What would I need to show to change fields and get into a physics PhD program? I've been working as a software engineer for a few years now, and have a bachelor's in computer science and math. My interest and knowledge in physics has been growing since I graduated, but I never took any formal courses after high school.

Obviously, entering into a physics PhD would require a huge amount background knowledge comparable to a bachelor's in physics. My question is what would I need to do to prove that I had that knowledge, and actually get accepted into a program?

Would it be enough to score high on the GRE, and have some strong letters of recommendation? Could I do it with enough statements of accomplishment on coursera? Or am I looking at a few more years of undergrad to get a second Bachelor's? Or could I get into a master's program, and use that as a stepping stone?

Thanks.

Seeing as nobody else has answered and this is judged not to be a duplicate of this question, I'll quote my answer from there (except with "math" changed to "physics"), which also applies here:

If you're asking about graduate school in the US, probably the single most significant thing you can do is to take the GRE subject test for physics and score well on it. This test covers a broad spectrum of material that is taught in a typical undergraduate physics curriculum, and so if you get a good score, it strongly supports your claim that you have the level of physics knowledge required to enter grad school. Without that key piece of evidence (i.e. a good GRE subject score), graduate admissions committees are likely to look at your statement that you have the knowledge to take graduate courses, contrast it with your lack of an undergraduate degree, and conclude that you're full of hot air, so to speak.
Now, of course there is more that has to be done to actually get yourself admitted. You can't get into grad school based on even a 990 (the top score) on the GRE alone; you'll probably have to present some other sort of evidence of accomplishment that could be viewed as equivalent to an undergraduate transcript. You'll also need recommendation letters and various sorts of essays and forms. But a lot of that can vary from school to school, and is more likely to be negotiable if you talk to someone in the department. The GRE subject score is the one thing you really need to get your foot in the door, so to speak.

Beyond the GRE, probably the best thing you can do to increase your chances of getting into physics grad school is to have some physics research experience, with a good recommendation letter from your supervisor(s), although strictly speaking this is not necessary. However this might be somewhat difficult to get given that you're not currently an undergraduate.
I don't think there's much to be gained by using a masters program as a stepping stone, at least not among US graduate schools; in fact, there are not really many masters programs in physics at all. People who go to grad school in physics typically go straight from their undergraduate career into a PhD program, without a separate masters program in the middle.


Are there any legal issues in having someone's book as the basis and as a textbook for an online course? I want to create an online course and use someone's book as the basis (follow the structure, topics) and as a textbook (use exercises, examples, etc). Note that I'm not going to distribute any parts of the book to my students.

What might be the legal issues here?
How do physical universities deal with them?

I cannot see any problem with this as long as no copyrighted material is accessible in such a way that it breaks the copyrights  of the book. Although the outline of a book probably can be considered the intellectual property of the author (and possibly the publisher depending on copyright), I doubt anyone would object since the purpose of writing a (course) book is to provide a product to support teaching of a specific topic. The structure of a book can often be the most logical way of presenting the material. The key issues is rather if you reproduce parts of the book such as providing the exercises on-line. As long as participants must obtain the material in the book on their own you should not worry. From this perspective it is no different from a normal university course (where it is also illegal to copy and distribute material freely from a book (or equivalent).

So for an on-line course, you just need to be very careful with reproducing text or figures from copyrighted materials in ways that breaks the rules. You can also contact the holder of the copyright (author/publisher) to obtain the right to provide parts within the course. The success of this may depend on the system you use for on-line material and what file formats you use for distributing the materials. Such details will likely be made clear by the copyright owner if you ask.


MLA Works Cited question In a research paper, according to MLA standards, if I cite an author on page 259 in one paragraph (Author, 259), and 3 paragraphs later cite the same author from the same book but from a different page (Author, 628), how should the works cited entries look? Do I need two separate entries for each citation, or can I make one entry and put pages 259-628 in the works cited listing?

For example, if I write in a paper that "Saturn has many rings (de Pater and Lissauer, 457)" and in another part of the paper say that "the age of Saturn's rings is unknown (de Pater and Lissauer, 484)".

How would the works cited listing look with the page numbers? Would I put in 457-484 (457 through 484), or 457, 484 (457 and 484)?

The reference list only indicates the page numbers of the whole article within the book or journal etc in which it is contained. The citation indicates the page(s) within the article to which you are referring.

See https://www.library.cornell.edu/research/citation/mla


How do you keep up motivation during individual doctoral research projects in the short run I always have been extremely motivated in my research area and project. My team and I have been writing our current paper over the last 6 months, and since we stumbled upon bugs, the process became quite long, also given my supervisor is involved with other major projects, I think I miss on the time and attention that our project should receive.
It seems now that we are in the last lap of writing our paper, and should be done in 2 more weeks. Even though I have followed every development diligently, I suddenly feel tired of this prolonged process. It seems monotonous and unrewarding. Any thoughts on how to take care of oneself and keep being motivated in this scenario?

Perhaps you are just pushing too hard and getting frustrated. If you try to force your mind to work, it can get bogged down in the detail letting you miss seeing the bigger picture and options that might let you go forward.
Often the best solution is to take a break and do something different for an hour or three to let your mind clear itself out. Aerobic exercise, even if mild, is good for this. So is going to the coffee room and chatting with colleagues about trivial stuff (not work). "How about those Mets?" (Sorry NYC allusion). A game of Chess, perhaps.
Many people have the experience that when they awake in the morning they have solved a previously impossible problem in their sleep. The mind works even when you don't push it to do so, and sometimes more efficiently.
I can't guarantee that this is the issue, but I'll guess, at least, that it is more related to frustration than motivation.

My own trick, back then, was fifty mile bike rides with a couple of friends.


In what order should I write acknowledgments? In (pure?) mathematics, the order of the authors for a given paper is almost exclusively always alphabetical. This leads me to believe that there may be a similar convention when writing acknowledgements.

In what order should acknowledgments be written in a math paper? By order of importance (increasing or decreasing), by alphabetical order, or something else? Does it not matter?

It generally doesn't matter much (though I wouldn't suggest using in increasing order of helpfulness), but if some people deserve special thanks they should be singled out.  I'll often write acknowledgements in this sort of format:

I thank Prof A for encouraging me to think about this problem and Prof B for the realization that it could be approached by X ("chronological order").
I also thank C, D and E (alphabetical order) for useful discussions and feedback.
This work was partially supported by Grant 12345.

If it's a co-authored paper you can separate sentences/phrases for specific thanks from each author.

Generally my advice on questions like this is just to look at a bunch of other papers, see what they do, and learn from that.


Video editing software for pre-recorded lectures I am planning to record lectures. My lectures will be slides or notepad with voice-over.

I am interested in a simple to use video editing software. The major things I need to do is

Cutting out a few seconds
Freezing the video for a few seconds
Speeding up or slowing down certain parts
perhaps do a completely different voice-over

The software should be as portable as possible though I am using Linux for the most part.

I have found Kdenlive to be a very good video-editing solution on Linux. It is free and open-source, with an active help forum and good documentation. It probably has many more features than you will ever need, but I didn't find the learning curve to be too high as a new user.


Are control theorists considered mathematicians? Are control theorists (electrical engineering) considered mathematicians?

If so, would they receive a Fields medal if they make a breakthrough in control theory?
If not, is there a prize similar to the Field medal for control theorists?

I don't have references on the demographics but, traditionally, many and probably most control theorists are engineers by formation and it's in the field of engineering (electrical, mechanical, aerospace, etc.) that most of control theory applications reside.

However, control theory is really a broad interdisciplinary subject comprising engineering, mathematics and, to a lesser extent, physics. For mathematics, topics like algebra, graph theory, dynamical systems theory, optimization theory, and functional analysis are fundamental for the development of control theory, and mathematicians have provided outstanding contributions, as Dan Romik well explained.

My interpretation of your question, however, is whether a control theorists who is engineer by formation is considered a mathematician. I don't like barriers between disciplines, and exceptions always exist, but in my experience engineers are seldom considered pure mathematicians, and their contributions to mathematics are usually far from the mathematics of interest to win a Fields medal.

Thus, there's no Fields medal for control theorists, at least in your probably intended sense, but IEEE awards prizes (e.g., the IEEE Control Systems Award) for outstanding contributions in the field.

But you don't choose a field for the prizes, right?


Possible to return to a PhD years later (at the same or a different uni?) Here's my challenge: I took a suspension of studies about a year and a half ago from my UK PhD program (in ancient history) and moved back to the US after my funding ran out, and now have to decide whether to pony up for part-time tuition or just drop out entirely.

I have no hope or interest in pursuing the PhD for a career; I've got a career in an unrelated field. But my subject and my thesis add something to my life that I don't want to give up. But I'm not eager to dump $10,000 for just part-time tuition when right now that would be a doable but poor financial decision, especially since I doubt my rate of progress would improve. I've finished about 50% of my thesis.

Is it possible to just quit and then reapply again in the future? It's never been stated outright, but the vibe from the university is it's finish or quit forever. I don't really care if it's at the same university or not. (As long as it's not in the US; I have no interest in a longer than 3 or 4 year program).

Has anyone else left a program only to complete it or another one years later?

