(Potentially) Low GPA with No Reserach Experience, Am I Screwed for math PhD program? I am a Japanese junior student who is thinking of applying to the PhD program(Applied Mathematics/Statistics) in the U.S. for the 2021 cycle, but I think I have an incredibly low chance to be accepted to any programs.

Firstly, my GPA is really bad compared to other applicants. I have seen GPA of applicants on https://mathematicsgre.com/ and most of the people in that forum have at least a GPA of 3.8 or even 4.0. However, my overall GPA until the first semester of junior year was 3.48/4.0(Math GPA 3.5), which is really low for grad school. This was because I took too many courses and could not handle some of them(did not fail any but low grades). Moreover, my GPA in the third quarter this year is not going to be good because my grade in a literature class(it was mandatory to take it) is going to be C in S(4)-A(3)-B(2)-C(1) grading and I messed up in quantum mechanics exam. Grades in math classes are not going to be all S too. I am trying to get nice grades in this fourth quarter, but it will not be as good as average applicants.

Secondly, I literally have no research experience. From what I have seen, college students in the U.S. have an opportunity to do REUs. However, it is not the case in Japan. Math majors are not even expected to write a senior thesis and research opportunities are very limited here. I have asked my advisor about this but could not get any good results.

I still have not taken GRE, but from what I have heard, the GRE score does not matter as long as it is not astronomically bad, which does not help in my case.

Should I just give up or is there anything I can do?

I can't speak for math specifically but here is a general answer

First, don't worry about no research experience. some US undergraduates have research experience but not all. I had literally zero and I was admitted to very prestigious universities

As to GPA, there's nothing you can do about the past grades so just do the best you can on remaining classes. You can mention something about it in your cover letter if you want (ie some explanation like in your question). 3.5 is not the worst GPA in the world.

GRE scores matter more or less at different places. Just study the best you can.

You can also make sure your research statement is well written. Find universities where there are professors whose interests match yours very well

In short I don't think you're in a hopeless situation.


Resource for journal acceptance rates Does anyone know of a resource or study that compiles statistics about paper acceptance rates in various journals?

I am more interested in biomedical journals, but this would be a good place to list such resources in any scientific field.

A few journals/publishers publish statistics about their acceptance rate, but this data is usually rather sparse, and not communicated on the journal webpage itself.

However, publishers often allow researchers in the fields of scientometrics, ethics or psychology access to their (anonymized) database of paper review/acceptance/publication timelines. You can find papers such as this one (and references therein), which then analyze the raw data and publish some statistics about it. We learn, for example, that the acceptance ratio for Physical Review Letters in 2012 was at 32%.

Other nuggets of information one can gleam include:

  in the Europhysics Letters study Michael Schreiber expressed concern about comparatively high acceptance rates for July-submitted papers

which is always good to know if you happen to work in that field :)


How does Google Scholar find papers on personal websites? Recently, I added a new paper to my personal website, and it appeared on Google Scholar a couple of days later. On my website, all I did was write the name of the paper, together with the authors and name of the conference, and then provided a link to the PDF. This information alone somehow informed Google Scholar that the text I added was actually a new paper. There is no other information about this paper on the web, so I know that Google only used my website to update Google Scholar.

So what I am wondering, is how does Google know what is a paper, and what is just some arbitrary text on my website? For example, if I had only written the name of the paper, without the authors and conference, and without the PDF, would this still have been detected?

On my website, the paper is listed on a webpage called "Publications", in a list with a load of other papers, but this is quite specific to the design of my own website. I'm wondering whether it has something to do with the PDF which I provided a link to. Perhaps it inspected the PDF and decided it was a paper, and if I hadn't added the PDF, it would not detect it as a paper. But then again, the HTML formatting does not necessarily indicate which text the PDF is actually associated with, even if it is obvious to a human on inspection of the webpage. Or perhaps Google Scholar just has some hand-engineered search which looks for instances of HTML where there is the name of a known conference, known authors, and a PDF nearby.

(Warning - gross oversimplifications incoming - if somebody doing research in Information Retrieval wants to add technical detail, be my guest!)

Fundamentally, Google finds all resources (HTML pages, images, as well as papers) on the web in the same way: periodically revisiting each and every resource it knows about, (re-)indexing it, and, for HTML content, following all links to other resources (rinse and repeat). Your web page is likely linked from your department web site, which Google definitely knows about, hence your web page is also in Google's database. Your web page links to your paper, hence Google will also know about your paper the next time the crawler checks your page. How long this will take is undefined, but Google has a lot of crawlers and is pretty smart about when to re-check certain types of pages, so it typically does not take very long.

Now, Google has specific heuristics in place to treat different types of resources differently. For instance, if an HTML page is added to the database keywords will be extracted, links will be followed, etc., while an image will lead to completely different actions. Scientific papers are not different in that sense - as soon as Google finds a PDF or Word file that "looks like" a scientific paper to the automated process, Google will generate paper metadata (title, authors, venue, keywords, ...) by parsing the PDF text as good as it can and add it to its special Google Scholar database, and this is when the paper appears in your profile.

Google's own website goes into quite some detail on this process. It also has instructions for authors looking to get their papers indexed by Scholar.


My bosses force me to add an author to my paper who didn't contribute to it A, B — my current bosses. X — my ex-boss.

A — I've spent a semester on sabbatical at the institution of X. Here is some data I produce. You have to write 2 papers.

Me (after 3 month, working completely independent; I am on the stage of the scientific career that does not need any supervision) — Here is your paper (it will be probably submitted to a top journal).

B — Very good, only 2 corrections. Add this to the acknowledgements and X to the authors list.

Me — X contributed nothing to the work. Besides, (s)he has already taken advantage of my dfg project and made everything possible that (s)he becomes the formal supervisor of the phd student funded by my project (see this post). Why should I add (her)him?

B — I need a paper with (her)him so that (s)he writes me a reference letter, don't you know I am looking for a prof. position.

A — You have to add X to the list of authors, haven't I told you that I spent a semester there. Besides, it is good for B's career.

With uneasy mind I have done what I am told to do. My health is more precious to me... However, I am recurrently coming back to this issue. Have I done everything right?

Comments in response to questions (edited)

Thank you all for very active participation and numerous questions.
Unfortunately, I cannot provide more information as requested. The question can be closed as unclear, however, I do not want to reveal my identity.

There are a couple of clauses in your question which you may want to reconsider.

I worked completely independent — did you? You wrote a paper working on your own, which is indeed a big achievement. However, you've been working with data, and the data have been obtained by A in the lab run by X. This definitely does not sound like a completely independent work to me.
X contributed nothing to the work — did s/he not? They set up  and run a lab, where the data have been obtained. Could you write the same paper without the data A collected? Could A collect the data without X's lab?

The arguments above do not necessarily mean that X should co-author the paper, but this is a matter of agreement between all collaborators. In ideal world, this should be discussed before the project is started; in reality, discussions like you've had are often held too late into the process, and the frustration you're feeling is understandable. Be strong — you will be a completely independent researcher one day very soon, and hopefully you will manage your projects and relations in much more thoughtful and transparent way. Until then it is best not to waste your life in such battles.


Should I sign a motivation letter? I'm planning to apply for a PhD program and I wonder whether I should sign the motivation letter or not. I have read many articles about the subject, and many stated that if I'm going to send it online it's not necessary to sign it, but if I'm going to send it as a hard copy I should sign it.

I'm kind of confused because the university I'm applying for wants me to send it online and also as a hard copy.

In any field I've heard of, as well as outside academia, if you are sending a digital copy (pdf, email, doc) you do not need to sign anything unless specifically requested. If you have to mail a copy of it is commonly customary to sign it, but no one will likely care either way. Good luck in your applications!


Does a low score in mathematics on transcripts affect graduate admissions? (CS PhD USA) Background: CS Undergrad Applying to CS PhD Programs in the USA.
I have a GPA of 8.9 ~ (after converting) 3.5? (Not too sure, I am in a Tier-II College in India).
According to me, I feel a GPA of 8.9 isn't too bad, I guess I'm in the 87-93 percentile of my department. But my lowest scores are in 4 out of my 5 math papers. I only scored the best grade in my 5th semester.
2 A's, 1 B, 1 A, 1 O (Hierarchy of Grades: O A+ A B B+ C .. F)
I know CS PhD admit panels require mathematically sound students and I actually am quite good at math. The few preprints and publications I have are all in mathematically involved topics. They are primarily machine learning but quite a bit of math is involved. It is pure coincidence that I actually somehow managed to perform bad specifically in the math papers.
I have good grades in my computer science subjects, good SOPs and LORs (at least I think I do, they will be research dense), internships.
Question:

Does this really affect my chances of getting into a good program?
Is there any way I can offset this?
Does a good GRE Quant score help in this? (Don't mind my asking)

Extra Question: Should I opt for a master's, get good grades in the math subjects there and better my transcripts?
(I really want to start a PhD and skip my masters. I enjoy research a lot).
Sorry for so many questions, I really need some clarity.
I am also aware Machine learning is mostly math, what I meant to say was that the papers are not only code heavy but also contain good theory.

