Difference between campus police and campus / public safety Why do some American universities have actual campus police, with guns, while other American universities have "public safety" officers who don't have guns?

For instance, Georgia Tech and the University of Chicago have campus police.

Is it determined by the level of imminent danger that surrounds the campus?

In the US, most state universities will probably have police, but it is a state matter so it varies from state to state. Private institutions probably don't have police, but still need security for students and otherwise. Private institutions could, in theory, contract with local police for coverage (some places) but can't form their own police forces.

At state universities it is the state that is responsible for safety and security and it is probably cheaper/easier to integrate training, etc. if they are police. They also can speak and act with the authority of the state if they are sworn officers. And use deadly force, of course.

In New York, for example, the police on state campuses are separately organized from the town police where the campus is, but they have all police powers both on and off campus. They carry guns, tasers, etc. and wear bulletproof vests when on patrol. I think they have special training so that they respond more appropriately to young people than municipal police might.

But many of the campuses are in small towns, even villages, in which the overall danger/threat is minimal.

It is probably more of an administrative matter, combined with the paranoia of politicians who don't want to be blamed if something really bad happens and they can't claim to have taken all possible precautions.


Top tier publications for job application in the Czech Republic I am asked to provide my Tier 1,5,10 and 25 publications for a job application in the Czech Republic. Is there any standardized way how to interpret this? Does this refer to journals with impact factors > 5, > 10 etc. or does this rather refer to the number of citations for each of the relevant publications?

Maybe somebody can clear this up for me.
Thank you in advance!

I finally got a response from them.

They asked me to provide the publication counts according to the journal impact factors or actually ranges of impact factors [1:5[, [5:10[ etc. One of the options I guessed anyway.

Maybe this still helps somebody in the future.


Postdoc to transition from theoretical field (Statistics) to applied field I am a third year Statistics PhD student. As I have become more involved in the field, I have realized it is not as good a fit for me as I originally thought. I excel in applied, collaborative work but fall behind my peers in theoretical work. It is not that I am incapable of understanding theory, in fact I can understand and digest fairly technical literature, I just do not find it interesting enough to devote the time and attention to be really good. This is unfortunate for me because the field of statistics prefers novel theory to interesting applications. That is not a slight on the field; I should have had the self awareness to know my own interests and limitations before committing to graduate school.

Despite this, I am quite happy in my program. I have a wonderful, supportive advisor, and I am in one of those rare departments where the faculty seem to genuinely care about the students. I have mentioned to my advisor that I prefer applied work and he has generally given me collaborative projects with epidemiologists. I do this work very well (I have an upcoming publication in a leading epidemiology journal) and enjoy it tremendously, but it is not viewed as prestigious by scholars in my field.

I am interested in an academic career. The way I see it, I can be a mediocre statistician or I can be an excellent statistically inclined epidemiologist. I prefer the later. I do not want to switch fields during my PhD primarily for two reasons: (1) I am pretty far into my PhD and do not want to start over. (2) The academic job market is horrible and a statistics PhD translates better to industry and government jobs than an epidemiology degree if I am unable to secure an academic position.

Is it possible to transition from (bio)statistics to epidemiology during a post doc and then be competitive for an academic job afterwards?

EDIT: Anecdotal experience of people switching fields is also appreciated.

Answering perspective: I'm a PI with a degree in Epidemiology currently actively looking for postdocs.

  Is it possible to transition from (bio)statistics to epidemiology during a post doc and then be competitive for an academic job afterwards?

Absolutely. This would be a good way to get applied experience that would definitely help you reframe yourself as a methodologically sophisticated epidemiologist, and there are a number of departments that you could then fit in - either combined Epi & Biostatistics Departments, or Epidemiology departments that heavily value methods.

Alternately, there are also a number of smaller "groups" which have biostatisticians in academic jobs where their primary tasks are working on applied problems. These often appear in medical schools or research institutes, where there is a need for consistent, good, but not necessarily groundbreaking biostatistical support. Some of these might also be staff scientist positions, but I've also encountered some with biostatisticians in faculty positions (albeit ones that are largely soft money funded). For those, having a postdoc in an applied area where you can show that you've done work in a setting with real data (and real data's problems), and can produce results that are interpretable in an applied field is potentially a considerable boon.

I know a number of people who have gone this route, moving from a more theoretical discipline (either statistics or applied math) towards epidemiology, and their skillsets are often viewed as quite valuable.


Acknowledgments in google scholar citations Is it acceptable to add articles under my profile in "google scholar citation" in which i was acknowledged for my real contribution rather than being a co-author?

Acceptable I'm not sure, but it really doesn't sound like a good idea.

The point of Google Scholar is to collect in one place the information on papers in which you are an author. If the paper in question was prominent enough in your profile to attract my attention, I would assume that something suspicious is going on, and there is no way for me to tell whose fault it is. Overall, it doesn't send the kind of signal you would probably want to send.


manuscript, excluding author names and affiliations I have a paper submitted to a journal of Springer.
In the submission process, there is a note that "attach your manuscript excluding author names and affiliations but I did not do it.
What will happen in this case.

Thank you very much for your responses.

As Alice mentioned in the comments, the editor requests you to send an anonymized manuscript for the review process. The review is most probably double-blind, i.e. you do not get to know the reviewers' identity and neither do they know yours.

Be careful to adjust any language in your manuscript accordingly (e.g. "... as we showed in our earlier research [1]" -> "as has been shown in earlier research [1]").

For answers on why double-blind peer review is beneficial, see here.

TL;DR This is normal, do as the editor says.


How should a drop in GPA be presented positively in a Statement of Purpose? During my undergrad studies, my first two years went fine but in third did not go well as compared to the first two years. Consequently, there was a drop in the GPA. But there was one good project at that time and I and my roommate did some independent research work during this time which we got published in beginning of our final year.

The main reason for the drop in GPA was due to trouble in catching up with the subjects. I just could not handle my studies at that moment.

Though it was the third year when I realised which field of computer science I wanted to specialize in, so since then all my projects, independent research work and even some research work under my professor has been related to that domain.

I must also add that my GPA increased every semester since the drop.

I wanted some suggestions on how to present this in a positive way in an SOP?

Personally, I would avoid making excuses for a drop in grades. They are what they are.

Instead, you should highlight the independent research you did and published. That's a huge achievement for an undergraduate. If it's obvious to the reader that you put a significant amount of effort into that research and learned a lot, that should outweigh the fact that you didn't learn as much in class.

If the grad school programs you are interested in do still have a coursework component, then grades will matter more than they do for a research-only course. But if they're good enough, research experience will make up the rest. That, glowing letters of recommendation from supervisors, and a good interview are worth more than perfect grades.

  Don't waste words making excuses. Show you are emotionally invested in your research. Make promises.

Anecdotally, my GPA tanked from A- in my final undergraduate year to B (overall) in the first year of my Master's program. I had a tendon injury and couldn't write for nearly 3 months, so I only just scraped through that first semester with a C average. Way behind on my research project, I put that ahead of my second semester papers and did very well in the research but with average coursework. Those grades got me my dream PhD job, and I haven't even finished my Master's thesis yet. I never mentioned the injury because no-one ever asked about my grades.


review a review paper with unpublished data I am reviewing a paper, which is a review paper. The paper seems good, but the authors included many their own observations, which are unpublished. Is it good for a review paper to include may unpublished findings?

Thanks

A review paper contains commentary about previously published work, a critical evaluation of that work, and possibly a synthesis based on that published work. I can imagine a rare case where an author might want to include one or two pieces of new data, possibly referenced as "to be published." If there was very much of this I would recommend that it be removed.


Are academic ethics global or local? This question is inspired by this recent answer that mentions that whether downloading articles from 'questionable' sites is legal (not ethical) may depend on local law. That is, law is local.

Are academic ethics global or local? Clearly, legal principles and conclusions vary from place to place, but does the same apply to academic ethics, or are academic ethics the same no matter where you go? That is, while there may be (and may continue to be) genuine debates on various ethical matters in academia, do these debates and disagreements apply fully to academics everywhere in the world, or are there "local" ethics?

At first, I figured that getting large numbers of people scattered throughout the world to agree on anything is so remotely implausible that there must be local ethics, but then I realized that I couldn't think of any rational set of circumstances where I would advise a colleague that they could solve their ethical issue not by changing their behavior, but by crossing a border, e.g.,

  Dude, while fooing the bar does not violate any specific statute in the Civil or Criminal Codes of Florin, it is near-universially considered academically unethical here! Have you considered a transfer to our branch campus in Guilder? You can foo the bar all you like there - they even have a Department of Fooing the Bar and award annual scholarships for the most bars fooed that year. Just take care that Guilderian ethics requires that you disclose your blood type to research subjects before you ask them to fill out a survey - people who don't are not charged in court per se, but their names get published in Guilder's Most Annoying Unethical Jerkfaces Quarterly and are rarely, if ever, allowed to return to academia there.

