Teaching a class because advisor bought out and advisor input The situation is thus: my institution allows professors to buy out of teaching a class.  This semester, my advisor has done so and as a result they needed someone to fill in.  After discussion with my advisor, I applied for the position to gain teaching experience (having had none previously).

Thus far, teaching the class has gone smoothly but our department has a huge waitlist problem.  When I originally applied for the position, the class had 40 spots.  Later, without my input, it was increased to 60, and there were still over 50 people on the waitlist.

Prior to the class starting, my advisor attempted to get the department chair to increase the class size to 90 so that more waitlisted people could get in.  However, the chair responded by saying that the department felt that it was important for graduate students, particularly in their first attempt at teaching, to have a good experience, so they didn't want to increase the class size so drastically without my approval.  I responded telling them that I didn't feel comfortable taking on so many students when I hadn't taught before and the issue was dropped.

Now, in the second week of classes, my advisor is again pressuring me to admit any waitlisted students that would like to take the course, increasing the class size to 70+.  I've told him several times that I am not comfortable with this and thought the issue was closed.  However, one of the waitlisted students has gone directly to my advisor and now he's specifically telling me to admit this student.

As it stands, I currently have 62 students in a 60 person class and I understand that taking on one extra student is technically not a big deal.  However, I feel uncomfortable for several reasons:

It feels like I'm rewarding bad behavior (e.g., the student going to my advisor and forcing entrance into the class)
If I admit this student for going to my advisor, I am concerned that every other student on the waitlist will go to my advisor and I'll get similar e-mails about all of them and suddenly my class size will be 70+ students

Technically, I don't have to admit this student, but that would be going directly against what my advisor is telling me to do.

I guess the questions are:

In the long term, how much control should my advisor have over my class?
In the short term, should I admit this waitlisted student?

In the long term, how much control should my advisor have over my class

None, for the duration of this instance. The advisor bought out. You're in charge. End of story. Now you might need some help in standing up to your advisor, and you need to bring in the chair of the department (who's already shown a willingness to help) and/or other senior faculty who manage curriculum activities. Don't do it confrontationally: merely say that you're really uncomfortable expanding the class size and don't feel like it's right to selectively admit students who have access to your advisor, but that you'd feel more comfortable with a faculty intermediary to help mediate.

  In the short term, should I admit this waitlisted student?

No. you're right that this is both setting a bad precedent as well as being unfair. Again, as for how to proceed, see above. You haven't indicated exactly how the advisor is pressuring you, but I think it's fair to point out to them that this undermines your authority as the teacher, and you really need to maintain your independence because you're "only a student". Anyone with teaching experience should understand the importance of establishing authority and presence in the classroom.


Parallel studies in two universities I just finished a five years bachelor study from university A, and started a Master+PhD in university B.

Given that I took several master courses during the bachelor, I would only need to take one course more and write a thesis (which I can do based on the one I wrote for the bachelor) to obtain a master from university A.
Moreover, despite the fact of being separated physically, they offered me the opportunity to finish the master while doing the PhD in university B.

I think it is a good idea to do this given that I already have much of the work done, and it would enhance my knowledge. My question is,

  Should I let university B know about this?

When I talk about letting the university know, I mean my advisor.
I think I could do it without letting him know because it would be like one of my "free time activities" (and the research is independent between the universities, it's not like I'm using some knowledge from university B to obtain a degree from university A), but given that it is a research-like activity, I think it is a good idea to let him know. However, I'm not sure how he could take it.

What would you do in this situation?

Thanks in advance!

Your advisor is there to advise you on your research, but also on more general issues involving finding your place in academia. Getting a masters degree (or not) is relevant in that context. Keeping that a secret would hinder her or his ability to advise you. That is unoptimal for you, but it also hinders your advisor to do her or his job, which (s)he may resent.


Can I cite in a caption? I am using an image from a users’ manual of a piece of software, and I was wondering if I can put a citation in the caption of the image. For example:

  Figure 1.3 Illustration of WonderSoft’s interface. Image taken from WonderSoft’s users’ manual (Bitsmith et al., 1821).

Unless your journal, advisor or institution insist against this (which we cannot know), yes, you can.

I have done this myself in publications and nobody complained.


White paper justifying the publication of a survey paper We are currently trying to submit a comprehensive survey article I have been working on for a while as a journal paper. Some of the journals we're considering (I'm in Computer Science) require, for survey articles, submitting a 2-5 page white paper to the Editor-in-Chief, in order to evaluate the relevance of the proposed survey (upon which the EiC would either discourage or encourage the submission of a full survey):

  Authors interested in submitting overview articles are required to consult first with the Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of their Transactions of choice before submitting a white paper proposal. White papers are limited to 2-pages and should motivate the topic, justify the proposal, and include a list of relevant bibliography including any available tutorial or overview articles related to the subject matter. (...) The EiC solicits input from the Editorial Board on whether to encourage submission of a full paper.

  (specific requirements example taken from: http://www.signalprocessingsociety.org/publications/overview-articles/)

I have found some questions on the topic if white papers, but it looks to me like all of those are either concerning short standalone papers, or white papers for grants, which differs a bit from my situation.

Just to summarize, this white paper (2-5 pages, depending on the journal) is not ment to ever be published, but rather to help the Editor-in-Chief and the Editorial Board in deciding on the relevance of the proposed survey. So, for me as the author, the goal of this white paper is to motivate the EiC to invite me to submit the full survey manuscript.

So, my question is how to structure and what information to include in a white paper, meant as a proposal for publishing a longer survey paper. Some specific questions I'm thinking about:

Should I divide it into sections, similar to a regular (short) paper (introduction, discussion, etc.) or should it have some different, (specific or not) structure?
The reqirements mention including a "list of relevant bibliography": as this is meant to be for an survey article, my complete list of bibliography is much larger that 2 pages. Do I just mention "related work" and omit the references used as sources for the survey from this white paper, or something similar to that?
Should I repeat some parts of the survey, or just include the motivation and explanation of the survey topic in this white paper?

If I understand your question correctly, the longer survey paper is mostly or entirely written already, right?

The purpose of a presubmission like this is generally to help the editor decide if the topic is broad enough and well enough aligned to be of interest to a large fraction of the journal's audience.

As such, the introductory material that you've written for your survey paper should be just what is needed: it should already give the scope of the survey, the motivation for it, and an outline of how the rest of the survey is structured.
I would recommend clipping out your abstract and introduction, keeping its references, maybe adding a few other key references if your introduction was reference light, and sending that in.

Finally, in your cover letter, you should say that this is exactly what you are doing.  That will also let the editor know that this isn't a submission in advance of having written the manuscript, but an inquiry of whether to proceed with a fairly mature manuscript.  Speaking as a sometime editor myself, that's very useful information.


Academic calendar in the USA How could one characterize the typical academic calendar in the USA? I never managed to understand how it works (from Wikipedia, etc.)! It is so confusing.

In Belgium, you basically have this:

September-December: class + Winter recess (2 weeks in December)
January: Exams
February-May: class + Spring break (2 weeks in April)
June: Exams
July-early August: Summer break (1 month and a half)
Late August: Exams

Most universities in the US (90% according to this website according to), are on the semester system in which there are two academic terms, fall semester (sept-dec) and spring semester (jan-may). In this semester system, exams happen at the end of each semester, not in a separate time period.

Some universities have a quarter system, where each quarter is identified with a season and students typically have the summer quarter off. Still other universities have a trimester system which "divides the academic year into three terms of 14 to 16 weeks each, with attendance required in two trimesters per year, to total 28 to 32 weeks of instruction" (wikipedia).


Do the jobs after a PhD in Statistics require a minimum of 3-4 years previous work experiences in the industries? I am a full-time student (29) in M.Sc Statistics which is about to finish. I have a less-than-one year job experience. I intend to go for Ph.D in Statistics and I have seen many industries want a minimum 3 or 4 years work experience for Ph.D Statistics level jobs. I need to know that if this work experience is mandatory. Also, kindly let me know if one can 'begin' a full-time work experience after getting a Ph.D in Statistics.

Thank you in advance and your kind reply is highly appreciated.

Prior experience is a two edged sword. On the one hand, you probably learn to do some things useful for a particular industry. On the other hand, you may be saddled with non-disclosure and non-compete agreements.

If you want a life of research (as opposed to application) then you probably want a PhD and an academic career. But a doctorate may not be well suited to a life in the commercial world other than in a few places. But those places also probably require quite a lot of knowledge about some application area (finance, say).

But, the question may be moot for you. If you don't have the experience, then you just don't. Full stop. You can try to get it, of course, but before you do anything like taking time off or going for the doctorate, first look at what life would be like under various scenarios.

I would guess that some companies want a lot of experience. I would guess that others want none at all. If you are asking about the situation in a particular place, then explore it there, by talking with companies that you might want to work at.

You have to get on some path now, but you don't need to make immediate life changing decisions immediately. Keep flexible and look at the options as they open.


