Misreading of review by editor I submitted a paper to a journal in pure mathematics and got a rejection mail 5 month afterwards, which essentially said that having two referee reports available they couldn't publish it. So I read the reports and one said strongly recommend, whereas the other started with a very very harsh paragraph (everyone I asked said they wouldn't ever believe that a report that starts like that could end in any other result than rejection) but eventually also suggested not to reject the paper but doing a major revision (which essentially consisted of reducing the material presented and thereby changing its structure -- so very likely that the author is able to do a successful revision).
So my question is: Could you imagine that the editor might not have read the full report but stopped after the first paragraph? I have to admit that I couldn't blame him/her for that.
I asked the journal for clarification and after some back and forth they told me that I was rejected due to a long backlog but that I could do a revision and resubmit (if there is a reason why this would help with a full backlog that I don't see, please enlighten me also in this point). However, I could also imagine that they just gave me this explanation to stick with their decision, which would also be understandable to me.

A major revision is similar to a resubmit. So, the editor has made a reasonable decision.
To answer your question: Yes, but my imagination only requires the possible existence of such an editor, so that answer isn't interesting.


Advice for a new journal editor I was recently appointed to the editorial board of an academic math journal. I'm excited about this position, and I want to do the best job I can. I have no experience with the role however, other than my interactions with journal editors as an author and reviewer.

What makes a good editor? Those of you who are academic journal editors, what do you wish you knew when you were just starting out?

Here's my advice to you, as a long-time member of editorial boards and, more recently, (co-)Editor-in-Chief: Ask!

Many of us get thrown into this role at one point or other in our lives, and think that we can figure things out, but the reality is that there will be many cases where you simply don't know for sure what to do. In that case, ask around. Ask your older colleagues who've had this role for a while. Ask your editor-in-chief. (In fact, you should have probably asked the questions in your post to your EiC to begin with!) Ask the other members of the editorial board. Don't try to muddle through by yourself, but use the resources you have and assume that the people around you are there to help you figure out what to do.

In addition to this, here are a couple of guidelines you should also follow:

Act ethical: If it is conceivable that a reviewer you have in mind might have a conflict of interest on the paper, don't assign them. If you could possibly be conceived as having a conflict of interest yourself, ask the Editor-in-Chief to assign the paper to someone else.
More than anything else, the reputation of the journal (and, by extension, your reputation as an editor) rests on whether you turn around papers within the timeline the journal strives for. You will frequently assign papers to reviewers who don't respond to your invitation; or who say that they will do the review, but then don't end up doing in a timely manner or at all. Don't let things drag on. Email them again. If they don't respond, call them. If you can't get a commitment from them, unassign them and assign the paper to another reviewer with the request to turn around the review in a shorter timeline (whatever time you have left after the delay). That will occasionally involve calling in a favor from a friend, and sometimes doing the review yourself. In any case, don't let things sit forever -- problems with timeliness don't tend to work themselves out magically.
If you disagree with a reviewer when you make a decision (say, because the reviewer writes a rather short review and recommends publication; but you feel that the review is not of sufficient quality and want to discard it and instead go with the other reviewer who was more critical), then explain your decision. In fact, explain any of your decisions to both the authors and the Editor-in-Chief. People sometimes think of editorial boards as composed of these inscrutable people who nefariously make decisions in smoke-filled rooms based on their current mood; but in reality, editors just do the best they can with the information they have, and then forget to explain their thinking. In other words, whatever it is that's on your mind, communicate it to the people who might want to know, rather than letting them guess.


How important is the choice of dissertation committee? I am currently a PhD student and I need to choose a dissertation committee as I will be graduating soon. (I already have a postdoc lined up.) It seems the only function of this committee is to read my thesis, attend my defense, and decide whether to grant me a PhD.

Assuming my dissertation committee serves its purpose and grants me a PhD, what further relevance do they have? How should I choose my committee? In particular, is my committee still important after I graduate?

The reason I'm asking is because I don't really know who to choose. It seems like I should just ask whoever in my department is available. Should I be considering other factors? For example, it is good to have "famous" researchers on my committee?

I asked my advisor and she didn't voice an opinion and said it was essentially up to me who to choose.

I can share my perspective as person who recently completely a PhD thesis (May 2015). I think that choice of members is something which should not be taken lightly. I would think about a couple of key components. Which members of the faculty have interests/experiences in areas which are potentially interested in pursuing the future? They could be useful in terms of networking in the future.  Are their members of the faculty who you have spoken to about your project in the past who might be able to bring a bit of familiarity to defense, this is potentially important in terms of them being able to write a stronger recommendation letter. I think the last thing to think about are the different components of your thesis and selecting members who can best ask you about the individual sections in your thesis.

Best!


What is the meant by "A high standard of illustration (both line and photo) is an editorial"? A high standard of illustration (both line and photo) is an editorial
  priority.

What is meant by "line" here? I am not getting this into my mind. The sentence above is taken from the "Instructions to author" part of a journal.

"line" means "line art", and could be anything from pen drawings to graphs (plots) or other illustrations drawn with a thin pen or its electronic equivalent.

The reason line art is often listed separately from photos is that it requires a higher resolution image and usually also a different file format for high quality output.


Should I put the papers that I contributed only a little to on my CV When I was a undergraduate student, I worked in a professor's lab doing research about "A". I helped the senior members to do some work they didn't want to do, like designing a website for their demos, or doing some basic calculations. You don't have to have the background knowledge of A to do that work. Then they added me on two papers, though I was always the last one. Afterwards, during my master study, I conducted real research individually in another field "B". Now I am trying to apply for study in an interdisciplinary field that merges fields A and B.

The problem is I know little about A. I am a afraid that the professors in the admission committee would ask me something about A and I definitely can't answer. And they would think I lied, which I didn't. Should I put the papers on my CV?

Your list of publications has to be complete. You should not omit any papers for which you are an author.

If you are uncomfortable with some items on your list, you may add a note on why you happen to be a co-author, but dropping some work is not a good practice.

In your case, I'd say that there is nothing wrong with these publications: The other authors agreed that your contribution was worth co-authorship and that's usually ok (assuming that the other authors know their field and acted appropriately). If somebody asks about that paper, you can frankly say that you did the calculations but that you can not answer questions about background/other parts or such.


Best practices when hosting visiting speaker (especially with the questions part of their talk) I'm an undergrad and I have invited a speaker to come and speak in my department. He's a mathematician at another university, and although what he will talk about is relevant to mathematics, it's not an academic talk or seminar. It is an academic speaking to other academics and students in an academic setting, however.

I've organised this completely alone so it's down to me to introduce the speaker and make sure the talk runs smoothly. I've never done anything like this and I'm worrying about how I should do it. I'm especially worried about how to run the questions section - which will be a substantial part of the time (at least 15 minutes of the hour).

Here is how I imagine it should go:

I thank people for coming and introduce the speaker.
I sit down and the speaker... speaks.
At the end of his talk I stand up and ask if there are any questions. If people raise their hands I'll point at them so they can ask the speaker their question. I'll keep an eye on the time so when there are just a few minutes left I'll say "there's time for just a couple more questions".
After the last question, I'll thank the speaker again and that'll be it.

Should I be doing the questions? Or should I let him call on people himself? (In the latter case, how should I make sure we stay in the time limit?). Where should I stand if I'm moderating the questions? The lecture theatre has a stage where he will stand to give the talk. Should I just stand to the side of him? If I'm standing up there, is it ok for me to ask questions (particularly if nobody in the audience is doing so)?

This is in the UK, in case that's significant.

First of all, stop worrying - I am sure that, no matter how you decide to approach this, the quality of the talk will be much more memorable to the participants than how you ran the Q&A part from an administrative point of view.

Further:

  I thank people for coming and introduce the speaker.
  I sit down and the speaker... speaks.
  At the end of his talk I stand up and ask if there are any questions. If people > raise their hands I'll point at them so they can ask the speaker their question. > I'll keep an eye on the time so when there are just a few minutes left I'll say "there's time for just a couple more questions".
  After the last question, I'll thank the speaker again and that'll be it.

This is pretty much the standard layout of such sessions, and I see no problem at all with running it like that.

  Should I be doing the questions? Or should I let him call on people himself?

It is more common that you as a "moderator" call the questions, but I have certainly seen it handled differently as well.

  Should I just stand to the side of him?

Probably not during his talk, but when you are moderating the Q&A part you may get up the stage. However, most moderators seem to prefer to stand somewhere to the side, presumably to not steal the presenter's thunder.

  is it ok for me to ask questions (particularly if nobody in the audience is doing so)?

Yes, you should make sure that you have at least a few fallback questions as a discussion starter.


Can I do Part III of the Mathematics tripos as a part of my PhD in Cambridge University? I am physics master's student in India. I wish to do my PhD in theoretical physics in the Applied Maths department at Cambridge (DAMTP). Can I apply for a PhD and do Part III as a part of it (akin to 1 year of coursework before PhD in India or Master's + PhD in US) or should I do Part III and apply for a PhD in DAMTP separately by the end of it?

