How do I diplomatically tell my collaborators that I've accepted a different postdoc position? I wrote a 20+ page postdoc grant last year and was rejected, but decided to revise and re-apply with the same collaborators. I am probably days away from it being ready to re-submit, with slightly better odds this time around. In total it's gone through maybe 4-5 months of work with multiple drafts making the rounds among myself, the PI, and 2 other collaborators. However, I just got a postdoc offer that is too good to turn down (funded position at the perfect balance between learning new skills in a new system while flowing naturally from my PhD work). I know I will accept this new offer, so how do I contact my collaborators on the grant we were writing to turn them down? The timing is awkward as hell. Should I just submit it (since it's nearly ready) and then once the new offer is finalized (signed contracts, etc) tell them? Or, tell them now and propose that we sit on the proposal for 2-3 years to submit around when the first postdoc ends? I don't want to burn any bridges as the grant collaborators are also important names in the field and I'd like to keep future collaboration possibilities open.

I certainly wouldn't recommend sitting on the project for a number of years. Science moves on and so do the participants.
But, even if you have to take a different, lesser, role, you can probably move forward with the project.
I don't know if  you need a "diplomatic" response, just an honest one. If you can stay connected with the project, if even as the "idea" person, it should be fine. But you will need to make a commitment that you will do "something" for the project even though you will be busy with the new duties. Collaboration with people from different institutions is normally a good thing.


Why don't colleges make terms shorter and with fewer classes? Instead of the typical 4 classes every 10 weeks, why not 2 classes every 5 weeks?

Condensed courses usually means:

Taking less courses at the same time which makes compartmentalization for memorization easier.
You (typically) take the same course every day, thus actively refreshing the neurons on that topic.
Taking the same course every day over a shorter time makes cumulative exams much less intimidating.
You see the same students everyday. This encourages a more natural stimulation of getting to know your classmates and seems to result in more collaboration outside of class.
If you're doing poorly in a class, for whatever reason, only the last 5 weeks of your academic life are wasted (as opposed to 10).

Overall, the same material is taught to students whether it's in 5 weeks or 10. The difference in that in the 5 week plan, students take half the classes they normally would per 5-week term, and the lecture for that class is everyday of the week.

An example being instead of taking intro to biology, chemistry, calculus, and psychology over 10 weeks, you take biology and psychology during the first 5 weeks and then calculus and chem the second 5 weeks.

From an information processing perspective, it is much more beneficial to have four classes over ten weeks than two classes over five weeks. This is because the mind needs the extended time to digest the material that it is being exposed to.

The two class approach is highly beneficial in allowing students to focus. However, the reduction in exposure to the content over time makes it difficult for retention and to acquire in-depth mastery of the ideas of the curriculum.

I have worked at several institutions that offer "intensive" courses for working graduate students. The students will take one class over the course of one week (about 8 hours a day). In such an intense format the students remember very little and demonstrate limited mastery of the content. This is due to the rushed nature of the course. Even though the students were able to focus, the average individual just cannot digest that much content so fast.

Sadly, there is more to learning than just seat time. Students need time to discuss and apply the knowledge they are exposed to in a course. This only becomes more challenging as the number of weeks a course lasts is reduced, even if the number of hours stays the same.


Who should be provided as an academic reference for job applications? I am instructed by my university to offer 1 academic reference and 1 work reference for industry work (I am doing a year-long placement). However, all attempts to actually get suggestions on who to use from the university have been useless as they appear to be dodging my questions by not responding.

As my course is quite large, I seriously doubt any lecturer or demonstrator will even know my name, let alone me as a person and therefore cannot give a personal reference. But, as we have to give somebody, who should it therefore be?

Your academic reference should be a teacher you have taken a class from or worked with in another academic capacity like a research assistantship, an academic internship, etc.

For students very early in their careers who have only taken large lecture classes, this can be challenging. Some teachers of large lecture classes have concrete guidelines for when they will recommend students in these classes (e.g., I might have a policy of recommending any student who achieves more than a 3.7/4.0). You might look at your professors websites or ask them. The professor will likely review your work in the class before writing a letter so you will be wise to pick a professor of a class you did extremely well in.

Alternatively, you might be able to ask a post-doc or graduate teaching assistant that you worked with more closely with who is familiar with your academic work. I wrote these letters for undergraduates when I was a graduate student. Graduate student letters would be inappropriate for applying to a graduate program but should be just fine for intra-University programs and placements.


What are the differences between a PhD in Statistics and a PhD in Applied Math? Both types of programs will have predominantly undergraduate / master's level mathematics majors, both programs' students will likely take courses in measure-theoretic probability theory (so that knowledge of introductory real and complex analysis are prerequisites), mathematical statistics, develop programming backgrounds, and learn some differential equations, e.g., ODEs, PDEs, SDEs.

Both types of PhD students are well aware of the (current?) opportunities in data science, machine learning, etc, and are giving these areas of study some considerable emphasis.

Those are the similarities.  What are the differences?

It seems that people apply to the Phd in Stats as a way to avoid taking the Math subject GRE test, or that perhaps it is "easier" to get into a good PhD in Stats program, from having an undergrad math background.

Thanks,

Short answer: they are two different (but overlapping) subjects.

Medium answer: Applied math is a broad term that can mean anything from mathematical physics to machine learning to cryptography to numerical analysis to biostatistics to...the list goes on. And it can mean different things at different universities/departments. There is plenty of applied math that doesn't involve statistics. I would go as far as to say that less than half of applied math involves statistics, although the prevalence of statistics is growing. And even though, philosophically speaking, statistics may be a form of applied mathematics, there are plenty of subjects within statistics that are not what people usually refer to as applied math.


How can I structure my undergraduate thesis to include two slightly different projects? I did a research internship/ co-op in my final semester (our uni gives the option to choose between that and staying on campus for project work under professors). There, I was a part of two slightly different projects, one completed and another ongoing. I am finding it really hard to come up with a direction on how to include both of them in my thesis.

A bit of brief into the work done: The main problem was to design a Content-Based Image Retrieval System. It mainly consists of three parts- User Interface(web development), Feature extraction and Similar Image Retrieval (Deep Learning). For the first project, we designed and developed such a system after reviewing established papers. I was responsible for the literature survey and designing the user interface. For the second project, we are designing a system based on Ontology and Deep Learning both.

Although the problem statement is similar, both the parts have vast and different literature surveys. The proposed method, as well as conclusions, also differ.  While I was responsible for survey and website development in the first project(ie.software-based work), for the second one I am responsible for all research, design and development of the project (ie. research-based work).

What could be a possible coherent structure that includes both the projects in a single thesis?
Any help is appreciated!

Your thesis can be outlined 4 chapters as follows:

Chapter 1: General introduction and review of literature~ you can divide or combine in background, approach and hypothesis,statement of the problem, justification of the research, and objectives of the research. but both projects only have the same problem statement. so you can separate 2 big parts in this chapter and each part has various sections.

Chapter 2: Your first project~ Exposing what you did in a logical way. This chapter is concise as you mentioned.

Chapter 3:Your second project~
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Materials and methods
3.3 Results and discussion
3.4 Conclusion

Chapter 4: General conclusions and recommendations for both projects conducted~ general conclusion, key innovation, recommendation and future prospects.

The best way to make sure that it had better get consultancy from your supervisor or a mentor who is an assistant of your supervisor.


Differences Between Academic Research Positions in US and Canada? I am considering the possibility of applying for a faculty or possibly other research positions at a Canadian university. I am curious to know what are the differences in terms of work experience, quality of life, research funding, and so on? I have also heard that government funding structure in Canada is vastly different than the US. Anyone care to share any experiences or first hand knowledge of differences between Canada and the USA for newly PhDs looking for research positions up north?

I am predominately based in Canada as a post-doc, but do have partnerships with few universities in the US and have gone down there for extended periods of time for research purposes.

I mean, they are not vastly different, but it depends on school and the position itself. Some universities are more prestigious than others- but depends on your field. There are many US scholars here - particularly at universities such as UofT hire heavily from the US. In terms of impact - its so different from university to department, but looking online and checking out Maclean's university rankings could help - but again, so department and field specific - and of course there is some great work happening across both countries.

In terms of funding, again department specific where some are very well funded and others not so much. The major grant competitions are CIHR for any health type related work and SSHRC which are both granted by the federal government across a number of priority areas and disciplines (however, many researchers still rely on large US funding such as NIH). Provinces also have their own grant competitions as well. If you've applied for an NIH, you'll be familiar with the federal grant structure but it is tedious and the platform is archaic. Funding competition is tight, but if can align with their priority calls you could have a good chance, and try to be a Co-Investigator on as many applications as possible. However, at any institution they would be very familiar with this process, and as a post doc or early career researcher there is access to lots of resources such as government run and university run seminars to assist in the application, you'll have an advisor or mentor, and others who can help you navigate the red tape the first time.

