Applying for a post-graduate degree with an Italian three-year bachelor's degree I will get an information science under graduate degree this July in an Italian university. I want to apply for a computer science degree at an American university. Here in Italy the high school lasts five years instead of four, and the undergraduate degree (laurea triennale) lasts three years instead of four.

So my concerns are:

Is there a way to get a list of all American universities that accept an Italian laurea triennale as an undergraduate degreee?
Since I will graduate in July and in most universities the next semester begins in September, I think that I should start applying from now. So the question is: do they allow students to apply even before they got the graduate degree and TOEFL?

It is standard practice in the US for students to apply for graduate programs before they have received a degree, and the TOEFL exam is normally taken as part of the admissions process.

However, you should also be aware of the fact that you have largely missed the admissions "window" for this coming fall: at most American graduate schools, you need to apply during the previous fall. So, for instance, to apply for admission in September 2014, you should have applied during the period (roughly) September 2013 to January 2014.

It is unlikely you will be able to secure admission to any American graduate school starting this September. At best you will be able to apply for admission in the fall of 2015. The only exception will be schools with "rolling admissions," which accept applications at any time.

As for the acceptance of the "triennale" degree, you will need to ask the individual schools you're interested in; I'm not aware of any such master list (because the number of recipients of such degrees who enroll in any particular program probably isn't big enough to support such a list).


Can I somehow leverage my willingness to work for a lower salary in job applications? In the future, I will be on the market for a temporary academic position (postdoc or visitor) in the US, in math. Because of my lifestyle and financial situation, I do not need a large salary. Ballpark, let's say I would be willing to work an academic job for about half the typical salary.

Is there any way I can use this to my advantage? I mean: is it possible to use the fact that I am willing to work for cheap to get a job that is better (with respect to some criteria like quantity and caliber of research at the university, strength of students at the university, desirability of teaching duties,...) than I would have been able to get otherwise?

There is some possibility of this, but it would work only in certain restricted ways and in certain limited contexts.  I don't know of any reputable college or university that, when considering applicants for a position that already exists, consider an applicant's willingness to accept less than the standard salary as a point in their favor.  If you think this through, probably you can see why it makes everyone look bad.

You might have some luck getting an academic institution to make a position with an unusual combination of duties and salary that is tailored to you.  Here are some possibilities:

At some institutions, faculty couples "share" positions in some fractional way: e.g. the couple together has 1.5 positions and each does 75% of the work of a full-time faculty member.  If someone had come to me with this as a new idea I would have rejected it as ridiculous, but nevertheless it actually exists in the real world.  I know several examples.
Similarly, you may be able to arrange a single position which is "part time" in some specified way: so maybe it is a visiting teaching position with half the normal teaching load and half the normal salary.  In the very short term, such positions are common.  It is not directly in the spirit of what you are asking about, but the effect could be similar.
Finally, if salary is really no object, it is much easier to get a visiting scholar position which pays no salary whatsoever.  I did this myself once: the summer after getting my PhD (at Harvard), I moved back to my hometown (Philadelphia) and got an apartment in University (of Pennsylvania) City.  I noticed that there was a wonderful library and gym a few blocks away from me, and I presented myself "cold" in the UPenn math department with a copy of my CV and my PhD.  I walked out as a Visiting Scholar.  (Nowadays I think that what I did was a little weird: why not first contact some specific faculty member in the department?  Maybe I didn't know who to contact, or maybe I was curious to see if walking in cold and presenting Ivy League credentials would actually work.  It did!  This "position" still appears on my CV.)

If what you are interested is not covered by the above, then I would say: in general this will be hard to swing, but if you have a more specific arrangement in mind you can ask about that (e.g. here) and maybe it can be worked out.

Let me end by saying something that I suspect you already know: if you aspire to have anything like a conventional academic career in the future, advertising yourself broadly as someone who is willing to work at a discounted rate is a pretty bad idea.  If you do seek to pursue this idea of yours, I would do so with much discretion.


Questions about research assistant posts Warning: The following are stupid questions. (Read in Kiefer Sutherland's voice)

Question 1 Is it weird or stupid to apply for a research assistant post at some university or research institute, and not a company in industry, with the purpose to gain research experience to boost profile for graduate studies, and why/why not?

I think it could be weird or stupid for the same reason why you shouldn't mention potential graduate study plans during job interviews.
Then again, my understanding of research assistant posts is that they wouldn't be for long term employment as is the case in industry, say, "research" analyst jobs in industry. Rather research assistant posts are usually on temporary contract. So, yeah, I am just doing this with the intention to apply for a PhD because I'm apparently not yet good enough to get into a PhD program.
Based on what I've read online, this is the baby version of a postdoc, so postdoc is to faculty applications as research assistant is to PhD applications.

Question 2 Who are the usual applicants of research assistant posts?

I can't think of any applicants for research assistant posts besides people exactly in my situation: wants to go to grad school, is waiting in some process of grad school applications (for the application period to start, for the results of application to come out or, for those already accepted, for the semester to start) or wants to boost profile for grad school. Please enlighten for other cases.

Question 3 What's the difference between a research assistant post and an internship in industry?

I think I recall seeing some research assistant posts that pay as much as a full time job in industry, so I'm guessing research assistant posts are not necessarily simply academic versions of internships in industry. I think things like this are academic versions of internships in industry. But my understanding is that they are both short-term. I guess a research assistant post would be analogous to a temporary contract job in industry.

Question 4 To confirm, if research assistant posts are indeed on temporary contract or short-term, is there indeed a risk for someone to quit their regular full time industry job hoping that a research assistant post will boost their grad school application profile?

Background:

Since I graduated master's in 2015-6, I started work as a maths teacher at a branch of a company that is something like Kumon. I guess I haven't done research there.
I'm waiting for results for PhD/MPhil applications for 2018-9. I already got rejected for one (well technically I'm not on the list of applicants who got initially offered admission, so I guess I could still be accepted if others on the list back out), and I think I'll be rejected for others.
ETA: Not sure if this counts but I actually got accepted for an interview a few days after the deadline (early December 2017) for one university but the PhD position given to me by the professor said something like "experienced in XX" which I don't have. I'm still waiting to hear back from the university.
For 2019-20 applications, I am thinking to boost my profile by, among others, working as a research assistant, either full time or part time. In the former case, I'll have to quit my job. In the latter case, I think I can downgrade to part time.

The following are related questions:

How can I improve my research experience for PhD application?

How to boost academic profile for Master's application

How to gain research experience after master program?

If I cannot get sufficient recommendation letters, what can I do?

Q1: Is it weird or stupid to apply for a research assistant post at some university or research institute, and not a company in industry, with the purpose to gain research experience to boost profile for graduate studies, and why/why not?

Not at all. In my field (biology), this is quite common, the only reason not to do it is that you think you can get admitted without it and are trying to save time. However usually the experience is also very valuable in learning what research is like and whether you even want to do it, or whether you like the field. In other STEM disciplines it also seems to be very common. I've heard of it happening in social sciences (psychology, sociology, history) as well, but I'm not sure how things are exactly there. Usually it's up to the PI if they want an assistant or not. There is a lot of variation there. Some PIs love it, some have zero interest. But there's no easy way to tell, and asking rarely hurts.

You should absolutely mention future grad school plans, firstly because many PIs strongly prefer people who are planning to go to grad school (they're seen as more motivated, there is less commitment as opposed to an indefinite employment contract, and hiring assistants in this way is seen as part of a professor's responsibility to future generations). I am not sure if the same can be said for people who seek similar posts in industry - most of my personal acquaintances have worked in university or national institute labs, not in companies. However, honestly it would be naive in this day and age for a company to expect 22 year old BS grads taking a lab tech position and be fully committed "lifers" - and if they really want you to not run off to grad school after a year, they should put it in the contract.

I'd say it's very different from a baby version of a postdoc. Postdocs are often expected to independently come up with hypotheses, design experiments, locate and order equipment/materials as needed, write grants and submit manuscripts to peer-reviewed journals. Rarely they may also teach and mentor others. As an assistant you will most likely be part of a postdoc's project - duties may range from mechanically doing some simple technique over and over (like running gels or feeding mice) to semi-independently doing a small part of the postdoc's project under constant supervision (but ideally you would always be expected to demonstrate good understanding of the science in discussions, even if you are doing pretty monotonous experiments). You may be expected to help write small parts of the paper, such as methods sections for experiments you did. Should you end up with a PI who encourages independence, you might design experiments or even provide feedback on equipment purchases, and if you are really lucky and hardworking you may even have the opportunity to submit a first author paper. But that would be exceeding everyone's expectations; needless to say, it will look very good on your application.

  Q2: Who are the usual applicants of research assistant posts?

I can't say for sure since I've never been in a position to hire such people. But based on experience and what I heard, the vast majority are either undergraduate students or recent grads planning to apply to a PhD program. Sometimes there are premeds but academics look down on them. There are occasionally people who don't necessarily have future plans, and are just curious about science, or maybe they want to do something related like patent law and decided to get a taste of what it's like in the trenches. I've never heard of anyone doing it just to pay bills, those people will usually have very long term positions (which may sometimes be called "technician", "scientist" or "assistant" etc).

