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41,992 |
<p>I want to submit a manuscript with a journal recommending the <a href="http://www.apastyle.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">APA style</a> guide for formatting. </p>
<p>When looking at my boxplots, a colleague of mine wondered why the whiskers do not represent the 95% confidence interval. So I learned that the <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/17725927/boxplots-in-matplotlib-markers-and-outliers">default setting for matplotlib</a> is 1.5 IQR, which I did not questioned until that point.</p>
<p>According to the very good <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_plot" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia article on boxplots</a> there are different possibilities for whiskers representation:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>the minimum and maximum of all of the data</em></li>
<li><em>the lowest datum still within 1.5 IQR of the lower quartile, and the highest datum still within 1.5 IQR of the upper quartile (often called the Tukey boxplot)</em></li>
<li><em>one standard deviation above and below the mean of the data</em></li>
<li><em>the 9th percentile and the 91st percentile</em></li>
<li><em>the 2nd percentile and the 98th percentile</em></li>
</ul>
<p>Does anybody know what is the most common whisker boundary and if there is a recommendation in the APA style?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 41998,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't think this has anything in particular to do with APA style. Rather, it has to do with what you want to communicate about your data: the reason that there are different uses of box-plots is that there are different structures of data distributions, for which different representations are valuable. </p>\n\n<p>The main thing that you are communicating with a box-plot is that your data has a structure that may not be well-represented by a simple parametric distribution, such as a normal distribution or a Poisson distribution. A box plot allows you to show five points on the (likely highly variable and asymmetric) cumulative distribution curve, and those points just need to be chosen in some reasonably principled manner, such as the in examples listed.</p>\n\n<p>You then just need to explain in your text what it is that the box-and-whiskers represents in your particular usage.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42000,
"author": "Penguin_Knight",
"author_id": 6450,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6450",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Major statistical software such as <a href=\"http://www.stata.com/manuals13/g-2graphbox.pdf\">Stata</a>, <a href=\"http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21478697\">SPSS</a>, <a href=\"http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/statug/63347/HTML/default/viewer.htm#statug_boxplot_sect017.htm\">SAS</a>, and <a href=\"https://stat.ethz.ch/R-manual/R-devel/library/grDevices/html/boxplot.stats.html\">R</a> all use John Tukey's definition (hyperlinks are to the related technical documents), with various degrees of customizability. Some of them also cite William Cleveland's scheme, which is the same as Tukey's.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>one standard deviation above and below the mean of the data</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This does not make sense as box plot is largely a device to display the central tendency of data using the more robust percentile statistics and I have a hard time pairing it with standard deviations (and its related statistics standard error and 95% CI), which based on the actual value of the data rather than their rank. If showing mean and SD (or SE) is the motive, there are <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Error_bar\">error bar plots</a> for this purpose.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>the minimum and maximum of all of the data</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>While min and max also indicate spread, they are also sensitive to extreme values, and hence a less robust indicator of dispersion. So also not making much sense.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>the 9th percentile and the 91st percentile & the 2nd percentile and\n the 98th percentile</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I have less opposition against these schemes, the only reason I'd opt for not using them is just we don't need any more schemes.</p>\n\n<p>So, my bet is on Tukey's. And if you're uncertain if readers may be confused, by all means in the footnote state that the scheme is based on Tukey's box plot.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42027,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>@jakebeal already gave a good answer, but let me impress this in different but more direct words:</p>\n\n<p>You create figures because you want to illustrate something. <em>What</em> the figure shows and <em>how</em> it displays data must be driven by <em>what it is you want to illustrate</em>, not based on a style guide. In other words, the correct answer to your question is: Chose that format that best illustrates the facts you want to demonstrate with the figure.</p>\n\n<p>It is obvious that if a figure allows for multiple interpretations (such as what the whiskers represent), then you need to disambiguate this in the caption or the text. This is appropriate even if the style guide were to specify, say, 95% intervals, as this fact may not be obvious to the casual reader unaware of the style guide.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/41992",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28895/"
] |
42,011 |
<p>I'm starting a tenure track position (in the US, computer science) in fall and the position comes with a startup fund that is insufficient to employ any (postdoc) staff and PhD students are funded directly by the department. Also, my conference travel is taken care of by other funds.</p>
<p>How can I use the (limited) funds that I have to benefit my career? </p>
<p>Edit: I'm mostly working in theoretical research (algorithms).</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42564,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For those not familiar, Theoretical Computer Science is mostly formal mathematics. Thus the success patterns for research professors are nearly the same as those in Mathematics. In particular, research collaborations are critical.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How can I use the (limited) funds that I have to benefit my career? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There are ideas in two categories that can benefit your career: 1) build fruitful, productive research collaboration relationships; and 2) professional service in areas of critical need. (Nearly all tenure committees and funding agencies consider \"service\" or \"broader impacts\" as one of the major criteria for tenure or funding.)</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><em>EDIT:</em> These ideas are unconventional and represent a particular set of values. They value long-term benefits over short-term. They value making a difference in the academic community over immediate personal benefit. If you have different values, then you'd make different choices.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>For the first category, you could use the funds to sponsor or host activities that will expand your research opportunities, especially build new collaborations.</p>\n\n<p>For example, you could host a series of workshops that bring together researchers that don't normally work together. These researchers could come from your department (if large), from other departments at your university, or from other universities. Because you host the workshops, you can organize them to meet your objectives. Maybe they are oriented toward a \"challenge\" (a la \"hackathon\"), or maybe oriented toward writing interdisciplinary research grant proposals, or maybe you give each other tutorials on your specialties, hoping to find fruitful intersections. For a good source of topic ideas, read the \"Dear Colleague\" letters from Program Mangers at NSF, and also the NSF program solicitations.</p>\n\n<p>It may be there is already some workshop or conference that is close to your interests. You could use your funds to host an add-on event.</p>\n\n<p>For the category of professional service, you might consider these two ideas:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Host a series of workshops for CS majors at your university who are in under-represented groups (women, minorities). The goal of the workshop would be help them with the personal, professional, and practical challenges they might face at your university. If you don't know much about this topic, then you should recruit experts as presenters and facilitators.</li>\n<li>Find your nearest Historically Black College (HBC) and co-host a Theoretical Computer Science workshop with someone in their CS department, aimed at students from both institutions. You'd have to spend time to learn about the HBC, what their students are like, and how to usefully engage them in this topic. In addition to benefits for the students, this could lead to an unexpected research collaboration for you.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42586,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The term \"small startup\" is rather vague. As you say it will not cover a post doc, I will assume it is less than 50k USD. It also sounds like your equipment and research costs are negligible. The goal of a startup package, as the name implies is to help you start up. One expensive aspect of getting started is covering your summer salary. With 50k you could cover your summer salary for 2 years while you get started and apply for grants.</p>\n\n<p>In addition, or as an alternative to, covering summer salary, I would want to invest in technology. I could image dropping 10k+ on \"computers\" for myself and future staff (maybe 3 desktops, a laptop, and a tablet). A scanner and printer in your office is also super helpful. A backup system (e.g., external hard drives or a NAS) depending on how IT at your university works is also important.</p>\n\n<p>Depending on your field, you want to make sure you have enough for page charges, article processing fees, and open access fees. In my field see fees can hit 2k an article.</p>\n\n<p>An RA can be super helpful. Having someone who can help you prep lectures can be a huge time saver. They can go to the library for text books, scan images, proof read slides, and deal with the book store for your reading list. Similarly, they can help with research by proof reading manuscripts prior to submission and page proofs, make figures look nice, get articles from the library, do literature searches, and help you put together conference presentations. They might even be able to do some real research. My guess is, in a theory based field, you could keep an RA busy for 10-20 hours a week. Cost would depend on the qualifications, but the cheapest would be an undergraduate work study student and more expensive would be someone with a MS who want to do a PhD at some point.</p>\n\n<p>You will want to be able to attend some conferences, but realistically, you are likely to be swamped.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42011",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32000/"
] |
42,012 |
<p>There are a number of questions here about <a href="/questions/tagged/changing-fields" class="post-tag" title="show questions tagged 'changing-fields'" rel="tag">changing-fields</a>. Those are mostly about <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/2632/1033">how common it is</a>, <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/1696/1033">how it affects future career</a>, or whether a move from X to Y is feasible (example <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/14276/1033">1</a>, <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/34988/1033">2</a>, <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/7733/1033">3</a>). At any rate, it does happen — I have come across people with background in particle physics, astrophysics, or space science, who were all in postdocs in atmospheric science. A frequent motivation may be to resolve the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-body_problem_%28career%29" rel="nofollow noreferrer">two body problem</a>. And some fields have a higher ratio of jobs to PhD graduates than others.</p>
<p>But if someone with a PhD in particle physics, astrophysics, or space science, applies for a post-doc in atmospheric science, how do they overcome the competition with candidates who do have PhDs specialising in (the right subfield of) atmospheric science? Wouldn't a potential host quickly dismiss candidates who show neither experience nor interest in the relevant field, <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/30185/1033">even if they have spoken the person</a>, when other applicants are pre-trained "locals"?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42015,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some of my best hires have had virtually no direct or recent experience in HPC, but have demonstrated a number of other extremely desirable features including:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>A passion for learning and doing</li>\n<li>A clear track record of success in their related area (including publishing, mentoring, grant-writing, etc.).</li>\n<li>An strong awareness of their own limitations in the field and a plan for dealing with them</li>\n<li>A strong understanding of our needs based on researching our mission, goals, website, etc. and a plan for how they fit into that.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Based on this, I've taken a flyer on a researcher or two who wasn't a perfect fit but was too passionate, engaging, and obviously successful to pass up. A ridiculously strong reference is also helpful.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42020,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Speaking as someone trying to change fields, the main problem is people judging by your cover (department, classes taken, title of thesis). Even if you have learnt a lot on your own, if it isn't encoded in something more formal, it's hard to show via email that you know anything.</p>\n\n<p>The most important thing is to meet them in person - then (of course, provided that you do know basics of the field you are applying to!) it is much easier to show that you actually know things in their field. To arrange such meeting, if you need their reimbursement, contacts may help a lot (both in terms of \"a friend of your advisor\" and recommendation letters, even if informal, putting the emphasis on your skills or interest in the target field).</p>\n\n<p>Then, people hire based on their needs. Sometimes they care more for a different background (e.g. more computational, more mathematical, more statistical...), and it can be your advantage. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42012",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033/"
] |
42,017 |
<p>I've noticed that a few of my professors have written their own textbooks, but they only did so after they had already published many research articles and presumably become tenured at my university. For this reason, I'm wondering (in general), does writing textbooks contribute to acquiring tenure at a university, or are textbooks just considered the "icing on the cake" of the professor's published research?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42022,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A textbook would almost certainly be viewed positively for tenure. However, people don't usually write textbooks before they have tenure, for at least the following two reasons:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>It is a huge undertaking. You have to expect it to take a year or more to get it all right and finished, during which you will likely not have time to publish much else. There may also be another 1-2 year delay before the book is actually accepted and in print (i.e., it may not happen in time for the tenure evaluation). From the perspective of a tenure committee, a single (possibly unpublished) textbook rarely outweighs the smaller number of publications you will be able to show. For this reason, older colleagues will almost certainly discourage untenured professors from writing textbooks.</p></li>\n<li><p>Writing a good textbook benefits hugely from many years of teaching experience, and in particular teaching the class for which the book is intended many times. Untenured professors rarely have the kind of experience that makes it worthwhile writing a book that actually shows their thoughts on how teaching this course works best.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42023,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I have spoken with a few people who have written textbooks. The universal advice they have given is <strong>never</strong> write a textbook until after you have received tenure. </p>\n\n<p>In general, you get very little or no credit for writing a textbook, as it doesn't really help in any of the major \"checkboxes\" for tenure—research, teaching, and service. In addition, the time that you spend working on the textbook can generally be put to better use in writing grant proposals or working on peer-reviewed manuscripts.</p>\n\n<p>I know from personal experience, when I was a graduate student, that there was an assistant professor in my department who spent all of his time working on a textbook. He let his research languish, and ended up with a textbook but no promotion to associate professor. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42017",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24280/"
] |
42,038 |
<p>I am graduate research assistant in Computer Science in the US. A while ago, a master student in the research group, who plans on a career in industry after graduate school, received an internship offer from a large, well-known technology company which is one of the most sought after and prestigious opportunities for any computer-science student. An internship at a company such as this would be extremely valuable both in terms of shining on his resume and the experience he would gain there. This internship would be a huge break for him and could really launch his career.</p>
<p>However, when he asked for his advisor’s okay to take the internship for the summer, his advisor told the him that he would have to find someone to replace him to continue work on the research project which would essentially mean the student would lose his funding when he returned from his internship.</p>
<p>My question regarding this is:</p>
<p>What are the pros and cons a professor has to consider when deciding upon allowing his student to do such an internship, particularly regarding that such an internship would be tremendously valuable to the student’s career?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42039,
"author": "gdp",
"author_id": 31290,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31290",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I feel this would depend on the situation through which they gained their position as a research assistant. As you mentioned \"graduate research assistant\", I'm assuming this is a position where the masters (or similar) student receives funding for their studies by spending time working in the lab on the advisor's project. </p>\n\n<p>In the UK, a research assistant position could be like this, but would involve a contract of employment. As such, it would be expected that an RA would be present and working on their assigned project, since their pay was coming from the associated grant or project funding. </p>\n\n<p>If that's the case and the student is under contract, then I suspect the situation encountered here is somewhat understandable, if not reasonable. </p>\n\n<p>Depending on the funding for the advisor's research project, they may need to fulfil a certain staffing quota - they have project deadlines and deliverables if it's funded by a grant, and they'll have work needing done to meet these. For that reason I believe it's reasonable for the advisor to want to replace them in the lab. It also might be difficult to find someone suitably experienced, who would be willing to do this for a short period, making it easier to transfer the position to someone else. </p>\n\n<p>To perhaps consider another motivation of the advisor, perhaps they view their RAs as potential PhD candidates - one who is going to move to industry might be less desirable for them. I am merely suggesting this could be a consideration, and I am not suggesting that it would be appropriate. </p>\n\n<p>Regarding question 1, if there is a contract in place, I feel it's reasonable for the advisor to take this position - note they're not preventing the student; simply saying they can't keep the post open indefinitely for them to return to. The funders want results, and replacing the RA is the best way to do that, in my opinion and experience.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding question 2, I think this depends on the student's circumstances - if this will be be beneficial for their career and they can afford to not work as an RA, it seems a good idea to take the opportunity. It's not possible with this information to gauge if there could be any other impact for the student though, so they should consider any potential risks or adverse factors (needing to rely on this advisor as a reference for example). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42040,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you consider the Master's assistant position from the perspective of a paid job, it would be unreasonable to <em>expect</em> an employer to grant what essentially amounts to a sabbatical. Professors and school teachers are often given sabbatical leave, but Master's students are in a very temporary position. It's not a common thing, and there are no long-term benefits to the employer to outweigh the inconvenience.</p>\n\n<p>If it is feasible to do so within the bounds of the research project, then it would certainly be reasonable for the professor to grant the student's request. But I don't see that the professor has an ethical obligation to do so.</p>\n\n<p>Funded research is commonly held to tight deadlines – once the timeline of a project has finished, any unspent money usually returns to the funding organization.</p>\n\n<p>If the professor could do so, without a negative impact on the research, I am sure that any reasonable person would grant the request for leave. The simple answer is that it's quite likely that he or she simply cannot feasibly put the research \"on hold\".</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42038",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32013/"
] |
42,050 |
<p>I was a bit surprised to see the extent of cheating going on during state matriculation exams in Bihar (one of the states in eastern part of India). Looking at the images <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=bihar%20cheating&src=tyah" rel="noreferrer">posted at twitter</a>, it looks like large amounts of people do not have much respect for the exam process. My experience from different countries have generally been that cheaters attempt to cheat discreetly, if not so much for any other reason expect to avoid getting caught. In this example in Bihar it seems that getting caught was not a major concern for those cheating.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/5b4Jb.png" alt="Cheaters in Bihar, India"></p>
<p>In <a href="http://ibnlive.in.com/news/bihar-760-students-expelled-8-policemen-arrested-in-mass-cheating-racket/535234-3-232.html" rel="noreferrer">this other article about above situation</a>, an individual is quoted as saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Any examination of this scale in any part of the country has similar complaints."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I had earlier read about corruption being quite common in India, it is just that I did not expect it have led to this type of behavior in public. For example I had an Indian friend who told me how he had obtained his car driving license years earlier without any kind of tests or qualifications by just paying a clerk at the driving license office. This sort of stories are present also in articles like <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/24/us-india-corruption-middleclass-idUSTRE77N4JO20110824" rel="noreferrer">this one from Reuters</a> that says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(Reuters) - Mahesh Kundu paid $45 for a driving license, Rupam Bhatia $110 to be admitted to hospital and Vishrant Chandra $130 for a marriage certificate. These are the commonplace bribery stories experienced by middle-class Indians who have poured into the streets to say "enough is enough."</p>
</blockquote>
<p>For one reason or another I thought that this sort of requests for money always happened discreetly and money was always exchanged quietly, "under the counter". Looking at this rather public event in Bihar made me wonder, though, about what effect the level of corruption in India may have on any qualifications earned at their universities. How would you know whether a student has actually earned their qualifications?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42058,
"author": "user",
"author_id": 31973,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31973",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This particular incident doesn't happen to be an university examination. This is the final grade 10h school exam that was conducted centrally by the government of state of Bihar, India. <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bihar_School_Examination_Board\">BSEB</a>. The given situation is being highly criticized by Indian media and Indian people as well. </p>\n\n<p>Coming to the question, Yes there is a lot of widespread corruption and malpractices prevalent in India. I can't guarantee you that there had been no cheating involved in passing a student in regard to any examination. However, in Indian universities especially the top ones, the aforementioned phenomenon is quite rare. Moreover, the admissions to these top universities is quite competitive and often based on entrance exams. You can cheat to pass an exam but you can't score enough to get a rank under 25k out of 1.4 million candidates. (<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Engineering/Architecture_Entrance_Examination\">AIEEE</a>) \nThat said, there are various other parameters to judge a candidate as well. Even let us suppose that a student has been able to cheat his/her way throughout, there is always an interview round to any job or any position. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48594,
"author": "Roy",
"author_id": 29457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29457",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Being a student who has seen the Indian higher education system from the school level to the postgraduate level and been part of lower tier as well as higher tier institutions, I think I can say a few words about this.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>When I passed my matriculation and 10+2 level examinations, I did it from arguably a major school in Kolkata affiliated to the CISCE. Cheating was something which was near absent (ofcourse you could still find people who purportedly managed to share the correct option to MCQ 1(a) but it would probably be childish lies). </p></li>\n<li><p>I went to a lower tier institution in my undergrads and I did see some amount of cheating there, but it was rarely an issue. I saw some in the initial years and it decreased at an exponential level in later years - college authorities began to penalize the students enormously if they were caught, which is how it should be. It had been reduced to negligible amounts by the time I was leaving.</p></li>\n<li><p>At the top tier institution that I attended for my postgraduate degree, there was no cheating. The reason was simple, you couldn't cheat to pass nor did the students really want to.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Now I think the statement that any exam of this scale in the country has similar complaints is an unfair generalization or plain sensationalization. I don't think so.</p>\n\n<p>I think it depends more on the student demographics. The school level exams that I gave had dead silence in the halls, similar to what I experienced during my postgraduate years. The crop of students matter to a huge extent I think, so does the leniency the institution shows. Both of the above would have merely cancelled the candidate's paper if they were found to be cheating, the undergraduate one as you might imagine would not be so strict, although they did reform tremendously later.</p>\n\n<p>If I generalize now, I would tell you this - A strong application I think can be assumed to be fairly authentic in the sense that although cheating is a plague in this country, one cannot <strong>ace</strong> an examination by cheating through it, it is merely not possible - sure one can <em>pass</em> an examination but I think that is the extent of it.</p>\n\n<p>Also, I don't think it is unfair to say that a hypothetical candidate who aced exams by cheating at an undergraduate level, would not be looking to get into further higher studies - I mean why would they? They already are acutely aware of their incompetence at some level or the other. Also, I strongly believe that the fact that such a candidate is not <em>authentic</em> will be clear from other sections of their application - they cannot escape without having <em>any</em> reflection anywhere in their application. TOEFL/IELTS/GRE scores, research statement, letters of recommendations, research experience - there will be something off, enough to flag a candidate.</p>\n\n<p>And finally let me put all of my experiences in context by mentioning my reaction to the example you used - the matriculation exam in Bihar. I saw those same pictures on television and to say that I was appalled was an understatement - I had never seen anything like that before. To see the education system being prostituted to that extent made me furious and I am certain nearly everyone I know shared that view. Now, I again reiterate my point, these people will <strong>NEVER</strong> send an application anywhere.</p>\n\n<p>So, yes I think you can consider most applications you receive to be authentic. If they are not they will be reflected somewhere or the other, enough for you to flag it - email communications, scores etc.</p>\n\n<p>PS: Yes corruption is rampant in India but I don't think it is related directly to the example above. The authorities in the picture above are not exactly on the take I think - they are likely non-existent, or lazy, or just plain scared to do anything to the mob.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49008,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Looking at below article in Los Angeles Times, it seems that cheating is wide spread and even supported by criminal gangs who have made it to source of income.</p>\n\n<p>How does it compare to other countries is hard to tell exactly, but most likely it is not this bad in e.g. the west or Japan.</p>\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"http://www.latimes.com/world/great-reads/la-fg-c1-india-testing-scam-20150717-story.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">India test cheating stirs outrage — then people start dying</a></strong></p>\n\n<p>A snip from the article:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Six years after Rai first complained to police that state medical\n school exams were being leaked, the extent of the cheating scandal in\n Madhya Pradesh has become outrageously clear. Whistle-blowers say that\n over nearly a decade, tens of millions of dollars exchanged hands to\n rig the tests that help determine university slots and civil service\n jobs, allegedly with the complicity of senior politicians in one of\n India's most populous states.</p>\n \n <p>Colluding with the state examination board, known by the Hindi acronym\n Vyapam, rival test-fixing gangs helped at least 2,000 students con\n their way into coveted medical colleges and many more land police and\n other government posts, authorities say.</p>\n \n <p>More than 1,800 people have been arrested — mostly suspected cheaters,\n middlemen and testing administrators — and hundreds more are on the\n run.</p>\n \n <p>The scandal, colossal even by India's notorious standards for graft,\n has grown more explosive in recent weeks with the sudden deaths of\n several people reportedly connected to the case.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42050",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27789/"
] |
42,060 |
<p>I'm a fifth year graduate student in the life sciences. To cut to the chase, I hate this PhD, I hate research and I hate academia. It didn't used to be this way.</p>
<p>I have been juggling three different projects and none of them are at the stage where something can be published. One of them was a pilot project, something that my lab or even my advisor has no expertise or basic knowledge for that matter. I have pretty much figured things on my own until we got a collaborator who really helped train me and has gotten this project off the ground. But now my advisor has decided to give this project that now has all the resources, grants etc to a new student.</p>
<p>I'm left with two other projects that are about 3/4th complete but there are quite a bit of holes to fill in.
I could probably finish it in the next one year or so and that's what I thought i will do. </p>
<p>But my advisor is not an advisor at all. She thinks I have wasted my time and now I'm left with a lot of work to do. She has told me that several times - that I'm not a hard worker and I am not like X or Y in the lab who pretty much live in the lab and have no life outside. I work 10-6 pm everyday and I know that's not a lot in the PhD world, but I feel like I am not productive beyond that. I also work on most weekends. In the past year, I have really tried to motivate myself and get as much work done as possible. Everyone around me says I'm so close and I should just stick it out for another year.</p>
<p>But my advisor keeps telling me that I will never graduate if I don't pick up my pace. No matter how much data I give her, she says this is not fast enough. Also she makes me re-do a lot of it if the data suggests something she doesn't agree with. She has a very narrow mindset and hates being wrong. She always chooses, seminars or committee meetings to tell me that my data is shit and my interpretations are meaningless. And of course, that I am a slacker and I'm useless.</p>
<p>My self-confidence is at an all-time low. I'm depressed and anxious all the time. The thought of lab or my advisor makes me want to run away from all this. To make things worse, my husband just got a job across the country and I see him once a month at the most. Ours has always been a long distance marriage so I'm not a rookie but I think I'm at a point where I really need a support system outside of lab. I have no family around as I'm an international student. </p>
<p>I'm so miserable all the time and I just want this agony to end. I finally gathered the courage to tell my advisor I want to quit with a masters. She is furious - she told me she is disappointed in me (no surprise there) and she has spent a lot of grant money on my stipend and I owe it to her to publish. My department requires advisors to pay a stipend to every student. And it's not like I have not worked at all. She has added guilt and shame to the wide range of negative emotions I'm already feeling. She says I have wasted her money and done no work.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm trying to negotiate a masters so I can get out and try to find a job. I need to do something that makes me happy and regain my confidence. I don't even care what I do anymore, I just don't want to feel this way anymore. She is making it hard for me to leave. There is no one in the department that I trust will really help me out. My advisor is powerful and i don't know if anyone can change her mind.</p>
<p>I can't take a break, that is not an option. What do I do? I just want to be told it's okay to leave. People leave jobs all the time but there is so much shame associated with leaving a phd. I also want to know if I can still find jobs in the industry. Please help.
Thanks </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42063,
"author": "gnometorule",
"author_id": 4384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4384",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From what I read in your question, l am not convinced that you hate research. You have spent four years in a lab under an adviser who has given you negative feedback only. This would drive any but the most emotionally hardened person unhappy and insane. </p>\n\n<p>As comments have said, yes, of course it's ok to leave. And yes, people dropping out of a PhD find jobs just like everyone else. You might face a bachelor/masters level salary that doesn't reflect those possibly lost 4 years, but that is not too bad, and not that significant as you still have 30 something years in a future job. And maybe that won't even be the case. </p>\n\n<p>But like some of your friends, I am not convinced that this is your only option. I realize that being in, say, a biology lab means often being surrounded by people who work themselves to pieces. In my experience across fields though, those who are successful in the future often work a regular schedule which I call academic 9-5, as long as you're focused during your time in lab or office. They typically also pursue other interest to step back, such as sports or arts or just reading. And this also applies in (some) labs, even if the PI is by their nature different. The probably favorite postdoc of my wife's PI works almost exactly your hours, and she still does yoga, etc, for a break from lab during those 8 hours. She is 100% focused of course. So you do something completely reasonable, and have faced hostility over it for 4 years. Obviously, you hate your life.</p>\n\n<p>You don't mention your country, which impacts this a lot. If it's the US though, I warmly recommend to at least talk about your situation with someone (anyone) among your other faculty - not to finger-point or complain, but to discuss that given that your and your adviser's personality seem mis-matched, if they see any way in which a change of lab might be possible. Given that you're in life sciences, and after a possible change of adviser you might find it hard to bring your research with you into a new lab, this might not be possible, but you might later regret to leave without ever having this even as much as brought up with your faculty (I changed adviser exactly 4 years into my PhD, mine was also (very) powerful, but I was a theoretician in another field than yours and so it was easy to bring my research). What do you have to lose? You seem willing to leave without a masters, and that's really about a worst case scenario that talking to someone cannot make worse. From what you write (pushed several projects successfully - only to see one taken away from you, what is that about?), you seem a productive student with significant experience, and maybe some other faculty would love to have you if a way can be found to do this without alienating your current adviser. Just make sure to, this time, approach one or some faculty who you like, and feel are compatible with. </p>\n\n<p>I just mention this possible attempt because nothing in what you write makes me feel that you hate research. You're in a bad place, but it strikes me more as \"sometimes bad things happen to good people.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42065,
"author": "Faheem Mitha",
"author_id": 285,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/285",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your adviser sounds like a really unpleasant person. Join the club. Academia tends to attract people like that. Having said that, you write: \"I'm left with two other projects that are about 3/4th complete but there are quite a bit of holes to fill in. I could probably finish it in the next one year or so and that's what I thought i will do.\" Having spent this much time on it, and being so close, I would recommend gritting your teeth and finishing. Of course, I don't know your particular circumstances, but hey, you asked for advice from a bunch of strangers. \n:-)</p>\n\n<p>But first, perhaps, take a step back and a deep breath. Take a few days vacation perhaps. You say you work weekends too? That doesn't seem like a great idea if you are doing it consistently. It sounds like you need to spend some time doing other things you enjoy. Maybe cut back slightly on the hours you are working, though if you finish at 6 pm you could easily go off and participate in some activities. I have recommended dancing as a good form of relaxation to various other people in various other places. \nThis, however, might not be an option, depending on your location; which you didn't specify. It is good for unwinding from strenuous and demanding intellectual work, it is (generally) friendly and social, and it is also good exercise. It can be a good place for meeting people. Yoga is another good option, though it is less social. What you don't want to do is go home after work and sit in front of the TV, especially given the mental state you describe.</p>\n\n<p>One more thing - you didn't mention how your husband feels about all this. That's probably relevant.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42067,
"author": "Tim Miltz",
"author_id": 32037,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32037",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I recommend an intensive 4 or 5 day break. Ideally? Travel - just get on a plane, even pick somewhere random. For one, you will be able to 'live out' the very position you feel you are in, except now you will be stuck in say- Chicago, or a desert in Nevada, or who knows, maybe you'll travel to Delaware for 3 days and rent a bicycle and just bike on that flat land, get a tent.</p>\n\n<p>In fact, yeah, go to the woods, outdoors for a few days. Get a true break back to neolithic mode of being. </p>\n\n<p>Sounds to me like you need a short abrupt several day break, and if you can't do 5 days, make it a weekend. </p>\n\n<p>Last resort ? Sky diving ! heh.</p>\n\n<p>Hope you regain your footing.</p>\n\n<p>Tim Miltz</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42069,
"author": "Alexis",
"author_id": 11065,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11065",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>"I work 10-6 pm everyday and I know that's not a lot in the PhD world, but I feel like I am not productive beyond that."</strong></p>\n<p>This is a particularly important insight.</p>\n<p>When I had successfully defended my prospectus and was officially "all but dissertation" (with the privilege of working on my own self-selected and self-directed topic, with input from my committee) I discovered pretty quickly that for this research—about which I was both intellectually and emotionally passionate—<strong>I had about 4 to 5 hours of productive work to give <em>to my dissertation</em> each day.</strong> Moreover, simply sitting at my office desk <em>not being productive</em> did not actually measure up as "productivity".</p>\n<p>So I adjusted my expectations to 4 to 5 hours of productive work, and gave myself license for other pursuits for the other hours of my day. Some of these other pursuits were academic: that software I wanted to write; the syllabi for those courses that I wished I could have taken, but they didn't exist, so I wanted to teach them some day; reading to learn new theories, methods, and substantive research; taking courses and attending intensive workshops. <em>All</em> of these "extra" activities have parlayed <em>directly</em> into my subsequent academic work and hires.</p>\n<p>Some of the other pursuits were not academic: I walked in the park, went to museums, engaged in art, sport and activism, maintained interpersonal relationships. All of these <em>extra</em> "extra" activities have <em>indirectly</em> parlayed into my subsequent academic work by supporting my mental and physical health, and my development into a well-rounded individual who brings a good deal of experience to the classroom, to the research team, and to my work-fellows. These activities have also sometimes parlayed <em>directly</em> into subsequent academic work through the development of what would become collaborative relationships, introductions to professional networks, and by planting the seeds of research or pedagogical substance.</p>\n<p>The idea that you must be a soulless drudge in the academy is certainly a perspective that has its exponents. Academic and activist David Graeber has an interesting perspective on labor time that I think is apt here (and I think it is important that we not forget that we are also labor):</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one of the great divisions between anarcho- syndicalist unions, and socialist unions, was that the latter were always asking for higher wages, and the anarchists were asking for less hours. That’s why the anarchists were so entangled in struggles for the eight-hour day. It’s as if the socialists were essentially buying into the notion that work is a virtue, and consumerism is good, but it should all be managed democratically, while the anarchists were saying, no, the whole deal—that we work more and more for more and more stuff—is rotten from the get-go.</p>\n<p><sub>—Frank, T. (2014). David Graeber: <a href=\"http://www.salon.com/2014/06/01/help_us_thomas_piketty_the_1s_sick_and_twisted_new_scheme/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">“Spotlight on the financial sector did make apparent just how bizarrely skewed our economy is in terms of who gets rewarded”: David Graeber explains why the more your job helps others, the less you get paid</a>. Salon.com, Sunday, June 1st.</sub></p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>To situate my response: my doctorate, completed in 6 years (about median for my cohort) was from Harvard, I readily obtained a post doc, and just as readily obtained a tenure-track faculty appointment in which my "extra" activities alluded to above have contributed in recognized ways to my evaluation and tenure process.</p>\n<p>So this answer is not telling you to leave or to stay. Neither is it telling you how to proceed should you stay. But it <em>is</em> attempting to give you license to both value your academic and researcher self as part of a richer and more whole human being, and to reject value systems that tell you otherwise.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42060",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32029/"
] |
42,073 |
<p>I was admitted to a US PhD program (in computer science, if that matters) with fellowship + stipend.</p>
<p>I am getting a separate stipend from my government (which is higher than the university stipend), but they forbid me from getting an additional stipend from the university.</p>
<p>Is it OK to ask the university to just pay for my tuition (with the fellowship), and refuse the stipend?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42074,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes. The university will generally be happy to work with you to make sure your tuition is covered and call the money whatever they need to. As you are saving the department money, you may also ask the department to provide some additional travel or research funds instead of the stipend.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42078,
"author": "gerrit",
"author_id": 1033,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Usually, this would work, but not always. A Sweden-based scientist I know declined a PhD student who came with their own funding, because he did not want that there would be two classes of PhD students in his group. The externally funded PhD student would have a different amount of money, different rules for vacation, sick leave, and other benefits, and he considered this to be detrimental to the group. Therefore, he declined the student.</p>\n\n<p>(At least, this was the reason I was told. There could have been other motivations that I was not told.)</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42073",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32039/"
] |
42,076 |
<p>Does a part-time PhD workload differ significantly from part-time undergrad studies? </p>
<p>I'm intending to go on to postgraduate studies next year. I'd prefer to go straight to a PhD if possible, but will consider Masters if it looks like the more tenable option. I've worked full time for the past 9 years while completing first a certificate, and then a BSc which is currently being wrapped up, both via the Open University in the UK. </p>
<p>During this time I haven't found my studies to be overly burdensome, even when taking two or three modules concurrently. I don't mind spending evenings and weekends reading, researching, and performing practical coursework. (Don't get me wrong, it's hard work, but worth it!)</p>
<p>This question: <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8747/is-it-possible-to-work-full-time-and-complete-a-phd">Is it possible to work full time and complete a PhD?</a> discusses the relative difficulty of working full time and pursuing a PhD. My question is slightly different, though, as I'm already used to having less personal time than others might expect. </p>
<p><strong>Should I expect my personal time to diminish significantly when I continue on to postgraduate study, compared to life as a part-time undergrad student?</strong> </p>
<p>I'd particularly value answers from previous full-time-working part-time OU students who continued on with a part-time PhD. </p>
<p>My intended discipline is Computer Science, and I'd like to attend a University in the UK, particularly Sheffield, but as I haven't completed my BSc and begun applying for postgraduate positions yet, I can't be sure of the location.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42137,
"author": "tim2s",
"author_id": 32084,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32084",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From my experience I can tell you that the workload for a PhD is equivalent to a full time job. So if you want to do it \"as a hobby\", it will become really hard to sustain.</p>\n\n<p>I've been working for a company during my PhD program. If my job didn't have minor overlapping with the PhD thesis content, I could not have done it.</p>\n\n<p>My professor said that about 80 % of all \"external\" PhD students are never going to make it.\nSo yes, it is possible. But you will spend 120% of your spare time with your PhD thesis if you want to finish it. If you don't, you won't finish it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42184,
"author": "Leo Uieda",
"author_id": 460,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/460",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Note: I did a Masters full time and half of my PhD. For the last year of my PhD I got a job as a professor, so the work I do for my thesis overlaps with my research work.</p>\n\n<p>I think you'll find that the course load won't be much different from your BSc. For me, it was actually less work. </p>\n\n<p>However, you will spend a huge amount of time on your thesis, particularly if you go for a PhD. The problem is that you will be doing research, not just the class assignments. And research is inevitably uncertain. You don't know the right answer (or if there is one) going in. So you should be prepared to spend a lot of time trying to solve problems and come up with explanations for your results. Insight and invocation usually require thinking about something over a long period of time. If you're constantly distracted from your research, it can be hard to come up with solutions to the (many) problems you'll encounter.</p>\n\n<p>Since you mentioned your doing computer science, you probably won't have to spend time \"in the lab\", which is a huge time sink (my girlfriend is a biologist, she spends 6-10h a day doing experiments). My PhD topic is highly computational (I spend most of my time programming) so I do things from home or anywhere else I can take a laptop to. I imagine you'll have the same luxury. Even so, I'm still having trouble balancing my teaching load with research. It's very hard to have insights when I can only think about my topic for 2-4h a week, or not at all for months at a time.</p>\n\n<p>In short, the problem is your thesis. It's possible if you don't depend on spending hours a day collecting data. It really helps if your thesis topic overlaps with your job. Be prepared to dedicate many hours to thinking about your research topic. As with everything, it depends a lot on how you function personally.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42186,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think there are two aspects of your question. The Open University (OU) and its faculty are very familiar with the difficulties and challenges that part time students face. My guess is that the additional workload going from a full-time-working part-time OU undergraduate student to a full-time-working part-time OU PhD student is substantial, the OU has the support mechanisms in place for you to succeed.</p>\n\n<p>As a full-time-working part-time student moving from the OU to a brick and mortar school, will likely be a shock even if you stayed as an undergraduate. The OU is really designed to do what you are doing and while part time studies can be done at a traditional universities, it is not what they are good at. The increase in difficulty and time commitment at a traditional university for full-time students as they move from be an undergraduate to a PhD student is substantial. Coupling that with the loss of the OU support network, is going to make it even more difficult.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Should I expect my personal time to diminish significantly when I continue on to postgraduate study, compared to life as a part-time undergrad student?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Your personal time does not need to diminish, but the \"attacks\" on your personal time are going to increase greatly. You are going to need to have a good working relationship with your advisor to define boundaries that are mutually agreeable.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 54158,
"author": "gman",
"author_id": 12454,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12454",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A bit late with this answer but hopefully will be helpful. You ask;</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Should I expect my personal time to diminish significantly when I\n continue on to postgraduate study, compared to life as a part-time\n undergrad student?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Judging by my personal experience the short answer is yes.</p>\n\n<p>Here's a bit more detail though. I am studying in Ireland, so not to dissimilar to the UK system. I work full-time and also did an undergraduate degree, part-time, before progressing to post-graduate study. My degree and post-grad are not related to my work but something I have a lot of passion for. I found with my undergraduate degree I had a lot more free time. Lectures were 3 nights a week for year 1-2 and 2 nights a week in years 3-4. Speaking for myself on top of lecture nights I found I could usually get away with doing a bit of extra work at the weekend. </p>\n\n<p>Two years ago I started a History Masters(which I have just transferred to a PhD) and found that almost all my free time is now used with doing my PhD work. Saying that it's important to have other activities outside of your full-time work and study. I follow my local football team so usual have a evening off each week. </p>\n\n<p>As you mention you have not decided on location so I'd like to add something about my experience. My workplace is about a 5 minute walk from my University. I think this makes all the difference to me. I can leave work at 5pm, have a coffee and be working on my PhD by 5.30. I also have my own dedicated desk space there which is a benefit with regard to having a space to leave books etc. Together with working in a family business this also gives me the flexibility to be able to arrange meetings with my Supervisor at working hours times and to pop over to the university during the day if I need to. So if possible I think it would be good to consider location of your institution in your decision making.</p>\n\n<p>Just to sum up my weekly time spent on my PhD (and this can always vary depending on other commitments.) About 4 nights a week 6pm to about 10.30pm, Saturday 11am to about 10pm and Sunday about 1pm to 7.30pm. </p>\n\n<p>We have the OU in Ireland too. The university I go to is as StrongBad describes in their answer a bricks and mortar university. In my own situation I have found every department that I have dealt with to be very understanding to the part-time nature of some of its students and to be honest the only situation I can think of I have been disadvantaged by not been a full time student is the opening hours of some of the offices. That said most functions of the college can be done online now or I can email the respective office. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 54162,
"author": "vonbrand",
"author_id": 38135,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/38135",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Don't forget that some problems take \"calendar pages not sitting hours\" as somebody graphically told me. There are things that require sitting down and doing them, others require some familiarizing, and then thinking them over for a longish time (even while doing some totally unrelated tasks) before they click.</p>\n\n<p>Access to the advisor (and other faculty), research group, lab facilities (perhaps even for an occasional all-nighter), well-stocked library are a must. Often you'll have access to publications in electronic form only through the university's network, need to take that into consideration.</p>\n\n<p>And select a thesis topic that you are passionate about, enough to have it drain almost all free time for a year or so without you complaining too much. The time drain will happen regardless, better not be bitter about it.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42076",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12736/"
] |
42,077 |
<p>I was surprised when starting my PhD as to how much I get asked this question and how much I fail at answering it. Whenever I attempt an answer, I fumble around and the subject immediately changes after. If I state exactly how it's going, the stress of publishing and intensity of the program comes off overly negative. If I state what I'm working on, I either lose them or bore them. </p>
<p>What's a good social strategy to respond to this question?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42079,
"author": "Joe Manlove",
"author_id": 29367,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29367",
"pm_score": 8,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>\"It's going well, last week I made some good progress on X. How're things with you?\"</p>\n\n<p>The vast majority of people are just asking to be polite. If they're actually curious for specifics, they'll follow up with a more specific question. I personally like to have some kind of a cute story about my research because nobody has any idea what pure math people actually do. (I draw fractals for a living, so I have some pictures on my phone to show around.)</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: Some of the comments bring up relevant points about cultural differences. If the local culture is one in which asking out of politeness is frowned upon (ie German @O. R. Mapper, or <a href=\"http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=47\">grad students</a> @JiK), I think it would be still best to start an answer of the above form. This allows people to either gracefully exit or pursue a more in depth description according to their own interest and cultural mores.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42086,
"author": "Gojira",
"author_id": 32054,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32054",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This doesn't work for everybody, but I generally deflect uncomfortable questions with humor. If somebody asked me how my PhD was going and I didn't want to answer I'd say: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>It was DELICIOUS! ...or</li>\n<li>The conditions of my parole don't allow me to reveal that information. ...or</li>\n<li>I'm up to 15! ...or</li>\n<li>WHO ARE YOU? WHO SENT YOU? </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Again, it doesn't work for everybody. But for me, the level of absurdity of the response is 1) directly proportional to the amount of time it buys me to think of a change of subject, and 2) inversely proportional to the chance they'll ask again. </p>\n\n<p>So first time's usually a polite, slightly funny head fake. Then it gets weirder and weirder (\"I can't go back to Spain after the pants weasels attacked me!\")</p>\n\n<p>-hth</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42095,
"author": "Daniel Wessel",
"author_id": 26614,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26614",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Unless the person really has an idea of what a PhD requires and some background knowledge about what you are doing, I agree with the other answers, it's nothing more than an \"How are you?\".</p>\n\n<p>If you are bothered by the question, I'd highly recommend PhD comics on the topic, e.g., <a href=\"http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=47\">here</a>, <a href=\"http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=488\">here</a>, and <a href=\"http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1038\">here</a>. You're not alone.</p>\n\n<p>For practical purposes, a canned answer like: \"It's research, it has its ups or downs.\" usually works well.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42096,
"author": "WetlabStudent",
"author_id": 8101,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8101",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Use it as a chance to practice your \"lay person\" elevator research pitch. The more you practice it the better you get. \"I started working on ... here is why it is significant ...\" Don't answer with how your research is going, talk about your research. Presumably you are interested in it. Convey your excitement. Think about it from the other person's point of view. Would you rather hear \"great, how are things with you\", or would you rather learn something new. </p>\n\n<p>If your elevator pitch isn't very good yet, then forcing yourself to do this will make it better. If your elevator pitch is in fact good, then they will be way happier hearing it than \"great how about you.\" Either way someone benefits from hearing the elevator pitch.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42100,
"author": "DCTLib",
"author_id": 7390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7390",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my humble opinion, the key to answering this question in a good way is not to be pressed to talk about <em>results</em>, but rather about the <em>process</em>. So for example, an answer to \"How is your PhD going?\" could be:</p>\n\n<p><em>Good. I'm currently performing a study on the effects of sunrays on the love life of cobblestones.</em></p>\n\n<p>Now some people may ask back tricky questions, such as \"But didn't you work on that already 6 months ago?\". In that case, stick with the <em>process</em>, i.e., what you are doing at the moment. For past work, you can use results, but they do not have to be strong. So you could say:</p>\n\n<p><em>That's correct. Back then, I worked on an axiomatic approach to this question. The results were promising, but not statistically significant. So now I am conducting a survey with the cobblestones.</em></p>\n\n<p>In the end, the only \"selling\" that you may want to make when hearing such a question is that you <em>are working on your PhD</em>. Unlike the author of another answer, I would refrain from giving funny answers. That gives the impression that there is a need for you to dodge the question.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42101,
"author": "Toxaris",
"author_id": 7946,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7946",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think that most people, if they ask you \"how is your PhD going\", they want to talk about you, not about your research. So I try to answer them with an anecdote about some aspect of my PhD work that I believe the other person can relate to based on what I know about them.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Great, I have very nice colleagues and we work together well. Recently, we talked about a research article that is relevant to my work in a coffee break. (Answer this to people that work in an office).</p></li>\n<li><p>Great, but it's a lot of work right now, because I want to submit a research article until this and that deadline. I'm really excited about writing about my research. (Answer this to people that work on projects with deadlines).</p></li>\n<li><p>Great, I finally understood how this-and-that arcane topic relates to my thesis topic, and now I can progress further. (Answer this to undergraduate students in your own discipline).</p></li>\n<li><p>Great, I have been working as a TA for this and that course and it was lots of fun to teach young people. (Answer this to school teachers).</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>There are many aspects of doing a PhD you can talk about, many of them even less related to your research:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Great, my new computer arrived and now everything feels faster.</p></li>\n<li><p>Great, there was one fellow student who annoyed me a lot, but now the student graduated and I don't have to be around them anymore.</p></li>\n<li><p>Great, all students contributed some money and we bought a new coffee machine for the lab.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42110,
"author": "Zibbobz",
"author_id": 23717,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23717",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>\"Eh, I'd rather not talk about it, so how are you?\"</p>\n\n<p>If you really don't want to talk about it, and it's not going great, and you don't want to lie, this is the answer you should give. </p>\n\n<p>Now, some people will try to press you for more details, even though you just told them you don't want to talk about it, which is why you're shifting to focus to them right after saying so. </p>\n\n<p>If they insist on asking for more details, just reiterate that you'd really rather not talk about it. </p>\n\n<p>At that point, it's simply rude to keep pressing. Just remember - you don't have an obligation to anyone to talk about your thesis if you don't want to. </p>\n\n<p>Mind, if it's going <em>well</em>, then disregard this advice - telling people you'd 'rather not talk about it' gives the impression that it isn't going well. </p>\n\n<p>If you want to give the impression that it's going alright, say instead \"Well, it's going okay, but I'd rather not talk about it\" - which delivers the same message, but helps give the impression that you're doing fine. </p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, there's no real way to give a 'neutral' impression, because not wanting to talk about it gives a default impression that it isn't going well - this is cultural, and there's no real way to get around it. </p>\n\n<p>Either way, you may get pressed for more details, but in both cases, you are <em>not</em> obliged to provide any. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42119,
"author": "Kakoli Majumder",
"author_id": 9920,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9920",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>How you would want to answer this would depend to a large extent on who's asking the question. If it's a colleague or someone from a related field, the person might have a genuine interest in your PhD. So, depending on how much you wish to reveal, you can talk a bit about the work you are doing and share an interesting experience or perspective.</p>\n\n<p>However, if a lay person is asking you, it is most likely just out of politeness. In that case, you can give a very general or witty reply as mentioned in some of the other answers.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42263,
"author": "Steven Bell",
"author_id": 32174,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32174",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are a lot of good answers here, and I use various responses based on who I'm talking to. I try to be honest, but also to find something positive to say. One thing I've found is that the vast majority of people have no clue what getting a PhD entails, and so I try to convey a little bit of that to them. They don't know what \"research\" is, or how long a PhD takes, or what graduate students spend their time doing. I have a chance to change that!</p>\n\n<p><em>\"So, is spring break next week?\"</em><br>\n\"Well, it's spring break for all the students, but I've got a research presentation on Tuesday and have a lot to prepare for TA-ing. Not really a break for me.\"</p>\n\n<p><em>\"You've been here three years - are you about to finish?</em><br>\n\"Hehe, no! The median time in my program is six years. Someday I'll graduate!\"</p>\n\n<p><em>\"How much longer till you finish?\"</em><br>\n\"Well, I'm done taking classes, so now it just depends on how fast I can come up with great ideas, and make them work, and write about them.\"</p>\n\n<p><em>\"How's research going?\"</em><br>\nIt's up and down. It's tough, because there isn't a lot of direction and it's hard to see how everything fits together. I got a few bits of code to work this week, though.\"</p>\n\n<p>I am sometimes a bit sarcastic or pessimistic (\"I'll get out of here some day...\"), but in truth I love what I'm doing and I try to make that clear when I'm talking to someone.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42333,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is the risk that this sends the message that you don't want to talk about your PhD studies. Since there is a correlation between things not going well and not wanting to talk about that, this strategy may easily make people suspect that your studies are not going well. – DCTLib yesterday </p>\n\n<p>@DCTLib naw paranoia is so over rated of course you can talk about I was just suggesting an opening line. – caseyr547 yesterday</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42077",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12227/"
] |
42,087 |
<p>I am an undergraduate student who had already worked in two undergrad "research" projects, but both of those projects were basically applications of methods that were already discovered. Furthermore, the results were actually estimations, and not something exact or close. By the end of each one, I had to write a final report for my university, and discussed all the method and results in a poster during a scientific conference of undergrad research in my university.</p>
<p>I had never thought about a possible publication surging from these two projects, but nowadays (it's been two years since the first project) I thought about the fact that I could have published these projects in a formal scientific journal, even though they just confirm an already known method with a certain level of accuracy.</p>
<p>Considering this scenario, my question is that whether it would be possible to publish such kind of research project in form of a formal paper or not, also, would it affect in a positive way my scientific "career", since I would be able to say that I started publishing studies early than the usual (I mean, my knowledge tells me that publish stuff during undergrad means "early")? Moreover, would it be a positive fact to have papers publicized, even if they don't have new results or anything unpublished?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42089,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A publication must always contribute human knowledge in some way. There are, however, many different ways to contribute to human knowledge, not all of which are \"new results.\" Confirmation of a result, for example, can be quite valuable when it strengthens the evidence that a result is real and not an artifact of statistical variation or the particular circumstances in which the original study was performed. There are, in fact, <a href=\"http://www.iisnl.com/home_pagina_en.html\">whole scientific organizations</a> devoted entirely to measuring the same thing with a known method in multiple laboratories, simply to determine the precision and reliability of the method.</p>\n\n<p>Now, it is often harder to publish such results, or to publish them in \"important\" journals. That can be problematic for science in general (see, for example, <a href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1182327/\">Ioannidis' infamous paper</a>), but if you've accomplished something worthwhile, it may well be publishable in an appropriate venue. </p>\n\n<p>The best path forward at this point is probably to talk to the professor that you worked with for these projects, and to get their evaluation of the worth and appropriate venue for publishing.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42094,
"author": "enthu",
