How to quit/put on hold a PhD program due to personality clash with advisor? I've been trying to cope with a very abusive and mentally unstable advisor. In a recent clash she has been spewing lies and threats. It has become clearer and clearer that despite the four years of manipulations, borderline extortion, and five publications that I've survived through, I will never receive a degree from this advisor. I have decided to accept a job offer and I want to just close things up at the school in the best possible way. If possible, I'll leave a door open by taking a leave of absence for a year to come back to a different advisor.

How should I go about my next steps? Do I email the Department Chair directly asking for a meeting? I have been warned such an email would probably reach my advisor first. Do I just walk into the student affairs department with a leave of absence form? If I should email someone, who should it be, and what should I write there?

I'm funded by an NSF grant, so should I write them now in conjunction or after I finalize my leave at school?

Five publications? Good God, you deserve a PhD more than me and anybody else I have known. FábioDias is absolutely right. I know of an identical case where the advisor wanted the student to do more work after six years and four publications...and refused to fund him AND wouldn't get him a TAship. He finally, talked to the graduate chair in our department. He was ready to go to the department chair and even the dean of the college...but it didn't come to that. The graduate chair immediately took charge, switched his advisor, emailed his thesis to three other faculty members to judge if his thesis was sufficient. He scheduled a defense. Half of the department (students and faculty) showed up. The abusive advisor was also present because he was kept as part of the committee, he was just not the chair nor the "advisor". He successfully defended and even the abusive advisor passed him.

He defended and left within a month.

You have done a lot of work and invested a lot of time and you definitely deserve your degree if you have so many peer-reviewed publications. I wouldn't recommend taking a leave because only rarely I have seen someone coming back after a break (whatever the reason may be for the leave) and finishing. And as you said, it will have financial complications and NSF wouldn't like it very much. In addition, would you quit your job a year later to come back to school? Or work part time? Start fresh with a new advisor, or continue the same project? Will you spend another four years with the new advisor? I would say that finish this as quickly as possible in your own favor. And how specifically would an email to the department chair reach the advisor first? Does he or his/department's secretary play golf with your advisor?

I would say, without writing anything, just drop by the office of the grad chair. Talk to him first. Tell him everything verbally. You should think very hard before putting anything in writing as in an email. Ask him for help. See what he does. If he takes control, then good. Otherwise just drop by the department chair's office and talk to him. This also avoids the danger of your advisor seeing your email first because there never was an email.

At the very end, I would compose a very careful email and send it to the dean of the college and/or the dean of the graduate school, making sure to CC both the department chair and the grad chair.

These are all different levels of escalation. You should start at the bottom, give them a fair chance and a reasonable amount of time to resolve this in good faith. But if it doesn't work, then don't be afraid to escalate it to the next level and repeat.

If you want to take it even further, there is the division of student affair and conflict resolution which is usually under the chancellor or the vice-chancellor. There is also the ombudsman office. At the very end, I would talk to the legal counsel at your school. In the US, even the hint of a possible litigation can have miraculous effects. The school's counsel will of course look out for the school but they might convince the school/college/department to behave rationally because the bad publicity is not worth a grad student.

I'd say hang in there. Research these offices in your university. Read up on some of these policies. Be reasonable and fair but also firm and assertive. I know you have put up with so much abuse but you have to start at the bottom and move up fighting for what's rightfully yours.


Professor not replying to my email Currently, I am a Master's student, and I sent an email to a professor from another department in my university. The email was about a topic which could simply be answered as yes or no. But, I have not received an answer from the Professor yet, and since I use official university email account, I have no doubt that it was not classified as spam.

It will be nearly a week, what should I do next ? Should I go directly and talk with the Professor, assuming that he did not notice my email ? Even if I was not able to arrange an appointment with him via email, should I directly knock his door, will this be considered rude ? I don't think it should be difficult to say a simple no as an answer.

Should I go directly and talk with the Professor, assuming that he did not notice my email?

Yes.  Well, whether you believe that he read your email or not is not really the point: you didn't get an answer.  You are entitled to one (not necessarily a great or helpful one, but at least an answer in the formal sense).

  Even if I was not able to arrange an appointment with him via email, should I directly knock his door[?]

Yes, exactly.

  [W]ill this be considered rude?

Students are allowed to visit faculty in their offices, even without an appointment.  Again, what happens when they do this is not guaranteed: maybe you will only get a minute of the professor's time.  (Maybe he won't be there...) But you can show up.  As to whether the professor will consider it rude: not in a way that he is entitled to complain about, no.  Professors are real people, and real people usually want to talk to certain real people more than others, and when a person you don't want to talk to, or don't want to talk to now or today nevertheless appears, are you thrilled about it?  But none of this really matters: if you don't get a response, you keep trying.  That's life.


How to know if my work is worth a paper? I work in a computer science research lab as an engineer. I work in field A, but I got really fascinated by field B and I worked in my free time on an idea in field B.

I want to pursue a PhD in the end of my contract so I'm thinking about publishing results. So far, I have zero publication. I may get a chance to write a paper in field A, but if I can also in field B, I'd have better chances to get a PhD I like.

My question is : how do I get opinions about my work in field B?

I implemented a software which works, does not beat state of the art but has exciting potential in my opinion. I combine an old idea with a brand new idea. It's quite a lot of work and effort. I was thinking about presenting it in a blog and publishing the code in order to get feedback and become a bit more known (i'm done with all the figures and experiments). If it is a success, I wanted to write a paper (and publish in arXiv) straight after. I'm afraid that if the idea is good, I will be potentially missing out on citations which could help me become more known. Also, if I don't write a paper and just publish stuff on my blog, I don't prove that I "play by the rules" and that I can write properly, edit LaTeX, submit papers, etc... A third possibility would be to ask a researcher which is concerned by my project, show him what I did and talk with him before taking any initiative.

I don't want anything to interfere with my current work so I have not talked with the team here about my side work. We have been delayed quite a bit and I don't want to give the false impression that it's because of my side work.

What do you think?

edit: MJeffryes commented that arXiv is not a journal. Yes, I thought that at least, publishing in arXiv allows to get citations (whereas a blog cannot be cited, I guess), and then submit it to conferences/journals.

Talk to somebody in Field B! That's the best way.

Make a contact. To find "the right somebody" to talk to, start by describing your idea very vaguely (so nobody steals your idea) to somebody you know and trust in that field, or who has an interest or connection to it. Tell them you're hoping to publish, and ask if they know anyone in Field B who knows more about the topic or might be willing to talk with you. Invariably, your friend will give you a name or two, and you can do the same with those contacts. Repeat until you find the right person. I've had great success in my university with this approach.

Perhaps you could find somebody in Field B who would be willing to coauthor with you. They might even have funding to publish in a peer-reviewed journal, though that's a long shot. Publishing in a peer-reviewed journal would probably improve your visibility.

Good luck! If you do get it published, cone back here and link to it. I'd love to see your idea.


Standard for figure description in main text and its placement in a report/paper I heard of this rule/recommendation (or may be its opposite) - Always let the figures come after they are described in the text.

What is the correct rule? What's the logic? Is it always followed?

What if (in a single column format) there are two smaller figures side-by-side and second figure's description comes later in the text?

The following applies:

Figures should appear at the first possible place after they are referenced in the text and thus also in the order they are referenceed in the text. (the physical placement of the figure follows typographical rules).
A figure may be placed before its reference if they are on the same page. Figures are normally place at the top of pages.
Figures must be ordered according to the order in which they are first referenced.
The same system also applies for tables. It is however, not necessary for figures and tables to be placed in the order they appear relative to each other, they are two independent series of inclusions and placement depends on typographiccal rules.

The logic is that the order figures are needed in the text also determines their location. Having such a rule makes the location predictable. Thse rules are followed by all journals typeset by professionals.

The case of the figures is dealt with as follows. If a figure has two panes, they would count as one figures but be labelled (a) and (b). thus one can reference figure Xa in one place and figure Xb in another. Combining panes into larger figures is a way to save space but most importantly to group plots that relate to each other in one place. ths is one way in which the order of figures according to the list above can be circumvented.

The important aspect is that figures should make sense and provide the reader with as much information as possible. Placement is done according to a logical and predicatable rule so that we all know what to expect.


How can I choose ahead of time where my research should be published? Ten Simple Rules for Getting Published states:

  Rule 7: Start writing the paper the day you have the idea of what questions to pursue.

This sounds like very good advice, not just because you would pace out the act of writing your paper over the entire duration of your research, but it would also help you stay focused and keep track of your progress.

However, in practice, how is this possible? To start writing a paper, I must first know what format and style it should be written in. To know that, I would consult the guidelines of the journal in which I want publish. But the choice of journal depends on the quality of the research and notability of findings. But if I start writing on the day that I start my research, how can I know what journal the research will be good enough for?

