Algorithms and review papers Suppose a review of algorithms used to solve a particular problem is to be written. Is it considered plagiarism or malpractice if the algorithms to be reviewed are copied verbatim?

Do the algorithms have to be 'paraphrased' before reviewing?

Any verbatim copying of a long block of text, including if that block of text is an algorithm, would be plagiarism if it is not attributed. However, you can avoid plagiarism by stating explicitly that your description of the algorithm is copied verbatim from another source, and citing the source. Then you cannot be accused of plagiarism, although it may still be considered poor or lazy writing if a substantial amount of your review is copied from other sources.


Is it a good idea to combine the glossary and the list of notations in a mathematical PhD thesis? I am considering including a glossary and a list of notations in my PhD thesis on mathematics. Is it a good idea to write them separately or combine them?

For example, a typical entry of the list of notation is:

[a,b] The commutator of a and b, defined by [a,b]=a^{-1}b^{-1}ab.

An entry of the glossary is:

Commutator The commutator of a and b is defined to be the product a^{-1}b^{-1}ab.

(Note: the definition of commutator is well-known to mathematicians, but since another definition aba^{-1}b^{-1} is also possible, I would like to add the definition to avoid any possible ambiguity.)

I have a strong feeling of combining these two entries together, maybe even combining the glossary and the list of notations together.

Is it a good idea to combine the glossary and the list of notations in a mathematical PhD thesis?

Have your definitions in line rather than in a glossary, it improves the readability of the entire manuscript (whether or not those definitions are actually necessary). People rarely go through glossaries anyway, since it would involve spending twice the amount of time just to switch pages back and forth. Inline definitions, instead, help the reader to flow on without dismissing the attention on the context.


Unresponsive supervisor blocks submission to conference For context, I'm a software development professional, with 17 years in the trade. I studied towards a bachelor between until 2000, but never submitted my bachelor's thesis, as I was hired by a company and, ... reasons. If you are old enough to remember the rush around the turn of the millennium, you will know.

Anyway, I have now made a bachelor's thesis and got it approved. To my surprise, I found that the study I made hasn't been made before, and as a consequence, the results are not trivial, and may have a bearing on a current debate in my field. (In my professional field, that is, not in academia.)

The bachelor's thesis is my own work, meaning that I formulated the problem, I designed and conducted the experiments, I collected all the data, and I made all of the analysis. My supervisor approved my plan, and proofread the thesis, but did not make any scientific contribution to it.

I've rewritten my bachelor's thesis to an article or a conference submission, taking out the most relevant parts. As I understand it, my supervisor should be considered a co-author here - is that correct?

The thing is, I sent it to my supervisor for comments, and he promised to look at it, but then I haven't heard from him in several months, and he does not reply to my attempts to contact him.

I realize this site can't answer questions about how to approach a specific person. What I would like to know is what my options are.

Can I remove him as a co-author from the article, even though he supervised the bachelor's thesis?
If not - how much do I have to change to be able to do that? Do I have to make a new study?
Can I submit it, with him as co-author, without his expressed approval?
Is there anything else I can do to raise the awareness of my study without his prior expressed approval?

Can I remove him as a co-author from the article, even though he supervised the bachelor's thesis?

Based on the information that his sole contributions were to approve the plan and to proofread the thesis, yes, you can remove him as an author.

As a common guideline applied in many disciplines, the Vancouver protocol of the ICMJE specifies the following four criteria for authorship:

  The ICMJE recommends that authorship be based on the following 4 criteria:

  Substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work; or the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data for the work; AND
  Drafting the work or revising it critically for important intellectual  content; AND
  Final approval of the version to be published; AND
  Agreement to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.


What should I do now when this conference first sends me an "accept", then a "reject"? A little while back I had sent one of my works to an ACM conference -just a National level conference. I knew my work was not one of the best they were going to receive, but given the quality of the papers published in the conference in the previous years, I was almost sure of an "Accept", and sure enough, an "Accept" did arrive around a week ago. But reviewer practically tore my work to pieces, saying that the claim is not novel, the data sets are biased, etc. And I do agree with him on most of the points.

Since the reviewer had given a detailed review, I had been working all week long to improve the quality of the paper and address all the points mentioned by him.

But to my great surprise, today I receive a mail from the PC chairs stating -

  we had inadvertently sent an ACCEPT for your paper. After discussion with reviewers we have decided to not accept this paper.

This is, to say the least, unethical unprofessional. And my entire week of hard work in improving the paper just went down the drain I guess.

My questions here-

Should I put any endeavor in contacting the PC Chairs and ask them to explain this strange stand? Should I explain my stand that the work has been drastically changed and improved from what it was when submitted?
Does such a behavior make them accountable for any legal action from my side? And, is it worth for me to take such an action?

UPDATE:
Thank you all for your comments and answers. Posting this here just to make the story complete. My guide insisted that we should write to the PC chair, requesting an opportunity to resubmit since some of the previous review comments were not really justified and too harsh on us, and anyways our paper stands improved from what it was before.

So we did re-submit. And our improved paper was accepted as well! Rather having an unsatisfactory publication, I have a better paper at hand now!

So happy ending after all :)

Should I put any endeavor in contacting the PC Chairs and ask them to explain this strange stand? Should I explain my stand that the work has been drastically changed and improved from what it was when submitted?

I think an email to the PC would be appropriate.  Don't expect the answer to change, however, and it may very well have been an administrative oversight.  Even as a mistake, it is a relatively minor one that you don't have much control over.

  Does such a behavior make them accountable for any legal action from my side? And, is it worth for me to take such an action?

No. Their decisions aren't bound by any laws (that I know of) that could force them to honor their original email.  If you make a big deal of it, you're likely to make a bad name for yourself, regardless of the mistake being on their end.

In the end, you've now got a better paper that probably shouldn't have been published anyway.  Your changes are now in place, and you admit to having improved it.  Submit it to another conference, and move on.


How to determine the number of citations an author had on a given date using Google Scholar? Is there a way to learn the number of citations by author on a particular date in the past? For example, how many citations did Author X have on 1/10/18?

Assuming they have a public scholar profile, I imagine the closest thing you can get is  the number of citations the person has at the end of a given year. You can float over a given year to determine citations per year and then subtract the required years from  "all citations". This will provide a cumulative total for a given year.
For instance, the person below had 1215 - 248 = 967 at the end of 2019. And 1215 - 248 - 245 = 722 at the end of 2018.

You could probably also interpolate specific dates to get an estimate. Note however, that there is a difference between a 2019 citation and a citation received in 2019. For instance, a journal article that is first published online in 2019, but then gets a canonical publication year of 2020, will probably count as a 2020 citation. Google scholar can also vary in how long it takes to index a reference. For instance, by my guess, academics get about 20% of their citations for a given year in the year that follows (i.e., 20% of 2019 citations are added to Google Scholar in 2020).
As far as I can tell, Internet Archive doesn't index Google Scholar pages.


Using signpost paragraphs in an article I am writing a review/tutorial paper in the field of computer science. Review articles in the journal where I want to publish tend to be long, with in-depth explanations. Now I'm in my third section of the article and I am not sure where to put a signpost paragraph. I can either:

Start a new section with it, the rationale being that a reader gets to know what is in this section straight away.
Put it after 2-3 paragraphs, so the reader gets to "taste" what the section is about and then can decide it he wants to continue reading for in-depth explanation or go to next section that might be more interesting for him. I would prefer this option, but then the signpost paragraph interrupts the flow of ideas that was started with the first paragraphs.

The journal's guide of style has nothing about signpost paragraphs. Reading other articles, I noticed both usages and would like to know what others think.

Scientific papers are generally read differently than literature.  Most people reading a scientific paper are not reading it for pleasure, but have some sort of agenda about what type of information they are attempting to extract from the paper.  It is only rarely that they will want to read the whole thing, but more often are attempting to extract particular types of information, which may or may not be included in particular sections of a paper.

As such, it is generally best to start each section (even of a non-review paper) with a terse summary of the contents of the section.  If you wait to put your summary further into the section, then it will simply annoy and frustrate many readers, since it will force them to read paragraphs they are not interested in before they get to the bit that tells them whether they want to read that section.  Worse, many will not get there at all!


How does a tenure track professor get money to recruit PhD students? Does the university/institution or department give money to their tenured-track professors to hire PhD-students?
Do they have to write grants to get funded to recruit PhD students?
What are the possible ways a tenured-track professor can hire PhD students?
Edit:

I am thinking of European countries (France & Germany in particular).
My field is computer science.

You name two of the ways that funds for this might be available. Including support for doctoral students in grants is common. If you want departmental or university funds, however, it is best to negotiate that as part of a "start up package" that some universities are able to provide.
But, most universities will normally make at least some minimal efforts to recruit graduate students and most will also provide funds for teaching and, perhaps, research assistants generally, so the funding may not be through the professor at all, but through the department. These funds generally require the student to perform some duties in return for the stipend.


