How can our department solicit more (good) PhD applications? Our department is awesome. But every year, I think: "why aren't we getting more awesome applicants? They could be super happy here, and we could do a great job of jump-starting their careers."

Well, this year, I am on the PhD admissions committee.

What can I do to improve the quality of our applicant pool?  Of course I realize reputation is a big component, but that is a long-term game (and we are already quite well-ranked by USN&WR; I don't think that's the core issue here). I'm wondering more about short-term, actionable, guerilla mercenary acts I can execute in the next few months.

If you have participated in grad admissions at your university, what (if anything) helped you get more quality applications?

For reference I'm in North America, in the sciences.

You could kill two birds with one stone and target underrepresented groups.  Make connections with undergraduate student organizations of color.  Invite undergrads taking junior level classes in your department to meet with your committee at a barbecue to talk about what they have found most helpful in terms of supporting their academic success.  If you ask the question that way, you may get some helpful constructive feedback, without actually inviting them to kvetch.

Make sure your department has an effective community outreach program to K-12 students, and ask them to target underrepresented groups in your town or city.  Word will spread.

Co-sponsor, with the engineering department, and a student organization, a showing of the film "Underwater Dreams".  Better yet, invite the people involved in making the film to your showing, for a panel discussion after the movie.

Make sure your faculty members' webpages are clear and inviting.

Recruit some peer advisors and give them some online profiles.  Make sure the peer advisors have a quick way to get answers from the members of your committee in case there's something they can't answer.

I don't know if women are an underrepresented group in your field, but even if they aren't, make sure you have all the features that make a department women-friendly.

With respect to the GRE comment -- I don't have an opinion about this suggestion, but at least try to come up with an admissions policy that looks at the whole person, and make that policy clear to potential applicants.  A public statement along the lines of "we encourage returning students to apply" is a helpful clue to women who have taken a child rearing break.

Make sure you have an undergrad and grad student prize in your department, for example best poster, best thesis, and really celebrate the winners.  Feature different student bios on your department website on a rotating basis.

Get some funding for some upper level undergrads to go along to a conference.  Set up peer mentoring to make connections between students of different levels.

Make sure there are fun things for students to do together in free time, e.g. soccer or volleyball or Eurogames or whatever your department's students enjoy doing.

Really nice administrative support personnel can do a lot to make a department attractive to students.  (For example, "if you have any trouble getting registered for a class you need, let me know".)

Sorry if that was a bit disorganized -- hope these ideas get you thinking.


Relative Advantages/Disadvantages of Interdisciplinary Degree vs Discipline-Specific Degree I am applying for a PhD and when I was speaking to my potential advisor they discussed the possibility of me applying for an interdisciplinary degree that is offered by the institution as an option instead of the discipline specific degree in applied mathematics. The supervisors field is in mathematical biology and my dissertation work would be as well, and working under the assumption that they will take me on as a student, I am wondering what the advantages and disadvantages of the interdisciplinary degree might be relative to a degree that focuses on a specific discipline.
For example, how would a PhD in an interdisciplinary field affect paths forward for a PostDoc position? There are probably some particular advantages and disadvantages that are not obvious to me, so I am putting this out to the community.

The main reasons are pretty obvious, I think.
A narrow field of study will (probably) make you more suitable for employment in that field and less in others.
A wider field of study will (probably) give you more options, but those who have specialized in something will have the upper hand (again, probably) over you it their specialty.
None of that is necessarily true and you can always either broaden your outlook later or specialize further as necessary. So, I suspect that any effect is most important only for your first job.
But it also depends on the individual program. I can imagine one in which the mathematical techniques are pretty generally useful, but also one in which they are not. This might be worth exploring with you proposed advisor.
On a different dimension, an interdisciplinary program might leave you more grounded in applications, where a straight applied math program might (not necessarily) leave you wondering how to actually use what you have learned.


Did any of the social science experiments by the Nazis in WWII get published? I've read that the Nazi's did a lot of cruel experimentation on Jews during WWII. I was wondering if any of these studies were published, and if they still exist. Preferably available in English.

Well, USA infected Guatemalans with STD's and has aided the cartels in México. The nazis werent the only ones and the controversy  about using such data is still around.

You can find some information here:

The Arolsen Archives ( Information on victims of the Holocaust and concentration camp prisoners, this can, sadly, give you some jkeywords to look for in repositories) https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/search/

Also the papers can still be found online. I'm not sure you will find them in english, but the library of the congress of USA and the holocaust memorial archives would be a good start if you want to search them out in english rather than german.


High grade/GPA versus finishing studies in the expected timeframe Situation:
Where I study (edit: Greece) we are generally not expected to pass all lessons on the first attempt (it is very rare actually) and often we fail multiple times before we can pass them. It is also rare to finish a school in the expected time (4 years for most schools, 5 for polytechnic) because of that, so most students finish two to three years later.

The only way to get a better grade on any lesson in the university I attend is by telling the professor to give you a failing grade, and even in other universities you can only take a few lessons again without this method, so this applies everywhere in the country.

Now, due to both a consistently bad timetable over the past 5 semesters (often ending the lessons at 9PM or even having 11 hours in one day), as well as a lot of extracurricular activity in my case (but related to the studies), it is hard to get a good grade (an equivalent GPA of 3 out of 4 is considered good in fact, not special but above average). Some malpractices by a lot of professors also play into this, but I am hoping that I am building a strong enough CV as to overcome this.

Actual Question:
Given a strong CV with a lot of related work on my own, certifications, and activity, should I try to finish in the expected 5 years of studies, but at the risk of a not-so-good GPA, or should I take more time but increase the GPA?

I am mostly interested in an academic career, for the industry I am confident that the CV I have built is more than enough to compensate for the grades.

This isn't exactly an either-or scenario. You can lengthen the time it takes to get your degree somewhat without it negatively impacting your chances of securing admission, particularly if it's a common event for students matriculating from your country.

However, the longer you prolong your undergraduate degree program, the more you'll need to justify the extra time needed. For instance, one semester or one year is unlikely to raise red flags, but three or four years more might be much more problematic.


Is there a reliable indicator for which which NIH RFAs are open to post-docs? I haven't found any guidance on NIH's websites so far whether or not someone who has a Ph.D. but is not yet full-time faculty (e.g. post-doc) is eligible to be named as a co-PI on an R01 grant.

For that matter, the individual eligibility criteria are really vague-- it's not clear that they even exclude a post-doc from being a sole PI on an R01 grant. That makes me think that I'm looking in entirely the wrong place to see if I am eligible for a given RFA.

Is there a foolproof indicator of whether or not a given RFA is open to post-docs either as sole PIs or co-PIs?

Thanks.

Ask your institution's Sponsored Research Office (SRO). These organizations are often called by other names like Office of Sponsored Projects (or Programs), the Sponsored Programs Office, or something similar. It's their job to understand the rules and regulations associated with external grant funding for research institutions.

In my experience with NSF (not NIH), the eligibility requirements for institutions and PIs are spelled out in each RFA/RFP. I have frequently seen limits on the number of proposals that a PI or institution can submit, and there are frequent limits on the types of institutions that may submit (e.g. 4-year, degree granting colleges and universities only, etc.), but I have never seen a limit in the RFA/RFP for the qualifications of the PI or co-PI.

My institution, however, does put limits on who may submit. Post docs, as far as I can remember, are not given blanket authorization to submit. They, and even more junior staff, are allowed to submit grant proposals only with an exception as approved by their unit head (dept. chair, center director, etc.) and, I think, the VP for Research's office. These are, in my experience, always granted for post docs.

That being said, the proposal preparation guide requires you to describe your qualifications for submitting the research, including prior work, prior grant support, and other relevant material. If you haven't been a co-PI before, a proposal with you as PI probably won't look as strong to the review panel. It's probably best to start as a co-PI with a more senior, experienced researcher as PI. This is true even if you will primarily lead the day to day work of the project.

This is all based on my experience with NSF, but I don't think NIH is much different.


Current timeline for hiring a tenure-track position amid the pandemic Even though there are already a lot of posts concerning the timeline for hiring a tenure track position in the US, I am curious to know the current timeline amid the COVID-19 pandemic starting 2020.
Currently (in March), I have seen many top-tier/teaching institutions finalizing the positions for which they started the first-round interview in December 2020. However, there are still a few smaller universities that have just started the hiring process in February 2021, although their posting was in November 2020. In particular, I have had a first-round interview so far and was asked to wait for 4 weeks for the next decision. As far as I know, top candidates are normally contacted within 1-2 weeks from the first interview. Therefore, I am supposing that I am not their top choice if the current timeline is the same as before.
Anyone please share your experience.

I am curious to know the current timeline amid the COVID-19 pandemic starting 2020.

There is not one.  It is utter chaos because nobody knows how much money they will have next fall.


How do theorists obtain summer funding after the beginning of February? My adviser just informed me that summer funding for theoretical research in his department is unavailable for the coming summer. I trying to brainstorm many different ways to obtain summer funding. Anything from writing my own grants to finding part time jobs over the summer.

How do theorists obtain summer funding after the beginning of February?

