Shortlisting criteria for an oversubscribed course: first-come-first-served vs grade point and classroom diversity I teach an advanced Engineering elective course which has a mixed audience of Junior (3rd year) and Seinor (4th year) undergrads and some Grad students.   Since it is a interactive course with a lot of project based work etc. we are typically constrained to accepting not more than about 30 students (for reasons of grading time, vivas etc).
Somehow the course has gotten popular and we get many more students wanting to take the course. I wanted feedback on how other instructors handle this sort of situation.
The default at our University's online registration system is a first-come-first-served which I don't like so much. I am tending towards a grade point based shortlisting criteria (which is a lot of work since the registration system is not geared to handle this so I must do the shortlisting manually) but I also like to have a fairly even split between 3rd years / 4th years and Grad students since it makes for a better discussion and project groups. Maybe think of it as a classroom diversity of perspective.
Just curious to hear thought from others about shortlisting criteria and how much of "instructor discretion" vs a hard constraint / criterion is good.  Sometimes I get students who seem really interested (or have some past background which makes for a demonstrable interest in this course area) but may not get in according to a grade point shortlisting criterion. Is it ok to make such exemptions and allow them to register?
I guess, what's the tradeoff between some sort of objective "fairness" and a subjective evaluation by instructor.

The main problems with doing something unusual are that it is unfamiliar to your students, which could cause consternation if they feel they didn't receive enough info about how to get into your class, especially if it caused problems with their graduation plans.
At universities I'm familiar with, registration is allowed for grad students first, followed by seniors, then juniors, down the line. It would be really unfortunate to choose a third-year for the last spot and force a senior to take another year or semester because they couldn't get into your class because they had incomplete information.
"Instructor discretion" sounds like a recipe for mishandling individual qualifications, whether you want to talk about inherent bias or lack of information (GPA seems far too coarse for this).
A couple of simple ways to address your problem:

Split grad students into a separate grad student class that meets at the same time with the undergrads.
If you can in your registration system, reserve spots for non-seniors (common at universities I'm familiar with). While within-year, it would still be first-come-first-served, you would achieve your goal of having both third- and fourth-years.

Finally, I think having an application system would be OK, but it needs to be handled transparently and early so students can plan their schedule; i.e. your application is due early enough so that you can select your students before the earliest registration date. Ideally, you should have a second person help you evaluate. This also lets you ask for cover letters and CVs. You should be clear you are reserving, say, 10 spots for third-years. Then, you just lock registration and give codes to the students whom you selected.


Is it okay to work on a research project with a professor at a different university, in addition to main PhD project? In the context of a social sciences PhD in the UK, I want to know (i) whether it is permissible to work on  another research project; and (ii) whether there are any general practices, if I choose to work on a research project with a professor in a different university, in addition to my existing PhD research project with my main supervisor. The topics of my main PhD research project and the other project are closely linked.

Not sure if this is relevant, but both my main supervisor and the other professor at a different university frequently collaborate on projects.

Edit: I asked my advisor about this, and she stated it was fine (and we had to figure out details), but I could sense that she was very hesitant about it. I am not sure if I offended her by asking at all, but I am very keen to work on this other project.

In the UK the funding system is somewhat different to many other countries: PhD students are either self-funded, or receive stipends through Centers of Doctoral Training or from University funds. Since you are not funded from you professor's grant, you do not work for him/her. You work on your PhD project to become an independent researcher, and as such, you can (and sometimes expected to) make your own choice in how the project is executed.

Of course, a simple courtesy requires you to ask your supervisor first before collaborating with someone else. One obvious reason is that you probably don't fully know the relations between your professor and other colleagues and could potentially disclose some of your supervisor's research ideas to a colleague who is more of a competitor than a collaborator. Academia is a twisted world sometimes and it is although you have full right to manage your own PhD project, a bit of information and advice would never hurt.


Is my professor being unfair? She is sweet and helpful whenever I go to her office to ask questions about the problem sets or discuss my exam results. I have always felt like she is very picky when grading the worksheets or exams, at least in my case. For example, she would penalize a large portion of the points for a small mistake in a problem, and it really frustrated me. However, this morning, I talked to a classmate about a problem where we made similar mistakes. I lost four points out of five, and he lost half a point out of five. When I emailed to the professor about it, she told me that I am kind of “wronger” than him and that I could go and talk to her more, but that she was willing to give me one more point. I talked to her mainly because I thought it was unfair, not because I wanted that freaking point. In that problem, we had to draw a free energy diagram, and I made the energy curve between two conformations higher than both products A and B, but it should be smaller. But all the other parts of the graph are correct. For my friend, his conformation energy is higher than product B but lower than product A.

I am frustrated about it because I still think that it is unfair. I mean, if you assign a certain portion of grade to that part of the problem, only that should be taken off. For example, if you assign half a point for that portion of the graph, then only half a point should be taken off no matter how wrong that part is. However, in my case, 4 out of 5 possible points were taken off.

When lecturers mark the worksheets / assignments, they try to assess student's knowledge and understanding of the subject. Of course, they can not look inside the student's head, so they have to make judgement based on what they see. Mark schemes and rubrics are introduced for the sake of objectivity and consistency, particularly when several lecturers share the marking. However, we have to accept that no mark scheme and rubric can cover absolutely everything. There are always some distinctions between students' works which are not accounted for in the mark scheme, but still (by a lecturer's judgement) should be accounted in the grade. That's what she probably tried to explain to you when you asked.

It is impossible to tell from the fragments you show if your work is really of the same quality as you peer's or not. We can't tell by just looking on your graphs --- something essential may be written in the comments above and below. To me it looks like these two papers are both wrong in some aspect, but I am not sure these errors are "equivalent".

You professor backed up a little by offering you an extra mark. It is hard to tell, if you really convinced you that she's been unfair, or she just don't want to spend her life arguing about it. It may well be that she deviated from the rigid set of criteria prescribed by the mark scheme, but I would not blame this on her personally. The mark scheme is not the law, in a sense that it is probably not more important than your professor's expert academic judgement. I can see a point in your frustration, but it really looks to me just as a manifestation of the complex nature of academic assessments in general, not as her bias against you.


Applying for assistant professor position with limited teaching experience I am applying for an assistant professor position at a research university (in one of the hard sciences). It is stated in the announcement that some teaching will be required, and a teaching statement is needed for for the application.

I only have limited teaching experience. I have never taught a full semester course. I have helped out colleagues by teaching their courses for 1-2 weeks at a time, while they were travelling. Thus I taught as many as 7-8 different subjects, mostly graduate courses, but always for a very short time (except once, when I did it for 2 months).

I did enjoy these short opportunities to teach and I was hoping to be able to teach a full course at some point, but at my current job this was unfortunately impossible for a number of reasons outside of my control.

Will this lack of experience seriously harm my application?  How should I approach writing the teaching statement in my situation?  I do have opinions on how to each effectively in the classroom, but they may be naïve: they are based more on my experience as a student than as a teacher.  I am even less confident about laying out a syllabus for a full semester (what is too much or too little, best organization, etc. -- following a textbook is not always an option).

Should I describe and discuss my background at length?  I fear that doing so will highlight my inexperience too much.  But not doing so makes it difficult to beyond generalities.

We can't tell if the lack of teaching experience will hurt you or not; too many variables. But I can share with you how to prepare yourself on this front.

Make a clear inventory of all your guest lectures, reflect on them

Do know that most job market candidates have not taught a full course themselves and nearly none of them had developed a course for real by themselves. Your profile is definitely not in the dismal category so you shouldn't beat yourself up too much. In the teaching experience section, list all of the relevant guest lectures you have done, and make sure to highlight the 2-month one, as it's already 2/3 of a semester. If you can survive 8 weeks, you can likely survive 13 weeks.

Do also recall the title of your talk, class size, undergrad or graduate students, any in-class activities you have used, any evaluations you have applied (assignment, quiz), and if you can get a hold on your colleagues whom you helped, check if their course evaluations had any entries that are pertinent to your performance and ask if they would allow you to quote them.

Also, since it's a research institute, it'd be important to document your 1-on-1 mentoring experience as well. Any entries on supervising students or postdocs should also be captured.

With this inventory listed in front of you, try to dive deeper to remember how and why you explained the concept a certain way, why you decided the sequence of slides/notes were better this way. New teachers often worked on hunches, but most hunches have some reasons behind them. And most of them are a direct manifestation from their experience as a student. So, in fact I think it's totally fine that you based some of your teaching philosophy on your student identity.

Develop a clear set of vocabularies in learning and education

There are a few titles I enjoyed and found useful when learning how to teach:

How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching by Ambrose et. al.
Tools for Teaching by Davis
Student Engagement Techniques by Barkley
Teaching What You Don't Know by Huston
What the Best College Teachers Do by Bain
The Teaching Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Improved Performance and Promotion/Tenure Decisions by Seldin et. al.