Your ethics vs the ethics of your community

It may well be that your personal ethics differs from the dominant ethics of the society where you happen to live, the society which is also setting the rules that influence your research.

While for many cases there's more or less a worldwide consensus about what's acceptable and not, there are genuine debates where multiple options are plausible, and in the case of such debates it's feasible that the IRB's of different countries would have contrary opinions.  One such factor where it's obvious why there are differences (and also obvious why some people may not consider the other's arguments as binding or even relevant) is religious influence which has some impact on medical experiments (e.g. stem cell debate or certain aspects of sexuality in some parts of the world), other factors of medicine include things such as research on certain recreational substances and euthanasia. There are also topics (or findings of fact) that are highly unpopular for political reasons, which again are local.

It may well be that the IRB considers a particular type of research unethical and unacceptable (i.e. it wouldn't be minor adjustments to do that thing properly but "your goal is taboo"), it's not a fluke and every IRB around them would consider it unethical, but the researcher, taking all the arguments provided by the IRB into account, still finds that they personally believe this action to be ethical. In such situations, a reasonably valid option would be to move to a location where the locally dominant ethics matches your own - and which would likely not have objections to that research.


Do university accept a Mechatronics Engineer undergraduate to do Masters in computer science? I finished my undergraduate studies in Mechatronics Engineering and have a low CGPA. The main reason is that I'd been developing web application and doing small projects (creating robots). I have interested in doing Masters in computer science, because it would help me to get better understanding and I have a huge interest in artificial intelligence systems. Do Universities in USA accept undergraduates, who don't have CS and have less CGPA? Please share your ideas. It will, really, help me a lot.

This will depend entirely on the University. My University, for example, does not look at whether you have a degree in CS, but does look at factors they feel influence whether you are likely to complete your Master's in CS. Those include your GPA, if you've completed certain core upper division CS and lower division math classes, and your GRE scores. Each year they accept the  students most likely to complete the degree.

Ultimately, you will need to contact the CS department of universities you are interested in, and ask them their policy. You will probably find a low GPA is more of a hindrance than the lack of CS degree. When I was looking at US universities for my MS, I didn't find a single one that said my undergrad degree (in math, not CS) would be a problem.


Is there an internet Git-like repository for collaboration on a paper? I've just started using git for tracking changes in a LaTeX paper I'm writing, and for collaboration with co-authors.

However, I cannot find easily private git repositories with reasonable plans for scientific collaboration (I'm not asking about discounts, just about a different workflow, so no "one team of n developers", but there are "many small project, with different people").

There is ScribTeX, but unfortunately they are going down :/.

Other:

GitHub free academic plan with unlimited private repositories and number of collaborators
Bitbucket free academic plan with unlimited private repositories and collaborators
Assembla free: priv, but no bug-tracking; next ($9/month): n=3

So, is there a (La)TeX-oriented Git (or, say, Mercurial) repository service?

That is, I'm looking for a repository (free or reasonably priced - i.e. for one with a PhD student salary, not a programmer salary :))

allowing for:

many collaborators,
many private repositories,

but can have strong limits on:

users per repository,
repository size.

Aditya's comment should be the accepted answer:

Bitbucket offers unlimited private repos for academic users.


How to manage theorist's "labbook"? Question:

Are there any guidelines, sources, or examples of good practices for maintaining theorist's research notebook?

Motivation and context:

Maintaining a lab notebook is a much advised (if not a vital) tool for doing research. Many do that nowadays also in electronic form. While the methods for writing and maintaining a labbook might differ in details, in "dirty-hands" (no offense!) experimental, or field disciplines, the basics are relatively straightforward and clear. The advice tends to boil down to keep a labbook per single topic one works on and then record all the experiments and thoughts related to those experiments into the notebook. Simplifying a lot, in the end, the researcher (team) would compile a paper from the notes in the notebook.

Now situation of a researcher in a more theoretical discipline is strikingly different. Usually one engages in research on several topics at the same time. The problems a researcher works on are often intertwined and one's view on them changes over time, often merging originally separate streams of thought into a single one, or vice-versa. The work revolves not around experiments which would have a clear objective, but rather around currently prepared papers and then "a cloud of ideas". In summary, theorist's workstyle tends to be very non-linear. Maintaining some kind of a notebook is still a good thing, if for nothing else, then for not forgetting about stuff. My question is about how to go about doing it.

I am after a practical tool helping me to archive my thought process for long-term, as well as efficiently manage and keep an overview of the evolution of the several interacting topics I engage in.

(Supplementing F'x's answer.)

Physical notebook

I use it all the time, as it is the quickest way to write mathematics and jot diagrams. It's low tech, so it's "always on" (e.g. I cannot run out of batteries).

I have one A4 notebook (so I take it anywhere), with removable pages.

I try to devote a single page only to a single project. On each page I note 3 things:

date,
title (or, actually, a pictogram) of the project,
"page number" for pages on the same project in a given day.

After some time (could be the same day, could be never) I take off pages, to fit them into thematic folders (and usually throwing away most of things, because they are "non-recyclable" rubbish; if it is "recyclable" then I scrap the important things, writing them on a new page).

However, such operation has trade-offs:

(+) sorted by topic,
(+) higher valuable content density,
(+) can be viewed "all at once" by putting pages on a desktop,
(-) I cannot take all of them anymore,
(-) it's somehow easier to loose it, unsort, or torn/coffee split/... it.

Electronic notes

Electronic content is much more linkable, searchable, easier to share, more polished etc. However, it takes much more time to write formulas or draw diagrams.

Different things work for different people, but some kind of personal wiki (or a well-organized text file system) seems to work the best.

I'm not settled down, but I'm switching from TiddlyWiki (very neat but requires a browser to run) to Gitit (so I can write in Markdown, with LaTeX inclusions, in any text editor).

I tried Evernote as well (and I'm using it for other content) but for highly-linked content it does not work for me.

See also:

How do you keep your research notes organized? - MathOverflow
Is there any efficient non-linear note-taking software?
Software/App for electronic research notebooks


A paper review I've undertaken turning out to be harder than expected I recently agreed to review a journal paper (in theoretical computer science). After I started to read it in depth, I found out it is much harder than I expected - over 60 pages with over 20 theorems with detailed proofs. Also, the topic is not exactly my expertise - I do not know a lot of the related works that the authors base their results on.
So far, I managed to verify about 10 of the shorter theorems. They seem correct, though I have some minor comments. The other theorems seem so long and complex that it will take me weeks to review, especially if I would need to read and understand the theorems in the cited papers that these theorems are based on. What should I do?

I thought of writing to the editor and explaining the situation in detail. Maybe the editor will be able to find another reviewer that will verify the other theorems. But I do not know how such letter will be perceived. In particular:

Is it common for a reviewer to review only a part of the paper, and leave the rest of the paper to other reviewers?
On the other hand: is it my duty, as a reviewer, to complete my review, regardless of how much time it takes?

Is it common for a reviewer to review only a part of the paper, and leave the rest of the paper to other reviewers?

I have done that on at least two occasions. Sometimes it is the only honest option.

  On the other hand: is it my duty, as a reviewer, to complete my review, regardless of how much time it takes?

Not really. It is commonly considered a duty of a career mathematician to contribute to peer review of mathematical works (at least) proportionally to their own publishing. Whether you achieve this by refereeing some really tough papers or a lot of simple ones is up to you.


Is there a way to participate in research, when I am no longer a student? I've finished my undergraduate studies 4 years ago. I was considering applying for masters, but due to passage of time it would be difficult to get any letters of recommendation. Since I'm a programmer, I thought there might be some research projects which need programming help. There I could help with in exchange for a letter of recommendation (as per this question, it does not seem to be unethical).

This question is quite similar the the one here, the main difference being: I'm also interested in any other suggestions, on how one can work with any academic staff capable of giving recommendation letters, for example some kind of 6 months-1 year online courses (is it possible to get recommendation by completing coursea programs or similar? Maybe some universities offer peparatory programs for masters, where one can try to get recommendation?)

The first step in getting a recommendation letter is to ask for one from prior instructors. It is best to do this in person if it has been a long time, as you may not be remembered by name. But you might be surprised - especially if you were a hard working student back when. This is harder, of course, if you studied at an especially large institution where you had little actual contact with professors. In that case your contact would need to include reminders of who you are and of why some professor might remember you. At such a place, even after four years, it isn't impossible that an old TA is still around to help you.

The more direct answer of course, is that you can, indeed, get connected to a research group to help them. But be upfront with the PI that you are trying to build reputation in order to advance your education later.

