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47,733 |
<p>Back in the Fall of 2013, I attended a masters program straight out of college. Turned out to be extremely overwhelming relocating to NYC, living on my own and starting grad school. I knew I was in the right field but my anxiety got the best of me and I struggled speaking up in class which of course negatively impacted my grades. By the second semester I already knew I needed to leave and recuperate before I could return just to work on my anxiety problem. The problem was that it was too late for me to withdraw and I ended up trying my best to complete the semester even though a huge part of me did not want to be there anymore, especially since my teachers felt I was not ready for the program given my lack of contribution in the class discussions. By the end of the semester I decided that I did not want to return to the school (was not thrilled with the program there or the faculty) but later on found out I had been academically dismissed since my GPA fell below 3.0 to 2.96.
Since last Fall (2014), I have been just focusing on work and working on my anxiety with a therapist but have been thinking about applying to the same field (mental health counseling) at another school for the fall of 2016. Would I have a fair shot at being admitted into another school in the same field given that I was dismissed from my previous program? Just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar situation.
Thank you in advance for your feedback. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47736,
"author": "Compass",
"author_id": 22013,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22013",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><em>For the poster, I recommend you take this very carefully, and perhaps read it a few times. I hate telling people that their dream may not be achievable, because I was in those shoes at one point, too. However, I can't advocate blindly trudging forward and not giving up because that wastes both your money and your time if you don't objectively evaluate whether or not your goal is still achievable.</em></p>\n\n<p>A while ago, I was in a Master's Program in Biological Sciences, with the ultimate goal of eventually going to medical school. I struggled as much as I could, but in the end, failed to meet academic standards and was told that I was no longer in the program. BAM! Just like that, my dream of going to medical school was over. What seemed achievable, in a year, became a flight of fancy, and a disappointment that I took deeply for a while.</p>\n\n<p>Needless to say, when you fail out of one program, the chances of you continuing in the same field drop dramatically, even if you can explain it as a medical issue, because the onus of proof points to the fact that you were unable to complete your original program.</p>\n\n<p>I gave up my dream of applying to medical school and started working on a Master's in Computer Science. I had some experience, and I knew I could do it. It wasn't brain surgery, but it was something I was good at. I've been done with the Master's for a few years, and have been VERY happy with what I am currently doing. If you had told me right after I failed my first Master's that I would find something better to enjoy doing, I would probably have just flopped over like a fish and not cared.</p>\n\n<p>I now call this event my \"early-life crisis.\" A lot earlier than the mid-life crises that people feel regarding their work, because we reach the point where our dream not being attainable actually becomes a plausible or even likely scenario.</p>\n\n<p>I hate to say it, some of us aren't really prepared or capable of achieving our \"dream\" jobs. I say \"dream\" because dreams can change, and they certainly should, given how your life plays out. Lots of people want to become the next Lebron James, but very few can. You can take 24/7 basketball courses and weight training, but sometimes, we just don't have the traits we need to reach that level. We make do, and we should course-correct if we know that making do is not sufficient for us.</p>\n\n<p>You state that you were uncomfortable participating in group discussions regarding the subject of your Master's, mental health counseling. I'm somewhat familiar with this by prior trade, but communication is a big part of that field, and unless you get around the issues preventing you from participating, the same failure is likely to happen. Given what you've said, I would like to put to question whether or not you feel that you are a good fit for the program you're enrolled in. </p>\n\n<p>Instead of jumping immediately in and trying again, you definitely evaluate your short-term and long-term career goals with your therapist. You should seriously consider additional programs and subject fields as well.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47739,
"author": "marcman",
"author_id": 11819,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11819",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While Compass's answer does make some valid points, I wanted to add my two cents on the assumption that the original poster is sure that renewing grad school efforts is the right next step.</p>\n\n<p>If you \"failed out\" of a program already, you are going to have a hard time getting accepted back (or elsewhere) without really demonstrating a change in your work habits, maturity, academic ability, and other areas. A doctor's note saying \"so and so has been treated for anxiety and is now fit for readmission\" probably won't mean a thing to admissions committees, regardless of its veracity. However, demonstrating that you've done good work in a job related to your field is something that could be of note to an admission committee.</p>\n\n<p>I'm sure the mental health field has plenty of opportunities that only require bachelor degrees. Working in this capacity for a while can both demonstrate an improvement on your part and also connect you to great resources who could ultimately recommend you for readmission. My understanding is that recommendations from people in your desired field can lead people to overlook past mistakes.</p>\n\n<p>It is likely to be much more difficult the second time around, but demonstrating your growth with concrete achievements--rather than by saying \"I'm ready now\"--will be your best shot at restoring the admission folks' faith in your preparedness for grad school.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47733",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36254/"
] |
47,737 |
<p>Is there any research/study that looked at the impact of the quality of a presentation in a conference on the number of citations the corresponding article receives? (quality in terms of form, not the content itself)</p>
<p>I am most interested in the United States and the field of computer science.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 52411,
"author": "THESISVIVA",
"author_id": 39271,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/39271",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my view, impact of the quality of a presentation in a conference, is relative. There are many factors that model \"perception\" of \"quality\". It draws down to the researcher or presenter. If we assume the audience understand the topic under discussion. Generally, the presenter models the impacts that a presentation will have, meaning the concept \"impact of the quality of presentation\" is socially constructed domain and therefore has many dimensions of causality</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 56203,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><a href=\"http://library.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/file/616/increasing_citations_literature_review_april_2014\" rel=\"nofollow\">This survey</a> by Dalton (2014) reviews literature that correlates citation rates with dissemination strategies. Research into a correlation between presentation quality at conferences and subsequent citation rates is notably absent, suggesting that there likely is not much research on this question. That said, a few things can be inferred:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Frenken et al. (2010) carried out a study on collaboration in scientific research and found that international collaborations tend to receive more citations than national or regional level collaborations.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Intuitively, a principal reason for attending conferences and workshops is to expand one's network and meet potential new collaborators. A good presentation is more likely to serve this purpose than a poor one, because it can set a first professional impression of you. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>A considerable amount of work has been published on the positive effects of open access on citation rates. Lawrence (2001) carried out an investigation on the impact of free online availability of papers on citation rates in computer science. The results showed a clear correlation between the number of times an article is cited and the probability that the article is freely available online. The more highly cited articles were significantly more likely to be available online. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>If you publish your presentation online <em>after</em> the conference, then you are increasing the open access material related to the paper. Especially if you are publishing the research manuscript behind a paywall, the presentation may open the research to a broader audience. Whether the presentation is well done, intuitively, is likely to affect whether you are willing to post it online and the amount of time that readers are likely to interact with it. If you present it well, you are probably more likely to post a public video of the presentation online.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Thelwall et al. (2013) [...] found that there were statistically significant associations between higher citations for articles and the use of various social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, blogs and forums. Similarly a study carried out by Shuai et al. (2012) showed there was a statistically significant correlation between social media mentions and download and citation counts.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Further to the previous point, if you publish your open-access presentation online after the conference, it creates an opportunity to create a social media buzz around it. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Summary</strong> <em>There might not be much research on whether a direct correlation exists between presentation quality and citation rate, but a good presentation can amplify factors that have been shown in literature to increase citation rates.</em></p>\n\n<p><strong>References</strong></p>\n\n<p>S. Dalton (2014). \"Increasing citations: key evidence.\" Retrieved from: <a href=\"http://library.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/file/616/increasing_citations_literature_review_april_2014\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://library.leeds.ac.uk/downloads/file/616/increasing_citations_literature_review_april_2014</a> on 15 October 2015.</p>\n\n<p>K. Frenken et al. (2010). \"The citation impact of research collaboration in science‐based industries: A spatial‐institutional analysis.\" <em>Papers in Regional Science</em>: 89(2), 251-265.</p>\n\n<p>S. Lawrence et al. (2001). \"Free online availability substantially increases a paper's impact.\" <em>Nature</em>: 411(6837), 521-521.</p>\n\n<p>X. Shuai et al. (2012). \"How the scientific community reacts to newly submitted preprints: Article downloads, twitter mentions, and citations.\" <em>PloS one</em>: 7(11).</p>\n\n<p>M. Thelwall et al. (2013). \"Do altmetrics work? Twitter and ten other social web services.\" <em>PloS one</em>: 8(5).</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47737",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/452/"
] |
47,751 |
<p>I was recently expelled from doctoral program in English for plagiarism in qualifying exam. Although it was for the lack of a citation, I attended a major research university with a zero tolerance policy. What are the chances I can reapply to another doctoral program? Specifically, I am in creative writing/poetry and I was in an English PhD program...what if I apply to a PhD in creative writing program? How do I go about addressing the plagiarism of the qualifying exam in past program, but highlight I have had numerous national publications since then in poetry and won a major book award, not publication?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47755,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My experience is in mathematics, rather than creative writing, but I imagine both fields approach this issue similarly. Issues of academic honesty have come up when I've served on admissions committees, and they're a huge obstacle to admission. A previous expulsion for plagiarism could turn an otherwise strong case into a quick rejection. In order to have any chance, you need to do several things:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>You have to give a convincing explanation of what happened and why nobody needs to worry about future dishonesty. This is not easy, and most people fail to write anything convincing. For example, if you write \"I didn't realize this counted as plagiarism, but now that I know, I certainly won't ever do it again\", people will wonder what other ethical principles you might be unclear on (and how you made it to the qualifying exam in a doctoral program in English without knowing what's considered plagiarism). If you write \"I was sloppy, but I've learned from the experience and will be much more careful from now on\", people will worry that being careful is easier said than done, and that this is too facile an excuse. And it only gets worse from there: if you knew it was wrong and did it on purpose, then you really have a lot of explaining to do.</p></li>\n<li><p>You need letters of recommendation from people who know what happened and are nevertheless willing to vouch for you. A letter that doesn't mention the plagiarism will probably be ignored, since the committee won't know whether the recommender even knows about it or how their opinion might change if they found out. (And it's a sensitive enough subject that nobody's going to call up the recommender and ask, out of fear that you would complain that the committee was leaking confidential information.)</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>I'd recommend starting by trying to recruit letter writers. If you can convince enough people to write strong letters for you, then you can take the explanation you used to convince them and incorporate it into your personal statement. If you can't secure enough letters or aren't confident in their strength, then it's not worth applying now.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I was recently expelled from doctoral program in English for plagiarism in qualifying exam. Although it was for the lack of a citation, I attended a major research university with a zero tolerance policy. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I should warn you that this sounds like a terrible basis for an explanation. It comes across like you are saying omitting citations is not so bad and your expulsion was due to an overly strict policy. Maybe that's not what you meant, but this is a delicate issue and it's important to keep from being misunderstood.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47774,
"author": "virmaior",
"author_id": 19769,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19769",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I did philosophy (and have no history of plagiarism), but I think your odds of admission into a PhD program are going to be extremely low with a record of plagiarism hanging on you.</p>\n\n<p>First off, you're going to need to give a much better explanation than \"I didn't know\" and it was only a citation miss. Both of these are things that any undergraduate student should know from their first humanities class. It does not take a graduate program to learn these things.</p>\n\n<p>Second, creative works don't compensate for instances of plagiarism. Instead, they generally would compound the severity of the problem. The reason is that plagiarism is about the ability of others to trust that work you submit is your own. Regardless of any factual merit, if I learned that person X lied about what was their work in area A, then I would at a minimum doubt that the work they did in area B was their work. In other words, it raises the spectre that you've been doing this for quite some time (warranted or unwarranted).</p>\n\n<p>Thus, what you need is a <em>very convincing explanation</em> for the university you want to go to should not view what happened at the university where you were at as plagiarism. I could imagine the following as convincing:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>A letter from the dean of arts and sciences (assuming you are not related) explaining that they were forced to expel you on a technicality but they believe you did nothing wrong and that the department erred.</li>\n<li>A letter from the members of your committee (assuming you are not related) explaining that they passed your exam and don't believe you've committed an academic integrity violation, but that on a technicality they were forced to file a plagiarism charge against you.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>That's about it. Otherwise, there's not much you can do that will make you a plausible candidate. Maybe a letter from a psychologist explaining that you were on test pharmaceuticals that temporarily changed your personality during the time in question.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/23
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47751",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36271/"
] |
47,758 |
<p>I have a BSc and an MSc degree on Computer Science. My BSc CGPA was too low. I somehow got accepted to an MSc degree(two years) and got 4.00 CGPA. I think I am good at my field.</p>
<p>Now I want to apply for a PhD degree, but all universities I checked requires transcripts received from all higher education attended so far.</p>
<p>I don't want to submit my BSc transcript. Is there a way for me to get accepted to a PhD programme without submitting BSc degree? Is there any chance that my MSc transcript override my previous(BSc) degree?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47759,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Go ahead and submit your undergraduate transcript. The admissions committee will be expecting to see one and your application might be screened out before consideration simply because this transcript is missing. </p>\n\n<p>The fact that you've had good grades in your master's program may help you to overcome the bad impression left by your poor undergraduate GPA. Having good letters of recommendation and one or more publications (of high quality) will help a lot more. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47828,
"author": "ScienceGuy59",
"author_id": 36327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36327",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Application components should be clearly stated for the institution you are applying. If they ask for a transcript and you do not provide one, you likely will not be accepted. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47758",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36275/"
] |
47,762 |
<p>I am preparing for my Ph.D. oral defense in mathematics and am reading tips from various resources. It seems that the usage of slides is usually assumed, though it is generally not required. For me, I am more used to the more traditional way; that is, using whiteboard and markers. I have almost never used slides in my past part-time teachings.</p>
<p>My questions:</p>
<ol>
<li>Is it a bad idea to use whiteboard and markers instead of slides in my Ph.D. oral defense?</li>
<li>If I use whiteboard, what if the committee have questions about the contents that I have already erased in my presentation?</li>
</ol>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47763,
"author": "Saurabh",
"author_id": 36009,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The answer to your first question is hidden in your second question. Usually the questions are asked after the presentation and hence you might be asked to go to previous slide when the opponent might have a question or doubt. Also if people will ask you questions in between the presentation which is considered as rude behaviour on their part, might destroy your concentration and flow during presentation. \nBeing a defence related to mathematics you might need a chalk and board anyhow as you can say everything on the ppt presentation, so you might need it to explain something not present in your slides.</p>\n\n<p>Overall my recommendation is to use ppt slides for the main presentation and also keeping chalk and board handy for odd questions not covered in the slides.</p>\n\n<p>Good luck with your defence!!!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47767,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have seen plenty of thesis defenses that use blackboards (the boards in our department are black- rather than white-, but I don't see that it makes a difference) and also plenty that have used slides. You should ask around -- or remember from previous thesis defenses you have attended; these are almost always open to all interested parties -- to see whether there is any local preference between slides and writing on the board. Ask your advisor too.</p>\n\n<p>I suspect that you will find that it is up to you. In that case: do what makes you feel comfortable. </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is it a bad idea to use whiteboard and markers instead of slides in my Ph.D. oral defense?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No, if you know it will make you more comfortable and more able to present well, it's a good idea.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>If I use whiteboard, what if the committee have questions about the contents that I have already erased in my presentation?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I don't see any fundamental difference between a thesis defense and any other math presentation. In general people can ask questions at any time; if the speaker indicates that she would rather address them later, then they get addressed later, in which case it's up to both the speaker and the questioner to remember the question (e.g. someone could write it down). A question which is specifically pertinent to something complicated you wrote on the board is probably better addressed then rather than later. If you get a later question about something that's not on the board anymore, your options are to answer the question verbally, to rewrite something on the board, or to pass out some other written materials which address it.</p>\n\n<p>I will mention in passing that mathematical culture seems to prefer \"chalk talks\" more than general academic culture at this point. I have absolutely never used slides / powerpoint / whatever in any class I've taught. I do it only at large conferences where I can't be confident in advance that the board will be available and easily visible to all and/or that I've been given such a short amount of time that I feel that I have to whip through slides at top speed in order to \"cover\" what I want to. Writing mathematics on the board takes time. But so does understanding mathematics, and it feels a bit dishonest to need to present material faster than you can write it on the board. Moreover, if you're writing then you can adapt your presentation to the audience on the fly (which for a thesis can be important, so that e.g. having a thesis defense in a room with nothing to write on at all would seem weird to me).</p>\n\n<p>Good luck.</p>\n\n<p><b>Further Thoughts</b>: Many thesis defenses have two very distinct parts, and the first part really is a lot like a conference talk in that you have a set amount of material to \"cover\" and the general expectation that you will get through that \"coverage\" with little distraction. So doing slides for that part of the defense makes perfectly good sense to me: a thesis defense is not a lecture, and the goal of that part of the defense is <em>not</em> to impart the maximal possible understanding to everyone in the room. You want to get through that first part with little fuss, and you don't want it to drag out. So for instance if you are the type of person that prepares much more to write on the board than turns out to be realistic (as I often am), then preparing slides could be a good strategy to stay on track. Still, if <em>you want</em> to write on the board during this part of the defense: go for it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47768,
"author": "Moriarty",
"author_id": 8562,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8562",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is another option, that gives the best of both worlds: use transparencies on an overhead projector! Your department will probably have one buried in the dungeons somewhere.</p>\n\n<p>Some projectors have a continuous roll of film that you scroll up and down over the surface you write on, with others you'll need to use individual A4 transparency sheets. If you use a clear numbering system, it's easy for the audience to ask you to go back to a specific spot.</p>\n\n<p>You can even draw complicated diagrams by hand in advance, or print some sections onto transparency paper. But you still have that possibility to write directly onto what you're projecting that you can only do with a computer presentation if you have a \"smart\" whiteboard or a digitizer tablet.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47769,
"author": "Shruti Srivastava",
"author_id": 36054,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36054",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well to give a better understanding visualization is needed. During defense you main aim is to make people understand what you were doing and how good it is. If you feel you can make them understand without the slides go for it.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47779,
"author": "Willie Wong",
"author_id": 94,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/94",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Let me answer question 2 first, since it is easier. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>You can highly encourage your examiners/audience members to interrupt you at anytime with questions. (This prevents the problem from happening.)</li>\n<li>Additionally prepare some written notes and when giving your presentation use clear and consistent numberings/namings of equations and theorems. (This makes it easier for the audience to scribble down the context of their question, and for you to recall the statements later.)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Question 1 on the other hand depends on a lot of factors. </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong><em>Is your oral defense \"serious\" or \"pro forma\"?</em></strong> In the first case it is often better to use whichever you are more comfortable with (but read on for the points below). In the second case you should just use slides (it saves every one some time and gets you out of the room to enjoy the champagne that much quicker). Since in the second case you don't really care about giving a good talk, we will assume you are in the first case for the following points. </li>\n<li><p><strong><em>Slides doesn't mean faster.</em></strong> While it is possible to abuse slides and give talks at a higher pace than you would otherwise (and hence should), it is considered bad practice by many to use slides for the sake of \"covering material\". Your job in giving an academic presentation is not to simply show off how much stuff you know, but to convey a sense of narrative to the project and to impress on the audience the actual knowledge you have discovered. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>If you are covering the slide from top to bottom with words, you are doing it wrong. </li>\n<li>If you have more slides than minutes for the presentation, you are probably doing it wrong. </li>\n<li>If you presentation can be presented without you (namely that the audience can just read the slide from beginning to end without you being involved), you are doing it wrong. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The keyword in <em>visual aid</em> is \"aid\". Most people find it difficult to process two different streams of verbal information at the same time. If you use slides you should use keywords and phrases to anchor the attention of the audience, but not full sentences (which would be an invitation to stop listening to what you are saying). </p></li>\n<li><strong><em>Board doesn't mean slower.</em></strong> You don't have to write down every word that comes out of your mouth. Mathematics excels in having symbolic notation. And while it is good to state your theorems in a reasonably complete way, for technical hypotheses you don't necessarily have to write it down (unless that hypothesis is sort of the point of the presentation): you can simply <em>give names</em> to your hypotheses and express and explain each of them orally. </li>\n<li><strong><em>Is your penmanship good?</em></strong> This is obviously a concern for the decision between board versus slide. If your board writing is perfectly illegible, you really should use slides. Even if all your peers use the board. </li>\n<li><p><strong><em>Some further comparisons</em></strong> (in no particular order)</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Slides force you to adopt a fixed linear narrative, and it is harder to jump out of it on the fly. Board allows you to be more free-form. On the flip side, if you are very nervous about your presentation, the regimental nature of slides may help you settle into a groove more easily. </li>\n<li>Slides do allow you to race through material. If you are the type that when excited will start talking faster and faster, maybe the action of writing on the board can help prevent you from blitzing through your talk at an incomprehensible speed. </li>\n<li>If your talk has a time-limit, one benefit from a board-talk is that you can adjust your presentation on the fly to accommodate the limit. It doesn't look good if you give a slide talk and either finish 10 minutes early or end up with 15 slides that you never got to. (You can do adjustments for slide talks too, but it is harder to hide it from the audience.) </li>\n<li>If your talk uses a lot of pictures, I would recommend slides. Very few people are talented enough to draw great illustrations on the fly on the board. The same applies to any material that will take significantly longer to reproduce on the board than the time it will stay up on the board. </li>\n<li>On the other hand, if your illustrations are \"dynamic\", it can sometimes be done better on the board. (Example: reproducing a straight-edge and compass construction, or illustrating Reidemeister moves in knot theory.) </li>\n</ul></li>\n<li><p>In mathematics at least, <strong><em>both are common enough</em></strong> that you really shouldn't feel the need to conform to using one or the other. Ultimately your decision should be determined by \"how can I give the best presentation?\" while factoring various things like nerves (you will be nervous at your oral defense, regardless of how many talks you have given before; the same is true of your first tenure-track job talk, your first talk at a large conference, etc.) Of course you should spend time to prepare the content of your talk. But you should also spend time to discover the common pitfalls of public presentation (I listed some above, but the list is by no means complete) and make the effort to take preventative actions. One way to do the latter, as has been suggested elsewhere on this page, is to go to other students' presentations. Wisdom is in large part learning from other people's mistakes. </p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 103461,
"author": "guest",
"author_id": 87217,
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"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I recommend the blackboard. Shows your process of thought better. Plus more old school. Unless you have complex graphics, skip the slide show. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 103550,
"author": "Alexey B.",
"author_id": 52615,
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"text": "<p>You should not compare presentations (at a defense, at a conference, etc) and teaching. A presentation does not necessarily explain the material, and its main purpose it to advertise your work in the presence of time constraints and stress. All blackboard presentations that I saw, put the presenters at a disadvantage. They would waste time copying from their notes to the board, fixing mistakes, then searching what's the next thing to copy. If you need to make a presentation, don't do it on blackboard.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47762",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24832/"
] |
47,777 |
<p>I was rather shocked when hearing in a conversation that journals sometimes have explicit limits on the number of references that can be included in one article. I understand that there are space concerns for print publications, and that word/page limits, as well as limits on the numbers of figures and tables are common. But placing limits on the number of references strike me as rather close to impinging on the integrity of the articles themselves (would anyone support a motion to limit the number of authors?). </p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Question</strong>: What are some reasons that have led journals to limit the number of references?</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>Clarification</em>: I am not asking whether this is a good idea in general. (I think it is silly, but that's just my opinion.) I am not asking whether this can have some <em>potentially good effect</em> on the quality of scientific writing. I am specifically asking whether there was an official explanation ever issued on the part of the publishers explaining this rule, or whether there was some event (say, an abuse in the form of many gratuitous references or an observed trend for the average number of references to keep growing if not otherwise checked) or some strong personality (famous editor-in-chief X) that led to these kinds of policies being formulated. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="http://publishing.aip.org/authors/journal-guidelines" rel="noreferrer"><em>Applied Physics Letters</em></a> has limits on number of words (with some conversion factor applied also to figures and tables), but (in my opinion, rightly) excludes the title, the author list, and the list of references from the limit. </p>
<p>For examples of journals (from various publishers) that have limits on number of references:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/authors/gta/#a5.4" rel="noreferrer"><em>Nature</em></a> "strictly enforces" a limit of 50 for articles and 30 for letters. (<a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/site/feature/contribinfo/prep/gen_info.xhtml" rel="noreferrer"><em>Science</em></a>, I note, does not for research articles. For review articles the limit is 100.)</li>
<li><a href="http://www.elsevier.com/journals/earth-and-planetary-science-letters/0012-821x/guide-for-authors#68000" rel="noreferrer"><em>Earth and Planetary Science Letters</em></a> limits to 50. </li>
<li><a href="http://www.bloodjournal.org/page/authors/author-guide/article-types?sso-checked=true" rel="noreferrer"><em>Blood</em></a> "recommends" a limit of 100 references, though I don't know if this is a hard limit or not. </li>
<li><a href="http://jco.ascopubs.org/site/ifc/prepguide.xhtml#Reference_Instructions" rel="noreferrer"><em>Journal of Clinical Ontology</em></a> limits to 10 for "correspondences" and a "suggested limit" of 150 for "research articles". </li>
<li><a href="http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/journal/12041" rel="noreferrer"><em>Journal of Genetics</em></a> (more reasonably, in my opinion), have different limits for different types of articles. But notably for research and review articles there are no limit to references: the reference number limit applies to shorter submissions such as correspondence, commentary, or "research notes". </li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p><em>Some additional information</em>: </p>
<p>(<strong>TL;DR</strong>: <em>Nature</em> put in their current policy sometime between the years 1986 and 1988, with no reference limits prior. Did something happen in the 80s?)</p>
<p>I went down to the library and looked at the old issues of <em>Nature</em> (not because I want to single them out, but because the library happen to have all the issues since the 20s available on the stacks). After some binary search I've found that in December 1986 the instructions to the authors look like this (with no mention of limit to references)</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/J4wbw.jpg" alt="Author Guideline 1986"></p>
<p>and in October 1988 it became almost the same as present day (apologies for the flash... the lighting in the stacks wasn't good). </p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/EQFnl.jpg" alt="Author Guideline 1988"></p>
<p>(I don't have the exact date of the switch, since only some of the issues in the library came from the original magazines; others came from bound reprints ordered from the publisher which stripped out pages like these. So in particular I found no "Guides to Authors" in the 1987 issues I had access to.)</p>
<p>Back in the 20s and 30s most of the items in <em>Nature</em> had no references whatsoever. By the 50s and 60s we start seeing articles more in the form of what we expect today, but the number of references are generally not too many. Even in the 70s and the 80s (before the change of rules) the majority of the articles do abide by the modern rules, with <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v282/n5734/abs/282105a0.html" rel="noreferrer">occasional exceptions</a>. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47780,
"author": "dionys",
"author_id": 22520,
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"text": "<p>Journals aim to publish an organized set of articles of some approximate length in an attractive format.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Journals set limits on the number of references to shape the form, format, and quality of the submitted articles.</strong></p>\n\n<p>This organization is a good thing, in terms of disseminating scientific information. Given the limited space of one article, there is definitely some appropriate range for the number of <em>essential</em> and <em>useful</em> references that relate to the presented work.</p>\n\n<p>This is less restrictive that it might sound, as these rules set by the journal are seldom hard limits. If you have good reason to include a couple of extra references, you can usually work with the editor to get them included.</p>\n\n<p>Another reason to include limits is to try to encourage authors to examine references more closely, and to be more selective in their choices of what to include. Just as many journals have rules against gratuitous figures and tables (e.g. all figs must be referenced in the text), these limits are meant to discourage gratuitous inclusion of references that are not directly related to the discussion in the manuscript.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strong>In response to the expanded question:</strong> \"What happened in the 80's?\" ...</p>\n\n<p>The Science Citation Index was launched in 1964. With its growth and success, and the addition of other field-specific indices, it became possible to compute statistical journal and author comparisons (e.g. <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impact_factor\" rel=\"nofollow\">Impact Factor</a>). This concerted effort to index citations made being cited in the work of others more important, and the use of numerous citations became much more common. The benefits of these author and journal metrics were much lauded during the 70's and 80's, but people were also increasingly aware that this arrangement was <em>vulnerable to abuse</em>, i.e. gaming the system by inflating citations. SCI grew to become Web of Knowledge, then Web of Science and along the way (1992) it was acquired by a large media company and today it's run by <a href=\"http://thomsonreuters.com/en/about-us/company-history.html\" rel=\"nofollow\">Thomson-Reuters</a>.</p>\n\n<p>The question posed invites speculation; we can't know exactly what the owners and editors of the various scientific journals were thinking when they started implementing citation limits. However, I would hazard a guess that they realized gratuitous citations might be an issue, probably had a few bad apples, and decided that limits were a good idea to keep the quality of the submissions high.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 63373,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 1,
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"text": "<p>In the dim past (40+ years ago?), people had no idea how often one was cited... so there was scant motivation to generate gratuitous citations of oneself by trading gratuitous citations of others. There was no \"citation index\", etc.</p>\n\n<p>From even longer past, there has not been too much tradition of careful acknowledgement of prior art, especially not of competing art, and not of historical antecedents, whether well-known or obscure. That is, \"scholarship\" has rarely been relevant to publishability or enhanced status. So, no <em>need</em> to have substantial bibliographies, since as much would be ignored as possible.</p>\n\n<p>Maybe time to air out the quotation from a very well-known mathematician, to the effect (and I think it was not a joke) that if one didn't read other peoples' papers, one would not have to ever cite them...</p>\n\n<p>So, in mathematics, the current style has \"evolved\" to only citing things \"logically necessary\". Rather unhelpful even to fairly-expert readers, but helping the readers is not the main goal... >:-(</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47777",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/94/"
] |
47,783 |
<p><a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/q/47691/36222"><em>Question originally found here</em></a></p>
<hr>
<p>In the past few months, I have been diagnosed for depression, anxiety, and ADHD. While learning this has been helpful, treatment made my already poor performance worse. Jumping around medications as well as the mental and emotional exhaustion that can come from counseling sessions made my academic pursuits almost impossible. </p>
<p>After medication and therapy, it seems that the only advice I can find to treat my conditions is more self-discipline. I don't disagree and find that it can be extremely helpful, but in this (for lack of a better term) recovery process, self-discipline is made harder. Does anyone who have had similar problems throughout their academic career have experience with "coping" mechanisms that go beyond "make a to-do list"? My goal is to one day enter a graduate program, but most steps I have found in researching both ADHD and depression/anxiety have been more suited for those entering non-academic careers or the parents of high school and grade school students. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47821,
"author": "ScienceGuy59",
"author_id": 36327,
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"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My best advice: work hard, but leave time for hobbies, friends, and family. I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder in 9th grade. I am now a 3rd year PhD student with multiple fellowships and publications. Getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water (not beer), and going to the gym are things I value most. If you're ever in lab and feel like you're going crazy, stop what you're doing and go for a walk around campus. I do it all the time. </p>\n\n<p>Hang in there and best of luck! </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47865,
"author": "user30295",
"author_id": 15478,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15478",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p><strong>First, please know that you are not alone</strong> and that it <em>is</em> possible to pursue a graduate education even with mental health issues. Several studies have actually indicated very high rates (as much as 40-60%) of anxiety and depression among graduate students <em>(Arnold, 2014; Bernstein, 2015; Wyatt & Oswalt, 2013)</em>. So, there are students who have mental health issues who are still pursuing a higher degree. That said, just because it is common doesn't mean it is accepted. Stigma is common in academia, as it is in the rest of society <em>(Pescosolido, 2013)</em>, and students may fear being stigmatized if they discuss or reveal their condition. Also, mental health issues, like any physical illness, bring additional challenges that must be managed. <strong>Fortunately, there are several things you can do to identify the self-management approaches that may help you succeed.</strong> </p>\n\n<p><em>(As personal context, I have a neurological condition and have experienced periods of depression. I am successfully engaged in a doctoral program).</em> </p>\n\n<p><strong>Take care of yourself</strong></p>\n\n<p>You rightly noted that some of your cognitive difficulties may be due to your mental health symptoms. Depression, anxiety, and ADHD have all been shown to compromise executive function, such as attention, concentration, memory, and problem solving <em>(Biederman et al., 2006; Castaneda, Tuulio-Henriksson, Marttunen, Suvisaari, & Lönnqvist, 2008)</em>. As you continue with treatment, you may find that some of these difficulties begin to resolve. Whether you pursue graduate school or work, prioritizing your own health and wellness is key <em>(Myers, 2012)</em>. Some graduate programs are notorious for suggesting students engage in “self-care” but have such grueling schedules that this is difficult. Guard your well-being ruthlessly. If your physical and mental well-being suffer, so will your performance in other areas of life. Specific suggestions:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Be open with your mental health providers about your academic and\ncareer intentions. Discuss treatment options in the context of being\nable to effectively function in a graduate school environment. If you\nfind certain medications are causing side effects that impact your\nacademic functioning, bring it up and address it. Determine whether\nthere is a risk of developing a tolerance to your medications so that\nthey would become ineffective. If that’s the case, work to identify\ntwo different medication regimens, so when you develop a tolerance to\none in the middle of the school year, you can seamlessly switch to\nthe other. I have found many professionals are sympathetic to\nstudents who express interest in higher education and was able to\neffectively partner with my providers.</li>\n<li>Identify a routine that contributes to your well-being and stick to\nit. For example, if you know that an irregular sleep schedule\ncontributes to your anxiety, make your sleep schedule a priority. If\nyou know your depression worsens when you don’t get enough light, and\nrealize you’ll be working in a dark, interior office, ask your\nprovider about light-box options.</li>\n<li>Consider tracking your schedule (sleep/waking times, eating times and\namounts, etc) and symptoms on an ongoing basis, or in periods when\nyour symptoms seem to worsen. This can help pinpoint instances where\nyour routine has become disrupted.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p><strong>Operationalize your academic challenges, then identify possible solutions</strong></p>\n\n<p>First write down a detailed, specific list of the ways in which you are struggling academically. I posted several follow-up comments to your initial question, because it wasn't clear to me how your studies were being impacted by your symptoms. Determine if there are specific activities or tasks that seem to have become harder in recent months. Once you have list of specific examples, it will be easier to identify specific solutions. Some examples include:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><em>Problem:</em> Low energy/motivation. <em>Possible Solution:</em> Create a concrete schedule, identifying when you will complete brief, manageable assignments. Unlike a to-do list that is open ended, this involves scheduling writing your methods section for your biology paper at 6pm on Tuesday. Rather than dread completing a task at some point, you’ll know exactly when you need to knock that out.</li>\n<li><em>Problem:</em> Poor concentration makes it hard to focus on long assignments. <em>Possible Solution:</em> Break tasks into smaller components (e.g., breaking a paper into individual sections), and take breaks in between. Remove other distractions (cell phone, email, TV) from the area where you are working. If you can’t resist temptation, go to the library and leave your phone at home.</li>\n<li><em>Problem:</em> Poor attention makes it hard to take notes during lecture. <em>Possible Solution:</em> Audio-record lectures so you can listen to them later at your own speed. Join a study group where you can compare your notes and understanding with other students.</li>\n<li><em>Problem:</em> Difficulties with memory impact school work. <em>Possible Solution:</em> Identify new ways to study, such as taking more extensive notes, re-writing your notes (this is more effective than re-reading them), or using mnemonic devices. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Your therapist should be able to help you think through many of these issues. Additionally, your school may have resources for adapting to learning difficulties.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Identify external supports</strong></p>\n\n<p>In addition to the internal coping skills you are developing personally and academically, it is important to identify external supports. Social support is crucial to successfully managing ongoing mental and physical health conditions <em>(Gallant, 2003; Kolbe, 2002)</em>. You’ve mentioned some feelings of embarrassment and worry about how you will be perceived due to your diagnosis. Disclosure of a mental health diagnosis is a delicate subject, primarily because there is still a great deal of stigma towards mental illness. Your decision to disclose will likely depend on whether you trust that the person you are speaking with will be accepting and that the disclosure will not result in negative consequences. In some cases, you might decide if feels safer not to disclose; this is your choice. </p>\n\n<p>Possible sources of social support include:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Family and friends</li>\n<li>Your therapist and/or medication prescriber</li>\n<li>Professors, colleagues, classmates – You may find you are comfortable\ndiscussing issues with trusted classmates, but not with your\nsupervisors. Also, keep in mind that schools and employers cannot\nlegally ask about mental health conditions in interviews and you are\nnot required to mention it. However, once you are hired, you can\nrequest certain accommodations (<em>see next point</em>).</li>\n<li>ADA officer – If you live in the United States, mental health\nconditions are protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act,\nmeaning that employers and schools must make “reasonable\naccommodations” to allow you to function within that environment\n<em>(Leibert, 2003)</em>. Examples of accommodations include longer testing\nperiods or moving through the program at a slower pace. Most schools\nhave an ADA officer or office that oversees students who want to\nreceive accommodations. Even if you choose not to disclose your\ncondition to your program, you can use the school’s ADA officer as a\nsource of support <em>(Willyard, 2012)</em>.</li>\n<li>Some academics and graduate students have been open about their own\nmental health conditions and the impact it has had on their careers\n<em>(Keely, 2013; Kelsky, 2013a and 2013b; Shine, 2013)</em>. These blogs can\nprovide additional examples of managing mental health conditions in\nacademia.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>There are two brief caveats. First, if you choose to disclose you might need to educate people on your conditions. They may not initially understand how it impacts you. You can choose how detailed you want to be; sometimes a general explanation is sufficient. Second, when illnesses are “invisible,” and the symptoms are not immediately apparent to those around us, even people who know you have a certain condition can “forget” about the impact it has on your life on a daily basis. You may need to remind them from time to time, and you may also need to remind yourself! This leads to my last point…</p>\n\n<p><strong>Remember to give yourself credit for managing both academic and personal challenges.</strong></p>\n\n<p>Managing a long-term health condition requires a constant amount of mental and physical energy (e.g., ensuring you get enough sleep, remembering to take medication each day, coping with ongoing side effects). Keep this in mind when you are tempted to compare your own performance, achievements, and routines to other students. Other students may not be facing the same difficulties, and may approach their academic endeavors differently. <strong>I’m not suggesting your illness will be an excuse to perform less well than others; rather, remember that in some ways you might be starting at a disadvantage, which makes your accomplishments all the more hard-earned.</strong></p>\n\n<p><strong>References</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Arnold, Carrie. (2014, February 4). Paying graduate school's mental\ntoll. [Web log post]. Retrieved from: <a href=\"http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2014_02_04/caredit.a1400031\">http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2014_02_04/caredit.a1400031</a></li>\n<li>Bernstein, R. (2015, May 13). Depression afflicts almost half of STEM\nstudents at UC Berkeley. [Web log post]. Retrieved from: <a href=\"http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2015_05_13/caredit.a1500125\">http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2015_05_13/caredit.a1500125</a></li>\n<li>Biederman, J., Petty, C., Fried, R., Fontanella, J., Doyle, A. E.,\nSeidman, L. J., & Faraone, S. V. (2006). Impact of psychometrically\ndefined deficits of executive functioning in adults with attention\ndeficit hyperactivity disorder.<em>The American Journal of Psychiatry,\n163</em>(10), 1730-1738.</li>\n<li>Castaneda, A. E., Tuulio-Henriksson, A., Marttunen, M., Suvisaari,\nJ., & Lönnqvist, J. (2008). A review on cognitive impairments in\ndepressive and anxiety disorders with a focus on young adults.\n<em>Journal of Affective Disorders, 106</em>(1), 1-27.</li>\n<li>Gallant, M. P. (2003). The influence of social support on chronic\nillness self-management: A review and directions for research. <em>Health\nEducation & Behavior, 30</em>(2), 170–195.</li>\n<li>Keely. (2013, February 11). How to keep moving forward, even when\nyour brain hates you. [Web log post}. Retrieved from:\n<a href=\"http://www.littledose.keelium.com/2013/02/11/how-to-keep-moving-forward-even-when-your-brain-hates-you/\">http://www.littledose.keelium.com/2013/02/11/how-to-keep-moving-forward-even-when-your-brain-hates-you/</a></li>\n<li>Kelseky, Karen. (2013a, February 13). Academia and Mental Illness: A\nPreliminary List of Resources. [Web log post]. Retrieved from:\n<a href=\"http://theprofessorisin.com/2013/02/13/academia-and-mental-illness-a-list-of-resources/\">http://theprofessorisin.com/2013/02/13/academia-and-mental-illness-a-list-of-resources/</a></li>\n<li>Kelseky, Karen. (2013b, March 13). Managing Mental Illness in\nGraduate School: Some Recommendations (A Guest Post). [Web log post].\nRetrieved from: <a href=\"http://theprofessorisin.com/2013/03/13/3546/\">http://theprofessorisin.com/2013/03/13/3546/</a></li>\n<li>Kolbe, J. (2002). The influence of socioeconomic and psychological\nfactors on patient adherence to self-management strategies. <em>Disease\nManagement & Health Outcomes, 10</em>(9), 551–570.</li>\n<li>Leibert, D. T. (2003). The mentally ill and access to higher\neducation: a review of trends, implications, and future possibilities\nfor the americans with disabilities act and he rehabilitation act.\n<em>International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 7</em>.</li>\n<li>Myers, S. B., Sweeney, A. C., Popick, V., Wesley, K., Bordfeld, A., &\nFingerhut, R. (2012). Self-care practices and perceived stress levels\namong psychology graduate students. <em>Training and Education in\nProfessional Psychology, 6</em>(1), 55.</li>\n<li>Pescosolido, Bernice A. (2013). \"The public stigma of mental illness</li>\n<li>What do we think; What do we know; What can we prove?.\" <em>Journal of Health and Social Behavior 54</em>(1), 1-21.</li>\n<li>Shine, Jacqui. (2013, December 18). On Depression, and the Toll\nAcademia Exacts. [Web log post]. Retrieved from:\n<a href=\"https://chroniclevitae.com/news/228-on-depression-and-the-toll-academia-exacts\">https://chroniclevitae.com/news/228-on-depression-and-the-toll-academia-exacts</a></li>\n<li>Willyard, Cassandra. (2012). Need to heal thyself? gradPsych, January. Retrieved from: <a href=\"https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2012/01/heal.aspx\">https://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2012/01/heal.aspx</a></li>\n<li>Wyatt, T., & Oswalt, S. B. (2013). Comparing mental health issues\namong undergraduate and graduate students. American Journal of Health\nEducation, 44(2), 96-107.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 69182,
"author": "Yehudah Duwell",
"author_id": 54562,
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"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You may find \"An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness\" by Kay Redfield Jamison, inspirational or at least indirectly helpful. Jamison had Bipolar disorder and got her PhD in psychology, with a focus on mood disorders.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 78427,
"author": "NZKshatriya",
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"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As someone with Asperger's Syndrome/Bipolar disorder, who unfortunately did not get an accurate diagnosis until late in high school, I shall give a little advice I wish I had been given earlier in life....and that I wish I had heeded even when I had been given it.</p>\n\n<p>Do not be afraid to seek out support groups. Whether these are just groups of people with similar diagnoses, or actual psychotherapy groups they can help tremendously. Afraid is actually the wrong term, but I cannot find the right one at present.</p>\n\n<p>If you feel the medications you are on are not working, or are noticing side effects that make studies or peer interaction difficult, notify your physician/psychiatrist immediately.</p>\n\n<p>Time management is key. Most already know this, but for someone with ADHD, heck everyone could use this reminder. Have a white board, or something you can write your daily activities on and stick to them. It only takes a few missteps to fall off the wagon, so to speak.</p>\n\n<p>Take time to relax, socialize, but not to the detriment of your studies. Seems like common sense, but since when has sense been common.</p>\n\n<p>Also, there is one thought path to avoid at all costs. The whole I am a(n) <em>insert diagnosis here</em> therefore I <em>insert action here</em> mentality.</p>\n\n<p>All in all, you have ADHD/depression/anxiety and will be dealing with these issues, but they do not have to be a brick wall that stops you from achieving your goals.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 78495,
"author": "Dmitry Rubanovich",
"author_id": 42012,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/42012",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Don't self-diagnose or self-medicate. It maybe tempting (especially if you are in a life-sciences or even more-so in neuroscience) to do so, but you want an objective evaluation.\nHaving said that, find out if your doctor thinks the condition is manageable and follow their advice. If you think your brain disorder contributes (at least on some level) to you academic success, be honest in discussing it with the doctor. They will, more than likely, accommodate your wishes as long as they are not dangerous to you.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47783",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36222/"
] |
47,785 |
<p>I'm working on a project report which we plan to publish as a research paper later after some more work. In my report I have used some images from the <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikimedia Commons</a> and Wikipedia. They all are either in the public domain or licensed under the Creative Commons license.</p>
<p>I would like to provide attribution to the media source in the report and the paper. I have googled it but could not find a source which explains it with an example.</p>
<ul>
<li>Is there a standard way of providing attribution in a report/paper?</li>
<li>Can I provide attribution in the bibliography along with the cited papers?</li>
<li>I'm using <em>bibtex</em> for references. Is it possible to handle the media attribution using bibtex?</li>
<li>Does anyone know of a published paper which provides attribution to the media sources so that I can have a look?</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>EDIT:</strong></p>
<p>Does anyone know of a proper way to provide attribution in captions because I think attribution in captions will reduce readability.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/ByPSI.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48153,
"author": "André Kleinschmidt",
"author_id": 36613,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36613",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Why don't you provide a list of media sources in the appendix similar to the obligatory literature list.\nYou number the images anyway inside the paper, so you can easily reference them in an appendix. Depending on your textprocessing tool you also can generate backlinks to the images for hypertext reading.</p>\n<p>This could look like this:</p>\n<hr />\n<h1>Apendix C...</h1>\n<h2>sources of media used in this paper</h2>\n<p>For detailed Information on Licences see [Link... creative commons, gnu, whatever...]</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Figure 1 (p. 42) Apples, Takeaway (Own work) via Wikimedia, Licence CC-BY-SA 4.0</li>\n<li>Figure 2 (p. 69) Oranges, Finsh, Ellen Levy (own work) via Wikimedia, Licence CC-BY-SA 3.0</li>\n<li>Figure 2 (p. 104) Tree, Gimmel, Benjamin (own work) via Wikimedia, Licence CC-BY-SA 3.0</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 99325,
"author": "Nemo",
"author_id": 32575,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32575",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First, if you take public domain or CC-0 images you're not <em>forced</em> to provide attribution.</p>\n\n<p>But to answer your question: you can trim most of the string that Wikimedia Commons suggests, it's just a concatenation of all the data we have to be safe. In particular:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>\"own work\", \"[Public domain]\" and \"via Wikimedia Commons\" are always fine to remove;</li>\n<li>there is no need to link the license if you refer to it with a unique code like \"CC-BY-SA-3.0-US\" (<a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Creative_Commons_license&oldid=811572496#Drauglis_v._Kappa_Map_Group.2C_LLC\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">case law in USA</a>);</li>\n<li>you can usually trim the title or link for the file by using the permalink, for instance today's featured picture <a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhenium_single_crystal_bar_and_1cm3_cube.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhenium_single_crystal_bar_and_1cm3_cube.jpg</a> becomes <a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=11594094\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://commons.wikimedia.org/?curid=11594094</a> .</li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47785",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35282/"
