How to answer “Why is graduate study important at this time in your life?”, when the reasons are very personal? I am applying to our organization‘s scholarship program to pay for graduate school (if I get accepted).
One of essay questions is:

Why is graduate study important at this time in your life?

Well, there are lot of personal reasons for that. For instance, I wish to get my mind off a terrible tragedy in my life that happened about a year or two ago, and they say being productive and busy is one of the best ways to get over things.
Question: How much personal things to include in a scholarship essay? Would this add depth to the essay, or simply detract. I mean, the word life is in the question and it includes all sorts of things beyond academics and career.
Update
Thank you all for your feedback.
It also answered other questions that I did not post, so a big thank you to all.

You should probably keep your academic interests as the main point. If you write that you are applying to recover from a tragedy in your life, it might not be clear whether you are actually interested in that specific program (or are you just looking for something to do) or whether you might change your mind later.

Also, someone could suspect whether you could tolerate additional stress right now.

Anyway, if you have been out of work or study for a long time due to the tragedy, it is probably best to briefly mention it.


Are replies from editors automatically generated? I never reply to editor's and conference organizers' mails, since I somehow always thought that they are automatically generated and replying just to thank would be considered as spamming, since they probably write to hundreds of people.

But is this really true? Do editors prefer not to get trivial replies to their email? Are their emails really automatically generated, or just some parts of them?

In the case of editor's mails, some will need some form of response, some will not. If you receive mails from an editor requesting information concerning a manuscript you have submitted, you will obviously have to reply.

Since most journals use electronic manuscript handling systems, many mails will be generated automatically as reminders or to tell you something about the status of your manuscript. Unless there is a specific question for you to respond to, you do not have to respond. Editors handle lots of manuscripts and and the automated systems generate lots of mail for each as information to authors, reviewers and the editor. Responding to mails that do not request information is not wrong but completely unnecessary and the editor will likely glance at it and go on. Obviously the situation would get out of hand if everyone responded to all mails in such a system so just focus on those that request a response, that is all that is expected.

As for conferences, I would expect a similar scenario. Many mails will be information and only those that request information need to be answered.

The bottom line is, you need to make sure you answer the mails where you are requested to do so but the rest can safely be left as the information they were intended to convey.


How to decide the appropriate level of explanation for math in academic papers? In any academic paper dealing at least in part with math, the authors have to make a choice how much explanation to actually give the math.

It can range from pretty much no explanation:

  Given a foobar of 12, a ackbar of 57, and general frobnosticating
  parameter of 9, the resulting nyan level will be 8.

To belaboring the obvious

  The first three people went into the city. Later, four more people
  went into the city. This meant that seven people had gone into the
  city which is derived by adding the first three people to the next
  four people. We add because people are individual units and moving
  them to a new location neither combines or divides those units.

How does one decide the appropriate level of explanation? Is there any sort of standard that can be appealed to decide when something is clear enough?

The actual background for this question is that I've looked at a paper for a colleague. It is in a non-mathematical subject but does engage in some mathematical reasoning. I think the paper doesn't explain enough, but my colleague disagrees. I have to work at figuring out what calculations were done in the paper and the justification for many of the inferences he draws. That indicates to me that the explanation is insufficient, but is there a less subjective standard I can appeal to?

I find that the choice of how much explanation to give math is generally a three-way negotiation between three factors:

Your estimate of the audience: different communities will need radically different levels of explanation for the same mathematics.
Adjustment based on the opinions of the reviewers about what needs more or less details
Any length constraints on the paper.

Of this #1 is really the important thing: you really need to understand your audience in order to decide how in-depth to go with your mathematics.

For example, I recently published a paper which spent several pages explaining a mathematical formulation in depth for its target cross-disciplinary audience.  The reviewers requested further expansion of the mathematical explanation (which I was happy to provide).  Were I writing for the community from which the mathematics came, however, I would instead spend several pages explaining the context of the problem, but then the math itself would be covered in just a few sentences.


Can a Computer Science Post Baccalaureate Student get Graduate Assistantships? Recently, I have been going around university websites to find a good post baccalaureate computer science programs. Most of them cost around $45k for living and tuition. Well, I was wondering is there any chance that post baccalaureate Students get Graduate Assistantships? Or Are they eligible to do any other on-campus Jobs?

Depends on your profile. If you are expert in a specific track and the faculty realizes that you might actually be able to assist the students, you would easily get a GA/TA/RA. An alternative to that can be tutoring, I've tutored all through my grad school. It actually pays almost all of your living expenses.

Of course any and all students are eligible to work on-campus for 20 hours per week during the school session and 40 hours when the school is not in session. This applies to international students too, if they are on F1 visa.


Advice for internal grant application write up I am writing an internal grant proposal (as a new faculty recruits). The university has asked for the names of at least three external experts as application reviewers. The university review panel (mostly non-experts) will take experts' comments under consideration, then match the application against the university's criteria to come to a final decision. My question is :

How many technicalities can I put into the application? Can I put in equations and preliminary results? As I have learned it is advisable to put technical info (esp. jargon) in the grant applications. But given that experts may (or may not) review the, can I get suggestions.
Of course, I do not have the final results yet, the idea is half-baked in my mind (which I am putting on the paper). It may evolve when I do the actual research on the project. How can I approach this in my application? Also, how can I convince the reviewer that I am looking for genuine work and not proposing a gimmick to get the funds

PS. This is my first application as a faculty member, I did write funding applications during my Ph.D., but they were not successful.

You could write two sections in the narrative, one not so technical and one technical. The local committee will appreciate the former, the external experts the latter.


Using comments from examiners in a CV I have just received feedback about my PhD (in my University, we do not do an oral defense, our dissertations are peer reviewed) - and I have received great and useful feedback and criticisms which will be a breeze to respond to.

Also included in the feedback are some very kind and positive comments about me as a scientific researcher.  This leads me to my question, would it be appropriate to use the positive comments from the examiners when applying to academic positions? This of course, while preserving the anonymity of the examiners themselves.

Something along the lines of "Examiners to my PhD dissertation recognized my ability to perform task, stating positive comment".

Hum, I do understand the impulse, but I don't think a CV is the right place for that. You don't want it to look like the back cover of a crime novel :)

In my country (France), PhD thesis undergo both a peer-review and a formal defense. Thus, you usually come out of it with two written reviews of your thesis, and one written review of your defense. It would be quite uncommon to quote these in a CV, but in many applications it is fine (and sometimes mandatory) to actually attach them to the application, as supporting material.

So, unless it is common to do so in your system, I wouldn't recommend quoting praise for yourself in a CV (a CV is a list of facts, mainly, not opinions), but you can try to include it in the application if it is allowed. Either raw, or you could quote it in the application letter, statement of intent, summary of your work, whatever:

  The research topic of my PhD was to study the influence of UV irradiation on bacterial growth rate in the lab's fridge. I quantified the extent to which it was detrimental to the life of these poor innocent bacteria. I also made the case for a new classification splitting part of the UV range currently known as “UV-C” radiation into a new “UV-D” category, based on its distinct harmful effects on fungal growth.

  This work was well received by the community, with a total of 4 published papers and 3 conference talks during my PhD. The thesis peer-review committee called it “a brave and well-inspired revolution of the old dusty classification of UV radiation” and characterized the end product of the thesis as “a clean lab fridge: the greatest service you can render mankind or, at least, labkind”.


How to cite prices in academia? In the introduction of my thesis I want to motivate the use of alternative neutron converters to helium-3 by mentioning the exploding cost of latter.

I am not directly involved with helium-3, since I work with the alternatives. Online research yielded for instance a congressional research paper by Shea and Morgan from 2010, and the wikipedia page for helium-3 links to an IEEE site also from 2010, mentioning the price explosion in that year.

Is one of those source apt for citation? Is there a best way to cite prices in academia?

There are two, as I see it very different questions you pose. as for the aptness of the sources, the Shea and Morgan paper is a publication that can be referenced because it is traceable and likely to be remaining for a long time in unaltered state. It is also published by a formal body.

When it comes to citing prices the question is perhaps trickier. Not knowing the market for helium-3 I do not know where the prices are determined but usually there is some form of exchange that determines prices based on the market and this makes prices shift quickly. In such cases, one needs to find a source where the market swings are documented and stored so that one can cite a price at a specific time in a time series that people can revisit if they wish to check the correctness of your assessments. This type of referencing is common in economics when discussing price variations, trends etc.


Updating Paper Status after Applying to Graduate School I heard back recently about my paper being accepted for publication. At the time of my applications to graduate schools I just wrote it was under review, should I attempt to update this status with some of the schools I applied to? If so, what would be the appropriate way to do this?

Yes, a paper acceptance may be worth updating a graduate school application.  It probably won't make a difference, and the update might not even get noticed at all if your application has already been read.  However, it's worth a try.

