time \"t\" and place \"P\"; This means that you can live without them! Being happy(and using what you have in the best way) or sad(and wasting what you already have) depends on your choice! Be happy with what God has given you but ask him \"the best possible\".</p>\n\n<p>I was awake at night, so, forgive me if there are mistakes.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 94719,
"author": "High GPA",
"author_id": 69151,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/69151",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think you should take the best PhD university you have for now to access more resources. And then you could publish much better stuff than you have for now, and then apply visiting graduate positions, PhD transfers, postdoc positions, or even AP to better university after you published very good stuffs. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/04
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31129",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23846/"
] |
31,139 |
<p>I am a full time researcher at a research institute, we are part of a university, but the institute does not have students, just researchers. I mostly have assistant researchers and interns that are undergrad. I am thinking of bringing on a final year highschool student who is really promising and has been winning some awards.</p>
<p>They are interested in me writing a recommendation letter (to US schools, but we are outside US). Is this advisable?</p>
<p>My main concerns are the appropriateness of a research based letter for undergrad admissions, as well as not being a Professor or Senior faculty as mentioned in questions specific for graduate school. However when I think about myself, I am pretty sure I had high school teachers write my recommendations, non of which had a PHD nor, obviously, were professors.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31144,
"author": "Matthew Leingang",
"author_id": 5701,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5701",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You're giving the student an extraordinary experience compared to her fellow applicants, so it's natural for her to ask you for a letter explaining that experience and your opinions of her work. And I think it's very reasonable to provide one. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 34311,
"author": "Ben Bitdiddle",
"author_id": 24384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24384",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would say you're expected to write letters for high school students who work for you. Students usually do research to get into college, and in many cases, your letter is the whole reason the student chooses to join your lab.</p>\n\n<p>When I applied to college the application asked for letters from a science and a humanities teacher, but also allowed us to submit an optional letter (which would presumably be yours).</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/04
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31139",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12718/"
] |
31,174 |
<p>I am applying to doctoral programs in the US and I am wondering: is it common for applications to be filtered before they reach the hiring committee? </p>
<p>In the typical selection and admissions procedure for doctoral students, what happens after the deadline for applications has passed?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34504,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>For US universities applications are almost universally prescreened for completeness and meeting any stated minimum requirements. The prescreen in process is almost always extremely rigid when minimum requirements are set. The wording on website is often confusing since sometimes schools want to be able to make special acceptances to people who do not meet the minimums. This requires someone from the department to beg and plead with the admin team. One place there is generally no flexibility at all is TOEFL requirements. It would be perfectly reasonable to call/email the department and ask, large departments get many such requests every year. Just realize that the answer will likely be the minimum is the minimum.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 34518,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Although it's hard to say that there is a \"typical\" process, most PhD admissions are handled both an administrative staff member (often with a title like <em>Graduate Program Administrator</em> or <em>Officer</em>) and by an admissions committee made up of faculty.</p>\n\n<p><strong>The administrative staff will generally filter applications.</strong> For example, if applications are incomplete (e.g., missing grades, test scores, or recommendations), the administrator will often remove these applications from the pool. If the department has firm requirements (e.g., minimum TOEFL scores or GREs), the staff will often remove applicants who do not qualify from the pool.</p>\n\n<p>This smaller pool will be reviewed by the faculty. In many departments, this will be by the graduate admissions committee who may then reach out to individual faculty members who seem like potential advisors to strong applicants. In some other departments, the files of students may be sent directly to potential supervisors by the administrative staff.</p>\n\n<p>Faculty will usually be able to see the unfiltered pool but will not often look at the applicants who have been filtered out by the staff based on the most objective criteria of application completeness or eligibility.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31174",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
31,175 |
<p>I am preparing an exam for a course I'm running. It's an engineering course; the exam problems require students to apply conceptual knowledge and quantitative skills taught in lectures and labs.</p>
<p>It's the first time the class has been offered, so I don't have a frame of reference from previous years. There haven't been any in-class quizzes or other opportunities for me to find out directly how long students would take to solve problems similar to the ones on the exam. I also haven't found any similar exams from other universities to serve as a reference.</p>
<p>Obviously, I am much more experienced in the material than my students, so I can't really generalize from how long it takes <em>me</em> to solve these kinds of problems.</p>
<p>This question is for the more experienced educators out there: <strong>in a scenario like this, are there any methods or general rules for determining how long you can make the exam, given the time allotted?</strong></p>
<p>I don't want time to be a major issue on this exam; I want most students who are reasonably well prepared to be able to complete the exam in the given time.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31177,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>in a scenario like this, are there any methods or general rules for determining how long you can make the exam, given the time allotted?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The way how I always do it is to give the exam to my student assistants (TAs, master students, undergraduate researchers), and see how long it takes them. The closer the students are to your average well-prepared course participant, the better. And, obviously, you want to add a bit of leeway to allow for the fact that your course participants, unlike your exam testers, are going to be nervous and in a test situation, and that you don't want time to matter too much.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Edit:</strong> Bob beat me to it in a comment.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31193,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my experience, the ratio between the time needed to solve a problem by an experienced teacher and the \"average student\" can vary a lot, depending on the subject, the kind of problems and even between problems of the same kind. At one end, there are problems whose solutions are pretty straightforward but which require a lot of tedious calculations, for which no shortcut exists: in this case the solution time is almost the same for the professor and the students. On the other end, there are problems which require to find a \"smart\" solution, where few calculations are involved: in this case, an experienced professor can solve a problem in much less time (ratios of about 4 between the solution times are not uncommon).</p>\n\n<p>So, even if you can give exam problems to TAs for testing, try to judge carefully what kind of problems you have prepared, this might allow you to better trim the exam duration.</p>\n\n<p>I typically consider a ratio of around 3 between the exam time and my solution time (Electronic measurements).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31194,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is totally unscientific, but for my exams (mathematics) I use the following rule of thumb:</p>\n\n<p>After writing the exam, I sit down with a stopwatch and work the exam from start to finish. Of course, I know how to solve the problems (since I wrote them) but I go carefully through all the steps and write what I would consider a thorough and exemplary solution. I note the time I spent on each problem.</p>\n\n<p>Then I take the total time and multiply it by 3 (or sometimes 4). If this exceeds the allotted time for the exam, I remove or simplify some questions. (This is where it helps that I wrote down the time I spent on each question, so I can remove a question and recompute the time without actually retaking the whole exam.)</p>\n\n<p>As a side benefit, this also helps ensure that I haven't made any mistakes in creating the exam, and that all the problems have the solutions I intended. It also gives me an answer key.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31205,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I like Nate's suggestion to multiply by 4 if your exam is all essay questions. If you're concerned about students not finishing, you could use multiple choice and short answer questions.</p>\n\n<p>Multiple choice and short answer questions force you to ask focused questions that can be answered quickly. When I was in undergrad, I always liked test that were multiple choice and short answer because I knew that each multiple choice question would take 1-2 minutes, each short answer 2-3 and the essay question would usually take 7-10.</p>\n\n<p>You could use those rules of thumb to build out a test that you are sure students will be able to finish.</p>\n\n<p>You might find <a href=\"https://testing.byu.edu/handbooks/betteritems.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">This multiple choice test primer</a> helpful.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31207,
"author": "Patricia Shanahan",
"author_id": 10220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10220",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If the person setting the exam has no idea how the questions are going to play in practice, the students are presumably in exactly the same situation. That may add to nervousness issues, and make it hard for them to prepare for the test.</p>\n\n<p>How about giving a practice exam, which may be shorter than the real thing but use similar questions, during a class period a couple of weeks before the actual exam? If you do the questions yourself, or have a TA etc. do them as already suggested, you can use the practice test to calibrate the ratio between the time for the actual students and the TA's time.</p>\n\n<p>The students will also benefit by seeing what sort of questions you pose, with an opportunity to discuss them with you, with the TA, and among themselves. That will help them prepare for the actual test.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31217,
"author": "Ethan Bolker",
"author_id": 7018,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7018",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here's what I do, even in courses I've taught often. It doesn't answer the question you asked, but it may serve your purpose.</p>\n\n<p>I always try to make up an exam that can be done in the time alloted, but I almost never succeed - I get carried away making the questions interesting, in hopes that students will actually learn from the exam as well as demonstrate what they know. I announce my failing in advance, so students won't be surprised. I make sure to tell them that since I know there are some A students in the class, I am morally bound to curve the exam so that the top grades are A.</p>\n\n<p>I tell the students that after they turn in their (timed) exam they should take the questions home and come to the next class with a paper with the solutions they wish they'd had enough time to write. I tell them that extra effort won't necessarily replace their timed work, but can improve their grade.</p>\n\n<p>Since I almost always give open book open notes exams, the fact that they can look things up at home isn't a real bonus. I'm aware of the fact that they can get extra help at home (i.e. cheat) but I'm always uncomfortable designing limitations to catch cheaters that deny the majority of honest students a chance to learn more.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 163625,
"author": "Abraham Le",
"author_id": 135970,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/135970",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Exam Time Calibration</p>\n<ul>\n<li>1/8 time for professor to solve a freshman level exam</li>\n<li>1/7 time for professor to solve a sophomore level exam</li>\n<li>1/6 time for professor to solve a junior level exam</li>\n<li>any above could limit to a factor of 5 by handwriting speed, treat as "1/5" for all undergraduate</li>\n<li>1/5 time for professor to solve a senior level exam</li>\n<li>1/4 time for professor to solve a elementary graduate (master) level exam</li>\n<li>1/3 time for professor to solve a intermediate graduate (specialized master) level exam</li>\n<li>1/2 time for professor to solve an advance graduate (doctor) level exam</li>\n</ul>\n<p>The rule of thumb is to time yourself writing an answer key with all required steps. Multiply by an appropriate factor as necessary. The factor is the inverse of the expected time to solve the problem yourself.</p>\n<p>I remember taking a final exam for a Master level class, and I finished in one hour, one classmate finished in two hours, third person took four hours, while the rest of my classmates took five hours. The lower third of the class did not finish the exam after 5 hours. The exam was scheduled for three hours.</p>\n<p>I remember noting down the time in 30 seconds increment I took for each problem on a homework assignment, so my professor wrote his time writing the answer key right next to each of my times. I was faster overall and on most problems (youth thinks faster), but slower on some problems (wisdom thinks smarter).</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31175",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365/"
] |
31,176 |
<p>This is a question from a newbie doing reviews for journals/conference papers.</p>
<p>What should one do if they are among the panel of reviewers for papers for a specific journal / conference, and you get a paper whose subject material you are not an expert in, or are not fully aware of, all the details around which the paper focuses on?</p>
<p>Is it the norm to state that you are not versed well enough in the particular area, thus you cannot make a qualified opinion, or should you just do as best as you can to review what you understand of the paper, and hope that the other reviewers will do a better job, compensating for your weakness? Are there any other options?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31179,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>First off, \"fully\" is a very relative word, somewhere between expert and novice which makes a specific answer difficult at best. Editors try to identify persons they believe can provide a good constructive review of the manuscript in question. If that is the case, you are viewed as having that expertise. Note that it is not uncommon that an editor appoints experts with different specialities to cover different aspects of a manuscript. It is the responsibility of an editor to select reviewers with care to make sure a manuscript is scrutinized fairly and by peer \"experts\".</p>\n\n<p>Now this system is not fool-proof and it is therefore the responsibility of a reviewer to decline to review if they think they are not in a position to take on such a review. There are of course many other reasons to decline but that is a different story. So in your case, you need to figure out based on the information you have received, if you have the background to provide input on all or significant parts of the manuscript in the request. When taking on the first reviews in a career, you may ask your advisor or peers about the task but remember, the fact that you have been asked is not necessarily something that is open information (in for example double-blind reviews where anonymity is requested).</p>\n\n<p>So, think about how you can contribute. If you do not see that you can provide input, decline. Otherwise, take on the review. Reviewing is an integral part of academia and getting started is necessary at some point. It can also be quite rewarding since you can gain insights ito new science as well as ways to (or not to) disseminate science.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31180,
"author": "Miguel",
"author_id": 14695,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14695",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>An editor making a review assignment will usually make sure that you are an expert in the field before requesting you to do the review. However, many times the editor will not know your work personally and will rely on a data base where your set of skills and areas of expertise are listed.</p>\n\n<p>For regular journals, you are given the opportunity to decline the review. You can do this for a number of reasons, most commonly you're too busy or not an expert in the field (if I get a review request from a crappy \"predatory\" journal I just ignore the email). The editor will usually then ask you to propose alternative reviewers that might be interested in acting as referees.</p>\n\n<p>In special cases, such as conferences, authors might be <em>expected</em> to act as referees for the other attendees. This is an ethical commitment since you should correspond to other authors who spend their valuable time reviewing your paper. The editor will again try to ensure the paper sent to you falls within your field of expertise. However, if you are not an expert and feel that you will do a bad job, it is not fair to the authors that you accept the review. Contact the editor instead to point out the issue and ask him/her to get another paper more within the area in which you're knowledgeable.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31192,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For a multidisciplinary journal or conference, I will sometimes deliberately assign a paper one reviewer who knows significantly less about the subject. The intention is to have a slightly more detached perspective who can say whether this paper is interesting and intelligible to anybody outside of its narrow sub-sub-sub-field. It's also rare to review a paper that you are perfectly knowledgeable about, since science has so many different aspects.</p>\n\n<p>What you should do when you do not perfectly understand a paper:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Be extremely clear on which parts you are confident that you understand and which you don't.</li>\n<li>Do not assume the authors are wrong if you don't understand. It may be one of the gaps in your knowledge.</li>\n<li>Do not assume the authors are right if you don't understand. They may be blowing smoke in your eyes.</li>\n<li>Explain what, if anything, you found of value in the paper despite your lack of knowledge.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>If your review, in combination with the others, is not sufficient, it is the responsibility of the editor or chair to obtain another. It is not your job to determine how the reviewers are distributed.</p>\n\n<p>That said, if you are completely and totally lost, contact the editor / chair who assigned the paper to you and check with them. Depending on their intent, they may take you off the paper, or they may tell you that this is exactly what they want you to write down.\n<em>If you need to do this do it soon</em>---it's terrible form to screw up somebody's reviewing schedule and either create a last-minute crisis or an extra delay for the authors.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31198,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For most journals and conferences that I've reviewed for, I had to give at least two grades: one for overall (something like 1=clear reject up to 5=clear accept) and one for how well I would rate my own expertise of the subject. Sometimes there's also other grades like how well is the paper written etc. In this case, the question answers itself. Otherwise, there's usually a \"notes to reviewers\" section where you can comment that you're not an expert in the area.</p>\n\n<p>I would only decline a review due to not being an expert if it is a journal or conference specifically aimed at people who are experts in the area - in which case, whoever asked me to do the review has made a mistake in nominating me.</p>\n\n<p>Otherwise, I think one of the things a journal is deliberately looking for is how well the authors can explain and present their work to a non-expert in the area. Even if you don't get all the details, you should judge how well the paper gives you a general idea of what the authors are doing, how it relates to previous work, what the novelty of this particular paper is and why the subject is important etc. In my opinion, the best review panels contain at least one expert (who will be able to comment on details) and at least one non-expert (who can focus on the bigger picture).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31213,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Virtually all review forms that I have come across so far featured a field such as <em>Reviewer confidence</em> or <em>Knowledgeability of reviewer</em>, which was meant for exactly that purpose - to state how confident you feel in the respective topic.</p>\n\n<p>What will be done upon that field will be up to the program committee:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>With too low a confidence, the program committee may decide to give your review a lower (or, in extreme cases, a very low, down to zero) weight.</li>\n<li>On the other hand, the goal might be to intentionally involve a mixture of differently knowledgeable reviewers.</li>\n<li>Based upon the reviewers' self-assessed expertise, the program committee might also decide to involve another, possibly more knowledgeable, reviewer.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Your self-assessed confidence level will often be cross-checked by a question asking you to explain the contents of the submission in your own words. That helps further to determine how and what parts of the submission you understood.</p>\n\n<p>So, in short: Expressing how knowledgeable you are in the field of the submission is expected by program committees, to a point that often, a dedicated form field is provided for that information.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31176",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7267/"
] |
31,184 |
<p>I am applying to doctoral programs in the US, and I am wondering:</p>
<p>Is it advisable to name the keynote speaker of the local conference where I presented a paper recently?</p>
<p>The keynote speaker is a well-respected expert in my field, and I thought of mentioning his participation in order to highlight the merit of this conference in my statement of purpose.