The best way, again, to make contact is in person, which implies that you can travel to talk to people. Their work is probably public knowledge, so some research on your part can help you avoid obviously bad fits. If you want to provide primarily programming backup to a research group you may not need to actually sit with them in real space-time, but the initial contact should be face to face, perhaps with a chance to get to meet all the participants so that you can both explain what services you can provide and assure them you are capable of it. Thereafter, it may be possible for you to work remotely. But if all of their meetings are face to face you may need to deal with that also, at least periodically.

An additional benefit of what you suggest to do is that you will invariably learn something about whatever research they are engaged in. That can only help your future educational opportunities, even if you study something different.

There are no ethical concerns here. If you do good work for someone and ask them to recommend you for something related to your work it is all good.


How much information should I include in my lecture slides? I will soon be teaching my first class as an assistant professor.
The class is made up of 130 undergraduate students,
most of whom are in their first year.
The class in a introductory course,
so I will be giving an overview of the field;
for each lecture I will going through one different topic,
with most of the material being qualitative rather than quantitative.

Last year the class was taught by Colleague A,
so I am adapting his material to prepare to teach the class.
Colleague A's lecture slides tend to be too sparse,
i.e. there are few words on each slide,
and it is not easy to follow the train of thought by reading the slides.
Another colleague, Colleague B told me that
students had mentioned to Colleague B that
students were unhappy with the lack of details on Colleague A's slides.

I feel a little stuck because
when I prepare slides for an academic presentation,
I try to keep my slides more sparse
so as to not overload my audience
who may be trying to read my slides and listen to me simultaneously.
As I prepare the slides now,
I feel that I may be erring on the side
of putting too many words in my slides,
e.g. the entire slide is covered with words.

How do I find the right balance of how much information
to put in my lecture slides to keep students happy?

Here's a general guideline:

Figure out whether you want the audience to pay attention to you, or to the slide

They can't do both. A large part of the time, you want the audience to pay attention to you and the words you're saying. At those times, the slides should be as sparse as you can make them. Really, the only function they have is as a reminder to people whose attention has momentarily lapsed: this is what I'm talking about, this is where I am in the line of the story. Also make sure, during these moments that you're not looking at the slides. The audience looks where you look, unless you make eye contact with them.

But sometimes, you want the audience to focus on something in particular. Perhaps you're taking them through steps in a proof or derivation, perhaps you're explaining a complicated diagram, you may even be reading out a quote. These are the rare moments when you're asking the audience to really focus, and raise their energy levels for a moment. Here, you're allowed to have dense slides. These are also the slides that you're spending a lot of time on, so make sure to put the effort in. Use all the visual tools at your disposal to make the message as clear as possible. At this point, you're actually allowed to look at your own slide, because you want the audience to do the same thing.

Finally, do not mistake slides for learning aids. If you want to give students something to help when they're studying, create a version with added notes and put that online. Don't clutter up your slides to make them serve two purposes.


Giving feedback as external reviewer for grant application outside own field of expertise Asked to be an external reviewer of a grant application, I think the proposal looks good, but I don't know the small field well, though I'm in the same big field. So it's a bit hard to write comments. How should I write comments?

Consider asking for guidance from the grant manager(s) on this. They should have some guidance regarding the style, content, and formatting of comments. Further, as you sound as though you are a little unsure about your ability to comment on and, thus, evaluate this grant. This is something else to share with the grant manager(s) as they may decide you are not the right person to do this. Thus, best thing to do is contact whoever asked you to review the grant and have a chat about this.


Whether or not to include declined fellowship in CV Problem

I am now applying for a Ph.D. program in United States.

I know a similar question has been answered here. But my situation is a bit different. Here is the difference

I managed to get a postgraduate recommendation in my home country. This means I could get enrolled in graduate program without any examination. This examination is very selective. Many people need to do it more than one time to get admitted. Moreover, this postgraduate recommendation opportunity is scarce, less than 10% of students in decent institutions could get this.
Accompanied with this recommendation, I am automatically entitled to a full scholarship worth of 5000 dollars, which is a considerable amount in my home country.

I am aware of the issues listed in already answered question. But could my case be anything different?

Thank you in advance.

List it -- your CV should list all honors that would help convince others that you really are as good as you claim to be. Having gotten a fellowship is such an honor -- whether or not you actually take it or not is irrelevant for your purpose.


Is IEEE Signal Processing Society Membership enough to add "Student Member, IEEE" on a Journal author list? Is being member of the IEEE Signal Processing Society enough to add "Student Member, IEEE" on a Journal author list?

Or the IEEE membership is different from the IEEE Signal Processing Society membership? I pay this annually. Never understood well the differences between them.

thanks

Consult IEEE Editorial Style Manual: As per April 10, 2020 (and certainly for many years before):

  IEEE Membership Grades

  IEEE Membership Grades included in the byline and biography are Student Member, Graduate Student Member, Associate Member, Member, Senior Member, Fellow, Life Associate Member, Life Member, Life Senior Member, and Life Fellow.

  Note: Affiliate Members are not considered members for the purposes of the byline and biography.

These refer to general IEEE Membership grades, not Membership in a particular IEEE Society.

Therefore, if you are an IEEE Student Member, you can (and should) add Student Member, IEEE to the

Byline
Biography

Therefore, if you are an IEEE Member of any grade (excluding affiliate memberships), you can add this grade to any IEEE journal papers regardless of your membership in the society.

Quick notes regarding the memberships and differences between them:

For the purpose of the question, only the general IEEE Membership is important
In addition to general IEEE Membership, one can join IEEE Societies within IEEE. Many exist: IEEE Signal Processing Society, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society, etc. Membership in these societies have their own benefits (access to journals in IEEE Xplore, discounts on conferences, access to certain educational materials, participation in committees, etc.), but is not required in order to add Membership Grade to the byline or biography
One can join an IEEE Society directly without having a general IEEE Membership: that will be Affiliate Membership. In this case, the member joins the society for a slightly higher Society Membership fee but does not pay an IEEE Membership Fee. If one is interested only in getting benefits from 1-2 societies and general IEEE benefits are not relevant, that might be a viable choice from the financial point.
Thus, if a researcher is an Affiliate Member of IEEE Signal Processing Society they should not add IEEE Grade next to their name.
It is very unlikely to be a Student Affiliate Member. I do not know about IEEE societies that have this option, as IEEE Student Membership is very discounted as well as some IEEE Society Membership fees for students.

Disclosure: I am a Vice-Chair of Membership and Benefits Committee of IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society.


Appropriate to say "Nice to meet you" over a phone interview? I have a phone interview for a tenure-track position. It's always awkward because you want to say "Nice to meet you, Prof. X" but it sounds so weird. What would be the alternative? You wouldn't just want to say "Hi Prof. X". Would you?

There are surely plenty of alternatives.  "It's a pleasure to speak with you."  "Thanks for taking the time to speak with me."  And so on.

However, even if you do say "Nice to meet you", the most that will happen is someone will say "Though I guess we're not really meeting, are we?  Ha-ha-ha."  And you'll say "I guess not, ha-ha-ha" and chuckle politely for about half a second, and then move on.  Nobody will care or remember, and it will have no effect on the outcome of the interview.


Should I order open access if I've got the money? A journal accepted a manuscript of mine. After acceptance they ask the author whether the author wants "to order Open Choice". Should I do so if I've got the money? What is it? Is it a way to make a peer-reviewed publication while retaining the copyright of your article? What are some pros and cons of it?

Springer Open Choice, aka. open access, is the "new" way to publish things. In the traditional model, the journal publishes the paper, and then charges readers a subscription fee to read it. With open access, the paper is freely available, but the authors have to pay the publisher to publish. Copyright in OA articles are generally retained by the author, and there is no print version.

Springer's webpage gives you the advantages of doing it:

It makes your paper freely accessible.
It increases citation counts & usage statistics. Note this is controversial. There's no doubt that open access increases usage statistics, but citation is a separate story.
It complies with funder mandates. If you're unfamiliar with open access I'll guess that your funders (if any) don't have require you to publish open access, so this is irrelevant.
You retain the copyright (if it matters to you for whatever reason).

There's really only one downside to open access: you have to pay for it. It's possible you have funding to do it (per point 3 above; also check with your library/supervisor if applicable). Otherwise there's the paperwork you have to do, and finally there's the danger intrinsic to open access. OA motivates the publisher to accept as many papers as possible (they make more money), which generates a conflict of interest. In your case you should be clear because 1) it's a hybrid journal, the offer of OA is only made after your paper is accepted + you don't have to take it up, and 2) it's Springer, which is a well-known publisher. But if you keep publishing OA then you'll inevitably encounter so-called predatory publishers with whom you should be careful.

Whether you should do it is up to you. I'll venture that most people would likely not pay for open access unless they had the funding to do so. If you don't have the money but want to publish open access anyway, you could try asking for a waiver/reduced charges, especially if you are based in a developing country.


