To apply to PhD eventually, how important is it to do an MS program with thesis if I have strong undergrad research experience? I want to apply to PhD in chemical engineering in the US.

I have had three papers as undergrad (one first author), but my undergrad GPA was rather poor, at around 3.2. GRE scores were all over 90 percentile and recommendations should all be good. Since grades are my weakest link in my application, and I have demonstrated my ability for research, I was thinking of doing a coursework-only MS program to show that I can handle classes and exams as well before applying to top schools in my research area of interest.

This has the advantage of taking less time than an MS, and I am skeptical of how much research I would be able to get done in an MS program anyways because professors are more concerned with supervising PhD students, and I may only end up getting on a paper as a second or third author.

I have noticed that basically everyone says that to apply to good PhD programs, a thesis in the MS program is a must. The only exception is my prof; I talked to him about it, and he thinks that I would be okay with just doing a coursework MS to show that I am capable of getting a good GPA as well. Is a thesis still necessary in my case, since I have a strong research background from undergrad?

Your concern about professor focus in a research-focused MS seems out of place when you have what seems to be a lot of research experience as an undergrad - and I don't know of anywhere where undergrads get more help/focus related to research than at a research-focused grad school, even at the MS level. Yes, it can be a concern in making sure you pick a good program and a good adviser - but that's always true no matter what you do in academia!

If you just want an MS to prove you can get a good GPA, honestly that seems like an uninspiring goal to have for 2 years of work. I would be concerned for your enjoyment of the time and ability to stay motivated if research and a PhD is your interest. And being out of the research loop will not help you write a good application proposal for research, or help you identify more specifically what research you want to do and who you want to work with - which are perhaps the most potentially valuable things to get from an MS if you want to continue with research.

My other concern for you is that all that research as an undergrad looks great - while you are an undergrad. But people almost always weight recent information more heavily than older info. So if you apply to grad schools and write about all the research experience in undergrad, and how well you did in courses in an MS...that's exactly backwards, and it seems like that would make someone think you weren't really that interested in research. I mean, you started in undergrad - if you really enjoyed it realized you wanted a PhD then, how did you take 2 years off research to focus on grades?

I'm not saying your proposed plan would be a kiss of death or anything, but it seems like a non-optimal strategy. I'd suggest you think now how you will talk about the experience in a PhD application, if that is your goal, and what story will be the most compelling and intelligible. And what will truly prepare you for the best to have a great PhD experience, and beyond? Keep in mind that after you are admitted to the program, grades only matter in that you need to not fail classes - but beyond that, no one seems to care - not for finishing the PhD, and not for your career beyond.


Someone "reinvented" our algorithm, is there anything to do about that? A couple of years ago, we have published a paper in a reputable IEEE conference in field A. Recently (two years later), a paper in field B solved the same problem with the exact same algorithm without mentioning our work (the problem is of value to both fields).

We have tried contacting the authors but they do not respond.

While I cannot know if they have seen our work or not, other works are already citing the new paper as the one that solved the problem (without mentioning us).

Is there anything we can do about this?

The place to start, if the authors don't respond, is to contact the editors of the journals that published both papers - or at least the editor of the other - pointing out the issue and giving references.

Perhaps nothing improper has happened, but you can at least ask for a note/erratum posted with the other paper so that you get more visibility.

I doubt that you can get more than that, but if you start there, at least, you can get proper recognition.

Parallel work is pretty common. Not recognizing something similar if it appears in another field seems pretty natural. Maybe something worse, but hard to know. Contacting their editor may get them to contact you, one hopes.

BTW, the reason for contacting your own editor is that they might also get involved in a solution.


What does TVL-E13/2 mean? I know that the TVL system exists but I am not sure if TVL-E13/2 would mean it is 50% of TVL-E13 or what does the "/2" mean, could someone explain please? I've seen it in multiple PhD positions offers.

A good source of information regarding TV-L is the TV-L calculator at https://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/c/t/rechner/tv-l/west?id=tv-l-202, which is supported by current TV-L employees (but not actually official).
The calculator has the following main options (from top to bottom):

TV-L level, e.g. E13
TV-L stage (with increasing work experience, you get more money)
Percentage of a full position

The other options are useful to compute salary after taxes (taking pensions and healthcare costs into account), but are set to reasonable defaults.
After choosing options, click the gray "berechnen" button. The number marked in bold in the left column will be the exact salary before taxes, the bold number in the right row the salary estimation after taxes.
EDIT [Updated answer]: Regarding your specific question: /2 appears to most often refer to the percentage by which the position is funded, as you proposed. However there appears to be some ambiguity around this. Does the main body of these  adverts you're looking at contain more specific information?


After an unsuccessful application for a permanent academic position in the UK, should I call and ask details about the selection procedure? I applied for an permanent lecturer position in the UK and received an answer of the type "we regret to inform you...". My question is, should I call the university and ask more details about the selection procedure such as how many candidates were shortlisted, what was my overall ranking among the candidates, etc., or is there a typical number of candidates (e.g. 2-3? 9-10?) that are called for an interview?

I am asking because I guess this would give an idea about my relative qualifications and whether it is worth applying in a "similar" opportunity, or to stop applying for this level and aim lower for the time being, at least until I improve my cv.

You can call and ask, but you are unlikely to get anything useful. You will most likely hear that your CV was very good, but that there were stronger applicants. If the head of the search is really good, they might actually look at your CV again and pick a weaker aspect of it (no matter how strong a applicant is, there is always a weaker aspect of the CV).

If you want to know about your relative qualifications, ask whoever is writing your references. If they do not know about the UK system, find a colleague that does and ask them.


Should I mention the target audience in the abstract of a paper? I am currently writing a paper which gives an overview over semantic segmentation. My target audience are people who are not experts, but who need semantic segmentation or who want to get into this field. The aim of the paper is to provide starting points. This means I give a very brief idea and I mention papers which introduce the idea in detail.

Should I mention my target audience / the aim of the paper in the abstract? Should it be in the introduction? Should it be in the paper at all?

Are there other ways to give readers this information (e.g. I've noticed some keywords in the titles of papers)?

What you are describing is called Review Article (sometimes: survey article) and a common type of publication. This keyword should suffice to find some similar papers from your field. There is also a review-articles tag on this site.

Some journals go one step further and distinguish between regular reviews for readers who want to update their knowledge on a given field and introductory reviews for readers who wish to learn about a field from scratch. The latter can have all sorts of names.

Having your review labeled review article (or similar) should suffice to clarify the nature of the article for most readers. Additionally your abstract will not contain key phrases such as we study or we find, but rather we review or we give an overview. If your paper is aimed at a specific group of newcomers (e.g., semantic segmentation from a physicist’s point of view), then it may be indeed worth mentioning them in the abstract.

Note that some journals do not accept unsolicited review articles for peer review, but ask you to discuss your plans before you start writing. If you have a special target audience, you should discuss this with the journal at this point.


What to include in a Festschrift (memorial publication)? A now deceased professor would have turned 100 year this year. What is the best way to honor his achievements?

Should a Festschrift (memorial publication) include:

Personal anecdotes on how you first met his thoughts in university
Personal reflections on what his thoughts has meant for your career further on in life
Review of publications
Links to others reviews of his publications
A detailed paraphrase of his most important works, step by step
etc

A couple of memorial papers in particular stick in my mind, from my field.

These are:

"A tribute: Professor Dr. Paul Hoffmann (March 28, 1931–July 10, 2008), a scientist with a great collaborative spirit"

and

William A. Arnold by Govindjee and Srivastava (2014)

If you can't find either of these then I'll link you to them. What sticks out for me when reading them is just how personal they are. They can go into quite a bit of family history and life history, telling some anecdotes, whilst showing happy, relaxed photographs of them. At the same time, they can cover the most important achievements of that person's scientific career.

There are plenty of examples out there for you to draw from but at the end of the day, this is your tribute to the person so make it how you think is best fitting to them and their legacy.


PhD offer and waiting for other options I have an offer from an elite German institute (option A) for a PhD in particle physics and artificial intelligence.
I love the project but it is not in my first choice subject: the intersection of AI and cosmology (astrophysics).
At this stage of my career; my expertise is in AI but my training is in physics/astrophysics.
I think the project and institution of option A seriously warrants considering it regardless of this. The research facility and supercomputing infrastructure are unique (the project is great also).
I will not hear back from the institutions I have applied to for other PhDs and I have already asked for an extension to the deadline of my response to option A.
I'm a good enough student, but I can't really believe I got option A and I don't think it is likely that I will get any of my other options.
This is a very stressful decision for me and I worry about whether it is possible to leave option A should I obtain another offer.
What can I do? Decline and risk missing the other opportunities to be left with nothing, or accept and always wonder what could have happened?
Thank you for any advice you might have.

