Suggestions for an alternative grading system I'm designing a leadership development program for a graduate college at a research university. As part of the project, I've designed a summary sheet which each participant will receive. The summary is designed to give them an impression of their overall leadership development. It includes an "overall leadership score," which is currently shown as a number on a 1-10 scale.

My intent is for all students to begin the program at a baseline level of 5. Students who demonstrate multiple positive leadership traits will raise their score above a 5. Students who show a lack of these traits will lower that score.

However, I'd like to replace the 1-10 scale since it will be difficult to keep the baseline or average score of 5 from being equated with a 50, an F, etc. For the same reason, I've avoided the use of a letter scale.

Does anyone have suggestions on an alternative grading system that is well suited to this type of grading task? I'm also trying to find something that won't be too discouraging for students whose leadership scores are below average (seeing a 0 or an F would not get the right message across).

I would suggest a rubric that includes the desired qualities of each category.  If you're really worried about the scale, don't include the numbers or letters at all, or change to something like Roman Numerals.  I would not include more than four or five categories, unless you can really break down differences. E.g.,

I. Not making progress. The student needs to improve his/her leadership skills, to include participating in mentor/mentee relationships with junior students, or actively seeking out lead roles in the lab.
II. Pre-leadership.  The student is new to the lab, and has not yet developed leadership roles.  The student should start looking for opportunities for leadership, and should begin considering the type of leader he or she wants to be.  The student should thoughtfully observe other leaders and their leadership styles.
III. Making progress.  The student is actively engaged in a leadership role in the lab and/or has made mentor/mentee relationships with junior students.  The student should continue to develop his/her leadership skills in these roles.
IV. Excellent leadership development.  The student has actively developed his/her leadership opportunities, and is capable of independent leadership in the lab.  Other students view him/her as a quality leader and are comfortable going to the student for guidance.
V. Phenomenal leader.  The student is qualified to independently lead large groups of other students, and is able to mentor others in leadership roles.

In this example, I would start everyone off at (II).  Everyone will know they should look for leadership opportunities, and it should be relatively easy to get into the (III) category.   Obviously, this is only an example, and can be tailored to your situation.

I'm also trying to find something that won't be too discouraging for students whose leadership scores are below average (seeing a 0 or an F would not get the right message across).

I do think having some sort of forcing function is necessary; otherwise, what is the reason to improve?  In my example, you could tone down "Not making progress" (or take it out), but if you do want to show students who aren't improving that they need to, you should have at least one negative category.


Hiring a PhD student who left another PhD position It's the first time I'm recruiting for a PhD student. I advertised the position and have received a dozen applications and there are still 2 weeks left on the 4 week announcement.
What caught my eye is that I have two applicants who are already PhD students at other (lower ranking) universities. They both have very strong CVs and even some good publications. However, they haven't included any references from their current university or the reason they want to leave from there. One is a second year PhD and the other a third year. Both have similar topics to the one I'm advertising for.

Is it OK if I ask them directly why they want to leave and why they haven't included any references from the place they have been for 2-3 years?

Should I try contacting their current supervisor and ask for info? I even know one of them personally. I don't know if I should (could land the student in trouble).

In these situations, don't you feel that this person could suddenly leave if he/she finds a better position? Can I really trust him/her to stick through a 4-year project?

P.S.: My wife switched to another supervisor 6 months into her PhD because she really couldn't get along with her 1st supervisor, so I understand these things happen. I want to give these candidates a fair chance, but I want to cover my bases as well.

I would contact the students directly for answers before contacting the supervisors. This way, you can get some feedback and further information before deciding if you want to contact the supervisors.

However, I would in any case not take a student from the lab of an acquaintance without the "blessing" of the acquaintance. Otherwise you risk setting up an unnecessarily antagonistic relationship between you and the other advisor.


What level of detail should be included in a CV when listing the courses assisted? I am a teaching/research assistant.
In my academic CV, I have a section called "Courses Assisted". I am not sure which way to go. I have two three different schemes on my mind:
First one, write all the semesters and list the courses assisted in that semester.
2015 - 16 Fall

AB 101 "An Introductory Course"
CD 223 "An Advanced Course"

2014 - 15 Summer

CD 232 "A Hard Course"

2014 - 15 Spring

AB 101 "An Introductory Course"
CD 232 "A Hard Course"

2014 - 15 Fall

AB 102 "Second Part of That Introductory Course"
CD 223 "An Advanced Course"

and so on.
The second one, write the course names and then list all the semesters that I have assisted that course:
AB 101 "An Introductory Course"

2015-16 Fall
2014-15 Spring

AB 102 "Second Part of That Introductory Course"

2014-15 Fall

CD 223 "An Advanced Course"

2015-16 Fall
2014-15 Fall

CD 232 "A Hard Course"

2014-15 Summer
2014-15 Fall

and so on.
The third choice, I put a table like below:

Clearly, the last one contains much more information and takes much less space. But it is a little bit harder to read.
Even though the first and the second choices seem to take almost equal amount of space, the second one takes less when there are a lot of semesters and not so much courses.
The third one is not so ordinary and it takes a little bit more effort to read. But it contains almost all the information.
I am addressing the ones who are in hiring committee: Do you care about that much detail or do you only want to know which courses the applicant assisted? Is it worth to put that detail of level to reduce readability?
Or am I overthinking?

I've never been on a hiring committee, but I can tell you what's standard in my field (mathematics): something basically similar to your second option. I would probably put it in a more condensed format, for example:

Courses Assisted

A Hard Course (Fall 2013)
An Easy Course (Spring 2014, Fall 2014)
and so on

No need to include course numbers (which mean nothing to anyone outside your university) or instructor names (even the most diligent hiring committee is unlikely to call professors you've taught under, beyond the teaching references you personally solicit).

Your third option (the table) is very hard to read, and includes a lot of information that the hiring committee is unlikely to need or care about.


Thesis writing - should I write "will be discussed later" or "as was discussed previously" I am writing my MD thesis, which is about therapy for MS, and some drugs come up in more than one specific subchapter. Should I discuss them in detail in the first subchapter they come up in, or should I discuss them in the last chapter they come up in?

The answer varies: Readers will sometimes expect introduction there-and-then, in others they'll expect a delay, some readers will be divided. Regardless, generally avoid will be discussed later and as was discussed previously, use section references to guide the reader.


Accepted a job with a year-long deferral to do a prestigious postdoc. Now a better job came along Last year I got one tenure-track job offer and accepted it, even though I wasn't thrilled about the position. The institution allowed me to defer my start date by a year, so that I can complete a postdoc. I fully intended to start the job when I signed the offer.

Now, several months later, I received a tenure-track offer from a top institution with resources and benefits that can never be matched by the institution that is currently waiting on me.

I understand it is unethical for me to bail on Institution 1. At the same time, I only have one life and one career and don't want to sacrifice my prospect for loyalty to an institution where I haven't even started working.

What would you do?

EDIT: What are the range of professional consequences I can expect if I switch to the new institution?

Be upfront, be polite, and be quick.
First make a decision if you really want to accept the second offer. If, so make sure you sign the contract with the institution that made the second offer. At that point, inform the institution who made the initial offer ASAP and let them know in the most polite way that you cannot follow through with the contract you have signed. It will be painful and embarrassing and there is no way to avoid this situation. Then you will feel relieved and can start with the new job.

The institution you dumped might still be able to contact other candidates who were shortlisted. I do not see any other way of handling this, other ways will involve making some excuse and later they would find out that you are at a different institution. Better be embarrassed now and save face later.


How to keep plans for a job change quiet? I am most likely leaving my permanent position at my current university for a permanent position at a new university. I have been given an unofficial offer and we have agreed to terms. I have been told it could take over a month to generate an official offer and contract and that I should not give notice until then. I would prefer not to broadcast the news widely since nothing is set in stone until I am given the contact. Obviously I do not care that much since I am asking here.

In the few days I have known, I have told:

My current department chair since he wrote a reference and my other references
A couple of close colleagues since I valued their opinions
A collaborator in my department since we were beginning to to write a grant together since the move, it is international, would cause major problems
I am now faced with having to turn down a prospective graduate student which would require me to tell at least the head of our graduate admissions committee and maybe the whole committee

I am clearly failing at keeping it quiet. How do you not screw over your colleagues, but still keep the job change quiet until it is official?

This is common in academia. I think you have to be honest with everyone who might rely on you being at your current job in the future, let them know what stage you are at, and ask them to keep it to themselves until you get the official offer. You can only control what you say to others while asking others to respect your privacy in the meantime.

Suppose that you told everyone in your current department exactly what you have told us, and for some reason your new position falls through at this late date, what's the worst case situation you're worried about? It seems to me that, assuming your current job is held for you, your worst problems will be interpersonal with other faculty that resented your desire to leave. Is that it, or are you worried about some specific ramifications if word got around?