If you have access to these titles, definitely check them out. You should be able to garner a healthy amount of concepts and vocabularies about teaching, and apply them appropriately in your teaching statement. By the end you should be able to sensibly talk about things like Bloom's taxonomy, backward engineering of syllabi, action words in learning objectives, summative and formative assessments, etc.

Some schools (perhaps your current one as well) periodically conduct teacher development workshops. While you're there you can also try to enroll in some of them, or at least contact them for online or published references on learning theories and teaching methodology. They will also be an excellent source for sample teaching philosophy.

(I think) there is no recipe for teaching philosophy

I have come to a conclusion myself that there really isn't a golden formula for how to write a good teaching philosophy. It is really an authentic statement about your current teacher's state of mind. (I looked at my teaching philosophy written 4 years ago and I found that silly as well.) A little bit of naivete is not going to hurt you.

What I found, however, is that it's easier to develop this document if you sit down and ponder about 3-5 statements starting with: "I believe learning should be..." and then elaborate from there. If you have done your inventory and literature review meticulously, you should be able to come up with a few that resonate with you.

It is also common to mention what kind of courses you're ready to teach. Most committee members would find that easier to imagine how to incorporate you into the teaching roster.

Seek help from peers

And since you mentioned you have helped some other faculty pals, definitely consider getting their feedback on your teaching philosophy. The people working at the faculty development will also be a good resource if you don't wish to publicize your job hunting.


Is there any such career as a medical researcher? A little context here: I graduated from medical school in 2012, practiced briefly till 2016 and stopped. I simply got bored with traditional medical practice and then decided to pursue my first love - research. I'm naturally a curious individual and I would prefer doing research all my life. My medical background makes it best suited for me to do research in medicine or health in general.

However, it appears that it is difficult to simply just leave medicine to do ONLY research. People say that there are no support structures for researchers outside academia or medical practice, and that worries me. Now, I have been out of medicine for about two years and not really making much headway with research. I have gotten to a point at which I am confused and thinking I might have made a mistake focusing solely on research.

Is it normal to feel this way? Is there any hope/opportunity for any researcher outside academics or clinical medicine?

Finding jobs in medical research that are attached to neither hospitals or universities is going to be difficult. Most career researchers will either teach (in a university) or under take professional practice (in a hospital for a medic).

You don't say if you have a PhD or not. Generally, if you want a job in medical research outside a hospital, you will definitely need a PhD.

There do exist independent/third sector research institutes that neither teach, nor are involved directly with patient treatment. In the US, the obvious example is the NIH facilities at Bethesda, the Sanger Institute/Crick Institute in the UK, or the Max Plank institutes in Germany. You might also find there is some medical research directly for government agencies (e.g. the civil service in the UK).

However, getting a job at one of these institutions is very difficult, as many, many people want to just do research.

Of course, the final option for medical research outside medicine/academia is industry.


For my PhD, should I go with the more prestigious university, or the one that is a better research match? I will be starting a PhD in computer science in the UK this year, but have to decide between two offers that I'm pretty torn about. I've communicated with the supervisors from both universities in detail and contacted current graduate students there, and feel I have all the information I need, but am still struggling to decide.
University A has a very reputable department with a lot of academic staff and graduate students in it. The academic community here seems bigger and more vibrant than I am used to, which would be a big learning experience. At University A, I would be funded to work with a younger supervisor who's pretty early in their career and who can offer me more office hours due to less academic duties. However, our research interests don't align as closely.
University B's department is also of a very good standard, but is less prestigious than University A's. It is also significantly smaller, both in terms of staff and students. I have previously spent 1 year at University B and know that the research being conducted there is a closer match to what I want to work on. The supervisor here is more established and is well-liked by the community, but has more academic duties.
Funding from both places is comparable and I believe both supervisors would be good mentors both academically and personally, so the two options seem to be equal on these points. Even though the student community is very important to me, I would be willing to sacrifice the better community at University A in favour of working on my preferred research at University B. What I am more hesitant about is whether choosing the less prestigious option now will hurt me in the future when looking for jobs (ideally, I want to stay in academia). I'm under the impression that going to the more well-known institution would put me in a better position and provide me with more options when applying for postdocs.
I appreciate that I'm very privileged to be in this position in the first place, and am thankful for the opportunities in front of me, but I've been thinking this over for weeks and still haven't made up my mind. What I find the most scary is that it feels as though where and with whom I do my PhD will stay with me for the rest of my academic career. I would appreciate any feedback from people who have been in similar positions in the past, and/or tips on what I should prioritise when making my final decision.
Thank you!

If you want to stay in academia, your top priority should be producing excellent research.  From your post, it sounds like this will be possible at either university.  Another helpful factor is your academic advisor.  Ideally, you can study under a very famous/well-respected/talented person.  Again it sounds like you have two good options in this regard.
If I may, it sounds like you have two good options.  This is a positive to me in that you cannot 'screw it up' and make the wrong choice.  One piece of advice is to consider the process of obtaining your degree rather than what happens when you're done.  You're looking at years of effort, so why not try to enjoy/maximize it instead of fretting about ultimate placement?  Live 'in the moment', as the millennials like to say.
A last cliche bit of advice is to flip a coin.  Heads = A, Tails = B.  Once you see the coin land, you'll either feel a quick sense of glee or sting of disappointment.  Then ignore the coin result and pick based on this feeling.  Good luck!


Could/Should I cite a paper that I am refereeing? I'm reviewing the paper X related to the topic Y for a conference which is single-blind (in Computer Science). Also, I'm about to submit a paper to a different conference related to the same topic (single-blind).

In fact, I noticed the paper X is a good recent work in the literature to which my paper belongs. However, it does not have the exact purpose as my work does, so I do not need to compare my results to those of paper X.

Therefore, I like to cite paper X in the introduction of my paper, but I'm not sure if it is appropriate. Well, based on the quality of the paper X I expect it to be accepted (with 75% of confidence!), but would it be appropriate if I cite it as a submitted work, especially when it is not my work?

Reviewers obligations in general include respecting the confidentiality of peer review and not revealing any details of a manuscript or related communications, during or after the peer review process. Detailed for example in the COPE Ethical Guidelines for Peer Reviewers.

That said, by citing a confidential manuscript you reveal the title, potentially giving away a scientific message, and the authors, disclosing the fact they are working on a specific research question.

You can however cite a different version of the work in case it was previously published on a preprint server for example.


PhD Student : Publish Paper with Wife? I am a PhD student, working on Applied Math while my wife is a software engineer. I plan on going to academia after PhD and will start to job hunt soon.

A few weeks ago, I thought of an idea that hadn't been done before. I wrote a crude C++ code to implement the idea and it worked well. I believed that with my theoretical understanding of the problem and an expert coder, we could make something really impactful and incidentally, my wife knew how to. So, we spent some evenings together writing the code (she didn't know math, but I abstracted each step so she could help implement). The resulting code is fairly sophisticated and does an excellent job. I was wondering, now that I write a paper about it, would it look weird if my wife was listed as a co-author? Her contributions were definitely sufficient to warrant co-authorship by any definition.

Let's step aside the legalese of it (my advisor doesn't care and her company might but let's leave that aside). I am asking more from the standpoint of how it looks on one's CV, job application and possibly, tenure.

Nobody will notice or care, unless you share a last name with your wife, in which case the strongest reaction is likely to be, "aw how cute, a husband and wife published a paper together."


How to get an advisor to finish their part of a publication when they have not done anything on it for over a year? I graduated from a reputed North American university with a master's degree in 2013. Due to severe personal problems (deaths/illness in the family, war-torn homeland, divorce, financial issues, and so on), it would be fair to say that I did not perform well. My thesis had a critical error which was duly pointed out during my defense by my examiner. My advisor had not noticed it before. I managed to pass but with major corrections to the thesis.

While I was waiting for the situation in my home country to settle down, we improved the results significantly. We wrote much of a paper with the agreement that we would correspond over email when I go back home to finish it and send it for publication.

This was a year and a half ago. I am back home and I have been trying to get her to finish writing her part but to no avail. Once every couple of months she responds with "I need more time" but that's about it. It would be a huge help in my career to have a paper published. But I am paranoid about being rude to her and keep nagging her because I need her reference if and when I decide to apply for a PhD later. Also I believe she's a genuinely a nice person! So my questions are,

Is a year and a half a normal amount of time to write on a paper in
which the research is finished?
How do I politely convince her to hurry up?

Is a year and a half a normal amount of time to write on a paper in which the research is finished?

No, this paper should've been finished a year ago.

The research is done, so you are not waiting for something else to fall into place for your paper. You already tried writing your former advisor's portion of the manuscript to no avail. Your former advisor did not even catch a critical flaw in your thesis. I hate to say it, but it sounds like your former advisor is quite a bozo.

  How do I politely convince her to hurry up?

If you've not already done so, send your former advisor your "final" draft of the manuscript (including the parts you wrote for her). Give her a timeline for returning suggestions/modifications to you. If that doesn't work, you might have to get on the phone and talk to her about how important it is for you to submit this paper. If this fails, you may need to move on, and hope that at some point in the next year or two that she finally matures enough to help you out.