Even though I have good grades in all my courses, I am not confident with my skills. My institute is one of the very best in India, however I am not satisfied with my understanding of most of the subjects (and mathematical rigour in general) and there are a few topics, e.g. Advanced QFT, Advanced GR/Cosmology, which are not offered here. I believe Part III would help me in fixing these holes and I want do this before my PhD (in Cambridge or elsewhere).

From the Cambridge website: "Part III is a 9 month taught masters course in mathematics.  It is an excellent preparation for mathematical research and it is also a valuable course in mathematics and in its applications for those who want further training before taking posts in industry, teaching, or research establishments."

See also the Cambridge website and Wikipedia.

Part III of the natural sciences tripos is essentially a Master's degree: you take courses and exams and write an extended essay. The application process is completely separate to that for DAMPT PhDs (or PhDs in any other of the Cambridge physics departments).

The simplest option is to do Part III and then apply for PhDs while you are doing it. It's highly unlikely you will have time (and I'm not sure it's even allowed) for you to take Part III courses while registered for a PhD. You could contact someone in Part III admissions to ask them whether you can take courses alongside a PhD, but I suspect the answer would be no.

Personally, I wouldn't place too much weight on the importance of Part III. It has its fearsome reputation for a reason and many people I know who did it, hated it. If you go straight into a PhD, you will learn the relevant knowledge as you go along -- it's unlikely you'll need an in-depth grasp of every part of QFT, general relativity, group theory etc.  Anecdotally, of the other PhDs in my year group (not Cambridge but a similarly reputable cosmology institute), only one out of seven of us has Part III. You easily can succeed in a theoretical physics PhD without it.


Best margins for master thesis written in LaTeX I'm writing my Master's Thesis with LaTeX and I'd like to know what are the best margins I should use.

My university doesn't force any template. LaTeX default margins seems to me too large. Do you have any recommendation?

In addition, I would like to know if I should keep two different margins for even and odd pages. I'm using the book class.

Thanks!

Your question may not be completely appropriate for academia.sx but probably not for TeX.sx either.

Anyway. rather than focussing on the width of margins you can consider the width of the text area. Research (I do not have references at hand at the moment) has shown that around 65 (within the range 45-75) characters per line is optimal. This means that if you switch type face or size, the number of characters will change. Hence the same text area may not be optimal for 10, 11 and 12 pt or conversely your text optimal area will change with type face and size. To some extent, this is built into LaTeX which is at least partly why the margins may seem less than optimal.

So to approach the question of margins, try to select the type face and the type size you want to use and then check the resulting text area size for line lengths between 45 and 75 focussing around 65 characters.

The question of right and left page margins is a matter of simplicity. If you centre the text area on the page the areas will appear the same on all pages. When viewed as a pdf the text will not move around from page to page which can be slightly annoying, particularly if inside and outside margins have widely different widths. So will your text be read frequently in digital format use simple margins, if the print is important differing in- and outside margins may be preferable. Just make sure any printer does not screw up the margins by removing or missing printing blank pages that will result in a shift of left and right hand pages.


Can I use purchased graphics in an academic paper/poster? I've purchased a bundle of infographic element sets (templates for charts, graphs etc) which are licensed for personal and commercial use.

Would it be generally acceptable to use a template I've purchased to display data in an academic paper/poster, and would I need to reference the original source of the template?

Many thanks.

There's two aspects to that: Licensing and academic ethics.

Regarding licensing, you write that you have a license that covers personal and commercial use. Probably commercial use will include academic (i.e., professional) use, but make sure that your license permits you to reuse these elements in a publication. For a poster I don't think it will be a problem. For a research paper, you typically need to transfer copyright to the publisher, which you can't for these elements. So that will need special consideration.

Regarding academic ethics, the way to answer this question is to think about the scientific contribution that is being made with these elements. Does the creator of these elements contribute in any way to the scientific content of your publication? If yes, you should give an attribution, if not, an attribution is not required.

It's not clear to me how much science did go into constructing these elements, but think of the following extreme case: When writing a paper, you obviously use graphic elements, which are the font of the letters, to convey your message. But typically, you don't attribute the creator of the font, because there's no contribution to the scientific content. It's really just the medium you are using to communicate your results, and you don't need to attribute that.


Contacting Professors and Letters of Recommendation Last week I emailed a professor from my undergrad whom I was close with to say hi and inform her that my undergraduate thesis had been published. I am currently in a master's program and asked her if she would be willing to write me a letter of recommendation for upcoming PhD applications for next Fall (and it is worth noting that she wrote me a letter of recommendation for the program I am currently in). She has yet to reply and having a letter from her would really strengthen my application. Is it in poor taste to resend her an email, or should I move on? Like I said, I would really like to have her letter as part of my applications.

You should absolutely follow up with her. At this point you have no idea why your email did not get answered. She could be at a conference. She could have missed it completely. Or she could have meant to write you back and simply forgot. I'm in my last year of grad school and none of these things are particularly uncommon for professors. Do not waste time wondering about why she did not write you back, simply reach out to her again. Your letter should say something like this: "Hi Professor So and So, I'm following up with you regarding the letter of recommendation for my graduate school applications..." When this has happened to me I almost always get an immediate response with a flood of apologies for the late reply.


How to write a graduate study personal statement for a technical field without related bachelors degree? With the desire to obtain a master's degree in Management Information Systems, IT Management, or Computer Science, how do you proceed writing a personal statement when your bachelors degree is unrelated?

With minimal previous technical experience (basic knowledge on programming, some collegiate participation in software club), is it possible to be considered seriously? What can be added to the statement to strengthen your impression?

I ask because a lot of the graduate ambassadors at DePaul have bachelors in different fields.

Related: How does one change to engineering for graduate school after undergrad in a science field?

I was recently accepted to a MS program that is different from my undergrad and graduate training.  In my personal statement I tried to relate my experience to the field I was pursuing.  I had field research experience in public health, but I was applying for a MS in biology.  I still used my research experience, but I focused on the general research skills that I developed, things that would be useful in the lab.  I mentioned things that are universal to all research.

I think if you convey passion and direction for the new field, you'll be alright.  It can be an advantage too.  Think of ways you can incorporate your previous field if possible.  If not, show them your maturity and passion.  It seems like admissions committees can tell who is going through the motions and who is genuine.  Make your voice heard.


What to do when on-line instructor is ignoring questions? I am enrolled in an on-line graduate course. The course is not available in the classroom format.

For the past few weeks, the instructor has ignored every question I sent him. I've asked for:

help in understanding specific course content.
clarification on upcoming assignment instructions.
clarification on the problems in my papers.

I used the recommended contact method described in the syllabus and all other tools on the course Web site, but he sent no replies to these.

The first two kinds of questions should be asked in the course's public discussion area so that the answers will benefit all students.  Since you've used "all the other tools" in the course, perhaps you've done that.

I suggest a concerned phone call to the department chair.  If the professor is not present in the course at all, ask, "Is Dr. X OK?  He hasn't been in the course in several weeks."  If he's around, but ignoring you, ask, "Do you know whether I've somehow offended Dr. X?  He hasn't answered any of my questions in several weeks."

The point is to give the chair a chance to make corrections without having said anything like "ignoring me."  If it has already been several weeks, I'd suggest doing this very soon. Be as specific as possible about dates when the instructor stopped responding, how other work such as quizzes is handled, etc.


How can an undergrad absolutely impress Research Professor during a research internship? I have been accepted for a research position in a very renowned Medical Professor's research group over the summer. The internship starts after 5 months so I have enough time to prepare to perform extremely well and impress the Professor. I would appreciate if you provide me some valuable tips and advice. Thanks!

The solution is straight-forward.

Gain enough knowledge of what your research group is progressing on
Develop skill-sets that would aid to to work in the group

Better yet, contact the professor and ask if there is anything you could do get prepared for the research internship. This would not only portray your enthusiasm and dedication, it would give you a clearer idea on what exactly to improve.


How to come up with research questions that are well-defined and suitable in scope and relatedness for a thesis? I have decided on the area I want to contribute to, and have found a basic but huge problem for my research. Now my professor told me to redefine the area, so to break the, at the moment, huge area down into subquestions to create an interesting closed problem, which is addressed by my thesis.

At the moment I have come up with several different questions I have found. However, I do not see any pattern where these questions are related to each other. My questions also seem quite loose and do not define the closed problem I am aiming for.

A related question on this site is how to come up with research ideas. My question is not about how to come up with ideas in the first place, but how to define these ideas so that they can practically become a thesis.

Hence, any suggestions how to come up with several subproblems, which define a closed corpus for my thesis?

This sort of thing only evolves as the product of your exhaustive reading, and discussions with your supervisors and peers.

After that, at some point, your supervisor will say something like: "before you can really get into your research, just resolve this little thing - it should be fairly trivial."

That's your thesis, right there.


Is it possible to submit new GRE scores after having applied to an acadmic program? I intend on taking the GRE but I haven't had the time to study much and so now I feel I am facing the option of either

Taking the GRE anyway, most likely getting very unimpressive scores and applying to academic programs with these scores, or
Cutting my losses and applying for programs the next time they announce applications (which, in some cases, is a year from now).