It seems to me that only a conference with a certain level of importance would be able to get such a reputable expert as a keynote speaker.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31185,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If the conference is well-known enough, then it isn't necessary to name the keynote speaker, because the conference will be recognized regardless. If the conference isn't well-known in the field, name-dropping is going to come across crass and not very helpful.</p>\n\n<p>So in either case, I don't see any advantage to name-dropping.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31186,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to aeismail's answer, and to stress his point a bit further, you should probably <em>not</em> do this. There are a number of reasons:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>It provides only <em>very weak</em> support for the story you are trying to sell (\"This conference was really quite good, because ... at least one important person attended when they paid all costs for her/him.\"). Really, there are way too many reasons why a famous person might attend a meeting. Maybe the conference organiser is an old friend of the famous person? Maybe the meeting is at a nice location, and the famous person just wanted to have a nice beach vacation, all expenses paid? Maybe the famous person simply was unaware that the meeting was in fact terrible until it was too late?</li>\n<li>It sounds like you are absolutely <em>desperately</em> fishing for something good to say about this conference. A reader will wonder why you found this typically irrelevant tidbit of information so important that it had to be mentioned specifically. Is this really a train of thought that you want to invoke? </li>\n<li>It is just not something that is typically done, and doing something against convention in your CV / application material always has at least a small risk in itself that it will not be looked favourably upon, for reasons that you cannot always predict. A good example for this is the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-index\">h-index</a>. Two or so years ago, I would always report my h-index, basically assuming that people would either ignore the info (if they don't believe in bibliometrics) or value the information (if they do). In the meantime, I figured out that there is a significant group of people that I would really <em>anger</em> just by mentioning the h-index, and so implying that it has any relevance whatsoever. I am not saying that mentioning the keynote speaker of a conference is the same, but it is sometimes hard to know in advance who will be annoyed by what.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>And, most importantly, I think the chance of this information having any <em>positive</em> impact is so small that it is not worth the paper space, even aside from the reasons above.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31187,
"author": "dionys",
"author_id": 22520,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22520",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you had a nice conversation with this speaker at the conference and admire her work, that might be worthwhile to include on an application in a section where you're explaining your interest in the research topic.</p>\n\n<p>However, it's probably better to be extra careful about naming the keynote speaker or other prominent researchers that you haven't been directly involved with. Depending on how you write your application, you run the risk of <em>implying that you are connected to their work</em>. This is something people hiring PhD students pay attention to and will check up on. If they contact this person and they haven't even met you, that is not going to reflect well on you as a prospective hire.</p>\n\n<p>The fact that a respected individual attends a conference or agrees to speak at a meeting is not a tacit endorsement of everyone else that attends the conference.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31189,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Do not add the keynote speaker to a listing. Unfortunately, the quality of a keynote speaker has <em>nothing</em> to do with the quality of a conference. The problem is that <a href=\"http://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/to-some-a-citation-is-worth-3-per-year/\">even top people are often willing to lend their name to a dubious venture for money</a>. Low quality or predatory conferences often attempt to puff themselves up by trying to bring in famous keynote speakers, especially ones who are well known but past their prime. In fact, you should be very suspicious of a conference if it has good keynotes but unknowns on its program committee.</p>\n\n<p>If the readers respect the conference, it will stand on its own. If it is not good, nothing will save their opinion.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31184",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
31,195 |
<p>At the class quizzes or at the mid- or final exams, I can see that some students are too anxious and nervous. They are not really weak students but too much anxiousness brings their efficiency down and they even may fail their important exams. In one of our important exams I could see that a student was that much nervous that he could not really sit on his chair, another one was so sick that needed to go to the bathroom or see a doctor. This may happen once per year but seeing such uncomfortable students is so sad. I really feel that I have to help them as I am their teaching-assistant.</p>
<p>As a teaching-assistant, when I see that there are one or two nervous students at my class; if they feel they need to consult about their anxiety I try to calm them down before the exam by talking to them privately after the class and if they are good students, remind them that they are perfect students and should not allow nervousness to ruin their exam's mark; and explain their academic potentials and their perfect progress to the professor. Of course I don't have any knowledge about anxiety, so I don't talk about their nervousness problems and I ask them to see a doctor who can help them. I only try to talk and help them about their problems in the course I am teaching. If the student has not good academic progress and I see that his anxiety is because of his academic performance, I spend more time for them answering their questions in the office hours when I am at the university.</p>
<p>At the exam session, when I see such students; If they need and ask for something to eat to relieve their anxiety I try to bring them bottle of water and sugar to help them feel more comfortable and answer their questions more relaxed.</p>
<p>However, I can not really give them extra time to solve their questions as it may be not fair to other students sitting the same exam or help them giving some clues over questions. Also, I can not give them some extra mark because of their nervousness because I think it is not fair at all.</p>
<p>As lecturers, teachers or even TAs who may have experience about this; could you please share me your experience and what you did about such anxious students?</p>
<p>What do you do about such nervous students to calm down and feel better at the exam session?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31196,
"author": "Penguin_Knight",
"author_id": 6450,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6450",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I appreciate the gestures but I don't generally agree with the stated actions:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I try to calm them down before the exam by talking to them privately\n after the class and <strong><em>reminding them that they are perfect students</em></strong> and\n should not allow nervousness to ruin their exam's mark</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I would avoid doing that because it's borderline patronizing. It's impossible that all of them are perfect students and if you just talk to some of them who are nervous, that would not reflect well on the instructor from the angle of being objective and fair.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>At the exam hour, <strong><em>when I see such students; I try to bring them some\n water and sugar</em></strong> to help them feel more comfortable and answer their\n questions more relaxed.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Also awkward. By doing so you're singling out the seemingly nervous students. I don't oppose distributing some candies/snacks before hand but I don't agree with delivering food and drink to students who look like nervous.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Here are what I usually do to lower their anxiety:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Evaluate if examination is the best way of approaching the assessment, and if there are alternatives. Can the exam be distributed as three smaller tests? Weekly quizzes? Final project? I often use the students' likely career settings as a benchmark: Will they be more likely asked to write an analysis report with access to information, or trapped in a room to recite formula? etc.</p></li>\n<li><p>Allow a one-page, self-prepared notes. It's a good compromise between closed-book and open-book. The actual benefit, however, happens when they were preparing for this piece of notes, as they have to actively digest and evaluate the information.</p></li>\n<li><p>Incorporate questions that do have an absolute answer, but focus on showcasing thought process. Emphasize that there are some questions that have no absolute right or wrong answer, but merely to test the reasoning skills of the candidates.</p></li>\n<li><p>Play some soothing classical music in the background prior to the start of the exam, and then fade it down before the starting time. Bach's work well... Vivaldi's four seasons work nicely as well.</p></li>\n<li><p>Make some past questions available, or at least provide some mock example questions. This is to get rid of anxiety caused by unfamiliar format and types of questions.</p></li>\n<li><p>Progress from basic, memory-based questions to more elaborated questions. Try not to strike too hard at the beginning. Build up their confidence through recalling some facts/definitions.</p></li>\n<li><p>Clearly delineate the points allocated for each question. This is to ensure that they know they should stop before writing the 5th sentence for the 1/2 point.</p></li>\n<li><p>Lower the proportion of final grade attributed to exams. Avoid having final exams bearing too much weight.</p></li>\n<li><p>Invite seemingly collapsing students for a short break, and let them make up for the time afterwards. I have only done it once. The student was in serious distress: panting, red and teary eyes, heavy patches of sweat soaking through the shirt (room has AC.) I invited the student to go out for a chat, and the student immediately broke into loud crying once I closed the door. I and another TA gave the student some prep talk (aka, try your best, the past homework has shown that you can deal with the questions, etc.) and a 10-minute calm down. We let the student have 10 more minutes at the end. The student did manage to pass.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31219,
"author": "anonymous",
"author_id": 23914,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23914",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><em>I'm writing as someone who is very nervous in exam conditions - though I'm e.g. perfectly fine giving a conference talk with a large audience and answering their questions. Also, you'd hopefully not be able to identify me as being nervous: I try very hard at least not to show it, and I'm told that I'm generally successful at that.</em></p>\n\n<p>My recommendations have less to do with dealing with particular students but with general guidelines that I'd summarize as:<br>\n<strong>Be (or become) a good examiner, and get known for being professional and fair in your exams</strong>. Lots of nervousness is caused by the examiner having a reputation to be unpredictable, arbitrary or unfair </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>To put it drastically, make sure what you examine are the students' professional capabilities and only those: unless it is a practical course on psychological warfare, the exam should not measure the students' resistance to psychological attacks*.<br>\nCounter example: I've been asked in one of my final oral exams \"Now I have a question that I got in my PhD defense and also couldn't answer: ...\"</p></li>\n<li><p>Make sure your questions are well posed. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Do not ask questions that not only require the student to have the \"professional knowledge\" but also to be able to guess what piece of knowlege the examiner could possibly be driving at.<br>\nBig alarm bells would be students asking back \"Are you driving at XXX?\" or the like - though you'd probably never get such a feed back from timid students. In written exams, an (also late) alarm sign would be if you encounter correct answers about different topics.<br>\nHowever, knowing that such a problem exists already allows you to re-examine your questions. </p></li>\n<li><p>Try very hard to avoid wrong or misleading questions. This will happen once in a while, but really try to catch such questions.<br>\nAs TA I once had to correct a question \"Should <em>this-and-that</em> be done <em>this way</em> or <em>that way</em>?\" where in fact each way was correct for different subgroups of <em>this-and-that</em>. Such a question has several undesirable consequences. One is: students who have at least an intermediate level of knowledge (e.g. who could correctly give examples for \"When should <em>this way</em> be used?\" and \"When should <em>that way</em> be used?\") would typically expect that the \"or\" is actually a XOR from the way this form of questions works in my culture (written answers, not multiple-choice). Unless they are so confident in their knowledge that they dare to answer \"both\" or \"it depends\", such a question causes unneccessary stress because students start questioning their (correct) knowledge during the exam.<br>\n(As for the concrete situation, none of the > 100 students answered \"both\" or \"depends\", but a large number did not answer at all. The answer to \"What answer does the professor want to hear?\" was <em>this way</em>, which was also the predominant answer the students gave.)<br>\nHaving a buch of TAs doing the exam beforehand would probably have caught the problem.</p></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>Refrain from jokes and surprises. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>I once had an important oral exam where the professor sat facing me across the table and an assistant sat beside me writing minutes. At some point the professor suddenly said that now they're changing roles and the assistant is going on with questioning me. IMHO that was a totally unnecessary cross questioning situation.<br>\nSide note: I'd also avoid having examiner and minute writer sitting at 90° one right one left of the student. IMHO the \"sitting at 90° relieves tension\" advise doesn't hold for being \"surrounded\" at 90°.</p></li>\n<li><p>Another counter-example: Oral exam about some legal stuff. Examiner declares at the beginning that he'll accept only answers as correct that literally cite the respective portion of the law. Explanations in own words will be counted as wrong. He'll give an allowance for the number of words that can be used for each answer (order of magnitude was 10).**<br>\n(Just to be clear: this turned out <em>not</em> to be a joke)</p></li>\n<li><p>I'd even be cautious with @Penguin_knight's classic music and at least tell them beforehand that you'll do that and for what purpose. People do get nervous also by what is meant to be a <em>nice</em> surprise. </p></li>\n<li>Here's the one exam surprise I liked so far: typewriting class leading up to a certificate. The teacher explained that in her experience people are so nervous in the exam that the results are considerably worse than normal excercises (of the same form). She'd therefore \"smuggle\" the exam in someday without telling us so we'd think it was an excercise - and that's what she did: at some point she collected the excercises with \"congratulations, you've just done the first part of your exam\". </li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>Be reasonably predictable in what you ask, i.e. keep inside the curriculum with the topics. This doesn't mean that you cannot or should not test the reasoning and transfer abilities of the students, but it should clearly be connected to the topic of the exam.<br>\nCounter-example: one of the examiners for our 2nd year oral exams had a reputation that he'd e.g. ask about thermodynamics and chemistry of a supernova if his morning newspaper wrote something about supernovae. While his research focus was on astro-physico-chemistry, I still don't think that this was covered by the physical chemistry 101 curriculum.</p></li>\n<li><p>I'd also consider it good to explain to the students what to expect.<br>\nOne of my final oral exams had reliably left anything that had been covered in the courses after ca. 5 min. Since then I know how a lemon must feel after squeezing, and I had no idea whether I had passed or not (gave lots of wrong answers, most of which I was able to correct at a second attempt, though). I got a mark a fraction below the best possible mark and the examiner <em>afterwards</em> told me that he examined me for the best mark due to my record and that he was sure I know what was covered in the courses so he needn't examine that. I'm not entirely sure, but I think it likely that having this explanation been at the beginning of the exam would have made the experience somewhat less unpleasant.</p></li>\n<li><p>However, I don't see anything wrong with unusual (more realistic) exam settings <em>if they are trained before</em>:<br>\nI once had a teacher who explained that she wants to train us for real life situations and that she'd therefore include lots of irrelevant information alongside with the relevant information so we could not guesstimate the correct calculation from the given values and that part of our exam was to extract the relevant information (this usually came in the form of a general purpose collection of tables we used for 2 years of courses). We did use the same material in the lecture. </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>* another type of course where I'd consider psychological stress (particularly as to answering <em>fast</em>) as adequate would be practical exams dealing with emergency situations. But then the course should have practically trained corresponding situations. </p>\n\n<p>** This was not in a university setting but a certificate course with a kind of once-off customer situation: if you need the certificate you have to take one of these, but basically noone will ever have an occasion to go back there again. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31229,
"author": "WetlabStudent",
"author_id": 8101,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8101",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your actions are well intentioned and I appreciate your nurturing nature. I wish academics were more like this sometimes. I think the way you attempt to ease students' nervousness may not lead to your desired outcome for all students.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"talking to them privately after the class and reminding them that they\n are perfect students and should not allow nervousness to ruin their\n exam's mark\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This can increase stress and anxiety. Anxiety is a complex phenomenon which is not usually solved by telling people to be less anxious. In fact, by pointing out that their nervousness can hurt their grade, you are giving them one more thing to be anxious about (their nervousness). In my personal experience, deemphasizing the grade improves anxiety more than telling them how harmful their anxiety is. Mention that college is about learning and that a little bit of anxiety is healthy and that in the long run grades don't matter too much. Just study hard and do your best.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>when I see such students; I try to bring them some water and sugar to\n help them feel more comfortable and answer their questions more\n relaxed</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This may be helpful for some but you again might be increasing some student's anxiety here. I get anxious before tests and I know that I would be embarrassed if the TA brought me water and candy and didn't do that for every other student. I'd feel singled out. In addition, it really isn't clear to me that sugar would decrease anxiety for students. Like anxiety, nutrition is complicated and others may react differently to sugar than you do. Also, you have to be concerned about allergies. You mention in your comment that the students ask for this. That definitely changes things, but I would avoid giving out anything to students who don't ask for it.</p>\n\n<p>Talking with students who appear nervous after class is great, but I would shy away from lecturing them about anything related to how their anxiety affects their grade. Instead ask them how they feel before an exam? If they respond with something that concerns you, you can ask them if they have considered inquiring with student services about special exam accommodations (common in the USA). Remember that you are not a healthcare professional and it is potentially harmful for you to act too much like one. It is great that you show that you care about your students, but sometimes it is best to let the student talk to people who are more qualified to address these issues. You should be able to direct them to these people if they need it. Sometimes there are people in charge of \"study skills\", or \"disability services\" or a \"learning skills center\". Contact your department and seek these people out so you have the appropriate contacts available. </p>\n\n<p>Note that some people have a lot of anxiety and don't visibly show it and others who look extremely anxious may actually be fine. I'd announce to the whole class \"If you feel you get very anxious before exams and it affects your performance, feel free to schedule an appointment with me so we can talk about it.\" </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31195",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15723/"
] |
31,197 |
<p>I am applying to US doctoral programs.</p>
<p>I have decided to mention especially four papers in my statement of purpose, so I have to present them in my writing samples. As a consequence, my writing samples take almost a hundred pages. Nevertheless, I make them into one pdf file.</p>
<p>Then my concern is if lengthy writing samples would instead hurt my application? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31222,
"author": "Roger Fan",
"author_id": 20375,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20375",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would not put more than one in a writing sample, and I would even attempt to avoid that at all costs. If they are published or are working papers available online, then you should include citations and/or links in your statement of purpose and resume/CV. Otherwise, I would not include them in your application at all.</p>\n\n<p>Though this is with the usual disclaimer that the answer probably varies by field. This is mostly from an economics perspective.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31226,
"author": "jonescb",
"author_id": 22774,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22774",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>To point to a specific program at a top ranked school (whose requirement I happened to know off the top of my head), Stanford's Political Science admission requirements specifically state that the writing sample should be 20-35 pages (double spaced). Additionally, you can submit more than one sample if you don't have a longer essay to submit. For example, two 10-15 page papers instead of one 20-35 pager.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://politicalscience.stanford.edu/graduate-program/prospective-students/phd-admissions\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://politicalscience.stanford.edu/graduate-program/prospective-students/phd-admissions</a></p>\n\n<p>I don't know how strict they are about the 35 page upper limit, but I think 100 pages is going to be far more than any department will want.\nOf course, this will depend on the program, but Stanford is a good example of a top-tier school with top-tier expectations.</p>\n\n<p>Also, Stanford is the only program I've seen that even suggests submitting more than one writing sample. Most application forms will likely only accept one document, so unless you condense multiple documents into one, you're not going to be able to submit multiple samples anyway. I would suggest just picking your favorite and submitting that.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31240,
"author": "BrenBarn",
"author_id": 9041,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9041",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The writing sample is to show a <em>sample</em> of your research. Just because you mention multiple papers or projects in your statement of purpose does not mean you need to include them all in your writing sample. Pick what you think is the single best paper and include that. (As jonescb suggests, if the application guidelines give a page limit, and you have several short samples, you could consider including more than one, but only if their total length is less than the stated page limit.)</p>\n\n<p>Do not (as you suggest in your comment) \"exploit\" the writing sample to stuff in as much of your research as possible. If you have published, that will show up in your CV. If your samples are not published but were, for instance, written as class papers, that will show on your transcript in the list of classes you've taken and how well you did in them. The writing sample is not supposed to be \"proof\" that you've done everything you talked about your SOP; it's just a sample of one thing you've done.</p>\n\n<p>Even if the ocmmittee does look at your overlong writing sample, it will probably be perceived negatively. A person who tries to stuff the sample may be perceived as unable to focus on a single topic, or as trying to show off how much they've done. At the least, you will probably be perceived as someone who did not pay attention to the application directions (which, in my experience, usually use the world \"sample\" in the singular and give a rough page range), which never helps.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31197",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
31,199 |
<p>I am currently a referee for a paper.
One of the authors of the paper had written an earlier paper,
which I will refer to as the "original paper,"
and the paper which I am now refereeing is an extension of the original paper,
which I will refer to as the "extension paper."</p>
<p>I have found that large portions of the extension paper
are copied from his original paper.
In particular,
a whole section of definitions is copied from his original paper;
and some paragraphs in the introduction and literature review
are copied wholesale or with slight modifications from the original paper.</p>
<p>Is it acceptable for an academic paper to copy paragraphs and even a section from an earlier paper by the same author?</p>
<p>My intuition suggests that it is acceptable to copy the definition section,
with an acknowledgement that it came from the original paper,
since definitions are standard.