Scientific hackathons or other intense voluntary bottom-up events In programming there are many hackathons - intense voluntary one day-week events, where participants collaboratively attack problems. They may be proposed by a company, NGO, participants or a group; for qualification/profit, for fun or for a good cause (eg. http://www.rhok.org/).
The question is - are there any similar events in science?
If not, what can be done or why it cannot work?
(As a comment: as I observe, while scientist are open-minded for a discussion, they are conservative, when it comes to action; at least much more than some of the programmers.)
EDIT (much later):
There are such events, even if extremely rare, e.g.:

Ariel Waldman, Hacking science: the intersection of web geeks and science geeks, Scientific American (August 29, 2011)

So how can we continue to make science more disruptively accessible across all science disciplines, geographies, industries and skill-sets?
Enter Science Hack Day, a 48-hour-all-night event that brings together designers, developers, scientists and other enthusiastic geeks in the same physical space for a brief but intense period of collaboration, hacking, and building ‘cool stuff’. A hack is a unique modification, an interesting mashup or a quick solution to a problem – maybe not the most elegant solution, but often the cleverest. By having a fresh set of eyes from those who solve different types of problems across a variety of industries inside and outside of science, new concepts often emerge and can go on to influence science and adults’ relationship to science in unexpected ways.

In math we have various programs where a group of people get together to do focused work on a problem, usually at one of the mathematical institutes (I know of the SQuaREs program at AIM and the Research in Pairs program at Oberwolfach, and there are probably others).  These are usually for 2-6 people, and the time frame is longer.


Which license should be chosen in arXiv for a paper to be published in IEEE TPDS? I would like to know what license needs to be chosen in arXiv for a paper that is to be sent to an IEEE journal, IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS).

Arxiv licenses:

non-exclusive and irrevocable license to distribute the article.
Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY 4.0).
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0 1.0).

I read numerous pages like A, B, and C, but I didn't find my answer.

I am no lawyer and I have not read the complete legalese, but as far as I see, the first option (non-exclusive and irrevocable license to distribute the article) is the only possible valid one, as it is the most restrictive.

All the Creative Commons licenses would allow others to distribute a copy of your paper (with attribution and some possible restrictions, such as the non-commercial clause). However the IEEE policy allows only the following:

  Author’s personal website
  Author’s employer’s website
  arXiv.org
  Funder’s repository

  [...] The posted article must be removed from any other third-party servers.

So using a CC license would result in a conflict, as you cannot both allow others to distribute copies while at the same time guaranteeing to the IEEE that there will be no copies on other servers.

This does not guarantee that the first option is the right one, however since the IEEE explicitly allows arXiv.org and we have excluded all the others, they will probably not complain...


What is the responsibility of a publication board in relation to ethical subject studies? While journals are in large part the main venue for academic publishing, conferences are heavily utilized in some other venues.  It seems from the venues I have been around, there is a separation between these two types of venues in regards to ethical review for publication.
While PLOS ONE has a specific statement about this:

Researchers submitting studies involving human participants must meet
the following requirements:
Obtain prior approval for human subjects research by an institutional
review board (IRB) or equivalent ethics committee(s)
...
All submissions describing clinical research and/or research on human
subjects will be checked by journal staff to ensure that the
requirements above are met. Failure to meet requirements may be
grounds for rejection. If issues are discovered after publication, we
may issue a correction or retraction as appropriate.

Organizations like COPE, which seem to be used by many groups (including ACM) do not seem to have ethical human subject studies under their 'Ethics' category.
Is receiving IRB approval only a matter that a university should care about? If an organization includes in proceedings or issue a paper that did not have IRB approval, is it only up to the university or author to retract this, or does the organization have a responsibility to do this?

In the US, the PHS regulations are fairly specific with respect to Research Integrity and the Responsibilities of institutions, and are found in 42 CFR Part 93.

This regulations mandates that Institutions have a published policy.  Most of the requirements for that policy involve procedures for holding data, investigations, whistleblowers, and doing what they can to protect the reputations of charged individuals who are not found to have committed misconduct.  There are also reporting requiments to ORI and funding institutions.

There are no specific requirements for requesting retractions from journals.  I looked at my own institution's policy, and it does not mention retraction requests.

That said, institutions tend to do whatever they are legally required to, and whatever they can do to protect their reputations.  They are also reticent to do things that they are not required to do that might result in lawsuits.  Put all that together, with appropriate weighting, and I suppose in some cases institutions would request retractions, and in others, they would not.


How to protect the timeline of my project when the supervisor is not willing to negotiate anything? I am currently working on an 8 month final project, of which 1 month has already passed. Its for an Engineering Doctorate degree. I have one supervisor and one client (who is a Phd student).

Situation

It is really important for me to finish the project on time. The most important reason is that I was recently offered a job and I told them that I will join after 7 months. So if I don't complete the project on time then I might lose this job. Secondly, I am living in a foreign country (all of my colleagues are too) and earn some monthly living expenses from the university. These living expenses will stop exactly after 7 months. So if someone is late with their project then they will not get any living expenses for the remaining number of months. Every year they have two or three such cases.

Problems

They are not responsible for my project timeline: This is not really a problem but both of them made it clear to me on the first day. In the beginning the supervisor told me that you will be the one driving our discussion sessions and deciding your work for each week. The Phd student also told me that "I am not responsible for protecting the timing of your project and you are responsible for that". So I cannot blame them for any delay.
Unwilling to Negotiate: The problem is that my supervisor is not willing to negotiate anything related to scope or requirements. The first time I tried to bring up the issue of scope, the reply was "We will see near the end of the project what happens". The second time I tried to bring it up I got a bad tempered reply of "To be real blunt, this is what I want in the end. If you are worried about your grade then I must tell you that you will be given a fair evaluation".

What does a "fair" evaluation mean? Does it mean I will get the degree but I will work two more months after my project timeline without pay and also lose my new job?  In that case, this is not really fair at all.

Unrealistic Expectations: Now for some reason I feel like that it might not be possible to complete the three goals of the project on time. It might be possible and it might not be possible. I am not sure of the time because I have not done something like this before. And I think that the supervisor is also not sure of the exact time it will take. For example, When I asked about the first goal then the Phd student said it is really simple and will take around two weeks. However, when I started implementing we found out that there were a lot of things to implement just to support the simple thing and it is much longer than just two weeks of work.
Trying to change directions/ Integrating my senior's work: Furthermore, I was requested to also  integrate this project with a senior's project.
Sometimes they want me to go in a different direction which is again scary for me.
They ask me to write down the project goals so that could be used to evaluate my work in the end.

Solution?

I am really stressed out about the timely completion of my project. I am currently working really hard and don't even take the weekend off. My colleagues are only working 9 to 5 from Monday to Friday. This is the reason that I am already implementing things while they are still studying papers for their topic.

How should I deal with this so that I complete the project on time ? How do I set realistic scope and goals for my project without crossing my supervisor? How do I make sure they don't ask me to do something in the last two months that would make me late?

You are still 7 months off. Work hard, but don't overwork yourself. 3 months before the deadline, re-evaluate where you are are: either you will catch up, or more likely, you will fall even further behind. If first, great, you win, if second, you now have a much better leverage to force descope of the project. Go to your advisor and say: ok I've been working really hard for 5 months, this is what we got, this is what we didn't and it was due to these unforeseen circumstances. Then make it absolutely clear that you plan to leave after 3 more months due to a job offered and that it is hard to buy food with no salary. She will probably huff and puff, whatever, at worst your grade won't be perfect, but then again, if you have a job lined up, it shouldn't matter. Whatever you plan to do after that job will be judged more on that job than on your (possibly) mediocre grade.


What to put on my CV while I'm waiting to hear thesis committee's decision? I just handed in my Msc thesis, but it hasn't been accepted yet.  I expect it will be.  I've since started my PhD.

What should I put on my CV?

List your dates as each type of student, with PhD student as your current position. For the MSc, I would put the date you submitted your thesis, so it's clear that you have finished doing the work, and something like 'awaiting outcome' to say that you haven't been awarded the MSc yet.

Having said that, I'm curious why you need a CV right now at all. The main thing is that you should not imply that you have the MSc already, particularly if that's likely to influence whether you get whatever you're applying for.


Do I have to write GRE to apply to physics PhD programs in the US? I'm doing my Masters in GRAPPA at University of Amsterdam now and I want to apply to multiple places for PhD after I'm done.

However, the applications in US confuse me. Some say they want GRE scores, some don't and some say it's optional even. And since I'll be applying to some places in Europe as well, I don't want to write GRE and Subject GRE if it isn't that mandatory.

I'm sorry if this might be a duplicate question but any link/explanation would be helpful.

Every university in the US has its own policies. There is no national educational system in the US.

If you want to apply to a place for which it is mandatory then it is mandatory. Otherwise not. However, for those places for which it is optional it might be a way to bolster your application, so consider that, at least.

Every graduate school is looking at your application materials for evidence of success. If you can show that and also meet the rules then you have a chance to be admitted. But the rules aren't normally optional.


