Citation of a book chapter that was put online I am trying to cite, using the ACS format, https://www.intechopen.com/books/cancer-causing-substances/heavy-metals-and-cancer, but I don't know whether it is considered a book or ebook chapter. How am I supposed to tell them apart? The link is under "books" on the website, but seeing as it is online, wouldn't it be considered an ebook? If I cite it as a book, it'll be pretty weird for me to include a link and the date accessed, won't it?

I would cite this as a book section, including the DOI (because that's where you found it/how others will be able to find it) but not including "date accessed", because that is intended for more volatile resources like web pages. (If a reference has a DOI you can usually treat it as non-volatile.)
Sticking as precisely as you can to a reference format is important, but the most important thing is to make sure that the information is present that allows readers to (1) attribute credit appropriately and (2) re-locate the original source.

(1) Carver, A.; Gallicchio, V. S. Heavy Metals and Cancer. In Cancer Causing Substances; Atroshi, F., Ed.; 2018. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.68247.


What are the subjects that one must learn while an undergraduate to pursue an academic career in Biophysics? I am an undergraduate student pursuing a B.Sc(Hons.) degree in Physics. I want to pursue an academic career in Biophysics. So, I wanted to know which subjects are required for higher studies in Biophysics. In my course, we get to choose one ancillary subject for the first two semesters, then another ancillary subject for the next two semesters. The final two semesters are fully focused on Physics. I am about to complete my second semester, and I took up Mathematics as my ancillary subject. Now, I need to choose between Chemistry, Computer Science or Microbiology for the next two semesters, and I am not sure which one to choose. Microbiology is looking like the obvious choice but I think that knowledge of Chemistry and Computer Science is also going to have applications in Biophysics. So could you help me out by telling me which one of these subjects would be most beneficial in learning, keeping in mind that I want to pursue Biophysics in the future?

Specific biological domain knowledge will be something that you will learn in the course of doing research, and can be hard to predict at this point in your studies, because you have no idea what kind of graduate program you'll be admitted to or the specific research field of your prospective advisor.

Therefore, while all of those directions sound fine and won't be wasted if you choose them, I would lean towards the more foundational topics, i.e. Chemistry or Computer Science, that you could use no matter what direction you took in the future. Another option would be statistics, since nearly any biophysics research involving experiments will need a very solid understanding of stats to design experiments with high statistical power, and to make sense of the resulting data without getting tricked by spurious correlations.


homework testing method for schools - how to encourage good practices and design and reduce reliance on proofreading? I've looked a lot for this kind of question and couldn't find anything,
I think the answers here could be helpful to schools.

My collage has problems with it's homework testing system and I'd like to offer them that i'll upgrade or rebuild their testing framework.

My collage testing method is totally black-box.
Students write whatever they want as long as they pass the automated tests done on school server.

The teaching assistant then proofreads all students code commenting on faulty logic and bad practices. The problem is that it's not humanly possible to proofread all this code.

My question is this:

What do you think is the best homework testing method that'll encourage
(or better, force) students to write good code,
and secondly, as a result, will reduce the teaching assistant proofreading task to a minimum.

--We program in C++ on linux.

Thank you for you comments.

You are asking for a fully automated code review pipeline, also known as the Holy Grail.

By parts:

Faulty logic: this can theoretically be caught by testing. But if it were so easy, software will be bug free. If the assignment is simple enough so that there is one and only one way to do it, you can predict the algorithms, and design corner cases to test for. If there is more than one way (and people, specially beginners will find another way, however convoluted), you would have to review them, see which algorithms they are using, and get mean on them.
Code style: there are automated tools to check style and good practices, like cppcheck but they are quite stupid. Some settings are over zealous, and they are completely unable to see through the general structure, find too long functions, or enforce single responsibility. Plus, they are designed to give suggestions to the programmer, that he will evaluate if appropiate ("do I really need to document this 3 lines long auxiliar function with a perfectly clear name and signature?").

So, in general, no, that is not possible. The only way I can think is to make it easy to expand your testing and evaluation framework. When the TA finds a mistake in a program, a test shall be added, and all of them will go through the pipeline, and that becomes one less thing to check for.

To enforce good practices, the best I can think of is to make the application grow assignment after assignment. If it is poorly coded, expanding and maintaining it will be a major effort, and the benefit of good practices will become obvious. Building larger code bases is, in my opinion, the only way one can really understand and believe why patterns and conventions are useful and not just the product of some picky guys with OCD.

But you can cheat. For example, you can manually thoroughly check the submissions with lowest style scoring that pass all the tests (supposing they would be the ones more poorly coded), and find their corner cases where they would fail and add them to your battery of tests. This is unfair, though, as you are targeting your punishment to specific submissions.


Should I quote Wikipedia if I can't rephrase it? I want to write down this idea that I get from Wikipedia: both (James Watson and Francis Crick) thanked the Schroedinger's book for their inspiration.

(More specifically, that page is What Is Life?, and that idea comes from the last sentence of the second paragraph.)

This is what the wiki writes:

  each respectively acknowledged the book as a source of inspiration for their initial researches.

Of course that statement has a reference back up. My problem is that I can't figure out how to write that idea down without using the exact one used by the wiki. In my opinion, that sentence is better than any sentence I can think of to rephrase it. If I just use it anyway without quoting it, I'm afraid that I will be plagiarism. If I say that it is from Wikipedia, well, you know the result. My best solution I can find is using this clause:

  stated by Wikipedia, with Julian F. Derry (2004) backs up

But it is super awkward. In case I can't think of any better sentence, do you know how should I do?

Should I quote Wikipedia if I can't rephrase it?

Yes.  If the important thing is the facts (and not the phrasing), then forget what Wikipedia said, read the source cited there, and work from that to find your own wording.  But if Wikipedia has a better phrasing than anyone else has, and you want to copy that phrasing, then you need to credit it to Wikipedia.  You shouldn't use this phrasing while trying to disguise the fact that it came from Wikipedia, or try to modify it just enough that nobody can be sure of its origins.  You should either credit Wikipedia or rewrite it from scratch.

If the quote is genuinely great, then using it makes sense, and nobody will care that it came from Wikipedia.  (It's reasonable to question Wikipedia as a source for facts, but that's not a reason to avoid crediting it for good writing.)  However, I'm not convinced this quote is so obviously wonderful that quoting it would look natural.  Would it be that much worse to say something like this?  "Schroedinger's book was written for a popular audience, but it was nevertheless highly influential among scientists.  For example, it inspired Crick to take up the problem of the physical basis of genetics."  (Note that the Derry reference you mention never says it inspired Watson except via Crick.  Wikipedia cites Watson's book "Avoid Boring People" for its influence on Watson, but I haven't checked what he says there.  Derry cites "The Double Helix", but I haven't checked that either.  In any case, you'd need to check these references, see how to incorporate Watson, and add a suitable citation.)  I'm not saying this phrasing is ideal, but it could be good enough, and I bet you could come up with various alternatives, depending on exactly what you want to convey.  I doubt it's crucial to your paper that this one sentence convey exactly what Wikipedia said.  If it is, then quoting Wikipedia is fine, and if it's not, then the whole issue is not so important.


Do publications in machine learning help for admissions into a statistics PhD program? I am an undergraduate mathematics student who is looking to apply to a Statistics Phd program. I am published, however, my publication is in applied machine learning. While the paper does not contain any theoretical developments, the foundations of machine learning are very statistical in nature. I posed this question to a two professors the responses were the following:

  The fact you are published is excellent, this shows ability to do research. This is an important factor when applying to a program.

and

  They won't care at all. If someone is applying to a stat program, would I care if they have publication in say, History? or Literature? The publication will not hurt, but they likely won't even care. If it were in a statistics journal, they would.

To clarify both professors knew that the publication was in machine learning and that I am applying to a stat program.

Which answer seems more accurate? Would the publication be a big plus or just ignored?

It is difficult to give a "global" answer to this question.

There is a very wide variety of PhD programs in statistics throughout the world, so much so that the overlap between two given programs can end up being surprisingly small.

The closest thing to a short answer is: Yes, it helps. (Or, should!)

Now, for some nuances.

Any scholarly peer-reviewed publication should be viewed favorably. Obviously, the closer your publications are to the field that you're applying to, the more weight they are likely to receive. People – even academics – tend to go with what they know and are familiar with. If the journal/conference is recognizable to them, then that will help, but it's not a prerequisite.

If, for example, you apply to any top-tier PhD programs in statistics, you'll mostly be competing against other applicants with undergraduate degrees in mathematics, so a publication in a reputable journal/conference can help set you apart.

Personally, I disagree with your second professor: I'd be very happy to see a publication in history or literature (or whatever) if accompanied by an otherwise strong application. But, I may also be in the minority there.

It depends on the departments you apply to. Many statistics departments in the US, e.g., have become increasingly attuned to the overlap in statistics, machine learning, and computer science, in general, over the last many years. Some have very active research groups in this area and regularly interact (and collaborate) with machine-learning researchers from other departments and publish in NIPS, ICML, JMLR and other like venues. And, some departments simply have more active research programs, generally speaking, than others.