Is asking practice exam questions on the web cheating? Is asking practice exam questions released by a professor on the web cheating?
If you asked questions from a past exam, that was already released, and graded, is that cheating?

No, if you aren't going to be graded on them it isn't cheating.

But it is foolish.

The point of the questions is to give you practice in solving them, not to obtain answers that the professor already has.

If you don't practice your craft you will never get very good at it.

Moreover, just seeing an answer will very likely give you almost no insight in what it takes to actually solve such problems when face with them in a more important context. You may actually be doing yourself harm by reading answers.

Much better is to work on the problems yourself, and, when you get stuck, ask the professor for help. They will, I hope, give you just enough of a boost to get you going again, rather than so much that it denies you the insight. Strangers on the web are not the best source of your education.


Can I withdraw my accepted journal paper due to data confidentiality issues? My question actually is complicated. A company provided me data for my thesis. They allowed me to use the data in my thesis. But I need get their permission if I want to publish my thesis. The thing is, my thesis can be googled at school's database. So I am not sure if this means "publish."

I thought I do not need to get their permission since my thesis is already online and everyone can download it. Therefore, I submitted the paper (not cover everything in my thesis) to a journal and get accepted.

Recently I found out that the company refuses to let the paper be published. So I want to withdraw my paper from the journal.

I am the first author of the paper, and another person is the second author. I am not sure if I can decide the withdraw thing or I should let the second author know first? Also, how should I email the editor?

The basic problem here is communication. You failed to do the necessary communication up-front. Now you are going to have to do it, and do it much better than your first attempt.

Firstly, you need to talk with your coauthor and your supervisor. Expect them to be unhappy that you are only now reaching out to them, and that the proprietary nature of the data wasn't fully explained.

Secondly, you need to talk with your school's research administrators. What is their policy on externally sourced data?  Is there a common form of agreement?  Is there a term sheet listing what are acceptable and unacceptable terms?  What are the ethical expectations for dealing with commercial and with third-party data? It's very unusual for a student to negotiate directly with a company about the provision of data without some formality being required by the university. The aim being to avoid your current predicament. As a result the administrators may not be best pleased that whatever process exists wasn't followed.

Thirdly, you need to have a formal meeting with the company. Do some homework to ensure that you are speaking with the right people. Take copies of your paper -- I am assuming they have seen it, but maybe they haven't looked into it. Explore with the company what the cause of their objection to publication is. Maybe you implied a confidentiality they now feel you have betrayed, so you may need to make some deep apologies. Once you know the cause of their concern you can both explore if there are ways which meet both your wishes. It may not be possible to do all of this in one meeting. A negotiated agreement will almost certainly mean a rewrite a substantial portion of the paper.

Since you have already displayed poor communication, negotiation and business skills I strongly suggest you engage with the university and see if they can provide a senior person to do most of the heavy lifting with the company.


How to handle communication about the class outside of the official channels, when I am a TA for a class that a friend is taking? I am an undergraduate student who was asked to TA this semester for a class that I have wanted to TA for for a while. Duties would likely involve basic grading of exams and projects as well as answering questions during office hours, but no recitations or other classroom teaching.

However, a close friend of mine will be taking the course with the professor who asked me to TA. The course started this week (TAs will be finalized soon and start within a few weeks) and my friend has already asked me a few basic questions on the topic, which I answered. Additionally, I met with him to assist him with the introductory assignment. It was only after this that I was asked to be a TA.

I wanted to know how to best conduct myself, both from now until I am officially made a TA as well as after I become a TA with regards to him in this course. Should I simply say that any questions should be saved for my eventual office hours and deny any additional assistance, so as not to give an unfair advantage? If he were to send me a bug (cs course), would it be improper to assist outside of any office hours, even on trivial problems?

It sounds wise to steer your friend towards your office hours, although there's probably no need to insist on this.

However, I would not give additional assistance with debugging beyond what you would do for anyone else.  The most important thing is for your friend to learn how to do his own debugging!

There's one more thing you can do: fill your professor in on the situation before the semester starts.  And then, as the semester unfolds, if any specific dilemma or uncertainty arises, ask the professor for guidance.

That is my offhand take on this.  However, when you speak with the professor, s/he may have more specific guidance.


When do I become a graduate student? I recently was accepted into a Ph.D. program to begin in the Fall---I receive my Bachelor's degree this weekend. I wanted to know when would it be considered acceptable to start calling myself a graduate student? For example, when is it appropriate to change my LinkedIn and ResearchGate profiles (and my CV) to read "Graduate Student" at the institution in question? I asked my program director, but all he said was that I "was definitely accepted into the program." I want to update my status on my resume and online profiles to reflect this new position, but I don't want to be rude. What should I do?

You're not really a student at your new institution until you have actually arrived and registered there.  At this point, it would appropriate to say something like:

  I will be a graduate student at Institute X with anticipated start date D

You can certainly update your CV to convey that information immediately.

As for other sites, typically they allow you to list a number of positions with starting and ending dates.  If their system lets you list a start date in the future (I haven't tried that on the particular sites you mention), then that would be a clear enough communication of your current and anticipated status.  Otherwise, you can write the same sort of "anticipated start date" line in your free-text personal description.


Grading by assigning points to exercises For grading exams, I usually assign points to the exercises in such a way they sum to 100, and then I correct the exams by giving partial points based on such assignment.

Lately, I feel this is a poor choice: students which obviously don't get the topic sometimes get acceptable grades (because they sum some points for every exercise), while some students who understand the topic get bad grades (because they didn't do all the exercises, but some exercises they completed very well). Is there any resource (i.e. book or article) discussing this methodology of grading? What are the alternatives?

I think I'd like a grading methodology that analyses the whole of the exam not as the sum of the parts, but first I'd like to read about pros and cons.

If good students who understand the topic well are getting bad grades because they don't do all the problems, you should think very carefully about whether you've made the exam too long.

If this is what is happening (and I suspect it is), there is a very easy way to fix it:

  Assign fewer problems.

Then you don't have to worry about coming up with a new kind of grading scheme that looks at the test as a whole, and which the students who get low exam scores will undoubtedly complain about.

If you designed the exam by looking at exams that professors had set in previous years, they probably also made the mistake of putting too many problems on the exam. It's a very easy mistake to make. I've heard the guideline that professors should be able to solve the problems on the exam in one third of the time that you give students, and I'm not at all sure that it shouldn't be less.


Can one demand to see code used to generate an article? An article is published and the results depend heavily on a piece of code that the author wrote themselves.

The author has not shared the code with the community, even though they have been using it possibly for years now.

If I request the source code from the author and they refuse to share it, can I "demand" to see it (for example, making a formal request to one of the journals that published one of the articles)?

I believe you are asking the wrong question.

You are asking: Can one demand to see code used to generate an article?

To which I would answer: Assuming you're in a country with free speech, you can "demand" the code. Just make sure you do not threaten the author or otherwise break the law with your "demand". However, you are unlikely to be successful in forcing the author to share the code with you. A "demand" for code to me would come off as arrogant and I would ignore or decline a "demand".

I think a better question is:  How can I get the code from an article I am interested in looking at or using?

To which I would answer: It depends upon your subfield and why the author will not share her or his code. Some subfields now require/expect authors to share code and data. For example, the American Statistical Association recommends sharing code to create reproducible results. Here are the steps I would follow to get the code from an article I wanted:

I would first try reaching out to the author and asking nicely if she or he would be willing to share their code with you.
If the author declined, I would ask the journal editor if they could get the code to support the conclusions article because you wish to reproduce the article's results. Also, some journals now have open code/open data requirements. Check the policy of the journals the author published in.
If you end up in hostile situation with the author, and you think they are being misleading based upon their findings, I would contact the research integrity and ethics office at the author's university (e.g., Illinois or Rochester).
If you truly suspect scientific misconduct as the reason behind not sharing code, you could take this farther by writing a response article questioning their findings and state that they refused to share code with you. For example, watch how this author investigated a cancer scandal. The end result was prison time for the fraudulent scientist.
If the author's funding agency requires open access to code, you could contact them and request they force the author to share their code. For example, all data and code development funded by the US Government is required to be open.

I would suggest working with the intellectual property office or similar office at your institute if step 1 fails. They can guide you on what options, if any, you have.

Last, you might need to accept that you cannot force someone to share his or her code with you.


Abbreviation of a journal name How do I find abbreviation of the journal name Engineering?

How to find journal title abbreviations? (in general)
There are various sources of abbreviated journal titles, and though most of the time they agree, there are definitely cases where they do not. So:

Check the citation style of the journal you're writing for (if any). They may specify an authority on abbreviations, or specify that journal names are not to be abbreviated.
For example, the American Chemical Society style guide says to “abbreviate the name according to the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI)”. Chicago style forbids abbreviations.

Then, see if the journal you're looking for is included in the authoritative list.

If it's not covered, then then the best source for information is the cited journal itself! How do they abbreviate their own name, e.g. on article page headers/footers, or in citation to articles from their own journal?

