When to apply for postdoc positions if papers will be submitted to journals after submitting the PhD thesis? My field of study is Computational mechanics and branch is mechanical engineering. I will be submitting my thesis in September.  Subsequently, I will be submitting my 3 manuscripts to journals for publishing. At this moment, I have just one paper published. So, I was wondering what should be the correct time to apply for post doctoral positions in the US?

I also have an offer of continuing a small (7-12 months) postdoc position in my PhD lab till I get my pending papers published and get a position somewhere else. Also, I will get to work on a new project that would help me learn and implement a new numerical methodology. This will help me to expand the scope of my research interests (would make study of different length scales possible), which might help me to secure a better position.

What should I do? My mind says to stay with my advisor's offer and make my CV strong. Will that be a good choice?

Get the applications going now.  After all, you will be finishing up SEP.  It's coming soon.  A lot of places are sort of geared to the academic calendar.  (Postdocs can be a little more come and go, but still things may move by the ac calendar.)

Try to dress the resume up by listing some papers as "in preparation".  Yes, it's not ideal that your pub list is so anemic, but it is what it is.  Waiting for it to get better makes no sense.  After all you can always hunt again in the fall, if needed, with the stronger resume.  But I wouldn't stop from looking for a gig now.

Also, it's not at all clear to me why you can't submit the papers now so you can list them as "in review".  This would be normal (publishing pre-thesis) in math, engineering, and hard and soft sciences.  But perhaps this is different in humanities if your thesis will be published as a real book.

Of course your research may be dependent on colleagues or shared apparatus time or the like.  But in that case, I would not be sanguine about hitting SEP thesis and fall paper timelines.  Things can always go wrong.  Try to carve off pieces you can publish now.


Acknowledging funding originally intended for another purpose I am paid as a postdoc from two different grants that have been awarded to work on specific subjects. While these subjects are my main workload (both in terms of time spent and results achieved), I also work on the side on other (unrelated) problems.

When I publish these side studies, should I acknowledge my funding sources, given that that money was not awarded for the purpose of conducting that particular research? I have no problem acknowledging them, but I'm worried that by doing so I might give the impression that I'm using the money for what it was not intended.

This depends very strongly on your position and the nature of the grants.  The main deciding factors are:

Is your time clearly accounted to particular grants?  Postdocs are sometimes asked to fill out time-sheets that bill specific hours of work to specific grants, and sometimes simply "supported" by their grants.  If your hours are being specifically billed, then you must acknowledge funding on any publication that has had work billed to it (whether you should have done that is a different question).
How specific is the funding vehicle's mission and expectations?  For example, in the US, most NSF funding vehicles just want to see strong publications in an area plausibly related to the subject of the grant.  A DARPA contract, however, might be much more tightly focused and it could draw ire from the program manager if you appear to have been "wasting their money" on projects unrelated to the contract "mission."

The second point is very subjective and often depends strongly on not just the agency but the particular program manager and contract.  The PI of the grants should know the situation here, and be able to advise you on the preferred course of action.


Does undergraduate course load matter in graduate admissions? So I get that most people take 100% course load which for my school is 5 courses a semester, I know some people take lower course load and only take 4 courses per semester but end up taking 5 years in total to get their degree as opposed to 4.

My question is does someone who take 5 years to complete undergrad studies(because of lower course load) at any disadvantages to someone who took 4 years to complete their undergrad? Graduate admission for example, does it look bad if you took more than 4 years to get your degree?

It's fine to spread things out a bit.  You might consider taking a gen ed requirement over the winter term, and some summer classes, to avoid extending things too much.

Taking a reasonable credit load per semester shows maturity.  It also helps prevent burnout.


Should I Disclose Mental Health Conditions to a Potential Advisor Before Applying to the Program? I know there are a lot of questions about whether or not to disclose mental health issues to advisors, but the difference is that I'm asking whether to disclose these conditions before they agree to supervise me. (Thus, I don't think this is a duplicate of To break mental health condition to potential new advisor because in that post, the professor had already agreed to supervise the student.) Also, unlike the other posters who are primarily concerned with diminished productivity and/or having to take time off, my condition hurt my relationship with a professor.

Here's what happened: How Would You React If a Student Complained to the Dept. Chair About You but Later Apologized and Disclosed Mental Illness?

Most of my problems stemmed not from the grievance itself but from persistently trying to have it dismissed, which I do not regret. However, since the university sent me a cease and desist letter (and all faculty know about the situation, or at the least know to forward any communication from me to the General Counsel's Office), they may mention or allude to this in a letter or recommendation. So it may be best for me to explain everything  prior to applying.

Anxiety also affects me in other ways. For example, I fear flying. Since advisors often encourage their students to travel for research/conferences, she should probably know about this phobia as well. Best case scenario, she's understanding and uses this information to better communicate with me and help me avoid stressors. However, she could also decline to advise me. (If it's relevant, this is for a master's degree.)

I fear flying.

Nearly all PhD students go to conferences.  They usually go there by flying.  There is no way to hide that you fear flying.  Therefore, I suggest disclosing so that your advisor can arrange for your to participate in conferences without flying.  Disclose before you enroll, and find out if your advisor can help you be successful before you enroll.

Should you disclose before you apply?  It depends.  If you can disclose in a way that shows you will be successful in the program (e.g. "Following treatment, my symptoms are improving so I expect my future achievements will be better than my past achievements...") that may increase your chances of admission.  Show you have a plan for success.  If you disclose and indicate you cannot be successful in the program, then you probably will not be admitted.  But why would you apply if you cannot be successful?

Anecdote:  One of my colleagues disclosed a fear of flying to me when he was a PhD student.  He is now an assistant professor.  He does fly from time to time.


Is there a difference in perception between a UK and a US Masters? I grew up in the UK and I have a Masters degree in Aerospace Engineering from a highly-rated UK University. However, for the past 7 years I have been living and working as an Engineer in the US.

I am wondering if there is a difference in perception/value between a UK Masters and a US Masters? I am aware that a UK Masters is typically one extra year of study; however, in the US I believe a Masters is typically two years. So, is there a general perception that a US Masters is 'better'? If so, then how much of a perception difference is there?

Also, is there any difference in perception of the degrees, if we compare industry to academia? Let's say, if I was to apply for Engineering jobs, compared to applying for a PhD.

I'll note that the UK masters degree starts (in mathematics at least, and probably other fields) starts with a deeper base, since the undergraduate degree in UK is much more specialized and focused than that in the US. So, it is possible to go farther, since you start farther along. This also explains why there is usually more research done in a UK masters than might be done in a typical (but not exceptional) US masters.

But the perception would depend on people knowing that. Some will and some will not. For academic advancement, I suspect that doctoral admissions systems understand it well. In the workplace probably not so much.

But seven years out, in industry, your best credential is yourself and your own work.


Citing a revision of a 2nd edition book I'm wondering how to reference a book The Jepson Manual, 2nd Edition shown below.

  Baldwin, B. et al. (ed.). 2012. The Jepson Manual, Vascular Plants of
  California, Rev. 2, 2nd ed. University of California Press.

I wondering about citing the revisions which are available on-line at eflora. There are now two revisions of this second edition. Should the revisions be listed in the citation as above or some other way? And should I keep the book date at 2012 even though the online revision 2 was 2014.

There are two basic approaches to citing a "live resource" of this type, depending on whether you are citing an aspect expected to be durable or that is expected to be particular to that particular version.

To cite an aspect that might be particular to a particular revision, e.g., a text quotation taken from a certain entry in the manual, you should cite in just the way that you have shown (modulated for the particular referencing style).  In this case, a good way to think about it is that "Revision 2 of Second edition" is just a fancier edition number that includes some sub-structure.
To cite an aspect that is expected to be durable, e.g., California having a high diversity of plants due to the high degree of variation in geography, it is more appropriate to use the citation form for an online resource, where you note the date retrieved but might not bother reporting the particular version, since the reader should expect that future revisions will still be just as valid sources of the same information.


Citing abstract only papers/conference proceedings I'm doing my MS in Astronomy and Astrophysics so almost all of the literature I need is readily available on NASA ADS website (ui.adsabs.harvard.edu) with links to downloadable PDFs and HTML articles. But sometimes I come across conference proceedings, or some old articles where only abstract is available for reading but it DOES contain what I'm looking for.

Since I can't read the whole thing, is it okay to cite that?

Apart from the original links to downloadable PDFs, if something I want to cite is in the abstract but I want to dig deeper and the paper is not available for download in any form, should I look for other papers that have same information and are available or can I use sci-hub. And how fair is it to use sci-hub?

It is a bit risky to cite papers having seen only the abstract. You might be able to contact the original authors in some cases for more complete versions.

But, the safe and approved way to get access to papers that aren't easily available online, or available only by conflicting with with ethical considerations, is to go to your local library and ask the librarian there to get you a copy. Academic/university libraries are best, of course, but most libraries have some sort of access, directly or indirectly to nearly everything.

