As a postdoc, should I spend time learning new subjects or focus on applying what I know? I've just started as postdoctoral researcher at a great institute. I imagine that they expect me to achieve good results and teach some classes.

But honestly, I feel that I still need to learn a lot more on many topics. So, is it a good idea to dedicate a few hours of my day to learn new topics? Or should I focus only on what I already know and on how to apply it in order to obtain more results?

It is a new stage of my life and any tip that may improve me as a researcher is very welcomed.

While "learning new subjects" vs "focus on applying what I know" may sound like a dichotomy at first it really need not to be one: Try to apply the things you know to new problems and learn what you need to learn to do this successfully.

Put differently: Learn new things more focused on the problems you are facing. It is really rare that you encounter a problem that you can solve by just applying what you know. In most cases, the actual problem at hand has some new structure that can be exploited in some way and this usually forces you to read up something new.

On the other hand, it can not hurt if you learn some things that are not totally related to your current research just to broaden you expertise. I do this when I got stuck on my problems and, coincidentally, it happens frequently that I stumble upon just the right thing to help me with my current problem.


Quarantined at home because of COVID19 - how can I do engineering research productively? I started grad school last September, and so far have been primarily busy with courses, but have been trying to do a little research on the side whenever I can. I recently finished all my courses though, and now I'm expected to dive into research.

My advisor hasn't assigned me a project and expects me to come up with one on my own. I don't mind this really, I like the freedom to work on whatever I want. However, this was only really feasible when I was in my lab and surrounded by senior PhD students with whom I could bounce ideas off and get a lot of guidance from.

However, now I'm stuck at home because of the COVID19 lockdown and don't really know how to productively spend my time doing research. My advisor is busy taking care of his family at home because of the lockdown, so he isn't very responsive right now understandably. I'm all alone at home so I don't have the guidance of senior PhD students either. I've tried messaging senior PhD students but it's not fair for me to constantly be harassing them for help...

Apart from heavily guided stuff in undergrad, I have next to no real research experience... Since I assume I'll be stuck at home for the next several months, how can I be productive research wise with basically no guidance or help from anyone? I don't want to just waste the next few months...

FYI, I'm doing research in engineering but everything is done using simulations, so while I have all the tools and equipment I need to do research at home, I just don't have the experience or guidance to efficiently do so.

I've been trying to just read papers in the meantime, but I can only read so many before I get sick of it. I don't want to just be reading papers for 40 hours a week for the next 3 months...

You can try to fill the gaps in your knowledge and skills. For example, learn some techniques that are commonly used in your field. Even if you will not need them for your immediate project, there is a chance that they will be useful for the next one. For example, if you do engineering, you are likely to need to write some code, so you can improve your software engineering skills. Your colleagues may give you some more ideas on what is useful to learn.

If you feel sick of reading papers alone, you might try to reach to other junior students and form a virtual study group where you discuss and critically analyze recently published papers. You may actually come up with some ideas for research project based on the discussions. Good luck!


Graduated but still working on bachelor's project, how to write in CV I graduated my bachelor's recently (have not received the final degree yet, but all the requirements are done and I have a provisional degree). As part of the degree, we are required to do a bachelor's project during the last two semesters. We also have to do courses in parallel, so nobody really expects this bachelor's project to contain work equivalent to a full-blown thesis.
Now, since I still had a few months till I start with my master's, I thought of continuing with the work that I did for my bachelor's project (also partly because I had not been able to fully achieve what I had planned; various reasons but mostly due to lack of time and guidance required for an area in which very less prior work has been done).
I have done a significant amount of work in these few months and want to mention it in my CV. I had written something like this earlier:
Bachelor's Thesis                                    August 2019 - present
<my institution>                                     <my supervisor>

But this will clearly not work now/ will create confusions.
How should I modify it to convey that I am still working on it and a part of what I did was for my bachelor's project?

Bachelor's Thesis                           August 2019 - formal end date
<my institution>                            <my supervisor>

Blah blah blah. I have since built upon my thesis to...


Postdoctoral and Research associate Is there any difference between Postdoctoral fellow and research associate?

This will vary by institution.

Post-doctoral fellow, at least in the US, is almost always a temporary position to bridge between grad school and a faculty position. Some funding agencies (and therefore some universities) require that post-docs received their PhDs within the past 7 years.

Research associate can mean almost anything. At MIT, senior research associates:

  "possess a demonstrated research competence equal to that of a tenured faculty member...Appointments are of indefinite duration and are to be reviewed within every five-year period"

So, a potentially permanent, but untenured research position with qualifications parallel to the tenure track. In other contexts, this can be a temporary position granted at any level.


Tenses in introduction and summary of every chapter I am writing an undergraduate dissertation. I am not quite sure what tenses should I use when introducing a chapter and summarizing it. Should I refer to that chapter in present, future or past tenses. E.g.

Intro:

  This chapter provides information about the research methods used in the project. Before conducting a series of experiments to explore and evaluate machine learning methods, it was needed to decide on how are these algorithms are going to be implemented and evaluated.

Summary:

  In this chapter reasoning behind a chosen programming language and machine learning library used was provided. It was also described how image classifiers that uses machine learning algorithms are going to be built. Finally, methods for evaluating the performance of classification algorithms were discussed and accuracy score was picked as the main method for performance evaluation. In the following chapter, accumulation of a food image dataset is going to be discussed.

Also, if I use an introduction  in one of the chapters of the dissertation, must I also include that heading in all the chapters. Some of the chapters are long so they must have intro, but there are some that are very straightforward, so I am not sure weather it is needed.

Always use the logically correct tense. Present or future for references to later chapters (that's a matter of taste), present for things that will be true at any time in the forseeable future, past for references to past events (e.g. a decision on how to proceed the studies, observation made during your own experiment, summary, where you recount what you did prove twenty pages ago).


Should I bring materials for teaching demonstration? For a teaching demonstration for an academic job interview (in mathematics, if that matters), should I bring worksheets to my interview, and hand them out to my "students?"

My teaching demonstration will be in front of a search committee rather than an actual class of students.  I wanted to demonstrate what I actually do with real students, which is hand out worksheets to them at the start of class. I was wondering if it will be appropriate to print these out and bring them to my interview and hand them out like I usually would to a real class.

How can you demonstrate your teaching without your teaching materials? I believe that you should for the duration of the teaching demonstration treat the search committee as if they are students. I doubt this would be condescending to the committee because they asked you to teach to them rather than actual students.

Off course the committee will not actually do the assignment but it will give them a chance to see what you do as a teacher as well as the quality of your materials. It also allows them to see the interaction between the materials and your teaching.

If you are really nervous, just ask them before the demo if they actually want the materials. If they say no you wasted a few bucks on photocopies. If they say yes you were ready and thoroughly prepared.


Is it possible to be paid by a company for research and also use this research towards a Ph.D.? The question in this link makes the assumption that the work you do at a private company and the work you do at a university for a Ph.D. do not intersect (or have very little in common), thus the person asks if "it is too much work or stress" to do both.  This question (and its answer) got me to think of another related question.

My Question: I'm wondering if the research you do for a private company can be used towards a Ph.D.? For example, suppose I work for a private company X and I have been accepted into the Ph.D. program at university Y.

Is it possible to be paid by company X for your research work, but at the same time use that research work to publish a paper along with your advisor at university Y?

I think I already know the answer to the question: It's possibly only if your advisor at university Y and your supervisor at company X have a strong relationship of many years and trust each other.

But I'm wondering if there are other answers?

Some background information about me: I have 10+ years of software engineering experience. I have a two B.S. degrees (Computer Engineering and Mathematics), one M.S. degree (Software Engineering), and a 2nd M.S. on the way in 2020 (Electrical Engineering).  My plan is indeed to pursue a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering in 2020.

Yes, you can do this, but use caution. There are situations in which you can do research at a company but be prohibited from writing about it or using it outside the company. Contracts rule in this area.

There are other situations in which you can do such research and have the university involved so that you can use the research to obtain a degree, but your dissertation disappears into the void and you can't publish anything, again for contractual reasons.

If the work you do can be patented, there may be additional restrictions on who owns the patents (likely not you) and who can benefit from it (possibly you, but not necessarily).

Other places there are no issues.

So, before you contemplate doing this, just be aware of any restrictions on your results and what you can do with them after your relationships to both company and university end.

And, if you have a contractual obligation, be sure to honor it as companies can be ruthless if you expose proprietary work or trade secrets.


