texts
sequence | tags
sequence |
|---|---|
[
"Are religious invocations in academic presentations appropriate?",
"One thing that I have noted come up a few times in presentations in the US in the last few years has been that some speakers—usually graduate students and postdocs, rather than more established career professionals—have included religious invocations at the end of presentations in entirely secular venues. One presenter went so far as to have an entire slide devoted to it, complete with quotations to spiritual texts and illustration. \n\nIs there any sort of protocol about when such sorts of invocations are considered appropriate? (For instance, at a student's doctoral defense, but not at a public seminar?)"
] | [
"presentation"
] |
[
"Should I warn new/prospective PhD Student that supervisor is terrible?",
"My supervisor got some funding and is hiring new PhD students. Today one of them came to an interview and we told him about the things that we do.\n\nThe main problem is that my supervisor is a terrible supervisor. He wants to lead the research project but has no idea on how to work on real implementations. He does not help or even provide feedback although he still is the leading author of all the publications we do. He does not want to spend money on us or on equipment, but expects results as if we were using high-end equipment. He treats us plainly wrong, taking credit for our accomplishments, humiliating us when possible, not helping or leading in any way and not allowing as to grow as researchers.\n\nI know that I could be biased for some personal bad experience but 100% of the students at my research center (both his students and other students) agree with me that he is, by far, the worst possible advisor that there is in our research center.\n\nMy question is: should I warn a new coming PhD student about this so that he can take his decision taking this into account, or am I supposed to say nothing because it is not my business?\n\nOn one hand, when I was where he is now I would have LOVED if someone told me about this situation, but on the other hand as a PhD student I'm risking a lot by saying this and I don't know if I should get involved.\n\nEDIT: At the end I did it. I called him as it was impossible for me to see him face to face. I basically explained him several facts (not opinions) and my personal view of the situation, trying to be as much understanding and empathic as possible. Luckily he has done research before and understand me very well. He thanked me for the honesty. On one hand I feel that I did the correct thing, but on the other one I think that this situation is a time bomb that could explode at any time... But today I slept like a baby, which I think is a good sign. Thank you all for your answers, they helped me a lot."
] | [
"phd",
"advisor"
] |
[
"Teaching the daughter of a lecturer, while being simultaneously enrolled in his course",
"I'm a student in a bachelor program at a local university, while I'm also a teacher (professional school) of apprenticeship students within the same sphere of study.\n\nA few days ago I received the participants list of a class which I going to teach next semester. I went briefly through the names and one quite unique name caught my interest. After a quick search on the web, I'm sure that one of the participants is the daughter of a lecturer who gives courses in which I'm enrolled at the university. He was grading my work and he will probably be grading my work in the future for one more course.\n\nI had a few intense discussions with this lecturer about some topics of my studies. He also felt a bit insulted once because I missed some of his lectures, but we always stayed professional. I also feel that he graded my work and exams like the ones of any other student.\n\nIt's too late to find a replacement for me and this class? I'm wondering what should I do with this situation -- should I notify the school where I'm teaching about this?"
] | [
"teaching",
"students",
"europe",
"conflict-of-interest"
] |
[
"Requesting for my class rank information after graduation",
"For advance and challenging courses undertaken in one's undergraduate academic career, absolute grades or GPA does not necessarily indicates the abilities of a student. This is especially so where grade inflation is more rampant than before and tougher courses are not weighted.\nClass rank might be a more accurate way to signal that student's abilities relative to his/her cohort. In particular, the physics department with which I did my undergraduate do not partake in scaling of grades.\n\nSuppose I would like to obtain my class rank after graduation, what would be the most appropriate channel to do so?"
] | [
"undergraduate"
] |
[
"Should I use an out-of-order version of my name for academic publications?",
"I have a common US first AND last name, but a unique middle name. Think John Aardvark Smith.\nI am nearing my first publication and want to decide on my name for academic/scientific publications now so that it can remain consistent.\nI like to be called John and would like to be Dr. Smith when that time comes, however there are a million JA Smiths, including in my field.\nI'm considering being JS Aardvark for publications instead, a completely unique name.\nMy questions are:\nWould I HAVE to then be John Smith Aardvark for all intents and purposes? If you click my JS Aardvark link on Google Scholar, would it make any sense to link to a person called John Aardvark Smith? Would I have to accept that people will call me Dr. Aardvark? What should me email address and sign-off then be?\nI may be missing other potential pitfalls as well. I'd be glad for any feedback on this, positive or negative, personal anecdotes, etc."
] | [
"publications",
"phd",
"graduate-school",
"authorship",
"personal-name"
] |
[
"How does \"buying out\" of teaching work?",
"Several times I have met young visiting faculty members who got \"bought out\" of teaching. This means that some senior professor opened their grant treasure chest and pays money so their younger co-worker needs to teach one course per semester less than usual. \n\nHow does that actually work? On the department side, they probably need manpower to offer courses to their students. Does somebody else do the job then (for the money) or what is the background with those buy-outs? Can people buy out themselves? Who can do such things and what are the official and unofficial issues with such a procedure?"
] | [
"teaching",
"funding"
] |
[
"Data analysis internship not going well because of lack of programming background",
"I started my internship with a biological data analysis institute yesterday (i.e. have spent two full working days there), and I am very concerned that I am expected to have programming skills that I really don't have.\nMy own background: I have just finished a theoretical physics degree and next year will be persuing a Masters in Mathematics. I have done some programming in my course (an intro to MATLAB, C++ and python in my 3 years respectively), but everything has been very geared towards physics applications. e.g. simulate many body collisions, plot a graph of the transmitted intensity for some funky aperature etc). What's worse, I now realise that we only really looked at very basic features of these programming languages, and basic packages. We never learned the fundamentals of 'how a computer thinks', which is why I am having difficulties now.\n\nI did OK in our programming tasks, and this gave me a really skewed perspective of what it means to know a programming language. I put 'python, MATLAB, basic C++' on the 'skills' section of my CV, not really realising that my knowledge of python really is 'basic' at best. That's the paradox I guess. It feels like with computing, you only know how little you know after you reach a certain level of proficiency. I did not mean to deceive anyone with writing the skills I thought I had.\n\nIn any case, I have been struggling over the last couple of days. I realised that at the institute, everyone is basically a programming pro, and the interns are generally computer science students or statisticians. While my degree is numerical, I really have done pathetically little in the way of real data analysis and computing.\n\nI didn't know about Anaconda for instance. I have only ever used simple python libraries like scipy and numpy, matplotlib. I was introduced to it today. But the thing I am struggling with most are things like: what folders does the (programming language? interface? Environment? I don't even know the right word to use here :() have access to? When I want to read/call a file, which folder does it have to be in? How can I check my path without exiting my working environment? etc. Today I wasted 2 hours simply because I called a file name by the name of a python module that I was later calling. I wish I could say t was 'by mistake'. In reality, I didn't think this would be a problem. The text file has an extension anyway?\n\nAs you can see these are small things that really require PROGRAMMING EXPERIENCE to be ok with. I don't think that cramming a python book will help.\n\nI can tell that the other members of the team are getting annoyed. I don't ask too may questions (nor too little I think). But if I ask a question, it's often too basic. And if I don't I waste time.\n\nThe person who gave me a (long) skype interview- the head on my group- is returning tomorrow and we are meeting for the first time. I am quite embarrased, especially as I know they were considering other candidtaes.\n\nAny advice on the best way to proceed, or how to learn what might be useful quickly, would be much appreciated."
] | [
"computer-science",
"internship",
"programming"
] |
[
"How to phrase omissions correctly in a thesis?",
"This might be a strange question, but I am currently thinking about a good phrase to use if I want to emphasize that the theoretical omissions I am making are not caused by neglect, laziness, or because they don't fit my results or something. Instead, I want to quickly get across that the main reason I am not discussing them is that it would increase the section without adding anything of value.\n\nIs there some good phrase that gets this across?\n\nTo give a specific example: Let's say I am describing an instrument that heats up a sample until it goes into a phase transition. The instrument works the same way no matter what phase the sample is currently in, but it's a different type of transition in each case. For solids, it would be melting. For liquids, it would be vaporization. For gases, it would be the formation of a plasma. The underlying principles are always the same, but depending on the transition different energies are necessary, the changes take different amounts of time etc., and of course the terminology is completely different. So even though it's the same, and I could talk about it in a very general way, I can't because language fails me. I simply cannot phrase it elegantly, so I have to omit stuff that is not absolutely necessary.\n\nI can't say \"I'm leaving this out because modern languages are not advanced enough to discuss this phenomenon in a general way, even though it's actually a very simple phenomenon. And my professor wants this to be 150 pages or less and I'm running out of space.\" But this is kind of what my problem is.\n\nAny suggestions?"
] | [
"thesis",
"writing-style"
] |
[
"Completely stuck with nonsensical project",
"I am a graduate student in Mathematics. I have solved my original thesis problem, and that will probably one or two papers, at least one of them very good. After that, my advisor basically told me: \"Here is this paper that I wrote (together with two other very strong professors), there are some cases missing, I would like you to do them\". Problem is, none of them has an idea on how to solve these cases (otherwise they would have written them in their paper, of course), so here I am, stuck on this problem for months, with basically no advance whatsoever (at the beginning at least I was learning a lot of stuff, now I know everything that's relevant that's been written up to know - I spent a lot of time looking at the literature). How can a PhD student (decently good, but certainly not a star) be expected to improve upon the work of some professors, if there nobody has a precise idea on how to do so? I think this is overambitious and nonsensical, to say the least (especially after spending 3-4 months on it).\n\nIt is one of those problems where once you have found the key idea, the problem is completely done (exactly the opposite of what I like working on).\n\nI would like to work on other lower risk projects, but my advisor made it pretty clear that he wants me to spend time on this, so I would be completely on my own. I don't think I can come up with something new just on my own, but I think that spending other months trying to outdo professors is not going to work either! What should I do?"
] | [
"graduate-school"
] |
[
"Journals with title \"Bulletin\"",
"I am asking this question to understand the difference (if there exits any) between reputation of some journals in mathematics which includes \"Bulletin\" in their title with other journals? In the Scopus ranking they are named general journals."
] | [
"mathematics",
"journals"
] |
[
"Should I submit a mixed theory-experimental paper to a computer science conference where most papers do not appear to include experimental results?",
"I am considering submitting a (Computer Science) research paper to a conference. The paper contains both theoretical and experimental results. The call for papers of the conference that I am considering sending the paper to, says that it welcomes papers related to \"theory, design, implementation, modeling, analysis, or application\". But when I look through the papers submitted in the previous years (in order to better understand the sort of papers that get accepted), I do not find a single paper with experimental results. The results are all theoretical. \n\nDoes this mean that papers with experiments are not a good fit for this conference?"