"author_id": 15723,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15723",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Does one always have to present new results when publishing a paper?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Not really. But author or contributors to the publication should present new and valuable scientific things to the future readers of their paper. I can classify these <em>new things</em> in a list bellow:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>An old method applied to solve a new problem;</li>\n<li>A new method applied to solve an old and a solved problem;</li>\n<li>A comparison of different old or new methods to solve a problem and discuss their accuracy or efficiency in solving problems by comparing their results;</li>\n<li>A review on different methods to solve problems.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>As you can see, there is no need to always have new results in the papers, but papers should have something new for their readers. Of course if your reader wants to read about those two existing methods, he can simply find and read the original papers instead of your publications.</p>\n\n<p>An author may find a newer method to solve a solved old problem but in a more efficient way. Or he may find a very hard solution which may not be that much accurate, but it <em>is</em> a unique and new approach to solve the problem.</p>\n\n<p>In your researches of applying those old methods, probably you did some programming and soft computing or applied some computational methods which may be unique and of value to be published in form of a research paper.</p>\n\n<p>In your case, the only thing that comes to my mind is that you may consult the professor whom you worked with to discuss whether your results are publishable or not. You have some choices of course:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Write a comparing paper on the methods you applied and discuss their accuracies by comparing their results. You may also present the computer programming you did during your research. Also, you can discuss the amount of time each method consumes for reaching same results accessed by applying either of methods. You may also do some statistical calculations on the data you have as a result of those existing methods, which may also be something of value to the readers in your field.</p></li>\n<li><p>Work some more in the field of the researches you did during your undergraduate years and find some more results and data or find a newer method and publish your whole research in form of a paper.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>[M]y question is that whether it would be possible to publish such\n kind of research project in form of a formal paper or not[?]</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If your manuscript is well processed and contains valuable information to be published, it has some chances to be published in a journal or presented in a conference.</p>\n\n<p>But please note that not every paper is valuable for every journal. Some journals are very high reputable and have high levels of impact factors. So, please evaluate your paper and submit it to a journal that publishes the same level of papers as your own paper. A very low quality paper may not always have the chance to be published in a well known and high reputable journal.</p>\n\n<p>Of course anyone may submit his manuscript to a journal or conference, but submitting a paper does not really mean that their editors and reviewers will accept it for publication.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>[W]ould it affect in a positive way my scientific \"career\", since I\n would be able to say that I started publishing studies early than the\n usual (I mean, my knowledge tells me that publish stuff during\n undergrad means \"early\")?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Having publications based on your research activities in the undergraduate years is a valuable point in a person's scientific CV, but please note that for applying to some scientific careers, you should have higher levels of research. As an instance, for one applying to a post-doc position, having a good PhD level dissertation and probably one or two publications (depending on the applicant's field) is of course of more value than his early undergraduate level research.</p>\n\n<p>If you are seeking a scientific career after obtaining your undergraduate degree; your research activities may be of value, but it hugely depends on the taste of your employer and their expectations.</p>\n\n<p>As a general answer to this part of your question, having some researches during your undergraduate years is a good point in your CV and will not hurt your academic background. But this is not all for a potential applicant to a scientific career; as you may have some skills, good letters of recommendations, good grades, etc. These are important too.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Moreover, would it be a positive fact to have papers publicized, even\n if they don't have new results or anything unpublished?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I think that it would be positive to have a publication out of your undergraduate researches, as it may show that you are a potential and enthusiastic researcher and you are so encouraged in doing research.</p>\n\n<p>But answering to whether it is positive or not to publish such results, hugely depends on your manuscript. If you simply copy and paste existing results without any new activities, seems not a positive activity to me. I prefer to read the original papers not a copy of them in a newer paper. If you do something new, even a very small thing is valuable and of course sounds so positive.</p>\n\n<p>(Just joking but I call a person who just published existing results without anything new to read in his paper a professional copy-paster, not a researcher!)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42125,
"author": "Kakoli Majumder",
"author_id": 9920,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9920",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the publish or perish culture that is prevalent in academia, it is always a good thing to have more publications on your CV. While many journals place an undue emphasis on novelty, it is not always mandatory to have new results in a publication. The purpose of a publication is to contribute to existing knowledge in the field. There are many ways in which a publication can add value, even if it does not have novel findings. Your study could report negative results, as these too contribute to scientific knowledge. Based on the negative findings, researchers can make informed decisions and try out other methods that might lead to positive results. Confirmatory or replication studies are also important as they validate the findings of a work and establish its credibility.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42087",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29341/"
] |
42,090 |
<p>Some open access journals, like Integers for example, don't charge the author any fee for publishing their article. Other open access journals do charge the author a fee and the author has to pay the fee so that their work can be posted online. Are there any trustworthy fee-based open access journals?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42103,
"author": "Arno",
"author_id": 12047,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12047",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While fees are unusual for Math open access journals (and I would initially suspect any journal charging them), there are trustworthy fee-charging journal, e.g. Pi and Sigma (<a href=\"http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displaySpecialPage?pageId=3896\">http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displaySpecialPage?pageId=3896</a>).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42109,
"author": "GEdgar",
"author_id": 4484,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4484",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In general, journals reviewed in <a href=\"http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/search.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">MathSciNet</a> are trustworthy. So check there for the journal you are considering.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42113,
"author": "Ingrid Daubechies",
"author_id": 32074,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32074",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Journal of Mathematical Physics, which publishes articles by mathematicians, is a serious journal published by AIP that follows the AIP fee-based Open Access policy : <a href=\"http://publishing.aip.org/librarians/open-access-policy\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://publishing.aip.org/librarians/open-access-policy</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42115,
"author": "Jessica B",
"author_id": 20036,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20036",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The UK as a whole is moving towards using open access, so most of the UK maths journals, and a proportion of others, now offer open access in some form (although that can mean allowing you to put the final draft on a repository, called 'green open access'). The LMS has created the Transactions, which is fully open access ('gold'). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42120,
"author": "Antonio Vargas",
"author_id": 540,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/540",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'll try to link to pages which describe the open-access policy of the respective journals.</p>\n\n<p>Both <a href=\"http://www.ams.org/publications/journals/open-access/open-access\">Proceedings of the AMS and Transactions of the AMS</a> allow the author to pay a fee to make their article freely available electronically from the journal. If the author chooses not to pay the fee then the article is not freely available from the journal (but the author may post the final preprint on the arXiv or their personal website).</p>\n\n<p>The (few) Elsevier journals I have looked at have a similar fee for publishing open-access. One example of which is the <a href=\"http://www.elsevier.com/journals/journal-of-mathematical-analysis-and-applications/0022-247X/open-access-options\">Journal of Mathematical Analysis and Applications</a>. You might try their <a href=\"http://journalfinder.elsevier.com/\">Journal Finder</a>, which has a checkbox to only search for journals with open-access options.</p>\n\n<p>Springer offers a similar program for some of its subscription-based journals which they call <a href=\"http://www.springer.com/gp/open-access/springer-open-choice\">Open Choice</a>. Not all of its journals have this option (e.g. <a href=\"http://www.springer.com/mathematics/journal/11511\">Acta Mathematica</a> doesn't).</p>\n\n<p>We also note that <a href=\"http://www.elsevier.com/about/open-access/open-access-journals\">Elsevier</a> and <a href=\"http://link.springer.com/search/page/1?showAll=false&facet-discipline=%22Mathematics%22&facet-content-type=%22Journal%22&date-facet-mode=between\">Springer</a> both publish a number of purely open-access journals, but I can't comment on their \"trustworthiness\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42175,
"author": "Benoît Kloeckner",
"author_id": 946,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/946",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The recent <a href=\"http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/agms\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>Analysis and geometry in metric spaces</em></a>, while maybe not yet well-established, is as far as I can tell (after exchange with the editorial board at some occasions) trustworthy as any math journal; this is witnessed by the impressive editorial board.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48550,
"author": "David Roberts",
"author_id": 8881,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8881",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><a href=\"http://www.resmathsci.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Research in the Mathematical Sciences</a> is very reputable, if new. The editor in chief is Ken Ono.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42090",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32057/"
] |
42,102 |
<p>I did my master's thesis last month and have seen one excellent PhD position in my field. The title and the project description was very close to my master's thesis. My master's thesis relates to one of those standards which is very new, and I can guess the number of peoples which work on it are few -- especially those persons which did or are doing a master thesis in that field.</p>
<p>On the other side I got my degrees with honours -- both bachelors and masters. So I have good situation for that PhD position. </p>
<p>One of the requirements is strong programming ability, which I do not have. I am not so good in programming. (By the way in just 6 months, I can improve that). Also the place is top five (or maybe one) rank with high salary. I do not know whether I should apply for that position or not? I afraid my bad programming skill have a bad effect on advisor's decision about me.</p>
<p><em>What I should do?</em></p>
<p>A part of requirements is </p>
<blockquote>
<p>... very good programming skills and experience....</p>
</blockquote>
<p>which I do not have.</p>
<p>Also the professor is number one person in that field and kind person. So that is one of the most important opportunities in my life. I do not have those skills which are required to apply to the programme. But by that time, I will improve my weak points.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42105,
"author": "enthu",
"author_id": 15723,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15723",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>One of the requirements is strong programming ability which I do not\n have that. I am not too good programmer.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Simply do not apply for the programme.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42107,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I am not sure I agree with Enthusiastic Student. There are two points to consider here:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Do they <em>really</em> need a strong programmer, or is this just something that they traditionally write into their position announcements without giving it much thought? Frankly, in industry like in academia, job descriptions are often given much less thought than people seem to assume. In my old group, we basically had one boilerplate job requirements text which was used for all kinds of positions. This included pretty much the cited text, but we certainly had PhD students that were <em>not</em> good programmers and they still (sometimes) did ok. </li>\n<li>Can you learn to program sufficiently, either before starting or at least within acceptable time frame after starting? This largely depends on how good a programmer they really need, how much you currently suck at programming, and whether you learn to program quickly or not (programming, specifically, seems to be one of those skills that comes much more easily to some than to others).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>To figure both things out, you should get in touch with the professor or one of his students to get a feel for what their stance on these issues is. For some position, you <em>really</em> need to be an excellent programmer, and for those, there is indeed no point in applying. For others, being able to hack together a workable prototype in reasonable time is sufficient, and most people should be able to learn that. When contacting them, be diplomatic and don't tell them outright that you are bad at programming. Get a feel for what you are really supposed to do, and decide for yourself whether you will be able to do it or learn to do it quickly. Then decide whether to apply.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42112,
"author": "sean",
"author_id": 15501,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15501",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>You should definitely apply</strong>. Because it doesn't hurt to try. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>If you are accepted, it's fantastic.</li>\n<li>If you are rejected, the biggest lost is a possible application fee of less than $100 (in EU, the application is often free). </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If you do not try, since you like this position that much, you may regret forever.</p>\n\n<p>Note that the level of programming skills to be considered \"good\" in academia is very different, i.e. much lower, from that in industry. Any CS graduate student should be able to learn a new programming language and do some basic programming with it within 1 week. That may already be \"good\" enough.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42114,
"author": "Patric Hartmann",
"author_id": 20449,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20449",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Apply! That's how I got my first TA position (in another field though). I didn't have the required level of knowledge of certain areas but still applied. They trusted my abilities to read up on such stuff on my own (I had proven to be able at other occasions during my studies), so they gave me the chance. I caught up what I was still lacking and they were very happy with the result.</p>\n\n<p>You seem to have a lot of potential since you graduated with honours. Mention this as well in your application. Show them that you are willing and able to catch up anything you still lack of.</p>\n\n<p>They do not need you to fit perfectly but to be willing and able to work hard for the good of the institution and scientific progress.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42116,
"author": "mightypile",
"author_id": 14899,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14899",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I see two issues:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>You are concerned about not being perfect for the position. Nobody is perfect for any position. Put your name out there and let the lab manager or PI weigh your strengths and weaknesses against other candidates. A PhD program is for training scientists. If you already had the skills, you'd be applying for faculty positions. This is perfectly fine.</li>\n<li>You mention this is nearly identical to your masters work. This is probably OK for a PhD position, but you would typically be applying for PhD and post-doc positions based on seeking training in a new skill rather than just using what you already know. This, I think, strengthens my first point, but I hope changes the way you perceive a \"perfect\" position.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Best of luck.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42152,
"author": "beldaz",
"author_id": 22582,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22582",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/42105/22582\">originally selected answer</a> simply says not to apply. The fact that you chose this as the answer is sad, since it looks like you're giving up. Few people exactly match a CV's prerequisites (or if they do they are probably overqualified). Skill are not inate but are acquired.</p>\n\n<p>If the only deficiency is that you do not think your programming is as good as the professor expects, then spend some time coding and convince yourself otherwise. I'd bet there are probably other candidates who think they are good programmers and are actually worse than you.</p>\n\n<p><em>T'is better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all.</em></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42167,
"author": "Steve Kline",
"author_id": 32099,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32099",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<ol>\n<li><p>If they want PhD level for a programming related job, this could be development in a physics level? I would speak with a recruiter about this opportunity to gauge where you stand, what your comfortable with and if you think your current major isn't sufficient, it would not take very long to fill the gaps in learning how to code. The problem is for that type of role they may also be seeking senior level developer skills and methodologies. They could be looking for CMMI, Scrum, Agile, or other frameworks that you may or may not have studied.</p></li>\n<li><p>Are you qualified to answer programming related questions when it comes to the interview..... maybe... how good are you with formulas? Programming isn't difficult, programming to make intelligent decisions is the tricky part. If you are GREAT with psychology and physics, you could be a great developer. If you can prove that you are qualified to systematically respond to an intelligent user response with a an action based on pivotal logic statements, for loops, and combine this with several datasets... you might be qualified.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>What the title of the position is, can usually give some relativity to the role you might be considering applying for... </p>\n\n<p>All things considered, try to dig up more info about the company, the role, and it never hurts to reach out and inquire. :)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42176,
"author": "WoJ",
"author_id": 15446,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15446",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Do not worry that much about the exact requirements. The process of creating a job/position offer is the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>the job: screwing screws with a screwdriver</li>\n<li>the actual requirements: ability to twist your wrist</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>This does not sound cool/expanded enough so we add some more requirements:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>experience with a screwdriver</li>\n<li>business acumen to understand the implications of the strategy of the company</li>\n<li>fluent English, German and Swahili - in case the purchase order for the screwdriver was from there</li>\n<li>ability to convey an idea, in case one would need to do a PowerPoint on the usage of screwdrivers</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Then come the candidates, usually interested in Liberal Arts or Musicology. None has seen a screw.</p>\n\n<p>Then come you, and say that you are very good in production lines and have seen videos on how to use a screwdriver, and that it honestly does not look hard and you are willing to work hard to understand the subtleties of the job. Heck, you have even purchased a screwdriver to get some experience ahead of time.</p>\n\n<p>The jury has not even seen the job offer, they know what they need and except if the experience with a screwdriver is an absolute must -- you look like a reasonable candidate.</p>\n\n<p>There is of course the chance of the screwdriver maniac who has been doing this for the last 10 years, enthusiastic about the business consequences and having published a paper on that in Swahili (and then presented in with PowerPoint on a conference). Bad luck, he is a better fit but at least <strong>you tried</strong>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42235,
"author": "JavaDeveloper",
"author_id": 32157,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32157",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Personally I would apply for both and be completely drop dead honest with your experience (how much time, what languages, etc.). That's the best policy. If they want a really experienced developer, honestly, a PhD or candidate is probably not the best place to find that. If they need someone that can code to some degree to implement some particular structures that you have a good understanding of based on your experience, then it may be a good fit.</p>\n\n<p>My expectation is that something like this would be proto-typed by people with specialized knowledge, but refactored by developers specifically before any actual production release/use. Again, I would clarify exactly what you know and don't, the interviewer will know that you can learn based on your education, and as long as you're honest about what you've done should not have any unrealistic expectations on how quickly you can come up to speed on things you don't know.</p>\n\n<p>You can learn the basics of a language in a few weeks or months generally, and the real question is what level of complexity does the actual code rise to? </p>\n\n<p>I would expect that you would be writing either sample code for a new architecture/design or a library to be used by others. Both are much simpler than production code so you don't need the entire skill set that an experienced (5-10 years experience) developer brings to the job. Not that either is without its pitfalls, especially the latter! But generally you will not be using as much of the language's API for these as a developer at that level of experience would have direct experience with.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42241,
"author": "Maarten van Wesel",
"author_id": 32146,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32146",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would also go with the \"apply\" people</p>\n\n<p>Be honest about your lack of programming skills and whether or not you are willing and able to upgrade them (may ask for tips from them). </p>\n\n<p>Then let them decide how hard the requirements are.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42244,
"author": "user49483",
"author_id": 30768,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30768",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>What do you mean when you say that you are 'not so good in programming'? Does this mean you have no experience with programming or that you have experience but simply aren't very good? I will assume the former, as it is a bit worrying if you have programming experience and still feel it will take 6 months to become proficient. </p>\n\n<p>I would apply and be very honest about your programming skills or lack thereof in this case. Then it's a case of convincing them that you have the ability, and are motivated, to pick up those programming skills. Do you have any examples where you quickly picked up something technical in your previous degrees? </p>\n\n<p>Ultimately, if they want a hot-shot programmer then you have no chance. In this case, they won't take your word that you are a good programmer; rather, they will expect to see evidence of programs, etc. you have built. Given how generally they have written the programming requirement, however, it wouldn't surprise me if they are just looking for somebody who will have no problem with the programming requirement of the project. It sounds like you are a good candidate in other respects so they might be willing to take you on if you can convince them you can develop the programming skills in due course.</p>\n\n<p>It might not take long to pick up programming expertise once you start your PhD. I (a PhD student in mathematical biology) had never coded a line before I started my PhD and am now proficient in several languages - it only took me about a month of coding before I started building a numerical simulation that I used in the first publication from my PhD. So it definitely can be done but it is dependent on 1. how quickly you pick it up, and 2. (possibly more importantly) your motivation to learn/enjoyment of programming, as the only way to get good at programming is to spend a lot of time programming. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42246,
"author": "Jeremy",
"author_id": 32162,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32162",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you really want to do something, then apply for it. This is my advice for jobs, scholarships, PhD positions, community service programs--whatever. You might not be accepted, but applying is the only way you stand a chance. Also, you probably stand a better chance than you think. Lots of positions have stringent requirements in theory, but that doesn't mean candidates meeting those requirements are easy to find. Not everyone has \"very good programming skills\" (or a fluent second language, or 5 years of experience, or whatever the \"requirements\" are). They will take the best candidate, even if the best candidate isn't perfect.</p>\n\n<p>In your case, you seem to be highly qualified overall. Let them know about your master's thesis. Let them know about other experiences that seem relevant. Make sure they see you as a unique opportunity. Don't lie about your skills, though--if you say you're a great programmer, you'll be screwed when they find out you aren't. Maybe you can turn a negative into a positive. (E.g., \"I don't have a lot of programming experience yet, but I have other computer skills, and I'd be willing to learn whatever you need me to do.\")</p>\n\n<p>The fact is, if you think you have what it takes, and you can explain why you think that, other people will tend to agree.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42102",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19761/"
] |
42,108 |
<p>I'll start by sketching my situation. I first studied a couple of years at institution A where we were taught a couple of things concerning academic writing. (E.g. don't use passives, distance yourself from your work.) After that I did another bachelor's at another institution B (same field, same country, other city). Even though we didn't have a course dedicated to academic writing there, the promoter of my bachelor paper taught me <em>not</em> to distance myself from my work:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>You did the research, and not some leprechauns, right? People should
know that <strong>you</strong> did all this -- it didn't happen magically.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>However, after my bachelor's I returned to institution A where I am currently going for my master's. The thing is: even though my grades for the first semester were good, I received feedback from different tutors and professors that my work is <em>too personal</em> and that I should use <em>more passives to distance myself</em>. This is completely the opposite advise my promoter at institution B gave me. Normally I would just go with the advise of the current institution, as that's where I am studying now and I don't want to challenge their style. The problem is that the promoter of my master thesis is the same professor as the one who promoted my bachelor paper. He changed institutions the same year that I went from institution B to A and of course he wants me to write from a personal viewpoint - whereas his (new) colleagues advised against that.</p>
<p><strong>Tl;dr</strong>: promoter tells me to follow one specific (personal) style of writing, but his colleagues and other of my professor seem to like a non-personal approach better.</p>
<p>Note that this question isn't restricted to the distinction between personal vs. distanced/distant academic writing. I am interested more in the situation itself: <strong>what should one do when his or her promoter advises for A when the institution's approach is the contrary?</strong></p>
<p>A <em>promoter</em> here in Belgium is a professor who is your supervisor when writing your bachelor paper or master's thesis. He or she is typically very knowledgeable about the topic you are writing in. In the process of writing your bachelor paper or master's thesis you can ask him or her questions related to your topic. Not only that, I have found that you can basically ask him or her anything related to academics - as long as it's morally and socially acceptable. He will also be the one will grade your thesis at the end of the year - possible together with a jury. The problem thus occurs that in my case this person gives me advice for something, whereas other authorities in the same institution seem to give advice against that. Since he is the one who will have to grade my work at the end of the year, I'm not sure whose advice I should follow.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42121,
"author": "Anonymous Physicist",
"author_id": 13240,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It sounds like you are getting contradictory advice about whether you should write in the passive voice or the active voice. This is a perennial issue in scientific writing. In my opinion, it does not really matter which voice you use. Since the goal of academic writing is typically to publish in a journal, I recommend looking at the journal's style guide or editorials for advice. For example, PRL clearly advises writing in the active voice. If the journal does not give advice, check some recent papers in the journal to see what common practice is. Sometimes, I change the voice based on the goal. For example, in the introduction to a paper, I want to show that I have significant results, so I write in the active voice to show what I did. In the methods section, it does not matter who performed the experiment so I write in passive voice. </p>\n\n<p>You also have an interpersonal issue here where two people have given you contradictory advice. I suggest informing the faculty that they are in disagreement and asking them how you should handle the disagreement. Most likely you will find they do not care very much.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42122,
"author": "Kakoli Majumder",
"author_id": 9920,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9920",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As far as I know, the promoter is the principal supervisor of your research. Hence, it wouldn't be a good idea to go against his advice. On the other hand, every institution has it's own style and norms which you are expected to follow. since your promoter is new to this institution , it is possible that he is not yet well-versed with these norms. One idea is to very mildly and casually inform him that you have got this kind of feedback and see what his response is. If you wish to play safe, you could perhaps choose a middle ground and use a balanced approach, neither too personal, nor too distanced.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42123,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The first thing you need to do is determine if there is an underlying issue with your writing that A and B are trying to get at. If there is, fix that problem and the style issues may be ignored. If it truly is a style thing, you need to talk to them and explain the issue. If one supervisor demands that you never use the passive voice and instead write in the 1st/3rd person and the other supervisor demands that you never use 1st/3rd person and prefers everything in the passive voice, then somebody is going to have to give.</p>\n\n<p>Once you determine it is purely stylistic, you need to decide which style you want to write in. This should probably be influenced by the recommended style of whatever journal/publisher you are targeting and/or any archaic rules your department has about theses. Then approach whoever you are agreeing with, get them on your side and finally explain to the other person the approach you are going to take. They might have a good counter argument or they might give up.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42155,
"author": "Blaisorblade",
"author_id": 8966,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8966",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<ul>\n<li><p>On the one hand, you should inform the supervisors of the disagreement—in particular, the promoter, who hopefully can navigate the disagreement and the review system. You might have to stick to different styles in different contexts, though that's hard.</p></li>\n<li><p>Unlike others have said, this is not just a matter of convention. I'd say that, given certain assumptions, your promoter is right and the others are wrong (but I don't care about other assumptions). I don't suggest you present things this way to your professors though ;-)\nBanally using passive to distance yourself typically removes information and\nconfuses the content: \"A program was written to evaluate claim X\"\ncontains less information than \"I wrote a program to evaluate claim\nX\" (who did the work?), and is clumsier. \"A program was written by me...\" seems clumsy and not distant at the same time.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>More in general, this is just one example of a wider conflict between different goals in writing. You can show off you're smart by writing hard-to-read texts: this can be easy or not, and requires more work for the reader. Passive fits there. Or you can show off what you did by actually explaining it well (which isn't easy): this requires more work from you, saves work for the reader, and it might prevent misunderstanding. Since readers live in information overload, the second can be more effective to have people read what you did.</p>\n\n<p>In English you have a choice, also depending on the discipline, but good writing advice suggests reducing work for the readers — that's especially true in Computer Science research (at least at top publication venues). Other languages have different traditions and underlying values.</p>\n\n<p>My recommended writing guide is Williams's <a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0226899152\" rel=\"nofollow\">Style: Toward Clarity and Grace</a> — the first chapter discusses the conflict, the others teach writing and revising for clarity.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42108",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7121/"
] |
42,117 |
<p>I am convinced that I possess sufficient "cognitive skills" to succeed doing my PhD. Reflection on myself, however, confronts me with the fact that my "meta-cognitive" (time management, mental discipline, focus) and "emotional" skills (motivation, patience, work-life balance, monitoring own health) are underdeveloped.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I feel that I am always making the same mistakes. I am often working hard for days. Stress and coffee distort my sleep pattern, making my mind empty for days. I recognize clear patterns. I also have trouble maintaining a healthy life-style. Instead of taking a little bit more time to eat healthy or sport, I am captivated in "the illusion that there is always more work to do." As a consequence, I am (on average) physically sick two days in the week -- eventually, losing more time. Finally, though I was happy living my introvert life before, the long days of no social interaction and just staring at my computer screen are becoming more dreadful.</p></li>
<li><p>My meta-cognitive skills also seem to be weak. I have trouble focusing on one subject for a very long time. I often get bored after some weeks, wanting to jump immediately to something else. As a result, it appears that the first phase of my research (almost 9 months) is very fragmented. I don't see any linear progress. I often doubt that the time I am investing in some subject will be useful later. I feel that I am not really spending my time the best I can. I keep track of my work hours in Excel files to be sure that I accomplish my weekly goal of 45 hours. In order to accomplish this goal I mostly have to push many hours to the weekend. I am aware that this bad time-organization will affect the quality of my relationships in the long term; and damages my work-life balance in general. I feel that I am working 24/7 at half capacity, whereas I would prefer to work 5 or 6 days in the week at full capacity.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I am starting to have less and less satisfaction from my work. The butterfly feeling of wonder and passion for science are disappearing. I am feeling more like an input-output machine which needs to be managed. The work I am doing also seems to be driven and conditioned by external factors (deadlines, presentations, publications, expectations promoter) instead of internal factors (pleasure, interest).</p>
<p><strong>More concrete questions:</strong></p>
<p>(1) Is it possible to improve one's meta-cognitive and emotional skills? How would one do this in practice? Can a person really change?</p>
<p>(2) How can one restore those feelings of wonder and true passion, and step out of the "routine" where one feels like an input-output machine which needs to be managed? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42126,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I empathize, as this is something that I (and many others here, I am sure) have also struggled with.</p>\n\n<p>My first piece of advice is simple but difficult: you need to start valuing yourself. Eat well. Sleep well (or at least defend an eight hour block of time where you lie in bed and rest). Get outside and move around. Your mind lives inside your body, and you cannot build on a broken foundation.</p>\n\n<p>My second piece of advice is to help yourself do this by getting help from a therapist. I particularly recommend looking into cognitive behavioral therapy, given your description of self-regulation: it is very good at helping people get out of dead ends that are more intellectual than organic.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42127,
"author": "James Palmer",
"author_id": 23409,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23409",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'll start by trying to answer your specific questions.</p>\n\n<p>(1) Yes, it is quite possible to improve your meta-cognitive skills (I think some people call this executive function) and emotional skills. I considered developing a part of my Ph.D. education. Actively seek to develop it now and for the rest of your career. You can make a positive change for yourself.</p>\n\n<p>(2) Now, this is where long-term thinking will really benefit you. <em>You need to rest.</em> Taking time to rest each day and weekend will help you the most, because then you are refreshed. I had a revelation earlier this week: Just because a behavior <em>feels productive</em>, doesn't mean it is productive! That includes arbitrarily set long hours. Treat your research as a job if it helps. Set hours for yourself each day, and then go home and let your mind rest when the day is over. That being said, I don't think you should count hours on a spreadsheet as you have been. You haven't accounted for the quality of your work, which will suffer without rest. Even if you work fewer total hours, your net productivity will increase if you make the time to rest.</p>\n\n<p>I sometimes had difficulty feeling passion and wonder, and I had a couple of slower years before I figured it out. It is perfectly normal for you have a slower, difficult period during your research. Don't beat yourself up over it, because research is inherently difficult and you will thank yourself for persevering.</p>\n\n<p>I actually became most productive towards the end of my Ph.D. program when I was able to relate how everything I was doing worked towards completion of the degree, which is something I really <em>wanted</em>. What I am trying to say is that I <em>really wanted</em> to understand the research field I was working in and because I made sure I was rested and had the right support system for myself I could focus on the research when it was time to work. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42139,
"author": "wdb",
"author_id": 32080,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32080",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I agree with @jakebeal and @James Palmer, as well as the comments.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>I used cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to get through my Ph.D., and it helped.</li>\n<li>I also used <em>mindfulness</em> practices. I recommend yoga and meditation. There are different types/approaches to meditation, and mindfulness is not exactly the same as meditation, but it includes a form of meditation. Jon Kabat-Zinn has a number of books on mindfulness, and his approach appealed to the analytic part of me. In particular, I recommend <em>The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness</em> which combines mindfulness practice with CBT. Kabat-Zinn is not the primary author, but the book includes a CD with guided meditations by Kabat-Zinn, and the authors' approach to mindfulness is in line with Kabat-Zinn's approach. (Kabat-Zinn is not a therapist.)</li>\n<li>You can develop the meta-cognitive and emotional skills to finish your Ph.D., but I wouldn't not depend on your colleagues and mentors to help with that. Many people in academia don't have those skills themselves, and it is possible to succeed in academia without adequate skills in those areas. It may eventually catch up with people, and success without such skills may cause a lot of collateral damage to health and family and friends along the way, but it is possible.</li>\n<li>Whether it's for the sake of succeeding or for the sake of valuing yourself, you have to take care of yourself. Nutrition, adequate sleep, relaxation and recreation, and meaningful, nourishing social interactions are crucial for success and happiness. It was hard for me to prioritize those needs, so I understand. If it helps to think of fulfilling those needs in order to achiieve academic success, that's fine. I think that along the way, you'll find that fulfilling them is an end in itself for your own happiness. You are worth it.</li>\n<li>So hang in there. We've been there. Academia has a lot of dysfunction (like any achievement-based endeavor), but if you get to do what you want, you may find that it is worth it nonetheless. Remember academia is not the same as the subject area you are passionate about. Academia is the predominiant context that your subject area is pursued. Let your passion for the subject drive you to make sacrifices and get through the grind of it. In the short term (which may include the whole time of completing the Ph.D.), you may not feel much of the passion. It's the longer term passion that is the motivation. If that is gone, then you need to consider if you are on the right path. (You may or may not be. I can't answer that.) In other words, don't give up if you don't feel the passion in the short term, but <em>if</em> you don't feel it in the longer term, think about it.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Good luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42159,
"author": "Blaisorblade",
"author_id": 8966,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8966",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Unless your PhD is externally managed, completing a PhD is often <em>dependent</em> on learning soft skills.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I feel that I am working 24/7 at half capacity, whereas I would prefer to work 5 or 6 days in the week at full capacity.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yep: at least in CS, people's productivity correlates more with efficient working and less with working a lot. (I believe math or theoretical physics wouldn't be different).</p>\n\n<p>Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) might be helpful. In my case, similar problems were the result of perfectionism: imposing on myself standards that are so high to be harmful. According to rumors, perfectionism helps to enter a PhD, but it gets in the way of completing it. Don't trust me, a stranger on the Internet, but consider looking at <a href=\"http://www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=52\" rel=\"nofollow\">this professional self-help material</a> and seeking counseling.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I have trouble focusing on one subject for a very long time. I often get bored after some weeks, wanting to jump immediately to something else.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In the end, you should find a PhD topic that you care about enough to focus on it. How to get there, and which topics to study/work on, is something your supervisor should help you with—you might need to seek him explicitly.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42202,
"author": "geometrikal",
"author_id": 32124,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32124",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can relate completely. My PhD has been dragging on for a long time, and I feel like years of life have evaporated. I don't have all the answers, but these are some of the things that helped me:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>The pomodoro technique. From Wikipedia:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Decide on the task to be done</li>\n<li>Set the pomodoro timer to n minutes (traditionally 25)</li>\n<li>Work on the task until the timer rings; record with an x</li>\n<li>Take a short break (3–5 minutes)</li>\n<li>After four pomodori, take a longer break (15–30 minutes)</li>\n</ul></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>There are apps for this. The 3-5 minute break is important to refresh the brain.</p>\n\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li><p>Use exercise as a break. Makes body healthier, regen's brain.</p></li>\n<li><p>Stop drinking coffee, or any caffeine, it's like baby meth. I read a psychology study where the participants who drank lots of coffee dropped a whole point for their GPA for the semester.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Answer to 2) You can never have the wonder and passion all the time. People who are constantly 'following their passion' are rare and perhaps mentally disturbed. Playing with ideas is 90% of the fun but 10% of the work. I try to find some pleasure in the tedious stuff by doing it 'right'. LaTeX helps cause it makes pretty things.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42117",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22371/"
] |
42,131 |
<p>I was wondering if it is okay to work in different lab during summer.</p>
<p>I am first year master's student and currently I am working in the lab as volunteer at my college. During summer (May through August), because of housing/financial reasons, I have to go back home which is in different state. Despite wasting my summer without doing anything, I want to work in the lab in the different college that is working on similar project and the lab that is located near my home. Can I do that? I guess I care about if it would be rude or not. I will definitely tell my current P.I. and potential summer P.I. about it but I wanted to make sure it's okay before I proceed.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42132,
"author": "Austin Henley",
"author_id": 746,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/746",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Ask your advisor.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Whether it is <em>okay</em> or not will depend entirely on him. He may have some reason why he wouldn't want you to (rational or not). It shouldn't come across as rude if you ask him openly and express your reasoning (have to go back home but would still like to be research productive and may be a good opportunity to network with the other lab). </p>\n\n<p>Whether the other lab will let you, is a different question entirely. Another option is working remotely with your current lab.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42134,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>It depends on funding.</strong></p>\n\n<p>If your advisor at your master's program is providing you with a year-round stipend, then you should secure permission in advance, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/42132/53\">as suggested by Austin Henley</a>.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if you are in fact volunteering in the laboratory as part of your master's program (or are doing it for course credit), and are not receiving either a salary or stipend for your work during the term, then your advisor really does not have the right to control your work during the summer if classes are not in session.</p>\n\n<p>In any event, you should let your advisor know about your situation, as your PI may have advice or recommendations. However, this is purely informative.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42131",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32078/"
] |
42,136 |
<p>An industrial chemist conceptualized, first synthesized, characterized and patented a novel drug. They then transferred the synthetic technology (at the 3kg scale) to a CRO for preparation under cGMP conditions, substantially helped in drafting the "clinical trial investigator brochure", and provided advise throughout the trial. Should they be granted coauthorship of the paper reporting the trial?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42140,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The <a href=\"http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">ICMJE guidelines</a> says that authors must meet four requirements:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND</p>\n<p>Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND</p>\n<p>Final approval of the version to be published; AND</p>\n<p>Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Without knowing your field, it sounds like you think you satisfy the first requirement. It doesn't sound like you meet the final three. While I disagree with the guidelines and think hat everyone who meets the first requirement should be given the option to meet the other three, the guidelines do not require that.</p>\n<p>This sounds like a situation where you should talk to the lead investigator. Ideally the conversation should have happened early on, but now is better than never.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42170,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To me, the key point in this is the fact that the person participated in formulating the experimental protocol for the trial (assuming that's what \"Clinical trial investigator brochure\" means). Everything before this has presumably already been reported in other papers, which means citations, not authorship (if it somehow hasn't, then authorship is warranted). Significant participation in the design of an experiment, however, is generally sufficient to warrant authorship, and I see no reason it would be otherwise in the case as presented.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42136",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32082/"
] |
42,138 |
<p>Someday, as strange as it feels to me right now, I might be asked to review an article for publication. A while ago my advisor and I were talking about this, and it hit me that I don't really know how to be a good reviewer, beyond the basics:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Respond timely to things,</p></li>
<li><p>Make your report clear and detailed,</p></li>
<li><p>Have actually read the paper,</p></li>
<li><p>Etc.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Beyond this, though, I'm completely in the dark. So I'd like to ask:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What's some good advice for a first-time reviewer?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My field is math, but I'm really interested in <em>general</em> advice (although advice specific to math, or another field, would also be interesting and useful).</p>
<hr>
<p><em>I'd like to make this question "community wiki" or analogous, but I can't seem to figure out how - if someone can do so, please do, and then I will delete this paragraph.</em></p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42148,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's hard to give good advice in a concise way about what makes for a good review. The thing is, one knows a good review if one sees one (and the opposite is true as well). So, with my students and postdocs, I occasionally given them reviews I write or receive as examples, and we discuss what makes it good or bad.</p>\n\n<p>If you are a graduate student without having much of a track record publishing yourself, then chances are that you will get papers to review from one of your professors, and that you will know him/her personally. When that happens, ask them for examples of good and bad reviews they have received in the past, then base your review on those.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42169,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think reviewing is a good \"golden rule\" situation: treat others as you yourself would like to be treated. For me, that means:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Be prompt</li>\n<li>Be respectful and professional in tone</li>\n<li>State clearly what you find of value in the paper, as well as your critiques</li>\n<li><p>Clearly separate critiques into three categories:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Serious problems that can affect the soundness or relevance of the work presented</li>\n<li>Issues that need to be addressed, but don't call the work into question</li>\n<li>Minor points for the improvement and polishing of the manuscript.</li>\n</ol></li>\n<li><p>Base all of your statements on supportable fact, not opinion.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42173,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is mostly just a whole bunch of comments strung together.</p>\n\n<p>First, I think you <em>should</em> look for advice specific to refereeing math papers, as refereeing in math is quite different than most other fields. (Though it's perfectly valid to ask for general advice now, at some point you should want to know about refereeing specifically in math.)</p>\n\n<p>Second, here are some places with advice:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.ams.org/notices/201010/rtx101001245p.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Attributes of an ideal referee</a>, Notices of the AMS</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://mathoverflow.net/q/36596/6518\">Refereeing a paper</a>, from MathOverflow</li>\n<li><a href=\"https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/1893\">How do I referee a paper,</a> from TCS SE</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>One thing I would disagree with in the first article is the statement that \"The referee is expected primarily to check the correctness of the paper.\" I would say the primary job is to assess the <em>importance</em> of the paper, which includes correctness, though it is not always expected that the referee check every detail.</p>\n\n<p>Anyway, since your question is rather broad, I suggest you read this and other Q&A's here and on MO, and then if you have more specific questions you can ask them separately.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42240,
"author": "Maarten van Wesel",
"author_id": 32146,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32146",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>in addition to the above;\nBe frank if you:\na) are unable to be timely\nb) feel you are not qualified to review the article (lacking knowledge in the used methodology, statics or field).</p>\n\n<p>This will save all parties time and resources</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42138",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32085/"
] |
42,141 |
<p>I have a nice problem but it's making me miserable. </p>
<p>My background is in visual communication and I'm used to getting regular feedback as well as seeing what my classmates are up to. Also, the grades we would get back then didn't really matter but the quality of the work was what would land us a job later so I'm always concerned with the quality of what I'm doing. Also, this sometimes makes me feel like I'm starting with a handicap as I'm not used to writing papers and English is not my first language.</p>
<p>Ever since I joined a Master's program in a different field, I can't seem to set reasonable expectations for myself (or align my expectations to the ones for the course). As I work on a project, I keep finding holes and making it better until I'm satisfied. Since there is little feedback and that I don't know what my classmates are doing, I just do my best or as close as I'm able to. The nice part is that sometimes the work ends up having potential for publication, I get a nice GPA and the esteem of my teachers. The not-so-good part is that I just don't have a life until school is over and my stress is really ramping up. The obvious solution would be to not try so hard but that seems like a waste of an education.</p>
<p>Any advice?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 45139,
"author": "Ron",
"author_id": 34302,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34302",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Emillie,\nI to struggle with the same issues. I am working on my Masters as well. I have a few handicaps that make my life a bit difficult when trying to do my best. When I ask my professors questions, I get, Keep up the good work, if you require more time, let me know. Never the answer to what I am actually asking for. Anyways, I strive for one day at time. I keep my head up and continue to find enjoyment in small things, to keep my head from exploding on the larger things. </p>\n\n<p>Remember why you started what your doing now. Pull your energy from your roots/background. And focus on why you want to do what your doing! What is your end game?</p>\n\n<p>Try to get some exercise, specifically cardiovascular. </p>\n\n<p>Then start to eat the elephant again, one bite at a time. </p>\n\n<p>There are those who don't want you to succeed, and strive on seeing you fail, because that is one less person in the pool or class. When you do finish, and you will, keep that in mind! Be a motivator!</p>\n\n<p>Good Luck, \nRon</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 45159,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Great answer by Ron. I have some additional specific suggestions for you.</p>\n\n<p>What you are suffering from is sometimes called school anxiety. Practice telling people that you are suffering from school anxiety, so it will roll off your tongue without causing you distress. Then you'll be ready to talk to your professors about it. Make a special appointment with each one. If it's easier to bring a friend or a representative of the Disability Services office with you, for moral support, go ahead.</p>\n\n<p>In the appointment, tell the professor calmly that you have been suffering from school anxiety. Hopefully at that point the professor will jump in and ask, \"Is there anything I can do to support you?\" If not, that's okay, you can just start talking about things s/he can do to support you. Specifically, what I have in mind is for you to send the professor a draft before you feel finished, for feedback. This kind of hand-holding can help prevent anxious over-editing.</p>\n\n<p>Also, you should be working with the college Writing Center. That will also help prevent over-editing, and it will help get you out of your isolation.</p>\n\n<p>The other thing you can do in that last regard is to interact more with classmates and department mates. Try to find a study partner or study group. Look for notices on bulletin boards about Friday volleyball. If there aren't any, put one up yourself. (Volleyball was just an example, of course.)</p>\n\n<p>It's fine to be meticulous and hard-working, but when you see the editing making you miserable, that's a red flag, and it's time to build in more support for yourself.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 45167,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a situation that you simply cannot balance without making some changes to your lifestyle. The most important point is to take breaks, and <strong><em>not</strong> to feel guilty for doing so</em>. </p>\n\n<p>The other answerers have good suggestions on productive ways to spend break time, but there are less productive ways as well. Go to parties or bars, have a few drinks. Go on holiday. Join a board game club. Some people just need other people, and if you're that sort of person then it can eat at you from the inside if you spend all your time working in solitude.</p>\n\n<p>If you are the sort of person who can stick to a well-defined schedule, then I would suggest scheduling your leisure activities well in advance, and try to keep to a routine that you do not break unless it's really necessary.</p>\n\n<p>Lastly, give yourself at least one day in the weekend where you <em>do not work</em> unless you're super-motivated, genuinely want to get something done, and have no personal things that need doing.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42141",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11673/"
] |
42,143 |
<p>I would really appreciate any advice or suggestions anyone might have. I am currently a senior mathematics major, about to graduate in May. For two years, I have planned on going for my PhD in pure mathematics (my highest interests have been in algebra, number theory, and discrete math). I applied to 8 PhD programs and 1 masters program, the masters program just for the heck of it. I was accepted into the masters program, but I was rejected from 6 PhD programs and wait-listed on the other two. Neither of these last two would I <em>really</em> want to go to, but I would be happy at either of them nonetheless. </p>
<p>Now, the masters program is at Ohio State and gives full tuition waiver plus a minimum monthly stipend of $1950, plus a significantly reduced health insurance bill. The program specifically is the Master of Mathematical Sciences with concentration in Computational Sciences. The department is super lenient as to which courses I can take outside of their main core courses, as long as my course plan fits the computational theme and as long as my advisor signs off. </p>
<p>So, my question is, should I go to the masters program or should I go to one of the PhD programs (if I'm even accepted; again, I'm still wait-listed)? Will finishing this MMS program at Ohio State help my chances of getting in to a top-notch PhD program in the future? How common is it (in mathematics) for mathematicians to earn a (non-"incidental") masters degree before pursuing their PhD? </p>
<p>Thanks! Let me know if you want any clarification or further information. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42154,
"author": "ali.hash",
"author_id": 32092,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32092",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would recommend you start a program where you can begin your masters and then have the option to move on to a PhD (many programs have that option). I am just finishing my masters now in statistics and will not pursue a PhD anytime soon. Two reasons. One reason is because I want to work and make money. Second reason: I don't think I can stand being in school for <em>another</em> three years... in addition to more exams, thesis, and comp exams. </p>\n\n<p>Maybe in the future I might change my mind. Or maybe an employer (like many do today) will help pay for me to pursue a PhD. You never know :)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42156,
"author": "james h",
"author_id": 24643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24643",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>At this point it seems like your choice is actually whether to go for the Masters or not. So, you can either wait another year and apply again with the same application as before, hoping that you'll be luckier and get admitted somewhere... or you can get a jump-start on graduate studies, study for a couple of years, write up a good thesis (by all means, you should do a thesis) and then if you still want to go for the PhD you will have solid grades in graduate-level courses, a fresh batch of recommendations, some publishable work and a new perspective on whether to continue studies or enter industries, all of which would make you look that much better in the eyes of admissions committees -- all for $0. Given that you want to end up with a PhD, it seems like a no-brainer to me. :)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42157,
"author": "che_kid",
"author_id": 6093,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6093",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm not in mathematics so take my answer for what it is. \nThe fact that you were turned down by 6 PhD programs suggests that your applications probably weren't too strong. Maybe you had bad grades, bad test scores, bad recommendations, etc. Or you simply overestimated your application strength and applied to schools beyond your reach (i.e. top 15 schools). </p>\n\n<p>Whatever it is, you need to overcome these shortcomings in your credentials. A Masters degree could be a great way to prove that you are grad school material, especially if you can demonstrate that you fit in academia by publishing article(s). This could be a jumping point to a decent PhD program. Generally, graduate programs would rather accept successful masters students over successful bachelors students, simply because good masters students already know the system and how to make it work. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42143",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32088/"
] |
42,146 |
<p>Is it acceptable for a math paper to have no concluding section? The structure is currently as follows:</p>
<ol>
<li>Introduction (known results + the paper's main results as 3 theorems)</li>
<li>Preliminaries (proper definitions of all the things and recalling of results used in the proofs)</li>
<li>Proofs (actually, several lemmas and proofs of them, and of the theorems)</li>
<li>Open problems</li>
</ol>
<p>It's quite a short paper. I thought that since the Introduction is actually containing all the important stuff, making a Conclusions section would be only repeating the same stuff again. However, I'm not sure if this is considered a poor style in maths.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42147,
"author": "Noah Schweber",
"author_id": 32085,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32085",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Plenty of papers in math don't have a conclusion, or even a separate \"open problems\" section at the end - in fact, I think this is the norm.</p>\n\n<p>Some specific examples: <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.05803v1.pdf\">http://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.05803v1.pdf</a>, <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.05884v1.pdf\">http://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.05884v1.pdf</a>, and <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.05880v1.pdf\">http://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.05880v1.pdf</a> - currently the first papers listed on the arxiv in logic, number theory, and algebraic geometry - have no conclusions.</p>\n\n<p>Although, it is also by no means unheard of: <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.05799v1.pdf\">http://arxiv.org/pdf/1503.05799v1.pdf</a> and <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.05902\">http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.05902</a> - the first papers in the \"commutative algebra\" and \"algebraic topology\" sections - do have (very short) conclusion-y sections.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42149,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The majority of papers in pure math have no concluding section. In fact, such papers most commonly end with the last line of the proof of the last main result (or the last lemma needed for the last main result) of the paper.</p>\n\n<p>I think that I have never seen a pure math paper that has a concluding section in the sense of other academic papers, i.e., whose sole purpose is to summarize what has already happened. Some math papers have a final section which is more forward-looking. Your current structure has as a final section \"Open Problems\". That is as close to a concluding section as I've ever seen. </p>\n\n<p>In fact though even this much is often not really appreciated or desired (by editors and referees anyway): many of my earlier papers contained a substantial \"open problems / further work\" section. Once I got the complaint that it seemed that I was trying to stake out territory (and there was some truth to that, I suppose). More than once I've been told that including too much speculation can be \"embarrassing\" when the truth comes to light. (In one case, I recorded computations that suggested a surprising conjecture. The referee said that I could keep that in if I wanted, but strongly implied that if I were more experienced I would know not to do this. I left it in, and a few years later my first student proved a theorem confirming these calculations.) In general if you include too much material in a math paper which is not directly used to prove the theorems of the paper, then referees start to wonder whether there is enough content in the paper to justify taking up all that valuable journal space: they could after all publish another theorem and proof instead. (And let's be fair: \"they\" have a point.)</p>\n\n<p>If you're relatively young and inexperienced and hoping for best results on the rapid publication of your work in strong journals, I would stick pretty mercilessly to the format: (i) strong introduction motivating your work and explaining clearly the value added both in the results themselves and the techniques of proof and (ii) the rest of the paper contains careful proofs of all the results, in a very clear, linear, easy to follow fashion, e.g. \"Section A.B: Proof of Lemma C\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 52434,
"author": "David Ketcheson",