An alternative is to look into one of the very large citation indexes, such as Web of Science; they maintain a list of journal abbreviations for the journals they index.

What about Engineering?
Well, that's not an easy case. First, it's a very low-profile journal: despite its claims that it is “indexed by several world class databases”, I don't think it is. Let's take ISI Web of Knowledge, which they cite as their first example. It indeed has a journal named Engineering – London in its index, but a quick search reveals it is another journal entirely, published between 1969 and 1994. Moreover, the citations given as justification in a screenshot by the publisher of the modern-time Engineering cannot be found on the journal.
So, the journal is not present in the ISI index, and does not given information about how to abbreviate its name (it does not use journal abbreviations in its succinct style guide). In other engineering journals, the word Engineering is usually abbreviated as Eng. So, either go with that, or use the full name and let the copyeditor worry about it.


Is it okay to publish my personal notes from a lecture? Would it be considered ethical to publish my own personal notes from class? In addition, is there a change when the class transitions from in session to being complete (at the end of the semester)?

For example when this may be relevant, there are courses where the Professor publishes his slides onto a class portal, but excludes certain material that is only covered in class. This is to incentivize students to show up, rather than only study from the from published slides.

The ethical thing to do, in my opinion, would be to ask the professor's permission.


Value of placement services for non-members I am curious about what people think about value of limited period (typically, a year) placement services, provided by academic professional organizations, such as Academy of Management. For example, see this page. In particular, I am interested about the subject in the context of first-time academic job seekers, like me, targeting junior faculty or, more likely, postdoctoral opportunities. The reason I am asking this question is to determine the value and feasibility of those time-limited placement services, considering the availability of nice and free resources, such as HigherEdJobs.

For industry jobs recruiters are very important for a first time employee seeking contract work.  However for academic jobs I doubt they're of any use.  Like you said there are academic job sites like Higher Ed.  Each discipline also usually has a career website.

If you're looking for postdoc positions your advisor is the best resource because many are given out by word of mouth alone.  Finally each institution is usually required to place job announcements and applications on their HR's web page.  So spend some time going to each University's website.


Shall I inquire about the status of my application? I had a skype interview a week and a half ago. I believe that the interview went well. I had a brief e-mail exchange with the head of the search committee on the 26th.

How long does it take to move from Skype interviews to campus interviews?

Shall I email them to ask about the status of my application?

We don't know the schedule of skype interviews for this particular institution, or the review process that happens after skype interviews and before candidates are invited to campus.  In my recent experience of chairing search committees, the top candidates got invitations for on-campus interviews within a week of the end of the skype interviews (which typically took us about a week to do.)  It's obviously in our interest to do this as quickly as possible.  However, this process could be delayed by administrative indecision (e.g. if the administration is uncertain about whether or not they'll have enough of a budget to actually hire someone.)

It's quite possible that the search committee has sent out invitations for on-campus interviews.  If you contacted the search committee chair he/she would probably tell you whether or not this has happened.

Even if the initial round of invitations have gone out and you haven't gotten one, don't give up hope yet.  It's possible that some other candidate will decline the chance to interview on campus and you'll get an interview later.  In the past I've had to say to candidates something like "We sent out invitations for on-campus interviews to three candidates earlier this week, and we're still waiting for responses from two of them.  We may be sending out additional invitations."  This doesn't tell the candidate anything specific about whether they might be next on the list or much further down (or even off the list entirely due to a bad phone interview.)

I can't think of any reason not to politely ask the search committee chair about the status of the search.  You could also start checking the institution's calendar for seminars to see if anyone that looks like a faculty candidate (or is explicitly named as such) might be scheduled.


Applying for a PhD with professor X, when my prior research is in a different field? In an ideal scenario, I’d like to do my (computer science) PhD at university U. I completely lack the credentials, and my MS work is in one of those areas where ~10 people in the world are capable of understanding/appreciating it (and it won’t be published anytime soon). Fortunately, one of those people is Professor X (they contacted me unexpectedly saying that they liked my work, having evidently seen my code-in-progress). Great, right?

Unfortunately, I don’t want to work with Professor X, I want to work with Professor Y, because I want to switch to a completely different field of CS. I have nothing against X or our field, I’ve just gotten really interested in Y’s field, and Y is arguably the best person in the world study under for these interests. So while I feel quite confident that I do want to make this switch, the fact is that currently I don’t have anything to “show” Y (in terms of credentials or research in their field).

Do I have any good angle here?

Do I have any good angle here?

That depends on what you want to achieve and how long you’re willing to take to achieve it.

  Fortunately, one of those people is Professor X (they contacted me unexpectedly saying that they liked my work, having evidently seen my code-in-progress). Great, right?

Is taking a short-term appointment with X an option? That will offer you a chance to work on your problem and get a reference from a world expert.


How to deal with non-cooperative team mate? I just started a research position coming from the industry. I am supposed to work on an ongoing project and branch it out to a new direction.

There is one member of the research group that did quite a lot of work on what I am supposed to modify. So I asked him if he could share his work and code with me. He told me that it is still unpublished work and there is no way he is going to give me his code. He said this is the way he does research.

I'm sort of stumped and don't know what to do. He told me that I should go and do it on my own what he has done for about a year now. My supervisor agreed to my suggestion that I should work with this person, but when I told him that he wouldn't share the code with me, he was just laughing nervously and didn't say anything.

Is there a way that I can persuade this person to collaborate with me, or am I banging my head against a wall?

So just to clarify. My supervisor is (one of) the project lead. I first talked to the supervisor suggesting, then talked to the person who rejected, then to the supervisor again. This project has been going on for a year. There are about 5 people working on it in this lab. I joined the lab to extend on the work done here and to contribute in the final stages of the project. To my surprise, there is no shared code repository, but rather each person does their own thing and in meetings discuss it.

I told the person that I will not steal his code. He replied to me that he doesn't share the code because I will not understand it. I told him that it helps me understand the work by looking at the code. He told me that no.

So my plan is to read the draft papers again and try to understand it that way, then try again in a few days. I don't want to re implement the same thing he has done...

I was given access today to the research group server and I could view everyone's work (around 15 people) and all project material... except his directory and implementation which is permission denied. I talked to him again, and clearly he is afraid that I will steal his work and possibly has to put one more name on his paper if I find something interesting, thereby diluting his achievements. He kept telling me that this is his work, and he is the first person on the paper and I should do something else or re-implement the whole code on my own.

This attitude is very common in academia, as the academic environment is often highly competitive. That said, I've never seen someone do that within a team. I agree with seteropere that if this person is indeed on your team, you will likely have to raise this issue with your supervisor.

Still, there's likely a reason why he's unwilling to share, and if you can find the reason for that you may be able to convince him to be more of a team player. Is he worried that giving you access will hurt his publication chances? You can work with your supervisor to convince him that he will still get authorship even if the code is shared. Is he afraid you'll ruin the code? Suggest using some sort of versioning to keep track of changes. Is he just being a jerk about it? If so, then it just comes down to seteropere's answer, and you'll have to hope your boss has enough of a backbone to help you out.


How to think about journal-hosted preprints, or "Just-IN" manuscripts? The NRC Research Press (or Canadian Science Publishing) offers a, at least to me, peculiar option they call "Just-IN" manuscripts. This seems to be an extreme version of an online-first article. Note: I understand an online-first article to be a basically finished version that's just waiting for some cosmetic stuff, like volume and page numbers, but gets hosted on the journal website early, and assigned a DOI. (As noted in the answer to a related question, in some journals the online-first article isn't quite the final version, but it still sounds as if it should be substantially similar to the final one.)

The "Just-IN" approach, however, means that the author's version is made available on the journal website. This happens right after it's undergone peer review and been accepted, but before it's been copy edited or been corrected by the authors. NRC notes

  Readers should note, however, that changes (sometimes substantial) are made during the publication process, so the content of the official version of record could be different from that of the Just-IN manuscript.

In other words, this seems to be something that is between a preprint and an official journal version that's just waiting for publication. Indeed, I have had my eye on a specific paper that's been sitting in this status for over half a year, and where, based on a cursory check, the contents appears to be the same as in the arXiv version (which was posted before the journal received the manuscript).

I wonder:

How different can the final published "copy of record" version be from the "just-IN" version?
To cite the "just-IN" version I would use the DOI. Given that this DOI will later point to the final version, am I potentially misleading readers if the two versions turn out to be significantly different from each other? (If I instead were to cite the arXiv version, should it exist, at least the previous versions would be available to future readers.)

How different can the final published "copy of record" version be from the "just-IN" version?

By as much as how just-accepted articles can differ from actual published articles (this is in all likelihood what the two types of articles are in this case). Copyediting is done, figures are moved, author corrections are implemented. This last part can be quite substantial, e.g. if the reviewer recommends acceptance but has a few extra (optional) comments that the authors agree with. The central arguments presented by the paper are not likely to change, but the presentation might.

