qid
int64 1
194k
| question
stringlengths 46
29.5k
| answers
listlengths 2
32
| date
stringlengths 10
10
| metadata
listlengths 3
3
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
47,007 |
<p>I am working on a machine learning project for which I need proper computational power. Assuming that my local university can't provide a server to run the code, I am looking for an online website which sells virtual servers for limited time — as in a month or less.</p>
<p>I heard that some companies provide free servers for students if they prove their status as students — but I failed to find anything with a search on Google. Is there anywhere which provides virtual high performance servers suitable for academic use?</p>
<hr>
<p>One of the reasons I ask this question on Academia Stack Exchange is that most of the VPSs you can find on the net are more focused on the quality of bandwidth and connectivity, but I am just focused on CPU and Memory setting (I just need to run a Matlab or Octave program).</p>
<p>P.S.: This question is related to the subject matter at Server Fault and Super User, but those sites are almost completely focused on servers suitable for web-based applications. Also, they don't know about the opportunities provided for students for free or at low cost.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47008,
"author": "gerrit",
"author_id": 1033,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In most countries, there exist high performance computers that researchers can apply for access to. For example, in Sweden there is the <a href=\"https://www.nsc.liu.se/\">National Supercomputer Centre</a>, and other countries have similar projects. When you get access, you get a limited number of core-hours (for example, if you have 5000 core hours, you can run 50 cores for 100 hours or 500 cores for 10 hours) to be used over a specific period of time (for example, one year).</p>\n\n<p>To apply for access, you may have to go through someone who is employed at a university, if you aren't. If you are a student, you hopefully have a supervisor who can apply for your project. Or they might have special services for students!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47023,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Amazon</strong> provides cloud computing resources (in particular <em>EC2</em> virtual machines) for free for the first year and, most likely, offers discounts for educational institutions and/or faculty/students.</p>\n\n<p>In addition to Amazon's offerings, <strong>Microsoft</strong> provides attractive programs, based on their <em>Azure</em> platform and focused on educational sector. Some of the programs are free of charge (require application). You can get more detailed information on the relevant <a href=\"http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/community/education\">Azure for Education</a> webpage.</p>\n\n<p>P.S. Converted my Amazon comment to this answer due to addition of information on Azure.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47035,
"author": "Gaurav",
"author_id": 60,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/60",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The <a href=\"https://education.github.com/pack\" rel=\"nofollow\">Github Education Pack</a> comes with 100$ free credit on <a href=\"http://www.digitalocean.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">DigitalOcean</a>, which hosts virtual machines on the cloud.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47038,
"author": "bob0the0mighty",
"author_id": 14820,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14820",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you're doing machine learning, I assume most of your compute time is coming from floating point calculations. </p>\n\n<p>If this is the case, You could gain quite an increase in performance by using a GPGPU library like <a href=\"https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-zone\" rel=\"nofollow\">CUDA</a> or <a href=\"http://deeplearning.net/software/theano/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Theano</a>. </p>\n\n<p>Amazon has <a href=\"https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/#gpu\" rel=\"nofollow\">GPU focused instances</a> that you can use for GPGPU work</p>\n\n<p>Amazon also has <a href=\"https://aws.amazon.com/hpc/\" rel=\"nofollow\">virtual HPC</a> systems that probably fit your current use case.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47045,
"author": "Phil Miller",
"author_id": 21987,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21987",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><a href=\"http://www.rsystemsinc.net/\" rel=\"nofollow\">R-Systems</a> will rent you time on their bare-metal HPC utility cluster for quite low prices. They charge by usage, rather than on a subscription basis.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47061,
"author": "Superbest",
"author_id": 244,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/244",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This may turn out to be more work than you are willing to commit, but perhaps it is worth mentioning <a href=\"https://boinc.berkeley.edu/\" rel=\"nofollow\">BOINC</a>.</p>\n\n<p>You can set up your computation task appropriately and have it run on computer time donated by volunteers who participate.</p>\n\n<p>Ensuring that your code is compatible with this distributed model, and enticing volunteers to run your project, is of course a separate problem.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47082,
"author": "Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩",
"author_id": 26708,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26708",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>At this time of year (Summer) many universities have large undergraduate computer labs that are mainly empty and idle. If your project is recognised by your university then you may be able to get access to those computer labs officially sanctioned.</p>\n\n<p>I did this at my institution one year and gained agreement to install a small program at boot time on every campus machine in a teaching lab and was able to gain access to an huge computing resource for free and generate results that surpassed even what those using a dedicated HPC had achieved.</p>\n\n<p>It does take skill at negotiation and a demonstration of your competence to convince those who have control at campus level, but the results might be worth it. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47007",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
47,015 |
<p>I recently reviewed a paper for a math journals. I recommended to reject the paper but my decision was overridden because of two other positive reviews. Is it a common practice to ask to see the other reviews ?</p>
<p>I am curious about what the other reviewers thought of the paper. I am not going to fight about the paper acceptance or anything, I am just being curious.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47016,
"author": "Dmitry Savostyanov",
"author_id": 17418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17418",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some journals have a policy to make all reviews available to all parties involved (Referees and Authors), so the <i>practice</i> is not uncommon. </p>\n\n<p>Some journals have a policy to <i>not</i> make the reviews available to all Referees. In this case I think to <i>request</i> it of a curiosity is quite unorthodox. The decision to accept / reject the paper is made by the Editor, who consults the Referees for their expertise in a particular area. As a Referee, I would expect my opinion to be heard by the Editor, but other than that, I do not assume the Editor to be obliged to make a decision I recommend and/or to explain the decision to me.</p>\n\n<p>Some (smaller) journals do not have a policy re this question. In this case you could try to <i>very politely</i> ask about it. Politeness is a key.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47059,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I'm writing this in my role as an editor: if I had assigned a younger colleague as a reviewer, and said colleague asked me for the other reviews because they want to learn what others see in a paper, I would usually be happy to forward them to her. Everyone wins if we help younger researchers find their bearings what is or is not expected in a review.</p>\n\n<p>That said, there must be an understanding that the other reviews I forward will remain confidential and will not be distributed further. I imagine if you write to the editor who had assigned the paper to you, ask for the other reviews and explain why you'd like to see them, and promise confidentiality, then you may be able to get them.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47015",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33484/"
] |
47,021 |
<p>In the final exam of a course, a student has solved some problems in a really ingenious way.
He gets perfect score anyway.
What is the appropriate way to inform him about my appreciation of his solutions?
(Also what if I don't have the occasion to meet him again?)</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47033,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Just write the student an email and express your appreciation. Don't overthink this. Then again, don't go over the top (\"you are the best student I <em>ever</em> had\") - you never know how he will take this.</p>\n\n<p>Depending on how well you know the student and on whether you would actually be willing to do so, inform him that you would be happy to write a glowing recommendation for him if he ever needs one, e.g., for admission to grad school.</p>\n\n<p>And as <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47021/how-to-inform-a-student-about-my-appreciation-of-his-her-original-solutions#comment108127_47021\">Compass comments</a>, think about how you can help the student develop even further. Do you have any follow-up courses, maybe even advanced ones that the student would usually not take but that you think he would be able to follow? Tell him. Can you give him a research project? Take him on as an Research or Teaching Assistant?</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>At some point, this turns from \"helping the student grow\" to \"nurturing your own future grad student\", and that's OK. This is a mutually beneficial thing, after all. And it's never too early to snap up the promising students. If you don't do it, others will.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47036,
"author": "GKS",
"author_id": 35670,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35670",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well, as a student, I will be glad if my work gets appreciated. Recognition like these act as confidence booster. But, don't overdo it, as it may make student think too high of himself. </p>\n\n<p>Assuming that the final exam sheets are returned to the students, you can attach a (very) short note appreciating his ingenuity. Trust me, I get excited even on a simple \"Good Job!\" on my exam sheet (my professor does it rarely though). Other option could be to write him a short email. You may invite him to have a discussion on what further he can do with the ideas he demonstrated in the answer sheet. Depending on how high you think of his subject knowledge, you can offer him a TA job, as pointed by Stephen Kolassa. </p>\n\n<p>But, most importantly, you should make sure that the student does something big with his talent, by referring him a book, an online course, or any other course in your or other department.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47055,
"author": "Lightness Races in Orbit",
"author_id": 12378,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12378",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You already did: you gave him a perfect score.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47056,
"author": "Ketan Maheshwari",
"author_id": 6103,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6103",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I know a professor who writes a special note to top 5 students in his class. Something along the line of :</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"congratulations on a great job in my class ABD255 ... specially I appreciate the way you handled assignment 5.\". </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>He also offers any recommendation letters that the student might need in the future and an open invitation to do master thesis with him. These are some good ways of showing your appreciation as they will likely count towards the student's career.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47021",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12871/"
] |
47,024 |
<p>I am a year ahead of my physics curriculum, but I plan to stay as an undergrad for the 4th year to increase my chances at top graduate schools in physics. In this 4th year, I will take all the graduate courses in physics a typical 1st/2nd year PhD student would take: two semesters of quantum mechanics and a semester each of statistical physics and electrodynamics.</p>
<p>My question is: is it worth it taking all of these graduate courses as an undergrad? From what I know, most universities don't accept transfers in graduate courses and I would have to take them again.</p>
<p>I would still like to take them because I am eager to learn them, and also achieving good grades in them would help me demonstrate my readiness for graduate school.</p>
<p>Other option would be taking courses in other disciplines that would benefit me, such as math or electrical engineering.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47026,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Research experience is almost always better than additional classes, even graduate classes. Either graduating early so that you can work/volunteer full time in a research lab or taking the minimum number of credits to maintain your status as a student and work/volunteer part time in a research lab is likely going to increase your chances of admissions to a top graduate school much more than taking a full load of classes.</p>\n\n<p>If you go with taking classes, classes that fulfil general graduate requirements are going to be less valuable than classes that will help prepare you for your research.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47027,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the US system, it's important to distinguish between transfering academic credits from one university to another versus simply having required courses waived on the basis of work that you did at another university. </p>\n\n<p>Most graduate programs significantly limit transfer of credits from other institutions. A common rule is that you can't transfer more than 12 credit hours from another institution. Furthermore, you typically can't transfer credits that you used to earn a previous degree. If these courses that you'll be taking next year appear on your undergraduate transcript, then its unlikely that they would be transferable. The more common situation in which graduate credits would be transferred is when a student switches from one graduate program to a graduate program at another university. </p>\n\n<p>However, it is also possible that the graduate program that you go to might be willing to recognize that you had previously taken these graduate courses by waiving the requirement that you take the courses again, and instead let you take other more advanced or elective courses instead of repeating the same material. You can always ask for this consideration, but I wouldn't count on getting it. </p>\n\n<p>In my experience, it's quite common for students to end up retaking graduate courses that they took as advanced undergraduate students at another university. In other cases, the student may have taken a very good undergraduate course that basically covers the same material as the graduate course. Some students find this very boring, while other students find that it makes for an easy first couple of semesters of graduate school. </p>\n\n<p>I don't think that there's anything wrong with taking these graduate courses, but you should be aware that there's a good chance that you'll end up having to retake the same courses in your graduate program. If your math background isn't very strong, then taking some additional math courses (particularly mathematical physics, PDE's, and analysis courses) could help and likely wouldn't overlap with required course work in your graduate program. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47040,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Taking the graduate classes will indeed help prepare you for graduate school, and consequently will also help you get into a top graduate program, particularly if you are not coming from a top undergrad school. </p>\n\n<p>At least in math, it's not uncommon to test out of standard graduate classes when you start a grad program. And if you go to a grad program that is considerably better than your current school, the grad classes will probably be at a more advanced level, so it will probably not be a waste to take (at least some of) them over. At the least, if you retake these courses, they will be easier next time and you will have extra time then that you can use to learn things more deeply.</p>\n\n<p>I don't think it makes sense to take classes in other areas just because you are worried about retaking the material in graduate school, but if you want to take a class in a related area because you're interested or you want to shore up some deficiency, that's a different story. But you should be studying at least some physics next year, if that's your passion.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47047,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>(Making @Kimball's points perhaps even more forcefully...) If you are interested in experimental physics, I have no real advice, but if you are interested in theoretical physics, I will assume for the sake of discussion that the situation resembles that of mathematics. In that case, in fact the question as posed involves implicit hypotheses that (I think) far over-shadow the literal question asked. That is, to get to the best grad program one can, letters of recommendation (from people in the field, who've had contact with you at the highest level <em>you</em> can manage) are critical. So making an excellent impression in graduate-level courses would be a great thing, apart from \"taking the class\" per se. </p>\n\n<p>For that matter, witnessing how (presumably) seasoned experts talk about more-sophisticated (grad-level rather than undergrad, anyway) material ought to be educational and inspirational in itself, beyond the literal content (which should be accessible in written sources).</p>\n\n<p>For that matter, I think it misses the mark to think of a \"program\" as essentially following a schedule of classes and perhaps <em>only</em> doing what is commanded by the coursework, homework, exams. It is permitted to read other books, papers, and to think about math (or physics...) as much as one wants. A reason to \"take classes\" is for easy <em>documentation</em> (and meeting faculty). Private study is hard to document.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, the psychological element of <em>familiarity</em>/comfort matters hugely, in my observation. That is, the longer one has been aware of a thing, the more comfortable one is (even without \"mastery\"), and often the comfort/discomfort issue is a large cognitive load feature. New/scary things are harder to think about. So looking around and being exposed to things as far in advance as possible is a very good thing.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, at least for \"theoretical\" subjects such as parts of mathematics and physics, the popular attempted distinction between \"study\" and \"research\" is crazily misleading, in my opinion. True, if \"study\" means some stultifying on-command busywork, that's not so good, but \"research\" might also mean blundering about in a fog of ignorance, so that could be bad too. The good versions of both, that is, spending one's time thinking about math/whatever, are fundamentally indistinguishable from each other.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47052,
"author": "TheWass",
"author_id": 35761,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35761",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I was in your same position myself as an undergrad rushing to grad school. My interests evolved as I found out more about other fields. I had <em>thought</em> physics might get me what I wanted, and followed it through as fast as I could, only to learn that what I really wanted to do matched up better with other fields.</p>\n\n<p>I would recommend taking the opportunity to plug some gaps in your knowledge that can come in handy in graduate school.</p>\n\n<p>If you're interested in theory, make sure you brush up in mathematics. Typically you only need to take the basic calculus sequence in physics, so maybe take a higher-level analysis class to supplement your understanding. Linear algebra is indispensable, take an upper level version if you can.</p>\n\n<p>If you think you might be doing a lot of computational work, take some computer science as well: take software engineering and learn a language well (I suggest python). If you can program pretty well already, then I'd suggest taking an algorithms class. You're never taught to program well, and yet, you need to! I learned this first-hand when my computational code for research would get stuck forever and never return an answer. With the correct understanding and algorithms, that code can be written to give an answer in 5 seconds.</p>\n\n<p>If you're interested in a more experimental route, take some chemistry and electrical engineering courses. Chemistry will get you some hands-on experience with some equipment that you will often touch as a graduate student when testing your samples, as well as different perspective on the theory. You may need to fabricate your own devices to gather data (or repair them...) so it can't hurt to be familiar with circuits, so take a good EE class. Signal processing (typically also an EE class) will really come in handy.</p>\n\n<p>There's many options, so just take what seems interesting and useful and go with the flow. It's certainly not a bad idea to get a preview of grad school and take more physics, but I would definitely take your time and explore other areas too before you go to grad school, it will absolutely pay off.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47024",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35683/"
] |
47,028 |
<p>I am applying for an F31 Diversity Grant for Predoctoral studies to support my 3-5 year of PhD studies. There is no mention of needing to submit transcript of grade with the application. Is this true? Does the NIH not require transcripts for F31 applications? Are applications solely graded on the merit of the proposal or do student grades also considered?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47031,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Each NIH grant comes with extensive guidance. For the <a href=\"http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-14-148.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research</a> the guidance says</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Note that scores for standardized exams (e.g., MCAT, GRE) as well as a listing of the applicant’s courses and grades must be included in the Fellowship Applicant Biographical Sketch, and NOT in this attachment.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The guidance also says</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Follow the instructions in the SF424 (R&R) Individual Fellowship Application Guide to ensure you complete all appropriate “optional” forms.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/424/SF424_RR_Guide_Fellowship_VerC.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">SF424 (R&R)</a> refers you back to PA-14-148.</p>\n\n<p>In general, it is advisable to talk to the Program Officer at the NIH whenever you are considering applying for a grant/fellowship. They are more than happy to help navigate you through the submission process and generally can provide you with invaluable insight about how to improve your application. Each institute at the NIH and each funding mechanism has a different Program Officer, but they are generally pretty easy to find online.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47032,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The Program Announcement (I believe the current one) for this Program is probably <a href=\"http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-14-148.html#_Section_IV._Application\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-14-148.html#_Section_IV._Application</a></p>\n\n<p>These announcements tell you (or point you to) <em>ALL</em> the info you need to apply. This one states: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Note that scores for standardized exams (e.g., MCAT, GRE) as well as a listing of the applicant’s courses and grades must be included in the Fellowship Applicant Biographical Sketch, and NOT in this attachment.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>So yes, if this is the announcement, you need to provide this info, and it needs to go into your BioSketch. Whether you need to use the (ugh) new biosketch format or not, I can't tell you.</p>\n\n<p>The best advice is to ask the office at your school that coordinates sponsored research, as well as have a chat with the program officer involved with this PA at the institute you would be applying to.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47028",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35754/"
] |
47,029 |
<p>I am a newly appointed editor to a top journal. I have received my first manuscript assignment. I see in the journal system that the authors have provided preferences for reviewers for their paper.</p>
<p>I was wondering what is the norm like with respect to this. Do editors normally go by author's preference or do they ignore it? What factors should I take into account before considering author preference of reviewers?</p>
<p>On one hand this makes my task of searching appropriate reviewers easy but I suspect this might also give an unfair edge to the authors if the reviewers have some/any kind of bias.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47030,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The way the preferred reviewers are used varies. Some go by these suggestions whole-heartedly while others do not. I lean towards the latter since my experience with some preferred names is less than favourable.</p>\n\n<p>In my experience names listed can be good. I usually double check to see if persons seem affiliated in some way and if they do I avoid appointing them. As a rule, however, I try to find persons independently and based on my own experience. I tend to use the preferred names as back-ups unless my preference and the authors coincide.</p>\n\n<p>The reason for my slight aversion towards the preferred is that some authors tend to list friends and other persons who are obviously close to the authors. I have seen many low quality reviews come out from such reviewers an clearly at a rate very different from independently chosen reviewers. Judging what is too close is not easy and sometimes it may be justified if, for example, the topic is such that local knowledge comes into play. For the reason of uncertainty I therefore try to at least mix them up so that one is chosen by me independently and the other is selected from the authors suggestions.</p>\n\n<p>So, try to assess the quality of the preferred reviewers and at least try to find some to complement a preferred reviewer will be my advice.</p>\n\n<p>It is also common that authors list non-preferred reviewers. I always stay clear of such reviewers since I do not know what lies beneath the sentiment. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47046,
"author": "Phil Miller",
"author_id": 21987,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21987",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I assume you're one new member of an established editorial board, with an Editor in Chief and other members of the board fully involved. Why not ask them what the convention is for this particular journal?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47049,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Be extra careful when following authors' suggestions for suitable peer reviewers. There has been a recent case of authors suggesting fabricated contacts as \"reviewers\", as described on <a href=\"http://publicationethics.org/news/cope-statement-inappropriate-manipulation-peer-review-processes\">http://publicationethics.org/news/cope-statement-inappropriate-manipulation-peer-review-processes</a>. That case led some publishers to stop asking for reviewer suggestions explicitly within their submission processes.</p>\n\n<p>Measures of caution that I find useful include:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Only choose an author-suggested reviewer if you can verify independently that this person is suited as reviewer, ideally from your own prior knowledge.</li>\n<li>Don't use the contact address provided by the authors, but use a contact address that you can obtain independently, for example from the reviewer's university web page.</li>\n<li>Verify very carefully that there's no conflict of interests for that reviewer, for example joint publications, same affiliations also in the recent past, or similar.</li>\n<li>Don't make a decision if you only have reviews from author-suggested reviewers, but have at least one independently chosen reviewer.</li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47029",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6103/"
] |
47,039 |
<p>Is there any research/study that looked at the extent to which the prospect of a guaranteed-for-life job (tenure) motivate researchers to stay in academia?</p>
<p>I am most interested in the United States and the field of computer science.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47873,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'll respond based on anecdotal evidence, but over 30+ years, worrying about my several PhD students, and partly in a role as director of grad studies in math, giving career advice, etc. My experience is in math, not comp sci, though.</p>\n\n<p>In any case, even 25 years ago, it was clear (both anecdotally and documentably by the AMS at the time, although not so accessibly, due to lack of internet...) that the \"golden days\" of academic math (at least) were waning, because of growth of PhD production that surpassed growth of academic positions. There had indeed been a boom of branch campuses, but that had roughly stabilized c. 1990. Some very good people (including some of my own students) got tenure at a branch campus in rural areas, but/and decided that the heavy teaching load and isolation was not what they'd signed on for.</p>\n\n<p>By the mid-90s, the job market was consistently tight enough so that new PhDs with partners very often opted for non-academic trajectories, but so they'd not have to commute crazy distances, and so they could have a family with both parents participating. Hard to argue with that. The former \"monastic\" model of academe, or of infinitely-accommodating spouse, etc., is not acceptable these days. (I've tried long-distance stuff myself, too, and, sad-to-report, it really only works well when one is secretly glad to be apart... uh,...)</p>\n\n<p>In the last several years, some of the most able and motivated grad students have had the sense to realize that, in particular, their chances to make a big-enough contribution to get a permanent job at an R1 place were pretty slim... and they didn't want to stay in academe \"at all costs\", so shifted their energies to avenues where being smart, motivated, and hard working had a better chance to pay off (these days). (See @DavidZ's comment.) </p>\n\n<p>I've followed up with some of the people who <em>did</em> stay in academe and settled in relatively remote areas at small branch campuses, and, while they're \"ok\", they have \"confessed\" that it wasn't at all what they'd hoped for. Some speculation (obviously plausible) that without forced retirement, there's a lot of \"waiting around\" for better positions to open. (Not unlike situations in Europe, as I gather from friends there, where saturation had occurred much earlier, apart from mandatory retirement issues.)</p>\n\n<p>The palpable corporatization and commodification (or at least the greater visibility of it) of higher education does also seem to have a consistently disenchanting effect on undergrads' choices about what to do after their B.S. in math (e.g., going to work for an insurance company... is (even?) more attractive now than it may have been in the past, and for some people seems vastly more viable than \"grad school\"...)</p>\n\n<p>Although I suppose one should always be wary that possibly one's own cumulative disenchantment interferes with perceptions of others' opinions, I do have a rough idea of our local \"stats\" about academic versus non-academic positions for PhD'd people: once upon a time, everybody went into academe, but nowadays perhaps as many as 1/3 of each year's PhD's do not.</p>\n\n<p>Even disregarding the mandatory retirement issue, it's simply not a time of expansion for higher ed... but/and the element of Ponzi-scheme of academe has no mechanism built in to reduce PhD production without finding someone else (adjunct faculty!?!) to exploit... or else (in the case of math) teaching loads would skyrocket, etc.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47877,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>(This answer is about tenure in the United States.) </p>\n\n<p>One convincing economic interpretation of tenure is that it is a form of non-monetary compensation. Of course, not every field is ripe with high-paying industry jobs. But academia is generally full of bright and motivated people who could do other things if they chose to leave academia, and salaries in academia are often lower than jobs in industry. This is particularly true in computer science at the moment, because of the booming tech sector. Tenure helps universities keep at least some faculty who might otherwise leave. </p>\n\n<p>Sure, someone might be able to raise their salary by leaving academia, but they would also gain more employment risk. Small businesses (e.g. startup companies) often fail, and even larger businesses often lay off workers by the hundreds. By comparison, universities may seem quite stable, and with tenure someone has a much higher expectation of not needing to look for alternate employment. So the security of tenure may help to compensate (through lower risk) for the lower salary. </p>\n\n<p>There are changing circumstances in higher education, and the analysis just presented may not be as compelling as it was 20 year ago. Not all universities seem very stable nowadays. And there are challenges with the tenure system that evolved in the 20th century. But perhaps the bigger question is whether academia, by promoting security over salary, might over-attract people who are simply risk-averse, rather than those would would be the best professors. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47039",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/452/"
] |
47,053 |
<p>I completed my postgraduate studies in France where, unless I am mistaken, librarians that work in an academic library do more or less the same work as, say, librarians that work in a public library.</p>
<p>When I started to seek information about faculty jobs in Canada, I was struck by the fact that librarians seem to be pretty much considered as faculty.</p>
<p>Is that a fact? Is it the same in the United States? Is in the same in different types of institutions, i.e. more or less research/teaching-oriented?</p>
<p>I have looked at a few faculty collective agreements, and it seems like they usually include librarians. They seem to have pretty much the same working conditions, e.g. in terms of salary, sabbaticals and workload. The last agreement I read specified that librarians have a maximum of 12 hours of "schedules student contacts", in the same article that specifies that professors teach a maximum of 12 credits per year.</p>
<p>I would like to know what exactly is the job of an academic librarian, besides acting as "regular" reference librarians. I suppose they must keep up with the progress in their field and be able to assess the relevance of journal subscriptions and book purchases, but that probably doesn't account for the missing 23–28 hours a week.</p>
<p>Do librarians actually perform and publish research? If so, would that be mostly in their respective field, or in library and library science? Do they have tenure, and is the process similar to the one applied to professors?</p>
<p>Also, how does one become an academic librarian? Do you need an MLIS like a "regular" librarian? Do you need a PhD, and if so, must it be a PhD in library and information science, or in a field related to the position?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47058,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>At many (but by no means all) universities in the US and Canada, professional librarians (usually with a terminal Master's of Library Science degree or perhaps a PhD in some academic discipline) are treated as members of the faculty, including eligibility for tenure, participation in shared governance, etc. </p>\n\n<p>In many other universities, librarians are staff members and not considered part of the faculty. In a few places, there is a mixture with some librarians on the tenure track and other librarians who might have an MLS degree who are strictly staff members. Most libraries also have lots of support staff and student employees who aren't professional librarians. </p>\n\n<p>In places where librarians are considered faculty, they are usually expected to be involved in some kind of scholarly (research) activity and in teaching students. For example, a librarian who specializes in archival collections might produce a catalog of a special archive and publish it. Librarians often teach courses in how to use the library to do research and might be involved in teaching courses in library science to future librarians. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 192111,
"author": "Michael S.",
"author_id": 166358,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/166358",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Librarians are awarded tenure at the City University of New York. The educational requirements are an MLS and a subject Master's degree or an MLS and/or Ph.D. Like tenured professorships, librarians must publish. I suppose there are a few exceptions, but most follow these requirements.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47053",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7788/"
] |
47,057 |
<p>I received an associates degree in computer science from a junior college and then transfered to an university to pursue my bachelors degree. I am almost finished with that and I plan on continuing towards a masters degree. A lot of classmates tell me that you should get your masters degree from a different school then the one your received your bachelors from. Is this true? Why? Should you get your PhD from the same school your got your masters? </p>
<p>EDIT:
Thank you all! This helps me a lot!</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47060,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It is commonly accepted that it is generally better for a student who is going on to an academic career to get their PhD at a different institution from where they got their MS. For an academic, the place where you got your PhD is generally more important than where you got your bachelor's degree and that it is important to have a PhD from the very best program that you can get into. Studies have shown that PhDs from the top programs are much more successful than PhDs from lower ranked programs. </p>\n\n<p>There are lots of middle tier universities with good undergraduate programs that adequately prepare students for graduate study but that don't have very strong graduate programs. If you're at one of those institutions, then you'd be well advised to \"move up\" to a better institution for your PhD. </p>\n\n<p>You've asked this question specifically about your MS degree, where this is much less of an issue. If you're getting a terminal masters and planning to work in industry, then it probably won't hurt to get your BS and MS at the same institution. If you're planning to get your BS and MS at the same institution and then go somewhere else for a PhD then having gotten your BS and MS at the same institution won't be a problem either. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47075,
"author": "Brett",
"author_id": 35718,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35718",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As for your question regarding Why?</p>\n\n<p>As far as I understand this is to be able to get more academic exposure to different ideas. One could imagine that someone who trained for around 8-10 years in the same place might leave with some bias from working with the same people and being exposed to the same ideas for that period of time.</p>\n\n<p>I completed my BS and MS at the same university and then traded institutions for my PhD. This wasn't as much for academic exposure as finding the best program for me. However, having made the switch I have appreciated the different environment and meeting new people. I have only positive things to say about going to a different institution for more advanced degrees.</p>\n\n<p>This advice is most relevant when considering institutions for a PhD. Someone who is pursuing a terminal masters degree probably doesn't need to worry much about going to a different institution.</p>\n\n<p>Of course you will find many people who agree and disagree with this rule. I know several people who got all their degrees from the same institution and are doing just fine and others who decided to go to a different institution. The bottom line is you need to find the program that is going to fit you best.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47079,
"author": "Khinzar W. Pyae",
"author_id": 35776,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35776",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is not necessary to get your masters degree from a different school then the one your received your bachelors from. The choice is entirely yours. Although there are a few things to consider while making your choice;</p>\n\n<p>1) the job prospects in the area: what are the chances of you getting accepted by your potential employers. </p>\n\n<p>2) your choice of subject and area: Computer Science is one of the STEM subjects which has favorable job prospects all across the US. But it would be easier for you if you were to earn a degree New York then job hunt in New York rather than in Alaska. </p>\n\n<p>3) research and compare the reputations of Unis and tuition fees: it would do any good if you found out that your undergraduate uni has greater reputation than your new uni. The reputation of a Uni matters to quite an extent when you are getting a job after all your studies.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/11
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47057",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35618/"
] |
47,063 |
<p>I find myself constantly being told I should not intentionally jot down example problems but understand the core logic of a topic. But some of my high level math classes tend to have very few examples and mainly definitions, i.e. words. Is it sound to keep a notebook of example problems related to the topic so you have a more practical understanding of the subject?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47081,
"author": "Nox",
"author_id": 34771,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34771",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To answer your question: Yes you should.</p>\n\n<p>As has been noted already by fuesika you should think about the problems, but ultimately you become better at something by practicing it. Being a physics student I found it very helpful for the understanding of some of the graduate courses in math to have a set of problems/examples. A set of exmples or practical problems (here: real-world problems) allowed me to see the core use of the mathematical statements. Sometimes math is an art stating something easily understandable in a way such that only those initiated in math are able to understand it.</p>\n\n<p>Knowing all the definitions might not hurt you, but it is not a necessary condition for the understanding of a topic. You can learn the definitions etc. in all their beauty after you understand the structure of the subject/course/problem and to this end I think that having a set of problems is indispensable.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47096,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I find myself constantly being told I should not intentionally jog down example problems but to understand the core logic of a topic.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You're offering a false dichotomy. If you can't generate concrete working examples, you don't really understand the definitions; conversely, if you can't prove things from the definitions, you don't really understand the examples. You should <strong>both</strong> work through examples <strong>and</strong> understand the definitions; the two approaches strongly reinforce each other. In particular:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>If you are given only examples, you should figure out appropriate formal definitions and core logic yourself. Aim for both simplicity and generality. Look for weird corner cases. Work out new examples that stress-test your definitions.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you are given only formal definitions and few or no examples, you should work out several new examples yourself. Aim for examples that both illustrate and stress-test the definitions. Together your examples should exercise <em>every</em> case, <em>every</em> word, and <em>every</em> symbol in the definitions. Failure to cover the definitions completely may mean that the definitions can be simplified; success may mean that the definitions can be generalized.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Write everything down. Fail, revise, repeat.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47097,
"author": "Penguin_Knight",
"author_id": 6450,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6450",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, I believe it's a good idea.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I find myself constantly being told I should not intentionally jog\n down example problems but to understand the core logic of a topic.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It depends on how it's done. If the speaker or instructor puts an example up that you can later retrieve and he/she is focusing on telling you about the underlying logic, then lay down the pen and listen actively first. Most of the times this kind of comments were given when instructors want to give a fuller picture but everyone is just scribbling madly.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it sound to keep a notebook of example problems related to the\n topic so you have a more practical understanding of the subject?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, but be flexible about the linkage between question and the underlying theory. Do not silo a certain question into a theory or vice versa. Instead, frequently revisit them and evaluate how different questions and theories can be interchanged, compared, combined, contrasted, etc. Some software function like hyperlinks and tags on EverNote would be an ideal tool to do that.</p>\n\n<p>An added advantage is that if you later become a TA or a faculty you would have a good collection of applications. So, do yourself a favor and note the source of your examples as well so that you don't have to frantically look for them later.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47107,
"author": "Dan",
"author_id": 35620,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35620",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think it's important to know questions and how they might be asked so you won't be blown away during tests. I normally find myself better prepared if I know HOW questions are going to be asked since each test and teacher/professor might ask it in a different way. </p>\n\n<p>But if you are recording the question to memorize the answer, then yes that would fall into the pattern of not understanding the fundamentals. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47063",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34910/"
] |
47,064 |
<p>My dentist is Dr. Wang and my physician is Dr. O'Connor but I also refer to my professor as Dr. </p>
<p>Are these the same titles? Did they all achieve what it took to get a Dr. title?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47065,
"author": "Tom Au",
"author_id": 755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>These \"doctors\" typically all took at least eight years of college work (four undergraduate, four graduate) to get their degrees. In the case of medical doctors, there was usually a long internship involved, although PhDs often take internships or teaching positions alongside their degree work.</p>\n\n<p>Most doctors are PhD's, (doctors of philosophy) with a lot of academic knowledge, while medical doctors (M.D.s or D.O.s) have loads of \"work experience\" in addition to their academic credentials.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47068,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>While all those titles share the same <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_%28title%29\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">linguistic roots</a>, obviously, the meaning is somewhat different. When referring to a Ph.D., term <em>doctor</em> is used in the context of <em>general knowledge</em> acquisition. That is why the full title is <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Philosophy\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">doctor of philosophy</a>, where philosophy implies \"love of wisdom\". On the other hand, a medical doctor (M.D.) or Doctor of Osteopathic medicine (D.O.) title or one of <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_degree\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">dental doctor titles</a> refers to a specialist in one or more areas of medicine. A relatively popular alternative term for medical doctor is <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">physician</a>, which some people might confuse with with physicist. The origins of the word \"physician\" and its relation to the word \"doctor\" are discusses in <a href=\"http://www.sciencefriday.com/segment/01/28/2011/science-diction-the-origin-of-physician.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this interesting article</a> in <em>Science Friday</em>.</p>\n\n<p>The original meaning of the word \"doctor\" as \"license to teach\" has likely been transferred to the medicine knowledge domain IMHO due to the important role of one of the cornerstones of science that medicine played at that particular time period and place (medieval Europe). You may also find additional interesting information in <a href=\"https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/57387/which-was-the-first-doctor-m-d-or-ph-d\">this related discussion</a> on <em>StackExchange</em>.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47064",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34910/"
] |
47,069 |
<p>I'm currently applying for lecturing jobs at a couple of universities (in the US), and one of these is a place that had accepted me in its Ph.D. program a few years back, an offer which I ended up turning down to go somewhere else (this was done in a very courteous way and I do not believe I left a bad impression).</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Do you think my history with the school could have an adverse effect on my current application? </p></li>
<li><p>If not, is there any reason to mention somehow that I applied to their graduate program (I'm worried that if I avoid the "elephant in the room" they might become suspicious)? </p></li>
</ol>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47070,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are many reasons why people choose to go to one program over the other. While there might be some thin-skinned people, I don't think that should lead you to rule out applying. Since applying to a job at a school is minimal cost to you, you should go ahead and do it.</p>\n\n<p>Much more likely is that the only person who remembers is the person who would have been your POI. I wouldn't bring it up unless someone asks.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47089,
"author": "T K",
"author_id": 12656,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12656",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is not bad. I did this exact thing. Hopefully they remember the application and the good things they thought about you!</p>\n\n<p>I had personally met with someone that I wanted to be my advisor for my PhD and then ended up going somewhere else for my PhD. Five years later, I explicitly asked the person I turned down to be my PhD advisor to be my Postdoc sponsor for a grant I was applying for. I am now his postdoc. He had remembered me, and now we have a great working relationship. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47094,
"author": "Stephanie",
"author_id": 32695,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32695",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As others have said, basically go for it!\nI just wanted to add the following responses.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>No, they gave you an offer and you weren't rude so it will only be positive if they do remember it. </p></li>\n<li><p>Don't bring it up but if they do, use the opportunity to say that you applied previously because you believe it is a good school and still do!</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>There are lots of opportunities to twist any awkward questions around this into a big positive, discussing how you have developed since your PhD, what you have gained/can bring to the school, what you liked about it then and now etc.\nThe worst question would be why did you turn down our PhD offer X years ago, it would be <strong>very</strong> weird for them to ask this as its irrelevant really. If they did, just make sure you could say something suggesting the school is the best option for you <strong>now</strong> and at this stage of your career.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47125,
"author": "einpoklum",
"author_id": 7319,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7319",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is quite likely the people considering your lectureship candidacy are not aware you were accepted as a Ph.D. candidate and declined eventually. Probable, even, unless it's a very small department.</p>\n\n<p>So my answers are: \"Naah\" and \"Dude, no. Don't. Seriously.\"</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47069",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35198/"
] |
47,077 |
<p>I am a student from Greece, studying Rural and Surveying Engineering at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) which is a 5-year minimum diploma involving 61 courses and a thesis (300 ECTS).</p>
<p>My goal is to get admitted to a master's degree program on Civil Eng and I am looking at the Colorado state universities because I have a relative there that can provide a place to stay.</p>
<p>So the question arises: </p>
<ul>
<li>Do I have any chance of admission since I do NOT have a bachelor's in civil engineering? </li>
<li>And if I do get admitted and finish the master's, will I then have the full rights of a civil engineer?</li>
</ul>
<p>In Greece, you only receive full rights via the bachelor's degree and not the master's degree.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47070,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are many reasons why people choose to go to one program over the other. While there might be some thin-skinned people, I don't think that should lead you to rule out applying. Since applying to a job at a school is minimal cost to you, you should go ahead and do it.</p>\n\n<p>Much more likely is that the only person who remembers is the person who would have been your POI. I wouldn't bring it up unless someone asks.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47089,
"author": "T K",
"author_id": 12656,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12656",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is not bad. I did this exact thing. Hopefully they remember the application and the good things they thought about you!</p>\n\n<p>I had personally met with someone that I wanted to be my advisor for my PhD and then ended up going somewhere else for my PhD. Five years later, I explicitly asked the person I turned down to be my PhD advisor to be my Postdoc sponsor for a grant I was applying for. I am now his postdoc. He had remembered me, and now we have a great working relationship. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47094,
"author": "Stephanie",
"author_id": 32695,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32695",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As others have said, basically go for it!\nI just wanted to add the following responses.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>No, they gave you an offer and you weren't rude so it will only be positive if they do remember it. </p></li>\n<li><p>Don't bring it up but if they do, use the opportunity to say that you applied previously because you believe it is a good school and still do!</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>There are lots of opportunities to twist any awkward questions around this into a big positive, discussing how you have developed since your PhD, what you have gained/can bring to the school, what you liked about it then and now etc.\nThe worst question would be why did you turn down our PhD offer X years ago, it would be <strong>very</strong> weird for them to ask this as its irrelevant really. If they did, just make sure you could say something suggesting the school is the best option for you <strong>now</strong> and at this stage of your career.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47125,
"author": "einpoklum",
"author_id": 7319,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7319",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is quite likely the people considering your lectureship candidacy are not aware you were accepted as a Ph.D. candidate and declined eventually. Probable, even, unless it's a very small department.</p>\n\n<p>So my answers are: \"Naah\" and \"Dude, no. Don't. Seriously.\"</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47077",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35773/"
] |
47,084 |
<p>I was thinking about getting my masters in November 2015 or May 2016 (An 18 month masters) but I was wondering if its possible to start my PhD research from now, I have an idea of what my research would be and I think it will save me time when I actually apply for PhD, I understand that a lot of changes will come once i finish my masters and enroll for PhD, but the question is; is the research that ill start now would be acceptable and valid for my PhD?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47091,
"author": "sillyfellow",
"author_id": 35790,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35790",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I actually did what you are proposing, skipped my MS and went straight for a PhD in genetics instead. Also, based on my experience I had a bunch of concerns for you but I can't post much - the program insists I have untoward motives because I don't know your income situation, not that I want to know at all! Great. Last time I'll post here.</p>\n\n<p>There are positives and negatives to this decision and in the end, you may not think going straight for a PhD is worth it. First and foremost, will you be paid a stipend while obtaining a Masters? If so, will it be the same amount as you would make while working on PhD, and are he conditions the same, i.e. will you be a teaching assistant the entire time for both degrees or will the PhD allow you to focus mainly on your research with little other responsibilities for the stipend? </p>\n\n<p>What they did to me was blatant \"carrot\" manipulation. I was offered a lot more to enroll in a PhD program and skip the MS. And hey, they had already accepted me as an MS candidate, they just targeted me as good slave labor :) I think I should have stuck to my guns and gotten the MS first. The classes in my case would have been identical and wouldn't have been repeated moving onto the PhD if I had stayed at the same institution - find out about that as well - what is the curriculum like between the two degrees? Will any classes have to be repeated, especially if you change institutions? If you have a good idea where you want to be as well as what you want to be doing (and you are stating that you do know what you want to study), ask the second institution (or the first one if you plan to stay) about repetitious classes. </p>\n\n<p>As far as continuing on the same or similar track of inquiry, make certain if you plan on staying in one place they are good with that plan. But honestly, if you are getting two degrees, take advantage of the switch. Use your Masters to gain extra skills (by classes or experience) that you may not have planned on picking up if going straight for the PhD. The broader your education, no matter what the field, the better you will see the big picture and its underlying minutiae simultaneously. A broader knowledge base can only aid you in designing strategies to solve problems and make testable connections between superficially disparate subjects. If you switch institutions, you might find it even easier to stay inline with your original goal. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47101,
"author": "mhwombat",
"author_id": 10529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10529",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are advantages and disadvantages to each. I did the MSc first, researching a topic that I had been interested in for years. I never thought my topic would have any commercial appeal... but after my MSc I got hired by a company based on my research. So now I'm doing a PhD, continuing my research (much of it on company time, since it has applications for them), and am getting a nice salary (much better than a PhD stipend).</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47084",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35782/"
] |
47,085 |
<p>I had the impression that in general, PhD programs are the only really "free" ones in higher education in those typically high cost English-speaking countries that they charge no tuition, pay you to do research, teach, do scut work etc., give stipend, maybe free housing. On the other hand, masters degree program would charge big tuition, less assistantship opportunities, likely no stipend? Even in Science. Is that right?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47090,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the US, PhD students typically have their tuition paid by the federal grant that also pays them a salary or waived by their universities. It is not exactly free, but it may be paid on your behalf. </p>\n\n<p>My understanding is that also typically <em>any</em> student paid on a grant as a graduate research assistant has their tuition paid. This covers master's and PhD students. I don't recall if this is my institution's policy or NSF's, but it is pretty common. </p>\n\n<p>These are both common situations, but neither is guaranteed. The vast majority PhD students in STEM have their tuition covered somehow and also get work as GRAs or TAs or have some sort of fellowship or stipend. There are lots of models. Universities don't want to take on a long-term (4-6+ years) commitment to get a PhD student through to their dissertation while running the risk they might have to leave or work an unrelated job to cover costs. Master's students are less commitment (2ish years), but there are opportunities for them, too. </p>\n\n<p>The vast majority of GRA seekers that cold email me looking for positions are master's students without a job looking to get their tuition covered and make a half-time salary. PhD students mostly don't have to do this because they get some sort of package when they are admitted. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47095,
"author": "Stephanie",
"author_id": 32695,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32695",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the UK, competitive scholarships and bursaries are sometimes available. Unlike PhD funding, masters bursaries do not typically cover living costs. </p>\n\n<p>UK: <a href=\"http://www.findamasters.com/funding/guides/masters-funding-guide.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.findamasters.com/funding/guides/masters-funding-guide.aspx</a><br>\n France: <a href=\"http://www.findamasters.com/funding/guides/masters-funding-france.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.findamasters.com/funding/guides/masters-funding-france.aspx</a><br>\nUSA: <a href=\"http://www.findamasters.com/funding/guides/masters-funding-usa.aspx\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.findamasters.com/funding/guides/masters-funding-usa.aspx</a></p>\n\n<p>This site is useful for those looking for masters degrees and the links are useful for information on general funding. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47085",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35783/"
] |
47,098 |
<p>I am an open-minded Indian student and I will be going to Germany to join the University of Bonn for my masters in Computer Science. I have planned <strong>a monthly budget of € 830</strong> including studentenwerk fees, which the university noted me will be no more than € 350. Old students say that it averages to € 250 or something leaving me with € 580. Will that be sufficient for me to eat for a month at a Mensa (I plan to cook in the evenings though) or say maybe watch one movie a month or maybe take a weekend trip to Köln?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47100,
"author": "JP Janet",
"author_id": 28045,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28045",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am an international master's student in Berlin. According to <a href=\"http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=Germany&city1=Berlin&country2=Germany&city2=Bonn\" rel=\"nofollow\">this</a>, Bonn is a tiny bit cheaper than Berlin on average. I live pretty comfortably on €900 per month all inclusive, and I am pretty sure I could get by with less. The big question is rent, which costs me something like €260 pm. So I would say you'll be fine. </p>\n\n<p>I'll add that I have to pay compulsory membership fees for the student union every term. I have to pay mine in a lump at the beginning of the term, something like €360 for the semester. Check with your university as this was a little bit of an unpleasant surprise.</p>\n\n<p>I originally answered the second, slightly off-topic part of the question. I agree it is not on-topic for academia.se. I have edited it out. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47103,
"author": "Wrzlprmft",
"author_id": 7734,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Less than a decade ago, I lived in Bonn as a student for less than 500 € per month, doing pretty much what you describe. I do not know the exact numbers as I had more money available (I simply did not spend it). As inflation was not that bad, what you try to do should be possible.</p>\n\n<p>However, here are some points to consider:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>In the last years the German equivalent of high school has been reduced by one year in many states of Germany which lead to twice as many people finishing high-school in recent years. As a considerable number of these people study afterwards, this has lead to a temporal increase of the number of students and thus to a housing shortage specifically for students. After what I heard, Bonn is affected particularly strongly by this. This may increase the rent you have to expect.</p></li>\n<li><p>The easiest way to obtain a cheap accomodation is from the Studentenwerk. It may help to apply as early as possible and look for out-of-schedule offers from them regularly. In particular, they may have a contingent of appartment that they only rent to foreign students and are thus not affected by the previous point. Another advantage is that you do not have to hassle with organising electricity, heating, Internet access yourself as you often have to with privately rent appartments.</p></li>\n<li><p>I do not know how health insurance works for foreign students in Germany. As I am German, it was free for me. This may cause some additional costs for you.</p></li>\n<li><p>The above assumes that you only consume what is necessary for life (and maybe not the cheapest food). E.g., if you consume relevant quantities of alcohol, coffee, cigarettes or other drugs, you have to take this into account.</p></li>\n<li><p>Assuming that this is what you are referring to with <em>Studentenwerk fees,</em> there are fees of about 250 € that you have to pay once per semester. While you must pay them, they grant you free access to public transport in all of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Rhine-Westphalia\" rel=\"nofollow\">North Rhine-Westphalia</a> (with the exception of high-speed trains) and reduced prices at the student canteen (mensa) amongst others. So, travelling to Köln is free. Something similar holds for most if not all German universities.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47104,
"author": "Alex Mitrevski",
"author_id": 21951,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21951",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I've been living in Bonn for about two years now and have a monthly budget that is lower than yours (750€), but I find that this is more than enough for a relatively normal life. You should be fine as long as you live in a Studentenwerk dorm; I myself live in such a dorm and have to pay about 300€ monthly (a fee that includes both rent and utilities).</p>\n\n<p>You also have to pay semester fees to your university, but that's just once a semester and it's not such a big deal (~250€ in general).</p>\n\n<p>By the way, I am a scholarship holder, so I didn't mention health insurance as part of my costs; the DAAD is paying this for me. You should count on about 80€ for that as well.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47098",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35793/"
] |
47,106 |
<p>I have done my undergrad in electronics from India and want to do a masters in computer science. My initial goal was to do it from a good university but I got rejected from all the ones that I applied to, even though I have very good GRE scores but an average GPA (68% approx = 3.1) with no industry experience. I got acceptance from a university in TX that has no rank published on usnews rankings. </p>
<p>Should I accept going to low/no rank university now or should I try again next year?</p>
<p>Secondly, is it okay to request the university to defer the admission for a year so that I can apply for better universities next year? I think it's highly unlikely that the university will hold the spot for me for an year but still asking to get some advice.