] | [
"publications",
"conference",
"computer-science",
"paper-submission"
] |
[
"Is it reasonable to ask a professor about the strength of a recommendation letter (after they have submitted)?",
"I have asked a professor that I took a year long project with to write a recommendation to support my application to a well-known, selective masters programme in the UK (my university is based in South Africa). The letter has already been submitted but the problem is, I have no idea how strong the letter is. \n\nSome useful information: I think the project went fairly well and I will not have to interact with this professor again in any formal capacity.\n\nQuestion: (1) Do you think it is reasonable to ask the professor about the strength of the letter he has submitted? (2) If so, how should I go about doing this?\n\nI would like to do this for the following reasons:\n\n\nIf the letter is not so strong, I have other people who are willing to write me strong letters for my other applications (though none with the same reputation)\nI can possibly try to change references for the current application (that the prof. has already submitted the letter for) since I have not submitted the actual application.\n\n\nAny advice is welcome and appreciated."
] | [
"etiquette",
"recommendation-letter"
] |
[
"Agreed to an earlier starting date for my post-doc position, but my question about initially working from home remained unanswered",
"I recently had a postdoc interview that went well. The appointment was originally set to start in September, but shortly after the meeting they sent me an email asking if I'd be able to start sooner, in July. I said yes and asked if it would be possible for me to do my teaching remotely (in another country) until September, as I originally planned. \n\nNow I've received the written contract, and I will accept the position, but I never got a response for this request. I have the following questions:\n\n1) Is my request reasonable? I think that given the current state of affairs my physical location shouldn't be too relevant for the university, at least until late August/September. \n\n2) Does it hurt to ask?\n\n3) If the answer to (1) is yes, how should I go about asking this? Who would be the right person to talk with? If (1) is a no, thoughts and comments are also welcome.\n\nEdit: the postdoc is in a public US university."
] | [
"postdocs",
"international",
"remote-work"
] |
[
"What would be the difference between the public and private graduate schools in US?",
"Okay, so back in my country, the difference between private and public colleges is pretty visible. I have worked in biotech labs of both kinds and know that there's a lot of restrictions on using costly instruments in private colleges whereas we get a lot of liberty to get hands-on lab experience in public ones and sometimes they even encourage the person to conduct independent research without any external interference and to let the person fall and learn. In an internship at a private research lab, I had to ask them multiple times (more than 10 times) to let me use a PCR just once (as I needed it in my project thesis) during my stay there for a good two months. They were doubtful about \"someone new\" manhandling the instrument despite me having been rigorously trained to set-up that machine in the past (You'll be able to comprehend the annoyance if you have a biology background.) This was one incident and I certainly do not wish to rant about the other ones here. This year, I would be applying to US universities for doctoral studies. I have never been to the US, but I have applied to both category. Should I be concerned about such incidents occurring there in private institutions? Also, here the government institutions are highly reputed and have a very stimulating environment much better than any private institutions.\n\nI have found a similar question before here, but I feel that people mainly talk about funding issues here."
] | [
"graduate-school",
"united-states",
"education"
] |
[
"IEEE templates for Transaction journals",
"I am trying to figure out which template to use for the journals\n\nIEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence\n\nand \n\nIEEE Transactions on Multimedia\n\nBoth are journals published by IEEE comsoc, but both also are transactions. \n\nOn the IEEE template info page I find separate template for both of them:\n\nhttp://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/authors/author_templates.html"
] | [
"publications",
"journals",
"ieee"
] |
[
"Is it conventional to provide topic related word definitions in a glossary?",
"I'm currently writing my dissertation/thesis and am quite new to using glossaries. I'm unsure if I'm going a bit overboard regarding the number of terms I'm including in my glossary. E.g. I talk about the terms Breadth-First Search, Depth First Search, and Iterative Deepening A* Search (All search algorithms) for which I have included glossary definitions so I am able to use their corresponding abbreviations.\nWould it be convenient to include definitions in a glossary for terms such as "Rubik's Cube" and "Cubie" and "Facelet" - Rubik's Cube Jargon. My dissertation revolves around a Rubik's Cube Solver. Terms like these are plastered throughout the report and I'm unsure if I should just write a simple description in some form of bullet-pointed format, separate from the glossary, or would I just include terms like these in the glossary. The first mention of these terms is visibly internally hyperlinked.\nAny advice, recommendations, and ideas are most welcome\nThanks!"
] | [
"thesis",
"glossary"
] |
[
"I have an \"integrated masters\" degree. How can I eventually gain a PhD?",
"I graduated in the UK last year with an M Ost, an integrated masters of osteopathy. This is currently the standard qualification offered by colleges teaching osteopathy in the UK, although it's changed several times in the past and seems likely to change again.\n\nMy course consisted of 480 credits. 360 credits were at undergraduate level (including 120 at honours level) and a further 120 credits were at master's level.\n\nI am intrigued by research, and wonder if it would be possible to eventually apply for a PhD, but I have no idea whether applicants with integrated masters courses are considered. I suspect not, and assume I would need to do some extra work.\n\nHowever I don't understand what that extra work would be.\n\nAs you can tell.... I am a little lost! This seems the most basic of questions, but I am struggling to find any clear advice. I have contacted members of the faculty in my old college, but they haven't not been very helpful. Suggestions have included doing a further qualification in osteopathic studies -- something I'm not keen on. I would prefer something that is science-based, and would be accepted as qualification to go on to apply for a PhD.\n\nI appreciate this is quite an open-ended question. Ideally I'm probably looking for pointers as to where and how to continue my search. Should I contact PhD-providing universities and colleges directly, and ask what I would need to do in order to be considered?\n\nI also understand that PhDs are hard, hard work. I am not looking for questions around why I want to do one, or alternative options. Many thanks for understanding this."
] | [
"phd",
"masters"
] |
[
"Research in Progress papers",
"What exactly is demanded in a Research-In-Progress (RIP) paper? Specifically, how do they differ from other types of paper submission? A sample call can be found here: http://www.ecis2016.eu/en/RESEARCH-IN-PROGRESS-PAPERS.html\n\nIs it merely sufficient to clearly outline a research question, the background and proposed solution, without any substantive results? I am curious because many of these sort of calls have relatively long page counts (around 6, which seems fairly typical of a journal paper). Is the difference that a RIP paper may talk about the entire scope of one's research, while with many other types of submission it would be prudent to merely focus on a single aspect of one's research?"
] | [
"publications",
"paper-submission"
] |
[
"What should I do if I find a mistake in my submitted master's thesis?",
"What would you do if you have already handed in a thesis to your professor, but you printed an earlier version with a small mistake. You want to have a great grade nevertheless, but I am feeling unsure of what to do: \n\nWould you tell him your mistake and hope that he indulgent and says \"Okay, then this does not count as a mistake.\" Since you recognized your own mistake, he is likely to be forgiving. Or would you say nothing and hope that he won't find the mistake?"
] | [
"thesis"
] |
[
"Methods to track behind cheating on exams using on-line sites?",
"In the current state of the technologies, what ways can be used to track clear yet directly untraceable cases of academic misconduct specific to students who post questions from and view answers to a take-home exam using on-line (homework) sites?\n\nMy case is specific to Chegg, although answers related to other on-line sites would be certainly welcomed.\n\nAs a background, I have a list (from Chegg) of the email address, log-in times, university affiliation, and question posted / viewed. I can clearly correlate the posting information to being from my exam during my exam. I can directly correlate some cases because the email address is ... surprisingly ... the student's university email address or their personal email address. What I do not have in some cases is a) a valid or directly representative email address and b) a full name.\n\nI have a roster list of students and have diligently checked their email addresses against the offending emails to no avail. I will pass the roster and list to our administration to review against their (larger) database of email accounts. However, I can only imagine that an email address could be from a neighbor or friend or roommate or ... someone entirely untraceable in the full university email database.\n\nAfter a formal inquiry to obtain the above list, I have an email response (from Chegg) that tells me that I will get no further help to obtain any other information. I will be glad to hear about other levers that can be pulled to get better information.\n\nI can accept that at some point I may have to conceed that I am simply out of luck to track the real perpetrator. But, before I do so, I have to wonder whether this community has insights to additional resources to help solve my problem.\n\nTo help also focus the discussion further, I am not interested to learn about the ways to avoid this problem in the future. I have my own insights and plans to move forward on this front. I am also not interested to spend time trashing Chegg or equivalent sites, deserving or not.\n\nFinally, in addition to the specific question on additional effective methods, I am also interested in one other broader aspect of the problem. I am curious to hear from like-minded individuals who have initiated or are aware of actions being initiated for a larger academic community stand against the problem. I make this latter statement especially as we faculty are all most likely to have to face yet another round of on-line teaching for the coming Fall 2020 semester.\n\nIn summary, I hope to hear about approaches that others have used that could also help me solve my problem to track perpetrators of cheating who, up to this point, are essentially directly untraceable."
] | [
"cheating",
"online-resource"
] |
[
"Why is method so important for a thesis?",
"Right now I am preparing a paper for my bachelor's degree thesis in computer science. I myself is an active programmer at work in my company and have created many programs till now.\n\nI want to take some of my programs and take it for my thesis paper, my supervisor the program itself is good and I also can be promised a good grade too, but he still can't accept my paper because it does not have a Methodology in there. So my paper got rejected.\n\nI wonder why the thesis really needs this methodology inside of the paper. But of course, I'm not that clueless to think that everything I make is always the original method I make myself. It just I always self-studying for programming for almost 5 years, so there might be someone method in my program but I just don't know what method I use or who make it.\n\nBut still, it kinda frustrating to get rejected just because there is no methodology mentioned... Why methodology is so important anyway?"
] | [
"thesis",
"methodology"
] |
[
"How much does a professional qualification e.g. CChem add to applications for permanent academic positions or early career fellowships?",
"I am a postdoc right now. I am not yet at the stage of applying to any permanent positions, but I am planning ahead. My aim would be to apply for early career fellowships within the next 2-3 years, or permanent academic positions a little after that. My current plan is to apply in the UK, though I am working in continental Europe at the moment. However, I am also open to taking another postdoc in North America, and I am also considering the possibility of applying to positions in Asia or elsewhere if UK does not work out.\n\nI am aware that the things that would be most important would be my research topic and output. Some teaching experience (not so important for fellowships perhaps), and some \"service to the community and professional development\".\n\nFor the final point, I am wondering how useful it would be to try to achieve accreditations from professional bodies such as:\n\n\nRoyal Society of Chemistry: Chartered Chemist (CChem)\nhttp://www.rsc.org/careers/cpd/practising-scientists/#cchem-tab\nInstitute of Physics: Chartered Physicist (CPhys)\nhttp://www.iop.org/membership/char-sta/chartership/cphys/page_51812.html\nRoyal Society of Biology: Chartered Biology (CBiol)\n\n\nand there are CStat, CMath, CSci etc. I am only eligible for the CChem. \n\nObviously, getting Chartered status in the natural sciences is not as important as it is for engineers. I have seen academics with all the Chartered qualifications they can get, and I have also seen (fairly senior) academics without any Chartered statuses. I can see that it is a \"nice to have\". My question is, how much would it improve my chances of getting a fellowship or a permanent position? Or, how many hours should it be worth to me in an average working week?"