But it seems strange to me for the introduction and literature review
to be too similar to the original paper.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31201,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The answer depends on the relationship between the papers, and I'm not sure which applies based on the information in your question. In computer science, at least, there are two general cases:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>The extension paper is the \"extended journal version\" of a previously published short-form work such as a conference paper, workshop paper, or extended abstract. In this case, the rule of thumb is typically at least 30% new material. The extended paper will often contain large chunks verbatim, as it is expected to <em>supersede</em> the original paper, rather than existing as a separate work. </p></li>\n<li><p>The extension paper is a separate work: in this case, extensive reuse of material is self-plagiarism. Two exceptions: first, related work, methods, and definitional material may often be reused as long as it is appropriate to do so---the material should be appropriately customized to fit the new environment. If the author would just be paraphrasing for the sake of paraphrasing, though, it's not necessary. Second, introductory material may be partially shared, though it should be more heavily customized for the new context.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In all cases except for minor reuse of related work material, the extension paper must declare a clear and explicit relationship with the prior paper.</p>\n\n<p>Note that many other fields do not have the notion of a \"journal version\" and thus have much stricter standards.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31227,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Publishers have concerns about this from a couple of directions. </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Copyright. A publisher will generally not want to publish something without making sure that the copyright is clear. If you've previously published a paper and then recycle text from that earlier paper into the new paper you need to make sure that you have retained the copyright on the text. Chances are that if you published your previous paper with a main stream commercial publisher then you transferred the copyright to that publisher and don't have the right to publish the same text in a new paper. </p></li>\n<li><p>Originality. Most publishers have policies that say they only publish original research papers. It's an editorial decision whether the new paper has enough original content to qualify as original research. Reusing the text of mathematical definitions and standard theorems is a gray area where some publishers are willing to allow some text recycling. If this is done, it's critical that the original source be properly cited or better yet that the material be treated as a quotation from the original work. </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Most publishers now use software to automatically check all submissions before they're sent out for review. If there's a concern about old fashioned plagiarism or recycling of text (\"self plagiarism\"), then this is often dealt with before the paper is even sent out for review. </p>\n\n<p>As a referee, I would note the recycling of text from the previous paper and then review the current paper and consider whether the new work is sufficiently original to merit publication. It will ultimately be up to the publisher to decide whether they're willing to deal with any liability for copyright violation that results from the text recycling. </p>\n\n<p>The Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) has some useful guidelines on text recycling: </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://publicationethics.org/text-recycling-guidelines\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://publicationethics.org/text-recycling-guidelines</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 73326,
"author": "Paul de Vrieze",
"author_id": 10183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10183",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One thing to consider is to flag it up to the editor/publisher. Most review systems have a way to provide comments to the editor only (not the original author). This is a case where you can flag up and discuss these aspects of the paper. Of course if the paper actually does not contribute anything beyond the original paper (in the same words or new ones) you could reject the paper on those grounds.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31199",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8802/"
] |
31,200 |
<p>Is there a potential problem when an academic supervises a Ph.D. student in a very specific area in which someone close to them is <em>also</em> active and working (and supervising Ph.D. students who are publishing in that area) at a <em>different institution</em>? What if the two students are producing very similar work, at the same time? Is it right that my alarm bells are ringing?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31202,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's not considered a conflict of interest for an advisor to personally work in a field similar to his/her students' - it's expected.</p>\n\n<p>It's also not a conflict of interest for an advisor to have friends working in a field similar to his/her students' - it's likely.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, it's not a conflict of interest for an advisor to have a spouse, child, or immediate family member working in a field similar to his/her students'.</p>\n\n<p>The exception to the above would be if the advisor actually <em>does</em> something that harms his/her student in order to favor him/herself, a friend, or a family member.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31203,
"author": "Cape Code",
"author_id": 10643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I can think of multiple sane reasons not to publicly state romantic or marital involvement with a fellow researcher. There surely is no obligation to do otherwise.</p>\n\n<p>Now, in the situation you described in your comments, you mention the possibility that one adviser is leaking unpublished results of her/his students to her/his spouse's students without the consent of the person who did the work. This is indeed problematic, regardless of their marital status. </p>\n\n<p>If you are worried about this situation, <strong>discuss confidentiality</strong> with your adviser, make sure you are on the same line and consider sealing <strong>an informal agreement of non-disclosure</strong> with her/him if deemed necessary. This can be independent of the spouse situation.</p>\n\n<p>One potential conflict of interest is if both were acting as reviewers for papers or grants submitted by each other, or if they were members of the hiring committee that evaluated each other's application. Since married couples have a reciprocal interest in their spouse's employment and wealth, there would be a quite probable conflict of interest.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31200",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18248/"
] |
31,209 |
<p>For more than 6 weeks now, I have been attempting to contact a post-doc or their (former?) PI to request access to <em>either the source code or software</em> of a tool that was published in BMC Bioinformatics. The authors did not provide the source as a supplemental file, but assure the reader in the article that it will be made available upon request. This is the first time requesting source code of a research group, but I have yet to receive any kind of reply to my polite requests.</p>
<p><strong>I am unsure how to proceed.</strong> Pursuant to the guidelines for publication in the journal, "[i]f published, software applications/tools must be freely available to any researcher wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without restrictions such as the need for a material transfer agreement." This group is located in Europe, and it is highly likely that they should have a working knowledge of English, after all, the publication and their websites are in English, so I don't think there a language barrier exists.</p>
<p>Possible actions that I am considering:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Contacting the managing editor for the publication to explain the situation, and see if his/her email attracts more of a response.</p></li>
<li><p>Contacting any granting agencies who have provided supporting funding for the project to determine whether they have stipulations about providing source code.</p></li>
<li><p>A phone call to the corresponding author.</p></li>
</ol>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31210,
"author": "Danny W.",
"author_id": 21704,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21704",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I think contacting the editor of the journal is your best bet. Contacting grant agencies will most likely not warrant a reply, and I don't imagine many of them have stipulations for sharing code (yet). </p>\n\n<p>That said, I have been in a similar position numerous times, and I have had very little luck every obtaining the code. The editor will most likely not be willing to retract a paper because the author's won't share, and they have little incentive to do so, since it will at most garner a single citation, but could lead to more problems down the road (e.g., the code is buggy and you can't reproduce their results, etc.)</p>\n\n<p>Another tip would be that senior people (i.e., PIs) usually have more luck at this kind of thing because they are harder to ignore and/or have contacts, but it can be harder to get the to actually do it, because it can become political. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31211,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Stop. Do not do any of the things you are thinking of doing. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The authors did not provide the source as a supplemental file, but\n assure the reader in the article that it will be made available upon\n request.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Have you thought that they need to polish the code before releasing it? The fact that I am planning to release my source code does not mean that I have to do it now or whenever suits you.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Pursuant to the guidelines for publication in the journal, \"[i]f\n published, software applications/tools must be freely available to any\n researcher wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without\n restrictions such as the need for a material transfer agreement.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I have seen journals like that in my area (CS). Still, this initial rule proposed when those journals came out, might atone through the years. Since in certain areas, conferences are the main publishing venue, journals sometimes \"relax\" their original rules to get enough submissions to get them going. So, I would not count towards this rule to pressure the journal or the authors of this work. Check out some other works on this journal. Do they actually released the code? If not, then releasing the code is the exception and not the rule.</p>\n\n<p>Also, \"software applications/tools must be freely available to any researcher wishing to use them for non-commercial purposes, without restrictions such as the need for a material transfer agreement.\" does not necessarily mean releasing the source code but just the binary or a web-application created from the code. Where did you make the assumption that they should give their source code to you? The word \"tool\" refers to full apps and not original uncompiled source code.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Contacting the managing editor for the publication to explain the\n situation....</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>And what do you think the editor would do? Punish the authors because a random stranger on the internet tells him something bad about them? You can rest assure, this action will have little effect on the authors and only reflect bad on you.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Contacting any granting agencies who have provided...</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Why do you assume that under the rules of their funding agency they should release everything as open source? I have worked in many research projects in Europe and I have never heard of such a strict rule. Perhaps there are some projects or agencies demanding that but I do not think it is the norm as you suggest it is. In many projects, participants are commercial companies and they are usually not interested in sharing their work with anyone else (except the project partners and only during the project's duration). Enforcing such a rule would make all commercial companies to not want to participate and that is against the policy of funding agencies. </p>\n\n<p>Have you ever stopped to consider that the PI perhaps relocated and did not get those emails? Are you 100% sure that the authors did not reply your emails on purpose? And even if they do, are you sure that they broke some rule as you assume they did? In your shoes, I would not be too sure. And starting a full-scale war, will do more harm to you than them. </p>\n\n<p>Also if you want something, be nice. Sometimes it does not work. OK. Bullying people into doing what you want is not an efficient long-term policy.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31223,
"author": "Paul Smith",
"author_id": 16116,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16116",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think you need to forget about how you do things on the internet and remember how you do them in the real world. The fact that you do not think they have treated you with the courtesy and respect you believe you deserve does not justify you treating them any worse then you would hope to be treated. </p>\n\n<p>You have asked for something, you didn't get it. Move on. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31228,
"author": "GeneMachine",
"author_id": 18248,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18248",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's perfectly possible that your polite request is sat in a queue of jobs behind several others. If you mailed them six weeks ago, then that would just about coincide with the start of the teaching term at many institutions (such as my own). That time of year is quite crazy, so it might just be that they haven't got around to it yet.</p>\n\n<p>Failing that, do you know of anyone else who might need to use the software, and might also send a request? If people feel that their \"product\" is actually in demand, that might act as a spur to further action...</p>\n\n<p>And, to reiterate the points already made, do not contact the journal - at this stage - and <em>absolutely</em> do not contact the funders until all other possibilities have been tried (and, even then, think very carefully about taking this action).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31269,
"author": "blahblahblacksheep",
"author_id": 23967,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23967",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Do you absolutely need the source code or the tool they created to reproduce their work? If so, then I think them coughing up the code would be paramount for you and any other group wanting to pursue or validate their work. If not.. then try coding your own solution.</p>\n\n<p>I know, I know, your logic may be that it would be easier to start with their source code and build from there. IE: see how they did it. But, what programmers since the dawn of time have learned is it's easier to start and build your own code then it is to take on and learn someone elses. That's why programmers love to go into new things saying \"we need to start from scratch\". It can be a royal hairball trying to untangle someone elses' code.</p>\n\n<p>If their research provides a basic process that their code simply helps expedite, then try coding your own solution and see if it also works. If they said they would provide code-upon-request, contact them again, but remain friendly. This isn't something to burn a bridge over. Research teams can sometimes get pulled different directions (esp. depending on who they work for), and a past project may get filed away and all the resources they used for it (hard drives, email addy's, etc) may get mothballed. So, asking for the code may require someone spending time digging through archives and such. (In retrospect, if they say the code is available they should have tossed it on a publicaly available repo, so folks like you could grab-n-go without having to pester them). Research goals also change over time. The person writing up the thing you read may have though the code would be available upon request.. but, the folks that funded the research may have changed their minds ... perhaps they want to patent the code as a tool to sell later?</p>\n\n<p>I think you should contact them again, and simply ask that you requested the code, haven't heard from them, could someone please let you know if the code availability has changed, and if so, why? Be polite about it. At this point you just want a response saying whether you might get the code or not.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31209",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
31,224 |
<p>I've seen that some math teachers design tests which punish errors with negative points.</p>
<p>Why do they assign negative points? What are some pedagogical reasons why teachers might do this?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31230,
"author": "GeneMachine",
"author_id": 18248,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18248",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's to discourage guessing, and to avoid mark inflation.</p>\n\n<p>There are many discussions of negative marking available; here is one:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://teach.southwales.ac.uk/assessment/negativemarking/\">http://teach.southwales.ac.uk/assessment/negativemarking/</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31232,
"author": "WetlabStudent",
"author_id": 8101,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8101",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are many positives and drawbacks to negative grading, even for free response tests. It encourages academic honesty and self assessment which are important for learning and discourages \"BS\" answers where the student knows the answer is wrong but is trying to confuse the grader into awarding some points. Some view \"BS\" answers as cheating. Unfortunately, negative points for wrong answers can punish students who are under-confident, and choose not to write an answer when they actually can demonstrate some understanding. It can also reward students for not even showing up to the exam if the test is hard enough.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31234,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Grade that goes below zero doesn't make sense.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>What makes you say that? In some real-world scenarios, thinking you know the answer and being wrong is worse than realizing you don't know. For example, I'd rather have my doctor or lawyer recognize when something goes beyond their expertise, so I can consult a specialist rather than following mistaken advice. I imagine the same is true for most professionals, such as engineers.</p>\n\n<p>If not answering at all yields a grade of zero, then it's reasonable to award negative points for a truly bad answer. (Of course an insightful but flawed answer may still deserve a positive score, just not as high as the correct answer.)</p>\n\n<p>In practice the most common case I've seen negative scores used is multiple choice exams, for the <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/31230/\">reason given by GeneMachine</a>, but one can make a philosophical case for applying them much more broadly.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31242,
"author": "Ypnypn",
"author_id": 14711,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14711",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To give an (imperfect) analogy, on Stack Exchange posts can get negative points, thus making the poster <em>lose</em> reputation. The reason is to prevent users from posting low-quality posts in the hopes of getting a few upvotes. Downvotes force the user to only post if he's confident it's a good idea.</p>\n\n<p>Similarly, giving points for correct answers on a test, while ignoring incorrect answers, encourages random guessing. Taking away points for wrong answers forces the students to be sure they really know the answer.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31252,
"author": "print x div 0",
"author_id": 23802,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23802",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I see two parts in this question, </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Why negative points? Grade that goes below zero doesn't make sense.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Negative Points can make sense, as a punishment. Grades below zero not so much IMO.</p>\n\n<p>I have a lecturer, who gives us assignments before the exam, we hand them in and get some points for it. \nYou then start your exam with that score, but if you fail a question you get negative points. This is for the reason that the exam only tests for topics we dealt with in the assignments. \nBut you don't drop below zero. </p>\n\n<p>This method prevents people from coping assignments from other students beforehand.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31224",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23137/"
] |
31,235 |
<p>So a paper exists, it was published 3 years ago and had a novel algorithm (more or less, it's in the area of finite-difference time-domain simulations). </p>
<p>I've taken the algorithm and accelerated it by a factor of 100x (example, I don't have the true number), producing the same results in the end, but providing an opportunity to essentially simulate more (iterations/objects) in the same amount of time.</p>
<p>The methods used to accelerate it aren't particularly novel, though some aspects might very well be a bit different from mainstream ideas. All in all, a person set out to do the same thing would probably be able to do it, but I would not call it trivial. However, I know that this has not been done before.</p>
<p>Is this something worth publishing? I am going to ask my supervisor, but he's been very busy lately ( >.< ), I haven't been able to catch him for ~4 days. I would like some of your opinions.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31238,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If I understand the question correctly, the dilemma is whether to just distribute the code or whether to also make a scientific publication out of it. The way that I typically think about this type of problem is to see whether it passes any of the following tests:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Does the improvement enable a significant scientific or technical work that was not previously possible? For example, if faster simulation allows a control loop to be done in realtime that couldn't before, that advance may be scientifically valuable even if the methods are not interesting in and of themselves, but you have to demonstrate that value.</p></li>\n<li><p>Does the improvement make a qualitative change in the operation of the algorithm which is interesting, e.g., changing a scaling property that was previously a limit?</p></li>\n<li><p>Is the mechanism of the improvement interesting in and of itself, e.g., such that it teaching something about the nature of the algorithm or such that it might be applied to other algorithms or problems as well?</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Any of these is a good reason to publish an improvement on an algorithm.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31244,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>@jakebeal answer is spot-on, but I will add my extra two cents. As you said you parallelized the algorithm, which is good but how did this happen? </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Was the algorithm already parallel and just has not been implemented that way? If yes, simply parallelizing the implementation might not be good enough.</p></li>\n<li><p>Did you used other additional optimizations to make it efficient? For example did you use SIMD (SSE, AVX) instructions or GPUs for your implementation?</p></li>\n<li><p>As jakebeal said, did you alter the scope of the algorithm? If the algorithm could handle e.g. only small graphs up to a size, with your implementation it might scale to much larger graphs.</p></li>\n<li><p>If, for example you worked on an indexing method, did your method improved the building of the index or also improved the index's query performance?</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The most important thing to consider, is that you need to write a full paper to present your improved version. So, if all you can say is \"I parallelized the algorithm with OpenMP and is now faster\" or \"I vectorized this loop\" and other technical details, this will not be good enough for a scientific paper. On the other hand, if you worked on advanced techniques (SIMD, GPUs), your work might worth a publication. Still, it might not be good enough for top-algorithm conferences (where new algorithms are usually presented) and might be more suitable for conferences focused in parallel algorithms, implementations, which are more focused on the technical side of things. Also, I would worry about the fact that no one touched this algorithm for 3 years. Are you sure there is not another algorithm that is now the state-of-the-art for this particular problem? You should look into this too. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Update</strong>: Since you already have a done a GPU-CUDA version of this algorithm, it would be interesting to actually extend your work on plain multicores with a) OpenMP (that would be trivial) b) OpenMP + SIMD (that would be harder c) or OpenMP + SIMD + partial CUDA. Having several tuned versions of the same algorithm for different architectures and performance benchmarks for the different versions, would make a much stronger paper.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31246,
"author": "Erel Segal-Halevi",
"author_id": 787,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/787",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One option that you have is to submit a paper to a <em>demo session</em> of a conference. Such papers usually describe existing systems so they don't have to be new. If you are accepted, your paper is published in the proceedings, and you have the right to present a live demo of your system in the conference. If your improved implementation indeed makes 3D possible, you may have a very impressive demo.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31257,
"author": "David Richerby",
"author_id": 10685,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10685",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>How is your code faster than the state of the art? If it's faster only because you're a good programmer, you're unlikely to be able to publish in a worthwhile venue. If it's faster because you did some computer science, you might be onto something.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31597,
"author": "Mohamed Khamis",
"author_id": 703,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/703",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'd say simply write a paper, submit it at one of the top venues in that area and let the reviewers decide for you. If it was rejected they will suggest the changes that could get it accepted in the following conference. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31603,
"author": "Jim King",
"author_id": 24193,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24193",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have also published some papers in the same vein. If you can find something novel about your implementation (significant changes to the algorithm, novel optimizations, new insights about the architecture, etc.) then you have a better chance of getting published. If you only achieved the speedup by parallelizing the algorithm in a straightforward fashion, it will stand less of a chance at the higher tier conferences. 5 or 6 years ago when GPGPU programming was still very new, people were often publishing papers about GPU parallelized algorithms. This is becoming less frequent now, because many of the fundamental concepts about this process have already been explored. Much of the low hanging fruit in that area has been picked, so reviewers will tend to view straightforward parallelization of algorithm \"X\" as not very novel.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31235",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23924/"
] |
31,236 |
<p>I've heard that faculty usually gets paid for 9 months in the US and you need to use your own funding to pay for the missing 3 months.</p>
<p>Is this situation different in the UK and Australia? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31237,
"author": "David Richerby",
"author_id": 10685,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10685",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the UK, you get paid 12 months a year. I'm not actually aware of any other country that uses the US 9-month system.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31239,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't know of anywhere other than the US that the 9 month contract system is used.</p>\n\n<p>Under the US system you can (and many faculty do) typically arrange to have your nine month salary paid out in equal installments over the whole year. If you do this then any summer salary you can arrange (e.g. from research grants, teaching summer school classes, or administrative work) is \"extra\" money. Most faculty that I know budget to live off of their nine month salaries and then use the summer salary to invest into their retirement funds or to pay down their home mortgage or whatever. </p>\n\n<p>There are some advantages to the faculty member in having a nine month contract. For example, you're free to use the summer to go on vacation or work for some other employer (lots of consulting work gets done over the summer.) Working on research contracts and summer school teaching are optional. The down side to this system from the point of view of faculty members is that there is no guarantee that you'll be able to get a full three months of summer salary. </p>\n\n<p>From the point of view of university administrators, the advantage of the 9 month contract is that it helps to keep salaries down in comparison with 12 month salaries in industry. Universities don't need faculty to teach much during the summer, so why pay unneeded employees? </p>\n\n<p>Note that fringe benefits (like health insurance, life insurance, etc.) cover the entire year including the summer when the faculty member is not on contract. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31247,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In <strong>Australia</strong>, if you have a permanent position as an academic at a University, you would typically earn an annual salary. This would typically be paid fortnightly, every fortnight of the year. This assumes you are working for the entire year (except of course for annual leave, public holidays, etc.).</p>\n\n<p>Of course, there are plenty of causal academic roles such as research assistants, teachers and so on. These are often linked to the completion of specific roles. For example, if you tutor a unit, then you'll typically be paid for the amount of teaching you do and only for the weeks that teaching is occurring. </p>\n\n<p>While we don't use the term \"faculty\" as much in Australia, I imagine when we do, it would typically apply to those academic staff on salary.</p>\n\n<p>As a side note, Australian academics are typically allowed to earn additional income doing external work if their supervisor provides approval.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31236",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23925/"