  Q3: What's the difference between a research assistant post and an internship in industry?

Interns are usually expected to be short-term (3-6 mo) and part-time (<20 h/wk). The internship will often be coordinated with the university, and may be required to complete the degree, and result in a grade or certificate. These days governments try to crack down on unpaid work, but in practice there may be an (arguably unethical) expectation that interns work for free. Assistants should be longer term (>1 yr) and paid (and thus officially employed and eligible for benefits - interns sometimes "just come"). But the terms aren't too reliable - the goal of the posting is usually marketing first, accuracy second.

The linked post is for an MS student, those can often become involved in their PI's side-ventures depending on how things go. Usually it wouldn't apply to assistants both because their contribution is smaller, they are less independent, and they will soon begin a PhD program where they will be too busy to follow up. It can happen, though, if the professor really likes the assistant and the assistant isn't totally committed to going to grad school right away.

  Q4: To confirm, if research assistant posts are indeed on temporary contract or short-term, is there indeed a risk for someone to quit their regular full time industry job hoping that a research assistant post will boost their grad school application profile?

Anyone can quit a job any time. Nobody can make you show up. That's one of the few aces employees have in their deck against employers. However, grad applications give a lot of weight to recommendations. The experience you have won't be as well regarded if there isn't an accompanying letter from your boss praising you to the high heavens and saying in detail what a great job you did and what a golden grad student you would make. Obviously if the boss is pissed off at you for quitting out of nowhere, obtaining the letter might be an issue. However, if you worked with your boss on this, discussed your plans ahead of time, did whatever you could and the boss was still unreasonable the admission committee might take that into consideration. Sometimes there are people who did a stint in a lab and did good work but for some reason their supervisor really didn't like them so when they submit the letters and none of them are from this place they worked at. Then you have to sweat a little explaining all of this in a positive way while writing your SoP and other materials, bragging about how great your experience was but at the same time stepping around the fact that clearly you got your boss so mad you couldn't even get a letter from them.


What criteria should be used to shorten the list of references? I want to submit a paper to a natural science journal, and there is a limit in the number of references.
All the current references are relevant since a reader can double-check what I claim.
But if I had to cut the references, what criteria should I use? I referenced some news articles that back my claims about current development. I certainly would cut those for other journal articles in a science journal. What is the recommended way to go here?

Reference limits aren't typically literally there to limit the number of references, they are there to limit the length and breadth of the Introduction and Discussion.
Rather than targeting specific references, look whether there are intro/discussion (I'd start with the intro) sections that aren't really needed, or can be consolidated to a brief statement and citation of a review. Probably if you are going as far as citing news articles you have too wide a view in the introduction.


Purchasing books that are out-of-print I've just returned Principles of Modern Thermodynamics to the library. However, it is a terrific book that allowed me to understand thermodynamics that I have never would had I not run across this book. I have tried to purchase it, but it seems that this book is out of print. Therefore, my question is: are there any vendors that might offer officially out-of-print books for sale?

There is a number of websites that specialize on out-of-print or rare books. Those sites include BookFinder, used books section on AddALL, rare or out-of-print section on The Bookloft and others. In your particular case, the book that you're looking for (the 1995 edition of B. N. Roy's Principles of Modern Thermodynamics) can be easily found for sale on Amazon UK site via BookFinder and via AddALL. Here's the resulting URL: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0750300191.


Choosing a reference letter recommender When choosing a recommender for a graduate fellowship application, do people generally request a reference letter from the professor in whose class they received A's? I am considering asking one of two professors for a reference letter for a fellowship application. I took a 1-credit professional skills course in which I received an A in, and in the other more academic 3-credit course, I received a B. However, I have had a few conversations with the professor who teaches this 3-credit course. Generally, in any circumstance regarding a fellowship application, which recommender would people generally choose, the professor in whose course they received an A in or the professor whose office hours they have visited?

You want a recommendation from somebody who can speak to your strong qualities.  This means faculty members you have interacted with; the more substantial the interactions, the better.  However, you also want the interactions to have demonstrated your existing skill and future potential.

If you took a one-credit class from a professor and have had little interaction with them otherwise, they probably cannot write you a strong letter.  The one-credit class probably had more limited interactions between you and the instructor.  if you were very active in class, that would be good.  But if you were not an extremely active questioner and class participant, that means the professor will have very limited basis for evaluating you (especially since one-credit classes tend to have rather little homework on the basis of which you can be evaluated).

In contrast, a professor you have taken a full three-credit course from and also interacted with outside class will probably have a much better idea what your skill level and potential are.  The downside is obviously that you earned a lower grade in the class.  Unless you had a lot of in-class interactions with the first professor, I think you should get in touch with the second professor and simply ask them whether they can write you a strong recommendation.  If they say they cannot, I would go with the first professor.  Otherwise, I go with the second professor.


How do you balance producing results with learning new skills? On the one hand, I'd like to produce a few graphs every week so my project can move forward.  Taking a month off to learn a new programming language, do a literature review, or work through a relevant textbook would hurt the pace of my research, and my advisor would wonder why I haven't done anything for a month.

On the other hand, if I take time off to learn a new skill, it may make my research faster and more efficient in the future.

What is the best way to balance these competing demands?

A common fallacy I observe in students I supervise is that they think they need to spend some time "learning X" before they can use X productively in their research.

If you are doing research, the most efficient way to "learn X" (where X is a programming language, methodology, or subject area, that may be of use in your research) is almost always to learn it by immediately applying it directly to your research.

In other words, I tell my students that if they are "taking time off" to learn something before starting to use it in their work, they are doing it wrong.

I would give the same advice to you: instead of taking time off to learn a new skill, start applying it to your research right now.  You might be a little slower than usual for a couple of weeks (because you aren't comfortable with the new skill yet), but you'll still be making forward progress on your research, while learning the new thing.

Edit: This applies even more if the thing you are learning is a fundamental skill, and not an "extra" technique. Fundamental skills include things like writing readable code, scientific writing, keeping good notes, etc. The best way to learn these things is to actively and consciously work on them as you do research. It's not generally effective to take "time off" to read some books, then go back to doing research and start practicing the things you read about.

If it's a new skill that can't be directly applied to your research, then you definitely shouldn't take time off to learn it. But you might consider spending time on it during intervals of downtime. You can't spend 100% of your working time on your primary research anyways (mental fatigue sets in at some point), so spend time learning the new skill when you need a break.


Is it considered unusual in the United States for a professor to run a class outside on the grass? An American professor lectured in our university about American higher education. He mentioned that the university environment is not limited to formal education (what is the case in Europe more or less). A university courtyard is like a park and students are always hanging around.

He also mentioned that it is not unusual for a professor to gather students and sit on the grass outside and run a class. This is something that I have never seen in Europe (at least Hungary where I study).

Most universities I have seen (including new campuses built by EU funding) are just buildings, because people believe yards are waste of money. Things happens in buildings. In these universities, students go to the class, and after that, they quickly leave the university.

A university courtyard is like a park and students are always hanging around.

There are thousands of colleges and universities in the United States. Some have large campuses with lots of space to hang around. Some are urban campuses with little outdoor space available. Some are entirely contained in one building. Some have mainly residential students, and some have mainly (or only, or some) commuter students who live off-campus. Some serve mostly full-time students, while others cater to students who are doing other things outside of school and don't have much free time to hang around. Some are in boring locations with not much else to do, and some are in fun cities with many events and activities available outside the university. Some are in pleasant climates and some are in places that are very hot or very cold for some or part of the year.

All of the factors above and many more go into determining whether a given university, out of the thousands, is one where students tend to hang around outside.

  He also mentioned that it is not unusual for a professor to gather students and sit on the grass outside and run a class.

It may happen occasionally (see example), but it is very unusual. I have never attended, taught, or seen such a class firsthand.

Here is an article with some more anecdotes.

  He mentioned that the university environment is not limited to formal education (what is the case in Europe more or less).

If a professor decides to teach outside, it's still a formal class, not a social event.


Fewer publications hinder postdoc opportunities? I graduated with PhD in a STEM field from a good university in the US with only one "good" journal paper published currently. I am working on another one but it won't appear in my CV since I am sending out applications for postdoc jobs starting this month. I would like to have a reality check on whether I stand anywhere near to getting a postdoc position? or it will only be a futile activity on my part. I am considering applying in both US and EU. Your insights much appreciated.

In my opinion, publications should not affect if you have sufficient experience and skills in the research project you are applying to and research field of the group you wish to join. Hiring postdoc researchers usually involves discussions with the professor who is hiring the postdoc researcher and probably a hiring committee at the institution. Therefore I think you may have the chance to describe your research activities and skills. You can also talk about your papers which are under preparation and those submitted and under review.
Therefore, as far as you can discuss your background and experience with your future mentor, I do not see any reason to be worried about part of your research publication which still need time to be published. People being responsible in hiring you, will see a package of your skills, experience, quality of your studies and many other factors and these can help increase your chances of finding a good postdoc position.