Is it socially acceptable to consider myself a chemist, if I have a degree in chemistry but no research or professional experience? I have a bachelor's degree in chemistry, and feel like I have definitely learned enough to deserve it. However, I have only done laboratory chemistry outside of my courses for a few months my junior year. I have not had any internships or professional chemistry positions. Next year I will be entering pharmacy school, so it might never be employed as a "chemist".

When discussing science online, is it misleading to tell people I am a chemist? Is there a difference between someone trained in chemistry, and a chemist? I.e., is being a chemist more than an occupation, but a lifestyle or state of mind?

If it makes you feel better, if you become a pharmacist and go to the UK you might be best known as a chemist:

1 British - A shop where medicinal drugs are dispensed and sold, and in
which toiletries and other medical goods can be purchased:
‘antihistamine tablets are freely available in chemists’
1.1 A person authorized to dispense medicinal drugs.
2 A person engaged in chemical research or experiments: ‘chemists have
developed catalysts that can turn low-grade fuels into petrol’

As it is, I'd be a bit concerned that simply saying you are a chemist would be misrepresenting yourself, in that being part of a profession generally means you are employed (or have been employed and continue to keep up your affiliation). It is more an in-context, implied matter of what is assumed in natural conversation, rather than a hard and fast rule.
One problem is that in a natural environment if you say you are a chemist, a person would commonly ask something like "where do you work" or "how long have you been a chemist" - to which you would need to back-peddle and explain that your undergraduate degree is in chemistry, but you are not and have not been employed as a chemist.
Such a situation would make it look like you are mostly "blowing smoke" and trying to make yourself to be something you are not. If you simply said, "my undergraduate degree is in chemistry", and optionally, "and I'm studying to be a pharmacist", that makes the situation clear and there can be no mistake about it.
As a comparison, if someone said they were a philosopher and it turns out they just have an undergrad degree in philosophy, I'd squint disapprovingly at them for being full of it. In some professions this would be much worse - for example, I will have a degree in psychology, but in very few situations would it ever be permissible to say that I'm a psychologist, as that happens to be a special title reserved for licensed clinicians.
It's all about clarity - and honesty - in your communication. Saying something that is technically true, but gives a false impression, should be left to slimeball-salesman types and politicians.


How do commitees evaluate candidates from foreign / unknown universities? I'm asking out of curiosity / because I think the answer may be of general interest:

A bit of context: When I applied to PhD programs, I had degrees from two institutions. One (let's call it "A") is more selective and trains students a little more in depth than the other (which we'll call "B"), but doesn't really have a great international reputation (being very teaching-focused).

During interviews abroad, it felt like I was considered as a "serious" applicant because I studied in the other institution, B, which is much more famous because of its research programs, but actually didn't contribute as much to my training. Clearly, nobody had ever heard of institution A. During one of my interviews, an interviewer even saw my grades from university A, where grading is very strict, and asked me: "do you think your grades are good enough to go to [our prestigious university]?". In a live interview, I had the opportunity to explain these grades, but what about the other programs that did not invite me for interviews? I can't help but think that this kind of misunderstanding may have played a bigger role than it should have.

Fortunately I joined the program that I wanted the most. But I started wondering: what if I had only studied in institution A?

So here's the question: Those of you who, at some point, were part of selection commitees (for college, grad school etc.), how did you evaluate candidates who studied in small, foreign and/or unknown universities/high schools, as opposed to big, local, well-known universities/high schools?

In particular, how did you take into account :

Different grading standards - in institution A, the equivalent of a 70% was considered an unusually good grade, whereas in some prestigious universities, an A or a B is quite normal; that difference does not always appear on transcripts.
Different curriculum structures - some universities may require that students in their first/second years take classes  that do not seem very relevant for certain grad school applications
Different opportunities to perform research - this time in university B, a students would only perform research once at the end of their masters, so significant undergrad research experience is unusual and would require a lot of extra commitment
Different prestige - the "best university of the country" may not be as famous as MIT or Harvard, depending on the country. For example are you familiar with the best university in, say, Kazakhstan (no offense meant, Kazakhstani friends)? Would you "trust" a degree more if it came from a more famous institution?
Different academic culture - Europeans, for example, do not typically have a long list of "dean's list", "undergaduate award for (XXX)" etc.; it's simply not a thing there, so even exceptional students just don't have these. Writing SOPs is also not common in certain countries, so students are not trained to "modestly praise themselves" and might seem a little clumsy when they try to do so.
Anything else?

Have you ever faced this kind of issues when evaluating candidates? Did you at any point take extra steps to make sure this kind of differences would not penalize international applicants?

Edit: this question is not entirely similar to other questions like "How handicapped am I in graduate admissions if I graduated from a lower tier university?". Indeed, this question focuses on applications within a single country, with a priori homogeneous definitions of what a "good" university is, with known grading standards... Answers to this question clearly assume that it is possible to define "good" and "bad" grades by looking at a transcript, for example. My questions challenges the notion that the application documents (SOP, GPA etc) are meaningful, because unless a commitee member knows the high school / university of origin of an applicant, they really have no way to tell whether grades are good or not, because standards are not uniform.

I work in a European institute and we get a fair number of applicants from Middle and East Asian countries for PhD positions. It became obvious rather quickly that grades, curriculum, prestige etc. are basically incomparable. In fact, we only took these into account when we know the country of origin very well.

Instead, we put quite some weight on individual skillsets, what undergraduate research project applicants had done, whether their studies fit well with what we are doing, and letters of recommendation.

In other words, we do not take anything on your list into account, with the sole exception of the opportunity to do research: if a candidate hasn't done any independent research and we do not know how to interpret their grades etcetera, then we do not have enough information to make an informed decision. These candidates could be really good but we're unfortunately not in a position to determine that.

This works because we typically know pretty well what kind of students we are looking for; we are not selecting for the US-type Masters-PhD structure, these students immediately start with their PhD projects.


How to deal with student's feedback about tutor I'm a professor's assistant and design the exercises for his class. Each week the students are assigned some homework, which will be corrected by a tutor. I got an email from a student, who "complains" about his tutor.
In essence, he does not understand the grading of his tutor. While the tutor answers his questions during the weekly exercise about his grading, he does not honor the request to be more transparent in advance.
The student makes it clear, that he has no bad intentions, he would be satisfied if this is just the way it is (and he is just used to more clear grading from other classes). He didn't contact the tutor directly, because he doesn't have his email address and he wanted to raise awareness to this issue.
Now, I'm unsure how to proceed. We have a weekly meeting with all three tutors  and the professor where we talk about stuff related to the class, but I don't want to paint him in a bad light in front of the others.
Specific questions:

Should I refer to the student by name or leave him anonymous?
Should I mention this to the professor?
Should I speak with the tutor 1on1 or bring this up as a generic mention to all tutors?

No, don't mention the student by name when speaking with the tutors. Yes, the professor should be made aware that there are issues, but that you will work to resolve them. The professor might need/want the name.
You may need to speak to the individual tutor to get their feedback on why they are doing what they do. There may be a good explanation that is actually student focused. Or not. But you need this feedback.
However, you need to spend some time with your group of tutors to make sure that they treat students in a uniform way. All of them should use the same criteria and the same policies. If that isn't happening then some students are being advantaged or disadvantaged over others. This, I think, is the most important element here.
But if you think a reprimand for the tutor is necessary, the professor needs to be involved in that as well.
And, it may also be necessary to reassure the student in some way that their concerns are being addressed. How you do that should also involve advice from the professor.


What does "Awaiting Assignment to Batch" mean? My paper was accepted a week ago, at that time the status in the ScholarOne manuscript center changed from "accept" to "awaiting production checklist". They also said I would receive an email regarding the proof check. However, till today I haven't received any email. Today the status again changed to "Awaiting Assignment to Batch". I am curious what is this mean? According to the journal, it takes 2 weeks(on average) to get published "online pre-print" from the acceptance date. I am just worried if I am missing something.

First, congratulations!!
"Awaiting Assignment to Batch" is part of the accepted workflow. Once accepted, some journals have a set of tasks that a manuscript goes through. One of the steps available (and being used here) is batching and sending of the manuscript to the journals production service. It will wait until a predetermined condition (so many ready to go, or a regular timed interval), then be added to a large zip file (along with others in the "batch"), and sent to the production server.
Hope this helps!
NOTE: I am am employee of ScholarOne, but my opinions and answers are only my own.


How would you rate the UK Open University's math BSc programme relative to prestigious ones? The Open University has a "BSc Honours" degree in mathematics, having its programme of study described here. The courses, divided into modules, are grouped there and listed by three stages roughly corresponding to years of study.
To me it looks like an applied mathematics curriculum, but I could be wrong about that.
What would be your take, if you are intimately familiar with other mathematics BSc programmes and perhaps even with this particular one? Are there key aspects you find neglected in this programme?

The question is too specific about one particular programme at one particular university to be useful to other readers in this Q&A format and is likely to be closed.
However, despite saying that, it touches on an area worthy of answer.