You are getting an offer from an elite institution in the middle of a pandemic. The job market right now is absolutely awful. I can appreciate that you want only the absolute best for your future, but the way you sketch this situation hardly sounds like a dilemma at all.
Additionally, as soon as you manage to publish a paper or two on the project on which you are hired, it may very well happen that your supervisor rewards your performance by letting you seek out further research directions yourself. Then, you can always steer your trajectory more towards the intersection of AI and cosmology.


Math teaching job after PhD in the United States for a foreigner I am currently at the beginning of my math PhD career at a university in the U.S. after getting higher and college education in Europe (where I am from). I have always liked teaching and math, but I'm realizing that even though I am doing quite well in pure math research, I find it really stressful and I don't think I would like to that for the rest of my life. I enjoy much more teaching, and I would like to that in the United states. Now my question is in regards of the following 3 different opportunities. From what I understood, I could search for a job as a professor at:

High school
Community College
Liberal arts school

Is the salary increasing from 1 to 3? This is what I would expect, but I heard that, for example, the salary of a high school teacher is higher than the salary of a no tenure track position/ lecturer even at a good university. Is this true?

Would the PhD be enough to teach in a high-school? And also, is it going to be much harder for a non American to get hired at a high school rather than a college?

Would a position in either of the 3 types of institution give me vacations for the summer? I assume high schools are closed in the summer, but maybe colleges will require to teach during summer.

Any other suggestions or insights on the matter would be greatly appreciated, and I apologize if the question is a little vague, but I guess others might be in my same situation.

Is the salary increasing from 1 to 3?

Generally, yes.

  This is what I would expect, but I heard that, for example, the salary of a high school teacher is higher than the salary of a no tenure track position/ lecturer even at a good university. Is this true?

The median 2012-2013 starting salary for US high school teachers was (ugh) $36,141.  This varies considerably based on the state: see here.  There is so much variation in the nature of a non-tenure track university position as to dissuade me from trying to look up figures, but in the cases I know of non-tenure track teaching positions at universities which are (i) full-time and (ii) with a PhD, their starting salaries are at least $45K.

In 2013 the median annual salary for US high school teachers was $55,360.  Teachers generally have strong unions and get steady annual raises, which is something that university professors have had a lot of trouble with in recent years, and non-tenure track faculty even more so.  Most people I know who are PhDs and have been in non-tenure track teaching positions for at least ten years are making $50K to $60K.  I would not be surprised if the median salary for these positions was less than $55K.

Note also that the average US high school teacher certainly does not have a PhD.  (In fact, fewer than one percent of such teachers have a PhD.  This is such a small percentage that the "converse percentage" of PhDs who go on to teach high school must be rather small as well.  The last link is to an article which explores this a bit.)  In the realm of high school teaching, having a PhD puts you into a very elite group which is competitive for the best teaching assignments, the best students, and so forth.  If you have a PhD, I think you would have an easier time bringing home a salary upwards of $75K as a high school teacher than as a non-tenure track college faculty member.

  Would the PhD be enough to teach in a high school?

In many states, public high school teachers need to be certified.  My understanding is that certification is not require for private high schools (though this too probably varies by state) and I know of at least some private high schools which do not require it.  Anyway, though I have not done it, my understanding is that certification is a fairly easy process compared to getting a PhD.  In fact many students with teaching interests acquire this certification before they graduate, so it can't be that bad.

  And also, is it gonna be much harder for a non american to get hired at a high school rather than a college?

Sorry, I don't really know.  My guess is that if you do not already have a green card and are looking for immigration status coming from your teaching job, that will be harder.  If you are a permanent resident, speak fluent and intelligible English, and have a PhD (again, this confers highly elite status among high school teachers) from an American university, you're going to look like a catch.  Do recall that America is a nation of immigrants.  If you're teaching in an urban environment, there will be many other foreigners and first generation Americans milling about.  If you go to a small town, maybe they'll chase you out with pitchforks...but probably only if you have bolts sticking out of your neck.

  Would a position in either of the 3 types of institution give me holidays for the summer? I assume high schools are closed in the summer, but maybe colleges will require to teach during summer.

Yes, you should get summers off in all three positions.  For high school this is of course one of the major perks of the job.  In a college or university they will probably offer you summer teaching, and they may pay you little enough to make that attractive, but you certainly don't have to.

Let me put in a vote for high school teaching.  America needs competent, intelligent, serious high school teachers more than anything else I can think of.  Like many jobs, it has some negative aspects, but it's truly important, good work.


Is it a good idea being involved in your advisor's consulting activities as an exploratory activity during your PhD? For how long? I am a first semester PhD student. I am not paid by a grant or scholarship. My advisor has been including me in multiple teams and meetings in consulting jobs he is taking. Most of them are loosely related to my research topic.

They can help in certain aspects, such as:

Learning how to use some of the models developed at the research group (main advantage);
Giving me more professional experience;
Getting in touch with the needs of businesses;
Eventually having access to an interesting dataset (unlikely);

However, in spite of perhaps being an opportunity to learn some tools with a driver that is some real-world issue or problem, this involvement really worries me in some aspects:

It is not clear if it will advance my thesis. I find it unlikely that it improves my research project;
My advisor said the payment from these consulting jobs may help with financing my participation in conferences. I don't get paid as a consultant and don't know if I will be able to put this in my CV. It is time I don't devote to writing articles. I need to publish more to get funding, and this kind of work probably does not help with that. Of three consulting jobs, only one is for a public institution with a history of funding grants.

I consider this kind of an "exploratory" work, but I don't know for how long it would be OK to do this, when it is not clearly advancing my PhD thesis? Is helping your advisor in consulting work a good idea during your PhD? For how long, first year, second year? I intend to finish mine in four years.

This could be a good thing or a bad thing. If you are being included to advance your education and it doesn't interfere with your degree progress then it is a good thing.

If you are being exploited to the sole benefit of the advisor - slave labor - then it is a bad thing - very very bad.

Are you free to decline? If not, then beware. Can you set your own conditions? If not, then beware.

But, yes, these sorts of things can go on a CV: that you participated in consulting activities.

In the US, as an early student, you are most likely involved in coursework where such activities might be less intrusive. Elsewhere, or later in the program, you need to focus on your comps and on your research. Then these things become much less likely to have value outweighing their cost to you.

Keep your eyes open. Don't be led into traps.


Is there any reason to get paper reprints of your articles? Is there any reason to get paper reprints of your articles? Some journals charge for reprints others give them for free. Should I save the trees and not ask for the free ones? Are reprints so important that I should be paying for them?

I guess I should add I have only seen reprints offered in bundles of 100 (maybe 50) and getting 10 does not seem to be possible.

I did it initially so that I would have a nice paper copy of my paper. In principle I could hand these out to my colleagues and other people who were interested in my work.

This is rather out-dated these days. You can just send interested parties a pdf and they can read it on their iPad. Save the trees.

I don't see any reason at all to actually pay for reprints. You have a copy already, right?


My adviser is leaving: what should I do as a third year PhD student I am a third year PhD student at one of Universities, say school A, in the USA. I've already taken my qualifying exam and I'm planning to take my general exam next quarter. My adviser notified me yesterday that she accepted and offer from another university, say school B, and leaving my school in Sep.

She gave me two options:

Apply for school B. She said "Given the rules at school B, you have to start from scratch i.e., I have to take course and take qualifying exam again". In addition, I have to take GRE and TOEFL and go through the admission process. Still, there is no guarantee they will admit me.
Stay at my current school and she continues supervising me. However, my department at school A does not guarantee the funding (in the form of Teaching Assistant).

It is worth noting that I maintained a very good relationship with my department and my adviser and I have a good research record and TA evaluation.

In general,
how do you think I need to approach this situation?

In particular,
 - does that make sense that school B say I have to start from scratch even if I am a third year PhD student who passed qualifying exam from an equally reputable school?

After pondering this situation for a little bit, I came with a plan. That is,

I take my general exam next quarter,
I stay at my current school for two quarters (because I have to pass a certain dissertation credits)
Move to school B as a PhD visiting student for one or two  semester.
Get my PhD from my current school

Does this plan make sense?

I would greatly appreciate if you share your thought and experience with me.

This situation is very tricky.
It is not clear what is your current school level, if it is above or bellow NW (NW is a decent school, but definitely it is not say UChicago).

If you are from a bellow or comparable level school, I would say to go ahead with the transition.
The tricky thing in that case would be to get admitted, but as your advisor is moving, unless it is a very steep jump in the rankings, most likely she can talk to the co-director of graduate studies and pull some strings.

Regarding the formalities you've mentioned, in my experience, there is a big difference between plain rules and practice. There is a chance that NW thinks highly about itself and formally will not recognize your credits (again, it depends where you are moving from). Nevertheless, you might get over that. Most likely your studies will be expedited, you will be able to retake generals pretty soon (if you even have to, maybe they'll just setup some committee and you just need to give a short talk to present your research, as you already do research probably), so nothing will be from scratch and your studies haven't been in vein, the nullstellensatz is the same no matter if you are in Chicago,Boston,Princeton or Palo Alto. and you will have the bonus of graduating from a better school, which is a huge aspect if you are considering academic career. GRE should be extremly easy for you by now, and if you are able to do proper TA job, you should pass Toefl as well, those should be very minor problems from your perspective (how did you got into grad school without GRE?).