In terms of living - Canada is great (again depends where you end up!). Some things to consider is access to free healthcare if you work or study here, which could be a big difference from the US. Rent in major cities is comparable, still expensive, but I gage slightly cheaper (Vancouver or Toronto versus, for example, Santa Monica). The culture is very similar to the US, so I think it would be a very easy transition for a US scholar.


Have applied to, and been rejected from, a number of PhD positions; are they really so difficult to get? I am a student who graduated with a Master from a German university in April this year, majored in materials science, willing to further pursue a PHD degree in a European university (or possibly a university in the USA if I can not get anything in the EU). I have already applied to a certain amount of universities´ PHD studentship programs.

I admit that there hardly are positions exactly fitting the thesis work and research activity I had in my Master study program, because materials science is a very diverse and gargantuan subject. Each different university has its own research preference and inclination. Sometimes you may say you can find between 20%-40% overlap with your past experiences, including the similarity of research content, or the techniques being used. So I tried to apply to all of them, the replies were mostly like this: "You can not fit the best of criteria.."  It has been several months, there is still no slight improvement of my application.

My GPA is 3.4/4 (no publications so far), but according to the PhD advertisements I have viewed, some universities have rules about the basic grade requirement you need to have for PhD enrollment, some do not have. The universities I had finished my Master and Bachelor study have certain reputation in their own region or country. My Master degree is Master of science(M.Sc.), Master thesis is about metal-oxide nanostructures synthesis and its application (basically using different approach trying and trying again, compare the final results), on the one hand I am afraid of the simple and even boring thesis work could give people wrong impression about my research experiences that is poor and rudimentary, Professor will have some doubts about whether I am truly quantifying to do some sophisticated PhD work, on the other hand, if I stick to doing metal-oxide fabrication research or related in my PhD study, you need to have solid background in chemistry, which also is what I am lack of.

Unfortunately I do not have too much contact with my professor (thesis advisor) except having some discusses related to my Master thesis, because our group is very big one and each PhD student is responsible for supervising master students for their thesis work, so Professor could have time and energy doing other things, I only asked my professor for recommendation letter once, maybe I also need his suggestion about my applications.

After I have accepted some rejected letters, I started to think which kind of project could fit my profile, not only I can be accepted by them but I can also enjoy my project and stretch my muscle, doing some useful in materials science field.

Sometimes I am confounded by various projects and their fancy names offered in the webpages, and do not know what to do next. but I still  have a dream about one day I could leave my fingerprints on the TEM machine and my thoughts on the scientific papers.If you are a PHD student (have successful application experiences) majored in materials science or related area, I kindly ask for suggestion (any suggestion and any opinions will be useful to me).

As for the question in your title (which originally was: "Is it really that difficult finding a funded PHD position?") the answer is it depends on the field and the country. As an engineer, in countries with a well-developed industry, the job opportunities for graduates outside academia are good, thus diminishing the competition for PhD positions. This being said, a grad student is not just hired to lay bricks because there is a wall to be built. It represents a substantial investment for professors who will thus rather have no student than a not-so-good one.

To the point, previous experience in the specific field of the PhD study is almost never a requirement, so I doubt it's the limiting factor in your case. Your grades might be though, or your written english proficiency, but these are guesses.

I think your strategy might be inefficient. From your text it sounds like you sent a large number of applications and are waiting for someone to bite the bait. A personal interaction with people in the labs you are interested in would be a better approach, for example via an internship or a visit, if you can afford it.

So I would narrow it down to a few places where you really would like to work, gather the reasons why you like them, and start establishing a contact via email, say what you like about their approach or research topic and how you think you could fit in. They will then be able to let you know what is needed to be accepted in the graduate program (note that you will still have to comply to the department, university or graduate school requirements in order to be accepted).


Updating an application for a faculty position I would like to ask if it is appropriate to update documents (e.g. cover letter) in the application package for a faculty position.

Thank you very much for your response

Kind regards,
Yannis

I assume you're talking about making updates to your application materials after they have been submitted.  If you applied using a website that has a built-in facility for updates, then sure, go ahead.  It might not help (someone who already read an earlier version may never notice the update, or they might not bother to read updates received after the application deadline), but a few reasonable updates won't hurt your chances.

On the other hand, you should be wary of making updates if they aren't handled automatically, for example if you have to send an e-mail.  If a staff member has to update your file, you should be respectful of their time and avoid submitting any unnecessary updates.  A nontrivial change to your CV (such as a prize, or a grant/paper acceptance if you don't have many so far) could be worth an update, but you should not ask a staff member to run about making minor tweaks to your file.


How to contact the professor again? I have applied to a university for Research Masters. Following application, I contacted the Professor I had listed on my application and told him about my research and profile. He asked me to send him my Research paper and after going through it, he contacted me again to ask about if I have a valid TOEFL and References etc. After the initial conversation of 5 emails, he hasn't contacted me again and its been 20 days.

Should I contact him or wait? I am confused about what could be the best way of contacting him again.

I am a graduate student, though I am not getting a research masters. However, what I would do is this:

In most cases, it is a board of admissions counselors made up of multiple professors and maybe some administrative positions that will be making the decision as to whether to accept you or not. So, in that case it means that the decision to admit you into the Research Masters program would likely not lie solely on the one professor that you have listed on the application. So what I would do is contact the main office of the department that heads the research masters program that you have applied to and tell them something like
"Hello, my name is _____. I would like to check on the status of my application. I have been in contact with professor _____ but I know that he is busy so I wanted to check with you all to make sure that you have everything that you need from me and to see when I can expect a decision to be made pertaining to my acceptance.

Sometimes calling and speaking to someone directly will get you a lot further than an e-mail, so you might need to try this method.

I hope this helps!


Is an erratum justified for a weak result? A few years ago I had published a mathematics journal article where for one of the results I had imposed extremely strong assumptions to ensure that given conclusion is true.  Figuratively speaking, I now realise that I have used a hydraulic press to crack a peanut.   Indeed, the same conclusion can be obtained with minimal assumptions.

Needless to say, I am deeply ashamed by this sloppiness, but I am not sure if this merits publishing an erratum.  One co-author strongly opposes publishing an erratum, saying that we should simply add a remark to a follow-up paper we are writing,  while the other couldn't care less.   As the original result isn't strictly incorrect, I'm not sure what the appropriate approach is.

In my opinion, an erratum is an erratum. I mean you should use it if you really discovered a flaw in a result and you want to patch it when the patch is not evident.

In your case, in some sense you improved your previous result and this either necessitate a new paper if the improvement is substantial or just a remark in some follow-up paper.


One year into PhD, feeling lost and inadequate, Help! I'm 22, and I'm one year into my PhD in History. I immediately started my PhD after finishing my master's, working with the same supervisor. Throughout the years, I've started to become more and more anxious when it came to writing essays and doing research. I hated working on my master's thesis, but I nonetheless grabbed the opportunity to start a PhD, because I convinced myself that it was something that I would be good at, I wanted to overcome my anxiety and challenge myself mentally, and the stipend is very decent. Now I'm one year into my PhD, and I'm constantly anxious and depressed. I feel like I've accomplished nothing, I have huge problems concentrating. My head feels so scrambled right now, that I can barely figure out my research questions and key thesis. Whenever I read articles on my topic, I feel like I can barely manage the information. I feel stupid and totally inadequate. Communicating with my supervisor is horrible, since I go mute from anxiety mid-conversation.

I feel trapped in my PhD. I feel horrible, but I also feel like I can't quit, because I would disappoint so many people and regret it for the rest of my life.

Any advice on coping with these issues, and getting back on track? Any particular advice on how to start delineating a research project? Am I already in a hopeless situation, or can I still 'save' my PhD?

Edit : My university doesn't offer counseling for PhD students, but I have been seeing a shrink for the past year. I don't know if I'm improving or not.

This is the reason you gave for pursuing a PhD:

   I hated working on my master's thesis, but I nonetheless grabbed the opportunity to start a PhD, because I convinced myself that it was something that I would be good at, I wanted to overcome my anxiety and challenge myself mentally, and the stipend is very decent.

You don't say that you were anxious about writing the thesis, you say that you hated it, which sounds to me like you simply don't like doing academic research. But that is the whole point of a PhD. Furthermore, the only career a PhD in history really prepares you for is research and teaching, and you don't say anything about your feelings about teaching.

So it sounds like you enrolled because of extraneous expectations from both yourself and others. Getting a PhD is not a merit badge, it's very specific training for a very specific purpose. There are plenty of other ways to show that you are smart. And "losing" one year is no big deal, especially when compared to spending even more time going down what might well not be the right path for you.


How can I throw other ideas from my mind while doing PhD? I have started doing PhD 3 months ago and I still don't have that much progress. What I found is that I spend more time on learning about web development, which I can choose not to do,  and this will make me focus more on my PhD and I'm sure I will do better. However, the problem is that web development is like an addiction for me.

