Inconsistent advice on PhD wordcount Shortly before I viva'd I was informed about my universities wordcount policy 70,000 words (this is nowhere on their website). At my viva, I was advised to resubmit and hundreds of pages of additional write up were requested (my thesis is very interdisciplinary so there is a huge amount of background in maths, medicine, bio chemistry and engineering that needs to be covered),  I told my examiners that this would put me over the word count, they told me it doesn't matter.

8 months into my year of rewrites, and after 8 months of ignoring emails my supervisor has started rereading my corrected chapters. Of course its easier to find a reason not to read a thesis than it is to read it, so he has been complaining that its over the word count- and more particularly he has told me that my internal examiner is also concerned about wordcounts. I am not sure if this is true, but I am worried that my examiners might have changed their mind on this issue.

This would be especially frustrating as the graduate school does not check the wordcount, leaving it to the examiners.

Also my supervisor doesn't want me speaking to my internal examiner. What on earth do I do?

I suggest that you need as a matter of urgency to extract from the administration of your university a copy of the regulations for your PhD programme. (I am surprised that you were  not given these at the outset of your course; most universities claim to provide that information to their students. It's probably part of "good practice" that universities have to sign up to.)

I suggest that you also need to write down exactly who said exactly what to you about the word limit not mattering.

I suggest that you need to address the issue of the supervisor not responding to emails: have you a record of 8 months' non-response? Have you had regular meetings? How frequently?

Does your university have a system of "graduate advisers", or is there someone who is "in charge of" the programme -- I don't mean your academic supervisor? Is so, I suggest that you take this whole sorry tale to them (in confidence) and get help in dealing with what seems to an outsider to be a very unsatisfactory state of affairs.


What can I do to get academic credit/recognition from my hobby project? I've created an improved textual parsing algorithm, as a part of my hobby project. In comparison to existing ones, it provides better performance and memory efficiency. I haven't published my project yet. The question is, is there any way I can convert this research to a PhD? Or anything else I can do to improve my scientific karma? (I'm not a professional scientist, just a programmer with bachelor's degree). How much bureaucracy does this involve?

What you should do right now depends on the nature of the improvements that you have made:

If your new algorithm achieves its improvement due to some shift in how you represent or think about the problem, then it's probably worth publishing.  You don't need to be in any special position to publish: anybody can write a paper.  Look at where the competing algorithms that you outperform are published, and how they are presented and evaluated in those papers, and you've got a good template to start from.
If your new algorithm is mainly an improvement because of a whole bunch of little tweaks and optimizations, or because of how you've coded it, then it's probably not worth publishing, but definitely worth sharing as a software engineering artifact. It may not be scientific karma, but it's definitely computer programmer karma.

Getting a Ph.D. is a whole different matter, which involves a lot more than just doing a piece of research (though that's certainly part of it).  If you want to pursue a Ph.D., it will be a multi-year process with a lot more scientific contributions involved.  This work that you have done, however, could definitely be helpful evidence of research ability and help you get admitted to a program.


How long should I wait after PhD interview in Denmark? I had a PhD interview last week, the professor send me an email:

Thanks for taking the time to participate in the Skype interview.
We are a bit delayed in making decisions, but I to get back to you on Tuesday 3 November.
Have a nice weekend,

However, I have not got his Email yet.  What happened?  I wrote a email to him after Tuesday, but no reply. I think that I am just a substitute. I gave up hope of this position. But I really like this project. What can I do?

As you already assume, it's likely that they have settled for another candidate. However, the fact that they didn't reply to your request indicates that they're not quite ready to dismiss you. Maybe their preferred candidate has not agreed to the position yet, and they want to keep their options.

The only thing you can do is write them another polite email, expressing your sincere interest and motivation to do the project, stating again why you think you are the best candidate. In case their first choice declines, you might be in for a good start.

But in any case, I'd wait out Monday morning, assuming that that's the deadline the other candidate might have negotiated for a decision.


Who pays travel & per diem costs for invited lecturers? When an academic is invited to give a talk at another university, are their food and travel expenses usually fully reimbursed by the university that invited the professor?

The short answer is that it depends (no surprise there).  If it's to give a talk in a department colloquium or seminar, travel cost are usually covered (at least, that's been my experience in mathematics), though that can vary a bit, especially since smaller departments may have very limited budgets for that kind of thing.

Food expenses vary even more wildly, and they depend heavily on the source of funding.  I've been at places that had a standard per diem for visitors, places that did nothing, and places where the faculty would take the speaker to dinner and split the cost among them.


Referencing a mathematical result already obtained I was working(in maths) for some months on a paper. After I got the results, I found out that some of those were already obtained in another paper that was not very related to my topic. In fact, in that paper, the result is stated as of 'minor' importance because the main purpose of the paper was quite different. It is the technique that he used to prove this, the one that I rediscovered and used in my paper to prove this result and others in the same domain. Due to this, I didn't have a reason to search there in the first place. Although I have other results in my paper, this one was one of the main ones. Of course, I want to cite the old paper.  Hence my questions:

Is it worth publishing this with a proof?
Assume now that I do publish it with proof. Is a phrase like: "Although we arrive at this result independently, it turns out that this was already obtained in [Ref]" acceptable in the paper?
Is there a more correct way than the phrase above to cite the old paper?

Since your proof is essentially the same as the proof in the literature, you have to state a good reason for including it anyway. Something like "although this argument has already appeared in [citation], we include a proof to demonstrate its connection with our other results, and also for completeness." But the longer the proof is compared to the length of your paper, the less valid a justification like this will be. If this proof takes up more than say 25% of your paper*, I recommend removing it, and simply mentioning the relationship between that theorem and your other results. There's nothing wrong with short papers, if the results are good.

Either way, understand that your paper will be judged on what's new in it, and write your introduction accordingly.

*People may disagree with this number in either direction, but it gives you a rough idea. Certainly 50% would be too much, and 10% is probably fine.


Should co-first authors be listed in alphabetical order? The field of research is the biological sciences.

Graduate student B worked on the project for 2 years: he did experiments to gather genome-wide data and analyzed part of that data. He defined the direction and feasibility of the project, and developed the methodology; if it were not to him, there wouldn't be a paper.

Post-doc A picked up the project for 1 year after graduate student B left the lab, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, contributed 4 key figures (exactly half of the figures) and at least half of the scientific conclusions.

It was agreed upon that A and B would be co-first authors, but currently they are listed as B, A, et al.

Do you think A would be entitled to feel some kind of injustice at not having his name listed in alphabetical order? Is there a consensus that co-first authors should be in alphabetical order and is the editor likely to point this out?

[edit] Additional information:
In this field, you can specify 'co-first authors' at the time of submission, and it is written as such under the author's list on the final publication as "X an Y have contributed equally to this work". Which of course is a big source of conflict.

Thanks :)

I don't see any way to view this other than as a misunderstanding or miscommunication.  (Not necessarily an innocuous misunderstanding: perhaps someone is trying to pull a fast one of some sort.)

I am a mathematician, so maybe I am especially sensitive to logical issues, but I can't think of a situation in which someone tells me something that sounds like a logical contradiction in which I wouldn't just say, "I'm sorry: I must be confused because that sounds contradictory.  Could you please explain it again?"

My only guess at the resolution of the contradiction is that someone is in fact trying to change their mind about the ordering of the authors.  I know little about the conventions and nuances of author ordering (because in pure mathematics the order is almost always strictly alphabetical), but I do think I understand the meanings of all the terms involved, so I can only imagine that if you submit a paper to a journal saying "by Bravo, Alpha, Charlie....Please note that Bravo and Alpha are co-first authors" then the editors will respond by calling attention to the contradiction.  What else?


Physics PhD personal statement: including a figure My advisor suggested including a simple plot in my physics PhD personal statements for US universities in order to make the essay more interesting and give a bit more detail about a research problem I am working on right now. On one hand I agree that this would probably make the essay more interesting, but I am concerned that the admissions committees would be annoyed since it will take them a bit longer to look at and understand the plot. Is this a good idea?

I would much prefer that the applicant give me a plot to look at than that he tries to explain everything only in words. A balance of text and graphics can be beneficial in many pieces of academic work. Adding a graphic may actually speed up the understanding of an applicant's application materials. This is why most of us can read a comic book much more quickly than a novel. I am actually more prone to drifting off while reading paragraph after paragraph of text with no "graphic relief."

As academics, we are quite used to being told to refer to figures. If an explanation of your work can be aided by use of a graphic or two, by all means please include them.

At the very worst, if someone feels they only have time to read text, they can just ignore the graphics. This would likely be to their own detriment.


Which PhD program should I choose, a top three program without any guarantee of funding or a top 50 with full funding? Prospective advisor and project are allocated for each program. They are equally interesting and close to my interest. They are located in beautiful cities. I can become a tutor to cover part of my living expenses. There is a chance of getting funding for 2nd & 3rd years but there is no guarantee.

Accept the funded offer.

There is (I think) a general consensus on this site that the quality of your own research as a PhD student matters much more in the long run than the reputation of the university you're at. A PhD is stressful enough without you having to worry about money as well (food, rent, bills, tuition- the list goes on).