"author_id": 81,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In applied math (at least in my subfield), most papers <em>do</em> have a conclusion, and it's almost always a useless repetition of things already stated in the introduction (sometimes word-for-word). Please don't follow that pattern!</p>\n\n<p>I try to use a conclusion only if there are general observations or discussion that I wish to include and that would not make sense in the introduction. This is rarely the case.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42146",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1471/"
] |
42,151 |
<p>I am a student in social science who got into quantitative research at the start of my graduate school. Since then, I have had the valuable opportunity to take many Statistics classes and become aware of this world I had not known before. However, with it comes the curse of envy, as I cannot help but feel that my discipline, albeit using quantitative methods, is not as sophisticated (i.e. using a method without understanding the assumption and the derivation, basically relying on canned statistical package that others recommend). Outside of academia, the industry job market has also spoken that these quant researchers are more valuable than I am.</p>
<p>With this attitude of mine, I've become increasingly cynical about my discipline. I don't feel that the work that we do is "scientific" and "accumulating knowledge." I don't think that my industry job market can be competitive. This obviously has harmful effect on both my mental health and my research. I just want to learn more stats, write more code, instead of doing the research of my field.</p>
<p>On rare moments of clarity, I suppose this envious feeling is turtle all the way down perhaps. I'm envious of the statisticians, but maybe the statisticians are envious of the mathematicians, etc. This is why I decide to ask Academia Stackexchange for perspective.</p>
<p>From my occasional conversations, I get a sense that some of my fellow students may have the same feelings. However, given the toxic nature of my thoughts, I can't really discuss them widely with friends, not to mention with my professors.</p>
<p>How to deal with these thoughts?</p>
<p>PS: <a href="http://xkcd.com/435/">The relevant xkcd</a> that will inevitable show up in the comments :-)</p>
<p>PPS: Given the gravity and scope of this question, I don't feel entitled to picking a "correct" answer. Thus I will just let the community upvotes decide the visibility of the answers. I hope that the answerers don't mind -- thank you for your insights.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42160,
"author": "somerandomdude",
"author_id": 31255,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31255",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I've had the same feeling in the past and I still have it to some extent. However, for me it is within areas of engineering. Personally, I switched fields within my major and started over again.</p>\n\n<p>I was a Mechanical Engineering PhD student studying experimental fluid mechanics and at some point I realized I'm more interested in instrumentation, sensors, signal processing, etc. I also realized that I enjoy coding. I eventually got a master's degree and left the program. My plan was to work for a year or two and take my time to make up my mind about whether or not I want to go back to graduate school.</p>\n\n<p>Getting a job was so difficult that it really did make me envy computer science graduates (since there were many more opportunities for them and as an undergrad I was very close to choosing CS). Once I got a job, I really didn't like the work that much anyway so I was really encouraged to go back to grad school. My biggest problem was that I was afraid of changing major since I felt like I didn't have the necessary background to study EE or CS. I also didn't think I would be admitted to any CS or EE program and I didn't have the extra cash to apply to too many grad programs. I ended up applying to ME programs again and once I joined a graduate program I tried to join research groups which were multidisciplinary. I eventually ended up in a group which does robotics work which combines all the areas I'm interested in. Personally, I'm extremely glad I made the change. I like the field much better and my research is much more interesting; however, I am also always aware that I'm a bit older than my peers and I'm also aware that I left a well paying job and a decent career for this and I'm silently afraid that I'll end up having trouble finding a job I like again (because I feel CS and EE majors get most the robotics jobs) and I'll end up settling for something similar to what I had in the first place....And that leads back to the envy thing you were talking about...I still envy CS and EE majors. Although not nearly as much as I used to.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42161,
"author": "Drecate",
"author_id": 16049,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16049",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think one thing you should bear in mind is that the superiority and appropriateness of a research method is determined by the nature of the research question. While quantitative methods have the advantage of, for example, being precise, qualitative research methods still have its place. Qualitative research captures aspects of the physical/social world that does not lend themselves to quantification. One example of combining qualitative and quantitative research methods in social science is the book <em>Soul Searching</em> by Christian Smith, where you can see how face-to-face interviews provide unique insight into adolescent religiosity that is not revealed by quantitative survey questions. To overcome the feeling that social science is not \"scientific\", I would recommend the book <em>How to Think Straight about Psychology</em> by Stanovich, which gives a nice argument as to why psychology (and really social science in general) is scientific even though such disciplines do not use any fancy equipment or rigorous math.</p>\n\n<p>If it would make you feel better, I simply point out even disciplines such as mathematics that is considered more \"rigorous\" and \"hard\" have their own issues that threaten the validity and interpretation of the discipline (e.g., Gödel's incompleteness theorems and the Löwenheim–Skolem theorem).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42165,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Background</strong>: I'm an academic in psychology that endeavours to apply innovative statistical techniques to answer psychological research questions. Over the years I have shared some of your concerns. While standard training in undergraduate and postgraduate psychology teaches many advanced statistical techniques, it is often taught at a high level that focuses on effectively using standardised software. In order to achieve my aims of applying innovative statistical methods, I spent years doing short courses and teaching myself a whole range of things: (a) a university mathematics curriculum in probability, mathematical statistics, calculus, linear algebra, etc; (b) proper statistical computing tools such as R, unix command line tools, and a wide range of other computing concepts; (c) more advanced statistics relevant to my area (e.g., Bayesian statistics, psychometrics, etc.).</p>\n\n<p>I've also spent quite a bit of time interacting with people quantitatively trained in other areas (e.g., statisticians, biostatisticians, and mathematically focused practitioners). These interactions gave me a greater appreciation of what skills different fields do and don't possess. It also helped to clarify not only the quantitative shortcomings of my training, but also the strengths of my existing psychological training.</p>\n\n<h3>Some general principles</h3>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Think about what you are trying to achieve with your career</strong>. Plenty of social science academics and researchers function very effectively with only the standard understanding of quantitative methods. I've also seen many consulting areas related to psychology where it is the people that manage the client relationships that earn a lot more money, and the people doing the quantitative work get much less (to quote a phrase I've heard, the quants may be doing the \"grunt work\"). I just mention this to highlight the alternative perspective. Like me, you may find it fulfilling to be an academic who applies cutting-edge quantitative techniques to their discipline. </li>\n<li>If you have a passion for quantitative methods but your training is in the social sciences, you can always <strong>acquire more quantitatively rigorous skills</strong>. Do formal courses; watch videos; work through text books; work on projects that require a greater level of understanding.</li>\n<li><strong>Appreciate the skills that you have</strong>. If you judge your skills by the values of a different discipline, you are likely to be disappointed: knowledge of theories and empirical findings in your discipline; methodology, design measurement techniques relevant to your discipline; and so on. There are likely to be a whole range of skills that you take for granted that people in other more quantitatively rigorous disciplines would typically not possess.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>Follow-up questions: balancing substantive and method work</strong></p>\n\n<p><strong>1. How do you balance learning new techniques with achieving research outcomes?</strong></p>\n\n<p>I think this is an instance of the general trade-off between investing in self-improvement and producing valued output. To some extent this trade-off should be in the minds of all PhD students. And it does not stop when you move into academia. A few random thoughts:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>A PhD is a period where you will have quite a bit of time to invest in learning new skills. It's important to make the most of it.</li>\n<li>Pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps can teach you a lot. However, if you can find an advisor that has treaded the path (e.g., someone who has the skills that you want to acquire) you can save a lot of time.</li>\n<li>Engage in projects with tangible outcomes that stretch you but that you are capable of achieving. For example, you might do a study for your PhD that requires you to do some innovative statistical technique. In particular, in social science fields, there are plenty of opportunities to use your statistical skills to get co-authorship on papers with your less statistically literate colleagues.</li>\n<li>Remember that quantitative skills are only part of being a well-rounded PhD student / academic. Its important to keep building up these other skills in parallel. Trying to produce a tangible output (like a publication or a thesis) will keep you grounded in terms of whether you are developing your skills in a balanced way.</li>\n<li>Consider engaging in other career relevant activities that will further develop your quantitative skills. Typical examples include industry consulting, teaching, and statistical consulting.</li>\n<li>The world of quantitative skills is very broad. It can be good to focus on particular areas. Academia values focus.</li>\n<li>Balancing the trade-off between learning and producing output depends a lot of personal circumstances. How certain are you that the skills you are developing now are actually relevant to where you want to go? What short term pressures do you have to produce tangible outputs? How willing and able are you to delay immediate rewards for a longer term goal?</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>2. How do you deal with the issue that substantive research seems to be valued more than methodological work?</strong></p>\n\n<p>I think methodological work is valued, and you can do research that draws on both your substantive and methodological strengths.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Some of the most cited papers in the social sciences are methodological papers (e.g., Barron and Kenny's 1984 mediator-moderator paper has over 49,000 citations on Google Scholar). </li>\n<li>Your quantitative skills can be highly valued in research collaborations. This can help you get co-authorship where perhaps other authors have more substantive expertise. Nonetheless, your background in the discipline will give you an advantage over a straight statistician because it will be easier for you to communicate with the substantive collaborator. </li>\n<li>You can make substantive contributions to your field using innovative quantitative methods. At the very least you should be able to interpret quantitative results better than others if you have deep understanding of quantitative methods. All these things can help with your research goals.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42166,
"author": "Fraïssé",
"author_id": 20070,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20070",
"pm_score": 1,
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"text": "<p>I am an engineer with a minor in sociology and was a winner of one my University's most prestigious sociology awards as an undergrad in engineering. I am deeply inspired by a professor with three degrees, civil, mechanical and sociology who studied extensively on the effect of industrialization. </p>\n\n<p>I am in the reverse situation. I know that what I am learning is more accessible to a career, more rigorous as you say, but at the same time I am keenly aware that it is not fundamentally transforming my society and the human experience.</p>\n\n<p>How can I continue my work in a bubble when there are so much inequality in the world, so much negligence in the world, how is it that my little equations will change the fundamentally racist social hierarchy in America, lift people out of poverty, repair the hurt felt by Native Americans that drives them to abuse and suicide or stop exploitation of third world workers in this new age slavery? </p>\n\n<p>How is flappy bird going to do all this, what is the merit of creating the new facebook, what is the point for accelerating the processor by one more microsecond or create a voice activated keyboard?</p>\n\n<p>The question ultimately lies your realistic outlook on life. Many people lose sight to what they truly wish to do when money suddenly the biggest factor in their life. I know countless engineers now studying computer science because the field has more job opening, this is not what they want to do. People in software development often works without very deep understanding of the background theory, and many people find it difficult to swallow. Many go back to school, but most stay in industry. Engineers envies physics and math majors, applied math envies pure math majors, biologist envies biochemists, software people envies computer science people, computer science people envies pure math people and you know the pure math majors are going to envy software people when it comes time to graduate...and the cycle continues. </p>\n\n<p>So my two cents is to see the connection between one's work and what one wishes to do, there has to be a connection some how and work along that connection. Einstein found the truth about our universe while working as a clerk, I wonder what was going through his mind as a clerk, I wonder if he ever realized that he was going to be remembered forever by the entire human race. In my engineering work I find opportunity to work with local disadvantaged communities and native communities and I do my part in establishing a bridge. No matter what career you wind up going to, you will be able to see a connection and that connection has a fundamental value that is going to go beyond any monetary or social gain. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42168,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Speaking as one outside of the social sciences whose work has been strongly influenced by readings from social science, I think it may be clearer if you tease apart three concepts that are often conflated: rigor, funding, and importance:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The mathematical or analytical rigor of a subject makes it more difficult for outsiders to understand or hold an opinion on, and inaccessibility can make things seem more important, but all it really shows is that it is hard to understand. </li>\n<li>The amount of money thrown at a subject is another easy proxy for importance, but all that really shows is either popularity or market structure.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Social sciences actually deal with a lot of the really hard problems of society, the things that we all struggle with and don't know how to deal with well, like injustice and politics and social conflict. We in the hard sciences and engineering like to pretend that we can solve these problems by the injection of new technologies, but all we can really do is create disruptions that destabilize the current order, following which society may become either more inclusive (e.g., the creation of the internet) or more exploitative (e.g., the creation of QoS protocols, leading to the current battle over net neutrality).</p>\n\n<p>Social sciences are further challenged by problems of instrumentation (most of what they care about is really hard or inappropriate to measure), replicability (many phenomena are large enough or long enough duration that we've only got one or a few data points), and experimental controls (many interesting experiments cannot be performed because they would be horrifyingly unethical, e.g., isolating populations from the rest of society).</p>\n\n<p>And yet... and yet I think the social sciences produce some of the most important work for us as humanity, because the work done therein is part of the reason that <a href=\"http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr.\">the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice</a>.</p>\n\n<p>So I think it's OK for a social scientist to envy the accessibility of data for people who only need to build <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider\">a multi-billion dollar machine</a> in order to do their research. But don't envy them their field: your problems are just as important as theirs.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42171,
"author": "ako",
"author_id": 2652,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2652",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think your sentiment is fairly widespread in some quarters, and economics has been celebrated for its commitment to the quantitative method of generating new knowledge (but by the same token, after the Financial Crisis economics have been derided by its failure to venture outside its abstract models and understand actually existing economies, but that is an aside). However, as said by @Drecate, it really depends on your research question. There are many branches on the tree of knowledge, and many concepts used by, say, economists came from outside the discipline proper.</p>\n\n<p>Quantitative work is fascinating and can yield lots of insights. But they may be more of the 'how'-type questions than the 'why'-type. If you are interested in, say, the Cuba Crisis, and how it came as close as it did, or why New York's and San Francisco's housing- and gentrification policies may differ, you will need a lot more than just quantitative work. </p>\n\n<p>To me, a hallmark of the social sciences is that they meet the object of study where it is--some of it is uncovered through its many regularities with quantitative methods, but a vast number of socially interesting topics lie beyond such pursuits and call for decidedly qualitative work. <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/pdf/1304.1186.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">For an interesting exposition on some of these issues, see Bent Flyvbjerg's article on case studies.</a> </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42180,
"author": "Bnoooogers",
"author_id": 32111,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32111",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you were to look up from your examination of how green the grass is on the quantitative side of the fence, you might notice someone peering in the opposite direction (Surprise! That's me!).</p>\n\n<p>Like you, I like learning theories on how the world works, but my early math background led me to a college major in Physics. Seeking more of a human connection in my work (through direct application), I transitioned to engineering in grad school, specifically simulation work. As I learned more about mathematical modelling, I was exposed to examples from other disciplines, eg. economics, and learned the hard truth about mathematical models: they can be quite subjective.</p>\n\n<p>Mathematics is a normative discipline, so the results of modelling (statistical or otherwise) reflect only as much truth as your assumptions and simplifications leave behind. The 'softer' the discipline, the more assumptions you are forced to make in order to make the mathematics tractable. In many cases, the assumptions you make dictate the results of the model, in essence giving you an expensive, circular, and self-congratulatory pat on the back. So don't be dismayed by the lack of definitive answers delivered by social scientists; the quantitative folks aren't accomplishing as much as it might seem. It turns out the world is just hard to figure out.</p>\n\n<p>The point: If you have an interest in the quantitative side of the social sciences, by all means try to transition your research in that direction; there are plenty of people modelling social behavior, for example (check out <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence\">swarm intelligence</a>). But do so without harboring any delusions about the existence of a mathematical panacea that will reveal The Capital-T Truth. A wholesale degree change may be too expensive (or not, if you have the resources and patience), but moving within the department or to a suitable advisor at a different institution are options that might be of interest. </p>\n\n<p>Full disclosure: I am closing in on my ME now and plan to do exactly that in the summer/fall. I will try to leverage fluid modelling experience to move to energy policy/decision/economic modelling.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42183,
"author": "Walter Mitty",
"author_id": 26484,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26484",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think that the relationship between statistical math and real science has to lie at a deeper level. It's the level of the modeling of reality. Let's take Johannes Kepler for example. He came along after Tycho Brahe and before Isaac Newton. He spent about 20 years doing a detailed analysis of Brahe's observations, and managed to determine that the planets followed an elliptical path around the sun. But why ellipses? Why not some other shape? Kepler didn't have an answer.</p>\n\n<p>It wasn't until Newton came along, and came up with the mechanical model of gravitation and inertia, and added some new, high powered math to the mix, that ellipses suddenly \"made sense\". If you apply Newton's laws to the problem you find out that the paths have to be ellipses, to a first approximation. The reason I say approximation is that there are second order effects due to the attraction between the planets, and there are third order effects due to the fact that the planets follow Einstein's laws of motion, which are ever so slightly different than Newton's, in this situation.</p>\n\n<p>So, did Kepler waste 20 years of his life? I think not. But I wouldn't blame a contemporary of his who wondered what all this mathematical analysis was really all about.</p>\n\n<p>So, with regard to sociology, I'd say that they've been applying increasingly sophisticated mathematical methods and very, very primitive models to the field of study for the last 50 years. That's more or less the computer era, if you start with transistorized circuits. Transistors made computers much faster and much cheaper than they were before. And it made number crunching on a massive scale a feasible approach. </p>\n\n<p>Why are the models of sociology so primitive, when compared to physics, chemistry, or biology? I'm not sure, but I think it's because the system under study is fundamentally more complex. Physics, Chemistry, and Biology make advances in their models by abstracting out the aspects that \"don't matter\". Separating out what matters and what doesn't matter in sociology strikes me as ultimately difficult. There's more, but this is a far as I get, with limited brainpower.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42200,
"author": "Jeff",
"author_id": 32127,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32127",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Background: I have a Physics BS, a Masters in Cultural Anthropology (ethnography), and an Ph.D. cross disciplinary in mathematical methods in Psychology and Economics. I am now an academic psychologist (professor) and love my job. It consumes me in a good way. </p>\n\n<p>Even though I love my job, I am deeply disenchanted with the field. It feels so wrong for the following two reasons: I. The theory is culturally and linguistically circumscribed verbal dribble. My training in ethnography has left me critical of the ahistorical, acontextual explanations we use in psychology. II. Most people are celebrating complexity rather than searching for parsimony, lawfulness, or regularity. </p>\n\n<p>Being an intellectual outsider from the field gives me purpose. I use my quantitative and statistical skills to search for structure in data that is theoretically meaningful. I search for invariances rather than effects. Not simple invariances, but deeper ones. Is there only one shape of RT across all people and conditions? Do errors reflect guessing in that on those trials no stimulus information was processed, or is there partial processing? Can all ROC curves be described with a single factor model or do you need multiple factors (say from two processes)? Sometimes, given my skill set, I can answer questions in new ways that others haven't seen or thought of or are unprepared to do.</p>\n\n<p>My sense is that psychology desperately needs smart, talented young people who are going to challenge the status quo. The need is recognized and people who do so are often rewarded. </p>\n\n<p>Best,</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42215,
"author": "R.M.",
"author_id": 22409,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22409",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In your question you focus a lot on quantitative issues. But \"quantitative\" doesn't mean \"accurate\" or \"better\". As they say, \"lies, damn lies, and statistics\". You can use the most rigorous analytical techniques and get the narrowest confidence intervals and lowest p-values ever seen in your discipline, but if you're using convenience sampling and getting a less than 10% response rate your results are meaningless, regardless of how numerically sound they are. Likewise, if you ignore pertinent confounding variables, you might get answers which are technically correct, but informatively useless. (See <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpson%27s_paradox\" rel=\"nofollow\">Simpson's Paradox</a>.)</p>\n\n<p>If you haven't already, please read Feynman's \"<a href=\"http://neurotheory.columbia.edu/~ken/cargo_cult.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Cargo Cult Science</a>\" essay, particularly the part about the rats. (Yes, Feynman was sexist - just please read through the sexism and focus on what he's saying about Science.) Good science is trying to properly understand the world, and that takes more than just running a large amount of numbers though a sophisticated algorithm - even one where you know all the assumptions and derivations.</p>\n\n<p>In some respects, physics has it easy. The common joke with physicists' approach is \"imagine a frictionless spherical cow in a vacuum\". Even physicists will laugh a bit at that, because they know a lot of their success is due to oversimplifying problems. But they don't feel too bad about laughing as it's still success. They're able to simplify and isolate their study systems in ways that are impossible or immoral for a social scientist. What's more, they know where their methods start to fail and just have to throw up their hands and quit.</p>\n\n<p>Social scientists don't really get that luxury. They have to deal with humans as they are - messy, complex, interconnected and chaotic. You can't deal with the equivalent of a frictionless, spherical human in a vacuum. One, they wouldn't display the behavior you're interested in, and two, you'll never get IRB approval to actually do the test. That's part of where social scientist hate comes from - they're forced to deal with messy systems with very limited tools, trying their best and often, understandably, making a botch of things.</p>\n\n<p>That's not to say that there aren't a bunch of cruddy social scientists out there, or that a more rigorous approach wouldn't benefit them. It's just that throwing \"quantitative\" at the problem is cargo cult science. Better statistical techniques are worthless if your study system has ill-defined confounding variables or is intrinsically under-sampled.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding jobs, yes, employers are looking for quantitative skills, but mainly because that's what's easy to filter CVs for. What they're really after is <em>analytical</em> skills. Can you take this complex problem, with these difficult restrictions, put bounds on the system of study, and come up with a good analysis of the key question of interest despite all the mess? </p>\n\n<p>Keep in mind that the goal is not to be \"quantitatively rigorous\" but to be <em>scientifically</em> rigorous. Quantitative techniques are just a tool to do that, and might not be the main or even best tool for it. Also, even though employers say they want quantitative skills, what they really want is analytical skills, and a good social scientist should have those. In fact, in some areas they may even have an advantage, as they're used to dealing with the complexity of the human condition. You can't just say \"imagine a spherical homeowner ...\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42245,
"author": "foobarbecue",
"author_id": 11473,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11473",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm in a similar situation as you. I studied geography at Cambridge. I was interested in human geography -- I wanted to predict the growth of cities and calculate which side of the pavement people will walk on. Unfortunately, quantitative human geography has gone out of style at Cambridge and most other human geography institutions. Instead they argue about discourse, performativity and othering and read a lot of Foucalt. After a year or two I realized that most of what I was learning was insufficiently rigorous / quantitative to be of much use or interest. I experienced the same envy as you. I moved as far over to physical geography as I could but even that lacked rigor. By that point I had learned how to adeptly throw down nonsensical but convincing buzzwords, which enabled me to finish with a 1st class degree but a sense that the process was largely a charade. I vowed to do \"real science\" for grad school. I got an MS in Geochemistry and am now drifting towards geophysics as I complete my PhD. The whole time I've been getting more quantitative but wishing I'd started with the math and then gone soft instead of the opposite.</p>\n\n<p>So, to answer your question: indulge your envy! Go quantitative ASAP. You'll find that you actually DID learn useful critical thinking and writing skills which the quant folks often lack. Combine that with theoretical rigor and you'll write killer papers.</p>\n\n<p>Bear in mind that you cannot learn ALL the math. Sounds like you have a stats specialty; probably focus on that. Maybe get involved in an open source coding project which combines areas you already know with ones you want to learn.</p>\n\n<p>Also, try and separate \"good\" from \"bad\" envy here. If you want to have more powerful analytical tools and answer harder questions, that makes sense. But if you are being seduced by pretty 3D figures and expensive research equipment, be careful! I've been led astray by cool gadgetry more than once...</p>\n\n<p>One more thing... I learned to program from my friends during undergrad. I had friends in math and CS and their knowledge and enthusiasm was infectious. Knowing how to program in a couple of languages was the saving grace that really made the switch from soft to hard science possible for me.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 94604,
"author": "Ooker",
"author_id": 14341,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14341",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h1>Social disciplines are already as rigorous as their "rivals"</h1>\n<p>While being counterintuitive at it seems, let us return back to the basic question: where does the rigor of the natural disciplines come from? Being able to collect data and reduce them to formulas? But aren't they exactly what social scientists do everyday: observing and finding patterns? It isn't because social disciplines are so primitive that they aren't as quantitative as their rivals, it's because quantitative tools are so primitive that they can't be used effectively in them. There is no distinction between the two, albeit the surface it seems.</p>\n<p>While you envy them, they envy themselves: <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/2219/14341\">How should I deal with discouragement as a graduate student?</a> <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/44183/14341\">What do mathematics researchers do if they aren't good?</a> There is nothing wrong to say Einstein is the genius, <em>but it doesn't mean anybody else is less important</em>. That's what we call "teamwork". You have accepted a fact that at this very moment, your thoughts are toxic. This is deadly important, because only when you accept it, you will magically feel better immediately*. Then, with the relief in your hand, use it to find out <strong>how your work is important to the techie guys</strong>. It's already there, you just hasn't seen it yet. When and only when you find your own value, then your envy can stop.</p>\n<br>\n<br>\n<hr />\n<p><sub>*Psychology 101. How could social sciences not be wonderful?</sub></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 94609,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Two suggestions, from someone who is in a quantitative science that is \"one adjacent\" to social science, and who often scowls at my colleagues for ignoring social science and re-inventing the wheel from time to time:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Add More Rigor</strong>: Take more statistics classes, and in your own work, ground your analysis in statistically defensible methods. Economics, for example, has started running more randomized controlled trials, and social science has been responsible for a lot of work in social network analysis, agent based modeling, and other quantitative methods.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Don't Worship Math</strong>: Math =/= Rigor, as much as people like to conflate the two. This often occurs in my field - there will be some very elegant math, with a great many accompanying proofs, that doesn't actually map to anything in the real world.</p>\n\n<p>This has also been a criticism leveled against economics more recently - that sophisticated mathematical models have been used to cloak an element of magical thinking and give things a veneer of rigor without it actually being there.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 94610,
"author": "David",
"author_id": 62652,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62652",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One thing to bear in mind is that our <em>ability to evaluate the solution</em> to a problem is directly proportional to <em>certainty</em> with which we can answer questions about it. Very well defined problems can have very well defined answers. Less well defined questions necessarily have less well defined answers. The most well defined questions allow you to use numbers to solve them, but not all important questions fall into that category.</p>\n\n<p><strong><em>Social scientists aren't lazy, and there are many fields of social inquiry where statistical analysis doesn't really add to the conversation.</em></strong> To be clear, there are lazy scientists who could be doing things better, but you have to ask yourself what a detailed statistical analysis will contribute. We live in a culture that glorifies the scientific and assumes that if you can put a number to something then you know more than someone who can't, but that's not always the best way to approach things.</p>\n\n<p>Consider an engineer who wants to determine the ultimate strength of a new type of metal alloy. They build a bunch of metal rods and stick it in a machine that pulls the rod apart until it breaks. They do this 30 times, recording the force required to break the rod each time, and then do some statistics to show that 90% of their rods broke within +/- 5% of 30,000 PSI. This is a very well defined problem that admits a very well defined quantitative solution.</p>\n\n<p>Consider now an engineer who wants to build the strongest bridge possible subject to a $10 million dollar cost limit. This is a much more complicated problem, and given the huge number of design decisions it's not possible to actually find the single most optimal solution, but they can try many different possible designs and settle on the one that gives the highest strength while meeting all specified constraints. In this case the question is complex but admits a simple evaluation criteria (total strength), so it's easy to tell which of a hundred proposed designs is \"correct\"- the design with the highest strength.</p>\n\n<p>Now consider an engineer tasked to build the most environmentally friendly bridge. Suddenly you don't even necessarily know how to formulate reasonable questions, much less find the \"correct\" solution. There is no well defined measure of \"environmentally friendly\". One bridge might generate a million tons of CO2 in the atmosphere to build, while another bridge might generate ten million tons of CO2. The second bridge runs through sensitive wetlands and will probably kill a species of endangered turtle. Is an extra 9 million tons of CO2 in the atmosphere worth killing and endangered turtle? We can quantify the possible alternatives precisely, but the question does not admit an optimal well-defined solution.</p>\n\n<p>Likewise, psychology has some very well defined questions with very well defined answers. The military has done a lot of research into what it takes to train someone to shoot and kill another person on command. In WW2 a man named SLA Marshall did simple observational studies that showed that around 75% of troops would not shoot another human and did not fire their weapons in combat even if their own life was in danger. Thus, the psychological question \"How many people are willing to kill another to save their own life?\" is quantitatively and unambiguously answerable: about 25%.</p>\n\n<p>There are more complex questions that have less well defined answers. The military's next question was how they could get more people to fire their weapon in combat. They experimented with a number of techniques, but in Dave Grossman's book <em>On Killing</em> he reports that by the time Vietnam rolled around the military was able to increase the firing rate from 25% to 90%. We can pose and answer a second question analogous to the engineer who wanted to build the strongest bridge: What training technique should the military use to maximize the firing rate of their soldiers?</p>\n\n<p>However, Grossman and others have proposed that the increase in firing rate has increased the incidence of PTSD and related psychological disability by causing people to perform actions (with horrific consequences) that they are not naturally prepared to do. This raises a third question that is less well defined in the sense that the engineer's third question is not well defined. \"How should we train our soldiers?\" If you train them to be too aggressive then rates of PTSD and psychological trauma go up. If they're not aggressive enough then your soldiers die on the battlefield. Balancing those two concerns does not admit a simple measure that we can maximize or measure.</p>\n\n<p>Difficult questions arise in every discipline- it just so happens that the natural sciences tend to ask questions that are clearer and unambiguous than the social sciences. That doesn't mean that the social sciences are less rigorous or less important, but it does mean that non-qualitative approaches are more prevalent in the social sciences.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/11/26\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1986/11/26</a>\n<a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/f3Aip.gif\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/f3Aip.gif\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42151",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32091/"
] |
42,174 |
<p>I am doing a lot of reading and experimenting to dig deeper into my research topic. In our institute we have weekly meetings, were we present our latest research. Often my professor asks me questions about specific details or numbers in ongoing discussions during the presentation, which I cannot recall so fast. For example, what is the current GDP of X country? I have understood, what the GDP is, but I do not know the number, which he would really like to hear in that moment.</p>
<p>I often have read this, and also re-read it in other reports and papers, but I cannot recall it in his moment exactly and I do not have the number available during the presentation? Btw often it is unclear before the presentations, which numbers are relevant during a presentation and also my peers feel that way.</p>
<ul>
<li>How do you structure your research? </li>
<li>Which tools are you using?</li>
</ul>
<p>I really appreciate your answer!</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42189,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It seems the question here is more about recall than organisation per se. Apologies in advance if this comes across as patronising or too basic.</p>\n\n<p>In a very broad sense, the way I organise a <em>presentation</em> could be likened to the way a tree branches, and I'm sure many operate in the same way. Identify the main branches you want to explore in a given subject, then find papers that can support those main branches. These supporting branches may not be overly relevant in the grand scheme of things, but they will help you to become more familiar with what you are trying to present. From this point it is not only learning what you are going to present, but <em>understanding</em> it at a level that allows to you to refer to specific points with ease and refer to <em>relevant</em> points. The more familiar you are with the topic, the easier it is to talk about and recall. </p>\n\n<p>As for organising research, I typically generate a document containing the main paper(s) I will be looking at, with a summary, then I do the same for supporting papers. This way if I need to refer to something I can consult the document (like a contents of sorts, I suppose) and go straight to what I am looking for without sifting through several papers until I find the right one.</p>\n\n<p>I'm afraid recalling facts and figures simply requires work. There is no real trick to it other than, as previously mentioned, familiarising yourself with the topic and realising what is and isn't relevant to the point you are trying to convey.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42195,
"author": "Penguin_Knight",
"author_id": 6450,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6450",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Learn to say I don't know.</strong> Practice how to gracefully say \"<em>Thanks for asking about that. I don't know but I will look into that.</em>\" Do it to a mirror, make it look like it's your right to not know something, not a crime or even a weakness. After the meeting, go check the facts and then follow up with an e-mail.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Google it right there.</strong> It's getting more and more common and socially acceptable for anyone just to whip out a handheld device (smart phone, iPad, etc.) and Google it. If you're not sure about that, do ask \"I don't know but would you mind if I search for it now?\" Search phrase like \"<code>GDP [Country's name]</code>\" will actually result in a nice trend graph in Google, like <a href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=GDP+Vietnam\" rel=\"nofollow\">this one for Vietnam</a>. It would take less than 5 seconds; much shorter than time taken by people to apologize.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Prepare some fact sheets.</strong> If your work is heavily related with countries, consider printing out some fact sheets like the one on <a href=\"https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/\" rel=\"nofollow\">CIA the World Factbook</a> and bring that with you. Similar devices like tip sheets or cheat sheets for basic information like formulas or acronyms will also be useful. The process of preparing them can also serve as a revision.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Use bookmarks and highlighter.</strong> If you are carrying some reports with you, use those write-on bookmark stickers to mark the potentially useful charts and tables.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Ask yourself why, for 5 times.</strong> While preparing your major arguments, you may consider a technique of asking yourself <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys\" rel=\"nofollow\">why for 5 times</a>. For example, you have picked Haiti as your target country, why? It's a poor developing country, why? Because its GDP per capita is only US$820, why is that low? It's at 157th as of 2007. So on, so forth. This technique can help you think about unexpected questions, and also come up with strategies to deal with the \"So what?\" questions.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Knowing small details is not as important as knowing the big picture.</strong> Contingent on the last point, for research (in my opinion) it's more important to know the big picture: rationale, theory or theoretical framework, pros and cons of methods, validity and reliability of the results, and what these all add to the literature or application. While planning for the research meeting, it's most crucial that you having given these components a good thought and be able to justify your interpretation and decision. Random statistics can come later.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Recalling small details is not as important as discerning pattern and anomaly.</strong> As the use of mobile Internet browser becomes more prominent, getting random details and facts is no longer our burden. Instead of using our precious brain power to memorize trivial little facts, it'd be more useful to tightly incorporate critically asking questions while going through the data, noticing patterns and exceptions, and synthesizing more questions or speculations.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Deduce it right there.</strong> Sometimes, the audience may not be expecting a perfect answer but rather a \"guesstimate.\" Simply saying like \"the GDP is likely low, it's the poorest country in the west hemisphere\" can already address part of the question. If you really have no clue, it'd still be great if you can suggest how someone can get that information: \"I'm really not sure about that, but I'd look for that in the US Census 2010 Fact Finder online.\"</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>While I do notice that you're also asking for advices on how to organize one's research. I don't think I can answer that given how little I know about your work, personality, and affinity to technology. Great research can be done with just a shoebox, index cards, a pencil, and an eraser; it can also be done with a state-of-the-art computer, various software packages, and cloud storage. It's likely something you need to discuss with your supervisors and other experienced researchers, and take and practice what is likely to be useful to you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42210,
"author": "Amir",
"author_id": 23641,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23641",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Working for many years with detailed data and diverse information and a little bit of memory problem I feel your problem. I would add below points to above answers.</p>\n\n<p><strong>1. reference management tools</strong></p>\n\n<p>You can use them as bookmark manager, also you can read the pdfs and leave notes and then be able to search those notes and hopefully find them fast. I used Mendeley and Zotero and both do the job. Mendeley does a better job on desktop note taking and Zotero does better on collection of data from web and bookmarking.</p>\n\n<p><strong>2. Searchable notebook online/offline</strong></p>\n\n<p>tools like Evernote lets you search into your notes quickly and store briefer on different issue to refresh your brain up on some issues as fast as possible. use tagging carefully so that you remember your tags and organizations. Meanwhile, using pen and paper is always more reliable than any tool.</p>\n\n<p><strong>3. lists, tables and finally frameworks</strong> </p>\n\n<p>there are plenty of tools you can use for listing stuff. Google Keep can be one of the best ones. You need to organize and re-organize many iterations all the time for a bulk of information. as you go ahead in this process you can remember them better and you can feel the progress. start by making lists that you can quickly refer to. then make an index or category and transform lists to tables where can store a lot of information in small place and at the end you will have many lists and tables try to come up with rules and frameworks that can help you know which table to refer to and for what reason. </p>\n\n<p><strong>4. keep a voice memo of the events</strong></p>\n\n<p>There are phone apps that can record your voice as mp3. and maybe soon tools that can convert them to texts. Always knowing the theme and direction of meetings can help your memory to shape around the usual flow of the meeting and it can make you prepare. by listening to what happened in last events you can make your brain ready for the upcoming event. It also helps you organize your work based on what is expected from you in the meetings. always mention the date and the attendees of the event. what was expected to happen and what actually happened.</p>\n\n<p><strong>5. last but not least</strong></p>\n\n<p>Brain War is a mobile game with multiple memory activity that can help your short and long term memory performance. There are many games like that which might help you measure your performance if not helping it. Also, I was told by my doctor that using Coconut oil instead of normal oil has helped some people with Alzheimer. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42174",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17751/"
] |
42,177 |
<p>The <a href="http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html" rel="noreferrer">ICMJE</a> has developed a set of guidelines to help determine who authors should be. They say</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The following recommendations are intended to ensure that contributors who have made substantive intellectual contributions to a paper are given credit as authors</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The requirements to be an author are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:</p>
<ul>
<li>Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND</li>
<li>Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND</li>
<li>Final approval of the version to be published; AND</li>
<li>Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<p>I think that it is reasonable that authors should meet all 4 of the criteria. What seems surprising to me is that someone could use the guidelines to justify not including someone as an author that did the work, drafted the manuscript, and agreed to be accountable, by simply not allowing them the chance to provide final approval of the version to be published.</p>
<p>Shouldn't the guidelines include a condition that if you meet the first criteria, that you then be given the option to meet the other criteria?</p>
<p>Am I missing something?</p>
<p>Has this apparent shortcoming been addressed anywhere?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42181,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Shouldn't the guidelines include a condition that if you meet the\n first criteria, that you then be given the option to meet the other\n criteria?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This does indeed sound like a no-brainer.</p>\n\n<p>However, it is really a question of etiquette within a collaboration. A journal can't really enforce this, can it? Would a tick box in the online submission system really be useful?</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>By ticking this box, I declare that everyone who has done work AND\n revised the manuscript AND agreed to be accountable has also had a\n chance to provide final approval of the submitted version.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I'd find seeing something like this... strange. What should a journal then do in the case that someone <em>did</em> get the chance to provide approval, but didn't answer within a reasonable time frame?</p>\n\n<p>Bottom line: I'd say this is a borderline case. Journals can't possibly control every single aspect of authorship, and they need to draw the line somewhere. This seems like a good point where we don't need <em>yet</em> another tick box.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Finally, it seems like problems like these may be self-correcting. Once word gets around that someone treats their collaborators like this, they likely will see their possibilities for collaboration disappear.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42182,
"author": "T. Verron",
"author_id": 4474,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4474",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Further down the <a href=\"http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html\">ICMJE remarks</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The criteria are not intended for use as a means to disqualify colleagues from authorship who otherwise meet authorship criteria by denying them the opportunity to meet criterion #s 2 or 3. Therefore, all individuals who meet the first criterion should have the opportunity to participate in the review, drafting, and final approval of the manuscript.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The guidelines <em>do</em> include such a criterion. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42177",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929/"
] |
42,179 |
<p>I am a Computer Science graduate and I have been realising that my true passion lies in Philosophy, as for the past 5 or 6 years (I am 26) I have been constantly asking questions about life, conciousness, the universe and the relationship between them. I am also in the process of writing a book which can be considered as Philosophical, although I am not yet quite sure whether it will be Philosophical Fiction or Non Fiction. </p>
<p>My question is, is it possible to continue as a graduate and start a Masters or Doctorate in Philosophy? Since I would like to become a professor so I can help others pursuing answers to such questions. As already mentioned, I would also like to start writing unfortunately, in our current era, it is very difficult to be taken seriously if you do not have academic background on that field. </p>
<p>From what I am reading, this might not be possible since Philosophy is an ancient field and hence there is the usual sequence of degree, masters and PhD. For instance, some new fields, such as neuroscience do not have any directly related degrees and hence you can transition to them from other fields.</p>
<p>If this is not possible, will I be taken seriously if I transform my book into a paper (assuming it is actually a good book) and be allowed to start a PhD without any previous academic philosophical background? My current targets are either Oxford University or UCL.</p>
<p>Looking forward for your response.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42191,
"author": "mhwombat",
"author_id": 10529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10529",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Since you're interested in life and consciousness, you might want to explore cognitive science (including artificial life), which draws from philosophy, artificial intelligence, neurology, and other fields. Your computer science background could help you enter a program like this, and once in, you could take philosophy courses to strengthen your background in that area. Perhaps you could do an MSc in cognitive science, and then you might have the background to enter a PhD program in philosophy.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42194,
"author": "Herman Toothrot",
"author_id": 4050,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4050",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I was in a similar position of your a few years ago when I switched from CS to something completely different.</p>\n\n<p>Initially I though I liked anthropology and archaeology, so I started reading some books and above all scientific articles. I soon realized that the archaeology I was portraying in my head was very different to what was actually happening in the field and especially away from the field. I then read more books and talked to people and narrowed it down to biology and then further narrowed it down to a discipline in which CS skills are highly requested, so I was able to place myself as the geek with a passion for the subject and offer skills very few other could offer. Keep in mind that your passion might or might not be better pursued in your free time than making it a job or a PhD. Talk to people in the field from students to professors and see what their work entitles.</p>\n\n<p>You will most likely have to take a few undergraduate classes to get a more formal education in the new field.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42329,
"author": "BrianH",
"author_id": 6787,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6787",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are a number of concerns here, so I'll deal with them each in turn. I originally went to college for Philosophy, but dropped it in favor of computers and psychology! So you might say I'm heading the opposite direction of what you are thinking, so I hope I can provide you some things to consider.</p>\n\n<p>The first concern is how familiar you are with the specific work of modern, living, publishing philosophers? While it is technically true that philosophy questions everything, that doesn't mean that everything is an open question today - countless lines of inquiry have been beaten to death over the last 2000+ years. This does not mean it's not still a line of study - in fact, one of two lines of specialty offered at Oxford is indeed <a href=\"http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate/the_mst_in_ancient_philosophy\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Ancient Philosophy</a> (Aristotle, Plato, etc). It seemed a lot more like history and classic literature to me, which I was not expecting and had already ruled out as interests myself - but if you love it, then great! But that's not at all what I thought I was signing up for, and thus the importance of fact-checking reality before making a decision.</p>\n\n<p>The second concern is about writing something to get into a Masters/PhD. Actually, you aren't far off the mark here, but be aware that what most departments are interested in for admission isn't a book or a thesis - it's a writing sample! I've often heard that these are expected to range from 10-20 pages at most, but every department is different so you'll need to check.</p>\n\n<p>The third concern is attempting to go directly into philosophy without significant undergraduate study, but you are targeting top-in-the-world programs. Check out <a href=\"http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/admissions/graduate\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Philosophy Graduate Admissions at Oxford</a> statements:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>BPhil in Philosophy</p>\n \n <p>The BPhil is an intellectually demanding course, presupposing an\n undergraduate and/or graduate background in philosophy (or\n equivalent). It is not suitable as a conversion course for students\n changing to philosophy from another subject and it cannot be studied\n part-time or externally...</p>\n \n <p>MSt in Ancient Philosophy</p>\n \n <p>The MSt course in Ancient Philosophy aims to attract students of the\n highest calibre - with a background in philosophy or\n classics...Knowledge of ancient Greek language is not a prerequisite\n for admission to the course. However, students admitted will be\n expected to achieve Intermediate Level ancient Greek...</p>\n \n <p>MSt in Philosophy of Physics</p>\n \n <p>This course aims to attract students with a strong background in\n physics at undergraduate level or higher...</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>So if you don't want to question specifically ancient Greek or Physics, and if you aren't willing to start back again at undergraduate courses in philosophy, you are looking at the wrong department - they just don't seem interested.</p>\n\n<p>How about <a href=\"https://www.ucl.ac.uk/philosophy/prospective-students/postgraduate/philosophy-ma\" rel=\"noreferrer\">UCL Philosophy</a> (under Entry tab):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Entry requirements \n A minimum of an upper second-class Bachelor's\n degree in Philosophy from a UK university or an overseas qualification\n of an equivalent standard. Applicants with a strong degree in a\n non-philosophical subject are welcome.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Aha! So that last sentence isn't a no, at least!</p>\n\n<p>I believe you'll find this general trend is true - if you check with the specific departments, you'll get a much better feel for who will even consider admitting you under normal circumstances. However, that leads into...</p>\n\n<p>The fourth concern is being aware of the relative competitiveness you're looking into. As noted in <a href=\"http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2007/04/phd_admissions__1.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">various blogs</a> and directly from some departments websites (Oxford lists some info on theirs linked previously), Philosophy is one of many fields where interested people outnumber positions available. 10:1 to 100:1 ratios of applicants to available positions are often reported - though be aware that this includes international students. If you are looking at UK institutions and you are already a UK citizen, or otherwise looking into places in your own home country, the odds are vastly better than quoted - but there are still usually many more applicants than positions available.</p>\n\n<p>As such, especially if you want more in-demand departments, you'll be at a comparative disadvantage if your interests in philosophy aren't linked to your previous degree, or if you don't have a degree in philosophy or at least lots of coursework. Some programs will exclude you entirely, and many more will not accept you into a PhD directly and will require a Master first at least (with many PhD programs not really having much coursework, so if you don't have that at an undergraduate level they aren't prepared to provide that as part of the program).</p>\n\n<p>This is not to say that you can't seek a career in philosophy if that's what you decide to do - but writing an interesting book or paper of a general philosophical nature won't get you right into a PhD anywhere of note. You might very well be able to get into a Masters program if you can show the program what they are looking for, but you'll need to locate a program that seems like a good fit and tailor your application to them specifically. So I'm by no means telling you it isn't possible! But I am saying it will take a lot of hard work to find the right fit, and make sure it's right for you to start with.</p>\n\n<p>I hope this can be food for thought, and regardless of what you find out - good luck! As a parting piece of wisdom, I would advise this - keep your mind and eyes open. There's lots of fields and lots of really intersections of interests and passions - you never know what you'll find on the way to your dreams!</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42179",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31880/"
] |
42,188 |
<p>I wrote my undergrad thesis using Word. Overall I managed to get the job done, but as with all WYSIWYG editors, by the end I feel like I had created a bit of a mess. It didn't show, but I know it's there.
Soon I'm going to start writing my postgrad thesis, and I'd like to use a tool that gives me more control over the single elements. The obvious choice seems to be LaTeX, but as I'm going to be writing a thesis about humanistic matters, I wouldn't be using all its advanced features. Also, it's something I don't know, and it would take me a while to learn how to use it properly.</p>
<p>But here's what I was thinking. I know HTML. I know CSS. (I used to be a web developer, as a matter of fact.) Is it possible to use them for typesetting in an effective way? I think about XML and how it may be used with a specific schema to declare semantic tags, but of course that would need either a converter or a very complex XSLT.</p>
<p>I'm not asking about a specific software, but rather the approach. I'm not sure if my end is worth learning a new tool, or even creating a new one.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42190,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>HTML and CSS for typesetting?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No, just no. HTML and CSS were designed for looking good on screen, not paper. Although there are CSS styles for page printing, using a medium for a purpose other than its original design will at best be an overkill (if it works) and in most cases a utter source of frustration.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The obvious choice seems to be LaTeX... I wouldn't be using all its\n advanced features.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is the basic misconception. You will use all advanced features even in a humanities thesis. You will have inline references, bibliography entries (bibtex), links to bibliographic entries, figures, title pages, perhaps even tables etc. As you see, you are going to use much of the advanced features of LaTeX, regardless of your discipline. LaTeX has an increased initial learning curve, but in the long run it is worth this time investment.</p>\n\n<p>Conclusion: Stick to LaTeX. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42207,
"author": "chmullig",
"author_id": 6024,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6024",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I personally would stick to LaTeX for a humanities thesis, but that's not a super useful answer. So,</p>\n\n<p>Consider using <strong><a href=\"http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/\">Markdown</a></strong> + <a href=\"http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/\">pandoc</a> to generate LaTeX, while being easier to write. Something like this workflow for a Linguistics dissertation: <a href=\"http://linguisticmystic.com/2015/03/04/how-to-write-a-dissertation-in-latex-using-markdown/\">http://linguisticmystic.com/2015/03/04/how-to-write-a-dissertation-in-latex-using-markdown/</a></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/\">pandoc</a> is a powerful conversion tool, allowing you to convert between markdown, LaTeX, Word, etc. It will potentially even allow you to embed certain HTML and/or LaTeX elements into the markdown, giving you occasional access to either domain as necessary. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42216,
"author": "Memming",
"author_id": 386,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/386",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Though in theory HTML+CSS can be used to typeset page based material (e.g. <a href=\"http://www.w3.org/Talks/2013/0604-CSS-Tokyo/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.w3.org/Talks/2013/0604-CSS-Tokyo/</a>), I would stick with some other format that can be easily be converted to HTML (I personally use LaTeX for lengthy documents, Markdown for short ones). If you are good at programming, and willing to invest in developing tools to convert your own HTML format to other formats later (it is likely going to be necessary), then go for it. You can be the leader!</p>\n\n<p>The main disadvantage of HTML is the lack of semantic tags. Perhaps an XML with some good XSLT that spits out HTML is better for organization.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42220,
"author": "posdef",
"author_id": 5674,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Regardless of the subject at hand keep in mind that you are writing a long document, that is destined to print and thus you need tools to tailor such a document. Use the right tool for the job! </p>\n\n<p>MS Word and it's spin-offs (Apple's Pages, OpenOffice Writer etc) are good for quickly whipping up a document, where getting the <strong>content</strong> right is the primary focus. </p>\n\n<p>For good quality publishing you need more than that, which explains the domain which (La)TeX was designed to operate in. If you need a WYSIWYG editor that gives you much better control over individual elements than Word does, you can test Adobe InDesign or similar software. The concept is that you prepare your content elsewhere and <strong>design</strong> how the content is going to be displayed, then you plug-in your text in the placeholders which you have styled. </p>\n\n<p>The issue here is the <strong><em>learning curve</em></strong>. No matter if you go with (La)TeX or InDesign or anything similar to that (Scribus is a free alternative for instance), it will take you a <em>significant amount of time</em> to get down and dirty with the software and to be able to create exactly what you want to do. So the question is; what would you rather spend your time on, learning how to make a more visually appealing thesis, or generate the content of the thesis.</p>\n\n<p><strong>TLDR:</strong> </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>If you know how to use LaTeX already than just stick with it, despite not needing the \"math\". </li>\n<li>If you have never used LaTeX and feel like you want your WYSIWYG features, give a try to InDesign. </li>\n<li>If you have no time to learn something new then stick with whatever you know and generate the content instead.</li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42188",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32121/"
] |
42,192 |
<p>I was planning on applying to US colleges for masters and recently I got shortlisted for this job at an Indian startup (I don't think they have anything major out in the market). They are working on some Machine Learning (ML) product and I wish to pursue a masters in ML. Will this job experience help me with the admission process or should I just directly apply? My plan in life is to do a PhD and then join the industry.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 58515,
"author": "caceves",
"author_id": 44696,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/44696",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>if you are planning to go back into industry, having relevant experience plus a degree will probably make you look better than just having the degree--at least this has been my experience as a recruiter</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 58540,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While I cannot answer the question for your particular cases, job experience does indeed matter for some graduate school admissions programs. For example, many Masters programs in Public Health or Health Administration have started to <em>require</em> some job experience in their admissions.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 58542,
"author": "Abbas Javan Jafari",
"author_id": 17459,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17459",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Speaking from a computer science point of view, having relevant job experience will almost definitely be considered a plus for admissions. I've seen and heard of many cases who had a mediocre academic profile but managed to get into good schools because of their job experience.</p>\n\n<p>However, not all job experiences are given the same consideration. The degree of relevance of your job to your field and also to the field you're interested in applying to matters. Furthermore, some jobs are purely technical (like programming), while others include research components (like working in an R&D Lab). It goes without saying that the latter will have a better chance at impressing admission committees and faculty. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42192",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15418/"
] |
42,196 |
<p>A student of a German institute has translated my Russian thesis word by word to English and submitted it as her own work in 2014. I informed the university providing them with my work in Russian and presentations of the work I made in 2013.
