Should I write about quitting a currently Masters program in a Motivation Letter? I am writing a motivation letter to apply to a masters program in an engineering field in an international university (Germany, Italy). I would like to continue from there on a research path.

However, currently I am enrolled in a professional masters program that I would like to discontinue. The reason for this is that the current program provides very limited research opportunities and will likely make it very hard for me to continue as a researcher.

I would like to know if I should write anything about my current masters program to the university I am applying to. On one hand, I would like to highlight the experience and the achievements I have gained in my current program; since I have not completed the program I cannot write about it in my CV. On the other hand, I do not want this to have any negative impact; how do I explain why I was enrolled in the program in the first place.

One year ago, I had no interest in continuing as a researcher; I only applied to the masters program because several friends of mine applied and because I was granted a 100% scholarship. Now that I have some experience in research, I know that I want to continue in this path.

My question is, should I include the masters program I am currently enrolled to in my motivation letter? if so, what are the main things that I need to write about?

In my opinion, from a US perspective, you should definitely mention your current Masters program and reasons for wanting to shift to a research-based degree.

The language you use in your question, and the brief length you allot to your current program and reasons for deciding on different path, are fact-based, honest, and positive.

The questions I have are:

Do you have interim grades from your current program that you can include in the letter?
Do you have a current professor who would be willing to discuss your talents and performance, and your promise as a student in a more research-based degree?

And finally,

How much time is left to finish your current program?  If it is a year or less, I suggest you just finish it. The process of applying and starting a new program will likely take most of a year anyway, and this way you will have the degree on your CV and your reasons for pursuing another Masters as a path to a PhD still hold.

I don't know about international universities, but in the US, most science and engineering schools award a Masters on the way to a PhD, it's pretty seamless.

Good luck with your studies either way, and on your future.


Prerequisite for research in discrete mathematics I hope to apply graduate math department for MS/PhD in math. My area of interest are discrete math, combinatorics, graph theory... etc.Now I have few questions :

Which are the prerequisites for these courses ? and Which grade of my undergraduate are more important ?
I am also a bit confused that whether I will apply for a pure or applied dept ?

This is a US centric answer. If you are applying to a mathematics doctoral program in the US and have a mathematics undergraduate degree then the specialty you want to pursue isn't especially important. First, a broad based undergraduate degree has what you need to get started in a US doctoral program. If your undergraduate degree is other than math, you have a more complicated situation, but admission is still possible if you have, in general, "enough" math.
But one reason that this is the case is that such programs start out heavy in coursework, so if you need more combinatorics, for example, you will be able to get it before starting research.
The prerequisites you need for research are probably at the discretion of the advisor you will (later) choose to guide you. They may have some specific suggestions.
The one thing you might need to consider, however, is whether the pure and applied math specialties are contained within a single department or split between departments. Some splitting is common, as having statistics (different example, I know) separate from math. If pure an applied are in a single department, then you don't need to make a selection before applying, and you may be able to delay that decision for a year or two while you take some courses and learn more about possible advisors.
In other countries the situation might be drastically different, of course, with more expected on entry but a shorter time-frame for getting the degree.


Suspecting an undiagnosed learning disability in a student I have a student whose academic performance seems starkly disproportionate to his potential. He is full of interesting ideas and questions and enthusiasm, and frequently talks to me before and after class. I enjoy his company and I was fully expecting that his classroom work would be excellent.

It's not. In fact, he's only narrowly passing my course. His homework assignments are painfully underdeveloped and his test scores mediocre. Other instructors have reported similar experiences with him. It seems so incongruous. I don't think it's a problem of work ethic; he is in his late thirties or thereabouts and is happy to be pursuing a degree in my field (linguistics). I can't shake the sense that he puts a ton of effort into his work but can only get so far. Given the level of our oral conversations, it's difficult to believe how much and how regularly he misinterprets written guidelines.

Obviously, it's possible that there's something going on here that isn't any of my business. But the student himself keeps looking really disappointed in himself and his results, and my suggestions thus far that he simply keep at it and ask me lots of questions are starting to feel useless.

I have no actual credentials in psychology. However, I keep wondering if I should give the situation a little nudge. The idea of suggesting that my student get evaluated for learning disabilities makes me feel like I'm meddling or overstepping a boundary, but I keep wondering if I'm looking at an executive function disorder or even some kind of dyslexia.

Does anyone have any thoughts or advice?

I might meet with the student and ask about class performance without pushing any particular hypothesis. Going with the sandwich (good thing/bad thing/good thing) approach: "StudentName, I appreciate your active participation in class -- it's incredibly heartening -- but I'm noticing that your performance on assignments and exams doesn't show the same level of understanding that I hear from you in class. I really want you to do well here. What's going on? Can I help?"

And then listen. Have several referrals ready beforehand -- disability office, yes, but also the writing center, tutoring center, any helpful affinity groups the student might be appropriate for, and so on -- so that you can make the most useful, least overwhelming suggestions.


How do schools typically handle a request for short-term leave from a student? A student at my college will graduate soon and go to the US to study full-time, on a visa. His family however, are planning an important event sometime in the middle of the semester, and they hope that he can return to his home country for two weeks, then return to the US to finish the semester.

During that semester, he will only be taking courses and will not be receiving any grants.

Do colleges typically have a policy prohibiting such arrangements? Are professors generally willing to accommodate such requests, e.g. adjusting deadlines for homework?

Colleges do not prohibit such events because colleges can't prohibit such events.  On the contrary, colleges have policies explicitly permitting absences for certain specific reasons: travel on university business (including athletics), documented medical emergencies, deaths in the family.  There is typically a special grade of "Incomplete" awarded if the material missed is critical, such as a final exam; the student takes the final soon upon returning and the grade is adjusted accordingly.

As for what the professors will do, this is highly variable.  Some will be accommodating and will extend deadlines, others will mark missed work with zero, while a few might even kick the student out of the course.

Luckily, there is a simple solution for this student.  While enrolling for classes, at the very beginning of the term, he should speak to the professors involved and explain the situation.  If any professor is particularly hostile, then he should take a different course instead.  In extremely unlucky circumstances, a specific course will be essential to take that term (and no later), and the professor will be very hostile.  In this case it might end up that the student takes longer to graduate.


Profs who have done a full year sabbatical overseas with a family: How did you make it work? I'm curious to hear from any American professor out there who has successfully done a full-year sabbatical overseas, with his or her family along for the ride. How did you make it work for you financially and personally?

For context: I'll be eligible in 2018 for my first sabbatical in my 20-year career (I changed jobs twice and the tenure clock got reset). I would very much like to take an entire year, and I have contacts at a university in the UK (I am in the US) with mutual interest in me coming to spend a year there doing teaching and research. What I don't have is any idea how to pull this off logistically, since I have three kids ages 7, 10, and 12, and a wife with a full-time job. My university only gives half salary for a full-year sabbatical, so we would have to replace half of my salary plus all of my wife's salary (about $30K US), rent our house to cover mortgage expenses, enroll the kids in schools, rent a house in the host country, etc. I believe I would be given a small salary at the host institution if I taught a class (which I would love to do) but still, that's a lot of income to replace and I am not sure if my wife can take a year off.

I do believe the professional experience would be amazing, and it would be an incredible experience for my kids that would be absolutely worth the upheaval. But I'm at a loss to know how to make this work -- so your experiences and ideas would be most welcome.

I have looked into Fulbright fellowships, but my understanding of how those work is that you can only pick from the universities and positions that Fulbright has in a list. The institution I am referring to is not one of those. Also -- simply squirreling away money to save up for it is not an option for a number of reasons.

I've taken two full-year overseas sabbaticals, each on my half-salary plus a small ad-hoc stipend from the host institution, the first with just my wife and the the second with my wife and our two small children.  Fortunately my wife's job is flexible enough to allow for occasional leaves without pay.

We rented out our house (at a slight discount, because the renters also took care of our dog).  We lived like students in a small apartment.  We took public transportation everywhere.  During the second sabbatical, our kids enrolled in the on-campus kindergarten; that was one of the key reasons we went where we did.

We also burned through several thousand dollars in savings and racked up several thousand more in credit card debt, which took a couple of years to pay off, but the experience was worth every penny.  We're looking forward to doing it a third time in a few years, despite the extra complication of older children.

The most important thing I can suggest is to forget the idea of making up your and your wife's missing salaries, or even a significant fraction thereof.  It's just not going to happen.  You just have to live with less and make it work.

The other important thing is that it has to work for your entire family.  No matter how good the experience might be for you professionally, if you aren't visiting a place where your family can actually enjoy living, you are all going to be utterly miserable.  I strongly recommend making connections with the families of your colleagues at your host institution, well before the final planning stages.


What are the different components of degree titles called? Some degree titles have many components, e.g.:

Master of Arts in Psychology: Behavioral Health
|_A__|_B_____|_C___________|_D________________|

Another e.g.:

Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction: Special Education
|_A__|_B__________|_C___________________________|_D________________|

What are these components called?