Me personally: I am a first year physics graduate student in the United States. My theoretical discipline is a mix between cosmology and condensed matter.

It is difficult for a first-year graduate student in theoretical physics to obtain research funding for the first summer at most universities, as you have already learned. If your department offers courses during the summer, there might be TA positions available, though you presumably have inquired about those by now. Another possibility might be to look for a summer TA in the math department, though they will presumably give preference to their own students for any available positions. Other than that, I can only offer sympathy.


Professor didn't write a letter because I didn't waive my right to view it. How to let him know that I have changed this? I'm applying to UIUC and have asked 3 of my professors to write me recommendation letters. One professor, who I discussed my application with before extensively, wrote back to me after I was done with everything that he doesn't write a LOR to students who do not waive their right to view the letter at a later date, because if I don't trust my professors, I shouldn't be asking for their help.

I'm pretty dumbfounded by this, considering that he never mentioned this before and that I've never come across a situation like this. It's not even a trust issue! It's pure feedback. Why would you keep feedback from someone anyway?

So I waived my right to view his letter, but now I'm not sure how to write back to him. I don't want to write an uncomfortable email to the department I'm applying to - UIUC procedure - as to why I have to switch professors if he still refuses to write one. Is there a polite, apologetic way to say to him that I had not intended to convey any feelings of mistrust, and that it was to see what were my strengths and weaknesses from a professor's perspective? Or should I take the weird route and change professors, because he'll write me something less-than-glowing now?

Just simply write down that it was your mistake not waiving your right to read LOR and ask him to write a letter. Don't wait too long to respond back to him, make your response succinct. Most importantly, do not explain to him why you wanted to see the letter in the email. Good luck.


Should a researcher share scientific ideas in a temporary position and are they entitled to recognition for doing so? A postdoc joins a group with a good idea to work on, while no specific project was given to him by the PI. After recognising the potential of the idea, the PI decides to take PhD students to work on it. When the postdoc asks, the PI says that the postdoc is going to be on this position only for a short time and the project (work) may not be finished before his contract expires. The contract is funded by the PI.

What should the postdoc do? Is it right for the postdoc to give his ideas in the first instance and should he be recognised when the work gets completed? If so, what about authorship?

When I was a graduate student, my advisor told me something that has stuck with me ever since:

  I never worry about giving my ideas away.  I always have more ideas than I can work on, so I give them away as fast as I can.  The only people who worry about somebody stealing their ideas away are people who are afraid they won't have any more.

I have taken that to heart in my career: I give (most) ideas away as fast as I can, and it has served me well.  Having ideas is not an art or a mystical experience, it is the exercise of a skill at creative thinking that can be developed and strengthened just like any other skill.  Over time, giving ideas away thus doesn't diminish your stock of ideas, but instead actually increases it.

The real question, as alluded to by others, is what you do with an idea once you have it.  As I see it, there are basically three honorable actions that you can take (hoarding it away not being one of them):

Pursue the work following from the idea strongly yourself, heavily investing your own time.  In this case, if the work is fruitful, you most certainly should get a lot of credit.  These are the only ideas I might not give away, in certain restricted circumstances---usually I'll share these as well, since more people caring about my problem area is generally better for me.
Give the idea away for somebody else to work on, but continue contributing to the work in an advisory or other accessory manner.  This is the typical mode of operation for many professors, and can certainly be for a postdoc as well, even after you move on to another institution.  If you continue to contribute in a minor way to the work, you should receive minor credit (e.g., Nth authorship).
Give the idea away for somebody else to work on, but don't contribute to the work beyond that.  This is great because you don't burden yourself with the extra work, but you should probably expect an acknowledgement at most, not authorship.

In short: in most cases, it's not the idea, but the work following the idea that counts.  We only think otherwise because we are scared or because our myths of science frequently mischaracterize the result of work as the idea.


Does rigor/thoroughness of undergraduate program matter (for graduate/PhD applications)? I am an undergraduate at a large public research university in the US, finishing my second year. I have done some theorycrafting around my graduation course requirements, and I have realized that it is possible, with some work (and generous CLEP testing), to graduate with a double major, Math BS + Physics BA, by next May. I would be meeting the bare-minimum requirements for both majors (in particular, for math, I will have only taken the 4-semester calculus series, lin. algebra, and the 2-semester abstract algebra series; plus some extraneous ones e.g. game theory).

If I were to stay the extra year, I would comfortably qualify for a double Math BS + Physics BS, and I would have 3-4 more math classes under my belt (perhaps the 2-semester topology series, graph theory, advanced abstract algebra, real analysis, etc). (edit: this option, Physics BS rather than BA, stresses a more thorough physics courseload; 15 hours of upper level physics classes are required for BS over BA)

edit after several answers: Another 4-year option is to get Physics BA + Math BS, leaving my course load open to taking 3-4 math classes per semester. This, hypothetically, could put my post-lin-algebra courses at 2 sem. abstract algebra, 2 sem. topology, 2 sem. intro analysis, graduate level courses of the above, intro complex analysis, intro graph theory, etc

My intent, if I were to graduate next year, is probably to take a year off from academics, and then apply for graduate/PhD programs in math.

Will it be an issue in being considered for these programs, that I have only taken a meager selection of the course offerings in my undergraduate studies? And might it be offset by the fact that I graduated in three years with a double major?

This would be a great question to discuss with your advisor, or another faculty member at your school whose opinion you respect.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that the "bare-minimum" 3-year program you describe would be woefully inadequate to prepare you for graduate study in mathematics, and I think most admissions committees would agree.  The fact that you did it in 3 years with a double major won't mitigate that.  A year of analysis is pretty essential, some topology would be very helpful, and taking a significant number of upper-division math electives will be a great way to build what people call "mathematical maturity".

Your 4-year program sounds better, but honestly still a little on the light side.  Keep in mind that many applicants to top grad programs will have taken practically every undergraduate course their department offers, and maybe a couple of graduate courses besides, in addition to often having undergraduate research experience.  You also want to make sure you get to know (and impress) your mathematics professors well enough that they can write you strong letters
of recommendation, and taking more math courses is the biggest part of that.

The physics degree on your diploma will be nice, especially if you are looking to do a PhD in mathematical physics, but it may not go a long way to making up for weakness on the math side.


What happens if my code teacher doesn't know how to code? I'm a simple student who is having some problems with their IT studies. The thing is that my (Java) code teacher doesn't know how to code, and I don't say it, he has told it to us during more than one class.
What do you recommend me to do? Because apart from that is like a class without teacher, he just gives us tasks to do and we have to search on Internet how to do it while he "plays" with his laptop and laughs or rests silent. And when we have to correct the tasks, he just shows us the code he had on his disk and, of course, he hasn't coded.
The last thing I want to share is that when he "explains" us theoretical things he doesn't really know what is he saying and in 80% of times he's wrong. He just reads presentations of other teachers, but from 5 years ago, so they aren't updated at this times (like 2019 or 2020).
It's very frustrating, he is a teacher but he doesn't teach us.

From your comments, I infer that the teacher is unable/unwilling to change his style. Therefore, I only see to options:

Complain (to someone in charge). However, be sure to do your research beforehand (maybe talk to your student organisation): is it possible to complain anonymously/as a group? Is usually something done when complaints come? Can someone invoke disciplinary actions against this prof? (Maybe not if he is tenured)  Be careful with this as complaining might hurt your grade.
Note that complaining will most likely not make the situation better for you, only for the next generation.

Learn the stuff by yourselves. I am sure you should, want and need to learn Java. "Introduction to Java" is not an exotic topic. There are plenty of courses online. Maybe you could listen to a course in a neighboring university. Read a script/book. Maybe someone from your student organisation can organize a Java course for your class. Be sure to coordinate with your class — maybe you can find a solution which helps the whole class. Exchange good links etc.

As I see it, (1) is optional (and maybe dangerous), (2) is not.


Can public political criticism of my alma mater result in my BA being revoked 35 years later? Perhaps it is a sign of paranoia that I even ask, but is there a chance that the private college I got my BA from back in the 1980s would revoke my degree if I were to publicly complain about its political stances?
Unfortunately, I have never donated significantly to the college, so my views don't hold any real force.
I doubt they would do so. And if they did, I find it unlikely that it would set off a chain reaction. But theoretically, my teaching degree depends in part on my MA, which in turn depends in part on my BA. Theoretically, if my BA got revoked, I could lose my teaching accreditation and hence my job. But can they?

Thank you to everyone for these thoughtful and detailed responses. My fears have been broadly dispelled, although some anxienty remains. I probably have more to fear in my current setting directly, than through a chain reaction involving my degree.
I have posted some thoughts in the comments under the first response and will remain engaged in the discussions above.

I've been working in Academia for the past ten years. The only cases of degree revocation that I am aware of were due to severe cases of academic misconduct such as plagiarism, fraud, or large-scale cheating. The rationale is that gross academic misconduct invalidates the achievement the degree should certify.
Revocations on grounds of expression of (political) disagreement with the issuing institution are unheard of in rule-of-law democracies. I've never heard of such a case, although it would certainly have become very well-known.