Upon receiving my email, university examinations first asked for a legal translation of my work. To which I replied that my work was written in Russian and that is a reason why it was stolen – for translation – and also that the legal translation of even one page would cost a lot. And since I was the victim in this case, I suggested that their university is responsible for preventing the acceptance of plagiarised works and has to either translate my work or ask one a professor who speaks Russian to confirm the match. Also, I suggested them to look at numerous tables with hundreds of numbers and match them (providing pages). </p>
<p>Two months have passed since then, and I still haven’t received any update. I called the examination office, and the woman re-directed me to her colleague, who then told me that:</p>
<ol>
<li>Me not being a student of that university, I have no right for any information.</li>
<li>If there was any plagiarism, their system would recognise it. </li>
<li>I should ask the student who I claim has stolen my work on any information.</li>
</ol>
<p>Yet the problem is:</p>
<ol>
<li>Their European plagiarism system has no access to the database of university in Russia, and moreover my thesis is in Russian, while she submitted translated English version. So plagiarism is untraceable by their system. Which they apparently ignore.</li>
<li>Asking me to talk to the person committing the plagiarism, who in the first place lied to me when stealing my work, and declined my request for her to come forward and recall work. It is the same as police would tell the assault victim to go and talk to the criminal.</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Is there any legal way for me to get the answer on the plagiarism case from this university?</strong> Shouldn’t the university be checking the translation of my thesis rather than requesting me to make an official translation? After all it’s their job to prevent plagiarism! And given their system has holes – I did part of the job for them already – identifying that the work is plagiarism and its up for them to check.</p>
<p>Yet they completely brush me off saying I am not involved and have no rights.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42198,
"author": "DCTLib",
"author_id": 7390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7390",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my opinion, what seems to have gone wrong is that the examination office employees do not have an interest in pursuing this issue. After all, the student having handed in your thesis may sue the university if the thesis gets rejected. After the degree has already been awarded to the student, it is quite difficult to retract the degree. This is probably why they asked for an official translation. By the way, the examination office does not rate or examine anything - they are concerned with the administrative processes of examinations, and are thus probably unable to deal with this issue correctly. They might have felt that they need to deal with this issue, though, which is why they asked you to provide an official translation. As you wrote, you shouldn't be expected to pay for this.</p>\n\n<p>As a suggestion, you may want to consider contacting researchers at the university directly. Point of contact number one should probably be the advisor of plagiarizing student. Other points of contact may be the secondary examiner, or the dean of studies. Provide them with bibliographical information about your thesis and a PDF of your thesis. At larger universities, there may probably be Russian PhD students that they can ask for a first look. In the east of Germany, it is not entirely uncommon that older professors can read Russian themselves. Once they have some indication that your accusation may be correct, they are likely to arrange for a closer check.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42199,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You are treating this as a legal issue, and I am pretty sure plagiarism is an ethical issue. I am not a lawyer, but you may have a legal case that the student (and potentially the university) have engaged in copyright infringement. Copyright infringement suits are difficult enough and one centered on translated material is going to be even more difficult. The university has made the decision to ignore you. If you really want to pursue this, you are going to need a lawyer (and probably a legal translation). If your suit is successful, you might be able to reclaim the costs of the lawyer and translation as damages.</p>\n\n<p>As for plagiarism, you might be able to put ethical pressure on them, especially if the plagiarised thesis is available via the university's library. You might want to check with <a href=\"http://publicationethics.org/\">COPE</a> to see if they would treat the thesis as a publication and the university as the publisher.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42201,
"author": "user12956",
"author_id": 12956,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12956",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The behavior of the University does not surprise me. A plagiarised thesis is considered an image damage, so the Univ. is not interested in any investigation.</p>\n\n<p>I don't think there is much you can do. If I were you, I would try the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Write to her supervisor or her professor, tell the about the plagiarism. Maybe they are interested in investigation</li>\n<li>Write to DFG <a href=\"http://www.dfg.de/en/\">http://www.dfg.de/en/</a>. They should feel responsible for this, but the chances that they would do sth. are pretty bad.</li>\n<li>Write to <a href=\"http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Home/English\">http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Home/English</a> about your case, in particular that the Univ. (and the supervisor/professor, if they don't react to point 1) blocks your investigation. This page is more concerned about plagiarism in Doctoral theses, but maybe some member there is also interested in your case.</li>\n<li>Write to Debore Weber-Wulff, author of this blog <a href=\"http://copy-shake-paste.blogspot.de/\">http://copy-shake-paste.blogspot.de/</a>. She is an anti-plagiarism researcher and might be interested in your case.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42204,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am aware that this is very annoying to you, but I think you need to understand two things:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Treating this as a <em>legal</em> issue is probably a bit of a dead end. Yes, there is a copyright infringement involved, but following through on a copyright case that is, in the global sense of things, very small-scale (the \"financial damage\" to you is basically zero) is probably not financially attractive to you. This is much more about academic misconduct, and in such matters, judges and lawyers do not typically get involved. Basically, \"plagiarizing\" is not a crime.</li>\n<li>It is, unfortunately, not overly surprising that the university staff initially brushed you off. If correct, your accusation will lead to <em>loads</em> of work for university staff as well as damage to the reputation of the university. There's a good chance that they saw a chance to brush this under the rug and went for it. Given their initial reaction, you should assume that they will not be helpful in making this right until their hand is forced.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I agree with user12956 that your best bet is to make your case public. Especially in Germany, there is quite a platform for serious cases of plagiarism, and there is a non-trivial amount of publicity for egregious cases. Once you have hit a certain level of publicity, I would assume that the university in question will start to become much more open to start a real investigation, to prevent further damage to their brand. However, this is of course all going to be a lot of work for you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42205,
"author": "pehrs",
"author_id": 31735,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31735",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Are you sure you have been speaking to the right people at the university? The examination office is in many cases a strictly administrative function, with little to no ability to help you in this kind of situation. They are often the people who books rooms and makes sure there are enough papers for the students to write on and such... Not exactly the right people to speak to in this case.</p>\n\n<p>Does the university have a disciplinary board? Many European universities do, and they are typically required to investigate any report of academic misconduct. I would recommend trying either to contact the disciplinary board or to contact the \"Rector\" or \"President\" office at the university. They have the duty to do something in a situation like this.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42206,
"author": "Wrzlprmft",
"author_id": 7734,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p><strong>Is there any legal way for me to get the answer on the plagiarism case from this university?</strong> Shouldn’t the university be checking the translation of my thesis rather than requesting me to make an official translation? After all it’s their job to prevent plagiarism!</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I am not aware of any law requiring universities to give you informations about their internal procedures (other than: “we are looking into it” or “your request has been rejected”) and would find it very odd, if one existed, as most information would be a violation of privacy regarding the accused student. Also, it is not the university’s job to totally prevent plagiarism (that’s plainly impossible, even in times of the Internet) – rather it is among the ones being damaged by this case of plagiarism.</p>\n\n<p>However, if your account is accurate, the office you have been contacting is not properly dealing with your case. I would thus suggest the following steps:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Compile some evidence, containing in particular the copied tables and other evidence you have that does not require somebody to speak Russian.</p></li>\n<li><p>Make sure that you have the right office. In Germany, departments often (if not always) have their own examination offices² – which you should address your request to. Also, departments usually have some professor responsible for examination issues, which is another person to contact.</p>\n\n<p>There may be legal offices for the whole universities, but these may drown the issue in bureaucracy (and I would guess that you contacted one of these). These offices are usually only loosely connected and just that one is entirely incompetent or ignores the case does not mean that another office does the same thing.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you do not get any constructive reply¹ to this (within a few days) or already did do the above, threaten to mildly escalate the situation, in particular to take this one level higher (i.e., to the faculty head) or to the student body.</p></li>\n<li><p>If this does not work, escalate the situation as described above.</p></li>\n<li><p>If this does not work either, threaten to completely escalate the situation by taking this to the university head, press, known plagiarism hunters and similar (see some of the other answers). Be aware that these are rather heavy threats and I would only advice them as a last resort.</p></li>\n<li><p>If this does not work, escalate as described above.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>If your case is as clear as you are describing it, the university has much to lose about this and will not take this lightly.</p>\n\n<p>To back some of this up: I am at a German university and know at least some of the administrative structures here. As academia varies much even inside Germany, this might not universally apply, but in this case you should notice quickly.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><sup>\n¹ Which includes “We are working on this.”<br>\n² Called <em>Prüfungsamt, Prüfungsbüro</em> or <em>Prüfungssekretariat.</em> You can usually find it by searching the web for one of these terms combined with the German word for your field (e.g., <em>Physik</em> for <em>physics)</em> and the German name of the city (e.g., <em>München</em> for <em>Munich).</em> In a full example, search for <code>Prüfungsamt Physik München</code>. If you can, let somebody help you searching who speaks German.\n</sup></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42213,
"author": "A.S",
"author_id": 22447,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22447",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A counterpoint to responses that discourage you from pursuing it as a legal issue. All universities have very clear guidelines and policies on plagiarism, including steps and penalties for where plagiarism is discovered in a thesis. Since this is a German uni, these guidelines may be in German but you might try translating the site with Google Translator etc. and find the right documents. In any case there are most likely clear rules. </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Call the University Graduate School office and find out who investigates these kinds of issues. (Here in the U.S. this would be some office within the Graduate School, which is an administrative entity within the university that deals with all affairs involving graduate students and sets relevant policy. I suspect there is an equivalent in German uni's.) Make sure to find and contact the appropriate office that administers the thesis requirements, most likely they are also in charge of enforcing plagiarism policy.</p></li>\n<li><p>I like the idea of contacting the student's advisor(s) listed on their thesis. Academics tend to be highly sensitive to plagiarism claims, and since the advisors' names are on the student's thesis, it's in their best interest to care because their reputation is indirectly impacted. You need to get this point across to them. However, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to confirm your claim of plagiarism. So attach your thesis (in Russian), as well as any official-looking forms that confirm that it was published earlier than their student's thesis. Also include clear page numbers for the numerical tables that you mention, so they can verify the duplication even without knowing the language. When you email them, also \"cc\" the appropriate office at the university's Graduate School. Do this in parallel with your attempts to reach their Graduate School directly about this issue.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Overall, you need to educate yourself about the university's rules as much as you can so you can give the impression that you know what you are doing in pursuing this matter. Also, make sure to say explicitly that you will not cease to complain until this matter is resolved with official investigation. In other words you want them to understand very clearly that the problem will not simply \"go away\" when you get tired of pursuing this. </p>\n\n<p>Instead, tell them explicitly that if the matter is not resolved at the departmental level of their college of the Graduate School, you will be contacting the Associate Dean and the Dean of the student's college, the university's Faculty Senate, Ombudsman, and the Office of the President of the University directly (in that order). Faculty are not very fond of getting mired in administrative dirt, especially if there is a chance of long-term damage to reputation. You want to take the issue to them and make it personal, show that them that you will press on until an investigation is conducted.</p>\n\n<p>As one effective strategy, you may want to have a small selection of pages (say, 3-5 total) professionally translated into the language in which the plagiarized thesis was written, and attach with your communication to advisors, etc. This will show that you are putting your money where your mouth is, and have the means to pursue it. Yes it is an expense, but if the principle is worth more to you, I encourage you to go for it. Good luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42222,
"author": "Benedikt Bauer",
"author_id": 10039,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10039",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The brushing off you describe looks like you just raised your concerns to the wrong persons in the depths of the administrative system.</p>\n\n<p>The German Research Foundation <a href=\"http://www.dfg.de/en\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">DFG</a> has an <a href=\"http://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/principles_dfg_funding/good_scientific_practice/ombudsman/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">ombudsman committee</a> (also with its <a href=\"http://www.ombudsman-fuer-die-wissenschaft.de/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">own website</a>, however unfortunately only available in German) to investigate academic misconduct.</p>\n\n<p>As stated <a href=\"http://www.dfg.de/en/research_funding/principles_dfg_funding/good_scientific_practice/ombudsman/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">here</a></p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The Research Ombudsman [...] is an independent committee that provides assistance to all researchers in questions involving good scientific practice and scientific misconduct. The Research Ombudsman can be contacted directly, irrelevant of any connection to the DFG.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The contact to this committee is kept confidential throughout the process. From what I have heard in some presentations they really take things seriously and don't easily reject cases if there are serious hints of misconduct.</p>\n\n<p>Although the site of the ombudsman of the DFG itself is only available in German, they have an <a href=\"http://www.ombudsman-fuer-die-wissenschaft.de/fileadmin/Ombudsman/Dokumente/Downloads/Kontaktformular_EN_1.doc\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">english contact form</a> where also the procedure is described that will be exercised in case of a notice:</p>\n\n<p>If, after an evaluation of the documents that the inquirer provided to support their claim, the committee comes to the conclusion that there might be at least a case of infringement of the rules of good practice, they will ask the accused party for a statement. If it turns out that it wasn't just a minor infringement but some serious misconduct, they will transfer the case to a special investigation committee for further investigation.</p>\n\n<p>Also, if the work in question was related to some DFG funded project (to my experience a vast majority of research groups at German universities receive at least <em>some</em> funding from the DFG) and the investigators come to the conclusion that there was a serious misconduct, then one of the consequences could be that the funding for this is cancelled or reduced. Therefore the Ombudsman committee has some lever to make people act, since just sitting it out might put the financial situation of the people involved at risk.</p>\n\n<p>Above that every German university should have a local ombudsperson with basically the same function but it may be somewhat complicated for someone external to find out who that is, so I would stick to the one of the DFG and give it a try.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42225,
"author": "James B. Byrne",
"author_id": 32142,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32142",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a professional issue and you are up against a large body of entrenched interests that will be publicly embarrassed should your claim prove true. Consequently, the onus will be upon you to press the issue. Legal matters are quite beside the point.</p>\n\n<p>Presumably you and the alleged plagiarist are active in the same field and are subjected to the same scrutiny of your work by the same bodies. I would look to your supervisor and the department from which you earned your degree as allies and discuss your options with them. They will certainly provide better advice than we can. </p>\n\n<p>Should you proceed, with or without their assistance, then I would make representation to those journals and academic platforms most closely involved with your field. You must be prepared to provide sufficient evidence and that may require expenditure of significant money because, as the accuser, it is up to you to prove your case. </p>\n\n<p>Bear in mind that Stephan Ambrose obtained his masters and doctorate, and made a career with a very good living, off plagiarism. And this in the face of repeated accusations. Thus it is all but certain you will face an uphill struggle to make your point. </p>\n\n<p>However, if you value the integrity of your profession you really have no other choice. You must at least make a formal written protest to the senate of the university granting the fraudulent degree and establish the trail of evidence against the perpetrator. They will do this again and the more evidence that accumulates the sooner they will be brought to account for their actions.</p>\n\n<p>I would also take some pains to follow this individual's career and to press your claims at whatever institution or enterprise they end up at or pass through. Again, you must have reasonable evidence to support your claim.</p>\n\n<p>You discovered this plagiarism in some fashion. Thus some evidence must exist. The thought comes to mind that a statistical analysis of the citations used in both works compared against similar dissertations in the same field might prove interesting if not conclusive. This would avoid the necessity of translation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42228,
"author": "Maarten van Wesel",
"author_id": 32146,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32146",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You could contact the accrediting organization (I believe it is the Wissenschaftsrat) about this problem. Granting diploma's to students who are known to have commited fraud is damaging for the value of university education</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42257,
"author": "Neil",
"author_id": 32170,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32170",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you do all the stuff that everyone else said and nothing gets done then I think you should shame the University, the Student, and their Supervisor.</p>\n\n<p>Post it all over the internet that the University promotes Plagiarism and gives out fake degrees.</p>\n\n<p>I already know people are going to down-vote me, but It's your hard work and if you let them get away with intellectual dishonesty once they will keep doing it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42398,
"author": "Mark Peletier",
"author_id": 13689,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13689",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm not hearing anything about your own PhD advisor. (He or) She would typically also like to protect you against plagiarism; she might have informal contacts in the German university in question; and with high probability, if she contacts the German university directly, then they will listen more carefully than if you do. </p>\n\n<p>Is it possible to involve your advisor in this?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42688,
"author": "Debora Weber-Wulff",
"author_id": 32489,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32489",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am the person named in <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/42201\">user12956's answer</a> and have been active with the German-language plagiarism documentation site VroniPlag Wiki for the past 4 years. I do apologize for the English-version of the home page disappearing, I'll see what I can do to get it back.</p>\n\n<p>This is indeed not a legal issue, as copyright claims have to be made in court and the chances of getting anything happening in this area in Germany are almost zero. Going through the university is indeed the only way to go, and unfortunately, as some have noted, they are not all happy to hear about cases like this. I have informed universities about over 120 cases of plagiarism, so perhaps I can offer some perspective here:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The first question is: is this a doctoral thesis or a bachelor's or master's thesis? </li>\n<li>If it is a <strong>doctoral thesis</strong>, then it must be published in Germany. It can be found in the university library or the German National Library (DNB). The person to contact is the dean of the department that granted the degree. I get marginally better response rates by CCing the president/rector on my email. But in over a third of the cases I did not even receive an acknowledgement of my email (that includes careful documentation), so I had to ask back two weeks later.</li>\n<li>If it is a <strong>bachelor</strong>'s or <strong>master</strong>'s thesis that happens to be published, then I would also contact the dean, but not CC the president.</li>\n<li>If it is a bachelor's or master's thesis that is <strong>not published</strong>, you will need to contact the <em>Prüfungsausschußvorsitzender</em>, not the <em>Prüfungsamt</em>. Trying to find this person will be very difficult, as German university web pages are in general not in English and/or up to date. The idea of contacting the advisor or having your advisor contact someone at the university is excellent.</li>\n<li>The <em>Ombud</em> people at universities or <em>Ombud der Wissenschaft</em> (no longer only for DFG-financed projects, but for all cases) tend to get involved in authorship disputes, data ownership disputes, and the like from within the university. They are generally not equipped to handle plagiarism accusations, as they have practically no resources. Some university ombuds will try to keep you at bay by requesting things such as a translation of your thesis or additional documentation. They, too, generally have no resources. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The problem is that German universities do not have honor boards or even a collective notion of what constitutes good scientific practice and how to deal with academic misconduct. Often it will indeed be classified under data privacy laws, although most universities indeed have a process codified that includes telling the informer what their decision was and giving reasons. But even I, a known German researcher in this area, end up writing letter after letter trying to obtain knowledge about how the university has dealt with a case that I informed them about years ago. I've just published a paper together with a colleague about this miserable situation: <a href=\"https://pdfdokument.com/viel-licht-und-noch-mehr-schatten-wissenschaftsmanagement-online_59ec2fd41723ddb8f855803d.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">\"Viel Licht und noch mehr Schatten – Wie Universitäten auf Plagiatsdokumentationen reagieren\"</a>. In <em>Forschung & Lehre</em>, 4/2015, pp. 278-280. </p>\n\n<p>There is no central German body to which you can apply, and I don't have the time or resources to investigate all of the many cases that show up. If the case involves a published dissertation, then it is possible for you to document it on the VroniPlag Wiki site. There are theses in German, English, and Spanish documented on the wiki. There would have to be at least one other scientist who reads Russian, though, as the cases must all be verified before they are made public. But since it is an open platform, it is possible for someone to be found who can verify this. There is no \"magic\" software that is used, and translations are not (easily) discoverable with software anyway. </p>\n\n<p>If the university does not answer you, you can send documentation of your attempts to get the university to take action to the <em>Kultusbehörde</em> of the German state the university is in and ask politely what you need to do to get the university to answer you. This can indeed get the university to wake up. But don't do this until you have tried honestly to get information from the university.</p>\n\n<p>It is not the job of the university to prevent plagiarism. The universities in Germany operate on the (unfortunately no longer valid) assumption that students learned how to write and do research and understand mathematics in high school (\"<em>Studierfähigkeit</em>\"). The universities should become more proactive about plagiarism prevention than they currently are – many just purchase software and figure they are done. They don't realize that software is only a tool and both identifies non-plagiarisms as plagiarisms and misses blatant copy & paste. I have <a href=\"https://plagiat.htw-berlin.de/software-en/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">tested such software</a> since 2004. They need policies and they need to communicate them and they need to teach the students how to be good academics. But all this costs money, and the universities are trying to save money where ever they can. I don't want to excuse them, but help you to understand the problem.</p>\n\n<p>I do encourage anyone who is confronted with something like this to take action – eventually, one hopes, the German universities will wake up to the problem and begin to deal with the very serious plagiarism problem that present today. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42196",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32117/"
] |
42,197 |
<p>I am trying to come up with a method to live broadcast my lectures to parties connected to the internet. Up to now, I have been using FaceTime to transmit my work on a whiteboard. This method works, but the quality is lacking.</p>
<p>The crux is I do not want to record "my person," but rather what I write on some surface. This previously asked question (<a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2853/device-for-writing-a-lecture-with-a-stylus-for-video-lecture-recording">Device for writing a lecture with a stylus for video lecture recording</a>) solves the problem for non-live transmission. That is, for the previously answered question, the individual records and subsequently uploads the lecture. I would like to do something similar, but live-transmit the lecture. Does anyone have a reasonable method by which they do this? </p>
<p>My ideal solution would be something like an interactive pen display (e.g., <a href="http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=113&cp_id=11314&cs_id=1131401&p_id=12076" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=113&cp_id=11314&cs_id=1131401&p_id=12076</a>) which could somehow be transmitted in real-time. The software side of this is where I get iffy. (Also, I am running a mac.)</p>
<p>Another solution could surely come from a document camera, but again the software leaves me dry.</p>
<p>To summarize: I am looking for a hardware/mac-based software solution to live transmit document-based lectures over the internet.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 53857,
"author": "vonbrand",
"author_id": 38135,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/38135",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you have the time to prepare the lecture beforehand, subjecting your audience to your scribbling and correcting on-line isn't the best use of your (or their) time. Using electronic means allows viewers to jump back and forth, view when they have time, look it over several times. I believe using that freedom effectively is more important.</p>\n\n<p>In my experience, on-line interaction is invaluable in one-on-one contact (or at most a small, as in at most five people or so) group. In larger groups it isn't really effective. Over the 'net the interaction loses much (can't see the body language of \"I didn't get that\" or \"I'm bored\"), so I doubt this will be very effective.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 53863,
"author": "tonysdg",
"author_id": 36315,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36315",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You could try using a Bamboo tablet (or really any tablet - I mention Bamboo only because I've heard good things) with this service: <a href=\"https://awwapp.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">AWW - A Web Whiteboard</a>. The $10/month version allows you to invite view-only guests, as well as save a limited number of boards (they've got several levels of plans).</p>\n\n<p>The advantage of the web-based solution is that it doesn't matter what OS your viewers have - they just need an internet connection.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 149379,
"author": "tom",
"author_id": 35019,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35019",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a really really late answer (5 years late) but a natural solution seems to me to be to use <a href=\"https://obsproject.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">OBS, open broadcast software</a>. I believe it was developed for people who wanted to stream themselves playing video games. So it will certainly grab content from your computer and broadcast it. Personally I have only used it to record in the past. </p>\n\n<p>Note that I have no connection to OBS and it is free!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 149392,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From another answer by @tom</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>a natural solution seems to me to be to use OBS, open broadcast software. I believe it was developed for people who wanted to stream themselves playing video games.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I have used OBS for non-academic purposes and intend to fully use it for academic purposes. It is a wonderful piece of software and combined with a free video editor, for simple cutting - pasting, can work wonders.</p>\n\n<p>I assume that your institution does not provide an integrated platform, such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom, so you cannot rely on existing infrastucture for streaming and recording. Setting up a Zoom meeting so you can livecast your lecture is quite easy but its web safety is problematic. You could look into streaming platforms such as YouTube or Twitch but I do not know their functionality, fees or suitability.</p>\n\n<p>You could also consider on-screen cursor highlighting while streaming, if literally writing on a surface is not absolutely necessary. Some very simple and effective solutions can be found <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOHBX23sMZw\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">here</a> and <a href=\"https://www.ghacks.net/2012/08/07/highlight-the-mouse-cursor-to-locate-it-on-the-screen/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">here</a></p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42197",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32126/"
] |
42,208 |
<p>I received a PhD in mathematics last May. Last December, my advisor passed away quite unexpectedly. </p>
<p>My advisor was an extraordinary person; in addition to being a fantastic advisor mathematically, he was a wonderful mentor who I always thought of as a friend – this is very much a personal loss for me. My initial emotional response was that I should clearly leave mathematics forever. Rationally, that seems uncalled for. Before all of this, I had been aiming for academic jobs in mathematics. However, I expect that a recommendation (as well as other help) from one's advisor is a significant part of an academic job application (for example, this <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/41966/948">recent answer</a> states that the letter from one's advisor is read first even when applying for a tenure-track job after a postdoc). </p>
<p>How does one go about an academic job search when one's advisor has passed away? </p>
<p>For example, my advisor wrote a letter for me for my job search out of grad school. Does one try to use that letter (via perhaps my graduate department) for subsequent job applications? Do I mention in every cover letter from now on end that my advisor has died (that seems horrifying, since I like my vague sense of denial)? </p>
<p>I am in the first year of a (3-year) postdoc, so I won't be on the job market for a while (in fact, it seems simultaneously very soon and too far away). Of course I can tell that my productivity and motivation have slumped in the last few months, and I know that I should try to get back into gear as soon as possible. </p>
<p>PS: It’s entirely possibly that there’s no ‘practical’ difference between this situation and other situations where one doesn't have a letter from an advisor (as commentor Sumyrda has said), in which case that would be a perfectly reasonable answer that I would happily accept. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Related questions:</strong> </p>
<p>While in more of a 'denial' stage, I asked <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/35273/what-is-the-role-of-a-phd-advisor-after-a-student-has-graduated">this</a> question to try to get at this. </p>
<p>The analogous question for current graduate students was asked <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11607/advisor-dies-suddenly-advice-needed-for-research-students">here</a> and <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/36867/how-hard-is-it-to-succeed-in-research-after-an-advisers-death-midway-through-ph/36876#36876">here</a>.</p>
<p>There are several questions about dealing with not having a letter from one's PhD advisor on this site, such as <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38636/faculty-or-industry-applications-without-phd-advisors-letter">this one</a>, or <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/635/how-to-handle-not-having-my-phd-advisor-as-a-reference">this one</a>, or <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2269/from-whom-do-i-get-references-when-my-original-advisor-leaves-academia/2284#2284">this one</a>. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42625,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The department chair where you got your PhD can pick up the pieces. Give the chair a copy of the letter your advisor wrote. S/he can take it from there.</p>\n\n<p>If you have any trouble with that, seek out another senior member of the department instead.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42658,
"author": "WetlabStudent",
"author_id": 8101,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8101",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>This is a very difficult situation. As per the comment by Andy Putman, let your other letter writers explain the situation. Considering you got the Postdoc job, your current supervisor must have been impressed with what your advisor said in his letter. Your current supervisor can include a personal story about something your advisor said about you or even include a few of his favorite verbatim quotes about you from the letter of recommendation for your current postdoc. Anyone on a hiring committee will understand, and will possibly even be personally touched. This will not count against you. </p>\n\n<p>I wouldn't send a copy of your postdoc letter in your application materials If your postdoc supervisor highlighted the strongest quotes from the advisor's letter. If he chooses not to do this or if your advisor's letter in its entirety is much stronger than the best few quotes from it and your postdoc supervisor still has the letter he could send it along with his letter.(note that in other fields this letter may be a bit inappropriate because it could contain a lot of detailed information about how you are a great fit for the particular postdoc position but as Pete points out this usually is not true in pure math).</p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately this does not heal any wounds caused by the unfortunate passing away of your advisor and life long friend, but you should not worry about the letter writing situation. I can't say that I even begin to imagine the emotional pain of losing an advisor so close to graduation, but as someone who lost a parent while in college I greatly sympathize with you and I can think of no greater honor to your advisor than to continue in academia and continue doing great work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 81858,
"author": "TrueVoice",
"author_id": 39542,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/39542",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a difficult situation, especially for a scholar just starting out and on the job market. But it is not unprecedented. On job search committees, it is true that the absence of a letter from a major professor usually raises eyebrows. However, it is just that: \"why isn't there a letter from the major professor?\" Therefore, in your own letter, when you describe yourself, you can make it clear without berating the point. \"I received my Ph.D. from X university, writing a dissertation under the direction of John Smith (now deceased).\" It's really as simple as that.</p>\n\n<p>I am a senior tenured professor and I still have such a description in documents that describe me and who I worked under, because my PhD advisor died some years ago.</p>\n\n<p>The truth is that the letter from your advisor (this depends on your field, I suppose) is important, but the other letters are often more so. Scholars outside your university who are willing to go to bat for you can often carry as much, perhaps more, weight than a letter from your advisor. And over time, a letter from your adviser may even become a liability, if the nature of the mentor/mentee relationship remains the same, or if the tone of the letter does not adequately reflect your maturity and growth as a scholar after the degree. Because you are fortunate enough to have postdoc, use that time not only to strengthen your scholarship but also to develop productive relationships and try to build a network of colleagues of your own, unconnected to your home university. They are your future letter writers. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42208",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/948/"
] |
42,217 |
<p>I am applying to master program in computer engineering, but I have some concerns and not sure how to present them in my statement of purpose.</p>
<p>First, my undergrad was in computer engineering but after moving to US I pursued biology in graduate school. I had bad experience with my adviser. He moved to another university right when I started my research, but since I had a fellowship that came from a school in our university, I was forced to stay. He promised to help me, but didn't do anything after he moved. That being said, since I just started my research and we had a small department in which no one else worked on the same area, I couldn't make progress on my own. </p>
<p>But, then I started taking some online courses and became really interested in some new areas and also coauthored a paper in computer architecture. Now I want to apply to computer engineering for masters. </p>
<p>I also had to extend my graduate program in Biology due to some immigration related stuff, so now my graduate degree took more than five years, while I don't have any result in it. I was wondering how can I represent these stuff in my statement of purpose without hurting my chance of getting admission. I should also mention that I took almost all the PhD courses in Biology and have a very good GPA in graduate school.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42342,
"author": "somerandomdude",
"author_id": 31255,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31255",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It's tough to explain this, but here are a couple of things to note:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Explain the situation without being disrespectful to your adviser. If it were me I would not even blame him for anything, I would just make sure my writing leads the reader to that conclusion without me explicitly stating it.</p></li>\n<li><p>I don't think that your immigration status issue would sit well with the committee as a reason for you staying in the program for five years. If you had the intention of finishing your degree despite your new-found interest you should mention it.</p></li>\n<li><p>I'm getting the understanding that you will not be receiving <strong>any</strong> degree for your efforts over five years. I'm guessing that the school does not award M.S. degrees to PhD students who have not been able to conclude their research. However, if this is not the case, I highly recommend you try to get a master's degree. You mentioned that you completed most of the PhD coursework. You may be able to get a course-based master's degree even if your research has not progressed enough for a master's thesis. An SOP stating that you had difficulty with your research and ended up getting a course-based degree reads a lot better, especially since you seem to have a valid excuse for it.</p></li>\n<li><p>Completing your PhD would disqualify you for being admitted to EE PhD programs at many universities (many schools do not award PhD's to people who already have one). I would assume if getting a PhD (in your new area of interest) became your goal at some point during these five years, this would be a good reason for you not to complete your current PhD, so you may want to mention this to justify not completing your degree. Again, if you are able to get a course-based degree, this will sound a lot more convincing.</p></li>\n<li><p>Don't lie in your letter. Not that I'm implying that you meant to do this; however, it is usually pretty easy to detect an untruthful SOP.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Good Luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 65795,
"author": "WetlabStudent",
"author_id": 8101,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8101",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Emphasize the positive! Your statement of purpose should focus on your new field of interest and your publication in that field. The fact that you already have a publication in computer architecture is a very attractive quality. Don't focus too much attention on your PhD work in biology in your personal statement. Write a narrative where you treat your struggles in the biology PhD as \"a fortunate opportunity\" that allowed you to succeed in this new field that you are truly passionate about. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42217",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32130/"
] |
42,219 |
<p>I am currently finishing my master's degree in theoretical maths (mostly courses around algebra, geometric algebra, a bit of Riemann geometry, K-theory etc) and I don't know which area to go into for a Phd.
I was interested in cryptography but have never taken any advance classes in coding theory. Is knowledge in "pure math" enough to apply for a PhD in this area? I wanted to do something which uses my theoretical math but into a more applied subject ... any ideas would be very welcome ! </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42342,
"author": "somerandomdude",
"author_id": 31255,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31255",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It's tough to explain this, but here are a couple of things to note:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Explain the situation without being disrespectful to your adviser. If it were me I would not even blame him for anything, I would just make sure my writing leads the reader to that conclusion without me explicitly stating it.</p></li>\n<li><p>I don't think that your immigration status issue would sit well with the committee as a reason for you staying in the program for five years. If you had the intention of finishing your degree despite your new-found interest you should mention it.</p></li>\n<li><p>I'm getting the understanding that you will not be receiving <strong>any</strong> degree for your efforts over five years. I'm guessing that the school does not award M.S. degrees to PhD students who have not been able to conclude their research. However, if this is not the case, I highly recommend you try to get a master's degree. You mentioned that you completed most of the PhD coursework. You may be able to get a course-based master's degree even if your research has not progressed enough for a master's thesis. An SOP stating that you had difficulty with your research and ended up getting a course-based degree reads a lot better, especially since you seem to have a valid excuse for it.</p></li>\n<li><p>Completing your PhD would disqualify you for being admitted to EE PhD programs at many universities (many schools do not award PhD's to people who already have one). I would assume if getting a PhD (in your new area of interest) became your goal at some point during these five years, this would be a good reason for you not to complete your current PhD, so you may want to mention this to justify not completing your degree. Again, if you are able to get a course-based degree, this will sound a lot more convincing.</p></li>\n<li><p>Don't lie in your letter. Not that I'm implying that you meant to do this; however, it is usually pretty easy to detect an untruthful SOP.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Good Luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 65795,
"author": "WetlabStudent",
"author_id": 8101,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8101",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Emphasize the positive! Your statement of purpose should focus on your new field of interest and your publication in that field. The fact that you already have a publication in computer architecture is a very attractive quality. Don't focus too much attention on your PhD work in biology in your personal statement. Write a narrative where you treat your struggles in the biology PhD as \"a fortunate opportunity\" that allowed you to succeed in this new field that you are truly passionate about. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42219",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32138/"
] |
42,221 |
<p>A couple of weeks ago, out of the ordinary, I was in the company of a few academics from respectable universities. A graduate student mentioned that he was invited to something called "ICIT 2015" to present his Master's thesis. One of those professors said something along the line of:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If it is your first attempt at publishing something, then go for it. However, I usually highly advise against attending such events to present your papers. They're nothing but paper dumps. Within the time frame of two days, nearly 1500 people are expected to present their papers. You're given 10-20 minutes present your work to 1-2 people and have your picture taken. These events are merely created just so you can say and put on your CV that you've spoken at a conference and published a paper. Most of the time, the review process is horrible, and the PhD-level papers can be barely accepted as Bachelor-level theses in any respectable university.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Immediately after he finished talking, two other professors agreed with him and shared a couple of anecdotes on that particular conference and another one.</p>
<p>I looked at the <a href="http://vps.ieee-ies.org/submit/icit15/program-dsr.html">conference's website</a>, and it seems to confirm some of what the professor had said, but I cannot find anything on the review process or the "quality" of the papers.</p>
<p>I spent quite a bit of time trying to find any reference to such "paper dump conferences", but I had no success. Were those people just being snobs or is there some truth to what they said?</p>
<p><strong>Disclaimer:</strong> I'm very far from academia and just looking to learn more and understand this a little better, so excuse me if it seems like I have no clue what I'm talking about. Also, this "paper dump" might have another name in English as I'm providing a direct translation from another language.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42224,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I smell a big fat scam:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The number of scientists from reputable universities that are\nsupposedly attending this is just a little bit suspicious.</li>\n<li>The website is horrible.</li>\n<li>The conference <a href=\"http://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/search/index.html?KEYWORDS=&CONF_SRCH_RDO=conf_date&RANGE_FROM_DATE=&RANGE_TO_DATE=&REGION=ALL&COUNTRY=Spain&RowsPerPage=10&PageLinkNum=10&ActivePage=1&SORTORDER=desc&SORTFIELD=start_date\">does not exist on IEEE's website</a> when I search for a list of conferences in Spain.</li>\n<li>I'm no engineer, but the paper titles seem nonsensical. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If you're ever unsure, you could find the academic webpage of the professor(s) who are chairing the conference and write an email to the address listed there (making sure that the prof you're contacting is a real person on the website of a real university). They'll either assure you the conference is legit, or be glad for the warning that their name has been harvested and used for the scam.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42227,
"author": "Ketan Maheshwari",
"author_id": 6103,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6103",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think there are two different but related kinds of conferences. </p>\n\n<p>First are the conferences which are essentially bogus and shady. They do exist and run but the associations and quality they claim is fake. These are borderline fraud conferences but hard to prove so because they will come up with some bare minimum genuine-ness criteria if called out. People I know usually avoid them and their CFPs go to spam mail.</p>\n\n<p>Second are the conferences which are genuine but fairly low on popularity and quality. Such conferences are often easy targets if you want to get something out in some catalog and want a speaking experience. As an anecdote, my professors used to call these second type of conferences the \"paper dump\" venues.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42237,
"author": "user3780968",
"author_id": 32158,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32158",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The other answers basically state that yes, there are bogus conferences (and journals) as well as legit conferences but with very low quality standards. \nOne thing they don't really address, and that I think motivates the OP's question is: why would there be such conferences? </p>\n\n<p>The answer is quite simple. They're a great business opportunity (in a very cynical sense) to capitalize on the \"publish or perish\" principle of the academic world.</p>\n\n<p>Academics <em>need</em> to publish their work, and early grad students are particularly in need of getting publications on their CV. When the work is low quality, respectable venues won't publish it. So that's where these more or less shady venues come in. These welcoming venues offer the opportunity to publish papers with very limited review, but for sizable fees. Then, for papers to be accepted in conference proceedings one author must attend and present, for another sizable fee. Research grants pay for it, so you get free travel... many of the conferences advertize great locations (e.g. Recife, Brazil, was in a recent CFP I saw).</p>\n\n<p>These publications are then on your CV, and will withstand some basic scrutiny, in the sense that it takes some research to know what conferences or journals are \"predatory\", \"paper dumps\", etc. There are a zillion conferences and journals, you can't know all of them... People outside of academia may not even be aware that such things exist (OP for example)...</p>\n\n<p>So, to be clear, if you want to have a respectable name for yourself in academia, you don't want to publish there.... but if that's not your immediate concern, then these venues offer a valuable service to some people. And a great disservice to the scientific community, by channelling funds the wrong way, driving down quality standards, cluttering up cyberspace with useless publications, etc.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 61570,
"author": "Blaisorblade",
"author_id": 8966,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8966",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>That conference's rather bogus indeed, and such conferences can look \nOther answers didn't mention this is a <em>multiconference</em> — that is, it unites scientists of unrelated fields and have little to talk together about.</p>\n\n<p>Typically, why would a researcher in \"Signal and Image Processing and Computational Intelligence\" want to listen to a very specialized talk from one in \"Electrical Machines and Drives\"? Researchers aren't typically that interdisciplinary. It makes more sense, say, for a researcher in Image Processing might go to, say, <a href=\"http://s2015.siggraph.org/attendees/technical-papers\" rel=\"nofollow\">SIGGRAPH</a> and listen to other talks on imagey stuff he might use. (Disclaimer: I'm far from Image Processing myself, and farther from engineering, I'm applying general patterns).</p>\n\n<p>That does not show it's a fraud like infamous <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Multiconference_on_Systemics,_Cybernetics_and_Informatics\" rel=\"nofollow\">WMSCI</a>, but it implies that researchers with better options aren't likely to go there.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 80319,
"author": "smci",
"author_id": 12050,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12050",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here are several telltales for a bogus conference, and ICIT seems to hit most/all of them:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Little or no peer-review.</strong> Webpage doesn't list any review timelines, guidelines or details. 2014 website lists a timeline, but no guidelines for papers.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Ridiculously broad scope</strong>, esp. for the size and caliber of the program committee (this reinforces point 1., because it's hard enough to find and manage good reviewers in one area, but thirty unrelated areas!?) ('Electrical Machines and Drives' to 'Industrial Automation, Communication, Networking and Informatics' to 'Electronic Systems on Chip and Embedded Control' to 'Microsystems and Microfluidics Applications')</p></li>\n<li><p>Look at the <strong>caliber of the Program Committee and Organizing Committee</strong>. Who are they, and what have they themselves published, in your field?</p></li>\n<li><p>You can very accurately <strong>guesstimate a conf's quality by looking at previous years' acceptances/ proceedings</strong> (esp. in your particular field) and look for the worst/weakest/most bogus papers, check the authors' credentials, then download a couple of papers and skim them for basic quality, English, proofreading, references etc. In <a href=\"http://icit.github.io/archive/ICIT-2014/silicon.ac.in/icit2014/cp.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">ICIT 2014's case, we can't even do this because 2014 proceedings are \"coming soon\"</a>. No proceedings at all, for a technical conf? Not even printed on paper or DVD? Sounds bogus.</p></li>\n<li><p>IEEE website does not list ICIT conference. Hmm.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>(I wasn't aware of the distinction between paper-dump and outright bogus, until here)</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42221",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32141/"
] |
42,229 |
<p>After achieving my masters degree, i applied for a phd program at the same university i was graduated from. In Germany, a person has to find 2 advisors to be registered as a phd student and thats it for the begining. </p>
<p>I approached a professor whose area is related to my research.I told my intention and research idea to him and he said he would like to be my advisor but he officially cannot be the first advisor due to the number of students he already has. Instead, he suggested that he can be my second advisor and i should find another professor as my first advisor, in this way we can continue working anyway. </p>
<p>I decided to approach another professor (who is also a colleague of 2.advisor) and I asked him if he could be my first advisor and he accepted. We have exchanged more than 10 e-mails, talking about my proposal. When he came to my city, we met and everything looked fine. I continued to work on my proposal and sent him after a while. I needed to get a reference letter from him, as I am applying for potential scholarships. Some of these scholarships demand the reference letter to be sent directly by the professors. He has written the reference letter and wrote me an e-mail saying that he has sent the letter to the grant givers i asked him to send. I have asked him to send the letter also to me as a pdf, since i need to upload it personally as well. He has not send it to me and since weeks he is not replying my e-mails.</p>
<p>Instead, he has sent me an indirect message with a friend of mine (also a student of his), saying that I should work more on my proposal and it would be difficult to get a scholarship with such inaccurate proposal. He told her that I have been rushing to finish it and I should stop and reconsider my steps. He also added that, due to the inner conflicts he has with the faculty, he will be resigning in two years so maybe i should consider to find another first advisor as well.</p>
<p>I found this indirect communication unusual, disturbing and i must say, unprofessional. I decided to send him another e-mail, asking him if he can approve what I heard from my friend so that I can begin to search for another first advisor. Because if he officialy does not write it, i'm still registered as his student and it would be awkward to search for another one while I still have one. He is not replying to this e-mail as well. I have been applying for another scholarship meanwhile (only with one reference letter which is from my second advisor) and today i recieved a note from this scholarship, saying that my file has been taken under consideration but i should send the other reference letter as soon as possible. </p>
<p>My professor is literally blocking me from applying further. I have understood what he meant by taking more time to focus on my proposal but for now I need this reference letter from him. It just doesn't make sense that I cannot have the letter when it is already written for me. My question would be, shall I contact and ask my second advisor about his opinion on this situation or shall I take a step back and wait for my first advisor's conflicts to be cleared and hopefully he writes back to me? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42238,
"author": "Maarten van Wesel",
"author_id": 32146,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32146",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Have you contacted the second supervisor about this problem? If yes what does he think about this problem? Is he able to contact the first supervisor?</p>\n\n<p>If you haven't contacted the second supervisor about this problem I would do so ASAP</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42243,
"author": "yo'",
"author_id": 1471,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1471",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If it's weeks passing and the Advisor One is not communicating, I would consider the case with him as closed. I would contact Advisor Two, explain him the situation, and after seeing that he is interested in advising you, send an e-mail to Advisor One clearly stating that you decided to reject to cooperate with him. You don't need to make it long, but you have to make it precise.</p>\n\n<p>Unless you can reach the people in person, there's hardly anything else you can do. Well, one thing still: Do you know anybody well who knows Advisor One well? Can you reach such person directly and confirm that this could have happened? Can you consult someone else who's close to the situation like your master advisor?</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42229",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32148/"
] |
42,233 |
<p>I have a link to an <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3629752">article on JSTOR</a>. I can't see the DOI mentioned. Is there a standard way to find the DOI? Do all articles on JSTOR have an assigned DOI?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42234,
"author": "Maarten van Wesel",
"author_id": 32146,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32146",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You could try to query Crossref (of it are not to many articles); <a href=\"http://www.crossref.org/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.crossref.org/</a></p>\n\n<p>Just enter the title in the search box</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42236,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>DOI's are managed by Crossref.org. For each DOI, Crossref's database has a redirect to the current location of that digital object, and the owners can move things around and update the Crossref database as needed. When you follow a link to <code>https://doi.org/<DOI></code>, the crossref servers redirect this request to the current location of that paper. As mentioned in another answer you can lookup an article in the crossref.org database to see whether or not it has a DOI. </p>\n\n<p>Recent articles have typically been assigned a DOI by the publisher, and most publishers put the DOI on the title page of the paper so it's easy to find that way. </p>\n\n<p>Older articles were originally published without a DOI, but the publisher may have assigned one after the fact. If the publisher has not already assigned a DOI, then JSTOR may have assigned a DOI to the article that will point to the copy of the article in the JSTOR database. This is a service offered to publishers by JSTOR, but not all publishers use it. Thus not all articles in JSTOR have DOI's. </p>\n\n<p>It appears that the article you linked to has not been assigned a DOI by either its original publisher or JSTOR and thus has no DOI. I can't find the article in the crossref database. The \"stable URL\" that you linked to is probably the best way to link to the article. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 85832,
"author": "ynnig",
"author_id": 70127,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/70127",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>you can search for Crossref DOIs at search.crossref.org (disclaimer: I work there) but if not found it doesn't mean there is no DOI. We house the metadata for 87 million DOIs but there are other registries too such as DataCite, KISTI (Korea), etc. Crossref is a good start though!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 135691,
"author": "huckfinn",
"author_id": 13882,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13882",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Try viewing the page source and then search for \"DOI\". Worked for me.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42233",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32155/"
] |
42,249 |
<p>I have a very unusual profile for a PhD program applicant. I worked a few years in business after college and have recently completed a J.D. I did not have much research experience in college except my honors thesis. My grades in math are solid but I did not take any grad level classes. After the "distractions", I have decided that I would like to study math and do math research. I do love math and was quite good at it. I'm concerned that the admissions committee might view my trajectory as unfocused.</p>
<p>I would appreciate any feedback and suggestion as to how I can best remedy my situation. </p>
<p>Thank you so much for your help. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42268,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't know where you are, but at least in the US, research experience is not expected before enrolling in a PhD program. It is also not expected that you have take graduate-level classes, unless you are trying to get into a top program. However, it is true that admissions committees want to see that you are sufficiently motivated and committed. </p>\n\n<p>My suggestion is that you apply to several masters programs and maybe a few PhD programs you are interested in. You may or may not get into the PhD programs, but it's easier to get into a master's program first. Having done a master's in math should be sufficient evidence that you're serious about doing a PhD (if indeed you still are), and this will make it easier to get into a better PhD program.</p>\n\n<p>As you will need letters of recommendation anyway, I also suggest you contact some of your math professors from undergrad and let them know of your intentions. Then you can also ask about letters of recommendation and see if they have any suggestions for which kind of schools you should apply to. (By looking at your CV and transcripts, they should have a reasonable sense at what kind of schools you have a good shot at.)</p>\n\n<p>By the way, as a bit of encouragment, many excellent mathematicians have started off in other careers, and your situation of wanting to do a math PhD after trying something else is not uncommon.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42282,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 11565,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11565",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I was successful in being admitted to top-20 Ph.D. programs in math in a similar situation. I had been out of school for 5 years, and I didn't do anything mathematically \"serious\" as an undergrad or in the interim.</p>\n\n<p>I did exactly what Brian Borchers mentioned in his comment. I happened to live in the same city as an excellent university, and I asked a professor if I could sit in on his grad class. He kindly agreed, and I worked very hard, solved all the homework problems correctly and wrote them up, and slaved over my term project.</p>\n\n<p>This gave me the confidence that yes, I really did want to go to grad school, and no doubt the professor's recommendation letter helped my case also. I recommend the same path to you if you have the opportunity.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42249",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32163/"
] |
42,250 |
<p>I've seen the terms "referee" and "reviewer" both used to describe a person who gives feedback to a paper in a journal submission. Are there differences between the two terms? Is one used in some situations where the other isn't?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42251,
"author": "Jeremy Miles",
"author_id": 6495,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6495",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think they are synonyms. </p>\n\n<p>I guess there might be a very slight emphasis that a referee makes a decision, where a reviewer produces a report. But both do both, in the case of journals. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42252,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>So far as I have ever been able to tell, \"referee\" and \"reviewer\" mean exactly the same thing.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42267,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Typically they are synonymous (see <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peer_review\" rel=\"nofollow\">this wiki entry</a>). Some journals use one term or another, and some use both. Some fields may tend to use one more than another, but I don't know. However, my impression is that the term \"referee\" means someone who makes a thorough evaluation of a paper (one should check correctness and make detailed suggestions if appropriate), and the term \"reviewer\" is more general for someone whose opinion is solicited. </p>\n\n<p>In math, full refereeing takes a considerable amount of effort and many journals now solicit quick opinions from experts to determine if a paper should go through the full refereeing process. The experts who give brief opinions could be considered a kind of reviewer (in practice, I haven't heard this term applied here, but calling them something like \"preliminary reviewers\" seems reasonable), whereas they should not be considered referees.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42270,
"author": "Jessica B",
"author_id": 20036,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20036",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My experience is that usage varies. In my field, it is common to use 'referee' for the person who anonymously comments on a paper submitted to a journal, and 'reviewer' for the person who writes about a paper already published to appear publicly in a database. However, people I know in similar areas use 'reviewer' for the first meaning. To confuse things more, there are some discussions underway about changing the publishing model, which would have the effect of essentially combining these two situations.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 72365,
"author": "Erik",
"author_id": 57642,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/57642",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would say they seem absolutely synonymous in every use I've come across.</p>\n\n<p>If anything, it might actually be the case that Referee is the noun and a review is the verb i.e you are a Referee but you are doing/giving a review.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 72373,