Sending reminder for LOR and asking them to do it early? I'm applying for the Spring Semester for 5 Master's programs, with deadlines ranging from Oct 15th to Dec 10th. I sent all the information to my 2 Professors who are writing the letters. I guess I was naive in thinking they would write the letter pretty fast, now I'm freaking out they might wait until the deadlines of December. (It's been two weeks.) That wouldn't give me much time to choose a program, and move by classes that start in the spring semester!

All the programs say they will make an offer about a week or two after reviewing my application, which they won't start until AFTER they get my letters. I really want my Professors to write the letters ASAP. How can I tell them I'd like them to submit them before the deadline? Is that OK?

You sent "all the information" - including deadlines?  You can expect that they will submit by the deadlines that you told them, but not necessarily before.

If you need the letters earlier than you originally said, you'll just have to ask them - no way around it, and the sooner the better.  If your new deadline is still at least a few weeks away, it shouldn't be too much of an inconvenience for the professors.  If you tell them "You know that letter I asked you to submit in December?  I actually need it tomorrow," they will very likely get annoyed, and may not be able to have it ready in time.


LOR from a Retired Professor If my professor is retiring at the end of the semester, would his letter of recommendation carry weight when I apply for PhD programs eventually (later on)?

I don't see why it wouldn't. If your professor was fortunate enough to have a career at a university where he could properly retire from, then he must have had an outstanding reputation at his university and in his field.


Effect of Low credit hours/ long undergrad on grad school I am studying Computer Science as an undergrad and I have been doing a low number of credit hours per semester (less than 15, but still full time). Am I at a disadvantage when applying for grad school?

By the time I graduate, I would have completed 5 years, when normally this is a 4 year degree. My GPA is relatively good, a 3.85 on a 4.00 scale, but I am afraid it will be attributed to the low workload.

I don't think taking a little bit of extra time is going to make a huge difference in your case is viewed by admissions staff, so long as you've been putting the extra time to good use. Have you used the extra time to do research? Have you done summer internships or research programs?

If all you've done is lengthen your undergraduate program with nothing but good coursework to show for it, then extra time may hurt you.


Putting class ranking in CV, but against dept guidelines I graduated last year from a master's course where I was fortunate enough to graduate top of my class. However I was told this in confidence by one of my referees to a PhD programme, and they informed me that under no circumstances was I to put this on academic applications, as it would be against 'department guidelines'.

I also tried to enquire with the department directly concerning class rankings, but as expected they were unwilling to reveal this information to me.

I'm now considering applying for a job, and believe that the class ranking would be a good thing for my CV. However I really ought not to know this fact, as it was revealed to me in confidence by my referee, and I risk jeopardising my relationship with him if the department found out.

Am I overthinking this, and should I just put it down, or is there a way to resolve this in a less risky way?

So, you put it on your CV, the future employer does what employers do and phones the institution to check details of awards, years etc.

BOOM - the institution does not confirm you were "top of the class" as that is just not done.

Now the future employer is confused - what else may be wrong on your CV AND your referee is pissed at you as well.

Do you really want to go there?


Is it plagiarism to copy an ethics statement on animal research? There are only so many ways you can say "This research was conducted in strict accordance with the guidelines of XX." I'd had the fear of plagiarism burned into me since high school (I think the rule then was 7 words or more verbatim were disallowed), but is it acceptable in science publishing to have substantial overlap with previously published ethics statements?

A slight variant is when you are describing a technique that has been concisely described by your lab dozens of times already, although this is slightly easier to think of variants than the above. But some amount of "copying" in these situations, whether inadvertently or on purpose, does not seem in the spirit of plagiarism.

How do publishers/the scientific community see it?

Both plagiarism and self-plagiarism are about violations of the expectation of originality. In the main text of a publication, there is an expectation of originality, and thus these concerns apply.

In the "metadata" of a publication, like acknowledgements, statements on ethics and conflicts of interest, etc., the expectation of originality is much weaker, and the primary concern is accuracy.  Thus, "boilerplate" text providing little or no narrative content can be freely reused (e.g., "This represents the conclusions of the authors and not of the funding agency or US government.").

In the unusual case where such a section does have study-specific narrative content (e.g., describing a novel approach to developing an ethics plan), then it would not be OK to copy it. Instead, you would want to discuss the relationship in the main text or methods section (which is a grey area for reuse, as sometimes it is "boilerplate" and other times narratively unique), and make a simple statement in your own words linking to that discussion in the ethics section.


Publishing with Elsevier - Does the manuscript have the author info? I am uploading a paper for an Elsevier journal. The system indicates that a Manuscript should be uploaded. I don't have previous experience with this system. My question is: should the Manuscript exclude all the information about the author? Or should the manuscript be the whole paper in its final form?

To expand on the comments: each journal sets his editorial policy, which is clearly stated on the journal's website and instructions to authors. For example, Journal of Accounting and Economics:

  This journal employs a single blind review, where the referee remains anonymous throughout the process (http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-accounting-and-economics/policies/peer-review-policy-for-the-journal-of-accounting-and/)

and Computers and Education:

  This journal employs double blind reviewing, where both the referee and author remain anonymous throughout the process (http://www.journals.elsevier.com/computers-and-education/policies/peer-review-policy-on-computers-education/)

If you want to submit to a journal with double-blind review, do not include authors' name (or any other incriminating information, for example in acknowledgments). If single blind, then include the author names in the manuscript.


How does one get involved in technical committees in international conferences or commissions? How does one get involved in technical committees in international conferences or commissions? Does one need an invitation or does one volunteer him/herself? Also, why are many relatively more experienced or outstanding academics often not involved in these committees?

I think the first part of my question has been answered before in this site, but I would be interested to know the answer of the last part.

How does one get involved in technical committees in international conferences or commissions? Does one need an invitation or does one volunteer him/herself?

As you say yourself, this has been asked and answered. The executive summary is that as a first approximation, PCs are typically by-invitation and there is no "formal" way to apply or volunteer.

  Also, why are many relatively more experienced or outstanding academics often not involved in these committees?

Because time for "outstanding" academics is limited. You can only be in so many PCs before you do nothing but review papers, and for some very distinguished professors even one large PC may already be too many. Further, some conferences (e.g., ICSE) regularly rotate their PC).


What do you do when you find yourselves with an unreadable/inaccessible paper? Since I started my life in Academia, I sometimes found that there are some seminal papers to which I cannot get any access.

Either they are very old, and the journal that published them charges for it, or they are simply not to be found anywhere in the internet. I have to admit I never went to look for the physical copy in the library, but I'm not sure they would have it either.

When I asked a labmate about a reference he had in his paper and I could not find, and that seemed to be ubiquitous in any other paper in the area, he mentioned me he had never read it, but that reviewers usually demand that you should put that seminal reference.

How do you try and solve this problem?

Search the web for it: open archives, search engine, authors webpages, whatever (you've probably done that already…)
Ask the contact author for a copy, which she'll usually be very happy to provide. I regularly get such requests from other researchers in my field, and it feels very good to know that people are actually interested in your work.
If the contact author doesn't respond, try the senior author, then other authors.
Try your local library. Look into their database, and also ask the librarian there if the document might be available through loan from other libraries. I've never had much success doing that, but you never know…
Ask a few colleagues at different institutions if they can get it for free (see this question). If you have friends at large/famous/well-funded US universities (Princeton, Harvard, …), they probably have a more comprehensive access than you.
If it's a really important paper, pay for it!

Whatever happens, make sure you make a copy for others in your lab/group, and archive it. When I started my PhD, there was a folder (the heavy paper type, not the computer type) labeled “important but hard to find papers” that the group had accumulated along the years. It was the most treasured object in the whole lab.


Error on FastLane (NSF) letter of Reference System for the NSFPF The NSF postdoctoral application is due in less than 2 weeks and I am trying to send out invitations for my reference letters.  However, for the past week (on fastlane.gov) I have gotten the same error.

"A database error occured while performing fastlane.pdoc.ProcessReferenceLetter."

I contacted the NSF by email and by phone and haven't gotten any response by either format.  Is there anyone getting this?

Screen shot and date stamp every attempt to do this operation until it works. Call the helpdesk 800 number back every hour during business hours until someone answers the phone, but don't just leave message after message if it goes to voicemail. If you haven't already, send invites via email personally to each of your references so that they know the request from FastLane will be coming eventually. Tell each of your references about the problem so that they'll be prepared to take alternative action if NSF gives you a workaround. Keep good records of all your attempts.

If you can figure out who the cognizant program officer is for the specific fellowship you are applying for, write them an email Monday after you have tried to get in touch with the FastLane user support folks again with a short explanation of your problem and ask them for options.

FastLane being down on broken is usually a great reason for NSF to give you an exception to a deadline.