Is index required for a PhD thesis? Nowadays, since (almost) all of the submitted works are usually available in an electronic format (e.g. PDF or Word) besides the printed version, is it recommended to add an index to a PhD thesis in order to facilitate search within the printed version? Was it required in the past?

You may if you want to, but it is not generally required. Of course, check your local regulations. It is recommended to plan on having an index or not when you start, rather than adding it later.

Indexes were not required in the past, though check historical local regulations.


At what stage of research career one can write a 'tutorial article'? I learned from this thread that review articles are often written by experienced scholars, but I wonder if a graduate student can publish a tutorial as his/her first publication? For instance, Tutorial on Variational Autoencoders.

Actually, I find that a relatively inexperienced (but not naive) person can write a valuable tutorial for novices. The reason is that they may remember how hard it was to get started and, especially, to gain insight. More experienced people, especially experts, often lose the sense of how difficult it once was.
I once specifically wrote a treatise on a topic I was learning in order to capture the wonder of it all along with the difficulty and what to look out for. It turned out pretty well.


Do academic journals check plagiarism against papers in student repositories? I was recently checking one of my paper for similarity. However, TURNITIN checked the similarity against the papers present in student repository in its database. Surprisingly, the paper which matched 72% from the student rep is the same one which I had checked few days back. Now, the similarity comes around 81%.

I wanted to know, whether the journals check plagiarism against such student papers? Because, if they do, it will check against the same paper present in the rep and results will come out to be higher SI.

Why would you care? The real issue is whether your paper contains plagiarism or not. Remember, by the way, that plagiarism is "presenting the words and/or ideas of other people as if they are your own". Turnitin and similar systems are advertised as "plagiarism checkers", but that's marketing. In reality they check for text overlaps, but overlaps do not necessarily constitute plagiarism. Overlaps can appear due to heavy use of cliche phrases or extensive but proper citing of others' works. Yes, universities sometimes take these "plagiarism scores" at face value and can reject your submission without looking further. It makes sense, unfortunately, as high plagiarism scores in case of student essays/term papers/etc. almost always appear due to blatant copying.

Scientific journals and conferences, on the other hand, are supposed to do a more rigorous job. They can (and sometimes they do) check incoming papers with automated systems (since blatant copying happens in this world, too), but they really then must look inside and uncover the real reason of this high score. If you indeed present the ideas of others as your own, that's bad. Otherwise the editors might complain about excessive quotations or lack of original content, but that's another issue, not directly related to your question.


How to reconcile with an old mentor after (unintentional) plagiarism accusations The question is not about plagiarism, it is about its aftermath. I am presenting the whole situstion.

Three years back, in my undergraduate years (summer after sophomore, to be precise), I did  my first major project with a professor in India. The project came out well and we had two publications next year.

Obviously happy with my work, the professor offered me another project, next year, which was entirely different and of higher level of difficulty (he had his graduate student working on it). He asked me to do simple simulations and mostly literature survey so that he could later use it. He also proposed some survey papers (all by same author, call him X) to start with. I wrote the survey section based on the papers mentioned in the citations by X, and added reviews of another dozens of paper. I cited all survey papers by X and cited others too. I also did certain simulations.

Meanwhile, he provided me references to land into a Masters program at one of the top 5 electrical engineering programs in the USA, and I will be forever indebted to him. After I came to USA, he had his graduate student worked upon the project and submitted a paper (I was surprised to be listed as co-author) including the survey section and simulations I did an year ago.

One of the reviewers pointed that the survey section has been almost a replica of X's works. The reviewer added that, although X's works has been cited, word plagiarism is still relevant. I got disappointed and wrote my mentor and email apologizing for letting him down. He didn't reply.

Now, it's been six months since the review came, and I really wish to reconcile with him. What can I do ?

few clarifications

The plagiarism was using 3-4 sentences from various papers without double quotes but properly cited. Also, half of my citations were same as X's works. It happened because, my survey was about major techniques in a field while X's surveys were about techniques in a subfield of the field.

I emailed the professor only once. He didn't reply and I never emailed him again.

I never knew how my section was going to be used because the project-work was incomplete. When his graduate student finished the work, he immediately submitted the paper and informed me after the submission. I should have got time to review something I did an year back.

Nobody is going to mention that the OP's old mentor put undergraduate work directly into a publication (i) without checking that it met professional-level standards of academic honesty and (ii) without informing the undergraduate that this was being done or that he was being added as a coauthor?  In my view, these transgressions are equally bad or a bit worse than including a few sentences without quotation marks from sources that have been cited in a survey paper.

In my opinion there is a good chance that the mentor is embarrassed that these lapses of his own have been exposed, which complicates the OP's situation.  I am surprised that other answers seem determined to pin this all on the OP.  @Scott Seidman suggests that the OP contact the editor:

  I think an email to the editor involved, cc'ed to your mentor, taking responsibility (without qualifiers) and stating that none of the other authors were in a position to recognize or correct this prior submission,

In my view the mentor was in the position to recognize and correct academic cultural errors made by his undergraduate mentee, and since the OP was not involved in the preparation or submission of the manuscript in any way, the responsibility for this clearly lies at least partially (and I would argue, primarily) with the mentor.  Sending such an email to the editor could just call attention to his poor mentorship and supervision: i.e., it could actually make it worse.  (Pro tip: don't contact an editor about something unless you're sure all your coauthors are on board.  If there is any real doubt, clear it with them explicitly.  If someone is not returning your emails, you can't do this.)

The OP is not blameless in the situation: he made a mistake, and a mistake involving what sounds like a borderline instance of academic dishonesty.  He should apologize to his old mentor -- which he has done -- and move on.  I would recommend that the OP continue to treat his mentor like an old mentor: i.e., send him occasional emails keeping him up to date on his current academic life.  I would certainly not assume that someone never wants to hear from me again based on a single unanswered email.  But ultimately the mentor should know that he made mistakes as well, from a position of far more experience and responsibility.  It does not fall on the OP to take any kind of heroic or (especially) self-abnegating measures to remedy the situation.  One hopes that eventually these two people can move past one negative interaction amid many other good ones.


Is it allowed to ask for help in community for thesis? I'm writing on my master's thesis. A specific part causes some troubles and I hadn't any progress here for several weeks.

I'm now considering to describe my problem, my ideas and my accomplished work so far in detail in a community and ask there for help.
Would that be plagiarism, if I got some help from the community? So I would be using someones idea.

The thing is, my problem is very domain-specific, so I can't really generalize it and ask at anonymously.

My adviser already tried to help me, but still I'm not really making progress.

Plagiarism is when you use other people's ideas and fail to give them credit.  So if you make it clear that an idea came from someone else, and credit them appropriately (with a formal acknowledgement or a citation), you will avoid plagiarism.

Of course, in order to be acceptable for a degree, your thesis will still have to contain a sufficient proportion of ideas that are your own.

Before discussing the details of your work with others online, you should ask your advisor whether it's a good idea to do so.  It's possible that your advisor specifically wants you to work out certain parts for yourself.  Another concern is that sharing your ideas increases the risk that someone else will carry out your research before you do - in most cases, this risk is outweighed by the benefits of sharing, but your advisor needs to agree.


Is there any concept of working paper in science and engineering? I have come across working papers in economics. I have seen 'papers in progress' listed on some researchers website but have never seen the idea of working paper as is common in economics. Just curious if this is practiced in some sub branch or was used at some point of time in history.

They are not common in my field(s) (numerical methods, high performance computing, etc.), but where journals are the primary, high prestige publication venues, we sometimes use conference talks to present works in progress. These talks are often accepted to the conference or one of its minisymposia on the basis of nothing more than light review of a one-paragraph abstract. This gives the author room to be a bit speculative in their abstract and talk about work that may or may not be complete by the time of the meeting. Later, if it works out, the material is turned into a journal article for publication.


what to do when the acceptance deadline has passed with no notification from the reviewers? I submitted a paper for an Elsevier journal in which the acceptance deadline appears as the 5 of may. The problem is that when I enter into the author´s menu it appears that my paper is with the status Required Reviews Completed and it has been like that for more that one month. Does it mean my paper has already got rejected? what should I do in this case?

Contact the editor and ask about the status of your paper.

  Does it mean my paper has already got rejected?

No, that's not what "Required Reviews Completed" means...as you probably know.  Maybe your paper has been or will be rejected and maybe it won't: there is no point in guessing.

  what should I do in this case?

Do what one normally does when one's paper is rejected: take the feedback into account and decide whether to resubmit elsewhere and whether to revise your paper.


How much should university ranking matter while choosing a place for graduate studies? How much should I weigh in on the ranking of a university (provided by various academic ranking websites) while choosing a university for graduate studies? The universities that I am considering have equally strong faculty profiles in the areas of my interest. So in order to take the final decision, should I factor in this 'so-called' measure of academic repute in the form of rankings?

Though the phrasing of the question apparently makes it akin to how university ranking affects post-Ph.D. prospects, the detailing in my question reveals that I am not really looking for that answer. My question is that if I have been accepted at several places (outside the top 5) all having similar faculty profiles, should I use 'rank' as a deciding factor?

This is a very good and tricky question to answer. In my field, ranking doesn't really matter unless the school is one of the top 5.