"author": "apokryfos",
"author_id": 57098,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/57098",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think in practical terms both do the same thing. In theory a reviewer just reviews while a referee also decides whether to accept or not. </p>\n\n<p>In more practical terms, when a referee delegates the reviewing process to one of their post-grads, the post-grad is a reviewer but not a referee (and yes I know this \"never happens\"). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 137296,
"author": "Christopher Dimech",
"author_id": 114176,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/114176",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>They are not synonymous. A referee decides whether a contribution is to be accept or not for publication. A reviewer provides information on published articles and books. A review of a academic work gives a brief and clear account of its contents. Reading the review is not intended to be a substitute for reading the original work; the primary purpose is to help the user to decide whether he or she needs to read the original. Therefore, the main results of the paper should be briefly described, preferably in a non-technical manner. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42250",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28245/"
] |
42,259 |
<p>How should I go about determining the quality of an undergraduate program that is just starting given that the field in general is relatively young?</p>
<p>To be more specific, I am considering a new cyber security program at the University of Tampa. It starts Fall 2015. There aren't many other programs i can compare to, or accreditations to look for. </p>
<p>How can I measure the quality of a program that hasn't even started? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42262,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>My best advice would be to look at the faculty who are signed up to teach the program. A program is likely to be good if:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>The faculty are of scientific high quality in their field, and </li>\n<li>The faculty are also generally well-regarded in their student evaluations</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The first years of any new educational venture are likely to have a lot of glitches, but also have some compensating advantages: it is also the time when a program is likely to be most flexible and when the faculty are likely to be investing especially hard in their students as they try to get the program off the ground.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42266,
"author": "JP Janet",
"author_id": 28045,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28045",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to the previous answer, I would suggest looking at what other programs share the same courses. Usually a new degree program will share a fair number of required courses, especially the introductory subjects, with existing majors. If it turns out that 70% or so of the course requirements are shared with a reputable CS degree (for example), then you will probably get a good grounding at least. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42259",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32172/"
] |
42,271 |
<p>I have recently been comparing publishers regarding their policies on double dipping (charging an open-access fee for publishing in a hybrid journal and then charging again a subscription fee). Many publishers (Springer, Wiley, Taylor and Francis) state they lower the subscription fees based on the amount of open-access articles to not charge their authors / readers / customers twice for the same article.</p>
<p>Elsevier has a different approach. They state:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Elsevier's policy is not to charge subscribers for open access articles and when calculating subscription prices only to take into account subscription articles – we do not double dip.<br>
[<a href="http://www.elsevier.com/about/open-access/open-access-policies/no-double-dipping-policy">source</a>]</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But how is this implemented? The Elsevier support team was of no help when I asked there. I only got links to the help pages, which I have read forwards and backwards three times already. I even created an account and started a test submission to two of their hybrid journals but there wasn’t even a box to tick for selecting <em>Open Access.</em></p>
<p>Has anyone made use of this policy and asked for a waiver based on a journal subscription? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42279,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In the help page you link to, there are three relevant subheadings:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>For journals that publish only subscription articles</strong></p>\n \n <p>(snip)</p>\n \n <p><strong>For journals that publish only open access articles</strong></p>\n \n <p>(snip)</p>\n \n <p><strong>For journals that publish both subscription articles and open access\n articles:</strong></p>\n \n <p>Adjustments in individual journal subscription list prices are made in the same way as for journals that publish only subscription\n articles. We do not count open access articles when setting\n subscription prices for titles. Subscription prices are therefore not\n affected by the volume of open access articles published in the\n journal.</p>\n \n <p>Adjustments in article publishing fees (APCs) are made in the same way as for articles that are published in journals that publish only\n open access articles. We do not count subscription articles when\n setting APC prices for articles. APC prices are therefore not affected\n by the volume of subscription articles published in the journal.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The first two sections explain how Elsevier set subscription prices for subscription-only (no OA) journals, and publication fees for OA-only journals.</p>\n\n<p>The third section, on mixed OA/non-OA journals, refers to the previous two and explains</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>How subscription prices are set, taking OA articles into account (they are not counted in the calculation according to the first section)</li>\n<li>How OA publication fees are set, taking subscriptions into account (they are not counted in the calculation according to the second section)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Bottom line: the idea is <em>not</em> that you get a waiver for your subscription based on how many OA articles you (or your school) has published in the journal. <em>Nor</em> is it that you get a reduced OA publication fee based on subscribing to the journal (yourself or through your school).</p>\n\n<p>Rather, everything is lumped together. It's simply a mixed calculation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42280,
"author": "David Ketcheson",
"author_id": 81,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>@Stephan Kolassa has given the technically correct answer. I will add that all of this is irrelevant to the vast majority of universities, since they don't pay individual journal prices. <a href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6190/1332.full\" rel=\"noreferrer\">They pay for an Elsevier bundle, and Elsevier forces them to keep the amount paid secret</a>. It seems clear that bundle prices are determined based on what Elsevier believes a university can afford (i.e., will submit to) and are not based on any formula involving numbers of articles. Thus <strong>Elsevier <em>is</em> double-dipping</strong>. The only way they could prove otherwise would be to have a transparent pricing scheme and to allow universities to make public the actual prices paid.</p>\n\n<p>Note that <a href=\"http://rossmounce.co.uk/2015/03/11/wrongly-paywalled-articles-a-recap-of-what-we-now-know/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Elsevier has gone far beyond this and even charged for access to articles whose authors paid an OA fee</a> in some cases.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42297,
"author": "Andrew",
"author_id": 27825,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27825",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Stephan is entirely correct: the OA APCs Elsevier charge are not directly dependent on whether or not you are a subscriber. The method used by Elsevier, and most publishers, is to reduce the overall <em>subscription</em> cost in proportion to the number of OA articles in a journal, not reduce the APCs in proportion to subscription spending. In theory, were a hybrid journal to go 50% OA, then the subscription price would be halved - which makes sense - but as David notes, the mechanics of this are pretty opaque. Most journals are not bought at list price, and things like varying numbers of articles year-on-year confuse things.</p>\n\n<p>That said, there <em>are</em> projects which run the way you envisage it working - where APCs are reduced or waived for subscribers. The recent UK initiative to put substantial government funds into gold OA has led to a lot of pressure to come up with a system like this, because otherwise we would create a situation where UK universities spent very heavily on gold OA but only saw small reductions in the global subscription rates. Similar systems are being set up in Austria and elsewhere, and I suspect will become common over the next few years.</p>\n\n<p>At the moment, two of the major publishers (Taylor & Francis and Wiley) offer such \"offsetting\" schemes. The T&F one is summarised <a href=\"http://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/news/press-release/Jisc-Collections-and-Taylor-and-Francis-agreement-extends-access\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a> and the Wiley one <a href=\"http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/wiley-and-jisc-announce-new-open-access-agreement-19-dec-2014\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a>. With these, the subscribing institution gets a \"rebate\" voucher based on their subscription (or subscription + APC) spend over the previous year.</p>\n\n<p>They can then use this to pay for future APCs. Elsevier do not have such a system, <em>but</em> JISC are strongly pushing major hybrid publishers to set them up, and I feel it's likely we'll see one for Elsevier within the next couple of years.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Edit</strong>: the RCUK Open Access Review, released today (26/3), has <a href=\"http://www.rcuk.ac.uk/RCUK-prod/assets/documents/documents/Openaccessreport.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">a little more detail</a> (Appendix H) on the current offsetting projects - as well as T&F and Wiley, there are active projects from the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and Sage. The Sage one works exactly as the original post assumed - authors at subscribing institutions are charged a heavily discounted APC - while the others are a rebate/voucher system based on total spend.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Edit2</strong>: and as of 31/3, Springer have announced a <a href=\"http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/springer-and-jisc-reach-agreement-31-mar-2015\" rel=\"nofollow\">very vague offsetting plan</a> with JISC. No details on how it works yet but probably some kind of voucher system.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42616,
"author": "Heike R",
"author_id": 32181,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32181",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Official answer from Elsevier</strong></p>\n\n<p>After an exchange of six emails, I finally got a definite answer from someone at Elsevier, who is responsible for the Open Access Policy. Very clear in the fifth email:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Open Access is not free for authors whose institutions already receive a subscription.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Then I asked for an explanation of the statement I quoted in my original question. The answer in the sixth email was:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Elsevier's no double dipping policy means that when we calculate the subscription price of a hybrid journal (a subscription journal that offers a gold OA publishing option) we only look at subscription articles in calculating this price. Open access articles are not charged for as part of a subscription, as we recover the costs for publishing open access articles via an APC.\n Elsevier's no double dipping policy does not mean that we waive APC fees in these journals, as an APC is still required to cover the cost of publishing the article open access in the first instance. Instead what we don't charge for is access to the open access article once it is published.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Would have been too good to be true. From an inofficial source I also learned that Elsevier's internal guideline says to not give in to any kind of fee waiving / voucher / subscription vs APC calculation request from any institution. I guess they are afraid these news would get around very fast and then everyone would request it. If only every country would have a negotiation position such as JISC in the UK.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 116344,
"author": "Allure",
"author_id": 84834,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/84834",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The two approaches you describe in the question are actually the same, just worded differently.</p>\n\n<p>Subscription prices are judged based on several factors, such as:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>How many articles are published on average?</li>\n<li>Is there a print subscription? If so, is the journal printed in color?</li>\n<li>How many issues are there a year?</li>\n<li>How many pages are there on average?</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>You can see an illustration of where the pricing comes from in <a href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/science/2012/feb/02/academics-boycott-publisher-elsevier\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this article</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Elsevier has disputed the claims, saying that its average list price per article is $10 (£6.50), which is \"bang on the industry mean\", and that volume-based discounts bring the effective price per article down to $2, which is \"slightly below the industry average\".</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>What Springer, Wiley, Elsevier, etc as alluded to in the OP are saying is that if articles are published open access, then they're simply not counted as \"normal\" articles. For example if a journal publishes 50 articles/year and about 20% of those are open access, then the subscription price is lowered to that of a 40-article/year journal. Of course, this kind of price reduction can only be done once it's established that the journal will continue to receive ~20% OA articles, since if that number drops they could easily be making a loss - remember that subscription prices are set the year prior, and cannot be varied in the current year regardless of how many or how few OA articles one publishes. </p>\n\n<p>If there's a difference at all in what the four publishers are saying, it's that Elsevier is giving the method, while Springer / Wiley / Taylor & Francis are giving the result.</p>\n\n<p>In all cases, subscribing to a journal does not mean you get to publish open access for free. If this were the case, everyone would subscribe, since the OA cost is typically lower than the subscription price. For example, for the journal Discrete Mathematics, <a href=\"https://www.elsevier.com/journals/discrete-mathematics/0012-365x/open-access-options\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">the OA article processing fee is $1500 before taxes</a>, while <a href=\"https://www.elsevier.com/journals/personal/discrete-mathematics/0012-365X\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">the personal subscription price is $360</a>.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42271",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32181/"
] |
42,283 |
<p>The constructive question is, <strong>What practices/strategies could help ensure the committee reads the dissertation?</strong></p>
<p>I am wondering if those who already hold a PhD, or advanced graduate students finishing their dissertations have experience where they suspected that their committee (besides their Chair) have not read their dissertation prior to the final defense examination. I would guess this issue is far from unique, as there is a variety of reasons for this. Here are some general reasons: </p>
<ol>
<li>Gap in Access: Committee members become separated from the department/institution, either completely or to some significant extent. Examples include retirements, where the individual might remain tangentially involved in a part time or 'emeritus' role; leaving for another job at a different institution, etc. (both are often associated with geographic relocation). </li>
</ol>
<p>This creates additional distance between the student and that individual, making an "office drop-in" unfeasible and communication more lopsided, as the individual may feel less press to respond to emails/calls. </p>
<p>Note: <strong>difficulties with communication</strong> can be a standalone category, but I thought it was too broad as it applies across the board.</p>
<ol start="2">
<li><p>Gap in Motivation: This is essentially a gap between committee member's current priorities/interests and the thesis. Committee members, who have been added to the thesis committee because their area of expertise complements the knowledge capital on the committee, might feel disinterested from the particular dissertation topic selected by the student. Because the topic does not directly tie into their work, there is little incentive for them to spend time carefully reviewing the dissertation. </p></li>
<li><p>Lack of time/low priority: Related to the previous reasons, although this issue might surface even if the faculty member is reasonably accessible (on campus etc.) and reasonably interested in the thesis. Despite their 'well meaning' and 'best intentions', the thesis nevertheless keeps slipping to the bottom of their to-do's and they don't get around to reading/commenting for months. The pattern may recur despite regular polite reminders by email from the student and/or the committee chair.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Whatever the underlying reason (or their combinations), the result is the same: the thesis does not receive as thorough review as it technically should. The obvious negative consequences may be summarized as:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>lower overall quality of the thesis (more eyes on the writing helps
spot all sorts of issues that may be visible only from the unique
vantage points of highly competent readers); </p></li>
<li><p>lower quality of the student's learning experience (less feedback = less learning); </p></li>
<li><p>longer time to complete thesis (since the student has to compensate for lack of feedback by trying to work out all the kinks on his/her own, plus the time it takes to simply <strong>wait</strong> for committee members to respond to requests for feedback).</p></li>
<li><p>difficulties during the final examination (thesis defense), since lack of committee's familiarity with the content of the thesis directly impacts their ability to be more "plugged in" to the examination presentation and 'grilling' of the candidate. As a result the candidate might have incorrect assumptions/expectations of the committee's knowledge of what he/she is talking about, and the resulting general confusion (can anyone relate to that one? ;)</p></li>
</ul>
<p>What to do. How to reduce the chances of the 'neglected thesis syndrome'?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42285,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a real problem in practice. Basically everyone I know (and this, at times, includes me -- though I make it a point to set aside sufficient time to mark it up throughout and return the comments to the student) reads theses the day before the defense, with all of the consequences you mention. I have had more than one case where a student thought that receiving no comments meant that everyone was ok with the content of the thesis, just to find out that the defense did not go well and the committee wanted to have substantial additional work before they will approve the thesis. Not good.</p>\n\n<p>I think the most common cause is that committee members simply don't have the time. To read and mark up a 150 page thesis thoroughly takes well over a day of full time work. To a committee member, this is unproductive work -- no publications will come of it, no grant funding, very little appreciation by the department. So it slips to the bottom of the todo list until it can't be pushed off any more (the day before the defense).</p>\n\n<p>The second most important cause is that theses never get finished on time. I have received theses from candidates the day before the defense -- that's definitely not enough time and the candidates should have known better. I now ask that they at least send me the draft they have two weeks before the defense, but not always are they in a form that makes it worth reading through.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, there is probably little you can do to affect the underlying problem, which is that committee members have little motivation to give a candidate good feedback. Your best bet is to keep them up to date with regard to what you do: make an appointment to go see them every 6 months and tell them what you have been doing; if you have drafts of individual chapters, send it to your committee members as soon as you have it; invite them to seminar talks you give; etc. Build a relationship. If a committee member is interested and feels engaged, you're more likely to get good feedback at a time when it's useful. </p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if the only time when you see your committee members is (i) when you enlist them to your committee, (ii) for your proposal defense, (iii) for your final defense, and if you give them the draft of your thesis 3 days before the defense, then don't be surprised if you get negative comments during the defense or in reply to your thesis.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42286,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My committee was pretty uninvolved. My department did not require a proposal, so my advisor and I got them together for a status check with about 18 months to go. I don't recall there being much in the way of useful feedback. Much of the text of my dissertation was written in the last 6 months of my degree, and my advisor and I were the only ones looking at it. I got no feedback to speak of on the draft I gave the the committee before the defense, there were no surprises at the defense, and they signed off on the spot. I don't know if there was any back-channel feedback to my advisor, but given the flow of things, I doubt it. All that being said, they had seen me in classes and giving talks at conferences over the years, so they knew what direction my research was going in and knew that I was making progress. </p>\n\n<p>I don't have any illusions that my thesis was of earth-shattering importance, but we got a couple of decent papers out of it. I have a hard time seeing how having a more involved committee would have changed that much. They were all researchers in related niches of the overall field, but their interests were different enough that most of their involvement would have changed the thesis dramatically (apply their favorite method, switch to their favorite problem, etc). </p>\n\n<p>My perhaps cynical view is that in the US in the fields I know something about (engineering, CS), thesis committees serve as a final check that the department and university isn't going to be embarrassed to have graduated the student. Almost everything else is gravy. In the easy cases, if the work in the thesis has already produced published papers, the committee members do not need to serve as peer reviewers because the bulk of the work has already been reviewed. In the harder cases, where the work is so far unpublished, the committee is presuming that the student and the advisor are the experts, and some level of trust is given that the work is up to the department's standards. Only truly sub-par work will be caught by the process in these cases. Advisors that allow bad work to make it to the defense stage are likely to develop a reputation for having students who have problems and end up with no students to advise, so that helps to keep the system working.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42317,
"author": "Andreas Blass",
"author_id": 14506,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14506",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>My department requires two independent reports (usually around 2 pages long) from members of the committee. The other members of the committee can get away with sloppy or non-existent reading of the thesis, but at least the two official \"readers\" have to study it thoroughly enough to write a respectable report. </p>\n\n<p>The first reader is always the thesis adviser; the second is usually whichever other member of the committee has the most expertise in the particular area of the thesis. Also, our graduate school requires that one member of the committee be from a different department, so this member would not usually be expected to suggest improvements of the thesis. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42283",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22447/"
] |
42,284 |
<p>For my thesis I am required to follow the APA citation and reference style. I personally quite like having colored citations (typically blue; some journals do this) because they allow the reader to identify citations more easily and highlight the fact that they are linked to the reference list (clickable).</p>
<p>To give an example:
<img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/Yni5M.png" alt="Example"></p>
<p>Is this against APA rules? I have not been able to find any information on this online at all. Any help would be greatly appreciated!</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42285,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a real problem in practice. Basically everyone I know (and this, at times, includes me -- though I make it a point to set aside sufficient time to mark it up throughout and return the comments to the student) reads theses the day before the defense, with all of the consequences you mention. I have had more than one case where a student thought that receiving no comments meant that everyone was ok with the content of the thesis, just to find out that the defense did not go well and the committee wanted to have substantial additional work before they will approve the thesis. Not good.</p>\n\n<p>I think the most common cause is that committee members simply don't have the time. To read and mark up a 150 page thesis thoroughly takes well over a day of full time work. To a committee member, this is unproductive work -- no publications will come of it, no grant funding, very little appreciation by the department. So it slips to the bottom of the todo list until it can't be pushed off any more (the day before the defense).</p>\n\n<p>The second most important cause is that theses never get finished on time. I have received theses from candidates the day before the defense -- that's definitely not enough time and the candidates should have known better. I now ask that they at least send me the draft they have two weeks before the defense, but not always are they in a form that makes it worth reading through.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, there is probably little you can do to affect the underlying problem, which is that committee members have little motivation to give a candidate good feedback. Your best bet is to keep them up to date with regard to what you do: make an appointment to go see them every 6 months and tell them what you have been doing; if you have drafts of individual chapters, send it to your committee members as soon as you have it; invite them to seminar talks you give; etc. Build a relationship. If a committee member is interested and feels engaged, you're more likely to get good feedback at a time when it's useful. </p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if the only time when you see your committee members is (i) when you enlist them to your committee, (ii) for your proposal defense, (iii) for your final defense, and if you give them the draft of your thesis 3 days before the defense, then don't be surprised if you get negative comments during the defense or in reply to your thesis.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42286,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My committee was pretty uninvolved. My department did not require a proposal, so my advisor and I got them together for a status check with about 18 months to go. I don't recall there being much in the way of useful feedback. Much of the text of my dissertation was written in the last 6 months of my degree, and my advisor and I were the only ones looking at it. I got no feedback to speak of on the draft I gave the the committee before the defense, there were no surprises at the defense, and they signed off on the spot. I don't know if there was any back-channel feedback to my advisor, but given the flow of things, I doubt it. All that being said, they had seen me in classes and giving talks at conferences over the years, so they knew what direction my research was going in and knew that I was making progress. </p>\n\n<p>I don't have any illusions that my thesis was of earth-shattering importance, but we got a couple of decent papers out of it. I have a hard time seeing how having a more involved committee would have changed that much. They were all researchers in related niches of the overall field, but their interests were different enough that most of their involvement would have changed the thesis dramatically (apply their favorite method, switch to their favorite problem, etc). </p>\n\n<p>My perhaps cynical view is that in the US in the fields I know something about (engineering, CS), thesis committees serve as a final check that the department and university isn't going to be embarrassed to have graduated the student. Almost everything else is gravy. In the easy cases, if the work in the thesis has already produced published papers, the committee members do not need to serve as peer reviewers because the bulk of the work has already been reviewed. In the harder cases, where the work is so far unpublished, the committee is presuming that the student and the advisor are the experts, and some level of trust is given that the work is up to the department's standards. Only truly sub-par work will be caught by the process in these cases. Advisors that allow bad work to make it to the defense stage are likely to develop a reputation for having students who have problems and end up with no students to advise, so that helps to keep the system working.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42317,
"author": "Andreas Blass",
"author_id": 14506,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14506",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>My department requires two independent reports (usually around 2 pages long) from members of the committee. The other members of the committee can get away with sloppy or non-existent reading of the thesis, but at least the two official \"readers\" have to study it thoroughly enough to write a respectable report. </p>\n\n<p>The first reader is always the thesis adviser; the second is usually whichever other member of the committee has the most expertise in the particular area of the thesis. Also, our graduate school requires that one member of the committee be from a different department, so this member would not usually be expected to suggest improvements of the thesis. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42284",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25093/"
] |
42,288 |
<p>I'm a finishing PhD student in math. I want to stay in academia so I am applying for two things:</p>
<ol>
<li>A year-long postdoc position</li>
<li>A 6 month postdoc position</li>
</ol>
<p>I have been in contact with two professors regarding the two options and am going to send the application forms off today. But I feel bad because suppose I get job offers for both the positions, then I'll have to say no to one of them. Then they will get annoyed at me for wasting their time and will probably never want to work with me on anything again. Both are highly respected so it's doubly bad. What should I do?</p>
<p><strong>Edit</strong>: the applications will be decided by a committee, not the professors concerned. Both professors are happy to work with me. I'm in the United Kingdom. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42289,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Everyone who is hiring knows that applicants are applying for multiple positions. This covers everyone from McDonald's to Harvard. It's expected. They will get multiple applications and will only take one, so you <em>must</em> apply to multiple positions to have a chance of landing one. Unless you have an offer in hand which you have already accepted when you apply for another position, you haven't done anything wrong. I'm surprised you've only applied to two.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42291,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Hiring decisions are difficult for everybody. There's no reason to feel that if you turn someone down, you've \"wasted\" their time. The only reason to do so is if you would never have taken the position under any circumstances. Even then, using one position to improve your standing and options for another position is considered an acceptable strategy. </p>\n\n<p>The key thing will be to make sure you treat everyone fairly and openly. So long as you do that, nobody will be too disappointed. (And if they are, they'll get over it with time.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42298,
"author": "T K",
"author_id": 12656,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12656",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When I was in my last year of PhD in math, I applied to 136 positions. Any place that approached me first asked if I was still interested before drawing out paperwork, etc., in order to see what has happened on my end of the job market. Jobs are not journal submissions and you need to take care of yourself.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, I had multiple offers and when I said no to the offers and told them where I was going instead. All institutes were understanding and some even invited me to come speak instead of taking the job. A few told me to contact them when I next went on the market. </p>\n\n<p>Do what is authentic. If you can see yourself taking a position at a place, then you should apply. The minute you have a job assured to you and that application would not lead to a job you'd take over your confirmed job, you should withdraw immediately. If you follow this process, then no one can be reasonably upset with you in this field.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42302,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm amazed and horrified by the idea of applying for only two postdoc positions in mathematics, one for a year and one for six months. You should talk with your advisor and other senior mentors about this as soon as possible. Maybe your personal situation is radically different from what I imagine (for example, I have no idea what country you are in), but it sounds like you are doing something extraordinarily risky.</p>\n\n<p>For pure mathematics in the U.S., it's common to apply for fifty to a hundred postdoctoral positions. Applying for ten is a mark of great confidence (or foolhardiness), and applying for two is almost unheard of. Nobody would be surprised or upset to learn that you had applied for other jobs. Instead, they would be unhappy to learn that you hadn't. That would make them wonder whether they had somehow miscommunicated the odds of being hired, and whether they were about to play an unwilling role in damaging your career.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The applications will be decided by a committee, not the professors concerned. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is a key factor. It's hard to imagine that you are the only one to apply, or the only one to receive positive feedback from a potential mentor. In fact, you might not even be the only one to receive positive feedback from this specific mentor. (It's common to tell several people that you'd be happy to work with them if they are selected by the committee, even if the committee will choose at most one.) In other words, by default you should assume you won't get either of these jobs. Maybe you'll be lucky or you have an exceptionally strong application, but it's safest not to count on this in your plans.</p>\n\n<p>I should note that I'm a little puzzled by two aspects of your question. Applying at the end of March would be absurdly late in the U.S. system, and a six-month postdoc would hardly be desirable at all except in conjunction with another job (or if you graduate in December). This suggests that you may be working in a very different system from the one I'm familiar with, in which case you should seek local advice or be very explicit about your circumstances.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42288",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32190/"
] |
42,304 |
<p>Pardon the dumb question if ever. I notice similar questions all sound like "can I get a second master's?" but mine is "do I need?"</p>
<p>I am nearly finished with my master in mathematical finance. I have finished my thesis and have one course left to take.</p>
<p>Edit: I am about to graduate from a third world university and am planning to apply for a PhD in a first world university.</p>
<p>I am interested in taking up a PhD in a different branch of mathematics called stochastic analysis (stochastic calculus. or whatever it's called.) but am wondering if my background is insufficient. If so, I may take up a second master's.</p>
<p><strong>Given my limited background in stochastic analysis and other information (below), can I already apply for a PhD with stochastic analysis for my dissertation topic, or might I need a second master's first?</strong></p>
<p>Some information:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I am not particularly interested in mathematical finance anymore unless it is in a rigorous context rather than with computers, modeling, statistics, non-mathematical finance, simulations, etc. As of right now, I no longer have any plans to go into industry.</p></li>
<li><p>My background in Stochastic Analysis is 2 courses on Stochastic Calculus, 1 prerequisite course for Stochastic Calculus (probability) and 2 halves of classes which apply the stochastic calculus.</p></li>
<li><p>I don't know about the basics of one kind of stochastic calculus as we were taught mainly the other kind.</p></li>
<li><p>My thesis is about credit risk, having mainly to do with statistics, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_finance#History:_Q_versus_P" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the part of mathematical finance I don't want to go in to</a>, if I were still interested in mathematical finance. Hence, I feel have no background in mathematical research given that the research conducted was mainly to do with statistics and finance.</p></li>
<li><p>I have read a sample PhD proposal and have <strong><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42375/phd-dissertation-different-from-master-thesis-what-might-i-be-able-to-do-about">no clue what to put for methodology</a></strong>. I am not quite sure what kind of research methods pure mathematicians have.</p></li>
<li><p>Furthermore, while I technically passed the thesis, I scored the lowest passing mark. Meanwhile, I did score well in all the classes relevant to stochastic analysis.</p></li>
</ol>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42326,
"author": "somerandomdude",
"author_id": 31255,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31255",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm an engineering graduate student, so things may be different for maths. That being said, I don't think it will be an issue (at least in the US). You should check the admission requirements for the universities you are interested in applying to. I made a similar switch within my major between master's and PhD and nobody cared.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42497,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I would say the answer depends on your background in mathematics, and from the information you give, I can't tell how extensive that is. It isn't so important what the title is on your degree; it matters what you've done and what you know.</p>\n\n<p>To start a US-style PhD in pure math, in which the first couple of years are coursework, you should have the equivalent preparation of a bachelor's degree in mathematics. It should include, for example, about one year each of proof-based real analysis and abstract algebra. You should be very comfortable with reading and writing mathematical proofs.</p>\n\n<p>To start a European-style PhD, you are expected to be ready to begin working on research. You should have completed graduate-level courses in algebra and analysis, and be very familiar with fundamental material in your subfield. For an area like stochastic analysis, for example, I'd say you'd want to know the majority of the material in a textbook like Karatzas and Shreve, and be able to work through the proofs and solve the exercises.</p>\n\n<p>One question is - what was the level of mathematical rigor in your courses up to stochastic calculus? If it wasn't high, that's likely to be a problem.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42503,
"author": "Marko Karbevski",
"author_id": 25217,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25217",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just a small clarification on why Europe and US is different (to what mister Pete L. Clark said): The duration of the stay, in Europe it is 3 years and in the US it is 5. </p>\n\n<p>That being said, if you go to Europe, in my honest opinion, you should do at least a master 2 (second year of the master studies) first. They recommend this at the university that I am in and they have a good reason for it (even thought it might sound stupid at first). That way you will meet the people who you might do a PhD with, you will be able to adapt to the environment (if you are not that strong to start off a master 2, go with a master 1 even if it is easier, it gives you time to adapt and adaptation is <strong>KEY</strong>. Not only that you will study there, you will have to live there for the next few years at least). On the other hand, they have applicants from all over the world. They cannot get a good picture of what mark means what in each country or university.</p>\n\n<p>Conclusion: If it is Europe, look at the tests/exams that Master 1 (contact the director of Master 1 studies if the tests are not available online) students have to pass through, if you think you can solve them with little problem* then go for Master 2. If not, go for Master 1. Good luck!</p>\n\n<p>*At some universities (especially in France) tests are made so that they cannot be fully solved in the given time. That is why you can sometimes solve 2/3 of the test and get 18 out of 20 as a final grade.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42304",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21026/"
] |
42,311 |
<p>There have been discussions regarding academia.edu's Terms of Use (<a href="https://www.academia.edu/terms" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.academia.edu/terms</a>) and some responses have stated that it is impossible to upload published papers to academia even with the most liberal copyright licenses is illegal (<a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/16050/why-does-academia-edu-reserve-the-right-to-sell-modify-and-exploit-my-papers">Why does academia.edu reserve the right to sell, modify, and "exploit" my papers if I post them there?</a>). They have recently updated their terms of use and changed the paragraph "License granted by Member".</p>
<p>However, does this new agreement allow articles under CC BY licenses of open access journals to be uploaded? The new terms state that academia may modify and sublicense any materials, but that they will not claim ownership. Is this sufficient for legally uploading a document licensed under CC BY?</p>
<p>Edit: To further clarify, CC BY requires the citation of the original publication usually embedded in final PDFs. Do the current terms of use comply to CC BY by means of the statement that academia.edu will not claim ownership?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42322,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you own the copyright of the paper, which is common for open access papers released under a CC BY license, then you can do whatever you want with it, provided you haven't signed any separate agreement not to do that. The Creative Commons license is irrelevant, because it's not exclusive: you can distribute the paper under other licenses as well, so there's no legal obstacle to giving Academia.edu whatever non-exclusive rights they want. (I would never give them the rights they ask for, but that's a personal decision.)</p>\n\n<p>If you don't own the copyright, then you are stuck. The CC BY license requires attribution for derivative works, and the Academia.edu license does not, so they are asking for more rights than the CC BY license guarantees. Unless you are in a position to grant those rights (as the copyright holder or through some other agreement), there's nothing you can do.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42328,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I started at this by trying to analyze the legalities, ended up in uncertain territory, and threw that attempt to answer out. Let's take a step back from the question of legality and look at the question a little bit differently: <em>Should you be worried about the exact legal terms at all?</em></p>\n\n<p>Academia.edu is <a href=\"http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/information-culture/2012/10/31/interview-with-richard-price-academia-edu-ceo/\" rel=\"nofollow\">a startup with an vague and likely rapidly mutating business model</a>. In interacting with such an entity, you should expect the terms and conditions to change unpredictably and without warning. Furthermore, since they are using custom license terms rather than standard, there are almost certainly legal loopholes and potential international issues (there's a reason the CC licenses have <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode\" rel=\"nofollow\">so much hidden complexity</a>).</p>\n\n<p>As a user of the site, you are then put in a position of trying to figure out the best spirit of compliance. Regardless of the terms, Academia.edu seems to want to be sharing in the <em>spirit</em> of CC-BY (they seem to basically want to make research information really easy to discover), so it seems reasonable that you could in good faith upload a copy of an open access publication provided to you under CC-BY.</p>\n\n<p>So, what are the likely outcomes of this situation?</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The publisher and Academia.edu's license might turn out to be technically incompatible, but acting basically in compliance with CC-BY, and nobody involved cares about the technical incompatibility.</li>\n<li>The publisher and Academia.edu notice their incompatibility and decide they care, and negotiate with one another to find an accommodation (either peaceably or via legal complaints), in which your action is insignificant, since they wouldn't bother unless a lot of people were doing the same thing.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>It is highly unlikely that you would ever end up having a problem because of a good-faith upload to Academia.edu, since to the best of a non-lawyer's ability to reasonably discover, the <em>intent</em> of Academia.edu appears to be compatible with CC-BY, whatever their licensing terms currently say.</p>\n\n<p>Thus, I'd say: it's close enough to be workable; don't worry about it and upload away.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42311",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
42,312 |
<p>Does someone here know how many years at the maximum one can take to finish MSc degree in Mathematics in Germany ? My friend enrolled for three semesters on regular basis but due to his mental instability he couldn't do anything. He almost has all the credits required and just needs thesis to be done. He is planning to take take a year gap to recover and may be finish his degree .</p>
<p>Is it possible for him ? Are there any provisions that restrict a person to take only certain number of semesters or that a person cannot take a year break or something of that sort ?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42335,
"author": "Danny Ruijters",
"author_id": 28830,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28830",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As far as I know it just becomes more costly after a certain time. Search the Internet for 'langzeitstudiengebühren'.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42360,
"author": "why.n0t",
"author_id": 13945,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13945",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is almost always possible to take a vacation semester, which is either free of charge, or at a fraction of the standard fee you would normally pay. (But you also lose some student perks, such as the public transportation ticket and student discounts.)</p>\n\n<p>But you have to check with your <em>Studienordnung</em> or <em>Prüfungsamt</em>. You will certainly have a maximum number of semesters for your studies as well as a maximum time between finishing your last lectures and beginning your thesis. </p>\n\n<p>In case of illness, as long as you have an official waiver from a doctor saying you can't study/work, most of these limits don't apply.</p>\n\n<p><strong>tl;dr: Check with your \"Prüfungsamt\"</strong> </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 89484,
"author": "jvb",
"author_id": 72892,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/72892",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Universities are interested in \"creating\" degree holders, too. In case of the German state universities, even the financial resources will - at least to some degree - depend on the number of students finishing (not starting) academic studies.</p>\n\n<p>If you talk to the registrar's office (DE: <em>Prüfungsamt</em>) in advance, many things are possible; we had even things like leave of absence \"for helping at bringing in the harvest\" (if the parents have a farm), and, not uncommon, due to various health reasons.</p>\n\n<p>But please try to resolve this <strong>in good time</strong>, it's much easier that way than after impending removal from the register of students.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42312",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32212/"
] |
42,313 |
<p>In almost any paper there is an abundance of classical errors, such as omitting the "s" at the end of a third person singular verb. I am growing tired of painstakingly listing the page and line for each error. Is it acceptable to just write: "Please, have a native speaker fix your grammar?"</p>
<p>Usually the reviewer guidelines ignore the subject of grammar.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42314,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I usually list a few examples and suggest editing by a native speaker/writer. If it's really bad, I will do so as a request for major revision. I've never had an editor complain about my doing it that way.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42315,
"author": "Damian Nikodem",
"author_id": 30775,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30775",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would stay away from the comment about having a \"native speaker fix your grammar\" since even though it is a valid comment its not exactly constructive or guiding the author back to the correct path.</p>\n\n<p>Depending on the general level of errors, I typically would mention one or 2 instances of a given error specifically as a single item listing its locations in the paper, and then in the event that it appears a third time then change the review comment to a major item and change the text of the comment to reflect that these are limited examples and the paper contains more identical instances of the same issue.</p>\n\n<p>One thing to remember is not to allow grammatical issues overshadow your review of the content. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42316,
"author": "Andreas Blass",
"author_id": 14506,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14506",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It depends on how bad the problem is. If the number of grammatical errors is reasonably small, I'd be inclined to point them out individually, but if there are errors all over the place, I'd point out a few (for example, those on the first page, or in the first paragraph if there are too many on the first page), say that there are many more, and recommend that the paper be repaired by a native speaker. (This assumes that the author is not a native speaker; if (s)he is, then I'd recommend careful proofreading. I have refereed papers that had obviously not been proofread even in the most cursory manner.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42320,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to the others answers given, I think that is it <em>extremely</em> important to state whether or not you consider the grammatical errors to affect the scientific substance of the paper.</p>\n<p>Usually, grammatical errors don't actually effect your ability to evaluate the science in a paper. Even when phrases are fairly tangled or when a missing word makes a sentence say the opposite of what is intended, you can usually sort out what the authors intended, and judge them on their science, not their presentation.</p>\n<p><strong>This is an extremely important responsibility: do not judge a paper based on grammar and language issues.</strong></p>\n<p>Whatever grammatical issues you point out, <em>be explicit that they are not the reason for your recommendation.</em> Some reviewers will play language police, and recommend a paper be rejected because it is "sloppy." This is, in my opinion, inexcusable: grammar, no matter how tangled, can always be cleaned up, and should only be held against an author if they refuse to do such cleanup.</p>\n<p>In those rare cases that things are so badly presented that you cannot understand the science, however, state clearly that is what has happened, and that this is why you are judging the grammar to actually affect the acceptability of the paper.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42363,
"author": "Simd",
"author_id": 37765,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37765",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You don't need to list every mistake. As people have said, you can just give a few examples and ask the authors to look back over the whole paper. I also wouldn't say \"Please, have a native speaker fix your grammar\". You can make the same point that there are grammatical problems which need to be fixed without making assumptions about the authors which may themselves be offensive. </p>\n\n<p>Where I would slightly disagree with some of the other answers is that I do think <em>all</em> non-trivial grammatical errors should be fixed before publication. This includes getting singulars and plurals right for example. An arguably incorrect semi-colon may be more forgiveable of course. I have read a number of papers with poor English where it has made it much harder to understand the content of the paper. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 173621,
"author": "Sursula",
"author_id": 133549,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/133549",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think grammar and spelling mistakes can impair readability of a paper quite a lot, and it is good the get rid of as many of them as possible before publication. Instead of listing every mistake, though (along with page and line number - a tedious undertaking) I made it a habit to mark them directly on the article PDF (using the "highlighter" function, this is fast and easy, and can be done while reading through the paper). When handing in the review I attach the PDF along with a note, telling the authors to look into the errors marked in the file.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42313",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14651/"
] |
42,323 |
<p>I am a math grad student who has completed the qualifying exams within my first two years. Lately, I have been taking a few non-core courses, which allows me to put most of my time on my own research. In one of these non-core courses, I received a low grade: B-. I certainly have the a good Cumulative Grade Point Average: 3.9 -- well above what is required for "normal progress".</p>
<p>Question: How important/serious is getting a grade below 3.0 in this one course at this point in a PhD program? Any feedback is much appreciated.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42325,
"author": "Wakkadojo",
"author_id": 32217,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32217",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm an advanced graduate student in Physics, and I've gotten a B- in a class. I have also gone through rigorous job application processes, and generally, nobody will care about your GPA.</p>\n\n<p>In Academia, papers, references, and networking will determine your postdoc or faculty position, grades won't even be considered.</p>\n\n<p>If you plan on going into industry, a completed PhD and the brand name of your institution might be very important to get an interview, and depending on the job your comfort with problem solving and advanced technical concepts might matter. Companies will generally only look at your transcript after they've hired you to confirm your enrollment and completion of the program.</p>\n\n<p>One B- is nothing to worry about, especially for a PhD student!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42370,
"author": "James Palmer",
"author_id": 23409,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23409",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I had a B in a class not directly related to my Ph.D. work. I took the class because I wanted to expand my horizons, and sure enough it did. I don't think the B ultimately hurt me at all. I will say that one curious job interviewer asked me about my less than 4.0 GPA, and I told him I earned a B precisely because I was pushing my boundaries. He appreciated that!</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42323",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32216/"
] |
42,327 |
<p>In a range of fields (I have in mind gender and sexuality) users make Internet comments revealing personal details about themselves. Some sites even automatically link to their personal Facebook page. While this data may be useful for research, there are ethical issues as to how to use this data.</p>
<p>On one hand, they have voluntarily published this material online, and made it accessible to the world.</p>
<p>On the other hand, presumably the audience they had in mind for their post is likely to be limited a handful of users. It is personal information that could potentially be used against the user.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>Question</em>: What are sensible measures to ethically use freely available, but personal web-based comments in research?</p>
</blockquote>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42331,
"author": "Danny Ruijters",
"author_id": 28830,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28830",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Deidentification or anonymity would be required. For example general statistics are ok, quotes that can be traced back to the original post are not ok.</p>\n\n<p>Basically, you can apply the same rules as would be applicable for medical data.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42359,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Talk to your Institutional Review Board (IRB). You will not be allowed to use any of the information you are collecting unless your research plan has been approved by your IRB, and they will likely require you to deidentify or anonymize data. What exactly is sensible or not, we cannot advise you here -- it's not a question of common sense but of what you can get approved by your IRB, and approval by the IRB is the single important factor in what you can and cannot do.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42327",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8469/"
] |
42,343 |
<p>My understanding of short conference papers being extended to journals was that I should have <em>at least</em> 30% fresh results and content (read that in answers to <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/31199/5851">this question here</a>). I had a short 4-page paper published and presented as a poster at a conference in the past year. I had extended the work, had plenty of fresh results with me, and decided to send it to a <a href="http://www.journals.elsevier.com/computers-and-security/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">journal</a>. I would say I had at least 70-80% fresh content and results.</p>
<p>I was surprised to receive a reply from the Editor that my manuscript was been rejected without review. The reason given by an editorial board member is</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A non-negligible part of this manuscript (~1000 words) has been copied by a previous publication of these authors.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And, thus, he suggested that the manuscript be rejected without review.</p>
<p>I agree that some basic data pre-processing modules are the same in both papers (coz why would they differ!). Some introduction and related work part is also the same. Rest, the manuscript is fresh. My manuscript is easily 9000-10000 words. 1000 words just make 10% of that. Keeping in mind that "30% fresh content" rule, I thought I was playing pretty safe. But this response has disappointed me :(</p>
<p>My questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Should I bother to write to the Editor, asking for clarification? Maybe I can just ask whether the editor bothered to read my cover letter (where I had clearly mentioned the previous paper and the overlaps with this paper).
If yes, how does one usually contact the Editor? The emails sent by the journal do not come from a personal account. Will it be wise to write to him directly?</p>
</li>
<li><p>After this rejection, I may submit it elsewhere. But what if it gets rejected on the same grounds? Should I consider re-writing my manuscript and making it completely different from the previous paper?</p>
</li>
</ol>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42347,
"author": "Maarten van Wesel",
"author_id": 32146,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32146",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You should have clearly indicated in your paper (for instance as a note to the title) and in you letter to the editor the publication of the conference paper, how it is titled, and that it is available online.</p>\n\n<p>If you haven't indicated this, get on your knees and explain this to the editor. Promising you will correct this on a new to submit manuscript</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42348,
"author": "DCTLib",
"author_id": 7390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7390",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>So you wrote in the cover letter that the work is an extended version of a conference paper that accompanied a poster presentation.</p>\n\n<p>Apparently, this information got missing somewhere. Also this information should actually be in the paper, as Maarten van Wesel already wrote, as the later reader should be also be made aware of this.</p>\n\n<p>So, judging from your post, the only thing that you did wrong was not to note this in the paper itself (please add a comment to this post if this assumption is wrong). What then went wrong in the journal's workflow is that the paper was rejected due to copying rather than asking you to add such a note in the paper. A possible explanation is that checking for plagiarism is done by the publisher's office beforehand, and they actually never saw (or read) the cover letter.</p>\n\n<p>I think that it is fair to write a letter to the editor, mentioning that (1) you already wrote in the cover letter that you submitted extended work, and (2) you are of course happy to add a note that this is an extended work of [Previous work].</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>On a related note, there may be a small copyright problem. You may have already given an exclusive licence to distribute your work to one publisher with your earlier paper. If you now copy a good part of that work, the new publisher may see this as problematic. While many publishing agreements nowadays explicitly allow reuse of the work in extended versions, not all of them do, so the new publisher's office may suspect that this is not the case for your earlier paper. Coincidentally, many extended versions of papers are actually completely rewritten, which circumvents this problem altogether. Whether an extended version <em>should be</em> a full rewrite is yet another discussion, which we probably don't want to pursue in this thread.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42349,
"author": "Sylvain Peyronnet",
"author_id": 43,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am not sure that I understood clearly your question, but as far as I understand, you have the exact same paragraphs in some part of the two papers (i.e., copy and paste ?).</p>\n\n<p>If this is the case, maybe you should take the rule \"X% of old content allowed\" as a semantic rule, not syntactic. So this means 100-X % new results, but almost 100% rewriting of the old stuff.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42362,
"author": "GEdgar",
"author_id": 4484,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4484",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>No, do not argue with the editor that rejected the paper. Yes, send it to another journal. (Of course reference the \"poster paper\" and explain the differences. This benefits no only the journal you submit to, but also potential readers who have already seen the previous poster paper.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42364,
"author": "Simd",
"author_id": 37765,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37765",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have had this experience too. The journal that rejected my work also had other papers which were extended versions of conference papers so it was completely inconsistent. I recommend simply ignoring this journal from now on unless it is really the leading one in your field. You could first write a polite letter to the editor pointing out the unfairness in your case but I wouldn't be too surprised if it doesn't help.</p>\n\n<p>Of course you shouldn't be publishing with Elsevier in any case. See <a href=\"https://gowers.wordpress.com/category/elsevier/\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://gowers.wordpress.com/category/elsevier/</a> and <a href=\"http://thecostofknowledge.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://thecostofknowledge.com/</a> for example.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42399,
"author": "D.W.",
"author_id": 705,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/705",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I work in this field. Yes, you should contact the Editor to ask them what their policy is on submissions that are based on a prior conference publication -- but ask <em>very carefully</em>. See the last two paragraphs of this answer before writing to them. In particular, I suggest contacting the Editor-in-Chief. It's fair game to write and ask them what their policy is, regarding whether they accept journal submissions that are an extension of a conference paper and if so what the requirements are.</p>\n\n<p>I looked through the guidelines for authors for this particular journal, and I have to say, it's not clear to me what the expected policies are. Therefore, I think it's entirely reasonable to contact the Editor-in-Chief to ask for a clarification.</p>\n\n<p>I can't tell you what this journal's policies are, but I can give you my impression of what a common policy in this field is. It's not uncommon for journals to allow publication of a journal version of a paper that was previously published at a conference. Yes, one common rule-of-thumb is that the journal version of the paper should have at least 25% new content. Of course this is a subjective judgement call, but it gives you a rough idea of what to shoot for. Also, the journal version should be \"archival-quality\" (e.g., the definitive reference; polished, high quality, well executed). But this can potentially vary. There's no requirement that every journal has to subscribe to this particular policy -- it's up to each individual journal to decide on its own policy, and it would be entirely fair for any particular journal to choose something different.</p>\n\n<p>For an example of the 25% requirement, see the ACM's policy for submissions to ACM journals: <a href=\"http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/sim_submissions/\">http://www.acm.org/publications/policies/sim_submissions/</a></p>\n\n<p>Do note that what matters is not the percentage of words that are new, but rather the percentage of intellectual ideas. We measure the contribution of each paper by its \"delta\" over previous publications, i.e., by the new intellectual content of the new ideas that have not previously appeared. That can't be measured by counting the number of words that are new.</p>\n\n<p>In journals that do allow you to publish a journal version of work that previously appeared at a conference, I would not expect any requirement that you have to rewrite or rephrase every sentence of the previously published work. (It's not clear what purpose that would serve.) You are of course expected to revise anything that can be improved, but there's no requirement to paraphrase or reword your own writing just to avoid having the same words in the same order.</p>\n\n<p>Your question was a little unclear about how the previous work was previously published. In my experience with reputable conferences in this field, the most common kinds of papers are: \"papers published at a conference\" and \"papers published at a journal\". Less commonly, there's \"posters presented at a conference\" (usually does not come with a paper that's considered published), and occasionally \"short 1-page or 2-page paper published at a conference with a poster presented at the conference\" (the 2-page paper would be considered published). If you're referring to the latter kind of publication, then I would not have expected that to lead to outright rejection of your journal submission without consideration of its merits. But who knows? It's up to each journal to determine its own policy.</p>\n\n<p>So, given that the publicly available web pages of that journal aren't entirely clear, I think it's perfectly reasonable to email the Editor-in-Chief and ask them what the policy is. You can point to your submission and explain the situation if you want.</p>\n\n<p>However, it's <em>extremely important</em> to avoid conveying any implication that you feel you've been wronged, that their decision was inappropriate, or any other form of criticism. The purpose of this email should be <em>solely</em> to gather information about what the journal's policy is. Once you know their policy, then you can consider what to do. But don't write to the Editor-in-Chief to complain or dispute or appeal the decision. That just sets up an adversarial situation that isn't likely to yield any constructive results. You might want to write a draft email, sit on it for a few days, edit it to remove any hint of disappointment or criticism, then give it to a senior colleague to read, and follow their guidance.</p>\n\n<p>And you can also treat this as a learning experience. If you do decide to submit it elsewhere, you can check what their policies are on this sort of situation before submitting. If it's not clear from their web pages, you can contact the editor in advance to ask.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42343",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5851/"
] |
42,345 |
<p>Maybe my question is rather weird, but actually it turned out it is also a question of my colleagues.