] |
47,788 |
<p>I am currently a summer student working on a project suggested by my supervisor. While the project will not directly result in any publication, it will open up avenues for further research for the group. I have completed the main objective for the project ahead of schedule.</p>
<p>When I originally started working with my supervisor, I expressed that two of my goals for the summer were to (1) contribute to the group in a meaningful way and (2) the possibility of publication. I feel that (1) will be satisfied by my current work, but (2) will not. I have one more month left on my research term.</p>
<p>I originally agreed to my supervisor's project suggestion on faith; I didn't understand the scope or scale of the other possibilities and I trusted that it would satisfy both of our goals.</p>
<p>Would it be too forward of me to ask to contribute to something that will result in publication (considering that I am an undergraduate and given that there is only one month left)? I would like to work on a publishable result, but I also don't want to mooch off of the hard work of my group members.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47795,
"author": "Mad Jack",
"author_id": 11192,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11192",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is it acceptable for an undergraduate researcher to ask to work on a project that will yield publishable results?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Yes, of course! There is nothing wrong with expressing your goals for the research project to your supervisor, and I think any reasonable research supervisor would appreciate that sort of honesty from their mentees.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>When I originally started working with my supervisor, I expressed that two of my goals for the summer were to (1) contribute to the group in a meaningful way and (2) the possibility of publication.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Sounds like a reasonable list of goals to me. But, for your 2nd goal, the possibility of a publication coming out of your work is only that: a \"possibility.\" As you may be relatively new to research, it is probably a good idea for you to keep in mind that not all research projects result in publishable results (as <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/732/why-dont-people-publish-failures\">this question</a> highlights).</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Would it be too forward of me to ask to contribute to something that will result in publication (considering that I am an undergraduate and given that there is only one month left)?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>This is where it gets a bit trickier. You only have one month left on the project, and it may be difficult for your supervisor to find something meaningful, and publishable, to work on in that relatively short amount of time. </p>\n\n<p>On top of that, there may be other factors working \"against\" you. For example, suppose that there is a gap your group is looking to fill, but you do not have the background necessary to make a meaningful contribution. What are they to do in this case? Drop everything they are doing to get you up to speed? I think you can see that this may be an unreasonable request.</p>\n\n<p>For all I know, you are an extremely bright student who is more than capable of making a breakthrough on a tight deadline. But, if there are gaps in your knowledge, and it would take someone a nontrivial amount of effort to get you up to speed, then that could be problematic. There are other researchers in the group, and depending on the group dynamics, it may be difficult (or easy) for them to make accommodations for you on such short notice.</p>\n\n<p>In the end, I think you should definitely have a chat with your supervisor, give them the lowdown on what you'd like to accomplish in your last month. Then, listen.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47811,
"author": "ScienceGuy59",
"author_id": 36327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36327",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Nothing wrong with asking. If your data is OK, it is conceivable that the data could be included in a published work. Gaining authorship on this paper is another story that I wouldn't count on given you are only around for another month. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47788",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33670/"
] |
47,789 |
<p>I'm a brand-new (read: started 3 weeks ago) Ph.D. student in Computer Engineering at an R1 institution in the U.S. I was offered a position in a particular lab due to some prior experience I had on a topic of interest; my funding isn't tied to this particular lab though. The faculty member heading the lab offered me the chance to start early and get a head start on research this summer, which I gladly accepted.</p>
<p>As I said, I'm about 3 weeks in now, and I'm starting to get worried about the feasibility of the task they've assigned to me. Part of me wants to just chalk it up to my own inexperience and tell myself that it's nothing, but I had an unsettling experience with one of the other graduate students recently. Specifically, he told me that he had been originally assigned to work on the same task, and after some research he had concluded that it was infeasible at best (due to the sheer complexity of it) and a waste of time at worst (since even if it was completed, its performance would be terrible compared to existing applications). This grad student is getting ready to graduate with his M.S., so he's not brand-new like I am.</p>
<p>So my questions are: (1) do my concerns about the feasibility of the task have any substance (given my inexperience with large research projects) and (2) if they do, how do I approach my adviser/faculty member with them?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47791,
"author": "Ketan Maheshwari",
"author_id": 6103,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6103",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Ultimately you are the judge but by the looks of it, I would consider 3 weeks as too early to decide if a task is feasible or not. I am assuming that you know the colleague who graduated just for 3 weeks. That is a short time to know someone and calibrate their opinions with your own understanding and capabilities. </p>\n\n<p>If the supervisor has given you the task despite the other colleague did not doing much on it there might be some weight in the task. I would suggest you do your own thorough investigation and give at least 3-4 more weeks trying to understand all aspects of the task at hand. Prepare a document and clearly mention what are the risks and opportunities in front of you, what are the related works surrounding the task.</p>\n\n<p>At the same time, try to best gauge the intentions of involved folks, may be ask questions to other people around the lab, find experts online and write mails.</p>\n\n<p>With this strategy, I think, at best you will lead to some groundbreaking ideas or findings and at worst you will learn a lesson in how to systemically conduct research, gauge opinions of others and strengthen the collaboration channels.</p>\n\n<p>Hope this helps.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47792,
"author": "Saurabh",
"author_id": 36009,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Moreover I agree with Ketan, I just want to add a few things though \n1. Talk to the grad student and try to understand why he feels that the task would not work or even if it did then it won't be better than the existing one. Try to get his logic behind this conclusion. Also ask if he could let you check his calculations and documentation of the task when he did it.</p>\n\n<p>After doing so, if you also come to the same conclusion that the task will not work out then I would suggest that you make a step by step report with proper references and present it to your supervisor one on one and show your concern. Do remember that you will have to defend you point so be ready for it.</p>\n\n<p>And the most important thing of all, be very very polite in doing so and try to give him a feeling that you encountered a confusion and you seek his help!!!</p>\n\n<p>Good luck </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 167755,
"author": "user139711",
"author_id": 139711,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/139711",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Great question! You research the topic, build your knowledge base on all angles, and then challenge the feasibility of the project with an offer to tilt the project toward what you think is feasible.</p>\n<p>If the topic is complex , that does not make it non feasible. If the topic is complex and it leads to a discovery, than you either rise to the challenge or leave it to someone else. Either case - do a complete literature review before you talk to your advisor.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47789",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36315/"
] |
47,790 |
<p>How to write a proper reference for an image I'm going to use for my thesis?</p>
<p>This image is a screenshot of a software installed on my own PC and I am the one who took it myself. It's not from another website.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47793,
"author": "WBT",
"author_id": 36320,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36320",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You don't need a citation if it's your own creation like the rest of the thesis. </p>\n\n<p>However, per your comment, it sounds like you included an image but then never referred to it in the text (no e.g. \"As shown in Figure 1,\"), and the reviewer might want you to fix that. The image must be relevant to some part of the text. Otherwise, you either have an irrelevant image or the text is missing something important. </p>\n\n<p>You might also want to be sure you describe what the image is, what the name of the software shown in that screenshot is (and if appropriate, any citation to the software). </p>\n\n<p>Did you use the figure in a publication (e.g. conference paper)? If so, you do need to include a citation to that paper. </p>\n\n<p>If none of those things are what the reviewer is referring to, it may be the reviewer thinks you're using somebody else's image and you can just respond to say it's a screenshot you took. This might prompt an alternative explanation of what they're looking for.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47797,
"author": "Gaurav",
"author_id": 60,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/60",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would include the name, version number and citation to the software you've taken a screenshot of, e.g.:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Results of a photon analysis in Glomer 2.4 (Tur et al., 2014) are shown in figure 1.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That way, your reader can replicate your screenshot easily -- if they read your thesis years later, Glomer 4.0's interface might be very different, but they should be able to hunt down a copy of Glomer 2.4 and use that instead. The citation might be a publication describing the software or the citation of a website describing it. </p>\n\n<p>Of course, if Glomer is something you've produced as part of your thesis, this is unnecessary (e.g. \"I created Glomer 1.0, a software application to ... Figure 1 displays its main menu, where ...\").</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 79019,
"author": "user63996",
"author_id": 63996,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/63996",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When referencing a screenshot, just write below or above it like;\nFig. 1: Adopted from (Source) </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47790",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36317/"
] |
47,808 |
<p>I'd like to find a suitable research topic (specifically, in mathematics) to work on, where 'suitable' means that it's publishable and amenable to being completed in, say, 6-12 months. While there are plenty of topics I'm interested in and plenty of questions I'd like to answer, I'm not sure how to gauge the difficulty of a topic. I suppose this is normally part of learning to become a researcher in grad school; but while I have a (useless) PhD, my advisor handed me explicit problems to solve and summarily refused to allow me to change them when I'd asked. I'm also in industry now rather than academia (and not even in a real industry-research job), which means that I have little time--- certainly far less than a real researcher--- for useful work. Nevertheless, I'd still like to do whatever I can given my situation, and I can attend a few conferences, retain access to journals, etc.; I just don't have the time or resources that someone in academia would. So, how I can find a specific research topic?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47822,
"author": "fedja",
"author_id": 6118,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6118",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>\"I'd like to find a suitable research topic (specifically, in mathematics) to work on, where 'suitable' means that it's publishable and amenable to being completed in, say, 6-12 months.\"</p>\n\n<p>Sorry to disappoint you, but that is not how mathematics works. If you are a professional, the possibility to produce a steady flow of results comes not from your ability to estimate the time needed for each particular project but from the general approach which is a combination of some pieces of folk wisdom like \"cut the tree that matches your strength\" and \"don't put all your eggs into one basket\". If you are an amateur, it comes from the sheer enthusiasm and the fresh point of view on things (also available to and important for a professional, BTW, but playing secondary role to a methodical approach there). </p>\n\n<p>In both cases, the first question you asked is just meaningless (for that simple reason that no random person on the web can even approximately estimate your strength or tell which topics will carry you away and which won't, if you do not want to invoke higher level considerations). Either learn to live in the ever-shifting treacherous alternative reality based on the crazy concoction of high and low speeds, short euphoric moments and long depressive periods, persistent pressure and all-out spurts, rational calculations and pure luck, or consider another career path taking some \"safe\" job where the result is directly proportional to the product of the time and the effort spent. </p>\n\n<p>As to your second question: \"How to find a topic to research?\", you don't find the topic; rather it finds you. Just go around and read papers you can understand and talk to mathematicians you know about what they are doing. Everybody is stuck with some \"little thing\" that does not require too much time to explain and if you can help someone to get unstuck in their project, you may easily get three things at once: a reputation, a joint paper, and a friend. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47823,
"author": "Greg",
"author_id": 14755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14755",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While I am in a completely different field, what I would recommend you is participating local conferences, seminars in your area. Universities also regularly invite famous speakers, go learn, ask questions, talk to them.</p>\n\n<p>This is a good way to see what kind of research topics other people do, and good way to find possible mentors or at least useful comments on possible research topics.</p>\n\n<p>On the other parts I agree with fedja: there is no magic wand that tells you how long a project will be, especially if you are new at the field. These are not home-work assignments where people know beforehand the answer, the difficult and possible pitfalls. If it is a project that you can finish and publish in 6 month in spite you have no time to research, maybe it is not a particularly difficult project. But can lead you better ones on the long run, and lead to other projects. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47849,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While I agree to some extent with fedja, I think it is possible to actively choose problems that you can finish in a relatively short time frame. Here are general and specific suggestions.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Choose your problems carefully.</strong> You can only make gauge how long a problem will roughly take you to make progress if (a) you understand what has already been done and (b) you have a fairly clear plan of how to make progress. This means you may spend weeks or months going through potential ideas for problems before you come across one you like that you have a plan for solving. Such plans could come from being something similar you've done before or following the strategy of a previous paper.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Ask other mathematicians.</strong> This could be another professor you had or a maybe fellow grad student. It's possible they have more problems than time to work on (I know I do), and some of them may be rather clear cut.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Read the</strong> (Amer. Math.) <strong>Monthly.</strong> If you're not too focused on a certain area, the Monthly is a good source of ideas for problems which don't require too much background to understand. I sometimes look at the there for ideas for problems for undergrads or high school students. While a lot of articles in the Monthly aren't so \"deep\" (some are), many of them are very interesting, and can suggest similar projects (which can be publishable in normal journals). Since you're not \"in academia\" anymore, I'm guessing you're wanting to do this for your own enjoyment, and you can do fun research that isn't necessarily deep.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Check out questions on MathOverflow and Math.SE.</strong> (I'm just mentioning this since we're on SE now, but I think the Monthly is a better approach.) People ask interesting questions many of which are unanswered, and I've gotten ideas for little projects from these sites(none of which I've done, of course--but other people have). (Unanswered doesn't mean the answer's not in the literature, but for a few questions it's pretty clear it's not.) Of course, you will often need to do a serious literature search, because the right references may not be given to you as they are likely to with Monthly articles. </p></li>\n</ol>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/24
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47808",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17411/"
] |
47,810 |
<p>After failing the first year of the PhD program at a top university, I know that my poor performance resulted from dealing with a tremendously debilitating psychological condition, but it all was exacerbated by a serious lack of time management skills and poor organization. This academic year, I constantly underestimated the time it would takes me to complete every assignment. Consequently, I found myself asking for extensions and even then, I was incapable of making the extension. I can't use the excuse that I simply am unfamiliar with the subject matter, as I have earned a master degree in this field with honors from another prestigious university and worked for several years prior to starting the program. I also can't blame my failure on procrastination, as I generally start weekly assignments 3-5 days prior to the deadline, and work on term projects for at least a month prior to their deadline. To say the least, my professors are irritated with me. Their frustration in part comes from their knowledge of my abilities. Every single one has set me aside and provided candid feedback and in their words...once I manage to complete an assignment and submit it on time, "the content and quality is pretty good". Now that my health has improved, their feedback confirms my self-assessment and I am 1,000% certain that my failure to thrive is due to serious time management and organization shortcomings. </p>
<p>For those of you out there that have encountered a similar situation and been able to overcome it, what did you do? What strategies did you use for completing assignments on time (specifically writing assignments or a critical and technical nature)? Can you recommend any resources that have helped you tackle these problems?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47812,
"author": "Amstell",
"author_id": 24782,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24782",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>For me, time management comes down to putting in the time in an organized manner. What I have learned most about being a graduate student is to track how much time I'm putting in by using a spreadsheet. I track the task, time-in, time-out, details, and also keep a ToDo list. This helps me make certain I am putting in enough time and managing my tasks. I set a goal for how many hours this is going to take and meet or exceed that. </p>\n\n<p>As an example, I failed one of my comprehensive exams and had to retake it. I outlined all the material, set a weekly schedule where I worked 30 hours per week for a month straight, which was when the next test was, and stuck to it. I specified each day/week the tasks that needed to be complete and knew that if I put in the hours I would be able to complete the task on time. </p>\n\n<p>There are fancy apps to do this with, but I haven't had much luck with them. I find a simple spreadsheet as I outlined above is perfect, and lets me see my progress as I go. I've usually been pretty good with being on time for projects, but noticed in grad school the task list piles up quite a bit and unexpectedly. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47819,
"author": "ScienceGuy59",
"author_id": 36327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36327",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my time as a PhD student over the past few years, I have really benefited from the simple old-fashioned technique of just making lists on a small notepad. Whether in lab or at home, if I feel disorganized or anxious, I just write down the things I know I need to do. As well, I can check the list of things I have already written down earlier in the day. Putting things on paper by hand is really a simple and effective way to get things \"out\" so to speak. Has worked great for me in my first 3 years of my PhD. If I am on the go and can't write something down Siri (on my IPhone) is awesome for reminders. Don't stress too much either. Work hard, stay organized, but make sure you still have time for sleep, hobbies, friends, and family. Otherwise you will drive yourself crazy. I ensure this for myself by not working on Saturday's or Sunday's. Believe me, in the long-term, a rested and clear-minded scientist working Monday-Friday will outcompete a mentally exhausted scientist working 7 days a week. I learned these things while an undergraduate student from one of my favorite professors. Not only was he an awesome teacher, scientist, and Department Chair, he was a Army Colonel working in military intelligence several weeks out out the year. I figured this guy must know a thing or two about life. I put it into practice and come to find, he was right! </p>\n\n<p>Best of luck to you! </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 62125,
"author": "vonbrand",
"author_id": 38135,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/38135",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Adding to ScienceGuy59's answer (the advise he got was given almost verbatim to me by a revered mentor in my undergraduate days), keep up with your classes. Set aside a half hour or so for each class to go over the material covered, soon after (ideally after class, at least the same day). Make sure you understand the material, if not, go over other texts (there are tons of excellent lecture notes on the 'net), discuss it with classmates, or the assistant or lecturer. Graduate courses cover lots of material, very fast. Get lost, and it is next to impossible to get back on track.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47810",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35754/"
] |
47,813 |
<p>I have been out of school for 5 years. My previous writing experience was nearly 10 years ago as I completed a BA in 18th century literature of a foreign language, and a BA in cultural anthropology. I've changed field for my masters degree and I am currently working on a PhD in a biomedical/population health science. This year I have struggled through most of the program because of the writing. One issue I've had is that qualities I once considered as strengths are bringing on my demise. The eloquent communication, pungent analysis and metaphorical language are no longer strengths and succinctness is not part of my style ( I actually don't know how to be brief). My mother tongue is a romance language, which may to some degree speak to my style of communication (but this is only an excuse). An honest self-assessment has shown me that when making a point I always resort to using an allegory to build suspense or just provide clear contextual knowledge to my audience. </p>
<p>My issues is this, in scientific writing manuscripts are often limited to 3500 words and providing long thought-provoking expository narratives translates into a ramble or in the worse case, it appears that I am just spilling out information to it's legitimize myself in the eyes of the audience.</p>
<p>Short of taking a technical writing course, I am trying to work on these issues on my own over the summer. My plan so far is to write a 500-words weekly blog post (NYTimes editorial style) on an issue in my field and to conduct as many critical appraisals of articles I review in preparation of a literature review I am working on as a way to familiarize myself with technical writing style for scientific publications. </p>
<p>I don't know if this is the best route, and would like to hear your suggestions on how to proceed. What type of activities and deliverables do you think would help me work on honing technical writing skills, aside from working on a manuscript? What reference books/websites have you used in the past to help you improve technical scientific writing for academia?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47814,
"author": "ScienceGuy59",
"author_id": 36327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36327",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In my own experience, I have found the best way to improve my writing is by reading papers from groups who publish high-quality work. I know with my first, first-author paper, I went through writing probably 50 different versions. It's just something that takes time to work on and develop. I know I will continue trying to improve as well. Best of luck!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47820,
"author": "user30295",
"author_id": 15478,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15478",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>First, don't be too hard on yourself. There are many scientists who struggle to write clearly and concisely. Additionally, some of your writing skills may be hidden strengths. For instance, being able to communicate complex scientific ideas to your readers through allegories can be very valuable. </p>\n\n<p>Still, there are certain activities and resources that can be helpful. The following are standard texts in my graduate program for improving writing skills: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Gopen, G. D. (2004). <em>The sense of structure: writing from the\nreader's perspective.</em> Longman.</li>\n<li>Gopen, G. D. (2004). <em>Expectations: Teaching writing from a reader's\nperspective.</em> Pearson Longman.</li>\n<li>Gopen, G. D., & Swan, J. A. (1990). The science of scientific\nwriting. <em>American Scientist,78</em>(6), 550-558.</li>\n<li>Silvia, P. J. (2007). <em>How to write a lot: A practical guide to\nproductive academic writing.</em> American Psychological Association.</li>\n<li>Zeiger, M. (2000). <em>Essentials of writing biomedical research papers</em> -\n2nd Edition. McGraw-Hill.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I attended one of Gopen's writing seminars on my campus several years ago and found it to be very helpful. It made me radically re-think how I organize my writing and has helped me streamline my papers. His \"The sense of structure\" is an excellent starting text, while \"Expectations\" provides more supplemental information. Gopen & Swan (1990) will give you a nice overview of his technique. Silvia's book is given to all students when they enter the program. It's short, well-written, and covers not only writing well, but writing efficiently. Zeiger's book, like Gopen's, is more about the mechanics of writing and will help you clarify and shorten your writing.</p>\n\n<p>In addition to these texts, I've found three techniques that have improved my writing. </p>\n\n<p><strong>\"Kill your darlings\"</strong></p>\n\n<p>Start by writing your initial draft of a paper in whatever style seems most fluid for you. Don't worry about reducing your length or verbosity at this point; that will probably hinder your flow of thought and slow the writing process. Once you've written the first draft you can worry about cutting for length and clarity. Next, take that first, raw, overly-expository draft of your paper and cut it by 20% of its length. I prefer to do this by word count, but you can do it by page length. Let it sit for a day or two, then cut the second draft by 20% of its current length. You can continue this exercise until you hit a roadblock and feel you can cut no more, but I usually go through at least three cycles. At this point, if you are able, give the paper to a close friend or classmate and ask them to cut 20%. Often, they aren't as married to certain phrasings and they are able to do this readily! Granted, 20% is an arbitrary number, but the point is to learn how to reduce the volume of your writing gradually. Overtime you'll be surprised how much more natural this will become. A quick google search can provide you with examples of common words and phrases that are generally unnecessary in writing, providing you with a starting point for this task.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Keep a \"Look Book\" of well-written articles</strong></p>\n\n<p>I have a folder on my computer where I keep articles or pieces of writing that are particularly well-written. These are often instances where complex ideas were explained clearly and succinctly. I especially earmark any examples that pertain directly to my area of study. When I feel stuck writing a particular section or paragraph, I look back at these examples for inspiration. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Write using active voice</strong></p>\n\n<p>This suggestion is a bit contentious. Traditionally, scientific students have been encouraged to write in the passive voice, and some faculty and journals still require this convention. In recent years, the scientific community has begun to acknowledge the benefits of writing in an active voice (Hudson, 2013). Active voice is generally clearer and is often more concise. If your program will allow it, this can be an effective way to reduce the complexity of your writing while maintaining your meaning. </p>\n\n<p><strong>Additional Citations</strong></p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Hudson, R. (2013). The Struggle with Voice in Scientific Writing.\n<em>Journal of Chemical Education, 90</em>(12), 1580-1580.</li>\n<li>Wickman, Forrest. (2013). Who really said you should \"kill your\ndarlings\"? Retrieved from:\n<a href=\"http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/10/18/_kill_your_darlings_writing_advice_what_writer_really_said_to_murder_your.html\">http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/10/18/_kill_your_darlings_writing_advice_what_writer_really_said_to_murder_your.html</a></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47951,
"author": "John_dydx",
"author_id": 8901,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8901",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have found David Lindsay's books very invaluable in my journey of scientific writing and I would therefore recommend them in addition to those listed above.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>A guide to scientific writing by David Lindsay. This is a very concise book which gives you an overview of scientific writing.</p></li>\n<li><p>\"Scientific writing = thinking in words\"-David Lindsay. It's available online at this <a href=\"http://www.amazon.co.uk/Scientific-Writing-Thinking-Words-Lindsay/dp/0643100466\" rel=\"nofollow\">link</a>.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47813",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35754/"
] |
47,832 |
<p>We all know how important proper attribution of ideas is. At the same time, certain things have become basic enough that citing the paper where they were first discussed is overkill: to give an extreme example, if you need to do some differentiation in your math/physics paper, you don't need to go and cite Newton and Leibniz. Now, on occasion students ask me how one can determine if a piece of knowledge is common enough that they can forgo a citation. The rule of thumb I give them is:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If it is something that is explained in a standard first-year undergrad textbook, then anybody who is going to read your papers knows about it and you don't need to provide a citation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>[Here I want to emphasize that I give this to them as a rule of thumb, and I always tell them to ignore it and provide the relevant citation if they think it is necessary to do so in a specific case]</p>
<p>Are there better or alternative ways of drawing the line?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47842,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I find Latour and Woolgar's spectrum of \"facticity\" a useful tool for thinking about these questions (<a href=\"http://www.uk.sagepub.com/gobo/Chapter-05a.pdf\">a nice summary can be found at this link</a>). It breaks scientific statements into five rough categories by level of certainty in the assertion:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Speculations - don't have to be backed by anything</li>\n<li>Descriptions - not established, so need to be directly backed by evidence</li>\n<li>Tentatively established - need to be backed by citations</li>\n<li>Well accepted - should be stated, but don't need evidence or citations</li>\n<li>Tacit - should not even be stated</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Where exactly a fact lies on this spectrum depends on the community and state in discussion. In general, the broader the audience, the less well accepted facts should be assumed to be. I think the notion \"Should everybody reading this have been taught in a class?\" is a good one, though undergraduate is not necessarily the stopping point. For a machine learning audience, for example, you should assume everybody has had graduate level machine learning courses, while for a biology audience you should not assume they have even had undergraduate computer science.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47876,
"author": "Debora Weber-Wulff",
"author_id": 32489,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32489",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Let me quote Kate Williams and Jude Carroll (2009, pp. 26–27) with a good overview on this topic:</p>\n\n<p>\"You need to reference when you:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>use facts, figures or specific details you pick from somewhere to support a point you’re making – you report</li>\n<li>use a framework or model another author has devised. Let’s say you ‘acknowledge’</li>\n<li>use the exact words of your source – you quote</li>\n<li>restate in your own words a specific point, finding or argument an author has made – you paraphrase</li>\n<li>sum up in a phrase or a few sentences a whole article or chapter, a key finding/conclusion, or a section – you summarise.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>You don’t need to reference if you:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>believe that what you are writing is widely known and accepted by all as ‘fact’. This is usually called ‘common knowledge’</li>\n<li>can honestly say, ‘I didn’t have to research anything to know that!’.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>But</p>\n\n<p>If finding it out did take effort, show the reader the research you did by referencing it.\"</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Williams, K. & Carroll, J. (2009). Referencing & Understanding Plagiarism. Basingstoke:Palgrave Macmillian.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47832",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12314/"
] |
47,834 |
<p>I am teaching English for an Employment course; the entire course usually takes 2 months. </p>
<p>This semester I have a student who is <strong>talking too much</strong> in the class and for anything that I teach he has something to say—sometimes related to the course and sometimes not. However, he performs well enough in my class activities and homework and he doesn't seem to be deliberately rude.</p>
<p>He is not a chatterbox—he's not talking continuously for a long time, but for many and many times, but each time he speaks for a short time. Sometimes he is also a bit aggressive, saying things like "non-human employers" or "psychologists talking empty for money". I think he is suffering from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asperger_syndrome" rel="nofollow noreferrer">aspergers</a> since he also usually brings some maths stuff to read in class. </p>
<p>How can I deal with such an unpleasant situation?</p>
<p>BTW, I am a woman teacher and the student is a man; does this makes him more rude? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47838,
"author": "ALAN WARD",
"author_id": 34766,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34766",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the first place, I would take him aside for a quiet chat. Nothing aggressive - just explain how you see the situation he is creating. If he has some interesting points to make, do listen. But also make it clear you are teaching <em>all</em> the students in class, not just one. This, hopefully, should be sufficient.</p>\n\n<p>The second stage -if needed- is a serious warning in class, in front of everyone. Other students need to see you are taking things in hand. He has been forewarned.</p>\n\n<p>The third level is OUT, plus whatever disciplinary measures are current in your institution. </p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, just ignoring him will not help him see his errors.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47852,
"author": "Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩",
"author_id": 26708,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26708",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h1>Introduction</h1>\n<p>I have responsibility for students with alternate needs in my academic department (of a UK University). I also have responsibility for quality in teaching and learning. There are two issues that you raise here which are different, and being aware that they are different is necessary to understand routes to a solution.</p>\n<p>There are different kinds of <em>talking in class</em>. There is the situation where two (or many) students are talking to each other whilst the teacher/lecturer continues with teaching. We teach in very large theatres (in hundreds) and this sometimes happens that the noise level at the back prevents students hearing the lecture, but the lecturer is unaware of the chatting until there is a complaint; or on some occasions the lecturer <em>is</em> aware of it and continue regardless!</p>\n<p>There is the situation where the talking is from one student alone, either to themselves or chatting to you, interrupting you or asking questions of you with great regularity.</p>\n<h1>Tourette's</h1>\n<p>You have implied it is the one individual situation in your question, so I will constrain my answer to that situation specifically. One individual may be talking a lot for several reasons, some of which may be due to a specific condition. For example, a student with <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourette_syndrome\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Tourette's</a> may call out, involuntarily, and sometimes convert the interruption into a question to cover the situation. This is unlikely to be the position you have but I wanted to highlight it for others. This situation needs handling with some diplomacy and tact to avoid overly embarrassing yourself or the student in question. A student with Tourette's may appear overly aggressive or even acting improperly with respect to your gender. If this is the case you should seek advice from your special needs advisors.</p>\n<h1>Autistic Spectrum</h1>\n<p>A student on the <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autism_spectrum\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Autistic Spectrum</a>, which may include Asperger's, will relate to you differently an needs handling differently. For a student on the Autistic Spectrum they have more difficulty accepting that other people are present and see the class as a one-to-one conversation with you and treat it as such. They would respond to as if no one else was present. If you asked a rhetorical question, such as "What do we think of this?" - they will answer immediately! If you ask "Do we all understand" they will very likely say no (another aspect of Asperger's). One of my students used to answer his phone in class (quite loudly) because he had overlooked the fact that he was not alone.</p>\n<p>Several things that a teacher can do with one (or more) student on the Autistic Spectrum in their class at University. We need to make it clear when question can be asked and when not. <em>"I will explain how ..... and save any question until later. You can ask me questions after the end of class."</em> is a simple statement that can make the protocol clearer. Avoid saying "Ask me any questions". They will take it literally, including asking non-related questions. If you want a Q&A session you again have to be clear: <em>"I will take a small number of clarifying questions from different students."</em> - this makes it clear that you cannot answer all the questions from one person and that the time is finite.</p>\n<p>Once the protocol is clearly established such students are happy to work within such a regime. It is likely that it has never been explained to them how it works. Their condition makes it difficult to work it out for themselves how this aspect of human interaction operates. It has to be spelled out for them, even as adults and even at very high levels of knowledge. If you're not sure, watch a bit more of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Bang_Theory\" rel=\"noreferrer\">The Big Bang Theory</a>!</p>\n<h1>Psychosis</h1>\n<p>A final note, that we also teach students with <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychosis\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Psychosis</a> which can manifest itself in various forms. This can include paranoia, delusional behaviour, threatening behaviour and so on. It can cause them to talk aloud in class (answering the voices they are hearing). Again, there may be gender related issues with this category of student and one should seek advice of the support professionals.</p>\n<h1>Summary</h1>\n<p>So, when in context, you can see that talking to the student in a quiet chat is a good place to start as you may learn the reason for their behaviour, but not all categories of <em>"chatters"</em> are necessarily self-aware. We have to remember that in many cases we are the responsible adult in the relationship (to use a legal term). The responsibility of doing the <strong>right</strong> thing is ours.</p>\n<hr />\n<p>Some resources:</p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.autism.org.uk/working-with/education/education-professionals-in-fe-and-he/guidelines-for-teaching-students-with-asperger-syndrome-in-further-education-colleges.aspx\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Teaching Students with Asperger's at College</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.autism.org.uk/working-with/education/education-professionals-in-fe-and-he/college-and-university-supporting-students-with-asperger-syndrome.aspx\" rel=\"noreferrer\">Teaching Students with Asperger's at University</a></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47834",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
47,841 |
<p>Having a paper accepted at an IEEE conference I would like to upload it to ArXiv. From the <a href="http://www.ieee.org/documents/author_faq.pdf" rel="noreferrer">FAQ</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Can an author post his manuscript on a preprint server such as ArXiv?
Yes. The IEEE recognizes that many authors share their unpublished
manuscripts on public sites. Once manuscripts have been accepted for
publication by IEEE, an author is required to post an IEEE copyright
notice on his preprint. Upon publication, the author must replace the
preprint with either 1) the full citation to the IEEE work with
Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) or a link to the paper’s abstract in
IEEE Xplore, or 2) the accepted version only (not the IEEEpublished
version), including the IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with
a link to the final, published paper in IEEE Xplore.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I am not quite sure what this exactly means. I have the latex source for the document I submitted to the conference. What modifications do I have to make in detail?</p>
<p>Do I have to add an extra page with "IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with a link to the final, published paper in IEEE Xplore". Where can I find the IEEE copyright notice?</p>
<p>I suppose I am not allowed to change any of the content, but what about the template? Do I have to use the format I submitted to the conference?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47848,
"author": "Wolfgang Bangerth",
"author_id": 31149,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31149",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Once accepted, you will get proofs (and later the final version) of the paper that contain these copyright notices etc. This is what you will need to upload. Just wait, and you will see :-)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47874,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You just need to add appropriate header/footer information about the copyright. If you have used the IEEEtran LaTeX package to prepare your paper, then <a href=\"https://tex.stackexchange.com/q/154503/72771\">there is a standard means of doing so detailed in this TeX.SE answer</a>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 173059,
"author": "Ali Tourani",
"author_id": 133377,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/133377",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>According to <a href=\"https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/pubs/author_version_faq.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">IEEE FAQ</a>:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Once articles have been accepted for publication by IEEE, authors are required to post an IEEE copyright notice on their preprints. Upon publication, authors must replace the preprints with either 1) the full citation to the IEEE works with Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) or 2) the accepted versions only (not the IEEE-published versions) with the DOI</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47841",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27838/"
] |
47,845 |
<p>Once or twice I had encountered papers which used quite convenient citation styles, which combined numbered and parenthetical references. The list of references at the end of the paper is sorted alphabetically, as in Harvard referencing, but also all references are numbered, so it looks like this:</p>
<p>[1] AuthorA (2015) ...</p>
<p>[2] AuthorB (2000) ...</p>
<p>[3] AuthorC (2010) ...</p>
<p>In the text, one might use numbers to save space ("as shown in [2],..."), or parenthetical reference: "as shown by AuthorB (2000),...". And it's really convenient, since depending on the situation you might choose how to cite. I failed to find the name of such citation style - is it at all standardized, or is it just the invention of those papers that I had encountered (as far as I remember, they were preprints from arXiv)?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47875,
"author": "Debora Weber-Wulff",
"author_id": 32489,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32489",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are so many styles - my advice is always to choose a style (preferably the one that the journal specifies) and stick to it. Mixing styles makes for uncomfortable reading. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47889,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Speaking about major citation styles that I've seen, I think that it could be the <em>IEEE Citation Style</em>, as your example matches the <a href=\"http://library.queensu.ca/book/export/html/5846\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">IEEE Style for electronic references</a> (for non-electronic references, the in-text citation is the same, with the only difference, being related to reference list, is that the year is located at the end of the reference entry).</p>\n\n<p>Alternatively, if it is not the IEEE Style, it might be either a <em>publication-specific style</em>, adopted by a particular journal or other publication outlet, or a <em>hybrid style</em>, manually developed by some authors.</p>\n\n<p>Naturally, speaking about using LaTeX for biblographies, there are a couple of aspects that I'd like to mention. Firstly, according to Mori (2009), the citation style that you are curious about resembles the <em>default</em> reference formatting style for LaTeX. Secondly, if you use (or plan to use) LaTeX for producing your publications, the following sources, in addition to the paper by Mori, might be quite helpful for <em>customizing</em> bibliographic features to required or desired style: <a href=\"http://gking.harvard.edu/files/natbib2.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this guide</a> by Patrick Daly (note that it describes a quite old version of <code>natbib</code> package - try to find a more up-to-date version or a similar detailed guide), <a href=\"http://www-hep.colorado.edu/~jcumalat/4610_fall_10/bibtex_guide.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this brief guide</a> by Ki-Joo Kim and <a href=\"https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/25702/48376\">this excellent answer</a> by Alan Munn.</p>\n\n<p><strong>References</strong></p>\n\n<p>Mori, L. F. (2009). Managing bibliographies with LaTeX. <em>TUGboat, 30</em>(1). Retrieved from <a href=\"https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb30-1/tb94mori.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">https://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb30-1/tb94mori.pdf</a></p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47845",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25216/"
] |
47,851 |
<p>My supervisor is going to leave to work at another university before I finish my thesis. I'm not sure how this process works. Will this cause problems with me graduating?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47853,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a fairly common situation, but there are lots of ways in which it can be handled. A lot depends on the specifics of your situation and how well your advisor and your current department are getting along. </p>\n\n<p>One important issue is the source of your funding. If you're currently funded by your advsior's research grant, and that grant is moving with your advisor to the new institution, then it is may not be possible for you to continue being funded through that grant as a research assistant at your current university but it might be possible to continue with that funding at your advisor's new institution. </p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if you're currently funded by institutional or departmental sources such as a departmental teaching assistantship, you might be able to keep that funding where you are but it would not be possible to take it to your advisor's new institution. However, it might be possible for you to obtain some kind of institutional or departmental funding at your advisor's new institution. </p>\n\n<p>There are three common ways in which this handled:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>The student continues at the advisor's old institution and the old institution allows the advisor to continue to supervise the student as an adjunct faculty member of the old institution. The student ultimately completes the degree at the old institution. This works best if the student is close to completion and has funding that is independent of the advisor's grants. </p></li>\n<li><p>The student transfers to the advisor's new university and completes the degree at the new university. This typically works well if the student is supported by the advisor's research grant and if the student is not very far along in the graduate program. The new university would have to agree to accept the student into their graduate program. The new university may have different course requirements and the student might have to repeat prelim exams or a candidacy exam. Foreign students would have to get a new student visa. </p></li>\n<li><p>The student remains where they are and switches to a new advisor. This works best for students who have departmental or institutional funding and aren't very far along in the graduate program. </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>You should talk to your advisor about how he or she wants to handle this, and you should also talk to your department chair or the head of the graduate program to get the department's position. You'll also have to think about what you want- what's best for you may not be what your advisor or department wants. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47855,
"author": "A.S",
"author_id": 22447,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22447",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Will this cause problems with me graduating?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>First, I recommend to discuss with your supervisor how their departure might affect you. </p>\n\n<p>Things to bring up:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Whether s/he can (and is willing to) continue supervising you after transferring to another institution.</p></li>\n<li><p>The process for identifying replacement supervisor: Whose responsibility is this, and will your supervisor assist in some way? Can they recommend one or two colleagues they think would be a good fit for you and interested in your thesis topic or research area?</p></li>\n<li><p>Potential difficulties you or the supervisor anticipate that could increase your time to graduation, and steps you could take to prevent such issues.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The answer to your question also depends on some of the following:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>How far along you are in the program and into your thesis, and whether the new supervisor is receptive to the work you have done already</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Note: This assumes current supervisor is unable to continue playing this role from another institution. This may not be the case, but some programs require that the committee chair/supervisor be a member of the same department. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Whether the new supervisor will be receptive to your thesis ideas, methods you have or plan to use (work done so far), or if they have some concerns that would involve re-work. </p></li>\n<li><p>Personality fit with new supervisor: This is an important factor. Think about people with whom you had or can easily imagine having some conflict or communication difficulties, and try to avoid getting them assigned as your new supervisor. </p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Instead, think of who you see yourself working well with in terms of their work ethics/supervisor style, e.g. would they micromanage you or expect perfection, will that benefit or impede your progress, etc.</p>\n\n<p>Lastly, I encourage you to think beyond graduation itself. The supervisor can be a key resource for furthering your career upon graduation. If you are in Master's program, their connections can decide your fate in terms of where you end up for your PhD, should you choose to go for doctoral study. If you are already in PhD program, their connections and your relationship with them could play an important role in securing a job after graduation (perhaps even one of your top choices). So I encourage you to think a little longer-term and consider how that person can contribute to your professional development not just to the extent of graduating but becoming a potential mentor for years to come. Good luck!</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47851",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18330/"
] |
47,878 |
<p>(This question is about US work authorization for foreign students.)</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.ice.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Document/2014/stem-list.pdf" rel="nofollow">list of STEM fields</a> which will permit one to get a 17 month OPT extension include only two fields that containing the word "economics".</p>
<ul>
<li>45.0603 Econometrics and Quantitative Economics</li>
<li>51.2007 Pharmacoeconomics/Pharmaceutical Economics</li>
</ul>
<p>The latter is definitely not applicable to me, so I am interested only in the former.</p>
<p>According to <a href="https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcode/cipdetail.aspx?y=55&cip=45.0603" rel="nofollow">this page</a>, "45.0603 Econometrics and Quantitative Economics" is defined to be</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A program that focuses on the systematic study of mathematical and statistical analysis of economic phenomena and problems. Includes instruction in economic statistics, optimization theory, cost/benefit analysis, price theory, economic modeling, and economic forecasting and evaluation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My question is: If my diploma says simply that I have a degree in economics (as is often the case with degrees in economics), would I automatically qualify for the 17 month OPT extension? If not, is there any way I could go about proving that I satisfy the above definition? (It seems to me that any decent degree in economics would arguably satisfy the above definition.) </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47880,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The foreign student's office at your university is responsible for your OPT application and the accompanying paperwork.</p>\n\n<p>They are the best place to ask not only because they're doing the paperwork and would know of previous successful applications, but also because they have the discretion to make the application based on their knowledge of your university's economics program and your particular course of study.</p>\n\n<p>Note that even if your university agrees with your argument and puts it forward, the USCIS also has the discretion to disagree and reject it, falling back to the standard OPT.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47881,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>CIP codes in economics include:</p>\n\n<p>45.0601) Economics, General.</p>\n\n<p>45.0602) Applied Economics.</p>\n\n<p>45.0603) Econometrics and Quantitative Economics.</p>\n\n<p>45.0604) Development Economics and International Development.</p>\n\n<p>45.0605) International Economics.</p>\n\n<p>45.0699) Economics, Other.</p>\n\n<p>Your registrar's office should be able to tell you what the CIP code is for the degree program that you're in. I would expect the list that you have referenced to include other codes if they were approved for OPT. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47878",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
47,879 |
<p>I am not sure if this is the right fourm for this question or if it counts as opinion based/subjective (if its not moderators feel free to remove or delete it, I should know better by now), but <strong>are their any "objectively better" ways for studying for biology tests/material than simply reading?</strong> </p>
<p>I usually try to read some of my texts before I sleep, but nothing seems to stick. And before a test I always try and rewrite my notes and the professors lecture notes with rewritten diagrams as well. And I have been getting average marks, I would like to improve on that though. I know this is "story-based" evidence, but pedagogy is not my strong suit.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47883,
"author": "ScienceGuy59",
"author_id": 36327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36327",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I always found the best way to study was to rewrite all my notes. This makes you go over all of your material again. By writing it, you are also going over the material much more slowly. In addition to rewriting my notes from class, I would supplement that material with the textbook to make even more comprehensive notes. Once that is done you have a nice set of notes to read over and over again leading up to the exam. I did this because my biology professor was old-school and all tests were fill the blank, short answer, and essays. Thus, I needed to practice writing the material. I would often make myself practice exams and test myself beforehand to make sure I was absorbing information. Flashcards are also helpful. I usually try to spend the night before exams just reading. At that point you should be just reviewing. Hope this helps! It got me through my biology degree and I used these techniques through all my PhD coursework as well. Everyone is not the same though when it comes to learning material so you just have to find what works best for you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47887,
"author": "Memj",
"author_id": 36363,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36363",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Don't go to your textbooks if it's not working. I struggle with science classes myself and all the textbooks ever did was confuse me and class lectures didn't help either. </p>\n\n<p>What I did was my own research in relations to the class. For example, in my BIO we started with cells through the entire human body. I couldn't get my head around how it all worked with different bonds and fluids and such so I just did some basic googling and I found a site for middle schoolers which explained it simpler than my textbook but still had all of the information I needed. Throughout the entire course I looked up everything I needed online through other sources that simplified it by mostly using analogies. </p>\n\n<p>This helped me, try things until it works. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/25
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47879",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31461/"
] |
47,882 |
<p>When I started at university I could perform with a fresh mind all of the time -- doing a problem set all weekend without reduced performance.
A couple of other students and myself seemed to be several times faster and have larger working memories than others. I made quick work of my studies. </p>
<p>Now that I have gotten to the ripe old age of 22, I seem to be in perpetual brain fog, and even coffee does not bring me back to my original abilities.