When should I begin publishing? I am finishing my Master's degree in Mathematics and will be enrolled in a PhD program in the U.S. starting from fall. In my country (Russia) we have thesis as a mandatory requirement for all degrees (including BSc and MSc, not just PhD). I hoped that my Master's thesis would be good enough to be published, but my advisor says it is not (I derived some new results, but they aren't very generic and groundbreaking). My Bachelor's thesis was not published too.

My question -- is it bad to have no publications prior to PhD or is it normal to begin publishing only during PhD years? In my view no publications is understandable for BSc students, but I'm not sure about MSc. The question is not about admission (I was admitted to a couple of decent programs this year), but about general timeline and expectations from students in sciences, especially from Master's degree holders.

My experience on this (Europe, physics department): I started my PhD last year, up to that point I had coauthorship on one publication (This dates back to my bachelors degree, I was a research assistant on a project that lead to a publication). Fellow PhDs in my current group have either one or no publicatiion as coauthors from their masters programme.

To cut it short: In my field it would be quite uncommon to have your 'own' papers (as in first author, not sure if a journal would even accept such a submission) before you finished your masters, coauthorship depends on how keen the supervisor is on publishing results (and how well the overall research on that topic is progressing, my thesis was connected to a PhD's research, as those results could be published I got coauthorship).


Will my undergrad thesis be considered for my Master's admission given that my areas of interest has changed a bit? During my undergrad, I published a paper on a topic relating to Natural Language Processing since I was fond of learning algorithms. I wish to pursue a Master's degree in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Graphics.
Does the paper that I published during my undergrad still be considered by an admission committee, at least for my research skills that I have been able to demonstrate? Given that the area in which I wish to pursue my Master's is fairly different from my undergrad thesis.

It’s fairly widely understood that people’s research interests can evolve over time, particularly in the transition from undergraduate to graduate. So, yes, the committee will consider your undergrad paper, precisely because it shows potential for research, even if it’s not in the field you want to study in the graduate program.

You should, however, be sure to make an affirmative argument for your new field of study in your statement of purpose: talk about why you’re gravitating toward the new field, not away from the old one.


Can you publish studies based on confidential customer data that comes from private companies? I am working on a project in biostatistics involving some private companies.
Specifically, these companies share data about their customers with us and we try to apply our algorithm to this data. The good part is that both the algorithm and the application are very new, and seem to work quite well. Unfortunately we can not publish this data in paper or conferences, as it is privately owned.

What is the typical way to proceed in this case?
Does the fact that it is not possible to publish the data implies in general that also results based on this data are also unpublishable?

Publishing data based on confidential private company data
Where the company consents, it is possible to publish studies based on confidential customer data. Common requirements are

Don't identify the company in any publication and possibly be broad when discussing the context of the company (e.g., location)
Don't make the raw data available to other researchers or on online repositories
Don't present individual-level analyses or small group analyses which might allow any customers or proprietary data to be identified

When you initiate a relationship with a private company to analyse their data, it is important to discuss and agree on a number of matters:

Are you able to publish research based on analyses of their data? (note that this can be done without sharing their raw data)
If you publish, to what extent do they require their details to be concealed? (e.g., no disclosure of place, companies, etc.)
How will authorship of publications work? Does anyone at the company wish to be a co-author? If so, what level of contribution do they need to make and how will this work?
What if any rights of veto or influence do they have on what can be published? Will you have academic freedom to publish results even if they do not support the company's commercial agenda?
Are you able to share their data with other researchers or on suitable online repositories?
Will they give you money or other compensation for analyses you perform or reports you write for them? If so, what are the details?

Types of Relationships:

In general, there are different kinds of partnerships between academia and companies that relate to the analysis of data. Relationships should be formed based on a shared understanding of goals and mutual benefit.

Pure consulting: In this context, while you are in academia, you can often still provide standard consulting services. In this setting, you would charge commercial rates to the company for any insights you gain.
Pure research: Data is shared with you by the company with the explicit aim of assisting your program of research. The company may be curious about the results, but is principally motivated by a general desire to assist in your research. The company does not have any explicit expectations about customised reports and so on beyond the research program that you pursue.
Hybrid consulting/research: In this model the company is seeking to gain insights into their business. Providing customised reports to them and other services may be part of the exchange for allowing you access to the data for research purposes. Alternatively, allowing you to publish research based on the data may be one of your conditions that may offset the fee you charge the company for other services you provide.

Within all these models, there are many variations. The important point is that early on in the relationship, you ensure that both you and the company agree on what model is being adopted. These matters can also be renegotiated.


How to deal with advisor writing a thesis chapter for you? How would you respond if an advisor writes a chapter of your thesis for you and asks you to rewrite what they wrote? Something seems wrong but I can't pinpoint it. It seems like a grey area. What are the potential plagiarism implications if I do this? And how can a student rewrite it any better than what someone with so much experience has written?
What would be an ethical and courteous way to respond? If there are any other sources or places you think I might be able to find more information or help from about this, I would like to hear that too.

A few possible reasons:

The advisor is not very experienced with advising students and is not clear on what they are supposed to do.
The advisor intends to publish the thesis with the student and is therefore interested in ensuring that the specific chapter is properly written.
The advisor is not confident in the student’s ability to correctly formulate certain ideas.

What can the student do? Ask the advisor politely to lead the writing of the thesis, write a first draft that they can later review. If the advisor insists, I suggest letting it go. It’s one chapter and is not a very big deal if it is indeed an undergraduate thesis. Helping students write is not unethical unless the student is really not leading the project. However in that case I fail to see why the advisor would take the thesis writing as their own project...


Lab vs personal brand I’m moving to a new university and setting up a lab. Unlike some US universities, the consensus is not to use your surname as the name of the lab but have a descriptive name (e.g., “this area” Lab). So, I’ll have to setup a new website under my new university domain, “brand” my lab (logo, etc.) and add some standard material (course material, people in the lab, recent publications and preprints, news, recruitment info, etc.).

Until now, most of this data I had in my own personal website NameSurname.com because my previous university did not provide for lab subdomains.

Do I keep both websites? Do I redirect my personal one to the lab or do I redirect the lab to my personal?
If I keep both of them, how do I differentiate the material? What goes on each?
What are the pros and cons of having a lab with a generic name and me as director or putting everything under my own name?

Unless you are 100% that you will run this lab until you retire (and even then, plans can change), I do think it makes sense to keep both websites and decouple them a bit. You and the lab are two different entities, possibly with different relevant recent achievements to publicize, and in any case, presumably you’ll want to grant employees/students of your lab access to modify the lab website, but probably not to modify your personal website!

For your personal website, I’d include:

material for courses taught
personal research interests
your CV
link to your lab page
etc.

For the lab website, I’d include:

lab publications
lab projects
recruiting info
list of personnel and links to their personal pages (including yours, of course)
news/media coverage/events
etc.

As for pros & cons, I’d say the pros of distinguishing you vs the lab are:

enables personnel to feel more “ownership” in the lab, thinking of themselves as part of an organization rather than just as your employee
I actually think a lab named for what it does (e.g. “Climate Dynamics Lab”) is not “generic” but actually more transparent and meaningful for communicating what your lab group studies (at least until you become so famous that your last name becomes synonymous with your subfield)

Cons:

you’ll have to maintain two slightly different websites, so synchronization becomes a pain


How one can learn to write successful cover letters and rebuttals to referees? Having a good scientific idea and writing a good paper out of it are the most important steps in order to publish in high-ranking journals, but they are not the only steps needed. The other steps are writing a good cover letter (to convince the editor) and good answers to referee reports, if needed (and this is almost always the case, based on my personal and and colleague's experience). Cover letters and rebuttals are a sort of "grey literature", in the sense that are carefully written, but not published, but only read by a few people (editors and referees).

Therefore one can learn to write good papers by reading good papers, but one cannot learn writing good letters and rebuttals by reading them, since they are not published.

In the light of this, how one can learn  to write successfull cover letters and rebuttals?

Your supervisor/PI/mentor should be an important source of information here. Not only will they have a lot of experience at the author end, they will also have reviewed lots of papers, and quite possibly acted as an editor. So they know what they would look for in a cover letter/rebuttal.
As Fabio Dias recommends in the comments, "Try asking people from your group/institute for the letters they sent".
Treat your cover letter/rebuttal as you would the main paper: send it to your co-authors, and if possible a trusted non-co-author, for comments and advice.
Wherever possible, try to get experience as a reviewer and (if at an appropriate stage in your career) an editor. This will help you to see things from different perspectives, and will also give you the chance to read both good and bad examples from other researchers. Even if you don't have the chance to do either of these things, try to put yourself in the editor/reviewer's position, play the devil's advocate, and think about what might persuade you if roles were reversed.


Timeline for notification of teaching duties for Grad TA As part of the support for my PhD, I teach a class every semester or so. I dual as a research assistant and have outside funding. I receive the same pay whether I teach or not. A few weeks ago, my department posted a list of teachers and their assigned classes. I was not on the list and received no indication that I would be. Naively I assumed that this meant that I was not going to be assigned to teach this semester and that I would just be a research assistant (which I already am funded for). I mean, you would think that they would notify teachers of their assignments, right?