Should I be worried that I don't have ideas of questions to ask during seminars? I'm a PhD student in Physics and I'm very worried about something. I have participated in two conferences in the last year. The first one was in a field related to the one I'm studying and the second exactly related to the field I'm studying.
In these two conferences something got me very worried. I've watched the seminars and during the seminars I didn't have any idea of questions to ask. On the other hand I saw people raising all sorts of interesting questions that led to all sorts of interesting discussions.
This got me extremely worried because (1) I think that asking the right questions is the most important thing in order to do a good research and (2) asking questions and starting discussions seems like the way collaborations get started and certainly having people to collaborate with is very important.
After going through this in the first conference, in the second I've watched the lectures trying hard to find things to ask, but I only got ideas of some things that I felt could be so stupid that people could look at me as someone who isn't really good at the subject.
Now the main worry I have is: having ideas of questions to ask during seminars like that is something that comes with experience (and therefore all this is just reflecting the fact that I'm inexperienced) or is it some sort of ability that either we have or we don't? This is being quite alarming to me, because I fear that this might tell that perhaps I just have no ability to do research, which would be terrible to me since I really do want to follow this career.
Finally, a disclaimer. I know some people might say "talk to your advisor about this", but I really never had conversations about the process of doing research with him. In fact the way he works is more like "calculate this, then we talk about the calculation" and he really does not have much patience to talk about much else, so that I don't really feel comfortable bringing this up.

A conference sessions might have 50 people in it (at least in the conferences I go to), and yet there will only be 3 or 4 questions on each talk, even if five people have questions for every 1 that has the guts to put their hand up and ask it that most people don't have questions for most talks. You might also notice that its the same people that ask questions about every talk.
I wouldn't worry about it, especially if you are just a PhD student. One thing I would say is that questions should be asked from a position of ignorance - that is you ask a question because you genuinely don't know the answer and want to. Not because you think you can trip the speaker up, or make yourself look clever, so questions that you think will make you look dumb might be the best questions.


Can an online degree through an accredited institution affect admissions into masters programs abroad? I'm currently attending an accredited university which provides an online BSc CIS program.  Is an online degree considered lowly in compared to a traditional education, and can it affect admissions into masters programs offered abroad?

If you are seeking a BS degree from a United States accredited university through an online program, and wish to enter a Masters program with another U.S. accredited university, it should not be an issue on its own merits.

However, research universities may take a second look at your application if the online-achieved BS degree is not from another research institution.
To ensure your acceptance to such a Masters program, you will want to achieve a higher grade point average than expected. It would also help if you publish any articles during you progress towards the BS.

Other non-research institutions in this scenario should not have an issue accepting you with your online-achieved BS degree, so long as you clearly demonstrate in your application you meet all their requirements for admission.

Now, even with that said, non-research universities may even accept you even if you have defficiency in required undergrad coursework. In this case, a little real-world job experience as little as 1 year can help assure them you can do the work.

In all cases, don't underestimate the application letter you submit. I would make sure it communicates you have a goal in your education and career after the Masters. And it should demonstrate you are capable to meet their requirements, and to succeed in their program. That is ultimately what they are looking for.


IEEE referencing : Acceptable reference format for personal work log I’m writing an academic document and I can’t seem to find any specific mention of how to refer to a personal work log. Work logs are essentially to be published journals documenting what happened when in a computing project (but not published in an official journal).

The closest thing according to IEEE referencing style guide from the University of York is possibly a weblog. What is the best citation type for such a work log?

If it's not published anywhere, be it in a peer-reviewed journal, conference proceedings, some book or whitepaper, then don't put it as a reference.

You could write,

  According to our work log, we first frobnicated the machine, …

The idea of including references is for interested readers to follow up on them. If it's some internal document nobody will ever see, then it does not qualify as a reference. It also makes it impossible for peer review to happen: you could claim anything and back it up with a reference to your internal document—and nobody could ever (dis)prove it.

The APA blog has an entry on that subject (emphasis mine):

  Likewise, if you have other nonretrievable sources (personal communications, like personal e-mail and phone calls), these do not get reference list entries either (although they do receive in-text citations, because they involve other people than just yourself).


Do policy papers count as research papers in a cv? In the fields of International Studies or Politcal Science is very common to read and write policy papers, or analysis, rather than research papers. Do they have the same weight in a cv? Are research papers considered more relevant and serious than policy papers?

Most policy journals are not peer reviewed in the same way that research papers are, but many people will put them in their "Publications" section of their CV nonetheless, so long as they are on a research topic. Furthermore, the length of the article and the reputation of the outlet matter a great deal. The more widely read and highly respected the outlet, the better. Also if it is long-form, 3k words or more, that is closer to a research paper.

The gold standard for high-quality policy papers are Foreign Affairs and Congressional Quarterly. Most departments would consider publications in those outlets similar to a research paper,and you are going to have to put in nearly as much research, to get a hit there too.

The best way to tell if it is as good as a research article is to see if well-respected Associate Professors in your sub-field are publishing in that outlet. Full Professors can publish wherever they want, and Asst. Professors may not be able to get it in that outlet. Associate professors don't want to squander their reputation, which they by then have.

A general rule of thumb:

FA, CQ - As good as Research Articles in most cases

Regionally or topically focused outlets like The Diplomat or Army Magazine - Only as good as a research paper if you are regionally specialized, otherwise see below

2nd Tier Policy outlets (Atlantic, Foreign Policy) - As good as research at lower ranked institions, but probably not at a top 20+ institution.

Think Tank Pieces (Including RAND's journal) - Great, if you are looking for a policy job, or at a policy school, otherwise, see below.

Niche Policy outlets (National Review, Mother Jones) - Most schools will not think too highly of these, but still not nothing. Grad students with this on their CV might not have a hard time with it, but unless it is really on your research topic, faculty should steer clear.

Opinion pieces (newspapers, public magazines, blogs) - Anything that is less than 2k words probably goes here, by the way, as is just about anything published online only. Do not put these on your CV, unless in an Op-Ed section, or you are desperate and want people to know you are desperate

As with everything there are exceptions. Articles that are excellent summaries of your work or are very closely tied to your research may be worth including at your discretion.


How to write an abstract for a summary paper based on a longer paper? I wrote a 50-page report that has an abstract. Now I have to write a shorter paper on the same topic that summarizes the report.

The challenge is that the most logical thing to do would be to simply use the same abstract for both papers.

However, it seems to be an unwritten rule that abstracts should not be reused. (I am wrong?)

Alternatively, I could write a new abstract from scratch, ignoring the old abstract.

What would be the best course of action in this case?

First, write a new one without looking at the old one.  Then, compare the two and see if you missed anything.


How to politely reject a professor's request for work that I was recommended for? A very high profile Prof. A recommended me to another high profile Prof. B to do some work for him.  While normally as a graduate I should be very thankful and jump on this, I simply cannot do the work asked due to time and I also believe there would be a more suitable candidate for the work.  Prof A's recommendations hold very high weight in the field I work in (his previous recommendation got me a job as an undergraduate).  I feel that Prof A may have misunderstood my skills (he confused Java programming with Java web programming essentially).  Prof A knows me somewhat well (I work for him currently), so perhaps this is why he recommended me.

How do I turn down Prof B's request in a polite manner without losing any face to myself or Prof A?  In my response, should I also forward candidates whom I think would be able to do the work (e.g. cc them in the email)?

"While normally as a graduate I should be very thankful and jump on this, I simply cannot do the work asked due to time and I believe there would be a more suitable candidate for the work."

That is more or less exactly what you should say. Express your gratitude to Professor A. If you have a major academic obligation taking up your time, like comprehensive exams or something, mention that. Do NOT CC the candidates you have in mind, but do mention to Professor B that you can recommend someone else who you think would be a good fit.


Will it be difficult to get a PhD position if the economy enters into a recession? Due to the outbreak of Covid-19, it is possible that the economy will enter a recession. As more people will want to get into grad school, will it be more difficult to get a Ph.D. position?

An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education suggests that the overall enrollment picture for undergraduate education was only mildly effected by the 2008 recession.

However, many of those students chose community colleges rather than traditional four year colleges. This might suggest a downward pressure on doctoral admissions as there might be a lesser need for TAs in such a situation. This might affect admissions in such fields as mathematics that depend heavily on TAs for undergraduate teaching and teaching support.

Of course there is more to the picture. Research needs go on and it might matter more whether governments (the NSF, say) can maintain funding for doctoral students. If a recession is mild or short lived, expect small effects, though more negative than positive. But it also depends on the attitude of those in congress who provide the funding levels for such things.

Moreover, if there are fewer positions open for doctoral education, and more applicants, the competition might increase and it might be harder for any given individual to find a slot. Unfunded slots are probably easier to come by, of course, since the student helps fund the education to a greater degree than one who is grant or university funded.

But in this case there are effects beyond the economic ones. In a pandemic it is hard to predict what might come. Some pandemics (bubonic plague and the arrival of Europeans in the Americas) have been devastating.

Finally, the outlook for graduates of doctoral programs might be clouded in such a complex situation. But, the economy is cyclic in any case and some of us graduated into terrible academic economy conditions and others not. It is hard to predict what will happen over a five to seven year period.

Your own field is probably a good one to be in, since many trends seem to imply an increase in the need for non-fossil energy production and storage. And in general, the effects can vary tremendously by field.

But competent government helps.

But all of the above is crystal ball gazing with not a lot of hard evidence. A deeper plunge into the question will likely reveal some research on the topic. But with the caveat that things that seem the same might be quite different. There are a lot of variables.


Should I explain to the graduate admission committee why I am older than most prospective PhD students? Firstly, I know that there are plenty of questions here like this one but hopefully this is not a duplicate.