As noted in the comments, there is some upcoming Fastlane downtime due to the NSF financial system upgrade, but that shouldn't be the problem today or for the rest of the week. The FastLane user support team is usually very responsive, but with the financial system update going on, they may be swamped.

Finally, you might also try talking to the Sponsored Research Office/Office of Sponsored Projects/etc. at your current university. They work with staff at NSF all the time, and may have contacts that can help you.


What email to use for corresponding author on publications when institution is not permanent? What is the best email to use as corresponding author when publishing academic papers as a graduate student, postdoc, pre-tenured faculty or other potentially non-permanent position where your email address may change in the next few years? I know many academic institutions will let you turn your email address into a forwarding address, but in cases where this is not possible and your email address will cease to exist when/if you leave, what is the solution? Using something like a gmail address seems practical but rather unprofessional--or is it?

It has become quite obvious by now that most researchers are on precarious employment for an extended period of time when starting their career.

As mentioned by Michael and Mark, it is very common to find gmail email addresses in scientific publications. I believe that nobody would find that objectionable.

Tips, anyway:

Do not use party.dinosaur@gmail.com but a variation on firstname.lastname@gmail.com.
The issue of perenniality remains: GMail deletes inactive accounts after some time. Check their tools to address this issue: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3036546?hl=en
Self-hosted email (i.e. firstname@lastname.tld) is also subject to cancellation if you don't renew your domain/email host.
If you maintain a web presence, your email will be easily findable in the future.

As a kind of "non-requested bonus", I would advise to register an ORCID and have your paper include it (most publishers will include it by now). The ORCID is a unique permanent researcher ID, see their website. On your profile, you can have a list of all your publications and also of your web page. You can include several URLs, meaning that you can list your current institution homepage, your personal hosted homepage, your google scholar account, etc. The ORCID page will be permanent, easily findable and you can update it.

EDIT: you can also list an email (at your preference) on your ORCID profile.


'Read before The Royal Statistical Society ' What does it mean? In the header of several journal articles, I have seen this:

Read before The Royal Statistical Society at a meeting organized by the Research Section on Wednesday, May 5th, 2004, Professor J. T. Kent in the Chair

What does it mean for a paper to be read before the Royal Society ?

This means that the paper was presented to the members of society who were present at the meeting noted.

I am more familiar with this language in much older papers. I believe its use here is a holdover from a time when paper would be presented by a Fellow of the society (who may have been the author of the paper, or otherwise) to the assembled members of the society. For example, neither Darwin nor Wallace were present at the 1848 meeting of the Linnean Society at which their joint papers were presented; instead the papers were read by secretary John Bennett.


Should I ban electronic devices (smartphones, tablets and laptops) from a course? TL;DR

In the coming semester,
I will be teaching a "seminar" type course with around 30 students.
I would like to disallow students in the course
to use any electronic devices (smartphones, tablets and laptops)?

Questions:

Is banning electronic devices in my course a good idea?
How do I enforce such a rule?

Background

In the coming semester, I will be teaching a "seminar" type course.
The course is fairly small, with fewer than 30 students.
We will spend most of the time in the course
listening to students presenting their ideas,
and the students critiquing and giving feedback
on other students' presentations.

I have had a few years of experience teaching
large lecture courses with more than 100 students per lecture.
In these courses, many of the students prefer
to type their notes on my Powerpoint slides,
rather than writing on a physical copy of the lecture notes.
Unfortunately, as I walk around the classroom,
I invariably notice that a significant proportion of the students
are distracted during the class by their electronic devices,
e.g., checking their Facebook, Instagram or playing games.
(I would estimate about 20% of students
are distracted at any given point of time.)

I have noticed that I work better without electronic devices
because I am less distracted and can focus better.
Consequently, I would hope to minimize the distractions faced by students
by disallowing students in the course to use any electronic devices.

Why do I want to ban electronic devices from the course?

The main goal of the course is to teach students
how to analyze and present business case studies.
The course is not one that is heavy on facts or memorization.
Instead, students need to use their powers of observation
to follow along presentations by their fellow students,
and to evaluate their presentation style, body language and slide design.

Consequently, for this type of course,
I do not see that electronic devices add any value.
In fact, there are many research studies which suggest that
electronic devices negatively affect students' learning.
For example, an article in Psychology Today writes the following:

  Cognitive capacity and overall brain power are significantly reduced when your smartphone is within glancing distance—even if it’s turned off and face down—according to a recent study. This new report from the University of Texas at Austin, “Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity” was published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.

  During this study, the UT Austin researchers found that someone’s ability to hold and process data significantly improved if his or her smartphone was in another room while taking a test to gauge attentional control and cognitive processes. Participants who kept their phones in a pocket or bag also outperformed those who kept their phones on the desk while taking the same test. Again, even if the phone was turned off and face down on the desk, the mere sight of one's own smartphone seemed to induce “brain drain” by depleting finite cognitive resources.

(I'm a student)

Why do you want to ban the laptops?
Just because some students get distracted? If this is the only reason, that is almost a question of philosophy: Should you force the students into a situation that you think is best for them or should you assume them to be mature enough to decide what's best for them?
If your students were around the age of 12 years old, I'd agree that you should ban the laptops. But I'm assuming that your students have to be somewhat self-disciplied anyways to study for the courses in their 'free-time'.

I like writing my notes on the laptop. If you or the content of your course requires the students to take notes, please allow electronic devices. If the course is entirely focused on participation and taking notes would actually be useless, it might actually make sense to forbid using the devices because then the students would probably participate more.

In a class with only ~30 students, the following does not apply, but regarding your observation that some students are playing games during your lectures:
You will never be able to give the lecture in a tempo that fits every of the 100+ students perfectly. Some may be constantly bored and it suffices for them to listen with one ear while they are gaming or working on something else. Some are perfectly happy with your speed but get bored once somebody who was a bit slower asks a question.
In my experience, when I try to listen to a (to me) boring lecture, my thoughts just drift after a few minutes and I have not much to take away from the lecture. If I instead find a balance so that I can listen to you while it's interesting and keep myself awake and active by doing something else while it's not, I get more out of it.

  Is banning electronic devices in my course a good idea?

In general a big no from me, because students don't like to be told how they should behave. Why would you need to enforce something like that when they are here because they want to learn. However, I encourage you to mention your observations to them and that you think the electronic devices might be detrimental to their learning, so they can make an educated choice.

In your case however, with only 30 students where you expect them to actively participate instead of just listen and understand, it can make sense.
But if only one student is presenting and the rest are supposed to sit and listen (opposed to interactively asking questions and discussing) then I feel like it's a similar situation to my usual lectures.

  I have noticed that I work better without electronic devices because I am less distracted and can focus better.

True. On the other hand, I can learn better with electronic devices because it is easy to look something up that I didn't understand without having to interrupt the lecture to ask a question. It's also imo better for note-taking because you can paste parts of the slides and freely rearrange them.

  How do I enforce such a rule?

First of all, please provide a good reason to the students along with the statement that it is forbidden. Otherwise you will get a few of them on the wrong side and they will still try to use the devices. Without cooperation, enforcing this would be very hard I imagine.

Secondly, give them a good reason not to get distracted. If they are required to be present anyways, it might be an idea to give out grades for participation. Or ensure that the content of the lecture is really interesting.

Think also about when you want to make exceptions. What if somebody has special needs, e.g. does not see the screen from afar? What if some student has an important deadline incoming and wants to work on that during your class, but still came to not miss completely everything? Etc.

Alternative Solution:

  Some of the best instructors I had knew at which point of their lecture they should ask questions and took the time to learn students names. Then you can first ask the questions to people goofing off, and follow up with someone paying attention.

This is a quote of DBB's answer, and it reminded me of a tutor we had who everybody considered to be really great. The thing that set him apart is that he noticed when somebody was getting bored, distracted or lost, and asked that person a question. It might be a really simple one just to get their focus back, or it might be one that tests whether they are bored because they already know the content or rather because they're getting tired. Often, when one student would not know the answer, a different student would know the answer (and could explain it to everybody who lost track) or nobody else knew it either and the tutor knew what he had to explain again.
Such questions make people who are zoning out focus again, even if they are not the ones who were asked. And if it is fine to say "I don't know", nobody is afraid of being asked either, so they can answer honestly and give the tutor information about what they got and what not.


What is expected in a masters thesis of a mathematics student? What is the level of work expected in the masters thesis of a student of maths?
I know some people's works are worthy of publications while some involve only studying some topic in detail from a book and submitting a summary (since this is akin to a couple of courses, a year worth of work, in that topic in terms of content covered, I would consider this,which I believe is called a literature review thesis, as an extreme opposite of independent research work thesis).

But what is the "average" level of a MS thesis of a mathematics student? Is it usually closer to a literature review thesis or a research work thesis?

In particular, I would also like to know:

How much is it valued (if at all) when one applies for PhD?

I have heard that its value is more in Europe than America, which if I were to guess I would say, may be due to absence of GRE like criterion there. Is this true?