Whether your university (or another) will allow you to pursue your course in a particular fashion is something you will have to ask them.

The key question to consider though is how your research will be impacted by the delay. I guess ancient history may move slowly enough that it's unlikely someone else will do the research while you are waiting. But how well will you be researching while doing something else/after you haven't thought about your topic for a long time?

A more common approach in your situation would be to transfer to a shorter qualification (some sort of masters) that you can complete reasonably easily using the work you have already done.


How to step down gracefully I have a tenure track position at a European university. Owing to some serious health issues in my family I will move to be closer to them.

I will resign before the term is over (but will try to keep on 1 day/mo to contribute to a small project and hopefully keep my title, I’m about to be promoted to Full Professor but I’m not sure how the faculty will react once they learn this).

No one knows this.

What’s the best way to move forward to preserve my relationship with the faculty?

Assuming you have a good relationship with the faculty at the moment:

I would discuss the situation honestly with your head of department or other appropriate person. It sounds like you have a good reason to want to be closer to your family. It also sounds as though you genuinely want to maintain links with the university. Those are reasonable goals, and if your department values you they will try to support them. Maybe you can keep a day or two a week, maybe you can work remotely, maybe you can visit for a week every two months... hopefully you can explore options and find something that works for everybody.


Disclosing authorship of controversial app in CV I'm an undergraduate physics student in EU.

I created a politics related android app that is to be released soon. Nothing fancy; I was just practicing a bit with GUIs and various programming tools.

Part of this app discusses modern world war propaganda (e.g. pretexts used to start a war), along with other similar topics. It also makes fun of various political beliefs and ideologies, including pro-vote propaganda.

Needless to say, its content would displease some people.

Initially I was thinking of being open about it (e.g. include it in my CV), but now I'm having second thoughts on how it could affect me in the future. Be it being granted a visa or being accepted in a research program.

I read a similar post but it wasn't helpful since many things differ in my case:

I don't "exist" on the internet. I don't use social media and the
few search results about my real name are related to physics. The only way to establish a link between my app and my identity is through my CV, and then the person searching would have to use the app to learn my political views.
I am not left or right nor anywhere in between, I consider elections (in their current state) an inefficient, resource-wasting game. Therefor, I don't know people's stance towards my beliefs. Also, considering elections a game (as defined above) is open to misinterpretation (which has happened before with my professor; he initially assumed I'm far-far-right).
The app strongly criticizes various policies without naming the governments or countries involved.

What should I do:

There are possible benefits from displaying some of my programming knowledge along with some risks, and I can't decide whether I should:

use a pseudonym in the app (copyrights holder, author etc) and never disclose my affiliation with the project.
use a pseudonym, and include the app in my programming portfolio. (is it worth the risk?)
or another option.

I don't think having created an app that was, it seems, more a proof of concept will impact your acceptance or failure to be accepted much. For completeness and honesty, one might think it does belong on a CV though. However, the way you describe your app I would add a clarifying brief description, such as "Parody of political process." You wouldn't want more people getting the wrong impression your professor originally had, without being in the room and able to explain yourself.

It seems that you are middle-of-the-road politically, bemused and maybe annoyed by orthodoxies left and right of you. Keep in mind that your app, if this is expressed in it, will probably make both the left and right uncomfortable and head-shakingly displeased: for card-carrying members of the (far?) left and right, anyone not with them, is against them. So be careful.


Presenting data of complex tables I finished some experiments on classification and I am now preparing for a presentation.

The experiment yields data which will then be manually verified to determine if the data is correct or incorrect. The experiment is run a total of 10 times and the output for each run is the amount of hits ("Yes") or misses ("No"). In the end, I have this complex table:

What is the best way to present this kind of complex tables?
If applicable (as in my example), should I present normalized data?
If applicable (as in my example), should I present average values?

I believe visual representation is nearly always a much better way to present data-intensive information. However, it may depend on your audience, and the depth of analysis you go into with your results.
If you are repeating each experiment n times, it would be most useful, in the least, to present the average result (the mean), along with a standard deviation. There are many different ways to visually represent your data, but whatever method you use must be able to deliver the main points you need to convey clearly. To help you decide on the best form of presentation of data, here a couple of suggestions:

Ask yourself what the main message is that you need to deliver from this data, and focus on a delivery style (graph, table, list, whatever) that best delivers that main message (and not all the other stuff)
Reduce the number of variables you need to display to reduce distractions from that main message. So you wouldn't need to display results from 10 repeats of an experiment when you can just show the average result for that experiment.
Remember that in the majority of cases, a picture tells a thousand words.

As an aside, regarding your statement "The experiment yields data which will then be manually verified to determine if the data is correct or incorrect." Always believe your data. Your data is always correct. You just have to come up with the explanations for why the data is as it is.


Courses outside colleges and do they count? My undergraduate college does not offer the flexibility of attending courses outside my department, sitting for exams there and including the grades in the official transcript.
But I have learned a fair amount of advanced math from YouTube on my own, although I guess I would not be able to add that to my CV or even provide any proof of that to admissions committees for higher education.
I was wondering if there are online courses/ other such facilities where I can learn and sit for exams and that carry near equal weight to actual courses in college.
For example, if I am from the Political Science department, and the Mathematics department offers a course on "Advanced Probability Theory", but my college does not allow me to enroll for it, sit for this exam and include it in my official transcript because the departments are different.
Are there online facilities where I can learn "Advanced Probability Theory", sit for exams and attain grades, and that has from an admissions point of view (suppose I want to go for a Master's/ Ph D in Economics) an equal value as that of enrolling for the course in college (which I couldn't because of the lack of flexibility)?
I know of platforms like EdX, Udemy etc. but I am not sure if they provide near equal value to actual college courses.

NPTEL is the best bet.
It is a MOOC by the Government of India, where online courses are offered by various Indian universities, including the IITs and the Indian Institute of Science. It is similar to Coursera and such in the sense that you watch videos and complete weekly assignments. You can register yourself as a student through this link and browse courses.
If you want your learning to be certified, you need to register for a particular course. Registration for courses happens twice a year (just like usual colleges). Unfortunately, I believe you have missed the registration deadlines for most of the Jan - April courses, there are only a few that are still available.
For example, this is the catalogue for the courses you can still enroll for during the Jan-April 2021 phase in Mathematics. Perhaps a course may interest you.
You can also wait for registration to open again for the July-November set of courses (this starts sometime in June-July).
How it works

You can browse for various courses using the Course Catalog tab.

Register for the courses you are interested in. Duration of the courses are typically 8-12 weeks.

Go through the uploaded video/text lectures (this depends on the course).

Complete the weekly quizzes and other assignments as applicable to the course.

Register for the final exam within the mentioned deadline. Without writing the final exam, you will not be provided the certificate.

The Final Exam

The final exam is usually written at designated test centres in March or April for the Jan-April courses, and in September or November for the July-November courses. Choose your test centre carefully.

All the final exams are conducted on Sundays, either in the morning slot (9-12 PM) or the afternoon slot (2-5 PM). If you are attempting the final exam of multiple courses, make sure they do not clash.

Note: You can attempt the final exams for a maximum of six courses per 'semester'. Also, there is an exam registration fee of ₹1,000 per exam.
Getting certified
There is a specific set of criteria that needs to be met for you to be certified. This may vary from course to course, and it is mentioned clearly in the course information. For example, these are the criteria for a course called "Introduction to Astrophysical Fluids".

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 8 assignments out of
the total 12 assignments given in the course. Exam score = 75% of the
proctored certification exam score out of 100
Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score
YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT
SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not
met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >=
40/100.

Most courses seem to have similar eligibility criteria.
Transferring Credits
There is an option in NPTEL when you register for the courses to transfer the credits to your university. But you need to talk to the academic department of your university about this beforehand. I would suggest you talk to your university at the beginning of the semester in which you are planning to take the NPTEL course. You need to know if:

They even consider an NPTEL course to be eligible to be added to the official transcript (and if they do, the procedure for it).

Whether they will consider it a 'pass/fail' course where you only need to submit your final certificate to show you have taken the course and it will be marked as a 'Pass' or whether your grades in the course will also be shown in the transcript.

For example, in my university, NPTEL courses are considered purely for extra credits as 'pass/fail' courses, meaning the grade I have achieved in the course will not be shown in my official transcript.
The Value
I cannot comment with certainty about this since I am an undergrad student like you. My assumption is this (needless to say, take it with a grain of salt):

Under normal circumstances, an NPTEL will probably carry lesser 'value' than a typical university course since the assignments are online and there are no 'classes' to attend. But remember that since we are writing a proctored final exam in person (much like a university course), it probably carries more weightage than certified courses of foreign MOOCs like Coursera or Udemy.

Under the current COVID situation, I would say an NPTEL course is very similar to the online university courses (In fact, many of my professors ask us to refer to archived NPTEL courses i.e. courses that are not accepting enrollment anymore, for the material). We complete weekly online assignments and write a proctored in-person online exam, similar to a university course. I would say that in such a situation, an NPTEL course should be considered to have the same value as a normal university one.

Furthermore, if your university only accepts the NPTEL course as a 'pass/fail' course, there is no indication of your performance in the course, but only evidence that you have taken it. In such a situation, the course would not carry as much value as a typical university course.