Applying to departments that have focused research programs in statistical machine learning will improve the chance that your publication will be given greater weight, especially if it is published in a high-profile venue. Other departments that are either more traditional or have different research foci may weigh such a publication differently. In any event, you should try to be aware of how well aligned your interests are to those of the departments you're applying to, assuming your interests are at all well-defined at this stage.

Talk about your research. If your application includes a personal research statement of some sort, discuss your work and describe the statistical content in a concise, matter-of-fact way. If it genuinely led to your interest in applying to PhD programs in statistics, then you can describe this as well, but it should be natural and not forced.


Is it always acceptable to publish working papers on your website before submission to a journal? Or will some journals reject submissions if you have already published them on a website?

To make sure what your rights are, including:

preprint publication before submission
preprint publication after acceptance
publication of revised version
publication of publisher's version

check your journal at http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.php


Welcoming collaboration in a cover letter Let's assume you are writing a cover letter for a tenure-track position in the US in computer science. In the cover letter, you would like to express your affinity to potential research areas and your openedness to collaboration with the corresponding researchers. You do not wish to promise collaboration, since it always involves the other side.  How to formulate it properly and concisely?

Here is a sample I found somewhere online (don't ask me where):

  At the School of GreatDiscipline at the ImportantCity College I would:

  〈irony〉 grab away your students for my useless projects 〈/irony〉
  〈irony〉 spend lots of your money without return 〈/irony〉
  〈irony〉 finally reduce the percentage of women down to zero 〈/irony〉
  ...
  welcome collaboration with the researchers from the areas X, Y, and Z,
  ...

(Of course, replace the ironical parts by proper formulations.)
Here are some choices I considered:

[

be open to ...
envisage ...
favor ...
promote ...
facilitate ...
offer ...
welcome ...

collaboration with ...].

All of them seem not ideal to me; I'm stuck. Some of them might be even a poor choice. Any suggestion for an appropriate phrase?

An aside: This question primarily seeks advice from academics who have successfully gone through the tenure-track process already or are overviewing this process. If it is the case for you, say so.

As a general rule, I use: If something might come across as too direct or even threatening, package it with a positive example.
In this case, that means to first mention existing and well-working collaborations which you (and your current collaborators) wish to keep up, even if you changed your position. In the best case, some of your current collaborators would be your references and would mention the same in their LOR.

Packaged with this information, mention that you look forward to building new collaborations as well. Keep this general, so nobody will feel forced into anything (and you do not force yourself into anything blindly). But definitely, mention the current collaborations specifically (that should only flatter your collaborators and serves as a nice example those collaborations do exist and are not one-sided.)


Is there such thing as too many references for one paper? I'm currently reviewing a paper that has an uncommonly large number of references compared to the average number for that particular venue (more than 60 versus around 30). This is a regular paper, not a survey one, and although there does not seem to be wrong references, it feels like some are not really necessary, and the fact that one particular author is cited more than 15 times makes me worry that this paper is used to inflate the number of citations of that author (the submission is anonymous).

Should I mention this in my review, and try to examine which submissions are "abusive", or just let it go?


Should I leave my undergraduate research project? I’ve been working on a project for about 4 months simulating optics in a beamline for ANL. I’m the only person on the project developing the simulation. The software being used is brand new, open source and clunky. The documentation is poor (at best) with no real tutorial or users manual. There are consistent occurrences of bugs.

Anyway, I’ve been putting in 10-15 hr weeks and most of it has been spent learning the software and building summary PowerPoints (that have ultimately been deemed useless) based on examples in tutorial. That was the first 3 months. The pay period has since ended but I’ve elected to assist because I was led to believe the project would end shortly after and I’d be able to co-author a paper.

Now, it seems I have about 30(optimistic)-70(pessimistic) hours until I’m done based on what’s left. My advisor is bad and typically rejects any questions I have and says I simply have not been putting in effort. There’s little to no guidance in the project and my advisor always says how he could just do it himself much faster.

I have another project starting in a few days that will require 40+ hours a week that’s paid.

The combination of lack of respect for my advisor, other time commitments, and overall distaste for the project leads me to believe I should respectfully tell him I can’t continue working on the project.

Should I end it? If so, how should I go about it?

First, ask your advisor for the level of commitments to have a co-authorship on a publication. Do so in writing (e.g. via email).

Dear Dr. ...:

I am making plans for how best to complete the project. Since I am no longer being paid, I need to schedule my time properly. I am especially interested to contribute sufficiently for a co-authorship on a publication. Looking ahead, I cannot however make an unlimited and open-ended investment. In this regard, I have two questions that I hope you can address.

What remaining objectives do you need me to complete in my work toward a co-authorship?
How long do you anticipate that I should need to spend on the remaining work?

I look forward to a prompt response.

Regards,

J P Bear

Second, prepare to leave.

Make photocopies of all notebooks that you kept.
Collect the electronic work that you have done to date. All of it. Every scrape. Organize it as best possible by themes (e.g. Reports, Presentations, Code, Raw Data, ...).
Burn it all on two copies of a CD or DVD. These are the immutable copies of the documents. You might need to find them again some time later. You can also store files in the cloud or on magnetic media. But, gosh what will you do when that cloud is sold to some third party who trashes your files or your magnetic USB stick happens to land in an NMR lab by accident, what then? Or, what will you do when you would be called to a court dispute about the co-authorship on a publication and you have a USB stick that ... well ... they will NOT accept as evidence in your case because it was not an immutable copy?

Third, generate a thank you letter ...

Dear Dr. ...:

Thank you for the opportunity to work under your supervision. I have appreciated the chance to learn how to program simulations for optics for the beam line at Argonne National Laboratories.

I am providing you with a CD that contains all of the electronic files that I generated over my project period. I am also submitting to you all of the notebooks that I kept with records of my work.

--> The wording in the next paragraph depends on what you did and did not discuss. It also depends on what you do and do not wish to continue doing.

[We discussed the possibility that my work will contribute to be a co-author on a publication. I am ready to assist in editing this publication when this decision is made. I am also willing to provide email or phone support to transition my work to the next team member.]

I can be contacted at the address below for questions.

Sincerely,

J P Bear

Fourth, hand the letter, one CD, and all of the notebooks that you kept to your advisor.

Fifth, say goodbye and start the other project.


What should I ask deans during my interview? I managed to snag my first interview for a tenure-track assistant professor job. As I had heard, the itinerary seems somewhat gruelling. What caught my eye in particular are three 45min-1hr meetings with various higher-ups: The Dean of Science, the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, and the Associate Vice-president (Academic).

While there is certainly no shortage of topics to discuss with people in my potential department, I have very little sense of what the above three meetings will be like. So my question is:

  What kind of questions should I be thinking about asking deans/VPs during these meetings?

You want to be friendly, of course, and make a good impression. Depending on the school, these meetings are not usually too grueling; one purpose of the meetings is just to put a face with your name. There is a good chance these meetings will end up being shorter than the scheduled time.

Be prepared to give a very brief "elevator style" summary of your work.
The deans may ask you about grant funding. You may have a good sense, depending on your field, how important grants are to you getting the position. (Andy W mentioned this in the comments).

Some particular questions I would ask include:

I would ask all three: Where do you see the program/college/university going in another 10 years?  This can help you tell whether your vision for a school fits with theirs.
I would ask the Dean of Science about tenure practices in the college. Do your homework and read the tenure policies before you arrive, of course. As long as you are polite and non-pushy, you can ask for clarifications for anything that isn't clear. You can ask about tenure rates in general, but don't ask anything that would require talking about individual candidates.  If you are in a field where grants are important, you should also be sure you know the weight given to grants when they make tenure decisions.
If you will need anything unusual (e.g. large start-up equipment costs), you should mention that to a departmental representative first, and they can advise whether it needs to be mentioned to the dean.
If you are trying to arrange a second hire for a spouse, the dean may be able to discuss that. Again, you can talk with the department first.  CAUTION: This bullet only applies to applicants who are also interested in finding a job for their spouse, and who have decided to bring up their spouse before getting an offer. There isn't room in this answer to get into the debate about whether it is preferable to wait until you have an offer to mention that your spouse is looking for a job, which is another commonly advocated strategy for applicants looking to find a job for their spouse at the same institution.


Are there any documented cases of meta-science or scientific meta-research? Does that have a name? Research is an activity, a process to obtain knowledge, which has been greatly empowered by the scientific method.

We can collect lots of information about research, consider impact factors, etc.

There is data and information there, that data could possibly become knowledge through some analysis, hypothesis testing, and in general terms research. So what I'm talking about here is research about research, meta-research.

First of all, I'm interested to know whether this has been done in the past.

Second, if this has been done (I guess so), I would like to know by what name, so that I can search for it. It's easier to find information about fluid dynamics when you know it stands by the name of fluid dynamics.

BTW: I'm not interested in philosophy or epistemology, but science and hard verifiable facts.

There may be some lack of that, whatever that is. Related article: Scientific method: Statistical errors

Philosophy of Science, History of Science, Sociology of Science, Scientometrics to name a few meta-sciences.