Usually when you register for an academic conference, there's an option that you can register a companion. I'm wondering if it is appropriate to register my girlfriend as a companion? Does it sound so bad? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42346,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the conferences I am aware of, companions are people not attending the conference, but coming along with some of the participants for tourism or company. Depending on the venue, they may or may not offer some alternative activities for them (anything from visits to the city to a heap of maps and sort yourself out).</p>\n\n<p>If this is the case, your girlfriend would fit right in, as long as she is not interested in the conference itself.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42368,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Davidmh's answer makes sense for conferences where registration is a \"package deal\" including lodging, meals, maybe travel, etc. Here is another possibility.</p>\n\n<p>At the annual <a href=\"http://jointmathematicsmeetings.org/jmm\">Joint Mathematics Meetings</a>, participants have the option to register a \"nonmathematician guest\" for a small additional fee. The conference describes this as:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Any family member or friend, who is not a mathematician, and who is accompanied by a participant in the meetings is eligible for this category. Guests will receive a badge and may accompany a mathematician to a session or talk and may also enter the exhibit area.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>(The \"exhibit area\" in this case has booths operated by publishers, software vendors, etc, often selling their products at a discount.)</p>\n\n<p>For this conference, registration doesn't include any travel, lodging or meals (participants are supposed to arrange those separately), so the only benefit you get from registering a guest is that they get a badge to attend the conference. If you are traveling with a companion but they don't want to get in to the conference, there would be no reason to register them at all.</p>\n\n<p>Some possible reasons to do this:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>You need someone's assistance to get around inside the conference (pushing a wheelchair, carrying books, etc)</p></li>\n<li><p>Your guest is curious what a conference is like</p></li>\n<li><p>Your guest wants to be able to meet you inside the conference venue during breaks, meals, etc.</p></li>\n<li><p>You just want to be with your guest during talks, etc.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The \"nonmathematician\" requirement is to point out that this is not supposed to be used as a way for you to get a colleague into the conference for cheap (at this conference, registering a guest is $16 while regular registration was $250-$400). Of course the only enforcement would be the honor system.</p>\n\n<p>So a girlfriend would be just the sort of person for whom this category is intended, provided that she is not also a colleague. </p>\n\n<p>I once made use of this option when the conference was held in the city where my parents live. My father is not a mathematician but is interested in math, so I registered him as my guest. He enjoyed attending some of the less technical talks, browsing the books in the exhibit hall, and generally just experiencing the atmosphere of a mathematics conference.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42373,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The companion option provides a convenient package allowing someone to participate in the nonscientific aspects of the conference. For example, I've been to some remote conferences where if your guest wasn't a conference attendee, meals had to be eaten at the very expensive facility restaurant, instead of at the conference buffets. </p>\n\n<p>These kinds of things can be very convenient. I've seen people who thought they'd be able to avoid the cost of companion registration, only to knuckle down and buy it at the \"gate price\" once they're on the ground at the conference, and this can be more expensive.</p>\n\n<p>Sometimes, companion registration may be an option because it is anticipated that non-conference attendees may have a rough time without it.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42345",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28084/"
] |
42,358 |
<p>My mathematics department is adopting a new calculus textbook. The publisher has refused to continue printing the same edition that we have been using, and their new edition is one of several options which we are considering.</p>
<p>Several of these books are extremely well-known and widely used, and we have to judge which is the best. The most important step is to look at the books myself, which indeed I did. Beyond that, I am curious how the various choices have played out in actual teaching situations. Indeed, in our deliberations I feel that I am reinventing the wheel.</p>
<p>Are there any trustworthy sources of reviews of popular textbooks, written with an eye towards the experience of the student reading them?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42366,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am not aware of any specific aggregator of textbooks review. But... reading reviews on <a href=\"http://www.amazon.com/\">Amazon</a> may help. (By <em>reading</em> I mean actually reading, not just comparing average scores; especially reviews with non-extreme grades. Usually they also gives some context the reader's position and motivation.)</p>\n\n<p>Also:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>some journals have a section with book reviews,</li>\n<li>some researchers and lectures write blog posts, reviews or suggested readings,</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>however, each single review is only a single data point.</p>\n\n<p>But once you focused on a few books, there is no shortcut to actually looking at their content and deciding whether it fits your course, approach, taste, etc.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42447,
"author": "Maarten van Wesel",
"author_id": 32146,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32146",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would ask the publisher for a free copy of the book for you to base your decision on. If you will be using it in your class for some years it will be week worth sending you the book. </p>\n\n<p>I would ask the same of other publishers, and make it known to the representatives of the publishers your in the market for a new book</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42358",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11565/"
] |
42,361 |
<p>Where can I search for some authors of publications or researchers in a specific filed (e.g. Computer science) and in a specific country (USA, China, ...)</p>
<p>For example I would like to find all people who work on <em>Data Mining</em> located in <em>Iran</em></p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42407,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I suggest that you use a variant of <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_sampling\">snowball sampling</a>. Start with the largest, most visible research university in that country (e.g. Iran). Do a web search for the departments most likely associated with the topic (e.g. data mining). Look at the web pages associated with the most prominent researchers. You will find listings of their published papers. In those published papers, you will see co-authors, many from the same university and (importantly) from the same country. Follow the trail of co-authors and repeat these procedures with their web pages.</p>\n\n<p>In a similar fashion, find conference held in this geography. It is likely that there will be a high concentration of local participants and conference committee members. They may or may not be important in the grand scheme, but you will find them.</p>\n\n<p>Using this procedure, you should be able to enumerate 90%+ of the people involved in any one specialty in any one (small) geographic region.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42419,
"author": "Andrew",
"author_id": 27825,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27825",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Another approach to get a first set of names is to use one of the large bibliographic databases - <a href=\"http://www.scopus.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Scopus</a> or <a href=\"http://apps.webofknowledge.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Web of Science</a> will let you search by affiliation/address. Once you have identified a suitable group of papers (eg by keyword/topic searching) you can filter it to only show papers where at least one author had an Iranian affiliation. You'll then be able to work through these pulling out the relevant authors.</p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, Google Scholar does <em>not</em> let you search by affiliation and so isn't much use here.</p>\n\n<p>(Scopus, for example, has 9500 papers published since 2014 which match a title/keyword/abstract search for 'data mining', but only 146 of these have an Iranian author)</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42361",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21885/"
] |
42,367 |
<p>I received a review request from an open access journal, which is brand new. It has published about 10 articles so far. The articles seem to be of mediocre quality but do not seem to plagiarize other articles. The journal has all important sections and features in place (review/editorial process, ethics, editorial board, wave waiver policies, working DOIs and article metrics, etc.). However, the publisher of such journal is in <a href="http://scholarlyoa.com/2012/08/04/criteria-for-determining-predatory-open-access-publishers/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Beall's list of predatory open access publishers</a>. As it is the case of many publishers listed there, the publisher is unjustifiably included in the list. There are no posts (as far as I know) explaining why it ended there. Most of <a href="https://scholarlyoa.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/criteria-2015.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Beall's criteria for determining predatory open access publishers</a> do not seem to apply in this case.</p>
<p>I cannot see the article text nor the author names before accepting the review request. However, by judging the name of the journal, the aims and scopes, and the abstract of the article, it seems that the review request <em>per se</em> is legit.</p>
<p>I looked at related questions, e.g., <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/8959/should-i-accept-review-requests-from-dubious-journals">Should I accept review requests from dubious journals?</a>, <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/21868/is-it-a-good-idea-to-cite-paper-from-publisher-listed-in-beall-s-list">Is it a good idea to cite paper from publisher listed in Beall’s list</a>, and <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2158/how-to-identify-predatory-publishers-journals">How to identify predatory publishers/journals</a>. The present question seems novel enough to me – it looks different from the one in the first link. <em>Even though I am quite sure about what to do</em>, I am asking this question with the hope that it (and the answers) will be beneficial for the visitors.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42384,
"author": "Brian P",
"author_id": 17232,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17232",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can find many examples of bad research in \"good\" journals, and good research in \"bad\" journals. As a reviewer, you are ultimately providing commentary on the science that has been submitted for peer-review. I don't think there is anything wrong with reviewing for any given journal, unless you have good evidence that the journal itself does not have a commitment to upholding the standards of the peer-review process. In my opinion, you can learn many things by reviewing for journals -- but, every review you do has opportunity costs. </p>\n\n<p>So, I would not be overly concerned about journal rankings. It is better to focus on reviewing articles that fit within your domain of expertise and you have the time and motivation to do a proper review. And, the standards for a proper review should be the same, irrespective of whether the journal has an ISI impact factor or is on Beall's list. The most important thing is giving the researcher(s) a fair and honest review. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42386,
"author": "Bill Hooker",
"author_id": 32267,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32267",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are content that the journal is <em>unfairly</em> listed -- and I agree that seems to be the case, based on what you've said -- then I would say ignore Beall and decide whether to review as you would for any other journal. If it's in your wheelhouse and moderately interesting, and you have time, do it. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42387,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your question presupposes an answer by specifying that the publisher is \"unjustifiably\" included in Beall's list. If you are convinced that the inclusion is unjustifiable, then why should you care what Beall says? And in any case, you are free to review for whichever journals you'd like, regardless of their status. You are in charge of your reviewing activities, and all Beall can do is offer advice and guidance.</p>\n\n<p>If you end up reviewing for a problematic journal, then it damages the community a little by supporting/endorsing that journal. On the other hand, it also helps the authors and readers, and it's up to you to balance these factors in any given case. And if you review for a journal that is unfairly considered problematic, then your impact is good on both counts.</p>\n\n<p>It's worth keeping in mind that there are many ways a publisher can be problematic that may not be immediately apparent from their web pages. For example, have they arranged for permanent archiving of their papers, even if they go out of business? Do they send spam to try to recruit authors? Have all the listed members of the editorial board actually agreed to join the board? Can you detect worrisome patterns over several journals? (For example, if a publisher promises a three-week review period for a math journal, then I'd question their competence and I wouldn't trust other journals they run, even in areas where that time frame might make sense.) Evaluating a new publisher is not easy, and certainly Beall can make mistakes, but it's also easy to make mistakes in the opposite direction.</p>\n\n<p>Your question comes across a little like a request for people to say \"Yes, Beall is often wrong, and we should be reviewing more papers for journals he considers questionable.\" I wouldn't go so far as to say that, and I'm generally suspicious of the publishers on Beall's list. But I'm sure he is sometimes wrong, and everyone should use their own judgment.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42388,
"author": "Marie McVeigh",
"author_id": 32268,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32268",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You need to ask yourself a few key questions:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>What is the purpose of your reviewing any article? If it is to be listed in the annual acknowledgement of reviewers for Big, Prestigious Journal X, then don't review this article. If it is to contribute to the scholarly process (and to pay-it-forward for the next article you submit somewhere) - then proceed. </p></li>\n<li><p>What is your impression of the journal/publisher? They can't be entirely/purely dishonest, since they have, <em>in fact</em>, sent the article for peer review. (The truly bad actors don't bother!)</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Form your own opinion of their offering, and do consider that it can take <em>longer</em> to review a poor manuscript than a good one. Then, invest your time in what you value. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42367",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
42,371 |
<p>I've split this question into a general question that I feel applies to many people and specific details for those who are interested.</p>
<p><strong>General question</strong>:I have accepted a 2-year teaching/research position in my home state and would like to look for a job in the surrounding area at the end of the time.</p>
<p>My just-finished job search convinced me that <em>having</em> skills is not enough to get a job in mathematics; you have to <em>show</em> the universities that you are someone they want to hire. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Given two years to work with, what can I do to show local universities that I am someone they would like to hire?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My ideas so far include:</p>
<ul>
<li>Attending and speaking at local seminars and conferences (for research-oriented schools)</li>
<li>Attending MAA meetings and giving talks on teaching (for teaching schools)</li>
<li>Working together with faculty at these universities on projects.</li>
</ul>
<p>I'd especially like to hear from those who make hiring decisions on what would make them feel more comfortable hiring a candidate.</p>
<p><strong>Non-essential, specific details</strong>
My postdoc is at BYU in Utah, and the schools I am interested in are all the 4-year schools in the area. University of Utah is most likely out of my league. I'm interested in UVU, Dixie State, SUU, USU, U of U (though that's a longshot), Weber State, Westminster College, and staying on at BYU. I'm also interested in nearby schools such as Reno, Colorado State, Northern Arizona University, Colorado School of Mines, ASU and U of A, University of Colorado, etc.</p>
<p>I'm finishing a postdoc at Temple in Philadelphia. I've done reasonably well in research (4 publications in well-known area-specific journals). My teaching record is excellent, with very good letters of recommendation, high student ratings, and a record of being given good classes to teach.</p>
<p>I am genuinely more interested in teaching than research, but I enjoy research enough that I am happy doing it for a good position. I have a research topic in a small new area (finite subdivision rules) that provides an essentially inexhaustible amount of new theorems but may attract less interest as it is off the beaten path.</p>
<p>I have friends at many of these schools, including UVU, SUU, Utah State, and Dixie State.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42472,
"author": "VicariousAT",
"author_id": 32340,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32340",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Depends on the type of university. If it's teaching oriented college, teaching experience will be very important. Otherwise, it's your research career potential. In other words, how likely are you going to get tenured in 5 to 6 years should you be hired.</p>\n\n<p>If you are at a top university and aim for a faculty position at another top university, your advisor's connections coupled with a strong recommendation is the single most important factor.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42502,
"author": "Bjørn Kjos-Hanssen",
"author_id": 11257,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11257",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For 4 year institutions without MA/PhD programs, one idea is to develop <strong>undergraduate research</strong> projects loosely related to your past research. Even better, I suppose, if you can relate such projects to local concerns, such as fair division of resources in Utah (that may not literally make sense, but maybe you can think of something similar that does).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42509,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My students (at a large well-ranked R1) are having trouble finding a job <em>anywhere</em> in the world, given the current problems with the academic job market: too many PhDs at a time when universities are reducing the number of t-t faculty. </p>\n\n<p>By limiting your search to one particular geographic area, you <em>greatly</em> handicap your ability to find a job. You must understand that in some departments, they will not have a job in your particular niche come up but once in 20 years when someone retires or leaves. Even given that you are looking at half a dozen schools, the odds that a job in your area will come up next year is -- there are some mathematicians here that can give you the odds.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, the best you can hope for is to do what you are doing:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Research: Keep publishing as much as you can. Publish or perish.</li>\n<li>Service: If there is a local/state/regional/national association of scholars in your discipline, join it and become very active. Show that you are the type of person willing to put in grunt service time and will create community. Organize a symposium that brings people in the area together.</li>\n<li>Teaching: Come up with innovative courses that put you on the radar.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>But you must also accept the very real possibility that your geographical limitation may very lead to no jobs or only adjunct positions in the coming years until the statistical anomaly of a job-in-your-research-area-in-your-geographical-area comes up.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42371",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4455/"
] |
42,374 |
<p>In one of my software engineering courses, the syllabus includes two exams (midterm + final), daily quizzes + participation mark, spot quizzes and a group project.</p>
<p>A lot of us asked the professor to drop the midterm and add more weight to the project because we all wanted to build a beautiful project, so eventually we can also add it to our resume. The response was that it would not be possible to drop the midterm but the weight might be reduced, but would have to think about it. (Fair enough).</p>
<p>However, a week later we found out that one of the students in class got exemption from writing midterms, daily quizzes and spot quizzes. That student only has to worry about the project. We asked how this is possible and we learned of a special deal with the professor. So basically when the group projects begin that student will in charge of holding group meetings with different groups and providing feedback to the professor on their progress. So since they have a lot of "workload" they won't be writing quizzes and exams. This option was never mentioned by the professor when the class as a whole asked her to drop the midterm.</p>
<p>So I am wondering, is this legal or even possible? There are a lot of international students in the class too that are simply scared to speak up. I feel it is not fair that one student is exempt from doing all the work. </p>
<p>What should I do? Just keep quiet and mind my own business? </p>
<p>This is a Graduate Computer Science Program.</p>
<p><strong>Additional Details</strong></p>
<p>In the first two weeks the other student wrote quizzes like everyone else and the professor was not happy with the grades of quizzes of some people (everyone except this one person had good marks), so it will be worth a little less. Eventually a week later the student stopped writing quizzes after making this <em>special</em> deal. </p>
<p>I have great relation with the Department Chair and I am also working on a project with them, I am not sure if I should bring this up in our conversation. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42378,
"author": "user3209815",
"author_id": 14133,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14133",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I must say that this seems like a somewhat conflicted situation. The professor doesn't consider the syllabus of the course weighted enough, so he emphasizes the project and charges a student with a administrative duty, but relieves them of the written exams and quizzes. You, on the other hand, consider the written part more or equally weighted (although you feel the project needs more weight), so you find it unjust that one student has been relieved of it in exchange for other obligations. Are you really sure the student misses a lot by completing only the project and not the written assignments? Further, are you really sure it is \"easier\" to lead and prepare group meetings than to learn the materials for exams and quizzes, although you would presumably need the same knowledge to complete the project?</p>\n\n<p>I can understand that you might be agitated that the professor didn't mention such an opportunity in class. Perhaps the student was approached by the professor with some special reason (could be that the professor considers them to be good enough so they can skip the written assignments and/or someone to be a good group manager, or just someone the professor has a working relationship with).</p>\n\n<p>Is this fair? I find this difficult to judge.</p>\n\n<p>What can you do about it? Probably nothing effective. You could talk to some students' delagate or some other institutional body. You could also talk to the professor. In any case, you should be sure what exactly you find unfair (and be able to argument it) and suggest what exactly could be done to mitigate the situation (appoint you you to lead the groups, relieve you of the exams, enforce the exams back on the chosen student, etc.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 57151,
"author": "dwoz",
"author_id": 38642,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/38642",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>\"what can you do?\"...the best answer is that you can...and should...educate yourself on exactly how this other's individual's position and arrangement has anything whatsoever to do with YOUR learning experience and grade in the course. Is the answer \"absolutely nothing?\"</p>\n\n<p>There is exactly one way to get ahead in this world, and that's by embodying excellence, and doing good works. There are, however, a lot of people out there that think there's a second way, which is to diminish the work of others, push them to the side so that your mediocre accomplishments seem adequate in comparison. This doesn't actually work in practice, at least not for very long.</p>\n\n<p>So the answer is to ask yourself why 1) you think you have all the information about why this particular arrangement has been made, and why an ostensibly smart and experienced professor would make \"such a mistake,\" and 2) why it has anything to do with you?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 57158,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are two possibilities, either the student has some kind of favouritism, or he is being accommodated for health problems. You cannot know which one is it, nor it is your place; but if you suspect the first, you should bring this to the Chair's knowledge. He is the one that can ask your professor for the full story, and he can make a judgement and has the power to enforce it.</p>\n\n<p>When talking to him, do not make accusations or hint that this may be illegal: just explain the facts as they happened from your point of view. The most you could do is to let him know that you are concerned this may not be fair.</p>\n\n<p>As this arrangement does indeed sound suspicious, he may already have been informed by the lecturer of the situation; and if you start bashing someone because he has a health problem, will make you look bad.</p>\n\n<p>Lastly, be prepared for the answer to be \"we have looked into this, and we deemed it appropriate, and that is as much as I can tell you\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 57173,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The arrangements that the professor makes with any other student are <em>absolutely none of your business.</em> I don't see any indication that your grade is threatened. If you are learning what the course aims to teach, it is not your place to second-guess the way that your professor chooses to run her class. </p>\n\n<p>Faculty are often asked to make accommodations for individual students for any number of reasons, and these reasons are not to be made public. In fact, I'm <em>required by law</em> both to offer alternative forms of evaluation where appropriate, and <em>not to explain</em> why I am offering the student an alternative form of evaluation.</p>\n\n<p>For a US perspective, read up on the <a href=\"http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/disability/ada.htm\">ADA</a> and <a href=\"http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html\">FERPA</a> and you'll see an interesting intersection of required accommodations and required privacy on behalf of students with special needs.</p>\n\n<p>[Comments converted to answer by request.]</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42374",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11661/"
] |
42,377 |
<p>I am almost done with my master's degree in mathematical finance. I'm done with thesis and have one course left to take. I am taking it in a 3rd world country and am interested in applying for a <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42304/do-i-need-a-second-masters-or-can-i-already-apply-for-a-phd">PhD in stochastic analysis</a> in the UK.</p>
<p>I am told that, in general, the application process for PhDs, unlike applications for masters or bachelors, involves first speaking to faculty and then to the school. Is that right? That is, when I apply I should already have a professor in the university willing to be my doctoral advisor?</p>
<p>The exact procedure I heard is something like:</p>
<ol>
<li>Read up various literature on your desired dissertation topic which should include several textbooks and even more for recently published articles. (If necessary, study for IELTS, GRE, etc.)</li>
<li>Come up with a PhD proposal.</li>
<li>Contact relevant faculty of the universities to which you intend to apply.</li>
<li>Discuss your proposal with them if they're up to it.</li>
<li>One of the following: Revise proposal if needed, completely change proposal or get referred to different faculty member.</li>
<li>Actually apply to the university.</li>
</ol>
<p>So, is that how it actually is?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42379,
"author": "Simd",
"author_id": 37765,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37765",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Unfortunately the system in the UK is not uniform. You will really have to read each individual department's web site to know how to apply. There are, for example, Centres for Doctoral Training <a href=\"http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/skills/students/centres/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/skills/students/centres/</a> which you apply to like a US graduate program. I don't know if there is a good one that covers stochastic analysis but it seems likely.</p>\n\n<p>It sounds like the list you give is for people who want to apply for a specific supervisor. For this route, your main issue will be funding as there is very little funding for non-UK students these days. This will also vary wildly between different universities. There may be deadlines which you have missed already if you want to start in 2015. However, simply for being accepted by a supervisor without funding the list you gave is fine.</p>\n\n<p>Overall, read each department's web site on their PhD programmes, don't forget to look for any relevant Centres for Doctoral Training and good luck.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 61679,
"author": "Peter Green",
"author_id": 42323,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/42323",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The big question is funding. Unless you are rich enough to fund yourself you need to find a source of funding. Most \"generic\" phd funding in the UK is for UK/EU students only. Since you mention you are currenly studying in a \"third world country\" I assume you are most likely not from the EU.</p>\n\n<p>So realistically if you can't afford to fund yourself you either need to find a PhD that is tied to a funded project or find funding from your home country. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42377",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21026/"
] |
42,380 |
<p>I'm currently writing a bachelor thesis in which there is a section that deals with the pros and cons of different data serialization formats. Since this is not the main focus of the thesis, I would like to limit the comparisons to include 2-3 of the most widely used formats - for instance; JSON and XML.</p>
<p>I know from experience that JSON and XML are two of the most widely used formats for serializing data on the web, but how can I prove a statement like that? Does it need proof to be included as a boundary/limitation of the thesis? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42381,
"author": "Maarten van Wesel",
"author_id": 32146,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32146",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As I am not an expert in your field I can only give a general answer.</p>\n\n<p>A statement does not need proof if it is considered common knowledge, either generally or in the field. Proof absolutely does not mean getting data, but getting a relevant referene</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42390,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I know from experience that JSON and XML are two of the most widely used formats for serializing data on the web, but how can I prove a statement like that?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You can't*. That's why you typically do <em>not</em> matter-of-fact-ly state that this is the case. You argue why you have chosen that you have selected those two formats, without claiming anything you are not sure about. For instance, it would be ok to claim that you have selected XML because it is used in many open standards, or that you have selected JSON because of its high compatibility to JavaScript, or that you have any of those because it is used in framework XY, which is of high significance to your work.</p>\n\n<p><em>Loosely-related-story time:</em></p>\n\n<p>I did my PhD in services computing. In my research circles, everybody \"knew\" that, while SOAP (a protocol for Web services) supports any number of protocol bindings (HTTP, TCP, JMS, even SMTP), the only binding that is really used is HTTP. We \"knew\" this because basically all tutorials and books really only talked about HTTP, and it seemed like a logical thing to do (you know, \"Web\" services and all). That was until I talked to a practitioner from IBM about this, who then informed me that more 70% of their's and their customer's SOAP services are actually consumed over JMS, because, even though this is much more annoying to set up, JMS is what most companies used for integration before Web services, and changing it would be way to intrusive.</p>\n\n<p><em>End of story time</em></p>\n\n<p>Especially for young software-developers-turned-computer-scientists, separating what you <em>think is true</em> (e.g., because many books or blogs claim it is, or because it seems logical) from what you <em>know is true</em> (e.g., because there are reliable studies, or because it can indeed be proven) is a hard, but valuable, lesson, and your undergraduate thesis is the perfect place to learn it. While writing your thesis, reflect what you really know and what is just the kind of \"community common knowledge\" that any community of enthusiastic practitioners tends to build up. Most of the time, the common knowledge will be correct, but you will be surprised about the times it isn't.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>*And I am not 100% sure the statement is true. I would not be surprised if binary serialization (e.g., protocol buffers) is used more often than either, especially if the same entity controls both sides of the communication.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42394,
"author": "Piotr Migdal",
"author_id": 49,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you use statements like \"the most common\", then it needs a proof (either citation or some of your own finding). If popularity is non-essential, try writing things like \"two popular formats are JSON and XML\" - this way it sounds as a common knowledge and it won't need justification.</p>\n\n<p>Source: once I <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/abs/1009.1031\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrote a paper on a party game</a> and there were many aspects being \"common knowledge\", but for which there was no actual data. I was advised to remove all statements like \"the most popular variant of the game\" and to change them into describing particular variants without making factual claims on their popularity.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42396,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You should explain why you've chosen XML and JSON in the context of your larger thesis. Something like</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Because technology X, Y, and Z (that the thesis is about) support both XML and JSON serialization, it is worth studying these serialization schemes in more detail.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42406,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Words like \"most\" are real problems in scientific writing because you often <em>want</em> to make a strong statement about how important your work is, but to do so would be claiming something that you don't actually have evidence for.</p>\n\n<p>Generally, however, it doesn't actually have anything to do with the argument for importance. The significance of your work depends on the fact that it affects <em>many</em> things, not whether the people it affects are a majority, a plurality, or a minority.</p>\n\n<p>Thus, if you modify your example from:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>JSON and XML are two of the most widely used formats</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>to:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>JSON and XML are two widely used formats</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>then you have an unimpeachably true statement that is actually no weaker than your original.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42380",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32262/"
] |
42,400 |
<p>I'm currently an undergraduate Economics student with minors in both business and mathematics. As I look towards my future, I'm trying to see what options I have and ultimately make the best decision. </p>
<p>Anyways, I am hoping to find out more about graduate school and the different masters degrees I could obtain. Is it fairly common for students with my academic background to get into a quality masters in finance program? Obviously I could go for economics, I was just wondering what different options I have available.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42448,
"author": "szarka",
"author_id": 18234,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18234",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a general rule, your exact undergrad major is less important than having strong letters of recommendation, high GRE scores, a high GPA, etc. Of course, an admissions committee will want to see that you've taken some relevant coursework and that you've done well in it. See the web site for the programs to which you intend to apply: most will spell out both the minimum preparation they expect and additional coursework they would like to see. (For example, an economics program might require that you have taken intermediate level micro and macro, calculus, and statistics.) If you are a strong candidate in other respects, you may even be able to make an argument for admission despite some missing prerequisites.</p>\n\n<p>I'd suggest that you might want to focus on what you hope to do with a graduate degree and then work backward to which degree to pursue, rather than casting about for a degree to pursue. Unless the subject is wildly-unrelated to your course of study so far, you can probably add coursework to make yourself a good candidate for the degree you need.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42449,
"author": "Roger Fan",
"author_id": 20375,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20375",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As Szarka stated, your coursework and experience is generally more important than your specific degree. That said, the type of coursework that is generally taken towards an economics degree is very relevant and good preparation for further degrees (incomplete list) in finance, business, public policy, public health, and, obviously, economics. Statistics and Computer Science are somewhat common as well assuming that you have taken some relevant courses.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42400",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32281/"
] |
42,409 |
<p>I submitted a research paper to a journal. After one day the status was EA assignment pending and after two more days it was under review. But only after two days under review the status changed to “Awaiting AE Recommendation”. Can anybody please tell me what does it indicate?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42414,
"author": "Maarten van Wesel",
"author_id": 32146,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32146",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Using something named Google; \"Awaiting AE recommendation -> The paper received the sufficient number of reviews (usually 2) and, on their basis, AE\nmakes recommendation to EIC.\"</p>\n\n<p>That is a very fast review process. Maybe the reviewer(s) had some spare time, maybe a glance at the paper was enough (although that would be odd, as an editor would normally decide a straight reject if this is what the paper calls for)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 137206,
"author": "ellipsis",
"author_id": 114108,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/114108",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>AE stands for \"Associate Editor.\"\"Awaiting AE recommendation\" status means that the AE has collected all reviews from the reviewers who were assigned to review your manuscript and that the AE's decision for acceptance is pending.\nt backed up) waiting to be sent to some reviews.</p>\n\n<p>If it has been reviewed., the AE would send her/his report to the EiC (Editor in Cheif), for the final decision on accepting the manuscript for publication in the journal based on the review results and the report from the AE.</p>\n\n<p>It could also perhaps be that it is waiting to be sent to reviewers, but this is probably unlikely and is my take on it, it could just be the terminology used. Most likely your paper has been reviewed very quickly, and is now they are just deciding if it should be published.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 151961,
"author": "Dilon",
"author_id": 126561,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/126561",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>AE means it is awaiting associate editor recommendation. I got my paper rejected within two days after that. We asked them to reconsider, and they accepted our appeal. Now it is again AE. Fingers crossed.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42409",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32285/"
] |
42,415 |
<p>A few months ago, I visited a university for a tenure-track interview in computer science. Before my visit, I received an interview policy sheet from HR stating all the usual things (economy flight fare, etc). After the interview, I was told by HR that I need to mail them my original receipts, which I did instantly upon my return home. </p>
<p>After a few weeks, I inquired regarding the reimbursement and was told that my receipts hadn't been received yet. However, the tracking service (I had used registered mail) did indicate that they had been delivered and, after a second inquiry, HR confirmed that they should have been received at their university but aren't to be found anywhere and reiterated that they need the original receipts to reimburse me.</p>
<p>This was 3 weeks ago and my subsequent enquiries have been met with silence. I did receive a job offer but, also having received another offer, accepted a position elsewhere and informed the university about my decision. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is there anything I can/should do about this? </p>
</blockquote>
<p>To be frank, the university is overseas and taking the probably very expensive legal route is not an option for me. That said, the interview expenses are in the range of 1.2k USD and thus non-negligible for me.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42417,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>University HR offices, probably like many HR offices, can de difficult to deal with. I would email the HR person you have been in contact with, along with the department admin/search chair electronic copies of the receipts explaining what happened. I tend to scan the originals, prior to mailing them. If you have copies that is even better. There is no reason to try the legal route yet.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42426,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In general, <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_razor\">don't attribute inaction to malice</a> or fraud when it almost certainly is just due to laziness, disorganization, or incompetence. University bureaucracies, especially in some countries, can be unbelievably slow. Sadly, three weeks is often not a particularly long period to go unreimbursed. Be patient and persistent and this will almost certainly work out eventually.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42427,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If they promised it to you, then the university certainly has a moral obligation to reimburse you. They may also have a legal obligation.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, the way I thought about it when I was in a similar position before was that it was an <em>opportunity cost</em> (think: pay to play). Sure, I paid for it out of my own pocket, but I did it because if it worked out it would have landed me a nice job. Sometimes you have to invest a little money for the potential to make a whole lot more. That didn't make it less awkward that I didn't get reimbursed, but at least I could justify to myself that it wasn't a waste of money.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42439,
"author": "Eggberta",
"author_id": 32311,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32311",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>HR offices at universities are often a total wreck with papers all over the place. One time I sent something to them and they insisted I never did. So I sent it again. Again they said they didn't have it. So I got mad at them and told them to look around for it. While I was still on the phone with them, they located it. I'm guessing it was under a pile of papers. My advice would be to tell them you already mailed the originals and show them the mail confirmation status. Then send them copies of the originals. If they are fair at all, they should honor that since they clearly lost the originals. If not, perhaps contact the president of the university and explain the situation. When things don't work out, go over the head of whoever is not cooperating.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42443,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 11565,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11565",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>This was 3 weeks ago and my subsequent enquiries have been met with silence. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is unacceptable. Aren't you glad you won't be working there?</p>\n\n<p>At this point, if it were me, I would no longer bother wasting my time with HR. To echo JeffE's comment, I would forward your complaints to the CS department's chair, say that you are very disappointed with the way this has been handled by HR, and politely but firmly request of the chair that the CS department handle these matters on your behalf.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42470,
"author": "erwin",
"author_id": 31805,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31805",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>University HR and reimbursement departments are often very slow, particularly at public universities. I attribute that to the fact that their primary purpose is to avoid reimbursing people for invalid expenses. In my experience, 3 weeks would be fast.</p>\n\n<p>That said, it would not be rational to expect them to move faster (or, indeed, at all) without prodding on your part. It would also not be rational to express disappointment or anger with people higher up the food chain - as they will, in practice, probably be stuck with those employees and the framework of rules and incentives leading to extreme tardiness. Complaints will only make them less willing to help. Requests for help will provide an opportunity to feel good about helping someone with a frustrating problem.</p>\n\n<p>It would be best to call the search chair and ask for help. After the call, I'd send a well-organized email outlining that:\n(a) You sent the originals by registered mail.\n(b) HR received them and presumably lost them.\n(c) HR is now requesting the originals, which you already sent.</p>\n\n<p>Ideally, that email should have the electronic copies attached.</p>\n\n<p>Hopefully, that'll solve the issue. If you don't get movement within 2 weeks, I'd escalate to:\n(a) head of HR\n(b) departmental admin\n(c) department chair</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42415",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32292/"
] |
42,421 |
<p>I am reviewing a paper that quite heavily builds upon work that has only been published in Russian and Romanian, which are languages I (unfortunately) do no speak. Therefore it is quite difficult for me to assess how this new work builds upon this previous work. </p>
<p>This work was submitted for an English-speaking venue in which normally all papers only reference papers in English. At first glance, the venue only request the actual paper to be in English, but makes no mention about related work. </p>
<p>How to proceed? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42430,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Evaluate the correctness and significance of the results as best you can. On the topic of novelty, include in your referee report exactly what you wrote here:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>[This paper] quite heavily builds upon work that has only been published in Russian and Romanian, which are languages I (unfortunately) do not speak. Therefore it is quite difficult for me to assess how this new work builds upon this previous work.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Then let the editors decide.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42431,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If the manuscripts relies \"quite heavily\" on references that you cannot read, <em>you cannot meaningfully assess its contributions</em>. I would suggest you decline to review it.</p>\n\n<p>You could propose that the authors either identify possible reviewers that do speak Russian and/or Romanian, or that they submit to a more localized journal.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I diverge from <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/42430/4140\">JeffE's answer</a>. I would agree with him if this were only a question of one or two (non-key) references. But this particular case really appears to me to be parallel to reviewing a paper in my <em>field</em> but not my <em>specialty</em>: if I personally get a paper on econometric forecasting but work in supply chain forecasting, then I will not have a good idea of the state of the art in this particular special subfield. So I can't assess whether the manuscript expands on this state of the art. In such a situation, I do not think it would be helpful to review the parts of the manuscript that I <em>can</em> assess and add a caveat - instead, as in the present question, I would decline reviewing.</p>\n\n<p>After all, in either case it sounds like additional reviewers will be required. It would be better to bring this to the editor's attention <em>as soon as possible</em>, and not only after reviewing the paper myself.</p>\n\n<p>(This suggests a third alternative: explain the situation to the editor and ask him what he would prefer.)</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42421",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17804/"
] |
42,422 |
<p>Is it correct to express PhD in brackets "(PhD)" as suffix to express the ongoing degree?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42423,
"author": "Pieter Naaijkens",
"author_id": 22,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>No, you cannot use a title or degree that you haven't earned yet. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42446,
"author": "Aaron Hall",
"author_id": 9518,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9518",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Perhaps you may have seen someone express their student status in such a way, which may work informally depending on the context (perhaps a listing of students, which may have included undergrads and masters level students, and could thus differentiate). E.g.:</p>\n\n<pre><code>SGA Special Committee of Students named Student\n-----------------------------------------------\nStudent Smith (PhD)\nStudent Garcia (MS)\nStudent Nahasapeemapetilon (MA)\n...\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>And note that these examples are only appropriate in contexts where you need to communicate your state of educational attainment. Perhaps a resume, name tag at networking event, or something of that nature. It's not really appropriate socially (note the disdain in the comments), or outside of such a context.</p>\n\n<p>Even in a context where you are clearly understood to be a student, it's best not just trail off with <code>(PhD)</code>. <a href=\"https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/small-cv-question.383982/\">Fully disclose your current state of education:</a> </p>\n\n<p>E.g:</p>\n\n<pre><code>Student Smith (Ph.D. expected 2020)\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>If you passed your comps, but did not dissertate, <a href=\"http://www.econjobrumors.com/topic/abd-is-not-a-credential-please-dont-write-phd-abd-on-your-resume\">some may frown on this</a>, but sometimes used to indicate one has completed all work necessary for graduation except the dissertation (and even when all hope is abandoned of ever completing):</p>\n\n<pre><code>Student Smith (ABD)\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>or if completion is shortly expected, </p>\n\n<pre><code>Student Smith (Ph.D. candidate)\n</code></pre>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42471,
"author": "VicariousAT",
"author_id": 32340,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32340",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You may say you are a <em>PhD candidate</em> as a suffix after you finish your field exams (usually after the third year in the US.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42476,
"author": "Matheus Danella",
"author_id": 29341,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29341",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In Brazil, it is common to see people writing \"doutorando\" (for PhD) and \"mestrando\" (for Masters) to indicate that they are in the middle of the course of their degrees. The translation for these terms would be something almost like \"PhDeing\" and \"Meing\" (none of those sound well). But this practice is not considered right, because the person has not finished anything.</p>\n\n<p>Also, I agree that as a PhD student you don't really want to do that, as you have not already earned your degree. Keep up with your studies, and soon you will be able to add \"PhD\" with no other doubts!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42533,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>At my university in the USA, we award the M.Phil degree to doctoral students who have completed their coursework and exams. When they submit their prospectus, their title changes to \"doctoral candidate.\"</p>\n\n<p>So they could write either:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Jane Doe, BA, M.Phil</li>\n<li>Jane Doe, doctoral candidate</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Some also use the colloquial ABD (all but dissertation) but as their advisor, I discourage this for formal settings such as their CV or on their business cards:</p>\n\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>Jane Doe, BA, ABD </li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 101149,
"author": "Siddarth",
"author_id": 85058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/85058",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A Phd Student is a research Scholar . I propose he can write .</p>\n\n<p>Phd(Sch).. Where SCh is a suffix , same is recommended in a smaller font.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42422",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32297/"
] |
42,432 |
<p>There was a master student who was supervised by a lecturer for his dissertation. They also decided to write and submitted a paper, whose first author was the master student, based on the dissertation. The paper is accepted but it also creates an issue about who should go and present it since there is enough funding for only one person to go to the conference.</p>
<p>The master student wants to go as he is the first author and did most of the work. On the other hand, the lecturer wants to go for networking purposes, e.g. meet other reseachers and find potential collaboration. Moreover, he also reasons that as the student is about to graduate and won't work in academia anymore, it does not have much benefit to fund him to go to the conference.</p>
<p>My question is that whether the lecturer's decision is reasonable.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42433,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You're going to get a lot of opinions on this, but I think that if the second author wants to go primarily for networking purposes, he should pay his own way. The student wants to go, did the majority of the work, and is the primary author of the paper. The fact that the student will leave academia after graduating is irrelevant. The student should have his travel paid and present the work at the conference.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42435,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>My question is that whether the lecturer's decision is reasonable.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Presumably the funding belongs to the supervisor since if it was not under the supervisor's control, it would not be his/her decision. I think it is perfectly reasonable for the supervisor to decide that it is in his/her best interest to attend the conference and not to fund the student to attend. A lot of factors would go into that decision including how much funding there is, how expensive the conference is, what the student will get out of it, what the supervisor will get out of it, etc.</p>\n\n<p>In my field, the order of authors is based on contribution. Conference presentations have a presenting author who is often not the first author. It is pretty typical in my field for a PI to get invited to a conference, including funding, to present recent work. This often leads to the PI co-authoring a paper with a student, where the student is the first author. It would be mildly inappropriate for the PI to send the student in his/her place.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42436,
"author": "The Almighty Bob",
"author_id": 16086,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16086",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>@BillBarth already pointed out that you are going to get a lot of opinions on this, here is another one:</p>\n\n<p>First of all, I agree with Bill, if it was just about attending the conference (and ignoring the funding) and there is only one slot, then the first author should be the one presenting the work.</p>\n\n<p>However, it is not clear by whom the funding is. If the funding is given by the conference then the funding should, in my opinion, go to the first author.\nBut most of the time the travel expenses are not paid by the conference but the university (or a grant that was acquired by someone) to give the researchers of this university/department to opportunity to present their work.\nThe clearest case would be, if the funding comes from a grant given to the lecturer. Here it is pretty clear that he can choose who should be going to this conference. But also in the other cases (grants given to the department/university) the same idea still applies (but maybe to a lesser extend): The funding was acquired to support members of the department: The member of the department should be given priority over the student.</p>\n\n<p>In general, I would advise you to think about it from a different perspective: If this would have been a solo authored paper (by you), would you still have gotten the funding? If the answer is a very clear 'yes', then I would advise you to talk to your advisor again (keeping in mind, that maybe a good relationship with the person who writes your letters of recommendation might be worth more than attending a conference). If not, just let it be and be glad that your work is going to be presented.</p>\n\n<p><em>A minor remark: In some countries it might not be possible to give travel money to students who are not employed by the university. This is here clearly not the case, but should be mentioned nonetheless.</em> </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42432",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29348/"
] |
42,440 |
<p>I'm currently writing a paper on a certain topic for which a review article was recently published. Of course, I want to contrast my new approach to existing techniques. For that purpose, I have identified the relevant prior work with the help of the above-mentioned review article.</p>
<p>However, in my current version, I simply reuse the whole block of citations from the review article with no change at all. I have consulted each reference individually and they do seem appropriate for citation.</p>
<ul>
<li>Is taking a pre-existing block of citations and using it in my own manuscript considered plagiarism? </li>
</ul>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42441,
"author": "Memming",
"author_id": 386,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/386",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I do not see why that would be plagiarism at all. Taking references from other papers, reading them, and citing them in your own paper is a regular process. If you copy & paste the sentences that refer to those citations along with the references, then it would be considered plagiarism, but no, not in your case.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42442,
"author": "ff524",
"author_id": 11365,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11365",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You must cite your source every time you use someone else's intellectual contributions.</p>\n\n<p>A review article contributes curation of sources (among other things) as its intellectual content. If you use that intellectual content, you must cite the review paper (in addition to the individual sources). Otherwise you are misleading the reader into believing that you've done all that work (reading very broadly in the literature, identifying the <em>most</em> relevant and useful sources) yourself.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42453,
"author": "jCisco",
"author_id": 32323,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32323",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Perhaps your choice of the word \"steal\" to describe the inclusions of block citations reveals your feelings on the matter. </p>\n\n<p>If you are copying text verbatim, and I assume it is by saying \"block of citations,\" then you should provide a citation to the source. That is my take. </p>\n\n<p>However, by altering your conundrum slightly, does it lead you to a difficult question or an unknown?\nAs in, had you found these papers 12 months ago and the question of copying the citation block wasn't applicable, would you have cited the paper in which you discovered these additional sources?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42455,
"author": "Superbest",
"author_id": 244,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/244",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I've noticed many papers deal with this problem by doing:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>time-travel has long been known to be possible [17, 18, 4].</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Where 17 is an older research paper, 18 is a recent paper with more comprehensive results, and 4 is the review which may or may not have pointed the authors to 17 and 18 in the first place.</p>\n\n<p>I suppose this way, you both cite the original source (which you have to do) and credit the review (so as to not be plagiarizing their collection of sources). Perhaps you could argue that this does not explicitly indicate that the first two are taken from the review, but it does deal with the matter using the fewest characters.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42440",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8001/"
] |
42,454 |
<p>I am an academic with hoping for an offer at an Oceania university. I want to know how common in this system is it to ask the university to give my spouse a job? It is common and often successful in the U.S. universities, but I don't know in the Oceania (which is largely the same as the British) system.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42457,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><em>My experience on this is more anecdotal, but perhaps it will be helpful.</em></p>\n\n<p>In Australia, I've certainly known plenty of couples that work at the same university. I can also think of a few where I imagine a package arrangement was organised (although I don't know details). Equally, I can think of cases where academics have left a department because the department decided to no longer employ their spouse (i.e., they moved to a new university that would employ their spouse). The ease of making such arrangements depends on how desirable you and your spouse are as academics. It certainly helps if at least one member of the couple is a super star, and the other member is at least competitive.</p>\n\n<p>Another general point is that <a href=\"http://www.australianuniversities.com.au/list/\">Australia has a lot of universities</a>. In particular, if you are in Melbourne or Sydney (and to a lesser extent other major cities) then you would have six or so reasonable universities to work with. So I also know a lot of couples in the university sector who are able to solve the two-body problem by working at different universities in the one city.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42901,
"author": "user1220",
"author_id": 1220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1220",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't think there will be any specific policy regarding this - it depends on how desirable you are. I have a colleague who was head-hunted from overseas who's wife was given an administrative position; however this is not quite the same scenario. </p>\n\n<p>If you are applying for a Associate Professor/Professor position, I think you would have a decent chance. Anything else would be unlikely, or simply depend on how congenial your (future) boss is, and whether positions within the department are available.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42454",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30606/"
] |
42,460 |
<p>I'd like to cite the following articles from "Scientific Data" (a journal from the Nature Publishing Group), but no authors are mentioned (as far as I can tell):</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2015.4" rel="nofollow">http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2015.4</a></li>
<li><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2014.10" rel="nofollow">http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2014.10</a></li>
</ol>
<p>However, it's likely that it was written by one (or more) of Nature's editors. If, for example, I am using the <a href="http://www.bibtex.org/" rel="nofollow">BibTeX</a> formatting system, how should I describe the author of the article? For example:</p>
<pre><code>1. author={Nature}
2. author={Nature Publishing Group}
3. author={anonymous}
4. author={}
</code></pre>
<p>Or should I leave it blank (option 4)?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42461,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Given that they are editorials, I personally would actually choose a fifth option, and cite the author as \"Editorial,\" thereby giving maximum clarity about the nature of the article.</p>\n\n<p>Nature apparently disagrees with me, however, as in the first of your linked articles, the first citation is to another such editorial, as:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Code share. Nature 514, 536–536 (2014).</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42464,
"author": "Martin - マーチン",
"author_id": 13372,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13372",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It probably depends on the citation style you have to use.</p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/07/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Modern Language Association style (MLA) states</a></p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>An Editorial & Letter to the Editor</strong></p>\n<p>Cite as you would any article in a periodical, but include the designators "Editorial" or "Letter" to identify the type of work it is.</p>\n<p>"Of Mines and Men." Editorial. Wall Street Journal east. ed. 24 Oct. 2003: A14. Print.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>But the American Psychological Association style (APA) just substitutes the title for the author. See <a href=\"http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2010/01/the-generic-reference-who.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">APA blog</a>.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>“No Author”: For Sure</strong></p>\n<p>In some cases, there truly is no way to pin down who the author is. We treat this as “no author.” In reference citations, we handle this by moving the content’s title into the author position (with no quotation marks around it). This most commonly occurs for wiki entries, dictionary entries, and unattributed website content. In the in-text citation, the title (put inside double quotation marks) likewise takes the place of the author’s name.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42467,
"author": "yo'",
"author_id": 1471,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1471",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The standard way for citing these is to use the organization's name as the author. You have to be careful and include it in one of the following ways:</p>\n\n<pre><code>author = {{Nature Publishing Group}}\norganization = {Nature Publishing Group}\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>The reason for double braces in <code>author</code> field is that without them, you can get <code>N.P. Group</code> or <code>Group, N.P.</code> in your article, which are both wrong. Also note that not all BibTeX styles and not all reference types support <code>organization</code>.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42460",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23382/"
] |
42,473 |
<p>I was at the MIT-Vienna-Conference and they had a pretty nice App-System (Superevent), where Questions to the Speaker could be asked per the Superevent-app, upvoted from others and finally answered by the speaker, all without hand-raising, etc.</p>
<p>I now would like to try to implement that sort of "Guerilla" in my University for Lectures, since the Professors will never agree to use something like this in the near future. Therefore i also don´t have the money to buy a Conference App. Most of them are restricted to 25-75 people in the free plan, but we normally have 150-200 people sitting in a lecture.</p>
<p>So here´s my question: Does anybody know of free solutions of this?</p>
<p>My primal need is: Question to speaker-App for Android and iOS</p>
<p>My wish would be: An own "Help-area" for each lecture, possibility to provide resource-links, up and downvote(Evaluation) of lecture.</p>
<p>I could get my hand around some money by asking the student committee, but most of the conference apps work on a plan per conference, which would be way to expensive for all the lectures in my study.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42477,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you don't find a proper open source implementation, you could use Twitter with retweet counts as upvotes and hashtags for each course. I've seen it used by conferences as a question suggestion mechanism.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 45008,
"author": "Dermot Lally",
"author_id": 34180,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34180",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This free guide - the <a href=\"https://app.doxiq.com/d/P5Pxt/EventAppBible\" rel=\"nofollow\">Event App Bible</a> - lists lots of conference/event apps. I believe there are a mixture of free and paid-for systems included. You should look at the \"Audience Response Systems\" to id apps that offer this type of functionality, and cross reference that against the pricing table. Hopefully you can find something that works for you. (The guide comes from the Event Manager Blog and was updated recently (2015))</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42473",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32341/"
] |
42,475 |
<p>I'm a pre-doctoral researcher (does it exist?) figuring out my true interests and learning the craft. When I start exploring a new (that is, unfamiliar) area, I try to find the most influential literature and scholars in that area through a haphazard and unsystematic process (such as starting with some highly-cited papers, consulting their list of references etc.). And because this is an unsystematic process, I'm never sure that I've not left unexplored some really important work. </p>
<p>I wonder if there's a more efficient process. How do you all go about this?</p>
<p>Also, (and this is a more specific question) what are some online forums where I can ask for more experienced researchers' opinion about what they consider to be the most important literature in a particular area?</p>
<p>Edit: To add some context, I work as a researcher in a US business school. My main area of work is entrepreneurship. Since this is an interdisciplinary subject, I have to consult literature in a wide variety of fields (some recent examples: psychology, complexity science, economics; of course, I access a very small part, the part that is the most relevant to my question). Entrepreneurship itself is in the process of defining its own scope and boundary.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42477,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you don't find a proper open source implementation, you could use Twitter with retweet counts as upvotes and hashtags for each course. I've seen it used by conferences as a question suggestion mechanism.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 45008,
"author": "Dermot Lally",
"author_id": 34180,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34180",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This free guide - the <a href=\"https://app.doxiq.com/d/P5Pxt/EventAppBible\" rel=\"nofollow\">Event App Bible</a> - lists lots of conference/event apps. I believe there are a mixture of free and paid-for systems included. You should look at the \"Audience Response Systems\" to id apps that offer this type of functionality, and cross reference that against the pricing table. Hopefully you can find something that works for you. (The guide comes from the Event Manager Blog and was updated recently (2015))</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42475",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15953/"
] |
42,481 |
<p>I have a friend who was accepted into an <a href="http://abbs.arizona.edu/">interdisciplinary program at the University of Arizona</a> a few years ago.</p>
<p>They are more than halfway to completing their Ph.D., however their advisor is indicating that they may not receive the full amount of funding this year.</p>
<p>Their offer letter and governing handbook all state that students will be funded at an annual rate of $25k for up to 5 years.</p>
<p>My friend has procured much of their own funding for many of the years through fellowships, so their salary was payed from outside money for over half of their time in the program.</p>
<p>The relevant handbook text is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The basic graduate stipend is $25,000 (pro-rated the first year due to
August start date). Depending on the source of funding, you may
receive this stipend in the form of bi-weekly paychecks or in larger
lump sum amounts... In addition to your stipend, tuition is waived and
single only health insurance is paid. Miscellaneous fees incurred each
semester are the student’s responsibility to pay.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All first-year students are funded from multiple university sources.
By the middle of the second semester, students should have identified
a dissertation advisor. From that point forward, financial
responsibility for the student besides with the dissertation advisor.