Final personal thoughts
Overall, I would suggest you take an NPTEL course (or two). The best-case scenario would be that you do well in the course and it reflects in your official transcript. If not, you still have a certificate that you can add to your CV or mention in an interview.
With regard to transferring credits through an online course, NPTEL is surely the best bet for Indian universities. I highly doubt they take certified courses from Coursera/Udemy/EdX seriously enough for credits transfer.


Sabbatical in mathematics in the US I am wondering how a mathematician can find a sabbatical in the US. More specifically is it necessary to have people interested in a collaboration with them in the department they wants to visit? Is it possible to find a department for sabbatical in order to start working in a new field?

The main thing to keep in mind is that from the host department’s point of view they aren’t inviting you to come “do a sabbatical” - that’s not an official status at any US department I know. They are inviting you to come and do a certain kind of work (usually with a title such as Visiting Professor/Researcher/Scholar, which is usually but not always unpaid), whether it’s teaching or research or some combination of the two. The fact that you’re on sabbatical from your home institution (as opposed to some other status like being on leave) is immaterial.

is it necessary to have people interested in a collaboration with them in the department they wants to visit?

I think it’s fair to say that it’s necessary to give the department a reason to invite you. They need to have some concrete expectation that your presence will be beneficial to them. The most common such reason (in my very anecdotal experience) is that you will collaborate with some of the department’s faculty, but if you’re offering to teach, run a seminar, mentor graduate students etc, those could all be useful things that might make the department receptive to inviting you. And a collaboration might not necessarily be very concrete - it may be that you are simply an expert in some field that’s of interest to someone and they feel that having you around would be nice for them and their grad students, postdocs etc, regardless of whether there is an official intent to collaborate.
It could also be that you are a famous researcher at the top of your field. In that case I doubt you will need to offer anything concrete. Just say “I was wondering if it would interest your department to have me visit next year”... Your reputation will do the convincing for you.

Is it possible to find a department for sabbatical in order to start working in a new field?

I don’t know, but I don’t see why not. Again, the key is that you have to give people a reason to want to have you around. If you want to expand from field X to field Y and the department has people who are experts on Y but are interested in learning more about X (or about techniques from X that might help them attack the problems of Y) and think you could help them, I think that could be a win-win for everyone and a perfectly good reason to invite you for a visit.


With regards to replying to emails, are my expectations too high from Group leaders? I am currently looking for Post-doctoral positions after finishing my PhD. I have recently visited a potential lab for a lab visit. It has already been two weeks since I came back from there. Since then, I have not received any communication negative or positive. I also reached out to the Group leader with no response.

I am in an extremely specialised and competitive sub-field, so I cannot keep on sending out applications, because most of them come back positive with a pre-emptive interview call. Later on, I might have to send decline mails for any or all positions that are offered. And, I know that even as a Group leader it doesn't feel nice to get snubbed.

Right now, I feel a bit angry. The response from the Group Leader was extremely prompt while setting up the visit. Now, I do not get any response. And, I have no indication of when one might be forthcoming. So here is my question.

If I as a potential Post-doctoral fellow am expected to send out decline emails for positions that are offered, is it too much for me to ask the same of a Group Leader? Mind you, I am not expecting them to reply to the first introductory email. But, if I have made it to the last screening round, shouldn't I expect a response, be it positive or negative?

As I have come to do again and again lately, I completely agree with @Buffy. You need to calm down and take it easy.

You have no idea what might be the reason for them delaying a response, it could due to:

delays with the paperwork to the rest of the faculty,
delays with interview all candidates,
delays due to other urgent matters such as grant/paper deadlines,
or simply some sort of personal emergency

2 weeks is not an insultingly long time, so you have no basis on which you can demand an answer. These are busy people we are talking about.

On a different note, it wouldn't prevent me from applying to somewhere else. Everyone who has ever applied to a position, or hired a person, knows the dynamics of this "game". Apply to other places if the wait stresses you, and you can always say that you had a more favorable position when you turn down a position. As long as you haven't played foul (i.e. lying, withholding important information etc) nobody should get upset.


Should I include my StackExchange profile in my CV? I've been thinking that sometimes here on Stack Exchange, people make very good questions and give very good answers, in my case, I have learnt a lot from the community and when I post a question I try to make an effort to formulate it in a proper manner to avoid downvoting, so, when applying for a job or an academic position, would be correct to also make a reference of your Stack Exchange profile?
I believe that people that are hiring you, may have a better glimpse of you interests, what you know and what you don't know from the answers and questions that you make, so, is it a good idea to also show it?

You may get a small bump by being a good answerer on the technical stacks, like Physics or Cross Validated. I've heard MathOverflow in particular has a decent recognition among mathematicians. Especially if you are applying for a teaching position, showing a good track record wouldn't hurt, even if only 1 in 25 people have heard of Stack Exchange (which would be a very high proportion in my experience).
By "good" I'm thinking of rep north of 5,000 at least, but I'm not familiar with the standards of those Stacks in particular.
That said, your thought about:

I have learnt a lot from the community and when I post a question I try to make an effort to formulate it in a proper manner to avoid downvoting

... is, I'm sorry to say, pretty meaningless and confusing to explain to someone looking to hire you in an academic position. No one cares that you didn't get downvoted when asking a question online. That is basically the bare minimum to participate in these sites, even though I do acknowledge the communities can sometimes be harsh.


Can I upload multimedia from subscription access journals to third party websites I am the author of an accepted and published manuscript in a peer-reviewed subscription access article. Accompanying this manuscript are some videos I created. I would like to upload these videos to a third party website and want to know if this is allowed. I have read the author rights, but my use doesn't exactly fit into the wording so I'm not so sure what the answer is.

More specifically my article is in 2D Materials of IOP and I want to upload some videos that form part of the additional multimedia to YouTube so that I can create an interactive poster where people can view videos related to content on the poster.

I have emailed the IOP concerning this matter so I can provide an answer to at least my specific case, but I thought others might have something interesting to say on this matter, e.g. perhaps the intended use means it automatically is "fair use" and is acceptable for all journals.

Update:

After further emails and confusions settled, IOP was more than happy to grant me permissions to use the videos. One thing I discovered is that technically, even if you're just using one or two of the figures from your paper for a poster you should ask permission from IOP. I'm not sure how common this is.

~~~~~~~~

The email response to my specific case was:

"Under the copyright form, IOP Publishing only take a non-exclusive licence from you to use and publish the video abstract (clause 1.3). Therefore we do not control what you do with the video abstract. Please note, if you have used any third party material in your video, you may need to consider whether the permission you were granted was wide enough to use that content on YouTube."

One thing to note is she is talking about the video abstract and not video figures, but I'm personally going to say that's enough of a green light for me.


Pursuing research before applying to grad schools I graduated last year (Bachelors in Computer Science) and am currently working in the industry. I am thinking of applying to grad schools next year but don't have any research experience under my belt (did not pursue any research-oriented project during my undergrad, regret it now).

Therefore I was thinking of pursuing research under a professor before applying for masters (to get a good LoR, as well as get in a publication, if possible). In what circumstances do professors take up requests such as mine, and how should I approach him/her? Currently I am shortlisting the ongoing research projects relevant to my field of interest in prospective universities.

EXACTLY   HOW do to define " research  experience"?
 You may have  more  research  experience  than  you  thin,k. Bow many  term papers Din;t  you do ANY LIBRARY RESEARCH  for term  papers  during  middle  school,  high school  or  college,  no matter   what  your  major  was  in  college?  Library  research IS RESEARCH. I learned  how  to  write   term papers  with  footnotes   and  reference  lists  in  7th  and  8th  grade  more  than  50  years ago.   There  was  section  of  "how  to  use  the  library  in  English class in  both  grade  school   and  the  (th  grade.  That  i went  to private  college  prepatory  schools  in  the  United  states  is  NOT  that  unique,  "how  to use'  the  library  was  also   taught  in public  schools.  in  the  USA.
Apparently  how  to use   a  search  engine  is  not  being  taught  at  all.  I've  been using  Google  since  1993  or  1994,  but  i went  to  back  to  college  in 1992  just  as  the  internet  was  taking  off    in higher  education.

"...Undergraduate research experiences help students understand a particular topic or phenomenon in a field while simultaneously strengthening their comprehension of research and research methods. Undergraduate research is inquiry-based learning that involves practicing a discipline, not just being told about it...."
https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/studentresearch/What.html

You probably DO  have  research  experience  and  do not  realize  because  your  haven't  bothered   to look up   the  definition   of  "research  experience."  I LOVE  doing  library  research,   but  i know  most  people   think  library  research  is  waste  of  time    and  is  boring  and  tedious  until  they  get  stuck   and HAVE  to  review  the professional  literature   and KEEP UP   with  it    g  for the  REQUIREMENTS  for  specific  college  degree   and  have  to  either  numerous  term papers  or  senior  thesis  which  requires   library  research,  possible  lab   research  compiling  data.   and  even  Field  work   to  father  more  data  or  field  truthingt  and  verification like  i   did  for  my  master's  thsis,  that  what  is  in  ssatellite  image  and  geological  maps  really IS  there  on  the  ground   and  is  real  and  is  accurate..

Part of  the point  of    going  to  college  these  days  is  to    teach you HOW TO THINK  critically , logically,  analytically  and  objectively  AND     so you   acquire  the  research  skills  to KEEP  doing your  own  research  AND   contribute  original knowledge  to  society.

You probably DO have   research   experience.

I  am  still  getting  used  to how  stack  exchanges  work  too. I  am  AMAZED  at  how much research i  can  do  online    these   without  having  to  get  anywhere  near  a  brick  and  mortar  library.


Publicly available extended summary of PhD thesis and manuscript submission In my country, if a PhD thesis is written in national language, the candidate must also submit an extended summary of the thesis in English, which will be deposited in a national repository and will be uploaded to the appropriate section of the university's website. This English-language document is approximately between eight and ten thousand words long, its structure is pretty similar to that of a scholarly article and can be downloaded by third parties without cost or restrictions.

I have the following two questions:

Can a candidate submit an English-language manuscript based on the extended summary to an international scholarly journal? Should the extended summary fall in a different category with regard to prior publication than theses "published" in ProQuest ?
A few journals publish extended abstracts and extended summaries of PhD theses as they are - these items are not peer-reviewed and the published version is essentially the same as the item submitted by the PhD candidate to the Doctoral School. This is only for increasing visibility of the original thesis and serves purely research dissemination purposes. If the candidate's extended summary is published in a journal, would it be considered a prior publication?

If you submit the summary (or a substantially similar paper), you should ask the relevant people at the journal beforehand. We can't give an authoritative answer for any particular journal, let alone all of them.


Should I risk being fired to help the students? I am a new high school teacher, and I want to disclose the risks and limitations of learning in a classroom to the students, but my supervisor said I cannot do this.  Other teachers must have their concerns and doubts from time to time.  The concerns I have are that I think there can be undetectable  bullying among the students in some of my classes, and I think several students will need to do certain things to prepare themselves for non-academic careers that have nothing to do with schools.  Should I risk getting fired or should I just hope the students will be OK despite my concerns?

If you are fired you won't be able to help anyone.
But instead of being proactive in speaking with them, you can just be vigilant and deal with problems as they occur. If you maintain open communications with those who might be on the receiving end, you will probably hear about issues. If necessary you can take them to the supervisor.
But disobeying a supervisor for a new employee isn't likely to be especially helpful.


What are the prospects of a Math Master student applying to Finance PhD programs? What are the prospects of a Math Master student applying to top tier Finance PhD program?

So here's a little bit of my background.

I'm currently in my second year of my Mathematics master degree, applying to Finance PhD programs. The top tier Universities are definitely what I'm aiming for. What are my prospects?

Aspects where I felt like I am disadvantaged compared to other Finance PhD applicants:

  I have not taken a lot of Finance/Econ course
  I have little research experience compare to other applicants
  Admission commitee might question my determination to go into the field of Finance

Aspects where I have outstanding performance/other information:

  I have a background of Master in Math, which I assume most applicants don't
  I have taken plenty of courses in applied math, including real analysis (I'm currently the grader for the  first year graduate real analysis class)
  I graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 GPA. I am still keeping the GPA in my graduate courses so far.
  General GRE scores
  -Quantitative: 170/170(98% below)
  -Verbal: 156/170(71% below)
  -Writing: 3.5/6 (38% below)
  Math GRE scores: 860/980 (89% below)

I would very much appreciate if someone in the Finance/Econ academia (graduate student/Professors) can give me some advice. Besides my odds of getting accepted,

  What are others things I can do to improve my chances of getting into the top schools?

Admissions for PhD programs at top-tier schools is hyper competitive, and I would imagine it to be even more for finance and economy. Admissions there get huge pools of applicants and they are spoiled in their choices. Applicants would come with these perfect GPA and GRE scores and crafted portfolios from top-tier undergrad programs and so on.

I would say, though, that you can apply and see. But do not limit yourself with top tier universities! You can always find 2nd-tier ones with fantastic research groups in some specific areas that might be of your interest. Do NOT choose where you want to do PhD solely based on the reputation of the university. There is more to it than that, you have to see the research group and their reputation and what journals/conferences they publish in, etc...

Also, here is a link for you to read. You might find it to be such a treat.
http://noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/if-you-get-phd-get-economics-phd.html


politely refusing authorship opportunity? I (a grad student) first-authored a paper with my ex-PI and some colleagues. The paper was rejected from a journal. Meanwhile, this ex-PI also bullied me, did something else that was hurtful, and did not provide helpful feedback on the paper.  The ex-PI is now asking if I want to re-submit.  Can I politely refuse? If so, how?

They’re an ex-PI and one that you’ve had negative experiences with. Still, networking and connections, even if faint, can come back and be helpful directly or indirectly. Diplomacy is key. Give your appreciation for their interest in collaborating, but decline, citing other obligations, time commitments, etc.


European Ph.D. student salary range web site Is there any web site that shows average Ph.D. student salaries in European countries, and also information about living cost and so on?

update: what about France and Germany?

Partial answer;
In the Netherlands you have a couple of different possibilities when it comes to PhDs. You can be a student (and thus have to pay), a payed phd (who also has teaching obligations), and an external PhD (who, depending on the professor, might have to pay).

The paid PhDs salary per month vary from 2,125 euro in the first year to 2,717 euro (in the fourth year, which should be the last year) according to the VSNU (look at the P column). There is also a 13th month and vacation money. Of course tax and social premiums still has to be deducted to get to the salary you get on your account.


How long do editor decisions take at Science/Nature? What does the distribution of wait times for a editor decision look like for a manuscript submitted to Science or Nature?

(You are not allowed to say "Gamma" unless you give a shape and scale parameter)

Usually they decide in less than a week after the initial submission. Either rejection or sending it out for review.
Sometimes they are more busy. For our last submission the decision took 25 days for which the editor apologized.


Is it common for higher education institutions to offer sabbatical periods for administrative / support staff? Occurred to me that some office-based private for-profit companies offer the opportunity of sabbatical periods to their staff.

Do most higher education institutions offer sabbatical periods for administrative / support staff?

Is the concept of sabbatical for support staff as well as for academic staff featured in your institution's HR policies as a matter of course ?

So here sabbatical is not about period off teaching and service duties for academic staff to focus 100% on research.

Sabbatical period would mean paid leave from one's usual role to achieve something different, like creating a business, or developing something innovative, to pursue one's creative talent.

Large Land-Grant University in the U.S.:

  Applications for professional leaves will be considered only from faculty members on permanent appointment (academic or annual) who have completed at least five years of active service for $UNIVERSITY at the time the leave is to be effective.

Another university in the state has a very similar policy. Beyond that, I have never heard of staff taking sabbatical leave. Occasionally going for professional development, etc. but not for that length of time.


List with 2018 JCR impact factors, categories and quartiles I am looking for a PDF document or list that contains the new 2018 JCR Impact Factor for all journals, but not only showing Impact Factor, but also adding info about categories and quartile. Of course you can go to JCR website and look each time for each journal but this is very time consuming

Here is a PDF uploaded to ResearchGate, which seems to be the most recent list.