How to reference Chinese names? Following a question on here, I also decided to reflect on my referencing skills. My style guide APA Harvard 6th wants names as Last, First. But with Chinese names I have this problem: do I reverse their name or has it already been reversed?

And do all Chinese authors follow this last name-first name convention, so because of this ambiguity is it correct to cite all Chinese names e.g. Xiu Ling, with the italics always being the last name?

  When writing academic articles or essays, espeically in the bibliography, I also have trouble deciphering which to use for Chinese authors and what I do is tend to reverse it, because I know authors would not be aware of the Last Name, First Name convention in the west ***, especially if the Chinese authors in question do not have a big online presence (a name format set out by the authors themselves). And espeically if the style guide wants it a certain way e.g. APA Harvard wants it: Last, First too even for Western names e.g. Julia Roberts. Roberts, Julia. etc.

*** and if Westerners cite the wrong format e.g. Xiu Ling and they have to write it in APA style they may write it as Ling, Xiu incorrectly.

In publications outside China, I would expect Chinese authors to publish in the same format as other authors, "given name family name". Of course it is possible that the authors made a mistake, but ultimately you cannot necessarily account for that and I would suggest that it is not particularly likely.

However for Chinese publications, even those Chinese journals published in English, the order of the names may well be written in the Chinese format of family name first. Another thing to remember is that the vast majority of Chinese family names are one character/syllable, while given names may have multiple characters/syllables. So if there are authors with multiple syllables in the name, there is a good chance (although not 100%) that this is not the family name.


Is there a standard template for a long list of acknowledgement section for master's thesis? There are a lot of people/websites/organizations that I want to include in the acknowledgement section of my master thesis.
I think it does not look good if I name all of them in sequence with a brief explanation.

Would a numbered or bullet list or even a table be acceptable for this purpose? Do you know some useful template?

In our format, acknowledgement is part of foreword which is at most 1 page, which goes usually something like this:

  Working with Thesis has been pain but thanks to my colleagues fun. I want to acknowledge my supervisor and advisor for their effort... I could not have finished my Thesis without the support from... Also special thanks for those that use Latex instead of the hideous WYSIWYG, you have saved my eyesight.

You should see previous Thesis from your university or department for an example about how you do it.

EDIT: Here is an example: https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/bitstream/handle/10919/36413/Thesis.pdf?sequence=1
 , but it could be that your department does it in a different way.


How to reference a work that I refer to on multiple occasions? If I have taken an idea or quote from somewhere I will of course reference it properly.
However my question is every time I mention someone e.g
'Joe Bloggs said..."
 do I need to reference every time I mention that person if I have referenced him at least once?

Or if I say 'this proof is given by xyz book'
if I have ready referenced xyz book do I need to reference it every-time I mention the name of the book?

In short: Yes. For every quote or idea that is not your own, this must be made clear to the reader. However, depending on the citation style, this does not always need to be in the form of “Joe Bloggs said” (which I have never seen in academic literature anyway), but may, e.g., just happen via a foot- or endnote.
If you are intensively quoting somebody or following another work, it may be feasible to have one sentence explaining to what a citation applies:

The following overview of discombobulation techniques is based on Bloggs et al. (1987).
Unless noted otherwise, all quotes in this section are from Bloggs et al. (1987). [this requires that quotes are visible as such]

This meets the above requirement.


Tongue slip problem in presentation even after a good amount of practice How can I overcome the tongue-slip problem in conferences, meetings and seminars? I have read many discussions regarding conference presentation, such as delivering a good presentation, staying confident during presentation, avoiding nervousness, maintaining time and many more. But I have not found a proper answer to the tongue-slip problem.

I recently faced it in a presentation, only once, but in my title slide. The word was extreme, which I could not pronounce even in 5–7 seconds and felt much shame, finally pronounced it as esteem. I had previously done very good practice such as in front of a mirror and closing my eyes. I would also like to mention that I have used the same word several times very clearly in past conferences and also used same word very clearly in my next slide onwards.

How to overcome this problem? Many times I face similar problems, maybe with different words, but I have been noticing that it always happens in first few minutes of a presentation.

Years ago, I transcribed raw film footage to earn a little extra money. These transcriptions had to be verbatim, with all the ums, ahs, stuttering, etc. included. It's surprisingly difficult to do a verbatim transcription, because there is a strong tendency for listeners to hear what is meant, rather than what is actually said. We transcribers had to listen to things three or four times to record the speech exactly. The first time I listened to something, I wouldn't even notice the mistakes!

Some of the transcriptions I did were of people famous for being well-spoken, people I admire very much. I was surprised to learn that they make frequent speech errors/hesitations/disfluencies, just like the rest of us.

As a result of that experience, I realised that while we are all painfully aware of the imperfections in our own speech, others hardly notice them at all. Most mistakes are filtered out by the listener's brain, and aren't truly "heard".


Are there any proposals to make sharing code and data with publications a requirement? Depending on the project, many researchers have to rewrite code and reproduce datasets from previous works in order to perform experimental evaluations. Although some dataset are understood to contain private data, and thus cannot be shared, it would be very nice to have access to the source code and results produced along with the papers.

Most of the big data works present results from experiments run with very large databases, and the code developed, which is usually non-trivial to rewrite, is rarely available to the public. I even heard once that some conferences would start to request the source code of the project to be submitted along with the paper.

My question is: is there any global regulation that states what a conference must request while accepting a paper? And, if so, are there any proposals at all to make source code sharing a must?

I don't know any global regulations, but scientific community understand the problem that you  described and that is why github recently made it possible to get a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) for any GitHub repository archive (blog post) making the code citable.

As far as I remember any DOI should be maintained for at least 10 years.


Adding affiliation at the proof stage I have a paper to which I am 3rd author from my previous postdoc, and recently I got another postdoc in another institution. Is it fair and ok to add the new affiliation now, at the proof stage?

Is it fair and ok to add the new affiliation now, at the proof stage?

Yes. You could insert a footnote saying that the research feeding into the paper was carried out and completed while you were affiliated with university -1 in their lab 'so and so'.

This way, everybody is happy, and you're transparent about your whereabouts.


Can I hire someone to write code for my dissertation (if I've designed the algorithm)? Barring any extremely unfortunate disaster, I am five weeks away from a final defense and a Ph.D.

At this point, we are in the re-write stage ("of my unforgivably horrible and weak thesis") but it is expected to work and be ready for my final defense in a month.

Prior to the thesis, my advisor REALLY wants me to program the algorithm I give as part of my dissertation. Though I have the algorithm pseudocoded, I have no idea anymore about basic commands, data structures, counters, declaring local and global variables, and just general grammar and structure for what he REALLY wants me to program on (though I don't HAVE to): Mathematica.

Worse, every time I try to get a dry, discrete checklist of what he wants for the program, it varies, often leading him to talk about ill about computer scientists and lament about how traditional languages just don't do the job PASCAL used to do (dead serious). Hence, the last piece of progress required of me by his say so - a piece not really contributing to my original work and that could represent time better spent revising my writing and preparing for my final defense instead of learning how to print "LEOOH WHIORLD" on MATHEMATICA - is setting up, after two years of back-cracking dissertation work, to be what ultimately "does me in."

When (or even if) I get standards for this program he wants to see, would it be unethical of me to hire a tutor to help me code the program, or even hire a programmer to help me write the program, even given that I pseudocode the program myself? Skipping the hours and hours of manual searching to learn how to read in files (and files with gigantic matrices at that) and how to look up code corresponding to pseudocode, keep up with counters etc. really seems like a good investment for me, but my moral bells are a ringing on this one, even if I pseudocode the project myself.

Misrepresenting the hired work as your own would be inappropriate, but the following strike me as safe conditions for academic subcontracting:

Have your advisor's consent (thanks mdiener)
Find a suitable programmer and get them to understand the algorithm
Verify and document that the program operates correctly
Disclose everything in both thesis and defense


Why are academic institutions now looking to judge their students in multiple choice questions tests? Multiple choice questions are nowadays very common in many of the world's institutes. Particularly in entrance tests, they use multiple choice testing.
Why are these academic institutions now looking to judge their students using multiple choice tests?

Because they are graded easily and fast, and there is no room for subjectivity.

The answer to question 1 is option b). If you marked b), you get points, if you didn't, you are wrong. The grader doesn't even need to know what the question is about, just that the right answer is b). Also, there is no middle ground, no partial credit, and no subjectivity involved.

Of course, there are a whole lot of problems with this system: poorly phrased questions, the student doesn't show the process, just the final result...


How to cite a bookchapter that is accepted and To appear? I have a book chapter that is accepted and I want to cite it on a conference paper that I should upload its camera ready today. What is the best way to cite it ? here is my bibtex.