To take one of your examples:

Master of Arts in Psychology: Behavioral Health
|_A__|_B_____|_C___________|_D________________|

"Master" is the degree. Etymologically, "degree" comes from "degré": the step of a stair (or  rung of a ladder). "Degree" can be synonymous with "level" or "extent" - it is a measure. You could say "the level of a degree", but that would be a tautology. It's not incorrect, but "level" is redundant there - "degree" already says everything that you'd be trying to get from "level". Degree is a very flexible word, and can be used to refer to just part A, parts A+B, parts A+B+C, and parts A+B+C+D.

Then either:
"Psychology" is the subject and "Behavioral Health" is the speciality, or "Psychology: Behavioral Health" is the subject. You might also hear "field" used instead of "subject".

"of Arts" doesn't really have a well-recognised name. You could call it type, kind, field, sort, school or faculty, but in the end, if you want to ask what sort of Master's someone has, you'll probably end up saying something like: "What kind of Master's? Master of Science, Arts, MBA, something else?"


How can a US student (who does not hold UK citizenship) get a funded PhD in Engineering at Oxford/Cambridge? Background.
I was a previously an Engineering PhD student at a decent US university.  Since I am a US citizen, obtaining funding for an engineering PhD was relatively easy.  I now seek to enter a PhD program in the UK, where I am not a citizen.

Question.

  ---Besides the Gates Scholarship, how does a non-UK citizen get funding for an Engineering PhD at competitive institutions like Oxford and Cambridge?
  ---Is it common for US citizens (who do not hold duel UK citizenship) to obtain funding for an Engineering PhD at these schools?  Or, are the odds of obtaining funding so low that it is a foolish endeavor?
  ---What are some common methods for self-funding at these schools?  Is a part-time engineering job feasible?  What scholarships/fellowships are available for non-UK citizens?

I can only explain how funding happens at UCL since this is where I'm located. Oxford and Cambridge will have their own specific sources of funding. All UK universities have this in common, though: PhD positions in Engineering are primarily funded via the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). The EPSRC imposes very tight rules to ensure it spends its money only on locals:

you must be able to stay indefinitely in the UK
you must have continuously resided in the UK in the past 3 years
you must have done so for purposes other than full-time education (though I'm unsure if that rule is actively enforced)

In rare cases, universities are allowed to spend some of their EPSRC money on foreigners. The Doctoral Training Centers I know about in UCL have one or two scholarships available to all.

Now getting into the specifics of UCL where I study. There are other types of funding available:

UCL Graduate Resource Scheme: tuition fees + £15.5k for 3-4 years, but extremely competitive
Discretionary departmental funding: depends on department, also covers tuition + stipend for 3-4 years
Special scholarships: some scholarships are available on specific topics by scientific societies or for specific populations (e.g. women in computer science). You'll usually find a run-down of such opportunities on each department's application website as well as dedicated scholarship search sites.
Lecturer/Professor money: case-by-case, but at least covers a £15.5k stipend as this is the minimum required for surviving in London. The money can come from industrial partners, FP7 programmes, EPSRC projet grants... This is probably the most common source of funding for non-UK students.
Part-time research: that's not very common but totally possible, you can do your PhD part-time and have a job to support you. You'll still be expected to spend half of your time on your PhD so the job ought to be part-time too, and you should not attempt this under £16k a year post-tax (income tax and council tax). Being a TA does not pay well enough (£4-5k a year at most, if you teach a lot).

You should expect most sources of funding not to cover your tuition fees, which amount to roughly £4000 a year. In any case, in UK universities the application process is completely decoupled from the funding process, so you should apply and get accepted on academic merit before your proposed supervisor starts looking into funding, and the availability (or absence thereof) of funding does not affect the admission decision at all.


Can you use quotes / poems in published papers? Sometimes I see quotes or poems at the beginning of a peer-reviewed article. I am guessing that there are some copyright laws to consider here. How does one check whether or not a quote or a poem can be used in such a capacity?
There are poems in the "public domain" here: https://www.public-domain-poetry.com/, but does that mean that one can use it in a publication as one could with creative commons licenses? Peer-reviewed publications aren't for profit by the authors, but I am guessing they would be considered as for profit for the publishers. How does one navigate such issues?
A related link here: Can I use images showing up in Google search for my presentation slides without violating any copyright? is helpful, but not exactly what I am looking for.

The normal copyright laws apply. Old works don't have issues about reuse/republication, but should be cited to the author to avoid charges of plagiarism. Newer works need to observe that "complete" works can't normally be copied without permission. A poem, even if short, is a complete work.
Quotations are probably fine if cited to the original speaker, but these are seldom enough to be considered "complete works" even if new. But over quoting from a speech might bring you problems.
And note that it doesn't matter whether you gain revenue from a work that cites a poem or whatever. For copyright purposes, the issue is whether you are likely to reduce the value to the originator or not. So, short excerpts are normally fine, but at some point you cross a line making it unnecessary for someone interested to go to the original. IANAL, but something like that, anyway. It is a civil matter to be judged in a lawsuit if a copyright holder chooses to bring it.

Note that plagiarism is not the same as copyright infringement. You avoid plagiarism by citation and you don't need to use any form of copying to commit it. Plagiarism is about ideas. Copyright is more complicated and is governed by law. But copyright eventually expires letting you "copy" the words (or sounds or ...). But citation is still needed even if not always to a specific source.
And note that even public domain works should be cited to the originator.
And finally, plagiarism is a social construct, not a legal one. You can be accused of it and suffer the consequences even though you break no laws. The clear implication is that, in any doubtful/edge cases, you cite. Over citation causes no harm.


What preparatory steps should I be taking for admission into med school? I've been maintaining a great GPA in a specialization undergraduate program, am planning on taking the MCAT this summer, and have been looking into some volunteering/internship opportunities. Are there any other special precautions that I should be taking to increase the likelihood of my acceptance into med school? Are med schools looking for anything in particular for admissions? An all-encompassing, comprehensive answer would be appreciated, but any advice or tips are appreciated :).

Speaking from (1) experience applying and talking to applications officers, and (2) knowing doctors who take part in the admissions process, I would suggest that the ideal medical student would appear as follows:

Any major, but very high grades in all pre-med courses
Very high MCAT score
Experience working in a hospital or medical research lab, with demonstrated results (good recommendations from doctors and published papers, respectively)
Very personable during the interview, well-liked by all interviewers

None of these should be a surprise; they just want awesome, academic students.


How can students with varied interests decide which to pursue in graduate school? I am someone who has wide-ranging interests, and these interests are not terribly interdisciplinary. (Say someone is interested in Physics and History. Or perhaps, Economics and English. Or, Civil Engineering and Music Composition. You get the picture.)

The fields I am interested in do not inherently intersect. They can be fused, however I don't think this interests me, because it would result in a "perversion" of each respective field, for lack of a better word. It seems forced...and would probably ruin my interest in both fields.

It's not that I "like" one field more than another; both fields are interesting to me and I cannot calculate which one is more interesting. The fact is, they are very different, and I like each one for different reasons.

I want to go to grad school, because I enjoy learning, reading, writing, etc. and I am interested in a career in academia. But I am trepidatious about immediately going into grad school because I basically believe, "Whichever field I end up choosing is the field I will be destined to spend the rest of my life (or at least many years) exclusively studying. I really don't want to mess this decision up."

How can someone in my situation decide which interest to pursue in graduate school?

If you like two subjects equally, pick the better paid one for your actual career. That one should be the basis for most of your formal, documented education.

You can still treat the less well paid one as your hobby, and go for informal education in it.

Taking your first example, Physics and History, I would make Physics the subject for formal education such as a master's degree. Go on reading about history, join a historical recreation society, take on-line courses in history, blog about history as your hobby.


Explaining a bad exam result at my annual review As I posted yesterday, I've just taken an exam and failed (quite badly might I add). The course was externally hosted as part of my PhD training in my first year so it won't look very good on my record which has me very worried. I turned the exam in yesterday but I know I've failed, I left half unanswered. I just don't know what's happened to me.
I don't have an excuse for why I've performed so terribly other than the questions were harder (to me) than previous years And I'm burnt out.
How do I explain this failure to the panel?

I see two possibilities. One is that the exam was just more difficult than it was intended to be and that others are in the same situation and so it won't really affect you much. Sometimes questions on exams are misstated and lead students astray, for example.
My advice it that sort of situation, in general but too late to implement now, is to say something sensible for every question if possible, rather than just leaving things blank. That might be helpful in future.
The other possibility is that you were expected to know/do things that you weren't prepared for. In that situation, there isn't really much to say other than that you weren't prepared and intend to do better it future.
But in this situation, you can also ask for advice from faculty about what sort of actions you might have taken to avoid the problem. They might have some actual advice and know both you and the topic.
And a single failure on a single exam (other than a qualifying exam) isn't disqualifying for most. It happens. You may just have to move on.


If I have a low GPA in undergrad, and want to get into top PhD programs, should I do an MS degree or redo my undergrad degree? I want to get into specifically top schools (in materials science and engineering) because I want to have a decent shot at being a professor.