How does one approach a professor to volunteer in his/her lab? In particular if one has little practical experience with research in the field (neuroscience), and has limited research experience in another area though did not fit well (computer vision).

What does one put on the email?  Classes taken?  Experiments done?  Skills (reading primary literature, matlab, statistics and writing)? Or just a request for a meeting?

Should I mention in the email my major research requirements that specify I must work in the same lab for two semesters with paperwork (which my advisor suggested volunteering in first to see how I fit)?

Whenever approaching a faculty member relating to research, I recommend that early career students offer them a resume/CV and some concrete example of research interest (a question about a recent paper, how you heard about the lab and why it interests you, demonstrating drive by reaching out to the current lab members, etc).

In the email, state your discipline, the research requirements, any potential references they may already know (like your advisor). Ask for a meeting with a specific length of time (10-15 min) with a clear objective (to get a tour, hear about the research, get more involved in the lab,etc ), and if you don't hear back within a week -- follow up.


Would I be considered a Masters degree holder right after my course completion? I am currently a MS student looking forward to complete all of my courses by December 2016.

Will I be recognized as a Masters degree holder right after December 2016 so that my employers can file for H1B as soon as possible after April 1st of 2017?

Or do I have to wait till my Graduate Commencement Ceremony to be recognized as a degree holder, which is not till May of 2017?

The date on which you finish courses is not necessarily the date when you earn the degree, nor is the date of the commencement ceremony.

What matters is the date on which the degree is conferred by the university. If you're not sure what that date is, ask the registrar's office.

In some cases if the degree conferral date for students completing their coursework in December/January is after the H1B deadline, the registrar may have some kind of special arrangement (see this example from Stanford), which they'll tell you about if you ask.


Why is it so difficult to find a topic for my thesis research? I've majored in computer science (BSc: close to MIS, MSc: advanced software engineering), I've worked on dissertations on totally different topics in every stage at college, now I'm planning to do a PhD and I've been looking at different topics from various sub-fields but I frankly can't pin one to use as a starting point. I would say that I like X topic or Y and when I look closer at the papers being published in the field they seem too obscure to me and I can barely comprehend their abstracts. For example, I was searching for starting point in solving concurrency problems in software or even advance such technique since I felt it's what I want to do and what I know that would keep me motivated but I frankly couldn't find anything, I've looked at publications that reference famous papers/book (things I've researched very briefly) like communicating sequential processes and cooperating sequential processes but there was nothing that could give me a good start.

My questions here, am I looking in the wrong sub-field? I know I'm highly motivated by the previously mentioned area but do I understand enough to enter such area? I've seen people jump from psychology to computer science at PhD level and I wonder how someone could do such thing. Also am I even a PhD material if I can't pass this stage?

Note: the topics of my past dissertations were on AI and online social communities

Your supervisor or potential supervisors should be able to help - and I don't necessarily mean by talking to them.  First of all identify potential supervisors whose (recent) work you like and (mostly) understand. In the first instance look at their recent papers, and particularly concentrate on any points they raise in discussion or future work.  In particular do a SWOT analysis and note what are the best and worst features of the approaches, and whether you can see opportunities for different, even interdisciplinary, work to be brought to bear.

To the extent you don't understand anything, don't keep reading and rereading and struggling with it, go back to the earlier work and the citations.  Try go be back to the originators of the concepts you are lacking or find difficult, and the commentators who clarify the insights behind the formalisms.  Look for conference and workshop papers for these early developmental versions of work, rather than the erudite and impenetrable journal versions.


Benefits to home country while pursuing Masters in pure Mathematics abroad I am a senior undergrad from India applying for Masters in Pure Mathematics in the UK. Due to my weak financial condition, my masters depends on a scholarship that I will be interviewed for in a month. The scholarship is called Commonwealth Master's Scholarship and it is highly competitive.

  While applying for this scholarship, there is a section about how my study in the UK will benefit my home country once I am back, and what developments can be initiated. This is easier to write when one goes for courses like Resources Management, Bio-chemistry, Bio-technology etc. Such fields require sophisticated labs and modern technology which India lacks. Students specific to these courses can learn these key attributes and then implement the scheme, once they are back. But what should a pure mathematician write in this case, given that, my research interests are mostly Measure theory and Functional Analysis and they bear no significance to the market or to the lives of common people, at least as of now.

I am not certain if this platform allows for such personal questions, but given the stake is my career, I decided to seek advice from here. In case this is irrelevant, please comment below.

Thank you.

Studying pure math seems to imply that you want to teach eventually, perhaps after pursuing a doctorate. If that is the case, and you intend to enter academia in India you have the basis for saying quite a lot.

On the other hand, if you intend to enter industry in some capacity then you can write about the benefits of the economic activity. Even if you won't be applying the specific topics you learn, your mathematical sophistication should be improved by the study, making you a better candidate either for academia or industry.

It only seems problematic to me if you don't intend to return at all, or to leave again permanently.


What are some good project-management tools for academics? My advisers are starting to use Basecamp for my project, and I like most of it so far. I am wondering, though, about the arguments for and against Basecamp.

I have been using a mode for Emacs called Org-mode to track my research and do project planning.  See my answer to this question for some of the other capabilities of Org-mode for research.

Org-mode has a number of features that are useful for project planning.  You can set headings as multi-state TODO lists and set scheduled start times or deadlines.  You can also set effort estimates for tasks and generate text based reports via tables or the agenda view, all while inside Org-mode.  The Org-mode manual covers the customizations to these areas and there are a number of tutorials discussing the customization of Org-mode for a variety of tasks.

To generate graphical reports, Org-mode has an export feature for TaskJuggler.  TaskJuggler takes text-based inputs and generates a number of different reports including Gantt charts and resource allocations.  If you do not wish to use Org-mode as the source of your planning, TaskJuggler has its own native format for the text files, highlighted in the manual.

All the tools listed are open source and are actively being developed/maintained.

A potential downside to these tools is that they are primarily text-based.  If you are a visual person who wants a GUI approach to planning/reporting, these tools are probably not suited for you.  Additionally, Emacs has a fairly steep learning curve, so if you are not already using it and do not have the time to become familiar with it, other tools will probably be better suited for you.


What physical contact, if any, is acceptable between a supervisor and a student? I was rather surprised that in this answer which suggests that a supervisor giving a side-hug to a research assistant is acceptable behaviour. I try and limit the physical contact with my students/postdocs/assistants to hand shakes and high fives, however if they initiate a hug I tend not to block it. What physical contact, if any, is acceptable between a supervisor and a student? I guess a follow up question would be do the genders of the supervisor or student matter?

In general, I refrain from initiating any physical contact other than handshakes or "congratulatory" gestures such as high-fives or fist bumps. This allows the student to control the level of interaction if they so choose.

My suspicion about what would be considered "acceptable" is that it varies widely from country to country, depending on what is considered an "acceptable" level of contact between strangers or professional colleagues. For instance, in Muslim-dominated countries, the "side-hug" mentioned in the answer—or even shaking of hands—between a male boss and a female subordinate, or vice versa, would likely be frowned upon! Similarly, in other countries, I could see how a "side-hug" could be within the realm of acceptable contacts (although still on the somewhat "iffy" side).


Can a master's thesis still be good if it lacks demonstrable results? I am currently writing my master's thesis, but I have a sneaking suspicion that it will not be very good. This is partly because I have been unable to test the system I propose in the thesis properly, because testing it involves test cases that has to be manually performed, and I simply haven't got the time/resources/mental sanity to do more than a handful of them.

The problem is that having little testing could be viewed as a large, weak point in my thesis, and is easily attackable when I shall defend it.
My thesis is about detecting malware that requires human interaction (hence the testing difficulty), and by looking at some indicators I can determine what is malware and what is not. But my fear is that these results won't be very generalizable because of the small sample size. So my question is then: can a master thesis still be good if the presented results only cover a laughably small sample size?

My Masters project (synthetic chemistry) didn't actually generate results other than failure and black goop (so nothing novel!) until the last two weeks of time I had in the lab, and even then, there was insufficient purity and quantity of my compound to do a complete 'standard' panel of analysis. It was the 4th year of an integrated BSc/Msci course, was graded including a viva and I achieved a mid 2.1.

The main purpose of a research Masters, at least in chemistry, is to accustom you to 'proper' research methods, while allowing you to pursue something novel and to demonstrate your ability to conduct research to a sufficient standard. In my cohort there was typically a tradeoff between novelty of project and quality of results, where one forgave the lack of the other.

As long as your thesis is written with an awareness of its deficits (aims far loftier/broader than the time/resources available sounds like a good start!) and you write good further work and conclusion sections where you tie this awareness in, making sensible conclusions and observations on the few cases you have achieved, I think it is definitely possible to write a good one! As Paul indicated above, you should discuss these concerns with your supervisor and possibly head of class (or equivalent). I am sure they will have dealt with someone with your concerns and circumstances before.


Approaching supervisor for master's thesis when I have ideas but nothing concrete? So I have to write my master's thesis, and I need to contact a potential supervisor. The field is statistics.

I am slightly confused by how these things work: on one hand, you often hear that you should have your own ideas and proposals for what you want to write about. On the other hand, your supervisor also needs to be able to supervise you, hence your ideas need to fall to his liking and be within his area of expertise and interest.

With that in mind, how do I approach a potential supervisor? I intend to first write an e-mail. In this e-mail, do I

merely introduce myself and my interests/coursework and then ask for the possibility of writing a master's thesis under their guidance, without getting into any specifics of what the topic should be, and then wait for their response?
or do I specifically go into details with the ideas that I have in mind?
or do I mention my ideas vaguely but stress that I am open to any suggestions that he might have for a related topic?