For instance, if I shoot high and assume I am going to have a Nature paper, what do I do if a year down the line, it turns out that I was unable to succeed in reaching my goals and Nature would not possibly accept my research? Now I have to rewrite from scratch for another journal, and the time I spent slowly building up my Nature manuscript is wasted. I might as well have focused on research only at first, and left the writing part for last.

What journal's submission guidelines do I pick to follow this Rule 7? The most prestigious journal? The humblest journal? Some generic set of guidelines for "no journal"?

Rule 9 from the same text says:

  Rule 9: Decide early on where to try to publish your paper.

But how can you know ahead of time where you will be able to publish, especially if you don't have much experience publishing?

Format and style should rarely, if ever, be your first concern in writing a paper. Your top objective should be describing good research to your readers. You need not worry about how to cite a paper or if you should use British or American English spellings at first. (Or at least not until you complete Rule 9!)
Instead, what this is rule is advising you to do are tasks such as organizing your thoughts, collect references, write up your methodologies, and think about the graphics you will want to use to help illustrate your points. This is more or less the same advice given by people like George Whitesides in talks and as a "editorial column."

Knowing where to publish is not that difficult. Look for where the work you're drawing from is currently being published. If many of the papers you are citing are from journals X and Y, one of those will likely be a good home for your paper. Which one to select might be a matter of which audience you're trying to reach: for instance, The Journal of Physical Chemistry and The Journal of Chemical Physics cover very similar sets of areas. However, the former journal is mainly a chemistry journal, and the latter is primarily for physicists. (There is, as you might imagine, a lot of crossover.)


What's my professional title while working full time on my PhD? After encountering a few official forms to fill out (tax, medical, linkedin, job applications), I don't know what my official job title is during my PhD. There doesn't seem to be a standard for this. I don't think "student" accurately reflects my role, because I'm doing research and getting a small stipend for it. What should I put down as my occupation?

Your professional title is Ph.D. student, or doctoral student, or just student.


Requested *contact information of two references* in application for a PhD I just find an interesting call for a PhD position. In order to apply one has to submit, among all the standard thing as cv and transcript of records, also contact information of two references. I don't know what does this mean. Does it mean that I have to attach in the email also the contacts of two of my professors?
Regards

You have to supply the contact information.
So:
Address (postal)
Email address
Telephone number(s) landline definitely, mobile not always
This is so that the admissions / adjudicating committee can get a reference according to their policy. That could be a 5 minute chat or asking the referee for a personal letter, or sending the referee a particular form to be completed.
Whatever they want, you need to supply the contact information. Be sure that if you don't then it will negatively affect your application, even to the point that it gets binned immediately. They have too many to waste time coming back to you "oh, you forgot the contact info for 2 referees"...


Is it valid to modify a student's exam grade if you feel they did not earn it? I am a graduate student who teaches their own class. I have a supervisor who I report to for everything, including final grades. We have a meeting every semester at the end to review our final grades and for my supervisor to see that I did everything correctly.

In my second semester, my supervisor looked through my grades before they were submitted or published.
At the end, she said: “Let’s look at your borderline students.”
She noticed that a student had a borderline C, say 73.5%, which is barely above the passing threshold of 73% for this course, and had us look at his final exam. The student got 66.5% on the exam, and she said to me: “Are you sure you want to pass him?” At the time I was thinking: “Well, the student did earn the passing score.” However, my supervisor kept suggesting: “Are you sure?” I looked up to my supervisor who was the one who taught me to be a teacher, and like anyone at their job listening to their superior, I felt pressured to say yes, because you do what your supervisor tells you to do, and I was told to take off points from his final exam to lower his final grade to 72.36%. The sole reason for this was not to let the student pass. My supervisor also mentioned specifically not to keep it higher than 72.5%, because students will ask for a bump.
So, in the end, I ended up giving him that 72.36%, a C−, which is a failing grade: They cannot move on the the next-level class.

The discussion happened before the grades were submitted or published, so the student never knew he originally scored 66.5% on the exam. There were no other students with borderline scores.

I felt extremely guilty because I knew who this student was; they didn’t do much of the work, they didn’t always come to class, but they knew the topic and did the bare minimum to pass. I went back to my office right after our meeting and was tempted to change it back to a C. But knowing my supervisor, I knew there was a chance I could’ve gotten in trouble because my supervisor might’ve noticed.

I feel extremely bad for doing this, I felt like I was pressured to do this and couldn’t turn back.

Was the supervisor's decision ethical, academically, and legally sound?

Since you ask, specifically, about legality, I'll say that it is unlikely that it would be a matter of criminal law anywhere, though, of course, I can't know the laws of every jurisdiction. But it could well be a matter of civil law and if this were known could easily generate a lawsuit against everyone involved.

I think that a person would be very hesitant to apply such a "rule" to the child of some powerful person. It depends, I think, on people either not knowing what really occurred or being so powerless as to be completely unable to prevent it.

But, as I've been saying in comments here, it is a profoundly unethical act and would, in my view be grounds for at least a reprimand, and even termination as an act of moral turpitude if repeated. It turns what should be a well determined process in to a form of chaos where we are just at the mercy of the powers.

An instructor needs to set a standard before the course begins and needs to make that public. You can make it as hard as you like and you can interpret it as strictly as you like, but you can't deviate from it to the detriment of an individual. I have no complaint about generous interpretations as most of us, I hope, consider generosity to be laudable and to believe that students can learn and improve.

I won't condemn you personally, however, since you may have had no agency here and may be as much a victim as the student involved. But I will condemn the professor, who should, at a minimum be reported to the dean for this behavior. Especially since the course is a gateway course and changing their grade to make it failing when it was not also denies them the opportunity to go on and, one hopes, improve.

It was especially pernicious, here, that the induced change in the average was set not only to unethically push the student below the passing grade, but further down so that it would be less likely they could appeal.

My advice to you personally, is to find a better mentor as soon as you can. This person is teaching you to do harm.

And, I don't know how you can make it up to the person you damaged. It may be too late, even to request a grade change. But the dean should be informed and if it is only you that knows that the professor is behaving this way, it is probably your responsibility to so inform them. I won't suggest that you do, of course, since it might have too adverse an effect on your own career, but there is an imbalance in justice that hasn't been corrected.


Can I write that I had a phobia in my personal statement? I am writing a personal statement for a Ph.D. position. I had phobias of animals earlier which I overcame during my in-vivo lab experiments (for which I am really proud of). Do you think its a good idea to include that I overcame my phobia by myself?

It is a judgement call. On the one hand, if you are sure it is no longer relevant, then mentioning it could be a problem since some would doubt you are cured, I think.
On the other hand, it shows personal growth. Congratulations.
But having grown as a person may not be as relevant to future research as you think. At least in the minds of others.
On balance, it seems best to not discuss it in written materials. If it comes up in an interview, it is again a judgement call whether it is wise to mention it. But, at that point, you will have more information on which to make the judgement.


Several questions regarding the writing of SoP I have several questions regarding the writing of SoP (for math Ph.D. admission to some US universities), which are written down sequentially. There may be some vague questions. I will be helpful in any comments. Thanks in advance.

One of the US university ask only SoP describing background and interests, no CV at all. Should I write all necessary details like my past achievements, which course I have attended(sort intro to the key topics of these syllabi), my CGPA, or percentage of marks in my SoP?
Should I include any professor's(of the university where I am going to apply) name and his work(some articles and books) that I used in my past study?
Is there any rule of decorating the SoP, I mean use of margin, font size, space between paragraphs. I asked this question because, in some lines, I have to write some mathematical notation(contained in the name of a topic), and in this case, I have to use Latex. So is there any problem If I submit it as a .pdf file made by latex language?
Should I include any sentence like, "I have plan to take some courses on..... in the upcoming semester''? Here upcoming means, if a grad school selects me, then the gap between the joining and current semester.
If some grad school offers an independent study program, should I write a sentence like " the independent study program of your university is also a flexible way of enhancing my knowledge required for research"? I know that I am intended to join as a research student, but still, not all requirements can not be completed just after passing the MS degree, at least in case myself.
After completing the MS program, I have joined some university in the home country as a regular Ph.D. student. So there is a one year gap between passing MS degree and applying for US university. So should I write what I have done in this gap year of that particular university? I have done some credit courses (in this gap year) that are helpful for research in my domain.

I think your overarching question is "What do I include in a statement of purpose for US PhD applications". You can find several great answers to that question if you search this forum. Further there are many, many sample SoPs available online. If you review previous forum answers as well as sample SoPs, you will be able to answer these very specific questions on your own.

And please do have a native English speaker proofread your SoP, your CV, and all other application material before you submit.


Do community colleges have good math libraries? Do community colleges have good mathematics libraries (with advanced books)? I am sure that it is different from place to place. I am interested to get some feeling of the general situation.