This disturbs me because I want to go to graduate school.</p>
<p>What do you professors do (especially those who do mostly research) to keep your brain able to function near peak for 40+ hours a week? Are you simply stupider than you were at 18 but abuse coffee and persist in your research anyway? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47885,
"author": "Memj",
"author_id": 36363,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36363",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's usually a matter of stress and interest. In courses that I had no interest in it was harder for me to learn anything. Even if I had read a paragraph and was asked a simple question about that 1 paragraph I couldn't answer it. </p>\n\n<p>Stress can also slow your learning curve. While you do lose memory capacity and learning ability as you grow older, the effects don't really set in until about 45(ish)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47886,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A very important thing that took me most of graduate school to understand is that my self-perception of \"getting dumber\" was not caused by actually degrading abilities, but by a qualitative change in the type of work that I was trying to do. I discovered this through a passage of despair, when I felt so brain-fogged and useless that I decided that I was going to simply ignore my thesis for a few days and work on a meaningless side project instead---which I blazed right through at the rate I remembered from undergraduate days, because it was all much simpler and more well-defined than doing research.</p>\n\n<p>In undergraduate education, one may be working very hard indeed, but the type of work is also extremely specialized in an unusual way. In particular, almost all of the work that you are called on to do in your courses (undergraduate or graduate) is:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Designed to be accomplishable within a fixed number of hours</li>\n<li>Tightly dependent on the most recent things that you have learned</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>This puts a huge (and hidden) amount of constraint on the search space for answers: in essence, if you have learned good \"student meta-skills,\" you are likely to be very good at picking the right place to go searching for your answers. When you stop taking undergraduate classes, this skill becomes largely irrelevant, and you can start feeling like you are much \"dumber\" simply because you're thinking that progress on poorly defined and unbounded problems should come at the same rate as progress on pre-digested course work.</p>\n\n<p>I would thus say that the first and most important thing to do is to come to this understanding, that the types of skills you now need are qualitatively different than the ones you most exercised as an undergraduate. Digesting that may cure your concern right there.</p>\n\n<p>Beyond that, my basic recommendations are simple:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Do things that you are interested in.</li>\n<li>Let yourself read, but also make sure you write and do technical work.</li>\n<li>Keep a record of all of your accomplishments, so that you can look at external evidence of non-failure when you're having an <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome\">imposter syndrome</a> day.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47890,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Don't neglect or minimize the basics:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Good sleep, esp. regular hours (avoid alcohol in evenings, no caffeine after noon)</li>\n<li>Exercise</li>\n<li>Steady, healthy diet</li>\n<li>Time for fun and social engagement</li>\n<li>Stimulating/challenging conversations and debates with people you respect</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Bonus:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Meditation</li>\n<li>Yoga</li>\n<li>Brain games</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>P.S. I am a 57 year old PhD student. \"22\" is neither ripe nor old. :-)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47931,
"author": "Lonboder",
"author_id": 36413,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36413",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As an IT professional at age 32, I have struggled with similar issues. I disagree with other commenters that it is simply perception bias. I have found myself unable to complete tasks that I was previously able to complete with ease, unable to remember or retain information, and exercising incredibly poor judgment (on par with being intoxicated).</p>\n\n<p>For me, at least, it was a combination of issues.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Fatigue.</strong> I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea that had been causing me to near-awaken several times per minute all night long due to a involuntary choking reaction that flooded my system with adrenaline and raised my heart rate. This left be drained and exhausted in the morning, and definitely interfered with my brain function. Fatigue is a <a href=\"http://www.croner-i.croner.co.uk/croner-i/gateway.dll/Health%20and%20Safety%20Expert/hsab-resources/hsab-features/hsab-features-content/hsab-gold-features-wkid-201301041206060447-65424291?f=templates$fn=hsab-frameset.htm$3.0\">major cause of human error</a> and can definitely produce \"brain fog\". Even <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_debt\">sleep debt</a> caused by missing a few hours of sleep each night over a period of time can cause severe fatigue.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Information Overload.</strong> As we get older, our scope of responsibilities increase. When we're young and in school, usually school itself is the single biggest (or only) major responsibility. Our decision-making power is finite, and when it runs out, our judgment will start to lapse (see <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decision_fatigue\">decision fatigue</a>). For me, at least, an overload of information and decisions can swirl around in my head, making it difficult to focus, and shortening my attention span. </p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Relationships.</strong> As we get older the number and depth of our relationships increases. Managing social interactions has been shown to stimulate more of the brain than almost anything else -- in short, it's mentally exhausting. </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>For me, here is what helped the most.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p><strong>Sleep.</strong> Get 7-9 hours of sleep every night no matter what. One thing that helps is to wake up at the same time every day (even the weekends) and then go to bed as soon as you feel tired. If you feel the quality of your sleep is lower than it should be, or if you're tired and feel un-refreshed when you wake up, consult a doctor and/or sleep specialist. If you are male, overweight, or your collar size is equal to or greater than 17 inches (43 cm) you are at risk for sleep apnea and should be checked.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Recreate, especially outdoors.</strong> Make sure you are getting adequate downtime/decompression time. Playing video games is not adequate recreation as it requires constant decision-making. Try an outdoor activity with limited stimulus such as hiking, biking, or even just walking.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Meditate.</strong> Even 15 minutes of meditation every day has shown to physically change the structure of your brain, increasing folding. It may also help stave off age-related brain degeneration, even Alzheimers disease. It is simple to learn basic meditation techniques, and it certainly helps me control the \"swirly thoughts\" problem from information overload.</p></li>\n<li><p><strong>Get some alone time.</strong> Don't isolate yourself, but make sure you get 30-60 minutes of time alone every day. This can help you clear your mind, and also depressurize from relationship-induced stress.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47959,
"author": "Chan-Ho Suh",
"author_id": 10340,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10340",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Let's not make any bones about it. There's plenty of scientific evidence to show that your intellectual skills will diminish as you age. The question is when this becomes noticeable. Again, I think it's pretty common for people to notice this by their 30s (only anecdotal advice for this). </p>\n\n<p>I think 22 is far too young to notice any degradation; I would get a brain examination if you are truly concerned. Probably you are just imagining this. If you can't do specific tasks you could do before, eg solve endgame problems 1-50 in such and such book, then you know for sure. Unfortunately that's how I and friends have noticed (much slower at doing very specifically defined intellectual tasks that we could do effortlessly before). </p>\n\n<p>Enjoy your 20s. You ain't old yet. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47973,
"author": "Count Iblis",
"author_id": 17479,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17479",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can compare your brain to your computer. Your computer must be hooked on a power supply for it to work properly, you brain is connected to the rest of your body which provides it with energy. But if your body isn't physically fit, your brain will have less energy available.</p>\n\n<p>To optimize your energy levels, make sure you get plenty of exercise: at least half an hour of running about 4 to 5 times per week for someone your age. If you are not fit enough to run, you should gradually build up your fitness so that you can exercise at this level in the future. This will improve sleep, you'll be eating a lot more without gaining weight, so you'll take in a lot more vitamins and minerals. This will all help you to have a lot more energy, which will benefit your brain a lot. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47882",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36347/"
] |
47,891 |
<p>What would be the practical difference in terms of quality, experience, and future prospect if a student studies at a 4-year undergraduate degree in a world famous university like Harvard compared to a top university in a developing country, like, for example, in an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Institutes_of_Technology" rel="nofollow">Indian IIT</a>?</p>
<p>Suppose the syllabus contents are the same and and the major is highly technical like Electrical Engineering. My question is not limited to Electrical Engineering, any technical subject will do.</p>
<p>Future prospect means: researcher (academic/industry), entrepreneur, professional, anything that gives him money or/and fame.</p>
<p>The aim of this question is not to understand the career prospect of a student who graduates from a world famous university. The goal is to understand the academic atmosphere or academic culture and academic productivity of the university. My question talks about Undergraduate for a reason. Graduate and PhD degrees are mostly related to research. So, it is natural that a world famous university will offer more scholarships, source more funding for research and deal with more advanced technologies than that of a university in the developing world. </p>
<p>To my understanding the teaching methods, psychology of people, and goal of higher education play big roles there. For example, in the developing world a degree doesn't always mean that you learned something useful nor does a degree doesn't secure one's career because of various socioeconomic realities. </p>
<p>Given that the syllabus is the same, instructors may need restrict themselves into theoretical discussions only or conduct lesser labs because of the lack of sufficient instruments because of budgetary constraints. Moreover, in developed world teaching methods and syllabuses are also subject to continuous research and improvement which is not always true in the developing world. </p>
<p>Salary of professors and their living condition is also a factor in the developing world. Above all, the feeling of not being a part of developed world plays a big role in their motivation.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47896,
"author": "Saurabh",
"author_id": 36009,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well, even though the syllabi of both the institutions are the same, there are two main differences that always occur:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>The teaching method that is followed at each institution. For example, at one place the same material is taught very extensively with a lot of assignments, group works, presentations as well as DIY type of learning which might not be the case at the other place.</p></li>\n<li><p>Studying at a world famous university may give your career a kick start as you become a brand after completing your degree from there. Of course, studying from other institutes will also make you eligible for masters degree or other jobs but what might be lacking is the brand name.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47918,
"author": "Greg",
"author_id": 14755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14755",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think the broadness and vagueness of the question severely limits its value. The specifics are dependent on which country you ask about (both the university, and career), if you are an academics or else etc.</p>\n\n<p>Remark 1:</p>\n\n<p>When I speak about good or less good universities I am not referring to one or another pointing system or international list. I am talking about what qualities I believe can make a university good or one may consider when choosing a university.</p>\n\n<p>Remark 2:</p>\n\n<p>University is not high school. It is not about sitting in a room and learning a book from page 1 to page x and you win if your x is bigger than others.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>So along remark2, syllabus doesn't matter much. I am pretty sure that the syllabus of many mediocre university for Calculus 101 is pretty much the same as in Harvard or MIT. The difference is not that they teach 3 theorems more in MIT.</p></li>\n<li><p>Universities with international reputation makes an impression on your resume/CV. If you go for a career where it counts then it counts. Again, effect may vary by career, major, continent/country and industry.</p></li>\n<li><p>Better university attracts better students and better faculty. Better students mean better peers, healthier social environment for study, also potentially better and more influential alumni network. Better faculty may mean better teachers or better researchers. An internationally famous researcher may be a mediocre teacher for low level undergrad classes, but can be an invaluable mentor or recommended. Again, effect may vary by career, industry etc etc </p></li>\n<li><p>Better universities are often leading research universities, which means students has better access to cutting edge technology, better equipped labs and wider research networks. Also, higher probability of exchange programs for grad or undergrad students for short research visits or attend conferences. Universities are also regularly invite leading scientists to give talks - again, internationally reputed places has better selection to pick from. </p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47925,
"author": "user114905",
"author_id": 34822,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34822",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Even if you could learn exactly the same thing in both places (you can't), another difference is your peers. If you are surrounded by people who are smarter and more driven you'll be more likely to raise your own standards. The best project in the class at Leading University will be different from the best project at Third Tier U.</p>\n\n<p>Also, if you attend school with people who are likely to get great jobs, you'll have contacts with people who have great jobs, increasing your own opportunities. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47927,
"author": "user-2147482637",
"author_id": 12718,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12718",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I had listened to a talk from a 'top' school in the US while in asia. One student asked that question. The answer the speaker gave was that the most notable (although not only) difference was resources. In the mechanical or aerospace department, it's the difference between having a car engine testing unit and a full wind tunnel, in architecture it's the difference between computer simulation software or laser cutters and industrial 7 axis robots with water jet cutters, etc. Most of which are open to students in many departments.</p>\n\n<p>This stems from both research funding, tuition, and a culture of large donations from alumni.</p>\n\n<p>When students have access to these resources in an open way, they gain knowledge in leading methods in both academics and industry. This makes them highly capable of immediately integrating or impacting a research team or company.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47891",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
47,892 |
<p>In writing a phd thesis, if a sentence is copied as it is and given proper references, then will it be considered as plagiarism?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47893,
"author": "Danny Ruijters",
"author_id": 28830,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28830",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Verbatim cited text is preferably put between quotation marks. E.g., Smith et al. (Smith 2008) state: \"literally copied text goes here.\"</p>\n\n<p>If you use quotation marks to indicate the verbatim copied text, it is not considered plagiarism.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47934,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This can reach levels of silliness.</p>\n\n<p>If Hunter and Garcia did a study on aadvark toenails, and wrote in 2008 that\n\"We sampled 200 aardvarks and we conclude that all aardvarks have long toenails.\"</p>\n\n<p>I would be satisfied with:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Hunter concluded that all aadvarks have long toenails (Hunter and Garcia, 2008).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I would also be fine with:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>All aardvarks have long toenails (Hunter and Garcia, 2008).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I have had TAs report cases of both types to me as plagiaristic. I simply don't agree. There is no reason to change a simple sentence that has a limited number of ways it can be phrased to</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>All aadvarks have toenails of great length (Hunter and Garcia, 2008)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>to avoid charges of plagiarism. </p>\n\n<p>Sometimes, because there are limited ways to write out a phrase, an attempt to paraphrase results in sentences that have parts that come out the same. So long as citation is proper, I don't believe quotes are necessary.</p>\n\n<p>Though this has little to do with plagiarism, on undergrad papers in the hard sciences, I often see students going to great lengths to include quotes, because they believe it to be stylistically required for some reason, but in the hard sciences, paraphrasing is the norm, and overquoting just looks silly. Our writing folks tell me its not this way across all disciplines. </p>\n\n<p>Going back to plagiarism, and all may not agree, I try to determine if the author is trying to represent someone else's work as their own. For the examples I cite, clearly not, and thus they're not examples of plagiarism.</p>\n\n<p>Where do I draw my line? Probably at full sentences or large phrases, where it's appropriate to use quotation marks. In the hard sciences, paraphrasing is usually more appropriate anyway. </p>\n\n<p>Where does one use quotes in the hard sciences, then?? When the phrasing is important or has significance.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Einstein said \"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity\" </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>is a different passage than</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>In Einstein's opinion, one may often find opportunities when difficulties are apparent.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>To wrap up, if you are copying a sentence, it is most likely appropriate to use quotes, but in many fields the accepted style is such that it is not appropriate to copy a sentence.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47892",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36390/"
] |
47,908 |
<p>Many journals allow to submit an extended version of a conference paper as, for example, Springer:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Expanded versions of papers which have previously appeared in
conference proceedings will be considered and this request must be
made at the time of submission; the authors must clearly state the
conference publication and provide a statement of revisions/updates
that have been made to the journal paper.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>When writing such an extended version how do you reference the conference paper? I can imaging several possibilities:</p>
<ol>
<li>Treat it like every other paper in related work</li>
<li>Ignore the conference paper completely and present all results as if for the first time.</li>
<li>Clearly indicate that you wrote the conference paper as "... in [1] we showed that and shortly review the approach ..."</li>
</ol>
<p>What is correct way to write an extended journal (in CS)?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47914,
"author": "user3209815",
"author_id": 14133,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14133",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In CS particularly, there is usually a step during the paper submission process in which you are required to disclose whether a part of your paper has been published elsewhere (or some similar phrasing). There you list the paper(s) your current paper expands.</p>\n\n<p>Further, you state in the cover letter the circumstances in which your new paper was created (e.g. \"in the conference proceedings, we show that [...], this approach is improved in this paper by [...], yielding [...] results. for better comparison, a new experimental setup was used, so the results of the conference paper are rerun in the new environment, which affected the conclusions [...]\" - you get the idea). In other words, you state in a few paragraphs (keep it short though, 1-2 paragraphs should be enough) what's new in you paper compared with the previously published one and how is that significant.</p>\n\n<p>As for your paper, you use your conference paper as any other reference (including the related work review), but a clear emphasis on the relation between the papers should be made (e.g. in the related work section). The style depends, you can be personal or not, it doesn't really matter. I stick to the same style I use for other references, i.e. I don't explicitly state that the cited paper is written by me.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47932,
"author": "Jukka Suomela",
"author_id": 351,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/351",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You write the journal version so that it is entirely self-contained, as if all results were new (regardless of whether they were already present in the conference version).</p>\n\n<p>Then, in appropriate places, you refer to the conference version and explain how the current version is different. For example, you could have a footnote on the first page or an acknowledgement in the end of the paper, along these lines:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>This is an extended and revised version of a preliminary conference report that was presented in FOO 2015 [1].</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Here [1] is a reference to the conference version, and you include it in the list of references as usual. There is no need to cite it elsewhere.</p>\n\n<p>If it makes sense, you can also discuss the difference between this version and the conference version in more detail e.g. in the \"Related work\" section. This might be a good idea especially if the journal version is not just an extension but some results are fundamentally different. However, in straightforward cases this is not usually necessary.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>(Please note that this answer is specific to computer science, which has its own peculiar approach to conference publishing. All other fields are different.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47936,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I cannot say about the CS field specifically, but, in general, I would just provide a note (either at the beginning, or at the end of the paper), saying something along these lines:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"The present paper is an extended version of our paper, presented at\n ... conference [1]. This paper significantly expands ... and ...\".</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47908",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27838/"
] |
47,917 |
<p>I had applied for PhD Scholarship. Today i received a email from that foundation. They told me
<strong>"As soon as you are ready with your PhD Study Proposal, please send it to Prof X"</strong></p>
<p>How to Acknowledge this mail in formal way that i am going to send my PhD Proposal to Prof X as soon as it is ready? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47919,
"author": "henning",
"author_id": 31917,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31917",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is safe to assume that the receipt of an e-mail that has been sent to a group of people and that does not explicitly ask otherwise does not have to be acknowledged. They can be treated as an FYI.</p>\n\n<p>If the sender does need a confirmation, they will get back to you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47920,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I'd probably go with \"thank you for this opportunity for support. I anticipate that I will be sending this document by xx/xx/xxxx\" This way, if they need it sooner, they might let you know.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47917",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28346/"
] |
47,938 |
<p>I want to cite a senior project of a student in my thesis. However, I don't really have much information about the student.</p>
<p>I know, the <em>title</em> of his work, his <em>name</em>, his <em>university</em> and the <em>link</em> to the pdf file. I know that it is a senior project, because the link is something like</p>
<p>university.edu/.../SeniorProject_NameSurname.pdf</p>
<p>What should the BibTeX code be for this situation?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47939,
"author": "Eenoku",
"author_id": 31031,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31031",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<h3>First step</h3>\n<p>When I'm not sure about citation format, I usually use <a href=\"https://scholar.google.cz/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Google Scholar</a> to create it for me.</p>\n<hr />\n<p><strong>BibTeX code</strong> will look similar to this:</p>\n<pre><code>@misc{abbreviation,\n author = {Name Surname},\n title = {Title},\n institution = {University},\n url = {URL}\n}\n</code></pre>\n<p>If your style does not have the 'url' parameter, then 'note' is usually used for this purpose.</p>\n<pre><code> note = "[Online; accessed 19-July-2008]"\n</code></pre>\n<p>And as Aleksandr Blekh pointed out, it's good to look in <a href=\"http://www.andy-roberts.net/res/writing/latex/bibentries.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">the list of possible BibTeX entries</a> and choose the right format (phdthesis, article, book etc.).</p>\n<hr />\n<h3>Editors</h3>\n<p>Otherwise, for creating and editing larger citation "databases" I use <a href=\"http://jabref.sourceforge.net/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">JabRef</a>. And lately I've found a <a href=\"http://truben.no/latex/bibtex/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">simple online program</a> for creating BibTeX citations too.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47940,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While a BibTeX code per se, obviously, is limited to including fields for only known parameters of the reference, the exact code for citation formatting would significantly depend on the required (or desired) <em>publication style</em>, which you haven't mentioned. For some help with the customizing your bibliography's look for your needs, please see links and references in <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/47889/12391\">my related answer</a>.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/26
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47938",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23505/"
] |
47,948 |
<p>I am 23, I have a Russian diploma in Computer Science and I am interested in getting into PhD in Computer Science in the US. But after reading <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38237/how-does-the-admissions-process-work-for-us-ph-d-programs-particularly-for-wea">this</a> post and some google search I realized that I have some major problems in my application.</p>
<ol>
<li>I don't have any research experience and results to show:<br>
when I was 17 I moved in (big Russian city) to attend university there and I had to work really hard (40-60 hours per week) in night shifts to pay for myself (rent, food, books, etc). So I have got major health problems and haven't got any time (and other resources) for high-quality study. Now, a year after graduation, I still don't have enough time for this kind of project because I have to work hard towards exams. I also have to work hard to earn money for application because of the difference between dollar and ruble.</li>
<li>Recommendation letters from my university professors probably will not have any weight outside my country:<br>
my university hasn't any famous projects or labs or publications even according to the standards of my own country. Of course, I remember that the most important thing about recommendation letter is that what does it tell about my professional and personal abilities. But will it make any sense since it's written by someone totally unknown for admission committee? </li>
</ol>
<p>Also, I figured out some good points for my application: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>I am very motivated and I already know what it's like to be alone in big city by myself. I already know what it's like to work hard and live on very limited amount of money. I know the difference between what I'm capable of and what I'm not. </p></li>
<li><p>I am good at doing an independent work. I did my diploma in digital sound processing and learned all the maths I needed during 3 months without guidance and without any background in this field (when I started I didn't even know what is a bitrate). Then I worked as a research C++ developer in one karaoke project, again in DSP field. There I learned how to work with angry bosses, how to summarise any completed work to present results to managers, how to deploy mathematical models in real project and how to do it fast and so on. This project had some business problems so I quit and started to freelance. For this purpose I had to develop a system for organizing myself and skills to set goals and to meet my own deadlines. </p></li>
<li><p>I have a lot of practical knowledge. I worked as a linux system administrator in a big hosting company for about a year, I can write on C++, python, php, Objective C and Java. I know how to work in team and how to communicate with different people. </p></li>
<li><p>For last two years I did great amount of work with myself. I quit smoking and drinking alcohol. I totally stopped to take caffeine in any doses, I lost more than 15 kilo (results of my health problems), I gained a lot of muscles and started to do some yoga. During all this time I learned a lot about neurophysiology, cognitive sciences and the basics of biology. I've got really inspired by all this knowledge and now I'm looking forward to work with neuroscience. </p></li>
<li><p>I have already took the TOEFL iBT test and have score of 104. </p></li>
<li><p>I have a GPA 4.98 from 5.0. </p></li>
</ol>
<p><strong>So my question is:</strong> how can I make my good points to overweight my problems?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48916,
"author": "roseofjuly",
"author_id": 37289,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37289",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a pretty specific question but I'm going to try and answer it broadly.</p>\n\n<p>Generally speaking, applicants with no research experience are not appealing or competitive candidates to professors for graduate school. When professors want to admit a student to work with them, they want someone who is going to be able to hit the ground running somewhat - who knows the basics of how research works, who has some ideas about what interests them, and who knows how to do some basic research tasks. Furthermore, they're looking for students who aren't going to realize halfway through their first year that they hate research and decide to drop out. (Which makes me turn the question back on you: Why do you want to get a PhD, if you have no research experience?)</p>\n\n<p>That said, if you have no research experience and you still want to apply for a PhD program (which I don't recommend), you'll have to demonstrate that you have acquired the knowledge and skills to succeed in a PhD program in another way. Being able to live alone isn't the way - they expect that as a basic part of being an adult.</p>\n\n<p>-Recommendation letters will go a long way. Your professors don't have to be famous or personally known by your graduate program committees. They just need to know you very well, and be able to comment on your ability and potential to do research and succeed in the field.\n-If you had to do research-like tasks for any classes - like a final project or capstone - you can discuss that, and what you learned and how you will translate that to research in the program. The research C++ developer position is a good example. You did research; use that experience as a basis for further explanation.\n-Motivation is good, but you can't just say that you are motivated - you need to demonstrate it in an academic sense. What academic things have you done to show that you are motivated?</p>\n\n<p>However, you will probably need to apply to an MS program first and get some research experience that way.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49034,
"author": "aparente001",
"author_id": 32436,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32436",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You can ask that the application fee be waived due to financial hardship.</p>\n\n<p>Then try to take the attitude, there's nothing lost by applying -- and what the heck, you might get in!</p>\n\n<p>Try to choose the departments you want to apply for based on the research interests of the faculty, and the courses that are regularly offered. (It is not enough to go by just the catalog, since some institutions have mouth-watering courses listed in their catalogs but they somehow never actually get offered. So look at both spring and fall schedules of classes.)</p>\n\n<p>The Comp Sci department at U of Wisconsin - Madison used to, and probably still does, encourage people to apply for their graduate program who have worked in the field, as you have. That might be a good one to apply for if you find several professors whose research interests appeal strongly to you.</p>\n\n<p>Computer Science is a field that generally needs to employ a large number of teaching assistants (TAs). The better your English (in practice, not just in a test result), the more effective you will be as a TA. A TA typically grades homework and exams, and offers office hours, where students can come in and ask questions and get help with their homework (both paper and pencil and writing and debugging programs). TA work takes, on average, 20 hours per week, or possibly a little less -- but don't count on it! If you get a TAship, your tuition will be covered (i.e. you won't have to pay a cent) and you will get a stipend to live on. You might want to continue your freelance work in the summers, to bring some more income in -- otherwise you might have trouble paying for an occasional plane ticket to visit friends and family back home, or elsewhere.</p>\n\n<p>As the other answer said, the points from your outline that you will want to emphasize in your application are:\n- motivation\n- your initiative in doing independent academic and paid work (this is often called being a \"self starter\")\n- the list of computer languages you have worked in\n- your experience with DSP\n- your company experience working in a high-paced development team using mathematical models (put that in your CV, please -- note \"high-paced\" means rushing to meed deadlines; \"team\" is code for impatient jerk bosses)\n- your interest in multidisciplinary research related to neuroscience -- you can use this as a topic for your application essay, but please don't list the types of things you learned; instead, describe, à la science fiction, if you have to, some dream of what you'd like to do with your present and future computer science knowledge and skills to further the field of neuroscience\n- your GPA\n- some well-written recommendation letters.</p>\n\n<p>If your department could come up with some sort of prize or honor to give you, that would be helpful. There doesn't have to be any money associated with it.</p>\n\n<p>I have no idea how to interpret your TOEFL score, sorry.</p>\n\n<p>In my experience, research experience as an undergrad is icing on the cake for an applicant in computer science. If you don't have it, I don't think that will count against you. However, the truth is that if we look at you, the whole person, we would have to say that you do have research experience. Research is being given a problem, or finding a problem yourself, and figuring out how to solve it, and then explaining it to someone else.</p>\n\n<p>My personal opinion is that your weak suit is your English, and that it wouldn't be a bad thing for you to take some time off the formal studies to get immersed in functioning in spoken English, either through travel or by spending a lot of time with tourists or exchange students.</p>\n\n<p>The reason I say this is what I mentioned about computer science departments needing people who can do office hours for students with questions.</p>\n\n<p>I know there are people active in Academia SE who may disagree with me, and say that it is detrimental to take a year off one's studies.</p>\n\n<p>Your best chance of getting a TAship (i.e. funding for your studies) will be to start the program in late August (13 months from now), so you'll want to get your applications in by about February 2016, and you'll need to spend some time working on your essay, and taking the GRE. So if I were you I would work enough to pay your bills and build up a little bit of savings for a rainy day, but mainly concentrate on improving your conversational English. Around November you could start working on your essay, and please find a local mentor to help you edit it after you've written your draft.</p>\n\n<p>Try to choose three schools to apply for, and make sure that one of them is not too hard to get into. But make sure that all of them feel like a reasonable match for you, in terms of weather and research interests.</p>\n\n<p>You will apply for a doctoral program, but they will probably want you to get a masters degree before you start the PhD. That's okay, they're generally pretty organically connected.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47948",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36443/"
] |
47,960 |
<p>I have two closely-related questions:</p>
<p>First:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What are the possible pitfalls of a university employee (faculty or staff) and a student at the same university being roommates? </p>
</blockquote>
<p>And, in the event that I need to take on a roommate as a faculty or staff member at a university:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is it best to avoid living with a student and ask, for example, another university employee to share my living space?</p>
</blockquote>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47961,
"author": "Memj",
"author_id": 36363,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36363",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>No. That leads in to favoritism and special exceptions with students plus a whole lot of other liability issues.</p>\n\n<p>They should live with colleagues that they are not the boss of and do not manage or are managed by. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47962,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, it's basically allowed everywhere I know of, but there are plenty of situations where it might get weird. On the non-weird end of the spectrum, I was a researcher and manager at my university when my live-in fiancee decided to go to grad school there in a different department. We even got married the summer between the two years of her master's program. There were no problems and no rules that prevented this. We didn't even need to tell anyone about it.</p>\n\n<p>Now, if she had worked for me or enrolled in a class that I taught, there would have been some people we would have needed to tell to make sure that there was no favoritism for her and that everything was fair for other students or employees. She probably would have had to have a different manager appointed for work if I would have otherwise been her boss, etc. Our living situation wasn't the determining factor, but rather our romantic involvement.</p>\n\n<p>If the staff member isn't romantically involved with the student who is also their roommate, then there's generally no issue. However, if the nature of the relationship changes from roommates to partners, then depending on local rules and the proximity of the staff member's job to the student, someone probably has to be notified at the very least and a management plan created in some cases to deal with it. If the student and the staff member aren't in the same department, then there's usually no need for notification at my university.</p>\n\n<p>E.g. if a psychology student wants to room with an admin in the Geology department, it's fine. If a student wants to rent a room from his English professor, then maybe some departments want to know that. If a Physics student wants to date/marry a Sociology prof they will never take a class from, it's very likely that the university needs to know, and they may try to forbid it. And if a student wants to become involved with their PhD supervisor, the university will <em>definitely</em> get to have a say.</p>\n\n<p>As best I can tell, the rules tend to be about who is romantically involved with whom, not where students choose to find their accommodations.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47964,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It would be very strange for a faculty member to live with student roommates (setting aside relatives or romantic partners, which are separate issues). It would be considered socially unacceptable in the university contexts I'm familiar with, and it would create at least the appearance of conflicts of interest if there was any overlap between the fields. Even if the students were in a totally different field, it could still be awkward if they socialized a lot with students in the professor's field. This doesn't mean it would be impossible, but I'd strongly recommend against trying it. Even in the best case scenario, people would wonder why living with these students was important enough to be worth the negative attention.</p>\n\n<p>As for staff, it depends. I don't think it would be unusual or problematic for, say, a university IT staff member to share an apartment with some similar-aged grad students. Postdocs are a gray area: it would of course be inappropriate to live with students they might teach or supervise, but otherwise it's much easier for a postdoc to get away with living with students than a faculty member.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/27
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47960",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24823/"
] |
47,977 |
<p>Is it unethical to work for two professors (two seperate research lab in two non-related fields) at the same time? I am an undergrad student currently working for professor A in a full-time research assistant co-op job. On the other hand, I volunteer using my spare time working for another research lab in an almost unrelated field. Professor A doesn’t know about this. </p>
<p>So my question is, is it unehtical for me to do this?</p>
<p>I ask because my friends warned me not to do this. On the other hand, I don’t think it is too much of issue since I am not stealling data or anything from anyone and, more importantly, they are in two different unrelated fields. </p>
<p>Similiar question is asked <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/18702/is-it-a-bad-idea-to-do-research-with-multiple-different-professors-at-the-same-t">here</a>, but I am asking from an ethical perspective.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47979,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Several of my undergraduate students have done this. There's nothing <i>unethical</i> about it, as long as they are honest and upfront about their obligations. It can be a very good way to figure out what kind of work you like doing--which, of course, is a big part of the of the point of undergraduate research.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, the students who have done this are not the students who tend to get first author papers -- let alone first author papers in top tier journals -- as undergraduates. The students who do that are focused and highly invested in what they are doing in my lab. There simply aren't enough hours in the day for an undergraduate to take a full course load and perform graduate level in multiple labs. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47981,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>So my question is, is it unehtical for me to do this?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Unethical - no. Smart? Probably also no.</p>\n\n<p>Firstly, as Corvus correctly states, it seems <em>very</em> unlikely that you can perform well in both roles <em>and</em> do your undergrad studies in parallel (and I am not even talking about going outside and doing people stuff occasionally, which you should also not forget about).</p>\n\n<p>Secondly, you should not forget that professors are human. Even though you are not doing anything \"wrong\" by any stretch of imagination, it is not difficult to imagine scenarios where either of the professors (or both!) don't take it well, and I am assuming you want letters from these guys down the road. The professor that you work for, for instance, may assume that you find his research very unfulfilling if you feel you need to invest your spare free time into a completely unrelated area instead of hanging out with friends etc. (S)he may assume you are really doing it only for the money / letter. The other professor may be disappointed at some point when an important deadline should be met that you can't commit more time to her/his project, because of your other duties.</p>\n\n<p>Finally: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Professor A doesn’t know about this.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That's <strong>never</strong> great, and you should change this ASAP. Even if the professor basically does not care about the issue at hand, (s)he may get mad simply because you didn't tell (I certainly would). And I think you are aware that the chance of you keeping this a secret forever are slim to non-existent?</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47977",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36480/"
] |
47,982 |
<p>I'm applying to my first postdoc position, and I've been asked to attend an interview that will start with a 5 minute presentation on how I meet the job criteria. The work that I'm going to talk about is all from my PhD at University A. The postdoc is at a different institution (University B). What is typical practice for the design of slides in this situation? A conference talk would usually:</p>
<p>1) Utilise University A's branding/identity through the use of logos etc.</p>
<p>2) Include a thank you slide that shows which other people were involved in the work.</p>
<p>At an interview, do I drop the branding to make it clear that I'm representing myself, not a different university? Or do I continue to "credit" them by displaying the branding?</p>
<p>And what about the "contributors" slide - do I use some of the 5 minutes to show that I had been working in a team? Or not mention other people to make it clear that it's (mostly) my work? I am also wary of wasting any of the short presentation time allotted.</p>
<p>Thanks for any help.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47984,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Typically, in the departments and universities I'm familiar with, as a student you're also an employee of your current institution, benefiting from their space at the very least and participating in the local research culture. As such, it's appropriate to keep the branding on your job talk slides since it's not just some obligation to the university to credit them, but it grounds you in a context of the research at that university. </p>\n\n<p>Additionally, it's appropriate to keep your acknowledgement slides if there are people to acknowledge. Many PhDs are done as part of a team, and so you shouldn't drop this credit from your slides. That being said, in a job talk, even a short, introductory one, you should concentrate on the parts that you did. You probably shouldn't spend the time reading off all the names and roles of the people who contributed.</p>\n\n<p>Now, given that this talk is short and intended to only be about how you fit the role, it's not even clear to me that you should be treating this as a traditional job talk about your research. I would focus down on the posted criteria and carefully and thoughtfully address how <em>you</em> satisfy them. Presumably you're being given the opportunity later in the interview day to give a traditional academic job talk (i.e. an hour-long seminar), and that's the place where you can dive into your research, credit your team members, funding agency, etc.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48035,
"author": "JeffE",
"author_id": 65,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/65",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have to disagree with Bill Barth's answer.</p>\n\n<p>You are giving a job talk. A job talk is about <strong>your</strong> research accomplishments and vision, and how <strong>you</strong> fit the qualifications of the position. You are <strong>not</strong> giving a talk on behalf of your old university, but on your own behalf, as an individual researcher. You are seeking individual employment; you are not seeking a position for your current employer.</p>\n\n<p>As such, I think it is entirely inappropriate for most of your presentation slides to carry the \"livery\" of your current institution. There are a few exceptions, where livery would be acceptable, but still not required.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>On the title slide, where you give your current affiliation.</p></li>\n<li><p>On the acknowledgment slide, where you thank your colleagues, advisors, funding sources, etc.</p></li>\n<li><p>Any slides that specifically refer to your overall research project or team. But these should be rare.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>(I'm the faculty search chair for a top-5 American CS department. In my experience, it is rare for CS talks in <em>any</em> context other than presentations to deans, funding agencies, and potential donors to carry institutional livery. For an interview talk, it would be extremely weird.)</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47982",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36483/"
] |
47,991 |
<p>I'm a PhD student, and I'll soon be presenting some of my work at a conference. In the program, my presentation is labeled "invited" while others have "oral" and others "Keynote". I am a bit confused, as I was never invited (maybe one of my professors was) and would like to know the difference between these kind of presentations.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47992,
"author": "dbmag9",
"author_id": 6899,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6899",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A keynote speech or presentation is a high-profile talk intended to be of interest to everyone at the conference, and is one of the selling points of the conference. Invited speakers are those who have been invited to give a talk by the organisers of the conference. My assumption is that 'oral' is just every other talk, i.e. speakers who applied to the conference and were selected to deliver their presentation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48005,
"author": "Federico Poloni",
"author_id": 958,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/958",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Having an invited talk and not having been invited is unusual, indeed. Maybe your professor was invited and passed the ball to you; the best thing to do is asking him/her.</p>\n\n<p>\"Oral\" also is unusual for me (but maybe not in other fields). As noted in the other answer, typically the hierarchy is, from most to least prestigious:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>keynote/plenary</strong>: people who were invited to participate by the organizers, who may also be paying their expenses. Unlike the rest of the talks, they are not in parallel sessions or have a reduced level of parallelism. Sometimes, when there are no parallel sections, \"keynote talks\" are simply longer.</li>\n<li><strong>invited</strong>: talks given by speakers that were explicitly invited by the organizers. Typically (but not always), the travel and registration expenses of these speakers are paid by the organizers.</li>\n<li><strong>contributed</strong>: people who applied themselves for participation (and were accepted) and are going to give a talk, usually in parallel.</li>\n<li><strong>poster</strong>: people who are going to present a poster instead of giving an oral talk. Sometimes people are given the option to present either a contributed talk or a poster.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I assume that \"oral\" means \"contributed\" here. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47991",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36500/"
] |
47,993 |
<p>For an application, I have to fill in the contact information of somebody who wrote me a recommendation letter. The person owns three e-mail accounts: permanent (on Gmail), my university’s e-mail service and another university’s e-mail service (where he is the chairman).</p>
<p>So, I feel a little bit confused which e-mail address would be best to give? Does it matter at all?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47994,
"author": "Drecate",
"author_id": 16049,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16049",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I know some universities that prefer email addresses that demonstrate the university affiliations of your referees, so that they know the letters will actually come from the listed referees rather than the student pretending to be the referees with a free gmail account. If the referee has multiple university affiliations, then I would recommend the one associated with the university in which you and the referee became acquainted with each other. For example, if you did an internship with a professor at university B, even though the professor holds a tenure position at university A as well, it is better to use the email address of university B in such a situation.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, some professors do not use the mail account provided by the universities, and thus you should consult with your referee first to make sure that you give the email address that the referee actually checks.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47995,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Ask them which address they want these to arrive on. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47993",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7798/"
] |
48,002 |
<p>Does taking a year off, to work as a junior research fellow or as a research intern, immediately after one's undergrad help with admission to a better MS (research track, not professional) /PhD program?