I am learning towards option 3) as option 2) seems a bit too much for an initial contact and option 1) seems a bit lackluster.

Is this supervisor someone you know/in your department? This makes a  difference in your approach.
If this supervisor is from another school, and you REALLY want to work with them, go see who he has supervised in the past and reach out to them to get a feel for how that professor might respond.

2a. An alternative to this is to call the departments graduate studies unit, convey your interest, and ask them how you might go about talking with a particular professor. Every university tends to have a prospective students section where you'll find an email for your questions to go to.

If you are sending an email, prior to you getting into a bunch of details, it would probably save you some time to ask them if they are considering accepting graduate students for the 20xx-20yy year, and if they say yes, express your interest.
Really make sure that you contact previous students to see how that professor is as a supervisor. This isn't done enough but it is so important to know what you're getting into.


At the beginning of PhD research, how to balance independence with satisfying my advisor's expectations? I am at the beginning of the research portion of my PhD program and as is standard in this department, I am to begin my research by writing a small literature review of some relevant papers in my field, chosen by me and approved by my advisor. This includes replicating and tweaking/improving the experiments ( which boils down to code ) in the chosen papers along with discussion in the results comparing mine to the original papers, etc. Note that this paper is not directly to be published; it is part of my qualifying exam. I am given about a month of time to do this (along with other research related things I must do...).

The problem:

When sitting down to write, I am constantly blocked by the fear that the work I am doing is not quite what my advisor wants. My advisor casts a wider net with his research interests than most professors I have seen, so his students seem to do projects in various areas within engineering. That said, the research summary I am doing is largely on clustering in machine learning, and I fear my advisor has little interest in this topic, or worse.... that I am, in a sense, not doing what I'm supposed to be doing?

If I were doing this very same research or a class, a clustering report in machine learning, I feel I would have no problem at all just working contently and developing my ideas and trying to come up with as interesting an experiment as I could and generally adapting to wherever the project took me and doing what needed to be done to finish it, but the game is changed since I feel I am working on this problem for someone rather than just for myself. Additionally, in my undergraduate research, I was given very straightforward instructions so there was no ability for me to choose papers on my own ( e.g., "Replicate the results in this paper", "Write an abstract mentioning X, Y, and Z" ). The freedom I'm given in this research review experience is somewhat confusing, I suppose.

Is this concern a normal feeling? What do I think/do about it? The reason I ask is that i precisely am afraid to be working on the wrong thing, and I am frozen in my writing and am struggling dearly. It is an incredibly nagging feeling to think that that my report isn't focused correctly. For the purpose of this literature review, should I just follow where the research takes me or should I change the focus of it and just try to please my advisor?

To be clear, my question is of how to balance being independent and satisfying my supervisor?

Is this concern a normal feeling?

YES.

  For the purpose of this literature review, should I just follow where the research takes me or should I change the focus of it and just try to please my advisor?

The correct answer is neither.

Given that this is the beginning of your PhD research, you haven't yet developed much of a collaborative relationship with your advisor. This is the time to start.

Consider your advisor's initial suggestions as you would any advice from someone more experienced than you. (Even if your advisor is not an expert in machine learning, he/she does have more experience than you in developing promising research ideas that are suitable in scope for a qualifying exam - don't underestimate that expertise.)

That means you should definitely start out along the path your advisor set out for you. (Unless you hate it - in which case, go set up a meeting with him RIGHT NOW and tell him your concerns.)

But, that doesn't mean you need to follow his instructions to the letter. If, somewhere along the way, you are inspired to follow up on a particular idea, don't reject it just because it's not exactly what your advisor told you to do. Part of what's expected of you is to come up with ideas of your own.

If you have an idea you'd like to follow up on, do a little bit of work to verify that it's not a complete waste of time, and then bring it to your advisor and ask for his advice. He/she may explain to you why it's not advisable to pursue it (e.g., maybe it's not appropriate in scope), or suggest pursuing it further after your qualifying exam, or maybe your advisor will be as excited about it as you are.

Whatever the end result, make sure to communicate honestly and often with your advisor. Especially at this early stage, it's a good idea to check in now and then with your progress and make sure you're on a path that's heading somewhere good.


Should bad prior work be ignored, or cited and criticised? A high citation rate is desirable in academia.  Citing other work doesn't cost much, so citations are cheap to give but desirable to get.  That brings me to the question:

If a previous article addresses a topic similar to the one I'm writing, is that a sufficient reason to cite it?  Or should the prior article meet a minimum quality to "deserve" a citation?  To put it bluntly: if I'm aware of a prior crappy article, should I ignore it, or cite it and write why it's crap (of course in a more diplomatic way)?

In my field, some articles questioning anthropogenic climate change get quite a lot of citations from colleagues pointing out flaws in their reasoning or statistics...

Note that I'm exclusively talking about peer-reviewed publications.

Negative citations is what you describe. It is something of a fallacy of the system that a paper may get many citations and therefore seems important when it is clearly sub-par and is referenced in a negative connotation.

Seen objectively, one should give credit where it is due. If someone was first to realize something then that is the origin of the idea (in official terms), how good or bad the paper is, is irrelevant. In some cases first discoveries may just be gut feelings and not well-founded.

I sometimes have to bite my lip when I reference some papers because I really do not think they deserve it (because I know the background) but realize there are no two ways about it. You can of course chose not to reference it, as you have the freedom to chose what we cite, but you may end up getting reviews asking you to add it (if it is something key).

In some cases it is possible to provide objective criticism of a paper. The problem is that the shortcomings will have to be clear.


Is it right to be put as the last author although I have done the bulk of the work? I am doing my PhD at a research institute, where we have just finished the draft of a 8-hands long paper to be published as a short book with a major editor. I have done the bulk of the work, i.e. at least 80% of the total. However, my coordinator sent me the draft back with the authors reordered by seniority, and I now figure as the last author although my contribution was the largest. I should mention this would be my first publication. Shall I react?

The order of authors is often problematic and thus I guess this question will be closed as duplicate soon.

Anyway, you should discuss this with your coordinator and ask him why he prefers this order. My colleague is working in a similar area than yours and he is usually the first author, but there might be other reasons in your situation.

Even if you are not able (or not willing to) insist on your preferred order, there are other options to emphasize your contribution. For example you could add an "Authors Contribution" section where you can explain in detail who did which part of the work. Footnotes at the author names are a common alternative (e.g. "* These authors contributed equally as main authors" or "¹ AB developed the model ² CD wrote the manuscript").

This is not only a question of fairness, but there might also be a formal requirement for your PhD or later research positions like "You have to publish two papers as main author." If that is the case, you should ask your supervisor how to address this issue.


Anyone dealt with "KEI Journals"? What about the journal "Quarterly Physics Review"? I received an email from Dr. Naonori Ko wondering if I'd be interested in writing up a review article for a journal called "Quarterly Physics Review". I'm skeptical of new journals, but I also want to support a competitive journal publication market.

Has anyone had any dealing with "KEI Journals" or "Knowledge Enterprises Incorporated" or published in any of their journals (http://www.journals.ke-i.org/)?

KEI Journals was listed as a predatory publisher on the now-defunct Beall's List of Predatory Publishers. Looking at the description, "all disciplines of physics, with a focus on new research" [what research isn't new?] it doesn't seem like this new journal is filling any niche.

Looking at their archives, the journal has published a total of two articles since 2015 (both in 2015). Neither full text appears to be available anywhere. I would run the other way, and quickly.


How good do master's rec letters have to be? I'm going to be out of undergrad working for 2-3 years before I go back to grad school. My end goal is a PhD, but I would do a Master's first because I think I would be able to hack it financially and my research experience is sort of weak. My only concern is being out of school for that long and needing to go back and get letters. Which brings me to my question: do letters for MS programs have to be as good and detailed as those for PhD programs, or is it O.K. for them to be positive but generic if everything else in my file looks good? Assume I want to get into some >40 rank programs. I'm in the US and my field of study is (the neighborhood of) CS/Applied Math.

Unless you want an MS for its own sake, in the US you should probably just apply to a few doctoral programs. Most applicants here hold only a BS/BA degree. Few programs require significant research in that case. It also gives you the opportunity to earn a stipend as a TA to support your studies, including paying for your tuition.
One problem with taking a break and then getting an MS is that you still need to pass comprehensive exams in most programs. The MS may prepare you well for that or not. Starting a doctoral program after a BS leads you through the required advanced courses to enable that. In many such programs you can earn a masters along the way for little effort.
In the US, letters of recommendation are quite important as they give information beyond the formal record, including making it possible for an admissions committee to make a fairly accurate prediction of a candidates likelihood of success. Without good letters, admission is difficult for any graduate degree program, but especially if it is research focused.
The implication is that you should stay in contact with your professors if you need to take a break. Visiting once a year to "catch up" with professors who have worked with you is a good plan. Keep them up to date on what you've been doing and your goal evolution.
Some of the "top 40" programs are State Universities with relatively large programs. Don't restrict your search too narrowly. There is a lot of competition and any of the R1 universities will likely do a good job.


Which is more important when applying to grad school (particularly top grad schools): Research or Letters? While looking around for an answer to this, I have been getting conflicting opinions/answers, so I decided to ask here: Is publishing a great research paper as an undergrad more important than great letters from your professors when applying to grad school?

Another phrasing: If you had only one of these (great research vs. great letters), which scenario would more likely help the graduate application?

Short answer: In practice, letters are more important.

Long answer: Doing great research is great, but if I'm on an admissions committee, how do I know your research is great? I can read your paper, but unless it's close to my area of expertise, it can be hard or at least time-consuming to determine its quality. I probably have too many applicants who wrote a paper to read everyone's paper in detail (depending on how common undergraduate authorship is in my field). And even if I'm convinced the paper is great, how do I know what your contribution to the paper was? (In the fields I'm familiar with, it's very rare for undergrads to author solo papers.) On the other hand, if I have a letter from a faculty member whose word I trust saying that this paper is great and you did most of the hard work (or even that he/she is very impressed with your potential), that's much more useful.