Edit: After the wonderful existing answer explaining the case in Germany, I would really like to know the situation in US too. I expect a drastic difference due to the presence of GRE system but would like to know how much importance the thesis has, there.
PS: Please excuse me if one can find answers to some of these questions in already existing questions. I have searched, but couldn't find them. Please provide the links in those cases.
Also, anecdotal details will also be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I think this varies a lot. But for Germany your first question can be answers succinctly: In a Master's thesis you should show that you have potential for research.

On the other hand, expectations vary a lot between advisors. But certainly you do not have to prove a new theorem or develop a new theory.

  How much is it valued (if at all) when one applies for PhD?

I can only answer for the situation where you apply in Germany. The thesis can be a door opener if it is topic closely related to the field where you want to do a PhD. Also a good mark is important. But also in Germany hiring professors will often contact your advisors or request a reference letter and this is much more important.

  I have heard that its value is more in Europe than America, which if I were to guess I would say, may be due to no GRE like criterion. Is this true?

Not sure on this point since I can't provide a comparison with the US and also I am not sure if the situation is uniform with the EU.


Can I contact the referee if I know their identity after a double-blind reviewing process? The referee process is technically double blind but I managed to figure out the identity of the referee by writing style. I am 100% sure about this finding.
The referee rejected my paper and I cannot understand several points raised by the referee. May I send a very polite and humble email gently ask for a little bit further comments? To my understanding this action does not break any rules.
Will the referee hate me for this, or if the referee later complains to the editor about my email, will the editor punish me?
Re: This thread is not about referee identification. Besides writing style I have one other ethical source to confirm that identity. I almost never claim 100% but in this case I can claim this.

If the review is unclear, you should contact the editor for clarification, and not the referee.  This would be true even if the peer review was not blinded.  The editor is in charge of peer review.


Benefit of publishing large articles/papers instead of books After reading this question, and specifically this answer, I find myself wondering why someone would publish an extremely long paper, for example 200 pages, instead of publishing as a book.

I was always under the impression that publishing a book was more prestigious than publishing articles so why would someone write something with the quantity to be a book and prefer to publish it as a journal article? Are there hidden benefits of publishing as an article over publishing as a book?

As always, it depends. First of all,

  publishing a book was more prestigious than publishing articles

depends on the area. In parts of the humanities, writing a book is an almost-necessary condition for tenure, but in my area of CS, a book is viewed as best as a waste of time pre-tenure.

In terms of absolute prestige, books and articles serve different purposes. Even a 200 page article might be a technical exposition of a single result. Witness for example the ongoing series of articles on graph minors in mathematics. A book often tries to distill and put in perspective a body of work, and (sometimes) might have educational components like exercises/problems.

A well-written book gives you some cachet as an expert in an area, but a seminal journal article can do the same. It really depends on what purpose you expect the document to serve.

A final point. A book (even a technical one) may not be peer-reviewed in the same way as an article. Indeed, it's not common in my area to have brand new research appear first in a book (I'm excluding simple observations and recasting of results).


What guidelines exist for volume of evidence in an undergraduate business assignment? When teaching undergraduate students, I find freshmen students to be mostly unaware with the idea of including evidence to support the author's opinion. That is, they write something like:

  Leaders should be friendly and support those in lower positions in the organization. Being friendly makes others like you and that makes them work harder.

Where it should be more like:

  Goleman (2000) wrote about affiliative leadership in which the leader focuses on the emotional connection with the followers. In the ABC case, the leader is likely to be well served by using affiliative leadership due to the fact that workers who feel a strong emotional connection with their manager are known to push themselves harder in order to gain the approval of the manager (Jones, 2008). This implies that the leader should not only be affiliative but should also withhold compliments from the subordinates in order to maximize output.

I remember my teachers telling me the guidelines was 80/20. 80% of the writing should be from the student and 20% should be from external sources, which support the student's opinion.

Meanwhile, I have read quite a few papers from students where they basically have a citation for every sentence. This makes me wonder if they actually know much. After all, if 80% of the writing is from academic sources, it shows that the authors of those papers understand, not that the student understands. However, I also consider that the fact that the student knew which text to include should count for something.

Then I start thinking about plagiarism. If the student has simply quoted their way through a paper (with proper citations) then someone else could submit the same paper and it would not count as plagiarism because everything is cited.

Is there any generally accepted guideline on the percentage of writing in a student's written assignment which should be from the student and what percentage should be from other (hopefully academic) sources?

I realize that this might vary by field. My field is business management.

Context: my Bachelors degree was in Management and Electrical Engineering (double major).  Though it was several decades ago, I think I understand your field and setting.  My current PhD field is Computational Social Science and it includes some Organization Science.

I agree with your general intuitions, and the 80/20 ratio seems reasonable but I would definitely not be presenting that as a rule or even as a guideline. Instead, I would say that the nature of the paper and the arguments should dictate the use of evidence and citations.

Papers that analyze foundational ideas might only have one or two citations -- the original seminal papers.  But there might be so many ideas in those papers that the student should devote considerable space to examining them.

In contrast, papers that summarize or survey a sub-field will have a very high number of citations and quotes from the research literature.  The students task is to present the survey as a cohesive whole (if it is one) and to show how the various lines of research tie together or diverge.

Rather than focus on citations, I think its better to focus students on the principles of argumentation -- with analogies to legal arguments and formal debates.  Too often students will believe that their points are "obvious" and "common sense", or maybe "best practice", and thus requires no justification or support from evidence.  Disabuse them of those notions through Socratic questioning: "How do you know that?  Why do you believe that?  How would you persuade someone who holds the opposite view?" and so on.

Once their argument has a structure, they can begin assembling evidence to support it and defend it from criticisms. That evidence might come from published research or other sources.  But they shouldn't include any citations where they do not need support.  They also need to consider the credibility and relevance of the evidence.  No matter how authoritative a citation might be, it shouldn't be included if it is not highly relevant to the student's argument.

Here's a test that students can apply after they have written their paper, in a final edit pass:

For each citation or piece of evidence, ask:

Would my argument be weakened if I removed this?
Can I replace this with stronger evidence?

For each point in the argument or assertion, ask:

Is this adequately supported with evidence or citations from the literature?
Is the evidence and support both credible and relevant?

Have I, as author, fulfilled my role in this paper, given the nature and goals of the assignment?

Hope this helps!


Should all subsections of a paper start on a new page? I am finalising a paper that is around 85 pages long. It consists of six main sections with a bunch of subsections. Should every subsection start on a new page? What is the convention concerning this? And should a subject also start on a new page after an introductory paragraph of its parent section? For instance:

3. Balloons are funny
In this section I will first present reasons why balloons should not be used on occasions that are depressing. For
instance, bringing balloons to a funeral will not cheer people up.
Secondly I will discuss different colours that can lead to different
reactions. As an example one should not bring red balloons to a bull
pen. Lastly I will make clear why clowns should always have balloons
with them as to not come across evil.

<-- PAGE BREAK? -->

3.1 Balloons are not a go-to cheer up tool
When confronted with a sad or depression situation, a first reaction might be to try and
cheer everybody up. One should be careful with the methods he uses
though. Do not tell a joke about cancer patients if someone just
deceased after months of chemo. Do not bring balloons to a funeral.

Hopefully this ad lib writing makes my question clear. (If it is any help, my institution uses APA as a style guide.)

Depending on the length and complexity of the work, you choose the top level sectioning.

For short works -- scientific paper, lecture notes < 80 pages, etc., you in general use only sections and lower.
For longer works -- thesis, long lecture notes, books, etc., you in general use chapters, sections and lower.
If your long work has multiple sort-of separated parts, you can add parts -- notice, however, that usually, part numbering is independent. Therefore for instance Part I contains chapters 1, 2, 3 with some sections, and Part II contains chapers starting from 4, ...

Now, the standard way to go is to start parts and chapters on a new page, and leave sections running through the pages.

Needed to say, most standard publications (articles, conference abstracts, theses, books by standard publishers, ...) have to comply with some guidelines provided by the publisher, and these guidelines are usually very restrictive.


Is it a good idea for an international student to use his master's thesis preprint as his writing sample? I am applying to doctoral programs in the US.

I would like to use my master's thesis preprint as my writing sample because it was written in English and is in the field on which I intend to concentrate in my possible doctoral studies.

Though my advisor, who is not a native speaker too, feels it is okay for my thesis to be my writing sample, I am afraid, because I did not make the English in my thesis polished by native speakers, that using it as my writing sample would backfire.

Yes.  If an applicant to a doctoral program has written a master's thesis, it will be assumed that the thesis is the applicant's best work.  Therefore admissions committees will expect to receive the thesis as the writing sample.  If your thesis is long, you may wish to send a polished excerpt; the expected length may be field dependent.