Of course, as Dave Clarke says, every institution is different.  However, in general I would expect the answer is no.

Community colleges typically offer only lower-division courses and don't expect their students or faculty to carry on research.  Moreover, they are usually publicly funded and charge only nominal tuition, so they are not likely to have a lot of extra money.  Given this, it's difficult to see why a community college librarian would want to spend money acquiring advanced mathematics books or journals.

That said, a community college library would almost certainly have access to the interlibrary loan network, allowing one to (eventually) acquire any resource of interest.  Some might also have a reciprocity agreement with a nearby research university library.  It is also quite possible they would have access to online databases that could include a lot of material in mathematics.


Improving English for research I'm going to start my PhD in an English-speaking country. I would like to improve my English for research (fro writing and speaking). Could you let me know any good ways to do that?

As someone in the U.S. currently teaching a class of mostly international graduate students, I've noticed various specific skills non-native English speakers sometimes have trouble with:

Following spoken English, as during a lecture.
Speaking English comfortably enough to ask questions (or later go on a job interview)
Writing English, first for homework assignments and then eventually for papers.

Before you head to your graduate program, some ways you can work on these skills:

Try sitting in on a course given in English, preferably one given in your field and by a native English speaker.  If you don't have a formal opportunity to do so at your university, then try free online courses with video content.  Coursera, for example, has free course content (as long as you don't want credit for the course) from many big name American universities.
Participate in an English language practice group, to give yourself a chance to feel comfortable speaking before you are in the middle of a class wanting to ask a question.
If you choose to brush up on your language writing skills, focus more on grammar and punctuation than on technical writing.  Almost none of my students show up good at technical writing, whether or not they are native English speakers, and I view it as part of my job to teach them.  Grammar and punctuation, however, although they mostly seem like a distraction when I'm grading exams, can make a difference in whether your future papers or job applications are taken as seriously as they deserve to be.

Finally, a few suggestions for after you get to grad school:

If there is any chance you will ever want to use your English professionally, strongly consider living with a native English speaker, and do your best to find a peer group that is not just international students, especially not just those that speak your native tongue.  Total immersion is a much faster way to learn English then just speaking it in class and my students who seek out chances to speak achieve greater mastery.
If your new school offers ESL (English as a second language) classes, take them.
When submitting papers or job applications (anything official that is leaving your school) take particular care to ask an English speaker to check your English (separately from any technical/content advice.)
Most importantly, if someone asks you to repeat something you say in English, don't apologise or let it fluster you; just repeat it calmly and as clearly as you can.  Keep in mind most of us not only want to understand you, we're in awe of your bravery setting out on a new adventure in a new language.

Best of luck!


I want to help out my Professor, how do I ask? (Humanities) I would really like to help out my professor and get some 'research experience', and I asked her the other day, but she said that me writing my thesis would already be 'research experience'.

Does she maybe not want me to help her? Or is there no need? How can I prove myself useful?

Your thesis will be your research experience in the humanities, absolutely.

Speaking quite broadly, in comparison with the sciences, most research is done individually and published individually.  Thus, as your professor has said, focusing on your thesis —which you're doing individually, though with some general oversight from your advisor— is getting you that experience.

Again speaking broadly, consider the process that you've gone through / are going through / will go through for your thesis.

Read a lot of books and articles.
Come up with a really cool idea about something in one or more of them.
Talk to your advisor to decide how you want to approach the topic, maybe getting a handful of ideas of important articles or viewpoints, etc.
Find articles/books/chapters that contribute to your arguments.
Write your thesis.
…
PROFIT! (except for that student debt...)

Now, consider the process for most of us in the field when we write articles:

Read a lot of books and articles.
Come up with a really cool idea about something in one or more of them.
(Optional) Talk to colleagues (either friends, or via conferences) about how you're approaching the topic, maybe getting a handful of ideas of important articles or viewpoints, etc.
Find articles/books/chapters that contribute to your arguments.
Write your article/book/chapter.
…
PROFIT! (except this is academia, so not)

The only real difference is that you're working closely with your advisor, and later in the "real world" (academia), you're going to mainly work solo, except for occasionally consulting with others when you present preliminary work at a conference or when you bat ideas off of friend or colleague's head.  In both cases, though, the actual research work is done by you, the actual planning and development of structure/ideas is done by you, and the actual writing is done by you.

Or consider it another way, what kind of research help could someone give you that would actually be of help to you?  They can't come up with the ideas, because, well, then they get credit.  You don't want them writing it, because then it's not your thoughts and anyways you'd probably end up wanting to reformulate 90% of their arguments/word choice/etc to fit with your exact idea.  At best maybe helping you track down some obscure article that mentions some obscure factoid, but that's almost always going to be inconsequential to your overall development of the topic and hell, half the time when doing those searches is when you find the really good stuff for later articles.

There are some projects that are useful to have multiple people working simultaneously (especially nowadays under the banner of digital humanities), but if your professor needs people, they'll let you know, and as their advisee, you likely be the first student they ask.

tl;dr: Don't feel the need to be useful, just do a good thesis.  That will get you the best experience (and the best letter of recommendation).  If they need help, they'll let you know.


Problems with gift authorships on papers and how to solve it Briefly, I was a PhD student in a lab in a developing country. I had two PIs one was my mentor and the second one was the Head of the Department, who was just added for administrative purposes (retired now and replaced by his wife). There wasn’t any funding for the entirety of my PhD in addition to not having the appropriate equipment to do my project. I managed to get scholarships and go abroad to get data and finish the degree. Most of the work was done abroad with the help of the PI there. Now, my previous PI wants to publish every single experiment done while I was a PhD student. This is all fine, however, they have added authors that have not contributed in any shape of form to the papers (the head of the Department who is retired and his wife btw they are added to every single paper coming out of the Department). To add, they are refusing to do any additional work to make those papers better, with the excuse that they don’t have money or time. At the time I was a PhD student that was true, but now couple of years later they have a big grant and still don’t want to make progress on the work. For one, the papers are not of the best of scientific quality and they don’t have a problem adding the new funding that wasn’t originally used to produce the results. I suspect that they are pushing to publish to justify the money they got from the project and their salaries, which is why now they are trying to publish old results and not spend any more time on experiments. There is no office at the University that deals with conflicts like this and that is how they manage to get away with it.
Here are my questions:
What can I do as an author to prevent gift authorship? Can I prevent it beforehand if I don’t agree with the manuscript before the submission or do I have to go with the journal in which the manuscript will be submitted?
Also, do I have an obligation to inform the other authors in the paper of this misconduct before the submission since we have public obligation for what we are publishing? And what if the other authors don’t want to bother to that extend?
Lastly, I am wondering if there is a potential conflict of interest or misattribution of funds if you put funding that hasn’t been used for the experiments in the paper, but solely because of financial gain to keep their big salaries.
EDIT: Thank you for your responses. Just to clarify few things that I omitted the first time, since I am trying not to give too many details. I do not depend on them now and it is not like they are famous lab or highly regarded in the scientific world. They made my life difficult during the PhD, but that motivated me to find a better lab where I do not have any issues. Since my career won't be affected at all regardless of what I do now, I am trying to understand if as an author have the right in a sense to ask for improvement of the results, get rid of authors that haven't contributed or otherwise say I don't agree with publishing the paper and if this is enough to stop the paper from being published until my requirements are met. Also, I am not sure if I should inform the other authors of the situation since gifting authorship is highly unethical behavior.

You should not agree to submission of a manuscript that includes an inaccurate author list.
Your coauthors should not submit a manuscript without your permission.
If they do that knowingly, you should tell the editor the manuscript was submitted without your permission.  This will lead to rejection or retraction of the manuscript.
You should be transparent with everyone involved about the author list.  People who might think they should be gift authors should not be surprised when the paper is published without their name.

In your case, it sounds like your colleagues cannot retaliate against you for doing the right thing.  Usually gift authorship occurs in a situation where retaliation is a possibility.


My recommenders copied letters from online I'm an international student applying for college in the US. I asked subject teachers from my current school to write me recommendation letters, specifically telling them not to just copy one from the Internet. I'm using the Common Application for four out of the eight colleges I'm applying to.

My recommenders submitted their letters to CommonApp and only then did they show their letters to me (which was okay, because I waived my right to review the recommendations) and when I checked online, they had ended up copying 99% of the letter from ones found online.

My question is, will this affect my chances of getting into these colleges? I'm not entirely sure if copying recommendation letters from online counts as plagiarism, and I'm also not sure if colleges check for plagiarism in LORs. Thanks for your clarification!

Yes, it counts as plagiarism on the part of the teacher. There are 2 possibilities if they check the letter and find the plagiarism:
1. the university thinks your teacher copied the letter from an online source. This will make them be highly skeptical of the teacher as an academic and it will probably negatively reflect on you as a consequence. They might think you have worked in an environment where plagiarism is pervasive for example.
2. They think you forged a letter from your teacher by copying one from the internet and sending it in their name. This is of course even worse for your chances.