The only advantage I can see in attending a top "name brand" university (for example, Oxford or Cambridge) is if you leave academia for an industry job, where the name of the university is likely more familiar to a prospective employer than the name of your supervisor.


Why do some universities not provide marking schemes for mock exams? When I was a maths undergrad, I did some mock papers. However the lecturers did not provide the marking scheme for us to learn from model answers. The reason given at the time was a mumbled 'university policy'.

My question is, why would a university have a policy of not providing the marking scheme/model answers for a mock paper?

The materials provided to students should benefit their learning. It is not clear, how the marking scheme would help student to understand the actual material. Knowing the marking scheme can help a student to prepare to a particular exam without learning all the curriculum (e.g. by focusing on what is assessed). This is known as surface learning, and is often considered as bad practice.


Are there no footnotes in Vancouver referencing? I just wanted to check if Vancouver referencing does not use footnotes. I saw online that the citations are just numbered and then the reference list is put at the end of the essay instead of footnotes throughout. Is this correct?

This is correct. See the last page of this pdf for an example of a Vancouver references section:

http://guides.lib.monash.edu/ld.php?content_id=14570618

In response to a comment below about the in-text citations coming after the punctuation, here is another example where they use brackets but don't mention if it is in-text citations (but the references section/end of essay references match the guide above). When I use Vancouver style in my own writing, Mendeley defaults in-text citations within the period.

http://editor.citationstyles.org/styleInfo/?styleId=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zotero.org%2Fstyles%2Fvancouver


How to return to academia after "don't walk, run"? It seems the phrase "don't walk, run!" is somewhat of a meme on this site. It roughly means "leave your current advisor/university/PI/whatever and don't look back".

While this at times may be good advice, although most often controversial, I'm wondering how one should handle the running if one remains willing to work in academia. (Just somewhere else) I mean, the suggestion sounds a lot like 'burning bridges' (with only one person at best, but with an entire department at the worst). Burning bridges is commonly understood to be a quick way to kill your career.

So, I'd like to have a well-thought answer to the question:

How (if it even can be done!) can I run from an abusive professional relation or otherwise unmaintainable position without ruining my career?

Perhaps this is already explained in some post given the "don't walk, run!" advice, but I think it is worthwhile to have answers to this particular question. Advice from academics who have in fact 'ran away' and proceeded within academia is very much appreciated. (this would at least answer whether it can be done)

Finally, to prevent any confusion: I'm currently not in an abusive professional relation or otherwise unmaintainable position. I'm merely interested in how one should act, for future readers in that situation. (Who knows, I could even be unfortunate enough to end up in such a situation one day!)

To clarify, this is a question asking for general advice for after leaving. To be clear, the 'running part' refers to 'not leaving in a nice and orderly manner' (Imagine a grad student literally running away from the campus, leaving a trail of thesis papers behind, if that helps). Most answers to the question suggested as duplicate essentially tell to 'walk', but here I have assumed to have already 'run' (whether that is a good idea is besides the point) and with that given, want to know what the best course of action is and the advice on the other question is too late.

“Don’t walk, run” is a shorthand for taking immediate action to extricate oneself from a rapidly deteriorating situation.

Note that this may not require leaving academia altogether, or even one’s current institution. You may be able to find a workable solution where you are by switching projects, advisors, or departments, as appropriate.

But sometimes it is necessary to leave, for economic, personal, or medical reasons. You may want to return. In that case, it’s not really all that different from other cases. The critical step is explaining to whom ever you’d like to hire or admit you that whatever situation caused your previous departure will not affect the present situation. You’ll need to make that case clearly and convincingly so as to reduce the “risk level” of your potential boss. If you can’t make that case, then you may want to reevaluate if returning is the right move at the present time.


Ph.D. in engineering after Ph.D. in mathematics I want to start soon with a Ph.D. in mathematics, though I'm not sure, that long-term I want to stay in mathematics. But I know that I'm going to like doing mathematics full-time right now and invest the effort required for a Ph.D. so this unsureness will not deter me. Additionally, because I'm quite old, I want to do the Ph.D. fast(er that usual).
[This remark is bound to generate comments, I know - as "old" is relative, assume that I am compared to my colleagues and that I am bothered by the fact that I'm lagging behind compared to them; speeding up my Ph.D. is reasonable I believe, because
1) being "older" I've had more time to make sure I have all the mathematical prerequisits needed for the subfield I want to get my Ph.D. in (e.g. where some of my colleagues learned about Crandall-Rabinowitz only after being admitted to a Ph.D program, I know about it already now. "Bang. Just like that.")
2) I want to do the Ph.D in my home university (which is in Europe), where I already know all the relevant professors, have already taken seminars with them, know which Ph.D. programs exist, how I can get into them, how the system works etc. so I won't loose time by these non-mathematical things and I'm less hindered by formal criteria.]

Ok, this sound all nice and dandy, so where's the question. Here: Given the facts, that
 a) I may not want to stay professionally in mathematics in the long-term, a Ph.D. degree from a very famous U.S. university, as they're world-wide the most well-known, could prove helpful for getting a job in the industry in a Western country later on (of course this doesn't apply to France, were you'd better have studied at ENS and not at Harvard, but I think I'm safe to chose a country were a degree from e.g. Harvard weighs) and that
 b) I also like engineering applications of mathematics and I've read for myself books in a certain area of engineering and started taking occasional related, non-mathematical courses there and like to see research in this area,
I may like to apply, after having obtained by Ph.D. degree in mathematics, at a famous U.S. university for a second Ph.D. degree in engineering. (MIT comes to mind as prototypical example.)

What effect does a previous Ph.D. (in mathematics) has for me getting accepted at a highly ranked U.S. university ?
(Good, bad, irrelevant ? It will show that I can to research, which is good, but not that good, since its research in mathematics and not engineering. If I have to do one of those pesky standarized tests, like GRE (do you know good programs, where this may be waived a Ph.D. ?), does this weigh more then the Ph.D. ?

Further reflections:

Besides the reputation of the university of the top U.S. universities, it seems that in the United States formal admission criteria for Ph.D. programs are less strict as in Europe (for an extreme example, take a look at the careers of these professors), so not having a bachelor in engineering may not knock me out from the start.)
For the nitpickers: Note that actually I'm not getting a Ph.D. in mathematics but a doctoral degree.
I also considered the possibility of directly applying for a Ph.D. in engineering in the U.S. But I doubt that I'll be able to do it as fast as the one in mathematics, since none of the reasons from 1) and 2) apply. Additionally I may have to exclude some programs, because my prerequisits aren't sufficient. So there only seem to be disadvantages to doing one directly.

From what I know, it would hurt you. From the MIT ECE website (just as an example):

If I already have a PhD, can I apply for another PhD in EECS?
No, we will not admit an applicant who already holds a PhD degree (even if it is in a different area such as Physics or Math).

I'm sure it's like this at many of the top schools in the US. Here I'm assuming what you refer to as a "doctoral degree" will be treated the same way as the American/English "Ph.D."


What can I do if my supervisor does not publish my research results? By this, I do not mean I did not obtain significant research results. My supervisor has told me to finish up a draft of paper for submission, I wrote it, then after few months, he told me to correct some parts and did more experiments on certain area, I followed all his instructions and wrote a second draft to him. And until now, it is already one year after sending my draft to him, and still I have no idea when he will publish it.

Actually, this not only happens to me, it happens to all the members in my research group. The average time my supervisor publishes our results is about 2-3 years after we have finished all the required experiments. The results just become idle. I would like to ask, if this is a common phenomenon (and the possible reasons behind it), if not, what I (and my colleagues) can do about it? You know as a research student, having publication is very important, it is really frustrating.

This seems like a strange situation, since it is very counterproductive for both you and your supervisor. If this is indeed common in your group, I am sure several ideas have been scooped by the time they finally get submitted. Unfortunately, I really don't have any decent idea why your supervisor would act this way.

The most important thing to do is to talk to your supervisor and don't let him/her dismiss the issue. This may seem like an aggressive approach, but you can disguise it as a learning experience, e.g. "Please tell me what is wrong with the current manuscript because I believe it is ready for submission, oh wise one". Whatever you do, remain polite.

A few approaches you can try (all of which are reasonable, so don't be shy):

Send reminders and send them often. Ask what you can do to improve the manuscript. If your supervisor has no further suggestions to change the manuscript, ask where you can submit it to directly. Don't wait for him/her to wake up. This approach may lead to your supervisor turning it into a ping-pong match, asking you to make trivial but time-consuming extensions again and again. In this case, confront your supervisor and explain your perspective.
If you can find an appropriate call for papers, ask permission to send the manuscript there. Calls typically have deadlines and are not necessarily a downgrade in terms of venue quality. This includes conferences and journal special issues. Having a hard deadline might help.


How much plagiarism would you consider too much in an academic book? I appreciate the technical answer to this is "zero", but in reality, there is probably some room for pragmatism.

I have identified a senior academic, who in two published books has copied and pasted short sections (up to a paragraph) without citiation, or copied and pasted verbatim without using quotes, but citing the source, to make it look they have paraphrased the work.