@inbook{book_chapter2,
      author={Names of authors},
   year= 2019,
 chapter={chapter title},
   title= {Book Name},
   publisher= {Springer},
       Editor=  {Edited X and Y}
    Note= {Accepted and To Appear}

}

I'd suggest the following:

Accepted for publication

I've seen it several times and I usually use it like this. You could also use:

In press


When to follow up with a potential supervisor after sending referral contact details I have recently contacted a professor for an advertised phd position and we had a meeting to discuss the details. After this meeting, which went reasonably well, he asked me to send two referral contacts which he will directly call. Two weeks have passed since I have sent them.

I think it is not too long since it might take some time for him to call both of them (since he and also the referrals are quite busy all the time). However, I'm a bit unsure if I should send a reminder or follow-up e-mail soon to ask the status.

What is the appropriate waiting time for that?

It is impossible to say in general. It is a busy time for many academics. If you are friendly with your two referral contacts you might ask them first if they have been contacted. If they have not, then there is some delay and you should probably just wait a bit longer.

If the start time of the degree program isn't soon, there is little reason to panic. But if you want/need to start soon, you may want to contact the potential advisor sooner.

However, in some places, acceptance to a program isn't controlled by the individual faculty member but by the university. In that case, make sure that your application is proceeding normally. He may need to wait for a signal from them before he spends time on a potential student. Other places, professors directly hire into their own labs.


IEEE conference style on Greek symbols I'm preparing my paper for submission to an IEEE conference. The style guide is here (zip file).
Under equations, the conference style guide says:
"you may use the solidus (/), the exp function, or appropriate exponents. Italicize Roman symbols for quantities and variables, but not Greek symbols." Then proceeds to give an example with \gamma which is a Greek letter. Does anyone know if Greek letters are allowed or not?

Of course you can use Greek letters.
But do not italicize them.
Here is an example of a random IEEE Conference paper that displays a formula in which Greek letters are not italicized, while other letters are:

Note that the psi (ψ) and pi (π) are not italicized, but t and e are.


Can future works sections be similar in different papers? A simple analysis method was proposed in an already-published paper. I am working on a more complicated version of the same method. The future works section of the published paper and my future works section have the same goal. Is it acceptable for both papers to have similar future works goals?

Future work or goals may be broadly similar, there is absolutely no problem there. But if they are identical, the natural question is, what objective does your present work achieve?

You have extended the method (simple to more complicated), so you have already advanced something. Your future work and summary should reflect that - from a writing point of view more than an ethical point of view. If a reader were to only glance at your abstract, conclusions and future work, it should be clear that you have accomplished some goal that was previously unmet.


What to do with an application question when I honestly don't know my plans? I'm an undergraduate currently applying for Fall 2016 Master's programs in Statistics (or sometimes Applied Statistics, depending on the program).

One of my applications has this question:

  If you are applying for a master's degree, do you intend to continue for the doctoral degree?

The options are yes/no/not applicable.

Here's the thing–I honestly don't know. I could really see myself doing either. My eventual goals are something like data analysis/statistical modeling, especially with social science implications–although I've done a little bit of undergraduate "research" coding web apps that involve visual inference and statistical tests.

I'm not applying to any PhD programs not because I definitely don't want a PhD, but because my academic record is a bit weaker than most (I got a D in a math class my freshman year, cleared up some ADHD issues before my sophomore year, and have done really well since).

Soul-searching about what I really want more notwithstanding, would it be a greater sin to say "yes" and then not go on for a doctorate, or would the alternative be worse? If I say "yes," will my application be judged more harshly?

Correct me if this doesn't apply to your case but applications generally provide one or several areas where one can explain their interests and future plans (e.g. statement of purpose). Thus, I doubt that this question is all that important. It might even just be used for administrative purposes within or outside the department.

My take on this is that - so long as you are completely honest about your intentions/uncertainty elsewhere in the application - fudging/randomly choosing your response isn't that big a deal.

So what option should you circle? I would go back and reread the program/department webpages to get an idea of graduate placement. (It is also completely legitimate to ask for past placement if it isn't posted.) If most people go on to grad school, circle yes. If most don't, no. So long as you don't feel like you're lying as you circle, nobody can fault you. They should have provided a "don't know" option in the first place.

Finally, I'm not a big fan of the "NA" response because (a) the question is, in a sense, applicable to you and (b) it may raise unnecessary red flags.


What is the Latin term "pace" used for when referencing other scholars? I frequently come across references to other scholars like:

  In period P, syntactic construct C did not have function F (pace Smith 2000).

I understand that pace here signals that Smith (2000) suggests that C did have function F in P (see this related question for the basic meaning of pace). But I'm having trouble relating this to the literal meaning of pace ('in peace'). Does the above mean:

That the author holds Smith in high regard (suggested here, but this seems odd to me since the relationship between the author and Smith is irrelevant to the content).
That no offence to Smith is intended (suggested here, but this also seems odd in an academic work: Smith is aware of the scientific method and the fact that his claims may be challenged).
That the author acknowledges that there are currently different opinions on the matter and that the author accepts Smith's point of view because the matter cannot be settled with the evidence currently available?
Something else?

I am looking at a dissertation here where the author at times rebukes another scholar quite strongly, without pace, ("the analysis of Smith is a step backwards from the 100 year old description by Jones"), but at other times uses pace to describe a difference of opinion more neutrally ("pace Smith who does not differentiate further here"). This suggests to me that pace signals something about the content of the referenced proposition rather than the author's attitude to the referenced scholar.

It's just unclear to me what pace signifies exactly.

So I checked with the author and he explained it as similar to option 3: He used it to indicate that he respects the arguments cited by Smith, while he gives more weight to other evidence leading to different conclusions. Since it is in part subjective to what evidence is given more weight, both positions are respected.
However, I can imagine that some authors simply use pace for variation from contrary to without this particular nuance. (As may be clear from my question, this was in the field of linguistics and written by an author with an exceptional sensitivity to the finer nuances of language.)


Do people need to have their PhDs at Harvard to get tenure at MIT (and vice versa) in STEM fields? My friends and I were just discussing about this question: do people need to have their PhDs at Harvard to get tenure at MIT (and vice versa) in STEM fields?  I know theoretically, the answer is supposed to be "No", and "It depends on many other factors". But I just skimmed through MIT's Biology and Harvard's Biophysics department; it appears that those two giants only want to marry each other.

I wonder if there are are any detailed statistics of where faculty from H&M did their PhD and postdoc.

I have never sat on a tenure case at either Harvard or MIT, so my answer is purely conjecture. While it is possible the first thing the tenure committee does is look at where the PhD is from and throws out everyone not from Harvard/MIT, that seems very unlikely. Tenure decisions are about teaching, service, and research. At the point of tenure decisions, the school your PhD is from is essentially meaningless although there may be some correlation between research productivity and where your PhD is from any longer term causative effects are probably pretty limited.

Where the PhD is from plays some role on initial hiring at all universities and if you don't have a TT position it is much harder to get tenure. Additionally, where you work probably has some causative effect on research productivity giving Harvard and MIT PhDs additional advantages (or at least preventing disadvantages). Therefore it is not surprising that lots of tenured faculty have PhDs from Harvard and MIT.


Importance of campus for mathematicians I am a graduate student in mathematics, currently working from home due to the COVID crisis. Even though , yea, pure mathematicians can work from home, but I really miss the campus and the environment which drove me to be better.
Do other mathematicians think the same on this platform?

My degree (pure math) is from long ago and almost all my work was done working alone, though I had an office at the U. There were two exceptions. One was that the coffee lounge was both a good place for a break and a good place to bounce ideas around. The second was that we had a periodic seminar of a few faculty and students interested in the specific research area.
But both of these (other than someone else making coffee) are doable in the modern world with internet connections. There is no reason to give up the "contact" with others if you have access to email and zoom. Even the seminar environment can be replicated effectively.
One issue for some is the possible distractions of having family around as you work. I had two children by the time I finished, so working at home (pre internet) would have been pretty difficult, even though the work I did was mostly in my own head and not collaborative.

I suspect that in applied math, closer contact with colleagues is more important than in pure, but I don't have experience with that.
But, the world is as it is. We all need to learn better ways to cope with that.


How do withdrawn courses in my transcripts affect my PhD admissions application? I'm currently finishing up my masters degree and hoping to apply to quite a few good PhD programs. I've gotten perfect scores in all my classes thus far as a graduate student and as an undergraduate, I got perfect scores in my major classes.

I'm currently taking only one class because I'm working full time (and I've taken all the graduate courses in my field already (at my current university), so there isn't really much left for me to take), and it's taking it's toll on me quite a bit (I'm barely sleeping, constantly stressed, anxious, etc.).

I'm considering dropping the one course I'm taking, but it's halfway through the semester and I would end up receiving a W (withdrawal) on my transcripts. I plan to leave my job at the end of the semester, so this shouldn't be a problem in the upcoming semesters.

How does having a W on ones transcripts affect PhD applications?
How do admissions committees look at it?
Any advice to students in a similar position as my own?

Note: I've read this post with a similar title, but it doesn't directly address my concerns; it's primarily asking about the proper protocol to follow when sending transcripts; in this case, the transcripts will be sent regardless.