Does a professor have the academic discretion to design the curriculum for his class? Suppose, for instance, that a political science professor was tasked to design a curriculum for his quantitative methodology class. Generally, a quantitative methodology class covers the application of mathematical techniques in analyzing data. Can a professor, then, given his academic discretion, design a curriculum that focuses on the philosophy of quantitative analysis and not on the actual math?

Answering for the R1 schools with which I am familiar:

Of course a professor has this discretion. There is no universal standards board that decides what must be taught in what course -- nor would we want such a thing. Otherwise we might end up teaching intelligent design alongside evolutionary biology and the great flood alongside plate tectonics.

The professor might be better off choosing a different course title, but there are a host of bureaucratic reasons why this doesn't always happen. So long as the syllabus accurately reflects the course material, I see no problem whatsoever. (And even if it doesn't, the professor still has the ultimate right to determine the course curriculum).

In addition to the question of what a professor is permitted to do, there is a second question about what is a reasonable standard of conduct for the professor. This too offers quite a lot of latitude, particularly in higher level classes.

Caveats: For certain large introductory classes or multi-selection courses, the academic department or a committee within the department may select a set of topics to be covered in order to standardize what the students learn -- but in this case the professor would not be tasked with developing the curriculum himself or herself. As we move from introductory classes toward advanced classes. Similarly there could potentially be a problem if a professor taught oceanography in an English literature class, or vice versa -- but decisions about where to fall on the philosophy / calculation spectrum within a given topic area are entirely up to the professor.

Addendum This whole thing may not seem like a big deal to those of us in STEM fields (with the possible exception of those fields that sometimes contradict big oil, big tobacco, or a narrow reading of the Book of Genesis). But faculty discretion over the contents of the curriculum is extremely important the humanities and social sciences where political agendas are more immediate and where the choice of a text may itself be an overtly political act.


Combating the pressure to publish How can a researcher (be it professor or student) combat the pressure to get published? I know that the academics these days are extremely competitive. I feel that many research work now-a-days are driven to get published (It is not a fact just my feeling. I may or may not be right). Not all research work can produce successful results. You either succeed or learn that your approach/method/theory doesn't work (see this).

Also, consistent and frequent publications lead to a successful career even though the research itself may not have much impact in a practical situation (See this).

Is research not about the search for truth anymore? Has it been reduced to number of publications and impact factor?  Is it possible for anyone to have a successful research career and at the same time publish(only those that they think are worth publishing) less often?

Edit: I have found a brutally honest answer in another part of this community.(see JeffE's answer)

In mathematics, it is possible to have a successful career while publishing rather few papers, but they need to be very good and important papers. In my own field, set theory, an example is Jack Silver. MathSciNet lists only 11 publications by him, starting in 1970, but these include five extremely important advances, which have become fundamental for much of contemporary set theory.  Although 11 looks like a small number in this context, 5 is very impressive.


Switching Topics Once in Graduate School I plan to pursue a graduate school "career" in theoretical condensed matter physics in the US; however, getting into a grad program as a theory student is quite difficult due to limited spacing, little funding, and high competition. Should I instead apply as an experimentalist and then switch over to theory in grad school? Or should I not say "experimentalist' or "theorist" in my statement of purpose and instead focus on the topic(s) in condensed matter physics that interest me and include names of professors in theory and experiment? In the former case, is the action ethical? In the latter case, will it seem that I am not focused? Please advise, since I do not want to narrow my options.

At this stage it doesn't matter, so you can choose whatever you like (or whatever you think is more promising etc) and switch (or not switch) later.It is quite common for phd students in cond-mat to do both (some) theory and (some) experiments during their phd. I'd also not be worried about being "ethical" here because people do change their interests, and it is totally unreasonable to expect a student to choose a line of research for their entire life.


Best position title for International/USA context I am writing a resume for a doctoral application. In my current job, I am an Assistant Professor (tenured). However, besides being young, I don't have a doctorate or postdoctoral degree. I am also not a genius or a prodigy. In my country, the way you manage to be a university professor is different from other countries. If you want to work at a federal public university, for example, you take a test with several stages, and in some cases, people with only a master's degree and young people can get the job. I am still starting my career as a professor and researcher; I have no papers published in high impact journals. I don't want to look like something I'm not, but it also shows that I have some merit in having this position. I would like to know my title in an international context, specifically in the USA. My first option was a Full-time Lecturer (permanent appointment).

Job titles have no international context.  They have only a local context.  (They don't even have a national context.  American academics can all easily figure out that Professors at SUNY Adirondack, SUNY Geneseo, and SUNY Stony Brook - all universities in the same state system - are vastly different jobs with vastly different qualifications.)
Just give your official title (in the local language if not English - this emphasizes that it's not translatable).
In the rest of your application materials, you can explain what your job duties are and what qualifications you have, and people will figure it out.


What are some tools available for drawing good figures for computer science research papers and presentations What are good choices to create figures in computer science research papers? Not talking about graphs here, just block diagrams and simple illustrations. For example, what is the tool that can be used to produce this figure?

Personally, I am a fan of the TeX-Package TikZ. It is easy to draw simple diagrams, include small pictures or create structures by using loops and conditionals.
It also supports relative positioning, which makes everything a lot easier than manual placement.

Since all of the input is plain text, it works great in combination with source control (e.g., git) and prior versions can easily be reverted back to.

I have to mention it takes some time to get used to the syntax, but the folks over at the TeX Stackexchange are usually very helpful. They have a great showcase of scientifc pictures, too! https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/158668/nice-scientific-pictures-show-off

When images from other documents are to be included, I usually crop them out as vector graphics from pdfs by using Libreoffice Draw. With both tools in combination, I often get satisfying results since everything remains vector graphics for the entire diagram if i wish to.


Creating a virtual institute I have been toying with the idea of becoming an independent researcher, raising money by working very long/hard hours for a year, then taking a year off for solely for research. This would be partially for financial reasons (Post-Doc salaries are really awful), but also because I think my research would benefit if I could pour my undivided attention into algorithm design for a year.

The biggest problem with this plan however is that in order to publish my research after a year or so of intensive work, I would need to be affiliated with an institute - even journals like arXiv require this.

This got me thinking - what actually is an institute? From the little bit of research into it I have done, it seems to be no different to a standard company, although most have charitable status and are tax-exempt or non-profit.

If other people would also like to work for-profit for a year, then for-research for a year (or at some other frequency), then a virtual institute to publish under would be quite a useful thing. In fact I'm surprised such institutes don't already exist: we have scam journals and scam conferences - why no scam institutes?

Of course if I did set up an institute to publish under it wouldn't be a scam, (there are numerous benefits I can see a virtual institute providing for members), but the idea of a on-paper-only institute is applicable to both.

I know a number of independent or semi-independent researchers who have set up a small company for themselves to affiliate with (e.g., the whimsically named Turing Ate My Hamster, Ltd.), for various different reasons.

This is pretty easy to do and, I believe, achieves everything that you are looking for from a virtual institute.  It also has the advantage of not being fake in any way---just very small.


How to mention "failed" final year thesis in SOP? I am an undergraduate intending to apply to an American graduate program. In my SOP, I decided to write one paragraph about my final year thesis. However, the truth is that I failed to propose something new in my final year thesis. The only positive things, I believe, is that I have found related papers quickly without any guidance.

I hope to talk positively about this experience. Is it positive to mention that "I have found papers quickly?" And how to mention such a "failed" final year thesis in SOP?

More background information:

Field: graph theory

My supervisor was busy and he did not spend much time discussing the topic with me or teaching me about it. I have a problem understanding papers that are somewhat concise. At last, I had no choice but to change my topic. He only described the topic, did not give any references to read. I found the references by myself, which were exactly what he wished me to read. The time is limited and hence I do not propose many new things in my final year thesis.

I am not so sure that your final year thesis has actually 'failed'. It is not actually expected that many students will propose something truly new in their bachelor's thesis. The purpose is to teach you how to research a topic and write about your research. In this case, the fact that your supervisor did not give you much guidance or direction may actually be seen as positive, since you have succeeded in finding the relevant papers on your own, and have (I presume) written a decent paper about your research.

You are now heading into a phase where you will be expected to go beyond a literature search and propose "something new". Finding the relevant references is a basic skill required of any researcher. So is being able to work independently (that is, without someone always telling you what to do and where to focus your research). Your current supervisor's supervisory style has forced you to do this--point out this fact in your SOP! Take credit for having initiative and independence, and do not see your final year thesis as failed. It may not be outstanding, but it has served the purpose well.


Is there an inflation in the number of authors per paper? In most (or at least many) fields of academia, peer-reviewed publications are essential.  For a compilation thesis, no papers means no PhD.  For tenure, you need papers.  To get grants, you need papers.  Universities may distribute internal funds based on the number of papers per group.  In short: publish or perish.