In the US a doctoral application is based on a variety of things, including GPA and individual course grades in a major field of study. But letters of recommendation are much more important here than in some other places. They need to be from people who know you well and will attest to the high probability of your success.
You also need a good Statement of Purpose, stating your short and longer term goals and how you are prepared to achieve them.
But getting a MS in the US is probably not going to be an advantage for you since it is unlikely to come with any funding, though doctoral study (as a TA) normally does.
My advice would be to apply to several universities for doctoral programs. Make the search fairly broad, not just concentrated in the top ranked schools. But the admission committees will look at everything and some good things might help to overcome some other not as good things.


How to prevent work from exacerbating situational depression? I am experiencing situational depression. This isn't 'discouragement' due to research. Me feeling inadequate in my research is NOT the problem. The problem is that the steps involved in research seem to be at best, not helping, or worse - exacerbating the negative emotions that are associated with depression.

Let me rephrase that - I have not felt 'impostor syndrome', and I do not feel it now (sorry if it sounds a tad bigheaded but I want to avoid confusion).

I have some idea of the things I need to do to combat depression, but it seems to me that they all involve staying away from work at the lab. Has anyone faced this? Can I do anything to prevent loss of productivity?

Usually, I hear the following ways to fight depression:

Get in a routine.
Set goals.
Do something new (don't get stuck in a rut)

Now, these can be applied when I am free. But the majority of my waking hours are in the lab (or supposed to be). While doing bio research:

The routine/ schedule is thrown off whack by unforeseen developments/ etc.
Goals, even minor ones, may or may not be reached. This is research.
Can't help getting stuck in a rut if we're trying to get data out of a particular experiment.

I took a week off, and it helped, but doesn't seem to have helped enough. Any suggestions?

You are mistakenly conflating hours spent in the lab with productivity. There is certainly a point of "diminished returns," where extra hours don't actually improve your productivity, and actively harms it in the longer run.

A few ways to change up your routine:

Work on your most important task first thing in the morning.
Focus exclusively on your work for 20-30 minutes at a time. This means no checking email, no chatting with lab mates, or other distractions. After you're done with your block of time, take a few minutes to recharge before restarting (or moving to a new task).
Avoid obsessively checking your email. Pick a few times per day to answer your email and engage in social media, and stick to it. (And don't spend multiple hours during such sessions; figure out what's important and what isn't, so that you can be finished in 15-20 minutes or so.)

You'll find you probably get more done in less time following such an approach than just spending tons of hours in the laboratory. This will also give you time for your personal life, which brings me to my other point:

  "Block out" time in your schedule for "recharging" activities.

The nature of the "recharging" activity will depend on what works best for you: some people exercise, others engage in artistic or creative activities, and still others meditate. It doesn't really matter what you do to clear your mind and "recharge your batteries"; however, you should make time for it, and make sure that you stick to it. It doesn't need to be an extensive commitment: even an hour or two per week can suffice.


Difference between "referee" and "reviewer" in the context of journal manuscript review? I've seen the terms "referee" and "reviewer" both used to describe a person who gives feedback to a paper in a journal submission. Are there differences between the two terms? Is one used in some situations where the other isn't?

So far as I have ever been able to tell, "referee" and "reviewer" mean exactly the same thing.


Are there any experiment reproducibility databases? Quite often when I read a medical research article I wonder whether other researchers tried to reproduce the experiment. I could go through the list of papers that cite the article but I find this solution a bit tedious and inefficient for this task.

Is there any database that lists reproduction attempts (with ideally the number of fail and successful reproductions)?

While not a direct answer, publishing failure to reproduce can be difficult as a standalone activity (think cost, time, and rewards), and where reproducibility information does exist, it may be field or community specific (like blog-syn for organic chemistry).

But there are a few large and well-funded studies that aggregate information simply because their purpose was to replicate big studies- eg the Cancer Biology Reproducibility initiative, and perhaps some of these studies will grow over time.

You may also want to check sites such as Pubmed Commons and PubPeer, which increasingly are gathering discussion of papers.


A friend helped me with a presentation – plagiarism or not? My friend helped me with my assignment. I was having a bit of trouble and he showed me what he did.
The assignment was a speech with a powerpoint in the background.

I did not receive any help in the speech and it was all my own work but two of my slides are similar to his, and I copied his table. The speech is the part directly getting assessed while the powerpoint is merely for the theatrics. This was all done with his permission and he himself showed me how he did the slides.

The powerpoint was twelve slides long. Does this constitute plagiarism?

Edit: I did cite him in a bibliography which I submitted for his contribution. I, however, did not cite him in the PowerPoint. Also, the similar slides are not in the PowerPoint anymore but the table still is.

Edit 2: I was not found guilty of plagiarism, however, I did lose 10% due to academic misconduct.

My friend helped me with my assignment...I copied his table...does this constitute plagiarism?

Yes: You copied his work, doing so without attribution is plagiarism.


What does "communicated" mean in a CV? I often see in a CV that certain papers are labelled as ‘communicated’. What does that mean? (Not ‘communicated by’.)

E.g. this document which is a list of papers including entries like:

  "On complicated things and related stuff" (with A. B. Coauthor) (communicated).

"Communicated" means the manuscript is submitted to a journal and is currently under review.


Visiting professor's office before being admitted to PhD program? I have applied to graduate school (EE) and am currently at one of the schools to which I applied to. Is it a bad move if I go to a professor's office and express my interest to work with her, and show her my relevant skills?

Why I think this is a good idea:

I am an engineering physics major applying to electrical engineering. I applied to the niche areas of EE that are a good fit coming from applied physics (electromagnetics and solid state devices), but regardless, coming from outside of EE will give a bad impression to the admissions committee. So I want to do whatever possible to show that I'm qualified.

Moreover, the professor I'm interested in works on computational electromagnetics, and if I can show her that I have the required preparation, maybe she'll be more willing to look into my application through the graduate application system.

So what do you guys think? Thanks.

It sounds like an excellent idea.  I like to meet with prospective students, especially ones from atypical backgrounds; a meeting gives both applicant and faculty a chance to gauge whether someone will be a good fit for the program.

However, don't get too pushy.  Keep the conversation casual, and don't put on an elaborate show of your knowledge.  The best approach may be to ask about the professor's research, and express how it tied into what you already learned and found interesting, as well as what you are interested in studying further in the future.


How to address new information (compared to the submitted application) during an interview? My question has some similarities to Should I omit some of my qualifications in my application materials to “surprise” with during an interview?. However, in my case, the additional "surprising" information came after the application was submitted, so there was no chance for me to include it from the beginning.
Let's say (for a teaching-heavy job) that I received an amazing teaching evaluation after submitting my application, or I came up with a teaching plan that addresses the department's recently updated course curriculum.
I guess that I can in any case mention this information, but I thought about giving it a bit more focus, since that information might be really useful for landing the job. Therefore I wonder: Would it be appropriate to prepare some materials that I would show live during the interview?

I think you could prepare a couple of different scenarios and adopt the "news only" version or the one giving more details depending on the the live reaction of the committee.
It depends on time constrain, too.
Likely, if the news is indeed surprising, you can use the "in depth" material (physically as support or just being mentally prepared) for the question part that normally follows the candidate's presentation.


How can I gracefully exit my current post-doc position for a new one? I'm a post-doctoral research fellow and I've just been offered another post-doc position at another university. I still have a year and a half left on my original contract, but it's not going as well as I'd hoped and ultimately is not going to lead me to a place I want to be in my career. The new position is at a better lab with many more PhD students to work with, somewhat less research freedom but more resources and support, and also genuine guidance to prepare for life as a professor. As an added bonus, the new position is in the same city that my partner lives in, and we will be able to live together.

The problem is, for the sake of professional etiquette, I can't tell my current advisor that this position was offered to me, as my new advisor doesn't want to be seen as poaching a post-doc from another university. I don't want to burn any bridges or cause ill-will at my current position. I'm at a bit of a loss now, trying to figure out how to approach a conversation with my current advisor to tell him I'm leaving, and I would really appreciate some advice!

I changed from one unfinished postdoc to start a new one.  In your list of reasons, there is one that easily trumps all others:

  the new position is in the same city that my partner lives in, and we will be able to live together.

Tell your current advisor that you are moving to another postdoc so you can live with your partner.  Any remotely humanoid advisor will understand and accept that.  The reason for my move was exactly this.

All your other reasons are less important, and may be interpreted as implicit criticism of your current place.  Since you have the two body problem, you can move without mentioning any other reason.


When would they reject a paper in case of violating the double-blind review policy? a month ago i submitted my paper to double-blind review conference, and their notification date is one month from now.
However, i had presented the work (in an abstract way) 3 months ago in a small symposium as an ongoing work, and i forgot to remove the slides till yesterday. This means if the reviewers had checked my home-page before yesterday, they could have found that i'm the author of this submission.

My question is if my paper is decided to be rejected due to that fact (without any review), would i be notified now or i have to wait until the notification date?

Because if it is already rejected without any review and only due to that issue, it is fair that i could be notified now, so i could send it to another conference around the corner.