(General trick for meta-science: use X of Science, where X is a science.
To generalize it even further, for meta-X, use X of Y, for some X in Y.)


Outreach activities in the COVID era All the outreach activities planned this year for my project have been cancelled due to COVID-19 disruptions.
These include Summer math camp for high school students and seminar in local high schools.
These are stated in my grant proposal, and thus I have a responsibility to carry these out one way or another.
An easy way out is to replace everything with their Zoom version.
In my opinion and experience, however, the usefulness of such alternatives will be very limited.
What other outreach activities should we consider now?

The most responsible course of action is to postpone your in-person outreach until it is safe to conduct it.  In-person outreach is very effective.  Get the funding agency's approval.

An alternative is to create asynchronous outreach content.  This is less effective, but can reach a wider audience.  For example, you can record YouTube videos of activities.  Disadvantages include difficulty getting your intended audience to watch the video.  Advantages over Zoom/synchronous include no need to schedule or register people, and the potential to do things over when they don't work.

Some people are running online competitions, but I don't know yet if they work.


How should I approach a professor whose class I'm taking for advice regarding a project I'm working on? I'm currently working on a machine learning research project. I'm also taking a geometry class in the mathematics department because I believe it would help me out.

The most interaction I've had with this professor is an email asking him about his textbook, and also seeing each other on the first day of class. Would it be okay to ask him if it's alright to ask for advice regarding the project?

I guess the reason that I'm asking this is because 1) he's not my supervisor and we hardly know each other, 2) I have an impression that the office hours are for issues related to the class that I'm taking.

If it's alright how should I approach it? Should I leave him an email briefly describing the situation and whether or not he'll be okay with it? Thanks.

Ask and find out.

That way you will know instead of just thinking about it. Either it will be no or you will get the advice you seek.


Three questions on (finding) permanent positions in France I've a few questions about permanent positions in the universities in France. P.S. if you think question # 3 deserves to be asked as a separate question, please let me know, and I'll do so. As far as I'm aware, there're three main types of permanent positions there: (are there more? If yes, please let me know then!)

Maître des conférences: (word-to-word English translation: master of conferences, MCF for short) which is a teacher-researcher position.
Chargé de recherche: (word-to-word English translation: charge of research, CR for short) which is a researcher's position, very coveted, with teaching being optional. Offred by CNRS.
INRIA permanent researcher's position: very coveted, offered by INRIA. Research-only like the one at CNRS.

My questions are:

Are CR and INRIA permanent positions necessarily more competitive than the MCF ones? I do know that MCF's are also not easy to get by any means, and I myself have neither, but I'm only asking. My respect to anyone in their MCF positions, and this is not an attempt to belittle anyone by any means!
If you get an MCF position, is it possible to "switch/transfer" to a CR one after a year or two? I wrote the two words in quote, because I don't even know if that's a meaningful or possible transition.
(I can ask this as a separate question if you like, just let me know!) Is it possible that as an MCF, you can do the teaching in the math(s) department and research in the computer science department? This question is very specific to my case, as I've an unusual CV, where I did my PhD and taught for and was a teaching assistant  during 5 years for several courses in pure mathematics in the US (not in France), but I transitioned to statistical machine learning using heavy pure math machinery like differential geometry and functional analysis. Now this makes me naturally eligible to do research in the Computer Science (CS for short) department, but after having a few initial interviews, I'm getting a feeling that I'll need to teach CS courses like data base etc., which I've no idea about. On the other hand, I'm not a pure mathematician any more (although much of my applied research use heavy pure math), so I don't know even if they'll consider my CV? This is why I ask this question. If the answer is a resounding no, then I'd appreciate it if you could please be so kind to let me know how I can apply for an MCF position given my trajectory, where I can teach pure math(s) (and selected stats, e.g. probability theory, statistical machine learning, statistical inference etc.)

I greatly appreciate any help and your answer!
Thanks a ton in advance!!

It's hard to give a general answer, but yes, they are more competitive. CNRS/INRIA positions are nationwide competitions (in the sense that a MCF is tied to a university, while a CR is tied to CNRS/INRIA which are national institutes, so a CR can request of change of assignment and move to another French university rather easily). They are also intrinsically more attractive than MCF positions: you get no teaching duties for the same salary, and you can still teach if you want to so long as the department has some teaching vacancies not filled by permanent teaching staff -- and they almost always do.
It is technically "possible" in the sense that there is no legal obstacle to it. The only way to do this is to get your MCF position, then apply like everyone else to a CR position when it opens. Maybe things are different in CS (I'm in math) but I do not know anyone who has managed to do it, or even expressed the desire to try. Recruiting committees know that giving a permanent position to a postdoc is life-changing, while giving a permanent position to someone who's already got one is only a change of assignment. They heavily lean towards the first.
Yes, it is possible. I have several colleagues who do it.

Just a note, the positions offered by the CNRS and the INRIA are the same, "chargé de recherche", and have the same statutes. It's just a different employer. CNRS and INRIA are both the same kind of legal entity, an EPST.


I just found out about a better methodology after already writing thesis - how should I prepare for my defense in 3 weeks? I have written a thesis that seeks to analyze the ideological thinking of a newspaper through its editorials in a political situation during a certain period of time. I couldn’t count on my Thesis Advisor and I have written my thesis by myself.

My methodology is simple. In short, I made a compilation of information about the problem, then I selected 20 meaningful dates during the political climate in question, so I had a sample of 20 editorials: 1 per each meaningful date. Then, after checking out the editorials I found 8 units of analysis and made a Content Analysis to find the expressions used on the editorials.  That's how I found the newspaper’s judgments, attitudes and attributes about diverse events and characters (important people) related to the political situation. These represent the variables or categories that would demonstrate the newspaper’s ideological posture.

Nevertheless, after applying this methodology (contents analysis) in my thesis, I read about Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). This is the most appropriate method to analyze the ideological thinking of a newspaper. Even that, my Advisor approved my thesis and I must defend it in three weeks. I am afraid that in my defense someone asked me why I used Content Analysis instead of ACD, being my thesis a qualitative investigation. I do not know how to answer appropriately. I would like to read your opinions and recommendations, my friends.

This situation is one of many that demonstrate the key role of an academic advisor and why I would never suggest anyone attempt a research program as a novice without one.

The specific content of your research (i.e., the merits of content analysis vs. critical discourse analysis for your research question) is off-topic for Academia.SE, but at this point you should find an advisor in your field to ask for advice.

If you cannot reach your thesis advisor, then maybe someone else on your committee can step into that role. Your advisor has approved your work, so either they have not read it carefully (and have failed you miserably in their advising duties) or this problem is not as serious as you may think (i.e., your choice can be justified despite your oversight of another technique in the field).


Has it become harder for Chinese students to be accepted into graduate programs in the US? There've been ominous news articles recently about the prospects of Chinese students (here meaning students from the People's Republic of China, as opposed to ethnic Chinese students from other countries such as Singapore) in the US, e.g.

Survey: US Public Opinion of China, Xi Drops Decisively
US blocking visas of some Chinese graduate students and researchers: DHS
Chinese grad students at US universities may soon be expelled

I am wondering how things are on the ground. I'm also interested in whether fewer Chinese students are applying to US graduate programs, if available. I know some parents are worried, but I don't know if that has translated into fewer applications.
Edit: rephrased in concrete terms, are US universities now taking the applicant's country of origin into account in graduate admissions?

US universities have always taken country of origin into account during admissions. I don't think there will be a major difference on the University side for admissions moving forward.
The visa situation is something else though. DHS is sitting on J1s, won't process H1Bs at all, but is still approving F1s and OPTs. This is likely to have a substantial chilling effect as it makes it much harder to do post completion training in the US.
I'm not sure they're going after china more than any other country - had a Singapore national just say forget it and walk away from a job offer over visa issues.


What does "interdisciplinary" mean in the context of Quantum Computing? How is the word "interdisciplinary" defined and understood in the context of Quantum Computing research?

It seems many work groups are claiming ownership without even proper understanding the scope Quantum Computing embraces within its ecosystem.

"interdisciplinary" is just a 'buzzword' that essentially means that none of the traditional divisions of the sciences applies for the field. As this is the case with most recent serious research, this word is often vacuous.

As for quantum computing, practice is currently dominated by the Physicists. Theory is mostly for the CS people. They don't mix very well, as both think they know the other field while they in fact don't.


Will leaving a PhD program show on my transcript? I just finished my 2nd year in a social science program and decided to stop. I received an MA at the end of this school year. I have decided to leave without finishing, however I do not want to leave the program without a job offer. So I hope to search for jobs (while completing an MS degree, which is over half way done now) in the next year and exit.

Here is my question. Although I will have two Master's degrees upon leaving the PhD program, will leaving the PhD program show on my transcript? Will that negatively affect my chance of getting a business-related job? You know, for people who recently graduated, companies will always look at their transcript.

Thanks a lot for the output!

Even if your transcript does not explicitly say "left a Ph.D. program," anyone who sees that you have two masters degrees in related areas can make a reasonable guess that you have left a Ph.D. program.  It's also the sort of things that's reasonably likely to come up in discussion of your academic background.