Updates to your application should be submitted sparingly.  Most people should not do it at all, and nobody should do it more than once.  It's inappropriate to submit an update that you could have included in the original application, since that would just be circumventing the application deadline.  However, it can occasionally make sense for external validation such as prizes or paper acceptances, because the timing is not under your control.

  If so, what would be the appropriate way to do this?

First, you should check whether the online application system has a method for submitting updates after the deadline.  I would bet that it doesn't, because nobody wants to solicit or encourage updates, but if it does then you should submit the update this way.

Otherwise, you should look at the graduate admissions webpage for the department to try to find an e-mail address for inquiries.  Usually there's a special e-mail address for graduate admissions inquiries, which is handled by an administrative assistant.  One of your letter writers could write to that address and ask whether they could please add the paper acceptance to your file.  Whether they will actually do so probably depends on departmental policy, but this is your best shot.  (You could also write to them yourself, but having a letter writer do it avoids the issue of whether you can be trusted.)


Becoming a Professor in a Developing Country after a PhD in the US: Feasibility and Challenges I'm applying for PhD programs and I'm thinking about what I'll do afterward. Specifically, I did my undergraduate in a well-respected US university and am applying to similar tier universities for a PhD in a STEM field.

From my undergraduate experience I know I like teaching and research- so I'm thinking of trying to go into Academia and be a professor. Turns out this is really competitive. It also turns out you don't get a lot of flexibility about where you live, which is quite important to me.

So I had a thought: what about trying to be a Professor in a developing country? I spent most of my childhood in a developing country and helping to improve education/opportunities in developing countries is something I've cared about for a while. Also, I'm not a US citizen, and I've spent little time living in the EU country I am a citizen of, so have fewer ties to the Western world than some.

So question 1: How easy is it to become a Professor in a developing country having a STEM PhD from a US university?

And since that question is quite broad, I'll say regions I'm interested in: Sub-Saharan Africa, China (if that's still considered a developing country), Indonesia.

Question 2: After getting in, what issues is one likely to have? (Academic culture, still being able to work competitively in interesting/cutting edge research, funding, etc). Especially if people have experiences of going from the US/EU to be professors in STEM fields in the aforementioned regions I'd be interested to hear about them.

Note: I am aware of this similar question but it seems to be more about short-term programs rather than becoming a longer-term professor.

There are two distinct circumstances that occur in regard to your question. Either A) the developing country is your home country (or a country that you once lived in) or B) it is a country you have not been extensively to. This will, I believe, affect the outcome. I'll try to answer for the two cases in my experience (and from what I have seen / heard from friends who went back to North Africa/Middle East/China)

Q1 : STEM Ph.D. from the US, especially if they arise from a good university or research group, are generally well seen outside of the US and, more specifically, in developing country or in China. As such, if there are position available in that country, when applying  your candidacy has high chances to be considered. However, for that, there has to be positions available. Some countries are really low on budget for academia and as such do not hire as many professors in research/teaching position, but mostly solely on teaching positions.  If a position is available, you have good chance if you know the custom (language, culture, etc.) of the country where you would like to work. However, position opportunities might be more rare.

Q2: I can only speak from experience of friends. However, what I have seen is that in some developing countries, professors at university have a much higher teaching workload than in the US, they have less funds and they have less opportunities to hire/pay international Ph.D. students. Therefore, it can greatly affect your capacity to do research because A) you have less time/money to dedicate to it and B) it's harder to find students.


Is it appropriate for my professor to include gender offensive material that is unrelated to the class subject matter in the course notes? My accounting professor created a large binder full of notes for us to use instead of an actual textbook. He created it, and since he's the head of the accounting department at my university, he has implemented it into all of the accounting curricula. In this binder, there are news articles and random cartoons which are almost entirely unrelated to accounting. For example, there is a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip on almost every other page and the content of the strips are not in the least related to accounting.

An exam is coming up so I started studying from the beginning of the section and I happened across an unusual piece that was photocopied into the notes. This piece is the Italian telling of "Sleeping Beauty". No explanation or anything saying what it is; I was only able to figure out what it is because I was so offended by it (read further for an explanation of the offense) that I researched what it was, so I could maybe develop an understanding of why my professor would dare to include this in what he is teaching us.

If you are not familiar with the Italian (arguably the original) telling of this fairy tale, it is rather simple, and goes as follows: A young woman is drugged; she appears to be dead to her family so they leave her body in peace in a cabin that they seal up. One day a rich king comes across the cabin and breaks in; he sees the YOUNG woman and assumes she is asleep so he rapes her because she's so beautiful. This young woman eventually gives birth to twins and through a series of events they wake her from her drugged and practically dead state. Skipping some information I don't think is necessary, the young woman considers her rape and rapist blessings and is thankful for said horrific rape.

Now, my question is that I want to know if this is acceptable? I was disgusted when I read it (while studying for an exam, mind you). I consider myself a feminist and as a woman myself, I found the story offensive in the extreme. I also feel that this is helping to perpetuate the belief that women should be thankful for their rapists because it is a compliment. Can my university (a state university) legally, ethically, and morally publish this to their students in a faculty made textbook? I want to take action but I am not sure if this is even allowed and do not want to make a fool of myself.

Update (posted in comments):

I have spoken with the professor who created this book (it is more of a textbook than lecture notes) and he admitted he was in the wrong for including this. He stated that he likes to include things unrelated to accounting in his book just because. There was no explanation about the story, no relating back to accounting or econ or anything.

In economics a "sleeping beauty" is a company primed for takeover, often because it is under-valued. Asset valuation is quite a large topic in accounting, since it can have a huge impact on the final total value of the company.

Some authors are of the opinion that the (European) sovereign debt crisis created a mentality shift in accounting. That is, valuation tended towards more conservative methods, and in so doing, accountants created more sleeping beauties than before the crisis.

It is my guess that your professor did not have time to cover this topic in your course. Or perhaps it is used in another course? Why don't you ask him?

If you feel that there is hostile environment against women, then go right ahead and report it. You should not feel guilty in any way.

However, the professor could simply be trying to grab your attention with a small "shock", as asset valuation is considered by many students (that I have met) to be both mundane and boring.

We do not need more political correctness (PC) or micro aggression within higher education. So please ask yourself if he really ment to promote rape, or if you are simply taking this completely out of context. Again, what is stopping you e-mailing him? Write that you you do not see how it is related to the course, and ask for a clarification. His response should give you a clear indication of how to continue.


If I use results from a source I don't have access to, should I include it in references? Let's say, I am writing a paper. I am reading paper A that cites results in Paper/Book B. I do not have access to Paper/Book B.

In the list of references, do I include only A? A and B?

Be honest. You do not gain anything by pretending knowledge you have not, nor it helps the reader.

Write "According to A, in B it is shown that" or some variation on it. If you have made a good-faith effort to obtain a copy of B (that includes interlibrary loan), but had undue difficulty in doing so, you might want to mention it --- "We were unable to find a copy of B".


In layman's terms, what is the difference between OpenAthens and Shibboleth? I Googled. I don't have Ph.D. computer science to understand What is the difference between Shibboleth and OpenAthens? Too many esoteric words! I  Googled SAML and found Security Assertion Markup Language, but  I don't have time to learn new computer  language! I already trouble English. English is not my first language.

Shibboleth is Open Source software that provides single sign-on infrastructure and supports the SAML standard, as well as other protocols. Shibboleth is usually installed and managed by an institution or publisher.
OpenAthens supports many of the same standards, including SAML but is delivered as a cloud-based solution, supported by a service desk and team of technical specialists who are on hand to assist with setup, integration, and operation. OpenAthens and Shibboleth can happily interoperate, as they are based on many of the same international standards.

Then I try second link on Google.  Hein Online

Now I baffled even more! Shibboleth "federations"? "metadata"?
Other sites list OpenAthens but not Shibboleth. Please explain all this like I'm 5?

The Shibboleth Wikipedia page is a good place to start.

Shibboleth is a single sign-on log-in system.... It allows people to sign in using just one identity to various systems run by federations of different organizations or institutions. The federations are often universities or public service organizations.

So, Shibboleth is a software program that large organizations can use to handle having users sign in. It's free software that the organizations can download and use. One nice thing about it is that it supports interoperability: for example, two affiliated universities can form a "federation" within Shibboleth. This allows them to each provide content to their students without sharing content with each other. Better yet, students enrolled at both universities won't need two separate accounts. But, Shibboleth must be set up and maintained by the institutions themselves.
As your link above says, OpenAthens is very similar -- it is more-or-less a large Shibboleth  federation that is managed by a non-profit and comes with a dedicated IT team and help desk. So, a university could just pay to join OpenAthens, and OpenAthens' own employees would help to set everything up, maintain it, and provide user support. Since many institutions use OpenAthens, it is convenient for the end-user as well -- they can use one account for many different content providers, even content providers who don't have any direct relationship with each other.
Note, this is not exclusive to Academia -- large businesses could use this software as well. But in my experience, many people encounter these concepts when dealing with universities or academic publishers.