On the other hand, it is quite cheap to offer someone co-authorship.  Send a nearly finished manuscript to a colleague/friend at another university for review... colleague reads it, offers some advice, perhaps just minor.  First author offers co-authorship in return, and colleague has another co-authored paper for possibly less than a day of work.  One can discuss if it is the right thing to do, but that is not my question here.  It happens.  (NB: I am not suggesting such has happened in the examples listed below!)

Criteria for co-authorship differ per field, but some papers have a lot of co-authors.  Perhaps due to having an instrument that was used in an inter-comparison/validation study.  Some examples of papers with lots of co-authors, not particularly extreme:

Kasai, Y., Sagawa, H., Kreyling, D., Dupuy, E., Baron, P., Mendrok, J., Suzuki, K., Sato, T. O., Nishibori, T., Mizobuchi, S., Kikuchi, K., Manabe, T., Ozeki, H., Sugita, T., Fujiwara, M., Irimajiri, Y., Walker, K. A., Bernath, P. F., Boone, C., Stiller, G., von Clarmann, T., Orphal, J., Urban, J., Murtagh, D., Llewellyn, E. J., Degenstein, D., Bourassa, A. E., Lloyd, N. D., Froidevaux, L., Birk, M., Wagner, G., Schreier, F., Xu, J., Vogt, P., Trautmann, T., and Yasui, M.: Validation of stratospheric and mesospheric ozone observed by SMILES from International Space Station, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 2311-2338, doi:10.5194/amt-6-2311-2013, 2013.

Milz, M., Clarmann, T. v., Bernath, P., Boone, C., Buehler, S. A., Chauhan, S., Deuber, B., Feist, D. G., Funke, B., Glatthor, N., Grabowski, U., Griesfeller, A., Haefele, A., Höpfner, M., Kämpfer, N., Kellmann, S., Linden, A., Müller, S., Nakajima, H., Oelhaf, H., Remsberg, E., Rohs, S., Russell III, J. M., Schiller, C., Stiller, G. P., Sugita, T., Tanaka, T., Vömel, H., Walker, K., Wetzel, G., Yokota, T., Yushkov, V., and Zhang, G.: Validation of water vapour profiles (version 13) retrieved by the IMK/IAA scientific retrieval processor based on full resolution spectra measured by MIPAS on board Envisat, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 2, 379-399, doi:10.5194/amt-2-379-2009, 2009.

(Again, I would like to stress than I am absolutely not implying that there is anything inappropriate about these two examples!)

On the other hand, I rarely see papers written by sole authors, and I have the impression that such papers were more common in the past — but I have no evidence thereof.

Is there an inflation in the number of authors per paper?  In other words, is the number of authors per paper increasing and if so, does this reduce the value of a co-authored publication?

Related: What is the average number of articles written per author in a year and has it increased recently?

I take inflation to mean that the number of co-authors grows faster than what the content/effort of the research merits: that would imply that if there is a non-negligible amount of such an inflation, it does affect the value of the authorship.

Number of co-authors per paper is increasing
Co-authorship inflation is perceived as a problem
Perceived amount of contribution depends greatly on the position in the author list: first, last and corresponding author are perceived as contributing much, middle authors are perceived as contributing only a bit.

Long version:

First of all, the number of coauthors per paper is clearly increasing, e.g. pubmed provides statics about such questions:

Let me mainly take the optimistic position and list sensible valid reasons for increasing numbers of coauthors.

Some are well known and widely discussed

large combined scientific efforts like big instrumentation, the practical implementation of such long author lists widely and somewhat controversely discussed.
Increasingly interdisciplinary research
But I think that also the density of researchers has increased, which greatly facilitates collaboration.
E.g. I'm in a 100 000 inhabitant university town. The university has about 20 000 students and 7 000 employees (incl. professors - not sure whether this count includes technical personnel or only research staff). That alone is more than the whole town had inhabitants in 1900. PLus we also have a university of applied sciences and a number of non-university research institutes. I'm in of those reseach institutes, with about 300 employees.  So there are several thousand researchers with whom I can collaborate even person to person by bicycle/foot.
This high concentration of researchers facilitates intra- as well as interdisciplinary collaboration. These papers then naturally have more co-authors. Say, an "instrumentation" group develops a customized sensor for a group tackeling some application and yet other people develop the data analysis for the paper.
In addition, email, skype and cheap travel (plus I'm in the luxirous position that there are basically no legal travel restrictions as I'm German and EU citizen) makes it much easier than, say, 30 years ago to know, meet and collaborate with colleagues from all over the world.
Specialization, particularly now that I'm at such a big institute.
E.g. where I'm now I usually receive readily prepared samples for measurements. Actually, being specialized on data analysis I often receive just the measured data (and I'm very lucky if people bother to have a chat beforehand on the design of experiments with me). Someone else prepares the samples and someone who mainly works on instrument development does the measurements. On contrast, where I was before everyone did all of that for their own topic and samples (of course also having emphasis on some part of this work flow). Of course all these people here contribute significantly to the paper.
But it also means that there is a continuous distribution size of contributions. I've somewhere seen a notion that weights the papers by 1/total no. of authors.

Of course, also abuse of co-authorship, such as honorary authorship, does happen, and maybe the specialization can become a salami-slicing of contributions.
I very much like the possibility of including a "contributions" section and decided to do that whenever possible. I think it can help checking against the abuse. At the moment (in my field), I think the existence of such a paragraph alone is a quite strong sign of no abuse of co-authorship.

But I think there are also valid reasons that mean that nowadays more authors are on a paper without the amount of work of the different persons involved having changed:

Nowadays, sometimes technicians who did a lot of the work (and often also contribute to the development of the lab methodology) are mentioned.
Also I believe that students who do research nowadays have a far better chance to end up on the author list.
Maybe a gray zone, which also depends on customs/tradition is how to deal with the higher-up levels of supervision:

Vancouver says: providing funding alone is not sufficient (and of course the DFG goes along the same lines)
German tradition says: head of the institute is responsible for all that is going on in his/her institute, and thus is always included.
To be clear here: this does not mean (and AFAIK has never meant) only an organizational responsibility, but a scientific responibility, i.e. supervision of the project. The gray zone IMHO comes from the fact that the proper contribution can superficially look similar to improper (i.e. no proper contribution) -- it is difficult to judge from the outside: A very good supervisor may guide in a way that is hardly perceived. If this good supervisor is looking after a good student, after putting his intellectual facilities to the project may find that the good student does well, and not many changes are needed. This is a proper contribution. Yet it superficially can look very similar to a bad supervisor who does not contribute his intellect to the project or paper and just waves everything through - regardless of whether the input is good or not.

I think this paper is interesting:

Wren et al.: The write position. A survey of perceived contributions to papers based on byline position and number of authors,
EMBO Rep. 2007, 8(11), 988–991.
DOI:  10.1038/sj.embor.7401095
PMCID: PMC2247376

  In addition, we also asked respondents for their perception of general trends and attitudes towards authorship of scientific publications. Forty per cent of the respondents (35/87), for example, agreed that granting authorship to someone who does not meet journal authorship criteria was a common occurrence. Half of the respondents also agreed that author inflation makes it significantly harder to judge whether or not a candidate merits promotion.

While this does not answer the question whether there objectively is an inflation in co-authorship, it means that this is at the very least widely suspected and perceived as a problem.

Also, the outcome of that paper IMHO boils down to: perceived as authors are the first, last and corresponding authors, the middle authors are generally perceived far less.

Personally, I share the suspicion that a significant amount of co-authorship abuse happens. However, my field is small and I think I have a reasonably good overview of what is going on. This includes a (subjective) idea of where I'd suspect honorary authorship or small contributions and on the other hand also some idea of who likely contributed what (specializations) to the paper. In addition, of course the listing of the instituions makes a lot of that clear (e.g. if someone from a statistics department, someone from a clinic and someone from a spectroscopy lab is listed that gives me a very good guess who
did what).


Should I mention that I worked as a professional online poker player on my university application? I'm 27 years old and I'm applying to university. On the applications it ask the student to list activities and employment during time away from school. I played online poker for living for ≈4 years, should I mention this? Or would I be looked down upon and perceived as a gambling addict? There's no room on the application to go into details.

If I don't mention it then I'll have this big empty gap with no jobs listed – only activities. I'm applying for undergraduate studies into CS.

I like @DanRomik's analysis, but the same analysis leads me to a different conclusion: yes, list it.

First, it gives a better picture of who you are and what you have been doing.

Second, while some people may be prejudiced against poker players, in most applications there are things (and lack of things) that may be viewed positively by some committee members and negatively by other committee members.  I don't think the concern should be too great that it will lead to too much veto-ing of your application, as might be the case for being incarcerated for a violent crime, say.  (Of course this is my personal opinion and not based on any hard data from surveys--I imagine it might be an issue at some schools, but probably not most.)  I personally would find lack of activity for 4 years more of a concern.