I have identified so far around 50 examples. Would you consider this a serious case of plagiarism, or would it be assessed as minor?

There is no clear quantitative cut-off point, if that's what you're looking for.

The severity of plagiarism has to be evaluated qualitatively and within the context of the work itself and of the discipline and its conventions (e.g. regarding citations and "public", unattributable knowledge). Qualitatively here means several things:

Has the author fraudulently claimed a major idea or a finding? Even with perfect paraphrasing, this -- it might be argued -- is the most severe form of plagiarism.
Has the author claimed an idea as original that is only tangential to the author's contribution (but doesn't bear much argumentative weight)?
Is the author merely sloppy with citations, i.e. can it be guessed from the context that the passage was meant as citation, that the attribution was (conveniently) forgotten; or is it merely incomplete or erroneous?
Are we talking about "self-plagiarism" (if that exits)?

Depending on the answers to these questions, 50 examples might be a scandal or not worth making a fuzz about.

Moreover, even if plagiarism could be evaluated only quantitatively, it is unclear what you would measure. The number of copied and unattributed passages? The length of each problematic passage? The ratio of changed words in a paraphrase?


Applying for posdtoc positions: is it okay to send out many applications? When applying for postdoc positions, one has the option to send out lots of applications, possibly get several offers, then choose the one that seems best.

Alternatively, the applicant could contact the research group that looks the most relevant or best suited for him, and focus on getting a position there.  If the feedback is not positive, then (and only then) move on to the next best choice.

I believe that in the USA it is accepted that people will shop around for positions, and not taking an offer is considered completely normal.  However, in some other places it is possible that if the applicant shows a lot of interest for a certain position, then gets an offer to be hired, and doesn't accept it anyway, it could be considered rude.

What is the usual or best way for applying in various countries?  I think it is very important to research this point to avoid any misunderstandings or bad feelings because of differences in attitudes towards the application process.

You should remember that universities are also looking at the resumes of many candidates for a given position. If it is not rude on their part to consider many applications and rejecting most of them, why will it be rude for a candidate to apply to many positions and reject some of them?

This is a many-to-many matching market between applicants and positions. You are trying to optimize your chances, they are trying to optimize their interest. If you look at it from this game theoretic perspective, you will not feel any qualm of conscience.


Is it possible to create a mutual relationship between full-time work and a PhD program? Having experienced academia through masters, and work via part-time and full-time jobs, I plan to pursue PhD and keep working full time. However, my plan is to create a mutual relationship between work and PhD program in which research feeds work and leads new assignments, and work assignments helps research through results and my employer as well.

I am not sure about the case in the other fields, but I think this should be valid for CS people. Do you think or know whether this is possible? If so, do you know any examples of such programs or people who work in this particular way?
The other questions is how might this relationship help or hurt PhD studies?

There is already a question about possibility of working full-time and pursuing PhD simultaneously. However, this question considers working in a completely unrelated area with respect to PhD program.

There is another question that explores the possibility of working on extra activities such as start-up project while pursuing PhD.

It is not unheard of to have people work outside of an academic setting on their PhD thesis. For instance, in the US national laboratory system, there are a number of graduate students working on their PhD thesis. It's not a large number—maybe a dozen or so per laboratory—but it's not zero, either. In countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, it is also not uncommon to be employed as a PhD student in industry; however, the financing of that is somewhat unclear to me. (They may receive the equivalent of their stipend, or they may receive a "professional" salary.)

That said, I suspect it will be difficult to find an arrangement which will allow you to work full-time and receive both a graduate stipend and a full-time salary. Such arrangements would be generally frowned upon by both university and the external sponsor.


Transitioning between two advisors who work in the same department A PhD student has been working with Prof A. However, after a year, the student decided that he doesn't like the field and wants to change his advisor to Prof B, who works in the same department with Prof A.

Would there be any potential adverse effects on relationships if the student changes PhD advisor from Prof A to Prof B within same department, especially when the student has strong previous connections with Prof B?

Can Prof A advise Prof B not to take the student in such a case? Has anybody experienced cases like these and what the results were?

Assume Prof A is tenured and Prof B is not .and Prof A was against co advising from beginning.

It depends on the personalities of the professors involved and in how the student handles the switch. If they really are working in two distinct fields, and if that is the real motivation of the student for switching, most likely there will be no issue.


About participating a poster-session One of my papers has been accepted to a reputable conference's Poster Session part. Currently, the only financial support I can take is from my school which partially finances my travel to the conference abroad.
I have just finished my masters (the field is Economics fyi), and in two-years time, I may apply for a PhD as well.
The papers that will be presented in usual ways are probably much ahead of mine, so that mine was just selected for the Poster Session.
Do you think I, as a young researcher who just finished a MA degree and work at the same time (at a Research Dept. of a bank), should attend it?
The concerns I have in mind are that:

I may not get as much feedback in a Poster Session, if I am to present it to an audience
This is just a Poster Session and that's it. Is it worthy during graduate applications etc.?

I need your advice about it.

P.S.: The school finance around half of the expenses btw. And I can more or less afford the rest.

I may not get as much feedback in a Poster Session, if I am to present it to an audience

If anything, you may have a better chance for feedback. If you give a talk, you only have time to answer a couple of questions, whereas if you are standing beside your poster, you will probably have the opportunity to have more detailed discussions with people who stop by.

  This is just a Poster Session and that's it. Is it worthy during graduate applications etc.?

Your C.V. will presumably list your publications, and the name of the journals or conferences they were published in, but would probably not specify whether they were presented in a poster session or a talk. Of course, if you don't get to publish in the conference because you didn't attend, then you wouldn't be able to list it at all. (This does assume that there exists a full paper that is published in the proceedings; some of the other questions I've seen here suggest that not all fields do it that way.)


How to overcome difficulties of social interaction at my first academic conference In a few days I'll be attending my first academic conference in Spain. I'll be going alone and this never became apparent to me that it might be a problem until I spoke to a few people about their experiences at their first academic conferences.

The most common word that arose was 'miserable' - most said that it was difficult to get to know people and to keep up with the pace. While I think I'll be okay with the pace - I'm drawing up a rough idea of which talks I want to attend and where I want to be - I'm not so sure about the communication part. As I won't know anyone at the conference, my plan was literally to just smile and talk to random people so that I can network and make friends but I'm starting to have doubts about whether this will work - will it work?

I have a (slight) anxiety problem and my history of socialising has been terrible so what I fear most is making a fool out of myself in front of people aren't really looking to socialise and make friends. I don't have very comprehensive knowledge in the field since I have only completed my undergraduate degree last year although I never really saw this as a problem.

EDIT: Thank you to everyone! The advice given was really useful. I really just went with the 'talk to random people' strategy. It was awkward with some people as you can immediately pick up that they don't want to talk to you, but I think it's very important that you don't take it personally and just try again. And I made really good friends and connections by doing this. Preparing questions and such also helped a lot - asking my first question was difficult but it was much easier to participate afterwards. At the end of the day, I really think that what you put in is what you get out. Also, imagining people naked sometimes helps!

I also went alone to my first conference, and did not know any of the other attendees beforehand - but I had read some of the works by some of them.

Besides the usual advice "talking to other that also look like they feel alone", I would also encourage you to

prepare and ask questions after talks.

Do this especially for smaller talks (if there are any). This really has many upsides: You practice formulating questions - a very important skill to get something out of a conference. You may get into a nice chat, which, in my case, turned into a friendship more often than I expected. As a consequence, you do not feel alone anymore.

If you did not get the chance to ask your question, you may also approach the speaker after the talk (either right after the talk but also in the next coffee break). Generally, scientists love to talk about their (published) work.


Difference between a research gap and a challenge While reading about an article on computer science field I stumbled upon a question regarding the difference between a research gap and a challenge.

To my current knowledge, research gap is an unsolved or untouched area within a field of study. For research challenge, it seems to be a difficult to solve or answer question.

What are your opinions / answers from experience so that I have a better understanding?

It is a bit hard to judge as the phrasing may be due to an individual. But I would think that a research gap would be an unsolved part of some area of a field that has been studied fairly extensively and needs the gap filled to advance in some particular direction.

On the other hand, a research challenge is broader. It would be a request for study of some problem that has been neglected by the research community either because it has just been overlooked or because no one has yet thought it important enough to tackle.

Filling a research gap may be difficult, but it is relatively constrained with much work surrounding it already done. A research challenge however requires a much more extensive attack and probably many more resources. It is intended to open new lines of inquiry.


Why are GPAs calculated the way they are? At most schools an A is a 4.0, an A- is a 3.7, and so on. I feel like this system is not really representative of a person's true skill. For example, a person who got a 100% in a class will get the same GPA as a person who got a 94% in the class. However, a person who gets a 91% in a class will get a significantly higher GPA than someone who got an 89%. Why don't schools base GPA off the actual percentage that someone gets in a class instead of their letter grades?

The big reason: exact numerical scores are not comparable across classes and professors.

