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[ { "answer_id": 242, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>With due deference to Wikipedia, colloquially, the two terms are used interchangeably.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 243, "author": "dmahr", "author_id": 37, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my experience, a person can <strong>serve as a reference</strong> and be contacted by the potential employer/school, usually by phone. Alternatively, a person can <strong>write a letter of recommendation</strong> which they mail themselves. </p>\n\n<p>So when a job application asks to \"give references who can provide recommendation letters,\" they most likely want their contact information.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 244, "author": "TCSGrad", "author_id": 79, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>As per the definition given on the webpage of <a href=\"http://www.mcgill.ca/caps/students/graduate-studies/references/\">McGill University</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>A \"<strong>letter of recommendation</strong>\" is one that is specifically requested by someone for a determined/defined employment position, academic program or award application. Generally, these letters are sent directly to the requester and not seen by the student. They can be categorized as:</p>\n \n <ul>\n <li>Employment Related</li>\n <li>Academic Admission</li>\n <li>Commendation or Recognition</li>\n <li>Performance Evaluation</li>\n </ul>\n \n <p>A \"<strong>letter of reference</strong>\" is normally more general in nature and not addressed to a specific requestor. Often you will see these letters addressed as \"To Whom it may Concern\" or \"Dear Sir/Madam\". These letters are most often given directly to the student and kept for future use. Situations where they are used tend to be:</p>\n \n <ul>\n <li>Character Assessment</li>\n <li>Academic Related</li>\n <li>Employment Related</li>\n <li>General Purpose</li>\n </ul>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>As <a href=\"http://examplereferenceletter.com/what-is-the-difference-between-recommendation-letters-and-reference-letters/\">this site</a> also explains, a recommendation letter is more specifically related to skills and qualifications of a person with respect to a definite position/program, whereas a reference letter is usually more general in nature and refers more to the overall character of a person. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/241", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 249, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Funding for non-research positions comes from either direct or indirect sources. </p>\n\n<p>Direct sources means writing a proposal that includes funding for personnel such as a lab technician or an administrator for a research center. In this case, the funding is obtained directly through grants. </p>\n\n<p>Most of the time, however, the funding is <em>indirect</em>: the salary is paid by the department, rather than an individual research group. This funding is paid for through the \"overhead\" charges that are included in research grants. (In some cases, such as public universities in Germany, this funding is also indirect, coming from a grant by the state or federal government given to each professorship.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 282, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've seen three common ways of funding staff - undoubtedly there are more.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>For staff directly related to the running of a research lab, for example senior technicians, lab managers, dedicated programmers for computational research, etc. there may be funding written into the direct salary costs of the research grants their faculty member submits. For example, many of the grants in the field I'm in have direct funding for data managers and the like for the duration of a research grant.</li>\n<li>If a faculty member anticipates needing a particular type of help - most often a lab technician or programmer in my experience - they may ask for their salary to be part of the faculty member's startup package for some small number of years before (hopefully) the faculty member can support them through mechanism #1.</li>\n<li>Other staff members, such as personal assistants, some research staff etc. are theoretically things that are supposed to be paid for by the rather sizable chunk of a grant budget that goes to indirect costs to the university. Whether or not this occurs in practice is another question all together.</li>\n</ol>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/248", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 253, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My personal experience relies more on postdoc application rather than PhD application, but here my answers to your questions: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Salutations: I think that \"Dear Professor X\" is the usual salutation, although if the person is using a different title on their website, it's better to use this one. </p></li>\n<li><p>I'd start with the purpose of writing, and more particularly, with a \"personal\" context, in order to clarify that it's not some kind of generic email. For instance: \"Dear Professor X., I have read with much interest your papers Y and Z, (or I attended your invited talk at this conference, etc), and I would be very interested in applying for PhD under your supervision. Indeed, I believe that the idea you have developed is ... (very good) and intersects strongly with my own research interests.\" At this point, you can start putting your credentials, and to emphasize on the points that are the most relevant. </p></li>\n<li><p>In order to be concise, I would insist on the points that make you potentially different from other applicants. For instance, if you have a regular MSc in CS (i.e. not from a top Ivy Uni), then just mention it, because it won't be the \"selling point\", since pretty much any other applicants for a PhD got something equivalent. </p></li>\n<li><p>For your CV, if it's light enough (i.e. less than 1MB), I would actually include it in the mail. And I would also put the link in plain text (because personally, I like to know what kind of link I'm clicking on :)). </p></li>\n<li><p>I usually finish my emails with something along the lines \"I'm at your disposal for any further information you might need. Best regards\". </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Also, as a general advice, I would contact the Asst./Assoc. Professors rather than directly the Professor in charge, at least for an informal query. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 254, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is another example where internationalization of programs makes an answer more difficult. If the program in question is in the US, for instance, you should probably <em>never</em> contact the professor directly until <em>after</em> you've been admitted into the program in question. Since admissions decisions are handled centrally, it's just a waste of time.</p>\n\n<p>For foreign professors, however, I believe you should again exercise caution before making contact, and also keep expectations low. For instance, I'm in the role of Assistant/Associate Professor that Charles mentions in his response. However, I will probably not take the time to respond to a request asking for positions in my group <em>unless</em> I think a candidate is an exceptional match, and would be one I would actively consider for the group if I had an available opening. Otherwise, I don't reply, just because it takes too much time.</p>\n\n<p>To address the question of salutation, I would <strong>absolutely</strong> use \"Dear Professor X,\" or some other salutation that includes the name of the person you're addressing. Otherwise, it doesn't look like you're doing other than sending out an email blast to a bunch of email addresses—another move which almost guarantees that your email is going to be consigned to the \"ignore\" pile.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 255, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I have a list of things you should do from my seniors (Some might disagree):</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Try not to over-sell yourself. There is a fine line between stating facts about yourself and boasting. Stay on the former side.</li>\n<li>Try not to mention things and leave them abruptly or incompletely. For e.g., Don't say \"I was involved with a project in the University of X where we studied Cancer Treatment.\" (Thats it). What did you do? Where did it lead? What is the status now? Thats the crux of the information and sadly, that is left out.</li>\n<li>Have an interesting question or comment in the mail. Merely stating that you read a paper or attended his talk is not enough. Billions of other students will be stating the same. What made you like it? Why was it relevant to you?\n<em>Side note: Surprisingly, many professors who I mailed have been interested on <strong>how</strong> I stumbled on his paper.</em></li>\n<li>Never ask direct questions that the professor wouldn't like answering (At least in the first mail). Asking him about his funding status isn't the best idea in the first mail. This is true for many reasons: For one, most profs wouldn't like telling you such details without you proving you are worth it (Why would they?). Secondly, your intentions are getting obfuscated. Are you really interested in the professor ( &amp; his research) or his money? If his research was interesting but he couldn't fund you for X years, would you still go?</li>\n<li>If this wasn't obvious, don't mass mail/mail merge. </li>\n<li>Be honest about what you say. This includes no exaggeration.</li>\n<li>Make it short. No one likes reading a billion lines to find out who you are.</li>\n<li>Emphasize your work and what differentiates you from the rest rather than your grades and scores. Grades and scores (GRE/AGRE) are bonuses (or deal breakers) but they are secondary.</li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 256, "author": "Sylvain Peyronnet", "author_id": 43, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As an adviser in TCS, I don't want <em>new students</em>, I want to work/advise someone <strong><em>who is in my opinion very promising</em></strong>.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>First, the email must be concise (not necessarily short, but concise): be respectful, don't ask abruptly if the person needs students. Present shortly yourself: \"I am XXXX, currently studying YYY at university ZZZZ\"</li>\n<li>Then, present your work interest, and more, show that you are aware of the work of the person you target: \"this year, I educated myself on the problem of finding an algorithm of complexity XXX for solving YYY. During this process, I analysed in details the method for finding a lower bound that you present in paper ZZZ\"</li>\n<li>Ask for a short scientific discussion, you can either ask for clarification on the aforementioned lower bound, or explicitly mention that you have some ideas about the problem, or that you need some guidance on further reading about the problem. Anyway, make sure that you worked hard before coming to the meeting. If you cannot afford the travel (too far, too expansive, etc.), ask kindly if you can ask a few scientific questions in another mail.</li>\n<li>Once you're known to the person, everything is easier. Then you can ask about your future.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The thing is to make yourself known for something different than job request. For instance, you target TCS, if you are known on TCS.SE, it will be easier to have guidance/advice from TCS researchers that are also on TCS.SE.</p>\n\n<p>Concerning some of the points you mention, don't hesitate to join a resume to your mail or (better) a link your (serious) homepage.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/252", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 258, "author": "TCSGrad", "author_id": 79, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You <strong>should</strong> have an <em><a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevator_pitch\">elevator pitch</a></em> version of your research i.e. a description of your work that you can concisely explain to an incoming grad student within the time taken to ride a few floors in an elevator. I know that can be pretty hard to think up on the spot, which is why I'm suggesting you have the basic points at the top of your mind. With time, you can reel it off without even thinking for it!</p>\n\n<p>As to why I emphasized on why you should do it, there can be enormous benefits of having such a version ready (say your adviser introduces you to someone with whom you'd like to work with in future in the hallway one morning, and he asks the same question out of courtesy - it might really look bad on both you and your adviser if you start hemming and hawing!) for when you really need it. Also, it would keep you grounded to what you started working on while deep inside the technicalities of a paper...</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 259, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Your job, as an academic, is twofold:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Do amazing research.</li>\n<li>Write it up and convey your results to other people.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>It sounds like you view (2) to apply only to others who are already in your field and are completely familiar with everything you've done. You will find that, in the entirety of your field, there are probably just a few dozen people who are intimately familiar with every details of your field, and only a few hundred who are really familiar with what you do. Everyone else — academic, layperson, village idiot — will require an explanation, and you should do them the favor of explaining it to them.</p>\n\n<p>To more directly answer your question, you should always have two answers ready to the question \"what do you do?\":</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>An elevator pitch, as described elsewhere. This should take ~15-30 seconds to say and would give a very high-level overview of your work.</li>\n<li>A more in-depth explanation, which would take about 3-5 minutes, which conveys what you do in more detail. Generally speaking, less time than that and you can't convey any useful information, more time than that and you're giving too many details. After your in-depth explanation, either the person will say, \"oh\", and move on, or they'll ask questions and you can have an intellectual discussion.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><em>(Note: the following point is somewhat debatable.)</em> I've found for myself that it helps to visualize the person you're talking to as paying your salary; if you're on a publicly-funded research grant (i.e., any governmental grant), their taxes are funding your research. It gives some perspective.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 261, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The previous answers are all good and I strongly recommend having something prepared in advance. However, I think some people are more prone to fatigue from repetition than others, and if you get tired easily from answering this question like me, you could challenge yourself to come up with something different to say every time.</p>\n\n<p>It is definitely true that each person you talk to will have a different background, and in general how you inform somebody of your research should be not just a function of what you know about it, but also of their personality and their knowledge.</p>\n\n<p>This is a good practice because it will make you more aware of the subtleties in communication, which is important especially when you are applying for a job. A fellow colleague won't react in the same way as a potential employer for instance. In other words, you should practice finding some common ground which will inspire your questioner, and in this case every time someone asks you what your research is about, you will always have something new to think about.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 931, "author": "Dirk", "author_id": 529, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/529", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Well, if repetition does annoy you: I usually hear this question as \"What kind of research did you do <em>recently</em>?\" If you research evolves a bit, this will help to avoid too much repetition. Also it helps to keep you explanations fresh and if you like your recent results you may probably like to share your enthusiasm...</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 24104, "author": "user46345", "author_id": 18004, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18004", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I have been in the same situation - having to explain the same thing over and over again, usually in interviews and such... The way I dealt with it was to explain it in a fresh way every time. So, on one occasion I may focus on the \"fun\" part of that work, while another time I may focus on the discovery part of it, while yet another time I may focus on the teamwork that was needed... The interviewer may give me a clue (body language, vernacular, etc) as to what type of answer may work best for their media/platform, so I tune into that. If it is a younger audience, I will try to make the answer more fun and attractive, while if it is for a serious, older audience, my answer will focus on serious matters more. Say a project I worked on was both famous and earned a lot of money - in a show for teens I may talk about fun part of it and perhaps someone famous I met, while in the other, serious show I may throw in figures and profits and such and perhaps even the whole industry a bit, to make it interesting for their audience.\nThis also gives a benefit to the listener who may have seen/heard/read more than one of my interviews and would not be bored by repetition (although some repetition is to be expected).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/257", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 270, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I think it's true that the time-sharing between grants is quite normal within the research world, at least, I've observed it a lot, and in any case, you shouldn't have to worry about that, because it's under the responsibility of your advisor. </p>\n\n<p>Actually, one of the problems when it comes to funding is that in order to make a grant proposal, you somehow need to know precisely enough where you're going, otherwise you have the risk not to be able to achieve what you promised. Hence, I know that it's quite normal that when applying for a grant, some parts of the results promised at the end of the grant are already done, although maybe not finalized. So, you can use the time you would have spent doing the research you promised (but already done) to do some other research on another topic, so that you can apply for another grant on this topic. </p>\n\n<p>That's why in the end, the main question is whether it benefits you, as a first-year student, to work on the other project. Clearly, working on a different topic is always a good experience, especially when there is a potential publication at the end. I don't know how long is your grant, but if it's 3 years, then spending a few months on working on something different will not really impact it. Of course, if you have a grant of only 6 months, then maybe you can't really spend half of it working on something different. </p>\n\n<p>So, to summarize: don't feel guilty about it, I believe this kind of things is pretty common, and just consider whether it can be good/interesting for you or not. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 281, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Time sharing between grants is extremely common - I've often been asked to work on projects unrelated to what I am formally being funded for.</p>\n\n<p>As @CharlesMorisset mentioned, many grants are now written with a sufficiently robust idea of where they're going, how they'll get there and that they'll work that a considerable part of the research is already done. Additionally, since grants <em>need</em> fairly strong preliminary results sections these days, one is essentially forced to use current funding to do the research for \"future\" projects.</p>\n\n<p>So I wouldn't feel bad about it for the reason you've mentioned. I would consider asking your advisor \"why this project?\" Do they just need a warm body to do the work? Would they like to give you a shot at an early, modest publication? Is there a particular skill they are hoping you'll develop working on this project?</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/260", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 269, "author": "TCSGrad", "author_id": 79, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I had asked the same question related to CS in TCS.SE (found <a href=\"https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/8339/4119\">here</a>) - from that, I'm summarizing the answers I got w.r.t your field:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Before grad school is a very early stage to change fields. Many people shift then. It's acceptable and expected. In your application, explain your changing fields (so the readers understand why the letter writers are not from psychology, why you took lots of biology courses, etc)</li>\n<li>If you have research experience (especially if there's some angle towards biological subjects in them), it still counts for you, even if it's in a different field</li>\n<li>If you have good grades, it still counts for you, even if they are for courses from a different field.</li>\n<li>Admissions committees are generally looking for \"strong\" students where \"strong\" is largely defined via prior research experience. i.e. they especially want to know if you've had the experience of doing research, were successful at it and have a good idea if this is something you really want. The letters are important as experienced researchers' evaluation of your research ability and potential and grades give some indication of overall academic aptitude. Thus, if you have strong letters from your supervisors, it still counts for you, even if they are from a different field (strong = from a professor who knows you well and has great things to say about you).</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 273, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>While shan23's answer is good, it is also somewhat incomplete. There are a few things to watch out for when you're coming in to a field from another department:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>You will need to keep in mind the qualifying procedures for your new department. Will they expect you to pass exams in undergraduate coursework in the new discipline? If so, then you'll need to do a lot more \"catch-up\" work early on to make up for the potential shortfall.</p></li>\n<li><p>Unless the new area is an interdisciplinary one—such as biomedical engineering—they're probably going to want to see some track record in the area. You're going to find it a lot easier to move into biomedical engineering from mechanical engineering than from economics.</p></li>\n<li><p>You may find it helpful to try to find a position as a lab assistant or something similar to this in the new field before you try to start the graduate coursework. However, this is by no means required. (But it would help to prove the \"dedication\" aspect, which is what you'd need to convince a graduate school admissions committee about in order to have a successful application).</p></li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/262", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 265, "author": "Sylvain Peyronnet", "author_id": 43, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There is a huge difference between saying that you will do a given research effort, and saying that you will obtain a particular result. If you have guaranteed the latter, you made a mistake, it's research, there is no guarantee on a result !</p>\n\n<p>So, if you give a work planning to your adviser, you have to stick to it. Of course, you can have (once, not twice) a real problem that ruins your effort (house on fire, a relative at the hospital, etc.).</p>\n\n<p>To summarize, you can promise that you will work, but not that it will work ;) If you always fail on your commitments, you will never be seen as reliable, and people won't work with you, it's that simple.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 266, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The question is subjective in nature, but the answer is almost certainly <strong>no</strong>. Academicians are always applying for funding, looking into collaborations, reading research articles in different fields, and generally taking an interest in new research venues. It's expected that you'll occasionally (maybe even regularly) expand your research interests, and it's the nature of the game that some of your attempts will not pan out.</p>\n\n<p>Anecdotally, my graduate research advisor completed a whopping 10 grants a year for a very wide variety of research projects. Each grant entailed a good deal of preparatory research, in which we would explore a new field and try to find some preliminary results strong enough to drive the grant through. Some of my (and my colleagues) most interesting work (medical ontologies, intelligent systems, lung-powered electricity generators) came from these failed grant attempts.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 274, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I lean towards agreeing with eykanal and disagreeing with Sylvain.</p>\n\n<p>A PhD project is inherently a somewhat fungible plan—what you do depends on the results that you've obtained. And obviously equipment failures, unexpected obstacles and delays, and other unforeseen circumstances are a natural part of research. So I wouldn't be too concerned about failing, as a graduate student, to reach the long-term destination of your research project. </p>\n\n<p>In particular, with my own students, I try to sketch out as little as possible the actual outline of the projects they are going to pursue. That way, there is much more flexibility in the future development of their projects, as I plan to tailor them based on the students' expertise and interests. (Moreover, I would suggest that if you know everything you need to do to reach your goal, and you accomplish exactly that, you haven't done any research at all!)</p>\n\n<p>That said, there is the issue of meeting <em>short-term</em> goals as well as long-term goals. You shouldn't promise your advisor something will be done in 1 to 2 weeks if you don't intend on having it ready for 2 months. (I would also argue the reverse is a dangerous situation, too, because you could fall into the \"competency trap,\" whereby the advisor thinks you really know what you're doing, and continues to expect you to know what you're doing for the remainder of your time in the advisor's group!)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 316, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my experience, the answer to this is <em>no</em>. Projects die for various reasons all the time - the funding vanishes and there's no one to work on it, it turns out to not to be a particularly productive line of thought, or as a graduate student, your interests shift.</p>\n\n<p>In my mind, the important thing is that you have put in as much effort as is expected of you. If you've told your advisor you've had a random musing you'd like to pursue, then come back a month later having not gotten very far but decided upon poking around a bit that it's not worth doing, then no harm, no foul.</p>\n\n<p>I also have to agree with aeismail that it depends on what you're framing as \"research\". Not being wedded to X, Y, Z things must be done, come hell or high water means if thing Q turns out to be <em>really</em> interesting, you're free to pursue that instead. But that's a long-term question. </p>\n\n<p>If, on the other hand, you've said \"Sure, I'll make a figure for that data by next week\" and you consistently fail to do things like that? That is going to have an impact on your reputation.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/263", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 267, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>This wil vary significantly according to advisor, but I'd say a typical plan is:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Years 1-2: coursework, begin research</li>\n<li>Summer of year 2: Small research publications (in my field, 2-4 page conference proceedings, small steps)</li>\n<li>Year 3: Get some real research done, more small papers</li>\n<li>Year 4+: ~1/2 paper a year, ish</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>However, the variance may be too great for this to be meaningful. I have a friend who published 17 papers during his 6 year graduate student tenure, and I have a number of friends who published zero peer-reviewed papers during my grad school tenure. Take the numbers with a grain of salt.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 268, "author": "Sylvain Peyronnet", "author_id": 43, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In France, the PhD is funded for 3 years generally. In our university (<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris-Sud_11_University\">Paris-Sud university</a>), PhD students meet a committee composed of the adviser, the head of the lab and the head of the doctoral school each year. In TCS, if you have not published (or have a paper close to be published - that is submitted) during the second year; this yields a big red flag. So, it means that it is expected that some results are ready for publication during the third semester of the thesis (even in a small workshop).</p>\n\n<p>Edit : PhD students are doing a 6 months internship before entering the PhD, with their PhD advisor mostly, so in fact the research is done on 3,5 years, and often 4 without much troubles. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/264", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 272, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>In my experience, starting a collaboration is incredibly easy: you use your network of contacts to identify someone who'd be willing and interested in solving a problem. You talk at a conference or meeting, or arrange a visit to their laboratory. </p>\n\n<p><em>Maintaining</em> a collaboration, however, is next to impossible. It only works if you have a history of successful results early on, or if you have already had a long history of acquaintance with one another before the collaboration began. (In other words, were you friends or colleagues before the work started?)</p>\n\n<p>Otherwise, I would recommend making sure that you start off with \"low-hanging fruit\": problems that can be solved mutually within the framework of existing funding on both of your parts, with value for both of you. This is important because one of the challenges of getting grants is that reviewers for funding agencies typically want to see an existing record of collaboration—mutual publications and effort—before they're ready to award money to a new collaborative proposal. There are exceptions to this, but they're by no means common.</p>\n\n<p>After that, you have a track record of working together which will let you grow the collaboration into something further.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 275, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Many times I had e-mail conversations but they never went into a serious collaboration (i.e. ending with a paper). All papers I have are with persons I know from a frequent face-to-face contact (plus with the people they know from frequent face-to-face contact).</p>\n\n<p>Perhaps it has to do with:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>psychological barriers (as also it is easy to have a conversation with a big name on a conference, but much harder to engage in a distant correspondence),</li>\n<li>funding/time issues,</li>\n<li>that collaboration usually requires a lot of contact (sometimes very hand-waving), <em>especially in the beginning</em>,</li>\n<li>with a frequent face-to-face contact it is much easier to gauge others' interest and choose the right persons.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>(Entirely anecdotally, as a PhD student with only 7 papers so far. It may not apply to other situations.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5651, "author": "chris", "author_id": 4275, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4275", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>IMHO successful and fruitful long term collaborations require at least two important features</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>mutual trust</li>\n<li>complementary competences</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Trust is essential at various stages of the collaboration: i) you should \nbe happy to make a fool of yourself in front of your collaborators during brainstorming \nii) you should be fairly certain that they will pay credit to your own efforts \nwithin the collaboration iii) you should be happy to strongly disagree and fight about \nit without strong feelings for the sake of challenging ideas.</p>\n\n<p>From personal experience (and watching colleagues) it is easier to cultivate and develop trust during your PhD and postdocs while socially interacting with your fellow students and postdocs. </p>\n\n<p>A first advice would then be do not under-estimate extra curricular activities with your colleagues, as they can in fact be the foundation of upcoming shared ideas within long term collaborations.</p>\n\n<p>Complementary skills is key in order to value what your collaborators provide to the collaboration. If your asset is starting papers, you need to find someone who is good at finishing them or vice-versa. It also avoids unnecessary competition within the collaboration. On a more positive note, it sheds distinct light on a research project\nwhich is globally useful.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, if possible</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>focus on people you can communicate well with: research is about beating about the bush for a long time before seeing the light. Precise understanding speeds things up a bit!</li>\n<li><p>avoid too large time-zone differences!</p>\n\n<p>Having said that, I am always amazed how (in contrast to crowds!) collaborators are collectively so much smarter than individually! A difference in perspective is key.</p></li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/271", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 280, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>This is based on my experience being in some highly unsuccessful journals clubs, and some very successful ones - at least in my mind.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>You <em>must</em> have faculty involvement. I've seen more than one journal club that either didn't have faculty members, or had a faculty member or two who just kind of sat back and didn't say anything. That's bad. Faculty members who can contribute, answer questions, and generally provide some context for papers are excellent. They're good for pointed questions we might have missed - I've had faculty members ask a question about a figure that got into an interesting discussion of research ethics, one that led insight into some politics (\"The reason that commentary appeared in this journal is Y\"), etc.</li>\n<li>I prefer to have them separate from lab meetings, and drawing from a wider audience than my specific research group. I find the breadth of experience, diversity of papers, and keeping up with things taking place beyond my narrow little laser-like focus to be both refreshing and more useful than going over a paper half of us already read.</li>\n<li>Giving the journal club a greater context. Yes, keeping track of the literature is important. But its importance seems to slide if you know your analysis should be done soon, or something needs to come out of the water bath, or midterms need to be graded. One semester we framed ours as qualifying exam preparation, and another as professional development - the people presenting wrote their critiques like responses to requests for peer review.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Overall, I've found journal clubs to be most useful for mid-level graduate students - they need enough experience to have thoughts, insights and feelings about the paper, but if a JC succeeds, eventually they should need it less and less.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 366, "author": "Amy", "author_id": 167, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/167", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/280/5674\">Fomite's answer</a> is great. Along the lines of \"greater context\" - you could form a journal club around a topic, rather than around your laboratory. When I was in grad school for plant biology, a friend of mine in Ag Chemistry formed a photosynthesis journal club. He was able to get his supervisor (photosynth bacteria) and another PI (plant focused) on board as regular attendees, while the student himself proctored the meetings. I participated not because I was studying photosynthesis myself, but because I wanted to learn more about biophysics. </p>\n\n<p>Attendees (including the professors) took turns selecting papers and leading discussions. It ended up being good study for my qualifying exam - and a good way to get face time with others in the department that I wouldn't normally interact with. </p>\n\n<p>This is one way to get around the \"students take turns getting grilled by one professor.\" Take the initiative or find another student who wants to run a club, and find professors who want to participate but not lead. The environment will be different. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/278", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 286, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>If certain fields of academia do in fact frown upon \"popularizing\" science, then they are shooting themselves in the foot.</p>\n\n<p>One of the most important ways of securing funding in different disciplines is through getting support by the federal governments in which they are working. Convincing politician X that you should fund research on doohickey X and widget Y to solve problem Z rather than funding their new shopping mall or football stadium requires convincing them that your research is important and worthwhile. The key to doing this is having a message to sell—something that the lobbyists and staff persons working for the government officials can take to them and say \"this is what you need to know about why this is important.\"</p>\n\n<p>An excellent way of doing this is to take part in writing columns, producing features for television, and other \"popular\" methods of outreach. You'll have to figure out how to distill your message in a way that's exciting for the viewer or reader, and that will help no only you but your peers as well.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 287, "author": "Andy W", "author_id": 3, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One situation I have come across in which it can potentially make the academic look negative would be when one is interviewed by a journalist, and the journalist is the one writing the article. Hence, one can be quoted out of context (twisting your words to mean something entirely different) or more frequently just being quoted in a silly way (since the journalist only has a fairly superficial understanding of what you are talking about). Especially if you are involved in something that is controversial (e.g. global warming, racial bias) one should be more aware of this potential.</p>\n\n<p>Besides that I have seen <em>slight</em> negative sentiment towards when an author writes a piece that is sensationalist in some ways (which aren't seen as science, or unethical). Examples I have come across are the <em>Freakonomics</em> books (or one of the sub-stories from the initial book titled <em>Gang leader for a day</em>). I suspect the benifit of exposure outweighed any negative sentiment though in those examples. This probably isn't pertinent to many scholars though (how many people write whole books that could be possibly construed in such a negative light before they are well established?)</p>\n\n<p>I have never encountered negative sentiment for smaller articles (like short peices in the newspaper or blogs). Most people I know are really happy to get an article/editorial in the paper (or other widely read magazine like NatGeo).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 292, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think the answer is, if its done in balance, no. I've had experience as a graduate student with two projects that could be considered \"popular science\", and they've done...interesting things, career wise. Good as ice breakers (\"Oh, <em>you</em> did that!?\" - in a generally positive tone) and one yielded some interesting professional contacts.</p>\n\n<p>I think there are two critical elements that need to be there:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>It needs to be popular <em>science</em> - it needs a rigorous scientific backing behind it. The popular, fun, Discovery Channel part of my work is backed by peer reviewed publications and conference talks to scientific audiences. That's a good way to reflect criticism of the work as being \"soft\".</li>\n<li>As a graduate student, you need to do other things as well. It's dangerously easy, I've found, to make that your \"thing\" - but if you're going to be a one trick pony in grad school, that pony probably needs to be serious research. \"So what are you working on now?\" probably needs to have a straight research answer, rather than another popular science project.</li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 43847, "author": "Flounderer", "author_id": 5842, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5842", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There is a field in which academics are paid to find \"the Equation for the perfect X\" so that the company that makes X can write a news story about it. I am not sure how academics generally feel about this, but it certainly gives off sellout vibes. On the other hand, <a href=\"http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/may/28/stephen-hawking-formulae-england-world-cup-success\" rel=\"nofollow\">if Stephen Hawking is allowed to do it</a> then maybe it's OK?</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/285", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 289, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't use citeulike myself, but I think it's important to make a difference between tags and keywords. Indeed, keywords are usually already included in the paper or at least in the abstract, so you don't need to retag them with duplicate information. Instead, it's better to use tags to give some personal context, such as why did you read this paper in the first place, or which general idea can you connect it to, or for which of your papers you used it, etc. In this case, there is no \"wrong\" or \"right\" tag, just some facts. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 346, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One of the great things about <a href=\"http://www.citeulike.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">CiteULike</a> is that you can see what papers you have in common with other people, and what they're tagging them as. That can give you a good clue when you're starting tagging.</p>\n\n<p>However, whatever you choose, it will evolve as you aggregate a larger and larger library of references, so don't be afraid to keep it flexible.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, your tagging system will be unique to you, because your interests are unique. For example, in my library, I've got a medical-epidemiology tag, because that covers around 1% of my library. If I had no such papers, it would be a useless tag. If I were doing medical epidemiology research, it would also be a useless tag, because I'd have to apply it to 90+% of my library.</p>\n\n<p>Learn by your own experience: how do you use tags? Which tags have helped you find things? Which tags have you used to try to find things, that turned out to be dead ends?</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 447, "author": "Open the way", "author_id": 284, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/284", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The best solution of my is <a href=\"http://www.mekentosj.com/papers/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Papers</a> from mekentosj. I should also mention that using tags is not an efficient solution for me; at the tagging moment I could not think about relevant tags and later I would not be able to find the paper. In my system I organized papers in collections (like folders) and search for them using keywords (like one would on in Web of Science) or authors or any other usual field.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 456, "author": "Hauser", "author_id": 213, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/213", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Tagging is only useful if you use it with discipline. Look at Wikipedia or Stackexchange, most articles can be determined by 5-6 categories (science - math - geometry - euclidean geometry - metric). Stackexchange has a max. of 5 tags, often you only see 1-2 on questions, which is often pointless, as those tags will appear often in the question/paper title and abstract too. Wasted time.</p>\n\n<p>So, if you decide to create a tagging system, <strong>use at least 4-6 tags</strong> depending on how interdisciplinary and specialized your paper/link collection is. </p>\n\n<p>Also consider to <strong>not only tag by topic but also kind</strong> (review, letter, peer-reviewed, experimental results, theoretical analysis, explanation of new measurement method, meta-discussion...), <strong>year, personal rating</strong> (very interesting article you learned a lot from and should read again from time to time), <strong>rarely/often/top cited, new theory/model, strongly discussed in the research community</strong> </p>\n\n<p>A last note. I use myself <strong>Copernic Desktop Search as a supplementary tool</strong>, I download all papers of possible interest (disk space is cheap ;) ), papers I read, will read or maybe will never take a look at. The point is that <strong>Desktop Search software often has more powerful search operators and sorting mechanisms than Google Scholar &amp; Co</strong>. If you know how to use them, you can save a lot reading and tagging time or tagging at all. You know, if you are smart in using Google &amp; search operators and have a good vocabulary, you don't have to ask a lot questions on internet boards.</p>\n\n<p>Conclusion:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Don't use tagging for creating a pure thematic and linear directory structure</strong>, if finding again your papers or bits of information can be done by learning a good Desktop Search software. Use your tags in a personal way and remember, the point is not to structure your bibliography like a folder directory for categorized files, the point is to find again the bits of knowledge and most memorable papers, which will rather look like a strongly interconnected nonlinear tag cloud. If you look how people tag sites on del.ic.ious, often only 2 or 3 tags, sometimes using up to 10 pure thematic redundant tags, they are doing it imho wrong and waste a lot of time. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/288", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 291, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This may be useful for someone considering a career at a teaching-first school, but I've never seen such portfolios asked for or even considered at research universities in the US and the larger European countries. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 307, "author": "Meg Coates", "author_id": 153, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/153", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Creating a \"portfolio\" for teaching used to be the norm for those entering the teaching career on the secondary (high school) level and below. My portfolio is HUGE (a 3-inch binder stuffed full of lesson plans, my philosophy of education, professional development, letters of recommendation, photos of my students, etc.), but I've only had one administrator ever actually LOOK at my portfolio and that was when I was interviewing for my first teaching position.</p>\n\n<p>The move I've seen from many universities is to have their teaching students create virtual or online portfolios. If I were you and I were considering applying for a higher-ed. position, I certainly wouldn't create anything that was a step backwards in technology. If you choose to create a portfolio, spend the time and create a virtual one. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 327, "author": "Heather Walker", "author_id": 182, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/182", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I have to agree with Meg Coates answer, they don't seem to be as important and they are made out to be by the powers to be. I created a \"portfolio\" and the only person who ever looked at it was a colleague who was part of an interview process. They don't appear to be looked when you go in for interviews. I like that I can look back on my portfolio and see past achievement and progress over the years but to be honest I quit updating mine about 4 or 5 years ago. </p>\n\n<p>My final message would be go for and create the portfolio but don't be disappointed if it does not get reviewed during your hiring process.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 329, "author": "Ben Webster", "author_id": 13, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think it's going to depend wildly on the position and very unpredictable factors. In my extremely limited experience in one discipline (mathematics) at one level (research university), a portfolio would probably only be useful if the committee had already decided to hire you, and higher-ups (chairs, deans, provosti) expressed concern about your teaching. In the right situation, they could be very useful, but it's not the most common in the world. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/290", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/138/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 304, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I've seen it work both ways: some people realize that they have a limited amount of time to work as a result of their external commitments, and therefore make themselves super-productive during the hours they are able to do research. I think, to some extent, that most of the people with severe external obligations fall into this class.</p>\n\n<p>For a sizable minority, however, the balancing act proves too difficult—although this is often a function of a mismatch in expectations between the advisor and the graduate student. If you believe this could be a problem for you, you should definitely talk with your advisor; if the outcome is unsatisfactory, you should also consider speaking with your thesis committee and the \"graduate officer\" of your department. </p>\n\n<p>In general, I think that if you are a productive graduate student, your advisor would be willing to work out suitable accommodations for your schedule. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 314, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The people who I've seen with considerable external commitments who have still gotten through in a reasonable amount of time all boil down to one thing: They treat grad-school like a job. From 9 to 5 (or 10 to 6, 11 to 7, whatever works for their schedule) they're <em>working</em>. No, they're not available for the infinitely many distractions of life, any more than someone at an office is. They pack a tremendous amount of productivity into that time, and then when they need to be with their family, they're with their family.</p>\n\n<p>Those at least are the people who got through it sane. I think the other major trait is to recognize that, because you have a life, this might take a little longer, and not burn yourself out trying to hammer things through to the point of exhaustion.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 320, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think the answers given by aeismail and EpiGrad are correct, however, I just want to add one particular point, the one of traveling. Indeed, if it's true that many jobs from 9 to 5 can also include some traveling duties, it's particularly true when doing a PhD (and later on during the whole academic life). In this case, I don't think that marriage is a problem, but other external time obligations, such as a baby or an activity requiring some presence can pose problem. </p>\n\n<p>I've known a case of a PhD student who couldn't attend a conference overseas in its entirety due to religious reasons: the conference was ending on a Friday, and this student needed to be home every Saturday. He couldn't attend entirely for the same reason a PhD school, and I think it's a real problem, because these kind of events are also there to socialize with peers, and going there just for a limited time window does not help. </p>\n\n<p>Similarly, I've known a case where a speaker could only attend one day at a conference, the one where he was giving his talk, as he couldn't be far from home more than that, because he had to take care of his baby. </p>\n\n<p>I'm not saying that an academic life means no private life, but in some cases, it can require some flexibility, and an external time obligation might imply to limit oneself, for instance by considering only \"local\" conferences. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 511, "author": "Ana", "author_id": 322, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/322", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I had a similar dilemma (mine was whether to become a parent during grad school), and what solved it for me is the realization that, if all goes according to plan, my post-PhD life won't be too different from my grad student life. I'd like to stay in academia, and all the current difficulties will remain (e.g. short-term contracts/grants, traveling, unevenly distributed workload throughout the year, etc.). This realization was one of those: \"Aha!\" moments for me. If it doesn't work out now, it won't be a viable option for the future either. That being said, I do try to keep a 9-5 schedule, and I don't think it would have worked out well if my partner wasn't as involved in parenting as I am. </p>\n\n<p>Perhaps working in industry is different, and it really is easier to have kids. In any case it might be an idea to ask yourself whether you think your obligations in grad school would really be all that different from what they are at your current job.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 529, "author": "Ran G.", "author_id": 324, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/324", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with previous answers: graduate school is a <em>full-time</em> job, and should be treated as such. I think it is possible to do so while keeping a healthy marriage life, though it might take more time than usual.</p>\n\n<p>Just to complete the perspective, let me give my personal experience. I have completed my M.Sc. in parallel of working a full-time job (which was really a 24/7 kind of work). Although it was M.Sc and not PhD, it was research-based rather than classes-based and same rules apply: school is a full-time job. Graduating took me 6 years rather than the common 2-year program, but I did it! Don't get me wrong - it wasn't easy at all: I was working on weekdays and studying on weekends, with very little time to do other stuff (if at all). However, I know quite a few people who did the same. The key to success is only to have a strong will. Kids and marriage are a large time-consuming, but certainly not as much as another job.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/300", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 302, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you're on OS X, then a great solution is to use the <a href=\"http://www.chachatelier.fr/latexit/\">LaTeXiT</a> package, which allows you to create graphics files for individual LaTeX equations, which can then be copy-and-pasted into your favorite presentations program (Keynote, LibreOffice, Powerpoint, or even LaTeX Beamer if you have a suitable penchant for irony).</p>\n\n<p>For other systems, options include <a href=\"http://alternativeto.net/software/klatexformula/\">KLatexFormula</a>, and of course the well-known (but also not free) <a href=\"http://alternativeto.net/software/mathtype/\">MathType</a>. </p>\n\n<p>But I prefer LaTeXiT, as it gives you the classic LaTeX look and precision control, while also making it very easy to cut and paste your work. (You can even save equations if you want to use them later.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 303, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I've found that the secret is (1) good tools to create equations, plus (2) liberal use of arrows and text, plus (3) animations linking the two.</p>\n\n<p>I've found the following two programs to be indispensable for writing talks:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.chachatelier.fr/latexit/\">LateXiT</a> for the Mac</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://klatexformula.sourceforge.net/download/\">KLaTeXFormula</a> for a number of OSs, similar to latexit but less functional</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The goal is to make the math (1) visually distinctive, so that the reader can easily tell when you're discussing an equation, and (2) easy to interpret. Remember, in a paper, you have text such as \"...where n is the number of...\" after the equation is shown. This typically isn't done in research talks, and even worse, once you're off the slide, the reader has to simply remember what the equation was; they can't flip back a page.</p>\n\n<p>My technique (you can see it in action in <a href=\"http://www.slideshare.net/eykanal/meg-preprocessing\">this presentation</a>) is to put equations in a <a href=\"http://www.slideshare.net/eykanal/meg-preprocessing/73\">unique font</a> (I use Times New Roman, with bolding and italics), and using the above tools to <a href=\"http://www.slideshare.net/eykanal/meg-preprocessing/25\">typeset equations in latex</a> and insert them as images as necessary. As you introduce each equation, explain all the variables using <a href=\"http://www.slideshare.net/eykanal/meg-preprocessing/29\">text and arrows</a>. Every variable should be explained... yes, this is slow, but learning is slow. If you're going to re-use the same equation multiple times, put it in the <a href=\"http://www.slideshare.net/eykanal/meg-preprocessing/85\">top-right corner of the slide</a> - with arrows and text sometimes included - so that (1) they remember what you're talking about, and (2) so you can <a href=\"http://www.slideshare.net/eykanal/meg-preprocessing/90\">refer back to those equations</a>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 313, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>An answer involving \"not LaTex\" based on both finding it utterly unnecessary in my field (which <em>does</em> involve a fair amount of math) and finding an endless stream of LaTeX-based presentations to feel very boring and same-y.</p>\n\n<p>Have you considered MathType? I've found it far stronger for equation layout than the default Microsoft tools, and it plays pretty well with both Powerpoint and Keynote, which lets you work in the strengths of actual dedicated presentation software. It is admittedly not free, but I've had fairly strong success with it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 335, "author": "Sean", "author_id": 191, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/191", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you are in Windows, you can try <a href=\"http://elevatorlady.ca/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Aurora</a>, although it's not free.</p>\n\n<p>The good thing about Aurora is it fits perfectly with Microsoft Word, you can insert inline equation or numbered equation and when you update the equations, the numbers can be altered easily. </p>\n\n<p>Also, when you insert an equation using Aurora, other people who don't have Aurora can still open the file seeing the perfect equation since it's embedded as a picture to non-Aurora user. </p>\n\n<p>The best part is when you insert an equation with Aurora, it won't mess up the line margin or other typesettings, which is quite often when using MathType. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5058, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You might also want to try <a href=\"http://inkscape.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">InkScape</a> for creating presentations with plug-ins, such as <a href=\"http://code.google.com/p/jessyink/\" rel=\"nofollow\">JessyInk</a> or other - simply search for \"<a href=\"https://duckduckgo.com/?t=lm&amp;q=presentations%20in%20inkscape\" rel=\"nofollow\">presentation in inkscape</a>\". Besides that, InkScape allows you to render LaTeX math, <a href=\"http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/LaTeX\" rel=\"nofollow\">it has the support built in in the new versions</a>. This solution might sound a bit complicated at the beginning, but you'll get the power to create extremely fancy visual presentations in the style of <a href=\"http://prezi.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Prezi</a> but locally and you can play them in your favourite browser.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 80329, "author": "Federico Poloni", "author_id": 958, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/958", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It involves some Latex programming, but you can do all of these things with Beamer and Tikz; see for instance <a href=\"http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/beamer-arrows/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.texample.net/tikz/examples/beamer-arrows/</a> and <a href=\"https://sites.google.com/site/kaarebmikkelsen/in-the-news/fancyequationsinlatexbeamerwithtikz\" rel=\"noreferrer\">https://sites.google.com/site/kaarebmikkelsen/in-the-news/fancyequationsinlatexbeamerwithtikz</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Sample image from the first link:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/hS1tG.png\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/hS1tG.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n\n<p>Essentially, Tikz allows you to remember the positions of the elements in each picture (using <code>\\tikzstyle{every picture}+=[remember picture]</code>), and then add popups, markers and arrows between them as an overlay over the already typeset page (using <code>\\begin{tikzpicture}[overlay]</code>).</p>\n\n<p>The main benefit with respect to other solutions is the quality and consistency of Latex typesetting, which we all know and love. \nThe main drawback is the (possibly) cumbersome Latex programming, which we all know and loathe.</p>\n\n<p>Also, it's all plain text (with simplifies automation, version control...)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 150611, "author": "GoodDeeds", "author_id": 68109, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/68109", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Microsoft Office 365 supports Unicode Math for Powerpoint, and also LaTeX syntax for Word. For most simple equations, it is possible to directly type them in as text and edit as necessary, without converting them to images. This includes equations involving integrals, derivatives, limits, trigonometric functions, etc.</p>\n<p>While Powerpoint does not seem to support LaTeX syntax, it is possible to copy and paste LaTeX equations written in Word. For a presentation that is lightweight in math content, this could be a good option to keep the other features of Powerpoint without compromising on math expressability. However, Microsoft Office 365 needs a paid subscription.</p>\n<p>A few helpful references:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/linear-format-equations-using-unicodemath-and-latex-in-word-2e00618d-b1fd-49d8-8cb4-8d17f25754f8\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Linear format equations using UnicodeMath and LaTeX in Word</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/write-an-equation-or-formula-1d01cabc-ceb1-458d-bc70-7f9737722702#ID0EAACAAA=Write_new_equation\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Write an equation or formula</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.unicode.org/notes/tn28/UTN28-PlainTextMath-v3.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Unicode Nearly Plain-Text Encoding of Mathematics Version 3</a></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 150613, "author": "Tigu", "author_id": 125405, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/125405", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://www.jonathanleroux.org/software/iguanatex/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">IguanaTex</a> is a free AddIn for PowerPoint which allows for seamless integration of LaTeX in PowerPoint slides.\nIt is very simple to use and feels very natural.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/301", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 308, "author": "Sylvain Peyronnet", "author_id": 43, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The short answer is yes, you can.</p>\n\n<p>There is no need to be in a university, a research lab to work on a research project. There is also no need to have a PhD or any other specific degree/position.\nThis is however somehow unusual. But, there is a bunch of people in industry that publish on a regular basis some serious research work.</p>\n\n<p>If you have no idea of the problem you want to address, or at least a broad domain, this will be even harder. I can only advice you to offer your manpower to people who are established researchers. For that purpose, you can go to seminars, you can maybe, if this is possible where you live, lurk into some graduate lectures, etc. After a while you will be able to talk with people and offer your services.\nHowever, the simple way is to work with relatives. For instance, my brother is an entrepreneur, and he wrotes two papers with me (one is published, the other will be soon I hope). Of course, it was simple: I described one of my problem on a sunday lunch at the parents house, He had some ideas, we worked on it... </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 309, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It is possible to take part in a research project, but your situation is not that common.</p>\n\n<p>Many labs have paid positions for Research Assistants, where you will assist with managing all aspects of the research except for defining the problem to be solved. Details of the position will vary from lab to lab, but you will often be very involved in the research. Usually research assistants are not authors on publications, so you would need to discuss the details with the professor managing whatever lab you're interested in.</p>\n\n<p>Also, many labs will take on undergraduate student volunteers to assist them with their research. Your having completed an undergraduate degree may make you eligible for these positions, on a case-by-case basis. You would want to speak with individual labs to see whether they would be amenable to this sort of arrangement. Note that position would almost certainly not be paid. Also, note additionally that there may be insurance issues which would preclude you from following this path... you'll have to look into this for yourself.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 310, "author": "Louis Wasserman", "author_id": 165, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/165", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The best thing for you to do is almost certainly to just start emailing professors who do things you're interested in.</p>\n\n<p>Especially if you mention that you're interested in eventually pursuing a PhD, they may be sympathetic. Most researchers have a sizable number of problems on their personal back burner that they'd be willing to share, but in my experience, it's better to just go ahead and email a number of professors who do work that interests you. </p>\n\n<p>Be prepared for a number of rejections, or even just to have your email ignored -- so you may want to email many different professors -- but it's not unlikely you'll find a professor interested in working with you.