If you are applying for industry jobs at an appropriate level (i.e., Masters or equivalent), this should not inherently be a problem.  In some cases, it may even be a good thing---for example, if you left because you were more interested in focusing on implementation or real-world impact.

In short: if you have good reason for leaving your Ph.D. program and heading for a particular segment of industry, I would advise you to own that and embrace it as a positive part of why you are making a move towards the jobs that you are applying to.


Is it acceptable to round up my GPA on my resume? I'm currently a college senior and I'm working on updating my resume.  My GPA is a 3.46.  Is it acceptable/ethical to put on my resume that my GPA is a 3.5?

No.

Just report the GPA as it is listed on your report / certificate.


When should I introduce a reference? I am currently writing my research proposal and I have a piece where I quote a book. In summary I am saying the following:

  Mr. X says that there is a very high probability that squares have four sides. This can be concisely summarised as "a polygon with four sides". ...

Note that at the end I am quoting him directly.

When do I put a citation to Mr. X’s book?

Immediately after the first sentence.
At the end, when I stop referring to him in the paragraph, i.e., after the second sentence or later.
Both?

Disclaimer: This is my opinion

I can think of a couple ways:

First, edit the first sentence so that it does not require a reference:

  It has been postulated that squares are very probable to have four
  sides. For instance, Mr. X concisely summarised that ‘a polygon with
  four sides’... (Ref)

Second, chain the sentences together, eliminating the period:

  Mr. X, a main proponent who suggests that there is a very high
  probability that squares have four sides, concisely summarised that ‘a
  polygon with four sides’... (Ref)

Or

  Mr. X says that there is a very high probability that squares have
  four sides: he summarised that ‘a polygon with four sides’... (Ref)

Third, keep the current structure.

I think it's acceptable to cite only once if you can keep the subjects consistent:

  Mr. X says that there is a very high probability that squares have
  four sides. He concisely summarised that ‘a polygon with four sides’...
  (Ref)

The fact that the first subject is "Mr. X" and then the second subject became "This (idea)" causes the disjoint feeling. Unifying the subjects will leave no room for misinterpretation.


Q: What should I do if suitable Professor for my thesis research is completely booked? I plan to make Master Thesis with the topic around Energy Storage System and PV, unfortunately the suitable Professor in electric power system does not have time to be my advisor.

I will use Matlab as modelling tools. Should I go find the professor with expertise in Matlab and Math Modelling instead?

Or should I change my topic instead?

You might try to convince the Professor's best student to supervise you. (Formally, the Professor might need to be listed as your supervisor, but the student will be your supervisor informally.)


Friend's Involvement in Plagiarism So, I've edited the question to hopefully give more clarity on the situation:

I've recently learned that my friend ( A ) assisted in plagiarism for another student ( B ) by completing the vast majority of a final-project in a class I also take with student B. I know B doesn't deserve the almost-perfect grade he will receive because of A's work. I feel terrible because I know how much effort I and others personally contributed to our own projects and it makes me feel like everyone else's work has just been invalidated.

I know, beyond any doubts, that this is what occurred:

B has struggled in this class. A is experienced with the class, the professor, and the subject matter. A has been helping B with other assignments, sometimes assisting more than he should, but otherwise not at any level I would deem "plagiarism."

B asked for help with the final project in this class. A, of course, obliged. After helping for a little bit, the due date was imminant and B's project was still in the beginning stages. At this point A realizes that he has basically been completing the project himself, but feels morally obligated to not "leave him stranded," so A fully completes B's project out of a personal, moral obligation to himself. Personally being friends with A, I know that this was a momentary lack of judgement, and I know he knows much better than to cheat.

A has done all of the work on the project and B is going to pass it off as his own work.

Looking at the College's plagiarism policy, the worst that will happen to the student B is:
 Failure in the course in which plagiarism or dishonesty occurs.

For my friend ( A ) that knowingly plagiarized: Loss of all credit for that semester and suspension for the remainder of that semester.

My friend A has struggled this whole semester, academically and financially, to attend the College and it would be horrific if he had to leave and all of his work be for naught. I find it also unfair that, for what A found as a moral crossroads (helping his friend), and a momentary lack in judgement, will cost him so much more than the punishment B will receive.

I want to report it, but if I do (even anonymously), B will only tell the administration that my friend helped him. I can't be responsible for that.

What can I do in this situation? Report it? Keep it to myself and hope the professor knows? Meet with the professor and have an honest discussion about how I feel and how I know my friend knows the ethics of cheating but became morally confused in this instance?

I guess the overarching question here would be: what outcome provides the best result for A while simultaneously reporting B for plagiarism?

I suggest a middle ground. Even granting that the facts are exactly as you stated, it seems to me that you don't know for sure what communication there was between A and B. A may have provided some sample code, intending that B would at least rewrite it. And, unlikely as it seems, B may have studied the code and rewritten it. So this could be a borderline case. Even if A complained to you that they had to "write B's assignment for them", that may have been an exaggeration.

So I suggest that you go to the professor and explain that you think that B had an excessive amount of help. Explain that someone was tutoring B, and may have crossed a line without intending to. I don't think you need to name A even if you are asked. And if the professor does find out who A is, well, professors are people too, and will probably exercise some judgement.

Of course, I'm not excusing what A or B did. I'm just pointing out that you don't know exactly what happened (even if you're sure you have the facts straight), so report what you know, but be careful not to overstate it.


About solving research papers involving complex Mathematics Throughout my Ph.D., I have had difficulty in solving (maths in) research paper from other researchers. After the basic few steps, the researchers assume either one thing or the other thing, or have a complex integral or derivate (or any other) format and then come up with the solution that is entirely unknown to me. Sometimes after rigorous effort, I find the way authors solve. But mostly, I assume what they did is right and then carry on (which is not the right way).

How do other researchers (students) deal with this issue?

PS. I am from wireless telecommunication background

I would start with e-mailing the authors, or perhaps other experts in your area that you are close to and asking for help from them. I've found that a lot of researchers, even big names, are happy to discuss details about their work (or at least they seem to respond to questions of this nature more frequently than you would expect).

Keep in mind however, that in some fields of physics and engineering (I am not sure if this is true of yours) mathematical rigor isn't a high priority, and so it can be impossible to verify the mathematical reasoning in the paper, even for expert mathematicians working in your area. As a mathematician I find this frustrating, but my understanding is that researchers in physics/engineering are more concerned with the big-picture ideas than making sure all the mathematical details are correct, and perhaps you can take that attitude too.

As an example, my collaborators and I were trying to understand this physics paper (from a top physics journal, written by a distinguished physicist), and we found it impossible to understand the mathematics- there was a step in the calculation where they had an infinite sum that clearly diverged! We emailed the author, and he acknowledged that the sum diverged and the calculations in the paper were not correct, but the idea was still valid. This is a fairly typical point of view in physics and engineering from my experience. So it might be good to adjust your expectations on to what extent you can recreate the mathematics in a physics or engineering paper.


What should a good theoretical physics PhD progress look like at the beginning of 3rd year? Obviously I am asking this because I am worried!

I am a theoretical physics grad student at one of the top places in the US. The following is a brief history of my last 2 years and I would like to know of opinions and suggestions regarding the path ahead.

I did the most advanced courses (relevant to my interests) during my first year and worked on some project ideas through very high-profile external collaborations (but the projects didn't work out and I had to can the drafts) During my second year I tried working with some other profs but the projects were never really interesting.

[..though I have a (single author) paper on arxiv from my 2nd year work and may be I will get one more...]

Towards the end of second year I started meeting with a very brilliant scientist who will be joining my institute as a faculty in January 2014. With him the projects are very exciting - but interactions are difficult since he is still mostly not in campus.

Of course this unstable path happened since I had to join a grad school which didn't have people in my subject of interest. But over the last 2-3 months things have been looking up as this new person came in...

"but the projects didn't work out and I had to can the drafts" — this sounds weird to me. It is not rare at all for a project/idea not to work ou the way you would like, but for it to fail so utterly that you cannot get any work published out of it, i.e. that there is nothing for the community to learn from it, is rather rare. That it happened multiple times might be an indicator that you threw the towel too early, or that you could be looking harder into how to extract something useful from your failed attempt. Helping you out with that would typically be the job of your advisor, because it is not the easiest part of the job...

Other than that, your account does not look particularly worrying: as others have noted, you have already built a good network of collaborations, have one publication, and advanced your course requirements... Sounds good to me!


Do you need to read a whole article before citing it? During writing my academic paper, I need to cite a definition in a scientific paper. The other part of the paper, is irrelevant to my work.

I have been advised that if you will cite a paper, you need to read that paper entirely. But in this case, it seems useless to do so.

It also happened a few times when I wanted to cite from some books.

No, you don't have to read the whole paper.
If you think you do, ask yourself this:

  do you also have to read all papers cited in the paper?

For example, I recently needed to know a certain function of n. Some computer experimentation suggested that it might be 3*2^n, let's say. Then I found a paper published in a reputable journal that claimed to prove exactly that. As the reasons why it was 3*2^n were probably rather unrelated to what I was trying to do, I cited them but did not check their proof.