It very much depends on the conference and the reviewers how strict the rules are applied, but in general, it is the responsibility of both the author and the reviewer to not circumvent the double-blind policy. Thus a reviewer should not intentionally invest any effort to find out who the author of the paper is unless it is obvious from the submission itself (a common mistake is referencing own work too obviously).

Double-blind rarely means that you are not allowed to have previous work on a similar topic. There are researchers who publish every year at the same conference with double-blind submission policy. Of course, everybody knows who the author is even if it is not written anywhere in the paper, but just because their work is known in the community. So your case is slightly different because I assume that the name and content of your talk are the same of your submission, so the probability is higher to find your talk if someone searches for the title, but as written above, reviewers should not do that.

Of course, prior official publication of the same paper is usually not allowed, but that does not seem the case for you. In any case, I never came across "desk-rejection" at conferences, so you have to wait until the official notification date.


What do you call a “practice” class that accompanies a lecture? In my country it is very common for courses to consist of two types of classes: lectures primarily focus on theoretical aspects of a topic and then after each lecture comes a corresponding “practice” class which covers practical aspects of the material from the preceding lecture, such as how to use it to solve exercises. These latter classes can be taught by the same professor or, quite often, by graduate students.

Is there a term for this kind of classes? If you are from another country, how can I concisely explain to you what these classes are for? How do I indicate in my CV that I was a teacher of such a “practical” part of a course?

As a person responsible for “practice” classes you have to plan them on your own (it is generally assumed that the topic of each class will be the same as that of the preceding lecture, but it is not a hard requirement and sometimes you might need to deviate); explain techniques and practical considerations; prove theorems (yourself or engaging the students) which didn’t fit into lectures because they were not required for the theoretical narration but rather have practical implications; solve exercises or have students solve them with your hints; etc. You are also responsible for designing and grading homework assignments, projects, tests.

In essence, professor “outsources” part of the course to you and then in the end gets your input about each student’s performance in it. The primary purpose is to divide students into smaller groups (of around 15 or less), each assigned to a separate teacher, so that each student gets more personal attention.

Try "tutorial".

Example writeup on what tutorials are from the University of New South Wales.


How can a present software-engineer (with experience of 5 years at least) turn into a physics professor? There are often many people who switch careers midway. Some from software engineering to a product management role which is quite popular given relevance of previous career to current career. Another example is software engineer to a data scientist. Some might be less relevant but still have the same corporate setup, for example, a software engineer to supply chain engineer. Some might be irrelevant like software engineer transitioning to teaching high school physics but transitioning is still easy. Some might be super irrelevant and 'risky' like software engineer with 5-7 years of experience, going to study masters in physics then a PhD then couple of postdocs and finally becoming a professor in say high energy physics.
I exactly wanted to know about the last case, how can a present software engineer with >4 years of experience in software engineering, pursue physics and establish a successful career (PhD, post-docs, then professorship) in physics academia.

Your situation does not sound fundamentally different from any other university graduate.
Your work experience will possibly give you some technical and time management skills that others don't have, but you'll just have to put your skillset to good use like every other graduated student.
Note, that going to graduate school for the sole reason to become a professor is a bad idea. The odds are extremely slim. So if you're not enjoying the process/path you'll likely be disappointed. If you're loving doing research with very little income go for it!


Working with the 'my way or the highway' attitude from advisor My advisor very much has a "my way or the highway" approach in her supervision of students, and chooses to communicate largely through email whilst sitting in her office. Some element of "my way or the highway" is to be expected when someone is an expert in their field (at least in relation to experimental work), but she refuses to listen to any kind of reasonable argument.
Often, rather than coming to the lab, or raising her issues during lab-meetings, she chooses to send emails in person late at night or first thing in the morning such that we wake up to them (she isn't a people person). The emails are often not really related to my project but rather about some aspect of how we do things in the lab. They often come after you've disclosed to her some issue you're having in your work, i.e. my cells died
An email chain may go something like this:

Advisor: I've been thinking about the situation regarding the running of the flow cytometry assays, and decided that XX will run these from now on in your place.
Me: XX's project doesn't require flow cytometry, and XX only works Mon-Wed in the lab which would mess with our schedule. I'm happy to keep on running this, but if you want someone else training to do the assay then perhaps I could suggest YY – they'll be needing to do the assay in a few weeks time anyway and did some work during their masters project.
Advisor: Please come to my office at 0800 tomorrow morning.

Maybe she does have a point. I do need more time in the lab. And could do with not having to spend time running assays.
My issue is that everybody accepts that the advisor has made a stupid decision (we're even sure that she knows that shes made a stupid decision but has taken it too far to back down). The person chosen is chosen not because of their skill/knowledge etc, but because that persons work is currently going well and so she favours them.
Going to her office yields nothing productive other than a re-hash of her emails (she's no more willing to listen to a reasonable argument in person). I don't like having these one-on-one meetings as I end up leaving angry/upset, which damages our relationship generally and makes me want to avoid her as much as possible.
How should one deal with this situation? My gut feeling is to reply along the lines of:

Me: I don't feel that would be productive right now. Perhaps we could discuss this at the next lab-meeting as it effects everybody, or if you're keen to meet one-on-one, then i'd be happy to do so in the presence of ZZ (my co-supervisor).

Given that your advisor sounds stubborn and does not respond well to the students disagreeing, I don't think responses along the lines of 'No, I don't think so' will be productive. In your given example, it seems like the advisor is giving a specific order, and not interested in hearing your opinion on what's right or wrong.

Your second hypothetical response sounds confrontational and involves using the authority of 'ZZ' against your advisor. Playing off one co-advisor against the other is rarely a productive long-term solution; nor am I sure your co-advisor necessarily is willing to go into direct conflict with your main advisor to help you.

Instead of responding in the negative, a more diplomatic solution would be to go along with the decision for now and convince them to change it afterwards - nicely and reasonably (perhaps when it is clear the situation has gone for the worse). By being too confrontational, it is unlikely your advisor will be inclined to listen to you in the future. Remember, you are stuck with this person for several years (unless you decide to switch).


What are the pros and cons of submitting to a Preprint server? I am currently writing a review paper in biology (conservation and ecology) and I am planning to publish this on a preprint platform. Two of the most common preprint server today are BioArVix and PeerJ. But, I'm wondering are there any bad side in submitting a paper on preprint?

The classical answer for that is:
Pro: More people are able to read your work, they are able to read it earlier, you will most likely reach more readers.
Contra: It might not always be beneficial to publish too soon, e.g. if your paper is just an introduction to a big, ongoing project, you might not want too many people to suddenly start working on the same project and maybe publish important results before you do. Furthermore, some journals might not allow it, so check that first.

Whenever such questions come up, there is always a little debate about whether or not it is good to upload to preprint archives. The base line of these discussions can be summarized as "Both sides have good arguments and things might strongly differ between different fields." Thus, you need to decide for yourself if you want to do it or not.


A professor is happy to supervise me. Does that mean my formal application will be accepted? I am worried since, in fact, I do not meet the minimum grade requirements for a PhD admission of the school. But the supervisor says they are happy to offer me a funded PhD. Note : this is in the UK.

It isn't guaranteed.

The fact that you have a professor who is willing to be your supervisor is a strong factor in your favour -- very strong.

However, there may be other requirements that means a student can't be accepted onto an institution's PhD program. These include language ability, suitable visa or residency requirements, and, of course, how strictly the institution adheres to whether you satisfy the minimum academic requirements. In some cases, the proposed supervisor's influence overcomes these. In others, it does not.

The head of department in some cases has the final say as to whether a student is to be accepted into the PhD programme. It is unlikely, but not impossible, that an HoD would deny the student onto the programme, irrespective of the professor's support.


Is possible cite an internet site (of an academical project) with the authors I am writing a paper about a project.

I must cite the internet site of the project with the results.

Question: can I cite, not only the site, but also the authors in the references?

NOTE The site is of research team where I work and is an institutional site (linked to my university).

Yes, you should always provide all of the bibliographic information that you can.

In the citation of websites, authorship is often not given because authorship is either unstated, unclear, or complex.  If, however, the authorship of an online resource is clear, then you must list its authors, just as you would for any other source that you cite.


Should I restate acronyms in each section? I'm writing my masters thesis and have the following formatting problem: should I restate acronyms once for each new large section?

When I for example introduce the term "evolutionary psychology" (which has the acronym EP) in the introduction, I state the acronym so the sentence reads like:

  ...has roused significant interest in the emerging field of evolutionary psychology (EP).

In the following sections, should the EP acronym also be stated in the same manner upon first mention, or can I rely on the reader to have read the introduction and know that it means evolutionary psychology?

My approach to the issue of acronyms is to restate them only after a significant gap in their use.  How long I consider to be "significant" depends on how salient the acronym is in its usage.  Some extremes of how I would tend to approach it:

If the paper is about EP, and you're talking about EP and using the acronym quite frequently, then even if you have a page or two where it happens to not appear, I would not bother to redefine.
If EP only appears a couple of times as a side point, then even after only a few paragraphs break I might redefine the acronym.