Can a professor refuse to introduce any textbook for a course? In a technical course, our professor refused to introduce any textbook. He officially stated (included in the course syllabus) that all the course content will be discussed in the class, and cover all questions in the final exam.

I think this is a trick to bring the students to the class instead of relying on self-study.

I do not have problem with this method, as I regularly attend the class, but it would be easier to have a textbook.

My question: can a professor do this? Isn't it the essential right of students to have appropriate textbooks for each course?

There is no "right to have a textbook". Students do have a right to pick a different professor, or a different major, if they want. You should assume that the lack of a textbook for the course means that the instructor has evaluated existing texts as not appropriate.


Can an article "in press" (available online) be withdrawn/retracted? Nowadays, many journals publish articles online ahead of print, in a state that is given various names by the various publishers: in press, ASAP, just accepted, ahead of print, etc. The final printed paper will be identical with the online one, except maybe for page numbers and color figures… They can be cited through their DOI.

But if somebody, author or reader, were to find a fatal flaw with one such article, what should happen? Would the article be withdrawn (or retracted) before printing, or would it be printed nonetheless, then retracted later? And in any case, would the resulting paper be considered part of the scientific record, or not?

In your question you say "fatal flaw" and the answer will strongly depend on the meaning or intent with using these words. A fatal flaw might mean a figure is wrong; you may have submitted an earlier version of a figure you later revised. A fatal flaw may also mean you discover something that negates your results; you used the wrong equation or based your conclusions on the wrong data, both in ways that would pose serious risk. A third way to interpret the term is by personally simply disagreeing with what has been published, but my guess is that this is not what you are primarily thinking about and it is of course not grounds for any actions.

In the second case, retraction could be the only way forward. You should of course make the journal aware of this as soon as possible and ask for their suggested solution. If you have your paper published online but not yet printed, the journal (publisher) might retract it and it will never be printed. If it is printed they might retract it and probably print a note in a following issue to that fact. See examples for why in The New England Journal of Medicine

In the first case, the journal will likely publish an erratum, publish the correct figure to follow up on the example. Anything that is of a technical nature and can be rectified by providing the correct version will be done so through errata,. In print this will be included also in a subsequent issue.

Elsevier, for example, summarizes their rules and provides the following grounds for retraction:

  Article withdrawal: Only used for Articles in Press which represent early versions of articles and sometimes contain errors, or may have been accidentally submitted twice. Occasionally, but less frequently, the articles may represent infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like.
  Article retraction: Infringements of professional ethical codes, such as multiple submission, bogus claims of authorship, plagiarism, fraudulent use of data or the like. Occasionally a retraction will be used to correct errors in submission or publication.
  Article Removal: Legal limitations upon the publisher, copyright holder or author(s).
  Article Replacement: Identification of false or inaccurate data that, if acted upon, would pose a serious health risk.

In essence, if something is officially published with a doi, there is no way to get corrections made in the pdf or in print. The online version must correspond to the printed and so the solution becomes providing a correction later on.

Anything that has published will be possible to see. A paper that has been retracted will just be associated with a clear sign that a retraction has been made. The paper might live on through older copies on peoples computers or in their desk drawers.

There is an article in PLOS one that provides a perspective on retractions in general and which may be of interest.


How do we prevent a professor from releasing our class project as his own research? I don't want to release too many details in this inquiry, but I do have a very legitimate question to ask. My senior class (aerospace engineering) has been hard at work for nearly nine months reverse engineering a particular X-Plane. We have done detailed analysis on almost all the aspects of the craft and we have just heard that our supervising professor intends to release this research as his own for future technologies in SSTO vehicle analysis. What options do we have to prevent this blatant plagiarism by an adviser and how soon should we act?

You must have documented your reverse engineering efforts in some way (e.g. Student reports). You can publish these online, e.g. On ArXiv.

You might also discuss coauthorship with your professor on future publications.


Which capitalization style to use for article titles in CV? This likely varies by field; I am in the social sciences, but general insights on the topic are welcome.

We have two common capitalization schemes for article titles:

Title case (e.g. "Longitudinal Study of Cookie Consumption During Christmas")
Sentence case (e.g. "Longitudinal study of cookie consumption during Christmas")

Right now I list the title for each article as it appears in the journal. However, this means that the alternating papers are listed using different capitalization schemes, which doesn't look good and decreases readability (especially if someone is scanning the CV quickly). Admittedly, this doesn't have a huge effect, but I would still prefer to stick with a single style, especially as it wouldn't take me a lot of time to dp this, and the CV plays a large role in my career.

I searched, but couldn't find recommendations regarding this, and there is no single style which is prevalent in CVs in my field (which also emphasizes the fact that it's probably not too crucial).

My question is which capitalization style would be preferable in terms of appearance and readability: title case or sentence case?

Thank you.

Sentence casing would be my personal choice, but actually it is just a matter of preference.

Academic CVs exist in either title casing or sentence casing in publications. Both are prevalent in practice. Whatever be your choice, make sure it is consistent throughout the CV.


Can journals decide to refuse previously approved publications conditional to minor revisions? I assisted a professor in writing a paper and it got accepted in a journal with minor reviews. I did the modifications I was asked to address and have been waiting on the professor the rest of the time. I've done friendly reminders once or twice to ask what's going on with the paper but decided to drop the ball as I know they are quite busy. This publication is also obviously more important for me as I don't have anything out there yet, so I'm not so surprised it's probably sitting on a hard drive somewhere. We have a great relationship and there will be opportunities for more publications later on. Still, it was a lot of work for me so I'm keeping my hopes up and the topic can change quickly.

If we do end up submitting the revised paper, can the journal turn it down at a later date on the basis that the delays have been too long? Do journals usually have explicit rules with regards to delays for re-submitting after reviews?

Yes, most journals require revisions to be submitted within a certain time limit as specified in the editors decision letter, typically 3-6 months. Failing that, the paper will be considered withdrawn and any re-submission treated like a new submission. However it is also possible to ask for an extension of the revision deadline, if one can provide good arguments.

Of course, I don't know the details of your case, but you should be able to find out from the journal website.

I also strongly advise you to contact your co-author (preferably in person rather than via email) and enquire about the state of the manuscript and their plans for resubmission.


Consulting during PhD? Say I got a Master's degree in Machine Learning and had 3 years experience as a machine learning engineer and 2 years experience as a software engineer. Would it be possible to do freelance/consulting work during the evening after I've already put my most productive hours into research earlier in the morning and afternoon?

How likely is it that my time would be better spent wrangling data/reading papers or that my program wouldn't allow external work such as this?

How about doing this work over the summer while also doing an internship? I'd like to make a little more than the stipend a year to put in the bank, and I want to work in industry research after my phd.

Is the question really as you are asking if this is possible? Well, more improbable things are possible, so clearly yes. The specifics of your situation, and the type of consulting are both important. Are you already in a PhD and have a concrete oportunity? (asking the question conditional on PhD and opportunity) Are you already in a PhD and consider looking for opportunities but do not have something concrete? (asking the question conditional on PhD only) Are you considering a PhD and want to see what your prospects for a stipend on the side would be? Do you have the opportunity but consider the PhD? Why do you want to get the PhD / what do you think you ll do after (your profile is not suggesting you want to continue in academia after the PhD, am I wrong?)

In any case, keep in mind that the most important factors are:

-If you are already in a PhD and have one: your advisor. What does he think? Can he help you find something relevant to your thesis/ help you get exerience / connections? Talk to him and make sure he is ok. He might also be able to provide good alternatives

-A think you learn with experience: A PhD should not be a lengthy affair. Every year counts and you want to finish as soon as possible. Especially in a field like yours (ours ;)) you can have a lot of opportunities to get paid for doing the PhD... Do you really need the extra stipend if it will delay you? Unless you get something other than money back, that you can use for your thesis or after the phd.

-What you want to do after the PhD. The PhD is a lousy end goal, it can only serve as the means to an end. What is your optimization function? What do you want to get out of your PhD? How is the extra activity going to help you?

-If you have not yet started the PhD yet, and you really care about that stipend, it might be worth noting that there are many situations where the converse might be more productive and easier, especially given your profile: getting a PhD while working in industry, You would have to find a company (more difficult part, they pay...) and an advisor (easier part: they do not have to support financially, and they get money and a PhD student) willing to support you while doing the phd... You (and secondary the advisor) will want to make sure that the company commits in paper for at least a number of years though(i would suggest minimum 3): otherwise its possible a year in the future the company's scope will change /money will run out


Request Colleges internationally to let students participate in a survey For a student research project in the field of IT I would like to interview students who have little to no experience in participating in Open Source projects. My professor said that only interviewing students from my university in Germany is not representative and that I should consider different countries as the motivation to participate in open source might vary from culture to culture.
My survey will contain very few questions that I have not yet found in my primary studies. Is it appropriate that I ask different universities in other countries to let their IT students participate in my survey?