Acquaintance is paying friend to do his coding for an Ivy League master's degree. What should I do? I'm relatively close to someone who is currently attending an Ivy League graduate program.  He believes he has it all made in life and yet here he is paying one of my friends to do his coding assignments and projects.

It is an online program, so it makes getting away with this even easier.  This situation only benefits both of them, but it's just bothering me.  I just hate the idea of someone bragging about being in an Ivy League graduate just to pay someone else to do his work.  Should I just drop it or report the student?

In response to questions: no, I am not a student myself.

What would I do? I would report them both, anonymously.

What is my rationale for this? Mainly because it is not a "victimless crime":

There are plenty of employers who weight the reputation of a university very highly (perhaps too highly) in hiring processes. A more-deserving and capable candidate might not be given an interview or an offer as a result of this person having cheated.
To the extent that any university's reputation is well-deserved, this is founded upon other people's judgements of its integrity. i.e. that the degree means something. If that impression of integrity is eroded by unqualified people receiving degrees, that hurts the employment chances of everyone with a degree from the same school.

I feel these two points are basically just statistical. Given enough incidents of cheating either or both seems to be a likely consequence.

Somewhat more subjective reasons:

Bad outcomes are possible when an unqualified person is granted responsibility. Crashed airplanes? Deadly medical devices? Losing money for their stakeholders? Maybe the odds of great harm are small. And perhaps such a person has no actual interest in taking a job like that. But I don't think this can be totally ignored.
More broadly, what other harm are these people likely to cause in life? Chances are that this is not at all their first case of untrustworthy behavior and won't be their last -- as long as they perceive it to be in their interest to act this way. On the other hand they may be early enough in life that a "shock to the system" from being caught could actually be helpful. Or at least a deterrent.

Why an anonymous report? I think this is pretty obvious, but I would not want to take any personal risk (in any sense) from this. People can be petty, angry, etc., and I see no reason to expose myself as any kind of 'target' of those emotions.

On the other hand you might have to trust the institution to protect your identity, it depends on how you can make a report.


Undergraduate Publishing Options I am an undergraduate student currently working in a co-op position at a company in my field. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to be the lead author on a paper based on the research I performed here, and I have a couple of questions regarding what I can do with this information.

I would like to publish it while also making it as visible as possible (partly because I consider myself a proponent of open sharing of information, but also because I'd like to refer future potential employers to it and it would be easier if it were not behind a paywall). I understand that some journals have open access options, but these tend to be quite expensive. What options do I have for publishing in an open way without expensive costs (ideally no cost, since my company has made it clear that they will not financially support publication)?

I understand that one solution to this could be putting it on ArXiv. However, since ArXiv is not a journal, would it be considered incorrect or misleading to call my paper a publication if I were to post it there?

My last question is with regards to contact information in papers. Since I will be leaving the company in a few months, I would like to be able to put an email address in the contact information for the paper that will still be active for a long time. Is it frowned upon or does it look bad if I use my personal Gmail account for contact information?

Thank you for all your help!

What options do I have for publishing in an open way without expensive costs?

This is highly field-dependent, but there may possibly exist journals out there which will publish open-access for free. In my field it's common for papers to be embargoed for 6 months or a year, and then made open access, but again this varies from journal to journal and from field to field.

  However, since ArXiv is not a journal, would it be considered incorrect or misleading to call my paper a publication if I were to post it there?

Yes. The correct term for a paper that has been posted on the arXiv is "pre-print". This is not the same thing as a publication. To call your paper a publication it needs to have been published in a (reputable) journal i.e. to have gone through the peer review process.

  Is it frowned upon or does it look bad if I use my personal Gmail account for contact information?

This would be pretty unusual, and as a reader I would think twice about the legitimacy of the work if a personal email address was attached-- in fact (I may be wrong on this) but I believe you need an academic email address e.g. name@place.edu or name@place.ac.uk to submit to arXiv in the first place.

My advice: talk to your line manager at the company and make a case for publishing the work. It seems strange to me that they have had you write this paper but won't support publishing it.

I think it's also a good idea to talk to a member of academic staff in your university department if you can-- all the better if their area of expertise is related to your paper. Ask their advice about publication in your field. It may even be worth asking if they have time to read over the manuscript draft and provide some feedback.


Conducting a Podcast with A Star Researcher In Our Field I am doing a podcast on a voluntary basis with researchers in our field! I have been asked to try to reach the X star researcher in our field who is highly respected in the field. I feel excited, however, I am afraid that podcast could not go well which could leave a bad impression, the podcast would be through Skype, so I don't know how to start breaking the ice before the interview. I prefer to be in person, but in that case, Skype is the only option.

The question: How can I break the ice before the podcasting interview with a star researcher? I am afraid to do counterproductive actions that could affect my career due to the fact that we already in a very small research field.

I have only been on one podcast, but in my experience there was very little ice breaking. They just confirmed a few pieces of information they wanted to make sure they got right during the interview, made sure I was aware of the audience and goal length of time for the interview, and then we jumped right into recording.

Similarly, when I have interviewed people for my class (I do video interviews with people in the field), I don’t do any real socializing beforehand. We may say a few small pleasantries, but we jump right into the work of preparing and creating the video content.

If you do feel like you need a warm-up question, “what inspired this line of work/this paper?” is always nice.


How can people with debilitating social phobias get through foreign language? I almost didn't get my BS degree because I have never successfully tolerated a foreign language course. My most recent attempt was no exception. I paced about in front of the building trying unsuccessfully to force myself to enter the classroom. Surely this represents a severe defect of my character, but I maintain that an alternate teaching strategy would make success possible for someone like me. An extreme social phobia of this type is rare (<2%). There will never be a house reform because those who gravitate to teaching language are extroverted, and communication is a social activity. so there is little basis for empathy. This is something that I need to figure out, because I learned that the math PhD program requires fourth-semester proficiency. I am sure that the masses love this ubiquitous type of social teaching philosophy, and that the best way to handle statistical anomalies is to tell them to "get over themselves" and "get with the program". This is what I have tried to do, so much against my nature. Language is the only department where this is a problem for me. The format is always the same.

How can someone with a debilitating social phobia get through a foreign language course?

First, social phobia is not a character defect. It is a recognized medical condition. You are not worth less as a human being if you suffer from a phobia.

Next, depending on your school, you may be able to get a medical exemption from certain requirements. You may want to discuss this with your local student services. (By email if meeting people in person is impossible to you.)

However, I would strongly advise against this approach. You will need to interact with people after leaving college, too, so avoiding the problem is not a good strategy in the long run. Instead, I would recommend that you actively work on this issue.

The good news is that social phobia is very amenable to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The accepted form of therapy is a desensitization approach, where you will progressively learn to tolerate being around people.

No, this will not be easy. You will need to work on your disability. You will encounter setbacks. But your student services should again be able to point you towards resources and therapists that can help you. And there is no better time for doing this therapy than now, when you have a more-or-less flexible schedule, and before you hit the job market, where social phobia will be an enormous problem - regardless of which career you want to pursue.

Good luck!


Do statements giving background about a problem require proper citation? Say I am starting a paper, with the purpose of showing my work to some professors internally at my department for some high-level feedback - with no plans for it to be published at the moment, but more to be kept as a project and perhaps earn a letter of recommendation for it - and I describe the problem in almost exactly the same way as some earlier papers do; e.g., I want to briefly describe both its theoretical and computability issues, and then give some examples of diverse applications of the problem in the sciences.

Does this introductory page of writing need any citation at all?  Does saying stuff like, "this is a problem that has challenged mathematicians for over half a century" or... "the computability of the matrix, given only partial spectral data quickly becomes intractable in higher dimensions..." need citation?

I describe the problem in almost exactly the same way as some earlier papers.

If your description of the problem is based on the description in another paper, then you have to cite that paper. If your description is not based on another paper, but is such a standard thing, obvious to any expert in the field, that you have naturally written it in a similar way to other papers, then the following applies:

Statements like

  this is a problem that has challenged mathematicians for over half a century

or

  the computability of the matrix, given only partial spectral data quickly becomes intractable in higher dimensions

can benefit from citation(s). Not necessarily to avoid plagiarism - if you don't include citations, you're probably not misleading anyone into thinking it's an original contribution - but to support the statements with evidence.

Statements giving background about a problem often benefit from citations  because without evidence, the reader might not be convinced of the truth of the statement. (Or, even if we know our audience will agree with the statement, we sometimes cite evidence to show that we know the evidence.)