One exception: when I define an acronym in the abstract, I also define it in the introduction, no matter how close it is, since the abstract somewhat stands apart from the remainder of the paper.


How to reply to an unofficial offer from my second choice when I also have an unofficial offer from my first choice? Here is my situation. I am looking for a post-doc position. I have two choices, A and B.

My first choice is A. And I already got an un-official offer from A. I was told that A is working on a official offer. But I haven't got the official offer yet.

Now, my second choice, B, also send me an email. B tells me that he would like to give me an offer if I am interested in joining his lab. How should I reply? Is it appropriate to tell him that I am interested?

If you're interested in both, then email each of them and say so.

If you don't have the formal offer then you don't have the job and shouldn't make decisions without it.


How to write a PhD thesis in three months? I am planning to write a thesis in three months. How to be more organised towards writing and get the first draft ready in three months? Has anyone written the first draft of the thesis in three months or so?

I have some writing done already as I have published some conference and workshop papers.

Make an outline and a schedule, then follow the schedule.  Include time for revision and feedback in your schedule.

If you know all the content already, the writing can be done much faster than that.  In my field, it is only necessary to write about 90 generously spaced pages, so three months is less than a page a day.  In more verbose fields, your thesis need not be more than 500 pages, so that's an achievable 6 pages a day.

The real problem is when you do not know the content you need to write - that part we cannot help with here.


Can I pursue a PhD in the Netherlands with no Masters? I'm a 37-year-old student with 12 years professional experience in the field of the PhD and a strong BA (Hons) in the academic field of the project. Linguistic fluency in the indigenous languages and 1 peer-reviewed academic paper. I'm wondering if I can apply for a PhD in the Netherlands with this profile?

I have direct field research experience in the project area and I'm currently working as a research assistant/fellow at a social science research institute.

Do you think I have a chance?

It is true that in the Netherlands they prefer it if you have a masters. However, some people have been admitted and completed PhD programs without one. I am one of those people, and I had less industry experience than yourself.

I think your chances are good, and your CV sounds better than many people with a masters. But it will depend on your potential supervisors. You should contact prospective supervisors beforehand (this is what I did). Sometimes there are administrative issues, so the supervisors will have to explain to the graduate school in the university why they are hiring someone without a masters.


What is a "publishable" thesis? What is a "publishable" thesis?

I have often heard this term thrown about in conferences and even as advice to new grad. students.

From what I know, it is indeed rare for a thesis to be published entirely as a book, though one can publish papers out of the thesis.

In some cases it might mean that the thesis could be published as a book. However, I'd generally interpret the phrase to mean that the thesis could readily be adapted and published as one or more journal articles.


What percentage of registered participants eventually show up at conferences? I am organizing a small workshop which is over subscribed. We will have to reject a few applications. The worst applicants are easy to spot, but there are a few borderline cases, and I'm afraid that a few unfair decisions will necessarily have to be made.

To minimize the damage, I would like to know how many of the registered participants who we accept will actually show up, so that if I am aiming at X actual participants, could I safely accept X + dX?

I have noticed that several name tags always are left unclaimed at small meetings, because of people not showing up. I would like to know how to estimate how many people I can expect not to show up.

I am looking for answers from people who have organized (preferably small) meetings and have first-hand knowledge about the typical numbers.

--

Edit:

So the week of the workshop came and I can give you attendance numbers. It is good that I didn't overbook since we got 100% attendance (49/49 registered participants). This is despite the event being free of charge (some people suggested the attendance would be lower for free events). Some of the things that we did that may have helped secure such good numbers are thorough screening of applications and asking for confirmation upon acceptance of the applicant. For instance, we weeded out a few applicants who were unlikely to show up unless we paid for their travelling and a couple of accepted applicants told us that they would not be able to attend, a couple of months in advance of the workshop.

I am afraid that, especially for a small meeting, the variation of how many do not show up will be too large to be useful. For example, if I am organizing a 50-person event I would expect that anything from 2 to 10 would be a "normal" number of no-shows. That is, if you really can't have more than, say, 50 participants you can't really safely overbook at all. However, note that oftentimes a few participants more don't really hurt, but of course this depends on your infrastructure and plans for the meeting.

Some further considerations:

Generally, free events have a very large number of no-shows (sometimes in the 50%+ range, from what I have heard) while paid ones do not. This has led to some meetings I know introducing a nominal attendance fee, just to make sure that people think a little before signing up. Some other meetings have also tried to levy a fee only if a registered participant does not show up, but I am not sure how well this works and if it is worth the administrative and inter-personal hassle.
Note that no-shows are often not independent events, statistically speaking. For example, if you have a bunch of participants from the same group / team and they have an unexpected important deadline come up, they all will cancel at the same time.
If you have a very small meeting and you know (some) of your participants well you can attempt to use this to make a stab at estimating no-shows. For instance, I once planned an event for about 30 people, and I knew that some of the senior professors who initially expressed interest where <50% to actually come. I also knew that for some fraction of the industry participants an important client meeting may come up making them cancel last-minute. Based on this information I decided that 35 registrations for a 30-person meeting was fairly safe (we ended up being 28).


Biochemistry/Computer Science BS applying for top 10 Computer Science PhD I am currently an undergraduate student at a large state university.

I have good grades (>3.90 GPA) in Biochemistry and I am now adding computer science courses. I am doing equally well in those (>3.80 GPA). But the majority of my research is in biochemistry. I did my honors thesis, worked in a wet lab for two years, and have two research publications. But these all have nothing to do with computer science.

I am really happy with the people in biochemistry and molecular biology, but not with the field itself. My biology advisors tell me I can probably do very well for myself in biochemistry. But I want to do computer science, since that is where my interests really lie. I like making algorithms out of strange algebras that don't exist and really fancy statistics that pretend they can think, and that is almost non-existent in my field of molecular genetics. I am not a fan of bioinformatics.

I already have research experience. But it might not be the right type of research experience. Nor do I have CS internships. Just lots of biology. Should I apply for those phd programs now, or should I wait until I have more research in computer science before I apply for Ph.D. programs?

Now suppose I apply for these top ten Ph.D. programs and I am rejected. How are reapplicants viewed within the academic cs community? Can I try again after a stint in your average brand-name company?

In navigating my own applications over the years, I'm led to believe that the most important thing they want to know about you is are you going to be a good researcher. That you have publications in a technical field helps you a lot, it demonstrates you know the process one must go through in pursuing original work.

I will say that going straight to a PhD at a top 10 university in the field is somewhat of a leap without having much CS background, they won't have much evidence that your research interests are well-developed and that you are really serious about sticking with studying computer science at that level for 5+ years. But if they like what they see from your research and undergraduate coursework and recommendation letters (VERY IMPORTANT), then they will often just have you take a handful of pre-requisite courses at the beginning to get you caught up to where they think a beginning PhD student should be, e.g. taking some upper-level undergraduate classes that give you a good breadth of CS knowledge.

You would have a much better shot at getting into a Masters program in CS coming from your position, if you are willing to fund it yourself or take out loans. Oftentimes your PhD funding comes from a member of the faculty and so they need adequate convincing that you're worth the money.

My advice would be: apply to a few top 10 PhD programs you think you'd be a good fit for, apply to a few middle-tier PhD programs to give you some options, and then apply to a few MS programs if you think you'd be willing to go that route. You'll probably get an MS acceptance somewhere, you have a good shot at getting into a middle tier school, and you never know! They may just really like your application bundle and you might land a golden seat at a top 10.

And if you don't like the results, spend a year or two doing things to improve your application (CS research, online classes, work through problems in well-known textbooks, get a MS degree, read A LOT of papers and develop very specific research interests, etc.)


Can I reference a result on a dataset without any research paper by that author as state of the art? The best result on a given dataset has no trace in the form of
research paper or any sort of analysis.

We have no idea whose results were those, or what method was created.

Some competition was held, participants uploaded their resultant output files on leader-board.

When the competition was over, the best performing participant didn't come forward to share their methods.

The organizers wrote a survey paper, where they mentioned this unknown result but mentioned that they had no idea who the authors were, probably in the hope that they would write paper in the future.

After the competition, that participant still hasn't written any paper. The only information available is that survey paper by the organizers with the result in the form of a number and nothing else.

Can this be referenced as the state of the art result or does one have to pick the best scoring entry that has a paper as evidence by its author?

Yes.  You can cite the survey paper as evidence to support your claim.


Is it generally worth the time and effort to challenge incorrect exam test items? Background information:

I have just finished refreshing my high school courses in order to enter into university for engineering. Because I have a strong desire to become an engineer I have not moved past any material unless I fully understood it. That being said, the courses I took have had many mistakes in the material (online material as this is through online correspondence). I have had to fight tooth and nail to correct some of the material, even though I was a student, because I believe the material should be correct so that future students do not suffer the same frustration nor are taught improper concepts.

An example to convey the level of quality of the course material:

One example was in the Physics course, the concept of work being taught was equal to force times the distance the object traveled. This is fundamentally wrong; the real concept of work is force times the distance the force was applied over. I wrote to many people and eventually the business owner before my concerns were heard. The only reason I knew this was wrong was because it defied the law of conservation of energy. Though the fact that I, a student, was the only person who realized the mistake and sought to have it fixed reflects very poorly on the quality of the institution.