Is it possible to apply with my first scores as some sort of "provisional" score and inform them that I will be re-taking the rest soon? How much does a "bad first time, better second time" affect how admissions reviewers see applicants? In the case that extra background information would be helpful, I am a non-traditional student who already has a (short) record of research experience.

Honestly, the GRE scores are perhaps the most useless part of the application record. Good scores tell me that someone speaks English well, and is capable of basic mathematics. A bad score could just be a signpost of having a bad day, or perhaps some issues with English that don't necessarily translate into being a bad student or a bad researcher. (Just about the only thing GRE scores tend to correlate with in grad school is the performance in first-year classes!)

If you do have replacement scores, you can definitely send them to grad schools. They'll be considered, but they're not likely to sway a decision (unless the school has a minimum cutoff—which is possible for international students).


Copyright and reference for explanatory diagram I have a schematic diagram that I created and have used in a published peer-reviewed conference paper. It is not part of the method or the results for the paper, just an explanatory diagram giving context, explaining teh terminology used in the text. I want to use the same diagram in a journal paper on a similar subject. Do I need to
1) reference the original conference paper in the article caption?
2) seek copyright permission from the conference organisers?

You should check with the original publication and the submission journal. Technically you are re-using copyrighted material so it seems little to no trouble to ask and get the correct answer rather than go ahead and correct a later misunderstanding.  The journal, for instance, might care to know that they are publishing material copyrighted elsewhere.


What does it mean to go directly from "under review" to "decision in process"? I submitted a paper to an Elsevier journal in mathematics, which is right now in "decision in process". The status changed in the following manner:
Submitted to journal----(after 1 day)--->with Editor----(after 8 days)-->under review-----(after 15 days)-->decision in process.
But there was an intermediate stage ("required reviews completed") between "under review" and "decision in process", which was not followed.
What does this mean? Is it a bad sign?

Manuscripts move from "Under review" to "Required Reviews Complete" when all the necessary reviews to make a decision have arrived. This is usually journal-dependent, e.g. some journals can move the status when one review has been submitted, while others might ask for 2 or 3 or more. Manuscripts move from "Required Reviews Complete" to "Decision in Progress" when the editor's ready to make a decision.
In this case you didn't see "Required Reviews Complete", which could mean:

Editor decided to make a decision before all the reviews have arrived. This could be for all sorts of reasons, e.g. the status moves when 2 reviews have arrived, but only one reviewer submitted a review and the editor's making a decision anyway. Or the editor decided to terminate the review process on the strength of that one review. Etc.
Editor "got to" the manuscript before you did. In other words, there really was a "required reviews complete" status, but the editor was monitoring the journal at the time and moved the manuscript along before you saw the status change.

In all cases there's nothing to do except wait.


After my PhD supervisor left, I was assigned to a new PI who has little experience in my area I am halfway through my PhD (given 3-year contract) and I feel I'm in my worst phase. The PI (let's call this PI X) who recruited me as a PhD student left my institute for a better position somewhere. Before X left, X assigned us (Ph.D. students under X) to a new PI in our department who is not yet all experienced in the work I'm doing. Once in a while X is talking to me through skype but now X seems to be mainly interested in authorship of the work we have done together and also a project we planned to do.

The main problem I'm facing now is, I don't have anyone to give me feedback on the analysis/interpretations I'm making from the data. If I don't get any critical comments/feedback on my work, I'm feeling I'm not learning anything new. And, this will also be a problem in the long run, when I make my work into a manuscript. Our department head, who recruited X seems to care about the situation but I didn't discuss it with him. As I have this new PI (who is also recruited by dept. head), if I discuss the situation with the department head, things will get more complicated. I know as a PhD student, I should be more independent but if I don't get enough feedback on my work, how can I improve my critical thinking.

Any suggestions on how to deal with the situation is greatly appreciated. I can provide any additional information if required.

Thank you.

I don't understand why this sentence has the word "but":

  Once in a while X is talking to me through skype but now X seems to be mainly interested in authorship of the work we have done together and also a project we planned to do.

Without the "but," that would sound great!

In principle, your choices are:

Transfer to X's new institution
Stay where you are but continue collaborating remotely with X (with lots of email and some occasional phone calls and video conferences).
Allow yourself some travel to where X is for some in-person collaboration (this has to be done with consideration for X's schedule and preferences, of course).
Talk to the department head and ask for advice.
Talk to someone else in your department and ask for advice.

Another thing you can do is basically choose option 2 (and perhaps 3), but try to be more independent than before, so that you don't need to take up so much of X's time.  Here are a couple of tricks for doing that:

Have a dialogue with X in your mind, where you lay out a question, and then you imagine the discussion that would ensue with X, based on what you know of X.  This works best when you're almost asleep.
Rubber duck your problem with a good listener, as programmers do when they're having trouble finding a bug.  Walk the listener through the background to your question, and the question itself.  Often, going through this careful exposition with a human being who at least looks like he's paying attention will get you unstuck.


Why Elsevier Journals don't change status of a paper? Why  Elsevier Journals don't change status of a paper?

I am new to this publishing world and I don't have much knowledge in this field.
I am Junior Researcher.

I communicated only one paper until now  in Elsevier Journal.

My question is "Do Elsevier Journals not change status of a manuscript"?

I have submitted my manuscript nearly 5 months back and it is still showing the status "With Editor"

I am kinda confused whats going on.

How will a researcher come to know about its status?

I did mail the Editor two times but got no reply.

What should I do? Should I continue waiting and hope that one day I will get some reply and status will change?

Do all Elsevier Journals keep the same status from Day 1 until acceptance which is "With Editor"?

See also: What does the typical workflow of a journal look like?

Of course Elsevier journals change their status when there's an update. "With Editor" is one of the earliest statuses, and not progressing is a bad sign.
You "come to know" about the paper's status by looking at its status. It's "With Editor" right now.
You didn't say which editor you emailed, although not getting a reply is another bad sign, of course. Did you email the journal office, the editor-in-chief, the handling editor, etc? Whichever you emailed, try emailing a different editor.
Considering it's been months and the editor apparently hasn't invited reviewers, waiting is not a good idea. Email the other editors, or withdraw your paper and submit elsewhere.


How does PhD admissions committee look at my old gre score after starting my Masters I am currently an international Masters student studying at a US university and I'm in the process of applying to several computer science PhD programs in North America. I didn't have the chance to retake the GRE exam to increase my score. I'm wondering how the PhD admissions committee takes into consideration my 3-year-old GRE score... will they give it less weight given that I've already started my Masters, or will they treat it exactly as if I have just took the GRE exam?

I do not have experience from the perspective of a committee, but I believe that the general way to look at it is that the GRE scores, no matter how old they are, are simply another part of your application package, regardless of timing.

There is no difference in consideration for undergraduates if their GRE is new or from their freshman year; I would imagine that there is no difference that you took your test before your Master's.


Nightmares and frustrations with students' sloppy homework I have a serious problem with HW usually submitted by students.  A considerable fraction of the students are not neat with their HWs. By neat  I mean respecting the guide lines I provided them to follow, such as:

A4-size paper, do not use detached papers from a notebook
Use only pencil, so you don't scratch
Be organized, not sloppy
Write clearly, so it is readable.

Things like that.

Unfortunately most of the students insist on not following these rules, or they will do it for some time, then they will start being sloppy again.

Am I the only one facing this issue? If not, how can one solve it?

It could simply be students doing the minimum in order to get by. The solution is to raise the minimum. To do that, start denying points for non-compliance.

As Suresh wrote in his comment, electronic submission might be appropriate. In my classes I require that whatever students submit be word-processed written in a specific font. If the students do not follow the instructions then I treat them as if they never submitted at all. As you can imagine, seeing this one time in class gets everyone to pay attention.

Basically, eliminate hand-writing if you can. Some students simply have very poor penmanship so it's best to structure things so they can use a computer. Ideally, save the paper and submit electronically.

If you cannot eliminate hand writing them make it clear that if you cannot read (or understand) what they wrote then their score will reflect that. I have issues with some students writing in English (not their first language) and I make it very clear that I'm not here to judge their English but if I cannot understand their intention without guessing, I will simply mark it as gibberish.


getting funding as a master of engineering student I'm applying for master of engineering, but unless I can receive some financial aid through funding, I can not attend. So is there any way to receive funding except TA?

Look for scholarships from your university, as well as outside scholarships devoted to your specific branch of engineering. Another option would be to do a co-op or have a part time job, as that would not only pay your costs, but also give you real-world work experience. If all else fails, ask your adviser and financial aid people. They will be able to show you whatever is needed. You could also apply for entry-level work positions and try to work and study at the same time.