] | [
"career-path",
"application",
"job-search",
"professional-association",
"early-career"
] |
[
"Where to find curriculum for a specific program?",
"I have an assignment for preparing the first draft of curriculum for a new program in my university. To include international experiences, I tried to get the curriculum of other universities, but I was unable to find a university website sharing the full curriculum. Department websites just put the title of courses, and professors post syllabus for their courses.\n\nEach department should have its curriculum (description of the program, courses and credit details, course descriptions, etc), and this should be a public document.\n\nWhen I searched general or visited top university websites, I expected to find such documents.\n\nDo you have any idea where I can find documented curriculum?"
] | [
"university"
] |
[
"How to fill a review form",
"I am preparing to send a review report for the International Journal of Adaptive Control and Signal Processing, I wrote all the comments about the paper in Word Document when I log in to my account to attach the file, In the review form there is a called comments to the author, should I rewrite the comments located in the Word Document or what?\n\nis the file attached will be visible to the authors?"
] | [
"peer-review",
"review-articles"
] |
[
"Is it worth it to print a copy of the syllabus for each student or it is better to have it on my course's website?",
"This is a question that has plagued me for a couple of years now. Is it worth it to print a copy of the syllabus for each student? Or, is posting it on my course website good enough? My syllabus contains a good deal of information. I have the homework schedule, online video schedule, office hour info, etc. But, the class is close to 30 students. And printing that many three page syllabuses seems extreme. To make the question more specific, has anyone noticed that printing the syllabus has had a greater effect than not?\n\nEDIT: In response to the comment below, all the students have access to free printing of the syllabus in any number of computer labs."
] | [
"teaching",
"website",
"syllabus"
] |
[
"Applying and requirements for a Phd program",
"I am currently holding a diploma in computer science which is equivallent to a BSc. I have also finished my MAS (master of advanced studies) in economy, which was made up out of 5 CAS modules.\n\nNow I would love to attend a doctoral program and research in the field of predictive modelling, machine learning and computational vision. \n\nHowever my MAS diploma seems not to be enough to apply for a Phd program (except for DBA programs which only exists in the field of economy). Many (all?) programs require a MSc.\n\nQuestions\n\n\nIs the only way to get there attending to another master program to get my MSc? \nAre there Phd programs I can apply to that only require a MAS that I just havent found yet?\nIs there some equivalent to a DBA but in the field of computational science?\n\n\nThanks in advance"
] | [
"phd",
"masters"
] |
[
"Does editing someone's paper improve your own writing?",
"You get asked to read and edit papers (more or less form the same research area) to become a co-author. The editing requires a lot of rearranging of paragraphs, rewriting sections, new/updated figures, lots of grammar and spelling mistakes, recalculating numbers, and so on. \n\nI am curious to know what your experience is, does your own writing get better from editing papers? \n\nI have heard opinions that it actually decreases your own writing ability - any references for that statement?"
] | [
"writing",
"editors"
] |
[
"Not ticking boxes in recommendation forms",
"Like many people, I hate the recommendation forms for graduate schools, particular the part where you're asked to rank/rate a whole bunch of abilities. When the electronic application allows me, I omit this part or select an option like \"cannot evaluate\" and maybe make a comment somewhere to see my letter for everything. \n\nI know many people just mark the highest ranking for everyone, but I don't even want to do that (for one, it seems dishonest; also, sometimes it's not clear which is the highest ranking without carefully reading the question). \n\nThe places I'm familiar with (some math grad schools) probably don't care about what you put here at all. As far as I can tell, the people who design these forms are pretty far removed from those who make admissions decisions. The only time I could see these coming into play is if a student gets very bad ratings or one person has lower ratings from the same recommender. \n\nBut I want to make sure I'm not doing my students a disservice, so:\n\n\n Does anyone know of any US grad programs where not ticking these boxes on recommendation forms will hurt my students' chances? If so, please indicate what kinds of graduate programs (e.g., maybe it matters for MBA but not STEM programs)."
] | [
"graduate-admissions",
"recommendation-letter"
] |
[
"What impresses more in a graduate school application for CS: an REU or an honors thesis?",
"I'm a prospective applicant (or will be in the near future) for PhD programs in Computer Science. I recently did an REU this past summer at a top-ranked CS school and am seriously considering graduate school, albeit after a break so I can be certain which particular area I may want to go into.\n\nWhile I have my REU as some form of research experience, I'm wondering how much more I will need before I apply to graduate programs. In my department, there's been a couple who have worked in labs for maybe a year or so (but so far, nothing like two or three years like I have heard at other places), and others in our Honors program are required to do an honors project with a professor at the end. It's more or less rare that undergrads publish so much where I'm currently doing my undergrad.\n\nWhile I have done the REU, I haven't gotten much further as far as doing research at my own school goes. I tried working with a professor one semester during my senior year, but I wasn't able to get much done before I had to stop due to a busy semester next semester. Generally speaking, is an REU more impressive to graduate admission committees over a senior thesis or doing research at your own institution?"
] | [
"graduate-admissions",
"research-undergraduate"
] |
[
"The manuscript status suddenly changed to “Draft Status” in ScholarOne",
"About two weeks ago, we submitted a paper to a Taylor & Francis journal that uses the ScholarOne manuscript-submission system. We also received an e-mail confirming that the submission process is complete and that the editor is considering the paper for publication.\n\nToday, I checked the status and it has now changed to Draft Status. I have never seen something like this in my previous submissions. I would be very grateful if someone could possibly tell me if I need to contact the editor or do something specific."
] | [
"publications",
"journals",
"journal-workflow"
] |
[
"How does ReadCube compare to Mendeley?",
"Currently I use Mendeley. I have heard some stuff about ReadCube, but they don't have a Mendeley quick import tool, so… before I go through the hassle of resetting up my library with them, I wondered how it compared to Mendeley. What are its extra features? What is missing? How smooth is it to use, how widely adopted is it, that sort of things…"
] | [
"reference-managers"
] |
[
"In grading, professor takes into account submission time, performance compared to other students, and visibility of posters. Is it fair?",
"I came across this site trying to see if the way my professor has graded certain assignments is fair, and if it's grounds to complain to someone higher up at my college (I'm not sure who I would go to - maybe the dean?). But any way, I have this professor who's been grading some assignments in what I, and other students in the class, realize is quite unfair. So, for example, we had to post a discussion post assignment online, along with responding to our classmates posts. When it was graded, I received a 17 out of 20 total points. Upon looking at the rubric, there was section for \"initiative\" - if you were one of the first 10 students to submit the assignment, you received the full 2 points. I submitted my assignment pretty close to the due, but, keep in mind, it was turned in completely on time! I know professors reserve the right to grade how they see is best, but come on... If the assignment is turned in on time, how can the professor be allowed to take points off for not doing it early?? Professors/teachers - does this seem like a fair and legitimate way to grade students? Should I look into reporting this to someone higher up at the university?\n\nHere are some other examples that I believe are not fair to students. She often said how she grades off the \"best\" students work. Like for written assignments, she would say that she had to look at all of them, decide whoever's assignment was best, and then grade everyone thereafter based on that student's work. Is it just me or is that crazy? Should I not be graded based off my own abilities, how I'm understanding the material/completing the work based off common expectations, and whether the work sufficiently meets common standards (like a rubric). My professor just made everything a huge competition which is very frustrating as even though I was putting in the effort and time, I knew it wouldn't matter because there are other students in the class who are smarter, may have more time to put in, and have a different educational background (like they may have taken classes that I haven't that aid with this course). In addition, we had a project that was presented (a case study poster) where other students and some professors were invited to come in and see them. She had observers put stickers on their \"favorite\" poster and those who received the most stickers received extra credit. However, the people who came in didn't have to go look at every poster. So, many came into the room, looked at the first few posters that were set up right when you walk in, put stickers on those, and then left. Posters on the other side of the room didn't have an equal opportunity to be seen, because everyone who came in wasn't going to look at 16 posters.\n\nAll in all, this is just super frustrating and, if it seems reasonable, I want to send in a complaint. \n\nTo clarify, grading based on initiative was never stated in the syllabus. As for the rubric for first assignment I mentioned, we were not give an initial rubric stating this. I came across the rubric used for grading on the online program where grades are posted (it was a link on the grade given to me).\n\nIn addition, all of my concerns were addressed in a course evaluation. So I guess that it would be best to leave it as that, as it seems that although some may believe this is not the best way to grade, it is not completely unheard of."
] | [
"united-states",
"professors",
"grading"
] |
[
"Edit a manuscript after submit and approve it",
"I submitted my manuscript to a Springer journal and after viewing the submission, I approved it. But now I need to edit one of my references, but the Edit button is not available after approving the submission. How can I edit it? Should I submit a new manuscript?"
] | [
"paper-submission"
] |
[
"How does the PhD thesis examination result impact academic job success?",
"In majority of universities around the world, the PhD examining committee should meet and allow PhD student to defend his/her thesis. Based on the thesis content and student performance in the viva, the committee decides whether to grant PhD to the candidate or not. \n\nIn most of the cases that I have seen, there are 4 types of decisions\n\n\nAccept as it is (Distinction in some universities)\nAccept with Minor Revisions (without re-examination of thesis)\nAccept with Major Revisions (without re-examination of thesis)\nMajor Revisions with re-examination\nReject (No PhD; some universities grant MSc instead of PhD if the work is fine but its contribution is small).\n\n\nNow my questions are:\n\n\nHow often do employers ask for PhD examination Committee decision report at the time of application/interview?\nConsidering the PhD requirement by almost all universities for the professorship positions, how the decision by the committee members impacts employment. My main concern is about the first three decisions of \"accept.\" Can a PhD graduate who has \"accept with major revision\" never gets job in good places\"?"