Web development is not like doing something else (it requires learning stuff so my mind will do a lot of hard work) and when I do that and come to do my research work in PhD I feel bored.

Now I decided to stop doing web development and focusing on PhD but how can I guarantee not to come back to that in 2 or 3 days?  I tried that one month ago and I found myself coming back to web development and not focusing that much on PhD.

Any ideas or suggestion on getting rid of this habit?

It sounds as though you are having a hard time finding motivation for pursuing your PhD. You don't mention the focus of your research, but one idea would be to modify the focus so that it aligns better with your addicting hobby of web-development (I'm not familiar with CS, so I have no idea how this would work in actual practice. Others will better be able to advise you on that.)

Become interested in your research. Assuming that you have compelling reasons for staying in your current area of research, you will need to have a genuine passion for the subject, or completing the PhD will become well-nigh impossible due to lack of motivation. See this article by Scott Young on how to learn boring subjects; his advice also holds for renewing interest in something. See the key points below.

Don't pick degree programs you hate. Although there are times when you may have to take courses you don't actually like, avoid a career made up of tasks and information you hate.
Don't confuse boring and difficult. It is easy to avoid something as boring, rather than admitting that it is difficult.
Find the 'real-world' connections. Math isn't boring when you begin to see the connections and overall patterns--ditto for many other subjects/areas.
Discover the context. Take the time to explore the background, and understand why these [proofs, theorems, whatever] are important for where we are now. Young recommends reading Wikipedia articles on lunch-breaks for this purpose.
Make stories and pictures. Learning is a creative activity--the product is the intangible connections and stories in our minds. Mnemonics and stories can be interesting even when the subject is not. (Use this for the necessary but boring parts of research.)
Use the knowledge. Using even part of what you learn in a separate project will help cement the learning, and will also be interesting. (And anyway, isn't this part of the purpose of a PhD, to apply knowledge in new ways?)
Realize that not everything will be fun--more interest is better, even if relative differences still exist.


Is it right to ignore publications coming from non-top publishers? When I look into a specific problem over Google Scholar and simple Google Search, I find many related publications from publishers other than IEEE, ACM, Elsevier, Springer etc.

Usually the authors come from Indian, Chinese, Arabic institutions. My initial instinct is to ignore them, however I always feel as if there might be something important.

What is the right thing to do in such cases?

There are a lot of good publications in the world that are not published by mega-publishers.  Some of them you've never heard of because they are regional or specific to certain subfields, but are still very good.  It's also often difficult for people from certain countries to publish in mainstream conference venues due to visa issues. For example, IEEE and ACM usually require at least one author to be present in person, and that may simply be impossible for, say, a group of Iranian authors and a conference being held in the U.S.  Likewise, the cost of travel is often prohibitive for authors from the developing world.

That said, there's also a lot of junk publications in junk venues, and even something like the IEEE stamp doesn't mean you're reading a real paper.

So how should you evaluate a paper in a dubious venue?  Just like you would any other paper:

Is it on target with what you are looking for?
Are the results significant?
Is the data credible?
Is it part of a network of related papers building toward the presented result?

Publications in dubious venues are just much more likely to fail these tests.


Salary and academic career in Italy What are the average salaries for the steps of an academic career in Italy (RTDa, RTDb, Associate Professor, Full Professor)? In the vacancy announcements that I've seen, this information was not included. Are there any tables containing this information? Are the salaries or bonuses individually negotiated or fixed nation-wide?

They are essentially fixed nation-wide, apart from a minor portion of local taxes.
Here are the tables for my university. Labels are in Italian, but "Costo a.l. Amm." means "gross yearly salary", and "tempo pieno" means "full-time". You get a raise every three years.


How to proceed when PhD advisor leaves academia or moves to a new university midway? How can a PhD student proceed when his/her advisor quits midway?

What should be the student's considerations when the professor offers him a choice to move along with him? Should it be the comparative rankings of the universities? Or the relationship enjoyed with the professor thus far? Or the progress of the work?
Do universities offer to waiver coursework and ensure faster-than-usual graduation for students accompanying new professors? Can papers published in the older university be considered a part of the thesis that will be written for the newer department?
What should a student do if such an option is not available to the professor and also there are not other professors in the department who could or are willing to guide the student? Will the university offer a compensation for him?

One issue is what your advisor is doing.  If your advisor is leaving academia (e.g., going to work on Wall Street or for the government), then you are probably on your own, but moving to another university is generally not a big problem.

If you haven't started doing research yet, you should probably just switch to a new advisor, but if you are already making progress, then staying with your current advisor is often the best approach.

One possibility that wasn't mentioned in your question is moving physically to the new university as a visiting student while staying enrolled at the old university.  You still work on research with your advisor, and at the end receive a degree from the university you started at.  Maybe it varies between fields, but this is pretty common in mathematics, and it avoids some of the difficulties like transferring credit or different requirements.

If your advisor is supportive (and they should be!), then this is generally not hard to arrange.  It's easiest if they are technically going on leave from the old university, rather than resigning immediately, but that's a pretty common way to arrange moving between universities, partly because it simplifies situations like this.  (And even if your advisor is not going on leave, you just need a colleague to step in as the formal advisor, while letting your advisor handle the day to day interaction.)  The major reason for difficulty would be if there was some serious problem at the old university, such as a personality conflict with the department chair, which could make the department unwilling to be flexible.


How do I go about acknowledging my sources of funding when I am supported by 2 different grants equally? I am a postdoctoral supported by 2 grants (say A and B) with 50/50. Those 2 grants are owned by different PIs.

I would happy to have suggestions for the followings:

When I finish a paper for grant A, am I expected to acknowledge both grant A and B, or A alone?
Am I expected to put the PI of grant B as a co-author? Contribution could be ignored here. I can always just send the paper to the PI and he/she could contribute to critically review the manuscript. So I am wondering am I expected to do that.

What is the obligation and common practices for these? Thanks.

You should only acknowledge the grant(s) on which the publication was actually based, i.e. where the funding/time/equipment came from.

(Co)Authors should only be people who have actually contributed to the publication. There are already some good answers to this part of your question, see for example this one related to PIs.


Referring to author order on paper when arXiv and published copy are different A paper that I need to refer to reasonably often has in its arXiv version the authors listed alphabetically by surname (as is the custom in mathematics). The published version lists the authors in a different order, having moved the last author to second place. The last author in the published version is  recently told me he doesn't understand why people keep insisting on using the published author order (or to put it bluntly: why they keep listing him last).

What would be the correct way to refer to the joint work, given that the arXiv version is no less prominent than the published version? (Other than in the bibliography, where I would stick to the published order) I'm not sure whether it is more accurate to talk about the work/results of ABCD or of ADBC.

As Aaron Montgomery's answer states, if you use the full author list in the text, it should match the author list in the bibliography. However, with four authors, you're usually in a position where you can just say

  A et al.

in the text rather than

  A, B, C, and D

or

  A, D, B, C


Explaining an unusual undergraduate degree title I've got an undergraduate MA, which has, interestingly enough, caused me a significant amount of trouble: Examples include being excluded from student accommodation and being denied funding (they were available only to students working on the "first" "Master's" degree, and they assumed I was working on a second). "Appealing" such decisions is not always possible, as e.g. I only got an official refusal for accommodation two years after applying (about a month before I handed in my thesis), or I got a generic refusal with no explanation or I simply didn't get a response to "appeal" at all.

How can I make the nature of this degree explicit and unambiguous in e.g. contexts of applications?-- Some people simply cannot accept the fact that I do not have a "Bachelor's degree". In fact, a description of the degree is written in English on the second page of my degree transcript, and I have even directed people to this page who then still demanded to see my "Bachelor's degree"; This degree has conferred me the power to actually break bureaucracy despite that I'm not exactly the first person to be awarded such a degree (additionally, undergraduate MAs likely aren't the only example of this). On my CV, I have now put directly before the "MA" title the term (Undergraduate), e.g.:

  2004–2008: (Undergraduate) M. A. (honors) Testing Bureaucracy

Previously, I only had the 2004–2008 part, but actually this wasn't enough to make people understand that this is an undergraduate degree. I haven't had any experiences using the (Undergraduate) note, but there are still places where this is simply not possible to note in this way, such as when filling out pre-fabricated forms for e.g. admission or application of funding.

I don't know how popular this answer will be with others but ...
Call it a BA phase
whilst applying to graduate schools
In all honesty after having read as to what Scottish MA is, I would suggest that in applications (especially to the US or other parts of the world not particularly familiar with the degree type) that you merely enter it as a BA

2004-2008 BA (honors) Testing Bureaucracy

With this seems inaccurate, consider it a matter of translation rather than some sort of dishonesty with degree names, etc. As the University of Edinburgh states, these are "conventional undergraduate degrees."
Then when it's explaining time, explain that the degree is called a MA for historical reasons (by say printing the appropriate explanation page from your school or wikipedia) and providing that along with the degree certificate or transcript.
None of this is to deny that it looks like a very high quality undergraduate education.
My motive for this suggestion is that doing otherwise will confuse people at a time when their confusion costs you scholarships and other things.
Call it an MA Phase
Once you have some higher degree above it or when you no longer care about graduate school
Revert to calling it an MA on your CV and in applications as you are suggesting. At this point, the only people reading it will glance only briefly at this and not really care.