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 311, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's not clear, based on your letter, what discipline you're working in, but I would assume that it's something somewhat \"portable,\" since you don't make any mention of moving to the site of the collaborator's laboratory. </p>\n\n<p>The main obstacle I would see would be how to credit your work. Technically, unless you're funded with or directly affiliated with a research group (for instance, with a university ID, etc.), there may be liability issues associated with your claiming their affiliation. Also, the collaborators in question may be leery of the same.</p>\n\n<p>That said, there are still options. One possibility is that you create a startup-like business that allows you to represent yourself as \"Company X\"; coupled with an academic or research affiliation or two, this should be enough to get you started.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 312, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>It's certainly possible, though admittedly somewhat harder outside the framework of a university. Some potential avenues, answering generally - not all of them might apply to your particular circumstance.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Academic/Business partnerships. These are a new hot topic, and in some fields quite active. Universities love them because they're a revenue stream. Businesses like them because its harder to get closer to the cutting edge than at a major university. Look for companies that do this as potential employers? They're good for both dabbling in research, and also as a springboard into the research side of things - I've met several \"private sector refugees\" in my time.</li>\n<li>Research-oriented companies. Quintiles, RTI, Westat, RAND, etc. all come to mind. There are <em>tons</em> of these companies, and many of them both pay quite well and actively publish. Are there any that serve your particular field?</li>\n<li>Consulting. Research groups occasionally have funding for outside contractors of one sort or another - and if someone really wants to work with you, they may write such a position into a grant with you in mind. For example, I have some grant support for a freelance programmer. I've known other people hired for a particular expertise, or just \"a warm body who isn't a student\". This is probably the path you'd end up going down if you both contact your ex-professors and want to get paid.</li>\n<li>Volunteering. Academics are cheap. It never hurts to ask if they've got some side project you might be suited for collecting dust in the back.</li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 352, "author": "InquilineKea", "author_id": 77, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Yes - totally. Just think about this: a lot of professors even allow high school students to take part in research. Since you have some more experience, they won't have to spend as much time training you, so they are often totally willing to let you join in (after all, it's free labor).</p>\n\n<p>You may have to be somewhat flexible (and to be prepared to accept unpaid work), but it can work if you're living with family/flexible friends [1]/relatives.</p>\n\n<p>[1] Basically, some friends are willing to let you stay with them for free as long as you make their life more interesting (I'm willing to grant this favor to others since my life is rather bland at the moment), or if you can share in with the cooking/other chores.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/306", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/156/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 318, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would answer with a definite <strong>No</strong>, but check with your graduate student handbook or university's graduate student policy documentation to verify.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 321, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>This is not meant to be an official opinion, since obviously the rules depend on the local labor laws.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>We should distinguish school holidays—days on which classes are cancelled—from official holidays, on which the university offices are closed.</p></li>\n<li><p>A graduate student not working on a school holiday would be counted as taking leave; however, when the university is closed, that is not normally expected to be a working day for anyone, and thus students would not use a vacation day in such a case.</p></li>\n<li><p>Advisors should not have policies in place that <em>expect</em> students to be regularly working six days a week, particularly since that would mean that they are potentially in violation of a whole bunch of labor rules.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Given that information, my personal opinion is that research cannot be done according to a timecard. There will be days when you go into the office and figuratively spin your wheels all day, and there are days where you are firing on all cylinders and getting tons done. In my own group, so long as someone:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>is prompt in answering requests, </li>\n<li>attends group functions, </li>\n<li>lets me know if he or she will be out of the office for extended periods, and </li>\n<li>is getting his or her work done,</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>then I will let that person work in whatever manner is most conducive to getting the job done. That's more important to me than knowing they clocked in 8 hours per workday.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/317", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 325, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It depends on where your weaknesses are. If they're in both the master's and the bachelor's degrees, you're in a lot of hot water, because it says, as you suggest, \"student not serious enough about studies.\" (As someone on an admissions committee, I can tell you I need a heck of a lot of convincing to overlook a weak grade in a \"core\" subject, let alone an overall mediocre transcript.)</p>\n\n<p>The \"best\" way to get a weak transcript through an admissions committee is to have somebody who can vouch for you to the committee <em>whose judgment the committee will respect</em>. So, that means working either for a Very Big Name in the field, or working for someone at a particular institution which you'd later be interested in attending. If they can see that you're someone worth having around, that can sway an admissions committee a lot more than a good package from a complete unknown. </p>\n\n<p>Given your field, this may not be the easiest task to pull off, but I don't see many other options. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 326, "author": "TCSGrad", "author_id": 79, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I can answer as far as Computer Science(CS) is concerned - don't know how applicable that might be in your scenario.</p>\n\n<p>In CS, you can make up for your transcripts being less-than-average by undertaking research projects/internships in the next few years, ideally in the area you want to pursue you Ph.D. in. Once you have some good results that are published, you can use them to bolster your application - indeed, if they are good enough, they might even trump a candidate with stellar grades and no research experience! </p>\n\n<p>Also, such an endeavor would remedy another aspect of your applications that you don't seem too concerned about - your Letters of Recommendations. \"Bland\", \"did well in class\" letters would kill your application a lot faster than your grades, and I don't see how you would make up for it unless you involve yourself in research projects before the next admissions cycle!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 330, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Some universities impose a minimum undergraduate GPA requirement for all incoming PhD students. For example, the University of Illinois <a href=\"http://www.grad.illinois.edu/admission-faqs/domestic/requirements-deadlines\">requires a GPA of at least 3.0 (out of 4.0) for the last two years of undergraduate study</a> for <strong>all</strong> PhD programs. Applicants that fall below this line are usually culled from the applicant pool before any faculty see their application. Departments can petition for a waiver for individual applicants, but the case has to be pretty compelling.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, every university is different. Choose your targets wisely.</p>\n\n<p>(My undergrad GPA was well under 3.0.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 343, "author": "InquilineKea", "author_id": 77, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77", "pm_score": 7, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Short answer</strong>:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Know what area you want to work in and be fluent with it.</li>\n<li>Construct an honest, compelling narrative illustrating your strengths, how you've learned from mistakes or pitfalls, and why you're a good candidate for your chosen PhD programs.</li>\n<li>Talk to as many professors as you can about their interests and yours, especially those you'd like to work with.</li>\n</ul>\n<p><strong>More details:</strong>\nThere is some <a href=\"http://www.quora.com/If-I-contact-a-professor-for-research-graduate-school-and-he-asks-for-my-resume-transcript-what-should-I-do-if-my-transcript-is-embarrassing\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">excellent advice here</a> and <a href=\"https://www.quora.com/Graduate-School-Admissions/If-I-have-good-research-projects-and-publications-but-a-low-GPA-will-top-grad-schools-accept-me\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">here</a>. Basically, Bradley Voytek (who is now a professor in neuroscience at UCSD) managed to get into UCSF (a top school for neuroscience) with an overall GPA that hovered around 2.5. As Bradley Voytek said, your ultimate goal is this:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Do everything in your power to leave a paper trail of excellence to\novercome your grades. Your goal is to make those grades look\nmeaningless. <strong>Your goal is to have your work speak for you so strongly\nthat, when people look at your grades, they feel silly for even giving\nthem a second thought.</strong></p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This was precisely why I was willing to give my unofficial transcript to professors at my school who asked for them (when I needed letters of recommendation). They already knew me well enough to know that my GPA doesn't reflect my true ability.</p>\n<p>As another suggestion, if you're applying for a school that puts a lot of weight on a subject GRE exam (like the Physics GRE), you can do your utmost to score obscenely high on the test and still get in. As an example, <a href=\"http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&amp;t=4274&amp;start=50#p39860\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">see this guy who managed to get into Harvard with a 3.1 GPA</a>.</p>\n<p>For the record, I'm an undergrad with a 3.16 GPA (with 3 grades of 0.0s and 3-4 courses I retook with grades of 3.0-3.1 on the retake because I didn't even bother going to class on either class attempt). Despite all this, I managed to get into both the University of Chicago and Brown University - both with fellowships for being one of the top applicants. I also almost got into Yale in a year that was unusually competitive for them (they paid for me to visit+interview there) - but there were research fit issues involved at the end (actually - what ended up happening was that I had such intensely-defined research interests - exoplanet climate modelling - that it would have been hard for anyone there to take me individually, and everyone felt that I would be going to Chicago anyways). <a href=\"http://www.physicsgre.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&amp;t=4274#p38595\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Click here</a> for a rough profile of my &quot;stats&quot;.</p>\n<p>You should also try schools that do interviews (especially in-person interviews) before they do acceptances, since the interview is where you have the opportunity to shine (and where they can at least give you a chance). Yale is one of those schools.</p>\n<p>You should also look into very interdisciplinary graduate programs that are expanding faster than what their textbooks (and courses) can keep up with. Newer fields also tend to be <a href=\"http://www.cogsci.msu.edu/DSS/2012-2013/Simonton/2010BVSRcombmodPoLR.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">low-consensus</a> fields, which also tend to be more tolerant to those with low GPAs. The geosciences is one of the few areas where plenty of people with sub-3.5 GPAs often do get into top schools. As the geosciences aren't taught in high school, it's often said that the Geosciences is something that you &quot;stumble&quot; into, and it's actually very common for people to enter the geosciences only after finding that they didn't like another major (this is often true for geoscience professors as well).</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://www.quora.com/Graduate-School-Admissions/If-I-have-good-research-projects-and-publications-but-a-low-GPA-will-top-grad-schools-accept-me/answer/Alex-K-Chen/comment/1524987\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Biology is another area that's often tolerant of those with low GPAs</a>, from what I've heard. In both Biology and the Geosciences, research fit often matters a lot more than &quot;being one of the top applicants&quot;, so if you have a <em>focused</em> interest that you've demonstrated through research (and that matches the interests of faculty members who are willing to take new students), then yes, they can be willing to take you over people with better GPAs and test scores. The thing in common with the two is that they're so broad that it's impossible to put every applicant through a common set of required courses (or through paper-based qualifying exams), so their quals cannot be based on coursework. In that case, performance in prior courses doesn't matter as much. In fact, some geoscience programs (like Berkeley EPS) don't even have admission committees because the interests of faculty members are so diverse that applicants often only have research fit with a single faculty member - so it then often becomes a single faculty member who decides between applicants.</p>\n<p>The MIT Media Lab <a href=\"https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-important-tips-for-getting-accepted-in-MIT-Media-Lab/answer/Drew-Harry\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">is the perfect example of this</a>, in fact (though most geoscience/biology programs will have more of a committee than the MIT Media Lab). The tips in this link can be quite helpful to anyone with a low GPA who wants to work with a particular adviser.</p>\n<p>You should also look for fields with very low people-to-problems ratios. Many of these fields don't offer courses that are part of the core requirements of numerous majors, so there won't be hordes of undergrads who take their courses. Fields like atmospheric science and various areas of biology are particularly known for their low people-to-problem ratios, and the professors in them can be incredibly accessible (and are more willing to closely look at unusual applicants). More <a href=\"https://www.quora.com/Graduate-School-Admissions/If-I-have-good-research-projects-and-publications-but-a-low-GPA-will-top-grad-schools-accept-me/answer/Alex-K-Chen\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">here</a>.</p>\n<p>Also, just write 2000-word personal statements. I wrote 2000-word personal statements for all the schools I applied for (they were <strong>necessary</strong> since I had to do some explaining), and they didn't prevent me from getting in. They can annoy some schools, but that's going to be a matter of fact if you're a highly unusual applicant.</p>\n<p>Finally, you can always stay somewhat longer. My GPA would never recover from the early mistakes I made, but I managed to recover by staying longer and by taking a huge number of grad-lvl courses in my last 2 years. When writing your personal statement, you should always put in statistics like last-2-year GPA and last-X-year major GPA in whatever field of study you're in (I put in post-(freshman year) physics GPA of 3.77 in). Be careful not to sound like you're cherry-picking though.</p>\n<p>If you need some extra inspiration, <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Smale\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">you should read about Stephen Smale too</a>.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>He entered the University of Michigan in 1948. Initially, Smale was a\ngood student, placing into an honors calculus sequence taught by Bob\nThrall and earning himself A's. However, his sophomore and junior\nyears were marred with mediocre grades, mostly Bs, Cs and even an F in\nnuclear physics. However, with some luck, Smale was accepted as a\ngraduate student at the University of Michigan's mathematics\ndepartment. Yet again, Smale performed poorly his first years, earning\na C average as a graduate student. It was only when the department\nchair, Hildebrant, threatened to kick out Smale, that he began to work\nhard. Smale finally earned his Ph.D. in 1957, under Raoul Bott.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>One word of caution: Graduate programs have gotten a lot more competitive in the last few years, so what applied 5 years ago (or 40 years ago, for that matter), may not necessarily apply today.</p>\n<p>By the way, elite private schools (for whatever reason) tend not to have GPA cutoffs. If you're a student with a low GPA applying for an elite private school, you probably have something else in you that's extremely unusual, since very few students with low GPAs apply to them. In fact, when I emailed professors, those at elite private schools seemed to be more responsive to my emails (low student to faculty ratio could be a reason behind that). That said, they're not necessarily more forgiving of unusual applicants. It's often the programs that have some &quot;weakness&quot; in their applicant pool that tend to be more forgiving of them.</p>\n<p>Also - I would definitely look for areas where the department is trying to expand into, but where the department has no reputation for as of yet (visits/contacting professors can help you learn more about that).</p>\n<p>Going to academic conferences can also <strong>really</strong> help as well - but only when you can make sure that you have useful things to say. The same is also true for visiting schools before applying.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 868, "author": "Ellen Spertus", "author_id": 269, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/269", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>When evaluating graduate applications, I weight recent evidence more than stale evidence. One way to recover from bad undergraduate grades is to take classes through a community college or extension program and get great grades or recommendations.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5950, "author": "Joanna Bryson", "author_id": 384, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/384", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I had a very mediocre transcript from a very good school. I worked five years, then applied to a good school in a foreign country paying international fees for a masters degree. Then I worked very hard and got decent grades and great letters of reference and got into MIT for my PhD.</p>\n\n<p>In general, if you work a few years and/or do another degree, your first degree doesn't matter any more, your more recent work does. This can be for good or for ill.</p>\n\n<p>One really excellent thing I've seen: Northwestern University in Chicago allows you to sign up for night courses no questions asked, then after you've taken five will review your work on their courses and decide whether to admit you based almost purely on those courses. I assume some other universities might do this.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8790, "author": "StasK", "author_id": 739, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/739", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You need to have good connections. I.e., a senior, well-respected person in the field who can put their word for you. Or a terrific work experience -- being say the top 10 person on Obama's or Romney's election team would certainly speak for itself in your field. Bad grades + mediocre work experience + bland letters = wasted time and money on the application process.</p>\n\n<p>A former student of mine whom I taught at University A applied to the department I used to work at in University B. He got rejected on the grounds of having a D in the one of the classes in our department's major in the University A. (He later retook the class and got something like a B.) About 20% of our faculty got their degrees from University A, and another 40% are in the same narrow field that the said University A department specializes in, so that bad grade was certainly a big \"no-no\" for them. I think that student was even bringing some outside federal fellowships money with him, but it did not matter. The student got accepted a year later to University C, which is a <em>better</em> program than University B, and finished his Ph.D. a few months ago -- went to work in industry, never had much thrust to work in academia, though.</p>\n\n<p>One other approach you can try is to find the PoliSci department with a heavy computing component, so that you could leverage your computer science experience. These would be the top departments, though, which would make it even more difficult. Pick a computation-heavy book published recently by a department member, go through it, replicate some of the results, think about some of the extensions and/or computational efficiencies you can develop, email back to that guy -- that could be your stepping stone towards the good connections that I started with.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 48371, "author": "cspirou", "author_id": 32335, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32335", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Do not limit yourself to top 20 schools. There are over 200 degree granting schools in the USA and a good percentage have Ph.D programs. While applying to grad school I even found a school with a 2.5 GPA cutoff. Just be realistic about where you are able to get in. What matters ultimately is not where you go to school or who your advisor is but rather the quality of work you are able to produce. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yitang_Zhang\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Yitang Zhang</a> was an unknown adjunct professor at the University of New Hampshire when he published his remarkable paper on prime numbers. Afterwards he could have been a professor for any school he wanted to but chose to stay at UNH.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 66384, "author": "Joelle Jansen", "author_id": 51901, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/51901", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Now this might be both my field (computational biology) and/or local culture but I found that my grades were easily ignored during my PhD application.</p>\n\n<p>What I think is the most important part is to tailor your application to the job. If your grades are bad, don't mention them (unless of course they explicitly ask for them) and instead focus on relevant skills. Perhaps you learned relevant (and perhaps uncommon) skills during previous projects/internship/thesis work. You may even have acquired relevant skills through extracurricular activities.</p>\n\n<p>Focus on what makes you the perfect candidate for this job.</p>\n\n<p>Also, for your recommendations; make sure you get your recommendations from people who will actually recommend you. I think a less known researcher who is positive about you is better than a big name that's negative about you.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/324", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 334, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I'll give you my own opinion, as something of an interdisciplinary scientist in a nearby field (I work in mathematical epidemiology) with publications in both places (the conference paper frankly by accident):</p>\n\n<p>First, your impression is indeed correct. CS and related fields very heavily weight conference presentations and proceedings papers in ways the life sciences really don't.</p>\n\n<p>In my mind, there's two things you should be considering:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>The opportunity to double-dip a bit. We had a question about this recently, but I think it applies to you as well. If your project has \"Life science spin-offs\" and \"Computational science spin-offs\", you can submit to both places. For example, I have a project that will end up living in both applied math journals and clinical journals. There's no reason you can't do both.</li>\n<li><em>This part is purely my opinion</em>. When in doubt, I'd go for journal publications, for a few reasons. I've found most CS and technical people recognize that outside their field, its papers or nothing, better than the other way around. Journal papers are also more likely to get on the radar of people you want seeing your work, get indexed in PubMed (LNCS for example is not indexed in PubMed) etc. Those departments will also probably recognize your technical chops either via talking to you, the technical bent of your publications, or a few conference presentations.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I sympathize with your problem - it's sadly familiar. Generally, I'd try to figure out which audience you want to sell yourself to <em>more</em>, and do as they do.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 336, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As a \"classically-trained\" engineer who's moved into interdisciplinary work, I would argue that the weighting of conference papers seems to be restricted to computer science, rather than being generally true for \"quantitative sciences.\"</p>\n\n<p>For instance, I don't see any such strong preferences in mathematics, chemistry, or physics, and there's definitely no such bias in chemical engineering (my \"home turf\"). In engineering, perhaps this is because there aren't as many \"prestigious\" meetings, and because we don't submit anything more than abstracts in order to be considered for a presentation slot.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 348, "author": "sharoz", "author_id": 204, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/204", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with @EpiGrad 's <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/334/204\">answer</a>. </p>\n\n<p>I'll also add that the lack of a deadlines for journals can reduce unnecessary stress and allows for a better revision process with reviewers. I've found that journal papers are consequently more polished and thorough compared with conference papers on similar topics.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 371, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I can confirm the much heavier weight on conference publications in Computer Science. You should certainly consider publishing in high-profile conferences unless you want to shift your focus away from Computer Science.</p>\n\n<p>The other thing I would add is that often conference publications become journal publications. This is mostly because of the page limits imposed by conferences -- short papers are often only 2 pages. There is also a fair number of Computer Science conferences that offer fast-track or special issue journal publication for the best papers. I think a lot of people in Computer Science do not consider publication at a conference <em>or</em> a journal, but rather conference first and then journal.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/331", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/154/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 333, "author": "TCSGrad", "author_id": 79, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A lot of US spellings have come to become accepted internationally - at best, some of the reviewers might point out the words which they don't feel are spelled correctly in their review. But, I strongly believe it would not affect the chances for your paper's acceptance in the least - its the content/idea that matters most in journals. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 337, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The answer depends very much on the journal. Some expect UK spellings; others will permit either American or British spellings. You should check with the journal in question.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, the other option that you have is the following. Since you know what the major differences between the two sets of spellings are, and you have a sense of which one's won't be caught by your spell checker, you could always do a final search-and-replace after you've completed work on the paper to make sure you've switched everything over. (Or at least, everything you know should be switched over.)</p>\n\n<p>That should satisfy most journals, and as shan23 said, I don't think a journal will reject your paper for writing \"meters\" instead of \"metres\"; the most you'll get is a referee report telling you to switch spellings.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 344, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Read your journal's guide for authors. That will usually tell you.</p>\n\n<p>Anything that makes the paper look unlike the papers in recent issues, will hinder acceptance. It may be blatant, it may be subtle, but it's there. Dialect of English is one of those things that may or may not matter. Skim through three or four recent issues: are there a mix of US English and UK English articles in there?</p>\n\n<p>That's only a small part of the consistency-checking you should be doing before submission. Indeed, it's part of the checks you should be doing before you sit down to write. Along with: what sort of breakdown of sections do your target journal's papers have, typically? Do article titles include a colon (always, usually, rarely, never)? How many paragraphs per section, words per section, how any words in the title, and so on.</p>\n\n<p>Editors are usually very very busy. Anything you can do to make their life easier, will help your article get published.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 345, "author": "Willie Wong", "author_id": 94, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/94", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Practice between publishers (and indeed, between individual journals put out by the same publisher) would be different. It is best to consult the <strong>Author Guidlines</strong> for the journal you will be submitting to. Occasionally there will also be certain idiosyncrasies that do not agree with the dictionary included in Microsoft Word. </p>\n\n<p>For example, take a look at the publishing guidelines for <a href=\"http://authors.iop.org/atom/usermgmt.nsf/AuthorServices\" rel=\"nofollow\">Institute of Physics</a> which is based in London. It stipulates that </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><code>ize</code> endings should be used instead of <code>ise</code> endings. (I know a lot of spell checking software will tell you that 'colourise' is perfectly fine British English, so be careful there!)</li>\n<li>British spelling is compulsory ... with the exception of a list of journals where both American and British spellings may be used. (So if you submit to one of the journals in the list of exceptions, you should just aim to be internally consistent with your choice of spelling.)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>For the most part: if there is anything specifically listed in the author guidelines, make sure to follow them. For everything else, especially since \"British English\" is a bit of a moving target (as evidenced by the second link you provided in the question), that's what <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_editing\" rel=\"nofollow\">copy-editors</a> are for. (And unless you have a very good reason, don't fight with them. House style almost always trump your personal preferences.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 751, "author": "user8182", "author_id": 441, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/441", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It will matter. The brits will think you are misspelling if you don’t do it their way.</p>\n\n<p>I use this to help me get it right. I would look at the “don’ts section”. I think it applies.\n<a href=\"http://blog.lib.umn.edu/lawre035/SocSci/Writing%20Journal%20Entries.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://blog.lib.umn.edu/lawre035/SocSci/Writing%20Journal%20Entries.pdf</a></p>\n\n<p>Then again you can just browse through the many online dictionaries. My favorite one is thefreedictionary. It has so many ways to choose.\n<a href=\"http://cognitiveanomalies.com/my-quest-for-the-best-online-dictionary/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://cognitiveanomalies.com/my-quest-for-the-best-online-dictionary/</a>\nGood luck</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 12513, "author": "Chris Welford", "author_id": 8526, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8526", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As long as you get your meaning across efficiently, it won't matter.</p>\n\n<p>We 'Brits' (as the previous contributor so brashly refers to us) are a cosmopolitan lot and we are well used to reading materials in US spelling.</p>\n\n<p>Why do people use the word 'Brit' anyway? It's derogatory and offensive.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/332", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 355, "author": "TCSGrad", "author_id": 79, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I believe the limitation is more on the software that you are using, rather than the tablet itself. So, if you are using an iPad, you can use <a href=\"http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/upad/id401643317?mt=8\">UPad</a>, whereas android tablets users should be looking at something like <a href=\"https://market.android.com/details?id=com.cerience.reader.app\">Repligo</a> or <a href=\"https://market.android.com/details?id=udk.android.reader\">ezPdf Reader</a>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 362, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Regarding the stylus, <a href=\"http://www.macworld.com/article/156560/2011/05/touchscreen_stylus_roundup.html\">this review from MacWorld</a> strongly recommends the <a href=\"http://wacom.com/en/Products/Bamboo/BambooStylus.aspx\">Wacom Bamboo stylus</a> for writing notes.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 364, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The apps suggested by others for iPad and Android with the necessary stylus-es are not bad. However, if you are looking for something <strong>ONLY</strong> to take notes I would suggest looking at <a href=\"http://www.improvelectronics.com/boogie-board-LCD-writing-tablet/boogie-board-rip-LCD-writing-tablet.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Boogie Board</a>. I haven't tried it out myself but I hear its good. Plus, its dirt cheap as compared to tablets. Also, the battery life is insanely high and since it doesn't use a touch interface, you can practically write anything and it will store it as that. There are downsides though, it can't save many PDFs and it can tend to be slow. You might want to check them out.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3041, "author": "John Doe", "author_id": 1567, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1567", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I found this <a href=\"http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/11/16/lenovo-thinkpad-tablet-review/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet</a>, which designed specifically for stylus use (iPad and the likes are not).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3043, "author": "Federico Poloni", "author_id": 958, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/958", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Check out this question and my answer: <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2853/device-for-writing-a-lecture-with-a-stylus-for-video-lecture-recording/2855#2855\">Device for writing a lecture with a stylus for video lecture recording</a></p>\n\n<p>Short version: any professional tablet pc with an active digitizer (the Wacom ones are the best on market). They cost only a little more than an iPad. IPads are good for goofing off and clicking on your virtual farm but there is an abyss in terms of writing quality.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5765, "author": "leese", "author_id": 4324, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4324", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Try the samsung galaxy note 10.1. With a wacom s pen it seems to be the right choice for people who do write a lot of equations/ want to annotate lecture notes.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/351", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 358, "author": "TCSGrad", "author_id": 79, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<ul>\n<li><p>Talk to current graduate students in your lab (even better, working with your potential adviser!)</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Ask about their opinion about how the working environment is - what is the working style of your adviser, what is the average time take for a PhD student to graduate from the lab, and where do most of them land up (as eternal postdocs, or tenure-track faculty positions)</li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>What is the funding scenario - do most people have to be TA's for an extended period/all throughout, or whether RA grants are available? What about conferences - do students get funding for traveling to important venues?</p></li>\n<li><p>What kind of a social life exists in and around the campus, and what is the cost of living - a Ph.D is a long commitment, and you should remember these \"soft\" criteria as well, so that you are at least prepared mentally when you enter grad school</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I'll expand on my answer as and when other points come to my mind!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 360, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>You'll want to get a sense of their feelings for:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>The graduate program</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Easy to work with regarding customizing the program to their specific needs (i.e., taking courses outside their specific area if necessary)?</p></li>\n<li><p>How easy/difficult was the process for joining a lab?</p></li>\n<li><p>Have they found the staff easy/hard to work with?</p></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>The advisor</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Attitude towards students (respectful/distant/slavedriver)</p></li>\n<li><p>Presence in the lab (micromanager/occasional presence/absentee)</p></li>\n<li><p>How organized is the research?</p></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>The university as a research institution</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Easy collaboration between departments (in their opinion)?</p></li>\n<li><p>Availability of course offerings (from their experience)?</p></li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>The city as a place to live</p></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 370, "author": "Opt", "author_id": 149, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/149", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Few of my favorites are 1) Did anything regarding the school surprise them? 2) Things they wish they had been told when they had visited/started grad school at that school. 3) In retrospect, would they still make the decision to come to that particular school.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1641, "author": "Boris Bukh", "author_id": 609, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/609", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I want to add three important questions: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>What have you personally done?</li>\n<li>What is that you currently work on? </li>\n<li>How long have you been here?</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The best indicator of future performance is past performance. You are likely to be in these graduate students' position in a couple of years' time. How satisfied will you be if you accomplished as much?</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/353", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 357, "author": "luispedro", "author_id": 166, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/166", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Be very clear on what you want it for, particularly whether you will be sharing it further (even within your group, with your advisor, &amp;c).</p>\n\n<p>I often post edited version of the slides online, but I always want to have control on the contents that are public, semi-public, or private.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 361, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You can ask for a redacted version of the slides, without new data. Do note that this will require extra work from the presenter; in my experience, I've found that most people do not go this route. I would follow the route you're currently taking; ask for them, and if they don't wish to share, then drop the subject.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 427, "author": "mindcorrosive", "author_id": 255, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/255", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't mind sharing my presentations, but I make sure that I provide a read-only format only (PDF) with slides scaled to e.g. 1/4 of actual size, in raster format (so that more than one would fit on a page). When people ask for presentations, I expect they'd like to have the material handy for further reading and reference, not to present it or use it themselves. </p>\n\n<p>One would go even further and restrict the PDF printing, copying and modifications, although these can be circumvented with a reasonable effort if you know what you are doing. I don't do this as a matter of principle, but I can see how some people might want to have such kind of control.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 429, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>There is no magic when it comes to asking for presentations. And there is nothing wrong with being <em>the person who asks people for their powerpoint slides</em> (at least you show that are interested and it may result in them being cited; and it shows that they got their job done - though a presentation they interested others in their idea).</p>\n\n<p>If they don't reply (or don't sent it), it is usually of one of the following reasons:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>They are busy and missed your mail,</li>\n<li>It would take their time to find the presentation and send it (it may be big so it is not just sending an e-mail),</li>\n<li>They would prefer not to make it public as:\n\n<ul>\n<li>It is not polished enough for anything but a presentation,</li>\n<li>It may contain things that they would prefer not to share publicly (e.g. plots form other papers, preliminary data which may later proven to be wrong or incomplete, pictures or video they don't have right to share further, etc).</li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If they don't want to share it - they have right to it. However, usually they have nothing against (and actually are happy to do so) as long as you make it quick and easy for them.</p>\n\n<p>So it is a good idea to ask for slides just after their talk - they may have it on their computer (so you can copy it to your stick) or on a stick (o you can copy it to your computer) or send it right away.</p>\n\n<p>Also:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Send your e-mail at most a week after the presentation,</li>\n<li>Be short and concise (what exactly you want, what do you want with do with it),</li>\n<li>If there is no response try writing the same e-mail a week later.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 156330, "author": "a3nm", "author_id": 17423, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17423", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you're uncomfortable asking the authors of the slides, for some event types, another idea could be to <strong>ask the organizers of the conference, seminar, talk, etc., if they could make the slides available to everyone on the event website</strong>. Depending on their attitude, the organizers may think that this is a good idea and do it on your behalf, and there may have a higher chance of getting a response from the presenter.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/354", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 377, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The question you have to ask yourself is what is the \"opportunity cost\" of the different options:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>You can apply for jobs without first relocating to the new area, if you're willing to spend some money on travel for the interviews before accepting a job.</p></li>\n<li><p>What are the costs of getting a new degree, versus the improved likelihood (if any) of employment with the advanced degree, compared to the lost income while acquiring the degree.</p></li>\n<li><p>Could you make enough money freelancing that you can keep yourself <em>relatively</em> financially stable while you're organizing something else?</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I'd certainly think that starting out freelancing while you figure out a \"Plan B\" would be the logical, low-entry-cost route. After you've done that for a while, you can decide if either of the other routes make more sense for you.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 384, "author": "qqq", "author_id": 243, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/243", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In general I would counsel against further study. I have seen many people finish an undergraduate degree, look for a job they like/a job, and when they have no luck go back to study. This has almost always ended badly. In most cases they have no understanding of how a further degree will allow them to get the jobs they are interested in, and are merely spending a lot of money to prolong (or make worse) the problem. </p>\n\n<p>If you are incredibly passionate in an area go for it. However the fact that you are posting this/reading this suggests that you are not. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2164, "author": "Ryan", "author_id": 1119, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1119", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>What you ultimately need to ask is why do you want the MFA, MA or PhD.</p>\n\n<p>For a long time I didn't want these. I saw the MFA as something that many of my friends got with no real objective except to avoid the so-called \"real world\" and get to stay in a studio as long as they can. I can't do that and it sounds like you can't either.</p>\n\n<p>So then the question is what reason should you get the advanced degree?</p>\n\n<p>The answer is simple: I want to do advanced research in <strong><em>(topic)</em></strong>.</p>\n\n<p>If your answer is anything but the above then it isn't for you. So I can teach is not a strong reason for an MFA or PhD. So I can get a higher paying job is not a strong reason for an MFA or PhD. It is a research degree and ultimately that needs to be your reason for pursual.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 9146, "author": "Jeff", "author_id": 6684, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6684", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The advice given by some is misleading. A PhD is psychology is almost always a <em>paid</em> position. So while you may be earning less than you would in industry, you will earn a stipend (albeit often minimal) while you complete your degree. A Masters degree in psychology, on the other hand, is typically paid for out of the student's pocket. If you are interested in doing research, as you say, I would be hesitant to get a Masters unless you are very confident in a specific career path that requires an MA (and not a PhD).</p>\n\n<p>That said, all of the criticisms that others have raised still apply. For social psychology in particular, I would not recommend applying for a PhD without having a decent amount of research experience. Consider applying for a research assistantship at a university. The purpose of this is two-fold. Most importantly, it's to know what you're getting yourself into and make sure you would enjoy doing research full time for several years. Additionally, it greatly improves your application when applying to mid- or top-tier universities. They want to know that you are both capable of doing research and enjoy doing research.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/363", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 382, "author": "Sean", "author_id": 191, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/191", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I haven't got the chance to use Bibsonomy, since I use Mendeley since the beginning. </p>\n\n<p>Concerning your questions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>You don't have to import bibtex files in Mendeley(although you can), you just simply drag and drop a pdf file to Mendeley, and Mendely will grab the title, user, publication details for you, which is the best thing about Mendeley.</li>\n<li>Search function in Mendeley is quite satisfactory.</li>\n<li>As for modification, I don't have the experience in doing that. Since Mendeley grab the things for you, I guess there is no need to do that. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Also after you registered in Mendely, your references will be uploaded to your account. So when you reinstall your system or something, all your references will come back. </p>\n\n<p>Mendeley is quite great and has other great functions, totally worth trying!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 383, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Yes, Mendeley does offer export - BibTex, RIS, and EndNote XML.</p>\n\n<p>The search is pretty decent, though I often find I use Acrobat search instead - its word-stemming seems better.</p>\n\n<p>Batch replacement is very weak - the only way to do it is to go into the database yourself and tweak it. Very unsatisfactory. There is some batch update, in that you can select several papers, and add the same metadata to all in one go: but that's not the same as a batch search &amp; replace. The one batch search &amp; replace it does do very well is that when you get two versions of an author's name, you can drag one name onto the other, and all the papers will get updated accordingly.</p>\n\n<p>I've also found the technical support to be very slow, and often unsatisfactory.</p>\n\n<p>The auto-grab of references from the web is patchy, and you may find you're often correcting it. Often, its guesses seem utterly bonkers, like it's just grabbed a few general words from the title, and gone off to find the closest match for those, in some subject that's completely alien to me.</p>\n\n<p>The interface is klutzy, though I've yet to find a reference manager that had an interface I <strong>did</strong> like.</p>\n\n<p>Earlier versions of Mendeley did occasionally corrupt the metadata, doing things like swapping round the lead and second author - unbelievably frustrating. This may have stopped now - I don't use Mendeley so much any more, because of this and other problems.</p>\n\n<p>Mendeley does have its evangelists, and it seems to have been very slick at cultivating its fanbase - more resources seem to have been spent there than on the software. The <a href=\"http://feedback.mendeley.com/f\">feedback forum</a> has now become pretty much unusable - there are plenty of important things in there that have been \"planned\" or awaiting assessment for 2 or 3 years.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 98297, "author": "hardyVeles", "author_id": 74682, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/74682", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've got impression that Mendeley is pushing energy into something that is not the desktop software for sure. I had 2 years break from my sci efforts and after that period I've installed fresh new version of the desktop software and found few things:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>my online cloud/repository was crashing desktop software immediately after start (after connection is made)</li>\n<li>I've just created new username after realizing there is no way to reuse my old account (tried to delete all via web interface but no luck)</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>So the cloud argument: hm, proved not to be to reliable.</p>\n\n<p>Then I noticed few bugs that blown my mind.</p>\n\n<p>It was all fine before but now (LibreOffice plugin): you click \"insert citation\" it minimizes Mendeley Desktop (!?! yes, you are at LibreOffice but for no apparent reason, it minimizes the Mendeley Desktop even it is on the second screen), opens popup window within the LibreOffice where you have to know exactly what you want to cite - but, your cursor is not refocused to the input field (HA!). You say: ok, let's see what I was about to cite: you open Mendeley from the task bar and then: HA! the popup window is gone! Then you click \"insert citation\" again - and guess what: it does the same thing, with the windows again!</p>\n\n<p>So, you might thought that multi-display environment is common in scientific community - but no, you're wrong: apparently 99% of Mendeley users have single screen and find this show&amp;hide game amusing. At least, such impression I've got from low votes on this issue on their support/suggestion issue rank list. </p>\n\n<p>I'm still using the Mendeley because I'm so used to. But if you're a new user, having a learning/adaptation curve to pass anyway: try something else first. </p>\n\n<p>Mendeley does have very good auto-discovery solution for any PDF you put in watched folder(s). Few fantastic features it has, in that direction like auto online search for more data for existing entry. But then some really stupid bugs make you crazy: like you manually edit a field, then open another entry and come back to the edited one: HA! you see the old data, the update you just typed in vanished. I'm still trying to understand a pattern there: because it's like every 4th modification is just ignored, at least in my case.</p>\n\n<p>To me it seems they have to stop with development of new features and go back to fix the stuff that was fine before, but suddenly became buggy for no reason. I wish it is an open source project so I can jump into the code and disable this \"now you see me, now you don't\" game of the windows. It kills me.</p>\n\n<p>(this is comment, not answer)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/365", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/224/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 372, "author": "Ben Webster", "author_id": 13, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't think there's one answer to this question. Different people react to different things on CVs in different ways. The level of listing above is silly; if the candidate in the example had asked me for my advice I would have told them not to (they're basically listing jobs they were offered; interpreted generously, it looks like CV padding), but occasionally it can make sense to list a prestigious fellowship you declined due to circumstances.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 373, "author": "Amy", "author_id": 167, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/167", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Bad idea. If you turn down an award (or an acceptance to a univeristy, etc), you don't get to reap the benefits of that award. </p>\n\n<p>No one cares about the universities you <em>could have gone to</em> or the fellowship programs you <em>could have worked for</em>, they care about what you have actually done and that is all you should include on your CV/resume. Period. </p>\n\n<p>To me, the resume linked to above reads \"I had no one else edit or evaluate my resume before I posted it online.\"</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 374, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Like so many other matters, your location plays a role in what is considered accepted or not. </p>\n\n<p>In the US, I would limit listing \"declined\" awards to <em>national</em>, <em>competitive</em> fellowships which had to be declined because of the fact that you're not allowed to accept multiple fellowships. However, the awarding of multiple such fellowships shows that you are a \"hot commodity,\" and therefore does confer some benefit to you. (As an example of other countries' practices, here in Germany, it is <em>expected</em> that you would list offers of faculty positions that you have declined, for exactly the same reason.)</p>\n\n<p>However, I would agree with Amy and Ben that in the present case, those awards should not have been listed on a CV. On the other hand, \"DOD Fellow\" and \"Offered NSF fellowship\" would be a different scenario.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1047, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Aeismail makes an important point about location: what's standard in Germany differs from what's standard in the US.</p>\n\n<p>In a US context, I would strongly recommend against listing things like declined graduate fellowships. It will look strange, and even beyond that it can work to your disadvantage: everybody will already assume you declined several attractive offers, so giving an explicit list will do nothing but focus attention on what isn't on the list. (If the list of declined offers is short, readers will be disappointed, and if it's long, they'll spend more time speculating about what's missing than being impressed.)</p>\n\n<p>The only time I'd recommend highlighting this sort of information is if for some reason you had to turn down a vastly more prestigious offer than the one you accepted. For example, maybe you were offered a tenure-track job at a top department, but ended up working as an adjunct in the middle of nowhere so you could take care of a relative. You should then make sure everybody knows this the next time you are able to apply for jobs. However, you should be very careful when doing this, because if the prestige difference isn't absolutely universally acknowledged, then you run the risk of offending people who feel you are unfairly denigrating a perfectly fine career path.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/368", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 376, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I'm not sure how much of your issue is related to the specific field—mathematicians are known for being somewhat more independent than graduate students in, say, engineering.</p>\n\n<p>That said, your advisor should at least show signs of being interested in your research. If you feel like you need help, and aren't getting any, then you need to make arrangements to get it. At first, I'd recommend talking to other graduate students and postdocs under your advisor. Next, I'd talk to other students outside the group; finally, I'd move on to other faculty.</p>\n\n<p>It really depends on how easy or difficult it is to change advisors. If it's relatively easy, then in the end, it might be necessary as a last resort. If not, you'll need to make do with a rather unfortunate situation.</p>\n\n<p>Ultimately, this is a case-by-case kind of situation: you'll need to talk to more people in your department and find out how widespread this is. Some advisors are completely hands-off, and expect their students to be self-motivating. Others are hands-on to the point of micromanagement. In math, my impression from conversations with colleagues is that the tendency is towards being hands-off, but it's impossible to say what will be the case in your specific department.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 378, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Staff at my department have to propose specific projects for MSc theses (possibly together with the student). Even if your university doesn't require that, I would expect your supervisor to help you significantly with selecting the topic of your thesis. For the thesis itself the help will be less, but I wouldn't think it reasonable to expect an MSc student to essentially come up with their thesis topic unless they want to.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 432, "author": "Ellen Spertus", "author_id": 269, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/269", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It can vary a lot by advisor. You should always talk to current (and former if possible) students of an advisor before committing to one. Some questions you might ask:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>How often do you meet with your advisor?</li>\n<li>Did your advisor help you come up with a thesis topic?</li>\n<li>Does your advisor answer your emails quickly/at all?</li>\n<li>Do you feel comfortable asking your advisor for help? Does he/she give it?</li>\n<li>Does your advisor know and care about your career goals?</li>\n<li>Is your advisor expected to stay around this school for long? (An advisor could be pre-tenure and expected not to get it or could be up for sabbatical soon.)</li>\n<li>When you thought you were done, did your advisor agree or want you to do more? How long did it take to get the advisor to read the thesis?</li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/375", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/52/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 386, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Some journals implement a double-blind reviewing process, meaning that the reviewers are not aware that the authors are from academia or not, and only the scientific content is judged. That being said, it's worth mentioning that it would be hard for someone without a proper \"paper-writing\" training (such as the one one can acquire in academia), to produce a paper that would be accepted by reviewers. Some general structure is expected, such as related Works, critical discussion, rigorous methodology, and I would say that without that, it would be hard to get the paper published (I have myself rejected papers from graduate students, not because the idea itself was bad, but because the structure and the presentation were not meeting the standards one could expect for a scientific publication). </p>\n\n<p>EDIT: After reformulation of the question, assuming that the quality of the paper makes it indistinguishable from any other paper, then, no, as far as I know, there is no general policy regarding the official affiliation of the author(s). For instance, in Computer Science, it's not rare to see papers published by people working in a \"normal\" company (i.e. not a research company), typically on some concrete problems/solutions they have found. Some people even keep publishing after starting their own startup, and therefore the affiliation is something like \"MyCompanyWeb2.0\". </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 387, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In principle, there's nothing stopping a paper from being published by a private individual. However, in many fields, the bar to realizing a publishable &quot;quantum&quot; of work is so large in terms of equipment or other resources required that there's virtually no chance of anyone without exceptional means could afford it.</p>\n<p>That said, there's also nothing that <em>requires</em> a journal to accept a paper from a private individual, either. Journals regularly return papers without review; one criterion for accepting a paper could very easily be that the authors have affiliations witbh &quot;verifiable&quot; organizations.</p>\n<p>However, once a paper has been forwarded for review, it should absolutely be reviewed on an equal basis to any other paper in the journal.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 392, "author": "Henry", "author_id": 8, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As far as I know, in just about every field it would be considered wrong to reject a paper merely because the author doesn't have a university affiliation.</p>\n\n<p>However, as other answers have pointed out, a paper from a non-academic may have difficulty complying with the usual norms of the field for writing, and might be summarily rejected (or sent to a referee but quickly turned down after a cursory reading) on those ground. Mathematics probably gets more amateur submissions than most fields, many of them downright crankery---although now that I think of it, it's been several months now since someone e-mailed me a one-page proof of Fermat's Last Theorem---and coping with them is a problem, in part because there is a culture that says formal journal submissions need an actual reason to be rejected, just in case this is really the one time a genius from outside academia has solved a problem. But the converse is that as soon as such a paper does fail to comply with ordinary norms of writing and argument, there's grounds to reject it.</p>\n\n<p>(By the way, your example is an interesting one because a study on memory presumably involves research on humans, or at least animals, which might have compliance issues---a carpenter has presumably not gone through the usual process of having research with human subjects checked by a board for ethical compliance, and I'm not sure journals would publish research which requires ethics review but didn't get it.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 10816, "author": "Samuel Russell", "author_id": 4429, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4429", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In the Humanities and Social Sciences there are no formal restrictions against submissions by members of the general public. Some journals are far more friendly to non-academic researchers, either due to editorial staff or a culture of supporting popular contributions to knowledge. (History from below and socialist research programmes in general have an openness to knowledge from outside the traditional academy).</p>\n\n<p>The largest barriers to entry are of course the methods, language, evidence and \"currency of research\" required to conduct and produce research to scholarly standards.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 10839, "author": "bill s", "author_id": 6308, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6308", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In general, it should not matter who you are, it is the quality and importance of the work you do that should determine the publishability. With that said, it is true that it is a nontrivial task to write with the appropriate tone, have the needed citations, and conduct a solid research effort without formal training. My advice to you, should you be considering publishing in a technical area (if you are the carpenter in question), would be to find someone who works/publishes in the area with the aim of writing something together. Chances are they may have some good ideas on how to structure and present the work, how to formulate the basic hypotheses and ideas so that they will be palatable to the journal.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 17177, "author": "Philip Gibbs", "author_id": 7466, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7466", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I left academia about 27 years ago after completing my doctorate and a couple of years of post-doc. Since then I have published about 6 papers on physics and mathematics in peer-reviewed journals so it is certainly possible to publish without any affiliation.