I was born and grown up in Iran and belong to a religious minority (Bahai faith). As you know Bahais are not allowed to attend universities in Iran because of their faith. I was no exception and so could not study at university because of my religious beliefs. Between the age of 18 (when I finished my highschool in Iran) and 24, I worked as a construction laborer. At the age of 24, I together with my family (my parents and sister) travelled to Turkey and became refugees in UNHCR  and two years later UNHCR sent us to Australia. I studied English for two years and after that I repeated year 11 and 12 because Australian universities did not accept my Iranian qualifications. At age 30, I started my undergraduate studies in Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and I will graduate very soon. I am now 35 years of age and would like to apply to be a PhD student in the first 5 or 10 top engineering schools in the world. I have maintained a GPA of 6.9, a WAM of 93 and was on Dean's merit list every year except the first year of my undergraduate studies. There is a possibility that I also get university medal but that is not certain yet.

Should I explain these details to the graduate admission committee explaining why I started my undergraduate studies very late at the age of 30? and what I was doing before that?

Such information would be relevant. The real trick would be to keep such a paragraph short and to the point. As such the question would be a good draft of such a section. I have two comments:

I would not start the second sentence with "as you know". If a committee member did not know, you make her or him feel ignorant. It is good to avoid invoking negative emotions in such a letter. Especially since leaving that part out does not change the meaning of the sentence.

It was not clear from the text whether it was the Bahai faith that prohibited it's members from going to university or whether it was the Iranian government that prohibited people with the Bahai religion to enter university.


Answering "Why are you applying to our university?"-type question in the statement of purpose When applying to Masters programs, most institutions ask a "Why are you applying to our university?"-type question to be answered in the statement of purpose.

Let's assume that one applicant is really interested in one institution because it seems to have a great program (from the educational point of view), amazing structures and research centers, one specific research group made of a few strong professors with fascinating interests which are compatible with the ones of the applicant (although not perfectly the same), prestige, and also a nice location.

  In such a situation, what points should one keep in mind when
  answering "Why are you applying to our university?"?

Indeed, many words of praise of the institution and the faculty -- although well-deserved -- might be seen (in my opinion) by some either as "just flatteries" in some sense or as "superfluous obviousness".

  So what is actually expected from this question? And what is its main purpose?

For instance, is it actually  mostly a way to see if the applicant's research interests overlap with those of the faculty?

We want to know a) if you did your homework about us, much as you would for a job opportunity, and b) if you actually are a decent fit with our departmental culture as well as our academic specialties.

Not doing even the most cursory of homework (reading our website, looking at our faculty expertise, checking out a student group or two) suggests you just aren't that interested in us -- either you're flailing or you're spraying applications everywhere in sight. Neither of those suggests you will do particularly well here.

The academic matching isn't quite as critical for us (though this will vary quite a lot from department to department). In our discipline, it's quite common for learners to change niches during the program, and that's fine. We're mostly concerned about a severe mismatch, that is, you are strongly interested in something we have little or no strength in.

As for how much to say, this is where an admissions essay differs from a job cover letter. The essay is actually about you, not us! You can express sufficient and suitable interest in us in a sentence or two: "I look forward to studying X with Professor Y, who writes so well about Z" or "I appreciate your strong commitment to Q, a commitment I share and hope to expand upon" will do fine.

I'd lay off the "nice location" if I were you; it comes across as backhanded negging, as though the location were the only thing we have going for us. I won't say this would eliminate you from consideration (where I am, we really do have location going for us!), but it would raise a possibly-offended eyebrow or two. If, however, "nice location" means facilities the department has some control over or works hard to fund and maintain (such as excellent lab space or over-and-above digital capacity), that's fine to mention.


How long should it take a potential PhD supervisor to evaluate proposal? I've contacted a potential PhD supervisor last month and gave him my PhD proposal. about a week after that I've got a response from the professor, acknowledging the receipt of my proposal and saying that he will respond as quickly as possible. I haven't received any other response since last month and I'm getting kind of anxious.

Should I write him an email again or let him contact me first with a
reply?
How long does this process of proposal evaluation take?

Many academics are flooded with email from students (undergraduate and graduate), administrators, coworkers, colleagues, editors, etc.  What you've asked him to do for you takes more than two minutes and he may not have available time to do it, or the energy to set aside the available time in the near future.  There are enough small things to deal with that they can can easily bury the larger things.

If one method of communication is not effective you can, after a suitable delay, try another.  A phone call or visit to office hours might bump your earlier email to the top of his mind.  He may already have some preliminary feedback, or he may apologetically say that he still hasn't gotten to it, but he does plan to do it soon.  Either way this can move the process towards resolution.

On the other hand, you're considering this person for one of the most important roles of your academic career.  If he does not show enthusiasm about working with you, you may want to consider other options.


Is it proper to ask an editor for clarification In a recent review of a paper, the reviewer suggests several solutions to a flaw, one of which was collecting more data. The other solution was to shorten the paper substantially. The editor said that the revisions needed before acceptance were between minor and major revisions. In my mind, collecting additional data is a major revision. The editor has not indicated any specific steps he would like taken. Is it acceptable to contact the editor to discuss exactly what he wants done before the paper can be published? For example, can I ask if he wants more data collected? Or if there he wants the paper shortened?

There is certainly no problem contacting an editor to enquire about a manuscript and review responses. It is difficult to assess the issue in your particular case but I do agree that adding new data can be a significant endeavour indeed. Shorting the paper may be a relevant point in any case but I do not see, in general how, shortening a paper would improve any lack of data although it may be obvious in the individual case.

So, if you feel the advise you have received is difficult to follow or is unclear (and that seems to be the primary point), then asking for a clarification is in place. You can be constructive and also suggest some plan of action for the parts you see more clearly and then focus on the ambiguous parts in your request to the editor.


Is it ethical to share a controversial reason for declining to review with other editors/journals? This question is a follow up to How to handle a paper by a reviewer who wants to be paid? Most actions by a reviewer are logged in the editorial management system, such as:

Whenever a reviewer agrees or declines to review
Reasons for declining (if given)
The text of the review itself
The date of submission of the review, which allows one to work out whether the review was early or late.

This information is visible to other editors of the journal. Depending on settings, it can also be visible to editors of other journals who are sharing the reviewer pool. Quite often, other editors are appreciative of this data, for example the following things are all things an editor would want to know before inviting a reviewer:

If the reviewer says "I can't review this paper because my research interests have changed".
If the reviewer says "I can't review this paper because I'm busy until [this date]".
If the reviewer has an ongoing review.
If the reviewer has reviewed five papers in the last five months.
If the reviewer says "This paper is acceptable, but you should cite these papers written by me". The review itself might not be visible, but the editor can leave a note on the reviewer's profile that this happened as a warning to the next editor.

For the first two points, the reviewer is likely to appreciate editors sharing the data, since it saves his time. #3 and #4 helps editors not overload a reviewer, #5 helps get a constructive review.

In this case the reviewer left a controversial reason to decline to review, and I'm wondering if it's ethical to share it, especially with other journals. If I share it, then who knows how far it'll spread, and other journals might wind up dealing with the same issue as in the linked question. It could give others negative impressions of the reviewer (c.f. Fortnite's answer), even though the reviewer might have expected them not be aware of the decline reason.

On the other hand I can't tell the scope of the reviewer's intention. It's possible he only wants to be paid to review for this journal or publisher. It's possible he wants to be paid to review for all subscription journals (this wouldn't make sense, but not mine to reason why). It's possible he's declining for all journals. If any of these are true, then the other journals will want to know, so they can save time. It could even be that he would rather we broadcast his decline reason so he can inspire other reviewers to follow his example.

Some of the things I can do are:

Delete his reviewer profile, leaving only a note not to invite this reviewer again.
Keep the decline reason, but for editors of this journal only. No other journal will learn about this (via the system at least - they still might via word of mouth, or e.g. if the same person is an editor for two different journals).
Do nothing, and if another editor/journal discovers it, let them figure out what to do.

I think that the journal needs a written policy on what they retain and it should be visible and obvious to all, especially all reviewers. A request to review can/should point to the policy.

Then there should be no issue at all here. If a reviewer wants to make a statement about why they refuse they know beforehand whether it will be public or not.

If an editor gets a reason that they think should be handled differently (outside the policy), then it can be negotiated with the reviewer. In an extreme case, the review, itself, could be rejected. But a notice of "outside the policy handling" is part of the stated policy as well.

If you make it clear and flexible there won't be an ethical issue.


How to make a 40-minutes presentation about a research paper I've read? I have to give a 40-minute presentation about a research paper that I have to read in mathematics.

What I’ve done so far:

read the paper :-) and taken notes on unclear/non-obvious parts.
started crafting a presentation. However I’ve caught myself on putting too many definitions in the presentation.

How should I proceed?

The most common mistake I observe in the presentation of mathematical work is for the presenter to try to cram in too many definitions, equations, derivations, etc., and then rush over them to try to make their talk fit into the allocated time.  Occasionally a misguided student will also decide that it is impressive to show off vast tracts of complicated algebra.  This often makes it difficult/impossible for the audience to follow, even when the audience consists of mathematically-literate professionals (e.g., professors in the faculty).  This error is ubiquitous among students, even at graduate level.