] |
31,241 |
<p>To clarify, I am asking if it's professional to ask questions that while relevant to the subject/course, and are related to the topic, but have not been discussed in class, assigned as homework, reading, etc. and are also not related to any prerequisite class that the students should already know. I am also not asking about "gotcha" questions where it's a quick "know it or not" fact, but rather an entire procedure, proof, or concept of some sort. </p>
<p>For example in class, using a formula from the textbook to solve problems, but on the exam asking for a proof of the formula that has been used.</p>
<p>Another example - in a foreign language class, asking about a never-before-seen word that may be related to some other, studied words or that has a similar sound/meaning in the native language.</p>
<p>Do such questions "make students think out of the box", or are they more likely to discourage students when they struggle with them? While in the real world there may be many problems similar to this where the problem is completely new, is this something that should be taught in an unrelated class? </p>
<p>Does it matter if the test in question will be graded on a curve where even if a student doesn't answer the question correctly at all, they could still get a good grade?</p>
<p>P.S. - this question was prompted by the comments in <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/31193/19914">this answer</a></p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31243,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't see a reasonable answer beyond \"it depends.\" It depends on the question: some surprise questions are not actually so difficult and could reasonably be asked on a test with no special preparation, while others are very difficult indeed. It also depends on the students: you can demand more of experienced and talented students than you can of typical beginners.</p>\n\n<p>There's certainly no rule that says you can only ask test questions that are similar to previous questions the students have seen. Sometimes asking unusual questions can be an excellent way to judge how well students have mastered the material. At the same time, test questions that are too unfamiliar or difficult can be unproductive. This is a balancing act that can be solved in many different ways, depending on the style of the person writing the test.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31245,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Every question on a test should be about the material in the course. Many times, however, the professor may be trying to teach a deeper concept than some of the students have learned. This is what creates a \"surprise\" question: the professor asks something that requires mastery of the material or insight into its deeper meaning, and the student has only learned material to a relatively shallow level.</p>\n\n<p>For example, when I was a TA for a large undergraduate artificial intelligence class, the class taught two things simultaneously. The underlying concept threading through the whole class was how to think about data representation and problem decomposition. As part of teaching this, the students were also taught a number of standard AI algorithms. The tests then typically involved variant algorithms the students had never seen before. Weak students, who had learned the standard algorithms but not the underlying concept would often do badly and complain about the \"surprise\" questions, since they were being asked about an algorithm that they had never seen before. Strong students, who were learning the underlying concept, had no problems.</p>\n\n<p>In general, then, encountering a \"surprise\" question means that the student is failing to learn the deeper concepts that the professor is trying to convey. Where the pedagogical problems lies, the professor or the students, is a completely different question...</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31249,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I guess it depends on what you call a \"surprise question\". Usually, when you design tests, you don't want <em>all</em> questions to be the same difficulty. Rather, you would want to have a number of basic questions to find out who actually did not \"get\" the fundamental messages (and should hence fail), some intermediary questions which the majority of students will be able to do if they studied, and a small number of challenging problems, which are there to separate the excellent from the good students.</p>\n\n<p>In my tests, \"surprise\" questions often form the \"challenging\" part of the test. I write them in the full expectation that only 10% to 20% of the class will be able to do them, but that is ok - not the entire class should have the best grade anyway. This way, me and others know after the course who the students that really <em>understood</em> the material were, and who just studied a lot.</p>\n\n<p><em>Sidenote: I teach in a european country where it is usual to have a Gaussian distribution over the entire grading spectrum - it is not like in the US where having a \"B\" is often already considered a bad grade. Also, at least in undergrad courses, it is not uncommon that more students fail than have the best grade.</em></p>\n\n<p>What makes \"surprise\" questions difficult for some students and attractive for many teachers is that they actually test <em>understanding</em>, <em>transfer skills</em>, and the <em>ability to apply knowledge</em> as opposed to mechanical memorisation of pre-learned procedures. This is easy to see in your \"formula\" example. A student that studied can apply the formula (he knows how it works, and how to apply it, and under which conditions), but only a student who really grasps the math behind it can do a proof that they had not covered before.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31254,
"author": "fileunderwater",
"author_id": 7223,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7223",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't think this has anything to do with being professional, but to what extent it is fair and/or desirable so ask such questions. </p>\n\n<p>To me, the utility of unexpected questions that completely surprise students also depends on what kind of grading system they are used under, and this has not been addressed in the other answers. Under curve-grading/norm-referenced tests, one of the points of exams is to differentiate between students, so difficult surprise questions can be useful to e.g. test if students have gained a deeper understanding of a topic. Under such a system, it is reasonable (and to some extend desirable) that only a small proportion of students can answer some questions.</p>\n\n<p>Under a criterion-referenced/goal oriented grading system, students are ideally supposed to know exactly what knowledge is needed to achieve a particular grade. Totally unexpected questions might be more problematic here under such grading criteria. However, what is an unexpected question is also subjective to some extent, and the learning criteria could also specifically mention fundamental understanding and the ability to apply the material to new situations. Even so, if a large proportion of students fail to understand or answer harder surprise questions this can partially be seen as a failure of the teacher/course (which not necessarily the case under curve grading), since this could indicate that the teachers have failed to convey either the required knowledge or the learning-goals needed to achive a particular grade (alternative explanations would be e.g. high goal standards or uninterested, lazy or weak students).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31256,
"author": "Ubiquitous",
"author_id": 6879,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6879",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my view, a fair examination question draws on any or all of the following:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Material discussed or presented during class contact time.</li>\n<li>Material from any of the items on the course reading list.</li>\n<li>Core material from any prerequisite courses.</li>\n<li>Material that might properly be regarded as common knowledge for students at this stage in their education (basic mathematics, basic use of the English Language, etc.).</li>\n<li><strong>Knowledge that can reasonably be derived as a logical consequence of numbers 1.–4.</strong> Here, 'reasonable' is calibrated to the level of the course. Much more should be expected of graduate students who are essentially training to do point 5. for the rest of their professional lives.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>In my experience, \"surprise\" questions usually come about because (a) students have not fulfilled their obligation to apprise themselves of the material in 1. and 2., or because (b) students are not sufficiently capable/comfortable with the subject matter to conduct the logical deductions in 5.</p>\n\n<p>In either case, my view is that it <em>is</em> professional to ask questions that draw on all of 1.—5. In their capacity as educators, the main professional responsibilities of university teachers are to decide upon and deliver the appropriate material clearly, and to administer assessments capable of identifying students' success in mastering this material. A question that does not 'surprise' the majority of students can only test this mastery to a limited extent because it leaves little way to differentiate students who have truly mastered the subject from those who have merely done a good job of rote memorization. I would therefore view 'surprise questions' as an essential tool in professors' fulfillment of their professional responsibility as teachers.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31259,
"author": "Brian M. Scott",
"author_id": 23947,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23947",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My field is mathematics. I always tried to ask at least one question that looked quite different from anything that the students were certain to have seen before (though of course it relied on the relevant material), or that required them to combine several ideas that they might not previously have had to combine. On an exam in first-year calculus I’d have had at most a couple of questions of this type; on an exam in the more theoretical courses and in liberal arts mathematics courses I generally had quite a few such questions alongside the more routine ones, covering a range of difficulty. All questions, of course, required the students to write something, be it a proof, an explanation, or merely a routine calculation, and partial credit was always available.</p>\n\n<p>I should point out that I was not grading to any pre-set scale. I have always preferred to construct the exam that I wanted and then interpret the results. Indeed, I refused to assign letter grades to individual exams, preferring to reserve that painful chore for the end of the course when I had as much data as I was going to get. Needless to say, I always explained all of this at the beginning of the course and again before the first exam. I also made it clear that I did not have the expectations to which most American students are used to being held: it generally worked out that the A students (apart from the rare curve-breaker) averaged 80-85% over the entire term — and I was not especially generous with A grades. A 50% average was generally a solid C. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31267,
"author": "Tyler",
"author_id": 12536,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12536",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>All my real analysis tests (me being a student) were 50%+ completely new theorems to prove. It was to be expected that one would have to think outside the box to even pass the test. And I would say I learned an order of magnitude more in that class than I have in any with more standard tests. But that's a senior level course and being good at writing proofs from scratch was a skill that had been taught gradually over many lower level courses.</p>\n\n<p>One could argue that being able to pass general tests with questions that require uncovered to vaguely-touched-on material or methods that involve combining techniques in ways unseen in class is the culmination of education. If that's in fact the case, it would make sense to introduce it early to cultivate the skill of being able synthesize new answers from covered material.</p>\n\n<p>But it is important that it be reasonable for the student to know the prerequisite material to synthesize the answer. Don't ask a measure theory question on the first test in real analysis. Ask a question that requires use of the least upper bound property of the reals in a tricky way, for example.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31270,
"author": "Count Iblis",
"author_id": 17479,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17479",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I prefer a system where the homework problems are the most challenging. Also, I'm not in favor of a system where the homework is graded, because this makes it more difficult to choose good homework problems. The idea is that students learn best when they struggle a lot to solve difficult problems. One then has to accept that students may not have been able to do well on a particular problem, even if they are one of the best. Graded or not, homework should still be submitted and records should be kept about the student's performance. </p>\n\n<p>The exam should serve only as a basic test that all the students who have seriously followed the course should easily pass. There is no way you can challenge the students in an exam that only lasts for a few hours as you can challenge them with homework that they would need to work on for several days.</p>\n\n<p>The exam should be judged in combination with the homework. Each student's homework record (graded or not) should be taken into account when judging the exam. If it is found that the homework record is inconsistent with the exam performance, then the student should be invited to speak to the Prof. about the subject. It can be the case that the student was nervous and didn't see the solution to simple problems, such issues can be corrected in an oral examination especially if the student does not know that the meeting is in fact a secret oral examination.</p>\n\n<p>It can also be the case that the student did not know much about the subject and just copied the homework assignments from other students.That will then become clear after speaking to the student, the student will then be given a failing grade for the subject.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31273,
"author": "Joseph Vargo",
"author_id": 23969,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23969",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Teachers have been asking questions that are not know to students for as long as teaching has been around. How else can a teacher make the student step out of their comfort zone where the answers have been clearly laid out and instead help them broaden their mental abilities. It is important that the questions is related to the subject being taught, but if I ask you a question about the really world cases rather than the hypothetical it will require some out of the box thinking. Yes it is professional. It is not if they are questions that the class has not prepared the student to answer.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31275,
"author": "user2127595",
"author_id": 23971,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23971",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I see this problem spanning several levels of information:</p>\n\n<p>On the bottom, we have course information that is memorized. Students should not be asked to reproduce <strong>definitions</strong>, facts, axioms, and other types of foundation information that have not already appeared in course material. </p>\n\n<p>Next, we have \"<strong>techniques</strong>.\" Especially in mathematics, we learn techniques for approaching hard problems. In other fields, techniques manifest as the methods we use to make inference, the types of reasoning that we use to interpret new situations. These are very general (like integration by parts, the epsilon over n trick from early analysis courses, or less rigid logic like the the broad historical notion that starvation corresponds with instability which makes revolution more likely) and can be combined in many interesting ways. Plenty of good, unfamiliar problems can be written based on familiar techniques. It can be very appropriate to ask students to develop a new technique to solve a problem on a test, as long as the intuitive leap is somewhat reasonable. This is a judgement call on the part of the professor that can reflect professionalism.</p>\n\n<p>The ability of students to adapt new techniques generally depends on their grasp of broad overarching <strong>concepts</strong>. Development of entirely new concepts probably does not belong on tests because students are not likely to retain them very well under exam pressure. In general, exams are a method for gauging students' current knowledge/understanding of course material. I would say that it is more equitable and appropriate to introduce entirely new concepts on homework and in lecture, so that students have a greater opportunity to internalize them. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31317,
"author": "user1264176",
"author_id": 18339,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18339",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My answer is a bit biased in favour of students since I had a bad experience with such questions.</p>\n\n<p>TL;DR; 'Surprise' questions are good and necessary in some cases but don't make them weight 50% of exam.</p>\n\n<p>While I was a student we had a couple of professors who would start giving you surprise questions when you do relatively good in your examination (oral). Then they could find something you don't know and seriously decrease your overall result or even fail you. </p>\n\n<p>There were some professors who have made surprise questions in written exams grading them as 40-50% of the test itself. </p>\n\n<p>I personally hate this. In my case it had led to the situation when you try not to learn general course material but to anticipate surprise questions. Student have more than one course at the same time and sometimes there is not enough time (or interest) to have deep(out of program) understanding of all courses and you just want to pass the course with 75% grade or whatsoever. </p>\n\n<p>It of course depends on the field of study. If it is something like theoretical physics it is necessary to have skills to think outside of the box. </p>\n\n<p>I liked an approach of one of my school teachers. You could get 110-115% on the exam and the grade you receive is based on 100%. 90% you could get by regular questions and 20-25% by 'surprise' questions. So if you studied diligently you could have a good grade and if you have spent more time on the subject you could even cover minor issues with 'surprise' questions.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31319,
"author": "Greg",
"author_id": 14755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14755",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I guess it depends on the details, the country (different education culture) and subject (some of them are fact heavy, some of them are more problem solving focused).</p>\n\n<p>I happened to come from a place where a student who can solve only problems in STEM field that explicitly showed in lecture or assigned as reading, considered to be rather mediocre (C level). I assume there are different educational approaches, too. </p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, giving a question way out of blue can be off limit and just mean.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31324,
"author": "Murphy",
"author_id": 16078,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16078",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There's no problem with Surprise questions as long as they're a small part of the marks and you tell students that there may be such questions. </p>\n\n<p>Some of my professors would structure tests along the lines of 40% basics, 40% intermediate, 10% hard, 10% Surprise.</p>\n\n<p>if you covered and understood all the basics you could reliably scrape a pass. </p>\n\n<p>If you'd covered and understood all the material well you could get a good mark. </p>\n\n<p>If you'd gone above and beyond and mastered the material on the course and had good general knowledge in the area you could get an excellent or perfect mark. </p>\n\n<p>I liked the system as it meant in later years I could generally drag students I was tutoring through the exam based on the predictable stuff and you were also rewarded for independent study. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31474,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Among the answers given thus far, the one which is closest to my thinking is that of xLeitix, and the side note about the context applies too.</p>\n\n<p>Now,</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it professional for a professor to ask “surprise” questions on a test?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It <em>can</em> be professional. As I said in a comment, it's unprofessional to ask such questions with the only purpose of failing as many students as possible.</p>\n\n<p>Moreover, I don't like very much the adjective <em>surprise</em> in the title: a surprise is something unexpected, but if a professor clearly warns the students that at the exam they will find problems which have not been solved during the course, there is no surprise. So, in the following, I will talk about \"new\" problems. </p>\n\n<p>Exams and tests have, as their main goal, that of assessing how well students master/understand a (small portion of a) certain subject. As others have well explained, new questions or problems can give a hint on how deep this understanding is. </p>\n\n<p>But apart from the above stated main goal, exams and tests might also have secondary goals: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>An exam can be an occasion for learning new stuff. The well defined separation between learning and verification, which typically happens in a course, is something that drastically comes to an end when one starts working, even in academia. Learning and verification in everyday life are really interleaved, and many times learning has to be done along a stressful verification. So, a new problem during an exam can be an occasion to continue learning in a more \"unprotected\" way. </li>\n<li>An exam can be a hint, one of the many, that what has been taught during the lessons is not the whole story, and that beyond the lessons there is much more: new problems surely deliver this message.</li>\n<li>For a professor, an exam is an occasion to fish for good students to whom propose a thesis. Giving new problems can be a way to find students who are capable of independent thinking. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>So, I tend to give new problems at the exams keeping in mind the above points.</p>\n\n<p>To avoid being too general, let's make an example related to my experience. A few years ago I taught a course about sensors, transducers and signal conditioning circuits for graduate electronic engineers. The written part of the exam consisted in one problems about designing or analyzing a signal conditioning circuit or about evaluating the measurement uncertainty of certain transducer. Due to the vastness of the topic, the course could neither describe all kind of sensors and transducers, nor all possible signal conditioning circuits. So, I decided that every exam would have been made of a new problem, where \"new\" meant:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>A problem about a transducer not described in the course. Indeed the exam text contained a short description of this kind of transducer.</li>\n<li>A problem about the analysis and/or design of signal conditioning circuit not described in the course. The students, being electronic engineers, were expected to know how to analyze electronic circuits, even of moderate complexity. In more difficult cases, hints were provided.</li>\n<li>A problem about a known transducer applied in an unknown way.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Exams were open books and students could bring the solutions of all previous exams and all the class notes. After the written part, if successful, there was an oral examination which was more about class material.</p>\n\n<p>What was the outcome of this kind of exam? The course was in general very well received by the students, even if the exam was considered hard: the percentage of success was around 30% (the pass grade is 60%). The major complaint was about the number of exercises solved during the classes, but this happens in all kind of courses. My answer to this complaint was that there were, indeed, time constraints that prevented us to solve more problems but, anyway, whatever the number of problems solved during the course, at the exam they would have found a new one (sometimes students ask for more solved problems in the hope that these will exhaust all possible cases).</p>\n\n<p>From this and other experiences along 15 years, I think that students can withstand new problems at the exams as long as the motivations are well explained and, especially, as long as the course is worth of it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 163793,
"author": "Robert Columbia",
"author_id": 58912,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/58912",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>"New" material can be tested for on an exam if the students have access to or have been taught materials that are sufficient to make sense of the "new" material. This can apply to the following scenarios:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Open-book tests</strong>. In an open-book test, it is fair to test students on material that they are capable of looking up on the spot and synthesizing with the knowledge they have gained in the course or were required to have in order to meet prerequisites. For example, in a test of French grammar where the students are provided access to a basic dictionary, it is fair to expect the students to look up a word and identify its grammatical and morphological categories despite the fact that the word never appeared in any of the lectures or required reading. Make it clear to your students which books/materials they should bring to the exam. Similarly, if your course is "Open Google", you can include a question that requires the student to figure out "Will a Hyperbarkonian Dehydrogenated Redonkulator output data that meets the following specification...?" as long as your course has taught the students how to read a machine data output specification and compare it to a requirements specification.</li>\n<li><strong>Material that can be deduced from context</strong>. These are things where students can apply context clues in connection with course material to identify the likely meaning of the new material. An obvious, well-known example of this is reading comprehension through context clues, a technique commonly taught in lower grades. For example, consider the following question:</li>\n</ul>\n<blockquote>\n<p>After Mary found out about the death of her father, she blargragathed for three hours until she fell asleep from exhaustion. Which of the following counseling interventions is most likely to assist her?...</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>If your reading comprehension skills are sufficient, you can probably figure out that blargragathing is a kind of negative emotional or behavioral reaction despite the fact that I made up the word on the spot for this answer. You can now apply the counseling interventions you learned in my course to answer the question.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31241",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19914/"
] |
31,251 |
<p>I am a beginning researcher and am unsure as to the academic worth/usefulness for my career to publish with <a href="http://www.springer.com/gp/authors-editors/book-authors-editors/springerbriefs" rel="nofollow">SpringerBriefs</a>. Would it be seen as a vanity publication?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31260,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Its not entirely clear from its website, but it appears that SpringerBriefs is not peer reviewed. At least, that's what I get from their author instructions starting with:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Springer Briefs are designed to get your ideas to market as fast as\n possible. With this aim in mind, we have outlined simple instructions\n for manuscript formatting, preparation, and delivery. After you have \n delivered your manuscript to editorial and it is transmitted to our\n production department, the manuscript will be assigned to one of our\n full-service production vendors (FSVs).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Given that, my assessment is that publication in this venue is likely to be essentially worthless from a scientific career point of view: it's not peer reviewed, so it's not giving you any more credit than depositing the same text in a repository like <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">arXiv</a>, and it gets you much less exposure than something like arXiv because people have to buy it to read it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31271,
"author": "Christian Clason",