Acknowledging data sources used for creating an image For a conference paper, I created an image compiling data from multiple sources. What is the correct format for acknowledging the sources?

Map showing road condition (Data source: Esri, OpenStreetMap) or,

Map showing road condition (Data sources: Esri, OpenStreetMap)

In most of the literature, I observed authors commonly using 'source' when they mean 'sources'. Shouldn't it be 'sources'?

As others have pointed out, the choice is likely arbitrary since it will not affect the readability of your article much.

If you want to keep the formulation as is, I would personally go with "Data sources" as I think it makes more linguistic sense. If I would ask the reader to check out two published articles, I would write: "see the papers by Uncle Tom Cobley (1889) and Alan Smithee (1968)" and not "see the paper by Uncle Tom Cobley (1889) and Alan Smithee (1968).". Similarly, I would write "see the data sources Esri and OpenStreetMap" and not "see the data source Esri and OpenStreetMap".

However, one possible workaround would be to side-step the issue by chosing a different formulation. For instance, perhaps by writing "Data from",  or just simply "Data".


Graduation Robes - What accolades does this guy have? I am currently at my brother's graduation ceremony at Adelaide University, and in the Professor's/Post-grad seating area, sits a man fully in green. What does this special gown mean?

(Apologies for the awful picture)

It is conventional in many places for faculty who participate in a graduation ceremony to wear the regalia from the university where they got their degree. Some universities have more... elaborate regalia than others.(See e.g. Etiquette of wearing the wrong academic robes at graduation as a lecturer in the UK, especially this comment. And this.)

Others sitting on stage in your photos appear to be wearing the Adelaide University regalia - maybe that's where they did their doctorate (or they did it at a university that uses the same regalia), or maybe they don't have the regalia from their alma mater and just wear this one.


Is it possible to guess the purpose of my potential PhD supervisor inviting me to lunch? I am currently in the process of applying for a PhD programme. I have sent off my application and it has been deemed satisfactory from an academic standpoint i.e. my degree transcript and CV. I am now only waiting for the awarding of a studentship (funding) from the college I have applied to. Last week, I received an e-mail from my potential supervisor inviting myself to have a tour of the college, visit their research group and to have lunch. I suppose the purpose of this invitation could be to:

1) Give my potential supervisor an opportunity to assess my feasibility to undertake a PhD under their supervision or

2) Give my potential supervisor an opportunity to persuade me to accept a PhD offer.

Is it safe to assume that the decision regarding the awarding of funding from the college is all but guaranteed to be successful?

No one can really know what the exact motive is of the professor. However, if he or she is willing to take time to meet with you (especially for lunch, which means the person is also investing money into your meeting), I imagine that the program is able and willing to provide you with support and he or she is assessing your fit to work together.

Be aware that this could be something of an interview where he or she is assessing a few applicants to see which one is best suited for working on their project. Therefore, I urge that you to prepare for the lunch as you would any other type of academic interview (e.g. review some recent work of this faculty member, prepare questions ahead of time for him or her). When I applied to my PhD program years ago, one faculty member invited me to meet with her, but ultimately chose another applicant to work on her project. I received support from another faculty member to work on a different project, but the invitation to meet by the initial faculty member did not indicate a guarantee. Best of luck!


Citing a math theorem with errors I apologize if this has already been asked; I can't find this exact question.

Suppose author X writes a paper, and in this paper, they prove a result that is a very small part of their paper. However, the result has a mistake. Based on personal judgement, it appears the mistake is an innocent mistake that does not disrupt the intellectual flow of the paper. i.e. it is very reasonable to believe the author X had the ability themselves to get the proof right. In fact, it may have been simply a typo. Nonetheless, it is unarguably incorrect.

Author Y comes along and builds other results off of the (corrected) ideas by author X. Author Y wants to (for good reason) cite author X, as their results would not have been obtained without author X.

What is the correct way to do this in a paper? The way I see it, there are 2 possible actions for author Y:

1) Pretend like author X didn't make a mistake at all and give them full authority on their theorem.
2) Say something like ... "the results are based off the ideas by author X" but don't give as much of a "these are author X's results" flavor. Author Y then after mentioning author X, proves the theorem themselves.

Action 2) seems to be the most reasonable in the sense that it is intellectual honest and doesn't shame author X for no reason. However, is it considered plagiarism to be somewhat vague about what author X did?

Thank you.

EDIT: I realize another option is to allow author X to correct their mistake and then do action 1. But with how slowly paper publishing occurs, this seems unjustly detrimental to author Y so I don't consider it a real option.

Given the situation as you describe it, in particular that there is evidence that the author could have corrected the presumably-small mistake themselves, I'd recommend that you quote the true assertion, and/while noting, literally, that there is an easily correctible error or typo in the proof as written.

Catching typos is important, but is not "research", of course. And, yes, once typos or silly mis-statements are pointed out, many authors can repair them without hesitation. So I myself generally consider "paper X" to be "paper X with all trivial typos and obvious blunders corrected". (Still, yes, sometimes the boundary of this is not clear...)

In particular, yes, I give credit to authors for obtaining a result who've slightly messed up the argument, both for observing what is true, and for at least approximating the proof.


How to correct my advisor's English? I've noticed that my advisor (non-native) sometimes makes minor spelling/grammatical errors in academic papers. I believe this is due, in part, to the fact that until very recently, nobody in the lab was a native speaker.

Is there a way that I can bring this to my advisor's attention professionally? I would like to also let him know that I'd be happy to proofread any of his papers prior to submission, if he would like. Obviously, I make mistakes as well, so I'm sure I will make similar errors at some point in publications, but I would always want someone to point it out to me.

Edit: I should note that I have no intention of trying to correct his spoken or informal English.

Some non-native speakers of English are eager to improve their English and grateful for corrections. Others have, unfortunately, a very different attitude.  Ahmad correctly suggests caution if your adviser is easily offended, but it may be difficult to determine whether he's easily offended. So I'd suggest beginning with just one of your adviser's errors, perhaps a spelling error where it's easy to check in a dictionary that it really is an error.  See how he reacts to that before correcting more errors.


Ok to ask about grading scale? This is in the US. I have a professor (humanities) who grades everything with check, check plus, or check minus. Then, from these grades, she computes a numerical score and from there gives a letter grade.
I wanted to calculate my score in the class to confirm everything is being calculated correctly (don't trust English profs with arithmetic). The problem is that the professor has not disclosed to us what a check, check plus, or check minus represent numerically, other than to say a check is "in the neighborhood of a B plus".
Would it be fair/non-rude/appropriate to ask her what, exactly, these categories correspond to? Since the score is calculated numerically based on the syllabus weighting, I would like to be able to see e.g. check = 86, etc. (Also, this is a graduate class, but not sure that's relevant.)

Yes, it is ok to ask and to say that you really need to know how you are doing. But, I'll guess that  you won't get a specific answer, or, at least, not as specific as you like.
It may be that the "scale" is really just "preponderance of evidence" for the various grades. After all, the grading system in the US is fairly crude with only about five levels of grades. So, since you don't have a percentage score recorded at the end or a total this might be adequate for purposes of grading.
I would hope, however, that the instructor gives you some written feedback on what you write as well, so that you can see how you might improve.
But, yes, you can ask, and it isn't rude.


What is "teaser image"? What is "teaser image"? It is asked by a journal in a revision request. The only info that I was able to find is at this link:

  Please identify a teaser image from your manuscript that may be used in the abstract book as part of the OnlinePlus program and send this information via email to the publication's administrator.  Note that failure to include this information will cause delay in posting/processing your manuscript for publication.

P.S. My manuscript is theoretical.

They want you to select either a figure or possibly a more creative rendering of your research, for the purpose described in your quote. Imagine your article was going to be a book, they want you to pick an image for the cover.

If you don't have eye catching data, try to figure out the most effective way to visually describe your theoretical work, and produce an image of that.


CV for Physics Summer Schools I am applying to summer schools for undergraduates in the US and all of them ask for a CV(in addition to other documents like a cover letter).

While I understand that a CV should be more descriptive than a resume, is it generally acceptable if a CV is 2 pages long for a 3rd year undergraduate in Physics, or I should make sure that my CV is limited to only one page even if that means I will have to leave out some information that I believe is relevant?

I think two pages are fine unless otherwise specified. However, I would order its content so that more distinctive traits are more visable (at least on the first page). These would be publications, projects, awards and honors.