Thanks in advance for helping me on this.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47108,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>(1) Should I accept going to low/no rank university now or should I try again next year?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You must go to USA first. The world is changing every now and then. You never know what will happen next year. You can have the Visa, go there, and, you will always have the opportunity to change your university.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>(2) is it okay to request the university to defer the admission for a year so that I can apply for better universities next year?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If the university has a provision to do so, they will. For example, I got acceptance from UCD, Dublin, Ireland. They have a provision to do so. So, I paid the registration fee and they reserved my acceptance for the next year. But, It is highly unlikely that I would go there.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47116,
"author": "Rhonda",
"author_id": 35487,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35487",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>At the end of the day your knowledge matters, not what is written on paper.</p>\n\n<p>Of course getting Degree from Indian Institute of Technology (for example, since you are probably from India) is only a guide for how competent you are.</p>\n\n<p>In my life I have seen</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>people from IIT who are doing excellent, such as founder of Sun Microsystems, Executive staff of Cisco</p></li>\n<li><p>CEO of Microsoft got education from ok school but he proved his competence with results</p></li>\n<li><p>people from IIT are in so-so jobs because their parents pressured them to attend but weren't interested, etc (this is common in Indian culture)</p></li>\n<li><p>people like Mittals and Ambanis who were nowhere near an IIT but look at them, they are top self-made billionaires from a India, a country where it is more difficult to achieve such status than say, USA</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Although getting into a prestigious school is quite impressive at the end of the day you show the employer (and most importantly yourself) </p>\n\n<p>how knowledgeable</p>\n\n<p>how competent</p>\n\n<p>how enthusiastic </p>\n\n<p>you are about the subject.</p>\n\n<p>I say go to this ordinary University for now and get an appreciation for what is being taught.</p>\n\n<p>If you feel the courses are too slow, you can always transfer to more prestigious University.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47117,
"author": "GKS",
"author_id": 35670,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35670",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are couple of things to be considered: \nFirstly, unlike India, where companies visit colleges and most of the recruitment takes place in campus; in the USA, recruitments are mostly off campus. So, if yoy are good enough to be in Google (say), you can get there irrespective of the rank of your grad school. \nOn the other side, grad schools give you great connections. You are most likely to have people with great future in your connections if you end up at MIT or other high tier universities. And, trust me, that's an important thing. </p>\n\n<p>I believe a lot of universities allow deferring the admit for an year. You can give it a shot.</p>\n\n<p>But again, I also want you to be realistic on what you think of yourself. If you think you can make to a much better school, it would be worth waiting.</p>\n\n<p>Decision lies in your hands!!!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47208,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Please don't rely only on a ranking to figure out if a particular university is the right place for you. Here is what you can look at instead:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>course offerings at the candidate university</p></li>\n<li><p>schedule of classes for next fall and spring -- this is important, because some institutions list mouth-watering courses which are almost never offered in practice</p></li>\n<li><p>faculty profiles</p></li>\n<li><p>faculty publications</p></li>\n<li><p>opportunities for student research projects and collaboration with industry</p></li>\n<li><p>the institution's commitment to assisting students with their job search</p></li>\n<li><p>their calendar of events to see what sort of seminar talks and cultural events take place there</p></li>\n<li><p>their list of student clubs, to see if you will find like-minded souls there</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47106",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35800/"
] |
47,111 |
<p>I am a student who has to do public speaking in front of other students at my university. </p>
<p>What would be the most effective way to start the presentation so that my audience doesn't get bored within the first few seconds?</p>
<p>Starting with "Hi, I am Bob. I study Chemistry and I will talk about squirrels today" sounds extremely boring.</p>
<p>Is there any general structure that should be used, so it can be used in any presentation topic? </p>
<p>Is there even any need to introduce yourself? As I've been heard the audience doesn't care about what your name is or what your job is, just what you will be talking about.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47113,
"author": "NoName",
"author_id": 20016,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20016",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It depends on where you're presenting and who you're presenting to. If this seminar/conference/class has a moderator who introduces you, then you don't need to introduce yourself. Typically, this will be the case, instead of them just sending you on stage without an introduction.</p>\n\n<p>Either way, begin your presentation with a motivating example, which might also explain why you're qualified to talk about the subject to your audience. \"You might not think chemistry has a lot to do with squirrels, but it was recently discovered that squirrels' pineal glands secrete a unique chemical that...\"</p>\n\n<p>Since you're speaking to other students, be sure to keep the talk at a level that they can understand without a particular background in your field. And once you've started well, do the rest of the presentation well too.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47114,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would still briefly introduce myself - it is IMHO simply disrespectful to an audience not to do that.</p>\n\n<p>As for the very first minutes of presentation, I suggest starting with some fascinating and/or little-known <em>facts</em> (or <em>mysteries</em>) about your topic (i.e., <em>\"did you know squirrels can do (have) ...\"</em>). That should grab your audience's attention. Now, to keep it that way, you have to smoothly transition to your main content, unfolding the story line and painting a big picture by presenting material in a larger context. The <strong>flow</strong> of the story is one of the most important aspects of a good presentation. Easier said than done, but you should strive for it.</p>\n\n<p>Another (additional) approach to keep your audience's attention is to periodically <strong>interact</strong> with people during presentation, time permitting. A dialog should be designed in such way that you initiate it at specific, appropriate places during your presentation. It doesn't mean that you should stop interaction, if it happens elsewhere, but you have to plan your breakpoints, nevertheless.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, depending on a venue, audience and topic, an appropriate use of <strong>audio-visual tools</strong> might be a very good idea. For example, you can start your presentation by showing a <em>slideshow</em> with fascinating images or a brief <em>video</em>, illustrating problem and/or solutions that you will be presenting afterwards. Try to apply some creativity to your presentation and you won't have to worry about being boring and trying to catch your audience's attention. Hope this helps. Good luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47120,
"author": "Rhonda",
"author_id": 35487,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35487",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's best to give a brief introduction as others mentioned, but I don't think there is a right or wrong structure.</p>\n\n<p>I have been to conferences where high ranking officers (we're talking one and two-stars in the US military) would use lot of humor and interesting graphics in their presentations. They were knowledgeable AND were at ease with the audience, as if they are friends.</p>\n\n<p>No need to be stuffy if the audience is more professional .... honestly a presentation where it sounds like you are presenting to your best friend is the most entertaining, because it's real.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47205,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Take into account that your first couple of sentences will mainly be useful as a way for people to get attuned to your voice.</p>\n\n<p>Start with a slide with your topic, your name, your affiliation, and any acknowledgments you might have.</p>\n\n<p>Next you might want to have something that functions as an outline of what's to come, in very broad terms.</p>\n\n<p>A lot depends on how formal or informal this talk is supposed to be. If it's okay to be informal, you can talk at some point about how you became interested in the topic. If you have any cartoons that are relevant to your material, that is a good way of keeping people awake.</p>\n\n<p>Do give a friend your talk beforehand as a rehearsal.</p>\n\n<p>Do not stare at the screen during your delivery.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47111",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35805/"
] |
47,115 |
<p>There are often theories published by scientists in both the hard sciences and social sciences based on new understanding of fundamental science and better data collecting mechanisms that runs in opposite to the prevailing theories of the day (or it is not politically correct). </p>
<p>I am reminded of the case of Darwin and Galileo and many modern cases that presents alternative theory to a side of an argument that has long been thought of as quack science of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. </p>
<p>Science is all about objectivity, if we were to find that "gun ownership decrease gun deaths" or "sexual orientation can be changed later in life" or "our universe is 11 dimensions and made up of little vibrating strings" or "vaccination causes serious and incurable side effects" then scientifically speaking we should accept these results despite that they run counter to our intuition and are not exactly the most politically correct thing to say in our time. In fact, even mentioning this decreases my credibility in some circles.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, in some of these cases, when research is done it so happens that in the next few decades it captures little attention (again Galileo) or due to lack of interest or funding, so that there are literally only one or two person on one side of an argument.</p>
<p>When presenting these theories to friends or colleagues, I sometimes face scrutiny that this explanation has support from only one or two theorists (especially if those theorists are prominent i.e. Freud, Judith Butler, Zizek, Pew Research, Gallup) so it is not credible. People keep on telling me I should find more and more people to support my argument because "anyone can find quack scientists" or "anyone can find hollow earth supporters". When I find another study that supports a theory, people then tell me I should find even more people because only then "a hypothesis can become an evidence".</p>
<p>So how many scientists does it really take to establish a theory? What does it mean to establish a theory? i.e. the theory of gravitation, the theory of evolution.</p>
<p>Note: I am asking here because people are significantly more well read and objective than some other forums.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47118,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Although superficially the question need not concern \"academia\" per se, in fact, perhaps, a saner reformulation (and tentative answer) can be given if the question is put into a \"more academic\" context, rather than \"coffee shop\" or \"sports bar\" context.</p>\n\n<p>That is, deconstructing (?) the situation is helpful. </p>\n\n<p>Unsurprisingly, the premise of the question is misguided, in the sense that one would suspect that your \"critics\" are not proposing <em>rational</em> critiques of whatever you're talking about, but are merely \"stonewalling\", that is, finding ways to object no matter what you say. The good news is that probably those peoples' worldviews ought not deeply concern you... oops, except that maybe they're your friends.</p>\n\n<p>But, as in other comments, the question is not \"how many people endorse it\", although it may appear to be so. Indeed, disturbingly, some ridiculous things (essentially provably nonsensical) are believed by huge numbers of people, due to the <em>appeal</em> those beliefs have ... for other reasons. Not because of \"evidence\".</p>\n\n<p>The underlying difficulty, to my perception, is something like this: we <em>must</em> assimilate some basic functions (walking across a room without falling or crashing into things, getting through the doorway...) to a very subliminal degree, or our minds would be too busy worrying about such stuff (\"breath in, breath out\") that we couldn't do anything else. However, this tendency seeps over into <em>everything</em>, so that \"we\" (human animals) try to make everything as automated/subliminal as possible. Ergo, desiring the simplest, most uniform notion of ... every idea. Pity that this is not quite feasible?</p>\n\n<p>Especially young-ish people who've been a bit sheltered (good for them, in many regards! Experiencing hardship may be educational, but it's not a moral virtue!) \"wish\" that things would not be so messy as they (evidently, especially if one reads books, etc.) are. </p>\n\n<p>There does seem to be a special anti-intellectual trend in the U.S., which is a bit complicated to account for. But, yes, in the U.S. ignorance is less an embarrassment than elsewhere, and this gets many idiotic discussions started...</p>\n\n<p>If you could get your antagonists to be a bit honest, and consider the criterion of \"explanation\", as in @Johanna's comment, and disavow \"number of 'likes' as evidence of correctness\", you could have a discussion. The reality is that if those people are inclined to make the sort of objections they did, it's not on grounds that you had exercised shoddy intellectual methods, but that they simply didn't like the conclusions, for irrational reasons, and would find ways to make pseudo-legitimate, pseudo-intellectual objections ... no matter what you said.</p>\n\n<p>The rhetorical devices, especially evasions, that people sometimes consciously use (cf. politics), and sometimes instinctively use, are endless...</p>\n\n<p>The real answer is that people who want to believe something-or-other will not be persuaded otherwise by anything at all. So if you can speculate that that's the case, there's no point in having any discussion, either. Too bad.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47123,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A theory is \"established\" when it makes reliable predictions, has withstood all tests thrown at it, and for those reasons has been accepted as a practical working model of the system in question. </p>\n\n<p>Note that a statement which can not be tested in a statistically valid manner is not science; at best it's philosophy. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/12
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47115",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20070/"
] |
47,124 |
<p>This question is already asked <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/41897/what-type-of-gift-could-i-give-to-my-phd-advisor">here</a>. But I found the answers unhelpful, so I would like to ask again, and narrow to the case the advisor is Italian (but has lived in the UK for 20 years).</p>
<p>I would like to buy a gift, so suggestions such as in the accepted answer "<em>be someone who is easy to advise</em>" is not helpful. I already finish my PhD anyway.</p>
<p>I am thinking of possible options:</p>
<ul>
<li>Chocolate (sound informal)</li>
<li>Shirt (I don't know his size)</li>
<li>My PhD thesis with beautiful hard-bound cover (I doubt that he will ever read it again)</li>
<li>...</li>
</ul>
<p>Please give me some suggestions. I'm an Asian, and do not know much about European traditions. At first, I intended to invite him (and all people in the group) for a drink on my viva date, but it turned out he insisted to pay for all :(</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47127,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I'm not sure whether the fact that he is Italian makes any difference in the choice of a gift, but anyway here are my suggestions. Maybe they won't help you, but hopefully some students of mine will read this (ha ha!).</p>\n\n<p>Avoid the shirt and your PhD thesis (don't take it personally, but PhD theses don't make a nice night reading...).</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>A good book, if you know his reading tastes, or a gift card to be spent in a bookshop (if you're in London there are wonderful bookshops). If you buy a book you can think of writing inside it a short dedication (so long and thanks for all the fish...) </li>\n<li>A bottle of wine or two. However, as far as I know, it might not be easy to find a good bottle of wine at a reasonable price in UK.</li>\n<li>Chocolate, yes: a chunk or a bar of good dark chocolate is typically welcome. </li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47129,
"author": "Aubrey",
"author_id": 26682,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26682",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From your last sentence, he seems to be a welcoming and generous person: you say he insisted in paying for all. I don't think that happens often (I'm Italian, and I haven't seen many professors offer to the same).</p>\n\n<p>This lead me to think that you should not go for cheap, cheesy gifts. </p>\n\n<p>If he likes to drink, you could:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>buy him a bottle of Scotch (it's a bit expensive, but it's nice and \"formal\")</li>\n<li>find where in Italy he comes from and buy him a bottle of wine from his place. It maybe be difficult to find, but also cheaper than Scotch, and he would probably like the fact that you did a bit of research. It's a <em>warmer</em> gift, I think.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Both of these gifts would be <em>convivial</em> (Italians, as many others, tend to drink together), and that is part of the gift. I would not choose something for him to be consumed alone, and something that is not personal. He seems to like conviviality, so buy something with that in mind. \nA good book that you really liked and you think he could like too is also a nice idea.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47144,
"author": "GEdgar",
"author_id": 4484,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4484",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Instead of something related to Italy, how about something related to your own home? I (in the US) had a student from China; she gave me a tapestry depicting the Great Wall. I still have it hanging here many years later.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Important note: you have finished the Ph.D. Giving gifts <strong>before</strong> that may be seen as an attempt to bribe him. It seems to be the custom in China and Korea to give gifts to the professor, but <strong>not</strong> in the US (probably also not in the UK). Wait until after you are finished, so it won't be seen as an attempt to unfairly influence the professor.</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47124",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15501/"
] |
47,126 |
<p>This question is strongly linked to a previous question of mine:</p>
<p><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/45674/tenured-position-to-be-started-very-soon-what-to-do-with-the-old-affiliation">Tenured position to be started very soon…what to do with the old affiliation</a></p>
<p>Roughly speaking, my situation is the following: I am a non-tenured track researcher who had applied for permanent positions abroad and now I am waiting for notifications (to be known mid-July the latest).</p>
<p>In my present institution we are assumed to make lot of organization duties, and now the head of my research group is pushing me to organize a <em>big</em> conference in July 2016 (big for me means more than 300 people). This means that we should start preparing applications for grants as soon as possible, webdesign, and things like this that take a lot of time. </p>
<p>The organization of this conference is possibly one of the main examples to my current situation: it seems to me that the only talks we have with my boss are concerning the teaching and organizing things during 2016-2017 (which is definitely very far away of my expectations to be in my present institution).</p>
<p>I know, due to the really good advices in the previous post I linked, that I should keep prudent saying things about my application abroad (namely, do not say a word until something is clearer), but now every day he is coming with this type of questions, and this starts being mentally tiring.</p>
<p>How should I manage this?</p>
<p>A more general question (that would contribute in more general sense to the forum) is the following: while having a non-tenured position (3-5 years), which is the horizon that one may have in order to compromise himself/herself with certain duties (organization, applying for research projects that cannot be moved from a country to another, student advising, teaching duties,...)?</p>
<p>Thank you in advances for the suggestions</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47174,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's not so uncommon for a \"local\" conference organizer to have moved to another institution by the time of the conference, but it's good if there are some actual local conference organizers. Since you are part of a research group, it seems reasonable that you will not need to be a sole organizer (this wasn't 100% clear from your question). If you are being asked to be the \"primary\" organizer, you can still do that remotely, but it also makes sense to ask to instead co-organize it with other people.</p>\n\n<p>So I think the main thing you should consider is: <em>how much do you want to be involved with such a conference, regardless of where you'll be?</em></p>\n\n<p>Note organizing duties usually count as \"professional service\" rather than \"university service,\" and organizing conferences can have positive benefits for your career. If you are doing this as \"professional service\" rather than as part of your job duties (and it sounds like this is the case since you are getting asked to do it, rather than told to do it), once you make a committment, you should typically follow through. However, if you do move, then co-organizers are generally pretty understanding that certain aspects are harder for you to do remotely.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47201,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would tell the head of the research group that you are honored that he has selected you to play an important role in the organizing of the conference, and that you would be happy to accept this role, and will do your very best to perform to the best of your abilities in this role, but that you cannot take sole responsibility for this role, in other words, you can only fulfill this duty if you can share the responsibility with a co-organizer. If necessary, make a vague, hand-waving excuse having to do with whatever reason you think might go over best (elder care, new baby, health problems, dealing with several deadlines, New Year's resolution to find a better work-life balance, etc.).</p>\n\n<p>If you have one or two names to suggest for sharing the \"honor\", so much the better.</p>\n\n<p>Basically, your approach to the organizing role needs to be to document, document, document, to make it easier for someone else to step in if you leave.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, it is emotionally tiring to have to lead a double life, but that is the price you have to pay to make your desired move. I admire your courage.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47126",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34718/"
] |
47,137 |
<p>I read that "One difficulty with research problems is that it is hard/impossible to know if the problem is easy or not" or when it can be solved. So how a graduate-research student (i.e., PhD or MRe) knows what to pick as his/her work, and/or how can his/her professor 'predict' it? Because if one knows if it is possible or easy to solve then he/she likely knows also how to solve the problem, hence it is no longer an open question.</p>
<p>If professors can't decide the period of time a project to be finished, how they risk tuition paid by students or scholarships granted?</p>
<p>EDIT - My intention is mostly on Pure Mathematics.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47139,
"author": "Danny Ruijters",
"author_id": 28830,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28830",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Professors/senior researchers typically do an educated guess regarding the time needed to solve a problem, based on earlier experiences with similar problems.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, it is still a guess, and they can be wrong.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47140,
"author": "Patricia Shanahan",
"author_id": 10220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10220",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The interaction between student and professor should not be a one-shot set-a-problem. Instead, they should be talking frequently, often once a week, and adjusting the nature and direction of the project based on what is being learned during it.</p>\n\n<p>The project starts with some idea, from either the professor or the student, that the professor thinks likely to lead to an appropriate outcome within the available time. </p>\n\n<p>As time goes on, the student should come to learn more about the project than the professor, and be reporting progress or lack of progress. The professor should be continuously evaluating whether the current line will lead to a good result, and encouraging redirection if not.</p>\n\n<p>I am sure my doctoral dissertation was not at all what my advisor would have expected when I started on the project - it was a result of things I learned during it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47146,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As alluded to in other comments and answers, I think part of the confusion here (and often in similar inquiries) is due to the notion that there is a well-defined \"problem\" that is either \"solved\" or not. Sure, there are \"long-standing unresolved\" very-specific questions that may admit yes-or-no answers, but, even then, in real life one makes <em>partial</em> progress on things. It's not all-or-nothing.</p>\n\n<p>For that matter, often a very meaningful project can amount to \"try to understand X better\"... where X is a thing worth understanding better. Very amorphous, really. Such situations are exactly where an experienced person can have good hunches about incremental progress, and also be able to appraise the significance of various incremental advances.</p>\n\n<p>This is why most theses, and most research projects viewed \"in the small\", do not have an easily-describable, easily-motivated goal. Indeed, in some cases the acquisition of sufficient technical savvy to understand the short-term goal is a project in itself, and it is often the case that \"understanding the question\" is sufficient to nearly have an answer.</p>\n\n<p>From another angle: it can happen that a project is very plausibly feasible, but the <em>execution</em> of it would require considerable exertion. That is, the thing does not magically do itself. And one never knows with certainty what unexpected intermediate tasks may arise.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47156,
"author": "Jan-Christoph Schlage-Puchta",
"author_id": 30965,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30965",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A good problem given to a Ph.D. student should split into a series of almost certain, quite certain, difficult, hard, and almost unachievable results. A question of the form \"Problem XYZ might be solved using the following new approach. Try it!\" is not a good problem, because after a lot of work you will quite likely get \"No, this approach cannot work because ...\". Such problems are better left for late postdocs or tenured researchers, who can afford to take risks. A good problem is more like \"For all finite groups we expect the following. For abelian groups I can immediately sketch a proof, although filling in the details will take a few pages. For nilpotent groups you can probably proceed by induction. For solvable groups I still expect induction to work, although there are some problems with ... . In general you have to understand ... .\" Furthermore both the student and the advisor have to be flexible to deviate from the original plan of work whenever there is a reasonable chance that something can be found in the neighbourhood.</p>\n\n<p>However, although the advisor has the duty to minimize the risks involved with doing a Ph.D., he cannot eliminate them. I can only be certain that something works, if someone has done it, and then doing it is not a Ph.D. project anymore. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47159,
"author": "Prof. Santa Claus",
"author_id": 35582,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35582",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a professor, I act as a scout for every project my students are working on. I also help students separate the 'wheat from the chaff'. This ensures students do not bark up the wrong tree, go on a wild goose chase, and more importantly, telling me something is impossible because they lack knowledge or are lazy explorers. In addition, this allows me to have back-up plans should a direction fails to pan out. In general, similar to what another reader said, we know what SHOULD work, but the details are left to the student to sort out.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47137",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35647/"
] |
47,141 |
<p>During the course of my post-graduation, a friend and I worked on a personal project in pattern recognition. I honestly am not hesitant to admit that although the technique has a decent result on a publicly available dataset, it is not publication worthy in any journal or conference of note (or so I feel), nor do I (my friend is unavailable now) have enough time or background knowledge in the field to keep working on it till it is.</p>
<p>Can it be published as some kind of academic report or something on a site like arxiv or academia.edu or something? I'm interested predominantly because I'm wondering if this online availability would lend more credence to it being mentioned in my cv - as opposed to merely mentioning it and not having any transcript available.</p>
<p>PS: The method was something we came up with. It was not implemented from somewhere else.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47340,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't think you can publish it in a way that you can derive credit from. But if you want it to be public so someone else can take the ball and run with it, then publish it on the web (with your collaborator's permission).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47356,
"author": "Willie Wong",
"author_id": 94,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/94",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Are you affiliated academically or with some research organization? If so, one possible option is to investigate whether you would like to issue your results as a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_report\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">technical report</a>. (See also <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1275/when-and-why-a-scientific-technical-report-is-written\">this discussion on this very site</a> on why technical reports exist.)</p>\n\n<p>Some examples: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>The US government <a href=\"http://www.ntis.gov/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">issues regularly scientific and technical reports</a></li>\n<li>Universities/departments frequently do too: <a href=\"http://www.inf.ethz.ch/research/technical-reports.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">ETHZ</a>, <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Cambridge</a>, <a href=\"http://libguides.mit.edu/c.php?g=176306&p=1159542\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">MIT</a>. </li>\n<li>So do private companies with R&D budgets: <a href=\"http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">HP</a>, <a href=\"http://research.google.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Google</a>.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If permitted by your sponsors, such reports can also be posted to <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/help/jref\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">arXiv together with the internal technical report number</a>. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Though to be honest, with online publication as easy as it is, there is no real need to go through the above except if you want it to \"look more official\" somehow. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47357,
"author": "fridaymeetssunday",
"author_id": 21636,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21636",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If it involves a lot of code, you can put it as a repository in GitHub or Bitbucket. It won't count as a publication, but it will be available for others to see and possibly re-use or work upon. In some fields, bioinformatics for example, it is perfectly ok to list one's github repositories in the CV, serving to showcase your skills to future employers. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47396,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>There are two different questions in here, one about personal projects and another about whether it's worth publishing a non-peer-review tech report. </p>\n\n<p>For the first: there is no need for \"official\" blessing on any scientific work; I've published personal side projects just as happily as projects in my \"proper\" line of work. These can end up being quite significant: one of my bits of side-dabbling, published in a minor workshop, kicked off my entire current line of synthetic biology research.</p>\n\n<p>That surprising consequence also leads us toward the answer to the second: significance is where people find it. If you've put work into something, and written it up in a non-embarrassing way, there's no reason not to put it up online in an archival format, whether arXiv, tech report, or some other low-impact format. Symposia and workshops can be a lot of fun too, since they often accept things that are interesting but not expected to necessarily be high impact.</p>\n\n<p>If a piece of work is non-embarrassing, what's the worst that can happen if you put it online? Nobody cites it. But you never know... your coauthor might end up building something more significant out of it later (happened to one of my side-publications), or it might get noticed by people who happen to be dealing with a similar problem (happened to another of mine), and collect a few citations or even unexpectedly many.</p>\n\n<p>In short: there is never a reason to throw good work in the trash. Put it online, and let the universe decide whether it's neutral or positive.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47141",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29457/"
] |
47,148 |
<p>I am trying to find a professor to do my first research under his/her supervision. I am a high school student. However I have already self-studied all the BSc and MSc (Pure Mathematics) books [based on Melbourne Uni]. But I haven't done any research and I need to have some professor to help me to choose a topic, access to non-free-papers, publishing, etc. Most probably I won't need for the learning part, i.e. to ask professor
on more understanding the texts (i.e., tutoring). Although not asking for teaching Mathematics to me may result in much less taking professor's time compared to professor's student, but professor
prefers to not spend on someone off the street asked him/her to do research with. </p>
<p>I already have asked two professors to do research under their supervisions and in reply I have been rejected, saying "I would prefer to supervise my students" or similar, (one was just yesterday). </p>
<p>I am interested in doing research on Real Analysis and I know there might be some other professors to be interested in guiding me even a lot but they are not specialized on Real Analysis.</p>
<p>I should also add here what I am saying when approaching:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>As I quickly rejected in the first try by emailing, I decided to go to a professor's office in person with no previous meeting time; the result was a bit better in the beginning but no success.</p></li>
<li><p>I speak: "As I found Mathematics the most supreme beauty, a true Paradise, I started and committed to Mathematics. I had a consecutive study plan and I have studied ... [name of books]. As I was keen to have a big impact on Mathematics, so I decided to analyze books (like what a critic does with a paper to publish) rather than studying. I know that I need a lot to learn before doing research (which I don't know what to study next) and afterwards I don't know how to proceed in research. It would be a great honor if you please help me in my journey..."</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My questions are: <strong>What's wrong with my actions and speaking? and, what should I say or do in order to 'win' a professor's heart?</strong> </p>
<p>PS - I took your kind and helpful advises <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/46890/what-careers-not-requiring-an-academic-degree-might-be-open-to-a-self-learner-wh">in the other question</a>, and I decided not to be isolated from 'the system'. However, it's not that easy to find my way on my own. By the way, I truly appreciate for all your guidance. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47151,
"author": "Patricia Shanahan",
"author_id": 10220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10220",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It does not sound as though you are supplying any evidence of your ability beyond your own claims. You need to fix that.</p>\n\n<p>I suggest working on your relationship with the teachers, especially the mathematics and science teachers, at your high school. A letter from one of them saying they have a brilliant student who needs more challenge then they can give might work better. </p>\n\n<p>What grades are you getting? If not straight A, what can you do to change that? The most efficient use of the time in high school is to first learn the material it is supposed to teach, so you already have that before going to university.</p>\n\n<p>If straight A, try asking your mathematics teacher for more difficult assignments. Would one of your teachers be able and willing to grade exercises from the textbooks you have been reading? That would give the best cross-check that you really are understanding the material, as well as giving them objective evidence of your ability that they could use in a letter of recommendation.</p>\n\n<p>A letter from a teacher saying \"MKR has correctly completed exercises from each chapter of books X, Y, and Z. Here is a sample of MKR's mathematical proof writing.\" would be far more impressive than your claim to have read books X, Y, and Z.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47152,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>What's wrong with my actions and speaking?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Nothing's wrong with your actions, although they are not likely to lead to success. As for your speaking, the paragraph you quote is not ideal, but I don't think that's why you are getting turned down. Instead, the problem is that the system is just not set up to provide research mentors for high school students. I regularly turn down requests for high school research supervision, for several reasons:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Like many faculty at research universities, I have more local students who would like to work with me than I have time to supervise. This is particularly true for undergraduate research, and I end up turning away many undergraduates because of a lack of time. The ones I end up working with typically have very strong backgrounds, and I'd be reluctant to turn more of them away to free up time to supervise high school students.</p></li>\n<li><p>It's much easier to vet local students. If they have never taken any of my classes, I can ask my colleagues about them. By contrast, it's much harder to evaluate high school students. It's already difficult to quickly gauge mathematical talent and background, and that's not even enough: I'd also want to know how hard working someone is, how overcommitted they are with other activities, etc.</p></li>\n<li><p>I don't think high school research is particularly important, and I question whether it's even worthwhile. For the vast majority of high school students (even ones who are exceptionally talented), spending a few more years studying the mathematics that's already known is at least as worthwhile as doing research. The number of people who have genuinely reached the stage where they should be doing research, but who are not yet prepared to go to college, is minuscule. By contrast, there are lots of people whose main motivation seems to be that doing research at a young age looks impressive, and I'm not eager to encourage this.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Of course not everyone will share these reasons, but I think they are reasonably widespread. To maximize your chances of success, you should keep these issues in mind.</p>\n\n<p>The most straightforward one to address is how to evaluate your background and talents. You need external evidence, such as a letter of recommendation from a faculty member, ideally combined with some feedback and advice. You could try taking an advanced course at a local university, or attending a summer math program for high school students. Another possibility is strong performance on a math contest. (That's less meaningful, since it measures only a limited form of talent and doesn't come with feedback/advice, but participating in a contest is less expensive than taking a course.)</p>\n\n<p>It's worth applying to research programs specifically aimed at high school students, such as <a href=\"http://www.cee.org/research-science-institute\">RSI</a>. There aren't very many of them, and they don't admit many people, so you may not have any luck with this. If you target individual faculty members, you may have better luck if you choose people who have supervised high school students in the past, since you know they are in principle open to the possibility. (You can sometimes tell this from their web sites or CVs.) Faculty members at schools that don't have particularly strong undergraduates may be more excited by the idea of working with a great high school student, while faculty at Princeton have plenty of top undergraduates to work with.</p>\n\n<p>If your search for a research supervisor works out, that's great. But if it doesn't, you shouldn't worry that it's a negative judgment of you. You're trying to do something the world basically isn't set up to facilitate.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47155,
"author": "Jan-Christoph Schlage-Puchta",
"author_id": 30965,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30965",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n<p>As I found Mathematics the most supreme beauty, a true Paradise, I started and committed to Mathematics. [...] As I was keen to have a big impact on Mathematics, [...]</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This is quite off-putting. What you say here is essentially that you want to be a great mathematician. Since there is no <em>a priori</em> reason to assume that you are better than many other students the professor you address has, such a statement is a little presumptuous.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I had a consecutive study plan and I have studied ... [name of books].</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This is good. You give a more or less objective description of your abilities and show that you actually have done serious work.</p>\n<p>What's missing is a description of your actual interests. If you say you are interested in mathematics or real analysis, you essentially say that you have not found something that really intrigues you. As research is largely internally motivated, this is not a good sign. Note that I do not say that you have no special interests, but that what you write in your question and what you state as your approach to a professor says so.</p>\n<p>So a letter which should attract the attention of a professional mathematician could be the following:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>I am (description + why you have no direct contact person).</p>\n<p>I have read the following books.</p>\n<p>I am fascinated by (special topic), because (honest reason). In particular, I would like to understand (something you are really interested in).</p>\n<p>Can you recommend me further directions for my studies, e.g. textbooks dealing with (whatever)?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>If you get a reaction like "read XYZ", and after half a year you pose a question which shows that you have worked through this book, you will probably be taken seriously.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47203,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here are a few ideas to get you unstuck.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Start by identifying a university in your area with the right sort of department. Study the professors' web pages to identify people who seem nice, and whose research fields intrigue you. Take a look at some of their papers. Find out if they have regular office hours. You might need to phone the department for this last step. Then take one of your favorite books with you, and go to the person's office to have a chat!</p></li>\n<li><p>Attend some seminars either in your desired topic or in a nearby topic, and sit in on some university lectures. Approach the speaker, or someone else in the audience, afterwards, and talk about what you found intriguing, and ask a question. If the conversation goes well, lay the groundwork to continue contact with the person -- ask if you may follow up with an email for some advising.</p></li>\n<li><p>Make an appointment to speak with an advisor.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Note, in all of the above, just be yourself. You need not blow a bugle announcing your age or your current educational level. You can share all of that later, once you have established a human connection with someone.</p>\n\n<p>Comment to some of the others who have participated in this question: a bit of social awkwardness is not as much of a hindrance in mathematics as it might be in some fields. Also, please take into account that English has lots of variants in different parts of the world. So please don't be so critical of the OP.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47210,
"author": "adrian_o",
"author_id": 35873,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35873",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a math professor, I also find your intro a bit off putting.\nYou need to sound more serious - if you are.</p>\n\n<p>I would start with: \"Hi. I'm a high school student. I read ... and ... and got interested in ... I tend to be attracted by combinatorics/geometry/algebra... especially ....</p>\n\n<p>Could you suggest something I could read and study, and maybe some interesting problems I should look at?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47213,
"author": "Patrick Kelly",
"author_id": 32046,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32046",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There's two colleges near me I do not attend. I've just walked right up to professors, talked to them for a few hours fine. I've even been engaged in research projects, while both not their student, and not attend the college. In many ways, this question is a lot like asking how you get anyones attention; productive talking is effective.</p>\n\n<p>There are things to keep in mind of course:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Talking to random professors or about random subjects is not going to go over particularly well. One personal example I have is I deliberately sought out a professor of mathematics, to discuss something mathematical; keep it relevant.</li>\n<li>Trying to get their attention at bad times is not going to work; learn their schedule and find a time that works. Even better if you can set up an appointment (emails works, in-person has a nice touch).</li>\n<li>Don't demand. You have no idea how often I've seen this, even from students. It doesn't go over well. Ever!</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Good luck!</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/13
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47148",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35647/"
] |
47,164 |
<p>In my MSc thesis implementation section, I have used two tools: Matlab and Python scripting. How should I introduce and mention them in my implementation chapter?</p>
<p>Thank you,</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47166,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It somewhat depends of the publication style that you use for your thesis. For example, <em>APA (6th edition)</em> does not recommend to cite standard office software and programming languages.</p>\n\n<p>Therefore, if you would follow the <em>APA</em> guidelines, you'd just mention Python everywhere you need without citing any sources, however, you'd have to cite the MATLAB software. See the <em>\"Computer Software/Downloaded Software\"</em> section in <a href=\"https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10\">APA Style Guide on electronic sources</a> for an example of how to format software references. Applying this style, I came up with the following citation (note it's a hybrid of the two approaches, due to my attempt to accommodate the company's geography):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>MATLAB. (2012). MATLAB (Version 8.0) and Statistics Toolbox (Version\n 8.1) [Software]. Natick, MA: The MathWorks, Inc. Available from <a href=\"http://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab\">http://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab</a></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Please note that citing MATLAB, following some other publication styles, such as <em>Chicago</em>, is discussed in <a href=\"http://www.walkingrandomly.com/?p=4767\">this blog post</a>. If you use LaTeX to create your thesis, <a href=\"http://talmai-oliveira.blogspot.pt/2011/06/how-to-cite-matlab-bibtex-latex.html\">this blog post</a> can help.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47179,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As opposed to many papers, Bachelor, Master, and PhD theses usually give you a lot of leeway on how much space to use and how much extra material and possibly interesting meta-information to include. Likewise, there is no fixed rule, but rather a minimum and maximum of information that could or should be included. (Even with that in mind, the personal preferences of the advisor, or of whoever grades the thesis, or the specific customs at the university in question, may well override the boundaries described here.)</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>At least,</strong> you should mention the most important technologies you used by name (and, as pointed out by <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587/davidmh\">Davidmh</a>, their version numbers) to point out for which parts of your work you used them.</li>\n<li><strong>At most,</strong> you should describe in detail <em>why</em> and <em>how</em> you used the respective technologies in each particular case. This can well include a somewhat detailed description of specific features of the technology, if that helps readers to get a better idea of your motivation to choose that particular technology, of possible difficulties that did arise due to using the technology, or in general, to what extent your current implementation based on a technology might be extensible. It should probably <em>not</em> include an extensive description of facts about the technology that are entirely irrelevant to your work, such as (in most cases that I can think of) who originally published the first concept for a technology, or in what year and country the company driving the technology's development was founded.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>When choosing what exactly to describe and where to add details, also make sure to consider the target audience you are writing for:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Will people of different fields likely read the thesis? If so, you may rather lean towards describing more of the involved technologies, as none of them might be universally known.</li>\n<li>Is the thesis directed to one particular field? If so, <em>if</em> you want to reduce the amount of text to write for some reason, start with skipping the details on technologies that are definitely known in the field and concentrate on technologies that are possibly unknown or require further justification.</li>\n<li>Are future thesis writers possibly going to read your thesis? In universities I am acquainted with, this is typically the case, which is one of the reasons why I always suggest to my students that they do not forget to add some meta-information (e.g. some information about the technologies and particular tools used for creating the very thesis document, if there was anything remarkable about them).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Lastly, in my opinion, pointing to some further information about the technology (e.g. the official website) at its first mention is always the best choice, even though not strictly necessary. There is no point in hiding possibly helpful information from the readers if it does not even lead to bloating the text (such a pointer can be inserted as a reference or a footnote).</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47164",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34725/"
] |
47,184 |
<p>My discipline is educational technology and I have been invited to submit a book chapter about integrating technology in my region. I published many articles in top refereed journals, but not sure whether the focus, style of writing and structure of articles are appropriate for book chapters.<br>
Anyone can highlight the main differences?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47199,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You would want your chapter to fit into the whole project, whereas a journal article can usually stand alone.</p>\n\n<p>Your chapter should not duplicate material in other chapters, although you may refer to material in another chapter.</p>\n\n<p>You will want your chapter to be generally accessible. For the specialized journal article, that doesn't matter so much.</p>\n\n<p>The editor (could be more than one) may want to be rather more involved in choosing the content, organization, presentation, etc.,for a book project than for an isolated article.</p>\n\n<p>To get a feel for the style desired, you could ask the editor(s) for one or more examples of the desired style.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 94154,
"author": "user78087",
"author_id": 78087,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/78087",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Also, importantly that book chapter does not have citation within the text, however, this is crucial in the review paper. In general, the audience of the book are interested but relatively new in the field, where the review paper audience are more specialised usually with previous knowledge and experience, so the writing style should take care of this.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47184",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35865/"
] |
47,189 |
<p>What is the actual meaning of being a research assistant? I have only heard of masters in science and PhD.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47191,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A graduate research assistant—regardless of field–is someone who is carrying out research, normally as part of studies that will ultimately lead to either a master's or a PhD (or degree of some other kind). In general, a \"graduate research assistant\" (or other similar terms) are administrative in origin—it's the name for the \"job\" that graduate students have while they progress toward their degrees.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47198,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Adding to what @aeismail wrote: all PhD students have to do original research in order to graduate. Many get free tuition plus a stipend in exchange for carrying out 20 hours per week of assorted teaching duties, such as grading homework for a professor. They are called \"teaching assistants.\" However, some of them get the free tuition and the stipend, but with no teaching-related work duties, and they are called \"research assistants.\" Some research assistantships do not involve any work duties at all. Some do, but not more than 20 hour per week. Some examples of research assistant duties: help less experienced students in the group; keep the lab well organized and tidy; perform certain computations as requested by the professor; create and/or maintain a website for the professor; assist with a research project (other than the student's own topic).</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47189",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6589/"
] |
47,190 |
<p>I am doing a research of the processing times of papers published in journals in my field. I have noticed that the metrics that the journals advertise (e.g. the Elsevier journal insights) do not correspond to my experience, nor to the recently published papers, so I wanted to make my own survey. (My guess is that they take into account papers which are immediately rejected by the editor without being sent to a review, so the average looks quite favourable. I am more interested in the average time of the papers which are actually accepted.)</p>
<p>I plan to cover all recently (last 12 months) published papers in 10-20 journals of different publishers (e.g. Elsevier, T&F, Wiley), which will result in hundreds of papers. Basically, I will take the date when the paper was submitted, accepted, and published online, and calculate the average per journal.</p>
<p>Is there a way to automatically extract this information?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47194,
"author": "Andrew",
"author_id": 27825,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27825",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Have you checked this data is actually made available for your preferred journals? IME not all make their accepted/submitted/first-online dates very easily accessible, though it has improved a bit recently.</p>\n\n<p>If it's there, your best bet is probably to screenscrape the HTML. Some journals provide nice clean XML to play with, but this is usually new online-only titles rather than legacy ones from traditional publishers. </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379115002243\" rel=\"nofollow\">Elsevier</a> use a simple HTML tag (class=\"articleDates\") which contains the core dates -</p>\n\n<p><code>Received 23 March 2015, Revised 15 May 2015, Accepted 18 May 2015, Available online 9 June 2015</code></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07924259.2014.978028\" rel=\"nofollow\">Taylor & Francis</a> have similar information to Elsevier: the element you'd need is again \"articleDates\", but it unfortunately has a lot of linebreaks in it for no good reason!</p>\n\n<p>Finally, <a href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jbi.12534/full\" rel=\"nofollow\">Wiley</a> don't seem to expose submitted/accepted dates (at least not for all journals); \"publicationHistoryDetails\" just gives first-online, which isn't much help.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47197,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is an interesting question (+1). And I like @Andrew's answer (+1). However, I would like to suggest an approach, somewhat <strong>alternative</strong> to Web scraping. I mean using <em>meta-repositories</em> and <em>their APIs</em>. For example, you can consider using <em>CrossRef</em>, which offers, along with other services, <a href=\"http://www.crossref.org/cms/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">CrossRef Metadata Services</a>. There is a free of charge subset of this offering, which can be used via what is referred to as <a href=\"http://www.crossref.org/04intermediaries/index.html#end_user\" rel=\"nofollow\">End-User Lookup Affiliate</a> (other metadata services seem to be paid).</p>\n\n<p>With that <em>repositories/APIs</em> approach in mind, if you use <code>R</code> programming environment, there is an interesting initiative <a href=\"http://ropensci.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">rOpenSci</a>, which is comprised of an open science-focused set of projects, developing <code>R</code> packages for interacting with <a href=\"https://ropensci.org/packages/#literature\" rel=\"nofollow\">various repositories, including meta-repositories</a>. In particular, <code>rmetadata</code> package seems like the project that is the most relevant on the topic (note that it is not a mature project yet). A more mature, but still relevant project is <code>rcrossref</code> package. Hopefully, some other <em>rOpenSci</em> packages also might be of your present and future interests.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 169889,
"author": "Tom",
"author_id": 141721,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/141721",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here is a program I wrote to webscrape from a Springer journal. It uses the "Download CSV" link that appears next to the RSS feed icon when listing all articles in the journal Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, URL: <a href=\"https://www.springer.com/journal/10661\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://www.springer.com/journal/10661</a></p>\n<p>To obtain the URL to search on:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>Click on the link to the journal, scroll down past the recent articles, and click on the [ View all articles > ] button.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>To narrow the search, use the Date Published link in the header above the article list.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>There is an RSS feed icon there which is easy to find. However, do not use that icon, but instead use the down arrow icon next to it, which is Download CSV. But <strong>don't click on it.</strong> Instead, <em><strong>right click</strong></em> on it and select "Copy link address."</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>In the code below, in the line which contains <code>os.system</code>, delete the URL after <code>curl</code> and paste the URL just copied above.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>Run the program.</strong> You'll end up with an <code>allpapers.csv</code> file containing all the Received, Accepted, and Published dates for all articles matching the publication date range selected.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<pre><code>import os,sys\nfrom dateutil.parser import parse\n\nimport requests\nfrom bs4 import BeautifulSoup\nimport pandas as pd\nimport matplotlib.pyplot as plt\nimport numpy as np\n\nos.system("curl 'https://link.springer.com/search/csv?date-facet-mode=between&search-within=Journal&facet-start-year=2021&previous-start-year=1981&previous-end-year=2021&facet-journal-id=10661&facet-end-year=2021&query=' > searchresults.csv")\n\nsresults = pd.read_csv("searchresults.csv")\ntimedicts = []\nfor URL in sresults['URL']:\n print(f"===== {URL} =====")\n page = requests.get(URL)\n\n soup = BeautifulSoup(page.content, 'html.parser')\n\n times = soup.find_all('time')\n timedict = {'URL':URL}\n for time in times:\n label=str(time.find_parent().find_parent().contents[0])\n datetime = str(time.attrs['datetime'])\n if label[0] != '<':\n print(f"{label} : {datetime}")\n timedict[label]=datetime\n timedicts.append(timedict)\n\nallpapers = pd.DataFrame(timedicts)\n\nallpapers.to_csv("allpapers.csv")\n</code></pre>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47190",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35869/"
] |
47,206 |
<p>I will be soon joining a Top-50 school for a PhD in High Energy Theory. They have some very good professors who have published top quality journal articles in their area of expertise (even with some Nobel Laureates as co-authors). They are not as famous as Nathan Seiberg, Leonard Susskind, etc. though. I would like to know, given the job scenario in academia (especially in high energy theory), is it worth transferring to a top school like Harvard or Princeton after performing very well at my current school ? I mean, is their any huge advantage in the academic job market to be at a Top-10 school compared to a Top-50 school ? </p>
<p>I do not really care about going to a brand name school as far as my studies are concerned. I just want to make sure that if I work hard and succeed, I do not face problems in getting an academic job just because I did not attend Harvard or Princeton. Academically, my current school is very good too but it doesn't have that IVY kind of brand. My concern is only about the people in the hiring committees otherwise I am happy going to my current school.</p>
<p>Also, I have earlier worked with Professors who graduated from such top schools and they say that famous advisors are like "King-Makers" who get their students well placed in academia after PhD since they have influence in the field. Personally, I have no issues being at my current school if I get good people to work with. Also, is it ethically good to change schools like this ?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47209,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It would be far worse to get a lukewarm letter of recommendation from a relatively bigger name than for the letter to be written by a not-so-big name.</p>\n\n<p>Try to choose an institution that is strong in research in your field and has a real commitment to good undergraduate pedagogy; then get some experience teaching. That will help your job applications down the road.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47211,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well, better is better, in academia just as anywhere else. Certainly if you <em>got admitted to</em> a Top 10 program and a Top 50 program then all other things being equal you should enroll in the Top 10 program. (In fact, even things being only mildly unequal, you should enroll in the Top 10 program. You should seriously consider the Top 50 program only for serious personal considerations -- e.g. if because you are caring for a family member, you cannot leave your hometown -- or because you have a preternaturally good fit with a particular faculty member.) </p>\n\n<p>But that's not what you're asking; you're asking about transferring later to a top program, which presumably means that you have not yet been admitted to one. That is not a good plan. The competition to get into the <em>very top</em> PhD programs is of a roughly similar level of difficulty as the competition to get a post-PhD academic job. The main difference is that the former competition is more cut-and-dried whereas the latter competition has great amounts of uncertainty and randomness. In other words, it's actually pretty easy to make most admissions decisions at top ten places: there are certain agreed upon metrics that most or all graduate programs take into account, and the top programs pick from the top applicants according to these metrics. </p>\n\n<p>This has the following important implication: if you applied to the top programs in year N and didn't get into any, it is very difficult to transfer into them in year N + 1, N+2,...The idea of \"transferring from one graduate program to another\" is already not very standard, and when it is done it is often done to deal with a problem rather than by virtue of exceptional success. The one exception is that it is common for one to transfer from a master's program to a PhD program. However, in many STEM fields in the US, the best students just enroll into a PhD program straightaway: their undergraduate preparation is just as good -- or more often, better -- than what American students graduating with master's degrees get. (In other parts of the world, a separate master's program may in fact be mandatory, so things are a bit different.) Most American STEM master's programs that I know of are \"PhD lite\": they are for students are either not as strong, not as prepared, not as committed, or some combination thereof as the PhD students, so getting a master's degree is -- relative to the desired goal of transferring to a top place -- no great distinction. </p>\n\n<p>To be able to transfer from a top 50 HEP program to a top 10 one, you would have to do some truly excellent research at the beginning of your career. Transferring out of a program in which you've had such sterling success is worth some second thoughts, but if you did this work largely or entirely on your own and the continuation of it would be aided by transferring to a top program: OK, do it. However, this is very rare, and if you do something that great, then you're on your way to success independently of your transfer plans. </p>\n\n<p>I think that if you spend the first few years in your PhD program with the express goal of transferring out as soon as you can, there is a substantial risk of that showing through as a lack of commitment to your current program, which could really work against you. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I mean, is [there] any huge advantage in the academic job market to be at a Top-10 school compared to a Top-50 school ? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It is an advantage, yes. The advantage can be overcome by your own work, and if you want a very distinguished post-PhD academic job, then getting a PhD at an absolutely top program with a world-famous advisor <strong>is not a golden ticket</strong>. (I know this as well as anyone: feel free to look up my academic past.) If you go to a top program and do \"about average\" there, then you will probably not get a top academic job because you will not be getting the top drawer recommendation letter from your famous advisor. However, that same advisor could help you out getting placed at a lesser institution, or the pedigree of the institution could help (a lot, in some cases) if you wanted to get a non-academic job. Better is better.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I have earlier worked with Professors who graduated from such top schools and they say that famous advisors are like \"King-Makers\" who get their students well placed in academia after PhD since they have influence in the field.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The people that the King-Makers make kings were doing pretty well on their own. A truly eminent advisor can probably place <em>some</em> of their students in very good positions. But not all of them. The important thing to remember is that the quality of your own research -- as perceived by the academic community -- is what will get you or not get you an elite academic job. If your work is superior, it is superior no matter where you are, and the community will recognize that. If your work isn't <em>that</em> good but is still strong by the standards of the top institution, then having an eminent advisor really comes in handy. If your work is not as good as many other students of that advisor, then you are not going to get a big career boost. In some situations, having an advisor who is still well known and recognized by the community champion you as they have never championed a student before, could work out better.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Also, is it ethically good to change schools like this ?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I see no ethical problem with changing schools in this way (although as ever there are more and less gracious ways to proceed); leaving a program for a much better one is easy to understand and I think few people will hold it against you. But as I said above, effecting this kind of change is just very unlikely; \nthe real concern is what will happen to you while you are angling for it. If you are just working that much harder to do your best work: great, and great whether you transfer or not. But don't make plans or behave in a way which will only payoff if you transfer. E.g. you might reason that merely doing well in the coursework and qualifying exams is not going to be nearly enough to allow you to transfer to a top program (<strong>correct</strong>) so that instead you should blow off your coursework while you try to solve the hardest problems in the field (<strong>disaster</strong>). <strong>Learn to grow where you're planted.</strong></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47238,
"author": "Willie Wong",
"author_id": 94,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/94",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First, I want to emphasize that I overwhelmingly agree with <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/47211/94\">what Pete wrote</a>. That said, <strong><em><a href=\"http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2015/02/university_hiring_if_you_didn_t_get_your_ph_d_at_an_elite_university_good.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">it has been observed that the \"top\" universities produce the majority of our corps of professors</a></em></strong> (when it comes to the justification though I admit a big chunk of that Slate article rests on anecdotes, and we know that the plural of \"anecdote\" is not \"data\"). However, you should not read into this necessarily a causal relationship (as opposed to a mere correlation). </p>\n\n<p>There is not (and can never be) an experiment showing that the same individual would receive a necessarily a better education at a top 10 school; similarly, no one can prove conclusively that students admitted to a top 10 program are necessarily \"better\" (aside from \"on the metrics used to determine admission\"). Certainly while one can observe the hiring disparities, no one can really explain \"why\" (at the very least, it is not possible to tell how much it is down to the quality of the program and how much it is down to the quality of the individual students). With academic hiring the nebulous process it is, there's no way we can just tell you whether moving from your current institution to a different one is, in general, a good idea or not, because statistics, in this case, is a lot less useful an indicator than knowing your personal circumstances. Yes, all else being equal it is probably a good idea to choose a Top 10 school over a Top 50 one; but all else is never equal, except on Econ 101 final exams. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>One remark, however: if you are just starting your PhD program and you are already concerned about the academic job prospect because \"the situation in High Energy Theory seems particularly bleak because of very little funding and super-intense competition\", I must ask \"are you sure you want to enter into high energy theory?\" </p>\n\n<p>(I confess when I started graduate school the notion of \"job prospect\" is quite far from being on my radar. And while I am quite happy where I am in my academic career now, and quite happy with how everything turned out so far, I am not 100% certain that, had I known 10 years ago what I know now about the academic hiring process, I would have set a career in academia as my goal.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47317,
"author": "sane",
"author_id": 35949,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35949",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I recommend you beware of the theoretical HEP job market. You may want to read <a href=\"http://www.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/271apx/a_view_from_an_exstring_theorist/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.reddit.com/r/Physics/comments/271apx/a_view_from_an_exstring_theorist/</a></p>\n\n<p>and</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-plight-of-postdocs-academia-and.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://backreaction.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-plight-of-postdocs-academia-and.html</a></p>\n\n<p>I really don't want to discourage you learning these stuff. But there are reasons why people keep warning beginning grads to stay away from theoretical HEP these days...</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47206",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28874/"
] |
47,207 |
<p>I recently came across several papers in the area of Information Extraction and Data Mining which seem to have passed the review process even if they (1) use some new terminology without describing it, (2) replicate some old and popular technique and just describe it in a new way, (3) use new datasets without releasing them publicly or describing them in detail, (4) confusing language that doesn't seem to describe the methods... and much more. </p>
<p>Why challenge them? Such papers give these people a kind of leverage in situations where number of publications count rather than quality of genuine work. They also encourage, let's say, 'pseudoscience' within the scientific community - or fraud, as those more experienced among you say.</p>
<p>I've faced situations like:-</p>
<ul>
<li>Someone hired me from a freelance site to implement a previously published paper. The paper doesn't adequately describe the novel methods they claim. I spend a week on it but don't get paid. </li>
<li>Similar situation but the implementation's accuracy doesn't match the claim.</li>
<li>In a semi-academic gathering (tea time in a summer school), a discussion turned into a debate. Though I wasn't involved in it, one of the others said something which I pointed out as being logically wrong. It turned personal and one of them claimed that they knew better because of having twice the number of papers than me. Later when I read their papers I found that they didn't contain any ideas that would count as a genuine research. </li>
</ul>
<p>I guess some of you might have been in similar situations before. Yes it doesn't matter in the longer term; but it is hard to avoid some situations like this and I think it might be hampering the research community as a whole. </p>
<p>Here are the exact points of my question:</p>
<ol>
<li>Should we confront such publications? Would we get anything out of it? </li>
<li>Is it even feasible? </li>
<li>How can I do so? What actions are possible in such cases? What is the best course of action?</li>
</ol>
<p><em>p.s. Yes citations matter more than just throwing papers - but such publications also get citations from other equally content-less papers published in similar conferences.</em> </p>