I am aware that quite a few people have successfully done an MS and went on to top PhD programs, but my concern is that because the MS GPA is so inflated, it won't help me in my case. I already have a first author publication soon to be submitted, so my research experiences have been covered well, and my uGPA of 3.1 is my only weakness. Remember, I am trying to get into top schools, where they get so many applications that they are seeking any reason to throw them out.

Because undergrad GPAs are less inflated, I was thinking that doing a whole another undergrad might be more helpful in letting me demonstrate an improvement academically. In addition, some schools require specifically an undergrad GPA limit, apparently without regards to whether the applicant has an MS degree or not. But at the same time, since I would be repeating the same thing, they might not see it as that much of an improvement.

What do you think?

As others have said, getting a second undergrad degree is a waste of time.  Don't bother.

The unfortunate truth is that your undergrad GPA may keep you out of top PhD programs even if you have a Master's degree with a perfect GPA and multiple journal publications.

Top engineering graduate programs receive hundreds or even thousands of applicants every year.  Despite what others may tell you, they're not looking for an excuse to reject applicants because it keeps their US News rating high.  They're looking for excuses to reject because there are far too many applications to judge each one on its merits, and far too many highly qualified applicants to admit them all, and the committee members are faculty who have many other demands on their time and who want sleep occasionally.  In some departments, applications are filtered by GPA even before the first human committee member reads them.

By far the best way over that hurdle is to cultivate a champion -- a faculty member who is active and visible in their research community, who will write you glowing letters describing your strong potential for independent research (in personal, technical, and credible detail), and who will call up their colleagues in other departments to tell them to watch for your application.  The goal here is to interest someone in your target department enough to rescue your application from knee-jerk rejection and evaluate it on its own merits.

And then your application needs to shine on its own merits.  It must provide compelling evidence of your strong potential for independent research.  Yes, your graduate GPA is a (small) part of this, but you need to sell yourself primarily as a future researcher, if not a current researcher, not just someone who excels at classes.  Moreover, this evidence needs to be stronger than for other applicants with higher undergraduate GPAs.  Do not assume that one first-author publication is enough.

All that said... Focusing on research and finding a champion will improve your chances of being admitted to a top program, but they will not guarantee anything.  In particular, even with a strong research record and vocal champions, you may still be rejected because of your undergrad GPA.  Admissions is best considered a random process; the most you (or anyone) can do is improve your odds.

Incidentally, the same advice goes for your longer-term goal of getting a faculty position.  Yes, having a degree from a non-top-10 department makes it harder to get an academic position, but you can work against that disadvantage by developing a killer research portfolio and multiple champions (not just your advisor).  Conversely, a PhD from a top-10 department will not guarantee you success on the faculty job market; you also need a killer research portfolio and multiple champions (not just your advisor).  Start developing that now.


Job search when coming up for tenure I notice that coming up for tenure/getting tenure is often an opportunity to move to another institution (even if tenure is granted). How does this work in practice? Is it common for assistant professors to formally go on the job market the year that they are up for tenure? Do they do it only informally, by asking around? Do schools just make offers to up-for-tenure APs without prompting?

I'm curious how this works, because it seems that often times these moves are worked out shortly after tenure decisions are made, so it seems like they must have been in the works before hand.

I'm most interested in highly ranked US based research universities.

This is a manifestation of game-playing, and is completely understandable once one starts thinking in such terms.

For example, if a person is in an excellent situation to get tenure at their current institution, they are probably in an equally good position to get other jobs, perhaps with tenure.

Another feature: if a person has done good-enough work that they've got outside offers, this can set in motion the getting-tenure process at their current institution.

(Shallowly enough, the "best" certification of one's academic virtue is outside offers.)

At the same time, I think most up-for-tenure assistant profs in the U.S. are not really looking for outside offers as they come up for tenure, so even if they could generate them, they'd not try. For that matter, despite the "rewards", many people find this game-playing obnoxious so don't do it.

To answer another part of your question: yes, most formal job offers only arise after informal inquiries and back-and-forth, because... as with high-school dating... getting turned down is embarrassing. :)

The people who are interested in gaming the system continue to do so after tenure, typically...


"Quarterly Franklin Membership" means? Recently I received a email from London Journals Press.

Dear Dr. Po-Wei Huang,
...
Taking note of your research interest that matches with our journal scope, I would like to welcome you to associate with us. To follow this, our Editorial Board has agreed to recognise you under "Quarterly Franklin Membership" (Membership ID#XC11296).
...
Also I encourage you to have your upcoming research article/paper published in our international, peer-reviewed, refereed journal, London Journal of Engineering Research (LJER) and confirm your review slot before 15th of the coming month for the next issue. ...

At first, I ignored it. But after few days, he sent a follow up email like the following,

I’m writing this as a follow-up for my email which I sent few days ago. I think that you had a glimpse of our Franklin Membership email and our proposal for your membership ID #XC11296. I did not hear back from you since then. If you have any queries regarding the Quarterly Franklin Membership honored to you, I (or my support teammate) would be grateful to provide you with further information.
I hope you don't find this outreach uncomfortable. I was simply wondering if you are still interested in joining our member community. I truly feel that someone like you who is involved in many great research works is ideal for connecting.

I find that London Journals Press is not on the list of predatory journal. So , is there Any recommendation? or should I ask my advisor directly?

It's spam: They gave you a free membership to rope you in, in hopes that you will pay for more memberships and/or publish with their journals. Don't fall for it. Just because this particular publisher isn't listed in one particular list
does not mean that they are acting respectfully and ethically.


Outsourcing a mathematical research problem During my Ph.D. research I encountered a mathematical problem. I found solutions in some cases, but in other cases I couldn't find a solution. My advisors also could not help with this. I asked at Math.SE and MathOverflow, even offered a boundy, but got no hint.

Although I can proceed in my research without a solution to these cases (there are many other problems to solve anyway), they are very interesting and can contribute a lot to understanding the general problem.

The problem itself is very simple, such that even high-school children can understand it. So, I thought of the following idea: give the problem to talented high-school or under-graduate students that go to math olympiads, and offer a monetary bounty (in addition to co-authorship) to the first solver. Hopefully a fresh young mind can succeed where older minds have failed.

What do you think about this idea? Is this ethical? Useful? Done in the past?

It sounds like a great idea to publicize the problem among young people who may have a lot of time on their hands, not a lot of other research ideas, and a desire to demonstrate their abilities through something other than timed contests.

One awkward possibility would be getting stuck in a situation in which someone can't convince you that their solution is correct, but you can't convince them it is incomplete or wrong.  Of course this could happen with anyone, but it's particularly likely to occur with someone who is not an experienced researcher.  If you offer a bounty, you should be clear about the conditions.  (For example, that it all comes down to your judgment, and that you don't commit to spend unlimited amounts of time trying to understand a proposed solution.)

Coauthorship is certainly mandatory if you publish a paper that depends on this solution (unless of course the students publish their solution separately and you cite it).  However, you may run into tricky situations in which it's not enough just to offer coauthorship for the first solution.  For example, if several people solve the problem independently and around the same time, then they should all be treated evenhandedly.  Or what if someone proposes a solution you don't believe, someone else proposes a clearer solution and you offer the second person coauthorship, and then the first person convinces you their solution was correct after all?  Of course these problems are not hard to solve (in the last case, you can't retract the authorship of the second person, but you should make the first an author too if you still can).  But the important thing to keep in mind is that you may need to make sensible decisions that go a little beyond the "first solver is a coauthor" rule.

A final observation is that if you succeed in attracting students to this problem, you will likely get lots of questions and comments from them along the way.  If that appeals to you, then it's an advantage of this approach.  On the other hand, if your goal is to get a solution with a minimum amount of time and attention on your part, then asking beginners might not be fruitful.


How do I speak with my professor about my mental health? I'm an undergraduate in my junior year, and I've been having an especially bad month when it comes to my mental health and academic performance. Two weeks ago, I discovered that I had two midterms, one major project, and an 6-8 page essay due on the same day. I explained my workload to the professor who assigned the essay, and he was kind enough to give me an indefinite extension on the essay (as in, I could "turn it in whenever it was ready", although I assumed that 1-2 weeks was what he would prefer). Since I was granted that extension, I've completely flunked the major project and received C's on the two midterms, all of which I prepared extensively for once I didn't have to worry about the essay. The professor has started hinting that he'd like essays he gave extensions on (he gave extensions to about half the class, since a good 2/3 of our university got the flu around then) to be turned in soon, since he's expecting to receive more essays from another class he's teaching, and doesn't want to be overwhelmed by grading.

It's been two weeks since he gave me the extension. I've spent nearly all of those two weeks attempting to write the essay and then completely breaking down. I start thinking about how kind he was to give me an extension in the first place, and how, by not turning it in by now I'm taking advantage of his kindness, and how my reputation among my department's professors will be ruined. I think about how this essay has to be perfect, since I've completely failed my assignments for every other class, and I have to get this one thing right. I wrote 4 pages of the essay and then deleted them all. I wrote 3 pages of the same paragraph with slightly different wording each time in an attempt to get it perfect. My outline (for this 6-8 page paper!) is 7 pages long. But I have no paper, and I have other major midterms coming up that really just compound my panic over this.