To some degree, this depends on conventions in your field, though.

In some fields, statements like the ones above would typically be supported by citations to a handful of papers that either directly support the statement with evidence, or show that other experts in the field agree with this statement and have made similar statements themselves.
In other fields, the standard is to only cite things you really use, and in that case you probably wouldn't cite anything in this situation.

You can look for some high-quality published papers on topics similar to yours to get a sense of what the convention is in your field. If in doubt: cite.


How to motivate speakers to give less specialized talks at a "colloquium?" Our applied math department is beginning to have a serious attendance problem at our colloquium. The appropriate level for our colloquium is that any person with an undergraduate degree in a quantitative/theoretical field should be able to follow the talk as long as they are paying close attention.

In an invitation letter to our speakers, who are mostly faculty members at other Universities in a variety of fields but also include some faculty at our university, we say

  "Your talk should be entirely self contained. You can assume the audience is mathematically mature and has a solid understanding of undergraduate real analysis and linear algebra but do not assume any prior knowledge in physics, biology or more specialized mathematics. Of course feel free to talk about such topics, just be sure to explain all basic concepts needed to follow the rest of the presentation as soon as they come up."

Despite this warning, speakers go on, as usual, giving seminar level talks. Graduate students and the few advanced undergraduates that used to attend have basically stopped attending, which looks bad on our department, and lowers graduate student morale. Note the target audience is not undergrads. The target audience is first year grad students (and up) and faculty from many different quantitative fields.

I think part of the problem is that speakers assume applied math means "The math done in my field of research". They don't understand despite us linking to our graduate student's list of research interests in the email that applied math is extremely broad. Some researchers will have never taken probability theory or optimization and some who work in theoretical computer science haven't studied a differential equation since their sophomore years of college. And science backgrounds outside of math will be even broader.

Besides adding the request in our email, that the talk not be too technical, is there anyway to prevent speakers from giving talks that are too specialized or advanced?

One important thing to do is to be more choosey about inviting speakers who you know are capable of presenting to a broad audience.  Some people will never give an accessible talk, no matter what you do.  Others are good at speaking to a broad audience.  Some good ways to find such speakers:

People who do cross-disciplinary work are often really good at this, since they are generally used to speaking to non-specialists (i.e., people who are specialists in the other disciplines that they work with).
Look for people who have recent survey publications which are broadly accessible, or who have had recent articles or other publications in the popular media.
If you go to conferences and workshops, look for people who give accessible talks, even to a specialist audience.  The best speakers will always frame their work accessibly, even when the meat of it is extremely specialized.

Once you have invited a speaker, make the speaker give you a full abstract, as well as a title.  If the abstract is getting too technical, it's a bad sign for the talk.  Send it back with request for revision to attract a broader audience.  This can help people adjust expectations, though you can never prevent a speaker from speaking badly once they've begun.

If you feel brave, you might even explicitly challenge your speakers more in the information that you send them.  My favorite series that I have ever been involved in organizing was the "Seminar on Dangerous Ideas" that I helped create when I was a graduate student, and which ran for about five years.  This seminar was really trying to push people outside the box, and one of the ways we did it was to ask the speakers to address "the five questions",  which included things like "Why should I fear your research?" and "What should I tell my mom about it?"  Many of the best talks that I have ever heard were in this series, because the challenges that we gave were able to create an atmosphere in which academics felt safe to say things they otherwise would not.

You'll also need to work to revive your existing seminar series.  A good way to do that is to line up several speakers in a row who you are certain will have broad appeal and be able to give a good talk.


How to cite a complex web-based resource? I want to cite the IUPAC Compendium of of Chemical Terminology - Gold Book in ACS reference style (American Chemical Society). This resource is not just a web page and the ACS reference guide doesn't provide a style for this kind of web resource. On the other hand, the IUPAC Gold book provides a citation style under "Cite as" on individual pages.
What should I do? Cite as is given under "Cite as" or cite it as a single web page?

If a resource tells you how it wants to be cited, cite it that way.


Research faculty I would like to work with not in my department I'm currently in the process of applying to graduate schools for admission into a graduate program in Computer Science. However, in a particular university that I would like to apply to, labs dealing with the specialization that I would like to work with belong to another department in the university and do not seem to involve faculty in the Computer Science department.

Now, when I write my Statement of Purpose for an admission into the Computer Science department, would it be considerate for me to mention my interest in working with these faculty outside the Computer Science department or must I restrict myself to those faculty and research labs under the purview of the Computer Science department in that university?

Is it possible even for me to be denied an admission if these faculty I'd like to work with and mention about in my statement do not belong to the Computer Science department?

Yes, it can hurt your chances of admission if your application focuses on a desire to work with people in a different department.  It's fine if you list some people in other departments, for example if they collaborate frequently with members of the department you're applying to (or even if they don't, provided they aren't the sole focus of your application).  However, you don't want to submit an application that looks like it's a substantially better fit for another department.  You might still get admitted if your application is strong enough, but there's a real risk someone on the admissions committee will try to make room for another candidate by declaring that you really belong in the other department.

This generally isn't a problem if you take it into account while planning.  If the best advisors for you are all in applied math or operations research, say, then you can apply to those departments in addition to computer science.  The only tricky case is if your advisor works on two very different things, one of which falls into the other department while the other is more traditional computer science, and you want to do the latter.  In that case you should explain in your statement of purpose why the computer science department would be a better place for you despite your choice of advisor.


Avenues to collaborate with PHD students / professors while working What are some of the best ways\avenues to collaborate with PHD students\professors to do research and publish in conferences\journals in the field of software engineering.

Do students\professors encourage people reaching out to them on cold emails, if they are interested in their research?
Do we write a draft a research paper and reach out for collaboration\peer review?
Are there academic meetups where we can meet people informally to discuss and work with them on interest?
Are students\professors interested in the practical industry experience of the field and collaborate on publishing books, articles on tech blogs ?

Is it better to enroll into a part-time PHD, if you are interested in research but have the family financial responsibilities on you?
What are some good online, part-time PHD programs that are good and provide the flexibility to work during the course?

This is certainly field specific, but in general there are few straightforward fora where someone who is simply interested in research in general can collaborate with a PhD student or academic. Such collaborations occur and often the results are amazing, but they tend to arise more organically than a cold email.

Thus to answer your penultimate question: yes becoming an academic yourself is the best way to collaborate with academics and do academic research. As for finding a programme that is right for you, that's another kettle of fish and you should be looking for researchers who work in the area you wish to enter and consider them as possible supervisors: that's research for you to do.


Is it ok to start looking for other postdoc positions? I'm currently doing the first year of my postdoc. My contract is coming up for renewal in a few months and my PI has asked what my plans are for next year. I told him that I was hoping to stay in his lab for at least another year, but he's told me he can't yet guarantee my contract will be renewed.
I've heard from other people in the lab that my PI normally holds off from confirming that he'll renew your contract until the last minute, where he'll then try to add some extra clauses in the contract that demand the postdoc to complete certain projects or papers by a certain date.
I'm relatively confident that my PI is intending to renew my contract, as he's pushing me to write some grants that would start next year.
But as he can't promise anything yet, is it ok for me to start looking for other postdoc positions in case he doesn't renew my contract? If so, should I let him know that I'm looking for other roles?
Thanks!

Actually, it sounds like it is essential for you to to look for alternatives. It is improper for the PI to hold you in jeopardy and he should be more clear.
But your career is at risk if you just "hope for the best". You also need to "plan for the worst". It is more than OK.
Whether you let him know or not is a matter of your judgement of his personality. But it might be fine to say (a) I'd love to stay, but (b) I recognize it may not be possible and need a backup.


How can editors and reviewers detect data manipulation? I am preparing a paper in the field of Computer Science.

In order to report test results, we usually run a number of tests and report the average of those tests.

For each test, we generate random data.

Because of the randomness, at some points, the results may come out not as expected.

For instance, a graph may be like:

Usually, one should explain why on points 8, 11 and 12 there is a decrease on the plot.
Probably, it is because of that randomness.

Not hand-crafting all the graph, but just manipulating a few points makes the graph acceptable:

Since three weeks or so, I work my ass off and try to figure out why my resulting graph looks like the first one. Sometimes I feel like yielding to temptation and just modify the raw data before I go crazy.

I believe, at this point the title became misleading, so let me make it clear:

I am not seeking an advice on data manipulation. I will not manipulate my data. However, I ask to myself "how the hell this can be detected?"

And now, I don't only ask to myself, but to whole community. How is this detected? For editors, referees out there, have you ever detected something like this?

The image manipulations reported on Retraction Watch are most of the time naive collages of gel photographs or spectrograms. They get caught, among other things, because repeating patterns in the noise appear on closer inspection, or linear disruption of the noise are visible, see this.