Can I ask for a "general" letter of recommendation? I'm a first-year undergraduate finishing up a course that I've done very well in with a professor whom I have a great relationship with. I'd like to ask him for a letter of recommendation, but it's not "for" anything in particular. Rather, I'd like to have it "on reserve" so that I can use it whenever I need letters of rec (internships, jobs, or eventually grad school, although hopefully by then I'd have professors to ask other than this one).

Is this kind of thing normal, or are rec letters supposed to be tailored to specific applications? What exactly would happen once the letter of rec was written? I assume I wouldn't be able to look at it.

No, you can't. Here are some reasons that this would not be a reasonable request [in the US].

Your professor is not going to show you the letter, so they will need to send it to every internship, job, or grad school themselves. Therefore there is no benefit to them to having a letter "on reserve".
Letters are written very differently for internships and industry positions than for grad school applications, so a general letter does not make sense.
There is no reason for a professor to waste their time writing a letter now that might not be used at all.
There is no reason to write a letter that will be outdated. It is unlikely that a letter based on a freshman class would be useful for grad school applications, for example.

Instead, what you can do is ask your professor "I don't have a position in mind right now, but would you be willing and able to write me a strong letter of recommendation in the future for internships, jobs, REUs, or eventually grad school?" If they say yes, say something like "Thank you,  in that case I would like to use your letter when I do. Is there anything I can do, now or then, to make it easier to write?" This gives them a chance to let you know what they need (what materials, how much advance notice, how much reminding); it also gives them a chance to make notes to themselves about your performance, to remind themselves when they do go to write the letter.

(You asked "...or are rec letters supposed to be tailored to specific applications?" In my field almost everyone writes just one letter for grad school applications, there aren't usually different letters for different schools; however letters for REUs or internships would be very different.)

It's wise of you to start thinking about this now, and you'll be glad to know you have someone who can write you a strong letter; they just won't write it until there is actually a position you're applying for (and not until the night before the deadline, if I'm any example).


Advisor and co-advisor withholding information, should I leave the lab? I am a second-year PhD student in Biomedicine and I was assigned to my current advisor and co-advisor since day one. My advisor is very busy. So, most of the meetings and discussions about my PhD project is done only with my co-advisor. My advisor knows about my research plans, but since we only have meetings like 3 times so far, my co-advisor is the one who understands most about my project. However, I just discovered yesterday (by accident) that my co-advisor published a study, with my advisor as the last author, about something related to my project that would make my project pointless. They never told me about their analysis and never updated me about their results. I don't feel like I need to know everything that they are doing, but isn't it their job to let me know things related to my project?

My project is making prediction based on data that is expensive and time consuming to generate. What they published was that they made a prediction model for the same outcome based on the same dataset, but using a more cost-effective method. In the paper, they claimed that this grouping predicts 100% the outcome in our data. I do not understand why they would give me the green light to do this project and say nothing about this better method. Also, I learned about this paper not from them directly, but because I happen to subscribe to the journal they published in. I was so surprised reading the title.

I feel lost and would appreciate your advice. Is this thing common? I never met such behavior during my undergraduate and Master's, but this is my first time studying in Europe. My previous advisors (in Asia and in the US) always lets everyone in the lab/team know what everyone is doing (eg through lab meetings or proofread each others publications). Also, does this warrant changing advisors? I feel tricked and so stupid for trusting them. It seems that they do not have my best interest in mind, there is a lack of good communication, and makes me question why they accepted me in the lab in the first place.

I don't understand the details of your project, but the methods in your project and in the study by your advisors seem to differ not just in detail. Therefore, you should probably bring up the paper in a meeting, and if you do not see "the point" of your project any more in the light of the other outcomes, and ask/discuss with your advisors the added value of your project, given the findings of their other study.

I doubt that anyone has the money and time to support a PhD student working on a project that they do not see any value in.


Structuring the statement of purpose Problem

I am now applying for the Ph.D. program in electrical engineering.

Now I have a 3-page (2500 words) SOP that should surely be reduced to 1.5 to 2 pages. Now the structure of my SOP looks like

  Paragraph 1: Why I want to do a Ph.D. (0.2 page)
  Paragraph 2-5: Research experience A (1 page). "A" is the research that lasts the longest time and contributes to publications.
  Paragraph 6: Transition from A to B, C, D, E (0.2 page).
  Paragraph 7-10: Research B, C, D, and E (1 page, each about same length)
  Paragraph 11: Why I want to the University. Which professor I would like to work with (0.2 page).

My issues is that the more important experience ("A") is not directly related to "B", "C", "D", and "E". But for sure they are all in the realm of electrical engineering. Therefore, simply aligning paragraph 7-10 does not seem to be a good idea.

So how do I structure my SOP. Any input is appreciated.

You are confusing your CV with your SoP. Your CV details your past accomplishments. Papers and research reports of your experiences are listed there. Your SoP should be forward looking, not backward, so nothing in your list is really the right thing for the SoP. The "Purpose" in SoP is your goals for your education and beyond, including some idea of the area you want to work in.
Even something like "I want to study at MIT because..." is misplaced. Immaterial. Naming a professor may be necessary (some places) or not (other places).
But your past can be briefly mentioned in the SoP if it says why your background makes you a good candidate for success in your chosen field. "I want to explore F. B and E give be a good basis to begin that study..."
But you are wasting an opportunity if you just detail how A - E fit together.  If they support F directly, then say that and assume the reader understands the connections.

CV = your past accomplishments
LoR = great candidate, certainly a success
SoP = goals and plans, research and career directed

Then a reader can get a complete picture


Why do companies fund academic research? I noticed that a lot of big companies are actively funding research at universities. I was wondering why they do this, as opposed to say funding in-house research as the knowledge ends up in the public domain.

Do they get actual patents out of it?
Do they just want to keep in the loop of the research (and if so why not just read the papers)?
Maybe they want to influence the direction of research?

There is a variety of reasons, as someone who has worked on such projects, here are a few that come to mind:

Access to research facilities. It's often far more rational to fund a study in a university than to invest in building your own wet lab/cleanroom/animal testing lab, etc. In some fields and countries, there are also regulations that limits certain area of research to university institutions (example: research on human tissues).
Highly educated, relatively cheap human resources In the subsets of projects where academic researchers actually do the work from the project description, it is generally cheaper and bears fewer risks than hiring people directly.
Great way of recruiting scientists by establishing a close collaboration, the company has the opportunity to meet and see potential hires in action.
In some fields, it can be a form of advertisement. In particular for companies that have scientists or research labs as customers. Example: lab equipment manufacturer, metrology tools, lasers, etc.

  Do they get actual patents out of it?

Yes. It's frequent for industry-funded projects to result in patents. The patents are usually owned jointly by the company and the academic institution. Sometimes the technology is already patented and the study is only about testing an application. Publishing a technology in the scientific literature can also be a way to prevent other companies from claiming ownership, since you can't patent something that is already published.

Note that industry implication in academic research might diminish, as it becomes evident that they aren't always getting good research for their money. See: http://blogs.nature.com/news/2011/09/reliability_of_new_drug_target.html


Trying other PhD opportunities while accepting an offer from my master supervisor? I will finish my master study soon, and my master supervisor is happy about my work and would like to give me an offer of PhD. I am also happy on this, but I really want to try other opportunities. Should I give up the current opportunity, and try to apply other universities? By doing this, I have a risk I will have nothing if all my application fail. Is it ethical or appropriate to accept the current offer first, then keep on applying other universities? Is there any way I can balance the risk?

Should I give up the current opportunity, and try to apply other universities?

Why do you have to give up this opportunity to apply to other universities? Find out when your advisor needs your decision by; apply to other universities in the meantime; and when the time comes to give your advisor your decision, evaluate that offer as well as any other offers you have in hand at the time.

  Is it ethical or appropriate to accept the current offer first, then keep on applying other universities?

Not unless you tell your advisor that's what you're doing.

  Another worry is that will he writes a good reference for me if he wants to keep me in his group?

If your advisor is a reasonably competent advisor, then he will want what's best for you. If that means looking into other opportunities, then he should be supportive. If he isn't supportive, then either

he will make a terrible advisor. Consider yourself lucky that you found out now, and get away fast. Or,
he thinks you'll do best staying where you are. If this is the case, ask him why he thinks so. Consider his answer carefully, then make your own decision.

  The selection results of other universities span across a large time range, if I wait until all selection results are available, it would be too late to accept my current offer. Is there any way I can balance the risk?

Obviously, you'll have to commit to a choice at some point. But this is highly situation-dependent. The best person to advise you on this matter is your advisor. He can tell you when he needs your decision by, estimate your chances of getting into the programs you're interested in, and weigh the risks of each approach with your specific goals in mind.