</p>\n\n<p>However, this week for the first time I experienced the rejection of a paper purely because of the lack of affiliation, so I can confirm that some journals are now rejecting manuscripts purely on this basis. The paper I submitted was <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/abs/1401.8217\" rel=\"noreferrer\">arXiv:1401.8217</a> which reports my progress on Lebesgue's Universal Covering Problem including a new upper bound. This work is not going to make any seismic waves in the world of mathematics but it is a well known hundred year old problem and previous improvements on the upper bound have been published and well cited.</p>\n\n<p>I submitted to the Hindawi journal \"ISRN Geometry\" because it is open access and currently has no article processing charge. These are useful conditions for someone with no funding or easy access to subscription journals. It was also convenient that they do not ask for TeX layout and will do the formatting to their style themselves. I had written in Word and was glad not to have to reformat.</p>\n\n<p>After about two weeks I received a message from someone at the editorial office to say that I just had to submit a new manuscript including my academic affiliation for the review process to begin. I was given two days to do this. I replied quickly to say that I had no such affiliation. Two hours later I received a final rejection notice \"I regret to inform you that it was found unsuitable for publication in Geometry.\" No more details were given. The paper had not been sent to a reviewer and it was clear that the only reason for the rejection could be the lack of the requested affiliation. The person who signed the message does not have any academic record that I can find and is not one of the long list of editors for the journal.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 111515, "author": "Egregio", "author_id": 94156, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/94156", "pm_score": -1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you want to appear in a motorsport magazine as a racing driver, you will need to belong to an approved team and comply with all the rules of the activity. If any requirement is missing, even if it is minimal, you will be left out.</p>\n\n<p>Motorsport sponsors protect their interests and impose conditions. They can pay a lot for technical optimization and can pay pilots to spend all their time intensely training. So do the sponsors of science.</p>\n\n<p>Do you listen to fans of motorsport complain about the imposition of conditions in the activity? Obviously there are no such complaints. Why then, who are out of scientific sponsorship, want to complain?</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/385", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/141/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 390, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The policies vary entirely from journal to journal about what is considered acceptable. APS journals, for instance, will accept both MS Word-based documents as well as documents formatted with RevTeX, their modified template system. ACS journals and a number of other publishers also offer their own LaTeX- and Word-specific templates for authors to use. Whether the use of the template is required or merely recommended is also a function of the journal. So, as a general rule, you should <em>always</em> check the homepage of a journal <em>before</em> you start preparing an article for submission to that journal. </p>\n\n<p>To some extent, I prefer working with LaTeX in preparing manuscripts, for the simple reason that their plain-text document format makes it a lot less painful to switch back and forth between different templates, compared to a word-processing format like Word or LibreOffice or Pages. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 391, "author": "Mad Scientist", "author_id": 201, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/201", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This varies a lot between journals, and probably even more between different disciplines. In the life sciences Latex is rather rare, MS Word seems to me to be the most common format in my subjective observation.</p>\n\n<p>But the actual document format, be it Latex or Word, is only part of the difference between journals. The exact rules on how to format a paper vary so much that you'll have to put significant effort into adapting the same manuscript for different journals anyway. Check out the <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/nature/authors/gta/index.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Author submission guidelines for Nature</a> or <a href=\"http://pubs.acs.org/paragonplus/submission/jacsat/jacsat_authguide.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">those from JACS</a> as an example. They often regulate details like how the axis labelling in graphs has to look like. The journals also often have different length requirements, so you might have to shorten your manuscript if you decide to switch to a different journal.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 393, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It does indeed vary from subject to subject, and journal to journal. I once got in a short argument with some math students who had asserted \"If its going to be published, it needs to be in LaTeX\", a disagreement that only ended when I went and found some submission guidelines. For three fairly good journals in my field (Epidemiology), you have some considerable differences.</p>\n\n<p><em>American Journal of Epidemiology</em> wants everything in either Word or PDF format - LaTeX documents are compatible with this, but its certainly not doing anyone any favors in terms of already being formatted. <em>Epidemiology</em> will accept LaTeX documents, but warns that the odds of typesetting and other erros increases in formats besides <em>Word</em>. <em>Journal of Clinical Epidemiology</em> only requires that an editable version be available.</p>\n\n<p>So the de-facto standard in my field is Word, though of course there are ways around that. And then, as mentioned, there are formatting issues beyond just \"what's the file extension?\" How references, the text, and figures are reported - must odds ratios be graphed on a log scale or not?. How p-values are treated. What format graphics are allowed to be in, etc. As Fabian said, submitting to a new journal often involves combing through the same content to subtly tweak formatting.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/389", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/247/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 395, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't have hard numbers to support this statement, but I've been told that many investment banks are quite interested in PhD (although mostly in hard sciences) for quantitative analyst jobs. These positions are not research positions, but it seems that the rigor and the experience of research, in terms for instance of modelling data, acquired during the PhD is appreciated. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 396, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think that the only positions where it makes sense to hire a PhD over a master's degree holder are those which require a lot of analytical skills, plus the ability to be \"laterally\" flexible. That is, you want to hire someone who can do many different tasks over time, rather than just lead one project or group. These occupations would include quantitative analysis, but would also include more non-traditional jobs such as a journal editor or a consultant.</p>\n\n<p>From an industrial perspective, though, for anything outside of research, it's probably more economical and practical to hire someone with direct or relevant experience at the master's level and train them to do the job you need them to do.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 402, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>From what I've heard, some companies prefer hiring PhDs over Masters not because of their additional knowledge because people who have done a PhD will in general be more mature and reliable. Some companies also count having a PhD as work experience which will reflect on your salary.</p>\n\n<p>To answer your question, I'm not aware of any specific positions for which this is done, but depending on what the actual job is, recruiters may prefer candidates with a PhD (even if it's not in exactly what the work is going to be) for the reason mentioned above.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 406, "author": "Amy", "author_id": 167, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/167", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am currently employed in the biotech industry. Hopefully this is helpful but it may all just be obvious:</p>\n\n<p>Concerning <strong>research industry positions</strong>, jobs are generally classified as PhD (scientist) or non-PhD (research assistant/associate). For scientists positions, sometimes someone without a PhD will be considered if they have significant experience - e.g. Masters plus 5-8 years, Bachelors plus 10+ years. However, PhDs are generally favored over non-PhDs for outside hires. For research asst/assoc positions, non-PhDs are favored over PhD holders, and many companies have policies that prohibit hiring PhDs. </p>\n\n<p>Concerning <strong>non-research industry positions</strong>, holding a PhD will give you an edge over BS/MS holders, but you have to compete with other specialized degrees. For business developement and upper management positions, you'd have to compete with MBA holders (along with internal hires from research/scientific management). For legal positions, you'd compete with JDs and certified patent agents. For project management, there are certifications as well. </p>\n\n<p>If you were to hold MBA/JD/additional certification AND a PhD, you would be extremely marketable for these types of positions. It's a lot of work to add something like that on after finishing a PhD program, but companies often love to have PhDs on staff in those types of positions - but generally you need to have the other qualifications as well. </p>\n\n<p>Edit: Also, the best people to talk to are professors from your current/old department who are on any company's board of directors. They will know exactly what kind of people a company wants to hire, and will be able to tell you how to target your job search, or what kind of experience/credentials matter most. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 416, "author": "mindcorrosive", "author_id": 255, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/255", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>High-tech engineering companies, for one. A friend of mine works at a small system-on-a-chip designer company, and they supply highly specialized chip designs to other businesses which utilize embedded systems -- think leading automotive, aerospace, consumer electronics OEMs. The company is small and every engineering employee has at least a MSc, most of them have PhDs or higher (that would be associate professors and professors).</p>\n\n<p>Another example is automotive R&amp;D -- mechanical engineering. Companies are financing new development of new methodologies in product development -- particularly structural optimization, design automation, manufacturing process simulations. Virtual prototyping is the name of the game for top manufacturers currently, and the demand for highly-skilled experts is great, even in these uncertain economic times. </p>\n\n<p>In the country where I study, PhD projects are financed jointly by interested private companies as well as research organizations, and the companies have a vested interest to receive not only the direct results from the research, but also trained individuals that can integrate the research outcomes into their product development or manufacturing process. </p>\n\n<p>Obviously YMMV by country and research field. PhDs in in mostly theoretical projects might have harder time finding a good position after graduating, while hands-on graduates whose projects were conducted in collaboration with industrial partners are much more likely to secure a senior technical position even before their dissertation.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 421, "author": "Andrzej", "author_id": 259, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/259", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>PhD is all about getting qualifications for becoming a scientist/researcher. You learn how to do the research independently, how to present your work, you meet people who might be helpful in your further career, and incidentally you get some hands-on experience in an obscure area of science. These are \"hard\" skills you get along the way. This means that the <em>only</em> type of work PhD is required for, or gives you a real benefit, is a job of a researcher, either in academia or in the industry.</p>\n\n<p>Occasionally you might be lucky to work on something truly useful and job will be a natural extension of your PhD. But since getting a PhD degree is really a learning process, the topics are necessarily moderately ambitious and niche - you have the rest of your scientific career to \"make an impact\".</p>\n\n<p>Outside the research the only thing PhD gives you is a bit of \"prestige\". This might be a hindrance, or, at best, make no difference when you search for a job. But in a long term you'll likely find that the ceiling is a bit higher. The good thing is that any job you end up doing will be good - the title automatically \"filters out\" positions that you would later find unsuitable.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/394", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 403, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think a good general question to ask is what motivates them to do their research. The answer should give you a good idea at least for the latter and depending on the level of detail maybe also for the former.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 405, "author": "TCSGrad", "author_id": 79, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I underwent an interview recently from a prospective adviser, and I found the questions he asked of me to be pretty insightful - hence I'm sharing them here.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Why do you want to pursue research in this specific area?</p>\n\n<p>This would highlight the candidate's motivation in wanting to do research in a particular field - and would also tell the professor more about the candidate's exposure to this area.</p></li>\n<li><p>What made you apply to this lab/university, as a continuation of the previous question?</p>\n\n<p>The answer would tell you whether the applicant had simply browsed the rankings list of universities, or did he/she actually go through the research publications of the lab - and the application was done due to an intersection of the two!</p></li>\n<li><p>What would you like to be doing post Ph.D.?</p>\n\n<p>There is no \"right\" answer to this, but it also tells a lot about the candidate's motivation in pursuing a PhD.</p></li>\n<li><p>Finally, you can ask the candidate to discuss any problem that he is familiar with in that field - doesn't have to be anything fancy/complicated, but that would serve to highlight the clarity of the applicant's reasoning, communication skills, and level of exposure to the field. </p></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 408, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In addition to the questions that shan23 has mentioned, I ask candidates for my group a few other questions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><em>What kind of advising style do they like? How \"hands-on\" or \"hands-off\" do they want me to be?</em> If they want someone whose style is vastly different from mine, that's going to be a problem. </p></li>\n<li><p><em>What is your preferred working environment? (When?, Where?, etc.)</em> I just want to get a sense of what they're going to be like to work with.</p></li>\n<li><p><em>What kinds of projects do they like?</em> Do they want a methodology-driven project, or are they more interested in applications.</p></li>\n<li><p><em>Have you spoken with members of my group?</em> I want future group members to have an interest in who they'll be working with.</p></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 410, "author": "Amy", "author_id": 167, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/167", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is my favorite question to ask in interviews:</p>\n\n<p><em>Can you tell me about a problem you encountered in the laboratory, and the process you went through to troubleshoot it?</em></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 41548, "author": "posdef", "author_id": 5674, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Ask them about their <strong><em>expectations</em></strong> out of their coming 3-5 years as a grad student! </p>\n\n<p>I find that a significant portion of the frustration that I (and those others around me) have experienced is due to s<em>evere disparity between expectations and reality</em>. Note that this is as much for the benefit of the prospective student as it is for you as the PI. </p>\n\n<p>Specifically things to consider regarding expectations:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The amount and style of supervision the student expects.</strong> My expectation was that I would \"do science\" and not \"paperwork\", in reality my PI knew less about the paperwork then I did, so I typically ended up needing to do a bunch of paperwork regarding employment (like salary raises, progress reports etc) and always late too...</li>\n<li><strong>The abundance and lack of relevant competencies in the lab, for that proposed project.</strong> I was confident that the lack of computational competency at our lab wasn't gonna be a problem for me. I couldn't be more wrong..</li>\n<li><strong>The workplace interaction with colleagues.</strong> I was under the impression that we'd be a team of intellectuals, tackling problems together, from our own angles. Again I was dead-wrong... Here, everyone's buried under their own pile of... Similarly, I can imagine that if the student expects to be a lone-wolf, forced team-work might be frustrating in the long run.</li>\n<li><strong>How to handle getting stuck/frustrated.</strong> This is quite self-explanatory I guess..</li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/397", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 401, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<ul>\n<li>You would probably find it very hard to find a job or may even get fired from your job, depending on the severeness of the fraud.</li>\n<li>Your employer might start a formal investigation into your behaviour.</li>\n<li>The party you defrauded might sue you for damages.</li>\n<li>Your reputation in your community would be at least severely damanged. Other researchers might refuse to collaborate with you.</li>\n<li>You might be banned from applying for grants and/or have trouble getting grants you apply for.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I'm sure there are lots of other things. Basically, unless you have a very good explanation for it, you're done for (at least in your particular area of research).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 407, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>As I posted in answer to another comment, more often than not, schools want to avoid the dramas associated with plagiarism scandals. That is why schools like Harvard will prompt researchers accused of fraudulent behavior, such as <a href=\"http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/9/9/professor-faculty-misconduct-tenure/\">Marc Hauser</a>, to resign, rather than go through tenure revocation procedures.</p>\n\n<p>But losing one's job is fairly likely, and an unofficial blacklisting is almost certain to result.</p>\n\n<p>One other consequence, though, is often forgotten: the peripheral damage of academic fraud cases. Sensationalized results, such as those in the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hendrik_Sch%C3%B6n\">Jan Hendrik Schön</a> and <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk\">Hwang Woo-Suk</a> cases, led many graduate students to embark on projects in those disciplines trying to reproduce and expand upon the promises implied by those projects. When those projects collapsed, a lot of graduate students were left in the lurch.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/398", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 401, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<ul>\n<li>You would probably find it very hard to find a job or may even get fired from your job, depending on the severeness of the fraud.</li>\n<li>Your employer might start a formal investigation into your behaviour.</li>\n<li>The party you defrauded might sue you for damages.</li>\n<li>Your reputation in your community would be at least severely damanged. Other researchers might refuse to collaborate with you.</li>\n<li>You might be banned from applying for grants and/or have trouble getting grants you apply for.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I'm sure there are lots of other things. Basically, unless you have a very good explanation for it, you're done for (at least in your particular area of research).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 407, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>As I posted in answer to another comment, more often than not, schools want to avoid the dramas associated with plagiarism scandals. That is why schools like Harvard will prompt researchers accused of fraudulent behavior, such as <a href=\"http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/9/9/professor-faculty-misconduct-tenure/\">Marc Hauser</a>, to resign, rather than go through tenure revocation procedures.</p>\n\n<p>But losing one's job is fairly likely, and an unofficial blacklisting is almost certain to result.</p>\n\n<p>One other consequence, though, is often forgotten: the peripheral damage of academic fraud cases. Sensationalized results, such as those in the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Hendrik_Sch%C3%B6n\">Jan Hendrik Schön</a> and <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwang_Woo-suk\">Hwang Woo-Suk</a> cases, led many graduate students to embark on projects in those disciplines trying to reproduce and expand upon the promises implied by those projects. When those projects collapsed, a lot of graduate students were left in the lurch.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/399", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/251/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 411, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Your best source of such information would be to look for electronic repositories that are at least partially \"open.\" The <a href=\"http://www.openthesis.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>openThesis</em> repository</a> offers one such source, and you might find some information on sites like <a href=\"http://academia.edu\" rel=\"nofollow\">academia.edu</a>. </p>\n\n<p>An alternate source would be to look at individual school's repositories. For instance, MIT's <a href=\"http://dspace.mit.edu\" rel=\"nofollow\">DSpace</a> offers copies of many recent MIT thesis and dissertations, which can be previewed by anyone, although you need to be a member of the MIT community in order to be able to download and print documents from the site.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 423, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A quick Google search for \"<a href=\"https://www.google.com/search?q=partial+fulfillment+master+of+science+mathematics\" rel=\"nofollow\">partial fulfillment master science mathematics</a>\" finds hundreds of MS theses in several branches of mathematics.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 433, "author": "davidlowryduda", "author_id": 127, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/127", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm now a PhD candidate mathematician, working towards understanding what really constitutes a paper as well. If you are considering going after a math PhD, I recommend finding an area you're interested in, finding papers in that field, and backtracking enough until you understand what's going on. I think math is very-well suited to this style of behavior.</p>\n\n<p>For example, I'm interested in number theory, and I've recently been hearing a lot about automorphic forms and multiple Dirichlet Series. So I find <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/pdf/1110.4868\" rel=\"nofollow\">this paper</a> by Dr. Hoffstein. Some of it is understandable, some of it isn't. Going through it, I isolate 3 potential sources that might help me understand - the first references are frequently on background material, and here he references Selberg's work. Conveniently, my institution has access to electronic archives of his work, so that's great. It also references an Analytic Number Theory textbook by Iwaniec. Finally, I realize that this is largely built on <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0110092\" rel=\"nofollow\">this previous paper</a>, with Dr. Hoffstein as one of the authors, from years before.</p>\n\n<p>And then I can rinse, wash, and repeat. In this way, I both get an idea of what papers are like, how far removed they are from current material, and how advanced the math that goes into them are. A key aspect of this idea is that it's easier to go after particular research papers, theses, and dissertations than it is to find whole repositories that you can go through. So perhaps you should try a similar approach, suited to your interests.</p>\n\n<p>As always, a good place to start is the <a href=\"http://www.arxiv.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">arxiv</a>.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, it sounds like you're preparing to write a bachelors thesis, and that's of a different calibre. I suspect that your school has its own standards, and the best way to prepare for that is to simply do your best and ask your advisor lots of questions along the way. Ultimately, your school can't demand from an undergrad much more than it prepares you for (a vast difference from the life of overgrads, in my opinion).</p>\n\n<p>As a last note, Harvey Mudd has a large archive of their undergrad math senior's theses <a href=\"http://www.math.hmc.edu/seniorthesis/archives/\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a>, and they might be what you're looking for if you don't like my previous idea.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/409", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/52/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 413, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It doesn't sound like you want to make that explicit on your CV. You could certainly include something in your cover letter though that mentions that you'd prefer not to do work in that area.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 414, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Typically, the way you would state that sort of preference is by noticeably not including it in the list of interests. Given your experience with the technique, not including it on a cover letter, or in your \"Objectives\" statement on your CV, should be enough to prompt someone to ask about it during the interview process. If it does not come up during discussion, you will definitely want to proactively mention it at some point during your interview.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, the best way is to not apply to labs which do that sort of work, and focus your search on areas that do interest you.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 415, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Usually, in an academic CV, you can distinguish between \"Research Activities\", which consist of all the research you've done in the past, and \"Research Interest\", which consist of all the research you want to do in the future. So, someone who would include a topic that you don't list in your research activities without asking you first would be a bit rude. </p>\n\n<p>However, in order to avoid this kind of cases, and not to be too explicit (that is, not saying \"I don't to work on Computational Chemistry\"), you can try, in your cover letter or your research interests to put a sentence like \"Although I have a good background in Computational Chemistry, my research interests rather lie in ...\" or \"My background in Computational Chemistry taught me to [...], and I'm now interested in broadening/focusing my interest on [...]\". That's a bit more subtle, but I guess the message should pass. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/412", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/242/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 418, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The \"Differential\" argument doesn't really even hold as much weight as you'd think, because many departments will reward you with a bonus for bringing in an outside fellowship. Then it becomes even more of an incentive to obtain an outside fellowship.</p>\n\n<p>In addition to this, external awards make you more attractive to potential advisors, since you don't cost them as much in the long run to support you. In some cases, this even makes the difference between being able to work on a project of one's own choosing, versus a project for which the advisor has funding.</p>\n\n<p>So, the only reasons I can think of why one wouldn't want to apply for at least some sort of fellowship support are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Being a fantastically rich student, who can pay his own tuition and stipend support for the full duration of the program, or</li>\n<li>Being a student of extremely limited means, who can't afford the costs of reporting GRE or scores or transcripts to the various funding agencies. (In many cases, though, \"hardship waivers\" are available that renders even this point moot.)</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 419, "author": "mankoff", "author_id": 185, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/185", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<ul>\n<li><p>Reward to ratio of the application. If you already have some funding, and the additional funding is small compared to the time required to apply for it. For example, you have an NSF fellowship at ~$30k/yr, so it might not be worth applying to $2k scholarships which take a week or two of time.</p></li>\n<li><p>Reward to ratio of the work. You don't want to take on a new project.</p></li>\n<li><p>The project isn't relevant to your line of work.</p></li>\n<li><p>You aren't qualified (GPA, citizenship, or status limitations)</p></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 420, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Beyond @mankoff's answer of it not being worth it (I've chosen not to apply for fellowships with a poor reward:effort ratio), you might not be <em>allowed</em> to. For example, many fellowships, NIH training grants etc. have rules about what other funding you can get (especially for the same project).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 430, "author": "Amy", "author_id": 167, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/167", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Why didn't I apply to the NSF pre-doctoral scholarship during my second year of grad school?</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Time</strong> - I didn't have any. And since I was doing a different project from what I proposed when I applied my previous year, I would have had to write my application over from scratch. </li>\n<li><strong>Feedback from previous year</strong> - my subject GRE score was not high enough. Even though I could have re-taken the exam for free, I didn't have time to study for it all over again.</li>\n<li><strong>I had a stipend</strong> - Even though the award would have increased my yearly stipend by about $6k, the chances seemed slim and I felt my time was better spent being on top of my course work, studying for my qualifying exam, and getting a good start on my thesis project.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>(Full disclosure: after passing my quals I opted to leave grad school with a MS instead of finishing the PhD. I've been employed full-time at academic or industry labs since.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1151, "author": "bobthejoe", "author_id": 319, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/319", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I refuse to abide by the <strong>rich student</strong> frame of thought. If the rich student has funding and works for a PI, then that PI is then able to fund another student. Graduate Fellowships should not always be considered a zero-sum game.</p>\n\n<p>However, certain fellowships like SMART involve military service. Others like the NIH NRSA prevent you from taking summer internships. I see both as pretty valid reasons for not bothering to apply.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/417", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 425, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<ol>\n<li><p>I don't think you can expect to get the opinion of a professor about another institute/lab. You can probably get some facts (like this other institute has more/less money, they are more/less active in this area), but nothing subjective. Academia is pretty small world, and people try as much as possible not to say anything negative publicly (and since everything said is positive, it can be hard to distinguish the real positive from the fake one). </p></li>\n<li><p>You need to have a real interest in their work. As mentioned <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/271/how-to-achieve-successful-collaborations\">here</a>, it's already pretty hard to maintain collaboration between people interested, so if there is no clear interest, it will very hard to be on email terms. But, the question is: why do you want to be on email terms? </p></li>\n<li><p>See the previous point. You need to <em>really</em> interested, meaning you've read and understood their papers, and are able to ask questions that go beyond \"what are the possible usage of your approach?\". </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>As a general remark, professors are usually already very busy dealing with their own research/teaching/students. Of course, they usually are open to new collaborations, but they might lack the time to work with a student who is not theirs. A good solution could to try to visit them, academically speaking, for a month or so, to work on a very specific topic. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 426, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>From your stated question, you need to tread carefully. The nature of the environment at those presentations is one where the professors are looking for potential graduate students, not collaborators. Even more so, if you're a potential graduate student, you likely haven't done any real research yet, so you can't work out \"collaborations\" or anything.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, it's perfectly acceptable to simply walk over to them and ask to hear more about their research and interests. They know that you're looking at many labs and many not choose theirs. Just make sure your request to remain in contact comes across as a \"Do you mind if I contact you later to discuss your research?\" and not \"Can we talk later even though I have no interest in joining your lab?\" Now is not the setting for that; wait until after having joined a lab to initiate that conversation.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 431, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Take the long view. Don't try to go fishing for collaborations for <em>now</em>, or even in the near future. Faculty-student sessions, meet-and-greets, etc. aren't completely a waste of time in places you don't think you want to attend however. A few reasons:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>You will have met them. Yes, by the time you're actually something resembling a peer it will have been some time, but being able to say \"We spoke once when I was looking at University X\" is never a bad thing.</li>\n<li>You get a feel for them as people. This isn't just \"would I like to collaborate with this person?\" The academic landscape is made up of people, and if this is your field, these people will come up. Paper reviewers, journal editors, session chairs at conferences. All of those things are impacted by personality - something you can start to get a feel for while you're there.</li>\n<li>You get the birds-eye-view of some of the cutting edge research in your field. That can suggest things like where the field is headed.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>It's essentially an excuse to meet some people years before you <em>need</em> to meet them. I also had some of the best shrimp-and-grits I've ever eaten at one, so there's that.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 470, "author": "Amy", "author_id": 167, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/167", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Why are you visiting programs that you know you don't want to attend? (I want to go further and ask, why even apply to programs you know you don't want to attend?)</p>\n\n<p><em>If I am not interested in that institute but wanted the opinion of one of the professors about another institute/lab (the ones I am interested in attending), is that a taboo?</em></p>\n\n<p>Yes. For a handful of reasons - the most critical being that you are basically telling the professor that <strong>the department wasted their money bringing you out there</strong>. You are also wasting that professor's time by talking about another university when she's there to talk about her lab and her institution. </p>\n\n<p>And it's also worth saying that most professors don't bother to get to know or remember most students who actually enter the program! This is not the time to get on \"email terms,\" she's not going to remember you. The time to do that is once you are established in a lab and have your own project to talk about. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/422", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 434, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In general, the answer is negative.</p>\n\n<p>Not only there are different systems in different countries (and same-spelled degrees may have different requirements), but even if a degree seems to be the same, it is not necessary considered equivalent.</p>\n\n<p>Often universities and institutes have some freedom in the interpretation of degrees earned in other countries. Common sense can be a good guide but in case of doubt you need to check if university (or institute) X accepts a foreign academic title Y instead of their Z. </p>\n\n<p>For example, when I obtained degrees <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licentiate#Poland\">licencjat</a> (3 years undergraduate, 180ECTS) and <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magister_%28degree%29#Central_Europe_and_Eastern_Europe\">magister</a> (5 years undergraduate, 300ECTS) from a Polish university, they refused to translate it into anything else (stating explicitly that it is not equivalent to anything else). However, some other Polish universities do translate it into <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachelor_of_Science\">Bachelor of Science</a> and <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Science\">Master of Science</a>, respectively. Nevertheless, my new institute didn't have problem to find them qualifying me for their PhD program.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 161497, "author": "Lu Kas", "author_id": 57572, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/57572", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As the <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/434/75368\">answer of Piotr Migdal</a> says, there is not really a generally accepted consensus on this.</p>\n<p>However, the <a href=\"https://www.oecd.org/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">OECD</a> defines certain grades to rank academic positions/titles in their <a href=\"https://www.oecd.org/publications/frascati-manual-2015-9789264239012-en.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">2015 Frascati Manual</a> (on page 275). They give some examples of titles that fit in these grades. The <a href=\"http://uis.unesco.org/en/home\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">UNESCO Institute for Statistics</a> apparently <a href=\"http://uis.unesco.org/en/glossary-term/researchers-seniority-levels\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">also recommended these grades</a> to be used and added some additional examples of titles, these I've italicized below.</p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Category A</strong>: The single highest grade/post at which research is normally conducted.\nExamples: “Full professor” or <em>“Director of research”</em></li>\n<li><strong>Category B</strong>: Researchers working in positions not as senior as top position (A) but more senior than newly qualified doctoral graduates.\nExamples: “Senior researcher” or “Associate professor” or <em>“Principal investigator”</em></li>\n<li><strong>Category C</strong>: The first grade/post into which a newly qualified doctoral graduate would normally be recruited.\nExamples: &quot;Assistant professor” or “Post-doctoral fellow” or <em>“Researcher</em>” or <em>“Investigator”</em></li>\n<li><strong>Category D</strong>: Either doctoral students who are engaged as researchers, or researchers working in posts that do not normally require a doctorate degree.\nExamples: “PhD students” or “junior researchers”</li>\n</ul>\n<p>Obviously, these are not very widely used (at least in my experience), but at least it gives you some feeling of the relative levels and something to fall back on in case someone questions the seniority grade you claim.</p>\n<p>It also clearly shows the large discrepancy between the U.S., where even a post-doctoral level could have a title with &quot;professor&quot; in it, and Europe, where &quot;professor&quot; is usually the highest or almost highest academic title you can have.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/428", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 436, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>Code</strong> - yes, it is a good idea.</p>\n\n<p><strong>PDF</strong> (perhaps with LaTeX source) - you can (why not? but rather as a place to store it and point to).</p>\n\n<p>However (for finished), there are more dedicated places, e.g.:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.openthesis.org/\">opentheis</a> - repository of theses,</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.mendeley.com/\">Mendeley</a> - reference manager allowing to upload your publications (including theses),</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://arxiv.org/\">arXiv</a> - base of preprints (but only for theses in English and from a list of topics; there you need to put source as well),</li>\n<li>etc.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>When you intend to actually write your thesis in the public - well, it is mostly up to you ( i.e. if you fill comfortable with it). </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 438, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't think there is a universal right answer to this. Some factors to consider, during the thesis <em>preparation</em> stage:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Are there intellectual property issues to consider in your thesis work? If so, that would mitigate <em>against</em> having a public repository.</p></li>\n<li><p>Does your school or institution have rules against such behavior?</p></li>\n<li><p>Does your school offer its own service, which may offer better security for your data?</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>After the thesis is completed:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Do you hold intellectual property rights to the original materials, so that you can publish it to a repository?</p></li>\n<li><p>Will publishing to a repository conflict with your ability to publish the work in journals (you'll need to check the journals in question)?</p></li>\n<li><p>Does your institution offer an archival service that will allow such access? </p></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 439, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You should be very careful. As usual, this depends on your field. Mine is mathematics and it is not uncommon for a graduate student's thesis question to be solved much more quickly by someone far more advanced. If your thesis is publicly available then you increase the chances of this. This is more relevant for those working on original research, which is not always the case for a masters thesis, but keep this in mind.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 440, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I'm told for your field that the answer might be yes, because you're slightly less threatened in terms of being scooped than most, with physics (apparently) going largely by who submits first.</p>\n\n<p><em>I</em> would be extremely cautious publishing the source of my thesis in its entirety on a public repository. I'm all for repeatable science and open access, but the public should only have access to your code when this condition is met:</p>\n\n<p><em>You have no further use of the exclusive access to your code. All the questions you've programmed have been answered, the papers and presentations that emerge from them are in press, and at this point, it is a question of reproducible research.</em></p>\n\n<p>Once that's true, sure. Until that point? You're running the profound risk of your research being stolen.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 442, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The answer is in two parts:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>Yes, it's a very good idea to use an online repository with a versioning system to write your Masters thesis. It offers a nice automatic backup, you can easily sync from different locations (office, home), and (this is mostly true for papers rather than a thesis) you can easily collaborate with people outside of your university (i.e. who wouldn't have an account on your university server.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>No, it's not a good idea at to make it public. Plagiarism is real, online versioning systems do not offer any real protection, and you don't want to make it too easy to copy, especially when you're not finished yet. I'm all for the open-access of <em>finished</em> documents, that you can put on arXiv, but in this case, there is a real timestamp, and your work can be indexed (for instance, in Computer Science, arXiv is indexed on DBLP).</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>For these reasons, I've been personally using for my papers <a href=\"https://bitbucket.org/plans\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">BitBucket</a>, that offers academics a free unlimited plan (unlimited public/private repositories, unlimited collaborators). In this way, I create a private repository for each of my papers, give access rights to my co-author(s). It seems that GitHub also provides a way to have private repositories for academics: <a href=\"https://github.com/edu\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://github.com/edu</a>, so you can keep using it for sharing your open-source code (for instance) and use it with a private repository for your thesis.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 472, "author": "luispedro", "author_id": 166, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/166", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Talk to your adviser about this. <strong>Do not make anything that is unpublished publicly available without their knowledge.</strong> Any other people who might be co-authors on your papers might also have a say.</p>\n\n<p>Having said that, a <em>private</em> github repository is a great idea (I used one myself for my PhD dissertation &amp; papers).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 491, "author": "Ivar Persson", "author_id": 314, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/314", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Bitbucket offers unlimited private repositories for academic accounts that you can get by using your uni email id. I'm writing my PhD dissertation using Lyx and use Mercurial for version control, so I store my code in a <strong>private</strong> repo on bitbucket. I think version control is indispensable for large research projects that are completed over a long time frame, so using a repository would obviously fit right in.</p>\n\n<p>But making your stuff public serves no useful purpose, neither for you, nor for the academic community that would be interested in your research. You make something public when it is ready to see the light of the day. Till then, you receive feedback from your supervisor and colleagues, and improve the quality of your work until it is <strong>good enough to be of use to others</strong></p>\n\n<p>Making half-assed research public is a crime against academia, can reflect poorly on you, and in any case conferences are the best venue for discussing work in progress <em>and</em> for getting your work time-stamped by a large gathering of people in your field who know each other, and this can prevent \"scooping\". However I must say I'm sceptical that such a thing even exists in academia, your research can only be done by <strong>you</strong>. </p>\n\n<p>Journalists search for novelty, and can therefore be scooped. We academics, on the other hand, search for credibility, which only comes from knowing \"your\" idea inside out. If somebody else can do more credible work with your idea, then they get the Nobel, you get the citation.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/435", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/272/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 444, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>They don't require you to send a cover letter to five referees, but just to indicate in your cover letter the names and contact info of 5 potential reviewers. It's just to help them finding reviewers for your paper (as they say, they might not use those you provided). But I don't think you need to contact the reviewers first. </p>\n\n<p>As far as I know, it's a pretty common procedure, I've seen it for several other journals. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 446, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I wouldn't say that a journal asking for reviewers is \"standard\" practice, but it is by no means rare. For instance, nearly all <a href=\"http://pubs.acs.org\">ACS journals</a> require that the paper submitter provide the names of between three and six potential referees. Other journals that I've submitted to, including <a href=\"http://jcp.aip.org\">J. Chem. Phys.</a> and the <a href=\"http://prola.aps.org\">Physical Review</a> series do not require referee lists of any kind.</p>\n\n<p>It should be noted that the choice of referees is entirely discretionary on the part of the editor. The editor is free to pick from any or all of the names on your list—or none of them, if it's an area the editor knows well enough to assign referees independently. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 457, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've encountered this before - as aeismail has said, it might not be \"standard\" practice (implying most journals do it) but its certainly at the very least common.</p>\n\n<p>This is often intended to provide focus and speed for journal editors to get papers out. Finding appropriate reviewers is a long and tedious task, and if editor's come to rely too much on \"their\" expert reviewers, they're likely to burn them out. The approach of recommending peer-reviewers gives you, the author - and presumably an expert in your field - an opportunity to weight in on who is <em>qualified</em> to review your paper, while avoiding people who would have to abstain due to a conflict of interest, or who you feel might not judge your paper fairly.</p>\n\n<p>Essentially, you should be considering people in your specific field who aren't your direct collaborators, but who might be disposed to look on you and your work in a positive or at least neutral light - avoiding people who don't like <em>you</em>, or who think \"Paper Topic is a waste of time and research dollars, and should never be published\".</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/443", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/280/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 450, "author": "Andy W", "author_id": 3, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Frequently formalized groups of academics hold <em>conferences</em>, or if it is a more specialized field they are frequently part of a broader conference but have special panels/proceedings/meetings within the larger conference.</p>\n\n<p>So possibilities of finding such groups are;</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Looking at the <em>CV</em> of authors in the field to see if they are members of such organizations or have presentations at said conferences.</li>\n<li>Looking for conferences in the broader field, and seeing if they host research on specific topics.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Other possibilities include email list-serves and forums. I'm not sure if I have any better advice to find such groups than besides doing regular internet searches though. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 451, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you know specific search terms you're looking for, you could begin by searching <a href=\"http://isiknowledge.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">Web of Science</a> for the specific combinations you're looking for, and then following up on the specific groups that are returned by such a search.</p>\n\n<p>You may need to use some creativity in narrowing down the search criteria to avoid getting 5000 hits that you need to sift through, but there are a large number of possible \"narrowing\" options on Web of Science (year of publication, location, sorting by citations, etc.) that can help you.</p>\n\n<p>Alternatively, sites like <a href=\"http://academia.edu\" rel=\"nofollow\">academia.edu</a> or even a more generic engine like <a href=\"http://scholar.google.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">Scholar Google</a> may be able to assist you in this process.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 454, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would try the following, in order of \"how useful the results will be\":</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>If you know someone - anyone - in the field, have them recommend names of labs/professors to you. The names they give you will likely be people relevant to their research who have done solid research, and have really established their names in the field. This is the best approach.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you have access to journal articles, find a good journal in field X and look for a recent paper. There are two ways to do this one:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Look in a couple of articles that seem interesting and see which authors are cited most often in the \"introduction\" section. Chances are, those authors have completed some recent seminal work, which all these other papers are using as their research springboard.</li>\n<li>Look for a review paper, and see who is cited often. This isn't such a good method, as I've found that many review articles will be fairly biased towards themselves/their collaborators, but it still can be useful.</li>\n</ol></li>\n<li><p>Go to any big-name university's department web page for field X and browse the faculty listings. This is a total crapshoot; you'll find lots of labs, but there's no surefire way to tell quality of lab from their department web page.</p></li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 455, "author": "Hauser", "author_id": 213, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/213", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Well, I find <a href=\"https://www.google.com/search?num=30&amp;hl=en&amp;tbo=1&amp;prmdo=1&amp;q=eyetrack%2a+infant+%7C+baby+research+%7C+forschung++inurl%3Aedu+%7C+inurl%3Auni+-filetype%3Apdf+-filetype%3Adoc+-filetype%3Appt+-filetype%3Aps+2011..2012&amp;oq=eyetrack%2a+infant+%7C+baby+research+%7C+forschung++inurl%3Aedu+%7C+inurl%3Auni+-filetype%3Apdf+-filetype%3Adoc+-filetype%3Appt+-filetype%3Aps+2011..2012&amp;aq=f&amp;aqi=&amp;aql=&amp;gs_sm=12&amp;gs_upl=21080l24324l0l29693l12l10l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0l0\">reasonable numbers for research groups</a> focusing on <em>eyetracking</em> by using Google and search operators. Of course, you should add some redundant similar terms (eye-movement, baby,...)</p>\n\n<p>Notice, there are some patterns:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>american universities nearly always have <strong>edu</strong> (actually it's even a domain) in their URL, german univ. <strong>uni</strong>. So using <code>inurl:edu</code> in google filters out a lot. Non-university institutes like german Max-Planck often have URL patterns too. </p></li>\n<li><p>further add <code>-filetype:pdf -filetype:doc -filetype:ppt -filetype:ps</code> to filter out more useless results</p></li>\n<li><p>add <code>2010..2012</code> to be sure the site/group is still active and the topic on their agenda.</p></li>\n<li><p>add <code>research | forschung</code> (latter being german translation, but afaik nowadays most natural sciences groups in Germany have a english (&amp; german) page)</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Some research branches also have a online directory, there exist also internet directories like dmoz (not sure if this stuff is up to date, probably some dead links):</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.eurosys.org/directory/\">http://www.eurosys.org/directory/</a> </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Biology/Neurobiology/Research_Groups_and_Centers/\">http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Biology/Neurobiology/Research_Groups_and_Centers/</a> </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.ida.liu.se/ext/etai/actions/colloq/groups.html\">http://www.ida.liu.se/ext/etai/actions/colloq/groups.html</a> </p>\n\n<p>At least I can say that most research groups in Germany will have a english home page and short summary/research topics/open positions on it. So there should be no general problem to find them by some \"serious\" googling. But <strong>don't use too specific keywords</strong>, \"eyetracking on infants\", \"dualistic view\" is too special imho, use keywords being specific rather to the topic than the exact methodology. They are probably mainly interested in how the visual recognition system adapts and learns over time, this is the bigger thematic picture. You attract master and phd students not by naming a special experimental method, so you will not find these type of keywords often on a group page, where they often try to put in a minimum of time.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1113, "author": "William Gunn", "author_id": 582, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/582", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I found one possibly relevant result searching <a href=\"https://www.mendeley.com/search/?query=eyetracking\" rel=\"nofollow\">Mendeley</a> for your topic of interest. The advantage of using Mendeley over Google is that you can limit your search to researcher profiles. On-site people search is a little broken sometimes, so you might have better luck actually doing a Google search but limiting it to Mendeley profiles like this: <a href=\"https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=eyetracking+site%3Amendeley.com%2Fprofiles%2F\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=eyetracking+site%3Amendeley.com%2Fprofiles%2F</a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 193652, "author": "Tim Kuipers", "author_id": 70225, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/70225", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One way is to ask <a href=\"https://chat.openai.com/chat\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">ChatGPT</a>. Although its answers are sometimes inaccurate, it can help a lot when your question is a bit vague. It understands what research groups are and it understands the connections between fields.</p>\n<p>With ChatGPT you don't need to list all the different synonyms for your field or their subfields and it can choose to ignore some parts of your query if they're too specific.</p>\n<p>For my own search I've seen that out of the 10 suggestions it gave me,\n2 were misnamed or didn't exist, but the rest all seemed to be very good suggestions.</p>\n<p>Of course this is just a tool and you should never rely on it too heavily, but it can help you find research groups which are a good fit for what you're looking for. Also note that ChatGPT was trained on data from 2020, so it might be outdated.</p>\n<p>Here's an example output of ChatGPT for your query:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Can you list several research groups doing empirical brain investigations but working from a dualistic perspective, or research groups doing eye-tracker work on infants.</p>\n<p>I can certainly provide you with some examples of research groups that fit your criteria:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><p>The Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture at Emory University: This interdisciplinary research center includes researchers who work from a dualistic perspective to investigate the relationship between the mind and brain. They use a variety of empirical methods, including neuroimaging and behavioral experiments.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>The Human Neuroscience Laboratory at the University of Utah: This lab conducts research on the neural mechanisms underlying human perception and cognition. They use both behavioral and neuroimaging techniques, including fMRI and EEG, to investigate these mechanisms from a dualistic perspective.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>The Center for Cognitive Science at the University of Minnesota: This interdisciplinary center includes researchers from psychology, philosophy, linguistics, and neuroscience. Some of their work investigates the mind-body problem from a dualistic perspective, using neuroimaging and behavioral experiments.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>The Infant Cognition Center at the University of British Columbia: This research group investigates the cognitive and perceptual abilities of infants using a variety of methods, including eye-tracking. They have published several studies on infant perception of social cues and facial expressions.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>The Developmental Neuroscience Lab at the University of California, Berkeley: This lab uses a variety of methods, including eye-tracking, to investigate the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying developmental processes in infants and young children.</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n<p>I hope this helps! Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, and there are many other research groups out there conducting similar work.</p>\n</blockquote>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/449", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/141/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 459, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's surprisingly hard to find that information, I was expecting to get it more easily, in particular when public funding is involved. I've found for the European Union FP7-ICT call 1, there were 1836 proposals for only 318 accepted, with a total 1.2 billion euros funded (<a href=\"http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/jrc/downloads/enlargement/infodays/jrc_20080506_infoday_tirana_cindy_vd_boogert.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">Source, slide 18</a>). </p>\n\n<p>I guess a good strategy could be to contact the <a href=\"http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=contacts&amp;lg=en\" rel=\"nofollow\">Research Division</a> of the European Commission, I'm sure they have this information somewhere, and they are probably able to provide it. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 460, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Check out the <a href=\"http://report.nih.gov/success_rates/index.aspx\">NIH Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools</a>. It may take you some time to find exactly what you're looking for, but there are numerous reports available, with a good deal of detail.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/458", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/116/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 462, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Sadly, there is not a strict correlation between doing good science and being financially successful. It is entirely possible to do \"creative, important work\" and still not be well rewarded for it. For instance, one could have published these results in an obscure journal that very few people will read. Or, as another example, the researcher might be a poor \"salesman,\" unable to convince readers and fellow scientists of the merit of his work. </p>\n\n<p>In general, you need a combination of both networking and technical skills to forge a successful career as a researcher: the contacts will help you get interviews for jobs; your technical knowledge will get you the job.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 463, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>aeismail's response is on target, and just to extend it a bit more, you will find few researchers who make money directly from their research. All your work is owned by the university and patents you file are owned by the university.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, it is fairly common for a researcher to found his or her own company based on their work. There are numerous examples of this, but just to give two examples from my own experience:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.pstnet.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Psychology Software Tools</a>, the company behind E-Prime, a popular psychology paradigm programming language, is owned by <a href=\"http://schneiderlab.lrdc.pitt.edu/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Dr. Walter Schneider</a>, a psychology professor at the University of Pittsburgh.</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://cdi.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Computational Diagnostics, Inc.</a>, a company offering neurological monitoring services, is run by <a href=\"http://www.neurosurgery.pitt.edu/faculty/sclabassi.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Dr. Robert Sclabassi</a> (recently retired), who has numerous publications in the field of EEG signal processing.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Aside from creating a startup, some professors will consult externally for a fee. Anecdotally, depending on how well-connected the professor is, I know a number of graduate students and post-doctoral fellows who did consulting work on the side.</p>\n\n<p>Often, if researchers have business acumen and interest, they will follow one of these two paths.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 471, "author": "Tangurena", "author_id": 109, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/109", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>When I worked for HP (in the storage area network division), much of the published research articles were for things that it still took several years to bring to market. Generally, it was about 5 years between the first papers and the time a product made it to market. Even things used everywhere - SQL - took 9 years to go from research paper (Codd's paper was in 1969) to first commercial product (Relational [now called Oracle] was released in 1978) with several large companies (including IBM) trying to bring a product to market. In software development, academic research runs 5 to 30+ years ahead of in-the-field practices. </p>\n\n<p>As for Wolfram, I don't think he's a good model to emulate, as he fits the <a href=\"http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/reviews/wolfram/\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Book review of A New Kind of Science by someone I respect in the industry\">model of a crank</a> more than the model I would attribute to a good scientist. Despite that, I bought his book and use his software. </p>\n\n<p>Another example I can think of where creative important results don't translate to success is <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-Term_Capital_Management\" rel=\"nofollow\">Long Term Capital Management</a>. Founded by 2 Nobel Prize winners in economics, it was the first massive Wall Street bailout in the 1990s after the Russian financial crisis resulted in Soviet/Russian bonds going belly up. One of the founders was <em>the</em> Scholes in the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black%E2%80%93Scholes\" rel=\"nofollow\">Black-Scholes model</a>, which is one of the most important equations in finanace. </p>\n\n<p>Discovering something great and/or important takes a different set of skills than bringing that discovery to market. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/461", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/280/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 465, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Many PhD programs require you to do a masters on your way to a PhD, so the point in many cases is moot. That being said,</p>\n\n<p><strong>Advantages:</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>You'll get a chance to see whether research is something you like before committing to the PhD process.</li>\n<li>You'll complete most of the coursework, so when you get to the PhD work you'll be able to more quickly focus on research.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>Disadvantages:</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Depending on the masters, you may be spending money on your degree. Many PhD programs will fund your way (in exchange for you doing awesome research).</li>\n<li>You'll be required to do a master thesis, which can be comprehensive, and you may come to view it as a waste to do it twice (one for masters, one for PhD).</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 466, "author": "TCSGrad", "author_id": 79, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Other than what eykanal mentioned, you might want to consider the following points:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Pros</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>If you have lackluster UG grades with little/no research experience (in terms of publications/term papers/internships), few top PhD programs would be even willing to look at your application, not matter what are your scores in the GREs. I assume your letters of recommendations (LORs) from faculty would be average at best as well, which would really, really hurt your admission chances. So, a Masters degree would help you rectify that - you can aggressively start pursuing research-based projects with the faculty, and work at a publishable thesis. This would both give you something added to your profile (a publication), and you can get much better LORs from your masters faculty - something that may get you into that top school where your dream adviser works!</p></li>\n<li><p>You can get (some of) your Master's course credit transferred to your PhD program, so that you can start working on your thesis much early, and may even finish faster! However, this <em>really</em> varies from department to department, so make sure you inquire about this before applying!</p></li>\n<li><p>If you are really, really sure of what field you want to research in, you can find the top people in your field (whom you'd want to be advised by during your PhD) - and start corresponding with them during your Masters, asking queries/having discussions about their most recent papers, and using them in your Masters thesis (assuming you'd be working in the same field). That way, when you finally apply, you would stand out in their mind from the other applicants, as someone who is genuinely interested in their research. Mind you, I'm not asking you to fake anything! Be sincere about your passion to work in the same research areas, and they just might be convinced to bat for you during applications review!</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>Con</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>On the other hand, if you do not fare well in Masters program, most admission committees (ad-coms) would take it as a red flag - as it would bolster the less-than-stellar impression your undergrads created, and hence they might deem you not fit for PhD at all. This might be the case with even the ad-coms that might've been willing to give you the benefit of the doubt when only presented with your undergrad records - so, tread carefully if you happen to embark on a Masters, as your performance there would undergo even greater scrutiny!</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 467, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I can only speak for my (computer science) department. Students who apply to our PhD program with MS degrees are held to a higher standard than applicants who apply as undergraduates. What we look for in PhD applicants is <em>strong evidence of research potential</em>. Most undergraduates don't have an opportunity to undertake a real research project, but MS students do have that opportunity, <em>by definition</em>. It's <em>much</em> harder for MS applicants without publishable results to be admitted than an undergraduate in the same situation, all else being equal. Grades are much less important (unless they suck, which yours don't).</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, the fact that your already decent grades improved when you started taking graduate classes is a <em>huge</em> point in your favor. Be sure to get recommendation letters from your instructors in those courses, and hit them up for research opportunities. I recommend applying to <em>both</em> MS <em>and</em> PhD programs; some departments will even let you apply for both simultaneously.</p>\n\n<p>There's a similar effect in NSF's evaluations of graduate fellowship applications. NSF splits the applicant pool into three piles based on the number of years of graduate education: still an undergrad, less than 12 months, and more than 12 months. Expectations are higher for applicants in later piles. In particular, publications are a <em>de facto</em> requirement for students in the more-than-one-year pile, <em>even if their one year of graduate education was in a non-research masters program</em>. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 469, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is speaking only from my experience in Public Health and Epidemiology, so its slightly more general, but hopefully it will be helpful. Some of these have already been mentioned by other posters.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Advantages:</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>You have the potential to establish your \"research chops\", or shore up your grades. If you don't think you have a strong application coming directly out of undergrad, this is probably a plus.</li>\n<li>If you move programs between your MS and your PhD, you get to see two schools. That's good for both perspective on research (rather than only being exposed to \"The University X way of doing things\"), and it means an extra set of contacts, though admittedly your network from the Masters university will probably end up being somewhat weaker.</li>\n<li>You get the \"feel\" for your potential research topic. Which means that if you don't like it, you can switch. Getting an MS and a PhD in two different but related topics (like say Pure Math and Applied Math/Operations Research/CS, etc.) is pretty run-of-the-mill. Switching PhD programs mid-stream is a much less pleasant experience.</li>\n<li>In contrast to some of the answers here, in my field at least I'd argue that undergraduate applicants are judged more harshly than their MS-weilding colleagues. Several major programs simply <em>do not</em> accept folks directly from undergrad into their PhD programs, and several others say they do, but in practice without someone pulling for you or an act of God they're not going to do so.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>Disadvantages</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>It will probably add time. If you're coming straight from undergraduate, a university's combined MS/PhD track (wherein essentially you get an MS by way of your PhD coursework + a thesis) is likely the \"least time\" path to a doctorate. While you'll be able to transfer some of your credits from your Masters into a PhD program, some will almost certainly not transfer, and the university may have a core set of courses that they'll want you to take over again. For example, in my program, I'd say having a Masters trims about a year from your time in the PhD program. But most Masters degrees take 2 years...</li>\n<li>You have to move again. The flip side to getting to see two places worth of stuff is you're going to find yourself hopping across the country not once by twice.</li>\n<li>There are potentially some cultural problems. Some places view Masters students (not necessarily incorrectly) as transient, so its hard to command a professor's attention as someone worth investing tons of time into, compared to a doctoral student who is going to be around for 5, 6 or more years. This is especially true for professors outside your thesis advisor and maybe the professor who taught a class you did particularly well in.</li>\n<li>Money. In contrast to @JeffE's assertion (which is absolutely true for doctoral programs) my field doesn't necessarily fund Masters degrees that aren't part of a combined MS/PhD track. It's hard to get faculty to use their limited RA positions on Masters students instead of doctoral students, and because in the field there's actually a very small number of undergraduate programs, there are few TAships available to people who haven't passed through at least some of the coursework. Because the MPH is also heavily used in my field as a terminal/practitioners degree, it's treated somewhat like a professional school - you pay for your degree. </li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 473, "author": "0x0", "author_id": 302, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/302", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I cannot speak for Mathematics but for Computer Science the importance of getting Maters degree first is multi-fold which of many have been stated above but one which I feel is also very important. Sometimes in the middle of the PhD program you might feel like taking a break for couple of years and consider doing a job either for relaxing or to get a hands on experience in the industry. Having your Masters degree then will help you find a better job than with undergraduate or god forbid you quit your PhD, you will have Masters degree in your hand. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 477, "author": "davidlowryduda", "author_id": 127, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/127", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>So I'm a first year math PhD student. I did not get my masters before entering university, but I don't think that had a big role either for or against me. I didn't end up applying to any masters programs actually, and I had two major reasons: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>the primary reason for me was money. None of the programs that I was interested in funded masters math programs. I'm sure that there are such programs, but school is expensive. And I'm poor. So it goes.</p></li>\n<li><p>the secondary reason was inspiration. I'm going to do original research, right? That's the goal. And I'm impatient ad ready for it (at least in spirit). It happens to be the case that we spend our first year here doing a lot of work, quals, etc. It's the second year where things kick into gear, and I'm already straining for it. (However, if I already knew everything, I would have already passed my quals, so it's not unfair treatment or anything). </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If I were to give you my personal recommendation, knowing that you wanted to get a math PhD eventually, then I would say apply to both if you are in doubt. What's the worst that can happen? If you are a strong enough candidate to go straight to PhD, then great. Why not, right? And if not, then a little graduate coursework can't hurt your application.</p>\n\n<p>I would also like to mention that, at least in my program, there is no transferral of credits. You come in, pass qualifying exams, and write a dissertation. The transferral of credits would come in the form of you already knowing enough to pass the quals immediately (I did not know them all, for instance - some people knew more and some less). In all likelihood, you'd still burn at least a semester, more likely a year, just like all of us do. So a masters would likely lengthen your studies (at least at my uni).</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, it is possible that you don't have a big idea of what area of math, or what field of math in particular, you want to work in. This would be a big issue, perhaps. I knew I wanted to do number theory, and I was interested in the work of some of the number theorists at Brown. But a combinatorialist, graph theorist, or many other people would be hopelessly alone here (there is little love for combinatorics here). I suspect this sort of problem could be true in many schools. But if you know what you want to do, then this is no issue.</p>\n\n<p>To end, I wanted to note that it's fine to test the waters, i.e. to see if you're fit for a math PhD, in a math PhD program. I've known people who have gotten a masters a year or two in, decided that was enough, and left the program. I suspect this isn't uncommon (although it would be uncommon where I am), and you'd get paid to do it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 554, "author": "Kieran", "author_id": 39, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/39", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In some fields (this is true in my own experience for some humanities and social science disciplines), there are departments whose terminal MA programs are recognized as being \"feeders\" for more competitive Ph.D programs. So applicants who go through those are not necessarily at a disadvantage—possibly the reverse, especially if one's undergraduate grades or training are lacking in some respect. You will need to find out, though, what is true of the field you are working in, and of course <em>which</em> MA programs, if any, have this reputation. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/464", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/296/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 496, "author": "Alan", "author_id": 48, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/48", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><a href=\"http://www.linkedin.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">LinkedIn</a> is a fine resource for this sort of thing, especially for keeping track of alums' careers and contact data. I encourage my students to link to me for exactly this reason.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 162727, "author": "Alumni", "author_id": 135281, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/135281", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Our <a href=\"https://linkalumniapp.com\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Link Alumni app</a> helps you reunite with your classmates from the past. It aims to create a professional private network for alumni where they can connect, communicate, share and support various business opportunities and networking events.</p>\n<p>We have customized system in which we design according to our client requirements:</p>\n<ol>\n<li><p>Create awareness about the details of the job by posting and sharing the details with your alumni network. Pitch ideas to fellow alumni for a start-up and get started.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Give back to the community; help your alumni network by guiding them and sharing your experience through mentoring, boss talks and other CSR activities.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Create events and invite alumni network by sharing details and media gallery of the event. Purchase event tickets through different online payment methods easily.</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Helping all the students in their journey by guiding and providing a solution to their concerns and problems related to before, during and also after the graduation.</p>\n</li>\n</ol>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/468", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/117/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 475, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The official answer depends on where you are located, and the applicable laws in your jurisdiction. For instance, in Germany, graduate students are almost always employees of the government, and are therefore accorded vacation benefits commensurate to that (between 23 and 29 days per year, depending upon age). In contrast, the United States technically does not have any requirements on annual paid leave, so the answer in principle could be as little as zero, but normally is two weeks per year.</p>\n\n<p>Unofficially, that's a matter to be worked out between you and your advisor. Some advisors will be willing to let you take days off here and there as needed, so long as they don't interfere with either your long-term progress or meeting your day-to-day responsibilities. Most advisors will be rightfully displeased if you ask to take two months of leave all at once, but most will not mind a three-day weekend here and there as needed.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 476, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>aeismail's answer is very good. Just to extend it a little, you should <em>not</em> expect to take breaks with the undergraduate schedule; spring/summer/winter break does not apply to graduate students. Almost all (US) graduate students will take off the week of 12/25-1/1 or thereabouts. At the end of the day, it really depends on your advisor's dispositions towards your taking time off from lab.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5288, "author": "mukhtar", "author_id": 4096, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4096", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I guess one can take 4 weeks off per year if they want to and can. But you hardly have the time to do so, especially if you are working in a wet lab. I probably took 2 weeks max per year, and that also not all at once (more like one of two days here and there to fit my experiment schedules).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/474", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 482, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This can only be answered backwards, by asking what you hope to get out of the study. You state you want a masters degree... masters are typically used to get a job in industry, and scholarships can be difficult to obtain. You will typically have to pay in order to go this route. There are some graduate programs that offer research masters (at least in engineering), but (1) I'm not sure how prevalent this is in comp sci, and (2) you'll be adding on at least a year to your degree in order for you to complete the research.</p>\n\n<p>If you are looking for a masters so that you can move to industry, your best bet would probably be to look for jobs now, work a year or two, and then have your work pay for your masters. Many workplaces offer education benefits, and this can be a very nice way to further your education while not paying for the degree.</p>\n\n<p>If you're looking for research, consider going the PhD route, which would open up possibilities for stipends.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 483, "author": "0x0", "author_id": 302, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/302", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p><strong>There is no such thing as free lunch.</strong> If some university is offerring ou free tuition they want something from you. Mostly in the form of research. So PhD has a very high chance of getting a scholarship unlike Masters just because they know you are going to just study and not primarily do research. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 484, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The reason why you're not seeing scholarships for study at the master's level <em>in Europe</em> is that the master's degree is <em>not</em> viewed as the prerequisite for PhD study, but instead as the direct continuation of the bachelor's degree. As a result, you're expected to move on to the master's program, and usually at the same location you did your bachelor's degree. That means there really isn't a call for a lot of scholarship to fund master's study. However, it is possible to finance one's stay in a European university, as many schools offer part-time positions for master's students working in a research group for some number of hours per week. </p>\n\n<p>However, in the US and several other countries, gaining admission to a PhD program is a good way to get your master's studies funded, as the funding is normally provided for the entirety of your graduate tenure, rather than just the PhD portion.</p>\n\n<p>To get in to most programs in English-speaking countries, you will need to show evidence of a good scholastic record as well as good English skills, as evidenced by the IELTS or TOEFL. If those aren't in place, it's going to be very difficult for you to be competitive, and almost impossible to be competitive for a scholarship or fellowship.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 619, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I can't comment on the solution posted by @Sunil. I disagree with him. You should never do that. You are depriving others of <code>a position who really want to do Ph.D.</code> You should follow that Ph.D. route only if you <code>really want and absolutely positive</code> that you want to do the research, otherwise, you should not do it.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 681, "author": "Sylvain Peyronnet", "author_id": 43, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You should consider France. The second year of the master program is roughly the 1st (or 2nd ?) year of a PhD program in the US. You are not paid during this year, but you are during the next step : the PhD, and it is so during 3 years.</p>\n\n<p>Now, if you are already a skilled programmer, you can apply for a short term (1 year) contractual position in a research project in a french university. During this same year you graduate from the master program, then you go straight into the PhD program.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, this requires that you are attractive (scientifically speaking) since this is not the usual way of entering into a PhD program.</p>\n\n<p>PS : I said France, but you can probably do that in many others countries.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 48173, "author": "Theodore Norvell", "author_id": 17657, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17657", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In Canada a research Masters generally comes with financial support. There are tuition and other fees, but the support generally exceeds the fees and should also cover basic living expenses. Naturally it is quite competitive to get a position, and if you get one, you are expected to work hard to earn your degree. If you are interested in going further, a research masters can be a stepping stone to PhD work.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/481", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/312/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 486, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In general, university counseling should be aware of how to deal with PhD student affairs as well as undergraduate issues. (Perhaps different staff or the two groups, perhaps not.) However, I'll focus on the \"if they don't\" part of your question.</p>\n\n<p>There is usually a graduate \"officer\" in most departments, who is tasked with making sure that graduate students complete the requirements of their studies, and that departmental regulations and policies are being followed. This officer should be the first person to talk to if something goes wrong, and the problem can't be resolved between the parties directly. </p>\n\n<p>Beyond that, the members of the thesis committee have an obligation to intervene in the case of severe conflicts that could disrupt the program. Ultimately, though, the chair of the department would be the last \"internal\" stop before you would have to go to the university-level administration (the office of the dean of graduate students, or a similar position).</p>\n\n<p>If you are looking for advice from fellow students, perhaps you can get information from the student committee that is present in most departments.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 487, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Generally speaking, you'll get the best advice from one of the following, in order of usefulness &amp; availability to help:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Your advisor</li>\n<li>Postdocs in your lab/field</li>\n<li>Other graduate students in your lab/field</li>\n<li>Close collaborators</li>\n<li>Your committee members</li>\n<li>University departmental staff</li>\n<li>...</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>In the past, I have spoken with departmental staff for issues, including my department chair, but often they're pretty limited in what they can offer. Your most useful advice will often come from the top three in the above list.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 490, "author": "Amy", "author_id": 167, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/167", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Many university mental health centers have PhD-only group therapy programs. These often focus on stress and anxiety. They will be proctored by a professional counselor but are designed to be a space where graduate students can help each other. </p>\n\n<p>The benefit is two-fold - you get to talk to people who are in grad school in your university, perhaps in a similar field or program. You'd be surprised how similar some issues are regardless of field of study (research falling behind, concern about funding, conflicts with PIs/advisers, etc.). But in group therapy you are able to work through issues in an explicitly private space. If you are having a serious issue, it may be good to start here rather than within your department. I'd say that is any grievance you air to someone within your department has the chance to spread. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/485", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 489, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There aren't many popular ones specific to students. Many universities use <a href=\"http://www.blackboard.com/\">BlackBoard</a>, but despite having been in many classes where it was used, I've never seen students use it to collaborate. Students use the same tools everyone else uses... Skype, Github, Dropbox, Google Docs, etc.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 7954, "author": "walkmanyi", "author_id": 1265, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1265", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Are there any software tools available that are specifically intended to augment collaborative learning?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This strongly depends on the setting (i.e., the aim of the learning experience) and consequently expectations the teacher and the students have. </p>\n\n<p>For collaborative knowledge-base management and/or note-taking, e.g., <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki\" rel=\"nofollow\">Wikis</a> are an effective tool. There exist a <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_software\" rel=\"nofollow\">plethora of various flavours of wiki's</a> for various purposes, depending on the exact requirements you might have.</p>\n\n<p>If you are after e.g., collaborative writing, then tools similar to <a href=\"http://docs.google.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">Google Docs</a> might be of some use. </p>\n\n<p>In the case you would be after something more complex, such as collaborative exercise sheets, that would be trickier of course.</p>\n\n<p>It also might be useful to start from Wikipedia's entry on <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Supported_Cooperative_Learning\" rel=\"nofollow\">Computer-supported collaborative learning</a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 8015, "author": "David Ketcheson", "author_id": 81, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've been using <a href=\"http://piazza.com\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Piazza</a> with some success. It provides a collaborative discussion forum for a course. The best thing I can say about it: my students actually use it. Caveat: it doesn't include the capability for students to upload files.</p>\n<p>From the Piazza website:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The (Free) Efficient Way to Manage Class Q&amp;A</p>\n<p>How is this better than email, newsgroups, and discussion forums?\nStudents actually use Piazza, they love it. This difference stems from how we built Piazza. We've personally met with and spoken to thousands of students and instructors. The result is a beautifully intuitive and simple product that students love and use.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Also see <a href=\"https://piazza.com/why-piazza-works\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">why Piazza works</a>.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/488", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/313/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 493, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The brief answer is that, yes, humor has its place, but</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>it should never be used at the expense of the integrity of the results;</li>\n<li>even when used, it is often only used sparsely; <em>and</em></li>\n<li>the author typically is somewhat known in the field. (You rarely find a very young professor publishing something like that.)</li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 494, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I see humorous titles in scientific articles now and again, like the &quot;Wizard of Odds&quot; joke in a recent commentary in <em>Epidemiology</em>. One should however be somewhat cautious. The general use of &quot;marketing gimmicks&quot; like <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0412-z\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">questions in the title</a> have been suggested to increase <em>downloads</em> but not actual citations - which flawed or not flawed form the basis for how both the paper and you as the author are evaluated.</p>\n<p>Consider <a href=\"https://jis.sagepub.com/content/34/5/680.short\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this finding</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The results of the current study indicate that in two prestigious scientific journals in psychology the use of exceptionally amusing titles (2 standard deviations above the average rated amusement) was associated with a substantiate ‘penalty’ of around 33% of the total number of citations. The present results were found in both of the examined journals and cannot be attributed to potential moderating effects of the title length and pleasantness, the number of authors, the year of publica- tion, and the article type (regular article vs comment).</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>While that might not be perfectly generalizable, I think it's pretty easy to say that being overly clever is hazardous.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 495, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would be careful with humour in publications mostly because the reviewers might not appreciate it, especially if it's something they might not understand because their native language is not English. Having a paper rejected because a reviewer didn't appreciate your attempt at humour is not something I'd be very keen on.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 497, "author": "sjcockell", "author_id": 99, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/99", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The <a href=\"http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/discoblog/category/ncbi-rofl/\">NCBI ROFL</a> blog is a good source of intentional and unintentional humour in the scientific literature.</p>\n\n<p>In general I think we can get a little too po-faced about the \"importance\" of the scientific literature, and a little humour now and then (used wisely) can help to make a point. It is an easy thing to misjudge, however, and I think it is true that no humour at all is vastly preferable to bad humour.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 185093, "author": "Dikran Marsupial", "author_id": 2827, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2827", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I wrote a <a href=\"https://arxiv.org/pdf/1703.06777.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">paper</a> with a colleague where we used a fictitious motivating example with Dr Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker from Muppet Labs (the machine learning part of the example was very real). We used this fictitious setting because we didn't want to name and shame a real person (likely to be an early career researcher) that had fallen into the pitfall we wanted to discuss (it is a fairly common pitfall). It never got published in a journal because the reviewers thought this use of humour was inappropriate. Personally I thought it made the point clearly and in a more memorable way and avoided unnecessary singling out of particular individuals, so I rather disagreed with the reviewers on this one. Humour (or at least not being <em>completely</em> serious) can help communicate serious ideas, which is the purpose of writing papers.</p>\n<p>Of course we could have just presented the results of the motivating example, but that would have been very dull and unlikely to be memorable for the students, practitioners and early career researchers who need to know about the pitfall so they don't fall into it themselves.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/492", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/154/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 499, "author": "Steve P", "author_id": 315, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/315", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If these are suggestions rather than mandates (as you suggest) and if you are willing to commit the time to providing such feedback, I'd say go for it. It could only help, as long as you're not so picky that the authors end up with a list that is too overwhelming to deal with (not sure where the bar is for that).</p>\n\n<p>FYI: I'm a \"young\" scholar, too, not a journal editor.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 500, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are certain things I look for when reviewing papers that are \"show stoppers\", i.e. if I find one of these, I usually recommend rejection.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Things that don't add up, e.g. fractions that don't add up to 1, unreasonable large performance improvements such as orders of magnitude when the proposed method would save 50% of the work in the best case.</li>\n<li>Major omissions, i.e. something that would be required to reproduce the results/implement the method is not described adequately.</li>\n<li>Wrong or unjustified statements.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The things that don't fall into this category (e.g. graphs that are hard to read) are usually not a reason for me to recommend rejection, unless they occur several times throughout the paper. The same goes for bad spelling/grammar.</p>\n\n<p>I would always point out things like you mention as example (one particular thing I don't like is graphs with different scales next to each other to compare two approaches) if you think that changing them would make the paper better. In the end, everything is subjective and may seem arbitrary.</p>\n\n<p>I would use the same diligence regardless of whether looking something over for a colleague or reviewing for conference/journal because even in the former case the paper will presumably be submitted somewhere where it will be peer-reviewed.</p>\n\n<p>In summary, I think that there need to be a number of minor concerns throughout the paper to recommend its rejection. One or two graphs that look odd would for me not be a reason to do so, unless of course there are other, more serious problems.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 501, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Please see <a href=\"https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/a/1902/111\">my answer</a> to <a href=\"https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/1893/111\">a similar question</a> on the theoretical computer science SE site.</p>\n\n<p>At @David's suggestion, I'm copy-pasting my answer here, but keep in mind that the question is slightly different, and my answer is aimed at theoretical computer science. The bold questions are quoted from the original post. Point 5 is probably the most relevant for this question.</p>\n\n<p>Short version: <strong>Be respectful, but brutally honest.</strong></p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>What are the main criteria for determining the significance of a paper's results?</strong> To the best of your knowledge, does the paper make a significant, well-presented, and correct contribution to the state of the art? If the paper fails any of the three criteria, it's fair to reject it for that reason alone, regardless of the other two.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>What are the main elements of a referee report, and which parts are most important?</strong> Here's what I think a report should contain. Everything should be visible to the author, except <em>possibly</em> for serious accusations of misconduct.</p>\n\n<p>a. A quick summary of the paper, to help the editor judge the quality of the results, and to help convince both the author and the editor that you actually read and understood the paper. Place the result in its larger context. Include a history of prior versions, even if the authors include it in the submission. Be respectful, but brutally honest.</p>\n\n<p>b. A discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the paper, in terms of correctness, novelty, clarity, importance, generality, potential impact, elegance, technical depth, robustness, etc. If you suspect unethical behavior (plagiarism, parallel submission, cooked data), describe your suspicions. Be respectful, but brutally honest.</p>\n\n<p>c. A recommendation to the editor for further action — accept, accept with minor revision, ask for a second round of reviewing, or reject outright. Keep in mind that you are making a recommendation, not a decision; if you can't make up your mind, just say so. Be respectful, but brutally honest.</p>\n\n<p>d. More detailed feedback to the author — more detailed justification for your recommendation, requests for clarification in the final version, missing references, bugs in the proofs, simplifications, generalizations, typos, etc. Be respectful, but brutally honest.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>How does assessment for conferences differ from that in journals?</strong> Conference reports should be shorter; program committees have hundreds of papers to consider at once. Whether there should be a difference between conference and journal papers is up to the journal (and indirectly, up to the community). Most theoretical computer science journals do <em>not</em> insist on a significant difference; it is quite common for the conference and journal versions of a theory paper to be essentially identical. When in doubt, ask the editor!</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>What if I don't understand the paper? ...the proof? (Is it my fault or theirs?)</strong> If you still don't understand the paper after making a good-faith effort, it's the author's fault, or possibly the editor's, but <em>certainly not</em> yours. The author's primary responsibility is to effectively communicate their result to their audience, and a good editor will send you a paper to referee only if they think you're a good representative of the paper's intended audience. But you do have to make a good-faith effort; do not expect to immediately understand everything (anything?) immediately on your first reading.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>What about typographical/grammatical mistakes?</strong> If there are a <em>lot</em> of errors, don't even read the paper; just recommend rejection on the grounds that the paper is not professionally written. Otherwise, if you really want to be thorough, include a <em>representative</em> list of grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes, but don't knock yourself out finding every last bug. Be respectful, but brutally honest.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>How much time should I spend on a report?</strong> Expect to spend about an hour per page, mostly on internalizing the paper's results and techniques. Be pleasantly surprised when it doesn't actually take that long. (If it takes significantly less time than that, either the paper is either exceedingly elegant and well-written, you know the area extremely well, or the paper is technically shallow. Don't confuse these three possibilities.) </p></li>\n<li><p><strong>How many reports a year am I expected to write?</strong> You should write at least as many referee reports as other people write for you. If this takes more time than writing your own papers, you're not spending enough time on your own papers.</p></li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 502, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I think everything you're asking about is within the scope of the reviewer's role. Generally speaking, I divide my review up into three sections:</p>\n\n<p><strong>Summary</strong>: A summary and free-form critique. Here I communicate what I think the \"gist\" of the paper is about, its strengths, and offer some weaknesses that might exist in the paper as a whole. For example, if I think the authors were slightly too timid in not offering a interpretation of the data, or if they've missed or glossed over some major point.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Major criticisms</strong>: These are things that <em>must</em> be fixed in order for me to consider it a publishable paper, and if I have the chance to review the revisions (some journals do this), things I expect to either see changed, or have <em>very</em> good arguments for why they're not. Stuff in this category includes:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Flawed or inappropriate methods</li>\n<li>Major intuitive leaps that aren't supported by the data or analysis</li>\n<li>Study design problems that need attention</li>\n<li>Major failings of interpretation</li>\n<li>Journal specific problems, like failing to properly report your protocol to established standards for a clinical trial, or the inappropriate use of p-values in some journals.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>Minor criticisms</strong>: These are all things that are essentially \"The advice of someone reading your draft with a critical eye\". Importantly, these are things where, if they all made it in, while I would possibly be annoyed, I wouldn't be upset that the paper hit the press. This <em>does</em> include things like advice on graphics (my pet peeve is graphics that are unintelligible when printed), missing citations, etc. Things that are above the level of a copy editor, but aren't going to move my decision on the paper one way or another, unless there are <em>a lot</em> of them.</p>\n\n<p>Occasionally I'll put in one or two small copy editing notes if something jumps out at me (insure vs. assure vs. ensure, etc.)</p>\n\n<p>The cut-off I use is \"Will this irk me when I see it in print, and will I think less of the authors that produced it?\" To use your example of bad graphs, yes, this would annoy me, and it results in a less usable finding than one with the appropriate graphs - just like garbled language in the Results section might. If its minor stuff, like a turn of phrase I wouldn't have used, or a slight fondness for run-on sentences? That falls below the radar.</p>\n\n<p>As for friends vs. anonymous reviews, I think the scope does change slightly. For a friend, you're helping them polish a paper - I think a great many more things fall under that umbrella, including things like \"That's really not what a semi-colon is for\" or fiddling with the graphics parameters on a plot. For a reviewer, you're one of the last gatekeepers before this goes out into the world - but you <em>aren't</em> an editor. Your focus should be on the research, and the appropriate presentation of it, unless the errors are so bad as to impede one of those.</p>\n\n<p>In either case, you should be polite.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 506, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you decide that a particular paper you're reviewing is acceptable, then your job as a referee of the paper becomes to suggest improvements that you think will <em>substantively</em> help the presentation of the scientific content. Even minor corrections like the ones you've listed can be considered substantive when they lead to \"real\" improvement. </p>\n\n<p>For example, I'd argue that suggesting a comment that axes labels should be 12 pt instead of 7 pt would be appropriate, as it would substantially improve legibility; however, arguing for 12 pt instead of 13 pt is not significant enough to make a real difference. Similarly, I would point out grammatical or spelling mistakes if they are relatively few in number, but make a general comment if there are many, because I'm not being paid to be a copy editor. (As another example, Oxford commas wouldn't rise to that level, unless it's an \"Eats, shoots, and leaves\" issue.)</p>\n\n<p>In general, however, there isn't anything that is really <em>too</em> nitpicking in nature unless all you're doing is expressing a personal preference.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 565, "author": "schaul", "author_id": 335, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/335", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>My main criterion for such concerns over clarity and presentation is\n<strong>reader time</strong>: is the time it takes the authors to address your concern comparable to the (cumulative) time gained by the paper's readers.</p>\n\n<p>This also means: the larger the expected audience, the more you can nitpick.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6098, "author": "F'x", "author_id": 2700, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2700", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p><em>PLoS Computational Biology</em> editor P.E. Bourne has written a series of very decent <a href=\"http://www.ploscollections.org/article/browseIssue.action?issue=info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fissue.pcol.v03.i01\"><em>“Ten simples rules to …”</em></a> articles. There is no detailed guide to being a good reviewer, but <a href=\"http://www.ploscollections.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.0020110\"><em>Ten Simple Rules for Reviewers</em></a> sure is a good starting point. Summing it up:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Do Not Accept a Review Assignment unless You Can Accomplish the Task in the Requested Timeframe—Learn to Say No</p></li>\n<li><p>Avoid Conflict of Interest</p></li>\n<li><p>Write Reviews You Would Be Satisfied with as an Author</p></li>\n<li><p>As a Reviewer You Are Part of the Authoring Process</p></li>\n<li><p>Be Sure to Enjoy and to Learn from the Reviewing Process</p></li>\n<li><p>Develop a Method of Reviewing That Works for You</p></li>\n<li><p>Spend Your Precious Time on Papers Worthy of a Good Review</p></li>\n<li><p>Maintain the Anonymity of the Review Process if the Journal Requires It</p></li>\n<li><p>Write Clearly, Succinctly, and in a Neutral Tone, but Be Decisive</p></li>\n<li><p>Make Use of the “Comments to Editors”</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I would add: carefully read both the “instructions for authors” and “instructions for reviewers” of the journal you are reviewing for, if you are not already very familiar with them.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6099, "author": "Leon palafox", "author_id": 2806, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/2806", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I can also add some other pointer I've come to learn over the years on what constitutes a good reviews.</p>\n\n<p>Things you should avoid:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Rejecting the paper because you did not like the approach (science is not about liking, is about correctness)</li>\n<li><p>Rejecting the paper because it has many typos (you can always ask for a spell checking, but if the idea is good, not being a native speaker shouldn't affect you)</p></li>\n<li><p>Criticizing a paper for not having simple definitions, my rule of thumb is that if a concept pops in a Google search as a wikipedia page, the author does not have to explain it again.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Things that can help the paper:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>If the Grammar is poor, recommend some book for writing styles, like Strunk and White, and give some examples on how the paper can be improved.</li>\n<li>If you think the paper has some obscure concepts (that did not come up in Wikipedia) ask for clarification.</li>\n<li>The paper, as a rule, should be implementable by someone who has the expertise in the area.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 6103, "author": "Carl Mummert", "author_id": 4519, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4519", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Here is the rough checklist I use for refereeing. I work in mathematics, so it may need adjustment for other areas. When I write a review, I imagine it is for my own paper, and I try to include the things that I would like a reviewer to include for me. </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Is the paper correct?</strong> Trivial errors can be corrected in a resubmission, of course. I have not yet received a paper in which I found any serious error. </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Part of correctness is clarity. I consider the average readership of the journal (to the extent I can), and any aspects of the paper that would be unclear to them can be raised in the report. There is a difference, of course, between unclarity and writing style. But papers should use standard terminology when it exists, and proofs should be written in a way that is not unduly difficult to follow. Occasionally, a referee can suggest a more streamlined proof, which is fine. </p></li>\n<li><p>I keep a running list of typos, style errors, and other trivialities, which I list at the bottom of the report with minimal commentary. </p></li>\n<li><p>I do not check the correctness of all bibliographic data, but I often refer to one or more of the references when reading the paper. If I notice any errors in the bibliography I note them in the report. </p></li>\n</ol></li>\n<li><p><strong>Is the paper complete?</strong></p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Are there any obvious gaps in the research? For example, if a theorem has a strange additional hypothesis, the author should address the necessity of this hypothesis, or consider stating it as a question. Nobody else will be able to publish a paper to fill in minor gaps, so it is important for the author to be sufficiently thorough in the original paper, for the sake of the overall literature. </p></li>\n<li><p>Are there additional references that should be cited? If I know of additional research that the author has not mentioned, I can raise it in the report. I believe this is one of the more important roles of the reviewer, because no author is aware of the entire research literature. </p></li>\n</ol></li>\n<li><p><strong>Does the paper fit the journal to which it has been submitted?</strong> I have a general feeling for the differences between the journals in my area. Most journals have a statement of scope and purpose on their website, as well. For some journals, I think that all professional-quality, on-topic papers are in the scope of the journal. But for \"high-tier\" journals, the paper needs to have sufficient results (and, perhaps, a sufficient density of results) to fit. </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>The degree of completeness (item 2) can be important here. The editor will make the final decision, of course, but it is not inappropriate for the reviewer to indicate if they think the paper is correct but not a good fit for the journal to which it is submitted. </p></li>\n<li><p>If it is clear that a paper is not a good fit, I may write a report indicating this without verifying the correctness of the results. This allows the author to resubmit to another journal more quickly than if I took my time with the paper. </p></li>\n</ol></li>\n<li><p><strong>Did the editor give any additional instructions?</strong> For example, one top-tier journal explicitly asked reviewers to raise the quality level required for acceptance, because the journal had a long backlog and wanted to reduce the volume of accepted papers. Other uncommon situations can arise, which the editor may summarize for the reviewer. </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I attempt to answer questions 1 and 3 in the first paragraph of the review. These are what the editor needs to know. The lower parts of the review are intended more for the author, and may have remarks related to possible changes or additions, particularly if my recommendation is to revise and resubmit. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/498", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 504, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I can answer this from the perspective of someone who did it poorly in retrospect, but from a different field (engineering). You will want to make sure that any papers you begin with are:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Accepted findings in the field</strong>. I made the mistake of basing much of my thesis work on a paper which was used a one-off paradigm, and was not replicated by anyone other than myself. This resulted in my needing to spend much more time validating my results than I otherwise would have needed to, because there was no other validation in the literature.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Simplicity over novelty</strong>. You're a graduate student, at the beginning of your career. You'll have tons of time to do awesome things as your career progresses. Unless you're working for Dr. Awesome BigName Researcher whose lab is known for doing cutting-edge work on X, be conservative... choose the less exciting but more likely to work research over the more exciting but very complex and/or more likely to fail.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Note that this post is completely irrelevant to anyone whose advisor effectively tells them what their thesis project is, as your criterion will be (1) the papers your advisor hands you. You have my sympathies :)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 509, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think the answer to your question depends on the aims you want to pursue with your thesis.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Start a career in academia.</strong> In this case I agree with eykanal. Use something that enables you to build a solid foundation.</li>\n<li><strong>Start a career in industry.</strong> Look at the particular industry/company you're interested in and decide what's going to be most important to them and hence most important in facilitating you getting a job there.</li>\n<li><strong>Neither of the above.</strong> If you don't really know what you want to do after you've finished your PhD, I'd say go for the thing that interests you most, even if the results you're basing your research on is novel and you're not sure if it's the right direction to go in. That's why it's called research after all :)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In any case you should make sure that you're comfortable doing the research. The best papers are no good for you if there's no scope for you to extend the work or you can't build on it for other reasons.</p>\n\n<p>In your particular situtation I would probably focus on papers that bring the different subjects you've mentioned together, as this gives you the option of shifting the focus of your PhD slightly in one direction later.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1418, "author": "Dave Clarke", "author_id": 643, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Find out what the most current problems in these fields are. This can be done by reading papers in the most recent proceedings of the conferences and journals dedicated to these topics.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding these three topics:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>XML is, as you say, a tool. XML in itself is not particularly novel and a lot of research involving XML is of the form \"Something interesting and known <em>in XML</em>.\" I find such papers unexciting and reject them if they pass my way. </li>\n<li>Cloud computing is a hot topic and there will be lots of people working on it. This means that it is easy to find papers and easy to find a venue for publications. On the other hand, there is a lot of competition.</li>\n<li>Complex data is and will always be interesting. But what do you plan to do with it? Are you planning to use the cloud to process massive amounts of complex data? That is certainly a hot topic these days, with things like Google's Map-Reduce framework and other comparable things (Hadoop, Cassandra, ...). A lot of big companies have interest in such settings, so it might be challenging to find something new to do, but you will likely have people interested in the work you do.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In short, I think you only really need to consider the complex data and cloud computing combination. This will make your search a little easier. Then find the top conferences in the area and read the proceedings from the last few years.</p>\n\n<p>In addition, it is crucial that you build on top of what other people have done, rather than starting from scratch. Ideally, start with something developed by people in your own lab (whether it be a system or a theory).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1429, "author": "Ivar Persson", "author_id": 314, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/314", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One point not covered by the other answers is <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Review_article\" rel=\"nofollow\">Review articles</a> which summarize the state of a particular research field. </p>\n\n<p>As the OP is at an early stage of the process, these are especially useful for gving an overview of the most important work, and are usually written by an authority on the topic. They can be invaluable in preparing a reading list, as the references are the ones that are considered central to the development of the field, and will often be articles that you'll be expected to know.</p>\n\n<p>Even when looking for inter-disciplinary stuff it is usually useful to begin with review articles from all the sub-fields that touch upon the research topic. The <a href=\"http://www.annualreviews.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Annual Reviews</a> series of journals are a good generic place to start, though you should focus on the leading journals of your field. The number of citations that can be checked on google scholar are also useful in establishing the important research concerns of your field to know <em>before</em> you start working on something brilliant that nobody will care about. For instance, there might be excellent reasons why nobody has done work usng your chosen approach, so getting the most respected/ cited papers will help you identify useful research topics, and also the ones to avoid.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/503", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/90/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 510, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Allowed - yes. Have any reasonable chance to compete - no.</p>\n\n<p>(But to learn university-level things, given the determination - yes.)</p>\n\n<p>There are two separate issues:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>you won't learn stuff abut the current research lines and you won't be able to attract others to your results,</li>\n<li>in academia things like degrees and university/advisor name do matter.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>First, you can learn a lot of stuff by yourself. However, it is hard to get to research-level. Moreover, now most research requires a lot of collaboration. A century ago it may be still possible to invent something in one's private workshop (but still a lot of knowledge and infusion was required). Now it is not true anymore. Also, you need to know the tools and which problems are open, solved or seems to be dead-end. Moreover, you may end up solving problems which are difficult but not of the interest of other academicians.</p>\n\n<p>See also from <a href=\"http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~hooft101/theorist.html\">Gerard't Hooft, How to become a good theoretical physicist</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It so often happens that I receive mail - well-intended but totally useless - by amateur physicists who believe to have solved the world. They believe this, only because they understand totally nothing about the real way problems are solved in Modern Physics. If you really want to contribute to our theoretical understanding of physical laws - and it is an exciting experience if you succeed! - there are many things you need to know. First of all, be serious about it. All necessary science courses are taught at Universities, so, naturally, the first thing you should do is have yourself admitted at a University and absorb everything you can. But what if you are still young, at School, and before being admitted at a University, you have to endure the childish anecdotes that they call science there? What if you are older, and you are not at all looking forward to join those noisy crowds of young students ?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Also: almost all Nobel prize winners had advisors, which were also well-know and are from first league universities.</p>\n\n<p>Second, the academia is less meritocratic than it seems to be. While certain skills and knowledge are essential, they are not the only factor. It does matter if you have a certain degree*), from which university you are and who is/was you advisor. Many contacts are within a clique, were you need to have a recommendation by people they know. </p>\n\n<p>*) In science no matter how smart you are, you won't have chance without a certain degree, while in programming your skills and experience are more important than if you have a PhD degree or not even a BSc.</p>\n\n<p>Nevertheless, finding enough skill and determination to do experiments in one's own home may be a good predictor of later success in science or engineering.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 632, "author": "Jez", "author_id": 358, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/358", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The important factor here is that these prizes are awarded for making a significant contribution to knowledge. This cannot generally be assessed at the point at which you had the idea, and it is for this reason that prizes are usually awarded for contributions which are decades old.</p>\n\n<p>For example, <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Forbes_Nash,_Jr.\">John Forbes Nash, Jr.</a> was awarded a Nobel prize in 1994 for work done as a graduate student in the late 1940s.</p>\n\n<p>It's only after many years of further research, by the originating researcher and the community as a whole, that the importance of an individual idea can be understood in that context.</p>\n\n<p>A corollary of this is that only research which is published, presented at conferences and generally publicised in the research community is likely to attract sufficient attention and further development to be considered for such a prize.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 26741, "author": "Tom Au", "author_id": 755, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A person is nominated for a Nobel Prize by someone familiar with his work, and the Nobel Prize committee judges it for its originality, depth, and service to mankind.</p>\n\n<p>It's barely possible for someone to make a highly original contribution to a field outside of the usual academic circles. In the unlikely event that this occurs, the Nobel Prize committee will consider it on its own merits. </p>\n\n<p>For instance, the Nobel Prize was awarded to a new finance concept called <a href=\"http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2006/press.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">microlending</a>, developed by a banker, not a professor. Admittedly, it was the Nobel Peace prize, but it could have been awarded as the Economics prize.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 26743, "author": "keshlam", "author_id": 10225, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's certainly possible, if you're a genius on the order of Srinivasa Ramanujan and can invent an entirely new, provable/repeatable, and productive field from first principles.</p>\n\n<p>Likely for a mere mortal? You've probably got better odds of winning the Lottery, being struck by lightning, or fill-in-your-least-likely-scenario-here. Not because there's any prejudice against autodidacts, but because the odds of someone selftaught actually finding something new -- and being correct about it -- are just not that great.</p>\n\n<p>Go for it. Just don't expect recognition of that kind until you have produced work with is widely agreed to be truly revolutionary.</p>\n\n<p>(Except, as noted, for the peace prize. Which is sometimes given based on hope rather than achievement. Even then, you'll probably have to be someone who has worldwide recognition.)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/508", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/320/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 514, "author": "luispedro", "author_id": 166, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/166", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you are going to be very practical, you're right, you should change Chen. But there might be emotional reasons against that, of course. It's a personal choice.</p>\n\n<p>I'll note that you need to be very consistent, professionally; but you can still use whatever else personally/legally. You can choose a professional name like an artist chooses a stage name.</p>\n\n<p>If you start now, always referring to yourself professionally using whatever you choose, and publishing &amp;c under that name, people will know you like that. It's really that simple.</p>\n\n<p>I always spell out both my first names in print, but I never insist that people treat me like that in person. My Portuguese friends tend to, but more random encounters sometimes do, sometimes don't and it's fine.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 515, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Name changes are a significant and sensitive issue for many people—particularly female academics who get married, and then have to determine whether to change their name professionally, or to use one name for legal purposes and another for professional publicity purposes.</p>\n\n<p>An extremely common last name is certainly a difficulty in finding you; however, changing your first name won't necessarily improve your visibility, because, as you mentioned in your question, first names aren't normally included in citation searches. Therefore, whatever you do will need to be done to your last name. </p>\n\n<p>Perhaps you could add a hyphenated extension to your last name; whether this would be a legal action (requiring a visit to a court, in most venues) or just unofficially for your profession is for you to decide. (However, it should be pointed out that a legal name change can have major implications on your everyday life, and should not be entered into lightly.