For 1D data, the case you mention, there is the Benford's law and other statistical tests that can indicate potential manipulation of data. It usually relies on human beings preferring certain digits over others, even unconsciously, thus generating data that has a non-random variability.

Also, many journals ask for graphs to be submitted in vector format, which means you are actually sending the data points, and not just a rendered figure. Things like editing out a few data points to smooth a curve will be apparent.

Now, to the best of my knowledge publishers and, even less so, reviewers don't systematically screen for these things, they only do so if they have suspicions, because the scientific publishing process is based on good faith. But if the paper gets any sort of attention it will get caught by post publication review.

Don't fabricate/manipulate data. It's adding unwanted noise to an already noisy signal, it's dishonest towards your coworkers, the people who fund you, the publisher and the readership, and it will ruin your career.


Does how I got my understanding of an article need to be cited? Forgive me if this is a stupid question, but I just want to make sure that I’m taking the appropriate steps; I’m a student in University, and I write a lot of essays/reviews throughout the year. I like taking breaks and reading fictional stories to relax, but of course my brain sort of travels a lot to various different places, which includes school related tasks. I wanted to take a break from trying to understand one particular article that I was reviewing, and I only fully realized how the article’s thesis related to its conclusion while I was in the middle of reading one story (I had stopped to process it and I was about to go back into it again). However, it wouldn’t make sense to reference the story in my review, since I didn’t take any information from it, correct?

Definitely no. I think you know this, but for the benefit of future readers of this post: The purpose of a citation is not to provide a diary of the author's thought process, but rather to acknowledge the prior work done before yours and trace the logic and evidence from which your work follows. It helps no one to know what story you were reading, or whether you had a particularly nice breakfast that stimulated your thoughts. Save it for your blog or your memoirs.


I missed the PhD application deadline, what now? I missed the PhD application deadline (Physics), and apart from applying late, what can I do if I get no position and I have to wait another year?

I would like to keep doing what I was doing for the Master thesis, and so spend a good amount of time staying in research somehow, so I won't feel like I'm wasting my time. Are there some alternative paths to follow?

Some universities will let you  take classes as an un-matriculated student. But you need some (personal) funding for this.

Some laboratories might hire you as a low level lab technician or assistant. This would give you some funding and a bit of experience.

Either of the above can give you contacts that might be useful in the future.

In the rarer case, you might be able to do both. Hire on at a university lab that also lets you take a few courses as a perk.


COVID-19 anxiety's impact to my output: any strategies for mitigation? In the COVID-19 pandemic I am dealing with anxiety for the first time, and professionally floundering.
I'm usually good at prioritization, but the state of the world means emergencies, and anxiety magnifies the perception that I am the only person who can deal with them. Sometimes I am: I have high-risk family, have lost care for them, and my university is not making safety-centered decisions very well. I am joined by other new-anxious in not being able to buy safe help: parents of young children, colleagues with disabilities, and anyone who has family sick with COVID, many of whom are wondering where precisely the buck stops, except with themselves... My normal support circles are broken or only available over Zoom, which is less helpful than in-person access. Sleep, for many reasons, is now hard for me, yet vital zoom meetings happen at every hour. Compounding this, large projects I committed to in January are now much more difficult to finish, and past due.
Deadlines are deadlines, students get helped or they don't, grants forgone today add uncertainty to an already complex tomorrow. The law provides protections, but won't help with tenure cases, or provide funds to keep students fed. My field and academe in general are trending more competitive, not less. I am usually quite productive, publishing multiple papers a year, writing grants, etc. I am doing the 'right things': I exercise daily, have a therapist, am exploring meds, and have taken up meditation. I am lucky to be in the hands of good care, but that care is often stymied by the culture of academe. "No one you can delegate that to?" asks my therapist.
It does not help that those above me in the chain of command are largely uncomfortable with the idea of mental health, full stop. Advice to 'pull together, 'buck up', and 'chill out' has come, along with signaling that mental health is outside the preview of academe. This is even as they show their own symptoms of great stress. While industry settings often have clear ways to handle mental health situations, my institution has no such resources for faculty and staff. Academic settings also have less 'chain of authority' to directly assist individuals. "Talk to your boss" is not necessarily sound advice. 'HR' is not a useful resource either.
I am specifically looking for academe-focused strategies to cope and potentially even better succeed, with this anxiety. I am Jr. Faculty in one role, Staff in another, highly autonomous in both, at the same institution. Most of my commitments are to individuals outside of my department. I do not see this all 'ending' soon.
Those with anxiety pre-pandemic: do you have strategies I might try? How does one prioritize and strategize when everything is on fire? Can anxiety in fact be a superpower when applied correctly in academe?
Everyone: are there there things I should do to minimize impact on my academic career? I need to stay competitive with individuals who are younger and have less complexity than I do, as we will be evaluated equally.

I expect research output overall to be down this year into next. Surely some people will cope better than others, and different types of research are more or less directly impacted (e.g., that requiring solo work at a computer, versus that requiring access to shared facilities that may be/have been closed, versus that requiring face-to-face contact with human subjects). Others will have additional direct challenges to their time: childcare may be closed and children may be learning from home rather than school, for example.
@paulgarrett's comment is exactly what I was thinking of as an answer:

A small point: forgive yourself (as opposed to judging...) in this situation. It is crazy. To accidentally pretend that things are not crazy will obvs make you more crazy. My advice would be "cope with the bad current state, and wait to think about things later..."

...except I think this is the main point rather than a small one.
Besides that, it sounds like you're trying all the right things (eh, maybe not the booze, but if it does help you relax and if it's in moderation and not purely as medication then there's little harm).
I think the most "solvable" problem you have (or, at least, one I can provide some advice on) is this part:

Compounding all this, I accepted several large projects in January which are now past due. (...) Writing, especially, is very difficult, which puts me further behind, which leads to more anxiety.

You're probably best off doing some prioritization (from @avid's comment: "What actually needs to be done by when? Can projects be reorganised to be more achievable? Can deadlines/deliverables be re-negotiated? Try and focus on completing one task/project at a time") and scheduling. There is no way you can make up for weeks of reduced productivity in an instant. Instead of worrying about everything you need to do (a circumstance I find myself in often; not new to COVID for me), set an immediate-term schedule for yourself.
The granularity might be something you experiment with, but try to set specific, achieveable goals for the next week, the next day, or the next hour. Do your best to meet them, but don't beat yourself up if you don't. Reevaluate your progress the next time you set goals. Try to focus on what you've accomplished.
It may be helpful to tier your short-term goals into:

Things you will accomplish (today/this week) no matter what (except emergency, of course)

Things you reasonably expect to accomplish

Goals to aim for in an ideal world

Probably the things you slot into "3" might look like a normal week for you pre-pandemic, or even far less than normal, and that's fine. Focus on making bits of progress on your projects that you can feel good about. Be prepared to have days and weeks where you only accomplish the tasks under (1), then forgive yourself for not doing more, remind yourself you've at least achieved your personal minimum, and move on.
In closing, though, and echoing Paul: forgive yourself, you're under a lot of very understandable stress in a crazy time.


What exactly does one do in a PhD? I am a first year undergraduate student pursuing a B.S. in Chemistry (I'm very much interested in Biology too), and I am new to this world of Academia. It would be very helpful if someone could answer my questions.

What exactly does one do in a PhD? I know that in the first year, you take a lot of advanced courses on your specific field of study, and then you decide on a topic and start researching. But when do you stop? I see that there is no definite time limit for completing a PhD. It can be anywhere from two years to... is there an upper limit? Do you complete a PhD when you have discovered something new and published a paper on it?

I realise a lot of what I'm saying might be my own ideas of what happens. Please feel free to correct me.

To answer some of your questions, a lot of this will vary from university to university, and vary by location.

One major aspect is to determine your research focus as early as possible and plan long and medium term objectives, and how these objectives are to be met at the beginning, in consultation with your advisors (that is the advice I was given).

Duration

There is usually an upper limit of how long a student can take to complete the dissertation, and it is generally expected that the research, experiments, dissertation write up is performed within the time frame dictated by the university.  Note, the length of time taken to complete the PhD is not necessarily a measure of how credible it is. (I completed my PhD in Physics in 2.5 years).

Papers are often published in consultation between you and your advisor(s).  But, during my PhD I was advised that it is a good idea to get some publications completed while you are studying (I completed 4 while completing the research).

Courses

This varies between universities and places, for example, I was not required to take any courses whatsoever - just pure research.  That is something you will need to check with any university you apply to.

I did my PhD while working full time in an unrelated field, so I arranged regular (fortnightly) Skype meetings with my advisors, where short term goals were set and the medium and long term goals checked up on.