Suppose I told you that two students took a class offered in different semesters. We look at their transcript and see that student A scored a 94% with Professor X and Student B scored a 99% with Professor Y. Student B beat out the first person by five percentage points, but do we actually know that Student B is a better student? Maybe Professor Y is a soft grader or Professor X had a really harsh curve that semester. We don't really know whether Student B is better. All we really know is that both students did pretty well.

Hence, grades tend to be assigned and interpreted with a large degree of subjectivity, which fits the ABCDF model better than a score-based model. The general interpretation is:

A - excellent
B - good
C - average
D - needs improvement
F - failing

If the first and second student both get A's, then this means that an expert in their fields (the professors) have said that both students did excellent. This isn't a perfect system, but it is about as good a comparison as you can get.


Can a literature review be a "master's thesis"? I have selected a single question for my master's thesis, within my field of Foreign Language Teaching. Most papers I have read contain just short literature reviews providing some background for a research study that occupied most of the writer's time. I think I could understand my question better if I focusing all of my effort on creating a 100-200 page literature review, examining and critiquing all existing literature on the subject, rather than on trying to come up with some new results.

Can a master's thesis be comprised of just a literature review? Do journals publish literature reviews on their own?

At least in my Faculty (of Computer Science), a master thesis can be "just" a literature review. A literature review can be an important contribution, and is part of what is usually called secondary research.

However, you should consider performing a systematic literature review, which is a literature review comprising several analytic and precise steps to enhance the reliability of the study. A systematic literature review is a time consuming research activity but a very useful one. Please verify that such a review has not already been conducted recently, before starting it by your own.

Systematic reviews are publishable research and often get many citations. As for thesis, I think that any publishable research activity can be a student's master thesis. However, ask your (potential) advisor.


Should I cite a paper when a sentence is not a findings of a research work but mentioned in the paper? Problem

In the methodology section of this paper, authors mentioned that

  Compared to other social network sites such  as  Facebook  and
  Twitter,  Instagram  has  been  less  studied and understood.

I need to cite a sentence like this. However, this is not a findings of this paper.

My Question

Will it be okay, if I cite this sentence?

If you take others work then you need to cite it. Otherwise it is called plagiarism.


Professor won't give full credit for correct homework question After a completed homework assignment, I was surprised to see that a question that I was certain that I answered correctly was marked as incorrect. When reviewing the question, I explained why my answer should be correct, and the professor hesitantly agreed to give students who answered the same (multiple choice) credit for the problem.

I sent him a reminder email to give credit for the problem, but he emailed be back saying that he only gave 50% credit for that particular answer to that question, and 50% for a similar answer to a separate question that depended on the same logic.

I am of the opinion that my answer deserves full credit. Is it worth bringing up to him again over a small amount of points?

The professor may have sensible reasons for counting the alternate answer as inferior.  It could be that on the surface, your answer is strictly correct.  But in the context of the class, such an answer might indicate that you hadn't learned what you were supposed to.

I often give exam problems for which more than one technique will yield the correct answer.  (This is mathematics.)  But part of what I'm testing is whether the student, who should know both or all three techniques, can chose the best technique for this situation.  Naturally, I have students arguing this with me regularly.  They think that as long as they do a problem the right way, they should get full credit.  My response is that I'm trying to measure their learning and mastery of the material, and their poor choice of technique indicates less than ideal mastery.

Oversimplified example:  Suppose it's 3rd grade and the question says, "What's 314 times 256?"  If a student adds 314 to itself 256 times, that's a correct method, but it tells me that he hasn't learned how to do 3-digit multiplication.  He won't get full credit from me.

You might try asking the prof why he thinks your answer is inferior and see what he says.


What are some good writing tablets for taking notes that are heavy on math/physics? For the record, I'd like something to replace notebooks. I'm accumulating more and more notebooks, and they're a pain to tug around everywhere. Plus, notebooks are easy to get lost (I've lost notebooks by accidentally leaving them in restrooms), not easily-backup-able, and non-searchable.

So I'd like a tablet that allows me to read PDFs heavy on math/physics, that allows me to easily annotate notes, and that has a thin stylus that allows me to write subscripts and superscripts with ease.

I believe the limitation is more on the software that you are using, rather than the tablet itself. So, if you are using an iPad, you can use UPad, whereas android tablets users should be looking at something like Repligo or ezPdf Reader.


When quoting books, ought pages be separated as they are on paper? I agree with this user that reproducing page breaks make quotes less readable, but I prefer authenticity for whenever I cross-reference the book with the quote:

is my preference usual? Are there any famous academics who do this?
Or ought I ignore physical page breaks?
Is there a term for reproducing page breaks?
Is there a term for ignoring physical page breaks?

No. Unless the presentation of the text is particularly important for some reason (maybe the author is drawing pictures with the way words are arranged), you can assume that the actual content is more important than the choices of font size, margin widths, inter-paragraph separations, title font size... that lead to the exact page breaks that occur in the particular edition you are reading. I don't really see anything "authentic" about reproducing page breaks. The authors was probably not even involved in the choices that lead to these particular page breaks.


With most applications status available online, follow up or not? Many applications in academia have their status available online. Starting from school admission, faculty jobs, and research funding proposals. If there are no updates on the application, does it worth to send a follow-up email to show interest or that might have negative consequences (desperate move?).

A single polite e-mail after a respectful amount of time (which varies greatly depending on field and whether you're talking about paper review or job application) is not likely to hurt you. Badgering, demanding, and aggression are likely to hurt you.
Admissions and job hunts are probably the places where you might consider a follow-up e-mail as a way to demonstrate continued interest.
With a journal submission you might send an e-mail if the editor is clearly "sitting" on the paper, or the status hasn't changed in some long period of time (2-3x the typical review cycle for that journal, for example). But in my case this kind of e-mail almost never yields a useful result except to have the editor write back "we're still waiting on reviewers."
For a grant application there is zero chance that this will help you or yield any useful information. There is usually no information until all of the information is publicly available and you can't do anything except sit back and wait.
So, to possibly try and get a general trend here: the utility of a follow-up e-mail is inversely proportional to the size of the organization you are e-mailing. For a small research group or company where only a few people are likely handling all of the applicants for a job posting, it might be helpful. For a governmental organization of 1,000s of people with a highly codified way of doing business (or possibly even laws regarding transparency), an e-mail is just shouting into the darkness.


Is it fair to blame authors for exorbitant book costs? Summary (TL;DR): The following's biased; so are there any counterarguments? Please beware that this question concerns only authors who are professors and who also write textbooks.
Are authors truly helping students as much as possible? For example, are textbooks edited and revised every two years out of greed? Certain subjects tied to real-life reforms (like law) may require such turnover, but what of Economics (as below) or Calculus?

[Supplementary Context] [Source:] Ray Lopez December 16, 2014 at 12:22 pm
LOL from the comments section of the npr post:

Mankiw is the worst sort of economist. He’s a blatant liar. Why does his book cost $320? Because that’s how much the publisher, Cengage, has determined the market will bear. Why does he not advocate reducing the price of the book to make it affordable to more students around the world? Because he wants to make as much money for himself as possible. (This is also why pharmaceutical companies often price their newest drugs at outrageously high prices; to maximise profits in the short term, rather than to deliver the greatest public health good.) Mankiw does not care about the impact of his ridiculously priced book on the purchasers of his product, and he papers over any twinge of guilt he might otherwise experience by convincing himself that his personal brilliance is worth the extra money. Congratulations, professor, for playing your little part in the grand national pastime of burying America’s college students in debt.

(no sympathy from me as he dissed outrageously priced on-patent drugs, but it’s telling how people think education is a public good. Nothing can be further from the truth. If you can’t afford an Ivy League education you have no business applying to Harvard…)

Short answer: both yes and no.

Partially, no they are not responsible, because some of it is a matter of costs and markets.  You're never going to see textbooks offered for the same price-per-page as romance novels, because the cost of creating and curating the textbook is so different.  So the base price of textbooks is expected to be significantly higher.

At the same time, however, authors have a lot of choice which publisher to work with, and some publishers are much more predatory in their pricing than others.  Most significantly, there are a number of university and society presses that can give a book quite good promotion and also a reasonable price.  Consider, for example, the MIT Press, and these widely used books: the CLR(S) Algorithms textbook ($70) and the SICP programming textbook ($49) and also free.  Moreover, academic publishing is a seller's market, unlike fiction publishing: in my experience, big academic publishers are always soliciting for authors to create books for them, and so there is space for an author to select (if not necessarily negotiate).

I would say, than, that any author who has courage of their convictions with regards to education can make a publishing choice that keeps their textbook well under $100 US.  Doing otherwise demonstrates either that the person is not caring about student costs or else that they think like an economist.


What is the Measure of an "Incomplete" Undergraduate Thesis? My undergraduate thesis was not what I would consider a complete product. I did due diligence in the background and theory of the topic, but while I have attained results, my output of validated analysis methods and observed trends was notably missing the data that motivated this work. It wasn't done. On the other hand, it was due.

I received a general attitude from the chair of my department, that this is OK. My chair's thoughts could be summed up as "it's not a Master's or PhD thesis". This would be a public document with my name on it, and I wasn't fully happy, but my institution seemed to be.