During dissertation research, students are typically paid as graduate
research assistants (via payroll) for a period of up to five years,
contingent on the availability of funds and continued satisfactory
progress.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now this was sold to them by the program recruitment as they would have complete coverage for 5 years at $25k salary, but the statement "contingent on the availability of funds," seems to be an escape clause here.</p>
<p><strong>When a Ph.D. student is promised a certain level funding in the US, but legally the University can shirk that duty, what is the typical response, recourse, and avenues that the student should take when that funding is lowered or removed?</strong></p>
<p>Note that my friend is still in negotiation about this with their advisor, and they may still obtain full funding, but I thought it would make a good question.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42482,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>That \"contingent on the availability of funds\" is indeed an escape clause for the university, such that they <em>technically</em> have no responsibility to ensure funding. </p>\n\n<p>However, it is entirely unreasonable for a Ph.D. student in a STEM field in the US to not be paid a living wage for their work. Your friend needs to make the department aware of this situation, as departments often have resources that can be used to help to cover small gaps. Now it's possible that neither the department nor the professor is able to obtain the necessary funds, in which case, I would recommend that your friend consider seeking paid employment in industry and finish their Ph.D. part-time.</p>\n\n<p>Having a student do this would be quite embarrassing to most professors, so making it known that this is a possibility may help ensure that appropriate support can be obtained.</p>\n\n<p>The situation, unfortunately, is much worse if your friend is not a U.S. citizen. In that case, if they have the ability to seek employment through the training option on an F-1 visa, then they may be able to pursue the same strategy. Some professors, however, will attempt to effectively enslave foreign students through visa-related threats, and this can result in very difficult problems.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42494,
"author": "Andreas Blass",
"author_id": 14506,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14506",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This might need a lawyer's attention. My guess is that the university can get away with cutting funding by claiming funds aren't available, but that claim might be undercut if, for example, they're admitting new students and offering them funding. They might also try using the \"continued satisfactory progress\" clause as an excuse and claim that your friend wasn't making satisfactory progress. But then there should be some real evidence of that, and the claim could be undercut if they continued to fund other students who weren't doing as well as your friend. All of this, however, is my opinion of how things should be --- the university should not be able to easily get out of a promise of funding --- but my opinion might not be the law's opinion; that's why I suggest a lawyer might be needed.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42481",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4572/"
] |
42,486 |
<p>In a face-to-face meeting with a professor, he told me he would send me some papers to read. It's been almost a week, so I assume he's forgotten. That is understandable, since he has a lot to do. I would like to send an email to remind him, but am having difficulty writing it. How can I phrase it nicely?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42491,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Dear Professor X,</p>\n \n <p>during our meeting last week, you mentioned that you wanted to send me links to a couple of papers. Would you mind?</p>\n \n <p>Best, Y</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I often find students agonizing over the exact wording of totally normal emails. The text above took me 10 seconds to write, and that's the amount of time you can expect the typical professor to spend on the typical email. You're not going to be held to a much higher standard either. Be polite, formal, and above all brief. Address the person at the top, sign off at the bottom. That's all that's being asked for.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42492,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A simple polite email will be just fine. You can write something like the following:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Dear Professor Smith,</p>\n \n <p>I very much enjoyed our conversation last Tuesday. Thank you for meeting with me. In that conversation, you mentioned two papers that I am eager to read, one on post-colonial algebras and another on dialectical topology. Could you please send me the references for those articles? </p>\n \n <p>With Gratitude,</p>\n \n <p>Alice</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42498,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to the other answers, remember that most professors and other established researchers are extremely busy and overcommitted. Email often then serves as a durable marker of a task to be done, and can be seen when the person is in a position to carry out immediately (i.e., in front of their computer).</p>\n\n<p>I thus often actually <em>ask</em> students to email me to ask for something that I've promised them, without waiting to see whether I remember on my own. That is because getting that email helps me to make sure that I actually respond promptly. In fact, my collaborators and I often do it with each other too for the same reasons, and it's surprisingly helpful.</p>\n\n<p>In short: relax, and don't worry about the phrasing too much, as long as you're not actively rude.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42506,
"author": "Kakoli Majumder",
"author_id": 9920,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9920",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Professors are busy people and it's not unusual for them to forget such things. It is perfectly fine to send them a reminder. Make sure you set some context, in case he has forgotten the discussion you had with him. Also, clearly mention what he had promised to send you. Keep it short, simple, and polite. Some of the templates above work fine.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42486",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32352/"
] |
42,487 |
<p>I worked on my research for about 2 years and recently submitted a paper to a reputed conference. The referee reports came back and one of the referees pointed out papers that I should have encountered in my literature review but didn't. The knowledge of these papers completely changes the way I view my own work now. Is this normal? I feel stupid for having worked on a problem for 2 years and having missed 2-3 papers that would have been very important. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42489,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's unfortunate when a referee points out crucial papers you missed in your literature search, and hopefully it won't happen too often. (The more you talk with other researchers, the more chances you have to learn about these papers earlier in the process.) However, it's certainly not abnormal. Nobody can be an expert in everything, some references are really not easy to find, and sometimes you just miss something for unclear reasons. If you publish enough papers, it's pretty much guaranteed that a referee will occasionally point out something you wish you had known about earlier. This is one of the advantages of peer review.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42505,
"author": "Kakoli Majumder",
"author_id": 9920,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9920",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have heard of a similar instance where the author had to completely change the focus of her study and rewrite a major part of her paper because the peer reviewers pointed out an existing paper with a very similar research question and results. While most authors would try to conduct an exhaustive literature search,it is not uncommon for them to miss out on one or two papers. Unfortunately, if the papers you have missed are ones that can change your view or approach completely, then your study might need some rework. This is not abnormal in any way, and might happen to anyone. It is indeed a good thing that the peer reviewers mentioned this, so you get a chance of revising your paper and making it more relevant.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42487",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32354/"
] |
42,488 |
<p>I'm currently an undergraduate and have a cGPA of about 3.6 in Mathematics. I worry that it's not good enough to land me a place at some of the best graduate schools such as UCB, Princeton and MIT. I still have a little over a year left till I get my degree, which means that I still have time to mess up or increase my GPA. So I guess my question is pretty straightforward, is my GPA enough? What more should I do to improve my chances? I've loved mathematics since a long while but now I fear that I'm worried only about maintaining good grades which has made me lose interest in everything I study. I want to get the same interest that I had back but the grades keep holding me back from it. I initially wanted to delve into research but given that I've lost interest in everything how can I expect it to be fun?What do I do to fix that? Any help would be appreciated.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42490,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You may consider that (i) everyone wants to get into these departments, but not everyone can (even among those who have a perfect GPA), (ii) the U of TX, U of CO, U of MI group of universities ain't bad either. </p>\n\n<p>In the end, your GPA is only one aspect of the puzzle. An important part is also where you get your undergraduate degree. A GPA of 3.6 doesn't count nearly as much if you're at Pomona City College or Fresno State, than if you are at MIT or a highly selective liberal arts college. That is, unfortunately, not something you can do anything about at this point in time, but it's worth keeping in mind when you wonder what you aspire to.</p>\n\n<p>Ultimately, while I applaud you for aspiring to go to MIT, UCB, etc, you will find that in the long run it's unhealthy to expect to get there. Very few people do, but most come to realize that being on the next step down is not a bad place to be either. Setting achievable and realistic goals is a worthwhile endeavor.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42493,
"author": "Andreas Blass",
"author_id": 14506,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14506",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The 3.6 looks a bit weak, but there's lots of other relevant information that's not in your question. For example, a poor grade in first-year calculus wouldn't matter so much if you have solid A's in more advanced courses; on the other hand, solid A's in calculus followed by lower grades in more advanced and theoretical classes would be a serious problem. Also, letters of recommendation are very important in graduate admissions. If you've done a research project and your supervisor writes an ecstatic letter about the quality of your work, that can compensate for lower grades in some classes.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42488",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24070/"
] |
42,499 |
<p>This question was prompted by answers and comments on <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42481/proper-procedure-when-promised-funding-not-given-to-ph-d-graduate-student">this question</a> about PhD student funding.</p>
<p>I am under the impression that STEM Ph.D. graduate students, when accepted into an RU/VH university in the United States, will typically be funded for at least 5-6 years, depending on the average length of Ph.D. in the specific field, by either TAs, RAs, a mix, fellowships, etc.</p>
<p>I understand that my university, the University of Arizona, has shirked this duty in a <em>legally binding sense</em>, but <strong>is this impression wrong?</strong></p>
<p>If it is, why would I (or any other graduate student) risk having to find a job in the middle of a Ph.D. in order to "pay the bills?"</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42500,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I cannot speak for all US universities or all disciplines. That said, the graduate programs in the natural sciences that I have been involved with do knowingly commit in legally binding fashion to provide five years of support with the caveat that this may come in the form of 20 hour per week TA appointments if no RA funds are available from the PI or the department. </p>\n\n<p>Why would someone accept a lesser deal? If one has a better option, I see little reason to do so. If one does not, one might perhaps accept such an arrangement in order to receive a PhD education that, in many fields, vastly increases one's earning potential. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42508,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It's important to distinguish between the <em>legal</em> commitment and the <em>moral</em> commitment. To the best of my understanding, US research universities <em>morally</em> commit to funding their STEM students, i.e., any student joining the university should act on the expectation that they will be funded one way or another throughout their education.</p>\n\n<p>There are any number of ways in which that can go wrong, however, and leave a department in a position where it is unable to fulfill that commitment. For example, public universities are typically subject to review and interference from the state legislature, such as <a href=\"http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2015/03/06/budget-packs-wallop-universities-hospitals/24540423/\" rel=\"nofollow\">the massive budget cuts that have just been inflicted on the University of Arizona</a>. They can also potentially face interference on a much more fine-grained level from its (state politically appointed) Board of Regents, who are not under a <em>legal</em> obligation to respect the tradition of academia independence.</p>\n\n<p>I would thus not be surprised if many universities carefully weaken their language to avoid a <em>legal</em> commitment, and therefore attempt to immunize themselves from student lawsuits should such a situation arise.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42542,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The university I went to for graduate school made no such commitment. They usually guaranteed you, in one form or fashion, your first year or two of funding. But beyond that? The department would definitely <em>try</em> to help you, and did it's level best to match people who needed RAs/TAs with people who had funding, and for <em>most people</em> it worked <em>most of the time</em> but it was by no means secure, and absolutely not legally binding.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42499",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4572/"
] |
42,511 |
<p>I am just about to send a paper for publication, and I would be grateful for some advice on how I should acknowledge my fellow PhD students.</p>
<p>The paper in question is my own, in the sense that I am the only author. However, it is clear that science does not happen in vacuum, and it was helpful to have an informal discussion with my collegues from time to time. For instance, I would explain to them the outline of the argument, and they would see if they see an obvious error, or suggest that I use a well-know theorem which might be applicable, or ask a question about a possible generalisation.</p>
<p>What would be an appropriate form of acknowledgement? Is it generally a good idea to add a line like</p>
<p><em>"The author wishes to thank his fellow PhD students [insert a list of ~5 names here]"</em> </p>
<p>in the acknowledgements section? On one hand, I feel it's best to err on the side of being too polite, but on the other hand I'm not sure if it won't come across as name-dropping or trying to win favor.</p>
<p>If this is relevant, my field is (pure) mathematics.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42513,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The acknowledgements section of a paper is a perfect place to thank people who significantly aided you with the paper, but not to the level where authorship is merited. </p>\n\n<p>Unlike the acknowledgements of your thesis, however, the tradition of such sections is generally to be somewhat more strict in the notion of direct and material contributions: you should not be <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38509/whether-and-how-to-thank-a-girlfriend-or-boyfriend-in-the-acknowledgements-of-th#comment85482_38509\">thanking your dog</a> here. So, for example, if your officemate actually read and critiqued the paper, acknowledgement is appropriate, but if they just helped to keep your spirits up, acknowledgement is not appropriate.</p>\n\n<p><em>(I am answering from the general traditions of computer science, which are related but may not be quite the same as your area of mathematics)</em></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42517,
"author": "Shingleback",
"author_id": 32368,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32368",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have often seen acknowledgements with statements like \"The author thanks John Smith for helpful discussions concerning this work\". However, I rarely encounter cases where more than perhaps 3 individuals are thanked in this way. I would imagine this is because acknowledgements are intended to include people who directly contributed to an article, but not to the level of co-authorship, and it is difficult to see how many people could all have helped substantially with conceptual issues. </p>\n\n<p>Personally, I draw the line for acknowledgements somewhere beyond water-cooler talks about the work, but anyone who read a draft and pointed out an important concept, relevant prior work, or significant error that I had missed would be included. Regarding earlier conceptual help, I would only include colleagues who made a tangible difference to the final article. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42544,
"author": "Joe Corneli",
"author_id": 32387,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32387",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here's a template you can adapt:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Person <em>A</em> helped with numerical calculations, Person <em>B</em> gave me the idea for Lemma 5, Person <em>C</em> provided helpful pointers to literature, Person <em>D</em> kindly proofread the entire manuscript, Person <em>E</em> provided excellent administrative assistance. All I had to do was sit around and prove theorems.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42511",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7328/"
] |
42,514 |
<p>I am currently doing a medical science research masters with a difficult supervisor. Due to two incidents of equipment malfunctions (equipment that I am using), I was stopped from doing any experiments for more than three months in total. During the three months I did almost nothing. Over the entire 6 months that I have been here, I have only had one month during which I was able to generate any sufficient results (the other months I was learning the technique). My supervisor rejected my proposal to switch to a new technique or use a different equipment set-up. What worries me is that I won't be able to gather sufficient results to write my thesis by July (which is the deadline), and I haven't even started my masters project.</p>
<p>I am wondering whether anybody else has similarly experienced this situation before and whether this is normal during your PhD i.e. doing absolutely nothing for 3 months or more due to the excuse of "equipment faults"? Do you just switch to a different experiment or part of the project which utilize different techniques? Could somebody please help me understand why my supervisor is doing this - is this normal for labs which lack funding? </p>
<p>What should I do? Should I make a formal complaint to the university about my masters supervisor? If I do so, I am afraid that the animosity between me and my supervisor will be beyond repair and he will not support me at all in finishing in time for the deadline. If it keeps on like this, I won't get enough results to sufficiently write the project thesis. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42515,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In experimental sciences, such incidents are unfortunately common. I do a lot of work in synthetic biology, for example, and it's not unusual to have a lab run into serious equipment or materials problems that significantly delay the work of the lab. For example, one lab I was working with had a critical machine start producing strange results and it took a couple of months, several corrupted experiments, more than one technician visit, and also a change of protocols in order to debug it.</p>\n\n<p>If the lab you are in is actively working to fix the equipment issues, and it is just taking a long time, that would not be unusual. If they are <em>not</em> but are just neglecting it, then that is a very bad sign and you need to talk to the people who run your program to find out what to do.</p>\n\n<p>In either case, you should make arrangements, either with your advisor or with the program heads, about how to adjust expectations given the equipment problems. Equipment issues should <em>not</em> be your problem or delay your graduation at a Masters level (Ph.D. is a different matter).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42530,
"author": "sgk",
"author_id": 32378,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32378",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Get a new mentor. Although calendar days have gone by,you have not lost much time on your thesis project because you have not been allowed to get any experiments done. Find a new mentor in the department OR you can also go outside the department as long as that person has an adjunct or other appointment, or the dept. chair is willing to give them one.</p>\n\n<p>Talk to the chair or some depts. will have a senior faculty assigned to herd students.</p>\n\n<p>You can research funding sometimes through the university resources AND you can go direct to the NIH website to find who has funding and how long it lasts. Pick someone who has money, has a good track record with students and has students that have gone on to post-docs in good labs. This is more important than the exact research area, it is most important to get a good mentor who can imbue you with the skills to make it in the long run. Your current mentor is clearly NOT that.</p>\n\n<p>Get a new mentor and get going! Good luck.</p>\n\n<p>p.s. you could try to find another lab that will let you use their equipment, but just ask your self what is going to happen next in the current lab?</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42514",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25055/"
] |
42,519 |
<p>I am about to resubmit a manuscript to a journal, having now addressed the reviewers' feedback.</p>
<p>The instructions say to submit my final manuscript along with a "marked-up manuscript", which is "the final version showing all changes from the former version".</p>
<p>Since my manuscript is in LaTeX, what is the standard way of highlighting the changes I made? Had it been a Microsoft Word document, I would have used the "track changes" feature. More so than technical methods, I am wondering what format the reviewers typically expect. Are they asking for a marked-up, compiled PDF? Or a marked-up TeX source code? Or a side-by-side comparison of the source code?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42515,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In experimental sciences, such incidents are unfortunately common. I do a lot of work in synthetic biology, for example, and it's not unusual to have a lab run into serious equipment or materials problems that significantly delay the work of the lab. For example, one lab I was working with had a critical machine start producing strange results and it took a couple of months, several corrupted experiments, more than one technician visit, and also a change of protocols in order to debug it.</p>\n\n<p>If the lab you are in is actively working to fix the equipment issues, and it is just taking a long time, that would not be unusual. If they are <em>not</em> but are just neglecting it, then that is a very bad sign and you need to talk to the people who run your program to find out what to do.</p>\n\n<p>In either case, you should make arrangements, either with your advisor or with the program heads, about how to adjust expectations given the equipment problems. Equipment issues should <em>not</em> be your problem or delay your graduation at a Masters level (Ph.D. is a different matter).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42530,
"author": "sgk",
"author_id": 32378,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32378",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Get a new mentor. Although calendar days have gone by,you have not lost much time on your thesis project because you have not been allowed to get any experiments done. Find a new mentor in the department OR you can also go outside the department as long as that person has an adjunct or other appointment, or the dept. chair is willing to give them one.</p>\n\n<p>Talk to the chair or some depts. will have a senior faculty assigned to herd students.</p>\n\n<p>You can research funding sometimes through the university resources AND you can go direct to the NIH website to find who has funding and how long it lasts. Pick someone who has money, has a good track record with students and has students that have gone on to post-docs in good labs. This is more important than the exact research area, it is most important to get a good mentor who can imbue you with the skills to make it in the long run. Your current mentor is clearly NOT that.</p>\n\n<p>Get a new mentor and get going! Good luck.</p>\n\n<p>p.s. you could try to find another lab that will let you use their equipment, but just ask your self what is going to happen next in the current lab?</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42519",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6334/"
] |
42,523 |
<p>The below is in a paper I am reading, written by Gareis.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the uppermost complaints of study-abroad students remains the lack of
meaningful contact with host nationals (e.g., Gareis, 1995; Klineberg & Hull, 1979;
Marginson, Nyland, Sawir, & Forbes-Mewett, 2010; Ward & Masgoret, 2004;
Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide, & Shimizu, 2004). </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Can I site this in my own paper as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Many international students complain about a lack of meaningful contact with host nationals (Gareis, 2010).</p>
</blockquote>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42562,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One approach is to cite Gareis (2010) as the source of the other citations:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>According to Gareis (2010), many international students complain about a lack of meaningful contact with host nationals (cited by Gareis, 2010: Gareis, 1995; Klineberg & Hull, 1979; Marginson, Nyland, Sawir, & Forbes-Mewett, 2010; Ward & Masgoret, 2004; Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide, & Shimizu, 2004).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If you use this approach, then you need to include ALL these in your References list (a.k.a. Bibliography). In this case it would be 6 references total.</p>\n\n<p>This approach is most useful if these specific sources are important for your purposes, either because they establish credibility, present details, or make important connections to lines of research or results.</p>\n\n<p>Another approach is to omit the specific citations by Gareis (2010), but also to note that you omitted them.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>According to Gareis (2010), many international students complain about a lack of meaningful contact with host nationals (five citations in Gareis, 2010 omitted).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This approach is most useful when you only need the main citation as support of the statement and the specific citations are not useful or necessary for your paper or for the reader. In this approach, you'd only have one entry in your reference list for Gareis (2010).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42614,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A good strategy is to make it clear that the cited article is a review article that summarises other studies. So for example, you could write:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>Gareis (2010) reviewed the literature and found that</strong> one of the uppermost complaints of study-abroad students remains the lack of meaningful contact with host nationals.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Or </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>One of the uppermost complaints of study-abroad students remains the lack of meaningful contact with host nationals <strong>(for a review see Gareis, 2010)</strong>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is part of good citation practice whereby you show the link between statement and citation. The aim is to give the reader an understanding of the evidence provided by the citation.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42523",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32375/"
] |
42,527 |
<p>While I was doing my PhD in my previous position I was diagnosed with a mental illness. I started medication however as a result I could not concentrate very well and it made me quit my previous position. I continued my medication and recently have reduced it. Now I think I am able to concentrate again.</p>
<p>Soon I will have an interview for a new PhD position. I was wondering if I should bring up the matter. On one hand, I think I should be honest to my future supervisor. On the other hand, I don't want to lose the chance by scaring them.</p>
<p>Would you please help me with your opinions?</p>
<p>If I shouldn't bring it up myself, what if they asked me about my previous position? Should I tell everything then?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42536,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My personal opinion is that I'd rather you tell me right away. It doesn't scare me to know that there is an issue, but it scares me if there are issues I don't know and that I don't know how to handle.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, you and your adviser are going to spend a lot of time together, and you need to be able to work as a team. As an adviser, I'm going to find out one way or the other at one point, either because you're going to tell me once we have built up a relationship of trust, or because we come upon issues where you find yourself not being able to work at the level you are supposed to and where I will start to suspect something. Better to talk about it up front so that both sides know that there are constraints within which the adviser-advisee relationship will have to operate.</p>\n\n<p>(As a postscript: I don't expect to get a complete description of your illness. It is sufficient if you say something of the form \"I would also like to mention one issue that I believe is important for you to know: I have some medical issues that I think I have under control now with medication. However, they do impose some constraints on me; in particular, I cannot do X and I will need accommodations for Y.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42537,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>There is no requirement to disclose and given the current climate around mental health, I would not suggest disclosing.</p>\n\n<p>I would say that you had health problems that resulted in your having to leave your former school, but that these issues are under control and you are confident you will succeed at your new program.</p>\n\n<p>I would be sure you tell your letter writers to also use the vague rubric of \"health problems\" as some may inadvertently disclose without thinking about how you want to be framed.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42549,
"author": "Joe Corneli",
"author_id": 32387,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32387",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you have a list of specific <em>academic</em> concerns that are relevant to your mental health on an ongoing basis, e.g. about working hours, various pressures related to research and publication, the hours-per-week availability of this potential advisor, etc., you should definitely ask about those. You'll likely impress the interview panel sufficiently with your forthrightness just with that. No need to get into your previous degree program and personal life at all, unless they ask, and they probably won't. If the university ends up making you an offer, HR will probably be oblidged to ask you about your medical history in a form. </p>\n\n<p>If you're curious whether the university has counselling support, or what other outside options for mental health support there are locally, there will certainly be someone who can answer that, but your future advisor might not have a clue what the options are.</p>\n\n<p>And if you have doubts about whether you can actually make it through the programme, then I wouldn't dump those in the lap of your advisor, but talk with a mental health professional. By the way, lots of academics have moderate mental health issues, according to this series in <a href=\"http://www.theguardian.com/education/series/mental-health-a-university-crisis\" rel=\"nofollow\">the Guardian</a>. Like for people in any field, a lot of this is \"manageable\" but for some it is devastating, it all depends on the specifics. In any case one does well to put health first, though that's not always easy.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42559,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My answer to this question borrows heavily from <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/34569/5962\">my answer to this question about discussing a life-threatening illness</a>:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>If you think it helps explain a work or productivity gap in your career, I would mention it and I would do so in writing rather than let your prospective employers speculate.</strong> Because overcoming a major mental health challenge can help you align your priorities and strengthen you in other ways, doing so can definitely be done in a way that leads one to conclude that it is a strength, not a weakness. If they ask about it, answer clearly and in a way that describes this a strength.</li>\n<li><strong>If your previous condition is not relevant in these ways, I don't think you have any obligation to bring it up.</strong> Reminding prospective employers of mental health issues can open to the door to (illegal) discrimination based on your medical history and I don't think you are helping either yourself or your prospective employers by bringing it up.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42582,
"author": "davidhigh",
"author_id": 15231,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15231",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I’d strongly suggest that you not disclose your former problems, as it doesn’t help at all to reveal them. </p>\n\n<p>Remember, that, like any other recruiter, the professor hires the single person of which he expects the best performance in the job. “Mental problems” have the potential to draw doubts on your ability in doing so. </p>\n\n<p>Moreover, you are not obliged to reveal any informations you don’t want to reveal, even not when asked (particularly regarding your health). That is not only yours, but also the recruiters’ privilege (and they usually exploit it – you’d be surprised how many unmanageable bullshit topics are assigned, which lead to years of headaches and finally often to the cancellation of the PhD).</p>\n\n<p>If it is obvious, say from your CV, that there must have been some problems, call them “private reasons”.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42527",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31387/"
] |
42,539 |
<p>I was made a verbal offer for a job at a college, which I accepted over the phone. I haven't got the written offer and I have not signed anything yet. I was informed the written offer will be sent to me in a few days.</p>
<p>That evening, I received an interview e-mail from the same college but a different campus (which I prefer).</p>
<p>What should I do? Wait till I get a formal offer letter from the first campus and then let them know I need more time?</p>
<p>What is the wisest and the ethical course of action?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42540,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You're not under any contractual obligation (and don't have any legal recourse if the college were to withdraw the offer!) until you've gotten a written offer (which will normally have a deadline by which you must respond) and returned it with your signature. It's in your interest to continue pursuing other opportunities until the first institution has come through with a complete written offer and you've accepted it. </p>\n\n<p>I would contact the second campus, explain that you would prefer to work there if you got an offer, but that you've already got an offer in hand (and what the deadline on that offer is, if you've been given one.) You need to know how rapidly the second campus will be able to conduct their interview and make an offer. If they couldn't possibly make an offer to you before the deadline on the first offer, then I would decline to interview and just take the first position. If it is possible for them to move quickly, then I'd suggest that you go ahead and interview. </p>\n\n<p>There is a risk here- if the first institution finds out that you're interviewing elsewhere, they might decide to withdraw their offer. The only way to avoid this risk entirely is to turn down the second interview. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42563,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a tricky situation. The college won't take your oral acceptance as seriously as a written acceptance, but they may still take it seriously enough to screw things up for them and/or other candidates. For example, their second favorite candidate may be sitting on another offer while waiting to hear from this college. Your oral acceptance may lead them to tell this candidate that it's not worth really pushing to extend the deadline for the other offer.</p>\n\n<p>For this reason, you shouldn't accept an offer, even just orally, unless you are really certain and committed. It's also not in your own interests to accept before all possible negotiations are finished, since your bargaining power decreases dramatically upon acceptance.</p>\n\n<p>Given that you already accepted over the phone, the big question is how seriously they took it. If you had an elaborate discussion premised on the fact that you are joining them next year, then you really need to deal with this if you intend to keep interviewing elsewhere. For example, you could write something like \"Thank you again for the offer, which I'm very excited by. I'm afraid that in my enthusiasm, I let the discussion of joining you next year get a little bit ahead of itself, and of course I'll have to discuss the details of the written offer with you before I officially reply.\" This is definitely awkward, but I don't think there's any non-awkward way of essentially retracting an oral acceptance. (Especially because you don't want to retract it so thoroughly that they lose interest and withdraw the offer.)</p>\n\n<p>If your oral acceptance was more of a passing comment, without any involved discussion or evidence that they took it seriously, then it's a little less awkward. You could just write \"Thank you again for the offer, which I'm very excited by. I'm looking forward to receiving the details. What is the deadline for my decision?\" That would make it clear that you didn't consider the phone conversation a real decision. But this approach doesn't even acknowledge that your oral acceptance could be an issue, which is really awkward if they did take it seriously, so you should be careful.</p>\n\n<p>Either way, clarity and honesty are the key principles. You don't want them to be taken aback or feel used if you keep interviewing or accept another offer instead.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Wait till I get a formal offer letter from the first campus and then let them know I need more time?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I'd recommend letting them know earlier than that, to minimize the chances that they will make any decisions based on your oral acceptance.</p>\n\n<p>There's a risk that they could be offended and call the whole thing off, but I think this risk should be small if you handle it smoothly, and they could withdraw a written offer too (so getting it in writing won't protect you).</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42539",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32381/"
] |
42,546 |
<p>I've had a promising Skype interview with a great professor from a top-level university in US. Our research interests are closely related and he encouraged me to apply BUT he says that all decisions are finally made by admission committee there.</p>
<p>The question is "Is a professor in such a high-level university able to affect admission committee if he really wants a student?" or "Does admission committee decision-making process become easier if a professor really wants an applicant?"</p>
<p>The main point is the difference between my transcript (which is a real catastrophe!) and my research background which is pretty good so the professor's decision might be different from admission committee. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42547,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The conventions for how graduate admissions decisions take place vary greatly from field to field. In some fields where graduate students do apply to a broad program rather than to work in a particular lab, individual faculty may have relatively small influence on the decisions of the admissions committee. The admissions committee in these cases may simply look for the students with the most promising records. In other fields, where graduate students apply to work in a particular lab, admissions committees are often aiming to recruit students whose research interests are well matched to those of faculty members in the department. In these cases, the faculty member in question often has a great deal of influence. </p>\n\n<p>Of course, there is also variation from university to university even within the same discipline, though this may not be as great as the between-discipline variation. </p>\n\n<p>All of that said, individual faculty may be limited in their ability to get a student admitted for any number of reasons. Often a PhD program has number of slots but a large number of faculty looking to recruit students. In these cases, support of a faculty member may be necessary but not sufficient for admission. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42552,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Being on the graduate committee of my department, if a professor sends us a note that they'd like to have a student admitted and state that they will take on their adviser role, we will only not admit that student if there are any red flags in the file. Most other considerations (including GPA) are not all that important any more at that point.</p>\n\n<p>The reason for this is that what you get to see about a student from their application file is really just a very inexact science. You get transcripts that don't say very much about the standards in each of the classes a student took, letters of recommendation that sound the same for almost all students, and statements of purpose that most of the time are pretty generic as well. In my assessment of files, GRE scores and the statement of purpose often carry most of the weight, but I am fully aware of the fact that GRE scores poorly correlate with success in graduate programs. In other words, if I can get a personal opinion from one of my colleagues stating that they're excited to work with a student, then that is worth a whole lot and it will carry the day unless there are obvious reasons in the file of a student to reject the application.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42555,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As others have said, the specifics of the situation will vary from field to field and from one university to another.</p>\n\n<p>At one of my graduate schools, applicants to the department selected an advisor and their applications where read exclusively the potential advisor who had complete control.</p>\n\n<p>In my current department, decisions are made entirely by the graduate admission committee but these decisions will <em>always</em> involve asking faculty about their preferences. Of course, if I want a student and am likely to work with them, I can email my colleagues on the committee and attempt to influence the decision. This influence is real and can help at every stage of the process but there may be situations where it simply not enough to overcome departmental or funding limitations or other major red flags in a student's application. This influence can also vary by context within a department! For example, if I am able to fund a student entirely from a grant or other external funds, my influence is stronger.</p>\n\n<p>So: <strong>Yes, professors can affect an admission committee's decisions if he really wants a student?</strong> and, <strong>yes, the admission committee's decision-making process is easier if a professor really wants an applicant</strong> This influence has limits and it does not mean you're in, but it is real.</p>\n\n<p>Because the situation depends so much by context, you should trust the professor you're talking to give you a good sense of how much influence they have. It sounds like they believe it is largely out of his or her control. On the one hand, they may be trying to manage expectations for you, but it likely also reflects a real limitation in their ability to affect the outcome.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42611,
"author": "D.W.",
"author_id": 705,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/705",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Others are providing a reasonable answer to the question you asked (how does admissions work?), but I wonder if the question you meant to ask is \"How should I interpret that professor's comment? Does this mean I'm very likely to be admitted?\"</p>\n\n<p>I'll help you interpret the professor's comment. The answer is... it's very hard to read anything into that comment. It could mean anything from \"That professor is very excited about working with you and plans to advocate for your admitted (so you're likely to be admitted) but he wants you to know he can't make any guarantees\" to \"The professor feels that you are within the plausible range of someone who might be seriously considered for admission, so he is encouraging you to apply\" to \"The professor suspects admission might not be a slam-dunk or might be a long shot, but for politeness or other reasons doesn't want to come out and say that, so he is giving a veiled warning by noting that the admissions committee makes all decisions\" to \"The professor has no interest in working with you or advocating for your acceptance but there's no harm in encouraging you to apply\", or anything in between.</p>\n\n<p>The bottom line is that if you are interested in studying at that school, I definitely recommend that you apply. The one sure way to guarantee that you won't be admitted, is to not apply. So, do apply.</p>\n\n<p>But don't read too much into the professor's comments. You should not interpret this as a statement about your chances of admission. Actually, at this point you shouldn't really speculate about your chances of admission -- it's not very constructive. If it's not going to change anything you do, it's not worth worrying about. And there are many factors that go into this that you can't predict.</p>\n\n<p>The procedures followed by the admissions committee don't really change my remarks above. Yes, in many fields, if the professor wants to advocate for your acceptance, the admissions committee will probably go along with that (barring any serious red flags). But even admissions works that way at that school, this doesn't mean that the professor is necessarily going to advocate for your acceptance. All he said is that he encourages you to apply -- a generic statement that many professors will routinely make to anyone who expresses interest, and certainly not a promise that he is going to advocate for your acceptance.</p>\n\n<p>Bottom line: Again, there's not much point to speculating about how likely you are to be admitted. It's unlikely anyone can give you an answer to that without much more detailed information -- and it's not a useful or constructive thing to worry about. There are so many considerations that can affect whether you are admitted, which don't necessarily have anything to do with you. My advice is, apply to a reasonable set of places that you would love to study at and you have a reasonable chance to be admitted to, and then just wait and see what happens. Don't get yourself too caught up in speculating what might or might not happen.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42546",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32385/"
] |
42,548 |
<p>On behalf of my advisor, I recently wrote a grant to obtain some specialized and expensive hardware. Is it ok to mention this on my CV, even though the grant is in my advisor's name and if yes, what would be a good way to word it ?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42550,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I wouldn't put this on a CV, but it is something that you should bring up during an interview as an example of your experience with the grant writing process. </p>\n\n<p>To elaborate on this:</p>\n\n<p>An individual is either a PI/Co-PI on a grant or they aren't. Some readers might read your CV and think that you're claiming undue credit. </p>\n\n<p>In recent months I've interviewed many candidates for a faculty position. Some of them had helped to write grant proposals in this way (and we would discuss this in an interview), but they didn't put those grants on their CV. Other candidates had submitted proposals as a PI/Co-PI, and they appropriately included this information on their CV's along with whether or not the grant was pending or had actually been funded. Listing proposals that were not funded is not something that I've seen on CV's that I've reviewed. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42551,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You can list on your CV whatever you think is useful information for the reader. In your case, whether something is useful depends on what your position in life is. If you're a full professor with a long history of funded research, what you describe is likely not useful to list on a CV. If you're a graduate student with an otherwise relatively short CV, then that's a different story. I would suggest wording such as </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Co-authored the proposal for grant XY-1234-5678 (PI: Professor Z).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Now, whether an entry such as this has any impact is a different issue, but it is certainly not going to hurt.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42556,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>I would list all relevant grant activity on your CV.</strong> Grant activity is something that many departments consider when considered people for academic appointments and it's often missing or hard to see.</p>\n\n<p>It is completely normal for graduate students to apply for grants with their advisors listed as PIs. Be honest about your role and about your advisors leadership role (I like <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/42551/5962\">Wolfgan Bangerth's suggestion for wording</a>) but do go ahead and include it.</p>\n\n<p>Bangerth is right that this kind of thing will be less useful for individuals further on in their career but I think it should still be included because it is relevant and it makes your CV a more complete record of your academic activity.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42548",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27265/"
] |
42,553 |
<p>My supervisor gave me some guidance in order to complete my Masters thesis and to publish the result in a journal. His idea to develop the work is not correct and in this case I know my thesis better than him.</p>
<p>How do I tell him his idea is not correct?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42554,
"author": "gnometorule",
"author_id": 4384,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4384",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Discuss your concerns with him obviously, in a courteous way, and in person. There are two possible outcomes: either you are right and they'll be grateful to learn early on; or there is potential that you don't see, but your adviser correctly identifies. My hunch is that if your adviser genuinely thinks that what you are working on merits publication once fully fleshed out, they are probably right. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42557,
"author": "mako",
"author_id": 5962,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5962",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The answer can only be <strong>politely, respectfully, humbly, and open to the idea that it is you, in fact, that is wrong</strong>. There might be something you don't understand and which your advisor can correct. Or maybe your advisor really is wrong. These kinds of academic conversations can be difficult but they are part of the most exciting parts about doing science and some of the best opportunities to learn.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42558,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The safest approach is always to make it a question about you rather than about them. \"I'm confused. You said... but I had previously read/been told/seen ... instead. The two seem to conflict; can you help me understand what I'm missing, or what that other reference was missing?\"</p>\n\n<p>They may be able to show that there isn't actually a conflict. They may be be able to show that you misunderstood something, or that the other reference was outdated, incomplete, doesn't apply in this situation, is an alternative theory that they disagree with because.., ... Or they may say \"oops, you're right.\" </p>\n\n<p>By not accusing them, you avoid embarrassing yourself if they were right, give them space to correct themselves gracefully if they were wrong, and maximize your own opportunities to learn.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42560,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>At the end of the day, science is not about people. The universe is what it is, regardless of what we think of it, and science is simply our means of discovering these facts.</p>\n\n<p>If your supervisor really <em>is</em> wrong, this must result in something which has evidence that can be observed. Moreover, <em>you</em> must have seen evidence that convinces you to have a different opinion from your supervisor. Leave the personalities out, and get at the evidence. If your supervisor is actually <em>wrong</em> there must be evidence that can be examined clearly and impersonally. If you are merely convinced to place your bets differently than your supervisor, then it is only a difference of opinion until the evidence can be gathered.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42561,
"author": "Cameron Williams",
"author_id": 7796,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7796",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I had some serious qualms about this when I started out research in undergrad. My advisor had some pretty mistaken notions about the topic we were pursuing at the time. He is a very approachable and understanding guy but I was still a bit hesitant to say anything. After all, he was the established expert and I was the lowly undergrad. How I approached it was along the lines of: \"I'm not sure if I'm doing this correctly but would you mind checking my work? Maybe you can explain what I'm doing wrong.\"</p>\n\n<p>You don't want to challenge or outright claim your advisor is wrong. You wouldn't do this to a friend¹ and you really shouldn't do it to an advisor - it's a good way to ruin your professional relationship. If you're right, you've come off as very arrogant and create some animosity between you and your advisor; if you're wrong, you've let your arrogance get the better of you and killed your credibility.</p>\n\n<p>Professors are human and they can be mistaken more often than you'd think. You're going to run into this a lot more than you might have thought. After a while, you can start to be more upfront and honest after you've established plenty of rapport, but early on it is a bad idea.</p>\n\n<p>¹ I've done this and nearly ended a friendship with a very good friend because my arrogance got the better of me.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42568,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I had a lot of such discussions with my supervisor. He knows the field much better than me, so I never thought he was mistaken on specific facts. Instead, most of our disagreements were on what the next steps would be.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>S: Maybe you can improve the second step using [algorithm].</p>\n<p>D: No, that is not going to work because [...the data is too complex...].</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This usually started an engaging discussion on the details of the data, alternative algorithms, and ways to circumvent it altogether. For this to work, you have to listen carefully to what he says, have an open mind and learning attitude, be polite, and of course, keep the discussion on a purely scientific level. Your arguments should be supported by evidence, and it should be clear how strongly supported they are.</p>\n<p>Also, I think you should indicate how convinced you are when you phrase it. This way you give a true idea of how confident you are, and how much thought should they put into your idea. Furthermore, if you confidently assert something that is factually wrong (and this doesn't happen too often), you get a better chance of getting a detailed and enlightening lecture on why it is wrong.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42590,
"author": "Count Iblis",
"author_id": 17479,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17479",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you understand the core of the problem well enough, and discussions with the supervisor were not successful, then you should take your time to write down the argument you want to make in pretty much the same style as you would write down a scientific article. You then ask your supervisor to consider what you have written down, he'll then have to read this when he has the time for that.</p>\n\n<p>It may be that he'll try to do that during a meeting, or he may take quick look and then decide that he has to study it in detail and come back with his thoughts later. Either way, he is then forced to read what you wrote and then ask you to clarify it point by point wherever he has objections to the way your argument proceeds. What matters is then that the conversation will be driven by your line of thoughts and not by his ideas. In a typical supervising session this may well be the other way around, preventing him from getting your point.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42799,
"author": "Lakshman",
"author_id": 32582,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32582",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Considering this is your thesis work and that the supervisor is counted as an asset(in most cases), do try and let him/her know about your ideas. Do question the ideas on why he/she has mentioned their ideas and why your idea could be more suited to this particular application.</p>\n\n<p>If it were me, I would do this:</p>\n\n<p>\"Sir/madam, you had mentioned these points on how to go about the thesis and had given me some great ideas, thanks! However, could you please tell me if this approach of mine would hold good in this application? I did draw a parallel between both our methods of implementation and I felt approach X could be done in this way since (reason1,reason2 etc). Please give me your opinion on this since it will improve my understanding a lot more. </p>\n\n<p>PS: I am personally of the idea that one must not come off as too arrogant or revert back with off the cuff remarks considering this is something I consider very professional in nature. So there is no proving one another wrong, rather, work together to reach a better understanding. As someone said earlier, no matter if one is an expert or a student, we are all work in progress.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 117125,
"author": "duHaas",
"author_id": 11811,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11811",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would like to uplift answers above that advise the gentle <strong>It's not you its me</strong> approach. I've done both the <strong>I'm right you're wrong</strong> and the former approach. Both have worked. But when I'm wrong with the latter approach I end up being more embarrassed, humiliated, and anxious about continuing my work. It has left me feeling that my advisors trust my work less and are less open to me pointing out errors. </p>\n\n<p>In the end science <strong>IS</strong> about about people: <strong>egos, personalities, personal beliefs, and competition</strong> whether implicit or explicit to the process. Understanding how to navigate these social biases and situations per person, and at a systemic level, is important for not only being able to work well with other people but more importantly achieving the poster's original goal: furthering their MS work and their science they are researching.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42553",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19761/"
] |
42,569 |
<p>I am PhD student and I had submitted my manuscript by email (the journal has not online submission system) to one ISI journal in November 2014. After one month I asked about the status of my paper but they said that they have not received any paper. Then again they want me to try for submission.</p>
<p>However, before submission I asked the editor to announce the approximate time of publishing the paper if it is accepted. He said that they can not publish earlier than December 2015. Because I am in a hurry to publish may paper, I said them I will submit my paper to another journal. After that the editor promised me that it will be published in Issue 2 of 2015 and told me that it is accepted now. I trusted him and I submitted my manuscript to the journal.</p>
<p>Now after two months I asked about the paper’s status but unfortunately the editor said that my manuscript will be published at the end of 2015. I am very angry about this decision and I asked the journal to reject my paper urgently to let me be free to try for another journal. But editor doesn’t answer my mail.</p>
<p>I want now to know what are my rights now. Can the journal not answer my request? And can the journal publish pay paper without my agreement? I don’t want my paper be published in this journal. Can I submit to another journal?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42570,
"author": "Sandrina",
"author_id": 32400,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32400",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>That journal really doesn't sound reliable. The main principle when submitting to journal is to confirm that the article is not under review by somebody else, so I am afraid that if you don't receive a final confirmation that they rejected the paper, it is better not to send it elsewhere. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42571,
"author": "Wrzlprmft",
"author_id": 7734,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Most, if not all regular journals allow you retract submissions at any time before publication, in which case you do not need to wait for the journal to reject your paper and a simple email that you retract your paper should suffice (even if they do not reply to it – make sure that you have proof that you sent that mail though). The details of this will be listed in the journal’s transfer-of-copyright agreement (or similar), to which you probably agreed at some point. If you did not agree to one, the journal cannot legally publish your article anyway.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, there are some aspects of your story that indicate that the journal in question is not regular, but a <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/17379/7734\">predatory or otherwise shady publisher</a>, in particular:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>[…], I said them I will submit my paper to another journal. After that the editor […] told me that it is accepted now.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No reputable journal accepts papers just like that. I strongly advise you to make sure that you correctly understood this communication and also to check whether the journal is predatory. You may find relevant questions on this issue here under <a href=\"/questions/tagged/disreputable-publishers\" class=\"post-tag\" title=\"show questions tagged 'disreputable-publishers'\" rel=\"tag\">disreputable-publishers</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Finally , some sidenotes regarding your situation:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Depending on your field, one year from submission to publication may be the norm.</li>\n<li>Many journals publish papers online months or even years before they are published in print. In most cases, an online publication (or even an acceptance) should suffice for your needs.</li>\n<li>As already mentioned, it’s very unusual ask a journal to reject a paper. Rejecting or accepting a paper reflects the journal’s opinion (usually assessed with the help of peer-reviewers) on your paper. Asking a journal to reject your paper is somewhat like asking somebody to dislike the colour green. Instead, you <em>retract</em> papers from journals.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42609,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The journal mentioned in the comments below the original question is published by Springer, which oftentimes guarantees some kind of quality. At the same time, the editor in chief and <em>all members of the editorial board</em> are from Ukraine -- a country small enough to make it questionable that they can have a sufficient number of internationally relevant researchers in a field like this.</p>\n\n<p>In other words, it is a journal operated by a small group of people who are so close to each other geographically and organizationally that they cannot provide meaningful quality control and oversight over each other. This is, for example, visible in the fact that a large majority of the papers in the journal are by Ukrainian researchers. I'm not saying that these papers are bad, but it is certainly indicative that others from abroad do not want to publish in this journal. The behavior of the editor -- accepting your paper without any indication of review -- also does not install confidence.</p>\n\n<p>So, you may be better off retracting your paper if you think you can get it published elsewhere. You should be able to do so by contacting Springer staff if you can't get to the editors.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42569",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32399/"
] |
42,573 |
<p>Is there a problem to change (reduce) list of authors of a paper after it has been submitted to a journal? I am one of the (ten) co-authors of this paper. After the review and changes we made in the paper, one of the coauthors withdrew as a co-author of this paper. </p>
<p>Is this OK? What is the procedure in such cases?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42574,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>What to do depends first on the reasons for the author withdrawing:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>If the person performed critical work, and the others cannot stand behind the full paper without them (e.g., the person actually gathered the data on which the paper is based), then the paper must be withdrawn and modified accordingly.</p></li>\n<li><p>If, on the other hand, the rest of the authors can and do stand behind the remainder of the paper, then the paper can simply go forward with that author removed.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Different journals have different procedures for removing an author, depending on their submission and manuscript management system. With some, the authors can edit the data themselves, with others, you need to do it through the editors. In either case, an explanation of the withdrawal should be sent to the editors, so that they know why the change and can decide whether it affects their judgement of the paper.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42576,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It’s definitely weird, and a clear indication that something is going on with a paper. Basically, I can see two cases were this could happen, and both are not exactly great signs for the quality of a submission:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The removed author was just a “courtesy author” without any real impact on the work. (S)he wanted to tag along at first, but now when people started to nag her/him to do real work, (s)he is rather out. In this case, it is ethically entirely okay to proceed without the additional author, but one wonders why the courtesy author was on the paper in the first place. While this does not say something about the quality of the paper <em>per se</em>, it leaves a certain sour taste in the mouth with regards to the ethics of the rest of the authors.</li>\n<li>The removed author was a “real” author in the sense that (s)he actually contributed to the work, but now feels that the submission is either so bad that (s)he does not want to be associated with it, or that the results are in fact wrong or unethically generated (e.g., because the co-author assumes that all or part of the work of somebody else was fabricated or is otherwise inaccurate). I think I do not have to explain why this would be a very bad sign for the quality of a submission.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>What I would suggest in terms of procedure is <strong>full disclosure</strong>. Don’t just silently remove the author — in this case, the thoughts of the editor are very likely to wander to the two cases above, and this will make him look <em>very</em> carefully at your submission. Explain exactly what happened, and make sure to explain how it has nothing to do with the quality of the submission. If you can’t do that (e.g., because the co-author actually withdrew because (s)he thinks your results are wrong), it is simply better for everybody to withdraw.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42577,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Changes in number of authors is not uncommon. There are many reasons for it, not by far only because of problems. </p>\n\n<p>If you submit a manuscript to a journal and you need to have the authorship list changed (not just re-arranged), the easiest way is to wait until the reviews have come back and you, hopefully, are in a situation to make revisions. You then change the authorship list and provide the editor with a clear explanation of why the list has been changed.</p>\n\n<p>It is of course common sense to send an e-mail to the editor as soon as possible and provide the information on changes and reasons why. The editor can then act as she or he sees fit. It could involve providing the reviewers with the information or not take any action at all, but at least you have been up-front with the information.</p>\n\n<p>Remember that when you submit a manuscript there is commonly agreements in place that concerns all authors so providing the journal with changes in authors can be important to the journal. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42631,
"author": "Kakoli Majumder",
"author_id": 9920,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9920",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It should be okay to change the list of co-authors as long as you inform the Editor why you are doing so. In most cases, <a href=\"http://www.editage.com/insights/who-can-be-included-as-a-co-author-of-a-paper\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">a change in the author list would definitely be noticed by the editor</a> and he/she would probably write to you asking the reason (disclosure: I am employed by <a href=\"http://www.editage.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">editage.com</a>). Thus it is best to disclose the reason for the change at the outset.</p>\n\n<p>You might find <a href=\"http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">the ICMJE guidelines on authorship criteria</a> useful. The guidelines also state that if someone has contributed to the work, but has not fulfilled all of the four criteria mentioned, he/she should be acknowledged. In case your co-author has withdrawn because a section of the paper was later dropped, you could consider including his/her name in the acknowledgments section. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42573",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32404/"
] |
42,581 |
<p>Is it okay to contact potential advisor if you have no specific topic in mind about your dissertation? I wanted to pursue graphics for masters, its a bit difficult narrowing it down. Is it okay to ask them for a specific topic?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42706,
"author": "Debora Weber-Wulff",
"author_id": 32489,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32489",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm a professor in Germany and I throw any master's students out who come asking me for a topic. It needs to be a question they want answered or some computing question they want to explore. Bachelor's I do a bit of hand-holding on. </p>\n\n<p>You should research the interests of the professor and see if he or she is likely to be interested in your question. And do check if the professor is male or female before writing your letter. All emails addressing me as <em>Herr Professor</em> get piped to /dev/null.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42729,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my experience, you don't need to have a specific topic yet. I think a good way to approach it would be to talk about some paper or papers this person wrote that got you really excited about his/her group. You can also talk about some project that you did that you really liked. In this letter, you want to give the person a bit of a chance to get to know you. I think a good length would be no more than two-thirds of a page in MS Word. You could think of this as a cover letter when sending a CV to apply for a job.</p>\n\n<p>Finding the topic is probably going to involve a lot of work on your part, but you can use your advisor as a sounding board, and your advisor can suggest some things to read.</p>\n\n<p>Try to attend lots of seminars. They can be quite stimulating.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42581",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32405/"
] |
42,588 |
<p>Note: I saw this <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/14063/while-contacting-professors-should-we-mention-if-we-have-contacted-some-other-fa">link</a>, however I'm hoping to get wider range of opinions to help me make my decisions.</p>
<p>Problem statement: I sent an enquiry email to professor A of faculty X at university Y. Today, I saw another PhD offer posted on the web for another PhD position with professor B of same faculty X at same university Y. </p>
<p>Questions: Is it ethical to send enquiry email to professor B? Should I mention that I've sent an enquiry email to professor A earlier?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42591,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Yes, it's ethical. Everyone applies to multiple positions. Everyone knows this. At least this is my impression from the US. You don't say which country, so it's unclear who might be funding your position if you're eventually accepted. It's also unclear if you apply to the university, department, or professor directly. This might have some slight influence on whether you tell A and B about your cross applications. If they are going to be meeting together in committee to decide about applications, it might be better if everyone knows that you've applied to work with two different professors but really only once to the university. If each professor has sole discretion as to whom they hire, and only they see the application, then it probably doesn't matter. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42592,
"author": "idomeneus",
"author_id": 32412,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32412",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Ethical and reasonable might be, but smart it is not. You will come across as someone who is \"fishing\" for an angle, rather than someone who is focused and understands the priorities of the department...</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 43453,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>At my university you can only apply to two programs at the same time using the same application if they have a joint program already in place.</p>\n\n<p>Otherwise, it is physically impossible. You can only file only one application to the university in any given year.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42588",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28811/"
] |
42,594 |
<p>Is it generally accepted in academia, that a PhD supervisor should have a PhD in the same research area as the student's PhD research area?</p>
<p>For example, let's assume that my research area is the ACM subject area "Information Systems" and the supervisor's research area is in Sociology > Psychology. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42596,
"author": "Maarten van Wesel",
"author_id": 32146,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32146",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It would be impossible for all PhD supervisors to have a PhD in the same field as the PhD candidate is studding. If this would be the case there would never be PhDs awarded in new fields.</p>\n\n<p>However, your supervisor should have a track record within the field. (S)he should have studied it and should have published in the field. </p>\n\n<p>Sociology is a very broad field, and there are surely sociologist who have extensive knowledge about information systems and who have published about it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42597,
"author": "Maarten Buis",
"author_id": 14471,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14471",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A supervisor needs to be able to coach you through your research and your entry into academia. This typically requires that she knows something of the field. She needs to know the important conferences to go, introduce you to the important people, have a realistic idea which journals are a realistic outlet for your papers, etc. etc. etc. This knowledge does not necessarily come from her PhD education, she may have specialised later into your field. The problem is not going to be your committee complaining, but you not getting the right couching and thus making wrong (career) decisions. </p>\n\n<p>So I would say that it is necessary that your supervisor is embedded in your field, but not necessarily through her PhD, and this necessity is unlikely to be enforced by your committee. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42598,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It doesn't matter what the supervisor's Ph.D. was in, originally: fields are protean and careers take all sorts of strange paths. What really matters is whether the supervisor's knowledge is sufficient to supervise the research that the student will be conducting. That depends on the path of their career, the precise focus of the student's research, etc.</p>\n\n<p>My advisor, for example, had a Ph.D. in mathematics (since computer science didn't really exist as a separate field yet), but has worked in artificial intelligence, electrical engineering, physics, VLSI, biological modeling, and astronomy, and would be quite appropriate to supervise students in projects in any of those fields, if their focus and his background had sufficient overlap. Likewise, my background in artificial intelligence was no barrier to supervising a biology Ph.D. (which I have done), given the path of my own research over time.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42594",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26573/"
] |
42,606 |
<p>I am an international grad student in the US. I would like to quit the PhD program(mathematics) in where I spent 2 years without "any degree" for some reasons. I am in the status prior to the research. If I want to apply for another PhD in other universities, will leaving the fact that I dropped a PhD program without a degree off make serious problems? Does it make some legal, ethical, moral trouble in the academia?</p>
<p>Lastly I just wonder whether, if I am admitted to another grad-school, the department will track or check my previous academic record by inquiry VISA status, SSN, or the other ways.</p>
<p>According to the FERPA(Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act) act, can I control my educational records myself? I asked about this to some schools, they said, even if it's true, the school can also have the right to require the student's educational record in the case of application to the school.</p>
<p>If I got a degree in a school, I also think I should put the fact in the application.