Third, the fact that you are no longer playing poker professionally (I infer this from your use of past tense) indicates that, even if you were addicted to gambling at some point, you overcame it.


pursuing PhD without relevant bachelor degree I have a bachelor degree in Business Administration and 4 years experience in this field, however I discovered that this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life, I'm interested in Geography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). I went for a MSc in GIS but with my previous background I barely get a pass grade. Now I want to pursue a PhD in Geography, would it be possible to get an admission in USA universities? if yes I appreciate if you could give some names of these universities that accepting students with irrelevant experience and a low grade in Masters degree. Please note that my Bachelor Degree grade is second class with honor from a UK university also the MSc from UK university with the grade "Pass".

From the research I found all I can say
This a list of United States universities with GIS PhD programs

You have a MSc in GIS even with pass, just go ahead and submit your undergraduate transcript. The admissions committee will be expecting to see one (BSc Or MSc) and your application might be screened out before consideration simply because this transcript is missing.

The fact that you've had GIS master may help to overcome the bad impression left by your BSc (even in my way of thinking there is no bad impression).
Having a good letters of recommendation and one or more publications (of high quality) will help a lot more.

You certainly need to address this matter in your application, mostly by highlighting your recent MSc in GIS and explaining what has changed in your life so that you are going to be the good student.


When I compare my results to others in the literature should this go in results or discussion? In a Geopyhsics paper going into a more general interest journal (say PNAS as a good example), with the headings,

Introduction
Materials and Methods
Results
Discussion

I plan to have 3-4 paragraphs in which I compare my results with other results in the literature.

Should this section go in the results or discussion section of my paper? The comparisons are what will be of most interest to the majority of readers of the paper and my results are most relevant when viewed in the context of earlier results.

The results section is for your results. The discussion section is for discussing them - and this includes the significance in light of other results.

Keep the former purely for statements, the facts of the matter. The latter is where you move into interpretation (and expanding on very brief comments which are necessary for reading results reported).


Is it necessary to apply spaced repetition when reading research papers? I'm an undergraduate who is going to be a Ph.D candidate this fall. After reading papers extensively for writing the literature review, I realize details in some papers, though I totally understand them at the moment I read them, are almost forgotten when I try to cite these papers.
I wonder what's your habit to keep track of the papers you've read (for long-term retrieval).

If you want to remember something long term, spaced repetition is a good way to remember it.
I interact with hundreds of papers per year.  Trying to remember them all is futile.  You should prioritize.


Should I keep generic reference letters from my supervisors? As for reference letters, I have come across distinct policies.

Some recommend to only give a reference letter for a particular application - it might be tailored to the particular position which the applicant soughts for.

Other do not seem to have a problem with providing generic reference letters. I personally prefer this one, because it is clearly less work for all parties involved.

So, which kind of reference is appropiate to ask for from your supervisor? Which one is socially accepted? (I am a former student that needs a letter of reference from his former professor).

Let me answer the question in the title.

  Should I keep generic reference letters from my supervisors?

No.  You should not keep copies of reference letters, generic or otherwise.  Your supervisors should send whatever letters they write directly to the jobs to which you apply.  Those letters should never pass through your hands at all.

It's entirely up to your references what kind of letter to write.  You should always ask for strong letters individually tailored to each position you apply for, but there's no way to make anyone do that, or even to check whether they have.  Ultimately, you just have to trust the people you ask to do a good job, which implies that you should only ask people you trust to do a good job.


Where to put the citation for a review article I'm writing an article about a topic and I found a review with a block of citations that is really interesting.

If I use the same sources in the same sequence (after paraphrasing with my own words), where should I cite the review? Do I put the citation at the acknowledgement or after the used resources?

In general, citations should be placed at the point where you actually use the information, not in acknowledgements.

For a case like this, then, you might say something like:

  A useful review of this area may be found in [citation], which suggests viewing the field as follows: [paraphrased review material].


Asked to leave PhD program, is there any point in fighting to stay? My friend (who spent 3-4 years in a PhD program, discipline in social sciences) is encountering a serious situation with his committee/advisor. They are asking him to leave the program because the committee did not approve of the dissertation proposal. Earlier last summer, my friend had re-written the topic of the proposal.

Is this common? What can he do? He's a bit reticent to inform me but it seems he's not getting the support of his adviser. Can he talk to the graduate director to request to change advisors at this point? Or should he beg the committee to let him stay and try to somehow reach a compromise with his advisor on the type of dissertation he can produce. Or should he quietly leave and not put a fight? I suspect they might make things difficult for him if he persists to stay. Or should he talk to the graduate school?

When doing your PhD you need the support of someone, so it is no use trying to finish your PhD if everybody in your department is against you. So if there is a conflict between your friend and his advisor that escalated to such an extent that the two cannot fix it themselves, than it is time to move up in the hierarchy. The graduate director can either try to mediate between your friend and his advisor, or try to find an another advisor.

If that fails, then that is a horrible situation for your friend, which in most (but not all) cases a professionally run department should be able to prevent. In that case there is pretty much no other option but to leave and try his luck at another department. However, beware that that department will in all likelihood be in the same field, and scientific fields are like small villages: they gossip a lot. So, your friend will most probably enter that new department with a "reputation". Also your friend should consider his own role in the conflict in order to prevent making the same mistakes again. Remember, he already has a reputation, so he probably won't be treated as leniently as a new PhD student.


Can I take a course and get credits without enrolling in a program in the US? I am pursuing a master part time in my home country. My job is sending me to Houston for 2020, so I will have to pause my studies. I wouldn't like to stop studying next year so I wanted to know if I could take one or two courses at a Houston university given I comply with the academic requirements. Hopefully, I can get credits back home but that's not a requisite. Still, I would like to know if I would receive an official proof for having passes the courses.

This is possible at many universities. You will have to check with them about enrolling as a non-matriculated student. There will almost always be a charge for tuition, but you can enroll (many places) as a student and get a grade. It is also possible in many places to enroll for non-credit, but you probably want the "credit" option.

Whether a university back home will accept them or not is up to them and not guaranteed, but, again, many universities are willing to do this for a limited number of credits. It might be best to check there as well so you avoid surprises.


What year do you give for results, arxiv or journal year? When giving a talk, if something is past ~1990, there's only the journal publication year to give to the audience. When something has only an arxiv year, then that's clearly the appropriate year. However, sometimes things take a long time to get published (refereeing and/or backlogs) and end up making things become anachronistic. One can now have a result that was posted in 2014, then published in 2016, while another paper is posted and published in 2015 that generalizes the paper in 2014.

How do you give coherent and consistent choice of dates in a talk that are clear to the audience? Is there a guideline of which year to cite?

(I'm in mathematics if that is relevant.)

I think you are trying to do two different things in one:

Give references: This should help others to find relevant literature and in fact, during talks one often uses just "Author Name(s), Year" to do so since this information often allows to track down the reference (at least in mathematics where people do not publish too many papers per year). If you want to do this, you should show the year of publication (you could also explicitly refer to the preprint version, but would need additional space…).
Give historical background: You may want to give the audience a feel for how things developed. My two cents here: I usually do not enjoy the talks that do this very much - I go to talks to learn new mathematics and "historical background" or anecdotes distract me (and also it seems hard to deliver them good). One exception is plenaries of people who are in the business for decades and really have something interesting  to say. Back to the point: If you want to give historical background you may need more space and should say "The result, obtained between 2013 and 2015 by A and published in three papers in 2015 and 2016…"

As a consequence, I think that this is a case in which consistency and clearness are not the same thing…


Wearing dressy clothes in the "lab" I'm a Ph.D. candidate in a theoretical field, so there is only math and programming involved (as opposed to a wet lab). The environment is very casual, everyone just wears jeans and a t-shirt everyday. Sometimes I dress semi-formally (e.g. a dress shirt tucked into nice slacks) just because I like to. I notice people tend to give me quite odd stares when I do this. In the blue hair thread, a highly voted comment remarked:

  I only remember one situation in my field where somebody’s looks were commented on and that was somebody wearing a tie and a suit as a PhD student.

and further in the conference appearance thread (which is a dressier occasion than daily lab work):

  if you are young (<30) , wearing a suit and a tie would probably seem a little weird.

I'm likely over-thinking this, but is it inappropriate for me to wear dressy clothes in the lab? Obviously it's not offensive or anything, but I wouldn't want to make anyone else feel uncomfortable or have them dislike me for what I wear. Any thoughts?

It is perfectly appropriate since most university dress codes for students is to make sure nothing offensive or too revealing is worn (local definitions for both of those are widely variable). It sounds like you are having trouble working out if it is simply that you are unusual or if it is actually a problem. The simple solution is to ask some of the folks in your lab what they think.

If it turns out you are worrying on their behalf when they don't care, then keep wearing nice clothes.