Can anyone help me to find out what resources are suitable for practicing the TOEFL exam reading section? I had the TOEFL exam a few days ago. I got 27 in writing, 25 in speaking, 26 in listening, and 17 in reading. Although I was able to read all the text, in the reading section, almost easily, the reading questions were very tough and the four-answer questions were similar to each other, and was pretty tough to take the right answer in 30 seconds for each question. I believe, it is because the source that I was practicing on, was not commensurate with the rate of difficulty of the real exam. Even ETS website free practicing questions cannot demonstrate the difficulty of the real exams. I live in Iran and cannot purchase authentic practicing materials easily, although I can do that with extra effort. I just want to know if anyone can help me or introduce any other resources that represent the real difficulty of the questions in the exams. The TPO simulator provided by institutions in Iran does not represent the real difficulty of the exams in the limited time span. Any other suggestion will be welcomed.

I have had to take TOEFL about two decades ago since it was an admission requirement. Back then, as now, I believe that the biggest problem was in having full and unequivocal understanding of the questions. The general approaches to academic reading fail miserably on the question/answer sets. In general academic reading, you can afford a slightly superficial understanding, at least on the first reading, only to later drill down to get all the details clearly and dispose of the inevitable misunderstandings of the first reading.
Yet, when it comes to any sort of standardized-style examinations, superficial understanding of questions is never enough, and it will jeopardize any benefits you may have from deep understanding of the prompt itself (the text or the topic you're asked about).
The fact that you classify the questions as similar should be inconsequential: they are very stereotypical, and must be devised along some common patterns. That the similarity seems to be an obstacle means that you have only superficial understanding of the questions - an understanding that is insufficient to answer correctly. Your perception of similarity of questions should be a flag to yourself that you've got some work to do in the area of not glossing over details in the questions. So, if you are looking for some definite area you could focus on, it'd be to understand the nuance of the language used in the questions and answer sets. That language is to a large extent stereotypical as well, and full of patterns that you'll only find in the reading q/a sets and not anywhere else. You would probably not be mistaken in looking at it as if it was a technical jargon. Familiarity with it would go a long way in improving your results.
Think of it this way: the techniques useful in reading the prompt are different than those in reading the questions/answers. You can't afford the long time it would take to fully "dissect" the prompt before you tackle the questions. So you won't, in most cases, be able to have unequivocal understanding of the prompt a priori answering the questions. You need to acknowledge that some finer points of the text may have to remain unclear until a question is there to point you to go back and delve deeper if needed. On the other hand, the questions cannot be glossed over. You have to fully understand them, and then the similarities will be of no concern - a bit of trivia, but otherwise of little consequence. With full understanding, the differences between the questions will stand out, the similarities will become a background feature.
Remember that the people who write the prompts and the questions and answers do it as a matter of their job, and it's done en-masse. There's no way to be too creative at such a job. The prompts (the reading texts), the questions and the answer sets are all extremely stereotypical - you just lack the experience of seeing enough of them to see those patterns. So you may have to take me at my word that the authors of the prompt text, the questions, and the answers, are not really trying to be clever to "catch you" unaware or to trick you. No, I don't have any direct nor 2nd nor even 3rd-hand experience here: it's all based on my morbid curiosity in the workings of the standardized test "machinery". Very unfortunately, it is a "pay to play" field where the "research material" is firmly behind a paywall, and one is contractually forbidden from discussing some of the details. Thus, whatever I can divulge here is partly filtered by my sincere wish not to break the rules I willingly bound myself to.
I can only sympathize with the observation that lots of study materials are not representative of the difficulty of the test. That's because there are practical limitations to doing an adequate job when preparing such materials.
Let's now look at things from the perspective of a person who want to create test preparation materials ("study books" and such). There are only two  major avenues:

Repeatedly taking the test as often as allowed, having money to pay for it, and having the perfect memory to memorize everything and good enough writing skills to paraphrase the structure of the prompts, questions and answers. If all you want is TOEFL, and you're taking it in the US, then it's a $2k/month "hobby" if you want to take as many tests as you are allowed to. If you want to diversify, then GRE at maximum rate is $1k/year, SAT is $400/year (depending on how exactly how many administrations there are in a given year), etc.

Breaking the test contract if you are a test-taker (i.e. by using some obscured device to capture test content in violation of the rules you agreed to abide by), or breaking your employment contract if you happen to work for ETS, or breaking the law outright if you figure out how to get access to the test materials in spite of not working for ETS. In some jurisdictions/situations, breaking the rules of employment contract may in itself be a violation of the law as well.

Most people who want to make any sort of a career, even if brief, in test preparation world, will do well to avoid the 2nd option. The 1st option takes resources, dedication, and people with memory skills - and you need that up-front. The 2nd option carries, well, a false promise at best.
I've taken TOEFL some number of times over the years out of sheer morbid interest, and what I could reverse-engineer was:

The multiple-choice part of the test is selected from a permutation of a large pool of prompts and question/answer sets.
There may be a tendency to think it "easy" to leak those, maybe just slightly altered, to provide test preparations material. It's obvious that each person taking the tests within a certain time frame can be individually identified just from the multiple-choice material they leaked. As for the fallout - the contract one signs to take the test is telling. It's important. I imagine that in the best of cases, one would be "only" barred from taking any other ETS tests when caught - that's a problem in itself, since ETS also administers GRE, for example. Thankfully the academia is slowly weaning itself off of the unhealthy dependence on ETS as a gatekeeper. Worse consequences would all be of legal nature, I imagine. IANAL so that's all I know about it.

The essay part seems to be "organizationally constrained". A decade+ ago, the essays were clearly scored by humans. And those humans must be on a team. And that team has some leadership in place, surely to answer questions of those in the trenches, or review some of their scoring, etc. It's no different than in any other group setting where multiple employees make repetitive decisions along some pattern, e.g. in awarding bank loans. Only the timeframes may differ. My entirely made-up guess would be that, say, a test scoring person may have to score a 100 essays a day, but a banker may approve/process a couple house loans a day, on average, so there can be a 1-2 orders of magnitude disparity in rates, but the oversight process, and the relatively rigid guide set for each essay prompt or each type of a loan would remain.
The essays are so specific and different from each other that I bet it's impossible to be scoring different essays all at the same time. Maybe approving a couple different personal residential bank loan types may be within the ability of a good banker. When I imagine myself scoring an essay, there'd be just way too much to remember to be able to effectively score multiple essay prompts in succession. So, I imagine that most of the time the people who score would be working at one prompt (topic) at a time, and switch as needed, but such "switching" requires everyone to switch: the managers have to switch and familiarize with the new essay prompt just as the people who score.
My experience so far is that if you get multiple people to take TOEFL on the same day, it's highly probable they'll be writing the "same" essay. In the last few years, it became rather clear to me that some of the essays can't but be scored by software, and not a particularly clever software at that. That software used to be really easily fooled by syntactically correct writing that had a varied and "highly literate" vocabulary yet amounted to gibberish - it wouldn't pass by any human not totally asleep at their job. Nowadays, the software seems to be cleverer, but still distinguishable. I guess if you think of a future as a test scorer, it'll be a future of historical interest mostly at some point.

Each time I took the test, many of my curious friends did as well, and we all had the same essay prompt but our multiple-choice questions all varied and the best we could tell there was no overlap between them. Surely ETS has a huge pool of questions to pull from.


How do professors and lecturers learn to teach? I am a PhD student in the field of education and I enjoy reading SE questions to stimulate my mind when I need a break. I find academia to be one of my most frequently visited sites.

When reading questions, answers, and comments to questions of teaching practices I often see content I consider problematic given what is “known” (a word I will use loosely here) from research in educational psychology.

How do professors and lecturers learn to teach?

I do not mean this flippantly as I often see high-quality contributions on SE as well.

I suspect teaching courses as doctoral students is a consistent practice across fields, but I am curious to know what accompanies this in fields outside of education.  What other resources are provided besides having professors and lecturers learn on the fly and make their own conceptions of what good teaching practices are?

I understand this may be largely field and institution dependent. I also am asking from a U.S. context, but I would be interested to know if the structure is noticeably different between countries.

This answer is based on my experience in Germany, and in an engineering field.

For interested teachers, universities usually have a central department that offers training, workshops, brochures, and plenty of information about how to teach. For example, here, here, and here.
Many lecturers do not take advantage of these possibilities and still learn on the fly. Doctoral students often have recently attended master courses and observed how teaching was done there. In many cases, the professor gives the lectures and the doctoral student teaches the corresponding tutorial, which consists of doing practice exercises on the board. This is easier to do than teaching concepts, and provides an opportunity for the doctoral student to become confident in teaching.
Evaluation by the students also plays a role. The students are asked to give anonymous feedback on the lectures and tutorials approximately at the middle of the semester. The teacher can then learn what they can improve in their method of teaching.


Question regarding career in Mathematics I apologize if this is not the correct place to ask such a question. This is my first time using Stack Exchange. Please feel free to point me to another site if this is not the correct place to ask this :)

I just completed my undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics. The reason I chose these two majors is purely because I have a passion for maths and honestly enjoyed every moment of it. I have no regrets in choosing them as my majors.

Now that I am done with undergraduate, it is time for me to decide what I want to do next year. In my country, after finishing a undergraduate degree, you can do one year Honours degree after which you do Masters and PhD.