In many places (say, the US), there are laws that govern any sort of research with human subjects. This applies even to questionnaires. These laws differ widely from place to place and it is even possible that asking a question in some other country Y might have issues.

In the United States, universities have an IRB (Institutional Review Board) which will look at what you want to do and approve it or make suggestions about how to improve it within the law and ethical regulations.

Germany may well have similar laws and regulations.

Wherever you are, look to an IRB or a Research Office to obtain valid feedback on your plans. This will, perhaps, ease your approach to universities in other countries to obtain permission for your questionnaire.


Is it safe to post my CV online? Is it safe to post my CV online (with my physical address included)?  Should I be worried about identity theft in doing so?

Considering that public telephone directories with names, addresses, and phone numbers have been around for decades, I don't think there's a significant risk of identity theft here. You could consider using a distinct email for your resume such that if you begin getting too much spam you could manage it separately, but even that's probably not necessary.


Details an applicant should include/exclude in an introductory letter to a prospective grad school adviser? I'm applying for graduate school (PhD in computer science), and I'm considering writing to faculty whose research areas match with what I intend to pursue, to understand:

Whether they'd be looking for new students at all in the coming year?
If they did, would they be potentially interested in my profile (I know no-one would guarantee an acceptance without me going through the process of application), but it would help to know if they would not be interested at all in me - which would leave me  free apply to other schools in which I get a neutral/positive response.

Keeping the above in mind, what would be the best way to introduce myself in the first mail?

What should be the salutation - I know "Respected Sir" sounds archaic, but was wondering if "Dear Professor X" sounded too informal or not!
Do I state my credentials (details of where I did my undergrads/masters) first, or do I state my purpose in writing to him/her?
How to mention my background concisely, without giving too much details, while at the same time not "underselling" myself as a potential grad student?
I want to give a link to my resume/profile hosted on my website - should I embed the hyperlink, or is it better to write the link in plain text?
How do I end such a letter - the obvious ones (such as "see you soon" or "till we meet again") being not quite suitable in this case)?

I'm basically afraid of saying too much (causing vexation) or too little (resulting in no response to my missive). I understand that the faculty are accustomed to seeing their inbox flooded with such mails each year, few of which ever get a positive response - which may not always be due to lack of an interesting profile, but the manner in which the mail is worded (Many professors have explicitly mentioned on their websites that they would not respond to generic "Do you have funding" type of queries no matter what the credentials of the student are!).

Though my interest is specific to CS, I believe it would apply to other fields as well. Also, I would be interested in the opinions of both present faculty members (who have to sort through such mails), and past applicants to grad-school (who have the experience of successfully writing to their advisers before applying)...

I have a list of things you should do from my seniors (Some might disagree):

Try not to over-sell yourself. There is a fine line between stating facts about yourself and boasting. Stay on the former side.
Try not to mention things and leave them abruptly or incompletely. For e.g., Don't say "I was involved with a project in the University of X where we studied Cancer Treatment." (Thats it). What did you do? Where did it lead? What is the status now? Thats the crux of the information and sadly, that is left out.
Have an interesting question or comment in the mail. Merely stating that you read a paper or attended his talk is not enough. Billions of other students will be stating the same. What made you like it? Why was it relevant to you?
Side note: Surprisingly, many professors who I mailed have been interested on how I stumbled on his paper.
Never ask direct questions that the professor wouldn't like answering (At least in the first mail). Asking him about his funding status isn't the best idea in the first mail. This is true for many reasons: For one, most profs wouldn't like telling you such details without you proving you are worth it (Why would they?). Secondly, your intentions are getting obfuscated. Are you really interested in the professor ( & his research) or his money? If his research was interesting but he couldn't fund you for X years, would you still go?
If this wasn't obvious, don't mass mail/mail merge.
Be honest about what you say. This includes no exaggeration.
Make it short. No one likes reading a billion lines to find out who you are.
Emphasize your work and what differentiates you from the rest rather than your grades and scores. Grades and scores (GRE/AGRE) are bonuses (or deal breakers) but they are secondary.


How to ensure I will stay first author of my paper? Some time ago i clumsily wrote a paper about an algorithm.Since i had no experience in scientific writing i gave the paper to a professor with the hope that he would help me improve the presentation.The professor rewrote the paper making some very minor changes in proofs without my consent but allowed me to be "first author" on the paper.Recently i discovered that he put himself as first author in the first author field(that was intended for those who made the greatest contribution) of the  of the journal's form.I feel a bit cheated by this and i am not sure how to proceed to change it if it is possible.I have already sent an email to the professor who agreed to change his "mistake" but i don't trust him at all since he lied to me repeatedly in the past for other matters.
Is it fair to pressure him to add my name as first author(he said he will but did nothing yet) on the submission form if its possible since he rewrote my paper(without my consent) but really added nothing new to my algorithm and its proofs ?
Since the professor is a bit dishonest how can i be sure that he does it without deceiving me in some way?

Journal editors don't want to become involved in fights about authorship.  However, it is a very well accepted ethical norm that a paper cannot be published without the consent of all of the authors and that authors can't be dropped from a paper after submission or author ordering changed without the consent of the authors.   It's good editorial practice to contact all of the authors of a paper and check for objections if any such change is proposed by the corresponding author.

Thus you have the "nuclear option" of contacting the editor and telling him/her that this change in author order was counter to your prior agreement with the professor and that you no longer consent to publication. I'd recommend that you start by contacting the editor to find out whether the author order has been fixed by your professor.


I asked for a recommendation, then decided I wouldn't, but I've changed my mind again. Will the professor feel annoyed? I was planning to apply for a Ph.D. program and I asked a Prof to write me a letter of recommendation. The prof already agreed. After that, I didn't feel confident about applying and informed the professor to not write LOR for me.

Deep inside, I still want to apply but I haven't made up my mind yet.
Will the professor feel annoyed if I ask for a LOR again? Should I tell the professor that I haven't decided yet but in any case, can they still submit their LOR.

I know professors are busy and I don't want to bother them too much.

Probably yes.

Writing a strong letter of recommendation demands some effort. Make sure of your decision before asking for your professor to invest his time in it.


How early can I apply for postdocs? I am about 1 year away from finishing my PhD (hopefully), and have recently seen a few advertised postdoc positions that I think would be perfect for me. Most positions indicate that the start date is around 3 months away. My question is: how early is too early to apply? Is it worth applying for these positions and indicating in my cover letter that I wouldn't be able to start for another year? Is it OK to email professors directly and inquire informally about open positions in their labs at this stage?

You certainly can apply early - the worst they can say is "No", which is functionally equivalent to what happens if you don't apply. It's also a perfectly fine time to start asking around.

The answers will depend very much on the postdoc. For example, right now I have a postdoc position in my lab where "A year from now" is 1/3rd of the way through funding, so it likely wouldn't be acceptable, as I needed a postdoc working right away. On the other hand, there are other positions where starting would be considerably more flexible.


How to properly point out the M.Sc. thesis in a Ph.D. application Having personally contacted a professor about the possibility of a Ph.D., he asked me to send him a cv and a copy of my M.Sc. in order to evaluate.
Instead, in the online application form of "other" Ph.D. programmes, I have found that I need to include a cv, among the other things, but there is no possibility to attach a copy of the thesis. So, preparing the cv, I thought to imbed an hyperlink to the thesis.

  I would ask you: if it is acceptable, or is counter-productive?

I would advise to add the links, because I don't see what you could possibly lose by doing so instead of not doing so.

You can add links in LaTeX using

 \href{link.to.thesis}{My MSc thesis title}

In my opinion, this is a nice way to link to everything relevant that can not be properly adressed nor otherwise included in your CV. You can for example provide references such as the homepage of your advisor, your department, your other software projects etc. - all just by putting links behind their names.


How to motivate students to complete work that I cannot frequently check? I assign my undergraduate students assignments from a workbook as homework. The homework amounts to about 30-minutes per day.

It is impractical for me to collect these workbooks at each lesson, or even weekly, as any days when I am checking the work are days when the students don't have their workbooks in hand. Furthermore, I cannot constantly collect, carry, and redistribute hundreds of workbooks each week.

As such, I've limited my collections of these to twice per term. The results, however, have not been good. A great many students save many weeks of work until the last minute, only to discover then that the task is far more difficult than they anticipated.

How can I motivate my students to complete work daily when it is impractical for me to frequently assess it?

The other answers are excellent. Without knowing your field or the nature of the workbook assignments, I'll give the following answer:

I have become a big fan of automated online homework systems (although I know some students hate them). If you happen to be in a field where these systems exist (e.g., Physics, Math, Chemistry--WebAssign, MyMathLab, etc.), consider this for a future semester.

The reason I bring up these systems is that (1) they provide a forcing function for the students to do the work, (2) the grading is automatic and immediate, (3) the better systems provide guidance on problem solving, and (4) the math-related problems can be randomized so students can't copy of another student's work (as easily...).