Moreover, a research librarian at a good library is a tremendous resource for finding obscure things and even related things you don't know exist.


How to request transcript copies from universities in the Netherlands? In the US, one can request that the university from which one graduated to send copies of one's transcript to other universities (graduate admissions) or prospective employers. I would like to know what is the provision in the Netherlands, if one needs to send a copy of one's transcript to the university in the US.

The best thing to do is probably to contact the student administration of your university. They can make certified copies of your diploma (and presumably also grade transcripts, etc.). You can also contact the Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs at http://www.duo.nl/, which are also authorised to make certified copies.

However, it may be that "ordinary" photocopies suffice, if you tell them that you can show the originals later if necessary. You would have to check with the admissions office though, I do not know about the situation in the US.


Decision to peer-review a paper by author who does not believe in acknowledging reviewers I have been asked to peer-review a manuscript for journal X (field of psychology). I recognised the author name as someone I've reviewed a past paper for last year, in journal Y. The topic of his research is still of interest to me, and before accepting, I wanted to see how their now-published journal Y paper (which I recommended minor revisions for, while correcting several mistakes) looked like - and noticed they did not bother to acknowledge the reviewers. I realised I was put off by this: to my mind it is a question of common courtesy to thank your reviewers by at least including a note in the Acknowledgements. I can see that other papers by this author also lack this 'feature'.

I know we all do peer-review without expecting compensation or recognition - however I feel this is contingent on us not forgetting to somehow thank (if even superficially) each other for what is a rather ungrateful albeit necessary work. This is especially necessary when journals (such as Journal Y) do not openly disclose reviewers' names, nor have any schemes whereby reviewers can add their peer-review contributions to an ORCID-linkable profile etc.

To make up for this (as I perceive it) remaining glitch in the peer-review system, I am myself always careful to thank my own reviewers, either directly if they disclose who they are (as I did in my journal Y review), or at the very least in the Acknowledgements, where I try to make the statement less banal by mentioning a specific way in which the reviewers' comments have improved the manuscript.

Am I putting undue weight on this, or am I right to think that, if I'm going to devote an entire day (sometimes two days) to peer-reviewing an unknown colleague's paper, and since I anyway cannot say yes to all the requests I get, I might as well do it for authors who don't appear to take this effort for granted?

In my opinion, you are overthinking this.

Academics do many things as part of their jobs, some highly visible, some behind the scenes; some acknowledged, some not.

In addition, social norms vary by discipline, by geography, and by individual. I have thus far once acknowledged a reviewer, since their comments improved a paper of mine signficantly, more so than others with whom I workshopped it with previously. However, I certainly don't write such acknowledgements as a matter of routine. To me it would feel like meaningless boilerplate.

And frankly, while I do appreciate the importance of the peer review process, fairly often the nuggets of gold are also mixed with piles of dirt -- reviewer comments which, while well-intentioned, are at best of marginal value and yet take lots of time to figure out how and whether to address for at best slight benefit. I think most authors feel this at various times, and so while we recognize the worth of the peer review process overall, and if we are honest also recognize it has on balance improved our paper, our mindframe may not be exactly condusive to writing effusive acknowledgements once we finally craft a reply to comment #17! And it's good to recognize this mindframe challenge when we are playing the reviewer role as well.

Finally, I view the activity of reviewing more as part of my membership dues to my profession, not as anonymous acts of kindness to authors. I feel positive when sometimes (and I don't go out of my way to check) my reviewer's contributions get reflected in the final published paper, but I'm not sure I would notice whether there is a pro forma acknowledgement at the bottom or not.

However, this is a worthwhile discussion to have. I will henceforth set the bar under which I as author acknowledge in this instance lower, since your question has brought to my attention that you, and presumably other people, care about this more than I do!


Paper with editor for longer than two and a half months I have submitted a paper to a journal 2 and a half months ago. Its status remains "With editor". From your experience, is this normal? If not, how should I deal with that?

One of my papers took well over two years to get published, thanks mostly to two review periods lasting around 10 months (IIRC).  So 2 1/2 months is not that outlandish.

But it does not hurt to ask politely about the status of your paper!  It may be well down on someone's list of things to do, and a polite reminder that you are interested in its fate may be all that's needed to bump it up near the top.  Presumably, if you ask, the editor will give some indication as to approximately when reviews might be ready, and then you'll know when to send another polite reminder if nothing has happened.


I have an article in the field I am just interest and has no overlap with my major. Should I mention it my SOP? Related questions:

Should one mention multiple, albeit somewhat unrelated research interests?
Should I talk about a unpublished paper in my SOP?

Besides physics as my major, my other interest is linguistics, and as you can see, there is no overlap. When I was in high school, I wrote my first article in linguistics. It hasn't been read by any professor or published in any specialize journal, not because it was rejected, but because I haven't tried to do so. I had a graduate student in linguistics review it for me, and it seems that she finds it interesting. As far as I know, there is currently no material on the topic I researched available on the internet, which indicates that the topic is new.

Because (1) it is the first article I have ever wrote, (2) I did it when I was 16 or 17 (although I have updated so much it lately) and (3) the topic is new so far, I consider it my proudest scientific activity. I think putting it in the SOP will make a steady point that "I was born for scientific research." Will it be useful if I do that, or just mention the latest article in physics I wrote?

I wouldn't mention it. As Chris C states in the comments, it is not peer-reviewed and is not directly relevant to your area of future research.

My answer would change if the article were peer-reviewed and/or published in a journal, however. I think demonstrating that you have the ability and motivation to submit an article for publication is a positive attribute for a potential graduate student, regardless of whether the paper is in your field of research or not. For example, my first publication was not in my current research area, but several reviewers of my application later told me that just having a published paper set me apart from other applicants.

Since you claim that at least one person in the field finds it interesting and that the topic is new, why don't you want to publish it? Is there a way to at least submit it for publication before your applications are due?

In my opinion, it is a little dangerous to put unpublished articles on a SOP or CV. A reviewer might arrive at the (potentially false) conclusion that you're trying to pad your CV or SOP with articles that may never actually be published, which can hurt you. Others might wonder why you feel that the article is important enough to include on a graduate application, but not be important enough for publication.

Overall, I think the safer thing to do is omit it for now. If you end up moving forward with disseminating it further, then I would consider mentioning it.


Should Ph.D. Math students take notes? I am a Maths Ph.D. student. When I read any result like theorem or the concept used in it, in any math textbook or article, I understand it at that time, but as the days pass, I start forgetting them and then sometimes it gets very hard to recall the book or chapter or article name from where I had read that particular thing.
Should I take notes every time when I am reading a textbook?
Are there other Ph.D. students who take notes while reading a paper or textbook, or only I am feeling the need of it?

Kindly reply. Thanks in advance.

You just described the difference between short and long term memory. Seeing something, say in a lecture, will only get your short term memory involved. To have something retained for the long term you need to actually actively learn it. Listening, reading once, seeing a video are all passive.

Yes, take notes. There is evidence that taking notes on paper is better than typing the notes as you listen to a lecture, say, because it engages the brain in a different way. Good typists, for example, can copy text without really reading or understanding it. It is just a physical, rather than mental, act.

There is brain science that shows that learning requires physically changing the stricture of the brain - reconnecting neurons. See The Art of Changing the Brain by James E Zull, for example.

But taking notes is only the first part. Practice and repetition are needed for real retention. What can you do with the information you just heard in that lecture? For undergraduates we give them exercises to reinforce the learning and make the students active in retaining it. That happens less in doctoral studies. But among other things, especially in maths you can think about and write down how this connects to other things you know and have already retained. Make the connections explicit in your thinking rather than just implicit.

When I was in grad school (maths also) I made extensive notes in lecture on paper. I still have them 50 years later and have consulted some of them recently. I do wish I'd used better paper, actually. If I were to do it again, I'd use index cards with only a single idea on each card. Better yet, take notes on good paper and just after the lecture, extract the key ideas (three most important ideas) on individual index cards. Everything here is done by hand. I did some of this actually as an undergrad (not enough) and still have a box of index card notes.

You may think that using computer based notes is superior. That is questionable. You may think it is better for retention, but it isn't for retention in your mind. Even retaining things in a computer over 50 years is problematic, since media and operating systems change as do some formats. If you back up regularly you are safer but you may also need to translate the old formats to new as many software vendors have little incentive to support really old formats. Paper lasts as long as you can keep it dry and away from fire.


Cost/benefit of interim professorship What is the cost/benefit analysis for a Post-Doc taking a position as an interim professor?

Some costs I can think of: High teaching workload. Current projects suffer and a gap in publication record may result.

Some Benefits: Higher salary during interim position. The value of adding the position to your CV.