So my question is: how do I talk about this issue with the professor? I want him to know that I'm not trying to take advantage of him or slack off, and that I do actually know the material (as my ridiculously detailed outline shows), but I feel like walking into his office hours and telling him about how my nightly panic attacks are keeping me from writing this essay is...inappropriate? Should I mention my mental health issues at all, or will that seem like some sort of weak excuse?

A number of the things you mentioned you've been thinking about the situation, i.e. you're taking advantage of the teacher's kindness, how your reputation will be ruined etc possibly fall under the category of unhelpful thinking styles or cognitive distortions which are common misguided ways in which people think that often leads to an unhelpful outcome. People with depression and anxiety can be particularly bad at thinking in these misguided ways.

I would recommend seeing a professional mental health expert like a GP or Psychologist as soon as possible and not waiting one month for the councillor. There are lots of tools that professionals can teach to help manage stressful situations like these. Seeing a professional doesn't imply that there is anything wrong with you either. From your post, it seems like you're having a natural reaction to an incredibly high workload and that you haven't gone completely 'off the rails' so to speak. Seeing a professional can help prevent things from getting any worse.

In the meantime, I think the action you should take becomes clearer if you acknowledge that your previous thoughts might be the result of unhelpful thinking patterns. For example: You don't actually know that your reputation is going to be ruined. That impression is most likely the result of some assumptions about someone's reactions. In truth, there are a number of possible outcomes and it is futile to worry about the one possible negative outcome as if that outcome is certain.

I think that the best thing for you to do is to sit down and write out everything you need to do, how long roughly it will take to do and when you are going to do it. If you really need an extension, go and ask the teacher for one and explain the situation and the action you are taking to fix it.

You might find worksheets such as these useful to reduce anxiety levels about the perceived consequences of actions.


How useful is studying MSc Computer Science in Switzerland? I am an international student in Australia studying Bachelor of IT.
Australian education system as the norm here is to take 4 subjects per semester and these subjects are pretty much "dumbed down". So a lot of subjects don't really teach much, for instance for Algorithms and Data Structures subject we weren't taught complexity at all, so during technical interviews for my internships, I was not able to give any answers in regarding to complexity.

Now this will be my last semester, and I feel like I still need more coursework for Computer Science and spending more money for Australian universities just sounds ridiculous at this step. Since almost all US and UK universities need honours award from Australian degrees (and that's extra $26k), I will not be applying to any US universities . I applied to one UK university that never mentioned requirement of honours and got rejection. I have applied to UBC in Canada but it will also cost me about CA$15-20k/y. So I had a look at European universities and found out that German and Swiss universities charges about 500-600 Euros per year. I found out that most German reputable universities don't really offer fully English Masters degrees in Computer Science, however that's not the case. ETH Zurich prefers students with honours as well. I found that EPFL has a good education and I would like to study Distributed Systems, which they offer quite a lot subjects on that, however what concerns me is after graduation job security. As I mentioned, my purpose of studying Computer Science is not to become an academia but to have stronger Computer Science skills.

Anyway so far it sounded like very specific, but my question is not that specific. Would it really worth studying Computer Science in Switzerland, with the consideration of graduate job prospects as well as doing internships and the fact that I don't have EU citizenship? I know that Google would accept international grads, but are there many companies like that?

EPFL is one of the better technical universities. This has two consequences: 1) it will be hard (as @xLeitix notes, if your current school doesn't even teach complexity, you will be in for a challenging time at EPFL), and 2) you won't have a problem to get a job afterwards.

Note that differences between schools are not as pronounced in Europe as elsewhere. For instance, I am pretty sure that you will not be able to attend a German or Swiss university without exposure to algorithm complexity. Consequently, employers (both academic and industry) in Europe don't really care all that much about school quality. Grades, internships and the impression you leave at the interview are much more important.

Beware of costs of living in Zurich. Zurich compares with New York City. It's horrendous. (I used to live there.) Lausanne should be somewhat better, but Switzerland is generally an expensive place. If you seriously plan on going there, check local rents and/or supermarkets (coop.ch or migros.ch - you should be able to find this week's offers even without speaking German) and convert them from CHF to AUD to get an impression.

Note the language: Zurich is German-speaking, but Swiss German is very hard for a non-native speaker, even if you did take German classes. Lausanne is French-speaking, and the Swiss French is closer to "standard" French than Swiss German is to German. Francophones dislike speaking English, so you will get by more easily in Zurich than in Lausanne in English.

Switzerland is not in the EU (although it of course cooperates), so your EU membership is not all that important. With an ETH/EPFL diploma, you should have no problem getting a job anywhere in Switzerland or the EU.


How can I support myself by doing research? I am one year into my MS degree and I'm currently balancing my time between work and my studies. However, I can feel that I'm lagging behind in my studies and is thinking of quitting my job to focus on getting my degree.

I had already an appointed research topic by my adviser and since my job is eating most of my time, I barely made a scratch on it.

Can I get some advice on how to proceed? I really want to have my Masters degree and pursue my research but I'm afraid that I may not be able to support my studies. What options could I have?

Here are some options to investigate:

Find a funding source. As suggested in a comment by ff524, your advisor may be able to help.
Consult your manager. Your employer may be willing to reduce your hours, and salary, for the duration, in the hope of getting an EE with a master's degree at the end of it.
See if you can extend the deadlines on the project. This is the option I used to complete my master's degree in CS while working full time. I did some research in parallel with the courses, but not enough to finish. After the last exam I put all my study time into research, and took a few months extra to finish my project and submit the thesis.


GPA in MBA programme? I notice that when someone asks about GPA, they usually mean an undergraduate GPA.  Is there GPA for a masters degree or MBA?  If not, how a student's performance is measured (in UK and US)?

In the US, a student's performance is typically indicated by GPA from high school through doctoral-level study.

In the UK, a student's performance is indicated by "degree classification" levels for undergraduate and taught masters programs. (The names of the degree levels are different for masters courses than for undergraduate courses.)


Is it beneficial to publish papers not related to your primary research field? I know there is nothing preventing me from publishing an article in a different research field, but is it beneficial other than for satisfying my own interest/curiosity? Presumably these may be added to my CV, and possibly included for funding applications?

I'm honestly surprised at the question.  "Primary" does not mean "only"!

If it's a good paper, then of course you should publish it.  Aside from the obvious personal benefits of making you look more diverse, increasing your visibility in another field, and possibly creating opportunities for future collaboration, you're doing what research is for: expanding human knowledge.  And if it's not a good paper, then of course you shouldn't publish it, even if it is in your primary field.

But to echo shan23's comment: Don't use grants in area X to fund research in area Y.


Hiring a faculty consultant We need to hire a computer scientist with a very particular specialty as a consultant for a long term industrial research project.  We've read the relevant papers and so know who does good work in it.  But we don't know the first thing about hiring a professor as a consultant.

Do I just email them and say "Hi, Dr. So and so, I've read your paper about X and want to discuss hiring you as a consultant"? Or do I need some type of introduction?  Specifically, if I'm coming from a small business (with the funds to hire them, mind you, but a small business nonetheless), will they take it seriously?
How can I evaluate their abilities to be a good consultant? I know they have the brains and the know-how, but I need more than that: I need someone who will work on the problems we have, giving us a reasonable assessment of their likelihood to solve them, keeping us up to date, and clearing communicating their results.
Once hired, how do we effectively manage them towards our goals?
Currently, we have funding to hire them only for the initial stages. With good results, we have investors to approach, and we'd like to say "We're working on this problem; we have Prof. X on it, who's done this so far; with another $1M, we could get here." Will academics be supportive of such an arrangement?
How do we protect our intellectual property? Our plan is to leverage existing research towards new technological applications.  What's to stop our consultants from taking our ideas on their own? This is especially a concern in the initial evaluation stages, where we don't have a business relationship, but need to discuss our applications in some detail nonetheless.

Finally: Are there any resources on how to do this? Books, articles, services? We'd really like to benefit from someone's experience on this.

As an academic with a history of consulting, the proper way to approach the person in question is to contact him directly. Email might work but for initial contacts phone might be better. If he/she is geographically close, a face-to-face would be even better. The initial conversation is really about whether he/she is interested in consulting in his/her area of expertise. If yes, then you can start to dig a little deeper into the project.

Be clear and up front with what you have and what you hope to achieve. Make it clear what the limitations of the project are and that the project might or might not move past the initial phase.

It is unlikely that the size of your business would be an issue but that really depends on his/her personality. You'll know when you ask.

About evaluating if he/she can be a good consultant, explain very clearly what your concerns are. There is no reason for the Prof to be concerned since you do not know each other there is not an issue of personalities and you are not doubting him/her, you are simply saying what you are concerned about. If you have read this person's work you should have an idea of his/her ability to communicate clearly.