On balance, I think that making every author read every paper they ever cite would slow down the progress of science.

Caveat: this may be field-dependent. For instance, if the paper can be thought of as consisting of just one long definition, then yes, one should read the whole thing.


List of Subject Dependencies for building a subject taxonomy I am interested in compiling a list of learning dependencies by subject matter. E.g., you must know certain kinds of algebra before you can learn certain aspects of trig, and you must know how to add before you can do certain kinds of algebra.

This kind of hierarchy could be applied to math, computer science, biology, written/spoken languages, etc.

Is there a project like this already established? Is there a field of study that concentrates on an idea similar to this?

I think that prerequisites do not apply to topics and subjects, but to lectures and books. For example, I can tell you what you have to know to follow my course on calculus, but it is quite difficult to say what you have to know before you can understand a derivative. You can either take the real numbers for granted, or give a fake-definition via Cauchy-sequences or Dedikind cuts, or give a real definition within the framework of a fixed set theory. Bourbakists would choose the latter, while all courses I know, which are actually aimed at first year students, pick one of the first two options.

Another problem is that prerequisites are subject to substitutions. If subject A is considered important, and subject B is not part of the mainstream, a lecture on A will rather make detours than using B, while a lecture on B will freely use everything from subject A. For example, the fundamental theorem of algebra is most often proven by complex analytic or topological, and not by real analytic or algebraic means. The reason is simply that most people learn complex analysis before they learn Galois theory, and the real analytic proof is more computational, i.e. not "nice".


If enrolled in Ms-PhD, do I have flexibility not to progress beyond MS? I'm looking to do a graduate course in computer science in the US and was particularly attracted to several non-terminal MS CS programs, which you'd enroll as a PhD student, but acquire the MS en route. Some of these MS-PhD programs have better financial support by the institution compared to the terminal MS program.
For example Harvard offers all of its PhD students full financial support.

My question is:
If I'm enrolled into say Harvard's or any other PhD program looking to get MS en route.
After acquiring the Masters Will I be able to have the flexibility to not progress towards after PhD for whatever reason, without any consequences like having to pay back the financial aid or something?

(Copied from my comments)

Firstly:

In some cases the terminal MS program costs you more because you are expected to only do coursework, whereas in the MS-PhD program you are expected to service the department as a research or teaching assistant.
I would expect that if a school offers both options they would frown upon your entering the PhD track with the intention of quitting after the MS
Most importantly, this is something that you can and should ask the administrators at the schools you are looking at. There's a good chance that the policy is different school to school.

To answer your second question, it depends on what you mean by consequences:

If you meant only financial ones: I've known many cases (not in CS) where students quit after the masters, and in none of those cases were they asked to pay the school back. Mostly because of point (1) above. In fact, some departments offering the MS-PhD program seem to take it as a given that some students will drop out. But depends on what you want to do, there could be non-financial consequences: People who've invested time in you may be reluctant to write you recommendation letters etc.


What to do if I can't get a visa to attend a conference that accepted my paper? My work got accepted into a very good category in a very good conference in my field. Due to complicated visa issues it will be very hard for me to attend that conference.

If I don't attend the conference they are certainly going to remove my work from the proceedings.

I am worried I won't be able to claim any sort of achievement if I don't attend this conference.

Can I still add it to my CV and specify that my work got accepted in this conference in a very good category?

If your paper gets withdrawn, then there may be no public record that it ever was accepted (and if there were, it could potentially be misconstrued as a withdrawel for other reasons). I can't say I've ever seen such an item on a CV.

On the other hand, even if you cannot make it to the conference in person, you can try to either:

a) have someone else give the talk in your place.

b) give the talk via telecommunication, e.g. Skype.

Both options are certainly not too unusual in my field (theoretical computer science/math). If you have to go for the second one, make sure not to leave contacting the conference organizers for the last moment, and be aware that this causes quite some work for them. If you can provide enough detail on your visa issues that it is clear that it's not just "You waited too long to apply", most people will be quite understanding.


Optimizing conference paper solution to be eligible for Journal article I have presented recently in one of IEEE computer science conferences. My paper's main contributions was optimizing an algorithm to achieve 3.5X times speed up. Now, I am planning to submit another paper to one of Springer's journals with IF 0.7. However, the only new contribution here is I optimized the gain to be 4.5X in addition to theoretical comparison between the algorithm and other 3 algorithms to justify why I have chosen this algorithm to be improved. The paper has been re-written completely and I am aware of the plagiarism issue. However, I am still concerned, is that contribution sufficient to make my paper qualified?

Let the editors and/or reviewers decide whether the new contribution is sufficient. Mention that you extend previous work. It may be wise to be explicit about the novelties with regards to the previous work in the cover letter.

In case the original paper was published in conference proceedings (e.g. not just a talk), it is very important that you cite it. When you do that, there can be no claim that you are attempting to recycle existing material without anyone noticing (self-plagiarism).


What is total number of PhDs globally? How many graduate each year? I am interested in long-term dynamics of the number of PhDs, having recently received a PhD myself. So far, I have only been able to find bits and pieces, mostly pertaining to USA (see e.g. here, which says that there are roughly 40k PhDs awarded annually in the United States).

Any input is appreciated.

In this document you can find some data for Europe and Asia. In particular, it appears that [linked document, p. 47]:

  In 2010 an estimated 125,000 doctoral degrees were awarded in the EU alone (out of a population of 500 million), compared to 70,000 in the US (with a population of 300 million) and 16,000 in Japan (with a population of 130 million).

Probably from the EUROSTAT portal you can find other data for Europe.


Software engineer vs research associate in not-so-related subfield for CS PhD I currently have 2 job offers: high-paying software engineer at a top tech company (return offer from internship) and a computational biology research associate 2-year pre-grad school position.

I want to pursue theoretical CS (mainly computational complexity, maybe approximation algorithms) so I don't know how much weight the comp. bio research job would carry. The research job also pays less than half of what I would be making at the software engineering company. I would much prefer the comp. bio job since it is at a very innovative non-profit company and the PI and I click super well. I am also really passionate about their mission and the work that they're doing and I'd love to be a part of it.

However, the pay is far worse and I would have to work there for at least 2 years as opposed to the software engineer job which I could quit after 1 year and apply to grad schools during that 1 year.

So I'm wondering, despite which job I would enjoy more, which is the more logical choice? Would either of these add to my PhD application at all?

Lots of trade-offs. I don't think either of these is necessarily better than the other for later admission for theoretical CS. Money is good. Research is good. Quicker entry may be good, though that depends on many other things.

In a situation like that, I'd guess that "follow your heart" is probably best. You don't seem to suggest that the money is driving you - which is a good attitude for an academic.

Either would add something, but neither would be determinative, IMO.


Reusing someone else's code in my own publication I am about to submit a paper in which one of the algorithms I used is heavily based on the code available on one of the TensowFlow tutorials. In fact, I mostly copied the code from the page and made the necessary modifications for my specific case. I did cite, in the paper, both TensorFlow and the page, and disclosed that the neural net architecture I was using was based on the one on the page. The licensing terms of the code (Apache 2.0) mention that the user is free to build upon the code and redistribute it.

I am not in CS, and am applying the model to a specific problem in my field. However, in copying the code (which I believe will not be disclosed) I am afraid I might be doing academic misconduct. However, on the other hand, if that was the case, using open-source libraries would also be frowned upon, given that the user is essentially copying code.

Will I be committing academic misconduct or anything that is ethically frowned upon in academia by submitting results parts of which were based on copied code?

PS: In response to a comment, I cited TensorFlow and the webpage in the paper, which will be published if accepted, but the code itself (which was heavily based on the code available in the webpage) won't be posted anywhere (as far as I know).

You are doing the right thing as long as you clearly cite your sources. In other words, as long as you say that your code is based on someone else's code, and as long as you clearly cite what that "someone else's code" is and where a reader can find it, you are ok.

The fact that the basis for your work is open source does not require you to share your code as well (though that would clearly be in the spirit of open source software). Open source software generally just means that if you give someone else an executable of your implementation using an open source package, that you also need to give them the source code of your implementation. (The details vary based on the license in question, but that's the idea.) As long as you write the code only for yourself, there is no need or requirement to share it with others.


Re-applying to PhD programs I'm reapplying to one school I got rejected from and it's my top choice. Is there any chance they just might go like "oh, him again?" and throw it out or something, or not read it?

My application is going to be very different and, in my opinion, much stronger this time, with 2 new pieces of research.

Short answer: No.

Long answer: If it is a good university, they will repeat the whole process, regardless of previous applications, even more if the application is different. It is possible that they consider the result of the previous judgment to see if anything changed, but I don't  think that is that likely..

The members of the committee itself may have changed as well. Unless you have the mother of all red-flags on your CV, that would make you unbelievably memorable, you are probably safe...