The answer will depend on many individual factors. Some positive aspects are:

The university gets to know you. I know of several interim professors who got a full professorship later on because everyone was satisfied with the person.
You are gaining teaching experience. This is an important factor if you want to apply for a professorship.
Related, but slightly different: You build up a teaching portfolio. If you are becoming a professor later, you are already having some material at hand.
You are getting in contact with motivated students which you can involve in your research activities.
Last but not least: Teaching can be fun :-).


What would it mean if a professor of interest (POI) emails me after April 15th asking if I decided where to go for my PhD yet? So long story short a professor at a school I applied to got in touch a few days ago saying he was "impressed with my qualifications" and asked if I decided where to go for my PhD. What would this mean exactly? My assumption is that I was on the waitlist or "leftover list" and he got in touch. I replied saying that I haven't decided yet and I'd love to attend the school he's at (I didn't really receive any offers this round) and that if he wants I'd be down to discuss this further with him.
I think there's only really one reason why a professor would contact an applicant in that manner, but I'm now wondering if I may have made too many assumptions on my part. Do you guys think my interpretation was correct, or maybe I jumped to a conclusion too fast?

Seems to me like you did the right thing. They may really have been impressed by your qualification; or they just wanted to gauge your interest in remaining on the waitlist, to which you replied "yes".
There's little else we can guess the person might have wanted to ask. You didn't burn any bridges and expressed interest. There's little else anyone could have done in your place.


Asked to combine work with competitors, but competitors are under ethical investigation Got a manuscript accepted and then pulled because of a similar manuscript submitted by another group to the same journal. Per the request of the editor, two groups combined the manuscripts. Now the manuscript was held up for unknown reasons.

I re-read the other group's manuscript and found a number of serious flaws. I don't think any reviewer would pass those up. Now I really regret combining the manuscripts with the other group, but it was the editor's request.

In addition, there were some ethical issues with the other group (gift authorship), which may have been reported to the journal by our research integrity officer.

Should I just ask the editor if they will reconsider publishing our data alone with addition of the new data that the journal wanted without having to take the whole mess with us? I am really frustrated now.

If there is any kind of ethical problem with the other group, you need to avoid involvement in unethical behavior as much as possible.  Tell the editor that, owing to ethical concerns, you are no longer willing to work with the other group.  You can ask them to consider publishing your work separately, but you should be clear that you would prefer to take your work to another journal instead of combining the manuscripts.


How to design a translation test I teach a language course on 1st year BA level. The students should be able to translate basic sentences, and this is to be tested in a written exam. I'm looking for resources on how to design the exam. I have already made an assessment matrix and determined the weight of the translation exercises in the exam (they also need to parse some forms and the like).
I understand that most of what we have treated should appear at least once and can come up with sentences for the students to translate. What I'm having trouble with is the scoring. From what I've heard I should divide sentences into smaller blocks, like a verb or noun phrase, and assign points. I'm looking for some hands-on explanation how to divide the text into sensible blocks and assign points, to make sure that the blocks are as independent as possible.
Searching for tips on how to do this is difficult, I mostly find results about taking translation tests instead of designing them. Any references or tips on how to search would be appreciated.
This will be a written exam, taken on-campus.

Consider following backward design: first, identify your goals; then, determine how you will evaluate them. What do you hope the students can do that this tool assesses? In my mind, it's impossible to say how you should break down your translation exercises without knowing this.
Some possible options...

By the end of this course, students will be able to understand the central idea of a text in a source language and render this idea in a target language.

If this is your goal, the basic unit of the passage to be translated is the semantic one. Tally up the ideas you think are the most important. For example, taking this sentence of Dickens':

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”

A translation would have to capture (i) laughter is "contagious", spreading easily; (ii) nothing compares to it for contagiousness. You would deduct marks for such mistakes as applying "irresistible" to the laughter itself or saying that there's nothing in the world like a laugh.

By the end of this course, students will be able to reproduce in a target language the idiom and style of a text in a source language.

If this is your goal, the basic unit of the passage is the sentiment: the imagery, the positive/negative skew, the connotations. For example, taking this sentence of Dickens':

“I loved her against reason, against promise, against peace, against hope, against happiness, against all discouragement that could be.”

A translation would have to capture (i) the repeated rhythm of "against X"; (ii) the startling contrast between the positivity of the first five abstract nouns and the negativity of "discouragement" that is intended to summarize them.

By the end of this course, students will be able to identify and effect various types of modulation and transposition in translating a text from a source language to a target language.

If this is your goal, the basic unit of the passage is syntactic group: noun phrase, verb phrase, adverbial complement, etc. For example, in this sentence of Camus':

“En entrant, Cottard et Rambert essuyèrent leur front.”
As they entered, Cottard and Rambert wiped their foreheads.

A translation would need to (i) avoid rendering "en entrant" awkwardly as a participle; (ii) make sure the singular "front" ends up as the plural "foreheads".

By the end of this course, students will be able to do all of the above...

Then your rubric (or discrete rubrics for discrete exercises) can capture all those aspects under various headings, or whichever other ones correspond to your goals.


How are reviewers rated by editors after a peer review proccess? I am aware that some journals ask the editorial board to rate each reviewer, and use these ratings to select reviewers.

So, my question is: how does this rating proccess work? With respect to what are we reviewers rated? How are these ratings used and are they shared between different journals of the same publisher? Is this practice common for all fields? Details are welcome.

I am aware that there are multiple questions, but they are correlated and a comprehensive response can answer all of those questions.

You can probably guess how reviewers are rated. Did you provide a good review (as in, read the paper and provide constructive comments)? Did you provide a review on time? Did you write a biased review (a giveaway would be to say the paper's acceptable if and only if the author cites your papers)? If you wrote a good review then you get a high score, otherwise you get a low one. If you get a high score then editors are theoretically more inclined to invite you in the future; the converse is true if you get a low one.

Whether or not ratings are shared between different journals of the same publisher depends on the publisher and the editorial boards of both journals. Obviously, journals can only share reviewers if they have some overlap in scope. There're also technical limitations to linking reviewers. Different journals use different systems, and while it's theoretically possible to link all of them to the same database, it's not always done. Beyond that the editorial boards must also agree. If an editor is relying on his or her personal network, (s)he might be less willing to share. Comparatively, if an editor is using Google Scholar, Web of Science, etc to find reviewers then (s)he might not object.


Do you necessarily need to wait one year before attending a PhD in the US? I see many LinkedIn profiles from Ivy League graduates that start a Ph.D. program only a few months after they get their Bachelor's (assuming that they graduate early in the summer). Given that graduate applications are usually open from October through December and programms start in August-September of the following year, how is that possible?

In all phases of a US student's career, it is understood that many people will be applying based on their anticipated graduation date, rather than having already graduated.  Thus:

High school students apply for colleges in the fall, even though they won't graduate until the end of spring.
Undergraduates apply for graduate schools in the fall, even though they won't graduate until the end of spring.
Ph.D. candidates apply for postdoctoral positions the fall or early spring, even though they won't graduate until the end of spring.
Postdocs apply for faculty positions in the fall, even though they typically have contract commitments through the spring or summer.

This does leave a problem of what can happen if one fails to actually graduate as anticipated.  It is, however, generally the case that technically offers are made contingent on the current phase of one's career completing as anticipated.  Usually this is a fairly safe bet, since it is unlikely that a strong candidate will suddenly plunge in performance so badly that they cannot graduate.  In some cases, however, it will happen and in that case either:

The offering institution may with withdraw their offer, or
The offering institution may allow the candidate to defer for a year, or
The offering institution may allow the candidate to start anyway.

The second is much more likely to happen in cases where the unexpected failure to progress is due to external circumstances, such as serious illness or having a child, which would not cause an institution to reassess one's potential, and the third where everything is done except some final formalities (e.g., a graduate student has defended their thesis but starts a postdoc before depositing).
The chances also depend on the stage of one's career: there is often a great deal of flexibility for faculty start dates, for example, while postdocs are often tied to specific funding with a specific non-deferrable timeframe.


Applying to MSc vs PhD in CS with science background in US I hold a BSc and MSc in physics and want to do graduate studies in CS. I did computational and theoretical research and thesis on quantum memories which are useful in quantum communications (not sure if that sounds any interesting to CS admission committees). But I have not officially taken CS foundations courses (well, except some through Coursera and edX). I am willing to pay for a decent Masters program through loans and part-time work though. Here are my questions from you:

Can I improve my odds of getting into a decent department by applying to Masters programs instead of PhD programs?
Besides full score on GRE quantitative, I got a decent score in GRE physics. Can any of these make up for my lack of formal education in CS?

I'm no expert, but with research experience and already having a Masters in physics, I think that you should directly apply to the PhD programs.  During your first two years, you're going to take courses anyway.  So unless you don't think that you'll be able to handle those courses, I think that doing another masters and then your PhD will be a waste of time and money.  It depends on where you want to go, but a lot of schools will make you take courses in your PhD even if you already have a masters in CS.