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 527, "author": "Amy", "author_id": 167, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/167", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think people stress too much about the \"what if people can't find my papers?\" problem. That's what CVs are for. Don't overestimate how often people will actually try to find all of your papers outside of hiring situations. It won't be often. By the time you are established enough to accumulate a significant number of publications, you will be connected to a research university or institute which will make it easy to link you to your publications. </p>\n\n<p>If <em>\"the vast majority of your connections will be people who only vaguely recognize/know you\"</em> you've got a problem that changing your name will not solve.</p>\n\n<p>I'd especially like to hear from someone who have had this cause a career problem. My (legal) first name is one of 10 most common, and my last name is in the top 20 (within the US). While this is annoying, it has not caused me any career issues.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 11440, "author": "Gremlin", "author_id": 7763, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7763", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Certainly adding (or just making up) a middle initial to your name will help to differentiate you a lot if someone if looking for your papers specifically. But you have to be consistent and use it everywhere professionally. I work with someone who inserted a made up initial in his publications just for this purpose and says it works quite well. I don't believe that he visited a court or anything to do this.</p>\n\n<p>For hiring purposes, your CV (as mentioned by others) and a \"publications\" page on your professional website will be the best. If you don't have a website, something like ResearchGate.com or Academia.edu will work in a pinch.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 11469, "author": "Jeromy Anglim", "author_id": 62, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p><em>One small suggestion:</em></p>\n\n<p>Set up your <a href=\"http://scholar.google.com.au/citations\">Google Scholar Citations page</a>. This will make your publications and name more visible in Google scholar. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 181312, "author": "Clumsy cat", "author_id": 70455, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/70455", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Look into how pen-names are handled in your jurisdiction. Authors often take pen-names for much the same reason you are considering changing yours, you want something more distinctive. Given the relatively global nature of this practice, there is likely a legal way to handle it everywhere in the world. This is a different route to changing your name everywhere, as you would for a married name. Depending on your legal system it may be easier.</p>\n<p>For example; in the UK there is no singular definition of a persons legal name. Your birth certificate need not match your passport and your passport need not match your bank. So in the UK, everyone is entitled to have as many pen names as amuses them, so long as they don't try to make unjust gains by pretences involving multiple names (that would be fraud).</p>\n<p>The only slight complication in this will be email addresses. My institution (not in the UK) automatically granted me my full passport name as an email address. This was not what I had wanted, as it's an absolute mouthful. But a polite email to the IT department, along with a couple of references to places I had used my shorter name, was enough to convince them to offer me the shortened form instead. So my advice there would be to use a personal email where possible anyway, because you don't change it between positions, and to ask nicely if you want a different address from your institute. Ditto for changing information on institutional webpages.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 193364, "author": "bta", "author_id": 39222, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/39222", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Don't underestimate the downsides to changing your name as it might not actually solve your problem. My cousin changed her name almost 15 years ago, and there are <em>still</em> friends and family members who think she just dropped off the face of the planet because they aren't aware she changed her name. It's practically impossible to communicate that sort of thing to everyone who needs to know. Your long-lost friends are now even <em>less</em> likely to find you because they won't even be looking for the right name anymore.</p>\n<p>If you want to improve your findability online, it seems like you'd get a better return on investment by keeping your name and improving your internet presence. Keep a blog or homepage of some sort where you talk about the interesting things that you're doing and can link to your research. When you meet people that you might like to collaborate with one day, add them to your LinkedIn (or whatever social network you use for your professional stuff). Don't make them go looking for you, be the one that initiates the connection. There might be a bunch of people named John Smith in academia, but there's only <em>one</em> John Smith that I met at that photonics conference in Brussels and added to my social network. Connecting directly with people like that means they don't have to wade through the entire internet to find you. Even a well-connected person rarely knows more than 2-3 people with the exact same name, and the picture on your profile should make it clear which one is which. That personal connection is better than any SEO you could ever do, plus they'll see your posts about new publications without having to go search for you at all.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/512", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 524, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This is a difficult situation. If you believe that you will be placed in situations where a someone in question will need to know that you have Asperger's, lest he or she misread your actions in that situation, then you should inform him or her before it becomes a problem. As you said, informing them afterwards can make it seem like an excuse. </p>\n\n<p>However, if your diagnosis affects your \"job\" performance (academic or research or otherwise), then you should let them know as soon as possible. If there is the possibility to make appropriate accommodations for your condition(s), then you should have this entered into your official records, so that it's available in case it becomes necessary.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 526, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with aeismail's answer, however I would just add that you might need be careful about the perception of your condition(s), especially the negative aspects. For instance, with the ADD, it's better to ask people to send written copies because you have a visual memory, because it's a constructive remark, rather than saying that you don't fully understand verbal explanation. Myself, I ask people to send emails about important things, and I clearly state that it's due to my great visual memory and my terrible auditive memory. </p>\n\n<p>In other words, I think it's a good idea to inform people that you have Asperger or ADD, especially those you work closely with, but it's more important to explain the positive aspects rather than just stating your condition. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2251, "author": "Tamara Morgan", "author_id": 1186, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1186", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>From personal experience, I would say not to tell unless your impairment is extreme enough to have required accommodations all throughout your schooling. I personally had always struggled at some things more than others and excelled in area that no one else could fathom and was considered a little 'quirky'. Because of some advice that I received, I did notify the university, as I had just been diagnosed with ADHD (at the age of 50) and just prior to turning in my final thesis, was told that I didn't belong in grad school. Unfortunately I was too humiliated to stand up for myself at the time and when I could, the statute of limitations (one year for discrimination) was over. There is still quite a stigma attached to both diagnoses unfortunately. The stigma won't be resolved with the secrecy but it depends on what your top priority is; challenging the stigma or graduating. Unfortunately, this was my reality and it tends to be rather ingrained in most of higher academia at this point, truth be told.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2295, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you were a student in my class, I would recommend that you tell me as soon as possible. That way we could brainstorm effective workarounds for you <em>before</em> you possibly fall behind. I've had a number of students with some type of learning disability (I realize this isn't the same thing, but my response is similar). If you can get cleared with the university for extra time to take exams, I'm happy to provide that. For one student who had trouble concentrating on quizzes during class, I let her take them outside of class (beforehand). Many people will be happy to work with you, but they won't be able to unless you tell them about your condition and how they can help.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2742, "author": "Magpie", "author_id": 1248, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1248", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Depending what country you are in, they are often required to make accommodations by law, but that is only if they know about them.</p>\n\n<p>That said, if it is 'just' social interactions that are the issue affecting you, then it is worth examining exactly what you hope to gain out of telling people, because it is more of a gray area in terms of your rights as far as I understand it, anyway.For example: </p>\n\n<p>If you are always being expected to work in a group and you feel worried about this and want to work on your own, it might be worth it. However, if it is just a bit of understanding you want for when you say inappropriate things then you might also be disappointed by how ignorant educated people can actually be about these sorts of things... It depends on you though, some people are more bothered by what people think than others are! </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2757, "author": "Kaveh", "author_id": 163, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/163", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Many universities have offices dedicated to help people which might have learning and other kinds of difficulties, the office in University of Toronto is called \"<a href=\"http://www.accessibility.utoronto.ca/\">Accessibility Services</a>\". <a href=\"http://www.accessibility.utoronto.ca/Home/About-Us.htm\">Their job</a> is helping people who have such difficulties. I suggest that you check if your university has such an office and register with them.</p>\n\n<p>Generally it is better to discuss this with them and let them inform the departments and instructors as needed. They can also provide advice to you and to the instructor and tell the instructor about the kind of special considerations they need to provide for you while keeping your personal information confidential as much as possible.</p>\n\n<p>It also has the benefit that you don't need to explain it more than once, the office will do it for you.</p>\n\n<p>It is also helpful for instructors. An instructor might not be knowledgeable about your difficulties and how he or she can help you. The office can tell your instructors what they have to do exactly to help you in their courses.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/517", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 521, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Journals oftentimes make their procedures regarding varying types of corrections available on their website (e.g., <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/authors/policies/corrections.html\">Nature</a>). I would speak with the journal and see what their preferred methodology is. This way, you can have the correction listed alongside the original publication, which would maximize the visibility of the correction. Almost no one reading your paper will check your personal website to see if corrections have been posted there.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 523, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>It depends on what the error is.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>If the error is the publisher's fault—for instance, if they failed to make a correction you specified in the proofs—then they have an obligation to correct the error. In that case, an email to the editors alerting them of the problem, along with some documentation of the original list of corrections, usually suffices to get the problem fixed. (This will usually be accompanied by a \"publisher's note\" alerting the reader to the correction, although the original article will usually be updated to provide the correct information.)</p></li>\n<li><p>If the error is something discovered after publication, then the best way to fix this is to prepare a short comment detailing the error, the correction, and its implications on your work. The resulting item is then submitted to the journal as a \"comment\" (or, in some cases, an \"erratum,\" if the journal offers that as a submission option). In this sense, it is like any other comment on a paper.</p></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 528, "author": "David LeBauer", "author_id": 258, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/258", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>What's the best way to make corrections to a published paper?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Although it isn't clear what the \"best way\" is, I am fairly certain that it is not the standard approaches that are currently used (e.g. as described in <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/523/258\">aesmail's answer</a>).</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.plos.org\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">PLOS</a> enables authors and readers to post <a href=\"http://www.plosone.org/static/commentGuidelines.action\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">notes, comments, and corrections</a> on published articles. Corrections can be either minor or major corrections, and are reviewed by PLOS staff.</p>\n\n<p>I think that this is a step in the right direction, and by lowering the bar for publishing a correction will hopefully promote better science.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/520", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 534, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Of course, it depends on how much teaching you would be doing, and how many hours a week it would take you, but generally, I would consider the following pros/cons points: </p>\n\n<p><strong>Pros:</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Teaching might allow you to meet other people than those you are doing research with, and interaction with different people can be useful in terms of research (for instance, you can find a nice collaboration idea with a prof or another TA). </li>\n<li>Teaching brings more immediate rewards (positive and negative) than research. When I was doing my PhD, I was also teaching (about 60 hours per year), and sometimes, when I was stuck with some research problems, it was a nice feeling to interact with students and to feel \"productive\". </li>\n<li>Teaching is a good training to clearly explain ideas and concepts, which an important skill to write good papers. </li>\n<li>Teaching provides you a different activity aside from research, and can help you focus (as you said yourself). </li>\n<li>Teaching is good on a CV, and if you consider applying at some point to a lectureship/professorship position, then having done some teaching during your PhD can allow you to do some more research-oriented postdocs after (and thus get potentially more papers), so it's somehow a good time investment to do it when you're not expected to produce a huge amount of papers. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>Cons:</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Teaching takes some time, especially if you are teaching in a field where you are not an expert. </li>\n<li>The downside of the immediate rewards is that sometimes, you can get frustrated because of the teaching, and that can have an impact on your research production. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>In conclusion, I would say that being a TA has really clear and acknowledged benefits, as long as it does not take too much time on the research activity (I would say no more than a day per week during the official periods of teaching). </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 560, "author": "Atilla Ozgur", "author_id": 333, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/333", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would definitely say that teaching helps you to understand better your teaching subject. Learning something is very different than learning something so that you are able to explain it to others.</p>\n\n<p>As Einstein said it.</p>\n\n<pre><code>If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>When I teach, I see different viewpoints while I am explaining.\nWhen you see, students do not understand your example, you are forced to think about it.\nA question force you to see other parts of subject.\nThese things always help me to understand my subject better. </p>\n\n<p>But you should be picky about your subjects. A subject which is completely different from your research topic is not suitable. But a subject which is helpful to your research subject will be better for you. For example I am studying Machine Learning, a lot of courses are offered which will be helpful in this topic. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Statistics</li>\n<li>Optimization</li>\n<li>Data Mining</li>\n<li>....</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>But in the same token, web programming may not be helpful.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 561, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The idea that teaching is something that invariably and inexorably damages ones research and study prospects to be entirely opposed to my actual experience.</p>\n\n<p><em>Some</em> teaching experiences are nothing but time sinks that devour otherwise productive periods and leave you no closer to having finished, or produced interesting work. But the same can be said for some research experiences.</p>\n\n<p>There are some definitive pros I found to teaching. First, it provided a second pass at material I thought I \"knew\", but now had to know inside and out. That was eye opening, to say the least. It afforded me more time to interact with the professor who was teaching the class, and gave me a framework where I was immersed in a topic - said immersion ended up in me adapting some things about my dissertation to a particular class topic I now knew <em>really</em> well.</p>\n\n<p>It also teaches you to teach, and while generally an undervalued skill in academia compared to research, it's both something you should probably know, and does train you for some research oriented problems - how to give a new grad student in your lab a rundown of the topic, how to answer questions off the cuff during talks. How to give talks meant to convey <em>information</em> instead of a summary of results.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/530", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/324/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 532, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<blockquote>\n <p>I love learning and solving problems (I'm in math/ computer science) and I'm also very motivated. However, I don't have fantastic grades and so I don't expect to get into any top graduate program. This may seem like a discrepancy, but I think it is partly a personal issue (which I'm working on).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Wrong assumption. If you like solving problems and love learning, it won't be difficult for you to convince others that this is true and usually, that is one of the most important factors contributing to success of PhD students. As far as your grades are concerned, bad grades does not necessarily imply rejection at universities. See <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/324/how-do-you-get-a-bad-transcript-past-ph-d-admissions\">this</a> post regarding how to get bad transcripts across. Good GRE scores (with AGRE maybe), recommendations and past research will probably negate the bad grades.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it possible to conduct research and therefore further any field without being in academia? This post is primarily targeting people who are doing their PhD.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You can but it depends highly on where you work. If you work at a corporation which \"implements\" rather than \"innovates\". Chances of getting a job involving research is pretty slim. Having said that, it is always possible to work around or find other jobs which will allow you to work on something new. Also, <em>is it possible to conduct research without being in academia</em> is somewhat misleading. A large portion of research <strong>does</strong> take place out of academia. IBM, Intel, AMD and many other companies work actively in research.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I want to get the opinions of as many people as possible, so let me know if there's another place (forum) where I can ask.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No offence but taking opinions from many people won't necessarily give you a clearer answer.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 533, "author": "Ana", "author_id": 322, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/322", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As Nunoxic noted, doing research as a part of your job is possible. Also, doing research at a graduate program that isn't at a top school is possible. But doing research on your own, and hoping to bring innovations to a field... is highly unlikely to work, in my opinion.</p>\n\n<p>My opinion is based on experience with a bad schooling system (undergrad and Masters in Serbia) where publication is mostly irrelevant to survival of the teaching staff. Access to research journals is also severely limited, and, as a consequence, access to international conferences, international collaboration and all that. Essentially, supervisors would offer minimal guidance, and students are always free to choose their research topic. This is still more guidance than you would have on your own. </p>\n\n<p>Then I got myself into good schooling system (a second Masters - to catch up - and now my PhD studies), in The Netherlands. Neither of the two Dutch universities I've been studying at are top schools in the Shanghai sense: their rankings fall between 100 and 150. Still, in comparison with Serbia, the difference in what I've learned and achieved since being at these universities is <strong>staggering</strong>. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>I don't spend months of my time sifting through articles in order to slowly begin comprehending which papers/names are the most relevant ones in the field.</li>\n<li>I have someone to immediately tell me if a research question is worth pursuing.</li>\n<li>I have someone to immediately point out similar research.</li>\n<li>I have someone to immediately correct small mistakes that would prove important at the end of data collection</li>\n<li>I meet important people in the field, and get feedback from them, with no cost to myself</li>\n<li>I work with technology that costs a great deal of money, with no cost to myself </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The essence boils down to having access to people who know what my work is about. This speeds up my understanding of the subject matter by an order of <em>years</em>. Science is so fast-paced nowadays that it's very difficult to make breakthroughs without collaboration. </p>\n\n<p>In sum, my advice for someone in your position would be to give priority to non-top graduate schools, if it doesn't work put with top ones, instead of trying to be a solo researcher. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 536, "author": "mankoff", "author_id": 185, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/185", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You can get a CS support job in a research lab. I worked as a programmer at various government and edu labs for a decade between bad grades and phd. I got my name on papers as a coauthor and helped do research. </p>\n\n<p>Can be a great gig. You get to help solve problems, but don't need to worry about writing it up or worry much about funding, something PhDs do constantly. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 538, "author": "Maciej Piechotka", "author_id": 327, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/327", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>On some universities there are programmes to encourage more people to join the research. You might want to check them and ask (They might be called UROP, research internship etc.). In such way you can work a bit with research to try if it is for you.</p>\n\n<p>Depending on your work and findings you might be coauthor of paper. At least 2 of my friends coauthored the paper in such way before they finished their undergraduate studies.</p>\n\n<p><strong>PS</strong>. I am not a PhD student (and I do not have PhD) but I participated in such programme. I would recommend you to search for one as it allows you to try it.</p>\n\n<p>From what I heard it also helps getting onto PhD programme as you have shown that you have an experience with research (and know what you are doing).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 573, "author": "davidlowryduda", "author_id": 127, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/127", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm currently working on my math PhD. I think that it's incredibly unlikely that someone without graduate work in math could do much math research (I don't know about the computer-science side, however).</p>\n\n<p>Now that I have put myself out there, I should clarify my point. Is it actually impossible? Well, no. In particular, there are many combinatorial or graph theoretic problems that don't really rely on previous work to be done. Some fields of math aren't as profoundly cumulative as others (on the other side of the spectrum, I might place something like algebraic number theory or elliptic curves, both of which I find highly removed from pregraduate work).</p>\n\n<p>But what I'm really saying is that it's prohibitively difficult, not impossible. It's time-consuming no matter what, and I think the greatest advantage an academic has is that research is what we're paid to do. But it is possible to get 'research-style' jobs without a PhD. But they are limited in scope.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 5848, "author": "Tom Carchrae", "author_id": 4355, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4355", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There is 'doing research' and then there is 'publishing papers'</p>\n\n<p>You most certainly don't need a PhD to do research. If you want to make an advancement, like a better algorithm, then you can create your own experiments to show how your idea works better (on the problem you tested) and you have created a meaningful advancement in science. If you had a PhD you should have learned how to create solid experiments and how to analyse the results (which often leads to more experiments).</p>\n\n<p>This may sound a bit jaded, but publishing papers is often about understanding what a particular field cares about (and who the influencers are) and becoming part of that community. There is definitely a clique element in most fields - by getting your PhD you are invited into the clique under the wing of your supervisor. It might not be impossible to publish coming from outside a community, but I think it is certainly harder.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 58294, "author": "jonrgrover", "author_id": 44454, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/44454", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I am doing research outside of academia because being in business shows where the real problems are, because being given a job assignment is what motivates me to take action, because my research is very far outside the mainstream, and because I wanted to develop my thinking very far outside the mainstream. I would prefer to be in academia but for these four things. I have made slow but steady progress in my area of research, and if I had to make a guess, I will have something useful to present about five years from now. I do not recommend doing research outside of academia unless you have some serious reasons to do so, as I have such reasons but most researchers do not.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, now that I have developed my research focus and direction over the last 20 years in a way that is solid and unique, I am now starting to think seriously about starting a Phd program. With a strong direction to my thinking and research, I can now interact with other academics without being lead outside my research direction. We'll see what happens.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 72938, "author": "Anon", "author_id": 58195, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/58195", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm a former professor. I could no longer stand the elitism, tiresome institutional structure, and narrow mindedness of working in a university. After quitting the ivory tower, I still desired to continue my research, and discovered the pros and cons of being an independent researcher.</p>\n\n<p>The most obvious plus is that I can research whatever I want, whenever I want, and publish in whatever publications I want. No more colleagues frowning on my choices. No more administrators denying my funding requests based on personal bias. No more crappy vanity research in unethical publications to stroke the egos of a tenure and promotion committee. It feels a bit like being in grad school again, where my creativity and personal curiosity can shine - only with more maturity and structure as guidance. </p>\n\n<p>The cons are painful, though. Gone are the days I can submit 30 interlibrary loan requests for materials in a day. My public library only allows three requests at a time, which is practically useless. I'm spending a lot of time and money buying materials and traveling to libraries to get at resources. But, the traveling is fun at least. Even though it's all on my dime (that travel budget as a professor was a privilege I took for granted!), true research freedom is priceless! </p>\n\n<p>Besides a lack of access to materials, the major con is lack of access to respect. Filling out a form - be it for access to an archive or submission of a publication - I'm always asked for my \"affiliated institution.\" Well, I don't have one anymore. They aren't interested in where I used to work, or my publication history, or even the quality of research I do now. It's a major hurdle. Academics are often fueled by their egos, and they often only have respect for others at their perceived level. Don't have the right letters after your name? Go away! Aren't on the payroll of a university? Get lost! Urgh. I saw serious independent researchers get turned away and mocked frequently by these elitist pigs. </p>\n\n<p>It is possible to make progress in your research without the credentials of an academic, even while being under scrutiny of many academics you'll come into contact with. You'll have to be a more efficient researcher and do everything the hard way, but it will be rewarding!</p>\n\n<p>In the hard sciences I imagine it would be costly, too, to gain access to equipment you might need. It all depends on what your goal is. But give it a try, and live your dream! You have nothing to lose.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 122957, "author": "Martin Masvaure", "author_id": 102947, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/102947", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Philosophical issues with no right or wrong. Bottom line, for me, after masters level is doing research that brings innovations whether for social or academic or personal reasons. Fame should be attached to success in life, career etc. not necessarily to acquisition of a 'prestigious' title.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/531", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/325/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 537, "author": "Kieran", "author_id": 39, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/39", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The answer is strongly conditional on discipline and, to a lesser extent, country of origin. Conventions vary widely, as does the degree to which they are institutionalized. For instance, in some fields (e.g., Philosophy), co-authorship is not common and there is no convention about attribution, so absent an explicit note people are are likely to think the more senior author is the primary one. In Sociology, co-authorship is common and the convention is that the first author is the lead author unless there is a note indicating equal authorship. In Economics, co-authorship has become increasingly common over the past few decades but the convention is to list authors alphabetically, regardless of degree of contribution. In some fields the primary author may be determined by looking to see if there's a note specifying to whom correspondence should be directed, regardless of order of authorship on the paper. </p>\n\n<p>Meanwhile in many lab-based science disciplines, where it's sole authorship that's rare, author order is governed by different norms. In some fields, the first author is the one who is primarily responsible for the paper (what that means can vary, too), the last author is the lab head or primary grant-holder, and the order of authors in between is sometimes influenced by other norms. But other conventions exist, too. Knowing what they are and how to interpret them is part of one's socialization into a discipline.</p>\n\n<p>To make things more complicated, some fields—or some journals, or some labs, or some individual authors—may have their own rules or conventions designed to clarify things by listing credit more explicitly. Even worse, there may be a kind of hermeneutics of author-order where people parcel out credit to different contributors regardless of order of authorship, as when someone says \"Sure, X is the first author and Y helped him write it up but it's obvious the paper was Z's idea\".</p>\n\n<p>In your case, if your lab or unit is using a convention that's not standard in your field the most straightforward solution is to make a note of this in your articles. This isn't an <em>ideal</em> solution because papers will still be cited or referenced without people paying attention to your clarifying note, but there isn't much you can do about that.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 539, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Kieran's answer is correct, it really depends on the field, but I couldn't resist the temptation to link to this <a href=\"http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~appel/papers/science.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">(funny) paper by Andrew W. Appel</a>, which tries to study which Computer Science conferences are Maths and which ones are Science, based on the assumption that Math researchers publish using alphabetical order while Science (i.e. more applied research) researchers do not. </p>\n\n<p>I wouldn't say that these are hard facts, but at least, that's quite interesting to read!</p>\n\n<p>For info, it was referenced from this question on CS Theoretical SE: <a href=\"https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/a/3126/8030\">https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/a/3126/8030</a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 563, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my field (Epidemiology) I would always assume that the authorship is appearing in the \"Most important work first, PI/major senior contributor last, others in the middle\" authorship scheme, but it varies dramatically based on field.</p>\n\n<p>Under that scheme, I would expect the papers that emerge from a PhD students dissertation to have them as the first author. Ancillary papers, those where their results/data are published as part a compendium of findings from a larger study, etc. are where I wouldn't necessarily expect their names to show up first.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/535", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 546, "author": "Kieran", "author_id": 39, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/39", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It varies substantially by field and journal. (As I keep saying, this is true of pretty much every question on this board.) Often they are shared not just with the author but the other reviewers, too. The author can show them to whomever they like. Beyond that, there's no formal sharing mechanism, and no real demand for one.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 547, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my experience, the contents of the comments of other referee reports are only made <em>indirectly</em> available. Since the authors are normally expected to provide a response to the reviews, the relevant criticisms and comments of the other referees are typically mentioned or discussed in that document. Outside of that, however, there's often little <em>direct</em> sharing of referee reports. None of the eight or nine journals for which I've reviewed (physics, chemistry, chemical engineering) have allowed me to see directly the reviews submitted by the other referees.</p>\n\n<p>At any rate, the results are almost always kept confidential, <em>unless</em> it is an \"open\" referee process by design. (There are a few journals now that make the refereeing process a part of the publication record for a given paper; an example is <a href=\"http://www.the-cryosphere.net/\" rel=\"nofollow\"><em>The Cryosphere</em></a>.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 550, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Some journals/conferences have explicit guidelines that tell you to treat the reviews confidential. I'm not aware of any journal that makes the reviews and authors' response publically available when a paper is published.</p>\n\n<p>I think publishing reviews for your papers would in general be frowned upon, even if there's no explicit rule saying that you can't. That said, I've been wondering about that myself and we had discussions about it at our school because the quality of some reviews is very bad and making them public might help improve the quality of peer reviewing in the long term.</p>\n\n<p>I personally try to write reviews in a way that I wouldn't object to them being published with my name on it (although all the reviews I've done so far have been anonymous).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 564, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are a few journals I've encountered where the written reviews are published alongside the paper itself (the BMJ's new open access journal comes to mind). Other than that, generally I've only seen them sent to the other reviewers (usually because they're BCC'd on the decision/review email sent from the journal editor) or kept entirely confidential.</p>\n\n<p>Probably the most common thing that happens? The authors complaining about idiot reviewers to their colleagues.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 3402, "author": "userJT", "author_id": 1537, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1537", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In some subset of journals they are openly available. Who was the reviewer and what he/she wrote</p>\n\n<p>BioMedCentral medical journals are often like that.\nSee example here</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/12/147/prepub\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/12/147/prepub</a></p>\n\n<p>you click on each article's publication history</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 11583, "author": "Peter Jansson", "author_id": 4394, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4394", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In all journals I have encountered the reviews are kept by the journal through either an electronic submission/review system (digitally) or in paper copy (if they do not have such a system). In the electronic systems it is usually possible to view ones older reviews but not view other's. </p>\n\n<p>The question whether these are confidential or not is far from clear in general. I would, however, venture to state that a review is treated as confidential unless explicitly stated otherwise, i.e. clearly stated to authors, editors and reviewers (remember that the review comments received may include overruling comments by the editor). Such is obviosuly the case with some journals with open discussion formats.</p>\n\n<p>To some extent the confidentiality issue is new to me because in my field everyone pretty much assume reviews are. I have not heard of anyone trying to push for publicising a review (again, in my field). It would probably not go down well if it happened without consent from the parties concerned. It seems this is a sector that is largely unregulated other than in general terms and understanding.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/545", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 551, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my experience, this is not the case. I was co-advised by a professor from another university, but no collaborations resulted from this. You could probably facilitate such collaborations if you really wanted to and put in lots of work though.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 553, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It happens, but rarely through co-advising. In my experience, co-advisors usually know each other before the student enters the picture, and the student has little effect on how much the faculty collaborate.</p>\n\n<p>More often, students create new connections by becoming active independent researchers and working with a diverse set of collaborators. The various actors' roles as \"student\" and \"professor\" are simply irrelevant.</p>\n\n<p>(I'm speaking for theoretical computer science, where PhD students are <em>expected</em> to become full-fledged independent researchers before they graduate. Your mileage may vary.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 29854, "author": "jakebeal", "author_id": 22733, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my experience, getting a grad student or postdoc involved is often the best way to kick off a collaboration between two busy PIs (primary investigators). For any researcher with a large lab, their attention is often divided between many ongoing projects. A new collaboration often requires a significant investment of time and energy that may simply not be practical. </p>\n\n<p>In this case, getting a grad student or postdoc involved can be good for everybody. The junior researcher can invest a lot of time and energy, receiving advice from both PIs, and see if the proposed collaboration is productive. If it doesn't work out, it's no worse than trying out a non-collaborative idea that doesn't work. If it does work, then the collaboration expands, benefiting both PIs. The junior researcher benefits even more, as they are now at the center of a growing new cross-disciplinary venture that clearly differentiates their work from both of the PIs involved.</p>\n\n<p>Whether this involves formal co-advising or not is less important and a situational choice. Certainly, no such decision should be made until it is already clear that the collaboration is being productive and successful.</p>\n\n<p>Things are different when you've got professors who have few graduate students and have more time to invest directly in collaborations, e.g., a professor at a primarily undergraduate institution who is still expected to continue doing research. In that case, the professor is likely to have more time available and should probably invest themselves.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/548", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 552, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Those books are not only very useful, I would argue they are the <em>best</em> option in many cases, as they represent the best use of your time. You will find that, throughout your graduate studies, you will have to learn aspects of many different fields. In most cases, while it would be possible for you to embark on a thorough study I some other discipline, that would take weeks, if not months. These books allow you to quickly learn the basics, giving you a solid foundation of knowledge that you can expand with further study if necessary. </p>\n\n<p><em>Edit:</em> this applies to topics only ancillary to your main field of research; you should <em>not</em> use this book on your research topic itself, for the reasons outlined by your professor. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 559, "author": "Ivar Persson", "author_id": 314, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/314", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I would advise against the use of \"for dummies\" books, firstly because they are not of academic quality, second they are too big.</p>\n\n<p>There are 2 strategies that I myself use for rapid acquisition of quality knowledge:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>a) Start with Wikipedia, identify the basic strands, but most importantly the correct terms for what you want to learn about. So for instance, you probably don't need to study all of anatomy, but from Wikipedia, you would discover that what you need to brush up on, is anatomy of tissues- histology. \nb) Now that you have the correct term and a narrow focus, put it into google scholar, and read the abstracts of the top 10 cited journal articles. The oldest articles with 3000 citations are the classics, the newest ones with 500 are the review articles with ideas for further reading and useful summaries. You can read more than the abstracts if it seems relevant, otherwise go with the basics.</p></li>\n<li><p>An even quicker way of cramming in quality information is to use the <a href=\"http://www.annualreviews.org/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Annual review</a> series of journals, provided you have institutional access to the journals. These are a comprehensive set of journals in all major fields which have reviews by invited experts on those topics. Not only do you get high quality disciplinary summaries, but also excellent interdisciplinary articles.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The benefit of either of these strategies is focused and quick acquisition of relevant knowledge without having to run around trying to figure out what you need to know in a non-academic book that wasn't written for this purpose. We're talking 50 pages of in-depth reading versus 500 pages of broad but shallow references of minor interest.</p>\n\n<p>Disciplinary dictionaries, like <a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1405132884\" rel=\"noreferrer\">this one</a>,are also a good place to start, provided they have been around for at least 2 editions, </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 617, "author": "Tangurena", "author_id": 109, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/109", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>They're a decent starting point. They are aimed at folks who are newbies to the subject and are good at an overview of the subject. From this starting point, you'll get a better idea of where to look.</p>\n\n<p>In one rare case, the author of <a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0470137444\" rel=\"nofollow\">Google SketchUp For Dummies</a> is also the author of most of the other books on the same product, and the dummies book is the one that covers the lastest version of the product. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><em>If an engineer wants to know Statistics</em> </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Probablistic methods were an important part of electrical engineering when I studied it. Several courses in statistics/probability were part of the required curriculum. In such a case, the \"for dummies\" series would only be useful as something to read before starting the semester, so that the first week wouldn't be a total surprise/shock. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/549", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 558, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If it's a well-known journal like Nature, then I would follow their convention. Everybody who reads the article will assume that you do.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 562, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 3, "selected": true, "text": "<p>My first stop would be checking if the journal has any particular authorship policies. If it does, follow them - if its not the way your field does it, welcome to the perils of interdisciplinary research.</p>\n\n<p>From there, in my mind, it splits into two questions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Is it a field-specific paper that <em>happens</em> to be going in an interdisciplinary journal. For example, are all the authors from Alphabetical Author List Field? Then put it in that field's ordering.</li>\n<li>Is it <em>genuinely</em> interdisciplinary (multiple fields with different traditions)? I'd probably default to the non-alphabetical ordering scheme, as <em>among people I work with</em> its the more common ordering scheme, and those who come from other fields that don't do that are generally pretty understanding. Or, if the authorship list is small enough, see if there's a clever ordering of author names that gets everyone what they need (it happens).</li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/557", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/324/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 569, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I think the variations here are national rather than by discipline. </p>\n\n<p>In the U.S., the thesis committee's primary role is that of a review panel when all is going well, and as a neutral arbiter between student and advisor when it isn't. Again, there is no formal obligation on the part of the committee—except when convened by the student or advisor, but this typically occurs on a more frequent basis (every one to two years or so). As individuals, however, committee members may be consulted with on various topics (job placement and career strategies, suggestions for future research directions, and so on); however, this is voluntary and, again, not very frequent—probably one or two times per year.</p>\n\n<p>In Germany, by comparison, the primary obligation occurs at the time of the thesis defense, when they serve as evaluators. Outside of this, you might never meet with the professors on your committee, other than your primary advisor.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 576, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To complement aeismail's answer, I would add that in France, there is a committee that evaluates every year or so the progress of your PhD (but it's rather high-level, they are just looking for problems, like someone who would have stopped working), and this committee is chosen by the grad school. </p>\n\n<p>The final PhD committee, who evaluates scientifically the PhD, is decided only at the final stage of the PhD, and it is proposed by the PhD advisor and then validated by the grad school. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1258, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To also complement the answers given, here's how it works at my institution:</p>\n\n<p>Committee 1:<br>\nThere is a small committee of faculty members, chosen by the student but with particular rules established by the department (Three total, choose one member from List A, two faculty members, two must be tenured professors in the dept. etc) who determine whether you are ready or not to transition from coursework to working on your dissertation proposal, and the dissertation itself. This is often, but not always, a subset of committee #2.</p>\n\n<p>Committee #2: <br>\nThe dissertation committee. This committee has several formal obligations toward the student:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>They meet with the student when they submit their dissertation proposal, to provide comments, criticism and ideas in order to strengthen the proposal, (theoretically) stop doomed projects from ever being started by the student, and identify any areas they believe the student may need additional coursework or expertise in order to complete their project. They also meet independently without the student during the same meeting to have a candid discussion of said student. This is usually about the project, but can range to cover mentorship concerns, thoughts on their job search, etc.</li>\n<li>The student is obligated to meet with each member of their committee every 6 months or so to keep them updated on their progress, and the committee as a whole meets at ~the midpoint of the dissertation project to make sure any problems are addressed before they have a chance to \"go too far\" and stall the defense itself.</li>\n<li>They then meet at the dissertation defense, evaluate the student, and make the determination as to whether or not they have successfully completed their program.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Certain members of the committee do have certain roles, beyond the usual advisor/chair role, but these are usually informal. For example, there is often a statistician on the committee, with the informal understanding that this is the person the student can turn to for questions re: statistical methods.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/566", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 571, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm not sure what the exact percentiles are, but I'd estimate that most faculty members who handle their own emails (more on this below) probably spend on the order of an hour a day or more dealing with emails.</p>\n\n<p>I think that emails don't necessarily increase when one is teaching as opposed to other times of the year—unless there are no TA's for the course. In that case, since the professor is the only contact point, emails will rise, although this depends on the course enrollment.</p>\n\n<p>Other determining factors are more or less obvious: the more active and senior a professor is, the more emails they will get:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Professors with larger research groups will have more email traffic associated with group management.</p></li>\n<li><p>Professors in larger departments will have more email originating at the department and committee level.</p></li>\n<li><p>As professors move up the ladder, they are asked to participate in more reviews and external programs, which increases the burden still further.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>On the other hand, one advantage that many senior faculty have is that they may have dedicated administrative assistants, whose responsibilities can include filtering out the unimportant messages for them.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1176, "author": "howtechstuffworks", "author_id": 692, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/692", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It greatly varies, my adviser replies at lightning speed, if I ask any questions. He never replies if I ask for an appointment though,LOL. If I ask a question, that he already knows, then within next 2 - 5 mins, If I ask some question, that need some thought, a day MAX. But I took courses with people who ignore stupid questions and move on, even though, that is introductory course. Not saying its wrong, kinda grey area though.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/567", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 578, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>No, both rankings are basically <a href=\"http://chronicle.com/article/Too-Big-to-Fail/127212/\">nonsense</a>. Even if you agree with the NRC's choice of a single \"quality\" model across all intellectual disciplines, the rankings are based on horrendously incomplete and incorrect data. This is especially true in <a href=\"http://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=466\">computer</a> <a href=\"http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2011/12/142542-doctoral-program-rankings-for-us-computing-programs/fulltext\">science</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Also, the claim in the blog post is an obvious joke. The S-rankings are \"better\" because writer's home department's S-ranking was better than its R-ranking. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 585, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Any ranking that tries to distill a large bunch of heterogeneous statistics into a single number should be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism. There is no inherent reason why a particular set of statistics should be weighted with one set of weights instead of another—and the two different weights could lead to widely divergent results.</p>\n\n<p>That said, if you see a large number of rankings, and they all tend to have fairly similar results, there can be some predictive power in the <em>collective</em> set of rankings. And I would say it's a \"loose\" scheme at best: the difference between #1 and #2 on such lists is probably not indicative of much; the difference between #10 and #30 or #50 is much more meaningful. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/570", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 579, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The biggest causes of conflict, beyond personality-related issues, I believe stems from a point made in the linked article—lack of communication.</p>\n\n<p>When advisors and advisees are not on the same wavelength, either because goals have not been clearly communicated, or because the frequency or quality of contact and correspondence between the two has broken down, conflicts can result. This is especially true when it comes time to graduate: the advisor may have specific expectations on what the student is required to provide; however, unless this is directly communicated to the student, there will potentially be a lot of conflict in getting to a point where both are satisfied with the final results.</p>\n\n<p>Often, this can be solved by having a direct discussion about the unresolved issues. However, if there is a pathological problem—in other words, one that can't be resolved through communication between the student and advisor—it may become necessary to invoke the thesis committee, graduate officer, department chair, or other authority who can help to resolve the problem.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 108880, "author": "cag51", "author_id": 79875, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/79875", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've observed three main failure modes:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Different research interests.</strong> Even if nominally in the same subfield, it's difficult to work on a years-long project if both advisor and advisee are not really engaged. Both will try to subtly pull the project in a more interesting direction, and it's easy for both to have a different understanding of what the goal is.</li>\n<li><strong>Different working styles</strong>. If the professor expects 9-5 hours and the student likes to work in the middle of the night, there may be conflict. Or, the professor may be interested in rigorous theory while the student takes an \"if it works, it works\" attitude. The latter can be a good opportunity for learning, but it can also just lead to conflict.</li>\n<li><strong>Poor behavior</strong>. Laziness and abusiveness are difficult to negotiate. Note, this goes in both directions - plenty of examples of diligent students with lazy professors.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I agree with @aeismail that basically all of these can be resolved by better communication (and exacerbated by poor communication). It's sort of counter-cultural to do performance reviews and written-down goals, but it's not a bad idea, at least occasionally.</p>\n\n<p>Edit: just realized this was 6 years old. But, the question was recently modified, so I'll leave my answer.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/572", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 575, "author": "mindcorrosive", "author_id": 255, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/255", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm not sure what kind of answer you are expecting, but it should not be surprising for you to learn that people assimilate information in different ways.</p>\n\n<p>Myself, I have a good visual memory and remember a lot by looking at the board/presentation when at a lecture. When the presenter is only speaking without showing anything, I have much harder time remembering everything, and am distracted easier. Note-taking definitely helps, but only when I know I won't be getting any other study materials, or the materials themselves are deficient. </p>\n\n<p>Later on, when I study and read on my own, I can recreate mentally how the board looked like and quickly relate terms and phenomena that I'm reading about with what I heard earlier. This speeds up learning significantly for me.</p>\n\n<p>This is what works for me -- other people have completely different ways of studying. I'd suggest you do it in a way that's comfortable for you. If you don't see the value of taking notes, just don't do it, period. Present your case to your supervisor and explain that you have your own way of organizing information, and you should be able to do so in a way that's comfortable to you. The supervisor should be trusting you enough to let you do so -- in graduate studies, students should have much more freedom to explore their ideas and work on their own without much hand-holding. Otherwise you have a much more important problem to solve -- how to avoid being micromanaged by your superiors.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 580, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>It's an old adage that \"You don't truly understand something unless you can explain it completely to someone else\". Writing notes effectively forces you to explain the topic to yourself. Oftentimes, when writing over notes from a class or from what you've read, the simple process of re-explaining it to yourself will clarify points that may have been confusing earlier.</p>\n\n<p>For this purpose, I try not to write notes as I'm reading, but rather I'll read a section and them summarize that in my notes. Having read the full picture, I can then ensure that my understanding of the topic is more complete, and my notes should reflect that.</p>\n\n<p>On a different note entirely, repetition enhances retention, and writing notes is at the very least doubles the number of times you'll see it (once in the book, and once as you write it), which should help your remember it that much better.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 586, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I take lots of notes — when I'm reading papers, listening to presentations, preparing for class, writing a paper, preparing a presentation, attending committee meetings, etc. I rarely look at the notes later (in fact, I often take notes on papers I'm reading on a whiteboard), but the act writing them forces a certain kind of organization in my brain that reading/watching/listening/thinking alone doesn't.</p>\n\n<p>(As a graduate student, I was religious about keeping the notes I took in class. 20 years later, I still consult those notes occasionally when I teach the same material.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 598, "author": "Artem Kaznatcheev", "author_id": 66, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As others have mentioned, notes help some individuals remember things even if they never reference them again. So I won't stress that point anymore, although I agree with it, especially for class notes.</p>\n\n<p>As for notes on your reading, notes on papers are extremely useful. Depending on your field, you might end up reading lots of papers from which the details of methodology don't matter, but the key results do. If you make note of the results, then you can reference them without having to reread the papers.</p>\n\n<p>Sometimes, when I am doing modeling work and doing background reading on experimental results I will take this to the extreme. As I read the paper, I will takes notes (in Mendeley or <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/112/66\">a personal wiki</a>) and at the end include a section called \"cite this paper in the following contexts\" in which I will proceed to write down contexts where I expect these results to matter in my future work. </p>\n\n<p>When I am writing my own paper, I might remember \"there was something I read about the involvement of this in the amygdala\". I do a quick search on my wiki, and from my notes have access to the relevant papers in a much faster way than going through the countless papers I might have read looking for the result.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Note taking makes my research (especially writing) more time efficient down the road</strong></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 614, "author": "Tangurena", "author_id": 109, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/109", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I keep notebooks with short notes and references so that I am not stuck saying \"umm, I remember reading something close to that several months ago\". Instead, I've got them in notebooks with a brief summary of what the article was about. These notebooks are more of my own index of research, yes, you can always look up in \"the book\" or \"the article\", but what you need is a memory aid that helps you remember where to look them up. You could probably use something like delicious or mandelay; I'll probably set up my own wiki. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 704, "author": "Joanna Bryson", "author_id": 384, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/384", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Taking notes helps me focus attention on a talk or paper. I seldom go back to notes, but <strong>when I do it's very important</strong>, and you can't guess in advance when something you'll need to remember will come up.</p>\n\n<p>I currently keep notes in three different ways:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Written notes in chronological order. This was my original mechanism (lab notebooks) and was very useful for me as a graduate student. Currently I do this rarely, mostly at meetings, but have found binding the notes in order is still useful and helps me remember and organise my thoughts.</li>\n<li>My bibliography file. At meetings &amp; talks where possible I have my laptop out and download citations in real time as they are mentioned &amp; write down keywords &amp; ideas &amp; who recommended what paper. I also do this when browsing social media. I use bibtex so including annotations is easy, and getting the full citation only has to be done once.</li>\n<li>Electronic notes on my laptop. This lets me search for the notes if I can remember a few key phrases. It also lets me edit papers directly when I have ideas. I have a lot of paper &amp; grant outlines filed neatly on my hard disk in folders with papers related to them. This can be very handy. Again I use latex and make comments cross-referencing between note files, papers/grants under construction &amp; citations.</li>\n</ol>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/574", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 583, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There's a lot of helpful advice on this front in the thread <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/324/how-do-you-get-a-bad-transcript-past-ph-d-admissions/325#325\">How do you get a bad transcript past Ph.D. admissions?