] | [
"faculty-application",
"thesis-committee"
] |
[
"Acknowledging local government for quarantine measures",
"It looks like I may completely write a paper while in coronavirus-related quarantine. Would it be appropriate to thank my local government in the acknowledgements? If I'm honest with myself, I don't think I would have been able to do this with such focus and efficiency if all other aspects of my life hadn't been suddenly shut down.\n\nPeople often acknowledge visits to other institutions, which seem to serve a similar purpose, hence why I pose the question seriously.\n\nEdit: I'm also in an at-risk group, and the government-mandated quarantine is kind of saving my life, so there's also that."
] | [
"publications",
"acknowledgement",
"covid-19"
] |
[
"Algorithm plagarism?",
"Say I watch some YouTube videos to learn merge sort, and during the lesson the code for merge sort is shown and explained, if after this I write my own program and use the merge-sort algorithm I learned from the video, am I plagiarizing? \n\nSay if I need to hand in an project for university and it requires a mergesort on an array of integers in a part of the program like the example in the lesson was, can I get wrecked for plagiarism if I used the mergesort method from the lesson to use in my project?\n\nedit: assuming that I completely understand the algorithm and can explain every part"
] | [
"computer-science",
"plagiarism"
] |
[
"Is it beneficial for a student to publish their research code and data?",
"There are at least four benefits of releasing the code and data produced during a thesis or research project (citing textually this laboratory):\n\n\nAllows to reproduce figures in the revisions of a paper\nOther people who want to do research in the field can start from the current state of the art, instead of spending months trying to figure out what was exactly done in a certain paper\nMakes easier to compare the method to existing ones\nIncreases the impact of the research\n\n\nThis is really cool for someone trying to develop its own study as he/she can have access to world-quality material for free. However, I have observed that this is a practice followed by well-known universities, with federal financial support, and that usually host international students. Is this practice also recommended for universities with little or no federal financial support and no grants for students? \n\nI am curious if a student from a university like the latter would improve his/her chances to work in academia by releasing his/her material in this reproducible research modality."
] | [
"publications",
"reproducible-research"
] |
[
"Is it possible to do PhD in Computational Social Science without CS background?",
"As the title states, I don't have Computer Science background (B.A. in Business Administration and Master of Social Work) but would like to do PhD in Computational Social Science (Data analysis or Information sci).\n\nThere are master programs, mostly professional programs, admit students from whole range of areas, such as Computational Analytics and Public Policy from U of Chicago or QMSS from Columbia. \n\nBut PhD programs don't. Although PhD programs state on their website that they accept students regardless of their backgrounds, it means that they accept students from mathematics, statistics, or linguistics, but not from Social Work.\n\nMy interest is solving social issues by using computational approach. I have taken MOOC courses, such as Linear Algebra and Statistics with R, and I learned R and Python(both intermediate). I also have been working as RA in ICT in Bangladesh project.\n\nTo me, it becomes clearer that what PhD programs want is those who have solid CS knowledge and the idea of doing PhD seems to be so unrealistic.\n\nIs it really impossible to do PhD in Data Sci or Info Sci without direct/indirect CS knowledge? If it is possible what should I do?"
] | [
"graduate-school",
"computer-science",
"interdisciplinary"
] |
[
"How to make my papers accessible to other researchers?",
"I have published some papers in some conferences, but the problem is that the people in charge put them in bibliographic repositories, such as DBLP, and they take too much time to do that.\n\nI would like to know how I can allow more people access to my publications, so they would be able to review them, use them if they want, maybe bring more ideas or even suggest that I correct something.\n\nInitially, I was putting them in a personal webpage that I have created, but I took them off because I also got some papers accepted by ACM and IEEE and they require a payment to see them. In this last case, if I upload them for free (on my personal webpage) could I be charged with something by these institutions?"
] | [
"publications",
"open-access"
] |
[
"In research paradigm's post-positivism can I prove the hypothesis instead of falsifying it?",
"In research paradigm's post-positivism can I prove (verify) the hypothesis instead of falsifying it?\n\nGuba, E.G. and Lincoln, Y.S., 1994. Competing paradigms in qualitative research. Handbook of qualitative research, 2(163-194), p.105. says, that in the methodology \n\npositivism's experimental/manipulative methodology\nthat focuses on verification of hypotheses;\n\npostpositivism' s modified experimental/\nmanipulative methodology invested in critical\nmultiplism focusing on falsification of hypotheses;\n\n\nBut, can I just prove (verify) the hypothesis instead of falsifying it? I don't want to fully be on pure objectivism and don't want to be in pure subjectivism so I'm considering the nature of knowledge to be in post-positivism .. \n\nMainly, I want to gather data and do both qualitative and quantitative analysis and then triangulate the data to come up with a conclusion and prove (verify) the hypothesis. If I do that does it comes under positivism instead of post-positivism?"
] | [
"research-process",
"methodology"
] |
[
"Is there a template for academic paper changes report?",
"After updating the academic paper as per reviewers comments, one needs to submit the updated paper in parallel to a report of what did he change or why didn't he change. Is there any template for such report? if not, what sections should it contain?"
] | [
"publications",
"conference",
"review-articles"
] |
[
"What are the options for fellowships for international grad students in USA?",
"I'm looking for fellowships that an international grad student can apply for, to support him/her while working towards a Ph.D. (additional to whatever funding that may be available as TA). So far, I've been able to identify the following:\n\n\nFulbright Scholarships for International Students (applications have to be done more than a year before, and they've suspended 2013-14 grants, so not really an option for me)\nAga Khan Foundation International Scholarship Programme, which has the following selection criteria:\n\n\n\n The main criteria for selecting award winners are: l) excellent academic records, 2) genuine financial need, 3) admission to a reputable institution of higher learning and 4) thoughtful and coherent educational and career plans. Candidates are also evaluated on their extra-curricular interests and achievements, potential to achieve their goals and likelihood to succeed in a foreign academic environment. Applicants are expected to have some years of work experience in their field of interest.\n\n\nIt would be great if I could get to know of similar fellowships that an incoming student can apply to, before starting grad school."
] | [
"graduate-school",
"phd",
"funding"
] |
[
"Okay to state very specific research interest in statement of purpose?",
"*I am applying to Psychology PhD\n\nFor graduate (PhD) applications, most universities ask for a statement of purpose and instructions simply state to discuss your research interests. This type of open-ended prompt suggests to me that they may also be anticipating a rather wide range of research interests from the student. However, for my case, I actually have 2-3 research questions I intend to look at. I have also contacted a professor at the university, to which the professor responded that the questions were interesting and exciting to research. However, since the questions are very specific in nature, they do not correlate very well with many of the other professors' interests in that department. Only the professor with whom I have been in contact with has those topics listed as their areas of interest.\n\nFrom a PhD admissions committee perspective, would a student who has clear ideas of what research questions they want to research be viewed positively (i.e. sees the student as being prepared) or negatively (e.g. student's lack of interests in other professors' labs), assuming GPA, GRE, etc. are adequate.\n\nI thought about writing my specific questions but also state that I'm open to new ideas, but I was not sure whether that will come off as being snobby or, conversely, desperate.\n\nAny advice from people who have read or written a statement of purpose would be greatly appreciated!"
] | [
"graduate-admissions",
"statement-of-purpose",
"psychology"
] |
[
"Arxiv rejection of preprints",
"Following ArXiv rules I contacted with an well-known expert in thermodynamics (he is author of a known monograph) we discussed my work during several days and finally he endorsed me. When my work was ready to appear a moderator removed it, alluding to technical problems with my submission (a embedded font problem), although more latter moderators asked me personal and even economic questions! I never answer such questions and forgot the whole issue\n\nThe paper is accessible in my page at academia.edu\n\nI have participated in an Essay Contest with another work, and it has been selected as one of the finalists. It is cited here together other three finalist essays.\n\nI submitted this new work to ArXiV, it has been removed and I received the next response:\n\n\n Your submission has been removed upon a notice from our moderators, who \n determined it to be inappropriate for arXiv. Please find another forum.\n \n For more information on our moderation policies see:\n \n http: //arxiv. org/help/moderation\n \n --\n arXiv moderation\n\n\nArXiv already archives several essays submitted to the same Essay contest, such as 1209.0023, 1209.1257, 1211.1917, 1210.3575\n\nTherefore it is not a problem with the Contest or with the format. Notice that only one of above four has been selected as finalist.\n\nAccording to the moderation policy I cannot ask to moderators about the details on their decision. The excuse is that \"moderators are not referees\", but this looks a bit childish, because it seems that they are accepting that moderators cannot sustain logically the decisions that they take about others' work.\n\nWould I write to the advisory committee chair? Would I take some other action?\n\nEDIT: Finally the first work rejected by Arxiv mods was published in the International Journal of Thermodynamics. I no longer care about ArXiv."
] | [
"arxiv",
"rejection",
"preprint"
] |
[
"How to restore trust in a toxic lab environment?",
"A friend of mine started working in a biology research lab where several research groups share space and lab equipment.\n\nRecently the environment has become quite toxic as the people started to mistrust each other.\n\nIt started with people not talking to each other and instead preferring to email everyone about \"How to use Equipment X\". Then later \"To the person who used Equipment Y before me, please ask your supervisors how to use it properly\". Now everyone watches each other to guard the equipment. In spite of this chemicals and samples started to disappear from the stock and tools get contaminated over night. \n\nAs my friend is \"the new guy\" he is often the target of accusations. \nHis colleagues from his research group are trying to protect him but still something needs to be done. \n\nNow what to do? How to get back the trust? Should the institute heads get involved?"
] | [
"interpersonal-issues",
"lab-management"
] |
[
"Must my ex-advisor be a co-author in new research after the defense?",
"When writing papers about new research made from my doctoral research results, after my defense, must my doctoral advisor be included as co-author?"
] | [
"ethics",
"advisor",
"authorship"
] |
[
"Combining 2 sections according to the reviewer’s comment",
"I get review comments for my manuscript. Reviewer suggested combine G section with B section as one section. So I combined as he/she suggested. Now I am preparing REPLY to reviewer’s comments. My question is that should I put my whole combined section to REPLY file and highlight the combined G section’s texts? Or Is this okay if I reply like this “According to your suggestion, we combined G section with B section as one section”?"
] | [
"publications",
"paper-submission",
"review-process"
] |
[
"Does TA application usually have training and interview?",
"First I thought every university would interview and train their TAs somehow. But I just get to know that my university doesn't have that, at least for marker and lab tutor. Is it the way the most universities do? How could they know the applicants are qualified enough? \nI am in Canada and my field is electrical engineering."