However, I now have been notified today (December 19) at 2:30 p.m. local time that I am in fact assigned to teach a class starting in January. I have never taught this particular class, and (obviously) have no lesson plans or materials for the class. They have given me two weeks' notice. Since school is on holiday, I cannot go into the department and pick up a textbook for the class or anything. (Plus I live out of state from the school and I have gone home. I am not flying back until January 2).

Should I speak up and do something about this, or just grit my teeth and check it off as department ineptitude? For those of you who are in department administration, is this a common practice to notify an instructor two or so weeks before they have to step in front of a class and teach, especially when they have never taught the particular class and do not have access to the textbook during the ensuing two weeks?

For further reference, the department has done this to a few other students in the past. Usually what happens is that a professor decides last minute that they "cannot" teach a class. Several times the reason has been that the professor is tired of teaching said class or is just tired of teaching in general. The department chair is on board with this, since he knows he can just force a graduate student into the position and it keeps his friends happy. Since no students have ever pushed back on this practice, he keeps doing it. That is the reason why I wonder if I should formally address the issue of dumping teaching assignments onto the graduate students.

Most likely something fell through at the last minute and they had to find coverage. It could have been handled better (i.e. asking rather than just telling, explaining the situation), but it does happen that a class might suddenly need to be reassigned much closer to the start of the semester than normal.

(Adjunct professors often get last-minute teaching assignments, and last-minute cancellations.)

You can certainly ask them if they can reimburse you for the cost of the textbook shipped to you at home. I've had my department reimburse me for expensive overnight shipping for stuff I needed for prep when they assigned a class to me at the last minute (a week or two before classes started, in a subject I barely knew. That was fun.) You can also ask if, given the late notice, they can help you out with materials and lesson plans from the last person who taught it.


Letter of recommendation from a senior lecturer Is it OK to have a letter of recommendation from a senior lecturer rather than from a full professor? The lecturer knows me well (I took two of his classes and I'm TA'ing for him) and he really likes me. Unfortunately he is not involved in research, but I should have two other letters from research profs.

A clarification for what you need a letter would help. But, any letter that highlight academic skills should be useful. It will show your capacity to plan and carry out work so regardless of whether it is research or teaching you should get a leter. And, in each case the person most qualified to provide the letter should write it.

Providing letters that describe traits that are not sought after in an application will of course not be optimal (probably not detreimental, however). You therefore need to chose your authors of letters to match the skills requested for your application purpose.


How many papers should a PhD student in math try to publish before graduating? I am wondering how many papers does an average academia-bound PhD student in math try to get published? I want to eventually work in a research-oriented university rather than a teaching-oriented university. Obviously the more good mathematics one gets published the better, but what would be average for someone who goes on to work as a professor at a research university?

I am particularly interested in the field of combinatorics.

I agree entirely with the answers of Mark and Brian.  Since my name has been uttered three times and I've been summoned here already, let me add a few nuances.

1) Asking for a number is certainly the wrong question.  What you want to show as a graduating PhD student seeking an academic career is substantial results and the promise of more (and better) such results to come.  Multiplicity is not the point at this stage of the game.  Better one very good result than five pretty good ones.

2) Zero is a very interesting number nowadays.  It corresponds both to people who have not done any publishable work (note to academics in STEM fields other than mathematics: the standards for publication in a non-predatory math journal are quite high; the most common number of publications for a PhD in mathematics is certainly zero, and many PhDs are awarded for theses which could only be publishable with a significant amount of additional work which the PhD candidate is almost certainly not going to do) and future stars at elite places who do not need to show their partial work because their superstar advisors will tell the story for them.  So zero publications is very common...but it's most commonly bad.

3) Publication quotas have been rising dramatically in mathematics, even in the last dozen years.  I wrote elsewhere that I got my PhD in 2003, my first publication was in 2005, and I did well on the tenure-track job market in 2006 with five accepted papers.  Well, it's true....but that story is so 12 years ago.  Most postdocs we have hired at UGA in recent years have had some accepted papers or at least an arxiv preprint that the interested parties can look at and convince themselves is going to be accepted.  Also at UGA we have numerous, highly systematized opportunities for graduate research, which results in a substantial number of publications co/authored by graduate students.  We also give 2-3 graduate research awards per year, and these awards are usually given for preprints or publications, not just "promising thesis work".  All three of my graduated / soon to graduate students have had arxiv preprints or publications by the time they went on the job market; two out of the three had more than one.  In the limit, Princeton students will get five years of postdocs and be able to release their Annals paper while they're on the tenure track, and everyone else who's serious will have some tangible product upon graduation.  Well, obviously that's an exaggeration, but there's some truth to it.

4) It is true that numbers of publications are sensitive to the subfield.  They're sensitive to a lot of other things as well -- e.g. the length and quality of the publications -- but if we want to sling generalities: applied math people publish way more than pure math people (and they cite each other with enough frequency to make the stereotypical pure mathematician want to roll her eyes every time she hears "impact factor"); they may even publish some of their good papers in conferences, which is almost unheard of in pure math.  In pure math, combinatorics is one of the highest publishing fields, and the papers tend to be shorter (and often lighter, but even a weighty breakthrough paper is probably going to be short compared to other fields).  Algebra and number theory publish a bit more than average, generally.  Analysis is a broad field and seems roughly in the middle.  Geometry depends sensitively on the subfield: discrete geometers publish a lot; differential geometers less; algebraic geometers really less.  Topologists seem to publish very few papers.  Well, it was fun to play but I wouldn't take any of that very seriously (though argue if you want, that's part of the fun).


Should I put an ongoing research position that I recently started on my resume? I started doing part time undergraduate research under a professor last week. I have a general understanding of what I'm working on, but I do not have an explicitly-defined project (rather, week-to-week my work will be decided based on the previous week's progress and what work I can reasonably do).

Today is the start of my school's application process for co-op. I would like to put this position as ongoing employment experience on my resume, but I am not sure how much I should put on there.

I am hesitant to ask the professor I'm working with because I'm only a week in and I don't want to unintentionally make him think that I'm just doing this to pad my resume.

It's up to you, but the guiding principle is "Anything on my resume is fair game for the interviewer". If you've worked long enough to be able to talk for a couple minutes about what you do there and what you've learned so far, then go ahead and put it down. If you wouldn't feel comfortable talking about it, leave it out.

Resumes do not need to have a complete breakdown of every job position you ever had; you're highlighting your strengths to get the recruiter/manager/professor to notice you, and ask you questions on the interview. The resume is mostly only good to get you to the interview, so again, only include it if it something you can talk about comfortably. Good luck!


Ph.D. admission with funding from current employer My employer is considering contracting part of a research project to a university and I'm currently the project leader. I found that I might use this opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. degree and talked to the management of my company. They agreed for me to do a Ph.D. using this funding (I will still have to commit other affairs in my current company but that will only be part-time). We also found a professor willing to supervise me provided that the funding will be available from my employer

So my question is, would the admission committee consider this approach problematic? As I'm the representative of the industry funding provider of my Ph.D. research, if I'm admitted to the program. Also, just to be selfish, how do I gently let the department know that I will not (at least within my influence for this particular project) fund other student for this project?

Two things came to my mind:

Self-Finance and End Results: First thing first, broadcasting to a department that you have the money and you need a PhD position might not be a good idea. This is because just spending the money does not give you the PhD at the end. You need a good supervisor and research group to do the research. Throwing money at situation works in business, and might work in academia in other situations (e.g., buying equipment); however for your own PhD I would suggest to carefully pick and choose. You might spend the money and not getting the results at the end.
Guidance from supervisor: Your target is to do a PhD (with a one supervisor or two) with your company's funding. There are some issues here, for example, who is actually doing your implementation work (e.g., your coding if you are in a computing field) if you have a team behind you? I would suggest to find an academic first, and talk to him/her about this situation. Also, this way you don't go under the university's pressure and some non academic management to throw money at the research, because this will be hopefully sorted and guided by your supervisor(s).


Is it ethical to apply to a scholarship sponsored by my employer? I am a masters student in Computer Science. I also work for a software development company which happens to sponsor a scholarship that I want to apply to.

I was concerned about the ethical aspect of applying to this scholarship, I contacted the communications department via e-mail and asked if it is illegal and/or unethical to apply. Response said that company employees can apply, which means, I can apply. The answer did not state anything about the second part of my question - would it be unethical?

I also know that the CEO of my company will be the head of sponsorship committee.

Should I just ignore this weird circumstance and write my motivation letter as if there was no connection between my employer and the scholarship? Or should I not even apply?

Edit: My initial question had 2 parts so I split it into separate questions. The other question, How would applying for a scholarship sponsored by employer affect my employer's perception of me?, is posted on Workplace.SE. It is a different question and I expect an answer from a different angle to it.

"I contacted the communications department via e-mail and asked if it is illegal and/or unethical to apply. Response said that company employees can apply, which means, I can apply."