"author_id": 13852,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13852",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Think \"short book\", not \"long paper\". There's been several questions here about the value of publishing a book (e.g., <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/29881/is-there-any-value-in-self-publishing-a-book-as-an-academic\">Is there any value in self-publishing a book as an academic?</a> or <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18385/pros-and-cons-of-co-authoring-a-reference-book-in-early-career\">Pros and cons of (co-)authoring a reference book in early career?</a>), and the answers apply here as well. In short, the <em>fact</em> of having published a book carries virtually no weight (at least in most fields), but a <em>good</em> book can have a long-term impact. </p>\n\n<p>Original research should in general be published in a peer-reviewed journal (or conference), not a book. But if you've written a few papers on a topic that you think would benefit from a consistent notation, cleaned-up presentation, extended introduction and literature review; or if you have a set of lecture notes on a current hot topic you are particularly proud of and would like to see get wider attention (preferring to trust the power of Springers marketing department instead of the vagaries of Google), then publishing them as a SpringerBrief could make sense for you. Whether it'd be worth the effort to get them into shape (and it <em>will</em> cost effort) is something you have to decide for yourself.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 38124,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, SpringerBriefs are blind peer reviewed. I'm not sure why one would assume that a major publisher like Springer would not send out work for peer review before agreeing to publish it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 61345,
"author": "David Koslicki",
"author_id": 47207,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/47207",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As for the peer review, I talked with a Springer representative at the 2016 Joint Math Meeting and she clarified as follows: two rounds of peer review, once when an author indicates a desire to publish a Springer Briefs (signs the paperwork, submits a table of contents and a couple chapters), and once when the work is completed.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31251",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23936/"
] |
31,253 |
<p>In listing my master's thesis in CV I came across this problem: Should I put the name of my advisor in front of my name or should I put only my name (I have my advisor's name printed in my thesis) according to the US style? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31261,
"author": "Niko",
"author_id": 23257,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23257",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I don't think you need to be too formal here. Just include whatever information you believe is relevant, for example:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Master's Thesis: \"Topic\", at University X, supervised by Prof. Y.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Theses are different from regular publications anyway.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31262,
"author": "Bob Brown",
"author_id": 16183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16183",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>At least with the APA style, the advisor's name is not included. The example from the fifth edition of APA (my 6th edition is lent out) is:</p>\n\n<p>Almeida, D. M. (1990) <em>Fathers' participation in family work: Consequences for fathers' stress and father-child relations.</em> Unpublished master's thesis, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.</p>\n\n<p>With a hanging indent that I can't figure out how to do here.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31253",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
31,265 |
<p>I am a graduate student. My department head is manipulating data in his research papers and skillfully alters plagiarized text to avoid detection. I found this out while working with him on a journal article. Specifically, he modified data points (right in front of me) to dramatically increase our R^2 value, and then he told me to do some formatting and submit it to a journal. I politely confronted him but he did not concede and I backed off from that paper. Later, other professors confirmed that most of his papers are bogus and results are fabricated.</p>
<p>He mentioned once that the reason for choosing nanotechnology (which he is not familiar with) is that there is very little literature available and few experts to review the paper. He gets through the review process by using a plethora of statistical analysis results (with fabricated data) to support his claim and gets through (some) editors by using fancy terms like neural network and fuzzy logic. The irony is that he does not even know the underlying theory of whatever analysis he is doing. How do I know this? I uttered a few doubts and the responses were extremely poor. He uses Minitab and Matlab tools to get things done. He once jokingly told me that he gets a paper ready overnight. Maybe it was not a joke after all.</p>
<p>Reporting to the management is useless as they won’t listen to me. I cannot challenge his paper, because I barely know anything in nanotechnology (neither does he). Editors won’t take me seriously since he has considerable reputation due to articles in high impact journals. So what should I do? I could not tolerate his insanity and literature pollution.</p>
<p><strong>More info:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>I am about to graduate and leave the department for good.</li>
<li>I managed to avoid submitting the fradulent paper because I eventually convinced him that the hypothesis was fundamentally wrong. I still have the original manuscript he mailed to me from his unofficial mail id.</li>
<li>Institutional routes are closed, I tried complaining about his poor lecture quality once (anonymously) and it backfired for the entire class. He has 15 years of experience, 20+ journal article and numerous conference papers. I don't stand a chance against him.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Update:</strong> I will try to report this issue to retraction watch or through any other means possible. Still it is not possible to disprove his claims without repeating the experiment.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31272,
"author": "Cape Code",
"author_id": 10643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"pm_score": 8,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Your backing off reaction is the appropriate one: <strong>cease any form of association with him right away.</strong></p>\n\n<p>The description of your first-hand witnessing of him fabricating data is more than enough to ascertain his academic dishonesty. You don't need to know about nanotechnology to know that manually modifying data to make it pass a statistical test is idiotic and fraudulent. Also, experts in that field will assume the data are real when conducting peer review, so it's not something they can easily detect without repeating the (alleged) experiments.</p>\n\n<p>His 'results' are unwanted. By publishing bogus science he makes people lose time and money, he's robbing legitimate researchers of their funding, he is adding noise that masks the signal. If you can afford to report his behavior please, <em>do it</em>. Depending on where this story takes place, you might lose a variable number of feathers in his striking back, but at the end of the day he is the one who is wrong.</p>\n\n<p>Taking direct action to publicly expose his fraudulent behavior is risky for you, especially since he is your hierarchical superior. But, when he will get caught (because he will), if it is apparent that you were aware of his wrongdoings and still accepted co-authorship or credit for his publications, his bad reputation is going to stain your career. If you fail to prove your claim, it's <em>your</em> career that will be at risk. So, proceed with caution. Note that it is <em>ethically perfectly fine</em> to report scientific wrongdoings anonymously.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Make sure that <em>all institutional reporting routes</em> are inefficient before bringing the issue to another level. It is not clear in your post if you actually tried or if you just assume 'they won't listen to you'.</p></li>\n<li><p>Since you provided the content of at least one paper, and know about its fake nature, if he submits the paper despite your protests, notifying the editor is a thing you could do. <strong>Editors will take you very seriously</strong> in reputable journals.</p></li>\n<li><p>You can also take part (anonymously if relevant) in a post-publication comment on his papers, on websites like pubpeer.com or retractionwatch.com.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31287,
"author": "Akka Demic",
"author_id": 23986,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23986",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Publish an attempted replication of his work that demonstrates that his analyses and data are not reliable.</p>\n\n<p>If you can show definitively that the work is bogus by providing reproducible analyses and release your data publicly for others to verify, your work will trump his, and you can launch a career off of this.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 34728,
"author": "Welly314",
"author_id": 26960,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26960",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Absolutely get out and far away, but perhaps then you could take action. If you were the only one who has or saw the original data, even keeping it anonymous, he may figure out who reported him. Aside from Retraction Watch, <a href=\"http://publicationethics.org/\">COPE</a> has some interesting cases to read through. This is an organization that <a href=\"http://publicationethics.org/members\">many major journals</a> are members of, which deals with these sorts of ethical issues. Many of the cases they describe involve anonymous reports and it might be helpful to read through them and see what the process would like were you to contact one of the journals that published his fraudulent work.</p>\n\n<p>If you do anonymously contact the journal, be sure they agree to a course of action (they will not tell the author where the information came from, they will only reveal certain information, etc.) that protects you. I'm not sure legally what they can and can't agree to, but have them tell you this before you reveal who the fraudulent author is.</p>\n\n<p>I would absolutely not go through your University's channels, but maybe this is too cynical. Although this is logical and 'fair', there is a chance they will want to hide the fraud to protect their reputation, which might mean discrediting you. Just go straight to the outside parties (anonymously and after graduating and getting a job etc.) and let them work backwards to the university. A publisher (as you will see reading <a href=\"http://publicationethics.org/cases\">COPE cases</a>, has much more to lose by not confronting fraud and they take it very seriously!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 36863,
"author": "Jerven",
"author_id": 27862,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27862",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As it is unethical behavior by your direct supervisor I would recommend that you seek outside legal council. These things can get very nasty, and can damage your career, having pre-briefed council on call when the administration finally goes to town will be a huge benefit to you.</p>\n\n<p>Legal council can also help you write your correspondence with the University administration in a way that will force action against the guilty instead of you the whistle-blower (or at least make it more likely). In any correspondence do not mention the fact that you have retained legal council, until forced to do so. At no point should you discuss matter verbally and all your responses to any written letter/e-mail should be vetted by your lawyer. </p>\n\n<p>Whistle blowers are very unpopular for management as it shows that they have not been paying attention (or allowed fraud to occur). It is, unfortunately, likely they will come down on you before they come down on a professor.</p>\n\n<p>The option of quietly leaving is something you should strongly consider.</p>\n\n<p>Also discuss with your lawyer, if you can/should report, the professor to any granting bodies that funded his/her research. Potentially via the lawyer, leaving your own name officially out of it as much as possible.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 36872,
"author": "Dave Fernig",
"author_id": 27872,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27872",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Keep low, you are young and have no power.<br>\nGraduate\nThen put queries on PubPeer - make sure the query does not allow you to be traced. By this I don't mean anonymity, because PubPeer guarantees that, even if you log in, but in terms of the actual query. For example, if he is R hacking his data, then an analysis of a series of papers will reveal a statistically impossible distribution of R values.\nEngage allies - people you may not know, but who are on the right side - but do this with care, because one can get bad surprises sometimes.\nPutting things right takes time, what may appear to be a lifetime to you and bear that in mind, do not expect a \"result\" in months or a year.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 41376,
"author": "Joe Blogs",
"author_id": 31520,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31520",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I had a similar experience. As you say, it is an open secret that the professor is a problem - I once had a formal meeting about this with one of the other heads of department, who said <em>\"I think he should be sacked\"</em>, but nothing ever came of it. I've also heard he has some powerful friend high up in the university. A few years ago, some of the other academics allegedly complained about him and suggested the university drop him, but instead of being reprimanded he was instead promoted from \"Reader\" to \"Professor\" (he doesn't even have a PhD).</p>\n\n<p>It still irks me that someone can get a very well paid and respected job at a top university whilst being fundamentally clueless about science and the technology that they are supposed to be teaching and researching. </p>\n\n<p><em>\"I tried complaining about his poor lecture quality once (anonymously) and it backfired for the entire class\"</em> If we are talking about the same person then this is not new. Other students have complained about his poor lecturing, dating back 15+ years now. His \"trick\" was to try and come up with some idea for a course that sounded cool but left everything on the shoulders of the students. Typically this involves the idea of students coming up with their own project idea based on some vague tech (dev board) and then doing a bunch of programming with either zero lectures, or lectures completely devoid of any meaningful content.</p>\n\n<p>It is very hard to do something about the fundamental issue. If you have honesty and integrity, then you will feel like you should do something, but there is a systemic problem here, and, quite honestly, it should not be down to a lone student taking this on. This isn't your problem, it's an institutional problem, and the best you can do is to find a new professor as soon as possible. Several of his students have walked away.</p>\n\n<p>Later in life, I had the unfortunate coincidence of interviewing for a research position where the lead researcher had been a personal friend of one of the students who did walk away. When he asked who my supervisor was, the interview went silent then the interviewer shook his head and said simply <em>\"I know of him. He is a terrible researcher.\"</em> How could one justify spending several years being the student of a person with such poor reputation, and yet still claim to be a capable, top class researcher yourself? It is hard, and it is ultimately self defeating. There are far better options in life. Walk away. </p>\n\n<p><em>\"He has 15 years of experience, 20+ journal article and numerous conference papers. I don't stand a chance against him.\"</em> - This is the fundamental problem, and there is no solution. As a student, the balance of power is unfairly against you. You can't just accuse a respected person of producing useless research, or of abusing their position. It beggars belief that there is no effective oversight on these matters, and that universities are not more proactive in policing their workforce - but that's the way it is - academic institutions have historically given academics a great deal of freedom, and their position in society was respected. I honestly don't know how the situation can be fixed, other than by waiting for the professor to retire. </p>\n\n<p><em>\"he does not even know the underlying theory.. I uttered a few doubts and the responses were extremely poor.\"</em> - This echoes the exact sentiments of a quote I heard from an irate MSc student - <em>\"Have you ever tried to pin him down on any details? He doesn't know anything!\"</em> I wish I had listened to his advice at the time: Walk away. Life is too short to waste fighting battles that you can't win. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31265",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12402/"
] |
31,266 |
<p>Two months ago I submitted a manuscript to my advisor for reviewing and submitting to a journal. He didn’t reply to that and when I asked him about it, he said we should think about publishing after two months and we don’t need to rush. He didn’t even bother to look into my paper.</p>
<p>I feel very anxious and have written a second paper this time with no discussion or involvement from him. I have put his name in the acknowledgement section for allowing me to use his lab computer. <strong>Do I stand a chance in publishing it without his name?</strong> The idea was never discussed by us and his involvement in this paper is almost not existent.</p>
<p>I have only a year to graduate and am worried for job hunting without publications. (About the quality of paper: Last year, when I came up with an idea, he rejected it claiming it was not good enough; six months later I saw it published by someone else. This time I am confident of getting accepted in reputed journals.)</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 34413,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think this very much depends on the field you're in and your relationship with your advisor.</p>\n\n<p>Usually before a grad student earns his own reputation, he's better off publishing with his advisor's name on the paper because the journal editors might then know where he's coming from. But if the paper's content is good enough, you should be okay publishing on your own. In the past many grad students published as the sole author of their papers, even in top-notch journals.</p>\n\n<p>The drawback in publishing without your advisor's approval is that he might get upset with you, not the more desirable when you need his recommendation letter to get a job. But, as history proves it, advisors can be wrong and your work might be able to gain recognition by readers/editors who find value in your work.</p>\n\n<p>Good luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 34425,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The straight forward answer is that you can publish the work as you see fit. A well-written sound manuscript submitted to an appropriate journal is always welcome.</p>\n\n<p>That said, however, your actions is not likely to smooth out any existing \"conflict\", for lack of a better word, between you and your advisor. And, just because one can does not mean it is the best solution. I am not about to judge who is is right or wrong in your situation, only someone close to you plural) would know. But, one question that immediately pops if you really have tried to discuss the matter in detail or if you have the position that your adviser should solve the problem. Lacking your advisor's side, only you can make such an assessment.</p>\n\n<p>If you are in the position that your adviser is one-sidedly not communicating with you, the situation is difficult. I understand your eagerness to publish but will also mention a few things that can cause the actions to back-fire. First, you will most likely want letters of recommendation from your advisor so publishing work done in the advisor's lab without sanctioning from the adviser can become a negative aspect. You really need to objectively assess this proposed action. Second, if you are close to finishing, the timing is perhaps not optimal to ignite a conflict with your adviser. Again, you need to really assess your situation to know what ramafications can come from your actions. One partial solution, is of course to try to talk to other faculty for whom you have more confidence.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, I can only see one solution: <em>communicaton</em>; and I can only advise to tread carefully over possibly mined territory so make sure you prepare your map carefully before running into solutions out of frustration or even anger.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 96147,
"author": "einpoklum",
"author_id": 7319,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7319",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Do I stand a chance in publishing it without his name?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Very possibly. In most fields, the merit of the work matters more than the identity of the authors.</p>\n\n<p>However, that's not the question you should be asking, which is:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Assuming the paper could get published without my advisor's name on it - can I take his/her name off?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Not really. Even if he is not pre-reviewing it now, he has had enough influence and contribution on your development as an academic and the development of your research, even your individual research, that it can probably be argued he should be be listed as an author; and it is customary in many fields to include your advisor as an author.</p>\n\n<p>So if you do feel you must act:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Inform him you intend to submit the paper, with both your names, qualifying that with \"unless you tell me otherwise\" or some such phrase.</li>\n<li>If he says he should not be listed as an author, remove him; otherwise keep him as an author.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Your advisor can always ask the conference or journal to withdraw his/her name - and that is not automatically considered something fishy, especially if he does the withdrawal and his reason is \"I didn't make a significant contribution\".</p>\n\n<p>However, note that doing this can adversely effect your relationship with your advisor if he would rather you wait for his input.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 163974,
"author": "Hugo van den Berg",
"author_id": 136354,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/136354",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Do I stand a chance in publishing it without his name?</strong></p>\n<p>Yes, you very much do. Your supervisor may genuinely wish not to be associated with the main idea in the paper, for their own good reasons, and if they are a decent sort (not a given in academia) they will let you proceed as long as their name is not on it, and also not try to stab you in the back later. I have been in this position as a PhD student, and luckily my supervisor turned out to be the good sort.</p>\n<p>Now, if your paper gets accepted into a top-journal, the supervisor may turn around and demand to be on it. They may even insist it was their idea all along! They may write a nasty letter to the editor claiming that you are a rogue student. In that case you will probably have to give in to their demand to be included in the author list.</p>\n<p>So you could be in for a rough ride. Many academics are not nice people and behave in dishonourable ways. But you can, most certainly, publish without a supervisor. In fact, the publishing itself will be a lot easier for it.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31266",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23964/"
] |
31,293 |
<p>Prior to transferring to another university, I attended a college in a different state with a renown reputation for integrity and academic rigor. The year before I left, I enrolled in a course that was taught by this new professor. It was the only 8:30 a.m. course that I eagerly woke up for- the professor would literally jump around the room, making the lessons lively and hilarious. He'd even devote the last 3-4 minutes of class to discussing some of the most insane industries around the world. I didn't enjoy my time at that college, but his classes were downright memorable. </p>
<p>Outside of class, he was much calmer, but always with a warm smile and approach. People only spoke good things about him, and his respective department decided to hire him full-time, on a tenure-track position. </p>
<p>The autumn after, I left that college and even switched majors. I kept in touch with a few individuals from that college, and one day, they told me to check out my old college's website. This professor was discovered to have plagiarized multiple papers. I won't get into the details, but the extent would make a slam-dunk case for blatancy. He no longer teaches. </p>
<p>If you Google the professor's name, the first page or two will only show a massive plagiarism scandal. </p>
<p>I tried reaching out to my former professor via email or Facebook, because for whatever reason, I feel bad for people going through rough times, even if they're severely at fault (contingent upon remorse, etc). There was (and still is) no contact information available, and after much time scouring the internet, I can't seem to locate any social media profile. It only then occurred to me how screwed up this person's future must be: never mind having a portion of your grad school wasted (although one could argue it was wasted when he plagiarized anyway), any background check on him will yield really unfavorable results. </p>
<p>My question is: what does a person like that do from this point forward? Is academia pretty much a "no-go"? Does he count on connections in the industry? Does one change his or her name? I thought I'd ask here since several users here have had experience with plagiarism in one way or the other.</p>
<p><strong>TL;DR</strong> A professor that I used to like got busted for plagiarism, and his name's all over the internet. Does someone like that have a second shot at academia? How would he go about getting into the workforce? ...etc </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31294,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Past a certain point in their career and education, I think it's hard for somebody to ever clean off the stain of serious, prolonged, and deliberate misbehavior. The more that a person has built up authority and trust on a false foundation, the harder it is to ever trust them with regards to that subject again.</p>\n\n<p>When a young student engages in academic misbehavior, we treat it as a teaching moment. When an undergraduate does it, we try to put fear into them and rehabilitate them. When a graduate student does it, we try to figure out whether it is worth salvaging. When a professor does it, it pretty much destroys their academic career.</p>\n\n<p>And to my mind, I think that's OK. We're talking about serious and deliberate professional malpractice that undermines the basis of the whole endeavor. That can waste millions of dollars or leave people injured or killed. Would you ever again trust a doctor who deliberately injured their patients, or an engineer who deliberately mis-designed a bridge so that it might collapse? I think that it is the same for an academic who engages in massive and systematic fraud.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31309,
"author": "Greg",
"author_id": 14755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14755",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First of all, I find nice of you caring about a person who you consider to have impact on your education, whatever happened.</p>\n\n<p>However, let's put this situation in a perspective:</p>\n\n<p>In academia, all you have is credibility. Without making any attempt to figure out who you are talking about, from your description it is clear that the person committed serious misconducts for whatever reason, for years and years, deliberately, which hurt only not himself, but potentially can destroy the career many of his colleagues, recomendors and previous supervisor. Look at the (admittedly somewhat extreme) case of Haruko Obakata (STAP stem cell scandal): a single persons dishonesty was able to destroy a whole institute, trigger a suicide of a well respected colleague and make plenty of other damage. </p>\n\n<p>Academia is a harsh place with harsh competition for job. Majority of people who do PhD never got tenure track job in the academia. Many of them hard working, even smart, but has a bad luck, personal reason etc. They lose their years, too. If you want to hire someone hard working, talented person, there are long lines waiting and willing to do the job. Why would you hire someone who has no reliable track record of ANY results, but has a solid track record of being dishonest, and potentially nuking you down to the ground? </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31314,
"author": "Nobody",
"author_id": 546,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/546",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'll answer the question: <em>Does he count on connections in the industry?</em></p>\n\n<p>I am an industry retiree. The company I retired from treats employees' integrity very seriously. It's one of the most important items on annual performance review. When they interview job applicants, they filter out people with bad past records. I don't believe that professor would have any chance getting hired by this employer. And I do know that many employers do similar things. So, he will have less than normal chance to be hired by industry companies.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, he still might get a job offer with some company. But, he'd better have his acts together after he is hired. Whoever hires him would worry that he might steal company intellectual properties or even money because of his past records. They will also worry that he would cheat on his work, such as falsifying time sheets, cheating test results, etc. He will be on his manager's ding list, for sure. In other words, he will have a miserable life wherever he goes.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31362,
"author": "David Mulder",