Strictly relevant to my question:

I have gotten into the habit of contesting test questions which are incorrect, and since every question on the final exam is worth 0.66% of my final grade, I take the time to make sure each mistake was mine. After contesting 2 questions on my last Chemistry final exam I have found that the head of the science department (whom I correspond with) does not understand a specific concept regarding a question. Now, I realize that it is only 1 question and my grade will go from a 97 to a 97.6, but I strongly dislike the idea of losing a mark for a concept which I deserve the acknowledgment of understanding (the grade). In order to explain why my answer was correct, I don't know how to do it in a way that is not condescending towards her (the head of the science department); no matter how you look at it, it will be a student explaining a concept to a teacher.

I am asking for criticism here. Please criticize me and tell me if I am being too much of a perfectionist. Is it appropriate to always contest questions during an academic career or will it have a negative effect on my success in the long run? Also, is it really worth it? What are the pros and cons?

EDIT: I can see my comment about the Physics concept of work is being met with a lot of skepticism; so I am including the link to the Physics.SE question I made in order to verify without a doubt that the lesson was indeed incorrect. When I saw that this was a mistake I took every measure that I could to ensure it was in fact a mistake before I proceeded to contact the head of the science department and then the business owner (when my concerns were not being heard). In no way did I take this lightly and assume I was correct, I did the necessary research before raising concerns.

Though the fact that I, a student, was the only person who realized the mistake and sought to have it fixed reflects very poorly on the quality of the institution.

Yes, it does.

  I believe the material should be correct so that future students do not suffer the same frustration nor are taught improper concepts.

Of course it should.  But ultimately, the correctness of the course material is the responsibility of the instructor, not your responsibility.

  I have had to fight tooth and nail to correct some of the material.

That strikes me as quixotic.

It's certainly reasonable, and helpful to future students, to report errors that you find in the course material.  The instructor should then either fix it, or discuss with you why the course material is actually correct.

But if the instructor does not seem interested in doing so, then it's probably a waste of your time to "fight tooth and nail".  Unfortunately, crappy courses and instructors exist, and it's not your job to fix them all.  Simply quit giving them your money and attention: look elsewhere for better courses.  If you like, leave negative reviews.  Future students would be helped by having the errors fixed, but if the courses are as poorly managed as you describe, they would be even better off not taking them at all.


Having a low tier publication as an undergraduate student? Is a good thing for an undergraduate student to publish in a low-tier conference as first author ? Or should the student avoid from such places and only publish in atleast reputable places ? If it is a good thing, how should the student present his study in graduate admissions process to admissions members, since the conference name is mostly unknown to much of them.

Note that, by low tier, I mean the conferences which are ranked at "C level" according to ERA (Excellence in Research for Australia).

Let me answer the important parts of your question:

  Is a good thing for an undergraduate student to publish in a low-tier conference as first author ? Or should the student avoid from such places and only publish in at least reputable places ?

Yes, especially if the venue is peer-reviewed.

As the answers to this question suggest, graduate schools look for evidence of research potential. The undergraduate research experience is about developing some basic skills and demonstrating that you are capable of handling a research project. Publishing at a third-tier conference, so long as there is some level of peer review, is better than no publications. Would publishing at a higher tier conference be better? Sure, but it might not be worth the effort or the risk of rejection. Publishing at a third-tier conference would look better than being rejected from a first-tier conference. Being first author on a paper at a lower tier conference should hold more weight than being a middle author on a paper at a higher-ranked conference.

Your research adviser probably has some wisdom about the level of conference at which your work should be presented. Choosing a lower tier conference is not about making your work seem less important. The choice might be about guaranteeing you get the change to present it at all.

  If it is a good thing, how should the student present his study in graduate admissions process to admissions members, since the conference name is mostly unknown to much of them?

Present your work and conference presentation the same way you would present any other similar experiences. If you have to provide a personal statement as part of your application, write about the experience and how it benefited you. If they ask for a list of relevant accomplishments, include this presentation in that list. Put it in on your resumé. Ask your research adviser for a letter of recommendation.

Do not use any negative language or derogatory language when describing your experience. For example, don't mention that the conference is lower tier or that you thought you could have presented at a better one. If the admissions committee knows about the conference, then they already know about its ranking. If they do not, then you should not be the one to give any hint that you think your experience might have been sub-par.


Must graphs in a mathematical PhD thesis be drawn nicely? I am writing my PhD thesis in mathematics and there are several graphs to be included (on knots, braids, and other related objects). I know that there are several software available for drawing graphs like this, but I am not experienced with any one of those. Also I do not have much time to learn a new software to draw graphs. I have asked a related question before but am frustrated by the time that is needed in learning the drawing software. Am also considering using hand-drawn graphs.

My question: It is generally a requirement for the graphs to be drawn very nicely in a mathematical PhD thesis? (I know that different universities have different rules and here I am asking about the general principle.) Is it generally considered acceptable if I draw some graphs by hand, scan them and include them in the thesis?

Even if it's not a formal requirement, consider how important first impressions are. People will judge a paper with sloppy diagrams, and assume that the results and writing will also be sloppy. This is especially true for a PhD thesis. Since you've had 4-5 years to work on it, people will assume that a thesis is well-written and every aspect carefully planned. That includes the figures. A thesis with hand-drawn figures will not be seen as professional.

I personally recommend Inkscape for drawing things. I think it's easier than Illustrator. I believe for my undergraduate thesis I picked up most of the knowledge i needed in 2 hours of watching Youtube tutorials and trying them out. Fortunately, math diagrams usually only require knowledge of the most basic tools in a program.

If you are truly desperate, I believe it is usually acceptable to pay someone to take your pencil drawings and turn them into professional ones, as long as you give proper credit (check your university guidelines though). There is probably an undergrad at your university with experience in Inkscape or Illustrator who wants to make some extra money.


How many major revisions are allowed when publishing with Elsevier? I submitted my paper to one of the Elsevier journals in the field of molecular biology and evolution, I've got one major revision back; I fixed the comments, and sent it back to the journal.

It is still "under review" for 1.5 months.

What I want to know is

Is it possible that this review comes out with another major revision?
how many major revisions can I get?
what are usually the time frames for the second round of reviews?

To give this an answer:

Yes, it is posisble that you are again asked to make major revisions.
It's completely up to the editor to decide how many rounds of revisions are appropriate.  There's not a fixed number for all the publisher's journals.
You'll have to ask someone in your field, ideally someone who's published in that journal before.  But it also depends a lot on how speedy the reviewer is, and how long the editor gives them.


Scientific output of researchers in industry and academia How does the scientific output of PhD’s who work in industry compare to that of PhD’s who stayed in academia (professors, mainly). I mean, in terms of number of publications, conferences, etc.

Disclaimer: this answer applies to computer science. I suspect things are dramatically different in the natural sciences.

It's hard to measure these things, and a bit unfair. If you work as a professor, publications are the base unit (along with funding) for measuring your performance as a researcher. You also are encouraged to grow research groups that in turn will produce more and more papers.

If you work in industry (even industrial research labs) (and I've done both), you are evaluated not just in terms of paper output, but in terms of internal metrics relating to how you help the company.

So the incentive structure in industry is different.

Bottom line, since I haven't really answered the question: I expect that the average number of publications/researcher will be slightly less in industry than in academia, but the average will get closer as the lab characteristics become more "university-like": think MSR vs (say) Walmart Labs.


Feasibility of Study in Cuba for U.S. Undergraduates I'm assisting an undergraduate student with developing plans for summer 2014, and I'm considering the viability of study in Cuba.

Are there any U.S. users who have traveled to and studied in Cuba and can recommend a robust, reputable Cuba study program, ideally run by a U.S.-Cuba university partnership? Fields of interest to the student are political science, civil society, and history.

Of course, a Google search returns several options, but I'd still appreciate input or advice from fellow academia.SX users

Ignoring the issue with obtaining a license to visit Cuba, I would say the feasibility of a US undergrad being able to study in Cuba is quite low. International study in a third world country is difficult and Cuba presents even more problems for US citizens. US credit and debit cards do not work in Cuba. You cannot wire money to Cuba, and you cannot legally exchange US dollars for Cuban currency. Staying in approved hotels and eating at approved restaurants is very expensive. Using the black market and finding less official housing and food is difficult and I think would be beyond a typical undergrad. I think anything related to political science would be a touchy subject. Finally, Cuba is very very hot in the summer, making getting anything done difficult.


What does it mean if my advisor decides to remove his name from a paper we co-authored? I recently received a rejection to a paper that I co-authored with my advisor. There was nothing wrong with the content but the reviewer believed it was too simple by the journal standards. My advisor's advisor who has more that 30 years expertise in the field has suggested to combine the paper with its sequel (which I was in the process of writing) and submit elsewhere.

While I am getting ready to do the same my advisor has asked to remove his name from the paper. This worries me a little. It makes me think that the paper isn't good enough and that is why my advisor want to disassociate himself from it.