I think that answers the ethics about it as well. As long as you are open about the fact that you are a company employee, there is no scope for you to violate any ethics. Any possible violation (which I don't think there are any) would be in the company's hands.

Think about this - why is the company offering a scholarship? They probably want the recipient to graduate and then work for the company. Thus by attracting top students to apply for an attractive scholarship, they gain a highly skilled and motivated employee. Sure, the fact that you already work for them might give you an advantage in the application process. But this is a private company giving out privately earned funding. They should be able to pay whomever they choose, for whatever reason.

In the end, there is really little difference between this, and an internal hire.


Rejecting a PhD offer after giving promise to the supervisor to work with him When I went for my very first PhD interview by a potential supervisor, I hadn't applied for other universities. I promised that supervisor that I would definitely work under his supervisor if I was given an opportunity. He told me that he had a bad experience of a student replacing him with another supervisor after 1 yr of phd course.  So he repeatedly ensured that I would work with him. But now
I have been offered a place there. Before getting the offer, I applied for two better universities and I have been waiting for the results of these two uni and I need to decide whether to accept or reject the offer by the first uni before I have known the results of the other two.

Please advise me what I should do. Is it unethical if I turn down the offer after giving such a promise? I know it is risky to wait for the other results if I will be rejected in other two.

You should have been cautious with your word, especially since your prospective supervisor told you about prior disappointment. Being noncommittal would have been more unpleasant, but more honest and giving you more leeway.

On the other hand, the supervisor might have put you under pressure  and you caved (depending when s/he told you the story with the other student).

I do not see a "good" outcome unless you are lucky to get turned down immediately, so that you immediately know to go for your original offer. That not being the case, the other outcomes are bad, even dire (waiting for response, being rejected, the superviser then realising that s/he was only a substitute).

I do not know you, but my hypothesis would be that you were inexperienced; but the damage is done. So, all that I can recommend is that you should consider whether, ignoring for a moment the quality of the university (which is the reason you want to leave), you would like to work with that supervisor and on the topics s/he represents, all other aspects of the positions on offer being equivalent. Reflecting on that may help you make up your mind.


What to do when a professor gives an undeserved D to a PhD Student? If a professor gives a D for a student "just because", what can the student do?
In previous classes, this student was called ridiculous in the front of all the others, and this professor was always saying bad things about her.
Knowing that a D is a shameful, cut-off  (one can lose their funding) kind of grade, the professor just gave it to the student.

What should one do in this case? It is like someone has the power to crash one's career. It is wrong on every possible level.

Please, help.
Academia should have moral standards, and things like this should never occur.

It happened with my partner this morning. She is in shock. She is so brilliant and hardworking. She may have had her career ended today.

P.s: Sorry for the mistakes. I wrote it blindly.

I would advise her to discuss this with her advisor. Do not push the "unethical behavior" idea. Instead, focus on two points:

She does not understand the reasons for the D.
She is concerned about the consequences for her funding etc.

All the better if the advisor is close to the professor who gave the D. It makes the advisor a better potential advocate. No professor likes to have a PhD student fail - it makes them look bad.


Someone plagiarised my entire paper. What should I do now? I am a high school student who published some academic. Today, I saw a paper which looked quite similar to a paper that I published back in May. I was shocked to notice that the author of that paper had plagiarised my entire paper verbatim. He went as far as saying that his results were novel and found out all by him and his co-author.

Now, this paper was published in a junk journal. I am worried because, although I do not want to pursue a career in academia, these papers mean a lot to me as I have worked so hard on them. Moreover, I believe that they can play a major role in securing me admissions at graduate college in the years to come.

I have already notified the journal but I doubt that I will get a reply. Could you please let me know the further steps to be taken too?

Thank you for your time.

I am a high school student who has worked on multiple (well, 4 to be
  exact) pure math and CS papers. All of them deal with fairly
  significant problems, so some of them have been published by now too.

Wow. That's awesome!

  Today, I saw a paper which looked quite similar to a paper that I
  published back in May. I was shocked to notice that the author of that
  paper had plagiarised my entire paper verbatim. [...] I am worried because [...] these papers
  mean a lot to me as I have worked so hard on them.

Yes, of course. Trust me, there is no one who has ever written a serious paper who isn't just as emotionally invested in it as you are in your own papers, so we understand. I personally discovered only a few weeks ago that some loser plagiarized some of my work and submitted it as his own (not to a journal but as a final project for a university class, fortunately), so I know quite what an annoying and hurtful feeling it is, even though in my particular case this action does not threaten me in any way.

  I have already notified the journal but I doubt that I will get a
  reply. Could you please let me know the further steps to be taken too?

I agree with your assessment. Junk journals, like the people who publish in them, have no ethics, they are predatory entities usually based in corrupt and lawless countries. The "editor" is most likely a nephew of someone at the criminal or semi-legal enterprise that set up this journal.

As for what you should do, there aren't that many options that do not involve legal action of some sort. Basically, you should try to discredit the journal and the plagiarist (who are both complicit in this misconduct), and shame them into removing the plagiarized paper from the web, by contacting:

The department chair and other administrators (dean, ethics committee, ombudsperson) at the plagiarist's institution. Note that chances are this institution may itself be a very low-quality, poorly ranked and possibly corrupt institution in a less-than-developed country, so it is just as uncertain that your complaint will lead somewhere as in the case of complaining to the journal; but regardless, it certainly won't hurt to try.
Any journal indexing service or other similar entity that gives credibility to academic journals by including them on lists it compiles, and may not be aware of the scamminess of the journal in question. Here is an example of such a service that I found through Google (which also has a list of excluded journals that apparently it considers disreputable). I do not use such services myself so do not know which ones are important/credible and which ones aren't; perhaps others can comment on this.
Any news media in the country where the journal and/or plagiarist are based who may be interested in this story of academic fraud.
Western bloggers or journalists who are interested in dishonesty and fraud in academia. Again, I'm far from an expert on this so don't have too many specific suggestions, but Retraction Watch is a name that gets thrown around a lot.

At the end of the day, if all of those methods fail, your last resort would be legal action, since the journal and plagiarist author are committing an infringement of your copyright. Even if they are in far away countries, they are probably within the reach of the law, but it would likely be a long and costly battle, and I think you are right to want to avoid taking that route. Good luck, and keep up the good work! I'm sorry you are getting to experience the nasty part of academia at such an early stage before getting a chance to see all the good parts. I am sure this experience will not be representative and will be followed by many more positive ones.


Questions regarding PhD in Linguistics or Applied Linguistics at US universities I have a few questions regarding admission into a PhD program in Applied Linguistics or Linguistics at US universities. I could not find any other valuable online sources regarding Linguistics for the answers I seek. Let me start with my qualification. I am an international student with a Masters in English Linguistics and Literature with a percentage of 65.9. Although it's the best language university in my country but it is not that famous anywhere else. My grade average was B with no A or C in any of the individual modules. We don't have GPA system for language studies.

This percentage is regarded with high value in my country and I was one of the top four in my class. However, there is no set grading scale used by the examiners in my country and it is very rare, in fact, almost impossible to score above 70% in any language related field. And that is the case for the most perfect performance.

My Bachelor's scores are mediocre (59.9%). I was disappointed in myself for not being able to get admission into a medical school (marginally) like the rest of my siblings and ending up doing Bachelors in law and English Literature was a major shock for my planned future career (I had been a brilliant student before). I, however, slowly developed interest in Linguistics and did well in Masters.

My first question is, as most good Universities require a GPA of 3 or above with successful candidates usually having more than 3.6, what are my chances of admission? How can I go about explaining my situation as the % of students pursuing Linguistics doctorate at US from my country is very low. Are my scores too horrible?
My only research was Masters thesis in a literature related field, titled, 'Autobiographical element in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude"' of almost 40,000 words. Will it hinder my chance for admission into Linguistics?
What else can I do to improve my application and up my chances specifically for Linguistics? How should I lay out my SOP? My ultimate preference would be Berkeley, UCLA and MIT. Should I even think about these universities with such scores?

Any help would be highly appreciated.

As an international candidate you need to think about what your scores mean. I think percentile rank, as opposed to GPA or raw percentage is what is important. In the US a 65.9 would be very bad and I would guess that in the US 75% of the students have a GPA of 3.0 or above and 10% have a GPA of 3.6 or above. In many European countries a 59.9 would be a borderline 2:1 and put you in the 50th percentile.

It sounds like you think your Masters work would be in the top 10%. That is very good. With a little help (both in your letter and by your recommendation writers) schools will figure this out.

One solid piece of previous research is really all that is need to get into a PhD program. 40,000 words is huge. You may want to work on shortening it so you can present it as a paper and send it as a writing sample if English is not your first language.


Should I do handover of tools and methodologies I have developed? In some months my contract at a research university will end.
During my employment I have developed tools and methodologies that are of interest to the research group.
At present, I am the only person in that group that has in-depth knowledge on several topics.
Nonetheless, my employment will likely not continue.
My priorities are to finish up research papers, so that I can apply elsewhere.
I expect to be asked to hand over the knowledge that I developed.