</a></p>\n\n<p>Basically, your situation really isn't all that different from the one discussed in that thread—your credentials don't seem to qualify you for international study. However, you may have some additional possibilities to consider:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Were your IELTS/TOEFL scores below par?</li>\n<li>How strong were your letters of recommendation? Do they actually attest to personal attributes, or is it merely a recitation of your performance in class? The latter do you essentially no good in admissions to a US-style graduate program.</li>\n<li>Do you have the opportunity to take more classes before you apply in an attempt to improve your standing?</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>These are some possibilities, but without knowing more about your situation, it's hard to comment further.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 584, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p><strong>Publish.</strong> I have seen the following pattern more than once. (1) Applicant X applies to my department's PhD program and is rejected, not for any major flaws, but just for not standing out from the crowd. (2) X joins a MS program at a different university. (3) As a master's student, X publishes one paper and has two more in submission (or at least preparation). (4) X reapplies to my department's PhD program, with a detailed technical discussion of his results in his statement of purpose and stellar letters from his new department. (5) X is admitted in the first round, with a fellowship.</p>\n\n<p>If you haven't done so already, show your complete application to the people who wrote your rec letters, and ask for their <strong>brutally honest</strong> feedback, especially on your statement. Often students who write statements without some faculty feedback write them to the wrong audience. (\"I'm smart; hire me.\" makes a bad statement of purpose. \"Here is the mathematics I've worked on and what I'm interested in looking at next.\" is much better.)</p>\n\n<p>It's a long shot, but if your recommenders know faculty at the schools you applied to, you <em>might</em> be able to get some second-hand feedback through them. Maybe.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 587, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To steal a phrase from real estate, \"Network, network, and network\". At this point, you can't really improve your GPA, you can't write a senior thesis, and you can't do undergraduate research. Your best bet is to talk to as many people as you can in order to (1) improve your letters of recommendation and (2) network with researchers.</p>\n\n<p>Personally, I would recommend against taking more undergraduate classes, <em>unless</em> there's a specific deficiency in your academic record. Simply taking a course to raise your GPA will likely not have a large impact or be a good use of your time and money. However, if you're missing a subject area, this is the time to fix it. For example, I graduated as a psychology major, and needed some math courses when applying to biomedical engineering graduate programs, so I took a course on diff eq's and linear algebra. That course ended up being very helpful later on, both on my application and when joining research labs.</p>\n\n<p>You mention that you hope to do research over the summer. Adding publications to your record will significantly help your chances, as it makes your academic record less important... the reviewing committee will often consider publications as proof that you can \"do it\". You should expect, though, that you will be grilled extremely thoroughly on your work during the interview process.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/582", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/342/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 595, "author": "Henry", "author_id": 8, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The short answer is that it depends (no surprise there). If it's to give a talk in a department colloquium or seminar, travel cost are usually covered (at least, that's been my experience in mathematics), though that can vary a bit, especially since smaller departments may have very limited budgets for that kind of thing.</p>\n\n<p>Food expenses vary even more wildly, and they depend heavily on the source of funding. I've been at places that had a standard per diem for visitors, places that did nothing, and places where the faculty would take the speaker to dinner and split the cost among them.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 599, "author": "Artem Kaznatcheev", "author_id": 66, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>In my experience (as a visiting guest lecturer while a grad student elsewhere) the travel expense and accommodation were covered not by the university that hosted me, but by grant money from the professor that invited me. That being said, these visits were for a few days and included both the guest lecture, and some research/discussion on ongoing projects.</p>\n\n<p>I did not claim a per diem for food, but I am sure that if I had it would have been covered, too.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 606, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>When you are an invited guest of a university department, in most cases you will have your travel costs paid by the department, or in the case of an individual institute or professor extending the invitation, by the specific people involved. In the case of a short visit (less than a day, for instance), when a per diem becomes impractical, the cost of the meal after the conference might be split among the attendees.</p>\n\n<p>However, I have been an invited lecturer at conferences that were organized at various schools. In those cases, the conferences were operating on a very limited budget, and the \"compensation\" was essentially a free registration to the conference. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/588", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 590, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The only <em>necessary</em> component is the line \"I was wondering about the status of my application\". </p>\n\n<p>Asking whether you can provide additional information is unlikely to help, as the question is too open-ended. It would be an excellent question to ask at the end of the interview phone call, as well as in the follow-up \"thank you\" email, but beyond that it appears desperate, which is typically not a good characteristic of an applicant.</p>\n\n<p>The comment about the unpublished manuscript is unrelated, and therefore pretty neutral. It just as well could be sent in a second email.</p>\n\n<p>It's worth mentioning that inquiring about the status of your application is pretty similar to habanero sauce; use judiciously, and very sparingly, and it's often best not to use it at all.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 652, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As someone who has been participating in more of these hiring discussions recently, and been responsible for filling some of them myself, I would encourage you to use <em>extreme</em> caution before sending out such emails.</p>\n\n<p>Faculty search committees usually consist of faculty members who are already quite overworked, and who have to deal with potentially many candidates who may all want to pester them with questions. If somebody starts acting like a nuisance, they might consider that person \"not a team player\" and reject the application on those grounds alone.</p>\n\n<p>However, there are a few times when it is appropriate to ask about such deadlines:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p><em>When you have received an offer from another institution, but the institution you're writing to is a higher-perference choice</em>. Then you are doing two things: you're making sure that you get an informed decision, plus you're also letting the other guys know that if they're interested in you, they'll need to make a move quickly.</p></li>\n<li><p><em>If you have a major update to announce.</em> This might include a change in location (new position, new mailing address, etc.) as well as status updates—you've earned a promotion or a major award. Then it would be OK to mention this in an email.</p></li>\n<li><p><em>It is well past the \"standard\" deadline, or a promised deadline.</em> Then you're just following up on an arrangement, and it's hard to argue against this.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>However, you should <em>never</em> ask if you are included on the list of finalists. That's considered both rude, as well as unfair to everybody else involved. Like eykanal, I think the last paragraph in your excerpt is always superfluous, and should not be included in an email requesting a status update. (You <em>could</em> and perhaps <em>should</em> send it as part of a thank-you note to the interviewer.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 653, "author": "Amy", "author_id": 167, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/167", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>They'll call you if they want to call you. </p>\n\n<p>In general, the only appropriate times to contact a potential employer following an interview are:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Immediately afterwards, to thank the interviewer for their time (and reiterate your interest in the position). <strong>Do this within 24 hours of the interview</strong>. </li>\n<li>If you have another offer somewhere else. In that case, it's appropriate to ask the status of your application so that you can have the opportunity to consider both. </li>\n</ol>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/589", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/344/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 596, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>As you suggest in your question, this likely will vary from both field to field, and from lab to lab. In the two research labs I've worked in, one engineering and one neuroscience, undergraduates did a tremendous amount of useful work. In engineering, they would help with circuit design and fabrication, as well as doing background research and presenting their findings to the group as a whole. In the neuroscience lab, they would do cellular recordings and prepare cell cultures, as well as participate in paper writing.</p>\n\n<p>In both cases, the undergraduates benefitted tremendously from the experience in a number of ways; they experienced the life of a researcher, they got to perform actual research work, they published articles and conference papers, and they received excellent letters of recommendation. The lab also benefitted, in that they had a (most of the time) highly motivated student who was interested in doing work performing research, the grad students/professors had more time either prepare other experiments or write papers, and all the benefits of simply having someone else around to bounce ideas off of. All in all, if the lab is organized enough to handle the logistics of providing the students with regular (non-busywork) tasks to perform, it's a win-win situation for everyone.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 602, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are two major benefits I've encountered for professors sponsoring/hosting undergraduate researchers.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Grunt work.Yes it extends outside laboratory sciences - everyone has work that, while it needs to be handled with attention, doesn't necessarily need doctoral-level expertise. Parameter searches. Literature pulling. Programming implementation. All of these are valuable experiences for undergrads, give them exposure not only to the field they're interested in but the \"act\" of research itself, and save time for grad students, post-docs and faculty who <em>could</em> do these things, but instead are able to focus on the tasks undergraduates can't do.</li>\n<li>Recruitment. Promising undergraduate researchers make for decent graduate student recruits. If they're not terribly interested in pursuing graduate education, but have a knack for research tasks and mesh well with a lab, they're also prime material for lab techs, programmers, and other technical support staff.</li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 609, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One other (minor) benefit that eykanal and EpiGrad didn't mention is internal brownie points. Faculty in my department are encouraged to collaborate with undergrads, in part because graduate admissions is highly correlated with undergraduate research experience, and in part so that the department can attract a larger pool of potential majors. Working with undergrads makes my chair/dean happy.</p>\n\n<p>That's not a major reason for me, though. As your Brown and UC profs suggest, the enthusiasm that motivated undergrads bring to research can be very refreshing. And (in my experience, in theoretical CS) there's comparatively little pressure for the research to lead to publication, compared to work with graduate students (where unsuccessful research means they don't graduate).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/592", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 600, "author": "Artem Kaznatcheev", "author_id": 66, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think a script is actually more harmful than good. It tends to produce very rigid talks, and it often forces you to concentrate on the <em>script</em> instead of the <em>content</em> and <em>audience</em>. Usually, you know what you are talking about well enough to not need a script, and just pointers. Below are the tricks I use for different kinds of talks.</p>\n<h3>Research talks</h3>\n<p>For technical talks on my research or guest lectures on topics I am intimately familiar with (these two have been the overwhelming majority of my talks), I do not make scripts or notes and just concentrate on making good slides. In the process of making slides, I produce an outline which I use to mentally check my timing. The day of the talk, I look through my slides carefully (hunting for typos and other minor mistakes), this reminds me of the exact details I was going to discuss. Since I tend to repeat similar talks, I have become very proficient at estimating my timing.</p>\n<p>For some big conferences, I practice talks in my lab before heading to the conference. This greatly improves the talk, especially timing issues and comfort.</p>\n<p>I find that this is easy to do because you are usually intimately familiar with your own research and unlikely to forget something. It also allows a relatively fluid and natural talk, and lets you answer questions during the talk without fear of losing your pace.</p>\n<p>Usually, <strong>I have my final version the day before</strong> unless I rehearse in the lab.</p>\n<h3>Teaching talks</h3>\n<p>I have done a number of talks as reviews for large bodies of students (50 to 300) to prep them for exams, and smaller groups (20 to 30) during weekly tutorial sections. Here I was talking not about my research, but course material that I had taken years ago. The topics were physics/math and my style was one of interactive problem solving at the board of hand-picked problems that illustrated key concepts. To prepare I had to invest time to carefully come up with good questions and I quickly checked that I could solve the questions as I generated them.</p>\n<p>I write down the questions one per page with a few bullet points of the main concept/technique I want to show in the question. However, I do not write down solutions and solve the questions on the spot at the board. This puts a certain amount of stress on me (especially if you are teaching first year engineers) but I find it produces much better pacing for the students (since I naturally slow down a little at the harder parts) and actually solving the questions as you present them instead of copying a solution from your notes to the board keeps you in the zone and actually reduces errors. Not having notes in your hand (except to write down the problem statement) also lets you worry about just two things: the board and the students.</p>\n<p>The caveat is that you have to very comfortable with the material (but why are you teaching it if you are not?!) and you need to have the confidence to laugh at yourself and recover from occasional mistakes.</p>\n<p>Usually, <strong>I have the final questions and plan a few days ahead of time</strong>. However, there is no 'final version' of the actual talk, since it depends completely on the audience.</p>\n<h3>Popular talks</h3>\n<p>My only opportunity to give a popular talk was at <a href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRuE3oP-JT8\" rel=\"noreferrer\">TEDx McGill 2009</a>. This was incredibly different from other talks I am used to. Thankfully, all of the speakers were coached by the organizing committee ahead of time (including a full dry run through). The key message was to treat this not as a presentation, but as a performance. I did not prepare a script (and were were advised against preparing one), but I did make notes on cue-cards that I held during the performance. Except for the very beginning (where I was unusually nervous) I never looked at the cue cards, and mostly held them for comfort.</p>\n<p><strong>I had my final version about a week before the talk</strong> and my ready-for-dry-run version about two weeks before.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 601, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I think I have a similar process to the one described by Artem (apart from the popular talk, which I never had the opportunity to do). In any case, I never write a script. Actually, for my first talk in English, during my first year of PhD, I learned the talk by heart, which was terrible, and made me finish the talk in 12 minutes instead of the 20 minutes. </p>\n\n<p>However, I try to carefully prepare my transitions, especially between different parts of the talk. I find it particularly annoying when a speaker finishes a part with a blank, moves to the next slide, and says something like \"OK, next section now\". Moreover, I usually include in a transition a brief summary of the key points of the previous section, and the motivation to go to the next section, which ensures that I don't forget any important point.</p>\n\n<p>About how early should the preparation be ready, it depends on the kind of talks. For a 20/25 minutes conference talk presenting a paper, I usually already have a pretty clear idea of what I want to present and how to structure it (since I wrote the paper), so I start the slides about a week before the conference, have a decent draft 2 or 3 days before (i.e. the final number of slides, the correct titles), and the final version the day before. As Artem's said, after a while, you can project pretty accurately the duration of a talk from your slides, so there is no need to repeat to make sure you are in time. </p>\n\n<p>For a 45/50 minutes seminar-kind talk, it's a bit trickier, because usually the audience is not the same as the one at a conference, and it's harder not to bore them. So I start preparing the slides about a month before, but only to get the outline, and I start working on the talking part, not so much the slides, to try to find nice ways to present the ideas (such as nice examples, nice analogies). </p>\n\n<p>So, in summary, to answer your questions: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>It is not very common (I actually don't know anyone who does it). </li>\n<li>It can help if the speaker is very nervous, and tends to forget a lot of important things (which often disappears with experience). </li>\n<li>It depends on the experience, and the ability to evaluate your presentation. If you feel very confident, you can start preparing the presentation the night before. But in general, I'd say that something between a week before and the day before is good. </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><strong>EDIT:</strong></p>\n\n<p>As aeismail mentioned, my answer is quite subjective, and just describe what works for me and for some people I know. However, just one point I would add, concerning the \"awkward pauses\": I think that the quality of my presentations has tremendously increased when I stopped preparing my presentation around my slides, but the other way around. So I dropped all sentences like \"this slide presents ...\", \"on this slide, we have the definition ...\", etc. Actually, I even try not to say the words that are on the slides. I don't know if my presentation are better for the audience, but at least, I feel much more comfortable with them. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 605, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think the most important factor to keep in mind is the personal comfort level of the speaker with respect to giving presentations. For some people—particularly people working in a non-native language—having a prepared script allows them to relax sufficiently and be able to get through the talk. For other people, having a prepared script acts more as an encumbrance than an aide. I've seen people rehearse talks to the point of practically being memorized—and then get completely flustered when they accidentally skip past a slide or are faced with a small technical glitch in the presentation itself.</p>\n\n<p>So, I would disagree with Charles and Artem and say that you should find whichever method is most effective <em>for you</em>. Personally, I am not able to rehearse talks beyond going over what are the key points I want to address on a slide. If I go through a talk like that more than twice or thrice, I start getting \"locked\" into certain words and phrases, and then I start falling into the problems that the other posters mentioned regarding the pitfalls of a memorized talk. You may find a memorized speech is the most helpful possibility; if that's the case, then our opinions of what is the \"best\" approach don't really apply.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 607, "author": "Konrad Rudolph", "author_id": 348, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/348", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<h2>Script only the introduction</h2>\n\n<p>I can only echo what Artem said about the disadvantages of a script.</p>\n\n<p>That said, I often advise to write out the <em>introduction</em> of the talk beforehand in full detail. This way, you have a backup. So far, I have never ended up using the prepared introduction, I’ve always had at least slight variations. But if – for whatever reason – you get stuck, you can recourse to the prepared script. If nothing else, this is extremely comforting and reduces anxiety.</p>\n\n<h2>A talk should not feel like a performance</h2>\n\n<p>Of the talks that I’ve heard (instead of given), those that were obviously based on a script were among the worst. They were bad performances rather than good talks. A talk (in general) isn’t meant to be a performance – it’s meant to convey information; like you would do in a discussion with friends:</p>\n\n<p>The “chat with friends” should be archetype after which to model a talk, not the “theatre performance”.¹</p>\n\n<h2>Use cue cards</h2>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I sometimes digress and sometimes omit an important detail.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This can be helped by notes (cue cards). But you have to train yourself to look at these from time to time (I can never remember doing this). I usually end up plastering my slides with huge sticky notes that only show up on the presenter’s display (supported at least by Keynote). Not elegant but effective.</p>\n\n<h2>A word on slides</h2>\n\n<p>You said that you want to remove awkward pauses “… while [you] remember what to say about a slide …”.</p>\n\n<p>This may be an indication that your talk needs revising for two reasons:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>If you cannot remember a detail, is it really important?</li>\n<li>You should have <em>nothing</em> to say “about a slide”. Slides are there to visually support your talk, not the other way round. If you don’t remember what to say about a slide, cut the slide. This sounds like a harsh judgement but it <em>will</em> improve the talk.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>¹ Except when it isn’t, of course. TED talks were mentioned. But even here, all the best talks <em>feel</em> like a friendly chat rather than a performance, even if they are in reality a well-rehearsed performance.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 613, "author": "Tangurena", "author_id": 109, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/109", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I also tend to write out notes, but at an early part of the preparation, I tend to write out something very much like a script. I use this to make sure I'm covering what needs covering, and cut down where I tend to ramble on. This also helps me determine if I'm going to fit inside the time budget, and if not, what to cut down on. A couple practice runs with the polished script and then I reduce it to a single page of notes. </p>\n\n<p>One of my most memorable professors appeared much smarter because she eliminated all those \"err\" and \"umm\" from her speech. Instead of an \"umm\", she'd be silent. I'm not successful in replicating this as most of my coworkers take that pause to be a sign that I am done speaking, so they can now start their turn speaking. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 622, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Scripting is <strong>great</strong>. Do it. Write out every single word. And then redraft and edit it, just as you would if it were a journal article ... <strong>except</strong>, remember that the audience is completely different. So redraft and edit it, with the real audience in mind. You are scripting a performance; so redraft and edit it as a script for a performance.</p>\n\n<p>Then rehearse it. Over and over. Until you know about 70%+ off by heart (i.e. word-for-word); and you've got a really strong opening and really strong close, each of which you know 100% off by heart. With each run-through, you'll find yourself doing a bit more editing, re-ordering words, shuffling sentences.</p>\n\n<p>Now put your script away, and do a couple of dress-rehearsal run-throughs without the script at all, so that your performance is close-ish to the script, but by now, it's getting a bit looser, more natural. So you can concentrate on timing, breathing, pitch variations, body language, and saving some resources for picking up continuous feedback from your audience.</p>\n\n<p>And now you're ready to go!</p>\n\n<p>YMMV. It works sometimes for me.</p>\n\n<p>Try it out, at least once, and see if it works for you.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 960, "author": "Casebash", "author_id": 270, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/270", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I really dislike memorising anything word for word as most of that effort will only be useful only for a single occasion. That said - I have to admit that sometimes a talk is important enough to be worth that effort - especially if the talk is one the you will be giving on many occasions.</p>\n\n<p>However, the disadvantage of memorising a talk is that it is hard to sound natural. It's difficult, but not impossible. Actors demonstrate this. Generally it is much better to just us a script as a guide. Practise individual chunks from memory a number of times and play around with the various ways of wording it. Instead of having to remember the exact words, you now only have to remember one out of a number of options. You will become much better at discussing the topic and your ability to improvise will improve.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/597", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/344/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 604, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>A few points:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>What subject are you looking at? The answer varies significantly if you are not looking at science/math/engineering.</li>\n<li>Define 'graduate level' because the Khan Academy (Not Kahn) is far from graduate level.</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.infocobuild.com/education/education.html\">This</a> is a very good link. I'll paste an excerpt here:</li>\n</ol>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><strong>MIT OpenCourseWare</strong> : undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.</p>\n \n <p><strong>Open Yale</strong> Courses : astronomy, biomedical engineering, history, economics, English, philosophy, physics, political science, and\n psychology.</p>\n \n <p><strong>UC Berkeley Webcast</strong> : biology, computer science, electrical engineering, physics, political science, and psychology.</p>\n \n <p><strong>Stanford Engineering Everywhere</strong> </p>\n \n <p><strong>NPTEL</strong> basic undergraduate science and engineering courses. The courses include biotechnology, civil engineering, computer science,\n electrical engineering, electronics and communication, and mechanical\n engineering.</p>\n \n <p><strong>McGill Univ. COurses OnLine (COOL)</strong> : chemistry, biology and computer science.</p>\n \n <p><strong>UCLA BruinCast</strong> offers some free audio/video lectures for certain undergraduate courses from the University of California, Los Angeles\n (UCLA).</p>\n \n <p><strong>Open Learning Initiative | Harvard University Extension School</strong> brings free audio/video lectures on topics in computer science,\n English literature, history, and mathematics.</p>\n \n <p><strong>Video &amp; Audio | University of Cambridge</strong> offers free access to audio and video lectures from the University's institutions including\n the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences and the\n Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy.</p>\n \n <p><strong>Podcasts from the University of Oxford</strong> provides free access to certain course materials and audio/video lectures on a variety of\n subjects, including chemistry, engineering, humanities, life science,\n medical sciences, physics, and social sciences.</p>\n \n <p><strong>YouTube - UHouston's Channel (University of Houston)</strong> contains lots of video lectures on various subjects: anthropology, chemistry,\n English literature, history, philosophy, and psychology.</p>\n \n <p><strong>nanoHUB</strong> Courses contains free educational materials about nanotechnology. The courses cover the following subjects:\n nanoelectronics, NEMS/nanofluidics, nanomedicine/biology, and\n nanophotonics.</p>\n \n <p><strong>Mathematical Sciences Research Institute (MSRI)</strong> provides a large number of free video lectures on a variety of subjects in mathematics\n and mathematical sciences.</p>\n \n <p><strong>CERN Document Server</strong> provides a huge collection of text documents and video lectures in particle physics and related areas.</p>\n \n <p><strong>Department of Mathematics, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs</strong> offers free video lectures on mathematics including\n calculus, discrete mathematics, linear algebra, differential equations\n and mathematical statistics. Registration is required to access the\n lectures.</p>\n \n <p><strong>Indiana Multimedia Distribution System</strong> offers free audio/video courses and lectures in business and management from Kelley School of\n Business, Indiana University Bloomington.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The pasted website has links to all the places, alternately, you could simply google the words in bold.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 608, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've found many interesting &amp; diverse lectures in the <a href=\"http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/apple-education/id334296685\" rel=\"nofollow\">Education section of Apple's podcast directory</a> (I can't verify that link at work, I hope it's correct). While most are undergraduate, some are taught at a higher level, and they're a good resource for when you need to learn a new discipline in grad school.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 610, "author": "Artem Kaznatcheev", "author_id": 66, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>At the graduate level there is less and less 'standardized' material like in undergrad. You might take a few introductory graduate courses that are pretty similar across universities, but then you tend to take very specialized courses (at least in my experiences with fields like math, computer science, and physics; and my answer should be taken as only relevant to those fields). Further, the number one skill you are suppose to learn in grad school seems to be <strong>independence</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>If some specialized course is not offered at your university then the standard procedure is to look for good lecture notes on the websites of experts in that field. These experts usually teach relevant graduate level courses and post their lecture notes online. In fact, some of these lecture note become rather famous:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://cstheory.stackexchange.com/q/4074/1037\">What Lecture Notes (in theoretical computer science) Should Everyone Read?</a></p>\n\n<p>Then you have to do what <em>every graduate student has to do</em>, and that is to <em>motivate and teach yourself</em> with the guidance of those lecture notes (and maybe Q&amp;A sites like SE or emails to the relevant experts). Some tricks to make this is easier is to form groups with other graduate students and learn the material together through regular meetings and discussions.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/603", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/347/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 612, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>It's rare. I know of one conference though (in theoretical computer science) where the steering committee actively maintains a list of \"qualified but has never served\", and strongly encourages PC chairs to look over that list when selecting names. Your best strategy might be to approach the steering committee and suggest that they do something like this, so as not to sound like you're shilling for yourself :)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 624, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I agree with Suresh, it's rare, I've never seen a call for invitation to a PC in my field (Computer Science). I have actually seen people making fun of emails asking to be in a PC (i.e. if you ask the PC Chair to join the PC, it could be negatively perceived). </p>\n\n<p>From what I understand, there are at least five possibilities to get a PC chair to invite you to join a PC (of course, none of them are automatic, they can just be helpful. In the end, the PC Chair makes his own choices, in order to have a PC that is attractive enough for authors to submit a paper, and serious enough so that the reviewing process can be done effectively):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>if you were in the PC of the previous editions</li>\n<li>if you know the PC Chair, so that he can trust you to do your job, </li>\n<li>if you already are in other PCs of conferences in a related area (i.e. other PC Chairs trusted you)</li>\n<li>if you have published several papers in previous editions of a conference</li>\n<li>if someone you know is invited to join the PC, but he can't and suggests you. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Of course, it's a cycle: the higher reputation you have, the higher are your chances to be invited to join a PC, and the more PC you join, the higher is your reputation. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 626, "author": "Gaurav", "author_id": 60, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/60", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Talk to members of the current organizing committee? It's tough work, and scientists are always busy, so they'll usually be receptive to having someone else to split the work with, and there's always a chance that somebody is too busy to help with next year's committee, and they're looking for a replacement.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/611", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 618, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my opinion having an up-to-date website is very important. This way people will find out about your papers and what you are working on. It can also help to <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/555/does-a-informative-and-clear-professor-webpage-often-increase-the-number-of-pros\">attract students</a>. It also helps when you're teaching as you can put frequently requested information there and save yourself the hassle of having to reply to hundreds of emails.</p>\n\n<p>In my experience, maintaing a website is not that much effort either.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 620, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The only presence that the vast majority of researchers give significant thought to is their presence in the literature. Most labs view web presence as a way to inform the community about their work, and as a way to attract new students, but that's about it. This purpose is served by a pretty simple site, which includes:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Basic info (name, broad research interests, contact info)</li>\n<li>Recent research projects</li>\n<li>Names of lab members (graduate students, postdocs, undergraduates, technicians, etc.)</li>\n<li>Recent publications</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>For professors who teach often, having a \"teaching\" section is very helpful, but remember to pull down things like answer keys and test solutions after the semester is over, unless you want future students to see those things.</p>\n\n<p>You can do more and it will look nice, but investing in any site more complex than that has a pretty low payoff.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 621, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think it also depends on the position of the researcher. For instance, a computer scientist who has a permanent research position, publishes one paper a year in a top conference, and doesn't care about the publicity does not <em>need</em> to have an important web presence. </p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, a postdoc who is looking for a job knows that every time he sends his CV somewhere, one of the first reflex from the recruiter is to Google his name. So, in this case, it's quite important to have a good presence, and to have an updated webpage, in particular with papers accepted but not published yet. </p>\n\n<p>About the maintenance, as mentioned the other answers, maintaining a website is not particularly demanding, especially if it's quite simple. However, maintaining a blog can be quite complicated, especially because having an non updated blog is probably worse than not having any blog at all. As for G+/SE, I guess the investment is worth the return from the community. </p>\n\n<p>Concerning the danger of a high web-presence, well, obviously there is the risk that some \"private\" information might be connected to a public profile. For instance, I have a flickr account with pictures that, although not particularly shameful, I wouldn't like a potential employer or a student to see. Of course, my account is under a pseudonym, but that's the same pseudonym that I can use on other services (such as twitter), and maybe at some point I will refer to my twitter account from my G+ account, that maybe I will refer from my SE account, where I use my real name. But I guess that's the risk with the Internet in general: if it's out there, it has to be considered as public. There is a similar argument for opinions or ideas you could have a site such as Academia SE and that could be later on taken out of context and used against you. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 623, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The short answer, at least in theoretical computer science, is <strong>yes</strong>. Especially pre-tenure.</p>\n<p>The Coin of the Realm in academia is fame. Hiring and promotion decisions are based primarily on the perceptions of your impact by leaders in the research community. Those intellectual leaders must know who you are, they must know what you do, and they must think that what you do is excellent. This is precisely why it's so important to network, network, network — go to conferences, visit other departments, talk to visitors, ask questions, answer questions, go to lunch, drink beer, play pool/golf/frisbee/Settlers of Catan, race go-karts, exchange business cards, all that stuff. Having a visible online presence is just another form of networking.</p>\n<p>Similarly, if you want to attract good students, they have to know who you are, they have to know what you do, and they have to think what you do is interesting.</p>\n<p>Similarly, if your work is not freely and easily accessible on the web, it is <em>much</em> less likely to be cited than freely accessible work of comparable quality.</p>\n<p>To give some personal examples, I have good reason to believe that <a href=\"https://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/compgeom/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">these web pages</a> were a significant factor in my academic job search and even my tenure case, and <a href=\"https://jeffe.cs.illinois.edu/teaching/algorithms/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">this stuff</a> definitely helped me get promoted. I expect that <a href=\"http://robotics.stanford.edu/%7Esuresh/theory/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">these pages</a> similarly helped Suresh, and <a href=\"http://www.ics.uci.edu/%7Eeppstein/geom.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">these pages</a> similarly helped David.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 630, "author": "Jez", "author_id": 358, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/358", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You might find some interesting answers to this question on Brian Kelly's UK Web Focus blog — for example one recent post talks about <a href=\"http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2012/03/02/how-researchers-can-use-inbound-linking-strategies-to-enhance-access-to-their-papers/\">how links on the web can enhance access to your published papers</a>.</p>\n\n<p>Another place to look is the <a href=\"http://altmetrics.org/manifesto/\">altmetrics</a> movement, which is developing new ways to measure the quality of a researcher's work other than just citation counts.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 674, "author": "Joanna Bryson", "author_id": 384, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/384", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>An Internet presence</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>facilitates collaboration (via Google), </li>\n<li>attracts prospective student attention (Google, Twitter), and </li>\n<li>informs their decision about whether to come (Web page. be sure to say where your lab alumni have gone &amp; to give lots of hat tips to everyone who has passed through), </li>\n<li>informs funding agencies / grant reviewers about how well you disseminate, both scientifically and to voters / your community, how many careers you've assisted with your previous grants, etc. (Web page)</li>\n<li>social media lets you share the papers you think are important &amp; to learn what your peers are reading (Twitter is especially good for this.) If you are in a small university this is like extending the size of your group.</li>\n<li>certainly takes time and trades off with research and scientific publication productivity.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 10299, "author": "techmsi", "author_id": 7198, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7198", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The web is everywhere and if you would like to be known, you need to have a strong presence on it. Anyone who is curious about you, will \"Google\" you and you must have control over what comes up. </p>\n\n<p>There are four key players in creating a solid web presence: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google+. Each site should link back to your website and your website should link to each service. I suggest maintaining public professional accounts and private personal ones to keep your presence prisitine. </p>\n\n<p>As for the website, a simple 3-4 page site will suffice or you could have one very long page with headings to separate the sections and quality content.\nThere are many content generation tools to assist with this such as <a href=\"http://www.layzilla.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.layzilla.com/</a> or <a href=\"http://www.blended-html.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.blended-html.com</a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 17446, "author": "David Basanta", "author_id": 7913, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7913", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It's a good question Artem. Establishing a good system such that your research can be known to other researchers in your field (or even in other fields) seems to me the way to go. The main problem I see is for those of us that do not work in fields where the hiring people are themselves interested in having a web presence. Most cancer researchers do not seem to care much about having one. Few have a website for their group and many of those that do don't seem to care much about it. Twitter and blogs are almost unheard of for experimentalists. They don't use them much and don't expect you to have one. I wish I could say that the new generation is a lot more adept but that doesn't seem to be my experience with the biology grad students and postdocs I know.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/616", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 628, "author": "JRN", "author_id": 64, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/64", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The 2008 study entitled <a href=\"http://www.publishingresearch.net/PeerReview.htm\">Peer Review in Scholarly Journals - Perspective of the Scholarly Community: An International Study</a> aimed \"to measure the attitudes and behaviour of the academic community with regard to peer review.\" Some quotes from the <a href=\"http://www.publishingresearch.net/documents/PRCsummary4Warefinal.pdf\">summary</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Double-blind review was preferred. Although the normal experience of researchers in most fields was of single-blind review, when asked which was their preferred option, there was a preference for double-blind review, with 56% selecting this, followed by 25% for single-blind, 13% for open and 5% for post-publication review. Open peer review was an active discouragement for many reviewers, with 49% saying that disclosing their name to the author would make them less likely to review.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>and</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Double-blind review was seen as the most effective. Double-blind review had the most respondents (71%) who perceived it to be effective, followed (in declining order) by single-blind (52%), post-publication (37%) and open peer review (27%).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>A 2008 <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7179/full/451605b.html\">article</a> in <em>Nature</em> (and a <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080604/full/453711c.html\">correction</a>) discusses the above study but the article is about double-blind review versus single-blind review, and not about blind review versus open review. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 629, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The more is revealed about the identity of authors and reviewers, the less honest the review process may be. Such openness may favour already-established scientists over newcomers.</p>\n\n<p>In the ideal world a reviewer would raise the same concerns when reviewing papers from a Nobel-prize winner or from an undergraduate student. But as people are even afraid of asking possibly dumb questions in public, I would be really surprised if they could apply the same scrutiny regardless of who they are reviewing.</p>\n\n<p>Even with the standard (single)-blind process, I heard that an already-famous scientist submitted papers under made-up names to receive honest reviews (just can't recall who).</p>\n\n<p>An example from <a href=\"http://www.math.upenn.edu/~wilf/website/dek.pdf\">Herbert S. Wilf on a birthday speech for Donald E. Knuth</a> (pointed out by Joel Reyes Noche):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>In the 1980's, in the early days of the Journal of Algorithms, I was an Editor-in-Chief, and Don [Donald Knuth] submitted a paper to me, authored by himself under the pseudonym of Ursula N. Owens, ostensibly from some small college in some small nonexistent town in Kansas. The reason was that he really wanted to get a tough and substantive referee's report on the paper, and <strong>he had been finding that sometimes referees had pulled their punches because of his name at the top of a paper</strong>.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Double-blind process may be even more beneficial, but at the same time illusory (as topic, references and style may reveal the author). Moreover, the identity of the author may sometimes be beneficial (e.g., to compare if the new submission has something new).</p>\n\n<p>None of it is a proof.</p>\n\n<p>But instead of counting of lines of reviews, one can try to compare how softly (or harshly) are treated contributors, depending on their status (academic title, university name, fame/recognizability). </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 638, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One ofhe most convincing argument I have heard in favour of blind reviewing is that it prevents people whose paper has been rejected from taking \"revenge\" on the reviewer (conciously or unconciously). Consider for example a senior academic who has a paper rejected because of the review of a junior academic. It would be quite easy for the senior academic to hinder the progress of the junior one.</p>\n\n<p>This is similar to the point that Piotr raised about it being a more \"honest\" process.</p>\n\n<p>I don't know of any specific examples of this though.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 642, "author": "Sylvain Peyronnet", "author_id": 43, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The funny thing is that on this issue, most people mention immediately the \"honesty\" side of the problem, not the \"quality\" side.\nFor the latter, I think that this not blind/open reviews which is the pertinent question, but rather the public/private question. If reviews are always public, then my guess is that the quality will increase, because the general chair/editor in chief will push that way to ensure its conference/journal to have excellent reputation.\nPersonally, I don't want/need to know who is reviewing my papers, but I want AND need quality reviews, and they are unusual those days. We all know why : too many papers, too many reviews to make, not that much time... </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1349, "author": "D.W.", "author_id": 705, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/705", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't have any proof either way, but for one data point, you might look at <a href=\"http://www.sigcomm.org/events/hotnets-workshop\" rel=\"nofollow\">the HotNets workshop</a>.</p>\n\n<p>At several of the early workshops, the program committee published public reviews of the papers. During the reviewing process, program committee members wrote blind reviews, as is the usual process (the reviewers were anonymous). But also, for each published paper, a member of the program committee wrote a fresh review intended for public consumption summarizing the program committee's view on the paper. Many of the public reviews were quite frank, both in identifying reservations about the paper as well as aspects of the paper that the program committee enjoyed.</p>\n\n<p>I don't think HotNets still does that, but you could try to research more about what the HotNets community's experience with public reviews was (public? negative?). Also I think there have been some other computer science workshops and conferences that have also written public reviews, so you could look at them as well.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 121854, "author": "wdlang", "author_id": 71336, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/71336", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I can only share some of my experience. </p>\n\n<p>Once a friend got a paper review request from a top journal. His boss knew that and asked him to reject it because the authors were doing what he and his boss were doing. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/625", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 634, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The types of books you refer to are unlike publications, in that they typically detail the results of research that occurred 5+ years ago. As such, if you're reading such a book, it's typically for one of two reasons:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>To be brought up to speed on a topic with which you're unfamiliar</li>\n<li>To learn a specific technique which is discussed in the book</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>In either case, you'll want to typically be interested in only a subset of the book. I would recommend reading through that section slowly, section by section, as you would a paper. It will probably take a while. I have never read an academic book cover-to-cover. Do note that your speed-reading skills will likely be less useful here, as STEM literature typically does not lend itself to speed reading. There is no \"ideal time\" that can be stated. When you begin, a single page may take you hours. There was one paper I read where a <em>single equation</em> took my lab mate four months to work through. As you get more experience, you'll speed up. Time is a commodity, but information is a more precious one. Spend the time necessary to learn the topic, and especially at the beginning, measure your progress over days, not hours.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If I am interested in a particular chapter with a lot of dependencies, is it in my interest to read everything till that chapter or read that chapter > google unknown terms > read chapter again and loop? </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>There are two approaches here. The one you mention - google unfamiliar concepts - can work well. However, oftentimes the author of the book will mention exactly where the dependency is (e.g., \"As we discussed in the previous chapter, ...\"), so you can identify which parts of the book you need to read through. That may be more useful, as any terminology will be consistent within the same book. For some topics (math &amp; engineering in particular), other papers will often use different terminology, needlessly complicating the learning process.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If one gets stuck for over a certain threshold at something is it wise to continue assuming it as true or to persevere till the end and figure it out. This is true for research papers, is it true for books?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is simply a function of how necessary the topic is. When you get stuck, figure out what concept is confusing you, read up on that topic, and then continue. This process can take weeks, or even months. If you really want to learn the topic, persevere. If you can continue without that bit of clarity, move on to something more productive.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 636, "author": "Henry", "author_id": 8, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>How you read an academic book depends heavily on what you want from it, but one thing that I think is almost universally true is that you generally don't want to bog down on one page/argument/theorem/definition/whatever on a first read. Later content often adds context and motivation to something that may seem mysterious, so if you get stuck for a while on something, it's a good idea to move on and then come back to it later.</p>\n\n<p>My usual experience reading mathematically dense content, which I think is relatively typical, is that as I go along, the level of my understanding steadily decreases, and eventually it gets to the point that I'm learning very little, so I go back to the parts I understood well and start reading again from there, this time understanding a bit more, and I iterate this until I've learned what I set out to learn.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 641, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I have never (as far as I can remember) read a technical book cover to cover from start to end. Most of the time, I have a problem in mind that I want to solve, and I'm looking for tools to solve it; more often than not, if I'm trying to learn out of a book, I'm actually reading three or four books at once. I dive into the middle of a book that seems most relevant; if I don't understand something, I'll back up, and if I don't understand that, I'll back up again, and if I get really stuck I'll put the first book down and pick up a more elementary book, and so on until I'm on firm ground again. (\"Getting really stuck\" only happens after relying to work through/reconstruct details on my own, in addition to trying to understand them from the book's presentation. I have taken months to read through one page, always feeling just close enough to understanding that I never felt \"really stuck\".) Whenever possible I pop back up the reading stack with my target problem in mind, skipping entire chapters if they don't seem relevant (but backtracking if I discover later than I'm wrong), working forward again until I either find the tool that I'm looking for, conclude that I've been on a wild goose chase, or give up on the book.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, I miss a <em>lot</em> this way. Yes, I get a lot of weird ideas that I later have to kill off. But I just don't have the patience to read large volumes of technical material that doesn't seem at least remotely relevant to some problem at hand, and prioritizing often leads me fairly quickly to tools that work.</p>\n\n<p>Your mileage may vary. Caveat lector.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/631", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 637, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Here in Germany, this wouldn't be a problem, as the PhD adviser is normally <em>excluded</em> from providing references for hiring processes in academia, since it's assumed the advisor would support the student.</p>\n\n<p>However, while there is reason to be concerned about your advisor not giving you a good letter of recommendation, all is not lost. Since this is not your previous position (you're coming from a postdoc), the PhD advisor's weight will not be as significant. It's still important, and you better have a very good \"elevator speech\" explanation why he might not support you. But the fact that you have a postdoctoral advisor means that you do have some credentials; if he can write a strong letter in support, it might further give credence to the idea that your there was just dysfunction between you and your PhD advisor. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 643, "author": "Amy", "author_id": 167, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/167", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I've personally seen a few careers survive this exact problem (caveat: I don't necessarily see the ones that don't), but it isn't easy. </p>\n\n<p>The best way to surmount this problem is to be referred into a job in an industry/government/NGO lab - and have someone within the organization pulling for you. If you're doing an academic post-doc right now, that's fine, but you need to start connecting to people who work in the kinds of places you want to work. If you do another post-doc, do one for a company or a government lab. If you've got someone who can pull you into the fold at a company or lab, you've got no issue at all.</p>\n\n<p>Here's my advice if you are sending out cold-call applications:</p>\n\n<p>The issue won't come up in the application stage (don't mention anything negative about your experience in your cover letter, or your application will get trashed). The trick will be how to handle yourself during the interview stage. </p>\n\n<p>You say here: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"in retrospect I see that I could have avoided a breakdown in our\n relationship if I had been more deferential.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You're going to need a much better story than that. Because you are going to have to explain it at some point (probably when someone asks why you haven't listed your old PI as a reference), and that line will throw up red flags about your ability to handle being managed. You'll have to be prepared to talk about it in some detail, but focus everything on <em>what you learned from it</em>. How do you handle conflict better now? Have recent examples ready of your excellent interpersonal skills. </p>\n\n<p>Avoid talking about this problem for more than a few minutes in an interview, but don't hide the fact that you've have this issue in the past. Employers will call your references, and chances are good that it will come up. Even if one of your references mentions it with you in the best possible light, if it's the first time the employer has heard of it they will feel like you've withheld information. While companies will generally not call someone you haven't listed as a reference, they will get in touch with everyone they know who may have also worked for your old boss, gotten a degree from your old department, collaborated with your old group. This may be an issue if your field of study is small. If you've changed your research focus somewhat since then, this is less likely to happen. </p>\n\n<p>You can overcome this, but BE PREPARED. And once you get your first non-postdoc job, it'll all be downhill from there. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 703, "author": "Joanna Bryson", "author_id": 384, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/384", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Falling out with your supervisor is bad, but it's not insurmountable so long as there are other people who like your work and will recommend you. Remember: even if your former supervisor is the leader of their field, there will always be some people that disagree with them! </p>\n\n<p>In the UK you can only list two references anyway, so your postdoctoral supervisor and another committee member other than your supervisor would probably be fine.</p>\n\n<p>The main issue is actually the interview. You need to be <em>sure</em> you have a good understanding of where any of your professional relationships have broken down and how you would address similar situations in the future. This may be too scary, but one good person to discuss this with and get ideas from is your former supervisor! Even if you know you will never use them as a reference, both of you will be in the same field for much of your remaining careers, so it's worth burying the hatchet if possible and finding a new, more adult relationship. Students often think their supervisors feel more strongly about them than they do, since students have only one supervisor and obsess about that relationship, but supervisors have many students and other responsibilities and basically just need everything to go as smoothly as possible. </p>\n\n<p>If communication really is no longer possible, it still isn't necessarily the end of your career, but if communication is possible that would be my advice.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1467, "author": "morpheus", "author_id": 802, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/802", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are some good answers here. I would like to add that this happened to me also. For a long time, I was also apprehensive and worried about prospective employers noticing that I don't list my advisor as reference, how to defend myself in interviews etc. but then I realized the best solution is to be upfront about it. When you are hiding something, people think you are guilty vs. when you are upfront about it - people tend to sympathize, plus most importantly you have no fear. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 73652, "author": "Significance", "author_id": 48584, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/48584", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I also had a falling out with my PhD supervisor but managed to secure a good postdoctoral position in spite of it (I'm told the letter of reference provided by my PhD supervisor was \"very concise\", but I was lucky that my skillset was rare and urgently needed by the group I joined). </p>\n\n<p>When applying for positions at the end of my postdoc, I did not use my PhD supervisor as a referee, but instead used my postdoctoral advisor and two other senior academics with whom I had worked during my postdoc. <strong>My postdoctotal supervisor said that it might look odd not to have my PhD supervisor as a referee, but in fact, it wasn't a problem</strong>. It did help that my postdoc work was very collaborative, so there were several people who knew me and my work very well and were prepared to speak well of me. If your postdoc has been shoter (mine was a 3 year position) or if you have not been able to develop collaborations with other academics during your postdoc, it may well be that another postdoctoral position would help. If your PhD supervisor is well known and well regarded, it might also count against you if you did not get on (in my case, my PhD supervisor was obscure and was thought odd by most of those who knew him). Regardless of all these considerations, <strong>if I were you, I would apply to both faculty positions and attractive postdoctoral positions, and see how you go in practise</strong>.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/635", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/344/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 645, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 6, "selected": false, "text": "<p><em>The following answer is based on my experience in the fields of Neuroscience, Biology, and to a lesser extent, Electrical Engineering.</em></p>\n\n<p>This is often an unnecessarily touchy subject amongst graduate students. To be clear: <strong>As a graduate student, you can expect that your advisor will appear as an author on all of your papers.</strong> He is providing your funding, your resources, and (ostensibly) is the Primary Investigator on whatever project you happen to be working on. Even if he does not contribute, you are working on <em>his</em> project, and he wrote the grant for it, not you. There may be situations where you will be the sole author of a paper you published during your graduate career, but those will be unusual circumstances, indeed.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, you can read through the <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_authorship\">Wikipedia article on the subject</a>, which discusses conflict. <a href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1764586/?tool=pmcentrez\">This Canadian Medical Association Journal article</a> (thanks, <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_authorship#cite_note-Reliability_of_disclosure_forms_of_authors.27_contributions-25\">Wikipedia</a>) states that authorship ordering conflicts occurred in over 60% of published papers. To help with things, there's a good chance your university has it's own authorship guidelines (e.g., <a href=\"http://hms.harvard.edu/public/coi/policy/integritypolicy.html\">[1]</a><a href=\"http://rio.msu.edu/authorshipguidelines.htm\">[2]</a>); speak with your department.</p>\n\n<p>Most importantly, speak with your advisor. Clear communication early on can help to stave off future problems, or sometimes communication will alert you to the fact that there may be future problems that you should address early on.