However: tl;dr Yes, it is considered equivalent to all other UK Honours degrees in Mathematics by other universities and would be acceptable for any postgraduate studies.

Now to the detail.
Some might consider it less worthy because it has no specific entry requirements. This is because it is designed to provide a route for a university education for those who may find themselves unable to attend a regular university programme. In particular the university was created to educate the late returned to higher education and permit them to traverse any glass ceiling or financial burden that previously might have held them back. This is a false premise. Students have to undertake rigorous studies and complete the same assessments at the same levels as students elsewhere, and in addition they often do this whilst still in employment or in a caring role. Many consider an OU achievement as more worthy because of this.
Some might consider it  less worthy because it is based on distance learning withe most of the delivery being done by the medium of the internet, videos and downloaded material. Very much like a MOOC.
This also is a false premise. The OU was very early in the development of remote online teaching and is considered the forerunner and exemplar of this mode of delivery which has been honed by them over the last 50 years. It delivers results and has developed techniques in educational technology that are the envy of other institutions. In this era of lockdowns and isolations many universities are having to rapidly catch up with what the OU has been doing for decades.

So I am tempted to say: What pre-conceptions did you have about their style of education that made you think their qualifications were in any way lesser in value?


How do I explain to a student why departments that do similar things have seemingly different names? I was asked by a potential PhD student
why departments that do similar things as my department have different names.
For example, some of the researchers who
work in research areas that are similar to my own
are in departments with names such as:

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering
Management Science and Engineering
Systems Engineering and Engineering Management
Technology and Operations Management
Decision Sciences
Business Statistics and Operations Management
Decision Sciences and Managerial Economics
Management Science and Operations

He claims that this is confusing, which indeed it is,
given that as an "insider"
I know that the people in these departments
work in very similar research areas.

What is a good explanation for why departments doing similar research
often in practice have very different sounding names?

I would say instead that it would be much more surprising if these departments all had the same names, particularly for relatively new and cross-disciplinary areas of work like in your example.

The domains of science are broad and overlapping, and there are many ways that the whole domain can end up being parsed into departments by different institutions, just like there are many different ways that the domain of colors are parsed into color names by different languages.

Given that there are many reasonable possible clusterings and names, the actual determinants tend to be very contingent and historical.  Among these are:

Interdepartmental politics, including which part of a university wants to sponsor the new department, which faction of an old department wants to split away.
The viewpoint of the faculty forming the department
Popularity of subjects over time: small departments merge and large departments split.

There are many other possible causes as well.  Thus, the question is not: "Why are they different?" but "Why would you expect them to be the same?"


In the absense of writing experience in my target field, how do I find assignments and evaluate them? A while ago I posted a question wondering if a CS major would be accepted into a Political Science MSc programme and it turned out possible. I am starting next October.

My goal is now to get into an interdisciplinary PhD, I have already scoped some and most of my targets ask me to demonstrate my writing competency as part of their application process. I will also have to write research proposals.

I don't have high steem for my writing, as I have not produced many essays in my undergraduate program. The application deadlines are as early as December and a good proposal can take months to write.

What guidance can I follow to start writing? Especially when I have no assignents and I have to be self-driven. Should I aim to write for a specific online outlet? Even then, how can I get feedback so I can improve faster?

I'm not sure this is the right place to ask, but I don't know where else to turn.

The obvious way to get experience along with feedback is to enroll in a formal writing course. But try to find one in which the instructor is amenable to you making suggestions about general areas and topics. But any writing will be better than no writing.

A second, but riskier way, is to publish a blog somewhere in which you express your thoughts but allow readers to comment and give you feedback. The world is full of trolls, of course, so be prepared for that, including a way to shut them off and/or back out of the whole project.

Even writing here on this site you get some feedback in the comments.


Does the native language capability (for a foreigner) help in applying for a faculty position? Consider an international scholar X, fluent in English, who currently holds a postdoctoral position in science (say, in particular, the fundamental science: physics, chemistry, math or biology) in the US.

If X wants to apply for a tenure-tracked (junior or senior) faculty job in a country A outside the US, does acquiring fluency in the language of country A help in applying for a faculty position in the top ranking universities/institutions in that country?

I am mostly, but not exclusively interested in the situation in Europe.

The key point to ask is that suppose X is a highly qualified candidate in all aspects academically, would X be ruled out from the candidate short list due to the lack of fluency in the language of country A?

This is going to vary a bit from country to country, but I think on the whole, the answer is obviously yes.  In most institutions in these countries, not only is teaching in the country's usual language, but so is the life of the department in most important respects.  I spent 6 months in France as a visiting scholar at Paris 7, and had a fairly rudimentary command of French (enough to navigate life in France, but not good enough to carry on a conversation), and leaving aside teaching, most conversations in the department, and most academic talks were in French.  In my situation, things were basically fine, but I could not have functioned as a staff member without improving my French very quickly.

France is something of a special case (though I suspect Spain, Italy, Poland, etc. would be similar).  The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries are more used to expecting nobody speaks their language (and can expect greater English fluency from students), but even there, I'm sure knowing the language would be necessary for many positions, and a big advantage for the rest.  If nothing else, it shows a commitment to being there which would be appreciated.

EDIT: You can also see examples of how this is dealt with by looking at job ads from the season that's winding down now (I'm going to use examples from MathJobs, since that's what I know; since that's a US-based site, it's going to be slanted toward ads looking to recruit English speakers).  Some will make it clear that functioning in the local language is not a professional requirement or at least don't specify it is:

https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/10239
https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/9749
https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/10164
https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/10127

Some will specify that there is a transition period:

https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/10154

Some seem to expect that there already is language fluency:

https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/10004
https://www.mathjobs.org/jobs/jobs/9973

That's actually more slanted toward English speakers than I expected, but of course, posting on MathJobs is a very biased sample, since it's mostly a North American site, and I think you only post there if you want recruit North Americans (that's including students or postdocs from abroad currently in North America).  It's notable that from a lot of countries (Israel, for example) there are many postdoctoral positions on MathJobs that don't expect the ability to teach in Hebrew, but no permanent positions.


How can I find out under what license a title was submitted to arXiv? How can I find out under what license a title was submitted to arXiv, and what conditions apply to sharing or redistribution?

There is licence link under download.

Example here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.10781

And screen capture here:


What features does Adobe Illustrator lack compared to Microsoft PowerPoint for making posters? I have used Microsoft PowerPoint to make posters so far, and I am considering giving Adobe Illustrator a shot for my next poster. What features does Adobe Illustrator lack compared to Microsoft PowerPoint to make a poster?

For example, one cannot generate bulleted lists automatically in Adobe Illustrator.

(I am aware of the question Software to use for creating posters for academic conferences?.)

I believe that Adobe Illustrator has many more features that MS PowerPoint for graphic design and image processing.

The key question is: what will you use those features to accomplish when creating your poster?

I created sever posters in MS PowerPoint and found that it had sufficient features and was easy to use.  The only issues came when trying to print it out, because the output of Mac PowerPoint wasn't compatible with the Windows PowerPoint that the printer used.

In my view, extra-fancy graphic design will not result in better posters.  Instead, what most posters need is bigger fonts, less text, bigger/simpler graphics and images, and headlines + call-outs that guide the viewer through the story.  You can accomplish all these goals using PowerPoint.


Withdrawing from course in a PhD Program (i.e. W on PhD Transcripts) I'm already in a PhD program and, just one week after Add/Drop, both my teaching and research loads increased due to unforeseen circumstances. I have a course which would be helpful for my area exam, but I'm confident I can just teach myself and am considering withdrawing from it since it would be nice to have fewer deadlines looming over me. It's this weird grey area where I could probably make it through the semester, but this would basically require I get less out of my other 2 courses (which are exactly in the area I want to specialize in), not be able to teach as well, not be able to focus as much on research, and just be overall slightly more stressed.

Are there any repercussions to having a W on my transcript as a PhD student?

The only thing I can forsee is maybe external fellowship applications, but I am in my first year so I'm hoping they'd be understanding (it isn't like withdrawing makes it so that I am taking fewer classes than most grad students).

Thanks!

tl;dr:
Would having a W on your PhD transcript be problematic in some way?

I withdrew from a class when I was a master's student: no one has ever cared why I did. I was later accepted into multiple PhD programs and a post-doc.

I would have a prepared answer for why you withdrew from a class. "I withdrew from Ballistics 782 in order to better focus on my research. I produced two papers that semester."

If you ever think you would have a chance to go back and complete the course in another semester, withdrawing is even less of a risk. One W will matter little in the long run. (And likely even in the short-run).


Getting a Phd abroad: is there any chance? I am Earth Sciences major with post-graduate studies (Master) in the field of Geophysics/Seismology from Greece. In the last couple of months i am trying to find a PhD opportunity abroad in order to continue my research journey. I think i have built a pretty good CV for my level (and young age) with good grades, numerous poster presentations and 4 peer reviewed publications in well known journals in my field. Is it possible to find a PhD in a prestigious University abroad, based on a good CV with degrees (Bsc, Msc) from Greek University? Any advise or experience is more than welcome.