As you are doing sciences by the looks of it, it will involve a considerable amount of experimentation (potentially) - some of it can be tedious, make sure you plan and get into that as soon as possible, while ensuring you get the most accurate possible data in a safe and efficient manner.

Completion

You complete your research when you have met your objectives and have, through research and experimentation, 'answered' your research focus.

What happens then varies between universities, some you will be expected to defend your thesis, and some, as in my case, your thesis is peer-reviewed.  Once all that is done and your advisors and the university are satisfied, you will be told that you have passed (in my case, I received a letter stating as such).

But, the research never really ends, once you have that passion for that topic - you may find that the research continues, but now to be published as papers (this also has been my experience).  Find a topic that ignites the fire in you and you'll find that the PhD is just the start of the journey.

Finally and critically, make sure what you are doing is something that you find fascinating, something that you won't mind putting in many hours of research and work into.  Choose something that is either your passion or something related to it.  Get ready to challenge yourself on a regular basis.

I hope this helps.


Apply for two different Ph.D. positions at same group? Currently, I am applying for several Ph.D. positions. I have seen two interesting positions from the same group/professor. The requirements for both positions are really similar but the topics are different (but same field). Since there are not that many positions within my field, I considered applying for both positions, but I wonder what the professor might think? The documents (CV, cover letter ...) would be the same and he might think I just copy & paste my applications.
Should I contact him before? What could I say?

Personally, I would prefer to get one application in which you clearly indicate that you are interested in both of these and also showing your qualifications for them both.
But I don't know what rules there might be at the institution you are applying to or what constraints the PI might be under. So, it would be best to ask first and see what advice you get. It isn't outside the realm of possibility that the PI is delegating the examination of the applications to others for initial assessment.
Alternatively, prepare applications for each separately and when you submit them, do so with a note that you are interested and qualified for both and that the two applications have overlap in some ways.


Should you include press interviews and articles about your work in your CV? Is it appropriate to include interviews (published online or in print magazines) in an academic CV?

What about articles/news published about your works? I mean brief (one paragraph) news that professional magazines publish about significant research articles.

If yes, how do you do this to avoid exaggeration?

It depends, but yes, I would include media exposure in a long form CV. This could be advantageous for grant applications, because it might be an evidence that you can generate a higher impact.

For each media exposure, just put one line as a citation format. If you have more than 10 such items, select only the higher impact ones, and merge ones with similar content.

Alternatively, you can put it is a footnote to your relevant publication.


Stuctured vs Individual German doctoral program I am looking for a Ph.D. in a German-speaking country in Europe.
I am looking at some possible institutes for applying on Ph.D. program.
Some offer "individual" and some "structured" doctoral programs, and some offer both.

My situation is that I do not come from academic environment, which means that I don't have contact with any potential supervisor. I guess that if you go directly from Master to Phd (in academic environment), you should have thesis subject, which means you apply for Individual doctorate.
Instead, I am coming from industrial environment, and I don't have yet thesis subject. I completed my Masters 2 years ago, and left academic circles.

My question is: why choose one of "structured" or "individual" over the other?
I believe that structured is "easier" if you don't have potential supervisor or thesis subject, but I would appreciate guidance from those who know this system better.

I think there are some basic misunderstandings here to clear up.

You do not necessarily have to have a pre-conceived thesis topic to do a PhD with an individual faculty member at an academic institution in Germany, particularly if you're in the sciences or engineering. This can actually be counterproductive, since usually the faculty member will have funding for a student to work on project X. If you're not interested in working on project X, you're not going to be a good fit for the project, whether or not you had a topic in advance or not.
Having a pre-existing relationship with a potential advisor is useful, but not necessary for a project. Often times, they will be looking for the best individual candidate if no "internal" candidate is available.

The primary difference between "structured" and "individual" programs is that the structured programs tend to be a cluster of related PhD projects with a similar infrastructure holding things together, and potentially a different funding mechanism than traditional individual projects. There may also be some differences in the required duties outside of research (for example, there may be reduced teaching requirements, or even none at all). However, in terms of the long-range benefits, there is essentially no difference, except for listing a special program in addition to the faculty where your PhD was awarded. From a functional standpoint, the degree you'll get will be essentially identical.


Is it a good idea that a reviewer recommend a paper to be submitted to another journal after it is rejected? I am currently reviewing a paper, which is definitely not suitable for the journal where it was submitted (high impact, topics should be interesting for a broad audience). The content is not new and in this current state not sufficient for publication at all.

I would now recommend rejection with reference to some literature which covers the same results.
I would suggest some more detailed experiments for the authors, to quantify their results and then submit it to a journal with a more narrow focus.

Here my questions: Is it ok, if I write a precise journal, like

  I recommend to submit a revised manuscript to Journal XYZ, which is
  more focused on the authors' topic.

or should I write;

  I recommend to submit a revised manuscript to another journal, which
  is more focused on the authors' topic.

It's definitely OK to name one or a few journals you would consider more appropriate for this paper. Some web interfaces for reviewers even have that as a built-in option.

One thing I encourage you to do is to use the journal's publication criteria to back up your opinion. These may have been given to you along with the paper, or they can be found on the journal's website. If, for example, the journal X's guidelines say:

  Articles should be of high scientific quality, originality, significance, and conceptual novelty that are of interest to the wide and diverse contemporary readership of X

then it's good practice, in your recommendation to the editor, to evaluate the manuscript following these criteria. For example, you could say:

  The manuscript is technically and methodologically sound, and clearly written. The conclusions are, in large part (minor exceptions noted below), supported by the results. However, it seems to me that this detailed study of knee injuries sustained in wingsuit accidents may not be of interest to many of the reader of The International Journal of Transportation Research.


How to Help Commuter Student with problems at home How do I help a student being controlled by his parents? He has a lot of potential but his parents give him projects over schoolwork and discourage him. What role can I play in helping the student?

Don't get between the student and the parents. That's a complicated and stormy dynamic and [you] can't do anything but harm there.

You may not like it, but it's really not something to get involved in.


Remove author identifying information and resubmit. Is it too much time 2 weeks later? I submitted a manuscript to a Taylor & Francis journal. Three days later they asked me to remove author identifying information from the anonymous manuscript before they could send it for review, I think they were referring to a self-citation. I resubmitted the manuscript 2 weeks later, and this time I didn't receive a confirmation e-mail. The status of "submitted to journal" hasn't changed for six days. Is there something wrong resumitting the manuscript 2 weeks later just to remove author identifying information? Is it too much time for "submitted to journal" status?

Is there something wrong resumitting the manuscript 2 weeks later just to remove author identifying information?

No, I don't see anything wrong with that.  It's not an unusual amount of time for any academic to take to do anything, and it's not like anybody would have been inconvenienced by the time taken.  They just wouldn't do anything with the manuscript in the meantime.  And it would be really stupid of a journal to reject a potentially valuable paper just because the author took some time to complete an administrative chore.

  Is [six days] too much time for "submitted to journal" status?

See above: it's not unusual for any academic to take more than six days to respond to anything.  It's possible that they just haven't gotten to it yet, or that they are working on the paper but haven't updated the status in the system.  (See also What does the typical workflow of a journal look like?)

I would say that if you have not seen any updates after another 1-2 weeks, it would be reasonable to contact the editor and ask if they successfully received your revised manuscript.


Is it worth going to preview event for accepted students? I've been admitted as a grad student to a US university. There's a preevent for admitted students, which seems to be a weekend of introductions and minor social events (I don't have that much information yet).

Is it worth traveling from Europe to such an event? Do you have a feeling for how important these events are for building social relations with students/faculty?

If by "admitted (accepted)" you really mean "those who accepted their offer," it's just a nice, welcoming gesture. During course work, you'll work so closely with and next to your future fellow students that you needn't worry about falling behind socially if you don't attend.

If people have been admitted but still weigh offers from different schools, it's a marketing event in which faculty and current students will try to present their program - and the campus it's on, and the city and state it's in - in their best light. While it would certainly be nice to get to know other prospects, it is probably more helpful to use such events to get a feel for how you might get along with professors and such, and if the city is too busy - or not busy enough - for your taste.

If you're not rich with extra time to spare, it's probably only necessary to fly in from Europe if it's case 2, and you have genuine questions or concerns. These can be nice events, but I'd think twice before flying for 6-10 hours each way on your own money - as long as you can't combine it with a longer vacation or so.


Is it okay to ask prospective supervisor to recommend some article to read before joining his group for PhD? A few days ago, I received my offer letter to join the Ph.D. program. I was about to inform my prospective supervisor (via e-mail) that I have received this letter from the graduate office. I will be joining the program in August 2019.

I don't want to waste my 4 months. Is it okay if I ask my supervisor to recommend me some articles/topics to read in these four months?