As far as managing this person toward the goal, handle him/her as you would any other employee. Normally consultants expect a little bit more freedom but, to repeat myself, be clear with what you want and that might include an update every 2-3 days (more or less depending on the nature of the project - you might want daily updates).

As for protecting your intellectual property, have the Prof sign an NDA/non-compete. This might be an issue if it will in any way limit the Prof from exploring his/her own work. For this, you will need to negotiate what kind of legal protections you feel you need. If you write the non-compete in a narrow enough way, the Prof might feel comfortable enough (he/she is getting something out of the deal).


In universities, what are the advantages of having a second department affiliation? Browsing the internet, I found many professors, researchers and scientists that, in addition to their main affiliation to their main department, have also a second affiliation to another department of their university (for example, Russ Altman at Stanford).

Why so many scientists decide to have a second department affiliation?

What are the main advantages and benefits?

Sometimes, a second affiliation has real administrative meaning, for example if a professor's teaching duties are divided between two departments.  In other cases, a professor's duties are in just one department, and the second affiliation is either just an honorary matter (saying that the second department regards him as respectable in their field also) or possibly (depending on university rules) enables the professor to officially supervise dissertations in the second department.


Citing non Academic Books What is the best way to cite non academic books in papers, for example, if we are writing a paper on economics, and want to say that "Charles Dickens presents a good portrayal of the English society in his book Oliver Twist",

Do we cite it as just another paper:

"Charles Dickens presents a good portrayal of the English society in his book [2]"

Is it enough just to mention it by name:

"Charles Dickens presents a good portrayal of the English society in his book Oliver Twist"

Do we do both?

"Charles Dickens presents a good portrayal of the English society in his book Oliver Twist[2]"

Third option looks nicer, but perhaps there is an unspoken standard.

The third route is the best option, because it does two things at once: it immediately tells the reader which book you're referring to, and the citation will provide information on the specific edition of the book you're working from.

If the book is well known, it doesn't hurt to make the reference explicit. If it isn't, then mentioning the title won't make a huge difference. And it's always a good idea to avoid stilted academic writing, so anything that allows you to avoid writing something like the first example is a good thing.


Is a request to publish an article in Research Features a scam? I regularly receive emails from Open Access predatory journals or conferences asking me to publish an article or attend some kind of conference somewhere. Usually, those emails are easy to identify.
Recently, I received an email from a Journal called Research Features, inviting me to publish an article in their journal which focuses more on outreach if I understand them correctly.
Does anybody have any experience with this (or a similar) journal, is this a serious thing?

Research Features is a UK-based magazine intended for a broad audience (outreach), it is not a peer-reviewed academic journal.

So in one sense it is legitimate: it's a real magazine with real contributors that some people genuinely read. You can contribute a piece if you so wish to.

I do not think it claims to be a journal.

  "We are not a scholarly publisher. We sit somewhere in the middle and
  feel very comfortable in our unique space. We will never engage in
  ‘click-bait’ or ‘tabloid’ pop-science; but we do not offer complex
  peer-reviewed content. Our publication offers detailed insight using
  clear language and a visual format which translates complex science,
  whilst remaining respectful."

Source: https://researchfeatures.com/about/


What's the point of PhD theses if nobody reads them? At best, the PhD thesis is read by:

The author
The examiners
The supervisor
The author's parents
The author's roommate / spouse / fellow students in research group

Or less than 10 people in total. What, then, is the point of writing it? Writing a complete PhD thesis is a time-consuming process, and that time could easily have gone into taking more courses, doing more research, supervising more students, and so on. Of course the PhD student has no choice but to write one, because the programme typically requires it. However that still begs the question as to why the programme requires it in the first place. if the thesis is so useless that so few people read it, what's the point of demanding a thesis as a prerequisite for graduation?

Somewhat related: What is the point of a PhD thesis whose content already exists in published papers? Still, even if there are more readers because a thesis provides a gentle introduction to the field, it seems more sensible to me to just write a monograph and leave out the thesis.

For simplicity, I am going to let your premise that (virtually) nobody reads a PhD thesis stand, even though that's debatable and also a bit field-dependent. There are still a number of reasons for it to exist:

It's arguably more of a "writing to learn" task anyway. Students don't produce theses for the sake of the thesis, but to learn how to do research and write it up properly in a long, coherent book. Even if no single person outside the committee reads the thesis ever, it was still a good learning experience for the student.
There is a lot of history around the concept of a doctoral program requiring developing in new thesis (in the original meaning of the word), writing it down in a book (the dissertation), and defending this new thesis against the local learned community. Even though nowadays many fields don't communicate new research ideas through long books anymore, there is still enough historical appeal to the idea that few programs want to get out of it entirely. The entire process of writing and defending the dissertation also has some appeal as a significant milestone event, which nicely demarks the end of an era for the student - he is no longer a student, but a complete member of the academic community.
In many countries there is a legal angle to this. At least in Europe, a PhD program is usually legally defined to conclude with the production of a doctoral dissertation of some kind.
In the age of "stapler theses" (which consist of a synopsis and a collection of previously published papers in verbatim), the entire affair is fairly low-cost anyway. My last students rarely spent longer than 2 or 3 months on the actual "thesis writing".


Can my degree be revoked if my relationship with my advisor sours post-defense? I defended my thesis last year and was granted MS degree. After that my advisor pressurized me to work more with him and write papers. I refused after some time and my relationship with him became sour. Can this cause any problem in the future such as thesis being taken away. Note that there is no dishonesty in my thesis at all, but there are some weak areas.

Once a degree has been conferred, it is exceedingly difficult to retract at without clear evidence of misconduct. Having a souring of relations with your advisor definitely does not rise to the level where you should have to worry about your degree being revoked. It is definitely worth mending your relationship with your former advisor just on professional grounds, but the "safety" of your degree shouldn't be one of them.


Submitting multiple distinct papers to the same journal I've recently submitted three papers to the same top journal over a period of two weeks. Can this fact alone impact on the chances of any of the papers being accepted? There is no overlap of content or dependencies among the papers, but I'm a bit worried that it may look odd from the editor's perspective and raise doubts on my work.

I imagine this may be field and journal dependent, but in mathematics (where we have lots of journals that can be good fits for the same paper, unlike some other fields), this can reduce the chance of acceptance.  Editors are under pressure to reject lots of submissions (e.g., they may have quotas), and if you have two (or more) simultaneous submissions, and the decisions are not no-brainers, many editors like accept one and reject the other(s).

Note: in mathematics, there's a tendency (not a strict rule) for people not to publish the in the same journal too often, and one of my colleagues recently got a rejection because they has "published too recently" in that journal.  (I don't think it's good to enforce this practice as a rule, but apparently some people do.)


Condensed citation of multiple GitHub issues I have submitted around ~12 bug reports and want to cite this factoid in my paper. But I don't want to cite 12 different links for each GitHub issue. The links all have this common prefix:

https://github.com/ConsenSys/mythril/issues/

So, when I added the link in my citation, I was thinking of using https://github.com/ConsenSys/mythril/issues/[584, 1270, 1232, 1235, 1293, 1294, 988, 1300, 1303, 1291, 1238, 1295].

There is no single suggested citation format (e.g., MLA, APA, IEEE), but an answer that somewhat, but not quite, resembles my query is here. Is there any documentation that anyone could point me to? If not, I will go with that answer.

As hinted in a comment, "the numbers alone would be enough." Those numbers can appear in the main body, e.g.,

During the course of this research, twelve bugs were reported for the  mythril security analysis software. (Those reports are numbered 584, 1270, 1232, 1235, 1293, 1294, 988, 1300, 1303, 1291, 1238, and 1295, all of which are accessibly from the following url: \url{https://github.com/ConsenSys/mythril/issues/}.)

You could push the bracketed details to a footnote, since they are less interesting. You could also summarise any particularly interesting reports, perhaps you've already done that.


Take a few courses in another university I'm a foreign (non-EU) student enrolled at the CS master's program in a European university.
I would like to take 2-3 courses that my university doesn't offer, and the first idea that came to mind was to take them at another university (preferably also European) in another country.
Obviously I want these courses to be counted in my diploma (assuming that they fit my program).

What you would do if you were in my place? Is there any "general" approach to my problem?

From what I've found there are a few ways:

Go as a free mover and enrol to the courses individually (seems that not all universities offer this option)
Go as an Erasmus student (not sure if I qualify being non-EU citizen)
Go by direct exchange program to the university that have bilateral agreement with my university (in my case, I'm not satisfied with offered transfer destinations, so it's not really an option)
Something else?

UPD:
I assume there are 2 general cases:

My university and the university I wish to go are "partner
universities", i.e. they have some sort of mutual agreement
They are not "partners universities"

Go by direct exchange program to the university that have bilateral
  agreement with my university (in my case, I'm not satisfied with
  offered transfer destinations, so it's not really an option)

That would be the easiest way.

  Go as an Erasmus student (not sure if I qualify being non-EU citizen)

If you are not qualified for Erasmus, you are certainly qualified for Erasmus Mundus. Just talk to the Erasmus coordinator at your university. If you are going with Erasmus they (should) have already taken care of the getting credits problem.