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 646, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Honestly, as @eykanal has said, the easiest thing to do with this is to speak with your advisor ahead of time and establish a clear policy you both understand and agree to. You should do this even in cases where there doesn't seem to be any clear conflict, everyone's roles are perfectly predictable, and contributions to the paper seem obvious. It's one of those things, like frequent backups, that spares heartache later.</p>\n\n<p>There are many ways such a policy might be made. Your department or university might have rules, your <em>field</em> might have rules, etc.</p>\n\n<p>Generally speaking however, here are things that have happened in my experience:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Major papers that make heavy use of a lab's resources (including you, a grad student funded by the lab) will likely have your supervisors name on the paper.</li>\n<li>More important than does/does not your supervisor's name appear on your papers is (if you field follows the non-alphabetical author ordering scheme) where they appear. They may most often appear in the senior author position, but on a paper where you had a great deal of help and advice from another faculty member? It may be more appropriate to place them in the middle. Again, this should be settled ahead of time.</li>\n<li>If its truly an independent effort that doesn't draw from lab resources, it may be appropriate for your supervisor not to be on the paper. But before you press that, consider whether or not it's particularly <em>worth</em> not having them on. Your answer may vary, and if you think you'd benefit particularly from a solo paper, you might wish to bring it up.</li>\n<li>While collaborators who provided data, technical expertise, etc. may be appropriate for authorship, if you can, try your hardest to avoid having \"co-authors\" who are only distantly connected with the paper. I have never, ever had anything but trouble getting things like draft approval or copyright transfer agreements from people with no stake in the paper other than their name buried in the middle of the authorship list.</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 649, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I will address only the last questions (just to add to the other answers):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If you are working on your own projects independently of your supervisor, but using funding provided by your supervisor, are you suppose to add them as authors or just acknowledge the source of funding?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Funding is to be mentioned in acknowledgements, not in co-authors.</p>\n\n<p>However:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>In experimental projects often you are supposed to add your supervisor as an author. Actually, I does make sense as setting up lab, collecting equipment and gathering know-how is a (scientific) resource you base on.</li>\n<li>Unless it is a completely independent project, you may be expected to add your supervisor (or rather: (s)he may expect you to add him/her) for relatively small contributions, e.g. comments or revisions of the manuscript. But this may be very discipline- and group-dependent (better discuss it with your supervisor in advance).</li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 651, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 8, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Allow me to strongly disagree with eykanal's answer. <strong>There is no universal standard.</strong> You must ask your advisor in advance what her coauthorship policy is.</p>\n\n<p>In theoretical computer science (and mathematics), it is generally considered <em>unethical</em> to list someone as a co-author who has not made a novel and significant intellectual contribution to the paper. In particular, merely funding the research is <em>not</em> considered an intellectual contribution. Adding a supervisor's name to a paper to which they have not directly, intellectually contributed is <strong>lying</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>In practice, writing a good grant proposal requires at least as much intellectual novelty as writing a good paper. Most of the good ideas that PIs pour into their proposals also appear in papers; as long as those ideas constitute <em>novel</em> intellectual contributions, the PI merits co-authorship. But that only works once per idea; once an idea has been published, it's no longer novel, by definition.</p>\n\n<p>To be specific and personal:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>I am not a coauthor on all of my PhD students' papers. (Of course, I still report my students' independent work back to NSF as outcomes on whatever grants supported them. So I still get credit from NSF for having the foresight to fund the student.) The same is true of all the other theoretical computer science faculty in my department.</p></li>\n<li><p>My PhD advisor is a co-author on only one of the papers I published as a PhD student.</p></li>\n<li><p>My PhD advisor doesn't have a single co-authored paper with <em>his</em> advisor. </p></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 702, "author": "Joanna Bryson", "author_id": 384, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/384", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are two reasons that authorship is a difficult area for students:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Power dynamics make students suspicious of being exploited, but</li>\n<li>Attribution of ideas is very difficult. Supervisors can spend months or years describing an idea to a student, and when the student finally understands the idea they get the \"ah ha!\" sensation of discovery and think it's their own.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>No one thinks less of you for having your supervisor's name on a paper since everyone knows this is tricky, so I think it makes sense to be generous – at least so long as your supervisor has <em>agreed</em> to have their name on the paper. If they feel they have made enough of an investment to deserve to have their name associated with your work, then I would give them the benefit of the doubt. If you can't even trust them on this, why are you taking their academic advice at all? But if your supervisor has specifically asked that you keep their name <em>off</em> your paper, you should respect that (and be sure that you understand why!) </p>\n\n<p>In general, authorship on any article with any group of people should be agreed well in advance of submission by all involved parties, in writing (email or recorded chat sessions). The generosity principle works so long as whoever did the most work <em>and</em> the most writing is the first author, and efforts by the team should be made to ensure where possible that that is the same person.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 38680, "author": "Blaisorblade", "author_id": 8966, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8966", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>After some science fraud scandals, the German Science Foundation published ethical rules which also cover this — here I paste the version from Heidelberg University (which is more or less the same as the original). They talk about \"substantial role\": that still leaves some space to interpretation. However, they specifically exclude just providing funding.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If multiple authors have contributed to research or in writing a scientific report, those persons are to be\n named as co-authors who played a substantial role in</p>\n \n <ol>\n <li>defining the problem, drawing up research plans, conducting research, evaluating or interpreting\n research outcomes, and</li>\n <li>drafting or critical review and revision of manuscript content. Co-authorship does not apply to\n persons who merely technically contribute to the collection of data, or who merely provide funding,\n or who merely serve as the head of the department or institution in which the research is carried out.\n Likewise persons who merely read the manuscript without contributing to its content are not\n considered co-authors.</li>\n </ol>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>As other said, different fields have different conventions and different labs have different conventions, both on who's an author, and on the author ordering.\nThe first author is often who did most work; in biology, some grant programs require >=X papers as first author and >= Y paper as last author (senior author).</p>\n\n<p>But some common practices are indeed unfair/unethical.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 67271, "author": "Nile", "author_id": 52747, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/52747", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The authorship guidelines of my university says \" Acquisition of\nfunding, the collection of data, or general supervision of the research group, by themselves, DO NOT JUSTIFY authorship.\" \nHowever my supervisor kills me if I do not mention his name as the second author in my papers in which he did not have any contribution and he even does not know the basics of the work. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 95750, "author": "Patrick B.", "author_id": 68649, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/68649", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You should of course research the norms for your specific field. However, in order to resolve precisely this ambiguity, it is becoming much more common in certain fields to <strong>have a section of the paper that actually specifies exactly what the author contributions are</strong>. The Cell Press and PLoS journals, among others, actually require the use of a defined vocabulary called the <strong><a href=\"http://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/s/authorship#loc-author-contributions\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">CRediT Taxonomy</a></strong>, first outlined in <a href=\"http://openscholar.mit.edu/sites/default/files/dept/files/lpub28-2_151-155.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Brand et al., 2015 [pdf]</a>. Some of the role descriptions include \"Supervision\", \"Project Administration\", and \"Funding Acquisition\" in addition to \"Investigation\", \"Formal Analysis\", and others relating more directly to carrying out the research itself. Compared to author order, which is a field-dependent and sometimes low-information indicator, this makes it much more clear why each given author was listed.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 163976, "author": "Hugo van den Berg", "author_id": 136354, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/136354", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Since your question included the word &quot;lab&quot; the answer is that the supervisor will be on it, regardless of contribution.</p>\n<p>The best justification for this is that labs are expensive, and the supervisor's main job is to keep it running, and they need all the kudos they can get. Labs that go broke are in no position to attract students, so you could say that your supervisor earned their keep before you even started.</p>\n<p>Is this fair? No, obviously not. If you are looking for fair, get out of academia.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/644", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 648, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Some conferences/journals say on their website that reviews should be treated confidentially, although I'm not sure if you're legally obliged to follow this. I would certainly ask everybody involved (i.e. PC and the authors of the paper) before publishing the review.</p>\n\n<p>It's also possible that (part of) the review isn't valid anymore if you're raised concerns that the authors have addressed in the final version.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 650, "author": "Anthony Labarre", "author_id": 26, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>To the best of my knowledge, there are no copyright issues related to reviews you write, and I don't see who would own rights on them save you should those be applicable. To be fair though, I would ask at least X and Y whether they have a problem with you making the review public.</p>\n\n<p>That said, I fail to see the point of making them public. Those reviews are of extremely restricted scope; if the paper was rejected, no need to rub it in by letting the rest of the world know how bad it was. Otherwise, as pointed out by Lars, your comments may not be valid anymore if they were addressed by the authors, but even if they weren't, I don't see the point in publishing the review.</p>\n\n<p>... unless you want as many people as possible to know how thorough a reviewer you are so that they can send you more papers to referee? </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 654, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The standard rule in my community is that once I finish reviewing a paper, I'm supposed to pretend that I don't know the paper exists. In particular, I am not supposed to use any insights I gained by reading that paper in my own research. I am not supposed to reveal the results to my colleagues. <a href=\"http://s2012.siggraph.org/art-papers/ethics-art-papers-review-process\">Some venues</a> ask that I destroy any copies of the paper I'm reviewing, along with any programs or data I used to verify the paper's results. This embargo lifts only when the paper is finally published, but I am never supposed to reveal my identity to the authors, even indirectly.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Under those rules, publishing reviews is completely unethical.</strong> Maybe it would be okay if I had the explicit permission of both the authors and the editor, but I would expect most authors and reviewers to vehemently object. I would feel weird even asking.</p>\n\n<p>But even under less stringent reviewing rules, I think posting reviews is a <em>very</em> bad idea. <strong>Criticism is best given privately.</strong> One of the purposes of anonymous reviewing is to give authors brutally honest feedback on their work. Referees can offer direct criticism without worrying that it will harm the authors, and authors are more willing to hear that criticism because they know it will never be public.</p>\n\n<p>Yes, that means authors sometimes get credit for ideas that I suggest in referee reports. (Most authors are nice and thank the anonymous referee.) On the other hand, several referees have offered suggestions that have significantly improved my papers, so it all comes out in the wash.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Update:</strong> I should add that these ethical constraints attach only to reviews of unpublished papers being considered for publication. Once a paper is actually published, everyone is free, if not encouraged, to publish their own reviews <em>of the published version</em>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 655, "author": "Amy", "author_id": 167, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/167", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I feel that everyone is entitled to their opinions and their right to share them, and I agree that openly discussing published work is good for the scientific community. But I would tread lightly when it comes to papers you have personally reviewed. </p>\n\n<p>If you have a serious issue with a publication, or have important comments to make after publication, the venue to do that is in letters directly to the journal, which they may choose to publish. </p>\n\n<p>If you're thinking about publishing comments on your blog, consider what the goal of your blog is and who your audience is. Are you trying to open up a dialog about the work? Keep a collection of everything you've done? Advertise your expertise as a reviewer to editors? </p>\n\n<p>If the goal of your blog is discussion of current work in your field, consider writing about papers that you have no connection to (groups you don't collaborate with, papers you haven't reviewed). Then you'll avoid any sense of bias or potential liability/ethical issues. </p>\n\n<p>If the goal is to keep a collection of your work, you can do so privately and share in instances when you are trying to demonstrate your critical thinking skills (editors, job applications, maybe elsewhere?). </p>\n\n<p>I think that overall the review process exists mainly, if not solely, for the benefit of the authors - not for the benefit of the reviewer or the scientific community at large. In the end, everyone gets the benefit of (hopefully) a better paper. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 676, "author": "Joanna Bryson", "author_id": 384, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/384", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would never publish a review as a review. I agree with other the other comments that the ethical standard is that you are meant to flush your brain of any insight resulting from what you have reviewed until / if it is published. However, this is certainly not what happens in the real world.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>I've certainly seen and heard about people who actually published on the topic of a paper they reviewed before that paper was accepted anywhere. Some people just cheat.</li>\n<li>Brains are not something you can flush. In fact, your mind is an academic's primary asset.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Personally, I think that if you have learned something or realised something as the result of the reviewing process, you should probably put it in the bottom drawer for a little while to give the author a chance to get it out and for you to be able to cite them, but ultimately it's an academic duty for ideas to be shared, not lost.</p>\n\n<p>There are actually some famous stories of established academics reaching out to bright newbies and helping them publish ideas after seeing a paper in review, e.g. John Maynard Smith and George Price. These are sometimes seen as scandals, but provided that the original paper wasn't rejected specifically for the purpose of bagging an authorship, I think that is actually a lot more ethical than going away and doing the work without the author who inspired you, which sadly I think is more common.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 677, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I know answering my own question is a bit weird, but I just came across the website <a href=\"http://www.reviews.com/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.reviews.com/</a>, and since I wasn't aware such sites existed, I thought it would be good to mention it for future references. </p>\n\n<p>I haven't gone through the entire website, but it seems that anybody can register and submit reviews to papers (including conference/journal papers, and not only books), and these reviews are then available. I've just noticed (it's probably not new though) that for instance the ACM Digital Library has a tab \"reviews\", which references the corresponding reviews. </p>\n\n<p>So, if I try to sum up the other answers, technically, it seems to be legal to publish a review, unless the editor made clear that all reviews must be treated as confidential, but as long as the article is under submission, it's clearly non-ethical, and would be quite damageable. However, once the paper is published, it's perfectly possible to publish a non-anonymous review (for instance using the website I mention above, but I'm sure other solutions must exist), that can of course be based on the actual reviewing process, but it should not be stated that the author of the review was an anonymous reviewer. \nNote that it's possible to publish \"negative\" reviews (for instance: <a href=\"http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1063979.1064005&amp;coll=DL&amp;dl=GUIDE&amp;CFID=69872432&amp;CFTOKEN=93207039\" rel=\"noreferrer\">this one</a>, which might be behind a paywall). </p>\n\n<p>Thanks for to all the answers and comments!</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 54333, "author": "ChrisSampson87", "author_id": 14698, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14698", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Given recent movements towards open peer review, and that I broadly disagree with previous answers, I thought it worth adding another answer to this question.</p>\n\n<p>Firstly, regarding the legality, you will likely find it completely within your rights to share the review as you please. Most journals mention 'confidentiality' in some respect, but are usually very unclear about what this means. The question of who 'owns' the review is currently being discussed <a href=\"http://publicationethics.org/forum-discussion-topic-comments-please-4\" rel=\"nofollow\">by COPE</a>, but I would suggest that the answer is obviously the reviewer.</p>\n\n<p>Secondly, regarding the ethics, I think you have a duty to share your reviews wherever possible. There is a trade-off between Wheaton's Rule and your duty to the scientific process (particularly if you are a publicly-funded researcher), and this hasn't previously been raised in this discussion. Where you find the balance will for now be subjective, as no clear consensus has developed. Personally, I believe:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Researchers have a duty to expedite the scientific process.</li>\n<li>A publicly-funded scientific process should be transparent.</li>\n<li>Authors, reviewers and editors should all be accountable for their actions.</li>\n<li>Reviewers deserve recognition for their contributions.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>These points are particularly relevant if a reviewer makes suggestions that are not heeded by the author, in which case important insights might be buried. The COPE <a href=\"http://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/cope-ethical-guidelines-peer-reviewers\" rel=\"nofollow\">guidelines for peer reviewers</a> suggest the maintenance of confidentiality. However, my interpretation is that this should only apply until the pre-publication peer review process is complete (i.e. until publication).</p>\n\n<p>There are now more formal options for sharing your reviews; for example via <a href=\"https://publons.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">Publons</a>. This is my preferred option for sharing because reviews are not visible until the article is published (which I think ensures fairness to authors) and publishers have the option to hide the content of your review (which I think ensures fairness to publishers/editors).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 102652, "author": "Scientist", "author_id": 66782, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66782", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Like elaborated by @ChrisSampson87 in another answer, I totally support the sharing of provided peer reviews after publication. I believe transparency can only add to speed and quality of scientific research, and most of the major flaws in peer review rely on the fact that it is kept secret behind curtains by most of the community. Likewise I am in favor of signing my reviews -- this is not always easy, and often leads to a backlash, which is halfway gone towards sharing it later. </p>\n\n<p>When one signs a review and plans on sharing it later, immediately a greater sense of responsibility is created. There are websites allowing for this practice which implies that any member journals include editors who are OK with the practice, and authors submitting papers to those journals should be aware of the possibility of greater exposure after their publication.</p>\n\n<p>Minor personal conflicts and egoistic feelings aside, I strongly believe bringing in more light to peer reviews, even of rejected papers, would do far greater good than damage to the working conditions of scientists everywhere. </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/647", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 658, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>There are a few clear reasons to decline a review request, although in complete honesty, I've never actually declined to review a paper yet, so these are all at least \"in theory\" for me. Some of them are one's you've mentioned, but there are some others:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Conflict of interest. This one's pretty clear, though with the way some reviews are handled - based on recommendations, closely related expertise, etc. what actually constitutes a conflict of interest can get a little vague.</li>\n<li>Lack of time. This is one that people seem to ignore or discount, but it's a big one. If you can't give a paper the attention it deserves, or your review is going to be late (predictably, not because of unforeseen things), then you should probably decline to review it. You're not doing you, the authors, or the editor any favors by making them chase you down for months to get a review.</li>\n<li>Lack of expertise. If you read the methods section of a paper and your primary thought is \"Huh?\" not because the paper is unclear, but because its far afield from your expertise, I'd strongly consider contacting the editor for advice and asking <em>not</em> to be a reviewer.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I wouldn't necessarily not be a reviewer due to a failure to find the paper sufficiently interesting. If your expertise is indeed appropriate and the work is not of sufficiently compelling interest, that is a review finding all its own. Additionally, one would hope that you can evaluate the scientific merit of things that - while you are capable of understanding - you might not find directly interesting.</p>\n\n<p>Whether or not it matters if its a conference or a paper likely depends on your field (how important are conferences?) and the <em>particular</em> conference or paper. For example, I might make a special effort to \"find the time\" for a journal I submit to (or would like to submit to) or a conference I frequently attend, but might not for a journal or conference I've never heard of.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 659, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think that it's ok to decline a review request because you don't find the paper interesting if it's a colleague or somebody similarly close who asks you to do it. If they're the one on the PC/editorial board and have already agreed to do the review, it is, put simply, their problem. Of course, that might not be possible if you're a PhD student and your supervisor asks you to do the review :)</p>\n\n<p>If you are approached directly by a member of the PC/editorial board because of your expertise in the area and not because you happen to be working in the same building, I would certainly do the review even if I don't find the paper interesting. The same goes for bidding processes some conferences use where you commit to reviewing a paper based sometimes only on the abstract.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 660, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I've had to refuse several reviews in the past, and it was either because I didn't have the time to write a proper review, or because the topic of the paper was beyond my scope of expertise. </p>\n\n<p>I also found myself in the position where I should have refused a review, because there was a conflict-of-interest that, at the time, I didn't perceive. I didn't know the authors, but I had submitted a paper on a similar topic to the same conference, and after a while, I realised that unconsciously, I was thinking that if I reject the paper (I was hesitating between reject and accept), it increases the chances of my paper to be accepted. I still managed to review the paper objectively (and for the record, I accepted the paper, and mine was accepted too). Clearly, this line of thoughts was not correct, and I'm not particularly proud of it, but once you got it, it's hard to understand how objective you will be able to be, since you could actually over compensate and accept the paper just because you're afraid of the bias. </p>\n\n<p>To answer precisely your question, the situation where you don't <em>want</em> to review is different than the one where you <em>can't</em>. If you can't (because you don't understand, you don't have time, etc), then just say why, and it's fine. If you don't want to, then it's just a matter of how much you want to please the person who asked you to review the paper, compared with how much time it will take you. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 675, "author": "Joanna Bryson", "author_id": 384, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/384", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Besides the obvious \"conflict of interest\", the main reason is time. Being an academic requires finding a balance on all the demands on your time. My policy is to accept no more than one major reviewing obligation (e.g. journal article, grant, 3-ish conference papers) per two-week period. When I'm asked, I look at my schedule &amp; tell the solicitor when the next available slot is. Sometimes they take it, sometimes they don't, it depends on their policy, urgency &amp; my schedule.</p>\n\n<p>I'm not sure I have this right: I still sometimes miss review deadlines I've committed to &amp; I don't publish new results as quickly as I think I should. But as I said, it's a matter of trying to find a balance, and I do get quite a lot of reviewing done.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/657", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/324/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 662, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>This will typically be dictated on a journal-by-journal basis. As you suggested, some journals use first mention, some go alphabetically. It varies significantly by journal (e.g., <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/neuro/authors/submit/index.html#manuscript\" rel=\"nofollow\">Nature Neuroscience</a>, seventh paragraph in linked section; <a href=\"http://www.ieee.org/documents/info_authors_kit.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">IEEE</a> (pdf), fourth page). Check with the specific journal of interest to see what their guidelines are for article submission.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 663, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>As eykanal said, journals usually provide their own formatting, and personally, I use latex/bibtex, so I tend to assume this kind of problems will be solved automatically.</p>\n<p>That being said, in the case you describe, I would expect the ordering to be (first name, year), and in the case where there are multiple references with the same first author for the same year, then to use (Barton et al., 1980a) (Barton et al. 1980b). So your example would be:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Barton, D. H. R.; Dowlatshahi, H. A.; Motherwell, W. B.; Villemin, D. V. (1980). &quot;A New Radical Decarboxylation Reaction for the Conversion of Carboxylic Acids into Hydrocarbons&quot;. J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun., p. 732.</p>\n<p>Barton, D. H. R.; Crich, D.; Potier, P. (1985). &quot;On the mechanism of the decarboxylative rearrangement of thiohydroxamic esters&quot;. Tetrahedron Lett. 26, 5943.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>and the two references (Barton et al. 1980) and (Barton et al. 1985). That way, when I know I need to look first for the first name, and then to the year. Now, if let's assume that there is another reference by Barton and Alice in 1980, then you would have:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Barton, D. H. R.; Alice (1980a). &quot;Bla bla&quot;, p2.</p>\n<p>Barton, D. H. R.; Dowlatshahi, H. A.; Motherwell, W. B.; Villemin, D. V. (1980b). &quot;A New Radical Decarboxylation Reaction for the Conversion of Carboxylic Acids into Hydrocarbons&quot;. J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun., p. 732.</p>\n<p>Barton, D. H. R.; Crich, D.; Potier, P. (1985). &quot;On the mechanism of the decarboxylative rearrangement of thiohydroxamic esters&quot;. Tetrahedron Lett. 26, 5943.</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>and the references would be (Barton et al., 1980a) and (Barton et al., 1980b).</p>\n<p>As for the question whether you should put the one with Alice first or second, it does not really matter, since the reference is unique anyway, but in this case, I would go for the month of publication if you have it, otherwise with the alphabetical order of the second author (and of the third one if the first two authors are the same, and so on).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/661", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/377/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 665, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In my experience, there's less distinction between work life and personal life than in other jobs. If you're teaching, you'll get emails from students on the weekend and late at night. A paper deadline at midnight doesn't care that you're supposed to finish at 5. If you're working on an interesting problem, you're going to think about it at home.</p>\n\n<p>I think the way to be happy with that is to simply accept it. If you're counting on having a 9-5 job if you're paid for working 9-5, then you're not going to be happy in academia. If you're uncomfortable with the line between work and personal life being blurred, you should perhaps consider a different job.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 666, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Academia, despite talk of positions being \"full-time\" or \"part-time,\" really doesn't work according to a fixed schedule. It's one of the \"perks\" of academia—the ability to maintain your own schedule, so long as you get approval from your bosses (if you're a student or postdoc) or from your institute (if you're a professor or higher up).</p>\n\n<p>Of course, the downside is that not everybody is on the same schedule as you are—or cares what your schedule is supposed to be. (Grant agency deadlines, for instance, don't pay any attention to what's going on in your life at the same time!) So, that might mean there will be times when you have to really put the nose to the grindstone.</p>\n\n<p>The key to having a successful balance is to make sure that everybody involves knows what's going on, and so appropriate accommodations can be made. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 678, "author": "Sylvain Peyronnet", "author_id": 43, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/43", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Disclaimer 1: I know the two worlds : academia and the outside world ;) I worked in public and private universities, and in a consulting firm.</p>\n\n<p>Disclaimer 2: I can only speak about life for people involved in theoretical areas, I know that science involving living things / big experiments has <strong>real</strong> constraints.</p>\n\n<p>I heard a lot of people in academia complaining about the conflicts between their work schedules and personal lives (me included, because I'm grumpy). But we have to face it, most of the time there is nothing to complain about it.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>\"I have a deadline today at midnight\" : I do that all the time, but the calls for papers are out several months before the deadlines, so the problem here is planning, not the nature of the work.</li>\n<li>\"I have to finish this grant application before midnight\" : hum, grant applications and conferences deadlines seems to be of the same kind.</li>\n<li>\"It's 3 AM, I just got that email that needs an answer\" : I don't think this email is <strong>that urgent</strong>. An BTW, if something is really urgent, phone still exists for that matter.</li>\n<li>\"Someone (supervisor, head of the team, dean, etc.) wants me to work more/at night/etc.\" : Slavery has been abolished. If you have good results, the thing is that in academia you are master of your schedule.</li>\n<li>\"I cannot stop thinking about that problem\" : yep, here this is true, we bring our work everywhere. If a researcher cannot live with that aspect of the work (which can be quite stressful), then he should probably consider finding an other job.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>My point is that working in academia is working in one of the most flexible field. \nThis is where there is a big difference with the \"outside world\". \nThis flexibility is the problem: many people have difficulty dealing with it, and thus are giving themselves very strong constraints, so strong that they cannot handle them.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/664", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/382/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 669, "author": "Ran G.", "author_id": 324, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/324", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>At many (most? all?) universities, a committee is <strong>required</strong> to have at least one professor from outside the department (other than the chair, if the chair holds a joint position). </p>\n\n<p>Other requirements are to have at least one professor at rank higher or equal to the rank of the chair (the advisor).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 672, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>As far as I know, there is no international guideline on what is a correct PhD committee, so it might be hard to answer your question, because each university might have different rules. \nFor instance, the rule of the EDITE (the CS grad school shared by several universities in Paris) for defending a PhD at Paris 6 are (<a href=\"http://edite-de-paris.fr/spip/spip.php?article34&amp;lang=en\" rel=\"nofollow\">source, in french</a>):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>the reviewers of the PhD (i.e. those who read and approve or not the manuscript, which is the most crucial part of the process) must have an <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habilitation\" rel=\"nofollow\">habilitation</a> (i.e. they could apply to full professor positions, even if they don't have one) and must be related to a different grad school and university. </li>\n<li>the PhD jury (or defense committee) should:\n<ul>\n<li>contain between 3 and 8 members (the reviewers might not be included, although they usually are)</li>\n<li>contain at least one professor from Paris 6, who must be different from the PhD advisor</li>\n<li>contain at least half of people not related to the grad school or university. </li>\n<li>contain at least half of professors (or academics with an HDR). </li>\n</ul></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>So, to answer your question, in order to defend a PhD in CS at Paris 6, you need to have reviewers not coming from your university, and half of the members of your defense committee needs can't be from your university (although technically, they don't have to be full professor, so you can have Associate professors from another university, or even someone working in a company). </p>\n\n<p><strong>EDIT:</strong> After reading Jeff's comment, I realized that I understood \"department\" as in \"university\", and not as in \"physics department\" if you're doing a PhD in the \"CS department\". Then, in this case, there is no rule at the EDITE, in favor or against, but I have never seen it or heard of it, apart in the case of an interdisciplinary PhD (e.g. bioinformatics). </p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/668", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 671, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>My answer may not be completely relevant but I still thought it was worth putting in. I have had a few such sessions and I realized a few things. Not all of them could be true in general and I might have been a bit extreme with what I treat as knowledge. Here goes:</p>\n\n<p>Your level of understanding is directly proportional to a few things:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Your ability to frame and ask grammatically correct sentences as an individual. This also encompasses communication of ideas/questions to experts of the field. For instance, suppose you are learning Linear Algebra in a group. You have a few gaps which are filled by others in the group. However, unless <strong>you</strong> can form sentences using Linear Algebra \"handles\", its unlikely you'll get far in research. Literature is way to dense in keywords. Unless you can talk in terms of Column Space, Rank and Eigenvectors (Rather than Linear Combo of all column or <em>the vector which only scales</em>) you are far from knowledgeable.</p></li>\n<li><p>Your ability to participate in discussions. Its not difficult to lag and be left behind in a group of impatient, overachieving academics. Further, it can be a bit demotivating at times when the senior students who read the same content (owing to their heightened intuition) seem to grasp more. As junior students, it is often necessary to substitute the lack of intuition by more work. </p></li>\n<li><p>Your ability to appreciate the nuances of the field. I cannot stress this enough from my experience. If you cannot appreciate the subtleties yourself, you didn't learn much. It doesn't take much to learn Elementary Fluid Mechanics per se. But, IMO, you actually \"learn\" when you go <strong>OMG</strong> when you see the transport equation and play with it till you are satisfied. An extension of this is motivation. When some concept is developed by an author, he doesn't write in random order. One of the most important aspects is to be able to understand <strong>why</strong> something is being developed. For instance, most Aerodynamics books start off with Euler Angles and then move on to Quaternions. Its simple to understand what Quaternions do and how to solve equations based on them. However, unless you know that they are used to prevent gimbal locks, there is no point of knowing about them.</p></li>\n<li><p>The usual: Your ability to write alternate proofs, write codes (if possible), interpret the results of these codes and the usual <em>other-than-textbook</em> stuff.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>One ending comment : Your level of knowledge is a function of how good you are in the group and how good you are without them. If you are able to develop proofs in those 3 hours together but aren't able to get started on your own later, you need to investigate whats wrong. </p>\n\n<p><em>If you want to know how good these group sessions are, find out how good you are getting at that field as an individual</em></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 673, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If I understand your question correctly, you're asking whether skimming through papers and getting only a \"shallow\" understanding can be useful? Well, I think the answer depends very much on you, and actually finding it out is an important step for you to understand how you process information. </p>\n\n<p>I don't think there is a global best way to read papers. Some people need to completely a paper, to understand fully, do all the proofs, and then, somehow, they don't need to go back to this paper. I've seen a friend spending several days on the same 10-pages paper, until every tiny detail was clear. </p>\n\n<p>On the contrary, other people (such as myself) prefer to have a global view of many papers, and to process several papers at the same time, which usually implies a lot of go-back-and-forth, and which also means to accept not to understand everything (although of course, sometimes it's needed to go into the details of a proof in order to keep the process going on). </p>\n\n<p>So I would go with Nunoxic's advice and try to find out how good you are getting as an individual (for instance, try to read another related paper on your own, and see how much you can get). But if you're not getting better, it does not necessarily mean that this group is not working, it could also be because you're not working in this way. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 693, "author": "Artem Kaznatcheev", "author_id": 66, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There are two positive points of group reading and shallow reading that I feel were not stressed enough by the existing answers: acclimatization and motivation.</p>\n\n<p>By acclimatization I mean gradually learning as to what is interesting and what to pay attention to in a particular field. When you read by yourself (shallow or deep) you only have your own knowledge and intuition to guide you. As a junior student, you might not know what is considered interesting in a given field. If you read by yourself, it is very difficult to spot what is new and what is interesting, especially for some of the less-than-stellar papers that often comprise the bulk of your reading (sure, if you only read the greats they might make things clear, but usually if you can just stick to the greats you are probably reading something old). This was mentioned in @Nunoxic's answer, by attending the group are you learning how to ask questions? How to use the lingo of the field?</p>\n\n<p>By motivation I mean having the extra commitment that helps you to read more. As graduate students we are highly self-motivated, but that doesn't mean we can't benefit from external motivation. By committing to a group, you force yourself to keep up with your reading and work. Some people can replace group meetings by an equal (or even greater) amount of individual work, but I doubt those are the norm. I always schedule a certain number of group meetings and projects to keep myself committed. This makes sure that even on slow weeks where every proof I try fails, and every idea I have is derivative, I still have something to motivate me: the commitment to the group. Further, when I am the junior student in a group, I usually feel the extra pressure to not \"be dumb\" and tend to invest more time and effort into understanding the material better. The pressure helps me, but it is definitely not for everyone and you should see what works best for you.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, this shouldn't be taken to the extreme. If it is clear that you can accomplish more in those 3 hours (and associated preparation time) by yourself, then you should stop attending.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/670", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/61/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 680, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It depends on you. If you really want to, you could probably have quite regular working hours (except for the odd deadline). I would say that 80 hours a week is excessive and if your advisor expects you to do that, then you should think about changing your advisor/course.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 682, "author": "Ran G.", "author_id": 324, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/324", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I believe that most of the students are event-driven. That is, if they have an important deadline, meeting, exam, TA section (agghh...), then they spend more time to prepare and be ready for that event. Whereas <strong>after</strong> an important deadline, (or finals week, etc.) they allow themselves to be more relaxed and spend less time \"working\".</p>\n\n<p>However it is quite strange to define how much time one spends on \"research\". Many people get very nice ideas just before the go to sleep, or while taking a shower... The mind is running 24/7.. Even though those people are not \"in office\" they <em>do</em> work on their research.</p>\n\n<p>I agree also with the answer of Lars that it really depends on the student's personality and preferences. I've known students who really need their schedule to be well defined. They showed up to office daily at 9:00 and left at a fixed time (I guess that being married with kids kind of forces you to have a fixed schedule). So there are no fixed rules.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/679", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 688, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Note that those statistics are often averaged over all possible disciplines, and therefore, since there is such a wide disparity of stipend levels between different schools, and between different disciplines at the same school. </p>\n\n<p>At the institution I attended for graduate school, engineers had stipends approximately 30% higher than the science majors (chemistry, physics, math, etc.). Similarly, at the undergraduate institution I attended, a similar disparity existed between science and humanities graduate students. </p>\n\n<p>It is also important to ask if master's students, who often don't receive a salary at all, are included in that average. (And, since humanities students tend to stay longer, they may skew the statistics even more than one might expect.)</p>\n\n<p>(One final note to directly address the question: competitive national fellowships in the US currently pay between $30,000 and $35,000 per year as a stipend. I would estimate, then, that most stipends are significantly below that amount. I'd say something in the range of $20,000-$30,000 would be appropriate in STEM fields, and probably $15,000-$20,000 for full-time humanities PhD's.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 695, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There's a comparison with other jobs that uses current data on <a href=\"http://www.simplyhired.com/a/salary/search/q-college+graduate\" rel=\"nofollow\">simply hired</a>. You might be able to drill down to what you would be looking at specifically using their search.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 730, "author": "davidlowryduda", "author_id": 127, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/127", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think I would be surprised if it were $30000$. I, for one, get much closer to $20000$, though it is pretty easy to do a little here or there and get a little extra if I wanted to.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, I do work all day, and I don't spend any of it ever. So in a sense, I get too much. </p>\n\n<p>In addition, my school is very willing to fund our grads visits to conferences, so that's not (always or completely, but rather sometimes and/or partially) out-of-pocket.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 747, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would suggest the major driver of differential graduate student incomes is the varying sources of funding for different research areas. Some funding agencies list the amounts they fund explicitly on their website (e.g., <a href=\"http://www.nih.gov/\" rel=\"nofollow\">NIH NRSA grants</a> gives <a href=\"http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-12-033.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">$22,032 for graduate students</a>, other numbers available on their site), while others require the amounts to be listed by the PI in the grant proposal (e.g., <a href=\"http://www.wpafb.af.mil/library/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=8981\" rel=\"nofollow\">Air Force Office of Scientific Research grants</a> do not list any specific amounts in the call for proposals).</p>\n\n<p>Given the large number of funding sources across all disciplines, finding actual numbers (beyond anecdotal reporting) would be a major undertaking. If you do research and publish the numbers, though, I'd love to see them.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 47278, "author": "Franck Dernoncourt", "author_id": 452, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/452", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Here is a <a href=\"http://www.symposcium.com/2013/06/phdstipend2013/\" rel=\"nofollow\">nice list of PhD stipends in different fields and schools in the USA</a>:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <ul>\n <li>Brown University – 20500 (Political Sciences in 2013), 27500 (BioMed:Biology in 2013)</li>\n <li>California Institute of Technology – 21321 (Physics in 2014)</li>\n <li>Carnegie Mellon University – 27600 (Biological Sciences in 2013)</li>\n <li>Columbia University – 32447 (GSAS in 2014), 31666 (GSAS in 2012)</li>\n <li>Cornell University – 36080 (Life Sciences/Physical Sciences/Engineering in 2014), 31293 (Humanities/Art in 2014), 30533\n (Policy in 2013), 30533 (BMCB in 2013), 29067 (MBG in 2010)</li>\n <li>Duke University - 28773 (Arts &amp; Sciences in 2014), 29420 (Medical Sciences &amp; Nursing in 2014), 27850 (Engineering in 2014), 27934 (Arts\n &amp; Sciences in 2013), 28700 (Medical Sciences &amp; Nursing in 2013), 26910\n (Engineering in 2013)</li>\n <li>Emory University – 28000 (BCDB in 2014), 28000 (Biomed in 2013)</li>\n <li>Harvard University – 32232 (SEAS in 2014), 31284 (SEAS in 2012), 32616 (OEB, GSAS in 2012), 26795 (GSAS in 2009),</li>\n <li>John Hopkins University – 29218 (Biochemistry, biophysics, cellular, developmental, molecular biology in 2014), 22000 (Political\n Science in 2014), 25000 (Biostats in 2014), 21000 (Political Science\n in 2013), 20000 (Biostats in 2013)</li>\n <li>MIT – 31968 (Engineering PhD RA in 2014), 30888 (Science/English PhD RA in 2012), 30630 (Chemistry PhD RA in 2012), 28236 (English MS\n RA in 2012), 31644 (Science/English TA in 2012), 28524 (English TA in\n 2012)</li>\n <li>Northwestern University – 22992 (average in 2014), 22428 (avg. in 2013), 28000 (IBIS in 2013), 21936 (Physics and Astronomy in 2013)</li>\n <li>Princeton University – 32000 (Molecular Biology in 2014), 26784 (Humanities in 2011), 27504 (Natural sciences in 2011)</li>\n <li>Rice University – 26000 (Chemistry in 2014), 24720 (Chemistry in 2013), 28000 (Biochemistry and Cell Biology in 2013)</li>\n <li>Stanford University – 36500 (PhD with SGF in 2014), 29500 (Neuroscience in 2010), 29250 (GSBS in 2010)</li>\n <li>University of California Berkeley – 31000 (Molecular and Cell biology in 2014), 30500 (PMB in 2013), 30000 (MCB in 2013)</li>\n <li>University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) – 26000 (Ecology and Evolutionary Bio in 2014)</li>\n <li>University of California San Francisco (UCSF) – 31000 (Neuroscience in 2014)</li>\n <li>University of Chicago – 29000 + $500 relocation fee (BSD in 2014), 28500 (BSD in 2013), 28000 (Humanities in 2013), 28000 (BSD in 2012)</li>\n <li>University of Notre Dame – 25333 (Biological Sciences in 2013)</li>\n <li>University of Pennsylvania – 30500 (Biochemistry and Biophysics in 2014), 27615 (Art &amp; Sciences in 2013)</li>\n <li>University of South Carolina – 17500 – 22000 without tuition</li>\n <li>Vanderbilt University – 25500 (CPB in 2011), 25500 (Biomedical Sciences in 2009), 20000 (Chemistry in 2005)</li>\n <li>Washington University at St. Louis – 28500 (DBBS in 2014), 28500 (Biology/Biomed Sciences in 2013)</li>\n <li>Yale University – 32500 (BBS in 2014), 31700 (BBS in 2012), 35700 (BBS with NIH or NSF funding in 2012)</li>\n </ul>\n</blockquote>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/684", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 696, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I don't really have an answer for you as it is ultimately your decision, but I think that choosing a subject based on its perceived potential being beneficial to mankind is not a good starting point. I would argue that you cannot judge the benefits society will have from your research until after it has happened. You can have all the best intentions and fail, or do something just for the fun of it and happen to invent something hugely useful. Many of the elements of modern computer interfaces for example were pioneered at Xerox PARC decades ago when nobody was really thinking about the impact their research would ultimately have.</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore it will depend more on your individual contribution than on the field as a whole. Finally, even the most promising research might be not suitable for you because you don't enjoy it/find it too hard/don't like the people you're working with.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 698, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>As a researcher in computer security myself, I guess I can try to provide bits of answers to your question. </p>\n\n<p>First of all, I would tend to disagree with your assumption that computer security won't \"prove beneficial for mankind in general/long-term\". Clearly, you might not find the cure for cancer by working on security, but that's probably true with anything in CS. However, there is a clear increase in global information sharing, that is beneficial to mankind in so many different ways (healthcare, increased scientific communication, reduce travel, etc), and clearly, this information sharing comes with security issues. I'd say that it's the usual deal with research: you might not be the one who makes the huge life-changing discovery, but you contribute to it. </p>\n\n<p>Then, as a general remark, if you're interested in doing research, then you're starting a 45/50 years career in research. If you don't have a clear \"passion\" (e.g. you want to work exclusively on provable cryptography), then you might as well consider your PhD as the stepping stone to an academic career. So you can just find a subject that you like enough to dedicate the next 3 to 5 years of your life, active enough so that you can get funding and publish, and later on, once you have a PhD (and a bit more of theoretical background), then you can start finding a subject that is more beneficial to mankind (it's even possible that such a subject does not even exist yet, things are moving fast in research). </p>\n\n<p>So, I'm not saying \"learn what you love to learn\", but rather find a good PhD advisor on a topic that you're interested in <em>right now</em>, get some research experience, and then you'll be in a much better position to understand what <em>you</em> can do to help mankind. Of course, I'm not saying that you can't be helpful right now, but it's much easier to start your own projects when you have some credentials. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 701, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Honestly, you sound like someone who is looking for a Magic Bullet to Save The World, not someone who is really informed about or interested in computer science. You sound like someone in love with the <em>idea</em> of computer science research, but with no real idea what computer science research <em>is</em>. Computer security against aliens? Quantum computing? Artificial intelligence? These are all dangerously close to science fiction. There's <strong>tons</strong> of good research in all those areas, but nothing — in any of those areas — is close to \"saving the world\", and everything interesting — in all of those areas — requires a fair bit of mathematical maturity. Sorry, but if you don't like math, you won't like real AI research, or real security research, or real quantum computing research.</p>\n\n<p>If you want to do research, and really do it well, you have to love your tools. You have to love the math; you have to love the code; you have to love the nights in the lab; you have to love the balky experimental equipment. <strong>You have to love feeling stupid</strong>, because researchers spend 99% of their time feeling stupid; they're at the bleeding edge of what mankind understands about Reality, so <strong>of course</strong> they don't really know what they're doing. You have to love to work in the face of almost certain failure. You have to take the world's ignorance, especially your own personal ignorance, as <em>motivation</em>, not frustration. You have to get over the idea that you are going to Save to World, because you aren't, but you do the work anyway, because you can't <em>not</em> do the work; it's in your blood; it's who you are.</p>\n\n<p>If that's not you, don't bother. There are much better ways to make money. There are much better ways to help people. There are much better ways to be happy than to do something you don't really love because you think it's Cool and Important.</p>\n\n<p>But if you really <em>can't</em> live without doing it, then you really have no choice—do it, and do it well. And who knows; you may save the world after all! (But probably not.)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/694", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/397/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 699, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>These funding mechanisms are in their very infancy, so I don't know if there will <em>any</em> \"tried and true\" techniques for a few months, assuming the funding model proves to work at all. That being said, it will be very similar to that on Kickstarter:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Advertise in numerous channels. People can only support you if they know about you. Getting the word out is the primary goal in the beginning.</li>\n<li><p>Provide an engaging, easy-to-understand description of:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>What you want to research</li>\n<li>Why you want to research it</li>\n<li>How humanity will benefit from your having researched it</li>\n<li><p>What success will look like</p>\n\n<p>(Note: This last point is often ignored, but it's crucial for the lay-audience. They may expect a particular cancer research project to end with a cancer cure, whereas in reality it will end with the identification of a particular protein responsible for a particular mutation. Stating this will avoid making you as an individual and scientists as a whole from looking stupid in the eyes of the public.)</p></li>\n</ol></li>\n<li><p>Offer a constant (strictly defined, e.g. \"weekly\" or \"biweekly\") updates to backers</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Regarding useful perks, I've noticed that a few of the successful drives offered things such as:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Engrave the name of the backer or a loved on the instruments being used</li>\n<li>Paintings of the organisms/landscape/imagery being studied</li>\n<li>Naming a star/organism after the backer/loved one</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The final topic, transparency, is more difficult. On the one hand, you will need complete transparency. On the other hand, there is such a thing as <em>too much</em> transparency. In brief, your updates should serve to inform the backers about your work, while simultaneously and more subtly serving two other goals as well:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Convince your backers that you're actually doing work</li>\n<li>Maintain their confidence in your ability to do the work</li>\n</ol>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>tl;dr - </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Make everything - <em>everything</em> - about your proposed project crystal clear for the layperson</li>\n<li>Make the prizes cutesy and attractive, but not too lavish; they're investing for science, and secondarily maybe a little gift</li>\n<li>Your updates should, in order: (1) inform about your research, (2) convince the reader of your <a href=\"http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=081027\">scienceness</a></li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 700, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There's a blog post looking at the results of #SciFund! that might be of interest to you: <a href=\"http://www.imachordata.com/?p=1156\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.imachordata.com/?p=1156</a></p>\n\n<p>It looks, to me, like the predictors of success are probably having a robust social network presence, etc. and modest funding expectations.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/697", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 706, "author": "aeismail", "author_id": 53, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Creating a conference is a very worthwhile activity—however, even organizing a two-day workshop can be a logistical nightmare that requires a dedicated support staff to pull off efficiently. If you don't have it, you can still get it done, but it still requires a lot of planning and a lot of effort.</p>\n\n<p>I was invited to participate in the scientific committee for a workshop to be held here on campus and hosted by my institute. Even though we had the administrative staff taking care of organizing room reservations, hotel blocks, catering, name badges, preparation of the formal program, and so on, there's still a lot of work involved, particularly if you're the chair. You'll need to contact (and sometimes harass) speakers, look for funding, recruit attendees, advertise like crazy, and so much more.</p>\n\n<p>However, if you can make your workshop a part of someone else's existing conference, then you can remedy many of these problems—the existing conference's infrastructure goes a long way in supporting your workshop and its goals. Frankly, if I was going to try to start a new workshop that would take on its own independent existence, that's the route I'd choose. If the workshop inside of another conference received good feedback, only then would I try to make it an independent event in the future. In that time, you'd also have figured out who the other \"major players\" are who could serve on future scientific committees.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>The conference we started was created by our institute, so dividing up the responsibilities was relatively natural: the head of the institute was the head of the conference, and we divided up the work of programming the sessions among the members of the committee.\nIf you don't have that option available—if, for instance, you're the primary mover and shaker behind the workshop—that puts more work on your plate.</p>\n\n<p>If you're doing a workshop under the aegis of a larger program, then I would think you would be the chair of the program. You could select other people to be on the organizing committee, but as the person doing the recruiting, you're going to be the one the others look to for guidance and decision-making—at least at first.</p>\n\n<p>So I think the \"founder\" is going to be the general chair or the organizational chair, at least the first time around. Should the conference survive to have a second iteration, then at that point establishing some sort of successorship makes a lot of sense, because nobody really wants to go through the process of organizing all of those details every other year; it's too much work.</p>\n\n<p>But, if you want to know, the order did go something like this:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Steering committee of institute decided to hold conference</li>\n<li>Steering committee appointed emeritus faculty member as program committee leader.</li>\n<li>Steering committee appointed junior faculty as committee members.</li>\n<li>Program committee came up with several tentative plans.</li>\n<li>Steering committee decided on final overall structure.</li>\n<li>Program committee scrambled to find speakers to fit new structure decided on by SC.</li>\n<li>Program committee puts together advertising, recruits speakers, organizes poster session, organizes conference structure, and performs other duties as needed.</li>\n<li>Organizing team handles payments, attendance and registration issues, travel and accommodation issues, operation of conference, and so on.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The other thing to consider is that the planning for something like this typically requires on the order of 12 to 18 months, even if you're just doing an event locally hosted at your university (like ours was). For something more complicated, you may need even more lead time.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 707, "author": "Willie Wong", "author_id": 94, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/94", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Depending on your field, sources of funding and/or professional organisations can provide a lot of logistic support to organising a workshop. In mathematics for example, the <a href=\"http://www.mfo.de/scientific-programme/meetings/proposal-guidelines\">mathematics institute of Oberwolfach</a> runs workshops and miniworkshops in all subfields. The organiser propose a workshop, and if it gets approved, the institute takes care of most of the logistics. Other similar opportunities in mathematics include the <a href=\"http://www.ams.org/programs/research-communities/mrc\">Mathematical research communities</a> program of American Mathematical Society, and the <a href=\"http://www.aimath.org/research/squares.html\">SQuaRes</a> program of the American Institute of Mathematics, as well as workshops organised by the Clay Mathematical Institute or the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley CA. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1185, "author": "Ivan Machado", "author_id": 690, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/690", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'd like to add some info to the above provided answers, that are, IMHO, very well-explained and helpful.