If it helps, the field in question is computer science, specifically at the intersection of computer vision and machine learning.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 47994,
"author": "Drecate",
"author_id": 16049,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16049",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I know some universities that prefer email addresses that demonstrate the university affiliations of your referees, so that they know the letters will actually come from the listed referees rather than the student pretending to be the referees with a free gmail account. If the referee has multiple university affiliations, then I would recommend the one associated with the university in which you and the referee became acquainted with each other. For example, if you did an internship with a professor at university B, even though the professor holds a tenure position at university A as well, it is better to use the email address of university B in such a situation.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, some professors do not use the mail account provided by the universities, and thus you should consult with your referee first to make sure that you give the email address that the referee actually checks.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 47995,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Ask them which address they want these to arrive on. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/28
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48002",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36509/"
] |
48,014 |
<p>Before asking, it's probably better that I give some background first. I do research on thin films for solar energy applications. A part of that job is to search for new materials that may be suitable for these applications. Basically, I'm somewhat of a glorified (unglorified maybe?) treasure hunter at times. </p>
<p>So, let's say I found a novel material for this application. Let's even assume that I've found a method to synthesize it and turn it into a device. The question is, when do you know to stop and tell the research community about this work? In this particular example, one can set a target efficiency and keep going until they reach it. Suppose that's never achieved though. Does one decide to try a different method until they reach the target or explore the subset of variables deemed important with the current method? If the latter, which variables and how many of them? I don't expect answers to these questions specifically, but rather ask the general question of how one defines a scope when doing such exploratory work.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48015,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A good bit of my own research falls into something like your \"exploratory\" category, and I think my own approach to it would best be described as \"publish early and often.\"</p>\n\n<p>My basic feeling is as follows: if you're doing good work, why hide that work from your community while saving up for the \"big paper\"? Every time you hit an interesting and significant milestone, it's worth considering whether to put it into a paper---that way you can get feedback, others in your community who are interested can learn about what's working and what's not working in that direction of investigation, they can start getting interested in your work and start collaborating and citing you, and you also never have to worry about being scooped.</p>\n\n<p>In computer science, where I work, such a strategy is well-supported by the range of peer-reviewed publication opportunities. Small and preliminary results go into workshops, larger ones to conferences, longer-term \"archival\" work to journals. It's also nice that the workshops and conferences turn up on a regular basis with fixed deadlines, so I can look at the state of my work and ask: \"Do I currently have chunk of new work of appropriate size for this publication opportunity?\" Journal special issues are great for this purpose as well---just submitting generically to a journal is far to easy to let slip back one month at a time while you wait for \"just this one more thing.\" I don't know if your field also has meaningful peer reviewed conferences, but I have noticed that in those fields without such, there is a generally some equivalent in journals, ranging from more narrow-community journals that may be receptive to smaller steps to high-impact \"big hit\" journals.</p>\n\n<p>Now, if you're in a field that worships the impact factor or if you're trying to get patents or build a company, then you may want to save up your big hits instead. I have been fortunate enough to be in fields / sub-fields that appreciate publications evidencing a research program, and I find that to be a useful and collegial way to behave.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48016,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to points made by @jakebeal, I would say that the scope of exploratory research, to a significant degree, is defined by constraints that researchers or their organizations face. Theoretically, under ideal imaginary conditions, one could perform exploratory research \"forever\" (given that their research interest in the topic is still there). However, practically, in real life, researchers and research entities face all kinds of constraints: from time and money limits to predefined scope for grants and practical physical limits of methods, experiments, equipment or people. After hitting one or more of such constraints, sooner or later it makes sense to consider some action, such as getting an advice, sharing preliminary results through publication or, even, a complete pivot. Therefore, in my opinion, the scope of exploratory research is mostly defined by the <strong>balance</strong> between intensity of <em>research interests</em> and <em>constraints</em> of researchers & research itself.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48014",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36436/"
] |
48,025 |
<p>We performed some bioinformatic work during thesis. Output of these analysis are more than 10 tables with 2000 rows each. We cannot add these in the printed version of the thesis, so we thought about:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>link to the online version, since paper containing this data was published.</p></li>
<li><p>give a CD-ROM with the thesis, but for me this physical format is obsolete.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Maybe you have a better alternative or agree with the first one like me.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48028,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While publishing data sets on <em>arXiv</em> might be a decent option, I suggest you to consider posting your research results and artifacts to <a href=\"http://figshare.com\">figshare</a> or <a href=\"http://zenodo.org\">Zenodo</a>. Both services allow artifacts to be not only <em>citable</em>, but also <em>discoverable</em> (via DOI assignment). <em>Version control</em> is supported as well, but the advantage of Zenodo in this regard in comparison with figshare is Git and GitHub integration.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48030,
"author": "posdef",
"author_id": 5674,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Output of these analysis are more than 10 tables with 2000 rows each. We cannot add these in the printed version of the thesis ...</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Even if you could (say for instance you hate trees and you don't pay for your thesis), do you think anybody would want to have that kind of data in physical format? </p>\n\n<p>Both alternatives are valid, but as you said optical media is becoming more and more obsolete. If you <em><strong>really</strong></em> want to provide the data in a physical form, you can distribute it as a usb-stick. As the capacity of sticks increase, smaller drives become dirt cheap. You should be able to get 1GB, 2GB or even 4GB for relatively small price in hundreds. </p>\n\n<p>The other option, online availability, is the better alternative in general. However the maintenance of data is important as others have mentioned. Both in terms of availability and proper cataloging try to use well known and established repositories. </p>\n\n<p>What I don't understand however, is why you feel the need to \"republish\" findings, if you have already deposited this data together with a prior publication. Just refer to the data as <em>\"Table/Supplementary Info X from Paper Y\"</em></p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48025",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19880/"
] |
48,029 |
<p>With tenured hard-money positions being increasingly competitive, some researchers spend their entire career on <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30621/what-is-a-soft-money-research-position">soft money</a> untenured positions. To me, it would seem quite bad to never know more than one or two years in advance whether one will still have a job (see also <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/30622/how-commonly-do-researchers-spend-a-long-time-10-years-on-soft-money">this question</a>). But a senior soft money colleague (who has been on soft money since starting a post-doc 25+ years ago) pointed out it's really no worse than working for a private company, where you also never know the same. That made me wonder.</p>
<p>In practice, how does the job security of soft money career scientists compare to scientists working for private companies? Is there any data which one is at a higher risk of being laid off from a position that has been held for a long (10+ years) time¹? And if people are then laid off, how quickly they find a similar position, if at all?</p>
<p>For the sake of this question, consider STEM companies that are relatively close to research, such as consultancy companies developing scientific products (such as software) or performing scientific services (such as running simulations) in close cooperation with university and/or government research labs.</p>
<hr>
<p>¹<sup>There may be a special case where researchers work for different government contractors during their career, but for the same client and even in physically the same office. Despite the problems that entails, here I mean laid off without being almost immediately rehired to do the same job as before.</sup></p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48032,
"author": "410 gone",
"author_id": 96,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can only partly answer your question, because I don't have sector-wide data.</p>\n\n<p>First, let's clarify terms. Someone in a soft-money research post is also called a research associate, and they are funded by defined pots of money (typically from research contracts) that will be exhausted: such posts are usually funded for a period of time that's set from the beginning. These sound similar to posts that are also called post-docs, although a research associate doesn't need a doctorate: they just need to demonstrate that they can do deep, novel, rigorous research. This is in contrast to tenured faculty who are funded by open-ended sources such as university core funding (though I gather at some universities there are some professors on 95% soft money: at UCL, such posts are called \"Professorial Research Associate\", rather than \"Professor\"; both carry the honorific title Professor\").</p>\n\n<p>In England, I see job security as depending very much on a department's culture and management philosophy. I know of people in soft-money posts in energy departments at some other universities who have much <em>less</em> job security than most industry jobs that are similar. Whereas at in the energy department at my university, with mostly the same sources of funding and very similar projects, most soft-money posts here have <em>more</em> job security than similar industry: there is a departmental commitment to the researchers themselves, and if one source of funding dries up, we try to find other funded projects for those researchers, and use a platform grant to fill any gaps.</p>\n\n<p>It's also the case that in industry you'll find some employers who will choose to keep some of their funds available in highly liquid form (such as cash at bank), in order to allow them to retain staff even at times when the company's turnover doesn't merit it; other employers will have staff coming and going all the time, as the company's income waxes and wanes.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48033,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I work at a company with a lot of similarity to soft-money academia: research is PI-driven and mostly funded by external contracts and grants. In the US, there are actually a lot of companies that either wholly or in part operate this way.</p>\n\n<p>In this type of research organization, in some ways there is more security than an academic organization and in other ways less. Here are the key points as I see it:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>More individual job security:</strong> In most academic soft-money posts, you are tied primarily to your grants or the grants of the PI that you work for. There is very little organizational commitment to you as an investigator. Thus, if your money dries up, there is little or no bridge funding to keep you going as you try to get more money; you just stop getting paid. In a permanent corporate post, there is a fallback to being assigned as a performer on other people's projects, even perhaps in other departments, and the company is motivated to find such connections because you are still being paid.</li>\n<li><strong>Less institutional job security:</strong> On the flip side, universities are extremely durable as organizations, and tend to change much more slowly and less dramatically than companies. A company might be suddenly acquired or change leadership and suddenly all of its policies change radically. So despite having a position, you might find yourself not wanting it under a new regime---or research itself might be jettisoned, and you along with it. </li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>The lack of institutional job security, however, is actually less bad than it appears, for anybody with either a healthy research program or who is well-known as a talented contributor. In practice, what bad institutional change tends to mean is that you end up with a diaspora, in which good people move en masse, either joining other nearby companies with better research cultures or founding their own. This might happen even if the new \"parent company\" doesn't have an office in the area---I know of more than one regional branch office that was opened because a group of researchers left Company A and their colleagues at Company B invited them to join, figuring that geography could be worked out one way or another.</p>\n\n<p>In short: from what I see, externally funded research at companies is significantly more stable than soft-money academia, despite the fact that company identity may change over time in various ways.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48034,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to these other good answers, you'll also find that many public institutions have rules that require long notification periods for people who may be laid off if their funding runs out. This does not happen at my university, but others that I know at several different US universities must receive a notification <em>one year</em> in advance of a layoff due to lack of funding for their position. </p>\n\n<p>This means that there's plenty of time for them to try to write and win grant proposals or to find another job in the ways described here by others. It also means that there's no sudden drop at the end where people are surprised to not have a job. This is usually not the case in industry research positions.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48042,
"author": "DetlevCM",
"author_id": 33949,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33949",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Really more of a comment than an answer - but this might invite some general discussion with regards to the two major points this hinges on:\n(Hence the community wiki)</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>I suspect there is a huge \"it depends\" with this - mainly due to personal preferences. Some people prefer to move, so having 2-3 years of security only is not bad to them in their eyes.\nIf in contrast you seek security, a public sector job with something called \"Beamtenstatus\" is ideal (you can't be discharged without any serious cause), but even then companies such as BASF or other large companies offer permanent positions, which is possibly as close as one can get to security/safety.</p></li>\n<li><p>Once you have sorted out the personal choice between \"wants change\" vs. \"wants security\", the next question is, \"are you good at getting money\".\nIF you have a lot of industry contacts and are extremely successful at obtaining research grants, not having a permanent position isn't a problem - a university would not like to see you go because of your contacts and the money you bring in, so you have arranged your own job security without a tenured position.\nOne potential advantage of such an arrangement is that you do not teach and at most supervise some PhD students, so aside from the (nowadays horrendous) paperwork, you actually get to do research.\nAlso, at least in one UK university, after 6 years, if there were no grant money, the university would have to find money to employ you otherwise - however this may be specific to that university.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48136,
"author": "Greg",
"author_id": 14755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14755",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are many good answers here, but let me point out some other factors. (Off course, details are depend on on which county, profession, sector etc. we talk about):</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Industrial jobs are generally (much) better paid than academic jobs and the hiring process is also much faster. This means that even if you have same chance for getting laid off, you generally fall much safely in industry, with significantly bigger pillows under you. To get soft money through grants to get yourself hired may require a year or longer, even if your first shots are successful. Getting a job in industry can happen in weeks.</p></li>\n<li><p>Job prospects and overspecialization. Again, there can be huge variations but being a forever post-doc, even with a good salary is seriously limiting your future job prospects. I know many academics who consider such people failed researchers, and consider such a career a stigma, and can look very bad on your CV. It is also hard to switch to tenured academic positions, when you are 40-50. With industrial jobs there is no such stigma, and an industrial researcher has much more options to switch to academia, find job in industry or go to management. This setback may change as soft money positions became more common, though. </p></li>\n<li><p>Do we compare apples with oranges? Significant part of post doctoral researchers are stuck in this position for years, then some of them leave to industry, so go to tenure track and some remains on soft money. My experience is that people who are willing and able to survive on soft money for long are people who have a special combination of skills (they must be good to survive) and motivation to stay in academic research. Also, they often have a specific motivation to not go to industry (want to be independent) or to go tenure track. On the other hand, in industry there are a lot of different kind of people, in terms of motivation, skill-set, interest etc. I think there is a strong selection bias if you directly want to compare these to groups of people and their job security. </p></li>\n</ul>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48029",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1033/"
] |
48,043 |
<p>I contacted a professor by email in order to introduce myself to him and ask for a research position in his group at some point in the future. He expressed interest in me, but, when we finished our email discussions, he said "keep in touch." </p>
<p>I'm confused about what this means. Specifically, I mean, what should I talk to him about prior to me getting any kind of offer, etc.? How often should I contact him? Basically, I would like to know:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>How do I "keep in touch" with a potential advisor prior to getting any kind of research offer? </p>
</blockquote>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48044,
"author": "Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩",
"author_id": 26708,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26708",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When a member of academic staff says \"Keep in touch\" to a leaving student or researcher it often means \"Keep me informed with major events in your career or family\". Yes, it probably has the expectation of an email, but not too regularly.</p>\n\n<p>They are probably interested in where you might be working when you have left and want to be informed of how to contact you when your contact details change. I sometimes get an email from students who have left 5, 10, 15, 20 years in the past. They tell me \"I now work for XYZ corp as VP of ABC, how are things back at the University?\", or \"My child is applying to study with you, is Prof. PQR still there?\". It is all good to know.</p>\n\n<p>There are other times<sup><sub>†</sub></sup> I might used the phrase in an email with someone. If I was telling them that I was the wrong person to contact about an issue, or that this is the wrong time to discuss an issue; in other words, if I was refusing an answer, I might add <em>\"Let's stay in touch\"</em> to indicate I was not refusing all contact for all time. Sometimes students mistake a refusal to answer with an end to all communication. For example, at this precise moment in time I know all graduates results but could not answer any questions about progression to a Phd programme as that might imply what the grades may be<sup><sub>‡</sub></sup>. In that case it would mean, \"At the appropriate time you will have the information you need..\" or similar.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><sup>†</sup><sub>This paragraph added based on further details in the comments.</sub><br>\n<sup>‡</sup><sub>Result discussions are currently embargoed till transcripts are officially released.</sub></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48045,
"author": "Anonymous",
"author_id": 11565,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11565",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a professor, I am always happy to know when my students are successful, and this is a great time to \"keep in touch\". </p>\n\n<p>If you are start graduate school or a good job, I definitely recommend e-mailing professors who wrote you recommendation letters or who were otherwise especially helpful. You don't have to, but it will be appreciated. This goes especially if you would be willing to talk to younger, current students with an interest in following your footsteps!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48062,
"author": "Digital Trauma",
"author_id": 29224,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29224",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm not in academia, but if I received this kind of request, I would ask if there is a social media outlet they subscribe to. If the relationship was purely professional, I would probably lean toward LinkedIn. If there was more friendship in the relationship, I would lean toward Facebook (or both).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48104,
"author": "Ansa211",
"author_id": 28693,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28693",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In which country is this? What kind of research position are you talking about? How far in your studies are you?</p>\n\n<p>For example, in the USA it is common practice that you are not directly involved with your advisor in the first few years of your PhD study, isn't it? In that case \"keep in touch\" could mean something like \"let me know if you have been accepted for the PhD study at my university, and if so, come early in your first year to discuss how you could best get involved with my research group and to get advice about the subjects you should take in addition to the compulsory ones\".</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, in my country, people apply to do a PhD with a specific advisor. \"Keep in touch\" could mean \"come back with a draft of a thesis proposal (and do not submit your thesis proposal without consulting it with me first)\". Or it could mean \"let me know if your interest is serious (it's OK if you have been just asking)\". Or if you still have a year or more of your Masters to go, then \"keep in touch\" could mean something like \"feel free to turn to me for advice on the kind of experience that you should gather before entering my research group; finish your Masters as quickly as you can and turn back to me when you are ready to discuss the actual thesis proposal\". (For example, if you are unsure whether you should rather take subject A or subject B in the final year of your Masters, you could send an e-mail asking which would be more relevant to the kind of work you would be doing with your future advisor.)</p>\n\n<p>If you are already doing research, maybe you could send some interesting bits of your research before it gets published. And reading the papers of your chosen advisor and asking good questions about them (you will have to do this anyway if you are about to start working in their research group, so why not show some initiative?)</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48043",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10770/"
] |
48,048 |
<p>Is it ethical to a professor to accept a manuscript for review, and then have a graduate student referee it? What about assisting as a referee?</p>
<p>I understand that graduate students can be involved in the review process- this isn't my question. As far as the journal/editors are aware, the professor is the referee, but in actuality, the student is performing the review.</p>
<p>If an assigned referee would like a student to participate, how could this be done properly?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48050,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is it ethical to a professor to accept a manuscript for review, and then have a graduate student referee it?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Though commonplace in some fields (or among some professors), the practice of passing the review to a student, without the agreement of the editor, is utterly unethical for at least two reasons: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>The editor expects a review from that specific expert s/he required, not from a ghost one.</li>\n<li>The work of the student would not be credited.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Moreover, in some cases, publishers ask to treat the manuscript as confidential, and in that case passing it to someone else can be considered as a breach of confidentiality.</p>\n\n<p>The proper way to handle this passage is the following: the professor should write to the editor refusing the review and <em>suggesting</em> the student (or any other person) as a possible substitute, possibly outlining the credentials of this person to serve as reviewer. Then, the editor will decide what to do with this piece of information: either pass the review to the suggested reviewer or choose another reviewer.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48055,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While I agree that unacknowledged reviewing is unethical, I would like to offer a counter-point on how I have often seen review \"subcontracting\" done ethically. </p>\n\n<p>In communities that acknowledge and support the practice of involving students / postdocs / etc. in reviewing, there is often actually an official means of an invited reviewer designating the person they \"subcontract\" the review to as a <em>sub-reviewer</em>. This puts both the original and the secondary reviewer officially into the process and is fully transparent to the editor. </p>\n\n<p>EasyChair is an example of a platform that supports this, and when I am acting as Program Chair of an EasyChair conference, I appreciate this feature greatly. It means that I <em>know</em> which reviews have been done by a junior rather than the original PI, which also most definitely affects how I weight the judgement thereby expressed.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48091,
"author": "Phil H",
"author_id": 12183,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12183",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I disagree with the other voices here. Although it would seem unethical to suggest that a professor has reviewed a document which has only had a student overview, there are two points to make: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Peer review is about guarantees of quality, not about processes achieved</li>\n<li>The graduate's review may not be the final review submitted by the professor</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>In any review-based system, no one can guarantee that any review is perfect; only the aggregate effect of many such reviews creating a resource of high quality. Thus the review process for a highly respected journal is much more stringent than that of an 'easier' one.</p>\n\n<p>On the side of the reviewer, this is a responsibility-based role, not a procedural one; what is important is that the professor is willing to stake a measure of their reputation on the review; if the graduate knows more detail of the field and the professor trusts their judgement, it could be a more thorough review than the professor could provide. As long as the professor judges the reviewer to be competent, that is their responsibility.</p>\n\n<p>Finally, having a student review a paper may well be only part of the process; give it to a couple of students, see if they come up with anything. If they don't understand it, or they discover flaws, then the professor can review the paper herself in that light. Just because the graduate student has reviewed a paper doesn't mean that the professor will just pass the review on without comment.</p>\n\n<p>The key, though, is that the journal is only asking that the professor provides responsible and competent feedback, and signs off on the review. How the professor reaches that goal is up to them, and peers that provide poor reviews should be excluded from the review pool (and associated privileges) by the journal. There is no magic to a professor reading a paper, and their judged competence to do so is only based on the university's assignment of professorship and the academic's history of research. Everything builds on expectations and responsibilities, not on some procedure having been carried out; the procedure is only there to make those responsibilities explicit.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48123,
"author": "Jim Conant",
"author_id": 9464,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9464",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I have seen the following situation. Professor X is assigned to review a paper, which is also publicly available on the arXiv. Professor X assigns a student to read and present the paper in a seminar, and during the course of discussion between the student and Professor X, an error is found. Professor X then summarizes the error in his or her referee report and recommends rejection. This seems pretty kosher. The only negative I see is that X did not acknowledge the student's contribution in his or her letter. But since this would only be seen by one other person, the managing editor, I'm not sure how important this is. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48048",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33624/"
] |
48,049 |
<p>When writing a scientific paper, one of the important sections to fill in are the possible <em>conflicts of interest</em>. Typically, I get to write</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The authors declare no competing financial interests.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now, however, one of my co-authors has moved to a for-profit company before the study has been published. I am arguing whether it constitutes a conflict of interest.</p>
<p>What is a conflict of interest, by minimum?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48052,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Such a section usually isn't required for papers in my field, but you should probably put something like \"Joe Smith moved from The University of Bobtown to ACME, Inc. during the preparation of this manuscript.\"</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48054,
"author": "ScienceGuy59",
"author_id": 36327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36327",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A publication that is examining the effects of a drug (let's say, Drug A) on inflammation that is funded by a private company trying to sell Drug A. This would be an example of a conflict of interest to be disclosed. This, of course, doesn't necessarily mean that there is misconduct occurring. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48049",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10421/"
] |
48,059 |
<p>I don't care much for being rich. I don't mind a modest life if I can just do research in the field I love.</p>
<p>Thus I am curious to know if it is possible to make a living just by studying. (Suppose I could hypothetically get funding for every Master or PhD program). Is there an age limit or a limit to the number of PhD degrees that I could get? Are there any other reasons that prevent this?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48060,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Is there a limit of age in studing? Is there a limit of numbers of PhD that I could get?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>No, but realistically there is a limit for how many years / PhDs you will find funding agencies and advisors who put up with you. Funding agencies / universities do not give out stipends just for fun - once it becomes obvious that you are really just studying everything without ever taking the next career step, nobody will be particularly thrilled to invest time, energy, and money into teaching you something that you actually don't plan to ever put to use.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48063,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Why would you want to get multiple PhD degrees when the first one is all you need to do research for life? Much of the point of the degree is a certification of your ability to do independent research. After you've done that, you can get a job where you do research all day long! Many people get a professor's job where there are other duties, but plenty of people get jobs doing just research at government labs or non-teaching academic departments (like me!). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48064,
"author": "paul garrett",
"author_id": 980,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/980",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Another point is that many PhD programs (in the U.S., for sure) will not admit people who already have a PhD, no matter that it was/is in a different topic, etc., with or without funding.</p>\n\n<p>And, these days, in the U.S., funding for graduate study in many subjects is shrinking, for many reasons. While it is illegal to discriminate based on age in the U.S., I think most PhD programs gauge their own success significantly by how well their graduates do in the academic (or other) professional spheres, and effectively promising to not participate would most likely kill chances of funding... Certainly does not help.</p>\n\n<p>That is, in general consonance with the other answers, getting a PhD is just an initial step toward being an independent scholar (if not necessarily a commodified \"researcher\" in the grant-getting sense, etc). These programs are aimed at people who are intellectually/technically slightly immature (whatever their chronological age), and who do some sort of apprenticeship. If you think about it that way, an itinerant endless-apprentice is not what people want, because they want to have apprentices become \"journeymen\", in the archaic but useful sense.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/29
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48059",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36569/"
] |
48,067 |
<p>I do research in math. A lot of times, I get stuck. I wonder if it's considered ethical to post questions on which I get stuck on internet sites, for example Math Overflow or Math Stackexchange. </p>
<p>If the question is just a small step or something already well-known, it is probably a waste of time to reinvent the wheel myself (and I don't get credit for doing so.) On the other hand, if it turns out to be a crucial step, then I could potentially be dishonest if someone on the internet solves it and I claim it's my own work. Sometimes it's not easy to tell beforehand which case the question will fall into.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48070,
"author": "MFornari",
"author_id": 33490,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33490",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Posting questions is ethical, the issue is with appropriate credit and potential collaboration. I would say that most answers will be directions to published work that covers your question, if the question is about problems already solved. In this case, you just have to reference the books or papers that you used. </p>\n\n<p>If it turns out to be an open question, it probably won't be answered in a simple post on internet sites. In this case, in the best scenario, you could find people that will collaborate with you in a more permanent way, till you both solve the issue and, eventually, publish a paper. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48191,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If the question you post to <a href=\"https://math.stackexchange.com/\">math.stackexchange</a> involves your <em>personal education</em>, and specifically you are seeking help to overcome an error you are encountering applying a specific method to a specific problem, then there is no need to acknowledge or give attribution.</p>\n\n<p>If, instead, you post questions that are directly related to your research question and essential to your research progress, then you have an ethical obligation to provide notice and attribution in the body of your published research. This could be done in footnotes/endnotes associated with those specific steps, or in an <strong>Acknowledgements</strong> section. For example, in a footnote you might say:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>\"This solution [formulation/approximation/step...] comes from 'ysk', a member of the <em>math.stackexchange</em> online community, in response to my posted question (<a href=\"https://math.stackexchange.com/myquestion/answered\">https://math.stackexchange.com/myquestion/answered</a>). I am grateful for his/her assistance.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>EDIT: added URL to footnote. However, since some communities are not publicly available and those that are may not have permanent URLs for posts, this may or may not be appropriate for published academic articles.</p>\n\n<p>While some people might consider this to be ethical \"overkill\", I believe that it is better to err in the direction of giving more credit to others rather than less. <em>Anything</em> that appears in our paper that is not yours originally deserves to be credited to the original author. Mostly this is done through citations, but there are times when other methods are needed.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48067",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28245/"
] |
48,068 |
<p>I'm the executive editor of a PubMed-indexed journal. Last year The journal published a paper with four authors in the byline. Today I received an e-mail from the first author admitting that she translated large parts of a research paper published in a local language and used it in the paper's introduction and discussion without referring to the author. She claimed that she did not realize at the time that this was unethical. The other authors, when they discovered the problem, asked her to send us an e-mail containing these details and also sent an e-mail asking us to withdraw the paper.</p>
<p>I could not access the paper written in the local language because it was published in a local journal. Accordingly I'm not sure how much of the text was used.</p>
<p>We use a plagiarism detection software but for this paper it did not yield any results that warranted attention.</p>
<p>Is withdrawal the solution? If so, how can I contact PubMed to do it?
Are there any further steps to be taken concerning the authors?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48078,
"author": "JBeck",
"author_id": 36585,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36585",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Plagiarism is tricky when it comes to using works that have not yet gone through cross-language publication, especially if said works are not widely known. Common decency would dictate a \"cite or do not use\" mindset, but since it's already been submitted this complicates things.</p>\n\n<p>As far as contacting Pubmed goes you could use their <a href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/ehelp?&Ncbi_App=entrez&Db=pubmed&Page=home&Snapshot=/projects/entrez/pubmed/[email protected]&Time=2015-06-30T01:52:38-04:00&Host=portal208&Data=+NCBI_Phid:+3970A3EA5922E5D100000000004A6FA9;+PageURL:+http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed;\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Help Desk</a>\nto see if you could retract and edit where appropriate, then resubmit.</p>\n\n<p>If a decision is made to keep the material but cite properly, you can refer to <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/43484/how-to-cite-sources-written-in-a-different-language-than-englis.\">this question with answers that tackle that.</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48105,
"author": "Cape Code",
"author_id": 10643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10643",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<h2>Retract the article.</h2>\n\n<p>That's what editors of reputable journals do when an author <em>spontaneously asks for it</em> for reasons of plagiarism.</p>\n\n<p>What other options were you considering? Adding a note saying \"The authors admitted to have plagiarized large portions of this article but since our system did not detect it, we publish it anyway.\"?</p>\n\n<p>It's the duty of the editorial board to execute the retraction, possibly with the support of the publisher. But <em>surely</em> your journal has a standard procedure to handle retraction... </p>\n\n<p>It certainly would help to notify PubMed that will publish <a href=\"http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19103775/\">the retraction notice</a> in lieu of the article. I suspect this is part of the information that your journal is providing to PubMed by default...</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48068",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36575/"
] |
48,074 |
<p>I received a journal paper for a review. The paper suggests a solution to an important problem, but the solution is very complicated and has mediocre performance. While reading the paper, I thought of a different solution, which is much simpler and has better performance (to give some scale: their solution is 1 page to write and 5 pages to prove; my solution is 5 lines to write and half a page to prove).</p>
<p>What should I do now?</p>
<p>A. Write my solution in the review, hoping the authors will remember to "thank the anonymous reviewer"?</p>
<p>B. Recommend that the paper published as is, then write a paper of my own with my improved solution?</p>
<p>C. Something else?</p>
<p>EDIT: Before I found the superior solution, I thought of recommending "resubmit with major revision", with the reasons that I mentioned above: your solution is too complicated and its performance is too weak.</p>
<p>However, now I am not sure it is the good course of action. A major revision may take a long time. The authors might even decide to delay or stop working on the paper without telling the editor (or me). Meanwhile, I will have to postpone the publishing of the superior solution for an indefinite amount of time. What do you think?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48075,
"author": "Chris",
"author_id": 35434,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35434",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Ethically speaking, both, A and B, are perfectly valid options in my opinion. If the paper itself provides a significant contribution to the state of the art, I would recommend to publish the paper. Although your solution might be superior (which, please correct me if I am wrong, you have not yet proven) the proposed method might cover different aspects or might be of relevance in a different way. Depending on your motivation to publish a paper with your novel method yourself, this would be the logical next step. Why give your ideas to the current authors \"for free\" (meaning without real credit)?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48076,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I didn't get a clear impression of your opinion of the authors' work. \"Solving an important problem\" ought to make for an excellent paper, but the rest of your description seems to partially negate that. (In particular, I don't quite know what a \"nonstandard input parameter\" is, but it sounds a bit like they are cheating or that the legitimacy of their solution could be a matter of debate.) </p>\n\n<p>Either way, it seems to follow from what you say that you feel that <strong>you</strong> have solved an important problem, indeed in a better way than the authors. Unless you are such a known superstar in your field that this is a commonplace occurrence for you, I would think that you deserve to get more out of this than an anonymous thanks. To me the options seem to be:</p>\n\n<p>1) If the authors' paper is strong enough to be published, say so. You should not hide your opinions about their shortcomings, but you don't have to include your new ideas in your referee report. Then:</p>\n\n<p>1a) If just by responding to your criticism (if they care to) the authors replicate your better solution, then it seems that you did not add critical value, and I would just recommend accepting their modified version and letting the matter end there. </p>\n\n<p>But</p>\n\n<p>1b) If your conscientious refereeing produces a version that is worth publishing but does not replicate your superior solution, then you should prepare your solution for publication. The timing of this is something that you should ask for other opinions about. It would be ideal if the authors had circulated their results in preprint form. If not, you may need to delay submission until their paper actually appears.</p>\n\n<p>2) If you think the paper is not publishable in its current form in the journal to which it was submitted but that it inspired you to solve the problem in a better way, this may be a case for you to ask permission to contact the authors and add your work to theirs. </p>\n\n<p>3) If the work is really not valuable and your solution has little or nothing to do with theirs, then you could just recommend the paper for rejection and then submit your own solution elsewhere. Examine your conscience carefully before doing this though: imagine that the authors found out exactly what you did. Would they see it your way?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48086,
"author": "Jan-Christoph Schlage-Puchta",
"author_id": 30965,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30965",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Option C is to contact the authors, aiming to become coauthor of a better paper. This should be done via the editor of the journal/proceeding you work for, to avoid the impression that you try to exploit your position to get free publications. The editor writes a letter to the authors stating that the anonymous referee has found a better solution, and ask whether they want to write a joint paper. If they refuse, you can still choose option B. </p>\n\n<p>This option is only viable, if the result you improve is a significant part of the paper, and the authors have every right to differ in their judgement from you, so a refusal does not mean that they are mean/not cooperative/envious/whatever. </p>\n\n<p>At a later stage in your carreer, i.e. once you have a good position, you should opt for A. This is not only common interest, but also helping yourself. It does not make a difference whether you have 76 or 82 publications, but editors read your reports and notice, and usually editors are influential people.</p>\n\n<p>As a sideremark I would recommend you to take a little more care about the \"anonymous referee\" stuff. If the authors read this post, they will know whom to blame.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48098,
"author": "Erik_W_B",
"author_id": 36606,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36606",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Option B strikes me as the best solution here, as it seems the original paper gave you the basis from which to create a better solution. Their paper could also help other researchers finding other solutions.</p>\n\n<p>So unless you feel that their contribution is not enough of a step forward, or their proof is missing pieces or incorrect, then it would seem to merit publication. </p>\n\n<p>They get their publication credit for the paper, and you have the beginnings of a new paper. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48074",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/787/"
] |
48,077 |
<p>I have some analytical articles published in reputed national newspapers,local magazines relevant to my subjects. Do those count as publications?</p>
<p>I have to fill a form (graduate school) and bit confused about it (bit worried how it would be perceived).</p>
<p>Some of articles were quite long and extensive (based on local surveys) so rather than leaving “publication” section of form blank, I thought may be I can put those to show some publication experience (all as summary – not one by one in detail). After all, many say something is better than nothing.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48081,
"author": "Jeromy Anglim",
"author_id": 62,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/62",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Whether newspaper articles count as a publication depends on the context.</strong></p>\n\n<p><strong>In the general academic context, newspaper articles don't count as an academic publication.</strong> </p>\n\n<p>Generally, the main works that count as academic publications are: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>peer reviewed academic journal articles</li>\n<li>academic books and book chapters, and </li>\n<li>full-text peer reviewed academic conference articles.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p><strong>Academic context - newspaper articles are not academic publications:</strong> So in general, if you are asked how many publications you have in an academic context, it will generally just be the above that gets counted. In other cases, you might only be being asked about a count of peer reviewed journal articles.\nThis kind of context often applies to job applications, grant applications, promotions and so on.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Showing how newspaper articles contribute to track-record:</strong> That said, in most academic contexts where your track-record is being judged, there is scope to communicate external engagement. Publishing in newspapers is one of many possible examples of external engagement. And in some cases there may be merit in listing the specific instances of external engagement (e.g., particular newspaper articles and so on).</p>\n\n<p>Furthermore, the value assigned to writing newspaper articles varies substantially between fields, universities, and departments. For example, I briefly worked in a business school and they placed a lot of value on academics engaging with the media, and particularly the popular business press. I imagine this was related to the branding benefits associated with their academics being read by the business people who complete their courses. In contrast, in more pure-science disciplines, engagement with the media was really an optional extra.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48083,
"author": "user-2147482637",
"author_id": 12718,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12718",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The terms are very specific, and important. An 'Academic Publication' may be different than a 'Publication', but it also depends on the field.</p>\n\n<p>If the source is looking for 'peer reviewed academic publications', it would be referring to what @JeromyAnglim has pointed out. </p>\n\n<p>The one exception field specific would be in the humanities or arts, in which a 'Publication' may refer to an article that others have written about your work, such as working on a Fashion Dress, which is 'published' in Vogue. If your field is similar to this, it may be appropriate to include, but you should ask someone with knowledge in both your field and the application.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48077",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15389/"
] |
48,084 |
<p>Sorry if the question is weird but I have not seen this terminology before. Who is the president of a university?</p>
<p>In my country, <em>a rector</em> is the leader of a university. A <em>dean</em> might run a faculty, possibly containing several departments. A <em>department head</em> is in charge of a single department.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48085,
"author": "MJeffryes",
"author_id": 31487,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31487",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is just a different word for the most senior executive of a university. There are many names for this position. In the UK alone they may be called (most commonly) the vice-chancellor, the principal or the president. Broadly speaking, countries where universities are operated by the state have more consistent names for positions in the hierarchy, whereas countries where they are independent organisations have more of a diversity of names.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48110,
"author": "André Kleinschmidt",
"author_id": 36613,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36613",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The term \"president\" may not be applicable to every country, and can differ in one County by different federal laws or historic use. Another point is that translations are difficult.</p>\n\n<p>In (former) East Germany you usually have two main roles in the leadership of universities:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>(der) Kanzler m. / (die) Kanzlerin f.: usually the head of the management staff, has the householder's rights and is responsible for the financial decisions. (in engl: chancellor)</li>\n<li>(der) Rektor m. / (die) Rektorin f.: usually has a representative function, traveling around, speaks in public about the institution and in some cases is also responsible for the academic profile of an university. It's mostly translated to English as the dean, but vice versa the english word dean often is also translated to Dekan (which is not the same as Rektor)</li>\n<li>(der) Dekan m. / (die) Dekanin f.: usually the leader of a \"faculty\" (department) or institute. With mixed responsibilities compared to the roles described before on overall university level.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Moreover, as Wrzlprmft pointed out, in the (German) western federal states, the Kanzler is often called the Präsident of an university. Also the meaning of the other terms can differ between federal states.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48121,
"author": "Paul Gowder",
"author_id": 34179,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34179",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>FWIW, in the U.S., \"president\" is typically the highest executive officer of a single campus. Some universities, particularly in the big state systems, have executive officers over the whole system, who can be called a variety of things, often \"chancellor.\" In state schools, the president will usually be overseen by a board of private officials, often called a \"board of regents\" or something like that; in private schools there's something similar, often equivalent to the board of directors of a nonprofit corporation (at Harvard, for example, they're called the \"board of overseers\"). </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 149012,
"author": "Richard Erickson",
"author_id": 33210,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/33210",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the United States, the title and rank of President and Chancellor varies by system and state. Some universities have Chancellors and other have Presidents and the ranking of the two positions can be switched. </p>\n\n<p>For example, the University of Wisconsin System has multiple independent campuses that are their own, independent Universities (e.g., have their own accreditation, administration, etc.). UW-Madison has a <a href=\"https://chancellor.wisc.edu/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">chancellor</a> as do other UW schools (e.g., UW-La Crosse has a <a href=\"https://www.uwlax.edu/chancellor/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">chancellor</a>). The UW System shares a <a href=\"https://www.wisconsin.edu/regents/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Board of Regents</a> who oversee the System and the UW System's <a href=\"https://www.wisconsin.edu/president/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">President</a>. </p>\n\n<p>As a counter example, the <a href=\"https://www.texastech.edu/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Texas Tech System</a> shares a <a href=\"https://www.texastech.edu/board-of-regents/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Board of Regents</a> and a <a href=\"https://www.texastech.edu/chancellor/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Chancellor</a>. The individual universities in the system such as <a href=\"https://www.ttu.edu/administration/president/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Texas Tech University</a> or <a href=\"https://www.angelo.edu/president_welcome/contactinfo.php\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Angelo State University</a> have their own presidents. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 149034,
"author": "Anonymous Physicist",
"author_id": 13240,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13240",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The president of an American university is the chief fund-raiser. The president is responsible for seeking major donations from individuals, corporations, and foundations, and for lobbying governments for appropriations. The president also creates strategic partnerships with other organizations, which often include in-kind donations.</p>\n\n<p>The president is also the chief executive, but at wealthier institutions this is a secondary role. </p>\n\n<p>To quote Matt Read:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It’s a standing joke that at private four-year schools, the president reports to the development office. It isn’t literally true, but in some places, it’s close. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The development office is the fundraising office.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48084",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36595/"
] |
48,087 |
<p>I know, the question of how to cite source code has been asked before, but I did not found anything helpful for my specific situation.</p>
<p>I am currently writing my master's thesis. My university does not dictate any particular citation style so I just use biblatex's default settings. My work is quite OS-specific, so I have to cite Linux source code on several places throughout.</p>
<p>I found the <a href="http://lxr.free-electrons.com/">Linux cross reference</a>, which allows me to reference specific code lines for specific Linux versions. I intent to use this for my purpose, so I will cite URLs in the form of <code>http://lxr.free-electrons.com/source/<filepath>?v=<version>#L<linenumber></code>. However, I do not know how to exactly do this.</p>
<p>I know biblatex provides the <code>online</code> type which should be generally applicable, since I am citing URLs. I have two problems with this, though:</p>
<ol>
<li>What do I fill in as the author/editor? Linux is written by hundreds of people and surely there would be no benefit in mentioning them all. Should I drop the editor/author and instead fill in the organization? But then, do I refer to the <s>Free Software Foundation holding the copyright to Linux</s> Linux Foundation or rather to the maintainers of the Linux cross reference?</li>
<li>I feel like a larger amount of such source code references would clutter the bibliography. Hence, I would rather have an extra section (like a secondary bibliography) listing only those source code references. Is there a solution for this use case? Or should I save the effort and accept the cluttering?</li>
</ol>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48092,
"author": "Federico Poloni",
"author_id": 958,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/958",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In my mind, I see the Linux source code as a single bibliography entry (possibly with its official kernel.org repository as the source URL). You can refer to the different files in the text as <code>\\cite[Version~4.1, \\texttt{drivers/android/binder.c}, Line~18]{Linux}</code>.</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: suggested kernel.org instead of github, as pointed out by bdsl, sebleblanc and Bruno.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48093,
"author": "Charles Stewart",
"author_id": 24914,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24914",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In <em>APA</em> style (6th ed., section 7.08), the reference should look something along the lines of</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Linus Torvalds (2015). Linux (4.1-rc8) [Operating system]. Retrieved from <code>https://github.com/torvalds/linux/releases/tag/v4.1-rc8</code></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Notes</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Linus Torvalds' role is something like the editor or publisher of Linux.</li>\n<li>You should have just the one entry in the reference list to the source code as a whole; individual places where you cite particular lines of code should be cited where you refer to them, either in the text or as a footnote.</li>\n</ol>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48087",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36597/"
] |
48,096 |
<p>Next week I am going on a summer school meeting where the organizers encourage us to bring a poster. I would like to make a poster on a topic that I have covered in an article that is currently under review. Is that fine?</p>
<p>The rules of the conference to which the article is submitted state that I cannot submit any paper that covers the same material to any journal, conference or workshop. Does a poster count as a paper in this context?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48097,
"author": "Dave Clarke",
"author_id": 643,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/643",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Typically this would be okay, because the poster is not published.</p>\n\n<p>If in doubt, contact the PC chair of the conference to make sure.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48225,
"author": "parag sharma",
"author_id": 36717,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36717",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am also writing a paper in CS domain BT I can use the same name somewhere else. So you can use a poster related to your paper. Just check the rules ones. Mine doesn't say anything like that. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48096",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36603/"
] |
48,102 |
<p>I would appreciate clarification on the following aspect of joining academia as a <em>junior faculty</em> member. I have seen a number of advertised positions for junior faculty, which often involve a teaching component. However, a particular <em>timing</em> aspect is not clear enough to me: if, for example, a position advertisement mentions "vacancy, starting August 2015", does it imply:</p>
<p><strong>A)</strong> that a candidate by that time is expected to have a portfolio of developed courses, expected to be taught in that position, or, at least, similar courses that could be easily customized; <strong>OR</strong></p>
<p><strong>B)</strong> that August 2015 is just a position's start time, but a candidate will be given adequate time to develop corresponding required courses, including necessary materials, after the start date?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48103,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I think this is a false dichotomy. In the US, you are generally expected to be able to teach a course your first semester. You shouldn't need to have the course fully prepared in order to start teaching it, though. You can prepare as you go. </p>\n\n<p>Also, many departments in STEM fields back off on their standard teaching load for junior faculty during the first year to give you some time to prepare your first courses, so you might get a 1-1 your first year instead of the usual 2-1 (or whatever). This kind of thing varies quite a lot from department to department, but there is usually some sort of consideration given to let you ramp up some classes.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48112,
"author": "Joel Coehoorn",
"author_id": 36620,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36620",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A position starting in August almost certainly expects you to immediately teach courses for the academic Fall Term. As a junior/first-year instructor, the courses <em>and their general expected learning outcomes</em> will typically be dictated to you, and you will likely be expected to use whatever textbook and resources were indicated while students registered for classes during the Spring and Summer.<sup>*</sup></p>\n<p>In order to make this expectation reasonable, a few concessions are made. Normally instructors are expected to handle academic advising for a certain number of the students in their subject area, but it's common to waive this requirement for first year instructors. This allows new instructors to devote more office time to preparing lesson plans and the like, and helps avoid advising mistakes from instructors who are not yet familiar with the degree plans in their area. You may also have one course fewer on your load than is normally expected, or you may be granted an extension on when your full syllabi must be posted. Finally, you may be given access to materials from prior or concurrent sections of the same course as taught by other instructors.</p>\n<p>But, when it comes down to it, that first year you'll likely still find yourself writing lesson plans the week and day before delivering them. In the current climate, be grateful for a tenure-track position at all :/</p>\n<hr />\n<p><sup><sup>*</sup>Note that this isn't a matter of infringing your academic freedom; it's just that there won't be time for you to start from scratch, and you should still expect full academic freedom as you get your legs under you in the new position.</sup></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48125,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>When you apply to most positions (except at the very highest tier), you are asked to provide a teaching portfolio. This could include courses that you've taught, syllabuses, teaching evaluations, a statement of your teaching philosophy, etc. </p>\n\n<p>When you give a job talk, you may also be asked to give a guest lecture in a class or before undergraduates as a means of assessing your capacity as a teacher. </p>\n\n<p>The assumption here is that you've already been teaching or been a teacher's assistant -- and can jump immediately into full-time teaching from Day 1.</p>\n\n<p>The university might do some things to make it easier -- a course release or perhaps allow you teach a course where the syllabus is fixed. Or perhaps a high-level seminar where they only expect 3-4 seniors or grad students. But they don't have to and many PhDs have been thrown into 3:3:2 teaching loads with none of that.</p>\n\n<p>Now, everyone knows that the first several years of teaching are difficult. So don't worry if your courses aren't as fully baked as they should be or if you have some negative reviews. Tenure and promotion committees are interested in positive and upward trajectories -- so at least you'll have the ability to show this!</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48102",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391/"
] |
48,116 |
<p>I am in the process of submitting my PhD thesis, and have been offered a 1yr post-doc role at my current institution. If it matters, I am in UK and work in applied mathematics at a well-known faculty.</p>
<p>My question relates to "traditional" career paths after the initial post-doc, or more specifically what are good reasons (or the only reason) for embarking on post-doc research? The reason I am asking this question is because I switched from industry (after 5 years experience) to research in order to carry out my PhD, which happens to be on a topic relevant to both industry and academia. So I have come to research and academia in a bit of a backwards way.</p>
<p>Like many other researchers, I found thesis work hard-going and throughout much of my PhD assumed I would simply slip back into industry after completion. But as my thesis began to reach the closing stages, and I reflect upon my work, I realised that there are numerous aspects of research that I genuinely enjoy, and value. But I do not know if this is a good enough reason to continue with post-doc research. </p>
<p>Thinking beyond my current offer, during my investigations for post-doc roles I have been struck by how transient, or temporary, many roles are (at least in my area). So my question is what are the traditional "end goal(s)" of a series of temporary post-doc positions? Am I correct in thinking that I should only be doing this if I <em>fully</em> intend on seeking a full-time salaried academic position? How long does this take, and what is the "success rate" of post-doc to full-time academic?</p>
<p>The thought of job-hunting every year, or few years, for the next X years seems quite...daunting. And I worry that if there is a high chance I will return to industry in X years time (for whatever reason) - then I probably need to factor that in to my decision making now.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48117,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The reason to do a postdoc is because you want to continue to do academic research. This might be a short-term goal, or a long-term goal, or exploratory (you're not sure what you want to do long-term). The latter two are the usual reasons.</p>\n\n<p>Lots of people go into industry after doing postdocs (either because they decided they prefer that or couldn't find an academic job they wanted), so that's no issue. Keep in mind that it's generally easier to go from academia to industry than industry back to academia.</p>\n\n<p>How long it takes to transition from post-doc to a permanent faculty position depends on the field and type of job you want. In math, 3-4 years (1-2 postdocs) is normal before getting a permanent research job and 0-3 is common for moving into primarily teaching jobs.</p>\n\n<p>As for \"success\" rates from postdoc to permanent faculty, I think they're reasonably good, say over 50%. I quoted some relevant data from the AMS <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/44187/19607\">in this answer</a>, though I don't think the right data is there to give you a precise number. If you take into account that a large fraction of these people want to leave academia, the success rate should look quite good.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48118,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the fields with which I intersect, I have seen several main reasons for doing a postdoc. Some of the main ones are:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Staying in a brief holding pattern while you figure out what to do</li>\n<li>Improving your credentials in order to try to gain a high-prestige job (faculty or other), by some combination of moving to a more prestigious institution, expanding your network, and publishing more high-impact articles</li>\n<li>Shifting your research area---postdocs offer a good opportunity for \"additional training\" and re-skilling</li>\n<li>A \"test run\" in an organization (many industry or research lab postdocs are this way, offering a relatively straightforward path to permanent hire)</li>\n<li>A safe fallback when you can't get the job you actually wanted or have external factors that need to be managed (e.g., maintaining visa status, synchronizing with a spouse's career, dealing with family illness)</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Professionally, one can potentially move in any direction from a postdoc---faculty, industry, startup, government, NGO, drop out of research altogether, etc.\nTo get a sense of the diversity, consider <a href=\"http://ascb.org/where-will-a-biology-phd-take-you/\" rel=\"nofollow\">this chart showing the current flow of PhD biologists</a>.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/06/30
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48116",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36631/"
] |
48,129 |
<p>I often see people abbreviate faculty teaching loads ("course loads") as 2:2 or 3:2:3 or 2:1.
Sometimes a note such as "3:3 with 2 preps" is added.</p>
<p>What do these abbreviations mean? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48131,
"author": "Jessica B",
"author_id": 20036,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20036",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>They refer to the number of classes you teach in each semester. ie 2:1 would mean two classes one semester and one the other.</p>\n\n<p>Three numbers (like 3:2:3) refer to the number of classes in each quarter for schools on the quarter system (i.e., three terms per academic year). [Thanks to Mark Meckes]</p>\n\n<p>Not all courses are the same size, although I suspect that the vast majority are the standard \"3 credit hour\" size. A minority but reasonable number of courses, though, are 4 credit hours (particularly in my area, math). A few courses are even 5 credit hours at some institutions. It depends on the field to a great extent. Nevertheless, the number of courses is still very important. Teaching a four-hour and a five-hour course for a 2-course load is less work, usually, than teaching three different 3-hour courses. [Thanks to Oswald Veblen]</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48146,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To answer the part of the question about preps: It's easier to teach two sections of the same course than it is to teach two entirely different courses. A 3:3 load with two preps means that you teach 3 sections per semester but two sections are of the same course. For example, you might teach two sections of Calculus I and one section of ordinary differential equations for a 3 course load with two preps. </p>\n\n<p>In the US, most academic courses are 3 credit hours, nominally meeting for 3 hours per week (often 3 sessions of 50 minutes each on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, or two sessions of 75 minutes each on Tuesday and Thursday.) However, you'll find some courses that are two credit hours or four credit hours (or even five credit hours in some science courses with labs.) In assigning teaching load it's common to just count all of these as one course even though four credit hour courses take more time than 3 credit hour courses. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48129",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885/"
] |
48,130 |
<p>In Germany there is a wiki-like webpage that investigates PhD theses for plagiarism: <a href="http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/">http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/</a></p>
<p>On this webpage PhD theses that are suspected of plagiarism are investigated by an online community. Anybody can contribute in an anonymous way. For the thesis manuscripts that are investigated there is an indication of plagiarized text for each page.</p>
<p>My question is: are there any such initiatives in other countries?