"author_id": 11353,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11353",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Before I start, let me just say that I agree with the other answers that landing a job in academia will (and should) be neigh impossible, but let's get the more interesting stuff:</p>\n\n<p>Thinking back to a couple of cases I have heard of (Netherlands, Netherlands/Canada, Germany, Italy, US from the top of my head, though for the life of me, I don't know their names and the one name I do remember I don't feel like sharing, because he seemed to enjoy the attention far too much...) where people were caught for fabricating data, faking past education and plagiarizing work at least four of them <em>were</em> able to get a job again soon after (though three of them didn't work in academia). For none of those people it was a good career event of course, but it wasn't as bad as you would expect with all the media attention they received and most did land jobs in the long term (all except the Italian guy outside the world of research). In certain cases I think this is 'fine' and makes sense (e.g. if you have proven that you're able to do your job incredibly well... how much of an issue is it <em>for a company</em> that you faked your academic credentials in the past), though in other cases I have been totally dumbfounded by this (e.g. the Italian guy was able to secure research funds privately for his work still).</p>\n\n<p>To narrow it down to only those that plagiarized and I know of only leaves one person and <em>as far as I know</em> he's currently without a job and is writing a book about his experiences in the academic world (he got <strong>a lot</strong> of publicity when he was caught), however it must be noted that he didn't only plagiarize, he also fabricated data and didn't follow correct procedures to do certain experiments.</p>\n\n<p>Now, the following is just hypothesis, but from what I have heard and seen I do believe that somebody that only plagiarized, but did <strong>not</strong> fabricate data or participate in similar endeavors, will be able to land a job relatively easily. The pay won't be great and the company will wish to keep quiet about employing him, but then again, even if he plagiarized, such a person <em>does</em> have a lot of skill and in a lot of fields (e.g. Computer Science: Yes, English: Nope) that's enough to outweigh the disadvantages.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 85692,
"author": "Tapeworm",
"author_id": 53808,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53808",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Maybe a job in an office of responsible scientific conduct/research ethics?</p>\n\n<p>He sounds like a nice guy, and if he is, then he probably feels bad about what he did. If he is sincerely remorseful and can convince others of that, an office of research ethics might hire him to give talks on what not to do and why.</p>\n\n<p>He also may still have a shot at teaching-focused jobs, especially since it sounds like he was a good instructor.</p>\n\n<p>But I doubt he'd have much of a chance at getting a research position ever again... <em>maybe</em> if he went the research ethics route for a few years first, to prove he had rehabilitated himself, but even then it seems unlikely.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 89290,
"author": "dragoncat16",
"author_id": 71136,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/71136",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are enough of us without a plagiarism record who are deparately trying to get a permanent position in academia. As someone who has had my own work plagiarized, I am more sympathetic to his victims than someone who has plagiarized multiple times.</p>\n\n<p>\"Nice guys\" aren't always so nice on the inside. Knowingly stealing someone else's work is not a nice thing to do. If that's what he has to do to succeed then maybe he's not cut out for a career in academia anyway.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31293",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23932/"
] |
31,295 |
<p>In primary and secondary school in the US, some teachers will adjust homework so that it is a better match for students. For example, a teacher might give a strong math student more advanced math problems, while a weaker student might be given more remedial work.</p>
<p>I am currently teaching some 100-level undergraduate courses. While my assignments seem appropriate for the majority of students, I discovered a few that are really not ready, as they came from rural high schools that did not offer the necessary background. It is unlikely that these students can develop their skills to the same level expected of other students within the span of one year, unless I make significant adjustments to their work. As my assignments are too difficult for them, they have given up hope.</p>
<p>The students are too few to warrant a recommended creation of more remedial courses. I'd like to apply some of the differentiated instruction methods that are common in primary and secondary education. At the very least, I would like to: (1) offer these students alternative homework better suited to their level and (2) offer them exams more appropriate for the level that they can realistically achieve during the first semester of the two part course.</p>
<ul>
<li>Do universities permit teachers to differentiate their instruction, or must every student be given exactly the same assignments and assessments?</li>
<li>If this is not permitted, is there some other approach or way of framing the homework and assessments as to make this seem fair for everyone?</li>
</ul>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31298,
"author": "user2813274",
"author_id": 19914,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19914",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While I am sure different universities will have different policies, the ones I am most familiar with would require that all students end up being taught the subject at the same level and given the same (likely departmental) exam at the end, especially for 100-level undergrad courses. This is mainly due to the fact that the next-level of class would require a certain level of knowledge, and anything less would hinder the students further. Most professors that I know would attempt to solve this by assigning large amounts of reading and allowing students who are already familiar with the materials to simply gloss over it, but being very clear as far as what they will need to know on the test via homework and quizzes, such that they can study according to their needs. </p>\n\n<p>I would be very careful about assigning different work to different students, however suggesting optional reading/assignments for the entire class would be safe, and mentioning that you think they would be a good introduction or something that you can go over more personally via office hours for those who you think are struggling would be a good compromise. If you still want to assign certain individuals extra homework, I would suggest creating a pre-test and assigning it only to those who do poorly (tailor it such that they only need to do work relevant to the parts they did wrong). </p>\n\n<p>Instead of creating a remedial class for the few students, perhaps the university (or department) policy could create a self-paced course for those students, or require those who score less than X on whatever entry exam is used (SAT?) in the subject to take an \"entrance test\" in order to make sure that they are ready to succeed in the class (and of course provide them the means to study in order to do so). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31325,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It would be very unusual, in my experience in the U.S., for one group of students in a class to be given an \"easier\" exam than other students in the same class. When the students who took the \"harder\" exam found out about it, they would have a valid grievance that the faculty member would be unlikely to win. If a colleague asked me about this, I would strongly discourage giving different exams. </p>\n\n<p>At the same time, it is perfectly reasonable to give individualized instruction <em>before</em> the exam. This is more feasible with small classes than large ones. At smaller schools, it is common for faculty to meet one-on-one with students, explain background material, and suggest additional problems to help those students self-remediate. </p>\n\n<p>Whether this is possible for you on how much time you have available to do it, and also on whether you can convince the struggling students to put in the extra work that will be necessary for them to succeed. Unfortunately, some students are unable to do that, or choose not to. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I also want to give some more personal remarks, because I empathize with the spirit of the question: not wanting to leave students behind when they arrive underprepared for a class. I also teach at a school where some students have clear potential but were underserved by their high school and don't have the background that is expected when entering college. </p>\n\n<p>The question mentioned being \"fair to everyone\". This has many meanings. You want to be fair to each student - which means both recognizing where they are currently at, and not sending them forward without the background to succeed in their next class. You want to be fair to the other students by making the class similar for everyone. And you also want to be fair to future professors, by sending them students who have the appropriate background. </p>\n\n<p>Sometimes, you will be in a position where you can't do all these things. Perhaps a student has real potential but simply can't get to the necessary level by the end of the course. Perhaps the student could get there, but has personal or family obligations that occupy their time. Perhaps a student is just not quite mature enough to put in the work needed. </p>\n\n<p>This can be one of the more difficult situations for a professor. But it is also very common, particularly at institutions that are not extremely selective. If you talk about it with your more experienced colleagues, they will have their own experiences with it, and they will be able to give you advice and support. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31333,
"author": "dionys",
"author_id": 22520,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22520",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h2>Differentiated Instruction</h2>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differentiated_instruction\" rel=\"nofollow\">Differentiated instruction</a> is based on the premise that students learn better when they are pushed just beyond the point where they can work without assistance. Teaching methods and presentation of material should be calibrated to the student's level of understanding so that <a href=\"http://www.glencoe.com/sec/teachingtoday/subject/di_meeting.phtml\" rel=\"nofollow\">learning is optimized</a> for the entire group, regardless of differences in ability.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strong>Is it fair?</strong> The best way to \"seem fair\" in a college-level course is to make every effort to be impartial and objective in evaluating students ... under most circumstances this probably means they should all be subject to the same required work and examinations.</p>\n\n<p>However, it's perfectly natural to offer extra homework, practice exams, and additional instruction to students that need extra help. Often, you can help by encouraging/organizing student study groups -- which can be helpful both for engaging students with the course material and connecting those that need help with a wider network of support.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strong>Is it permitted?</strong> Aside from rules set by the legal statutes that govern the region (i.e., city, state, and federal law), what is <em>permitted</em> by a university is entirely up to the policy makers of the institution -- commonly the president, provost, and board of directors for the school (often with advisory from the faculty).</p>\n\n<p>So the short answer is, it varies ... you definitely need to check with your particular institution. In addition, this will depend on the level and aim of the course. For instance, 100-level courses are building the foundation for higher level topics, so there is much less leeway for instructors to change the amount of material to be covered or the course content to accommodate different students. </p>\n\n<p>Differentiated instruction doesn't seem to be widely used in higher education. The issue was discussed in a <a href=\"http://www.collegequarterly.ca/2013-vol16-num03-summer/lightweis.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">recent article</a> [College Quarterly, 2013]: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>While a few higher education faculty members have embraced the notion\n of differentiated instruction, the assumption is the majority of\n college instructors will focus on the traditional teacher-centered\n strategy of disseminating information in lecture form (Burke & Ray,\n 2008; Chamberlin & Powers, 2010; Handy, 2005; Smith, 2006).</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31467,
"author": "Bob Brown",
"author_id": 16183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16183",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As others have already said, alternative exams are fraught with danger for you, and especially for students who go into the next course believing they are prepared for it.</p>\n\n<p>It sounds like you are prepared to do extra work. (Good.) Reserve a room and announce a study group, open to all students. For each session, start with easier problems/examples and show how they lead to results at the level expected for the course. Many, perhaps most of the students who are motivated to succeed will show up for every meeting. There will be some motivated students who cannot attend due to either class conflicts or job requirements. The best you can do is pick a time that suits the majority. The non-motivated will self-select out, and you will have learned something about them.</p>\n\n<p>You've said you <em>cannot</em> get these students up to level. If you can <em>get them through</em> with enough preparation that they can master succeeding courses with extra effort, you will have done them a great favor. That is far better than contriving a passing grade that will cause them to fall on their faces later.</p>\n\n<p>Anecdote: One such study group got me through a particularly hideous master's course: Distributed Database Systems. We met on Sunday mornings, <em>sans</em> professor, and figured out just WTF he had told us in the previous week.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31485,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This does not answer the title question which, as others have said, depends on the university, but shows a possible approach to \"give them hope\".</p>\n\n<p>You can give students the choice between two exam papers, an A-series paper which allows them to get an A grade, and a simpler, B-series paper which allows students to get at most a B or C grade. The choice between the two types should be done by the students before the beginning of the exam without seeing the exam papers.</p>\n\n<p>I applied this approach many years ago in a course where the situation could be considered similar to yours: I can't say it was entirely satisfactory but at least eased the life of those students who, for lack of background (and willingness to catch up), couldn't aspire to get an A.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31295",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/600/"
] |
31,296 |
<p>Is there a common standard for the title hierarchy of research positions in the English language? Excluding people who do research such as students or professors, but purely researchers. Something in engineering such as, Junior Programmer and Senior Programmer.</p>
<p>I have heard of these, and in what I assume is a hierarchy: </p>
<ol>
<li>Research assistant</li>
<li>Assistant researcher</li>
<li>Researcher</li>
<li>Senior researcher</li>
</ol>
<p>Is there such thing as "Principal Researcher" which describes the job position as opposed to the PI on a project. Would this title be given to more than one person in the same lab?</p>
<p>Purpose of the question: In other languages, specifically in Asia, there are many words for hierarchy in both business and academia. Google translate does not work, as it just recommends "senior" for many of the words, but in the native language they are much different, and are all above the standard "Researcher" position. The research institute would like things like business cards and website to make sense to other countries and native English speakers. As of now, the native language shows two different words, but in English they are the same "Senior Researcher", which makes it difficult to understand/explain what position the person is in.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31300,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In America, at least, outside of university professor ranks there is no standard hierarchy. You will often, however, see \"Associate < [no adjective] < Senior < Principal < Fellow\". </p>\n\n<p>In industrial research, most companies have only a few distinctions, as people past a certain rank in research are expected to instead switch to a management track and adopting management titles. There is great variety from company to company, however. For example, where I work we have an unusually deep tree of technical ranks, which somewhat parallel professorial ranks: \"Associate Scientist < Staff Scientist < Scientist < Senior Scientist < Lead Scientist < Principal Scientist < Chief Scientist.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31321,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is there a common standard for the title hierarchy of research positions in the English language? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<h2><strong>No.</strong></h2>\n\n<p>There is no defined, consistent hierarchy of research job titles anywhere in the world, at least to my best knowledge. Essentially, every university, often even individual departments, handle job titles, responsibilities and hierarchies slightly differently, even if of course a lot of common patterns exist. Don't assume anything about hierarchy purely based on titles.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48544,
"author": "Sally",
"author_id": 36988,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36988",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In UK Academia it usually goes something like:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Research Assistant </li>\n<li>Assistant Researcher / Researcher </li>\n<li>Senior Researcher</li>\n<li>Junior Associate Researcher / Associate Researcher</li>\n<li>Senior Associate Researcher</li>\n<li>Post-doc Research Fellow</li>\n<li>Research Fellow</li>\n<li>Senior Research Fellow</li>\n<li>Principal Research Fellow</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 78345,
"author": "Valeria",
"author_id": 63350,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/63350",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In Argentina:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Doctoral Research Fellow</li>\n<li>Post-doc Research Fellow</li>\n<li>Assistant Researcher</li>\n<li>Adjunct Researcher </li>\n<li>Independant Researcher</li>\n<li>Principal Researcher</li>\n<li>Superior Researcher</li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31296",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12718/"
] |
31,302 |
<p>I am trying to publish a paper. This was the result of a summer's work in my spare time while working 40 hour weeks in a non-math related job. I received an email response from the journal that neither said the paper was rejected or accepted: I have been asked to revise and resubmit. I was given feedback by a reviewer to make some minor changes and the editor used VERY positive language and remarked that if the changes are made then it could be published in the latest issue.</p>
<p>However, at first I took this as great news, since this is my first real work. But, thinking about it more I started to worry that I had gotten my hopes up too soon. </p>
<p>Do I still stand a good chance of it being published? </p>
<p>Edit: Thanks for the answers.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31303,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Being asked to revise and resubmit is very common and you should not be discouraged by this but rather make the requested revisions and resubmit your paper. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31304,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the journals that I deal with, even a request for major revisions usually means that a manuscript is on its way to acceptance: it is just a question of whether you are able to put in the time and additional work necessary to address the issues raised by the reviewers.</p>\n\n<p>\"Revise and resubmit,\" by contrast, generally means that the editor sees potential, but that there are too many problems to expect the manuscript to be able to move forward on the tight time schedule of a request for revision. It's a kind of (faint) compliment, actually, and you should take it as it sounds. I recommend treating a \"revise and resubmit\" as a request for <em>really</em> major revisions. If you get a request to revise and resubmit, take the reviewers seriously, and take your time revising until you and your advisor feel you have well addressed all of the issues that they raised. When you resubmit, your cover letter should explicitly mention the prior version and how you have addressed key issues raised.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31306,
"author": "410 gone",
"author_id": 96,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Yes, if you've only been asked to make minor changes, the paper stands a very good job of being published.</p>\n\n<p>Now you've got to work methodically, and be meticulous with the detail.</p>\n\n<p>Go through each required change one by one. If it's not an unacceptable change, make it; and in a new, separate document - a log of the changes = write one or two sentences to describe how you've made the change (sometimes, a word or two, e.g. \"spelling corrected\" might be sufficient). If it would be an unacceptable change, write a few sentences in your log of changes about the basis on which you're sure it doesn't need changing.</p>\n\n<p>Work through all these with any co-authors.</p>\n\n<p>When you send the changed paper, add a covering note. In that, copy and paste each of their requests for a change, and after each one, add your sentences from your log of changes about either how you've done the revision, or why you haven't. Your editor may have sent you a proforma or template to fill in, that would do the equivalent job: if they have, use it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31343,
"author": "Peter",
"author_id": 24023,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24023",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am a peer reviewer for a journal and have more than 10 publications myself. There is very high chance your paper would be published if you address the reviewers' questions and request. Make your points more explanatory where you do not want to change; sometimes the reviewers are not directly in your field of study and this is done so that a layman can at least understand your paper. Good luck with your publication hustle.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31302",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23991/"
] |
31,315 |
<p>In this several times up-voted <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/27311/10643">answer</a>, it is suggested, among other things, that 'if someone using an image [...] that they do not own (it) is inappropriate and should be first reported to the PI of the paper and, potentially, the publisher if no action is taken.'</p>
<p>In my understanding, using images you do not own is not a good idea, it's <em>illegal</em> in many countries and the <em>owners of the copyrights</em> might react and claim their rights, but it's not plagiarism per se.</p>
<p>Let's consider the authors of an image processing paper who use a copyright-protected stock photograph to test their algorithm. They can cite the source of the image, in which case they would still be infringing copyright. But let's say they don't: they are not claiming that the photograph is their own, they just figure the readers won't care. </p>
<p><strong>Edit:</strong> I recently came across a paper where it was written that images were from a commercially available CD of example images, without saying which one. In this case it's clear that they do not claim that they generated the images themselves but they didn't give any reference.</p>
<p>Is this academic misconduct that should be reported?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31327,
"author": "Flyto",
"author_id": 8394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8394",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The concepts of plagiarism and copyright are largely orthogonal.</p>\n\n<p>Plagiarism is about taking credit for somebody else's work. You could copy and paste an entire book, and so long as you made it clear whose work it was, it would not be plagiarism. (although it would be a bad idea for other reasons!)</p>\n\n<p>Copyright is about using a copyrighted work without permission. Briefly, any work that somebody creates is automatically covered by copyright, held by its creator. The copyright holder may sign that copyright over to another party (this is common when submitting to journals), or they may place a work in the public domain, but otherwise, any use of that work without a license can constitute copyright infringement (There are various exceptions to this, such as Fair Use, that depend on national laws in specific countries). Some works are licensed under broad licenses such as Creative Commons, which allows anybody to use the work for certain purposes. Others are not, and a specific license for a specific use must be obtained from the copyright holder.</p>\n\n<p>Two examples: Imagine that I am building a presentation for an upcoming conference. For slide one I find a great image that is in the public domain, and I put it into my presentation and claim that it is my own work. In this case I have plagiarised, but not violated copyright. \nFor slide two, I find another suitable image, but one that is not in the public domain and does not have any permissive license attached. I use it, crediting the photographer. In this case I have not plagiarised, but I have infringed the creator's copyright.</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: Just realised that I answered the question in the title, rather than the (different) question in the question body. Strictly speaking I think that the authors of your hypothetical paper have both plagiarised the image and violated copyright with it. Whether this constitutes academic misconduct is a question that I shall leave for those with more experience in such matters.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31329,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>To the best of my understanding the two differ in the following way:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><strong>Plagiarism is primarily an ethical issue:</strong> it refers to a false claim of creative work.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Copyright is primarily a legal issue:</strong> is refers to use of a work without a legal right to do so.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>They can be confusing to differentiate because a person committing one is also often committing the other as well. However, it is possible to violate copyright without plagiarizing and to plagiarize without violating copyright. For example:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Darwin's \"Origin of Species\" text is old enough that it has entered the public domain, and thus is no longer protected by copyright. A person who claimed chunks of it as their own would be plagiarizing, but not violating copyright.</p></li>\n<li><p>If a person reproduces an image in a new paper with appropriate citation to its original but fails to pay the publisher of the original paper a $35 fee that publisher demands, then they have not plagiarized, but are in violation of copyright.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>From a scientific perspective, plagiarism is a major problem, since it is a deliberate ethical violation that significantly undermines the credibility of the author. Copyright violations, on their own, are much less of a big deal, since they may well be caused by legitimate misunderstanding or disagreement about the interpretation of a minor unclear point in a gigantic wall of legalese.</p>\n\n<p>Thus, in the example given of image processing being applied to an unattributed image: if the contents of the image are not of scientific significance, I would interpret it as primarily an issue of copyright and thus not a significant violation worth reporting (as a scientist).</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31315",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10643/"
] |
31,320 |
<p>So as people have probably seen by now, the UK is stuck in a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/oct/29/marking-boycott-why-are-academics-protesting-about-pensions">marking boycott</a>, which has started to directly affect myself as a final year student.</p>
<p>I have not personally been affected too much yet, but have had one module's continuous assessment removed with no suggestion of replacement. There are no current plans regarding the future of the boycott by either the teachers or the administration, and it is unclear what the ultimate result and outcome will be at this time, which is very concerning for me.</p>
<p>I want to express my disapproval regarding the implementation of the strike as it puts students in a difficult and non-productive situation. For example, students have been told "Examination of dissertations and theses at postgraduate level, as well as vivas, are included in the action." I don't want to damage the relationships I have with my lecturers as I plan on staying in academia, but seeing these actions is making me question my desire to stay in academia.</p>