Ideas for your current system:

Do a cursory check of the books every week. By cursory, I mean "check that there is writing on the required pages," and give a check or not. This doesn't preclude them from not putting in much work, but at least they will see that you've got eyes on them each week.
Give them a daily 1-question quiz that is straight from the homework (if it is the kind of work that has "correct answers").
Reassess why it matters that they do the work, and lay it out to them plainly. Do the students who procrastinate on the homework really do more poorly with the material? If the answer isn't an emphatic "yes," then why do you care? If the answer is "yes," then lay this out to them on the first day of class: "I assign the workbook material because it helps you get a better grade in the class. It's up to you to do the work, and your grade will almost certainly reflect the amount of work you put into the workbooks. I don't collect it because I expect you to do it on your own, and it's your grade that matters." In the end, your job is to give them the tools to learn the material, and their job is to use those tools. At the collegiate level, you can expect them to take their education seriously. I.e., "You can lead a horse to water..."


What is the proper way for an abbreviation of assistant professor? I am looking for the formally correct abbreviation of assistant professor. How do I refer to someone in that position in a letter or on a webpage? Is Asst. Prof. Dr. the right title?

In my experience, what comes before professor (e.g. assistant, associate, full) is only really used in formal contexts, and in most other cases simply "Professor"/"Prof." is enough.

And, at least in the sciences, "Doctor"/"Dr." is typically used when that is the highest title.

I've never seen both "Professor" and "Doctor" used together.

So, in your case, I suppose "Prof. X" is good enough.


Does saying ''I don't know" often decrease my authority as teaching assistant? I worked as a TA for several courses. Some courses fall into the domain in which my research also happens. But some other courses are not at all familiar to me.

My Institute conducts tutorial classes with an objective of addressing students doubts in that course. Only TAs attend to this class. It is of the duration atleast couple of hours.

Students start asking the questions, that are difficult for whole class (because of the reason that they communicate among themselves the solutions of questions).

For the courses that are not familiar to me, it becomes difficult to answer the questions asked by them. Students expect the answer instantly on the board and it is a norm also.

In-order to face the situation honestly, I need to tell I don't know for the questions they ask. I feel it is okay to tell my ignorance for some questions since I am not a professor or expert in that course.

If I start saying it honestly for all questions that are difficult for me, then I feel that there will be an increased disrespect on me among students circle.

Is it true that the respect for the TA decreases the more often frequency they reply "I don't know"?

Note:  Attending the professor classes as TA or spending more time on the course is not solving my issue since students are asking questions that are very difficult as they collect questions from several online materials that demands more in-depth knowledge. And professor asks to conduct the classes properly. Some TAs intentionally avoid tutorials to avoid this issue. So please refrain from the answers that provide solutions to the question of: how to handle this

Is it a true phenomenon that the respect on TA decreases with an increased frequency of I don't know replies?

Certainly not in the sense of "you have 5 'I don't know' per semester, and then you lose the student's respect. It really depends on what questions you do answer, how you answer them, and what kind of questions you are unable to answer.

If you normally provide good, instructive answers to questions with the occasional "I don't know" mixed in, no reasonable person will lose respect for you - especially if you commit to finding the answer to the questions you are unable to answer, and then follow through.

That said, it depends on what the questions you aren't able to answer are. If those are questions that could in a very similar scope also be on the exam, not knowing the answer (and not being able to derive it in reasonable time) will indeed not reflect well on you. If that is the case, preparing better for teaching the course (or teaching courses closer to your field of research) is really the only way forward. Otherwise, the students have all rights to be annoyed - what could they learn from a teacher who doesn't sufficiently master the course themselves?

  I worked as a TA for several courses. Some courses fall into the domain in which my research also happens. But some other courses are not at all familiar to me.

Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but that's really not the student's problem. The students should have an expectation that their teacher is qualified to teach the course, whether it's in their area of research or not. You should not expect leniency from the students because you are teaching a course outside of your field of research.


Addressing medical issues in grad school applications For most of university, I usually got around a ~3.5, with my GPA in my fourth year being around a 3.8.

However, during the first semester of my first year, I had some medical issues that made it really challenging to focus on school. Because of that, my GPA that semester was around a 1.7.

This one semester 4 years ago is completely destroying my GPA. Because of it my cumulative GPA is around a 3.35 instead of the 3.6 it should be.

I'm applying to PhD programs right now, and I'm afraid that most grad schools will take a quick look at the 3.35 and immediately dismiss my application because it's so low... I've done as much as I can to mitigate the effect of it, including doing quite well my fourth year, publishing a research paper and doing several research internships throughout university.

I was hoping for some advice on the best way to deal with this. I'll definitely mention this in my SOP, but I don't know if that will be sufficient. I'm also not sure how many details I'm expected to share about the medical issue. It's obviously very personal and I'd prefer to not share too much, but if I absolutely need to I guess that's okay...

I would think that the one semester is an anomaly. As such, since it was your first semester, it likely won't have much impact as long as you explain it adequately. People do get sick. Other people understand that. On the other hand some people do tend to party a lot and others may not be so understanding. But an explanation should suffice. If appropriate (it isn't always) be able to back up your statements with some evidence - say a recommendation from a doctor that the issue is in the past.

Some people won't even blink since your trend line is positive.

If you can also show the the poor grades early on didn't leave you with a hole in your education, all the better. That seems unlikely in this case, of course.

But of course, my analysis won't be universal. Some people will look harshly, but it should be rare most places.


How to implement contradictory comments/suggestions from collaborators? Every paper that I have worked on originated from the following timeline: a small team works on data and obtains results; one member is designated first author (always the one who did the biggest chunk of work); first author elaborates a draft version of the paper (may request other members to write one or more sections) and sends it to the rest of the team; all the other members send comments/suggestions; first author implements comments/suggestions and sends a new version; iteration of the process until everyone is happy with the paper.

Background: My field is Astrophysics. Even though the methodology behind writing papers varies from field to field, this question should be useful and easily applied across multiple fields. The viability of this methodology should not be the focus of this question.

I am currently writing a paper as the first author for the first time. Whenever I get comments/suggestions I always try to implement them and if I get more than one suggestion for the same thing, I try to find a mid term that allows me to accommodate every contribution. However, sometimes this is just not possible. As an example, I recently got contradictory comments regarding one paragraph in the introduction: one of the collaborators said "Delete it, we don't need this", the other said "add X, Y and Z". I cannot possibly implement both, as it is not possible to both delete a paragraph and add more information to it.

So, I can summarize my concerns in the following questions:

What factors should I take into account when prioritizing a comment/suggestion (e.g. personal preference as the first author, expertise or reputation of the collaborators who made the comments, ...)
How to professionally address comments/suggestions that were not implemented/had to be ignored? Will it offend a collaborator if I don't use one of his contributions? Should I contact that person stating that I did not implemented comment A because B?
Does the answer to this question change in case of trivial (such as rephrasing and paper structure) vs non-trivial (such as results or other relevant scientific contributions) comments/suggestions?

(I find this question to be significantly different from this one as I am looking for insight regarding collaborators that are contributing to your work and that you intend to collaborate again in the future. The mentioned questions are about (anonymous) peer-reviewers who are not working with you and are trying to make your work publishable.)

I handle conflicting suggestions as follows: Consider all suggestions for this point, work out a suggestion based on the other suggestions and send an email to all collaborators and write something like "In this respect I got conflicting suggestions namely... I would suggest to proceed as follows... because... ".

It would be best to collect all the points of conflict in one message.

You may reduce the number of conflicts a bit by adding another step to your workflow: Before starting to write the paper have a session/discussion about the structure of the paper, its focus and the notation. This costs some time and be difficult, but can considerably reduce the number of conflicts. Especially you may point out that some issue has been already discussed in this session.

Oh, and by the way: I would not suggest to encourage all coauthors to cc their comments to the whole group of authors and have the discussion like that. Then the thread may loose focus pretty fast and things may get messy.


Has anyone, based on great performance, ever been awarded a higher degree than the one they enrolled for? Out of curiosity, I was wondering if anyone, historically, has ever been awarded a degree that was a level higher than the one they were enrolled in and studying for, simply because their performance warranted a higher award? For example, somebody could have been awarded a MPhil instead of an MSc or a PhD instead of an MSc?

Although a bit old, there's the case of Luzin's Master's thesis: . . . he completed his thesis The integral and trigonometric series which he submitted in 1915. After his oral examination he was awarded a doctorate, despite having submitted his thesis for the Master's Degree. In fact, even for a Ph.D. thesis, Luzin's is one of the strongest ever written in mathematics --- in my opinion easily in the top 20 (and probably in the top 10) of all-time Ph.D. theses in mathematics for its influence on later developments.

This appears to be the published version of Luzin's thesis, which is 242 pages and in Russian, with the table of contents on pp. 241-242. For references to it, this search and this other search seem to work the best. I didn't get many hits for the title's French translation, by the way.