If it turns out they care then you actually need to address that, whether by asserting your right to wear what you choose to within the official dress code or by making adjustments. Since clothes are social markers it might be what they perceive to be your statement that is the problem and not the clothes themselves.

It is always possible they are glaring at you for completely unrelated reasons. Again feeling that out is worth your time.

A personal story, I wear Hawaiian print shirts every day while teaching. One day I wore a plain button down shirt and my students asked what was wrong. It was laundry day. So don't discount the possibility that the only thing going on is that you stand out from the norm and nothing beyond that.


What to do when you are a promised a research-based research associate role but are required to act in an IT support role? First some background. Two years ago I joined a research group as a research associate. My intention in obtaining that position was to publish with the group and build some academic capital, but in the two years I have been there, I have been steered toward support work and software development, and away from research.  I have not been included in any of the group's publications and have had to publish unrelated work on my own.

I subsequently found out that to justify the Ph.D. requirement for the position I hold, my employers added a few sentences to the job description to suggest that research would be the central focus of the work. Within my group I am seen as a system administrator and IT specialist. This is apparently what my employers really wanted.

I’m also acutely aware that I lack the superior eloquence of my more persuasive colleagues. (This inability would hamper me not only in academia but in virtually any career.) My superiors cannot be persuaded that the system I have been assigned to create, intended to demonstrate (nonexistent) technical capabilities to a skeptical funding agency, has already been executed by several competent, experienced and well-funded teams of more than one person. The project is an all-consuming, deeply anxiety inducing death march for which I am underqualified. Against this, I have at least three competing projects which cannot receive the exclusive, full-time attention each deserves, and I am continually interrupted with trivial software installation requests and technical failures rare enough not to have been documented in the ever-expanding global online archive of technical minutia, to which StackExchange is a prominent contributor. The perspective is that information technology hasn’t specialized in the past 30 years–nothing is too trivial to undertake (except for them) or too specialized and technical to require immersion and consistent practice. It is the menial and urgent work of cleaning digital bedpans.

I don’t have a family or children–I did not want them. I wanted to work in an environment where I could be paid for research. The compensation is $24K less than the administrative position I previously held. I feel that it is self-defeating for me to continue supporting professors, postdocs, and postgraduate and undergraduate students. There is little incentive to promote an individual assigned to projects that provide funding for the group, and to activities that support the research efforts of others, but which are unlikely themselves to result in publication.

But since my work as a mental technician is valued, I'm wondering whether I might as well seek better compensated employment outside of academia, where I would not have the indignity of supporting persons whose career opportunities are foreclosed to me.

Your writing certainly does not betray a "lack of eloquence"; in fact, it's probably better than most of the computer scientists I know!

That said, as JeffE has indicated, you are being mishandled by your employers, and I would strongly encourage you to find a new position as soon as possible. However, it is important to point out that your situation is not academic versus industrial, but instead good employer versus bad employer. The distinction is crucial.

In any position, there will be parts of your job that are less appealing than others; the absolute "dream job" which you're happy about 100% only exists in Utopia. The key is to make sure that the important parts of your job give you more satisfaction than the less desirable aspects take away. Here, this clearly isn't the case. That does not mean that you can't find what you're looking for, either in industry or in academia. What it does mean is that you need to find it somewhere else than where you are, because it's clear the job isn't going to change in any sort of meaningful way in the short term.


Pursue master's in Cybersecurity if I am not a US Citizen? I am applying for masters in computer science. Is a Master's at CyberSecurity possible?

Can I pursue a Master's in a field like CyberSecurity if I am not a US Citizen? Most research is sponsored by DARPA or the government(I suppose requires security clearance). It would make it difficult for me to be involved with anything even after been admitted and maybe it will steer the admissions from rejecting my application.

Most research is sponsored by DARPA or the government (I suppose requires security clearance)

Some specific research projects in cybersecurity may require security clearance, or are restricted to US citizens. The vast majority are not restricted in this way. You can see this for yourself by looking at the author lists of papers published in conferences like S&P. Specifically look at those papers coming from US institutions and note the many papers with at least one author who is an international student.

US graduate programs in cybersecurity routinely admit large numbers of international students, who for the most part have access to the same research opportunities as students that are US citizens. If you want to be sure that the program you are applying to conducts research in which non-citizens may participate, check the authors of publications coming out of that lab - look up the authors online, and see if there are many international students among them. Some labs might also have a web page where they list current graduate students involved in their research.

(You obviously can't determine citizenship of an author accurately with a Google search, but if there are a large number of international students involved, it's almost certain that there are also non-citizens involved.)

One difference is that you will not be eligible for certain federal fellowships specifically for US citizen students involved in cybersecurity research, such as the Scholarship for Service program.


TOEFL IELTS GRE scores expired but with work experiences in English speaking countries If one wants to apply for grad school in the USA, and one's TOEFL, IELTS, GRE scores all expired, but one has all the following experiences able to prove ones' English proficiency:

one did an exchange student program in an English speaking country;
one has work experiences in English speaking countries;
one has published many papers in English.

Will these be sufficient reasons to persuade the admission office and pass their English requirements?

If a school requires test scores and they’re expired, you will likely be required to take the test again. Some schools may accept expired scores for evaluation purposes but will require valid scores to complete the matriculation process. In many US public schools, the TOEFL/IELTS scores are required to establish ability to work as an RA or TA, so having valid scores is necessary.


Should I put on my CV a postdoc which I am going to quit? I am currently doing a postdoc but I am looking for something else as the position turned out to be completely different with respect to the job description.
I have been in this postdoc for 4 months and I will leave as soon as I find another job. Should I include this short period on my CV?
I am applying to research positions both in academia and industry.

You absolutely should put this postdoc on your resume. It is where you are currently working, and given the times you have no good idea just how much longer you will be working there. The fact that you have a position is a positive indicator.
Now, this will raise some questions in the hiring process at other institutions, but a 4+ month hiatus would be similarly questioned. And you have good explanations as to why you want to move on. Note that in 6 or so months nobody is really going to be worried about it, since postdocs are limited term in the first place.
As an aside, I would say that you should perform more due diligence in selecting your next position, since there seems to have been some miscommunication. And, no, having a postdoc at a national lab is not generally seen as a negative either in industry or academia.


What are the chances for an H4 international masters student to get a teaching job at a US community college? I have a B.E Civil Engineering and M.tech Environmental Engineering degree from India. Also I have 2 years of teaching experience in an Engineering college in India. Currently I am residing in US. Is it possible for me to get a teaching job in community colleges? How should I prepare myself to get a teaching job here?

To clarify: I have an H4 visa.

You clarified that you have an H4 visa. As you know, you are not normally permitted to work under an H4 visa. Even unpaid tutoring might be considered a violation of the H4 terms. So you would need to first change your visa status by either:

Applying for a green card
Getting your own H1B or other work visa

As far as getting your own H1, unless you are located in a place where there is an absolute dearth of available faculty, I think it highly unlikely that a community college will sponsor a work visa for you. The amount of paperwork that needs to be done is tremendous (the Department of Labor certification itself is an inch thick)-- as well as the filing costs and attorney's fees. They may also have no experience doing this, unlike the international scholar's office at a larger institution. Finally, many CC faculty are part-time so you may not even qualify for a H1B to begin with.

I would ask your spouse to apply for permanent residency for the both of you and then go on the job market once you have employment authorization.


Should I pay the teammate of the research if they don't contribute many things? I am an undergraduate student and I join the research project with two other friends (same class) under my professor supervision. I got some money for the project, this money is divided equally to every member and I have a bonus for the leader position.
During the research, my teammate doesn't contribute much work.  When I submit the paper to the conference, they said I should remove their name and give them the money.
In my opinion, I don't want to give them the money because the total budget is not much, just enough for the submission fee.
So what should I do now, this is the first time I submit the paper and I don't want to feel awkward with them because we still have to study together?
Update:
After considering all the advice from you guys, I decided to give them their money as the team discussed at the beginning of the project. I think it is fair and they deserve to be paid because they do put their effort into this project.

Use the money for whatever purpose it was assigned: If assigned to pay project team members equally plus your bonus for the leader position, do that. If assigned for submission fee, pay that. If assigned with no remit, do as you see fit. Personally, I think everyone deserves to be paid for their work, after costs (i.e., the submission fee).


Reporting Plagiarism in Older research Disclaimer: I apologize for the vagueness of this post as i do not wish to speak negatively about anyone particular on a public forum.

I've been doing research on a specific topic looking at two articles, one a book published in the 1991 and the other an article published in 1964 in an academic journal.

I noticed that the procedures followed in both papers are very similar and the method seems almost identical, However the 1991 book makes no reference to the 1964 paper and claims its model is new.

I find this incredibly dishonest, its possible that I'm an idealist with reference to a highschool understanding of academic honesty but I think at the very least it should be reported to the publishers.

How do I report possible academic plagiarism to publishers? Is such an activity worthwhile?