How appropriate or common is it to recommend referees for your paper? I sometimes receive review requests that says the authors have recommended me, and I know them in person but I have no COI, so I do my best to objectively evaluate their paper. Also, I do suspect some labs might be recommending me as I always end up reviewing their papers (or maybe the editor thinks I am a good fit, I don't know).
When I submit however, I feel this is not very appropriate. I don't mind reviewing for others who recommended me but I don't recommend anyone because I don't think it is ethical, but I have been having problems with the reviewers simply not having adequate expertise on the field, though they are quite arrogant so in the end I receive reviews that are low-quality (and I mean this, they are not just mean reviews or anything, I mean reviews that are technically dead wrong that they don't get the scope, methodology not even what problem is being solved) How common is it to recommend referees for your paper? Am I missing something?

It's fairly common for journals to ask for reviewer recommendations. This is to help them get reviewers. Suggested reviewers make the editor's job easier, since they no longer need to work that hard to find people who can review the paper.
The downside isn't that it's unethical - I don't see why it would be - but rather that the authors are going to suggest their friends or even commit peer review fraud by nominating themselves. But that's something for the editor to worry about, not you.
Finally it's worth noting that not all reviewers you recommend will be invited to review your article - it's fairly common for journals to have a "one recommended, one self-invited" policy for example. In fact, it's possible none of the reviewers you recommend are invited.


Is it good to take a project even if the topic is not what I'm interested? One of my university professors offered me a research assistant position which would require me to study for a master degree.

I really wanted to take it but there are few problems for me.

I don't know that professor.
I don't know what career I could take after finishing a master degree.
I feel like other people are able to make more money early. (Even if I don't care about money).
Money problem mostly because I still need find a job to support myself.

Even though it got a full fee waiver, I couldn't change the research topic for the whole master degree.

So I guess my question is should I really take it even though I'm not really interested in that particular project and worried about my future career.

Sounds like a LOT of negatives in addition to the one in the title even.

Just responding to the one in the title, I would say to do a project that interests you.  Of course be smart about not picking something that involves a jerk advisor, unlikely to work, or 10 years of apparatus building or waiting for next Space Shuttle (even if you like the topic).  But in general, pick something you like.

That one looks like a dud.  Go talk to several more professors.  Have fun scheduling some meetings and talking to them.  Many of them like talking about their stuff and will pitch you on something or even mention a few possibilities.  You need to get a few options in front of you and choose the best one.  For one thing running this process will show you what is available and help you compare by contrast.  Don't marry the first girl you date.  Well, except I should have, but she was special!  ;-)


Quantity vs Quality of Publication during PhD My question is similar to this one but it applies to PhD who wants to find a postdoc position after graduation.

I am a PhD student who publishes a new paper as soon as there is an improvement in my research. Each year, I manage to publish 2 or 3 papers into high quality conferences but not the top one in my field.

Recently, a senior researcher suggests me to combine few improvements into one paper so that it will have more improvements in comparison to the previous one. It will result in less papers per year but increase the difference in term of research contribution between them. She argues that, in order to get into a good postdoc programme, the quality of paper is more important than the quantity and I should aim for top conference in the field with very high quality paper instead of good-but-not-great conference.

I wonder if my colleague's suggestion is correct and I should reduce the number of published papers per year in order to increase the difference in research contribution between them.

My field is computer science but answers from other fields are also welcome.

I don't know what publication rates are typical in computer science, but in mathematics it is true that quality is more important than quantity, when it comes to getting postdocs and competitive research positions.

This does not mean quantity is irrelevant. But postdocs are partially given based on your promise as a researcher. To that end, one truly excellent paper may be enough to land a job (along with good references), because it suggests you have the potential to produce more excellent papers. On the other hand, 10 truly mediocre papers is not likely to be as impressive, because it only shows you can publish lots of mediocre papers.


Ask for funding before or after applying I finished my master in computer science about 2 years ago...
And I just started to apply for PhD... I have received a prompt reply to one of my email and I really don't know what should I do!? here is the response :

"Dear Ali,

It is impossible for me to know over a year in advance whether I will take any students for Fall 2016.  Your CV looks interesting and I encourage you to apply to the program so you are eligible for any potential openings."

I asked for admission on fall 2016 but maybe I could ask for winter 2015 too...

Should I ask for funding now or after applying? How should I reply him?

Your question really contains two parts: about funding and about what to do with the email. @vonbrand already answered the funding part, so I will answer the other half:

This is really a rather common reply. If you apply for the fall 2016, you will likely take courses for the first year, so you're looking for someone who may start to be your adviser in the fall 2017 -- two years from now. I have no idea how my funding situation will look like that far out, nor whether I will gain or lose any graduate students until then. In other words, I cannot promise that (i) I will be able to support anyone financially this far out, (ii) I will have the mental and time capacity to  accept more graduate students this far out. At least in the US (and likely in Canada), you can't generally expect to have an adviser lined up before you even apply to a graduate program -- you have to apply and accept admission to a department in the hope that when you need one, an adviser will materialize.


Contributing to the cause of biology (beyond research) I've been studying microbiology for a while (undergrad sophomore). I've been finding something to do other than my regular academic work and projects.
Someone told me that Nature allows freelancers to edit some articles. Is it true ?
What are some other places where I can use my biology/writing/communication skills to help the cause of science and maybe even build my CV (last part is optional, I'm basically bored and will do anything if seems fun)

Wikipedia has a dedicated portal called Biotechnology, which has some promising content right now. A formal categorization of topics is available, also major keywords have a longer description. The problem is, that many specialized articles are missing right now. They are only available in a dedicated research encyclopedia which is sold as a commercial product for 2000 US$. That means, there is a knowledge gap between the content in Wikipedia and the content in encyclopedias used by researchers. So if somebody has too much time he can try to transfer the knowledge from Academia into the public domain and create some Wikipedia stubs. This would help to bring Open Science forward.


How to list my name in publications, given that I am referred to by my middle name? I prefer to be referred to by my middle name. How should I list my name on publications?

I'm not sure if this is correct, but in the past I have written: First initial. Middle name Last name.

You can write your name however you prefer, so long as it is clear and consistent.

A good example of a person with your same situation, however, is Chris Anderson at Berkeley, whose publications list:

  J. Christopher Anderson

As you can see, he has come to the exact same solution that you suggest.


Should someone be an author if they helped understanding a concept? I am writing a paper. I have performed the experiments and I also have the results. However, there is a section in my paper where I have to explain my observation upon which the whole idea is based. To ensure that I explain my observation correctly, I want help from a professor. I will be basically asking him questions along the line of: ‘why does this happen?’.

Before asking such questions, shall I inform him that I’m writing a paper and need help in explaining something?
I’ll definitely thank him in the acknowledgement section but is it required to add him as an author?

To ensure that I explain my observation correctly, I want help from a professor. I will be basically asking him questions along the line of: ‘why does this happen?’.

Whether this merits coauthorship depends on whether the professor is making a significant intellectual contribution.  If you are just getting straightforward explanations of well-known theory (which you need because you are an experimentalist, not a theorist), then there's no need for more than an acknowledgment.  On the other hand, if nobody knows why these things happen and the theorist comes up with a novel explanation for your data, then coauthorship sounds appropriate.  There may also be intermediate cases, such as theory that is relatively well known but requires some calculation to apply to your case, in which case you would need to discuss whether coauthorship makes sense.

  Before asking such questions, shall I inform him that I’m writing a paper and need help in explaining something?

Yes, certainly.  If you get only quick answers that do not seem to involve much effort, then you should mention the paper but there's probably no need to discuss coauthorship.  If you get answers that seem to involve serious effort, then you should discuss coauthorship.  (Discussing it doesn't necessarily mean he will be a coauthor.  Rather, you just need to be careful to make sure there are no misunderstandings.)


Can a Ph.D student change his adviser, if he is supported by a Research Assistantship by the adviser upon admission (and possibly first year)? According to my offer, I am admitted to the Ph.D program and funded by a Research Assistantship by Professor X. Nevertheless, I am interested in other research directions, and we are supposed to decide our adviser by the end of the first semester.

Is it appropriate to change adviser in my case, as I am funded by Professor X?

It is usually possible, but plan for two things to happen:

[Almost certain] You will lose this RA-stipend. RAs are usually in the context of specific projects and under the supervision of specific advisors, so when you decide to work on an entirely different project with a different position (which is typically your right as a PhD student) you become ineligible to be funded in this way. You need to understand that most RAs come from projects, where a PI has promised to a funding agency or company that a certain project will be delivered within a time frame. If you then decide to work on something else, the PI needs to find another person to actually do the work that has been promised. Note that this does not necessarily mean that you won't have a stipend anymore, but it will likely need to be a different source (e.g., either a TA position or an RA sponsored
by your new advisor).
[Possible] There may be some fallout with the PI sponsoring the RA. I guess most people can accept that sometimes the first year shows that you are not an ideal fit and switching advisors is the best solution for everybody, but planning to switch all along when accepting the offer may understandably lead to some bad blood. In essence, you are trying to milk a year of funding out of a project you have no intention of actually contributing to long-term. Many people will find this highly disagreeable.


Can international graduate student take the free online courses offered in Coursera? Is it necessary to notify to the graduate school when taking the free online courses?