If all that does not work out, you could also organize it yourself. That is more work but sometimes worth it. Then you have to take care of most of the things yourself:

Funding: 3 possible sources come to mind: the country you want to go
to (for Germany that would be DAAD, but similar options also
exist in most EU countries, e.g. France or Belgium BAEF), the
country you are comming from, or your home country.)
Credit: Talk to the director of your program/ the dean of student
affairs / international relations person
Enrollment in the foreign university. You also have to apply there.


How to be efficient with large blocks of time? I'm currently a graduate student in engineering (working toward my Master's). Over the summer semester I'm taking three classes in addition to researching at my adviser's lab.

The lab is located off-campus (about a 30 minute commute), so it doesn't make much sense to fill in all of my gaps between classes with research time.

However, after making my schedule, I realize that I have these awkward 2-hour breaks in the afternoon. I also have 30-minute breaks later in the day, as well.

Given that I can't research in these times (the commute is too long), and given that I'm generally a nocturnal person and like to work on problem sets at night (from the comfort of my dorm), what is the best academic use of my time during these breaks?

ff254's comment has a great list of links and I think reading papers is the best academic use of that time time. But I also recommend using the time to relax so your don't get burnt out from work/class. Two hours is perfect amount of time to grab a meal, read a book, take a nap, or hit up the gym. Remember to invest in your mental and emotional wellbeing as well as your academic education.

(This was originally a comment, but it got a little long so now it's an answer. I'm sorry it's not directly answering the question.)


Prerequisities to become an MD-PhD? Officially, I am studying computer science. However, what I am actually doing is computational neuroscience. More over, the research I do is mostly medical research.

I have noticed that there are programs for MD-PhDs. However, in most countries, there seems to be always some legal requirements one has to fulfill to enter such programs. These requirements are not given very clearly out in most cases.

With an M.Sc in computer science, can I apply to such programs? More trickier question is would it be wise..? I mean, I could just go to a neuroscience program. However, I would be also really interested to help people with psychological, neurological, etc. issues (work in hospital), when having the MD title is a must?

Most of the "legal requirements" associated with MD-PhD programs are financing related. In general, such programs are usually sponsored and funded by national health ministries (or their equivalents). Therefore, it is preferred (or required) only to have legally qualified citizens participate in such programs.

As for the choice of major, in general, computer science is not one of the usual entry points for MD-PhD programs, which tend to be more closely related to experimental programs and majors (e.g., chemistry, biochemistry, biology, bioengineering). That said, there is more of an emphasis nowadays on computational science in medicine, and more and more MD-PhD programs are expanding their scope to include bioinformatics and computational biology. But it is still definitely not a universal, and CS majors will be at something of a disadvantage.


Inline referencing chapters, sections, subsections, etc I am currently in the process of writing my Master's thesis using the LaTeX class supplied by my university. This class uses a document structure similar to report: Starting with chapters, then sections, then subsections and so on. Citation style is IEEE, if that's important.
What is the correct way to reference all these text-divisions within my flow-text, especially when reaching \subsection{} level and below?
Example A

As shown in chapter "Foo" and section "Bar", [...].
[...], for further details see subsection "Baz" and subsubsubsection "Qux".

or Example B

As shown in section "Foo" and section "Bar", [...].
[...], for further details see section "Baz" and section "Qux".

or something completely different?

You can use command label, e.g.,

\section{My Section}\label{section:MySection}
\subsection{My Subsection}\label{section:MySubsection}

Then you can use:

...Sections~\ref{section:MySection} and \ref{section:MySubsection}...


Thank you note after interview I just had a job interview for a tenure-track position where I interviewed with several people from the department. As far as I know, I'm supposed to send a thank you note after the interview. Should I send one to each person I've interviewed with or would this be perceived as excessive?

If you feel that you want to thank members of the panel for their time and consideration, go on and send them a brief note. In my experience, it is usually impossible to exclude one or two people from the list without irritating someone, so I would say — write to all of them or none. It is natural to feel that a communication like this is "meaningless", "time-stealing" and "unnecessary" — long story short, it is not.  A senior academic receives a ton of spam and unrelated correspondence, which they delete with a grunt. Make your message short and positive, and they will delete it with a smile.


Motivations for PhD students to present at a conference session for work in progress I am currently helping to run a doctoral colloquium (DC) for a conference that's going to happen remotely.

For this DC, we are accepting work-in-progress papers whose first or sole author is a doctoral student or candidate. Also, this DC will give the opportunity for them to briefly speak about their research or proposed research in a three-minute thesis (3MT) format/style, supported by a single slide or other visual aid, before engaging in a moderated discussion with one another and with the audience.

As part of that planning, I'm trying to understand more the side of the students to present at the DC, as would like to have them interested in joining the conference and also being engaged. What are potential motivations for a student to present their work in progress in such a format?

These have been part of ACM conferences, such as OOPSLA, for a long time. They give students, especially those nearing completion, a source of feedback on their work. Typically the participants will be not only the students but at least some of their professors and some others interested in what is happening with current doctoral research.

Before I retired we always encouraged our doctoral students to develop an "elevator talk" in which they could explain the essence of their research in the time it takes to ride or wait for an elevator, say about 3 minutes. It is an extreme form of abstraction that is useful for a student to consider.

But the potential for (a) a bit of early visibility and (b) a bit of independent feedback are worth the effort.

Some of the conferences would also have some scholarship/travel money for attendees. And the student could, then, also attend the rest of the conference and build a circle of contacts.

I don't know how a remote version will work, or whether it will have enough of the right elements to make it viable, however. But it was valuable for face-to-face conferences.


Was a professor correct to chastise me for writing "Prof. X" rather than "Professor X"? I emailed Professor X regarding typos in, and questions on, his book. I've never met and contacted him. My email commenced with this salutation:

  Dear Prof. X

He replied

  It is customary to address professors by their title in full, just as most people would not abbreviate the full names of people whom they do not know well.

His unpleasantness startled me. Is he correct though? If he is, wouldn't we have to write Mr. in full as Mister or even Master?

My response to comments:

I'd rather not impart more particulars on Prof. X, in case he persecutes me! I'll just say that he's Caucasian, and in Australasia, North America or UK. English is definitely his native language.

What a jerk! No, writing "Prof." is perfectly fine; his reaction is both incorrect and completely inappropriate. I cannot imagine any professor I know (even the ones I don't like) writing such a thing.

What country is this guy in? Some countries (e.g., Germany) have stricter rules for such things, but I'm still shocked he would respond like this.

  regarding typos in ... his book

Ah. Is it possible he's being snarky about your abbreviation since you criticized his typos? If your e-mail had a condescending tone, maybe he is trying to "bite back." That's the only thing I can think of.


Is it good syntax to thank the reviewer for every comment in peer review? I received a template from a senior student where every response to the reviewer's question begins with thanking the reviewer. For instance,

  Question 1: Please resize Figure 4.

    The authors thank reviewer #4 for the suggestion. We....

  Question 2: Why was this test performed?

    The authors thank reviewer #4 for the insightful question. We....

It seems a bit odd to thank the reviewer for each and every question. Then again, this seems to be a popular format for the journal.
I have already prepared a response file in this pattern, but just before uploading it I had second thoughts. Should I go in and remove the thanks from every question, or is this a common / expected pattern?

EDIT: This is meant to go to an IEEE journal for Remote Sensing.

I'm in the social and health sciences, so etiquette in your discipline may differ (though I doubt it).

I have never done this. Generally, I thank the editors and reviewers for their time and effort in the body of the response letter, but I stick to business in the individual comments. There may be a really exceptional comment by a reviewer that I may thank them for (suggesting a specific citation I didn't think of or identifying an oversight, where addressing it may improve the manuscript immensely). So, basically my individual responses look more like "As suggested by reviewer #1, we have added additional literature about topic x in the introduction...We have revised figure 2 so that it more clearly displays the findings."

Hope that helps!


Publish as a book, then request a journal for peer review or reverse I am planning to publish my research as a book containing parts as a biography, then is it possible later to request a journal to peer review the research? or can publish as a peer review in a journal, then publish as a book?

No, journals want to publish new research, stuff that hasn't been shared before.


Should I persist with article that keeps getting rejected? My paper has been rejected four times in last two years. I have tried two journals. They don't even have good rankings but it was rejected repeatedly. I improved the article by taking reviewers comments into consideration but still it comes back with rejections.

What frustrates me is the fact that I can see some articles which I followed getting published in same journals. They explore country context, whereas my article investigates the same problem in another country context (a developing country) which indicates there is a contribution.

It's been a long time that I have worked on this article. The data that I used is getting outdated since the business environment keeps changing rapidly.

So my question is, what course of action I should take given my current situation? Should I dump this article and move on with something new? Or just keep sending it to other journals?