The general problem that occurs here is that students fail to simplify their presentation to a level that allows it to be presented clearly, and they also massively underestimate the amount of time required to explain a single equation/result.  As some general rules for a mathematical presentation, I would suggest the following dos and don'ts:

DO put the problem in context: Put this problem within the context of the broader subject.  Use the literature review in the paper to get an idea of where this work fits in, and what it is adding.  Give a clear statement of what this paper adds, and its limitations.  If it is a small part of working towards a larger theoretical goal, explain the larger goal, and explain how this paper adds to it.  If you found the paper particularly interesting, say why.
DO simplify the problem, then simplify it again, then simplify it again: You should present the problem in your research paper in its most fundamental simplest form.  Minimise the number of variables you are dealing with and minimise notation.  (It is generally best to be consistent with the notation in the paper, but you can still minimise this.)  Present the problem clearly, with a small number of mathematical statements and lots of intuitive explanation.  You do not have to present every equation describing the problem/model used in the paper.  Make professional judgements about which parts need to be shown as mathematical statements, and which parts can be described in general terms without mathematical equations, and which parts are side issues/distractions that you will ignore.
DO obey the crow epistemology - people can remember three things: Do not burden your audience with remembering lots of variables outside the context of their equations.  Pick no more than three important variables in your problem and drum their meaning in with repetition.  Assume your audience will forget the meaning of every other variable.  Definitions should generally be on the same slides as the first statements they appear in, so people don't have to remember them.  I like to give equations with arrows pointing to the variables with their meanings, and I back this up by talking about each of them, and giving reminders.  Some people like to colour-code variables, or use other memory aids to help.
DO allocate enough time - Presenting unfamiliar mathematical statements = 5+ min: If you present a mathematical statement that is not common knowledge to your audience you must stop, and patiently explain the statement, including the meaning of each variable in the statement.  Give an overview of what the statement is saying and what each of the variables is.  You must do this slowly, possibly with repetition to stress key points, and you must give your audience time to "mull" over it, before you proceed.  For every statement like this you have in your presentation, allocate at least five minutes to talk about it; don't rush.
DO allocate enough time - Presenting familiar mathematical statements = 1-2 min: If you present a mathematical statement that is common knowledge to your audience, you will still need to stop, identify the statement, and explain the meaning of each variable in the statement.  If it is a standard statement with variables in standard notation you can probably do this pretty quickly, but you should still allocate at least a full minute to describing it.
DO show graphs (if relevant) and explain them clearly: If the paper presents some of its results graphically, this is usually the simplest tool for presenting the results in a simple manner, that can be absorbed by the audience.  Use your judgment here, but as a general rule, graphs are good.  Again, you must stop, and patiently explain the graph, the axes, the lines, etc.  Explain the intuition of what the audience is seeing.  Tell them why this line goes this way and this other line goes that way.
DO leave time for interjections/questions: Make sure you have left enough time at the end for a reasonable amount of questions.  You may also get some interjections as you go through your presentation, so make a time allowance for that too.

DON'T show a long list of definitions: Under no circumstances should you present a notational slide with a long list of definitions.  If you have a slide like this in your presentation, I am not bothering to read it.  Instead I am watching "Heat" in my head and wishing I could get out of watching such a shitty presentation.
DON'T show a wall of algebra: We get it - you're very clever and you can do algebra.  Unless the derivation of a particular equation is the whole point of the paper you're presenting, we don't want to see that shit - get rid of it.  If you have a slide like this in your presentation, I am not bothering to read it.  Again, I am watching "Heat" in my head and wishing I could get out of watching such a shitty presentation.  Instead of bombarding me with a wall of algebra (which you don't have time to explain), explain the methods and the results (e.g., "To get to the next part, we need to complete the square in this exponential and then use the law of total probability to simplify.  After you do that, you get this next result").
DON'T be a flasher: Whoa!  What was that slide you skipped through in two seconds?  It was your list of references?  If you're not going to take me through it, why flash it up there at all?

I hope some of this is helpful to you.  As a general rule, the quality of student mathematical presentations is so woefully bad that you have a low bar to reach.  If you're the guy people can understand, and you are not rushing them and throwing walls of algebra at them, you will emerge as champion.


Distinctions between programs, departments, and institutes I am applying to tenure track jobs at high research activity universities in the United State. Wading through open positions, I've become increasingly confused about what is the meaningful distinction between "programs", "institutes", and "departments". I understand faculty are organized into departments, and may participate in multiple institutes or graduate/undergraduate programs. However, for the particular position I am considering, the position is being offered by a particular program, and time is said to be split between the program (0.6FTE) and the appropriate academic department (0.4FTE).

My question is broad. What are the meaningful distinctions between programs, institutes, and departments within a research university?

Program is a plan of either tutor-based or research-based application, is which often designed for undergraduate or graduate studies and either instructed or supervised by faculty members.

Department is a division of the university, is which colony of the group of faculty members with the expertise in the specific area of the colony. The programs are often presented by departments.

Institute is a specialized division of a department, has which been established with a group of affiliated faculty members of the host society. Institutes generally conduct the research in highly-specific fields of science and technology and a plethora of graduate research stuffs would be pursued in such organizations.


What is the common dates to apply and then start a PhD in western Europe? I am currently looking for a PhD in computer science for the fall in France, Germany and Switzerland. Although I still find some offers, I think applying in June is quite late.

What are the common periods to apply for a PhD in those countries and in which month do people usually start their PhD? Is it common to start it at the beginning of the summer semester?

In most german institutions (and in Switzerland also I think) the PhD studies are completely independent of the semesters. New openings depend on when funding becomes available and you will mainly be an employee of the university, not a student.


Asking a question in SE might be considered a breach of anonymity? I find the SE sites, especially Math.SE, MathOverflow and CompSci.SE, extremely useful for solving specific problems I encounter during my research. But I have one concern: if I ask a question in an SE site, and then describe the same question in a paper (whether I got an answer or not), then this might be considered a breach of the anonimity requirement, because, one of the reviewers might be a member in one of these sites, see my question and know that I am an author of that paper.

Is it possible that my paper will be rejected because some parts of it were published as questions on the web?

I think there's two parts to the question, one about anonymity, one about content.

In terms of anonymity, it's unlikely that your paper would be rejected, at least in my field (which is not math/CS). While papers are submitted anonymously, in reality, reviewers sometimes have a good idea of who the author is. A reviewer can recognize the submission's subject area and approach from other work you've published/presented, or be tipped off by little things like the citation of an unpublished thesis (which likely only the author would know about). If reviewers think they know the author, and there's a conflict of interest, they contact the editor; if they don't see a conflict of interest that would bias them toward or against who they think is the author, they just review it. That's been my experience at least.

In terms of content, it's a bit dicier. I know this isn't something you're asking about, but I figured I'd address it for completeness sake. I assume that you're referring to questions that are fairly small, narrow, and specific, and whose answers don't make up the core of your paper. If so, no problem. But an editor or reviewers might take issue with you using answers you get here as your own, especially if they're central to your argument. You probably know that already, and I've never seen it occur in any blind review I've done, but I feel better including this caveat in my answer to your main question.


How long should a brief CV for a call for papers be? I have seen in some call for papers for conferences request a brief CV together with an abstract.

Most call for papers I've seen in the Humanities (my field is history) usually look for a 250-300 word abstract.

Slightly a side note, but when a PhD student or Early Career researcher submitting that may not have much to put in a CV, is there a different format for a "brief CV" or not?

I am wondering what is expected in the "brief CV" requested and how long it is expected to be?

If it is more than a page it is too long. As for what should be there, say something about your education, current employment and some of your publications. It isn't necessary to be comprehensive but include things that are most relevant to the conference and to the paper you are submitting.

That is probably about enough, but if it seems too short, include honors, etc. if you like.

All the committee is looking for at this point is that you are qualified to say what you want to say in the resulting paper. Focus on that above all.


Identifying a bad advisor (before applying) Earlier this year, I contacted this Professor (Applied Math) from a top Canadian university and we talked twice this year. He earned his PhD from an Ivy League school and must be around 60 years old. He seems to be a really nice guy, happy to have me as his student, and the university is in a city that I like a lot. However, there is something that concerns me.
He has only had four students over more than 20 years. Three of them stayed in academia in American universities, but only one of them (the youngest) is actively engaged in research in a tier 3 university (the other two are lecturers in tier 2 universities). His other student got a post-doc in a top university in the US, but returned to his home country afterwards (a developing one).
Are my concerns justified?

There is probably no issue here and the careers of his students are determined primarily by their actions, not his. It might be a function of the popularity of the subfield in which they work.
But if the professor is listed in the Mathematics Genealogy Project you can find the titles of the dissertations of the students and check for yourself whether their work was significant as students. You can also find out whether they "produced" any mathematical heirs.


What is the name of the interviewing/research technique where one sample generates questions for the next? I'm aware of imagining there is a technique in qualitative research where responses made in one interview are explicitly used to provide prompts/new questions in subsequent interviews.
Does this have a name? It's a bit like snowball sampling, except to identify new questions rather than new samples.