If this is the case in your field too, then you would use ranking to help you make a decision if everything else is very similar (in my field, advisor's reputation and research topic is way important). I imagine that highly ranked schools have very reputable faculty too, but in a PhD, the specificity of a topic plays a higher rule. Not all too five schools have resources/faculty to study/test topic X. For instance, in civil engineering, UC Berkley is one of the prestigious school and always have a  1-5 ranking at any given year. It very famous for earthquake engineering, however if you would like to study something like structural fire engineering (keep in mind both earthquake and structural  fire eng. are sub fields of civil engineering), you are better off going to a school ranked way below Berkley (or even to a Canadian/European  school)!

As for the faculty, I'm not sure if some departments have more "young" faculty as oppose to older faculty. I have worked with both and can assure you that it is highly dependent on the faculty member persona. Age of a faculty doesn't or shouldn't be a very important criterion. If you are thinking in the line of being active, have unique ideas and stuff like that and you are worried that being with an older faculty member would mean that you will be working with an old school arrogant guy who you will meet once a month and publish minimum number of papers, then fear not!

You will be surprised of how many young professors who get their PhD and think that they know everything. Also, you will be equally surprised of how many well established professors who think anything new (for instance, FE simulation) is a type of a gaming platform.

The key is to choose an active faculty with high reputation and who is easy to work with. Do your research and ask graduate students. They should have better insight and can provide with behind the scene information.

One more thing, good professors will always be on top of their research, aware of the up-to-date technology and current research regardless of their age. It is true that well established faculty might have better connection and funding. This is due to how long they have been around and their natural progression. It is also true that younger professors might have a better grasp at newer technologies. But keep in mind that those young professors that might have graduated in the last few years most likely had an "older" advisor.


How can I publish my independent research? To many of you this might sound extremely ambitious, but I am already doing a lot of innovative things in my area of expertise. I think the results from this research could benefit the general public. It would be nice for me to be able to write my results in a formal paper and publish it. However I am not affiliated with any university and I know how much scrutiny there is in publishing.

So assuming I have a paper written what are my next steps to publish it?

Find a suitable journal and submit the paper.


How much feedback to provide for unsalvageable manuscript during peer review When reviewing a manuscript as a peer reviewer and providing written feedback on a manuscript that is clearly a Reject, how does one decide how much feedback to provide? By "clear Reject," I mean poorly written, lack of novelty, experiments not satisfactory, issues with references, etc. Should the time be taken to provide comprehensive feedback for all aspects of the paper (i.e., what I'd typically do for a major revision) or do I just note the major components that led to the rejection recommendation? In other words, how much time should I spend providing feedback for a paper that is not reasonably salvageable?

For a manuscript that's so clearly a reject for all the reasons you state, I would not spend much time at all on feedback to the author. Of course you list those reasons for the editor.
If you are feeling generous with your time you could point out one instance of each of the kinds of flaws.


What are the advantages of putting your dissertation on Facebook? I am told that one of the best ways in which to disseminate information/knowledge/findings from doctoral research is to put your dissertation on-line. By default, many universities make the dissertations of their students  available on their websites.

I am wondering what are the merits of putting your dissertation on Facebook. I am unsure whether this is possible or there is just an ability to create a link on Facebook that goes to the university's website.

The above is particularly appealing for anyone who does not want to create their own websites.

Why Facebook, in particular?  I know you didn't want to do it, but I do suggest setting up a minimal website with your pertinent information (CV, Bio), and then hosting the dissertation there, with a link.  I would be very surprised if you can't get a free website through your university, and setting up a small site is relatively painless.  If you're going to link anything on other sites (e.g., Facebook), I would link your homepage.  I do not think you will get extra traction by simply hosting your dissertation on a particular website, social or otherwise.


I want to switch PhD programme I started a PhD programme 6 months ago.  During the selection process you were asked which areas would u like to work in. My studies specialization is in microbiology and molecular biology, I clearly stated that i wanted to carry on my research in food microbiology because I carry out my master thesis in this area. What is more, after the interview I was contacted by a professor working in this area because my profile was totally fitting the PhD they were looking for.

However, a big professor was also interested in me (the rector of the university) and directly contacted me to work with him in biosensors applied to food. I tried to go back to my interest but I found the door closed (some matter of power around...). Despite of this, I though biosensors sounded very interesting and I would enjoy it.

After the PhD kick-off I found out that we did not share the same definition of a biosensor.. they were meaning just sensors made with organic polymers. I was told to do a PhD proposal in a short time of a topic I had no knowledge in.

Nowadays, my supervisor does not follow me and they group is so new that there is only a postdoc researcher who is an engineer, we have nobody from biotech,food science or a chemist who works with sensors in the "bio" part. I am totally alone in my research in a  field I do not know. I told my supervisor and he told me to look for somebody who help me in the literature to help me. what the .....?? I really fear i do not manage to finish this PhD successfully.

I started looking for another PhD opportunities and I found one which I totally felt in love with. I would like to write the professor in advance but I am not sure whether I should mention that I am already a PhD student.

What would you do? In the applications I am doing I am commenting I am a PhD student that does not have interest nor the background in the area I was assigned..

Thank you,

Yes you can change if you want. Your advisor will probably be unhappy about this, but you have to do what's best for yourself.

And yes you can tell other professors that your position is not what you thought it would be, so you are looking to change. Yes it won't be the best story for them to hear, but it isn't universally poison either. I presume you don't exactly want them to ask for a reference from your current employer (on that note, probably should be quite careful your current advisor doesn't find out until your plan is set).

But finally consider that many (if not most) people probably feel overwhelmed, like an imposter, in over their head, etc. when they're six months into grad school. And it's probably never exactly what they expected to be doing. So just be sure this particular position is really the whole problem.


Status Change in Elsevier What does it mean - status changed from "with editor" to "decision in process" directly in Elsevier within 10 days of submission?

Everything is explained here in detail:

https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5971/kw/track/c/10528/supporthub/publishing/

  Decision in Process The Editor has registered a decision in the system. The decision may need to be confirmed by the Editor-in-Chief first. The Editor will email you directly with the overall editorial decision, Editor and/or reviewer comments, and further instructions.


Does the 'Internet of Things' fall under Computer Networking? I'm currently a MSc Computer Networking student and I recently became acquainted with the internet of things. I've fallen completely in love with this new area and I would love to base my dissertation on this area.

The problem is, I'm unsure if "The internet of things" falls academically within the scope of computer networking at the MSc level. My school is currently "closed" for the summer break, so getting to a lecturer before September is rather difficult. I'll like to know if this is an "okay" topic for me to base my dissertation on for my course, so as to use my summer to do some deeper reading on the subject.

I expect you'd have to argue that (some aspect of) current approaches to networking either won't scale to an Internet of Things (IoT), or else will need to be done differently because of device characteristics -- in other words, the networking aspects of IoT will have to be done differently somehow.  If you can do that, that could form the basis for a thesis.


Is citing in an abstract required to avoid plagiarism? Is it considered plagiarism if in the abstract, only key authors of frameworks used were cited and other peripheral concepts mentioned in the abstract were not cited but were cited in the body of the study?

In the abstract, you want to inform the reader about the paper that you have written, you want to convince the reader that is it worthy of their time to actually read some of it. You should realize that for the bulk of the readers, the abstract is all that they will ever read of your paper and as such, the abstract should stand alone, it should be a self-contained story. Including references in an abstract will ask for an additional investment of time from the potential reader, which might chase them off.

Plagiarism in an abstract arises when you copy text from other sources and include it in the abstract itself. In such cases, you present work written by others as something that you have done yourself, which is clearly wrong.

Plagiarism of another nature could arise when you imply that previous results from others were actually performed by you. As the authors of the original work will have an interest in your paper, rest assured that they will be the first to send you a message (if it was not picked up in the peer review process) asking you why you presented yourself as the author of work that you did not do.

Some final thoughts:
- An abstract is supposed to be short, so there is no room for things that do not belong there (a thorough literature review is one of these things)
- Clarity and honesty are essential. If you do not copy from other people and if you are Always clear (beyond a reasonable doubt) in your descriptions of the sources of the material that you present, you should be fine


Examples of when to use "Accessed" in citation and references I once found an example of "Accessed" from or date accessed in citation and references in the current 6th edition of the APA publication manual.  Would somebody please give me a proper example of how to use Accessed to cite and reference a website?  Also the page number in the APA manual would help.  Thank you.

Technically, APA uses "retrieved from" for websites rather than "accessed from":

  Retrieved [date] from [URL].

It should be noted that dates are only required for frequently changing content; more or less "static" web pages do not need to have a date included, although there is certainly nothing wrong with doing so.


Is it legal/ethical to use data grabbed from a Stack Exchange site in a paper? For example, I download all the content of Academia@SE, later analysis it in a data mining paper, and submit the paper in the end. Is it OK to do so? Do I have to ask the permission from the administrator of the website? And does he or she have rights to forbid my academic use? Thank you.