Different results when experiment repeated Have you all ever had different results when repeating your own experiment? I did some work for my dissertation and am now redoing it for better images and hopefully for publication. The results are not replicating at all which leads me to think either an error was made before or is being made now. Would you think to repeat with more replicates and document those results instead of the initial results? It's just so draining, but I don't want to publish inaccuracies.

That certainly means that this material is not ready for publication.

No matter when the error (is it even an error?) was made (in the initial or subsequent experiment), one first has to figure out why the results are the way they are. From some angle, it is even a blessing that the results are mismatched: it forced to "bake the research" a little longer until it is ready.

I strongly suggest analyzing the experiments setup, experiment procedure, raw data, post-processed results in order to explain what is going on. Maybe, it's worth conducting a third experiment (if it is a viable approach).

While triple modular redundancy adage does not fit here perfectly as an analog:

  Never go to sea with two chronometers; take one or three.

the third (fourth/fifth/...) experiment might give you some insight into what is going on. And taking only one chronometer—just because it leads to a potentially faster publication—would be a wrong approach.


How do departments determine the optimal quantity of elective offerings? In my department, we have a problem in trying to determine how many credits of electives we should offer.  At first, it seems that it should be a simple equation to take the number of students enrolled at the department multiplied by the elective credits they will take on average that semester, and then divide by the minimum student enrollment for a course to help estimate how many credits to offer.  The problem is that not only is the average elective credits to be taken not known in advance, but also that students often take electives outside the department, and students from other departments will sometimes take our department's courses.

As a result, the department makes no effort to estimate elective credits, and often offers more credits than could reasonably be filled.  This results in under-enrollment of the electives, which means that many do not meet their minimum enrollment numbers, and are cancelled before the semester even starts.

Does anyone have a tool their department uses that works well to mitigate this problem?

Gradually converge to a number that works well, and adapt as things change, by adjusting upward or downward each semester if there were too few/too many the previous semester.

Most classes, including electives, are on a fixed schedule (e.g. "this class is taught in the Spring semester every other year") that is determined and then adjusted by the method described above.

Demand is not spread evenly across all electives; a course that is consistently underenrolled when offered every year might be moved to every two years, while a course that is overenrolled when offered once a year might change to every semester.

Demand does not usually change dramatically from one year to the next, so this works pretty well.


Efficient ways to find the original paper which introduced a novel concept/algorithm? Many times while reading papers (especially engineering), many concepts, algorithms or results are taken for granted because they are already established in research. Sadly, at this point, many are not even referenced directly or some authors refer to other publications which use them. Is there a good and a fast method to find the original paper?

Here's the (horrible cheating) method that I use: if something is so well established that people don't bother referencing the original paper, then there's a good chance it's got an article on Wikipedia or Wolfram Mathworld or some other reference site.  The references of such an article often include the original paper, but even if they don't they usually include something close enough in time that it does actually reference the original (or at least something closer to the point).

In many cases, however, you may not actually want the original: as the original becomes better understood, its presentation is often made much clearer and more succinct, and later textbooks or reviews may actually be the right source to point people at.  For example, consider the difference between Newton's calculus, and calculus as it is now taught to undergraduates.


Conference held in year X, proceedings published in X+2 - which to use? A certain conference was held on year X, but its proceedings were published in print in year X+2.

When I cite an article submitted to that conference (which I read in the published proceedings) - how do I indicate the correct year?

I'm asking specifically about BibTeX field values, but a less-specific answer would also be ok I guess.

When I cite an article submitted to [a conference held in year X and published in year X+2] - how do I indicate the correct year?

The citation should include the publication year, not the year the conference was held. But, the conference year is useful, so it is worth including too. Perhaps:

Author (X+2) Title. In proceedings of Conf'X...

The Chicago Manual of Style supports this style.


OK to ask a professor at my institution with whom I have no previous relationship some questions relating to hobby-project? I go to community college so our professors aren't busy with lab research. They're still busy people though and I wish to respect that.

I'm pretty much just working through some neuroscience textbooks for the sheer heck of it, but I often get stuck. It would take forever to ask every single question on the internet. Plus, sometimes a discussion with a real person is just better in many ways; it could lead to further questions and answers plus instant clarifications.

Thus, would it be weird/wrong to just ask a random professor (with whom I've never taken a class...just one with the relevant biology expertise) for help with specific questions about my side project?

I'm guessing it depends on the professor; but on a scale of 1-10 how weird/ intrusive would this be? I mean, some people would be ok with getting hugged by strangers, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea to try and hug them.

One of the perks of being a college or university student is access to the faculty for academic purposes.  Ph.D's become professors at community college particularly because they want to be engaged with students and their curiosity without the enormous overhead of excessive grant writing, etc. In short, they basically live to work with curious students like you.

  Ok to ask random professor questions relating to hobby-project?

Yes, and if you show half the courtesy and respect in your introduction to the professor that you did in this posting, you can rest assured that the response will be solely a function of his/her current availability.


How can US faculty verify medical absences? I recently received a memo stating that I am not allowed to ask for doctor's notes when students are absent from class, as this is allegedly a violation of privacy rights.

If this is the case, then how can a faculty member legitimately verify that a student who claims to have missed an exam or other activity as a result of illness was, in fact, sick as claimed? Couldn't students abuse such a policy to postpone an assessment for which they feel unprepared?

Couldn't students abuse such a policy to postpone an assessment for
  which they feel unprepared?

Yes. My experience teaching the first semester at a community college is that granted an open-door absence policy, the majority of my students were skipping all the tests, circulating the real test among themselves, and then taking a makeup together on a later date. (Assuming I could get them all in one place.) This was more than double my scheduling/test-making/test-grading labor, and also delaying the assessment/feedback cycle by a week or more for each test.

In my second semester I ended that policy. The policy since has been: Nothing is excused for any reason. No excuses or notes need be given to me. One low test score is dropped (and likewise for any other assignments). This is an enormous time-saver (both in test-giving and excuse-verification), and allows me to immediately hand back corrections and feedback in the next class meeting.


Submitting extract from a longer essay The grad school I'm applying to accepts extracts from longer essays. I want to send an extract from my strongest (and rather long) essay, but I'm unsure how to go about it. Is it acceptable to take an extract from the middle and send it with a cover note? Or should I keep an introduction and/or conclusion? I'd be grateful for any advice.

I would suggest to focus on the most important part of the essay, i.e. the part you feel the strongest about and where you really get into the details of the topic, and leave out introduction & conclusion for the most part and instead write an abstract which summarises these points. Of course do keep bits of the introduction & conclusion to lead into & out of the topic, but that might only be a sentence or two and mainly for readability.


Is it bad to publish a scientific paper with wrong results? I was working during the last year on developing an approach that determines human age class (young or old), but after I got exciting results I've discovered that I made a mistake when implementing some lines of code. I think that the mistake is a bit critical because I was comparing my approach and literature's ones. The mistake I made was during the classification task, where the data was entered in the right way but the experience was badly managed.

What should I do? Do I have to stay quiet or do I have to fix it? Note that the paper is not yet published nor peer reviewed.

Publishing things that you know are erroneous is a good way to get a really bad scientific reputation. Depending on how severe it is, it might go so far as to be labelled fraud and formally sanctioned, basically killing your career.

If it's important, then yes, you need to fix it.

If it's not published yet, then fix it before you publish it.  If it's published, then you will need to submit a correction or possibly even a retraction.  Good scientists do this, and it's much better to acknowledge your errors and retract than to have others expose you as a liar.


Cite a Twitter conversation? Let's assume that while researching and writing a paper you find a Twitter conversation between domain experts that is particularly useful for you.

Given that it is not the sources that these experts list, but the spontaneous grouping of these sources for an argument that is useful, wouldn't it be dishonest to find sources that verify this information and then just cite the papers without citing the experts that led you down this line of thinking?
Is it acceptable to cite a conversation from a social media source, such as Twitter, in an academic paper?

I think that this can be clarified with a thought experiment.  Let's say that rather than observing a Twitter conversation (or other social media), you were part of a three-way discussion with the two experts in the hallway at a conference.  During the course of the conversation, some key facts and sources are mentioned, and this inspires you to look them up.

Would you cite the hallway conversation?  Absolutely not.  At most, you might mention your source of inspiration in an acknowledgement, if it was particularly important to your work.

Likewise, I think that you should feel no obligation to cite a conversation that you observed on Twitter, which is effectively the same thing in an electronic hallway conversation.  (You can, of course, cite Twitter as a primary source, e.g., if you want to give an example of Twitter conversations, but that doesn't seem to be particularly germane to this question).


I'm an accomplished person in my field, but don't have any degree. Would I be able to be a teacher or substitute? As far as I'm aware, the base requirement to be a teacher or substitute requires a degree. However in my case, I've been working in my career field for going on 10 years. I'm wondering if it's possible to move to Academia, either part-time or full-time without having a formal college degree.