What are your thoughts on the expectations of an undergraduate thesis, and what you feel is an acceptable product from undergraduates? Does this significantly differ from a PhD or M.S. thesis in factors other than depth of work?

Honestly, my expectations for undergraduate theses are very limited.  Any well-written discussion that demonstrates significant understanding of the research area is probably satisfactory.  A doctoral dissertation is supposed to demonstrate significant research skill and the ability to perform cutting-edge research.  A master's thesis is supposed to demonstrate the ability to perform some useful research in the subject area.  An undergraduate thesis is supposed to demonstrate that a student knows something worth knowing about a topic, and original results are not generally a requirement.

In a way, it is good that you are unhappy with your undergraduate honors thesis.  That demonstrates that you know what you have actually accomplished and also clearly understand the weaknesses of your work.  It may be unfortunate that you have not had enough time to complete all the work you would have liked to complete, but if you continue along an academic career path, you will get ample opportunities to pursue more complete research projects.

(As a personal note, I should add that as I am writing this comment, I really ought to be providing comments on the thesis draft that I received the other day from my own honors college student.  This is a really good student, and he has already appeared as an author on a paper in a top journal, based on his work over the past year.  On the other hand, his written thesis is lacking in both contextualization and descriptive detail.  To bring his work up to the level where I would like it to be would be a significant undertaking, and it is probably not going to get to that level in the limited time we have.  To some extent, that leaves me disappointed, but I do not want to lose track of the fact that this is a really first-rate student, and what he has produced---imperfect as it is---is quite remarkable for an twenty-one-year-old undergraduate.)


Graduate student titles on funded research proposal I am currently a graduate student at a large research institution in the United States. As part of a research assistantship I have made significant contributions to an NSF funded research project. The PI and a Senior Person on the project (who just accepted an assistant professor position) are preparing a follow-up grant application where they will both be PI's. They have invited me to participate. As a graduate student is it possible to be a Senior Person on this new project? What does the role entail and what qualifications are necessary?

TL;DR: your name can be on the proposal as "other personnel" but not as "senior personnel".

From the NSF Grant Proposal Guide, Definitions of Categories of Personnel:

  A. SENIOR PERSONNEL

  (co) PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT DIRECTOR (PI/PD) means the individual(s) designated by the proposer, and approved by NSF, who will be responsible for the scientific or technical direction of the project. NSF does not infer any distinction in scientific stature among multiple PIs, whether referred to as PI or co-PI. If more than one, the first one listed will serve as the contact PI, with whom all communications between NSF program officials and the project relating to the scientific, technical, and budgetary aspects of the project should take place. The PI and any identified co-PIs, however, will be jointly responsible for submission of the requisite project reports. The term "Principal Investigator" generally is used in research projects, while the term "Project Director" generally is used in centers, large facilities, and other projects. For purposes of this Guide, PI/co-PI is interchangeable with PD/co-PD.
  Faculty Associate (faculty member) -- an individual other than the Principal Investigator(s) considered by the performing institution to be a member of its faculty or who holds an appointment as a faculty member at another institution, and who will participate in the project being supported.

  B. OTHER PERSONNEL

  Postdoctoral (Scholar, Fellow, or Other Postdoctoral Position) -- An individual who has received a doctoral degree (or equivalent) and is engaged in a temporary and defined period of mentored advanced training to enhance the professional skills and research independence needed to pursue his or her chosen career path. Postdoctoral scholars not identified under Senior Personnel above should be listed as Other Personnel.
  Other Professional -- a person who may or may not hold a doctoral degree or its equivalent, who is considered a professional and is not reported as a Principal Investigator, faculty associate, postdoctoral scholar or student. Examples of persons included in this category are doctoral associates not reported under B1, professional technicians, physicians, veterinarians, system experts, computer programmers and design engineers.
  Graduate Student (research assistant) -- a part-time or full-time student working on the project in a research capacity who holds at least a bachelor’s degree and is enrolled in a degree program leading to an advanced degree.
  Undergraduate Student -- a student who is enrolled in a degree program (part-time or full-time) leading to a bachelor’s or associate’s degree.
  & 6.   These categories include persons working on the project in a non-research capacity, such as secretaries, clerk-typists, draftsmen, animal caretakers, electricians and custodial personnel regardless of whether they hold a degree or are involved in degree work.


Takehome Exam Plagarism Help I was writing a take home exam where I was allowed to use notes. I copy-pasted some of my lecture slide show into one of the answers, to speed up the process of referring between my notes and the slide show and this way I could easily reference my notes. It was around two sentences and the font was completely different than my answer. I ran out of time on the test and I am not sure if I deleted the two sentences copied from the slideshow.

My question is: Do I email my professor and let him know this just in case I did not erase it? I do not want him to think I plagiarized, I had no intention of keeping it there, and it is blatantly obvious that I was not trying to pass it off as my own (because you can tell it came directly from the slideshow and is not incorporated into a sentence).

Do you think I should be worried about getting in trouble?

As an instructor, I usually appreciate when my students let me know about a potential problem in their work before I even have a chance to discover it myself. It signals to me that they're 1) concerned about their work, and 2) aware of their own work -- which, sadly, not all students are.

I can't imagine it would hurt to send that kind of email, unless your instructor feels a certain kinship with the Grinch.


Why don't graduate math texts have solutions to their exercises? I study mathematics and sometimes I have seen book that contains problems but not their solutions. Why are there no solutions available anywhere?

For example, the books I have read are:

Neukirch: Algebraic number theory,
Lang: Algebra,
Liu: Algebraic geometry and arithmetic curves.

For graduate-level math books, the answer is typically not a value but a complete proof---typically of a related but relatively uninteresting topic.  For example, one of the first exercises in the Neukirch book you reference is:

  Show that the ring Z[i] cannot be ordered.

For such problems, the proof itself is typically much less educational than the process of struggling with the concepts in order to produce said proof.

By the time that students are taking graduate-level mathematical courses, they are expected to have already mastered the general skills of constructing proofs.  Seeing how somebody else has proved a point is thus not expected to be particularly educational, whereas struggling to prove something oneself forces a student to engage deeply with the material at hand.

Finally, examples of working with the concepts in the exercises are typically already given in the chapter, in the proofs of the main results, so adding extra examples by working proofs for the exercises would typically be of only incremental benefit, but undermine the value of students having to work through the proofs themselves.


Switching from physics Masters to machine learning PhD I am doing a Masters in theoretical physics. It's been half a year since I've begun my Masters.

Recently, I find myself intrigued by machine learning and would like to do a PhD in machine learning after I finish my Masters in theoretical physics.

I am rather afraid to break it to my supervisor that I plan to move into machine learning after my Masters. I am also afraid how he might react if he finds out that I am taking courses in the Computer Science department. I plan to work with machine learning profs to get two recommendation letters, but I guess I must have a third letter from my physics supervisor. I am afraid that he will not write me a good letter for PhD admission into machine learning.

What should I do?

I would suggest that you make as smooth and timely a transition as you can. The more dramatic a change you make, the more damage you risk doing to your network of relationships. Tell your advisor about your interests while making clear that you remain committed to the program you're in.

Now, there are some advantageous tactics for studying several fields at once. First, modulate your commitments -- if half your courseload is in another department, that might be too much. Second, combine them wherever you can. Certainly you could train a neural network on solid models to recognize favorable heat dissipation, say.


Does the location matter in a PhD choice? I am passionate about research, I believe in science and I get excited about it. For this reason, I have decided to start a PhD. Last year I started a PhD in a foreign country but it turned out to be unsatisfactory from different points of view - the work was poorly organized. The supervisor was not providing guidance and knowdlege and I decide to try to change the situation. I won other 2 position in Europe and this was a surprise for me, it means that people really see that this is what I really want to do. Having 2 options was not easy and in the end I decided to go in a very good university in Sweden with a very good project and a lot of industrial connections. My boyfriend is currently living there and he told me how well the PhD are structured in Sweden. I am very very sure that on the working aspect I will have absolutely no problems. I have a lot of fears when it comes to the weather. I have lived in central Europe and it was not sunny everyday and for me it did not matter. Soon I will have to leave my country for Sweden and I started to not sleep at night, to abuse a little bit of alcohol (I am ashamed of it, but yes) and sometimes I cry all the time saying that I do not want to spend my years there. When I think about the project and the university I am very very happy, when I think about the country less, because when I was there, I had not really a good feeling. I do not want to quit my second PhD. I want to start a new PhD being sure of what I am doing.
What should I do? It would probably mean that I will not have a possibility anymore and so I have to give up the idea of getting a PhD. I don't know why I changed my mind, if it is just fear or I really do not want to go.
Please, do not close the topic, I really need an advice. How much social life and location can make a difference in your life? I would like to hear some experiences.
Thank you!

I do not want to quit my second PhD.

It would be unfortunate if you needed to quit -- but not the end of the world.

I want to start a new PhD being sure of what I am doing.

In my experience, it is rare to ever be completely sure of what you are doing.

How much social life and location can make a difference in your life?

A lot.

What should I do?