For applications where prospective students upload transcripts, is there a preference between scanned official vs unofficial transcripts? It is my understanding that most graduate schools will want you to mail them a sealed transcript if accepted, but my question is about the application process.
I thought that I could upload an unofficial transcript that I retrieved from the school's web portal, but after some more investigation it appears that maybe I should upload a scanned copy of an official transcript.
Of course an official transcript is no longer official once it is unsealed.  But do graduate schools prefer it that way?  The answer might vary depending on the department, but I think a scanned version might be the safe bet.  Although, it would require a bit more effort on my part to request an official transcript.
Edit
I should have included this originally, but I didn't want to make the question specific to one school.  But this school is specific about wanting a scanned copy, whereas others are not.  I'm just wondering if it should be assumed that a scanned copy is preferred if not made explicit.
From FAQ:

Do I need to mail hard copies of official transcripts in addition to the transcripts uploaded with my application?
No, simply upload a scanned version of an official transcript that has been "Issued to Student." It is understood that once you open the envelope to scan the transcript it is no longer considered official. It may also be possible that the scanned copy may have the watermark COPY on it, which is fine. Do NOT mail transcripts to the Department nor the Graduate School unless asked by the Department to do so.

Obviously, if I were to apply to this school I should use a scanned copy, but it's what caused me to reconsider if this is really what other schools want as well even if they don't state it explicitly.

If an "unofficial transcript" is requested, generally they just want something that contains the relevant information: courses taken, grades, any disciplinary sanctions, etc.

It might be most convenient to scan an official transcript, because then it will be in the most familiar format, but as far as I know it is also fine to, for instance, retrieve your own records from your university's system and print the relevant pages to PDF.

On the other hand, transcripts are usually printed on special paper that causes words like "COPIED" or "VOID" to appear on any copies or scans that are made.  Of course if the department only wants an unofficial transcript, they should not care that it is a copy, but sometimes it's hard to read a transcript if it says "COPIED" all over it.  So whatever you send, make sure it's legible.

Of course, as you say, an official transcript (sealed, by mail) will usually be demanded if you are accepted and/or decide to attend, and woe be unto you if it does not match the unofficial transcript you provided with the application.

It can't hurt to contact the department and ask what they would prefer.


How to deal with journal requirements to share data when data comes from industry and industry partner would not permit sharing? Many authors, especially in manufacturing, use data from real manufacturing companies (not from a lab experiment) for their research. They are asked to report only the results from their analysis on those datasets in journal papers without publishing the underlying data due to confidentiality agreements with the companies. However, I see that the journals are increasingly asking the authors to deposit the raw data so that the research is reproducible. On the other hand, the companies are not ready to make their internal data go public but they are ok with publishing the summary statistics on the datasets. As a result, authors face difficulty in publishing their research results in journal papers.

Any strategies to handle this situation effectively and convince editors about the non-availability of the datasets to other researchers?

I am going to question the premise:

You ask: Any strategies to handle this situation effectively and convince editors about the non-availability of the datasets to other researchers?

I'm going to say: You can't and you shouldn't.

It isn't that the journal editors don't believe you when you say "This data is not able to be released for other researchers."
They don't really care why it isn't available,
but they do believe that without that data, it is not the kind of article they want to publish.

Some options which may be valid depending on circumanstances:

Find a journal that is Ok publishing without data. (For understandable reasons these might not be as good as the more stringent ones)
Create a new synthetic dataset, that has similar properties to your real data, and present your primary results on that. (And mention as a secondary point your results on the real data)
Work out what it would take to make the company happy to release the data:

Perhaps removing identifiers (E.g. for personal identifying data k-anonymity is a common technique)

See also the related question:
Can you publish studies based on confidential customer data that comes from private companies?


Does it matter where my academic website is hosted, for issues of intellectual property? Say I am a British academic, who happens to have a blog, where I comment on my research and other people's research. Naturally, I do not want to infringe copyrights on any type, including intellectual property (IP). Yet, it seems that the IP law is "more loose" in the US than in the UK. In effect, whereas the US law is defined on positive terms ("this is what you cannot do"), the UK is defined on negative terms ("this is what you can do").

Just for the sake of minimizing potential, unintended infringement of IP copyrights in my blog, should I register my website in the US, or is that irrelevant?

I can hardly see how writing your own comments on someone else's published work can come close to any sort of copyright infringement. Obviously, you would not re-publish someone else's papers in your blog? Small quotes are allowed in the UK under fair dealing exception (aka fair use). IANAL, but I would be surprised if it's any different in the US.

Obviously, if you republish someone else's papers in full, this is anything but a blog.


Listing inner-department seminars/presentations that focused on presenting current research by other authors? At my university there are weekly seminars where faculty or students can do presentations for the department.

I had done several of these during my time as a graduate student, although admittedly they were seldomly composed of original work.  They were often taking a recently published paper and presenting the findings, sketching the proofs, and illustrating how it applies to research you are interested in and/or doing.

I started to list these on my CV as a more generic "Department Seminar Presentations" of a given paper/topic, but as I thought about it more I began to wonder if this is actually improper to do?

This is in mathematics.

I don't think it's improper per se, but I would not include them.

These sorts of presentations are more akin to assignments for a class: they can improve your skills in terms of public speaking and also getting deeper into the material.

However, you wouldn't put your course assignments on a CV, and I wouldn't put these presentations on a CV either.

I wouldn't even include them if they were based on original work, unless they are in a format that indicates some level of acceptance or prestige: conference presentations, invited talks at other institutions, etc. Instead, you reference that original work where it appears in public: in publications, for example.

They might be appropriate in a more generic form in a non-academic CV, when the point is to emphasize your experience presenting these sorts of things to a public audience, rather than your academic credentials.


Is it possible to be admitted to a Master's program after not completing Bachelor's degree due to academic dishonesty? Is it possible to get admission to a master's program in economics without finishing up your undergrad?

I have completed 105 credits so far for my BA Honours in economics and math degree, and still need 15 credits to graduate (120 required for graduation). However, a case of academic dishonesty could lead to my suspension from my current university. I know that I made a mistake at such a crucial time in my undergrad, but I can only learn from it.

The problem also I'm having is that some universities will not even consider my application as result of academic dishonesty. Apart from this my application is quite strong in terms of doing well in economics courses, strong letter of recommendations, and GRE score..

I have already published an economics paper in an undergraduate journal and feel as if there isn't anything to learn about economics from my university.

I can study economics independently and work to get "food on the table" and have some real-world experience under my belt before embarking on a journey as an intellectual.

I don't think there's much room for optimism. Offers of graduate admission are generally preconditioned on actually completing the previous degree. Moreover, having your previous degree candidacy terminated on account of academic dishonesty will make you "radioactive"; very few graduate schools are going to want to bring in someone who got suspended for plagiarism or cheating. (Given that the entire research enterprise hinges on being able to trust reported results, why would a school want to take a chance on someone who has already clearly violated those principles?)

[More generally, however: I do know of an economics professor whose PhD is in fact his only degree; however, the circumstances behind that are so unusual that they're unlikely to be replicated any time soon. (Basically, he followed a professor from Germany to the US while he was still an undergraduate in the days when the Diplom system was in full force.)]


Ethics of staying in PhD program with no intention of being an academic, and misleading my advisor about this My field is extremely competitive for tenure track jobs that I:

will most likely be unable to land after graduation
don't even really desire anymore.

In comparison to my classmates, my research productivity is absolutely pitiful. It is stymied by an apathy for my subfield and academia in general that has developed over my 2 year tenure in the program.

Problem is, I can't get the industry jobs I want right now due to underdeveloped programming skills and inadequate networking. My best bet is to stick around and beef these up until I see an opportunity to leave.

If I drop out now with my master's, I will have to start out at square one and get entry level work that uses none of the skills I have developed (we're talking competition w/ HS grads).

However, I have already told my advisor about my doubts for a future in academia. They approved an academic leave request due to some issues in my personal life. At the end of my leave period, I have to tell my advisor that I wish to complete the program and stay in academia.

On one hand, my situation is not so different from any other PhD student forced to go alt-ac due to disinterest or poor performance, but on the other hand, I will have to mislead my advisor to return.

I only want to continue at this point for job prospects, and my advisor won't be inclined to take me back if I tell them this.

I am willing to pick up the pace with my research and get the PhD, so it won't be a complete waste for my advisor, but it will still be largely a waste of their resources.

A similar question by another PhD student can be found here - When is the right time to tell my advisor that I plan on leaving my PhD program?

As a PhD student, you don't have to want an academic career. It's not unethical to pursue a PhD with no intention of staying in academia afterward.

But lying about your plans and deliberately misleading is wrong and unfair to your advisor.

You wrote:

  However, my advisor seems to be especially invested in making me a viable academic researcher because I am their first student and have used a lot of their startup funds. My field is also not typically industry-bound like, for example, engineering, so any reputation boost my advisor could hope to get from me is nil.

If your advisor is a new professor whose own career success really depends on graduating PhD students who go on to academic careers, letting them invest everything in you under false pretenses is obviously wrong and unethical.

It sounds like you don't really want to finish your PhD (I infer this from your "apathy for my subfield and academia in general"), and you think your advisor wouldn't want you to stick around for a few more years under the circumstances, either. On the other hand, finishing out the academic year - giving you time to look for a job, and giving your advisor time to find another PhD student in this application cycle, while you wrap up and publish your current work - sounds like a win-win. But you should tell your advisor right away, so that the two of you can make informed plans for the future.