Lately, I've been having an "itch" to impart my own experiences and knowledge on students that are just starting out. I haven't decided on what exactly I want, but it could be anything from a guest speaker to teaching a full-time class.

Traditionally, most higher education faculty positions require advanced degrees and usually terminal degrees (e.g., PhD, MD, Master of Fine Arts) and lectures at universities often have master-level degrees.

Some universities now have "Professor of Practice" positions (e.g., UCSB for people with non-traditional backgrounds. (Hat tip to Buffy for this feedback).

Community/Technical colleges often have faculty with less formal education. Although faculty often hold PhDs, many have master's degrees. However, for some technical, trade positions less formal education is required. For example, browsing Google jobs for "welding instructors" show many positions that require an associates degree plus experience.

Usually, guest speakers have no formal requirements other than being invited by the course instructor.


"Start-up funds" in offer This is probably really silly to ask, but I'd rather look silly anonymously here than look silly to my possible future department chair.  I received my first offer for a position at a public university today.  This is a teaching-focused position in mathematics at a public university.  To be clear, it is an "instructor" position, but they want instructors with PhDs to teach upper level undergrad courses.

There is a line in the offer letter that states "You will be provided with $3,000 start-up funds during the academic year 2019-20."  I have no idea what this is.  I've tried searching specifically on the university website and also general google searches, but found nothing on the university site and most searches just turn up info about start-up funds of high amounts for research focused positions.

What is this money typically used for?  My main question is can this be used for moving costs?  Just hoping from insight from people in public institutions who may know what this is intended for in a mathematics instructor position.

Generally, startup funds cannot be used for moving costs unless you are moving an existing lab. Even then, mixing personal belongings into your lab equipment is pushing the envelope.

It might be for buying a computer or a tablet or some teaching technology. If it is a one year position, you should expect the university to keep the technology at the end of the year. It might be for buying teaching materials and/or office supplies. Some school offices have a supply closet, others do not.

They may also realize that while your job does not include research, that you may still want to travel to a conference. They might allow travel, but they may not.

It is not unreasonable to ask what the constraints are on the money, but if the answer does not affect if you are going to take the job, you could wait until you start.


How important are undergraduate and masters studies transcripts in applying for a faculty position? I am going to apply for a faculty position via online system. In the announcement of the position  they have just asked for cover letter, contact info of references and C.V. But in the online process of application I noticed that there exists some taps related to uploading transcripts of B.Sc, M.Sc and Ph.D. I do not know whether they need transcripts or not? Can a bad transcript have bad effect on applying for a a faculty position?

I do not know whether they need transcripts or not?

There are two slightly orthogonal aspects when you apply to faculty positions:

What the panel will use to determine if they will offer an interview,
What the administration requires for your application to be complete.

The announcement will focus on 1., but when actually applying, you may realize that 2. is a bit different.
If the application platform requires your transcripts, upload them, and don't think too much about them: they may or may not be reviewed by the panel, but what you did during your PhD and your cover letter will have a greater weight than those transcripts.
If the application platform does not require the transcripts, then I guess it's up to you. You can probably just upload them later on if the panel would like to have a look at it, but as Bill Barth noted in the comment, that is probably not a good idea to give the panel a possible reason to filter out your application before even looking at it.

Can a bad transcript have bad effect on applying for a a faculty position?

As I wrote, they can, but whether they will depends on multiple factors that are hard to assess. I believe it is reasonably safe to say that your PhD, cover letter, and possibly letter(s) of recommendation will have a greater weight, but that does not necessarily imply that your transcript will have a zero weight.
Good luck, I hope your application will receive favorable reviews!


What are the most important points to emphasize while pitching for a dissertation to be published as a book? An editor for a major publishing house is visiting our institute, and some PhD students will get the chance to have a 15 min talk with them and discuss the publication of their dissertation as a book.

I would like to pitch my dissertation (a few months from completion) as a potential book for their publishing house. I am in the social sciences in Europe and there is no tradition of the authors getting any financial benefits out of their books, indeed sometimes we have to pay the publishers. But I would like to convince this one to
a) Publish my diss
b) do it for free

What is the sort of information that this editor would be the most interested to have regarding my dissertation? What important criteria do such editors consider in coming to a decision regarding the publishability of Ph.D. dissertations?

Just to clarify, this is not a formal book proposal but only a short informal conversation, but one which I hope can be useful to both the editor and me.

Editors need books that will have an audience, a point, impact, and a connection to their "lists".

In a conversation you should be able to briefly summarize your manuscript -- and in this summary make clear its central argument / narrative, scope / evidence base, and its what is novel, important, and exciting about it. You should also summarize the audience for the manuscript,  -- how it fits into the market: what other books are competing for this audience, and what distinguishes your manuscript. These summaries should be honest, and direct -- avoid both negativity and overstatement. Choose language to appeal to a smart, and critical, but not  specialize reader -- avoid jargon, and if you have to use specialized terms, define them briefly, in common-sense terms.

For a written prospectus, follow the same model, but expand to two pages; and include an outline of the work, list of figures/tables, and note any special features such as data, or an accompanying website.

For more details, see: Germano, From Dissertation to Book and Luey, Handbook for Academic Authors


Is listener's fees in a conference justified? In a conference, where I am an author, I noticed that there is a substantial fees for registering as a listener for the conference.(10-30% less than the fees for professionals, students etc  but it is still on higher side).

Is this justified given that as an author I would like my work to be presented in front of as many people as possible and receive comments for the same. Is this common practice in conferences across Computer Science or any other field ?

The main reason for fees is that there is a cost for renting the auditoriums and perhaps other services (refreshments, facilities etc.). Under such circumstances all participants need to pay to support the conference. Exactly how the pricing is done differs widely but in most cases it is based on costs divided by a certain number of projected participants in different categories. There are conferences which I have attended that seem horrendously expensive and are held in luxurious places with organizing services and then there are those run by a smaller society where making a cheap efficient meeting for the members by the members is a priority. In all cases you pay just to get in.

So pricing will vary depending on venue and organiser. Depending on how the conference is organized you may be able to gain some insights into how the costs come about and then make constructive comments to the organisers on how it should change; particularly if the organisers are a membership organisation where you are a member.


Should I submit my revised workshop paper to a journal if I don't think it will meet the "30% new material" requirement? Let me explain my case first. I submitted an article to a Computer Science Conference, and it got one rejection, and two qualifications as a borderline paper. The reviewer that rejected the paper only said that it was not in the scope of the conference and nothing more. The other two reviewers made thoughtful comments and the final verdict was that I should submit it for a workshop on that conference.

I made the necessary changes, submitted to the workshop and it got accepted. Here it was one accept, one borderline and one reject. So I changed some parts that the reviewers suggested and submit it for the final printing.

The thing is that there will be an special edition of a journal that is planning to consider the papers submitted to this conference. So the authors should re-submit their papers for a new review and they state that the papers should present at least 30% of new material.

Here is the point, the deadline is approaching fast and I am making the add-ons based on what the reviewers point me before (when I first submit it for the conference and then what was the suggestions for the workshop), but I am running out of ideas; by the way, I am the sole author of this paper. What should I do in this case? Should I just submit it with the changes? I just don't know if that would be enough. Or am I just wasting my time and should I left it because it has already been published in the workshop?

From an ethical point of view, submitting your paper is perfectly fine if you make clear what the changes to the workshop version are that make the paper contain something new.

As far as the question whether you should do it is concerned: If you cannot even convince yourself that you have enough new stuff in the paper to justify (another) journal publication, then it will be insanely hard for you to convince the reviewers that there is enough new stuff. So the submission is likely to waste your time (and possible the reviewer's time -- if the paper gets past the editor) as it is too likely to be rejected. If you are very lucky, some reviewer will suggest a possible point of extension that will make the paper strong enough for another submission.


Found a mistake in advisor's paper - what should I do? I was reading over some of my supervisor's old papers and I have found one from 7 years ago in which part of the analysis is fundamentally flawed which effectively undermines half of the conclusions. The issue is in a paper in a subfield of a subfield so it's unlikely that any other people will find this mistake.
My question is what should I do. On one hand, I feel like I have moral obligation to let him know so that the issue can be resolved. On the other hand, I feel uncomfortable bringing it up as I don't want it to have any negative repercussions on our working relationship.
What should I do in this scenario?
Thank you.
Edit: This question is different from Should I warn my professor about some errors that I've found in his paper? as in that case it was a paper in advanced access (e.g. one that was worked on recently), while in this case it is a 7 year old paper.