And would that make sense?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48132,
"author": "André Kleinschmidt",
"author_id": 36613,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36613",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I only know the German initiatives of private persons actively searching for mistakes in citation. There are several tools for finding or measuring the grade of plagiarism. At my university the master and doctoral thesis are checked against <a href=\"http://turnitin.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Turnitin</a>.</p>\n\n<p>I can't rate the value of academic degrees in other countries than Germany. In Germany the doctoral degree can lead to a high reputation in public view, especially in the eyes of the elderly. One could hold a doctorate in \"collecting stamps\" and gain a prestige like one could be asked every question about our complex world. </p>\n\n<p>Especially in the case of unpopular politicians (e.g. zu Guttenberg) their relatives (e.g. Veronica \"Vroni\" Saß) or economists (e.g Margarita Mathiopoulos), private initiatives work hard to find mistakes or unethical behavior in connection to their thesis, to undermine their public reputation.</p>\n\n<p>I can imagine that in countries where personal attributes and charsima play a bigger role than overrated degrees, initiatives like Vroniplag are of less public interest.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48133,
"author": "henning",
"author_id": 31917,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31917",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I am not aware of initiatives in other countries. However, while VroniPlag started out with examinations of German doctoral theses, it is no longer limited to those. <a href=\"http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/VroniPlag_Wiki:Karte\">Today, it investigates suspected plagiarism in PhD theses written in Spain, Ireland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Italy.</a> To the extent that this is a continuing trend, VroniPlag already is an international project.</p>\n\n<p>So the answer to the question in your title (which differs from that in the body), whether online community investigations of PhD thesis plagiarism outside Germany exist, is <strong>yes</strong>.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48134,
"author": "user36647",
"author_id": 36647,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36647",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There is an analogous project in Russia called Dissernet (<a href=\"http://www.dissernet.org/\">http://www.dissernet.org/</a>). They mostly investigate theses and books \"written\" by Russian politicians.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48130",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28830/"
] |
48,143 |
<p>I have graduated three times from UK universities. First was a bachelors' degree, then a Masters' degree, then a PhD. The graduation robes associated with my PhD graduation are absolutely horrible. I am now a lecturer in a UK university and if I attend graduation ceremonies at this University (or others, I suppose), I am supposed to wear the academic robes from my highest degree, i.e. the horrible PhD ones.</p>
<p>So my question is this, is it considered acceptable to wear the robes from my 'lower' degrees at such occasions, or even the equivalent PhD robes from the university I now work at (much nicer!)?</p>
<p>Basically, can I get away with wearing the wrong robes to graduation ceremonies? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48144,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the United States, there are typically two acceptable pieces of regalia to wear: either your university-specific regalia or a \"generic Ph.D.\" regalia that is just simple black robes plus your doctoral hood. It would seem rather gauche to me to wear non-Ph.D. regalia or to wear the regalia of a school that is not your alma mater, even if that is where your post is. I don't know if \"generic Ph.D.\" regalia is also accepted in the UK, where many universities have a much longer and more formal set of traditions than in the US, but I would recommend that you look into that as a possibility.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48156,
"author": "Brian Tompsett - 汤莱恩",
"author_id": 26708,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26708",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Who will ever know? No one really knows what degrees you have, save the panel that hired you and the people at HR who maintain the staff records!</p>\n\n<p>Spotting a degree and university by eye from a robe is a real skill that I suspect few possess. Its even rarer than bird spotting. (Never heard of robe twitchers)....</p>\n\n<p>Wear what looks the best in the photos or the official video, because you will appear in many hundreds of parent photographs.</p>\n\n<p>Myself, I put on the most colourful ties and waistcoats under my robe. Colour, pomp and show is what the entire ceremony is about.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48183,
"author": "Flounderer",
"author_id": 5842,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5842",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Yes, you can totally get away with it. The situation in the UK is much more formal than in the US, where I have seen a graduation ceremony that looked <a href=\"http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/328033-a-legion-of-horribles-hundreds-in-number-half-naked-or\" rel=\"nofollow\">exactly like the Comanche attack scene from <em>Blood Meridian</em></a>, but I have never seen anybody called out for wearing the wrong robes, except for once in Cambridge where I was gently chided for letting some ribbons hang out which were supposed to be tucked under the armpits.</p>\n\n<p>Wear whatever you feel comfortable with. As long as it's academic dress, nobody will know and it doesn't really matter. (But if you did happen to get a PhD from Leeds, you are wrong about those robes! They are awesome!)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 95965,
"author": "dbmag9",
"author_id": 6899,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6899",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is a matter for whichever official at your university is in charge of ceremonies; in a British university there is almost certainly someone who knows the official rules, even if the university as a whole is very relaxed about academic dress. At some universities (Oxford and Cambridge are the main examples) the rules about wearing 'local' versus 'foreign' academic dress are very strict, and still taken fairly seriously (there are only specific occasions when academic dress from other universities may be worn, and for other purposes fellows are 'incorporated' into the university so they are entitled to wear MA robes).</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>If your question is 'can I get away with it', the answer is almost certainly '<strong>yes</strong>', assuming your institution is one of the majority that are quite relaxed about academic dress.</li>\n<li>If your question is 'should I wear the less gaudy robes', I would suggest the answer is '<strong>no</strong>'; part of your role at a graduation is to make the event as meaningful as possible for your students graduating, and wearing more impressive robes supports that.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I recommend the <a href=\"https://www.facebook.com/groups/991333104293186/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">'Academical Dress' Facebook group</a> as a source of academic dress advice and knowledge, often from the people (at the Burgon Society) who wrote the book on the topic.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 95990,
"author": "Jack Aidley",
"author_id": 5614,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5614",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can't comment on whether you'd get away with it, as that depends on your institution and colleagues, but wearing the wrong robes is certainly <strong>both bad form and <em>rude</em></strong>.</p>\n\n<p>It's bad form to disrespect the rules of the ceremony, and it's rude to everyone who is graduating to do so. Moreover, it's rude to everyone who has ever got a PhD from Heriot-Watt to treat a Masters from another university as more valuable to display than your doctorate from Heriot-Watt.</p>\n\n<p>You may not like it, but you neither get to choose the design of your institutes's robes not what the robes you wear <em>mean</em> and wearing the wrong gown communicates to anyone who understands that you place your masters in higher esteem to your PhD.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48143",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36656/"
] |
48,145 |
<p>I am currently enrolled at a Japanese university in the doctoral program of Mathematical and Life sciences, and have already been a student for last 4 years. I am waiting for the acceptance of research paper, and based on it, will submit the thesis for defense soon. </p>
<p>But I came to know that Japanese universities have a system where one can actually quit the university, but if the paper has been accepted, one can apply within one year for a thesis defense. A PhD degree will be awarded in the case of successful defense.</p>
<p>My question is, has anybody here been such a situation, and is aware of a possible difference between the technicalities of the difference in PhD degree, while remaining a university student, and after quitting the university? I know the concerned university or department should be the best place to answer it, but just in case anybody here can clarify that, I would be grateful for it. </p>
<p>At the minimum, will the degree obtained after quitting the university, would it be considered equivalent to the degree obtained while as a student or not? I guess other country universities don't have such a system in place. Thank you very much.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48172,
"author": "erik",
"author_id": 32870,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32870",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Disclaimer: my Japanese is quite good, but I'm not a native speaker, so please keep that in mind. </p>\n\n<p>Based on the degree statutes of your university (広島大学学位規則), you need not be enrolled in the graduate program to submit a thesis and apply for a defense (Article 2 Section 3). However, non-matriculated students must pay a fee of 57,000 JPY for the defense. This fee can be waived if the applicant is not currently enrolled, but has completed the program and left the university without defending within the past year (Article 4 Section 3). If you wait longer than one year you can technically still submit and apply to defend, but you would have to pay the fee. </p>\n\n<p>I spent 10 years at a Japanese university, although not the same as yours. I can recall one person who got their degree in the non-traditional way, so it is possible but uncommon. </p>\n\n<p>I assume you don't have Japanese citizenship, so have you considered what will happen to your residency status? I can't recall the procedures, but you could run into trouble unless you have a job lined up and can change your status easily. I would discuss this with your adviser, but I can almost guarantee things will go more smoothly if you just wait for the paper to be accepted. You may need to revise the paper based on reviewer comments as well. In the meantime, maybe you can apply for positions or spend time making your CV and dissertation look amazing.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48182,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't personally have experience with this, but let me point out a potential issue. Generally it's not a good idea in academia to do something non-standard that may make you look strange. Moreover, Japanese academia seems a bit more rigid to me in many ways than Western academia, and it is rather tightly knit. If you quit, people from other universities will know this (plus it will likely be clear from your CV), and this will color their perception of you, not to mention how your advisor might feel. This may make it harder for you to get an academic job in the future, especially in Japan.</p>\n\n<p>I don't know what your reason for quitting would be, or how your advisor would take it, but even having such a conversation with your advisor has potential risks, particularly if you do not have a very good reason. I suggest you think it over carefully privately first. If you want to quit, then it might not be bad to try to talk to someone you that you trust and very familiar with Japanese academia (and preferably your advisor/group) before broaching the subject with your advisor.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48217,
"author": "Greg",
"author_id": 14755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14755",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You see this right: it is a question your adviser / university can answer best. If you advisor do not recommend it, do not do it.</p>\n\n<p>Regular Japanese PhD programs in Science/Tech fields are 3 years. However a great number of students do not finish by that time, and defend latter. Some of them even get promoted in academia, and do the defense at a later point. So it is a tricky, but not impossible situation. If it is an option for you highly dependent on your professor, department etc support. Discuss it with them.</p>\n\n<p>The good news is that once the defend is successful, everyone consider it more or less the same degree. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48424,
"author": "prabhat",
"author_id": 36658,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36658",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Thank you everybody who replied and gave valuable suggestions. I have obtained a reply from the university, and posting the relevant parts here, which pertain to the differences in the wording in Degree certificate in two cases I have mentioned. First comes the degree without quitting the university. <img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/MXfz0.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>Next, the degree after quitting the university.\n<img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/xFXKh.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>The difference seems to be about affiliation to a particular department of the university. I hope that should be fine for most of the cases.</p>\n\n<p>Thank you very much once again.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48145",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36658/"
] |
48,147 |
<p>I often find in many conference papers submitted by US research groups that paper writers would thank their "shepherd" in the acknowledgment section. What is the exact contribution of a "shepherd" to a paper submission?</p>
<p>I'm speaking about my domain which is computer science and I'm not sure about the situation in other domains.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48148,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>CS conferences often ask a member of the Program Committee who reviewed a paper which is accepted but has some problems to help the authors fix it up for publication. This person is usually called a \"shepherd\" for the paper with the overt connotation to people who mind sheep in a field. The problems with such a paper can include English language problems, other kinds of bad formatting, the need for a few additional results or cases, or the elaboration of some component of the work that was insufficiently described. This is all done in order to increase the quality of the presentation of otherwise excellent work.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48149,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In computer science, \"shepherding\" is often essentially a means of adapting the journal Major Revision decision for conference publications. Because conferences normally have only one round of review, it is generally the case that the only two decisions available are \"Minor Revision\" (i.e., the authors are trusted to fix their paper without need for further review) or \"Reject.\"</p>\n\n<p>Shepherds allow a conference to accept papers that need more serious revision without endangering the quality standards of the conference. Rather than simply accept the paper, the conference gives it a conditional acceptance and appoints somebody from the program committee to work with the authors to ensure that the paper ends up acceptable (or to ultimately reject it if the authors cannot reach acceptable quality).</p>\n\n<p>As such, thanking shepherds in acknowledgements often makes a lot of sense, since this is a person who has given volunteer time to work directly with the authors to ensure their paper is significantly improved from its original form.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48147",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
48,150 |
<p>I am doing my Ph.D. in mathematics and did not have my thesis carefully proofread before submission (which is definitely a mistake that I wish to correct). My thesis was approved after submission and I am now preparing for the oral defense.</p>
<p>Now as I reread my thesis in detail, I found that there are too many typos (probably more than five per page). Some are negligible, but some are essential. For example, I wrote "<" instead of "less than or equal to") in the conclusion of a proposition. Another example is that I quoted a wrong theorem number in a proof. I even wrote a same lemma with the same proof twice. One referee complains about the misprints in his/her report, but s/he still considers the thesis tolerable as a whole. But now I feel all those careless typos very annoying and they make the thesis much less readable.</p>
<p>Now I am seeking suggestions on what I should do. Should I correct all known typos and give each committee member a copy of the revised thesis on my defense? Is there any other thing that I can do right now?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48151,
"author": "mikeazo",
"author_id": 30963,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30963",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Talk to your advisor. </p>\n\n<p>When I defended, my committee came back with a number of such corrections to be made. I made them and they signed off. Then the thesis editing office took the document and came back with even more corrections. I made those, and eventually they signed off. Trust me, you aren't the first to deal with this problem, and likely not the first that your advisor has seen.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48157,
"author": "Meagan Caridad Arrastia",
"author_id": 36665,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36665",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My institution is clear that they will not make corrections after the final submission :( If it is before your defense, then go ahead and make the corrections and resend to the committee members!</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48150",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24832/"
] |
48,154 |
<p>I am currently on the job market. One of the positions uses the online application system where I am able to open the letters of recommendation and read them. I found out that there are "errors" in my advisor's letter. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>First, she put the name of University A in the letter that goes out to University B. </p></li>
<li><p>Second, she wrote that I have successfully defended this month when her letter was dated June, which I worry is going to give the search committees the impression that I defended my dissertation in June when in fact I had defended in May. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>I conveyed this to her; she offered to fix the name of the university. But what if the same error is repeated in her second letter, or worse, she adds more errors in her second letter? </p>
<p>So my questions are: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Will these errors raise any red flags in the eyes of the search committees? </p></li>
<li><p>Will these errors give me enough reason to not to use my advisor's letter? </p></li>
</ul>
<p>I am contemplating not to list my advisor as one of my references. I have read the responses to a question similar to mine in this forum, so I understand that I am taking a risk and I will have to explain it if I choose not to list my advisor as one of my references. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48158,
"author": "Jan-Christoph Schlage-Puchta",
"author_id": 30965,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30965",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The wrong university might result in someone in the hiring committee smiling for a second. It is a copy and paste error, which would only become a problem if applying to University A would be an error in itself, e.g. if A is the school of astrology in Hoople, Southern North Dakota, and B is MIT. </p>\n\n<p>The wrong date will not be noticed by anybody. If you have to look at 60 applications, you do not read every letter line by line, but just skim over it to see whether it contains some real information, like \"was very engaged in teaching/student union/environmental issues/...\". </p>\n\n<p>A large part of the meaning of a letter of reference is independent of the content of the letter. If I believe that X is good and honest, and X writes a letter for Y, then I guess that Y cannot be too bad.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48159,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If I were your advisor, I would fix these typos before sending out any more letters (i.e., to other schools). If there is an online system where I can instantly and unobtrusively replace a letter with a fresh copy, then I would do it. Otherwise I would let it go.</p>\n\n<p>These are not serious enough for you to worry about. The impression that this will make on the reader is that your advisor is a human being, perhaps a human being who is rather busy. Ideally your advisor will be someone whose reputation is known to the readers, so cannot be spoiled by a few careless typos.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>One of the positions uses the online application system where I am able to open the letters of recommendation and read them.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p><em>This</em> concerns me...but you didn't ask about it.</p>\n\n<p><b>Added</b>: I missed at first this part of your question:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>[W]ill these errors give me enough reason to not to use my advisor's letter? I am contemplating not to list my advisor as one of my references, and I have read the responses to a question similar to mine in this forum, so I understand I am taking a risk and I will have to explain it if I choose not to list my advisor as one of my references. </p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Heck no. Not getting a letter from your advisor upon graduation is a <strong>very bad idea</strong> in almost all cases.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48154",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25261/"
] |
48,160 |
<p>I've previously asked a question on this forum about leaving grad school and moving to a new field. I'm a chemistry PhD student in my (now) second year. I've decided to leave my PhD program because my heart is not in my work, nor am I very passionate about my field (word to the wise - don't go to graduate school because you don't know what else to do). The toll of grad school has resulted in some serious damage to my mental health to the tune of depression and anxiety. </p>
<p>I don't have a fantastic relationship with my advisor, but it's not terrible either. There's a significant language and cultural barrier that creates a sort of disconnect between us. As far as I know, my advisor does not know that I plan on leaving, although if my lack of motivation and focus hasn't tipped him off that there's something wrong, I don't know what will. The emotional and physical toll of lying and not telling my advisor the truth is becoming debilitating. I can't focus on work, I spend most of my time feeling hopeless and scheming on how to get away as quickly as possible and I suffer from constant headaches. I never was so apathetic until about 3 months into grad school. </p>
<p>My main concern is that I still have two classes I need to complete in the upcoming Fall semester in order to leave with my terminal master's degree, and I'm worried that if I tell my professor now he will become extremely angry, cut my funding (even thought I'll be teaching in the fall) and make me leave the lab. I do not want to leave without having something to show for my work here. However, I think I would feel better if I just told him now and put myself out of my misery. That way he would understand where I'm coming from and why I'm acting in this way. He's paying me for the summer and the guilt I have for wanting to leave is getting out of hand. </p>
<p>I'm also in sort of an awkward situation where the project I'm assisting in will eventually be mine when my co-worker graduates in May and there would not be another student to take over when I leave as well. I feel like I'm just leaving my advisor out to dry.</p>
<p>So my primary question is, when is the best time to tell an advisor about leaving? As soon as possible? Or continue to let it sit until the fall semester starts? Is there even a "good" time to do this? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48175,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It seems to me that @Mad Jack's comment, though perhaps practical, is unethical. Funding in a PhD program is conditional on one's intention to complete the program. If you accept funding under the expectation that you will take a certain long term action, then if you clearly realize that you no longer have the intention to complete that action then you are behaving deceptively, hence unethically, by hiding that information. In an academic job by contrast, you sign a yearly contract. Unless/until you have tenure, you could be dismissed at the end of any academic year. Even when you have tenure you are rarely receiving university resources which would be wasted if you did not have a multi-year commitment, and if you do find yourself in a position of receiving those resources with the intention of leaving, then you are behaving unethically. </p>\n\n<p>(Example: most universities which offer <strong>sabbaticals</strong> view them as investments for the future of the faculty member's academic career <em>and</em> their career at that university. Many universities have a policy that one has to return to \"active duty\" for at least one year after a sabbatical. Violating this policy would be unethical in a similar way, although it is also more explicitly against the rules. A yet closer unethical faculty behavior would be to receive a multi-year grant to do <strong>X</strong>, to realize after the first year that you have no intention of continuing to do research on anything at all related to X but continuing to take salary from the grant in subsequent years.)</p>\n\n<p>Moreover the suggested unethical behavior is in response to <em>hypothetical</em> undesirable behavior by someone else. The OP does not know that behaving unethically is necessary in order to receive the outcome which is in her personal best interest. In fact she does not definitely know that she wants to leave the program: rather, she has some good reasons to leave (lack of interest and enthusiasm for a future academic career) and other good reasons to stay for a while (a desire to get a degree). The right thing to do is to talk to her advisor, be candid about her doubts, and get on a track that would allow her to gracefully complete a master's degree if she so chooses. </p>\n\n<p>Someone who cuts your funding for <em>expressing doubts</em> about the future is not behaving ethically. In all programs that I'm familiar with, funding is guaranteed conditional on satisfactory progress, and having a frank conversation does not make satisfactory progress unsatisfactory. <em>If</em> the OP's advisor behaves so badly as to cut her funding following that conversation, then the OP can seek recourse from the director of graduate studies or the department head and has an excellent case. The fact that she's scheduled to teach in the fall strengthens the case: if the funding is cut and she leaves because of it, who teaches the class? </p>\n\n<p>The fact that not informing the advisor is setting him up for a crisis later on is also a significant consideration. To accept mentorship and funding from someone while planning all the while to leave them in the lurch later is quite indefensible. I'm not surprised that the OP is having feelings of guilt about it. As she is learning, we know deep down at a visceral level when we are doing something that we think is wrong. Doing the right thing has intrinsic rewards -- call it karma or neuropsychology, it's true nevertheless. I think she will sleep far better at night knowing that she did the right thing and suffered financial hardship for no fault of her own than if she did what she knew was wrong for purely selfish reasons. I know I would. </p>\n\n<p>Finally, having a master's degree from a program and advisor who will only say negative things about you when asked is far from ideal. Being able to play well with others is valued even more in \"the real world\" than in academia, so burning bridges in this way is not a smart move.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48904,
"author": "roseofjuly",
"author_id": 37289,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37289",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The best time to tell your advisor is when you are comfortable, and when you have an exit plan that works for you.</p>\n\n<p>There's no ethical conundrum involved with waiting until it's convenient for you. PhD programs have attrition rates approaching 50% on average, and any advisor or graduate director who has been doing this for a length of time knows that some students are going to leave. They prepare for these contingencies.</p>\n\n<p>However, first I think you need to assess how likely it is your advisor will react the way you predict. I told my advisor in graduate school that I was quitting and although he was disappointed, he didn't threaten to cut my funding before I found something. (I changed my mind and stayed.) I recently told my postdoctoral advisor I was leaving academia for a job in the private sector, and although I thought she'd be upset, she was very supportive and happy for me. Are you sure that your advisor will threaten to cut your funding? Is there a chance that he'll be supportive of your decision to leave and will help you finish the terminal master's? Only you know your advisor, so only you can decide.</p>\n\n<p>If you think he would, then you have to decide whether your mental health and your professional goals would be better served by telling your advisor now/soon, or by waiting until closer to the end of the semester. I understand your feelings of guilt and stress about not liking academia and wanting to leave, and feeling like you are living a lie. But the truth is <strong>people leave jobs and careers all the time</strong>. They job search while they are working in a specific job; they tell their employers they have a dentist appointment when really it's an interview; they stay employed when they really want to go to graduate school in 6 months because they want to eat food and live inside. People want to act like academia and PhD programs are different, but at their core, they're not - you're leaving a job/career. Wanting to leave does not mean that you need to sacrifice eating and sleeping inside for the sake of your advisor.</p>\n\n<p>So if you think he'll cut you off, then wait until towards the end of the semester. Give him about a month's notice, maybe a little more, so you can finish up handing off projects. If you get so bogged down you simply can't wait anymore, then tell him earlier.</p>\n\n<p>You have guilt about wanting to leave because that's normal, to because there's anything wrong with you. Everyone I've talked to who has ever left academia (including myself) has felt some amount of guilt about it. The reasons are too complex to get into here, but if you do an Internet search about it you'll find lots of stories from former academics who feel super guilty about leaving. It eventually goes away. In fact, reading about other people's experiences may help it go away. Your advisor will eventually take on another student to finish that project. They may get a couple undergrads to help in the mean time. There may be a student from another department that switches over. They may drop it for a couple months. PIs adjust. He'll be fine. More importantly, you don't want to soak in misery for years on end because you want to help him finish.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48936,
"author": "bfoste01",
"author_id": 19610,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19610",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>RE the funding issue:</p>\n\n<p>(I'm presuming by \"support\" you mean paid lab work)</p>\n\n<p>In regards to feeling bad about the funding. This is something that drives me a bit crazy about academia. In my lab I'm paid 19K for 9 months of work to work on all of my advisor's projects first. That's fine. But can we all be honest about the system and just be real about what PIs get out of having RAs work on their projects? Cheap and highly qualified labor to move the grant along. In the event where the student wants to go into academia we can argue about the merits of all the experience this low-paying work adds to the CV in terms of conferences and paper submissions; but in the end we are cheap labor. </p>\n\n<p>I've also seen other labs where the PI financially supports a student in the student's own research. In quite a few instances the PI has not been that involved in the student's project(s) outside of the financial support, but attaches his/her name to everything the student does. This arrangement seems common if the primary data is the PI's, or if as part of of PI's support the student collects new data. However, I've also seen the students in this kind of arrangement use publicly available data for projects. This is all fine too. In many ways this is similar to working at a high-level in R&D in industry. Your name might go on a patent, but the company owns all intellectual rights. In the case of academia, where publications are everything, the PI benefits from this arrangement greatly. </p>\n\n<p>If your situation is similar to one of the previous two examples then you don't owe it to anyone to tell them before you've got your Master's and a job offer in hand. The PI will still benefit from your work. Would they benefit more knowing a student was committed to project over the course of the next several years? Sure, but the PI still makes out pretty good. Now, you say you've been pretty bummed by your situation too. If you are being paid and just at home watching Netflix all day then that's a big problem. </p>\n\n<p>Now in a third situation the advisor is paying you to work on what you want to pursue, totally orthogonal to their projects, and giving you full credit of everything (i.e., not attaching their name to everything you do as a point of lab policy). If this is the case then yes... let your advisor know now and let him/her do something different with his/her funding. </p>\n\n<p>I do believe your hunch is correct: Leave without a terminal Master's and you've wasted 2-3 years of your life for nothing. You've added no income potential to your future without that degree on your resume, and (depending on your field) if you're going into industry you'll likely find that selling 2-3 years of work in an academic lab is a bit more difficult than you think, so best to get yourself in the best position possible for your next phase. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48160",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31295/"
] |
48,169 |
<p>I just started my PhD in computer science (first year) and I enjoy reading the high-rated journals related to my field. It is true that I find them, sometimes, complicated (in some sense) and I cannot continue the reading. The reason why I like reading such journals is that (1) there are many beautiful ideas, (2) solid works and (3) I would like to submit to these journals in the future.</p>
<p>I think, however, that this strategy is not quite good as a junior (student). May be I should read other conference papers and journals.</p>
<p>Can you please suggest some useful advice.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48170,
"author": "Prof. Santa Claus",
"author_id": 35582,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35582",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The gold standard is indeed these kind of journals. I always tell my students: you are what you read :) This is because we learn by osmosis. You need to learn what is 'solid work', how to do technical writing, the vocab, and the most important ideas in your field. The latter is critical. If a reviewer finds that you missed a seminal work, your paper will be rejected.</p>\n\n<p>In CS there are top conferences too, so do read them as well. If you are in networking then SIGCOMM and MOBICOM have very nicely written papers and usually nice ideas.</p>\n\n<p>It is important not to discount lower tier venues. They may contain interesting ideas that may spark a wild fire. In other words, read them for ideas and conduct your research as per the gold standard.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48176,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I've never been one to sit down and read a journal edition cover to cover. I think you're better off skimming titles and abstracts for articles that pique your interest. You should do this for conference proceedings too. You can't attend every talk at a conference, nor should you really expect yourself to read every article. </p>\n\n<p>At some point you will need to narrow your interest to something pretty specific in order to develop a dissertation. You will also need to develop depth and historical perspective on your chosen topic. You should probably spend as much, if not more, time reading interesting individual articles and all their important references (and so on!) as you should trying to read whole journal editions or entire conference proceedings. There's value in a depth-oriented approach to reading articles. </p>\n\n<p>I find that there's a pruning strategy of sorts that keeps you out of stuff that's not interesting. Sometimes randomly selected articles can be worthwhile, but there's lots of stuff out there that will be boring to you. Using a good article as a guide and reading some of its references can be much more productive. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48185,
"author": "drcrpsych",
"author_id": 35871,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35871",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I found/find that reading 'high rated' journals is a good place to start when investigating a research topic. Not only do they provide a solid grounding in contemporary 'advancements' in your field but they also have the potential to provide a huge resource by way of the reference section. Perusing reference material to which the author/s refer and upon which they preface their research can [over a number of journals] provide a listing of relevant and seminal works that minimises possibly of missing something important. </p>\n\n<p>I also agree with the above comments re: scanning abstracts/titles etc. but would also urge you to seek out journals by particular (reputable) authors/researchers who are in your field and who will more than likely have written journals that could provide some insight into how their research evolved.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48190,
"author": "Nathan",
"author_id": 36683,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36683",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>To be honest there are some serious issues with the really \"high-level\" journals (namely nature and science). It is seemingly the case that the editors of said journals have a designated \"hot topic\" which they find to be of interest. A symptom of this drive is that the reproducibility of the experiments described in such articles suffers, (as evinced by e.g. that guy from Bell Labs a few years ago who was doing some seemingly phenomenal stuff with magnets). With this said, the acceptance of a topic in such a journal is usually indicative of the problem being of great interest. Depending on your intended field I would narrow down your search to journals which are more myopic as due to the breadth covered by such high-level journals searches in smaller journals I find tend to be more fruitful (as in I have to parse fewer abstracts/titles for something of interest).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48202,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The value of reading high-ranking journals in your field is that it will give you a somewhat broad view of what leading researchers in your field consider to be \"good\" and \"important\" research.</p>\n\n<p>However, this \"breadth-first\" approach will not help you very much in your own research, including getting your own papers published.</p>\n\n<p>Instead, I suggest you pursue a \"depth-first\" approach where you find \"seminal\" papers in the sub-fields that interest you the most, and then read all the important papers that cite those seminal papers, especially papers that argue against the seminal/foundational papers. In this way, you learn about the scientific <em>discourse</em> involved in any particular line of research.</p>\n\n<p>You can find seminal papers several ways. Sometimes, they are highly cited. Other times, they are the focus of special issues of journals or special conferences. Sometimes, they aren't highly cited (i.e. do not have a high number of citations themselves), but they are cited or used in a few critical papers which in turn led to a significant line of research.</p>\n\n<p>With this sort of analysis, you will learn the skill of evaluating papers not in isolation but in the context of a whole line of research, including research by detractors.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>I advocate the \"depth-first\" approach to support your own research because in your dissertation you will need to take a position through your thesis statement(s) on a few research question(s). For this purpose, it is of little value to know <em>all</em> the latest research in the best journals. Instead, you need to know all (or most) of the research in <em>one or a couple of lines of research</em>, and especially the gaps in that research which you intend to fill with your dissertation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48277,
"author": "M.M",
"author_id": 15032,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15032",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Reading and educating yourself as a new PhD student is required to improve your skills to, eventually, write something similar to what you are reading now. If you feel that the level of the papers you read is too high and you cannot follow it, then it is a good starting point to define the areas where you need to improve (given that you are reading in THE related work to your topic). After defining these areas, it is your task now to start working on it by attending lectures offered by your university, MOOCs, reading books, etc.\nYou can also participate in cs.stackexchange or similar platforms that are related to your research, start reading the related questions, asking questions, and even answering questions.\nYou can test this with two or three papers that you like most, but you are not able to follow, then you can come back again to these papers and test how you improve.\nStarting PhD is always not easy in CS, do not lose your enthusiasm and try always to improve your self.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48169",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31173/"
] |
48,177 |
<p>I received an anonymous review from a journal. This journal does not hide the identities of authors from reviewers. Should I quote the reviewer's remark that the work is "impressive" on my CV?</p>
<p>Does the answer change if the manuscript is not accepted?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48178,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Unless the article won a prize (Best Paper, Best Student Paper, Gordon Bell, etc), I wouldn't mention anything special about it at all, and even if it did win a prize, I wouldn't mention the reviewer's comment. The anonymous reviewer is unaccountable to the reader of your CV and therefore untrustworthy. If the manuscript wasn't accepted, the the question is irrelevant since it should not appear on your CV at all.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48181,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>No, and no. You should not try to hype up yourself with subjective comments in your CV or elsewhere in job applications, say. Other people don't do this, and if you do you will seem strange and possibly desparate. Your CV should be a list of objective information. It is the job of your references to compare your work to other people's and say how impressive it is.</p>\n\n<p>About the most you can do is keep the review in a personal \"feel good\" folder and look back at it when you need self-encouragement.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48252,
"author": "Kevin",
"author_id": 36735,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36735",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would suggest looking at some CVs of successful PhD students (if you are still in graduate school) or scholars' CVs and use them as templates. I have some suggestions if you want one. I'm in the business/economics field.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48177",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/13240/"
] |
48,179 |
<p>It is time for me to apply for graduate studies. </p>
<p>I am wondering, if I have a paper accepted at a journal or conference, is it OK for me to show this accepted paper to others (such as potential advisor for my graduate study) even if the journal or conference has not yet formally published (or made public) this paper? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48180,
"author": "Corvus",
"author_id": 27900,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27900",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In general, I would think so, but I suppose this depends somewhat upon the culture of the field that you are in. To be on the safe side, simply check with your co-authors and get their permission beforehand. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48186,
"author": "Roy",
"author_id": 29457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29457",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In CS, I think this is pretty normal - in fact I think this can be considered normal in any field. </p>\n\n<p>I mean an accepted paper is going to be published at some point of time in the respective conference or journal. So the effect of sharing such a paper should theoretically have the same impact as sharing a paper that has been published.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/01
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48179",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15059/"
] |
48,184 |
<p>Some universities that offer a DSc as the doctoral degree, while most of them also offer a PHD degree in science. What are the differences these degrees in terms of academic standing? What are the pros and cons?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48192,
"author": "410 gone",
"author_id": 96,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/96",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>It depends on the university and the country.</p>\n\n<p>In England, a PhD is typically awarded for a thesis and oral examination of the thesis, usually followed by implementation of corrections to the thesis, the requirements for which are specified during or just after the oral exam. It's often done soon after a Masters, which is done soon after a Bachelors, so a fairly large proportion of PhDs are awarded at the start of one's academic career. Whereas a DSc is awarded for a portfolio of work, (in some cases submitted together with an over-arching critique of that portfolio), and thus is more likely to be awarded later in an academic's career.</p>\n\n<p>Nominally, a PhD is a doctorate in philosophy, but is typically awarded for pretty much any subject. There are some who argue that philosophy of knowledge always form part of these studies, regardless of the subject. I occasionally use this line to try to inspire students, myself. A DSc is a doctorate in science, and is not awarded for literature, law, divinity, or music, each of which has its own dedicated higher doctorate. </p>\n\n<p>The DSc is a higher doctorate than a PhD, in England. In some other countries, they're equivalent.</p>\n\n<p>Both get the honorific title doctor.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48218,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A good summary of the differences between Ph.D. and the \"Doctor of Science\" family of degrees (D.Sc./Sc.D./etc.) <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_of_Science\">can be found in Wikipedia</a>.</p>\n\n<p>In essence, different countries have different views due to their historical development, which generally fall into two clusters:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Doctor of Science is equivalent to Ph.D.</li>\n<li>Doctor of Science is a sort of <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctorate#Higher\">super-Ph.D.</a></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>In general, much of the world seems to be slowly standardizing around Ph.D. as a universal term, though given national pride and the traditions of academia, it might never congeal completely around a single interpretation of the terms.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 64498,
"author": "Norton R. Nowlin",
"author_id": 50226,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/50226",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The Doctor of Science Degree is purely a research degree that extends well beyond what is formally required for a Doctor of Philosophy Degree. Extensive publication of research is a prime prerequisite for the D.Sc. Degree, not merely the completion of a dissertation. A dissertation plus an extensive port folio of research publications add-up to qualify a candidate for the Doctor of Science Degree. Usually the D.Sc. Degree is inter-disciplinary, such as a combination of research in history, economics, and political science or government, which gears the candidate for inter-disciplinary publication. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 68423,
"author": "user53896",
"author_id": 53896,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53896",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In the United States, the Doctor of Science is identical to the Doctor of Philosophy except that it's awarded only in the natural sciences, and only by a few universities. Massachusetts Institute of Technology awards both degrees, for instance, and the curriculum is identical. (MIT doctoral graduates in the physical sciences and engineering can choose either degree title once all the requirements have been met. Those in the social sciences and biology don't have the option of choosing the Doctor of Science, however; they all get the PhD.)</p>\n\n<p>In the United Kingdom and some other countries, the Doctor of Science is a \"higher doctorate\" awarded after submission of a portfolio of published work -- typically around 80-120 journal articles. It signifies a much higher level of accomplishment than the PhD, and it's usually awarded to researchers relatively late in their careers. There are equivalent higher doctorates in other fields of study: Doctor of Letters, Doctor of Laws, Doctor of Divinity, etc.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48184",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36009/"
] |
48,188 |
<p>I'm an undergraduate student (20f). I have 2 academic advisors - one in the Honors College & one in my department. I met with the Honors advisor recently to discuss study abroad and we somehow got on the topic of me not ever taking breaks. My GPA had fallen the past semester, and she warned me that if I don't start taking care of myself, I could burn out before getting my PhD (which is my goal).</p>
<p>I've suffered from anxiety/depression for years and recently begun to see a psychiatrist and counselor when I stopped eating, starting passing out, and developed repeated thoughts of suicide. All of that happened this past semester when I took an independent study with my Dept advisor, and I don't think he noticed. I want to be able to continue my research, so I'm trying to take care of myself. Unfortunately, that means I need to diminish my work load some.</p>
<p>I've been working with my Dept advisor closely for 2 years. He's helped me go to undergrad research conferences, get published, get grants etc. Always there for me academically, but the relationship's still very professional. We're officially starting my thesis work in the fall, but I told him I would start the readings this summer (halfway through the list). However, if I'm going to slow down the pace, I feel like I ought to give him reasons so he doesn't just think I'm slacking off. At the same time, I don't want to make it overly personal and make things awkward between us. He always asks how I am and it's a joke between us that I always say "tired" and he says "me too." I know that he pushes himself incredibly hard and never gives himself a break.</p>
<p>I would really appreciate examples of how I could word the email. I was thinking of asking him to meet some time (we're both in town over summer) to discuss and then tell him. Would it be better to do it over email? How do I tell him that I can't handle my current workload and still expect him to respect me as an academic?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48189,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Good for you for recognizing your illness and for getting professional help.</p>\n\n<p>My answer has two parts.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding how to tell your adviser, I suggest that you can write a <em>short</em>, <em>factual</em>, but <em>non-personal</em> email that contains <em>all</em> the information you want him to know. Something like this:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Dear Professor X,</p>\n \n <p>I need to tell you about a health condition that I have struggled with\n for some time. I have a psychological condition involving anxiety and depression, and I am receiving professional medical treatment for it. We have a course of treatment that is appropriate but it will take some time to be effective. </p>\n \n <p>One consequence is that I will need to be more careful about the\n amount of stress I am experiencing, including avoiding a stressful\n work load. I have decided that my past work load (including X, Y, and Z) is too much and not healthy for me.</p>\n \n <p>Considering the alternatives, I have decided to focus my effort on X and Y, and to discontinue (or cut back on) Z. I remain committed to academic excellence and my career goals, and I believe this new work plan will be more likely to be successful than my previous work patterns.</p>\n \n <p>I will be happy to meet with you to discuss this decision and alternative suggestions you might have. However, there are aspects that I hold private and will not be open to discussing. Thank you for understanding.</p>\n \n <p>Best regards,</p>\n \n <p>Student</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You only need to meet in person if the Department adviser requests a meeting.</p>\n\n<p>The second part of my answer comes to me intuitively based on the way you have written your question and the background. </p>\n\n<p>I sense that you might have a belief in perfectionism -- that the only acceptable level of effort is 110% and the only acceptable level of results is perfection. You might have a very negative association with being perceived as \"lazy\" or \"slacker\" if you take <em>any</em> vacations or breaks. You might also believe that any error or misstep is a sure sign of unrecoverable failure.</p>\n\n<p>If these resonate with you, then they need to be addressed to avoid recurring patterns of overwork, exhaustion, and eventually burnout.</p>\n\n<p>Since you are seeing a professional psychologist and counselor, I suggest that you raise these questions and your responses with him/her. No need to respond here (in public). </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>EDIT:\nAnticipating some objections, I know that making explicit mention of \"psychological condition\" and \"anxiety and depression\" may be risky and may go against cultural norms. As a matter of ethics and morality, I believe it is important and necessary for all of us, individually, to act against those cultural norms that are harmful and counter productive. In this case, it is prejudice against mental illness, but I hold the same views regarding racism, sexism, and other cultural dysfunctions.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, each individual needs to weigh the potential consequences of going against cultural norms. If you can't bear the potential consequences, then don't do it. You'll have to leave it to others to push for changes to cultural norms.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48212,
"author": "Jan-Christoph Schlage-Puchta",
"author_id": 30965,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30965",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I believe that the letter suggested by MrMeritology is fine. I just want to add a remark which might help you overcoming the burden of writing such a letter. Chances are that your advisor already knows about part of your problems, and is actually pondering about how to formulate the question \"How do I tell my student to slow down and get professional help?\" on academia.se. Academics might not be the most observant of all people, but they do talk to each other, and most would honestly try to help. However, approaching someone who has problems is quite delicate and even the best intentions may do more harm then good. So in writing such a letter you may well do a favour to your advisor and save him worries about how to go beyond the tired-joke.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48221,
"author": "Konstantinos Gaitanas",
"author_id": 8979,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8979",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This has happened also to me, and only you know how hard this is.You have to be really,really strong but very careful also.<br>\nIt is highly possible that if you are too honest he might not be so open-minded.<br>\nSomething like<br>\n<em>\"Currently, some health problems I am dealing with are making me slower in my research\"</em><br>\nwould be a good approach through e mail.<br>\nIt is a good way to mention that you have some issues but not necessarily mental.<br>\nSee how he responses to this and then you can talk face to face and explain (if he asks) the details.<br>\nWhat you really need to do is explain yourself in such a way that you will be honest and straight.This will act against anxiety since you will have earned some time to breathe.<br>\nNext, focus on doing research just for a small amount of time every day in order not to feel \"out\" of academics but not to feel sick again. </p>\n\n<p>Good luck!!! Remember,all you have to do is breathe in and out,and life goes on.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48188",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36682/"
] |
48,193 |
<p>Just to ask some advice regarding tutoring students while pursuing a PhD to supplement my income.