Yes, definitely ask for some recommended reading! In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if your new supervisor suggests some papers to you even without prompting (mine did). As mentioned in the comments, supervisors are generally pleased when their students show an interest in the topic and want to learn more. You can look at some recent papers by your supervisor to get an idea of where to start, too.


How long does it usually take for published articles to show up on Google Scholar? The title pretty much says it all - what's the typical delay with which Google Scholar indexes newly published articles? (Note I'm not talking about citations, but about the article showing up at all.)

Edit: the article in question went for over six months after being published (in a well-regarded Springer journal with its own Wikipedia page) without appearing on Google Scholar, until it received a citation, at which point it was added to Google Scholar almost immediately. One more motivation to write papers that get cited. :)

Edit 2: Another article in an even more mainstream journal took a little over seven weeks.

My article showed up in a few days. Since google is crawling, I believe (although I am not certain), that updating other sources such as policy, government, medical repositories and other resource hubs that allow you to update fields, add links etc, without needing to upload the article, increases the external links with the article page. This might not be necessary to expedite the process, but if the article is not showing up within the normal period of time (which could be a week), I believe this would be a good step to take. This advice also applies for anything else such as websites and blogs. Actually my repository link showed up in google before the actual journal page did!


How should you address academic colleagues in the United States? Is the "Prof" title necessary? I've recently been hired as an assistant professor and will be starting this fall.  As I'm beginning to be included on departmental e-mail and in certain decisions, I'm starting to interact (at least via e-mail) with my colleagues.  How should I address them?  As a graduate student and postdoc, I've always addressed faculty as Prof. X unless I was already very familiar with them or unless they've told me to do otherwise.  Is it strange to continue to do this as a professor?  I don't want to be disrespectful, but at the same time it feels a little stuffy to continually refer to everyone as Prof. X until they suggest I do otherwise.

In the US, you generally address colleagues of a similar status by their first names—so your fellow faculty members would definitely be addressed informally. This would of course extend to collaborators and acquaintances in other departments.

I think the only exception to this would be in the case of formal communications—an official memorandum or letter from a faculty member to someone in the university administration, for instance. But otherwise, in any oral or informal written correspondence, I'd stick to first names.

(In other countries, follow the appropriate local traditions, as they may be very different from US standards.)


Wordiness of paper titles in life and medical science journals I do research in the life and medical sciences. If I want to publish in one of the major journals (Cell, Nature *, etc.), would I have to confine a title to something short and snappy, or can I be more verbose so that my title conveys better the output of the research?

For example, is this sort of structure:

XXX and YYY are AAA and BBB in PPP and QQQ, respectively

too wordy?

PD. I'm not sure if this was the right forum on the stackexchange network, so please feel free to suggest some other site to post.

When I wrote my first paper, I read this book about scientific writing: "Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words" by David Lindsay.

The author of the book highlighted that article title should be as explicit on the content of the article as possible, as it is the first element any potential reader will read. As today the amount of available articles is growing faster, the skimming step in the article research is becoming more and more important and a good, self-explanatory title is therefore a key element in article "success".

As an example, the author strongly discourage the use of non-explicit title such as:

  XXX as an effect on YYY

and advice to use something more like:

  Increase in XXX induce a decrease in YYY

which directly tells the reader what is the article about and the what is its main finding.

In conclusion, do not be afraid of wordy title.


Value of contributions to Wikipedia when applying for academic jobs The quality of articles in Wikipedia has grown tremendously in the last few years. A "good article" requires a big list of necessities, including coherence, readability, comprehensiveness and credible references. As such contributing technical articles requires academic merit, good explaining skills and mastery of the subject.

How much value is being accorded to doctorates' contributions to Wikipedia during faculty recruitment?
Since, on paper, a Wikipedia article should exposit an article lucidly to a (relative) fresher in the field, can Wikipedia contributions be taken as a partial measure of one's teaching abilities?
How effectively could one list his/her Wikipedia contributions?

I have never heard of any weight given to contributing to Wikipedia for any aspects of academic evaluation. I personally wouldn't attach any weight to it either, especially given that many articles have a long history of edits and figuring out exactly who contributed what can be difficult.

If you want to include this on your CV or similar, I would mention it under "Misc." or "Other" or something like that. If you have made significant contributions to other similar sites (e.g. stackoverflow) I would put that into the same paragraph. I would definitely avoid trying to make it appear as one of the major things you have done. Wikipedia is regarded rather suspiciously in general because it can be an unreliable source. While contributing to it could be a bonus, it won't be a significant one.


How to motivate students to take a "gauge" test that helps us with statistics but does not contribute to their grade? I am TA-ing for a college class of general physics with currently ~60 enrolled students. We initially (at the beginning of each semester) give them the FCI test ("force concept inventory") that gauges their knowledge/intuition of forces and underlying Newton's laws, and then we repeatedly issue the test at the end of the semester to gain some statistics of how much they learned during the class. The goal is to have some standardized test that probes the gain of knowledge during the semester, so judging just by the final or midterm is not possible (as those cover different topics in physics each time). The test is usually not incentivized by any points or grade at the beginning of the class, so the incentive to take it at the end is a question we face every time.
They know this test doesn't contribute to their grades, so not anyone might feel compelled to take it (this is somewhat similar to the course evaluations). However, for the statistics to be accurate, all those still enrolled should take it. Consider:

if only a part of the class takes the test, the statistics might be skewed
if only students who feel strong in physics take it, this would skew the test upward
if only those who are weaker in physics take it, it skewes the results downward

We might need to somehow incentivize taking this test, but all solutions that initially seem like a no-brainer, might create a new problem:

providing small amount of bonus points toward the final grade for participation might incentivize it to students who are doing bad in the class, while those who are doing great (well within the range to get an A) might decide to pass, thus removing the best outliers and skewing the results downward

providing small amount of bonus points just for the participation might make people take it, but not take it seriously, i.e. totally invalidating the results of the test

I thought of maybe issuing the test during a normal class time, but this seems to me like cheating the students into taking it

appealing by our needs to get this important statistics that will help the future students yada yada, can motivate better students into it, but maybe the most disgruntled, overwhelmed and/or tired students might just decide to skip it, skewing the statistics upward.

What should be the wording of an announcement reminding them of this test to get most of the students to take it while not make anyone feel like it's okay to skip it or not take it seriously?

I have always seen this done not by issuing bonus points, but by issuing required points for taking the test, e.g. taking each test is work 5% of your grade. The poor students will do it for the free points, and the good students will do it to keep their grade up.
Don't be too focused on "statistical validity." You're trying to reflect on your teaching, not publish a paper. You can look at who took the test(s) and how well they did, whether there was a bias in who self-selected. After all if the strongest students went from 0.8 to 0.95  on how good they were, there is not much room to examine your teaching: a ceiling effect. You will find room for improvement in  whether you are helping the weaker students effectively. They will respond for bonus points.


Style of Publications chapter of PhD thesis I am writing my PhD thesis currently, and I am wondering about examples of the style for the list of publications (by myself).

I should mention, that my thesis is the classical type meaning a monogram, not just my publications stapled together with some filling, which has become common in some places. I expect around 150 pages in all (field is physics, for reference).

The work that has been published is already included in the thesis in one chapter per publication (plus other chapters of course, for methodology, introduction etc).
The list of publications would be an appendix.

I am using the Arsclassica style, and doing it similarly to the Publications chapter used in ClassicThesis, see page 9 in the ClassicThesis pdf.

It looks nice, but I also heard that some people also include the front page of each publication as a figure or similar. Does anyone have examples of that, or ways to implement it nicely?

From the answers/comments I can conclude, and totally agree, that since it's so flexible, it probably doesn't matter much. I was just looking for different options/inspiration.

If the guidelines are flexible and your advisor has not provided you with specific guidance, then I think you can conclude that it really does not matter.  Including a list of your own publications is not a universal requirement for a thesis anyway.  Look at some past theses from students in your program, and  do something similar.

The reality would seem to be that it doesn't much matter how you format things.  If the thesis examiners want to look up your original publications, any format that makes them clear should be fine.  I have never had trouble looking at a student's original research papers, with or without a dedicated section listing them.


Drawbacks of making public which journal a manuscript is submitted to, while it is under review? Many researchers list out their submitted manuscripts on their website. Some specify the journal name, like

  Smith J, Oliver J (under review) My awesome paper. Nature.

while others don't, like

  Smith J, Oliver J (under review) My awesome paper.

One reason I can think of as to why some don't mention the journal name is that they may get embarrassed in the case where the current journal rejects the paper. Then, the "circle" will know this paper gets rejected from Nature first and then ends up in an inferior journal.

Besides this, are there any other considerations preventing people from mentioning to which journal they submit a paper to?