  To cite the "just-IN" version I would use the DOI. Given that this DOI will later point to the final version, am I potentially misleading readers if the two versions turn out to be significantly different from each other? (If I instead were to cite the arXiv version, should it exist, at least the previous versions would be available to future readers.)

Because the central arguments presented by the paper are not likely to change, you can safely use the DOI of the just-IN version. In rare cases, this might not work, e.g. if you say something like "See Jane Doe et al [ref] figure 3" (since figure numbering might change), or if you're citing Jane Doe et al for something that isn't their central claim, e.g. "It is well known that dark matter exists [ref]" where Jane Doe et al isn't a paper about dark matter's existence, but rather its properties. But these exceptions are quite rare, and you should be able to safely cite as-is.


What to do when you don't agree with an advisor's comment in your paper What should I do when I disagree with my advisor's recommendations for revision of my manuscripts? The suggested changes are major revisions that will change the concept and message of the paper; for example, changes to the structure, the central idea of the paper, and the metrics I use in my simulations. I believe that the metrics I have used are logical and they have already been used to evaluate the performance of my proposed technique in my field. Every time, I spend more than 6 months between the first draft than the last one because of the advisor's comments. What should I do?

Thank you.

There are a few responses to this but we need a little more context. Presumably this is not for a peer reviewed publication [I only ask this because you use the term 'major revisions']. At the end of the day your advisor is just that, your advisor, and it's up to you to decide how to, or if you should, implement the proposed changes. You don't have to implement all of them, you can defend your paper on those you feel strongly about, but remember that your advisor has a lot more experience than you and it's worth taking into account what they say, and that they may cause you to 'think outside the box' and revise your argument in ways you hadn't originally considered.

6 months sounds like an awfully long time to me between revisions. If you don't agree then say so, but justify your position. But remember that 'major revisions' are exactly that - major - and there must be a good reason why your advisor thinks that your paper[s] need changing to such a degree. I would sit down and talk things through, or if you're doing things over email, state which parts are most important to you and which you do/don't want to change and why.

Don't be too precious about your work. It's a learning experience and good research is generally the work of more than one person. I'm sure your advisor wants the best for you, and the field, so if you detach yourself from your product a little, you may have a better perspective.


How disrupting is the use of blockchain for university resources? I came across an interesting concept. The use of blockchain technology to validate academic (and other) achievements. I could find that allegedly the office of the registrar's at Stanford is invested in this.
However, to gauge the potential, one would need to find out how many human resources are invested in performing the services that blockchain is supposed to automatize. It was suggested by some authors that cost could be cut here; but how large ist this effect really?

For large and prestigeous universities, how many employees are busy all day long confirming to companies or other universities whether a student's transcript is actually legit?

I cannot imagine this to be any more than a handful of people?

The linked article is idiotic. This is an obvious application of digital signatures, not blockchains. The article dismisses digital signatures:

  The problem with using Adobe and Certificate Authorities (CAs) is that there are multiple points of failure - if a bad actor can fool a CA, then he can produce PDFs that look like they were signed by a university, but are in fact forgeries. Plus, the system is expensive and inflexible because it only works for PDFs

Only someone with zero understanding of cryptography would think that digital signatures only work with PDF files or can only be done using a particular piece of software from Adobe. The relevant technology is old, not patent-encumbered, and available in a huge number of free and open-source implementations.

Fooling a competent CA is probably much, much harder than fooling a university. But if some university feels somehow that they are more trustworthy than a CA, they can simply generate their own public/private key pairs.


What if you love your field but can't take the heat of academia? Imagine "a person" who may or may not be brilliant in her field, but certainly has new things to contribute, some of them (in her opinion) fascinating.

Imagine she adores her field, relates to it spiritually, and has been convinced for years that her life purpose is to do this research. She cannot imagine spending her time on this planet in any other way.

Of course, she has poured hours into it already, devoting her undergraduate career and much of her personal time to her area of interest. But she knows that it takes years of full-time commitment, study, and mentorship to become an expert in a field and to become qualified to break ground in a specific area.

But suppose it is not in her nature, nor particularly within her abilities, to meet the demands of today's academic culture. She is absent-minded and spacey; she is idealistic; she is in certain ways immature. She crumbles easily under stress and is psychologically vulnerable. She has difficulty making time for everything even without the demands of a graduate or postgraduate workload. She hates filling out forms and (especially) soliciting recommendations, even though her kind and charitable professors are always eager to write for her.

Please answer one or both of these questions:

A.

Should the person in my example "go into academe"--that is, should she go to graduate school for an academic PhD? If not, what should she do?

B.

Does the "absent-minded professor" exist anymore, and if so, how do/did they get through the hurdles?

I think the heart of this question comes to what this hypothetical person actually wants when it comes to "doing research."  This could mean a lot of different things, but when I hear people speak vaguely in this manner, the notions often roughly categorize into three clusters:

Exploring ideas relating to a field of knowledge: To explore ideas and communicate about them a person can readily participate as an amateur, working at whatever level of intensity and engagement makes most sense.  There's nothing wrong with engaging on this level, and it can actually be quite important, especially when it comes to communication of scientific ideas (e.g., many science journalists can be considered to engage with research in this way).
Doing work that supports the advancement of knowledge: One can do work that supports research without actually signing up for the full primary investigator load.  Lab technicians, amateur astronomers, and industrial researchers are all people who "get things done" that directly contribute to research and the advancement of knowledge, yet rarely or never need face the challenges associated with publication and funding.  The bigger the research project, the more space there is for people of this sort: most of the people working on the Large Hadron Collider, for example, probably fall into this category.  Depending on the particulars, contributions might require no formal education at all anywhere up to a doctorate and postdoc specialization.
Organizing and leading investigations that advance knowledge: Leading research as a primary investigator is where the serious "heat" comes in, and where a doctorate is definitely required. Here one needs to have not only the technical training but also to be able to deal with strong criticism of one's ideas and to be well organized and capable of communicating scientifically.  Note, however, that "dealing with criticism" should not mean putting up with verbal abuse and ad hominem attacks.

Now, relating this to your hypothetical person.  The two key warning flags that I see in your statement are "crumbles easily under stress and is psychologically vulnerable" and "difficulty making time for everything."

If "difficulty making time" means the person cannot really commit to things, then only amateur work is likely to be a good path.
If "crumbles easily" means "cannot handle people challenging ideas", then leading investigations is definitely out, and any sort of doctoral program is likely problematic.  On the other hand, if it means "is easily hurt by verbal abuse" then graduate school is entirely possible---it would just be important to find a good advisor match and some sort of supportive personal network.


PhD in theoretical physics: good or bad for engineering jobs? I'm a student who is currently undertaking a Master of Physics (coursework & research) at the University of Western Australia. I have also previously completed two Bachelor's degrees: one in physics and one in electrical engineering (with honours). Next year, I am hoping to start a PhD in high-energy physics (HEP) somewhere in Australia, doing a highly theoretical topic (such as supersymmetry, string theory, etc.) with the long term goal of following an academic path in this area of research.

From my understanding though, it is VERY hard finding academic jobs relevant to this particular field. I've heard through the grapevine that you have more chance of becoming a professional athlete than becoming a professor in theoretical HEP which is honestly quite dejecting.

However, understanding physics beyond the standard model is undoubtedly my passion so I would really like to pursue a PhD in it to determine whether or not it can become more than just a hobby. I've heard of theoretical HEP PhD's going into finance, etc. when finding an academic position proved fruitless, but if I'm being honest, that doesn't sound all that appealing to me. If the academic path didn't work out, I have always had a super keen interest in areas such as signal processing, control theory and data analysis. Which leads me to my main question:

In case I can't find an academic position in theoretical HEP, do you think my EE degree and MPhys (both of which involved experimental research projects highly focused on signal processing and data analysis) would be sufficient credentials to land a job in engineering/signal processing/data analysis? Or perhaps if I'm lucky, even some area of industry research (if so, what areas)?

Further, do you think having a PhD in theoretical HEP, in addition to my other credentials, would be a benefit or a hindrance in securing these types of jobs?

Some potentially relevant information:

I have 3 months of work experience at an electrical engineering company

My EE research project involved analyzing audio signals using a DSP to achieve desired acoustic properties

My MPhys research project is about detecting gravitational waves which involves heavy signal processing and manipulating large sets of data (100GB+) using python

By the end of this year my MPhys research should produce at least 1 or 2 papers in the Physical Review Letters journal

I would say that strongly depends on what you do in the HEP PhD.

If it is more like pen and paper theory I would say this is not very interesting for industry. Perhaps even in the contrary as you might seem too "academic". Pen and paper theory jobs do not really exist in industry.

It is more the big data processing and computer simulation related skills what is relevant. The tools (python and methods) you use in your MPhys research sounds exactly what some companies are also using internally.