<p><em>pps. Most of these papers are from less-than-tier-3 level conferences but still published by top publishers like IEEE and Springer.</em></p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47212,
"author": "mdd",
"author_id": 14378,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14378",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A somewhat \"indirect\" challenge is to is to publish your comments on a website such as <a href=\"https://pubpeer.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">PubPeer</a>. \nIt has been historically used to comment mostly on papers in the area of medical research, but it also hosts discussions regarding papers in computer science.\nA <a href=\"https://pubpeer.com/journals\" rel=\"nofollow\">full list of the journals that have comments</a> regarding specific papers is available on that site as well.</p>\n\n<p>In case these discussions point to substantial flaws in a paper, they can be forwarded to the journal editor/publisher.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47214,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think you have to further examine your motivation for wanting to “challenge” these substandard papers. All of the following are reasons which are suggested in your question.</p>\n<ol>\n<li>You feel that contentless or decisively problematic publications bring down the quality of the academic community as a whole.</li>\n<li>You feel that the people who are publishing these works get too much credit.</li>\n<li>In particular, they are holding themselves up as superior to you.</li>\n<li>Specific people – e.g. you – suffer when you try to rely on publications which do not do what they promise.</li>\n</ol>\n<p>This is a lot to answer, but I’ll take a stab at it:</p>\n<ol>\n<li><p>This is a disturbing trend in the world of academic publication. I now get more “journal spam” emails than all other spam put together (well, counting only what makes it into my inbox). One can no longer assume that an academic publication is reputable, legitimate, or sincere <em>in any way</em> without having prior specific knowledge of the people and institutions involved. I think this is a terrible problem, but it's well beyond my pay grade. I do not have a solution in mind.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p><strong>The best revenge is living well.</strong> In line with point 1, there is an increasing segment of the worldwide academic community in which people, in order to maintain their very low-paying academic jobs, simply must meet a certain quota of authorship. No one cares about the content or quality; in many cases there is no infrastructure there for them to evaluate the content if they did care. This is very sad. At an individual level, what seems best to me is just to get out of this part of the academic community. In many cases this is best accomplished by relocating to a different part of the world where the academic infrastructure exists. You are not going to get a job at a research university in the United States by having 50 bullshit papers: that's just not the way things work here. However, if you are a scholar in India, you <em>can</em> get offered a job in the United States (or Europe or Japan or...) on the basis of your work: it just has to <em>actually</em> be very good.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>The person who tells you that he’s right and you’re wrong because he has twice as many papers as you is on the one hand an asshole. On the other hand, he’s splashing around in a pond that you want to get out of: I can assure you that there are many academic environments in which who's right is not decided by counting publications. You sound like a serious person: get yourself into one of these environments.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>This seems to open up another can of worms, but relative to point 1 above: you simply cannot uncritically take publications at face value. To be honest about it, you can do this to a greater or lesser degree according to the level of trust and esteem you place in the author, the journal, the institution...but doing this at all is a compromise we make only because we are finite beings living in an imperfect world. Learn to develop a “nose” for what is correct and what is problematic. Definitely do not accept a work-for-pay situation which is predicated on the assumption that an unvetted academic work does everything that it promises!</p>\n<p>In general, I would say that point 4 is a good reason to challenge papers: if you sstumbled by relying on a paper or can imagine another serious, reputable person doing the same, then you owe it to the community to try to get the word out about the defects of the work. But as above you should also understand that part of being a good academic is knowing what looks good and what looks bad. There is an ever-expanding sewage sea of worse-than-useless academic papers. You can't take responsibility for getting rid of all of them. But you can teach yourself to avoid the unpleasant experience of being submerged in this sewage sea, and you can teach your colleagues – and, as you get older, your mentees – how to do the same.</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n<p>Good luck.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47233,
"author": "Wrzlprmft",
"author_id": 7734,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7734",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To answer the question from a more technical point of view: Some journals allow you to publish comments on papers (though I learnt from the comments that the prevalence of this practice varies strongly depending on the field). They usually are like regular publications, having citations, figures, tables and whatever you need and being subject to peer review. Depending on the size and relevance of the criticised paper, such a publication might also be a regular paper.</p>\n\n<p>In your example where a method’s accuracy didn’t match the claim, you can probably publish a comment on this, substantiating your opposing claim with data or similar. Something similar goes for methods that are identical or very similar to existing ones without crediting them¹. However, I consider it unlikely that a journal will publish a comment on the inadequateness of a method’s description. In all cases, it might be sending an outline of your comment to the journal and ask if they would publish it.</p>\n\n<p>Now, given the huge amount of bad papers out there, you could spend all your life writing comments exposing fundamental flaws in papers in your field. Unfortunately, there is no financial and little academic credit for doing this, so it is rarely done. However, if you already spent some time on trying to make use of a paper, you may already have most of what you need to publish such a comment and you may consider it worth your time.</p>\n\n<p>Some modern journals (e.g., Plos One) also have online interfaces for instant comments that allow for criticising a paper with much less effort.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><sup>\n¹ Consider the possibility of an independent discovery though.\n</sup></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47236,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I will add my different perspective on the OP's question. @PeteL.Clark answer pretty much covers completely the one side of the story: The OP has discovered some legitimate inconsistencies / mistakes on published papers and wants to make thing rights for the community.</p>\n\n<p>But as we know there is always a second version to each story. Let's discuss some of those aspects as well. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Someone hired me from a freelance site to implement a previously\n published paper. The paper doesn't adequately describe the novel\n methods they claim. I spend a week on it but don't get paid.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This does not prove that the paper does something wrong. The assumption that one programmer can implement a method described on one paper that may build on several other papers within a week, is unrealistic / naive. CS scientists may spend 3-12 months working on a paper that may build on previous works that required several other months to implement. A CS paper is not a standalone piece of engineering that needs to describe everything. If it is based on previous works, it only needs to say what it does <strong>in addition</strong> to previous works. Therefore, in order to fully implement a method described in a paper, you also need to implement all previous methods this paper builds upon. And this takes months to years for newcomers to the suggested area, even if they are good programmers. In other words: <strong>Being a good programmer does not guarantee that you can implement every CS scientific paper there is</strong>. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Similar situation but the implementation's accuracy doesn't match the\n claim.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Again that does not guarantee that the paper has done something wrong. Perhaps the OP has done a wrong implementation of the created method. I find very strange the fact that the OP, assumes first that everyone else is wrong and has total confidence in his work, abilities and implementation, even if they contradict published work by many other authors. Assuming everyone else is wrong and my code / implementation is always correct, is not only a characteristic of cranks but contradicts the basic principle of software engineering: All codebases have bugs and first you should look for bugs in your codebase and then look for bugs elsewhere. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>...which I pointed out as being logically wrong. The guy turned\n personal and claimed that he knew better because he had twice the\n number of papers than me. And later when I read his papers I found\n that the papers din't contain any ideas that would count as a genuine\n research.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>What does logically wrong means? Did you manage to do experiments and prove things over a tea table? Good for you. And what is this? \"The papers didn't contain any ideas that would count as a genuine research\". What is genuine research? Is this another version of the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman\">No true Scotsman</a> argument? If I do not like someone else's research, I can belittle it by saying that it is no genuine research? </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Use new datasets without releasing them publicly or describing them in\n detail</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Again, this is the standard argument of newcomers. \"Freely release your code and your datasets so I can use them but I will keep my code by myself so nobody steals it\". The main argument is \"You have already published your work and I have not, so you must help me\". Again, this line of argumentation is wrong. An author has the exclusive right to share or not share his code or datasets. And has the OP asked the authors to give him access to their code or datasets? The fact that someone does not release the code publicly does not mean that if contacted, he will not share.</p>\n\n<p>Conclusively, in most CS PHD students meetings I have encountered, there is always the \"purist\" guy who insists that he is only interested in A* conference publications, he only wants to do top publications, he is working 2 or more years in his \"seminal\" paper, most works of his peers is mediocre (as the OP described \"not genuine research\") and he will never work on incremental papers, since publishing something less than perfect is not suited for him. Unless this guy is exceptionally talented (which is easy to tell by his previous publications) this is also the guy that needs 7 years to get his PHD (if he actually gets one) and has an average h-index of 2, when finishing. Please, do not be that guy (unless you are that talented). Focus on publishing your original work, instead of trying to find errors on everyone else. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/14
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47207",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35210/"
] |
47,217 |
<p>What do you think about an idea of getting a PhD in an "better then average institution" to get tons of experience to get a second PhD (in the same field) from top institution?</p>
<p>I'm now getting a MSc degree in applied math from one of the top Russia institutions, but I still feel like I don't have enough experience, and publications, and general "coolness" for applying to places like MIT or Stanford or other top universities - but I would really want to work with people there! Moreover the problem I've came up with for my thesis is somewhat "non-mainstream" (that's why I don't really have a thesis adviser and I'm guiding myself through it, so it turned out to be slower process than I expected).</p>
<p>I've been thinking of getting a first PhD in some good place in Europe, getting few publications, gaining more experience there and only after that applying into top institutions. From your own experience, does that seem to be a good idea? (I mean, having a completed PhD in some other institution seems like a great advantage from the lab's perspective - right?)</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47219,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Terrible idea, at least as far as a life goal is concerned. You will spend 5 years of your life doing something you consider only preparatory, without any guarantee that you will actually be admitted by the MITs and Stanfords of your aspiration. In fact, if we had someone applying to our graduate program who already has a PhD, we'd seriously be asking ourselves why this person wants to get <em>another</em> PhD? So it may not actually be any easier to get into the good institutions if you already have a PhD. Finally, even if you do, you will be 5 years older than everyone else when you graduate, and this will count against you (statistically speaking) when you look for jobs beyond that.</p>\n\n<p>The thing you have come to realize is that <em>everyone</em> wants to go to MIT and Stanford, but only few actually manage to. Make your peace with this -- shoot for the best place you can to get a PhD and then make your career from there. You'll find that with a PhD from a good place in Europe, you will have sufficiently many options.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47220,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Apply for three institutions, chosen primarily by affinity of interests. In your set of three, let one be ambitious, a just-for-the-heck-of-it application, one that you would be very happy to attend, and that you consider yourself very likely to be accepted in, and one \"safety\" school. The safety school is the one you would attend if you had extraordinarily bad luck and did not get accepted in #2.</p>\n\n<p>Make sure that all three are carefully chosen, and that you are confident you would have a satisfying experience with.</p>\n\n<p>After your PhD, you can do post-docs and build up your publication list.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47217",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35875/"
] |
47,218 |
<p>So here's a funny thing: I have 3 Fs and 1 D on my transcript, but my GPA is ~3.8, which is "high" because I double majored in math and computer science. The reason for those 4 bad grades is that I had 2 bad semesters where I suffered from depression; I didn't drop the classes before the deadline so I ended up failing the classes. However I retook the classes and got As in them (hence my GPA), and in fact got A/A-s in all subsequent classes (quite an improvement). I plan to apply to a master's for computer science, and eventually a phd. However I know the admission officers eyes will bleed when they see my transcript, despite my GPA, because my school keeps ALL grades on transcripts, even if the grades were replaced by retaking classes. Do I still have a chance at top-10 graduate school for computer science even with these grades (which were retaken and then aced)?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47221,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just write a short letter explaining the three anomalous grades. You don't have to get into the details of the depression, though.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47223,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In my (rather extensive) experience with graduate admissions, admissions committees understand that people have semesters in which life interferes with school. If you've retaken the classes and received high marks in them, this very clearly signals that something was interfering with your performance during those two semesters and that the bad grades have nothing to do with your underlying ability. Those grades won't go unnoticed -- but nor will they hurt you the way they would had you not repeated and aced those courses. </p>\n\n<p>It would help further if you have a trusted mentor who could mention and--to the degree that you comfortable, explain--this issue in his or her letter of recommendation. </p>\n\n<p>Don't count on cruising through the application process, but also don't lower your ambitions based on these grades. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47247,
"author": "apollosoftware.org",
"author_id": 35896,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35896",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It also depends on the academic reputation of your undergraduate school. Is it a widely appraised school? You should be fine as long as you have a 3.5 or higher, and decent GRE scores (generally 1100 and higher). Top 10 is very ambitious! They will look over your transcript, and degree of difficulty of your classes you've taken. Also they will take into account how well you did in the last few semesters. If you have gotten A's in the last few semesters, it's good indication that you'll do well in grad school, in their opinions.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47251,
"author": "mrseaman",
"author_id": 35900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35900",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I knew someone had a similar situation and he's in MIT as a PhD student now. So just clarify what happened in your application materials.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47258,
"author": "P Jones",
"author_id": 35906,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35906",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My experience was very similar to yours. I had four F's an a D (or two) from when I abruptly dropped out years before. My GPA was ultimately 3.5, with a 3.95 in CS at a middling school. That, along with enthusiastic (but not particularly high quality) references got me into a few good schools -- I ended up going to one in the top five. You should note though that there are two types of masters programs: project-based and research-based. Project-based, which is what I did, are much easier to get in to. They are for students who want to get a masters and get out. Generally they will not be funded. A research-based masters is for students who intend to go on to get a PhD. They are generally much more difficult to get into and often are funded. If you find you are having trouble getting into a PhD or masters->PhD program, you might want to look into a project-based program with a good school. You might be able to work on something with a prof you like and get into the PhD program on their recommendation. I've seen it happen several times.</p>\n\n<p>ETA: Remember, the main thing admissions people are interested in is the last thing you did. So if you find you can't get into the best PhD program, go to whatever place best fits your interests (that you can get into, of course) and put together some quality research. No one will care what you did in undergrad.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47261,
"author": "Michael Hoffman",
"author_id": 1418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1418",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm on the graduate admissions committee of a top 10 computer science program. If you very briefly explained the circumstances and pointed out that you re-took the classes and got As and have gotten high grades ever since, I doubt these particular marks would be held against you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47324,
"author": "jeremyjjbrown",
"author_id": 26443,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26443",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a former member of a graduate program committee who has reviewed hundreds of applications I can give my opinion. Address the F's directly and briefly in your application letter, say you had a problem, point out the retakes, and tell them you learned from the experience. </p>\n\n<p>I personally have three advanced degrees and a few F's on my undergraduate transcript. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the\n lesson afterward.\" - Vernon Law</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47218",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35878/"
] |
47,228 |
<p>When applying for non-research related work in the commercial sector, how should confusion be avoided over the term "Research Assistant" being used in a CV?</p>
<p>Are human resources staff at companies, and recruiters, at risk of assuming "research" means market research, as opposed to scientific research, especially if they're skimming through the CV?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47240,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Generally speaking, I don't think this is something you should worry about, and I don't think anywhere you'd want to work would be likely to have an HR department that would confuse (graduate or undergraduate) research assistants with market researchers. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 128398,
"author": "Erik N",
"author_id": 99727,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/99727",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I know I'm resurrecting a dead thread, but considering I'm going through a similar process right now I figured I would leave my 2 cents.</p>\n\n<p>I would caution against the advice of individuals who say \"don't worry about it, let your resume explain your position\", at least in reference to <em>non-academic</em> positions in the <em>US</em>. You should have two resumes/CVs, one for academia and one for everything else. In academia the recruiter or PI should understand what \"Research Assistant\" or \"Graduate Research Assistant\" means. However, in industry some large companies hire 3rd parties to do their recruiting. In the US the average time for a recruiter like this to read a resume is <em>5-7 seconds</em>. While this <a href=\"http://4.%20Level.%20If%20I%E2%80%99m%20doing%20a%20VP%20level%20search%20and%20your%20title%20is%20%E2%80%9Cmanager%E2%80%9D%20and%20you%20have%20never%20been%20a%20VP%20%E2%80%93%20goodbye.%20There%20are%20exceptions%20to%20this,%20but%20again%20it%20is%20the%2080/20%20rule.%20Again,%20clients%20pay%20me%20to%20find%20them%20the%20perfect%20fit.%20It%20is%20generally%20way%20too%20big%20of%20a%20jump%20from%20manager%20level%20to%20VP%20level,%20all%20other%20things%20being%20equal.%20It%20works%20the%20other%20way%20too.%20If%20%20I%E2%80%99m%20looking%20for%20a%20manager%20and%20you%20are%20a%20VP%20%E2%80%93%20goodbye.%20I%20know%20you%20are%20qualified%20to%20do%20a%20manager%20level%20role,%20but%20it%20is%20clear%20you%20have%20grown%20past.%20Most%20clients%20and%20recruiters%20aren%E2%80%99t%20willing%20to%20take%20the%20chance%20that%20when%20a%20VP%20level%20position%20comes%20along%20that%20you%20won%E2%80%99t%20be%20gone.%20Less%20than%205%20seconds%20to%20figure%20out.\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">website</a> might not be representative of all recruiters, it does emphasis the importance of your position title. Here is an excerpt, emphasis is mine:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ol start=\"4\">\n <li>Level. If I’m doing a VP level search and your title is “manager” and you have never been a VP – goodbye. There are exceptions to this, but again it is the 80/20 rule. Again, clients pay me to find them the perfect fit. It is generally way too big of a jump from manager level to VP level, all other things being equal. It works the other way too. If I’m looking for a manager and you are a VP – goodbye. I know you are qualified to do a manager level role, but it is clear you have grown past. Most clients and recruiters aren’t willing to take the chance that when a VP level position comes along that you won’t be gone. <em>Less than 5 seconds to figure out.</em></li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Accordingly, I think it is completely feasible that even if you have your PhD and multiple publications the recruiter could see an \"Assistant\" Research applying for the \"Senior\" Research position and immediately reject you simply because of your position title.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47228",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3945/"
] |
47,230 |
<p>Over the course or the past year, I've become very familiar with a specific topic through a careful and systematic review of the background and state-of-the-art. </p>
<p>I think this could make for a nice publication, providing readers in similar fields with a handy resource and increasing my academic profile to boot. </p>
<p>However, I want to make sure that the lit review I performed is scientifically sound - so it must be transparent and replicable. </p>
<p>Do you know of any guidelines, best practices, or great examples to guide me as I get working? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47232,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would suggest you to perform a limited search for <strong>dedicated</strong> <em>literature review (survey) papers</em>, either in your field (not sure, whether this should be preferred, as it IMHO might push you too far outside of your own \"big picture\" <em>view</em> of the field), or in any other field that you can digest.</p>\n\n<p>In addition to the above, please check my recent and <strong>relevant answer</strong> to a similar question here on this site - along with some general advice, it contains some useful references on the topic: <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/45290/12391\">https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/45290/12391</a>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47330,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>While it is not specifically for general literature reviews, but more aimed at systematic reviews and meta-analysis, the <a href=\"http://www.prisma-statement.org/index.htm\" rel=\"noreferrer\">PRISMA Statement</a> is widely used in the biomedical literature, and even comes with checklists to make sure a manuscript has a few key elements, such as:</p>\n\n<p>\"Present full electronic search strategy for at least one database, including any limits used, such that it could be repeated.\"</p>\n\n<p>Which is something that's pretty necessary for repeatability - you will often find for systematic reviews that an appendix is included with the actual queries used, what dates, etc. In a more general sense, that's what I'd look toward: \"Does my review follow most of the guidelines for presenting a meta-analysis, even if it doesn't bother with summary estimates?\" If you do that, you're likely on pretty solid ground.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47230",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19581/"
] |
47,243 |
<p>I just finished crafting an application's cover letter for a particular lab (if it matters, area of research can be broadly classified as <em>computational social sciences</em>). The situation is that they have several postdoctoral positions and I feel that I am a pretty good fit for either one of them (how modest ;-).</p>
<p>However, I think that it makes absolutely <strong>no sense</strong> to send three <em>separate</em> cover letters for each of the positions, as 1) they are affiliated with the same lab (and, even, one of co-PIs is the same for all of them); 2) the positions share a lot of subject domain areas (I, actually, expressed this point directly in my cover letter - I hope it will not be considered offensive or otherwise inappropriate).</p>
<p>Therefore, my two related <strong>questions</strong> are:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Would it be appropriate to submit a single application with a single cover letter to those positions, based on my points above, even though they are advertised separately?</p></li>
<li><p>Is it acceptable that my cover letter (that single one) is almost two pages long (including all appropriate vertical spacing and 12pt font size - trying to be gentle with the readers' vision)?</p></li>
</ul>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47249,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>At my university, you would have to apply separately to each position as listed in our job application system. That's just how the site works. I think it would be fine to use the same cover letter text and CV for all the positions as long as you spell out in the letter that you have applied for all of them and why you think you are qualified for each of them, which it sounds like you have done. I think the extra length is probably also fine given the circumstances, but some people are more sensitive to convention on this. There's a tradeoff between offending people's eyes with smaller fonts and narrower margins and offending their sensibilities that cover letters must be one page and one page only. If you can edit it down a bit, you might be better off, but I wouldn't sweat it too much.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47260,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't think you can assume that one application is okay. I can certainly imagine situations where the lab would want a separate application for each position. Maybe they are going to be reviewed by different people or committees. Maybe they have complicated HR procedures that you don't know about. Maybe when reviewing applications for position X, they want to see an application that specifically addresses your qualifications for that particular position, and doesn't mention other things that are only relevant to position Y.</p>\n\n<p>So the safest course of action would simply be to ask.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Dear Professor MMM,</p>\n \n <p>My name is NNN, and I am a graduate student at UUU, working with professor SSS. I see that your lab has some postdoc positions open; I believe that I could be a good fit for any of the positions XXX, YYY, ZZZ. (Briefly explain why.) Would you prefer that I send a separate application for each position, or a single application addressing my qualifications for all three?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This could also get you other useful information, such as \"I think you would be a better candidate for XXX; for the YYY postdoc we are specifically looking for someone with expertise in BBB.\"</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47243",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391/"
] |
47,245 |
<p>I am a masters student at a top-rated US university in electrical engineering. I have been working under a professor who joined the department last semester. He is quite happy with my progress, but can't offer me a PhD as he doesn't have enough money. He has agreed, though, to help me get a PhD by recommending me to other professors. </p>
<p>The task of finding a professor, however, is on me. The issue arises here, as in my department professors don't actively search for students. It works mostly like a referral system, where the professors take up recommended students. Thus most of the openings get filled up before they make a public announcement. One way to solve this is to write mails to several professors to ask for openings. What I am looking for is this: is there a better strategy?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48682,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Rather than emailing lots of faculty asking for openings, I would recommend emailing a few faculty who seem most interesting to you asking for a discussion about the possibilities of joining their department. The reason is that rather than just polling for openings, you want to get connected to the referral network (which your current professor appears unwilling or unable to do for you). I would thus recommend approaching the discussion not as:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Hi, can you hire me?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>but instead as:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Hi, I'd like to figure out whether my research interests and personality are a good match with you or others in the department. If they are, can you hire me or else can you point me to somebody else who is likely to be interested in doing so?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This way, instead of asking a simple yes/no question, you are engaging the person in a way that may also lead you to good connections that you wouldn't have even thought of asking about. By following the leads from such conversations, I think you are significantly more likely to find a good match than just by sending out polling emails.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48722,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well-known professors get too many emails from potential Ph.D. students from all over the world and they simply do not have time to respond to all of them. They cherry-pick only the most <em>serious</em> applications based on:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Quality of the application</strong>. Your resume, references, and may be a short statement of purpose in the body of the email.</li>\n<li><strong>Background match</strong>. The applicant did work in his masters on relevant topics. Ideally, the applicant did spend some time to skim through some of the professor's publications and discusses those.</li>\n<li><strong>Enrollment overhead</strong>. Applicants already enrolled in the same university have the lowest overhead since they do not need to relocate and can be interviewed face-to-face. On the other hand, overseas applicants have the highest overhead.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>That being said, sending a simple email asking for a potential opening is not the best strategy. Choose specific professors and spend some time to send them <em>concrete</em> and <em>serious</em> applications.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47245",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35670/"
] |
47,248 |
<p>I currently have two months before I have to submit my master's thesis (its a one-year program in the UK) and just finished data collection. Analysing the data is a time consuming process and I'm starting to worry that I don't have too much time to write my dissertation. Will it be better to prioritize the analysis (and actually get some reportable results) or to get cracking on the writing once and for all (since our final grade would ultimately be based on that)? I feel like an even split between the two would be best but its hard trying to find the right balance. Both require very different mindsets. When writing I need to be in a quiet place where I can slowly churn out words and read (or skim) papers I come across. Analysing data happens in a noisy lab where distractions are everywhere but ultimately work gets done at the end of the day. </p>
<p>At this stage, should I just focus on getting the analysis done with (which could take weeks since its highly exploratory in nature) or should I try to somehow come up with a strategy to accomplish both? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47279,
"author": "Aaron Brick",
"author_id": 14140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14140",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, you have to do both. You might be able to write some parts of the thesis in advance, but the analysis must precede writing about your results.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47280,
"author": "fridaymeetssunday",
"author_id": 21636,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21636",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are doing your analysis with R, you can kind of do both at the same time using <a href=\"http://yihui.name/knitr/\" rel=\"nofollow\">knitr</a>. This package allows to mix code, the code output, and normal text in the same file. There is also great control in what is show. For instance, in the final thesis all the code could be hidden. In effect, you would be doing the exploratory analysis whilst writing down how it was done and the description of the results. Since it is plain text documents, you can complement it with version control and a free online hosting (github or bitbucket), and have backups of the analysis. Even though I don't use it on a regular basis, <a href=\"http://www.rstudio.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">RStudio</a> would also be of great help here. </p>\n\n<p>Knitr offers markdown and LaTeX. The former is very easy to use and it will take you a about a hour to learn. LaTeX which is more rich in functionality, but takes way longer to learn. Using pandoc, the final document could also be converted to .doc.</p>\n\n<p>But even if you are not using R, write down what (how) you are doing, and summaries of results. This will save time when doing the write-up. </p>\n\n<p>Now to answer your original question:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>At this stage, should I just focus on getting the analysis done with (which could take weeks since its highly exploratory in nature) or should I try to somehow come up with a strategy to accomplish both?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Write down what are questions you are trying to answer, and which steps are needed to answer them. Then access which would be the minimum required for a Thesis - your supervisor could also help you with this. This will allow you to focus on small chunks of your thesis (more manageable and preferably independent), and the end of each access how much time you have left for the writing of conclusions/introduction or whether you can or should tackle another one. It is also ok, to leave out results from the final thesis if there is not time to explain those in-depth.</p>\n\n<p>Personally, I would err on the side of less analysis, but well done rather than a hodgepodge of half-baked attempts. Keep in mind that the goal here is to show that you have done research and acquired new knowledge. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47287,
"author": "user1220",
"author_id": 1220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1220",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Do everything you can to reduce the exploratory nature of the data analysis.</p>\n\n<p>Plan exactly what results you are going to need for your manuscript, what the tables will be, what the figures will be, how they will be formatted. Then when you get to the data analysis, you can be extremely focused, concentrating only on what's essential for your work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 51806,
"author": "Alex Szatmary",
"author_id": 14220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14220",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I write as I go. I begin the introduction and methods as I begin working on a new project, I write results as (or even before) I make plots. Through the process of collecting data, I get new ideas that I want to capture in a rough draft of the discussion. Writing up even rough results makes me think more clearly and helps me determine what data I need to gather and plot next. Through this process, I throw away about as much text as I end up with. Writing a good draft requires writing a bad draft.</p>\n\n<p>If I did all the analysis, then wrote the bad draft, then wrote the good draft, the bad draft would only help with the writing. By writing every bit of the bad draft as soon as possible, the bad draft can help myself and my collaborators think more clearly about how to improve the analysis. Writing as I go lets me use the bad draft not just to help with the writing, but with the thinking.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 51810,
"author": "eykanal",
"author_id": 73,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The ideal way to perform research is to begin with a set of questions. If new questions are generated based on the data, that's all well and good, but unless the findings actually invalidate the questions themselves—which occasionally happens—you'll be helping yourself by solidifying your questions before you start.</p>\n\n<p>To try to bring that to your specific question, given that you have such a limited timeframe, focus all your analysis time on answering the question you were posing at the outset. Once that's done, write until you've completely written up that analysis. If, at that point, you have other interesting analyses you want to perform, you can do the analysis and write it up.</p>\n\n<p>The only exception I would list here is the case where you entire analysis failed, but something else very interesting (i.e., publishable) came up that is more exciting than your first question. I only mention this because this happened to a colleague of mine; his project failed, but he found something else fascinating, and the main focus of his thesis was the second thing. That case aside, though, definitely focus on your main question at hand.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47248",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35897/"
] |
47,252 |
<p>I was wondering why some good European universities in the field of Computer Science and related careers, I mean:</p>
<ul>
<li>Computer Science</li>
<li>Information Systems</li>
<li>Software Engineering</li>
</ul>
<p>Their faculties do not really put information about if they are accredited by some entity like ABET for example. I know that these faculties rely more on research outcomes, quality of their staff and also to have a very dynamic curricular scheme that is not so fixed from time to time.</p>
<p>So is it that for these universities the accreditation is not important? and if one faculty has to choose an accreditation entity which one would be the best for the aforementioned careers?</p>
<p>I ask this because I found, for example, that some faculties are accredited by ACISCS or other entities, but according to what I found on the web there were a lot of rants against these accreditation types.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47268,
"author": "Ari Trachtenberg",
"author_id": 15885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15885",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have not found much value in accreditation; it may serve to identify poor-quality schools, but most decently ranked departments sail through accreditation without any of their real deficiencies being exposed. The process is thus little more than a bureaucratic checkbox for government or company sponsors of students.</p>\n\n<p>If you want to gauge the quality of a department ... look at where its\ngraduates go. What companies hire them, what universities accept them for graduate school/academic positions, what are their successful graduates doing 10-15 years after graduation?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47336,
"author": "Colin Johnson",
"author_id": 22703,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22703",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>European employers don't care, so students don't care, so universities don't care. A quick search on a leading UK IT job site finds about 100 mentions of BCS (the main British accreditation body), compared to \"1000+\" for mentions of specific <em>skills</em> (e.g. SQL, Java). The vast majority of the BCS mentions are actually about non-graduate technician registration, so the actual number of jobs that require degree accreditation is noise. Employers assess ability directly through skills tests, put a lot of value on student placements (the \"year-long interview\"), and/or rely on some shonky 20-year-out-of-date idea about which universities are the \"top ones\".</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, most European countries have a substantial (some would say excessive) quality assurance regimen coming from national or sub-national governments. To be allowed to award degrees at all, or call your organisation a university, requires vast amounts of checks and inspections. So, the role that accreditation plays in some parts of the world—distinguishing the substantive universities from the two-bit college in some rooms above a shop—just doesn't obtain.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47252",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6144/"
] |
47,255 |
<p>I am a first-year PhD student and I have two accepted publications as a first author since the start of my program.
The thing is I thought I would be the one to travel to the conferences and present my work but my advisor is making the presentation, as he made me aware of it today. The conference is in Europe. He gives me an excuse that the reason he will be going is because he will be on the committee of reviewers for the same conference next year and this will be a good opportunity for him to know what is going on.
The first conference is somewhere on the west coast and his co-PI also will be making that presentation.
I feel a little frustrated that all my hard-work is being presented by people who had little or nothing to do with the hundreds of hours of work that led to these results.
I feel this might be a trend that will continue throughout my PhD. My question: do you think I should challenge these folks or quietly accept their excuses for wanting to go, though unhappy about it as it is, and hope for a better deal in the future.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47259,
"author": "avid",
"author_id": 15798,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15798",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There may be good reasons why your advisors aren't encouraging you to go to these meetings. For example, they may feel the costs of sending you are out of proportion to the benefits you would get from the experience, particularly given that you are at a very early stage in your PhD. Without knowing more about your specific circumstances, it is difficult to judge.</p>\n\n<p>I suggest you have a friendly, non-confrontational discussion with them about which conferences they think you should aim to attend over the next few years. That way, everyone will know what the goals are, and (hopefully) no confusion will arise in future.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47266,
"author": "Mad Jack",
"author_id": 11192,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11192",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>My question: do you think I should challenge these folks or quietly accept their excuses for wanting to go</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Well, you've already asked about going, and the answer was \"no.\" Nothing wrong with asking again, though. </p>\n\n<p>However, I want to point out that the way your question reads, it sounds like your previous conversation was more about your PIs attending, not you. So, you should make it clear that <em>you</em> are interested in going. If you were to ask again, I would suggest asking something along the lines of \"are there any funds available for <strong>me</strong> to attend the conference(s)?\" </p>\n\n<p>If this conversation does not change the outcome, you could always check with your institution to see if there are funds available for students to travel to and attend conferences. Some schools have these, some schools don't. You may be able to receive some partial funds and be required to cover the rest of the cost out of your own pocket if you really wanted to go and were willing/able to pay your way. In any case, it's a good idea to see if these funds are available to you.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>though unhappy about it as it is, and hope for a better deal in the future.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No, <em>hoping</em> for a better deal in the future is not a good strategy. You need to have a chat with your advisor(s), and express your desire to attend the conferences where your work is presented. Again, as above, ask specifically about whether or not there are/will be any funds for you to attend conferences. </p>\n\n<p>Depending on the answer, you may be satisfied that you will be taken care of the next time around. Or, you may find that at your school/department, students are more or less on their own in obtaining funds for attending conferences (at my PhD-granting institution/department, it was common for the PI to secure the funds for their students to attend conferences where their work was presented — your field/institution may be different).</p>\n\n<p>In the end, if you are not able to come to an agreement about how your travel to conferences will be covered, it will be up to you to decide if your advisor's inability (or unwillingness, etc.) to help you cover these costs is a deal breaker or not.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47296,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Money is a finite resource. Your adviser may have very good reasons to attend (his \"excuse\" certainly doesn't sound \"flimsy\" to me but very reasonable from the perspective of a PI) and there may simply not be enough money to pay for both of your trips. There may in fact be no money at all to pay for your travel and he may be paying for his travel from some grant that allows him to go to the committee meeting (because the committee is related to the topic of the grant), but that wouldn't allow you to go the conference (because your area of work is not related to the topic of your grant). Since your adviser pays for it (and is legally responsible for the appropriate use of his funds), you need to understand that <em>he</em> gets to make the decision.</p>\n\n<p>As other have pointed out, that does not imply that he doesn't want <em>you</em> to go either. He may wish that he had enough money to send both of you, but doesn't. He may wish that some other (student travel?) money could be found to send you and may in fact be quite happy to write you the necessary letters of recommendation. We could speculate about this all day long, but at the end of the day, you can only elucidate whether this is the case or not by having a conversation.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47255",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35902/"
] |
47,265 |
<p>I am a PhD student in mathematical economics and had an interesting idea last month. I modelled my idea and wrote it down. For the moment, it is a preliminary draft but I think my idea is pretty interesting. </p>
<p>I would like to discuss my idea with some people in the field (researchers, professors, other PhD students etc.) with showing them the model in order to take their advices but I am afraid if some people can pick my idea. (I have already heard about this kind of unethical attitude in academia from my friends.) </p>
<p>As it is not a working paper yet, if somebody pick the idea and make a working paper before than me, I think I could do nothing than accepting the situation. </p>
<p>How to deal with this kind of issues ? The best way is to keep this preliminary model for me until the time that I put it as a working paper ?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 49559,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Per Pete L Clark's comment:</p>\n\n<p>When you feel like you've developed the idea enough to present it to anyone else, show it to your advisor and see what they say. One of the main things that advisors can help you with is to tell you which other people to contact to get help and information.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49563,
"author": "arkiaamu",
"author_id": 37772,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37772",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Unfortunate to there that there is such misconducts in your field. </p>\n\n<p>In general it is a very good idea to share your paper with someone else. Usually that only makes any research better. At times, PhD student may not receive the best advices from their advisor, because sometimes they may not see \"the forest from the trees\". In my own experience sharing research ideas and drafts with someone who is not directly into that topic usually leads to fresh ideas, comments and helps myself to think outside the box.</p>\n\n<p>I think every researcher regardless of the level should aim to connect and network with different people in different disciplines in order to have reliably people around you and thus be able to easily discuss with research papers and ideas.</p>\n\n<p>As said in the comments it is important to listen and take advices from your advisor, but I also recommend discussing with other people to get a different view. </p>\n\n<p>Maybe you could leave some critical information out from your paper and then discuss of it in more theoretical level? Without all the critical information the risk of misconduct would be definitely smaller. Do you have contact outside your own discipline but still close to your topic? I see it very unlikely that they would copy your idea, since they do not have all the expertise in your topic. I also recommend discussing with your fellow PhD students. Again I see hardly any risk they would copy your idea. I am an optimist and yet would like to believe in collegiality. Most importantly, you would very unlikely lose anything else than just a short period of your personal time if your share ideas with your peers, even if they have anything relevant ideas.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/15
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47265",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24694/"
] |
47,270 |
<p>I thought about posting this in English.SE, but since it occurs in a university setting, I decided to post here - hopefully it's on-topic. </p>
<p>I have been working on a project that is being transitioned to another group member so she could take over the project. The project involves the design, development, and application of "Model X". I have done some useful work on it, but some work still needs to be done to complete it. I'm putting together a documentation package to describe what I've done so far, the design of "Model X", and how to use the code I've written thus far.</p>
<p>This report is internal to the group (whether this will be part of something that is published in the future, I do not know). I hesitate to title the report "Model X" because it's not, and might not be close to, being the final model. How should I title the transition report?</p>
<p>Some options I have thought of:<br>
"Current status of Model X" - but this seems like an email subject<br>
"Incomplete Model X: Design and Usage" - this sounds a bit degrading</p>
<p>What would you suggest? And are there in fact accepted titles for this kind of report?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47271,
"author": "JRN",
"author_id": 64,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/64",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>How about calling it a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_paper\" rel=\"nofollow\">Working Paper</a> or a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_report\" rel=\"nofollow\">Technical Report</a>? (These are considered forms of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_literature\" rel=\"nofollow\">grey literature</a>.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47272,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I suggest using term <em>\"intermediate\"</em>, as it IMHO most accurately reflects the incomplete status of the project. Therefore, the title of the corresponding report might be formulated like the following:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"[Topic of the report]: Intermediate technical report by [group name].\n Version x.y.z from [date]\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47321,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have typically seen the word \"Draft\" used, as in:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Draft Model of X (Date)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If you want to track multiple drafts over time, then you can give a version number as well:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Draft Model of X (Version N, Date)</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47322,
"author": "underdark",
"author_id": 1084,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1084",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The term \"interim report\" seems appropriate here</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Interim report on the development of Model X</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47270",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35916/"
] |
47,273 |
<p>My institution currently tracks its members' publications by sending them an email every six months and then manually compiling publication lists from the replies. I am looking into updating the organisation's web site, and I would like to implement a system where users can maintain their own publication list on their academic web page. This data should go into a central database, so that we can (for example) easily pull up the last six months' worth of new publications for reporting purposes.</p>
<p>My question is whether there is a standard solution to this problem: is there any free or commercially available software that will allow us to set up a user-editable publication list system with a database backend?</p>
<p>If it's relevant, we're looking at using Wordpress as the backend for the whole site, with one of the many "user profile" plugins being used to create the individual personal pages. (This is all being done on a shoe string budget.)</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47285,
"author": "Andrew",
"author_id": 27825,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27825",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This sounds like a job for an <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institutional_repository\" rel=\"nofollow\">institutional repository</a> (though you don't have to publicise its existence as such...)</p>\n\n<p>The two most commonly used open-source packages for repositories are <a href=\"http://www.eprints.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">ePrints</a> and <a href=\"http://www.dspace.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">D-Space</a>, though there's a few others. Anecdotally, D-Space is somewhat more complex to set up than ePrints, though I've only got experience of the latter.</p>\n\n<p>Both have comparable levels of functionality, including metadata feeds/export, and it should be easy enough to export material into a Wordpress site - I've certainly seen it done, for example in <a href=\"http://joss.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/2010/02/02/feeding-wordpress-with-eprints-a-social-repo/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20blogs%2Flincoln%2Fjoss%20(Expedient%20Means)\" rel=\"nofollow\">this</a> rough proof-of-concept. I'll see if I can find a more polished example.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47709,
"author": "zircon",
"author_id": 36231,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36231",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A commercial service designed to solve this problem is <a href=\"http://epistemio.com/outcomes\" rel=\"nofollow\">Epistemio Outcomes</a>. Users can maintain their publication list, in most cases, by just confirming results of an automatic search. The publications of scientists within an institution are aggregated into the institutional list of publications, with automatic deduplication. Aggregation is automated, therefore no more emailing and manual compilation of lists from the replies will be needed. Scientists may embed their own list of publications on their personal pages, while the institution may also embed the aggregated list on its page. The lists of publications can be exported at any time, in a variety of formats, for reporting purposes.</p>\n\n<p>Disclaimer: I am affiliated with Epistemio.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47718,
"author": "Thomas",
"author_id": 6984,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6984",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Nobody in academia is really a fan of Elsevier, but they have a product called <a href=\"http://www.elsevier.com/solutions/pure\" rel=\"nofollow\">Pure</a> that provides a fairly comprehensive solution for tracking research activities, including publications but also conference attendance, grants, collaborations, etc. I've used it as a faculty member at my current institution (it is used by all Danish universities) and my experience has been positive from that perspective.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 170196,
"author": "buddemat",
"author_id": 141936,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/141936",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are not opposed to using Elsevier / Mendeley, there is a very nice <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/mendeleyplugin/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Mendeley Plugin for WordPress</a>.</p>\n<p>You can maintain your publication list in Mendeley and can easily build publication lists by using WordPress shortcodes, such as</p>\n<pre><code>[mendeley type="groups" id="XXXXX" filter="author=XXXX" sortby="year" sortorder="desc" groupby="year"]\n</code></pre>\n<p>Through the <code>filter</code> attribute, you can build different lists from the same Mendeley group, e.g. based on the author, year, tags, to name a few.</p>\n<p>An example for a publication list built with the plugin can be found <a href=\"https://web.archive.org/web/20190329103956/http://www.teco.edu/publications/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">here (archive.org link)</a>.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47273",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1534/"
] |
47,281 |
<p>I am a undergrad student, and I am currently conducting summer research under a professor.</p>
<p>During our last meeting, I have revealed that I wish to go to school A for my graduate study. But my prof rather wanted me to stay at my current school for master/phd; i.e., stay and work for him.</p>
<p>Well, I have already spent 3 years in my current undergrad school and I know it too well it is not where I want to go.</p>
<p>The problem is that, this prof is the only person who can comment on my research experience/potential. (Because I have been working 2 years with him; this year is the second year). </p>
<p>Right now, I can sense something not right in the relationship between my prof and I. At the end, if I go ahead and ask him to write me a recommendation letter, I am sure he would write one. But the question is, there <strong>can</strong> be a chance that he writes negatively, such that I would get rejected everywhere, and have nowhere to go except staying at my current school and do graduate study with him. </p>
<p>What should I do?</p>
<hr>
<p>More detail info:</p>
<p>There used to be a PhD student who published quality paper and taking care of things in the lab. The Prof is almost always away so he definely need someone to do this kind of lab managing job. As far as I know, none of his graduate students publish paper for 3 years in a row except for that Phd student. Currently, that PhD student is graduated this year so I guess he was looking for a candidate as a replacement. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47283,
"author": "Benoît Kloeckner",
"author_id": 946,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/946",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This seems a tricky situation. What you could do is try to write your motivation letter in a way that the people reading it alongside the recommendation would </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>find it a classical (good) motivation letter if the recommendation of your professor is sincere and positive and </p></li>\n<li><p>understand that the recommendation letter is not sincere if you prof does write a bad letter for the sake of keeping you at you current place. </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>This is not easy, but you could explain that you prof asked you to stay and state why you think the place you apply to would be a better fit for you (but do not despise you current place openly, it would reflect bad on you).</p>\n\n<p>This answer is not completely satisfactory to me, but I do not see anything best right now.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47286,
"author": "MJeffryes",
"author_id": 31487,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31487",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Do you have some other reason to want to move? eg, proximity to family, climate, wanting a change of scene? Even if your professor is scheming in the way you are suggesting, there would be no incentive for him to write a negative letter if he knows you will be leaving your current university regardless.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47288,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Having only worked with one research supervisor, if he/she wants to screw you over you are basically screwed and there is not much you can do. If your CV lists research experience and you do not have a letter of recommendation from the supervisor, that is essentially the same as, and possibly worse than, having a negative letter.</p>\n\n<p>I find it hard to believe that a supervisor would hold an undergraduate student \"hostage\" since there is no upside to the supervisor. A supervisor might stop investing time in an undergraduate student that he/she knows is leaving, but that does not mean the supervisor will write a bad letter. I would suggest talking to him/her and try and figure out what is going on.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47297,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Writing bad letters of recommendation because of personal disappointment about a student leaving is so disproportionately unethical that I cannot believe that it happens with any significant frequency. It is not what I would be worried about.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, most professors take pride in their students growing up, going out into the world, and being successful. Students are a bit our kids too -- sure, it would be nice if the kids stayed in the neighborhood, could continue to mow the lawn, and come over for dinner twice a week; but if they move out and are successful, we're proud nonetheless and hope they stay in contact. And if there's something we can help for them to be successful (like writing letters of recommendation), then that's what we do!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47308,
"author": "Willie Wong",
"author_id": 94,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/94",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><em>Preamble</em>: If you are in the US there is something that is legal and built into the system that you can use as a last recourse. <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1152/how-ethical-is-it-to-view-recommendation-letters\">It is generally frowned upon</a> and you should certainly try the other avenues first (cf. the other answers). I'm including the option here not to advocate it, but to make sure you are fully informed of your options. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Are you based in the United States and applying to graduate schools based in the United States? The <a href=\"http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act</a> stipulates the applicants have the right to inspect the letters of recommendation written on their behalf, unless said right was explicitly waived by the student. During the application process you will almost always encounter a question \"Do you waive your right to review the letters of reference?\" while entering the list of your referees. <strong>If you feel you have a real cause for concern, you can leave that box un-ticked</strong>. If someone actually wrote you a negative letter for the reason you described, it would be highly unethical; if you have the evidence (not just the letter written, but also proof of intent behind the letter) you can get him or her in big trouble. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Typically when a writer is asked to submit reference letters for applicants to graduate programs which fall under such a disclosure/waiver rule, the writer is informed at the time of submission whether the applicant has or has not waived the the right to view the letter. Hence not waiving your rights can have the desired effect as a deterrent. </p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, some people view not waiving your right as indicating your own lack of trust in the letter writer (which in your case will be true) and will hence believe that the letter writers may not have been as candid in their evaluation as they otherwise would have. So this may, in some situations, adversely affect the perception of your application. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47309,
"author": "Ooker",
"author_id": 14341,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14341",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my opinion, so far in here there is no satisfied answer for this situation. As StrongBad says, \"if he/she wants to screw you over you are basically screwed and there is not much you can do\". I think if you really want to actively do something, so that you can have the feeling of controlling the situation, you will need a plan...</p>\n\n<p>People tend to react with an event with the emotion they are carrying. For example, if a person just have a meeting and you can't ask them directly because it's confidential, you can offer them a cup of coffee right after they has a meet. If they answers <strong>in a positive way</strong>, you can conclude that the meeting has positive results. If they answers <strong>in a negative way</strong>, the results might be negative.</p>\n\n<p><strong>></strong> Make a good plan before applying this in your situation. I propose this: try to know the time he is free, and the drink he likes. After he finishes writing your LOR, meet him <strong>in person</strong>, invite him to have a drink in his free time. Or you can bring the drink to him directly as thank. Don't focus on the word he answers, focus on <strong>how comfortable</strong> he is when answering you.</p>\n\n<p>There are higher techniques to figure out what others are hiding. If you want to know more, I recommend you the book <a href=\"https://books.google.com.vn/books/about/You_Can_Read_Anyone.html?id=7jcAh5KZBlAC&source=kp_cover&hl=en\" rel=\"nofollow\">You Can Read Anyone</a>, but you can also google them easily. Note that when you trying to figure out what his altitude is, your plan is also what you hide to him. If he has some experience in psychology, be careful but at the same time be natural.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>But, don't get me wrong. I really try to avoid using these techniques as best as I can. If he doesn't know the plan, good for you, but if he finds something unnatural in your action, the least bad thing is now he sees you as a problem, to the worst thing that you have a cold war to your advisor. Learning martial arts isn't for using, but for avoiding to be hurt.</p>\n\n<p>While there's life, there's hope. Try to reconcile to your advisor if you can. Try to ask, with honestly (and with some techniques if you need), why he needs you to stay with him. Propose other candidate that can meet his expectation. This will be the best for both world.</p>\n\n<p>As others have said, the best for you is the best for him. So the best for him, is the best for you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47319,
"author": "Prof. Santa Claus",
"author_id": 35582,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35582",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My advice: 'run....'. A professor who only cares about him/herself is a bad sign. If I know a student of mine can get into a top school, I'll do all my best to help him/her get in. Then before he/she leaves, I'll say, do remember me when you're famous! </p>\n\n<p>Hopefully in a few years time he/she will give me his/her first born :)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47392,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just bring things out into the open. Here's an example of how to do this.</p>\n\n<p>Over coffee, tell the prof something about your motivation to spread your wings and seek a challenge at another university (it should be something true, but it could be exaggerated -- for example, I want to go to New Orleans because it's the birthplace of jazz, or I want to go to the U of Mich because that's where my parents met, or I want to go to Cornell because I love waterfalls).</p>\n\n<p>Next, say that you have really appreciated the opportunity he has given you to get involved in research; you realize that not all undergrads get an opportunity like what you had.</p>\n\n<p>Let him sing your praises at this point, if he is so inclined.</p>\n\n<p>Interrupt when he's mostly done and say that you realize that when a professor spends a lot of time mentoring a student, it's generally an investment in the future, and you feel bad about leaving him high and dry.</p>\n\n<p>Let him talk about his regrets about you leaving if he wants to.</p>\n\n<p>Remind him about the waterfalls or the jazz or whatever from step one.</p>\n\n<p>See if he shows some understanding and support. If not, confess your fear that he will want you to stay so badly that his feelings might color his letter of recommendation.</p>\n\n<p>Then listen.</p>\n\n<p>(By the way, I would leave alcohol out of it.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47399,
"author": "Nick Cain",
"author_id": 34266,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34266",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Since it sounds like you have at least a year left at your current institution, I would suggest building a few relationships with other professors who can write for you -- diversification is almost always a good strategy.</p>\n\n<p>The other thing to remember is that although recommendations help, graduate schools are most interested in your ability to add value to their program through tuition and/or your skills as a researcher/scholar.</p>\n\n<p>So, if you are in interested in g-school, I would think about your overall CV and demonstrating you can add value to a given program. One way to get a head start is to contact programs and professors you are interested in working with and ask about their plans and how you can help push their research agenda forward.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47281",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34283/"
] |
47,299 |
<p>If you are going for a humanities grad degree, either scientific or humanities undergrad could get in as long as they get good GRE score (I think.) </p>
<p>Not the case for scientific graduate studies, as the applicant would most likely need to be experienced in lab work and have solid scientific understanding, proven by their undergrad coursework. </p>
<p>Would graduate programs in scientific fields consider a person with no scientific background for even a conditional admission?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47300,
"author": "Nathanael Farley",
"author_id": 28715,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28715",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't know of any universities in the UK which would allow this. The reason is simple: in order to complete even basic tasks in science involves knowing the langauge of science (often with a lot of maths).</p>\n\n<p>However, there are 'access courses' in the UK which are 1 year, and have much lower entry requirements. I'm not sure where you are (probably the US?) but I imagine there will be similar things around.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47301,
"author": "marcman",
"author_id": 11819,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11819",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Speaking for the US and as someone with undergrad degrees in the humanities who is now doing a PhD in the sciences, it is hard, but not impossible to make the transition.</p>\n\n<p>First of all, your best bet is Masters programs. Unless you're somehow exceptional (or maybe just very well connected), you'd be hard pressed to find a PhD program to take you when you're completely unproven in an area. However, to start out, there are transitional programs out there (Boston University's <a href=\"http://www.bu.edu/eng/academics/special-programs/leap/overview/\">LEAP program</a> for engineering is one) to help students move into a science field. Ask around and search online; I'm sure there are at least a few others.</p>\n\n<p>You can also take non-degree courses at local universities to build up coursework in your desired field. For those, most schools don't much care about your background as long as you're paying them. Once you've built up enough background/understanding in your field, you may have some luck applying to Masters programs. I've seen other questions on this site where folks have posted schools that accept students to Masters programs in the sciences despite non-science backgrounds. I'll edit this answer if I can find some examples.</p>\n\n<p>Additionally, once you've built some classroom credentials, you may have some luck trying to work with a professor in his/her lab. Even if you're not a matriculated student, I know of at least 2 faculty who have taken on lab assistants from outside the university. It's not common, but it is possible.</p>\n\n<p>In summary, it's possible, but it will take time, probably some money, and some dedication to make the change. You'd probably have trouble getting in anywhere with zero background, but with some patience you can build that background and get your foot in the door. Once you have that, it just depends on how far you want to go with it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47331,
"author": "Fomite",
"author_id": 118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It very much depends on your background - it is possible, for example, to end up with a humanities degree, but having taken a fair bit of math and science as part of an interest, or a liberal arts education.</p>\n\n<p>Fields that <em>don't</em> have a strong undergraduate presence may very well accept you - for example, there are <em>very few</em> students coming in with an undergraduate background in Epidemiology, which means that graduate programs are pretty much expecting to train you from the ground up anyway.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47335,
"author": "zahbaz",
"author_id": 33269,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33269",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes. You have to be realistic, though. Making such a transition takes time, as you're starting from square one. It also can be financially challenging, as you progress through the education. You may not find a lot of choices at first, but with effort, you can begin to expand your horizons after building your academic reputation.</p>\n\n<p>I suppose my answer is from personal experience.</p>\n\n<p>Two years ago, I began to pursue a full, rich career in physics. My undergraduate degrees, though, were in business and psychology. I had virtually no experience outside of introductory collegiate physics and some calculus I had taken as an undergrad. My work experience did not exactly apply.</p>\n\n<p>Not unexpectedly, the choices for a program were limited. I found a good State university nearby that accepted me conditionally to its Master's program. There are some other students at this school who have had other backgrounds as well - another I know well was an English major. Some of us started from scratch. As conditional students, we had to more-or-less complete the entire BS curriculum prior starting grad classes. That took about two years. Where I am now, it'll take about two more years for the Master's.</p>\n\n<p>My partner is in the same boat, but with mathematics. She held a liberal arts degree. She was rejected for conditional admission, and so began to take classes to bolster her foundations. After a year of study, she reapplied and was accepted. Again, she is working towards her graduate degree after several semesters of fulfilling undergraduate level material.</p>\n\n<p>I have observed others in the same situation successfully enter industry and PhD programs at all levels of prestige and interest. Regardless, those who excelled only did so through a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.</p>\n\n<p>So, yes. It's a long road, but it can be traveled.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47299",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35783/"