If you are from a better school, this is kind of tricky, maybe there's another prof. who can step in to be co-advisor? You are only 3rd year, not  4-5th year, probably you invested less than 1.5 years in research so far. Being stuck without funding for the next 3 years (either way, NW or staying, you will probably finish up in 6 years, maybe even 7, sorry about that, not fair, but that's life, this is a major implication over your studies).
I don't understand your relationship statement, you didn't know that your advisor is considering moving? The application process for academic jobs usually takes more than 6 months

All those hopes about your advisor funding in NW is wishful thinking that can have really disastrous outcomes. The startup grant most universities give to incoming profs are usually for moving, setting up office and some research visits, those are not in the level of NSF grants (or better - Simons/ERC). NW is located on Evanston - affluent suburb of Chicago, cost of living there is not zero (that's not CAL, but still not epsilon, 1 bdroom can easily go for $1800+), and considering this moving situation, are you sure she will commit so much of her own funds to bring you over? I guess support from your home institution is not a possibility as this are planning on terminating your TAship. Regarding the other funding options, some NSF stuff have strings attached (RTG, or supporting only students from their own school), it is too risky to consider this, especially as you are speaking about events which are probably 2 years into the future.

I believe that for the time being, you should continue with the application procedure to NW and if and when the admittance letter will come, set up a conference call between NW director of grad studies, your advisor and yourself and try to setup a better plan for you. If NW decide not to admit you, all those talks are hypothetical, either you will have funding for a visit or not, but you will need to stay in your own school.


recommendation letters at different stages of interviews Recommendation letters today become less and less important in affecting employers' final decision, though they are often requested at different stages or even before any interview. What to do to avoid requesting letters too often, annoying letter writers?

What to do to avoid requesting letters too often, annoying letter writers?

You don't request letters “too often”.  You request letters once, at the beginning of your job hunt: “Would you be willing to write a strong recommendation letter to support my applications for [kind of job]?  I'm planning to send out about [number] applications.”  If they say yes, take them at their word.

At least in North America, academic/research employers request letters directly from your references, not from applicants.  Applicants only provides names and contact information for their references; they never see the actual letters.  Most universities send letter requests by email; a few ask references to submit their letters when the applicant submits their other materials, without waiting to be being asked directly.

Keep your references up to date on which [kind of job]s you've actually applied for, and how they should expect to receive the letter request.  I strongly recommend maintaining a single Google spreadsheet (or your favorite equivalent) with a row for each target institution, and columns for each of your references to indicate who has asked them for letters, and which letters they've actually sent.  (Then your references can see which of your other references have already submitted letters, making it less likely that they'll fall behind.  Peer pressure works.)


is David Publishing Company legit? I have an abstract presented by my colleague at a local conference. I got an email from a company called David Publishing Company claiming that they are interested in publishing our paper in the Journal of Materials Science and Engineering A, B they had?

Things look suspicious for me and I want to know if anyone has an idea about their legitimately as a science publisher. they claim to have a peer-reviewed process but they charge money as publication fees.

Anyone who contacts you to publish is bad news.  My advice is to stick to journals from ACS, APS, and ACerS.  Maybe MRS or IEEE.  There are a few decent pubs in materials from Elsevier and Wiley, but even then you need to know who they are.  Don't submit something to a journal you don't know.

A dedicated conference proceedings is a different kettle of fish (like if this compay was retained to do conference proceedings), but even then I would try to give them some portion of or repackaging of work you publish in "real journals".

I can't find anything on the web from them either.  Which is bad also.  (Although if you included any links in your letter that would help us.)


How to encourage self-archiving of preprints in science? As the background, I am a graduate student in high energy physics, mainly theoretical physics. Recently, I have sen that there are a few scholars who don't put the preprint versions of the paper in the preprint servers such as arxiv. I must add the fact that for many of the journals the self-archiving of the preprint is allowed, and I see no point for not putting the preprint version submitted to peer review on arxiv. I have seen that there are some old researchers and also some not so old ones who don't put the preprint versions of the paper on arxiv and sometimes make it difficult for some papers to be read. Hence, the question would be on how to promote open access and convince people to be opened within this direction.

From what I see, some organizations are solving this by making self-archiving mandatory. In the UK, research funding bodies are now starting to use only open-access publications to assess the quality of research. As a result, the universities are starting to require their academic staff to self-archive publications. Also, I've seen a conference organizers discussing whether they should require the authors to self-archive the accepted papers.


Good ways to get teaching experience in non-teaching position I am a PhD student working full time at a research institute (Drittmittelstelle) in Germany. This is a pure research, non-teaching position. I did both my master and bachelor at a Fachhochschule (FH) (University of applied sciences) and I am contemplating trying to get a position as a professor at a Fachhochschule following my PhD.
The issue is, that to apply for a professor position you need to have teaching experience, which I don't get through my current position. Because everything else is perfect, I would not want to change to another PhD position (with teaching responsibilities). So my question is: what are good ways to get teaching experience (in Germany) that will have relevance for a later FH professorship without having to change to a teaching position? My group leaders want to support me in this, and would allow me to make time for teaching alongside my regular PhD and project work (and maybe lighten my regular work lot a bit), as long as I still get those done.
I did single lectures and smaller workshops before -- but I doubt that would count as enough of a teaching experience for an application. I also have inquired at my old alma mater, but as long as they have all teaching requirements covered by existing staff, they don't really want to or can't hire an outside person (me) to lecture.

For similar reasons I applied as a lecturer at a dual university (Duale Hochschule). The dual university also had lecturers who work in the cooperating business (and do not have a PhD), for example. Hence, they were also not hesitant to let me lecture a course although I also still am a PhD student.


Writing style in academic English [comments from my supervisor]

  You still have a tendency to use phrases such as "All in all", and "To
  this end". Not a serious problem of course, but be aware that the
  editors/reviewers for some scientific journals will not accept such
  wording - they will see it as a waste of words (the phrases have
  little real meaning, after all) and will encourage a more concise form
  of writing. You also continue to split infinitives (e.g. "To
  effectively curtail"), again not a serious problem, but not "good"
  formal English if that is what you are aiming for.

Above are some comments from my supervisor on my writing styles. So how should I improve from here, for instance, if not saying 'all in all', 'to this end', what connecting words should I use. And, if not starting a sentence with infinitives, how should I restructure my sentences.

[the referred sentence that has a bad style]

  To effectively curtail pollution from all sources requires attention
  paid to the long-overlooked industrial pollution. To this end, this
  PhD research emphasises the need to ...

Your supervisor's first objection is against empty "connecting words", as you call them. Since they are empty, you may as well drop them:

  To effectively curtail pollution from all sources requires attention paid to the long-overlooked industrial pollution. [To this end T]his PhD research emphasises the need to...

Your argument, rather than some connecting words, should build the connection:

  To effectively curtail pollution from all sources requires attention paid to the long-overlooked industrial pollution. This PhD research emphasises the important role of industrial pollution in most immissions today [or whatever your argument is].

The second objection is not against starting sentences with an infinitive, but against splitting infinitives. I don't know whether split infinitives are really bad style or just a matter of taste. Since some of your readers believe the former, I would err on the side of caution. From Wikipedia:

  The opening sequence of the Star Trek television series contains a well-known example, where William Shatner says "to boldly go where no man has gone before"; the adverb boldly is said to split the infinitive to go.
  [...]
  The construction is to some extent still the subject of disagreement, but modern English usage guides have dropped the objection to it.

Here are my additional two cents: Avoid the passive voice. Who does the "requiring" in your first sentence? Who must pay attention?

  To curtail pollution from all sources, researchers and policy makers must pay more attention to the long-overlooked industrial pollution. This PhD research emphasises the important role of industrial pollution in most immissions today.


Should I reply to Travel Grant Award Notification? Do I reply to travel grant chair for notifying me approval of my travel grant award application for a conference? (Thanking him/her.. etc)

What is my appropriate action? Or is it not really expected and I should just follow instructions of submitting listed receipts to the specified person in email?

I don't think it's necessary, but my inclination is to just write a one or two sentence response, just saying "Thanks for the wonderful news.  I'm looking forward to the conference." This way they know you got the email and are still planning on attending.


Does putting an article I wrote on university site conflict with IEEE publishing rights? I have published a few months ago a paper for an IEEE Conference, the paper got published and it is indexed in the IEEEXplore. I have received an email from a research coordinator at the university that I am currently working on, asking for the online printed version of it. In the affiliation of the article was written the name of this institution, but I wonder if they are going to put in to be available online for free at the university webpage. In that case, that would not cause a problem with the publishing rights of IEEE?

Whether your institution plans to put it online is a question you have to ask them.