Industry considers hiring people from adjacent fields, when demand is much higher than the supply for certain jobs. Currently I see that this is the case for "data scientists". So I would say now your chances are good to find a job there as many companies are now exploring big data applications. They are scared by the success of Google, Facebook, etc.. and do not want them to take over an important part of their business. So many are investing here. Industry also has these jobs so it is not just finance. It is very diverse. One gains some feeling for it when one looks at current job offers (which is what I did, so I have no deeper experience than that). However, you have to keep in mind that the situation may be different is in a few years when you might have to give up your academic career (hopefully not).

A PhD is liked for certain types of jobs even in industry. As the PhD is teaching more a generic mindset (-> how to work scientifically,/thoroughly, know how to tackle big, unsolved problems) this is considered useful in some industrial jobs. Appropriate job descriptions would perhaps have names with "scientist" in it, like "data scientist", "research scientist" and so, not so much the "engineer" type of jobs. Sometimes PhDs are also found in sales/marketing, when a product needs deep explanation, training (and the customers are themselves PhDs) or must be customized to the users needs (and this is not straightforward).

Note: Even though I have worked in the US, I a most familiar with the German system. Nevertheless I hope the answer helps somehow.


Doing an executive MBA after a PhD I have a PhD in Physics and about 10 years of experience post the PhD, 6 years in academia and the rest in Industry as a research Data Scientist. I would like to move more towards management and am considering an executive MBA. Another reason for considering the MBA is that my PhD was from US and then I returned back to India. Now I am looking to go back and considering this as an avenue to return to US. Does it sound like a reasonable idea?

IF you're already a data scientist, then many US firms are crying out for your skills, and willing to pay really good salaries. I'd have a look at coming across to the US in employment as a data scientist with a good company that will probably be willing to invest in management training. The danger with the MBA route (assuming you mean full time at a good business school) is high cost outlay together with a period with no income - but then again only you know your financial position!


Searching for papers on a subject I'm about to start researching myself but nothing comes up. How do I know that I've searched enough? I'm about to begin my master's research, and I'm in the process of formulating my research question. Therefore, I am searching for papers about the same topic to make sure that what I am planning to do has not been done before (at least not the way I am planning to do it), but so far I cannot find such papers.

How can I make sure that I've searched enough and that I am not missing anything obvious? I have chosen characteristic keywords from my topic and ran them in Google and Google scholar. Should I perform the same search in other places, or should that suffice?

Literature search is a skill like data analysis or writing. You need to learn the basics from an expert, find a good sample and dissect it, then try it on your own. Simply entering terms into Google is not enough or won't get you very far.

I suggest that you

spend time with an information specialist in the library to learn about constructing answerable questions and learning the basics of searching
learn about the basic databases used in your field and the proper way to search them through your subject librarian also at the library
locate several systematic reviews in your field and dissect their methods. Pay special attention to the databases and search terms they used.
ask your supervisor and peers for advice about the databases that they've used.

I hope that you develop a new-found respect for librarians in the end. They are a godsend.

Good luck!


People with at least four PhDs This is a question of pure curiosity: just like there exists polyglots who speak dozens of languages, are there any cases of people obtaining at least four PhDs? (It is okay if topics are fairly close, e.g. Maths, stats, cs, theor phys).
Note, I am specifically not asking about whether doing multiple PhDs is advisible.

In German-speaking countries, or at least in Austria, the abbreviation DDr. mult. is used to denote people who have more than two doctorates. Googling for DDr. mult. allows one to identify some persons, but I cannot quickly verify whether they received just three or even four+ such titles.
However, note that some of them should actually be labelled DDr. h.c. mult., whereby h.c. (honoris causa) suggests that the doctorates are honorary titles. In other words, oftentimes they did not start PhD programs from the beginning to the final defense of their dissertation multiple times, but perhaps just once, whereafter they received some honorary titles for some public service.


Doing PhD in math/physics after obtaining a bachelor degree in an unrelated field I want to do a PhD in mathematics (Specializing in algebraic topology or algebraic geometry ) or mathematical physics (String theory). I have a bachelor degree in a totally different field (medicine).
Here's my situation :

I have independently studied mathematics and physics. I have spent a lot of time with hatcher's textbook in algebraic topology and lang's complex analysis among with other topics in math and physics. These are proof-heavy textbooks and I usually do the exercises.

Now , after having studied analysis ,differential topology ,geometry, abstract algebra , quantum mechanics and QFT .

Is this a good preparation for a PhD in math/physics ?

Please note that I have studied from standard textbooks and solved a lot of exercises.

How do I convince PhD committee to accept my application ?

If I apply now , Apart from formal qualifications,my application will be missing one crucial component which is the letters of recommendations. I'm not sure where do I get them ? I don't know any physics or math professors who can evaluate my knowledge.

You should contact potential advisors who work in the areas in which you are interested.  Introduce yourself, explain any work you've done, and ask if they have specific feedback for moving on in your career.  You should contact several people.  If you live near a university, arranging a time to meet with some current faculty members is also a good way to go about this.


Where to find successful proposals of previous ERC calls? I plan to apply for ERC ADVANCED GRANT 2015. Is there any place for finding previous winner proposals?

The templates are straightforward, but it is very useful to see what winners have written in their proposals, particularly in the Scientific Proposal (Part B2).

Currently, most people don't share their research proposals, whether successful or unsuccessful in their bid for funding.

However, this may soon change in the near future as it has been noted that more transparency would be extremely beneficial for a variety of reasons [1,2].

That said, there's a nice list of publicly available grant proposals in the biological sciences here. None are specifically for the ERC ADVANCED GRANT 2015 though. Figshare is also a good place to check for public research proposals.

UPDATE - There is now also a dedicated website for openly available grant proposals: ogrants.org it is a Moore Foundation funded initiative. One of the grants listed at that site is a European Research Commission Starting Grant (Strategic Predictions for Quantum Field Theories by John Joseph M. Carrasco).

Further Reading

Mietchen D (2014) The Transformative Nature of Transparency in Research Funding. PLoS Biol 12(12): e1002027. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002027
Gurwitz D, Milanesi E, Koenig T (2014) Grant Application Review: The Case of Transparency. PLoS Biol 12(12): e1002010. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002010


Publishing an incomplete idea I am working on an extension to my thesis work in robotics.  I believe that, in order to complete the result I'm moving towards, I'll need at least two, probably more, papers to provide a full solution.  The problem itself can be broken into several pieces that clearly build off of each other.  I'd like to publish each piece separately in order to keep the size of the paper reasonable.  Also, the first piece is actually of limited technical use but introduces the concepts, notations, and methods required for the further pieces.  Has anyone had any success trying to publish work that stands alone but is very obviously incomplete?

Also, the first piece is actually of limited technical use but introduces the concepts, notations, and methods required for the further pieces.

The main question is whether this work is of independent interest or use to anybody but you.  All research is incomplete in some sense, and that doesn't bother people (everyone likes opportunities for further work).  So the issue is whether your paper is incomplete in the sense of not accomplishing anything interesting yet, or incomplete in the sense that there is still much more to do.

If there are people who want to read it now, on its own, then that's an argument for publishing it now.  If it has little value except as preparation for the next paper, and that paper is already written, then it might be OK, but getting it accepted on its own may be tough.  If it has little value except as preparation for a future paper that does not yet exist and might not pan out, then it will be really difficult to publish it.


Is it acceptable to ask the editor for feedback about a review I wrote? I am a graduate student. I recently completed the review of a submission and its subsequent revision for a journal in my field, in the peer review process. My comments were taken into account by the authors, and the entire process went fine.

Since it was my first time, I'd like to get some feedback on my reviews. I had a professor read over them before turning them in for tone and content, but am thinking of contacting the editor who asked me to review to ask for feedback as they are more involved in the process and have spent time on the paper and the reviews.

Is this acceptable? Recommended? What other avenues are there for getting such feedback?

Edit: I can and have looked at the other reviewers' reviews. They are pretty similar to mine, perhaps a bit more aggressive and to the point.

This is totally acceptable. It means more work for the editor, of course, but I think most of us are also teachers and hope that by helping you become a better reviewers, that we can draw on your again in the future.

In particular, in your email, you might want to ask whether it is possible to get the other reviews. That may, strictly speaking, not be quite allowed, but I have often done that to help younger scientists see what other reviewers saw in the paper in question.


Writing referee report: found major error, now what? I'm writing a referee report on a paper.  This paper is interesting and, if correct, would be worth publishing. However, I believe they have a major mistake in their method which invalidates their results more or less entirely. I am 90%+ confident that this method is in error, which will affect their results in (possibly unpredictable) ways.

How should I address this in the rest of the paper? I could write the rest of the referee report assuming that they haven't made this mistake - but I think that could be a waste of my time (and their time, since it'll take me longer to do).

If a referee had this sort of problem with your paper, what would you like to happen?

Edited to add:
One of the major concerns I have with just rejecting, focusing on this point (as recommended by Raghu and others), is the (time and $) cost of re-running things. Saying, "This is wrong" but not going through the rest of the paper could lead to a second referee report where they've fixed the error and re-done everything.  If I then say, "Also, Experiment B doesn't mean what you think it does," re-running Experiment B may have been a waste. How much consideration of these factors do you think a referee owes the authors?