Either way, even if the universities don't check all letter for plagiarism,you must consider the possibility that the reader at the university will recognize the letter. Or they might suspect plagiarism after reading it and check this specific letter.
My advice would be: ask for an original letter, but whatever you do, don't send this letter.


Taking a risk working with a new professor? (Math Grad School) I will be starting a math PhD program in the Fall with hopes of working with a professor who graduated recently (between 4 and 6 years ago). This professor is working in my desired field, but I'm not so sure how established he/she is. Their previous advisor is very famous in this field of math. This professor has < 11 publications so far and is assistant professor (the university is ranked in the 70's on US News).

I would like to work in academia after my PhD. Am I risking a lot by working under this professor? Is there a way to see how well-established or well-known this professor is in his/her field? I have read a couple of their papers, but I don't know how to gauge the caliber of the research.

I should also say that there is another professor at this university who has been around longer, and is doing research in my "2nd choice" area. There's a third professor who is well-established in his field (I think), but whose research is more general and classical with little connection to my desired field.

As valuable as your professional connections and mentors are and will be in your career, please do not rely on other people or university rankings to shape your oncoming accomplishments. The responsibility in how successful your future in research will be depends on you-- how well you understand theory and can apply it, which academic and career risks you're willing to take, and the quality of the relationships you cultivate in your field. You may want to also consider more than just the potential mentor's Rolodex and publications portfolio. Is he/she professional? Genuine and authentic? Veracious? Objective? To help you make a better choice, what-if this-- if the person (that you described above) were you post-PhD, would you want you to be your chair? Much success to you.


How to deal with corresponding authors not sharing submission steps? (E.g. Peer reviews & Decisions) I am a 3rd-timer postdoc, and I often run into this issue. Over my career I have greatly benefitted personally of responsible peer review and participating in the elaboration of 'Response to Reviews'. Moreover I am very wary of publishing ethics, and open discussion of papers after publication.

This is often what happens: the 1st author of a paper where I am a co-author assigns a PI as last corresponding author. This PI is usually older and actually less invested in the project, but wishes to handle the submission. This person will however not share any correspondence with editors or submission files with authors other than the first (and I suspect even then not in full). I am thus left in the dark about discussions over papers where quite often I made a major part of the writing and experiments, and the only specialist about core topics being discussed.

I have tried asking for the details of peer review and was ignored, every time this happened. On a most recent case I received editorial notification of submission of same paper from two different journals within the time span of just 5 days, and now I fear somebody pulled a duplicate submission! This kind of attitude has made me reluctant of handing the position as corresponding authors to others, particularly to PIs, which is politically not good.

Thus I ask: How do others deal with such a situation?

UPDATE 1 (24.01.2018): I have just sent an email to the PI politely asking again for the peer reviews stating I will follow up with the journals if there is no reply.

UPDATE 2 (25.01.2018): First author responded informally providing the dates of all submission and general reasons for two rejections. The details didn't really add up, but given a casual tone perhaps it wasn't precise (e.g. I suspect this person is not aware of the difference of editor x reviewer). I still asked again for the Reviewers reports, and was left with the impression the 1st author did not (care to) see them either. She said she'll ask the PI.

In case I get no response I am not sure on how to proceed (e.g. if I want to see peer review from a previous journal).

I have decided to post my final update on this as answer to anyone arriving here in the same situation.

The following line of response worked: I have written a formal email (in English, which is not our language of choice for communication) to the first author and PI asking again for the results of previous submissions and to be duly warned of future submissions. I implied (by stating I could just contact the journals but 'felt that was the role of the corresponding author') I'd contact journal editors if ignored for more than 5 days.

Within less than 12h the first author responded informally describing generally what had come out of previous submissions. I still asked (informally) for the peer reviews and she said she had to ask the corresponding author for it (PI, last author). By that I understood this 1st author had also not seen the result of peer review, and told her this was not fair on her as well.

Finally after 5 days the PI contacted me formally, and in English (unexpected because it is not easy for him to write in English) excusing for the time taken, informing any future submissions would be correctly reported, and attaching the results of previous peer reviews. I am formally thanking him for the attention given.

I cannot say how the PI feels about this (I now live on the other side of the planet) nor whether there will be further collaborations. Whatever the reasons, his response was appropriate, thus I am recommending this line of action. On a personal note, I would not have escalated this to the journal editors unless I was sure there was something else out of place.

Thanks to all for the suggestions given.


How to communicate with research advisor politely? Which way is good to communicate or deal with my advisor about research issues? writing an email or talking directly with my professor? What would you do if your professor is busy to check your email and also to talk with you in person? Is there any other option to communicate with my professor about the problem easily and politely?

I am a new PhD student and have some issues to deal with my advisor. So my advisor do not respond to my emails I sent him previously till today. I tried also to talk with him in person but he said that he doesn't have time to talk now. What should I do? how long do I have to wait for his respond? What does it mean when a professor is not willing to respond to his student email?

While your post contains quite a few questions, the best answer for the question "How Do I Communicate With An Advisor Politely?" is very closely related to communicating with a boss in any professional situation. Do your best to be polite, yet firm. Email is a good way to contact him if you can not meet him in person, and a reasonable amount of time to wait for a response is anywhere between 24 hours and 3 days. Any longer than this can prove troublesome for a student (you). If he/she does not answer emails within 3 days, I believe you are well within your rights as a student to POLITELY yet firmly ask the question again or visit his/her office. In short, do your best to manage this relationship as you would manage any other professional relationship, while also making sure your needs are met in a timely manner.


How successful are publication agreement addenda? I work in the field of chemistry, where some of the prominent publishers have very invasive (or restrictive) copyright transfer agreements. Thus, I'm considering the use of amendments (or addenda) to publication agreements, such as the one proposed by the MIT libraries. However, I don't really want to spend a lot of time on an unwinnable pursuit, so I was wondering: is there somewhere a decent review of the success of such amendments? I expect that it may vary from publisher to publisher, and from field to field, but is there any data at all? (My own searches couldn't turn much.) In particular, what about the “big names”, such as Elsevier, Wiley, etc?

I finally managed to take a bit of time today to research this question further, so here goes:

First, there hasn't been much data compiled on the topic. Science Commons's FAQ on publication agreement addenda says:

  Anecdotal evidence from a variety of sources reveals that many scholarly authors have had success over the years in altering the terms of a publication agreement. Sometimes this has been done by marking up the publisher’s agreement; other times the change has been done through use of an addendum. However, we are not aware of any statistical data concerning the success rate.

while the more recent Creative Commons Science page fails to mention success statistics at all.

However, we can measure the “success” of such addenda (or its influence) by looking at the reactions of various publishers to it. The MIT Libraries actually maintain a list of publishers and their stance. In a similar vein, the useful (and by now, well-known) SHERPA/RoMEO online database maintains a publishers statistics:

If you look at these lists of publishers/journals, and you cross that information with the hottest and most common journals in each field, you see that things are very field-dependent:

In mathematics, the status of publications is quite different from the other hard sciences listed below. I do not feel competent enough to comment on it, but it seems to be working okay, with most mathematicians able to publish preprints or postprints on their personal websites, or to publish outside the “conventional model” (read: arXiv). This summary of various publishers' policies in the field is quite good (and recent).
Physics: due to the success of arXiv and the open-friendly stance of physics publishers (both American Institute of Physics and American Physical Society), physics seems to be one of the favorable fields for open publishing.
Traditional biology journals tend to belong to the big-money editors, who don't favor open publishing. However, open journals seem to have made good progress in this field in the last few years.
Chemistry is simply a nightmare. Most quality journals in chemistry are published by the American Chemical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, Wiley and Elsevier. All four of them have taken a hard stance against the open publishing movement. Open access journals have very little (read: absolutely no) success breaking through in the field of chemistry :(

Above are the fields I felt comfortable enough discussing. I welcome edits (or comments) that add information on other fields (including humanities)!

So, all in all, statistics pertaining to publication agreement addenda specifically are hard to find (if they exist). But, we can measure the success of the open publication model, and it  varies widely between fields.


Should one provide a reference list and a bibliography in an academic paper? I was wondering whether it is good practice to present a reference list (works one actually cites) as well as a bibliography (additional literature that has been used but that is not referred to). Is there any difference between MLA and APA in the matter?

Both MLA and APA go quite deeply into how to construct a reference list, but a bibliography is seldom mentioned.

Typically, academic papers have traditionally provided the lists of works referenced, rather than bibliographies. Primarily, this is a matter of space, as well as recognizing work that has actually been used. Otherwise, it's too easy to include a bunch of random entries that have nothing to do with the paper in question. (It's still possible to do so in a works cited list, but you at least have to make the effort to work it into the paper somehow.)