I suggest you come up with a plan for preparing yourself for the job market during this academic year, then have that talk with your advisor, and make the most of your remaining time.

On the other hand, if you really do want to finish your PhD, tell your advisor that you're not interested in academia, but are interested in finishing your PhD and getting a job that takes advantage of your PhD-level research skills. (Many of the skills acquired by successful PhD students are fairly transferable.) Your advisor may be more willing to support you than you think - successfully graduating PhD students is important for new professors, even if the student isn't interested in academia in the end. But you need to let your advisor make that choice: lying to someone so that they will give you multiple years of research support just so that you can buy time to train yourself for an unrelated career, is wrong.


How and when do departments decide who is teaching which course? How and when do departments decide who is teaching which course?

I am a graduate student at a state school in the U.S. The process has never seemed clear to me, as it seems that when none of the faculty particularly want to teach a course, sometimes graduate students are asked if they want to teach them.

I ask because I really like to teach courses, and want to ask if I can teach a 300-level undergraduate course, but I want to know the best time to do it.

The department head/chair is the go-to person for such requests. Sometimes there is a curriculum committee that may or may not have some responsibility for seeing that courses are covered.

When you ask, it would be useful if you go with a plan and some evidence that you are or will be prepared for it.

You might also talk to someone who has taught it recently.

Don't wait to make your request. It may take a while if it is unusual for grad students to teach at that level where you are.

If the faculty is unionized you might run in to a problem. I've been places where the union for adjunct professors might want to complain even though the regular faculty wasn't unionized.


How "edited" should a paper be before submission I am preparing to submit my first paper to an applied math journal and I am wondering how important it is to find all the typos in a paper before submission? Of course I would always strive for there not to be typos; however, I am wondering if the journal will help with editing once accepted?
I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to these sorts of things so it would be helpful for me to know if the paper should be 100% typo free before submission or if that is not necessary.
I found a post here talking about this topic a little bit and I was wondering if most people agree it is not worth over editing for an initial submission since there may be reviewer comments, etc. that must be addressed.
Thank you for your help and ideas.

Strive for perfection, but if you fail to achieve it, then it won't be the end of the world. But you write a paper for people to read it, so you should make every effort to make it as good as you can, including grammar and such. Try to stamp out typos. Use an editor that knows about spelling, for example. Or at least, paste your content into such an editor so that you can see where there are errors.
The more readable your paper, in the initial submission, the less the reviewers will need to "fight" with it, getting more and more frustrated if they think you are sloppy. If you aren't a native speaker/writer of the language of the paper, try to get a native speaker to review it.
In fact, it is a good idea to have someone you trust review your paper before you submit it, perhaps a paper copy, simply marking errors for you to correct. It is very difficult to proof read your own work, since your mind will see what you wanted to write and not what you actually wrote.
Reviewers aren't likely to reject your work for such things, but you will get a more useful review, and quicker, if they can focus on what you say and not be distracted with things that you should have fixed.


is there apprentice training in master of engineering? Do the M.Eng students in Electrical Engineering have apprenticeship? Do the students get money for their apprentice training? & how much?

There really aren't "apprenticeships" associated with most traditional college degree programs. On the other hand, many engineering programs, including electrical engineering, do have what are usually known as internship or co-op (short for "cooperative learning") programs available. These programs are inherently designed to allow students to work in engineering-related companies during their degree program. The conditions that apply to each program are school-specific and even department-specific, so be sure to check with the individual departments you're interested in.


Can't attend conference but would like to get copy of papers presented There are a couple of papers to be presented at a upcoming conference that I will not be able to attend but that I am very interested in. It is my understanding that they will not be published after the conference. The field is History.

Is there an etiquette about how I could go about getting a copy of the papers or is it even appropriate for me to look for them? Should I contact the conference organisers or the authors?

If the conference publishes a conference proceedings volume than you can buy a copy or get it through your library.  You might also request copies directly from the authors.

Other conferences don't publish conference proceedings and there may be no paper corresponding to a particular conference presentation.  You can contact the authors but don't be surprised if they tell you there is no paper.


Invited to give a talk but could not attend, can it be on CV? If I was invited to give a talk but was not able to attend, could it be listed under invited talks in a CV? My point is that there was an invitation and it worth to show it. Similarly, a paper can be accepted for a conference and no one of the authors presented it but it was published in the proceedings. Or a someone receive an award as a sign of recognition.

No: Don't list anything that you didn't do.

From a comment on my answer:

  He's not saying he'll pretend he gave the talk. The invitation itself is a good indicator of his status as an expert in the relevant field, at least in the eyes of the people running the conference. If this is relevant to the job, I don't see a reason not to include it, as long as he makes it clear he didn't give the talk.

which was extended to add:

  If Google or Apple offered me a job, but I couldn't relocate or whatever, I'd absolutely put it on my CV.

A comment on another answer provides an excellent response:

  if I saw such a claim on your CV I wouldn't even invite you to an interview. If you didn't take the job, if you didn't go to the presentation, if you didn't do the thing, it doesn't count. It never happened; it doesn't count.

Another commenter writes:

  It may be a accomplishment, but it is also a opportunity wasted. You do not really want to underline your failures to execute. Its a bit like saying businessman saying they got a big contract but never fulfilled it. People are looking for people who can get things done.


How to find out if a preprint has been already published I found a preprint from 2012 in the internet, how can I know if this preprint is now published or not?

(Added after @Wolpertinger's suggestion) Does the preprint itself include a link to the final paper? Arxiv abstract pages have a "journal ref" field where the author can include such a link, and some publishers mandate that a journal link must be added to preprints after publications.
Search on literature databases (Google Scholar, Scopus, etc.) for a paper with the same title.
Maybe the title has changed? Search for publications by the same authors to double-check. Has another paper with the same authors appeared in the years immediately following the preprint's date? Author changes are less frequent than title changes, in my experience, and most of the times authors are added, not removed.
If everything fails, try a full-web search for a sentence or two that appear in the paper.

If all these attempts fail, you may safely assume that it hasn't been published. If you want to be 120% sure, send an e-mail to one of the authors.
That said, note that a preprint still counts as "previous literature", and you should cite it exactly as you would cite a published paper. However, be a little more wary about blindly trusting the results contained in it: there may be a reason this hasn't been published, in the end.


What is the difference between Abstract, conclusion and summary? The above question is self explanatory, still I would like to break it into two parts.

Q1. What is the difference between abstract and summary/conclusion?

Q2. What is the difference between summary and conclusion ?

Thanks

The abstract is written for the potentially interested reader. While writing it, keep in mind that most readers read the abstract before they read the paper (sounds obvious, but many abstracts read like the authors did not consider this). The abstract should give an impression of what the paper will be about. Do not use jargon or any abbreviations here. It should be understandable for non-specialists and even for people from fields somehow far away.

The conclusion should conclude the paper and is written for the reader who already has read the paper. In other words: most readers have read the paper when they read the conclusion. Again, this sounds obvious but, again, a lot of conclusions do not read like this. It does not make sense to write a conclusion like "we have shown this and that by using this and that method". Well, this is what the reader has just read (and what he may know since he has read the abstract). A proper conclusion should tell the reader what she can or he could do with the newly acquired knowledge. Answer the question "So what?".

A summary sums up the paper. I am not sure if a paper needs a summary.

I've written some tips for abstracts some time ago:

Avoid jargon. Although this sounds obvious, most abstracts contain jargon in one way or the other. Of course one can not avoid the use of specific terminology and technical terms but even then there is an easy check if a technical term is appropriate: Try to find a definition on the internet (if the term has a fairly stable wikipedia page, there it is not jargon) – if you do not succeed within a few minutes you should find a different word.
Use buzzwords. This may sound to contradict the previous point and in part it does. But note that you can use a buzzword together with its explanation. Again, the example from the previous point works: “Funk metric” may be a buzzword and the explanation using the name “Finsler” is supposed to ring a bell (as I learned, it is related to Hilbert’s 23rd problem). This helps the readers to find related work and to remember what was the field you were working in.
General to specific. In general, it’s good advice to work from general to specific. Start with a sentence which points in the direction of the field you are working in. So your potential audience will know from the beginning in which field your work is situated.
Answer questions. If you think that your work answers questions, why not pose the questions in the abstract? This may motivate the readers to think by themselves and draw their interest to the topic.
Don’t be afraid of layman’s terms. Although layman’s terms usually do not give exact description and sometimes even are ridiculously oversimplified, they still help to form a mental picture.


Does arXiv do peer review and can a high school student submit to arXiv? Is it necessary to publish in a journal after writing paper in arXiv?

Is arXiv peer reviewed journal? If yes, then will the editor
consider and send to other experts in that field?