Whether they are allowed to put it online depends on the policies of the journal where it was published. You will need to read the copyright  transfer agreement that you accepted when the paper was published.


Internship university asks to give up all intellectual property I am a graduate student of university A, and I'm going to do an internship in a lab in university B.

I used an internship contract from my originating university A, which stipulates that university B can make a contract on a case-by-case basis to later exploit my work made during my internship. However, university B asks me to change this clause to transfer all intellectual property rights to university B exclusively, meaning that I won't be able to use it aftewards without approval from university B. Note that I am not paid by university B, nor having any other compensation for the whole duration of my internship there from university B, and I'm not hosted on-campus either, but I will get academic credits from university A.

Is this a common practice for lab internships? Can I do something about it? (I don't mind giving all the rights to exploit my work, but I would also like to be able to use it myself, particularly softwares I will develop).

/Final update: Thank you all for your great feedback. The issue was resolved quite simply by agreeing with my supervisor to put the developped softwares under an opensource licence. The contract thus won't have any impact whatsoever.

Can I do something about it?

There aren't any magical answers here, but aside from the obvious options of either signing the contract and accepting that this is a price you'll have to pay for a really good professional development opportunity, or refusing to sign the contract under any conditions and seeking an alternative internship at a more accommodating institution, I see a third option: negotiate.

There are many possible ways to go about this, but here's one: I assume you were accepted to the internship by a PI/researcher who thought that you had good qualifications and that his/her lab would benefit from your work and talent. This person could be your ally. What I would do is write them a polite email along the following lines:

  Dear Professor Smith,

  Thank you for offering me the internship at your fusion reactor lab. I am excited about this wonderful opportunity and am looking forward to starting in a couple of months, and have even begun doing some background reading on flux capacitor technology to make sure I can be as productive and helpful as possible from day one. I am writing however to express a concern about an issue that came up and that may prevent me from taking on the internship. I was informed by your Office of Research that your university is refusing to accept the standard internship contract my own university advised me to use (see the email I received from them, appended below) and are asking me to agree to a change in the standard intellectual property clause, which in its present form is designed to protect the interests of myself, yourself and both our respective universities, to an alternative version that transfers all IP rights to your institution. I am afraid I don't see this as an acceptable or balanced arrangement from either a moral or practical point of view. I am happy to assign any rights that would allow your lab to exploit and make use of any work I do while at your lab as in my proposed contract, but since among other activities I will be developing code that I may want to use in the future for my thesis research or other legitimate purposes, I do not think it is reasonable to accept the terms offered by your university.

  For this reason, I am asking for your help in resolving this situation. If we cannot reach an agreement, sadly I may be forced to withdraw my acceptance of your internship.

  Best wishes,

  [your name]

The thing to remember is that while you are negotiating with a counterparty that's massively more powerful than you (which is why they feel they can get away with making such demands), you do have a bit of leverage: they want something from you. Whether you will succeed depends on the personalities of the people involved, how badly the PI wants you, how many other talented students are lining up to take your place, how unique are the skills that you have to offer, how rigid the university's bureaucratic machinery is, etc. If the PI is unwilling or unable to help, you will find yourself back where you started, so you'll still have the option of either accepting the terms you're offered, or giving up the internship.


How can I cite research material from meetings or presentations? I am writing a post-doc research paper. I want to cite research material from this meeting presentation: https://www.sitcancer.org/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=0d2d7f53-3673-7aaf-3a80-518e0990e918&forceDialog=1

This meeting presentation is from the "SITC 2015 Workshop on New Perspectives for Target Antigens in the Changing Cancer Immunotherapy Landscape." Link here: https://www.sitcancer.org/communities/community-home/librarydocuments/viewdocument?DocumentKey=c4c7b592-7aae-4793-bf5a-1d136e87af3d

How should I cite material from these meetings/presentations?

It depends on whether the material has been published or not and in what style you want to cite.

A general way is: Author Surname, Initial(s) Year of publication, 'Title of paper', paper presented to Name of the conference, Place of the conference, date held. viewed Date month Year,

So it might look something like this: Eric T. Identification of Antigens Targeted by Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes to Enhance Adoptive Immunotherapy. Presented at: SITC 2015 Workshop on New Perspectives for Target Antigens in the Changing Cancer Immunotherapy Landscape Nov. 5, 2015

Now I haven't included some information, like where it took place, but you get the idea.

Here are some guidelines for NLM, APA and Harvard style:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7255/
http://www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/apa-format/conference-paper/
http://libguides.scu.edu.au/c.php?g=356711&p=2408708

If none of these is the style you want, you can look it up now that you have an idea of what it should look like.

If you don't know in what style you should cite, you might want to ask an advisor.


How does one proceed when publishing a research paper to refute the conclusions of another (someone else's) research paper? I am a computer science undergraduate going into grad school and trying to learn more about research.
How does one proceed when publishing a research paper to refute the conclusions (or some of the conclusions) of another (someone else's) research paper? For instance, let's say that you study a machine learning research paper that makes some dubious claims, and then offers hand-wavy reasoning and a computational simulation experiment to support said claims. If you then study the subject matter further and use more formal and/or rigorous reasoning (perhaps a formal proof) to show that the conclusions (or some of the conclusions) are wrong, then how does one go about publishing a paper that refutes the other research paper? Is there anything different about this type of research paper (or, rather, should anything be done differently) compared to the more conventional, non-refutational type of research paper?

Showing that something in the literature is shaky or incomplete or mistaken is part of how science advances.
If you can replace a published claim with something better rather than just showing that it's wrong, all the better.
When you find an instance of that you write it up carefully, professionally and kindly and submit it to an appropriate journal - perhaps the one that published the original work.


Getting ORCIDs by DOI Is there a web service that retrieves all of the ORCIDs for the authors associated with a DOI?  I've looked at crossref.org, but I can't seem to find information on how to do this with their service.

I am currently using their HTTP-based API to query information about a publication given its DOI.  It returns the names of the authors, but not their ORCIDs.

(An ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a unique identifier for an author of a publication.
A DOI (Digital Object Identifier) is the same thing, but for the publication itself)

For biomedical publications it is possible to do using Europe PMC API (I work for this database). You can query the database using the DOI like this and extract (authorId type="ORCID") field. Here is the same query using JSON is you prefer.


How does an engineering undergraduate apply for master in humanities? I am doing undergraduate in engineering but I want a transition to humanities for masters (history, anthropology).

How do I do this?
Should I take  prerequisite courses at a community college or through online/distance education?

While I think the other way around (transitioning from the humanities to the sciences) might be harder, if you can demonstrate that you are serious and prepared to undertake graduate training in the humanities, it is definitely doable.

In my sociology department (PhD track, we didn't have a separate MA program and most entered straight after undergraduate school), many of my colleagues did not have any sociology training. While most of them came from related fields of economics, political science, and psychology, there were people with math and physics backgrounds and these were sometimes the people who were doing the most innovative and interdisciplinary work. The selection committee was fine with accepting them as long as their proposed research area fit with the department faculty's research and they showed promise as a sociologist.

While a degree in the field isn't necessary, make sure you address how you have been working to fill the gap you have on your CV. A personal statement will be a good place to address this. In addition, you can take additional courses, read as many works in your proposed field, and try to have a well developed study plan to give confidence to the committee that you are as competitive as the other candidates. It might be a good idea to also build contacts with professors in schools that you are applying for and go talk to them to see if they will be interested in working with you. If you plan to specialise in a society other than where you are based in (especially in case of anthropology), make sure you demonstrate regional expertise, language skills, knowledge of the society, or maybe work and/or living experience. Also, since those departments (in case of a PhD program) will likely ask for a writing sample, start working on one well in advance so the committee can see that you can indeed to the work in the proposed field.


Is it ok to email my professor something I found related to class? I just stumbled across an article directly related to what we just discussed in class. Is it appropriate to email it to my professor? For some reason it feels improper and I don't want to look like a teacher's pet.

Yes, it's appropriate.  No halfway reasonable instructor would hold this against you.

On the other hand, please don't be disappointed if your instructor doesn't respond contentfully to your email.  Faculty are extremely busy and many get dozens of emails a day, so they have to prioritize which they can respond to.  If you want to have further engagement on this topic, that's what office hours are for.


Asking for an acknowledgement Is it ever appropriate to ask to be included in an acknowledgements section of a paper?

I contributed bug fixes to proofs in a CS paper without which it would have been incorrect in significant ways. Others who made writing-level contributions were acknowledged. As a female student, I worry I don't stand up for myself enough when I deserve credit and wonder if this is a situation where I should do so. On the other hand, it seems really awkward to demand that someone acknowledge me - it seems like a faux pas even to admit that I noticed.

On the other hand, it seems really awkward to demand that someone acknowledge me - it seems like a faux pas even to admit that I noticed.

Don't be embarrassed to ask to be credited for your work. If you're not willing to stand up for yourself as a professional, others may not do it for you!