] |
47,302 |
<p>I am writing a report for my master's research. One entire section of my report has been expertly written in someone else's PhD thesis, which happens to mostly take the form of a monograph on the subject.</p>
<p>I am not writing a research article, and they don't expect original research from me (or at least not much), but to be self-sufficient, my report needs to include some kind of quick overview of the subject. The problem is that now that I have read this thesis, I seem to not be able to more than heavily take inspiration from it.</p>
<p>Said thesis is available under the BSD3 license and I of course cite everything but I don't know how to approach what is basically copying a large amount of work.</p>
<p>My options seem to be:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Rewrite everything "my way" while citing the thesis. Considering it still would not be original work and would amount to just cleverly changing the original work wording and structure it feels intellectually dishonest.</p></li>
<li><p>Just clearly say "The following work is from X" and translate X exactly. This seems academically dishonest.</p></li>
<li><p>Forget about this section. Leave it alone for two months and hope that I forgot the thesis so that I can write with a clear mind and conscience.</p></li>
</ul>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47307,
"author": "user3209815",
"author_id": 14133,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14133",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I assume that someone's PhD thesis is a larger piece of work than a section of your report. Therefore, I don't see how you can avoid summarizing the thesis to fit your work. And while you are at it, you get the chance to deepen your understanding of the subject, because you will basically be writing a review of this someone's thesis in light of you report. That is a prospect you shouldn't miss, as in academia as well as in industry, you will be expected at some point of your career to \"digest\" some work and produce some implication of it.</p>\n\n<p>Citing the thesis is a must, if it is used as a reference, there is no debating it. I would recommend writing your section \"your way\", but not just changing some details to mask your copy-paste trail. Put the material in the context of your report. You don't need a clear mind and conscience to use something you learned from a source. If it \"looks like\" the said thesis, that is not a problem, as long as it fits and you have gained significant understanding from it.</p>\n\n<p>PS: If you did a simply copy-paste, you would likely find that the text still needs some polishing to fit your report. That can amount to a significant amount of work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47326,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You are almost certainly using the information in a different context than it was originally presented in. If nothing else, the material needs to be modified to fit its new context, as well as being cited of course. Even the most hard-core mathematical description typically has a lot of text as well, explaining the mathematics, which will need to be adjusted and paraphrased (and if it doesn't have such text, you should add that). I typically find that by the time I have finished adapting a piece of material to its new environment, I have quite thoroughly rewritten things in my own style; combine such with appropriate attribution, and the question of plagiarism is moot.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47338,
"author": "Dorebell",
"author_id": 35965,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35965",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For what it's worth, I've found that it's fairly common in math papers (especially longer expository works) to say something like the following:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>We will now discuss [insert topic] and prove [insert theorems] in\n order to [insert reason you care about this thing]. The treatment here\n largely follows that of [cite reference]; see there for more details.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>and then to present the material from the reference. The wording and exposition should be your own (obviously, you can't just copy/paste the work), and you should try to repeatedly summarize and re-organize the work to fit your own context, but it's fine to re-use notation and proofs and such. Unless you're doing original research in math, you're always presenting somebody else's proof, and often there's only trivial ways to vary how you say it. For a personal example, in the course of writing a term paper for a math class, I found <em>three</em> different expository sets of notes all explaining a topic in parallel ways, all of which followed the outline and major proofs of a single source, which was itself and expository work putting some very old results in modern terminology.</p>\n\n<p>Especially if it's just one piece in a larger work, I wouldn't be too concerned. It's much more dishonest to \"forget\" the reference and pretend you never read it than to admit that you're heavily borrowing from it.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47302",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35935/"
] |
47,303 |
<p>I am going to apply for grad school starting this December. I have heard that an LOR is pretty essential in the process. I have a few professors I can approach. But my question is: how do you present an LOR? By that I mean, should it be sealed in an envelope, giving the impression that I have not peeped into it, before submitting it for grad school? </p>
<p>What if my professor mails me an LOR instead of writing it? Do I take a printout and do the above?</p>
<p>Also is there a particular format I should be aware of? And what else should be there on the letter, apart form the content itself, college stamp/seals or anything of the sought?</p>
<p>Are there any other formalities that I should be concerned about?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47305,
"author": "marcman",
"author_id": 11819,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11819",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As far as I know, each school you apply to will have their own system for letters of recommendation. Most will have you put the recommenders' contact info into a form, and the school will contact the recommender to request the letter. It is always possible that some may have different methods (particularly outside the US which I something I'm not acquainted with).</p>\n\n<p>For now, just start thinking about who you want to recommend you, and perhaps even begin a conversation with them to understand what they need from you to write a stellar recommendation. The administrative stuff will be more clear once the applications are made available to you in the fall.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47306,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The rules vary greatly by country and program. You should follow the rules as specified by each individual program. </p>\n\n<p>For instance, in the US, the applicant should <strong>never</strong> see a letter of recommendation at <em>any</em> stage of the admissions process. Nowadays, this is circumvented by having the letter-writer submit the reference directly, with the applicant only \"supervising\" the process to see if a letter has been submitted. In the rare cases where everything is to be submitted together, it is usually required that the letter writer sign across the seal of the envelope, to ensure no tampering has occurred. </p>\n\n<p>As for the format, it should again follow local customs—for example, in the US, being submitted on official letterhead is sufficient; a mailed letter <em>in Germany</em> would be considered suspect without a stamp mark. (An emailed letter would be an exception to this, but would still be expected to have an electronic or digital signature of some sort.)</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47303",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33908/"
] |
47,313 |
<p>I am currently looking for postdoctoral positions, and am considering applying overseas (in US right now). My advisor has expressed his opinion that I can not be successful in an overseas position because my wife won't want to move there and will cause trouble. She doesn't like to move, but has realized that it's necessary, even if it's to a foreign country.</p>
<p>To help in my job search, my advisor has arranged for mock interviews with other faculty members in the department. He has provided a list of questions to prepare for, including "How will your wife like living in INSERT CITY HERE?"</p>
<p>I'm not a lawyer, so I don't precisely what section of the law bans questions about marital status, but I know it's outlawed. Even in an academic environment, a professor hiring a postdoc sure seems to fit into the definition of an employer or supervisor, given that he has the authority to hire, fire, or otherwise direct job responsibilities. </p>
<p>I don't think it's appropriate for him to criticize my personal life, and I have done my best to keep it from interfering with my work. I am mad that he might use my marital issues to sabotage potential job offers. What is the best way to respond to his behavior, and how should I prepare for any potential problems it might cause?</p>
<p>By sabotage, I think he might give negative recommendations. He has told me that if someone asks him for a letter of recommendation about me that he might have to tell them that my personal issues will interfere with my ability to function in the lab. Because this statement happened in the middle of a discussion about how he doesn't think my wife can adjust, the only way I can interpret "personal issues" is "marriage".</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47316,
"author": "mhwombat",
"author_id": 10529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10529",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>By suggesting that you prepare for questions about how your wife will like living in a new place, it seems to me that this advisor is actually trying to <em>help</em> you in your job search, not sabotage you. Even if you only interview in countries where this question is illegal, people who interview you may ask the question anyway (perhaps out of ignorance of the law), in which case it's usually best to answer. And even if they don't ask that particular question, the issue may come up as a result of other questions. I could be wrong (you know him better than I do), but if your advisor wanted to sabotage you, he wouldn't be going to the trouble of arranging mock interviews and confronting this issue head-on.</p>\n\n<p>The letter of recommendation seems to me to be the more critical issue here. I think it depends on how your advisor became aware of your family issues. If these family issues have affected your work, then your advisor may feel he should mention it in the LOR.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47320,
"author": "Salvador Dali",
"author_id": 7096,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7096",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I feel really sad for you professor. From what I read, it looks like a person really tries to help you and in return you accuses him on sabotaging you.</p>\n\n<p>He went way more than a nice professor would do to help you to find a position:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>has arranged for mock interviews with other faculty members in the department</li>\n<li>provided a list of questions to prepare for</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Don't you think it takes his time and time of many other people to do this? Don't you think that if someone would like to actually sabotage you, he would not need to do all this (just ignore you and give you bad references).</p>\n\n<p>Also expressing opinion is not sabotaging, it is just an opinion of a person with better experience (which might be wrong). A lot of students would be happy to hear opinion of their professor about their abilities, and should be prepared that sometimes it is different from what they would like to hear.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding a recommendation letter. When someones write a recommendation letter, he puts his word that what he wrote is true. If he will write you an excellent recommendation letter and later you will appear a really bad student, people would not trust him anymore. For this reason, if he believes that there is a problem, he should write about it (it is not called a sabotage). So either find a way to persuade him that his belief is not true/outdated or find another person who would write you a recommendation. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47346,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><a href=\"http://www.learnvest.com/2013/07/4-inappropriate-interview-questions-and-how-to-answer/3/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.learnvest.com/2013/07/4-inappropriate-interview-questions-and-how-to-answer/3/</a>\nIn this link, for the question \"What does your significant other do?\" it is recommended \"to answer honestly while deflecting with humor ('He’s a lawyer. I hope you won’t hold that against me.'), and then simply turn the conversation around: 'By the way, what does your spouse do?' The key is to keep it light.\"</p>\n\n<p>Applying this to your advisor's mock interview question, how about the following: \"My spouse is looking forward to joining me in my international adventure. Are there language classes for new employees and spouses?\"</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>He has told me that if someone asks him for a letter of recommendation about me that he might have to tell them that my personal issues will interfere with my ability to function in the lab.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Ask him what he was referring to when he said that your personal issues will interfere with your ability to function in the lab. First, you need to know what was going through his head.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Edited to add:\n\"This statement happened in the middle of a discussion about how he doesn't think my wife can adjust.\" I don't think what he said, or is contemplating doing, is illegal. But your family life isn't any of his business. He's your thesis advisor, not your life advisor.</p>\n\n<p>In the worst case, you could do one short postdoc in the US, and then, with a good recommendation garnered from the postdoc, you could then head overseas for a second postdoc.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47371,
"author": "erwin",
"author_id": 31805,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31805",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First, it would be unusual to arrange mock interviews solely for the purpose of sabotaging someone. It would be more customary, at least in the US, simply to slack off on helping you find another position. On occasion, it might be a ham-handed attempt to convince you of something. I wonder if it is possible that your advisor has a genuine, if unwelcome concern? I understand that, in your opinion, your advisor is violating one of your boundaries by advising you on this issue. Given that his boundaries are different and that your future performance affects his reputation, I'd suggest addressing the issue directly.</p>\n\n<p>On one hand, he may have valid concerns. I have had experience with people with spouses with mental health and personality/flexibility issues. Those issues typically significantly intensify in unfamiliar environments with limited support networks. If such issues have affected your performance in the past, your advisor is doing the right, and courageous thing (if somewhat passively), by bringing these issues to your attention. If your spouse is one of those individuals, or if you are, moving overseas is likely to set you up for failure and your advisor for a loss of reputation. These problems can get really bad. In this case, the best approach might be to seriously consider your advisor's advice and then see if you can find positions that mitigate those concerns. For example, places with a good support network, or places where your spouse is likely to start working immediately. If not, you might consider looking for work more locally, even if outside of academia. In some cases, you may need to consider whether or not your spouse is a good fit with your life plans and make some tradeoffs. Given that it seems something has concerned your advisor enough to make significant efforts, that should be a real warning signal for you.</p>\n\n<p>Alternately, it is possible that your advisor has an unwarranted concern. This can happen - sometimes from cultural grounds, sometimes just from different life experiences. In this case, it makes sense just to clear the air and talk about and address your advisor's worries. You may also find that some of those worries come from real experience. A few of my colleague's wives were perfectly healthy, but ended up leaving them after being unable to adapt to a foreign country. Divorce is always tricky.</p>\n\n<p>Now, in countries where such questions are illegal, they still aren't surprising. The reality is that whether or not your family is okay with moving is often the most predictive variable in whether or not you're likely to stay in a position you accept. Or, to put it another way, I've answered questions about my family's comfort level with a move in essentially every single interview. The ones where I didn't either were clearly not good fits or were really close to my current residence. My approach has been to indicate that I've done my homework - located reasonable places to live and confirmed with my significant other that place X looks like a good place to live. If I haven't done my homework, I tend to indicate that my significant other is open to the move, but that we'll need to visit the place together to make a decision.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47385,
"author": "Eric",
"author_id": 20424,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20424",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Bringing your wife with you to another country has immigration consequences. Depending on where emigrating from, where you're immigrating to, and what visa / work permit rules that country has around Post Docs, your wife may or may not be able to immigrate there with you, she may or may not be able to work there once she gets there, she may require special, separate permission to enter the country, etc. I would expect any interview for bringing someone in from a foreign country to at least touch on what arrangements might need to be made or what limitations might be involved with bringing the candidate's spouse to the country.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47405,
"author": "Thorst",
"author_id": 15494,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15494",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The best way to respond to his behaviour is to recognize that he is right. </p>\n\n<p>The key element in failing postings is spousal problems. If your wife is going to miss her family and perhaps not even getting a job, statistically one of two things is going to happen: </p>\n\n<p>1) You break up and she moves back.</p>\n\n<p>2) You give up and you both move back. </p>\n\n<p>I suggest you talk to him about your wife's change in attitude, and you think about what she is going to do once you get to Europe. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47417,
"author": "Fuca26",
"author_id": 23222,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23222",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would not be so concerned about this point. I am Italian and married to an American. We live in Sweden: zero bureaucracy for her. Someone raised this point as being a potential issue, it is not if you move in a EU country at least (as far as I know).\nI agree with whom says that this question might come up. It is illegal in the US, but it might not be illegal in single EU countries (as a matter of fact, I do not think \"marital status\" is protected even by special EU laws). \nBut do not get discouraged. As someone suggested, try to come up with positive answers that put you in good light.\nYour prof is helping you with mock interview, this is huge. If you are worried that s/he would sabotage you (by writing his/her concerns about your marital status in her/his reference letter), just try to come up with sensitive positive answers about this topic during the mock interview; it would tranquilize him/her about it.\nIn any case, remember a thing. If he/she really mention your marital status in your ref let, this could play against his/her reputation! Imagine what a female reader in the university where you apply to would think about your professor reading such a comment...</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47313",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23005/"
] |
47,325 |
<p>As a PhD researcher in computer science, my scientific results often take the form of algorithms, which in turn come with implementations. I am convinced that releasing these implementations under an open-source model has various benefits especially for scientific codes, one of which is reproducibility of results. I also believe that "Release Often, Release Early" applies to science, as it opens up the possibility of feedback that ultimately leads to better software and better research.</p>
<p>However, my advisor is concerned with the danger of plagiarism in case the code is released before the respective paper is published, and therefore disagrees with that philosophy. To me it seems like a very theoretical threat since I have never heard of a comparable case of plagiarism. However, we just got a paper rejected in which one major criticism of the reviewer was that it was impossible to reproduce results since the code was not available. My advisor thinks that this is unfair criticism because the conference has not explicitly asked for a release of the source code. </p>
<p>What do you think? Is it sensible to keep implementations secret until the paper is through, or is open-source actually a requirement for reproducible computer science?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47327,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Computer science is a particularly friendly environment for releasing material in advance of publication. In fact, there are a number of methods for doing so that provide a clear archival time-stamp on your work, including university technical reports, arXiv, and big repository sites like github and bitbucket. Moreover, unlike many other disciplines, such pre-release almost never impairs your ability to build conference and journal publications on top of your released material. In fact, you can typically release not just your code, but also your draft paper through the same mechanisms.</p>\n\n<p>If you do such pre-release, you are essentially immune to plagiarism, because anybody who pirates your results will look like a fool with date-stamps marking their guilt for all to see. It may not stop bottom-feeders from trying, but it will mean that nobody you care about (including reviewers) should take such an attempt seriously.</p>\n\n<p>The only likely problem that you can run into is double-blind reviewing, <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/31018/how-can-i-timestamp-my-paper-without-violating-double-blind-review\">as discussed in this question</a>. If that's not a major concern for you, or if you can use one of the mechanisms suggested in that question, then I see no likely downside in computer science publication.</p>\n\n<p>On a side note, however: just because the code is available doesn't mean it's reproducible, as anybody who's spent significant time having a dependency-fight with poorly-document open source projects can attest.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47328,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I wish that more papers were rejected for such reasons, that more grant funding agencies required release, and that more publishing venues did so as well. That this is not the case, is a reality we have to live in. </p>\n\n<p>A paper should be, at the very least, good enough that an intrepid reviewer could follow the description through to an implementation of their own that works and can reproduce its results. I have certainly seen this done for one of my own papers where our code was not ever published and another author compared their later algorithm to ours by reimplementing our method. In fact, I asked them to do this as part of the review process using their code for their problem since our two approaches were so similar. It made for a much better paper. </p>\n\n<p>I don't believe that in most cases simply rerunning someone's code on the same inputs tells us much more than the paper does. If you don't believe that someone's implementation does what they says it does, you are essentially accusing them of fabricating their results. If this is your concern as a reviewer, then you should say so. E.g., \"The results of this paper are unbelievably good! I have worked through the implications of their algorithm and cannot see how an implementation on a real computer could achieve this level of performance. The authors should provide (at least to this reviewer through the editor) code, inputs, and instructions sufficient to reproduce the results in Table 10.\" Now, they may tell you and the editor to go pound sand, but the peer review process is where this can be addressed now. </p>\n\n<p>Additionally, there are other reasons to keep the code secret. The authors may in some stage of patenting their software. I think that software patents are wrong-headed, but the fact of the matter is that US law allows federal grant awardees to pursue patents for things they invent under federal grants (with a non-exclusive license for use back to the government). In some circumstances, the authors may wish to pursue a patent on the implementation while describing the methodology and mathematics in the open literature. This can be tricky.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47337,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Having made a career in open source software, I have two comments:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>I've never had a case where someone \"scooped\" me. My code has often been available in some form or other (on open software repositories) months or years before the paper was finally ready, but nobody ever scooped me on it. On the other hand, a fair share of my collaborators thought that the code I produced was good, do not have the requisite knowledge to work with it themselves, and asked to collaborate with me. All very positive.</p></li>\n<li><p>I've probably written 10-15 papers for which the source code is available (as open source, well documented, production-ready code). In almost all of these cases, paper reviewers thought that very positive and it helped the paper getting accepted. </p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/16
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47325",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/704/"
] |
47,339 |
<p>I have yet to see this, but was wondering if others have or if it makes sense to list acknowledgments in published papers on a CV.</p>
<p>In some questions on this SE, it seems significant contributions to a paper can occur, yet for some reason (maybe not contributing to writing of the paper), the person is listed in acknowledgments and not co-author. This seems like something that is of relevance/importance.</p>
<p>In the other case, acknowledgments can be 'thanks for the discussion' in which it may have been a brief conversation with one important realization through the talk. This seems more like daily life. </p>
<p>Some people seem to list their contributions tot he academic community, such as being a reviewer for a journal. </p>
<p>What would you think if you saw acknowledgments on a CV, or, would it make more sense to categorize acknowledgments into other topics, such as, 'Non-co-authored project participation'.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47354,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I've never seen \"mentioned in acknowledgements\" on a CV, and wouldn't know how to evaluate them if I did see them on somebody's CV. Acknowledgements are often pretty random and arbitrary in their threshold, and can often indicate a very small involvement indeed (e.g., \"Mary was eating lunch with us one day when the project was being discussed, and happened to say something useful\"). This is different than something like service (e.g., reviewing), which typically has fairly well-defined investment in time, and is a known burden that needs to be shouldered by volunteers across the community.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47355,
"author": "sjsyrek",
"author_id": 33829,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33829",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When it comes to a CV, as with most things in academia, it's best to stick to form. Education, awards, publications, conference papers given, invited talks, departmental service, teaching experience, and possibly references and professional affiliations are just about all you should need. Anything superfluous will likely be misconstrued, ignored, or be perceived as padding. If you're applying for an academic position, keep it simple with only your most significant achievements, as people who look at CVs generally have to look at tons of them, and you won't do yourself any favors by being obscure. They also aren't professional recruiters and don't tend to love poring over CVs, so a standard form helps the evaluators get through this work more efficiently.</p>\n\n<p>If you find you don't have enough things to put on your CV, I think it might just barely be okay to include a kind of \"other projects\" section in which you briefly discuss your involvement in this other work. But you are largely going to be evaluated on the basis of your own work, so it's hard to say what difference it will make. The CV is part of a nexus of relationships, references, and affiliations and won't stand entirely on its own. So it depends. If you worked on some important projects, perhaps you could ask one of your recommendation writers to mention the degree and quality of your involvement. These sorts of things can at least indicate collegiality, which is important. </p>\n\n<p>As I'm sure you've done, you should look at other people's CVs for guidance and also visit with someone trained to help academics translate their experience into an effective document. My own CV had all the right components, but a counselor on staff at my university suggested I change the order of the sections and reformat it according to a different principle of emphasis and priority. That helped me a lot. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47339",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12718/"
] |
47,341 |
<p>I have been accepted to a fairly competitive online computer science-related <a href="http://datascience.berkeley.edu/">graduate program</a> (in the US). It is a part-time program geared toward working professionals. During the application process, I was assigned an admissions counselor that worked with me during the application and answered questions, etc. The counselor did mention at one point that I could defer admission by one trimester, should I be accepted.</p>
<p>Well, long story short, I have a situation with my employer (who would be funding my graduate studies), that is now making me strongly prefer to exercise the deferral option.</p>
<p>I have reached out to my admission counselor seeking guidance on how to do this. I expected this to be a fairly routine, straightforward process. Instead, I am getting aggressive pushback, with the counselor trying to talk me out of it. </p>
<p>After several emails and phone calls with the counselor, I still do not have any instructions on how to actually accept the admission but defer by one trimester. My admission offer is still pending. I would really like to simply accept the offer (and pay the deposits), but with deferral.</p>
<p>All I have are appointments to talk with a current student and a scheduled one-on-one demo of the "courseware" with the counselor. I cannot help but notice the counselor is seemingly dancing around my question on how to defer.</p>
<p>Since this deferral option was mentioned up front when I was still just an applicant, why would I be encountering this kind of resistance? I am truly baffled. Why can't I just do "what is best for me"?</p>
<p>The program has three admission cycles throughout the year: fall, spring, and summer. I applied for fall 2015 and was accepted. I'd like to exercise the option to defer, essentially as if I applied for spring 2016.</p>
<p>I am starting to wonder: Does my request for a deferral reflect badly on someone? On me? On the counselor? Might the school have some aggressive revenue forecast that was expecting my tuition payment, and now this deferral request throws a wrench in it? Does the admission committee and/or counselor have some quota for accepted offers they need to meet? Might they simply be trying to balance class/cohort sizes? I am trying to understand this from the school and counselor's perspective: Why might they do this, and why do so in this aggressive manner?</p>
<p>Furtheremore, does anyone have any advice on how to proceed from this point? Should I just be frank and ask the counselor why the aggressive pushback?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47342,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think there is no point in our speculating about the motivation behind the \"aggressive pushback\". In that we don't even know which program you're talking about, we have less information than you. Moreover, speaking as an academic at an \"analogue\" university, I have no experience whatsoever with online programs. Maybe someone here will have expertise in this area, but I can't think of any frequent contributor with that background.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The counselor did mention at one point that I could defer admission by one trimester, should I be accepted.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Did you get that in writing (presumably email)? If so, I would send a copy of this offer back to your \"admissions counselor\" and then have one more telephone conversation with him in which you do not ask for advice at all but simply say \"I would like to exercise the deferral option that you previously offered.\" If they try to argue, don't. Just say, \"I'm sorry if I wasn't making myself clear: I am not interested in further discussion on this point. I would like to take you up on your previous offer. Who should I talk to about doing that?\"</p>\n\n<p>If you didn't get the offer in writing: well, the bottom line is that I don't see how you can hold them to it. You should decide whether you are interested in enrolling in the program without the deferral. It's not my decision, for what it's worth: this kind of behavior on the part of their organization makes a poor impression on me. It is not a good foundation for future work. Unless you feel like this is a unique opportunity (and, well it sounds snooty but nevertheless: I don't know of <em>any</em> online graduate programs that are unique opportunities), I would not take them up on their modified offer. If you decide that a deferral is not okay, you have a version of the previous conversation where instead of sending the documentation you indicate that you were extended the offer before. The option is now theirs: they can enroll you after one trimester or not at all.</p>\n\n<p>I am very conscious that the above is more like how I would deal with my credit card company than with a university. Again, I would think twice about enrolling in a graduate program that reminds anyone of a credit card company: yikes.</p>\n\n<p>Good luck.</p>\n\n<p><b>Added</b>: The OP has since provided two further significant pieces of information. First, the institution is one of the leading ones in the US; I was worried that it was an <em>online only</em> institution. Second, there are three application cycles per year, so really it is hard for me (a tenured faculty member at a nationally ranked state research university) to understand what the big deal is to start in the following cycle. </p>\n\n<p>Here is my updated advice: as above, I still recommend that you have one more telephone conversation in which you make a good faith effort to get what you want out of the person who's been assigned to deal with you. From your description of the previous conversations, it doesn't sound like you've been as direct as you possibly could be. Counseling is over. Either this person will arrange your deferral or he won't: find out which it is. If the conversation with him does not result in your successful deferral, you should contact a faculty member in the program and tell them that you want to start in the next trimester, and that [insert Mr. Counselor's name here] orally gave you the option of doing that. If there is a good reason not to do this, you'll hear it much more directly from the people who are actually running the program than an \"admissions counselor\" (again, I don't really know what that is...). I looked up the program you linked to, and three minutes of internet searching did not fully explicitly tell me which faculty member to contact about questions like this, but there is one faculty member who appears most prominently on the page, namely the dean of the school you've applied to. I recommend that you write to her.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47344,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Like Pete L. Clark, I don't have a lot of experience with online programs, but I can extrapolate some guesses from what I know about traditional \"face-to-face\" graduate programs.</p>\n\n<p>In many traditional programs, it would be quite unusual to offer a student the option to defer for less than a full year. The courses required for the degree often are not offered every term, and may have to be taken in a particular sequence, so the department will schedule courses so that students who start at the beginning of an academic year can take everything they need in sequence and be done as quickly as possible. For a student who defers and starts mid-year, there is a problem. Either the student has to wait to take some of their courses (complicating their schedule or even delaying their graduation), or they have to take courses out of sequence (problematic if one course develops material that is prerequisite for the next), or the department has to offer a special extra course (expensive) or arrange for something like independent study (awkward and time-consuming).</p>\n\n<p>An online program might be able to mitigate this issue, if some of the courses can be taken \"asynchronously\" (so that you don't have to be \"taking\" the course at the same time as a professor is \"teaching\" it). But this is not always the case; sometimes online course are quite synchronous and resemble traditional courses in structure, except that lectures and assignments are delivered electronically.</p>\n\n<p>So that's at least one reason why they might not want you to defer, and why they might not be able to \"just let you do what is best for you\".</p>\n\n<p>So why were you offered this option in the first place? Another note: traditional graduate programs are usually run \"in-house\" by a department and its professors, with administrative assistance from department staff. Admissions is usually handled that way as well (in contrast to undergraduate programs, for which there is a dedicated university-wide admissions office). It would be unusual for there to be dedicated admissions counselors for a graduate program; usually the point of contact for prospective students would be a professor from the department, or a staff member with a direct line to a professor. The fact that all your dealings have been with a person whose sole job appears to be admissions suggests that this person is somewhat removed from the day-to-day running of the graduate program. So they may have mistakenly offered you this option without checking with the department, whose responsibility it would be to actually make it work. It's conceivable that the department actually doesn't want to have this option available (perhaps for the scheduling reasons described above), and told the admissions counselor so, and now he/she is trying to backtrack.</p>\n\n<p>As such, here are some things I might suggest:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Try to get in touch with someone who is actually involved in running the program. The academic department which offers the program (say, computer science) should have a professor listed on their web site as \"graduate chair\" or some such title. That would be the ideal person. See if you can find out from them what would actually be involved (for you and for them) if you were to defer. This may at least give you a better understanding of what's going on, and you can have a sensible discussion with someone, instead of a credit card company-style ultimatum.</p></li>\n<li><p>Based on your work situation, would it be convenient for you to defer for an entire year? My guess is that the university would be much better able to accommodate that. It does cause some issues with \"balancing cohort size\" and revenue. (More specifically, they probably have a fixed maximum number of students that can enroll in each year. If you defer, they will be (further) below that number for this year, which represents lost tuition revenue that can't necessarily be made up by increasing enrollment next year.) But that is likely a much smaller logistical problem than a student starting mid-year.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47375,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The <a href=\"http://datascience.berkeley.edu/\">MIDS program at Berkeley</a> is an unusual special case among graduate programs. One clue is the use of admissions counselors, which are almost unheard of in typical graduate programs but are <a href=\"http://tressiemc.com/2013/03/08/how-admissions-works-differently-at-for-profit-colleges-sorting-and-signaling/\">widely used in for-profit education</a>. (This doesn't mean there's anything intrinsically problematic about relying on admissions counselors. They are used because they are an effective recruiting technique and can genuinely help everything work more smoothly for applicants. However, it's a cultural difference in how recruiting is done.)</p>\n\n<p>In fact, the MIDS program is run by the I School at Berkeley in partnership with a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2U_(company)\">for-profit company called 2U</a>. See <a href=\"http://datascience.berkeley.edu/about/2u-program-partner/\">here</a> for a description of how 2U and Berkeley are collaborating on this. In particular, the key sentence is \"2U's marketing and recruiting team supports the I School's goal of finding students who are most likely to succeed in the rigorous Master of Information and Data Science program.\" The admissions counselor you've worked with is presumably a 2U employee from the marketing and recruitment team, whose job performance is based on getting people to enroll. Deferring at least means you won't be enrolling now, and you might change your mind about enrolling at all in the meantime, so it would not be considered a good outcome by 2U.</p>\n\n<p>So why is Berkeley working with 2U if it could lead to awkward situations like this? One reason is 2U's educational technology platform, but frankly I think it's primarily the prospect of making money. The I School is descended from Berkeley's library school, and this has never been a lucrative field. I'm sure the idea of running a professional master's program (in which people's employers pay a lot of money) is very attractive to the I School, especially if 2U takes care of recruiting students and managing the online program itself. This seems to be a common pattern in 2U's partnerships with universities.</p>\n\n<p>This situation actually gives you a little more leverage than you might normally have:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Feel free to be firm (but polite, of course) with the admissions counselor. This is someone who is trying to sell you something, and you don't need to worry that they have some wise but inscrutable motivation for trying to get you to enroll now.</p></li>\n<li><p>The I School really doesn't want 2U to embarrass them. If you have a bad experience with 2U, I'm confident that the I School would like to know and will try to keep 2U in line.</p></li>\n<li><p>In the worst case scenario, you could try complaining to the Berkeley administration (outside of the I School), or even doing something like bringing problems to the attention of someone at the <a href=\"http://www.dailycal.org/\">Daily Californian</a>. I'm sure many people at Berkeley dislike the idea of partnering with a for-profit company, and this gives the I School and 2U a strong incentive to address complaints effectively.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>It sounds to me like you have a legitimate complaint. Either the admissions counselor is trying to keep you from exercising a legitimate option, or they misled you about what your options would be. It doesn't sound like a simple miscommunication, since the counselor could have easily addressed that by providing the correct information or context. It's not clear how things will play out, but you shouldn't give up just because the admissions counselor is uncooperative.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47341",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24354/"
] |
47,351 |
<p>I have written a thesis for my bachelor degree and next week I have to defend it. The problem is that I found some small mistakes (not spelling mistakes, but small mistakes in equations, a wrong number in the abstract and so on) and one or two more significant problems.
Now I want to write an erratum on my thesis that handles six different of these mistakes. Is this too much? I don't want the jury to think that I was sloppy with writing the thesis or that I didn't check it before I handed it in (I did check it numerous of times).</p>
<p>So, is it normal that an erratum contains so much mistakes?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47353,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>A thesis is generally a pretty big document, and it would not be surprising to have a number of mistakes even after several passes of editing. If I were on your committee, I would be <em>happy</em> to see you submit such an erratum, because it would indicate that you are continuing to engage with the material and actually concerned about its quality, not just trying to graduate and leave.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47393,
"author": "Colin Johnson",
"author_id": 22703,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22703",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I've seen a number of students come in to their viva with such a document in hand. It is commonly seen by academics as a bit cutesy-naive; it suggests that you have a conception of the examination process that any minor failing is going to lead to an automatic fail, and that examiners are incapable of grasping the \"big picture\" of your achievement. As such, it conveys a certain kind of perfectionism, precision, detail-orientation and small-picture viewpoint, which can be good in some situations, bad in others. </p>\n\n<p>That said, I've never seen a <em>bad</em> student bring in such a document; it is always a sign of a good student. It demonstrates a certain confidence and analytical ability to find errors such as this; a weaker, less confident student wouldn't have the guts to come along and assert that they are confident in the mistakes that they have found. It therefore also communicates a kind of <em>command</em> of the material that suggests a high-functioning individual in the subject.</p>\n\n<p>On balance, I think it is a good idea to bring it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47406,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Whether or not there is any opportunity to submit the errata will depend largely on the rules of your institution. At some universities, there is a fixed time limit to hand in a thesis (such as 6 months after starting). In such a case, examiners may not be <em>allowed</em> to take into account any erratum submitted after the time limit (or else, any student who doesn't make it withon the time limit could just get around that by submitting the missing parts later as amendments). In such a case, I also wouldn't expect there to be any defined process for what the office where you hand in your thesis should do with an erratum.</p>\n\n<p>Even if it is not ignored, I am not convinced preparing an erratum right after submission comes across as an invariably positive sign. In a way, it shows that you failed to finish on time and to decide at some point that some version, perfect or not, is the final one.</p>\n\n<p>That notwithstanding, preparing an errata document for your Bachelor thesis might be beneficial for <em>later</em> steps where previous works you created during your studies might be taken into account, e.g. for Master study admissions.</p>\n\n<p>In all, the <em>number</em> of mistakes you found is probably pretty normal. If you decide to hand in these errata in the first place, you do not need to worry that you will \"reveal\" how errouneous your thesis is; the degree of correctness will already have influenced your grade, while at the same time, a typical amount of minor mistakes for Bachelor theses has probably been expected and appropriately considered while grading, anyway.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47351",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35974/"
] |
47,382 |
<p>I won't go into much detail, but I work at a young private university at a non-managerial position.</p>
<p>The uni has a strong need for better teachers and more adequate students. <strong>In my opinion</strong>, a viable strategy for quickly increasing the education quality level would be to focus on only 1 faculty/ department/ specialty first, because:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It would be cheaper to focus on one department (i.e. program creation, teachers acquisition and salary, advertizing to students).</p></li>
<li><p>Even if a lot of students drop out due to suddenly intensifying the program, students from other departments would continue to financially support the university.</p></li>
<li><p>Being great at one thing while temporarily neglecting others is better than being below mediocre at everything.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Focusing on one department would mean:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Intensifying the program.</p></li>
<li><p>Attracting good teachers.</p></li>
<li><p>Attracting better students (more willing to learn, with better background) (with the help of 1. and 2.).</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I believe intensifying the program and attracting good teachers for one department (probably for CS) before attracting better students is the way to go.</p>
<p>I have a CS background and can help with creating the program (classes).</p>
<p>If I manage to convince the people in charge, <strong>how should we go about attracting good teachers (probably from other universities)?</strong> Adequate salaries would probably not be enough.</p>
<p><strong>Thanks</strong> for the answers!</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47394,
"author": "earthling",
"author_id": 2692,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2692",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Adequate salaries would probably not be enough</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That's true.</p>\n\n<h2>Superior salaries</h2>\n\n<p>Superior salaries are needed to attract superior staff. There are many examples of companies that pay (significantly) above-average salaries so they can attract the best. This is true in retail (The Container Store), tech (Google), and other industries. I see no reason why it would be different in academia. While salary is not the <strong>only</strong> thing that matters it does matter a great deal. Countless research on motivation (Herzberg, Ariely, Pink) shows that what is important is to pay enough that people stop thinking about money. If people are just \"getting by\" then they will be thinking about money rather than thinking about how to be the best in their field.</p>\n\n<h2>Freedom</h2>\n\n<p>Once you get the money right, you need to give freedom (as written in the comment by Sverre). Hire the best and get out of their way. Yes, support them but do not \"tie their hands\" and make them do things because \"it has always been that way.\" This is one point which it should be both easy for your university to do as well as to convince candidates that it is true. Your school is young and so has not been doing things the same way for 50 years. Let the candidates know they will have freedom to do as they see fit.</p>\n\n<h2>Support</h2>\n\n<p>Giving freedom does not mean abandoning them. If your teachers want start producing videos, acquire the tools they will need. If they want to experiment and they need help, help them. If they are not from the area, help them transition. Be open and supportive.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47395,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to earthling's answer and Sverre's comment, here is an approach that has worked in my field (math): <strong>Hire 1 outstanding person, and give them the reins.</strong> (Either to their own group/unit or the whole department.) Many talented people will be excited by the opportunity to hire the people they want, and run the department their way, while being handsomely rewarded. Moreover, once one great person is there, it will help attract more good people, faculty and students.</p>\n\n<p>Here are some examples I know from math, where this sort of thing has happened: IISER - Pune (India) hired a well-respected person to run and design the department from the bottom up when they started up a few years ago, Emory University hired Ken Ono a few years ago from Wisconsin (I think he was allowed to choose people to hire in his area) which brought up their profile quite a bit (at least in number theory), University of Hawaii over half a century ago brought on Paul Halmos as the chair (I heard that he brought in good people, and made the department much stronger than it was before).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47402,
"author": "Saurabh",
"author_id": 36009,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The Best Strategy would be to first approach famous Professor in the field and get them associated with the department as external advisors. The second step would be to organise guest lectures for those Professors and If possible then convincing a few of them to join the department as emiritus Professors or suggest someone who could and would be interested in doing so. As soon as a renound person joins the department, hand over to him the charge of the department and his name and fame will attract quality faculty to the department.\nThough the main issue could be how to attract the first Professor, well for that stratagies like high pay and high position could be a solution. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47428,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>how should we go about attracting good teachers</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>To attract good researchers you need to offer a high salary, a good location, lots of research funding and resources, and limited admin and teaching. If you provide funding so the researcher does not need to take on PhD students and can instead afford post docs and RAs, the reputation is less important. This is especially true if you can hire a couple of PIs at the same time.</p>\n\n<p>Your question, though, is almost exclusively focused on teachers and students and never mentions research. People who are \"academically famous\", are almost exclusively famous for their research. Hiring good teachers will be extremely tough. The first problem is identifying good teachers. Publications will not tell you if a teacher is good. You could scrape ratemyprofessor.com for student views, but I would not advise making hiring decisions based on that information. The second issue is you need to offer them something. Salary and location will help, but hiring a good teacher and then telling them they do not have to teach (or only teach a little) seems counter productive.</p>\n\n<p>Instead of hiring a few excellent teachers, I would suggest hiring lots of average teachers. I think the average teaching quality increases when the teaching load and class sizes are reduced.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47382",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35994/"
] |
47,383 |
<p>I am a senior postdoc and have recently published a bioinformatics algorithm in an academic journal. For that publication, I was listed as the first author of the manuscript, and my principal investigator (PI)/supervisor as the senior author. Both of us were listed as corresponding authors.</p>
<p>As a follow-up we decided to submit an application note pertaining to that algorithm. Once again, the same authorship (and corresponding authors) was maintained. Additionally, the algorithm had been developed into a webserver that was placed on the PI's lab website.</p>
<p>The PI asked me to put the algorithm on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GitHub">Github</a>. Accordingly, I created a repository on my personal account and later added the PI as a collaborator. I am a Github novice user but my understanding is that this would be sufficient to push/pull the repository and generally make modifications to it.</p>
<p>However I was very surprised that my PI specifically requested a <strong>Transfer of Ownership of the repository from my account to his account</strong>. The other solution is to fork the repository onto his account, but the PI doesn't like this solution on the basis that it makes it harder for him/her to maintain a copy in their lab.</p>
<p>So the questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Is the request to transfer ownership a fair request? My rationale is that since I created the code, the repository should be on my personal account! And since the algorithm is broadcasted on the lab website and the PI is the senior author, then he/she has been properly acknowledged and their ownership of the algorithm is also properly represented!</li>
<li>How will transfer of ownership affect my future career prospects and search for Assistant Professor jobs, especially as my field (bioinformatics) is heavily dependent on coding and algorithm development?</li>
<li>What other GitHub alternatives are there (besides forking and transfer
of ownership), which would still allow me to keep ownership of the
repository and have any changes directly synchronised to a copy on the lab account?</li>
</ul>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47384,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>The PI asked me to put the algorithm on Github. Accordingly, I created a repository on my personal account and later added the PI as a collaborator. I am a Github novice user but my understanding is that this would be sufficient to push/pull the repository and generally make modifications to it.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It is. The problem is that a personal account is, well, personal, and not overly suited for professional activities, such as research projects. To this end, GitHub uses the notion of \"organizations\", which can also own repositories. AFAIK there is very little practical difference between having a repo owned by a personal account and an organization, only that having it under your personal account gives the impression that this is a project of <em>yours</em> (as opposed to a project of your lab).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>However I was very surprised that my PI specifically requested a Transfer of Ownership of the repository from my account to his account. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>From your personal account to his would be a little weird. From your account to an organization with the name of your lab sounds like entirely fair game to me if for no other reason than to maintain the \"corporate identity\" of your lab.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The other solution is to fork the repository onto his account, but the PI doesn't like this solution on the basis that it makes it harder for him/her to maintain a copy in their lab.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Well, if you end up having to maintain both forks your PI is correct. Forking is easy, but keeping two forks up-to-date is unnecessarily cumbersome.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is the request to Transfer Ownership a fair request? My rationale is that since I created the code, it the repository should be on my personal account!</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>... and since you likely created it on grant money of the lab, having it under the account of the lab is at least equally fair.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How will transfer of ownership affect my future career prospects and search for Assistant Professor jobs, especially as my field (bioinformatics) is heavily dependent on coding and algorithm development?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If bioinformatics isn't completely unlike any other computer science field, then very little people in a hiring committee will care about code in the first place, and <em>nobody</em> will care about whether the repo that contains the code is yours, or the one of your lab, or even the one of your PI where you committed a lot to.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What other Github alternatives are there (besides forking and transfer of ownership), which would still allow me to keep ownership of the repository and have any changes directly synced to a copy on the lab account?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You can set up a Git repo with two origins, and you always push each change to both origins. However, that seems somewhat cumbersome for rather questionable gains.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47386,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From the perspective of a PI, I think the request to transfer ownership is fair. Your university (through a fellowship, or through a direct position) paid for the software's creation and assigning \"ownership\" to a github organization that corresponds to your lab seems like a reasonable approach to ensure that others in the lab will continue to be able to use and develop the software. As a PI who's in it for the long haul, one often worries what happens if the student or postdoc decides to quit the project or quit academia altogether (which is what most of them eventually do, statistically speaking) and what that will do to the continued usability of their codes; moving them into a central location that is controlled by the PI is one way to at least eliminate the possibility that the code might simply disappear at one point. That's not a judgment on the student or author, it's just being realistic and pragmatic.</p>\n\n<p>As for the impact on your future employment: it makes no difference. First, git records who wrote the code, and it will continue to show <em>you</em> and not your adviser as the author of the code. Second, if you state in your CV/your website/your application documents that you wrote the code available at github.com/X/Y, everyone will simply believe this unless they have evidence to the contrary (in which case they can look up there who really wrote it -- and find that it really was you), so your word that you're the author typically counts for much more than where it is actually hosted. Third, in all likelihood you're still the one who knows the code best. If anyone wants to use it but doesn't have the technical skill to do so, they will still come back to you and ask whether you're interested in collaborating -- whether the repository is under your name or that of your former lab -- given that nobody in the lab likely knows as much about it as you do. In other words, you will still reap the benefits.</p>\n\n<p>In summary, I think the request is fair. I also think that you're not losing anything by it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47389,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A very broad answer but: whether the PI's request is completely reasonable or not, it's a request that does you no conceivable harm. Whenever you work with other people (in the presence of a power/seniority differential or not) you have to make certain compromises and do things in a way which is not exactly what you would do if you were alone. </p>\n\n<p>It sounds like you have a fruitful collaboration. I don't think this issue is worth jeopardizing it.</p>\n\n<p>I say \"very broad\" because I fear I am missing some nuances of your situation. For instance you say you are a \"senior postdoc\" but I don't know what the \"senior\" means. I have never experienced any hierarchy within postdoctoral positions, and if anything, being long in the tooth is a <em>bad</em> thing for a postdoc: as the position is an inherent junior/temporary one, stretching it out too long creates the impression that you couldn't move on to a more permanent position. Nor do I know what the \"senior author\" is, given that you have separated it from both the first author and the corresponding authors. Such things do not exist in my field, so I wonder what it means in your case...</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47415,
"author": "AVee",
"author_id": 36017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36017",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Firstly, if the code is GPLv3 this sounds like an non-issue. Anyone can legally fork the repository and work from there. If your PI wants his own copy he can just create it. If the repository gets transferred then anyone, including you, can create their own fork from that.</p>\n\n<p>A fork will retain the commit history, showing you as the author. But the same is true for a transfer, the transferred repository will still show you've done the commits. So whether you fork or do nothing the net result will be roughly the same. It's just the first impression when someone finds the repository through Google. During interviews you can still show it's your work.</p>\n\n<p>Practically, this is why GitHub organisations exist. I'd create an organisation for the lab and transfer the repository to that organisation. That way the location of the repository doesn't create an assumption about the person who wrote the code, but it is clear the code belongs to the organisation. \nThat organization could also contain any future projects of the lab.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47422,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One of the topics that has been hinted at in the other answers but not so directly expressed is the notion that your PI may have <strong>committed</strong> himself to providing such a GitHub repository as part of the application for the funds used to support the code's creation. Many grants now require data stewardship and code maintenance to be explicitly addressed as part of the application itself. Consequently, such a request from your PI may be an attempt to satisfy these requirements. (If I were him, personally I would have mentioned this at the time, but it's possible he may have thought such a notion was obvious.)</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47383",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35995/"
] |
47,387 |
<p>I'm wanting to increase my academic network, particularly people who know me and my research. This is probably the goal of all researchers. Specifically I'm looking for ideas to do so through email. </p>
<p>I realize that face-to-face interactions are probably the best way to meet and network with other researchers. But conferences and symposiums are few and far between. I also realize that there are other ways, such as twitter, blogs, etc., but I've found for my field the academics tend to be on the conservative side on technology and email is the norm for communication. </p>
<p>A common technique is to email others when you publish, but I've found that receiving cold emails or emails on research not directly to my own to be like receiving academic spam. There must be simple ways to make introductions through email and connect on the research front without being intrusive.</p>
<p>Ideas?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47388,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First, I would suggest recognizing that a network is not a goal, but instead both </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>a means to achieving your scientific goals and</li>\n<li>hopefully including a subset who you just plain enjoy interacting with</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The second part can only really emerge organically, so let's focus on the first part, which is where the sort of \"cold call\" emails you are talking about come in. I think that you have correctly identified that \"cold calls\" are pretty much always ineffectual, because most people worth talking to already have an input buffer overflowing with worthless and impersonal cold calls.</p>\n\n<p>If you approach the interaction from the point of view of \"how can I get this person to notice me\" then you're pretty much consigning yourself to the same bin. Instead, you need to have some context in which you have a <em>legitimate</em> reason for contacting the person that is <em>not</em> to be noticed. The networking and knowledge is then a natural and beneficial side effect, rather than the purpose of the interaction.</p>\n\n<p>Some examples of non-in-person contexts in which such interactions commonly occur:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Volunteering in the organization of a workshop, conference, or other academic or educational event. Even for students, there are useful roles to play, which will also end up with you encountering a bunch of researchers.</li>\n<li>Hosting an invited speaker: <a href=\"https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/if_the_mountain_won't_come_to_Muhammad\" rel=\"noreferrer\">\"If the mountain won't come to Muhammad then Muhammad must go to the mountain.\"</a></li>\n<li>Actually doing research that interacts with the other researcher's work, and either asking for their advice, or contacting them to let them know you've built off their work in a way you think they may find interesting.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I'm sure I've just scratched the surface, and there are lots of other things that can help build your network. </p>\n\n<p>Finally, any of these can further be mixed with getting an introduction from a mutual acquaintance, which can help get you past the \"crap-filter.\" If you do this, however, be aware that you are putting not just your own reputation but that of your acquaintance on the line as well.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47390,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Great answer from @jakebeal. An additional idea: pick some departments within a reasonable radius of where you live, and write to someone in a department you find intriguing, to say you are planning a trip to that city, and would it be convenient for you to visit the department and meet some people interested in . Say that you would be happy to give a talk about during your stay. Attach the abstract.</p>\n\n<p>Make sure you've got a pocket full of cards to hand out when you go. Leave plenty of time to go around to people's offices, labs and the coffee room, for people to tell you about what they're doing.</p>\n\n<p>If possible, preview the research going on at that department that has the most affinity to your interests before you go.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/17
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47387",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6093/"
] |
47,404 |
<p>I am in the social sciences (political science) doing research largely based on fieldwork. Accordingly, my dissertation project has changed quite a bit in the four months since getting my prospectus approved and beginning fieldwork. My department is fairly open, with helpful faculty, and I want to reach out to many different professors to get feedback. I check in with my advisors every few weeks with a just brief email, which is sufficient for them because they understand the broader project. </p>
<p>How can I present ongoing evolving research to new people, especially faculty members? For instance, I could write a brief two-page memo summarizing my dissertation project and revise it on a monthly basis. The only drawback here is that this might require writing a new two-pager every month. From writing fellowship proposals, I know this actually takes a lot of work.</p>
<p>What techniques did you find effective for getting for advice from people outside your dissertation committee during your dissertation work?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47407,
"author": "HBSKan",
"author_id": 36014,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36014",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>People have a lot to read in academia as is. Sending out a document and asking for feedback is a strenuous exercise for all involved parties. You may want to take into consideration that some of your colleagues will also simply not want to willingly participate with their opinion.</p>\n\n<p>Instead, a useful compromise is the use of a presentation. Prepare one whenever you see fit and advertise to your faculty by email what it is you're presenting, why you're presenting, and explain that you're specifically looking for feedback on 'X'; 'X' being the methodology applied, noticeable gaps in literature, etc.</p>\n\n<p>In this manner, you practice your presentation skills, you take only 10 minutes or so of your colleagues' time, you strengthen relationships amongst your peers, and you're immediately available for questions. The benefits of this approach are many, and I think you'll be able to find even more than the ones I've just listed.</p>\n\n<p>I hope that this was helpful to you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47408,
"author": "henning",
"author_id": 31917,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31917",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Profs are busy and it is unlikely that they will give you one-on-one advice if they don't have any stakes in your project.</p>\n\n<p>Therefore, you must offer something in return. I have not tried this myself, but it supposedly works (Gray 2010, p. 60-61): <strong>Volunteer to read and comment on a paper</strong>, now or in the future, <strong>from the person whose advice you are soliciting</strong>. Even very senior researchers need feedback, even from juniors. Why? Because problems of clarity and organization in a late draft are more obvious to non-experts, and because non-experts can more easily find overriding (but hidden) themes in an early draft. In your inquiry, address the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>How their work has informed yours. Ask specific questions aimed at the intersections of their work and yours</li>\n<li>Which sections and issues you need feedback on</li>\n<li>Whether you want hints to additional reading and citations</li>\n<li>Explain that you want just a \"quick\" read (not an editorial read)</li>\n<li>Ask when you might expect to hear back from them</li>\n<li>Promise acknowledgements</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Moreover, to solicit comments on my PhD project from people besides my advisors I mostly relied on <strong>conferences and smaller workshops</strong>:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>I applied for workshops and conferences outside my institution. Many workshops and conferences in political science, such as <a href=\"http://www.ecpr.eu/Events/EventTypeDetails.aspx?EventTypeID=1\" rel=\"nofollow\">this one</a>, cater specifically to PhD students.</li>\n<li>We had a weekly colloquium at my PhD institution where I presented mostly every six months. This was a great opportunity to discuss halfway finished work like draft chapters.</li>\n<li>Students from my PhD institutions invited external speakers to participate in a lecture series. Often the speakers were willing to hold a small workshop the following day (before flying home) where a handful of PhD students could discuss their work and ask for advice. If a lecture series with externals exists at your institutions, maybe you can suggest to add a workshop.</li>\n<li>You might also be able to propose a thematic workshop (on particular methods or theories), depending on the demand at your institution and the available funding (if external guests are needed). It is best to determine the demand first, i.e. to ask around who would attend such a workshop, before proposing this to your superiors.</li>\n<li>At my workplace, the younger researchers established a workshop with a particular \"discussant\" format. In each session (bi-weekly), someone presented and discussed the paper of another participant. It was expected that the papers <em>not</em> be too polished and <em>do</em> still have many loose ends so there could be a lively discussion how to proceed from the work. The informal atmosphere (coffee and rolls!) and the discussant model made this highly productive, although mostly junior faculty participated. Again, this is something that you could try to establish at your institution.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Admittedly, all these proposals rely on written contributions of probably more than a two-page memo. However, also your thesis needs to be more than two pages at some point. So why not <a href=\"http://ihawkes.academicblogs.co.uk/2015/01/28/a-good-thesis-is-a-finished-thesis/\" rel=\"nofollow\">start to write a draft chapter right away?</a> <strong>If you want useful feedback, you have to provide tangible input.</strong> Depending on the venue, the contribution can be anywhere from tentative \"think-piece\" (5.) to almost final draft (1.). You mention that you are doing field-work right now. Why not polish your field-notes and elaborate how your preliminary findings form the field can inform your theory/research question and which new challenges you have encountered?</p>\n\n<p>BTW: I would be interested in hearing form senior faculty if they have ever encountered an inquiry for advice from external PhD students and if they would respond positively if offered a reading in return.</p>\n\n<p>__</p>\n\n<p>Gray, Tara 2010: Publish and Flourish, Ashland: BookMasters.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47421,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One method that I've seen works fairly successfully is to use a session of a journal club to do a brief presentation. It's not one-on-one, but it can really help to get a group engaged. A time when journal clubs often work like this is right before a big meeting where people use the session to hone their presentations.</p>\n\n<p>Some larger research groups may do this entirely internally, and have periodic brief presentations to each other.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47404",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7934/"
] |
47,411 |
<p><em>Question:</em> where can I find (legal/pragmatic) information about having latex source files for scientific articles publicly available on github?