I've been heavily involved in graduate admissions at a top-20 program for many years. A single withdrawal never bothers me; I realize that life happens. It's when they start to become common across a transcript that I start to worry.


Why and how to go to the US for a PhD-exchange semester? Context: My wife and I are both PhD candidates in good-but-not-major eastern European universities, aiming to defend our theses in fall 2017 (i.e., in 15 months). She works in accounting, whereas my research focuses on engineering science. She has been accepted in an east-coast US university for an exchange semester as of January 2017.
Since for obvious personal reasons I do not want to stay one ocean away from her during 6 months, I'd like to visit US-universities at the same time (+/- 2 months).

Questions:
Exchange semesters are not common in my lab. So I lack perspective on how and why to go to the US. So here are my questions:

What is the purpose of visiting another university at the end of your PhD? What would be expected of me if I do go there?
Must such exchange be formally validated/accepted, or is a casual agreement with the lab PI ok? (N.B.: I am financially independent)
Can I directly contact "the one" Professor (of international and cross-fields renown) my research and saying that I'd like to collaborate, or is it mandatory to be recommended? Are there tacit how-tos?
Should I mention my wife's situation?

Note that I would have wanted such an exchange, even if my wife would not have been accepted for this exchange. However, her situation imposes the period.
My scientific supervisors do not have contacts in the US.

If you have only EU passport, you may be eligible to stay up to 90 days in US using ESTA in order to "attend short-term training (you may not be paid by any source in the U.S. with the exception of expenses incidental to your stay)". Otherwise appropriate visa is needed (e.g. J-1).
Contact the professor directly. You can't lose anything.
The purpose could be to improve your thesis, initiate networking, start some collaboration etc.
AFAIK, I didn't need any formal agreement - only when I applied for grant, I submit a formal letter of the host Professor that he will welcome me.
Your wife situation is that you'll be there for your personal interest anyway and that's opportunity to collaborate.
Ask your university department for international relations, whether there is some agreement with the US university and yours, there might be opportunity to cover some expenses of your stay there. It's better to get at least partial funding from your home university and claim that your home university pays you during immigration control and makes it easy with the host Professor lab.

I did internship after my PhD in US and stayed only 1 months and above mentioned points saved me from possible disappointment during border control. Host Professor welcomed the fact that I was independent financially. I used a small university grant from "eastern european" university which covers part of the expenses - the flight tickets, all other I paid from my pocket money.


Why do some departments not offer master's degrees anymore? I am a bachelor's student currently in my junior year; and I am looking for a graduate program in mathematics, in either UCLA, or UC Berkeley.

However, both websites say they only admit PhD applicants, and no longer master's applications, and this worries me a bit.
Does that only mean that the master's applications are closed as of this year, and that they will open again during fall?

I'm just a bit unfamiliar with the American system!

Funded masters degrees are getting generally phased out in most fields. They seem to be replaced with unfunded masters' degrees, and/or all students are getting funneled into the funded PhD programs.

The prevailing wisdom (as far as I can tell) is that funding masters students is a waste because as soon as you've trained them to know stuff they leave, unlike a PhD student who you can get a few years of useful work out of. Unfunded programs are great for whacking that international student or trust-fund kid money pinata.


Is it acceptable to criticise papers when writing a related work section When writing a paper it is important to discuss related work. I am working on a problem where two research fields meet. When I did a literature review I noticed that related papers often omit important information or write important information ambiguously. I can understand that this is a problem where two research field meet and that there are two sides of the problem. I believe that in most of these papers relevant information is only given for research field "A" but not "B". Nevertheless methods from research field "B" are used for which the information is not (clearly)  given and thus I would never be able to reproduce the results. Therefore when writing my related literature section I was wondering if it is acceptable if I mention these problems for the papers I discuss ?

To be clear, this is not about confidential information, so the authors always choose to do it this way, or are not aware of what they are doing.

Think about relevance to your results

Is the particular criticism relevant to the point of your paper ?

For example "The method described in paper X works only in dry conditions, so for researching dolphin behavior it's not useful and we used a different approach described in chapter 4" is a relevant criticism and should be included.

"Paper X is a very poor and ambiguous description of the method using obsolete terminology, I had to read it five times and refer to a Klingon-English dictionary before understanding how it works" is not relevant, as most likely none of your conclusions would be based on such a sentence.    It would be relevant only if your paper is a meta-study on the readability of scientific articles, or if your paper is about historical changes in commonly used terminology in your subfield, where the faults of other papers is the topic of your research.


Is it formal to inform readers that a point will be discussed later in the chapter? I mentioned an important idea in a section without developing it.

Is it formal to inform readers that the point will be discussed later in the chapter?

For example:
This idea will be discussed in detail in a subsequent section.

If yes, should it be presented just like any sentence, maybe next to the idea? Or Does it require special treatment?

Thank you

There is nothing wrong with doing so. if you would not, the reader might start wondering. In cases where no other alternatives apply then signalling to the reader that more details will follow allows the reader to continue concentrating on the details at hand. If you end up with a situation like this, you should of course make sure that following such a structure is the best way forward. If it is not then restructuring the text is necessary. After all the goal of writing is to provide the reader with the easiest way to understand your writing (the way you want them to). If you find yourself using this form of signalling often, you should probably take a critical look at your writing and ask yourself why this happens. It might be that you are not structuring the text in a good way.


How do you thematically include accidental findings ("serendipity") in a dissertation or paper? I'm asking for approaches to include interesting, but not perfectly fitting results in a dissertation or a paper.

During my PhD project I have made an accidental discovery, which is what I believe you call serendipity. The finding is related to the overall topic of my dissertation and certainly interesting, but it interrupts the "leitmotif" of my argumentation, as this discovery is really just the result of a stupid mistake. So my question here is: How do you eloquently include stupid mistakes (aka accidental findings) in a dissertation or a paper without sounding stupid or breaking the flow of arguments apart? Is there even a generalizing answer to this question?

“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but rather, 'hmm... that's funny...” (Isaac Asimov, thanks to EnergyNumbers for reminding me of it)

If you're worried that it will distract the flow of your thesis, why not put it in a “special” part of your thesis (e.g., an appendix) and refer to that from the main text, at the point that would be most logical.

  [Following the description of your experiment.] In the next few sections, I describe the results obtained from operating the Pocket Helium Flux Positron Annihilator on a variety of samples: metals (section II.B), graphene (section II.C) and heavy water (section II.D). You will also find in Appendix A a description of the observations made following an accidental operation of PHFPA without a helium flux [you may not want to be specific and say: some moron forgot to replace the bottle] which allowed to check what happens when electroneutrality is violated on the µm scale.

An appendix is a good place, or maybe a small section as the end of the relevant chapter.


Dealing with a PhD student reneging on an agreement to appear in social media Inspired by this question, I have a similar but somehow different problem.

I recently assumed a tenure-track position. One of my strategies for a visible start is to have a strong presence in social media. We have a youtube channel in which students regularly explain their achievements. Or sometimes we post short educational materials. We also prepare brief videos for each publication as some publishers promote the videos.

However, one of my PhD students refuse to cooperate. I specifically asked him in the interview (both video chat and email questionnaire) if he is willing and ready to prepare such video materials for the group, and he firmly answered YES. Now, he claims it is not part of the job description for a PhD.

I first preferred to ignore this conflict, but now other students are reluctant to do so. Now it is more a matter of my authority.

Since I am new, I do not want to take the case to the department head or other officials.

Now it is more a matter of my authority.

Well, yes... I’m sorry if this will come as a surprise to you, but coming across as an unreasonable, coercive boss who wants to force their students to participate in distasteful, privacy-violating activities that have zero relevance or value to their professional training, is in fact something that will greatly undermine your authority as an advisor. Effect, meet cause.

My suggestion is that, for your own good and the good of your students, you cease those authority-destroying activities immediately. Your “authority” is something that is given to you for the sole use of doing research and training and educating your students. Asking them to appear in social media videos so that you can have a “visible start” is no different than asking them to make you coffee or give you a back massage so that you can feel energetic - both of those things are indeed not in any job description of any PhD student anywhere. They are not things you should ask students to do, and they are not things you have any right to be upset at a student for not wanting or agreeing to do.

Finally, the fact that you asked the student in the interview if he would be willing to appear in YouTube videos only means that you declared your abusive intentions in advance. It does not make those intentions any less abusive.

Good luck in your tenure track career.

Edit: I said I will address some of the comments left below. Rather than try to discuss fine points of logic, which I think will be tedious, I've decided to add a more personal type of note, which I think will do a better job of getting the point across.

I have been asked many times over the years by various people to have lectures I was giving recorded and made publicly available online (on YouTube, etc). I always refused. Frankly, I find the thought of making publicly available videos of myself lecturing pretty repugnant. Why? Well, just because; I don't feel like it, and I don't owe anyone any explanations. If some silly people want to think that it's because (to quote a comment someone wrote) "some people are super self-conscious about their voice and/or their looks", fine, go ahead and think that. (Oh, and by the way, on another occasion I did agree, happily, to participate in a YouTube video that now has more than 700,000 views. Go figure... I guess I'm inconsistent! Again, I leave to others to engage in their pointless Freudian analyses of what that means about my personality or whatever.)