</p>\n\n<p>If your research field is not very mature yet, you could also think about organizing a \"summer school\", in which you could invite some well-recognized researchers to serve as lecturers, especially with some practical experience (not only from the research env.), for you (and your attendance, as well) to have a broader view on the field.</p>\n\n<p>The environment provided by a summer school is really nice (I've got the experience of organizing a series of summer schools in my research field, for a couple of years), and you may provide your attendance with an opportunity to \"keep in touch\" with good \"names\" in the specific research field, most of them that we usually reference in our papers.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding the organization, a summer school is usually not paper-driven, i.e., you don't have to care about steering and program committees, so it may save you some effort. In addition, you don't have to care about proceedings (usually expensive to prepare, and to print... even if you think about publishing it online only, you will have some effort and costs to deal with).</p>\n\n<p>Indeed, you must care about funding, in order to pay for the hotels/airline tickets/food, etc, that, sometimes only counting on the money from registrations is not enough.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 29006, "author": "mt3", "author_id": 1079, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1079", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Here's some insight on the <a href=\"http://inverseprobability.com/2014/09/13/nips-decision-time\" rel=\"nofollow\">behind-the-scenes at NIPS</a>:</p>\n\n<p>Inverse Probability. 'NIPS: Decision Time'. Last modified 2014. Accessed September 27, 2014. <a href=\"http://inverseprobability.com/2014/09/13/nips-decision-time/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://inverseprobability.com/2014/09/13/nips-decision-time/</a>.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>So the decisions have been out for a few days now, and of course we have had some queries about our processes. Every one has been pretty reasonable, and their frustration is understandable when three reviewers have argued for accept but the final decision is to reject. This is an issue with ‘space-constrained’ conferences. Whether a paper gets through in the end can depend on subjective judgements about the paper’s qualities. In particular, we’ve been looking for three components to this: novelty, clarity and utility. Papers with borderline scores (and borderline here might be that the average score is in the weak accept range) are examined closely. The decision about whether the paper is accepted at this point necessarily must come down to judgement, because for a paper to get scores this high the reviewers won’t have identified a particular problem with the paper. The things that come through are how novel the paper is, how useful the idea is, and how clearly it’s presented. Several authors seem to think that the latter should be downplayed. As program chairs, we don’t necessarily agree. It’s true that it is a great shame when a great idea is buried in poor presentation, but it’s also true that the objective of a conference is communication, and therefore clarity of presentation definitely plays a role. However, it’s clear that all these three criteria are a matter of academic judgement: that of the reviewers, the area chair and the quad groups in the teleconferences. All the evidence we’ve seen is that reviewers and area chairs did weigh these aspects carefully, but that doesn’t mean that all their decisions can be shown to be right, because they are often a matter of perspective. Naturally authors are upset when what feels like a perfectly good paper is rejected on more subjective grounds. Most of the queries are on papers where this is felt to be the case.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Also has some other articles that are relevant, such as on <a href=\"http://inverseprobability.com/2014/07/24/nips-reviewer-recruitment-and-experience\" rel=\"nofollow\">NIPS Reviewer Recruitment</a>.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/705", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 709, "author": "Lars Kotthoff", "author_id": 12, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Unfortunately the answer you don't want to hear is the most plausible one in my opinion. There are plenty of cases where people even start companies while doing a PhD and then never finish their PhD (Google being a notable example). People also do both at the same time, or change to a part-time PhD.</p>\n\n<p>If you are serious about getting a PhD, this is only really an option in the later years of your studies. If you start working on a project that is not related to your PhD right away you will probably run into difficulties with your studies, the project or both.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 710, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Honestly, my instinct is \"no\".</p>\n\n<p>Both startups and PhD advance in the same way - the massive influx of effort. And that effort is often unpredictable. Both settings have \"crunch time\" wherein for the next few weeks, you might as well have dropped off the face of the Earth.</p>\n\n<p>Balancing that is, imo, a very tall order for a human being and will probably result in one of them suffering, falling to the side and getting triaged if you try to split the middle.</p>\n\n<p>That being said, there are paths you can try, particularly if you can manage to either consult for a startup in a way that has structured limits on your time, or manage to link your dissertation to the startup's work enough that your effort counts for double. But as entirely unrelated projects? Its begging to have one fall apart.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 711, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It depends the most on how much time and effort you need to pursue your start-up project. If you were able to do it and have a normal job - then probably yes.</p>\n\n<p>However, time management is an issue - both PhD and start-up are things with unbounded times - so always competing with each other. The thing with devoting oneself may be psychologically harder, as you need constantly to switch attention and evaluate priorities (but sometimes it may be beneficial - serving as an 'intellectual crop rotation').\nMoreover, dealing with the pressure from two opposite sites at once may be difficult. And don't underestimate it.</p>\n\n<p>For US, note that first 1-2 years is the coursework, so it may be not the easiest/possible to start your project then.</p>\n\n<p>Anyway, it may be the best not to start both PhD and star-up exactly at the same time - better to learn how much time &amp; effort is needed for one activity and e.g. what is approach of your professor / graduate school to your other project(s) (actually, sometimes they may be supportive, including in the financial aspect).</p>\n\n<p>Source:</p>\n\n<p>I'm a PhD student running a sort of a start-up project (Confrenzy).</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: Now failed, or frozen.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 713, "author": "PhD", "author_id": 407, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/407", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>Yes, Yes and absolutely Yes! Yes, you <strong>have</strong> to manage and balance your time well and make sure you devote the time to your Ph.D first, if your startup kicks off and you start raking in millions, you may again decide how to distribute your attention :)</p>\n\n<p>Now, what are the benefits of doing a start-up-like project (notice 'like')? You don't really know how/what this project will turn into. So first pursue it as 'passion' or have 'will to do it' to solve a 'pain point' and NOT for <em>'it's fun to start my company, let's do it!'</em> kinda attitude.</p>\n\n<p>First, find a pain point and talk it out with your peers, friends etc. Basically anyone whose pain you will relieve :) Get a pulse of the solution and its possible acceptability. </p>\n\n<p>Second: Is this in line with your PhD focus area? Can you 'put it line' with it? The reason I ask is that'll be all the more worthwhile and you'd be 2x willing to work your a** off :) and time devoted to either will be beneficial to both!</p>\n\n<p>Now if it's not in line and a totally different project here are some benefits:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Strong honing of skills with a focus on 'value' - you'll HAVE to prioritize the requirements with a focus on the most valuable/risky items first (and not necessarily the easiest ones)</li>\n<li>Understanding who will be your success critical stakeholders and how/what will satisfy their needs (i.e. what are the pain points, whose feeling it and how to relieve it)</li>\n<li>What it takes to run a business or bring an idea to fruition</li>\n<li>How painful is quick and dirty in the long run i.e. if you sacrifice maintainability/readability/adaptability the business will teach a lesson ;)</li>\n<li>Develop a techno-business mindset i.e. along with the development skills you'll also (hopefully) develop some valuation skills. These are those that help you 'sell' your idea to someone (VCs, Angels etc.) to invest in your business - you'll learn to speak the language of 'business' to help them understand the value of your idea.</li>\n<li>Learn to do risk/return tradeoffs</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>This will make you a 'System Engineer' in a sense - you'll be able to look at a broader picture along with your particular skill set (computer architecture)</p>\n\n<p>Now, assuming your PhD is purely technical, you will develop (and appreciate) business understanding, complexity and communicability! In the future it'll help you communicate well with the 'other folks' (i.e. marketing, managers, CEOs, bosses, customers etc. etc.)</p>\n\n<p>These skills ARE EXTREMELY VALUABLE in the long run. Working on your start-up project may help you at least get an inkling if not the entire understanding but you WILL definitely have a better understanding of technical + business oriented aspects and I think that's a skill all PhDs ought to have!!</p>\n\n<p>PS: I am in your shoes :)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 12341, "author": "user8005", "author_id": 8005, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8005", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It can be great if you learn skills that you can apply in your PhD. Some Universities even encourage it. As long as you communicate this clearly to your professor and still devote enough attention to your PhD it is OK.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 12350, "author": "NPcompleteUser", "author_id": 6346, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6346", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Awesome question.</p>\n\n<p>My answer is - <strong>for sure!</strong> (if it is related to your research as a grad student)</p>\n\n<p>Let me expand. I think grad school is time for couple of things:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Widen your knowledge in the field.</li>\n<li>Deepen your knowledge in the subfield of the subfield of the subfield ... of your field</li>\n<li>bla bla bla</li>\n<li>Get to be known by your peers</li>\n<li>Make new connections</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Professor could usually tell you that points 4 and 5 are easily achieved by publishing couple of papers and going to couple of conferences (realistically, how many conferences grad student can go in 5 years? maybe 8).</p>\n\n<p>Of course, also, advisor doesn't want you to spend time on the stuff that will not has his/her (advisor's) name on it. That is understandable, advisor needs a list of stuff to put in the grant/whatever proposal to get funding. However:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Advisor pays you a minimum wage (in most of the cases)</li>\n<li>Makes you work on his/her <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spherical_cow\" rel=\"nofollow\">spherical cow</a></li>\n<li>There are hardly any jobs on the market [1,2]</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>For at least these reasons my answer is - <strong>for sure</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>Now, usually startup'ers invest time and money into something, and hope to get more money back. In my case, I have decided to invest in myself. So my startup goal is to contribute to a list of the opensource/closed source project in my field and arrive into authors/contributors list. This will accomplish the following:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Get to be known by your peers</li>\n<li>Make new connections</li>\n<li>Get myself aware of the code</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>One more thing I'm happy about, only my name will be on the list. In academia people get authorship on the papers for all kind of things, only not for doing research, well, in the software - there is no such issue - as commit history is the judge.</p>\n\n<p>thanks for the attention.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/web/2012/03/Unemployment-Data-Worst-40-Years.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/web/2012/03/Unemployment-Data-Worst-40-Years.html</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.caredit.a1300184\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.caredit.a1300184</a></li>\n</ol>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/708", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/399/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 714, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Unfortunately, this is not really a problem you can solve yourself. There are simply too many journals behind individual paywalls (sometimes even in different languages) for you to be able to monitor this sort of thing by yourself.</p>\n\n<p>On more of a philosophical note, I would argue that it's the responsibility of the journal editors to ensure that the papers they choose to publish are not plagarized from other works. They are the only ones who can really prevent it, as they are the ones who actually publish the papers; you, the author, reader, and sometimes reviewer, are just a consumer of their publication. Teachers and professors have access to resources such as <a href=\"http://turnitin.com/en_us/home\">TurnItIn.com</a>; I'm not familiar with such a resource for academics, but I would definitely argue that it is the <em>responsibility</em> of the journals to ensure that every paper they publish is genuinely novel research. (This is not to say that the author has no responsibility; of course every researcher should publish ethically.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 715, "author": "Ran G.", "author_id": 324, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/324", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I would even say post your work on some kind of arXiv as soon as you can. My reasons are:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>You might be lucky, and the reviewer will actually find it, and catch the dishonesty early (I always try to google related works when I get a review request). </li>\n<li>if your work is there for a while, it has more chance that people saw it and affiliate that result with you, thus recognizing the plagiarizing work as such.</li>\n<li>You have a date-stamp. With such a time-stamp it'd be easier to claim that your work (publicly) appeared before the time that the other work was submitted/conceived. </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>The interesting question is, whether you should cite the other work in your \"related work\" segment, and claim it to be plagiarism?! (:</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 716, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You've handled the conference plagiarism very well.</p>\n\n<p>But then you say you've stopped putting your papers on your website: and I'm afraid that that is completely counter-productive.</p>\n\n<p>It would be far more helpful for editors, reviewers and publishers to have your papers on your website, indexed by all the usual search bots, and clearly copyrighted and time-stamped. That makes it easier for them to spot duplicate content, early on.</p>\n\n<p>The point of publishing your work is to get it disseminated. Very many journals allow authors to host preprints or similar on their own university web pages: do so. Get your stuff circulated as widely as possible. That gives you the best chance of other plagiarism of your work being spotted early on, in the future.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 723, "author": "Gopi", "author_id": 87, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/87", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>When reviewing a paper via the <a href=\"https://www.edas.info\">EDAS</a> portal, you can always look at the similarity score with other papers. in order to compute this similarity score, the use the <a href=\"http://www.ithenticate.com/\">iThenticate</a> software.</p>\n\n<p>I have also seen the <a href=\"http://www.crossref.org/crosscheck/index.html\">CrossCheck</a> software, but I cannot remember where or when (note that it is also powered by iThenticate).</p>\n\n<p>I guess all these softwares can be used for individuals. As long as you pay...</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1180, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I'd argue that you shouldn't worry too much about preventing plagiarism of your papers. At least in the areas I'm familiar with (math and theoretical CS), it's extremely unlikely to do you much harm.</p>\n\n<p>To be clear, I'm talking about wholesale plagiarism of written text. There can be much trickier situations - for example, if your rival learns an idea from you in a private conversation and then claims you learned it from him - but that's a subject for another question.</p>\n\n<p>Plagiarism happens all the time, on a massive scale, but you don't see it very often because it takes place at the margins: usually in junk journals or conferences, and occasionally in solid but low-prestige venues. This is by design, since plagiarists know that if they attract too much attention, they'll get caught. Nobody submits a plagiarized paper hoping to get lots of citations. Instead, they just want credit for having published something, usually because of some external pressure.</p>\n\n<p>One fear people sometimes have is of being caught in an ambiguous situation, where it's not completely clear who the plagiarist is. In the areas I'm familiar with, this never happens. The community is always quite sure of who is to blame, and as far as I can tell they are always right. This is a valid worry in principle, but it's not worth losing sleep over.</p>\n\n<p>Another fear is that the plagiarist will attract attention and citations that should have gone to your paper. As I mentioned above, that's not likely. These papers are typically almost unnoticed, and if they do get noticed, then that's just a prelude to getting caught.</p>\n\n<p>Plagiarism is still a serious problem, and plagiarists are cheating the system, but in the fields I'm talking about, they are generally not specifically hurting the authors they are copying from.</p>\n\n<p>Putting your papers online makes it slightly easier to plagiarize them, but it's not really contributing much to the problem, since there are so many possible sources. (There has even been a paper plagiarized from an advertisement for a consulting firm! See <a href=\"http://www.siam.org/journals/plagiary/index.php\">http://www.siam.org/journals/plagiary/index.php</a>. It's amazing how much garbage there is out there, and how unscrupulous some authors are.)</p>\n\n<p>Instead, making your papers as visible and accessible as possible makes it more likely that plagiarists will be caught. And, of course, this is in addition to all the other benefits of making it easy to read your papers.</p>\n\n<p>Vanity googling can also help: I periodically do searches for topics I care about, or to see who is citing my papers, and I've caught several plagiarists that way.</p>\n\n<p>The arXiv flags papers whose text overlaps nontrivially with a previous paper. This means in fields where arXiv use is widespread, plagiarists can't get away with using the arXiv, so they are further marginalized.</p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, after plagiarism is discovered, there is little or nothing you can do to ensure that the plagiarist is punished. Reputable conferences or journals will investigate the situation and flag or withdraw the paper; less reputable ones will ignore you and hope you quit asking about it, although they will sometimes act if you publicize it enough. The plagiarist's employer probably won't do anything, no matter how serious the case is. What I'd recommend is that you try to correct the literature, and report the incident to the plagiarist's employer (assuming the paper was published as part of their job), but not worry too much about getting any action from the employer. If pursuing the case further would give you some satisfaction, then that's a good reason to do it, but don't do it with the expectation of concrete results. If you're lucky, you'll get a letter explaining that something awkward might or might not have happened, that everyone involved is very sorry for any hurt feelings, that whatever did happen wasn't really anyone's fault, but that it won't happen again. (Sadly, it often does.)</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/712", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 724, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 4, "selected": true, "text": "<p>At least three faculty in my department (including our current head) have PhDs in electrical engineering, at least one has a PhD in mathematics, and at least one has a PhD in operations research. If a faculty candidate is actively publishing good research in computer science conferences and journals, which department gave them their PhD really doesn't matter. (And if they're <em>not</em> actively publishing good <strike>research in computer science conferences and journals</strike> <strong>computer science research</strong>, they won't get hired, period.)</p>\n\n<p>Most junior faculty candidates don't have significant teaching experience anyway, so that aspect really doesn't matter much either. Sometimes it can be a bit tricky to find courses for new faculty with non-standard backgrounds to teach, but if they're really doing CS research, something always fits.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 725, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Within research universities, departments are generally interested in hiring faculty who will improve the department's research standing, both within the university and within their research field. The people who are most eligible in this regard typically have extensive research publications in a given field, and will have a clear path down which they plan on doing research for the next 5+ years. If you wish to compete with these indidivuals, you'll have to provide a good argument to the university as to how you will be able to advance their standing through your research. Depending on your experience and publication history, this may not be hard to do, but you'll still need to put forth the argument.</p>\n\n<p>From my experience, within teaching universities, they want people who can (1) teach, and (2) teach the subject at hand, in that order. If you're a great teacher but aren't that knowledgeable about some particular CS subject - but have a broad CS knowledge base in other regards, and are willing to learn - then you're a great candidate. That's my experience, at least.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, it's worth asking why you want to join a CS department without the relevant CS experience. You can always join another department and simply get listed as faculty in a different department; again, from my experience, this happens quite often.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/717", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 1143, "author": "Anonymous Mathematician", "author_id": 612, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I can address questions 1 and 2 (although for 3, all I know is that my friends say it is very different).</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>When you are negotiating over salary, your leverage is determined by the best alternative you have. To keep from losing you to another employer, your job must offer a better combination of pay and benefits than anyone else (including benefits like job security, having interesting colleagues and students, having flexible hours and the ability to choose your own projects, etc.).</p>\n\n<p>People in the humanities have very little leverage except from other academic jobs. Mathematicans have more, because there are applications in industry or government, so they get paid somewhat more, but this leverage is limited by the fact that many mathematicians don't want non-academic jobs. Computer scientists have a lot of leverage, and business school faculty have even more.</p>\n\n<p>So basically it comes down to this. Business school faculty often have expertise that is in high demand outside academia and could earn them a lot of money, and there's at least a stereotype that they care more about monetary compensation than some professors do (which makes sense, given their interest in business). This means that to attract excellent faculty, business schools have to pay enough that job applicants would rather work there than in the business world.</p>\n\n<p>In principle, this is no different from other departments: literature faculty also have to be paid enough that they don't leave for the business world. It's just a question of how much that is.</p></li>\n<li><p>This really depends on the subfield. Business school faculty are certainly more likely to do outside consulting than scientists are, but there are no universal rules (some business school professors do none at all, and some scientists run their own companies). Occasionally, a company will sponsor a university program according to some negotiated agreement, but consulting generally does not involve a pay-sharing deal. Instead, the faculty member simply consults part-time for the company, without using university resources, and is paid directly by the company. In the US, universities typically allow a certain amount of time to be spent on outside consulting, for example one day per week, with no special approval needed.</p></li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 74765, "author": "Tom Au", "author_id": 755, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Short answer: Business school professors tend to have higher level contacts in industry and government than professors in other fields. So if they are 1) consulting, they are likely reporting to higher level executives who will pay them better, even for similar work. </p>\n\n<p>2) For the same reason, a business school professor who leaves Academia for a full time position in industry is likely to leave for a higher level, higher paying job outside. Some of my finance professors took jobs on Wall St. Some of these jobs are available to mathematics people also, but \"finance\" and \"business\" gives one that extra edge. And a large part of this stems from:</p>\n\n<p>3) Teaching MBA students isn't necessarily more demanding that teaching other students. But these graduates tend to rise to positions in corporations with more authority (and often more pay) than non-business engineering and science graduates. If one of your students from twenty years ago becomes CEO of his/her company (and this is more likely with business school than technical students), well, you get the idea.</p>\n\n<p>Some of my own business school professors were either former or future \"C\" level executives (Chief Operating Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Financial Officer, even a CEO or two). The ones that left industry became professors because they grew tired of the \"grind\" and took a pay cut for a quieter life. But if it were too much of a cut, they wouldn't do this. The ones that left Academia and went to industry did so because their pay was a <em>lot</em> (not just a little) higher than that of say, a department head in a university with comparable authority and/or prestige. </p>\n\n<p>In this connection, it is noteworthy that Arjay Miller was one of the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiz_Kids_(Ford)\" rel=\"nofollow\">\"Whiz Kids\"</a> who took over Ford Motor Company (he briefly served as President) before he became Dean of Stanford Business School.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/718", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 720, "author": "410 gone", "author_id": 96, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>You could consider hosting it via one of the reference / citation managers, such as <a href=\"http://CiteULike.org/\">CiteULike</a> or <a href=\"http://www.Mendeley.com/\">Mendeley</a>, which can take imports of Bibtex files. Your own university may (should!) have such a <a href=\"https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/research/publication/index?upi=APSMI28\">web-front plus publication database available, for you to embed into your university home page</a>.</p>\n\n<h2>Wordpress</h2>\n\n<p>If your webpage is hosted directly on wordpress.com, then no, you can't host your own PHP script. If it's Wordpress hosted elsewhere, then you should be able to add your own PHP script, by incorporating into your plugin. There are skeleton plugins available to get you started. It may be that asking on <a href=\"http://wordpress.stackexchange.com\">Wordpress.SE</a> will give you some useful pointers.</p>\n\n<h2>Mendeley</h2>\n\n<p>On Mendeley: there is an <a href=\"http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/mendeleyplugin/\">embedding plugin for Wordpress</a>. I haven't used it, but it might be worth looking into. Or, on your Mendeley profile web page, select edit, then embed. Or Share > Embed elsewhere on Mendeley pages (groups or whatever).</p>\n\n<p>There's an <a href=\"http://betascience.blogspot.com/2010/05/use-mendeley-to-list-your-publications.html\">article on Beta Science on embedding Mendeley</a> that may be useful. It uses the same Share > Embed as above, but recommends creating a \"Publications\" group in the desktop client first, putting your own papers into that, (in order, from oldest to newest). \nThen right-click -> Edit Settings, then under \"Collection Access\" choose \"Public - visible to everyone\". Then click \"Apply and Sync\". Then, from the collection web page, select \"embed\" to get the appropriate html.</p>\n\n<h2>CiteULike</h2>\n\n<p>If you prefer CiteULike, they have an excellent <a href=\"http://wiki.citeulike.org/index.php/Importing_and_Exporting#How_can_I_access_my_library_from_application_X.3F\">API</a>, allowing you to <a href=\"http://www.citeulike.org/groupforum/2394\">customise</a> your own tools. And the staff on the <a href=\"http://www.citeulike.org/groupfunc/3124/home\">discussion forum</a> are very responsive (a marked contrast with Mendeley).</p>\n\n<h2>Academia.edu</h2>\n\n<p>If you prefer <a href=\"http://Academia.edu\">Academia.edu</a>, you could always embed your <a href=\"http://ucl.academia.edu/AndrewSmith/Papers\">publications page</a> (and maybe your talks page too) in an iframe</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 721, "author": "bobthejoe", "author_id": 319, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/319", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I'm super lazy and I just use Mendeley's group widget. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Make a group for your publications</li>\n<li>Dump all of your publications into the group. Hopefully all of the metadata is determined for you.</li>\n<li>Use the widget to generate the code for you.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Result looks like:</p>\n\n<pre><code>&lt;iframe src=\"http://www.mendeley.com/groups/1281613/_/widget/27/3/\" \nframeborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"width:260px;\nheight:550px;\"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;\n&lt;p style=\"width:260px\"&gt;&lt;a href=\"http://www.mendeley.com/groups/1281613/swartz-lab/\"\ntitle=\"Swartz Lab on Mendeley\"&gt;Swartz Lab&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;\n</code></pre>\n" }, { "answer_id": 722, "author": "Piotr Migdal", "author_id": 49, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If your paper are on <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">arXiv</a> you can use <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/help/myarticles\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">myarticles widget</a>.</p>\n\n<p>It requires obtaining an <a href=\"http://arxiv.org/help/author_identifiers\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">arXiv author identifier</a>, which allows you to display your preprints by typing <code>http://arxiv.org/a/[user]</code>.</p>\n\n<p>An example of the widget below:</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/SJYw6.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 729, "author": "InquilineKea", "author_id": 77, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/77", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>You can also try out <a href=\"http://scholar.google.com/citations\">Google Scholar Citations</a>, which is a new service for showing the citation count for all your papers. As an example, <a href=\"http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NHu36_oAAAAJ\">here's my small list</a>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 788, "author": "David Ketcheson", "author_id": 81, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<h1>Bibbase</h1>\n<p>I think that <a href=\"http://www.bibbase.org/\" rel=\"noreferrer\"><strong>BibBase</strong></a> would be a perfect solution if you can at least run CGI scripts; instructions can be found <a href=\"http://www.bibbase.org/help/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">on this page</a> (if you can run PHP then it's even simpler). You need to feed it a Bibtex file, but if you use Mendeley then it can automatically grab it from there.</p>\n<p><strong>Update</strong>: Bibbase now allows you to use just javascript. (h/t ChristianF)</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>BibBase makes it easy for scientists to maintain their publications pages. As a scientist, you simply maintain a BibTeX-file of your publications, including links to the papers, and BibBase does the rest. When a web user visits your publications page, <strong>BibBase dynamically generates an always up-to-date HTML page from the BibTeX file, and even allows the user to sort the publications</strong> by other than the default ordering (e.g. year, author, keywords, research area, publication type).</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http://www.cs.toronto.edu/%7Efritz\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Here is an example of the output.</a></p>\n<h1>A custom alternative</h1>\n<p>I happen to have a departmental server that doesn't allow PHP or CGI; you can read about what I do to solve this problem <a href=\"http://scienceinthesands.blogspot.com/2011/10/managing-publication-lists-in-html.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">on my blog</a> and see the kind of output generated <a href=\"http://numerics.kaust.edu.sa/publications.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">on my group's site</a>. An even more jazzed-up version, which is searchable and filterable, is <a href=\"http://www.davidketcheson.info/publications.html\" rel=\"noreferrer\">on my own site</a>.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 837, "author": "Pedro", "author_id": 495, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/495", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Just for completeness, I would also mention <a href=\"http://www.researcherid.com\" rel=\"nofollow\">ResearcherID</a>, a service similar to (but older than) Google Scholar citations, courtesy of Thompson Reuters. They've got badges and similar fancy links that you can put on your homepage.</p>\n\n<p>I just use it as a convenient list and tool for anybody obsessed with h-indices and impact factors.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 839, "author": "Suresh", "author_id": 346, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/346", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>An even easier solution that doesn't require anything except the ability to upload a BibTeX file is <a href=\"http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/Exhibit/For_Authors\">Exhibit</a>. It takes your bibtex, does some javascripting on it, and renders the result. It seems CSS-stylable, and even allows for faceted search. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1353, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Just a little follow-up on my own question. I've recently moved my webpage to a server I manage, which allows me to use PHP scripts, and I came across the excellent <a href=\"http://www.monperrus.net/martin/bibtexbrowser/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Bibtex Browser</a>. </p>\n\n<p>Basically, I just have my own bibtex file on my server, and the publications list is automatically generated from a very simple PHP script. It seems to work as well as <a href=\"http://simile.mit.edu/wiki/Exhibit/For_Authors\" rel=\"nofollow\">Exhibit</a>, that Suresh mentioned, and although it does not answer exactly my original question (since it requires the ability to run scripts), I thought I would put it here for completeness :)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 31896, "author": "Piotr", "author_id": 22200, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22200", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I know the topic is old, but I have recently developed a solution that fits the question very well - just in case other people are looking for the same information.</p>\n\n<p>You can try <a href=\"https://github.com/vikin91/BibSpace\" rel=\"nofollow\">BibSpace</a>. It was created to manage publications of a group and display them automatically on the webpage. It has many fancy features and new features are being developed actively. There is a demo available. The software is free and open source. (Disclaimer: I am the author of this tool).</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 70935, "author": "orschiro", "author_id": 36698, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36698", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you are a user of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WordPress\" rel=\"nofollow\">Wordpress</a> and <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zotero\" rel=\"nofollow\">Zotero</a>, then you can use the <a href=\"https://wordpress.org/plugins/zotpress/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Zotpress</a> plugin to display Zotero citations inside your Wordpress blog.</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://s.w.org/plugins/zotpress/screenshot-2.jpg?r=1432416\" alt=\"\"></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 151165, "author": "GoodDeeds", "author_id": 68109, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/68109", "pm_score": 0, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The <a href=\"https://themes.gohugo.io/academic/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Academic theme</a> based on <a href=\"https://gohugo.io/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Hugo</a> is a nice theme specifically catered towards academic researchers. For publications, it has an option to directly <a href=\"https://sourcethemes.com/academic/docs/managing-content/#create-a-publication\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">import from a list in the BibTex format</a>, which could be exported from a reference manager such as <a href=\"https://www.zotero.org/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Zotero</a>.</p>\n<p>Subsequently, you also have the option to control the format the list is displayed in, add external links (such as to the published paper or code), and create a list of selected publications. The theme also provides visitors to your page the option to filter publications by title, authors, year, and publication type, without needing any manual setup.</p>\n<p>Beyond this, the theme can also be used to build an entire personal or laboratory website, with individual pages for lab members. It also provides instructions for hosting with <a href=\"https://pages.github.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">GitHub Pages</a> (free) or <a href=\"https://www.netlify.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Netlify</a>.</p>\n<p>Screenshot from the <a href=\"https://academic-demo.netlify.app/publication/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">demo page</a> for reference:</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/jneZd.png\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/jneZd.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\" /></a>\n<br><br>\nReferences:</p>\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"https://sourcethemes.com/academic/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Theme homepage</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://academic-demo.netlify.app/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Demo website</a>, and <a href=\"https://sourcethemes.com/academic/#expo\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">more examples of individual and group websites in use</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://sourcethemes.com/academic/docs/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Documentation</a></li>\n</ol>\n<p>_{Note: I am not an author and am not affiliated with the creators of this theme.}</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/719", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 727, "author": "eykanal", "author_id": 73, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/73", "pm_score": 7, "selected": true, "text": "<p>The best way is to be highly active in your field. (Note: this will take work.) Here are my suggestions for accomplishing this, and I hope others will post more in the comments or other answers:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Do awesome work.</strong> It all starts here. As a PhD student, this typically requires being in an awesome lab under an awesome professor, but it is possible to achieve awesome work without that.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Publish in respected journals <em>in your field</em>.</strong></p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Network within your field.</strong> This includes attending field-specific conferences, talking to other PhD students and professors in other labs, and forming collaborations.</p></li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 744, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 6, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One minor point to add to eykanal's awesome answer: <strong>One of your advisor's jobs is to help you publicize your work.</strong> Take every possible advantage of their existing research network. Ask them to introduce you to people at conferences, workshops, and other meetings; ask them for help arranging invitations at other departments/labs. (Ideally, you shouldn't have to ask, but ask anyway.) Until you're comfortable walking up to or emailing random people and introducing yourself, name-drop your advisor liberally; their names will (or should) open doors that yours won't.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 757, "author": "bobthejoe", "author_id": 319, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/319", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The PhD students I remember the most are the ones who came up to me and made meaningful comments or suggestions regarding my work. They get extra bonus points if in the middle of the night the next week they offer more meaningful comments or suggestions. This can happen in the context of a faculty visit, a conference, or even online. The most powerful setting is at a <strong>poster session</strong>. </p>\n\n<p>The habit is to camp near your own poster until important people come and ask you questions. Much more effective for becoming a <strong><em>\"well-known\"</em></strong> scholar is when you find someone else, have a good conversation, and then follow up on the conversation.</p>\n\n<p>There are also effective and meaningful ways to make a name online. As @Artem suggested, an online presence does a lot. Being an constant contributor to scientific wikis, a curator of archives, and a resource on places like <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/\">Academia SE</a> builds your profile. (It also helps if you don't have a psuedoname like <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/319/bobthejoe\">bobthejoe</a>.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 799, "author": "Joanna Bryson", "author_id": 384, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/384", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>In addition to ekaynal's answer, you can also <strong>run a conference or workshop</strong>. But be careful that this doesn't detract from the quality of your research! <strong>Running department seminars</strong> can help too because you will get to invite &amp; host speakers who will therefore learn your name.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2245, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The single most useful reference I've read on networking in academia is \"Networking on the Network\" (by Phil Agre): </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://vlsicad.ucsd.edu/Research/Advice/network.html\">http://vlsicad.ucsd.edu/Research/Advice/network.html</a></p>\n\n<p>Let me mention a few examples of advice that Phil gives. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>First, the Internet does not <em>fundamentally</em> change the way that networking works. You basically walk through the same five or six stages of networking whether you use email and the web or not (and he outlines how each stage works). The exact <em>form</em> may differ, but the <em>substance</em> is more or less the same. </li>\n<li>Second, networking takes <em>time</em>. Phil recommends budgeting <em>one day per week</em> for maintaining your network. </li>\n<li>Third, work to ensure that each person in your network <em>benefits from knowing you</em>, not just you from knowing them. If you see an article or opportunity that you think may interest them, pass it along.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>This essay is long (about 100 pages), but it has much valuable information. I suggest that you return to it every year or two as you progress in your career.\nPhil is a great writer, and you may find some of this other thoughts helpful as well. You can read lots of them here:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/\">http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/</a></p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 11439, "author": "Namey", "author_id": 7930, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7930", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Short answers: Get cited. Present. Show yourself to be a peer.</p>\n\n<p>Long answer:\nI have the opposite view about networking: you should not waste any day on it unless it directly helps your research (e.g., potential collaborations, working on grants). While admittedly you need to network and get yourself known, that won't help at all unless you're known for great work. You're not going to be known for great work without having great publications. They don't need to be in the best journals (though it helps), but you need to be pushing out work that answers questions that other scholars have. In my opinion, there is no better way to get your name out there than to be cited.</p>\n\n<p>The single most important thing that I learned from transitioning out of my PhD program is this: Publishing is networking. Publishing is talking with your peers. (Particularly if you publish in conferences, you are literally talking to your peers.) No level of pavement-beating will get you more attention than to win a best paper award or to present on a topic that big people have been looking for a good citation on for years. I know a few relatively young scholars in my field who have just about universal name recognition. Their MO? 1. They answered questions that researchers were interested in knowing the answers to. or 2. They answered questions that people didn't even realize needed asking, but were so important everyone needs to talk about them now.</p>\n\n<p>In the long run, being known doesn't help you much if you're known as \"another one of those people who works on topic X.\" You want to be known as \"An expert in topic Y\" or \"The first person I would go to with a question about Y.\" If you don't have this, any major researcher will say: \"Why would I bother collaborating or recommending this guy?\" Obviously, this takes years, but so does a doctorate. Nothing is more important to being well-known than asking the right question at the right time (and then answering it).</p>\n\n<p>Additionally, one secondary route of networking not noted by others from what I have seen: acting as a point of contact who interacts with sponsoring organizations. You know what another great way to get face-time with experts is? Being one member of a small workshop or meeting for people all sponsored by the same funding agency. Usually this responsibility would be taken by your lab head or similar PI. To get this responsibility, you need to basically be the best grad student working with the PI and the PI needs to be unavailable or need a second pair of hands. However, by being there, it says two things: 1. You are the best student in the PI's lab/project and 2. Your PI trusts you enough to act as their proxy. I think this only works with an established (full prof) PI, as non-tenured PI's may need the networking as much or more than you. Networking with program officers is also a good habit to be in. Ultimately, these are the people who control what kinds of work can get funded. This is one of the ways a good advisor can plug you into their network (along with making sure to introduce you to their big-shot friends/rivals).</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/726", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 738, "author": "Artem Kaznatcheev", "author_id": 66, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/66", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>The <strong>only way to improve writing (technical or non-technical) is by <em>writing</em></strong> and submitting your work to the criticism of peers. Thankfully, in mathematics there is a culture of blogs. When you learn something new, write it up on your blog and share it with your friends. This will help you better understand what you wrote AND let you practice writing. At first, you won't get much feedback, but as your audience grows you will naturally learn from the feedback they provide.</p>\n\n<p>Another great tool is <a href=\"https://math.stackexchange.com/\">math.SE</a> and <a href=\"https://mathoverflow.net/\">mathoverflow</a>; on these sites you are guaranteed feedback. Ask and answer technical questions, this will let you practice your writing. As your writing and clarity improves you will also notice an average increase in number of up-votes, etc. This will give you useful positive reinforcement.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 740, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I haven't read all of them but may I suggest the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0226823377\">Manual for research paper/thesis writers</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1591477433\">How to Write</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1579223133\">Demystifying Dissertation Writing</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/091350713X\">Professors as writers</a></li>\n</ul>\n" }, { "answer_id": 742, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 5, "selected": true, "text": "<p>I was in similar situation than yours during my PhD: my proofs were correct, but tedious to read, and every time one my co-author rewrote them, they looked so much clearer! I wouldn't say that now my proofs are perfect, but they have definitely improved. I would associate this improvement with the following factors: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>my english has improved with time, and I can now use more variations of the \"proof vocabulary\". </li>\n<li>I have been working with different authors, so I've been exposed to different proof styles. </li>\n<li>I have been writing more proofs, and as Artem's perfectly said, the more you write, the more you get feedback, the better you get.</li>\n<li>I have read and given feedback to other people proofs, so I've started to noticed what I like/don't like on a proof that I haven't written. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>So I know it sounds like a dull advice, but I think that it's some skill you acquire with time and experience. Also, there is a wonderful paper from Leslie Lamport: <a href=\"http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/lamport/pubs/lamport-how-to-write.pdf\">How to write a proof</a>. This paper is not so much about how to write an elegant proof, but rather how to structure your proof. However, once you have a nice structure, I believe it's much easier to make it more elegant. Also, I try now as much as possible to encode my proofs in a theorem-prover (such as <a href=\"http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/hvg/isabelle/\">Isabelle/Isar</a>), as it helps me understanding for instance what proof steps I can extract and generalize as lemmas. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 2613, "author": "Dan C", "author_id": 1069, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1069", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<ul>\n<li><p>Paul Halmos was a master expositor, and one of my favorite articles on writing is his: <a href=\"http://alpha.math.uga.edu/%7Eazoff/courses/halmos.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">How to Write Mathematics</a></p>\n</li>\n<li><p>A more detailed collection of advice can be found in: <a href=\"https://jmlr.csail.mit.edu/reviewing-papers/knuth_mathematical_writing.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Mathematical Writing</a>, by Knuth, Larrabee, and Roberts</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>But as other answers have stated, <strong>the only way to improve your writing is to write</strong> (and to get feedback, and take that feedback to heart)</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/731", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/324/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 733, "author": "Stefano Borini", "author_id": 5, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5", "pm_score": 5, "selected": false, "text": "<p>It is not completely true that failures are not published. Lack of signals, or lack of correlation are published. The point is that everything that pushes knowledge forward is worthy of publication. That said, there are other factors you have to keep into account</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>some failures are methodological, that is, you are doing something wrong. That is not a scientific signal. it's something you have to solve.</li>\n<li>knowing what doesn't work gives you a competitive advantage against other research groups.</li>\n<li>negative signals almost never open new fields. If they do, it's because they steered attention to find a positive signal somewhere else. You don't open a new cancer drug development if a substance is found not to have an effect. You close one. For this reason, negative papers generally don't receive a lot of attention, and attention from peers is a lot in academia.</li>\n</ol>\n" }, { "answer_id": 734, "author": "Bravo", "author_id": 411, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/411", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Sometimes some failures give rise to new theories themselves. For example, there are impossibility theorems in mechanism design (Arrow's or Gibbard-Satterthwaite's) which establish the limitations of implementable mechanisms.</p>\n\n<p>In that sense, failures alone may not be useful in a publication. People are interested to know why things failed or rather what category of experiments/theories would fail. But proceeding in this direction is often fraught with risk: it is easier to state a problem and solve it rather than to derive conditions on when the problem cannot be solved. The former is interesting to a wider class of audience than the latter.</p>\n\n<p>So the bottom line: try to formalise or theorise your failures and see if a result looms; else move on to try and solve a worthier problem.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 737, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 6, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Null results are hard to publish. They just are. Interestingly enough however, in my field they are not the <em>hardest</em> thing to publish. The general order goes:</p>\n\n<p>Well powered (big) studies that find what people expect<br>\nPoorly powered (small) studies that find what people expect<br>\nPoorly powered studies that find the opposite of what people expect or null findings<br>\nWell powered studies that find the opposite of what people expect<br></p>\n\n<p>Those middle two categories are where you'll find most \"failures\", at least in terms of finding a statistically meaningful effect. That being said, there's an increasing push to see these types of studies published, because they're an important part of the literature, and several medical journals have made fairly remarkable steps in that direction - for example, if they accept a paper on the <em>protocol</em> for an upcoming clinical trial, they also commit to publishing the results of the trial (if they pass peer review) regardless of the finding.</p>\n\n<p>When it comes down to it, I think there's three reasons negative results aren't published more beyond \"it's hard\":</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Lack of pay off. It takes time and thought to get a paper into the literature, and effort. And money, by way of time and effort. Most null findings/failures are dead ends - they're not going to be used for new grant proposals, they're not going to be where you make your name. The best you can hope for is they get cited a few times in commentaries or meta-analysis papers. So, in a universe of finite time, why would you chase those results more?</li>\n<li>Lack of polish. Just finding the result is a middle-step in publishing results, not the \"and thus it appears in a journal\" step. Often, its easy to tell when something isn't shaping up to be successful well before its ready for publication - those projects tend to get abandoned. So while there are \"failed\" results, they're not publication ready results, even if we cared about failures.</li>\n<li>Many failures are methodological. This study design can't really get at the question you want to ask. Your data isn't good enough. This whole line of reasoning is flawed. Its <em>really</em> hard to spin that into a paper.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Successful papers can be published on their own success - that <em>is</em> interesting. Failed papers have the dual burden of being both hard to publish <em>and</em> having had to fail interestingly.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 741, "author": "JRN", "author_id": 64, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/64", "pm_score": 8, "selected": true, "text": "<p>\"Why don't people publish failures?\"</p>\n\n<p>Actually, they do.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><a href=\"http://jnr-eeb.org/index.php/jnr\">Journal of Negative Results</a> (ecology and evolutionary biology)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.jnrbm.com/\">Journal of Negative Results in Biomedicine</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.pnrjournal.com/addresses.asp\">Journal of Pharmaceutical Negative Results</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://jinr.site.uottawa.ca/\">Journal of Interesting Negative Results</a> (natural language processing and machine learning)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.jnres.org/\">Journal of Negative Results in Environmental Science</a> (no issues yet?)</li>\n<li><a href=\"http://bioflukes.com/JoE\">Journal of Errology</a> (no issues yet?)</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>and so on...</p>\n\n<p>(You might also want to see the <a href=\"http://www.nature.com/jcbfm/journal/v30/n7/full/jcbfm201051a.html\">Negative Results section</a> of the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow &amp; Metabolism.)</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 746, "author": "Ondrej", "author_id": 422, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/422", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>One of the consequences of not reporting failures is publication bias. It is a widely described phenomenon that is usually dealt with using meta-analysis. That is if the research concerns some quantifiable results, say some (linear) regression, usually statistical significance is desirable. If such results are not met, researchers sometimes try to adjust their methodology, models, data or whatever else in order to have more \"publishable\" results.</p>\n\n<p>The problem of either adjusting of models, or complete withdrawal of the paper (the so called file drawer problem) was (and to a certain extent still is) a problem in medicine, as @Artem Kaznatcheev notes in the comment and resulted, as he adds, in registering of trials before publication. His sources may differ, but a paper describing it is e.g. <a href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15597973\">Krakovsky (2004)</a>.</p>\n\n<p>More generally, look at <a href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.0950-0804.2005.00250.x/full\">Stanley (2005)</a> or <a href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0084.2007.00487.x/full\">Stanley (2008)</a> for more information on publication bias and meta-analysis.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 809, "author": "lynxoid", "author_id": 476, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/476", "pm_score": 2, "selected": false, "text": "<p>If you have read a lot of literature and then realized that you are in a dead end, you can at least publish a review on all the methods and techniques you've learned.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 1079, "author": "Mark Hahnel", "author_id": 575, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/575", "pm_score": 3, "selected": false, "text": "<p>I think this comes down to the time taken. I personally could not be bothered spending 2 days writing up and formatting a paper for negative data. It needs to be really simple to do and I either need to get some credit for it, or need to be mandated to do it.</p>\n\n<p>There is a growing requirement from funders and mandates forcing researchers to make all of their research outputs available are only a matter of time. In the mean time, altmetrics can act as carrots to encourage researchers to share their data, even the negative stuff.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 42816, "author": "uli", "author_id": 24138, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24138", "pm_score": 1, "selected": false, "text": "<p>There is the Journal of unsolved Questions <a href=\"http://junq.info/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\" title=\"JunQ\">JunQ</a>. They collect ‘null’-result research and open problems.</p>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/732", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/" ]

[ { "answer_id": 736, "author": "Fomite", "author_id": 118, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/118", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Generally speaking, there are well established \"mile stones\" for the completion of a PhD. This typically comes in the form of writing a dissertation - either in book form or a series of papers - and the presentation (and defense) of those results to a committee of professors (and sometimes a general audience).</p>\n\n<p>It is usually not \"years spent\" or exhausting a project's potential (or the students).</p>\n\n<p>There are however often some established timelines to prevent students from defending their dissertation too fast - required coursework, certain timing restrictions etc. This is usually intended to keep a student from rushing their studies and meeting the letter of the graduation requirements, but not the spirit - that they be well trained in their field and capable of doing independent work. But if they meet that, and defend their dissertation, no one is going to make them \"run out the clock\" or the like.</p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 739, "author": "Community", "author_id": -1, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1", "pm_score": 4, "selected": false, "text": "<p>Intuitively, I would say there are two \"extreme\" ways of seeing a PhD (at least that I know of): </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>The point of a PhD is to solve a particular problem (e.g. show that P ≠ NP), and in this case, the PhD ends when the problem is solved, and the dissertation explaining the solution is written. I have known some (brilliant) people who solved some problem hard enough to be considered worth a PhD in 2 years, and who spent the rest of their PhD funding publishing more papers. But technically speaking, the PhD was finished after 2 years, the rest was more like a pre-postdoc. </p></li>\n<li><p>The point of a PhD is to train a young scientist to become a (hopefully brilliant) researcher. The topic could then be a just an excuse to work on a sub-field, and as any other training experience, the PhD is over when the advisor believes the young scientist is ready to move on. Of course, writing a dissertation is a good way to convince your advisor, but it could be the case that you have a rather \"weak\" dissertation (i.e. that won't dramatically change mankind), but a good publication record, external collaborations, etc. In this case, it's even possible to consider writing a <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/149/102\">Sandwich/stapler thesis</a>. </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I would say that most PhD are a mix of the two approaches (and it probably varies from a field to another, from a university to another, from an advisor to another, etc), and the vision can actually be different between the advisor and the student. Personally, I know that I was seeing my PhD more like in the first case (i.e. I wanted to solve hard problems), while my advisor was encouraging me to be more diverse, saying that I would have my entire career to solve hard problems. </p>\n" }, { "answer_id": 743, "author": "JeffE", "author_id": 65, "author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65", "pm_score": 6, "selected": true, "text": "<p>As a general rule, my PhD students need to do two things to get a PhD:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Publish 3-4 papers on a coherent topic, mostly in top-tier theoretical computer science conferences, including at least one paper without me as a co-author (and preferably at least one paper that was previously rejected).</p></li>\n<li><p>Jump a bunch of administrative hurdles: don't screw up classes, don't screw up TAing, pass quals, gather a committee, propose a thesis, write a thesis, defend a thesis.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>That's it. In my experience, most PhD students do way more than this.</p>\n\n<p>A couple of comments on the original question:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Very few students \"finish\" their thesis topic. Equivalently: If a research question can be closed in just one or two papers, it's probably not a good thesis topic. Good research opens as many new problems as it solves.</p></li>\n<li><p>Reaching the point where further collaboration with a student is unproductive means the student-advisor relationship has <strong>failed</strong>. Sometimes students really do exhaust their research potential, despite their advisors' efforts; in my experience, those students usually don't get PhDs. (Most successful students reach \"critical mass\" long before they finish.) More often, this happens because the advisor isn't giving the student enough appropriate guidance.</p></li>\n</ul>\n" } ]

[ "https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/735", "https://academia.stackexchange.com", "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/411/" ]