How long should the background section of the literature review be for an engineering thesis? I am writing my M Phil thesis in engineering, on the development of a new process for treating a particular type of wastewater.

In my literature review I have a background section, which describes the nature of the problem to be solved.

Originally I used this section to thoroughly describe the problem my thesis is trying to solve.  For example, I explained the mechanism by which each contaminant effects the environment.  This section was about 3 pages long.

However, I then noticed another thesis that had recently been accepted from my university simply stated "Wastewater from process X is a serious problem" and referenced a review article.

After seeing this I rewrote my background section in a similar style to the above, and got it down to under one page.

I believe the shorter style makes more sense because the problem I am attempting to solve is well known in the literature.  If the reader wishes to know more information they can read one of the many articles describing it.

For now I am planning to go with the shorter style.  Does anyone have any insights as to which style would be better?

Also, if you are wondering why I do not ask my supervisor, it is a long story but this is not possible.

I appreciate anyone's time and thank you in advance.

Style is very discipline, department, and even person specific. So this is really up to your supervisor. We can tell what we think, but when (s)he thinks differently, then it is her or his opinion that counts.


Is taking a year or so off between master's and PhD to self-study or do independent research a common practice in Europe? So from my previous questions and from what I heard, I found out (iirc) that people who apply for a PhD in the US make a personal statement or statement of purpose while those in the UK, and I infer most of Europe, make a PhD proposal.

From what I understand, this involves reading several textbooks or journals (IMHO, there's a lot more reading to be done if one is changing fields).

So, is that what students intending to study in Europe commonly do? How long does this take? I mean, should much of one's PhD proposal research have been done in masteral studies?

While your background (education, skills, experience) should fit for a PhD vacancy, it is generally not necessary to write your own PhD proposal.

Many (most) universities in Europe have a section on their website that lists open PhD vacancies (either on the top level of the university website, or at the individual institutes).
It is best to find a vacancy that fits with your interests and background, and simply apply for it (by sending an application letter + CV).

There are some websites that list open PhD vacancies for multiple universities, e.g.

for the Netherlands: https://www.academictransfer.com/?language=en
internationally: http://www.careeredu.eu/

You can have a look there whether you find any position that suits you.


Is it alright to skip problem solving sessions during coursework? During coursework, there are sessions where a problem set is distributed beforehand and a TA works out the solutions in front of the class in a stipulated session.

Given the student works out the problems himself and is confident of the material being covered, is it alright to skip such sessions? Is this viewed adversely during grading, etc?

Yes, skipping the sessions is not only alright, but is in fact advisable. Will it be viewed adversely during grading, you bet yeah. The key thing to remember is that in grad school grades don't matter. If skipping the session means you can put an extra hour into your research, then that is better time spent.

The way it will affect you in grading is you might lose some participation points and the benefit of the doubt for borderline grades. The instructor may be less inclined to write you a letter of recommendation, but ideally your letter writers will be talking about your research.


What is expected if one wants to visit a research lab as a fresh PhD graduate? I'm planning on visiting a lab during my trip to another country. I'm just getting my PhD, so I'm not a student anymore, and maybe not experienced enough to be a visiting lecture. Visiting students, visiting lecturers or post docs might be welcomed, but I'm not sure for my case.

Is it okay to e-mail to possible labs if people like me can visit the lab(s) for about a month? What is expected in return? Do we have to give a talk, or produce some result? Or is it okay to just learn from them, without directly contributing anything?

Is it okay to e-mail...labs[, after getting a PhD, to ask] if people [I] can visit the lab(s) for about a month?

Yes. Your email should explain what you want and what you'll provide in return.

  What is expected in return? Do [I] have to give a talk, or produce some result?

A contribution should be expected from both sides. That contribution might be in the form of research that both sides conduct together, either side learning something from talks or by teaching, and you might be paid.

  Or is it okay to just learn from them, without directly contributing anything?

No. Any visit has to be mutually beneficial.


Should I include my (unofficial) class rank in my SOP? I'm applying to a top program, and one thing I'm not super confident about is my GPA. It's good (it satisfies the course's requirement) but not stellar. Even my referees probably won't say amazing things about how I ranked in their classes (I got A's in all of them while some classmates of mine got A+'s).

However, because all of my class participates in an exchange program, at the beginning of second year (I am studying in Europe, so our bachelors take three years) a ranking is released including a score (GPA + number of credits) and the university where we'll go on our exchange. I ranked pretty high on that one (top 6%), so I think that including it somewhere in the SOP couldn't hurt.

However, it's not an official class rank (my university doesn't do those), and I'm afraid it would come across as a little desperate (which I absolutely am). What do you think?

In general, I think mentioning unofficial rank is fine. You could simply write:

  Note, though my university doesn't officially publish class ranks, I learned that my 3.6 GPA corresponds to the 94th percentile.

The only trouble is that they might not believe you; it would be better if you could get a professor to mention this fact in their letter.

Your case is a bit different, though. You don't know what your final class rank is (even unofficially); all you know is that two years ago, you were in the 94th percentile of a subset of the students after weighting for the number of credits completed. There is no concise, accurate way to describe this that doesn't appear desperate*, and you wouldn't want to be accused of trying to mislead them. So, I would skip mentioning this altogether.

*Actually, the one way I can think of is maybe you could present it as an award? "I was ranked in the top 6% of applicants and was therefore allowed to study abroad in Jamaica?" If study abroad is a competitive process that you "won", it may be fair to mention this.


How should I go about reading mathematics papers and textbooks as a PhD student It shames me to admit it, but I feel like I still haven’t figured out the right way to efficiently read papers and textbooks. I am a second year PhD student in pure mathematics, and I struggle a lot to balance the need to learn a lot new mathematics with the fact that I have a finite amount of time in which to do it.

I should have asked this question years ago: what is best (i.e. most efficient) way to read papers and textbooks in order to have a working knowledge of the subject?

Maybe I should be more precise.
I am working in both algebraic geometry and homotopy theory (think simplicial presheaves and K-Theory), and I have recently found myself overwhelmed by the amount that I need to learn. In an ideal world I would read background material by doing every exercise in every textbook, and by working carefully through every proof in every paper, but I worry that I just don’t have enough time. On the flip side, I often find myself “reading” mathematics without actually absorbing any working knowledge, so I basically don’t make any direct research progress.

I understand that reading in great volume is still constructive, and I have certainly learnt a lot about how mathematics fits together, but when I actually need to do new mathematics I consistently find myself lost.

To rephrase my question: can anyone offer an advice on their workflow when it comes to learning new mathematics?

Perhaps the way I feel is more or less how everyone feels, and it is confidence and organisation which is the problem. If that is the case, then I ask: can anyone offer advice on how to organise oneself day to day in a PhD to be productive? Moreover, can anyone offer advice on how to break out of a lack of self confidence when it comes to doing research mathematics?

I apologise in advance if this question has been asked many times before, but I haven’t been able to find the right thread. I apologise also if my questions are too multi-pronged, I just feel that they are all to interconnected to be split up.

I'm a second year student too.

I think that one have to study what really needs to know, for instance, if I need the Feit-Thompson Theorem (for some reason) I cite and use, if you need to use the tools and ideas that were used in that long proof, then you read the paper. Now, how to read it, in first instance, keep the central ideas and go deeper if you really need it for your work. There is a lot of mathematics, and nobody can learn everything, even if you only study algebraic geometry (it is a broad field). My tutor says that one will have a lot of years to study and go deep in topics that are of our interest, and in the moment, work hard for getting the PhD (it is not easy, we know it), and publish


(Australia) Conjoint senior lecturer? Do they teach? In Australia, I see many non-university researchers (e.g. CSIRO postdocs) have a title of "conjoint lecturer" from a reputable university.

Do they teach?
Do they receive salary from the university?
What's the point of the title if everybody who is a postdoc in Australia can be a  "lecturer"?

I used to hold a senior position in a Group of Eight university in Australia. At my old university, conjoint appointments ranged from Lecturer (Level B) to Professor (Level E). Conjoint appointments were not allowed at Associate Lecturer (Level A) level.

In return for the appointment, conjoints were expected to fill roles as negotiated by the Head of Department. They were paid a specific rate for their time, but this was NOT a regular salary; they were contractual employees. Some provided lectures or workshops or seminars, others were tutors, yet others supervised students on placement, others were "prestige" conjoints who featured on websites and other marketing material like prized chooks on display.

All conjoints received an email account, library access, facilities access (such as the gym or childcare), and (perhaps most importantly) has some limited parking privileges.

I hope this helps.

*Edited to correct pesky typos.


What services would you recommend to ship belongings to graduate school beforehand? I realize that this question is not exactly pertaining to academia but I couldn't think of anywhere else to ask this.  I fully expect to get several downvotes but please be kind and move my question if needed.

I will be attending Georgia Tech as a graduate student this fall.   Looking ahead at my summer schedule, I would like to ship my belongings  (several pieces of luggage as well as many boxes) to school ahead of  time and have them waiting for me when I get there.  Ideally, I'd like  the school to be able to hold my belongings for 1.5 months (~5-6 weeks)  before I arrive.  Perhaps it is unorthodox but that is the way that my  schedule will work out as I will be visiting some family before I move to Georgia.

I'd like to hear from you what your experiences have been like in  regards to shipping belongings to the school beforehand and if there are  any services that you can recommend.  I called the GATech post office  and housing office but both simply stated that they don't have any  storage space for student belongings and just said to ship my stuff a  day or two before I arrive.  This was obviously unhelpful to me so I  turn to the people here for any advice.

I also Googled around and was wondering if people had used any services like dormroommovers.com or Summer Storage | College Student Storage and Shipping | Collegeboxes.

Thank you for your help.

When I moved coast-to-coast for graduate school, I used

UPS for my personal belongings (e.g., clothes, beddings...etc)
USPS Media Mail for my books and CD's