One of the lessons I learned from these experiences is that people who don't care about privacy have a really hard time understanding people who do. The people who asked me to make my videos available online were sometimes quite offended at my refusal, as if they could not understand why anyone might refuse such an amazing opportunity, and even (this was really bizarre) subtly pressured/guilt-tripped me, implying that I would be depriving the world of an important resource (trust me, I wasn't).

OP, I am sure you are a good person and a good researcher who means well, but know this: your student who doesn't want to make YouTube videos really, really, really means it when he says he doesn't want to make YouTube videos. You might have a hard time understanding why; well, it's not important (or any of your business really) why -- just trust that it's true. And it's quite possible that your other students who haven't been as firm in standing up to you feel exactly the same.

To summarize, you probably don't view yourself as an abusive adviser. You think the student is being unreasonable, but he isn't. Attempting to force the issue will have bad consequences for both of you, and more importantly, is simply wrong. So please let the matter go, and figure out more acceptable ways to market yourself and your group.


Are free publishing services, such as Globe Edit, worthwhile? A free book publisher, Globe Edit, contacted me.

They offered to consider creating a book from my MSc thesis. They said that I wouldn’t have to pay for anything. After reading their website, it appears that they are trying to contact many if not all thesis writers (and other writers, too).

They want me to transfer exclusive rights to publishing my thesis as a book.

Here is their website, if you want to read the details: Globe Edit.

Are free publishers like this usually worthwhile?  I don’t care about making money; I’m wondering whether this free publishing service is at all prestigious or just a waste of time (i.e., neutral or perhaps negative).

These types of publishers are often called vanity presses and as discussed in this question they have limited value. The press you are referring to, and why I think your question is unique, is:

  They want me to transfer exclusive rights to publishing my thesis, as a book.

That is a terrifying thought. That likely means you would be unable to (re)publish any aspect of your thesis as an article and may not even be able to use images in presentations. Your university and/or funder may also impose restrictions on giving away exclusive rights.


Do (scientific) editors complain with the publishers about user experience? This recent question on the Elsevier online submission system prompted this question to me.

It seems like there are lots of outstanding examples of bad usability and overall negative user experience with the workflow between scientists and journals. For instance, citing only things from the top of my mind:

bad copy-editing (as in: they introduced many more errors instead of fixing them);
old, unwieldy, and non-standard LaTeX templates;
confusing or outdated instructions to authors on websites;
confusing e-mail interface: for instance, in my experience, in all the e-mail I get from Elsevier journals, the editor in chief is listed as the "From" address, even when it comes from another editor. Another example that comes to my mind is a Springer journal which has no online editorial system whatsoever, and editors treat the submissions by bouncing e-mails manually back and forth with the authors and reviewers, with all the problems that this entails.
the copy-editing phase taking months, and then corrections on the drafts  needed "within 48 hours".
complicated submission processes, in which the authors have to fill in manually lots of data that are unnecessary at the refereeing stage. or could be inferred automatically from the TeX source.

If one compares them with commercial websites, where the philosophy is "the customer is king; let's do everything so that they won't waste 30 seconds more than necessary filling our forms", the user experience seems poor, overall. It's not the kind of treatment I get on Amazon, Booking.com, or Google, for instance. Far from it.

I am not an editor at any journal, but if I were one, I would definitely try to complain about these practices and general approach. So, my question is:

Do editors (and editors-in-chief especially) complain about usability problems like these ones? If the answer is yes, why don't things get fixed? If the answer is no, why? Is it because they don't realize that there are these problems, because they don't care, or because they know no one would listen?

Of course we do! I don't edit for any of the big commercial publishers, but I do for top open access publishers that use similar or even the same manuscript submission systems. I'm continually badgering them about this detail or that one.

Some get fixed, some don't. When they don't, I'm not really sure why not. Maybe the systems don't allow the flexibility. Maybe there are good reasons for the hassles they impose. Maybe the journal staff are so busy putting out bigger fires that this never makes it to the top of the list.


How to deal with slow peer reviewing process I submitted a short (10 page long) manuscript to a math journal. It has been 9 months. Almost 4 months ago I emailed them to see what's going on. Their response was: "Your paper has been sent out to review but we haven't heard back".

What are the options at this point? The journal is one of the best in the field but at the same time I'm concerned thaat I might wait a long time just to receive a rejection letter.

As others commented already: Nine month is not unusual in math, and this applies to journals of all levels.

However, 9 month is a good time to send a new friendly reminder to the handling editor. From my experience, this seems to be the time when the editors also get impatient and start to press the assigned reviewers harder (or even proceed with one review less).

I would have written the first friendly reminder after six months (four seem a bit early to me) and a second one after nine month.


What is generally the correct procedure for publishing translations of my own work? I am putting a paper out and would like to also put out a companion non-English language version. It will be identical, just a translation, and publishing the same content in another journal would be dishonest (or seems dishonest to me) and I don't want to do that. What is the procedure for this?
Currently, I think it best to just host the translated version on arXiv with a link to the original, but I wanted to solicit outside opinions.

If during submission, you clearly state that this is a translation of paper X, then I don't see an issue. It might however be a good idea to inquire with the journal beforehand whether they do publish translations of already published papers; not all journals might do that.
Also, you need to check with the journal where the English version has been published whether their copyright allows to publish such a translation in another journal, and of which version (e.g. the pre- or post-review version). Note that this might even be a point to consider when you want to post a translation on the arxiv.
Finally, there might even exist journals where you might be able to publish both the English and the translated version in the same journal, maybe even alongside each other; this might well alleviate those copyright issues.


Am I allowed to do the work for a research assistant (RA) without having been awarded an assistantship? I recently finished my undergrad degree and'm now enrolled in an entirely online graduate (M.Ed) program in educational technology/instructional technology.

Nonetheless, I'll be moving to the physical campus of this Lower Midwest flagship university in late August. Although I'll be receiving grad Stafford loans (huzzah, no undergrad loans!), I applied for financial aid past the assistantship deadline.

I know the importance of networking and collaborating with faculty. I'm prepared to live off of loans (which is feasible, given the low cost of living in this city) so that I can work for one of the projects associated with my school. It's my hope that this would make me an attractive candidate for a 2016-2017 assistantship.

So...should I live off loans (and, realistically, a 15-hour/week part-time job) for that first year, so that I can be what's essentially an unpaid intern?

It's a little unclear to me whether you're asking whether it's permitted to do work without getting paid for it, or if you're asking whether it's a good idea to do that. I'll address both questions.

Almost any faculty member will be happy to take you on without needing to fund you, provided you have a decent reputation and they have sufficient time to mentor a grad student. I've done this several times when neither I nor the faculty member had funding (or the readiness to commit) by enrolling in an independent study with that advisor. Depending on the institution, this is probably fairly common. You can say you've worked with this faculty member, but you won't be able to say you were an RA with that person because you weren't funded by them.

Let's move on to the question of whether this is a good idea. Barring any red flags on your financial situation that you haven't mentioned, YES. This is a phenomenal way to get job experience and familiarity with the group. It does make you look like a more dedicated grad student, which should impress your advisor when he/she considers funding you later. It would also give you a head start should you apply for a fellowship.

I would also urge you to discuss this with the person you're thinking of working with. They might consider funding you if they see that you're already willing to sacrifice (it's a long shot!). They will be better able to advise you than anyone online because they know their funding situation, their field of research, their institution, and the local cost of living. Plus, talking to them early gives you a chance to connect.


What rules guide whether to put qualifications on an academic business card? I'm just wondering what rules of etiquette guide whether an academic puts qualifications on a business card. I'm assuming that either "Dr" at the start or "PhD" at the end is important to include where applicable, perhaps with the exception that higher titles such as "Prof" would take precedence over "Dr".

However, what about beyond that?

The accepted conventions also depend strongly on country. As a general rule, though, I'd avoid anything "cute" unless you happen to be your own boss.

For instance, in the US, I'd expect to see doctoral-level degrees listed. I'd also expect to see high-level professional qualifications, such as "PE" for "Professional Engineers." Similarly, if a master's degree carries sufficient professional weight in one's discipline, I'd list that, too. You are also correct in assuming that Prof. "overwrites" Dr.

In Germany, by contrast, one is expected to list all degrees of equivalent standing, including honorary degrees. This can lead to rather unwieldy titles such as

  Univ.-Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Dr.-Ing. h.c. Dr. rer. nat. E.h. Johannes Schmidt

(Note: I've seen substantially longer, too!)

However, two additional points are worth mentioning.

First, any degree at the master's or diploma level is considered significant enough to list as part of one's title:

  Dipl.-Ing. Michael Mustermann

would be expected for someone with a "Diplom" in engineering.