Is this a good idea? Tutoring pays well in my country, and I am intending to teach twice a week(2 hours each), which would generate a side income equivalent to 30% of my stipend.</p>
<p>(Side info: I am researching Mathematics)</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice!</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48194,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In Germany, most Ph.D. students (with university jobs) do exactly this: they are responsible for tutorials, seminars etc., selecting problems, working with the student TAs that actually hold the tutorials. This is all part of their university job. The workload is probably comparable to 4 hours a week workload. (People on actual stipends are not required to do so; some do, some don't.)</p>\n\n<p>As to whether this is a good idea: we can't answer that question. It will depend on your stipend and your expenses, on how badly you need the money, on whether you could have meaningfully used that time to further your research or not (because you can't do full-power research all day long, and you might just as well include some planned lower-power time in your week), on how much quality of life tutoring gives you (or takes away from you) and so forth.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48251,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Of course, whether it is a good idea can only be known in hindsight. But many PhD students work as private tutors, so if it sounds interesting to you, you might as well try it.</p>\n\n<p>Some things to consider:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>It will probably take you some time to prepare for each lesson. And unless your students will come to your home or office, also account for travel time and expenses. Four hours of lessons per week may require significantly more than four hours of your time.</p></li>\n<li><p>What will you do if your students are late to their lesson, or don't show up at all? What if they don't study for their lessons? What if they are late in paying you? What if they (or their parents) demand some different style of tutoring than you had planned? What if they demand that you just do their homework while they Facebook?</p></li>\n<li><p>Consider the time it will take you to recruit students. Assume that they will quit unexpectedly, requiring you to find new students and lose income in the meantime. Do not count on your tutoring fees as steady income.</p></li>\n<li><p>Ethical issues: if you are working as a teaching assistant or something similar, you cannot be a private tutor to students who are enrolled in your class. Check for other ethics or conflict of interest rules that your university may have. In particular, although your university office may seem like a convenient place to meet your private students, this may not be allowed.</p></li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48273,
"author": "Yann TM",
"author_id": 36762,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36762",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Mostly you should try in my opinion do proper teaching to a class rather than private sessions, per hour you'll get better pay, and it could be more valuable on your resume eventually. \nUnless your PhD contract has some exclusivity clause, making time for teaching should be ok, just clear it with your advisors beforehand (I need money boss !).</p>\n\n<p>Don't undervalue your skills, as PhD student you can already teach up to master level to a class, and should be practicing that skill. Teaching just one or two students is not the best use of your time at this level, imho.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48193",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22728/"
] |
48,195 |
<p>I need to add some images to my thesis. I would strongly prefer that these are free (no cost) and not restricted by copyright. I have used Google Image to find images, I don't know how to determine what the copyright restrictions are, or what license types apply. I will not use them in any published paper, just for my unpublished thesis.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>P.S. Here are the search options for Google Image:</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/AUVCP.png" alt="Google images usage rights"></p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48198,
"author": "MrMeritology",
"author_id": 17564,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17564",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You can't rely on the options for Google Image search. Instead, you will have to do additional research for each of the images you find and intend to use.</p>\n\n<p>First, you need to find the original author/creator of that image. It may or may not be the same as the owner/creator of the web site where you find the image. (They may have copied the image from somewhere else, with or without permission.) You can use <a href=\"https://images.google.com/\">Google Image search</a> \"search by image\" option to find other copies of that same image on other sites.</p>\n\n<p>Second, you need to find the copyright statement <em>for that image</em> on the site <em>of the owner</em>. In many cases, you'll find a copyright statement as part of the \"Terms of Service\" for the whole web site. In other cases, there will be a copyright statement for each and every image.</p>\n\n<p>Third, when in doubt, you need to contact the author/owner and ask for permission to use the image.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>If all this seems cumbersome and so non-digital, be aware that copyright law (and intellectual property rights law in general) still lives in the pre-digital age. Lawyers still send faxes to each other and to the courts. Think about that.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48200,
"author": "André Kleinschmidt",
"author_id": 36613,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36613",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This depends highly on your countries laws and regulations.</p>\n\n<p>For example: The German copyright laws has some <em>limitations</em> for the use of works <em>in the area of teaching and research</em>.</p>\n\n<p>With the CC licenses you risk less mistakes. But you have to take care of the correct distribution. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>name the author and source if the license contains BY.</li>\n<li>don't change the file and only use it in the original composition when license contains ND (no derivate).</li>\n<li>don't use media with licenses containing NC (not commercial) in a thesis or paper that contributes to (pending) patents. That could be interpreted to be a commercial use.</li>\n<li>[changed:] according to the (IANAL-)comments one can use SA (share alike) licensed material without putting your thesis under the same license</li>\n</ul>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>In any case, pages that give information about the media-license are good sources, because you mostly have a clear licensing statement for any file. So you can easily decide whether and how to use it. I doubt that an author will change the license later on. You could use a web preservation repository service like <a href=\"http://www.webcitation.org\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">WebCite</a> to create evidence that the file had a specific license when you found and decided to use it.</p>\n\n<p>Suggestions for search:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Wikimedia Commons</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://www.flickr.com\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Flickr</a> (thanks to <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/48204/31917\">Henning</a> for the suggestion)</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48204,
"author": "henning",
"author_id": 31917,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31917",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><a href=\"http://flickr.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Flickr</a> makes it very easy to <a href=\"http://www.alicekeeler.com/teachertech/2014/08/22/using-flickr-for-creative-commons-images-in-a-presentation/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">find images</a> that have a \"free\" license in the sense explained in Andrés <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/48200/31917\">answer</a>. These also include beautiful images from <a href=\"https://www.flickr.com/commons\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">public archives</a>, such as the British Library. In contrast to a google image search (see MrMeritology's <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/48198/31917\">answer</a>), the author and copyright information on Flickr are reliable. However, one <a href=\"http://librarianbyday.net/2013/01/27/the-danger-of-using-creative-commons-flickr-photos-in-presentations/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">caveat</a> is that the author might change the license and you have no way to prove that the work was \"free\" when you first used it.</p>\n\n<p>If you are confused whether or not you can reuse a copyrighted image, this <a href=\"http://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Infographic_CanIUseThatPicture4.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">flowchart</a> might help.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48205,
"author": "Jack Aidley",
"author_id": 5614,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5614",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In order to use images in your thesis you need to know who made them so that you can properly credit them, regardless of the issue of copyright. Proper accreditation is probably a more significant issue for your thesis than complying with copyright laws since failure to properly credit images including in your thesis is <em>plagarism</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Since you will need to identify the original creator of each piece anyway, I would suggest you rely much more on what you learn through this route than anything Google tells you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48222,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm a strong supporter of Wikipedia and her sister projects. One of those projects is exactly what you're looking for. The <a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page\">Wikimedia Commons</a> is a database of 26,536,356+ freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute. There are millions of images (not just photographs) and thousands added each day. You can view all the licensing for every media file, although that might not be entirely necessary considering all of them are free to use.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48223,
"author": "Patricia Shanahan",
"author_id": 10220,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10220",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I wanted a very specific image for my dissertation, and found a simple solution - I drew it myself, and scanned the result. Since I created it, the copyright status was exactly the same as the words I was writing. It did not need any acknowledgement or reference. It cost me a few dollars for materials, and about an hour of my time.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48242,
"author": "user3108698",
"author_id": 36728,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36728",
"pm_score": -1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Another royalty free stock image site is: <a href=\"http://www.sxc.hu/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.sxc.hu/</a></p>\n\n<p>I would also suggest take pictures of your own. You can pose for yourself or ask family or friend.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48267,
"author": "Manuel Abarca",
"author_id": 36758,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36758",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think, if you guide yourself by the <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/\" rel=\"nofollow\">creative commons</a> it could get easier but Im not aware of how your contry takes this online practices so you might want to check that</p>\n\n<p>This is an article that helped me a lot some weeks ago with free photos and images ready to be used, some shared under the creative commons other freely shared by their owners</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://www.shopify.com/blog/17156388-22-awesome-websites-with-stunning-free-stock-images\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://www.shopify.com/blog/17156388-22-awesome-websites-with-stunning-free-stock-images</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48372,
"author": "Noemie Martin-Pascual",
"author_id": 32935,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32935",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are a number of sites where you can download images. \nFor certain sites, attribution isn't required (but usually appreciated). For example:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https://picjumbo.com/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">https://picjumbo.com/</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://pixabay.com/en/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">https://pixabay.com/en/</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://stocksnap.io/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">https://stocksnap.io/</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"http://www.pexels.com/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">http://www.pexels.com/</a></li>\n<li><a href=\"https://unsplash.com/grid\" rel=\"noreferrer\">https://unsplash.com/grid</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Flickr (<a href=\"https://www.flickr.com\" rel=\"noreferrer\">https://www.flickr.com</a>) also offers a great database of free images. You can use the search tool and then filter by copyright types: </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Images under \"Commercial use & mods allowed\" are free but attribution is required. This means you'll have to link to their author and to the License page. if you've modified the image, you also have to specify it</li>\n<li>Images under \"No known copyright restrictions\" are in the public domain or universal commons (CC0 1.0 Universal) and no attribution is required. </li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48373,
"author": "sangam.saga",
"author_id": 11505,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11505",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are a few sites which allows you to use images copyright free. Just note that you cannot re-sell those images. </p>\n\n<p>Follow <a href=\"https://pixabay.com/en/\" rel=\"nofollow\">this</a></p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48195",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19880/"
] |
48,207 |
<p>I'm doing independent research in computer sciences and i develop some program that i think i might be could write a couple paper for this.</p>
<p>My question is what should i do between</p>
<ol>
<li>Publish a paper first then release its application</li>
<li>Release application first then publish its paper</li>
</ol>
<p>In actually i prefer the second choice because i start developing application already and this can finish soon. May be better to release it than waiting to finish writing a paper that a little bit take time.</p>
<p>Any advice or concern please ans below.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48213,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Your threat model just doesn't work out in reality. By knowing your code well (because you wrote it), you have a huge advantage over everyone else in the world. It is very unlikely that someone, even an expert in Domain Specific Languages, will pick up your application, fully understand it, and be able to write an article about it before you can finish your article and get it submitted. I really wouldn't worry about it. </p>\n\n<p>Besides, my experience is that people are out there talking about their open source codes well before they get their marker papers published. It's good to be able to discuss your work with colleagues and to drum up users before you finish the paper. Perhaps you will find several collaborators in the process. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48215,
"author": "sevensevens",
"author_id": 14754,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14754",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You should likely publish the code first. While most journals require they be the first to publish the paper, the rules don't generally apply to related items (like a code library). If its like most research, a year from now when the proceedings are published, you will have likely made substantial improvements. Be sure to branch.</p>\n\n<p>You also have the advantage of being able to find interested parties BEFORE your paper is published, which will probably lead to a better attended talk. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48207",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/18263/"
] |
48,208 |
<p>Does anyone know if it is possible for a Ph.D. graduate of mathematics to successfully do research in his/her spare time?</p>
<p>The work environment and conditions in academia seem somewhat deplorable at the moment---no offence intended, but that simply very much appears to be the case from an outsider's perspective---and it just strikes me that mathematics would surely be the subject most suited to Ph.D. graduates who don't want to go there, but still want to research, as "only pen and paper" are required.</p>
<p>If one were really, truly devoted...how much of a disadvantage would they have compared to someone who chose to stick it out?</p>
<p>Are seminars entirely barred?</p>
<p>Is it impossible to publish?</p>
<p>Collaborate?</p>
<p>How much (more) time would someone who stayed in academia have in a day to spend researching?</p>
<p>Also, what about people who have not got PhDs? I would think it's more or less impossible for them to contribute very much of value if they only have a Bachelor's or a Master's degree, but I really don't know.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48210,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It should be possible, but it will be <em>hard</em>.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Whether seminars are barred to you will depend on your locale. Even if non-students are officially not allowed to attend seminars, you may find a sympathetic professor who may turn a blind eye.</p></li>\n<li><p>Of course you can publish as an independent researcher. You may come in for some extra scrutiny until you have established a bit of a reputation.</p></li>\n<li><p>Similarly, nobody will care specifically about whether you have a Ph.D. when you submit a paper, as long as you have a command of the specific specialty you are trying to publish in.</p></li>\n<li><p>Of course you can collaborate, once you have convinced someone that you have worthwhile ideas. Getting a Ph.D. <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/46900/4140\">may be helpful to distinguish you from random cranks in establishing contacts, as well as start you out on building a network</a>.</p></li>\n<li><p>As to the time you will have to do research, this will vary. If you are at an R1 institution, you will have a lot of time (but of course getting in is hard). If you are at a teaching college or in a research job in industry, you will have more time. If you have a completely unrelated day job, you will need to rely on your spare time. And when you come home after a typical job, you will not be as fresh and as enthusiastic for research as if you started out in the morning, at your desk in a university. (<a href=\"https://parenting.stackexchange.com/a/20260/13545\">If you ever decide to start a family, expect your spare time for mathematical research to drop to zero immediately.</a>)</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>Academia still has advantages, for instance:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li><p>Your library will likely have subscriptions to the major journals, so you don't need to bombard authors with requests for their papers.</p></li>\n<li><p>You will likely have at least some budget to attend conferences. If you go the independent researcher route, you will need to pay for these out of your pocket.</p></li>\n<li><p>If you are not at a university, you may have to pay higher registration fees (which depends on the conference and may be negotiable).</p></li>\n<li><p>If you hold a day job and want to attend a conference, you will need to use up vacation days for that.</p></li>\n<li><p>Although you <em>can</em> collaborate as an independent researcher, it will still be easier at a university. There will be seminars right next door, guests, access to students you can mentor and develop into collaborators etc.</p></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>I work in a math-heavy research job in industry and have been able to do some more-or-less serious research, mostly on the side. (And I obviously still have affinity for Academia.) It can be done, but it's hard.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>If what you want to do is research, do your Ph.D. first (I did). This will give you an idea of what's ahead of you and give you a bit of a network. If afterwards you don't find a job in academia, you can still get a day job and try the research-on-the-side route. (However, your priorities in life may have shifted by that time.)</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48211,
"author": "David Ketcheson",
"author_id": 81,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/81",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<h2>Publishing</h2>\n<p>In mathematics, most people will judge your research on its merits, not based on your credentials or affiliations. So this is not an issue, if you are able to generate significant results and write them up in a clear way.</p>\n<h2>Seminars</h2>\n<p>I have seen many members of the public regularly attend seminars. I've never heard of them being kicked out. It's not an issue.</p>\n<h2>Funding</h2>\n<p>The primary drawback is that you won't be paid for your research if you are just doing it in your spare time. Unless you are already independently wealthy, that means you will have relatively little time for research since you need a day job.</p>\n<p>It is of course possible to get grants to fund your research without being in academia; there are a number of private entities in the US funded entirely by grants, and many of them include mathematicians. But you said spare time only.</p>\n<h2>Collaboration</h2>\n<p>Another drawback is that you won't be in close contact with other researchers by default. It wouldn't be impossible to establish that contact, but again you must consider whether you will have the time. And people won't take you seriously unless you have serious results.</p>\n<h2>Not getting a PhD</h2>\n<p>In mathematics, even more than in other fields, it is almost impossible to make a contribution without spending several years learning what is already known. In principle you could do that without getting a PhD, but why would you?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48250,
"author": "Tony Roberts",
"author_id": 36733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As an academic mathematician, I can assure you that I do about half of my research in my \"spare time\" (that is, outside of paid hours) and I have done so for over 30 years. I expect most academics do similarly. If you are truly devoted, then just do it. I recommend getting up at 4am or 5am daily so you have a couple of hours before the family awakes.</p>\n\n<p>Regarding access to libraries, seminars, etc: contact a university (probably best near where you live) and ask about an \"adjunct\" appointment or affiliation that gives you access to facilities.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48254,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A supplement to other answers: no one seems to have explicitly mentioned what might be biggest \"disadvantage\": you will probably have a lot less motivation to do \"academic\" research being outside of academia. Research is hard, and external motivation (e.g., constantly being around people interested in say pure math research) can make a big difference in your productivity. Here, where you work and what kind of community you are in and culture you are a part of can play a big role. </p>\n\n<p>My personal impression is that quite a few people in industry positions with a more academic math-heavy culture (like NSA, Microsoft Research, Google, IBM, once upon a time AT&T/Bell Labs, National Labs, etc) do a reasonable amount of academic publishing in their spare time. But at other kinds of companies, even where you do research, like banks or hedge funds, academic publishing seems to be less common.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48208",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26647/"
] |
48,224 |
<p>I am a student in computer science and I recently started working on my M.Sc. thesis. Now I am reading a 2011 paper with about 170 citations that was published in a well-known conference.</p>
<p>In part of the paper, the author briefly states the complexity of their algorithm (in just one line) and claims a complexity order that I believe is false. But I am really in doubt because I think if there was a problem with that paper, that should have been caught earlier by the editorial board.</p>
<p>I want to know, actually how common is it for such errors to be found in papers published in a well-known conferences?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48228,
"author": "Massimo Ortolano",
"author_id": 20058,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20058",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I'll try to give a general answer from a non-CS perspective.</p>\n\n<p><strong>tl; dr</strong>: yes, there are errors out there. <em>A lot</em> of errors, clerical and not, even in oft-cited papers and books, from any field. It's inevitable: though they do their best to avoid errors, authors are human after all, and reviewers are humans too (I know, you never find a damn robot when you need one). Thus, whenever you read a paper, maintain critical thinking. </p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strong>EXAMPLES</strong></p>\n\n<p>I'll start the too long section with an anecdote. When I was working at my master's thesis, some twenty years ago, I needed a result published in a much cited paper from a renowned author in the field of electromagnetics. At the time, (almost) young and inexperienced, I thought that papers were always absolutely right, especially when written by recognized authorities. To practice the technique of the paper, I decided to rederive the results: after a week spent redoing the calculations over and over again, I couldn't find the same final equation. I was able to discover the correct equation – the one I was finding – in a book published later by the same author. Indeed, it was a clerical error that absolutely didn't change anything in the paper, but it was annoying and taught me an important lesson: papers and books contain errors. And, of course, I later published papers with mistakes in equations (not for revenge!) [*].</p>\n\n<p>After that first experience, I've discovered that you can find more fundamental errors, even in well known books and papers. I'll give you here a few examples, taken from different fields, to underline how broad the phenomenon is (in bold, the mistaken claim; within parentheses, the field):</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>(Classical mechanics) <strong>In Newtonian mechanics, the correct equation of motion in case of variable mass is F = dp/dt.</strong> This statement can be found in many classical books about newtonian mechanics, but it is plainly wrong, because that equation, when the mass is variable, is not invariant under Galilean transformations as it is expected in Newtonian mechanics (actually, the concept of variable mass in Newtonian mechanics can be misleading if not properly handled). For a deeper discussion see, e.g., <a href=\"http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?1992CeMDA..53..227P&data_type=PDF_HIGH&whole_paper=YES&type=PRINTER&filetype=.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Plastino (1990)</a>, <a href=\"http://iopscience.iop.org/0143-0807/25/1/L02\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Pinheiro (2004)</a> and Spivak's book <em>Physics for Mathematicians, Mechanics I</em>. As a curiosity, that wrong equation is used by <a href=\"http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~chua/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">L. O. Chua</a> in <a href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFdDPzcZwbs&t=14m50s\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">this speech (14:50 min)</a> as an example to introduce the memristor.</li>\n<li>(Circuit analysis) <strong>Superposition can't be applied directly to controlled sources.</strong> It was just a few years ago when I came across this statement for the first time, and I was stunned: hey, I've applied superposition to controlled sources since I was in high school, and I've always get the right result. How it possibly can't be used? In fact, it <em>can</em> be applied, the important thing is to apply it correctly, but there are really many professors (I have several examples from Italy and US) who don't understand this point and fail to notice that the proofs of several theorems in circuit analysis are actually based on the applicability of superposition to controlled sources. For more on this, see e.g. <a href=\"http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/271202/1/superposition.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Damper (2010)</a>, <a href=\"http://users.ece.gatech.edu/mleach/papers/superpos.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Marshall Leach (2009)</a> and <a href=\"http://www.enggjournals.com/ijet/docs/IJET12-04-03-013.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Rathore <em>et al.</em> (2012)</a>.</li>\n<li>(Thermodynamics) <strong>The Seebeck effect is a consequence of the contact potential.</strong> This false statement can be frequently read in technical books and application notes about thermocouples.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>À propos of my own errors, a couple of weeks after having written this answer I discovered an error in an equation of a published conference paper which I co-authored. A fraction that should have been something like -A/B became B/A. Hey – I told one of the other authors – how could we possibly have written this? And how did it get past the reviewers? The fact is, that that equation was associated to a simple, well-known, example given in the introduction, an example so simple that probably neither us authors nor the reviewers gave a second look at the equation (of course, how can anyone write this wrongly?). I feel that many clerical errors like this one happen because of last-minute changes to notation: you have almost finished the paper and you realize that you could have employed a better notation... so, let's change it on the fly! And here is where certain errors sneak-in. Avoid last-minute changes, if you can.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48264,
"author": "sean",
"author_id": 15501,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/15501",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Massimo Ortolano gave many non-CS examples, so I give a CS one: in the paper of Alan Turing that gave birth to Computer Science, <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing%27s_proof\">there were many errors in the proof</a>.</p>\n\n<p>However, in my opinion, although there are many errors in papers, these errors are only in the small details. For papers published in well-known conference, their main idea are very unlikely to be wrong.</p>\n\n<p>As you mentioned that the statement about complexity is only one line, obviously without proof, this is not the main focus of the paper. I will not be surprised if there is error in such a small detail.</p>\n\n<p>If I were you I would try to prove what you are thinking, this will help you to understand the paper deeply. And if it is actually wrong, you can notify the authors or publish your proof if the error is important enough.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48271,
"author": "Finn Årup Nielsen",
"author_id": 36757,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36757",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>TL;DR: The number is probably a double digit percentage.</p>\n\n<p>I made a outlier detection algorithm for neuroscience data extracted from neuroscience journal articles. It is detailed in \"Modeling of activation data in the BrainMap(TM): Detection of outliers\" <a href=\"http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hbm.10012/abstract\">http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hbm.10012/abstract</a> The redundancy in coordinates and text allow me to catch 'strange' data, some of which are typos in the original article. I have not made a statistics on the number of articles with errors but perhaps 1% or more have the issue. Note here that the typos are rather minor (e.g., a sign error in a single coordinate among many other reported numbers). It does not affect the overall conclusion. (For the interested: Results for my database available here: <a href=\"http://neuro.compute.dtu.dk/services/brededatabase/index_lobaranatomy_novelty.html\">http://neuro.compute.dtu.dk/services/brededatabase/index_lobaranatomy_novelty.html</a>)</p>\n\n<p>Within the medical domain John Ioannidis has made a number of studies for estimating errors in claims in articles. The famous \"Why Most Published Research Findings Are False\" <a href=\"http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124\">http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124</a> gives a theoretical estimate where the assumptions are probably not entirely correct, but following his argument there might be a double digit number of percentage \"false\". In \"Contradicted and initially stronger effects in highly cited clinical research\" <a href=\"https://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=201218\">https://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=201218</a> he found that in 16%-32% of the cases with highly cited original clinical research studies their claims were contradicted by subsequent studies. </p>\n\n<p>Peter C. Gøtzsche in \"Data Extraction Errors in Meta-analyses That Use Standardized Mean Differences\" found discrepancies in 37% of meta-analyses. Ironically there was a comment for the Gøtzsche-paper pointing out a discrepancy in that paper.</p>\n\n<p>These examples are perhaps not so relevant for computer science. I do think that typos occur now and then. I recently found what I believe were typos in equations in applied computer science articles. The typos does probably not affect the results. I would say - generally - that errors in computer science articles are not necessarily rare.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Update 28 August 2015:</strong></p>\n\n<p>There has just been published a description of a large series of replications of psychology experiments, see <a href=\"http://www.sciencemag.org/content/349/6251/aac4716.abstract\">http://www.sciencemag.org/content/349/6251/aac4716.abstract</a></p>\n\n<p>Among its reported results are: \"Ninety-seven percent of original studies had significant results (P < .05). Thirty-six percent of replications had significant results\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 52406,
"author": "vonbrand",
"author_id": 38135,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/38135",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As part of my graduate study we had to analyse several somewhat well-known papers in very reputable journals, published some 5 to 10 years before with no negative comments (yes, it was the time before Internet made such searches trivial). We found a glaring error in the central theorem of one of them. Not just the proof, the result was wrong. Sorry, I don't remember details (it's been some 25 years).</p>\n\n<p>Yes, the plural of anecdote isn't data. But a data point to be considered.</p>\n\n<p>To your question: If you are in doubt, check it carefully. Ask others to help you out if you get stuck. Yes, checking if previous work is right is part of research, as is trying to extend or simplify it.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48224",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] |
48,227 |
<p>I am in talks with a PhD supervisor for admission to university who likes my profile but has given me an article to review. Although the article is related to my broader research area, there are some terminologies that I don't have proper background knowledge. I have read the article and have fair understanding of it. I have written a summary, problem statement, proposed solution and methodology in review format provided by supervisor but I am stuck at critical review section as I don't have proper background knowledge. I want to know how to go about in this case? How should I review this critically?</p>
<p>Any help would be appreciated.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48231,
"author": "stressedout",
"author_id": 36682,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36682",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You have two main options here:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Write the review. When does he expect it by? Do you have time to learn any of this background knowledge? If you do have time, I suggest you start by finding the sources that the article cites. This might help with the terminology and it will certainly help you place the article within the context of current research. You don't say what field/discipline you study, so I can't provide more detailed advice until you do.</p></li>\n<li><p>Tell him you don't have the background knowledge. This may sound like a bad idea, but if you start off an advisor/advisee relationship with dishonesty, you're heading for disaster. If you do a good job writing the review, he will assume that you have all that background knowledge and terminology. This will likely mean that you will be playing catch-up, trying to learn what he thinks you already know. If you tell him, be diplomatic. Show him what you've completed and point out specific terms and parts of the article that you're having difficulty with. Ask for books/articles that could help you write it.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>If the references in the article don't help you and you are unwilling to tell him that you're having difficulties, I suggest contacting a professor that you know from undergrad. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48232,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is really the whole point of the challenge the supervisor has presented you. I bet he was hoping to hit you with something that wouldn't exactly be easy for you. He's trying to get you to stretch a bit and get out of your comfort zone. I don't know what he intends by the review format that he gave you, but if you have any critiques, concerns, or other thoughts about this article, this is where you should put them. It almost doesn't even matter if you're right (almost), but you need to show him that you've thought about the article, that you can explain its implications, and that if there are things that worry you about it, that you can explain them. </p>\n\n<p>If you are really stuck, it's probably worth looking through some of the articles that are cited by the article in question to give yourself some more background. This should also help you set the article in the context of some of the rest of the literature. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48227",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20062/"
] |
48,237 |
<p>This question is a variation of my <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42918/does-one-need-a-masters-in-math-before-taking-a-phd-in-math">earlier</a> <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/43926/does-one-need-a-bachelors-in-math-if-not-a-masters-before-taking-a-phd-in-ma">questions</a>.</p>
<p>Okay so in the US, I guess one does not need a master's in math before pursuing a PhD in math since the US <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/43313/why-are-us-phds-different-from-european-phds">apparently</a> <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42304/with-a-background-in-mathematical-finance-and-desire-to-apply-for-a-mathematics/42497#42497">usually</a> <a href="https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1219861/does-one-necessarily-need-an-ms-in-math-before-taking-a-phd-in-math/1219912#1219912">assumes</a> only a bachelor's.</p>
<p>What about in Europe? Technically, my master's is in mathematical finance not mathematics. So I didn't have research experience in looking through (pure) math books or articles in order to try to prove something theoretical or anything like that except for a few problem sets.</p>
<p>On an answer to one of my previous questions, user deviantfan <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42918/does-one-need-a-masters-in-math-before-taking-a-phd-in-math/42923#comment95425_42923">commented</a> that:</p>
<p>"<em>In many european countries, it´s not even allowed/possible to skip the master degree.</em>"</p>
<p>Perhaps my question may be rephrased:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Is the master's in X PhD requirement in Europe satisfied by a
master's in Applied X rather than Pure X?</p>
</blockquote>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48246,
"author": "Moritz",
"author_id": 22893,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22893",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It is a bit more complicated if you did not study pure math. You have to proof that your master degree is equivalent to a master in mathematics. If it is not, you will have to attend the necessary classes. It will get even more complicated if you studied abroad. It highly depends on the courses you took and on the amount of ECTS of each course. Furthermore, it will be decided individually by one or two people. At the bottom of the page from <a href=\"http://ssc-mathematik.univie.ac.at/betreute-studien/doktorat-neu/\" rel=\"nofollow\">university vienn</a>a, you will find a text in english.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48248,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I will try to respond to the abstract question, with a perspective from Germany (that may or may not be valid for other European countries):</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Is the master's in X PhD requirement in Europe satisfied by a master's in Applied X rather than Pure X?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>The general answer to this is <strong>yes</strong>.</p>\n\n<p>As opposed to the subject chosen for the Bachelor and Master degree, which is <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/47467/you-must-have-a-relevant-bachelors-degree-to-get-into-european-grad-schools-in\">usually supposed to be the same or closely related in Europe</a>, as Bachelor and Master curricula are closely coupled here, a PhD is often completely disconnected from the former studies.</p>\n\n<p>Note that the <a href=\"https://www.tuwien.ac.at/en/teaching/doctoral_programs/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">Austrian website</a> that <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22893/moritz\">Moritz</a> linked to in the original version of <a href=\"https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/48246/14017\">his answer</a> does not require a particular Master's degree, but a \"relevant Master's degree\". Without any further restrictions, this means that anything closely related to the subject (and the relationship between <em>Applied X</em> and <em>Pure X</em> might very well be sufficient) should do. <em>At least, that would be the interpretation in Germany; it is possible Austrians interpret this differently.</em></p>\n\n<p><em>However,</em> it is also very well possible that the suitability of the Master's major is determined based on the research projects at hand. In that case, it depends entirely on the decision of the respective department chair, and it would be worthwhile to contact departments you are interested in. As a concrete example, it is completely normal in Germany to see Masters of Physics, Linguistics, and Maths starting PhDs in Computer Science, not only Masters in Computer Science.</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: To clarify the last remark: None of them have to take any extra courses; rather, they are expected to bring their professional subject-specific knowledge from physics, linguistics, and maths, respectively, into their computer science research (while \"informally\" (i.e. without a class) catching up with the CS knowledge), just like Masters in CS are expected to use their professional CS-specific knowledge in their computer science research, while \"informally\" acquiring knowledge on (w.l.o.g.) physics, linguistics, and maths, as required for their respective research.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48308,
"author": "Tom Au",
"author_id": 755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/755",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'd say that one would need a Master's in Math or its <em>equivalent</em>. Then the question becomes, is your degree in Mathematical Finance an equivalent.\"</p>\n\n<p>Hopefully, you will have had the core courses in mathematics such as real and complex analysis and advanced calculus. Perhaps your mathematical Finance degree will differ from a true math degree in \"engineering type\" applications, such as stochastic partial differential equations. If that is the case, you may be ok. Perhaps, at worst, you need to take 2-3 \"traditional\" math courses as a special student to make up for what you lack.</p>\n\n<p>If you lack a traditional core curriculum, that would be different of course. Ultimately, it is for the faculties of the schools you apply to, to decide. And there is no one university \"monolith\" in Europe, only numerous schools, with meaningful variations in their admissions criteria.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48237",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21026/"
] |
48,238 |
<p>So from my previous questions and from what I heard, I found out (iirc) that people who apply for a PhD in the US make a <a href="https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/1145334/can-i-get-a-phd-in-stochastic-analysis-given-this-limited-background#comment2373667_1145334">perso</a>nal statement or <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/38237/how-does-the-admissions-process-work-for-us-ph-d-programs-particularly-for-wea">statement of purpose</a> while those in the UK, and I infer most of Europe, <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42377/what-is-common-in-most-phd-application-procedures-in-the-uk">make a PhD proposal</a>.</p>
<p>From what I understand, this involves <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42304/with-a-background-in-mathematical-finance-and-desire-to-apply-for-a-mathematics#comment96148_42497">reading several textbooks or journals</a> (IMHO, there's a lot more reading to be done <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42304/with-a-background-in-mathematical-finance-and-desire-to-apply-for-a-mathematics">if</a> one <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42375/phd-dissertation-different-from-master-thesis-what-might-i-be-able-to-do-about">is</a> ch<a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/42918/does-one-need-a-masters-in-math-before-taking-a-phd-in-math">an</a>ging fi<a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/43926/does-one-need-a-bachelors-in-math-if-not-a-masters-before-taking-a-phd-in-ma">elds</a>).</p>
<p>So, is that what students intending to study in Europe commonly do? How long does this take? I mean, should much of one's PhD proposal research have been <a href="https://academia.stackexchange.com/a/42497/22511">done in masteral studies</a>?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48243,
"author": "Moritz",
"author_id": 22893,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22893",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Most of the people I know (in biotechnology, Austria) applied for a PhD position similar to a normal job offer. If they fit into the team, they are hired for 30h. It is on you to finish your PhD courses at university.</p>\n\n<p>About 50 % of the PhD students in our university are hired by external companies which itself are spin-offs from different universities with the purpose of collaborating with company partners from industry.</p>\n\n<p>About two third of the PhD students just inscribe at the desired university (which is free of charge and usually not a problem). The rest applies for a certain PhD program. Usually people start looking in their last year of the masters degree.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49638,
"author": "Danny Ruijters",
"author_id": 28830,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28830",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While your background (education, skills, experience) should fit for a PhD vacancy, it is generally not necessary to write your own PhD proposal.</p>\n\n<p>Many (most) universities in Europe have a section on their website that lists open PhD vacancies (either on the top level of the university website, or at the individual institutes).\nIt is best to find a vacancy that fits with your interests and background, and simply apply for it (by sending an application letter + CV).</p>\n\n<p>There are some websites that list open PhD vacancies for multiple universities, e.g. </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>for the Netherlands: <a href=\"https://www.academictransfer.com/?language=en\" rel=\"nofollow\">https://www.academictransfer.com/?language=en</a></li>\n<li>internationally: <a href=\"http://www.careeredu.eu/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.careeredu.eu/</a></li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>You can have a look there whether you find any position that suits you.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49650,
"author": "posdef",
"author_id": 5674,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>As far as I can tell there is no one single commonly accepted application process in Europe, despite what you might have read/heard/interpreted. </p>\n\n<p>In my experience there are 3 ways to get enrolled in a PhD program in continental Europe: </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>You find a job advert at a uni where they are looking for a candidate to carry out (parts of) a project. In this case you are practically applying for a pre-determined job, and they assess you based on your skills, education and personality (for group chemistry) </p></li>\n<li><p>You find a group you want to work for, based on your interests. You get in touch with a group leader/PI regarding your interest in doing graduate studies in that group/lab. If they have the money to recruit you and a project of common interest (a project that appeals to you and the direction that particular group is going with their research) you start there, often on a short term \"trial period\" initially (the actual/formal name of this period varies widely across the universities and countries)</p></li>\n<li><p>You get invited to do a project at a group, with people you know previously. This occurs often if you do your master thesis/diploma work at that group, or if you know one of the prof.s at the department. </p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Beyond that, the formalities of what you need to write/submit in your official application would be specific to each uni I would guess. </p>\n\n<p><strong>EDIT:</strong> I have to actually correct myself, I do know people that had to pitch project proposals for graduate studies, however it still fits more into Option #2 above, where they got in contact with a group that worked on the field of interest and given that there's money for recruitment they were asked to formulate a <strong>short</strong> project proposal. </p>\n\n<p>These people were applying for PhD positions in more humanitarian sciences however, one was going for behavioural/organizational economics and the other was more towards sociology I think. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/02
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48238",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21026/"
] |
48,263 |
<p>Those of you, who had a chance to read some of my questions on this site, are likely aware of my ongoing job search, which I am doing on both academia and industry fronts. Since, <em>naturally</em>, I am leaning toward research-focused work, recently I ran across some additional industry positions, which are also research-focused. Yes, you guessed it right: I'm talking about <em>market research</em> or <em>research-intensive consulting</em> jobs. With that in mind, I became curious about the following aspects in the context of <strong>long-term academic career</strong> perspectives:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>What is the <em>perception</em> toward market research jobs (including a research & consulting mix positions, such as ones at Gartner, for example) and their temporary holders within the academia community?</p></li>
<li><p>If the perception is negative, is it to extent that it might prevent or significantly jeopardize one's <em>career options</em> (research & teaching) upon return to academia from stints at one or more of market research or "Big N" IT consulting companies?</p></li>
<li><p>Would negative perception, if any, and the corresponding career impact be decreased, depending on the organizational <em>"brand"</em> (i.e., Gartner vs. smaller market research firm)?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>It is important to note that my discipline (Information Systems) is a <em>multidisciplinary</em> field of study, which combines various aspects from hard sciences, such as computer science, and ones from soft (social) sciences, such as management science (which market research as well as business and IT consulting are actually part of). Therefore, IMHO there is <strong>no</strong> significant <em>disconnect</em> between academia and industry in terms of knowledge domains and research streams. I thought that this information will clarify the situation and, potentially, will improve the above-mentioned perception.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48265,
"author": "Bill Barth",
"author_id": 11600,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/11600",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I can't speak for the IS field, but I think that there's a strong chance that your time in industry would be considered as a break from doing research relevant to academia. Unless you are regularly publishing papers in the relevant journals or conferences, your time working outside of the academy will be perceived as time idle. </p>\n\n<p>Now, that being said, market research is a field frequently included in Business Schools. I don't know where your IS degree is from (Communications? Business? somewhere else), but I think that Business Schools are much more likely than other departments to value time spent in industry when hiring professors. So, there are probably different standards for evaluating your output during your time in industry. Published reports about the state of a market might be more acceptable as a valued contribution to the literature, and therefore less likely to paint you as having been out of touch with the academic literature.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 62847,
"author": "Tripartio",
"author_id": 20418,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20418",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am an IS professor, and here is my perspective:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Research: To remain \"hireable\" as a professor in a research-intensive school, your market research stint is neither positive nor negative in itself. All that matters is that you continuously publish research in highly-regarded scholarly journals. In particular, if you have a break from academic jobs, you need to show that you are continuing to publish high-quality research during that break. In that case, the market research industry experience will not be counted against you. However, if you also take a break from publishing high-quality research, then that \"break\" would be seen negatively--but that is also the case for professors who remain in academia and who stop publishing high-quality research.</li>\n<li>Teaching: This kind of industry experience should be considered very favourably, as it would give you real-world experience that should translate into much more relevant teaching.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>So, in brief, if you want to leave the option to return to academia, then be sure that you remain active in research during your industry experience. The best way to do this is to establish one or two strong research partnerships with professors who actively do research. Ideally, you should be able to leverage your industry job to get data and access clients for surveys or interviews, and so this would be a very attractive proposition for many professors. (Of course, you might have to hide the identity of your company when you publish the research, which can usually be easily arranged.)</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48263",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391/"
] |
48,266 |
<p>Is it a good idea to include participation in summer schools to my CV?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48278,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I assume you're talking about summer schools aimed at teaching graduate students or postdocs about recent developments. At an early career stage, it's certainly worth listing participation on your CV. If you're a beginning graduate student, then you probably don't have a lot of other things to list, and attending a summer school means something (namely that you are energetic and eager to learn, and that your application was strong enough to be accepted). It's not a big deal, but listing it in your CV can't hurt and might help a little. </p>\n\n<p>As you progress in your career, it becomes less and less relevant. Eventually you'll probably delete it, on the grounds that when you're coming up for tenure, nobody cares at all whether you once attended a summer school for grad students. But it doesn't really matter exactly when you delete it. You can safely wait until you start to wonder why you are bothering to include it when you have so much more impressive things elsewhere on the CV.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48303,
"author": "Joshua Michael Calafell",
"author_id": 22807,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22807",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Any worthwhile education that you have, especially if it came with a certificate, degree, or any other accolade should be listed in your \"Education\" section of your CV or resume. However, this is only true if it is 1) Relevant to the industry you are in and 2) there is room for it. Keep in mind no one wants a five page resume. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48266",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36756/"
] |
48,274 |
<p>I am in a bind. I just decided to take a voluntary leave of absence for medical reasons (also partly financial reasons) from my PhD program and I need to look for a job. I have stupendous credentials and recommendations but most of my recommenders are academics who recommended me two years ago for this doctoral program. My urgent worry is how to brand and market myself on my CV. If I list that I am enrolled in a PhD program there is always the risk that I will be asked to provide a transcript (which at this time shows failing grades for the last semester)? Also, if I don't list the program on my CV it looks like I have 2 gap years because I took a year to travel between the last employment and the start of the PhD. However, the benefit of listing my program is that because it is very prestigious, it is likely it will push my CV to the top of the applicant pool for interviews. If I list my PhD program on my CV I am almost guaranteed interviews, but in doing so, I run the risk of having to go into detail to explain my extraordinary poor performance and decision to suspend my study for a year. What should I do?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48275,
"author": "mhwombat",
"author_id": 10529,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10529",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I recommend you list your PhD studies on your CV. Industry is full of people who have left a PhD program for one reason or another! It's also unlikely anyone will look down on you for your poor grades in one semester.</p>\n\n<p>There are two issues I would give some thought to: (1) how will you describe your reasons for leaving the programme (temporarily), and (2) will you tell them about your intention to return to the PhD programme. It's best if you can describe (1) in a way that won't give potential employers concern that you might not be able to handle the job. Being honest about (2) may discourage some employers from hiring you if they want a long-term employee, but others may be willing to gamble that you'll change your mind and stick around.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48290,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You are only in your first year. By the time you are wrapping up your dissertation, it will likely be five to seven years from now. Ancient history.</p>\n\n<p>Postdocs are more interested in your research, publications, and letters of recommendation than in your grades. Many won't even ask for transcripts.</p>\n\n<p>Same goes for jobs.</p>\n\n<p>Grad school is a marathon not a sprint. Pace yourself and try to keep good energy reserves at all times. Steady Bs with occasional Cs and finishing is better than a semester of As followed by a flameout.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48274",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35754/"
] |
48,280 |
<p>Why faculty usually have two official email addresses, the university and the department address?</p>
<ol>
<li>[email protected] </li>
<li>[email protected]</li>
</ol>
<p>Do they use the second more to communicate with students and the first for other tasks? They could use one and add emails to folders or labels. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48281,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While it is possible that some departments are running separate mail servers and faculty members are not linking the accounts, in the cases I am aware of this dates back to times when email and computer logins where managed at the department level and there was no concept of a university email account. Some departments I have been in are actively phasing out the departmental alias such that new staff members do not get a departmental alias while others are continuing to give out departmental aliases. In all cases I am aware of, both addresses link to a single email account.</p>\n\n<p>As to why a faculty member may give out one address over another, that comes down to personal preference.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48282,
"author": "Anonymous Mathematician",
"author_id": 612,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/612",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>As Andy Putman points out in his comment, the two addresses often go to the same place. Even if there are two different accounts, it's common to forward e-mail from one to the other (or to a third account). Nobody uses both accounts independently unless they have some idiosyncratic reason to do so.</p>\n\n<p>The existence of two addresses is not nearly as universal as you suggest. You don't usually see english.university.edu or art-history.university.edu in e-mail addresses, for example. The departments that do have special addresses (such as CS or math) often ran their own mail servers long before university-wide servers were common. Some still do, because they don't like the way the university servers are run or don't trust them to be reliable, while others simply provide aliases for the university servers. Either way, getting rid of the departmental addresses would be disruptive, so they are likely to exist for the foreseeable future.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48287,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to the given reasons, I know of two other common reasons why you may often see multiple addresses:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Some institutions have both a \"fixed\" and a \"personalized\" form of email address. Members of the institution generally have no choice in the fixed form, which is often set directly from their official legal name and sometimes even before they join the institution. Sometimes these are pretty horrible (I've seem email of the form [initials][3-digit-number]@university), and sometimes one's legal name is not one's preferred form of address (e.g., my own name), so most institutions also allow people to set up one or more preferred aliases.</li>\n<li>Email is generally not actually routed through a server for the toplevel address (e.g., \"ivyleague.edu\") but rather through some arbitrary sub-element within that system (e.g., \"mailmangler.ivyleague.edu\"), and sometimes the electronic bones of this system are visible in multiple different equivalent email addresses.</li>\n</ol>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48300,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Why faculty usually have 2 official emails, the university email and the department?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Sometimes, the answer is simply \"because they can\". At various universities I am acquainted with, any employee gets several (more than 2) e-mail aliases for their one university e-mail inbox.</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>One of the distinctions is indeed usually a generic university-wide server part and one specific to the department. For departments that are subdivided into several groups, employees even get another e-mail address with the server part indicating the group name. And thinking about it, there is no real reason to discontinue this policy - the group or department-specific address has more \"personality\" in terms of representing one's group or department, while the generic one is easier to remember.</li>\n<li>Furthermore, there are usually several alternative name parts available. For instance, everyone gets aliases for each of the aforementioned server parts with their unique account name, and aliases with a human-readable name (usually in \"firstname.lastname\" form). Sometimes, there is yet another set of aliases just with the \"lastname\" as the name part. Again, the difference is how easily the addresses can be recalled and read.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>To summarize:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>It is fairly easy to configure e-mail servers in a way to provide multiple aliases based on various naming conventions to each user.</li>\n<li>There is no reason to reduce the number of aliases per user.</li>\n<li>Different aliases have different advantages and disadvantages, so different aliases can be picked depending on the purpose (displaying an e-mail address, memorizing an e-mail address, saying an e-mail address in verbal conversation, writing an e-mail address at the board, ...).</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48313,
"author": "peterh",
"author_id": 10234,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10234",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would think there is probably multiple departments trying to provide this internal mail service for the university.</p>\n\n<p>The typical case is like there is a department-level IT infrastructure with its own mail addresses and its own policy, while there is also a central IT mail service provided by the university.</p>\n\n<p>The second can be needed, for example if the department has needs which are contradicting the policy of he university (for example, if the Uni wants to give mail addresses only internal employee, while the department want to give mailboxes even for guest researchers, too).</p>\n\n<p>Or the department-level mail address (and password) could be also used for authentication, f.e. to use the department-level computing infrastructure.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48314,
"author": "Kimball",
"author_id": 19607,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19607",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This is in response to the OP's request in a comment to elaborate on my personal situation. This is not to explain why I have two email addresses, but just how I use them differently.</p>\n\n<p>In my department (math), we have separate department and university servers both with email, and I keep my email accounts separate, though many people in our department forward from one to the other (usually from department to university, I think) and only check one.</p>\n\n<p>Basically I use the department email for anything involving research or teaching or quasi-personal, as well as administrative stuff at the department level. Various factions within the university send out loads emails to us (often requiring no response and rarely urgent) which typically go to our university email addresses. </p>\n\n<p>Therefore I made the conscious decision to not forward from one account to the other because almost all of these are unwanted emails, and I probably only open about 5-10% of them. So they would just clutter up my department inbox and distract me with email notifications throughout the day if I forwarded them to my department email, which I check often. I know I could filter the forwarded emails into a separate folder, but <em>I don't want to know</em> when I get a new university email, and having this extra login barrier helps reduce distraction.</p>\n\n<p>So whenever I give my email address to someone, I give them my department email which I check throughout the day, whereas I usually check the university address about once every day or two. I honestly don't even know what my university email address is. Any email I send of my own accord will come from my department address. The only emails I send from my university account are replies to emails to that account.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/03