Ultimately, only you can say.
That said, you've already accepted an offer in Sweden. You're very happy with the university, and apparently your boyfriend is there. In your shoes, personally, I would go and try to make the best of the situation. It won't be for the rest of your life, and if things go badly then you can reevaluate later.


Why dissertation has no score in GPA in United States? I saw the PhD transcript of a colleague graduated from a US university. There was no score for the dissertation, just stated Pass with no effect on the cumulative GPA.

Is it common?

How the dissetation quality controls the final GPA?

Isn't the major academic credit (40 - 60%) of a PhD program its dissertation?

Yes, this is near-universal in the United States.  Dissertations are not graded, and the GPA includes only course grades.

For the most part, people do not care about course grades in Ph.D. programs once you've completed your dissertation.  The GPA is understood to refer only to courses, so the GPA is also not considered important.  In particular, it is not viewed as a summary score for the whole program, but rather only for the initial coursework.

Dissertation quality is measured by reading it, gauging where it was published, or reading letters of recommendation.  For any job where the hiring committee cares how good the dissertation was, they will be reading recommendation letters, so there would be little benefit in having a numerical score in addition to the letters.


What happens if a paper with same topic gets published while writing undergraduate thesis? What happens when a topic for a Bachelor's thesis is submitted and while the student writes their thesis, a paper discussing the exact same topic is published by researchers of a different university?

This is merely a scenario. I'm not in this situation. But I feel like it concerns me a lot as I would be, had I written my theses 3 years earlier, as I received an email today informing me that the topic I proposed to a chair would be a good topic but has already been looked into by 5 researchers at a French university and the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation somewhat short of 3 years ago. The topic of their paper exactly matches what I planned to write about, so I think this happening is plausible. However, I can't seem to find information online about how it would be handled.

In such a scenario, is the student allowed to finish their thesis? How would the publication of the paper impact the requirements concerning the thesis?

Had this happened to me (with the topic I proposed), I would've suddenly have access to everything I wanted to find.

Should the field or location matter: I'm a computer science student in Germany.

As far as I know, in Germany, Bachelor's theses do not necessarily have to be "research", so novelty is not mandatory to graduate. Reproducing existing research would be fine, as long as it is noted and no plagiarism occurs (and the effort is commensurate: there will probably be implementation decisions to be made, etc.).

I have seen several bachelor theses on subjects such as "implementing PCIe communication" "writing a linux device driver" "build a softcore processor for the open-license parts of the ARMv4 instruction set" which have no novelty or research value but significant engineering effort. If the B.Sc. student has no ambitions for an academic career, this type of thing is perfectly appropriate and in line with their future professional work.


Can I submit an extended version of a conference paper or a journal, if a better algorithm exists? We published a paper in a theoretical CS conference last year, and were hoping to submit it to a journal when we found out that our result was improved in a followup work.

While it's clear that there are no ethical issues with submitting the extended manuscript to a journal, its results are inferior to the recent followup paper.

Would we get the same consideration as if the new paper does not exist (i.e., comparing the results to what was known before our original publication)?
Assuming that the answer is no, is there even a point in submitting it?

To be clear, we do mean to cite the newer result; my question is about how likely our paper is to get accepted under the circumstances.

This is a perfectly normal timeline in theoretical computer science:

Result A is published in a conference.
Building on result A, someone else publishes followup work B in other conferences.
A polished version of result A is submitted to a journal and published there. The journal paper refers to result B and also discusses how follow-up work B has already improved on the results of the paper.

Here the fact that there is already follow-up work is a good sign that will help you to convince the reviewers that this is an important result that deserves to be published in a good journal.


Etiquette for academic job interviews in Ireland I am scheduled for an interview for a Lecturer position at a leading Irish university in a couple of weeks. I am trained, and have a job in the North American academic system. Thus, I am well versed with the N. American protocols, but do not know much about the UK/Ireland context. I have looked up resources such as the ones highlighted below, but I still have some questions.

In an American context, an interview can be scheduled for 3 days with several rounds of discussion with members in the faculty. In Ireland, is it considered appropriate to reach out to individual faculty members for discussion regarding the position, department, and the university?
What is the standard dress-code for the interview? Is it just a jacket and tie or a full suit?
Are start-up funds part of the offer package, and worth discussing in the interview?

The resources I have looked up are as follows:

Interviewing for a lecturer position in the UK

My UK academic job interview experiences

For North Americans: the-peculiar British interview process

Dressing etiquette for interviews in academia

I am a USA academic, raised in the UK, who interviewed unsuccessfully in Ireland. I was partially unsuccessful as I realized a few hours in that I did not want to work there but as they had flown me over I did not want to be unpolite and leave the interview.

It is not, you may contact the head of the search but not anyone else.
Yes, both male candidates wore suits and ties and both female candidates wore skirts/pants with a shirt and jacket but neither wore a tie.
The most difficult, you could bring this up if you get to ask questions. I would not make it your first question and I would be brief. Does the university offer startup packages?

What was most different than in the US was.

I got to meet all the other applicants. We were in the same room and called one-by-one to do our presentations. I ended up really wanting another candidate to get the job.
Only one or two of the people on the panel was a faculty member in the department.
No dinner with faculty, not a tour of the town, no real contact with the department at all aside from the odd quick hello as we passed their offices.


Is it a problem if I publish my thesis bearing the same title of a journal article I published previously? I have published a research paper based on my masters thesis. The name of the research paper is same as that of my thesis. The copyright to the paper is held by the journal in question. Now I want to publish my thesis in ProQuest. Will I run into trouble for the same name?

No.
Your copyright should not be an issue, provided that you either are the sole owner of the copyright, or that you have provable permission of the owner/contributors to use the same name.
But on that note, names aren't easily copyrighted. There are thousands of papers, books, magazine articles, and other such that include the same kind of name as each other, and I would bet that there are one or two sharing your paper's exact name.
If anything or anyone happens to do research of their own and says anything about it, which I personally doubt will happen, but hey... Just prove that you are the owner of the document, or allowed by other contributors to use it.


Will it be too late to start looking for postdoc positions once I am about to submit my thesis for review? I am going to submit my Mechanical engineering PhD thesis in July, with defense probably scheduled in September or October this year. I am about to submit few papers and I was thinking of applying for postdoc positions after submitting them.

My question is, as I am already late in applying for postdoc positions, will it be wise to wait till June before searching for the positions?

I absolutely agree with emory's answer: the earlier the better. That being said, I didn't apply for a single postdoc position until the date of my defence (I was looking at that time already, but haven't found anything interesting).

There are several factors that may differ from person to person, so make sure the advice you take fits your situation:

some places, you actually work on your manuscript or thesis presentation until the day of your defence (e.g. France). In some places, there is a big "waiting period" between submitting the manuscript and your viva (e.g. UK)
funding: do you have funding up until the date of your defence, or does it finish earlier?
connections: the people you have met in conferences, through your supervisor, etc. Some people establish strong enough connections during their PhD that their postdoc search simply comes down to contacting those connections. If you have to search "blind", it could take much longer.
location and/or immigration: A perk of looking for a postdoc in a country/locale you are familiar with is probably knowing where to look, understanding the language and familiarity with the system. A perk of looking broader is that you have more options (and a lot of places value mobility during postdoc even if you do return to your country of "PhD origin" afterwards); but depending on your nationality and target country, immigration documentation might take some non-negligible amount of time.
finances after the viva: How easy it will be for you to get along if you have a few months of gap? Do you have enough savings (as a PhD student, likely not); is there a good social support in the country you're in (in France, I could get a very nice unemployment package for some months which allowed me to search in peace); are both you and your parents happy for you to move back in with them for a few months, etc.

So, when you start looking will depend on the above factors. I.e. if you are in a system where months leading to the defence are very work-intensive (no "waiting period"), it might simply be too stressful to look right now. That was my case: I was not sleeping regularly (in the holy trinity of work-rest-social, I opted for work+social and ignored sleep...), under a lot of stress, and my social activities were absolutely essential to keep me going. I think I would've had an easier time if somebody told me: don't feel pressure to look if you are already under too much pressure from finishing.

Some additional advice for looking for postdocs at the end of your PhD:

if you find yourself in a pinch and have a good rapport with your supervisor, talk to them. It is not uncommon for PhD supervisors to "magick out" a short-to-mid-long postdoc for their former PhD students. My supervisor (France) was able to offer me a short 4 months contract, which gave me the "buffer time" I needed for a proper search while I was not stressed about my defence. My current lab (UK) has offered some of the PhD students a 1+ year postdoc after graduation.
a lot of places will happily offer you a postdoc position even before you have a PhD diploma in hand (i.e. as long as you show them you have submitted your manuscript and are just waiting for the defence; in case of "waiting period" type systems), and let you take a few days off for your viva, so this should not be a limiting factor.
almost all institutes everywhere are used to receiving applications from different academic cultures, and therefore are accustomed to different "standard" dates applying elsewhere. This is especially true for postdoc positions which typically have little to no teaching obligations.
almost all advertised postdoc positions typically have a contact e-mail for questions. If unsure about how strict the starting date or any other criteria is, asking can only help. If I was worried about whether the advertised starting date could be a problem, I might send something like:

  Hi, I'm X, currently finishing my PhD on topic Y from University Z, and am very interested in applying to your open postdoc position on topic M. As I see that the advertised starting date is in September, I would like to ask if you can offer any flexibility with the starting date. The reason is that the likely date for my defence is early October, and I was wondering if you would still consider my application under these circumstances if I applied?

some applicants manage to establish a really good relation with their examiners, and I've heard of PhD students obtaining postdocs from them (with the connections established during their defence). I find it a risky option, but it is one.
talk to your supervisor; he could have more specific advice either on where to look, when you can expect the bulk of open positions, stories form older students.