<p>So what is the most effective way to complain about this?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31322,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think it's a given that everyone at the university is well aware that the students aren't happy about the implications of the boycott. Be aware that your student union may actually officially support the academic staff (<a href=\"http://soasunion.org/news/article/6013/Students-Union-Statement-on-UCU-Marking-Boycott/\">example</a>) and be calling for solidarity.</p>\n\n<p>This isn't the place to discuss the politics, of course, but your best method of protest will be more wide-reaching. Personally complaining to your lecturers will be ineffectual at best. For example, I'd suggest writing an article in your student magazine, and organizing or joining a peaceful, public protest <em>against</em> the boycott.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31331,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Before you can understand how to express your disapproval, you need to understand a little bit about how the UCU (the Union organizing the strike) and universities work.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I have not personally been affected too much yet, but have had one module's continuous assessment removed with no suggestion of replacement.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It is not the responsibility of those on strike to come up with the alternative. It is the responsibility of the University who is collecting your fees to deliver what it has promised.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The union in question have poorly planned this boycott and there are currently no plans to remove it. We have had no communication about who is striking and what their alternative plans are if this continues and I am very concerned about this.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The marking boycott has been in the works for months now. The universities and union initially had extended discussions, but were not able to reach a resolution. The union then suggested if an agreement could not be reached, that they would recommend a marking boycott. After additional talks failed to reach a resolution, the union brought asked its members to vote on a marking boycott. After the marking boycott was approved by the union members, a final round of discussions were held. After those discussions failed to reach a resolution the marking boycott was initiated. The union is not allowed to contact students. It is the university's responsibility to contact students and tell them what is happening and what the alternative plans are. Issues about lack of communication and alternative plans should be addressed to the University.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I want to express my disapproval with their methods as I disagree entirely with the boycott as I believe using students as pawns is never acceptable. For example they have been told \"Examination of dissertations and theses at postgraduate level, as well as vivas, are included in the action.\" which is much too far. I don't want to damage the relationships I have with my lecturers as I plan on staying in academia, but seeing these actions is making me question my desire to stay in academia.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is something that should be directed at the union. The union chose what they are boycotting. The union could have used a research boycott, a recruiting boycott, or a teaching boycott, but the union chose to focus on current students.</p>\n\n<p>Your student union may be able to help you voice your concerns to both the university and the union. It is possible that your student union is backing either the union or university and will not pass on criticism to either. If you want to contact someone directly, the UCU is suggesting students contact the vice chancellor's office at their university. To contact the UCU you could use anyone on the <a href=\"http://www.ucu.org.uk/contacts\">UCU contacts page</a>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31354,
"author": "gerrit",
"author_id": 1033,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p><em>What is the most effective way to complain about this?</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Individually (if you're the only one), there is no effective way to complain about this. Collective action has power by many individuals acting together.</p>\n\n<p>Understand that <strong>nobody wants job action</strong>. Job action, such as a marking boycott, occurs because union members consider the final offer from the employer unacceptable. <em>Maybe they're right!</em> (But maybe not).</p>\n\n<p>There are two ways for this situation to end:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The employer increases their offer sufficiently for the union members to accept.</li>\n<li>The union, either voluntarily or involuntarily, retreats, accepts the offer previously considered unacceptable, concedes defeat, and members get back to ordinary work.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Before you blame the union or their members, study the background in detail and learn <em>why</em> they are choosing for job action. Maybe you will end up <em>supporting</em> their job action, and instead express your disapproval to the employer unwilling to meet reasonable demands. Maybe not. The student union may either support the employer or support the teacher's union. Or they may be so divided that they decide not to explicitly support either.</p>\n\n<p>Note that this goes beyond academia, and applies equally well to, say, the ongoing German railway strikes, or any other strike that affects a third party. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strong>Edit 22 February 2018</strong>: Today a national university strike started in the United Kingdom. Lecturers and other university staff are on strike. If this industrial action continues for long, student exams <em>will</em> be under threat. According to a YouGov poll, 66% of students at striking universities support the strike. 50% blame the conflict on the universities, and just 2% blame it on the union. So this is a clear example where students overwhelmingly side with academics against the universities. See <a href=\"https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/9345/Poll-shows-students-support-pension-strikes-and-blame-universities-for-the-disruption\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">UCU news item</a> for details.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31380,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Keep your head low. You were dealt a bad hand. You can't win, only minimize your losses. </p>\n\n<p>If it's otherwise wasted time, consider traveling through Europe for a semester. Since a troll seems to have outed you as a comp sci major, go to Berlin and check out the start up scene there.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 183086,
"author": "Ben",
"author_id": 87026,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/87026",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h4>Consider writing a public letter/article on the topic</h4>\n<p>I agree with the suggestion in the other answers that you should look more deeply into the matter. In particular, your view should consider the underlying dispute over employment conditions and you should form a judgment over that matter as part of your overall take on the boycott. This might change your mind on the issue, or it might not, but at the very least it will give you proper context and a holitic understanding of the matter.</p>\n<p>Now, assuming that you maintain your view that the boycott is a bad idea, I see no reason why you couldn't express that view and still maintain good relations with academics in your university. Academia is a place where it ought to be possible to disagree over a subject and put forward arguments and positions in good faith.\nAcademics sometimes disagree over political matters ---many of which are far more consequential than a workplace boycott--- and they are used to the fact that university is a place where they will encounter views they disagree with.</p>\n<p>In terms of "how to complain", if you have thought out your position well, and if you are sufficiently logical and articulate in your reasoning, have you thought about writing a letter/article for a newspaper, blog, etc.? You might have the ability to put forward a useful perspective on the boycott from a class of people who are negatively affected by it, and you might be able to share some useful information that would add to the conversation on the topic. This will require you to have a fully developed understanding of the context, but if you frame your views clearly and sensibly then they might be convincing. You are pursuing a postgraduate education, so <em>use that inchoate education to add value to the public conversation on the matter</em>.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31320",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23291/"
] |
31,323 |
<p>I am applying to doctoral programs in the US, and, because I have two breaks in my studies as what shown in my transcripts, I want to find somewhere to explain these. </p>
<p>But I am concerned with that if I simply put this short paragraph explaining my breaks in studies somewhere in my application package as a supplemental material, then it may be ignored (would it?)! Thus I decided to include it in my statement of purpose as an appendix. </p>
<p>The number of the words in my statement of purpose is not a problem, for even when the paragraph is included, my statement of purpose still contains less than 800 words.</p>
<p>So would such deed of mine have any chances to annoy any member of the committees?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31326,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This would be fine. One fundamental point of the personal statement is to allow you to comment on anything unusual in your records (gaps in education, a semester when you got sick and had low grades, etc.) </p>\n\n<p>In general, you can format the statement of purpose however you like. Using clear signposts (such as section headings) can make it much easier to follow. </p>\n\n<p>Remember that the person reading your personal statement probably has a large stack of them to read, so making their job easier can only help you. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31332,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Is there any way to turn the gaps into strengths as part of your narrative in the statement of purpose? If so, that is likely better than separating them in an appendix. For example, if you spent time in industry, did it give you a better appreciation of why you wanted to return to studies? If you took time off for personal or family reasons, did it give you time to reflect or experiences that have shaped why you want to return to graduate school? More mature students who are in a graduate program because they really understand what they want out of it are often highly appreciated by professors. If that is you, then embrace the gaps in your transcript and let them be (a small) part of your main narrative.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31366,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would put such gaps in the diversity statement. That's what that optional portion is for -- showing how you are different from the norm. Many faculty prefer students who have had experience outside of school -- or who have left and then recommitted to coming back. So don't view this as just a negative.</p>\n\n<p>When I read applications, I want the statement of purpose to be about the research you want to do. I do not like biographies -- the one's that start out with \"When I was a little boy, I always wanted to be an ______\" (or some similar iteration) get tossed out. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31323",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107/"
] |
31,328 |
<p>Four of my Japanese teachers are, as you would expect, Japanese, and they all speak English fluently. But now and then, there will of course be slip ups: I often see small grammatical errors in one sensei's handouts. They don't affect the quality of the communication, but is it appropriate to point out these errors to the sensei?</p>
<p>I know that if I were in Japan, I would always want for native speakers to correct me if I made a mistake; more so in the written form. However, this particular sensei has been at my uni for something like 20 years, and her English is perfect in all other regards; I wonder if it wouldn't be a little insulting to point out otherwise negligible written/spoken errors. Nonetheless, I'd like to know what some teachers think.</p>
<p>EDIT: When I say my sensei's English is perfect, I mean that she is able to communicate effectively, not that her speech or writing are free from grammatical errors. Like any non-native speaker who hasn't learned from a very young age, she will sometimes say or write things that sound jarring in English grammar.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31336,
"author": "Eric",
"author_id": 20424,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20424",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It depends on how much interest she has expressed in being corrected or trying to improve and how close your relationship with her is. Any corrections should be generally mentioned to her respectfully and in some form of one-on-one conversation.</p>\n\n<p>If she has asked in class for mistakes to be pointed out, then I would not hesitate to offer the occasional correction. Frequent corrections are probably not welcome.</p>\n\n<p>If she has not expressed interest in being corrected, I would only mention corrections if the mistake could potentially lead to misunderstandings either in message tone or content.</p>\n\n<p>A gray area might be if the mistake is in formal communication (e.g. grant applications) and you work closely with her. In that case, use your own judgement.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31338,
"author": "Yes",
"author_id": 18107,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would say it is more polite to ask first if your teacher is fine with being corrected. After all, we do not know who is gonna be offended by this seemingly \"unoffendable\" thing.</p>\n\n<p>I have met a native English speaker, who asked me if I am okay if she corrects my English so as to make my English more natural. Frankly, though I do not care that, I appreciate her asking before acting.</p>\n\n<p>To me, it is a general etiquette to ask before act. Indeed, you can only win the recipient's respect if asking first.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31341,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Different cultures look at such corrections in different ways. I won't pretend to understand all of them, and I know I'm misunderstanding some, but tread carefully.</p>\n\n<p>In some cultures (though not Japanese culture, I think) corrections in public can be considered humiliating. Say what you want in the privacy of an office, one on one, but not in a group of people. In some cultures, what an elder has to say carries much weight, and correction from a younger person must be handled delicately.</p>\n\n<p>In other cultures, politeness is key, and some things can just be considered rude that an American would never imagine to be so. It took me some time interacting with students before I realized that the answer to yes/no questions is yes, because no is rude, and I think that putting someone in a situation where they have to say no might be rude too. I find that avoiding yes/no questions in situations like this helps. For example, the answer to \"can you do this?\" is \"yes\", but the answer to \"How well will this come out if you do this?\" might be \"it might not work at all\"!!</p>\n\n<p>I imagine that a sensei who has been teaching language for decades is used to just about every interaction there is. If you're interested in Japanese, though, I'd approach this as an opportunity to learn about cultural sensitivities. Approach your teacher with this, explain that you understand that there are different sensitivities with respect professional interaction, lay out the issue, and ask how this would be handled in Japanese Culture.</p>\n\n<p>Japanese experience is TREMENDOUSLY VALUABLE in the worlds of business and technology. The more you learn, the more valuable you become.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31342,
"author": "Trylks",
"author_id": 7571,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7571",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You say that her English is perfect in all other regards. There may be grammatical errors in the handouts because they are written in a tight schedule and she has different priorities (e.g. writing papers, grant proposals, etc.)</p>\n\n<p>The point for me is: do you think those errors are due to some lack of knowledge about English or just lack of time? Do you think she could spot those errors by herself if she cared and could find the time for that? For how many years are the handouts going to be re-used?</p>\n\n<p>That makes the difference, IMHO.</p>\n\n<p>On the one hand, if this is all due to lack of knowledge about English, then providing this knowledge would be welcome.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if this is because she doesn't care and/or doesn't have the time for that then pointing at it and forcing (or suggesting) her to spend time and take care of that is going to be perceived negatively.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31346,
"author": "Greg",
"author_id": 14755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14755",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In Japan, correcting a teacher's mistake is pretty unwelcome and humiliating. Several visiting professors from Japan are complaining that American students are very impolite: they ask questions. Serious. Even asking a teacher a question is an insult (they feel like they are being tested or mocked). Since your teachers are not visiting ones, but people who have lived for years in the country, I assume they are far less sensitive to American ways of teaching and communication and more open to being corrected. However it is hard to guess, and potentially it can hurt an otherwise good relationship.</p>\n\n<p>So if your teacher has indicated that he/she wants to improve his/her English, feel free to help. Otherwise I would let it go. If you really think it is necessary, try to do it as indirectly as possible like during a short chat when you ask him/her how he/she learned such good English. Some praise always helps. If the answer is that people helped by correcting and teaching, then you can spin the topic into the direction if he/she needs any help in proofreading. Good luck.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31357,
"author": "gdeck",
"author_id": 23829,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23829",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In your class, will you lose points on an assignment for grammatical and spelling errors? If so, then you are not being rude by pointing out these mistakes. My advice is to mention these errors one-on-one – absolutely not in front of another student, and show as much respect and humility as possible. You don't want to embarrass your teacher.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31378,
"author": "Damien Golding",
"author_id": 22502,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22502",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Directly confronting a teacher infront of others can be seen as an attack.<br>\nI would advise against this especially towards people with a Japanese background because in Japanese culture showing conflicting opinions is generally regarded as rude and is so implied in a very polite way instead. Also, respect is important so correcting a teacher might be seen as attacking the authority of the teacher.</p>\n\n<p>Confronting the teacher in private might be a better alternative as long as the teacher is open to this, it is done so in a polite way and is not done too often to annoy the teacher.</p>\n\n<p>Indirectly correcting the teacher by bringing up the correct way to say the thing the teacher made a mistake with is also possible.<br>\nIf doing so, I would advise to not bring up the mistakes, instead only the corrections, and not too often as it could be seen as condescending.<br>\nHowever, this can be a better way when cultural differences mean that being conflicting is taboo.</p>\n\n<p>In any case, it is best to be polite and careful about what you say.<br>\nAs a side note, the Japanese and English languages are very different(much more than just vocabulary) and I can say from experience that going from one to the other is a big hurdle. Even if you do succeed in getting the point accross they might still make the same mistake because it is awkward to them and hard to get used to. Pointing out a mistake that can be easily corrected generally won't be taken negatively because it is of benefit, but pointing out a mistake that won't might just cause annoyance and so should be proceeded carefully.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31416,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It sounds like no, and this has nothing to do with Japanese culture.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Why would you correct someone's grammar?</strong></p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>You both want the communication to be formally correct. This would apply if your teacher wrote an honor code you needed to sign, and it frequently applies between grammar nerds who get some enjoyment out of using \"less\" and \"fewer\" correctly.</li>\n<li>You fear the communication may be misunderstood. From your question, it sounds like you're not talking about this case.</li>\n<li>You think they want you to correct them so they can learn. For a 20 years' experience teacher, this fails the \"common sense\" test. He or she is communicating fine (and very successfully) with small \"mistakes\", everyone knows what they mean, no one cares. Yes, I do think it is rude to decide for your teacher that they are \"working on\" English. That's not how learning language really works; at some point you have your accent and your mistakes and that's how you talk and essentially your dialect. You don't correct a French speakers' pronunciation do you? No, it's their accent.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>So... no, don't do it, generally.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31428,
"author": "RemcoGerlich",
"author_id": 11262,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11262",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The teacher has been there twenty years now, which is plenty of time to learn a language. She is a teacher at a university, communicating in English. Her English \"is perfect in all other regards\", and these are \"otherwise negligible written/spoken errors\".</p>\n\n<p>At this point, I think you should <em>forget that she is Japanese</em>, forget that she had to learn English as a foreign language. She's way past that point. It's insulting to consider her as someone who is learning English. Native speakers aren't perfect either.</p>\n\n<p>So the question becomes -- would you correct a teacher if \"now and then, there will of course be slip ups\", if they were a native speaker?</p>\n\n<p>I feel you wouldn't, based on how you describe the mistakes.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31562,
"author": "Village",
"author_id": 600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/600",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>No, it is not appropriate and additionally not a good use of class time.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>If you could not understand what your instructor said, ask for clarification.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you can offer the instructor a correction, then you probably understood what they said, and therefore, you do not need to waste your class time and the time of your classmates on corrections.</p></li>\n<li><p>Be aware that error correction is not as simple as you may think. It is unlikely that the teacher would benefit from having a student correcting them in such a setting. If your goal is to improve the class sessions, you are not going to notice a significant improvement in your instructor's overall English ability, as a result of your corrections, unless they are only using a very tiny range of language during your lessons.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31328",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14302/"
] |
31,330 |
<p>Usually, when I send an email to a teacher/lecturer, I always start "Dear <code>Mr. Atwood</code>" and end with "Regards/Best wishes (etc.) <code>Leo</code>". If I have to send a followup email after they have replied, I omit the opening and closing sections entirely, and just write my message. Is this considered rude? Would you prefer that a student always lead an email with "Dear" and signed their name?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31334,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I personally prefer to always use opening and closing conventions in my emails, just as I would a letter. It costs nothing and it adds a little courtesy, which is never inappropriate. It's also a signal of how intimate you consider the relationship: are you on a first-name basis in person, or is there a bit more professional distance?</p>\n\n<p>Email is generally a less formal mode of communication, however, so I would not be offended by a correspondent who did not, and likewise, my opening and closing is not quite as formal (e.g. \"Dear [person I don't know]\" vs. \"Hi, [acquaintance]\").</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31335,
"author": "user3209815",
"author_id": 14133,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14133",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I do the same. In an ongoing correspondence, where the next email is a reply to the previous one, I usually omit the complete introduction and ending sections. However, there are two cases in which I stick to the full option:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>The person I'm writing to keeps their emails formal, so I do the same</li>\n<li>A significant amount of time has passed since the last response (e.g. a recent update to a past correspondence)</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I always place some kind of salute at the end, e.g. Regards, . The complete end section would include a footer with my contact details and affiliation as well my full name. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31340,
"author": "Yes",
"author_id": 18107,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18107",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For the back-and-forth's I tend to avoid formality. </p>\n\n<p>But, in order to avoid annoying the teacher, I use, say \"Thank you so much, Professor Erdos.\". Please note that I mention his or her name, instead of simply \"Thanks so much.\". </p>\n\n<p>I think doing so can prevent us from being considered \"rude\" in whatever sense.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31345,
"author": "BWSherwood",
"author_id": 12043,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12043",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For first contact, absolutely. It not only shows respect for the person but also knowledge of the etiquette of writing.</p>\n\n<p>If the other persons answer more casually, follow suit.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31351,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm often underwhelmed by the level of familiarity young students take with email messages-- as well as the content of those messages.</p>\n\n<p>Unless you have a reason to know otherwise, address recipients formally, and with the correct title. In academic settings, the correct title is usually \"Dr.\". </p>\n\n<p>In the message, concisely state why you are sending the email, and provide ALL the information the person you're communicating with needs to know in order to take action. For example \"Can we schedule a meeting?\" is NOT acceptable on its own. You need to state WHY you want a meeting, possibly with a reason why email isn't good enough, and provide the info the faculty member will need to prepare for the meeting. This will avoid having three email back and forths when one should do the job (which, IMO, is MUCH more annoying than not having \"Sincerely\" at the end of the message).</p>\n\n<p>To summarize, there's much more to effective communication than the first line and last line of the email.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31359,
"author": "gdeck",
"author_id": 23829,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23829",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Email to instructors/teachers/professors in college can be tricky. It's important that you are respectful and use complete sentences with correct grammar and spelling. If you follow these steps, you (usually) can't lose.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Does your instructor have a PhD? You will find the answer to that question in the course syllabus. If so, always, always, always address him or her as Doctor when speaking to them (Dr. in writing), unless she or he specifically tells the entire class that they don't want to be addressed as doctor. So, begin your email accordingly: \nDr. Smith, OR Mr. Smith,</p></li>\n<li><p>Try ending your initial email with:\nRespectfully,\nLeo</p></li>\n<li><p>After the first email, it won't hurt to add Dr./Mr. Smith in each reply email. You probably don't need it, but taking the extra couple of seconds to type their name shows a higher level of professionalism and respect.\nDr. Smith, Mr. Smith,</p></li>\n<li><p>In your reply email, again, use that respectfully ending.\nRespectfully,\nLeo</p></li>\n<li><p>Again, correct grammar and spelling are very important. Howe wood u feal if somewon sent u an email with bad speling and gramur?</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>What many students don't understand is how the little things can go so far and make a difference in their classes. Showing respect to the person who has dedicated their life to teaching others is the least you can do for them.</p>\n\n<p>Good luck!</p>\n\n<p>p.s.\nI'm not a teacher, but I have a tremendous amout of respect for them. I'm a former academic advisor at a university who loved helping students!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49555,
"author": "ewormuth",
"author_id": 37649,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37649",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In American culture/usage: If you're not sure of the instructor's degree (which might be the case if you're in an introductory course taught by a graduate student), it's always correct address the instructor as \"Professor X.\" \"Dr. X\" certainly won't offend someone who doesn't hold a Ph.D. (they might enjoy the elevation in status), but it's better to know the correct form of address, which you can often infer from a department's faculty directory.</p>\n\n<p>I was the director of a program for many years, and so often saw students not my own who needed advice or help. Some -- again, students who had never met me before -- would come into my office and address me as \"Elise,\" not even giving me the courtesy of my last name, much less Dr. or Professor. These students needed help in the art of addressing faculty.</p>\n\n<p>I had a colleague who, when a student came to her door and addressed her inappropriately, would make them go out in the hall and come in again with the correct way of addressing her. I myself never managed to do that, but I had to admire her insistence on the proper form of address.</p>\n\n<p>As far as emails are concerned, I agree with the others that you can follow suit, but it never hurts to keep one step up in terms of formality.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49571,