If there's a "major mistake in their method which invalidates their results more or less entirely" it seems pretty clear that you should explain this in your review, and not bother writing much else. (This seems so obvious, I wonder if I'm misunderstanding your question.) Why on earth would you "write the rest of the referee report assuming that they haven't made this mistake," if you're quite sure that the mistake exists, and that it invalidates most of the paper? What purpose would it serve, for the authors or future readers?


How should I properly cite an author with a variously credited name? I have recently been dealing with an interesting conundrum.  I have several papers written by the same author, but in which the author's name is credited differently.

Some of these articles credit this author as:

Schön, with an umlaut.

Schoen, where the name is written according to the convention of adding "e", where an umlaut cannot be typed.

My citation style would ordinarily place a ---- under duplicate articles by one author, but the typographical variation in the credited names in the journal means that a reader of my references, who has not verified as I have that these articles are by the same person, might have the impression I was citing two different authors.  Equally, I worry that it would be quite inappropriate to alter the style in which the author's name was printed in the original journal.  Is there anyway I can indicate in my references that these are articles by the same person?

I think the appropriate thing to do is to cite each paper with the spelling that the author chose for that paper. In some way, this is no different than when someone publishes first under their maiden name and then under their married name. Or the other way around. Or when they legally change their name for whatever good or poor reason. Let the author of the paper choose what name they want to use, and use that in the reference.

The reasoning for this is that ultimately, a reference is not meant to educate a reader about the subtler points of identifying the author and their history with family names. The point of a reference is to identify a paper, and the paper has after all been published by the author using one and only one spelling of their name, whatever it may have been the day the paper was written/accepted/published.


Are there tools to prevent students from cheating on a programming exam administered on computers? I'm teaching an Introduction to Computer Science Course, where we mainly do C programming. I've been assigned a lab for teaching the course, but there are more students than available computers. Also, I have no control over those PCs there, and almost every student has admin rights to them. It is also common that students bring their laptop to the classroom and connect to campus Wi-Fi, which I don't have control at all.

Exams are small algorithms to solve, and initially I was planning - as do other teachers in the course - to allow using a computer (from the lab or their own) for the students to verify the correctness of their algorithms. However, in the current state of things I think is pretty easy for students to cheat: They could use Facebook, e-mail, or any Internet tool to exchange source code or information.

Are there software tools that can help to allow use of a computer but still prevent unauthorized collaboration?

At my university in the UK we have two kinds of assessment for programming courses. Pass/fail 'practicals' where students are given programming tasks, and are explicitly allowed to discuss them with each other and search online. When the student is ready to submit their solution a demonstrator will look it over and ask questions etc to make sure the student understands why they wrote the code they wrote. Students don't get a grade for this that counts towards their overall mark for the year, but they are required to 'pass' the practicals in order to pass the year.

Then there are written exams with no computer access. There are questions along the lines of 'write some code that will solve this problem', and also more conceptual 'why is this the case? When would you use that?' questions. For the 'write code' bits, the markers will deduct very few points for simple syntax errors and things like that. The question is not so much 'can the student write a program that will compile on the first try?' as 'can the student come up with a good algorithm which solves the problem and give a reasonable expression of it in code?'. Note that these courses (at my uni) are never for specific languages; they are courses like 'functional programming' or 'object oriented programming' or 'machine learning', which will each use a particular language, but we care more that the student understands the concepts than learns the intricacies of the course's language.

This also encourages students to learn ways of designing and writing provably correct programs: if they can reason about programs on a deeper level than intuition, then writing programs on paper is a better test of this than allowing them to experiment and test until the output 'looks right' for the inputs they've given it.

This seems like a good way to avoid cheating on grades that matter and encourage solid understanding of the important course material. That said, many students hate having to write code on paper without access to S.O. or a compiler!


Response to selection criteria regarding health and wellbeing I am prepareing response to answer selection criteria for a academic job in a university in Australia where the last question is
Enthusiasm for addressing research questions relevant to human health and wellbeing.

Anyone please tell me the points how should I write that?

The existence of such a question implies to me that the university, or perhaps just the department, has made some commitment to advancing human health and wellbeing. Perhaps this is a shared goal of many (most?) of the existing faculty.

The question may or may not be one that will be decisive in choosing a candidate. But it seems to be asking whether your personal goals are in alignment with that shared goal.

Perhaps you have thought of this sort of thing in the past, and perhaps your natural inclination is to support it. But it is also possible that you've never considered it and think it is irrelevant. I doubt that anyone would be likely to actively oppose it, however.

But, I always suggest that you answer honestly. Even if your answer is just "I'll have to think about that for a while as the question hasn't come up before" it could be enough. Answering "Stupid, Stupid, STUPID." won't get you the job, I think. And if that is, in fact, your first thought, then you might not be a good fit with the others, even if you get the job.

I find the question thought provoking, if nothing else. In some fields, it is an important question also - medical fields, for example. In CS and mathematics it is a bit more speculative.

But even in AI, a commitment to "do no harm" is worth the effort it takes. Some machine learning algorithms have proven problematic in the recent past, having been trained on a too-narrow or even racist base.


What can first author do if co-author who submitted paper put himself down as corresponding author without first author's permission? N is the first author for a paper (PhD work) and there are three co-authors, B, C and D.

B and C are from the same department and the author D is from different department but they are all from the same institution. B had the biggest contribution in terms of the experimental work and N spent a long time writing the paper.

The paper was sent to all for revision. After the paper is ready, the co-author submits the manuscript considering herself as the corresponding author without the first author permission. The problem is that she gave an incorrect email address of the first author to the journal.

Is this situation illegal? Can the first author contact the journal and at least change his correct email address?

Legality doesn't really come into this, but academic ethics most certainly does.

The real problem here is that the paper was submitted without a clear agreement amongst the authors that it was ready for submission and about who would submit.

From your story and comments, I assume that you are "N", but you don't say which of co-authors B, C, or D submitted. I am guessing that one of those co-authors is your advisor, and I believe that's who you need to have a conversation with.

If your advisor was the one who submitted (or told the other co-author to submit), they may have had good reason for doing so, or may have thought that you had already consented to submission.
If your advisor didn't think the paper was ready to submit, they need to know that it has happened so that they can help defend both of your interests.

Depending on what happens in your conversation with your advisor, there are three basic paths from here:

It was a misunderstanding of some sort or a basically harmless error, and nothing needs to be done,
The journal editor can be contacted to change paper meta-data, or
The article needs to be withdrawn and resubmitted at a later date.

From what you have written so far, however, it is impossible to tell which is the appropriate course.


Lodging an objection to a decision to reject my Master application I'm currently writing an objection to a decision to reject my Master application.

The decision is made by Admission office, not by Admission Board or Committee. All members of the Admission office are not members of the academic staff, so there is no at least one professor from the programme who participated in making this decision to reject my application. I checked this because in the email I received, there are the names of the members.

As they use the word "reject" it might lead someone to think that my application was not complete, but this was not true. According to this decision, my application was carefully examined and, in addition,  I was not informed that there is some document missing as it is stated in the FAQ on there website, i.e. they will inform me in the case of missing document or delay caused by more time they need to check my educational background.

In the email that I received there is no a reason why my application is rejected. Now I have to state clearly the grounds on which I object there decision.

I applied with not only BSc that meets the requirements but also with two year Master degree in the same field, successfully finished without redoubling the year, high marks. Before applying I informed the admission office for this and I did not have any remarks for my previous educational beckground as I saw that all requirements are referring to previous Bsc. I was even waved out from GRE/GMAT requirements.

I need the help especially from those who have expericence in the European (EU) Education Law or Dutch Higer Education and Research Act (WHW) to clearly state the Articles that are violated concerning:

The composition of the Admission office (I know that it is a practice everywhere in the world to have at least one professor, but I need an official document, I cannot only refer to the ethics)
The right of a student to have at least some information to know why the application was rejected as it has to state clearly the grounds of his objection
Is there any convention or document that clearly defines what is non-selected and rejected document (this document must be official)
Regarding the level of my previous education which fully satisfies the requirement, is there any ground for discrimination based on the fact that maybe I'm overqualified or overeducated, taking into considereation also the fact they told me previously that I can apply?

Thank you for your understanding

In my (central European) university, candidates for admission to a master's program who are coming from an outside university go through either an "admissions committee" (Zulassungsausschuss) or an "examination committee" (Prüfungsausschuss). Although the decisions are in fact made by those committees, the decisions are usually reported through assistants to those committees, who would constitute the "admissions office." It would represent a huge time commitment for the chair of the committee to individually respond to the different applications, and therefore that work is passed on to the intermediaries.

Thus, I wouldn't read too much into the fact the letter came from the "admissions office" instead of the "admissions committee."