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48280",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24823/"
] |
48,284 |
<p>In the United States, what is the common way junior faculty address senior faculty in the same department or different department? </p>
<ol>
<li>Hi First or Last name</li>
<li>Hi Dr ___</li>
<li>Dear Dr __</li>
<li>Dear Doctor ___</li>
<li>Dear Prof. ___</li>
<li>Dear Professor ___</li>
<li>No greetings, start the topic directly.</li>
</ol>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48285,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You would have to clarify what <em>types of addressing</em> you're talking about: conversational (casual and official), written (casual and official) or both. This is, because I believe that there are significant differences in addressing, based on this factor. There are most likely <em>other potential factors</em>, including geographical and cultural academic traditions, particular academic institution's or department's collegial or other atmosphere, professional personal relationships and more.</p>\n\n<p><strong>UPDATE</strong> (per OP's clarification):</p>\n\n<p>For the <em>written casual</em> addressing, I would use the same type of addressing you're using (or would use) with that person in a conversation. On the other hand, for the <em>written formal</em> type of addressing, I would consider a \"Dear Dr. -Last Name-\" or \"Dear Professor -Last Name-\" to be the safest option. However, keep in mind that some professors insist on addressing them by first name, so, in that case, \"Dear -First Name-\" is appropriate.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48286,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In my experience in the United States, most professors invite even their graduate students to call them by their given (first) name. Junior faculty would be no less invited to familiar address. Whether you say \"Hi, Name\" or just dive into communication is often a matter of personal style and communication medium---for example, emailing from one's phone often has much terser communication, and this is generally understood and not taken amiss.</p>\n\n<p>Just because you are addressing somebody by their given name, however, doesn't mean you are actually an intimate or a peer. Many senior faculty in the United States will still expect deference by junior faculty; they will just expect it to be shown by the tone and actions of interaction, rather than merely the formality of address.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48289,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If I'm asking the Chair what she's bringing to the department potluck, it's \"Dear Jane\" but if I'm asking for additional research funds or trying to get out of committee duty, it's \"Dear Prof. Doe\" or \"Dear Chair Doe\" depending on how much I'm trying to suck up.</p>\n\n<p>The more interesting question is how you address the provost or deans.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48291,
"author": "zibadawa timmy",
"author_id": 19768,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/19768",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>An advice and manners column I once read suggested you start (as in, you have no real history with this person, and you've had little communication before this point) written communications off formally—the Professor title is superior to, and trumps, the doctor title, for the record— and then from there address them in accordance to how they sign their responses. If you write to \"Professor Jerrys\" and he signs his response \"Ben\", then he has given you implicit permission to address him as Ben, and it would be appropriate for you to do so in the future. The nature of how they write their message will also give you indicators: if they're saying \"howdy\" to you then they're not looking to be on formal terms with you, and things like that.</p>\n\n<p>When in doubt: ask them directly. Everyone's familiar with this problem and has gone through it themselves.</p>\n\n<p>In my experience, in the US once you have your doctorate you can be on a first-name basis with your university's faculty by default: at that point you are officially their colleague. For some professors this extends down to their doctoral students, others to all graduate students, and to yet others it applies to everyone. The state you're in can even affect the level of formality a typical faculty member expects from any given person, due to slight cultural differences between states.</p>\n\n<p>Note that this will change wildly from culture to culture. In France, for example, it's a flat hierarchy with essentially no titular addresses. Students invariably address their (male) professors as \"Monsieur\", and a famous professor could be teaching problem sessions to a lecture run by an unproven fresh hire. Which is not to say there's no social hierarchy at all (the famous guy will most certainly be treated more nicely than the new guy and given more deference), it's just that an institutionalized hierarchy is nearly non-existent. Japan, on the other hand, is very formal (in some ways the language is really two languages: one formal, the other informal) and a first-name basis is generally reserved only for very close acquaintances, like family members and lovers (even friends may still address each other in a formal way).</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>On that note, I just remembered a story a colleague once told me about the time he spent in Britain. There, he said, the extremely important and powerful guys that had a dozen titles (doctorate, professor, head of multiple societies, etc., for example) were always addressed as \"Mr.\". So if you were at a university, you'd know that those called \"Dr.\" and \"Professor\" were pretty normal and weren't going to be the top dogs, but as soon as you were introduced to a \"Mr.\" you knew you were in the presence of a very powerful and amazing man that you needed to show great respect to.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/04
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48284",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/24823/"
] |
48,306 |
<p>Few days ago I received an email from the associate editor. He apologized for my paper has mistakenly been left outside of the normal review process. This happened almost 14 months after my submission. I asked the journal editor for information on the status of the review process about 7 months ago and received an email from the technical staff that my status is "in review" as can be seen in Editorial Manager system. The journal is highly ranked and the review process usually takes a long time. So, I thought everything was ok. The associate editor is asking me now if I still want to proceed this submission. Should I say yes?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48307,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 7,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Unfortunately, these things happen, and it sounds like the journal is at least being appropriately apologetic.</p>\n\n<p>If you go do a different journal, you'll be starting all over again. If this is a good journal for your field, and you think it's an honest mistake, then I would instead recommend asking for an expedited review process. Since the editors are acknowledging they messed things up, you are likely to get faster and better consideration from them than another equivalent peer journal.</p>\n\n<p>So: be collegial and gracious about their mistake, and next time you'll have good reason for when you send an earlier status query.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48327,
"author": "Alecos Papadopoulos",
"author_id": 8575,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/8575",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Mistakes happen, no system is perfect, and if nobody is seriously damaged (physically, professionally or in some other way of importance), it is in our interest to allow them, so that we can claim such an allowance for our mistakes, when their time comes, (I apologize for the apparent cynicism, but I am an economist)... let alone of it being the peaceful thing to do. </p>\n\n<p>But this does not mean that the entity that makes the mistake is free to not do anything about it, apart from apologizing. The apology may be sincere, but I would accept it as <em>effective</em>, if it has been accompanied by something along the lines of </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p><em>\"It goes without saying that, if you still want to move on with this submission, we will make every effort to expedite it as much as\n possible, without compromising the quality of the review process\"</em></p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>...which would mean, contacting reviewers, persuade them to shift priorities, <em>explain why</em>, etc. One should go some distance in correcting/mitigating the effects of, one's own mistakes.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48338,
"author": "Stephen Montgomery-Smith",
"author_id": 9806,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/9806",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Many years ago, a colleague and I sent out a paper for publication. My colleague did the actual work of submission. Six months later, he told me he had not received an acknowledgement of receipt from the journal. For this reason, he wondered if he had actually submitted the paper, or whether he had just prepared the submission, but forgotten to mail it.</p>\n\n<p>So I said I would handle it. I resubmitted the paper to the same journal, explaining in a very honest cover letter how we weren't sure if we had submitted it already.</p>\n\n<p>About a week or two later, my colleague received a reply from the journal telling him that the paper had been rejected. Not only had it been rejected, but it hadn't even been sent out for review because the paper was in a subject in which the journal didn't publish.</p>\n\n<p>Now the punchline:</p>\n\n<p>A couple of days later, I received a glowing acceptance letter! And it was obvious from the detailed comments in the report that the reviewer had read the paper very carefully!</p>\n\n<p>Even though this story sounds like an urban legend, this really happened to me! You just don't know what will transpire! Go ahead and give the journal another chance. Maybe they will give you special treatment.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/04
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48306",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32404/"
] |
48,310 |
<p>I have been admitted to a Master in the Netherlands, but my diploma will be awarded after the enroloment date there. However, the university says they can process my admission if I send them an official letter stating that <em>"I have graduated", completed my course work, and that the diploma will be awarded later.</em> </p>
<p>In my country and university, the list of students that will receive the diploma is authorized by the Academic Council first and diplomas awarded later. When the list is issued, the Council gives a letter stating that you are graduating. I am not sure if such letter is the equivalent to what the Dutch University needs. Anyone at a Dutch university knows what they exactly want?</p>
<p>Edit: Official documments at my University are issued in Spanish, not in English, therefore I have to get the document translated by an official translator. Hereby, I want to the document to be sharp enough to avoid changes in sense or missinterpretations in any stage.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48311,
"author": "Jaap Eldering",
"author_id": 1605,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1605",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm Dutch and did my bachelor/master and PhD studies at a Dutch university (Utrecht), but can't claim to know exactly what they want; for that you'd really need to get in contact with the people at the university who are in charge of the admission procedure.</p>\n\n<p>That said, I think they want an official confirmation that you passed all requirements necessary to get your degree, and so it seems that the council letter might be sufficient.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48365,
"author": "Miguel",
"author_id": 14695,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14695",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I also got my graduate degree in Spain and sent the transcript in Spanish to the Irish university where I did my PhD. They took care of everything else. Administrators understand there are different systems and will usually do their best to accommodate you, but because of the different systems they might not have a standard procedure.</p>\n\n<p>What I suggest is that as soon as your transcript is ready you send a copy to the Dutch university asking if that is enough (they might even have someone who speaks Spanish in their office) and at the same time send it for official translation to English in case you need backup.</p>\n\n<p>As for the diploma, I would not worry too much, I collected my graduate diploma itself (i.e. the piece of paper) after my doctoral one.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/04
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48310",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35882/"
] |
48,319 |
<p>I will be soon joining a PhD program in US on an F-1 student visa. I will be entering US about 20 days before the university academic session starts. The university will be providing health insurance to me, and coverage will start with the academic session itself. So I will not be covered by university insurance for my first 20 days in US. I would like to know if it is a good idea to buy a short term health insurance policy for these first 20 days in US ? Is it very risky to not buy this short-term insurance ? FYI, I do not have any chronic diseases or other things.</p>
<p>Since US healthcare system is very different from everywhere I have been to (some European and Asian countries), I am in utter confusion regarding this whole health insurance stuff. Any answers would be really appreciated.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48322,
"author": "DCTLib",
"author_id": 7390,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7390",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You are asking if it is risky not to buy the insurance. In absolute numbers, it is not risky. There is only a small probability that you need it. Also, doctors will offer also their services for a fee in case you need it.</p>\n\n<p><em>However</em>, there are two things to consider. First of all, if you need medical attention, it is very expensive. For example, if you get a cold and need a prescription for medication, expect to pay more than 300 US-Dollars. Treatment is a bit cheaper if your insurance has a contract with the doctor, but if you don't health insurance, then you can't take advantage of such contracts.</p>\n\n<p>Also, there is always a low risk that some kind of emergency situtation can arise (traffic accidents come into my mind), and the insurance would give you support here. Such cases can easily cost a five-digit amount of money. And this is where an insurance would help you: by allowing you to make a relatively small payment that does not burst your budget, it allows you to have the (relative) certainty that your budget will be fine even in extreme cases. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48330,
"author": "StrongBad",
"author_id": 929,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/929",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Travel insurance is generally pretty cheap, especially if you exclude high risk activities like skiing and parasailing. My UK bank provides travel insurance for free and some credit cards provide travel insurance for free if you book your flights with them. If you were taking a three week vacation to the US, you should be able get insured for well under $100.</p>\n\n<p>The issue is that you are not taking a vacation. You are entering the US on a F-1 student visa and possibly do not have a return ticket. While many travel insurance providers will happily sell you insurance and tell you you are covered, they will also direct you to pages and pages of terms and conditions. The key to insurance is making sure you meet all the terms and conditions, otherwise they will not pay out when you need them.</p>\n\n<p>Assuming you can find reasonably priced insurance, the question becomes do you need it. Travel insurance generally only reimburses you for expenses and does not pay the bill up front. This means the benefits are often limited by how much you can afford to pay up front. There also things you can do to reduce the need to see a doctor (e.g., getting a round of general antibiotics from your doctor before you leave). Overall the answer is highly personal and depends on how you would pay a huge medical bill. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48339,
"author": "user141592",
"author_id": 27327,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27327",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would say yes. You can likely get fairly cheap insurance from your (or your parents') home insurance, or the credit card company that you bought your ticket from. Although, like StrongBad pointed out in his answer, you need to make sure they are willing to cover you even though you don't have a return ticket. A fellow grad stdent tripped and broke her arm before term started and ended up with an emergency room bill of roughly $5000. That's considerably more of a financial burden on you or your parents than $100-200 worth of insurance. And you could end up with similar bills for a bout of food poisoning, or the flu, or a car accident, or any number of accidents. The insurance is even more important if you (like most of us) don't have a lot of money lying around. The cost of insurance is a slight inconvenience, but the cost of an actual medical emergency in the US is a disaster in that case.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48319",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28874/"
] |
48,324 |
<p>I am re-drafting my cover letter for the tenure track faculty positions in the U.S. While I was finishing my dissertation, I quickly moved to a new research direction. Although I can make the case of how my new research direction grows out of my dissertation, I wonder when do people stop talking about their dissertation in the cover letter? Or must the cover letter contain a dissertation paragraph? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48329,
"author": "Jan-Christoph Schlage-Puchta",
"author_id": 30965,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/30965",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You are mostly hired for what you are doing now, so you should avoid the impression that you are unsteady, and your interest shift every other year. However, there will be some members of the committee who are not from your current area. If one of them is interested in your Ph.D. topic, this might be a big bonus for you. So you should mention your Ph.D. topic unless your results are mediocre, or so much time has passed since your Ph.D. that a faculty member interested in that topic and not your current work would not see an advantage in having you in place of someone with a different Ph.D. topic. How much time this actually is depends on the subject area. In many branches of pure math this could be \"never\", while in applied areas of CS this could be 2 years.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 49596,
"author": "Oswald Veblen",
"author_id": 16122,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/16122",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>My usual advice about cover letters and vitas is to include everything that you can include \"with a straight face\". A some point you stop putting your high school awards, because it's too embarrassing to mention them; at some later point you stop putting minor honors from your undergraduate studies; etc. </p>\n\n<p>If you are a recent PhD and are applying for tenure-track positions, you should certainly mention your thesis, unless you have so much other research that it is no longer relevant. </p>\n\n<p>But you do not necessarily need an entire paragraph. Just now, I looked up two <em>successful</em> cover letters of mine. One had a single sentence about my thesis (for a research post-doc position). One had two sentences, the second of which just said that my work could be suitable for undergraduate research (this letter was for a tenure-track position). At least in my field, we usually submit a longer \"research statement\", and so there is little need to go into depth about research in the cover letter. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48324",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/25261/"
] |
48,325 |
<ol>
<li><p><strong>How do universities train MBA students differently from MS students?</strong> Statistics and quantitative reasoning are vital parts of the MBA as analytics have become crucial to many aspects of business. In what sense does an MS in Statistics have better training in analytics than an MBA?</p></li>
<li><p><strong>How do MBAs add value to a person's career?</strong> Is their broad (if not deep) command of statistics, economics, finance, <em>etc.</em>, the reason behind their astronomical salaries? Is there specific training that makes them 'managerial'? If yes, what is that training? </p></li>
</ol>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48356,
"author": "user-2147482637",
"author_id": 12718,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12718",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This largely depends on the type of MS degree. An MBA is geared towards business. A graduate from a MBA program should be able to immediately apply his or her learning to a business environment.</p>\n\n<p>MS degrees differ. Some are geared towards research, requiring a student to write a thesis. Others require only classwork. A MS degree in statistics that emphasizes research may not discuss how to use statistics to make business decisions. That MS degree may, instead, teach the mathematical underpinnings of statistical tests or how to analyze data. Data, here, means not just stocks or inventory, but time series in general.</p>\n\n<p>One can leverage a quantitative research background into a lucrative career in business. I have known a few physicists who are well paid for their knowledge of mathematics, programming, or thinking processes, all valuable in a business setting but not taught in MBA classes. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48363,
"author": "Aleksandr Blekh",
"author_id": 12391,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12391",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>From an <em>educational stand point</em>, a Master's degree in a specific discipline is not much different from an MBA degree, in that they both are Master level degrees. There is one caveat, though: Master of Science (MS) degrees are, naturally, focused on scientific research, whereas MBA degree is not. The consequences of that distinction can be found in different structures of academic programs as well as the typical requirement of a thesis or a similar major project for an MS degree. Those Master's degrees that do not use the MS designation are usually referred to as <em>professional Master's degrees</em>.</p>\n\n<p>Now on to the core of your question. In it, stating the importance of analytics for business, you are making an IMHO unfounded implied assumption that analytics is vital for business. There is a big difference between being <em>important</em> and being <em>vital</em>. While analytics and data-driven decision making are, certainly, important (more or less, depending on the industry, business type, size and other factors), I would argue that, in general and by the very definition, having excellent business knowledge, skills and experience is more vital to a business than the same traits in analytics department. In other words, MBA holders potentially have a more significant and immediate effect on a business' performance and other results, than data-focused professionals. The former are <em>\"closer to the bottom line\"</em>, so to speak.</p>\n\n<p>For a case in point, an anecdotal <em>example</em> of Warren Buffett and his Berkshire Hathaway company. It is a well-known fact that computers and computer-based data analytics are almost unused by the company and, especially its boss, Mr. Buffett. However, that fact clearly does not preclude the company from achieving its tremendous growth and overall business success. Therefore, that is done by applying mostly general and specific business knowledge, skills and experience, rather than modern analytical approaches and tools.</p>\n\n<p>Note that above, when referring to knowledge, skills and experience, I used the word \"excellent\", which, usually (<strong>but often unfairly!</strong>), implies that MBA graduates are top business schools. Therefore, their higher salaries on average, when compared with similar graduates from analytics, data science or similar MS programs. If we would consider graduates from both MS and MBA programs from programs beyond top tier, the latter not only will not have \"astronomical salaries\", but, AFAIK, their salaries (especially, starting) will be lower than narrow technical professionals, graduated from MS programs.</p>\n\n<p>As for <em>specific training</em> for MBA graduates that \"makes them managerial\", certainly MBA programs offer specialized managerial courses (i.e., strategy, marketing, accounting), which are simply typically not offered in MS programs (or, are optional and significantly more limited). Hence, naturally, more significance of MBA graduates to business results and, thus, higher financial compensation (again, I imply here only top tier MBA graduates and their starting salaries).</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48688,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>An important aspect of MBA training that I haven't seen mentioned in other answers is <em>networking</em>. A huge amount of getting things done is business is about networking, and while you will not find a formal course on networking in an MBA program, most good MBA programs will have a <em>lot</em> of networking events and opportunities connected with them. MBA students are also often grouped together in cohorts or otherwise treated much more as a unified group of students than MS students. All of this adds up to a very important extra-curricular curriculum component that is often a key differentiator for success or failure after business school, and is largely neglected in the more technically focused track of MS students.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48709,
"author": "mac389",
"author_id": 28,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/28",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I believe an accurate rephrasing of your question is <em>Why do some MBAs make so much?</em> </p>\n\n<p>The upper decile of MBA holders surely earns more than the upper decile of those with a MSc, although that is my educated guess. I, similarly, wager that the average MSc earns more than the average MBA. </p>\n\n<p>I am not sure that an MBA derives its value from content, nor am I alone in that view point (See what <a href=\"http://poetsandquants.com/2013/11/07/an-mba-trashes-the-degree/\" rel=\"nofollow\">a graduate</a> and <a href=\"https://next.ft.com/2313a2f8-7c81-11e3-b514-00144feabdc0\" rel=\"nofollow\">the FT</a> say.) An MBA allows for powerful networking, especially if you already have a powerful network to barter with. </p>\n\n<p>As to the content, A Master's in Business Administration (MBA) differs from a Master's in Science (MSc) in many ways:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Curriculum</strong>: MBA classes do not cover technical subjects in as much depth as MS classes. An MBA student may take one class in financial economics that involves no calculus or concepts from analysis. An MSc student would take at least two courses, involving higher math and perhaps computer simulations. </li>\n<li><strong>Point in career</strong>: An MBA is a terminal degree in business, inasmuch as degrees matter in business. An MSc can be a terminal degree in engineering and computer science. In math or economics the terminal degree is a PhD and one picks up an MSc along the way.</li>\n<li><strong>Point in career (2)</strong>: An MBA is supposed to be acquired after substantial work experience. Many pursue an MSc shortly after undergraduate education. </li>\n</ol>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48325",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36811/"
] |
48,336 |
<p>Reading the German universities' regulations on doctoral programs, one often comes to paragraphs about sanctions that can be demanded by the PhD board (<em>Promotionsausschuss</em>) as perquisites before they admit a candidate.</p>
<p>For example I have seen <em>[updated to reflect the given answers]</em>:</p>
<ul>
<li>own publication(s) needed</li>
<li>take selected courses/modules offered by the university, which contents are related to the planned topic of thesis</li>
<li>submitting an exposé</li>
<li>letter(s) of recommendation</li>
<li>certificate of good conduct ("Führungszeugnis")</li>
<li>supervisor actually employed at the same university</li>
</ul>
<hr>
<p>Are there other common requirements demanded by such boards?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48348,
"author": "Chris",
"author_id": 35434,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35434",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Other requirements (not necessarily prerequisites) may include the attendance of doctoral seminars (i.e. presenting your work one or more times during your PhD and having a committee judge whether or not you can proceed as intended) and the presentation of a certificate of good conduct (\"Führungszeugnis\"). </p>\n\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http://www.inf.ovgu.de/inf_media/downloads/forschung/promotion/2013/Promotionsordnung_2012_12_19-p-4194.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.inf.ovgu.de/inf_media/downloads/forschung/promotion/2013/Promotionsordnung_2012_12_19-p-4194.pdf</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48360,
"author": "doomoor",
"author_id": 22592,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22592",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here you need a supervisor, i.e., a professor currently employed at the university and a letter where you state whether you have been involved in other doctoral programs before or if you even are currently involved in one. Other than that you have to write a formal application containing a curriculum vitae, credentials and a short abstract of what you want to do (which is usually already approved by your supervisor). </p>\n\n<p>If the PhD board thinks that you need additional courses/modules you just have to do the additional coursework during your PhD. So at least at my current university it's not a prerequisite. But these courses are not necessarily related to the planned topic, e.g., if you have a Master's degree in mathematics and what to do a PhD in computer science (CS) the board may requires you to do some basic CS courses (if you haven't done anything in this direction).</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48336",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36613/"
] |
48,337 |
<p>Papers written for conferences and journals are today mainly available as PDFs. There are <a href="http://www.nngroup.com/articles/pdf-unfit-for-human-consumption/">several usability issues</a> with the PDF format, one of which is that it is not especially well suited for the modern way of reading on screens. Unlike e-book formats such as epub or mobi, it doesn't adapt to a for the user desired text size, and is especially broken for e-ink readers that cannot rely on zooming and swiftly moving around as you scan for referenced figures and tables. </p>
<p>Thus, I would like to contribute to the death of the PDF to the best of my ability. All my scientific writing is already done in either Markdown or LaTeX which can then be exported using <a href="http://pandoc.org/">Pandoc</a> to several different formats, but this only works as long as you don't try to use anything beyond the most basic of features in LaTeX. I guess I could in this manner upload all of my papers to a blog for general consumption, but I'm not sure this is the most appropriate way. One problem is that I won't actually use a lot of the power the web brings, e.g. direct links to cited sources, without requiring extra effort in the conversion step. </p>
<p>I am sure I'm not the first one thinking about this. Are there already people doing this, and if so how? Is there an ongoing discussion about the future of academic publishing in the age of the modern web?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48348,
"author": "Chris",
"author_id": 35434,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/35434",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Other requirements (not necessarily prerequisites) may include the attendance of doctoral seminars (i.e. presenting your work one or more times during your PhD and having a committee judge whether or not you can proceed as intended) and the presentation of a certificate of good conduct (\"Führungszeugnis\"). </p>\n\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http://www.inf.ovgu.de/inf_media/downloads/forschung/promotion/2013/Promotionsordnung_2012_12_19-p-4194.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.inf.ovgu.de/inf_media/downloads/forschung/promotion/2013/Promotionsordnung_2012_12_19-p-4194.pdf</a></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48360,
"author": "doomoor",
"author_id": 22592,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22592",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Here you need a supervisor, i.e., a professor currently employed at the university and a letter where you state whether you have been involved in other doctoral programs before or if you even are currently involved in one. Other than that you have to write a formal application containing a curriculum vitae, credentials and a short abstract of what you want to do (which is usually already approved by your supervisor). </p>\n\n<p>If the PhD board thinks that you need additional courses/modules you just have to do the additional coursework during your PhD. So at least at my current university it's not a prerequisite. But these courses are not necessarily related to the planned topic, e.g., if you have a Master's degree in mathematics and what to do a PhD in computer science (CS) the board may requires you to do some basic CS courses (if you haven't done anything in this direction).</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48337",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10157/"
] |
48,341 |
<p>I'm writing my PhD thesis (math) and struggling to find titles for the appendices. The thesis has three main chapters and for each one there is an appendix that contains some proofs that did not belong in the chapter itself (e.g. proofs of lemmas and technical details). What should I name the appendices? Currently I'm thinking about "Missing proofs for Chapter X" or "Omitted proofs of Chapter X". Any suggestions? </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48345,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In a mathematics paper or thesis, the most common practice is simply to include all proofs in the body of the document, each one immediately following the statement of its corresponding theorem or lemma. So you should seriously consider just doing that.</p>\n\n<p>Placing proofs in an appendix might be appropriate if they are really ancillary to the main thrust of your thesis. For instance, maybe there is a result that is not really relevant to the rest of the thesis, but you've included it simply because it is interesting. Or you state a result that is well known, but you have written your own proof as an exercise. Or you have multiple proofs of the same statement; you might want to place one of them in the body, and move the other(s) to the appendices.</p>\n\n<p>But in any case, I would think there would not be more than a few proofs that would fit these criteria. As such, it would be most natural to place each proof in its own appendix, rather than to group them by body chapter or any other criterion.</p>\n\n<p>You could give the appendices names like \"Appendix A. Proof of Theorem 1.2.3\". Or better yet, something more descriptive like \"Appendix A. Proof of the Snargleberg–Veeblefester Theorem (Theorem 1.2.3)\". Of course, you will want to use LaTeX's <code>\\ref</code> to produce the theorem number.</p>\n\n<p>It would be a convenience to the reader if in each appendix, you repeat the statement of the relevant theorem before giving the proof.</p>\n\n<p>If you feel the number of lettered appendices A, B, C, D, etc are becoming excessive, you could move down the hierarchy. Most thesis templates are based on the <code>book</code> document class, in which the top-level text element is the <code>chapter</code>. So if you want, you could write</p>\n\n<pre><code>\\backmatter\n\\chapter{Additional Proofs}\n\\section{Proof of the Snargleberg--Veeblefester Theorem (Theorem \\ref{snargleberg})}\n\nBlah blah blah.\n\n\\section{Proof of the Dumbledore Lemma (Lemma \\ref{dumbledore})}\n\nExpecto Patronum.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Producing something like:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>A. Additional proofs.</p>\n \n <p>A.1. Proof of the Snargleberg–Veeblefester Theorem (Theorem 1.2.3)</p>\n \n <p>Blah blah blah.</p>\n \n <p>A.2. Proof of the Dumbledore Lemma (Lemma 2.3.4)</p>\n \n <p>Expecto Patronum.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I disagree with Pete L. Clark's suggestion to just leave the appendices with non-descriptive titles like \"Appendix A\". Using descriptive appendix titles will help keep the reader from getting lost.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48346,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would think twice about including these results in appendices at all. You have one appendix for each chapter and each \"contains some proofs that did not belong in the chapter itself (e.g. proofs of lemmas and technical details)\". Why doesn't that belong in the chapter itself? That sounds like exactly the sort of material that I would expect to take up space in a math PhD thesis. You may want to organize things so that the most technical bits can be quickly identified and skipped by the uninterested reader, but putting them in appendices doesn't sound quite right to me. Appendices should contain material which is <em>ancillary</em> to the thesis, not the technical core of the thesis.</p>\n\n<p>Anyway, if you decide to go for the multiple appendices: I would call the Appendix \"The Appendix\" if there is one of them, and if there is more than one \"Appendix A\", \"Appendix B\", and so forth. </p>\n\n<p><b>Added</b>: After more thought, I agree with @Nate Eldredge's disagreement. If there is more than one appendix, you should probably give some help to the reader by saying what is in each one. Now that I seriously contemplate this possibility though [not that seriously; I still am not convinced that this is a good use of appendices at all, but whatever...] I find the question a bit weird: in that the OP can see his thesis, he is in a much better position than we to make the titles. But a simple, descriptive title should be fine.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48341",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36820/"
] |
48,343 |
<p>Somewhere around the 3rd year of my physics PhD. program I came into this amazing subject of complexity theory. May be a motivating factor was that I was digging in my spare-time into this physics/complexity interface. Anyhow I took up courses in complexity theory and a few associated regions in the CS theory department in my university and I started attending one of the group meetings there and tried to contribute to a project (sadly the project turned out to be very hard and didn't move enough) </p>
<p>But how do I actually go about finding a career in this subject?
Either in academia or industry? </p>
<p>I won't be taken seriously if I make a regular CS PhD. application because my background has no overlap with an usual CS grad student and neither am I interested in CS per se. (like I found the graduate "algorithms" course extremely boring though the mathematical algorithms part was fascinating where they did stuff like LP, SDP, entropy extraction, pseudorandomness etc.) My interest is complexity theory and its interface with physics : which I see as a fascinating branch of mathematics! (and I do have quite a strong background in mathematics) </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48345,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In a mathematics paper or thesis, the most common practice is simply to include all proofs in the body of the document, each one immediately following the statement of its corresponding theorem or lemma. So you should seriously consider just doing that.</p>\n\n<p>Placing proofs in an appendix might be appropriate if they are really ancillary to the main thrust of your thesis. For instance, maybe there is a result that is not really relevant to the rest of the thesis, but you've included it simply because it is interesting. Or you state a result that is well known, but you have written your own proof as an exercise. Or you have multiple proofs of the same statement; you might want to place one of them in the body, and move the other(s) to the appendices.</p>\n\n<p>But in any case, I would think there would not be more than a few proofs that would fit these criteria. As such, it would be most natural to place each proof in its own appendix, rather than to group them by body chapter or any other criterion.</p>\n\n<p>You could give the appendices names like \"Appendix A. Proof of Theorem 1.2.3\". Or better yet, something more descriptive like \"Appendix A. Proof of the Snargleberg–Veeblefester Theorem (Theorem 1.2.3)\". Of course, you will want to use LaTeX's <code>\\ref</code> to produce the theorem number.</p>\n\n<p>It would be a convenience to the reader if in each appendix, you repeat the statement of the relevant theorem before giving the proof.</p>\n\n<p>If you feel the number of lettered appendices A, B, C, D, etc are becoming excessive, you could move down the hierarchy. Most thesis templates are based on the <code>book</code> document class, in which the top-level text element is the <code>chapter</code>. So if you want, you could write</p>\n\n<pre><code>\\backmatter\n\\chapter{Additional Proofs}\n\\section{Proof of the Snargleberg--Veeblefester Theorem (Theorem \\ref{snargleberg})}\n\nBlah blah blah.\n\n\\section{Proof of the Dumbledore Lemma (Lemma \\ref{dumbledore})}\n\nExpecto Patronum.\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>Producing something like:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>A. Additional proofs.</p>\n \n <p>A.1. Proof of the Snargleberg–Veeblefester Theorem (Theorem 1.2.3)</p>\n \n <p>Blah blah blah.</p>\n \n <p>A.2. Proof of the Dumbledore Lemma (Lemma 2.3.4)</p>\n \n <p>Expecto Patronum.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I disagree with Pete L. Clark's suggestion to just leave the appendices with non-descriptive titles like \"Appendix A\". Using descriptive appendix titles will help keep the reader from getting lost.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48346,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would think twice about including these results in appendices at all. You have one appendix for each chapter and each \"contains some proofs that did not belong in the chapter itself (e.g. proofs of lemmas and technical details)\". Why doesn't that belong in the chapter itself? That sounds like exactly the sort of material that I would expect to take up space in a math PhD thesis. You may want to organize things so that the most technical bits can be quickly identified and skipped by the uninterested reader, but putting them in appendices doesn't sound quite right to me. Appendices should contain material which is <em>ancillary</em> to the thesis, not the technical core of the thesis.</p>\n\n<p>Anyway, if you decide to go for the multiple appendices: I would call the Appendix \"The Appendix\" if there is one of them, and if there is more than one \"Appendix A\", \"Appendix B\", and so forth. </p>\n\n<p><b>Added</b>: After more thought, I agree with @Nate Eldredge's disagreement. If there is more than one appendix, you should probably give some help to the reader by saying what is in each one. Now that I seriously contemplate this possibility though [not that seriously; I still am not convinced that this is a good use of appendices at all, but whatever...] I find the question a bit weird: in that the OP can see his thesis, he is in a much better position than we to make the titles. But a simple, descriptive title should be fine.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48343",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36822/"
] |
48,344 |
<p><strong>EDIT</strong> Since there are some misunderstandings regarding my question I'll try to rephrase, and also avoid posting questions late at night when I am really tired :)</p>
<hr>
<p>A typical part of my work as a bioinformatician/data analyst is to check the relevance of my results, when I am drafting my articles, by doing a series of literature searches to see how my results relate to the field in general. This typically takes me <em>beyond my own competencies</em>, and into fields like histology, oncology, tumor biology etc.. </p>
<p>Quite often I run into very interesting results presented in articles that were published in obscure journals with pretty low IF (say for example 1.0-1.5). Sometimes the authors turn out to be from a rather unknown university from a unexpected country. I realize that this is a bit controversial, and I really don't mean to be looking down on anyone's creativity or work ethics but biomedical research is usually expensive, with all the lab consumables, customised reagents/antibodies/proteins/peptides etc.. </p>
<p>One such example was an article I found yesterday where the authors claim prognostic potential for a particular protein which also happens to be significantly regulated in my dataset. Naturally I was excited at first but then two questions arose:</p>
<ol>
<li>Could these people have really done what they claim they have done?</li>
<li>If the work is legit, then why it ended up going to a journal that's so obscure, considering that the findings might be very relevant for patient care. Cancer and biomarkers are two "hot" fields and there are literally lots of well known avenues for publication, before you come to think of <a href="http://www.hh.um.es/">this one</a>, or <a href="http://www.tmd.ac.jp/english/lib/JMDS/index.html">this one</a>. <strong>If the results are as interesting as I think they are</strong> then they should have surely been published in a venue where they'd get more attention. </li>
</ol>
<p>Am I being too harsh to be suspicious?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48347,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't think it's too harsh to be suspicious. I think that suspicion should be the <strong>default state</strong> of academics appraising each other's work. Nor do I think that you need to be equally suspicious of everyone: if certain indicators make you more suspicious, go for it. Having \"a nose for the truth\" is part of being a successful academic, and I don't think it's worth apologizing for.</p>\n\n<p>The question is what to do with your suspicion. In my field -- mathematics -- if you get suspicious of something, the remedy is in principle easy: you read it and check it. In reality this can take a lot of time and energy, but the more important the result is the more necessary and valuable that time spent will be. Note also that it may have the effect that you come out having completely understood the work, and then you can vouch for their work, so your suspicion will be a net positive for the authors. (And if their work turns out to be flawed and invalid, they <em>should</em> still thank you for your efforts. Even if they don't, your conscience is clear.)</p>\n\n<p>I'm afraid I don't really know what you should do in a biomedical field for which reproducing the projects would be an undertaking involving more capital than just your own time. I would guess that a <em>sufficiently important</em> biomedical study would get rechecked and refined by others. But if you really just think \"I highly doubt that if I did that study correctly, I would get the result that I read about, and if I didn't, then it will have been a waste of time\" then depending upon how skeptical you are it seems reasonable to contact the authors and ask for more information or simply ignore it altogether. The last sounds harsh, but it seems to to be necessary: what else are you supposed to do, go slavishly down a path that you firmly believe is wrong? </p>\n\n<p><b>Added</b>: @Kimball asks whether by \"ignoring\" these papers I mean not to cite them. Good question. In my opinion, just because paper A is published in field X and you are writing a paper in field X does not force you to cite A. If your work contradicts A then you still are not <em>necessarily</em> required to cite it: e.g. when you write a paper about the transcendence of Pi you will probably not cite papers purporting to show that Pi is algebraic or rational. You <em>need</em> to cite paper A if you use or rely on it in any way. You probably <em>should</em> cite a paper A if you think that others in your field will be aware of it, take it seriously and that a lack of citation would create confusion in the field. I would say that except in the precise circumstances enumerated above, you should <em>not</em> cite work that you believe but do not know to be false. </p>\n\n<p><b>Further Added</b>: I think that @The Dark Side made a crucial point in a comment above. In every technical field, papers get refereed, and serious/breakthrough papers get seriously refereed. This process however does not involve nontrivial expenditure of capital or systematic, large-scale reproduction on the part of the referee. But the referee must do something, and I would hope that the authors' institutional affiliation plays a small role in the evaluation process (ideally: no role at all). So the generalization of the answer above from mathematics to other academic fields seems to be: if you're suspicious of a potentially paper, you should <strong>re-referee it</strong>. In this particular case the OP seems to lack the expertise to fully do that. Okay, that's what friends and colleagues are for. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48351,
"author": "jakebeal",
"author_id": 22733,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/22733",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I am concerned by your choice of words:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>\"Obscure\": one person's obscure may be another person's core community.</li>\n<li>\"Low IF\": IF is very dependent on both community and \"trendiness.\" A lot of very good work is published in low IF venues because they are the appropriate place to publish the result.</li>\n<li>\"Unknown ... and unexpected\": again, not unusual at all for something interesting to come out of an unexpected place.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>All of these words, to me, point to lazy \"popularity-contest\" thinking in evaluating the context of a work. Instead, I think that you should use more scientifically meaningful heuristics, such as:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>Does the investigator have a history of solid work, into which this result fits?</li>\n<li>Does the venue have a clear, well-defined focus and community, and does it have reputable management?</li>\n<li>Is the work well-suited for the venue?</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>If a work doesn't pass these filters, then I think you should be highly suspicious and not bother digging more deeply. If it does, however, then you should be just as skeptical as you should be for <a href=\"http://retractionwatch.com/2015/07/02/corrections-propagate-for-distinguished-plant-biologist-olivier-voinnet/\">work coming out of a high-prestige laboratory in a leading institution</a>---and no more.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48366,
"author": "Maarten Klop",
"author_id": 36837,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36837",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>concerning your remark:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Quite often I run into very interesting results presented in articles that were published in obscure journals with pretty low IF (say for example 1.0-1.5). Sometimes the authors turn out to be from a rather unknown university from a unexpected country.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I feel that it may be difficult for 'unexpected countries' or 'rather unknown universities' or 'underexposed research groups' to actually publish in a highly ranking journal just due to this suspicion, which also bugs the reviewers and journal staff.</p>\n\n<p>Also it happens in reverse. Well known groups can sometimes just a little bit too easily publish a sloppy experiment in a high ranking journal.</p>\n\n<p>In that sense, I think this suspicion is overrepresented in literature, and we should be careful to apply it too much...</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48398,
"author": "Vectornaut",
"author_id": 23842,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/23842",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>This typically takes me <em>beyond my own competencies</em>, and into fields like histology, oncology, tumor biology etc..</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>When I want to evaluate the plausibility of a result from outside my area of expertise, I typically look for a friend or colleague who has the necessary expertise, or who might be able to point me to someone who does.</p>\n\n<p>I think this is much more likely to yield meaningful results, and much better for science as a whole, than evaluating an article I'm not competent to read based on the impact factor of its journal or the authors' institutions and countries of origin.</p>\n\n<p>To put it more harshly: if you're not competent to do something, don't do it. Instead, collaborate with someone who has the skills you need.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48400,
"author": "Bitwise",
"author_id": 6862,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6862",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>We all know that IF is a very problematic way to judge work quality, and most of what happens in science is not published in the \"glamour\" journals. We can also agree that every paper should be judged by its content and not by the journal it is published in. Finally, the notion of importance can be very subjective.</p>\n\n<p><strong>However:</strong></p>\n\n<p>I completely understand your concern and I think it is legitimate. I don't ever recall meeting a biologist that had an important result and would want to have it published in an extremely obscure journal. And yes, in biology even within specific subfields there will be several journals with IF higher than 1.0-1.5 (in this case the IF is not an indicator of quality but often is an indicator of what other people read). To be even more blunt, I don't remember ever seeing important results in a journal with this kind of IF. To me, this suggests that if the work ended up in such a journal, it is very likely the authors couldn't get it accepted in a \"better\" journal, so at least some people thought there was something wrong with it.</p>\n\n<p><strong>The bottom line:</strong></p>\n\n<p>It is technically possible that the results are very important and the author didn't care where they were published or the importance of the results was not realized. However, this is extremely unlikely in my experience.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48425,
"author": "Richard Wadsworth",
"author_id": 36892,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36892",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think you are right to be suspicious - but as long as the journal is included in those abstracted by pubmed etc then I you should still include it in your review. Just put a \"flag\" by it (if you really don't like it put it in an appendix). Including the paper shows;\na) your search was extensive\nb) you have some criteria for judging value (you've flagged it)</p>\n\n<p>There are \"social\" reasons why a good paper might appear in a low IF journal, eg: the author needed a publication quickly 'cause they were going for promotion, the author had a \"spat\" with one of the \"silver backs\" in the field, the author lacks confidence in their own ability or has been undermined by \"colleagues\", the institution they work for might be \"behind the curve\" in the obsession with IF etc etc. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48432,
"author": "anon",
"author_id": 36895,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36895",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think that the results are simply not as interesting as you think they are. A result from a new (while perhaps theoretically sound) statistical technique or data set that has not been subjected to rigorous cleaning (because if it were then there would be nothing left of it). </p>\n\n<p>As far as having the equipment goes, I'm not sure exactly what papers you're looking at, but from the standpoint of someone doing some biostatistics research at the moment, we often make use of data that has been made public or that which is obtained through collaborators as we have no wet lab. We have to wade through cleaning that data properly (which is extra difficult because it is hard to gather reliable biological data in a good form even when the biologist knows what is needed, many do not). We are often trying very new techniques, between potentially bad data and techniques that have not yet gone through the proving grounds... no matter how rigorous we are we will have some doubts about the result. </p>\n\n<p>If we are the first with such a result we would not be willing to trumpet it to too high IF journals. The results are not interesting to us unless:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>it also reproduces good findings from others besides the new thing it finds or </li>\n<li>the results are experimentally confirmed (which would usually be quite a while after publication, though alternatively a more biology based collaborator with a wet lab may do so). </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Your work is the reason their work is interesting, it's not interesting on its own. Balance this with some healthy skepticism in general of course though, statistics has a special case of irreproducible results, unreasonably so. </p>\n\n<p>Unlike some other posters, I believe that the magnitude of their results may not be very apparent at all to them in the case where they actually are major. This is because, like yourself, they may not have a deep knowledge of the field that the math is being applied to, they run their code on some data they got and oh, it turns out gene xyzl_at is significant, that holds no meaning for them in the way it would for a biologist working on the disease. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48450,
"author": "noumenal",
"author_id": 7711,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/7711",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The only two valid metrics you should use to assess individual papers, as a rule of thumb, are recency and number of citations. When it comes to recency, the results might become disputed in the future, but it is possible that the paper reflects the latest developments. When it comes to number of citations, this is often a clear indicator of the impact of the paper. Web of Knowledge or Google scholar can provide you with a citation metric. For rapidly moving fields, such as the natural sciences, 3 years is an acceptable cutoff for recency, but may vary from field to field. Generally, whether a paper is either \"classical\" or \"fresh\" is used as a criterion for inclusion as a potentially citeable source (e.g. for a literature review) and not for assessment of quality.</p>\n\n<p>Due to the change toward open access the IF and related metrics are starting to become less valid. In addition, they are controversial. They can be useful for authors planning to publish, but without the background knowledge required to evaluate the validity of the paper, what others think becomes more important. Thus, the measure of the individual impact of a paper should be consulted. You could potentially use IF indirectly, by checking what the impact factor of the journals citing the paper amount to. However, citation does not imply that the paper is a \"good\" paper. For example, the paper by Stanley Milgram \"Behavioural Study of Obedience\" has been cited 3847 times according to Google Scholar, but it is a text book example of when research ethics goes wrong.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/05
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48344",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674/"
] |
48,357 |
<p>I took all my college level math courses when I was 16 in running start while taking 30 credits a quarter(don't ask me what was going through my head at the time). As you can imagine I got an average of about a 2.8, in most of these courses....However, when I went to a 4 year they restarted my GPA and I currently have a 3.67 and it has only been climbing the last few quarters. I am about to graduate and I would like to go to Grad school. I am an Information Systems Major e.g. business. Is it plausible to at least get into a decent business Phd program ?</p>
<p>I see that most schools seem to look at these grades in particular. </p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48358,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Be prepared to explain that bad term and what you learned from it. Other than that: it's a given that frosh are foolish; that's why some schools run the freshman year as pass/fail.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48359,
"author": "aeismail",
"author_id": 53,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/53",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you were officially a high school student at the time, then you may not need to submit those grades to the universities to which you apply for graduate admissions at all. In general, anything that is done before undergraduate is ignored in graduate admissions.</p>\n\n<p>On the other hand, if the grades appear on your undergraduate transcript (because you applied to have the credits accepted towards graduation), then you will need to explain the situation, as keshlam suggests. Again, though, the fact that you were so young is a reasonable justification for your performance, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48370,
"author": "cspirou",
"author_id": 32335,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32335",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you took your courses over ten years ago and you are in the state of Texas then you can use a program called the Academic Fresh Start.</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"http://www.collegeforalltexans.com/index.cfm?objectid=6D10C9BD-DD24-153F-90B91DA6C20D1C97\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://www.collegeforalltexans.com/index.cfm?objectid=6D10C9BD-DD24-153F-90B91DA6C20D1C97</a></p>\n\n<p>Basically any courses you took over ten years ago can be ignored for the purpose of enrollment. Note that you cannot also use these credits to satisfy graduation requirements either. It's likely that some other states might have a similar program.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48357",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36831/"
] |
48,361 |
<p>A colleague of mine recently used the word "herein" in a research article (of which I am a co-author) to mean essentially "in this paper". To me it makes the paper read more like a legal document than a research article, so I commented that I would I prefer a phrase like "in this research", "in this paper", or "in this work". A quick google search showed that sometimes researchers use such words, but I haven't done a detailed check of how common it is. I can only go from my own experience that I don't often see this type of language used in scientific articles and that it sounds awkward to me. My question for this community is would you use words like "herein", "hereinafter", etc. in a scientific research article, or do they belong rather exclusively to legal literature/documents as my intuition tells me?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48367,
"author": "xebtl",
"author_id": 17811,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/17811",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would not. I have no data to back this up, but in my experience (and field: physics), these words are uncommon, and I would probably consider such usage bad writing. The last point of course depends somewhat on the context; maybe it is more accurate to say, I would expect to see such usage only in a badly written paper.</p>\n\n<p>As alternatives, I would prefer “in this work” (but not “in this research”, which sounds wrong, nor “in this paper” which sounds too colloquial to me) or something similar (“in this article”; “in this Letter” for some journals); or even just “here”.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48368,
"author": "Pont",
"author_id": 32532,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/32532",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>As a quick attempt at a relatively objective answer to this question, I searched all the PDFs in my \"papers\" folder for the string \"herein\". I didn't restrict to whole words, because I think that any word containing \"herein\" as a substring is also one of the words you're asking about. (\"wherein\", \"therein\", \"hereinafter\").</p>\n\n<p>The data set consisted of 1709 PDF files of scientific articles, most of them in the field of geosciences, the overwhelming majority published after 1950.</p>\n\n<p>Results of the search: 614 hits for \"herein\" in 286 documents; that is, around 17% of the articles contain this string. The real figure is likely to be a little higher, since not all the PDFs contain text (some are scanned images with no OCR); also, a few of them are in French, German, or Swedish rather than English, and should thus have been excluded from consideration.</p>\n\n<p>Conclusion: \"herein\" is not particularly unusual or unnatural, at least in my field.</p>\n\n<p>As a side note: personally I'm cautious about using phrases like \"in this work\", because I've come across many instances of ambiguity with such phrases. Sometimes authors use it to refer to the paper they're writing, and at other times to another paper they've just mentioned. I'd prefer \"in the present work\" over \"in this work\" for this reason, even though I consider it a little clunkier.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48369,
"author": "posdef",
"author_id": 5674,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/5674",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Here's <a href=\"https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=herein%2Cin%20this%20paper%2Cin%20this%20study%2C%20with%20this%20work%2C%20in%20this%20article&case_insensitive=on&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t4%3B%2Cherein%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bherein%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BHerein%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cin%20this%20paper%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bin%20this%20paper%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BIn%20this%20paper%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bin%20this%20Paper%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cin%20this%20study%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bin%20this%20study%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BIn%20this%20study%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cwith%20this%20work%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bwith%20this%20work%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BWith%20this%20work%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bwith%20this%20Work%3B%2Cc0%3B.t4%3B%2Cin%20this%20article%3B%2Cc0%3B%2Cs0%3B%3Bin%20this%20article%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BIn%20this%20article%3B%2Cc0%3B%3Bin%20this%20Article%3B%2Cc0%3B%3BIn%20this%20Article%3B%2Cc0\" rel=\"noreferrer\">a factual and quantifiable answer</a> to your question :)</p>\n\n<p><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/XscH6.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></p>\n\n<p>As you can see in the Google NGram, the word \"<em>herein</em>\" has been the popular way to convey this idea <em>historically</em> but has since 1920 lost popularity. \"<em>in this study</em>\" and \"<em>in this paper</em>\" together outweigh \"<em>herein</em>\" almost double up at this point.</p>\n\n<p>(end:facts, begin: speculation)<br>\nTake the following with a pinch of salt; but if you consider why this is the case, I'd say \"<em>herein</em>\" is the old way of saying the exact same thing as the other two. Sometimes people associate older phrasing with being finer, more eloquent and indeed sometimes even more intellectual, in a Twain-esque way. <strong>Please note that</strong> I am not accusing your colleague of thinking in this way, but sometimes people tend to choose the fancier/older word because it \"sounds better\". </p>\n\n<p>I have to say I really don't buy the argument of \"<em>herein</em>\" being shorter; you save 2 words or 6 characters (incl. whitespace). I would presume that you don't refer to the article more than 4-5 times throughout the course of the paper, so your saving is approximately 10 words, or 30 characters, which is not that much. I am willing to accept that excuse for an abstract maybe but certainly not for a research article where you typically have 5000 words or more to describe your work. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48437,