Final graduation thesis - Team members won't cooperate anymore My friends and I are doing our graduation thesis so we can finish our engineering course here in Brazil. There are two main problems:

My buddies are not in the same step than I am: Basically, they have not that much of interest that I have for the title. I'm doing all of the major research and work so we can continue to follow our semester with no problems. They can't even read some pages and also are not following the schedule I've set.
I do have some more interests beside only "to graduate": I really want the thesis to be presented in a future congress, or to publish it in a scientific magazine. Since they do not have this goal, it is clear that they want only the document to finish the course.

Since we are huge friends, and there has been some conflicts already, I am afraid this could harm our friendship. Is there any way to align this situation?

Other team members may have been put off by your ambition to make the project publishable, rather than merely sufficient for graduation. They only signed up for a graduation thesis project, not an academic paper.

To meet their needs and try to get them back on board, I suggest splitting your planning into two phases, with two different objectives:

Graduation Thesis This should be a team project, but should only include work that is necessary for graduation. Do everything you can to limit the scope and difficulty, so that all members of the team can understand the project and contribute with a reasonable effort. You will then be in a strong position when asking the rest of the team to contribute.
Publication This is your personal project, not shared by the rest of the team. You should expect to do all the additional work for it after completion of the graduation thesis sub-project. It may involve rewriting material to give a more sophisticated treatment, as well as more research than is necessary for graduation.


IEEE Copyright and replacing previous ArXiv/TechRxiv versions I know that similar questions have been posted before but i cannot find a specific and complete answer.
Suppose that i post a preprint article on ArXiv/TechRxiv. Then, i submit the paper to an IEEE Transaction journal. After revisions it is accepted. In IEEE author's FAQ i can read the following:

Can an author post his manuscript on a preprint server such as TechRxiv or ArXiv?
Yes. The IEEE recognizes that many authors share their unpublished manuscripts on public sites. Once manuscripts have been accepted for publication by IEEE, an author is required to post an IEEE copyright notice on his preprint. Upon publication, the author must replace the preprint with either 1) the full citation to the IEEE work with Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) or a link to the paper’s abstract in IEEE Xplore, or 2) the accepted version only (not the IEEEpublished version), including the IEEE copyright notice and full citation, with a link to the final, published paper in IEEE Xplore.

So, here is the question: how can i do that if ArXiv/TechRxiv does not permit to replace/edit previous version of a preprint? I am allowed just to update the preprint, hence create a new version of it. However, previous versions remain accessible.

When referring to a preprint being replaced, it is understood that a new version will be generated. Most/all preprint servers do not generally permit editing existing versions in order to maintain a clear timeline.
Even though older versions remain accessible, readers would view the latest version as the most up-to-date version to refer to for future use, so this is unlikely to be an issue.
This interpretation also agrees with the terminology used by arXiv.


How do I know if my research skills is valuable in industry if majority funding is from government? As a postdoc, my research is funded from a grant that's 70% government and 30% aerospace industry.
I work in collaboration with experimental groups and these groups have the collaboration with industry. The part of the industrial funding was acquired by the experimentalist PI working on the project. My PI who works on only modeling/theoretical research, doesn't have direct industrial contacts.
How do I know if my research skills is valuable in industry if majority funding is from government and the industrial funding is predominantly acquired by the experimentalist group?
I like what I do. My research and predictions is commended by experimentalist and since it's very applied, it gets published in experimental focused manufacturing related journals.
But I don't see my skills directly being used or sought after in industry. This would be a problem if I plan to move to industry in the future or in a tenure track position apply for my own individual research grant.

While I am no expert in material science, I know that a lot of people leave academia and very few of them do exactly what they have done before.
So I would not worry too much, especially as you are already on the applied side.


How to ask PhD advisor to work remotely on thesis for extensive periods? I am in a PhD program in a top US institution but my SO,family,friends are somewhere else. I am considering a thesis that would require minimal/no field or lab work. This would be a big compromise as I was hoping to do intensive field work but there is no funding for field work. I thought that a compromise would be that I can work on it remotely. I haven't mentioned yet to my advisor that I am home sick as we don't really connect on a personal level, but we have a good connection on a research level.

How do I approach my advisor saying that I would like to work remotely for 6 months out of the year? I have worked remotely before and it has always worked but I don't know how this type of setup is seen at a top tier US institution.
How do I approach my advisor about this issue?

I think you should aim for a shorter period at first, to show that it doesn't affect your productivity.  My wife and I aim to both work remotely 25% of our time, to address the two-body problem.  If each of us works remotely for two weeks every two months, that aim is fulfilled.  A colleague of mine just returned from a 10-week remote work trip.

Six months, however, is very long to work remotely in one go.  It is of course more expensive to work remotely in shorter segments, but if your advisor doesn't know yet whether it will work out, six months is too long.  Explain that you are ultimately interested in working remotely up to half of the time.  Propose to work remotely for 3-4 weeks first.  Be available at any normal local time for your supervisor, even if that might mean inconvenient times on your end.  After the remote work trip, return and evaluate how it went.  Then propose to plan a longer remote-work trip, perhaps 10 weeks, and return again.  If all goes well after a couple of 10-week blocks, you could bring up the idea for an extended six-month period.

The worst that can happen is that they say no, and you may have to find a different way.  Perhaps they don't agree with 6 months in one block, but are fine with 3 2-month blocks spread over a year.  It will cost more money, but it is safer in many ways too.

Good luck.


What's a good strategy for coming up with a lab name? I'm going to be starting a research lab as a junior faculty, what is a good strategy for coming up with a lab name?

How important is a lab name in differentiating yourself in the field or potentially attracting graduate students?

Is it common for one to use their last name, i.e. 'Smith Lab' or should it be a term from the research domain?

You should use your own name in the name of your lab because it (likely) has existing name recognition.  You should not include the subject of research in the lab name because it will evolve over time and shut you out of potential collaborations beyond the subject stated in the name.


PhD statistics with MS in CS? I have a MS in CS with couple extra courses in statistics at graduate level. I am interested in statistical machine learning, however the research can be carried out in Statistics and Computer science department both. I was wondering if anyone has an insight on how hard it would be to get into a statistics PhD with a Masters in CS, I do have some publications and currently working as a Statistical analyst.

There are plenty of PhD Statistics programs that would want you, just because of your background. Keep in mind that their are tons of PhD Statistics programs in the USA. You can apply to 10 relatively low ranked ones, and and 10 of your choice, and see from there, for example. One thing to reiterate, ranking is just a relative number. If you graduate and are seeking a Data Scientist position, and have a M.S. In Computer Science + A PhD in Stats, your good no matter where you went.


Can I correct a typo in my published paper if it doesn't affect content? I discovered a minor error (essentially a typo) in one of my recent publications. It would not be noticed by most readers. It does not affect the content of the article and does not require an erratum or corrigendum. According to the editor, it is no longer possible to correct the error. Although many people would ignore the error, I think that there must be a better way to solve the problem.

My preliminary idea is to use Adobe Acrobat Pro DC (or equivalent software) to correct the error and upload it to a professional website or cloud storage service. I could either correct the error outright (which would not draw attention to the change I’ve made) or use the strikeout text tool to correct the error (which would make it obvious what I have changed). On my CV, I would include a hyperlink to the corrected article that I have uploaded. The link could be accompanied by some text indicating that I’m linking to a corrected version of the article, or not.

Finally, because this is an open-access article, I don’t anticipate any copyright issues associated with uploading the article or linking to it on my CV.

What is the best course of action here?

What is the best course of action here?

Don’t do anything. The confusion and irritation caused by having a corrected version linked or mentioned in your CV is much worse than the typo itself.
Readers of your CV might wonder what exactly you corrected, why this did not happen in the journal version, or why you bother that much about a typo (depending on how you present it). While typos in your CV may be subject to enhanced scrutiny and have an increased impact, typos in papers referenced in your CV usually don’t. Other readers are very likely to read the journal version of the article, so besides your CV your correction benefits only a very small audience.

You can also apply a calculation of time wasted and saved similar to the one in this answer of mine:

Supposing that your typo costs the average reader one second.
Suppose it takes you five minutes to fix the typo and upload the fixed version.
Suppose that readers waste no additional time with being confused about the additional version and downloading it.

Even in this very optimistic calculation, three hundred readers have to read your corrected article to make the endeavour worthwhile.