Or, how would you deal with it?</p>
<p><em>Problem description:</em></p>
<p>I like using git for collaborative tex'ing. So why not use it for scientific articles as well? Put up a github repo, collaborate, submit to arxiv while tagging the corresponding commit, incorporating reviewers suggestions, etc. Also, it comes at the additional benefit that not only a compiled preprint on arxiv is available but also your latex sourcefiles. This I think is desirable in terms of transparency and also others can easily reuse/extend complex latex bits you have in your articles.</p>
<p>Most publishers don't have a problem with arxiv preprints. But what about github repos? They don't contain the pdf, but in general, everyone would be able to compile the stuff from the source files on github. Would the source code on github then considered the same as the compiled preprint on arxiv?</p>
<p>I feel like the authors I know, that are using github, they might even just use github without thinking about the potential legal consequences (yes because it seems rather unlikely someone searches through the github repo). Also, if one knows upfront where the article might be submitted to, one can check the legal situation for that particular conference/journal. But sometimes one doesn't know beforehand, so one could end up having the latex source files publicly on the web, for a publication where this is not allowed?</p>
<p>I am looking for a pragmatic answer to this problem, as I think using github for scientific writing is just very efficient and good. Having the sourcefiles in addition to the compiled preprint available seems also desirable to me.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47412,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It is a <em>very</em> common practice for authors to include the LaTeX source files within an arXiv submission. I don't understand why a publisher who is okay with a preprint being published would not be okay with the LaTeX source being published with the rest on arXiv.</p>\n\n<p>Most information in a PDF file can be easily plagiarized (though things like extracting the actual data points in a plot may be tricky). Postscript files are even easier to plagiarize. The advantage of keeping the source code is that the document will remain editable and compilable forever. If a publisher places a blanket ban on publishing paper source code because of concerns such as plagiarism, well... <em>they're doing it wrong</em>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47413,
"author": "David Ketcheson",
"author_id": 81,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you upload your papers to arXiv, then your Latex source is already publicly available there (click \"other formats\" and then \"download source\"). So the only difference is that the source would also be available on Github.</p>\n\n<p>There is no legal issue with this unless you sign an agreement that forbids it. In that case, the publisher could ask you to remove the manuscript from Github.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47414,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Let's separate out three distinct proposals that are somewhat blended together in your original question. Presented in order of increasing specificity, these are:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Using git (or another similar source control system) for collaborative LaTeX paper-writing</li>\n<li>Hosting these on a pseudo-archival external repository host, such as Github</li>\n<li>Hosting them on Github in particular</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>For #1, I think that anybody doing collaborative work in LaTeX benefits greatly by adopting a good source control system, since LaTeX fits the model of source code so well. Depending on your preferences and the nature of your document, you might find SVN, Mercurial, Git, or even some other mechanism most effective.</p>\n\n<p>For #2, it's important to ask what the goal is. Remember, repository services like Github and Bitbucket are <em>NOT</em> archival, despite their age in internet-years. We have no idea whether they will actually be able to survive for a couple more decades (let alone for multiple centuries, <a href=\"http://rstl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/1/1-22.toc\" rel=\"noreferrer\">like some journals</a>). So if you want long-term archival storage, arXiv is currently the way to go, not a repository service. An external repository, however, means a project is generally more reliable than one's own servers, and makes it easy to manage a project jointly. Some make it easy to host private repositories (Bitbucket, for example, lets you host an unlimited number for free if you are affiliated with a university), others make it harder (with Github, you have to pay a fee to have private repositories). Still, it's hard to see much down-side to using a private externally hosted repository instead of a locally hosted repository, as long as the information is merely confidential and not legally restricted (e.g., by IP or export control considerations).</p>\n\n<p>For #3, then, if you want to use Github in particular, right now you've got to either pay money or be comfortable with a fully publicly observable project. Sometimes that's a good thing (I use it this way for standards development, where we want the whole history to be hanging out in public), and sometimes that's a bad thing (do you really want your LaTeX comments cursing Reviewer #3 to be recorded for all to see?).</p>\n\n<p>In short: use source control for LaTeX, hosting externally can be great, but Github's sometimes a poor choice of external host service.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47411",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36023/"
] |
47,416 |
<p>In this <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/47414/929">answer</a> it is suggested that arXiv, as its name would suggest, is archival. One of Beall's criteria is that a publisher is potentially predatory if it</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Has no policies or practices for digital preservation, meaning that if the
journal ceases operations, all of the content disappears from the
internet.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The only thing I can find about digital preservation on the <a href="http://arxiv.org/help/primer" rel="noreferrer">arXiv website</a> is</p>
<blockquote>
<p>arXiv submissions are meant to be available in perpetuity. Thus, arXiv has high technical standards for the files that are submitted.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While it is good that the articles are in a format which will allow access in perpetuity, the primer says nothing about what happens if arXiv ceases operations. What is the arXiv policy in regards to digital preservation?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47418,
"author": "Willie Wong",
"author_id": 94,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/94",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is answered in the FAQ for the <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/help/support/faq#7D\">arXiv Membership Program</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>CUL [Cornell University Library] has an archival repository to support preservation of critical content from institutional resources, including arXiv. We anticipate storing all arXiv documents, both in source and processed form, in this repository. There will be ongoing incremental ingest of new material. We expect that CUL will bear the preservation costs for arXiv, leveraging the archival infrastructure developed for the library system.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The same FAQ also tells you about the current funding model (up until some years ago arXiv was entirely funded and ran by the Cornell University Library; now funding comes from also the Simons Foundation as well as other participating university libraries). </p>\n\n<p>In terms of Cornell's digital preservation policies, I cannot find a full description online (probably just due to my weak google-fu today); but <a href=\"https://www.library.cornell.edu/about/inside/departments/dsps\">this would be person to contact and ask</a>. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47419,
"author": "Andrew",
"author_id": 27825,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27825",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>From <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/help/support/faq#7D\">their FAQ</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>What are CUL's preservation strategies?</strong></p>\n \n <p>Digital preservation refers to a range of managed activities to\n support the long-term maintenance of bitstreams. These activities\n ensure that digital objects are usable (intact and readable),\n retaining all quantities of authenticity, accuracy, and functionality\n deemed to be essential when articles (and other associated materials)\n were ingested. Formats accepted by arXiv have been selected based on\n their archival value (TeX/LaTeX, PDF, HTML) and the ability to process\n all source files is actively monitored. The underlying bits are\n protected by standard backup procedures at the Cornell campus.\n Off-site backup facilities in New York City provide geographic\n redundancy. The complete content is replicated at arXiv's mirror sites\n around the world, and additional managed tape backups are taken at Los\n Alamos National Laboratory. CUL has an archival repository to support\n preservation of critical content from institutional resources,\n including arXiv. We anticipate storing all arXiv documents, both in\n source and processed form, in this repository. There will be ongoing\n incremental ingest of new material. We expect that CUL will bear the\n preservation costs for arXiv, leveraging the archival infrastructure\n developed for the library system.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>It looks like they're relying on a) multiple offsite mirrors; b) periodic stored backups at LANL; and c) deposit in the institutional repository at Cornell.</p>\n\n<p>It's a little unclear if that deposit is actually happening yet or is still part of a long-term plan, but it's worth noting that the arXiv program director is also the librarian responsible for Cornell's digital preservation work, so it's unlikely to have been forgotten about!</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47416",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929/"
] |
47,423 |
<p>I submitted a paper to a journal about two months ago and now the article has been under review for a month. It is my first article out for publication ever, so I am not the best at judging my chances of being accepted. However, I presented the paper on a conference and they offer the chance of entering it as a book chapter in a publication resulting from the conference. I now wonder if it would be ok to ask the editor of the journal if they can tell me some more on my chances of being accepted. Maybe they already got one review back and they can tell me what the verdict was there? Is this appropriate, and if so, should I explain truthfully why I ask this question to the editor?</p>
<p>PS: I would prefer the publication in the journal rather than the book chapter, but if I go for that option and it's not accepted I also can't be in the book because they need an answer now.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47424,
"author": "Peter Jansson",
"author_id": 4394,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can always contact an editor to ask about your manuscript. The time frame you mention seems to me to be just about the time required to get something through review but the editor will also have to collate reviews and provide recommendations. Since what is reasonable varies between fields and journals within fields, you need to figure out what is normal and by how much the time frame can vary. </p>\n\n<p>In your case, you mention a book but it is not clear to me if the book has a deadline (but I will assume it does). Making a decision to take a manuscript from a journal while under review means withdrawing it. This is not necessarily a popular action because both editors and reviewers have taken time and effort with your manuscript. You are of course still entitled to do so. So since you have the manuscript in review, I do not think you can do much other than wait for the result. Writing to the editor and asking about time is fine but what will you do if the time estimate is after the book deadline? Well, you can always ask the book editor for an extension I guess. </p>\n\n<p>My suggestion for you is to just sit tight and wait it out. If you have not heard from the journal in a time frame you think is normal for that journal then contact them. Trying to push things through is rarely a good path and if the material is good well written you should be able to get it published. So your first publication angst and impatience is something you share with many and not unique.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47425,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I doubt that you will be able to get any answer about the likelihood of acceptance from a good editor until all of the reviews are in. As a editor, there are just too many ways that the last review might majorly change the view of a paper (e.g., negatively by pointing out that it is a cleverly disguised piece of plagiarism; positively by pointing out a value that all of the other reviewers have missed). An editor who is acting professionally will thus never pre-judge the result before it is in hand.</p>\n\n<p>You can always feel free to reach out and ask how <em>long</em> it's likely to be before you get an answer, but that's not something that can readily be relied upon either, given the frequent vagaries of reviewers.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47423",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7969/"
] |
47,430 |
<p>For some background: I'm very new to graduate school, in fact I just started unofficially doing research a few months ago, my official PhD program starts in the Fall (I moved out there early). Currently, I'm at a big R01 institution, coming from a pretty low ranking obscure undergraduate school, and there is an intimidation factor when I'm surrounded by accomplished postdocs (they pushed out more papers than my professors with tenure in my undergraduate). It's slightly amplified when I consider that, so far, I effectively only have a Bachelor's degree. </p>
<p>Anyway, I was given some code to modify for a specific device. I'm not really pestered or swarmed for deadlines, and I'm trying to figure it out. I honestly think there is an error in the syntax that prevents me from being able to carry out a colleague's request. I have prior coding experience. I'm a traditional "I want the challenge of figuring it out so I can develop and learn" kind of guy, but where do you draw the line between the latter mentality and requesting help? I don't want to come off as stupid or needy, and I want my lab to be able to depend on me. So far I have been pretty reliable (and that's saying a lot considering I'm a big critic of myself), and I don't want to kill the momentum. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47431,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Can you ask your colleague (or whoever wrote the code) a quick question to ascertain whether it's a simple error in the code, or some more complex hurdle that you need to work around?</p>\n\n<p>Don't be afraid to ask for help! You'll be a lot more productive if you ask for help when you really are stuck, rather than <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/1686/if-you-get-stuck-in-research-at-what-point-in-time-should-you-ask-for-help?rq=1\">waiting too long</a>.</p>\n\n<p>A more experienced mind can usually tell quite quickly whether it's an easy or difficult problem to solve. There's no use banging your head against a brick wall for days if your supervisor has a sledgehammer hidden in his cupboard!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47432,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You are a RESOURCE in your group, and you need to be managed appropriately. Let's say you can do this request, but it will take you three days full time to do it. If you ask for the help of somebody who is experienced with the system, maybe it will take you one day, and it might take two hours of that person's time to help you. There are also the issues of who is waiting for the job to be done, and what is being held up because it's not done yet, and if there are any important deadlines looming.</p>\n\n<p>These are questions only your group manager can really answer, but we can offer some tips. </p>\n\n<p>Personally, I'd recommend putting a bit of time into defining where you're stuck as accurately as you can, and drafting a short memo describing the problem, just to help you wrap your brain around it a bit differently. After staring at that doc for an hour or so, if you're still drawing blanks, I'd send that description to the boss man, asking him who the best person to approach for help would be, and if its OK to do so. </p>\n\n<p>This way you show that you've given it a thorough try, that you're trying not to waste your own time, and that you don't want to waste anyone else's time on it either.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47433,
"author": "Fred Stutzman",
"author_id": 35999,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35999",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is purely opinion, but in the lab setting I see <em>delivery</em> as more important than <em>determination</em>. Put another way, your colleagues will respect you if you consistently deliver your project components effectively, and on-time. </p>\n\n<p>As a postdoc and PI I would vastly prefer a student asking questions when stuck, rather than having them spin their gears. And keep context in mind - if you really are troubleshooting a syntax error, no one wants you spending days on this. Situation might be different if you were radically improving the efficiency of an algorithm, etc.</p>\n\n<p>I don't think there is a fine line between asking questions and asking too many questions. The students who can't hack it in the lab are pretty obvious - so if you find yourself consistently flummoxed there might be a question of fit. That said, it doesn't sound like the case here. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47430",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36033/"
] |
47,436 |
<p>I would like to know if PhD advisors allow students to collaborate with professors from other institutions in a major way. The context for me here is that I will be joining a Top-50 institution for a PhD in Physics. Considering the job prospects in academia, I think it would be worth collaborating with the topmost people in the field directly (who generally reside at topmost universities like Stanford, MIT, Princeton, etc.) to get solid recommendations from them along with my advisor's recommendation (assuming I produce good quality research with them). I would like to know how such an arrangement can be made possible without making my advisor feel bad. Are such arrangements common?</p>
<p>Of course, my current institution has brilliant professors as well and I would like to do my best to produce good research with them too. This is why <strong><em>the consent of my advisor in whatever I do is very important to me</em></strong>. I just want to make things as productive as possible in my current PhD program and have the best people in the field write recommendations for me so that I could continue working in academia. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47437,
"author": "A.S",
"author_id": 22447,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22447",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Interesting thought. I will try to offer some factors to consider related to the approach you are suggesting. </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>There's a risk of spreading yourself too thin. All things held constant, I would expect it to be more difficult on average to build relationships with faculty at institutions other than your PhD \"home base.\" The time and effort spent building these relationships would thus be re-routed from what should be your main thrust, i.e. developing a reputation as an excellent student in a place that actually voted to have you and invested resources in you.</p></li>\n<li><p>Faculty at top institutions are extremely busy and inundated with queries from all sorts of places and people who want their time and attention on collaborations of various types. Successful faculty are very strategic about where they invest their energies (especially in Physics? sorry, bad pun). This partly explains the uphill battle presumed in point #1. They usually have plenty of students and postdocs of their own who want to \"collaborate.\" The returns from such one-off partnerships with this or that individual who met them at this or that conference are dubious, and typically high-flying faculty end up collaborating on high-visibility/payoff projects. Unless your work will fall in that category, I think productive sustained collaboration with quality attention and care invested in the relationship on both sides is highly unlikely. </p></li>\n<li><p>The only relatively common, accepted form of collaboration with faculty from other institutions that I am aware of is IF those individuals are members of your dissertation committee. Colleges (at least in the U.S.) often require that at least one committee member be from another department at the home institution. Along the same lines, it is typically viewed as OK if there is another, additional committee member from another institution, as long as their being on the committee is well justified, e.g. by filling a gap in expertise or being in a unique position to contribute something given their specific context/resources. In contrast, collaboration on side projects can cause some minor (which could become major if left unchecked) issues involving your Advisor wondering what the heck is taking up your time that you could be spending in his lab and writing his papers... </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>This being said, it is possible that in some disciplines such collaborations are more frequent and more accepted than in others, and may pay off in some ways. However, the though I would like to leave you with is to carefully reflect whether such collaboration will in fact help your career plans, over and above similar collaborations with faculty at your home institution. If you find yourself in a situation/project where the answer is a clear YES, well, you can at least give it a shot and see what happens. </p>\n\n<p>However, if by looking over the fence (where the grass typically looks greener) you might end up missing some gems on your own lawn, I would say stick to the familiar environment and try to make the most of the opportunities under your nose. </p>\n\n<p>Lastly, collaboration can take many forms. It may not be necessary to go it alone and try to carve out an independent project with someone from another university/lab. Being on a research team (as a Research Assistant) that has some external partnerships with teams at other institutions can be enough to develop some contacts and build some name recognition in those places. Being considered a valuable member of the research team at home, and being valued by your own Advisor can speak louder than trying to convince someone on the outside that you are wonderful and totally worth their attention. When you will be close to graduating, if your Advisor believes in your potential, s/he will go a long way to help you network with various other labs/teams that s/he has relationships with. I personally would recommend this more \"organic\" route. </p>\n\n<p>The academe is a big boat that doesn't like to be rocked, and stability is generally considered an asset. Having a reputation for dedication to one or two large-scale, complex, team projects is probably going to help you more than having 10 separate fledgling solo projects/partnerships. (Note: If you were an undergrad with a major in Business/Entrepreneurship, this advice would be the opposite. But a PhD in Physics seems more aligned with the solid/long-term academic paradigm.) Whichever way you choose to play your cards, good luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47438,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If two faculty members are interested in collaborating with one another, an excellent way to bootstrap such a collaboration is with a strong student who is interested in being working with both. This is often much easier than the faculty members trying to work directly with one another, since they are often each quite busy. It also often ends up resulting in a co-advising arrangement, either formally or just de facto. With the right student and project, this can be a really good, productive, and career-positive experience for everybody involved (it certainly has been for me as the external co-advisor), and many faculty members that I know tend to welcome such opportunities.</p>\n\n<p>If you want to build an independent collaboration that does <em>not</em> involve your advisor, on the other hand, you should not be surprised if you run into resistance, particularly if your advisor is funding your position.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47439,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a supplement to the other good answers, one might be a bit careful, since one model of \"PhD advising\" is for the advisor to give a student a sort of \"insider information\" (much like the notion of \"insider trading\" on the stock market, which is illegal... unless you're a member of Congress, but nevermind...), which the advisor might want to <em>keep</em> \"inside\". And the student should, hopefully, benefit from having this sort of head-start, as opposed to competing against more experienced people in real time.</p>\n\n<p>Especially if the advisor has more than one student, keeping information (temporarily) non-public benefits <em>all</em> of them, so any one of them \"blabbing\" dis-serves the others, which is a bad thing. Vaguely reminiscent of the game-theoretic aspects of \"prisoners' dilemma\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47442,
"author": "Calchas",
"author_id": 31491,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31491",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes. I recommend it and endorse the strategy.</p>\n\n<p>I was a PhD student in the UK, but I think in total I spent more time working in Japan, France and California than I did at my institution in the United Kingdom.</p>\n\n<p>At the beginning, all trips were at my advisor's suggestion (he was very well connected in numerous collaborations himself) but as time went on I built up my own \"network\", and eventually it became normal that I would be \"invited\" to join in directly.</p>\n\n<p>As you can imagine I left my PhD with a lot of air miles, and more importantly I knew a lot of people on whom I could count for a good reference.</p>\n\n<p>However it was never a \"co-advising\" situation as some have described. I always felt that I was visiting as my advisor's representative, and I always tried to keep it that way. As with any job it is important to manage your relationships with people carefully; if it seems like you are suggesting making your advisor redundant she is probably not going to be happy about the idea. Therefore I would always be sure to talk regularly with my advisor when I was in town and to keep him in the loop by email or phone if I was away.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47436",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28874/"
] |
47,441 |
<p>I came across one of the edited books where authors contribute chapters that was published once in 2010 and the again in 2014. The two different books have identical (or almost identical) titles but different ISBNs and different DOIs. This means that a chapter that was included in both (same title, abstract and content, unfortunately I do not have access to one of the full texts) is counted as two publications. As far as I can tell, most of the content between the two books is the same. </p>
<p>Is this common practice generally or to certain fields? Is it ethical? How are these cases generally treated?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47444,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Different editions of books are different books and have different ISBNs. In many cases, chapters don't change that much, if at all. This is the way it's done - no ethical problems.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47445,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a non-answer, but perhaps worthwhile, we could note that literal publication, revised publication, and so on, literally serves scholarly purposes. The potential objection is that this might score status or impact points unfairly. The error here is thinking in terms of status or impact points, especially as a back-forming regulator of permissible behavior.</p>\n\n<p>That is, the <em>real</em> goal is not status/jobs/tenure – although those are serious things – but advancement of human understanding. In particular, rules of the game of status/jobs/tenure are not at all necessarily connected to issues about advancement of human understanding.</p>\n\n<p>In particular, there’s nothing to treat. If some for-profit publisher’s self-promoting “impact factor” somehow counts this twice, this is no serious human being’s problem. The possibility that a corporation’s software misunderstands a new edition is in no conceivable way an ethical failure of people who write parts of something useful enough to be republished in a new edition.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47451,
"author": "Andreas Blass",
"author_id": 14506,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14506",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some of my papers have appeared twice, first as \"columns\" in the Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science, and later in books that are essentially collections of these columns. Sometimes the book version includes some revisions. Even then, I'd consider these two appearances to be a single publication, and I'd list them as one item in my CV. I am aware, though, that some people have entirely different policies about such things, and I wouldn't call them unethical.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47441",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6978/"
] |
47,443 |
<p>What are the benefits and harm of taking a leave of absence after the first year of PhD? </p>
<p>......My situation is as follows.... I just completed the first year of PhD in Epidemiology at one of the top 5 programs in the nation and failed all my classes both semesters. All year long I'd battled with PSTD, Separation Anxiety, and Depression brought on by psychological and physical abuse experienced after moving back in with my parents for a few months while I applied to PhD program. This was exacerbated by the subsequent 3 months stint of homelessness I experienced in order to flee the real risk of physical harm. Unfortunately, this all occurred immediately before the start of classes in September. When the academic year started, I moved into academic housing and dissimulated my problems but could not hide it very long as my performance was less than optimal. My depression was so severe that I forgot how to speak, I experienced memory loss, could not write comprehensive essays, and even forgot how to spell simple words on tests.</p>
<p>When my professors became worried that I was not cut out for the program, my chair and academic advisor were made aware of the situation. Since then, they have worked with me to link me up to services on campus, meet with me regularly to check in and advise me on how to manage several situations.</p>
<p>The issue now is that although I am getting better and my grades have improved, they are not competitive to keep me in the program. Luckily, I have been given a temporary academic disability status to allow the university to make accommodations for my situation. Provided that my improvement is a work in progress, my chair is recommending a year's leave of absence to help me get back in good health before resuming studies. This is a swell idea for if I was younger than 30, was financial stable to be able to afford the luxury of moving out of student housing or had a family to rely on, had a job waiting for me. I am having a hard time seeing any benefit to taking a year off, even if it means starting fresh. </p>
<p>If anyone has had a similar experience, please offer some advise or anecdote to how you handled the situation. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47480,
"author": "Saurabh",
"author_id": 36009,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A friend of mine suffered through similar situation though she was in Netherlands. She went through nervous breakdown and hence she had to take a year drop. In Netherlands such cases are dealt with special care which is also evident in your case. But usually the funding agency does not pay for these case during this year drop. But universities have provision for such situations where either the university pays for that year or the period of the PhD program is reduced by a year. \nTo my opinion if you continue to do this PhD with taking the year gap then there might be a chance that the process of your better soon might slow down due to the workload and pressure associated with the PhD work but if you take this break then you have the opportunity to have a more enthusiastic start in the second innings.\nI suggest you to talk to your supervisor about this and explain them your financial situation and seek their advise. Probably they would be able to help and suggest you better. Good Luck!</p>\n\n<p>In the end I wish you good health and speedy recovery.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47484,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Universities have procedures for that. Moreoever, universities are run by people who have lives, families, friends in such situations and who can understand and sympathize. It sounds very much as if the people in your department fall into this category and are supportive of you.</p>\n\n<p>What matters is that you get your footing back and get healthy again. If that means taking a leave of absence, then that is what you should do. If there ever comes a need to explain what you did for the semester or year that you took off, you can always say \"for health reasons\" -- which is true, and which everyone will understand is an important and legitimate reason to take time off, and which nobody is going to count against you.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, the reasons you cite against it are all very good as well. I don't think anyone here can suggest useful strategies other than finding some low-stress job that helps you pay the bills, get you back on your feet, and allow you to come back to the program in better shape and with better prospects. The alternative, however, is not all that appealing either: as you state in your post, if you keep doing what you're doing, you may fail out of the program and then you're in no better situation either. In fact, the situation may be worse since it's easier to come back after taking a year of absence than come back from being kicked out of the program.</p>\n\n<p>Ultimately, what matters is that you get healthy again. Everything else should be a secondary consideration.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/18
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47443",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35754/"
] |
47,448 |
<p>The question is not about plagiarism, it is about its aftermath. I am presenting the whole situstion.</p>
<p>Three years back, in my undergraduate years (summer after sophomore, to be precise), I did my first major project with a professor in India. The project came out well and we had two publications next year. </p>
<p>Obviously happy with my work, the professor offered me another project, next year, which was entirely different and of higher level of difficulty (he had his graduate student working on it). He asked me to do simple simulations and mostly literature survey so that he could later use it. He also proposed some survey papers (all by same author, call him <strong>X</strong>) to start with. I wrote the survey section based on the papers mentioned in the citations by <strong>X</strong>, and added reviews of another dozens of paper. I cited all survey papers by <strong>X</strong> and cited others too. I also did certain simulations.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, he provided me references to land into a Masters program at one of the top 5 electrical engineering programs in the USA, and I will be forever indebted to him. After I came to USA, he had his graduate student worked upon the project and submitted a paper (I was surprised to be listed as co-author) including the survey section and simulations I did an year ago. </p>
<p>One of the reviewers pointed that the survey section has been almost a replica of <strong>X</strong>'s works. The reviewer added that, although <strong>X</strong>'s works has been cited, word plagiarism is still relevant. I got disappointed and wrote my mentor and email apologizing for letting him down. He didn't reply.</p>
<p>Now, it's been six months since the review came, and I really wish to reconcile with him. What can I do ?</p>
<p><strong>few clarifications</strong></p>
<p>The plagiarism was using 3-4 sentences from various papers without double quotes but properly cited. Also, half of my citations were same as X's works. It happened because, my survey was about major techniques in a field while X's surveys were about techniques in a subfield of the field.</p>
<p>I emailed the professor only once. He didn't reply and I never emailed him again.</p>
<p>I never knew how my section was going to be used because the project-work was incomplete. When his graduate student finished the work, he immediately submitted the paper and informed me after the submission. I should have got time to review something I did an year back.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47460,
"author": "user3209815",
"author_id": 14133,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14133",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you are in the US and you professor is in India, I don't think a viable option is to visit him (at least for now). That leaves you with email and phone. If your professor doesn't answer emails, you could try to call him. However, that might be really awkward, given that he doesn't even send you an angry/disappointed/indifferent email. I don't know how many times you tried to email him, but I would try at about 2-3 times. If you get no response, leave it be, you won't get any benefits from spamming him.</p>\n\n<p>If you get the chance, visit him and try to work it out eye-to-eye. Ultimately, though, I wouldn't go out of my way to reconcile with him at all costs. Some people just don't forget/forgive some slight, regardless if it was intended or not. In my opinion, if you already reached out and explained your \"unintentional mistake\", that's as far as I would go. Now it is your professor's turn to reply. If he doesn't want to, you can't force him, nor let that fact run your life.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47473,
"author": "user-2147482637",
"author_id": 12718,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12718",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is hard to know for sure how 'bad' your plagiarism was without personally reviewing it, but from what you explain, I do not think your situation is that bad.</p>\n\n<p>As others have mentioned, professors are busy, and as you emailed once, it could be that he does not have time to reply, is working on something before replying, or just forgot.</p>\n\n<p>If you would like to follow-up, I would suggest apologizing while giving your explanation you gave here. As long as it's honest, and how it sounds to me, you can apologize not for plagarizing only, but more about misunderstanding the situation and the work you left behind. </p>\n\n<p>Explaining it as you have here, something along the lines of (but in your way, I'm not the best at writing these letters, nor understand the cultural nuances you will have to include):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Dear Professor,</p>\n \n <p>I am sorry to find out I have caused problems for you with the\n literature review I had done. At the time, I had not felt it was\n completed as there were outstanding issues such as the lack of\n originality and the heavy reliance on past reviews. I was surprised\n to find I was being included as a co-author on the submitted\n manuscript, and realize I should have mentioned the problems with my\n review at that time. I hope you do not feel I had done this\n intentionally. If you would like me to redo the review properly in\n order for it to be submitted again please let me know.</p>\n \n <p>Sincerely,</p>\n \n <p>GKS</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47479,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Nobody is going to mention that the OP's old mentor put undergraduate work directly into a publication (i) without checking that it met professional-level standards of academic honesty and (ii) without informing the undergraduate that this was being done or that he was being added as a coauthor? In my view, these transgressions are equally bad or a bit worse than including a few sentences without quotation marks from sources that have been cited in a survey paper. </p>\n\n<p>In my opinion there is a good chance that the mentor is embarrassed that these lapses of <em>his own</em> have been exposed, which complicates the OP's situation. I am surprised that other answers seem determined to pin this all on the OP. @Scott Seidman suggests that the OP contact the editor:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I think an email to the editor involved, cc'ed to your mentor, taking responsibility (without qualifiers) and stating that none of the other authors were in a position to recognize or correct this prior submission,</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In my view the mentor was in <em>the</em> position to recognize and correct academic cultural errors made by his undergraduate mentee, and since the OP was not involved in the preparation or submission of the manuscript <em>in any way</em>, the <em>responsibility</em> for this clearly lies at least partially (and I would argue, primarily) with the mentor. Sending such an email to the editor could just call attention to his poor mentorship and supervision: i.e., it could actually make it worse. (Pro tip: don't contact an editor about something unless you're sure all your coauthors are on board. If there is any real doubt, clear it with them explicitly. If someone is not returning your emails, you can't do this.)</p>\n\n<p>The OP is not blameless in the situation: he made a mistake, and a mistake involving what sounds like a borderline instance of academic dishonesty. He should apologize to his old mentor -- <strong>which he has done</strong> -- and move on. I would recommend that the OP continue to treat his mentor like an old mentor: i.e., send him occasional emails keeping him up to date on his current academic life. I would certainly not assume that someone never wants to hear from me again based on a single unanswered email. But ultimately the mentor should know that he made mistakes as well, from a position of far more experience and responsibility. It does not fall on the OP to take any kind of heroic or (especially) self-abnegating measures to remedy the situation. One hopes that eventually these two people can move past one negative interaction amid many other good ones.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 163971,
"author": "Hugo van den Berg",
"author_id": 136354,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/136354",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am afraid that the reviewer was right. Be aware that direct quotes (which, yes, must have the quotation marks or the indented separate paragraph) of more than a dozen words are rarely if ever necessary. You should have paraphrased.</p>\n<p>Now as for your old mentor. S/He may be upset, but since you were just an undergrad, s/he should have caught the plagiarism and correct it. It was not your fault (although you did something wrong). H/She may be angry with themselves, or with the editor, whatever. But they have no call to be angry with you (at least not over this!).</p>\n<p>Try to email them a few more times, with intervals of a couple of weeks. There could be lots of reasons why you have not had a reply, including innocuous ones.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47448",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35670/"
] |
47,449 |
<p>I was asked to review an article written by non-native English speakers. I had never seen this before, but the manuscript includes a link to a certificate from a website called Textcheck that says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We hereby certify that Textcheck has checked and corrected the English
in the manuscript named above.</p>
<p>A specialist editor with suitable professional knowledge (M.Sc. or
Ph.D./M.D.) reviewed and corrected the English. An English language
specialist subsequently checked the paper again. The first language of
both editors is English.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Unfortunately within the first few pages I'm already encountering clauses that make it obvious that this was not done to any depth. The issues are so blatant that even a quick glance by a native English speaker would catch them.</p>
<p>Should I point out major grammatical errors such as these in my review? Should I comment to the authors that they essentially got ripped off by this service (in more polite terms, obviously)? Should I comment to the editorial office?</p>
<p>EDIT: I also see that I can email Textcheck about the article. Should I do that? If so, what should I say/ask?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47450,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You should not email Textcheck about the article. The journal review process should be confidential, and you should not take the liberty to violate it. You should put the quality of the writing in your review. If it's still bad even after review by this company, then those are the breaks. It sounds like it still needs some help.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47456,
"author": "Saurabh",
"author_id": 36009,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I agree with Bill's advice from the previous post. If you email Textcheck then they will come up with some argument proving that they did a correct job, and moreover it's not you who paid them, so it's better that the person who paid them should contact them if required.</p>\n\n<p>You should just indicate that the English used in the manuscript is sub-standard and can not be accepted in the present format. Though, this does not necessarily mean that you reject the manuscript. If you find that the scientific content is good enough then maybe you should indicate accept with major revision.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 109973,
"author": "Walter Florio",
"author_id": 92952,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/92952",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just express your opinion, try and be objective and don't worry about what does not depend on you. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47449",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36044/"
] |
47,462 |
<p>After two years of extreme hard work I managed to finish my first manuscript. In my department there is a trend that if a professor has some collaboration with other people in any project then their name would appear in the publication originating from that collaboration... to which I totally agree, but the second part of this unsaid rule is that if no publication originated from this collaborative effort, then in that scenario the name of the collaborator still ends up in the publication from any other project of the same Professor.</p>
<p>So the problem here is that my supervisor has a collaborator who has nothing to do with my project but since he is a collaborator of my supervisor and their collaborative project was not fruitful, hence to appreciate the effort of this collaborator my supervisor is forcing me to put his name in my manuscript. Though I don't agree with this policy, I don't know how to solve this issue as I do not want to fight with my supervisor either nor do I want the name of this person on my manuscript. Please suggest what I could do in this situation?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47463,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It's unethical to include the name of a collaborator who contributed nothing to a particular paper as a co-author. However, as you said, it can be difficult to confront your advisor about including someone else as a co-author. </p>\n\n<p>If you are the person responsible for submitting the manuscript to the journal, one alternative you might have available is to ask your advisor is to have an explicit assignment of duties in the cover letter for your paper. (\"Author A did activities Q, R, and S, while author B did T and U, etc.\") The tasks of each author would be provided in such a manner—and in principle it would be hard to justify the inclusion of someone unqualified to be a co-author when you have to \"certify\" it to the journal, rather than just providing a generic statement of authorship.</p>\n\n<p>If the advisor is unwilling to come up with such statements, then you could make the argument that since it's typically a requirement of journal submissions nowadays, that you're uncomfortable including an author whose contributions can't be clearly delineated.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47474,
"author": "user3697176",
"author_id": 31433,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31433",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Unfortunately this sort of resume padding seems to be getting more common, and as stated already, it is a form of academic fraud. </p>\n\n<p>The question you should ask yourself is whether you really want to continue working with this supervisor. Even if you get this issue resolved amicably (and after the supervisor invents fake contributions for the third party involved, this does not look likely), there will be other problems down the road. Since you are clearly unable to work this out with your supervisor (in response to your objections, he upped the ante by inventing contributions for the third party), the next stop would be a higher authority, such as the Dean, the University ethics committee, ombudsman or similar, possibly the funding agency. But this is bound to get ugly.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47475,
"author": "Alecos Papadopoulos",
"author_id": 8575,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8575",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>That this is presented as some sort of "tradition", does not make it less of a fraud -because it is fraud, pure and simple. In fact, since it appears that a whole Department practices it, it is <em>conspiracy</em> to commit fraud, with the criminal intent to share in the benefits from it.<br />\nAre such words unwarranted? Do they seem, even, insulting to the members of the Department? Well, reality can be insulting at times, if one chooses to make it so.</p>\n<p>That assigning authorship when none exists is strongly discouraged (to now use less harsh words), can be found on numerous relevant guidelines all over the world and the web. For just one such example, <a href=\"http://provost.yale.edu/academic-integrity/authorship\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Yale University web page</a> states</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>Authorship Standards</strong>. Authorship of a scientific or scholarly paper <strong>should be limited to those individuals who have contributed in a\nmeaningful and substantive way to its intellectual content</strong>. All\nauthors are responsible for fairly evaluating their roles in the\nproject as well as the roles of their co-authors to ensure that\nauthorship is attributed according to these standards in all\npublications for which they will be listed as an author.</p>\n<p><strong>Requirement for Attribution of Authorship</strong> Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public\nresponsibility for its content. All co-authors should have been\ndirectly involved in all three of the following:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>planning and contribution to some component (conception, design, conduct, analysis, or interpretation) of the work which led to the paper or interpreting at least a portion of the results;</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>writing a draft of the article or revising it for intellectual content; and</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>final approval of the version to be published. All authors should review and approve the manuscript before it is submitted for\npublication, at least as it pertains to their roles in the project.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Some diversity exists across academic disciplines regarding acceptable\nstandards for substantive contributions that would lead to attribution\nof authorship. This guidance is intended to allow for such variation\nto disciplinary best practices <strong>while ensuring authorship is not\ninappropriately assigned</strong>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>"Did nothing" appears to be a weak argument in favor of assigning authorship to somebody.</p>\n<p>You are not the first person to face such situations, and really, there is not a roundabout way to "solve" this: You will either<br />\n<strong>A)</strong> "respect the tradition", risking consequences whose burden only you can assess, or<br />\n<strong>B)</strong> attempt to stand up against it, again risking consequences whose burden only you can assess.</p>\n<p>Obviously, there are consequences in both routes taken - the issue is which kind of consequences <em>you</em> are willing to bear.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>Responding to @aeismail criticism (whom I also thank for the positive words), <strong>"falsifying reality with intent to gain in collaboration with others, while disregarding the possible harm"</strong>, is exactly what happens here. Crimes have "levels of seriousness" of course. Then, it is my impression that falsifying the scientific record, including researcher credentials, ends up killing innocent people, one way or the other, immediately or in twenty years time, directly or indirectly. I could, for the shake of accuracy, change "criminal conspiracy" to "criminal negligence for possible harm done to third parties while committing an unlawful act"... hmm, that's <em>two</em> charges, now that I think of it.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47462",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009/"
] |
47,465 |
<p>I am a ninth-grade student in Bangladesh. I am alone in this research who is doing a research in neurophotonics. I have a dream to get published in <em>Nature</em> or <em>Science</em>. Can my age hamper my chances to get published there, even if the quality of the work is groundbreaking?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47466,
"author": "Saurabh",
"author_id": 36009,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well, age is not a criteria for accepting or rejecting a publication in any peer review journal, it's the quality of the scientific content that matter. Being 80 years of age doesn't guarantee that you are an excellent researcher. So work on the scientific content of your publication, and if it is ground breaking the for sure everyone will recognise it. So stay focused and work enthusiastically with scientific ethics.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47478,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Leaving alone, for the moment, the ninth-grade thing, you are an independent researcher. While there is nothing wrong about being an independent researcher, all US and European journals demand compliance with very high standards associated with human and animal research, and these standards involve submitting protocols to review boards before any work is done.</p>\n\n<p>So, if the work uses any human subjects or animals, an independent researcher must hire such a review board. For animals, it is unlikely that an individual without some major resources can meet the requirements for proper animal husbandry that a review board will demand, so animal research most likely will not be publishable unless you are working with a facility.</p>\n\n<p>If you are not working with humans or animals, nothing would preclude submission to those journals. I the work isn't exciting and newsworthy to a very broad audience, and if it really isn't world class, your chances of publication in those journals will be very low.</p>\n\n<p>My advice would be to keep careful records of your work, and keep working to develop your credentials.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47465",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36063/"
] |
47,467 |
<p>Using Bio-sciences as an example, below seems to be the norm for admission prerequisites. </p>
<p>US grad school in Bio-sciences:
Have taken Bio 1 & 2, Chem 1 & 2, Physics 1 & 2 + some upper level Bio classes + GRE + a Bachelor's degree</p>
<p>European grad school in Bio-sciences:
Have a Bio or closely related Bachelor's degree.</p>
<p>So... Is this "directly or very closely related Bachelor's degree" thing pretty much a must for most European schools? When Europeans decide to switch careers between undergrad & grad, they have to do another complete Bachelor's? any other countries like that?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47468,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This depends entirely on the nature of the program: basically, some master's programs are \"continuous,\" meaning they have a bachelor's degree in (essentially) the same field as a prerequisite. If you have a related (but not identical) bachelor's degree, it may be possible to get approval, so long as you make up the \"shortfall\" between what your degree required and the requirements of the bachelor's that is the prerequisite for the master's degree. There's also the requirement that the shortfall not be too large (usually there's a limit to the number of extra semesters you can take to finish the expanded requirements.</p>\n\n<p>However, many master's programs—particularly in interdisciplinary areas—allow you to enter with a bachelor's in any relevant field. This is especially necessary when it's unlikely for there to be many (or any) bachelor's program in the same area. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47471,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>aeismail covers the most important aspects. However, I want to add something to:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>So... Is this \"directly or very closely related Bachelor's degree\" thing pretty much a must for most European schools? When Europeans decide to switch careers between undergrad & grad, they have to do another complete Bachelor's? Omg... :/ any other countries like that, too?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>European universities do not operate like US schools. Historically, most undergrad / grad programmes, at least in Austria, Switzerland, and Germany, are basically a 5-year \"Diplomstudium\" split into a 3-year bachelor and a 2-year master. Bachelor and master are seen as one \"package\", and indeed most students do both (in the same institution). You are not supposed to do the master without doing the same, or at least a very similar, bachelor first.</p>\n\n<p>As for <em>\"switching careers between undergrad & grad\"</em> - you are in fact indeed not supposed to do that. It's possible between related programmes (say, going from math to computer science), but the admission committee will force you to take an host of additional courses, amounting to (typically) 1-2 additional semesters. Unrelated bachelors (e.g., from humanities to computer science) indeed do not qualify you to inscribe to the master programme.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47467",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35783/"
] |
47,469 |
<p>I am writing a paper that is co-authored by researchers at several national and international universities. The collaboration is also interdisciplinary, meaning that conventions for authorship vary a little regarding where to set the bar for inclusion/exclusion and how to order the names.</p>
<p>One of the co-authors would like to inflate the authorlist too much that I am comfortable with. There's several people I have never even met but who were involved in planning this big project some years ago.</p>
<p>I think we can discuss the situation just fine but I would like to find some material that I could use when arguing my views. What would be some good strategies here? Is there any guidelines for this kind of collaborations?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47470,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Lots of folks around here seem to prefer <a href=\"http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html\">these</a> guidelines which are known as the Vancouver Protocol (quoting directly, here):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND</li>\n<li>Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual content; AND</li>\n<li>Final approval of the version to be published; AND</li>\n<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>\n</ul>\n\n<p>These are among the strongest criteria, and I would suggest that many scientific publications fail to live up to them. <a href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3162772/\">Gift authorship</a> and other sorts of additions to the author list are common. E.g., maybe you include the PI of a large grant as last author even if they only lightly supervised the work and did not read the final draft or write or revise any of the actual words.</p>\n\n<p>At another extreme, the LHC project has a sort of <a href=\"https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/Main/ATLASAuthorshipPolicy\">communal authorship</a> process that led to to a recent paper with <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/news/physics-paper-sets-record-with-more-than-5-000-authors-1.17567\">more than 5000 authors</a>. If you think this paper meets criteria 2 or 3 above, you are kidding yourself. Now, that whole community has agreed to this authorship mechanic, but it is substantially different from the Vancouver Protocol.</p>\n\n<p>You need to ask yourself what the norms of your community are. Does your field have a professional society that has authorship guidelines or guidelines associated with its publications? If so, you can use those to bolster the arguments you want to make with your advisor. If not, you can look to other, similar areas and their approaches. In the end though, you may have to follow your advisor's lead until you are out on your own. This is not a hill for a grad student to die on, and postdocs and junior faculty may want to use caution. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47490,
"author": "ping",
"author_id": 15507,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15507",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As Bill Barth mentions, there are guidelines available for determining who should and shouldn't be an author.</p>\n\n<p>However, if you know where you intend to submit the paper you can potentially use that journal's own specific rules as a more firm approach. The logic there is that if you are against stubborn people, they may be more convinced by hard rules from a journal than by a set of guidelines produced by a committee (which, while useful, are not really binding in any way). </p>\n\n<p>This might be especially useful given that you are talking about interdisciplinary research where multiple fields could be involved with each having a different way of doing things. In that case, you can use the journal guidelines as the one that must be followed without having to argue for one field's values to be more respected than another's (although I don't know if the criteria for inclusion varies as much between disciplines as the ordering of authors does?)</p>\n\n<p>It might be worth checking if the journal has a clear set of guidelines for authorship on it's website. For example, <a href=\"http://submit.elifesciences.org/html/elife_author_instructions.html\">author instructions for eLife</a> links to the set of instructions mentioned by Bill Barth.</p>\n\n<p>The journal may also have their own guidelines for how author order should be decided (some fields go with alphabetical, while others take contribution and other things into account). However, from what I've seen, many guidelines here are unfortunately vague and tend to just say that all authors should agree on the order and should be able to explain how it was determined.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47469",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36066/"
] |
47,481 |
<p>I've got a case where 90% of my academic publications are being claimed by a professor at another university with the same name on ResearchGate. I've sent several email requests both direct and through ResearchGate messaging to ask him to remove those publications from his profile. This has been over several months with no response.</p>
<p>At this point, I'm thinking of sending a registered letter to the professor and his department chair to correct what I see as academic theft through inaction. However, I realize that ResearchGate is mostly at fault here. There is no mechanism to dispute ownership once assigned.</p>
<p>Thought about doing a DMCA takedown notice of the offending pages.</p>
<p>What is the best way to resolve this?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47482,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think most people have come to conclude that ResearchGate is sort of a nice idea but not very useful in actual practice. I don't know anyone who really thinks it's great.</p>\n\n<p>In other words, use your energies for other things -- if you claim on your CV and website that a particular paper is yours, then people will believe you. The fact that some other dude is claiming your papers on ResearchGate may be a nuisance, but it's not going to help that person either because they are clearly not written by them.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47485,
"author": "Saurabh",