] | [
"teaching-assistant"
] |
[
"Finishing undergraduate degree later than mentioned on graduate school applications",
"I submitted all my applications for graduate school (in math) this month. I listed the date I'm expected to get my degree as May of this year. However, it has come to my attention that one of the general education requirements I'm taking this semester requires another prerequisite class. Luckily, the class I need is offered during the summer, so I can take the prerequisite class this semester and still receive my degree in August.\nWould most programs be okay with me finishing up my degree in the summer, or would I have to contact them individually (either before or after acceptances come out) to make sure there won't be any issues?"
] | [
"graduate-admissions"
] |
[
"Why should we give the number of pages on arXiv?",
"In https://arxiv.org/help/prep I found\n\n\n Indicate number of pages and number of figures. If desired, include Tex flavor or related comments. Do not bother to put \"uuencoded\" or \"gzipped tar file\" even if you submitted it this way.\n\n\nI wonder why this is considered to be helpful. And what are pages anyway? The number of PDF pages? The number of \"content\" pages (= PDF pages - title page (if any) - blank pages - reference pages - appendix)?"
] | [
"arxiv"
] |
[
"Writing a recommendation letter for a student I reported for academic dishonesty",
"A few years ago, I reported a student for academic dishonesty (in a graduate-level mathematics course, they were copying solutions off the internet, nearly verbatim). After acknowledging their wrong-doing with the Academic Integrity office on campus, they were allowed to drop the course. \n\nThe next year, the student re-enrolled in my course, and did reasonably well. I had no qualms about the originality of their work this time. \n\nThey recently asked me whether I would be willing to write them a recommendation letter for PhD programs in mathematics. \n\nIf I write a letter, am I obligated to write about the academic dishonesty incident? It appears to me that the student has already faced the consequences of their actions (they had to drop the course); however, this was a significant part of my interactions with the student and it seems dishonest to not mention it.\n\n(I am aware that I could simply tell the student that I am not comfortable writing a letter, but I am curious to know what one should do in this situation if one did write a letter.)\n\nSome facts: when the incident occured, the student was in their first semester of our masters program. They are also an international student, and this was their first semester in the US. \n\n\n\nETA: Look, I framed the question to be as general as possible so that it can be useful to the community as a whole. Since some commentors are choosing to attack my teaching practices, below are some more specifics, where once again I am trying to not reveal the identity of this student, myself, the course, the university, etc. I am actively trying to do what's best for the student here (note that I clearly state that I think the student has faced consequences for their actions; I am also not using my usual ac.se account to post this), and I don't understand where comments about \"shutting down a student's career\" are coming from. \n\nI clearly state in my syllabus and on the first day of class that copying solutions off the internet (or any written source) is not allowed. I do this because I encountered this situation as a TA in graduate school. In particular, students are allowed to talk to anyone they like about problems, but I believe that when they just copy a solution, they are not learning. You are welcome to disagree with my policy, but it is my policy and my class, and it was clearly stated in two separate venues.\n\nThe copied solutions were virtually indistinguishable from the solutions online. This was not a matter of simply \"being inspired\". This was not isolated - three out of six solutions were copied, and those were just the ones I spotted. When I noticed this, I asked the student to come talk to me. I told them that I had noticed similarities between their work and solutions I had found online. I told them that I was not accusing them of anything, and they did not have to tell me anything; I reiterated that copying solutions from the internet was not permitted; I invited them to come to my office hours to talk about future problem sets; but that if I noticed such similarities again I would report them to Academic Integrity. They did it again on the next problem set (four out of six solutions). \n\nAlthough they denied everything once via email, after talking with Academic Integrity (where they owned up to everything), they did find me and apologize. I was cordial to them throughout this event, and continued to be so afterward. We remain on good terms now. I consciously try to ensure that I do not let this incident color my interactions and behavior with them. They made a mistake once but people make mistakes and I am trying hard not to take it personally. \n\nIn summary, the incident itself was pretty blatant, the policy was clearly stated, and they had an opportunity to stop such that I would not have reported them if they had. I did not take reporting the student lightly. Nonetheless, I think academic dishonesty is a serious matter and it is our responsibility as faculty members to not turn a blind eye to it."
] | [
"recommendation-letter",
"cheating"
] |
[
"Is it possible take take part in a research project if I'm not a part of a university?",
"I graduated with a Masters of Engineering, concentrating in digital signal processing, in particular medical and audio, almost two years ago. I've always been interested in research, but due to personal circumstances I could never commit a lot of time to working on a research project with a professor, and obviously didn't get a chance to publish anything. Now that I'm more settled and have much more time on my hands, I started getting involved in some open source projects and reading some technical literature (engineering, mathematics) that I couldn't get to before. However, I'd still like to find someone to to collaborate with on a research project who is already established in the field and publishes papers. Part of the reason I want to do that is to be able to eventually apply for a Ph.D. program in a good school, and having publications would be a great thing on my resume.\n\nWhat I'm trying to find out is how I can work on a research project similar to those graduate students work on as a part of their studies if I'm not a student anymore? Should I contact my old professors from the university? Is it possible to find some \"open research\" team that accepts collaborators from outside? Do I have to do it on my own (quite frankly I'm not sure I can give myself a good enough quick-start)? In short, I'm willing to volunteer my time in exchange for a possibility of publication in the future. Can I do it, and if yes then how?"
] | [
"publications",
"research-process",
"independent-researcher"
] |
[
"Continuing a PhD in a different institution",
"I started my PhD two years ago in the UK. Now, because of the funding assigned to my project, I will be moving to Singapore for two more years. Also, instead of being placed in a University, I will continue my work in a research agency. I am concerned about the fact of being so far away from my advisors. We will hold Skype meetings regularly (I really hope so), but still it feels like all those deep discussions we have in person will not be the same (or as productive). So, my main questions are:\n\n\nWhat are the best practices in terms of communication with the advisors when a PhD student is researching in a different institution than his/her advisors'?\nWhat differences should a researcher expect when moving from a University to a research agency (company) in terms of daily work and office atmosphere?\n\n\nI will also have an advisor in the research agency, but he has not been very interested in the project so far.\n\nEDIT: By research agency I mean a nationally funded research institute.\n\nThanks."
] | [
"phd",
"advisor",
"communication"
] |
[
"Is it possible to ask offers of admission to extend the deadline?",
"I was offered an admission of offer (math) today and I found out that I have till Feb 15th to accept the offer. Most schools in my country (Canada) actually send out offers during Feb, and there is a low probability that I will get an offer then, is it okay to ask schools to extend the offer date?\n\nNote I am Canadian. Schools in Canada don't generally give out scholarships until NSERC hands out theirs. My school gives entrance scholarships after you get NSERC, in which case, they announce it in March, wayyy past the deadline."
] | [
"graduate-admissions"
] |
[
"How common is it for academics to write fiction?",
"I have submitted a few papers to academic journals. I love writing non-fiction articles and long form \"literary\" non-fiction. I also would love to write at least one novel. None of my fiction is anything that I would not want a relative to read. None of my fiction is embarrassing. My question is how common is it for academics to write fiction? I use a pen name when I write anything that is not meant for more formal situations like academic journals. Is it common? Is it frowned upon?"
] | [
"writing",
"books",
"academic-freedom"
] |
[
"student rate at conferences",
"If the student status of a conference participant expires between the registration for the conference and the conference itself, is it typical that the person still pays the student fee (rather than a higher regular participation fee)?\n\nEDIT: I reject \"individual factors\", \"personal values\" and \"a certain person's preferences\" as reasons why the question has been put on-hold: there is nothing preferential, nothing that would concern an individual here. The question couldn't care less about your personal values, my dear reader. The question is about how past conferences handled it typically, i.e., simple facts."
] | [
"conference",
"students",
"fees"
] |
[
"Publishers' request on linking their copy of a paper",
"Continuing How to satisfy the publisher when making an article available on a personal web page? :\n\nCopyright agreements of certain publishers such as Springer and IEEE request that if an author archives a published paper on his/her web page, then a link to the publisher's site must be provided, e.g., \"The final publication is available at [Web site of the publisher]\". Is this request a legally valid one according to German / US legislation? Why / why not?\n\nAn aside: this is probably a very standard question, and someone in the community is very likely to have already seeked legal advice on that. I would expect that at least the legal departments of huge universities know the answer."
] | [
"publications",
"publishers",
"legal-issues"
] |
[
"What to add in MS thesis presentation",
"I am about to defend my MS thesis in Physics. How much detail of the methods should I add in the presentation? In my thesis, I have compared the results of my method to an other method's results. Should I give a brief introduction of that method too?\n\nOne of the members of the defense committee is from the other field of research. Should I make my presentation very detailed so that he can understand it? But it will make the presentation very long. Probably, more than 40 minutes long."
] | [
"thesis",
"masters",
"presentation",
"thesis-committee"
] |
[
"How do I go about negotiating an academic job offer?",
"There are many questions on this site that deal with what can be negotiated once one has received an academic job offer. However, I cannot find anything addressing the mechanics of when and how to conduct the negotiations.\n\nThe typical timeline from the university side is:\n\n\nAdvertise a job\nInterview candidates\nInformal offer by phone/email\nFormal offer in writing\nAcceptance\n\n\nAt what point in this process does one typically start negotiating? Do you do it at the informal offer stage (\"Gee, I'm flattered that you like me but there's no way I'll be coming at that salary...\") or do you wait for the formal offer in writing? Do you submit a laundry list of all conceivable requests and see which ones they accept? Or do you simply tell them that you don't regard their current offer as sufficient, and see what they can do? I'm particularly interested in hearing first-hand accounts, from either side of the table."
] | [
"job-search",
"tenure-track",
"negotiation"
] |
[
"Is a PhD right for you if you hate doing research in your free time but love doing it as a job?",
"Say for example you are a new PhD student and realize that you hate doing research in your free time but you are more than willing to spend several hours in the morning to do research. Was your decision to become a PhD student right for you or not?\n\nI'm asking because people are suggesting that \"you have to be really passionate and curious about everything all the time\"\n\nwhat if you want to be curious during your work and just relax and have fun doing unrelated things when you have some free time in your hands?\n\nI guess this indicates that you aren't really passionate, but what's the threshold for \"being passionate enough for a PhD\"?\n\nThese thoughts have really made me somewhat confused over my decision of going for a PhD. It's been a few weeks that I'm into this program and after reading a lot of stuff online addressing the question whether the PhD is right for you or not, I'm already starting to question my decision."