Your University may have an Institutional Review Board (IRB) that reviews how you conduct experiments. This board may be known by various names (Ethics Committee, Experiment Review Board, Human Subjects Research, etc.) but they are generally the ones that you would go to to consult about whether what you are doing is within the scope of ethical behavior and good treatment of human subjects data.

As StackOverflow and associated StackExchange repository data is available under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (as @piotr_migdal linked above) and is publicly available, your IRB will probably tell you, "It's fine" and not require review. However, it depends on the IRB and the institution and the nature of the data.

There are entire research disciplines built on scraping web sites, software repositories, and social media, so don't feel bad for doing it.


Credit transfer from Masters to PhD in a different University I am in the process of applying to several computer science PhD programs in North America, and I was wondering if any of the courses that I have already finished in my Master's (in a US university) could be applicable for credit transfer?

If I apply to the PhD program in my current university I will have less courses to finish for my PhD program, because I have already finished several of the required courses. Will I be exempted from taking some courses if I get accepted in a different university of similar or lower ranking?

Some of them may transfer, it depends on the department. For example, my department transfers a blanket N credits for PhD students who come with a masters degree. That is, instead of evaluating each individual class on the masters transcript, they just apply N credits of transfer credit towards the PhD credit requirement. (I don't remember the value of N offhand.)

You will have to check the individual policy of each department you apply to.


Some professors a my institution are asking for "common" spaces in which post-docs are not allowed. Is this ok? I have been working as a postdoc for nearly a year. In recent months, the university is working to upgrade office and common spaces within my particular building. Some professors wanted a "Faculty Club" which is something like a common space for interaction between scientists to share ideas and discuss problems. However, in the last faculty meeting some professors stated that this should be a space "only" for them and postdocs would not be allowed there, not even to use the coffee maker.

Now I live in a country (Chile) where there is a social rising with people demanding for equality and to stop discrimination between different social classess. In this context, the universities have a role to be an example and to educate people according to the social demands.

However, I see the same discrimination within the university, when you have professors that does not want to share spaces with postdocs like we were second class citizens. I understand that professors and postdocs have different needs in term of office spaces, but I don't think that in the middle of the 21st century you should start to ban people to use certain spaces just because they are "less" than you.

Is this common in academia?

You ask if this is common in academia. In all universities I've been in (only Europe), I've never seen something like this. Common rooms where usually for every employee of the respective department (administrative staff included).

Solar Mike mentions in the comments "Professors have a need to discuss "privileged" information such as grades which postdocs may not have the right to, so separate spaces are a reasonable necessity - and not a social slur...". That professors need to discuss privileged information is true -- but I usually saw a simple solution for that: People were allowed to book rooms for meetings and then only invited people were allowed to enter. This also takes care of the fact that sometimes privileged information needs to be discussed only by some professors (not every professor who drops in), sometimes between professors and postdocs (or between postdocs or phd students). If  your professors' argument is also that they need to discuss privileged information, you might want to suggest this possibility.

However, I suggest you to choose your battles wisely. Academia is a very hierarchical world -- it can be dangerous to start a battle about minor issues (as long as you are not a tenured professors).  Especially if your faculty wants to have a faculty only room (i.e. they themselves are no advocates of "flat hierarchies"), it may be dangerous to suggest too many revolutionary battles. If equality is really so important for you, try to find a professor who advocates for you.

(Depending on how your institution is, you might also want to fight for a "non-professor only" room.)


Abbreviation of Doctor of Philosophy: PhD or DPhil? I am a bit confused about the proper abbreviation of Doctor of Philosophy. I sometimes read that this person obtained his D.Phil from X University, while someone else obtained his PhD from Y University. According to Wikipidia:

  The University of Oxford also abbreviates their Doctor of Philosophy degree as DPhil but in other respects is equivalent to a PhD.

Is it up to me to decide what abbreviation to use?

The awarding institution determines the abbreviation*; someone made a Doctor of Philosophy at Oxford is a DPhil, someone made a Doctor of Philosophy at Cambridge is a PhD, and someone made a Doctor of Philosophy at a university in Austria is a Dr.phil. (before the name, not after).

*At the time awarded, as pointed out in another answer.

Addendum: As Jack Orion points out, the abbreviation is of the Latin doctor philosophiae, which is why appears both ways around (Latin is more flexible in its word order than English). Many other degree abbreviations make their Latin origin more obvious (e.g. the MLitt for 'master of letters', magister litterarum; the LLB for 'batchelor of laws', legium baccalaureatus, with conventional doubling of the 'L' to indicate the plural).


How do I get over these (possibly sexist) feelings regarding an underqualified labmate? Well, this is kind of embarrassing for me and I am judging myself as well.

I have just started my PhD. And there is another woman who has started in the same lab as me. Over the first week, I found out that she does not know how to program well. She does not understand many basic terms and had no publication before while I had several publications. On top of that, she is being paid several thousand dollars more than me.

Now, why I am judging myself? Because of my gender (man). Before starting my PhD, I used to believe that sexism was mostly created by insecure men.

Over the past weeks I have been having difficult feelings:

Did I not work hard enough for my PhD admission?
Could I be in a better university?
Or, is the system biased toward women?
Am I becoming sexist?

I do not know how to get over this. Any suggestions?

It seems as if you have two major issues.
1) This person doesn't know how to code
2) This person asks a lot of questions.

First, it would benefit you to remember that there are many skills required to be a good researcher. Examples include the ability to come up with good research problems, to develop theory, to read results in a way that makes connections/insights. This person may have been admitted because they are highly skilled at one of these other areas. The committee may believe that the person can pick up on the skills they lack. I myself started my PhD with horrendous gaps in my knowledge (my friends tell me that they were horrified by the questions I asked first year), but my letter writers were able to assure the committee that I was a quick study (and I was).

Second, you should remember that learning styles vary, and some people learn best by asking questions. It may not be your learning style, but one of the reasons study groups exist is that many people learn well by walking through problems and questions with others. This is the sort of thing that the askees seem to either love or hate. I had faculty tell me that I was their favorite student because I asked great clarifying questions during their courses/departmental seminars. I had other faculty tell me that I would never succeed in academia because "no one likes people who ask questions." If you are in group two, the best thing you can do is put in some headphones so you don't appear to be available for questions.


How to structure the personal statement? Note: personal statement is a different to SOP/research statement. Some universities require this, while the others don't.

Unlike the research statement (SOP), the personal statement fragments into a lot of stories. For example, the structure of the SOP simply has four important points that your need to present well: what I have done, why I'm doing now, what I want to do in the future, and how the department suits me (JeffE, 2012). And at each point you only have one story to tell (at least for someone like me). But I don't know how to structure the personal statement. There are a lot of suggestions to brainstorm the ideas for it, such as:

How you have overcome barriers to access higher education
How you have come to understand the barriers faced by others
Evidence of your academic service to advance equitable access to higher education for women, racial minorities, and individuals from other groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education
Evidence of your research focusing on underserved populations or related issues of inequality
Evidence of your leadership among such groups
And more importantly, how your personal background and experiences inform your decision to pursue a graduate degree.

Q: I have stories for those. The point is, I don't know how to structure them in an unified completed statement. They are just different sides of mine, and the connections between them are weak. I think that numbering them is even better than just splitting them in paragraph. I don't know if it's OK or not.

Also, as this statement is used for knowing me as much as possible, should I just tell them all the stories I have? And is there any different between this statement and the SOP for undergraduate applications?

Your personal statement or statement of purpose has a huge impact on your chances of securing a place at the university of your choice. The best way to structure it is to break it down as follows:

1) The Hook - this is the all-important first paragraph that grabs the admission committee members’ attention and makes you stand out from the rest. Don't be afraid to get creative with your writing here, you need to construct a narrative that stands out.

2) Are you telling a story? Admissions officers are human too! Don't relay your life story in a dull rote fashion.You need to communicate how you have got to where you are today and where you are going and why!

3) Support your story with data and facts - back up your narrative with actual data to support your claims. be careful not to go overboard and make the statement a list of facts and figures only.

4) Avoid the use of clichés - pretty straight forward, instead of a lame clichés, give an example of something you have actually done and back it up with hard facts.

5) Tailor your admission essay to the university you are applying for - every college is different and every course is different so make sure you do not just talk about how great you are, but what is great about the institution you are applying for.

6) Appropriate language and tone - You are not drafting the constitution or bill of rights, strike a balance between making sure your application is taken seriously and communicating a little of your personality.

7) Be Truthful - avoid the temptation to completely make things up.

8) Are you convincing - ask yourself if this is really the course you want to study and the place you want to study it? If you cannot convince yourself, then you will not stand much chance with an admissions committee.

9) Is your statement logical and coherent?  The statement should tell you personal story.  There is no set format, but be methodical as you progress though your key points, building a portrait of yourself.

10) Is the language perfect? Speak in plain English and always proofread your finished piece. Better yet, have a professional proofreading service give your statement the once over.

This answer is based on an awesome guide to writing a killer Statement of Purpose from Vappingo.com. There is also a free handy checklist to download.


When is it appropriate to contact the editor before submission to avoid rejection without review? Manuscripts submitted to a journal are often directly rejected by the editor without going out for review. I find this acceptable with the caveat that it's a huge waste of time having to reformat and readjust word length. Journals with high rejection rates should have an abstract only submission as a first step.