As always, it's better to check directly with your advisor, who is in the best situation to answer exactly your question. That being said, as Zenon said, you should be able to do pretty much what you want during your free time, including taking online courses. However, if you take so many classes that it prevents you to work normally for your grad school, then it might be a problem. Furthermore, if you expect the online courses you take to count for your graduate program (i.e., to replace other courses you would normally have to take at your school), then only your advisor can answer that.


Given a "Date Revision Due" for revised submission of a journal paper, am I required to submit before the beginning or the end of that date? I am submitting a revised manuscript to an Elsevier journal. However, English is my second language and I am confused about the meaning of "Date Revision Due"!

The journal editorial system indicates "Sep 19, 2015" as Date Revision Due. Please tell me should I submit the revised manuscript before "Sep 18,2015 11:59 PM" or "Sep 19,2015 11:59 PM"?!

I guess the local timezone of the journal should also be considered. In addition, Can I submit the revised manuscript by automatic editorial system even if I miss this deadline?

Unlike conferences, a journal's "date due" is rarely quite so precise a moment; this is because papers are all being dealt with asynchronously, on an as-arrived basis, rather than as a massive batch of hundreds all arriving near-simultaneously as for a big engineering conference.

Most journals will be comfortable with you submitting a little late if necessary (though there are some that will automatically discard your paper if you don't hit their deadline).  Thus, rather than fretting about time-zones, I would recommend that if you are worried about a last-minute submission, you instead email the handling editor and ask for a short extension.


How do I follow up with a potential PhD supervisor? I had an interview with a professor 3 weeks ago. He told me that we would stay in touch and probably have another meeting in 3 weeks. I have not heard anything from him in the past 3 weeks so I wonder how do I "stay in touch" with him?

PhD supervisors are generally quite busy, particularly, if they have multiple PhD students, and courses to coordinate. So if he said 3 weeks and has failed to get back to you then it is likely that he has been busy.
Wait for a few days, and then politely send him an email requesting an update on the status of your application. Let him know that you are looking forward to the next meeting and are keen on working with him.
Also continue to look at his group's website, if any. Many times, after having been ignored by the potential supervisor, I have found new students on their website, indicating that my application has been rejected.
It is an impolite world, it is not necessary that the supervisor or for that matter anyone in academia shall get back to you, particularly from top universities who receive bucketloads of emails every day. For example, one of my supervisors used to ask his research assistant to man his email account with instructions to ignore emails with 'certain' characteristics.
In your case, the potential supervisor seems to be interested in your application and it is highly probable that he will respond.
Best of luck!


How to teach law to multinational classes? I am professor in an internationally oriented university, meaning it was created to have students from half a dozen different countries. It doesn't offer any law-related degree, but some degrees do require teaching legal subjects.

In those classes, I am supposed to teach [some specific kind of] law [in each one] to future professionals who will work in all these different countries. One builds a bridge (or operates an eye surgery etc.) the same way regardless of the country one's in, but law is different everywhere. How would you cope with this, i.e., how would you simultaneous teach law (or any other essentially conventional, thus localized knowledge) to many diverse (differently-originated) international students?

BTW, it is not possible to hire one law professor per country covered by the university's scope (and it would effectively distort the faculty into a law-focused one).

I'm not a lawyer, but I don't suspect that you need to give your students knowledge of the specifics of the law in any particular place. You can, of course teach two important things.

One is the principles on which the law is based generally in the world, as well as something of the history, as well as the abuses that might arise. How important is legal precedent? How important are political considerations.

Probably more important is that you teach them something about legal research and how to learn the specifics of a place and time. Where is it likely that they will find the answers to a given legal system and how it operates as well as finding definitive answers about the specifics of the law.

You actually have an opportunity here for projects for your students to, say, pick out some country of interest to them, whether their own or not, and provide a legal system summary for that country. You could even have group work to have students compare a set of countries, chosen by you or by themselves. Make the students become the experts rather than having you try to be everything to all students.

By the way, the above is a general technique whenever you need to teach something for which you aren't the natural expert yourself. It is a useful skill.


Should I do an MBBS before/after taking a doctoral program in neuroscience? My goal is to become a professor in neuroscience. At the moment I have a master's degree in computer science. During my studies, I did research in neuroscience but from a computational aspect. I succeeded in publishing two papers during the program. I am mostly interested in clinical neuroscience. Therefore, there are two questions I would need an answer to:

Does the degree MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) allow me work as a doctor? Treat patients? And, most importantly, run clinical studies as the person in charge?
Should I get the medical degree before or after doing a science PhD?

It seems there are some PhD/MD programs (I don't understand the difference between MD and MBBS) but they would take +9 years in most places. Doing a PhD and medical degree separately seems to be a faster route (3 year PhD and 4 year MBBS, if this MBBS is sufficient).

I would really appreciate any help, there's a huge amount of variation in information I can find from the web.

The distinction between an MD and MBBS is the US versus the British system of medical training. Both allow you to practice medicine in countries that support each system. Confusingly, it appears the MD degree in the UK is also a post-MBBS research degree most similar to the US PhD, though you must have already obtained an MBBS to train for an MD (source: Wikipedia).

A quick google scholar search for MBBS reveals many published clinical trial studies where authors have MBBS degrees. For example,

Article 1 - Article 2 - Article 3 (in Lancet)

So the answer to your first question is yes. Perhaps the only thing to consider is where you ultimately want to practice. Ideally, you'll want to do your training in the same country. There are lots of crappy things about training in one country then moving to another--mainly, many places will make you retake the country-specific licensing boards.

I'm a little skeptical of your proposed number of years of training. In the UK (where MBBS originates), training is 5 to 6 years in length, generally two years pre-clinical followed by 3-4 practicing in the hospital. As for the PhD, Europe and the US have different expectations. I encourage you to check out this concise comparison from a different post. Essentially.. time to get a PhD is often fixed in Europe, while more open ended here in the US. But, as is emphasized above, training should be about learning the key skills necessary to succeed in academia, which is your stated objective.

In regard to which to obtain first.. I would argue for a PhD followed by medical training. Clinical skills are easily forgotten. I recommend once you've done medical training, it's best to start your clinical/research practice. This is especially important in any country with regular maintenance of licensure exams. This would be much harder if you primarily did your PhD rather than practice medicine in the intervening years.

The truly best order though is probably what is done in MD/PhD programs in the US. It is widely considered optimal to observe the following order (US medical system): 2 years didactic training (medical school), entire PhD (3-5 years), second two years of clinical training (medical school).

The reasoning behind this order is that the first two years of medical school are essentially pathology and basic science classes that will give you a broad introduction to how a body works at a gross and microscopic level. This will give you a biomedical background that no PhD student gets. You also won't use 99% of what you learn in the lab... but in principle, you might draw connections outside your own field that others would have no background to make.

PhD training is much more focused on a particular field, with the emphasis being depth rather than breadth. In your PhD years, you will master a remote niche of science, hopefully while learning how to be a good scientist, how to write, and how to obtain funding for your ideas.

Empowered by this, you then return to the clinic, where you realize most everything we do in medicine is empirical! Ideally going through the clinic you think about all the biomedical questions for which we have no answer. After graduating, you continue on in residency training. In the US, there are research-oriented residency programs that cut out a year or two of training in place of pseudo-postdoctoral research fellowships.

The length at most US MD/PhD programs is 8 to 9 years, which is definitely faster than obtaining an MD and PhD separately in the United States. The main reason is that the cross-training allows some MD courses to count towards the PhD, and because lab rotations are done in the summers before the first MD year, and between the first and second, when normal MD students are free to do what they like.


Applying for PHD programs in FLORIDA. I have a question about legal questions? On an application form for PhD programs in Florida, they ask:

"Have you recieved disciplinary action?"
"Have you ever been arrested for, been convicted of, or entered a plea of "guilty" or "nolo contendre" (No contest) to a crime (excluding traffic offenses not involving death or serious bodily injury), or been adjudicated or required to register as a sex offender?

My friend that is asking was arrested for DUI (driving under the influence) with serious body injury. She is not sure if that is a Traffic Offense or a Criminal Offense.

Has anyone else experienced, or have good information pertaining to this question?

A traffic offense would typically be something that resulted in a ticket (e.g. speeding) that you pay or, perhaps, go to traffic court. A DUI is decidedly a criminal offense that you can be prosecuted for in real (non-traffic) court.

As an aside, when you have a security clearance you absolutely must report arrests, but usually they will also explicitly mention a dollar value for traffic tickets, above which you must also report.

Good luck to your friend. They will need to be able to clearly explain the situation and the resolution.


What do you call a professor that is hired by two different departments? What do you call the professors that are hired by two different departments? Say, a history professor who is also a chemistry professor.

Also, in reality how would one do that?

It's usually called a joint, secondary or courtesy appointment.  The purpose is to allow faculty to teach or do research in cross-disciplinary topics.  Someone with a joint appointment is usually a full member of both departments and funded by both; secondary and courtesy appointments reflect a looser relationship.

Their formal title will be a list of their appointments, e.g., "Professor, Electrical Engineering; Professor (courtesy), Applied Physics".

To an audience, they might be introduced as "Professor of Electrical Engineering and, by courtesy, of Applied Physics", but beyond that, there's no special term for someone who holds this type of appointment.  They're still just called a professor, same as the rest.