An acknowledgment is entirely appropriate to recognize your contributions, which are technically useful, but not necessarily rising to the level where it is directly tied in to the goal of the final paper. To ask for it, I would ask the first author:

  I think my bug fixes helped you carry out the research. Do you think you could mention my contribution in the acknowledgments of your new paper?

This makes it clear what you want and why you think it's useful. An acknowledgment is "free" in the sense that it doesn't dilute the author list, and there's no logical reason why you couldn't be accommodated.


How to cite a repeatedly used direct quote? I am writing a seminar paper where I would like to reference one scholar's (A) view of another scholar's (B) work. This view (that scholar A holds) reoccurs throughout my paper.

Am I required to reference the quote every time I mention it, is it enough if I cite it the first time, or does it need to be cited in every section of the paper?

I am using the Harvard citation style.

Example:

  Scholar A describes Scholar B's theory as a "genealogical
  constructivism with iterative descriptive connotations" (Scholar A
  2007, p.8)

later in the text:

  Other authors subscribe to the "genealogical constructivism with
  iterative descriptive connotations" movement.

Do I need a citation in the second reference?

I'm sure I'm in a different field, but I would say no, you don't, because you're just reusing the quote to describe something you already recalled and cited.  However, that seems like a mouthful, so I would suggest creating some shorthand for it, such as "genealogical constructivism perspective" or GCIDC perspective.  (In any case, look at other papers in your field for ideas, both regarding my suggestion and your original question.)


Can't handle the stress while being bombarded with questions during the presentation I am a fashion designer student. I have given numerous presentations but one thing always bothers me: the level and frequency of questions by the questioners. By that I mean some folks in the class ask difficult questions sometimes which makes me a little nervous. And by frequency I mean repeatedly getting questions from folks esp. when teacher has left for a while and there is a mayhem in the hall.

I want an answer where those two things are addressed specifically.

Any good tips in handling such situation? Thanks.

In this situation, you're a presenter and you're getting bombarded with questions, is this right? Are people incessantly asking questions and not letting you answer, or do you just feel this way because you shut down in front of the audience?

First, relax, because as the presenter, you have the floor, and you should thus be in control of the room. This mentality has helped me in the past because if you're presenting, pending time limitations, you're the highest authority in the room aside from the chair/professor, and you're free to speak at your own pace, discuss things in your preferred order, etc. Others should respect this, and remembering this gives you power.

Pace yourself, and take time to think. If someone interrupts you, etc. tell them that you'd like to answer the previous question before you get to them. Stand tall, and crossing your arms behind your back helps posture to an extent, and try to not focus on one person in particular as you answer questions. Watching their reactions can be intimidating.

Just make sure to not focus on the people asking questions or how you feel about questions, but rather on how you feel about where you are in describing what you wanted to talk about.

Edit: If you don't have an answer, that is also fine, and never be afraid to say "I don't know". This is still part of the presentation, and that is what you have to offer. If you don't like not knowing it, ask the person asking the question if they can give you their information so you can follow up with an answer later.


Is it ethical to remove your co-authorship shortly before submission? I am in a situation when I am a co-author of a manuscript. I returned back to this manuscript after several months and I don't think it should be published as it is. I am not the main author and my co-workers want to publish it as soon as possible. I do not want to block them in publishing it, but there are some parts which I do not agree with. The paper can have impact on public policy and I have a bit different views. My colleagues already postponed the submission because of my comments. A colleague of mine suggested that I should care more for my own papers rather than the papers of others.

Is it ethical to submit the paper as a co-author and wait for the reviews and trying to improve the paper later or is it more fair to remove my co-authorship before the submission?

Is it ethical to submit the paper as a co-author and wait for the reviews and trying to improve the paper later

Submitting a paper with major errors is unethical, whereas submitting a paper that needs polishing isn't.

  or is it more fair to remove my co-authorship before the submission?

You can remove yourself, but the paper would probably benefit from your continued support.

  A colleaque of mine suggested that I should care more for my own papers rather than the papers of others.

This is one of your papers.


Should I disclose gender, race, disabilities etc. in tenure track job applications? I am applying for assistant professor positions in the U.S. and Canada, and I often have to fill in forms of voluntary self-identification disclosing my gender, race, veteran status, disabilities etc. I usually do that, even though I am not certain whether and how this information could affect my prospects of getting the job.

However, recently I have been asked to a fill in a form and choose whether I make this information available to the hiring committee:

  Please indicate whether you

  DO NOT wish to self-identify (in which case we request that you make no indications in Sections A through D below and simply return the form with your name and the date only);
  Wish to self-identify FOR STATISTICAL PURPOSES ONLY (in which case the information you provide below will be used only by the Equity Office and will not be shared with the Appointments Committee of the Unit to which you are applying); OR
  Wish to self-identify FOR THE APPOINTMENTS PROCESS AND FOR STATISTICAL PURPOSES (in which case the information you provide below may also be used in the Appointments process, in accordance with Article 24 of the Collective Agreement)

(boldface emphasis is mine).

What should I do to increase my chances of getting the job and avoid standing out in a bad way?

I guess that by choosing to make the information available,

a Male, Caucasian, Non-disabled person might lose an edge due to preference towards minority candidates; while
a Female, Black, Disabled person could gain an edge?

But it could also go the other way around if the hiring committee has preferences that do not quite align with the official policy of supporting minorities etc.

Two somewhat related but different questions are

"Should all voluntary self-identification forms for faculty positions be filled?" and
"What “Applicant Confidential Data Form” has to do with tenure-track positions?".

I guess if I were Male, Caucasian, non-disabled etc I might lose an edge due to preference towards minority candidates; while if I were Female, Black, disabled etc I could gain an edge?

There are limits to how protected characteristics can be used in affirmative/positive action. By authorizing them to use this information, you can benefit from permitted affirmative/positive action if you qualify. If you do not authorize the use of the information, then you cannot benefit. In regards to permitted affirmative/positive action there is no benefit to withholding information.

There is also a possibility that this information would be used for un-permitted/illegal discrimination. In general, however, illegal affirmative action where minorities are given an advantage does not happen. Rather, there are all sorts of documented implicit and explicit biases that help white male applicants.

In my opinion, if you are not a minority (e.g., a heterosexual white christian male), there is no risk in making the information available. If you are a minority the choice is more difficult. You could benefit from affirmative/positive action, but you could also open yourself up to implicit and explicit biases.


Should I use degree name as their system? I am writing Statement of Purpose for PhD application to Canadian university and I am stumbling over a little issue that when I write like this

  I have completed my masters degree ...  after completing bachelors
  degree..

So should I write undergraduate/graduate degree word as what they say at their place or I use words that what they say at my place as I written above? or either one is okey?

I think it is better to use the exact phrases and words mentioned your documents and degrees. If the words bachelors and masters degrees are written in your certificates; simply use these words. It is much more sure and easier than thinking about rephrasing the words or finding synonyms for them. Also, in my opinion; bachelors and masters degrees are more explicit words than undergraduate and graduate degrees.


If I get an HND then a BSc, can I then go and specialise in any area for my Masters? I am currently in an apprenticeship for Software Development; however, I want to change my future career after doing a job as a Software Developer.

I would like to know if I would be able to go and do a MSc in Astronautics if I get a HND in Engineering and the do the top-up course for the Bachelor's Degree. I didn't get the best GSCEs although I do have my 5 C's and did not do any A-levels. Would this still be possible?

For anybody wondering, I live in the UK.

Yes, there are several routes to get to your speciality Masters. Once you've got your Bachelor's degree, very few people will care much about the route you took to get it, whether it was an HND, foundation course, A-levels at night school, whatever.


Can I cite a thesis in a paper? I wonder if I can cite an unpublished thesis (Ph.D or Master) in a research paper. If so, how do I do it? Should I also include a link to the thesis?

Assuming it isn't formally published, then the citation would probably include the university instead of the publisher. Otherwise the same.
Links are always a problem since they are subject to disappearance. It is good to also include the date that you last referenced it there with any link(s).
And yes, you need to cite it to avoid various plagiarism issues.


Independent Publishing as a University Affiliate What are some things to keep in mind while publishing as a university affiliate? By this I mean positions that allow credentials like for being a third party instructor, counseling etc. Is it ethical to use university credentials in those cases?

Also what kind of a difference does funding make in this case, provided the affiliation does not include any terms on intellectual property? This is assuming it is not completely unethical to use credentials that were provided for a specific purpose, even if not explicitly.

First, you don't need university affiliation to publish papers. Different universities might feel differently about your situation, so you should ask someone, perhaps in the department for which you teach. They might not want you to use the university's name if you aren't on the payroll, especially if you aren't subject to their normal rules.

The one important thing that the university might be able to do for you is provide IRB advice if your research involves human subjects in any way.

Other than that, you can probably use anything that is merely descriptive, such as "adjunct instructor at H*d University".

But, "Independent Researcher" may be your best "affiliation". The reviewers will be interested what you write in your papers, not your university. Your email address will indicate some association in any case.