"author": "Asking Questions",
"author_id": 37757,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37757",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I actually learned over time, that a lot of professors like an informal way of communication. Especially when a relationship exists. Scientiest like to see themselves as a community and as a student you are on the way of becoming part of that community. In that sense I found many professors being very informal themselves.</p>\n\n<p>I also think that it is accepted in communication between scientists to omit the academic title in the salutation.</p>\n\n<p>That being said a first \"Dear Mr. Atwood\" should be totally sufficient to not be rude.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49624,
"author": "Phil",
"author_id": 21815,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21815",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is always better to be more polite than not and to use conventions, than to not be polite enough. But sometimes, it is not necessary. Personnally, I expect a minimum of politeness and respect from students. And I also appreciate when students show more respect. From my experience, the expectations vary depending on the professors. So it would be more safe to observe what other students around you are doing and have a similar behavior w.r.t a given professor. Besides, if you are an international student, depending on the country, it may be good to get familiar with the local culture. Some culture have different expectations about what should or should not be done. Lastly, if you become more familiar with your professor such as supervisor, you may eventually use more informal communication. And if you are not sure about what the professor expect, you can always ask the professor directly what s/he expect. But most likely, remember that your research advisor is probably not your friend/brother/family member, and should not be treated in a similar way.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49646,
"author": "Ant",
"author_id": 31990,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31990",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You should never use \"letter conventions\" in an email, whoever you are emailing. An email is not a letter!</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31330",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14302/"
] |
31,337 |
<p>I use pdf files, generated with Beamer/LaTeX, and whatever pdf viewer is available on the computer I am presenting on. While I like the Beamer/LaTeX/PDF combination better than PowerPoint type applications I am not particularly happy with its ability to embed media (sounds and videos). Further, common PDF viewers (e.g., Acrobat, Evince, and Okular) do not provide any type of "presenter" view with a clock and notes on one screen and the slides on a projector. The presenter view in advanced viewers like <a href="http://impressive.sourceforge.net/">impressive</a> are pretty limited. I am thinking of switching to an HTML5 based system (possibly <a href="http://lab.hakim.se/reveal-js/#/">reveal.js</a>), but wanted to know what the drawbacks of HTML5 based presentations are.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31344,
"author": "Compass",
"author_id": 22013,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22013",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>From a web developer perspective, the only issue I can see is compatibility. If the provided computer does not provide an HTML5-ready browser, the presentation <em>may not</em> work. Unfortunately, having been in labs and lectures with institution-provided computers, there is no guarantee that an IT department has provided the newest browser. While I'd like to think that people, especially at institutions, are keeping their machines up to date, we have to assume that some machines have been forgotten or have not been maintained.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://html5readiness.com/\">This HTML5 readiness graph</a> demonstrates that IE8, <a href=\"http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/07/windows-8-x-internet-explorer-both-flatline-in-june/\">which still has a huge market share</a>, is woefully prepared for any HTML5 feature. IE9 has some functionality over IE8 and appears to cover the audio/video portions you require, but only IE10 appears to be HTML5-ready as of last year.</p>\n\n<p>I tried the reveal.js demo on IE8 just now. The rotating transitions don't work at all (it acts like Powerpoint basically), but it was usable. Since there are no videos or audio, I can't test those, but a standard presentation would at least be doable even in that browser.</p>\n\n<p>It is unlikely that any IE9- browsers will ever reach full HTML5 support due to the security risks and time drain required, so any attempt to present on an IE8 browser is likely to be bare-bones and equivalent to viewing a PowerPoint.</p>\n\n<p>However, this can be largely mitigated with the use of a PortableApp web browser such as <a href=\"http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/google_chrome_portable\">Portable Google Chrome</a>. A small footprint that can be carried around in a flash drive with the presentation.</p>\n\n<p>From a student perspective, <code>reveal.js</code> might appear to be more confusing if you share the files, as it probably isn't just a <code>foo.ppt</code> file, but a source document, the JS, and so on. You will probably need to provide a read-me for being able to view the presentation. I'm sure everyone here knows how to open and view a PowerPoint, but some of us might stumble a bit with a more complex solution that may depend on multiple files and folders. That, and the student would need an HTML5 browser to get all the features working.</p>\n\n<p>You probably will also need to direct PDF copy of the slides because I didn't see any noticeable way to print the presentation unless the stylesheet natively does that from the print menu.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 55804,
"author": "user1589156",
"author_id": 42318,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/42318",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Overall HTML5 Presentations are great, but that's not to say that they'll be better than the alternatives in every respect, or that you'll never have a bad time. </p>\n\n<p>One challenge I've experienced is when I need to collaborate with colleagues on the presentation -- many lay people are intimidated by HTML or Markdown-based tools. There aren't a lot of cloud collaboration apps that will let you upload plain HTML/Markdown and then let your friends add, edit, or comment on your work. You may end up having to do a lot of converting back and forth between HTML and Office formats if you work with non-techie collaborators. </p>\n\n<p>Similarly, people are often confused about how to open an HTML presentation when you send them an index.html file and a folder full of assets. You can remedy this by hosting things yourself in a Dropbox folder, but that isn't always awesome. </p>\n\n<p>I use Reveal.js often, but I think it's fair to say that I spend more time developing an HTML presentation than I would in Apple Keynote. I usually write out my ideas in Markdown first, then convert that to HTML and edit it further within the Reveal.js codeset (from my code editor). </p>\n\n<p>If your presentations are mostly made up of text and un-altered images, Markdown/HTML can be very fast. If you like to futz with the colors, fonts, and modify your images, that's faster in a presentation software like Keynote. Even simple things like cropping images, writing over images, etc. would require you to do them in an external graphics editor before incorporating them into your HTML presentation. </p>\n\n<p>So basically the biggest problems with HTML presentations are working with other people and focusing too much on the visuals. Other than that, it's great. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31337",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929/"
] |
31,364 |
<p>Being early in my academic career, I don't yet get many paper reviews. Until recently, I had reviewed two papers in two years, and rejected one invitation to review. My last review was completed some 10 months ago.</p>
<p>Two weeks ago, I agreed to review a paper. Since then, I have received two more invitations. In total, in the past two weeks, I have received as many invitations to review as in the two <em>years</em> prior to that. All are from different editors, but the latest request is from a journal for which I reviewed 2 weeks ago, and comes 2 <em>days</em> after submitting a review to a different journal.</p>
<p>Although I have not calculated the probability, I guess it is unlikely that the sudden string of reviews is a coincidence. I have the impression that accepting and quickly submitting a helpful review has <em>caused</em> the additional review invitations. Which brings me to the question.</p>
<p>Do editors within the same journal typically share with each other names of people who have written helpful reviews in the (recent) past? How about editors of different journals, that may or may not have the same publisher?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31367,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The journal editor (in chief) may not, but boards of editors have overlap and word does often spread that \"X@Y is prompt, conscientious and fair.\" </p>\n\n<p>Or it could be random entropy. </p>\n\n<p>I wouldn't give it much thought. At best, you are being thought of as a good reviewer. At worst, it's a random quirk. Choose the interpretation that makes you happiest.</p>\n\n<p>--\np.s. If you're feeling overwhelmed, it's entirely ok to tell a journal that you have to decline. Respond as soon as you can so that they can move on. Quick declinations (and referrals to potential other reviewers when possible) are also signs of good, conscientious colleagues. And I'm a strong believer that the good karma from these unrenumerated acts of conscientiousness will help in the long run.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31383,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to possible sharing by editors, if the journals are by the same publisher or reviewing system, they may be sharing a database of reviewers and their expertise. Some journal management software lets you search for reviewers with related expertise, and also allows editors to give ratings to their reviewers. Thus, if you give a good review, the software may begin recommending you to editors in the same \"family\" of publications.</p>\n\n<p>Between being a good reviewer and general growing notability in your field, within the next couple of years you may find yourself getting <em>many</em> review requests. It's important to set a boundary for yourself of how much time you want to invest in professional service, so that you can strike an appropriate balance between service and the rest of your responsibilities.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31384,
"author": "o4tlulz",
"author_id": 6978,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6978",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I guess it depends on the platform that manages the submission and review, but within the ScholarOne system as an editor or an associate editor there are additional filters that help you see when was the last time someone was invited for review, how many he has accepted/rejected, what is the average review turnaround time etc. </p>\n\n<p>There are also two additional stats, the timeliness of the review and the relevance of the review that allow editors to essentially mark reviewers (rather simple system of 1-2-3) for a given review and which appear next to each reviewer. High averages, a good turnaround time and matching keywords in your profile make you a good candidate for a reviewer. </p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31364",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033/"
] |
31,365 |
<p>I am a final year honours student (UK) who has come across a little bit of a predicament. About eight years ago when I was a teenager, I was undertaking a University course that I did not complete because of personal related issues. There was a lecturer that I did not get on very well with at the time because of this who I knew both from that and also from my previous school days. We had an argument once or twice; I was fairly young at the time. </p>
<p>When I started this new course a few years ago, (which is at a different University) I committed to achieving as much as possible, and I have managed to get a 'first' overall in terms of averages for years one and two. However in my final year it turns out that one of the examiners for my final year project is the same lecturer that I described above in the first paragraph (even though it is a different establishment). </p>
<p>So the question really is, should I have a reason to worry? Would under-performance as a teenager result in an unsettling experience or a bias of marks when it comes to the day when the viva is to be presented? My friends tell me that my worries are irrational as eight years is a long time and teenagers often under perform, but when I started to see if anyone else had this problem, I could not find any existing questions, and everyone on this community looked to be helpful in providing advice. If you could share any enlightening thoughts, it would be very much appreciated!</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31382,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Anybody who has taught and <em>likes</em> teaching knows that one of the biggest rewards is seeing your students grow. From your description, it sounds like your only problems in your previous encounter were age-typical lack of focus and brattiness. If you are now a much more mature and polished student, then more likely than not, if the lecturer remembers you at all, it will be to your <em>advantage</em> when they compare with the kid they taught so many years ago.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31423,
"author": "GeneMachine",
"author_id": 18248,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18248",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think your anxiety might be causing you to over-inflate the significance of the historical incidents (unless, of course, the nature of the arguments was deeply personal, for example). Eight years is a long time, and that person will have seen a lot of students come and go in the intervening period. It's perfectly possible that they won't even remember you; if they do, you might even find that you have a good laugh together at (a) how bratty <em>you</em> were back then, and (b) how pompous <em>they</em> were back then.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 121422,
"author": "Ben",
"author_id": 87026,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/87026",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When I was in my first year of university, as an unruly teen, our department had a welcome barbeque for all the students, with free sausages and beer. As the event progressed it got pretty rowdy, and I got so drunk with my friends that ---on a dare--- I moonwalked through the faculty area with my bum exposed, making the beeping noise of a truck backing up. My friends thought it was hilarious. Anyway, those faculty taught me throughout my undergraduate degree, and some of them later ended up being on my supervisory panel for my PhD candidature years later. One of them recently gave me a positive reference for an academic position. So given that they had the forbearance to ignore <em>that</em>, I don't think you have anything to worry about.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31365",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24035/"
] |
31,374 |
<p>A chapter in my dissertation has not been published in an archival conference. I am writing a paper based on the chapter for a conference that does double-blind paper review.</p>
<p>The paper will include pretty much the entire chapter, which presents a method, and will perform additional analysis of the method. The analysis on its own, without the method, is not enough to merit a paper. In the interest of the full disclosure, I should cite my dissertation. How do I do that without revealing my identity? </p>
<p>Is citing my dissertation without name and institution, just the title, appropriate or not?</p>
<p>I know there were similar questions recently, but none asking about the dissertation. The dissertation is different because it is a publication, a literature search will return a hit, but does not count as one, and is considered OK to publish chapter from in conferences and journals. The field is Computer Science.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31377,
"author": "Anonymous Physicist",
"author_id": 13240,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your goal is to publish. The conference apparently requires that review be double blind. I do not see any reason why you should care if the reviewer figures out who you are; simply cite your own work in the normal way. Then you will have complied with the conference's requirements because you have not explicitly identified yourself.</p>\n\n<p>In my experience reviewers do not like incomplete citations.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31381,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The challenge here is seems to be to ensure that if the reviewers <em>do</em> stumble across your thesis, then the failure mode will be penetrating blinding rather than accusations of plagiarism.</p>\n\n<p>It is my belief that with an \"extract\" paper like this, the thesis should be cited in any case. In most cases, there will be some connection to other portions of the thesis that could motivate such a citation (e.g., a motivation or an application). I also think that it is good to explicitly acknowledge the relationship to the thesis, e.g., \"This manuscript is based on work also presented in [cite]\", though the customs of your field may differ.</p>\n\n<p>Then you can appropriately blind the citation to the thesis, e.g., \"Ph.D. thesis, blinded for review.\" This makes the relationship clear without violating blinding. At that point, you are preserving blinding to the best of your ability, and while a reviewer can certainly try to penetrate blinding if they want, you certainly won't run into any problems with misunderstanding about plagiarism.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31374",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21371/"
] |
31,387 |
<p>I knew some college students in the U.S. who were <18 years old.</p>
<p>In which countries must college professors be cleared (background-checked, certified, fingerprinted, etc., like U.S. K-12 teachers) to work with minors?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31389,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Any special requirements or background checks regarding working with minors are a matter of employer policy or local law, and there are no standard rules across different jurisdictions. In particular, there's no way to give a definitive answer without knowing the exact circumstances.</p>\n\n<p>As a general rule, though, these sorts of background checks are rarely applied to college faculty. Even in locations with unusually strict laws, there are often exceptions for college professors, despite the fact that some students may be under 18. For example, the <a href=\"http://sydney.edu.au/policies/showdoc.aspx?recnum=PDOC2011/229&RendNum=0\">University of Sydney policy</a> explicitly says \"Where University staff or affiliates have direct contact with University students under the age of 18, this is not regarded as child-related work under the Act.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31515,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm not aware of any countries where background checks are required <em>specifically</em> to work with minors. There are places where background checks occur as a general condition of employment, but it's just because <em>everybody</em> gets a background check, and not just because they could work with minors.</p>\n\n<p>As AM points out, in general, minors enrolled in universities are treated like everybody else, so there's generally no reason why there would be <em>special</em> background checks.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31520,
"author": "nivag",
"author_id": 14115,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14115",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A quick google gave me several US university that have policies on the issue. For example <a href=\"http://protectionofminors.georgetown.edu/policy\" rel=\"nofollow\">Georgetown's policy</a> says staff involved in programs involving minors should do some training and that supervisors of those programs and those that regularly spend time alone with minors have to have a criminal records check.</p>\n\n<p>I think the situation in the UK is similar with staff in one to one contact or on programs aimed at minors having to do a DBS/CRB check. See <a href=\"https://workspace.imperial.ac.uk/secretariat/public/ChildProtectionPolicyFeb%202010%29.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">Imperial's policy</a>.</p>\n\n<p>I'm not sure but I expect the situation in at least western Europe is similar.</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/08
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31387",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9425/"
] |
31,390 |
<p>Are there any formal degrees that offer training in tools for detecting plagiarism? Or on understanding fair-use, proper attribution of sources, and avoiding plagiarism?</p>
<p>Are there career options which focus on exposing plagiarism?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 31397,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Computer Science has the tools for it. It is finding local correspondences in a large database, allowing for some differences, and rejecting random hits and well indicated quotes. As an example of a more classical problem in Computer Science, the first part reminds me of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_sequence_alignment\" rel=\"nofollow\">Multiple Sequence Alignment.</a></p>\n\n<p>Turnitin uses some Machine Learning under the hood to refine the scores; and the people working there certainly have a career in plagiarism detection.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31464,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Dr. Stefan Weber (PhD in Communication Sciences from University of Vienna) has essentially made a career out of detecting plagiarism, mainly in doctoral and habilitation theses from important public persons in the german-speaking area. You can find some information about him <a href=\"http://plagiarismreports.com\">online</a>. He has written multiple well-selling books on the topic, sells plagiarism checks, and regularly appears in public discussions.</p>\n\n<p>However, note that the life of somebody who frequently and <em>very</em> publicly raises strong allegations against professors, politicians, and other degree-holders with substantial influence is not necessarily a fun one. As you can imagine, a lot of dirt gets unearthed and thrown in his face routinely (sometimes justified, sometimes more as part of counter-campaigning by the persons he attacked).</p>\n\n<p>In summary, I think he fills an important societal niche in our area, but I <em>really</em> wouldn't want his career.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31469,
"author": "dionys",
"author_id": 22520,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22520",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The practical aspects of detecting plagiarism in text probably fall under the purview of Computer Science as @Davidmh discussed in <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/31397/22520\">this answer</a>, but developing these kinds of tools and actually applying them to detect malfeasance are very different things.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_journalism\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><strong>Investigative Journalism</strong></a> is the professional career path that pertains most directly to the issue of detecting and exposing plagiarism. Many universities offer degrees and fellowships in journalism with exactly this focus:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://sowi.univie.ac.at/en/departments/science-and-technology-studies/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">University of Vienna</a></p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://www.cmu.edu/hss/english/graduate/ma-pw/ij/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Carnegie Mellon University</a></p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://www.city.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/investigative-journalism\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">City University of London</a></p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/courses/journalism/courses/investigativejournalism/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">University of Strathclyde</a></p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://www.strath.ac.uk/humanities/courses/journalism/courses/investigativejournalism/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Boston University</a></p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://ethics.harvard.edu/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Harvard University</a></p></li>\n<li><p><a href=\"http://www.northeastern.edu/camd/journalism/academics/hands-on-courses/investigative-reporting/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Northeastern University</a></p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31608,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Suggestion: If you broaden your focus to include related fields -- recognizing authorship by writing style, natural language processing to recognize similar content, recognizing significant quotes, and other approaches which might be useful for recognizing reused content -- rather than focusing specifically on plagiarism, you're MUCH more likely to find a match than if you insist on pre-selecting this one specific application of those techniques. And you're much more likely to learn about, and be involved in developing, the cutting edge of technology than if you're tightly application-focused.</p>\n\n<p>Think long and hard about exactly what you want to do, exactly what you need to learn in order to do it, and how to go about learning that. If you jump too quickly to trying to implement a solution, you're likely to solve it poorly if at all. </p>\n\n<p>(That's assuming you actually do want to do research in this area. If you just want to write and sell a product, that's a different topic and academia may not be the place to work on it.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 31619,
"author": "eslcunningham",
"author_id": 24198,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24198",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think it depends on what you mean, want to do and why you'd be interested.\nDifferent software offer training on how to use their plagiarism detecting software. Fair use issues are tackled in library training and in education programs. The Illinois online network/U of Illinois Springfield offer a course on copyright issues for online educators- <a href=\"http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/courses/catalog/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.ion.uillinois.edu/courses/catalog/</a> . If you are interested in just understanding those issues, then look for courses like that and consider education or library science depending on what you'd want to do. If there is a specific sphere like online ed, you could look into those types of programs. </p>\n\n<p>If you'd want to teach others about those things, then look at courses like this, library workshops and staff positions in your spheres of interest and check the backgrounds and education of those currently employed in those positions.You could also look at academic support centers & centers for teaching and see who is giving workshops or services related to your area or interest. We often talk about plagiarism and fair use in the sphere of education, which is why looking into a degree in one of many education specializations might give you some of this training. However, it will depend on what you really want to do.</p>\n\n<p>For instance, you could also look into copyright law and fair use policies and then go into the policy side with a law or ed policy or higher ed degree. You could also look into a rhetoric, English or professional comm program.</p>\n\n<p>Though the OP doesn't seem to mention it, if you'd be interested in researching detection software and possible developing, or testing it, then you could look at a different set of degree programs. For testing such software and looking at how users interact with it you could look at human computer interaction programs. Such programs may allow a degree of development and design as well.</p>\n\n<p>Or to develop programs you could go in a number of directions. If you are interested from a purely tech side, you could try computer science and related disciplines. However, something like computational linguistics with a focus on natural language processing or some other tech/linguistics combination would give you the theory, application and tech components to create, test, evaluate or implement a plagiarism software from a variety of angles. If that is something you'd be interested in then perhaps try something like applied linguistics and technology at Iowa State - <a href=\"http://www.engl.iastate.edu/teslapplied-linguistics/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.engl.iastate.edu/teslapplied-linguistics/</a> or similar programs. You could also broaden the idea of detecting plagiarism to detecting linguistic fingerprints and look into forensic linguistics.</p>\n\n<p>potential areas: forensic linguistics, applied linguistics, computational linguistics, english, rhetoric, professional communication, computer science, human computer interaction, higher ed, education, educational policy, law....</p>\n\n<p>What you do with the degrees will vary widely depending on the direction you go in. It could be your own company, an admin uni position, teaching, support staff, library,developer, working for a tech company, an ed company,...</p>\n"
}
] |
2014/11/08
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31390",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24064/"
] |
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