"author": "GEdgar",
"author_id": 4484,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4484",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>\"Herein\" is fine to use, even today, in English-language writing. It does not relate to \"legal\" documents only.</p>\n\n<p>However: </p>\n\n<p>Scientific research papers are often read by those whose native language is not English. Thus, in such writing, it is better to use simple English than sophisticated English. So why not use a simpler alternative to \"herein\"?</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48361",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36834/"
] |
48,374 |
<p>I am thinking about going to graduate school soon after getting my B.A but I don't know if my background will let me in/what I can do to get in.</p>
<p>I have an A.S and almost a B.A in marketing. Since High School I have worked in a corporate office in the marketing department. I have had to pay for college myself because my family and I don't have a lot of spare money so the entire time I'm in college I'm working a full and part time job, otherwise I wouldn't be able to stay. My grades aren't the best B-C average because of everything I have to take on just to go to school. </p>
<p>I also never took the official ACT or SAT. I have severe ADHD so the longer a test is the worst my grade gets. I took the practice SAT exams in High School and did beyond horrible but once I got it back and it showed all my wrong answers I was surprised by how simple the questions were and that I got it wrong when I knew the answer. </p>
<p>Anyway, my main questions is that I've seen people get in to grad programs without a GRE before but they were 4.0 students with 2 B.A's. I know I can take the GRE but I'm sure the test results won't show my true academic knowledge. Does anyone else suffer from ADHD in this way that can give advice or even the likeliness of getting into a grad program without the GRE?</p>
<p>EDIT: I was confused by the SAT and GRE. SAT was changed to GRE</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48376,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You seem a bit confused. The SAT/ACT is a test that most American students take to get into an <strong>undergraduate program</strong>. Once you are in an undergraduate program these scores become irrelevant (except possibly if you want to transfer to a different one), and they definitively become irrelevant once you have an undergraduate degree.</p>\n\n<p>The exam that most students take for American graduate programs is the <strong><a href=\"http://gradschool.about.com/cs/aboutthegre/a/gre.htm\" rel=\"nofollow\">GRE</a></strong>. Having said that it is indeed quite similar to the SAT: in fact, the last time I looked the quantitative section was almost identical. If you do not do well on timed tests in general then realistically I don't think the GRE will be much different. (But it is probably worth a try...)</p>\n\n<p>Whether you can get into a graduate program without taking the GREs depends mostly on <strong>whether the GREs are a required part of the application</strong>. For many types of graduate programs (still in the US, of course; the GRE doesn't exist elsewhere) the GRE will be widely required, e.g. if you are in the arts or sciences. For other types of graduate programs, maybe less so, but they may also have their own exams. Anyway, you should just browse the webpages of programs of interest to you: they'll tell you whether the GRE (or some other test) is required.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48902,
"author": "roseofjuly",
"author_id": 37289,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/37289",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The short answer is that with very few exceptions, some kind of standardized test is required for most reputable graduate programs in the U.S. The flip side of that is most programs that don't require a standardized test are programs you probably don't want to attend, because they won't get you where you want to go and may not be worth the time and investment of money. (I'm speaking very generally, here.)</p>\n\n<p>The good news is that most standardized testing companies do allow for the arrangement of accommodations for students with disabilities, including ADHD. You can apply for extra time to complete the exam, for example. The GRE's information about accommodations is <a href=\"https://www.ets.org/gre/revised_general/register/disabilities\" rel=\"nofollow\">here</a>.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48374",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36363/"
] |
48,375 |
<p>If I am using images with a copyleft license (e.g. <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/" rel="noreferrer">CC-BY-SA</a>), each of them as a separate, properly attributed piece, does it mean that the whole work (be it slides, a thesis or a book) need to be licensed in the same way?</p>
<h2>Reasoning 1</h2>
<p>This work uses images, so it's a derivative work and it needs to bear the same license.</p>
<h2>Reasoning 2</h2>
<p>This work is a collection. So, as long as I keep the images separate, and properly attributed/licensed, they do not affect the collection license.</p>
<h2>Practical implications</h2>
<ul>
<li>Using Wikipedia images in a presentation - does it mean that it need to be released as CC-BY-SA?</li>
<li>Is it possible to use images from two non-compatible copyleft licenses (e.g. CC-BY-SA and GPL) in a single book?</li>
</ul>
<p>Comment: My question is on what is <em>legal</em> according to these licenses, not what "won't put me in jail" or what can be waived by the law of a particular country.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48379,
"author": "MJeffryes",
"author_id": 31487,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/31487",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm going to ignore the GPL case, since the licence is not intended for images. For the CC licences, one interpretation is that incorporating a CC licensed image in your presentation or thesis <em>does not make your presentation or thesis a derivative work of the image</em>. You only create a derivative work when you modify the image itself. As such, it is not required that you redistribute the entire work under the licence. This also affects share-alike. Share-alike is only invoked if you create a derivative work, so as long as you do not modify the image you are using, you do not need to redistribute it. Here is a series of blog posts by a librarian which discusses the use of <a href=\"http://mollykleinman.com/2008/10/20/cc-howto-no-derivatives/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">no-derivative work</a> and <a href=\"http://mollykleinman.com/2008/08/29/cc-howto-share-alike/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">share-alike work</a>. Her interpretation is that these are examples of cases which are not derivatives:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li><p>Including a short story in a collection of short stories</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Reproducing an unedited image on a website</p>\n</li>\n<li><p>Using an unedited video in the background of a live concert</p>\n</li>\n</ul>\n</blockquote>\n<p>This is not the only possible interpretation of the licences, but your use might fall under an exemption or fair use of the images in your jurisdiction regardless of the licence.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48382,
"author": "Andrew",
"author_id": 27825,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/27825",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Including CC-licensed images as discrete elements in your work <strong>does not</strong> require the overall work to be CC-licensed. Reasoning 2 is correct here. </p>\n\n<p>(See <a href=\"https://opendata.stackexchange.com/questions/5378/can-i-put-a-cc-by-sa-photo-in-a-non-cc-by-sa-work/5380#5380\">a similar discussion on opendata.se</a>)</p>\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/us/legalcode\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">BY-SA</a> license works in terms of \"collective works\" and \"derivative works\":</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>1a. \"Collective Work\" means a work, such as a periodical issue,\n anthology or encyclopedia, in which the Work in its entirety in\n unmodified form, along with one or more other contributions,\n constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are\n assembled into a collective whole. A work that constitutes a\n Collective Work will not be considered a Derivative Work (as defined\n below) for the purposes of this License.</p>\n \n <p>1c. \"Derivative Work\" means a work based upon the Work or upon the\n Work and other pre-existing works, such as a translation, musical\n arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version,\n sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any\n other form in which the Work may be recast, transformed, or adapted,\n except that a work that constitutes a Collective Work will not be\n considered a Derivative Work for the purpose of this License. (...)</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>An image reproduced as part of a larger document (\"see Figure 17...\") falls under 1a as a collective work. You have to comply with the formalities of the licensing (4a, identify the license, 4c, identify the author), but section 4b is explicit that it \"...does not require the Collective Work apart from the Work itself to be made subject to the terms of this License.\"</p>\n\n<p>If you do modify the image (eg by adding a new element to a chart, making a composite of two photos, etc), then you have to release <em>that new image</em> as CC-BY-SA, but you can still incorporate it into your non-SA book as a single collective-work element.</p>\n\n<p>Having said all that, 1a could certainly do with some broader examples of what constitutes a collective work, to avoid ambiguity...</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p><strong>Edit (October 2015):</strong> a US district court has <a href=\"http://www.technollama.co.uk/us-court-interprets-copyleft-clause-in-creative-commons-licenses\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\">recently discussed</a> a similar issue (a CC-BY-SA image being used as the cover of a book) and held that that situation clearly constitutes a \"collective work\":</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Because this 112-page book of maps is not in any way \"based upon\"” the Photograph, and because defendant did not \"recast, transform[], or adapt[]\" the Photograph when it used it as the cover art for the Atlas, see License § 1(b), the Court finds that neither the Atlas nor its cover constitutes a derivative work subject to the ShareAlike requirement. Rather, the Atlas is more akin to a collective work, because the Photograph was placed \"in its entirety in unmodified form\" alongside \"other contributions, constituting separate and independent works\" – that is, the maps.\"</p>\n</blockquote>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48375",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/49/"
] |
48,380 |
<p>I recently heard about the possibility of submitting a proposal for a book to the publisher as "NN". I assume it has something to do with the fact that a couple of possible contributors have not yet confirmed their contribution but the editors want to go ahead anyway and submit the proposal already.</p>
<p>Am I right with my assumption? If so, what does "NN" stand for?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48381,
"author": "Stephan Kolassa",
"author_id": 4140,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4140",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p><em>Nomen nominandum</em>, \"a name to be named\" - if you don't know the person's name yet, this indicates that you will supply the name later.</p>\n\n<p>Which sounds a bit more reassuring than a simple <em>nomen nescio</em>, \"I don't know the name\".</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48395,
"author": "Ketan Maheshwari",
"author_id": 6103,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6103",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I think \"Nomen Nescio\" is the correct expansion of NN. </p>\n\n<p>My source: </p>\n\n<pre><code>Introduction to Scientific Publishing: Backgrounds, Concepts, Strategies By Andreas Öchsner; \nPage 77, table 7.3: \"Some standard abbreviations from Latin language\":\n</code></pre>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>N.N. -- Uknown name, used as a placeholder for unknown names, (from Latin 'Nomen Nescio')</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Google books <a href=\"https://books.google.com/books?id=vA1accpGK5UC&pg=PA77&lpg=PA77&dq=nomen%20nescio%20publishing&source=bl&ots=gstQOx6CaC&sig=2_mrBDJVD3OsY9Xsz6jq_gM7SxU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=qv2aVdifJ4XLogSdmaegAw&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=nomen%20nescio%20publishing&f=false\">link</a>.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48380",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/6444/"
] |
48,388 |
<p>I am in a situation that I think is not uncommon nowadays. </p>
<p>I wrote software on my own time, by my own decision, and with my own resources during my undergrad career at a university in the US, and now I want to be monetarily compensated for it because my software is used on a regular basis by a department in the university. I have heard of a couple cases where a student wrote a program that he/she thought would be helpful to the university in some way, after which they purchased it because they also thought it was valuable. </p>
<p>I want to go through the same thing, but the head of the department seems to refuse to pay (or at least say they are unable to pay for it). They claim it was a "senior project" even though that is not true, but somehow that means they can't pay for it. I think the intellectual property and my work that went into the software is worth money, so I feel I should be compensated. </p>
<p>Since that department is already using it and finds it valuable, shouldn't they pay for the product? If they completely refuse, is it smart to take the software away? </p>
<p><strong>EDIT for clarification:</strong>
Nothing has been signed. There have been no agreements written on paper that determine who has ownership. We have only spoken about this. </p>
<p>As a "trial period" I gave them the software's source so they could use it while I was away (because I graduated and moved away) and so I could make updates to the code. This was <em>not</em> a senior project. My work on this project had nothing to do with the university while I was writing it. The only relevance was that I intended to have it be used by the people at the university once it was finished.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48389,
"author": "keshlam",
"author_id": 10225,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10225",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>If you have previously given the software to them for free, with no license agreement in place, I don't think you can charge them for continuing to use those copies. You could charge for support, but they can always decide to support it themselves...</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48391,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n<p>I wrote software on my own time, by my own decision, and with my own resources during my undergrad career at a university in the US</p>\n<p>I want to go through the same thing, but the head of the department seems to refuse to pay (or at least say they are unable to pay for it) because the software was just a "senior project."</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>You have a disagreement about the copyright on this software. You say you wrote it completely independently, while they seem to assume that the project was part of some kind of undergrad project.</p>\n<p>One interesting question is how the department initially started to use the software if it was just your own, completely independent, project. Under what circumstances did you give them access to the software? Under what agreement? How did they even know that this software exists? If you just went to them and told them "hey, I wrote this nifty tool for the problem you talked about in this course, care to start using it?", I think an argument could be made that they could reasonably assume the software to be made available free of charge. Usually, if one wants to sell something, one does not just give away the product and then, later on, starts talking about money.</p>\n<p>In your edit, you say:</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>As a "trial period" I gave them the software's source so they could use it while I was away</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Was it a "trial period" or a trial period? That is, did you just intend this as a trial period, or was it <em>at least</em> verbally made clear that you expect to be paid for this project down the road? Your post somehow alludes to me that you did not.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Since that department is already using it and finds it valuable, shouldn't they pay for the product?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Not necessarily. Open source and free software exists, so just that they are using something does not imply that you are entitled to getting paid. Further, if you in fact <em>did</em> work on this somehow connected to an university project, the legal situation gets muddy much more quickly than what you seem to assume.</p>\n<p>Further, I should caution you that most customers, including universities, typically expect more than just a piece of running code when they actually pay for software. If exchange of money is involved, part of the agreement may be that you are supposed to be available for bug fixes, feature requests, and user trainings down the road (paid or unpaid, depending on agreement).</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>If they completely refuse, is it smart to take the software away?</p>\n</blockquote>\n<p>Legally, you are likely free to do so. Technically, it may be hard to "remove" already deployed (in some grey-area legal situation) software. Even if somehow forbid them to use your software in the future, this sounds only like a good idea if you <strong>never</strong> need to deal with them again. You are likely going to be a <em>very</em> unpopular person in this department.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48392,
"author": "Scott Seidman",
"author_id": 20457,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/20457",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Senior Projects can be rough from an IP standpoint. I'm not speaking as a lawyer, but I am speaking as someone who manages many senior projects and is in the middle of working out the IP status of the students with our univ counsel.</p>\n\n<p>For your specific case, we're missing some of the specific details, like exactly what were the resources put into the project, etc, and exactly what were the circumstances and communications involved (please don't provide that as comment -- I'm not particularly interested, but will try to cover a variety of scenarios and you can place yourself in whatever box you see as appropriate).</p>\n\n<p>My recommendation is if you worked on this FOR a specific lab or department, and they helped you evaluate and debug, and no discussions of ownership took place a priori, and the ONLY possible users are the people you've been working with, then I would allow them to keep using your code without charge REGARDLESS of whatever legitimate IP claims you actually have, and chalk it up to experience and lessons learned. If the groups needs any further development or support, let them know that you're willing to handle it on a consultant basis. Note this has nothing to do with what's legal or what your real claims are. It has to do with professionalism, making payments and deliverables clear before work is started, leaving behind a swath of people who feel good about working with you as opposed to people who regret having worked with you.</p>\n\n<p>If you really plan to develop your code, improve it, and market and sell it beyond the boundaries of that one department, then there may be clear disadvantages to just handing them your IP, and you should start a business and consult with a lawyer. Personally, I would think in that case your best bet, or at least a good option, is to formally grant the users non-exclusive use of the code at no cost, just to make it clear that you are holding on to your IP and not giving it away.</p>\n\n<p>In all cases, you should make sure that if money is going to be made in the future with this code that you will be part of it or all of it! Thus, even if you decide to just let the department continue to use it, and have no plans to ever sell it elsewhere, you might want to go through the exercise of establishing a license, just to establish ownership in case the department ever wants to sell it on their own.</p>\n\n<p>Of course, getting the right sort of licensing contract might just mean hiring a lawyer, and thus spending money. You'd have to figure out if that's worth it, unless there are some kind of templates out there. </p>\n\n<p>In our own design course, we certainly don't want anyone taking advantage of our students from an IP perspective. That said, we have \"customers\" for every prototype we generate, and if we cut off our customers from the fruits of the project, we wouldn't have many future customers. We have had IP come out of the class, and some of the patents have been assigned to the university with students as inventors if the university has contributed substantial resources to the project, or if a faculty member is one of the inventors. Others, where the university has not contributed much in the way of resources, go to the students, who are free to do with it as they chose. Some have spun out businesses. In either case, we would NEVER cut the customer out from at least being able to USE the prototype. It would be shoddy.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48393,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>In addition to the other answers, I would like to specifically respond to one part of your question:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Since that department is already using it and finds it valuable, shouldn't they pay for the product?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Not only with respect to this university, but also concerning possible future customers of yours, I consider this stance to be a very unwise one to express. The issue is that it can easily be understood as</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>I let them use it for free because I didn't think it was valuable, but now that I see that they actually need it, I am going to start charging them for it.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>That, in turn, means that you did not spend a certain amount of resources that you wanted to ammortize with the revenue from your software all along. Rather than that, it can be interpreted as waiting till your software (that the department seems to have assumed to be free) is in use (and possibly not easily replaceable), and once that has happened, you let the trap snap shut to make a few quick dollars.</p>\n\n<p>I would consider this deeply unethical, and if anyone outside of the department learns of that, it certainly does no good for trusting in future software of yours. If I buy a future piece of software from you, how can I be convinced that it will not suddenly be severely restricted once you realize it is much more valuable than what you charged me?</p>\n\n<p><em>It is bad enough that numerous companies in the real world already use this business model. Please don't become one of them.</em></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48397,
"author": "user36866",
"author_id": 36866,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36866",
"pm_score": 6,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would suggest a different tactic altogether:\nGive them a license to use the software as well as any and all updates for free. Support should not be free but done by others under your instruction. In return ask them to sign over any previously perceived ownership of intellectual property. Next ask that they help you by providing suggestions for improvements to your software. Sell it to every other university in the world.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48420,
"author": "Greg",
"author_id": 14755,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14755",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>First, I would check the IP guidelines/regulations of the university. Many institutes, university etc explicitly deal with such situations about patents, software etc. If you find any relevant part pro or contra, you have at least something to talk about with your department and with IP office of university.</p>\n\n<p>Second, even if you own the copyright and all the rights, you may not get money out of them. Not because you don't deserve, but because you are in a tricky position now and most probably you don't have the power to go full legal bottle (would it pay off). What you can do however to clear up the legal status, and make them sign a contract that they can use the software for free (maybe restricted to this version, so they actually have to buy any latter upgrade), but they acknowledge your rights, they do not give it anyone outside of the institute or given labs and they grant you to sell the software to other universities. </p>\n\n<p>If the software worth anything, you can make much more money selling it to other labs, and the people who use it know will be your free advertisements. You can explicitly ask them to reference you whenever they use your software.\nIf you offer this option to them, they don't loose face, they don't need to pay any money, so it is a very smooth solution for them, too, on long term it and has merits to you, too, and you don't need to hire a full legal team. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48427,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>[Putting on my department chair hat]</p>\n\n<p>We're often cautioned by the administration to avoid conflicts of interest. This makes it difficult for us to sign a contract with someone who is not at arms-length relationship from us. A former (or current) student is problematic from this perspective. </p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>If you were selling a commercial product and we happened to be just one of many clients, we could argue to our auditors that there's no special interest involved -- your product is simply the best on the marketplace.\nThis is not the case in your situation.</p></li>\n<li><p>It would also be different if we hired you as a work-for-hire student (or non-student) worker. Then we would own the product of your work. To the auditor, we simply hired the best student/worker that was available, paying the fair-market wage for that type of work.</p></li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>But you are presenting a third scenario where you want the department to license your software for an undisclosed amount. How do we justify to the auditor that this is a fair price and that it isn't simply a payoff to you?</p>\n\n<p><sub>The people who suggest that you give the software to the university for free and instead contract your labor as support are using a variation of #2. You would have difficulty asking for more than the normal student wage, however.</sub></p>\n\n<p><sub>This doesn't solve the question of who owns the intellectual property rights to the software. If you weren't a student worker, then the university usually has little claim but you need to check your university's IP regulations. That being said, you don't want to burn bridges. The most amenable suggestion would be to tell the Chair that the software they are using is copyrighted by you and that you will allow them to use it for free, but they cannot redistribute it in any form.</sub></p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48448,
"author": "mckenzm",
"author_id": 34398,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34398",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A number of issues yet to clarify.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Were you at any time, an \"Employee\". </li>\n<li>What basis really exists for classifying the work as a Senior Project ?</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>This should be black and white. Can they sanction you academically if you sue ?</p>\n\n<ol start=\"3\">\n<li>Were you \"supervised\" in any way during the development, was it truly independent ?</li>\n<li>What rights did you sign away upon enrolment ?</li>\n<li>Is the source in their hands ? What copyright exists ? Can they alter the code to create a derivative work that differs substantially ? </li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Your only other course of action would be to issue them with a non-exclusive license, and incorporate, transferring the rights to the corporation.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48449,
"author": "joojaa",
"author_id": 36744,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36744",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Unfortunately you have painted yourself in the corner. You are facing two very prominent problems here:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>Its one thing to get people to use/like a piece of software. Its a totally different ballgame if they need to pay for it. Going commercial changes everything, permanently, no going back. It also changes peoples perception of the usefulness of your software.</li>\n<li>Your actions may be perceived as variation of a <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bait-and-switch\" rel=\"nofollow\">bait and switch</a> fraud. As such people in charge can react to this very unfavorably. Many times this would lead them to sever contact with you, possibly even in spite, regardless of cost.</li>\n</ol>\n\n<p>Its not so easy to get people to give out money. Especially by changing the deal retroactively.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48650,
"author": "Ahmad",
"author_id": 21885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21885",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I feel you wrote the software for the university and out of your own curiosity, but you didn't sign anything and now you regret the time you spent on it. </p>\n\n<p>Actually, it happened to me and finally I abandoned it. But you said:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Since that department is already using it and finds it valuable, shouldn't they pay for the product?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>You can't force them to pay for something if they didn't agree it before, but in such situations, if you think they really need your software then you can do the deal.</p>\n\n<p>You are the owner of the software and if it really worth, customers pay for it, jut advertise it and negotiate on it as the university is one of the customers. If they get convinced they will buy it, if not you don't give it to them (However, you still regret the time you spent on it, but it was your own risk. When we don't specify our purpose of something and we don't sign an agreement, we should expect such things to happen.)</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48388",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36855/"
] |
48,390 |
<p>US News and World only ranks about 100 graduate programs in computer science 300 research universities in the US. How do graduate programs of small and/or unranked universities attract graduate students?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48465,
"author": "Geo",
"author_id": 34545,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/34545",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would think it is a matter of differentiating your department from those at other universities in ways that you are capable of. Perhaps you don't have the reputation and resources to compete with large programs, but are there other areas that make you unique? What makes your program special? What does your department/university/locale offer that is different than other places? Is it a particular sub-specialty? Specific industry-contacts? Killer internships? </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48511,
"author": "Mark",
"author_id": 26460,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/26460",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<ol>\n<li><p>Not everyone has the GPA / research experience to be accepted to those top 100 Universities.</p></li>\n<li><p>Not everyone is confident enough to apply to those top universities and they feel more comfortable going somewhere closer to home.</p></li>\n<li><p>Many students have constraints making relocation impossible (e.g., cultural obligations to their family where they cannot move more than 10 miles from their parents), so they go to graduate school in the closest program they can.</p></li>\n</ol>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48390",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/29303/"
] |
48,394 |
<p><strong>Microsoft Word</strong> is the standard product for documents in my department as far as the administration is concerned. Final exams go through a work-flow that involves department secretaries creating a standard cover page, professors providing "content", and the final product is approved by the department chair. In 2001, this was OK. Now, after having used online course systems such as Moodle with question banks, I find it really frustrating.</p>
<p>Word has been inadequate (for my exam preparation) for years. Here are some of the reasons:</p>
<ul>
<li>There's no template (<code>.dot</code> or <code>.dotx</code>) file that contains the formatting information for that which is a university exam, including styles for short-answer questions, multiple-choice, essay, etc. Secretaries just send me last semester's exam, with the updated cover page, and I'm asked to update the content of my exam. I once attempted to define numbered questions in Word styles, but the Word styles have become polluted over the semesters (especially when other instructors are involved, who may or may not use Word styles properly). It's a nightmare to try to strip out the junk (especially since the cover page has some formatting styles that get introduced). Sadly, most secretaries use Word as a kind of hi-tech typewriter, and there's no separation of content from presentation. A template idea means nothing (which is a human problem).</li>
<li>Although there is auto-numbering for questions/pages/etc., I haven't found a way to automatically number the various question types, e.g., essay questions, multiple-choice questions along with the answers to questions, keeping them all on the same page, etc. Again, the result winds up being some hacked-up typewritten solution where one must manually re-start numbering at the proper place, etc. Moving or adding a question or answer is disruptive. I'm sure there's a clean way to do this, but I've never had the time to grok it or found the <code>.dot</code>/<code>.dotx</code> file that made it easy in Word. Customizing lists is a nightmare in Word (it has to be done with care or the numbering is all wrong). Surely someone has solved this problem for exams!</li>
<li>Exams are manually graded, so it's very useful to have grader zones to keep track of points when marking. The solution is to make a Word table on the cover page (or the last page) and update it for each question and its value. Again, it's a failure (to me) that in 2015 we must update these tables manually when the points/question or order of questions change. We're basically using Word as a typewriter despite the power of Microsoft. I tried in the past (2005?) to use Word variables for the point-values in questions, but short of writing a macro in VB, I wasn't able to generate a grading table automatically.</li>
</ul>
<p>So, along comes a graduate teaching assistant who points me to the <a href="http://www-math.mit.edu/%7Epsh/exam/examdoc.pdf" rel="noreferrer"><strong>exam class in LaTeX</strong></a>. Awesome! It solves all of the above problems! Except, it's a LaTeX environment, and that's going to cause problems with the non-technical part of our exam workflow. Getting the secretaries (or technicians) to 1) install the proper LaTeX environment on their machines or 2) to learn to use typesetting language is going to be a barrier for several reasons. What's more, I'm pretty sure I'll get stuck maintaining the cover page for the entire university in LaTeX if I convinced them to go down that road (the post-doc who created the LaTeX style for a PhD thesis here got stuck with supporting it).</p>
<p>Even the more use-friendly <a href="http://www.lyx.org/" rel="noreferrer">LyX</a> is too much, because of the complex installation in Windows. The <a href="https://makoyi.dreamwidth.org/117045.html" rel="noreferrer">Exam layout for LyX</a> is far from easy to use (there are a lot of embedded LaTeX commands still necessary).</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/7046f.png" alt="Screenshot of LyX exam style" /></p>
<p>But the exam class in LaTeX is awesome -- here are just a couple of examples:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/f83FC.png" alt="different styles of questions" /></p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/4z4Xb.png" alt="Exam class gradetable option" /></p>
</blockquote>
<p>I started using Word in 1984 with 5 1/4" floppies, before a mouse was needed (it was optional). I remember thinking how cool the idea of paragraph styles was... They have existed since then. But where is the Word equivalent of the <em>Exam</em> class from LaTeX? Did it die when Framemaker was bought by Adobe in the 1990s?</p>
<p>OpenOffice has a couple of templates, but they're specific for styles of questions (e.g., <a href="http://templates.openoffice.org/en/template/multiple-choice-exam-sheet" rel="noreferrer">Multiple-choice template</a>, <a href="http://templates.openoffice.org/en/template/essay-exam-sheet" rel="noreferrer">Essay template</a>).</p>
<p>What powerful exam template do you use that's secretary-friendly?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48396,
"author": "Davidmh",
"author_id": 12587,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/12587",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>So, you want LaTeX without having to write LaTeX. The solution? Write a LaTeX code generator!</p>\n\n<p>You don't seem to have many different kinds of questions, so your user can input them through a form, similar to how Google Docs works. Then, compile. Last time I tried, MikTeX was pretty straightforward to install on Windows, and it will automatically download necessary packages as needed. Another alternative is to offer it as a webserver.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 80710,
"author": "Fuhrmanator",
"author_id": 3859,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3859",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>For LyX, I created my own, improved <a href=\"https://github.com/fuhrmanator/lyx-layouts\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><code>exam.layout</code> (available on GitHub)</a> that uses LaTeX's exam class and it's working well (although LyX does have its quirks). </p>\n\n<p>It's documented in <code>exam_layout_doc.lyx</code> and a sample is included as <code>sample_exam.lyx</code>. </p>\n\n<p>Here's an example from the cover page (based on the Exam Class samples in its documentation): </p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/7AuPa.png\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/7AuPa.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n\n<p>... and some questions:</p>\n\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/czVzg.png\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/czVzg.png\" alt=\"enter image description here\"></a></p>\n\n<p>Not all Exam Class features are supported, but a lot of things are doable from LyX with my layout file.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/06
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48394",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3859/"
] |
48,399 |
<p>I am wondering how many papers does an average academia-bound PhD student in math try to get published? I want to eventually work in a research-oriented university rather than a teaching-oriented university. Obviously the more good mathematics one gets published the better, but what would be average for someone who goes on to work as a professor at a research university?</p>
<p>I am particularly interested in the field of combinatorics.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48401,
"author": "Brian Borchers",
"author_id": 4453,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/4453",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>A short answer is that you should publish as much <em>quality</em> work as you can before going on the job market. Piling on junk publications in unknown journals isn't going to help much, but having at least one or two publications in reasonably high quality journals is important. In mathematics, expectations for what a PhD student should publish have grown in recent decades along with competition for post-doc and tenure track positions. </p>\n\n<p>For example, when I completed my PhD and interviewed for my first (and current) tenure track position in 1992, I had two papers submitted, but neither had yet been accepted. I defended my PhD over the summer before starting my first job as a tenure track assistant professor. That would never happen today. </p>\n\n<p>During a recent search for a tenure track assistant professor, I interviewed (by Skype and in person) 14 candidates. All of them had at least one year of employment post-PhD, and most had 3-4 years of experience and a dozen or more publications. I believe that all of them had coauthored at least one published paper before the PhD. I would expect any successful candidate for a tenure track position in my department to have a similar record of publications at similar stages in their career. </p>\n\n<p>You can look up my affiliation in my profile, or just trust me when I say that you've probably never heard of the institution where I work. In my experience (based on serving on a search committee once every few years) expectations have risen dramatically in the last decade. This is the new reality at a broad range of institutions. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48403,
"author": "Mark Meckes",
"author_id": 101,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/101",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Since I was asked to clarify my comments, I'll respond by saying that you're not asking exactly the right question. Both Brian Borchers's answer here and Pete Clark's answer linked by Mad Jack give good advice, but if you read them carefully you'll see that they're talking mainly about what your application should look like when you apply for your first tenure-track position, which -- if you're aiming for a research-oriented job -- you will probably not do from grad school, but from a postdoctoral position. </p>\n\n<p>As Pete points out, you don't need published papers to get a postdoc. (The difference between accepted and published is immaterial and I'm ignoring it.) Many, maybe most new math postdocs don't yet have any published papers. But to get a postdoc you do need results which will lead to published papers, and to get a tenure-track position, you should have published those papers and written newer papers that aren't derived from your thesis. There used to be the idea that the first year of a postdoc would be spent turning your thesis into one or more papers and submitting them; as Brian hints, these days that would have you rather behind the curve.</p>\n\n<p>In any case, the bottom line is that as a Ph.D. student, your first priority is to write a really good thesis. How that work gets divided up into papers and when it gets published depends on too many factors to get into here --- and that's part of what you have an advisor for.</p>\n\n<p>You seem to really want me to quote a numerical range, so I'll say that in my subfield it's pretty normal for the work in a Ph.D. thesis to correspond to anywhere from two to five eventually published papers, but I know of at least one person whose thesis consisted of nine papers. But as I said, these things can vary enormously by subfield. Talk to your advisor!</p>\n\n<p>Final note: I just saw your edit stating that you're going into combinatorics. That's not my field so I don't know very specifically, but (certain parts of) combinatorics have a reputation for larger numbers of shorter papers than most other subfields. Again: talk to your advisor!</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48405,
"author": "Pete L. Clark",
"author_id": 938,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/938",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I agree entirely with the answers of Mark and Brian. Since my name has been uttered three times and I've been summoned here already, let me add a few nuances.</p>\n\n<p>1) Asking for a number is certainly the wrong question. What you want to show as a graduating PhD student seeking an academic career is substantial results and the promise of more (and better) such results to come. Multiplicity is not the point at this stage of the game. Better one very good result than five pretty good ones.</p>\n\n<p>2) Zero is a very interesting number nowadays. It corresponds both to people who have not done any publishable work (note to academics in STEM fields other than mathematics: the standards for publication in a non-predatory math journal are quite high; the most common number of publications for a PhD in mathematics is certainly zero, and many PhDs are awarded for theses which could only be publishable with a significant amount of additional work which the PhD candidate is almost certainly not going to do) and future stars at elite places who do not need to show their partial work because their superstar advisors will tell the story for them. So zero publications is very common...but it's most commonly bad. </p>\n\n<p>3) Publication quotas have been rising <em>dramatically</em> in mathematics, even in the last dozen years. I wrote elsewhere that I got my PhD in 2003, my first publication was in 2005, and I did well on the tenure-track job market in 2006 with five accepted papers. Well, it's true....but that story is so 12 years ago. Most postdocs we have hired at UGA in recent years have had some accepted papers or at least an arxiv preprint that the interested parties can look at and convince themselves is going to be accepted. Also at UGA we have numerous, highly systematized opportunities for graduate research, which results in <a href=\"http://vigre.math.uga.edu/publications/\" rel=\"noreferrer\">a substantial number of publications co/authored by graduate students</a>. We also give 2-3 graduate research awards per year, and these awards are usually given for preprints or publications, not just \"promising thesis work\". All three of my graduated / soon to graduate students have had arxiv preprints or publications by the time they went on the job market; two out of the three had more than one. In the limit, Princeton students will get five years of postdocs and be able to release their <em>Annals</em> paper while they're on the tenure track, and everyone else who's serious will have some tangible product upon graduation. Well, obviously that's an exaggeration, but there's some truth to it.</p>\n\n<p>4) It is true that numbers of publications are sensitive to the subfield. They're sensitive to a lot of other things as well -- e.g. the length and quality of the publications -- but if we want to sling generalities: applied math people publish way more than pure math people (and they cite each other with enough frequency to make the stereotypical pure mathematician want to roll her eyes every time she hears \"impact factor\"); they may even publish some of their good papers in conferences, which is almost unheard of in pure math. In pure math, combinatorics is one of the highest publishing fields, and the papers tend to be shorter (and often lighter, but even a weighty breakthrough paper is probably going to be short compared to other fields). Algebra and number theory publish a bit more than average, generally. Analysis is a broad field and seems roughly in the middle. Geometry depends sensitively on the subfield: discrete geometers publish a lot; differential geometers less; algebraic geometers really less. Topologists seem to publish very few papers. Well, it was fun to play but I wouldn't take any of that very seriously (though argue if you want, that's part of the fun).</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48399",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36870/"
] |
48,404 |
<p>I am a tenure-track Assistant Professor, coming up for tenure next year (no concerns about getting tenure). There is another university I would like to move to. Their department is of similar strength to my own, but is a better fit for my research, and is in a city I would rather live in. However I don't have any personal connections with any of their faculty members.</p>
<p>Is it appropriate to write to the department head, express my interest, and ask if there are any anticipated openings? Would there be any point in doing this? Thanks for any insights.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48406,
"author": "Memj",
"author_id": 36363,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36363",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>While I have no experience in working with a university I do work in corporate and I think I can make an accurate suggestion by comparing this to my corporate experiences.</p>\n\n<p>Contacting another corporation (University) about possible openings is absolutely okay but it matters how you approach it. First, I would contact the department head and tell them about who you are and what you do while also expressing interest in that university. Tell the department head that while you love your current position you believe that the city where their university would better yourself because of your research and x,y,z. After that you can ask if they know if any positions are currently open or will be open in the near future that you could possibly inquire about.</p>\n\n<p>The point of doing this is it establishes a network between you and the department head, and if you don't contact them you may be in a long pile of applications when the university opens the position publicly rather than the department head possibly giving you a heads up. The department head may also offer you advice such as how to increase your chances of a transfer to their university and what not. </p>\n\n<p>I hope this helps. </p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48407,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You certainly could.It's a low-risk action with the following responses in roughly descending order of probability (assuming you're looking for a tenure-track job, and not just an adjunct/visiting position):</p>\n\n<p>1) The e-mail is ignored. Chairs get many strange e-mails about things that are unanswerable. This goes into the e-mail folder labelled \"To respond to when I have much more time than I do now\"</p>\n\n<p>2) The Chair writes back with a polite letter thanking you for your interest but that there's nothing in the immediate future, promises to write to you if there is, and then promptly forgets about your e-mail which gets archived along with the other people who wrote the same.</p>\n\n<p>3) The Chair writes back saying that there's an opening for exactly someone with your specific research interests, teaching background, and desired seniority. They were going to have an open search and advertise this on all of the usual sites, but because you're such a perfect fit, they're skipping straight to hiring you.</p>\n\n<p>I should add that #1 and #2 combined represent about 99.99% probability and #3 only happens once in a millennium. But again, the risk is so low that you could do it and buy a PowerBall lottery ticket at the same time and see what happens.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>On a more serious note, many job sites have 'alert' functions that will let you know when a job that meets your criteria pops up. I'd subscribe to those. In the meanwhile, I'd become chummy with that department if possible so that you can hear about any gossip about spots. Or try to impress them so much that they decide to do a targeted hire with you in the spotlight.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48404",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21734/"
] |
48,408 |
<p>I studied in the US up until the 6th grade, came back to India, completed high school here and finished a bachelor degree in computer science here in India. All my education in India was completed in English only. I am also a US citizen. I want to pursue a masters degree in the US. Do I need to take the TOEFL exam or not?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48410,
"author": "Nate Eldredge",
"author_id": 1010,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/1010",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The safest course of action would just be to take it.</p>\n\n<p>Each department at each university has its own policy on the TOEFL. Usually international students from non-English speaking countries are required to take it, but there may be exceptions. It is common for there to be an exception for students who have attended a <strong>university</strong> in the US, but that does not apply to you.</p>\n\n<p>So you'd have to check the policies of each department where you want to apply, to see if they have an exception that does apply to you. Or, if there is no written exception that applies, you could contact them directly, explain your situation, and ask them to waive the requirement (of course there is no guarantee that they will agree).</p>\n\n<p>So unless you can verify that every department you care about will accept you without a TOEFL score, you had better take the exam.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48411,
"author": "RoboKaren",
"author_id": 14885,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14885",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Most schools will say that they don't require the TOEFL if the language of instruction in your previous institution was English.</p>\n\n<p>In reality, if you're applying from outside USA/England/Australia/New Zealand, then it's a very good idea to have TOEFLs (unless your GRE verbal scores are very high - top 10 percentile).</p>\n\n<p>You want to extinguish any possible doubt about your English-speaking ability.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48408",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36875/"
] |
48,416 |
<p>I am a computer science student and am currently doing my Master Thesis in Germany. I am in the second month of the six month duration for the Master Thesis. I wish to pursue a PhD after Masters and I was wondering when the right time is to start applying for PhD positions. I found a few positions that start in September 2015 but I would be done with the Masters only at the end of November. Is it alright to start applying for a position from now itself or should I wait for a few months?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48419,
"author": "silvado",
"author_id": 3890,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/3890",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'd recommend that you start applying a few months before you graduate. The process may easily take several months, and if you want a direct transition, you need to find something before you actually graduate.</p>\n\n<p>In most cases, it will be possible to delay the start of a position by a few months. So by all means, if you find an interesting position that starts a bit before you expect to graduate, you should still apply. Just state the date of you expected graduation (month/year is fine) with your application.</p>\n\n<p>Note that many potential employers, especially if they don't know you from earlier activities, will want to see results of academic work such as a Masters thesis (or at least a draft for it) or other academic texts. If you can't show anything in that direction, it would be good to first focus on positions where you know the professor.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48435,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The best time to apply depends on the funding type of your Ph.D. position and on whether the start time is fixed. There are generally two funding types, namely, research assistants (wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) and scholarship based funding. </p>\n\n<p>For research assistants, a master degree certificate is a legal prerequisite to get employed and if the supervisor doesn't know you personally then he probably won't consider your application until a semi-final draft of your thesis is already done. Supervisors can delay the start of their project only if they find an excellent match.</p>\n\n<p>As for scholarship-based positions, you can apply a bit earlier depending on the application deadline. You may even start conditionally without having your master degree certificate issued yet which gives you extra flexibility. Note that issuing the master certificate may take a few months after defending the thesis. </p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48416",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36166/"
] |
48,418 |
<p>I am writing a paper in Computer Science / Information Technology. At several points in the paper, I mention the existence of particular types of software products. For example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Advanced web data extraction systems offer the possibility for the user to define and execute Web wrappers by means of interactive graphical users interfaces (GUI) (e.g. Denodo, Kapowtech, Lixto and Mozenda).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The examples I am referencing are commercial products. Some of them have some articles associated with them which I can cite. Should I add reference to these articles? If yes, how can I do that?</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48422,
"author": "André Kleinschmidt",
"author_id": 36613,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36613",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I suggest to add footnotes as an offer for further reading, if the journal you are writing for allows them. If your target journal does not, this answer may not be applicable to you.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Citing articles is possible, <strong>but</strong>: <em>Usually</em> one cites only sources that are contributing to the own scientific work, sources that changed the authors mind on something, that the author argues about, that the author judge to be relevant.\nIf you know a cite-able source that gives proof to your statement, than provide it with your usual citing style (APA, LNI, whatever), but if you just list examples, I suggest you to offer the sources (e.g. web addresses) as further reading in footnotes.</p>\n\n<p>In any case web documents are <em>tricky to cite</em>, because <em>they can change over time</em>. This makes them not the best sources for scientific citation. You can lower the risk of changing web documents by using a web preservation service like <a href=\"http://www.webcitation.org\" rel=\"nofollow\">WebCite</a>. See footnote <sup>1</sup> below as an example.</p>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>Your example could look like this:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Advanced web data extraction systems offer the possibility for the user to define and execute Web wrappers by means of interactive graphical users interfaces (GUI) [Aut15] (e.g. Denodo<sup>1</sup>, Kapowtech<sup>2</sup>, Lixto<sup>3</sup> and Mozenda<sup>4</sup>).</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<hr>\n\n<pre>Footnotes (same page):\n<sup>1</sup> http://www.denodo.com/ checked on 2015-07-08, archived at http://www.webcitation.org/shortlink\n<sup>2</sup> http://www.kapowtech.com/\n<sup>3</sup> http://www.lixto.com/\n<sup>4</sup> https://www.mozenda.com\n</pre>\n\n<hr>\n\n<pre>\nBibliography (appendix):\n[Aut15] Author Examply 2015 - \"On Web data extraction systems\" in Paper xyz \n</pre>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48423,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Like any other external resources you mention in your paper, in my opinion, the sources for the examples should be listed as regular references. This can happen in various forms:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>If there is a scientific paper that in some way presents the external resource, cite that paper.</li>\n<li>If the resource is only presented on a website, cite that website like you would cite other web sources. This can take various forms, though you should be consistent within any one paper you write. The author, unless a single person, should probably be the name of the entity that published the resource. The title can either be the website title, or the name of the resource (e.g. software name).</li>\n</ul>\n\n<p>This has various benefits:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>All external works are collected in your references section.</li>\n<li>If you refer to the same source several times (especially on several pages), you can use the usual mechanisms by placing cite references.</li>\n<li>Readers will not get confused by different formats and places for finding external works you refer to.</li>\n</ul>\n\n<hr>\n\n<p>In an afterthought, I would find it extremely hard to consistently distinguish \"examples\" from \"normal references\". By \"normal reference\", I imagine a paper that confirms a statement you make. Now, imagine a simple statement like</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>In past works, users have been provided with feature X.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>for which you want to supply a paper that describes a commercial software that does provide <em>feature X</em>. Now, is this paper an \"example\" or a \"normal reference\" that serves to confirm your statement? Clearly, it can be seen as both ... which is why I generally advise against trying to distinguish between any such \"categories\" of cited works.</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48418",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/21885/"
] |
48,426 |
<p>My question is related to the fact that at a specific conference, if a submission is rejected then the reviewers may instead recommend that it be presented as a poster session.</p>
<p>Specifically, consider a paper that has no technical contribution. Rather, assume that it is a superficial survey of the main topics included in a scientific domain, i.e. This new domain should take points A, B, C, etc. into consideration, and some of these points may use technologies D, E, F as solutions. Not much literature surveyed and no results by the author included.</p>
<p>Now, it is my understanding that poster sessions are normally works in progress. My questions therefore are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Can <em>weak surveys</em> fit as poster sessions? Is this normal or unheard of? </li>
<li>Using the case described in paragraph 2 above, have you witnessed papers of the same quality presented as posters at conferences? Most importantly, is this acceptable behaviour?</li>
</ul>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>Edit: In response to the discussion between xLeitix and O.R. Mapper (thank you both, honestly), I believe my use of the word superficial is a little vague. Let's for example take the combination of two large domains: virtualization and the automotive industry. Instead of the author surveying specific works integrating these two techs, let's assume the author takes the following <em>broad</em> and hence <em>superficial</em> approach:</p>
<ul>
<li>The author mentions and discusses a few of the major considerations involved in virtualization.</li>
<li>The author mentions and discusses a few of the major considerations involved in vehicular networks</li>
<li>The author mentions a few of the major considerations involved in integrating virtualization and vehicular networks together.</li>
<li>The author ends the paper by discussing how some technologies may address some of the aforementioned issues. The solutions are not in themselves surveyed extensively, but more so:
<ul>
<li>"This person did this, that one did that to address X, etc.", without any deep or insightful comparisons.</li>
<li>"To address this issue type 2 hypervisors may be more useful", no evidence backing this claim.</li>
<li>etc..</li>
</ul></li>
</ul>
<p>Very brief, the paper is useful in that it groups together eloquently quite a bit of information, albeit, not in an informative way for the expert, but more so for a person starting their research in a similar domain. Hence, my dilemma; the paper would make a great article in a technical magazine, but not as a conference paper. Perhaps as a poster it would be stimulating and beneficial to the authors and for non-experts interested in the domain (possibly stimulating inter-field synergies etc.).</p>
<p>I have not seen something like this before, but I am not seasoned; hence, why I ask if this is acceptable, or even normal.</p>
<p>Note: The example given is fictional.</p>
|
[
{
"answer_id": 48428,
"author": "O. R. Mapper",
"author_id": 14017,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/14017",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Now, it is my understanding that poster sessions are normally works in progress.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Not quite. Poster sessions normally <em>readily accept</em> work in progress. However, I have yet to see a poster session that <em>requires</em> the presented work to be in progress, or unfinished.</p>\n\n<p>The reason why you normally see much work in progress on poster sessions besides few finished results is that authors who have complete, final results will rather aim for something more reputable than \"just\" a poster, by trying to publish a regular conference paper.</p>\n\n<p><strong>However, it is completely acceptable to present final results on a poster</strong>, if you deem a poster to be the best way to draw benefit from your results (e.g. get in touch with other researchers).</p>\n\n<p>EDIT: As explained by the updated question, the \"final results\" are actually just final for a very early step in a research endeavour. It seems that they are meant to show a direction into which future research could proceed.</p>\n\n<p>This kind of statements, especially when it refers to the future research that the author would like to start, is rather common on posters. Like this, posters serve two purposes:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>On the one hand, <strong>they show a small contribution.</strong> Even though they are comparably abstract and superficial, the early conclusions on how several aspects can be combined and thus lead to new research questions may provide a good overview of the new topic to other researchers. In this interpretation, the content of the poster is a newly discovered research question that is possibly interesting to other people beside the poster author.</li>\n<li>On the other hand, <strong>they serve as a request for comments on the author's work.</strong> Poster sessions are perfectly suited for finding opportunities to let experienced researchers have a look at one's work and provide comments or enter into a discussion with them. In this interpretation, the content of the poster is a kind of a research proposal.</li>\n</ul>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 48441,
"author": "xLeitix",
"author_id": 10094,
"author_profile": "https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/10094",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>Can weak surveys fit as poster sessions? Is this normal or unheard of?</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>I feel a poster is a <em>terrible</em> format for a survey, good or bad. Surveys are almost by definition long texts with many, many tables, references, and cross-references. Posters are meant to present an approach or tool in a very, very cursory way (usually with one or two figures and some catchy statements). I see no way to compress a survey into a poster and still achieve any sort of value to the community.</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>Specifically, consider a paper that has no technical contribution. Rather, assume that it is a superficial survey of the main topics included in a scientific domain.</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>Just for my sanity - if you <em>yourself</em> think that the survey is very superficial and doesn't add help your community, then why do you want to publish it at all? Even in a \"publish or perish\" mentality, a poster contribution counts for so little that I wonder why you even bother?</p>\n"
}
] |
2015/07/07
|
[
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/48426",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com",
"https://academia.stackexchange.com/users/36014/"
] |
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