I can not see myself doing anything other than working with mathematics for the rest of my life. I would love to pursue postgraduate studies in (Pure) mathematics and work as a researcher and lecturer. My lecturers have pointed out to me that I have potential in mathematics, however, I do not know if I am good enough to make it "out there" at other universities (since I do not think I want to stay in my current country for my Masters and PhD).

My Pure mathematics throughout undergraduate used to be in the range of 69% - 85 % in first two years of undergrad, however, in my final year of undergrad (when we started courses such as Advanced Real Analysis, Topology, Abstract Algebra, Complex Analysis, Group/Ring Theory etc) my marks jumped greatly into the 90% since I really loved the more "abstract" work.

My question is basically - do you think I will be fine (and by that I mean "good enough") in order to pursue a career in mathematics academic and research? Will my more moderate marks of my first two years count against me greatly, or will my final year marks be a decent indication that I am competent enough to further my studies in Mathematics and succeed in an academic position? And most of all, what will it take for me to succeed and make this dream of mine a reality. Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.

If you want to pursue a mathematics career, the first step is to apply to PhD programs. Once you have been accepted into a PhD program, your undergraduate grades no longer matter - no one will ever look at them again. People only care about your most recent activity.

As far as I can tell, you are asking two questions: (i) Are my grades good enough to get into a good PhD program? (ii) Based on my grades, will I be successful as a mathematician?

(i) The biggest factor in terms of getting into a good PhD program is your recommendation letters. Grades are not the deciding factor. It sounds like your grades are good enough that they won't count against you. So you should really ask your professors for career advice, as they have a better sense of your abilities and they will be writing letters for you. i.e. you should ask them for suggestions about where/how to apply for PhD programs.

(ii) It's very difficult to predict how well you will do based on what you did as an undergraduate. There are people who are amazing as undergraduates and then struggle as researchers and also people who are not exceptional as undergraduates and then become amazing researchers. Of course there is a strong correlation between how well you do as an undergraduate and how well you do as a researcher, but it is not perfect. There is no way to know for sure.

The only way to find out for sure is to try!


My PhD advisor writes funding proposals based on my ideas without involving me My PhD advisor writes funding proposals based on my research ideas without involving me in them. The first time he wanted to use my idea he asked me if it is okay for him to write a proposal on the idea. He also mentioned that he will involve me in it. At that time I very happily agreed to his proposition. However, he did not involve me at all in the proposal and later just mentioned that it just happened that he couldn't involve me. Recently, I again came up with another good idea and shared a written document with the details. He asked me to share the source file of the document and mentioned that he will use it for a funding proposal without mentioning about my involvement. Is it a common practice for advisors to steal their students' ideas and write proposals without involving them at all in it? Is there anything I can do to get myself involved in the proposal? Would it be wise to request my professor to involve me in the proposal?

Maybe your advisor is up to something... but I wonder if it's just poor communication between the two of you. Let me explain how my advisors and I work, and it might give you a different perspective on the situation. Or at least a starting point for talking to your advisor.

I have more ideas than I could personally work on, and some of those ideas led to funding for MSc students to build upon my research. That's great for me, because it means more citations of my papers, possible co-authorship on their papers, and the satisfaction of seeing my research go in multiple directions. Perhaps your advisor is thinking along those lines, but hasn't communicated that to you or asked what you want.

My advisors typically write the proposals without me, apart from asking me a technical question now and then, or asking me to review the proposal. I'm glad, because I'm trying to finish up my PhD and don't need any extra work right now. But if I did want to be more involved in the proposal writing, I know that all I would need to do is ask.

My advisors do keep me informed of all the proposals they are writing or even thinking of writing based on my ideas. If one of the ideas was important to me and I wanted to work on it personally after my PhD, I have no doubt that they would respect that. Either they'd drop the idea, or they might suggest that an MsC student work on one aspect of the problem, while I focussed on the main idea. We'd talk about it, and work out the best solution for all concerned.

If you have shared an idea with your advisor, but haven't told him that you want to work on it yourself, maybe he doesn't realise it. So maybe all you need is to have a good talk.


Etiquette with regard to email consolidation Background: I am a fourth year math graduate student in the US.

I currently have three active email accounts: personal (gmail), graduate university (windows live), and undergraduate university (also windows live).  Shortly after I began graduate school, I set up the latter two accounts to forward everything to my gmail account.  I vastly prefer gmail's interface to that of windows live, so I almost never even sign into the other two.

I coordinate a student seminar within our department, so I regularly send email messages to the department's list of graduate students.  In an effort to prevent people from spamming that group, the department secretary must approve all messages before they are passed onto the list.  After I sent a message last week, I was reprimanded for not sending it from a university account.  This exchange led me to the following questions:

Do universities/departments ever a formal policy in place about the use of "non-official" email accounts?
Do people find it personally bothersome when colleagues don't use their university account for professional correspondence?
Is there anything I absolutely should not send via a "non-official" account?  (There's a good chance FERPA could be involved here...)

Any responses to these questions or related comments are much appreciated.

Note: I am aware that options exist within gmail that allow it to send email via another account that I own.  It is likely that this will probably be my solution to this problem, but the question I'm specifically asking is about the ramifications of continuing to send mail without the use of this feature.

Do universities/departments ever a formal policy in place about the use of "non-official" email accounts?

Yes, at least in Europe most universities seem to at least frown upon using gmail etc. in professional contexts. Whether there is a formal policy against it will differ from place to place. I would not even be able to tell in my current university, as the thought has not really crossed my mind so far. However, our department head is occasionally reminding people informally that they are expected to be using their official mail addresses.

That being said, whether universities with a formal policy exist isn't overly important for you. You should primarily care whether your university has such a policy, and this we cannot answer for you.

  Do people find it personally bothersome when colleagues don't use their university account for professional correspondence?

Yes, I personally find it somewhat unprofessional, although I have no particularly strong feelings on this. I do occasionally wonder why people who clearly have an official account of my university specifically choose to send emails to collaborators and students via an account like cookiemonster93@gmail.com. It can't be that they prefer the gmail user experience, because, as you say yourself, it is very easy to use gmail also with non-gmail accounts.

However, note that even using the gmail web client as a frontend for your regular university accounts may already be a breach of policy. At least here in Switzerland, universities are not happy about the mailings of their employees being uploaded to Google (but then again they certainly wouldn't use Windows Live either, so maybe your universities care less about data privacy than the ones over here).

  Is there anything I absolutely should not send via a "non-official" account? (There's a good chance FERPA could be involved here...)

I'm not in the US, so I cannot comment on FERPA, but in my university basically everything that has to do with students, assignments, tests, or grades needs to be sent encrypted with the certificate that is bound to our university identity. This also automatically excludes sending it over a different mail address. Every "official" communication needs to at least be sent digitally signed using said certificate, which again excludes other mail accounts.


How do I motivate pursuing a PhD in Computer Science (CS) after a BSc in CS and MBA in Finance I've developed a strong urge to pursue CS again to deepen my understanding of specific fields of interest while contributing in high-tech and R&D industry. I graduated with 3.0 and 3.7 GPA in a BSc in CS and MBA in '12 and '17. I've 6 years of experience as a software developer and manager unfortunately none of my work was research oriented. From the research I've conducted most entry requirements prefer applicants to master computer science as it's most ideal but a 2nd master's degree (in CS) is rather deterrent from a time and financial perspective. Has anyone had success getting into a decent PhD in CS with this sort of combination?

You're an excellent candidate for a PhD in Computer Science: You have a BSc in the subject, you have six years of industry experience, and you've developed a strong urge to pursue CS again to deepen [your] understanding of specific fields of interest while contributing in high-tech and R&D industry. (A desire to deepen your knowledge isn't enough, you need to be truly passionate about contributing in high-tech and R&D industry. I presume you are.) Your MBA gives you business know-how that'll focus your attention towards research problems that'll have real impact on society.

From the research I've conducted most entry requirements prefer applicants to master computer science as it's most ideal but a 2nd master's degree (in CS) is rather deterrent from a time and financial perspective.

Entry requirements are tailored towards the average entrant, which, I'll speculate, is someone that's never left university. You aren't an average applicant. You can confirm my theory by calling some admission departments. Thereafter, identify supervisors that pursue research that impacts technology. Pitch yourself to them, explain how your skill set will advance them. Establish whether they can help you on your pursuit.


Is it correct to call oneself "Doctor/Scientist/Mathemathician" simply because one has a PhD in that field? If I use the word "Doctor" amongst laypeople, they will think I actually work as a doctor, treating people or advancing medicinal research on a daily basis.

If I use the word "Mathematician", they will think I work at a university where I spend some of my time lecturing students and some of my time doing research into complicated math problems.

If I use the word "Scientist", they will think I work in some laboratory where I am pivotal in the advancement of some cutting-edge research that will make the world a better place.

However, one can denote oneself using above terms by merely graduating and/or acquiring a PhD, even if one then left the field entirely, either out of choice or due to a failure to succeed.

My question is thus, is it wrong to call oneself a Doctor/Mathematician/Scientist if one is actually not working as one such, but merely acquired the appropiate degrees? Since clearly one is knowingly deceiving others*? If this question is too opinionated, I shall then ask: how many academics do actually use their degrees and doctorates to label themselves even if they actually are not working in those fields?