Secondly, until recently, non-German degrees were not considered the equivalent of German degrees. An American doctorate holder was

  Joanna Doe, Ph.D.

and was legally not allowed to call herself

  Dr. Joanna Doe

However, this has been somewhat relaxed recently, although only for degree holders from certain countries.


Overcoming depression and getting back on rails with PhD work I'm a first year PhD student (computer science), and I've felt that I lost this year up to now due to some life difficulties. I'm getting no financial support and I was forced to teach to get some money and pay my expenses. I have another personal problems that took me to a state of depression, where I've spent some months completely stuck in my work.

I want to "be back on the rails" and continue to work on this, but I'm feeling lost. I need to go back to the very beginning and find what a PhD is, and what I must do to advance the state of art with my current (weak) capabilities. At the same time I must to show some results to my advisor with what I already have in my hands.

I know that my "question" is pretty obscure, but I need some advices on how to proceed, from people with some experience in this situation. How can I overcome depression and 'get back on the rails' with my PhD?

IMPORTANT EDIT:

Some years later I finally got my PhD. I cannot believe I made it. At the time that I wrote this post it seemed utterly impossible to achieve this. If you are in the middle of a PhD you may try to endure and fight until the end. But if you are wondering about starting a PhD, please make sure YOU ABSOLUTELY LOVE your topic, otherwise you'll end like me when I wrote this. I didn't like my research area and the topic I choose. Everything else seemed to be way more interesting. I wanted to do everything instead of reading papers and conducting my own research. I felt unproductive and useless, and at some point my advisor started to complain about my lack of results. It was my fault since the beginning since I didn't followed a research area that I could have joy with it. I should have choose something that matched my abilities and preferences, for instance, I'm pretty good with programming, but my math skills aren't great, and yet I tried to enter a field that is dominated by math and advanced statistics. I couldn't do what I do the best, neither I was able to catch up with the involved math.

Depression is very common amongst graduate students and faculty. So know that you are not alone.

  About 60% of graduate students said that they felt overwhelmed, exhausted, hopeless, sad, or depressed nearly all the time. One in 10 said they had contemplated suicide in the previous year. --  AAS Science Careers

However, there is very little that the community on SE can do to help you. We are not therapists and cannot provide a therapeutic relationship.

Know that there is no shame in seeking help. Your university almost always has a mental health clinic with free or subsidized service. Whether you prefer talk therapy or psychopharmaceuticals (or both) is up to you and your insurance plan -- but please do go seek help from specialists.


Is it OK to publish a book as an undergraduate? I am a CS student at 4th year in my university. I have done a lot of real-world projects, worked as a freelancer for many years, and have released a lot of software in use by thousands of people. I believe I have good experience about topics which I am interested in.

My question is about whether writing a book about those topics and publishing it in my name would be a good idea? I heard that whatever undergrads write in Academia is not considered reliable/trustworthy. And that even if the thing you write was actually very good, people would still not rely on it. Is this is true?

Is there a possible way to publish a book as an undergraduate student? I would like to write the book now because I feel it is so needed by my local community (non-English). We have a very limited number of books in this field. And I don't think I'll have the same amount of time as when I graduate.

Go for it, and see whether you can get one of your professors to do a technical review.  That technical review, acknowledged in the preface, will lend weight to your book.  If you have professors who speak your language, think about co-authors.

Do not, however, expect to make money.  Only blockbuster textbooks make significant money for their authors.  Also, beware vanity publishing, where you pay the publisher rather than the reverse.

If you write the book, Amazon will let you make it available free or very cheap.  (That's true for English language books; you'll need to check about other languages.)


Referring to a movie concept in Statement of purpose I'm writing my statement of purpose for computer science master's program.

Can I refer to the concept of a movie that I have watched and kept me wondering and aroused my curiosity? I'm talking about Steven Spielberg's masterpiece, “Artificial Intelligence”. It really had a key role in motivating me to continue for postgraduate studies and research in the field.

Thank you in advance.

You "can" do what you want in a Statement of Purpose, but if you hope that this remark will inspire the committee, or show how inspired you are, it will likely miss the mark.

Generally, I have the impression that you may misunderstand what the Statement of Purpose is for - but you are not alone. From browsing Academia.SE, it is clear that the SOP is easily the most misunderstood part of the application package. I encourage you to browse through the questions here related to SOPs, and gauge how senior professors feel about it. Particularly, look at this excellent resource.

To summarize:

See it as a freeform document where you can document anything that is easy to miss in your CV or letters, or which may need further explanation. Do not see it as a place to sketch your "journey so far", discuss your lifelong dream to become a scientist, or explain how you feel the strong urge to change the world. See it from the perspective of a critical reviewer of your application and what they look for. Will them knowing how a Spielberg movie motivated you to pursue AI make you more likely to succeed in grad school? It's highly unlikely, so why would they care? Better to spend the short attention span that every application gets on what relevant previous research experience you had.


How should I deal with very negative feedback from some students? I am a lecturer of a computer course in a university. Two months (almost 20 hours) of lectures have already finished. Very recently, I planned to get some feedback from my students on my lectures.

I asked a couple of questions such as 'how motivating the course is ...', 'how do you rate yourself on topic X', and many more.
I also asked them to fill a comment box that would improve my teaching.
This feedback is open to all the students registered for the course that also includes those guys who never attended a lecture.
I used a Google form for the process and made the responses anonymous.

From the multiple-choice feedback questions, I learned a lot of things and actually, I got to see a few strengths and weaknesses of my lectures. However, the comment section of the feedback has made my life difficult for last few days. I am really disturbed after going through and thinking over a few comments.
Here are some examples of comments:

You do not teach what is in the book. Plus, you ask very difficult questions in the test. What do you want to prove?
Who recruited this guy to this university?
One should learn how bad to teach from this faculty?

At the same time, other comments look like the following:

He is the best in the field.
He explains the most difficult concepts in a very simple and clear way.

The students (all are undergrad) are pretty straight-forward and have been really not-so-formal about it. I don't want my frustration to reflect on my lectures. I am new to teaching and that is why I wanted to get feedback.
How should I deal with this? Is it normal for an early-career academic?
Update:
After going through the comments (discussion) on this question, one may find out that the students are confused, probably during the discussion. However, there are two more points one should consider:

Since the feedback is anonymous, it is difficult to track a student and personally talk with him/her regarding his/her confusion.
If the students that have given such comments just came for one or two lectures, and they are judging the faculty's strength just based on that, then it is unwise.
If the above (second) point is true, then the concerned instructor should not take seriously those comments.

Is it a good summary?

Could I get some suggestion on how do I manage in such time? Is it normal for a early-age academia?

No, this is common for academics of any age. Anonymous evaluations are notoriously a valve for students to express their dissatisfaction without having to be reflective, fair, or even truthful about it. If you ask for anonymous feedback, you will need to be prepared for things that you don't want to hear. This can include very harsh judgments of your teaching quality, ad hominem attacks, or even tangentially (if at all) teaching-related comments to your person, your appearance, etc. Browsing Ratemyprof will give you a good idea what kind of statements students are willing to utter about their professors.

How you "manage" is by keeping in mind that (a) what you read is likely not the opinion of the silent majority of students, (b) that even the students that actually post hurtful feedback will often not really feel like this about you, but rather be frustrated because of a bad grade, a bad experience with your school in general, or just a difficult time in their life, and that (c) in reality, most teachers get a wide range of feedback from very bad to very good.

Also note that especially in smaller classes there can be tremendous differences between years, so having a bad evaluation in one year can still lead to a better evaluation in the following. Further, I have taken to basically ignore any feedback that has been mentioned only once or twice, and only start to take a specific complaint serious if it becomes a pattern.

TL;DR: In short, you will need to learn to not take the feedback personally.


As an undergraduate, how do I become aware of the big names and departments in my areas of interest if that area has no researchers at my university? I'm looking into a variety of grad schools, but really the only places I know to look are at top 15 or so schools. Now, I know often times certain research areas within a discipline have top-tier research groups at otherwise average-ranked schools in other areas. Unforunately, I have some areas of interest that I'd like to pursue, but none of the professors in my department are active in those areas, so it's tricky to get specific info about top researchers, top departments, top journals, etc. in those areas. Is there some way I can find this information?

I'm in electrical engineering, if it matters.

none of the professors in my department are active in those areas, so
  it's tricky to get specific info about top researchers, top
  departments, top journals, etc. in those areas.

I suggest trying to talk to faculty in your department anyway; at the very least, they should be able to point you in the right direction, or where to start looking.

Even in the (very unlikely) event that the faculty at your school aren't very helpful with your direct task of identifying researchers in your areas of interest, they should be able to help you start using Google (or whatever your favorite search engine is) to identify key papers to read, and, more importantly, to track down where the research that you are interested in doing is being done.

If you have several faculty in your department to choose from, talk to the ones that are "research active": they will know how to help you perfect your search skills.

To supplement any useful tidbits that come out of discussions with faculty at your school, let me also add:

As an undergraduate student, you may not have had a chance to start reading papers in your areas of interest; that's OK. If that is the case, then you can start looking for papers by searching some key words related to your interests on Google Scholar, for example.