However, if you were in fact rejected on the basis of having an "incomplete" application, even though you were explicitly told that you would be notified of missing documents, that would give you the right to request a review, since they didn't follow their explicit policies.


Degree programs or careers with a focus on plagiarism detection? Are there any formal degrees that offer training in tools for detecting plagiarism? Or on understanding fair-use, proper attribution of sources, and avoiding plagiarism?

Are there career options which focus on exposing plagiarism?

Dr. Stefan Weber (PhD in Communication Sciences from University of Vienna) has essentially made a career out of detecting plagiarism, mainly in doctoral and habilitation theses from important public persons in the german-speaking area. You can find some information about him online. He has written multiple well-selling books on the topic, sells plagiarism checks, and regularly appears in public discussions.

However, note that the life of somebody who frequently and very publicly raises strong allegations against professors, politicians, and other degree-holders with substantial influence is not necessarily a fun one. As you can imagine, a lot of dirt gets unearthed and thrown in his face routinely (sometimes justified, sometimes more as part of counter-campaigning by the persons he attacked).

In summary, I think he fills an important societal niche in our area, but I really wouldn't want his career.


acceptance of a publication by the number of the citations I wrote a paper of 17 pages and containing 37 citations, could this large number of pages and citations affect its acceptance in any scientific journal or magazine?

17 pages of manuscript usually shrink to eight or ten in the journal, and 37 citations does not sound like an exceptionally large number.

It depends on the journal you want to submit this paper to. Change the typesetting to the format of that journal, to see how many pages you actually have, and then compare to other articles in there.

Generally: It doesn't matter, if it's not totally off. Is you article well written, scientifically rigorous, referencing the scientific background, and adds something new to it? Then submit it to a journal where it fits in.


Should I offer to give a presentation in a postdoc interview if not requested in the invitation? I was invited to a 30 minute interview for a postdoc position. The only details given about the interview was to learn about my interests and background as well as learn about the lab I am interviewing.
Even though not requested, should I prepare a 10 minute or less presentation summarizing my research background and ask if they would like me to present during the interview? My field is computer science, and the interview will be via video chat (e.g., Zoom).

It would probably be worth it to develop such a thing as a backup, but I wouldn't offer it unasked.
If they already have an idea of the things they need to know and have questions ready, then I doubt that it would help and, unless it is "just right" (whatever that means), it could hurt.
Give them what they ask for.
But preparing a presentation will probably help you prepare and give you a bit of practice in presenting yourself. If nothing else, it gives you sentences and phrases to drop in as needed in the interview.


When giving a seminar talk, should I sit or stand? When I give a talk (e.g. in a department seminar) it is more convenient for me to sit down, since my body is more relaxed and it is easier for me to concentrate in the talk.

But, I have been told that sitting down makes me seem less serious, and it is more professional to stand up while talking.

So, is it better to sit or stand?

I personally find that sit vs. stand strongly depends on the degree of formality and interactivity of a presentation.

When the presenter stands, it signals a strong differential between the roles of presenter and audience (who sit).  This generally creates a much more formal atmosphere and means that the audience will not contribute to the discussion except to ask occasional questions.
When the presenter sits, it signals a more equal discussion environment, where it just happens that the presenter is the one who is structuring the discussion and/or controlling the slides.  I almost never see this except in the most informal sorts of meetings within a project or group, but in such meetings (e.g., coordination of a project team) it is very common.

For the specific case that you give, of a department seminar, I would strongly advise standing.  The reason for this is that, even if it is a fairly intimate and informal group, a strong motivation for the organization of such seminars is to give you practice for more formal talks.  You may find it more comfortable to be sitting but this is a good opportunity to practice and find ways to be comfortable when standing as well.

Two caveats to all of this:

If a person has a medical condition, they should take whatever position the medical condition encourages.  I've stood and walked around at the back of a talk when my back was having issues; nobody expects Steven Hawking to stand and speak.  If the condition is not obvious, you may wish to inform the audience so they know not to misinterpret your position.
If you are giving a presentation remotely, the position that you are in generally does not matter, as a well-adjusted camera will typically only pick up your head and shoulders.


Are there any resumé revision services available for PhD applicants? I am preparing a resumé for a PhD application. I'd like to know if there any good, and not necessarily free, services that evaluate and comment on a resumé.

Yes, literally hundreds. Have you googled something like "professional resume for phd application" or "professional resume writing services"? You are bound to find something near where you live, including quite possibly your undergrad university.

The big question, I think, is whether for a PhD application you should be supplying a resume or a curriculum vitae? CV's are usually more common for academic and research positions. If you are unsure about the differences, here are a couple of useful links.

Good luck with the application.


Appropriate description of image processing algorithm in engineering I want to write a paper in the field of mechanical engineering. For the evaluation of my experiments, I would like to use image processing. When image processing software is used in my field of research, it is for the most part heavily based on or at least closely related to digital image correlation. However, in my particular case, I believe it is more appropriate not to rely on digital image correlation and solve the problem on my own using "classical" image processing. Using my hardly existent programming skills, I developed some python code and want to incorporate it into said paper. I should probably mention, that the code shall not be the focus of the (mostly experimental) paper and more of an "accessory".
Now, I have encountered a problem: I could not find many research papers in my field that got into detail with their self-written code, especially regarding image processing. Hence, unfortunately, there are few examples to learn from. Furthermore, I do not think that many of the readers of the paper will be familiar with image processing to a greater extent in the first place. However, in my opinion, just stating I developed some software and showing the results is not sufficient.
How much details on my code should I give? Is it already sufficient to show a flowchart and to briefly describe the software? Should I state which python libraries and modules I used? Are there some guidelines that a non-computer-scientist should use when describing software to non-computer-scientists? Does one of you have good examples? Unfortunately, as my programming "skills" are mostly self-taught and rather poor, I am afraid to just upload my code into a repository to "speak for itself" would neither be helpful for comprehension nor good for my reputation.
What do you think? I would very much appreciate all your ideas and opinions.

Your paper should focus on your contribution to the field, not to the field of image processing (if I understand your question).  Your paper will likely have some form of "approach" or "setup" section or something to the effect.  If this is a novel algorithm, you may choose to describe it there.  A common thing to use is a LaTeX "Algorithm" environment, and provide pseudocode.  If the algorithm is very complex or detailed, consider breaking it into pieces.  If it is truly novel, consider publishing it!
An alternative would be to have some way to publicly access the code, say github or your institution's personal websites, with an explanation there.  Again, a pseudocode algorithm is probably sufficient.
If your paper is accepted but you are asked to revise the description of the code, do so according to the comments.  Otherwise, unless there is a lot missing from the main paper's description of its contribution, your paper will not be rejected or accepted based on this detail.


Should I put an experimental experience from master' degree as a skillset in my CV after a computational PhD? I am applying for mechanical engineering and materials engineering postdoc positions. I mostly apply for computational research positions but sometimes I apply where they are looking for experimentalists with some computational experience as well.  Can I mention the following as a skillset in the CV without being misleading?
My PhD was in computational materials science where I did not do any experiments. However in 2013, I completed master's degree where I had done quite a significant amount of experimental work. I did scanning electron microscopy, xray diffraction experiments and mechanical testing. I did not do those during my PhD. I remember how to analyze the results, but I don't remember how to operate the machines anymore.
Under such scenario, should I mention experimental methods as an experience in my CV?
Currently, I mentioned these in following way:
>     Research Skills
>     Computational: Experienced in nonlinear Finite Element Analysis (FEA)....blah blah blah
>     • Tools: Python, Fortran, blah blah
>     • Packages: Scikit-Learn, blah blah
>
>     Experimental: Proficient in metallurgical polishing and mechanical testing; Experienced in materials-characterization methods: Scanning
> Electron Microscopy, Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD).

In general it is a good idea to list all positive/relevant experience. But if you are worried about it being misleading, just put a date on the item, listing when the project ended, or the start and end dates. People can do their own math.
But leaving it out entirely seems a mistake to me.


NWO Veni grant application: domein-overschrijdend or humanities? I am working on a Veni (introductory individual) grant application to the Dutch Organization for Science, NWO. My proposal is interdisciplinary in its methodology, but firmly rooted in historical linguistis concerning its research question.

I wonder about the pros and cons of submitting my application to humanities (SGW) or as interdisciplinary (DO, for domein-overschrijdend) proposal.

I know that the domain will affect the choice of reviewers/committee members who get to judge the proposal, and that I will have to tailor my application to it.

What is unclear to me, however, is whether there are other factors that mean I should choose one or the other. In particular, are there differences in funding structure and application counts that would mean there is an expected difference in the success chances of an SGW versus a DO application?

NWO have changed their application structure this year. Applications in the domains of humanities or technology (but not interdisciplinary applications between the domains) now need to submit a pre-proposal which needs to be accepted before one is allowed to submit the full application. This was introduced to reduce the workload of referees, which to me suggests that the quota of applicants to grants in humanities and technologies is larger than elsewhere. However, when I asked NWO staff about the difference between the humanities and the DO application procedure, they did only mention the effect on reviewers, not any difference in funds. Are there summary statistics or funding allocation descriptions available online that would show whether a DO application has an a priori higher chance of success?