Now my question: To what extent should I cooperate?
One the one hand, cooperation seems like the decent thing to do.
I am dependent on my employer's recommendations, and do not want to burn bridges.

On the other hand, I would abolish my employer's need for me, which feels like self-sabotage.

I have offered on several occasions in the past to hand over that knowledge and to collaborate.
Now, frankly, my highest priority is to get output, and not train somebody (or multiple people).

Yes, I'm afraid you do need to hand over all work product that you created while employed. You were part of a team and if you try to subvert the team by withholding things that arise from your employment on the team you are trying to blackmail them into keeping you employed. I smell a lawsuit here.

But you should cooperate fully just as a way to boost your own future career. How do you want to be spoken of in this field? Do you hope that people will want to collaborate with you in the future? What value will your tools have if no one wants to come near you in the future.

And without you or your contribution, the team will find someone who can provide an equivalent service. You may feel indispensable, but you are not.

Sorry to be so harsh.


Acknowledgements section of master's thesis Besides thanking my thesis advisor, can I acknowledge other professors who have guided me along the way during my master's program or is the acknowledgements section really only for thanking the advisor?

You might want to peek at a few other examples to make sure there's no institutional norms, but you can often acknowledge whoever you want, and indeed its a good place to acknowledge more personal contributions.

For example, in mine I acknowledge:

My advisor
The other members of my committee
Some colleagues who provided data
A family member who used to be a member of a profession who I asked a few questions about
Several fellow students
My funding sources
StackOverflow and CrossValidated
My favorite purveyor of caffeine.


Splitting publication fees among coauthors What are accepted ways of splitting publication fees among coauthors, when authors are from different research groups and potentially even different institutions? Especially with open access publication, the fees tend to come out at a substantial amount.

In general, the corresponding author seems to be responsible to the journal for the payment of the fee. I wonder what would be commonly acceptable agreements with coauthors to split such fees?

There is already a general question on splitting collaboration costs here, but the current answer does not apply to publication fees, and I am really interested in this specific case.

I think your question is a little backwards: All ways of splitting the publication fees are acceptable. You might run into some problems with your grant officer about transferring money around, but in the end they will get over it.

The more important question in my opinion is: What behaviour is acceptable from you and your co-authors. I believe the answer is to be nice since these are your co-authors after all. I wouldn't be too put off if a co-author refused to contribute to open access fees or if I was asked to contribute 1/N of the fees for an N author paper where I was a tertiary author and currently under-funded.


How should I ask what degree abbreviations an academic wants to come after their name? I am writing a conference presentation application form, and so far presenters must fill in the blanks as follows:

Name
Title (Mr, Ms, Dr, Prof, etc.)
Position
Organisation

I also want to know what degree abbreviations the presenters would like added after their name, e.g. Dr. John Doe, PhD, MSc.

What label should I give the blank that they must fill in?

Degrees awarded?
Degrees associated with name?
Highest degree obtained?
Degree abbreviations that you would like to be placed after your name? (too long!)

[Expanding @Thomas's comment into an answer, so the question may be resolved]

The best way to figure out how a person would like their name listed is to simply ask them directly, as opposed to attempting to infer it from their biographical information.

Thus, when you are putting together the program, name tags, etc. let the form have a blank saying something like:

  Name, as you would like it to appear in the official conference program

Note that sometimes people want something different on their badge and on official listings, so it's worth having two blanks if you are asking about badges as well.


How do CS graduate school admissions weigh an unrelated master? I am a Computer Science graduate living at a developing country and I have two options to choose,

Option I:
Pursue CS masters at a reputable, but not leading, national university with a limited alumni, a few of whom in the past has CS Ph.D. admissions from top 40 US graduate schools.

Option II:
A very prestigious scholarship provides me an opportunity to pursue a one year master's in sociology at a well known UK university. Then I can still continue with Option I. This will have a positive impact on my career at work too.

My final goal is getting a CS Ph.D. from a US university, but option II allures me. Will Option II have a negative effect on my future career from the perspective of an CS admission committee member ? Is it viewed as a total waste of time ?

If your final goal is to have a CS Ph.D., getting a masters in sociology first will in no way help you reach that goal.  Doing option II may be viewed as a "waste of time" by CS admissions committees, though it probably won't preclude you from getting into a masters program afterwards.  I'm guessing the net effect will be slightly negative from the point of view of a CS admissions committee.

However, it doesn't mean you shouldn't do option II, especially if you think you'll enjoy it.  You might even find your career plans changing after getting a masters in sociology.


How deal with an innovation from outside academia I am self-educated software developer, and I believe I stumbled across something that is both novel and useful. I'm not talking anything large or groundbreaking, but still novel and potentially useful to others. I believe it may be suitable for publication.

The find in itself is related to a publication from 1997, which continues to be somewhat frequently cited (about 30 times per year).

I have found a journal I believe is a very good fit for the material.

I have no access to anyone who has experience in publishing papers or academia in the field. That leaves me with the following stumbling blocks I have to find out on my own:

I lack the overview of the current research in the field. It's nice and good an outsider thinks they have an innovation, but the work may be not novel at all.
Even if it is novel, what I regard as a small but nevertheless interesting and useful find may be regarded as trivial and not publishable by academia.
Even if it wouldn't be, and would be suitable for a paper, without any experience in writing papers, I will likely make all beginners errors, and have nobody to proofread the paper.

What, if anything, can I do to overcome these hurdles?

I would recommend e-mailing the authors of the original paper. (In general contact information for academics can be very easily found via googling.) Briefly explain your discovery and pose your questions.

In general, such e-mails are quite welcome in academia. There is some possibility you might get no response, but I think it is likely that you will get a polite response, and that the authors will be encouraging and helpful if your work is worth publishing.

If you don't want to do much of the grunt work yourself, you may be able to coauthor the paper with the authors and/or others whom the authors might put you in touch with. (But don't propose this until you get an initial positive response.)

Good luck!


Harvard VS APA: the differences? How about mixing styles for a better clarity? For a while, I thought that I've been using an APA version of 'Harvard style' but it turned out that these 2 styles are totally different. What are the exact differences and, generally speaking, is mixing between styles a bad practice? (If the intention is for more clarity and the university doesn't ask for a specific style).

Even if your current university and situation do not call for using a specific publication style, I would strongly recommend against mixing two or more styles, even if they are not much different. The reason is pretty clear: consistency. For the sake of readers of your publications as well as for the sake of your own sanity. Following a single style will make your life easier - if you can choose, just pick the one you feel more comfortable with or the one popular, or, perhaps, a standard de facto, in your field (the latter is IMHO much more important - again, that "for the sake of readers" argument).


Graduate school that does not require a statement of purpose I came across 3~4 graduate programs in the United States that do not require a statement of purpose, just transcript, resume, test scores & reference. What does this mean? Just want to make sure before I email the program coordinator about this. Thank you!

Two groups of departments often do not request SoP:

The departments, within which the diversity of the research among the corresponding faculty members are such noticeable that the applicants would be admitted to the program based on the merit, firstly. Then, they would have sufficient time to communicate with the faculty members and choose their desired research track.
The departments, within which the interview with applicants is routine before any offer of admission. So, one might conclude that the coherency in view of the research interests with the faculty members will be investigated within the interview.


High impact journals GIS and Remote Sensing I am searching for Journals in the area of GIS and Remote Sensing in agriculture and water management, with a high impact factor. It is important that these journals pay authors for their articles ... thanks in advance if you can share even one journal's link.

I agree with the comments above—the idea of journals paying authors for articles guarantees that you will not have a high-impact journal. A trade publication might pay an author, but a reputable journal should not.

On the other hand, there are very likely good journals which do not require authors to pay "page charges" to get the article published. But you'll look in vain if you want high-quality and profit!


Combining mathematics and physiology? I am currently studying Mathematics as a undergraduate, but I'm also very interested in Physiology. I was also recently accepted to an Applied Mathematics master's program.

Is there a field of research in physiology/pharmacology that admits, or even encourages mathematicians with a decent knowledge of physiology?

I've found that there are a few undergraduate math modules named "Mathematical physiology/biology"; this is sort of the reason for this question. There are also books upon books on the field of mathematical physiology, which makes sense as in many cases it seems like rates of change are important (glycolysis, etc).

This seems like a radical change in subject, but perhaps someone who has been through the rigor can shine light on this.

Typically, you will be better off studying mathematics with additional knowledge in X rather than a studying X with additional mathematics. Why? Because you can always enter X as a mathematician, they will welcome you with that. At least for academic jobs.

Talking about mathematical biology: it is mostly mathematicians who do biology rather than the other way around. Granted, you will also find physicists and computer scientists there.

A friend of mine claimed that the members of mathematical biology groups get their biology from Wikipedia and then apply their mathematics to it, most of which is settled in analysis of PDE and numerical analysis. He certainly exaggerated a bit, but there is truth in that statement.