Is it okay for me to show some other publication's data for data comparison reasons without prior permission if I properly reference/cite their work? Suppose publication Smith (2016) had a study that investigated whether professors liked apples, and found that they did.

Now suppose that I wish to have my own study that investigated whether students also liked apples, and to what degree would this be compared to professors.

Would it be necessary for me to ask Smith for permission to show their numbers when I am making the statistical comparison between my data and Smith (2016) data?

If I reference Smith (2016) when presenting my work, do not claim the data on professors to be my own, and use the same inventory of questions (which Smith (2016) themselves used from another source), I would assume that this would not be considered plagiarism and I would not have to receive permission, but I wasn't entirely sure.

In other words, is it okay for me to show some other publication's data for data comparison reasons without prior permission if I properly reference/cite their work?

*This project, as it stands, only has intentions for conference presentations and not publication if that changes anything.

Utilization of data sets (acquired from other academic resources) is fairly common; specially when you need to compare your analytical method with the other one's in view of performance, precision, etc. In such case, people often try to use a pre-assessed data set of their own or some other study. All you need to do is referencing the used data set, carefully.

Answer to question #11, here, says:

  Data cannot be copyrighted, so you are free to use data to create any figure you like *[or any analysis you need]*. The source of the data must be properly acknowledged


Any chance for an overseas student to pursue online courses and get a degree? I am planning to take courses in Mathematics, Computer Science from a US University. I am not in the USA.

How should I generally go about it? Is it an online degree that I am looking for?

And I would like to get a degree for that.

In mathematics, some graduate degrees are offered online, but you should be careful.  There are real advantages to doing it in person, and most of the schools offering online degrees are not well respected, so if you select a program based on internet advertising, you will probably waste your money without learning very much or ending up with a valuable credential.  (It's depressing how many businesspeople view distance education as just a money making opportunity, without any serious commitment to doing a good job.  When you investigate online education, please keep in mind that many web sites are trying to sell you something of questionable value.)

One respectable example is the University of Washington, which offers an online M.S. in applied mathematics, and there are some others like this.  They could be viable options if attending in person is impossible.  I do not know of any well respected math graduate program from a 100% distance education university in the US, so you should be very suspicious of such programs, although perhaps they exist in other countries (Open University?).

There is no worthwhile online Ph.D. program in mathematics.  If your only goal is to get the degree itself, for example to move up in a salary scale for a job you already have, then it might be possible, but you would have to look carefully to make sure the program is accredited, and even so it won't be an impressive addition to your CV.  If you are hoping for a career in academia or industrial research, don't even think about an online Ph.D.  If an institution offers an online Ph.D. in mathematics, and presents it as being just as good and respected as a traditional Ph.D., then you should be extremely suspicious of the entire institution.

As for computer science, I don't know as much about online master's programs, but the issues are similar and I imagine the conclusions are as well.  The online Ph.D. situation is definitely the same as in math.


Life Hacks: Teacher Edition! Now that I've gotten your attention with that terrible title...

The Mathematical Association of America used to regularly run a column called Teaching Time Savers, an archive of which can be found here: http://www.maa.org/programs/faculty-and-departments/curriculum-department-guidelines-recommendations/teaching-and-learning/teaching-time-savers

These articles offer tips on things like:

How to reduce time spent grading
How to influence students to study in a more effective manner
Advice for streamlining the writing of recommendation letters

Note that many (most?) of these tips are not specific to a mathematics course.

Are there any other collections of such articles floating around the web?

You will have to search inside it for which tactics affect time efficiency, but "Tools for Teaching" by Barbara Gross Davis is a great compendium of pedagogical techniques, with citations to the research which justifies them. The main focus is doing it better, not doing it faster, but an astute reader can for sure find useful tricks in there.


How do I cite an article with no page numbers and only a DOI number (APA format)? I am writing an article that requires citations in APA format. As you may know, that format requires page numbers

I am pulling quite a few articles from the journal of Remote Sensing (MDPI), which publishes almost all content as open access articles online. The problem is that they publish the articles online, and do not indicate a page number. For example, an article entitled "Time-Series Multispectral Indices from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Imagery Reveal Senescence Rate in Bread Wheat" has the following short citation:

Remote Sens. 2018, 10, 809; doi:10.3390/rs10060809

(https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/10/6/809)

From further investigating, I think the number 809 is the article in the volume, not the page number. Am I right on this? If so, how do you cite page numbers for a journal where they are not given?

According to the 6th edition of APA:

When using the exact words or a close paraphrase or summary of a source, a page number must be provided as part of a complete in-text citation. However, some publications (such as websites) have no numbered pages. To help readers locate the words being cited, include one or both of these elements:

Paragraph number (counted by yourself or as indicated in the text)
Main heading or sub-heading within the text (if available and appropriate)

So, if you are using a direct citation the approach with manually counted paragraph number and sub-heading section is recommended. The link above provides the following example:

According to the 2012 Canadian Survey on Disability, “[o]ver 11% of Canadian adults experienced one of the three most prevalent disability types: pain, mobility or flexibility” (Statistics Canada, 2013, para. 2)

However, if you are referencing for a purpose other than direct quotation or a close paraphrase, you can simply use 1–N, where N is the number of pages in the cited paper:

Simon, S. L., Field, J., Miller, L. E., DiFrancesco, M., & Beebe, D. W. (2015). Sweet/dessert foods are more appealing to adolescents after sleep restriction. PLoS ONE, 10, 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0115434


What sentence is suitable for thanking a professor? I am looking for a PhD position. Sometimes professors give me information about their projects via emails. How can I thank them for their explanation in a polite way, show my interest and impress them?

Hint: professors are people too. You can thank them just like thanking anyone else. Your email may go something like this:

Dear Professor X,
Thank you for the information about your PhD project. I look forward to submitting my formal application to your department.
Best wishes,
maryam


Relationship with doctoral advisor? My question is that do most people keep in touch with their doctoral advisors after they graduate? Do doctoral advisors forget their PhD students after the students get their degree?
I am mainly asking about math/physics if that makes a difference.

I very much doubt any of them "forget" in the sense of "Who are you, and how did you get this number?"
The relationship one has with their former advisor will depend on both the advisor, the graduate, and their relationship - and it will evolve over time. Some are happy to go their separate ways, some continue to be long time collaborators or friends, and the amount of political capital they will spend on their former graduates varies wildly.
Some advisors (wisely IMO) step back a little bit to make sure that their former PhD students develop an independent research agenda and voice, and clearly have a separate career from their advisor.
But it all depends. Personally? I keep in touch with my advisor, see him at conferences (back before COVID-19), and when the opportunity is right, we collaborate, but we don't actively seek out those opportunities.


What should I put in the "about me" section of an academic job talk? The question says it all... I know I shouldn't put personal details, I'm thinking something like:

How I got into my field
My interesting career path
Hobbies
Half of my work is collaborative and half independent

How much is about me as myself versus about me the professional?

The job talks I'm familiar with don't generally have an "about me" section, so you may be thinking of a different sort of talk from what I have in mind.  (I'm envisioning a research talk at a U.S. university.)  But in my experience, you shouldn't include anything in a job talk unless it illuminates your work in some way.

Hobbies are completely out, except in rare cases when they seriously influence your research.  Your career path could be relevant for conveying your background and interests.  For example, if you worked in an industrial research lab or have substantial background in another field, that could be worth highlighting.  However, there's no point in giving an oral recital of your CV.  Same thing with how you got into your field: you should mention this only if it somehow shapes how people should think about your expertise (and this will rarely be the case).  On the other hand, pointing out that your work is half collaborative and half independent sounds reasonable to me.

More generally, you want to put the specific topic you'll be discussing in the context of your broader research program.  How does it relate to other work you have done or to ongoing interests?  What's noteworthy about your overall activities?

  How much is about me as myself versus about me the professional?

It should all be about you as a professional.  You don't want to give the impression that the best argument you can make for hiring you involves your hobbies.


How do I turn down a project I'm not interested in anymore? I'm an undergraduate student, and I recently got in touch with a postdoc at an institution different from mine - since I was quite interested in her research work. Now, after a few weeks (haven't started much work yet, I've only gone through the preliminaries I'd need to do research in that field), I don't feel as interested in the project/work, and I wonder what would be a polite way to say the same. Since I haven't been offered an official position at the lab yet, I think this is still a good time to make this call.
As an undergraduate in my early years, I think I'm still figuring out my interests, so I'm personally not as surprised at my situation - but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to inform the postdoc that I'm not interested in that particular project anymore. I hope y'all understand my situation and can help!
I'm confused because I was the one who reached out first, expressed interest and I'm not interested anymore. I hope there's an easy way out of this.

A polite and concise email to the postdoc will suffice.

As an undergraduate in my early years, I think I'm still figuring out my interests

A postdoc researcher will certainly understand this sentiment. There is no need to go into details about you not finding their work interesting, but rather focus on changes in your interests.

Since I haven't been offered an official position at the lab yet, I think this is still a good time to make this call.

The postdoc will be glad that you did not waste their time and they will appreciate knowing about your decision to not join their lab ahead of time.