Southwest Airlines free check-in bags (they allowed up to three pieces back then)

PS: I didn't have any furniture to ship.

If there's stuff you won't need for grad school, send them home until you settle down somewhere with a permanent residence. It'll be cumbersome and costly to haul them around the country.

As for storage, I contacted the department secretary and asked if they could store a few boxes for me (and they kindly agreed). You may also write to fellow grad students in your department and ask if they could receive your boxes for you and store them in their office.

Hope this helps!


Qualitative data but quantitative outcome; what type of research methodology is this? Following are the steps, how I am working on a project:

Qualitative approaches to collect data
Forming criteria from collected data
Mapping criteria to function
Getting a matheimatical function to quantify data
Result in a (quantitative) tabular form.

Is this quantitative research methodology or mixed methods research methodology ?

Well, according to Alan Bryman in his research article Integrating quantitative and qualitative research: how is it done?, this is a theme that is still open to debate. He uses these 5 questions in separating qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches:

  Are the quantitative and qualitative data collected simultaneously or sequentially? (Morgan, 1998; Morse, 1991).
  Which has priority – the quantitative or the qualitative data? (Morgan, 1998; Morse, 1991).
  What is the function of the integration – for example, triangulation, explanation, or exploration? (Creswell, 2003; Creswell
  et al., 2003; Greene et al., 1989).
  At what stage(s) in the research process does multi-strategy research occur? (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 1998). It may be at stages of
  research question formulation, data collection, data analysis, or data
  interpret- ation.
  Is there more than one data strand? (Tashakkori and Teddlie, 2003). With a multi-strand study, there is more than one research method and
  hence source of data. With a mono-strand study, there is one research
  method and hence one source of data. However, whether a mono-strand
  study can genuinely be regarded as a form of mixing methods is
  debatable.

In regards to your question, I would say that if by "criteria" you mean forming hypotheses that you later test with quantitative methods, that would clearly be a mixed-methods approach. If not, you are probably more in a grey area.


Impact of parameters in experimental results of paper I am writing a paper in computer science literature. I have a method that has two main parameters. It turns out that one of these parameters does not have a significant impact on the quality of the results, but it has a big impact on the efficiency of the method. I have a question:

How should I explain this in my experimental results section? Should I draw some plots and show that for different variation of this parameter the result is the same (this seems numb to draw some plots that all overlap) or I should write a paragraph and explain this phenomenon?

Actually, I had a programming part in my masters thesis in which I wanted to show that some parameters do not have significant impact on the results. This is what I did which seems to be a combination of your methods:

I drew a plot with all the parameter remaining the same except one parameter that I want to study on. Even if the variation of the parameter does not show any significant change in the results, it does worth to show the results in a plot. It is not important that all the lines overlap. At least the reader sees that the results are the same. But, in a paragraph or at least one sentence following the graph I would talk about this. You may write that all the plots overlap, because of this and because of that; and talk about why such results happen. Also, in the caption of the plot, write something that directly says something about such insignificance.


Should I include proofs for known theorems in a doctoral thesis in mathematics? In general, in a thesis we recall the theorems of other mathematicians before stating our results published in a scientific journal. My question, is it essential to give the proofs of these theorems (for example these theorems are mentioned in the first chapter  of the thesis) or I will give the outline of the demonstration or only the statements ?

This is something you should discuss with your adviser. It really should depend on the theorems; how important is including their proofs to the understanding of what one has done? Also, how long are their proofs? And how much is your own work using proofs which build off of those theorems? There's no simply response here. You'll see both dissertations and papers where relevant theorems have their proofs included, and others where they are referenced.


Where to ask for more detail of a paper? I'm reading some papers and I think some of them are not clear in some parts or I want to know more in detail in some points to replicate, etc...

Also some papers I also notice (still not sure) some suspicious results or unfair comparison in result section.

Do you know where good websites/forums to ask or discuss about papers in general? (Certainly after I tried other ways like sending email, try to contact them via LinkedIn and so on).

I tried research gate and here but it seems like the researchers are busy with their work and never pay any attention on their accepted paper (I'm in Computer Science major).

(Edited) I mainly expected the help/hint/explanation from other researchers who also share the same research direction/paper on the paper I wanted to learn. (I knew no way the authors know/get notified someone ask/discuss their papers on somewhere on this big Internet)

First, you should always try to find answers on details and your questions on a paper in the references of that paper. It's also easy to overlook the supplementary material of a paper, when available. If your questions/details are very fundamental and basic, it's likely these issues are resolved in those sources, otherwise it's unlikely it would have passed the review process of a good journal.

On average (even on researchgate (imo horrible to search this website)) you will not find many readers interested in a particular article, as not many read an individual article, and the likelihood that you meet at the same time/spot in the WWW is low. If the article has an higher citation count, your chances are better to discuss via googlegroups/stackexchange/boards a paper with other being interested, but also the chances that you missed or misunderstood something reading the paper.

Another option is looking into papers citing the particular paper, via google scholar you can even search only within such papers and using the right keywords.

One imho very unused option is looking into a related thesis to that paper. In depth explanations, technical setups, formulas are often described there in detail and often the thesis is freely available in the www or the server of the university. In Germany all PhD thesis are freely downloadable.

If your confusion and questions are not answered by those methods, you should contact the corresponding author of a paper via the given mail adress. But keep the length ouf your mail short and the questions clear, especially and even if you think some results are "suspicious/unfair". Here you can also ask if a thesis exists that gives more details than the paper. It's only your suspicion and maybe wrong. Rather ask how than why questions, especially under such a suspicion.

Personally, if I ask a corresponding author something I'm missing or not understanding after applying above methods before, it's how they did something (technical measurement, simulation details). Why questions are mostly all resolved by authors, journal editor and reviewers during planning, writing and reviewing a paper. The details of how are quite often missing, due to limited space/interest or to keep an advance. In the latter case, if no other researcher/group can reproduce specific results in a paper (this happens quite often), at some point the authors will/have to reveal some secrets, before being suspected of pseudo-science and I have experienced also several times that results/methods of paper have been doubted directly after presentation in the questions time at conferences by the audience. If you can meet an author of a paper which is important for your research on a conference, take the opportunity, asking someone direct critical questions in a talk or poster presentation will often reveal much faster, if something is made-up or the well thought out.


When does a piece of work on machine learning have enough material to be publishable? I am addressing the research especially the community on machine learning or deep learning.

For someone who is interested on applying machine learning or deep learning on another field. What do you think it's most important for a paper to have enough material to be publishable on a journal? Is it classification accuracy (for classification problems)? or the complexity of the model? I just need to know the criteria for a good machine learning/deep learning paper. Does the highest the results are, the good the paper is ?

Novelty, importance and relevance

The main criteria for publishable research in ML as in pretty much every other field is novelty, importance and relevance.

Is your proposed solution or technique novel, and can you demonstrate that? You'd need to provide an overview of relevant literature and alternative solutions, and show how what you're proposing is new and different (at least slightly) from everything that has ever been published on that topic.

Is your proposed solution or technique important and interesting for others? If there's a bunch of published research on similar problems, you'd need to demonstrate why your paper is either better in some aspect or would be otherwise interesting for all the people working on these other problems; if not, then you'd need to show why that problem is important and why others would care about it - if it's a very unique task for e.g. your employer and noone else, then it's generally publishable if and only if that solution would be interesting and inspiring for people solving similar problems and that there actually are people solving similar problems.

And last but not least, your problem and solution needs to be relevant to the specialty of the venue where you want to publish it. A Nobel-prize worthy chemistry experiment won't (usually) be relevant enough to be published a machine learning conference; and the same applies for narrower niches within ML - certain venues are looking for certain types of papers only and would reject other topics even if the papers are really good.


Publish a paper without supervisor I have done a research project for a vocational masters. During then, there was a major disruption in the teaching department which affected the supervision process. However, I was already having another Masters degree and was in my last stage of a PhD degree program as well. So I planned, conducted, analysed and wrote my research thesis without any supervision. The only supervision I can think of is reading the completed thesis by my supervisor (which was assigned to me in later stage of the project, who  managed to give very minor comments which I feel was not significant at all as I did not have to change things except some paraphrasing and proofreading as I'm not a native English speaker.

Now I'm in the process of publishing a paper from that research and wondering if I can publish it as a single author paper? I normally do not mind to involve my supervisor or any team member who worked with me in a study as long as I believe there was some how a considerable contribution, but in this time, my work is asking me to publish a single author paper as part of the requirement for promotion so there is another reason to push me more critical for whom should be involved. So do you think it is okey based on the above situation to proceed in publishing the work by my own as a single author paper?

Thank you in advance

Yes, you can certainly publish your own work under your own name. There should never be a question about that. You should acknowledge help you got within the paper, of course.

There are sometimes strategic reasons for including a supervisor as a co-author even if they haven't helped, but they fail the academic honesty test at least in minor (and maybe major) ways. But sometimes it helps a paper to get published if it has a well known co-author.

There are also some places in which institutional pressure is placed on students to include other, non participants, as authors. This is also wrong, though done. Sometimes you have to yield to such pressure, just to protect your future prospects.

There are other situations in which it is more appropriate to include the supervisor. For example, if he/she runs a scientific lab that you depend upon to do your work, then the supervisor (and usually many others) get included as authors because of the environment and help that they provide.