In general, you should only include both lists if the journal in question allows such behavior. If you are publishing the paper in a venue that does not have such requirements, then you are of course free to include both lists if you choose. (Although I would not repeat the references list in the bibliography list, again to save space.)


Should I trust a study that doesn't mention sample size, but that is published in a scholarly journal? I'm doing a bit of research on the exchange experiences of international students for my supervisor.

I came across an article in the Journal of Education for Business that is relevant to my topic: 'Confronting Diversity Issues in the Classroom with Strategies to Improve Satisfaction and Retention of International Students.' The authors conducted surveys of Business faculty and international students, and they ran some focus groups. Here's the thing, there's no indication of the sample size in the methods or results (or anywhere so I don't know whether they surveyed 10 professors or 100. The survey results are all given as percentages so there's no way to infer the scope of the study.

I am skeptical, but they were also published in a scholarly journal, so they must have passed peer review right? The information is good so if I could, I'd like to use it.

Why don't you write the corresponding author and ask them what the sample size was. You can always cite the sample size, if you decide to use the study, as a personal communication.


Forwarding Email of a future employer to my Supervisor. Broken code of confidentially? I am applying for postdoc positions. A faculty member sent me an Email encouraging me to apply for his open position. He disclosed with me the name of two famous companies that are involved in his project. He also mentioned the name of a famous scientific problem he is currently working on, as a part of this project.

I forwarded his Email to my supervisor, asking for his advice on this position. Have I done something illegal, in terms of breaking the code of confidentially?

Legally, no. Ethically, no. He felt free to reveal it to you, you felt free to reveal it to someone else. And nothing he revealed seems that earthshaking to me: Lots of people work on famous problems, lots of people work with major corporations.


What options do I have when a journal refuses my paper based on 1/3 review by a non-relevant referee? We submitted a paper to a fairly average journal and received a major revision decision. We made the suggested changes and resubmitted. The revision was reviewed by three referees and two of them mentioned that they were satisfied with the changes and the paper warrants a publication. The third reviewer made some strong comments and the editor's decision was 'reject'.

The third reviewer again raised some of the same concerns as the first two reviewers' original ones along with some completely irrelevant ones. For instance, one comment was that our technique did not improve performance; we were trying to improve the expressiveness of the model and claimed that this expressiveness did not come with a performance penalty.

I have already sent a request for reconsideration to the journal's editors but based on their past communication, I do not expect a positive response.

My question is: Is there a way to report such an incidence to the publisher? At a higher level of abstraction: is there a check in place for editors of journals or do they get a free hand after they have been appointed?

(I do not care much about the paper as I can probably find another venue; the paper is an extension of a highly cited work. I just want to make sure I play my part in keeping the academic process in line because I have seen it slip a little too often.)

If this information is needed: The journal is an "impact factor" journal published by Springer.

Edit: Just to clarify, "options" refer to ways to play my part in improving the system. The publication of this particular paper is not an issue as mentioned in the parentheses above.

Half-joking, half-serious:

Next time you're having some beers with some trusted colleagues, tell this story and gripe about this particular journal. For one, it will blow off some steam. (Caveat: I wouldn't recommend complaining to people you don't know well, at least if you are junior.)

Moreover, in the long run, this is how reputations are built or lost. If your colleagues are as upset by your story as you are, then they might tell it to others, avoid publishing in this journal, and/or decline referee requests from this journal's editors. (Conversely, if your colleagues think you're being unreasonable, you might get some useful advice.)

This would have only a minor effect of course, but it would do more than contacting the publisher: in the long run, authors hold all the cards, as a journal is only as good as the papers that get submitted to it.


What is the academic approach when the supervisor attacks student's religion? What is the academic approach when your supervisor goes off-topic?  In other words, what is the academic reaction for a PhD student when his supervisor starts attacking the student's religion?

I must say the fact that I'm an international student coming from a different culture. I looked over his publications/current students and everything seemed to be fine. He even interviewed me for admission and everything went fine.
When I started my degree and first met him, I thought we would discuss research oriented projects but surprisingly the meeting took another direction when he started discussing with me my religion beliefs and how do I view the world!

Discuting this was the start. In several subsequent occasions, he started to tell me what he sees good to me and why my culture is a bad one .

Right after the interview, I was thinking about withdrawing from the program and finding another supervisor in another school (Yes I answered him in an honest and polite way what I belief).

I have nothing against him and he is a very kind professor but I feel I'm not comfortable in his environment. Now, I'm planning to go somewhere else. If it counts, I pay my tuition fees and he pays me nothing.

The question is:  What to do when your supervisor goes off-topic and discuss your personal issues? Not only this but also send you several emails about it.

No matter what the advisor's beliefs are, it's not OK to discuss a student's differing beliefs AND criticize them. It's the criticism that takes this from honest exchange of views into a more dangerous territory: your advisor is in a power relationship with you by definition and it's impossible to have a discussion "as equals" while this relationship is active.

If you think that the relationship and his continuing advising would be beneficial to your career, then you might try to have a chat with him where you indicate that these topics need to stay out of bounds. And I'd erect a high bar for "beneficial".

But if your assessment of value does not cross that high bar, then I'd follow JeffE's advice and run.


what does "Reject (revise and resubmit)" mean? I submitted a paper to an IEEE journal. The editor provided the following review:

  Based on the enclosed set of reviews this manuscript is not acceptable for publication in its current form, but may be acceptable after being thoroughly reworked. If you choose to resubmit, please send the reworked manuscript no later than 07-Mar-2019, but preferably as soon as possible.  The sooner we receive the resubmission, the better the likelihood that we can utilize the same editor and reviewers.  If an extension is needed for any reason, please contact ... with an expected date for the resubmission.
  Your resubmitted manuscript will require an additional full round of review, but as stated above, we will make every effort to utilize the previous reviewers if possible.  Please be sure to mention the original paper number and include a point-by-point response to the reviewer comments in your cover letter and/or File Upload section.

Does that mean "Reject" or "Major Revision"? What is the difference between this decision and reject?
If I decide to submit the paper to another journal, should I withdraw the paper from the first journal?

Revise and resubmit means exactly what it says: if you revise the manuscript and resubmit it, we will look at it again (hopefully with the same editor and reviewers, but not necessarily). Typically this means the required revisions are substantial enough that it will go to reviewers again.

Reject means we do not want to see the manuscript again.

More recently reject and resubmit has become a thing. It is like a revise and resubmit, but the journal is going to count the manuscript as a new submission so their rejection rates go up and the time to final decision goes down. Sometimes they try and use the same editor and reviewers and ask for a rebuttal letter, just like a revise and resubmit. Other times it is on you and they treat it like a new submission.

This is clearly a revise and resubmit. If you wish to not revise and resubmit you can just submit it to another journal without telling them anything, but it would be polite to tell them that you are not going to resubmit the manuscript. That way they can close out the paperwork on their end. As for concerns about double submission, once a decision, apart from acceptance, is made, you can do whatever you want.


Is an MLA citation needed for a broad description of a poem's theme? I'm trying to figure out whether I need to cite these poems or not.

  “Out, Out—” has its morbid description of a young boy bleeding out and
  its underlying theme of death. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” has its
  pessimistic theme that nothing beautiful can stay beautiful.

I speak so generally that I

Have no idea if it's ethical or not to exclude citation
What I would cite were I to. Generally you cite poems by line numbers. If one were to cite a poem based on a description of its theme, doesn't that encompass the entire poem? This has more to do with the in-text citation part.

Thanks for any help

In general, it's always a good idea to cite your sources. This can especially be the case with older poetry, where there are often differences in spelling, punctuation, and layout between different editions of the same poem.

So, at the first mention of a literary work, whether it's a direct quotation or an indirect reference, it's probably a good idea to cite the specific version of the poem you're writing about. This will make life easier for everybody involved. You would cite the overall poem, usually as a publication in a larger source, and follow the specific guidelines of whatever style manual the publication you are writing for (or the school you are attending) is using.

For example:

  Poetovsky, R. "Sonnet 100" in Every Sonnet Ever Written by Anybody, ed. John Smith. Random Publisher, Some City (2000).

Then, if you go on to cite the poem again, you can refer to the specific lines as needed; general statements probably wouldn't need to be cited.


What recent research looks at how scientific theories are established? I'm interested in quantitative understanding of where new scientific theories come from, and the process by which they grow/develop/become established.  This is intended as mainly a sociological/practical question (what sequence of events leads to a new theory, and how can this be helped along) rather than as a philosophical or epistemological question.

It seems like one of the qualitative landmark works in that area is Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions".  Kuhn describes a sequence of finding anomalies, a crisis, and then (sometimes) a scientific revolution.