Hence my recommendation: if these topic interest you, then pick a math graduate school that feature collaboration with math biology/physiology.


Questions to speaker per Smartphone in University lectures I was at the MIT-Vienna-Conference and they had a pretty nice App-System (Superevent), where Questions to the Speaker could be asked per the Superevent-app, upvoted from others and finally answered by the speaker, all without hand-raising, etc.

I now would like to try to implement that sort of "Guerilla" in my University for Lectures, since the Professors will never agree to use something like this in the near future. Therefore i also don´t have the money to buy a Conference App. Most of them are restricted to 25-75 people in the free plan, but we normally have 150-200 people sitting in a lecture.

So here´s my question: Does anybody know of free solutions of this?

My primal need is: Question to speaker-App for Android and iOS

My wish would be: An own "Help-area" for each lecture, possibility to provide resource-links, up and downvote(Evaluation) of lecture.

I could get my hand around some money by asking the student committee, but most of the conference apps work on a plan per conference, which would be way to expensive for all the lectures in my study.

This free guide - the Event App Bible - lists lots of conference/event apps. I believe there are a mixture of free and paid-for systems included. You should look at the "Audience Response Systems" to id apps that offer this type of functionality, and cross reference that against the pricing table. Hopefully you can find something that works for you. (The guide comes from the Event Manager Blog and was updated recently (2015))


Can I be admitted into a PhD program with non-thesis MS degree? If I do a non-thesis MS program in statistics, will I be eligible for an admission in to a PhD program in Statistics later in my life? The MS program I am looking into is a non-thesis program but I still have to complete a research project requirement (which involves oral presentation as well as some form of a written report) towards the end of the program...I am still not sure if it can lead to a PhD program though.

Thanks!

It depends on the university. Some Ph.D. programs have extra requirements for students who did not complete a thesis (or they will not accept these students). Others are fine with a 'capstone/directed project' which has elements of a thesis. Others may simply ask that students who did not complete a thesis take the GRE for admission into the Ph.D. program while not requiring this for students who did complete a thesis (I attend an R1 university in the US and this is the case here).

So the answer is yes, but it depends on the university.


Optimal configuration of a research group In most of the European Universities I know, research groups are created from the equivalent of Assistant Professors and the Principal Investigator is voted in some sort of election, where there are elections every 2/4 years. In groups with such profile I have usually seen that scientific output is low and that most of these members are not really motivated to do research and are only affiliated to these groups for CV and promotion purposes. But this is of course my personal experience, I do not state this is always like this. From the other side I know other groups that are created from scratch from somebody with a very good CV, who has a vision and ambition, and who gets all research group members not from Department colleagues but from funding he/she attracts.  All group research lines are derived from her/his experience and CV and scientific output in this case and according to my experience, tends to be high. Based on your personal experience or factual evidences, what is the most optimal configuration for a new research group, the former or the latter or do you think there are other different configurations?

I assume you are basing this on European model, so in my experience the groups based around some common interests are the strongest one because they have a vision that can lead group. Usually these are friends or couples, that succeed to attract funding making multidisciplinary team. In such a team everyone knows each roles and they keep each other back by making sure people are represented in publications in terms of authorship equally. I would suggest you to take a look on Research Gate lab profiles where you can see how members of particular lab are connected and what grants or projects they menage. In my opinion it is the best way to discover dynamic of a group and internal structure. Second things are Center of Excellences, they are now because of HORISONT2020 becoming more popular and are highly hierarchical. However primordial idea for their creation was done trough application of group or consortium of reaserchers and scientist, in there you can observe same things as in your question, however structure is maintained highly hierarchical. In my opinion best way to organise research group is around "friends and family" because you need to trust people in order to follow through with your agenda. I'm not saying that groups that are based around one person are bad, but due to increasing emphasis in academia on teaching, management and bureaucracy, alone PI in current European funding scheme structure can not survive.


Why are (university-) teachers also examiners at the same time? For most university classes I have come across, the professor teaching the class is also responsible for making (and usually grading) the exam, or holding an oral exam. As far as I can tell this is true in most (at least Western) countries.

There are a few exceptions, e.g. some (but certainly not all) universities do not allow the supervisor to be part of the examining committee during a PhD-defense, and many high school educations have a centralised exam at some point.

Does combining "teaching" and "evaluating" in a single person not create a conflict of interest - and why is this so prevalent at universities?

EDIT:

As people were wondering which conflicts of interest I was referring to: all of them :)

I was mainly thinking about the fact that teachers are usually evaluated based on their performance, which is either measured through e.g. student pass rates and/or student evaluations. Both of these provide an incentive for the teacher to make the exam easy to pass, either by making an easy exam or by preparing students on very specific questions in a hard exam.

But there are also arguments to be made that this system is not particularly good for the student-teacher relationship - I personally find it a lot easier to teach and motivate students when I am not evaluating them, because it has more of a "I am helping you to pass the exam", and less of an "learn this or I will fail you" atmosphere.

At least at the university level, I think the biggest issue is practicality: who is going to write and grade the exams, if not the professor in charge of the course?

I think this is especially true in things like humanities courses, where the content is so often individualized according to the professor's interests and preferences. (The same thing also happens in STEM courses, but there's often much less freedom in what can be covered, often for "continuity" within a larger degree program.)

For example, say I'm teaching a French literature course with a specific set of goals (at least in my mind). How much information do I have to communicate to someone else, so that this other individual can write an exam that fairly assesses what the students have actually studied, as opposed to what the examiner thinks they should have studied?


Applying to PhD programs whose research topics mismatch my experience I am applying to PhD program that matches the theme of my research and industrial experience. As most of field of studies, there are several topics under the general theme and my experiences are just one of them.

If PhD application is all about the relevance between targeted research group and applicant's experience, how to stand out if I am trying to apply to research groups whose ongoing projects (or done ones) are not closely related to my experience (though they might belong to a common general theme)?

To be more specific, let's say my research experience was building a pioneering application built upon several basic tasks as building blocks. On the other hand, the funded projects and main topics of the targeted research groups are focused on improving the basic tasks (efficacy, for example).

It can be an advantage. Many people are aware of the value of interdisciplinary research. Your different background knowledge can bring new views into their field. That is a good card to play.


Is there a full-time job with variety and academic rigor but also 2+ months annual vacation? (don't care if vacation is unpaid) I've had one full time job in my life. It was a teaching job and I got about 2.5 weeks of annual vacation. I had a great time my first year, learned a lot, and I think I improved quite a bit as a teacher. I really liked my students as well.

But going from the second year into the third, I found the meagre amount of annual leave I got to be more and more insufficient. As a student, I had always been able to feel refreshed at the start of each school year because I got a 8 week break in the summer. I'm good at saving money, and so I desperately wanted to be able to choose to take unpaid vacation time without losing my job.

My understanding is that it's easier to get a job with said schedule flexibility at the K-12 level than at the university level. However, I'd rather teach university undergrads. The class I really liked teaching at my old school was the research class where the students had just started developing more advanced critical thinking and academic research skills.

I know a lot of university professors/lecturers must do a lot of research over all the semester breaks to keep their jobs for the next academic year, and that's not really what I want.

So I'm wondering if anyone has a uni job (FT, with some kind of health insurance) where you can choose to take a "summer vacation" (or winter one, whatever), and if so, what country you're in and how you got the job...?

I have a M.A. in Media Research/Cultural Studies and I'm getting another M.A. in Linguistics/TESL.

I'm questioning the received wisdom of "get as high a salary as you can so you can be comfortable when you retire or maybe retire early" because I'm only 30 and my health is already not great, so sometimes I wonder if I'll even make it to 65.

(I know some people will think I'm a lazy, horrible teacher for caring about vacation as much as I do, but I've done that self-flagellation for the previous two years and life is too short for any more of that.)

There are some universities and colleges in the US that require very little research of faculty and stress teaching above all else. In such a place, you have no research commitment, of course, but you probably still need to find the time to develop new courses and gather and create material for them. If, in your field, "taking time off" means things like creating new courses by visiting museums, and such then you can combine work and leisure. But it is rare in education at any level in the US to have no expectations for 2-3 months per year.

There is more to "teaching" than teaching, even when there is no formal research requirement. But, most places, even those with quite modest reputations do require research and some publication, even if not at the level of R1 universities.

Think of an academic position as full time. Actually, think of it as 24/7/52. Even when you aren't actively engaged in teaching/creating you need to be thinking about what comes next. Even something as seemingly simple as "keeping up with your field" can be a fairly major undertaking in some disciplines.

Also, you may have a bit of a misunderstanding. Most academics (other than adjuncts) don't work on yearly contracts. The commitment is usually a bit longer. A person on the tenure track can usually expect a three or four year contract initially with a review at the end of it and a final review in the seventh year. The "annual contract" isn't about continuation, in most places, but about salary and, when necessary, changing expectations. Of course, you can be fired for egregious misbehavior, even with a contract.