Could there be any other reason why my advisor is doing so? Should I ask him?

Please ask your advisor politely. There can be numerous reasons he wanted to have his name removed:

The quality of your work is too bad and the paper might affect his reputation. I do not believe that this is the case. You worked together on the paper for the first submission where he agreed to be on author list. Why should he remove his name when there is better content, now?
No right of authorship: He may know that all of the work was done by you and he has too little contribution to the paper. So he is friendly by declining authorship of your work. This might be quite likely, at least this has happened for me. However, if this is the case, consider including him in the acknowledgements.
He wants you to become more independent. You may have worked rather closely on the first paper but now he wants you to take the lead and do most work on your own. This may be due to a limit of time on his side.

All in all, just ask him, you need this answer/feedback to continue your work.


Can One Poorly Written Research Paper Derail Your Academic Future? As mentioned in prior posts, I experienced a lot of stress and an episode of depression during my last undergraduate semester. The stress was caused by constant moving and housing insecurity for half the semester (giving me a late start on the paper) and the depression by learning of my professor being in the process of retirement/declining to be my graduate advisor. (I don't have clinical depression.)

I received an A- on a research paper in this class, but it was slipshod work, and (embarrassingly) probably one of the worst undergraduate papers ever written (written in a graduate level course no less). The worst part is that this happened with a professor I admired/loved, but from a practical standpoint, can this ruin my chances of graduate school? I've already graduated and can't afford to take more undergrad. courses. Even if I could, however, how would I get another professor to supervise my research when I've already produced poor work?

Has anyone been admitted to graduate school/succeeded in academia despite a poor research paper? For what it's worth, I'm finally rewriting it, but second chances seem rare in academia.

*I also experienced interpersonal conflict in the department, but my question is purely from an academic standpoint.

Edit- To get a better idea of the quality, here's the feedback I received on it: "Gemini, Your final paper has a clear thesis, includes and utilizes a variety of primary and secondary sources, and is organized coherently. Given that this is your first attempt at using ____ Style  formatting, I attach a short summary of how to cite footnotes and create a bibliography. If you decide to do more with this paper in the future, you also would want to provide complete citation information for every note; correct numerous misspellings; and fix other common errors throughout." She also said that I received 28/30 points--a very good result. I interpreted this latter part "a very good result" as indicating that she was lenient with the grade (which I appreciated, but I wanted to impress her).

I know how neurotic/psychotic it must sound describing an A- as one of the worst papers ever written, but this really was horrible work, especially compared to the award-winning dissertation that one of her grad. students wrote.  Although it was written during a nervous breakdown (and in around a week's time frame), the circumstances, I worry, mattered less than the results. (Everyone has a reason why their work turns out poorly, but in the end, poor work is poor work.)

*This course was in the specific sub-field/research area that I want to study in grad. school. Normally students perform their best in the favorite classes, but I didn't take the news of her retirement/absence from my life well.

I want to add that if it's unethical to share her feedback, I'll delete it. I only wanted to provide an honest assessment of the quality, and without sharing the entire paper, I wasn't sure how else to do that.

Edit- this isn't a duplicate of How does the admissions process work for Ph.D. programs in the US, particularly for weak or borderline students? because that question doesn't address research. My question was more about getting second chances after mistakes/screw ups than the admission process itself. As such, I'm asking for my post to be reopened.

Can One Poorly Written Research Paper Derail Your Academic Future?

No, it can’t. It sounds like you are catastrophizing. And in any case, if you got an A-, it’s extremely unlikely that your paper is poorly written. So as in the case of the advice I gave in the other linked answer, your excessive concern about ruining your academic career with a single small mishap is a much greater potential obstacle to success than the mishap you’re obsessing about. I suggest that you pay more attention to your mindset and mental state, and less attention to worrying about your work being slipshod despite external, objective evidence suggesting otherwise.

Good luck!


Job application with contradicting/invalid student feedbacks as supportings I am applying for a post that requests me to provide student feedbacks. While my evaluation scores are pretty good, the feedback written by students sometime contradict each other. Some student wrote, "He is very nice and caring," while another wrote, "He is too harsh! :(" (yes, with the :( )

The contradicting one could be explained somehow, as students have different perspectives, but some feedbacks were invalid. For example, a student wrote "did not mark homework quickly," but my course did not have any homework.

I could foresee the interviewer will ask me to comment on these review—what is the best way to address them, particularly, for the invalid comments. For instance, I worry that the interviewer won't believe me when I say my course did not have homework.

(My university uses electronic feedback system so all the comments were printed on 2 A4 sheets, thus I cannot skip those invalid feedbacks.)

Everybody who evaluates student feedback expects a certain number of false positives / negatives. If a small-ish fraction of your students gave bad or just plain false feedback this is nothing to worry about.

  I could foresee the interviewer will ask me to comment on these review, what is the best way to address them?

If those are only a few, then I doubt that an interviewer will be overly concerned by them. If she is, you can truthfully explain that it is simply not possible to be everybody's perfect teacher. Student's expectations differ, so it is infeasible to be great for everybody.

  In particular those comments which were invalid. For instance, I worry the interviewer won't believe me when I say my course did not have homework.

Why do these specifically worry you? Frankly, "did not mark homework quickly" is not exactly a crushingly bad feedback even if correct.

  (My university uses electronic feedback system so all the comments were printed on 2 A4 sheets, so I cannot skip those invalid feedback)

Of course not :) what would be the point if you could just pick-and-choose which feedback you consider valid?


Can/should math majors consider graduate school in physics? I am a math major in my early years of undergrad, and I'm wondering if math majors can or should consider pursuing graduate school in (theoretical) physics. I don't think there's a barrier in terms of logistics, since there's quite a bit of overlap between pure math and theoretical physics — but I'm not sure if math majors fulfill the prerequisites (if any) to pursuing graduate school in physics.
Would a typical math major be required to take some more physics classes than usual, or have some research experience in theoretical physics before trying for grad school in related areas? Or are schools (and advisors) happy to accept pure math majors with minimal physics background whatsoever (maybe to start certain things from scratch in grad school)?
My question is specific to PhD programs right after undergrad, and schools in the U.S. or U.K.

A pure math major with no physics classes beyond those required for an undergraduate degree is going to be woefully unprepared for graduate school in physics.  There is, in fact, relatively little overlap between pure math and theoretical physics; vector calculus, linear algebra, and group theory are about it.  (I double majored in pure math and in physics as an undergraduate, and there was very little useful overlap between the two, although some more subtle connections do become apparent at the advanced graduate level.)  I would be very surprised if graduate program in physics would admit somebody with no physics beyond two introductory semesters of mechanics and electromagnetism.
Many (although not all) graduate programs in physics will let their less-prepared graduate students take (or retake) senior-level classes in classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and electrodynamics.  However, if you have little to no familiarity with the intermediate level physics topics, like waves, special relativity, thermodynamics, statistics (even people doing research in purely theoretical physics generally need to have to have a very firm understanding of statistical methods), etc., you are simply not going to be prepared for physics graduate school.  An undergraduate major in applied mathematics is much more likely to cover material relevant to graduate study in physics.
Many of the strongest physics students double major in math, since a physics major already typically requires a certain number of advanced math classes (selected from things like vector analysis, linear algebra, group theory, probability theory, etc.).  And there are also people who major only in math, but take enough intermediate- and advanced-level physics classes as well to make them plausible candidates for graduate school in physics.  Some physics departments (such as mine) would seriously consider math majors with this level of preparation, but others will not even look at applicants without a full program of quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, etc. classes.  So if you are hoping to go to graduate school in physics, you will probably need to take a significant number of intermediate physics courses, at a minimum.  (Sometimes, these courses may not actually need to be taught by a physics department though.  There are often applied math classes covering wave behavior, for example, that could be suitable substitutes.)


How to list workshop presentations on a CV when circumstances change? This might be a bit of an unusual situation. I was accepted to a workshop as a solo authored abstract, but a situation arose in which I was unable to attend. However, the organizer allowed for my colleague and myself to combine our presentations since we work on similar research. What would be the best way to list this on my CV? Just list the final presentation, e.g.,

  Colleague and Myself. "Joint presentation on cool research subject."
  NSF Workshop, 2019.

or should I list the original abstract which appeared the proceedings, e.g.,

  Myself. "Cool research project." presented by Colleague as part of
  Colleague and  Myself. "Joint presentation on cool research subject."
  NSF Workshop, 2019.

I think the second option is better since the abstract appeared in the proceedings. Otherwise, the first would probably be best. People searching will likely be looking for the abstract as accepted and published.


Where to write famous quotes in my dissertation? sina madani asked: "Do I need to cite the source of a famous quote in my thesis?" However, my question if I choose to write famous quotes in my dissertation, where and how should I write the quotes? What should I do for both cases if I am writing them per chapter and for the whole dissertation?

I guess if you write a quote that is representative or applies to the whole dissertation, you can have it somewhere in the beginning e.g. after the title page and before the abstract.

If now you want to add a quote that applies to a specific chapter, you can add it right below the chapter title (maybe also aligned to the right side) and before the text of the chapter begins.