*To provide an example of such deceit, I had thought for a long time that Sam Harris, who writes many pieces on political, religious and scientific affairs, actually was a neuroscientist, as he claims. That sounded massively impressive to me the first time I heard it,  and added much merit to anything he had to say about science. I recently however found out that all he has done as a "neuroscientist" is get a PhD in it, and his thesis has been heavily criticized.

It's not the individual word that matters. Calling oneself a scientist is not unethical, no more than it is unethical to call oneself a musician without being in the Top100 charts. What is unethical is deliberately representing yourself in a way that causes people to assign you an authority that you do not have.

This is an incredibly gray area because it is entirely dependent on context. As an example, answering "I'm a doctor" to the question "so, what do you do?" would be misrepresenting yourself if you are in fact a mathematics PhD who now works in insurance. However, answering "I'm a doctor" to the question "how well-educated are you?" is perfectly reasonable.

The difference in understanding of a topic between someone who left a field a few years ago and someone who is currently still researching in it is probably not too huge, when it comes to science popularisation efforts. I'd also take issue with your characterization of "just" a PhD - PhDs are the frontline researchers of science, the further along you get in your career the less time you have to actually put your hands on the science. Professor is mostly a management job.

That said, you shouldn't be so impressed with someone that you defer uncritically to their opinion based on just a title. Every field has its marginal cranks, even actively currently practicing ones.


Manuscript Revision: How to include the response to reviewer comments as an attached file? I have recently received a major revision from a journal. In the manuscript upload portal, I find only one place in the form of a text box where I could include the response to reviewer comments. But there is no place link to upload a document. I am thinking of choosing to include the response file as an attachment as it includes mathematical equations.

So whether a separate file can be attached to include the response to reviewer comments?

This depends on the editorial management system used by the journal. If they let you attach multiple files, then upload the response to reviewers there (be sure it's clearly labelled as a response to reviewers), and write in the text box "see attached file". If they don't let you attach multiple files, then merge the response to reviewers with the manuscript's PDF, upload that, and write in the text box that you've added the response to reviewers to the manuscript because it contains mathematical equations.


Can I present a conference paper if I am not a researcher? My graduate program is a non-research based. However, I am interested in writing and presenting a conference paper. Is it possible for me to do this even as I am not into research work?

Of course you can submit any paper you want. There are a lot of people, for example in the industry field, that submit papers to conferences.

But as they have stated in one comment, as soon as you start preparing a paper, that per se converts you into a researcher.

Good luck!


Is assessing grant proposals CV-worthy? So far this year, I have been asked to be an assessor for proposals submitted to three different international funding schemes, with the value of the proposals ranging from $0.5M to $10M. I acceded to the first two requests (one of which has me assessing 7 proposals, the second only one proposal) because I thought it would be useful experience to see how proposals are assessed, in case it brought insights that would be useful next time I submit a proposal of my own. The time commitment is starting to become an issue, though, and starting to clash with my other commitments, so I am hesitating about the third.

So: apart from the small honorarium that some of these schemes pay assessors, is there anything in it for me? Is assessing grant proposals simply seen as part of one's academic community service, to be performed as a good citizen like reviewing papers, or is it seen as a measure of esteem that is therefore worthy of putting on a CV?

You performed a valid service and gained valuable experience. You should definitely include this on your CV.


Explaining change in PhD project I was enrolled in a PhD program within an experimental topic (experimental physics), but 6 months in the project I had a talk with my supervisor: I was not satisfied with the lack of theoretical work (at my interview we had decided that there should/would be some).

A few meetings followed, where we concluded that it would not be realistic to do any major theoretical work at all. Together with my supervisor we decided that it was best for me to stop my PhD-program and he encouraged me to enroll for a new one in theoretical physics, such that I didn't waste 3 years of my life doing something I would regret. He wrote a recommendation letter for me and I got accepted into a theoretical program.

Here is my problem: I now have to write a short statement now on why I have discontinued my former topic and started a new one. However, I am worried that it might sound as if I stopped due to conflicts/disagreements with my supervisor, which was not the case at all. Quite the contrary, he was very helpful through the whole process.

Can it be interpreted as such if I write something along the lines of "former project could not accomodate my theoretical ambitions"? How should I tackle this?

Just be direct and honest: you wanted to do more theoretical work in your project and, as you said, you mutually decided a different project and program was in your best interests. There's no reason to try to hide the fact, and mention that your former advisor was fully aware of and supportive of your request. That should satisfy any concerns that you're doing it because you didn't get along with your advisor or because your project failed or anything like that.


Graduate Certificates or Additional Masters as addons for Terminal Degree? My Background

Currently I have an MFA in Interactive Design and Game Development.  I work as a software engineer (in higher ed) and teach adjunctly.  In the next 10 years or so I see myself moving more into teaching.

My Question

Do Graduate Certificates hold the same value in conjunction with a terminal degree as masters degrees?  Which is the preferred for additional degrees show casing abilities in other areas?  With the end goal of either doing research for a university or working towards becoming a professor?

I've tried finding an answer to this on google, but really haven't come up with anything relevant.  I've also checked out the Ph.D vs Masters Discussions on here.  Any information and help would be appreciated.

Update

I would like to teach at a research university or technical university.  My main area of emphasis has been where computer science and programming meet design.  Specifically in the web, multi-media, and game development.

From my experience teaching and applying to teach at various colleges and universities, in academia, only academia counts.
Having a degree, such as a Masters, or PhD, or DA counts.  Generally, a grad certificate, and/or any industry certificates count for zero.  A grad certificate might count if they have a requirement for a certain number of grad hours in the field.
Most universities with PhD programs want people with PhD's to teach, at any level.  They might accept a Master's, they might not.
A technical college might let some people in certain areas teach with a Bachelor's, or Bachelor's+15 (for example).

Essentially, look at job postings for what and where you want to teach, and see what they are looking for.  You might find that you are already qualified, or that you need a doctorate.


What should a candidate with no publications mention to professor for PhD admission or research position? I want to apply for PhD admission, but I have no research experience; never published any research paper or had any research assistantship during my Master's (although I did have a course assistantship for a semester and finished it 1 semester earlier). The professor I am intending to ask for supervision and research is involved around coding and I can make a good portfolio of projects about it (i.e. industry experience after Master's, GitHub profile, etc.).

Questions:

What should I mention in my email to professor to convince them that I would be a good fit for their research and fellowship?
Should I contact a professor first and then apply to the program, or should I apply first and then contact professor about it?

The university I am intending is a private university in central US with very high reputation (one in top 30 in Forbes US list).

Remember that professors often get dozens of emails every day, so your chances to get an answer are higher if you keep things short.
Send an email saying that you are interested in a PhD in program XX under his supervision and ask a few short, relevant questions, e.g. if spaces are available at all.
Any longer questions, or even sending a whole portfolio, should not be done in the first email. If things go well, he agrees to talk to you about your application and there are spaces available, you can go on with your other questions.
If possible, a short visit in person might help; you can for example discuss most of your questions with PhD students or postdocs should the professor be too busy.


Is it viable to pay for MS if your future goal is a Ph.D I am currently working as a software developer. I have a degree in computer science. However, my country, Turkey, is not a technology favoring country, and research in the fields I am interested in is very rare, and only available at a few select schools. From job, location and opportunity perspective (too many applicants for too few places), getting an advanced degree at these schools is next to impossible for me.

I want pursue Ph.D. badly but I need a MS degree first because I don't have any research experience. So I have decided to apply for US schools and do some research there applying for a Ph.D.

Is paying for a master's degree a good idea and will I be able to do quality research there? Do master's students convert their degrees to Ph.D., if so is it easy or difficult? What to expect from a MS for getting good research experience?

In principle, yes, that's a viable plan.  But there are a few stumbling blocks to be aware of.

First: There are two types of MS degrees in computer science in the US.  Research master's degrees have a significant research component, usually ending with a formal thesis.  Professional master's degrees require only taking classes; this is no expectation and little opportunity to get involved in research.  A successful research MS is good preparation for a PhD program, and many CS PhDs started by getting a master's degree first.  (I'm one of them.)  But a professional MS is generally considered a terminal degree, even with a 4.0 GPA.

Second: PhD applicants with MS degrees are held to higher standards than PhD applicants with only undergraduate degrees, because they have had an extra year to build up a research portfolio.  In my department, for example, strong applicants with master's degrees but no formal publications are usually rejected.  See the previous point.

Third: Strong graduate programs in the US also get too many applicants for too few positions.  Competition at the top departments is fierce.  Even getting a research MS is no guarantee of being admitted to a PhD program.

To address the first three points, I strongly recommend asking the following question of any MS program you apply to:

  What fraction of graduates from your program go on to get a PhD?

Fourth: If you don't have any research experience, how do you know that you want a PhD?  Getting a PhD is not like getting an undergraduate degree; doing research is not like taking classes — it is much more open-ended, much more self-directed, and much much riskier.  This is not a question to answer here, but definitely something to address in your application statement.