Should an editor ask his own graduate (PhD) students to review papers in his journal? If a professor is an editor of a journal, then should he ask his graduate students (PhD) to review articles? What do you think, good or bad on what points?

Different from "Is it common to review papers assigned to your supervisor?", where the professor is a reviewer and not the editor.

I think jakebeal's answer is too restrictive. When I was a senior graduate student, and my PhD supervisor was a journal editor, he would occasionally ask me to do a review for his journal where it was clearly related to my work. It was clear that by this time in my graduate program that he considered me an independent researcher and thus eligible to review for his journal. His ethics and judgement on such matters were beyond question.

Just as she does when she accepts an article for publication, an editor has to make a judgement call when soliciting reviewers. Some graduate students are clearly capable of making independent evaluations of the work of others and can do so without compromising the peer review process. We wouldn't give PhDs to students if they weren't ready for that responsibility (among other things), and most graduate students are ready for it well before they actually finish writing and do their defense. All such students are eligible in my mind to do peer review.

Edited to add: It's been awhile, but I'm pretty sure I was asked to do my first journal article peer review not by my PhD supervisor, but by the first journal I submitted an article to as first author (while I was a student). I don't think my full credentials were known to the editor of that journal, but even if they were, the editor clearly thought the first author of an article was a sufficient peer to ask me to do reviewing for their journal. It's very common in my experience to be immediately asked to do a review by a journal editor upon submission of an article.


Checking Plagiarism among student's work (PDF documents) I want to check the plagiarism among the students work. I have student's assignments and looking forward if I can make some settings in Turnitin to test the plagiarism only among student's work. I have simple PDF documents. I am okay to check plagiarism both ways i.e. with the internet sources and among the student's work. But the latter is most important. Also, I do not want to submit the work to the repository. How is this possible? Any help is appreciated. Thanks

As far as I remember (it's about 20 months since I last used Turnitin), the only way Turnitin can check for plagiarism in which the source is another student assignment is if that other student assignment has been placed in the repository.  So you can either choose to keep your students' assignments out of the repository, or check for student-to-student copying, but not both.


Is it acceptable to ask for course notes ahead of time? I am taking a course in Computer Science next semester (it is currently a vacation period for my university) and I would like to email my future lecturer and ask them for the set of course notes for this course (and ask if they have any suggestions for further reading on the topic) so that I may read them ahead of time as I'm quite interested at the moment to learn more about the topic.

Would this be viewed in any way as me giving myself an unfair advantage (specifically as I am asking for the course notes which will contain content yet to be taught in the course), or could it be viewed negatively by my future lecturer?

I suppose there might be exceptions, but I think in general it is fine to ask. But explain your reasons as you have done above. On the other hand, don't expect that you will necessarily get anything back. Many people create the notes on the fly as needed, rather than in advance. That will depend on the course and the lecturer.

In my case I prepared a set of written notes that were printed and bound. Students purchased them for the cost of preparation. But I seldom had them available much before the start of the term as they were updated for each running of the class.

Often the class notes aren't a lot of use without the lectures they accompany, so you might not get as much out of them as you hope. The lecturer will probably not be happy with you if you also ask a long stream of questions about them prior to the course.

I doubt that many would consider it inappropriate or giving yourself an unfair advantage. Most would appreciate your enthusiasm.


Structuring Dissertation as Thesis Rather than "Standard" Bachelor's Structure I'm in the process of developing a quantum random number generator utilising novel mechanisms that haven't yet been implemented in commercial products in an effort to achieve better randomness and a higher bitrate. This is for my Bachelor of Engineering degree in the UK.

My university doesn't stipulate any particular format, and since it's just a BEng (not an MEng) doesn't require a literature review. However, since I intend on pursuing a PhD immediately following the completion of my BEng, I feel it would be beneficial to structure the dissertation as a mini-thesis broken into relevant chapters with names that I find appropriate rather than using the more standard dissertation template simply using stock headings (research, evaluation, etc.). I'm also planning on doing a literature review.

Do you think this is appropriate or could it backfire?

If it's relevant, I'll be using Latex book rather than article, to give you an idea of the formatting.

LaTex is irrelevant for the question. But there is no reason not to do it your way provided that there aren't rules that prevent it. But your advisor is the best guide here.

In fact, since you intend to move to doctoral studies the experience would probably be worth any additional effort.

But you need to get some assurance that you won't get late push-back on it from anyone. Again, your advisor, or other faculty should be able to give the best advice.


Is there a way to improve my grade after graduation? I graduated around 3 years ago with a degree, from a Russell Group university, in Mathematics. I had some mental health issues in my final term which essentially bombed my grade. Since I had no previously reported issues with anxiety, my extenuating circumstances were denied, (despite me having a panic attack in the middle of an exam and going to A&E since I thought I had some sort of food poisoning.)

Luckily, I was on track for a high 2:2/ low 2:1 so I did still pass my degree overall and obviously this was around 3 years ago and I have been doing well in my career etc. so this isn’t about how to find a job with this grade.

I don’t like having this grade and I know I can do better and I was just wondering: does anyone knows a way that I can increase my grade (post graduation)?

I’m working full time and don’t want to go back to university full time, but I’m open to taking night classes/extra courses. I wouldn’t mind taking something more related to the work I’m doing now rather than mathematics, but most of the courses I’d be interested in are closely related to my original degree. (e.g. coding, cyber security, finance)

Living and working in London

To update anyone who is reading this in the future and was feeling the same as me - pretty bummed about my grade. I have received a job offer recently for an incredible position. The position usually would require a 2:2 or higher, but due to my 3+ years of experience in industry they offered the job (not just as basic pay but with an experience and skills bonus). To everyone who answered, thank-you! - You were all right and it's not something I need.

There's nothing you can do to change your grade on a completed degree.  What you can do is do well in your job so that no one cares about your old grades, which it sounds like you've done.  So congrats on that!  The real issue here isn't your grades, it's that you're still feeling a lot of anxiety about your college experience.  I'd suggest talking to a therapist about that.  You can't change your grade, but you can better understand the feelings you're having about your college experience, and you can change how you think about those grades.  I wish you all the best.


professor interfering in postdoc offer from another professor I am an Indian student in the United States and I am a Lawful Permanent Resident (Green Card). After my PhD in STEM (computer science), I had a postdoc offer from a professor in a new university (I'll call him Prof. A).

I'm really looking forward to start that project, as it totally fit my skills and expertise.

Another professor, Prof. B, stepped in proposing to be a second advisor. Prof. A and B and their colleagues met many times to figure out a co-advised project.

After a while, Prof. B proposed to work only with him, saying that my citizenship would be an issue to get a tenured position and work in the same research field as Prof. A's (due to sensitive information-->clearance). I turned down Prof. B's offer because I want to work with A.

After some days, I met Prof. A, and he seemed to be almost convinced by Prof. B that it is in my best interest to go on with Prof. B, for the same reason as above.

What Prof. B is forgetting (or, most likely, pretending to) is that in a year I will apply for US Citizenship and that I will be a Citizen by the end of the postdoc. I had to be very insistent on this to re-convince A to hire me again. He still accepted to hire me, but I've seen him somewhat doubtful (he was always so enthusiast about me).

Two questions:

1) Is Prof. B's behavior ethical?

2) Is it legal to talk on my behalf about my alleged "best interest", without informing me and without my consent?

3) Should I cut B out?

As stated above, the country is the USA.

Thank you all.

AS

Prof. A's (due to sensitive information-->clearance)

CyberGuy, I am really not convinced that there is bad or malevolent intent by either Professor A or B but Professor B's discouragement resulting in Professor A to withdraw his offer does seem unethical and patronizing.

The security clearance issue is significant though, in Australia, there is a difference between a citizen working on sensitive material compared a permanent resident or a visa holder, and I would imagine it is similar in America. The fact that you are about to apply for citizenship may not be appreciated by Professor B. Professor B overly forceful because he may be worried that you would pigeon-hole yourself into a narrow field and become unable to work if your citizenship is delayed. Professor B may have your best intentions when he advocated for you to work in a field that is still viable without citizenship, which is his field. I do not think that that is morally wrong, he seems to concerned about your long term employability (but unfortunately minimizing your passions and interests). However, Professor B's lack of responsibility for taking responsibility for Professor A to withdraw his offer seems unethical and wrong. But Professor B may not be aware of the seriousness of Professor's A withdrawal of the offer.

Why did Professor B insert himself into your negotiations? Professor B may be interested in collaborating with Professor A as well, the same way as you were keen to work with Professor A. You must also be an impressive candidate for Professor B to have been interested in working with you and wanting you to work with him alone. Now that you have an offer from Professor A, it may worthwhile clarifying how your skills and expertise fits better with Professor A and that you are soon to apply for citizenship. Professor A's lack of enthusiasm may improve if Professor B understands the situation better and their concerns are clarified. You may also be able to return to work with Professor B if you are unable to get security clearance at a later stage if you are able to smooth things over between them.