First, I'd double-check your work. Are you certain this is a mistake? Is there something you're missing? Do the best you can to understand what's going on.
Second, I would definitely raise this with your supervisor, but do so from a perspective of questioning and seeking clarification. Rather than appearing in judicial robes with the paper in hand and declaring it flawed by the laws of humankind and the universe, approach it as a question: There's a step in the paper that you don't understand. You think the step should say "XYZ", but the paper says "XZY". You're not sure if you're making a mistake or if there is an error in the paper.
There's nothing disrespectful about this humble approach, and you get a double benefit that if it turns out you are the one that is wrong then you have no face to save, and hopefully learn something along the way.
Mistakes happen, and they don't indicate the person making the mistake is dishonest or flawed in some fundamental way. Next steps to take after this will depend on how crucial the flaw is and what other work it might impact. If you take these steps and there are still some negative impacts on your working relationship, well... probably that person wasn't worth working with anyways, and some rift was going to develop sooner or later anyways. It would not be your fault.


Is there prestige to be had by posting to arXiv? Do people ever upload papers exclusively to arXiv, or do authors simply use arXiv to assist in review while they find a journal to publish in?  If people sometimes publish exclusively on arXiv, what's the point?  What do they get for their work?  A paper on their CV?  Is it at all prestigious?

I suppose some senior people may publish exclusively on arXiv but they are a minority and I can't think of any examples right now. Publishing in mathematics takes a long time. Journal backlogs of multiple years are common enough that if you wait for your paper to appear in print it is already old. This is less of a problem in the other subjects that arXiv covers but still...

So what does publishing on arXiv get the author? Primarily it gives the paper a time stamp and makes it publicly available. Putting up a paper is fast, it only takes a few minutes and it gives a reference number so that you can cite it in a talk or in a paper. Normally you would have to wait until you get page numbers from a journal. And if you are giving a talk on your paper when you have just finished the work that might still be years in the future.

One interesting feature of publishing on arXiv is that you can write small notes and put those up. You can write the "user's guide" version of a paper. You can post a supplement to a paper that wouldn't be publishable on its own.

Ultimately what it all boils down to is that people post documents to arXiv that they want other people to see and hopefully read.

As for prestige, no. There really isn't any as far as I know.


Do PIs contact other references which are not listed on CV? Normally, we have to include contact details of three referees for PhD/Postdoc position application. So let’s say we apply for an opening postdoc and include three PhD supervisors as reference. Is there any case that PI (of the Postdoc position) will contact the not listed one (e.g. Msc supervisors) for reference?
PS: let’s say the Msc supervisor is famous and included in CV but not as reference.

The fundamental problem with your question is that there is a very, very wide range of PIs. Has one of them, at one time, stepped out of the confines of the reference letter system and asked about someone?

Of course.

I know because I've been asked. And considered asking people.

For a competitive application process, I generally try not to. I don't think it's fair to the applicants who I don't happen to have personal contacts with some people in their own network. If the "extra" recommendation is good, that person has had more opportunities to impress me. If it's bad, they've lost the opportunity to curate their references the way everyone else got to.


Popular Science References in Statement of Purpose for Ph.D I am currently in the process of writing my SoP for applications to PhD in Physics programs starting Fall 2018 (in the US schools). I am definitely writing about the content that I have studied rigorously as well as about the research projects that I have been involved in and so on. But I also want to involve something about a paragraph (not a specifically small one) about some of the colloquial talks and articles that I have read during my undergraduate years that have played a significant role in shaping my interests inside theoretical physics. I have been quite a YouTube buff and have watched a lot of semi-popular level talks and have been quite motivated by them in my interests. These talks have been very useful in making me aware of the current frontiers of research as well as in narrowing down my interests for good. Of course, these are not the only factors but these are among the non-negligible factors. So, I wanted to ask whether mentioning this part would be considered good or it would give my statement a non-serious and a childish tone. Or worse, might it look like I am confusing real physics with what is shown in the popular level talks?

Along with anyone interested or knowledgeable about this kind of a situation, those with a first-hand experience of looking at someone’s statements with such references or those with a first-hand experience of writing such a kind of statement are particularly requested to comment/respond.

From my experience, telling the tale why you became so fascinated with one particular topic is to be kept to a minimum. It does not add any weight or edge to your SoP, other people will have their more or less interesting story. You can use maybe one or two sentences and I don't see any need to have a "not a specifically small" paragraph on why you became fascinated with a topic. It might sound harsh, but they will not care. You have to use the limited space in your SoP for other things. But that's another question/answer.

In short, I would avoid citing pop science to a very bare minimum, especially in a field as rigorous as physics. Unless you use this reference to show something you have achieved. For example, I read pop science X which inspired me to run experiment Y which has produced Z.


Marie Curie IF, can secondments be hosted by my PhD institution? I would like to include an official secondment in my Marie Curie fellowship to be carried out at the Institution where I got my PhD (a couple of years ago).

I understand that Marie Curie is about mobility and this might not be seen favorably, but if well justified can it be included?

Thank you for any advice and best wishes

As far as I understand from the official documentation, the secondment stage is meant to increase the impact of the fellowship in the host institution. From a cursory reading I don't see any reason why it couldn't take place in the PhD institution, as long as there is a solid motivation for it.

As I mentioned in another question about MSC:

  Some EU institutions have a specialized office to help applicants write good applications. If the target host institution does it's a really good idea to contact them and ask them for advice, it can drastically increase your chances.


How to include an unpublished work other than a preprint site (i.e.arXiv) in CS PhD Application I am a MS student in Computer Science, I will apply for PhD position in the following months. I am also planning to contact with Professors these days. I have a paper which co-authors and I think it is strong (which I am the first author). Which will be submitted to a journal in a week. I definitely want to show that work to the admission committee and Professors.

The problem is that co-authors(2) does not allow me to upload it on arXiv (or any other public preprint service). I am not satisfied with the option of putting the name of the paper as 'submitted' in my CV (or should I be satisfied?). I would like them to have some insight or read it since I think they will find it attractive.

Below there are some options that I could think of, what would you suggest?

Uploading the pdf file to Dropbox(etc.) and putting the link in the CV.
Sending the pdf file attached in the emails that I will send to the Profs. way before the applications
Visiting some Profs. in person and showing them the hard-copy which will be really expensive for me but safe.

P.S: Are the options 1 and 2 risky? Is there any chance that they publish it as it is their own. Note that the same paper has been rejected by a prestigious conference with a different template. Can I testify that the paper is ours in such case?

The graduate school applications I'm familiar with typically have an option to include papers or other supplementary materials.  I don't think you need to worry about people stealing your application materials, but if you are worried then formally including the paper as part of your application seems particularly safe, since the university will have a record of what was submitted, at least in the short term.

Including a link in your CV would be almost as good, and better than a separate e-mail since it ensures that everyone reviewing the CV will have access, whereas many people will ignore an email and then forget they ever received it.  (Of course you could do both.  I don't see either one as being too risky.)

Visiting professors in person and showing them a hard copy is not a feasible option.  I assume you'd be taking the hard copy away with you (otherwise you could simplify things by mailing it, and in any case even a hard copy could enable theft of ideas), which is a major problem since looking over a paper quickly and without further access is not very useful.  Furthermore, there's no good way to explain why you are doing this.  If someone showed me a paper while meeting in person, I'd suggest that they e-mail me a copy to look at later.  It would come across as very strange if they declined to do so without explanation, or if they explained that they were reluctant to give me a copy out of fear that I would steal it.


What distinguishes acceptable use of a preprint server from unacceptable dual publication? In answering this question, I wondered:
Many fields are now beginning to embrace preprint servers such as arXiv. Typically, authors upload a manuscript to the preprint server at the same time as they submit it to a journal. On the whole, this is seen as acceptable, and not as 'dual publication'.
On the other hand, submission of the same manuscript to two 'proper' journals simultaneously is (in all fields I know) regarded as serious misconduct.
Where, precisely, is the boundary between 'acceptable' and 'unacceptable' conduct here? What distinguishes a 'preprint server' from a 'journal'? At first glance, one might say 'peer review'. However, journals come in many forms, including 'open review' (where the submitted manuscript is available for anyone to read and comment on immediately), and 'predatory' (where any submission can be accepted without review if you pay the fee). Similarly, many recognised preprint servers exercise some basic quality control on submissions.

Although there is conceivably that "archival" issue, involving the potential question of "which is the authoritative version?", I don't think that is the genuine point here.
So far as I can observe, the contemporary issues here are two: first, about "getting credit" twice for "one piece of work", and, second, about making referees (working for free) waste their time and energy.
In mathematics, in the U.S., decades ago, while it was nice to have more papers rather than fewer, it seemed to me that the real gauge of a person was not paper-count at all, but the aggregate of their work/ideas. The idea of worry about "self-plagiarism" did not make much sense then, and it still does disturb me, insofar as it seems to me reasonable to write/speak about one's ideas "endlessly", without having to promise to never repeat oneself. For that matter, some things are worth repeating, after all.
The not-wasting-referees'-time objection is more legitimate, to my mind.
In particular, then, in math, in the U.S., putting things on arXiv scores no publication-status-points (in math, currently), for many purposes. So it cannot possibly lead to double-counting in any score-keeping game. And there's no refereeing, so no waste of peoples' time.
Similarly, if one does a pay-to-publish publication, whoever's time it may or may not waste, it doesn't score any points status-wise, so there's no double-counting. (Unless one imagines that one's CV-readers don't know the differences among journals/venues.)
Back to the "archival" issue: conceivably traditional journals will maintain their documents longer than others...? Unclear.