Thank You!

Getting a Phd [outside of Greece]: is there any chance?

TL;DR: Yes

  I think i have built a pretty good CV for my level (and young age) with good grades, numerous poster presentations and 4 peer reviewed publications in well known journals in my field.

Many universities will accept PhD students without any publications, so - with 4 peer reviewed publications - you seem like a good candidate.* You don't say how good your grades are, PhD students will typically be amongst the top of their class.

*I cannot answer specifically for  Earth Sciences.

  Is it possible to find a PhD in a prestigious University [outside of Greece], based
  on a good CV with degrees (Bsc, Msc) from Greek University?

Yes. You mention, during the last couple of months i am trying to find a PhD opportunity, has your search been unsuccessful? If so, why?


Ethical Disclosure of Professional Knowledge in PhD Dissertation I have just completed my PhD. Although my examiners did not raise any concerns, I have been grappling with an ethical issue for the entire duration of my candidature.

The issue concerns professional knowledge of the field on which my research is based. This is an issue of concern because I am employed in the field and have access to information that is generally not publicly available (but is available to me as an employee) or only found in hard-to-get industry publications (e.g. newsletters). These publications are hard-to-get because of their specialised nature and limited circulation.

Disclosing this information creates a potential conflict of interest for me (because of reasons associated with commercial-in-confidence, breach of trust etc.). It gets even worse because I am often actively involved in generating this information as part of various negotiations I am required to have with third parties (in my capacity as an employee). As an example, I draft policy speeches for my CEO so this has the effect of quoting my own work in my dissertation (but attributed to my CEO in the citation and bibliography!)

To resolve this matter, I have declared (categorically) this conflict of interest (several times in my dissertation) (although I don't identify myself as the ghost writer). I have also put whatever information I thought could be ethically disclosed in the relevant context (e.g. cited the publicly available newsletter, where possible). This was to ensure future researchers could benefit from this 'inside' knowledge. I have stated this as one of the contributions to knowledge that my dissertation is making.

I must add that the professional knowledge does not contradict or undermine my research, so I am certainly not withholding the information for this reason. On the contrary, this information enhances the main arguments of my study (so omitting it presents a significant dilemma for me).

i would love to hear how else could this matter be resolved.

I've known cases where the thesis itself has very restricted circulation for a fixed period (e.g. six years) after completion, to protect the commercial information that went into it. The restriction also meant that papers couldn't be published on the back of the PhD research for six years, too.

That was an arrangement made early on during the writing of the thesis, and it enabled the use of a lot of information that would otherwise have been out of bounds.

That's potentially quite an impediment to one's career, so one would have to get good advice on whether it was a price worth paying. But it doesn't make an academic career impossible: I know of at least one successful academic who's take this path - she's an exceptional talent, and so it's no surprise that her path has been exceptional. It does put an emphasis on diversifying straight after the PhD, to gather material for new publications. Diversification can be a good thing: lots of new post-docs get typecast and trapped by and in their PhD subject.


'Reviews completed' what does this status mean in springer I have submitted revision of my paper at the end of last month and status changed from Reviewers assigned to under review and now since 6 days it is showing reviews completed. Anybody has experience with this kind?

Now the editor or associate editor has to take a decision on your paper based on the received reviews.


Is finding an interest in Mathematics in late teens not a good sign for amazing research capability? I am 19 years old.  I was average in high school in Mathematics. I never participated in IMO or related competitions.  As a result I didn't  join a prestigious undergraduate school. However during 2nd year in abstract algebra courses I developed an obsession for the subject. My advisor told me to look over some graduate level abstract algebra textbooks which I certainly will.

My school can offer me some grad level courses in my fourth year like Class Field Theory and Modular Forms. Nonetheless, not being able to attend a prestigious undergraduate still haunts me. I know it will certainly affect my graduate school admissions.

In the long term, do late bloomers in Mathematics have a chance to pursue good research careers in Mathematics?

It is somewhat common to find highly intelligent, promising students that find it difficult to apply themselves in topics they are not interested in. Upon finding that one topic, these people excel quickly because it consumes them. I actually know scientists at top universities that previously flunked out of college for just that reason. So the fact that you’re experiencing this now is not surprising; in fact you’re fortunate that you’re still so young - plenty of time to dive in.

On your less-than-reputable undergrad institution, this may hurt you a bit as names do matter, sadly. Fortunately, if you mean to go academic in life, this is less a problem for undergraduate institution than graduate. So, you should set your sights on a good graduate school and start working on it. The best way to do this is to gain the respect of a professor you know to secure a strong letter and also start reaching out to specific people you’d like to work with. Take a very impassioned, personal approach, and you’ll be given a bit more consideration than the nameless others that apply.

Good luck, future mathematician!


PhD final grade on CV In mathematics, is it common to put the final grade of your PhD on your academic CV, for example for

your personal website
funding/grant applications
short research stay applications
postdoc applications
tenure track applications
etc.

There seem to be more standards for deciding final grades than there are universities, and some universities are more committed to stopping grade inflation than others. (Whether grades at the PhD level are a good idea is a can of worms I don't wish to open.)

If one should only show off "good" grades, is there a common cut-off? For example, the German system uses the following grades (approximate descriptions in parentheses)

summa cum laude ("with distinction")
magna cum laude ("very good")
cum laude ("good")
rite ("pass")

You need to keep the intended audience of that CV in mind. If you are just interested in a German audience (non Germans can read your CV if they can find it, but you just don't care), then you can add those grades. If you aim for an international audience you need to give them a metric by which to evaluate those notes. For example, in the Netherlands a PhD can only get two grades: a regular pass (about 95%) and a cum laude (about 5%). So if a Dutch person sees a CV with a cum laude for a PhD (s)he will be very impressed, which is not what that note means in Germany.


Is it harmful to list too specific research interest in personal statement? I'm undergraduate who are applying US research program. I have one interest field in which I have read 1 survey and 3 other papers (I know it is not enough). I only have some vague and primitive idea so that I am not sure I will do research in the field in graduate program.

I'm afraid if I write my research interest too specific and there are no professor who has knowledge about or is interested in such field, the admission committee would think my goals do not coincide with their department research interests.

Is it a disadvantage to write research interests too specific?

It is also possible that what I believe is too specific may be not specific enough for some professor.

I am not sure if a statement would be harmful, it will be a question of how well you appear to know the field. You are right in that you have not nearly read enough. It would be better to simply state that you are interested in such and such a field without going into depth, after all being interested is hardly a problem. If you try to get into arguing for why a field is interesting without having a good grasp of the field, you run into the likely situation that instead of primarily showing your interest, you simply expose your lack of knowledge. No-one would expect an undergraduate to have deeper knowledge about a specific research topic but if you try to argue for some field based on very sketchy knowledge, you may come across as naive. I therefore think it is better to simply state fields that you are interested in without going into specifics. If you manage to read up on a field (which would take, likely significant, time) so that you have a perspective, then such a statement would be a definite positive. Coming across as having good general skill (knowledge and abilities) is still the most important aspect.


Is it appropriate for a journal to cancel an accepted review request before the deadline? I have recently received an email from the editor manager of the journal. In this email, they mentioned, because of unforeseen circumstances, they need to cancel their request.

I am really confused because I spent a lot of time reviewing the article and I don't know why they did that.

Is it ethical for journal to cancel accepted review request before deadline?

In some circumstances, it would be ethically required to cancel the review request.  The editor has avoided wasting more of your time by cancelling the request.

"Unforseen circumstances" probably means the authors withdrew the manuscript.

Canceling a review request can also occur when another reviewer has submitted a review which ensures the manuscript cannot be published.


Are there free DOI generation services? Crossref, e.g., charges thousands of dollars to assign DOIs, but are there any free DOI registration services? In other words: Is there a free service that will generate DOIs for me?

As the official DOI FAQ mentions, you need to go through a recognized registration agency to get a DOI:

  How do I get a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for my material?

  You must use a service offered by a DOI Registration Agency (RA). RAs
  collect metadata, assign DOI names, and offer other services such as
  reference linking or metadata lookup. See the list of RAs, and contact
  the ones whose services best meet your needs. If you do not see an
  appropriate application listed, consider approaching an existing RA or
  developing a community to build the service you require (see the DOI
  Handbook, 8 Registration Agencies, for more information). You do not
  need to be a member of the International DOI Foundation in order to
  work with an RA.

Now, you don't necessarily need to go directly through one of the listed  Registration Agencies (of which Crossref is one). Often the Registration Agencies have arrangements with other agencies to assign DOIs. (e.g. arrangements Crossref makes with publishers) If you go through those sub-agencies you can also get DOIs, though they may come with limitations.

Depending on your affiliations, there may already be a sub-agency arrangement in place. For example, the Harvard, CERN, and the British Library have arrangements in place with DataCite for providing DOIs to their materials, and there appear to be facilities in place by their national research councils for allowing DOI assigments to datasets from a number of countries.