It sounds like grounded theory:

A study based on grounded theory is likely to begin with a question, or even just with the collection of qualitative data. As researchers review the data collected, ideas or concepts become apparent to the researchers. These ideas/concepts are said to "emerge" from the data.

Data are collected so as to let concepts emerge, and these emerging concepts are then used in the further collection of data. The concepts that emerge thus 'update' or 'feed back' into the next step in the empirical approach.


How to know if these congresses (i.e. organized by ISCA) are good? One of my colleages has published a couple of papers in the CS congresses organized by:
http://www.isca-hq.org/

For what I saw that the papers that got accepted in their conferences, are indexed in DBLP and INSPEC. Actually I would like to submit one paper in the conferences that they organized, but I am a little dubious about it. My main concern is to know if it would be a good idea to submit to that conference.

Could anybody give me his straight opinion about those congresses that they organized? do they seem good enough?

thanks

Consulting the Australian Computer Science Conference Ranking reveals that one of their conferences, CATA, is ranked C. I did not check any others.

Indicators   that the conferences are not good include:

The conference is extremely broad. CATA covers topics including Algorithms, Programming Languages, and Multimedia.
The conference is in an exotic location (e.g. Hawaii).
People involved in the conference are not the leaders in their field.
Conference is not well established.
Conference does not appear in the Conference Ranking list, even though it has been around for a long time.

Note that conferences satisfying some or all of these criteria are not necessarily poorly ranked.


Is it good idea to put a slide about "National Teacher Appreciation Day" at the end of presentation slides at my masters defense? Tomorrow I have my master's project defense. So, I will be presenting and defending on my project "Course Advising System".

I just noticed that tomorrow is a National Teacher Appreciation Day. Is it a good idea to put one slide after "Questions and Comments" section in the presentation?

I want to put this slide but I don't want to ruin anything either.

I doubt that you showing or not showing the slide will make much of a difference one way or the other, but as a general rule, if I were one of the professors at your defense, I would not expect or want you to say or display anything that makes it seem like you are trying to ingratiate yourself with me in any way other than by performing well and conducting yourself professionally. I don't need to be thanked profusely, and don't need to be "appreciated" in any special way for doing my job.

Moreover, if you think about it, the reason something like National Teacher Appreciation Day was conceived is probably because in many countries being a schoolteacher is a very ungrateful, poorly appreciated job. For example in the U.S., teachers get paid very little, are commensurately not respected by much of society, and sometimes are outright hated by certain people for purely political reasons. All of this does not apply to university professors, who are generally treated quite well and held in pretty high regard by most people, and consequently aren't in great need for a "professor appreciation day".


Do UK universities have a special obligation to advertise jobs externally? I often hear it said that all jobs have to be advertised externally before anyone can be appointed to an academic post in a UK university. However, this rule about having to advertise externally is certainly not true in general in industry where the only obligation one might have to avoid discrimination claims is to advertise the job internally.

Is there a special obligation on a UK university through some public sector regulations, maybe, to advertise all jobs externally?  I'm asking about UK universities in particular.

I think you are misunderstanding how academic job searches work in the UK. All jobs, and I believe this is not specific to universities, must be advertised internally first to individuals in the "redundancy pool". If, and only if, there is no one in the redundancy pool that can meet the minimum requirements with 6 months of training can the job be advertised externally. The redundency pool is available to people, I think, from 3 months before their contract ends until 3 months afterwards.

Current employees not in the redundancy pool, can get prompted within the same job family without having to advertise the job at all. At my university there is no system for moves, lateral or upwards, across job families. That said, if you really want someone, you can regrade and reclassify them.


Did Cambridge award LLB? Please see the titled question.  Like Oxford's, Cambridge's undergraduate and first law degree  is a BA, not LLB. But SCC Justice Ian Binnie exhibits

  University of Cambridge (1962) LLB

Andrew Lewis and HK barrister Cheng Huan do too.

  He holds an LL.B. degree from Trinity Hall, Cambridge where he also completed a thesis on the legal aspects of boundary disputes between China and the Soviet Union.

Is this a typo?

The Cambridge LLB was a Master's level qualification, which was renamed to LLM in the 1980s in order to avoid confusion with the more widely used meaning of LLB as an undergraduate degree.


How do conferences work for deaf scientists? Watching various COVID-related briefings, I notice there is always a sign language interpreter. This is clearly necessary, yet thinking about all the conferences I've attended in the past, literally none of them have had a sign language interpreter.
How do conferences work for deaf scientists? Do deaf scientists simply not attend conferences? If so, how does one even work in fields such as computer science where conferences are an integral part of the academic experience?

I am neither a deaf scientist nor an organizer for conferences. However, I was a student and staff member at a university with a significant deaf population so I'll speak from that perspective.
The prevalence of interpreters and other accommodations for those with disabilities varied significantly. It was a given that American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters would be present at large scale events and presentations aimed at the community as a whole. Additionally, interpreters would be provided for deaf students taking classes taught in spoken English.
Beyond that, it was usually the responsibility of the deaf person to arrange for an interpreter; though many interpreters were employed by the university, there was no guarantee one would be available on short notice. This may explain why I seldom saw interpreters at club meetings and other smaller events, especially those that emphasized spontaneous direct communication. For example, interpreters were present at the anime club where much of the activities involved watching Japanese animation with subtitles, but I did not see any at the club for tabletop role playing games where interpersonal interaction was constant.
In short, students and staff had the accommodations necessary to fulfill their primary goal(s) but often not enough for secondary ones, such as socialization. I suspect a similar dynamic applies to scientific conferences.
Conferences that regularly have deaf people attending likely organize interpreters themselves but the rest will only provide accommodations when requested. (In other words, at a typical conference, you're not going to see an ASL interpreter unless there's at least one deaf person present!) The effectiveness of such accommodations are apt to suffer if the organizers lack experience and/or resources. This would discourage deaf people from attending unless the conference was essential - for example, a topic of particular interest is being discussed or a colleague is in need of material or moral support - or had a positive reputation of proper accommodations.
In summary, the attendance of deaf scientists at conferences is presumably dictated by the following:

The importance of the conference to the individual deaf scientist
The presence and quality of accommodations that enable deaf scientists to be productive
The number of people with whom the deaf persons can readily communicate with
Each deaf scientist's personal comfort level with attending conferences designed primarily for hearing people


Techniques to "digest" large amounts of textual data (academic papers, books, etc) I am a faculty member in a research-oriented university. I teach and I do research in social sciences. Similarly to most academics, a big part of my job involves reading.

A portion of my "reading list" requires accuracy. When I review papers, grade exams, or work on my own research, my attention needs to be 100% focused on the task at hand. The main reason is that reading these documents usually leads to an output (e.g. a grade, a review, a paragraph in a paper, etc.).

However, a large portion of my "reading list" requires digesting fast large amounts of textual data. I monitor several journals to stay up to date, I investigate new literatures, I read books in my field, I read every year the papers assigned to students in my syllabi, etc. This does not require accuracy. The main goal is to have a big picture vision, a broad idea.

The main trick I found to digest large amounts of textual data pretty fast is to use a text-to-speech software that I use on my phone. I found it makes me more productive than sitting at my desk and helps me claim additional reading hours (e.g. gym, errands, commute, cleaning, etc.)

What techniques would you recommend to "digest" large amounts of text?

Note: I asked a related question this morning but was told that it was too "tech" oriented. I deleted the former question and posted this one.

Speed reading techniques can, for some people, greatly increase the amount of text that you can cover in a given amount of time.  If I am reading for a big picture vision in a not-extremely-technical subject, I can routinely read at 500-1000 words per minute, far faster than speaking.  It is, however, very important to know when you're reading something that requires time for reflection; you have only the most immediate reactions to work with at such rates.

Anyway, there are a variety of speed-reading books out there--I have one by Tony Buzan that seems decent as long as you don't believe too fervently that he always knows what he's talking about.  (Peter Kump's book is better with exercises.)

There's also a speed-reading app by Spritz, which I have not tried.  Other fast readers I've talked to have given mixed reports: it's definitely fast (it forces you to be!) but since going back is difficult it tends to limit comprehension in those spots where you need a little extra focus.

Also, you don't necessarily even need to read everything you're supposed to read.  Various sorts of skimming can let you pick off the key ideas and decide whether you need to go into more detail: look at chapter headings, read the first couple and last couple sentences in each chapter, glance through for any graphs or tables or sidebars.  You might take an extra 10% time doing this sort of thing, but more than 1/6th of the time you'll find that you don't need to do any more at all, saving you time overall.  And if you do have to read the whole thing, it's easier to remember when you've already had an overview.


How to politely refuse note sharing I am an undergraduate student. This semester, I'm taking a 1.5 credit course, which is a 1.5 hour lecture once a week from a rotation of different speakers. There will be a final at the end of the semester.

The course coordinator, Mack (Not His Real Name™), cannot come to every lecture. He therefore asked me to give him my notes, both for his review and also as as a basis for the final exam. Because my notes will be a part of the test, he asked that I 1) do not tell anyone that my notes will be a basis for the test 2) do not share my notes with anyone else.