From there, you can get an idea of who the lead researchers in your subfield are, and which researchers are citing certain papers you find interesting. Keep track of the author names: read the affiliation information in the paper or use Google to figure out where these folks are.

You can also try searching the web for research groups that are doing the kinds of research you find interesting. For example, if you are in the states (where institutions are on the .edu domain), you could do a Google search for

"high-speed PLL design" research site:edu

and you would obviously change the "high-speed PLL design" search term to something that interests you.

Using variants of the above Google search strategy, I have found a lot of research groups (and their PIs, postdocs, etc.) that are doing the kinds of research that I've wanted to come up to speed on.


Are law review publications helpful for gaining acceptance into a PhD program? I'm currently finishing up my J.D., and I plan on practicing law for at least a few years. However, I'm also considering returning to school to study CS. In the meantime, I plan on researching and attempting to publish at least a few articles - perhaps some related to cyber law.

Given the less rigorous nature of law review, how would an admission committee view these?

Also, does the prestige of the journal matter - i.e. Harvard Journal of Law & Technology vs. Michigan State Law Review?

First, I don't agree much with aeismail's assessment that review articles “may carry less weight overall than a traditional research article”. A good review article is very hard to write, because this requires a very high level of understanding of the existing research and literature, as well as strategic thinking to discuss what will be of importance in times to come. To me, this is actually very much harder for a PhD student to have than publishing a “regular” research article. I think most committees would agree.

Now, how will the committee recognized a good review article? Ideally, by reading it and being impressed at the clarity and level of the discussion it displays. In the real world? Probably by the name and prestige of the journal it was published in.

So, my advice is: publish good stuff, in good venues. It matters more that you get to publish things, than what exactly you publish, as long as it is good! (Yeah, that sounds trivial, but you asked for it!)


Is it possible to hire a phd student or postdoc by hours? I am working on small projects in machine learning field at my spare time. I love to research on the main ideas and concepts. However, I won't have much time on implementing it. Since the field requires special abilities, I feel it would be better to hire a phd student or postdoc.

When I search online, even part-time postdoc jobs offer around 50k annually. Since my projects are not that big and I do not have much money, would it be possible to hire a phd or postdoc by working hours for the projects ?

would it be possible to hire a phd or postdoc by working hours for the projects ?

Yes, but, can you afford one? You've highlighted the cost of a part-time postdoc [at] around 50k annually and noted [you] do not have much money.

  does anyone have rough idea about the price range/hour?

Compute the hourly postdoc rate (from the above salary) and multiply it by some factor (probably greater than two). (The hourly rate is non-trivial to compute, given that many postdocs work more than their contractual hours.)


How to get feedback on unfinished research papers if I don't have any direct contact with people qualified in my field? I have a question which can seem a bit unusual.
How can I get feedback on unpublished scientific articles if I have no direct connection with anyone qualified in my field? The fact is that now I am studying for a Bachelor of Computer Science at one of the small provincial universities in Russia, I am researching the field of machine learning (I am developing several new architectures for dialogue modeling and natural language generation).
And my main problem is that I have been studying machine learning and all other necessary disciplines on my own since the age of 15 (now I'm 20), that is, I am an autodidact, I have never received any outside help in learning machine learning. But in my university, there is not a single person at all who has at least some knowledge in this area and who is familiar with modern research in it. Believe me, I was looking for such people, and I have found none, and even one of my projects was rejected at the level of the computer science department as it turned out later because no one understood what it was and what to do with it and no one even asked me for an explanation or gave me an explanation of the reason why it was rejected until I knew this from one of my professors who is a member of the academic council of my university. At the moment, I am locked up in my university with no way to do anything about it (if you want to know, even though my specialization is applied computer science, we have never been taught programming besides of a very blurry theory in survey courses, although I'm a third-year student here, I was forced to learn to program on my own). My only hope is to wait for the end of my studies here and move to another university for a specialized master's program in machine learning (after all, although I study well here and I have never had lower than excellent marks, there is little benefit from it). As you can see, the situation is more than dire. Any help is greatly appreciated accordingly. I am sorry for such a verbose description of my state of affairs. Thank you for your attention.

How can I get feedback on unpublished scientific articles if I have no direct connection with anyone qualified in my field?

Make contact with those qualified in your field.
As an undergraduate, without a reputation, don't expect top-professors to be interested. Aim lower. Personally, I'd suggest a top PhD student or a top postdoc. Someone who's work you have studied and are interested by.
Offer co-authorship.
Don't ask for help, make a mutually beneficial offer: Many researchers are willing to help (this forum is an example), but, everyone is busy, make an attractive offer when contacting researchers. For instance, you could offer your services to help-out on their work, or you could offer co-authorship of your work (in exchange for guidance), or ... Explain your short- and medium-term goals, e.g., publishing your work, developing your profile, getting a post graduate degree, and pursuing a PhD.


Thinking about leaving my PhD, thoughts? I'm currently beginning my 2nd semester of a dual Msc/PhD in Physics in the top university of my home country, but lately I've been struggling with self-doubt and uncertainty about the job prospects and whether research is actually for me. Lately I don't feel the motivation to wake up early and work in my research 24 hours/day, and I know that if I keep like this I'll end up as a mediocre graduate student, so I've been really considering if research life is for me.

Some background

Since I was in high school wanted to do my undergraduate studies in high energy physics, but since the option wasn't available in my city and I didn't have the money to move to another place (student loans don't exist in my country) I enrolled in engineering physics at my state university. Being one of the top 5 students, I was invited to due a joint Bsc/MEng degree abroad in France, so I accepted since I was excited to try new things and get the chance to live in Europe for two years. I sucessfully completed my Master's courses abroad, came back to finish my Bsc, and graduated with the highest possible honors while publishing 3 scientific papers on the run (6.5 years). Therefore, doing a PhD in Physics seemed like the natural continuation of my career, and everyone was expecting me to go and become a renowned scientist in my discipline one day. I even got full support on recommendation letters to apply for studying abroad again.

While I got accepted to several joint Msc/PhD programs abroad (I discarded the US since I didn't have the money to pay for the GRE examinations at the time), due to delays from my university I wasn't able to apply for funding on time, thus instead of waiting another year I decided to enroll in one of the top programs in my country.

The doubts begin

However, over time I got more and more afraid of the potential job prospects of a career in Physics, after witnessing the vast amount talented PhD students and the lack of tenure positions (especially after the science budget took some cuts). I have met many PhD graduates who are still struggling to find a job in their late 30's, and even in an extreme case one who's literally homeless even after doing two post-docs abroad. Moreover, PhD graduates who go into the industry, at least in physics, had little to no advantage over those who have a Master's degree or a PhD in Engineering (in my country a PhD is rarely needed in the industry unless it's for the areas of Chemistry, Medicine, or Biology).

I do love Physics and do enjoy research, and I like to challenge myself with new ideas and engage in intellectual discussions with people here. Moreover, compared to entry-level jobs which are +60 hours/week here (which pay roughly the same as my scholarship), grad school is very flexible and allows me to take some time for my hobbies. Nevertheless, when I think that I'll finish my PhD when I'm 30 years old, plus 2-4 years of post-docs if I'm lucky, I'm afraid that if I don't manage to land an academic position I'll basically be applying for an entry-level job in the industry in my mid 30's, when I could apply now for an entry-level job (I've received several offers due to my MEng) and in 5 years move over the ladder or even find a job abroad back in Europe or the US. I'm not sure if my love for Physics is so strong as to sacrifice my 20's and early 30's in a career where there's no guarantee of success.

Could you give me your advice or opinions? It would be nice also to hear opinions of PhD students in Latin American countries.

My backup plan if I continue on my PhD would be to develop skills in Machine Learning and Data Science and eventually have my own startup by the time I finish my PhD, but again I won't be working on the field I originally aimed for, so I don't know if it would be worth it. My true vision for a PhD is to have the chance to work in the academia.

It's good that you're thinking about this now, but unfortunately, only you know what you want with your life.

You've given a nice list of pros and cons of continuing to study. Let's summarize:

Work now

Longer work hours
Secure job
Better pay, or at least not worse than a future PhD graduate
Not exactly what you love doing

Keep studying

I love physics!
Nomadic lifestyle
No guarantee of job

One thing you didn't mention is whether you have a significant other. Nomadic lifestyles are bad if you intend to settle down, start a family, etc.

If you look at all this there's really only one thing that's in favour of "keep studying": your passion for physics. Is your passion for physics so great that you're willing to risk everything else for the chance to pursue an academic career? Unfortunately, only you will know the answer to this question.

Here're two things you can think of doing:

Keep studying, but emphasize picking up skills that are wanted in the industry in the event that you can't get an academic job. Look at the jobs available for physics graduates in your area, see what the requirements are, and make it a point to learn them during the PhD as a fallback plan.
Work for a few years, with the intention to go back to studying after having secured yourself financially.

Ultimately, only you can answer this question.