Can a high school student publish paper in arXiv? If not is there any other way a high school student can share scientific knowledge (only if they have discovered something new)?

A high school student (with an endorsement as twestley laid out nicely) can publish on the arxiv, but very likely a high school student should not do this.
In my field, the arxiv is read daily by everyone in the field. There is no peer-review process, but we do self censor quite a bit. We usually circulate our research through our networks and get feedback before posting. Putting something on the arxiv that is low quality has serious impacts on your career. Your name is attached to that forever, and afaik you can't take it down and erase its history. Plus you can't undo anything to the wide audience that will see it the first day it gets posted.
In some sense, posting on the arxiv is more dangerous than going through peer-reviewed channels. If you submit something embarrassing to a journal, they won't publish it. The arxiv has no such safeguard.
Unless you know someone who you think can serve the purpose of a peer reviewer, and who can give an informed approval that your work won't be rejected by the community and reflect poorly on you, I strongly suggest you do NOT post to the arxiv. It could hurt you professionally if you end up in an arxiv-popular field. If you end up in an arxiv-unpopular field, then posting wouldn't really benefit you much either (as it's not a real journal). It's just not a good gamble.


Is it acceptable for an undergraduate researcher to ask to work on a project that will yield publishable results? I am currently a summer student working on a project suggested by my supervisor. While the project will not directly result in any publication, it will open up avenues for further research for the group. I have completed the main objective for the project ahead of schedule.

When I originally started working with my supervisor, I expressed that two of my goals for the summer were to (1) contribute to the group in a meaningful way and (2) the possibility of publication. I feel that (1) will be satisfied by my current work, but (2) will not. I have one more month left on my research term.

I originally agreed to my supervisor's project suggestion on faith; I didn't understand the scope or scale of the other possibilities and I trusted that it would satisfy both of our goals.

Would it be too forward of me to ask to contribute to something that will result in publication (considering that I am an undergraduate and given that there is only one month left)? I would like to work on a publishable result, but I also don't want to mooch off of the hard work of my group members.

Is it acceptable for an undergraduate researcher to ask to work on a project that will yield publishable results?

Yes, of course! There is nothing wrong with expressing your goals for the research project to your supervisor, and I think any reasonable research supervisor would appreciate that sort of honesty from their mentees.

  When I originally started working with my supervisor, I expressed that two of my goals for the summer were to (1) contribute to the group in a meaningful way and (2) the possibility of publication.

Sounds like a reasonable list of goals to me. But, for your 2nd goal, the possibility of a publication coming out of your work is only that: a "possibility." As you may be relatively new to research, it is probably a good idea for you to keep in mind that not all research projects result in publishable results (as this question highlights).

  Would it be too forward of me to ask to contribute to something that will result in publication (considering that I am an undergraduate and given that there is only one month left)?

This is where it gets a bit trickier. You only have one month left on the project, and it may be difficult for your supervisor to find something meaningful, and publishable, to work on in that relatively short amount of time.

On top of that, there may be other factors working "against" you. For example, suppose that there is a gap your group is looking to fill, but you do not have the background necessary to make a meaningful contribution. What are they to do in this case? Drop everything they are doing to get you up to speed? I think you can see that this may be an unreasonable request.

For all I know, you are an extremely bright student who is more than capable of making a breakthrough on a tight deadline. But, if there are gaps in your knowledge, and it would take someone a nontrivial amount of effort to get you up to speed, then that could be problematic. There are other researchers in the group, and depending on the group dynamics, it may be difficult (or easy) for them to make accommodations for you on such short notice.

In the end, I think you should definitely have a chat with your supervisor, give them the lowdown on what you'd like to accomplish in your last month. Then, listen.


Working as an Academic researcher difficulties What do you do if you have to perform research in a field that you didn't like, as I'm currently passionate about computer vision stuff, but my research is about Android security. More than that the supervisor seems to lack enough knowledge related to the field and he pushes me to find something before the finishing date (we have just 2 months left since it is a funded project).
Thanks.

If you are a student, then you have, I think, two options. Struggle through the project to help assure your degree. Or drop it, which might require getting a different advisor or even moving to a new institution. Both of those have a downside, and only you can determine which is worse. If you only have a short time to finish your degree, then the first might be preferable. But if it is a long way off, then  consider the second (with all of its implications).
The project is the responsibility of the PI, not yourself. So, think about how it meets your goals or fails to do so.
If you are a post doc then you may be stuck, depending on your contract and the need to have a good recommendation from the PI to be able to move on. But do move on as soon as possible.
If you are faculty already then I don't see much downside to just leaving, provided that it is financially feasible.
But, only you can balance the ups and downs of this. Think long term about your career, however, not just about the short term pain.


Why would a revised manuscript following very minor revisions appear as "under review" in the journal management system? I have a paper on an Elsevier journal with "accept, minor revision". There were 3-4 little modifications required by referees. Then, I have made all the necessary modifications and resubmitted.

The status was "With Editor" for three weeks, then it changed to "Under review". What I have heard was that minor revision does not require another round of revision in most of the cases. In this case, does it mean that the paper is sent back to referees again? Or is it just with the editor who evaluates the last version of the paper?

It is not uncommon after minor revisions that the paper is indeed send back to (usually the same) reviewers. In most cases another round of revisions is not needed and they will simply accept the paper, but this is of course not guaranteed.

For some journals, as a reviewer, you can indicate whether you want to see the paper again after minor revisions, I do not know whether this is an option for Elsevier journals.


Publishing a preprint while having another related work on review Preliminaries

As coauthor, I sent a work X to a reputable journal. The work X deals with two problems A and B. The reviewers asked for some minor clarifications/corrections. I performed them, and sent back the corrected version to the journal.

For related studies, two methods M1 and M2 are commonly used (and many times were compared with each other). Part A of X is an insight on M1.

Working on X lend me to use similar techniques to provide the same insight for M2. I've been working on this for few weeks, in my private time, and got very interesting results.

Both works are linked in that those insight let compare M1 and M2 in an categorical way (so the new work needs to use the final results of part A, citing its preprint). Also, a conclusion of M1 which is automatically derived form X is stressed (I did not added it to X as I naively missed it before). If it matters, the new work also explores M1 and M2 in new ways.

I wish to make a preprint (that I've already written) immediately because:

1. I found that the results are very significant.
 2. X is almost an invitation to perform the more relevant results of my new work. I've seen relatively recent works in top journals (of the field) comparing M1 and M2, so I think that it is very plausible. (The main difference with my work is that, previous works are numerical comparisons of few samples (due to cost) and I have found the analytical expressions).

Question

What should I do?

I fear that making this preprint goes in detriment of the decision of the reviewers of X, for example, asking for adding those news discoveries (in case that they found the preprint). Although I found it unreasonable as the author list is different and I suppose that they should give a review of the work sent (X). Even more, they already gave they positive feedback.

Thank you

I wish to [publish] a preprint (that I've already written) immediately because...What should I do?

Make the preprint available.

  I fear [publishing] this preprint [is detrimental to the ongoing review] of X

I don't see why this should be the case. How can any result that builds upon X be detrimental to X? Surely such results are favourable to X, since they'd show that X is useful?

You could cite the preprint in X, especially if it helps address reviewer's concerns.


How much time is usually left for authors to return page proofs? What happens if I am late? Recently I was handling submission of a paper to a journal. I was somewhat surprised that I was asked to return the corrections to galley proofs in 48 hours.

  To ensure fast publication of your paper please return your corrections within 48 hours. ...  Note that  may proceed with the publication of your article if no response is received.

How usual is it, that only a short period is left for the authors to return page proofs? Do many journals allow similar time span? Or is a longer period customary?

I can imagine situations in which I would not be able to respond in 48 hours.

What would happen if I reacted only later, not within the time period required by publisher (48 hours in this case)? Is it probable that they would still incorporate the corrections if I emailed a bit later? (Or if I emailed them that I am unable to complete this in 48 hours and explained the reasons.)

With Wiley, the journal I edit has a one-week period for returning proofs. This is set by Wiley and not by the journal. If proofs are not sent in, at some point within another week, the typesetter will typically ask for the proofs through a production editor. This is because the typesetter has the manuscript along with, I would guess, hundreds of other proofs lined up in a production line and at some point they do not want things lying around for very long. So in this case, not much happens if proofs are late and I have never seen any serious repercussions from the publisher's side affecting authors. In the worst case a paper that has been assigned to a specific issue may be moved to a later issue since the production of issues (physical printing) is not possible to adjust other than under exceptional conditions. In the end, it will the author's loss if the paper is not published as early as it could. Since for most papers, electronic publication occurs before printing, the delay just means the paper appears online later by the same amount of time or more; it can be bumped in the production line of the typesetter in favour of those that come in on time.

In my experience, it is not possible to get corrections done after returning the proof corrections. One can always try but if the paper has been corrected and published online, there is no other option than to live with the problem or if it is in some way critical, go through the journal editors to possibly publish an errata.