There are a couple of places which have an "open" policy on submitting and assigning DOIs to material, regardless of affiliation. The ones I know of are Zenodo, Figshare and Dataverse. -- These are mostly based around datasets and Supporting-Material-type information (though not necessarily attached to any publication), so if you attempt to use them for other purposes you may fall afoul of their Terms of Service. They're also limited to assigning DOIs for material that is uploaded to their servers (so no DOIs for third-party websites).

If you're looking to attach a DOI to a biology-related publication, bioArXiv assigns DOIs to submitted pre-prints (though the math/physics arXiv does not, and there are some reasons for that. - Though keep in mind that pre-publication release of articles (at least in the Biology field) may limit where you can publish.

If those options don't work for you (say you're starting a new journal and wish to assign DOIs to publications hosted on your own website), then you probably don't have much choice other than to go through one of the DOI Registration Agencies. Note that there's several of them, not just CrossRef, so it may pay to talk to others to see if you can come to an arrangement that's more suitable.


Paper rejected based on one very short wrong comment My paper is rejected based on a wrong (I am almost certain that it is wrong) comment of a single reviewer and the content is as below

  The manuscript focuses on the problem of "Some Technical Things". This problem has been solved in several papers of "Mr. X" : See, for example "This Article".

But "This Article" of "Mr. X" is totally different from what we have done, and addresses a completely different problem. I don't know how I can show my objection to this unfair review that has wasted my time for two months!

I sent an e-mail to the journal's editor but he did not respond.

Do you have any suggestions that one can do in such situations?

Wait. The editor has to assess if your claim is correct. People are busy. In addition, they may need to ask a more expert colleague for a quick opinion; this is not a full round of review, but still it will take several days. I would give them at least two weeks, personally (but publication times are heavily discipline-dependent).
If the editor agrees with the reviewer, consider seriously the possibility that they are correct and you are wrong. Ask privately for another opinion to a collaborator/colleague you are in good terms with, just to understand where the truth lies.
If you conclude that the referee is completely bonkers and their claim is ridiculously wrong, ignore their remark, submit somewhere else, and make a note for the future that this is not a good journal.
If you conclude that the referee is wrong, but their one is a reasonable mis-interpretation and someone else may get it wrong, too, then revise your introduction: mention mr. X's papers and explain in your manuscript why they don't solve your problem. Then, submit somewhere else.

(Note that case 4 is much more common than case 3.)


Grades in masters before PhD I'm working on a masters in mathematical finance. I am going to make at least one B this semester at a program which is not highly regarded after having made very good grades in undergraduate school at a decent university. I was wondering how significant this is if I wanted to apply for doctoral programs in math or physics in the future.

First of all: Don't Panic!

If you search for Bad Grade on this site you get a lot of questions from students in a similar/worse situation. In this case I can just talk for me and for my case and let the other questions talk for themselves: I'm currently a PhD-student and I've gotten among others one B, one C and even one D in courses during my masters. In the end nobody cared because I've written an really good thesis and (at least here at my university and group) that's way more important. So focus on what's ahead of you.

So all in all it is of no significance (or at least should not be).


Section name for class project reports, theses, short essays In my personal website, I'd like to have a section for class project reports, theses, and short essays I've written. I'm thinking about naming the section "Other Publications" or "Other Papers", but I'm not sure if these count as "Publications" or "Papers". Do they count? If not, is there an appropriate term?

(Since it's a personal website, I don't think it's so important to get every detail correct, but it would be nice to get it correct nevertheless.)

Sometimes people call such a collection "Other Writings" or "Other Works".

If they haven't been published, they're not publications.  And most academics think of "paper" as synonymous with "published paper", so that term is likely to be misleading as well.


Should I do a PhD in Sound and Music Computing? I have recently applied to two PhD programs (in Europe) under professors working in the area of Sound and Music Computing (SMC). Both programs are very well regarded in this area.

SMC covers topics such as:

Music information retrieval
Computational musicology
Algorithmic composition / performance
Sentiment and expression modelling in music
Computational approaches to music cognition
Audio signal processing

This is not a complete list. I find the field very interesting.

However, would the industry want to hire someone with a PhD in SMC? Let's say Google (just as an example), which is known to hire many PhDs. Would they be interested in someone with a PhD in SMC, or would they restrict themselves to machine learning / web / search PhDs? And yes... I'm sure that Yamaha would love to hire an SMC PhD, but would I be restricting my options to only a small subset of the industry?

What about academia? How would they look upon an applicant to the assistant professor position who has a PhD in this area? Would they simply reject him saying "Sorry, but we don't do research in your area...", since it is true that most CS departments don't do active research in SMC? Again, would I be restricting my options to only a small subset of universities?

Secondly, how easy / hard is it to switch fields AFTER doing a PhD in it? I may like SMC enough to work on it for 5 years (and get a PhD) but I MAY not want to work on it for a lifetime. In industry or academia, could I switch to something else when (and if) I want to?

One researcher told me that I should only consider pursuing my interest in SMC after I have already established myself in some other, more fundamental, area of CS, like algorithms or AI. Do you agree?

This thread should be useful to anyone considering a PhD in a specialized or maybe even an obscure area.

SMC sounds like a very interesting but somewhat narrow specialization.  Since it's not likely that an expert will appear to answer this question, here are some comments:

One key question regarding career paths is how bad you would feel if they fell through.  For example, suppose you got a Ph.D. in SMC, tried and failed to get an academic job in this area, and ended up getting a job in industry that was relevant but didn't really require the full Ph.D.  Would you regret having started on this path, or would you be happy to have had a chance to study something exciting and to have developed expertise that might still serve you well in the future?  If you would regret it, then you need to think very carefully about the job market, but if your personality could handle this situation, then this path could be a wise choice.

The big danger with unusual fields is that few people will be specifically looking to hire in this area.  You may get lucky and find someone who is, but you may need to create your own opportunities.  If you have an outgoing personality and are good at networking and making connections, then there will be less risk.

In academia, you'll run into two difficulties.  One is that no CS program will need to have this area represented, so you'll have to make a stronger case for why you would be a great hire.  The other problem is that if a school is open to SMC, then they may already have someone in this area, and it's a narrow enough field that making multiple hires could be a very tough sell.  So you would be looking for the schools that are interested, but not so interested that they have already hired someone.  Of course, it's far from impossible, but some other branches of CS may be a little easier.

As for switching areas, it can certainly be done.  You may run into a little resistance, depending on what you were originally hired to do.  (This could be a serious issue in industry, and even in academia your colleagues may be counting on you to teach the introductory course in your old field.)

If you are equally interested in and talented at algorithms and SMC, then it's probably a little safer to start with algorithms.  However, if only one of them will make you happy and inspire you to do your best work, then that one would be the better choice.


Why do undergraduate admissions in the U.S take into account nonacademic criteria? College admissions in the U.S. takes into account many factors that are rarely considered in other countries and seem unrelated to academics.  For example, legacy status (children of alumni may be given preference), athletics, extracurricular activities, etc.  Why do these nonacademic criteria play a larger role in the U.S. than they do elsewhere?

As with any complicated social phenomenon, there is no simple and conclusive answer.  However, here are two important factors:

The U.S. didn't have world-class universities until the 20th century.  Even ones that are world-famous today (such as Harvard or Yale) did not particularly impress 19th century Europeans.  These universities had started out as vocational schools for pastors and gradually turned into finishing schools for the elite, but they weren't scholarly powerhouses.  In the early 20th century, there started to be more academic competition for admission.  This was very upsetting to the traditional students (largely wealthy young men from prep schools), who didn't want to be around too many Jews or other minorities or to have to compete with nerds for grades.  One tactic universities used in response was quotas for Jews, but the Nazis made that look bad.  Leading U.S. universities then moved on in the 1930's to develop other methods to ensure that they could pick whichever students they wanted.  For example, geographic diversity (you should take students from Kansas to avoid having too many New Yorkers), preferences for children of alumni, athletic recruitment (you really need a strong lacrosse team and fencing team), well roundedness (students should study hard but not be too nerdy), extracurricular activities, etc.  Jerome Karabel has documented this history in his book The Chosen.
What is Harvard's purpose in educating students?  People often imagine the goal is to educate smart people, and that corruption is the only explanation for why Harvard would deliberately admit a wealthy applicant over someone more talented but poor.  However, this is thinking about it completely wrong.  Harvard's primary goal isn't to educate smart people, but rather to have an impact on the world by educating influential people.  They want to educate the people who are going to grow up to become leaders of all sorts (social, political, commercial, academic, etc.), and while they are happy to help shape who becomes a leader, they know perfectly well that wealth and privilege play a major role.  When Harvard admits someone whose wealth exceeds his intellectual talents, it's because they want to help set the national agenda by providing this person's education.  From this perspective, all the strange admissions criteria are an excuse for Harvard to select whoever they feel has the most potential to change the world, taking into account all aspects of their talents and background.