Anyhow, given this current situation: should I contact the editor of one or more journals that I think would be a good target for my manuscript before formally submitting my manuscript?

Some journals offer this option but others don't. So I am not sure if it is acceptable to or if just by sending an abstract I will somehow limit my chances of getting to the review stage.

Thanks for clarifying.  Don't worry about the effect this would have on your future chances with this paper and this journal.  If this pre-submission step fails, that is an indication that the classic approach would also fail.  Either they feel it's worth sending out for review or they don't.

But send the whole thing, not just the abstract.  They need to be able to see the tables and figures.

When you send the full long version to the editor, here's a way to word the question: ask whether the work is appropriate for the journal.

If you get an encouraging response, then you can start slashing, do a formal submission, and hope for the best!

(Source: I have to give the credit to my spouse for this answer, who has about 250 publications.  Edit: in case this helps -- in the field of experimental physics.)


Does posting paper online anonymously prevent me from publishing it in journal? I am a high school student and I am trying to publish my first research paper in mathematics.

However, I have already had my full paper posted without author information on the website of another organization. Now this paper (in pdf) can be found by Google. Does this prevent me from publishing the paper in a journal because of plagiarism-check issues?

I can prove that I am the author in the following way: that organization where I posted the paper can provide proof that I uploaded it and that the paper contained no significant plagiarism because it was checked by Turnitin.com's software before upload. The plagiarism-check report and the paper were posted online at the same time. How can I provide a proof like this to a journal? (I have not submitted the paper yet.)

(For lack of experience, I did not know that I should not have done this.)

There are two complicating factors involved here. It may or may not be possible, but it depends on these issues at least. Even if it is possible, there may be some "risk".

When the "organization" published your paper, did you assign your copyrights to them? It is possible that you did, and also possible that you retained all rights and just gave them a limited license to publish. The outcome is very different for these two situations. What did you sign or implicitly transmit to them to make it possible for them to publish. If they hold copyright or an exclusive license then there are things you cannot do yourself. Copyright law varies widely from place to place but is generally becoming more restrictive.

The second issue is that many places won't publish anything that has already been published. Many of them actually want you to sign over the copyrights and don't want to be limited by some prior license that you gave to another organization. This is very strict with some of them. But it is a limitation imposed only by their now policies and these vary. It would be a mistake to try to publish with such a journal without informing them of the situation.

But even if neither of the above considerations apply, you might have difficult claiming that a work is yours. If the original publisher makes the claim then it will be believed (most likely), but if only you make the claim it might be open to dispute unless you are backed up. In an ideal world (not this world, unfortunately) this would be a simple matter.

Therefore, the place to start is with the original publishing organization. You don't describe its nature. I worry about reputable organizations publishing the work of students anonymously as you have stated unless the is very controversial and you need some form of anonymity for personal protection. But you don't describe the circumstances.

But is that organization that holds the key. If you ask and they say no, without a legal reason, then you proceed with some repetitional risk.

An additional complication is that if you simply reuse what you previously published, without citing it properly, you can still be accused of self plagiarism. Normally one cites and quotes ones earlier work, rather than just reusing it.

By the way, turnitin isn't a sufficient check to prove the absence of plagiarism. Plagiarism is much more complex and subtle than what can be judged by an algorithm.


Is it OK to ask my host for an externally organized stay which hotel is being booked? I will be spending 2 weeks in China later this year, to visit a university and talk to the various research groups. The host university will be paying all my expenses.

My contact person at the host university has asked me if I would like for him to make hotel reservations for me or if I would like to do it myself.

Ideally I would like for him to make reservations, as he knows his own city. But am I "allowed" to ask to see the hotel first, before he makes reservations for me? Or is that considered impolite and rude as they are paying for me?

Given that it's in China (and I'm assuming you're not Chinese), I would let the host do it for three reasons:

It's important to be gracious to the host. This is a general rule in most cultures, but particularly in East Asian ones. Letting your host be a good host is part of this. Trust your host's judgement here.
My experience with Chinese hotels from Shanghai to Xinjiang is that there is minimal to negative correlation of the quality of the hotel to the website or the official star rating.  It is highly doubtful that you could ascertain anything superior from afar than what the local person would know.
Logistics. The host may want to put all of the people in a particular hotel (or spread them between a particular few) because of logistical reasons: geography and   they have only one van to pick everyone up, etc. etc.

I would let your Chinese hosts handle everything. If you have particular needs (room must face towards the south; hotel restaurant must have halal food; etc.) then let them know. Otherwise, let your host be your host.


PhD study for staff? I've recently been offered a research contract in a UK University within a Mathematics and Statistics department. I've been trying to get into Mathematical research for a long time, but in the mean time to continue research, publish, and so on, and to pay the bills I've had to take research based academic jobs in a varied number of departments in a number of Universities from Engineering to Sociology ! My background is Computer Science, in which I have a PhD.

My question is: Is it likely that a UK University would permit staff to study a part-time PhD in a new field within the department, e.g. Mathematics. If so, would fees be wavered? Or would this not be allowed since I already have a PhD in Computer Science. I've had a rocky road to Maths, for one reason or another, and had to take jobs I sometimes felt divergent to where I really wanted to go, so it would be nice to "tidy up" the loose ends.

If there is a gap in your knowledge, and there is a course being offered that is a good fit for you, you could either enroll in the course or audit the course.  One course per semester maximum, please, so that it is clear where your priorities are.

One PhD is enough.  Math and computer science are close enough.

Yes, your self-confidence will grow as you build up a publication record.

Congrats on getting the job!


Typical start date for lectureship (UK context) I received an offer for lectureship at a UK university. Their academic year starts in September. Usually (as far as I've seen), new faculty members start ~ 1 month prior to the start of the academic year. However, they want me to start 3 months prior  (basically before summer begins), citing the reason is for me to get used to the new environment and meet new colleagues (which would really only require 1 month if even that!).

My current position (fixed term) doesn't end until much later. And I have plenty of time to hand in my notice (although I rather finish my whole contract, just to tie things up nicely). All the same, I'm quite surprised by this very early start date. I reached out to the University and tried to negotiate with them, but they seem very firm on this (I didn't push because I was afraid they will rescind their offer, which I know is unlikely to happen in the US but this is the UK context so could be different).

No where on the original post advert mentioned a start date (or time). It's my bad that I didn't ask during my interview (as I just assumed).

My questions are:

is it typical in the UK to ask your new recruit to start so much
earlier? If not, should this be considered a warning sign? what
could be the real reason? They want to put me to work right away?
Can I negotiate (further) on this (How far can I push it)? and what
could be my leverage (I see none). This really early start date
feels rushed, not to mention it will be insane in terms of
relocating (and also breaking the lease on my house).
Thank you!

1) Doesn't seem too strange. I agree with @strongbad: it's probably an attempt to get your research productivity into their REF schedule. May also relate to when they set their teaching curriculum.
2) It's appropriate to push back. At worst, they just stick to their original offer.


How to resolve grading dispute between TA and Lecturer? On a math exam recently, the students were asked to use the definition of a limit of a sequence to prove that the sequence given by 3n/(3n+5) converges to 1. Given a positive number Ɛ, the definition requires proving the existence of some number N such that if n>N then |3n/(3n+5) - 1|<Ɛ.

As a consequence of the definition, once a sufficiently large N is found, any larger value of N will also suffice. Many students set |3n/(3n+5) - 1|=5/(3n+5)<Ɛ and solved for n to find N = (5-5Ɛ)/(3Ɛ). However, the professor decided to include an extra step: 5/(3n+5) < 5/n <Ɛ, which leads to another sufficient value N = 5/Ɛ.

Although most students gave a correct proof (consistent with the definition in their book), the lecturer took off points because they didn't find the "best" value of N. The lecturer claims that the author would have used some (unnecessary) inequalities to find the "better" N, which is probably true.

When students complain about losing points, I tell them that their answer is correct and that they should seek full credit for their work. The lecturer suggests that I am putting the students in a position in which they may "pick a side" and that ultimately the lecturer is in charge.

Who's wrong here?

Update: I was not notified about the lecturer's decision to remove points until after I gave the midterms back to the class. Once students started asking me about the missing points, the only written justification left by the lecturer was "not best N."

By "best N," the lecturer was referring to the N value found by using the additional inequality 5/(3n+5) < 5/n <Ɛ. By "best," he does not mean "smallest" (and by definition, there is no largest N).

The nature of the dispute makes this problem difficult.

As a mathematics (BS) and computer science (MS, PhD) student I have done numerous exercises that required proof of the existence of a natural number N such that for all n>N some inequality is true. In addition to limits in mathematics, they show up in computational complexity analysis of algorithms.

Every time I have done one of those exercises I have picked a value of N that made the proof as simple and clear as I could. Often, I was aware of a smaller value of N that would have required a longer proof. I have never been marked down for picking an unnecessarily large value of N.

Any finite value N, no matter how large, such that the inequality is provably true for all n>N is equally good. That is an important aspect of these definitions, something the students should understand and apply.

If smallness of N were going to be a grading factor, despite its irrelevance, it should have been announced in advance.