Other things that would clearly be unethical would be if Professor B misrepresented your Green Card status and implied that citizenship is not achievable for you. If Professor B misrepresented you as being more enthusiastic for his work instead of Professor A than that would be quite unethical. Also if Professor B lies and misrepresents the Green card or citizenship process to Professor A as a way of pouching you for himself. I am not sure that is the case and they both genuinely seem to want the best for you. I hope Professor B apologizes for the impact of his behaviour and your distress and he turns around support you in your decision CyberGuy.


Literature search: Finding the most reliable data My problem: I need a value for a specific physical quantity. I found several papers with contradicting numbers. How do I make sure to not miss the most accurate data by e.g. missing the newest publications on it?

In other words: What is a good strategy to find the most reliable sources due to newest insights (where to start, which websites to use best, which books etc)?

The US National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) runs a web database where you can look up constants: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Constants/

These might not be the most recent ones, but they are regularly updated, reliable and represent, sort of, the academic consensus.

There are similar databases for specific fields of research. E.g. in particle physics, there is the Particle Data Group (PDG) which publishes the Review of Particle Physics (and the much shorter, yet comprehensive & handy Particle Physics Booklet).


What to do with students requesting deadline extension due to the death of a relative (but without a doctor's note)? I am currently working as a teaching assistant for several courses in STEM in the US at the college level.
During the past two semesters since Covid19 started, I have noticed that whenever a deadline is approaching, on or close to the day of the deadline, a student will inevitably email the instructors (including the TAs) an email requesting deadline extension due to the loss of a relative, which in turn has affected their mental states ("feeling stressed or depressed").
Note that the death of a relative is a common but not the only scenario. We had another student who claimed to test positive for Covid on the due day, but curiously only requested a 48 hour extension to a deadline...While other students simply said something about being stressed out (by jobs, by other courses) and then immediately followed up with some suggested due dates which we should accommodate for the student (or the entire class).
In all these cases, the student has not obtained a doctor's note, which is the appropriate/standard way of requesting for extension. There has been no change to this policy since Covid.
Since we need to approve the extensions and quickly, these sorts of emails always put us in a very tricky situation:

it seems inappropriate to question about whether if a death has actually occurred, how the person is related to the student, or when it has occurred. We just take these claims to be true despite the scant details.
since the situation affects a relative, but not the student him/herself, therefore, this situation is often not distressful enough to have a formal doctor's note, i.e., serious depression or disability. So we would seem rude to send the student to go through this formal and often lengthy process, especially at a time where reaching a doctor is probably inconvenient for many.

I am not sure what is the most appropriate way of dealing with these situation. And I have to stress we have not had this issue before Covid (I've been doing this for years). But this year we're dealing with this on a biweekly basis.
Can experienced instructors chime in on how we can be considerate to the student's personal lives while also hold on to our standards and be vigilant with academic dishonesty?
Should we just let these things go?

Thanks all for the replies, here is a follow up:

it is multiple students, at the beginning of the year it would be 3-4 students per course, but now I guess when the semesters are heating up, its up to
8 - 12 students (for the two courses combined).

it is different students. With about 3 "recurring" students this semester. I haven't paid too much attention to their names.

the problem here are not the medical concerns or emotional stress, but the lack of formal certificate or a proof. We have been giving these extensions like freebies throughout the semester(s) but the assignments now have more weights and we want to be vigilant.

one of the course is my PI's course and I'm sort of the main contact person and we have been conducting this course for many years. The other course I'm the "lead" TA, so again I oversee a lot of these issues. The impact ultimately hits the TAs, as we need to account for all these asynchronous extensions/grading/accommodations.

For one of the course, we have a "we will aggregate the skipped assignment in your exam" policy. Students know this. The reason why they are requesting extension is because they do not want it to be aggregated. The other course we have been giving them 1 time extensions (even though its not in the course policy) and at least one student is requesting extension after the 1 time extension has been used.

Should we just let these things go?

Yes. Either the situation is real, in which you would be causing great harm in refusing and distressing the student further OR the student is lying and they get an extra 48 hours. Do you really care if the student is getting an extra 48 hours? Is the ability to complete work within a very specific time frame one of the key learning goals of the course?


Can I ask a prof (alumni of my college) to recommend me to another prof for a TA position? I was looking for a TA position and mailed prof A, who is an alumni of my college, for a TA. He replied saying that he would not be taking any courses this year so will not require a TA. Can I ask him to recommend me to any other prof, who will need a TA?

Can you do it? Most certainly. Should you do it/is it likely to succeed? That depends on a couple of factors:

Do you know prof A? Does he/she know you? A random email from somebody along the lines of 'Hey, you graduated from my college, please give me a TA position.' will almost always be met with a negative response.
Have you done some kind of work for prof A in the past? If he/she supervised you at your college for some time, yes, you can ask for a recommendation. If not, again, your cchances of a positive response are slim

Those two points may sound similar, but there is a difference with respect to why you might get a negative response:
In the first case, it may be the wording of the email, it may be that there is no TA position at the moment. It is mainly to be seen as a general inquiry for a TA position, that you know that professor is only a slight bonus.

In the second case it is a bit different. You will ONLY get a positive response if that professor has supervised you in the past and is satisfied with the work you have done. After all, a letter of recommendation is basically 'This student is good, I have seen it first hand, if you hire him he will do good work for you.' If prof A doesn't know you, he/she will not recommend you because that is putting his/her name at risk.

With these points in mind and the questions I have linked as a comment to your question, you should be able to figure out if that second email is likely to get a positive response.


Mentioning courses taken on coursera.org in the statement of purpose Is it of any value to mention a course one is following on www.coursera.org, in a SOP?

For instance, if I have a Bachelor of Computer Science and want to apply for a Geoinformatics Master program, would it help my application at all to mention that I am currently following a Geoinformatics course on coursera.org to get familiar with the field?

I don't think it would necessarily hurt your application. However, if you have a limited number of words for your SOP, I think a better use of space would be to explain why exactly you want to obtain a degree in geoinformatics. Your Master's coursework will give you all the background (and probably more) that you need in the field, so it might be better to explain your motivation behind applying for the degree in the first place. Of course, if the Coursera course was a primary driver in your decision, that is highly relevant and should be mentioned.


Should I do another PhD? I have completed my PhD in chemistry in an area which doesn’t have scope to get job or a postdoc position.

Now I’m at the age of 29–30, I’m not eligible to write CSIR, a public eligibility test for lectureship and PhD admissions in India, but I’m eligible to write GATE-2016, (Graduate Aptitude Test for Engineering) another public test whose score (valid for 2 years) is also considered for PhD admissions in India and some other countries like Singapore. Shall do another PhD with a valued GATE score again, in my selected field of chemistry?
The only stipend available for me is from GATE score.

It is not possible to give a concrete answer without knowing which area in Chemistry you did for your PhD. I assume you are from India. There are other options for you to consider irrespective of your field of research.

Try to get an INSPIRE Faculty position, which is not really a faculty position in usual sense.
Apply abroad which will increase your chance of finding a similar field at least statistically.

I don't think appearing GATE once again is a good idea. Also why don't you try industry, there are plenty of jobs for chemists, once again its hard to say for sure without knowing your area of research.


What is my salary expectation in Germany with Remuneration group 11 TV-H, if I have master degree? I did master in Germany. One of the public sector company offers me a job with "Remuneration group(entgeltgruppe) 11 TV-H".

"Remuneration group 11 TV-H" is basically for Bachelor. My question is, my salary belongs to which Stage of Remuneration group 11 TV-H.

They will add 2 years of experience from my master degree or not. If they add then my salary belongs to stage 3, otherwise, stage 1.

Salary group

The "stage of remuneration" (Stufe, table column) increases after having worked N years in your current Stufe, i.e., you go to Stufe 2 after working 1 year in Stufe 1, then you go to Stufe 3 after two additional years in Stufe 2, and so on.

This only counts paid work done in public service (öffentlicher Dienst). It is not there to reward "having experience in the field" but to reward "staying for a long time in the job". Unless you had a full-time TV-H11 job for more than a year during your Master studies (which is not allowed), experience as a student will not count towards starting at a higher Stufe.


What will I spend to license historic images? I want to license illustrations (drawings, paintings, maps) for a black and white scholarly book. The fair use approach looks impractical, so the rights holders will dictate the terms, as yet unknown to me. In another question I learned that I will only contact them once I have a publisher lined up. Presumably there will be no licensing budget in my book deal. I need to know what images I can afford to use.

Roughly how much do authors pay to republish archive materials? Do quoted licensing costs tend to vary depending on which publisher is involved?

Here are some of the institutions that hold and license images potentially useful to my project: Bancroft Library, California State Library, Getty Images, Huntington Library, Santa Barbara Mission Archive.