But should I write my all post undergraduate record in my PhD application even if I didn't get any degree and just quit?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42607,
"author": "fkraiem",
"author_id": 12864,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12864",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Most (all?) universities in the US require that you mention all the schools you <em>attended</em> on your application, regardless of whether you obtained a degree from them. Omitting any school is a violation of the rules and, if discovered, could be grounds for rescinding a potential admission offer, even long after it has been granted.</p>\n\n<p>In other countries, it varies.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42617,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's not a big deal. If they ask you why you want to change schools (programs), just say the other program wasn't a good fit, and then enthuse about the program you want to enroll in. No matter how bad things were there, resist the temptation to say anything that might display bitterness. It's okay to sound critical, as long as you don't project an image of someone who doesn't like to collaborate.</p>\n\n<p>Unless your grades are embarrassing, you should submit a transcript from the institution where you studied for two years. Those two years of study make you a stronger candidate!</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42606",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
42,615 |
<p>I have done my bachelors and currently doing masters in pure mathematics. I have done four physics courses during bachelors degree which also includes special relativity. What is the possibility that I may prosper in theoretical physics and earn a PhD in any branch of mathematical physics?</p>
<p>Also, I am going to take the GRE this year but I am little bit confused about choosing subject in subject GRE since scoring in maths is much easier than scoring in physics (if later its possible to change departments then of course I'll choose maths). Any suggestion regarding that is also welcome. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42620,
"author": "tod",
"author_id": 14747,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14747",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First of all, please remember that PhD is not about learning; learning about many different areas/fields/subjects. More specifically, it is not about increasing you knowledge in breadth, i.e., you know Mathematics, you can now learn about physics, then you can learn about computer science and so on.</p>\n\n<p>PhD is about training in research. </p>\n\n<p>Ask your self this question: </p>\n\n<p>How can I contribute to this area (may be theoretical physics or any) in this particular topic by utilizing the knowledge I already have (say, acquired during bachelors and masters) in this specific field (say, in pure mathematics)?</p>\n\n<p>Once you get the answer to this question (it should be in the form of a nice research proposal) you will definitely be able to do your PhD in that area, which you would select and do homework for.</p>\n\n<p>2nd part:</p>\n\n<p>It really depends upon the institute and the department you are targeting to: <strong>what actually is the requirement there?</strong> And remember, some might not need GRE subject at all.</p>\n\n<p>So, please make a list of the institutes/departments based upon your interests/priorities and mention their requirements. Then you would be in a better position to decide which one should you go for. Maybe, only because it is unavoidable or simply you can perform better in that.</p>\n\n<p>I would suggest you to have a profound focus upon the first part. Chances are that you might end up targeting a Mathematics department only, still being able to contribute in physics. Even, otherwise would give you a clear vision of what should you do and what you don't.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42623,
"author": "Alireza",
"author_id": 28811,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28811",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My understanding of your question is that you want to pursue your PhD in an interdisciplinary field (including both math and physics fields).</p>\n\n<p>It is not uncommon to do such a thing... However, doing PhD level research is different than taking bachelor level courses in that field. Taking those bachelor courses familiarizes you with the basics and fundamentals but that's the beginning of the way to the state of the art knowledge you'll be working with during your PhD.</p>\n\n<p>However, if I'm wrong about my hypothesis and you're changing your field entirely then that's a different thing which requires careful consideration of your interests and circumstances.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42615",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32430/"
] |
42,624 |
<p>When I have to use Microsoft Word for writing a paper, I tend to export most my graphs and charts into the PNG image format since I find it the most convenient due to its smaller size (than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagged_Image_File_Format" rel="nofollow noreferrer">TIFF</a>) and higher quality (than <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JPEG" rel="nofollow noreferrer">JPEG</a>).</p>
<p>However, when I wanted to submit papers for conferences, none of them (three in total) listed PNG as an acceptable format for figures. Two of them requested all figures in either JPEG or TIFF formats, and the other asked for (direct quote):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Use the following standard image formats: BMP, JPG, JPEG, TIF, WMF, or EPS.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Is there something inherently wrong with PNG figures for representing scientific data that I'm not aware of? Should I quit using it for everything?</p>
<p>I do understand the advantage of vector graphics. I use PDF to store the originals, which I then convert to PNG for use in Microsoft Word. As suggested in <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/42628/19853">Peter's answer</a>, I've sent an email to the support address for that journal to ask for more information.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42626,
"author": "Pieter Naaijkens",
"author_id": 22,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't think there is anything wrong with PNG that makes it unsuitable, but it may be the case that the publisher's processing software does not support PNG files (or they never bothered to update their author's instructions). To avoid extra work it is usually best to stick to the publisher's instructions and submit using formats they recommend. I would recommend using whatever format you prefer internally to store high quality images, and only convert at the time of submission. Avoid converting as much as possible, since this will lead to quality degradation (for lossy formats, at least).</p>\n\n<p>That being said, if possible you should try to use vector-based images (which EPS usually is) since they allow for higher quality scaling. For photos and the like the other formats are more suitable, so using vector images may not always be possible.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42628,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Running a journal with Wiley as a publisher, Wiley's instructions state JPEG, TIFF and EPS are acceptable formats. Since many authors supply figures in PDF and PNG I started to pass these on to the type-setter and found that no issues erupted. It is therefore clear that publishers may lag behind with their recommendations while type-setters are quicker to adapt to \"new\" formats. I imagine the lag is possibly a lack of interest to update what works, but can also be because they work with many type-setters and printers and wish to maintain a largest common set of files that they know all can accept rather than having to constantly adapt to individual services' capabilities. I am fully aware that this thinking is a bit arcane and that any type-setter/printer that cannot handle almost everything has very little potential for survival in today's competitive world.</p>\n\n<p>Anyway. I would suggest asking the journal if it is possible to use PNG in your case, or do as many authors have done in \"my\" journal, send them in anyway. It may, for example, be possible to send in a JPG and a PNG copy of the graphics asking them to use the PNG if possible. </p>\n\n<p>As a side point: PNG is in my opinion the best pixel format because of its strong loss-less compression except for photographs, something it was never intended for anyway. Using PNG graphics will keep down the size of final PDFs of the article which is a good goal to have. So in my case, I encourage authors to provide PNG even though Wiley does not.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42638,
"author": "user1850420",
"author_id": 32453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32453",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my experience PNG and Multilayered TIFF formats are constructed using layers which in rare cases in some software to cause some layers not be be displayed or appear even when the layer(s) have been switched to invisible. It is recommended to use flat formats (non-layered) such as JPEG or if sizing is necessary then use Vector or resize friendly format such as EPS. My experience has been down to providing PNG to a T-Shirt printing business, the layers I had made invisible but their software made all layers visible. End result looked awful. If you really must use PNG, make a backup then flatten PNG.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42650,
"author": "mbarete",
"author_id": 30650,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30650",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Is there a reason why you can't provide EPS files? Do you have original (for example .fig if you created the file in Matlab) files?</p>\n\n<p>It can be irritating to constantly re-make your figures, but EPS are recommended by almost everyone because they store vector data, not pixels, when generated from applications/filetypes that support vector graphics. This means that, despite having very low file size, someone can zoom in semi-infinitely on your fonts and graphs. This makes for good quality of figures for publication -- much better than JPG or PNG, which can end up looking pixelated, especially around the labels.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, there are times when you need an image -- like a photo of a lab setup -- and as other answers have mentioned, it's hard to tell whether the publisher can't process PNG files or just didn't update the instructions.</p>\n\n<p>As a final tip, I learned the hard way how helpful it can be to save original (ie .fig) files of all my figures. This lets me manipulate them very easily and export them from the native format into whichever other format I need. So if a collaborator asked me to send a Word doc with figures included, I could easily export to PNG and include, and then later export the exact same figure to EPS for the publisher. This will of course depend on the program you use, but I think it's a helpful idea to keep in mind.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42624",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19853/"
] |
42,627 |
<p>I will soon defend my PhD in social science in Sweden. I want to ask what questions the evaluation committee will ask me during the defense?
If they ask me some questions outside my thesis, what shall I do? Is it enough only know well my own research?
What quality I need to successfully defend my PhD?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42629,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Generally speaking, PhD defenses come in two flavors, and it is not possible to say a priori which one yours will fall into:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>A real thesis \"defense\" focuses on the thesis, and all questions will relate to the scope of the research work. In this case, knowing your own work and its context well enough should be sufficient, but it is of course possible that somebody asks you why you used method A rather than B. In this case, saying that you don't know B may not fly as an answer. However, you should not get a completely disconnected question just to test your general subject area knowledge.</li>\n<li>A \"Rigorosum\" (<a href=\"http://dict.leo.org/#/search=Rigorosum&searchLoc=0&resultOrder=basic&multiwordShowSingle=on\">dict.leo</a> translated this for me to \"doctoral viva\", no idea if this is a well-known term) is a general final exam for a doctoral candidate. Typically, this will also include questions about the disseration, but anybody in the exam commission is free to ask about other topics in the field as well. Typically, the questions are getting \"easier\" (more high-level) the farther they are away from the topic of the dissertation. The claim here is that a fresh PhD should have both, depth and breadth in her/his knowledge.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>There are a number of ways to figure out which class your defense will fall into:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Attend other defenses</strong>. Typically, PhD defenses are public, and it is highly recommended that any PhD candidate should visit a few before her/his own, to get to know the procedure and get a feel for what the defense talk is supposed to look like.</li>\n<li><strong>Ask your advisor</strong>. The advisor should obviously know what the requirements of the defense are, exactly.</li>\n<li><strong>Look it up in the programme description</strong>. Usually, the programme description will contain exam regulations for the defense, and this should describe the exam procedure and who is supposed to ask what kind of questions. This approach has two dangers: (1) you may misunderstand what the exam regulations are saying - as they are more legalese text, you may misunderstand the gist of it, and (2) the actual exam may happen differently than specified - there is no telling whether the exam regulation exactly captures the real spirit of the defense. Hence, you should really also talk to your advisor and/or attend other defenses as well.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42637,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some types of questions that often come up:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Questions about some detail of your work. The point of such questions is often not so much the correctness of this small part of your dissertation, but rather to get you to demonstrate your ability to explain what you've done. This also helps to balance out the presentation, which typically covered the whole thesis in much less detail. For example, in mathematics you might be asked to go over the proof of one of your theorems in detail. Since you've spent more time working on these details than any of the examiners, and assuming that the examiner hasn't spotted a substantial error, you should be in a good position to answer such a question. Don't panic and assume that you've made some huge mistake, but rather go through the material carefully and convince the examiner that you're correct. </p></li>\n<li><p>What are the broader implications of your work? This is actually a hard question for most students to answer because they've been so focused on the details of their thesis that they may not have taken time to see how it fits into the broader picture of progress in their discipline. This will also be an important question when you eventually interview for faculty positions. </p></li>\n<li><p>Can this method be applied to some other problem Y? You may be asked how the techniques used in your dissertation could be applied to a different problem. If the answer is that the technique doesn't extend in that direction, then you should be prepared to explain why not. </p></li>\n<li><p>Questions about what exactly is new in your work. You should have been extremely careful in writing your dissertation to properly cite earlier work and distinguish your new contributions from that earlier work. If this isn't clear to the examiners, you may be asked to clarify. </p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42641,
"author": "dsfgsho",
"author_id": 17804,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17804",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I attended about a dozen PhD defenses and recently defended my own PhD. Based on my (very limited) experiences, questions can be roughly categorized into two types:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Knowledge</strong>: the first set of questions or statements are usually to test your knowledge on your topic, the related work and whatever you have written down in your thesis and/or papers. If you have done all the work, these are mostly fairly easy to answer and are your way to demonstrate the awesome work you have done. These questions are to clarify, justify and frame your work related to others, in order to get a solid understanding of your contribution.\nExamples:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Can you explain what you mean with #concept you introduce#?</li>\n<li>Why did you categorize or describe #your concept# in this way?</li>\n<li>I believe #your topic# relates to #other guys theory# in such a way, which introduces an interesting contradiction. Can you comment or elaborate on this?</li>\n<li>What is the main limitation of your work, and how could you address it?</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p><strong>Reasoning</strong>: committee members may also ask provocative or even harsh questions to see how strong you believe in your work but also whether you can transcend your topic and reason on a higher level. These questions or statements can be directly related to your topic but can also be more general. These types of questions are usually given to see how well the candidate performs when put under pressure and when they are questioned about things beyond their thesis. These can be interpreted as \"nasty\" questions, but remember that you can turn the questions around to your advantage. Examples:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Why do you believe this is science? What is science?</li>\n<li>You spend #x# years researching this? Why did you choose the topic and why should we and the community care about it?</li>\n<li>I don't see the contribution in your work, can you explain?</li>\n<li>Why do you think you deserve a PhD?</li>\n<li>Why did you choose this specific application domain?</li>\n</ul></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Again, this is based on my personal limited experience, but it applied to my PhD defense as well.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42644,
"author": "WoJ",
"author_id": 15446,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15446",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You do not have much influence on the questions from the committee. If your PhD studies were more or less normal and you got that far, everyone wants you to succeed. They will not ask anything incredible (if they are relatively normal as well). </p>\n\n<p>As for the public questions, my experiences are :</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>the friends you gave questions to. You have to choose the ones who have good reflexes to jump up and down when time for public questions come. You also have to train the \"what a surprising question look\" </p></li>\n<li><p>the odd colleague who decided to ask a question about something related to your field, but far enough for you to have no idea. You sweat a lot, visualize him hanging on a tree and hope for the best. Best is to answer whatever you know on the subject and everyone acts happy. If he persists then you ask him what is his view on the subject so that he sits down ashamed mumbling \"I have no idea\" </p></li>\n<li><p>finally the 173 years old professor who absolutely wants you to discuss his article from 1952. You thank for the question and talk about the article from 2012 someone wrote on a related subject. </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Good luck. </p>\n\n<p>(events described above actually happened to me in the course of my 2 hours defence) </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42627",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32439/"
] |
42,630 |
<p>I'd like to know what percentage of PhD candidates in Computer Science does not graduate with a PhD and thus drops out of their PhD program. </p>
<p>This number probably varies quite a bit for different countries (e.g., in Continental Europe one usually has to have a Master's degree before being eligible to start with a PhD, while in the US one can "drop out" with a Master's degree) and possibly also for different sub-fields; I'm mostly interested about German speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and PhD candidates with a focus in Algorithms and/or Theory, but any answer "x% in this subfield in that country/at that university" are also welcome.</p>
<p>Background story:
Currently thinking hard whether I should go for a PhD in Algorithms at a German speaking university and not a 100% sure if it is the right thing for me. A professor (not the one I'd do the PhD with) urged me to at least give it a try and said that there is always the possibility to drop out if it isn't working out.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42632,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The <a href=\"http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/phd-completion-rates-2013/2006040.article\">Times Higher Education</a> looked at PhD completion rates in the UK. In the UK, PhD programs are nominally 3 years long, and the Times reported that, averaged across all fields, 70% of students obtain a PhD within 7 years. They predict that 80% of students who start a PhD in the UK will obtain one within 25 years. There are some data for <a href=\"http://web.mit.edu/ir/pop/students/doctoral_completions.html\">MIT students</a> which shows completion rates asymptote at around 80% after about 8-10 years. There is a fair amount of variability across fields in how quickly the asymptote is reached (e.g., the average PhD in Business is short compared to Medicine), but in all fields about 80% of students obtain a PhD. I was not able to find any numbers for German universities or CS specifically.</p>\n\n<p>These numbers, however, leave out the substantial number of students who stick out grad school because they do not want to \"fail\". While trying out grad school might sound good in theory, just make sure you are the type of person willing to drop out if it is not right for you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42634,
"author": "jaybers",
"author_id": 32448,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32448",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The completion percent will vary between universities.<br>\nFor USA, I can introduce you to the <a href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/\" rel=\"nofollow\">NCES ( National Center for Education Statistics)</a>. All univeristies are required to report information each year about the university students, faculty, salaries, demographics, degrees, retention, etc.</p>\n\n<p>There are many data tools within NCES. You might find the IPEDS tool <a href=\"https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/\" rel=\"nofollow\">(Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System)</a> most helpful for your question. It allows you to pick specific universities and examine data. \nI do not know if the countries you mention have similar data collection systems.</p>\n\n<p>Many students complete the course work but do not finish the degree. This is know as All But Dissertation (ABD). I don't know if you want to count these folks as they haven't officially dropped out. However they have not ( and several will not) complete their dissertation.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42630",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13427/"
] |
42,645 |
<p>I got my Ph.D. in math in the last year and am currently in the first year of a 3-year research-oriented postdoc at a large public American university. I am finding it harder and harder to focus on research, not necessarily because of teaching, but for various reasons which I don't think are relevant to the question, and I am beginning to think that I would like a career as a lecturer. I enjoy teaching quite a bit, and I think I'm fairly good at it. If, as I originally intended when I accepted the postdoc, I still planned to apply to research-oriented tenure-track positions, I know what I need to do to be prepared for that process (whether at a large research school or a smaller college which still requires research of its faculty, e.g. a tenure-track position with somewhat higher teaching emphasis). But it seems from looking at purely teaching postings on MathJobs that, for example, I will definitely need three letters of recommendation addressing my teaching. I honestly don't know how to go about finding people to write these letters (for the tenure-track career path I would expect to have to get one teaching-oriented letter). I have a teaching mentor who has observed me a couple terms who could presumably write one letter, but I don't know about the other two. Do chairs write teaching letters? I'm frankly a bit afraid to tell anyone at my institution that I'm not sure I want to do research anymore, since they hired me with a reduced teaching load to give me more time for research. I actually really like the place where I am, and think, at this point anyway, that I would like a lecturer position here, but as I'm currently doing a postdoc here, I have no idea how likely it would be to be hired as a lecturer (even with, let's say, an excellent teaching record). </p>
<p>Note that I'm talking about a lecturing position, where the only expectation would be teaching and possibly also service. I'm not talking about the tenure-track jobs with more teaching emphasis which still require some research output (although I guess it's possible, though by no means certain, that the research incidentally produced from my thesis could make me eligible to be hired for such a position). But I think that I really just want to focus on teaching (preferably at the university level). </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42649,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You're not in a bad position at all, since you've got secure employment for the next few years. Use this time to get as much teaching experience as possible. I would start by talking with your post-doc supervisor and your department chair and explaining that you would like to get some more teaching experience during your post-doc and ask whether it would be possible to arrange this with your department. </p>\n\n<p>It's typical in these cases for the department to pay some portion of your salary corresponding to your teaching in place of the grant that is supporting your post-doc. Your post-doc advisor will most likely be happy to have some of this money back to use for other purposes related to the grant. </p>\n\n<p>Having just conducted a faculty search, I can tell you that most of our applicants who were in post-docs had managed to teach some (maybe one or two courses per year) during the post-doc. Although our position required background in both teaching and research, that kind of teaching experience would clearly be of some help in applying for jobs with a mostly teaching focus at four year institutions as well as jobs where the requirement is for a mixture of teaching and research. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42651,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Not as a complete answer, but as information the questioner and others might find useful:</p>\n\n<p>At an R1 U.S. university, for example, it would be difficult for a postdoc to make a transition to a longer-term lecturer or even adjunct... if only because those positions are spoken-for, and quite competitive in a certain localized sense, which happens (in my observation here in Minneapolis) to not be entirely bad, insofar as there is tacit (which is bad) recognition (which is good) of seniority and experience and such things.</p>\n\n<p>A few faculty may be \"outraged\" that you \"betray\" the \"research Grail\" by deciding as you have, but you have to write that off. Most faculty will be very understanding that you've \"achieved clarity\", for whatever reason. They will also understand that you need to be able to document teaching and pedagogy and mentoring. NB, it's not just \"teaching\", but a larger thing, \"pedagogy\", and a somewhat-different thing, \"mentoring\". Senior-projects, participation in REUs, and similar, are relevant.</p>\n\n<p>And, somewhat nonsensically, an unfortunate fraction of the up-scale four-year colleges have created the concept that \"undergrads do research\", so you should be careful to not over-promote any potential disaffection with (actual?) research in your job apps. That is, the spin in those cases would have to be that you've had some epiphany about preaching to the masses about . You'll not want to play that stunt for serious undergrad teaching places, though, because they'll probably think you don't understand (the) reality. :)</p>\n\n<p>So, yes, actively discuss with your faculty there, and actively arrange to have people (faculty) have some acquaintance with the broader range of your activities. NB, \"not just teaching\", but pedagogy, mentoring, ... maybe outreach... The sane people will be understanding, if maybe not very interested personally, and some should be interested <em>enough</em> to help you document your efforts (presuming you make them!) in the directions you want to claim you care about.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42645",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32460/"
] |
42,648 |
<p>What does "TV-L (E14, 100% position)" mean in terms of gross and net pay? What lifestyle does this buy you in Berlin?</p>
<p>This is in the context of a postdoc at a research institute. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42676,
"author": "Pieter Naaijkens",
"author_id": 22,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You are right that TV-L is a civil servant payscale. Postdocs commonly are placed in the E-13 or E-14 scale, where the latter is higher (but usually comes with more responsibilities). The gross pay starts at just under 3579.34 EUR per month for Berlin. Very recently the pay scales have been renegotiated, so I believe it might have gone up a bit. This amount is the first step in the scale, depending on your experience you might start at a higher step.</p>\n\n<p>The net amount depends on your specific circumstances, for example if you are married and if you are a member of a church. For single persons that are not registered with a church the net amount is around 2100 EUR a month. This includes health insurance. You should be able to live decently in Berlin for this money.</p>\n\n<p>The details can be found <a href=\"http://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/c/t/rechner/tv-l/berlin?id=tv-l-berlin-2014&g=E_14&s=1&zv=VBL&z=100&zulage=&stj=2015&stkl=1&r=0&zkf=0&kk=15.5%25\">on the Öffentlicher Dienst website</a> (in German, but you would want the table at the bottom).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42684,
"author": "user3423952",
"author_id": 21273,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21273",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>(This is maybe more suited to be a comment than an answer, but I don't have enough reputation to leave comments.)</p>\n\n<p>About the phrase \"100% position\" in your question: This means that once you have followed the instructions in other answers and comments to identify the amount of money which corresponds to E14 on the TV-L payscale, then your gross pay is 100% of the amount labelled Brutto, and your net pay is 100% of the amount labelled Netto.</p>\n\n<p>The reason this is explicitly stated is because other types of positions, such as 50% position or 65% position, also exist. I don't believe this is ever the case for postdocs, but it's the norm for PhD students. For example, a PhD student might have a \"TV-L (El3, 50% position)\", meaning that after one identifies the amount in the TV-L table corresponding to E13, the gross pay is only 50% of that amount.</p>\n\n<p>A tip for reading these German payscale tables: the levels E1 to E15 are related to what sort of job it is and how qualified you are. PhDs and postdocs are at the E13 and E14 levels. For each of these levels, there are sub-levels 1 to 5 or 6, relating to how long you have occupied a position at this level. Over the years, you progress automatically up these levels 1 to 5 or 6</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42648",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32014/"
] |
42,652 |
<p>I made a rude comment to my advisor's spouse when I was 19. I have recently discovered that she and a tenured professor in a program that I declared a second major in were/are good friends, and the two planned and plotted ways to harass me out of that major - in order to avenge the offended spouse. Is this unethical? All logic says yes, but I would like to know if it is common. Needless to say, I learned nothing in this major as the environment was hostile to say the least. But I finished.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42676,
"author": "Pieter Naaijkens",
"author_id": 22,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You are right that TV-L is a civil servant payscale. Postdocs commonly are placed in the E-13 or E-14 scale, where the latter is higher (but usually comes with more responsibilities). The gross pay starts at just under 3579.34 EUR per month for Berlin. Very recently the pay scales have been renegotiated, so I believe it might have gone up a bit. This amount is the first step in the scale, depending on your experience you might start at a higher step.</p>\n\n<p>The net amount depends on your specific circumstances, for example if you are married and if you are a member of a church. For single persons that are not registered with a church the net amount is around 2100 EUR a month. This includes health insurance. You should be able to live decently in Berlin for this money.</p>\n\n<p>The details can be found <a href=\"http://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/c/t/rechner/tv-l/berlin?id=tv-l-berlin-2014&g=E_14&s=1&zv=VBL&z=100&zulage=&stj=2015&stkl=1&r=0&zkf=0&kk=15.5%25\">on the Öffentlicher Dienst website</a> (in German, but you would want the table at the bottom).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42684,
"author": "user3423952",
"author_id": 21273,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21273",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>(This is maybe more suited to be a comment than an answer, but I don't have enough reputation to leave comments.)</p>\n\n<p>About the phrase \"100% position\" in your question: This means that once you have followed the instructions in other answers and comments to identify the amount of money which corresponds to E14 on the TV-L payscale, then your gross pay is 100% of the amount labelled Brutto, and your net pay is 100% of the amount labelled Netto.</p>\n\n<p>The reason this is explicitly stated is because other types of positions, such as 50% position or 65% position, also exist. I don't believe this is ever the case for postdocs, but it's the norm for PhD students. For example, a PhD student might have a \"TV-L (El3, 50% position)\", meaning that after one identifies the amount in the TV-L table corresponding to E13, the gross pay is only 50% of that amount.</p>\n\n<p>A tip for reading these German payscale tables: the levels E1 to E15 are related to what sort of job it is and how qualified you are. PhDs and postdocs are at the E13 and E14 levels. For each of these levels, there are sub-levels 1 to 5 or 6, relating to how long you have occupied a position at this level. Over the years, you progress automatically up these levels 1 to 5 or 6</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42652",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32471/"
] |
42,657 |
<p>I'm a chemistry major and I've developed a strong interest in some areas of physical chemistry (and physics) and I do really well in physics and math courses. However, organic chemistry has really hit my GPA pretty hard.</p>
<p>This is due mostly to the fact that I'm having a tough time with the subject material and recent illness. Aside from being sick, I've been doing well in my other classes (so the blame is really shifted more toward the I'm-not-"getting"-organic) aside from receiving a handful of W's which I know will also hurt.</p>
<p>Since Organic chemistry is definitely a course within my major, I'm worried that it will significantly damage my chances of getting into grad school. <strong>I got a C- in the first semester of Organic and an F in the second semester.</strong></p>
<p>I retook Organic I and got a B. I'm retaking Organic II and I'm doing much better, but the initial try will still appear on my transcript.</p>
<p>If I want to pursue physical chemistry, how awful are my organic grades and my Ws going to look to admissions?</p>
<p>(Note: My GPA was pretty awesome before Organic and I'm doing well in my other classes.)</p>
<p>I would graduate with roughly a <strong>3.6 GPA</strong>. Other than Organic, I fare well in my courses. I have done undergraduate research and have presented several times and will likely have a paper before I graduate.</p>
<p>Edit: In the time since I've written this, I retook both Organic I and II and attained a B in both classes.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42677,
"author": "Alireza",
"author_id": 28811,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28811",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Never ever lose your hope to achieve your realistic dreams... getting a low grade in single course or even a number of courses may happen to anyone. Just stay focused and do your best. </p>\n\n<p>I'm a master student in computer engineering and even failing a number of courses at the initial attempt could not deprive me of getting into my dream school...</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42698,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am a tenured associate professor in the mathematics (note: not chemistry) at UGA and did graduate admissions for several years there. </p>\n\n<p>I am a little surprised that the two answers so far have avoided the obvious: getting a C- grade in two required courses in your major certainly has a negative effect on your chances of getting into graduate school. The only question is how much. I don't want to speculate on this because you deserve answers from my opposite number in a chemistry department, and I hope you'll get one. I'll just say: if we \"transposed\" this question into mathematics, getting C- grades in two core courses that are well known to be difficult enough to knock some students out of the major (say, real analysis): that would indeed be a serious flaw. We can admit students who got good grades in all the key courses, and we usually do.</p>\n\n<p>However, I don't think you have asked exactly the right question. The issue is not whether you should abandon your graduate school plans based upon your performance in one (or two) courses. You shouldn't. But trying to precisely quantify the damage is our job, not yours. Your job is to avoid if possible, and if not possible remedy, the problem.</p>\n\n<p>For a very serious student (students who want to go to grad school should count as \"very serious\"!), getting a C- in a course and then moving on to take the continuation course with the expectation of more of the same is a tactical error. You say you plan to retake the courses anyway. Then why are you even taking the second course now?!? You need to plan more precisely for your own success. I would look into withdrawing from the second semester course if it's at all possible. </p>\n\n<p>You also mention health problems. They can certainly affect your academic and professional performance, and this can happen in an uneven way. It is quite plausible that you're doing as well in the other courses that you have more talent / experience with / predilection for as you would have done if you were healthy and doing much worse in the course that needs more of your time and energy. Really consider taking time off, or adding a semester or a year, or doing whatever you can to lighten your load and give yourself the chance to do well. It is much easier to get official accommodations for serious problems while they're occurring than to try to explain two years later the dip in your transcript. </p>\n\n<p>In general I think you could get better advice on which courses to take when and how to succeed in your major. A lot of the most successful students are successful not because of superior talent but because they've been properly mentored or set up for success by others, or because they instinctively know much better than others how to set themselves up for success (which, contrary to what I said above, is certainly a talent). </p>\n\n<p>Good luck. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 64048,
"author": "Geoff Hutchison",
"author_id": 21869,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21869",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The short answer first. It hurts, (particularly a D or F) but does not necessarily rule out chances at a PhD program in chemistry.</p>\n\n<p>I'm a tenured associate professor in chemistry at University of Pittsburgh. While I have not served on the admissions committee in our department, I have been chair of graduate recruiting. (Our department separates these two.) Full disclosure that independent of Stack Exchange, Melanie expressed interest in our department.</p>\n\n<p>Most graduate programs have a minimum GPA required for admission. Our <em>university</em> requires a 3.0 GPA or higher from undergraduates. We absolutely cannot consider students with a lower GPA, regardless of qualifications. <strong><em>My advice to such students is to find a master's program or take further courses to provide an improved GPA.</em></strong> Students are admitted to our program with mediocre undergraduate performance, followed by high-quality master's work.</p>\n\n<p>I won't lie. Assuming your overall GPA and grades in the major are good, receiving a C and an F in your major would still raise some concerns. That said, a personal statement is an excellent opportunity to explain extenuating circumstances (e.g., illness, family obligations.. various life events). Recommendation letters can also help in this regard.</p>\n\n<p>My final conclusion is that it would depend on the quality of the rest of the application. If, for example, you achieved well in other courses, say several A's, quality GRE scores, and/or had an undergraduate publication or two, it's easy to overlook a stumble. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 64049,
"author": "CKM",
"author_id": 39227,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/39227",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>(<em>Didn't realize this was such an old question</em>)</p>\n\n<p>I think a good way to tackle this is to look at the bigger picture. You got some low organic grades, okay? This doesn't necessarily disqualify you from graduate school, but you need to keep a few things in mind:</p>\n\n<p>Most graduate schools require a 3.0 GPA for admissions. If it's a good program the GPA is also competitive and so for consideration you should aim as high as possible, but it varies by insitution. Take mine for example, they want a 3.0 GPA minimum for the <em>last two years of chemistry coursework</em> to enter the chemistry grad program but the grad school itself <strong>also</strong> requires a 3.0 GPA overall. So watch your GPA.</p>\n\n<p><em>Disclaimer: We have 8 concentrations from biochem to computational chem; speak with your department adviser or check out your current course catalog, and get an idea of what your prerequisites are going to need to be (again, things differ by institution).</em></p>\n\n<p>The problem here in: The bachelor core classes may require a C- or better in organic I & II to enroll. The other obvious problem is most chemistry programs need you to have made a C- or better in every course listed as being part of the major for that credit to count toward your graduation. It could very well be that you <em>need</em> to score higher anyways, not just to enroll elsewhere but to graduate period. You will also need to speak with your adviser about this.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42657",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6473/"
] |
42,660 |
<p>In a thesis or journal you write all sentences yourself, but on some occasions you prefer to take a piece of text from another source. If you do, should you use quotation marks only, or italicize it, or use both, to identify that you have not written it?</p>
<p>Example for quoting directly from a source:</p>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li>This can, according to Someone et al. [1], be seen as "an excellent way of representing a piece of text quoted from another
source", and therefore it's emphasized.</li>
<li>This can, according to Someone et al. [1], be seen as <em>"an excellent way of representing a piece of text quoted from another
source"</em>, and therefore it's emphasized.</li>
<li>This can, according to Someone et al. [1], be seen as <em>an excellent way of representing a piece of text quoted from another
source</em>, and therefore it's emphasized.</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>Example for a definition with a source:</p>
<blockquote>
<ol>
<li>Wikipedia defines italic as "a semi-cursive, slightly sloped style of handwriting and calligraphy that was developed during the
Renaissance in Italy" [2].</li>
<li>Wikipedia defines italic as <em>"a semi-cursive, slightly sloped style of handwriting and calligraphy that was developed during the
Renaissance in Italy"</em> [2].</li>
<li>Wikipedia defines italic as <em>a semi-cursive, slightly sloped style of handwriting and calligraphy that was developed during the
Renaissance in Italy</em> [2].</li>
</ol>
</blockquote>
<p>Are there are any style guides or recommendations that refer to italicized text, for either quotes or definitions? And related to the two examples, what is the recommended way to distinguish between a quote and a definition?</p>
<p>Edit: note that if a style guide is provided, the guide should be followed. This question relates to situations where no style guide is required.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42665,
"author": "user6726",
"author_id": 28972,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28972",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There can be specific exceptions for journals, which may have conventions preserved unchanged from the past, but the general principle is to be typographically simple while conveying the necessary information. Quotation marks are required to unambiguously indicate that a certain sequence of text is a literal quotation; the quote itself should then not modify the format of the text, thus should be roman when the original is roman, italic when it is italic, and so on. Thus, your first option would be the correct choice.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42668,
"author": "Maarten van Wesel",
"author_id": 32146,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32146",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I agree with <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/42665\">User6726’s answer</a>, but want to add a few things.</p>\n\n<p>For a journal publication (to make the answer more general) you could check the journal’s style guide or how italic type is used within articles published in the journal.</p>\n\n<p>As your question is specifically about a thesis, find out which style your thesis should be in (APA, Chicago, etc.). You will be needing this information for formatting your references anyway. With this information, check online or in your library for a a style manual for the specific style. This manual will explain when italics are appropriate.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 55253,
"author": "Kakoli Majumder",
"author_id": 9920,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9920",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While quoting verbatim from a source, you should always use quotation marks. Italics are generally used for the following purposes:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>titles of books, periodicals, blogs </li>\n<li>genera, species, and varietes </li>\n<li>introduction of a new technical term </li>\n<li>letters used as statistical symbols or algebraic variables</li>\n<li>some test scores and scales </li>\n<li>periodical volume numbers in reference lists</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If you have used quotation marks to indicate that you have borrowed the text, I do not see any need to italicize it. Style guides also advise against the use of italics for mere emphasis. Hence, it is better to use quotation marks only to distinguish text that you are using verbatim from another work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 55264,
"author": "vonbrand",
"author_id": 38135,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/38135",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Italics are used for emphasis. Use sparingly, where required by custom (biologists write species in italics, I believe), to highlight a new term being introduced, and precious little else.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42660",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31253/"
] |
42,669 |
<p>General-purpose word-processing programs are OK for academic writing. But I feel the experience can be much improved with some specialized software that takes better care of the special needs of academic writers, such as version control, collaboration, reference generation, in-text citation etc.</p>
<p>Is there any such software (either web-based or desktop-based) created specifically for academic writers?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42670,
"author": "Maarten van Wesel",
"author_id": 32146,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32146",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You have plug-ins and storage methods to take care of this.</p>\n\n<p>Software such as Endnote offers a plug-in to 'cite while you write' (as they call it). Microsoft Word has a referencing system itself, but I have no experience with it.</p>\n\n<p>Using the revision options in Microsoft Word you can track all changes made to the document (giving you more advanced features then normal versioning). However you can also set up your computer to copy changed files to a backup location, storing multiple versions there.</p>\n\n<p>I do not necessarily disagree with your suggestion that general-purpose word processors are not really suited for academics, however the questions that you have can be addressed using general-purpose word processors.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42671,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First of all, academic writing is all about the mind putting words on paper, you are really looking for tools to help you with the technical side of putting together the material. Looking at your list of examples, I do not see much that is not already implemented in Word (probably being the most common writing tool in academia). A second that contains everything except a solid version control (revision tool) is (La)TeX (which is also free). But, if version control is required you can use GitHub, as I know many LaTeX authors do.</p>\n\n<p>On a more personal side, the difficulty in writing science is not about getting the technical aspects right, it may be tedious and boring but is easily done. What matters is the text and how to be precise and concise and no software will help you there. Version control is sometimes a good tool but really, is it necessary to see everything one has written and deleted? Isn't the present text what really matters and what one has to consider for improvements? It is easy to get bogged down with the wrong details so getting tools to sort those out is never wrong but I do not necessarily see how a special purpose academic writing tool will help much more than with the technicalities than existing tools do.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42683,
"author": "Adriaan",
"author_id": 32481,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32481",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am personally a big fan of using Scrivener. It was originally designed for writing novels and organising all the research and drafts but also works well for writing research papers. Scrivener can also be set up to export to latex and to work with a backup folder containing .txt files (to enable version control trough ex Github). </p>\n\n<p>I use Mendeley to store my papers and handle references as it is quite a hassle to keep organised. </p>\n\n<p>Here is a link on how to set up scrivener with latex: \n<a href=\"http://harrisonsweeney.com/posts/scrivener-multimarkdown-and-latex.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://harrisonsweeney.com/posts/scrivener-multimarkdown-and-latex.html</a></p>\n\n<p>Edit: I should also mention writing in plain Latex. </p>\n\n<p>Latex is a markup language designed for writing printable text (as opposed to web text), all the formatting is done by typing commands. This means that it can be written in any text editor and that there are generally no buttons to click for formatting (such as in word). Latex is used a lot in the exact science as it is a standard in rendering equations. The drawback is that it has a learning curve. </p>\n\n<p>I'd say that Scrivener is the way to go if you are looking for a tool that aids you in organising and structuring your writing process. However if you require extensive rendering of equations and/or prefer the more direct control of latex go for that. \nAlthough any text editor would work for latex finding the one which works best for you is an entire question in itself. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42686,
"author": "Dɑvïd",
"author_id": 17238,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17238",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>OP: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is there any such software (either web-based or desktop-based) created specifically for academic writers?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes: <strong><a href=\"http://www.notabene.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Nota Bene</a></strong> is a software package that was purpose-built for \"academic writing\", and that in the context of the humanities. I used it heavily in the 90s, but needed to move on when development didn't keep pace with my Unicode requirements. It's fascinating software: essentially a suite of tools comprising a writing environment, textual/note database environment, and bibliographic database, all seamlessly integrated. It really is a powerful package.</p>\n\n<p>But the further answer in all likelihood depends on what area the writing is for: \"academic writing\" is simply too broad. \"Humanties\", \"social sciences\", \"[hard] sciences\" would give a better spread of suggestions. The possibilities also depend on personal work habits: what makes for a congenial writing environment varies according to personal habits and taste.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://tex.stackexchange.com/\">TeX</a> provides one good example: rare for most in the humanities, but common for mathematics and linguistics.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, some of my colleagues are now doing all their writing in Markdown, and that has its own appeal, as well as limitations and challenges.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42714,
"author": "Daniel Wessel",
"author_id": 26614,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26614",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I haven't found anything that was perfect yet, but I have found the combination of Circus Ponies Notebook (for content outlines) and Scrivener (for stress free writing) really workable. <a href=\"https://blogs.cul.columbia.edu/butler/2014/06/05/daniel-wessel-using-content-outlines-and-circus-ponies-notebooks-for-writing-articles-and-theses/\" rel=\"nofollow\">This posting covers a lot of it</a>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42735,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In terms of the mess you can get into with multiple versions, multiple authors, that @Tim mentioned -- I like Draftable for Word.</p>\n\n<p>I like to have a shared dropbox folder with collaborators so we all have access to all the previous versions.</p>\n\n<p>A feature of Word that I like is the outline view. It makes it easier to do restructuring on a large scale.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 93427,
"author": "G M",
"author_id": 10333,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10333",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h1>OVERLEAF</h1>\n<p>Overleaf it is a collaborative web service for writing and publishing academic writings based on LaTeX and is especially design for this purpose. I think nowadays is the most used software for publishing in academics. <a href=\"https://www.overleaf.com/about\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">The website</a> describes its mission very clearly:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Overleaf is a collaborative writing and publishing system that makes the whole process of producing academic papers much quicker for both\nauthors and publishers.</p>\n<p>Overleaf is a free service that lets you create, edit and share your\nscientific ideas easily online using LaTeX, a comprehensive and\npowerful tool for scientific writing.</p>\n<p>Writelatex Limited, the company behind Overleaf, was founded by John\nHammersley and John Lees-Miller, two mathematicians who worked\ntogether on the pioneering Ultra PRT Project and who <strong>were inspired by\ntheir own experiences in academia to create a better solution for\ncollaborative scientific writing.</strong></p>\n<p>Overleaf is supported by Digital Science. Digital Science is a\ntechnology company serving the needs of scientific research. Their\nmission is to provide software that makes research simpler, so there’s\nmore time for discovery.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<h1>From Tex to Overleaf: a not so short history</h1>\n<p>I think is important to have a look at the history of the technologies that are used by overleaf to see that they are designed by academics and used by academics. The history is basically an encapsulation of powerful complex technologies in a more user-friendly platform.</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">TeX</a> is the core technology it was designed by <a href=\"https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuth\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Donald Knuth</a> who was a professor at Stanford University this is an excerpt from this <a href=\"https://www.tug.org/whatis.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">site</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>As it turned out, TeX was\nstill a lot closer to a research project than to an industrial\nstrength product, but there were certain attractive features:</p>\n<p>it was intended to be used directly by authors (and their secretaries)\nwho are the ones who really know what they are writing about; <strong>it came\nfrom an academic source</strong>, and was intended to be available for no\nmonetary fee</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaTeX\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">LaTeX</a> was set of macro to make TeX more accessible it was actually created at SRI International (SRI) an American nonprofit research institute by <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Lamport\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Leslie Lamport</a> here an excerpt form an interview:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>When Don was creating TEX80(?), the second version of TEX, the popular\nmacro package at the time was one written by Max Diaz I've forgotten\nits name. I was in the process of starting to write a book, and I\nfound Diaz's macros inadequate. So, I needed to write a set of macros\nfor the book. I gured that, with a little extra eort, I could make a\nmacro package that could be used by other people as well. That was the\norigin of LATEX.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Then it comes Overleaf so all these technologies are now on a server with ready-to-use templates from the most popular publishing companies and conferences.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42669",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15953/"
] |
42,674 |
<p>I'm an undergraduate. I sent two emails to professors regarding potential research work. Both responded positively, which I didn't expect, and I started work with one of the profs last term. As for the other, I think his work is incredibly interesting but I simply don't have the time for two research projects at once. However, I would really like to work with him eventually. </p>
<p>How can I tell the other professor that I'm too busy this quarter but would like to work with him at some point in the future? It seems a bit awkward to mention the other professor so I'm not sure how to explain it. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42675,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just say so directly! He will value your directness and honesty – 'beating around the bush' gets rather tiresome. There's enough of that from management...</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I'm sorry that I don't have time to work with you this term, as I have now started on a research project with Prof A that I am committed to finishing. However, I would still really like to work with you in the future. Since I aim to finish my current project in a few months, around the end of June, would you mind if I contact you again then?</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42728,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I wanted to write a comment but I'm not allowed. Here's a variant on the @Moriarty draft.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I wanted to write to you with an update. I started a project on such-and-so with Prof A and it's going well. I really appreciated your encouraging email. I was surprised to get positive responses from two professors! If I had it to do over again, maybe it would have been better to write to one first, and then the other.</p>\n<p>As I can only do one project at a time, I will have to decline your kind invitation. I'm still very interested in what you're doing with such-and-so. I hope I may write to you again at some point, when my schedule frees up, to see if you have space in your lab at that time.</p>\n<p>Anyway, I did want to let you know what I've been up to, and why I haven't been in touch. Thanks again for your kind encouragement.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42674",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28313/"
] |
42,679 |
<p>I'm currently a M.S. student. My supervisor give me freedom to choose thesis topic. Since it is so hard for me, I decide to ask another professors whom I consider to be their PhD candidates in future. I have written an email to ask them.
Is it a good idea to do so? And is my email appropriate for this purpose?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dear Professor xxx,</p>
<p>I am a M.S. student at University of xxx-the most prestigious university in xxx- with a major in information technology- multimedia systems. I will graduate on September 2016.<br>
I had the chance to read your publications and some of your articles. I really enjoyed them, and it gave me many ideas for my future research. Due to my strong interest in your research area and considering the experience I have gained from my relevant courses, I believe I can be a beneficial part of your research group, if I get a chance.
Since I haven't chosen the topic of my M.S. Thesis, I prefer to ask you to give me some information about the topics you are currently working on, in order to get a higher chance to be your PhD student in future.
I know you’re very busy so I appreciate any time you can give me.</p>
<p>Thanks very much,<br>
Sincerely,<br>
xxx</p>
</blockquote>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 42682,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I do not think it is a good idea to ask this other professor to give you your thesis topic, either asking by email or in person. If you want to be this professor's PhD student in the future, the best thing you can do is do a good job on your thesis and complete your Masters degree. Doing your thesis on a topic of his choice does not increase your chances of being his PhD student, and may decrease your chances because you aren't demonstrating independent judgment.</p>\n\n<p>Both Masters and PhD students should do the work to pick their own topic. (Narrowing down my dissertation topic has been a multi-year exercise -- working part-time.) As a Masters student, you don't have to break new ground or advance the state of the art. But, by picking a topic that is at the state of the art, you demonstrate that you understand, in general, where the state of the art <em>is</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Instead of asking some professor to hand you a topic, you should investigate why picking a topic is hard for you. Do you lack ideas? Do you understand what qualifies as a good idea? Do you have trouble selecting from alternative ideas? Once you've pinpointed the problem, you can ask your adviser or anyone else for help on this aspect of the problem.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42685,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I occasionally get emails along these lines, and I am almost never thrilled. The sole exception where I would consider this case is if I know (a) the student personally and think (s)he is good, and/or (b) I know the advisor personally, and (s)he recommended the student this model. In all other cases, my response would be negative.</p>\n\n<p>What you need to be aware of is that a master student who is actually somebody else's student, and who presumably even sits physically remote, is a risk on so many levels. You have no idea how good the person is. You have no idea whether (s)he actually works or is just procrastinating between status updates. You have basically no leverage, so if you assume the student is not working hard or is involved in unethical behavior (e.g., rigging the data), you can do pretty much nothing except pull out of the cooperation. You have no idea whether the person's actual advisor is fine with this, or will start sabotaging the agreement when (s)he figures out that her/his student is actually working with somebody else. It is even unclear what the implications for the student are - maybe her/his university does not even accept a thesis primarily supervised by somebody outside of the institution. And even if all goes well, you are still supervising a student in somebody else's name (i.e., doing the work of somebody else).</p>\n\n<p>All these things considered - would <em>you</em> invest one of your good ideas, or, even worse, your limited time supervising such a student?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42695,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 11565,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11565",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Insted of</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"...and it gave me many ideas for my future research\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>how about </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"... and it gave me idea X for implementing Y in manner Z. I am considering working on this idea for my master's thesis here at University W with Prof. V. Since this idea comes from your paper, could I please first ask if any of your current students are working on it, and also solicit your opinion on whether this idea sounds promising to you?\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You should make it clear, not so much by saying it explicitly, as by wording your e-mail with this in mind, that <em>you do not expect any sort of commitment from the person to whom you write</em>. This will lead to pretty decent chances for an interesting and useful reply.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 42699,
"author": "Buzz",
"author_id": 32508,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32508",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It depends on the academic system where you are from. For instance, if you are in a country where there is a strong hierachal system, going to another professor behind the back of your supervisor might sour your relatonship with him/her. </p>\n\n<p>My advice is to consult your current supervisor about your what topic/bias you think might work for you and then let him/her refer you to another supervisor if it is beyond his/her scope. That way you will get advice and guidance from both sides without rufling any feathers. In academia, the politics sometimes plays a very important role in the success of your thesis and you should always take it into consideration.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/03/31
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42679",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31960/"
] |
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