Finally, I'll note that some top universities in the US (Duke, Stanford, ...) have a special category of Teaching Faculty, whose expectations are more in teaching with somewhat lower research expectations. But lower doesn't mean less, it means, in some cases, more pedagogically focused than strict theory of the discipline. 24/7/52.


Protections for writers of recommend letters I was reading online some of the legal troubles in the US that can occur to recommend letter writers.  I imagine that many of us are familiar with (at least some of the) FERPA regulations.  We must obtain (in writing) a signed permission to use grades, and (at least according to one place I found) we are also required to inform the letter receiver not to convey that information to a third party without written consent.
At many receiving institutions, during the submission process there is a (sometimes large) legal disclaimer.  At some institutions, this includes something to the effect of "Law prevents us from keeping your letter confidential.  We will protect your identity, unless a court says we cannot.  etc..."
Some employers keep a permanent file containing the recommend letters.  As we all know, details over time become fuzzy, and so this seems to leave a letter writer open to litigation if details in the letter are disputed (by either a disgruntled employer or the one we write the letter for).
What protections exist for those who write recommend letters?  In particular, can letter writers give a time limit to how long an employer may keep a letter?  Apparently, in countries outside the US, letters of recommend are very short, to avoid legal issues.

On mathjobs.org letter writers can give an expiration date for their letters.
I have no idea what would happen if a disgruntled applicant took some sort of legal action to obtain a copy of those letters.
To the best of my understanding (I'm not a lawyer, etc.), in the U.S., in academic settings, there are no genuine protections for letter-writers. Rather, if/when everyone behaves civilly, there's simply no issue.
This is why I try to demur when asked to write letters in situations that make me uneasy, especially when I feel compelled to say "I'm sorry, I'm not confident that I can write you a helpful letter. Perhaps someone else can do better."


Some questions about the time for a PhD program in the USA? I'm an undergrad who plans on applying to PhD programs in an EECS area very soon. I have some questions about the time it takes for a PhD. 5-6 years seems like a very long time to do a PhD. My question is: why does it take that long? I thought that you just needed to publish a sufficient amount of new research.

In that case, why would it be very hard to finish in about 3 years? I've known a chunk of undergrads applying to grad school with 1-3 publications in good journals acquired by working several months over the summer or doing part time work in a lab (me included co first authoring from a summer research), so I don't understand why finishing in 3 years is so rare (according to what is said online). Also, since GPA doesn't matter at all for grad school, I would think a PhD student could put in minimal effort for some C's and pass the class, and if they have a stipend, they wouldn't need to teach.

I looked at a PhD thesis from a good university, and it only has about three papers in it. Furthermore, the PhD candidate himself wasn't sole author so I can assume he had plenty of help.

Also, I'm just curious, if you happen by luck to stumble on something groundbreaking during your first month there, is it possible to finish your PhD in less than a year?

The requirements for a doctorate in the US vary both by state and by institution, but you seem a bit misinformed as to the general process. Some institutions have required courses and you can be asked to leave if you don't do very well. A C in a doctoral level grad course is like a D- or F in an undergrad course. It is not acceptable. One or two out of the set might be ok but more and you will not be invited to continue as you don't show sufficient seriousness. While the GPA itself may not be too important, you need to demonstrate that seriousness.

Even if there aren't specific required courses (which are there to assure you have knowledge of the breadth of the field, primarily), you will certainly be required to pass Qualifying Examinations. There is usually a set of these (maybe three or four) and again they cover breadth, primarily, but at an advanced level. They are normally hours long. Fail any of these and you can (probably will), again, be asked to leave. The courses, required or not, prepare you for these exams. The exams are quite rigorous as are the prep courses. It is even possible to be asked, in an oral, a question on an unsolved problem, just to see how you attack it.

The "sufficient amount of new research" is required, also, to be of a fairly high quality and you will need to show in this research that you have delved quite deeply into some, usually small, area of the field. This normally requires spending time in seminars with a professor (and group) who specialize in that area. All of this takes some time. It isn't just a paper count, but something that the faculty considers significant.

It used to be regularly doable in about four years, but that has been extending for quite a while. Often this is partly due to the fact that students support themselves working in labs or teaching, which, again, takes time and adds to the total. If you are self funded and can devote yourself full time (60-80 hours per week) then you can shorten the time.

My doctorate had two requirements. Pass the qualifiers (both written and oral) and write an acceptable thesis. I don't think I knew anyone who did it in four and this was many years ago. No professor will want anything to do with you unless you show seriousness of purpose. Poor grades and low expectations won't get you there. It is quite a bit more than putting in minimal effort and checking a few boxes.

On the other hand, it can be exhilarating to be associated with a community of scholars, both helping and being helped by smart and dedicated people.

Every once in a while an Einstein or Feynman comes along and if they are lucky and recognized early, may have a shorter path. But likely not. Seriousness of purpose.


What steps to find a good PhD Let's say I want to embark on a PhD in Europe, but I still have to find good positions to apply for. What steps do you recommend me to follow to narrow down the possibilities? What steps do you recommend to select some good options?

Should I think first a viable project, or should I stay flexible? Should I just look online for some position in the research fields I like most, or should I maybe focus my attention on professors, institutes, or should I even select the country first? Should I rely on the contacts of my bachelor and master universities professors, or should I try by my own means?

Note for moderators: this should not be considered a shopping question, as I'm not asking for a tip about an individual program or university, this community post shows quite clearly that that policy doesn't apply to this question.

Every country in Europe is different when it comes to PhDs. What exist at most is the recognition of a PhD delivered in one European country as nearly equivalent to a PhD delivered in another.

France, Germany, Italy, Poland have more or less different notions of PhD and a huge lot of facilities delivering PhD (in France, be aware of our Grandes Écoles: some of them, like École Polytechnique or ENS, deliver PhDs). French CIFRE is pretty unique, even if of course you have near equivalent in other European countries.

I've got a French PhD in AI (in 1990). The formal title is Docteur de l'Université. Stricto sensu there is no PhD in France.

  Should I think first a viable project, or should I stay flexible? Should I just look online for some position in the research fields I like most, or should I maybe focus my attention on professors, institutes, or should I even select the country first? Should I rely on the contacts of my bachelor and master universities professors, or should I try by my own means?

A PhD is mostly a human adventure. Not all PhDs get a job in academia (after it). Not all PhD graduates are paid for their PhD. A good PhD depends upon the people you are doing it (more than the institutions you are doing it).

You forgot to explain the most important.

why do you want to start a PhD? In what scientific domain?

In France, rules are different for a PhD in philosophy of science (or in medieval history) and for a PhD in computer science: in practice, you are required to get funded in computer science, but not in philosophy of science. I guess the rules are also different in Italy or in Germany (even the formal title is different).

The german Doktoringenieur title has no exact equivalent in France. Of course you do find near-equivalent.

The European research funding programme like H2020 have hard time defining what approximately is an European PhD. In practice they are funding many PhDs.

My opinion is that you should look for PhD advisors (so persons and their scientific work and reputation, not institutions).


How to explain past PhD withdrawal to employers/potential supervisors? I am currently working in education but also looking for job prospects in more technical/mathematical fields. I signed up to a STEM job site and I am not sure how to give a good response to the question "Could you tell me about the circumstances behind you exiting your PhD?"

Basically, I quit a PhD 8 months after starting for the following reasons:

I hadn't fully developed the soft skills needed to be able to tackle one (e.g. time management, organisation, resilience) which resulted in slow progress.
I was struggling to manage myself in a lot of ways (e.g. money, food, mental health)
The area ended up being quite a bit out of my comfort zone (i.e. more pure mathematics compared to an applied mathematical background) and was chosen more based on fanciful ideologies rather than what I was traditionally good at, and it took me a long time to do things that my supervisor thought were straightforward.
I didn't have a break before starting my PhD and felt consistently burned out/depressed having gone straight into it after my Master's degree - not the best decision to make in hindsight.

I know the reasons in my head for dropping out of the PhD are sound, but I am struggling to come up with a way that explains what happened without potentially giving off an impression that I made a bad decision. I want to make a transition out of high school equivalent teaching (having been doing it for 2-3 years) into something more technical but would appreciate some guidance on how to answer the question I've mentioned above.

Furthermore, suppose I did find a niche of an area I was truly passionate about, or found a Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) which I felt could truly advance my career in some way (say, being able to access some very technical and well-paid STEM role). How would I explain to potential PhD supervisors that I already quit a PhD without them thinking of it as being too much of a red flag?

I wouldn't go into a lot of detail.  The person asking you this wants one single answer, and it should be something that puts you in a good light for the new opportunity and doesn't provoke hard follow-up questions.

If you want to go into the workplace, I would say "My previous program focused too much on theory without useful application and I really wanted something more applied.  I like to work on projects that have useful application in the real world."
Alternatively, if you want to be in industry, you can say that you realized you actually don't want to work in academia and your previous program was interested in keeping you in that realm, rather than preparing you for the workplace.
If you are pursuing more education, you may focus on differences between the field you quit and your new one.  Something like: "I realized I'm really much more passionate about computer science than I am about pure mathematics."
You should do nothing to mention the issue in anything that you give to everyone.  That's information to be conveyed in an interview, if at all.