P.S.: I am asking because my advisor is a researcher who only mentions accepted  papers on his webpage. As a student hunting jobs, I feel it is advantageous for me to mention my submitted papers on my webpage. I hesitate to do so, as I worry I may make my advisor unhappy by announcing in which journal our papers are currently under review.

I think a main reason why many find it preferable to not list the journal name is because it can come across as presumptuous and doesn't really advantage one over not listing the journal name, anyway. For an established researcher (such as, probably, your advisor), the few papers in submission probably do not bear too much influence on his/her reputation, compared to an early-stage researcher for whom these comprise a large percentage of the publication record, so there isn't much to gain.

Two alternatives that may allow you to list your submitted publications in a manner that is consistent with your advisor's are:

Do not mention the journal, but mention that the paper has been submitted. This shows most of the important details of the paper and allows you to record it on your webpage without explicitly naming the journal. E.g.,

  Student A and Doe J. (2016) "Our awesome paper." Under review. 12 pages.

Depending on your field and the journal to which you submitted, you could post an archival version online (say to arXiv). Then you can reference this on your webpage until it is accepted in a journal.


Impact of Recommendation letters I am a master’s student of pure mathematics at my country’s most famous university, and recently I have applied to a couple of foreign universities.

Because of the reputation of my university and my high average which is around 19.50 out of 20, and also my master’s project which is going to be published in an accredited international journal, I am optimistic to be admitted for a PhD position abroad.

However, the most reputed and cited professors do not write a letter of recommendation for me because my major is not their area of expertise. My supervisor does not have many citations on google scholar. Will it affect my admission process?

I don't think that you have much to concern you. You can't get a letter from someone who won't write one, of course, but if your own advisor is on the faculty of such a university the assumption is that his/her word can be trusted.

What you need is someone who knows you well and can speak honestly about your background and prospects for success. Your advisor is best placed to do that and support you. The superstars, if they could be convinced to write, would probably need to say things less directly applicable or useful to you.

You need to put together a good case that you are well prepared and are likely to succeed. Your advisor's letter will help with that.


Is it secure to use Microsoft Teams for quizzes? So far, at the institution I work at, we have taken our quizzes in a proctored environment. Either on paper or sometimes online. But under the prevailing scenario, we need to resort to some fully online method, where the students will appear in the quizzes from home.
Among other Learning Management Systems, Microsoft Teams is one of the possible choices. Do you think that it is safe to use Microsoft Teams for quizzes?
The quizzes comprise mostly multiple-choice and true-false questions plus some other short questions with textual answers.
Can a student try viewing the quiz source while taking the quiz which is likely to contain the correct answers for the MCQ and TF questions?

Assuming you mean a quiz written as a Microsoft Forms quiz and using the Teams assignment tab for submission and collation, then I believe it's robust to that particular attack, since it is literally a web form, and the marking and score generation seem to happen server side.
On the other hand there are plenty of attacks that it isn't secure to. Not least students communicating with each other, either through Teams directly (for the non-creative students) or out of band (e.g. via a mobile phone). And unfortunately both multiple choice and true-false are harder to plagiarism check than freeform text.


Why do funding agencies like the NSF not publish accepted grants? When the NSF decides to fund a project, they post an abstract of the project, but they do not post any of the material that the project's PIs actually wrote.  Why not?

Some good reasons for publishing these proposals are:

It increases transparency, so that the public directly knows what was funded with tax payer money.
It would help future PIs find example successful proposals in order to create better proposals.

Edit to make the question a bit more concrete:  Has the NSF ever published a justification for not publishing accepted proposals online?

Why do funding agencies like the NSF not publish accepted grants?

  Has the NSF ever published a justification for not publishing accepted proposals online?

While it is correct in a technical sense that the NSF "does not publish accepted proposals online", I think this framing of your question is a bit misleading. The NSF has a process for allowing the public to access awarded proposals. This process, based on the Freedom of Information Act, is designed precisely to balance the public's need for transparency in government spending with other important things, such as the government's need to function properly (which is why even FOIA won't gain you access to top secret military information, for example), and the completely legitimate desire of researchers to pursue their research plans on their own timeline without undue stress or fear of having their ideas scooped and exploited by others.

  Some good reasons for publishing these proposals are:

  It increases transparency, so that the public directly knows what was funded with tax payer money.

As I was saying above, the key word here is "balance". You can't have maximal transparency, because all sorts of things would go wrong if you try to have it - researchers would protest loudly, and/or eventually start including less and less useful details in their proposals, making the evaluation process more difficult and the outcomes less meritocratic; and/or eventually seek alternative funding sources or try to get by without NSF support, with detrimental results to their research. On the other hand, no one is advocating for complete secrecy either - note that the current system is already a compromise between privacy and transparency: researchers do understand that their proposals will be reviewed by a panel of experts in their fields, and accept whatever small risk of scooping/misuse of ideas may exist given this situation. Writers of proposals also understand that in the end their proposals can in fact be looked up by curious members of the public, journalists, and people in Congress, who may end up accusing them of wasting government money on useless research or other unpleasant things. Everyone accepts that when you take public funding it comes with some strings attached, including a certain amount of public exposure and some level of disclosure of your research ideas. So again, I think your framing of the question is slightly loaded, as it risks painting an exaggerated picture of the grants process as being shrouded in secrecy, and of researchers as somewhat paranoid people who are always fearful of having their ideas stolen. The truth is much more balanced and reasonable than that.

  It would help future PIs find example successful proposals in order to create better proposals. The current system of asking friends for copies of their proposals is super frustrating and seems like it is likely fostering an atmosphere of cronyism.

I am not aware of any "system" of asking friends for copies of proposals. That's something that some people do and others don't (I didn't). And calling it "cronyism" seems like a huge stretch. In fact, I think it's rather the opposite; from my experience with the grants process (including serving on several NSF panels), while the grants process is far from being without flaws, it is as meritocratic a system as anyone has been able to come up with for a complicated process of handing out several billion dollars a year to many thousands of people based on a very messy and noisy dataset. And yes, it's true that the process is very competitive and can be frustrating for many people. That would remain true even if all awarded proposals were made publicly available.

  Has the NSF ever published a justification for not publishing accepted proposals online?

The NSF page I linked to above offers an explanation of how to request access to proposals, and what kind of access will be granted:

  National Science Foundation policy is to make the fullest possible disclosure of information, subject to restrictions imposed by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Privacy Act, to any person who requests information, without unnecessary expense or delay. [...]

  Copies of awarded proposals are available upon request, there may be applicable fees. Personal and proprietary information will be removed from the proposal documents before they are released.

The reference to personal and proprietary information provides some justification for why the process works the way it does.


How to start the Background section of Research Grant application? Should we directly cut to the chase in the Background Section of the Grant Application from the very first line followed by the proper (official) background of the problem?
OR
Should we give a proper background (WHY of our research), before introducing the problem (WHAT of our research) in the last line of the first paragraph?
Note that I also have separate sections for (i) Aims and Objectives, (ii) Research Questions and Methodology.

Assuming that the funding agency has no guidelines, you can write it so that it makes the most sense to yourselves and, hopefully, for your readers.
The why can go elsewhere, of course, such as in an introduction or abstract (if short). Whether it is a mistake to just avoid the why of it is a judgement call that only you can make. Some problems are well enough known that a reader will understand without any explicit statement. But not everything is like that.
Write it up and then make a judgement about how it fits together. Take the likely knowledge of the readers at the funding agency into account. If they are likely to be generalists, you may need to say more. Less for specialists.


Who assigns paper to reviewers for a conference and what are the challenges? Note: I'm aware that the reviewing process in a journal has been explained elsewhere on this site.

My question is about the process for peer-reviewed conferences.

Question 1: In a peer-reviewed conference who assigns submitted papers to reviewers? and what is that party called?

Question 2: Is the party above a group of people or one person?

Question 3: What are the problems in this process? In other words, (is it fair to ask) what if a person in this process acts dishonestly?

In very small conferences and workshops (with up to 50 submitted papers), reviewers are usually the members of the program committee. The papers are assigned manually by head organizer (Conference chair or chairs if there are more). Usually the chair knows the members of the program committee well and is able to take care of any conflicts of interest. Reviewers are also asked to declare their conflicts as soon as they get the papers to review (with implication that then the conflicted paper is reassigned).

In larger conferences, papers are assigned to tracks, headed by Area Chairs, who again do the similar job than conference chair at small conferences. In such conferences, Area Chairs may form the program committee, and the reviewers are other researchers in the field that get invited to review papers. Essentially, one level of hierarchy is added. In such conferences, paper matching is sometimes done automatically based on keywords supplied by the authors; in the same way, conflicts of interests are detected. One of such systems is Toronto paper matching system, used by many conferences:
https://openreview.net/forum?id=caynafZAnBafx