Do you have to wait for confirmation from the journal to consider an article withdrawn? If you'd like to withdraw an article for any reason, can you start submitting elsewhere once you've notified the journal, or do you have to wait for a response? How can this be handled in case the journal is not responsive?

A journal publication is based on a two-sided contract. To be valid (and executable), therefore, both parties need to agree about the key performance of this contractual relationship, i.e., the Author granting to the Publisher an (exclusive) license "to use, publish, edit, reproduce, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, and prepare derivative works based upon the Work" (to cite § 3.3.2 of the "Model Publishing Contract for Digital Scholarship").
If, in the negotiation stage (e.g. during peer review), one of the parties notifies to the other that there is no will to feel bound to such a contract anymore, then there is no contract. The publisher cannot claim to have won a "unilateral contract" against the author's will.
As a result, I would say that you are free to submit your manuscript elsewhere as soon as you notify the first journal about it.
(However, note that I am not aware of a court case about this; it is simply my legal interpretation.)


As a Master Thesis supervisor, how should I assist students with poor fundamental skills (e.g., problem solving)? I am currently working as a research assistant at a University and one of my tasks is to supervise the Master Thesis projects of students in our lab. Most of the projects I manage are related to Embedded Systems and Automation applications.
As part of my supervision, normally I dedicate an hour or two per week for supervision to discuss the development of their project and current issues. Most of the time their issues are related to a lack of technical experience on a subject (which was part of their Master's Course).
As sometimes, the problems are small I will dedicate part of my time to solve it with them. But from my experience, it seems that these issues keep upcoming due to poor research and problem-solving skills. As I am relatively new to supervising Master Students, I would like to know what are some of the key elements to assist them with these type of problems and up to what extent should I help them?

There are a range of possibilities, not all good. At one end of the scale you can just provide answers, maybe working out the answer for the student. This is the worst option considered here. Along the scale is your solution which is to solve it with them. Much better, especially if you let them lead. At the other (far) end of the scale is to simply provide them with some resource that is tailored to letting them do it on their own without further help. Even something like a section or even a page in a book. Or a search online that gives them help. This may be too little help for most students.
My own solution would be closer to the latter end, and exactly there with some students. Students need to gain insight and to do that they need to work through the crux of the problems they face. But sometimes they don't notice something that is blocking them. If you work with them a bit, asking for what they have done so far and why, perhaps you will get an idea about the nature of the block. If you can redirect them a bit, with a minimal hint, they will come out ahead in the end.
Students and some inexperienced instructors seem to think that the point of exercises is the answers, when in fact it is the learning that leads to being able to provide the answers. Keep that distinction in mind and also make sure your students understand that. Done well, it can also lessen the amount of cheating/copying that goes on.


Dispute over order of authors Consider this situation.

A research plan is formulated for a masters student (M) collectively by a professor (P) and a PhD student (G). M runs the experiments but has no idea how to extract knowledge from his experiments (he is not motivated enough to make the effort). P asks G to 'look into it'. G analyzes the data, studies the subject background, identifies some erroneous numbers and re-runs some experiments. G then  drafts a research manuscript for submission to a journal.

Even though the 'raw' data was acquired by M, it was G who made efforts to discuss the results and transform the data into a manuscript. M argues that since the research plan was a part of his masters dissertation, he should be the first author. To resolve the dispute, P keeps himself the first author, G the second, and M the third.

Who should be the first author in this case? (The first authorship matters in the field in question.)

There is a fair option available. The professor could have insisted that both M and G could be first author. I have seen in research follows like this:

M*, G*, P or G*, M*, P

* Both the authors contributed equally to this work.

Your present authorship order: P, G, M is really unfair for both of you (G and M).


Is it appropriate for a lecturer to invite the course to dinner before grading? This semester, I attended a seminar where the grade will be based on work turned in by attendees in about a month. The lecturer has set up a 'get-together' of all students in his home, where he will be preparing dinner. Alcoholic drinks apparently will also be provided (beer).

I do not plan on attending, but I am worried this may affect my grade (declining/not answering an invitation).

My question is: Is it appropriate for a lecturer to organize such an event?

I am sure he means no harm, as he is very nice in general. As he has organized dinners with his courses before (last time I know of, it was after grading), I suspect my universities policies do not forbid this.

I think it's completely appropriate.

As an anecdote, when I was an undergrad I was in a similar situation. The professor of a WW2 history class I was taking invited all 20-or-so of us undergrads to his home for a barbecue and tour of his collection of WW2 era guns, equipment, newspaper clippings, and so on. It occured before final grades came out.

In hindsight, it was one of those great lasting memories you make in school. I ended up majoring in a different field, but have since still kept a keen interest in history because, at least in part, of the experience I had there. Had that professor decided not to have such an event I would absolutely consider my undergraduate experience to be lesser than it was, and I think the same is true for many of my classmates both in that year and every other year the professor held such an event.

We, of course, don't know you or your lecturer, but I would be absolutely shocked if he has anything but pure intentions. If you don't want to go just reply to the invitation that you've got a prior commitment and can't make it.

Given you know that this lecturer has had this event in the past (after grades) indicates that it's almost assuredly done with positive intentiontions. Perhaps this year he has to travel immediately after he finishes grades, or the school scheduled his final later than last year and he has less time than normal. Maybe he's done it after grades in the past and had low attendance from foreign students who often have to travel right immediately and he wants to include them as well.


At the age of 27 is it worth shifting PhD. from strings to computer science? Will the effort required to learn a completely new subject from scratch be outweighed by the better job prospects when one is looking for faculty positions?

Will your degree actually say 'String Theory' rather than 'Physics'? If so, this is unfortunately narrow, and given the uncertain future of string theory as a field I'd rectify it as soon as possible. How close are you to finishing? I wouldn't dump a Physics doctorate a year from completion to start over in CS. If I wanted to change fields, I'd just do a master's afterwards.


How to deal with a professor that continuously dismisses student questions? I'm taking a distributed systems course at a well known university in the U.S.

I've noticed my professor has three primary forms of responding to student questions during his lecture:

Immediately answers with, just a minute, we're going to cover that
Immediately answers with, that's what we just covered
Spends a couple sentences briefly explaining why the student's question doesn't apply / doesn't work

Almost no dialog is ever spent on further explanation, but rather on disproving. So, instead of recognizing student questions as a lack of understanding, it seems to come off as defending what he already covered and moving on.

As a student in this course, how best do I approach this?
I fear this may be just a personality trait / teaching style that he's acquired, and I wouldn't want to offend him with "Your responses to questions are unhelpful." — But maybe this is the best option?

It may be time to become more assertive in this person's class.

If he immediately answers with, just a minute, we're going to cover that, then you can speak up 5 minutes before class ends, or at the beginning of the following class, for example: "Excuse me, Prof. So-and-So, you mentioned you were going to be covering Topic B.  Since we didn't get to that today/last time, could you please start with that leftover question from last time?
If he immediately answers with, that's what we just covered, follow up immediately, for example, "Could you please clarify how the material you just covered answers my specific question? ... I'm sorry, sir, I don't see how that was relevant to my question."
If he spends a couple sentences briefly explaining why your question doesn't apply / doesn't work, then you can try something like this: "You feel I asked a stupid question.  Nevertheless, I asked because I would honestly like an answer.  Can you help me formulate the question in an acceptable format?"

Meeting one on one with certain professors sometimes gets one nowhere, unfortunately.  Still, you could try visiting office hours to find out more about what he's like.


Quoting or paraphrasing in a review article While writing a review article as an undergraduate student, can I directly copy some information from another article or book? Or should I summarize it in my own words to illustrate a topic?

In most fields verbatim copying of sources is frowned upon. You should usually paraphrase what you need to convey and adapt it to the flow of ideas in your own publication.

And of course, you need to properly attribute any material you took from any source - paraphrasing does not absolve you from the duty of proper attribution. Your university will likely offer some guidance on proper citation and attribution, and there are lots of textbooks on academic writing that cover this.

So, that's the general answer. I'd say that your situation of a review article specifically offers one added wrinkle.

A review article is supposed to condense and organize the state of the art on a particular topic. You will typically read, summarize and organize a large number of primary research articles to pull together the common strands along which you can build a coherent semantic structure. Review articles routinely have reference lists 100 or more entries long. (If this is an undergraduate project, your particular review article will likely not be that all-encompassing.)

Therefore: if you are even tempted to copy a whole passage out of one source for a review article, you can immediately deduce that you are likely going into too much detail for this one particular source. Take a big step back and concentrate on the larger picture again.


How concerned should one be if he/she does not get referee invitations? A friend of mine is an experienced researcher in early career.  We are surprised to learn that she never get invited to referee for any journal.  I once rejected a referee request and referred the editor to her because the manuscript matches better with her expertise, but still, she did not get invited.  I recently learned that this happens more than once: some one else also recommended her for referee but the editor did not take the advice.  It becomes a little bit concerning: is she somehow blacklisted or what?  What is really happening here?