It's a given that there were probably other things going on and your interviewer will assume there is more to it, but they are not your therapist and do not need to understand the whole situation.  Only give them what is sufficient and positive.
I was kicked out of a Ph.D. program at a very late stage because I simply was not performing well.  The main reason for my poor work was personal issues that are embarrassing and were my fault but were not directly related to my studies.  Later I re-applied to a program in the same field. When they asked why I dropped out I said that my advisor was travelling my whole last year and unable to supervise me well and that I had a compelling offer in industry. Both of those are true and were significant factors in my outcome. I didn't tell them I was also having personal problems at the time that negatively impacted my ability to focus on my work.
I got into the program and finished my Ph.D.  On the job market people again asked me why I did a few years at one school before finishing at another.  I said various things similar to the above but was never in a position where I really had to explain it.  I did some studies at one school, went into industry for a while, and then went back and finished at a different school.  That's as much as people know.  To this day my colleagues don't know what the deal was and have never had enough interest to find out.  That's the way it should be---professional conversations should be kept professional and private information rarely has a place in them.
I have seen people play the "I was young and immature" card and seen it work out, but it's a big risk.  My advice is to be honest with people, but don't undermine your future by dredging up potentially harmful issues from your past.  Instead say things that are true, put you in a good light, and will satisfy the asker.


Asking for a recommendation letter from an open source repository mentor I wish to apply for an MS in a particular branch (a sub-field) of Computer Science at various US universities.

I have been working with a person on an open source repository for some time (about 5 months). That person is the owner of the repo and the work done in that repo is very much related to the branch I wish to apply for. I have made many significant contributions to the project. I might perhaps be one of the top 3 contributors of the repo. Me and that person have worked closely on several issues from time to time. He has, many times, especially asked my opinions on some of them. That person used to be a professor, but now works in the private sector.

Now, the problem is that, he is a celebrity in that branch of Computer Science. If you have ever ventured even a little in this branch, I am sure you have heard of him.

For my questions,

On the basis of my relationship with him as I have described above, is it alright if I ask him for a recommendation letter?
Is it necessary to have a student-professor or similar relationship to ask for a recommendation letter?
Considering the facts that he is famous, he knows me only through emails and my written code and tons of people would be asking him for recommendations each year, what are the chances that I'll get one from him?

Go for it.

I had the doubts like you earlier. But changed my mind after talking to one of my mentors. He fits all your above descriptions. He said, he would be happy to give a recommendation letter to his Google Summer of Code (a remote open source summer internship sponsored by Google) students who performed exceptionally.

While you do not have a student-professor relationship, he might be the only professor that ever witnessed you coding in a professional environment. He might have noticed your positive sides that other professors will never have the chance to find (except on academic projects).

Just ask. It won't hurt. If the professor feels he does not know you enough, he will let you know.


How to offer fair exam retakes? Within my college, teachers generally allow any student who earned a D or lower on an exam, to retake the exam. While I do not need to follow this policy in my courses, many students expect their instructors to offer retakes.

I would like to offer retakes, but see two problems:

Setting a fixed cut off at a "D" seems unfair to students. If a student earns a single percentage point more than this, they cannot retake it, but the student who retakes it stands a chance to earn a full A.
Allowing all students to retake would create too much extra work for me. Some students who earned a 95% would still try to retake it to get 100%.

If there a fair method of allowing exam retakes that discourages every student from taking them?

I think the easiest way to handle this is to allow anyone to take the exam again. However, the caveat is that the retake replaces the previous grade, whether or not it's a better grade. A student who got a very high grade (such as 95%) on the first exam is unlikely to retake an exam to gain five points, when there's every chance the grade could go down by taking the exam a second time.

What one other professor did in a similar situation was to make us choose between keeping the grade on the exam or taking the repeat exam before we saw the grade on the first exam. That is, you could either get your exam back and take that grade, or leave it sight unseen and take the second exam.


Will my exchange study grade influence my graduate school application? I have a plan to apply for a computer science master's degree in the US. In my home institution my GPA is about 3.7/4.0; I have some research experience with a paper published. I was heading for a Top 30 or even a Top 10 university in the US.

However, during my exchange study (one semester) in the one of the Top 15 universities in the US, I didn't get very good grades, it was only around 3.3/4.0. (In one of the courses there was not even a single A in the class, just bad luck and some of my own reasons). Will it be really bad for my graduate school application? It kind of indicates that I can do well in my home university but not good in the US. Is there any way I can avoid the bad influence or can I not submit the transcript of the exchange university?

Will it be really bad for my graduate school application?

You need to be clear about the policy of the program under which you undertook the student exchange. These programs differ widely, and so do their effects on your transcript. In my university alone, one exchange program allows students to undertake courses with NO EFFECT on their transcripts while another program requires students to undertake courses for credit equivalent purposes consistent with the original degree programs in their home university. You need to be clear, because the same two universities may be operating a number of exchange programs simultaneously at the level of the faculty, school of department.

  Is there any way I can avoid the bad influence or can I not submit the transcript of the exchange university?

If you've determined that there is a credit-bearing grade policy in effect, then there's little you can do about this, because the credit exchange occurs automatically between the Registrars of both universities. If you are in a position to lodge a mitigating circumstances claim, then you might do so under the policy of the exchange university. However, once the grades have been approved by the moderating body, then only procedural irregularities may be the only reason for a review of the grade. In this case, you will need to be clear about the assessment policies of the exchange university, which are probably an order of magnitude more complex than the policies for exchange.

To be clear, under particular policies, you can't simply choose to not submit the transcript of the exchange university for two reasons: (1) the results may be incorporated within your transcript or (2) your transcript will contain fewer credits than is usual. Either way, a graduate program admissions officer will spot the discrepancy easily.

If you're really worried, you might choose to mitigate the effect by turning to your statement of purpose. You could use that to explain under what circumstances the 3.3 GPA was received. Be careful, though, because placing it on the SOP will call attention to it and, as @ff524 states, 3.3 really isn't all that bad.

Good luck to you.


Is it okay to critique my already published paper? After publishing a paper even with multiple proofreading and rerun the experiment, there is a feeling of "I should improve this" or "this section is so vague, I should explain more" or maybe the worst is when spotting an unintentional error in a graph or data.

Is it ethical If I make some kind of blog or extension about the paper that critique or extend my own work?
I don't want to write the extension in journal though because there is still a lot of work to be done for the next paper.

My fear is it can backfire me instead, if I show what I thought a minor error then the editor or someone read that and try to retract my paper. Or it will become a judgement of my poor work.

In short: no, there's no need for that.

Minor errors, like typos, erroneous labeling, coloring and such, sometimes happen and are not a big problem; think of them as printer's devils. If you think that some parts of the paper could be written better (everything always can be done better!), but the paper got accepted, than don't strain yourself on it - it was peer reviewed after all.

If you found something like wrong numbers put in a table, or a formula with an error (but used the correct ones in the research, so the mistake is only in exposition), then you can write an erratum and point out that

  Fortunately, this was only a typing error, and as such it does not affect any results published in XXX.

Examples of minor corrections:

example 1
example 2

Examples of major, yet not crucial corrections:

example 3
example 4

In a more serious case:

If you found that your analysis is flawed, e.g. claimed that X can be used to predict Y, but eventually learnt that it is impossible and the conclusions of the work are wrong, then you should contact the editor, explain in detail what happened and ask what's the preferred course of action. Maybe you'll be advised to write a comment to be published in the same journal, or indeed the editor might decide to retract the work. But this is then the editor's work to decide what's best.

Example:

example 5

Additional reading:

Elsevier retracting 26 papers accepted because of fake reviews
How to avoid the stigma of a retracted paper? Don't call it a retraction
The famous Lancet retracted article linking autism to MMR vaccines


Austrian PhD without undergraduate degree? The Austrian school system used to not have undergraduates. So when graduated from a high school, you just got in a Master's program for about 2 years and then PhD program for about 4 years. However, we called it "Master" and "PhD".  So it means that "it is a PhD degree in Austria", but by American standards, it is actually "a Master's degree". Should I still list as "PhD" degree on my CV?

I would argue the opposite way. An Austrian PhD definitely qualifies as PhD internationally. The former master curricula were typically composed of two parts that resemble the undergrad and graduate master studies. So in essence, in order to get an Austrian PhD, you need to pass undergraduate, graduate master and a PhD curriculum, while in American standards, you just need an undergrad + a PhD program. I don't see, why this should be worth less. Besides, the PhD curriculum is distinct from the others in both cases since it typically involves research, publications and conference or workshop presentations. So a PhD degree in one country also matches a PhD degree in another just by the competence you gained in addition to exams.

I don't have the exact comparison in terms of credit/effort or something like that. Maybe someone else can clarify.