It depends. That is my answer.
If you really believe that your paper offers an interesting contribution, then:

Try to improve your manuscript by doing this:

Extend and update the state of the art (maybe adding those related papers you mentioned in your question).
Be honest, be thorough, be critical: What are the weak parts of your manuscript? (Are the introduction, the theoretical aspects, the conclusions... bad written? Is your contribution not clearly highlighted and/or explained? Could you add some numerical examples to your manuscript (if this applies)?) Identify them, and go and try to improve them.
Try to add an explanatory chart of the process/method/solution you are describing or proposing. (Relevant) drawings can help people to understand your article and can make it more appealing to referees.
Get your manuscript reviewed by a colleague you trust. This is a must-do. Maybe you are not seeing something that is obvious to other people.
Of course, double-check the language usage. Ask some expert to review grammar, vocabulary, etc., if necessary.

Maybe the problem is not with your paper. Try to look for the right scientific journal. Some hints:

Look for articles related to your research topic in the Web of Knowledge (WoK, https://webofknowledge.com/) or Google Scholar (GS, https://scholar.google.com/) and see in which journal they were published (for instance, you can use some keywords related with your paper).
Similar to the previous one: If you are interested in sending your manuscript to a certain journal, look for articles related with your manuscript that have been published in that journal (using advanced search in WoK or GS). If you don't find any match, probably it is not the right journal.

If you already tried all the above suggestions and they did not work, then consider to publish your research as a technical report before quitting, at least.
EDIT:
I also recommend you to read these two articles:

https://www.elsevier.com/connect/8-reasons-i-rejected-your-article
https://www.elsevier.com/connect/8-reasons-i-accepted-your-article


Is Self-plagiarism allowed in two submitted articles by one author? Is it allowed that someone use the same paragraph in two submitted articles for two different journals? Note: both of these articles are unpublished still so it's not possible to cite one in another one. Also, those articles are submitted concurrently. If it is considered self-plagiarism, it should be really avoided or not? Because when someone works on a topic rigorously may introduction or even materials and method section will be relatively the same as his/her previous works. Any idea or suggestion is appreciated.

If the method is taken from elsewhere you should cite the protocol, and use block quote if necessary. If the method is novel, then pay attention during the submission, you should see one common question asking if the work has been presented or circulated elsewhere, you may use that to declare the potential repetition and let the editors decide. If no such slot exists, it's better to inform the editor in the cover letter.

Moving forward, consider cascading your publications: while paper A is under review, paper B should be being finalized, paper C being drafted, paper D's experiment being done, paper E and on being conceptualized. That way you can avoid problem like such and still maintain a reasonable output level.

To be honest, if I saw two papers from the same author saying "education data were broken down into 3 levels: less than high school, high school completed, and college or above." I will not jump off my chair and scream "plagiarism!!" But people's ideas about this issue are not all the same, I'd agree that assuming the worst would be a good approach.


How to improve myself as a recitation (discussion,lab,tutorial) teacher? This question is related to How to improve myself as a lecturer?. However, being a PhD student, my main teaching obligation is leading recitations, i.e. sessions for groups of ~20 students that take place each week after a lecture and the content of the lecture should be revised mostly via exercises.

If you do not use the term "recitation session", please see a related question:
What is the equivalent of European "seminar" in US universities?

At my university (Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Czech Republic), in the mathematics/theoretical computer science classes, usually you have a 90 minute class where the recitation teacher reminds students of what was said in the lecture, hands out or writes exercises, and then, in shorter blocks, students go through the exercises and one student shows the solutions on a blackboard.

I'm not very fond of this structure and I would like to improve my classes with ideas that I cannot find at my university (where we usually do things the aforementioned way).

Some ideas that I've had in my previous years, which you can judge effectiveness of:

handing out "cheat sheets" containing the entire course notes (with compact proofs) beforehand: usually useful, as lecturers rarely have such compact notes beforehand, but very time consuming.
trying to ask each student how he is faring and offer personal advice: when I was a student, I preferred this model, but it takes a lot of time to go around 20 people and shortly talk to each one; my students (in an exit questionnaire) argued that they want more exercises done per class, so time is of the essence.
allow group work during a class -- this seems natural to me (science is mostly done in groups) but often results in people not being able to perform as well in final exams. Plus I am not yet sure how to allow groupwork so that groups don't delegate the work to the one enthusiastic student in the group.
use text questionnaires through and after a session to find out what students would like; I am very happy with the information in those and will use those in the future but students of one university tend to suggest improvements which they have noticed at the same university (especially where it is expected to go to one university for the 3-year Bc. and 2-year Master's).
filming yourself (as was suggested in the lecturer's question) is definitely a valid option but I feel it won't help me as much with recitations, especially since (I believe) there are not many great recitation sessions publicly available on the internet.

I've taught Biology discussion sections, and trained graduate students to teach. I'm a biology education researcher, so I am familiar with studies that measure student learning in different environments. I'd summarize good teaching as follows:

Find the student misconceptions.
If you are good at your subject, you likely have not struggled to learn it. Your biggest mystery is what do students not understand. Unfortunately, students don't have the meta-awareness to tell you, so you'll need to figure the misconceptions out together, at least for the first run-through of the course.
Show students their misconceptions.
Because students don't know what they don't know, they often feel like they understand material that they actually do not. When you show them they don't understand, they are more eager to fix the problem.
Give students an opportunity to learn.
Your class activities will indeed include a lot of group work, because discussing a problem, asking questions and answering them keeps everyone improving right at the sticky points. The big secret to group work so that everyone stays busy? Groups must be only 2 or 3 students. And you'll be walking around and asking the quiet students what they have figured out, so there is no slacking.

Here is an example of how to make this work. It's copied from an earlier answer of mine.

Look over the problem set the night before, and determine the easy ones from the hard ones.
When students arrive, tell them to start work on a difficult problem. Plan on giving them 5-10 minutes -- whatever they need until many of them slow down. Walk around as they work and just see how they choose to work.
After several are stuck, have them get into groups of three and compare their techniques and what they found difficult.

(note: students hate group work because it is more painful than just listening. Most classes will try not getting into groups, or not really talking, just to see if they can get out of it. A cheerful forcefulness works well on American students)

Walk around again and ask questions like, "Tell me how far you are. Can you show me a part that is difficult? Can you get out your lecture notes and find the section relevant to this problem?"
Usually at this point you will see a sticky point that more than one student is wrestling with. Now is a great time to pull everyone's attention back to the front of the room and you can work through that problem (or one similar) and answer questions for 5-10 minutes.
Have students return to the problem and complete it. Then they can do a similar problem on their own to reinforce.
Move on to the next topic and assign a new, difficult problem.

As you can see, this process shows both you and the students what they don't understand, and provides space and motivation to fix the problem. Because you're visiting the groups, they must produce.

Things I wouldn't recommend for a recitation:

Making course notes or a study guide. Students should be making their own.
More lecturing
Questionnaires are fine, but again, students don't know what they don't know

We've actually posted an example of discussion work for biology here: http://vimeo.com/33801546


Is it unusual to apply for a degree without finishing your current one? Consider the following situation: a student has started a bachelor's/master's/PhD at a lesser-known university program but feels that he would benefit from a more prestigious institution with better professors, equipment, and learning environment.

He decides to apply for a bachelor's/master's/PhD (the same degree as his previous level) program at top schools, planning to abandon his current program if he is accepted.

Is this unusual or frowned upon? Is the fact that the applicant has already started a program likely to hurt the applicant's chances? (Do the answers to the above questions depend on the current level of the applicant?)

Speaking strictly from the US, this is defined as a being a "transfer student" and is extremely common. How common? Well, it's a federally reported statistic called "Transfer-Out Rate". I am fond of the CollegeResults.org tool, which defines this stat nicely (emphasis mine):

  The percentage of students who began in the 2006 cohort of first-time,
  full-time, bachelor's or equivalent degree-seeking freshmen at the
  institution and transferred to another school without earning a degree
  at the initial institution. Reporting of transfer data is optional for
  colleges and universities that do not consider preparing students for
  transfer as part of their mission. (IPEDS)

For instance, The University of South Alabama is reported as having about 16% of students transfer out to another institution before receiving a degree. The University at Buffalo (New York) posts about a 20% transfer rate.

So, as the write-up for the statistic suggests, some schools even offer specific degree tracks designed to transfer. In the state of Wisconsin, the entire "technical college" offers such programs. In Florida, these are called "junior colleges" and offer similar tracks.

Even at Universities designed without this as their intent, there is always a percentage of people who transfer in and out at an undergraduate level. As Nate Eldredge points out, this is not nearly so common at higher levels, but it happens often enough and is hardly taboo.

The Upsides

Sometimes it is desirable to plan to transfer, such as getting started at a nearby location while you make preparations/plans to go elsewhere (I did this myself, starting in a tech school and applying to my target University just the next semester once I had family/work preparations in place). Many people spend 2-3 years at such colleges, taking all the classes they can towards their higher target degree (usually called "general degree requirements") - usually because it is more convenient and often vastly cheaper (a person can easily save tens of thousands of dollars in tuition this way). Class sizes are often smaller. The difficulty level of the material varies, but most "introduction" classes look a lot an awful lot alike after a while.