In contrast to qualitative inquiry, what quantitative research has been done in this field?  Are there any particularly important articles/books that propose a quantitative model?

While it is not terribly much more recent than Kuhn, I highly recommend reading "Laboratory Life" by Latour and Woolgar, published in 1979.  This book attempts to take both an anthropological and a quantitative approach to the question of how scientific theories are established, and was produced following field-work where one of the authors worked as a technician in a major biological laboratory.

Whereas many philosophers of science such as Kuhn and Popper approach science from a very high-level view, this book instead asks the question of what it is that scientists actually do all day, and why.  It views progress in science in terms of micro-scale arguments about the soundness of assertions, and presents several case studies of investigations and investigators, quantifying them with bibliometrics.

I will warn that the presentation includes a heavy dash of post-modernist thought and language that will turn some people off from the work.  Personally, I find it to not be particularly problematic---just take certain assertions with a grain of salt, just as you would any other investigative work.


Why would a tenure-track job posting ask for an undergraduate transcript? Recently I came across a job posting for a (mathematics) tenure-track position that asks for both graduate and undergraduate transcripts to be submitted. While this is the first time I've had anyone ask to see my undergraduate transcript for such a position, from a previous question here, it appears to not quite be unheard of.

What I haven't seen addressed is the question of why, generally, would a hiring committee ask for undergraduate transcripts? Are they really going to judge my application based on an errant C in a course unrelated to my field, or do they simply want proof that I have the degree from University X that I claim to have obtained?

The reason for my question is that I am hoping to gain insight into any issues that might appear in my own transcript in order to address them in the cover letter.

I had to submit undergraduate and graduate transcripts to several schools each time I applied for jobs in mathematics. I believe the main reason is simply to allow the school to verify that you really have the credentials you claim.

There have been examples where faculty and administrators were caught claiming credentials that they did not possess, so schools are more cautious about such things now. The same is true for background checks - many schools now run a background check before they make an official job offer.

At my institution, when we have a mathematics job search we don't really look at the grades on the transcripts. The cover letter, reference letters, teaching statement, and research statement are scrutinized, but the transcripts just get a cursory glance to make sure the person has the right coursework (e.g. if we want to hire someone in a specific subfield, we might check that they have coursework in that subfield).


How should I present my under-review works in my CV and profile? I'm searching for postdoc positions in CS and sending my CV to here and there trying for different opportunities. However, I do not know how to present my under-review works. For instance, should I add them in my CV as under-review papers and mention the conferences to which I submitted?
Then, should I also include the pre-prints in my postdoc applications?

Also, these conferences have double-blind review processes. Hence, I'm not sure whether to include these works in my home-page or not. I like to add them to my CV and profile as they are extracted from the last part of my Ph.D.

Besides, would they (postdoc employers) take these works seriously knowing that they have not been published yet?

As somebody who hires post-docs regularly, the common thing to do is indicate them on your CV as submitted. Giving a current title is good. Where is not as important.

For your on-line profile, I don't look at those - that is what the CV you submitted is for.

Look, I've been there as a graduating PhD with fewer publications than I would like. I will ask you about how your to-be-published stuff is coming, particularly since the interview isn't going to be the moment you submit your application. I will also ask your advisor how things are wrapping up, including the submitted articles.
Further, I realize that not all articles end up in the place they were first submitted.

Don't lie about what is actually submitted. Be prepared to discuss how things are going on the articles. Be prepared to talk about them. Realize there are probably a few more coming in the future (field dependent, I know).


Changing PhD after 8 months Hi I am a currently enrolled PhD student who is looking to exit before the end of the 1st year. I give the gist of the issues of my impending exit.

Advisor states that I am working hard and constantly coming up with ideas but due to our differences in the direction the work should take, we might be held back as the project duration is really short (3 yrs) and it is better to identify this now and for me to take a call. (Apparently in my university this is normally acceptable)
Since this is a funded project I cannot ask him to switch me to a new project with him (Could be unadvisable also due to not matching working styles)
Due to slow progress as a result of conflicting early expectations, I feel severly depressed and disheartened with the current PhD, which is also in a completely new area compared to my previously published work (As master student and as a research associate).

I am now looking to apply for a new PhD position as early as possible to start working afresh. I could look for new positions in the same university or apply elsewhere. Which would be recommended? I hope that my exit should not be looked at unfavorably in other places that I apply to, seen as my lack of commitment even though it is not the case here and I will not get an unfavourable recommendation from my current advisor.

I would look for new positions at your university. There's no need to sound the alarm. It's pretty common for students to rotate around different labs during the first year and then make a decision at the beginning of the second. Where I did mine, they had a soft requirement that you had to do a rotation in at least 2 labs before you were allowed to decide.

Getting involved with the right project is (arguably) the single most important decision you can make to set yourself up for a successful PhD. If it takes you an extra 6-8 months to find the right project for you, then that is absolutely worthwhile. I had a friend change labs after 2 full years of working on a project. I thought he was crazy but he was able to find a different project in another lab and received his degree, just the same as the rest of us.


Submitted to arXiv with a different title. How to make Google understand this is the same paper? After having a paper published, I submitted the preprint to arXiv, but with a different title.

Now, Google Scholar has identified the arXiv version as another paper, and by merging the two articles using the merge button, I cannot make the arXiv version appear next to the published paper when someone searches for it.

I guess that Google looks for the title of a paper (in the PDF, not the file name), and decides if this is the same paper. Anyway, is there any way to make Google Scholar understand that the arXiv version is the same paper and show the PDF in the search results?

This may not be the answer you're looking for, but one solution would be to update the arXiv paper so that its title agrees with the published paper.  (You can change an arXiv paper's title by submitting a revision.)  Maybe you prefer the title from the arXiv, but using different titles causes enough hassle and confusion that I can't really believe it's worthwhile.

It's not just a matter of convincing Google Scholar.  If they supply a link to a paper with a different title, some users will assume it's an error without looking closely enough to detect that it's really the same paper.  The same issue will occur whenever anyone runs across the arXiv paper, since the first heuristic most people use to decide whether two papers are the same is comparing the title and authors.

If you really want to use a different title, you should take every opportunity to clarify the relationship between the papers.  For example, the arXiv abstract page and the first page of the article should explicitly state that it's the same as the published paper (and give the citation).  But even if you do that, readers will be confused and perhaps a little annoyed.  They'll naturally wonder why it has a different title if it's the same paper otherwise, and they may wonder what else you have changed compared with the published version.  If there are nontrivial changes, then you should warn the reader, while if there aren't, then it's not good to let readers wonder about that.


Is the correlation between learning a subject and having high grades strong? I've found myself in a paradoxical situation. I have failed modules over and over, many modules, some modules more than once. One of the failed modules was introduction to computing. After passing it I felt an urge to write lecture notes because I though that the "official" lecture notes made by two teachers of the computer science department were too shallow and unappealing. I took some time to write it and publish in a free webhosting service.

Now I'm feeling like continuing that type of work, expanding it to more modules, such as physics and calculus. It seems that explaning things with plain english, doing comparisons and following a straight path is kinda easy for me. Although I did fail so many modules so many times.

Is the correlation between learning a subject and having high grades strong?

Conversely, is the correlation between not properly learning a subject and having really bad grades strong?

There's no general answer to the question. It depends on the individual course.

If the course is designed so that grades are earned for demonstrating achievement of a learning outcome, then there will be a strong correlation between having high grades and achieving the learning outcomes of the course.
If the course is designed so that grades are earned for things that don't demonstrate achievement of a learning outcome, or so that students can achieve a learning outcome but not have an opportunity to demonstrate it to earn a grade, then the correlation will be weak.

Also, your general description of "learning a subject" may not necessarily be strongly correlated with the desired learning outcomes of a course. It's possible to earn a poor grade for a well-designed course even after having "learned the subject" if the course has specific learning outcomes (i.e., "Students will know how to solve a certain class of problem," "Students will have learned this particular skill") and what you are learning about the subject happens to be orthogonal to those learning outcomes.


Polite message to my supervisor I am at the end of my study (almost 6 months). I need time to edit my English (my supervisors do not want to help with that. It is Ok for me.).
However, they asked me to add extra computation to my study, which is not directly relative to my topic. I tried to tell them that but they still want me to do so. I do what they asked me to do just to show them that I respect their suggestions and comments. However, for more than one time, their idea did not fit my data. This is not my problem as, for their comment, I need to use an existing package. The result is very acceptable as the existing model does not fit such type of data (my data). The model they asked me to apply to my data is already known to be inappropriate to deal with a specific type of data. Therefore, several works have been developed to cover this problem.
If I keep going with this inappropriate model, then I will lose my time. Therefore, I would like to send my supervisors an email showing them that the model is not appropriate for my data and result in an inaccurate result and report errors. However, I do not like to make them feel that their idea is not good. So, how could I send a polite message to my supervisor?