Which kind of article could be "more suitable for a journal than for a conference"? Which kind of article could be "more suitable for a journal than for a conference"?

I just received a very curious rejection from a conference in Computer Science, where the second referee argues that:

  I remain not convinced that it is very suitable for a conference.  (...)
  I still believe it is solid work, suitable for a journal, but probably too specialized and too technical for a conference such as (...).

Beyond my own judgment (this article builds upon results published in general journals publishing the same types of results than this conference), the statement that the article is "too specialized and too technical" seems contradicted by the comments from the two other referees (who both judged the paper to be relevant to the conference):

Referee 1 find everything "certainly understandable" and "clearly written", which does not sound "specialized" nor "technical":

  The work, while not spectacular, is very solid and worthy of presentation at STACS. The problems are certainly understandable to all, and the methods are interesting.
  The paper is clearly written and I have very few editorial comments.

Referee 3 finds the results "clearly described" to the point of potentially "incremental" (but still acceptable):

  The paper is well organized, some algorithms are clearly described, and some proofs are given.
  I am far from an expert, but the result seems interesting. Maybe they could be considered incremental, but that is to be expected for such an longly studied topic.

I have seen many papers presented at conferences without ever passing the threshold to be published in a journal, and I read on Glencora Borradaile's blog (here) how she found easier sometimes to submit directly to a journal (which we will do for these results), but I had never heard of results deemed more appropriate for a journal than for a conference.

While both types of venues generally use the same assessment criteria for submissions -- novelty, technical soundness, technical depth, clarity of the description --, the weighting of these criteria  differs a bit between conferences and journals.

This is the case because conferences have three distinguishing features: (i) a page limit, (ii) a shorter (or at least more predictable) review cycle,  and (iii) immediate feedback through discussion with an informed audience. Each of these features contributes to an increased importance of the criterion "novelty" and a decreased importance of "technical depth".

The fact that Reviewers 1 and 3 have used the words "not spectacular" and "maybe incremental" indicates that the reviewers were not convinced of a sufficient level of novelty.


Check plagiarism before submitting to journal Last year, I submitted a paper to the WISA2019 journal. Unfortunately it was rejected. So if I submit that paper to other journals, will Turnitin’s result show a high percentage of plagiarized material? I mean, my paper is already in Turnitin’s database (the WISA2019 editor checked papers by Turnitin).
As a student, if I check my new second paper by Turnitin in my professor’s class (he will give me the class id and enrollment key), will it increase the plagiarism result when I submit my new paper to a journal? The purpose is to know the plagiarism report before submitting to a scientific journal.
Are professors able to see every assignment submission that is submitted by the student? For example If I submit an essay the first time, then after resubmitting an edited essay, will the instructor be able to see the first essay which is erased by the "resubmitting process".

I'll answer question #1: No. Let us not worry about Turnitin specifically, but plagiarism is if you take someone else's text and present it as your own. That is not the case here: You wrote the manuscript, and you remain to be the person who came up with both the ideas and the actual text. It is not plagiarized, and Turnitin will show it as not plagiarized.

There is also no other issue: Since the paper was not accepted by the first journal, you continue to be the owner of the copyright in the paper, and are free to submit it again wherever you want.


How do Universities deal with applicants from high schools that don't offer other languages After reading my local paper - there was an article stating more funding cuts for some local public high schools in the district that I live in. There have been budget cuts almost every year for the past decade (ish).

At first they got rid of a lot of art and music related courses as well as Latin. The schools only currently offer 2 languages (Spanish and French, not that it matters) but now the budget cuts are likely going to force the schools to eliminate the extra languages too so that they don't removed required courses like science and English.

This got me thinking, not only for the area in which I live, but all over the US. How do Universities go about evaluating students that don't have any formal second language courses from their high school not because of choice but because of not having an opportunity?

I know that second language learning in the US has been declining, but my local Universities either require 1 year of a second language or strongly recommend 2 years of a second language.

Do Universities look into the high schools of applicants to conclude "Both these students have similar grades but student A went to a high school that offered languages and didn't take one, whereas student B went to a high school that didn't offer languages".

Is there any hope for students with their opportunities being defunded to compete with other applicants from better-funded high schools? Are students from underfunded schools SOL?

Is there any hope for students with their opportunities being defunded to compete with other applicants from better-funded high schools? Are students from underfunded schools SOL?

As a preface I will say that HS foreign language programs are much more forgiving than college or university programs, not just from an objective difficulty standpoint, but also because learning foreign languages is much easier at younger ages.

Being said, unfortunately many institutions have an application process in place that can potentially disqualify a student automatically on the basis of missing credentials (not bad, missing). But, I cannot speak for every institution.

There are ways students can get around this, but they have to be proactive, @guifa put good options in the comments:

1) You dual-enroll in HS. I actually recommend this, because I did not dual-enroll and when I started taking college courses, I realized that they would have been a much better use of my time, personally.

2) Take a distance learning course. This is somewhat difficult due to technology/off-campus requirements, especially when we're talking areas where the schools can't afford their programs, but should be doable.

3) Go to a junior/community college for 2 years, transfer. You can take the foreign language at either institution sometimes, you mostly need it done ahead of time to transfer, but if not to get your degree you have to have at least 2 years done, 4 years for some Arts degrees. The big disadvantage here is some universities have big experiences like research or internships that junior/community colleges wont be able to afford you, so upon transfer you have to work harder for undergrad. experience and LoRs.

In all the above cases, before you do anything you make sure your credits are official and you make sure they transfer. I've seen plenty of cases where students take courses at community colleges with wonky accreditation to find out much, much later that the course in question needs to be retaken at the new institution because it didn't transfer. You can confirm this by talking first to your institution, and then to where you plan on transferring, and get in writing that the courses are going to be okay.


Can I use the texts in my paper for bioconductor? My group has published a paper to a journal (Natural Methods). Now, I'd like to dump the text in the paper for my R-package vignette and user-manual (bioconductor).

Can I do it without reference our group's own paper? Or do I have to reference the journal? Does the journal hold the copyright for the published materials?

The customary way to do this is to refer in the manual to the paper.

You are probably not allowed to copy-paste the text of the published paper. If you are concerned about the paywall, many journals allow you to use/distribute the manuscript which you submitted to the journal (prior to editing) - but you should verify this first for Nature Methods.


Should I leave my area of interest as my supervisor advised? I am an undergraduate student, applying for honours next year. I asked my current supervisor if he is willing to supervise me and he said he had to change the current project as I took a lot of time to do calculations, there was a lot of going back and forth and he said I am an average student and a project in this field in honours will be very challenging for me. I think that he does not have a good opinion of me. I am very heartbroken and have no idea what to do. Should I change my field? He said you should look for a field you are better at but I actually like my current field a lot.

I think you're too early in your career to say one way or the other. I had an undergrad prof say I should teach high school rather than pursue research based on my GPA halfway through undergrad, saying I'd never make it to grad school.
Now I'm a postdoc at a pretty nice institute in an extremely competitive field, and I've seen many other people who looked better on paper than I did at that point get weeded out of this career (not getting into grad school, failing prelim exams, not finishing the PhD, finishing the PhD with no postdoc offers, etc). Many people who have judged me as the stupider scientist and talked down to me couldn't make it in the field, so I wish I hadn't put so much weight on what they said at the time.
If you love the work, keep at it. Doing something you're passionate about for an undergrad degree is hardly a waste of time, even if you ultimately have to go a different route.
Keep a plan B in your back pocket. The nice thing about academia is the hiring timeline is usually a lot earlier than industry, so if you don't get into grad school/get the next level job, you still have a few months to pivot into an industry search. Depending on your financial situation, you may need to pursue both options simultaneously to avoid he risk of being unemployed, but it's doable. As long as you like the work/the lifestyle and you still have options, keep at it.
Also there are lots of professors out there with opinions, so don't just select one at random to decide your fate. Actually the bar is way lower: if you can find one person who believes in you at the undergrad level, that's enough, even if everyone else says you're no good. Later on in your career, shoot for at least three senior people who think you're great. Ignore the rest of the noise.
But an academic career can be hard at times, especially for the people that aren't flying through prestigious institutes with a ton of encouragement and no pushback. If you approach the career the way I'm describing, it will be really hard at times. If you find the work and lifestyle worth it, keep going, but the reality is that the lifestyle is not easy and there's no shame in leaving for a more comfortable life.


Recommendation letter from a PhD-to-be? I am applying for Master programs in Educational and Clinical Psychology. And I am in the process of choosing people for writing my recommendation letters. I have a BA in Psychology and I wasn't much involved in research - except when I did my year aboard, I participated in a research project launched by a teaching assistant who was then a PhD student at that college. We conducted the experiments together, collected and analyzed the results. In the end, he supervised my Research Project Thesis.

It was a valuable hands-on research experience for me. And I am thinking about asking him to write my recommendation letter. However, though he is still actively involved in several research, he hasn't yet obtained his PhD degree (he will in the coming year). So I am concerned that a recommendation letter written by him would look nice, but at the same time it would lack some sort of legitimacy and affect my chance of being shortlisted for further interviews.