A number of students noticed that I take notes during lecture, and have approached me to ask for a copy of my notes. They're not constantly asking for notes; in fact, at least one of these students (who I know to be a very hard worker in school) does take his own notes, but wants to compare notes just in case he missed something (this is something that he does in every course).

I'm having some difficulty convincing them that they don't want my notes. I told them that I write in partial shorthand (which is true), and that the notes are just rough notes (also true), but some students say they want my notes anyway. I suppose I could always "forget" to give them my notes, but this is neither foolproof nor polite.

How can I politely refuse to share my notes with my classmates in this situation?

I am aware of the XY problem -- I can imagine a solution to the situation where I share the notes anyway, or ask Mack for permission to share my notes. However, I'd like to help Mack (his alternative is to listen to 15 x 1.5 hour recordings), while still remaining on good terms with my classmates, and not ruining the final exam.

I think Mack put you in a very difficult situation. You should not have agreed to his terms, and should ask to change them now.

There is no problem sharing your notes with Mack, though he should probably be getting notes from several students.

You should either have agreed not to share your notes with others, or agreed to keep confidential the fact that they will be used in setting the test, but not both. If you were freely sharing your notes, nobody would pay any special attention to them. If you could say "Mack asked me not to share them so that he can use them in setting his test" people would understand the non-sharing.

There are other ways Mack could have constructed his test. For example, he could have asked each lecturer for a question or two with marking criteria.


How does one reference a conference paper in a cover letter? I'm applying to an entry level position with research elements to it. I want to reference a paper I used heavily this summer to influence my work that I did. It's a conference paper.

This is its arxiv.org page.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.03677

The sentence is something along the lines of, "I leveraged a paper, “Learning to Diagnose with LSTM Recurrent Neural Networks" (Lipton, Kale, Elkan, & Wetzel 2016) as a basis for my proof-of-concept ..."

I can't find a quality source on citing in line. Thank you!

Unless the application instructions require you to provide references in a particular format (unlikely but not impossible), your key objectives should be (a) to convey sufficient information to allow the reader to find the work that you're citing and (b) to be consistent in your referencing. Within those constraints, you are probably safe to provide the reference in whatever format best suits your needs.

You may want to:

provide the reference as a footnote (e.g. "… I leveraged a paper¹ …" and then details of the reference in the footnote) or
use an inline numeric or author-date citation (as in your question) and then at the very bottom of the page (after your signature etc) put "Reference: " and the details of the paper.

In choosing a format, you should also pay attention to the norms of citation formats in your discipline. So, for example, if it is normal in your discipline to use author-date citations then do that, but if it's more normal to refer to papers using numeric references (e.g. '[1]') then you should prefer that.


Submitting the same research to multiple conferences I'm aware that it's a violation of terms for most publishers to submit the same article to more than one journal, but I frequently see authors whose papers seem very similar, particularly papers released in a single year. In my field, neuroscience, this is particularly true about conference papers; one researcher will often have numerous posters/conference papers about seemingly the same topic. What are the guidelines for acceptability regarding this type of behavior?

According to the Committee on Publication Ethics Guidelines on Good Publication Practice, the term "redundant publication" is defined this way:

  "Redundant publication occurs when two or more papers, without full cross reference, share the same hypothesis, data, discussion points, or conclusions."  In addition, it states:  "(1) Published studies do not need to be repeated unless further confirmation is required.  (2) Previous publication of an abstract during the proceedings of meetings does not preclude subsequent submission for publication, but full disclosure should be made at the time of submission.  (3) Re-publication of a paper in another language is acceptable, provided that there is full and prominent disclosure of its original source at the time of submission.  (4) At the time of submission, authors should disclose details of related papers, even if in a different language, and similar papers in press."  Note that (2) states that it is generally acceptable to present a paper in a conference and then later publish exactly the same paper in a journal, as long
  as you mention to the editor that the paper has been publicly presented.

According to the paper Science journal editors’ views on publication ethics:
Results of an international survey,

  "Breaches of publication ethics such as plagiarism, data fabrication and redundant publication are recognised as forms of research misconduct that can undermine the scientific literature."  It also stated that redundant publication is an unethical practice.  Of 16 ethical issues studied, redundant publication had the highest severity (that is, it caused editors the most concern---more than plagiarism or data fabrication).


Former PhD supervisor faked results and submitted a corrigendum two years after publication During my PhD studies, I published a journal article (one of total four) in a prestigious journal of my field. I gave my codes to my PhD supervisor, but he messed up things in the lab and lost it (I also didn’t care and lost, for I am pursuing different directions).

Two years after publication, my PhD advisor wanted to commercialize my PhD work and wanted me to develop the codes again without willing to credit me for my efforts. I found his emails harassing, malicious and blackmailing and stopped responding him by directing his emails to spam folder.

Out of desperation, he himself developed some codes and submitted a corrigendum in which he clearly tried to push an agenda to suit his commercialization efforts (I know what I am talking, believe me on this). This included falsifying earlier findings just because he didn’t understand my work and cannot implement it and thus, presented an alternate algorithm which clearly is inferior. From my experience with that algorithm, I know from his description of implementation in the corrigendum that the results he presented are clearly made-up.
My PhD advisor has basically faked results in a corrigendum to suit his commercialization efforts.

What are my options ?

Can I convey it to the journal ? (I have already conveyed to the journal that this corrigendum is submitted without my approval.)
Can I offer my ex advisor to re-implement but giving me the due credit?
What should I do?

If you have incontrovertible, hard evidence that the adviser is falsifying data for personal gain, and can demonstrate as such beyond any reasonable doubt, you may have an ethical obligation "to science" to pursue this.

Outside of this, it is probably best to walk away. You already stated that you 'don't care' and even sent his emails to spam. Do you even want to be associated with this work (assuming he wants to re-do things and give you credit)? It sounds like the work would be significant and the rewards fairly minimal. Besides, based on your description, if he 'cannot implement' this commercialization attempt, there's little to gain.


Asking for PhD admission in a different faculty than potential supervisor I've been speaking with a professor with regards to admission into a PhD program at a top European University, and things have been going well so far. The only problem is that it isn't "officially" in my field of choice.

To be more specific, the degree label will be "Mechanical Engineering" (as it was for my B.Eng and M.Eng), while most of the work will involve Numerical Computing and 3D graphics; just that it will be in the Mechanical Engineering domain. In fact, one of the reasons the professor has expressed interest in hiring me is because it isn't common for Mechanical Engineers to also be experienced programmers in the field.

While I'm certainly excited at the opportunity, I am also feeling a little bit reluctant, because I wanted my degree to be titled "Computational Science" or "Software Engineering". The reason being is that I don't want to be seen as an "inexperienced" developer after spending 4 years in a program doing exactly that. The concern might seem shallow, but I don't want to commit 4 years of time I could be using to further my career.

Regardless of my reasoning, is it possible/common to ask for admission into a different faculty than my supervisor, while still being supervised by them? How much effort, if any, should I expend to make sure that the field I am accepted in is the one I want, while working with the same professor? What alternatives are there to advertise my qualifications as a software developer/computational scientist if I choose Mechanical Engineering? And finally, if at all, how will this limit/extend my options in the future?

There is no general answer. You should check the university's regulations. Additionally, you should talk with your potential supervisor about the issue. Even if it's not allowed, he might know a way to circumvent it.

Moreover, I think that the title itself is secondary. The most important part is what you did during your PhD. (To illustrate the point: after that PhD-project, nobody will hire you to design a car engine just because you have a PhD in mechanical engineering.)

If employers have a job opening, they are looking for somebody with the skills necessary for the job. Typical job offers usually include the phrase "desired qualifications: a PhD in computer science or something equivalent." This translates to "we think that somebody with the necessary skills will have a degree in computer science but if you possess these skills and a different PhD, we still want you to apply."

The place to present your software development skills is your cover letter and your CV/resume once you apply for positions. Make there very clear why you are the perfect fit for the position. For instance, in the CV, you should list the software you developed and the languages you programmed in (with number of years you are using them); and in the cover letter, you explain how these things qualify you for the position.


Pros and Cons of Enrolling in coursework units during a PhD In my university PhDs are assessed purely on dissertation,
there is no coursework component or oral defence or anything else
(this is not unusual for Australia, as I understand).

There are no units for PhD students, but they can get into  Masters, Honours or Bachelor level units, assuming they meet the conditions or get exceptions.

However the federal government will pay for up to 4 coursework units to be completed over the first 3 years of the PhD.
They will outright pay the course fees for the units -- which is a nice change from undergraduate where the fees go into your HECs debt.

Some advisors/departments strongly advise students to take particular units (though not normally 4 as I understand it). I doubt mine will.

So I guess the purpose of these 4 "free" units is to let shore up any areas of knowledge -- particularly for students embarking on something multidisciplinary.

But what is the advantage in actually enrolling in the units?
the alternative to enrolling is to go up to the lecturer and say:
"Hi, ... I'm doing a PhD on X, and I know this course covers Y which is kind of relevant to it, do you mind if I sit in on your lectures?"