Should I quit my PhD after 4 months? I've been thinking a lot before asking this question, but now I feel it's time to seek some advice. I started my PhD a couple of months ago and now it is almost 4 months since I put my hands on this project. I joined a very small research group (I'm the only PhD) to embark on an industrial PhD in the UK. I moved away from my home country, I rented a flat and my girlfriend joined me a few months ago. Should be an ideal condition but for me, it's a nightmare.
I don't feel well. Every day a sense of depression and anxiety is constantly present thus forcing me to spend most of the time alone. I don't like my project and I don't like the environment despite having two supervisors who are very kind to me. I don't want to stay in this condition anymore but at the same time, I don't know what to do. I don't have the courage to speak with my supervisors and explain my condition.
Does someone have any advice on what should I do?
P.S. I would like to add some details just to give a clearer picture of my condition. I graduated with honours during both my master and my bachelor's degree. I was the best student of my years in my course. I felt that a PhD should be the most suitable choice for me.
I decided to start this industrial PhD in collaboration with a huge company thinking that after it I would be immediately hired. But now I don't know exactly if this is my way. I'm constantly obsessed with the idea of going back to the lab every day... it's really hard and demotivating. I started thinking of getting a job where you do your hours and then you go back home without any thoughts, problems, or pressure.
P.P.S. Thanks for all your answers, it's quite an encouraging fact that some other people went through the same thoughts.  I feel that I will start speaking with my supervisors to inform them about my condition. However, I have some concerns connected with the founding of the project.  In the case I'll quit, do I have to return all the salaries received? Some of you have experience with that?

No one here should tell you whether to quit or not. But you need to find a changed situation somehow. Some suggestions...
Talk to your supervisor about the situation with your project and see whether there is some alternative that will make things better. Another project? A modification of this one? More assistance?
Talk to others in the research group about how they see the project and its likelihood of success. Are they happy or just coping like yourself?
Talk to a mental health professional about how you can arrange things so that you don't fall into depression. Many universities provide professional counseling.
Talk to your girlfriend about her wishes, goals, and plans. Ask her if she has any advice for you.
Find some "escape" activities so that you don't spend too much time working. My escape was bicycling with a small group. It had the advantage of being aerobic, but other things can help. Resting your mind can actually aid productivity.
Think about your goals as well as whatever options are open to you. Options about staying as well as about leaving. What are the pros and cons of each? How can you achieve your goals and stay sane?
The hardest part, as you describe it, is to find the courage to talk to your supervisors. But that is probably the essential step to find a way out of the dilemma. But don't just continue on, hoping for the best. Some situations need to be escaped.

The biggest mistake I made in my doctoral studies was not speaking up for myself at a certain point. In my case it was because I had an unhelpful advisor. But my lack of courage cost me about three years. I was successful after a change of institutions and only realized later how I'd missed the opportunity. There was also the issue of burnout after an intense undergraduate program.


Do you need permission to use readability formulas in research? I am considering using the Gunning Fog Index and the Flesch Reading Ease to calculate variable information for my dissertation. Do I need to obtain permission from someone to use these formulas? In other words are they considered to be copyrighted data collection instruments?

It's very doubtful that you'd need permission to use either formula. In any case, I'm not sure who you'd even ask. The formulae are simple, unpatented, and widely published, and both Gunning and Flesch are dead.

Both formulae were published by their developers, who actively encouraged their use (Gunning in his 1952 book The Technique of Clear Writing, Flesch as quoted by the University of Canterbury, NZ). The formulae are part of the existing literature, and it was clearly the authors' intention that these formulae be disseminated and used for relevant purposes.

The formulae, among others, are implemented in several pieces of software (including copyright-averse free software like LibreOffice) and online calculators. Even if there were some restriction on their use (which there doesn't appear to be), it is clearly unenforced, and hasn't been for a very long time.

It may, however, be appropriate to cite the work of Gunning and/or Flesch, depending on the norms of your field.


What strategy to follow for getting a funded PhD position? I am having problems after ending my master´s in Computer Science. The main problem is that I had to return to my country because I had to take care of my parents. In any case, I managed to get a number of publications in the field, only 4.

I have been trying to get a funded PhD position in some European and United States universities, but with no luck at all. By the way, my master´s degree was completed in Europe (in Sweden to be specific).

I have the feeling that I will not get any paid position, and I cannot afford to pay the whole 4 years of career by myself; also I think that because I am not near any of those research groups from those universities my situation gets further complicated.

What should I do? Should I sent my CV to the persons in charge of some more research groups, even though they do not have open positions? should I ask that they give me a task so I can prove that I am worthy for their research?

Here are some general guidelines when applying for U.S. positions:

The key thing that PhD programs look for is evidence of research potential.  In your particular case, if you have four peer-reviewed papers, this is a very good start.  The benefits due to the publications decreases (a) if the papers are not peer-reviewed, (b) if they are in conferences or journals no one has ever heard of, (c) if they are not in English [if only because it is harder to read them and see what they are about], (d) if they are not particularly well-written in general (e.g., grammatical mistakes, poor structure, weak results).
Your recommendation letters are extremely important, and should speak directly to your research potential and experience.  If possible, these should be from tenured professors at your university, and even better if they are known in their field.  Plan on giving your letter-writers "talking points" that they might want to include in their letters.  Don't write the letters for them, but provide them with enough information so they can write specifically about what you want to study, and why.
If your letter-writers know someone at the schools where you are applying, consider asking them to reach out to say directly that you are great and that they should keep you in mind.  Even if the contacts aren't on the admissions committee, they will certainly know someone on the committee and can pass along your name.
Your grades matter, but less than you might think, especially if you're applying after you already have your Master's degree (again, research potential is the key item).
Do not apply strictly to "Top-X" schools (5, 10, 20, etc.).  Competition is extremely stiff at the top schools, and no one can expect to be let into a particular program.  Find other schools that have decent programs but don't limit yourself too much.
Write an amazing personal statement, and have multiple people proof-read it and give you suggestions.  Strive to make it clear what you want to research, why it is an important topic, and why you'll be good at solving the outstanding problems in that topic.
Obviously, make sure you submit all the correct forms.  You don't want a rejection simply because of an administrative issue.

If you believe that your personal situation (going back to take care of your parents) has bearing on why your record looks poor, say so in a cover letter, or briefly mention it in your personal statement.  Don't linger on it, but comment on the pertinent points and move on.

As to the funding part -- if you get accepted into a C.S. position, you will most likely be offered funding, either through a teaching assistant position, and/or through a research associate position.  This should be included in the letter of acceptance.

Good luck!


How to "become familiar with the literature", inter alia to find appropriate method to publish independent research? This is a more basic question than, and not a duplicate of, this question. That question was answered, basically, with "become familiar with the literature in that field" and read that literature.  So that question is answered, but leaves me with this more basic one.

I'm a senior software engineer albeit with only a BS in CS.  I'm not that in touch with new ideas in such as red-black trees (not new now but newer than my undergrad degree), the latest ideas on to optimize hash tables, and the like, except as they pick up use in commonly used libraries such as Boost, or otherwise spread in the industry. My questions are:

I'd like to be more of an early adopter.  How do I even find such journals or other publications?  Note I'm with a financial firm in Japan and I doubt it has any journal subscriptions.  I'm not sure how to see if any local universities make their libraries open to non-affiliated independent researchers.
I've developed a new type of memory pool that can maximize locality of reference of allocations.  That should allow an application to substantially improve performance.  I'd like to publish it, if 1) it's not "too practical" for a research journal and 2) if a survey of the literature shows no-one's already invented it.  OTOH, I don't know how to do that survey.

Alternately, is simply trying to put something like this in Boost or GNU libraries or on github the most reasonable approach?

Maybe look for review journals on the topic. In my area there are several such journals. Researchers often do a "state of the topic" paper on something they are working on. You can scan a few 100 review topic titles. Should take you three or four hours. Then find three or four articles that you can zero in on. You should be able to "surface" read these articles in a couple days. Your university librarian should be able to help you find appropriate review journals. Once you have those papers you can also read the citations they tell you are most important.


How much does a low undergraduate CGPA affect chances of getting a faculty job in a top-tier university? Your undergraduate CGPA is quite low, but you were somehow accepted into a respected Masters and PhD program, and completed your postgraduate work quite successfully. Your undergraduate major was the same general field as your postgraduate research.

You are now beginning your academic job search. How would the low CGPA affect your chances of getting a job at a top-tiered academic institution in the US or UK?

If yes, then what else can you do in the meantime to counteract the negative effects of that low CGPA?

(btw, I am asking this for a friend, not for me as I am not in academia)

As you have already done Masters and PhD, your CGPA in undergraduate is least to be bothered. If you are in academia, your quality of research matters more than the grades that you have obtained long back in undergraduate studies.

As your credential will grow, your resume will be filled with much more valued contents rather than just grades.