My experience is that emails are far less effective than face-to-face interactions. If you are at the point that an email is all you can do because the relationship is dysfunctional and you just want to get out of there, then a simple statement acknowledging the validity of the approach in general but not in this domain, with the reminder that you need to graduate in a bit, would do the trick. Your advisors have no interest in needlessly prolonging your PhD (at least unless they have a serious grudge against you).

Dear X

Thank you for suggesting method Y. I think it's a potentially useful approach that I am happy to explore in detail; however, it would seem that prior work indicates that the approach may not be as effective as we believe in domain Z (see attached PDF of the study by Alice and Bob Smith on the topic). I will be happy to add a discussion on this to the thesis (in the relevant section), but I do not believe that running a detailed analysis will yield fruitful results given the current state of the art.

Given that I have to submit my thesis in 6 months, I think that the best course of action would be to focus on the results we have now, rather than expanding in new, potentially unproductive, directions.

Regards

Maryam


Marie-Curie individual felowship - current organization is there any problem if I don't work at an European University as a Postdoctoral fellow (just back from the USA) at the time that I submit the Marie-Curie fellowship (2-3 months without job)?

thank you

It's clearly allowed and even encouraged:

  Individual Fellowships provide opportunities to researchers of any
  nationality to acquire and transfer  new  knowledge  and  to  work  on
  research  and  innovation  in  Europe  (EU  Member States  and
  Horizon  2020  Associated  Countries)  and  beyond.  The  scheme
  particularly supports  the  return  and  (re)integration  of  European
  researchers  from  outside  Europe  and those who have previously
  worked here, as well as researchers displaced by conflict outside the
  EU  and  Horizon  2020  Associated Countries.  It  also  promotes  the
  career  restart  of individual researchers who show great potential

http://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2018-2020/main/h2020-wp1820-msca_en.pdf (p. 13)


Should I do a PhD or Master in Statistics for a career in Data Science? I am a Mathematics student with a concentration in Applied and Computational Mathematics. I have done a Mathematics research project with a faculty member, which resulted in a co-authored paper being refereed. This project was on image processing, and I was exposed to some large scale data analysis. The original knowledge discovery element of the project was very exciting, and that's what made me decide to go to graduate school.

However, I had a hard time deciding what I want to study. I am naturally interested in many things (I was an Art History major before switching to Mathematics), and not inclined to put forth serious intellectual effort in anything that would narrow my career possibilities afterwards. For example, for some time I was very interested in Financial Mathematics, but then realized that this may limit my career options to the finance industry. With my research experience, I could see that Data Science is an interdisciplinary subject with potential application in a vast number of fields. So Data Science is a possible "major" for my graduate study.

As for the programs, Master programs bearing the names of "Data Analytics", "Data Science" and the like don't appeal to me as much as Statistics MS/PhD with Data Science track. The reason is that many of the former ones seem to be more or less "fad" programs (I'm not wishing to offend anyone here, so correct me if I'm wrong) designed to meet increasing industry demands for skilled data analysts, and so may lack the systematic, deep mathematical rigor and generality (i.e., not confined to business applications) I appreciate in the latter programs.

So it seems a PhD/Master in Statistics would suit my criteria for (1) a widely applicable, interdisciplinary subject and (2) more rigorous, mathematical training of the subject. What do you think?

Please note that as of now I have no particular preference for industry or academia after program completion. Which of the two I will end up in will depend largely on how my job search goes. I know that the number of faculty positions is much fewer than the number of PhD students wishing to fill those positions; also industry may pay better, and I am not dead set on producing academic papers in prestigious journals. As long as I get to work on interesting problems, using data science as a tool, and make independent discoveries as contribution, I would be happy.

Edit: Since this post may be too broad, as @Stephen pointed out, I rephrased my question as follows: given my interests in (1) independent knowledge discovery, (2) diversity of knowledge domains and applications, (3) systematic training, and (4) a career in Data Science, my question is: Is a Ph.D. in Statistics the right path? @Stephen has given a thoughtful response, but I would like to hear from others as well.

Interesting question, but likely to be closed as "opinion-based" or "too broad".

I personally have a math Ph.D., then started to do applied statistics in a "classical" academic environment (analyzing psychology studies), finally ended up in a Data Science-type job. I fully agree that postgraduate work in statistics would be the best preparation for a career in Data Science.

As @Vietnhi notes, there are three key ingredients for becoming a good Data Scientist:

a solid grounding in statistics
programming/hacking skills
subject matter expertise

(See also Drew Conway's Data Science Venn Diagram, which I posted and discussed here).

Of the three, it seems to me like the statistics part is hardest to learn in a non-structured environment. From what I see in my day-to-day work and on CrossValidated, people will rather easily pick up programming skills and subject matter knowledge, but understanding randomness - and this is really what statistics is all about - is very hard. (See, e.g., here.)

So as long as there are no serious Data Science study tracks available (and I agree that most offerings right now are likely bandwagons people jump on), it makes sense to concentrate on statistics (getting a structured study path via the Ph.D. program), but really work to understand the actual tools for handling large data sets, and trying to get a certain amount of subject matter expertise in at least one field. Optimally, you'd do an applied stats thesis which requires you to actually work in a specific field and apply stats there.

You may want to look at Data Science.


What should a student do about a professor who uses class time poorly? One of my professors is quite enthusiastic about teaching the subject. He often deviates from the main content and gets lost in details vastly beside or beyond the matter at hand - which is interesting, though not immediately helpful.
Effectively, this means that he regularly fails to complete the day's chapter. To compensate, he always overruns on time (15 minutes are not unusual at all).
Despite that, he failed to finish several chapters that (according to him) were intended to be taught (and indeed have been in the year before), and did not discuss or even provide solutions to previous homework due to lack of time in class.
I'm looking for advice how to deal with this situation. How can we make him stick to relevant content?
My fear is that the students will a) lack knowledge from missing several chapters, leading to future problems in subsequent courses and b) have worse conditions to succeed in this course's exam, as they lack relevant information and experience.
I'm baffled how he is able to continue like this - he clearly noticed the problem and also apologized to the students about it several times, but did not yet change his habits at all.
As I have already talked to him about other problems before, which he is attempting to fix now, I do not want to "complain" to him again if possible. I'm also a bit unsure what that would accomplish, seeing that he appears to be completely unable to keep his lectures on point.
If the students were to talk to the department head, is he likely to take action, or is this rather within the professors individual judgement? If they do, I'm clueless to imagine how he would take it.
Regarding the missing homework solutions, I considered requesting written solutions to the tasks we failed to look at in class. However, this kind of exercise does not benefit from just solutions and instead requires explanations.

I would encourage you to view this not as poor teaching style, necessarily, but as a particular teaching style which may not suit you.
You should not take for granted the fact that this teacher actually seems to care about the material and be excited about it. That is a great opportunity for you to learn and you should take advantage of it if you can. Ask questions, try to gain some of this person's intuition and insight into the topic - you are probably paying for access to this professor, and this is a way to learn things you cannot learn from the book.
You should describe the teaching style in any reviews you submit about the course or professor. Some students would love the type of course you describe, and some (such as yourself) will not find that it meets their needs. This is the proper way to give feedback. Complaining to the administration will probably not be effective because the professor is not doing anything wrong (except perhaps running classes too long), just adopting a particular teaching style.


Emailing potential PhD advisors (recent change in research interest) I'm currently getting ready to apply to graduate programs in Chemistry, and am beginning to contact potential advisors. My problem is that until recently, I was planning to focus on field X, but have realized that I cannot see myself doing a PhD in this field.
After reading some papers in field Y, I am really excited about the possibility of doing research in this field, and have identified some potential advisors in field Y.
The problem is that all of my previous experience is in field X, and I don't really have any experience in field Y. Should I address my reasons for deciding not to pursue field X? And how do I demonstrate my sincere interest in field Y?

Some of the other students in my lab came from different fields. They always showed an interest in what we were working on even if they didn't have the technical knowledge just yet. I think if you let your potential advisor know that you are interested in their area of research, that you have some skills that they are looking for or can be just as useful in the new area, then you should be fine. Just let them know your desire to work in the field and the skills that you can bring to the lab. I don't think its necessary to specifically talk about why you are not interested in field X, but it is important to show that you can contribute to field Y. Do your homework on the lab and talk about specific projects that they have worked on. You don't need to be an expert, but if you ask intelligent questions about their projects, they tend to take that as a sign of interest. Also be ready to relate what you have done in field X to what they are doing in field Y. Often, students coming in from other fields provide a different prospective that ultimately makes the lab better and the research being produced stronger. Good luck.


How Does Statement of Purpose Play a Role in Graduate Admission? I'm applying for MSc. in Computer Science.