I suspect more lecturers wouldn't mind at all, so long as you didn't cause trouble  -- they are paid the same either way. If you were extra friendly (say you'ld taken some units with them before), you could probably convince them to let you have the digital course notes, and maybe even to mark a assignment so you could see how you are going.

The Advantages I am seeing to not formerly enrolling are:

No pressure to do well in exams/tests
Attend only the subset of the unit relevant to your research

The Disadvantages I can see:

'Robbing' the university of income (but also not generating any extra expense for it)
Less access to resources, like online notes
Not having the unit on your transcript

The Pros seem to outweigh the Cons, but I suspect I am missing something.
Perhaps lecturer pay is generally directly proportional to number of students?

I have gone through the (large) university policy base and have found no rule forbidding this, except if there is a shortage of seating.

I don't know how lecturers are paid in your education system.  In most cases, pay does not depend on number of students.  You are probably right that the lecturer doesn't have a direct financial interest in whether you attend or not.

However, it sounds like your institution has an interest - they get paid more if you enroll in the class.  There is a good chance that the institution's rules require that you enroll in order to take it, and if so it is probably the lecturer's job to enforce it.

If you are not sure of the rules, you could ask a lecturer whether it is allowed to sit in on the class without enrolling.  If you know it is not allowed, you should not ask to do it - you put the lecturer in an uncomfortable position, and they can get in trouble if the administration finds out they gave permission.

Many universities allow an "audit" status which allows you to attend the lectures, but does not require you to do any of the assigned work.  If that's what you're looking for, you might try to find out whether that is an option for you.


Any disadvantages of having a PhD supervisor who is working only part-time at the institution? I have recently been offered to pursue a PhD in my field of interest.

Before starting the application, my future supervisor told me that he will soon be working only part time for my current institution (in the UK) while he will also be working in another institution in his home country (in France). He then added that if I see any problems with that and I would prefer finding another full-time supervisor, he would understand it. He also added that I would be the only PhD student he will be supervising during that time.

Actually, I can't really see any problems with the fact that my supervisor is working part-time at the institution but I obviously lack the relevant knowledge and experience on the PhD process.

So my question: Are there any disadvantages of having a PhD supervisor who is working only part-time at the research institution?

The most important at this stage is to obtain as many guarantees as possible in writing:

from the academic
from the head of department
from the local graduate school

Essentially, academics are meant to dedicate a proportion of their employed time for supervisory duties, so that all academics have supervision workload fairly spread across a whole department, also variegated depending on the role of the academics (lecturer, reader, professor).

If the academic is employed in the UK higher education institution for 50% full-time equivalent, then their supervisory duty should be halved by comparison with colleagues.

If he said that you will be 'that I would be the only PhD student he will be supervising during that time', that's probably what's behind the statement.

However, it does no harm to have this employment arrangement confirmed by the head of department and the local graduate school who ultimately have to agree to such arrangement. So you can make sure the academic understood well.

As Captain Emacs points out, then, there is a lot that boils down to your own expectations and needs in terms of supervision. There are bound to be pros and cons. Simple basic question: is the academic very IT-literate or does he do everything from print-outs? If he's constantly travelling between job places, that might become inconvenient when drafts need careful attention in a reasonable turnaround period.

The more you discuss and nails the practicalities of the relationship at an early stage, the less likely it is going to go bad.

Last but not least, if you get funded with a local scholarship or a grant from one of the big funding councils and charities, your supervision is more likely to be successful, because the funding set up will create an additional level of accountability for both you and supervisor.


Am I allowed to process personal data on a cloud server? I have gathered some fMRI and eye tracking data, from several subjects. I can process them using the server in our lab, but I would like to take advantage of my own cloud servers on Linode and DigitalOcean, even EC2.

Before these data were gathered, in the consent form we did not mention the possibilities that data might be processed/stored in the cloud.

Am I allowed to use cloud servers to process these data under current regulations? Does it makes any difference if these servers were purchased/rented under my lab's name?

To some extent, the answer depends on location. In the US, IRBs tend to be concerned with Protected Health Information (PHI). There are 18 things that are considered PHI and generally these can be easily stripped from research data. For fMRI and eye tracking data, you need to be a little concerned about two components of PHI

Biometric identifiers, including finger, retinal and voice prints
Full face photographic images and any comparable images

In the UK the term is Personal Data and the definition is:

Personal data means data which relate to a living individual who can be identified –
(a) from those data, or
(b) from those data and other information which is in the possession of, or is likely to come into the possession of, the data controller

Most people provide a data storage and archiving plan that outlines how they protect PHI/Personal Data in their IRB ethics application. Most IRBs that I am familiar with do not consider fMRI to be comparable to a full face photograph or allow the individual to be identified. This is despite fMRI researchers often being able to recognize each other's brains. Most eye tracking data that I am familiar with do not include high resolution images of the retina and would not be classified at PHI/Personal Data. People publish pictures of fMRI slices and eye tracking traces all the time. Prior to uploading data onto the cloud, you will want to confirm with your IRB what they consider PHI/Personal Data.


Postdoc using current university's letterhead for job application cover letter (academic/national lab jobs)? I'm currently a (physics) postdoc at a university. I'm currently applying for academic jobs (tenure-track research professor and postdoc positions) as well as jobs in national labs.

Question(s): Do I need to use my current university's letterhead for my cover letters? If it is optional, is it somehow better to use the official letterhead?

Note: This is similar to the post here. That post was specifically for someone who is currently a lecturer at a university, and the answers ranged from absolutely yes to absolutely no (with no clear consensus). Therefore, I I want to know if any of the specifics in my situation make a difference for this question (e.g. field = physics; I'm currently a postdoc which is expected to only be temporary; does academic appointment vs national lab job have different expectations etc…).

Yes you should use your current institution's letterhead. It is important to do so because much of academic hiring turns on prestige and snap judgments. Look professional, look serious, look affiliated with a prestigious place. Use the letterhead.

Edit in response to Nate Eldridge in the comments below:

First, letterhead is to be used in correspondence that constitutes official university business. If helping postdocs and PhD students obtain the positions for which the University has trained them doesn't constitute "official university business," I don't know what would. (Certainly I am instructed to send my undergraduates' letters of recommendation on official university letterhead.)

Second, consider two scenarios. Scenario 1, you apply for a position along with 99 other people. You put the cover letter on letterhead and the other 99 applicants don't. Scenario 2 is flipped, the 99 use letterhead and you don't. In both scenarios, you stick out, which is in general bad. However, they aren't equally bad. Scenario 1 is like showing up to a wedding in a Tux when everyone else is wearing suits. You're a little fancier than you need to be, but nobody's going to think you just weren't putting in care or effort in. Scenario 2, on the other hand, is like showing up to a wedding where everyone is wearing a suit in a shirt and flip flops; you look like you just didn't care what the convention was. So, even if both scenarios were equally likely, I'd still say err on the side of using the letterhead. However, it isn't the case that the scenarios are equally likely--the convention (at least in the US, I'll let others comment about the European or other conventions) is to use letterhead. I'll cite Karen Kelskey, the job market consultant, to corroborate this final point.

I'd hope that no department would allow a faculty who was daft enough to hold the use of letterhead against a candidate anywhere near a search committee.


Why should we give the number of pages on arXiv? In https://arxiv.org/help/prep I found

  Indicate number of pages and number of figures. If desired, include Tex flavor or related comments. Do not bother to put "uuencoded" or "gzipped tar file" even if you submitted it this way.

I wonder why this is considered to be helpful. And what are pages anyway? The number of PDF pages? The number of "content" pages (= PDF pages - title page (if any) - blank pages - reference pages - appendix)?

Page length is one of the most basic things you can know about a document, and one of the few useful numerical measurements of a piece of writing.  I personally find it helpful as an indicator of how "serious" something is.  (This holds for novels as well as papers.)  If I see one set of notes on a topic that are 8 pages long versus another set that are 56 pages, I have a good sense that the latter set is much more detailed than the former.  Similarly, a 6-page paper entitled "Bounded gaps between primes" (a famously hard problem, very unlikely to be solved in so short a work) gives a very different impression than a 54-page paper with the same title.

While page length is not equated with how deep or interesting something is (and of course depends on format), it can be at least suggestive.  As a corollary, I also take page lengths into account when evaluating job candidates to get a sense of how productive they are.

Regarding the definition, I think it's safe to interpret page length as the number of pdf pages, as this is what most people will immediately see when they open the pdf.  That said, if it's a book, it's perfectly fine to put something like 286+xvii pages, but I doubt people will care much either way.  Remember, this is just a preprint server.


Any ethical problems with dating a former student? Assume the student

recently graduated but works nearby;
has not been my student for over 1 year;
has never expressed any interest in dating until very recently;
has a father who is a coworker at my institution (different department).

I don't see any inherent ethical problems here: the key word is former student, so there is no present power dynamic, conflict of interest or anything like that.