So my question is - would a recommendation letter written by a non-PhD referee carry less weight and even not taken seriously? Should I ask this person to write the recommendation letter for me?

Thanks for viewing my question and I look forward to your answers. Thank you for your help!

Typically reference letters should come from faculty, as you implied.  If you were supervised by a graduate student, ask the graduate student's faculty advisor to write the letter.  Very likely the faculty member will ask the graduate student for assistance in writing the letter.  This will get you the legitimacy and the content you need.  It can be awkward because faculty need to create the impression they wrote the letter themselves, but you can finesse it.  When I was a PhD student supervising undergraduates I just told them that I would ghostwrite the professor's letter.


Is it considered self-plagiarism if I submit a part of my own paper as another 2-page demo paper for demonstration purposes? Recently I submitted an IEEE conference paper about an open-source machine learning project/framework related to mobile networks. Now, I also want to demonstrate its features at another IEEE conference using a 2-page demo paper.

Considering the original paper is still in reviewing process, is it ethical to submit a related demonstration paper with the same approach to another conference. I mean from self-plagiarism aspects, can I use the same title and experiment results in demo paper as well just for showcasing purposes? If not, how can I also reference the original paper considering it is not published/accepted yet!

As long as the demo paper is not peer-reviewed and not published in any kind of proceedings, this should not count as self-plagiarism because it does not count as a proper publication. I would put it more in the same section as giving a talk about your results.

You should however check the regulations of the conference you originally submitted to. The author guidelines normally have section about dual submissions that clearly define if, for example, an arxiv submission is allowed and what you should or should not do to maintain your anonymity.

If the conference allows to publish a preprint on arxiv, you can upload it there and cite it in your demo paper.


What's holidays entitlement for postdocs in the UK? I applied for a postdoc position. In the job description, they mentioned that they offer a 30 days holiday plus bank holidays and Christmas closure. But when I received a formal offer, they mentioned this: "219 hours plus all customary and statutory bank holidays per holiday year". This means at most, 2 weeks per year? Am I missing missing? Is this common for postdocs in the UK?

Maybe you are thinking you need to take a full 24 hours of vacation to get the day off?
Typically you take hours off for your working hours (I'm in the US but I can't really imagine this being different for the UK; also the math works out). So for a job as stated where you have a total of 36.5 hours of working time per week, 219 hours would then be exactly 6 weeks (aka 30 work days) of vacation, which you can take in whatever increments are suitable (say, 4 hours if you need just half the day, 7.5 hours for a full Tuesday, etc). There might be some limits on when this time can actually be taken to not conflict with certain job responsibilities, but given proper notice they should accommodate your requests.
It would be reasonable to clarify exactly how vacation hours are awarded and taken (I'd search on the university website for some regulations before asking someone about it) but the numbers stated seem like they fit with the "30 days" in the job description.


How have perceptions of ResearchGate changed from 2014 to 2018? About 4 years ago, a question was asked about usefulness of ResearchGate for academics. Judging by the most upvoted answers, the portal had a rather negative opinion back then. However, social media trends tend to change on much shorter timescales, and my experience with RG has actually been slightly positive. This makes me curious as to how the perception has changed since then.

To quote the previous question, I would be very interested in knowing if, as of 2018, ResearchGate is a good way of increasing the visibility of your publications and finding fellows with common research interests, or is it just a "waste of time"?

Since the above is - as many have rightly pointed out - too opinion based, I would like to ask, more specifically: In what ways has ResearchGate changed over the last 4 years? How do these changes affect perception of ResearchGate in the academic community?

I have a Researchgate profile, but I only see my activity decreasing in the near future. To me, the issue with RG is that it only appeals to junior or unknown scholars. While it is great that they now have a way of disseminating their research, RG doesn't help reaching the "big names" because most don't use the platform. Most fields are sufficiently small that people reasonably know each other or can ask someone else to be introduced. Hence, RG doesn't help narrowing the gaps between academic circles of "big names" and "unknown researchers", although this is something urgently necessary.

Additionally, many of the services that RG provides are subpar compared to competitors. I already have a number of ways to keep updated with the current literature in my field, and most of the recommendations that RG sends me are unsurprising or duplicate. The citation/read count is mostly useless, and many services such as Google Scholar and Scopus are much better at that. The platform for including current projects is also fairly inflexible and generally asks to share more than what the researcher is comfortable with---lab webpages are much better at that. I also don't see RG as a reasonable platform for uploading preprints, and like many uncurated venues, most people who do resemble cranks, and I don't use RG to look into someone's publications because it looks messy and incomplete. I use Google Scholar, Scopus or personal webpages for that.

I have never used the "Questions" section of RG, but the few times I glanced it, I expected to see some sort of a forum for academic discussion over some topic, but it seemed more like a watered-down version of SE minus the efficient curating. And most questions remain unanswered.

I do keep my RG updated, and every week or two I receive a request for a pdf of one of my papers. I suppose easing this request process is an advantage over other means of communication, but I don't think many people who use RG attend those requests anyway. I have also never received a request to collaborate through RG, but I have received such requests through e-mail.

I think the rationale behind RG is interesting (i.e., connecting researchers online), but it just doesn't work well, and doesn't appeal to most of the relevant people in (my) community. Collaborating in science is incredibly difficult and time-consuming. I don't see how an online platform that connects people who don't know each other and have no way of knowing how each other work can reasonably help at that.

I do think one aspect of RG is fine, which is post-publication peer-review. But while it does allow people to publicly comment in publications, the platform is also not built for long comments, only back-patting, and most people don't use it for that anyway.

In general, it seems that maintaining your own webpage, even if with much less functionality, appears to be better than having a ResearchGate profile. But two things that RG attempts to implement are worth pursuing: 1) post-publication peer-review, and 2) some way to connect people from the same field but who belong to different academic circles.


My supervisor published our work without informing us. Can we retract the paper from the conference in anyway? We (myself and my thesis partner) worked on a research problem in 2017 as part of our undergrad thesis course in our university under a supervisor. We successfully defended our thesis in our thesis defence in our university and prepared an IEEE-formatted paper as per the request of our supervisor as he told us that we would be publishing it in a flagship conference in the following year. I personally mailed the final version of the paper to our supervisor.
We followed up with him till July 2018 as the proposal had to be sent to that conference by July 2018. But our supervisor told us that he didn't want to publish it in that conference. He rather told us that we would publish it in a good journal in the immediate future. We tried to follow up with him on several occasions about that but he somehow skipped through the conversations.
At the start of this month, my partner was searching through some research work in IEEE where he saw a paper titled exactly to that of our thesis work. When he dug in, he found out that our supervisor published the paper in that same conference without our names. The conference was in October 2018 and the paper was published in IEEE Xplore in December 2018. We collected the paper and saw that it was the same paper with the same title that I emailed my supervisor (only a few words here and there have been changed, about 90-95% is the same).
He along with his name added his PhD supervisor (who is a dean of a renowned university in our country) and a Korean professor in that paper as authors. One similar case is here in which the victim was yet to confront his supervisor directly and also told later he was acknowledged at the end of the journal. But in our case, we didn't get any acknowledgment. Also when we confronted our supervisor with the matter, he told us that he forgot to include our names which sounded more like preplanned. He also told us to not raise the issue further and offered us to help to publish the paper by extending it in a journal in the future.
We have talked to the department head about this. Although he was hurt by it, he hinted that the department won't be able to help much as there were two renowned and influential professors involved. Because our department gets benefited from them in several ways.
We have worked so hard for this work for nearly one and a half years as well as spent some huge money to buy some equipment for collecting the dataset. We're totally distraught and shocked by this incident. We would like to remove that paper from that conference somehow as we've worked so hard for this.
Is it possible though? If it is then what are the procedures of retracting the paper from that IEEE conference? Or should we just accept our supervisor's offer and move on from it?
For your kind information, I have the email proof of sending the paper to my supervisor as well as our thesis book with our name in it as an acknowledgement that it is our work which was signed by our supervisor, department head, and an external professor during our undergrad defence.

Disclaimer: IANAL.

As you evidently realized yourself, your supervisor had no right to do that. It is a completely unethical kind of behaviour which breaches academic rules to a great extent.

First, you must carefully weigh your options. In particular if you and your partner are still in this department and plan to stay there doing your PhD for example, be aware that your actions might have serious consequences for the people in this department (especially the supervisor obviously, who would face disciplinary sanctions), and they might resent you for that; it could damage your chances there.

If you decide to proceed, I would suggest to contact an appropriate instance at the level of your institution (not your department, since it proved useless). I'm not sure which one is the most relevant: I would probably start with a students representative or union, otherwise ethics board or legal office. I'm assuming that they would support you and in the end force the supervisor to retract the paper.

If this doesn't work for any reason, you can raise the issue directly with the editor. IEEE is likely to take this kind of issue very seriously, they will check your evidence and probably ask the supervisor for explanations. If they are convinced the paper will be retracted. In this case the consequences are probably worse for the reputation of the supervisor, the department and the institution: this a public sanction by a renowned editor, as opposed to the official author asking themselves to retract it.