The Downsides

If you are looking to go onto higher degrees, especially to a PhD or competitive Masters program, recommendation letters and research experience (when possible) are highly desirable if not absolutely necessary. If you will only be at an institution for 2 years instead of 4-5, then you have a lot less time to find and build these connections! Surely you can do it, but I know I've personally found it took me about 2 years to find the right connections that seem to have "stuck" and suit me and what I want to do (after figuring out what I actually want to do, naturally). If I had completed most of the degree before coming to my present institution, this might mean I'd have missed out on such opportunities to do some real work with these people.

Most institutions have requirements of "credits done in residence", so you can't just do 4/5ths of a degree at Podunk Clown School Of Higher Learning and transfer into Harvard for a semester and get your diploma. Which is unfortunate, because that sounds like it would make for a great B-movie.

Some administrative complications can come into play too. If you decide to retake a course you did poorly on or failed in a previous semester, the rules about how to do this and whether or not it's possible vary depending on where you took the class. Retaking a class you took originally at School A is not always possible or straight-forward once you are in School B.

How GPA is calculated also differs in this same way, as some institutions only calculate grades earned in residence, others combine them, some don't transfer 0 credit classes (like if you failed a class) and others transfer all grades even if they don't give you credit for the course towards your degree!

The complexity can be a real head-ache sometimes, but they are generally annoyances to be overcome rather than deal-breakers.

Big Warning

Credits earned at one institution aren't automatically accepted anywhere else! Indeed, at some colleges they offer two versions of a class - one that is likely to transfer, and one that isn't; the one that can transfer costs more but is otherwise the same course! This can be a minefield, so if you want to make plans or consider transferring, talk with your target school's Admissions/Registration/Records and whoever would be in charge of a transcript evaluation first!

This process varies hugely by US State and even between institutions within the state (even when they are State schools in the same system!), but suffice it to say that this is an extremely common problem in America and you have to be careful and plan accordingly.

Admissions Considerations

Finally, you asked about how this might effect perceptions of you in terms of admissions or otherwise. The most important thing I've seen is that once you've had a semester or two at any college, most colleges no longer put much weight into your high school grades, SAT scores, etc - if they even require them at all. So it is very common that people will not do great in high school, go to a local or otherwise non-competitive college for a few semesters, get really get good grades, and then apply to more competitive institutions. Most Universities understand that proven experience in a college setting is a far better predictor of academic success than any high school transcript or standardized test can possibly be, and then put little weight into anything they have to say. This can backfire on you, of course, if you didn't do well at your last program but did better in the past.


Change in "under review" date I submitted a research paper to a journal on 30th July 2015 and its status went 'under review' on 19th August 2015. I did not receive any communication from the journal, so I sent a gentle reminder on 11th Dec. 2015. Unfortunately I did not receive any response again. I then waited until 29th Jan 2016 and sent a reminder email again. Fortunately, the editor replied with "Your paper has been partially reviewed and we are waiting for remaining reviewers' response." The editor assured me that they will encourage the reviewer to submit the response.

Now, the status of the paper has changed from "Under review, date 19th Aug. 2015" to "Under review, date 2nd Feb. 2016".

I do not know what should I comprehend from this change in date?

My guess is that the reviewer they were waiting for has withdrawn or been dropped and a different reviewer been assigned.  There are other internal actions that might cause the same sort of visible change as well, but all of them likely signify progress toward receiving your response.


Fast way to find out the ISSN number of Publications I like to know can i get the Publications ISSN form DOI link?

Or what is the fast way to find the ISSN of Publications to find its impact factor ( any online site to find the impact factor for DOI link or ...)

Update: (Solved)

According the anpami  answer i have tried to do it for this paper, and don't find any ISSN number on the result:

And importing on this:

So does ISSN not exist for conference and only of journals or this answer is not correct?(Solved based on the anpami comment)

Thanks.

To get the ISSN of a paper by using the paper's DOI, try CrossRef's API. Specifically, use the URL https://api.crossref.org/works/ and add the DOI to it.

For example, if the DOI is 10.1177/0047117819856397,
then use the URL https://api.crossref.org/works/10.1177/0047117819856397

There is a branch called "ISSN" in that JSON-file. If the output looks confusing to you, copy-paste it into a 'JSON beautifier'.

(However, note that you cannot find the Impact Factor of the journal using this approach; as far as I know, there is no API for accessing an Impact Factor by using the ISSN as a key. Also see "Where can I find the Impact Factor for a given journal?")


Changing manuscript title My manuscript Biology/Ecology) was accepted in a journal with minor revisions to do. The reviewers have no comment and suggestion to the title, but would it be ok if I change it?

There are two cases here. From the question it is unclear.

The article has directly been sent to production team after the peer review
The authors have been asked to correct the minor revisions after the peer review

In the case 1, it is somewhat difficult. Because production manager would be in contact with you. A title change has to be approved by Chief-Editor of the journal prior to production in this case. So, you may wish to contact the chief editor asking is it okay, with giving a suitable reason for the change.

In case 2, you can edit the online title in the journal submission system (e.g. EES, Evise, ScholarOne, EditorialManager .. ). But, again it is wise to mention this in a cover letter to the Chief Editor accompanied with the revised submission.


Can I change my master thesis topic and supervisor under following scenario? I am currently doing my master thesis which as per university regulations should get completed in 6 months. I need to change it.

Additional time is trivial compared to how you manage the relationships with faculty.
Ideally, you would go to your existing advisor, explain your dilemma/issue and he/she would be understanding and recommend that you pursue you new interest with faculty X.  That would allow you to maintain a positive relationship with the existing faculty advisor and avoid him/her communicating erroneously with other faculty.  This process is important to the extent that you wish to maintain a positive disposition of many faculty, not just him/her.  Will you need their recommendations any time in the future?
a
If you have an extremely tenuous relationship with your existing thesis advisor, xtent that you may need recommendations from any faculty for future employment, these steps are critical.  If you feel that your relationship with the existing advisor is weak, you might approach the department chairperson--but only if you are something more than a stranger to him/her.


Should I choose someone as one of my references while I also have applied to his group? I just faced a funny, yet complicated situation!

I want to apply for postdoc positions, and one of my references would be a professor that I had a good collaboration with his group during my PhD. However, I ran into him a few days ago and informally asked if he has any available position in his lab. He said that he is too busy now but likes to sit together and talk about it 4 weeks from now!
Although I liked the idea, it'd be too risky for me to wait that long until I see if our meeting could result in a position or not. So, I want to proceed with my position search meanwhile!

The issue is that I'm not sure how the professor would see it (or react) If anyone contacts him as one of my references for my postdoc applications! Even I am not sure how to tell him that want to add him to my reference list! In fact, I am afraid to lose the chance of working with him as well as his positive recommendation for my applications?

BTW, If it helps, the country is Germany, and the field is computer science!

Since you seem to know him pretty well, you might think about just asking him. He knows you need a position and that he might not be able to give you one. Yet he supports you, I think. You also would prefer to work with him. As long as all of that is clear and in the open and can be stated, it seems fine to ask for a recommendation.

But that is the sort of conversation to have face to face, I think. It might not be possible to do that as he is busy, of course, so you might have to resort to email. But if you do, lay it all out so that he understands you are applying for a "backup" situation in case he can't hire you.

But if any part of my analysis is faulty, you might need to be more cautious and omit him as a reference for now. You can ask again later if nothing current bears fruit.


Introducing myself to a research mentor I am a PhD student and apart from academic supervisors I also have a mentor. This mentor I haven't met in person yet and have only communicated through email once. But I am going to meet the mentor in person in a conference. My question is how am I going to introduce myself to him? It is important for me to make a good connection with this mentor. Since I wrote that email  long time ago he might not remember me at all.

How do I approach him? Should I mention to him that he is my mentor and then explain to him what I am doing in my research?
Is it okay to say that he is being assigned as my mentor ? How can I say this politely?

Schedule a time to talk in advance.  Email him again, mention how he came to be identified as your mentor (as a reminder, in case he forgot), and ask if you could get lunch with him or meet whenever is convenient during the conference.  In my experience, many researchers have packed schedules during conferences and may not have the time to speak with you when you find him.


Can I start writing my PhD thesis from the second year? I'm going to enter my second year in my PhD after two months from now. I start to think that I can write some chapters from now instead of waiting until the fourth year. This would help me to finish my study early is that possible or at least avoid the stress of writing in my fourth year.

However, most of my friends who are in the third and fourth year suggest not to do that because it is going to waste my time and instead I need to focus more on the literature review and prepare for the field work.

Need advice about this from students who go through this.

It is probably a good idea to keep a running outline of your work as you go. Also, sometimes you get stuck for some period of time - say waiting for experiments to mature. In those periods if you can't otherwise make progress it might be a good idea to write up (and to revise) what you already know.

I wouldn't do this to "shorten" the time, however, but rather to keep myself on track and to keep an overview of the work in mind.

One advantage of this, if you have the discipline to do it, is that the thesis gets revised many times this way before you finish, rather than only once or twice.

In short, it could be time wasted or time well spent, depending on when you do it and how you approach it.