However, you should be prepared for those in your department to find out that you are dating a former student, which could create a certain amount of push back.  For instance:

The one year gap between the student being in your course and your romantic relationship will not be apparent to all who know about the relationship.  Even if you tell them, they may not believe it.  Even if neither of you expressed an interest in dating until recently, people may still suspect that you had romantic feelings for one of your students while they were your student.
There is presumably some age differential.  If it is small enough, people will probably ignore it.  If it is large enough, a lot of people will try to figure out "Why is s/he dating him/her?" This will motivate them to find out that your romantic partner is your former student.
If you date more than one former student, people may view you as using your classroom as a hunting ground for future romance.  If this sentiment is held widely, it could make your future students uncomfortable.

I hasten to add that none of these point to any clear ethical lapse or mistake on your part.  In particular, the idea that it is disturbing for a much older (adult) to date a much younger (adult) may be more of a societal taboo/hangup than anything that can be rationally justified.  It is also true that most romantic relationships come with a certain amount of push back, and some kinds of romantic relationships still get a lot of push back for things that many/most of us feel strongly are absolutely unproblematic: e.g. inter-racial relationships, same sex relationships.  (In fact, I am very sorry to say that if your relationship is not inter-racial or same sex, any push back you get will probably be mild compared to that, and if it is, that will increase the push back considerably.)  I recommend weighing the possible costs of such a relationship against the possible benefits.


Stay or leave for PhD I'm a master student at a university in Korea and going to graduate next June. By now, I think about doing PhD and have to make a decision on "stay" or "leave".
Stay:

My professor is very nice and quite well known in my university. The
working conditions are good, PC, seats, no time restriction... (but everyone working like crazy).

The professor really nice to me (actually us - foreign student), I was found a good scholarship  for the master course ($1300/month) while
the    average is $700-600.

I don't have to make much effort on searching for a PhD position (don't need to take English test like IELTS, toefl) and the salary is good in comparison with other universities in Korea.

It's not really face to face talking but I agree with my professor to continue PhD there before I go to the graduate university. (Which I
am most afraid of).

My background is not good since we focus on publishing only very narrow field. I'm not very good at programming C/C++ as well, I use Matlab all the time.

Leaves:

I'm not quite sure about another place but in my University, they focus on
research not the graduate course. My background is quite weak.

My professor is very very busy and not really good in my current topic.
Almost every member in my team have to find their own way (follow the topic of their project).

I feel like this environment is not very good for the PhD. The communication between Professor and student is like a one way communication. We obey what ever we are told. Not really two way communication or discussions.

I'm 25, single, and want to do something.

Should I continue my PhD on the current Lab or looking for PhD position in some where else?
Ps: I'm looking for PhD position which related to signal processing and Compressive sensing. My current's topic is image/video compressive sensing.
Updates.
Mar. 2014: Thank for your advice, I decided to stay for my PhD but more for my personal issue. For my current PhD it is little disappointed.

my support is lower than what I discussed with the professor before starting PhD. We agreed on $1000 but later paid me $800/month due to lab situation (the other PhD salary is still the same $1000 or higher). After asking  many times, I now have to do an internship 1 day/week as an solution with $250 salary more.
The professor is very busy, even for checking my conference paper before sending.

Jul. 2015 Now I'm a little doubtful what to do.

The professor has no time for us and even for my journal paper
One PhD student left without a word

Advice for someone considering study in Korea: Master is enough, go somewhere else for PhD!

Since you say you like the research where you are and you are fairly productive there, you can probably successfully get a PhD there. It sounds like your advisor is not perfect (busy, etc) but few advisors are "perfect" from their students' perspectives. And if you stay, you won't have to interrupt your research to apply to other schools and transition to a new group. Staying where you are is a "safe" choice.

If you go somewhere else, some of your weaknesses (which you are able to ignore in your current position) may be exposed, and you'll have to work on improving them. And you will probably meet new collaborators (especially if you go to anther country) and be exposed to new ideas and techniques that will be difficult to learn, but will make you a better and more capable researcher.

So the answer to your question depends on what you want to gain from your PhD: Do you want to get a degree and some nice publications? Then staying where you are sounds like the easiest way. Or do you want to improve yourself and broaden yourself as a researcher? Then you might be better off leaving.

Having said that - of course, even if you stay, you can still challenge yourself and improve yourself and your capabilities. But since you don't have to "prove yourself" in your current position, there's nothing forcing you to do so - you'd have to be exceptionally self-motivated and disciplined.


Shows vs. suggests: Is there a substantive difference? Research is sometimes described as “showing” or “suggesting” a result.

Is there any substantive or objective difference between the two descriptions?

One example is here, in this answer it is said economic research “shows”, which seems intuitively less appropriate to me, but maybe that’s not true:
https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/a/600/38455

This is what my take on these two words.

"Shows" refers to "It is true" i.e. the conclusion follows from the evidence with probability of 1. For example, the results obtained in this study 'shows' whenever x is increased, y is decreased by 2.78. Therefore, we conclude that...

"Suggests" refers to "It is highly likely to be true" i.e. the conclusion is not certain to be followed from the evidence. For example, our study suggests an increase in parameter x results in y decreasing by 2.78. Since the present study is constrained in the domain of the parameters x and y, it could be concluded that ...


Phd program @Harvard when my '''education''' didn't go beyond highschool? Would I be accepted at a Phd Program @Harvard when my '''education''' didn't go beyond high-school? I have however done lot of self-study after graduating from high-school by studying:

Electrodynamics.
General Relativity.
Quantum Mechanics ...

and all the maths that is related to those physics areas.
So do I have any chance?

You PROBABLY don't have any chance at the moment. Have you published in the field? Do you have any projects that you could show to a professor (outside Harvard first?) that might shed light on your exceptional ability? Without ever going to any college you would have to be extraordinary enough to be an exception to Harvard's admission criteria. Of course, alternatively you could try taking some graduate level classes somewhere else, build a relationship with a professor, and either join their program for a preparatory master's or get them to comment to Harvard on your abilities.


Referring to non-enumerated (sub)sections of a paper What is the most appropriate way to refer to the preceding/succeeding (sub)sections within a paper? In my case, the paper style does not allow enumeration of the (sub)sections.

I would recommend simply saying it directly, like, "in the previous section" or "in the following section."  You can also refer to a section by content, e.g., "in the review of prior work" or "in our discussion of results."


Is it okay to submit article to Journal B despite contacting editors of Journals A & C? I've been trying to find a suitable journal for my manuscript. There are many journals that seem to be acceptable homes for my paper, but their aims and scopes do not overlap with my paper 100%.

I've been asking editors of various journals whether they believe my paper is suitable for their journal by sending them the abstracts (which these journals encourage on their website).

A few editors have gotten back to me and a few have not,
But while waiting, I found a journal that seems like a better fit than the other journals, which we'll call Journal B. Suppose that Journal C's editor has yet to get back to me and Journal A's editor said to submit the paper so that they can get a closer look at it beyond the abstract.

Assume that in this case, all the journals are relatively equal in impact factor.

Is it rude to submit to Journal B anyways even after contacting the editor of Journal A and not yet receiving a reply from the editor of Journal C?

I see no reason to delay. Editors are busy and sometimes take a while to respond, but that shouldn't block the author as long as you don't submit to multiple places simultaneously. Of course, if it has been less than a week or so, the editor might be a bit grumpy.

However, consider which journal would be the best fit for the paper. This will help you determine whether it is worth it to you to delay.

Note that any response from an editor wouldn't be a commitment to publish, but only encouragement to do so. You would still be free at that point in any case.


Are there conventions for research paper flowcharts? Other than obvious aspects such as being legible, clear, and understandable (at least in theory) are there any mainstream conventions for flowcharts in research papers? I'm talking about scientific based flowcharts which give an overview of the entire thrust of the paper.

For instance:

I have noticed, for instance, that black and white two dimensional layouts are typical, while individual items may have some sort of consistency (e.g. cylinders tend to represent data-storage or datasets in a lot of papers). Is this part of a larger schema that researchers might adhere to?

The answer to this question is actually not specific to research.

There is an ISO Norm on flowcharts that describes the basic elements and what the shapes represent. This is norm ISO 5807:1985.

The bad thing about ISO norms is that you can't simply download them free of charge. But the good news is that in academia, unless you are doing research on flow charts themselves, nobody will care if you do not adhere to the standard in the strictest possible way. The Wikipedia page on flow-charts is a good starting point, and a search on flowchart elements also seems to lead to some useful sites. Also, looking at the set of predefined shapes in drawing software that is also meant to be used for flow-charting (e.g., Microsoft Visio) gives you a good idea of what elements there are and what they represent.


Can i shift my subject from Chemistry to IT I have completed my gradation in leather engineering. But i would like to do M.Sc in Information Technology or Software Engineering or computer science or bio medical engineering or bio engineering.
I am working in software firm as well as freelance software developer. I have one software related publication & other two  environmental chemistry related publication. But now i'm really enjoying software development & i would like to do my M.Sc/PhD in these subject .As i wont like to do anything that actually i don't like. But will university accept me if my would like to shift myself from chemistry background to IT?

Of course you can!  Especially since you have an IT related publication and it seems you have shown interest in the field. I would highly recommend finding a supervisor with a project that appeals to you. It's all about your relationship with them for a positive graduate experience. If they want you and have funding for you, you will have much better chances of getting into the school you want to work on a project that excites you.