That said, it would have been better for the OP to discuss the matter privately with the professor, and perhaps with more senior professors. The OP should not encourage protests directly, but should state the professor's decision and recommend that follow-ups be forwarded directly to the professor or offer to forward them on the students' behalf.


Will low grades for a minor on my trascript affect my chances of getting into grad school? So, I started out as an Information Technology major and now decided to pursue Psychology. I wanted to also pursue a minor in Computer Science instead because I am 1 class away from a minor. I am undecided what exactly I want to do after I graduate, but I do know I want to go to some sort of graduate school. So far, most of my grades have been at least a "C", most of them being A's. This semester I am taking 3 computer science classes and a calculus class. I have been struggling this semester and I don't count on having high grades (I realized I am not as interested in this field and have trouble understanding the subject matter). I think a few of my grades will end up being D's, but my GPA should still be over a 3.0. Once I start my psychology classes, I think I can bring my GPA back up.

So, I was wondering if graduate schools would worry about the low grades I may receive this semester even though they are not included in my psychology major. I also do not plan on retaking any classes.

If I understand you correctly, you have been doing rather poorly in your current major but will change to another where you expect to do better. Assuming that you do, in fact, do very well in psychology and all of your later grades are better than your earlier ones, you may be ok. You can explain that you were ill suited to your first choice of study and changed, and now you are doing fine.

That would be a winning position for some, but not all, institutions, but you have what you have in your background. Make the most of your future, of course, and work harder, if necessary, to be a success.

Short story: Not a great position, but not necessarily a losing one. Make the future count as you can't change the past.


Multiple (two) undergraduate degrees in Phd application This year I will apply to graduate school in Statistic. My situation is:
I obtained first Undergraduate degree in computer science with very bad GPA (due to not focus on study). After that I worked as software engineer for one year.
Then I returned to another university and earn a bachelor degree in Math and statistic. This time I had very good record with highest GPA among math department and many research experiences.

Now my question is: Do I need to include my first degree in CS in application or I just need to use my Math degree?

You need to follow the instructions on the application.

However, most applications will want transcripts for all prior degrees. One good thing: you may not have been successful before but you were when you tried again. So, you've shown that you can be successful. That improvement is important to be able to demonstrate (as you've done).


My advisor has only met with me twice in the past year. Is this enough cause for me to change advisors? Social Science PhD student (in the US) here. My advisor does not meet with me (met twice in a year, did not meet the entire summer, took 2 months to reply to email). I feel extremely demotivated. I see other students in my program meeting with their advisors weekly, working out a dissertation topic, finding datasets and co-authoring. Should I change advisors? I am concerned because that would mean I'd need to change my research area and faculty can always put the blame on me and question my performance. I am 2 years into the PhD program, about to take comprehensive exams.

Yes. You are early on in the program and you should begin to work on changing advisors if you are not thriving under this advisor. When talking to new potential advisors, you can ask how they would handle the question of evaluating your performance given the switch. They can help to “go to bat” for you with their colleagues if questions come up about your performance. They may ask you to wait until after comps to officially switch if there is a chance that the switch could affect your passing. Usually, provided you pass comps, your performance is evaluated mainly by your advisor so this should not be a big issue.


How to interpret Italian grades for a grad school application I am trying to help assess grad school applications this year but have little experience.  In most cases I can work out a rough ranking but I find Italian university grades very hard to understand. For example, we have one candidate with

Master degree in Information Technology (Date) University of Catania
Grade: 1st (Italian grade: 110/110 cum laude)
Bachelor degree in Information Technology (Date) University of
Catania Grade: 2.1 (Italian grade: 110/110)

Does this rank the student as being the top of their year or do many people get 100% in an Italian university?

Does this rank the student as being the top of their year or do many people get 100% in an Italian university?

110/110 cum laude is the maximum obtainable result for a graduation in Italy. To achieve this result a student should pass most of the exams with a grade equivalent to that of US A/A+ and produce a very good dissertation. Take into account that in Italy, typically, exams are not graded on a curve.

More specifically, exam pass grades in Italy range from 18 to 30. To have the possibility to get a final grade of 110/110, a student should typically average about 28 or more along the 3 years of the BsC degree or along the 2 years of the MsC degree.

However, the relative number of students who achieve this result can depend on the field and can vary between universities (this is a major source of problems when comparing grades). Unfortunately statistical data about grades are not easily found on universities web sites (e.g. I couldn't find these data for my university). Maybe the consortium Alma Laurea might provide general statistical information.

Edit I: I've found some statistical data: this pdf file from Alma Laurea contains a report on the 2013 graduates (unfortunately, it is in Italian only). On p. 120 there is a graph which shows grade classes vs field. For the engineering field (ingegneria), 16% of the students achieved the maximum result of 110/110 cum laude.

Edit II: As Aubrey noted in his answer, the Alma Laurea web site contains also a searchable database of graduates' profiles. For example, for the year 2013, for the Department of Electric, Electronic and Computer Engineering (Information Technology probably belongs to that Department) at the University of Catania, the database reports these data. The average grade for the MsC degree is 107.5/110 (110/110 cum laude is considered as 113/110 for the calculation of the average).

For comparison, and to show that there can be a large spread on the averages, for the same year and the same kind of Department, graduates from the Politecnico di Torino (my university) have an average grade of 99.6/110 and those from the University of Rome an average grade of 101.8.

Edit III: Last but not least, students can ask to their universities the so called Diploma Supplement, a document which should help the international recognition of the qualifications. This document provides information on the Italian grading system and reports the corresponding student's grades in the ECTS grading scale. So, in case of doubts, better ask foreigner students to attach this document to the application documentation.


Can we actively ask an editor to take a decision? I have submitted a paper to a Taylor & Francis journal. I received two constructive reviews and one negative, together with an editor’s request for major revision. My coauthors and I didn’t agree with the third reviewer and wrote a polite rebuttal. After major revision two referees accepted our work. However, a fourth review was provided and contained 3 pages of new issues, probably raised by reviewer 3 but it could also be a new first review. The editor now requested for a revision. Again we did not agree with the changes proposed by this reviewer and submitted a second polite rebuttal. This can go on and on. Can we actively ask the editor to take a decision if we are of the opinion that requested changes do not improve our work?

You can, but there's no guarantee the editor will make a decision. It's her journal - until she's satisfied nothing gets published.

A few things to think about:

I personally find it pretty unusual to invite a fourth reviewer for a paper that already has three reviews. I might invite more reviewers if the reviews I received were poor or if I didn't have enough reviews to be confident the first time round, which doesn't seem like the case here. Hence I suspect the "fourth review" was written by the third reviewer.
It's true that this can go on and on, but it's more likely that you're already at least halfway to a final decision. My experience is that very few papers reach four rounds of revisions.
If the paper-to-editor ratio is high, then it's possible the editor is operating on autopilot. If you ask the editor to make a decision quickly, your paper could come under greater scrutiny. This could e.g. lead to the editor inserting some comments of her own or challenging some of your revisions that the 1st/2nd reviewer has already approved of. Conversely if the paper-to-editor ratio is low, then your request is much less likely to change anything.
People don't like to be told what to do, especially in this situation where the editor is the person in charge of the journal. If you decide to ask for a decision, write something non-accusatory, e.g. "we've been through two rounds of major revisions. When can we expect a decision?"


Extensive introduction in an incremental paper? Suppose I'm writting a (mathematics) paper proving that a famous conjecture is true in yet another special case. Should the introduction to the paper include extensive background explaining why this conjecture is important and what is already known?

On one hand, my first instinct is that, of course, if I'm writting a paper on a certain subject, I should explain the relevant background to my reader. If there were relatively few papers on this subject, there would not be any need for this question.

However, if I were to be totally honest, my introduction would go something like this:

  A lot of people have worked on Conjecture X. For instance, in [1] {insert name of a famous mathematician} proves that Conjecture X is true for all flabby sheaves*. Here, I show the same conjecture for fine sheaves, for basically the same reasons. I could explain why, but you'll be better off reading the introduction to [1] instead, so I won't bother.

Is it a bad practice to write a more polite version of the above instead of a genuine introduction?

There is also a matter of citations, which work out very differently in the two sceniarios: in the latter case there would be much fewer. It's not the most crucial consideration, but I would be interested to hear if it is a separate reason to avoid minimalistic introductions like that.

*) The conjecture I'm talking about has nothing to do with algebraic geometry and I myself know nothing about algebraic geometry beyond the very basics. I'm only talking about sheaves because I'm enamoured with their terminology.

The answer fundamentally depends on who the audience for the result is.

If you are addressing people familiar with the conjecture, then your introduction makes sense, because it consisely conveys the information they would be looking for. In the rare case that a novice reader comes across your paper, they may be a bit put off, but can still follow your reference to read the introduction there.

If there is a reason why people not familiar with the conjecture should care about your paper, then you should give those people more. In particular, you'll need to tell them why exactly they should care.


How do professors view a student who has good grades but always asks stupid questions? I am planning to apply for Ph.D programs in mathematics in U.S. and I am thinking about which professors I should ask for letters of recommendations from. In order to get "strong" letters, I need to determine which professors believe I am really strong.