The answer to this question is content, item, and archive specific I'm afraid. No one here can give you a ballpark figure without detailed information...and you assembling that detailed information will give you your answer. Some things that the figure may depend on:

If you are using an archive's scan of the image or if you are using an image that you, yourself created while visiting the archive
What country you are publishing in
How old the archival material is
If the rights holder has academic rates or waves fees for scholarly books (as they assume you aren't going to make a profit on it)
How many images you're going use (5? 50? 500?), though even with a number there's no way to estimate (see 1–4)

The way forward is to email all of the institutions, ask them for their publication policies and charges, and work out how many images you're willing to pay for based on that. So for example, for the SBML you're looking at giving them $45 per image and a copy of your book, see: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/224541_7ae89e7b824c4dc69d1739111fa71070.pdf


How to cite a modified figure? I took Figure 1 from this article
and made a few changes to it.

How should I cite it?

Do I have to cite it?

Should I cite it like "from [source] (modified)"?

You should indicate that the figure was taken from an existing article and that you have modified the figure. My usual means of doing so includes

  Figure adapted from Fig X. in Ref. YY.

inserted at the end of the caption.

You should also make sure to include whatever copyright notice the journal or repository in question expects to be added.


What is the appropriate mechanism for finding administrative support for a conference? We're organizing a conference and I currently don't have administrative support to process our income and receipts. I don't have a personal admin and I curious about the best and polite way to find support without pressuring someone into the role.

You may want to think about whether you need a full-time administrative assistant for that, or maybe students could take over some of these tasks. It probably depends on the size of the conference also. But I generally found that students are very well willing to take over such tasks, because it allows them a little bit to peek behind the curtains of conference organization.

An important question when engaging students is whether you have funds available to support the conference organization. If yes, then I think it should be easy to find students willing to help for a small salary. Otherwise you would have to rely on volunteering, which may be more difficult.


How should I react if my supervisor for my master thesis gives me low quality supporting information? Currently, I am writing my master thesis at a German university. My work has a lot of to do with programming. However, there are some parts I need, but it is not part of my work. For this case, my supervisor told me if I need anything I can ask him and he will do this for me (as long as it is not part of my topic).

Unfortunately, the quality of work my supervisor delivers me is very bad. Basically, I would do it by myself, however the time scheduling is quite tight, which is why I am quite thankful that he tries to support me.

How can I handle this without making him angry or upset. I am quite thankful that he "helps" me, but when I look at the quality, I am thinking that I could have just done the work myself.

I still have to work with my adviser for about half a year more.

Working with a supervisor is like working with a manager.

In both cases, they can only help you as well as you empower them to help you.

Ask yourself about previous 'help' moments you required from your supervisor:
what went well and not so well about it?
why was it not as helpful as you wished it would be?
how can you help your supervisor be more efficient and effective at helping you?

More often than not, things boil down to communication issues.

You need to provide all the information that you have and that your supervisor may need to help you. You also need to be able to convey to your supervisor what you expect from what they will help you with.


Remote writing of master's thesis vs. taking a course I am currently writing a masters thesis (in mathematics). I began a month ago, but I have been stuck to the point of feeling like I'm wasting my time. I don't have good grasp of the fundamentals needed for the problem I'm tackling and worst thing is they aren't even written anywhere because it's somewhat obscure. And all information I find that looks germane, seems to assume a lot of knowledge I don't have. My advisor helps a lot but we only see each other for two hours once a week and it being online it's a lot more difficult to communicate and ask and interrupt than usual. Additionally, with everybody stuck at home it's also not easy to get help from peers, as setting up a call is much harder than running into somebody on the hall and having to email and email back is a lot more work than just oral interaction so people are less up for it.
On the other hand, my institution allows one to replace a master's thesis with an additional advanced class. Actually this is what most students do, because generally it's thought that an advanced course is time better spent unless you have a clear path towards solving a problem in an area you're comfortable in (I don't know why for a moment I thought it would be a good idea to go against the grain on this one, during a pandemic at that). I'm finding this option attractive because following a class that has a guiding book would be a lot easier in the basically self-learning environment we currently inhabit than scrambling for readable material that doesn't really exist, and also because I think I could get a recommendation letter from the professor from that course while my current thesis advisor has already taught me a couple of classes I think he already would be able and willing to right me a recommendation letter.
Unfortunately, I'm not sure how badly my advisor would take if I suggest this. I'm not sure if he will intetpret it as me "giving up at the first sight of trouble" (which I don't think I am, I truly have worked my a** off for a month and have felt basically no advances in my understanding of this because I think I'm missing some fundamental prerequisites).. . I'm not sure if this would weaken the rec letter that he would write for me.
But I do feel like for my growth as a mathematician, and perhaps to avoid needles s frustration and burnout, the present circumstances make the class a better use of my time. (And also, I really need 1 more rec letter from somebody else).
What do you think I should do? Do you think my advisor would understand this position? Do you think I am in fact being weak? Or do you think my points towards taking the class instead do make sense, as I feel they do?

I am sort of confused. At least here in the states, at my university, a masters student is not expected to do novel research. When you state:

Actually this is what most students do, because generally it's thought that an advanced course is time better spent unless you have a clear path towards solving a problem in an area you're comfortable in

It sounds more like you're in a PhD program. In this case maybe speaking to your advisor and being appropriately direct ("I am not sure what my goals are and I do not understand the problem domain") may give you the insight you need. Your advisor is there to first and foremost guide you through the relatively rocky terrain that is academia.
Next up:

On the other hand, my institution allows one to replace a master's thesis with an additional advanced class.

To be blunt here this sounds like you are copping out on a very good research opportunity. These options are great for students who wish to achieve a masters and head into industry, perhaps as an analyst of some kind, but you don't want to do that. In the comments you stated clearly:

@Vladhagen Being a research mathematician

Having a desire to be a researcher means you should take this opportunity to struggle. I have yet to face a problem where I had all the answers and many times exploring a subfield I am interested in results in me having to do significant research just to understand where I am going. Knowing this I have some suggestions:

Speak to your advisor. You meet for 2 hours once a week. That is a lot of time. I was fortunate to get an hour with my advisor once a week. Manage your time correctly. Since you are stuck now would be a great time to compile a list of things you are stuck on, ideas you've had, things you've tried, and direct questions on how to proceed. Speak to your advisor like a time-crunched colleague or a boss. Don't waste their time but instead come to each meeting prepared with things you want to discuss and things you want to get done. This is great in industry too. Never be the person to show up to the boss with problems and no solutions. If you present a problem have a solution. This will earn you respect in more ways than you'll realize.

You will never have complete knowledge on a problem domain. The more theoretical your field the worst this gets. So start from first principles. As you're reading literature on your problem domain highlight things you don't understand and make an effort to understand those things. Then return to the paper, proceed until you hit another point you don't understand, and repeat. Knowledge, like research, is built in a step-wise fashion. Knowledge cannot be willed upon you. You have to climb that hill on your own.

Good luck. If you wish to be in research you should complete your thesis and not take the class. The experience will be worth it's weight in gold. You will ALWAYS be able to take another class. If your research is impressive you may be able to even ask a field-adjacent colleague to write a recommendation letter for you. The politics of academia are often obscure and you can source recommendation letters from people you've worked with or people who are aware of what you're capable of. Many times it's not necessary to take a class. Please, if you plan on being a researcher do not fall into the "milestone" trap. Enjoy the journey and learn from what it gives you. The rest will follow.


Should I suggest my sources as reviewers? Authors are often asked to suggest reviewers for their article. In my own experience, the principal domain experts I can suggest are often the authors whose work I have cited, but suggesting them might present a conflict of interest.

As an author, should I suggest my sources as reviewers?

The fact that you cite their work, and that you use their work to inform your work, does not present a conflict of interest, and it's fine to suggest them as reviewers. Doing so might even be a good idea, since they might be naturally qualified to assess your work.

An exception might apply if your work stands in some way in direct competition to their work -- for example, if you developed a technique for addressing the same problem, and you claim that your technique works better than theirs. I've seen a few listings of conflict-of-interest criteria that include a conflict type "competitor", and other listings that don't. If this applies, I would recommend to look for the conflict-of-interest criteria of the target journal/conference. If you can't find anything, you might want to contact the editors/chairs.


Is applying existing methods to known problems a novel contribution? I am a new PhD student. If I use existing methods to solve existing problems, but no one has applied these methods to solve these problems, is such a procedure a sufficiently new contribution for a paper?. For example if i use vgg16 (convolution neuron network) model to classify one problem that belong to Biology field.

In mathematics and similar fields, new solutions to previously solved problems may be extremely valuable.

The statements of theorems aren't really the most important thing in mathematics. They are markers that we use to simplify the proofs of yet more advanced theorems. It is the proof methodologies that are the truly stunning advances in mathematics. If you can provide a new way of looking at a problem, or, better, a class of problems, you have made an important advance and can/should publish it.

But make sure that your paper points out that the advance is in the methodology, not the theorem.

Some "hard sciences" may have the same characteristics. How you look at a problem can be as important as a solution.