The perception of plagiarism has evolved significantly along the years, and practices that are not tolerated nowadays were instead not unheard of in the recent past. I recall seeing several papers from the 1980s and 90s replicated almost identically in different venues, without any cross-citation or copyright notice.

Moreover, bibliographic searches in the past were not so easy, and the authors of the most recent work may have found the same result independently and missed the older work.

Since almost thirty years have now passed from the publication of the second article, I'd ignore the matter: nothing really useful would come out by bringing it up.


crossroads between continue working or going to a PhD Here is my situation, I got a MSc from a renowned university in Europe and I have been working as a lecturer in a non-EU country until now. I am in my mid thirties (upper part =)) and I have came to an important decision to make:

I have been offered to work as a full time lecturer with all my benefits in a local renowned university in the country that I am staying
At the same time I have an offer to follow PhD studies in a ZA university, but I am not very keen about it, mainly because the problems with the crime rates and low salary per month

I have seen that there are a lot of possibilities for getting funded PhD positions worldwide, but I am afraid of the following:

That after my studies and if I do not get an academic position in the place that I did my PhD studies, to not be able to get another academic position as the one that they are currently offering me (I will be ending my PhD at 42 years old approximately)

I have a high interest for academia, unfortunately the universities in the country that I am working are not so much oriented to research, but only to lecturing. That is why I feel like bored and stressed to do the same task everyday, to do research is very hard because I must occupy my little free time and most of my ideas get stuck after a while (mainly because there are not other academics to talk about problems encountered along my projects)

I would not really like just to end with the MSc and I feel that is something missing in my life, this has lead me to a problem of anxiety and depression.

Any advice?

Thanks

First of all, nobody can tell you what the best decision for you in such a decision is.

That said, what you need to look at are the opportunity costs of your different options. What do you gain from each of the different possible choices? Equally important is to ask yourself what will you have to give up to pursue those choices.

For you, you need to ask yourself:

How important is being a researcher compared to being a lecturer?
How difficult do you think it will be to get a position when you finish your PhD?
Is your offer of graduate admission worth the upheaval it would cause in your life?

And other questions like these. Once you get a feel for how important these issues are to you, the easier it will be to make a decision. It will still be a very tough decision (these sorts of choices always are), but ultimately it will be your decision, and you'll need to be comfortable with the decision you've reached.


Salary determinants for faculty at public schools in the US A follow-up question to this as I feel it is very broad. For example, consider this link displaying the salaries at a particular department in a public school in US.

I see very wide variations within assistant professors. Some assoc. profs earn lesser than asst. profs; people of the same age earn differently and so on. So, my question is, which of the following factors influence salaries at public schools and how?

Age
Experience as a faculty member
PhD at a top school
Number of years after undergrad/PhD
Experience at another school (Does a Stanford faculty with 5 years exp. moving to a public school earn more than a faculty member at the same school for 5 years?)
Number/Impact of publications
Any other factor

Given all data is in public, I assume there can be no pay negotiations, so is it possible to determine one's salary in advance before the interview process itself?

In addition to @eykanal's list, there are several factors that can lead to salary variance even within a single department:

Negotiating ability — Some profs are simply better at negotiating for better salaries than others, even with comparable publications, funding, students, teaching evaluations, etc.  Conversely, some people have lower salaries simply because they don't realize they can ask for more.
Time in the department/time since PhD — All else being equal, the longer you've been here, the higher your salary.  But as usual, all else is never equal.  In particular, faculty hired with more post-PhD experience are generally paid more.
Performance — In most departments, faculty are reviewed annually, if only very lightly, to make sure we're doing our jobs.  Salary is one of the few levers that department chairs have to reward faculty who are doing exceptionally well, or motivating faculty (especially with tenure) who aren't (seen to be) pulling their weight.
Offers from other institutions — This is one of the biggest sources of salary jumps.  If a valuable prof in your department starts getting offers from other places, you department is very likely to raise their salary to keep them.
Administrative bonuses — Faculty who hold significant administrative positions (like associate head, or chair of the undergraduate program) often get a salary boost.
Variance in the job market — New assistant profs are generally hired at the prevailing salary rate for new assistant profs.  Departments do not collaborate explicitly, but information does flow through applicants who get multiple offers.  For example, about 10 years ago, a top-rated US CS department (not mine) decided to significantly increase its salary offers to new profs, to gain a strategic advantage over other departments.  It didn't work; other departments (including mine) just raised their offers to compensate.  It took several years to correct the resulting salary inversions.
Variance in university budgets — When times are good, faculty get raises.  When times are not so good, faculty don't get raises.  These times do not necessarily align with fluctuations in market rates.
Intramural politics — Academics are human, and subject to human failings.  Everyone who reaches a position of power arrives with their own agenda; sometimes that agenda favors certain people or groups over others, for reasons that are more personal than objectively fair.  In some departments, fights over limited resources can be ugly and brutal ("because the stakes are so low"); sometimes that ugliness is reflected in salary differences.


How much does it cost to make a MOOC universally accessible, as defined by the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990? Is there any research/study/survey that tried to quantify the cost of making  a MOOC universally accessible, as defined by the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 (mirror)?

I am aware that the cost depends on several factors, such as the type of content the MOOC contains ( video / text / etc.).

The question is motivated by the lawsuits some educational firms received / feared to receive to due to lack of accessibility of the course materials:

Berkeley will begin removing more than 20,000 video and audio lectures from public view as a result of a Justice Department accessibility order  (mirror)  (published on  2017-03-06)
Videos for Stanford's CS224d No Longer Available  (mirror) (published in  2016)
Settlement Agreement (“Agreement”) are the United States of America (“United States”) and edX Inc. (“edX”).   (mirror) (published on April 2, 2015)
Agreements with Colleges and Universities Regarding Accessibility (mirror)

The question asks for studies or research, and I don't know of any, but I do have some first-hand experience.

Meeting the Section 508* requirements for Web pages used in such a course is effectively without cost if one starts out to make such pages accessible.  Retrofitting might cost as much as the original project, but the cost should be near zero for modern MOOCs.

Closed (or open) captions are very expensive.  Unless done at a foreign sweatshop, cost is $5.00 to $15.00 per minute, so something like $12,000 as a minimum, up over $35,000, for a one-semester course.  In other words, the captioning can cost more than the professor.  That's at least part of why some institutions employ ASL interpreters for class sections with deaf students.

Edited to add: I worry about the quality of the content for captions of university-level courses produced offshore at cheap rates, but have no personal experience.  I have experimented extensively with captioning through voice recognition for my own courses.  It's getting much better, but still requires extensive manual editing.  The $5-15 number given above could be reduced by using student labor, especially if the students are majors in the material being subtitled.

Captioning addresses the needs of the deaf.  Making course materials available to the blind means being sure that everything that is shown is also described, either by the speaker who is presenting or in a manner that can be rendered through text-to-speech.  The latter means being sure that there are good "alt" descriptions of images and that appropriate markup, e.g. MathML, is used for things like equations.  In my own discipline, computing, that isn't onerous, and the costs sort-of disappear in the weeds of getting the course done.  Things might be very different in a discipline like the visual arts.

*Section 508 is part of the Rehabilitation Act, not the ADA, but you still have to do it.


School Director: T/TT boss or not? I'm an assistant professor at an undergraduate institution with significant research expectations.  A number of my colleagues insist on calling our school director their boss, which I find bizarre. In my training,
the head of an academic unit is a distinguished colleague to whom we are indebted to -- they sacrifice research time to perform necessary but tedious bureaucratic work -- but not a 'boss'. What is the norm at most institutions? Is there a division between primarily teaching and research institutions?

While it is indeed bizarre and there are many ways in which a school director would not be the same as a boss in a traditional workplace, it is technically correct. An academic unit director such as a department chair, head, school director etc is technically the supervisor of everyone in that unit. Faculty are still employees and have someone above them (a person they “report to” in traditional-workplace lingo) in the organizational chart. If the employee misbehaves, the director would be the person who would need to handle the situation; if the employee has some special life situation or a request that needs accommodating, the director is the person they need to see; etc. These are all functions of a boss or supervisor.

Two notable aspects of an academic director’s work that make them rather different than traditional bosses are:

The academic supervisor does not have as many powers as a traditional boss, and is constrained in many ways by the institution’s policies and by the academic culture of shared governance. In particular, he/she can’t usually make hiring and firing decisions. And faculty members with tenure cannot get fired anyway, so the workplace dynamics and psychology of how people relate to their “boss” are much different than in other places.
In many academic units the directorship rotates every few years. This results in a situation where the person who is your boss today could be your underling tomorrow. Again, this frequent change in the organizational hierarchy drastically changes people’s perception of what it means to be the boss, to the extent that the word “boss” no longer sounds very appropriate to describe the role of the supervisor. But as I said, it is technically correct.