Although I do well in most of my classes (I am always trying to get full marks on my homework and tests), I do have a "bad" habit of asking stupid questions frequently. I can see from the faces of professors that they dislike students who always ask stupid questions, while welcoming students to ask questions. (If you are a professor and don't think this is the case, please let me know...I really appreciate it.) I feel like professors prefer the questions that will make them have a better understanding about the subject instead of the questions that they will waste their time on.

What do professors think of a student who has good grades but always asks stupid questions? Should I expect good letters from them? Or I should go to the professors whom I seldom ask questions (but still do well in their classes)?

Students often have a highly distorted perception of themselves with respect to the feelings of their professors.  The differential in both power and experience between student and professor is just so large that it's quite common for a student to confuse the very distinct attributes of professorial attitude, personal affection, and intellectual respect.

As such, I would suggest that you really don't know what your professors think of you until you ask them.  Maybe you are reading them correctly, but maybe not: many professors are quite pleased to have a student who carefully advocates to improve their understanding of material, even if they might wish to be getting on with the lecture in the moment.

My recommendation is to tell the professor you're thinking of applying to Ph.D. programs and ask them something like:

  Do you think that you would be able to write a strong letter of recommendation for me?

The "strong" is important here, because that's what will get you the honest opinion of whether the professor thinks well of you or not, and you don't want letters that are not strong.


Taking selfies with conference speakers I'm at a conference and I really enjoyed a plenary lecture by a speaker.
His work resonated with some of the stuff I have been working on myself.

I have a Journal Club presentation coming up soon in my lab and I'm planning to present a few of his recent papers along with other perspectives in the field. Would it be ok to ask for a selfie at the conference dinner to put in the presentation?

In general, is it acceptable to ask scientists for selfies? I doubt that it matters, but the field in question is protein chemistry.

Yes, it is acceptable. I heard a rumor that scientists are human beings. I have not been able to confirm it, but it seems like a plausible assumption, and if you are willing to accept this as a working hypothesis, it follows that it is acceptable to behave around them as you would with other human beings.

In particular, most human beings are flattered if you approach them with excitement and admiration and ask to have your photo/selfie taken with them because you want to brag to your friends (or whoever) about meeting them, and would either happily agree or (less likely, but possible) politely refuse. Scientists - even protein chemists! - are no exception to this rule.


Conflict of interest with Professor's own business entity First time caller, long time listener :)
I'm an assistant professor in a research group. The professor leading our group (and my long time mentor) told me, roughly one month ago, that he got involved into creating a legal entity together with an old pal of him (not in academia). They plan to be commercially active in our field of study.
I don't find this problematic in itself, but I'm worried about conflicts of interest: he does not plan to make his involvement in this entity public any time soon, and surely not before it is commercially active (they are setting up things right now). Moreover, He already mentioned to me that he plans to use interviews carried out within the scope of our research group activities (which, of course, we carry out on confidentiality premises) to the benefit of this company.
As I was uncomfortable with all of this, I shared my concerns with him. He told me that he doesn't see it as I do, that he'll make his involvement transparent 'when the time is right', and that it's common for people in his position to have their side-business (which is true, but I guess there are specific procedures?).
Finally, he told me that if I show enthusiasm and support for this idea he sees me in a shareholder role in the future. I am of course intrigued but at the same time disturbed by the offer in response to me expressing concerns.
Am I overreacting? What should I do? I confess I feel lost and destabilised. So any advice is welcome.

You should read your university's conflict of interest policy and outside employment policy.  Follow the policy as long as you work for the university.
We don't know the policies, and cannot give more detailed advice.
If the policy is unclear or does not exist, get university leaders to fix it.
Keep in mind that the majority of startup companies are never profitable.


How to explain to department's president that my time spent as an undergraduate assistant/intern was goalless? This is a follow-up from my question here on my atrocious relationship with my internship/assistance as an undergraduate at a teaching lab.

Since I only have some weeks left to end this awful experience, I am planning to visit the department's head(who is also my professor) at his office to explain how unproductive and pointless my "training" was and how I was being exploited by my supervisor.

The problem is that the president is also my professor(teaching courses I'm interested in), and I wonder if anything I say against my supervisor or my experience will worsen my future studies (and relationship) with my professor until I graduate.

I wonder if anything I say against my supervisor or my experience will worsen my future studies (and relationship) with my professor until I graduate.

It could, and this depends on many factors (including the character of this professor, his relationship with your supervisor, your character and how you explain things etc...), I don't think anyone can predict whether or not it actually will.

I recommend first considering what you hope to achieve in discussing this with the head of the department (aka president/professor). I can imagine a couple of possibilities:

You feel the need to unload and feel some sympathy.
You care about the system and hope this can be avoided for future students.

If it is mainly the first, I strongly suggest talking to a friend over a beer instead. You'll avoid the risk, and also won't essentially waste your professor's time (which would probably negatively affect his impression of you).

If your motivation is the second, I think this is quite a noble and selfless thing to do, showing high integrity, but it does put yourself at quite a bit of risk with essentially no gain (it helps future students, but if I understand correctly, not you). If this is your goal, I urge you to first consider whether you think this professor would actually care about the advice of an undergrad (I have known professors who would appreciate it, but also some who would simply consider the student to be complaining, in which case relations with that professor would indeed worsen). If you think he will, then I suggest the following:
Before speaking to your professor, make sure you can present the situation clearly, as objectively as possible and concisely (the longer you speak, the more it sounds like a rant and you lose interest - also professors tend to be very busy, and thus have low attention spans for issues that don't seem important). Be very clear straight off the bat that you understand and agree that what has already happened has happened and nothing can/will be done for you, and your intent is solely to raise awareness of the issue so that it can be avoided in the future. Possibly put this intent in writing when contacting the professor for the meeting (again, as short as possible).

In the end, taking action here will involve risk, regardless of your intentions. You will have to weigh how much you care about the issue, and what chances you think you have.


Why are grant indirect costs so high? I am preparing an NSF grant proposal in mathematics. I am requesting summer salary and a travel budget (and not much else), and after I compute the total I have to add an extra 50% of it and add it as the "indirect costs" of my proposed research.

This feels absurd to me (although it is the same, sometimes with an even higher rate, everywhere in the United States) -- especially since I do not require any special facilities or equipment to conduct my work. Is there a convincing argument to be made that this is reasonable?

The indirect costs help to pay for all of the other resources you have access to which are not directly paid for by other costs. For instance, these indirect costs help to pay for administrative assistants, information technology, library subscriptions, utilities, and other costs.

They can also go to pay for the costs of administrators (including the fine folks in your university grants and contracts office who actually submit your NSF proposal).

Whether or not the rate is reasonable for your university is hard to judge, but a 50% overhead rate overall is not that excessive. Compare that to industry or the US national laboratories, where the overhead rate can exceed 200%, and things don't look so bad in comparison.


Failed my professor months ago, not sure what to do now About 8 months ago I was about to graduate university and was trying to figure out what to do with myself then. A professor asked me if I wanted to do  my masters with him and I said yes almost without thinking.

I still had classes at that moment so for about a month and a half I focused on my courses and he did not talk to me so there was little communication between the two. Due to an error in the system, my application for a masters program got delayed to January this year, rather than July, when it was originally planned by both me and the professor. I was taking 2 highly accelerated courses, one of which was a grad course, so I in between the stress and my own ignorance I neglected dealing with that issue until it was too late.

I had an immigration status that made it so that I needed to get a job within 90 days of graduating or I would be kicked out of the country. Without talking to my professor I panicked and applied to jobs, got one and then "remembered" to tell my professor essentially a week before moving to a different city to start my job.

In other words, I told him I would work with him and then didn't communicate anything to him and then a month after went back on my word and left for a job.

This professor is the person with whom I did my undergrad thesis, so he is invaluable as a recommendation reference. But I don't think I deserve or have any right to ask him for references. Worse than that, even if I was shameless enough to ask, it is unlikely he would give me a good reference after I essentially shat on a verbal agreement and betrayed his trust by unilaterally taking fast decisions without telling him anything.

Is there anything I can do here? I messed up, I messed up horribly, but I still want to go to grad school even if at this point I probably don't deserve it.

I think you are being a little bit too hard on yourself. That said, you acted unprofessionally and were irresponsible in communicating with the professor. The prof may feel like you treated him with a lack of respect, so it is important to make it clear that you do respect him, and that your behavior was selfish and childish.

The best course of action is to come clean.

Write an email or schedule a call with the professor.
Apologize for behaving unprofessionally.
Do NOT make excuses. You can mention that you couldn't have started the masters program because of visa issues, but you should have told him as soon as you discovered that information. Remember, what you did wrong was fail to communicate. Not starting the masters is not the "crime".
Acknowledge that your behavior was unprofessional.
Thank them for their mentorship over the years. Take some time to think about what you learned from them and let them know. This demonstrates your maturity and shows that you respect and appreciate him.
Apologize again and mention that you hope that you haven't ruined the relationship.

Assuming the professor is a reasonable adult, they will accept your apology, and you may ask for a reference in the future.