"author_id": 36009,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As quoted directly from research gate, here is the solution</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Our author match feature is designed to help you quickly confirm authorship of your publications on ResearchGate. The ease of this one-click process means mistakes can sometimes be made, so if another researcher has claimed your publication, it is usually the result of an honest mistake.\n To resolve this:\n Go to your publication’s ResearchGate page\n Click the Is this your publication? button on the right-hand side\n Tell us what’s happened in the box that appears and, if possible, include links to other places where your work is published.\n We take erroneous authorship claims very seriously and review each case manually, so please bear with us.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://explore.researchgate.net/display/support/Authorship\">https://explore.researchgate.net/display/support/Authorship</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47486,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think the most important part of your question is the bit about \"with the same name\". </p>\n\n<p>ResearchGate has very loose and rather questionable practices in how they manage their citation data, which tends to err on the side of inclusion. Moreover, their <em>terrible</em> user interface makes it very easy for somebody to do things like click \"add all\" and end up with a whole bunch of misattributed publications. In the little bit that I played with ResearchGate before giving it up as basically useless, it kept offering to give me authorship of papers by people with the same last name---not even the same first name. It will also automatically add papers to your profile in some circumstances.</p>\n\n<p>What I'm driving at is that, given that you and this other researcher have the same name, it's plausible that they didn't even do this intentionally and have just written off the whole ResearchGate mess. The fact that they didn't respond to your direct email is more problematic, but again not necessarily damning---you may well be going into their \"headache pile\" or even their spam folder.</p>\n\n<p>Given all of this, what I would suggest is a two step solution:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>If you think you have standing to do so, send a DMCA takedown notice to ResearchGate: it's fast, easy, and might get the content taken down.</li>\n<li>After that, just start ignoring the whole mess. It's not worth your time and energy.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47496,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Reiterating essentially the same point made by other people: first, the person with the same name as you may have had no part whatsoever in giving the appearance that he/she is the author of your papers. Second, despite the disturbing popularity of such \"metrics\" (cf. @PeteLClark's comment), no sane person will trust such things... for more than one reason.</p>\n\n<p>Again, at my own university, the local software akin to \"ResearchGate\" both ignores much of my work and \"gives me credit\" for random stuff that is not mine.</p>\n\n<p>Just as one cannot spend one's life attempting to rebut false claims made on the internet... uh... you can't spend your life attempting to rebut false claims made on the internet. Specifically, the profit-motivated amoral people can generate crap far more efficiently than it can be cleaned up. </p>\n\n<p>Yes, unfortunately, the future of academe may indeed be fatally corrupted into a \"dystopia\" by affection of \"bosses/managers\" for such \"metrics\". Too bad.</p>\n\n<p>Bottom line: ignore it. It's a slightly-structured spam.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47515,
"author": "David Richerby",
"author_id": 10685,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10685",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm pretty sure that the correct answer to any question involving ResearchGate is \"just ignore it\". As others have said, there is likely no malice in the other academic who has become associated with your work. There's a good chance that they're \"ignoring\" your email because anything about ResearchGate goes straight into the spam folder, where it (almost always) belongs.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47481",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36069/"
] |
47,492 |
<p>Suppose I have a paper with the following text:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Roses are red, violets are blue, sugar is sweet, and so are you [3],[4].</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As one can see, the author got the information from two other references.<br>
If I want to add this information in my thesis, do I also have to reference [3] and [4] or can I just reference this particular paper, I got the information from?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47494,
"author": "henning",
"author_id": 31917,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31917",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If you need a reference that supports the factual information that roses are red etc., then you have to look up the original sources and cite those. If, however, you refer to a synthesis of the information that the author of your sample text has derived from the original sources (for example \"flowers have different colors\"), then you must cite the sample text.</p>\n\n<p>Having said that, it is sometimes advisable to look up the references also in the latter case. First, because the information contained in them might be interpreted in different ways, and second, because you might learn something useful from them. </p>\n\n<p>Only when you absolutely cannot access the original source, you may resort to a <a href=\"http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/cite-another-source.aspx\" rel=\"noreferrer\">secondary citation</a>, such as <code>[3] as cited in [1]</code>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47495,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Similar to @henning's good answer, but emphasizing a way of thinking about such things: be forthright/honest. That is, you did literally learn of [3] and [4] from the secondary source, so it would be <em>helpful</em> to your readers (and factually accurate) to acknowledge this source, as secondary as it may be. That is, you help your readers by explaining the helpful sources you have found. Still, in terms of \"primary facts\", also [3] and [4] should be cited, for somewhat different reasons.</p>\n\n<p>That is, I think the best (certainly the most <em>honest</em>) scholarship admits what sources were used, how one found things, and so on. To do the opposite, that is, to pretend that one only ever consults \"primary sources\", is fairly ridiculous, even if it is a popular style. In my field, mathematics, in some cases the original sources are quite inaccessible or anachronistic/archaic, in various senses. So I cannot trust myself to read them with understanding, even if I can acquire a copy. So I must trust others' rewriting, explication, paraphrase, etc. But/and I should acknowledge the historical antecedents even if I cannot directly benefit from them, and also acknowledge accessible/intelligible \"secondary\" (often with much \"value added\") sources also.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47526,
"author": "Jan-Christoph Schlage-Puchta",
"author_id": 30965,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30965",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think this depends on the area you are working in. In most sciences the wording of a result is of small importance, so you might say \"Flora discovered that roses are red, ... (see [Gardener: A colour guide to flowers, chapter 4.6, ...])\". The idea is to tell the reader who did it, and give an available and readable source, e.g. a monograph. This was fine in pre-bibliometrical time, however, today praising an author without citing her is unfair. If Flora's poem is hard to find, but Gardener' colour guide is on every desk, or Flora's original work is difficult to read, you can write\nFlora[Flora: Poems, ...] discovered ... . We refer the reader to [Gardener] for more information.</p>\n\n<p>Humanities are more subtle. Small changes in the wording or the context can completely alter a statement, so you should not only tell the reader about [3] and[4], but also about the treatment in the secondary paper, which can well have an independent intellectual value.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 137264,
"author": "The Thrifty Engineer",
"author_id": 45601,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/45601",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The process you are describing is called <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearsay\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">hearsay</a> which is noteably unreliable.I would always go to the original publication if possible. I have seen peer-reviewed review papers that got basic facts wrong. In fact one such paper is accessible here: <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engstruct.2005.12.010\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Applications of shape memory alloys in civil structures</a>. in this paper the authors state without even citing:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><em>In 1932, Chang and Read observed a reversible phase transformation in gold–cadmium (AuCd)...</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If you do some initial internet searching, you find nothing because the date and authors are wrong. Once correcting this you find that the 1932 paper was by <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1021/ja01349a004\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Ölander</a> and the paper by <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03398954\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Chang and Read</a> wasn't published until 1951. As far as truth, the statement blends elements of both papers, so not even that is correct. Therefore heed this as a warning against citing papers you have not read.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/19
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47492",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28326/"
] |
47,505 |
<p>A person I know was in the process of publishing her first manuscript when her supervisor told her to add his newly acquired affiliation from a university in Saudi Arabia to his name. The Saudi Arabian university hired this Supervisor as guest faculty and were essentially paying him for adding them as one of the affiliated universities in all the forthcoming manuscripts.</p>
<p>This was of major ethical concern to my acquaintance. In recent years, Saudi universities have been accused in <a href="http://blogs.nature.com/houseofwisdom/2012/01/are-saudi-universities-buying-their-way-into-top-charts.html">multiple</a> <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6061/1344?related-urls=yes&legid=sci;334/6061/1344">different</a> <a href="https://liorpachter.wordpress.com/2014/10/31/to-some-a-citation-is-worth-3-per-year/">prominent</a> <a href="http://www.dailycal.org/2014/12/05/citations-sale/">articles</a> of "buying rankings" by paying prominent faculty to list them as an affiliation, even though the faculty have little real interaction with the university. To many, this looks like simple bribery or unethical sale of reputation, particularly give <a href="http://phylogenomics.blogspot.com/2014/12/some-notes-on-citations-for-sale-about.html">the high sums of money involved</a>.</p>
<p>My acquaintance was concerned that, if her advisor was listing this affiliation on her paper, then she would be aiding and abetting in this unethical behavior. Unfortunately, her confrontation with her advisor went badly, and although she was able to publish the paper without the questionable affiliation, the relationship was destroyed and she ended up resigning the laboratory under pressure.</p>
<p>Now my question is this: what should a junior researcher do when they feel they are being asked to be party to "affiliation fraud" of this sort? We would not ask a person to remain silent if they thought a co-author was being unethically added or removed. Should unethical addition or removal of an affiliation be treated the same way?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47520,
"author": "Alexandros",
"author_id": 10042,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10042",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One unwritten rule of any scientific collaboration between co-authors is that each party should trust the other. If I collaborate on one paper with another scientist (who might be located in another part of the world) and he is affiliated with more than one institutions (e.g., a university and a research institute or a second university while on sabbatical) and tells me that he likes his affiliation on this specific paper to be \"Institute A\" or \"Institute B\" I trust that he is doing the right thing. When he wants me to add an acknowledgement about a specific grant, I put the acknowledgement he wants for HIS part and I put the acknowledgement for my grant that I want. I have never felt the need to question neither the grant acknowledgement or the affiliation of another collaborator. For me, it is always a matter of trust. <strong>I do not collaborate with people I do not trust and I trust the people I collaborate with</strong>. </p>\n\n<p>On my CS domain, where conferences are the main publishing venue, sometimes the affiliation or the grant explicitly written on a paper, sometimes corresponds to who or how the trip expenses of the suggested paper will be covered. In those cases, the author may have prior discussed this with the administrative division of his institute and only follows the provided instructions. Again, I have never thought of any of this as a big deal, because it is more of a administrative technicality than a real issue. </p>\n\n<p>As far as the OP original question, her advisor wanted to list both affiliations (not just the \"shady\" one). In my mind, this was really not a big thing. Instead the OP by escalating this issue, was basically forced to resign from her PhD. And all this for what? So that a small obscure university has one less citation? It makes no sense and there are much more important ethical fights that is worth fighting for within Academia.</p>\n\n<p>It would be a whole different story though, if the OP was forced to put another affiliation for herself. In that case, she should have a saying on which is her preferred affiliation. But fighting for the listed affiliation on another co-author makes absolutely no sense to me.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47521,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>To my mind, this case is very similar to the question of whether somebody can essentially pay for co-authorship. We see many questions of this sort on this site, a particular apropos example of which is <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/19362/is-it-ethical-for-advisors-to-automatically-coauthor-papers\">this one</a>, which asks in part:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Suppose I'm a billionaire who knows nothing about science, but I take it into my head that I want to be (regarded as) a famous scientist.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The case of the Saudi Arabian affiliations looks to me very much like a parallel construct:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Suppose I'm a billionaire institution which does little significant research, but I take it into my head that I want to be (regarded as) a famous institution.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I think that it is completely reasonable to find this problematic, and to object to a co-author adding this institution, just as one might object to a co-author adding the billionaire know-nothing as another author.</p>\n\n<p>Now the question is what to do about it, and, as in these authorship questions, the advice tends to depend strongly on the power dynamics of the situation. On this site, we often advise students to leave bad situations rather than creating a confrontation, due to the power imbalance with faculty. For people in positions of power, however, like tenured faculty, <strong>it is an effective endorsement of unethical behavior if you are aware of it and do not call it out.</strong> It may not be a hill to die on, but either you care enough to make your voice heard or else you accept the behavior as legitimate. </p>\n\n<p>In this particular case, the student may have acted unwisely with regards to safeguarding their own future, but it may also have been important enough to them to take that ethical stand. It's impossible for us to know how important it was to that person, and it's easy to engage in post-facto critique of their tactics, but I think the concern is legitimate and the actions taken are within the range of reasonable options, depending on how strongly the student felt about the ethics involved.</p>\n\n<p>In short: some people choose not to take military money, not to work on espionage-related research, or not to publish in non-open journals. Choosing not to be party to what you perceive as bribery for prestige is just as legitimate an ethical choice to make.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47522,
"author": "Calchas",
"author_id": 31491,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31491",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Withdraw from the collaboration.</p>\n\n<p>Certainly, she cannot insist that the other author breach his contractual arrangement or indeed disregard his own reasonable view on where he is affiliated merely because she is <em>unhappy</em> in how the affiliation arose.</p>\n\n<p>If his view on where he was affiliated was essentially a fiction of his own invention, I think, it would be reasonable to take a robust position against perpetuating a fiction or a fraud. But that is not, from what I understand of the question, what has happened here. If he is paid by the university in some academic capacity related to the paper, for whatever reason and for whatever work is delivered, then I believe he is entitled to assert that he is \"affiliated\" with that university when publishing the paper. And the university may well require him to make that assertion. It is no less reasonable than a grant body asking to be acknowledged when work is produced from a grant.</p>\n\n<p>If that is too much for her to tolerate, then the cost of having that kind of ethical standard is to withdraw from the collaboration and desist in publishing the paper: ethics would be worthless if they had no cost to their subscribers.</p>\n\n<p>I have to add, when I read the title I thought the question would concern a proposed affiliation with an ISIS or Al-Qaedea subgroup, or at least with a supplier of arms technology to a capricious dictator.</p>\n\n<p>Frankly, to get upset that a university in a developing country has to promote itself against the entrenched western universities by retaining (effectively) a consultant on their payroll, is bordering on the absurd. There are many problems in the world and many problems in academia. Saudi Arabia throwing some money at a small number of professors is not one of them.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 114696,
"author": "Especially Lime",
"author_id": 68772,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/68772",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm going to disagree with the other answers. In particular, I don't think it is similar to buying authorship at all. </p>\n\n<p>Listing someone as a coauthor means their contribution was to do some of the work, so listing someone who merely paid you is unethical, because it misrepresents their contribution. But listing an institution as an affiliation normally means that you are paid by that institution.</p>\n\n<p>So far as I can see, the only problem would be if the supervisor's German institution felt that they were paying for exclusive affiliation rights. But that would be a matter between them and him.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 150308,
"author": "a3nm",
"author_id": 17423,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17423",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A contrarian view: in my opinion, <strong>every author is responsible for listing their own affiliations</strong>. If they do something unethical, as here, or some other wrong thing, e.g., forgetting to list one of their current legitimate affiliations, then I fail to see why the <em>other authors</em> would somehow held accountable. Indeed, sometimes a researcher can very legitimately end up co-authoring a paper where they have never even physically met some of the people involved in the collaboration. How could they be expected to check that they are listing their affiliations properly? In practice, I always trust my co-authors to list their affiliations, and I'm not going to go and start questioning what they do.</p>\n\n<p>To me this is very different from adding, e.g., a bogus author to a paper. It's reasonable to expect that every author of a paper would know what each author contributed, and so if someone wants to unethically add someone who didn't contribute to the paper, the other authors should complain. (Although to some extent even this isn't so clear: if I end up contributing to a paper where a PhD student I have never met has listed their advisor as an author of the paper, can I reasonably ascertain if the advisor meets reasonable criteria for authorship? Probably not...)</p>\n\n<p>In the present situation, I think it's a bit less clear, because the student thought they knew that the affiliation was indeed fraudulent. But in general, why would they care? Simply assume your co-author knows what they're doing, I'd say. If it's unethical, they should be the ones to bear the blame.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 174006,
"author": "P-Gn",
"author_id": 145409,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/145409",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The main issue here could be with the university or institution which the co-author works for. It spends money not only for his or her salary, but also for the infrastructure and environment supporting the research; the expected return is, in part, in publications supporting its reputation. Depending on the country, it may be stated explicitly so in the work contract it issues.</p>\n<p>Having a third partly spending considerably less money (and not alleviating at all the burden of the institution) to achieve the same effect is clearly a problem.</p>\n<p>I would personally advise to raise the issue to the board (or equivalent) of the institution. They are the ones getting ripped off.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47505",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009/"
] |
47,519 |
<p>I am preparing material for the academic job market and I would like to receive feedback from peers on my cover letter.</p>
<p>Additionally to the traditional personal contacts, I have thought about online forums as a possible location, but have not been able to find any that seem good. I am also not interested in websites that offer consultation from professionals in return for money.</p>
<p>How would you advise I go about getting such feedback?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, not everybody works in big departments or in universities with staff of the human resource management trained for this purpose. Also, it is the end of June: in some countries (in my case Sweden) this means the vacation period is started and it is taken very seriously (vacation=no working activity of any type, besides for doctorate students).</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48138,
"author": "André Kleinschmidt",
"author_id": 36613,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36613",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The most German universities have career service departments for questions like this. If this is uncommon in Sweden, I agree with Kimballs comment: <em>show it to people you trust</em>.</p>\n\n<p>In addition: the Internet is full of resources like <a href=\"https://www.looksharp.com/guides/cover-letter-example-and-template\" rel=\"nofollow\">guides</a> and tips. Just be aware of possible cultural differences that may appear between countries. A guide targeting to US audience could suggest or advice elements that could count as \"no gos\" in other cultures. If you want to check your cover letter against some online guide I suggest you to search one in Swedish that considers the national or cultural specialties.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 113967,
"author": "Fuca26",
"author_id": 23222,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23222",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A few years after my question and some experience more, I still have mixed feelings about this topic. I am convinced that, for those researchers who come from small research environments like myself, it is extremely hard to receive constructive feedback on career paths and strategies to reach your own goal. While in a large university you have career advisers and hr experts that help you in pursuing your goals (e.g. indeed, by providing you feedback on a cover letter for that amazing job opportunity you are applying to), smaller institute naturally fall behind with this respect.</p>\n\n<p>As the world does not end there, and researchers are extremely competitive and dedicated people who seldom give up, there is a number of ways to go. Personally, now I take any chance I have to network; I construct a database of researchers that I can reasonably say to know personally--at least a bit--and whom I can contact in case of any need, may that be a possible collaboration or request of some feedback on research grants applications or cover letters. To expand at most my research network I go beyond conferences networking and current co-workers: I use research platforms (such as Researchgate or Linkedin) to contact new people, I contact researchers that cited my work (e.g. wishing to keep in touch), I invite people to present a study in my small research institute, etc...all of this \"<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital#Sub-types\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">bonding social capital</a>\" may help you to partially fill a number of gaps that small research institutes suffer, compared to greater institutes.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47519",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23222/"
] |
47,524 |
<p>When writing a (computer science) research paper, I have to describe my method in term in pseudocode. Because of readability and reusability, I want to break my method into smaller pieces. However, I don't know how to present them in my paper. As far as I know, there are two approaches:</p>
<ul>
<li>Top-down: first, present a main pseudocode which calls/invokes other smaller ones which will be explained later.</li>
<li>Bottom-up: present and explain all the smaller pieces first, then combine them together into a bigger one.</li>
</ul>
<p>For example, in my paper, I'm presenting a method to solve to a problem, this method is describe by a funtion, named <code>SOLVE_PROBLEM</code>, as follow:</p>
<pre><code>SOLVE_PROBLEM(input) {
if CHECK(input) then:
FUNCTION_1(input)
else:
FUNCTION_2(input)
}
</code></pre>
<p>As you can see, <code>SOLVE_PROBLEM</code> uses other functions (<code>CHECK</code>, <code>FUNCTION_1</code> and <code>FUNCTION_2</code>) to find a solution. My question is to how to presents those functions in my paper. Should I present i) <code>SOLVE_PROBLEM</code> first (as it is the solution to the problem, which is the main point of the paper), or ii) other methods fisrt (as they are the building blocks to a solution)?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47529,
"author": "Jouni Sirén",
"author_id": 33018,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33018",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The answer depends on personal preferences, as well as on the algorithm itself. Consider the following two descriptions of <code>SOLVE_PROBLEM</code>:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Top-down:</strong> We want to solve problem A on <code>input</code>. Function <code>SOLVE_PROBLEM</code> solves the problem. There are two cases, depending on condition B, which we can check with function <code>CHECK</code>. If the condition holds, we solve the problem with <code>FUNCTION_1</code>. Otherwise we use <code>FUNCTION_2</code>.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Bottom-up:</strong> We want to solve problem A on <code>input</code>. In the general case, the problem can be solved with <code>FUNCTION_1</code>. The general solution assumes condition B, which we can check with function <code>CHECK</code>. If the condition does not hold, we can solve the special case with <code>FUNCTION_2</code>. This completes function <code>SOLVE_PROBLEM</code>.</p>\n\n<p>I personally prefer the top-down approach, if the algorithm has multiple equally important parts. Bottom-up approach becomes preferable, if one part of the algorithm attacks the core of the problem, while the rest just deals with special cases and administrative stuff.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 90374,
"author": "Blaisorblade",
"author_id": 8966,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8966",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In general, you should avoid telling a reader something without justifying why you say it (in terms the reader already gets), to avoid frustrating his motivation. At the same time, the paper should be readable at least linearly, so you can't say too much about stuff you haven't presented yet.</p>\n\n<p>To follow this guideline, it is often (but not always) better to proceed top-down. When you start, you've explained why readers should care about your problem, hence why you need SOLVE_PROBLEM. Then you present SOLVE_PROBLEM and explain what the different steps achieve (not the how). Hopefully names give a hint, but often it's not enough. SOLVE_PROBLEM in turn motivates the other procedures, so you can explain them in the same way.</p>\n\n<p>With a bottom-up presentation, you risk presenting code without having justified why it's needed. Maybe your FuzzBahzz solver needs a BarBuzz solver which needs a BipBop solver, but readers who care about FuzzBahzz might not guess why BipBop is related.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47524",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12635/"
] |
47,535 |
<p>I got a Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from a school which is among the top ranked of Europe. Nevertheless, this is a pure coincidence, I did it here because it was the closest to my home.</p>
<p>For purely personal reasons I am tired of living in a place where there is such high population density, and having to suffer city life, crowded trains, traffic (even though I do not drive, I suffer the noise and pollution <em>a lot</em>), and spending so much time every day in queues is very annoying. My dream would be to return living in the countryside in a small village where people know each other, like when I was a kid (the village where I grew up is now today part of a suburb and mostly lost its soul).</p>
<p>I'm considering applying for a PhD position in a very small university in a medium sized town, in order to relocate and live in a rural village near the town. That university would be quite small and barely large enough to offer PhD programs, and definitely does not have much international reputation or anything. The exact opposite to the university where I got a Master's, which is high ranked and has amazing international reputation.</p>
<p>What I'd be doing would be the exact opposite of the mainstream, where people are always more willing to live in cities despite the disadvantages, and also are wanting to have their PhD from a school that is prestigious. I am afraid to kill my academic career because of a caprice of mine ("live in the countryside") would have taken up all the other advantages over staying here in the same School for a PhD.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47536,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I totally get your dilemma, as I'm going through a similar thing (I'm not sure what I want to do <em>after</em> my PhD, in a university in a city of ~200,000 people).</p>\n\n<p>Remember that a lack of overall reputation shouldn't greatly harm your chances of having further success in academia. <em>It's the quality of your individual work that counts.</em> Having a PhD is rarely necessary outside of academia, so your Master's degree from a great university should be adequately impressive.</p>\n\n<p>Don't forget that there are <em>many</em> great universities in <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/College_town\">smaller towns</a>, and some cities have small \"satellite villages\" where you can live outside of the city but still easily commute to work. I think that you're restricting yourself too much. In saying that, if you're motivated and convinced that you can do a great PhD at this particular university, you should still give a paid PhD offer some serious consideration.</p>\n\n<p>Don't unnecessarily restrict yourself to Europe, either. Most towns and cities in the USA, Australia, and New Zealand are generally much more spread out and feel far less claustrophobic.</p>\n\n<p>My advice would be to try to get the best PhD you can, as long as you're willing to put up with the lifestyle compromises. <em>Or else, why bother getting a PhD?</em> I can understand Paris, London, or New York being right out. But any campus that's an acceptably short cycle, bus, or train ride (commuting at off-peak times helps, if you can get away with it) from a smaller village shouldn't be ruled out automatically.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47537,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I <em>don't</em> really get your dilemma unless there are further geographical constraints you haven't mentioned. In the US at least, the quality of the university is not much correlated with the population size or density. The American university currently rated #1 (according to a famous ranking that should not be taken too seriously; but certainly it is and has been a very top university) is Princeton. Princeton is located in such a small town that I <em>did not</em> want to go there for graduate school. On the same list we find places like Dartmouth, Cornell...</p>\n\n<p>I am not nearly as familiar with universities outside of the US, but for instance I was a visitor at Universite de Bordeaux I. It turns out that there is some mildly false advertising here: UNBI is <em>not</em> actually in Bordeaux (which I thought was a charming, beautiful small city, by the way), just very close to it in a tiny town called Talence. </p>\n\n<p>Also many people -- probably most -- who like to live outside of cities nevertheless commute into them for their work. One hour's drive from a prestigious university puts you in almost any kind of living situation I can think of.</p>\n\n<p>Are you really asking whether moving from one of the top ranked European universities to \"a Phd position in a very small University in a medium sized Town, in order to relocate and live in a rural village near the town. That university would be quite small and barely large enough to offer Phd programs, and definitely do not have much international reputation or anything. The exact opposite to the university where I got a Master's, which is high ranked and has amazing international reputation\" will cause your academic career to suffer? Okay, fair question but an easy one: <strong>yes</strong>. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>What I'd be doing would be the exact opposite of the mainstream, where people are always more willing to live in cities despite the disadvantages,</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That is obviously false. Lots of people do not live in cities. In fact, lots of people who would prefer to live in large cities instead take jobs in small cities / college towns in order to keep their academic career alive. (I am one of them. I grew up in a city of two million people. I now live in a city of one hundred thousand people and have a really good academic job there.) </p>\n\n<p>I suggest that you think more carefully about your long term goals. It seems to be implicit that you want to stay in a very small geographic space. That kind of priority is anathema to an academic career, and that's true in Europe as much as or more than in the United States. I know that because I know many excellent European mathematicians who have tried for years to find a job <em>in their home country</em>, to no avail. In many cases they need to leave Europe entirely in order to find a suitable academic job. Or maybe you don't really want an intense academic career following your PhD but would be content to have a mostly teaching position in a desirable geographic location (maybe even at a good high school?). In that case, simply getting your PhD anywhere <em>might</em> be enough. You should look into it. But considering a much worse PhD program wondering how much you're sacrificing by doing so is a very poor investment in your own future. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47538,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I guess the first question is <em>What do you want to do with your PhD?</em></p>\n\n<p>If you want to stay in academia, you will have the same problem after graduating all over again (and, speaking from personal experience, as a young postdoc/faculty, one does not generally have the luxury of <em>choosing</em> where one goes next). Further, going to a (presumably) under-funded local university with weak research programme is going to severely reduce the probability of you doing world-class research. While Moriaty is correct in saying that <em>\"It's the quality of your individual work that counts.\"</em>, said quality is definitely strongly correlated to the excellence of your advisors and fellow students and collaborators. Another problem may be funding (e.g., for going to conferences), which may not be plentiful in a small university.</p>\n\n<p>What I am also wondering is whether you <em>actually</em> need to switch university, or should just live off-campus? I work in Zurich, and I have one student who used to live between Zurich and Bern (about a one-hour car drive away), in an area that was pretty much as rural as it gets. He just did a lot of home office, and took the train approximately 3 times a week. Maybe an arrangement like that helps you more than throwing out the baby with the bath water?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47540,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You should consider more cities that are smaller than the city you live in now, even if they are not as small as your ideal. For example, the difference between four million and one million people is vast, even if your ideal might be fifty thousand. Already this brings a good reduction in traffic flow, lines, and general rudeness. Beyond that, if you can find a place where you can do great research and make good connections, then you should go for a better environment. If you are quite adverse to large urban centers then that could also seriously negatively affect your work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47547,
"author": "Tom West",
"author_id": 33127,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33127",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your concern about sabotaging your career is real. Academic hiring for full professorships in even second or third tier universities is overwhelmingly from higher prestige institutions in many countries/programs. (Not terribly surprisingly - people usually fall back to prestige when asked to make high-stakes decisions among things that aren't really easily ranked.)</p>\n\n<p>Now this may vary by country and/or program, so I would look at places that you would consider and take a close look at where the candidates got their PhD. That's the level of institution that you'll probably need to attend if you are serious about that sort of job.</p>\n\n<p>(This doesn't mean don't choose a smaller institution - but it does mean being aware of how that reduces your chances of success in certain areas. Everything's a trade-off.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47624,
"author": "Nav",
"author_id": 36182,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36182",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>No.\nI did it. From King's College world rank 15 to Queen Mary world rank 150. Your PhD wipes out everything. All my friends who continued their studies at King's had a better chance in finding jobs at good companies while I had to convince people over interviews why I made such a decision.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47535",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36113/"
] |
47,539 |
<p>So, the title may be a little convoluted, but let me explain. My current interests are regenerative medicine and neuroscience. I'm an undergraduate working in a neuroimaging lab, and while I enjoy the research, I feel like I don't want to limit myself to a narrow research topic as is common in Academia. For example, I'm interested in working with other areas, such as stem cell research and nanomedicine. What kind of career should I be working towards if I want to maintain a broad influence in the field? I was considering something like an administrative position or an being part of some journal's board. Perhaps working in the industry would be good, but I like the whole intellectual/meeting researchers vibe in the academic world. Also, please let me know if I can clarify this post a bit.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47541,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As an undergraduate you can still easily move to another field by working in another lab in a different field to try things out and get more experience. As a graduate student, become really well-trained at a field you like even if it's a little narrow for now so you can get high-quality publications which will translate hopefully to a good position and lots of grant money. Then you'll have more freedom for collaboration with other fields. Researches frequently branch out or incorporate different fields after a few years of work.</p>\n\n<p>While doing that you can keep talking to other people in different field and read whatever you like. That's assuming you actually want to do research yourself, which will probably take a good while to figure out.</p>\n\n<p>As for administration, you should only decide that route when and if you decide you don't like research.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47543,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I think most researchers want to influence and possibly work in different areas, but we can't all be revolutionaries in several fields.\nThere are two opposing issues that one needs to balance at any stage of academia (or that pesky thing called life):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Doing anything significant usually takes real time and effort</li>\n<li>Each individual has limited resources, such as time and effort</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>As research has progressed over the past centuries things have gotten more specialized and there indeed has been a necessary tendency for researchers to focus on more and more narrow aspects of science. However, the branches of science are highly interconnected, and fundamental work in one area often has ramifications in many areas (which the original research may or may not be involved with). Recently, there has been more emphasis on interdisciplinary research, which it sounds like the kind of thing you are interested in. So this opportunity is certainly available for researchers who are interested. </p>\n\n<p>However, interdisciplinary research is easier with certain specialities than others. (If you run a lab with lots of specialized equipment, you will be limited by the capabilities of the equipment.) For instance, interdisciplinary work seems to be pretty common with people who do mathematical biology, or more generally applied math/statistics. They often collaborate with different specialists in different fields/subfields who want to apply mathematical techniques/models to their problems, and in the process learn something about that particular subfield. My suggestion, if you want to go this direction, is look for an advisor in graduate school who does (and if possible, whose students do) interdisciplinary research that you find exciting.</p>\n\n<p>Another way to influence people in different areas is through teaching, giving lectures and writing textbooks. Yet another way is by working for a grant agency or as a policy advisor, to help decide what research gets funded. Working for a scientific publishing company, as you mention, is also a possiblity, but journal editors are professional researchers. Similarly, university administration is run by professors. Thus there are many options, but these typically require specialized knowledge, so the preparation is the same as becoming a researcher. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47602,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a researcher it is difficult to have an impact in a single field never mind impacts in multiple fields. Administrative positions are often very detached from research. One position, or set of positions, which might give you the broad exposure to multiple fields that you are looking for is a program administrator for the NIH. They gets to see, and often shape, grants from a huge range of health related fields. They often go to conferences to talk to researchers and talk to senior administrators about setting policies and broad research agendas. There are probably other positions which would give you similar breadth of exposure.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47539",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36115/"
] |
47,542 |
<p>Besides hard work, is there anything that one can try to be creative in research? On this site, is there a lot of people who can publish more than 5 or 10 papers per year? I would like ask them, if it is possible to train oneself to do that.</p>
<p>I have been a hardworking student. For four years, I have tried to publish one (first-author) paper per year, and I feel that this is my limit. This rate is enough for me to get a PhD, but it is never enough for survive in academia.</p>
<p>I'm going to start my postdoc in a couple of weeks, and I'm really worried, thinking about my career. I really love research, but I'm afraid I'm just a mediocre scientist, who will end up as a postdoc for 10 years (or forever).</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47544,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think you are conflating productivity and creativity. The amount of research you produce is not necessarily related to how creative it is. (Some people produce a huge number of papers, none of which are very novel.)</p>\n\n<p>Different fields have different expectations for how many papers are expected. For getting a job, what's important is that you are well regarded as a researcher. But to answer your question about creativity, here are a few ideas:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>You need to have a solid background in your area. As a postdoc, I started working on some very technical problems, and didn't feel like I could be creative for a long time, because I was just following and learning the established techniques.</li>\n<li>Ask yourself basic questions, and try to get a deep understanding of the things involved in your area. This leads to more questions, and lots of ideas. (Warning: this is not a way to maximize your number of publications.) Teaching helps force you do this, or maybe running a technical blog.</li>\n<li>Talk to people, and discuss ideas with them.</li>\n<li>Go to seminars and learn new things. </li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47545,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I would like to suggest that you read the speech <a href=\"http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html\">\"You and Your Research\" by Richard Hamming</a> on how to do <em>great</em> research. It's one that I revisit every once in a while when my own scientific motivations are becoming unclear and need to be refreshed.</p>\n\n<p>In reading it, it's important to keep in mind that the speech is thirty years old, and it is addressing things that happened even decades before that, so there are some jarring cultural gaps both with regards to science and with regards to the rest of society. Nevertheless, I find the central ideas to be still very relevant and valuable today.</p>\n\n<p>Importantly, Hamming distinguishes between things that you need to do in order to not fail and things that you need to do in order to have a real impact. These are very different, and it is important to distinguish between them. Important research is not the same as any of the \"productivity metrics,\" and the correlation is often a trailing indicator, not a leading indicator.</p>\n\n<p>For example: you say you are concerned that you are publishing only one paper per year. Step back and ask: why am I concerned about this? You can publish lots of papers without ever doing anything really creative or important. You can have a full, tenured, and comfortable career that way. And honestly, that's an OK choice to make. Some people go too far the other way, and strike out so deep into their own creative world that they can never publish their ideas, and they also fail to have an impact (indeed, the most extreme of them we label cranks).</p>\n\n<p>In between is the dangerous and subversive world that Hamming describes, where you teeter back and forth on the balance between compliant conformity to metrics and egotistical creative rebellion. It doesn't guarantee greatness, but it may be a fascinating ride, and it just might get you somewhere really worth going.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47573,
"author": "John",
"author_id": 30606,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30606",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I will have to differ from the above answers as I don't think creativity is well defined or quantitively measurable concept. 'Originality' is, and is made sure by the journals. If someone publishes 5 or 10 papers a year in respected journals, then that at least would mean that they develope conclude more original ideas more efficiently than many others.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/20
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47542",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15501/"
] |
47,550 |
<p>I'm very new to being a peer reviewer. I agreed to anonymously review a paper for publication, and while reading it for the first time, I was a little annoyed by the writing style. It sort of reminded me of the feeling I get when reading a paper from a student in an undergraduate Liberal Arts Math course. When I began to read it again, I was very uneasy about the writing, especially in the introduction. There were inconsistencies in style. Some short, dry sentences followed by longer passages using flowery language. I looked at the references and noticed a few secondary sources. One was a NY Times article. I looked up the article online and in the first paragraph found a passage that was almost identical to one in the introduction section of the paper I'm supposed to review. I was shocked. And then I found more. </p>
<p>So far, all of the plagiarism that I've found is in the introduction. I haven't read the rest of the paper carefully yet because I'm fairly disgusted. </p>
<p>My question is this: should I even bother writing a review? If this were an undergraduate paper, the student would get an F on the assignment and get reported to the Dean. I want to write to the journal editor and just tell him that the paper doesn't deserve to be reviewed. </p>
<p>Has anyone seen this before, and what did you do? If you decided to review a paper like this, how would you phrase your feedback?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47551,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think you've pretty much done your review. You found a whole bunch of plagiarism up front, and that's enough to recommend rejection of the article. Document your findings and report to the editor. Even if the rest of the article turned out to be brilliant and original, there is no way it can be anything other than rejected and possibly even formal proceedings against the authors.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47554,
"author": "Fuca26",
"author_id": 23222,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23222",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I understand there is a moral and potentially punishable issue. \nHowever, as the reviewer appears to have understood, the writer is inexperienced.</p>\n\n<p>What an author knows about plagiarizing practices depends largely on the country/university where s/he grew up in academic terms. In the Anglo-Saxon world I know this practice is severely punished already at undergraduate level, since from early stages of the studentship, students are required to participate more actively to the learning process and write papers for their classes, which allow them to learn about plagiarizing rules. In other countries this is not the case. The approach to the educational process is more passive in this sense, you are never required to write papers: if you do not write, you do not learn about it. </p>\n\n<p>Another reason that might lead inexperienced authors to plagiarize (and write bad papers) is their bad level of English: you do not know how to formulate and write down your thinking in English language, you are more prone to copying text passages instead of rephrasing. I sense that this is the most probable reason for plagiarizing in this case. In fact, you have also noted (to my understanding) that although some sentences are copied, they are referenced to the original source; ergo, the author must have problems rephrasing the original sentences (quoting exists, but it is used for very specific passages, not for banal sentences).</p>\n\n<p>Bear in mind, I am not justifying this practice, I am trying to explain that these behaviors may well exist even in absence of any true malicious intention. Therefore, each case should be very well pondered, before to decide how to act.</p>\n\n<p>I would do the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>warn the editor about plagiarizing passages in the paper </li>\n<li>suggest a rejection of the paper</li>\n<li>not recommend formal proceedings</li>\n<li>explain that this behavior does not seem (at least at first sight) to be led by malicious intentions but rather by inexperience/bad English</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I guess though that recommendations on formal proceedings are rather a subjective matter. I am sure many people won't agree with my do-gooding approach.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47556,
"author": "Saurabh",
"author_id": 36009,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>No, it should be rejected on spot as plagiarism should not be supported in any form and any level. If you found the a plagiarised passage is used in the beginning only then it is highly possible that the whole body of manuscript would be full of it and if you would go through and check the whole text then it will be a massive waste of time for you. \nMoreover if the author did not even know that plagiarism is a sin in science then he should not be in academia on the first place.</p>\n\n<p>Hence my recommendation is rejection on spot as well as to communicate this to the editor as well so that appropriate action could be taken against the authors.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47558,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Journals have their policies against plagiarism, but it's the editor's duty (or the editorial board's) to enforce them. The reviewer has the duty to read the <em>whole</em> paper and assess its quality.</p>\n\n<p>You should surely report the plagiarism to both the editor and the authors, but first you should complete your duty as reviewer. The editor will then make a decision on the basis of yours and others reviews, and on the journal policy. </p>\n\n<p>If you think that you would not be able to complete the review in an unbiased way because of the introduction, ask the editor to find another reviewer.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47571,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>See the Council of Science Editors white paper on publication ethics at:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/white-paper-on-publication-ethics/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.councilscienceeditors.org/resource-library/editorial-policies/white-paper-on-publication-ethics/</a></p>\n\n<p>and the Committee on Publication Ethics flow charts at</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://publicationethics.org/resources/flowcharts</a></p>\n\n<p>Many journals follow these recommendations or similar ones in handling ethical issues. </p>\n\n<p>As a reviewer, your job is to report this to the editor. The editor should take it from there. </p>\n\n<p>I'm actually somewhat surprised that this paper even made it to the review stage- most publishers now routinely check all submitted papers for obvious plagiarism using tools that check against large databases of published papers and other material. Normally, this would have caught the kind of plagiarism you've described. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47575,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can't believe that some of the answers and comments here are even discussing the possibility that a paper with plagiarized introduction may still be publishable <em>if only it was otherwise brilliant and original</em>. It's not like we assign 50% of the grade during review for brilliance, 30% for writing style, and 20% for not plagiarizing. It doesn't work that way: if you dope in the long-jump event, you're not getting a 30cm penalty for every jump -- you're kicked out of the event (and, in fact, banned for the next couple of years).</p>\n\n<p>Plagiarism is not an offense that has to be balanced with the rest of the evidence. It leads to immediate rejection of the paper. In fact, I would suggest that the proper path is not even to just suggest to the editor to reject the paper (which is the same penalty as for the regular poor paper) but indeed to use an \"exceptional exit path\" (too much programming with throw-catch languages :-) in which the paper is rejected simply for plagiarism or unprofessional conduct.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47735,
"author": "JenB",
"author_id": 26776,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26776",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think it is important here to differentiate between plagiarism and self-plagiarism. It is not an automatic rejection for self-plagiarism in the introduction. If an author has several papers coming out of one study, the introduction usually contains a description of that study that might contain a certain amount of self-plagiarism simply because the author has found a clear way to describe the context. This is generally okay even though it is technically a breach.</p>\n\n<p>In the case you found, the plagiarism cannot possibly be self-plagiarism since the original is a news item etc. Such plagiarism is always a breach and, as others have said, should be reported to the editor and then let the editor decide whether you should complete the review.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47550",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36123/"
] |
47,555 |
<p>I'm a PhD student and I just had my half-time examination. My supervisor thinks my data is "crap", my report "wasn't good", and my presentation was "a disaster". Maybe he is right. However, he doesn't seem to know how to provide feedback constructively.</p>
<p>At other times, his feedback is either vague ("these slides could use a little more oomph") and only helpful half of the times ("the standard way to analyze this is to...").</p>
<p>I am not sure how to cope with with this type of feedback, mentioned in the first paragraph. Any ideas?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47557,
"author": "DCTLib",
"author_id": 7390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7390",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You may want to separate two types of issues here:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>the presentational issues of your work</li>\n<li>the scientific issues with your work</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The first of these types spans presentation style, style of writing, and the structure of your written deliverables. The second one spans all scientific aspects of your work.</p>\n\n<p>You should definitely be able to get some feedback on the scientific issues. If your advisor says that the data leaves room for improvement, (s)he should be able to give reasons for that. Also, if you ask how (s)he thinks how the data could be improved, you should get a usable answer, as this is part of the role of an advisor.</p>\n\n<p>As far as the presentational issues of your work are concerned, you <em>may</em> be well-advised to ask ofther people for help (e.g., your fellow PhD students). Scientists often learned how to do that well by \"learning by doing\". This doesn't imply that they are also be able to explain how to do it in the right way. The quotation <em>\"these slides could use a little more oomph\"</em> suggest that this may be the case. But actually without knowing your advisor, it is impossible to tell.</p>\n\n<p>It may also be that that your advisor is expecting you to engage more in discussions with him/her. For example, if (s)he said \"the standard way to analyze this is to...\", then (s)he may expect that you provide a rationale for the choice of your approach. This discussion can then lead to a better understanding of your work, both for your advisor and you.</p>\n\n<p>Again, because of the limited knowledge of your situation, it is difficult to tell whether this is really the case in your situation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47559,
"author": "Danny Ruijters",
"author_id": 28830,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28830",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Next to the very fine other answer, I would like to point out that different personalities have different guiding needs (students) and guiding styles (supervisors).</p>\n\n<p>Whereas some students appreciate very detailed feedback, others prefer more generic remarks that leave more room for their own personal touch.</p>\n\n<p>It seems to me that your preferred style and the one of your supervisor do not match. This does not mean that his style is not right for anybody, nor that you are necessarily demanding unreasonable guidance. You might be better of with another supervisor, without anybody being at fault.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47614,
"author": "noumenal",
"author_id": 7711,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7711",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My solution was to ask another professor who was also present during the presentation for feedback. This gave me a balanced view on 1) my performance and 2) my supervisor's opinion.</p>\n\n<p>Signing off, opinions are not highly valued in academia, especially not in the scientific community, which always strives for objectivity. This is what surprises me about this type of feedback. It lacks style.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47555",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7711/"
] |
47,564 |
<p>I am working on a paper about a web data extractor (an application, I developed based on a unique approach). In the introduction I had a short review on the history of such applications (from hard-code to graphical user interface) and said my application belong to this latest group. However, I didn't say much about the approach I adopted in the application. I left it to be discussed in the motivation section. </p>
<p>In motivation section I counted the features of existing approaches and described the features of the approach I followed.</p>
<p>Now I think maybe I should merge these two sections into one section, as I read the introduction I can't get what is the difference of my application with existing. Should such information be put in the introduction?</p>
<p>In general, what is the scope of 'Introduction' and 'Motivation' sections?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47568,
"author": "Luigi",
"author_id": 17331,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17331",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<h1>Introduction: WHAT</h1>\n<p>The introduction of a scientific publication is where you explain the background of your research. What are you building on? What does the reader need to know to properly understand your presented work? What is your hypothesis (if this sort of thing is relevant to your field)?</p>\n<h1>Motivation: WHY</h1>\n<p>The motivation section explains the importance behind your research. Why should the reader care? Why is your research the most groundbreaking piece of scientific knowledge since sliced bread (or CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing)?</p>\n<p>Some people do combine the introduction and the motivation, it really depends on the research and the researcher. There is generally a fair amount of overlap between introducing related work, and then saying that your work goes above and beyond this previous research. Remember that these are just two of the big questions you need to answer with your paper. Others include:</p>\n<h3>Methods: HOW</h3>\n<h3>Results: WHAT HAPPENED</h3>\n<h3>Discussion: SO?</h3>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47569,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>They are whatever you want them to be. Neither of them are required by any journal that I know of. These kinds of sections are just conventional. You want to tell a story leading your readers from where you started to what you learned. That's basically it. The sections like Introduction, Motivation, Literature Review, Prior Work, Methodology, Approach, Results, Discussion, Future Work, and Conclusions are sign posts to help your readers know what you're about to tell them about. Readers can use them to skip around if they are skimming your article. </p>\n\n<p>If you want to combine your Introduction and Motivation into one introductory section, that's up to you. Just tell a good, coherent story that leads your reader through your material.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47564",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21885/"
] |
47,570 |
<p>I need a picture from the Internet of micro bacterium which I want to use on my Thesis cover. Now just coping the picture and using it will be like stealing someone else's property. Hence I want to know if there is any proper and legal method by which I can get the picture. <a href="http://www.bioquell.asia/interface/assets/images/content/Mycobacterium_tuberculosis_14313982.jpg" rel="nofollow">This is the picture</a> that I need, I wrote them a mail too but no reply yet.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47572,
"author": "Calchas",
"author_id": 31491,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31491",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You can ask the author of the image, or the owner of the exclusive licence if that is a different person, for permission to use the image. He may or may not grant it.</p>\n\n<p>If he grants you permission for free then it is courtesy to write an acknowledgement to that effect somewhere in the thesis.</p>\n\n<p>If the image is in the public domain then of course you are free to do with it as you will. (By \"public domain\", I mean, free of copyright restrictions by the explicit choice of the author or because the image is so old it can no longer be subject to copyright. I do not mean, simply the image was found in public.)</p>\n\n<p>However many institutions have precise binding requirements for theses which would not allow you to place artwork on the cover (even if you already had licence to do so from the author). You should confirm with your institution whether this would be allowed.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 66810,
"author": "gnasher729",
"author_id": 11873,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11873",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You could just go to a commercial site like shutterstock.com, find an image you like and license it. It's not free, but in the UK the cheapest purchase is five images for £32. The license seems to allow your usage; if you intend to print 100,000 copies of your thesis you better check it carefully. And yes, they have a few images of a tuberculosis bacterium available. </p>\n\n<p>That's the copyright side of things, obviously you need to check if there are any requirements from an academic point of view. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47570",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009/"
] |
47,576 |
<p>I am responsible for the exercises for a graduate course (which happens to contain only international students). The students submit their solutions via email and all of them send a normal email: greeting me and telling that the solutions file is attached then (most of them) wishing me a good weekend as the due dates are Fridays.</p>
<p>One group sends me an empty email: just an attachment without any word!