Three years ago, the Veni award report listed the applications and awards per domain

In that year, there is no significant difference between the success chance in the SGW domain and DO-applications.

In the two years since (2016 and 2017), the report does not list comparable figures. (The 2016 report lists awardees by field, but not the corresponding number of applicants per field.) But for 2017, the Vidi awards are represented by the table. Comparing the success rate A Fisher exact test gives a p-value of 0.0675, so this still does not necessarily imply a bias in favour of DO-applications.

The data tentatively suggests that the targeted domain does indeed not make an a-priori difference for the success of an application.


I expect much more commitment from my PhD-supervisor. How do I communicate this to him? I am a doctoral student in economics and have problems with the progress of my doctoral thesis because my supervisor hardly cares about my work.
I currently need some feedback and comments from him, as I cannot publish my results before.
This problem is not a current problem, but has existed since the beginning of my PhD.
It seems that this is not only the case for me, but also for other doctoral candidates and students who are supervised by him.
During the semester I can go to his office if I have a question.
However, even at these meetings he almost never read my work before and told me that he had no time or had forgotten about it. Currently, these personal meetings are also not possible due to the coronavirus.
Therefore I have already sent him e-mails several times, but he hardly answers my messages.

So I would like to ask how I can politely express that I would like to see more commitment from him?
Otherwise he is very friendly and can also help me with technical problems (if he does this once).
I therefore do not want to burden the relationship with too negative criticism.

How can I get him to 1) read my current work in the near future and 2) generally pay more attention to my thesis.

Can anyone give me any recommendations on this?

Realise your own commitment first. As a PhD candidate, you are training to become an independent researcher. Ideally, you aim to reach the stage when you are able to tell good results from bad, proofread and edit your own writing, prepare the PhD thesis for publication and defence. Many PhD candidates struggle because their advisers are over-protective and micromanage every step, leaving them little chance for self-reflection and self-improvement. Embrace the freedom to do your research your way and to learn from your own mistakes in the process. Own your work and own responsibility for making it better.
Use others. Many questions can be answered by people other than your PhD supervisor. Use online resources, such as Stack Exchange, use other peers and colleagues, use support systems in your department. Ask questions, try to understand answers, find and use the relevant literature. Do not sit and passively wait  for your adviser to come back to you with suggestions - use this time to find the answer yourself.
Do not wait for your supervisor's approval of your work. Assume that silence  is a sign of approval and move on. If in doubt, show your work to someone else and ask for their advice. Politely cc your supervisor in the email.  It may work wonders.
Understand the process of submission and clearly distinguish the points when your supervisor is essential to move forward, from those when their advice is only desirable. Politely ask your supervisor to give you feedback by a particular date, but be prepared to move forward regardless of whether or not you receive the response. Depending on your University structure, you may even be able to submit your thesis without your PhD supervisor's approval. Know the people who are in charge of the PG education in your University - such as Research Office of Head of Department - and cc them in all really important emails (but only in really important ones). They may help to encourage your supervisor to find time to give you feedback or approval when it's critical.


Ethical concerns regarding the review of a paper on autonomous armed drones I would like your suggestion on a delicate matter involving a paper that I am reviewing. I will avoid giving too many details to preserve anonymity.

In this article the authors describe an algorithm for the (unmanned) control of a military armed drone. The work has been done completely in a simulator, but the authors show clear pictures of the type of real-world military drone they reproduced, explicitly saying that the real drone can be armed with different type of bombs. The performance of the algorithm is scored based on the number of times the simulated drone autonomously hit the target. The authors never discuss possible ethical concerns of this technology, neither they explicitly say if this technology will be used on real drones to hit human targets with possible involvement of civilians (e.g. in counter-terrorism).

My personal position is against the development of lethal autonomous weapons. Even though I have several years of experience in reviewing papers, this is the very first time I have to deal with such a problem and I am not sure how to move. I think that this kind of ethical problems are common in medical-related fields, but rather uncommon in engineering, and that they are catching our community off guard.

Note that, from a formal point of view the situation is fuzzy. Even though there has been an international petition against the development of autonomous weapons, the formalization in an international ban (like the one for chemical weapons) seems to be far away. Moreover, the ethical guidelines of the journal just apply to the use of animal in research, and to experiments on human subjects. This let me conclude that from a formal standpoint the paper is legit since it does not break any rule.

I have considered writing to the editor expressing my concerns or pointing out these concerns directly in the review, so that the authors can give an answer to my queries. As last solution I am also considering the option of withdrawing, but I would prefer to set up a dialogue with the authors and the editor since this is more constructive for everybody. However, I think it is also important to consider the hypothesis that my ethical position can bias my review (even though I am trying to be as neutral as possible) and this may be unfair for the evaluation of the technical quality of the proposed method.

My question is: how should I proceed in the review process? There are a few options: withdraw for ethical concerns, just review the article, review and express my ethical concerns to the editor (and maybe to the authors).

Update: 5 March 2020

Thank you everyone for your answers, they really helped me to better understand the situation. I decided to withdraw as reviewer, and I sent an official letter to the editor. In the letter I expressed my ethical concerns without giving any comment on the technical quality of the paper. The paper did not break any formal rule, therefore recommending an official rejection would have been like imposing my personal ethics over the review process. In the letter I have also reported those sentences that clearly framed the drone like an autonomous lethal weapon.

The assistant editor wrote me saying that the editor liked my academic attitude and wanted me for a second review. The editorial team has contacted the authors, who said they did not wanted to create a misunderstanding and that they are willing to modify the expressions. This seems to imply that they have forwarded to the authors the list of sentences I confidentially reported to the editor, and that the authors want to adjust those sentences in the revised version.

My personal opinion is that just rephrasing the paper without changing the substance would not be enough. You can substitute "target" with "goal" and "attack" with "reach" but that remains an autonomous armed drone.

I suggest you withdraw and send a formal letter to the editor expressing your concerns. Cite a larger moral universe than the narrow one covered by the journal's policies. Suggest that the research itself is unethical and recommend, without detailed review, that the paper be rejected.

I've been in a similar but less fraught case. I was shepherd of a paper that crossed a less dangerous boundary. I had repeated contact with the authors and tried, over several communications, to convince them that the actions they were proposing were wrong. I failed to convince them. The paper was rejected. I was actually given an award for my efforts to convince them, even though I failed.

My experience suggests that the people who do this sort of thing are not going to be convinced by a dialog of any kind. They are too invested in it to bother to listen.

Don't wait for "the powers that be" to decide this stuff is immoral and leads to a bad end. If people like reviewers at the bottom of the pyramid don't complain about it, this sort of research will continue and will get implemented. There are too many historical exemplars of this to ignore the consequences.


Is ps preferred over pdf format in some cases? Some people use ps over pdf format for their paper.

Are there some advantages of ps format over pdf format?

Thanks!

No.

There are no advantages of PS over PDF.

Any modern computer system that can display PS files can also display PDF files. (The converse is certainly not true.)

Any modern computer system that can produce PS files can also produce PDF files. (Again, the converse is not true.)

Any material that you can present with a PS file can be presented equally well with a PDF file. (Again, the converse is not true.)


Comments for Elsevier paper proof I have just corrected my first paper and I might have done something very wrong.

Using the website provided by Elsevier, I corrected everything regarding words and sentences, in addition to small changes in the equations. But, some changes were not possible for me to do, maybe the website had some built-in prevention. For example I couldn't delete and add equations, and I couldn't properly change the layout of the equations (Some equations were cut in half, and some were longer than the text width), also one of the tables needed some changes but I couldn't do them in the website!

So, I wrote multiple comments for the copy-editor regarding these changes. But does this mean that he will do them properly?

Since I will not have the chance to see the changes before publication. I fear that the copy-editor will not make the proper changes! And I might end up with a Frankenstein paper.

Sorry if the question is silly, but I have no experience in this.

I think it is very unlikely that any reputable publisher won't review your changes and get back to you if anything seems wrong.

However, if you have contacted the copy-editor, they are also warned that it needs a look. Relax for now, I think. You may have more work to do, of course.

They likely deal with similar things about once a week (day?).


When translating papers from non-English to English, should the sources be translated to English as well? When translating research papers from Arabic to English, should I translate the Arabic sources (book titles, etc.) to English, or should I leave them in Arabic?

I will argue that, for maximum usefulness to your readers, you should do both.
In other words, put both the original and the translation in the entry, e.g. either:

  English citation (original: Arabic citation)

or

  Arabic citation (translation: English citation)

I don't see either of these are being particularly dominant over the other.  Both, however, allow one to both trace the original and know what it is without speaking Arabic.

Note that I would believe this answer should apply to any translation between languages.  It is most critical, however, when the writing systems are incompatible, e.g., Arabic, Roman-character languages, South Asian languages, Chinese, etc.