So what about other universities?  The first axiom of higher education in the U.S. is that everybody imitates the most prestigious universities.  If Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are doing something, then everyone else will follow.  Not necessarily in exactly the same way: different universities may employ very different criteria for admission, thanks to different goals regarding who they want to educate.  But they almost all use the same basic framework for what information is relevant to their decision.


Transferring out of Rank 1 PhD program to another PhD program I'm a first-year at a top-ranked institution in a PhD program that I have not had a formal background in. My PI is really great. The only real flaw I've seen so far is that his students take a while to graduate (most seem to have taken 6-6.5 years...). But I enjoy the research, even though I've just barely started.

The problem is more with the department and classes. I'm truly uncertain if I will be able to pass (i.e. >= B) one of the required classes I'm in, and another class I'm taking I'm pretty much certain I will have to drop (before the deadline) because I just don't have the background necessary for it even though I was told I would. I've been studying for the upcoming exam for weeks, but I still feel very behind where I need to be. The fact that if I get below a B I have to wait a year to retake it is also off-putting. I don't think I could wait a year knowing my future hinges on one exam.

I really want to do a PhD though, both for my personal and career-related goals. I love research and being involved in that community. I don't love this stressful environment where professors seem to have no issue kicking you out.

If things don't go well, is it possible to leave this program to start anew at another program? I know this would burn all bridges here, but I'm just trying to brainstorm my options. I'm just not really sure what to do.

Of course, I will wait and see how I do on my upcoming exam, but I just frankly don't think it will go well. Does anyone have any advice? This all makes for a very stressful situation. I'll just keep studying for now.

Right around the first midterm of every course I feel like just throwing it all away (I have multiple degrees and working on another one right now). It's the same feeling I have right before I go out to a party that I want to go to but will have a lot of people.  I think it's just anxiety.  What's the worst case?  You have to take the course again?  You're concerned that you don't have enough background?  Think instead of all the cool stuff you still get to learn.  I had a CS professor who asked the class,  "who has heard of 3-SAT?"  No one raised their hand.  You could tell the excitement in her voice.  "I get to be the person who teaches you 3-SAT!"  Think of it that way.  Someday you will learn 3-SAT, and a million other great things.  Now go study!


Emailing professors in the physics and mathematics departments I'm an Economics and Mathematics major in college, but I have been studying both mathematics and physics in college. Since I wish to go on and specialize in mathematical physics, I'll be looking to apply for a PhD position under the supervision of a mathematical physicist. The problem is quite a lot people working in this field come from the mathematics department, while some also sit in the physics departments. At the end of the day, though, the content of their research matters, but it seems as if the majority of the people from this field sit in the mathematics departments.

Therefore, I'm confused as to which department should I apply to. I am thinking of apply to mathematics, wherewas my physics teachers etc. want me to apply to physics department, as they say you can do such work over there as well, though most people (as I said) sit in the mathematics departments.

Therefore, I'm looking forward to email quite a lot of such professors sitting in the mathematics/physics departments, with the hope of asking the following major question:

  Given I'd like to attend their college to specialize in the said field, should I apply to either the physics or the mathematics departments.

Withinin this question, I'd like to ask a couple of multiple sub-questions: the opportunities available in one department over the other in the said field, the difference in training that I'll get under the different departments etc.

Basically, I'm as of now in the stage of procuring advice, and it'd be great if I could get some from the relevant people working at the relevant departments in universities. In the long run, I'd also like to establish a contact with the said professors, before hopefully some day (in a year or two) heading off to graduate school.

  My question is: what is the best way I should structure and write the first email, listing my concerns/queries with the hope that the professors will reply? I suspect I'll mostly be bugging the professors with my confusing questions (math or physics departments etc.), but I find this to be a genuine concern for me as of yet. It'd be great if someone could advise on this issue, so I can initiate a channel of communication with some professors via email.

First, your question would be easier to read if you went a little easier on the italics.  Also, it's good to get in the habit of using a neutral tone, even when you're feeling confused or frustrated.

It's fine to send some queries by email, but try to select the most likely people to send your queries to.  You could start with one per program that you're interested in, but be ready with a second name in each department.  Wait at least three business days for a reply before trying name #2.  Keep your email fairly succinct and neutral in tone.  Skip the part about the confusion.  (It's fine to be confused, and they're used to that.)  Make a spreadsheet so you can be organized about this.

I think you should also ask them what to do about the GRE.  My gut feeling is that regardless of which program you apply to, you should take the Physics GRE, but this is something you could ask at Physics SE if you don't get a response from a mathematical physicist here about that particular issue (which you should add to your question with an edit, by the way, since it's an important point).  For example, in an email to someone in a physics department, you could say, "I'm also applying to some math programs, which require the math GRE, but the subject test GREs are offered only once per (year?  two years?  I didn't understand this point) in my country; so I would like to ask whether your department would accept the math GRE in lieu of the physics GRE."  And vice versa.

A tricky part of this is that you may get some answers back that go against what your physics professors have advised you.  If none of them are very close to you, and won't be bothered by that, fine.  But if you think someone might be bothered, then I would suggest you share a sample draft email with this person, and most importantly, confer with him or her about the choice of specific departments and individuals you'll be emailing.  That way, once the answer comes back, you'll be able to share it with this person comfortably.

A word about the choice of individuals to send your queries to.  The ideal person to write to would be someone who is strong in your area of interest, but who seems to have some interest in student advising as well, for example, with a current or former position in department administration, such as "dean of graduate studies," or "graduate program director," or someone involved with department admissions.

If you are talking about applying next winter for a fall, 2018, start, mention that in your email, so the reader doesn't feel alarmed that you might be talking about applying now for fall, 2017.

(If you are talking about applying now for a fall, 2017, start, then just throw some darts at the dart board as quickly as you can, and don't waste any time thinking, since this is March already.)

And by the way, Johanna is absolutely right ("You should apply to the department the professor is associated with"). In trying to figure this out, you'll have to look at the faculty bios rather carefully.

Note that sometimes you can have, for example, a physics department as your home department, but work with an advisor whose primary appointment is in, for example, a math department.  This is easiest to swing when the professor has some affiliation with your department.  If s/he doesn't, then you can still check the program's policies, and also it might be possible to get special permission.

You may want to consider:
- What coursework is required in each department?  Which program of studies fits better with your interests and needs?
- What about the basic exams?  You wouldn't want to get stuck in a math department that requires you to show mastery of number theory, for example.  (That's not a realistic example -- hopefully you get my idea.)

Some departments will provide specific advice on their websites for people like you, whose area straddles two departments to some extent.

It could be overwhelming to delve into a lot of departments' websites in depth.  If I were you I would start with one that has very clear materials, and in which you are definitely interested.  Understand that one as well as you can, and then prepare your first email.  If you are able to cite a specific webpage and a quote or two from their site, as the beginning of your question, so much the better.  (I.e. show that you've done your homework.)

Last comment.  Just as people like me enjoy understanding a question and attempting to say something useful -- there are people in every department who do too.  If the first person you try writing turns out not to be responsive or helpful, that's okay, just try again with a different member of the department.  You can add at the end of your email something like "If there is someone else in your department I should address these questions to, please let me know."


University subscribed its entire community for a mailing list which is impossible to unsubscribe from I realize that this is a very atypical question for this forum. To be frank, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask. But it is part of my academic life, so I'm going to give it a try.
In the beginning of Fall 2020, our university (in the U.S.) created a mailing list and automatically subscribed the entire university community to it. It comes from a certain non-academic unit within the university, newly created to address certain social issues both within the university and in the wider community. Now, there's nothing abnormal about that. Of course, a university is a social organization, and there are multiple non-academic facets in its life. Our university has many such mailing lists on various academic and non-academic topics, which can be crucially important for everyone (payroll) or optional for interested persons only (university sports).
But one thing makes this new mailing list different: it seems to be impossible to unsubscribe from. I believe the university has a uniform mailing list platform for many of its newsletters, including this one. There's an unsubscribe link at the bottom of these emails. Clicking the link takes you to a subscription profile page. There's an option to unsubscribe from the publication at the bottom of the profile page. I checked the unsubscribe box months ago... and it had no effect whatsoever. The messages keep coming despite my unsubscribed status.
This was never an issue with any other mailing lists that used the same platform and that I was able to unsubscribe from (say, I'm not interested in sports, so I unsubscribed from that one). So my question is:

Are there any legal and/or ethical regulations and/or guidelines for non-commercial mailing lists within an organization, in particular within an academic organization?

I tried searching online. Clearly, CAN-SPAM doesn't apply here, because this is a non-commercial setting.
EDIT: In response to a comment below. Yes, I thought that it might be a bug. I emailed the university tech support about a month ago. They said that they don't know of an immediate source of the issue, and promised to escalate my request to a higher-level email team... and now it's been a month, and I haven't heard back from then again.

It's normal for universities to require all staff and all students to be on a mailing list.  This is how university leadership attempts to communicate what it is doing to everyone.
It would be odd if alumni cannot unsubscribe.
I think you will find the university is actually sending emails to email accounts it owns.  There will be no regulations restricting that.