I believe that this behaviour is odd, should I take an action or it is not my business?</p>
<p><strong>Edit:</strong> Some have asked why I find this behavior "odd." If these students were submitting their assignments in person, I would find it strange if they just put the assignment on my desk without acknowledging me. Sending the e-mail attachment without any body text seems similarly strange to me.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47578,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 9,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I don't really think this is odd: they have been asked to send the assignment by email and they did. There isn't really a need to say anything further and they didn't. Maybe it would be slightly more courteous if they were to add a couple of words of greeting, but your job is not to be <a href=\"http://www.biography.com/people/emily-post-9445093\">Emily Post</a>.</p>\n\n<p>If the assignments were submitted on paper, and they left their assignment in your mailbox, would you insist that they include a note wishing you a nice day? No, that would be silly.</p>\n\n<p>There isn't anything you need to do about this. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47579,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When teaching large classes or multiple classes, it can be very helpful if the email, or even better the subject line, contains the key information about the class, section, group and assignment (and possibly TA). It should be the responsibility of the instructor to tell the students what is expected, if anything, in the syllabus and on the assignment itself. Those instructions should make penalties, if any, clear. In the absence of instructions, it is not worth saying anything.</p>\n\n<p>I would be hesitant about imposing penalties mid term, but asking students to include additional information seems reasonable. Just make what you want clear.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47588,
"author": "user2813274",
"author_id": 19914,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19914",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You may want to be more forthcoming as to your expectations - if you want text, ask for it. Have a sub section on the homework policy in the syllabus explain that each e-mail should contain the students full name, the class that they are e-mailing you about, the section, etc. such that you can search for the assignments when you grade them, and that any e-mails missing/lacking the information won't be graded and thus the students will receive a zero on the assignment. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47604,
"author": "user1751825",
"author_id": 36162,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36162",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Wishing you a good weekend, while perhaps courteous, is also superfluous. However I can see why there might be legitimate reasons for wanting something meaningful in the email body and subject, in addition to the attachment. It would help with sorting and filing emails for example, and empty emails are also more likely to be flagged by spam filters.</p>\n\n<p>I would suggest you make it clear to the students that you require some basic information in the email subject, and body, including student number, course and assignment title etc. Greetings and salutations shouldn't be necessary though.</p>\n\n<p>If an attachment was corrupted in transit for example, or was in an unusable document type, having the basic relevant data in the email body would help to resolve this.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47605,
"author": "Agent_L",
"author_id": 17255,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17255",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Unnecessary courtesies (like greetings) and stating the obvious (like saying that attachment is attached) only waste YOUR time and increase YOUR workload. This might not be obvious at the first sight, but if they all did same that would save YOU considerable time in total. In some company environments this is standard practice, and adding meaningless greetings is what's frowned upon (between close coworkers, like you and your students).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47617,
"author": "Alex",
"author_id": 36179,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36179",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Our world is a \"behavioral thing\" We are all becoming the reasons of some behavior. We can't say for sure, which behavior or which events have led to such situation with your students- and it could be the result of previous matters, which even don't depend on you. Anyway, you've got it and you want to change it. Very simple solution: You can tell to your students that your email internet filters dont allow you to receive empty emails, as well as emails with rudy content. After that- you can start checking only those which are not empty and those which don't have rude content. Belive me- their behavior will change very quickly. Cheerz </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47639,
"author": "n00b",
"author_id": 12085,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12085",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It should be added that automated processing is not unusual now a days. If I am asked to send a specific file, with a specific format, and specific name, to a specific email, it is not far fetched for me to believe that there is a script on the other end which 'processes' the attachment, but ignores the body of the message (uploading it somewhere or sorting it into a folder to view later). Even something as simple as having email rules setup could cause the body to go ignored until a human has to read/grade them. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for students to forgo formal letter formats in a world where a lot of things are automated anyways. </p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, even if there was no automation, some teachers may be trained to see emails with attachments as 'the homework' and ignore it, until they actually grade it. As a result if students included comments or questions, they would go largely unanswered/ignored, and they subsequently would be trained to make it clear when they have questions/comments, and not include those in the 'homework attachment' email, as those dont get adequate responses.</p>\n\n<p>That said, in this case its likely most students probably think the file name is adequate enough to indicate the contents. I.e. if the title says \"Homework_Assignment_4 -- Michael_Jones\" no other explanation is necessary.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47693,
"author": "Greg",
"author_id": 14755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14755",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Definitely this group has more common sense and familiarity with the use of email than most of your students.</p>\n\n<p>First of all, if you have a preference for a given format, information included in subject line or in the text, you should say so. Students are coming from different places, they cannot just figure out of your expectations or preferences.</p>\n\n<p>Second, emails are not letters. The common way of professional emails is similar how the said group used it: brief, contains only necessary information. Most text on professional writing clearly discourage all kind of \"Dear XY\", \"Best regards\" and similar. Wishing you good weekend of rehearsing that the attachment is an attachment, and indeed it is what you think is rather unnecessary.</p>\n\n<p>Off course you can have a personal taste different, and you can ask your students to accommodate, but don't expect that your rules are universal or known automatically by everyone.</p>\n\n<p>To answer comments:</p>\n\n<p>Indeed, empty mails are a little extreme. However the closes format to an assignment submission is a memo, and memos does not contain salutation, greetings, or any superfluous \"best regards\", \"is your dog happy?\" etc or signature. In other words, memos does not contain anything that OP is explicitly missing. </p>\n\n<p>If one has other preferences, she/he is free to write a guideline or communicate that. For example a page like this: <a href=\"http://faculty.mccombs.utexas.edu/kristie.loescher/assignments/memotips.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://faculty.mccombs.utexas.edu/kristie.loescher/assignments/memotips.htm</a></p>\n\n<p>Comment along the line with Nate's answer, and using his example:</p>\n\n<p>Just for the sake, imagine a similar homework assignment on paper. Do you expect a printed letter like \"If it would be a homework assignment, no one would expect an extended intro with \"Dear Sir, How was your weekend? I hope you are in good health and enjoy the chirping birds of the Spring. Let me introduce you my solution for the first problem you kingly asked us to solve:\" with a big \"Should there be any question feel free to contact me. Sincerely, (huge, hand written signature)\" at the end? Would you frown upon students who are listing only the answers, no greetings, no salutation as unprofessional and rude behavior because they do not follow standard letter formats (or what you think standard)? </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47703,
"author": "Taladris",
"author_id": 15528,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15528",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I disagree with the other answers. \"Hello\" and \"thank you\" are banned from SE sites for reasons of efficiency, but it is far from the norm on Internet. Look at newcomers' first questions for example. </p>\n\n<p>If the assignment had to be submitted in my office, I would be upset if the students were opening the door, dropping the paper on my desk and leaving without a word. </p>\n\n<p>Why emails should be different? Email between students and professors is a formal way of communication (how many questions about ethics and protocol for emails to professors do we have on this site?) and (non superfluous) politeness never hurt. </p>\n\n<p>As for what to answer to students, it is up to you: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>You could ignore it</li>\n<li>You could tell them you <em>personally</em> found it was a lack of politeness and respect to you.</li>\n<li>You could tell them that, although they didn't mean to be impolite and just tried to save time, it may hurt them in later communications. Not spending two minutes to be polite and clearly identify their work (the name of their file may not be as clear as they think - I regularly receive assignments named \"Math Homework\" by \"[email protected]\") may be interpreted as a lack of involvement in the project/class.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47741,
"author": "Jay",
"author_id": 31056,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31056",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If there is some information you need in the email to properly identify it or otherwise to help you sort through your emails, you should tell the students what this is. Like it would be reasonable to say that the subject line or the body of the email should specify the title of the class, the name of the student, and an identification of the assignment, perhaps something like \"Chapter 4 questions\". I can certainly see saying that you want this in some specified, standard format, so that you can quickly sort through emails and figure out what's what.</p>\n\n<p>But to complain that they didn't wish you a happy weekend ... I suppose it's nice if teacher and students are on friendly terms and exchange such greetings, but if they don't, so what? Are your feelings deeply hurt because a student didn't say \"have a nice weekend, Mr M\" as he walked out the door? If so, I think you really just need to get over it. </p>\n\n<p>It would be grossly unfair to penalize students for failing to live up to an expectation that you never stated. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47869,
"author": "Christos Hayward",
"author_id": 11992,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11992",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There's an old system administrators' maxim, \"<strong>Be conservative in what you generate and liberal in what you accept.</strong>\"</p>\n\n<p>It might be thoughtful to add a few polite notes, but just sending the requested homework should be tolerated, too.</p>\n\n<p>I'm working on a technical book now, and my publisher has established certain expectations regarding email, including that email subjects will be rather formulaic (with an identifying string for my specific title, a chapter number, a revision number if appropriate, and \"WIP\" if I have to submit a work in progress). And both they and I try to add a few words of politeness, but this is not a formal expectation.</p>\n\n<p>I think it's nice that students wish you a happy weekend, but if your biggest problem with your class is that one student is emailing you assignments without niceties, you're doing well.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 101990,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The behavior is absolutely OK. The attachment is what it matters, especially if the student has already been introduced to you. If you cannot identify the student, simply ask them to provide their \"Student ID\" together with their homework. If I would be the student, and somebody would ask me to properly formulate the email, it would look like this:</p>\n\n<p>Dear Mr. MM, highly esteemed Grader,</p>\n\n<p>Today, year 2018 B.C., month of January, day 11, I'm attaching you the homework. It is a ZIP file. The content of the zip, consists of one single file (not to be confused with the zip file itself) called homework.java. Open this file in your favorite editor. This file, although stored as UTF-8, has been carefully typed so that it only contains Latin letters and ASCII symbols. The file has been also scanned for viruses.</p>\n\n<p>Please review my homework at your earliest convenience. Any feedback is welcome.</p>\n\n<p>Yours truly,\nMe, The Student</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47576",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15032/"
] |
47,580 |
<p>In the research I'm doing for my master thesis I use the <a href="https://www.acm.org/about/class/2012" rel="nofollow">ACM Computing Classification System</a> (2012 edition). </p>
<p>I mean I literally use the data they provide as an RDF graph. How should I cite this classification system? Ideally I'm looking for a bibtex snippet. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47578,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 9,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I don't really think this is odd: they have been asked to send the assignment by email and they did. There isn't really a need to say anything further and they didn't. Maybe it would be slightly more courteous if they were to add a couple of words of greeting, but your job is not to be <a href=\"http://www.biography.com/people/emily-post-9445093\">Emily Post</a>.</p>\n\n<p>If the assignments were submitted on paper, and they left their assignment in your mailbox, would you insist that they include a note wishing you a nice day? No, that would be silly.</p>\n\n<p>There isn't anything you need to do about this. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47579,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When teaching large classes or multiple classes, it can be very helpful if the email, or even better the subject line, contains the key information about the class, section, group and assignment (and possibly TA). It should be the responsibility of the instructor to tell the students what is expected, if anything, in the syllabus and on the assignment itself. Those instructions should make penalties, if any, clear. In the absence of instructions, it is not worth saying anything.</p>\n\n<p>I would be hesitant about imposing penalties mid term, but asking students to include additional information seems reasonable. Just make what you want clear.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47588,
"author": "user2813274",
"author_id": 19914,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19914",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You may want to be more forthcoming as to your expectations - if you want text, ask for it. Have a sub section on the homework policy in the syllabus explain that each e-mail should contain the students full name, the class that they are e-mailing you about, the section, etc. such that you can search for the assignments when you grade them, and that any e-mails missing/lacking the information won't be graded and thus the students will receive a zero on the assignment. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47604,
"author": "user1751825",
"author_id": 36162,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36162",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Wishing you a good weekend, while perhaps courteous, is also superfluous. However I can see why there might be legitimate reasons for wanting something meaningful in the email body and subject, in addition to the attachment. It would help with sorting and filing emails for example, and empty emails are also more likely to be flagged by spam filters.</p>\n\n<p>I would suggest you make it clear to the students that you require some basic information in the email subject, and body, including student number, course and assignment title etc. Greetings and salutations shouldn't be necessary though.</p>\n\n<p>If an attachment was corrupted in transit for example, or was in an unusable document type, having the basic relevant data in the email body would help to resolve this.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47605,
"author": "Agent_L",
"author_id": 17255,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17255",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Unnecessary courtesies (like greetings) and stating the obvious (like saying that attachment is attached) only waste YOUR time and increase YOUR workload. This might not be obvious at the first sight, but if they all did same that would save YOU considerable time in total. In some company environments this is standard practice, and adding meaningless greetings is what's frowned upon (between close coworkers, like you and your students).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47617,
"author": "Alex",
"author_id": 36179,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36179",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Our world is a \"behavioral thing\" We are all becoming the reasons of some behavior. We can't say for sure, which behavior or which events have led to such situation with your students- and it could be the result of previous matters, which even don't depend on you. Anyway, you've got it and you want to change it. Very simple solution: You can tell to your students that your email internet filters dont allow you to receive empty emails, as well as emails with rudy content. After that- you can start checking only those which are not empty and those which don't have rude content. Belive me- their behavior will change very quickly. Cheerz </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47639,
"author": "n00b",
"author_id": 12085,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12085",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It should be added that automated processing is not unusual now a days. If I am asked to send a specific file, with a specific format, and specific name, to a specific email, it is not far fetched for me to believe that there is a script on the other end which 'processes' the attachment, but ignores the body of the message (uploading it somewhere or sorting it into a folder to view later). Even something as simple as having email rules setup could cause the body to go ignored until a human has to read/grade them. Therefore, it is not unreasonable for students to forgo formal letter formats in a world where a lot of things are automated anyways. </p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, even if there was no automation, some teachers may be trained to see emails with attachments as 'the homework' and ignore it, until they actually grade it. As a result if students included comments or questions, they would go largely unanswered/ignored, and they subsequently would be trained to make it clear when they have questions/comments, and not include those in the 'homework attachment' email, as those dont get adequate responses.</p>\n\n<p>That said, in this case its likely most students probably think the file name is adequate enough to indicate the contents. I.e. if the title says \"Homework_Assignment_4 -- Michael_Jones\" no other explanation is necessary.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47693,
"author": "Greg",
"author_id": 14755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14755",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Definitely this group has more common sense and familiarity with the use of email than most of your students.</p>\n\n<p>First of all, if you have a preference for a given format, information included in subject line or in the text, you should say so. Students are coming from different places, they cannot just figure out of your expectations or preferences.</p>\n\n<p>Second, emails are not letters. The common way of professional emails is similar how the said group used it: brief, contains only necessary information. Most text on professional writing clearly discourage all kind of \"Dear XY\", \"Best regards\" and similar. Wishing you good weekend of rehearsing that the attachment is an attachment, and indeed it is what you think is rather unnecessary.</p>\n\n<p>Off course you can have a personal taste different, and you can ask your students to accommodate, but don't expect that your rules are universal or known automatically by everyone.</p>\n\n<p>To answer comments:</p>\n\n<p>Indeed, empty mails are a little extreme. However the closes format to an assignment submission is a memo, and memos does not contain salutation, greetings, or any superfluous \"best regards\", \"is your dog happy?\" etc or signature. In other words, memos does not contain anything that OP is explicitly missing. </p>\n\n<p>If one has other preferences, she/he is free to write a guideline or communicate that. For example a page like this: <a href=\"http://faculty.mccombs.utexas.edu/kristie.loescher/assignments/memotips.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://faculty.mccombs.utexas.edu/kristie.loescher/assignments/memotips.htm</a></p>\n\n<p>Comment along the line with Nate's answer, and using his example:</p>\n\n<p>Just for the sake, imagine a similar homework assignment on paper. Do you expect a printed letter like \"If it would be a homework assignment, no one would expect an extended intro with \"Dear Sir, How was your weekend? I hope you are in good health and enjoy the chirping birds of the Spring. Let me introduce you my solution for the first problem you kingly asked us to solve:\" with a big \"Should there be any question feel free to contact me. Sincerely, (huge, hand written signature)\" at the end? Would you frown upon students who are listing only the answers, no greetings, no salutation as unprofessional and rude behavior because they do not follow standard letter formats (or what you think standard)? </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47703,
"author": "Taladris",
"author_id": 15528,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15528",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I disagree with the other answers. \"Hello\" and \"thank you\" are banned from SE sites for reasons of efficiency, but it is far from the norm on Internet. Look at newcomers' first questions for example. </p>\n\n<p>If the assignment had to be submitted in my office, I would be upset if the students were opening the door, dropping the paper on my desk and leaving without a word. </p>\n\n<p>Why emails should be different? Email between students and professors is a formal way of communication (how many questions about ethics and protocol for emails to professors do we have on this site?) and (non superfluous) politeness never hurt. </p>\n\n<p>As for what to answer to students, it is up to you: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>You could ignore it</li>\n<li>You could tell them you <em>personally</em> found it was a lack of politeness and respect to you.</li>\n<li>You could tell them that, although they didn't mean to be impolite and just tried to save time, it may hurt them in later communications. Not spending two minutes to be polite and clearly identify their work (the name of their file may not be as clear as they think - I regularly receive assignments named \"Math Homework\" by \"[email protected]\") may be interpreted as a lack of involvement in the project/class.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47741,
"author": "Jay",
"author_id": 31056,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31056",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If there is some information you need in the email to properly identify it or otherwise to help you sort through your emails, you should tell the students what this is. Like it would be reasonable to say that the subject line or the body of the email should specify the title of the class, the name of the student, and an identification of the assignment, perhaps something like \"Chapter 4 questions\". I can certainly see saying that you want this in some specified, standard format, so that you can quickly sort through emails and figure out what's what.</p>\n\n<p>But to complain that they didn't wish you a happy weekend ... I suppose it's nice if teacher and students are on friendly terms and exchange such greetings, but if they don't, so what? Are your feelings deeply hurt because a student didn't say \"have a nice weekend, Mr M\" as he walked out the door? If so, I think you really just need to get over it. </p>\n\n<p>It would be grossly unfair to penalize students for failing to live up to an expectation that you never stated. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47869,
"author": "Christos Hayward",
"author_id": 11992,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11992",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There's an old system administrators' maxim, \"<strong>Be conservative in what you generate and liberal in what you accept.</strong>\"</p>\n\n<p>It might be thoughtful to add a few polite notes, but just sending the requested homework should be tolerated, too.</p>\n\n<p>I'm working on a technical book now, and my publisher has established certain expectations regarding email, including that email subjects will be rather formulaic (with an identifying string for my specific title, a chapter number, a revision number if appropriate, and \"WIP\" if I have to submit a work in progress). And both they and I try to add a few words of politeness, but this is not a formal expectation.</p>\n\n<p>I think it's nice that students wish you a happy weekend, but if your biggest problem with your class is that one student is emailing you assignments without niceties, you're doing well.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 101990,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The behavior is absolutely OK. The attachment is what it matters, especially if the student has already been introduced to you. If you cannot identify the student, simply ask them to provide their \"Student ID\" together with their homework. If I would be the student, and somebody would ask me to properly formulate the email, it would look like this:</p>\n\n<p>Dear Mr. MM, highly esteemed Grader,</p>\n\n<p>Today, year 2018 B.C., month of January, day 11, I'm attaching you the homework. It is a ZIP file. The content of the zip, consists of one single file (not to be confused with the zip file itself) called homework.java. Open this file in your favorite editor. This file, although stored as UTF-8, has been carefully typed so that it only contains Latin letters and ASCII symbols. The file has been also scanned for viruses.</p>\n\n<p>Please review my homework at your earliest convenience. Any feedback is welcome.</p>\n\n<p>Yours truly,\nMe, The Student</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47580",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15532/"
] |
47,584 |
<p>With respect to some cultures, in particular Asian ones, one often hears statements such as the following:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In this country, copying is regarded as flattery and thus people do not know the evils of plagiarism.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>or (taken from <a href="http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/library-instruction/plagiarism/cultural-perspectives" rel="noreferrer">here</a>):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In some traditional cultures in Asia and the Middle East, for example, college students are expected to quote or paraphrase the best known political or religious authorities without attribution because readers, especially professors, are expected to know what texts are being circulated. Indeed, it might be a serious insult to the teacher if the student writer formally cites the text being borrowed.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Such statements may nourish prejudices or lead to it being considered an extenuating circumstance that a plagiarist comes from a such a country (see, e.g., <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/47554/7734">this answer</a> or <a href="http://www.mareonline.nl/archive/2013/03/20/is-there-such-a-thing-as-asian-plagiarism" rel="noreferrer">this case</a>).
I wonder whether this phenomenon really has the extents that would justify the latter, more specifically: <strong>Is it conceivable that somebody makes it to the point where they author a paper or a PhD thesis without <em>knowing</em> that they must not plagiarise?</strong> Or: Can authors really commit plagiarism out of inexperience on this level?</p>
<p>Note:</p>
<ul>
<li>I am primarily interested in anything going beyond personal experience (there are individual statements in <a href="http://www.mareonline.nl/archive/2013/03/20/is-there-such-a-thing-as-asian-plagiarism" rel="noreferrer">this article</a>). A scientific study would be ideal, but is probably not the only possible way to fulfill this criterion.</li>
<li>This is not directly about how the respective academic cultures nourish plagiarism and what aspect of the culture is behind this.</li>
</ul>
<p>As all the answers so far have ignored this: <strong>I am not asking whether cultures differ in their attitude towards plagiarism – they clearly do. I am asking whether these differences reach a certain level.</strong></p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47595,
"author": "GKS",
"author_id": 35670,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35670",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am not here to create or perpetuate stereotypes. I just want to make an attempt to explain it.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, in my personal experience, in Asian countries, scholars fail to understand the basic concept of plagiarism. Let me give a background of myself, I finished my undergraduate in India and currently a graduate student in USA.</p>\n\n<p>In almost every American University, there are clear rules imposed on assignments and laboratories. There are certain honor codes and honor committees which oversee the description and prevention of plagiarism. Plagiarism check software are utilized too. </p>\n\n<p>However, in India, howsoever unbelievable it is, there is no concept of weekly assignments in <strong>most</strong> (just a qualifier) of the Indian universities. At most, students are required to complete one (or two) assignment in a semester. The assignments also happens to be most boring ones. For example, \"write report on recent trends in \"Biomedical Instrumentation\"\". Unfortunately, even in those assignments, the grading patterns are <strong>usually</strong> (again, just a qualifier) binary, i.e. you get full credit if you submit the assignment and zero credits if you fail to do so. Thus, there is no mechanism to evaluate the thought process, the research skills and plagiarism related issues. </p>\n\n<p>However, the concern is, when even most of the professors fail to adhere to plagiarism rules. The reason being the professor evaluation schemes utilized in <strong>most</strong> (you know, it is a qualifier) of the universities. You are supposed to come up with these many conference papers and these many journal papers for doing fairly well in yearly evaluation. No emphasis on the quality of publications is established. To take advantages of such a sad situation, several conferences pop up from nowhere giving professors opportunity to meet the evaluation requirements. Some of these conferences are pathetic. How pathetic? You can submit a single page paper, for starter; You can submit paper as late as just a week before the conference. And what else is incredible, the conferences bear tags like \"IEEE International Conference on _______ _______ and ______\". Really? Yes, I know it's sad, but it's true.</p>\n\n<p>These are what I believe the main reasons of why Indian scholars are so much at risk of plagiarism.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 50131,
"author": "Quora Feans",
"author_id": 8970,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8970",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Some people have low standards. No culture forces you to copy-and-paste.</p>\n\n<p>And although the stereotype is of a Chinese student copying full pages into his essay, the most horrifying cases of concrete plagiarism that I known are from Germany, where several high-profile cases of literally copy-and-paste (not only paraphrasing a source) were found in doctoral theses works.</p>\n\n<p>Most of these German academics defended their actions when they were caught. I don't know of any single case of someone admitting his wrong-doing. Somehow a scientific work for them was a patch work of other's works. The fact that they didn't cite the original work were for them a minor issue.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 52533,
"author": "Ant",
"author_id": 39407,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/39407",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your question sounds very western-centric. As if plagiarism was an obvious bad thing worldwide. No it isn't. \nIs it obvious for you that you mustn't hand people anything with only one hand? It's known to be very rude, one need to always hand things with both hands. I learned this was important for Japanese people. I didn't know it. Other cultures don't know US or western Europe attitude as well. \nFor example in Poland one is not frowned upon when they plagiarize [or cheat or something], but only when they get caught [you can't even cheat? What kind of a student you are?]. We have special words for different kinds of cheating and you don't even have a word for cheating at school [to differ it from cheating on your spouse or something]. So yes, cultural thing. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 52541,
"author": "user6726",
"author_id": 28972,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28972",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't know of systematic published studies of the problem, but I do know from having had students write essays on the topic that even American students have significant problems in correctly identify instances of plagiarism. So while they all understand that you should not plagiarize, they often do not understand what that entails. They best understand the requirement to set off verbatim copying in quotes and to pair the quote with a reference, and worst understand the requirement to not represent as your own something that you did not create. My opinion is that universities have made the situation worse by plagiarizing statements and policies about plagiarism (implying that no attribution is necessary in advancing an idea about what constitutes plagiarism, or how to avoid plagiarism). For example, dozens of people have committed plagiarism in talking about plagiarism, as this <a href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=%22All%20knowledge%20is%20built%20from%20previous%20knowledge.%20As%20we%20read%2C%20study%2C%20perform%20experiments%2C%20and%20gather%20perspectives%2C%20we%20are%20drawing%20on%20other%20people%E2%80%99s%20ideas.%20%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8\" rel=\"noreferrer\">google search</a> reveals. I have actually encountered foreign students who did not understand the word \"plagiarism\", everybody at the PhD level in the west almost certainly knows the word and knows that it is bad, but there is still a problem with not knowing what it actually is.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/21
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47584",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7734/"
] |
47,597 |
<p>I've looked at the resumes of the type of candidates that get into computer science PhD programs at the top few universities (e.g. Stanford, MIT etc.) and a lot of them seem to have multiple publications (2-4) done during their undergraduate years. Is this representative of the entire pool? Or is this just a self-selected group that puts their resumes online.</p>
<p>I currently have one first-author workshop paper (5 pages), and I wonder how this might affect my chances at entry into these top universities.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47599,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You don't need any publications to get into a good Ph.D. program. Publications are often slow, and it's an unexpected bonus for an undergraduate to have publications, not a necessity. </p>\n\n<p>What <em>is</em> a necessity is to have strong reference letters attesting to your potential for research, and one of the best ways to get those is to get involved in research. Being involved in research, in turn, will also tend to lead to publications. Thus, you see the correlation. Research and research-related activities that help a person into graduate school also tend to help cause that person to end up with publications.</p>\n\n<p>In short: publications aren't the key, they are simply dependent on the same root cause.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47600,
"author": "hBy2Py",
"author_id": 27271,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27271",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Concur with jakebeal: no publications are required. I entered the Chemical Engineering PhD program at MIT without a single citation to my name, albeit with a semester of undergraduate research experience. That said, having publication(s) on one's CV almost certainly won't <em>hurt</em> one's prospects.</p>\n\n<p>One of the nominal purposes of graduate school <em>is to teach people how to do research</em>; and, also, how to then publish it. An educational system where applicants were expected to possess the full skill set taught therein would be rather ... poorly conceived.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47603,
"author": "Herman Toothrot",
"author_id": 4050,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4050",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It really depends on a lot of factors, such as field and nation where the PhD program takes place. In the US publications are an added bonus but not fundamental. In Europe it is very helpful to have a publication, especially when you apply to a fellowship. In Australia/New Zealand PhD position are often tied to a scholarship application, and it is very unlikely that you will get such scholarship without at least one publication, so you might get admission to the phd program but without any funding.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47597",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29303/"
] |
47,601 |
<p>I am currently reviewing a paper and feel suspicious about their numerical results. I feel their results have been slightly modified to exhibit their superiority compare to other comparative methods. </p>
<p>I cannot give an exact mathematical reason why I think their numerical results have been manipulated, but it is so odd that in all 15 scenarios they have been better. Actually, I am pretty sure that their method is better than his benchmarks but not always. Maybe they modified some scenarios. </p>
<p>As I don't have a mathematical reason why I think some of their numbers are altered, should I ask for their computer code and run them myself? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47606,
"author": "Dirk",
"author_id": 529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/529",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You say that you don't have a mathematical reason to be suspicious. But have <em>some</em> reason. You should formulate this as a reason in your report as well as you can.</p>\n\n<p>Moreover, I think that it is totally reasonable to ask for code and data to reproduce the results. Probably the journal has some policy about reproducible research and you could refer to that. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47621,
"author": "alephzero",
"author_id": 32961,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32961",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If there are any \"standard\" or widely-used benchmark problems for this application, it would be reasonable to suggest they are used (and give a reference to the problem definitions, and other papers reporting the results, in your comments). Selective benchmarking is hardly new as a sales and marketing technique, though one might hope that an academic paper would present a balanced view.</p>\n\n<p>Even if you can afford the time and effort to get the code and reproduce the results, you might end up with a \"my test problems are harder than your test problems\" debate, which may be irrelevant unless the paper claims its method is <em>always</em> better - and that would be a brave claim to make in any non-trivial situation. A method that is better \"only\" in some circumstances may well be worth publishing.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47626,
"author": "299792458",
"author_id": 17534,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17534",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Complementing the other answers, either in addition to, or apart from, asking for the codes and running them yourself, I don't think it is a bad idea to explicitly ask the authors, something like this:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The standard algorithms for executing (<em>bla bla bla</em>), e.g. as followed in the works of Refs. [1-3] (<em>feed these in</em>), are suggestive of a standard accuracy in typical algorithms. The current work appears to have bettered the same, which is a strong point in favor of publication. However, the authors should include a comment in the manuscript, mentioning what changes have they implemented to the typical algorithms so highly prevalent, which leads to this enhanced accuracy. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><em>My jargon may have to be twisted a bit here, but I think I convey the point.</em> </p>\n\n<p>This being a query in the referee report, the authors shall be obligated to feed in the details, and if there is some manipulation involved, it may end up being exposed.</p>\n\n<p>Hope that helps :)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47637,
"author": "asdf",
"author_id": 10178,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10178",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think that it's mandatory for science to have open source code and opendata. It's not science otherwise. Using results of a computation without seein the code it's like trusting a theorem without asking for the proof. So absolutely ask the code.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47689,
"author": "robbat2",
"author_id": 36220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36220",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You state that you don't have a mathematical reason to believe their numbers are altered, but in most cases, that shouldn't stop you from considering an application of \n<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Benford%27s_law\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Benford's Law\">Benford's Law</a> to evaluate the digits of the results (bear in mind there are a few cases where it doesn't fit).</p>\n\n<p>Edit: There is a quick free checker at <a href=\"http://benford.jplusplus.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://benford.jplusplus.org/</a> just type in your numbers</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47754,
"author": "Amir",
"author_id": 23641,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23641",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Whole point of publication is to provide information for reproducing the research work. Therefore the report needs to be written to make the work clear enough to justify the improvements. (I wish it was to exactly share it with public) \nYou could refer to that and ask for more information to help your review process done faster, it can be a way to make the code or generate/collect data. Anything that is needed to reproducing it. obviously sharing it is much easier, but then it should be attached to the paper or hosted publicly for readers as well. reviewer and readers should be on a same ground. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47601",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8294/"
] |
47,610 |
<p>There is always a bibliography in a research article, for each quoted paper there is plenty of information (title, authors, year, journal, etc..) and this is very convenient for the reader.</p>
<p>But in the article itself, those articles are always named using the author(s) name(s) rather than their title. An example with this randomly chosen paper :</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/EpjxM.png" alt="A random article"></p>
<p>This is very common, at least in computer science and math. I think it's not a good practice because it's <strong>what has been found</strong> which is important and <strong>not who has found</strong>. It would be better use articles titles, if someone needs the authors names he can look at the bibliography.</p>
<p>I assume that titles are well chosen and give a good first idea of the contents, but anyway it can not be more meaningless than authors names.</p>
<p>Someone can argues that name is often shorter than title. I think it's not a good point because sometimes there are three or four names and because we could just use the bibliography reference number in order to be as short as possible, but it's not the aim of an article.</p>
<p>The same occurs with theorems and algorithms names. It's quite difficult to memorize what Kosaraju algorithm is, it would be much more easier to memorize what double traversal algorithm is.</p>
<p>Furthermore, science is timeless and this intrusion of a temporal thing is very unaesthetic.</p>
<p>On the other hand, don't be mentioned by other scientists could be less stimulating for authors. In addition, it could be difficult to find meaningful and short title for each article.</p>
<p>So, is using author name in order to refer to an other research article a good practice ? The idea is to complete my pros and cons lists and then possibly to conclude.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47612,
"author": "henning",
"author_id": 31917,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31917",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Which in-text citation handles are used depends on the style manual of the journal in which the article is published. Some use footnotes, some are numerical, and many are variants of the author-year style, for example <a href=\"http://www.apastyle.org/learn/quick-guide-on-references.aspx#In-Text\">APA</a> and <a href=\"https://www.library.cornell.edu/research/citation/mla\">MLA</a>. I have never seen a citation style that uses full titles as in-text citation handles, certainly because they are much too long to be read conveniently. Some styles use keywords from the title, though.</p>\n\n<p>Multiple author names are usually abbreviated \"et al.\" and reference numbers convey even less information than the author name (which often already is a good short-hand if you are familiar with the field).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47616,
"author": "Nox",
"author_id": 34771,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34771",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To expand upon hennings answer there is (I think) a rationale behind the use of abbreviations and/or numerical references. The number of pages in a journal generally falls into a certain range and even with abbreviations some authors struggle to convey all the important information.</p>\n\n<p>Then there is the point of readability. A general title will - most probably - be longer than the (leading) author's name which will just clutter the page. Whilst an informative title of a paper should be the norm not everybody thinks this way. Including the title of the reference into the body of the article will certainly make it harder to read or skim over to asses the importance/correctness of the paper because one will have to filter more text.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47619,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I think it's not a good practice because it's what has been found which is important and not who has found. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That is not the perspective that many mathematicians take. If you read the American Mathematical Society <a href=\"http://www.ams.org/about-us/governance/policy-statements/sec-ethics\">Ethical Guidelines</a>, they state:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The correct attribution of mathematical results is essential, both because it encourages creativity, by benefiting the creator whose career may depend on the recognition of the work and because it informs the community of when, where, and sometimes how original ideas entered into the chain of mathematical thought.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>As you can see, there is a strong focus there on the ''who'' and ''when'' of a result. The focus on remembering who proved each result is a deeply ingrained aspect of mathematical culture.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>On a separate note, the question states</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It's quite difficult to memorize what Kosaraju algorithm is, it would be much more easier to memorize what double traversal algorithm is.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That may be true, but I think it is easier to remember what Djikstra's algorithm is than to remember what the \"spanning tree algorithm\" is, because there are many spanning tree algorithms. The same would hold for the \"prime factorization algorithm\" -- which one is that? </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47622,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I think it's not a good practice because it's what has been found which is important and not who has found.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Basically, I agree with this assessment. This does <em>not</em> mean that it does not matter who discovered or developed something, but it does indeed seem unreasonable to <em>memorize</em> metadata such as author name or publication year.</p>\n\n<p>Like many conventions and customs, what is done in publications nowadays is inherited from earlier times and other disciplines. Some of these conventions might indeed not be suitable forever or for all disciplines, but it takes a lot of time to change commonly applied customs.</p>\n\n<p>Two concrete examples, as you mention the field CS:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Many subfields of CS order authors by degree of concrete contribution. In many cases, the first authors are young researchers who conducted implementation and studies of few or a single project themselves (as opposed to more seasoned researchers, who are rather involved with several projects on a higher level of abstraction, thus rather bringing them towards the end of the aithors list). With large numbers of doctorates awarded each year (providing an impression of the numbers of young and still fairly unknown researchers around), it is questionable whether pointing to a publication in the form \"<em>first author</em> et al.\" is likely to be more helpful than a totally nondescript numerical reference.</li>\n<li>Presumeably, CS is slightly special compared to many other fields in that it lends itself to creating concepts that start a life of their own. For instance, concepts presented in papers frequently get fancy names, and reference implementations may be directly built upon by people who have never met or communicated with the original authors. In quite some cases, these concept names may become much more recognizeable than any of the many people who worked on the concept.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Thus, while there are various ways to meaningfully refer to such papers without relying on the author names and by rather relying on the content of the paper, it is difficult to <em>standardize</em> them:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Not every concept gets a name. Some authors prefer not to name their concepts.</li>\n<li>Likewise, not every paper title is descriptive. Some titles explain what the paper does, some explain what problem is tackled, some just grab the readers' attention.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The author name, on the other hand, is always around for articles, which is why many authors might rely on using thosr rather than deciding on a by-case basis what is the most recognizeable pointer for a given work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47627,
"author": "Henry",
"author_id": 8,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Furthermore, science is timeless and this intrusion of a temporal thing is very unaesthetic.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Name and year citations give a lot of information to a reader: knowing when and by whom something was proven often tells you a great deal about what techniques were likely used to prove it and the broader context the result fits in. Knowing the title tells you basically nothing, other than how to look up the paper (and you can look in the references for that).</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47610",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36168/"
] |
47,618 |
<p>In general, mathematics papers have <a href="http://www.ams.org/profession/leaders/culture/CultureStatement04.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">no first author</a>; instead, authors are listed alphabetically. Therefore, citing “Smith et al.” is at best misleading (it implies that Smith did all the work) and at worst insulting (Zelmanov never does any work!). Basically, all the authors are considered equal but citing “Smith et al.” messes this balance up.</p>
<p>The “et al.” style is made slightly more complex because it means that the “big shot” may come further down the list. For example, Zelmanov is the big name but the paper is Smith, Smythe and Zelmanov, cited as Smith et al. So you don’t realise that it’s a Zelmanov paper.</p>
<p>My question is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What should be done if a journal changes your citation of <em>Smith, Smythe and Zelmanov [10]</em> to <em>Smith et al. [10]</em>, especially when Zelmanov is the big name?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Is the answer simply to ask them to change it back to Smith, Smythe and Zelmanov? I think that changing the citation to “Zelmanov et al.” undermines the equality ethos even more — it is a slap in the face to Smith and Smythe, and anyway how do I not know that Smith won’t win a Fields medal himself one day?</p>
<p>I should say that before today I have never seen this in a maths paper.</p>
<hr>
<p>Added 2018: This was resolved nicely. I send the copyediting team an email asking if every instance of "et al." could be changed back "especially on line 244 because "et al." here is just a single person!", and if not can I edit the certain bits to remove the names. So they removed each et al. and it appeared online a week later. No hassle (but lots of worry!).</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47620,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While mathematics is not my area of specialization, I think that in your question you are making a general and IMHO <em>wrong assumption</em> about the importance of the name, appearing in the \"et al.\" construction. Essentially, this construction is used only for the purposes of convenience (brevity for readability) and <strong>not</strong> for implying the <em>amount</em> or <em>importance</em> of work, performed by any of authors.</p>\n\n<p>When people see the \"et al.\" citation, I am pretty sure that decent scientists immediately refer to the <em>full citation</em> in a reference list in order to obtain <strong>full</strong> information on <strong>all</strong> authors of a paper in question. Therefore, I believe that the \"problem\" that you have described in your question is really an <em>artificial</em> one, which exists only in your imagination (due to the incorrect assumption, mentioned above).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47623,
"author": "Willie Wong",
"author_id": 94,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/94",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Regarding your specific question, the answer is <strong>leave it be</strong> and don't argue.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Most journals follow some house style guide that has been set in stone for who knows how long. This is not a useful fight to have since you will invariably lose. </li>\n<li><p>Many style guides offer something similar to what <a href=\"http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/02/et-al-when-and-how.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">the APA guide says</a>, which is that for papers of N or fewer authors (for APA, N = 5), at the <em>first</em> instance of mentioning the paper the full author listing must be included; in the subsequent ones <em>et al.</em> is used. In pure mathematics papers with more than 4 or 5 authors are quite rare (enough that <a href=\"http://wiki.math.toronto.edu/DispersiveWiki/index.php/I-team\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">people come up with team names</a> when that happens). So credit usually is given properly (at least at the beginning of the paper). </p>\n\n<p><em>N.B.</em> since the OP <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47618/using-et-al-in-maths-papers/47623#comment109724_47618\">mentioned Springer</a>, I should note that the Springer MathPhys style which applies to most (all?) mathematics journals in the Springer catalog does <em>not</em> follow the same schema as the APA style guide. Experience suggests (since I cannot find it written down somewhere) that for 1 and 2 authors they always show all names, and for 3 and more authors they always abbreviate. My experience also shows however that if you write \"the Smith-Smythe-Zeldanov construction [13]\" they will not call you on it. </p></li>\n<li><p>Whether Zelmanov is a big name should have absolutely nothing to do with it; for all you know a lot of the technical insights could have come from Smythe. </p></li>\n<li><p>If you must show all three names, rewrite the sentence/paragraph so that the appearance of all three names is logical. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>In 1989 Smythe [12] showed that all gadgets are widgets. This result was later generalized in his 1993 paper [11], written together with Smith and Zeldanov, which showed that in fact all weak-gadgets (hereon \"wadgets\") are also widgets. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Of course this formulation puts the emphasis on Smythe, but if \"credit\" is so important to you you should have a good idea how to phrase things correctly. </p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47629,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 11565,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11565",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Disagreeing with the other answers here, I advocate that you <strong>argue with the publishers</strong> and ask them to revert the citation style to what you originally wrote. I have personally succeeded in doing so in exactly the situation you describe.</p>\n\n<p>Of course you should be polite, and only \"argue\" if the publishers refuse to accommodate an initial non-argumentative request. But do remember that the role of publishers is to take our golden eggs without payment and then sell them back to us at extortionate rates. As such, I think it is perfectly appropriate to put your preferences above those of the publishers. The publishers might refuse in the end, in which case you should just relent, but I don't think you lose anything by pushing an argument to such a refusal.</p>\n\n<p>Typically, I have found journal copyediting staff to be accommodating and helpful when I have requested that they undo changes like this.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47635,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The term \"et alii\" (abbreviated \"et al.\") means \"and coworkers\" or \"and collaborators\". It implies no preference who did what. So go with the style as suggested -- it does not imply that you elevate one of the authors over the others, it just abbreviates the list of names.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47659,
"author": "Hagen von Eitzen",
"author_id": 20647,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20647",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One purpose of the way to shorten author lists is to allow finding the cited work when it is listed in a library catalog, which happens (primarily/only) by first author. Hence knowing the first author is essential in order to find the text - no matter how important whose contribution to the work in question is (a subjective question anyway). Granted, this kind of restriction comes from the time of cardboard catalogs, but the implied citing tradition still stands ...</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47672,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>How the paper is cited will have nothing to do with the author's impact factor, or any citation tracking number in existence -- only the fact that the paper was cited at all has meaning. Tenure committees will not care whether you said et al. or listed the authors' names. Authors will not care, because it really makes no difference. </p>\n\n<p>It is a decision made by the style sheet of the journal you're publishing in. If you don't care for the style, submit only to journals that reference by superscripted numbers in the text. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47676,
"author": "Boris Bukh",
"author_id": 609,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/609",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While formally the author order is unimportant, our psychology does not obey such formal rules. In the situation described, after the passage of time we are likely to remember either \"paper by Smith et al.\" or \"paper by Zelmanov and someone else\".</p>\n\n<p>Existence of publisher's style is mostly irrelevant (at least in my part of mathematics). Practically all the new papers are on arXiv, and so few read the journal version. So, authors' decisions matter.</p>\n\n<p>In my opinion, the real choice is between the following options:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Inclusive, \"Smith, Smythe, Zelmanov [25] showed\" </li>\n<li>Simple, \"in [25] it is shown\". </li>\n<li>Verbose, \"Smith, Smythe, Zelmanov [25], building on the previous work of Smythe [26], showed\".</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47744,
"author": "Ned64",
"author_id": 34487,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34487",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Sorry to contradict, but I have published Maths papers with a true, ordered (by contribution) authors list. This may not always be the case, but this counterexample proves that the assumption that the authors list is always ordered by name only is wrong.</p>\n\n<p>As for the <code>et al.</code> - this is just an abbrevation, not for selecting important authors. As a general rule for citing (used in many journals), if there are more than 2 authors, you do not list all, just the first and then write <code>et al.</code> <em>in italics</em>. Sometimes you would use this short citation style in the text, and list the complete author list in the references, like</p>\n\n<pre><code>This has been proven by Smith et al. back in 1975 [8].\n\n[8] AJ Smith, T Southall, EK Forkner and UI Janeson, Why Squirrels cannot Fly, Nature 4(5), September 1975.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>As someone who cites, please respect the order given (for whatever reason), do not change it! This would just confuse people.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47618",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1057/"
] |
47,628 |
<p>I make extensive notes on the material I encounter all over the Internet (video courses, textbooks, blogs etc). I want to make my hard earned notes available free over the Internet. But if I do that, then it won't be fair as everybody will want to read the notes and won't buy textbooks.</p>
<p>Is it copyright violation if I share my notes over my blog?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47630,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If your notes are entirely your own writing, you're probably fine. I.e. if you summarize, paraphrase, and the like, then you shouldn't have much to worry about. The fact that your notes might substitute for book itself is just the facts of life in the marketplace of intellectual ideas. </p>\n\n<p>All that being said, if you copy literally from the book, you might find yourself having to deal with legal threats, DMCA takedown requests, or an actual lawsuit. None of us can (or should) tell you how that might go. You should consult an attorney before you post anything if you intend to copy liberally from the original sources. You may have a number of defenses if legal process should commence, but that doesn't help you save on attorney's fees and other costs. So be careful that all your words are your own.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47634,
"author": "Paul Gowder",
"author_id": 34179,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34179",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Needless to say, this is not legal advice about your specific situation, and if you're really concerned about this, you should consult a lawyer.</p>\n\n<p>However, here are the general rules. (Law professor here.)</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Copyright protects expression, not content. So if I read a textbook in order to learn something, and then summarize it in my own words to share that knowledge with the world, I own the copyright to the summary, the textbook author does not. </p></li>\n<li><p>Not all text is copyrightable. In particular, text that just represents information that can only be expressed one way isn't copyrightable. The classic example of this is a telephone book (see <a href=\"https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/499/340/case.html\">Feist v. Rural Telephone Services</a>). But there are academic examples that would fall in the same category. Off the top of my head, an obvious example would something like the information in a table of mathematical results (although if the table is in a novel structure, the information as laid out in that structure might be copyrightable).</p></li>\n<li><p>Not all information that is copyrightable is in copyright. For example, the formulas in a math textbook for a subject that's been around for a while may not be in copyright because whoever first wrote them in that form did so a very long time ago, and copyright is time-limited. </p></li>\n<li><p>Finally, there's fair use. That's a super-complicated subject, but broadly speaking, noncommercial uses of small amounts of copyrighted work tend to be ok for purposes like teaching and critique. But for that, it's best to do lots more reading and tread carefully. <a href=\"http://fairuse.stanford.edu/\">More information</a>.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47628",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36185/"
] |
47,646 |
<p>I am in 4th year postdoc working in applied math areas in which 1-3 papers a year is considered a good publication rate. I have been publishing 10-13 papers a year for the last 4-5 years (have never gone for a 'low-quality' journal as considered in my respective areas). I would think that my hardwork would be looked upon in a good way by my colleagues. But I gradually realized that some of my peers have been seeing this publication rate in negative spirit. I keep on having to explain them how I could publish so many papers - that I work hard is not a good answer for them. I feel strange that hardwork is being judged, e.g., the quality of my work, or that my coauthors may have worked harder than me, or that I might have found some low-hanging fruits, etc. I don't know how to deal with such a reverse peer-pressure.</p>
<p>Moreover, sometimes, merely answering that 'I work hard' may be taken offensively by the other person.</p>
<p>Is there any better ways to explain 'overproductivity' to peers, in a non-offending way, how I publish more (and good quality) papers than the average in my field?</p>
<p>This question may be related to <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/11116/productive-but-not-respected-advisor-should-i-continue-with-him">Productive but not respected advisor - Should I continue with him?</a> , though the OP also states that his advisor's citation count was 'too low' which I think is not the case here.</p>
<p>This question is definitely not meant to self-praising nor to demean my colleagues who are generally very nice people. I feel that this issue could come up when searching for permanent job-search and the search committees may also see the record in a wrong way adversely affecting my chances. Hence, the question.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47649,
"author": "HBSKan",
"author_id": 36014,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36014",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To deal with your colleagues: You already tried the nice way, when asked, just smile/laugh and change the subject. Based on your description, it doesn't seem like they'll be convinced of any answer you give. Rather, it seems like you're in a toxic working environment and relationship-atrophy is already setting in. Just remain cordial, and let it go. Thankfully, it doesn't seem like you'll be sticking around for too long since you're bringing up the topic of a job-search.</p>\n\n<p>The only other way I've ever dealt with a negative opinion due to over-achieving is to work very closely with those that criticize. This requires that they be non-malicious individuals; otherwise, you're in for a very unpleasant set period of time. Basically, proof through action rather than words.</p>\n\n<p>Concerning 'choosing your words carefully': It seems like you already picked up on how you may be misinterpreted (i.e. I work hard = you're not), you should also avoid the 'why don't you do so and so', I've been told very recently that the malicious individual behaves in a passive-aggressive way towards you because they believe that they cannot, so your statement serves to enrage rather than win them over; true or not, better play it safe and avoid this one as well.</p>\n\n<p>To deal with your interviews/job-search: Add a column to your publications list showing the ranking of the conference/journal you submitted the paper to. If they're all high tier then, if anything, your rate should help you land a pretty solid job. You may also want to add a line below the publication outlining exactly what your part was in the research that led to the publication to avoid the co-authors argument.</p>\n\n<p>Best of luck with all your endeavors.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47652,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When I hear people use terms like overproductiveness and hardwork, I essentially tune out. In general, I find individuals who describe themselves as hard workers to be some of the worst colleagues. While potentially unintentional, these terms are insulting in that they suggest that the person you are talking to is not productive and not a hard worker. Your publication rate is not solely because of your hardwork.</p>\n\n<p>When needing to describe a publication rate that is 5 to 10 times higher than \"good\" colleagues, and you will have to do that often, you need a better reason. For example, do you have lots of collaborators, less teaching, is writing just easy/fast for you? It is unlikely that you work 5 to 10 times longer (or more efficiently) than good colleagues. Maybe ideas come 5 to 10 times quicker to you than good colleagues. The key is to understand and be able to explain why you are publishing more.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47657,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm not surprised that hard work isn't considered a convincing answer. It's not plausible that you are putting in four times as many hours as your peers. Hardly anyone actually works a hundred hours per week, and even that would achieve a fourfold increase only if your peers are putting in just twenty-five hours. Instead, it's possible that you are working far more efficiently than your peers, but that's a tricky answer to give. You'll offend people if it comes across as \"I'm probably just smarter than you are\" or \"you sure must be wasting a lot of time\", and you won't look good if it comes across as \"I cut corners to try to rush my work into print as quickly as I can\".</p>\n\n<p>One common attitude in mathematics is that publishing a lot of papers is a waste of your potential: if you have the time and energy to do that, then you should be spending it trying to write better papers, not more papers. How strongly this is felt depends on the subfield, so I don't know whether it applies to your area. To the extent it does, there may be no compelling explanation you can give for publishing a lot of good papers but no fantastic papers. (If you are publishing some fantastic papers, then you don't need to worry about this.)</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is there any better ways to explain 'overproductivity' to peers, in a non-offending way, how I publish more (and good quality) papers than the average in my field?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Probably not. Your peers might simply be envious, in which case they already feel bad about the productivity difference and there's probably nothing you can say to make them feel better about it. (They might need to vent to a friend about how frustrated they are or talk with a mentor about how to improve, but they probably aren't looking for an earnest conversation with you about how you manage to accomplish so much more than they do.) Or your peers might have legitimate concerns about your approach, in which case no boilerplate explanation will address the concerns and you'd be better off discussing this issue with a trusted mentor instead. Either way, I don't think you should interpret their questions as genuine requests for information, but rather as complaints. There's probably no simple answer that will change their minds.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47660,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is there any better ways to explain 'overproductivity' to peers, in a non-offending way, how I publish more (and good quality) papers than the average in my field?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>First, put some thought into where their reactions are coming from. Is it genuine curiosity? Is it envy? Is it a form of cultural sanction, e.g. to let you know that you \"are making waves\" in the culture? As intellectually smart as academic people are, many are not very emotionally intelligent, and thus lack self-awareness and self-control when they feel negative reactions.</p>\n\n<p>Second, I suggest that you put together a set of answers that follow this statement: <strong><em>\"I am fully aware that this is much higher than normal. There are trade-offs involved, for sure, but this strategy fits my goals and capabilities. I have made specific choices to make this possible.\"</em></strong> Then go on to explain the choices you have made if it makes serves your needs with that questioner. Maybe you start every project with the plan of publishing multiple papers in multiple venues. Maybe you \"modularize\" your work so it can be packaged in multiple ways. Maybe you have many collaborations going at the same time. Maybe you work longer hours in a typical week, or you work when other people are typically taking vacation or doing other things. Maybe you are particularly efficient at the paper writing process. Maybe you chose publication venues that have a quick acceptance cycle, without long revise-and-resubmit cycles. Maybe you have a supervisor who is particularly productive and guides you (inspires you, directs you) to do likewise. Maybe you are careful to choose problems and topics that are well suited to \"minimum publishable unit\" approaches. And so on.</p>\n\n<p>This type of answer may or may not meet the real needs or motivations of the questioner, but at least you have answered clearly and directly.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47663,