] | [
"phd"
] |
[
"What happens if a paper with same topic gets published while writing undergraduate thesis?",
"What happens when a topic for a Bachelor's thesis is submitted and while the student writes their thesis, a paper discussing the exact same topic is published by researchers of a different university?\n\nThis is merely a scenario. I'm not in this situation. But I feel like it concerns me a lot as I would be, had I written my theses 3 years earlier, as I received an email today informing me that the topic I proposed to a chair would be a good topic but has already been looked into by 5 researchers at a French university and the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation somewhat short of 3 years ago. The topic of their paper exactly matches what I planned to write about, so I think this happening is plausible. However, I can't seem to find information online about how it would be handled.\n\nIn such a scenario, is the student allowed to finish their thesis? How would the publication of the paper impact the requirements concerning the thesis?\n\nHad this happened to me (with the topic I proposed), I would've suddenly have access to everything I wanted to find.\n\nShould the field or location matter: I'm a computer science student in Germany."
] | [
"thesis",
"research-undergraduate"
] |
[
"Degree in Philosophy at Mathematics department?",
"I saw some tesis that, for me, look as paper of Mathematics and, indeed, are from mathematics' department. However, the name of the course is "degree in Philosophy".\nThere is any explanation about it?\nI would imagine degree in Philosophy something about thinkers sociologics, human theory, etc.\nMany thanks."
] | [
"mathematics",
"degree",
"philosophy"
] |
[
"What should I read or know before I prepare my bachelor's thesis?",
"I am about to start planning my bachelor's thesis in computational linguistics, and I'm looking into how I can make the process as smooth as possible. So far, I've found that using some sort of version control system for keeping track of one's changes seems like a good idea. I've also started collecting papers using Zotero for easily exporting to BibLaTeX and keeping notes. \n\nBut those are only tools. What I'm most uncertain about is the actual writing process, especially since my native language isn't English. Is there a collection of common mistakes I could benefit from reading, or other every day tips and tricks? Anything, really!"
] | [
"writing",
"thesis",
"research-undergraduate"
] |
[
"What are the elements of an effective elevator pitch?",
"When I go to conferences and try to network, I want to be able to explain my research in a clear and concise manner while still effectively communicating what I do. What are the most effective ways of doing this?"
] | [
"networking"
] |
[
"Why does a mathematics department want student evaluations of a famous professor?",
"If a professor is very famous for his research and belongs to the most prestigious academies of science for his lifetime work, I find it unusual that the math department would ask us to evaluate him. We did so anyway and submitted the evaluations to the director of academic affairs.\n\nIs this typically done at most American universities, irrespective of a professor's age, status or fame? I would think that after a certain point in a professor's career, student evaluations aren't necessary. \n\nIs it sort of a sanity check? He was 85 years old. Is it done to try and find reasons to force retirement of professors?"
] | [
"graduate-school",
"evaluation",
"evaluation-criteria",
"course-evaluation"
] |
[
"Do professors procrastinate?",
"I'm a Masters student and graduating in two weeks. I need to admit that I procrastinated A LOT while working on my thesis. If I do my Ph.D. I expect myself to procrastinate a lot there too. However, I'm wondering if this habit vanishes as the individual gets more senior in academia. So maybe as the person gets more senior in academia, they learn to handle this habit better.\n\nMy questions:\n\n\nIs true that the more senior you become, the more you are able to handle this bad habit?\nDo professors procrastinate too?"
] | [
"professors",
"academic-life",
"procrastination"
] |
[
"How does one become a multi-disciplinary researcher?",
"How can someone become a multi-disciplinary researcher?\n\nFor example, can one study a multi-disciplinary domain that combines signal processing, artificial intelligence (neural net, machine learning), robotics, instrumentation and control engineering, and embedded systems? Is there a path that could make a candidate a marketable researcher across all these domains?"
] | [
"career-path",
"multidisciplinary"
] |
[
"Hiring an academic researcher to implement an algorithm in a paper they wrote",
"I recently joined a technology startup company where a key business value-proposition depends on solving certain various problems that no current business competitor solves. There is one particular sub-problem we're looking to offer a commercial solution to - and it has been already solved by an academic team who published a paper describing an algorithmic solution about 15 years ago. To our knowledge, no commercial operation employs their approach. We would like to capitalize on this.\n\nThe team-members are still working at the original university and fully contactable.\n\nThe problem is the solution as described in the paper is beyond the current academic-ability of the startup's employees - and given time constraints I'm considering the possibility of contacting the team to ask them to implement it for us - as paid professionals, of course.\n\nIs this appropriate? Is there a good way to frame this? Would paying them for their work introduce any kind of conflict-of-interest or other consequences?"
] | [
"communication"
] |
[
"Is it possible for a conference not to be published?",
"I was quoting a paper from the ICLR 13 and noticed that I could not find any information about the publishing of the conference. So far I have only seen proceedings which published the papers of the conference in a book entitled 'proceedings of the xth international conference ...'\n\nQ: Is it possible for a conference not to be published, i.e. the papers can only be found online (or via a database, e.g. arXiv). Is this a common thing? Why?"
] | [
"publications",
"conference"
] |
[
"Should I be concerned that my (successful) application to grad school only barely survived the first cut?",
"I am starting my PhD in a few days. One of the faculty told one of his students that me and another incoming PhD student just made it in terms of the initial admission ranking, i.e. we were in the bottom of the pile among those who made the cut. The reason that we got in was because the top candidates they sent offers to didn't come and there were professors asking for us specifically.\nI know I could report this professor for his behavior but I'm not gonna do that. However, I am wondering if initial admission ranking means anything in terms of actual PhD performances. My field is statistics."
] | [
"phd",
"graduate-admissions"
] |
[
"Does your Alma Mater and U.S. News Rankings Really Affect Future Job Opportunities?",
"I'm in the process of trying to decide on which graduate program to attend. I am pursuing a Master's level degree in Computer Science in hopes of furthering my web development career. I would love to be able to teach web development/programming at a community college someday after getting a few more years of industry experience (teaching requires at least a Master's degree). Previously I taught secondary science before transitioning into web development.\n\nI've been accepted to the following programs:\n\nBoston University - Master's in Computer Information Systems / Web Application Development (U.S. News ranked #51 nationally)\n\nBrandeis University - Master's of Software Engineering (U.S. News ranked #31 nationally)\n\nUniversity of Bridgeport - Master's of Computer Science (not ranked nationally)\n\nI keep going back and forth in regards to which program I should choose. University of Bridgeport seems to have a good curriculum and it looks like it will be cheaper (I may get a scholarship), but I'm concerned that it's not viewed as a \"top\" school. I would be happy to pay for a more expensive school if it helped provide greater opportunities in the future.\n\nDo you find that going to a \"better\" school has affected your resume to the point that you may have more teaching opportunities after school? I realize that a certain school won't earn me the actual position, but having a highly regarded school on my resume MAY lead me to getting more interviews. Any insights are greatly appreciated.\n\nThanks and have a good day."
] | [
"graduate-school",
"career-path",
"teaching"
] |
[
"If I change my research group, can my former supervisor restrict my access to my codes that are written by myself?",
"Recently, I quitted my current research group and I will start to work with someone else. I was in my former research group for almost three years and during these three years I wrote more 200,000 lines of codes by myself alone. These codes rest in my former advisor group repository in Github, but I have copies of them locally in my computer. I know and I understand totally that I'm not allowed to use those codes without my former adviser agreement and also he is not allowed to do so without my agreement. Recently, he removed and revoked my access to the codes that are written by myself during these three years. As I said, I don't want to use them without his agreement, but I'm wondering why he restricted my access to something that completely is written by me and from scratch. I have the local backups but it just makes me upset and I'm wondering if he is allowed to remove my access or not?"
] | [
"phd",
"advisor",
"data",
"databases"
] |
[
"How competitive are faculty jobs in the UK, as compared with the U.S.?",
"I wonder when a faculty position at a top UK university is advertised, how many applications will be submitted. I am just asking about an estimate of the average. For example, consider a Reader position in an engineering field.\n\nI wish to know how competitive are the faculty jobs in the UK in comparison with the US."
] | [
"career-path",
"job",
"faculty-application",
"united-kingdom"
] |
[
"How does one choose the panel to present at a conference?",
"I am looking to present my work at a conference. The goal being to get comments and get a paper publication. I have a choice to go on the last day with the chair being an authority in the field. Or on the first day with upcoming chair. Which would be better to help me both get good comments and still scout for post doc positions."
] | [
"conference",
"postdocs"
] |
[
"How to include experiments vs state-of-the-art papers with no code",
"I am working a paper which offers an algorithmic improvement, which is measured in both the quality of the results, and the time it took to achieve them.\n\nThere are 3 recent (relatively) papers which deal with the exact same problem. One of them i am building upon, and my improvement (while can be used in other fields as well) is geared for it. The improvement is significant, and I have all the required tools in order to reproduce its exact results and prove it.\n\nHowever, the 2 other Papers, which both (claim) to be better than the first, lack the required code in order to reproduce the results.\nI have tried contacting the authors, in more then one way, but no reply.\n\nAlso, according to paper #3 (which is the most recent one), paper #1 actually performs better than paper #2, A thing which contradicts paper #2.\n\nI have an implementation of paper #2 (Not my own, or the original) which exhibits very poor results.\n\nI am not sure how I can move on from here - Doing my own implementations for #2 and #3 is both very time consuming, and I could easily have a bug or two. And a reviewer can claim it was biased against them. \n\nAnd obviously, If I wont benchmark against them, I could not claim to be The state-of-the-art solution for the problem (even if the improvement I show vs #paper 1 is bigger than they does).\n\nAny advise would be great!"
] | [
"publications",
"research-process",
"computer-science",
"experiment-design"
] |
[
"Differences Between Academic Research Positions in US and Canada?",
"I am considering the possibility of applying for a faculty or possibly other research positions at a Canadian university. I am curious to know what are the differences in terms of work experience, quality of life, research funding, and so on? I have also heard that government funding structure in Canada is vastly different than the US. Anyone care to share any experiences or first hand knowledge of differences between Canada and the USA for newly PhDs looking for research positions up north?"
] | [
"funding",
"united-states",
"academic-life",
"work-life-balance",
"canada"
] |
[
"How much of humor in a formal academic writing is considered as disrespect?",
"In a formal academic writing (in the everyday sense), is it appropriate to use phrases such as \"step out on\" to titillate the reader? \n\nSince I am not a native English speaker, and since I have not yet accurately catched the general range of humor in the US, I wonder if using such phrases would be instead considered as a disrespect?"