English certifications: which ones are recognized overseas? In the European Union we have a "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages". In practice all language certification programmes have one of those levels associated to them (ranging from A1, the most basic, to C2, the most advanced), so that it is possible to establish equivalences between common tests. This allows me to, say, determine if my A in the (life-time valid) FCE exam is worth more or less than a 8.0 in the (short-lived) IELTS exam.

This however doesn't help the student that wants to have an exchange program outside the European Union. I heave heard rumours that, e.g., the Cambridge exams in English aren't accepted in the states, but that could very well be FUD.

What are the most universally accepted certifications in English?

From what I've heard, the TOEFL is well recognised.

That being said, once you get your PhD, I don't think people ask for some English certifications (at least, I've never been asked to, and I'm not a native speaker). I guess your publications and the interview in English should be enough to see if you're able to communicate in English.

EDIT List of who accepts the TOEFL.


Do academics look down on well-designed academic websites? Rationally, I should not be concerned about building a well-designed academic website for myself. But academic websites are consistently so visually spare and poorly designed that I would feel like a peacock designing the site in any way. I don't mean anything crazy, maybe a web font or a non-#0000ff link.

I realize this is broad, but I'd be curious if others feel this stigma of trying too hard in this area—same probably applies to clothing—and how they approach it.

As has been stated several times, there is no such thing as a site being "too well designed."  Of course the design should take into account the audience that will be viewing the site—i.e. if you are designing a website gallery for minimalist paintings, it would be very odd indeed to use as many buttons and links as Amazon.com, whereas for an online store that isn't a bad design at all.

However, in my view, the keynote is really not so much design as implementation.

There are two crucial factors: file size (also known as website obesity), and overuse of scripts (which is closely related).

The website you linked in the comments doesn't load at all in my browser, because I have scripts disabled by default.  I enable them for sites that I expect to run scripts, such as gmail or youtube.

I grant that I may be in a minority of the general web browsing population...but I expect a disproportionate number of academics are aware of such things, and are more likely to be irritated by websites which require plug-ins, scripts and high bandwidth simply to display a bunch of text.

Do your design as well as you please, but try to keep it as minimal as possible on bandwidth, plug-ins and scripts.

(Note: My own personal settings aren't the main topic of this answer, but as several people have made noises of shock at my default blockage of scripts, I'll clarify: I don't block first party scripts that are served by the actual website I'm visiting.)


Present journal paper at conference or the same work at multiple conferences Possible Duplicate:
  Under what circumstances can one republish a conference paper/presentation?

I have recently completed a Masters of Science which I pursued to fill a personal goal and to advance our development of a regional tsunami warning system.

Having read the thread on multiple publishing and presenting I am still confused as this is a new issue for me. Coming from Government we present on special projects or findings any number of times.

If I wish to publish my findings in an academic journal am I precluded from presenting at any conferences?

If I present at a localised scientific conference without published proceedings, am I precluded from presenting at a global one?

Can I focus one on localised context and the other on the global implications, then cite having presented at the local level?

The exact answer depends on the topic, but normally:

Publishing finding in an academic journal does not preclude presenting at conferences (except in computer science!). In fact, it's quite common to first publish a paper in a peer-reviewed journal, then go to one or even several conferences to advertise it. Just be sure to mention it at the conference, because if there are proceedings, there may exist conferences with different ideas, depending on the field.
Presenting at a local conference does not preclude presenting at a global one, certainly not if the local conference has no proceedings, because then there is not really any publication at all.
The answer to your third question is most likely yes.

To be 100% sure, contact the organisers of the conferences.

See also:

Publishing the same results at multiple conferences
Submitting the same research to multiple conferences
Journal publication and acceptance to competitive conferences
Under what circumstances can one republish a conference paper/presentation?


What can I do after publication with double affiliation in an open access journal? I published an article last year. The work was done at my previous university, but I submitted when I was studying at my new university.
When I submitted, the journal took my current affiliation along with my past affiliation because I used the current institution's IP address,  even though I put only the previous affiliation. This was an open access journal and my current university has a subscription policy. But when I asked one of the editors about the fees, he told me that it was free for me being the first time. But they took the current university address for the funding.
Is there any problem with that?
Do the university check the article's details during payment?
If this matters, what can I do now?

There is nothing wrong with publishing a dual-affiliation paper. It happens often when a person conducts a piece of research at one institution but finishes writing it up at another institution. This is a genuine dual affiliation because writing is part of the scientific work.
That said, however, I am extremely suspicious of a journal that does not allow you to declare your own affiliation. Your description of that and other interactions leads me to question whether you are being scammed by a predatory publisher.  I would strongly recommend evaluating the quality of the publication and making sure you actually want to publish with them.


How to deal with violence in the classroom (UK)? After the recent death of 61 year old Spanish teacher Anne Maguire in Leeds today, what is the best way to deal with violence in schools in the UK as it happens?

Most schools in the UK do not have a lockdown / violence procedure as it is very rare.

However can we deal with this as it happens effectively in the UK?

In the US, a college student's risks of being robbed, assaulted, or raped on campus are each roughly 3x10-3 per year. This is higher than we'd like it to be -- well, we'd like the rate to be zero. One's chances of being victimized can probably be reduced by taking commonsense precautions such as calling Campus Safety to ask for an officer to walk along if one has to cross a college campus in the dark. I don't know how much of this violent crime is alcohol-related, but certainly alcohol is involved in many off-campus incidents.

As a teacher, there are some common-sense things you can do if there is a violent incident, such as a shoving match or scuffle. Identify yourself as a teacher to the student who has been violent. If the person is your student, tell him/her to leave class until the next meeting. Call 911 and report the incident to Campus Safety.

  Most schools in the UK do not have a lockdown / violence procedure as it is very rare.

The reason we do have lockdown procedures and lockdown drills here in the US is not because school shootings are common in the US. In the US, a college student's annual risk of dying in a school shooting is something like 3x10-6 per year. Since the risk of being raped is roughly 1000 times higher than the risk of being a victim of a school shooting, this idea of a lockdown drill is clearly disproportionate. It's based on cultural and
emotional responses, not a realistic assessment of risks. Although
events like the Kennedy assassination, 9/11, and the Newtown shooting
are culturally powerful, they should not be allowed to take over our
lives or evoke a dysfunctional response.

There is no intellectually rigorous evidence for any particular lockdown procedure, drill, training, etc. For example, my school wanted us to show our students a video advocating a "run, hide or fight" strategy, but there is no clear evidence to support this strategy.

Furthermore, drills detract from instruction and may violate students' rights by locking them up in a classroom and telling them that they can't leave.


Taking undergraduate course by a graduate student, officially? I am supposed to start my graduate studies (M.A.Sc.) at a university in Ontario, Canada, soon. My potential research theme (as I've talked about it with my supervisor) does need to some background in chaos dynamics & fractal geometry... I've tracked the host university and could not find any related course, planned by either of the departments... So, I just tried to check the other universities, in the neighborhood, for finding any related course to be take it, as a guest student, based on the policies.

One fully-related course has been found, presented in the other university, named "Chaos & Fractals"... But it is an undergraduate course...!

All this said, Does any body know whether I will be authorized to take an undergraduate course as a graduate student (to be counted among my required credits, of course) or not?!

Thanks in advance

No one can answer this question, except possibly your new supervisor. The bureaucratic issues involved in having a graduate student take an undergraduate course for credit, not to mention a course at another university, are very complicated and will be different at each institution.

(Before you spend any time trying to answer this question, you should check with your supervisor to make sure that they want you to take this course. For example, they might feel that despite the overlap in course material, taking this course would not be a good use of your time.)


Letter of Recommendation is very short and mostly nonspecific - What should I do? I'm an undergraduate mathematics student at a US university applying to graduate school.
I took two classes with a professor and did extremely well - he loved me, and when I asked him to write me a letter of recommendation he promised to write a very strong one. He liked me so much that he actually sent me his letter so I could see what he thought of me.

The letter is highly flattering and I am extremely grateful, but it is only two or three paragraphs long, less than half a page. This made me nervous so I looked up features that a letter might have. This letter has only a bit of specific information and mostly speaks in vague, but highly positive, generalities - i.e. "the student did well in my very rigorous class" with no supporting evidence as to what made the class rigorous.

I am very worried that an admissions panel may see it as a vague, formulaic letter and discard it. I truly believe this professor has very high confidence in my abilities and that the letter is sincere, but I don't think that it is effective. I asked for the letter pretty early on in the semester and reminded him three weeks ago so I don't think time was the issue.

What should I do? Would it be rude to ask him to rewrite the letter with details and supporting examples? I am almost tempted to seek out a different professor to avoid asking him. Any advice would be useful.

Almost all letters of recommendation for graduate program applications are short -- at my previous university, for example, there was a field that letter writers could fill in that essentially only held the equivalent of a single paragraph. Fundamentally, for current undergraduates, it is rare that a professor has spent more than a couple of hours one-on-one with you, and so it's hard to really say much of any specificity -- as would be the case if one were writing for one's own graduate student or postdocs, for example.

In other words, since almost all letters are that short, you're not suffering any harm. Go on doing what you're doing well, and don't worry about the letter too much.