How do I invite an expert to contribute to a review article I'm writing? I am in the process of writing my PhD thesis, and I would like to extend the state-of-the-art part into a review article. Although I am confident that I have investigated and understood the existing literature thoroughly, I think the overall quality and visibility of the review article would increase if I find an expert to collaborate with on the paper. My PhD supervisor is not an expert in the field and I expect his willingness to actively contribute to be near zero.

I have already identified a rising expert (junior PI) that I would like to contact. A strong plus is also that he seems to be an expert on the area of the article where I have no published results, whereas I have some published research in the other of the two subareas of the review article. However, I am not sure how and when to contact this person (I have not met him in person).

One approach would be to (nearly) finish the paper and then send him a direct email, asking whether he would like to contribute, and send him the paper after he agreed to handle the draft confidentially so he can decide if he wants to contribute. I would also mention that I am willing to do the ground work but expect him to comment on the draft and help improving the overall quality of the paper.

Another approach would be to upload a finished (to the best of my abilities) paper on arXiv and than send him the mail asking for his willingness to contribute.

Is there a better approach?

I suggest that you contact the other person and ask for their advice on your ideas, but not for collaboration, initially. See where that goes. It allows the person to make a small commitment without feeling any pressure for a larger one.

Your idea for a review or summary article might be a bit unusual, but in many fields these are occasionally needed as the field splits but the different pursuits have some common but unnoticed features. Partly for this reason, I don't think that the other party would think about going into competition with you on the idea, and might want to participate. The advice would be valuable in any case.

If the collaboration starts naturally then you can write a joint paper, perhaps after you complete your degree so that your advisor has less sway. Write and explain your ideas, expanded from what you write here, send a draft, and ask for any feedback that he/she might give.

The other person might also be able to suggest others with whom you might profitably share your ideas.

I mention the competition issue only because you don't really know the person. Most everyone behaves ethically, but not all do. So in some situations it is necessary to be a bit cagey when you are a newcomer to academia. I don't really see it as an issue in this case, however, as mentioned above.


Qualification prior to highest degree What does it means if someone asks the qualification prior to highest degree ?

It means that you should state the qualification that was completed before the highest degree you have.

So, for some completing their education in the UK, if they have a BBA in business, the prior qualification could be A levels.


Not asking for Letter of Recommendation from Masters thesis supervisor Recently I finished my Masters. My relationship with my thesis supervisor is very bad. He is a professor.  I am very disappointed with his mentoring. He is very lazy and always kept himself busy with work other than research. I expressed my dissatisfaction to him directly. That made him furious at me. I have planned to pursue my Masters degree at a university in North America. Three reference letters are required. I don't want my thesis supervisor as a referee. Other faculty members in our department have agreed to refer me. But will it affect my admissions chances negatively if I don't submit a reference letter from my thesis supervisor?

It will look a bit weird, yes. And the other faculty members in your department probably do not know you as well as your thesis supervisor, so their letters of recommendation will not be very specific. But I've never seen this be reason for an immediate rejection, which means you can make up for it in the rest of your application.

Probably an unnecessary tip, but: don't express your dissatisfaction with your supervisor in your applications.


How does "buying out" of teaching work? Several times I have met young visiting faculty members who got "bought out" of teaching. This means that some senior professor opened their grant treasure chest and pays money so their younger co-worker needs to teach one course per semester less than usual.

How does that actually work? On the department side, they probably need manpower to offer courses to their students. Does somebody else do the job then (for the money) or what is the background with those buy-outs? Can people buy out themselves? Who can do such things and what are the official and unofficial issues with such a procedure?

It strongly depends on the country and/or institution. To give an example: In the Netherlands, an Assistant Professor usually has a 60% teaching load and 40% research time (i.e., they are spending 3 days on teaching and 2 days on research - of course, this is somewhat blurred in daily life). If you bring in a major grant, you might use some of the money to buy off teaching time, so that you basically pay yourself 30% of your salary in order to arrive at 30% teaching, 40% 'old' research time, 30% additional reasearch time.

The department then basically has to hire someone else to take over the teaching duties you bought off.


Should professors intervene if a student is wearing offensive clothing in their classroom? A question about university dress codes reminded me of an incident that happened when I was an undergrad, in which a classmate came to school wearing a really offensive and misogynistic t-shirt.

I was extremely uncomfortable, especially since this was an engineering program and I was one of only three or four female students in a class of about fifty. I had another class with the same student later that day and he was still wearing the shirt. I remember wishing at the time that a faculty member or someone with more authority than me would do something about it.

So, my question is as follows:

Should a professor intervene if a student in their class is wearing clothing that is likely to be offensive and hostile to other students? If so, how?
If yes: are there any scenarios in which a professor should not do anything even though a student's clothes contains material that is hostile towards another student or group of students?

And finally,

If I come across this scenario as a TA, in which a student (who may be a peer in my program of study) in my class is wearing something offensive, what can I do about it? I don't feel comfortable (or safe, for that matter) as a woman confronting a male student about an item of clothing that is offensive to women. On the other hand, I feel like it is my responsibility to keep a non-hostile environment in my classroom.

Discriminatory harassment is forbidden by the university's code of conduct and includes: placing written or graphic material which demeans or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group because of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age or disability.

The item of clothing in question contained a slogan and image that is indubitably demeaning and hostile towards women.

I'm a bit disappointed at the number of comments from people who say they need to know what the exact statement on this particular T-shirt was so that they can judge whether it was truly misogynistic before answering the question. The question is clear: What is the appropriate response given that a student is ``wearing clothing that is likely to be offensive and hostile to other students''? Debating exactly what constitutes misogyny (or any other form of hate speech) is not the point here. Surely a question about whether a particular slogan is offensive would be too localised for academia.se, whereas the question of how the role of professor and/or TA affects how/whether one calls out offensive speech/behaviour/etc is excellent.

A couple of the other answers express surprise/concern at the OP's comment

  I don't feel comfortable (or safe, for that matter) as a woman
  confronting a male student about an item of clothing that is offensive
  to women.

Many of the comments on this page illustrate why it can be so hard to call out misogyny as a woman. Women who call out misogyny are regularly accused of being "too sensitive" and told to "lighten up". On this page we've seen people who think they'd be a better judge of whether something is offensive than the person who actually experienced it, suggesting it may have been all in her head, refusing to trust her judgement, and claiming that no young people are misogynists. All this just from outlining a story that inspired a general question about calling out offensive behaviour. Is it any wonder that women may find it difficult to confront the person who's actually wearing the offensive T-shirt?

Finally, to actually answer the question:

Most universities should have something like a code of conduct which forbids discriminatory harassment. The one quoted in the question certainly seems to apply to a T-shirt with an offensive slogan. In this case the professor (or any student in the class) would be within their rights to object to the T-shirt. I might say something like "that T-shirt seems to be in violation of the code of conduct; please don't wear it to this class again", ideally in much the same tone as I would say "If I don't have your homework by tomorrow you will get a zero", but I'd say it loudly enough that anyone paying attention could hear. As with any instance of calling out something offensive, I would only do this if I felt safe enough: you should try to create a safe environment in your classroom, but not at the expense of your own safety.

If you don't feel safe or comfortable enough to call out your student (and I can see this happening especially if that student is also your peer), there might be other people you can talk to, for example the professor of the class you're TAing, or the head of the graduate program in your department, or the student's advisor. This might also be helpful if the student does not respond well when you first address them.


Need suggestions on doing PhD or not I am having a hard time deciding if I should go on for a PhD program after my current Master's program. I'm struggling with this a lot and hope to get some suggestions here.

So my situation: I'm doing a second Master's degree in mathematics after finishing my first Master's degree in Engineering. My current university doesn't have a very good ranking, so I'm considering a PhD offer from a university ranked around 160. I want to do research, but my biggest concern is that I'm 29 y/o, after finishing my PhD degree, I would be around 33-34. And I don't have a girlfriend. So by the time I finish my PhD degree, I would have no money, no girlfriend and not clear future, I might be single forever. This sounds so miserable. But the bright side is that I will have a PhD degree from a better university. And this might open more doors for me, I might even be able to go to Google with this PhD degree after graduation. And since I will work on hot CS topics, the professor said he is confident I will have many opportunities in both industry and academy after graduation. But of course there is no guarantee for anything. Though it's somewhat reasonable because I only have two years' background in computing, all my previous background is in civil engineering, I don't know how far I can go in computer science industry without a real degree in CS. On the other hand, if I decide to get a job instead, I can make some money first. And when I have money, I can secure myself and will have more chances to get a girlfriend, and financially easier to get married. Also since I will then have relevant working experience, it might even be easier for me to apply for many more top-tired American PhD programs? But of course this is only my imagination, I might end up losing this valuable PhD offer and not be able to get a better one by then?