"author": "Jan-Christoph Schlage-Puchta",
"author_id": 30965,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30965",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you publish many papers, there are several possibilities. One is that you are good. Another one is that you are higly specialized and solve problems hardly anyone else is interested in. Another one is that you can communicate well and work efficiently together with other people. Still another one is that you abuse your social skills to make your coauthors do most of the work.</p>\n\n<p>So \"How do you publish 10 papers a year?\" is an honest question, and \"I work hard\" is an evasive answer, which might lead to a negative reaction. However, having been in several hiring committees I am pretty sure that envy hardly ever plays a role here. I want the best possible colleagues, unless they are so good that working with me is not a serious option for them. And that is probably not really correlated to quality, but rather to selfishness and social incompetence.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47673,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would suggest that you may find it very informative to step back and take some perspective. I recommend consideration of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy's_Law_(management)\">Joy's Law</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The fact is, that the world is very large and full of a lot of very intelligent and very hard working people. Some of them are very scientifically productive by some metrics, some of them are not very productive by those metrics but are productive by other metrics, some are taking long gambles or running into \"normal problems\" that make them not look particularly productive at all even if they are doing all of the right things. Others have made choices that mean they are not actually being particularly scientifically productive---they may be productive in other areas (e.g., teaching, parenting, StackExchange) or they may not be for any number of reasons.</p>\n\n<p>If you are one of those very smart and very hard working people, that great!</p>\n\n<p>When somebody else asks you about your productivity, however, I think that it is a good idea to begin with the assumption that they are also a very intelligent and hard-working person who simply has a different mixture of skills, preferences, opportunities, and choices than yourself. Something is causing a difference between your circumstances, and it's probably not just hard work.</p>\n\n<p>The fact is, if you are producing a lot of good papers, that's going to be due to a whole bunch of factors lining up nicely. Please understand that I am not trying to undervalue your accomplishments in many ways: it's simply that there are so <em>many</em> ways that circumstances can run counter to rapid scientific publication.</p>\n\n<p>I would thus recommend reflecting on what circumstances <em>beyond</em> hard work that are enabling your current productivity. You may find it interesting and informative for its own sake (and your future maintenance of productivity when you are inevitably faced with challenges), and it will give you a more palatable answer for your peers. And if you don't know what it is that's making things work well for you right now, you can just say something like:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"I'm not really sure. Things are just really going really well right now!\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47682,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As mentioned in other answers, simple hard work does not explain the large number of publications. I think that the main factors that explain wide variation in number of papers in general are</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>The type of problems worked on. If you need to build a theory or develop techniques to solve a problem versus apply known theories/techniques, the amount of time required varies greatly.</li>\n<li>The type of papers written. This is highly connected with the first point, but generally 4 page papers take less time than 150 page manuscripts. Also, many computational projects take less time than more theoretical ones.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>From only seeing your number of papers (and maybe what journals they appear in), some people will be really impressed, and some people will be suspicious at first that you're not doing anything important/deep. Of course, there are many mathematicians who publish a lot who are very well regarded (e.g., Noga Alon, Benny Sudakov).</p>\n\n<p>Applied math is a huge, disparate area, and there is a lot of variation for what is a \"normal\" publication rate. Is 1-3/year really what is normal for your collaborators and/or strong researchers who do similar kinds of things you do? This is <strong>what you should be comparing yourself to</strong>, rather than all of applied math. If you can say something like: <em>In my subfield of XXX, 5-15 papers a year is pretty typical</em>, then most people won't think it so strange. It's even better if you can back it up with reasons related to 1. and 2., such as <em>because we have a few techniques that we can apply to a lot of problems in different areas</em>.</p>\n\n<p>When it comes to the <strong>job search</strong>, people from other areas/subfields looking at your application often won't have a good sense of what's normal versus spectacular versus below average in terms of publication records, because, as I said before, things vary wildly. Here what is really important is your <strong>letters of recommendation</strong>. They will clarify whether you are great, good or mediocre at what you do.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47715,
"author": "Steve Jessop",
"author_id": 11440,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11440",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The important thing to recognise here is that they're comparing you to the norm (i.e. themselves). Asking \"why do you do so much, relatively?\" is equivalent to asking \"why do you do so much more <em>than me</em>\", and to \"why do I do so little, relatively?\". Consider your answers in this light.</p>\n\n<p>You may have felt that saying \"I work hard\" is a modest answer to the question, but it really isn't. Almost anyone can \"work hard\", it's perceived almost as a moral choice. Perhaps it shouldn't be, but hard work is a <em>virtue</em> and you're saying you possess much more of it than they do. The janitor <em>works hard</em>, and it doesn't seem to have done his publication record any good, so your answer lacks insight. Which is not unexpected in a three-word answer ;-)</p>\n\n<p>Imagine if someone asked Terence Tao \"how come you've published so much, achieved so highly, and won the Fields medal?\", and he said \"the only reason is that I work harder than you do\". No, it's not only because of that, it's also (indeed as a prerequisite) because he's way better than me at what he does. That was true before he put in the hours and the effort. There are people who've put in just as much hard work as he has and achieved less (albeit, I'm not one of them). So for him to claim that the <em>only</em> difference between himself and me is that I work less hard would be an insult. I can accept that he works harder, but I cannot accept that the only reason I'm not a Fields medallist is lack of effort on my part, and it's rude to tell me that it is. If he's going to pick one reason then I would far rather he picked \"because I find mathematics much, much easier than you do\". But, for what it's worth, here's <a href=\"https://terrytao.wordpress.com/career-advice/work-hard/\">what Terence Tao actually says instead of saying \"I work hard\"</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Now, your colleagues might not be ready to admit that you're smarter than them (indeed, you might not be, there might be some other reasons), so you're right to be cautious about claims to your own ability. But avoiding a claim to your own ability by making a claim to your own virtue isn't helping matters.</p>\n\n<p>If your colleagues genuinely want an answer to their question, because they're half-wondering whether you have some silver bullet that they could benefit from, then you need to look more closely at yourself and find more detailed answers. As others have said, it's just not plausible that you do 4-13 times as many hours a week of work than any of them does (although, with different teaching commitments and working hours and focus levels it's certainly plausible that you do 4+ times as many hours a week of <em>proper research work</em> than some of them). Find what else.</p>\n\n<p>This isn't necessarily easy, because you don't know why they only produce 1-3 papers a year, but try to figure that out. These people will be open to the possibility that you're better than they are, but they can't believe it's just that you do 4+ times as much work, and if there's anything else you do that they could in theory do too then they want to know about it. For example, if you've found some way to avoid \"overheads\" that cut into everyone else's research time, then perhaps you think to yourself, \"I'm just concentrating more on my work then them, i.e. working harder\". But you can do better than that, you can help them remove some of the barriers to them working harder on their research in the hours available.</p>\n\n<p>If, after a full investigation, you literally cannot find any reason other than hard work, then you might just have to say, \"I've thought seriously about this, the typical postdoc in this department after all overheads and distractions and everything, only actually manages to sit down to about 20 hours of concentrated work on their research a week. I'm incredibly unusual, I seem to have more stamina than most and more ways of avoiding the rest of the world, and I manage to sit down to 80 hours of uninterrupted research work a week. That's why I do 4 times as much research as the average\". That's a much more satisfactory answer, for them, than \"I work harder\".</p>\n\n<p>If your colleagues are just looking to diminish your achievements due to their own insecurities, then as you've identified they want to come away with some conclusion like, \"his papers aren't high quality\", \"his co-authors do all the work\", \"he's struck a rich, easy vein of work and is rattling through it spinning off a paper for every result\". You have no obligation to pander to this nonsense, but for your own sake don't compound it by implying that they could do the same as you just by working harder. You could perhaps prepare some <em>genuinely</em> modest answer, in the hope of achieving the best case outcome, which is that they come away thinking, \"well, he's a nice chap, and he made me feel good about myself, lucky for him he's getting so many papers out of his work\". I can't give you one, though, because it has to relate to your actual work processes as compared with theirs, and it has to convince them that they aren't doing anything wrong, so that they can feel secure in their work. It could perhaps start from, \"what can I say, editors seem to really like what I'm doing, I think perhaps it's because X, and I can polish off the papers really quickly because Y\". When mollifying the insecure, make yourself sound blessed, don't make yourself sound like you somehow earned and deserve 4-13 times the public recognition they're getting.</p>\n\n<p>Hiring panels want you to be excellent and work for them, so your approach to those can be completely different. It's not a necessary politeness to be modest at interview. If they ask a question like this then their fear is that you've produced 10-13 mediocre papers per year but nothing great, in which case they wouldn't want to hire you. They want you to allay this fear. You need to justify to them the value of your work, so that they're confident that you've produced the 1-3 solid papers they expect, <em>and more</em>. You need to justify it in more detail than \"well, a top tier journal accepted it\", or \"I have a high citation count\", which means talking qualitatively about your impact on your field and on the work of others. You also may need to convince them that you somewhat understand your own process and success, because they're running a department of interacting individuals, not a paper-factory. If they're going to hire you for tenure-track then they want to know that you'll benefit the department, as well as generating research. They won't turn you down for producing too much high-quality work, but they might turn you down if they think the good work you're doing would be more than cancelled out by the negative effect on department morale of you going around telling everyone the secret to success is to put the effort in.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47724,
"author": "Benubird",
"author_id": 36243,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36243",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While I think that Steve Jessop above has already fully answered this question, there is one thing that he just barely skimmed over that I think is worth highlighting: <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy_syndrome\">Tall Poppy Syndrome</a>.</p>\n\n<p>In an ideal world this wouldn't be an issue, but unfortunately even in academia, humans are humans, and some people will always feel the need to cut down others to make themselves look higher.</p>\n\n<p>Remember that the better you are doing and the more papers you publish, the worse your colleagues look by comparison - and this doesn't just apply to people looking at themselves. Others in your field may also be facing questions, such as \"why do you publish so little?\" or \"if he can do it, why can't you?\" I don't know what your exact circumstances are, but if others are being pressured to step up their output to match yours, they may be feeling frustrated, and blaming you for their additional workload.</p>\n\n<p>As annoying as it may be to have your peers asking you \"how do you do so well\", I assure you it is ten times as bad when your boss asks you \"why are you doing so badly\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47775,
"author": "user-2147482637",
"author_id": 12718,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12718",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have run into a similar situation when working at labs that are a few years old (being new) or just not attracting researchers from 'good' schools. To me, this is relevant for two reasons, much of the productiveness (at least early in the career) is based on training of how to be productive. Second, established schools and labs have usually worked through many of the typical hurtles in documentation and practices, having experience in this can help someone in a new/upcoming lab more quickly adapt and become productive. </p>\n\n<p>I mention this to make a point, as others have, there are many reasons why you can be more productive than others, unrelated to harder work than others. I would consider it more about productive work than hard work, as the latter seems to instigate issues (as the answers have pointed out). Hard work also narrows you into the comparison many have pointed out, whereas productive can lead to many things, which you should identify for yourself.</p>\n\n<p>Now, my experience has been, even if you think people are jealous (may or not be true), skeptical, etc., using some humor can alleviate tension. My default explanation is with a chuckle, saying:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Yea I've just been getting a lot done these days, which is easy since I\n have no friends and don't go out.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>In my own life, this has worked out well, since people asking are not likely to be friends that I hang out with, and personally, I do not go out much and like to work, so when people meet my SO, it naturally comes out in conversation that I am always working and how it strains the relationship.</p>\n\n<p>In essence, I would say pointing out, similar to how JakeBeal describes it, you may be productive in one aspect, but not in others, and using humor about your own life is a good way to calm tension.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47837,
"author": "terdon",
"author_id": 11523,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11523",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I suggest you offer a self-deprecatory answer. Your answer of "I work hard" suggests that you feel you work harder than your peers. That might even be the case. If so, you probably spend far less of your day on non-work related activities. If you just want a way to answer without inciting envy or sounding like you're too full of yourself, try:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>- How do you publish so many papers a year?</p>\n<p>- Easy, I have no life.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This has the benefit of i) being self-deprecatory instead of tooting your own horn; ii) being a light and jokular answer; iii) suggesting that there's a trade-off, you loose something for what you gain in output.</p>\n<p>I don't care if you're Feynman himself, stating that you work harder/better than your peers will never be well received, even if it's true. In fact, the truer it is, the likelier that people will take offense at it. So, instead of answering along the lines of "I'm better than you", give an answer that highlights that you're losing out on something.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47840,
"author": "andreasdr",
"author_id": 11656,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11656",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You say that \"1-3 papers a year is considered a good publication rate\". This seems to imply that any researcher who manages such a publication rate is considered to be hard-working. In any case, most people consider themselves to be hard-working. It is therefore not surprising that your colleagues aren't satisified with \"I work hard\" as an explanation for your unusually high publication rate, or that they might interpret this statement as actually implying \"I work much harder than the average\".</p>\n\n<p>Unless you actually do consider yourself smarter than your colleagues, and that that is the main reason for your superior productivity, I don't think it's impossible to give a simultaneously honest and non-controversial answer to why you have an above-average productivity. But first you need to really understand the reason yourself: Are your papers generally shorter than average? Is your particular research area more \"fertile\" than average? Do you put in a lot of overtime? Are you more efficient than average during the hours that you work? (Of course, this is the potentially controversial option.) If so, why?</p>\n\n<p>When thinking about what to answer, don't sacrifice honesty for humility. Anyone who expects you to do that shouldn't have asked a question for which they couldn't deal with the answer. (But if the only conclusion you can think of is that you simply must be a smarter researcher, it is perhaps best to lay low.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 60369,
"author": "Captain Emacs",
"author_id": 45857,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/45857",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Assuming that the papers are really strong and the best you can give (i.e. your high productivity does not trade off against the potential even higher quality research): having had the luck to meet quite some fantastically brilliant people in my career, it is clear to me that hard work may be a necessary, but is far from a sufficient condition for high-quality productivity in a difficult field. </p>\n\n<p>If you belong to this class of people that pick <strong>just the right</strong> approach, <strong>just the right</strong> question, <strong>just the right</strong> set of methods and have a knack for actually <strong>finding</strong> the low-hanging fruits (if indeed they are), good on you!</p>\n\n<p>However, this means that \"hard work\" is simply not the appropriate response, other people may be working very hard, too. So this statement sends the message that you refuse to tell them your secret of success. This is perfectly in your right, and they are actually quite shamelessly \"invading your territory\" by asking you how you do it. Nevertheless, it may be advisable to apply some diplomacy to alleviate this; lower your profile, statements such as \"I got lucky\" or \"I had a good run\", or, as mentioned earlier, humour, for instance, to create a screen to seemingly decouple the success from you. Obviously, you shouldn't say that when you interview for a position or report to your boss, but such a strategy may take the sting of the interaction with your equal-status colleagues. </p>\n\n<p>Frankly, your colleagues can find themselves lucky to have such a brilliant co-scientist. This reflects on the whole department. However, unfortunately, it may also endanger the career of some of them in very competitive environments and so you may be a realistic existential danger to them - but don't take it personally. This is not your fault and you should not be tempted to reduce your productivity/quality just to be likeable! Just don't rub your success (and certainly not \"hard work\") under their noses.</p>\n\n<p>And make sure to demonstrate in your CV that the quality of your output is not trading off against output quantity. </p>\n\n<p>Finally, concerning your worry about hiring committees: I have heard about cases of first-rate people being rejected in interviews because of the reason that they were effectively too good (this is a real case, I am intentionally not using the original phrasing here). You probably don't want to be hired by these departments, anyway. Always remember: first-rate department heads hire first-rate people, second-rate department heads hire third-rate people.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 79788,
"author": "AJK",
"author_id": 9892,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9892",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are many reasons why one person could, even with \"hard work\" and talent held constant, be more or less productive. When someone asks you, \"how are you so productive,\" and your answer is only \"hard work,\" it shows you have either not thought deeply about these issues, or you are intentionally being insulting.</p>\n\n<p>Many of those issues have already been mentioned, but here's some more:</p>\n\n<ul>\n - Typical turnaround times of journals<br>\n - Degree of experimental/other outside data input required <br>\n - Amount of advisor pickiness. [Some submit on the first draft, others more the 25th].<br>\n - Subfield standards for advancement of the field - does your subfield publish papers that are more \"Here's the same statistical model, but applied to a different dataset?\" or \"Here's a model, and an argument for comparison of different models, and detailed convergence analysis, and proof of accuracy in case X, and ...<br>\n - Fraction of work done for authorship on a project. Sometimes 2nd author = \"sat in meetings,\" sometimes 2nd author = \"Wrote half of the code and paper.\"\n</ul>\n\n<p>This is not just sour grapes or the Tall Poppy syndrome. I am on the high end of productivity in my field, but I am aware that I have many of these features on my side. I know many people who are hard workers and just as talented as I am, who do not publish as much, because they have made different choices about what is most important in their papers or have rate-limiting steps that do not apply to me. It is unlikely that you are not also benefiting from similar factors. This isn't necessarily bad! But the more self-awareness you develop about how you benefit from this sort of variance, the easier it will be to talk with people about your productivity.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47646",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30606/"
] |
47,653 |
<p>I submitted a paper to a journal, and the decision was "accept with minor revisions." As I was addressing the reviewer questions to submit a final copy, I realized that I may have misrepresented the data. </p>
<p>Specifically, I may have over-reached with a statistical model. The model involved repeated measures of individuals who were initially one group (let's call it condition A), but were later split into two groups (B and C). The model gives me differences between conditions. My mistake was to calculate the actual values at each condition based on these differences, which was wrong because by dumb luck the 2 groups had a systematic offset at A before they were split (even though the members of each group were chosen randomly). Hopefully that explanation makes some sense. I presented the data in terms of "actual" values rather than differences because I thought this would be more informative for the reader. So, basically, all the numbers are wrong. It's a stupid mistake in hindsight, since I could find this information in the raw data.</p>
<p>The conclusions of the paper and the statistically significant relationships would still be the same in the corrected version, because I believe the model to be the correct one. However, almost all of the numbers, tables, and figures would need modification. And of course the strange systematic offset between randomized groups will raise eyebrows.</p>
<p>I'm certainly going to notify the editor and attempt to submit a corrected version of the paper. I'm wondering what I should expect to happen, though. Are journals understanding of this type of error, or does it represent something so egregious that the paper would be rejected and my credibility would be damaged? Or would it simply be reviewed again? I understand that it's largely up to the editor to decide, but I'm wondering if anyone with similar experience might give me an idea of what I'm dealing with. Thanks!</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47654,
"author": "Saurabh",
"author_id": 36009,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Though I don't have any prior experience with this, I agree that you should notify the editor and should explain to them how and why this mess happened. Also let then know that it was a mistake and as soon as you realized it, you let them know. Also let them know that you are ready if they want to have the paper reviewed again. I believe that they would understand the mistake and would not make a scene out of it. But yes, you have to choose your words carefully and should politely explain them the point and admit your mistake.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47655,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It sounds like you screwed up the statistics. I would not want a publication with statistics that I know are wonky. I would withdraw the paper and appologize to the editor. I would ask the editor about resubmitting once the analysis issues are sorted. I would then bring in a statistical consultant to make sure your analysis is correct.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47706,
"author": "amisax",
"author_id": 36230,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36230",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<ol>\n<li>Put in the new statistics.</li>\n<li>Check whether the results are the same or deviate.</li>\n<li>If they deviate even slightly, the paper is a no go. Withdraw it. Don't try to make the new data reach the old results.</li>\n<li>If the results do not deviate, notify the editor of the error and changes, and ensure that you highlight that results do not change.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 67735,
"author": "nabla",
"author_id": 53183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53183",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have experienced a somewhat similar situation. In our case, it was the reviewer (who had given accept with minor changes), who wanted some clarification of a figure. When we started to clarify, we found out that a mistake made that figure, another figure and some numbers wrong.</p>\n\n<p>What we did was to contact the editor and explained the situation, we cleared up the mess, and resubmitted with a letter to the reviewer explaining what had happened, and if the person would please look over the figures again. Both editor and reviewer were very understanding, and the article was accepted with the changes.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47653",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36201/"
] |
47,668 |
<p>In a lot of research you have to site sources from a "reputable" journal. I've seen journals that have opened simply to post that bigfoot exists and won't take anything other than more or less garbage papers. Not to mention the problem with people "fixing" data to make their paper look legitimate when it's not.</p>
<p>How can I tell if the journal (and subsequent articles) I'm looking at is reputable?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47671,
"author": "Dávid Natingga",
"author_id": 8784,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8784",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If you know your field, it is easy to know how reputable some journal is. You find papers in it by the best people in your field publishing the most important results there you are already familiar with.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand if you do not know your field yet, I would advise you to get to know it at the glance at least first. Familiarise yourself with the most important and fundamental results and findings and the most influential authors. You should identify these authors quickly by seeing them in many various papers cited again and again by different researchers. Then look where these authors published the papers to find out what journals are likely to be more reliable than others.</p>\n\n<p>Moreover, if you know your field, you should be able to discern a value and validity of a paper quickly from the abstract.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47700,
"author": "Cobactan",
"author_id": 35445,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35445",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You might find useful to check if the journal you're looking at is not part of Beall's List of Predatory Publishers: <a href=\"http://scholarlyoa.com/2015/01/02/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2015/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://scholarlyoa.com/2015/01/02/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2015/</a></p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47668",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35379/"
] |
47,670 |
<p>I am presenting a paper in a conference with a 20% acceptance rate. However the conference is just 3 years old and does not figure in the tiered rating system for conferences in my field Computer Science (that some universities use) . Recently I found out that another reputed international conference (that figures in the conference rankings) has almost double the acceptance rate. Did I make the right choice. How should I evaluate conferences in the future?? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47675,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Low acceptance rate does not necessarily imply quality, but it is correlated. Crappy conferences often have high acceptance rates because they don't care. Broad-community high quality conferences often have low acceptance rates because lots of people are trying to get their material into the same conference. </p>\n\n<p>These are just correlations, however, and not causal in nature. For example, some very good conference have high acceptance rates because they serve a highly specific community; thus they tend to draw high-quality submissions from within that community and few submissions from outside.</p>\n\n<p>Complementarily, I know of at least one conference that games its acceptance rate by artificially regulating the number of papers accepted. They decide in advance how selective the conference will be, and set the cutoff not in terms of quality but in terms of their judgement of \"good conference\" acceptance rate.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, having too high a selectivity may be bad for a conference. A colleague of mine who is an insider at one of the extremely selective CS conference told me that they were worried that their acceptance rate was too low, and that therefore they weren't getting very interesting work any more: a single dubious reviewer was enough to sink a paper, so only conservative and incremental work was making it in.</p>\n\n<p>Thus, acceptance rate is not a very good metric. It's much better to look at who the people are who go to the conference, what they've been publishing there, and whether you want to be associated with those people and that type of work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47679,
"author": "Amir",
"author_id": 23641,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23641",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here is my two cents:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>I judge the conferences based on the chair members and people\nwho would attend it and I would like to meet and talk or see their\nstate of art. Conferences are first and foremost a place to know\nother researchers in your field, share thoughts off the record and\noutside of the boundaries of email and web and learn and network\nwith others who share interests. <strong>Possible collaboration and sharing\nresources or experiences and collecting feedback on your work should\nbe the number one outcome of your conference experience.</strong> </li>\n<li>Ranks are 80% meaning, 20% noise. If a lower rank conference of a\nsub-field is in winter in a horrible place, but I know for sure the\ntop researchers of my subfield although small group of people would go to, \nI should rank it higher for myself than the generally higher rank and\nbiggest conference that everyone would stop by for a day and there are too\nmany people there to be able to establish a meaningful event.</li>\n<li>Publishing the acceptance rate is a good sign, 20% also shows they are\nas selective as possible. however, you should consider for the selection\nbias among other people who submit their papers there. </li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47719,
"author": "Prof. Santa Claus",
"author_id": 35582,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35582",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To add, single track conferences, e.g., ACM SIGCOMM, tend to have very low acceptance rates. On other hand, big conferences such as IEEE ICC, have around 40% acceptance rate, but for some community, that's their top conference!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47871,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h2>Absolutely not.</h2>\n\n<p>In my field (theoretical computer science), the acceptance rate in top-tier conferences is around 30%, the acceptance rate in second-tier conferences is around 30%, the acceptance rate in third-tier conferences is around 30%, and the acceptance rate in bottom-tier conferences is around 30%.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>How should I evaluate conferences in the future??</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>By reading the proceedings, of course.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47670",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31050/"
] |
47,677 |
<p>I am an undergraduate student working under a PI in a research laboratory. My PI pushed out a paper very recently, and I was not mentioned as an author. My PI did not even notify me that he was going to publish this paper. I can comfortably say, without inflating, that I did roughly 1/6 - 1/5 of the work. 3 out of the 8 figures (quantitative figures, not just bar charts slapped in Excel) in the paper were created by me for past posters at conferences, including code I have written to do some analysis that was used as a tertiary argument/talking point in the discussions section. My PI is not very quantitative, and being a qualitative field of study, I felt like a gem asset as someone who is heavy into maths and code. </p>
<p>When I approached my PI, he said he felt like my work was minimal (!!!) and he would put me on the next paper, seemingly brushing me off in the process....</p>
<p>I understand as an undergraduate I should be appreciative of this opportunity to be in a lab in the first place, but I think it's more than fair to get credit for substance that went directly into a paper. </p>
<p>What can I do? </p>
<p>I will be applying to graduate school soon and I don't want to jump labs as looking inconsistent. This is a topic I'm interested in. I feel like I'm stuck, though. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47678,
"author": "user1220",
"author_id": 1220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1220",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Forget about the first paper, it is already done. </p>\n\n<p>Be clear up front that you want your name on the second paper, and that you are willing to take on any additional work necessary to be given authorship. </p>\n\n<p>Having good references is more important than a couple of papers, so don't jeopardise your relationship with your supervisors going after authorship.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47687,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's not clear from what you have written whether \"created the figures\" means that you generated the data, or just that you made graphs of data that the PI handed you. If you actually generated the data, then you definitely should be an author; otherwise, authorship is questionable but you should at least be mentioned in an acknowledgement.</p>\n\n<p>From you you have written, it appears that your name is not on the paper in any way. This is definitely improper. Moreover, even if somehow the PI thought there was a reason that your name should not be on the paper, they should at least have come to you before publishing to talk with you about this fact.</p>\n\n<p>The fact that this has not happened means this person does not have your best interests at heart, and that you are likely to be exploited in a research relationship with them. I would thus recommend:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Leave the research project.</li>\n<li>If there is another PI who you have a trusted relationship with, inform that PI of what has happened so that somebody else will know and so that a record of this behavior can be established. Don't do it in an accusatory manner, just explain that the PI published a paper that included your work without acknowledging it in any way. Say that feel this is inappropriate scientific behavior, and are therefore seeking to work with a new advisor.</li>\n<li>Find somebody new, and clearly establish conditions for authorship before you begin work with them.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47699,
"author": "Christian Samsel",
"author_id": 20158,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20158",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You have been treated unfair and if you ask me you should look for a different opportunity instead of getting stuck in the same work group for grad school. Switching fields or the work group doesnt necessarily looks inconsistent but can also be considered as a broader array of interests or competences. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47723,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'll follow up on my comment, as none of the answers go in this direction, and I don't think you're getting the greatest advice. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>While I have no way of knowing whether this applies to you or not,\n making figures and such might not reach the intellectual contribution\n necessary to be counted as an author. This is why Acknowledgement\n sections exist. Before deciding on how to respond, think about what\n your scientific contribution was.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You may or may not have made a contribution that merits inclusion as an author. Some labs/PI's are very generous about this, and some are not, but if your work was purely \"technical\", my own inclination would be to offer Acknowledgement and not authorship.</p>\n\n<p>Generating figures: scientific illustrators do this every day as a living (less so these days, but they're still around) and don't get authorship. Photographers too. </p>\n\n<p>Writing code: this is a little less clear, and probably depends on direct contribution to algorithms. If you are, for example, writing code that takes the mean and standard deviation and spits them out in a readable format, that's technical. If you HAD TO UNDERSTAND THE SCIENCE in the paper to write the code, that would push me toward authorship. If I could hire a contractor who knew nothing of the research to do it, I'd lean toward acknowledgement.</p>\n\n<p>There's a disconnect here between the your perception of the contribution you're making and your PI's perception. Just because he feels that your scientific contribution was \"minimal\", that does not mean he doesn't believe your work is valuable. </p>\n\n<p>You might sit down with him and ask if there's any way you can make deeper contributions to his body of work, or if there's a small project you can really make your own. Another option would be to use the experience you've gained there to apply for summer research opportunities (depending on what year you're in).</p>\n\n<p>Of course, there are curmudgeons who just won't believe that an undergrad can make author-level contributions regardless of the contribution made, and that's unacceptable. As I said before, from your description I have no way of telling whether you're dealing with someone in this category, or whether your contributions were of a basic technical level that arguably don't merit authorship. </p>\n\n<p>I can say that many moons ago, as an undergrad, I was doing single-unit neural recordings in spinal cords (running electrodes up and down, listening for neural activity), and building electronic lab apparatus that helped with the experiments, and doing histology. Some of the rasters I generated were used directly in publications. I didn't consider that authorship level work then, and I still don't, as any technician could have done it, but it was certainly a valuable experience that helped launch my career. Now, almost 30 years later, I'm still in touch with the PI of the lab (I was working for his postdoc), and he's been a wonderful advocate of mine throughout my career.</p>\n\n<p>Your PI's recommendation, at this point, should be treated as a valuable commodity, and if you negotiate this disconnect with maturity, that letter will be even better. Also, the experience you gain now will give you something real to talk about during interviews, which is also incredibly valuable. </p>\n\n<p>Directly relevent: <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/12030/what-are-the-minimum-contributions-required-for-co-authorship\">What are the minimum contributions required for co-authorship</a></p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html</a></p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/22
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47677",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36212/"
] |
47,680 |
<p>This past spring was the second semester of my PhD program. A professor of a core course refused to grade my final assignment because it was late after deadline had been extended. The professor had read and provided feedback on various drafts of the manuscript throughout the semester.</p>
<p>However, I only missed the deadline because of an emergency. A couple of days before the deadline I had to drop everything I was doing to tend to urgent institutional review board (IRB) issues. On the day the manuscript was due, my old thesis advisor emailed me demanding to withdraw a presentation from a national conference immediately until IRB exemption was granted. This was more urgent than submitting the paper because there were serious legal implications attached. </p>
<p>Thank goodness the Chair of my Doctoral Committee was made aware of the issue. I spoke to the Chair, who suggested I explained to the professor I had an emergency and even told me to drop their name. I did just that, but the professor still refused to accept the paper and gave me a C+ (38.9/50) without counting my final. I also explained the emergency situation, to no avail.</p>
<p>I don't want to push too hard on this matter, but I am very worried that a C+ will prevent me from receiving fellowships and getting a good postdoc position in the future. For those of you out there with first-hand knowledge of the impact PhD-level course grades have on one's career, <strong>will a C+ diminish my chances of getting a fellowship and being strongly considered for competitive postdoc positions?</strong></p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47681,
"author": "Jeff",
"author_id": 1171,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1171",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my field (math), nobody looks at your grades, so this will not make any difference. </p>\n\n<p>A personal anecdote: I had a first-year grad course with a tough grader who gave me a B- in a core subject. This did not affect my trajectory in the least; I still passed my quals ahead of time, I wrote a thesis and graduated on time, and I'll be starting my post-doc in the fall.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47686,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Grades don't matter. What does matter is good time management and interpersonal relationships and it looks likes you are struggling with both. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47695,
"author": "Patricia Shanahan",
"author_id": 10220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10220",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The best way to defuse the poor grade is to understand why it happened and have a plan for preventing it from happening again. This is one plan for preventing late work in the face of firedrills. It is applicable to paper deadlines, preparing a talk etc. as well as turning in coursework.</p>\n\n<p>Pick a date well ahead of the official deadline. </p>\n\n<p>Do the work to whatever standard you can by that date. During this phase, concentrate on essentials. Aim to get the work to a point where submitting it would be better than not submitting it.</p>\n\n<p>Save a copy of the work in submittable form. If you are going to file physical paper, that means having a printout in your backpack. For electronic submissions, it means having a copy on e.g. a thumb drive you keep with you.</p>\n\n<p>Continue to refine and improve the work, periodically replacing the ready-to-submit copy with a better one.</p>\n\n<p>If faced with a drop-everything priority shortly before the actual deadline, first spend a minute submitting the current ready-to-submit copy.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47680",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35754/"
] |
47,683 |
<p>I have been considering returning to university to continue my education and further my knowledge. I have a strong interest in finance, but before I dive in to a second degree/diploma at this stage in life, I want to take one or two courses to see if I can get back in to real coursework. </p>
<p>Having been out of university for many years, my initial thought was to take one or more courses through continuing education as a place to start. I remembered that you can audit courses (typically at half the cost of registering in a course directly). I was reading through the <em>Audit Regulations</em> and I was surprised to see that participation in classroom discussion is not allowed.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The auditing student shall not participate in class discussions, assignments, examinations or in laboratory or like parts of the course.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I understand that that as you are not registered in the course, you would not be able to participate in exams for credit and/or receive graded assignment etc... however the inability to participate in class discussion was a little disappointing.</p>
<p>Based on the Business classes I took while in university, the classroom discussions are the core of most courses. What is the rationale for not allowing auditing students to participate in class discussions?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47685,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p><strong>Note: This answer is mainly for institutions where auditors only pay a nominal fee.</strong></p>\n\n<p>From the institution's perspective, auditors are freeloaders. The nominal payment (if they pay anything at all) is trivial compared to the tuition income from paying students. They would like to make their internal cost of hosting auditors as low as possible. </p>\n\n<p>If auditors were (as part of university policy) required to hand in assignments or participate in discussion, then professors could argue that they need more resources. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><em>For example, if a professor gets an additional teaching assistant (TA) for each additional 20 students, and there was a class with 155\n paying and 10 auditors, they could put in a request for 9 TAs rather\n than 8. The department class enrollment would also increase by 10\n which might mean more resources to the department, depending on the\n university allocation policy.</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>So the usual university policy is that auditors are ghosts or non-persons -- they do not count for teaching enrollments or resources. In order to argue this, the administration has to make clear that auditors receive no services.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, many faculty such as ff524 and myself do not like \"dead bodies\" in the classroom and require our auditors to do the coursework and participate in discussion. This is our own prerogative and because we are going against university policy, we could not then turn around and ask for more TAs or claim hardship. We do this in the spirit of providing the best classroom experience for all. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><sub>From the perspective of paying students, auditors who are participating in the class also seem like freeloaders and can create resentment. This is usually ameliorated by the restriction that auditors do not receive transcripts or grades for their participation in courses. That said, the other business students are keenly aware that \"discussion\" is the core benefit of the classes and may resent your over-active participation. You'll need to work it out with the faculty member (and perhaps your peers in the class) if you want an exception to the policy.</sub></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47690,
"author": "user0721090601",
"author_id": 35918,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35918",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Just to give the alternate perspective from institutions that charge the same amount for auditing...</p>\n\n<p>When I have students that audit my class, they get a grade on their transcript if they show up for x% of classes. If they don't, it doesn't show up at all. Alternatively, there may be two designators, one for having shown up and one for not; one grade regardless of attendance; or there may be no record provided, transcript or otherwise.</p>\n\n<p>I'm expected to treat my audit students exactly the same as any other student: I grade their work, they have access to the online portions of the course, and they participate in class and group work as any other student. In practice, some of them have skipped exams because ultimately it doesn't really matter for them.</p>\n\n<p>And it's this \"it doesn't really matter for them\" bit that has a (low) potential for causing problems. If you have a class with lots of group-based work, and one student has no repercussions for not doing their work, you're setting the stage for possible trouble. Likewise, students who audit (in my own experience, YMMV) tend to be the ones most interested in the material and ask a lot more questions. Unfortunately, their questions sometimes aren't necessarily the same ones that a student who is going to be assessed on the material would be asking. Entertaining too many of their questions may potentially hurt the learning experience of other students.</p>\n\n<p>I use wiggle words in the above because it's all very much in the hypothetical as (a) every instutition I've been at charges full tuition for auditing and doesn't forbid participation and (b) good classroom management could easily work around anything that might pop up anyways.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47683",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36216/"
] |
47,684 |
<p>I will be applying to philosophy phd programs after completing my BA in philosophy and while completing a one year masters program (immediately after college) in philosophy. I impressed a certain professor in my third year of college during which I took two classes with her. If I want a recommendation from her is it important that I take another class during my senior year of college so that her opinion of me will be current? My last class with her was in spring of my third year, and I will apply at the end of Fall of my masters program (equivalent to 5th year of college). If I don't take another class with her, there will be applying after three consecutive semesters of not having her.</p>
<p>I understand that the fact that I will have learned more material means that a letter based on later coursework might be stronger. But I'm mainly curious if admissions committees would partially discount a letter because they thought it to be based on 'outdated' (in my case, by a year or two) information.</p>
<p>thanks</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47730,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I don't have experience with philosophy, but I can't imagine this part of admissions is too different. It's pretty common for students to have one or more letters from faculty they haven't had classes with in the past year, so no that's not a problem. (In fact, sometimes it happens with all the letters, if the student takes time off--e.g., see: <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/34450/19607\">If you want to do a PhD in mathematics, how important is it to start immediately after finishing undergraduate studies?</a> ) What's important is that each letter writer should have something meaningful to say about your preparation, talent, attitude, performance, work ethic, etc. Also, depending on the circumstances, it may be very natural for you to continue to have plenty of interactions with this professor over the next year or so whether or not you take another class with her.</p>\n\n<p>That said, you should get letters from some people you've taken in your 4th-5th year (particularly master's classes if possible). The main reason for this is you want recommendations which can discuss your performance in more advanced classes, which is presumably what you'll be taking.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 71228,
"author": "virmaior",
"author_id": 19769,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19769",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Two further things to think about in terms of who you get to write your letters in philosophy.</p>\n\n<p>First, there's something to be said for having recommendations from the most current institution. I have a PhD in philosophy and an MA from a different institution in philosophy. When I asked one of the faculty from MA school, he was fine with writing a letter but suggested that it looks bad if you're fishing back beneath your highest institution. Surely, this is not as significant when applying to PhD programs after a 1 year MA.</p>\n\n<p>Second, the key is to have strong recommendations. So make sure you're asking her because you think she will write a really strong letter. And the \"strength\" of a letter is a function both of her stellar view of your ability to do philosophy and also a measure of how well known she is to the institutions where you are applying.</p>\n\n<p>In general, people willing to write recommendations are motivated to get you accepted to the next level, so keep that in mind.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47684",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36218/"
] |
47,692 |
<p>I am an MSc graduate and work as an independent researcher. I spent 10 months on a paper. I wrote many scripts in Matlab to implement four other comparative methods as well as a new method that my MSc professor had proposed. Each of these methods was so difficult to implement.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the method that I was going to propose does not work well compared to the comparative methods, which were introduced already 3-4 years ago.</p>
<p>What should I do now?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47694,
"author": "JRN",
"author_id": 64,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/64",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I recommend that you <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/732/64\">record your failures</a> and not just your successes. In your case, I suggest you write a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_report\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">technical report</a> giving all the details (the implementation, the comparison, the conclusion). It may not be considered as a publication worthy of your resumé, but at least it serves to document your efforts and may prove to be useful in the future (in case other people are thinking of using your proposed method).</p>\n\n<p>Also note that your method may appear worse when compared to others using a certain metric (say, time complexity) but may appear better when compared to others using a different metric (say, space complexity). You might want to look at your method again.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47702,
"author": "Dennis",
"author_id": 36228,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36228",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the past ten months, you achieved the following:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Validate existing results and implement them in Matlab.</li>\n<li>Show the quality of an alternate method.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>To me it seems clear that the only way to prevent this time from being a waste is to publish your work or conclusions. First of all, others who work with Matlab may be able to take your implementations and use them for further research. Secondly, if you don’t share your findings on the alternate method, someone else may decide to spend ten months on it before coming to the same conclusion. </p>\n\n<p>That should be sufficient motivation, but of course your negative result can be considered positive in an unexpected way. Either right now by you, or later by someone else.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47705,
"author": "DCTLib",
"author_id": 7390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7390",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Many sub-areas of computer science not only value novel algorithms, but also case studies. While the top conferences and journals tend to favor algorithmic contributions, your can still go for the not-excellect-but-good conferences with a good case study.</p>\n\n<p>So if you can extend your experimental results to a good case study, this is still a good contribution. Often, this mean crafting the benchmarks in a much more careful way than you would do it for showing that your novel technique is good, as you need to convince the reader that the cases that you consider resemble the practice well. So you may need to invest some more time.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47713,
"author": "Thomas",
"author_id": 31579,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31579",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Next time, perhaps implement only one of the already existing methods and then the newly proposed idea. If the litmus test is that your new idea outperforms all of the baselines, you can test that already early on.</p>\n\n<p>In general, incrementality is key: if you're looking at a task that is going to take you 10 month to realize you need to be aware of the risk you're taking. Be prepared that the results may not end up being what you hope for, or, if you cannot take that risk, find an alternative way of moving forward. Good planning is a valuable skill to have.</p>\n\n<p>For now, would it be possible to analyse in depth why the new method fell short? Is there perhaps a certain sub-problem that it does very well on, in which case you could still extract a (somewhat weaker but) positive result?</p>\n\n<p>Minimally, I'm sure you gained some new insights, and perhaps are even in a position now where you can correct some misconceptions you might have had about your problem: the outcome of your experiment is that something inherent in your problem is not like you thought it was, or else your method would have worked. So you may ask yourself what is it that's different?</p>\n\n<p>If an unexpected obstacle drops on your path, don't just stop. Look for a way around it, or a new direction altogether.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47716,
"author": "zircon",
"author_id": 36231,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36231",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Publishing the results of research allows others to assess these results and build upon them. If the results are negative, it is still worthy for science to publish them because this will prevent others to spend precious time by trying to do the same and failing, without knowing that somebody else has already done it. Negative results may be published without review on repositories such as <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Arxiv</a> or <a href=\"https://zenodo.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Zenodo</a> (the later gives a DOI that may improve citability) or, with review, in journals such as <a href=\"https://peerj.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">PeerJ</a> or <a href=\"http://f1000research.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">F1000 Research</a> (the later even had once a promotion for negative results). </p>\n\n<p>Some may frown upon publishing in relatively low-ranked venues (where negative results would typically find their place), and a reason may be the opportunity cost of spending time to publish the result. I would argue that the time spent for publishing the result is minimal relative to the time spent doing the actual research that led to the negative result. If the time spent for publishing the result would prevent somebody else to spend an order of magnitude more time trying independently the same thing and failing, then publishing would bring an overall positive value to science, and therefore is worth doing.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47734,
"author": "SkipBerne",
"author_id": 36245,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36245",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a researcher all results are Great results, especially when the outcomes are unexpected or under expectations. It is these moments of 'failure' that the greatest discoveries of our times have come from, it is the exception to the 'rule' that have resulted in whole new disciplines and industries. there are no poor results, only poor analysis of the results. Case in point the Michelson-Morley experiment that had completely unexpected results that led to the Special theory of Relativity, and Pauli's discovery of the neutrino because of a mass loss. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47738,
"author": "rhialto",
"author_id": 36258,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36258",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>These aren't poor results. Assuming your methods are good, they are good results - they answer a question. They may not be the results you want, but they're still good. </p>\n\n<p>If you don't publish somewhere findable then someone else is going to waste their time unknowingly repeating work you've already done. </p>\n\n<p>Publish</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47761,
"author": "user1220",
"author_id": 1220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1220",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The first step is to see if your research is salvageable. </p>\n\n<p>Does your method offer any advantages? Does it work better in certain scenarios? Does it require less/different inputs, and so will be useful where only those inputs are available? </p>\n\n<p>Can you imagine any scenario where it WOULD be better to use your method over the state of the art? </p>\n\n<p>While it can be difficult to publish null findings (i.e. my method wasn't better), it is generally possible to publish findings which include some form of positive results (i.e. my method wasn't better overall, but was better when x).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47770,
"author": "Shruti Srivastava",
"author_id": 36054,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36054",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well research is all about finding new things and not getting the desired results.\nSince you planned to achieve something and working on that in the course of your tasks you must have found some undesired results. Its better to focus on what you got and what caused that instead of focusing on what you wanted to get. Hopefully you will reach your goal.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47692",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27274/"
] |
47,707 |
<p>I have an offer for a full time job with a contract for 3 years in which I would be a PhD candidate in Germany at a reputed firm. I would have a supervisor at a technical university besides a supervisor at the company. The area of specialization is wireless communications. My plan is to go back to India in a couple of years and start working as an Assistant Professor in an IIT or some reputed institution in India. </p>
<p>Will this PhD have the same importance as compared to a PhD done at a university when looking for such Professorship in India?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47708,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Only a university may <em>award</em> a doctorate, so your study would be done in cooperation with one or more supervisors from one of the German universities and you will be enrolled at this university.</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps you won't have any mandatory teaching duties when doing an industry-sponsored PhD, but it will be very worthwhile to do some teaching anyway. It's a valuable skill you should not miss out on.</p>\n\n<p>One is not necessarily any better or worse than the other.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 60268,
"author": "shaunakde",
"author_id": 46217,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/46217",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As to address the second part of your question, almost all IIT's have a strict requirement that after your PhD (Which can be from Germany) you need to be a post doctoral fellow for a minimum of three years (assuming you took 3 years to do your PhD, bringing your total experience to 6 years). It is also mandated that this must be outside your home country. </p>\n\n<p>Hope that helps. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 151020,
"author": "TOMIN JOSEPH 1942061",
"author_id": 125712,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/125712",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think you are going very much in a good trajectory. As for getting an Assistant Professor job in India, do not worry. Doors would certainly be open here. Keep doing the good work that you are doing and you will certainly be rewarded.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47707",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36166/"
] |
47,710 |
<p>When writing a paper with a collaborator, they didn't like that I used the word "exciting" in the abstract since they said that they don't like when people use personal personal qualifiers in writing papers. In particular my sentence was</p>
<pre><code>"With these exciting results in mind, we study..."
</code></pre>
<p>(where the 'results' I am referring to are from a few recent experimental papers which I had nothing to do with). I initially wrote it in this way to emphasize that the recent results are interesting. Is this truly something that should be avoided? </p>
<p>Note: If it makes any difference I work in physics.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47711,
"author": "henning",
"author_id": 31917,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31917",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>An established rule on proper writing demands to \"<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Show,_don%27t_tell\">show, don't tell</a>\". This does not mean that your results can be left to \"speak for themselves\", but it suggests that rather than simply claiming that your results are exciting, you should demonstrate and argue why they are. The onus is on your interpretation.</p>\n\n<p>Moreover, the attribute \"exciting\", just as \"interesting\", is particularly trite because it is over-used and terribly vague. It begs the question as to what it is that is so exciting.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47722,
"author": "Richard Lyons",
"author_id": 36238,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36238",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The word \"exciting\" is a bit too dramatic for my taste. How about: important, remarkable, noteworthy, worthwhile, beneficial?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47742,
"author": "David Richerby",
"author_id": 10685,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10685",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Describing your own work as \"exciting\" is crass and inappropriate. People do not appreciate being told how to feel and the reader will decide for themselves whether your work is exciting. If they think it's exciting, they didn't need you to tell them; if they don't, you look like an idiot for hyping it so much. Looking like an idiot hurts your credibility.</p>\n\n<p>It may be appropriate to describe somebody else's work as \"exciting\": that comes across more as a very enthusiastic recommendation, rather than as telling the reader what to think. But it should be used sparingly: again, you lose credibility if you describe anything but the very best in such glowing terms.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47743,
"author": "Jakub Konieczny",
"author_id": 7328,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7328",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In mathematics, it is not uncommon to attach emotionally charged adjectives to theorems. For example, nobody would raise an eyebrow at phrases such as \"beautiful theorem\". It goes without saying that such praise is only appropriate when truthful: it would be bad form to call a result \"exciting\" simply because you happend to be proving it's generalisation. Also, modesty requires that you should never say such things about your own work.</p>\n\n<p>I personally find such language quite helpful. It is useful to know if a given result is something to get excited about or not. Sometimes, results speak for themselves, but this is not always the case (and there isn't always space to explain the reasons properly, especially if you just mention a result to provide context). </p>\n\n<p>I'm not sure to what extent these rules extend to other fields.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47860,
"author": "ScienceGuy59",
"author_id": 36327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36327",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Absolutely not. Exciting, intriguing, etc. These are great terms that, when used in moderation, can add some enthusiasm to your writing. To give you a fake example, you could say in an abstract for a Review article something like this: </p>\n\n<p>\"This article summarizes some of the recent and exciting developments in the field of cardiovascular medicine, with a particular emphasis on animal models of coronary artery disease.\" </p>\n\n<p>OR if you are forming your rational within the introduction of a research article, it could look something like this: </p>\n\n<p>\"While the latter findings from Jackson et al. are exciting in the context of biopharmaceutical research, there is still a significant gap in our understanding of X.....Y.....Z....etc. Therefore, this study sought to examine....\"</p>\n\n<p>In any case, I wouldn't worry too much about these minor details.\nWriting is important, but at the end of the day, the science (your data) should speak for itself. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47710",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15463/"
] |
47,731 |
<p>I recently got my paper accepted by a "look-descent" conference (indexed by ACM, a leading association in CS). Now, I am considering to withdraw the paper for some considerations, yet, need to know first if that would be fair?</p>
<p>The problem is that i didn't got individual reviews but only a summary from the PC. The review summary looks general and doesn't make me feel
my paper had been seriously reviewed by a peer.
When I asked for review details, which should be available on the submission platform, the PC said they would be available after the registration. What
is weird also is that the registration is due after one week of acceptance notification only, and the paper will automatically be rejected if not registered by the deadline. The registration fee is expensive (more than twice) compared to what is usual in my home country (the conference is in the same country).</p>
<p>NB: I made sure the conference CFP is not fake!</p>
<p>Is it fair to withdraw the paper and what should I write to
notify the PC?</p>
<p>Since conferences websites doesn't tell that,
it would be beneficial to know in which cases one can
withdraw an accepted paper?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47971,
"author": "padawan",
"author_id": 15949,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15949",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The registration fee being too expensive is not an extreme excuse. You could just inform the chair that you are not able to pay such fee.</p>\n\n<p>Since you did not sign any documents, you have no legal responsibilities. </p>\n\n<p>However, not informing them would make them get into a scrape. I don't think it is ethical.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 60328,
"author": "Captain Emacs",
"author_id": 45857,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/45857",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have never heard of the practice of withholding reviews until registration. The reviewers work for free, I do not see why the conference should be entitled to keep their contribution from you. </p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, about the registration fees, if that's something you knew beforehand, I do not think it's an appropriate argument to make that they are too high. </p>\n\n<p>Bottom line: assuming you were aware of the fees beforehand, that's not a good point to make for withdrawing. However, withdrawing as reaction to the practice of withholding the reviews until registration, is. However, ensure that, if that's what you decide do, this is not a conference you are likely to ever return to.</p>\n\n<p>Whatever you decide, it is the right thing to inform the organisers about the decision.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47731",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33309/"
] |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.