] | [
"writing",
"etiquette",
"writing-style"
] |
[
"How does Google Scholar's \"Sort by Date\" work?",
"Why does Google Scholar's "Sort by Date" feature give you a completely different number of papers? I'm not speaking about approximation, like here, I'm speaking of real numbers being 1000 times different.\nIf I search "genome sequence homomorphic encryption" (any time, sort by relevance, all the words,) I obtain about 5,030 papers. If I change to sort by date I obtain... 3 papers. Literally 3. Google Scholar changes my query to "genome sequence "homomorphic encryption" " (I mean, it puts "" before and after homomorphic encryption, searching for the whole expression instead of separate words). I can manually change the query to be the same as before, by either changing it directly or crafting the URL, but the number of papers remains 3.\nI can change to "Everything" instead of "Only abstract" (I don't get why this option appears only when I set "sort by date", but whatever) and I get 724 results (or 596 if I use the modified query it automatically does).\nI mean, it is not an approximation, it is simply a different set. Completely. As far as I can tell it simply takes the papers from the last 364 days, but I don't know for sure.\nMoreover, the results aren't accurate. With sort by relevance, by adding the constraint "Since 2021", I get 281 results. Among the 724 results I obtain using the "sort by date" search, around 215 (and surely less than 220) are from less than 112 days ago, meaning that I have lost about 60 results in this way (it is more than 25%, it is huge).\nWhy? Like, it is completely idiotic. It should be very simple, the normal research contains the date, it is a very easy sorting to do. It is not like it does not know the date or it is unable to find it. And, more importantly is there a way to change it/use a workaround?"
] | [
"research-process",
"citations",
"google-scholar"
] |
[
"Alternatives to rushing to start with a bachelor thesis before my favourite advisor leaves the university?",
"I wish to write my bachelor thesis with a particular professor, who is looking for a new job. He will be there for another semester, but might leave afterwards (depending on the outcome of his job search). Due to other courses and constraints, I would prefer to do my bachelor’s thesis not in the next semester but the one afterwards, when my favorite professor may already be gone.\n\nAccording to my university’s rules, the primary supervisor of my bachelor thesis needs to be at my university, so even if my favorite professor agrees to supervise me, I would have to find a primary supervisor from my university, who will be responsible for my final grade. Unfortunately, the only other professor doing my favorite topic has a very bad reputation.\n\nAs far as I see it, I have two options with three possible outcomes:\n\n\nI do my thesis in the next semester, having to cope with a tight schedule due to other courses.\nI do coursework in the next semester and my thesis in the semester after that. This bears the risk that my favorite professor is gone.\n\n\nDo you see any other ways to solve this dilemma?"
] | [
"thesis",
"advisor",
"germany",
"bachelor"
] |
[
"Advisor wants me to break our group out into a different area",
"This is my first year in graduate school. I am studying computer science. Our group has 2 faculty advisors and ~8 students (faculty are married). The group is established in a niche part of the subdiscipline of computer science that I study.\n\nMy advisor really wants our group to break out into a second niche. I was chosen to lead the effort to do this. It wasn't clear why I was chosen, but I am older and have work experience and I am unique because I also recently finished my undergraduate and have a very strong background in mathematics. Our group are mostly 1st and 2nd years, there are 1 or 2 4th/5th year students. \n\nI love the area they want to break into, it is interesting to me, but we have no one in our university that specializes in this area. My advisor wants me to figure out a solution to a problem and publish my ideas, but has not set any expectations beyond \"you need to submit a paper.\"\n\nIs this something other people have experienced? Is it normal for a first year graduate student to be asked to single handedly publish work that will establish a new area of research for a group? Are these standard expectations? In the industry usually there were step-by-step expectations that culminated in selling a product.\n\nRoad blocks I am facing:\n\n1) Advisor doesn't set expectations beyond \"submit a paper\"\n\n2) Advisors have all the other students working on different projects, people don't have time to help me.\n\n3) Only 4 of the 8 speak fluent English (as well as both advisors).\n\n4) I am also teaching ~40 students, 2 labs, work heavy engineering course\n\nIs this just how graduate school is? Am I doing something wrong? Did I just land in a difficult group? I am so worried I am too stretched thin to accomplish anything. I want to communicate this to my advisor, but I am worried I will become a burden in my first year which will be a bad thing for me."
] | [
"graduate-school"
] |
[
"As a prospective PhD student, is it bad that I have interests in multiple areas of my field?",
"I'm planning on applying to PhD programs in November of this year. I originally was purely looking for Cog-Neuro labs studying PTSD, as it became my main interest during some of my graduate-level courses in undergrad.\n\nDuring my research into different programs however, I've come across several labs (with different focuses) in very good programs that also interest me. \n\nGenerally, these other labs that interest me study things such as language and perception. My undergraduate thesis work focused on similar topics.\n\nI've been feeling \"guilty\" that I don't have this laser-focus on a specific topic that other prospective PhD students seem to have. \n\nIs this more common than it seems?"
] | [
"graduate-admissions",
"graduate-school"
] |
[
"Are academics more tolerant of biological and philosophical differences?",
"My internal model of academia is that (1) as a group we are one of the most tolerant of biological and philosophical differences (e.g., gender, sexual orientation, and religion) and (2) that we are likely to take extreme views on issues related to our research. I have no evidence for either of these and they seem potentially at odds in that it seems strange that people would be so passionate about their research and be blase about their religion (or any other philosophy). Is there any work that characterizes the level of tolerance of academics on various issues?"
] | [
"reference-request",
"interpersonal-issues",
"gender",
"religious-issues",
"ethnicity"
] |
[
"What do admissions like to see in online profiles?",
"I have a website for my academic profile. The content include academic CV, a little bit about the research I have done, a technical computing related hobby of mine etc. \n\nI intend to state the URL for this website on my academic CV for PhD applications.\n\nQuestions\n\n\nWould the admission committee view the online profile of an applicant when considering his/her application?\nIf so, what kind of information would the admission committee like to see on it?\n\n\n(Edit) Additional Information\n\nI am applying to applied mathematics departments in the USA."
] | [
"graduate-admissions",
"cv"
] |
[
"Why are some research groups not so ethnically diverse?",
"Some research groups, especially the ones at lower tier schools in the United States, contains an excessive amount of students who have the same nationality as the professor. Some Chinese professors' groups solely consists of Chinese students.\n\nDoes this go against diversity, considering the fact that Ph.D admissions are not centralized and is not done by adcom members? Is there a constraint on this implied by school to faculty?"
] | [
"research-group",
"diversity",
"ethnicity"
] |
[
"Can I ask the referee for help?",
"I recently submitted a manuscript, and the referee's response is that I did not discuss one aspect of the theory I am interested in. This is true, because I am new to this topic, so I missed that aspect. \n\nI am wondering if I can ask the referee for help point out some references or even discuss with him/her. Is it OK?"
] | [
"publications",
"peer-review"
] |
[
"Will a journal reject my paper just because a grad student is the sole author?",
"I have been working on a topic(numerical analysis) for several years, and I discovered something new which can be verified by numerical experiments. But my supervisor doesn't allow me to publish it, though he does admit that my research is worth publishing. \n\nSo is it possible to publish my research without my supervisor? I have done the research all by myself, the idea, the numerical experiment is original and without any help from my supervisor, but I am still a student. Will the journal reject my paper just because I submit the paper while I am still a student and without any co-author?\n\nAs many people are wondering why my supervisor will not allow me to publish, I give my own explanation below:\n\n\nHe has a strong desire to control all the research in my lab, I am afraid he is the only person who is doing research in my lab, all the students who have published just wrote the articles, all the ideas are from my supervisor. All the ideas by the students usually will be abandoned.\nI am an international student here, although I don't think that the relation with my supervisor is totally broken, I'm afraid he wants to postpone my graduation, so that he still have a PHD student in the next year. (Here is East-Asia, he can do like this without any opposition, it is not abnormal here as far as I know)\n\n\nAs someone suggested, my real problem may far beyond the simple question of the title. However, I do want to know if it is possible to publish a paper by a student solely. Of course any advice on whether I should or not publish my research is also appreciated."
] | [
"publications",
"paper-submission",
"authorship"
] |
[
"some questions before applying for postdoc",
"I appreciate your guidance on the following questions:\n\n\nShould I inform my adviser before applying for each an every postdoc position? \nShould I send my research statement to my Ph.D adviser before sending it for postdoc applications?"
] | [
"postdocs"
] |
[
"Is it possible to withdraw a conference paper after the rebuttal period?",
"Maybe it sounds like an odd question, but it's really important to me! \nRecently I received the reviewers' feedback as the rebuttal phase of the conference, and I sent them an answer letter regarding their comments.\n\nAs a matter of fact, two of the reviewers pointed out a theoretical problem regarding my proposed methodology which somehow disproves my claim. To be honest, I'm fine with that part as they helped me to understand what I was missing in my work. \nAnd, based on the reviewer's comments, I expect the paper to be rejected in the end with 80-90% likelihood.\n\nThe problem is that they will send the notifications to authors 1.5 months from now, But we already figured out the solution to fix the missing theoretical part and I also gathered the results supporting that. So now I have the modified version of that paper almost ready to submit, but I have to wait 1.5 months until I receive the official notification from this conference to be able to send the paper somewhere else otherwise it'd be against the regulations.\n\nMy question is: is it proper to ask the conference chairs to revoke the paper now, and then submit the paper somewhere else? Or would it cause bad impression or might damage our reputations?"
] | [
"publications",
"conference",
"paper-submission"
] |
[
"Copyright in academic software in the UK",
"I work on statistical data analysis in neuroscience at a university, and to that end regularly develop small pieces of software. Most of that software I also publish on GitHub under the GNU General Public License. This implies that I claim and retain copyright.\n\nI used to work in Germany, where in my (possibly mistaken?) understanding of \"Wissenschaftsfreiheit\" (academic freedom) this was a correct procedure. I now started to work at a UK university and stumbled across a passage in their Intellectual Property Policy:\n\n\n Scholarly Works\n \n a) The University waives its rights in the copyright\n in scholarly works produced solely in the furtherance of an academic\n career. This includes books, articles in journals, papers for\n conferences, study notes, original literary, dramatic, musical or\n artistic works, sound recordings, films, broadcasts, and typographical\n arrangements, multimedia works, photographs, and drawings, provided\n the material does not form part of a course or teaching materials for\n the University, and has not been commissioned by the University.\n \n b) The University does not waive its rights in the intellectual property\n in any underlying materials on which the scholarly work is based,\n including software, data, databases, designs and patentable\n inventions.\n\n\n(emphasis mine)\n\nIf I understand paragraph (b) correctly, I cannot continue to publish code under the GPL, because the copyright of the software isn't mine to begin with. The same holds for data from neuroscience experiments, and one might argue that it holds for experimental designs. This does not just seem to prohibit my personal practice, but also to stand in the way of current efforts towards Open Science (open source, open data).\n\nMy questions:\n\n1) Is this policy (b) correct under UK intellectual property law as it pertains to academia?\n\n2) Is such a policy usual at UK universities? If yes, how do academics publishing software usually deal with it?\n\n3) Are there organisations in the UK which could help to convince the university to change the policy? (Open Science advocacy groups)"
] | [
"copyright",
"united-kingdom",
"code"
] |
[
"Should I start working as a teacher at a different uni while I'm still finishing my PhD?",
"I am currently doing a PhD in maths, in the UK. UK PhD scholarship are typically only 3 years, and mine can't be extended. I do need every day of these three years to finish my thesis. For a small fee, I can hand in my thesis up to 1 year after the money has run out.\n\nI now received an offer from a german university for a half-time teaching position in theoretical computer science. The position would start 3 months before my PhD scholarship ends.\n\nShould I accept this offer? A similar question has been asked before, but there are a few circumstances that make the decision harder:\n\n\nThe university where I could teach is in germany. It typically takes a day to go from one place to the other, and it isn't too cheap. (There might be some financial support from the german uni.) So I would be meeting my supervisor significantly less often, but possibly this is not so much a problem towards the end of the PhD?\nI would have to switch fields. While there is enough overlap between the particular topics so that I can learn the teaching material without too much effort, I'm unsure how risky this is for my career. In the worst case, I will not be able to establish myself in computer science because I would \"only\" have a maths PhD, and could neither return to maths because I left the field for too long a time. But again I'm not sure, how realistic these apprehensions are."