Thanks a lot for your time and hope to get some kind advises!

Don't do it.

It sounds like you don't know why you want to do a PhD. You focus on things that aren't reasons, and where you do mention reasons they are very vague, e.g. in a comment you've said that:

  But I will have also opportunities to intern at national labs during my PhD, would that be helpful for my post-graduate career? And their math program is top 50 in QS ranking, sounds so attractive. And I do love research, the main issue is I'm too old and have no money.

First sentence ends with a question mark indicating you aren't sure it's true. You clearly can't make decisions if you don't know if it's true, so you should find out first before even thinking about the question. Second sentence indicates you want to study at that university simply because it's in the top 50 in the QS ranking, which is fine (I suppose we all have different priorities), but are you sure it's worth it? There's a high cost to studying: you earn less (if you earn anything at all), you spend time, you have to relocate, and so on. The same goes for the third sentence. If you're too old and have no money, why are you considering a PhD?

My read of your question is that you're studying because you have no idea what to do next and / or want to avoid the job market, which is not a good place to be. You'll have to get a job eventually - even if you do a PhD, you'll eventually finish the PhD and have to find something else. Until you've figured out what a PhD allows you to do that you can't do now, you should not do it.


What to do when journal comments to rewrite the article? What to do when a journal editor comments to rewrite (revise and resubmit) the article to remove similarities from another paper published in the same journal by our group. The works are different but the writing style may be same. In this case, is it recommended to submit in the same journal after rewriting or should I go for another journal?

Obviously, the editor felt that your manuscript has too much overlap with another publication of you(r group). This may simply be indicated to them by a computer program which checks for literal overlaps with any source.

Often papers from the same authors suffer from such overlaps, in particular in the introduction section. However, this self plagiarism should be avoided, even if only by rephrasing the text. Duplication of content (even if rephrased) elsewhere (than in the introduction) is less acceptable and should be limited to the necessary minimum.

In any case you should add an appropriate reference to your previous work, for example "see also paper 1, where we have explained all this in more detail".


How much is an editor paid? How much is an editor of a typical research journal (e.g., with annual 12 issues and 5,000 pages) paid?

I talked with a book editor, and he said he received less than $3,000 of the book sales for a research book with over 1,000 pages and 30 chapters.

I am curious if is it comparable to a full salary or is it just an honorarium, and editors provide this service because of scientific prestige only?

Typically journal editors are volunteers. I suppose for some of the flagships (Nature, Science, Cell, etc.) they might have full-time paid editors, but your typical niche research journal editor doesn't get much if anything at all.


How to correct errors in proofs of an accepted paper I have a paper which has accepted in a journal published by Springer.

Today I have received the proofs from the production team. After checking the proofs carefully, we have detected some typos and minor errors in equations and data. To correct them we must change something in some equations and values of the parameters and these corrections do not effect to the results of the papers. On other words, the paper is still exact with the corrections.

My question is that what should I do to make the corrections?

Here is my method of correcting proofs.  I write my corrections in a text document.  You can also use the review mode of a PDF viewer.

The copyeditor provides a numbered list of questions.  I respond with a numbered list of answers, with one answer for each question.
If there are repeated errors, I list those first.
I give a numbered list of corrections.  These go from the start of the paper systematically to the end.  Each correction begins with the location, including page and line or figure number.  Each correction quotes the error and correction explicitly.
If figures need to be replaced (which does not happen in practice) then I prepare those as separate files.
I verify author names, affiliations, and grant numbers in acknowledgments.
I ask the copyeditor to send me a second proof, if the corrections are significant.
Everything is submitted according to the instructions, which are different for each copyediting company.  Usually there is a web form.


How to cite reference in APA style when author names form part of sentence? When a citation reference is an integral part of a sentence, such as:

  Gordon and Metric provide a wide review of the key mechanisms...

Where and how is it best to place the citation reference (in APA style)?

A) Place the citation as part of the sentence:

  (Gordon & Metric, 2012) provide a wide review...

B) Place the citation right next to the authors' names (the repetition seems a bit awkward to me):

  Gordon and Metric (Gordon & Metric, 2012) provide a wide review...

C) Place the citation at the end of the sentence:

  Gordon and Metric provide a wide review [...] of the financial crisis (Gordon & Metric, 2012).

In this specific case, as is pointed out by @JeffE, it should be: "Gordon and Metric (2012) provide a wide review of the key mechanisms..."

For a reference, please visit the following page to have a comprehensive collection of APA citation examples.

APA Citation Examples - University of Maryland University College


During your undergrad, how much time did you put into assigned journal readings? I feel like I can study one academic article for a very long time. Usually I end up spending many hours mulling over one specific article on the first pass. When you were going through your undergrad and reviewing the assigned readings, how much time and energy would you put into a single article on average? I know articles vary in length and density so this is hard to put a number to, but I'm looking to compare myself to a "normal" length of time.

How much time on average do you dedicate to article readings, per class, during your undergrad?

I'll answer in such a way as to incorporate the difference between my undergrad and grad experiences; hopefully that will help justify keeping your question open and relevant. However, I'm trying to keep this relatively objective, because you don't want to get flagged for being too opinion-based.

I probably spent very little time reading as an undergrad, except of course when a test was around the corner (it's a fixed interval "reinforcement" schedule; this is to be expected). I could usually get away with just studying all night the day before a test (that might work out to about 10 hours/month/class), but as a psychologist, I've since learned that this is a pretty poor way to study (at least in terms of how effectively you'll learn), so I wouldn't recommend it, unless it's the only way for you to balance your need to learn with your need to do other things with your life. There's something to be said for finding your natural style early and not fighting it too much just because it's not the best by some specific criterion like information retention.

As a graduate student, my very first class seemed to make a point of swamping me with reading. It was ridiculous, and somewhat infuriating. Lest this seem like I'm diving further into personal anecdotes and opinion, note that I'm not the only one who felt this way, and I know my program wasn't the only one to adopt this sort of pseudo-hazing strategy, which I once heard referred to as the "Harvard Method." (Of weeding out the not-so-die-hard students I assume?) Can't find any internet info to corroborate this, but I'd love to hear if anyone who actually went to Harvard—like the professor of this class of mine did—noticed whether professors like to assign entire books to read on a weekly basis there.

My later classes weren't quite so bad, but I partly perceived them to be better because that first professor was really over-the-top with tremendously long reading assignments due every week, and I had to learn how to skim effectively just to "survive" it. In retrospect, that was a good lesson (albeit learned the hard way), because my graduate studies involved much more reading in general, and more in-depth, weekly accountability. I couldn't just cram from a textbook for a test every month or two; I had to read (skim) enough of multiple separate articles (often denser, with disparate writing styles, and not uncommonly longer than your average textbook chapter) to get a sense of what I could talk about in a seminar-style discussion with much fewer other students to hide behind, all of whom knew my name, as did the professor. I definitely did more reading as a grad student; anywhere from 3–15 hours/week/class when I had classes (not counting reading to prepare as a TA, or studying for my own research purposes). I suspect these experiences are fairly common, but I don't really know.

Other factors affecting my reading time included how interested I actually was in an article, and how messy my personal life was on any given week, of course. I should also add that I sometimes felt I needed to study less than the average student, yet I also felt that I read a given amount of text more slowly than the average student, so I may not be the best representative (probably a multivariate outlier in any case). Empirical summary statistics from educational psych literature might be of more use to you, though I don't have any sources on hand.


Effect of PhD advisor name/department on my future I am in the first year of my PhD research (in Europe) in Biostatistics and I have a day-to-day supervisor, however he is not a full professor so he cannot be my promotor. Our department head is, but I would technically obtain the PhD at a department of Medicine/Epidemiology instead of (bio)statistics. Would this have a big effect on my future prospects if I wanted to continue in (bio)statistics, or are the topic and connections you build more important? We are considering looking for someone more statistical/mathematical as a promotor or copromotor, would this change much (on top of the influence they would have on the content of the thesis)?

So in short, if the content of the thesis/project is the same, does the name or work area of the promotor have a lot of influence on future prospects?

For most people, any such effect is very short lived. It can help you obtain your first job, of course. But after that your reputation is your own and after a while, no one will remember or care who you worked with prior to earning your doctorate.

There are exceptions, however. Some, usually prominent, people maintain long term relationships with their former students and write co-authored papers. They might also have an active visitation program in which people visit one another's institutions to work on things or just give seminars. In a situation like this, it is the group founded by the professor that helps you build your reputation and keeps you connected to the larger work of the group. In such a situation your relationship with the professor moves from student to colleague and can be mutually reinforcing. Working initially with such a person can have long term effects, of course.