It's quite possible the editor never read the recommendations.  Some journals invite more reviews than they need.  If some reviewers decline, but enough reviewers return reviews for the editor to make a decision, then the editor will not consider inviting more reviewers.  If the decision is to reject, it may be made after only one review is returned.
Never getting invited is a bit odd, but could occur by chance.  I only get 33% of my fair share of invitations, even though my reviews are faster and more detailed than the other reviewers.  Most journals in my field have never asked me, other very similar journals ask repeatedly.  I have received no invitations for many months, and then gotten two from different publishers on the same day.  Don't overanalyze it; don't be concerned.
Most publishers have a form you can fill out indicating your research fields.  If you complete this it might increase your chances of getting papers to review.  In my experience, it is not necessary to publish with a journal or publisher in order to get asked to review.


How does average profile of person that got accepted into top university look like? I define top university as Harvard, Berkeley, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Caltech, Yale and similar.

If relevant, I am talking about computer science field.

I am interested in all levels - bachelor, master, phd, post-doc.

Should anything beside: GPA, published papers, supervisor, commercial experience, teaching experience or alma mater ranking be relevant?

How does average profile of person that got accepted into top university look like? What does one need to have to feel reasonably secure about being accepted into top universities?

How does average profile of person that got accepted into top university look like?

For reasons mentioned in the comments, I will just briefly address grad school: It's typical to have taken a number of advanced classes (possibly including graduate classes) in your discipline from a good school, and to have done well in them.  You should have strong letters of recommendation.  In some fields (not in math, and I don't think in CS) it's typical to have done some research.  It's pretty common to be international, and straight out of another (bachelors or master's) program.  But I don't know that an "average profile" is the right thing to look at.

  What does one need to have to feel reasonably secure about being accepted into top universities?

You're not in a good position to judge yourself, so talk to your professors.  What kind of schools do they think you should apply to?  What kinds of schools do they think you can get into?  After all, they'll be writing letters for you, which are one of the primary factors in deciding your admissions.


Can a "maitre de conferences" be called "professor"? In the French system and other francophone systems, tenured faculty is divided in two categories: maitre de conferences, equivalent to associate professors if I understand correctly, and professeurs, equivalent to full professors.

I'm preparing a list of people for a meeting. I am required to distinguish between no title, Dr., and Prof. The question is simple: should I call the maitre de conferences "professors"? On the one hand, their title is not formally "professor". On the other hand, their rank is equivalent to "associate professor", and so they deserve to be called "professor".

I am interested in a general answer. Not necessarily only for my situation. Call this curiosity if you wish.

This is a very general answer, so for your case you may wish to wait for an answer specific to the French system.

My opinion is that you should never 'translate' someone else's title in this way. You said that a maitre de conference 'deserves' to be called professor. However, the title 'professor' is not a value judgement on a person, it's just a job title.

In the US, this job title is used quite liberally. Outside the US, the title is often restricted to the most senior staff. In the UK, for example, the job positions of lecturer and reader are equivalent to a US associate professor and full professorship respectively. So a maitre de conference wouldn't be equivalent to a professorship in the UK. If you call a maitre de conference a professor, will you also title British lecturers and readers 'professor'?

Many scientists work at institutions which are not universities, and hence, cannot be professors unless they have also have a university appointment. For example, even the director of a Max Planck Institute is not (automatically) a professor. Are academics employed in such institutions also to be upgraded to professor?

It would be strange to invent a professor title in any of these cases. At best, it will cause bemusement, at worst they will think that you haven't properly researched their background.


The fate of an accepted paper not being presented If no author of an accepted paper registers for the conference, the paper is simply dumped from the conference.

If, however, the authors duly register but fail to present it at the conference, what is the fate of the paper? I have an accepted paper at a European conference (IEEE), but due to lack of travel funds, our team has decided that we will not be travelling to present the work (I am not based at Europe).

I wrote to the General Chair of the conference, and he writes to me that if the paper is not presented, it will not be indexed in the IEEE Xplore library.

What I wish to know is, will the paper still be published in the 'Conference Proceedings' booklet or CD? My guess is Yes, since these must be printed before authors arrive for the conference. The General Chair has not responded with an answer on this.

Question two, which happens to be my real inquiry- does such a thing count as a valid 'publication' for me? Will my work get indexed somewhere (wherever it might be) or not, would it be searchable via the Internet or not?

This has actually happened to me a couple of times in the past. This really depends on the policy of the organizing professional group (ACM/IEEE) and even within sub-groups of that body (SIGWEB/SIGCHI within ACM)

Generally, I have found that if your paper is accepted in a conference and you or any of your co-authors register for that conference, then the paper will still be published in the conference proceedings and indexed in the relevant digital library. e.g. IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library etc.

If you or a co-author do not register for the conference, then your paper, in general, will not be indexed.

If an accepted paper is not published in the conference proceedings (and by extension not indexed in the appropriate digital library), then it generally does not "count" as a valid publication. You are better off, in that case, by withdrawing your paper and submitting it at a more acceptable conference venue (or a journal where there is not travelling involved)

PS: You can always link to such a paper on your personal website or put it on arxiv for comments. Google Scholar will obviously index it but such indexing has limited practical value.


Grading proofs without reading them? Is it unethical or illegal to grade a proof exam without reading all of the proofs? Someone I know would give students 0 points if they do not use theorems presented in lectures, or if they have one solution that solves multiple problems at once will ignore it. Also would make up criteria to fit his/her own agenda for punishing students. Then he/she would leave it up to the students to possibly argue for changes in office hours. Is there some standard criteria for grading proofs, either on a legal or professional level?

Based strictly on the information you have provided to me about this mystery person, I'd say the instructor engaging in these activities is highly unethical and may have some other psychological issues. That's just what I sense "prima facie". "Absolute power corrupts absolutely", but I could easily be wrong.

Then again, maybe the mystery person has explained the grading criteria, but hasn't explained it clearly enough.

Be very careful about making a formal accusation against this person. If you make an accusation, make sure it's iron-clad and infallible so that you're certain to win.

Many years ago, in an Engineering Mechanics class, I openly accused my professor of erring in his solution to an exam question. My exam question was marked as "incorrect" with very little partial credit. I stared at that problem for some time and concluded my solution was correct and the professor's was wrong. I treaded very gingerly as I described my disagreement with his solution, but I went step by step and ultimately, before the entire class, he admitted he was wrong and I was right.

I was about 18 or 19 years old at the time. Trust me. Be very careful. Professors are smart and they don't like to be proven wrong. My professor was, thankfully, a person who loved truth more than being correct.


How much do soft skills matter for admission decision? By reading the very intersting question Priority of application materials for admission decision about which material is most important to be admitted as PhD candidate, or PostDoc or researcher, in a university, I started wondering on how and how much soft skills count, for the same objective.

As you know, besides academic degrees, grades, publications, reference letters, technical skills, project proposals, and etc., there are also soft skills that are considered by talent scouts to choose who engage.

For soft skills, I mean competence like:

public speaking
active listening
ability to manage relationships
ability to show interest

In scientific admission procedures, e.g. for PhD or PostDoc admission, how much do soft skills count?

I don't really know for PhD, but for Postdocs, from what I've seen and heard, these skills count a lot, especially when the recruitment process is well structured, as I experienced it in the UK and in Germany. Basically, the recruitment process consists of three steps:

Sending the CV, application, reference letters, etc. At this point, soft-skill do not really count, although knowing how to write a good cover letter can help.
Seminar/Public talk: the applicant is invited to give a presentation of his research work to a public audience (usually including the committee, and the staff from the department).
Interview: the recruitment committee interviews the applicant.

In the steps 2 and 3, the soft-skills are very important. Basically, all applicants reaching step 2 have good credentials, so it's somehow already established that they can write papers and solve research problems, so the quality of the talk and the attitude during the interview are crucial.


Should I tell my situation or request a possibly negative recommendation letter? I'm preparing to apply to PhD programs. My current master thesis PI used tactics to postpone the graduation of the students in order to keep them longer. I quarreled with him one time in order to get the degree. I sincerely apologized in front of lab members and him.

He was the only faculty member who is familiar with my research. There is no supervisory committee. So I am concerned about the LOR from him.

Which solution might be better? Or is there other better solutions?

Do not request current PI for LOR. Rather, describe the fact he likes postponing his students’ graduation in the PS and the interview. This seems a bad solution.
Do not request current PI for LOR. Say nothing in the PS or in the interview. However, if I am asked during the interview, should I say that he wants me to stay longer ?
Request current PI for LOR, which may be a possibly negative letter. However, no one knows the result. It is impolite to ask if he would write a strong recommendation letter for me. He has not denied my request of LOR directly, but he said he is too busy. I am not sure if he would finally write it for me.

"Too busy" means "I won't write a letter you'd like."

"Describing conflicts" with your supervisor will raise flags you do not want to raise.

Your choice 2 is the correct one.  If you are asked why you don't have a letter from a current faculty member, say your working relationship with your thesis supervisor was "difficult."  Do not say anything more except to answer further questions as briefly and politely as possible.  Let your transcript speak for itself.