] | [
"phd",
"teaching-assistant"
] |
[
"NSF Proposals: numerical citations or author-year?",
"I'm preparing an NSF proposal. I ordinarily like author-year citations because they seem more scholarly and give the reviewer instant information about who(m) I am citing. However, multiple people have advised me that it makes the text hard to read, and I've heard that the most important thing for NSF proposals is that they are easy to read. \n\nBut still- I hate flipping back and forth between text and citations- it seems like that causes a readability problem of a different kind. At the same time, numerical citations are much more concise and help me make my page limit. \n\nSo I am in a bind. What do you people think?"
] | [
"citations",
"nsf"
] |
[
"What can I do about undergraduate students cheating?",
"So I lecture at a university on the department of mathematics and statistics, and this year I am teaching calculus for future mathematicians. One good thing about the mathematics course is that very seldom I have seen students cheating, since people who choose the academic path are more bound to be interested in learning the subject rather than just trying to obtain a diploma.\n\nWell... At least until now.\n\nThere is this small group of students who sometimes whisper during the tests. The other times their class had tests I thought they were asking for an eraser or something like that. But this time they were whispering more than usual and they started stopping after I glared at them. I thought it was suspicious so I waited until the end of the test and went to check their sheets and ditto. They all wrote the exact same thing. (For those familiar with maths they didn't copy a thing or two, but two actual entire theorem proofs.)\n\nNow next time we have tests I could try separating those guys, asking them to sit on other chairs, staying behind the class in order to make it difficult for the students to cheat and stuff like that, but in all seriousness... Those measures make it look like I'm dealing with kids. I'm not a teacher. I'm a professor. I shouldn't be dealing with kids.\n\nBasically I want to do something about this but I don't want to start making the class look like a high school. Those guys are future math teachers/professors and I'll be damned if I have to organize the class preventing future professors from cheating like this was a normal occurrence.\n\nSo what should a professor do in this situation? Are there any things you fellow professors have done and worked? Thanks in advance."
] | [
"undergraduate",
"exams",
"cheating"
] |
[
"Giving back to my undergrad program",
"So, I'm starting up a small business (a software shop) and as far as I'm concerned, that puts me in the 'giving back' phase in my life. One thing that I'd like to do is help my alma mater improve its CS program. Now, I don't have much money (see: starting a business), but they don't really need stuff, they need curricular assistance. \n\nThe program is great, as long as you're trying to move to a grad program. If you're trying to turn 'knowing things' into money, it's...less good. Not much in the way of an internship program (no internship program), source control only recently introduced, no experience turning requirements into software, etcetera. Like I said, it's a problem. \n\nI want to actively participate, if they'll have me, including offering internships (paid internships!) and guest lecture about working in enterprise-level software development environments.\n\nMy question is this: how do I make contact with my former professors and bring about the topic of altering the curriculum and/or helping out?"
] | [
"teaching",
"etiquette",
"computer-science",
"undergraduate",
"research-undergraduate"
] |
[
"Any ethical problems with dating a former student?",
"Assume the student\n\n\nrecently graduated but works nearby;\nhas not been my student for over 1 year; \nhas never expressed any interest in dating until very recently;\nhas a father who is a coworker at my institution (different department)."
] | [
"ethics",
"etiquette",
"interpersonal-issues"
] |
[
"Is an MS in computer science helpful in improving programming skills?",
"I attained my bachelors degree in computer engineering in January 2014. I was not a prolific programmer as an undergrad, instead focusing on my other coursework and in general completing my degree. I am now paying the price for that. I got a job after graduating that involved writing code, however I had a hard time understanding the programming tasks required. Luckily I had senior coworkers who were very helpful. Despite this I was fired after five months because I was unable to complete my tasks in a timely manner.\n\nSince then I have begun working on my own (basic) projects such as library management and a chat engine.\n\nAfter a few months I was able to get another programming job. This time I was able to understand the tasks I was assigned, however I still struggled to complete them in a timely manner and my boss was growing quite frustrated with me. I decided to leave the position after two weeks because of this. \n\nI have continued to improve my programming skills since graduation, but I am still very slow at developing my programs and I rely heavily on Google. I suspect that this is because I did very little programming as an undergraduate. I do enjoy programming, and I regret not pursuing it more passionately then.\n\nI have since considered applying to a masters program in computer science in order to improve my programming knowledge. I'm not sure that this is the best route because I believe that most masters programs in computer science are more research oriented. I believe that if I continue my studies and complete all my programming assignments I will be able to do well in industry. I would appreciate any advice on deciding between a MS and an MBA so I can remedy the errors I made in the first two."
] | [
"masters",
"computer-science",
"programming"
] |
[
"Is it easy to find a job in industry in a different area?",
"I am doing a PhD in the field of atmospheric chemistry at a good university in Canada. I feel I do not like my research very much and I am not very interested in teaching or doing research in my area.\n\nBut I will fulfill my PhD study and get a degree as an international student. In the meanwhile, I am learning or plan to learn a lot of online courses on coursera, especially in machine learning and data science.\n\nI also think about quitting from PhD program and apply for a master/PhD in data science, CS, machine learning or something. But the investment would be huge and it may be not a good choice. I think maybe it is easier to get some courses online and certificates in a certain area like data science, and then I can convert to another area that I am more interested in in terms of future career building up. Also it is bad for my adviser if I quit from his group and I do not want to hurt anyone even if I am trying to seek for alternatives of my future.\n\nMy question is that is it easy to find a job in industry after I complete my PhD? Of course I will not find a job in my area but in data science."
] | [
"phd",
"job-search",
"industry",
"changing-fields"
] |
[
"Can call numbers differ between libraries?",
"Suppose you have two libraries that use the same classification system and have not merged their respective databases. Could it be possible that the exact same book could be assigned different call numbers if taken from one library and added to the other?\n\nI am asking this question because I am drawing up a home-library database application, and the client would like the ability to assign call numbers (even multiple ones). I have not been able to find an answer online, and I hope that I do not have to travel to the next state over to find a library not connected to the ones around I live.\n\nI imagine the book would most likely be assigned to the same top-tier category and most likely the same second subcategory in the respective system, but, for example, the Library of Congress system incorporates the author's name and a quasi-decimal number which fine-tunes the book's location. And it seems without any external reference the assignment of this part of the call number is made on the fly for any particular library.\n\nSo, I have a couple questions. First, the title's sake. Second, is the way I'm thinking about this correct? And if I'm wrong, why?"
] | [
"library"
] |
[
"Asking my supervisor to be frank and give feedback",
"I am doing my PhD in the Britain and I've got a lovely supervisor which is like a friend for me. I want to ask her to give me direct feedback and tell me directly if I am doing bullshit or about any other thing that she thinks I am not good and need to improve (forexample if the way I send email is not very natural in the sense of language and ...). I want to say:\n\nI would like to ask you to give me direct feedback on anything that you think I may need to improve. I won't be offended because I know your intention and I know you want me to be the best. I would be very happy to receive comment because I know that's what makes me improve. \n\nIs it good or not? Is there as better way of saying that?"
] | [
"advisor",
"supervision",
"feedback"
] |
[
"Possibility of acceptance when the editor clearly states that another revision will likely lead to a rejection",
"I received reviewers' feedback after the first round of major revision. One reviewer recommended acceptance, but the other is still not satisfied. The unsatisfied reviewer discounted what I have revised and pointed out specific questions that were not asked in the 1st round. \n\nI feel his/her comments are quite biased and subjective. Unfortunately, the editor agrees with him/her and invited a major revision. However, the editor clearly stated that the chance of getting accepted after a 2nd revision is very low. I am not sure whether I should proceed with a revision or a just withdraw. I personally think my work might have been misjudged."
] | [
"publications",
"journals",
"peer-review"
] |
[
"Postdoc to transition from theoretical field (Statistics) to applied field",
"I am a third year Statistics PhD student. As I have become more involved in the field, I have realized it is not as good a fit for me as I originally thought. I excel in applied, collaborative work but fall behind my peers in theoretical work. It is not that I am incapable of understanding theory, in fact I can understand and digest fairly technical literature, I just do not find it interesting enough to devote the time and attention to be really good. This is unfortunate for me because the field of statistics prefers novel theory to interesting applications. That is not a slight on the field; I should have had the self awareness to know my own interests and limitations before committing to graduate school.\n\nDespite this, I am quite happy in my program. I have a wonderful, supportive advisor, and I am in one of those rare departments where the faculty seem to genuinely care about the students. I have mentioned to my advisor that I prefer applied work and he has generally given me collaborative projects with epidemiologists. I do this work very well (I have an upcoming publication in a leading epidemiology journal) and enjoy it tremendously, but it is not viewed as prestigious by scholars in my field.\n\nI am interested in an academic career. The way I see it, I can be a mediocre statistician or I can be an excellent statistically inclined epidemiologist. I prefer the later. I do not want to switch fields during my PhD primarily for two reasons: (1) I am pretty far into my PhD and do not want to start over. (2) The academic job market is horrible and a statistics PhD translates better to industry and government jobs than an epidemiology degree if I am unable to secure an academic position.\n\nIs it possible to transition from (bio)statistics to epidemiology during a post doc and then be competitive for an academic job afterwards?\n\nEDIT: Anecdotal experience of people switching fields is also appreciated."
] | [
"job-search",
"postdocs",
"changing-fields"
] |
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