The basic format for SOP would be (at least in the university which I'm applying to):

State your research interests and career goals
Outline your previous research experiences / contributions (if any)
Name the faculty members you would like to work with

Does competitiveness of research areas (that are stated in SOP) affect your chance of graduate admission? I'm talking about a master program, not a PhD. If two people are both applying for MSc. in Computer Science, does the applicant (who showed interest in less competitive field) have a better chance of getting accepted? I guess the answer is obvious for a PhD admission because the decision is made by professors, but graduate admission is decided by graduate committees.

I doubt that "competitiveness of research area" is much of a factor, even for doctoral admission. They are looking for candidates who have an appropriate background (mostly from the CV) and a good probability of success in the program (mostly from LoR). The first bullet in your list is always the critical part. But the second point should simply point to how your background situates you to achieve your goals. Naming a faculty member is important in some, but not all cases. More so in the EU (and UK) than in the US.

But, the research area is important as a decision making issue in so much as there are faculty resources (including any named advisor) to support that area. If there are more resources in one area than in another, then candidates in the one with more is likely to be favored, at least a bit. So a school that doesn't do much serious work in AI, say, will probably look for candidates in other areas. This is especially true at the MS level, but also at the doctoral level.

For faculty hiring, on the other hand, different rules may certainly apply.


Reporting GPAs from the same university I have graduated with a BS in Computer science degree with 3.6 GPA from  university of X. Then after graduation, I continued taking classes in different program (Biology) but didn't do well and my GPA went down to cGPA of 3.4.  So, the gpa on last page of my transcript (cgpa) is 3.4, but also on the transcript it mentions that I have earned a BS degree in computer science with 3.6 gpa. My question is that if I want to apply to a graduate school in computer science program which GPA I should be reporting? Would it be 3.4 or 3.6?

Ideally you should report them both. Online forms might not let you do that, however. If you can only report one, I'd suggest that you list your CS GPA but put a note somewhere detailing the other. You want to give the most complete information so that no one can suggest you have been dishonest.

You will probably have to explain, somewhere, why you abandoned biology for now and simply saying it was because you didn't do so well would, IMO, be a mistake.

However, your university might, independently, give your GPA, in which case you should know how it will be reported by them. If they combine them, then you probably need to do so also, but explain in your application materials the history of it.


Careers in computer science without maths I am currently studying in BTech CSE 2nd year. My maths is very weak and I have to choose the specialization, but I want to choose a career in computer science which does not require maths. If there is maths in any career it should be very little or easy. Please guide me ..

I depends on what you mean by a career. For a low level position with not a lot of chance for advancement it would be possible. But almost all CS fields require some fairly deep understanding of at least some parts of mathematics. As user vonbrand notes it is mostly not calculus, though even that can help.

But one of the big ideas in CS is being able to separate the "simple" algorithms from those that will actually work in practice. You can go a ways with only standard and well known practice, but you won't be in a very good position to make advancements, even in a "career" in programming.

But some parts of CS require more maths than others. User Interface design, for example, and Human Factors, are more concerned with psychology and physiology than maths. But Algorithms, Machine Learning, Operating Systems, and lots of others, depend on being able to think in some of the same ways that a mathematician does. Logical, rather than empirical, evidence, can be fundamental.

The other problem, as you probably already know is that most education programs in CS have quite a lot of required maths. If you don't do well in those courses, your overall record may not be strong enough to advance.

So, perhaps you just need to find a way to deal with learning the maths you need. Tutors can help, especially if they are wise enough to evaluate where your blocks are. Some students need to repeat a lot of things they "should have learned" at an earlier stage, but didn't. A good tutor can help you get past such things, but it might require special insight into learning and into what is most important. But it also takes work (lots of it) on your part.

And, more important than specific mathematical "facts" is a mathematical way of approaching a problem.


How important is the time it takes to graduate? In some countries (e.g. Greece) there is no penalty if you fail a course. You can simply try again next time. Also, there is no limit to the amount of time it takes to get a degree.

I am a good student who works hard and tries his best to get good grades.

Unfortunately, on my 1st semester some very bad things happened and I passed no courses for 3 semesters. I will explain this in my essay.

Is it reasonable for me to expect to be accepted by top US/UK universities for a Masters in Computer Science given that I get high grades, but I take 5-6 years instead of 4 to get my degree?

to answer your first question and then comment on a statement:

Personally I graduated from both High School, and my first B.S early. There's not advantage or disadvantage when another school (or even the school you attend) looks at your record to decide if you can enter the program. There isn't a disadvantage to graduating late either. The rate of students who graduate (In the U.S) has dropped the past years for a few reasons:

1). Financial issues.

2). Work & school at the same time limits the amount of courses you can take at one time.

3). Single-course to graduate students (there's no formal name for this so I'll explain). Some students take 1-2 courses a semester and may even skip a semester or two. They do this to keep educating themselves and eventually earn a degree without having to stress over taking 4-6 courses at once.

You mentioned failing courses because of personal reasons. Normally when this happen's grades are seen to drop and the student either drops out or get's back in the school motion and grades rise. You mentioned failing courses for 3 semesters which could look bad (granted I don't know what caused the issue in the first place). Be ready to talk about it in person and in your essay because it's unusually for someone who is failing semesters to continue to attend.


How to demonstrate your ability to publish in high-impact venues? (Application form) I was applying for a postdoc position and I came across this sentence.

Please provide examples of when you have demonstrated your ability to publish in high-impact venues

This one is confusing and a bit redundant because they previously asked me about my experience in fields X and Y. So, I don't know how to address this question without mentioning (again) my experience in the fields X and Y. All I did, is deliberately avoid, in the previous question, talking about my publications in journals and conferences. Any ideas about this? Do the examples they're talking about are: my publications in journal A and a conference B?

The ideal way to "demonstrate your ability" is by stating that you've successfully done it. So, an optimal answer to this question would be along the lines of:

I have published 12 papers in top-tier journals and conferences, including the Annals of Mathematics, Physical Review Letters, and the International Conference on Machine Learning. My h-index is 65 and 4 of my papers have been cited over 1000 times each. I am already pursuing many additional lines of research that will let me continue this rate of publication.

Now if your publication record is less impressive, you might not be able to give a strong answer like the above, but you'll still have to make the best case possible that you will be able to produce several top-tier publications if they hire you. This is different than the previous questions, which focused more generally on your skills, interests, and experience.


If an image covers the entire slide, where should I credit the author/licensor in a presentation? Let's pretend I want to use this image from Wikimedia Commons

Here's the license on the image:

  You are free:

  to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
  to remix – to adapt the work

  Under the following conditions:

  attribution – You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
  share alike – If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one.

If the image is going to cover the entire slide on my Powerpoint presentation, where should I attribute the author/licensor? Can I have a slide in the end with all the attributions or should I mention it on the image itself (e.g. at the bottom right corner).

Edit: The presentation will be recorded and posted on YouTube.

Bottom right corner (maybe unobtrusive in gray, as not to interfere with the white background) seems right to me - you see this often in paper magazines, too. This way nobody can easily or accidentally strip the attribution. A [number] (even maybe just the slide number) and picture credits on the last slide would be the second-best choice.

And it's nice (for a change) to have someone respecting the license terms. Thank you :)


Special Needs student with disruptive behavior (racial slurs towards teacher) There is a student at a university of a friend of mine who has Asperger's Syndrome, which is a milder form of Autism. My friend, who is a teacher there, has told me that the student mostly does OK work but he is not always aware of socially acceptable behavior.

The major problem, and I mean major, is that he has literally shouted racial slurs at the teacher in the middle of class (over 5 times) as a way of expressing "friendship" with the teacher (not out of malice). Normally, this is grounds for having to be dropped from the course and even be removed from the campus even if the purpose is to try and be "friends". However, because the student is a special needs student with distinct problems and does not truly understand the impact of such behavior, my friend wants to seek alternatives. This is a challenging situation as it is still mostly uncommon for students of this nature to enrolled at university.

What disciplinary/counselling measures are appropriate for a teacher to take, in the case of a special-needs student whose actions are detrimental to the learning environment?

A professor in this situation should consult with the university office that is responsible for students with disabilities, let them handle the situation, and follow their recommendations regarding what to do if it happens again. Anything else is beyond the scope of the professor's role.

Professors are not qualified to "counsel" students with disabilities, and shouldn't try to (amateur psychology can be very harmful to the "patient.")

In some parts of the world, there are legal issues related to disciplining students with disabilities.1 Again, the office that deals with students with disabilities should be aware of these legal issues and are best placed to advise the professor.

1 For example, in the US:

  IDEA requires that a student’s disability be taken into account when considering disciplinary action resulting from a violation   of the school code of conduct [in high school]. This is not the case in higher education

(Source). Other jurisdictions will have varying legal protections for students with disabilities.